[fingertipsmusic] This Week's Finds: June 30 (SheLoom, Sambassadeur, the Spires)
- From: Jeremy Schlosberg <fingertipsmusic@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: fingertipsmusic@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Thu, 1 Jul 2010 21:51:36 -0400
THIS WEEK'S FINDS <http://www.fingertipsmusic.com>
June 30
“One More Day” –
SheLoom**<http://mintyfresh.com/mailout/SheLoom/ONE_MORE_DAY.mp3>
Welcome to a song that doesn’t sound like a lot that you’ve probably been
listening to lately, unless you have had an unaccountable hankering for your
old Bob Welch <http://www.last.fm/music/Bob+Welch> records. (Nah, I didn’t
think so.)
Needless to say, “One More Day” isn’t the product of some net-addled
21st-century rock band, but a collaboration between two nimble studio
veterans. Both Filippo Gaetani and Jordon Zadorozny have track records
extending backwards to the ’90s, and the breadth of experience to pull off
this jazzy slice of pseudo-’70s rock. I’ll leave it to the even more
philosophically minded than I to ponder why it can be so enjoyable to hear
new music smartly influenced by old music that one never liked all that much
in the first place. A conundrum for our catholic times, musically speaking.
But I’m digging a lot about this, from those jazz-inflected suspended chords
to the deft shifts in rhythm (from intro to verse, verse to bridge, bridge
to chorus) and then the way the meandery verse leads into what amounts to a
double chorus—the bridge and chorus are distinct but interrelated, and each
offers a sturdy melody delivered with a stirring mixture of nostalgia and
creativity.
“One More Day” is from the SheLoom album *Seat of the Empire*, digitally
released last week by Minty Fresh Records <http://www.mintyfresh.com/>. MP3
via Minty Fresh.
“I Can Try” – Sambassadeur**<http://www.labrador.se/icantry/mp3/i_can_try.mp3>
At first (aural) glance, “I Can Try” succeeds nicely as a sweeping piece of
orchestrated twee pop. Which is almost just fine. Except for the fact that
each time I go back to listen, things get more complicated and
unusual-sounding. To begin with, what’s with the drumming? You’ve got the
snare going full-blast, but delivering that shuffled up third
beat—especially pronounced in the chorus, it happens throughout the song,
and, in combination with that unrelenting double-time high-hat, creates a
chugging rhythm that simultaneously barrels forward and hesitates.
Then there’s the melody, which is certainly as sweet-sad as the genre
requires, and yet there’s something more to it. The melody in both the verse
and the chorus is a nice long line, the verse melody resolving with an
upward tilt while the chorus offers a steady downward release. But here’s an
odd thing: the melody in the chorus extends for nine measures, which is not
only unusual but difficult. Typically pop songs are constructed around sets
of four measures or eight measures. It’s what the music often demands and
our ears almost always expect. Here an extra measure sneaks in without
causing the slightest fuss. And yet somewhere deep down we sense something’s
off balance. That’s not very twee. The orchestration likewise isn’t quite
what it seems. We hear strings near the beginning and think, “Oh, of
course.” But it’s a string quartet, not a string section, and they spend
more time stabbing staccato riffs than bowing maudlin flourishes. And when
the horns arrive—the horns must always arrive—it’s a saxophone. Whatever
became of the saxophone, anyway?
“I Can Try” is from the third Sambassadeur album, *Europeans*,
released on Labrador
Records <http://www.labrador.se/> in February. The band has been previously
featured on Fingertips twice, once for each of its first two albums, in 2005
and in 2007. MP3 via Labrador.
“Orange Yellow” – the
Spires**<http://mushpotrecords.com/files/The%20Spires_Orange%20Yellow.mp3>
The guitar line upon which “Orange Yellow” is built is a thing of
rock’n'roll beauty: sturdy, jangly, memorable, and simple-sounding without
actually being that simple. Listen carefully and you’ll hear how the line
turns upon a time-signature trick that adds two extra beats every third
measure. This creates a delicious delay in the unfolding resolution; the
resulting asymmetry is somehow marvelous and true.
Laid upon this potent foundation, the song does well with its neo-Velvets
vibe—singer Jason Bays even has something of a nasally, Lou Reed-ish
semi-warble—even while bouncy along with more of a SoCal than a downtown
groove. Production is garage-ish, but knowingly so, or even mischievously
so: I feel certain that the ’60s buzzy-fuzzy aura is not merely purposeful
but exists to distract the listener from quite how beautifully crafted the
song is.
The Spires are a trio from Ventura featuring Bays on guitar, his wife
Colleen Coffey on drums, and Catelyn Kindred on bass. “Orange Yellow” will
be found on the band’s *Curved Space* EP, to be released later this month on
Beehouse Records <http://www.beehouserecords.com/index.html>. Beehouse was
created by Bays and Coffey in 2004 so they could release their stuff and has
become an actual record label. A few other free and legal MP3s from the band
can be found on the Beehouse
site<http://www.beehouserecords.com/spirespage.html>
.
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