LIYL: The idea of things working out the were they were supposed to. ***PHOX UNBLUSHING was recorded in one take, mistaken lyrics, wonky notes and all, over the course of the last 5 days of May, 2012 Feel Flows~
Sometimes,
music is like a coloring book.
its really easy to stay within the lines..
Almost formulaic in design.
Color this, this color, and it will look good.
Its only when you venture out of the box, do you find something worth drawing.
This is the case with "Branches"
...Yes, they have original songs,
but its the reincarnation of the classics that they are concerned about.
The idea that songs dont grow old,
they just get refurbished.
polished and spit shined.
Feel Flows~
*Cheers to Josh Weinberg for showing me this tune.
LIYL: The Oh Hello's, Of Monsters and Men, Coldplay, and Beirut
Step outside the box youve trapped yourself in,
to a crowded hallway.
Change the steps you take to walk,
to a slow hop.
Change the broken home alternative rock,
to a vast landscape of indie folk.
and you have Racing Glaciers.
Their songs build, glow, build, and refract.
In that order.
There was a time where Sam Beam from Iron and Wine had too many songs.
As docile as the man is, he searched for help to complete the songs that had filled his books.
From cover to cover, he taught the young band Calexico,
all of his songs.
Calexico, however, saw things differently.
They saw things a little bigger than one acoustic and a soft rounded spotlight.
They saw the songs as an atonement of everything holy and pure.
They recorded the album and stashed it within their book cases.
Always to look back on for some subtle advice as to how to write an album.
Point on telling you this: Dont allow yourself to get stuck within a bubble of your own music.
Step entirely out of your own box to find opinion. Besides, the fans are who you want to please.
LIYL: The Head and the Heart, Dr. Dog, Bowerbirds, and Devendra Banhart
I remember marching through the lined layers of evergreen and maple..
They established my trail back to the campus..
--It was the summer of 2009-- I think.
I consumed the morning- in the forest- behind the baseball field..
All the other kids (with their pumped up kicks) were going down to the football field.
-I wasn't interested-
I don't even remember what I was doing.
Probably trying to hug the wind --if i know my adolescent self
I just remember settling into a comfortable pile of soil + stone,
and listening to Andy Cabic's (Vetiver) catalogue on my Ipod.
It was so innovative at the time.
So avant-garde (if you will)
I found myself embedded within the soil itself.
Enough so, that I didn't leave that very spot until every one of his tracks were carefully examined.
... We all have this sort of pull string in our head.
One that yanks at our emotions every time something triggers it..
It could be an old picture of the house you moved away from all those years ago.
It could be the post card you got from your grandfather just before he passed away.
It could even be the developing lines on your mothers face as time canyons in and out of dark and light.
It could be a lot of things.
But music is the best at doing that..
One note can send you spiraling down the rabbit hole and into a fresh wound.
...It can flood your veins with emotions you were certain you defeated.
...But we should be embracing that feeling.
Embracing the hardships
Embracing the misery and misfortune.
Embracing catastrophe.
"Dont be upset that the rose grew thorns...
be happy that the thorns grew a rose."
Home-Work Assignment:
In light of all the shit you have on your plate,
sit and listen to a song that brings you back to a better time..
Reflect on it.
Realize that time heals all.
Realize that you cant remember the stress you were under during the first time you heard that tune back in 2009, 8, 7, 6, whatever
This is because our consciousness doesnt allow us to dwell on the difficulties,
and because music -when you want it to- tends to buffer out the bad.
It shelters you from the universal truth that time is passing by.
...Now attempt to grasp the concept that your future holds- relative- but higher levels of stress.
And all the stress you tend to find yourself under now
is merely an obstacle in time that you must work through to forget.
Sit and listen to a song that brings you back to a better time,
because music is the only thing that can solidify itself enough for you to still recall the melody
even after years of neglect.
LIYL: Sufjan Stevens, Lost in the Trees, and Andrew Bird "Half Moon Run is a talented young trio from Ottawa, Ontario and Comox, British Columbia. It was in a practice studio situated in Montreal’s Mile-End district, through the hardships of time constraints and flatlined bank accounts, that the trio bonded and created their unique sound, fusing together the restless elements of indie, pop and folk with beautiful rhythmic harmonies, delicate guitar lines and a hint of warm electronica" -Band Website ~Flows Feel
M. Ward has been with me for as long as I can remember.
He's best consumed on the nights where you weren't feeling the bar
but ended up there anyway.
