LhnA introduces: "From the Depths (of my External Hard Drive)"

 Do you remember that show they used to have on MTV, where the presenter would suddenly get up -mid-show- and walk all the way through the MTV studios, downstairs to what they would call 'the vault'? He or she would go down there to get a long-forgotten, yet loved video (an actual TAPE!). Remember the excitement (or at the very least the mild interested as to what he/she might come up with) you felt when they climbed down the stairs, opened a number of important looking doors, usually greeting some confused looking technicians on the way? 

  

Well, in honour of just that feeling, Letters have no Arms presents a new, weekly section, titled:

 

 

 

Every week, Letters have no Arms will delve deep into its own 'vaults' to find something truly special.  

Enjoy!

 

 

Men Without Hats - Safety Dance (1982)

 

 [Disclaimer: From the Depths (of my External Hard Drive) is in no way, shape or form determined by relevance or even good taste.]

Score! 20 years of Merge Records: The Covers!

Ah, surely there is no better combination than your favourite artists and bands covering your favourite artists and bands, AND for the proceeds of said album going to your favourite charities! Merge have created something truly special here, so go out and buy buy buy it!

 

Score! 20 years of Merge Records: The Covers!

01 Quasi: "Beautiful Things" (3Ds cover)
02 Les Savy Fav: "Precision Auto" (Superchunk cover)
03 The Shins: "Plenty Is Never Enough" (Tenement Halls cover)
04 St. Vincent and the National: "Sleep All Summer" (Crooked Fingers cover)
05 Broken Social Scene: "Complications" (The Clean cover)
06 Ryan Adams: "Like a Fool" (Superchunk cover)
07 Bright Eyes: "Papa Was a Rodeo" (The Magnetic Fields cover)
08 Lavender Diamond: "New Ways of Living" (Destroyer cover)
09 The Apples in stereo: "King of Carrot Flowers Pt. 3" (Neutral Milk Hotel cover)
10 Laura Cantrell: "Cowboy on the Moon" (Lambchop cover)
11 Bill Callahan: "Santa Maria" (Versus cover)
12 Barbara Manning: "Through With People" (Portastatic cover)
13 The Mountain Goats: "Drug Life" (East River Pipe cover)
14 The New Pornographers: "Don't Destroy This Night" (The Rock*A*Teens cover)
15 Tracey Thorn and Jens Lekman: "Yeah! Oh, Yeah!" (The Magnetic Fields cover)
16 The Hive Dwellers: "My Noise" (Superchunk cover)
17 Ted Leo & the Pharmacists: "The Numbered Head" (Robert Pollard cover)
18 Okkervil River: "All You Little Suckers" (East River Pipe cover)
19 Death Cab for Cutie: "Kicked In" (Superchunk cover)
20 Times New Viking: "Neighborhood #1" (Arcade Fire cover)

Songs removed upon request. Listen to the whole album here!.


Oh, and BUY it, it's great!

The week Steven was forced to begin drawing cows

 

 Why the cows, you ask?

 

Well, they certainly have little (or nothing) to do with the music in today's post. And before you write me to say how much you hate them/love them, let me just tell you a little about the how and the why of said cows.

 

As a blogger, a music blogger that is, there are essentially three ingredients needed to bake a tasty post. 

 

 1. Music. So this is pretty much how it works: when a band is unknown and can't get even a gig in a retirement home, they love music bloggers. They want to be our best friend. Buy us beers. Help get us laid. laugh at our jokes. They all want to know 'what's up?' As soon as they sell a few records however, this relationship changes. The same bands who kept harassing enthusiastically writing us about their first single now have a record company lawyer/representative/publicist writing us demanding the removal of said band's new single (or else face legal action).

2. Some vaguely witty banter (or simply a cleverly paraphrased press release) about said music.

 

3. Something in the way of a picture to go with the above. Music bloggers often make this easy on themselves by 'doing a Google' for a photograph of the band in question. Which is nice, you know. You get to see the band. Look, it's the band in front of a white wall! Nice shoes!

We of Letters have no Arms however don't particularly care about how the band looks (unless of course that band is Los Campesinos! And I can't even begin to describe how wonderfully cute they look, what with their raincoats, their keyboards, jumpers and cute hairc.. oh never mind that, but you really MUST read their wonderful blog!)

