Wear Headphones Tonight

The Day (We Fell in Love)

2011-12-13T13:01:00.000-08:00

ONE TRACK MIND

Appaloosa--> The Day (We Fell in Love)

Cyan

2011-09-21T19:50:00.000-07:00

ONE TRACK MIND

Kindness--> Cyan

Yes. Coming soon to the beginning of a PsychArt set near you: this dance song takes its time to get down to where you wait, looses its hard edge start and opens into a slow spin until the end of days.

with thanks to gvb

The Rapture play at Spin Party 9 20 11

2011-09-21T09:16:00.000-07:00

A speaker almost fell on us but that didn't deter dancing, though we still preferred the longer set and sound of their MHW show exactly a month before.

Tone Matrix

2011-09-19T20:41:00.000-07:00

This is simply so wonderful as a visual and musical inspiration engine. Perhaps Phoenix used it to compose?

With thanks to GA

Walk the Back Stairs Quiet

2011-08-18T06:02:00.000-07:00

ONE TRACK MIND

The Wave Pictures--> Walk the Back Stairs Quiet

WHT went to a great show last night with The Wowz (BK) and The Wave Pictures (UK)--lots of smart, explosive songs and a terrific energy for how fun music can be. Which made this slow song stand out all the more, especially its guitar solos which brought chills.

Hey, Moon

2011-07-08T06:04:00.000-07:00

ONE TRACK MIND

John Maus --> Hey, Moon

This song kills us.

Seabird

2011-07-03T04:40:00.000-07:00

ONE TRACK MIND
The Alessi Brothers--> Seabird

with thanks to co

California Dreamin'

2011-06-30T12:54:00.000-07:00

Two incredible recent films that use the song "California Dreamin'" as centerpieces in their plot. Wong Kar Wai's Chungking Express (1994) features The Mamas & the Papas, while Andrea Arnold's Fish Tank (2009) features Bobby Womack's cover. (Watching the clip above from Chunking Express inadvertently relates to Fish Tank's title; both movies were also filmed, unusually, in chronological order.) For more on film soundtracks, visit here and here.

Bachelor Kisses (Times Two)

2011-06-11T10:36:00.000-07:00

THE SET (TAKE TWO)

The Go-Betweens--> Bachelor Kisses
The Radio Dept.--> Bachelor Kisses

THE SETTING
Often bands make the best discoveries of older songs (1984).

THE SOUND

What Radio Dept. does to the last 44 seconds of this great song.

Hearts

2011-06-08T10:35:00.000-07:00

ONE TRACK MIND

I Break Horses--> Hearts

Nothing can compare to WHT favorite Smog's devastating song "I Break Horses," (or the way Bill Callahan retools the horse metaphor on his latest, Apocalypse), but the Swedish band named I Break Horses has this very pretty time-lapse video accompanying their new song Hearts. We especially like the sped-up imagery of grazing animals about two minutes in.

With thanks to stereogum

As Promised (Wait and See)

2011-06-08T09:51:00.000-07:00

THE SET (MIX)

Cold Cave--> The Great Pan is Dead
Crystal Castles--> Not in Love (Featuring Robert Smith)
Tears for Fears--> Head Over Heels
Holy Ghost--> Wait and See
Memory Tapes--> Plain Material
Washed Out--> Eyes Be Closed

THE SETTING

Dancing at different speeds.

THE SOUND

These songs play off each other, borrow riffs and tempos and time periods, starting with an unrelenting wall of sound that crests, breaks into something softer by the time the mix reaches land.

With thanks to om.

Without You

2011-06-01T09:39:00.000-07:00

ONE TRACK MIND

Eddie Vedder--> Without You

Listen to this before you sleep. Eddie Vedder and his key-shifting ukulele.

When I Saw Him With You

2011-05-27T10:48:00.000-07:00

ONE TRACK MIND

Kurt Weisman--> When I Saw Him With You

We had the chance to see Kurt Weisman last summer in a hot, mosquito-bitten space just off the Gowanus canal, and it was mesmerizing. This is our favorite song off the excellent Orange, and as it has some aural affinities with "Like a Diamond," we bring it to you now in this slow burn set. Simple, evocative lyrics make you say, "oh yes, that's happened to me" at the same time that they also offer unusual imagery for a sad love song, and a wailing blues guitar solo just shy of two minutes in picks up where words leave off.

"When you pick up the bottle
and you think that it's full
but the bottle is empty
and it flies up to you

When you're climbing the stairs at night
and you think there's one more
but your foot goes acrashing through
and touches the floor

that's how it felt
when I saw him with you
my heart just skipped a beat
when I saw him with you."

Like a Diamond

2011-05-27T06:43:00.000-07:00

ONE TRACK MIND

Glass Ghost--> Like a Diamond

More Stars Than There Are in Heaven

2011-05-27T06:16:00.000-07:00

ONE TRACK MIND

Yo La Tengo--> More Stars Than There Are in Heaven

The day was glorious. I tied myself to it like a buoy.

I dressed as if I was already at your funeral, but

Then changed into pants because of the wind.

A girl in the park conjured huge bubbles with her wand.

Breath made wobbly, wet globes that drifted

Towards me, then burst, suddenly, in midair.

The moon was out too, biding its time in the trees.

A boy threw his basketball into the trash can,

Then leaned way in to fish it out, laughing.

A dog failed to scare some strolling pigeons,

Reminding me of a joke you used to tell

About birds who show up to a dinner party

Hours late, limping, with battered wings:

“It was such a beautiful day we decided to walk.”

I had picked the perfect bench for a long stay,

The shifting sun never leaving me in shade.

What Song are You Listening to?

2011-05-26T14:38:00.000-07:00

We are always wondering this in the subway--what if someone is listening to exactly what we are?
Ty Cullen asks random New Yorkers on the street what they're listening to on their headphones.

Blue Spotted Tail

2011-05-18T14:46:00.000-07:00

ONE TRACK MIND

Fleet Foxes--> Blue Spotted Tail

In which a theme emerges. (See also: The Notwist)

with thanks to mgp

Gloomy Planets

2011-05-18T14:35:00.000-07:00

ONE TRACK MIND

The Notwist--> Gloomy Planets (Live, with the Andromeda Mega Express Orchestra)

Astronomers just announced today that space is filled with, as the New York Times headline provocatively describes, "Billions of Lonely Planets, Adrift in Space." (The word planet comes from the Greek for "wandering star," afterall, and in Japan, they were sometimes known as "confused stars.") The appropriately named Andromeda Mega Express Orchestra joined The Notwist a few years ago for a beautifully extended version of "Gloomy Planets," a song we wrote about back in the fall of 2009.

