This Is Your Song For....March 27th, 2013: Full Moon Rising by Neil Halstead

If you're going to go roots....you might as well go all the way.

Today’s song brings up something that intrigues me.  Neil Halstead, who wrote and played this very moody and atmospheric little piece of rootsy, folky tuneage, was one of the founding members of Slowdive.  Slowdive was one of the leading purveyors of showgaze, a musical genre that I talked about somewhat recently.  But once Slowdive broke up as bands that aren't interested in sucking the nostalgic dry of their money inevitably do, Halstead went off to form Mojave 3.  Mojave 3 is a country folk outfit, and Halstead’s solo work has continued on this path.

What is it about alternative rockers that they want to return to roots music once they strike off on their own?  There are far too many who have done this--John Doe did this after he left X, Bob Mould did this after Husker Du crumbled, Kristen Hersh did this when Throwing Muses was in flux...the list goes on and on.  I’m sure you can come up with four or five examples yourself.  Is it because there is this perception of folk, bluegrass, country and other ‘roots’ genres as being ‘purer’ forms?  Is it because writing music in a less tortured form acts as a palette cleanser, preparing these people for whatever their muse has in store for them next?  Is it a desire to cut through the red tape and make it just the singer and the song, stripped of layers of noise and production, so he or she can better communicate with the listener?

Granted, some of this impetuous to go down these country roads may just be a need to liberate oneself.  I talked recently on an episode of Maurice Bursztynski’s excellent Love That Album about how going solo liberated Stan Ridgway to follow his true passion for telling stories with his song, and I suspect something similar motivated Halstead.  There’s no denying that Halstead’s voice is suited to the stripped down arrangements of folk--this song features only him and his guitar, allowing us to soak in this evocative tale of a man and a woman at the exact moment where their relationship disintegrates.  The way Halstead switches from being accusatory to resigned to warning his now former paramour that she might find out what she wants isn't for the best is seamless, all bolstered by the wonderful guitar work.  It’s at turns beautiful and dreadful, as I imagine such a moment would feel to a lover giving up the fight.

There are times I wonder if these sudden changes in direction work (the decision of alt-pop darlings The Popinjays to become roots folkers with their third album confounds me to this very day, but that’s a story for another time)...but when they work, like with Neil Halstead, it’s magic.

Here’s a video.

This Is Your Song For....March 14th, 2013: Welcome To England by Tori Amos

Somehow I don't think she's going to let you in on
the joke....

Ahhh, yes...it’s time to finally address an artist I’ve referenced many times in the course of this blog (like here and here), an artist I’ve had a rather odd relationship with.

There was a time--namely, in the early years of her solo career--where I had an intense crush on Ms. Amos.  In a way, I guess it’s understandable, as Amos was something of a stand-in for every alterna-geek chick of that period.  And those early albums--Little Earthquakes, Under the Pink, Songs From The Choirgirl Hotel, etc--were very nuanced and had a lot of that sweet-melody-with-dark-center stuff that I loved, plus many of the songs had a storytelling element that appealed to me.

(Okay, it also didn’t hurt that she was a redhead with off-kilter looks who played a piano like she was fucking it, either.  Or that she had this kinda purry/growly thing she liked to do with her voice.  Or...

Okay, maybe there’s still a lil’ bit of that crush still left alive in me.)

As we moved into a later period of her career where her whimsy seemed to overtake her darkness, I stopped following her career as closely--after all, as I’ve stated elsewhere, if I want my artists to evolve I have to accept that they might evolve into something I won’t like.

