Pony Up - "A Crutch or a Cradle (unmastered)". Okay imagine you were given a magic compass - not a Golden Compass, but a magic one all the same. And you have this in your hands, ticking and whirring and silverly enchanted, and it's leading you to somewhere. You're on your way! Oh man, you're finally on your way to that somewhere! And then one morning you take out your keys to unlock your bicycl...
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[source] The Walkmen - "On the Water" On the water, written in invisible lines, invisible for now, are secret water countries. Ocean, river, and nation lakes that are far older than our mere land states. Immense wars, vast campaigns of espionage and intrigue, gruesome battles, even interminable grudges and millennial stalemates. The countries are not stratified along lines of species, that'...
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Karl Blau - "Before Telling Dragons" . Karl Blau's Nature's Got Away is a weird album, with teeth and feathers and amplifiers. Bits of Harry Nilsson, the Zombies, Spoon, Smog. "Before Telling Dragons" is a forest anthem, recorded in a basement. Girl-group drums buried six feet under. A conversation with an electric guitar, all blurry blues and bird-coos. It's words of wisdom from a man who has...
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My People Sleeping - "Seahorse" . It shouldn't happen, not knowing. Not knowing if something is perfect, right, good, rising; or if it's flawed, wrong, rotten, collapsing. You should be able to tell. Like you can tell if a jar is empty or full... like you can tell if a lamp is off or if it's on. But I remember (and My People Sleeping remember, I think), that there were times when I couldn't tel...
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Mount Eerie with Julie Doiron and Fred Squire - "Flaming Home" . When Mount Eerie played this song at Casa del Popolo last month, the full room felt suddenly like an empty house. It felt terrifyingly empty. Later that night, P asked me how the show had been. "It was great," I said. And then I said, "But Phil Elverum - he seems very unhappy." Phil Elverum is Mount Eerie. For his upcoming album h...
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Wings - "Tomorrow" I don't always want to write. Neither do you, I'm sure. Sometimes you'd just rather not do some of the things you like to do, I know that. I'm sure McCartney doesn't always want to be fucking catchy as hell. But this song makes me want to write. It makes me want to write about giving all my stuff away, and about a thousand different people and things. A fire chief eatin...
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Hurray for the Riff Raff - "Bricks". This band is from New Orleans. And it must be frustrating for Hurray for the Riff Raff, the hook for every review being about the place they call home. But it matters. This is a sweet song, yes, but it is about doom. Look at some of these lyrics: "Well, we stand tall / together like towers. / Well, together like towers / we fall / we fall / we fall." New Orl...
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Diamonds - "Seasons"I might have Reverse Seasonal Affective Disorder. Or I might not get along with heat waves.Everything romantic happens in the Fall. Nothing romantic, and I mean romantic, happens any other time.My car won't start. That is because God is fed the fuck up.Self-righteousness is the breakfast food I am addicted to. Every morning, without fail, even sometimes at night.Hail lin...
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Sun in Sound - "Up North". Jordan and his writing partner Joel once made a project called America, where Joel told a long, winding tale about men, pipes, and things I don't remember. (I wasn't there. I saw the film. It was a long time ago.) While Joel talked, Jordan brought him out plate after plate of delicious, rich food. They ate the food with gusto - plate after plate, beef and chicken and ...
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Guitar Slim - "The Things That I Used to Do" Guitar plays guitar modestly for a man named Guitar. Aimless in life, he solos aimlessly; with hollow heart, his song's centre is empty. Between Guitar's guitar and the piano piano that underlies it - not to mention those lethargic horns - there's a lacuna a mile wide and rather deep, too - a sonic space that swallows hope but not beauty. Guitar may ...
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Night Shall Eat These Girls and Boys - "Where Did Our Love Go?" This is a version of the song as performed when lost at sea. When slowly spinning in circles in a round little dinghy, with candles for atmosphere, and the supper of distilled salt water and dried seaweed having been joyously consumed. And when I say "joyously", please understand that it's all relative, this is as joyous, as rauc...
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