Four Songs to Listen to Forthwith - 06/06/10

You know how sometimes you put on a winter jacket for the first time in a new season and you find money from last year in the pocket? That same thing happened to me with this song, The Acorn – Crooked Legs. I first noticed this song a couple years ago when Pitchfork reviewed their album, I heard it and liked it, but never kept it around in any playlists. On Friday another great professional review site recommended a song by The Acorn, “No Ghost”, I recognized the name and knew I liked them, but couldn’t but a song to the name. A quick search in my music library and it all comes flooding back. I hope you enjoy this song, it’s a comforting long song filled with percussion and strings. Check out The Acorn for more Indie Folk Rock.

There’s going be a lot of stuff posted on here that you may not like right away, the sound could be totally new or even something you immediately recognize as something bad. Don’t worry about it, there will be other things to make up for it. But if you give these little monsters some time you may grow to appreciate their art. Sleigh Bells just released their first album this week they are loud, noisy, distorted, catchy, and different. It’s a genre Wikipedia is calling Noise Pop… it fits. No music videos from them, here’s the latest single “Tell ‘Em”.

Oh.. you’re still here… good. I’ll be nice this time. This is The Cloud Room – Hey Now Now. This song came out in 2005, that’s five years ago. This is a great song, but you probably haven’t heard it. No, I mean like a really great song, literally exactly like the kind of stuff you hear on the radio every single day, there’s no subjectivity here. If you at all identify with rock and roll, you will like this. It is approachable the first time you hear it, and after that it only gets catchier. Rolling Stones named it one of the top ten songs of 2006, it’s been used in several national commercials and made it’s time around music blogs several times. But it’s still not on the radio. It is a perfect example of how mainstream radio snubs its nose at anyone that would dare go the “indie” route.

I was talking about my taste in contemporary folk at a campfire this weekend, it’s one of my favorite genres. It’s simply refreshed folk, typically just acoustics with voice, but horns and strings are not uncommon. This song, Badly Drawn Boy – The Shining is a beautiful example of this idea. It is simple and elegant. There is a beginning, middle, and ending. Like a sweet poem it is so much more than just entertainment. This is a mood altering song.