Songs of the Week #4- Editors Pick
“Did a jazz-loving magical unicorn write those chords?”
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ROY:
"www.ipetitions.com/petition/rivertonrifle/" -- John K. Samson
John K. Samson is the songwriter and singer behind the Canadian band The Weakerthans. This song is from his recent solo album, Provincial. I've been listening to this album on repeat for a few weeks now. Samson has always been incredibly adept at writing about place, but this record in particular very compellingly traces the lines of the town and province he grew up in. "www.ipetitions.com/petition/rivertonrifle/" takes the form of an actual petition to the Hockey Hall of Fame to induct former National Hockey League player Reggie "The Riverton Rifle" Leach. In February of 2013 Samson delivered the petition to the Hall of Fame (captured in this short video: http://vimeo.com/64670887). The song itself is short and barely has a melody, but it's catchy and strangely moving. It is an interesting mingling of art and sport and activism. After delivering the petition and singing the song one last time in front of the Hall, Samson declared the song "finished."
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MATTY:
"Deacon Blues" -- Steely Dan, from the album AJA
If you ever wanted to know exactly what a "groove" should sound like, and you weren't necessarily partial to one style of music over any other, then I would heartily recommend listening to "Black Cow." But looking deeper into AJA, I've always found myself partial to "Deacon Blues," and not just for the horn solo buttressed by gentle waves of guitar chords that happens two-thirds of the way through the song, either. Did a jazz-loving magical unicorn write those chords? Probably. Most of what gets me is the cryptic but honest storytelling in the lyrics. Donald Fagen told us in 1977 that we had entered the day of the expanding man.The early precursor to the Internet, having found its beginnings in the early 70s via simple shared connections between two networks, was then first used for what would become "email," right around the time Fagen and Walter Becker were writing this album. In 1976, the first commercial email service (known as "Comet") was introduced to the world. Expanding man? I'll say. Nostradamus, eat your shorts.
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SHENYAH:
“One Million Year Trip” -- Laetitia Sadier off her solo album, The Trip
Laetitia Sadier’s solo album very much excited me when I knew of its existence! Former front woman of Stereolab and side project Monde (my personal favorite), The Trip lends similar textures and energy. The movement and composition may seem less, yet it delves a little further into her person, which I've always wondered with those sexy French vocals. She recorded this album in dedication to her late younger sister who took her own life, making it a more personal endeavor. I am quite the fan of her other projects, yet it is nice to take a step into her soul, solo vision, The Trip. Sadier has always had a way of making her listeners know it is her through her vocal style, this style may be confused between the projects, but as the listener, becomes familiar to each it’s own. I do love the filling in of the blanks that occurs with her French, but to my treat, she sings English on some of her songs on this album yet her voice still captures my attention, “I lost someone precious, in the depths of my lining. At the heart of my loss, my little sister’s voice. Forever mutes, inaudible, inert…”
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CARRIE:
"Ruin" -- Cat Power
The running physical energy and power in this song makes it full of creative inspiration for me. The rolling list of places and cities all over the world adds to the magnitude of this feeling. By contrast, I love how the lyrics serve to remind people of the first world, and most likely the majority of Cat Power's audience, that when we sit on our hands, bitching and complaining while "people ain't got shit to eat," we manifest a ruin of the world at our fingertips, a world we could just as easily use to realize our potential as a race, to create a piece of meaning, or at the very least just do fucking something.
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JOHN:
"Wallet" -- Bubble Cats
Ever since I brought home Bubble Cats' Triple EP CD; Hiss, Mews, Purr; my son has pretty much stolen it. I told him how the singer is my friend Tyler, and that freaked him out. "YOU mean, MY friend Tyler is the singer?" It was the first time he associated a real person with the music we were listening to. I now bring Henry to band practice, where he gardens with our drummer's wife until the end of practice, when we jam with him on drums. He wears earmuffs and smiles from ear to ear the whole time. I will always think of Bubble Cats as the band that made music accessible to Henry. Side note, Tyler is the lead guitarist in our band, so as much as I love playing music with him, I know he is excited to be playing with Tyler.
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