Beach House at Webster Hall, 2.25.11

2011-02-25T21:58:00.000-08:00

With Papercuts opening and "10 Mile Stereo" closing, this was one of the best shows we've seen in a long time. (Beach House's album redeemed last February for us, so how fitting to hear it live this February, in all its saving grace.)

Papercuts at Webster Hall 2.25.11

2011-02-25T21:43:00.000-08:00

Patti Smith and Lenny Kaye at St. Marks Church, 2.9.11

2011-02-09T21:05:00.000-08:00

Patti Smith and Lenny Kaye celebrated the 40th anniversary of their historic debut at St. Marks Poetry Project with an incredible, intimate performance. We will try to hold onto its spirited, hope-filled, wistful and witty energy in the dreary days to come, as our toes slowly thaw from waiting so long in the cold. It's so important to make what you mean and mean what you make and collaborate with those you love. (And if you haven't already, read "Just Kids.")

The Radio Dept. at Music Hall of Williamsburg, 2.2.11

2011-02-02T21:23:00.000-08:00

You You/ Blue Eyes

2011-01-24T21:35:00.000-08:00

THE SET (TAKE TWO)

Robert Wyatt--> You You
Destroyer--> Blue Eyes

THE SETTING
"I thumb through the books on your shelves."

THE SOUND
Maybe it's the breathy sax turning the corners of these songs into melancholic jazz pop, or both singers' love for wordplay and literary reference, but Comicopera and Kaputt seem like first cousins to us. Both albums are strangely out of time and place, which is to say: transcendent.

Beauty

2011-01-21T15:07:00.000-08:00

ONE TRACK MIND

The Shivers--> Beauty

with thanks to O

Tears in the Typing Pool

2011-01-14T13:12:00.000-08:00

ONE TRACK MIND

Broadcast--> Tears in the Typing Pool

In memoriam.

with thanks to g for the introduction

Why Don't You Find out for Yourself?/Tell Me Why

2011-01-14T12:06:00.000-08:00

THE SET (TAKE TWO)

Morrissey--> Why Don't You Find Out For Yourself?
Neil Young--> Tell Me Why

THE SETTING

What happens to a question deferred? "Maybe it just sags like a heavy load. Or does it explode?"

THE SOUND

This is an inexplicable pairing (other than a shared "why") that works, as if perhaps both songs are coming at the same thing from very different psychological corners. Morrissey's aggressive title backs up against the desperation of Young's. "Don't rake up my mistakes/I know exactly what they are/and what do you do? Well, you just sit there," Morrissey accuses with typical hurt aplomb. Despite "After the Goldrush"'s many incredible tracks (we've had it on repeat of late), opener "Tell Me Why" has always stood out for its simple sadness. The initial image--heartships (or hardships) sailing through broken harbors and a frightened rider racing alone--explains the song's devastating plea to "tell me lies later/ come and see me," and ultimately casts a powerful line through the album to its final track with a lonely captain on the Cripple Creek ferry making its way through the overhanging trees.

"Sailing heartships through broken harbors
Out on the waves in the night
Still the searcher must ride the dark horse
Racing alone in his fright.

Tell me why, tell me why
Is it hard to make arrangements with yourself
When you're old enough to repay
but young enough to sell?

Tell me lies later, come and see me
I'll be around for awhile
I am lonely but you can free me
All in the way that you smile.

Tell me why, tell me why
Is it hard to make arrangements with yourself
When you're old enough to repay
But young enough to sell?

Tell me why, Tell me why."

Let Me Down Easy

2011-01-13T12:30:00.000-08:00

ONE TRACK MIND

Bettye Lavette--> Let Me Down Easy

Bettye LaVette wears headphones tonight.

Valley of Abra

2011-01-10T09:49:00.000-08:00

ONE TRACK MIND

Alba Lua--> Valley of Abra

The Velvet Underground's tambourines meet the Byrds' fuzz (by way of a contemporary 'gaze) meet The Clientele's frets and have a wine-drenched jam (Alba Lua is, afterall, from Bordeaux).

with thanks to mm

Little Dreamer

2011-01-10T09:12:00.000-08:00

ONE TRACK MIND

Future Islands--> Little Dreamer

Today's Pitchfork review of Future Islands' new EP, "Undressed," with an appropriately stripped down version of this song, reminded us of how much we liked the original with its Bauhaus-inflected drama. (And the reworked version with Victoria LeGrand is nice too, in a softer way.) "Little Dreamer" hints at the refrain of Elton John's "Tiny Dancer" but delivers a simpler, unhurried love song with a few jolts of unexpected imagery and condensed phrasing:"I caught you sleeping here/all wrapped in wool/I caught you sleeping here/Almost broke my heart./I found you dreaming/dreaming of you always, always." That subtle repetition that shifts the subject--a shared "dream"--says it all.

N.Y.C.'s No Lark/Seal Eyeing

2011-01-07T07:45:00.000-08:00

THE SET (TAKE TWO)

Bill Evans--> N.Y.C.'s No Lark
Animal Collective--> Seal Eyeing

THE SETTING
Today's snow.

THE SOUND
Nothing does things falling out of the sky like piano.

Automatic/My Body

2011-01-06T15:05:00.000-08:00

THE SET (TAKE TWO)

Yuck--> Automatic
How to Dress Well--> My Body

THE SETTING
You read an article about cutting-edge pastry chefs. Shortly thereafter, your car breaks down. In neutral, getting pushed along the shoulder, you note that the radio still works even as the engine won't turn over.

THE SOUND

If dessert has undergone a revolution in the past twenty years that puts salt on par with sugar and introduces essence as a category more important than syrup, here is one musical equivalent to finish off a long night. Like olive oil and ice cream, these songs shouldn't work together, but they do, especially overlapping at their edges. (The fuzz of silence on Yuck's spare recording turns into the full digitally distorted sweep of Tom Krell's How to Dress Well.) Both songs use the machine as metaphor (Yuck through lyrics, How to Dress Well through multi-layered execution) to emphasize the body's clumsy presence in this future present. And how does this relate to dessert? Maybe this: even with all the new technology employed by master pastry chefs, it is still the tongue that has the last word.

with thanks to OM

Happy New Year

2010-12-31T06:46:00.000-08:00

SPLIT TRACK MIND
Ludwig van Beethoven--> Symphony No. 7, Allegretto, Mvt. 2
The Walkmen--> In the New Year

Chinatown

2010-12-30T08:02:00.000-08:00

THE SET (TAKE TWO)

Wild Nothing--> Chinatown
Destroyer--> Chinatown

THE SETTING

(See above)

THE SOUND

This was a good year for songs called "Chinatown."

