[fingertipsmusic] This Week's Finds: April 6 (Almost Free, Eatliz, Laura Stevenson & the Cans)

From: Jeremy Schlosberg <fingertipsmusic@xxxxxxxxx>
To: fingertipsmusic@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Date: Wed, 6 Apr 2011 15:07:35 -0400
*THIS WEEK'S FINDS <http://www.fingertipsmusic.com>
April 6*


*Don't forget, for those interested, that the Fingertips Twitter
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a daily flow of links to notable free & legal MP3s above and beyond the
three weekly selections here, as well as to interesting news and
observations about the digital music scene. Such as it is. And now, the
music ---*



[image: Almost Free]
“Really Don’t Know (About You) – Almost
Free<http://glgpub.com/file_download/83/Almost-Free_Really-Dont-Know-About-You.mp3>
**

So on the surface, this one is a brisk and catchy bit of power pop, or
something like it. The sing-along-style chorus, turning on the repetition,
across the beat, of a mundane phrase (“really don’t know”), nails it as a
chewy little piece of ear candy to be sure. But “Really Don’t Know (About
You)” is a good deal more than that if you care to investigate.

Listen, to begin with, to the introduction, with its ear-catching
combination of a nimble beat and an unusual interval, as Andy (not Andrew)
Bird, grabs his guitar high up the neck and itches out a reiterating major
sixth interval in a loose, ever-evolving manner. This sixth—nine half
steps—is an notably wide leap between two notes in a pop song and even
though it’s a consonant (i.e. not dissonant) interval there’s something
fluid and unsettled about it. The introduction’s music haunts the rest of
the song. Meanwhile, the melody in the verse then turns around and features
downward leaps, while likewise touching most of the notes in the scale
before it’s done—usually the sign of savvy songwriting. (A nice, related
touch is how the guitar itself runs up the scale in between the chorus and
verse [1:05].)

When we get to the aforementioned chorus, the song solidifies and expands
and—this is the real trick to listen carefully for—marries five decades’
worth of influences into a hook casual enough to have been born in a ’60s
garage yet grand enough to stand with any new wave or post-punk anthem. Here
is a song, furthermore, informed by the Smiths’ seminal ’80s work as well as
by the ’90s britpop that followed, even as it keeps wanting to sound like
something from 1977…except for all that 21st-century guitar work and scronky
noise. All in all what’s happening here is enough to blow a Pandora
algorithm’s mind (if only a Pandora algorithm had a mind). I like.

“Really Don’t Know (About You)” is from Almost Free’s *In/Out* EP, due out
in June. The Detroit-based trio has been playing together for seven years,
with one full-length album released to date, back in 2009.



[image: Eatliz]
“Sunshine” – Eatliz<http://girlieaction.com/music/eatliz/downloads/Sunshine.mp3>
**

Sometimes I’m just in the mood for something a bit less straightforward, a
bit less three-chord-y. But I still want melody; I still want the sense of a
band making an effort to engage the ear, versus a band so wrapped (and/or
rapt) in its vision that all effort to connect is left to the audience.

At times spacily contemplative and at times grindingly heavy (there are
three guitarists at work; watch out!), “Sunshine” offers up some of
prog-rock’s sonic vocabulary while avoiding veering off into anything too
baroque. Notice, for instance, that for all the rhythmic hijinks on display,
the song never strays from its 4/4 beat. Front woman Lee Triffon, meanwhile,
sings effectively both at the whispery and the shouty ends of her delivery,
avoiding histrionics in both cases. Note the saxophone’s unexpected entrance
at 2:04, because the song’s single instrumental spotlight will shine on that
under-utilized instrument a minute and a half later, as we are then treated
to 40 seconds of rough-toned, reverbed honking. It sounds like early
Psychedelic Furs working up a Thelonious Monk tribute.

Eatliz is a six-piece band from Israel, formed in 2001. (In Hebrew, the name
apparently means “the butcher shop.”) “Sunshine” is from the band’s debut
album, *Violently Delicate*, which was released in Israel and four European
countries in 2008. Their second full-length, *Teasing Nature*, either came
out late in 2010 or is coming out this summer—the web (get used to it)
offers contradictory information. The band is currently wrapping up its
first-ever North American tour, which started last month at SXSW.



[image: Laura Stevenson and the Cans]
“Master of Art” – Laura Stevenson & the
Cans<http://www.riotactmedia.com/mp3/masterofart.mp3>
**

I don’t tend to be very album-oriented here, as regular Fingertips visitors
are well aware. I’m just looking for good (free and legal) songs week to
week. I don’t seek albums; if nothing else, I just don’t have much time to
listen to them.

Every now and then, however, I manage to let my guard down. An album slips
through. I listen, get drawn in, and, sometimes, at least temporarily, am
returned to those ancient days when that was how we processed music—album by
album. Not even sure how I happened to decide to sit and listen to the
entire Laura Stevenson and the Cans album, *Sit Resist*, but I’m really glad
I did. Stevenson’s isn’t the kind of musical personality—and, to my
discredit, I’ve almost forgotten such people existed—that is fully contained
within the context of any one particular song. With her kittenish
voice—happy with songs that swing, whisper, or stomp—and her tendency to
call upon noise or gentleness from her band at a moment’s notice, she really
comes to life in the context of an album’s worth of songs.

That said, “Master of Art” is itself a terrific effort, and a good
introduction to what she’s up to, showing off both her pensive and her
ardent sides in one four-minute package. The intro’s Phil Spector beat
surely got my attention (I’m a sucker for the Phil Spector beat), but the
song doesn’t wallow in it, using it as a springboard rather than a crutch.
I’m still absorbing the lyrics but I think it was when I heard her sing,
“You should know/That I am often difficult” (1:11) that I knew she had me.
The depth of character in her voice there is unteachable.

“Master of Art” is no internet sensation, no technology-friendly
song-as-trinket to engage those attracted, like crows, only to shiny things
they can dive for and tweet about. Above and beyond the solid songwriting
(and of course you do need really good songs), there’s something genuine
going on here, something homemade and unprocessed that’s incredibly
heartwarming. The album comes out later this month on Don Giovanni
Records<http://www.dongiovannirecords.com/>and I wholeheartedly
recommend it.




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"Tell your ma
Tell your pa
Everything's gonna be all right..."


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[fingertipsmusic] This Week's Finds: April 6 (Almost Free, Eatliz, Laura Stevenson & the Cans)

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