[fingertipsmusic] This Week's Finds: October 20 (13ghosts, Boris, New Shouts)

From: Jeremy Schlosberg <fingertipsmusic@xxxxxxxxx>
To: fingertipsmusic@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Date: Thu, 20 Oct 2011 14:06:44 -0400

*THIS WEEK'S FINDS <http://www.fingertipsmusic.com>
October 20*

*For those inclined to ponder the fate of music in the digital age, I have
another essay posted on the site. This time I ask the musical question, "Does
Genuine Curation Stand a Chance? <http://www.fingertipsmusic.com/?p=7732>"
Cue the orchestra and pull up a chair. *

[image: 13ghosts]
“Dr. Bill” – 13ghosts <http://www.skybucket.com/mp3/05%20Dr.%20Bill.mp3>

It’s the not-unfamiliar patient-talking-to-his-doctor motif but we are a
long way here from “Doctor, doctor/Can’t you see I’m burning, burning.” “Dr.
Bill” oozes depth and power, thanks to some killer guitar work and a
splendid fusion of lyrical and musical momentum. There is no chorus; there
is even the feeling of being no melody, as singer Brad Armstrong creates the
illusion that he’s merely talking. But this is purposeful deception, belied
by the song’s careful, eloquent chord sequence, striking lyrics, and the
melancholy descent traced by Armstrong’s voice in the first four lyrical
lines. Note the lyrics themselves seem more like sentences than verses. He’s
singing, he just doesn’t want you to realize it. As the song cranks up the
intensity, the subtle melody begins turning upward.

Uneasiness weaves itself through the fabric of the song. You can hear it in
the recurring chord change that launches the intro and likewise begins each
lyrical line to follow—that shift from an opening minor chord to an
unforeseen, unrelated major chord. From there we are taken through a
progression featuring more major than minor chords but the underlying sense
is disturbed—we’re feeling minor, even through the major changes—and it was
set up by the opening gambit. The chords themselves unfold like a narrative,
which reinforces a story that escalates both in the lyrics and in the
subtext, as we learn perhaps as much about the patient/narrator via what he
doesn’t say as from what he does. The way internal rhyme juxtaposes with a
lack of end rhyme adds to the song’s ambivalent drive. A character seeking
help while insisting he’s all right: what does this say about life for the
majority of us, who do not seek help even as we sense that maybe we’re not
all right? A strong and haunting song, this one. You could also spend a few
listens concentrating merely on the evolving, fiery guitar accompaniment,
but I’ll leave that to you, I’m running long as it is.

The Birmingham, Ala.-based quintet 13ghosts is here returning to Fingertips
for a third time; Armstrong also visited for an early
Q&A<http://www.fingertipsmusic.com/classic/armstrong-qa1.htm>.
The band is blessed with two strong singer/songwriters, the other being Buzz
Russell, who fronted “Beyond the Door,” a great song that was reviewed here
in 2008 <http://www.fingertipsmusic.com/?p=248>. They were also featured in
2006 <http://www.fingertipsmusic.com/?p=130> but that song alas is no longer
online. “Dr. Bill” is from the band’s album *Garland of Bottle Flies*,
coming next month on Skybucket Records <http://www.skybucket.com/index.php>.

[image: Boris]
“Spoon” – Boris <http://downloads.pitchforkmedia.com/05_Spoon.mp3>

A kitchen-sinky chunk of sped-up dream pop, “Spoon” is instantly likable
even as it presents more to the ear than the ear initially can absorb. Which
actually isn’t easy to do, I don’t think: package sonic overload into
something brisk and immediate.

Here’s maybe the key to how Boris does it: for all the aural exuberance,
“Spoon” hews to the conventional
verse-chorus-verse-chorus-bridge-verse-chorus design. This is why we can
kind of “get” the song even when it’s offering more musical information in
any given slice than we can consciously process. There are so many things to
listen for here, from intermittent concrete sounds like breaking glass and
cracking whips and children’s voices to ongoing threads like the singular
rhythm section, which combines a stuttery drumbeat with a fluid, hyperactive
bassline. That bursty drum sound does everything it can to break the song
into disjointed moments, while the bass works hard to stitch it all
together. Throughout, the slightly breathy lead vocal from guitarist Wata
gives us something delightful to stay focused on when all else fails.

