jeremyfingertips

Free and legal MP3: Erik Friedlander (movie-ish jazz instrumental from NYC cellist)

“Aching Sarah”

Apparently it’s cello week here. Or experimental music week. Not that this is experimental sounding per se—it’s quite a lovely, graspable instrumental with a jazz-like construction but with enough melody and offbeat aural flourishes (check out the percussion) to engage the ear of the non-jazz-aficionado (i.e. me). While cellist/composer Friedlander has made a name for himself in New York City’s downtown music scene (oh; it’s NYC week too), this doesn’t sound like you think that would sound like.

To begin, we get a trumpet and piano trading off on a gentle but insistent motif that is played enough to stick in your head but then gets unraveled in atmospheric development. With the cello content to play quiet descending lines in the background, we seem at first to be heading into jazz combo territory, the trumpet and piano and bass and percussion noodling around the now-unstated theme. But even here I’m appreciating the melodic focus that remains, not to mention the almost literally cinematic vibe, as the particular combination of Friedlander’s long bowing and trumpeter Michael Leonhart’s ’60s-cinema flair washes this with the wistful ambiance of a bittersweet European romantic comedy. Until, that is, Friedlander emerges from the background, at 2:47, for a droning minor-key improvisation/solo that is half spiritual plea, half cubist deconstruction of the original motif. It’s an interruption that feels both unexpected and welcome, an aural change of scene that renders the motif’s straightforward restatement as the solo gives way all the more affecting.

The movie-like feeling is apparently no accident. Released as a digital single earlier this month, “Aching Sarah” is supposed to be part of what Friedlander calls his “Cutting-Room Floor Series,” in which, he writes, “movie characters are cut from a film, and with their lives only half-realized, walk in a kind of limbo, aimless and confused, with no way to live out the arc of their scripted lives.” That not only informs the distinctive but unresolved central motif but also the concluding section, when the music seems almost literally to smash against its own limits, only to fade out. The MP3 available for free from his web site, but also for purchase via Amazon, eMusic, and iTunes.

Free and legal MP3: Two Hours Traffic (crackling power pop from Canada)

“Noisemaker” – Two Hours Traffic

And now back to our regularly scheduled programming: sharp, catchy, summertime pop from our impressively talented musical neighbors to the north. That’s more like it, eh?

This song has many things to love, and right away. First, the brisk, ringing guitar intro, which is not merely a persuasive opening salvo, but sounds brilliant following just about any other song on a playlist. Try it at home, you’ll see. Second, the way the voices join in, singing wordlessly, with the brisk, ringing guitars. Subtle and wonderful. Third, the fleet, wonderful sidestep taken from that guitar riff into the “oooooh” that opens the verse. Nifty, effortless little chord progression there. And then, oh boy, what about that “oooooh” itself? Straight out of the power pop handbook (Shoes, anyone?) and yet also a surprise coming right at the beginning like that. If they didn’t have me at hello, they surely had me at “oooooh.” The song is now about 23 seconds old. (And lasts 3:41–also as per the power pop handbook.)

Singer Liam Corcoran has just the right kind of spirited tenor required to make this crackle and resonate. It’s about energy, not content, as the thing about great power pop is that no one has to be singing about anything that is in itself all that powerful or intriguing; rather, there’s something in the music and presentation that makes whatever is being sung pretty much besides the point. It’s all deep and mysterious when the melody’s there, and the chords, and the unflagging energy of a band that knows it’s onto something. Songs like this often push that extra bit harder to knock your socks off, and I hear that here in the second half of the chorus, which uses a bit of unanticipated repetition to add an almost giddily satisfying resolution beyond the basic hook.

Two Hours Traffic is a foursome from Prince Edward Island. “Noisemaker” is the lead track (of course) from the band’s third album, Territory, which was released last year in Canada, and is due out in the U.S. in September via Bumstead Productions.

Free and legal MP3: Postdata (hushed, echoey, portentous ballad)

“Tobias Grey” – Postdata

I missed this one when it came out back at the beginning of the year, but it was probably one of those on-purpose accidents, as there is something in this hushed, portentous, echoey acoustic ballad that resonates with me in the middle of this seriously wacked-out weather. There’s a stifling stillness in the air during a heat wave, you don’t even have to go outside to feel it, it seeps through the building’s walls, suffuses the remedial air conditioning, makes effort—any effort—sad and impossible. This song is kind of like that, only pretty, also. Bonus for particularly relevant lyrics
(“Sometimes the weather don’t change/It just stays in the very same place”).

And it’s all so very quiet, with whispery vocals, tightly recorded acoustic guitar (you can hear fingers squeaking on the strings), and a really effective keyboard drone in the background, grounding the piece in something electric and threatening.

