Sunday, February 04, 2007

2007 CD project: 5/52

The fifth CD I acquired this year was a sampler from Paste magazine. I've decided to include in the parameters of this project all CDs I acquire this year, whether I purchase them or not. This CD, which came with the magazine, cost me nothing at all (which will help keep the total down for sure!). I find myself subscribed to Paste without actually having asked or paid for it. Go figure. maybe it's all my connections in the music scene.

(Note: I actually have no connections in the music scene. I only know people who have connections in the music scene. There is a huge difference.)

Anyway, I won't go over all the details of these mostly up-and-coming (read: obscure) acts, so here's just a quick rundown of a few of of the tracks:

"When I Wake" - The Changes. They have an XTC vibe going. Pretty good power pop.

"Split Needles [alternate version]" - The Shins. I've heard a few things by this much beloved band and liked what I heard, but this song is utterly forgettable to me. Really. I must have played it 10 or more times this week and I cannot for the life of me remember anything about it.

"Ain't No Reason" - Brett Dennen. Perhaps the song that hooked me the most, but a very guilty pleasure. Has all the qualities of a song that would be played on "Scrubs" during the part where everyone has reached the apex of their particular problem. For all I know, it has. White boy blues, a sort of Dave Matthews lite spouting lyrics either trite ("Keep on building prisons, gonna fill them all / Keep on building bombs, gonna drop them all") or the type that seem poetic yet ultimately mean nothing ("I got a basket full of lemons and they all taste the same / A window and a pigeon with a broken wing"). Yet, if I'm in the mood for it, it works for me. It must for others, too; he's got 17000 "friends" on his MySpace page.

"Words" - Lucinda Williams. I'm a fan of her breakthrough album, Car Wheels On a Gravel Road, and this is a similar vein. Good stuff.

"Leave In the Middle Of the Night" - Dana Falconberry. Vaguely reminiscent of Katharine Whalen's work in the Squirrel Nut Zippers. A catchy little tune that could have been sung in some nightclub in the '30s.

"Loop Duplicate My Heart" - Suburban Kids With Biblical Names. More like Magnetic Fields With Different Names! Ha! 'Cause, see, this song sounds just like the Magnetic Fields.

"Get Ready" - Southern Bitch. Truly awful.

"The Perfect Me" - Deerhoof. People who like bands fronted by Japanese girls with girlish Japanese voices will like this band.

"Baby On My Arm" - The Broken West. They're an American Kinks!

"Heimdalsgate Like a Promethian Curse" - Of Montreal. I either love this or hate it. And I'm not sure which. It's, what? Glam-rock with a drum machine? Prince while he's depressed? All I know is the singer is yelping, over multi-textured Beatles-esque melodies, for some chemicals to help his mood. I doubt they would help.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I don't know if "Ain't No Reason" has ever played on Scrubs, but it plays at the end of Episode 23 (season 2) of The Unit. Your blog helped me track down the title of the song, and the artist. Thank you.

-CPF4242