And never mind the difficult-to-absorb song—Boris itself is a
difficult-to-absorb band. Together since 1992, a trio since 1996, this
veteran Japanese outfit has a complex history of experimentation and
genre-blending and -hopping. (The band has been identified with ambient,
doom metal, drone metal, industrial, minimalist, noise rock, and punk, among
quite a few others.) Its members all go by single names, which is just as
well—slightly less information to process. They tour a lot and are
reportedly more well known in North America than they are in Japan, having
done things like open for Nine Inch Nails and appear on avant-garde film
soundtracks, including one for Jim Jarmusch. The band’s 2006 album
*Pink*was listed among the year’s best by Pitchfork, SPIN, and
Blender. “Spoon” is
a song from Boris’s new album called (finally, someone did it) *New Album*.
*New Album* is actually (more complications) the band’s third release of
2011, this one a dream-pop-ish reworking of songs that were on the other two
albums, with some new songs as well. MP3 via
Pitchfork<http://www.pitchfork.com/>
.

[image: New Shouts]
“The Reins To Your Heart” – New
Shouts<http://www.bantermm.com/tracks/NewShouts-TheReinsToYourHeart.mp3>

Above and beyond the financial problems introduced by the digital
distribution of music, many hands have been wrung over cultural problems
unleashed at the same time. A flood of virtual ink has been spilled this
year, as an example, on a complaint voiced by the critic Simon
Reynolds<http://articles.latimes.com/2011/jul/10/entertainment/la-ca-retro-rock-20110710>,
in his book *Retromania*, which among other things is about how the
relentless presence of the past, digitally speaking, has led to a state in
which we don’t allegedly have a genuine, current-day culture, just an
ongoing regurgitation of bygone stylings.

There are so many things that strike me as wrong with this complaint;
probably time for an essay. In the meantime, I go back to one of Fingertips’
founding mottoes: listen with your ears, not your mind. The idea that music
has to be stylistically “different” is a mental construct. To my ears, music
can be different by simply being *good*. So, is a song like “The Reins To
Your Heart” representative of some kind of new, 2010-ish musical style? Not
a bit. Does this mean it can’t be good or that we are somehow culturally
poorer because the Pittsburgh foursome New Shouts recorded it? Of course
not. It’s a good song! Yes, its garage-soul groove harkens back to the
proto-white-boy-soul of a group like the Soul Survivors (best known for
“Expressway To Your Heart,” non-coincidentally enough). Why can’t a good
song sound familiar? Why can’t it remind you of another good song?

To harp on stylistic similarities is to overlook other factors that make
music both pleasing and emotionally resonant. I always start with melody,
because that’s me. “The Reins To Your Heart” is one of those lucky songs
that begins with its hook—a smartly constructed melody (beginning at 0:11,
right out of that pleasantly clangy introduction) in which the first half
traces a descending B minor chord, the second an ascending A minor chord.
Comprised only of the three notes from these two adjacent chords, the melody
has a natural swing, running down and up those third intervals, while
likewise feeling solid and primal, the aural equivalent of a three-legged
stool. And the chorus is no slouch either, affording the song a second and
maybe even third hook (this is also one of the those lucky songs with more
than one solid hook), via the “Baby, please believe me” segment, with its
group lead vocal and classic-soul vibe, leading up to that unerring,
off-the-beat response line, “I want you back.” We’ve heard all of this
before. So what? It gives me that deep inner smile I get when I know the
music is working. *Retromania* has nothing to tell me, or you, about *that*.

“The Reins To Your Heart” is the lead track from New Shouts’ first
non-single release, the seven-song EP *Sing New Shouts*, which was
self-released in September via Bandcamp <http://newshouts.bandcamp.com/>.

* * * * * * *

"I'm very normal
I'm very like everyone else....."

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[fingertipsmusic] This Week's Finds: October 20 (13ghosts, Boris, New Shouts)

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