Music is the best kind of gift

CDs I asked for, and received, this Christmas morning:

Son of Evil Reindeer and Ya'll Get Scared Now, Ya Hear! by The Reindeer Section
This Side and Why Should the Fire Die? by Nickel Creek
Not All Who Wander Are Lot by Chris Thile
Far by Regina Spektor
Winter Songs by the women of the Hotel Cafe
The soundtrack to 500 Days of Summer
The soundtrack to Battlestar Galactica (Season One)
Quelqu'un M'a Dit by Carla Bruni
Slice by Five for Fighting (actually this is my dad's but I stole it briefly to put it onto my computer)

There's a reason I asked for each of these, however tenuous those reasons may be. One of my summer creative writing teachers, the inimitable Barry Yeoman, used to put on the Chris Thile CD while we walked around the room getting ready to write. I thought I'd like the Reindeer Section because I love Snow Patrol (Ben and I saw them in Nashville!) and Gary Lightbody's voice, and so far I do. I had one Carla Bruni song and loved her voice, so that's the reason for that. Nickel Creek comes from Chris Thile and from a childhood love for their first album; Battlestar Galactica soundtrack comes from Battlestar Galactica being awesome. The soundtrack to 500 Days of Summer makes the movie, and it was a great movie. I saw Ingrid Michaelson, Meiko, and two other women in the Hotel Cafe tour a little over a year ago, and it was a fantastic concert. All the women on that CD are so talented, and it is (as the title promises) a lovely collection of winter songs.

I obviously haven't been able to listen to all of this yet. I'm listening to the first Reindeer Section album now, and I like it. It's not amazing, but it's good. I've listened to smatterings of the others (I'm so late on the Regina Spektor that I've heard practically the whole thing legally over the internet) and I am excited for the music and the mix CD material that these will provide.

Today, by the way, was a wonderful day. Merry christmas, world. :)

Don't get me wrong, I'll never say never.
'Cause though love can change the weather
no act of God can pull me away from you.

-Five for Fighting

a few things about m83

M83 came out with their album "Saturdays=Youth" last year, and it was widely hailed by many of the more legitimate music blogs I read as one of the best albums of the year. I tend to not listen to electronic music much, and M83 leans enough in that direction that I never bought the album.

I have heard, however, two songs from it - admittedly the two songs that it's probably most well known for - "We Own the Sky" and "Graveyard Girl." As a song alone, I like "Graveyard Girl" a little better than "We Own the Sky," but the video for "We Own the Sky" is bizarre and wonderful. It is full of hipster children cavorting in a meadow, and the colors are lovely. I'm pretty sure it will make you smile. Here it is:

See it here!

My original point was to write about "Graveyard Girl," but I got distracted trying to find a video for it, because we haven't figured out a way to upload mp3's yet, and put up the video for "We Own the Sky" because it is awesome. But. I heard "Graveyard Girl" quite a while ago, and liked it immediately. This was partially because it's an lively, pretty song and I like its beats and all the strange twisting little melodies that run through it. Ben could probably describe it better than I can, musically. The other reason I liked it was the monologue that runs through the middle, which is as follows, spoken in the increasingly urgent voice of a teenage girl:

"I'm going to jump the walls and run. I wonder if they'll miss me. I won't miss them. The cemetery is my home; I want to be a part of it, invisible even to the night. Then I'll read poetry to the stones. Maybe someday I can be one of them, wise and silent, waiting for someone to love me, waiting for someone to kiss me. I'm fifteen years old and I feel it's already too late to live. Don't you?"

I immediately loved this when I first heard it. Then I listened to it again and realized that it was cliched, melodramatic, "emo"...then I listened to it again and realized that was why I loved it. It's evocative writing, but it's not amazing. It's something that a fifteen-year-old would write, trying to express ideas that were too big for her to put into words, and I understand that feeling. And I understand the feeling in that last sentence, "I'm fifteen years old and I feel it's already too late to live." It's pretty melodramatic, yes, but there's this sense sometimes that I think everyone gets, of being stuck in a situation or place that seems hopeless or stagnant, with an unimportant life ahead of you, no chance to "live." Apart from liking the sound of the song, that's the reason I like "Graveyard Girl" - I think it rings true for a fifteen-year-old girl. Here's a video that I haven't watched all of, so you don't have to either if you don't want to.