 

But yeah, so while we do stick respectfully to points 1 and 2, we tend to enjoy doing 3 a little differently. Ideally, we enjoy including something we made ourself, a photograph perhaps, a collage maybe. In doing so we obviously attempt at least some degree of relevance to the post. On occasion, however, we simply don't have anything of our own to go with a post (I just don't have any pictures of babies. I've also never been able to photograph a squirrel!). 

 

Which is when we too 'do a Google'. The problem with this, you ask?

The invisible hand of Blogger, swooping in and deleting posts in which we've used something that is not ours. See, apparently, ownership is required for the enjoyment of others. This sucks. Usually, we simply found something we liked, and wanted to share it with others (i.e. you). We do try and include a link to where we found it, though sometimes we just have nice images lying around on our computer for which we simply have no further information. 

So, to cut a long story short, I decided to attempt making my own drawings (well at least this week), in order to avoid the problem mentioned in point 3. So far I can unfortunately only draw cows however, so bear with me.

 

When not (badly) drawing cows, here's what I've been listening to this week:

 

Dan Deacon - Slow With Horns / Run For Your Life 

(oh look, a cow connection after all!)

  

Wavves - So Bored 

If I ever stop talking about it and actually form some sort of a band, this will be one of the first bands whose idea I'll plunder.

 

Camera Obscura - Forest and Sands

Words can't really express how much I love Camera Obscura. So I won't even attempt it.

If you live in the US, France, the UK or Mexico you can see them in May and June, which I suggest you do! They also have an album coming out soon, which you can preorder here (or here if you're in the U.S.)

  

Flight of the Conchords - Hurt Feelings (rap)

Is there any style these guys haven't perfected? This season alone has seen them do 80s synth-goth, rap, French chansons and Asian nightmare karaoke. Long may the remain "formerly New Zealand's fourth most popular guitar-based digi-bongo accapella-rap-funk-comedy folk duo".

  

Matthew Dear - Vine to Vine

From his rather brilliant 2007 album, Asa Breed.
 

I've also done a little 'donking' this week. I was going to upload one of my 'creations' , but decided to spare you. Perhaps the funnest part of 'donking' is making up new song titles. Total Eclipse of the Donk, anyone?

Songs and parks and stories about them

As you probably know if you've been following this blog, the reason we haven't posted much lately is because we're away on holiday in Galicia, Spain. This past weekend we spent two days in Santiago de Compostela and, as you would expect we did much exploring of the city so I did not have a chance to listen to a lot of new music, nor get very far with the book I'm reading (my first Jane Austen - Emma). We did, however, find this lovely park where we could sit and read and listen to some relaxing music for an hour or so:

As it turns out, the story of the park is quite interesting. The plot originally belonged to the old convent of Santo Domingo de Bonaval (founded circa 1200s!). In 1837 however, a law was passed that caused many properties that belonged to the Catholic Church to be transferred to the state. The land was afterwards used as a cemetery - "the original structure was partly modified by the addition of powerful mortuary pieces - niches - constructed at the turn of the nineteenth century." After the cemetery was closed the property suffered progressive deterioration from 1960 onward. "The abundance of springs ruined the outbuildings, the fountains, the paths, the walls, and the cemetery. The property became a garbage dump, sheds were built for workshops, and overgrown vegetation covered the splendid niche structures." All that until the municipality finally decided to convert it into a public park. It's really a wonderful place, the convent is still there and in one part of the park you can see the niches where the graves used to be, inside the walls surrounding it. We had wonderful spring weather and the whole thing was full of beautiful flowers and trees and lovely shady paths and places where you can sit and relax and read. Here are some more pics:

We also saw a bunch of real pilgrims who, unlike us, did not fly there but actually walked the whole Camino de Santiago (the Way of Saint James). Pretty neat :) Oh, and, I've been listening to Rio En Medio. It seemed to fit the mood here.

Tiger's Ear (The Bride of Dynamite, 2007)
*
Fall Up (Frontier, 2009)
The Light House (Frontier, 2009)
*
Pictures of You (Perfect As Cats: A Tribute to The Cure, 2008)

Sin Fang Bous

☆ pic ☆

Okay, our beloved Decemberists might have disappointed us a little with Hazards of Love, but it's not all bad. For one thing, there are other bands we love putting out great new singles. Anyone else totally obsessed with "Now We Can See" or "Gimme Sympathy"? I've been playing both something like 10 times a day.

For another, there are also NEW bands - whose existence we weren't even aware of two weeks ago - surprising us with great tunes. So never mind all the old bands we love that haven't lived up to the hype with their latest albums (and I can name many of those). We will not think about that now. Here's to the new. And here's to Sin Fang Bous, who make my evenings lovelier.