Postdata is a Canadian duo featuring Paul Murphy of the band Wintersleep and his brother Michael. The self-titled, self-released album has been out since January. The songs were born during a visit to their parents’ home in Yarmouth, Nova Scotia. They were recorded on a laptop originally, then reworked a bit some months later in Halifax—mics, at least, were added, but they still used the laptop. So if you hear some lo-fi distortion here, that’s why. And for once I don’t really mind the roughness of the recording because the intimacy isn’t compromised—it might even be augmented.

Free and legal MP3: Saadi (hazy electro-pop w/ piano)

“Pollen Seeking Bees” – Saadi

Sweet yet surprisingly sturdy bit of piano-driven electronic pop. The piano line is a two-finger special—I mean quite literally it sounds like two index fingers going at it—that is instantly likable because its seeming simplicity still generates a complex rhythmic bed. Or, alternatively, because it’s the same two notes that open “Friday On My Mind“—you decide.

Born in Syria, raised in Pittsburgh and Manhattan, Boshra AlSaadi got her rock’n’roll start in the band Looker, which was featured in January 2007 (strangely enough, the same week, again, as Arcade Fire). In that incarnation she was cooking in a punk-pop mode; here, on her own, with her name abridged, she simmers in a hazier, electro-ish setting, but her potent soprano keeps this from getting too noodly. She sings in the midst of a smeary, reverberant bath that kind of spreads her voice out but does not touch the rest of the aural space, which is kind of an interesting effect. Note how she keeps the lyrics close to the edge of comprehensibility except for the third verse (1:08), beginning (hmm) with “Images in pixels” and ending (hmm again) with “the fog is knee deep.” Mixing lyrics down is a common trick but I don’t know that I’ve often heard them come and go within one song. It surely pulls the ear in, like getting a suddenly clear clue on an obscure puzzle.

“Pollen Seeking Bees” is from a 12-inch vinyl EP entitled Bad Days that came out in March on Serious Business Records. The link to the free and legal MP3 only recently emerged on Largehearted Boy, which is where I first heard it. MP3 via Serious Business.

July Q&A: Buried Beds

This month, the Fingertips Q&A is handed over to Buried Beds, the Philadelphia-based quintet recently featured here for the song “Breadcrumb Trail,” from their new album, Tremble the Sails. The Beds are no stranger around these parts, having been previously picked out for the lovely song “Camellia” in 2006—a song that, additionally, gave them a spot on the late, great Fingertips compilation disc Fingertips: Unwebbed. Answering the questions on behalf of the band is Brandon Beaver (below right, in red plaid), who along with Eliza Jones is the group’s co-founder.

Q: Let’s begin by cutting right to the chase. Should MP3s be free across the board? Why or why not?

A: I think here the road can get a little treacherous. In a lot of ways, free MP3s across the board could potentially mean you’re getting your music into a lot more hands than you would alternatively. For us, it’s a little too early to tell if our “free/donation” download of Tremble the Sails has been beneficial or not. It would be great if money flowed the right way in every case and artists never had to worry about the expense of doing what they do, but that’s not really a debate. Realistically, we have to adapt to the ever-evolving music world and for us it made sense to have people easily access the music we make. But I think even within those confines, you can find ways to appeal to those who will pay for your art. For example, we sell hand-sewn “deluxe” CDs of the new record that are only obtainable through the website for a small fee. People generally want to support bands and spread the music they like to those we might not be able to reach and for a band as small as us, thats an okay infrastructure! I do, however, understand that as you become more known, touring often becomes a more viable source of income and that opens up a whole new subset of issues!

Q: There’s a lot of talk these days that says that music in the near future will exist in the so-called “cloud,” and that music fans will not need to own the music they like any longer, since they will be able to simply listen to everything on demand when they want to. This may actually involve people paying for the service, but not for the specific music being listened to. How do you feel about this?

A: What better than the image of a giant, billowing cloud that continuously plays the music you want to hear! I actually don’t know much about this concept—sounds a bit like that Pandora radio thing, no? I think there will never be a time where people can’t own their music in some capacity. I still listen to LPs as my main source of music and I think being able to hold the record is a huge part of my affection for it. A “cloud” idea does seem like you potentially are taking the opposite extreme. I don’t really know enough about it to say, honestly. I could see a slight benefit of it (maybe) if this said “cloud” could generate suggestions of other lesser-known music that the listener might be into. Hard to say though; we’ll just have to see what happens when the storm arrives…

Q: How has your life as a musician been affected—or not—by the existence of music blogs?

A: We love music blogs! We just recently had our CD release and sent info out to a handful of music blogs that we liked. Most of them posted the show link and/or wrote a blurb about the band which was so great! I think it’s amazing that people can freely voice their likes/dislikes on music blogs and draw some real attention to artists without some huge corporate backing. I think a lot of people go to these music blogs as a real resource not just for happenings around town or new band info, but to be a part of a music community where you’re connected to other people who want to share art they like. Again, we aren’t a huge band so any help to get our name out there is super great and music blogs are a big part of that.

