LHNA talks to The Woodlands!

Hannah and Samuel, a.k.a The Woodlands released their first, self-titled album recently. As soon as we listened to it we dug out our English dictionaries and started flipping desperately through them, looking for the right words to describe it. They had to be beautiful words, big words, words that hadn't been used before! We kept looking and looking and meanwhile "Summerland" was spreading all over the blogosphere and we thought maybe it was time to stop trying to come up with adjectives and descriptions and just post the songs for everyone to hear. That's approximately when the band e-mailed us promoting their album. Light bulbs appeared above our heads and the idea was born: what better way to find the right words than to ask the band to give them to us themselves? We decided they would be the first band we'd ever ask for an interview. Lucky for us, they said yes.

1. "Look at us, we formed a band!" How?

The Woodlands came to be in somewhat of a roundabout and unintentional way at first. When Samuel and I first met, I had begun playing guitar a couple of years earlier and started writing some songs. Samuel was always musically minded, but didn't actually pick up the guitar until the first year after we got married (about seven years ago). He just decided to teach himself guitar and poured himself into it.

Since we got married we have both worked an assortment of jobs (some 9-5ers, some part-timers) to work hard, but to also keep a flexible schedule for traveling and visiting friends and family. We started playing some of my really old songs together a couple of years after we got married--I would sing and play guitar and Samuel mostly messed around on the harmonica. On a few of my newer songs he just started writing some guitar parts to them and we felt a musical intertwining happening. Meanwhile he was beginning to write lots of his own songs (Of The Isles www.myspace.com/oftheisles), and then we started writing together.

A few years ago we sold, stored or gave away most of our things and we moved down to central america for several goals that we had (to live outside of the US for awhile, so I could learn Spanish--I had always wanted to, and Samuel already spoke it, to volunteer at some orphanages, for an adventure, for a challenge, to write music, to see if we would live abroad permanently, etc.).

We came back to the US after seven months, and realized that we wanted to pursue our music more seriously as The Woodlands. We were absolutely broke coming back, but worked jobs and started writing more songs together and playing some small shows. We set a goal of recording our first album. After moving to Portland a little under two years ago, we began the process of recording at home in the corner of our bedroom with some equipment and a lot of blankets, pillows, sleeping mats and foam pieces built around us. We spent that year recording and writing and developing our songs as we went, and ended up with our album that we self-released a couple of months ago. Now we are working hard and trying to get it out there as much as we can on our own (although we just won a contest from Tinderbox Music that chose us as the winners of their 2009 national college radio campaign contest that will be very helpful), and hoping that we can keep living simply and have some income from our music and the hard work that we have put into it. We have started to get FM radio play in the US, UK, Australia, Spain and also gotten reviews and exposure in those countries as well as Germany, France, Wales, Portugal, Sweden, Canada, Peru, etc.

2. Describe your sound in five words:

Magical. Ethereal. Sincere. Hopeful. Charming. (LHNA: there you go people, the words!)

3. The band you’ve been compared to the most times is…

Feist. Jaymay. Gregory And The Hawk.

4. Your favourite song from what you’ve written so far is…

Hannah: Summerland is my favorite, because after writing it, I had the realization that I really believed in what we were doing. I felt that something inside of me was made to write songs.
Samuel: King And Queen because I like the lyrics that I wrote and Hannah's haunting voice. We were living in Guatemala at the time and we were hanging out in a dim bedroom while the weather stormed outside and it felt like we were castaway lovers in castaway times.

5. The craziest thing a fan’s ever done for you is…

Our fans have been relatively sane up until this point. We were recently playing a show in Idaho and someone said they saw our video on YouTube. This was a surprise to us because we had never made a video. We found out that a kind filmmaker and artist gentleman in Scotland had searched through heaps of songs and chose "Summerland" to make his next project. That was one of the most enjoyable surprises by a fan.