These are the last three tracks on Clangour, in reverse order:

☆ Lies ☆
☆ Poi Rot ☆
☆ Fafafa ☆

Et tu, Coline?

Okay I've been listening to Hazards of Love, and I have one word to describe it. Weird. I mean listen to Queen's Rebuke! Wow. Do I need to atte- Actually, you know, fuck it. I don't have only one word to describe it, I have several: weird, awkward, inconsistent, WHYY??? Why are you doing this to me???? What's with all the 80s guitars on some of the tracks? It sounds like Axl Rose and Bon Jovi happened to pop up at the recording studio and took over the instruments. And where are the haunting melodies that only The Decemberists know how to produce? And what about that totally irrelevant P.J. Harveyish voice? It's not that it's a bad voice, but in combination with Meloy's? Dear Lord!! I'm all for bands evolving, but evolving in the right direction. And this is not it, for me. This feeling of disappointment is exacerbated by the fact that I am a HUGE Decemberists fan. I really really love this band and feel so let down. First Connor Oberst, now Colin Meloy too??? And I've never even had the chance to see them live yet! Oookay this post is not making me feel any better so it will have to meet an early end. But you know Colin, maybe predictability is not such a bad thing after all. And there are some songs - or parts of songs - on the album where, if you really pay attention, the good ol' Decemberists formula is still recognizable. So I will choose to have faith and hope it's not all downhill from now on. Is this just wishful thinking?

The actually quite good, though not mind-blowing or anything:
Isn't It a Lovely Night?

The mediocre:
The Rake's Song

The awkward:
The Queen's Rebuke/The Crossing

Personally...

♠ pic ♠

Good morning fellas! How are you finding the latest Swan Lake album? Personally, I find it delightful...

Heartswarm
Settle on Your Skin
Peace

La canción de aquel momento en que soñabas con un tiempo que nunca quiso volver.

***pic***

Nosoträsh is currently my 4th most played artist on Last.fm. This is largely due to one album of theirs, the sheer musical joy that is "Popemas". If I had a top 50 albums that say a little something about who I am, this would definitely be one of the 50. One of the characteristics of the songs on it is that they're all really short, averaging around 2 minutes long. This is hardly coincidental. In fact, inside the cd jacket sleeve, accompanying the song lyrics is a quote by Augusto Monterroso. The quote - perhaps slightly paraphrasing here because I couldn't find a translation - goes something like this: "What's certain is that there is nothing that the writer of brevities wants more in the world than to write endlessly long texts; long texts where the imagination wouldn't have to work, where facts, things, animals and men stumble upon one another, look for each other, flee from each other, live with each other, love each other, spill their bloods freely without subjection to the semicolon, to the colon. To that colon that in this very instant has been imposed on me, by something stronger than me, something that I both respect and hate.*" Monterroso is a writer of brevities - indeed he is said to have written the shortest story in the world**. And Nosoträsh are writers of brevities as well. They're that kind of band. The kind that cares about the difference between the colon and the semicolon. They pay attention to the detail; they look for the simplest but greatest of melodies; they look for the right words, the perfect words. Yet they talk about simple everyday objects like ashtrays and coffees, and coats and milkshakes and clouds. Their songs feel very much like short stories - sometimes in the song descriptions I couldn't help but write "the protagonist" instead of "the singer" - and in fact I might've called them short stories, if only their melodies weren't so beautiful. I've included only a sample of three songs here, but I strongly recommend that you get the whole album.

*** pic ***

"Arte"

In the first of the three songs the singer is attempting to describe what constitutes Art for her: letting you brush my hair instead of thinking about it; abandoning myself to anyone's hugs, as long as they know how to lie to me and they kiss me hard; returning to your arms, sensing your rejection, yelling until I am left speechless...

"Corazón Colilla"

This one is a metaphor of the singer's love life as the process of smoking a cigarette, which lasts only briefly, leaving you forever unsatisfied. She concludes that, for her, hopes of love are extinguished all too soon and the only thing left is the cigarette butt that is her heart. And even after all the disappointment... "I will draw your picture in the ashes. I will draw your picture with the ashes. I will draw your picture in the ashes".

