[fingertipsmusic] This Week's Finds: July 8 (Arcade Fire, Postdata, Saadi)

From: Jeremy Schlosberg <fingertipsmusic@xxxxxxxxx>
To: fingertipsmusic@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Date: Thu, 8 Jul 2010 10:13:21 -0400

THIS WEEK'S FINDS <http://www.fingertipsmusic.com>
July 8

“Ready to Start” – Arcade
Fire**<http://www.directcurrentmusic.com/storage/mp3s-9/Arcade%20Fire%20-%20Ready%20to%20Start.mp3>

Tempering their rock’n'roll swagger with a knowing groove and an uncanny
sense of dignity, Arcade Fire sounds like no other band—not any band people
think they sound like, and certainly not any band people think sounds like
them. They are one of only a handful of acts emerging from the musically
fractious ’00s as the real deal—a band born in the new century with the
stuff and substance required for long-term musical success. (And I do mean
musical success; regarding commercial success, who the hell knows.)

The band has also all but single-handedly (if inadvertently) demonstrated
both the splendor and the ignominy of our internet-based musical life. Their
2004 debut, *Funeral,* may have been the first blog-buzz album of all time,
riding a crest of nascent music blog enthusiasm to widespread acclaim (and
impressive sales). The follow-up in 2007, *Neon Bible*, was treated more
rudely by the blogosphere, which in three short years had grown
mob-friendly, traffic-hungry, and inveterately incapable of either
perspective or reflection. By 2010, for all I know, there are some who
consider Arcade Fire an oldies act. (And okay that’s a joke.) (But only
barely.)

For anyone with an abiding interest in the big-picture arc of rock music
history, Arcade Fire is a delight, and “Ready to Start” a splendid addition
to the band’s work. Despite their inherently big sound, these guys can be
pleasantly unfussy. “Ready to Start” moves with an adamant but still
swinging, bass-driven beat, and for two-thirds of the song alternates
between a clipped, motion-packed verse and a subtly spacious chorus that
refuses to resolve either melodically or lyrically (“And if I was yours/But
I’m not” is seemingly the final line). It’s 2:50 before we hear the title
phrase, which gives the chorus both a new sense of both closure and opening,
since “Now I’m ready to start” leaves the obvious question of “Start what?”
in its wake.

“Ready to Start” is the second of 16 songs on the band’s upcoming album, *The
Suburbs*, slated for an August release on Merge
Records<http://www.mergerecords.com/>.
MP3 via Direct Current <http://www.directcurrentmusic.com/>.

“Tobias Grey” –
Postdata**<http://www.killbeatmusic.com/mp3s/postdata-tobias_grey.mp3>

I missed this one when it came out back at the beginning of the year, but it
was probably one of those on-purpose accidents, as there is something in
this hushed, portentous, echoey acoustic ballad that resonates with me in
the middle of this seriously wacked-out weather. There’s a stifling
stillness in the air during a heat wave, you don’t even have to go outside
to feel it, it seeps through the building’s walls, suffuses the remedial air
conditioning, makes effort—any effort—sad and impossible. This song is kind
of like that, only pretty, also. Bonus for particularly relevant lyrics
(“Sometimes the weather don’t change/It just stays in the very same place”).

And it’s all so very quiet, with whispery vocals, tightly recorded acoustic
guitar (you can hear fingers squeaking on the strings), and a really
effective keyboard drone in the background, grounding the piece in something
electric and threatening.

Postdata is a Canadian duo featuring Paul Murphy of the band Wintersleep and
his brother Michael. The self-titled, self-released album has been out since
January. The songs were born during a visit to their parents’ home in
Yarmouth, Nova Scotia. They were recorded on a laptop originally, then
reworked a bit some months later in Halifax—mics, at least, were added, but
they still used the laptop. So if you hear some lo-fi distortion here,
that’s why. And for once I don’t really mind the roughness of the recording
because the intimacy isn’t compromised—it might even be augmented.

“Pollen Seeking Bees” –
Saadi**<http://seriousbusinessrecords.com/mp3s/03_Pollen_Seeking_Bees.mp3>

Sweet yet surprisingly sturdy bit of piano-driven electronic pop. The piano
line is a two-finger special—I mean quite literally it sounds like two index
fingers going at it—that is instantly likable because its seeming simplicity
still generates a complex rhythmic bed. Or, alternatively, because it’s the
same two notes that open “Friday On My
Mind<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friday_on_My_Mind>“—you
decide.

Born in Syria, raised in Pittsburgh and Manhattan, Boshra AlSaadi got her
rock’n'roll start in the band Looker, which was featured in January
2007<http://www.fingertipsmusic.com/classic/TWFjan-feb07.htm#Looker>(strangely
enough, the same week, again, as Arcade Fire). In that
incarnation she was cooking in a punk-pop mode; here, on her own, with her
name abridged, she simmers in a hazier, electro-ish setting, but her potent
soprano keeps this from getting too noodly. She sings in the midst of a
smeary, reverberant bath that kind of spreads her voice out but does not
touch the rest of the aural space, which is kind of an interesting effect.
Note how she keeps the lyrics close to the edge of comprehensibility except
for the third verse (1:08), beginning (hmm) with “Images in pixels” and
ending (hmm again) with “the fog is knee deep.” Mixing lyrics down is a
common trick but I don’t know that I’ve often heard them come and go within
one song. It surely pulls the ear in, like getting a suddenly clear clue on
an obscure puzzle.

“Pollen Seeking Bees” is from a 12-inch vinyl EP entitled *Bad Days* that
came out in March on Serious Business
Records<http://www.seriousbusinessrecords.com/>.
The link to the free and legal MP3 only recently emerged on
Largehearted Boy<http://blog.largeheartedboy.com/>,
which is where I first heard it. MP3 via Serious Business.

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[fingertipsmusic] This Week's Finds: July 8 (Arcade Fire, Postdata, Saadi)

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