6. You like …

H: kombucha tea, the forest, morning coffee, walking where I go, red wine, Amsterdam, dark chocolate, tiny cafes, tapas, strings of white lights, indoor basil plants, porches
S: cloudy days, strong cheese, cream and tan and grey colors together, letterpress letters, Scotland, dark chocolate, foreign films, autumn, textile patterns, night showers, old machinery, writing poems, olives

7. You don’t like…

H: wearing socks, really cold weather, worrisome thoughts, perfume, wasting food, staying up really late
S: social injustice, raisins, chalk on my hands, heat, clutter

8. Your favourite bands at the moment are...

H: Seabear, Shout Out Louds, Blind Pilot, Noah & The Whale, Youth Group
S: Seabear, Folded Light, Arcade Fire, Beirut, Band Of Horses

9. Your favourite book/writer is...

H: Thomas Merton
S: C.S. Lewis

10. (You might be a talented musician and we might hate you for it but it will make us feel better to know that) you suck at...

H: being on time, technology, doing dishes
S: I have a terrible tendency to leave long and rambling phone messages, fixing car problems

11. What helps you write songs? (Booze? Crappy teen movies? Heartbreaks? Popcorn? Anything goes.)

The need for an outlet to process sorrow. The stimuli and adventure of travel. A desire to see things change. A glass of wine. Insecurity. Confidence. Being immersed in nature. LOVE. Inner silence. Time for contemplation. Awe at the genius of other music and writers.

12. Do you read music blogs? Which ones?

Honestly, no. The main music blogs we have read are when we are searching for music blogs to feature us or when we are reading something that someone has written about our music. Selfish, but that is just what it is at the moment with our schedule and time. We will say that often times the most arresting blogs are those that also have a great artistic visual aesthetic as well. Yours is one of them (and that is sincere, no lip service).

13. You're in a band because…

It just happened. We both love creating and writing and the expression of song. We also love hanging out together, so making music together became a very natural extension of just living our lives together in such close proximity on so many levels.

14. You wish everyone would…

Buy local goods. Buy fair trade goods. Buy our album. Be more nerdy. Laugh at themselves. Choose time, people and experiences over money. Learn to enjoy stillness and solitude.

15. Are you worried about the future of the music industry? Do you think it’s true that unless you’re Coldplay you can’t make money just by playing in a band anymore? Do you guys have day jobs?

Not worried, but trying to figure out how it works and how it is going to work as time progresses. Bands have to be more innovative, self-motivated and creative in their approach to music as a career. We are trying to find out how as well. At this point, we still have to work day jobs waiting tables (Samuel) and as a nanny (Hannah). Our goal, however, is to be able to make a simple living from our music.

Download: Can We Stay
Download: Summerland

Buy the album here!
A big big thank you to Hannah and Samuel for agreeing to answer our questions.

Edit: The Woodlands are still unsigned. Seriously, record labels, what are you waiting for??

The Life and Times of John Vanderslice

*illustration by Drew Beckmeyer - check out his site here*


John Vanderslice - Fetal Horses (Romanian Names, 2009)
John Vanderslice - Romanian Names (Romanian Names, 2009)
*
John Vanderslice - Wild Strawberries (Cellar Door, 2004)
"Wholly and totally brave I swam under dying Philippino light
Fighting and furious against the tide
'cause I lost our keys in the sea, diving deep under coral reef
Following treeline on the shore
I stumbled back to the road
Left you on the hood of a rented ford
I looked back, it was the last time I saw you alive
Still light follows the same rules that I do
Reflecting off the water never making it down to the bottom"

*

John Vanderslice - Me and My 424
(The Life and Death of an American Fourtracker, 2002)

The Limes: New Songs

Ladies and gentlemen, your refreshments for the day:

The Limes - Dead Furniture
The Limes - Sao Francisco Waters

* find them on MySpace *
* illustration by Ian DIngman *

We're from Argentina. Argentina, not Barcelona, damn it! How many times do we have to tell you?

image found here

✂ Chau Fan - Boletos de tren

Yep, Beck actually used to be pretty damn cool

"there's nobody
there's no mountain
there's no tunnel
you can't get from there to here"

