By the decree of the Purple Falcon by the order of Lord Darcy, under the darkness of a new moon and Steak-Um on the cafeteria menu - every Monday from henceforth on this vessel shall be Under the Covers Monday. Heark, hear ye and open sesame.
A little extry and easily related BECAUSE... Dominant Legs is featured in the music video premiere from Tamaryn. And she's in there, too. I owed you one from earlier in the week, anyway, so now we're squares in circle chairs. Pardon me while I stab a #2 in to my cornea.
A quickety-split trick to leave you with this Friday. SF native Ryan William Lynch leads with the right with his ramble-jangle reedy sound. Funky jazz with some carribean 80's flat-top, pop razor lines on the side over the ears. Slick it back with some melancholy LA Looks gel and head out the door. I could think of a handful of artists to relate him to, but the sound is oddly more of his own. How often does that happen? How often does a guy look far better with a flower over his ear than I do? Crap.
To add fuel to my defeated flames, an old friend from ago turned me on to this bobo blog. It has stanky hepster written all over it. Maybe if I stop wearing babypowder fresh deodorant I can funk it up like them one day.
A young man wanders along salt roughened Irish cliffs, returning to a cabin teetering over the sea. Over a season's change, he writes lyrical prose of ghosts and loves, towering trees and keening winds. He recalls times of great change and scrawls their desertion in rushed strokes of ink, spatters bleeding through the paper's fiber.
He returns to Dublin and squints into the glare of a life lancing forward, rushing past him as water breaks around the rock. He holds in his hand a humble EP, nothing much but a man and his words playing instruments in a solitary room. It is February of this year.
once i had a dream once i had a hope that was yesterday not so long ago this is not the end this is just the world such a foolish thing such an honest girl James Vincent McMorrow // If I Had a Boat
Had that moment of being in the midst of normalcy when a song makes you stop in your tracks. You listen fiercely for a breath to catch some of the pieces, figure out what it is that made you freeze. Then you cast about wildly, who's going to tell you who this is?? Who knows this song?! You throw down the frilly blouse you were folding and stammer to your manager that you've got to know who the artist is, is there way to look? Hoping desperately that you don't come off weird slash socially awkward on the first shift of a part-time gig {a girl needs a little drop in the bucket to finance all these mp3s}. With a cool confirmation she disappears for a moment to return with a magic post-it, scrawled on in graphite is the key to your craving. Nirvana. As is my 40% discount. I like this place.
Currently on tour with KT Tuntall, {VAST improvement from prior tour with Blue October. Gag me with a spoon}, Steve Schiltz of Longwave created solo album, Tonight is a Ghost, in the best sense - writing, playing, recording and mixing all the songs himself. Quickly followed by Down Comes the Rain, stream either or album here. Admittedly, I'm not as wild about the rest, that could be the mention of Blue October leaving a bad taste on my tongue
But like a locomotive racing down frostbitten rails, away away from here, "Freezing Rain" makes my heart hurt.
The brit boys of the lupine persuasion take us on a time travel tour to 60s/70s era rock - their February release, Tidings, disjointedly puffs and passes in the same circle as TBK Attack and Release and White Denim Fits. Peace, love and Jethro Tull flutes set over western twang rubbed with eastern silks. Steel strings live in harmony with sitars, strung over tape to tape transfers that hisses and pops to their pleasing. It's like Woodstock, except in the UK, no patchouli and absolutely no acid tripping Little Red Riding Hoodlums.
Ordinarily I don't have much patience for mr. West, but I carved 34+minutes out of my workday to "good-lord" over this work of...posturing? Artistic genius? High wizarding of feathers and a gluestick?
Kanye West's latest installment in universal pop takeover, My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, is goddamn massive. Literally. Most tracks are extended to and beyond the 5minute mark. Compared to the auto-tuned cold, minimalistic 808's & Heartbreak, Fantasy has about 90gabillion layers of music production. Brass, electric guitar distortion, tabernacle chorale groups - all intended to max out whatever vessel you're in to aural capacity.
Yeah, a number of the tracks could've been edited down. Sure, the majority of lyrics focus on graphic sex or Jesus. Yes, West can be a sonovabitch. But he is a talented sonovabitch, so I bought the eff into this album and dance as much as my seatbelt will allow while playing "Lost in the World" on my commute. Just how I live my life.
Lykke Li is back on tour for a short stint while finishing up her LP, sole Stateside stop is Le Poisson Rouge / NY / December 1. She laments the stage is easier to handle than real life - along with playing with mirrors out in the desert in her skivvies and bed linens.
Jesse Kivel (vocals) met Zinzi Edmundson (keyboards) on a chance visit to a friends' college when Cupid ratcheted back that arrow and let fly. The LA loves now play under the name Kisses, without an ounce of shame over it's sugary sweetness. Rather, they revel in honey-coated lyrics and bumblebee buzzing Balearic pop beats.
Rogue Wave // Everyday (Buddy Holly Cover)
Tamaryn // Dawning
Dominant Legs // Just Silly Ones
Slow // Twin Shadow
James Vincent McMorrow // If I Had a Boat
Berrnard Herrman // Psycho Theme
Hurricane Bells // Freezing Rain
Wolf People // Tiny Circle
Kanye West f. Pusha T // Runaway
Kanye West (f. Jay-Z, Rick Ross, Nicki Manaj & Bon Iver) // Monster
Metric // Gold Guns Girls
Lykke Li // Paris Blues
Kisses // People Can Do the Most Amazing of Things