Which brings us to Abnormally Attracted To Sin and this, the lead single off of that album.  Supposedly, this was going to be the first single Amos was going to release on her own before backing off and signing with Universal Republic, and it seems to mark a return to that period of hers I enjoyed so much.  Hell, it sounds sonically very, very much like an outtake from the albums cited above.  An ode to her adopted country--she moved to England with her then-boyfriend, now husband to gain a little privacy, believe it or not--it doesn’t quite reach the storytelling heights of the best songs off, let’s say, Choirgirl, but it has its moments.  I particularly like the way there seems to be some ambivalence in Amos’ lyrics about the city, admitting on some level that she still feels an outsider, that she’s stuck dancing a different dance from everyone around her, that she’s still stuck ‘bringing her own sun.’  This sense of otherness is emphasized by the way Amos frequently lapses into a broad version of her own southernness during the song.  And I admit that, after a couple of years of stuff about bees and cars and hardcore whimsy, it’s great to hear her wonder about how cold it’ll be when her heart bursts in the middle of the song.

It’s weird--for someone who was with Amos at the very start of her solo career, this song comes off as comfort food.  It’s a favorite artist doing the sort of music she did when I initially became enamored of her.  I don’t know if that’s necessarily a good thing--while her recent releases included Night of The Hunters, an album of fairy tale songs written in collaboration with her daughter that seems to be a return to her storytelling roots, it also included Gold Dust, her attempt to get in on that ‘artists re-record their greatest hits’ trend I find so loathsome (which I need to get a ‘Cover-versies’ out about soon)--but for what it is, I’m okay with it.  I just wonder if she’s decided to regress rather than continue with the evolution she seemed to be going through in the ‘00s...and I also don’t know which direction I’m rooting for.

Here's the video.  It's got lots of nice places in London in it...

This Is Your Song For....March 7th, 2013: New Deal by Martini Ranch

Yep...the guy from NEAR DARK, the chick from the B-52s...
and that other guy.

Did you know Bill Paxton was in a band?  It’s true...

Of course, I didn’t know that Martini Ranch was a collaboration between everybody’s favorite cowardly Colonial Marine and Andrew Todd Rosenthal--although given how her backing vocals appeared everywhere on their one and only album, Holy Cow!, I think it’s safe to give the B-52's Cindy Wilson a seat at their table as an official member as well--for some time.  At first, I just knew they were responsible for this cool new wave-y song with Devo-ish pretensions called 'How Can The Laboring Man Find Time For Self Culture?’ that was play a lot on U-68, the Jersey-based local music video station that challenged MTV for a brief time.  Their video captivated me, which made their album a must pick-up for me....and then when I learned Paxton was one of the vocalist, I was sold.

‘New Deal’ is the first cut off the album, and it does what a first cut should do--propulse the listener into the band’s style, hook him and get him ready for what he’s about to listen to.  ‘New Deal’ is very much dance pop in a new wave style with serious overtones of the Church of the Sub-Genius philosophy that infused Devo’s canon.  And that Devo sort of double-speak isn’t here just because Bob Casale produced this album and played on it along with Mark Mothersbaugh and Alan Meyers; this is something that infused all of Martini Ranch’s songs, and helps set them apart from similar sounding acts that sprung up in the mid-to-late 80‘s.

There is a very brief spoken word segment that starts the song (unlike, let’s say, the one that precedes the album version of ‘Laboring Man...’, it’s far too brief to call it a skit), and I wonder if that’s the influence of hip-hop.  Many of the other songs on the albums contain what could pretty much be called ‘skits’ at the front of them.  The song itself could be construed as Martini Ranch’s mission statement, exhorting the listener to prepare for change, to save his soul by buying into the band’s ‘new deal,’ where everyone gets to judge themselves by what they feel.  The transformational aspect of this song is a particular obsession of the band--other songs on the album include a paean to the tearing down of the Berlin Wall, a novelty number about a fat-burning formula, and, of all things, a cover of ‘Richard Corey.’

(And this isn’t counting the, to the best of my knowledge,the never-released song ‘Brain Dead’ that the band recorded for the end credits of Bill Paxton’s low-budget film of the same name, a film all about mental transformation.)

To the best of my knowledge, Martini Ranch just...stopped existing in 1991.  Robinson formed a new, jazz-influenced band called Swifty’s Bazaar and is recording a second album.  As for Mr. Paxton, he continues to be a great lil’ actor, expanding into directing with Frailty.

