Thursday, January 31, 2008

why do I still burn for you?

You know those songs that get stuck on repeat for days at a time? The ones that you listen to compulsively, then go so far as to force yourself to listen to something else for fear of ruining the song, only to turn back a few songs later? Sure you do. Generally speaking, I find these songs to be universally appealing, or appalling, depending on the person. One woman's treasure... Anyway, I thought it would be interesting to hear what song's been in heaviest rotation for everyone. I'll start:

Sun Kil Moon
- Carry Me Ohio

This song has been haunting me for a few weeks now. After missing the
Mark Kozelek show a few weeks back, I started to feel like I'd missed something big. I've never seen him, or any of his projects, live before... but he's kind of an "it-kid," at least by the critics I care to listen to, and it made me dig back into my digital archives to give Sun Kil Moon another shot. I think I came across a Paste write-up of Ghosts of the Great Highway a few years ago, found it intriguing, but didn't "get it" on the first listen. So I never really went back to it. Anyway, I get it now... and I can't get over it. It's a bit of a concept album, telling stories of famous boxers in addition to the typical love/loss fodder. "Carry Me Ohio" epitomizes the love/loss/regret bit, but Kozelek does a complete 180 on the next track "Salvador Sanchez," with a heavily distorted guitar rift and plaintive, soaring voice. I think the overall mood of the album is pensive, but there are enough uptempo songs to keep it out of the singer/songwriter/emo ouevre.

Who's up?



Monday, January 7, 2008

Parlour #2

Last night marked the second round of music parlour. This meeting was pretty informal (and a little rushed) as we combined music sharing with a nail-biting UNC-Clemson game.

Still, we explored a few new (and old) artists:
--Sara introduced us to Glossary.

--Rob played a few songs from Citay and Yeasayer. Fortunately for us, Yeasayer's playing in Chapel Hill at the Local 506 on January 17th. This will be the Music Parlour's first field trip...be there!

--Thanks to Jimmy, we learned about Bon Iver, who recently created For Emma, Forever Ago while hibernating alone in a Midwestern log cabin. Looks like the full album will be released in February.

--Jacquelyn showed up with a few old albums from her Austin days, and played The Flatlanders, Guy Clark, and Slaid Cleaves.

We decided to meet monthly, so the next meeting will take place in February. Who's hosting?

Parlour #2