[fingertipsmusic] This Week's Finds: July 15 (The Books, Erik Friedlander, Two Hours Traffic)

From: Jeremy Schlosberg <fingertipsmusic@xxxxxxxxx>
To: fingertipsmusic@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Date: Thu, 15 Jul 2010 08:58:21 -0400

*THIS WEEK'S FINDS <http://www.fingertipsmusic.com>
July 15*

“Beautiful People” – the
Books**<http://www.directcurrentmusic.com/storage/mp3s-8/The%20Books%20-%20Beautiful%20People.mp3>

Smoothly seductive backwards-running voices, sounding like a barbershop
quartet of alien monks, lure us into this unusual but still, somehow,
light-hearted piece of art pop. On top of a chugging, chopped-up one-two
rhythm, composed of a subtle grab-bag of sounds, “Beautiful People” floats a
lovely, ancient-sounding melody, enhanced by Gregorian-like harmonies. This
appears to be the Books’ M.O.: do something weird, then do something
wonderful, or, better yet, do them both at the same time. They are known for
collage-ing speech and other random sounds into their acoustic-based
electronica (earlier on in their career, they didn’t use their own vocals at
all). Here we’re dealing with something less glitchy and pastiche-y, but
still rather odd. It’s kind of fun, actually, so see them funnel their
strangeness into something more closely resembling a pop song.

And what exactly is going on? No way we’re supposed to know. The lyrics
initially march through an inscrutable parade of mathematics vocabulary
(“finite set,” “convex figure,” “irrational sign”), including a number sung
to five decimal places; the first verse concludes with the words, “the root
of two, amen.” Following the verse, the music gallops onward with a sort of
Escheresque circularity, clipped arpeggios heading, seemingly, downward and
upward at the same time, soon joined by a cycling chorus of voices singing
just shy of understandable syllables, perhaps backwards again, perhaps not.
Who are the “beautiful people” and what are they doing? Maybe they’re the
ones playing that stately brass coda which appears almost from nowhere at
the end.

Cellist Paul de Jong and guitarist/vocalist Nick Zammuto have been the Books
since 1999, operating from New York City, but existing in more or less their
own world. “Beautiful People” is from the album *The Way Out*, the duo’s
first in five years, slated for release next week on Temporary Residence
Records <http://temporaryresidence.com/>. MP3 via Direct
Current<http://www.directcurrentmusic.com/>
.

“Aching Sarah”** <http://www.skipstonerecords.com/sarah/aching_sarah.mp3>

Apparently it’s cello week here. Or experimental music week. Not that this
is experimental sounding per se—it’s quite a lovely, graspable instrumental
with a jazz-like construction but with enough melody and offbeat aural
flourishes (check out the percussion) to engage the ear of the
non-jazz-aficionado (i.e. me). While cellist/composer Friedlander has made a
name for himself in New York City’s downtown music scene (oh; it’s NYC week
too), this doesn’t sound like you think that would sound like.

To begin, we get a trumpet and piano trading off on a gentle but insistent
motif that is played enough to stick in your head but then gets unraveled in
atmospheric development. With the cello content to play quiet descending
lines in the background, we seem at first to be heading into jazz combo
territory, the trumpet and piano and bass and percussion noodling around the
now-unstated theme. But even here I’m appreciating the melodic focus that
remains, not to mention the almost literally cinematic vibe, as the
particular combination of Friedlander’s long bowing and trumpeter Michael
Leonhart’s ’60s-cinema flair washes this with the wistful ambiance of a
bittersweet European romantic comedy. Until, that is, Friedlander emerges
from the background, at 2:47, for a droning minor-key improvisation/solo
that is half spiritual plea, half cubist deconstruction of the original
motif. It’s an interruption that feels both unexpected and welcome, an aural
change of scene that renders the motif’s straightforward restatement as the
solo gives way all the more affecting.

The movie-like feeling is apparently no accident. Released as a digital
single earlier this month, “Aching Sarah” is supposed to be part of what
Friedlander calls his “Cutting-Room Floor Series,” in which, he writes,
“movie characters are cut from a film, and with their lives only
half-realized, walk in a kind of limbo, aimless and confused, with no way to
live out the arc of their scripted lives.” That not only informs the
distinctive but unresolved central motif but also the concluding section,
when the music seems almost literally to smash against its own limits, only
to fade out. The MP3 available for free from his web
site<http://www.erikfriedlander.com/>,
but also for purchase via Amazon, eMusic, and iTunes.

“Noisemaker” – Two Hours
Traffic**<http://teamclermont.s3.amazonaws.com/mp3/twohourstraffic_noisemaker.mp3>

And now back to our regularly scheduled programming: sharp, catchy,
summertime pop from our impressively talented musical neighbors to the
north. That’s more like it, eh?

This song has many things to love, and right away. First, the brisk, ringing
guitar intro, which is not merely a persuasive opening salvo, but sounds
brilliant following just about any other song on a playlist. Try it at home,
you’ll see. Second, the way the voices join in, singing wordlessly, with the
brisk, ringing guitars. Subtle and wonderful. Third, the fleet, wonderful
sidestep taken from that guitar riff into the “oooooh” that opens the verse.
Nifty, effortless little chord progression there. And then, oh boy, what
about that “oooooh” itself? Straight out of the power pop handbook
(Shoes<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shoes_%28band%29>,
anyone?) and yet also a surprise coming right at the beginning like that. If
they didn’t have me at hello, they surely had me at “oooooh.” The song is
now about 23 seconds old. (And lasts 3:41–also as per the power pop
handbook.)

Singer Liam Corcoran has just the right kind of spirited tenor required to
make this crackle and resonate. It’s about energy, not content, as the thing
about great power pop is that no one has to be singing about anything that
is in itself all that powerful or intriguing; rather, there’s something in
the music and presentation that makes whatever is being sung pretty much
besides the point. It’s all deep and mysterious when the melody’s there, and
the chords, and the unflagging energy of a band that knows it’s onto
something. Songs like this often push that extra bit harder to knock your
socks off, and I hear that here in the second half of the chorus, which uses
a bit of unanticipated repetition to add an almost giddily satisfying
resolution beyond the basic hook.

Two Hours Traffic is a foursome from Prince Edward Island. “Noisemaker” is
the lead track (of course) from the band’s third album, *Territory*, which
was released last year in Canada, and is due out in the U.S. in September
via Bumstead Productions.

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[fingertipsmusic] This Week's Finds: July 15 (The Books, Erik Friedlander, Two Hours Traffic)

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