Me for Real / To Binge

2010-12-30T06:58:00.000-08:00

THE SET (TAKE TWO)

Arthur Russell--> Me for Real
Gorillaz--> To Binge (featuring Yukimi Nagano of Little Dragon)

THE SETTING

Despite two very different sounds and metaphoric turns--(literally: both discuss love as a turning and rolling, Arthur Russell on a bike and Gorillaz on drugs/the sea)--these songs are linked by their shared state of off/on confusion. This is mirrored in their drowsy arrangements and tossed off beauty. Russell lets the percussion do all the work. (You almost wonder if he is deciding whether or not to even start singing, let alone profess his love, and the echo effect on his voice makes it seem as if he is rehearsing these lines in the shower before delivering them in person.) Russell's lyrics capture the unhinged nursery rhyme simplicity of "I do what I want/ when I want to/now I want to." Similarly, "To Binge" is a call and response between two lovers hesitant to pick up where they once left off. As in Blur's gorgeous "Battery in Your Leg," a cascading ripple of keyboard fills in meaning around the words like packing material. Timing matters, no matter the score.

THE SOUND
"To me, I can and I do, I do what I want, when I want to.
Now I want to.
To me, I've made it up to you,
What is it to you, is not to me
but now it is too.
In my heart beating,
beating far, into the far, far future.
In the mud that's on the tire,
In the mud that's on the tire
Of that Sunday morning, of the day before
Riding bikes is so intense.
The foreign word that says: me for real.
It's me, still on my bike,
Love is turning, do it again, it's you that I like.
You, you say it's not true.
I do what I want, when I want to,
now I want to.
In my heart beating,
beating far, into the far, far future.
Me for real. Me for real."

with thanks to g.

Amor Veneris

2010-12-29T08:12:00.000-08:00

ONE TRACK MIND

Arab Strap--Amor Veneris

We recently started a small collection of air plants, those strange epiphytes that can live in a bell jar sucking on air and need only an occasional (twice monthly) bath. In the wild they grow on trees and telephone wires and live off “cloud moisture” that collects on their hosts. What is the air plant of songs? One that is both exotic and simple, that takes its time, that is beautiful but doesn’t really need us to bloom, that audibly breathes. Arab Strap, never one to understate euphemism, produces a heartbreaking air plant for the bedside table in “Amor Veneris.” Untwined, each of the song’s elements is spare and stealthy and sexy. Listen to the acoustic guitar, raw with finger sliding. Or the piano, which enters in the second verse in smattered notes and builds to chiming chords wrapped around a gorgeous major/minor shifting melody for the final verse. Or the lyrics, which take our category of “Morning Song” and decimate it in an erotic progression of domestic push and pull. “The rain woke us up/ You turned around and just did it/Good morning, slow down/ Have you remembered where you hid it? You cried in the kitchen/we made up in the hall/I watched you get dressed/those boots make you too tall. We made each other late/’Cause I took my watch off there/so I wouldn’t scratch your skin/Or get tangled in your hair. It wasn’t long ago/We went on guided tours/But I forgot what it meant/ To pretend my hand is yours. It’s best in the morning/when we know it won’t be rushed/so leave the curtains closed/and come back when you’ve brushed.” And then there’s Aidan Moffit’s vocal delivery, part bedroom and part bored room, all brooding breath and disengaged phrasing. Put this in a jar and watch it steam up a room.

With thanks to g.

Heiliger Dankgesang

2010-12-20T05:33:00.000-08:00

ONE TRACK MIND

Ludwig van Beethoven--> String Quartet No. 15 in A Minor, (Opus 132) Movement III, Heiliger Dankgesang
(New Age Symphony Orchestra, with music animation score)

One of our favorite tracks we heard this year.

I Get Nervous

2010-12-09T07:56:00.000-08:00

ONE TRACK MIND

Lower Dens--> I Get Nervous

Being a fan of Jana Hunter, we bought 'Twin-Hand Movement' a little while ago and have been slowly figuring it out since. With its sludgy, loose guitars, buried lyrics and songs titled "A Dog's Dick," "Two Cocks," and "Truss Me," it's a departure from other recent listens, the surly figure in an affable shuffle who turns out to be the smartest and most interesting friend. Song titles allude to how the album refuses to deliver what we expect. "Truss Me" for instance, is a slow-burn that sounds like the lyrics should be "trust me," as in "Some day you will trust me," but instead refers to the action of tying up a bird, neatly inverting the temporal sentiment. Similarly in another song we can't tell if Hunter is standing in someone's pretty "presence" or pretty "prison". The exuberant guitar dialogue of "Two Cocks" fits its corresponding lyrics, "Do I know you? Why would I want to?" And a similar question is floated on "I Get Nervous," when over atmospheric guitars and a rolling drum beat Hunter sings, "You think you know me, don't you?" as if a warning for us to keep listening, closer. NPR recently picked this as one of their favorite songs of the year. We don't make lists at WHT but we're happy to hear it.

With thanks to OM for the radio link.

Sunday Morning Coming Down/ Sunday's Pretty Icons

2010-12-05T10:53:00.000-08:00

THE SET (TAKE TWO)

Kris Kristofferson--> Sunday Morning Coming Down
Belle & Sebastian--> Sunday's Pretty Icons

THE SETTING
"There's something in a Sunday, makes a body feel alone/And there's nothing short of dying/Half as lonesome as the sound/On the sleeping city sidewalks/Sunday morning coming down."

THE SOUND

Sunday has its very own category in songwriting, seeped in restless despondency. (See The Velvet Underground's "Sunday Morning," Morrissey's "Everyday Feels like Sunday," Beck's "Sunday Sun," Etta James "A Sunday Kind of Love," etc.) Within this category, one of the greatest and most covered songs that captures the morning after Saturday night is Kris Kristofferson's "Sunday Morning Coming Down." Just when we feel that all is lost, Belle & Sebastian remind us that on Sunday, we should turn up the music, offer up a dance, and know that all is forgiven.

Heart Paper Lover/ Metal Heart

2010-12-04T11:58:00.000-08:00

THE SET (TAKE TWO)

Marissa Nadler--> Heart Paper Lover
Cat Power--> Metal Heart (Original Version)

THE SETTING

See Yeats' "The Circus Animals' Desertion"

THE SOUND

Paper and metal. Marissa Nadler takes her phrasing from Leonard Cohen (a singer she has covered beautifully) but the delicate sound effects on this track are all her own. They hover and crash behind the lyrics like balsa planes. "Metal Heart" is among our favorite Cat Power songs; perhaps hers, too, as she revisited it ten years later on Jukebox with an angrier guitar.