Q: What are your thoughts about the album as a musical entity—does it still strike you as a legitimate means of expression? If listeners are cherry-picking and shuffling rather than listening all the way through, how does that affect you as a musician?

A: This is a topic where I do see an unfortunate side effect of the ever-changing digital “cloud” world. As I said before, I’m a big record collector, and I cherish my albums. It adds so much to be able to hold a record and see all this great artwork and detail that the band went into to bring that music to you. In that collection of records, I have a lot of conceptual albums and albums that I love because of little things like how one song leads into another. Or how there’s this great break of silence before you hear the one song you’ve been waiting for. These things may seem somewhat trite, but to me they really are what distinguishes why albums are important. Buried Beds doesn’t write to produce huge chart-topping singles, we’ll leave that up to the John Mayers or whatever. We are strong believers in the idea of the album and always write and edit ourselves with that in mind. We don’t mind if people ultimately cherry-pick from our album—we just want to do our best to have people really want to chop the whole tree down!

Q: What is your personal preferred way of listening to music at this point?

A: Again, for me it’s records. I have an iPod but I only use it in the car. Some of us are way more in touch with the digital world (which is why it’s sort of ironic that I’m the one answering these questions!). I know most of us are of the album appreciation ilk. I don’t think any of us have ever been like, “Hey, check out this new iTunes single by *fill in the blank*!” I listen to music wherever and whenever. I think Eliza is more of the play music wherever and whenever type! As for the rest of the gang, I think they’re the same more or less. One of the greatest qualities in the band is everybody’s willingness to turn other band mates onto great music. No cherry picking allowed though—unless it’s a Phil Collins record!

Free and legal MP3: SheLoom

Bringing Bob Welch back

“One More Day” – SheLoom

Welcome to a song that doesn’t sound like a lot that you’ve probably been listening to lately, unless you have had an unaccountable hankering for your old Bob Welch records. (Nah, I didn’t think so.)

Needless to say, “One More Day” isn’t the product of some net-addled 21st-century rock band, but a collaboration between two nimble studio veterans. Both Filippo Gaetani and Jordon Zadorozny have track records extending backwards to the ’90s, and the breadth of experience to pull off this jazzy slice of pseudo-’70s rock. I’ll leave it to the even more philosophically minded than I to ponder why it can be so enjoyable to hear new music smartly influenced by old music that one never liked all that much in the first place. A conundrum for our catholic times, musically speaking. But I’m digging a lot about this, from those jazz-inflected suspended chords to the deft shifts in rhythm (from intro to verse, verse to bridge, bridge to chorus) and then the way the meandery verse leads into what amounts to a double chorus—the bridge and chorus are distinct but interrelated, and each offers a sturdy melody delivered with a stirring mixture of nostalgia and creativity.

“One More Day” is from the SheLoom album Seat of the Empire, digitally released last week by Minty Fresh Records. ~~MP3 via Minty Fresh.~~

Free and legal MP3: Sambassadeur (shiny, cinematic Swedish pop)

“I Can Try” – Sambassadeur

At first (aural) glance, “I Can Try” succeeds nicely as a sweeping piece of orchestrated twee pop. Which is almost just fine. Except for the fact that each time I go back to listen, things get more complicated and unusual-sounding. To begin with, what’s with the drumming? You’ve got the snare going full-blast, but delivering that shuffled up third beat—especially pronounced in the chorus, it happens throughout the song, and, in combination with that unrelenting double-time high-hat, creates a chugging rhythm that simultaneously barrels forward and hesitates.

Then there’s the melody, which is certainly as sweet-sad as the genre requires, and yet there’s something more to it. The melody in both the verse and the chorus is a nice long line, the verse melody resolving with an upward tilt while the chorus offers a steady downward release. But here’s an odd thing: the melody in the chorus extends for nine measures, which is not only unusual but difficult. Typically pop songs are constructed around sets of four measures or eight measures. It’s what the music often demands and our ears almost always expect. Here an extra measure sneaks in without causing the slightest fuss. And yet somewhere deep down we sense something’s off balance. That’s not very twee. The orchestration likewise isn’t quite what it seems. We hear strings near the beginning and think, “Oh, of course.” But it’s a string quartet, not a string section, and they spend more time stabbing staccato riffs than bowing maudlin flourishes. And when the horns arrive—the horns must always arrive—it’s a saxophone. Whatever became of the saxophone, anyway?

“I Can Try” is from the third Sambassadeur album, Europeans, released on Labrador Records in February. The Gothenburg-based quartet has been previously featured on Fingertips twice, once for each of its first two albums, in 2005 and in 2007. MP3 via Labrador.

