The beats, yeah, they were coming out the speakers

I guess I'm a little behind the times-as I had never heard of this pretty great band until recently. I heard about Los Campesinos! at the radio station, and I wasn't too sure about them, that's not to say I didn't like them, I just ignored them and didn't give them a listen. I wasn't really sure what I was expecting out of them, I certainly wasn't expecting this 8-piece indie group from Wales, England.

I've been downloading their music like crazy the last couple days. I won't drive you all nuts with posting all of the songs I've found that I really enjoy (as I am still finding more) but bear with me for a minute or too while I post two of their songs. The first is called "My Year In Lists"and is kind of a short little novelty song that is about two lovers apart, and their correspondence through letters (at least that's what I've gathered after listening to it a few times). The lyrics are incredibly well written and the music is arranged in such as way that you are ever-aware of both parties presence. The indie-rock sound is almost undeniable (and as some have said a little bit tongue-in cheek in Los Campesinos! songs-in the sense that they have realized the stereotype and are playing it up).

The second track is "You! Me! Dancing!" which is kind of a mind bender. It begins with a heavy duty build up crescendo (like the ending to the Beatles classic "A Day In The Life"). And then breaks down with the drum fill moving in to a really great sound for the rest of the song. However with a 6-minute mammoth, it goes through phases (in the same kind of way thatModest Mouse's "Spitting Venom" flows). Again with the lyrics as well, it is a little hard to keep track of based on the pace of the song but they are great. My all-time favorite part of the song comes with the musical interlude at around 4-minutes, with a heavy percussion part and screaming guitar. It finally peters out with a rough guitar fade which really ties it up nicely. Sorry to write such a long winded post but this is definitely a band that needs recognition if they aren't already getting it. Enjoy the songs!

"My Year In Lists" by Los Campesinos! from My Year In Lists (2008)

"You! Me! Dancing!" by Los Campesinos! from Hold On Now, Youngster...(2007)

-S

Some brains just work that way that's what chemicals can do

A band that I haven't really figured out whether or not I like them is Idaho based band, Built To Spill. I really liked them on tracks like "Liar," but they miss for me on a fair amount of their songs. Tending towards sounding a little played out and formulaic in their style. However I think the dissonance I had about them was solved yesterday as I trekked in to Boston on the Mass Pike and happened upon a radio station a friend has showed me, Emerson's 88.9 FM WERS. A song came on that I instantly just went nuts for.

The song is called "Big Dipper." The song starts out with this kind of Ben Folds-y vocals in their styling (not sure why it was Folds who I thought of first when I heard it). But the lyrics are more along the lines of other early 90's indie-rock bands like Pavement and Modest Mouse. I think that is the part that I like the most about the songs is the lyrics. The chorus is just so great, when Doug Martsch (really unique voice if you haven't heard it) croons "Bottoms up and this time, won't you let me be? Bottled up but this time, won't you rescue me?" I'm not sure why but that lyrics just sounds so great on the track and is kind of fun to dissect as a song.

Anyway, enjoy the song, and the band, they are now on my good side.

"Big Dipper" by Built To Spill from There's Nothing Wrong With Love (1994)

-S

You can say what you want but don't act like you care

I'm pretty sure I've written quite a bit about Modest Mouse, however I have not had the opportunity to write about my all time favorite song by them, and I thought to myself, the time is right. The song comes off of their 2007 album We Were Dead Before The Ship Even Sank, and track 12 happens to be the eight and a half minute masterpiece, "Spitting Venom." And through the transitive property, Modest Mouse being one of my all-time favorite bands, and this being one of my favorite songs from the indie rock legends-this must be one of my favorite songs of all time, and for good reason.

A little history of the album, it followed the moderate success of their fourth studio album Good News For People Who Love Bad News (one of the first albums I ever bought, shortly after I turned 12). Since the 2004 album, they added former Smith's guitarist Johnny Marr. This addition led to a very guitar heavy release of their fifth studio album, We Were Dead Before The Ship Even Sank. The album had 14 tracks, and for the most part was pretty good, albeit a little more guitar heavy than I was used to for Modest Mouse, it however, was not unwelcome. All in all though the stand alone track was not the single "Dashboard" for me, it was "Spitting Venom"


At present, it is one of the most played songs in my music library. The song starts out with a simple punching guitar and Isaac Brock's classic lisp and strained vocals, almost coming at you in an angry way. Then comes one of the most amazing and uniquely Modest Mouse guitar parts (and for Marr that is impressive to master the feel of a band so well) I have ever heard, breaking in to Brock's best attempt at a melody worked in to the songs hook. The guitar stutters and whines it's way with the driving drum beat pulsing its way to seemingly a climax-and then the break, with a headnodic drum beat which fits in perfectly. The song swerves and weens it's way toward a horn part that works its way in to the song in a way that I didn't think possible (other great horn-heavy band: O.A.R.). The song then takes a tangent in to more of a "Dramamine" feel (another of my favorite Modest Mouse songs). Then comes the fade in to the end, and to be honest you have no idea what just hit you.

