Honeymooning with Winter

Up until today, I had largely ignored Beach House's Devotion, which came out way back in March. I gave it a couple cursory listens upon release, and then by and large forgot about it as the weather warmed, days grew longer, and Edmonton broke out of its wintery chill. Nights were spent on patios, and days were spent longing to be on said patios. This is not the setting for Beach House.

But today (thanks to a nudge from Gorilla v. Bear's Best of 2008 list), I decided to revisit it, and it was perfect. The reverb drenched vocals and keyboards seem infinitely more appropriate while looking out my corner cubicle window, happy to be inside, drinking green tea, enjoying a relatively slow day at the office than wishing that I was anywhere but. The snow is new and clean, without a hint of brown of the gravel and salt ridden slush that will plague the city for months to come.

Soon, I will grow tired of Edmonton's long, harsh winter, but for now, I'm still in the honeymoon stage, and its soundtrack will be 'Devotion.'

Beach House - D.A.R.L.I.N.G
(From: Devotion)

(After re-reading, that sounds far more emo than I wanted it to... oh well.)

Teenage Fanclub

Now.
Everyone has pet bands/albums. I have a few. This is allowed because I have a blog. If you don't, you're only allowed one. Deal with it.
Anyways, the one I'm going to talk about on this particular day - one filled with snow and political strife - is Teenage Fanclub's Bandwagonesque.
I'm fascinated by this album for a number of reasons, but the foremost is I really have no idea why I like it so much. If I really listen to it objectively, it's by no means a great album, but I still love it. Since I don't feel like writing in paragraph form anymore, here are some bullet points about the album:

- It's biggest claim to fame is being accidentally well-regarded. Allow me to explain: Back in 1991, when the album came out, Spin magazine bestowed upon it the honor of being named the album of the year. Pretty big deal. You'd think that would get it some respect. But no - the #2 album that year, according to Spin, was Nevermind. So, after Nevermind became a classic (and that's a whole 'nother blog), Bandwagonesque developed a notoriety for being named the #1 album of the year ahead of Nevermind. For years, that was all I knew about this album.
- It also gets overlooked because it came out of the UK in 1991, when there was an insane amount of quality music coming out of the UK - but it doesn't really sound like your typical britpop, so it gets brushed to the side a little.
- It has an awesome lyric in "She don't do drugs/but she does the pill". I find this to be clever.

But, aside from all of that, it's a pretty plain album. But I love it. And I don't know why.

Here's two songs - And please... please comment if they're actually good or not. I need to know if I'm actually insane for loving this album:

Teenage Fanclub - The Concept
Teenage Fanclub - Alchoholiday
(From: Bandwagonesque)

(See... Even the song titles are kind of lame... Alcoholiday sounds like it could be a Nickelback/Theory of the Deadman Double LP. For the love of good bread.)

Continuing Education

Here are some things I learned on the weekend:
- John C. Reilly needs to sit down and watch Hard Eight and Magnolia. After doing this, he will hopefully remember that he is a very good actor and will stop wasting his time on moderately amusing movies like Walk Hard.
- I am good at some things. De-boning a chicken thigh is not one of them.
- Certain NFL broadcasters are able to distinguish time in 'literally nanoseconds'. While impressive, this talent probably be used for something more useful. I just can't think of what that is yet.
- I had gone far too long in life without watching a Woody Allen film. It made me want to go to New York even more.
- Certain friends of mine have never heard Silent Shout (this is about to be remedied)
- The Comas, which I had thought were fairly unknown, are apparently somewhat well known because their lead singer used to date Michelle Williams, who used to be married to Heath Ledger
- Despite being a pretty cool song for the Christmas season, "Maybe this Christmas" will forever be tainted by the memory of Ryan and Marissa's trip to the mall being ruined when Marissa decided to shoplift while on her slow descent into alcoholism. Selfish, selfish Marissa.

The Knife - Silent Shout
(From: Silent Shout)

The Comas - The Last Transmission
(From: Conductor)

Ron Sexsmith - Maybe this Christmas

Its not your money that they're after boy, It's you.