Beck - Atmospheric Conditions

"roll out your silver-dollar coffins
pull out your buckskin gloves
tell them anything you want to
the sound comes from above

don't let it get near you
don't let it get too close
don't let it turn you into
the things you hate the most"

Beck - Forcefield

" definitely this is the wrong place to be
there's blood on the futon
there's a kid drinking fire
going down to the sea
they got people to meet
shaking hands with themselves
looking out for themselves"

Beck - Cyanide Breath Mint

Buy the deluxe reissue of Beck's 1994 album, One Foot in the Grave here.

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

Emmy the Great, the Cute, the Talented, the Melancholic, the Sweet, the Magnificent

*by Ahren Hertel*

I don't think we've ever written anything about Emmy the Great. Which is weird because, if you had asked me a year ago to give you ten reasons for starting this blog, five of the reasons would have been variations of "to make everyone love Emmy the Great". Well, it seems that Emmy finally has an album out, titled "First Love". Yet, for some reason, I don't think she reaches her full potential on it. For starters many of her best songs are not included on it. Furthermore, it seemed to me that even some of her songs that I knew and loved weren't as great in their album-versions as they were when they were merely demos. But this post is not just about "First Love". It's meant as a tribute to a singer I truly love. Emmy easily makes my top three of sweetest female voices in the music industry (up there with Camera Obscura's Tracyanne Campbell). But that wouldn't have been enough. As is usually the case with my favorite bands/singers, she also writes heartachingly beautiful song lyrics. Not pretentious or "intellectualized" song lyrics, but song lyrics that are sometimes sweet, sometimes innocent, and sometimes mean, but always honest. Song lyrics that aren't like those paragraphs in "The Unbearable Lightness of Being" that you always quote because they sound smart. Song lyrics that are like those passages in your favorite book that you remember most, that you hold closest to your heart, that make you think "that could be me saying it".

"Wish I could tell you all the things that Woody Allen helps me see
How Annie Hall is starting to seem quite a lot like you and me
It took a while to come around to David Bowie's new CD
And it's much too late to give back your Magnetic Fields EP
Can I keep it by my pillow? Fucking loved it -
How I long to tell you so..."
* Canopies and Grapes *

And you and me are still but the scenery moves
Well why would it stop just 'cause suddenly there's one where there used to be two?
And everything's quiet but... looks like the speaker lived through the blow
Still playing some compilation you made
Feels like a lifetime sitting alone so I start humming along to the tape -
I always liked this singer
I remember how you were the one who told me that her name was either MIA or M.I.A"
* MIA *

"I'm having a party and I hope that you know this
Spend Friday alone and pretend not to notice
All of the stupid things you've done I know and I'm telling everyone
'Cause you're not my best friend anymore.
And tomorrow I will find a new friend from the new friend shop"
* My Party Is Better Than Yours *

"Now they tell me that unless you're looking out of magazines, well, then you don't exist
But I knew that you were real before I read it in an interview today
Before I used you as a surface - did a line across your face
In the toilet of a girl who's sitting outside dropping names like they were carpet bombs, she knows everyone
But I knew you first...
Back when love was underneath you with my fingers in the dirt
You said 'I'll stop if it hurts'
You said 'I'll stop it if it's scary' "
* Two Steps Forward *

"What will you look like when you're old?
And what will I do if I don't know you?
I guess that I decided not to know the day I took the road down to the city as it called
Sun making silhouettes of gauze... I don't remember you at all.
They pulled a human from my waist
It had your mouth, it had your face
I would have kept it if I'd stayed"

* City Song *
(non-album version)

Oh, by the way, I thought the illustration looked a bit like her :)

Buy the album here.

