[fingertipsmusic] This Week's Finds, Oct. 8-14

From: "Jeremy Schlosberg" <fingertipsmusic@xxxxxxxxx>
To: fingertipsmusic@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Date: Mon, 9 Oct 2006 22:03:50 -0400

There is this week one last chance to be involved with the Pet
Soundsgiveaway. No more than 50 people can be signed up; details
here <http://www.fingertipsmusic.com/petsounds.htm>...


THIS WEEK'S FINDS <http://www.fingertipsmusic.com/this_weeks_finds.htm>
week of Oct. 8-14

"Turn This Thing Around" - El Presidente
<http://downloads.betterpropaganda.com/download.php?file=El_Presidente-Turn_This_Thing_Around_128.mp3>
Turn it up, shake it out, and beware as this uncomplicated, preposterously
addictive tune is likely to stick in your head for the next several days.
Boasting a smashing neo-glam-rock sound that bridges everyone from David
Bowie to the Bee Gees to Prince to the Scissor Sisters, this quintet from
Glasgow makes music that leaps from the speakers, certain to sound at home
on everything from a transistor radio (should any still exist) to a Mac Pro.
With their feisty dance-rock riffs and falsetto vocals, El Presidente edges
neo-glam-rock ever so close to camp (and truly glam rock and camp are never
that far away), and yet, for me, "this thing" stays on solid musical ground
largely for the crazy sincerity of its exhilarating chorus. When Dante Gizzi
(great name) sings "Let me go back to where we were," the melody not only
resolves impeccably (and deep in the gut) but I hear an unexpected dollop of
genuine pathos that no amount of squeally vocals can quite dispel. "Turn
This Thing Around" is a song from the band's self-titled debut, which came
out last October in the U.K., finally to be released in the U.S. last month
on Red Ink Records, a Sony imprint. The MP3 is courtesy of the fine folks at
betterPropaganda <http://www.betterpropaganda.com/>. If you want to hear the
whole album, you can stream it at the band's new U.S.
site<http://www.elpresidentemusic.com/main.htm>
.

"Songs That No One Will Hear" - We Are Soldier We Have Guns"
<http://www.wearesoldiers.net/we_are_soldiers-songs_that_no_one_will_hear.mp3>
Okay so while I would never have identified this, in advance, as a favorite
songwriting trick, as soon as I heard it I knew it was: having the
introduction in a different key from the song. And, who knows, maybe that
won't always work for me either, but in this case I find the effect
entrancing, in large part because of the thoughtful, atmospheric beauty of
the guitar work that comprises the introduction. The playing is both crisp
and echoey, its gentle alternation between major and minor chords creating a
continual sense of something about to happen and yet also there being no
hurry to get there. Then, 40 seconds in: we change keys, we get a sense of
movement in the guitar, something chimey chimes in, and Malin Dahlberg adds
her delicately powerful voice to the mix. Even as the atmosphere remains
restrained--almost slipping into near silence at one point--the song has
tremendous character, perhaps because of the next thing I notice: for all
the gentle meanderings of the sonic landscape, this song has a real
*melody*to offer. You could speed this baby up and set it to a big
bashing rock beat
if you wanted to (not that I want to!), because of the range of motion in
the notes. I think it's all too easy here in the 21st century for musicians,
fiddling with digital gizmos, to lose track of the great gift of melodic
elasticity. On a screen everything flattens. It's a theory, at least. We Are
Soldiers And We Have Guns is a duo from Gothenburg, Sweden; "Songs That No
One Will Hear" comes from their cleverly-titled EP *To Meet is Murder*,
which is scheduled for release later this month on Stereo Test Kit Records
<http://www.fingertipsmusic.com/smaller_labels.htm#STK>. Many thanks, as
always, to Hedvika at the excellent Getecho
<http://getecho.blogspot.com/>blog for the lead.

"Ain't No Reason" - Brett Dennen
<http://www.ezarchive.com/situationrocks/AlbumSpace/8ZG8ISXNIS/aintnoreason.mp3>
Another simple and compelling tune, but set in an entirely different musical
universe than the one occupied by El Presidente (see above). Brett Dennen is
one part Ron Sexsmith and one part Steve Forbert, with maybe a sprinkle of
John Prine, repackaged by the universe into lanky (he's 6'5") 20-something
redhead with a wise-beyond-his-years vibe, a memorable voice, and some
spiffy songwriting chops. He seems to have the distinctly Prine-like ability
to be simultaneously goofy and serious, sometimes within the same sentence
("I don't know why I say the things I say/But I say them anyway"), and a
Sexsmithian flair for sad, vivid melodies. Forbert kicks in because of the
woodsy ache in his tenor, and the sense I get that he's going to out on the
road playing his guitar for the next 30 years also. "Ain't No Reason" is
from Dennen's second CD, *So Much More*, slated for release next week
on Dualtone
Records <http://www.dualtone.com/>.


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[fingertipsmusic] This Week's Finds, Oct. 8-14

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