The September 2007 Mix.
Only four songs this month (and about ten days late too), but rest assured they’re of very high quality.
It would have been five, actually — the fifth would have been the excellent “Long Summer Day” by Two Gallants, but it threatened to turn into this big disquisition on its lyrics, race, Quentin Tarantino, the “N-word”, and one of the funniest scenes in Richard Wong’s Colma: The Musical (one of my favorite films this year), and I couldn’t hook it all together coherently enough, so I dropped it.
Also, I’m removing the files off box.net once the entry drops off the first page on the blog. They won’t be here forever, folks!
1. Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, “Underwater (You and Me)”
from the 2007 album Some Loud Thunder
Some songs see us sailing away
Navigating foreign borders, and climbing the waves
Someday your secret will be revealed
Either one you’re thinking of when the sun goes down into the water
We’re struck by the still of the moon
Hanging up there in the sky as though a balloon
Anchored by an astronaut’s patriot tune
We will buy the ship and fly to the land that would be rediscovered
We’ll design a clever disguise
We’ll retreat to the bottom of the sea
We were destined to live out our lives underwater, you and me
We’ll escape beneath the violet sky
Clouds come and night falls
You seem different on my mind
Upon an endless trail of moonlight
You’ll never realize that we have gone, we have gone right out of, out of sight
We’ll design a clever disguise
We’ll retreat to the bottom of the sea
We were destined to live out our lives underwater, you and me
Fact: Alec Ounsworth is a terrible singer on record and an even worse one live. My friend Eloise and I saw them play live at the Treasure Island Music Festival (along with the aforementioned Two Gallants, a lackluster Au Revoir Simone (but I knew that coming in), a very cool M. Ward, an always-reliable Built to Spill, a very good Spoon, and Modest Mouse, whom we skipped. My humble pictures taken from the center here, by the way; scroll down to the 20 pictures at the bottom).
Our response, unfortunately, wasn’t clapping our hands or saying “yeah”; it was more of looking at each other with puzzlement. (Though the lone, barely-sentient Filipino guy who just happened to be standing next to us made the concert way, way better with his generosity, for which I traded a couple of oatmeal cookies. The woman behind us commented that this was “the greatest thing I’d ever seen,” referring to our exchange. “This restores my faith in humanity,” she said. Eloise was happy too.)
The best thing about the concert was the excellent title track (“Some Loud Thunder”), which we hear in the shittiest mix imaginable on the record, but was now more intelligible through the wall of speakers. Unfortunately they didn’t play “Underwater (You and Me)”, which does restore my faith in indie rock, at least. There’s nothing quite like a good Running Away Song — like Born to Run is full of nothing but Running Away Songs — and “Underwater (You and Me)” is a perfect example. If this ever came out as a single, Michel Gondry would do a great job directing the video.
Live version on YouTube.
Amazon link.
Official website.
———-
2. Monday Michiru, “Slo”
from the 2003 album Moods
I’ve said it a couple times before, and I’ll say it again: Monday Michiru should be a massive, worldwide star. An already-glorious career as an acid-jazz diva, a hugely appealing lyricist, a bold and ambitious plunge into straight-up jazz, a genuine musical pedigree, a remarkably supple and sophisticated voice (not to mention the fact that she’s drop-dead gorgeous) — what’s wrong with you people?
Amazon link.
Official website.
———-
3. Maria Taylor, “A Good Start”
from the 2007 album Lynn Teeter Flower
You’re one with the burden of intuition.
You’re one with the freedom of a blank stare.
You’re one with the best friend you lost,
You wish was still there.
You’re one with the dust on that old piano.
You’re one with the strings on your new guitar.
You’re one with the wind through the open window,
You are.
It was a faint line that brought you here,
And a pulse that kept you in time.
It was the comfort of a tradition,
Like the few that were not that kind.
It’s a shame now, baby, you can’t see yourself
And everything you’re running from.
And it’s the same world, honey, that has brought you down,
As the one that’s gonna pick you up.
And pick you up.
You’re one with the echoes of conversation.
You’re one with the strangers you overheard.
You’re one with the lesson that was the best one you learned.
It was a faint line that brought you here,
And a pulse that kept you in time.
It was the comfort of a tradition,
Like the few that were not that kind.
It’s a shame now, baby, you can’t see yourself
And everything you’re running from.
And it’s the same world, honey, that has brought you down,
As the one that’s gonna pick you up.
And pick you up.
It was a cold, dark, sleepy morning walk.
You fell down facing up.
It was a good start.
It was a good start.
It was a cold, dark, sleepy morning walk.
You fell down facing up.
It was a good start.
It was a good start.
It’s a shame now, baby, you can’t see yourself
And everything you’re running from.
And it’s the same world, honey, that has brought you down,
As the one that’s gonna pick you up.
And pick you up.
And it’s a shame now, baby, you can’t separate
Yourself from where you stood.
And it’s the same world, honey, that made you feel so bad,
That makes you feel so good.
Feel so good.
I’m a not-so-secret admirer of indie female singer-songwriters (whatever that means), and this song goes straight to that indie-female-singer-songwriter-admiring part of my brain.
Video on YouTube.
Amazon link.
Official website.
———-
4. Kanye West, “Barry Bonds (feat. Lil Wayne)”
from the 2007 album Graduation
And finally, the best song, hands down, from my favorite album of the month and certainly one of the best albums of the year. “Only I could come up with some shit like this.” Indeed. (But why Lil Wayne — in a fantastic, even more gravelly-voiced than usual, guest appearance here, still feels compelled to stupidly say “no homo” in such enlightened times is a mystery.)
Why I love this song: lots of reasons — “bow so hard till your knees hit your forehead,” the way the instruments all tumble together slowly at the beginning, “ice in my teeth so refrigerated,” the constant stop-start rhythm, but when it comes down to it — it’s all about the throat-clearing.
Amazon link.
Official website.
———-
Popularity: 1% [?]
