[fingertipsmusic] This Week's Finds: Oct. 7-13

From: "Jeremy Schlosberg" <fingertipsmusic@xxxxxxxxx>
To: fingertipsmusic@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Date: Mon, 8 Oct 2007 22:38:02 -0400
THIS WEEK'S FINDS <http://www.fingertipsmusic.com/this_weeks_finds.htm>
Oct. 7-13

* The Record Shop <http://www.fingertipsmusic.com/recordshop.htm> is up and
running: a page of links taking you directly to where you can buy some of
the albums mentioned here week to week, and support Fingertips in the
process. Look for the not-too-distracting (I hope!) [RS] at the bottom of
reviews to indicate when a song's album is available via the Record
Shop--which you'll see less in the emails than on the web page after a week
or so has passed.


 "For Emma" - Bon Iver <http://www.ambledown.com/mp3/boniver_foremma.mp3>
"For Emma" has the steady, wistful ambiance of a determined trudge through
the snow on a bright winter's day to fetch something you know in your heart
isn't going to be there. Electric guitar lines bend languidly around crisp
acoustic guitar chords, sleepy horns offer echoey punctuations in the
background, and then, steadiest and wistful-iest of all, there's Justin
Vernon--doing musical business as Bon Iver--with his mournful yet adamant
falsetto telling some difficult to pin down tale of past love gone
(probably) wrong. It's a song at once engaging and elusive: search past the
meaty chorus and nicely textured atmosphere and listen for what's there
(listen, for one, to how the electric guitar and the horns intertwine
sonically) and then also what's not there. Beyond the chorus, and a brief
wordless section near the end, Vernon opens his mouth only to sing two
lyrical lines separated by a measure of music, and we hear them just twice.
Which is to say the song marches along without any real verses. No wonder it
sounds wistful. Vernon recorded this album holed up by himself in a cabin in
the woods in the Wisconsin winter, in the wake of the dissolution of his
former band, DeYarmond Edison. (No wonder he sounds wistful.) The haunted
falsetto is new for this project, which gets its name from the French
greeting "Good winter," although Vernon chose to leave off the silent "h"
from *hiver*. "For Emma" is the semi-title track from the first Bon Iver CD,
*For Emma, Forever Ago*, which was self-released in July.

"Quit While You're Ahead" - Southeast
Engine<http://www.misrarecords.com/MP3s/QuitWhileYou%27reAhead.mp3>
This one has a satisfying bottom-heaviness to it, due to a few different
things I'm hearing: first, what sounds like a snare-free drum kit; second,
the band's refreshing emphasis of the electric guitar's lower register; and
then also the minor key in which the song is set. Southeast Engine is a
six-man band but at their core they are led by guitartist/singer Adam
Remnant (apparently an out of work middle school teacher) and
drummer/percussionist Leo DeLuca, and I think the drum and guitar really
drive the sound more than in most larger outfits--both of them play with a
loose intensity that doesn't mistake muscle for bashing or rhythm for
uniformity. The verses are dominated by the pulsing tom-tom, and some
atmospheric guitar work, while Remnant, singing, withholds a bit, a
tremulous edge to his voice. At the chorus, the song opens out dramatically,
with its one-note lyrical lines enhanced by a phalanx of vocal harmonies,
which sound both shouted and turned down at the same time, and its ominous
message about the poisoning of our public sphere with lies and deception.
Southeast Engine is from Athens--Ohio, not Georgia--but like its more
well-known counterpart, also a college town with a spirited music scene.
"Quit While You're Ahead" is a song from the band's new CD, *A Wheel Within
a Wheel*, their third full-length, due out next week on Misra
Records<http://www.fingertipsmusic.com/smaller_labels.htm#Misra>.
The MP3 is via Misra <http://www.misrarecords.com/>.

"Pluto" - Clare & the Reasons<http://www.tellallyourfriendspr.com/pluto.mp3>
Check out the earnest-goofy orchestral setting this one leaps from the
starting gates with: all twittering pizzicatos, like some misplaced radio
advertisement from the 1940s--pretty hard, I think, not to be charmed. (One
of the things that rock'n'roll has yet to learn from classical music is that
music can, in fact, instrumentally, be *funny*, can bring a smile to the
face.) And then when Clare Muldaur Manchon starts cooing those earnest-goofy
lyrics directly to the icy, undersized, woebegone, no-longer-a-planet, well,
this one's a slam dunk, to my ears. "Pluto, I have some frightful news,
dear," she begins--and lord, how about that blissful glide from the major to
the minor chord as she eases from "news" to "dear," beginning at 0:22; be
still my heart! And it's not just Muldaur who's charming us--she's got a
coterie of able musicians along for this retro-groovy space ride, including
backup singers who deliver jazzy accents and nifty three- (I think) part
harmonies, an economical but vivid piano player, and a drummer offering some
lovely muted drumming, all the while accompanied by those strings, who pluck
and bow as required by the inventive arrangements. Manchon is the daughter
of '60s music stalwart Geoff Muldaur; her husband, Olivier, is one of the
seven members of the ensemble (he plays violin, piano, and saw). "Pluto" is
the lead track on the band's debut CD, *The Movie*, released on Frog Stand
Records <http://www.frogstand.com/>, a label started by Manchon and a friend
of hers from her Berklee School of Music days. Thanks to
3hive<http://www.3hive.com/>for this one.


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read about here. *

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*
** SPONSORED ANNOUNCEMENT **

The International Songwriting Competition (ISC) is now accepting entries for
the 2007 competition. $150,000 in prizes including $25,000 cash. Judges for
2007 include: Tom Waits, Robert Smith (The Cure), Ray Davies (The Kinks),
and seven record label presidents from major and independent record labels.
For entry information and a complete list of judges please visit -
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[fingertipsmusic] This Week's Finds: Oct. 7-13

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