Here's the second part of the long commentary piece posted to the main Fingertips site on Monday. Thanks for the comments so far, and the emails too. Perhaps this second part, for those who haven't read it yet, will clarify some things. Without further ado...* * * * *Consequence No. 2: Cultural disconnectBeyond plummeting album sales, another disorienting hallmark of the digital music age has ...
More >
Farewell to the Casual Music Fan, part two
Free and legal MP3 from Think About Life (exuberant deconstructed funk)
-
Artist:
-
Album:
-
Track:
"Johanna" - Think About Life So this may be about the best thing I've heard all year. How sharp and sleek and funky; how multileveled and well-crafted and exuberant; what deeply gratifying fun. The basic groove alone is impressive, established at the outset by some brilliant horn charts, with their stuttery swing and that softly dissonant chord they settle on at the end of each phrase. ...
More >
Free and legal MP3 from Will Stratton (young singer/songwriter w/ gorgeous, reverb-laced tune)
-
Artist:
-
Album:No Wonder
-
Track:Who Will
"Who Will" - Will Stratton Gorgeous and swaying, but with a deep-down sense of gravity. (Anyone remember the old Fleetwood Mac instrumental "Albatross"? This evokes that, pleasantly.) I like the sonic interplay between the crisply strummed acoustic guitar at the front of the mix and that big dark open space underneath--space created seemingly by just a lonesome-prairie guitar and Stratton's vo
More >
Free and legal MP3 from the Sun (a fuzzy blast of melodic noise)
-
Artist:
-
Album:Don't Let Your Baby Have All The Fun
-
Track:In Perfect Time
"In Perfect Time" - the Sun A fuzzy blast of melodic noise, "In Perfect Time" seems to want to be played really loud. As a matter of fact, it has a kind of sneaky effect going--the louder I turn it, the louder still I feel I need to hear it. This clearly has to do with how singer Chris Burney's voice is mixed down, but it's more than just that. Any number of other bands have done the mixed-...
More >
November Q&A: Morningbell
-
Artist:
-
Track:Marching Off to War
More >
Attention winners of the Top 10 contest from October 10!
Sorry to bug everyone else but this message goes only to the three people who won the Top 10 contest from October 10. Thanks to a bit of prodding by one of the winners, I just realized I gave the wrong email address out, so anyone who's emailed me at that address, well, I never got it. I'm sensitive about putting my email address into a post here on the blog for fear of spamming--this is no dou...
More >
Free and legal MP3 from Ravens & Chimes (sprightly indie rock w/ an edge of reserve)
-
Artist:
"Hearts of Palm" - Ravens & Chimes Cheerful songs are usually vigorous things. Songs that seem hesitant, wavery, or otherwise introverted, on the other hand, tend to be at best wistful if not downright mournful. "Hearts of Palm" subverts the formula, and is all the more effective for it--a sprightly, hopeful-sounding song edged by an equivocal, somewhat trembling vibe. Some of this is d...
More >
Free and legal MP3 from Tahiti 80 (carefree English-speaking French pop done right)
-
Artist:
-
Track:
"Unpredictable" - Tahiti 80 Carefree English-speaking French pop from a band doing it before it was a genre. There's something not only charming but truly satisfying about a song that works quite so well both for people who are barely paying attention and for people paying close attention. This is no small feat. For the first group, a jaunty, smoothly sung tune is all that's required. Great ba
More >
Free and legal MP3 from Múm (melancholy mystery from Iceland)
-
Artist:M�m
"Illuminated" - Múm The fact that Múm wrote the music to its most recent album in the middle of Iceland's economic meltdown and political upheaval adds poignancy to the already melancholy beauty of "Illuminated." Against a bed of mystical tinkling and mysterious vocal arpeggios, "Illuminated" doesn't so much start as float into being. The extended chord progression described by the angelic .