With thanks to B & S for the introduction, back in the day

The Walkmen at Terminal 5, 12.02.10

2010-12-02T21:44:00.000-08:00

Light My Fire

2010-12-01T20:53:00.000-08:00

ONE TRACK MIND (Covered)
The Free Design--> Light My Fire

Oh, how we love this 1972 cover. Jim Morrison's insouciant demands are reframed as celebratory harmony and a breezy horn bridge.

The Radio Dept. at The Knitting Factory, 11.30.10

2010-12-01T19:00:00.000-08:00

Only Loved at Night/ I Want a House

2010-11-21T06:25:00.000-08:00

THE SET (TAKE TWO):
The Raincoats--> Only Loved at Night
Twin Sister--> I Want a House

THE SETTING

Adventures close to home.

THE SOUND

"You wouldn't think we've been playing these instruments for 30 years," announced Gina Birch at the Raincoats show at MoMA last night. "But we like to keep it fresh and raw. It's almost like they're wild animals."
Most of the crowd might have discovered this group through Kurt Cobain's rhapsodic liner notes from "Incesticide": ("A while ago, I found myself in bloody exhaust grease London again with an all-consuming urge to hunt for two rare things: back issues of NME rumored to be secretly hidden in glass casings and submerged in the fry vats of every kebab machine in the U.K. and the very out-of-print first Raincoats LP...")* But like Young Marble Giants, The Raincoats' sound simmers under so much music today, and not just the expected post-punk female groups. There is more than a passing reference to the haunting "Only Loved at Night," (1981) in Twin Sister's terrific "I Want a House" (2008). The lyrics to this Twin Sister song might link it most to Animal Collective's smash "My Girls," with its unabashedly settled equation of real estate and love (or at least shelter and love). But the wandering, spare melody of the guitar, its dry pick strumming, and the feet-dragging percussion relate back to the darker velvet of "Only Loved At Night."

*We have to thank B & S.

Ooh Ooh La La La

2010-11-21T05:45:00.000-08:00

ONE TRACK MIND

The Raincoats--> Ooh Ooh La La La

Joy is queuing up.

The Raincoats at MoMA, 11.20.2010

2010-11-21T05:34:00.000-08:00

Heartbreaker

2010-11-19T07:52:00.000-08:00

ONE TRACK MIND

Girls--> Heartbreaker

Oh this song kills us.

Sufjan Stevens at Beacon Theater 11.15.10

2010-11-19T07:49:00.000-08:00

The last night of Sufjan's tour: a sonic space invasion.
Neon Icarus Angel Future Silver Dancing Energy Alien Rock Opera Extravaganza.

How Can You Swallow So Much Sleep

2010-11-10T06:36:00.000-08:00

ONE TRACK MIND

Bombay Bicycle Club--> How Can You Swallow So Much Sleep

Poison Cup

2010-11-07T18:55:00.000-08:00

ONE TRACK MIND
M. Ward--> Poison Cup

"Wine, wine, wine,/One or two won't do/Cuz I want it all/And a sip, a sip,/ a sip or a spoonful won't do/No, I want it all/And I hope, I hope, hope you know what I'm thinking of/I want all your love/I need all of your love/She said, "If love, if love is a poison cup/Then drink it up/ 'Cuz a sip, a sip, or a spoonful won't do/Won't do nothing for you/except mess you up/And I hope, I hope, hope you know what this means/I'm gonna give you everything/I'm gonna give you everything."

F is for Freestyling

2010-10-21T06:49:00.000-07:00

Phoenix at MSG 10 20 10

2010-10-21T06:38:00.000-07:00

The set between one of four encores.

If you think Phoenix is a studio band, you are very, very wrong.

When Thomas Mars came and sang "Honeymoon" and "Love for Granted" directly to our section.

One of the greatest live shows we have ever seen.

Street Electronics

2010-10-18T18:54:00.000-07:00

"BROKEN, possibly fixable, heats up when plugged in, smells"

Futile Devices

2010-10-18T17:42:00.000-07:00

ONE TRACK MIND

Sufjan Stevens--> Futile Devices

The day shreds itself like tissues--

It's near dinnertime and the beach
is still and white. Continued snow
And potato leek soup the forecast.
Both will linger, cold, at home.
The ocean curves beyond its end.
Along the nearer shore,
Its laughing mouth of teeth
opens and closes, is mad with foam.
Here at night, after another round,
You went swimming. I could see
Only your wake, cutting open the black,
The first time I almost lost you.

Even the moon is brought down in pieces.

The Karen Skog Orkester at Capricious Space 10.15.10

2010-10-18T17:38:00.000-07:00

(with homemade instruments)

Sail of the Silver Morning

2010-10-04T21:27:00.000-07:00

ONE TRACK MIND

Cotton Jones--> Sail of the Silver Morning

The phrasing elevates this song above its sweet crooning to a mesmerizing vision.

"I wouldn't trade my window for any, for any, for any other view...Some time is coming, I'll touch my hand to yours/And all the troubles of the troubled mind/Will trouble it, will trouble it, will trouble it no more./Let's just keep walking down, just keep walking down... /Let's keep walking down the long white sign..."

Slow to Dance Fast

2010-10-04T20:58:00.000-07:00

THE SET (MIX):

Twin Shadow--> Slow
Film School--> Heart Full of Pentagons
Kid Cudi--> Up, Up, and Away
Robyn--> Dancing on my Own
Maritime--> Boy from School (Hot Chip Cover)

THE SETTING:

So fast, you.

THE SOUND:
We enjoy putting together a mix one can really move to almost as much as we enjoy moving to it. WHT's inaugural post described a midnight dance party in the Bastille when it felt like the walls were melting.
Here is music to keep the blood pumping during the first raw days of fall. It's upbeat without always being so. ("I don't wanna be, believe, in love," is Twin Shadow's refrain; "I keep dancing on my own/I'm just going to dance all night," sings Robyn.) And listen closely: despite the vast range in genre, these songs share the axis coordinates of a driving bass (the horizontal line) and spiraling percussion (the vertical line), with many great stops, starts and spikes along the graph. Some music is made for spinning. It's the only way to keep up with earth's orbit without letting gravity get you down.

With thanks to o.

Helicopter

2010-09-29T22:23:00.000-07:00

ONE TRACK MIND

Deerhunter--> Helicopter

We've been wrapped in this song for days for hours for five minutes and two seconds. It is small and crouched, buffeted by wind, with dazzling blades for wings.

