Strings!

Pop musicians, particularly singer/songwriters, must be stopped. If they keep trying to expand their musical "range" by adding more "accompaniments" to their songs I may become trapped in a state of perpetual nausea. While cheap multitracking and sampling have made adding layer upon unnecessary layer to songs easy and affordable, the destruction of songs by the addition of musical clutter has been going on for a long time. The worst culprit has always been strings (violins, violas, cellos, etc.), the favorite recourse of the "mature" musician. More often than not, it seems that musicians seem to employ sweeping string string arrangements only to obscure the mediocrity of their songs, adding easy melodrama and emotion and making the song sound more complex than it really is.

While I used to think that I hated the violins, violas and cellos themselves, I recently realized that they have been abused. Maybe it's that most musicians throw them into the song as afterthoughts and really have no idea as to their range and capabilities, or maybe it's that the "mature" musician is usually out of ideas and the strings are just reflections of a larger failure. Regardless, in recent years I've discovered a number of singer/songwriters whose string accompaniments not only make their songs better, but are even essential to the songs. Nina Nastasia's recorded output, as well as her live shows, are perhaps the best examples of this that I've yet heard.

Nina Nastasia - Stormy Weather
This song from Nastasia's first album, Dogs, contains some pretty straightforward string accompaniment. Unlike most arrangements used in similar types of singer/songwriter songs, however, the strings are used sparingly and this is the precisely the key to their goodness. Silence is left in throughout the song, meaning that the strings have a noticeable affect on the song's volume. They don't overwhelm the fundamental components of the song (i.e. her voice and guitar) but, rather, accentuate certain aspects of the melody or specific lyrics by adding a small amount of texture. Most imporantly, they do add some sense of mood to the song but without resorting to sweeping, sentimental flourishes. The song's simplicity is maintained and it doesn't sound the least bit cluttered.
[Buy Dogs from Insound]

Nina Nastasia - On Teasing
This song from Nastasia's most recent album, Run to Ruin, is different altogether. The violins are no less important than the drums, guitar, accordion, piano or even Nastasia’s voice. In fact, in the second half of the song, the violin completely takes over, continuing the narrative where the lyrics left off, evoking crashing waves and powerful currents, frantic underwater flailing and terror.
[Buy Run to Ruin from Insound]

Children Destroyer

I don't have children, nor can I really remember being a child, but my sources tell me that they like books. Good ones. And with nice pictures. Robin Mitchell and Judith Steedman have been making books fitting precisely this description for some time but with a decidedly indie rock twist. Their books Sunny and Snowy & Chinook, in particular, both include CDs with original songs written to go along with the stories by talented Vancouver artists including p:ano, The Secret Three, Destroyer, Veda Hille, Sparrow and Miko Hoffman (of Gaze). I don't know what kids make of the music (which sounds fantastic to my adult ears) but I do know that Sunny is one of Laural's niece's favourite books. I can also tell you from experience that it would make a perfect gift for those friends of yours with kids.

Dan Bejar (Destroyer) - You Gotta Wonder, Snowy

All of the songs on the Snowy and Chinook CD have musical accompaniment by Cowbell, which is really just Brady Cranfield of the very great band, the Secret Three. It's got a kind of electro-music box-ambient-raffi feel to it (which translates in layman's terms as awesome). If I remember correctly, the artists perform their own music on Sunny, but I gave the book away as a present and don't have a copy of the CD. This particular song off of Snowy and Chinook could easily have been a track off of Destroyer's Your Blues. It sounds kind of mysterious and, as always, you can't really tell if Bejar wants you to take what he's singing seriously or not. The part where he keeps repeating, "your head gets filled with that stuff" is maybe a bit scarier than the children's music I remember, but overall the song comes across as the closest thing I can see to a pretty sincere Destroyer lullaby.

Update: I just found out that you can find quite a few more MP3's by the Secret Three, Destroyer, P:ano and others as well as info about the books at windyandfriends.com. But really, you should just buy the books, which you can do at Buy Olympia.

Do as the Doukhobors Do

Sorry we've been posting so infrequently lately. I've just started my PhD and Jay has just moved. Hopefully things will settle down soon and we'll start posting on a more regular basis.

Pete Seeger - Do as the Doukhobors Do
Normally I get pretty defensive about people always associating the Doukhobors - a pacifist sect of communalist Christians currently residing in Canada and Russia - with nude marches, arson, bombings and the like. My ancestors were Doukhobors and, throughout the past three centuries, they were plagued by persecution and state violence in both their Russian homeland and their adopted country, Canada. Only a very small group of zealots called the Sons of Freedom were ever involved in these more sensational forms of civil disobedience, while the vast majority of Doukhobors merely wanted to be left to themselves to live out their philosophy of 'toil and peaceful life'. Even as such, many of the more radical actions of the Sons of Freedom were direct responses to events such as the confiscation of their lands and the forced internment of their children.

While Pete Seeger could probably be accused of perpetuating the stereotypical image of the Doukhobors (if not of Canadians in general), this song is really not about the Doukhobors at all. When it comes down to it, Seeger just wanted all the protest ladies to get naked to liven things up. And who can blame him? Anyway, when a song is this jaunty, you can't really think too deeply about it. Instead, you should try dancing around the room or in your cubicle (with clothing optional, of course).