This is a band at one of it's finest moments, a band that has so perfectly mastered their art that you would be hard pressed to find any unintentional flaw. To be honest though, this song is flawless. Kudos to Modest Mouse for this gem.

"Spitting Venom" by Modest Mouse from We Were Dead Before The Ship Even Sank (2007)

-S

P.S. Happy May!

Placid as I melt in to the sea

This song isn't really comparable to anything else I know. It's The XX's "Crystalised" (intentionally spelled wrong, I think not). The driving guitar really powers through the song in a way that you get a little out of Modest Mouse's "Dramamine" but not nearly as pretty and just as hypnotizing. What stands out most about "Crystalised" though, is the vocals. They are incredibly haunting in a way that you hear with bands like The National or Bon Iver in some cases. I really don't know much about The XX except for the fact that they are from England.

The day I heard this song I was working my first Pre-J gig at the radio station and one of the hosts told me to try putting on this song. I was instantly struck by how beautiful it was. I'm not sure I love it, or even like it for that matter, but it is certainly striking.

Something just grabs you right from the start and doesn't let you go until the final wind down and the really classy fade at the end, its like a breakdown, that is the only way to describe the close which comes just as softly as the intro. One of my favorite parts was the overlap of vocals in the last minute, it is really awesome and pretty powerful to listen to as an effect. Hope you enjoy!

"Crystalised" by The XX from xx (2009)

-S

P.S. Try and check out the whole album, it was rated one of the best of the year 2009 by Rolling Stone.

I'm tired, here's Bukowski...

I'm very tired tonight. I am writing my post at 11:50PM on April 1st. I did not go to school today and am thus tired from just having a generally epic day. So here's Modest Mouse's "Bukowski" to even out my day. All that can be said is: Isaac Brock is amazing, and that's just the cold hard truth. Truth be told that after "Float On" this was the first song that I fell in love with by Modest Mouse. I get so nostalgic thinking about this song. Some of the best lines Brock has ever written: "If God takes life, he's an Indian giver. " man, that one just gets me every time.

"Bukowski" by Modest Mouse from Good News For People Who Love Bad News (2004)

-S

When your around me I'm someone else

Once in a while I come across a band that I am surprised not to have heard about. I recently started listening to Pavement at the suggestion of my high school English teacher. He's a huge fan and is even going to their reunion show in New York this September.

Regardless, they were a whole section of indie music that I had not heard influencing bands such as The White Stripes and Modest Mouse (a couple of my favorites). Recently though, I stumbled upon Guided By Voices led by singer/songwriter Robert Pollard.

The band from Dayton, OH, started up in 1983 and recently broke up in 2004 (I guess '04 was a bad year for bands, Dispatch and Phish broke up that year too). Regardless, you can here the song writing of Pavement and the guitar tones familiar to Modest Mouse and The Mountain Goats in Pollard's songs (of which he has claimed over 1,300 to his name). Pollard brings 'it' with the catchy lyrical structure and the punchy guitar that I love so much.

"Teenage FBI" by Guided By Voices from Do The Collapse (1999)

"I Am A Scientist" by Guided By Voices from Bee Thousand (1994)

"My Valuable Hunting Knife" by Guided By Voices from Alien Lanes (1995)

-S

P.S. Fun Fact: Guided By Voices basically released an album every year while active from '83-'04. They also used the same Lo-Fi style that John Darnielle loves to use with The Mountain Goats.

Let's get a bottle and drink alone tonight

When I was a freshman in high school I met this girl who, as it turned out, had a music taste very much like my own. This was surprising to me at the time because I never met another person whose music library was almost alike in every way to mine. I was really happy about this considering it was my first couple of weeks in a new town where I didn't know a soul.

We shared a lot of music that year, one of the bands she turned me on to was Minus The Bear. I instantly fell in love and downloaded every song I could find and even bought some CDs (who buys those anymore? Sorry Record Labels.)

As with most bands I download, I get more songs than I can handle at the time, and a few songs fly under my radar, some for months or years at a time. One such song was Absinthe "Party At The Fly Honey Warehouse" a behemoth of a song for me at the time, weighing in at five and half minutes (At the time this was an absolute ballad for me, I was still a year or two from listening to Phish and the Grateful Dead, everything is relative I guess...)

To get the full experience, close your eyes. This song is truly amazing, great intro, lyrics are solid, and a droning but evolving sound (not unlike Modest Mouse's "Dramamine" in the sense that they both build off of a single riff.)

This past December I got to see this band in concert, I was waiting the whole show for this song and they walk off stage, and I'm eagerly waiting to see what the encore was, and lo and behold! This was it! (This song is a horse of a completely different color live, trust me, possibly even better)

Absinthe Party At The Fly Honey Warehouse by Minus The Bear from Highly Refined Pirate (2002)

— S