Spirit of Love/ Never My Love

2010-09-29T22:08:00.000-07:00

THE SET (TAKE TWO)

C.O.B. (Clive's Original Band)--> Spirit of Love
The Association--> Never My Love

THE SETTING

When the spirit moves you. When never is a happy word.

THE SOUND

"So many stars in the bowl of night/ If you just love them all is right."

With thanks to s and j.

I Walked

2010-09-28T21:10:00.000-07:00

ONE TRACK MIND

Sufjan Stevens--> I Walked

Every familiar synthetic and baroque element in music today is reworked to stunning, intimate effect, in the never-ending explanation of an ending: "I walked, 'cuz you walked/But I won't probably get very far."

With thanks to o.

Future Primitive/Blue As Your Blood

2010-09-23T07:23:00.000-07:00

THE SET (TAKE TWO)

Papercuts--> Future Primitive
The Walkmen--> Blue as Your Blood

THE SETTING

Still, with.

THE SOUND

One day, it comes to me

And so I put it on.

It fits well, as if it is holding me,

It smells like cotton and arms.

Then I worry it is someone else’s.

I never had much. Or even one thing

To matter more than any other.

I often, accidentally, borrow things

And keep them for too long.

One day, this comes to me.

And so I take it off.

I leave it in the bathroom, hooked.

I leave it with the salt above the stove.

I leave it in a drawer, folded neatly.

I leave it between the bed and the wall.

I leave it in a bottle like a message,

Or a cigarette butt.

I leave it in dirt to bloom and die.

One day, a voice comes to me

Like a song heard from a neighbor’s

apartment. I don’t mean to turn around.

But of course I do.

And there you are, asking,

Is this yours?

El Ten Eleven at the Knitting Factory 9 16 10

2010-09-18T07:15:00.000-07:00

Dosh at the Knitting Factory 9 16 10

2010-09-18T07:13:00.000-07:00

When I Light Your Darkened Door

2010-09-15T06:36:00.000-07:00

ONE TRACK MIND

J. Tillman--> When I Light Your Darkened Door (Live)

In celebration of Tillman's new album Singing Ax, we return to an older track that still gives shivers.

Wear Beards Tonight.

Weekend Float

2010-09-06T09:29:00.000-07:00

ONE TRACK MIND

Kurt Weisman--> Weekend Float

Unavailable

2010-09-06T09:04:00.000-07:00

ONE TRACK MIND

Papercuts--> Unavailable

2.
For a whole summer they went there. Oliver, wordless and blurred, performed his greatest trick again and again. He’d enter the pond on one end and appear on its opposite shore with legs crossed, as if he hadn’t been underwater at all. Or he’d leap from a tree branch into the water, and by the time the splash cleared he would be back in the tree, laughing. They stayed until the air got dusky and the fireflies were already nervously flitting down the path, then followed them home. Jo would squish into the kitchen in her sneakers, and her mother would roll her eyes and gesture toward the sink and then the table, which Jo was late to set, and which had no place for Oliver.

Know How

2010-09-06T09:02:00.000-07:00

ONE TRACK MIND

Kings of Convenience--> Know How (featuring Feist)

1.
The way to get there was through a small rip in a chain-linked fence that inevitably did the same to your clothes as you sausaged through. This led to another dirt road, patched in grass and bordered on both sides by berries that may or may not have been poisonous. Or, that was nearly there. The road twisted around for awhile before dead-ending by a scrub oak tree. A path took you into proper woods with lots of underbrush (again, those berries, that deer seemed to eat and not die from, so why not us? Oliver reasoned. And Jo ignored). And then, finally, there: as if you didn’t hear it for a hundred paces before you saw it. A pond, edged in green algae and buzzing dragonflies, a break in the canopy above so that sometimes the sun spangled the water’s edge. But usually it was a murky hole, surprisingly deep, filled with tadpoles and salamanders and a turtle, once. It was magnificent.

We Used to Wait

2010-08-31T08:22:00.000-07:00

ONE TRACK MIND

Arcade Fire--> We Used to Wait, as featured in the Chris Milk film The Wilderness Downtown

When WHT typed our childhood address into the Google Chrome/Arcade Fire interactive site to launch our own personal music video, we got this message: "Your address doesn’t contain enough Google Street View and/or Google Map data to 100% enjoy this experience." But maybe you grew up in the proper 'burbs.

"For Headphones" at IBeam Studios 8 14 10

2010-08-30T09:16:00.000-07:00

A few images from Daniel Fishkin's installation "For Headphones" during "The Name of the Next Song" music series at IBeam Music Studios, Brooklyn this August. These built instruments, which are quite beautiful and which Fishkin calls sculptures, involve touch interaction and radio wave interference to create their unpredictable sounds. The listener completes the circuit.

Wild Nothing at Bowery Ballroom 8 28 10

2010-08-29T15:13:00.000-07:00

Hamilton Road

2010-08-09T09:20:00.000-07:00

ONE TRACK MIND

Ducktails--> Hamilton Road

This song has been making the online rounds, and we like its off-centered sound, like a music box only half-way wound, or a verse that doesn't quite rhyme. Apparently Ducktails is the side project of one of Real Estate's guitarists, and this track is from the forthcoming album "Ducktails III: Arcade Dynamics."

with thanks to ss

Brian Wilson Said

2010-08-06T06:26:00.000-07:00

ONE TRACK MIND

Tears for Fears--> Brian Wilson Said

A fascinating song from 1993's "Elemental" that's been on repeat over at WHT headquarters for awhile now as we puzzle on it. It samples and pays direct homage to the Beach Boys (and Brian Wilson's solo album from 1988, which included bonus tracks of Wilson talking about certain songs) long before '60s sound processing took over the airwaves. But it also comes in parts (or perhaps comes apart), turning into a jazzy, bass-heavy piano bridge a minute and a half in, reminiscent of Jane Siberry, and its lyrics are equally disjointed: giddy, happy, sad, lovesick. Basically, "Brian Wilson Said" messes with our conception of "easy listening."

