[fingertipsmusic] This Week's Finds: October 21

From: Jeremy Schlosberg <fingertipsmusic@xxxxxxxxx>
To: fingertipsmusic@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Date: Wed, 21 Oct 2009 10:38:18 -0400

THIS WEEK'S FINDS <http://www.fingertipsmusic.com/this_weeks_finds.htm>
October 21, 2009

"The Art Teacher and the Little Stallion" -
Holopaw<http://www.forcefieldpr.com/holopawartteacher.mp3>
Airily idiosyncratic, not to mention lyrically inscrutable, "The Art
Teacher and the Little Stallion" required repeated listens for me to really
hear it. Songs with vocal (rather than purely instrumental) introductions
are a bit hard to get one's pop-oriented mind around, to begin with. And
when Holopaw's John Orth is the one doing the vocalizing, maybe it's even
harder. He's actually got an engaging, feathery sort of voice, but when it's
the very first thing one hears--without the grounding of obvious melody or
structure--it seems a challenge, to me.
But here's something to listen for early on: the two notes he sings on
the word "breath," at 0:12 (which are E-flat and D-flat, if my keyboard
widget is to be trusted). These are soon revealed as the two notes the rest
of the song consistently turns on, the two notes which, magnet-like, attract
and re-attract the melody--for instance, at the end of the recurring lyric
"Couldn't we just get lost?" The musical phrase described by these notes is
unresolved, but listen to how the violin follows (e.g. 0:56) with a
countermelody that does then resolves it, and with folk-like poignancy. Keep
your ear on the violin all the way through; I think the yearning ballast it
provides is what lends the song, at least after a number of listens, its
quirky majesty.
From Gainesville, Florida, Holopaw was previously featured on
Fingertips in August
2005<http://www.fingertipsmusic.com/TWFjul-aug05.htm#Holopaw>,
but are rather a whole different band now: three of its original five
members moved north after that second album, replaced slowly but surely by
four Gainesville-based others. "The Art Teacher and the Little Stallion" is
the first song on the band's *Oh, Glory. Oh, Wilderness.*Bakery Outlet
Records <http://bakeryoutletrecords.com/>.

"Something More" - Slideshow
Freak<http://filthylittleangel.com/Little044SlideshowFreak/01SomethingMore.mp3>
This song, on the other hand, had me at hello, pretty much. A simple
arpeggio, some electro-tinkling, some smooth keyboard vamping, then,
boom--"Something More" begins right in its sweet spot, with its full-out,
neo-glam-rock chorus. Somehow that's really all it needs. Yes, there are
verses in between and surely they kind of have to be there--a song can't be
all chorus, can it?--but you'll be hard-pressed afterwards to remember
exactly what they sounded like. I'm thinking you'll be equally hard-pressed
to dislodge the chorus from your head, not least for the way its swinging,
backbeat-driven melody offers up pronouncements as big and dauntless as its
sound: "It takes a better man than me/To save a broken heart"; "I spend my
life on my back/But never see the stars"; et al.
Slideshow Freak is another one of those "not a band, just a guy" acts
made possible by 21st-century technology, musical know-how, and a lot of
time on one's hands. The guy this time is one Jamie Wright, who was born and
raised in the UK but appears to be living in Florida now. "Something More"
is the lead track to the debut Slideshow Freak EP, *We Should Swing*, which
was released in July on Filthy Little Angels Records. Thanks to the
typically excellent Low Slung Podcast
<http://www.myspace.com/lowslungradio>for the head's up. MP3 via
Filthy Little Angels. Note that you can download
all six songs from the EP on the FLA
site<http://filthylittleangels.blogspot.com/2005/12/little-020-tis-season-to-be-filthy.html>.

"Get Going" -
Headlights<http://www.ww.polyvinylrecords.com/shared/uploads/media.php?download=1&folder=media&secure_filename=00179_Headlights-Get_Going-192.mp3>
Consciously or not, "Get Going" offers up delightful echoes of a band
few may remember, and fewer probably listen to anymore, NRBQ. During their
late '70s comeback years, in and around their goofier bar-band numbers, NRBQ
let loose a bunch of simultaneously breezy and memorable pop songs a whole
lot like this one in tone, vibe, and spirit. The airy charm of Tristan
Wraight's tenor further recalls the unexpectedness sweetness infusing gems
like "Ridin' In My Car," "I Want You Bad," and "Me and the Boys." Even the
title sounds like something the 'Q might have recorded.
But "Get Going" should likewise please the ear of the NRB-clueless.
(Sorry; didn't mean that as an insult, just couldn't resist coining that
phrase.) Listen to the way the melody in the verses keeps being drawn up:
the lyrical lines each ending with an upward third interval, the middle of
the line often pivoting on an upward fifth. Pop melodies much more typically
lead in a general downward direction, the way water naturally heads towards
lower ground. There's something invigorating, if subtly off-kilter, in going
against the norm in this way. The other thing I'm enjoying here is the
guitar work, which engagingly interweaves an acoustic rhythm, an
old-fashioned electric lead, and something unexpectedly drone-like. The way
Erin Fein--normally the band's lead vocalist--appears through a kind of
underwater filter during the short bridge (1:36) is another whimsical
highlight of this brief but emphatic song.
"Get Going" is from *Wildlife*, the Champaign-based quartet's fourth
album, released on Polyvinyl Records earlier this month. The band was
previously featured on Fingertips for the wonderful song "Cherry Tulips" in
January 2008 <http://www.fingertipsmusic.com/TWFjan-feb08.htm#Headlights>.
MP3 via Polyvinyl. Another song from *Wildlife*, "Secrets," is available as
a free and legal download via
Amazon<http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002QWL392/ref=dm_ty_alb>.

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[fingertipsmusic] This Week's Finds: October 21

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