Now I realize that these days (and by 'these days' I mean since 2001) its very en vogue to knock any new Belle and Sebastian record for being having too many strings, too many horns, and too much production in general (as well as not enough Isobel Campbell). Of all these criticisms, only the last holds any weight. Isobel is amazing.
But that's beside the point. You can't expect a band to write perfect bedroom pop about kissing your elbow forever.
So that brings us to today's songs. First listen to Like Dylan in the Movies. Listen to the melody closing the chorus. "Its not your money that they're after boy, its you". Ok. Got it?
Now listen to Women's Realm (from the oft-maligned/overlooked Fold your Hands Child, you Walk like a Peasant)Clap along. Now listen to the strings, right around the 2:34 mark. There it is. Same melody.
This is self-reference at its finest. Not in the hip-hop sense of listing past triple platinum albums (jay-z, I'm looking in your general direction), just a subtle wink/nod that lets listeners know that behind all the production, they're still the same Scottish kids that used to sing about lying in bed, kissing just for practice.

Belle and Sebastian - Like Dylan in the Movies
(From: If You're Feeling Sinister)

or... from the new Live @ BBC Album
Like Dylan in the Movies (Live @ BBC)

Belle and Sebastian - Women's Realm
(From: Fold Your Hands Child, You Walk Like a Peasant)

Side note:
I was really looking forward to full-out hating 808s and Heartbreaks. It was welling up inside of me. I wasn't even going to listen to it. But... it's not as bad as I was expecting. I'll never be crazy about it, but if you go in expecting a fairly disposable pop-album with a copious amount of auto-tune, well... your hopes can't be that high, so you can't be all that disappointed.

Fluxblog captures these feelings far more eloquently than I ever could.

TV on the Radio are quickly becoming one of my favorite bands. Now, this shouldn't be anything shocking, as they've put out four brilliant records in the span of five some years.
But still, there was always some reservation on my part that they may, to some extent, be a product of their producer (Dave Sitek, who made Scarlett Johansson's album good.) So when I saw them live a few months ago, I was a little worried about how things would translate - especially any material off of Return to Cookie Mountain, which seems especially reliant on studio work.
What I should have done instead is listened to Ambulance. It can be an easy track to overlook, coming right at the end of side A of Desperate Youth, Bloodthirsty Babes(And let's face it, any song would have a hard time living up to the opening trifecta of The Wrong Way, Staring at the Sun, and Dreams), but its pretty much perfect - without any weighty production, just voices. It's the song that led me to half-jokingly refer to them as "so post-barbershop" for all these years (I guess post-doowop might be more appropriate, but oh well). And even though the a capella is more of an exception than the rule, its quickly becoming the song by which I define the band. (There's a joke in here about Boyz II Men singing silent night on fresh prince of bel-air, but I'm not going to touch it, even as Christmas approaches.)

TV on the Radio - Ambulance
(From: Desperate Youth, Bloodthirsty Babes)
Photograph by: Joseph Rotindo

Sleeping

I am going to bed soon. So here's a song which makes me want to sleep. A Lullabye, if you will.
As well as a random picture I took of a pagoda.
I guess you could sleep in one of those.

Sol Seppy - Enter One

Edit: After re-looking at that picture, I almost feel like I should have posted a song by some Japanese Wilco cover band, which I don't actually know, but certainly exists....
See what I mean?

Writer's Block

As it is late Sunday night, I am tired from the weekend, am absolutely intimated by the quality of writing at Said the Gramophone lately, and yet still feel obliged to post something to this blog, here are a collection of songs that will define the past weekend for me.
None of them are for download. But I will let you try and piece together exactly what happened. And then I'll put up some songs that I've been listening to lately. Sounds good? OK.

TotalEclipseoftheHeart.BorntoRun.AlloutofLove.BarbieGirl.
StillDRE.Vindicated.Excursions.ItisWellWithMySoul.

Confused? Yeah. Me too.

School of Seven Bells - Half Asleep
(From: Alpinisms)

Chad Van Gaalen - Willow Tree
(From: Soft Airplane)

Super Negro Bantous - Professional Super Bantous
(From: Lagos All Routes)