New Band: Mimicking Birds

What do we know about them? Their Myspace site describes them as 'lyrical/surf ' and they appear to consist of Nate Lacy, Tim Skellenger, and Aaron Hanson. Though Nate Lacy appears to be the heart, right leg and both hands of the band; he also does the artwork and mostly records alone. They're influenced by 'the Jingle Cats and Crash Test Dummies' (I did always wonder when bands would start citing them as an influence... guess that time has come!). They're signed to Glacial Pace (Modest Mouse frontman Isaac Brock's label and also home to Love as Laughter) and they go to sleep and wake up in Portland, Oregon. 

 

Their music sounds like cold mornings, imaginary answering machine messages and (dreams of) forests, rivers and the late night glow of empty refrigerators. (And they're brilliant!)

  

Oh and you're about to hear a hell of a lot more about them as they're scheduled to open for Modest Mouse on the following dates:

 

02-22 Oakland, CA - Fox Theater

02-23 Visalia, CA - Fox Theatre

02-24 Hollywood, CA - Hollywood Palladium

02-25 Tempe, AZ - Marquee

02-26 Albuquerque, NM - Albuquerque Convention Center

02-28 Boulder, CO - Balch Fieldhouse

03-02 Kansas City, MO - Uptown Theater

03-03 Oklahoma City, OK - Diamond Ballroom

03-04 Austin, TX - Stubb's

03-05 Oxford, MS - Lyric Oxford

03-07 Atlanta, GA - Tabernacle

03-08 Miami, FL - Langerado Festival
 

None of which are even remotely close to us, but, as festival season is soon upon us, who knows?

 

 

 Mimicking Birds - Home and Somewhere else...

Mimicking Birds - The Chimney Sweep

Mimicking Birds - New Doomsdays 

  

Head over to their Myspace page now for plenty of other songs!

What I've been listening to the past week and the reason I haven't posted any of it

hooraffes by PETS

Ever since last Tuesday I've been listening to...

> The Happy Hollows! Ever since I first listened to 'Tambourine' I fell in love. Then I found out they're giving their EP for free and fell faster. Then I listened to it and was ready to sell my soul to them. (* We like to exaggerate. It's our thing.) Download Colors or just get the 'Imaginary EP' for free here!

> Love Is All! I need to listen to the whole CD, I know, but I just can't stop playing this song. Download: Wishing Well + buy 'A Hundred Things Keep Me Up At Night' on cd or vinyl here!

> James Yorkston! In expectation of the quiet, sweet, ordinary, warm and peaceful weekends that I'm hoping the winter will bring. Download: Temptation and buy the album here.

> Miracles of Modern Science! Sometimes it feels like our inbox is full of crap. Other times it doesn't. Download: 524 or get the whole EP for free here.

> The Smittens! How sweet is the new album? No really! On a scale of not-at-all to it-doesn't-get-any-sweeter-than-this how sweet is it? I'd say around sweeter-than-candy. Yeah, that sounds about right. Download: Half My Heart Beats and then buy the album!

> Between the Pine! Their second album will be released on December 16 and you'll be able to get it here. Here's a little taste of what awaits us. Download: Coca-Cola

> My Darling YOU!! I don't know why but for some reason their 2007 EP 'I Will Exclude You With My Body Language' never reached my ears until today. And I really can't tell you how much I love love love love love love love it. I'm sure you will too as soon as you follow the next three steps:
Step 1: Download: Salary to see what I'm talking about
Step 2: Buy the EP here! It's 5 euros/6 dollars (plus if you're lucky enough to live in Sweden shipping is free)
Step 3: Start melting!

And the reason I hadn't posted anything for a week...

Obama Win Causes Obsessive Supporters To Realize How Empty Their Lives Are

All I want all I want all I want all I want is to sing about it!

An African-American is president of the United States. Not only that, but a half-Kenyan is president of the United States. Not only that, but in one of the first lines of his victory speech he addresses homosexuals. Now I don't know about you but this makes me believe that maybe - just maybe - we can have realistic hopes for a better future. And all I want is to sing about it.