"Gloria"

In "Gloria" the protagonist is trying to come up with ways to cope after a break-up. Her first impulse is to write to him, and tell him how she's been doing lately. But she realizes that nothing at all mention-worthy has happened in her life ever since and that the letters would be very boring. So she makes plans of what to do with her day instead. Her "1001 ideas" include planting some flowers, getting lost in the streets and "making myself a dress with maps of all the places I've visited since you left me". Dance in cold hallways, make chocolate milkshakes, stay up until dawn on Sundays, "have dinner with the waiter of our restaurant". Jump up and down on the bed or, even better, not be alone while jumping up and down on the bed. Yes, those are all the things she plans on doing. If she ever does do them however, we never find out. And that's how the best of short stories always end. In doubt.

♥ Buy "Popemas" from Elefant Records! ♥
♥ Buy "Popemas" from iTunes! ♥
♥ Song Lyrics (en Español) ♥

*1: "Lo cierto es que el escritor de brevedades nada anhela más en el mundo que escribir interminablemente largos textos, largos textos en que la imaginación no tenga que trabajar, en que hechos, cosas, animales y hombres se crucen, se busquen o se huyan, vivan, convivan, se amen o derramen libremente su sangre sin sujeción al punto y coma, al punto. A ese punto que en este instante me ha sido impuesto por algo más fuerte que yo, que respeto y que odio.

**2: The shortest story in the world is this: "When she woke up, the dinosaur was still there." (Cuando despertó, el dinosaurio todavía estaba allí.)

***3: Visit Marisilla's page on Flickr for more pretty illustrations like these!

Sin Canciones

♥ pic ♥

As you probably read in the last post, my beloved fellow co-blogger (also known as Steven in this thing called "the real world" or something) is now in Spain. And so I'll take advantage of this opportunity to make a little tribute of my own to this sunny sunny country which we love.. The reasons I've never posted any songs in Spanish are pretty self-evident: according to Statcounter, only 5.40% of our visitors are from Spain. And some Latin-American countries are at about 1%. But that shouldn't stop me from sharing something I really love, right? And I really really really passionately love the Spanish (indie) music scene! For some reason most of the bands there make happy indiepop/tweepop that makes you wanna lie down in flowerbeds and wear Alice-bands with butterflies on them and dress in colors. I would've maybe said it's the sun, but I live in Greece and know that sunshine lends no helping hand in the making of a good twee band. And then there's also Sweden...but I digress. Here are some of my favorite Spanish songs and/or bands.

Los Fresones Rebeldes - Al Amanecer

How much catchier can indie pop get?? If you want to find out what this band is all about their name will tell you everything you need to know: The Rebellious Strawberries. As in, we might be twee but we're not afraid to use guitars - our musical influences might come straight from the 50s, but our attitudes don't. This is twee in the days when is was still associated with punk, this is sweet and in-your-face at the same time, this is fruit, but Rebellious fruit! Rock on little strawberries!

Índigo - Yoko Ono

There were/are so many people out there who hate Yoko Ono and blame her for the "transformation" of John Lennon and what happened to The Beatles that someone had to write a song describing how things (possibly) happened from her perspective. And what an sweet song it is.

Parade - Niño Zombi

Lovely lovely lovely song about...well...Zombie Boy! It's a little hard to convey what makes the song so sweet, funny, and sad at the same time without referring you to the lyrics. And I'm a little hesitant to translate myself. But here's the story. Zombie Boy is a kid who goes to school and eats his schoolmates, but doesn't really mean to. He just can't help it. And of course this would be just a silly song if only the lyrics didn't make it so painfully obvious how awful Zombie Boy feels, how hurtful is the realization that he's different from the other kids, and how they all make fun of him and how he knows that it's never going to stop. It's a sweet little tune this one, filled with discrete handclaps and shoopapas. Listen to it side-by-side with the Besties' "Zombie Song" - they make a good couple :)

♥ pic ♥

Le Mans - Buenos Dias Corazon

This is the song you played that lazy Sunday morning, that surreal Sunday morning when you woke up and found that nothing had changed. When you knew that for a while nothing felt real anymore, nothing seemed to have any meaning, any reason for existing. So you woke up and...well, you figured, at least you'd try. "Good morning little heart! How sad are you today? Did you wake up feeling better? Is the world treating you any better?" This is the song you had in your head while you strolled down flea markets with a bottle of cheap wine that you knew will give you a horrible headache afterwards and that made you sleepy. But that's a good thing. Sleeping is good. Tomorrow you'll feel better.