Ann Buchanan Theme

2010-08-02T18:17:00.000-07:00

ONE TRACK MIND

Dean & Britta --> Ann Buchanan Theme, from 13 Most Beautiful...Songs for Andy Warhol's Screen Tests

(audio album now out)

with thanks to the new yorker

Not a Young Man Anymore

2010-08-02T18:16:00.000-07:00

ONE TRACK MIND

Dean & Britta--> I'm not a Young Man Anymore, Lou Reed Screen Test, from 13 Most Beautiful...Songs for Andy Warhol's Screen Tests

(audio album now out)

with thanks to the new yorker

Window View

2010-08-02T07:26:00.000-07:00

ONE TRACK MIND

Beach Fossils--> Window View

Wash Dry Fold, a quiet love story. We'll let the images speak for themselves with this song; it's either a very happy or very sad story, depending on the order of the chairs on consecutive days. But speaking of images, we vote Beach Fossils' album cover as among the best this year:

For more window songs in another season, see our archives here.

with thanks to y

Jed's Other Poem (Beautiful Ground)

2010-08-02T06:06:00.000-07:00

ONE TRACK MIND

Grandaddy--> Jed's Other Poem (Beautiful Ground)

Computer Love. This video brings new soul to the screen scroll.

Porcupines

2010-07-30T09:29:00.000-07:00

ONE TRACK MIND

Demetri Martin--> Porcupines

Jokes.com

Demetri Martin - Porcupines

comedians.comedycentral.com

Happy Friday from WHT.

You Won't See Me

2010-07-29T08:17:00.000-07:00

ONE TRACK MIND
The Godz--> You Won't See Me (Beatles Cover)

To begin, an attribution: we came to The Godz through a musician friend who counts them as a major influence. The well-named 1966 debut album "Contact High with the Godz" introduces a lot of their main idiosyncrasies: meandering yet minimalist songs (the album is under 30 minutes long) that refuse to gel in harmony or key or composition. It's as if each band member intently pursues his own thing within a rough whole, which can be dangerous if you're holding an autoharp. "May You Never Be Alone" sounds like Bob Dylan interrupted by a mad flutist and the fantastic "1+1 = ?", whose lyrics belong on a Magnetic Fields album, builds a song out of an out-of-tune guitar, some serious maraca wrist action, and harmonica. So it should be no surprise that when they turned to recording their version of the Beatles' "You Won't See Me" on their second album in 1967, The Godz would completely undo what it means to cover a song. "You Won't See Me" isn't so much covered as converted into an experimental jam session that sands down the Beatles' polish and tight harmonies into splintered sound and plaintive singing. "You Won't See Me" was the third track off the Beatles' album "Rubber Soul" (1965) that inspired The Beach Boys' "Pet Sounds" (1966); here the Godz throw a wrench in the progressive musical masterpiece tour the following year. But it's a wonderful and fascinating performance to hear on an album not designated as "live." A little over a minute in, things come to a grinding halt. After forty seconds of teasing conversation among the band, the song lumbers back to life.

"You Won't See Me" also joins our mix of long-distance telephone songs, discussed many moons ago here.

with thanks to s

The Stars are Blue Tonight

2010-07-28T09:50:00.000-07:00

ONE TRACK MIND
Steven Trimmer--> The Stars are Blue Tonight

Another wonderful track from our friend in Athens, Georgia, who continues to evoke The Velvet Underground and Bon Iver while sounding like no one else. It's a great addition to our slow summer burn mix and a serenade to its unfolding scene: "The stars are blue tonight/and the fields are good for getting lost in."

Land of Feelings

2010-07-27T08:10:00.000-07:00

ONE TRACK MIND meets MIX

Here We Go Magic--> Land of Feelings

As both the band and the song's name might suggest, "The Land of Feelings" is one of the trippiest places on our falsetto tour. In the words of one of the original voice chameleons, "that weren't no dj, that was hazy cosmic jive." We are a little obsessed with this song's 1970s into early '80s groove, how fluttering synths curl around the bass line just so. (See also Phoenix's "Fences" and The Ruby Suns' "Closet Astrologer"). Falsetto covers a lot of musical ground but imagining "the land of feelings" as a description of that territory isn't a bad start. It's one of r&b pop's great tools: Michael Jackson and Prince's breathy escalations have been reworked by Justin Timberlake and The-Dream, who let us know explicitly what this register was for in his 2007 "Falsetto". Jeff Buckley, Rufus Wainwright, and Antony and the Johnsons challenge our definition of falsetto with their operatic range. And Plush (Liam Hayes), drawing upon such eclectic predecessors as Colin Blunstone, John Cale, Fleetwood Mac and Burt Bacharach, pokes fun of his own lounge-singing strains in the wonderful "(I didn't Know) I Was Asleep."

Here's what you need to do in the land of feelings: turn it up high and stay awhile.

with thanks to y for p

Yumeji and George

2010-07-26T18:54:00.000-07:00

THE SET (TAKE TWO)

Shigeru Umebayashi--> Yumeji's Theme

Shigeru Umebayashi--> George's Waltz

THE SETTING

Two of the more beautiful film score themes in recent cinema.

THE SOUND

When watching Tom Ford's A Single Man (2009), we kept feeling as though it deliberately channeled the atmospheric registers of Wong Kar-wei's masterful In the Mood for Love (2000). This at first appeared purely visual, in the use of slow motion, warm filters and impossibly detailed shots. But then we realized there was something resonant about its sound, too, with retro songs and sumptuous string orchestration. (As WHT readers know, we often get caught up in movie scores and their power to sew together a moving sound and a moving image.) Just as Nat King Cole and the Mamas and the Papas provide powerful aural cues for In the Mood for Love and Chungking Express, so Booker T. & the MGs' "Green Onions" and Etta James' rendition of "Stormy Weather" spin during A Single Man's most haunting scene. The beauty and deployment of each film's string themes was also so similar that it should have come as no surprise to find, upon further research, that the same composer, Shigeru Umebayashi, wrote both. Umebayashi, incidentally, was in the Japanese new-wave band EX before he began scoring films. See "Oh, My Love" (1980) and "Platinum Night" (1981).

with thanks to c, a decade ago.

Tapetum Lucidum

2010-07-26T17:14:00.000-07:00

THE SET (TAKE TWO)

CFCF--> Letters Home (Memoryhouse Remix)
Sleep ∞ Over--> La Rose

THE SETTING
Eyeshine

THE SOUND
Broadcasting from the floor
Under pressure-salted sockets
That used to be stars,
I can’t see much ahead.
But I know the sound
When dark, slick echo
touches down on darker,
Sends trapped air up
From silt clouds toward
Some end edged in glass.
They call it surfacing.
At times a part breaks off,
Falls slowly down to me.
I make what I can with it,
But I should learn
From the vampire squid:
Instead of ink, it shoots
blue orbs from its arms,
Since nothing here is
More startling than light.

Love is a Wave/ Departure

2010-07-26T05:50:00.000-07:00

THE SET (TAKE TWO)

Crystal Stilts--> Love is a Wave

Crystal Stilts--> Departure

THE SETTING

Monday morning movies.