"...tonight is (...) the answer spoken by young and old, rich and poor, Democrat and Republican, black, white, Hispanic, Asian, Native American, gay, straight, disabled and not disabled, Americans who sent a message to the world. (...) It's the answer that led those who've been told for so long by so many to be cynical and fearful and doubtful about what we can achieve to put their hands on the arc of history and bend it once more toward the hope of a better day."

"Our campaign grew strength from the young people who rejected the myth of their generation's apathy"

"Tonight we proved once more that the true strength of our nation comes not from the might of our arms or the scale of our wealth, but from the enduring power of our ideals: democracy, liberty, opportunity and unyielding hope. That's the true genius of America: that America can change."

"This election had many firsts and many stories that will be told for generations. But one that's on my mind tonight's about a woman who cast her ballot in Atlanta. She's a lot like the millions of others who stood in line to make their voice heard in this election except for one thing: Ann Nixon Cooper is 106 years old. She was born just a generation past slavery; a time when there were no cars on the road or planes in the sky; when someone like her couldn't vote for two reasons - because she was a woman and because of the color of her skin. And tonight, I think about all that she's seen throughout her century in America - the heartache and the hope; the struggle and the progress; the times we were told that we can't, and the people who pressed on with that American creed: Yes we can.

At a time when women's voices were silenced and their hopes dismissed, she lived to see them stand up and speak out and reach for the ballot. Yes we can. When there was despair in the dust bowl and depression across the land, she saw a nation conquer fear itself with a New Deal, new jobs, a new sense of common purpose. Yes we can. When the bombs fell on our harbor and tyranny threatened the world, she was there to witness a generation rise to greatness and a democracy was saved. Yes we can. She was there for the buses in Montgomery, the hoses in Birmingham, a bridge in Selma, and a preacher from Atlanta who told a people that 'We Shall Overcome'. Yes we can. A man touched down on the moon, a wall came down in Berlin, a world was connected by our own science and imagination. And this year, in this election, she touched her finger to a screen, and cast her vote, because after 106 years in America, through the best of times and the darkest of hours, she knows how America can change. Yes we can.

America, we have come so far. We have seen so much. But there is so much more to do. So tonight, let us ask ourselves - if our children should live to see the next century; if my daughters should be so lucky to live as long as Ann Nixon Cooper, what change will they see? What progress will we have made? This is our chance to answer that call. This is our moment."

That movie that everyone seems to adore and I never understood why

 

*painting by Ellen Lohse*

That movie is The Royal Tenenbaums. And at this point you might or might not ask - depending on how much time you have on your hands, how prepared your brain is to spot an inconsistency, and whether you think that curiosity killed the cat or helped it get a valuable after-life lesson - why the hell would someone waste a whole afternoon preparing a post about a movie they're not that crazy about. Well, because this post isn't about the movie per se; it's about two bands I do like that have this in common: despite the fact that I pointedly warned them not to, they both completely ignored me and went ahead and named themselves after characters in it.

Margot & The Nuclear So and So's were named after Margot Helen Tenenbaum and they have, as everyone should know by now, two new albums out. Two because they couldn't agree (*understatement*) with their record company on the songs that were to be included.  So they decided to release one album ("Not Animal") of label-aproved songs, and another one ("Animal!") reflecting the band's selection. "Animal!", unfortunately, is only available on vinyl and online. And I say unfortunately because it contains two beautiful songs that are not to be found on the properly released Not Animal. Both are duets and they tell the story of one Mariel and one Martin: their relationship, their conflicts, and their imperfect life together.

Mariel's Brazen Overture

There's Talk of Mine Shafts

Uzi & Ari are the sons of Chas Tenenbaum. Uzi & Ari is also the pseudonym that Ben Shepard chose to adopt in his solo career. Their last album, called Headworms, was released this month and their song "Wolf Eggs" has been much hyped throughout the blogosphere. Deservedly so.

Patron Saints (Headworms, 2008)

Don't Black Out (It Is Freezing Out, 2006)

Random concept of the day: some songs that really really really should have more listeners on Last.fm

by Marie-Louise Ekman

Alamo Race Track - The Killing
A great song about the Stanley Kubrick film of the same name.