Love, Sarah

Grizzly Bears (with coats)

As a student at Belmont University in Nashville, I have to take a class called Studio Production. This class examines production techniques for various styles and genres of music. As part of our tutelage, we write “song journals” for various songs. Each person in the class is given the opportunity to bring in a song that they feel exemplifies excellent (or unique) production. I am working on one of these right now.

This particular collection of song journal songs is not some of my favorite music ever, but it did bring to my attention two songs/artists that I felt were worth mentioning.

The first is the song "2 weeks" by the band Grizzly Bears. Now, for those of you who know me, this band is already endeared to me by the mere mention of bears. But on top of that, their sound is really quite excellent. You can find them here and here.
They feature very melodic vocals, lots of interesting bells and whistles in the backgrounds, and a wonderful sense of syncopation over straight rhythms.

The second song from our listening journal is entitled "Black Duck Blues" by The Young Republic. LINK!

Acoustic intro, raunchy guitar tone, and a story about rum-running to boot? I love this song. The Young Republic are also Tennessee natives. They have a very bluesy storytelling vibe about them that I greatly appreciate in bands.

Anyway, gotta go finish my actual work now, check out those two bands!

~Ben

the happiest song in the universe

I think the happiest song in the universe is personal for everyone. The same way the saddest song in the universe is personal for everyone, and depends on the context in which you heard the song, the memories and people associated with the song, and on and on. For me, the happiest song in the world is "The Bleeding Heart Show" by the New Pornographers. My friend Cory sent it to me, and when it burst into the "hey la"s I literally jumped back from my computer and laughed in joy. And I can't listen to it too often, because then it loses its magic; just like I can't listen to Jeff Buckley's version of Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah," the saddest song in the universe, because it starts to become less special. But that's a matter for a different post.

The fact that the lyrics of "Bleeding Heart Show" make almost no sense has absolutely no effect on its pure, unadulterated jumping-around happiness:

I leapt across three or four beds into your arms
Where I had hidden myself somewhere in your charms
A golden handshake has been smashed into this shape
It's taken magic to a criminal new place, watch them run...

We have arrived too late to play the bleeding heart show.

You really, really should listen to this song as soon as you possibly can and decide whether it appeals to you as much as it does to me. It might not. But I think it will. And then your life will be that much brighter. : )

Hey la, hey la! Hey la, hey la...

Sarah's favorite songs of the yeaer

At the beginning of this year, I told my mother excitedly that I had found a blog that had listed Frightened Rabbit's "The Midnight Organ Fight" as the best album of 2008 (which, in my opinion, it was). My mom just laughed at me and asked me why I didn't make my own lists of these sorts so I could put "The Midnight Organ Fight" at the top of mine.

Well, now I have a blog that no one reads, so now I can! On the one hand, lists are silly, but on the other, I like many silly things and lists in particular, so these are my ten favorite songs of 2009. They're all excellent. They might not be the "best," but they're the ones that I've listened to most, and I love them all.

1. "Soldier" by Ingrid Michaelson
This whole album, "Everybody," is wonderful. "The Chain" is another one of my favorites from it. I like the chorus on this song, even though it's simple: "And so it goes, this soldier knows, the battle with the heart isn't easily won; but it can be won." Almost every song on "Everybody" has the same theme: that this man she's in love with has left her, but she will take him back if he chooses to come back (as she says in "The Chain," "...and if you come around again, then I will take the chain from off the door") even though she knows it's a bad idea. I think that honesty is incredible, and something you don't often find.

2. "Three Rounds and a Sound" by Blind Pilot
This is an achingly beautiful song, and I'm not sure how you can get past loving it. The link is to the mp3 they recorded at Daytrotter; there are other free and legal mp3's of theirs and other bands to be found there.

3. "Dance Anthem of the '80s" by Regina Spektor
This is the reason it's wonderful. I'm talking about the section at 2:03 in particular:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8zd0RZusvJk]

4. "Two" by the Antlers
Potentially one of the saddest songs I've ever heard. The lyrics tell the story in a way that is perfectly clear yet poetic.

5. "Love Don't Let Me Go" by Catch the Rabbit
I like this song because it was written for me, the end.

6. "Hot Mess" by Cobra Starship
This is a thoroughly ridiculous composition. Ben made me watch all the Cobra Starship videos he could get his hands on, and he's right - they really don't take themselves seriously at all. "Hot Mess" was the entire reason I made a CD to drive home to, even though driving home only takes me about half an hour, just so I could turn the volume up really high and dance a lot. It's so wonderful.

