Month:
March
2010

I’ve been watching the fallout from the Democrats successful passage of their health care bill and Obama’s signing ceremony today. Man-oh-man. What a mess. I gotta give it to guys leading my team though: you did it! Be proud, and bask in this moment, because it is sure to not last.

To celebrate, Patrick Kennedy visited his dad, and in the spirit of the moment, Joe Biden proves once again he is merely mortal and easily excited to profanity: Truly, a man after my heart.

There’s also a lot of negative stuff flying around, about how almost all of America hates the health care bill, etc. I, for one, like it a lot, and just wanted to extend a “thank you” to the Democrats who voted for it, and Olympia Snowe, who helped in her own way. It means a lot, and I appreciate you doing it not just for people like me, who think it’s a good idea, but who you really did it for: the millions of Americans who NEED this legislation.

Thanks.

At the end of last year, Sunset Rubdown’s most recent album, Dragonslayer earned an honorable mention, but in the past few weeks I’ve been listening to the album a little more closely than I did for most of 2009. Upon the first few listens, I was a little off-put by the lengthy tracks and the apparent wandering feel of a lot of the songs. Maybe it’s an acquired taste, but I’m definitely coming around to it these days.

My absolute favorite song on the album has to be ‘Apollo and the Buffalo and Anna Anna Anna Oh!’ The lyrics of the song especially good, and the transition to the “second half” towards the end is well crafted. BUT! That’s not what I want to share with you.

In a close second, tied perhaps with ‘Idiot Heart’, is ‘You Go On Ahead (Trumpet Trumpet II)‘. It is quite simply fantastic, and worth every second of its nearly six-minute length.

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‘You Go On Ahead (Trumpet Trumpet II)’
[ mp3 ♫ ]

If that piques your interest, check out the video for the epic closing track, ‘Dragon’s Lair’:

Sunset Rubdown – Dragonslayer.

She & Him’s new record comes out later this month; ahead of that, they released the following:

Seriously though, that video is hilarious (M. Ward) and adorable (Zooey Deschanel) and just makes you feel kinda warm inside.
I’m really excited for the album to come out, as it’ll make a fitting start to Spring!

In anticipation of their forthcoming album, The Winter of Mixed Drinks, I wanted to do a little ‘research’ and get to know Frightened Rabbit a little better. I elected to work backwards, starting with 2008′s Midnight Organ Fight. After about 4-5 listens through, the record really took off for me- I was hooked. Well, come to find out it was a big hit of 2008, so I guess I shouldn’t be surprised, but I was, and pleasantly so. The album is perhaps the most perfect “break up album” I’ve heard in my handful of years listening to music (second place being Transatlanticism, For Emma… third, and Lifted:… in fourth, if I had to rank them). They open with ‘The Modern Leper‘, which is a decent sample of the album.

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‘The Modern Leper’
[ mp3 ♫ ]

The whole thing is really sad, but you don’t notice it the first few listens through, because it’s not the type of music you’d expect sad people to make. In some places, it’s almost frantic, but in others like ‘The Twist’, ‘Old Old Fashioned’, and ‘Heads Roll Off’, the pacing is entirely wrong. Wrong in the sense of it sounding more well-founded than forlorn. It’s not until the twilight tracks of the album near the close that you have the pay the piper: ‘My Backwards Walk’, ‘Keep Yourself Warm‘, and the emotionally draining ‘Poke’ really drive home the message. Once you appreciate the gravity of what’s happened, the context of the earlier songs makes a little bit more sense, and the album works a little better as a whole.

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‘Keep Yourself Warm’
[ mp3 ♫ ]

However, Winter is a departure from that entire vein. The new album is predicated on a pretty funny idea, as frontman Scott Hutchinson explains, “I was becoming more and more interested in the idea of a rejection of the habits and beha
Additionally, the music calendar has been updated a bunch since I viour most people see as normal, and in turn embracing a certain madness. It’s about losing your mind in order to reset the mind and the body. Forget what’s gone before and wash it out.” It really makes sense then that this new record is the logical next step after the Midnight Organ Fight. The song the quote is in direct reference to is ‘Swim, Until You Can’t See Land‘, which is a great track, especially keeping in mind the idea behind it. I can’t say that as a whole the album has grown on me as much as its predecessor did, and if it ever does, it certainly won’t be as fast, but who cares: Frightened Rabbit is a damn good act, and well worth your time.
last mentioned it.

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‘Swim, Until You Can’t See Land’
[ mp3 ♫ ]

Frightened Rabbit

So as you might have surmised from my failure to post a review, I wasn’t super excited about Contra. I gave it quite a few honest and earnest listens, but I’m still on the fence with it. Additionally, I’m pretty tired of the “VW Hype” that a lot of the music blogsophere seems to be consumed with… it wears on a guy after all.

When I saw the new video for ‘Giving Up the Gun‘, easily the best song on Contra in my opinion, I forgot all that for a few minutes. It’s a fantastic reminder of why Vampire Weekend is relevant. Hope you enjoy it!