Neither Snow Nor Rain Nor Heat - Music Appreesh weeks 8 and 9 and 1/2 Firstly, forgive me for lacking the same dedication as above in failing to post last week. I was at the beach where there was neither snow nor rain nor internet access. But I took on more than one artist again to compensate. Ive started to get into the habit, when out and about and hearing music that is pleasing to me, of finding someone in the vicinity who knows what it is. Back at the Churchill several weeks ago I had such a moment and several coworkers began babbling over themselves with excitement when I pointed at the speakers and inquired,whats this?: Postal! Death! they exclaimed, among other unintelligible words. Sinister they were not, though, and eventually I got them to speak in turns and learn that they suspected the song to be of The Postal Service. (Ill be honest - I think 3 people were involved in this conversation and one of them was David, but Im not remembering who the other 2 were...anyhow.) It was then suggested that this would be a worthwhile band for my project, as well as Death Cab for Cutie, whose lead singer is one of the collaborators for The Postal Service. Oddly enough, both of those bands were ones already on my list. (Shoutouts below.) And then, unbenownst to Nicole that this conversation was happening, she also posted almost simultaneously that I simply must check out Rilo Kiley, whose lead singer ALSO happens to be one of the collaborators on The Postal Service. Auspicious beginnings, no? Mercury is out of retrograde and the planets have aligned to provide me with 2 solid weeks of Emo Electronica Folk-Pop wonderment. (Stay tuned for a related post on how to create/describe any musical genre using the Adjective Adjective Noun formula.) Some things of note here. There seems to be a very specific style of singing that happened with the indie scene beyond my radio days. Ive noticed it with other bands as well (Owl City, The Shins a little bit) - this incredibly earnest, vulnerable tone. Ben Gibbard (of TPS and DCFC) really does it best. Possibly its just less distorted or produced, and possibly he just pronounces all consonants in a very intentional way that is very un-like the rock-pop styles that preceded him. In any case, even when the music is light-hearted, I really want to give this guy a hug. He sounds like such a nice boy. Also, Ive been reading a lot of material by Rob Sheffield lately, who often waxes nostalgic for the New Wave/New Romantic Period of the late 70s and early 80s. Theres some lineage here to observe, I think. The synth pop sounds of that era sound almost laughable now, but computers had barely evolved beyond the room-sized machines of their ancestry. Spandau Ballet or Culture Club, given a ride in a time-traveling Delorean, may very well have come back from the future sounding like The Postal Service. (Though probably they would have still kept an un-ironic saxophone solo.) So this was a fun couple of weeks back in a melodic everything-old-is-new-again vibe. Even more fitting - the two who recommended The Postal Service and Death Cab for Cutie to me are some of my oldest friends. Amy was my best friend in high school, and I should have listened to her sooner when she had the independence of thought to get into alternative music way ahead of the curve of the rest of us nice suburban, Midwestern girls. I wasnt cool enough to follow her to The Smiths, though I do remember hearing Spin Doctors Two Princes for the first time in her car, and to date it is still one of my favorite songs. Brian has been exposing me to new music since the very day we met. With him I saw John Mayer in concert before JM started dating movie actresses when he was just a young guitar prodigy touring around to divey college town clubs in a mini van with just a bass player for backup. In Michigan I saw more music live with Brian than with anyone. (I still dont know which ones Billy and which ones Pilgrim, though. Help?)
Posted on: Fri, 18 Jul 2014 19:12:08 +0000
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