Plant Party

Guitar, drums, violin, and mandolin. Super loving this.

Song of the Day 4/21/2011

I am unwell. Not seriously ill, but coughing, uncomfortable and suffering from diminished concentration, any errors or insane observations in the below should be attributed to my condition.

To speed up my recovery I've taken the day off and I'm sitting in a coffee shop drinking spendy coffee and listening to old KEXP song of the day podcasts (drowning out The Jackson Five, which the staff seem to play on an endless loop). Obviously this is an excellent source of new music and being able to select a song from a finite list gives me a pleasant feeling of control that I don't get from just listening to KEXP on the radio.

Of the twenty or so songs I've heard this morning this is probably my favorite:

Teenage Love Made Me Insane by The High Dials
(yeah, Soundcloud, not youtube - this is the future).

Things I like about this record:

• The start - similar (same?) chords as Growin' Up by Portastatic.
• The first verse - sounds like Teenage Fanclub.
• The end - where a phaser (or possibly a flanger) is employed to mix the vocals and guitar lines together into a squashy beam of joy.

Right, back to eating fistfuls of Vitamin C.

Bonus Song!

"None of those dancers were professionals!"



Big Country on Top of the Pops in 1983. Via facebook friend Melissa.

Song of the Day, 4/20/2011

I'll bet you thought I was going to post G&O today, huh?

No, instead, you get a song which I think falls in a genre one of my coworkers calls "Fake Classy Restaurant Music" (as in, "Sometimes, sitting next to you is like being in a fake classy restaurant.")



This comes via Ian, whose Facebook like of this band made me check them out tonight. And I really dig it. (Although the video is very blah.) Accordion?? Ukelele?? Gang vocals?? Uncertainty as to whether this song is uplifting or totally depressing?

Perfect.

SotD 4/19/11 - Bill Callahan's Riding For The Feeling

I've been feeling melancholy today; more so than I've been for a long time. Fortunately, Stereomood has a mood appropriate playlist for me. I always question whether it's a good idea to listen to downer music when you're not in a great mood but I do it anyway.

I picked this song from the playlist because out of all of the thirty-something songs I've listened to today this one was the must successful at enhancing my melancholy. It remains to be seen whether it was good judgment on my part to listen to it again.

Song of the Day, 4/18/2011

"Once this is over, it is all downhill."

Local Natives | Who Knows Who Cares | A Take Away Show from La Blogotheque on Vimeo.

I had a plan for an entire like, expository diatribe I was going to post about an artist I used to love, love, love when I was a teenager - one that's kind of embarrassing, but I think totally justified, and I think is worth you understanding too.

But instead, my pal Lauren linked this from Facebook, and I decided you should watch it too. (Oh the harmonies! Oh the drumming!)

Maybe I'll get my ranty-face on for Wednesday.

Song of the Day, 4/17/2011

Sorry for falling way behind and sucking at songs of the day in the last week.



Today's song of the day is The Redwood Plan. They are the party. In general, I think Seattle doesn't have enough party music or party bands - we're really good at supporting and elevating sad guys with guitars and folk guys with beards, but we're not good at elevating bands that actually make you want to dance.

We caught The Redwood Plan at the Comet last night, and it was all kinds of awesome. I think we all need a little more of this.