THE SOUND
is as archival as these videos, which use footage to very different, if wonderfully synced, ends.

With thanks to Mm.

Give me the Sunshine

2010-07-23T05:53:00.000-07:00

Sun Kil Moon--> You are My Sun

The Kinks--> Love Me Till the Sun Shines

Leo's Sunshipp--> Give me the Sunshine

Draft Morning

2010-07-22T19:58:00.000-07:00

ONE TRACK MIND meets ALBUM

Hacia Dos Veranos (with the Clientele)--> Draft Morning

There's a whole lot to celebrate about this track. First: this is a wonderful reminder of a great song by The Byrds from 1968's eclectic and controversial "The Notorious Byrd Brothers." (Listen to the original here, with its fantastic brass distortion interlude--a military marching band meltdown--picked up by woodwinds in the cover.) Second, WHT returns to our overlooked "morning song" category, but with a political twist. What sounds like the shimmering cymbal and warm guitar introduction to a languid day in bed turns into echoing preparations for and questioning of war: "Today was the day for action/Leave my bed/To kill instead/Why should it happen.") Third, via WHT favorite The Clientele, we've discovered the Argentinian band Hacia Dos Veranos, (Towards Two Summers), whose name refers to a line from Henry Miller's Tropic of Cancer. (We've always been a sucker for literary references, and Miller's trademark term "liquescent" is a fitting description of the band's sound.) Fourth: they have made their entire eponymous album out this month a free download (in various digital forms) on their website (not to mention their 2007 album "De los valles y volcanes.") Get "Draft Morning" and the Explosions in the Sky ripples of "Dolor en el pecho" and "Musica en la ruta del vino" and seven other instrumental tracks here.

Without Records

2010-07-18T13:36:00.000-07:00

"without records" - YCAM Otomo Yoshihide / ENSEMBLES from YCAMArchives on Vimeo.

ONE TRACK MIND (x 100 EMPTY TRACKS)
Otomo Yoshihide with Yasutomo Aoyama (at the Yamaguchi Center for Arts and Media)--> Without Records

One way to hear absence.

(For the youtube version, click here.)

Summer Dust/ Heart to Tell

2010-07-11T17:24:00.000-07:00

THE SET (TAKE TWO)

The Love Language--> Summer Dust
The Love Language--> Heart to Tell

THE SETTING

Like Wild Nothing's Gemini, this is a new summer album you'll want to hear wherever you are. Insert hammock, insert jetty, insert sticky apartment.

THE SOUND
"Swell" seems like the most fitting word, both as a retro two thumbs up, and to describe the lush, energetic orchestration that rolls through The Love Language's excellent new album Libraries (out Tuesday). In the words of composer Robert Frobisher in David Mitchell's Cloud Atlas, "Music clatters, music swells, music tosses." The Love Language is from North Carolina, but one could mistake the band for British if not for down-tempo shifts into baroque country and sound as big and haunting as The Walkmen and Arcade Fire (see album opener "Pedals" or "Anthophobia"). There are lots of '60s drumrolls and harmonic turns, a la The Bicycles, and an ambitious historical reach--very few genres, including gospel, go untapped. Some songs draw closely on recent stuff; we were immediately reminded of Peter, Bjorn & John's addictive hit "Young Folks" with the melody of "Horophone,"** though by the end its guitars take a wonderfully dissonant turn in contrast to its Beach Boys cooing.
Mainly it is Libraries unpretentious energy that we love. "Summer Dust" talks about hearts beating like hummingbirds on a lazy night: "a restless wind/blew them open/as the birds were taking flight/Young hearts are bright/And just as light/And blowing in the air tonight." But then comes fall, and "we buried our beating hearts/under the rocks and dirt/and now mine is filled with the falling leaves/ and if you're not here/it's going to burst." There's so much melody here you might feel like bursting too. Another song filled to capacity is "Heart to Tell." Explosive guitars and handclapping deliver two minutes of pure energy and punchy lines like: "I need a flame/And she's a water-bearer/Now I'm rubbing sticks out in the rain/ Well, it's just trial and error." Such rousing tracks make a slower ballad like "Wilmont" particularly stand out as a deconstructed lullaby that keeps adding and removing heartbreaking elements: first from a weeping guitar and pounding drums, then a piano, then finally only humming.
The whole album is streaming at Merge Records HERE for a limited time.
Wear Horophones** Tonight.

with thanks to y for the tip.

**Historical Note: The Horophone was invented in London in 1913 by Frank Hope-Jones in order to receive International time radio signals from the Eiffel tower via headphones and then, using an elaborate chart, set local clocks.

Footballing Weekenders

2010-07-11T07:00:00.000-07:00

ONE TRACK MIND
Hideki Kaji--> Footballing Weekenders

WHT is rooting for Holland but happy for Spain too.

Wear Orange Headphones Today.

(with thanks to y for our favorite soccer song yet)

So Fast:You

2010-07-11T06:51:00.000-07:00

ONE TRACK MIND
Letting Up Despite Great Faults--> So Fast: You

Letting Up Despite Great Faults don't bury influences on their 2009 eponymous album (their name sounded more like an album title anyway.) First, that name: apparently it stems from Blonde Redhead's "Loved Despite of Great Faults." (See also BR's "Hated Because of Great Qualities.") Second, that sound: LUDGF channels a familiar library of New Order and M83 (lyrically, this latter comparison is very true, with the only words here "so fast: you"), layering screens of woozy instrumentals and percussion that slide in and out. Other songs are fuller in terms of lyrics and sound (see "In Step," whose opening measures could be straight out of The Radio Dept.'s catalogue, or the thick guitar churns of "The Colors Aren't You or Me"). "So Fast: You" remains translucent, a wisp of an idea. Its opening xylophone cadences in the spirit of Lullatone are draped by Radio Dept. guitars, drum machine and blown-out vocals which erupt now and again. An infectious melody hooks it gently all together, creating a sonic effect equivalent to dancing very slowly in a strobe light.

