Fairport Convention - Matty Groves

I had no idea who Sandy Denny was when I was a kid. Like 99.3% of the male pre-teen population of the universe I was a huge Led Zeppelin fan, so I only knew her from those random Lord of the Rings lyrics she sang on Battle of Evermore. Her vocals were great, but I had no inclination at that point to explore any music outside of Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, the Who, the Doors, and Jimi Hendrix. I think when boys start getting acne and trying to score they also begin to realize that there is actually music outside of the 100 song classic rock radio rotation.

Fairport Convention is an amazing British folk group, and this song, with its sweeping tale of a servant lad who scores noble tail and eventually pays for it, is a gem. I heard a bluegrass tune with the same melody at a concert, so I'm assuming it is an old standard that has been passed down through the years. Denny's voice is so incredibly badass, especially when she sings lines like, "But if I am Lord Donald's wife, Lord Donald's not at home. He is out in the far cornfields bringing the yearlings home." The bass and drum set that great tempo, with the fiddle and guitar slinking around in the background. Love this song so much.

Beach House - Better Times

Everything I love about music is encapsulated in 1:22-2:22 of this song. The whole song (and album) is amazing, but this section makes me physically high. Keyboards out of an 80s song, Kim-Carnes-without-the-cigarettes vocals, lush sounding guitar, propulsive drums, and production that brings it all together into this mushy haze of dreaminess that I want to float around inside for a year or two. It's also unabashedly emotional, like Arcade Fire without all the deaths in the family. What a freaking voice Victoria Legrand has.

I keep saying to myself, "I must not play this record out. I must not play this record out." But it's like when I accidently take a thirty minute shower. I just stand there, hot water pounding on my head, my mind in a haze, and there's really nowhere else I'd rather be. So I start a countdown to 50, and when I get to 50 I'm gonna get out of the shower. But then I get to 49 and I still don't want to get out. So at 49 I go to 49.1 and after 49.9 I still don't want to get out. So I go to 49.91 and I know I'm in trouble. That's how good this record is. Listen to it.

Dunkin' My Dear

In honor of Valentine's Day, I decided to write a song for my main squeeze.

Dunkin' My Dear

Dunkin Donuts, your coffee tastes like candy,
Dunky Donuts, my heart is so randy
For the sweet sweet loving that you always bring,
Our love affair is no brief fling,
But you’re so far away, 3,000 long miles,
Why do you torment me, and silence my smiles,

I’ve never been a fan of long distance loves
Other coffee suitors, they come to me in droves,
But I push them away, too mainstream, too snobby,
They’re a passing fancy but you’re my real hobby,
But these West Coast fools don’t know coffee from Adam,
When I bring you to my lips, my eyelashes I bat ‘em.

Oh Dunkin Donuts, you got me forever,
If you wanted me to, I would dress up in leather,
Put a ball gag in my mouth and drink you through a drip,
Soak up your greatness, intravenous sip by sip.

Oh Dunkin Donuts, I surrender to you.
Pot after pot, I wish I could brew.
But I just can’t seem to get it right on my own.
Oh pretty baby, can’t find my way home.

Dunkin Donnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnutttttssss
(repeat ad infinitum with some random “doo doo doo doo doo, come on and lick it up!”s thrown in here and there).


Btw i know loves doesn't rhyme with droves, I'm going for the Eno China-Regina thing there. :p Wait, now this seems like I put a lot of forethought and effort into this, which will screw me in the likely event that this blows. Forget what I just said.

Magnetic Fields - All My Little Words

In honor of Valentine's Day, I thought I would post about a song bemoaning the torturous end of a relationship! Suck on that, Kay Jewelers! For cereal, though, what a song. Stephen Merritt (Magnetic Fields is him and some musicians he works with) made a triple album called 69 Love Songs (omg, get it?), and at least 45 of them are drop dead gorgeous. His lyrics are clever in a really unique way. Nobody writes like him. Sure, he throws some cliches into this song, but he can write a song that's completely earnest and tongue-in-cheek at the same time.

On another note, why do people make Youtube videos like this? I don't want to see the Beaver getting run over by a Studebaker while I'm enjoying this sweet tune. It totally distracts me. People need to ease back on the Youtube artsiness, especially when it directly conflicts with a song that is about 75,000 rungs higher on the creative ladder. That sounds snobby, but so be it!

Portishead - Humming (live)

Badass is a much-maligned term. If you say it, it's corny, and if you try to embody it, you usually end up looking like a tool. An over the hill accountant wearing a pristine leather jacket and straddling a twenty thousand dollar Harley is probably not badass. A scrawny nineteen year old with a silver chain, brand new kicks, and jeans five sizes too large is probably not badass, either (that was me, btw). Badass cannot be found on an episode of Jersey Shore. Though perhaps badass is in the eye of the beholder, and as ridiculous as Ronnie D and The Situation look to some, maybe the fact that they are so convinced that they are badass makes them badass. I can't believe I said that word so many times in one paragraph.

If the word badass was in the dictionary, an audioclip of this performance would play. From the old horror movie organ as theremin intro, to the massive beat that drops out of nowhere, to the DJ's stuttering scratching, to Beth Gibbons' haunted vocals, to the insane acoustics of that venue, to the horns, bass, and strings that add to the creepiness. The bass especially, that complements the beat with the "DOOM DOOM DOOM DOOM!"

The section at 4:10 is great, with the beat cutting out, Gibbons' piling on strindbergandhelium.com adjectives like unresolved and unredeemed, and the orchestra enhancing the morbidity. The beat kicks back in, we get a great shot of Gibbons singing, and the dj doubles up on the beat and starts scratching again. Basically, give me weird sounds, beats, and female vocals, and I'm good to go.

Dummy is my favorite Portishead album, but they're all great. They FINALLY came out with a new record a couple of years ago, and they've still got it! P. S. Is it ironic that the week after I post about Salinger I go on what basically amounts to a rant about phonies? I promise it was just a vehicle to discuss this song.