Cave Babies - It'snoteasybeing Green
Joshua from the Watercolor Paintings continuing to make beautiful songs. This time with another band. Plenty of songs for free on their Last.fm page.

Je Reve De Toi - Janeiro
The coolest Brazilian band no one knows about. You won't understand a word, but you'll enjoy the song and absolutely love the 'Eoeoeoeoeo' 2:00 into the song.

Fredrik - Black Fur
I know this curse has been uttered ad nauseam by every indie kid on the planet but here goes:
Damn you Swedish people. Now and forever. Amen.

My body is a cage but my mind holds the key.

photograph by Bettina Rheims

Sara Lov - My Body Is a Cage (Arcade Fire Cover)

This city of ours

*** Cara Del Gato - This Town Ain't What It Used to Be ***

*** Emmy the Great - City Song ***

*** Antsy Pants - Big City ***

We're only human. This at least we've learned.

artwork by Anthony Pontius

  

Hooves

In Our Talons

My Oldest Memory

 

(all from Bowerbirds' brilliant 'Hymns for a Dark Horse')

It Is Finally Time to Tell the Story

'It Is Finally Time to Tell the Story' was written by Dave Eggers I would guess sometime in 2004 (and is kind of relevant what with all this elections-talk in the U.S.). Find it in 'Short Short Stories'.

 

'Yes, it is finally time to tell the story about the sheep from that one island whose name is forgotten but which rhymes with Godiva. There were too many sheep on this particular island, so some of them got on a boat and left for Spain. In Spain, however, they were not welcomed. Everyone in Spain, waiting by the shore for the boat to come in, had expected something more unusual than sheep. When the gangway was lowered and the sheep descended, the Spaniards said many things to them, the overall gist of which was 'Go back to your island, sheep, and send some gila Monsters or Komodo dragons.' It is well known that the Spanish have always longed for gila monsters and Komodo dragons and perhaps some of those child-sized ancestors of Homo Erectus everyone's talking about. So the sheep set sail again, this time looking for Franz Josef Land, which they'd heard had a balmy climate and universal health insurance. But when they arrived, six months later, they found neither. Franz Josef Land was desolate, treeless, and obsessed only with wireless internet access. So the sheep set sail again, this time landing in Montana, which no one - no one but these seafaring sheep - realized had a deep-sea port. They walked around Montana for a while, but found the people to be unfriendly and with very poor taste in music. Everywhere they went, they heard Thin Lizzy and Bachman Turner Overdrive, and though the sheep enjoyed much of the music by these bands, they actually preferred early King Crimson and later XTC. So they set sail again, this time looking for - you know what? Hold on a second. Wait one damned second here. The author of this irrelevant narrative just woke up, momentarily, from a self-induced mental coma, and now something is worming into his consciousness. It couldn't be. Did that really happen? Did we really elect Bush again? Holy fucking shit. Screw the sheep and pity us Americans. Have we ever wanted pity before? We have not, but now we do. Shower us with pity as we cloak ourselves in shame.'

 

And now music.

Shotgun Jimmie - Bedhead

Belly Boat - Little ('Dear Robert Hanoy', dld full album here)

Belly Boat - City ('Dear Robert Hanoy', dld full album here)

Perhapst - Quote ('Perhapst', order it here)

A little folkier than the original:

*******************************

The Brooke, A Tiny Ocean:

"Jamie" (Weezer)

from the 'Roaring Nineties' compilation -

download it for free from cllct!

Bonnie Prince Billy:

"World`s Greatest" (R Kelly)
from his 2007 album "Ask Forgiveness"

Emmy the Great:

"Where Is My Mind?" (Pixies)

Existential Hero:

"If Winter Ends" (Bright Eyes)

from his cover album "Barely Covered" -

download it at cllct

Mallu Magalhaes:

"Folsom Prison Blues" (Johnny Cash)

The Magic Numbers:

"There Is a Light That Never Goes Out"

(The Smiths)

*******************************

The Hanged Man

by Dave McKean

Last week I saw Batman Begins
which reminded me I have a borrowed copy of Arkham Asylum somewhere on a shelf
which has beautiful albeit creepy illustrations by Dave Mckean
which brought to memory the picture above
which in turn made me think of this song.

