[fingertipsmusic] This Week's Finds: April 13 (They Might Be Giants, Papercuts, Low)

From: Jeremy Schlosberg <fingertipsmusic@xxxxxxxxx>
To: fingertipsmusic@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Date: Wed, 13 Apr 2011 20:33:39 -0400

*THIS WEEK'S FINDS <http://www.fingertipsmusic.com>
April 13*

*For interested parties: the new Fingertips essay is "The Tyranny of
Novelty<http://www.fingertipsmusic.com/?p=6569>."
Note too that Fingertips will be on break next week. There may be a new
playlist online by the weekend, however. Next song updates will be on or
around April 27.*

[image: They Might Be Giants]
“Can’t Keep Johnny Down” – They Might Be
Giants<http://girlieaction.com/music/they_might_be_giants/downloads/Cant_Keep_Johnny_Down.mp3>
**

At first this may not seem like much more than a breezy TMBG ditty, with a
sort of catchy chorus but maybe not in the really marvelous category of some
of their older classics, because the hook maybe isn’t as instantly
ear-catching as their songs have sometimes been.

Keep listening. It *is* a breezy TMBG ditty and it’s also really marvelous:
an all-out love letter to the group’s classic sound, spotlighting melody
devotee John Linnell’s delight in wide-ranging melodic lines which flow
effortlessly from the top to the bottom of the scale. What it may lack in
pure giddiness it makes up for with oomph and know-how. Plus, this change:
rather than sporting the absurdist puzzle-lyrics the duo usually favors,
“Can’t Keep Johnny Down” resembles one of their anomaly songs, “Your Racist
Friend,” in both manner (straightforward-ish rather than head-scratching)
and target (harmful ignorance). Their traditional goofiness (don’t worry!)
remains intact, but maybe they have realized that in 2011 the world can use
their intelligence and humanity more directly stated than “My name is blue
canary/One note spelled ‘l-i-t-e’”; and so forth. Randy Newman-ishly, they
sing here from the limited narrator’s point of view—in this case, a guy who,
among other things, is annoyed because a tellingly described astronaut on
the moon “thinks he’s better than me.” I like right after that how Linnell
breaks the fourth wall (do songs have fourth walls? maybe not) when he
sings: “I’m pointing a finger at my own face/They can’t know what’s in
here.” The guy realizes we can’t see him so he tells us what he’s doing.
Note he points at his “face,” which is the surface of his head, which of
course *has* nothing “in here.”

I would be remiss not to draw attention, further, to what may be one of the
most absurd internal rhymes in the history of song: “I’m not a monument to
justice/Plus which I don’t forget a face.” Told you they’re still goofy.

“Can’t Keep Johnny Down” is a song from the band’s forthcoming album, *Join
Us*, their first not-for-kids album since 2007′s *The Else*. It will be
released digitally later this month, and available in physical form in July
on Idlewild/Rounder Records. And hooray: this is They Might Be Giants’
long-awaited Fingertips debut. The site owes its name to the band; I’m glad
to be able to feature them after all these years.

[image: Papercuts]
“Do You Really Wanna Know” –
Papercuts<http://assets4.subpop.com/assets/audio/8815.mp3>
**

I have recently discovered that not everyone here realizes that the three
songs selected each week are not merely handpicked for inclusion but also
packaged together in a particular order, intended ideally to be listened to
in little sets of three. Well it’s true. And if you don’t have time for that
this week, at the very least check out the segue between They Might Be
Giants and Papercuts this time around. Is that pretty cool or what?

For all its diaphanous reverb and sweet nostalgia, “Do You Really Wanna
Know” has a tough little core that pushes the song, for me, past some of my
built-in “twee” alarms. Some of the latent toughness I attribute to its
assertive beat, some to the emphatic double-time bass at the bottom of the
mix. But in the end it’s probably Papercuts front man/master mind Jason
Robert Quever himself who unexpectedly sells the song’s clout. For all of
his whispery tenor-ness, Quever finds an extra edge in the chorus; that’s
where I really bought in to what’s going on here. The melody gets all
girl-group-y while his voice loses the whisper (sort of) and gains traction.
The quivery guitar-solo thing he then does before the next verse is actually
odder than it sounds if you’re not paying attention.

Papercuts is a band with just one permanent member—the San Francisco-based
Quever—and four albums now under their/his belt. “Do You Really Wanna
Know”—no question mark—is from *Fading Parade*, which was released last
month, on Sub Pop Records <http://www.subpop.com/>. MP3 via Sub Pop.

[image: Low]
“Especially Me” – Low <http://assets4.subpop.com/assets/audio/8933.mp3>**

Given that this is Low, a band with a longstanding predilection for, shall
we say, leisurely-paced songs (don’t call it slowcore, at the band’s
request), nothing unfolds too suddenly here. But I’m immediately engaged by
the heartbeat pulse that wanders in at :07 and stays with us the rest of the
way (with a five or six second break late in the song; listen for it)—it
gives us both the tempo and the tension upon which “Especially Me” is
constructed.

But note how that pulse is accompanied by a triplet rhythm, each beat of the
measure divided swayingly into three. This complicates the tension nicely,
and contributes to the hymn-like nature of the deliberate melody drummer
Mimi Parker intones. The song simmers; a cello is incorporated beautifully
into the apprehensive flow. The cumulative effect of the succinct,
thrice-repeated chorus (note the lyrical change in the third iteration),
with its gathering harmony, is at once hypnotic and cathartic; the titular
phrase, with its casual (but not) addition (“and probably you”), sits at the
musical center of the song. Something is being partially explained,
partially released, something still is left unsaid, and the grave weight of
a relationship seems to hang in the balance. I don’t need to know exactly
what’s going on; the words and the music in combination convey emotion
beyond pure narrative.

Low was here back in 2005 <http://www.fingertipsmusic.com/?p=86> for the
terrific song “California” (it’s still online, check it out) from *The Great
Destroyer*. The trio has a new bass player since then—Steve Garrington, who
joined the husband-wife team of Parker and Alan Sparhawk in 2008, the year
after the Duluth band’s last release, *Drums and Guns*. “Especially Me” is
from *C’mon*, which was released this week on (them again) Sub Pop. MP3 once
more via Sub Pop <http://www.subpop.com/>.

* * * * * * *

"Every jumbled pile of person has a thinking part that wonders
What the part that isn't thinking isn't thinking of..."

* * * * * * *

*Become a fan of
Fingertips<http://www.facebook.com/pages/Fingertips/38130844046>on
Facebook
**
Follow Fingertips on Twitter <https://twitter.com/#%21/fingertipsmusic>*

* * * * * * *

To unsubscribe from this mailing list at any time, simply send an email with
the word "unsubscribe" in the subject line to
fingertipsmusic-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx*
**
*

*
*

[fingertipsmusic] This Week's Finds: April 13 (They Might Be Giants, Papercuts, Low)

Other related posts: