When I was a kid my parents had a subscription to the Saint Louis Symphony and I quickly became indoctrinated to the all-so-civilized world of Bach, cocktails at intermission, and polite applause. Often the music itself was so soothing that before long my eyelids became heavy and I sank deeper and deeper into my cushy, red seat.
I would dream that I was in one of those British period dramas. Sitting up in my box. Nodding down in approval. Peering through opera glasses. Turning to my cultured friends and smiling knowingly, “This is the shit.” Read More
I was beginning to doubt whether winter was ever going to come to Cincinnati – the average temperature had been in the high 40s-low 50s during December and January – but then that rat-bastard groundhog had to go and see his shadow. Since then we’ve been huddling around the radiator until bedtime.
But yesterday we climbed back into the 60s and even with the rain today, I’m feeling like shorts and flip-flops might be in order. That was, of course, until just a moment ago when those rat bastards at Yahoo! Weather informed me that tomorrow we’ll be dipping back into the 30s.
Blasted yo-yo weather has got me in a tizzy. I’m not sure whether to sink into cabin-fever depression or leap with joy in anticipation of Spring.
Thank goodness for Tullycraft. I can bounce around to the twee pop beats but still be blue when I listen to the sad, sad lyrics.
Disenchanted Hearts Unite!
- Tullycraft – Our Days in Kansas
- Tullycraft – Rumble with the Gang Debs
One of the stand outs in my current rotation of songs is the Decision by the Young Knives, a band out of Oxford, England. The song comes from an EP the trio put out in November. At first listen it reminded me of the Darkness, but whereas the Darkness clearly love 70s rawk, the Young Knives are much more enamored by rock from the 60s. Both
tracks listed below bring to mind a team of Monty Python-like knights galloping through wooded hillocks. There might actually be a wizard in the band. Sorry, I don’t really know what that means. It probably has something to do with the falsetto and the chorus line “the horses in the new forest/are running in their Sunday best”. But my favorite part of the song is at the end, when the protaganist interrupts his own “Bap-ba! Bap-bap badadada” to shout “Good news!” Good stuff.
- The Young Knives – The Decision
- The Young Knives – Coastguard
According to their website, they have a new album coming out soon. Until then you can pre-order the single Here Comes the Rumour Mill from eil.com or you could buy these.
Seamus and I are both unabashed fans of character actors. Okay, maybe we’re abashed fans, but this is a 
great time for them. Two fantastic character actors (I’m looking at you, Messrs Hoffman and Giamatti) have been granted starring roles in major Hollywood movies (in Mission Impossible 3 and Lady in the Water) and nominated for Oscars (for Capote and Cinderella Man). Long-time under-the-radar character actor David Strathairn has also been nominated for an Oscar for his role in Good Night, and Good Luck. The common factor among all three of these men is that they play creepy really well. Maybe that’s why we like them. Anyway, one of my favorite character actors who happens to play creepy oh so well has been slithering his way into the forefront of public conscience. Read More
Seamus, you said that you were reluctant to post anything about Jenny Lewis’s new album because of the amount of press she’s been getting, but I hope we can use this site in the way we’ve used emails in the past: to recommend things to each other and to anyone else who might be reading. I bring this up because I bought Belle & Sebastian’s new album The Life Pursuit last week and wanted to recommend it, but I felt a little of what you were probably feeling. Is it a fear of being unoriginal? I don’t know, but I do know that this latest B&S album is awesome. I actually might have a crush on it.
I keep hearing that with The Life Pursuit the Glaswegian septet has produced some very different tracks,
as if this album was their pursuit of a more commercial success. Maybe they have, and maybe I’m too dim to recognize it, but they still sound like the Belle & Sebastian I fell in love with back in the summer of ’97. This is still an album chock full of sensitive lads reflecting on girls and the local vicarage. What’s great about this album, though, is that it has so many appealing songs on it. The middle of the album moves from the staticky farting organ and boot-stomping beat of White Collar Boy and to the similarly T-Rex-channeling The Blues are Still Blue through the frenetic italian porn music of We Are the Sleepyheads to the bass-heavy cricket-chirping Song of Sunshine. I’ve yet to listen to the album less than twice in one sitting and I always end up with a different song stuck in my head.
Go buy it. It really is worth it. Don’t believe me?
- Download Another Sunny Day.
For fun, see if you can find the track that includes the organ line from
the ? and the Mysterians hit 96 Tears.