[fingertipsmusic] This Week's Finds: July 28 (Lost in the Trees, Tim Chad & Sherry, Stornoway)

From: Jeremy Schlosberg <fingertipsmusic@xxxxxxxxx>
To: fingertipsmusic@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Date: Wed, 28 Jul 2010 11:28:42 -0400
THIS WEEK'S FINDS <http://www.fingertipsmusic.com>
July 28
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“Walk Around the Lake” – Lost in the
Trees**<http://www.trekkyrecords.com/mp3/walkaroundthelake.mp3>

Melodramatic noises and rhythms greet us, without hesitation: an ominous
chorus of wordless singing over bass-drum-heavy three-beated measures, the
minor, steadily descending melody like some mini-opera exorcising specters
and despair. A fourth beat sneaks in on the fourth and eighth measures and
then we’re at a clearing, and front man Ari Picker (great name for a
guitarist) starts singing. He’s got a pressing, Thom Yorke-ish tenor, the
voice of a man who thinks too much, and then thinks he can think his way out
of thinking that way.

Makes for a messy life but potentially powerful songs. “Walk Around the
Lake” tricks out its epic ambiance with a poignant hesitancy, never staying
too long in one time signature, and never giving us those operatic bashings
for too long before retreating to the sound of one acoustic guitar. This is
after all an introspective song—”Some times all it takes/Is a walk around
the lake/To ease your mind”—and so the back and forth between the hubbub and
the repose during the first two-thirds of the song seems to evoke the way a
tender psyche can feel battered by the world, along with its efforts to find
solace. The last third might be seen as an effort to more fully integrate
the inner and outer worlds, which makes the short section near the middle
(1:15) the linchpin upon which the song turns. This is when the ensemble
swings into 2/4 for a focused, Pink Floydian seven seconds or so, staving
off the foreboding 3/4 soundscape for the first time. We will hear that just
once more, after which we finish out in balanced 4/4 time, Picker singing
now about how his heart has grown and he’s moving on. And this a song not
quite three minutes long.

Lost in the Trees, from Chapel Hill, began life as a solo project for the
Berklee-educated Picker; now a seven-piece ensemble, the band lists some 20
extra people as part of its “extended family.” “Walk Around the Lake” is
from the album *All Alone in an Empty House*, which was initially released
on Trekky Records <http://www.trekkyrecords.com/> in 2008, but has been
reworked and enhanced by producer Scott Solter for a new version, which is
due out next month on Anti- Records <http://www.anti.com/>.


“The Love I Make” – Tim Chad &
Sherry**<http://www.cleftmusic.net/audio/02_The_Love_I_Make_hifi.mp3>

A thick slice of faux-’70s white-boy funk, paying homage to a generous
variety of that decade’s full- and part-time practitioners, from Atomic
Rooster to the Average White Band to Hall and Oates to Talking Heads. Not to
mention David Bowie and maybe even the Grateful Dead. And somehow it comes
together, and somehow—an important point, to me—it sounds fresh without
sounding ironic.

Part of it, I think, has to do with what I was talking about last week,
about music that makes you smile. If a band is being ironic, they might make
you smirk, or prompt a slow knowing smile; if a band is being genuine, any
smile provoked is pure—it comes to the face without the brain getting in the
way. I think the intro groove is just plain happy—funky, yes, but also
spiffy and elaborate in the interplay between what sounds like a synthesizer
(or two) and a bass, each playing a skittery, dance floor line. The next
thing to listen to is the keyboard, which has a throwback organ sound, and
is used once the singing starts with the lightest possible touch, deftly
echoing the end of lyrical line. Just when the musical language has
seemingly been established, two loud additions crash the party—the guitar,
low-register and clangy, beginning at 0:49, and then the snare drum (1:02),
which had been missing in the percussion until then. With the drummer now
fully engaged (I like his sense of rumble and spirit) the song breathes with
added fire. In the end, maybe, authenticity emerges through simple *presence
*: through a sense that the musicians are engaged moment to moment, both
individually and collectively. The trippy guitar solo (2:14 etc.) is an
obvious highlight; less obvious, maybe, is the allure of the song’s sneaky
lack of structure—it’s built on a series of clipped lyrical lines that use
the underlying funk to rise and fall as if we are hearing verses and
choruses but we probably aren’t, and give the song its ongoing feeling of
play and inspiration.

Tim Chad & Sherry is a quartet (go figure) founded by Brian Kotzur, formerly
of the Silver Jews. (There is no one named Tim, Chad, or Sherry in the band,
by the way.) “The Love I Make” is from the group’s debut album, *Baby We Can
Work It Out*, released this month on Cleft Records<http://www.cleftmusic.net/>.
MP3 via Cleft. Thanks to Largehearted Boy <http://www.cleftmusic.net/> for
the head’s up.


“Zorbing” – Stornoway** <http://promo.4ad.com/stornoway/zorbing.mp3>

As invigorating as a bright blue puffy-clouded day, “Zorbing” bursts with
melody and innocence, but gets there on its own terms. For the first 35
seconds, we hear only the light, idiosyncratic voice of Brian Briggs and a
one-note bass line. Maybe you’ll notice it’s a wonderful melody he’s
singing, or maybe you’ll be a bit distracted by the minimalist presentation.
Just wait.

His band mates join in vocally at 0:36 and wow that can’t be what anyone was
expecting—an almost barbershop quartet-like burst of harmony, baritone and
bass voices with little precedent in rock’n'roll after the doo-wop era
ended. The bass guitar player at the same time frees himself from his
one-note prison and I am completely engaged now. A simple drumbeat and a
faintly-played acoustic guitar come on board at 0:54, but with the
emancipation of the bass the song now feels both fleshed out and buoyant;
when the vocal harmonies return in this setting (1:19), they sound even more
striking. Later on we get trumpets and a freewheeling keyboard—so
freewheeling, in fact, it not only shifts the feel of the song’s chords but
sometimes sounds like it’s floated in from a different song. This is perhaps
an unintended consequence of the recording, which was done by the band in
non-studio locations like dorm rooms and garages. But it furthers the song’s
fancy-free vibe, as does the knowledge of what “zorbing” actually is: “the
recreation of rolling downhill in an orb, generally made of transparent
plastic” (thanks, Wikipedia!).

Stornoway is a quartet from Oxford, named after a small island town in
Scotland’s Outer Hebrides. “Zorbing” was originally self-released as a
single last summer. The band was signed to 4AD <http://www.4ad.com/> this
spring, and the label released *Beachcomber’s Windowsill* in May in the UK.
The band had planned to release their debut themselves, and the label liked
it enough to put it out pretty much in its original, demo-like form. No US
release date is yet planned. MP3 via 4AD, with a thank you to Frank at
Chromewaves <http://www.chromewaves.net/> for the tip.


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[fingertipsmusic] This Week's Finds: July 28 (Lost in the Trees, Tim Chad & Sherry, Stornoway)

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