More >
Free and legal MP3 from Surfer Blood (instantly engaging, unusually constructed)
-
Artist:Surfer Blood
-
Track:Floating Vibes
"Floating Vibes" - Surfer Blood "Floating Vibes" has that deep guitar thing going right away, which I always find gratifying. And which always makes me wonder why rock'n'roll has so consistently (and, to my ears, stupidly) glorified the sound of a wailing guitar played so high up on the neck that there's no room left for the guitarist's fingers. I'll take the robust, thoughtful tremor of th...
More >
Free and legal MP3 from Audra Mae (big-voiced singer/songwriter sings with restraint and writes with skill)
-
Artist:Audra Mae
-
Album:Haunt
-
Track:The River
"The River" - Audra Mae With clear roots in country and folk, two very structured genres, "The River" hooks the ear with a series of surprising melodic and harmonic shifts. We hear this first at 0:15, when Mae follows the opening two traditional-sounding lines with a third ("The river's gonna wash my sins away") that runs unexpectedly up through a diminished chord. How did we get here? Sudd...
More >
Free and legal MP3 from Bear in Heaven (indie rock from Brooklyn, at once driven and spacey)
-
Artist:Lovesick Teenagers
"Lovesick Teenagers" - Bear in Heaven Can a song be spacey and determined at the same time? "Lovesick Teenagers" seems to manage this unusual effect. Determination is heard through the relentless pulse of the snare-free beat along with front man Jon Philpot's purposeful tenor, which sounds like someone with a wavery voice trying not to waver. And the melody itself seems also to possess an e...
More >
Free and legal MP3 from Bear in Heaven (indie rock)
-
Artist:
-
Track:
"Lovesick Teenagers" - Bear in Heaven Can a song be spacey and determined at the same time? "Lovesick Teenagers" seems to manage this unusual effect. Determination is heard through the relentless pulse of the snare-free beat along with front man Jon Philpot's purposeful tenor, which sounds like someone with a wavery voice trying not to waver. And the melody itself seems also to possess an e...
More >
Free and legal MP3 from Holopaw (pensive, inscrutable indie rock that rewards repeat listens)
-
Artist:
-
Track:The Art Teacher and the Little Stallion
"The Art Teacher and the Little Stallion" - Holopaw 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 voc...
More >
Free and legal MP3 from Slideshow Freak (swinging glam-ish bedroom rock w/ a dominant chorus)
-
Artist:Slideshow Freak
-
Track:Something More
"Something More" - Slideshow Freak 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 ...
More >
Free and legal MP3 from Headlights (breezy, memorable pop a la NRBQ)
-
Artist:
"Get Going" - Headlights 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 ...
More >
Free and legal MP3 from Old Canes (drum-fueled folk rock w/ vibrant, informal energy)
-
Artist:
-
Track:Little Bird Courage
"Little Bird Courage" - Old Canes It's unusual for a song that feels like some kind of folk rock to have this much percussive appeal, but "Little Bird Courage" is all about the drumming from the get-go--we pretty much don't even hear anything else until almost 20 seconds in. And this is in fact how Old Canes front man and master mind Chris Crisci envisions his songs--he records the drum tra...
More >
Free and legal MP3 from Rainbow Arabia (stylish, engaging world music admixture from LA electronic duo)
-
Artist:
-
Track:
"Harlem Sunrise" - Rainbow Arabia This one morphs before your startled ears from a vaguely Middle Eastern sounding dance with an electro-beat and kitchen sink percussion into a vaguely Caribbean steel-drum-inflected shuffle with some African guitar thrown in for good measure. Too much pastiche for its own good? Or is "Harlem Sunrise," rather, an audacious 21st-century stylistic mash-up? I v...
More >
Free and legal MP3 from Wiretree (power pop with vocal roots in the '70s)
-
Artist:
-
Track:
"Back in Town" - Wiretree Brisk, spangly power pop from an Austin-based quartet. Equal parts mid-career Wilco and early (or late; who can say?) Traveling Wilburys, "Back in Town" is a friendly, xylophone-flecked burst of tunefulness, anchored in singer Kevin Peroni's pliable, evocative voice. What he sounds like, in a nutshell, is the '70s--Harry Nilsson, George Harrison, and Jeff Lynne rol...
More >