7. "Moth's Wings" by Passion Pit
"You come beating like moth's wings, spastic and violently, whipping me into a storm, shaking me down to the core. But you run away from me, and left me shimmering, like diamond wedding rings spinning dizzily down on the floor." And it continues like that for a while.

8. "Strictly Game" by the Harlem Shakes
The Harlem Shakes are broken up after less than a year together, but this song is still one of the happiest ever. "Stay game, stay game, stay game!" Apparently they were amazing live - I'm sad I didn't get to hear more of their music. (To be fair, this is the only one of their songs I really, really love.)

9. "The Wanting Comes in Waves/Repaid" by the Decemberists
Track 8 is just my favorite snippet of the massive concept album the Decemberists released in "The Hazards of Love." Really, the album is one very long, continuous song, and I could put it here as my favorite song instead of this five-minute section. Shara Worden (of My Brightest Diamond) plays the Queen, and her voice - especially in person - is breathtaking.

10. "Barlights" by Fun
This is just good happy fun. (Hee hee.) It also takes me back to the Format, which makes me smile.

<3 Sarah

An Unexpected Roadtrip

Friday evening, I received a text from my best friend informing me he was in Tennessee.  Naturally I inquired as to the reason for this almost visit and he explained that he was participating in a fencing competition in Knoxville.  Knoxville not being terribly far from Nashville, I decided to make the trip and watch him compete on Saturday (as of now, still today).

The fencing was great, and the team is a wonderful collection of eccentric and fascinating people.  I got to do some fun photography, and hopefully some of those turn out well.  I also learned the rules of foil, epee, and saber fencing styles.  I can honestly say that on Friday afternoon I did not expect to be in Knoxville studying the intricacies of fencing.

Normally for a trip such as this, I would either demand mixes from friends or compose one myself to cultivate a proper driving mood, but this situation was too short notice for such niceties.  I did listen to some very good albums though, and I will list them for your enjoyment.  I highly recommend at least some of these.  Seriously.

Indigo Girls "Rites of Passage"
The Winter Sounds "Church of the Haunted South" also "Porcelain Empire"
Jimmy Eat World "Bleed American"

I didn't make it through all of Jimmy Eat World before I arrived at my destination, but it's still a nice album.  The Indigo Girls have been a standard of mine since childhood since my dad loves their music.  Their music features lyrics and vocal harmonies that are definitely worth checking out.  The Winter Sounds are an indie rock group that I met back in high school and have been touring almost nonstop for years.  If you haven't heard them, seriously check them out.  Fantastic music.  Links!

http://www.thewintersounds.com/
http://www.indigogirls.com/open.html
http://www.jimmyeatworld.com/

So yeah, my listening was a little A.D.D. today.  But I just went with what I was feeling...

Favorite songs from these artists:
Galileo-Indigo Girls
O'Fear-Winter Sounds
Poor Sailors-Winter Sounds
Sweetness-Jimmy Eat World
The Middle-Jimmy Eat World

We'll see where my musical desires wander on the trip back tomorrow...
~B

songs for rainy days

When I woke up today, it was fifty degrees and raining, and now, eight hours later (waking up late is fantastic) it is still fifty degrees and raining. After I went to class I swore I wouldn't leave my room for the rest of the day except to do laundry downstairs. I was thwarted by a fire alarm which was a false alarm but not a drill, thus making it upsettingly difficult to get back into the building. I'm back now and warm and pleased, and these are songs to be warm and pleased to when it's cold and wet outside.

This is also a filler blog, because Ben told me to write something. And when Ben is not asking for sandwiches sometimes I am nice and do what he suggests. Especially when it's something sensible like write.

I should also note that I can't really write a post about songs to listen to on a rainy day, because some of the ones I'm listening to right now must remain mysteriously unknown to the other author of this blog.

Glasgow Love Theme - Craig Armstrong
Wichita - Gary Jules
The Chain - Ingrid Michaelson
Calendar Girl - Stars
Sunset Soon Forgotten - Iron and Wine (although really, any Iron and Wine is just nice for rainy days)
Sweet Afton - Nickel Creek
How To Be Dead - Snow Patrol
Twilight Creeps - Crooked Fingers
Consequence - the Notwist

That's all I got for now. I hope this is okay. :)

Sarah