Nadadora - Plásticos y Metales

The most atmospheric and nostalgic from this bunch of songs, Plásticos y Metalos (whose title, by the way, means exactly what you think it means), is a song I find myself playing either when I'm very very sad or very very happy. Beyond jumping-up-and-down happy. Calm-happy. It is also a song that always makes me imagine a beach scene - perhaps because the name of the band means "swimmer" or because of the fragile-sounding instruments, or because of the girl's ah-ah-ah-aaaahs which seem to come and go like waves. Genre-wise you should know that it tends a little more towards shoegaze and post-rock than the rest of the songs I've selected. So if you like that kind of thing, this one's for you.

♥ pic ♥

Tender Trap - Como Te Llamas/Tell Me Your Name

My best friend doesn't speak a word of Spanish. Yet in a certain hotel room in Barcelona, two summers ago, she couldn't stop bellowing "Como te llamaaaaaaaaaas indie girl??" for 7 days in a row. "Tell Me Your Name" is the only bilingual song in this post. And even if you only sing along to the English parts, lyrics rarely come in packages as danceable as this. I rather have a preference for the Spanish parts (and the girl's voice), although the English verse does start with "Cute girl, loves the Smiths..."

La Casa Azul - Hoy Me Has Dicho Hola Por Primera Vez

Guy Milkieway a.k.a. the genius behind La Casa Azul is inviting the girl of his dreams on a date. "Nothing fancy, just casual... er... maybe go downtown and have a cup of coffee? And then we can...you know...talk about Tommy James songs and some good books and stuff....come on! What do you say?? We could go see a Woody Allen movie afterwards if you like!" Okay, I just added the errs and uuhmms and maybes for nerd-effect, but how can you refuse an invitation like that?

Juniper Moon - ¿Volverás?

This song is quite simple really. A girl laments over the fact that her boyfriend left her. Yeah, well, what' else is new? She keeps wishing that he loved her more and wondering whether one day he'll come back to her. Over and over. And if you think that becomes annoying, if you think you'll mind in the least that this song has only two main riffs and keeps repeating the same verse and the same chorus again and again, think again. It doesn't change a thing.

♥ pic ♥

* All illustrations in this post by the amazingly talented Tim McEvoy!

There is one more Spanish band that needs to be mentioned and, at first, I was planning to include it in this post. But I started writing about it and then got totally carried away, as it was bound to happen since it's one of my favorites and I truly love their songs with all my heart. So make sure to check out my next post for this very special band.

And here in Spain I am a Spaniard

Early morning Barcelona airport
 

I flew to Spain on Monday, travelling via Barcelona and Santiago de Compostela, and will be here for another 4 to 5 weeks, or at least until spring shows its pretty face. I'm here visiting my brother in the lovely (and small) seaside town of Cambados (Galicia), and can see the Atlantic tide come in just outside my window.
I figured a relevant trip-related post was surely in order!

Grandaddy - Aisle Seat 37-D
Miles high
Stalled above the sea
Aisle seat 37-D
The hard guys that are crying quietly
And the mom's lost in shock will never see
Me sittin alone
Wearin head phones
Smiling slightly as we
Fall toward the sea

And I'm havin a glass of red wine
Tryin to find a picture of you
While everyone's goin insane
I feel that I'm staying reasonably calm
And now the pilot's reciting a prayer
But I'm so not there
And I really don't care

Cuz the picture of you I couldn't
I finally found
So everything's fine
And the picture of you I couldn't find
I finally found
So everything's fine
While faster we fall toward the sea
I'm ok cuz yer with me
Here in 37-D
 

10:45 to Santiago


Bishop Allen - Flight 180
how disconnected I can feel on the ground
it's like I'm shining all alone
and I don't wanna be
so
before I go to bed tonight
  I'll signal up to the passing flights
hit the lights
the lights
the lights
the lights ...

This beautiful song was once sent to me by the person I miss and will continue to miss (a LOT) while I'm here...

The Decemberists - Here I dreamt I was an Architect

And here in Spain I am a Spaniard
I will be buried with my marionettes
Countess and courtesan
Have fallen beneath my tender hand
When their husbands were not around
But you, my soiled teenage girlfriend
Or are you furrowed like a lioness
And we are vagabonds
We travel without seatbelts on
We live this close to death  

 

The Modern Lovers - Pablo Picasso

Well some people try to pick up girls
And get called assholes
This never happened to Pablo Picasso
He could walk down your street
And girls could not resist his stare and
So Pablo Picasso was never called an asshole

Apart from the rather obvious Spain connection, I included this as I missed seeing Jonathan Richman in Barcelona by exactly 8 days. This makes me sad.

Touchdown coffee in Santiago de Compostela