Then you wanted to leave early,
but all your friends werent finished hitting on the girls they clearly wouldnt get.
So you walk home alone.
The bar isnt far away,
but you walk slowly.
Slow enough to let an album play till its end.
Slow enough to realize that walking home alone was the best decision you could have made.
M. Ward is saved for the feeling you get when you wrestle your pocket for your house keys outside your door.
Ryan Gosling was bored and decided he'd make a movie.
then he thought,
"shit, why don't I write the soundtrack as well"
....
So he gathered a childrens choir and wrote an album.
In fact, he loved the album so much,
he decided never to make the movie.
But the album will never die.
Promise.
LIYL: Lost in the Trees, Matt Pond PA, and Elvis Perkins
There are times,
when the only thing you want to listen to is something that will make your heart do a backflip.
Arctic Monkeys, Franz Ferdinand, maybe Animal Collective.
Something heavy and fearless.
Hailing from the same record label (Domino)
we have a completely different sound than expected.
Conor Obrien, who's original band hit stardom with one album,
sunk himself into a comfortable chair and wrote another masterpiece.
Yes, it came out a while ago.
No, i dont care.
Yes, i want you to trust me.
Its like..
If dat Sufjan Stevens shit I had,
met up with dat Dodos shit I had a lil bit ago..
and they had a baby.
Then those babies somehow met and they fucked.
This would be the shit they'd produce.
Just read this excerpt the band wrote to everyone who purchased the album:
Feel Flows~
"Hej! We are a duo hailing all the way from Berlin, Germany. Our debut EP,"Siren Songs" was recorded during the rainy summer of 2011 in Flo´s bedroom under the influence of cheap ice pops while spending most of the time playing ´International Superstar Soccer´ on an old Super Nintendo. We tried our best to make these bedroom/laptop pop songs sound as big as humanly possible.
Tack, "
Pick up their album for FREE here>>>Bandcamp -Honey Thief
Before I get into this- let me explain- their music is seasonal.
I find it constantly dragging me to the idea that the sun lasts forever.
But it doesn't.
Therefore, before we greet the winter,
lets enjoy the last bits of sunshine we have left.
-Cheers-
Spending nights alone,
The collective of friends who call themselves The Novel Ideas spent their summer away from their homes in Massachusetts and in a barn in New Hampshire.
They spent their days
away from their families.
Away from their loved ones.
Away from their pets and occupations.
Away from their problems.
They paused life for a short while and quickly did what they always wanted to do..
...Write an album.
Novel Ideas are what they call "a folk rock outfit"
Id like to think of the outfit as something they changed into. Something they can take off.
Under this outfit is a stripped down version of something they're not.
Ideas that are put on paper, find themselves to be too simplistic once they leave the paper.
Artist's try and spice up their own words, their own guitar riffs, and rhythms .
They try to blur the line between artist and computer.
However, there are brief moments where The Novel Ideas understand this conundrum, and try to rectify it.
I imagine they do this, by way of a recording technique...
I imagine that; Instead of standing over a microphone watching the equalizer flick its flicker,
They recorded the entire album on rocking chairs.
With beers in their cup holders.
With eyes on each other and nowhere else.
And with time on their side, friendship in their hearts, and a good attitude,
the world gave birth to the Novel Ideas.
And they were accepted. Just as they accepted the world.
LIYL: The Shins, Flaming Lips, My Morning Jacket, and Local Natives
Their new album doesn't do them justice.
..I remember trudging through fields of snow or sitting on my windowsill letting my feet dangle, to the jingle jangle sounds of "Band Of Horses".
There was a certain sense of tender heartedness apparent in their sound.
A certain sense of cluelessness, but every bit of knowledge as to how to make it sound like it was the correct way to live.
Whether it be the loud crunch of the guitar I hadn't heard before, or the swelling high pitched vocals of Ben Bridwell ive come to love and memorize. Every new listen, I discovered something new.
..And thats what we look for in a band, isn't it?
Self discovery.