Here is the song....

...and because I like you, and them, so much, here's the video for 'Reach,' which features the hottest director eeeeevah, Kathryn Bigelow getting her Clint Eastwood on....

This Is Your Song For...February 24th, 2013: Olivia by The Mainliners

They're looking Mick Jagger, but feeling Ray Davies...

This week...Swedish Garage Pop!

Yes, there is Garage Pop, and it is in Stockholm, Sweden.  The Mainliners wear their influences on their sleeves--there's some MC5 in here, some Kinks, some Rolling Stones--and it's not hard to envision them side by side with fellow countrymen The Hives as a double bill.  Of course, The Hives, as fun as they are, never had amazingly sweet piano breaks in their songs like this one had, nor did they layer in what seems to be a radio call in their song like they did with this one.

But here's the thing about this song, from their 2007 self-titled album...even though the garage rock sensibilities are very evident, they can't help but be popsters.  Even with the Mick Jaggerism that lead singer Robert Billing forces onto this song about love-through-hardship, even with the hardcore guitar riffs and the martial drum beat, The Mainliners can't help but generate a decidedly melodic piece of rock that, quite frankly, would not seem out of place in an arena rock band's set--and that's not meant as a slam in any way.  And they do it without losing the energy that makes The Hives so much fun; it's just that the energy becomes transformed, being just as propulsive but more nuanced.  The Mainliners' music is just as fun, but more contemplative and majestic.

I have to assume that The Mainliners have broken up, as their last album was in 2009.  If that's not the case, I hope someone corrects me, because I want to hear more.

Here's the song....

This Is Your Song For...February 9th, 2013: Tomorrow On The Runway by Trespassers William

Look at her...no, don't look at her...

For today's song...shoegaze is alive and well, at least until recently.

And I'm glad for it.  I was one of those people who bought into the whole shoegaze/dream pop thing during that weird period in the 90's where anything and everything could claw its way onto the Billboard Top 100.  I came through my admiration of the form legitimately, after renting out a VHS (Remember VHS?  Big, boxy thing with a black tape in it that showed you pretty pictures on your television?) showcasing three bands from Creation Records.  Since Ride and My Bloody Valentine were two of those bands, I was willing to look into this further.  That led to a brief and intense music crush on Miki Berenyi of Lush (culminating in a rather strange interview I conducted that seemed more about how much Miki loved horror movies and wanted me to recommend some she might not have seen in the attic/dressing room of the old Continental night club here in New York, but that's another story for another time...I seem to have this propensity for getting into these situations with my musical crushes), which of course morphed into a love of Britpop when that band decided to follow that path....but I don't think I ever lost my love of this sort of stuff.  This is the music of whimsey and woolgathering, a music that allows you to drift without losing you; it's always holding your hand, keeping you safe while maintaining your general sense of sleepy well-being.  This is the music for the misunderstood artistic type in all of us.

I first came across Trespassers William when I heard a cover they did of the Suzanne Vega/Joe Jackson collaboration 'Left of Center'--although, truth be told, I probably heard them once or twice before, as they were a darling of the WB for a while.  And I can see why shows such as Buffy and One Tree Hill loved them.  Like previously discussed WB soundtrack princess Rachel Yamagata, Matt Brown and Anna-Lynne Williams have that certain ethereal quality, coupled with Williams' breathy vocals, that are perfect for scenes of this season's Pretty White Girl to angst on in her Pretty White Girl Bedroom.

This is actually pretty straightforward.  It's a song about our P.O.V. character missing her loved one, and regretting not saying things to him when they were face to face (her not wanting her voice 'to go out over the air').  I get the impression that the separation is both rather vast, and rather recent...that maybe he 'left the darkness' just the night before to leave her alone.   There's the implication that there's something holding her back from joining him wherever he's gone--the lyrics seem to indicate a fear of flying, but it can also be interpreted given some of the references elsewhere that it's a more personal fear--a fear of intimacy, of getting close to her object of desire.  What does make the song different is, of course, the melody, which is waltz-like, languid, sensual without being sexual (you know, like a WB soap opera), dancing around the listener without touching him, preferring instead to just smile wanly at him in chilly enticement.

