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

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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.

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"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

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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 :)

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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.

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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.

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* 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.