[fingertipsmusic] This Week's Finds: October 9, late and abbreviated

From: Jeremy Schlosberg <fingertipsmusic@xxxxxxxxx>
To: fingertipsmusic@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Date: Fri, 9 Oct 2009 10:56:05 -0400

THIS WEEK'S FINDS <http://www.fingertipsmusic.com/this_weeks_finds.htm>
October 9, 2009

*A mind-bending time was had by all at the Future of Music Policy Summit in
Washington, DC this week. I've been catching up ever since; apologies for
the late "This Week's Finds" this time around. On top of that, at the very
last minute, like just a moment ago, I noticed that a song I was featuring
disappeared, replaced by an alternative version I don't like nearly as much.
So right now I can only offer two reviews. If I can get the other song back,
I'll email it separately. Next week look for songs on either Tuesday or
Wednesday. Three of them, too.*

"Gloomy Monday Morning" - the Black
Hollies<http://www.ernestjenning.com/newhollies/gloomymondaymorning.mp3>
A deeply groovy shot of neo-garage rock, "Gloomy Monday Morning" is
both steeped in nostalgia and alive with freshly-minted energy. Sure,
there's a big-time Animals/Zombies/'60s-Kinks vibe at work here, but it's
almost like this New Jersey quartet is using the bygone sound as an
instrument they're playing rather than as a straitjacket limiting their
buoyancy, if that makes any sense.
The song consistently works at two different, typically contradictory
levels. For instance, while blatantly backbeat driven and cymbal heavy,
"Gloomy Monday Morning" also employs subtle keyboard accents and a frisky
bass line to catch the ear nearly below the level of conscious awareness.
Even the backbeat isn't as straightforward as it seems, working with a kind
of stutter that both accentuates and deflects the two and four beat accent.
Listen, also, to how a simple maneuver--that upward turn of melody that we
first hear at 0:49 in the chorus, and then also in the third line of the
second verse (1:08)--serves to break the song open. And what's with that
cymbal sound? It's so persistent during the chorus and the bridge that it
sounds less like an organically played cymbal than a sample played from a
keyboard, and is used as a sort of wall-of-sound whitewash at that point
more than percussion--a tactic that is, characteristically, somehow, at once
heavy-handed and enigmatic. Even the title seemingly contradicts the song's
groove.
"Gloomy Monday Morning" is from the band's third full-length
album, *Softly
Towards the Light*, which was released this week by the Brooklyn-based Ernest
Jenning Record Co <http://www.ernestjenning.com/home.htm>. MP3 via EJRC.

"Madeline, Every Girl" - Cameron McGill & What
Army<http://www.parasol.com/downloads/Cameron_McGill__Madeline.mp3>
A truly wonderful song from beginning to end. But a funny thing: every
time the tempo falters, because of how the song is constructed, I find
myself almost annoyed because of how much I was digging the forward-moving
energy that's now interrupted. And it happens in the chorus, just when I
might be expecting more rather than less motion. But then each time the
tempo picks back up with the new verse, I realize that maybe I'm enjoying
the faster-paced section precisely because of the repeated way it pulls
back. Life is like that too. Oh, and check out how, the second time we hear
the chorus, McGill picks up the tempo before the end (2:00). Feels very
satisfying somehow. But the third time is the best--he kicks it up for just
a moment (3:22), and somehow that's most satisfying of all.
While Cameron McGill & What Army often play music with a definite
folk-rock or folk-pop feel, "Madeline, Every Girl" is, in this age of
micro-genres, maybe too straightforward for any workable label: it's just
guitar and bass and drums playing together without any particular fuss or
special flavor. Some songs depend upon their instrumentation and arrangement
for their very existence, and other songs, like this one, exist so strongly
as things unto themselves that you could probably play them on a toy
xylophone and they would still shine through.
Cameron McGill is a Chicago-based singer/songwriter who released an
album called *Warm Songs for Cold Shoulders*, his fourth, back in
April on Parasol
Records <http://www.parasol.com/>. "Madeline, Every Girl" is the a-side of a
three-song digital single released last month called *Two Hits and a Miss*,
which is available via
iTunes<http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewAlbum?id=327256774&s=143441>.
MP3 courtesy of Parasol.

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[fingertipsmusic] This Week's Finds: October 9, late and abbreviated

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