This song is from one of the most beautiful boxed-set compilations I have ever seen, The Best of Broadside, 1962-1988 on Smithsonian Folkways Records. Collecting lost songs originally recorded for Broadside Magazine, the compilation is a who's who of American political folk music with Bob Dylan, Phil Ochs, Nina Simone, etc. etc. Wonderfully illustrated with lyrics, photos and historical essays, the set easily puts most of the others I own to shame.
[buy]

Elizabeth Cotten - Freight Train
Elizabeth Cotten is at once one of the great fingerpicking guitarists and the most out of key singers of all time. For some reason, though, I love the fact that she can't really sing but still manages to make beautiful music. Born in 1895, Cotten's musical talents were discovered by Seeger's parents in the late 1950s while she working as a domestic servant. After going decades without picking up a guitar at all, Cotten ended up recording a number of songs that she used to play as child for the Seegers, most of which were released by Folkways Records. Without a doubt they are all outstanding, but Freight Train, which is an orignal Cotten composition, is easily my favourite.
[buy]

Mushroom Cloud of Hiss

These songs sound like the city would if it were a rock and roll band. They are cacophonous, they sound enormous and noisy, and they sound as if they're bouncing off of concrete walls and are being heard from across the street and through the open window of your third story bedroom late at night. These songs are written by two bands who clearly place great value on the texture of their recordings. On the surface, both seem to play pretty straightforward rock music. But, at the same time, they also place static, distortion, cymbals, and echoes at the front of the mix, creating a soundscape where there might only have been verses, choruses and solos.

Pascal - Hungrigt Hjärta [Hungry Heart] (Demo Version)
I don't understand Swedish, but this song makes me wish that I did. It starts off sounding like something's wrong with the recording, like the tape the song was recorded on has started to decompose and can no longer be played at the right speed. But it breaks into this anthemic, screamed chorus that must be about something either heartbreakingly sad or mindnumbingly uplifting. Either way, it is very, very good and I hope they decide to keep the song as it is instead of rerecording it.
[See the Novoton Records website or the Pascal website for more info]

The Very Hush Hush - Every Little
This song is decidedly less raw than Hungrigt Hjärta. It is clear that every bit of fuzz, white noise and distortion was painstakingly placed into the song to achieve the band's desired texture. It is almost symphonic, in a way, and the result is at once synth-pop, psychedelic rock, and noise.
[Buy the album Mourir C'est Facile from Sao Bento Music]

Update: Novoton has released another excellent Pascal MP3 for your listening pleasure. I think it was to make me feel better for totally missing the Springsteen reference. Where is Jay when you need him?

Pascal - Förbi Fabriken

Frog Eyes Tonight!

For any readers out there who are living in Toronto, Popsheep favourites Frog Eyes will be playing tonight (Thursday, September 8) at the Gladstone with Xiu Xiu. If you've never seen Frog Eyes live before and miss the chance to see them tonight I will personally come to your house and yell at you until you admit that you hate music. If you own a Frog Eyes album and think they suck ass, you are wrong and should go to the show in order to set things right. And if you don't live in Toronto, I feel sorry for you and suggest that you try to see Frog Eyes when they come to your town. See the rest of the tour dates here.

Jay already posted songs from this 2001 live show, but I'll post two more in an attempt to make a few additional converts. Enjoy!

Frog Eyes - The Mayor Laments the Failures of His Many Townsfolk (live)

Frog Eyes - A Latex Ice Age (live)

Update: Frog Eyes' set was beautiful. The new songs are perhaps the best to date.

Louisiana 2005

One of the most common ways that history repeats itself is that the most poor, marginal people always seem to bear the brunt of the tragedy during any kind of national crisis. It is probably no coincidence that relief efforts have been so slow and that it is primarily lower-class African Americans who are stranded with no food and water. This Randy Newman song is about a different time and different circumstances, but it is also about the same official indifference at the suffering of Louisiana's poorest inhabitants.

Louisiana 1927

Donating to the Red Cross won't help the people who need food and water immediately (only the US government can do that) but the survivors are going to need a lot of help for a long time. Click here for information on making a donation.

Akron/Family

I saw the Arkon/Family warming up for Jon Rae and the River some time last week. For the most part, they were too loud for my earplugless brain to really appreciate, but the brief snippets that I heard through the buzzing sounded quite interesting. The CD turned out to be substantially more mellow than their live show and is really quite pleasant. I've read reviews that lump them in with the non-existent 'freak-folk' movement, but I think that's probably just lazy critics associating the band with Devandra Banhart because they're also on M. Gira's Young God Records. If I were to put them on a bill with like minded bands, I might match the Akron/Family with the Animal Collective or Joan of Arc - bands that try to combine a melodic, pop-oriented approach and sonically experimental sensibilities. The result is a sound much closer to the Animal Collective's Sung Tongs than it is to Joan of Arc's albums, though (which in my opinion too often sound a bit too art-school smug). Worth checking out, even if only for the fantastic cover art.

Akron/Family - Running, Returning

The first half of this song is a dense thicket of layered instruments and voices, built primarily around a simple banjo line but suffused with a driving rhythm. The vocals really make the song, though. They have an ideal amount of distortion on them and, when the singer begins to search for those higher notes, he actually succeeds and to great effect. After the midway-point, the song is transformed into a beautifully executed, if not a little sloppy, jangled classic-rock, folk guitar breakdown. It makes me regret not buying both of the CDs they had available at the show.

[Buy their album from Young God Records]