Fingertips

“Oh Oh Oh Oh Oh Oh Oh Oh” – Say Hi
     Say Hi, which started life in 2002 as Say Hi To Your Mom, has always been lumped into the lo-fi crowd, which seems the fate of anyone who goes the “bedroom rock” route, writing and recording and playing the instruments and fiddling with electronics pretty much alone at home. But let it be stated for the record that Eric Elbogen, Say Hi’s Seattle-based mastermind, is now, even if he hasn’t always been, much more than a lo-fi rocker. This guy knows how to put a song together, and doesn’t mind showing us.
      And yet the cool thing is that “Oh Oh Oh Oh Oh Oh Oh Oh” is sophisticated in what strikes me as a new and impressive way. The music is by and large uncomplicated and yet completely well-rounded, by which I mean the various sounds and sections and rhythms blend to create a whole that doesn’t merely sound like this or that part of it. Too much lo-fi music is maddeningly one-dimensional, sounding as if the creator can’t quite picture the end result while putting the pieces together. Here, Elbogen works with discrete elements–the syncopated horn-like synthesizer of the introduction, a repeating bass drum rumble, crisply recorded acoustic guitar (complete with finger squeakings), a direct, garage-y lead guitar line–and stirs them into a brisk, cohesive, elusive song about an alluring girl and what he may or may not be doing with her. His reverby vocals slide beautifully in and around the precisely constructed landscape, singing a rapid-fire melody that seems more casual than it actually is. The simple repeated syllables of the chorus (and the title) similarly belie the savvy required to weave them into this bewitching little song.
     “Oh Oh Oh Oh Oh Oh Oh Oh” is from Say Hi’s new album, Oohs and Aahs, released this week on Barsuk Records. MP3 via Barsuk.

“The Sun and Earth” – Middle Distance Runner
     Drumming plays a tricky role in rock. Without drums, there’s no rock to be had. You need them. But you also don’t really want to notice them. Because there’s almost no difference between noticeable and too noticeable when it comes to drums, and once they’re too noticeable, the song doesn’t have much of a chance.
      One of the reasons I like “The Sun and Earth” so much is because drummer Erik Dean (also one of the band’s founders and songwriters) has found a way to give the drums a defining place within the song without overwhelming the sound. It’s pretty much all tom-toms here, which is one way to move the sound down in the mix–you notice it more in your gut than in your head. That singer Stephen Kilroy has such an appealing and elastic tenor helps, also, keep the drums in the background, where they belong, even as they remain simultaneously central to the developing vibe. When the pleasing, tumbling tom-toms stop entirely for the quiet bridge at 2:39, and the narrator expresses his bewilderment at being left by a lover, he surely does sound awfully alone.
     Middle Distance Runner is a quintet from Washington, D.C. that may now actually be a quartet (available information appears contradictory at this point). They were featured once before on Fingertips, in March 2007. As noted at the time, these guys put forth a jokey front (check out their web site’s FAQ, for example) but if they are smart enough to know that the Earth is in fact closer to the Sun in the winter (at least in the Northern Hemisphere), and then to use this as a viable metaphor in a song, then they’re not nearly as dumb as they look, as it were. “The Sun and Earth” is a song from the band’s EP (called, it seems, EP), which was self-released in the fall, but getting a renewed push as the band hits the road this spring. Thanks to Filter for the head’s up.

Fingertips is taking a late winter vacation. There will be no “This Week’s Finds” this week. The home office will be shut down through February 28. “This Week’s Finds” will return on Monday March 2 (or, okay, maybe Tuesday March 3).

For those who would like some new music, albeit without the usual commentary, here are links to five songs I’ve been listening closely in recent days (or, in some cases, weeks). Any one of these may yet end up featured with a review, but you can take a listen in advance and see how they strike you:

* “My Maudlin Career” – Camera Obscura
* “Better at the End of the Day” – Sarah Borges and the Broken Singles
* “The Ancient Common Sense of Things” – Bishop Allen
* “Everything All at Once” – the Rest
* “The Sun and the Earth” – Middle Distance Runner

Note that three of these bands–Camera Obscura, Bishop Allen, and Middle Distance Runner–have been previously featured on Fingertips. You can look them up via the Master Artist List. Bishop Allen has appeared twice previously, in fact (note to self: put these guys in the Select Artist Guide already).

And consider taking the time you’re saving this week by not having to read three lengthy MP3 reviews and using it to become a fan of Fingertips on Facebook or, perchance, a follower of Fingertips on Twitter. It’s easy and, apparently, fun.

“The Sun Ain’t Shining No More” – The Asteroids Galaxy Tour

Every now and again the stars align and a song with all the makings of a pop sensation sneaks its way into Fingertips. Be not afraid; it is, rather, a cause for celebration when something this brash and delightful likewise reveals itself to be a worthy three and a half minutes of your time.

A bracing amalgam of sounds past and present, “The Sun Ain’t Shining No More” sparkles with energy and know-how—a ’60s-like R&B stomp with a bright, contemporary haircut, held together with a bashy beat, laid-back but super-groovy guitar licks, and the garage-edged baby-doll voice of Mette Lindberg. Moderately paced but full of movement, the song manages to create a deep groove without breaking a sweat. Auxilliary sounds—strings, chimes–are used prominently but succinctly. And this is one groove that tends lovingly (and unusually) to its melody, the pliability of which is enhanced by Lindberg’s curious and expressive voice.

TAGT was founded by Lars Iversen in Copenhagen in 2007, although Iversen says he had the sound for the band in his head before it even existed. While Iversen and Lindberg are the core of the group, which has expanded to six players for live shows, they consider themselves neither a duo nor a band but a collective which will continue to shift as the music and the interconnections unfold over time. “The Sun Ain’t Shining No More” was originally heard on the band’s Around the Bend EP (the title track to that became part of an iPod commercial), and will likewise appear on the forthcoming debut CD, Fruit, to be released in April on Small Giants Records.

“St. Paul” – Ann Vriend
     Lastly this week I have another song that’s been out in the world for a while, but unlike the previous two, this one has received next to no online attention to date. I pretty much stumbled upon it during my first run-through of the new SXSW MP3s. Serendipity rules.
     A singer/songwriter from Edmonton, Vriend has a voice that sounds a bit like Kate Bush doing a Nanci Griffith imitation (or maybe it’s Nanci Griffith doing a Kate Bush imitation; I can never figure out which way to go with that sort of comparison). “St. Paul” is a smooth strummer with a timeless core; once the song kicks into gear, after a minute or so, it sounds like something that must have always been around, something rock solid, stratospheric, and maybe even a little Dylanic (the organ that comes to the fore two-thirds of the way through contributes nicely to that last impression). This is one of those fortunate songs in which the chorus emerges as increasingly deep and revelatory, both musically and lyrically, each time it recurs. In it, she sings, “What if I dare to risk it all/Be free wherever I found myself,” and the words on the screen can’t begin to convey the richness of the aural experience, the way the unexpected melodic upturn at “wherever” and upgraded resolution at “myself” together spring the song into a grand new dimension, while both conveying and deepening the stated yearning (which is, truth be told, one of the deepest human yearnings of them all).
     “St. Paul” is from the album When We Were Spies, Vriend’s third, which came out back in March 2008. Yet to create any stir in the blogosphere, she will be performing next month down at SXSW, which may help; the MP3 is via the SXSW web site.