Turns Out

2010-07-06T15:35:00.000-07:00

ONE TRACK MIND

Careful--> Turns Out

After releasing his brooding, atmospheric take on Lady Gaga's "Bad Romance" scorcher, Eric Lindley--aka Careful, the least searchable name ever--brings us "Oh, Light." A recent album review in the Times mentioned Arthur Russell and Elliott Smith, peaking our interest. (In the end, we hear more vocal affinities to contemporaries like Kings of Convenience, Paul Duncan or Owen Pallett, but part of the point here is that a song like "Turns Out" sounds like everyone and no one all at once). This track builds and breaks apart chord progressions without hurry and with nothing ever snapping into focus. It seems quite content with its non-event status (or even assembled, with care, to maintain it, in a nice connection to its maker's name). Listen to the brief "Laid, or Lain," for the same effect interrupted by jangling instrumentals, as if a windstorm swept momentarily into the malaise, setting off chimes. This is the sort of hazy, malleable music that becomes the soundtrack for a very late night during a heatwave when any sudden movement is a terrible idea, unless it is a breeze.

Here Sometimes

2010-06-29T05:19:00.000-07:00

ONE TRACK MIND
Blonde Redhead--> Here Sometimes

This is pop with a Roy Lichtenstein "Pow!" Blonde Redhead returns after a three year's absence with this track, trailing a little Bjork and Fever Ray at its edges, and a pinch or two of Club 8's sweetness thrown in (their song "Sometimes" would make a nice pendant here).

Pleasant Experience

2010-06-28T05:12:00.000-07:00

ONE TRACK MIND

Small Black--> Pleasant Experience

A well-named song. Perhaps we should just quote one of its youtube comments: "i have literally been listening to this song for hours.this group is simply amazing straight from the vocals, bass, keys, and the motherfucking frying pan." This video is a good peek into song assembly for many groups these days; how most bands can play sitting down among blinking boxes, in a knot of cords (and chords). The wooden spoon against cast iron is a nice organic touch.

Who Knows Where You Are

2010-06-27T04:54:00.000-07:00

ONE TRACK MIND

The Harpeth Trace--> Who Knows Where You Are

This song was a quiet discovery, like spotting a postcard of an Atget photograph propped up in the door of a house in Amsterdam when riding by on a bike. It is six a.m. The curtains are drawn, and though we might expect the streets to be empty a man and child walk hand in hand, a dog pauses at the curb: there are sounds that echo in the picture. The Harpeth Trace's album is called "On Disappearing," and this doesn't simply relate to the lyrics. Probably our favorite moment in this beautiful track occurs four minutes in, just when you think it is ending with a swirl of ringing and held chords.The percussion unexpectedly cuts back in for one last turn before again taking its leave.

Live in Dreams/Lady Daydream

2010-06-27T03:57:00.000-07:00

THE SET (TAKE TWO)

Wild Nothing--> Live in Dreams
Twin Sister--> Lady Daydream

THE SETTING

"I'm dying just to let things go/Do you remember the lightning storm?/It was the first time that I really felt you/'Cuz our lips won't last forever/And that's exactly why/I'd rather live in dreams/And I'd rather die." And "If you can't find the sea, I will take you there."

THE SOUND

"A drop of water was allowed to fall on his forehead. He imagined himself in Italy, perspiring heavily, and drinking the white wine of Orvieto." Sigmund Freud, recounting Maury's deliberate dream productions in "The Interpretation of Dreams."
Wear headphones tonight on the pillow: listen to these two great songs on repeat just before bed (it's hard not to). See what happens.

Foreground (Too)

2010-06-25T20:24:00.000-07:00

ONE TRACK MIND

Memoryhouse--> Foreground (Grizzly Bear Cover)

Somehow we missed this when discussing this.

I'd Have You Anytime/ I'd Have it Just the Way We Were

2010-06-25T18:31:00.000-07:00

THE SET:

George Harrison--> I'd Have You Anytime
White Denim--> I'd Have it Just the Way We Were

THE SETTING:

"Let me in here/I know I've been here/Let me into your heart."

THE SOUND:

A few more tracks to add to the summer mix. White Denim's retro sound fits nicely beside Harrison's languid 1970 classic, turning nostalgic desire into a shimmying burn.And what better sentiment for long days under the sun than Harrison's plea to "let me grow upon you." Added bonus: a slideshow of Harrison's hair.

La Mer, Les Etoiles et Le Vent

2010-06-13T08:11:00.000-07:00

ONE TRACK MIND
Françoise Hardy--> La Mer, Les Étoiles et Le Vent

Wear Headphones Tonight is traveling overseas for a brief spell. We hope to be on twitter but we also hope to be a bit unplugged and won't be posting anything here for a dozen days. And so we leave you for this intermission with the formidable Françoise.

with thanks to y

Solar System

2010-06-12T11:45:00.000-07:00

ONE TRACK MIND

The Microphones--> Solar System

Probably the song least likely to be summoned for World Cup soundtracks that still has a soccer reference. But it has this lovely verse: "I know you're out there/You're lanterns on lakes/I know you're out there/You're soccer balls on knees/Through your skirt I see/Your legs gracefully/I know you're out there/You're swaying and pleased."

Hold Time

2010-06-12T06:12:00.000-07:00

ONE TRACK MIND

M. Ward --> Hold Time

Our well-placed-homophone tour (see Jeremy Jay) continues with M. Ward's "Hold Time." "If only I could hold time," he sings in the first verse; this turns into "You knew what I meant/Yeah, you knew what I said/the whole time." This track also joins our slow-summer-burn mix (see Sun Kil Moon) with this line: "I wrote this song just to remember the endless, endless summer in your laugh."

Wear Homophones Tonight.

Someday, Somewhere / Anyone's Ghost

2010-06-11T08:47:00.000-07:00

THE SET (TAKE TWO)

Jeremy Jay--> Someday, Somewhere
The National-->Anyone's Ghost

THE SETTING

"You're walking down the street at night with your headphones..."

THE SOUND
Both tracks are sung to a lost "you" wearing headphones at night on the street. The detail of the headphones underscores the wishful conceit of most rock music that a message might still get through to the disappeared with a song. Jeremy Jay's brief and beautiful "Someday, Somewhere" foregrounds drums and piano keys pressed down hard like chips of sound. There are angels hovering over his scene; before this gets too cloying he cleverly swaps "mist" and "missed," evoking a whole atmosphere of loss with one homophone. The National have used headphones before to potent lyrical effect, and their by now iconic dismal beauty is captured in "Anyone's Ghost"'s lyrics: "Go out at night with your headphones on, again/walk through the Manhattan valleys of the dead." This is the Magnetic Field's "I Don't Want to Get Over You" filled with stubborn pain in place of humor.
But wear headphones tonight: even loss leads to something new.

with thanks to y

Harper Road

2010-06-08T19:20:00.000-07:00

ONE TRACK MIND

Sun Kil Moon--> Harper Road

A slow burn swoon for summer. "Sorrow came in floods this April/without reason, hope or warning/We're now in May, June and July/Don't leave, my love, don't leave my side."