Trespassers William disbanded last year, leaving us a two-disc B-Sides-and-Rarities collection called Cast as their parting gift for us.  You can find both this song and that cover of 'Left Of Center' there.  Both Williams and Brown continue to pursue music, Williams as part of the duo Ormonde and Brown as a performer and producer for several groups.

There's no video for either of the songs I cited above--but here's one for another cover from the band...a cover of everyone's favorite Movie Executive from my podcast Better In The Dark....

This Is Your Song For...January 11th, 2013: Swimming by Mystery of Two

Welcome back!  Today we've got another indie guy--or in this case, a group of guys from Cleveland.  And unlike Meredith Bragg, we can learn stuff about them.  We know they're a three piece outfit, that they record on Exit Stencil Records, and that they fancy themselves an 'experimental rock' outfit.

In the very brief bio that the Exit Stencil site has, the writer cites fellow Cleveland experimental rock outfit Pere Ubu--and Lord I can see why.  Lead vocalist Ryan Weitzel is really trying to channel Dave Thomas at times, and it's that coupled with the melodies that at times sound like the old 'po' rock' bands like Drunken Boat that managed to get signed in the weird Post Nirvana Signing Frenzy of the 90's, other times like the highly underrated Texas band Emmet Swimming and other times like the Boston-area indie supergroup Big Dipper.  It's not an unpleasant sound, to be sure--kinda meandering, but with a definite upswing to it when the band isn't more obsessed with getting all sludge-jangle on us.  My only real problem I have with the outfit as it stands so far is that this song sounds a little too similar to the other songs of theirs I've heard.  I'm almost intrigued to hear what Weitzel's rubbed-raw vocals would sound like on a number with a different texture and tempo.  Hell, I'd love to see what a Mystery of Two slow-jam would be like; it may be a disaster, but it'd be a gloriously interesting one.

Mystery of Two have already racked up a pretty impressive back catalogue at Exit Stencil Records, so you might want to sample some of their wares.

For the second week in a row, I can't find a video for the song discussed, so here's another song that'll give you an idea of whether you'll like them or not.

This Is Your Song For....January 6th, 2013: Second Golden Age by Meredith Bragg

Contrary to what this picture implies, he seems to like birds.

Hello and welcome to the New Look Segment of Singalong Scriptures for 2013!

And today we have an indie fella out of Washington, D.C.  This is another one of these people I have tried very, very hard to find out stuff about only to be met with a number of broken link, out-of-date tumblrs and the likesuch.  I can tell that this was from an album called Nest, which also features songs about architecture* and birds, and that Mr. Bragg is frequently backed-up by a band called The Terminals.

As for the song itself?  It's got some echoes of dreampop, especially in the echoey vocals Mr. Bragg affects.  It also seems like Mr. Bragg liked Elliot Smith a lot, judging from his vocal phrasing.  The song seems to be one of a number his record label, Kora, claims were inspired by the birth of his daughter.  After all, the 'second golden age' Mr. Bragg is referring to is the trannsformation birth has.  He makes an argument for bringing a new life into the world renewing a sense of wonder in adults who lost said sense in childhood.  He speaks of how we live in 'shadows' as adults, and that new life brings them back to life.

It's good for what it is.  I'll be honest when I say it might not necessarily be for me, but it is well put together and does what it claims to do clearly and freely.

I have to assume Mr. Bragg and his band continues to play, and that he's working on a new record.

Here is a video.  I couldn't find one for this song, so here's the one about birds.

*-and when I read that statement about architecture, I kept thinking how I almost called this blog Dancing About Architecture.