[fingertipsmusic] This Week's Finds, Feb. 18-24

From: "Jeremy Schlosberg" <fingertipsmusic@xxxxxxxxx>
To: fingertipsmusic@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Date: Tue, 20 Feb 2007 16:29:02 -0500

THIS WEEK'S FINDS <http://www.fingertipsmusic.com/this_weeks_finds.htm>
Feb. 18-24

"Hardcore Hornography" - Michelle
Shocked<http://www.michelleshocked.com/hardcore.mp3>
Michelle Shocked has the happy ability to sound completely unfettered and at
home in a multiplicity of musical styles; you can now add straight-up New
Orleans party music to her impressive list of genre performance credentials.
And leave it to Shocked, a born activist and good-natured hell-raiser, to
serve up this traditional good-time music with an added jigger of social
awareness, hot sauce included: "That was one blow job you won't forget/ I
ain't talkin' 'bout Katrina yet/ When that brass band starts to play/ Lay
back and think of the U.S.A." Mardi Gras spirit infuses both melody and
accompaniment; there is so much *movement* in the roisterous sound that
you'd swear this must have been recorded while everyone was marching down
St. Charles Avenue. Shocked plays here with the Newbirth Brass Band,
trumpeter Troy Andrews, and a trombone player so authentic his name is
simply Trombone Shorty. After flirting with mainstream folk-rock success
back in the late '80s, Shocked has gone on to record an idiosyncratic string
of albums, including an ambitious yet free-spirited trilogy (yes, three
separate CDs) released last year on her own Mighty Sound record label. Her
next CD is due out this summer; another trilogy appears to be in the works.
"Hardcore Hornography" is offered up for Mardi Gras and to bring awareness
to the ongoing plight of New Orleans, which remains largely abandoned by the
federal government. The song is available for via her web
site<http://www.michelleshocked.com/>.
Thanks to Bruce at Some Velvet Blog
<http://somevelvetblog.blogspot.com/>for the head's up.

"If That's the Case, Then I Don't Know" - the Electric Soft
Parade<http://www.betterlookingrecords.com/sound_files/The_Electric_Soft_Parade-If_Thats_The_Case.mp3>
At once squonky and lithe, the latest effort from the British brother duo
the Electric Soft Parade features anthemic chords and resounding beats,
scuffed up fetchingly with fuzzy guitars and electronic blips and boops. Add
Alex White's nicely vulnerable, Brit-poppy vocals and the whole manages to
trump the sum of its parts--quite an accomplishment, as the parts themselves
are pretty darned keen. A casual know-how informs both the song structure
and the production; we get a masterly mix of rhythm and melody, guitar and
drum, busy-ness and spaciousness, loud and soft. The loud-soft thing is
especially cool, since the White boys (Tom's on drums) aren't offering a
standard sort of "here's the soft part, here's the loud part" approach as
much as utilizing the dynamic range of sound throughout, much as a
first-rate black and white photograph will display the blackest black, the
whitest white, and many gradations of grey in between. Another cool thing is
the nifty coda: note at 4:02 how the song's drive shifts gears, the beat
moving to swinging triplets, before the drums pretty much disintegrate,
electronically. Or something like that. The song will be found on the band's
next CD, *No Need to Be Downhearted*, their third full-length, scheduled for
an April release on Better Looking
Records<http://www.fingertipsmusic.com/smaller_labels.htm#BL>.
The MP3 is via the Better Looking site<http://www.betterlookingrecords.com/>
.

"Limbs" - Emma Pollock<http://audio.sxsw.com/2007/mp3/Emma_Pollock-Limbs.mp3>
A lovely piano refrain, composed of a careful series of arpeggios, runs
through this pensive acoustic ballad. The song builds to it slowly--piano is
part of the central sound from the outset, but the anchoring refrain is not
heard until 1:12, and from there it accompanies the verse as it proceeds,
falling away during the understated chorus. Overall, "Limbs" advances with a
beguiling sort of relaxed meticulousness: not a guitar string, not a piano
key is used without precision, and yet, perhaps because of Pollock's warm,
and warmly recorded, voice, the effort sounds easy-flowing, almost
impromptu. The song seems to emerge from some mysterious, unflappable inner
space; despite the strong melody, the effect is still somewhat trancelike.
Emma Pollock was one of the founders, in Glasgow, of the well-regarded '90s
band the Delgados, who were also responsible for launching the important
independent record label Chemikal Underground. The band split amicably in
2005; Pollock has been signed to 4AD Records since. Her solo debut is
forthcoming at some unspecified date. "Limbs" is so far a free-standing
song. The MP3 is courtesy of SXSW.com <http://2007.sxsw.com/music/>, which
has just unleashed its latest storehouse of free and legal MP3s, oriented
now towards the 2007 festival happening next month in Austin.

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[fingertipsmusic] This Week's Finds, Feb. 18-24

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