Free and legal MP3: The Spires (smartly written, Velvet-y garage rock)

The guitar line upon which “Orange Yellow” is built is a thing of rock’n’roll beauty: sturdy, jangly, memorable, and simple-sounding without actually being that simple. Listen carefully and you’ll hear how the line turns upon a time-signature trick that adds two extra beats every third measure. This creates a delicious delay in the unfolding resolution; the resulting asymmetry is somehow marvelous and true.

“Orange Yellow” – the Spires

Laid upon this potent foundation, the song does well with its neo-Velvets vibe—singer Jason Bays even has something of a nasally, Lou Reed-ish semi-warble—even while bouncy along with more of a SoCal than a downtown groove. Production is garage-ish, but knowingly so, or even mischievously so: I feel certain that the ’60s buzzy-fuzzy aura is not merely purposeful but exists to distract the listener from quite how beautifully crafted the song is.

The Spires are a trio from Ventura featuring Bays on guitar, his wife Colleen Coffey on drums, and Catelyn Kindred on bass. “Orange Yellow” will be found on the band’s Curved Space EP, to be released later this month on Beehouse Records. Beehouse was created by Bays and Coffey in 2004 so they could release their stuff and has become an actual record label. A few other free and legal MP3s from the band can be found on the Beehouse site.

Free and legal MP3: Blonde Redhead

Dreamy, with deep appeal

“Here Sometimes” – Blonde Redhead

Some bands have an uncanny ability to delight–something in the sound, the vibe, the singer’s voice, the combination of melody and rhythm, or something even more elusive, feels just right, entices the ear before any actual “hooks” or “catchy parts” arrive. Blonde Redhead is that kind of band. There are no hooks or catchy parts in “Here Sometimes,” a song that appeals deeply, at a level likely beyond analysis.

But me being me, I’m still going to try to break it down a little. And so first: listen to the opening section, in which Kazu Makino sings over a rhythmic accompaniment that itself is an inscrutable blend of an organic and electronic beat. She sings a leisurely, wistful, slightly complex melody that stretches out over 20 measures, with a couple of thoughtful pauses. A synthesizer joins very subtly along the way, but 49 seconds pass before the music starts in earnest–a mix of disparate keyboard sounds and a deliberate, syncopated bass line. And listen now to how the chords described by the instruments floating through the background change the melody dramatically. (Compare, for instance, the sound at 0:24 to 1:04—same melodic point, entirely different experience.) It’s an odd song, instrumentally, come to think of it, lacking any obvious “lead” instrument or even any sort of dominant sound; we get one 15-second synthesizer break (2:00) but even that is elusive, featuring sounds that evanesce if you listen too closely. I think the instrumental vagueness is part of what gives “Here Sometimes” its dreamy force, not to mention thematic resonance (the idea of being “here sometimes,” but not all the time).

Makino has been in Blonde Redhead with twin brothers Simone and Amedeo Pace since 1993. The band used to be larger but has been a trio since the mid-’90s. “Here Sometimes” will appear on the album Penny Sparkle, which is coming in September on 4AD. It’ll be their eighth album, and their first since 2007. ~~MP3 via Better Propaganda.~~

Free and legal MP3: Shiv Hurrah

Wilco-ish and melodic

“Oh Oh Oh” – Shiv Hurrah

This is a brand new band but they don’t sound like it. Because in a way they’re not—four of the five guys in Shiv Hurrah grew up together in Rochester, New York, and played in a band there in the early ’00s. Ten years, two cities, and one additional band member later, they regrouped in Brooklyn early this year, and early this month released the first results of their renewed labors—a five-song self-titled digital album, available for free, that includes this unknown beauty of a song.

Or call it, more accurately, a diamond in the rough. The production is a problem, and I don’t just mean the mixed-down vocals (which some of course do on purpose). I don’t mind a bit of DIY but the oddly recorded drums are surely more accident than strategy; I suggest not turning the volume too high so that tom that reverberates weirdly every now and then is less distracting. And yet I keep coming back to it, charmed by the relaxed ease of the Wilco-ish groove and, truly, slayed by the strength of the songwriting. What a great great melody, and how quickly it arrives! Most songs need a lot more set-up time, but this one gives us a brilliant, back-door resolution right at the end of the first line of the verse (first heard from 0:44 to 0:46). It’s the kind of resistance-melting melody that enhances the lyrics so that they zing and pierce—get a hold of how it supports the line (1:04) “But I’m the one who taught you how to tie that knot.” Brilliant. Another strong sign is the fact that this homely song from an unknown band offers a great new rock’n’roll lyric, near the end, too: “I never get homesick/I just get sick of my home.” Production challenges and all, front man David Bechle sometimes sounds like a million bucks, and shows me that his new (old) band is well worth keeping an eye on.

“Oh Oh Oh” is the fifth and final song from the band’s debut EP, a digital-only release that is available for free via Bandcamp.