Nirvana - They Hung Him On a Cross (Demo Version 1989)
*I don't know if we can call it a Leadbelly cover, but it's an American folk song and the first recorded version that exists of it (1945) belongs to Leadbelly; in fact, Cobain apparently planned to record this for a Leadbelly tribute album

In 1984 I was hospitalized for approaching perfection

Choosing a favourite Silver Jews lyric is a bit like choosing a favourite jelly bean. When asked, you might reply ‘apple’, or ‘cotton candy’, or even ‘cherry’. Yet, your favourite will change the very next time you eat another.

And you listen to Silver Jews for words.

The music itself is almost incidental to the words contained within. The icing on a cake if you will. Or a dress on a pretty girl.

To say David Berman has a ‘way with words’, well, is a bit like saying the Sun has a way with heat…

I won't even begin to mention the amount of times Silver Jews were the soundtrack of something in my life. Lonely nights and early mornings. Falling in and out of love. Growing up. Dreams. Above all, dreams.

Random Rules (American Water, 1998)

"In 1984 I was hospitalized for approaching perfection"

"I know that a lot of what I say has been lifted off of men's room walls.
Maybe I've crossed the wrong rivers and walked down all the wrong halls."

"I asked the painter why the roads are colored black. He said, "Steve, it's because people leave and no highway will bring them back.""

Horseleg Swastikas (Bright Flight, 2001)

"I'm drunk on a couch in Nashville
In a duplex near the reservoir.

And every single thought is like a punch in the face, I'm like a rabbit freezing on a star.

On the wrong side of Sunday morning, shattered in the terrible light. Working for a bankrupt circus, on the wrong side of Saturday night"

Pet Politics (The Natural Bridge, 1996)

"Guard my bed, while the rain turns the ditches to mirrors. By a vase of carnations from central Ohio where the looking machine can't hear us. Deep in the night we dream of positions, there's a line for the phone in the hall. And in the cold places where Spanish is spoken, most wars end in the fall"

I remember me (Bright Flight, 2001)

"Out the window, in the harbor he saw a little ship The moon was worn just slightly on the right. And they slow danced so the needle wouldn't skip, until the room was filled with light"

Inside the golden days of missing you (The Natural Bridge, 1996)

"The shattered glass cussed, and when it broke it spoke to us, it said "Hey... I know you... what's your name?" I wish they didn't set mirrors behind the bar cause I can't stand to look at my face when I don't know where you are. Then the feeling fades away but you sort of wish it would of stayed, inside...the golden days of missing you"

We are real (American Water, 1998)

"Up the hill past 694, at the stone wall make a left, and I will see you soon my friend if these old directions still direct.
Is the problem that we can't see or is it that the problem is beautiful to me?"

Trains across the Sea (Starlite Walker, 1994) "I just got back from a dream attack, that took me by surprise. And in there I met a lady, her name was Shady Sides and she said: It's been evening all day long, it's been evening all day long and how can something so old be so wrong? Sin and gravity drag me down to sleep to dream of trains across the sea, trains across the sea. Half hours on earth, what are they worth? I don't know. In twenty-seven years I drunk fifty thousand beers. And they just wash against me like the sea into a pier"

Suffering Jukebox (Lookout Mountain, Lookout Sea, 2008)

"While these seconds turn these minutes into hours of the day all these doubles drive the dollars and the light of day away"

Links:

Silver Jews on Myspace

A place for all things Silver Jews

The Corduroy Suit (lyrics, poems, drawings etc)

Silver Jews on Allmusic.com

Stephen Malkmus

BUY Silver Jews albums here

When the rain hits you, it hits you slow...