Musical Monday: je suis triste

So the Paris attacks shook a lot of us this past Friday. Waking up to news of the Beirut bombing just that morning, and watching the news about Paris unfold from the office and the number jumping to over 100 by the time I got home lent some moments of not quite despair but certainly some anger, uncertainty, sadness, compassion, and other complicated emotions. They're still roiling in my stomach somewhere and I haven't quite figured them out all the way yet.

Personally, I don't think I can write anything better than my immediate reaction on social media: "So many terrible things in the world. Be humble, do good. Spread love and kindness. Pray for one another. Be patient. Give joyfully of your time and self to others."

But somehow I feel like that's not enough to encompass it all.

Since music and poetry can help express feelings, and since there are some very talented songwriters out there, I discovered this song their weekend and it has stuck with me, resonating in my thoughts. The slow crescendo and build through each chorus, the lonely bellow in the background, the soft twinkling, the pauses between phrases to allow the words to sink in.... it's all so well done.

No Hell is the first single off of Cloud Cult's upcoming album, and I discovered it on KEXP's Music That Matters podcast.

Cloud Cult: No Hell

Lyrics:

Mama said the stars are the universe's eyes
I can feel them watching over me most of the time

We grew up believing we could learn how to fly
We came from the Earth, but we belong to the sky

I saw your soul without the skin attached
You've got the guts of a coyote pack

We've been kissed, we've been cut
But we do what needs the doing
We're just rainbows dreaming we're human
Please excuse the lights shooting out of my head
I keep 'em in a cage but they come out when they see a friend
You must be a friend

You're never really going to have control of it all
So you best get cool with where your chips are gonna fall

We are the sun
And mother's milk
And cusswords
And poetry

There's no use in running unless you run like heck
The best things we've learned, we learned from the wreck

Jesus coming back as a woman this time
Handing out hugs in the clinic line

And someone tell the devil we don't need no Hell
We're all pretty good at beating up ourselves

As kids we believed that the angels talked
Everything is magic until you think it's not

It's easy to be thankful for the things you've got
It takes guts to give thanks for the things you've lost

And we grew up believing good wins over bad
So you gave away your heart but the wolves attacked
But then a bigger heart grew back

Please excuse the words coming out of my mouth
I'm a happy man but there's some things that I need to get out
I need to get out...

There's no use in running unless you run like heck
The best things we've learned, we learned from the wreck

Jesus coming back as a woman this time
Handing out hugs in the clinic line

And someone tell the devil we don't need no Hell
We're all pretty good at beating up ourselves

Musical Monday: Fall For These

St. Kilda: September
So I was supposed to blog about this last month I'm sure, but it took me awhile tog et back to blogging. The beautiful almost ethereal atmospheric guitar and other instruments hint at optimism while the lyrics are steeped in pessimism, love me a good contradiction (warning, if you play it at work, they drop one curse word a few times)

El Vy: Return to the Moon
So stoked that Matt of The National and Brent of Ramona Falls combined the best parts of what they do to form El Vy.
How stoked? Well, I used 40% of my family's data plan last month streaming the video throughout my commute to work (...oops)
Taylor Swift even recently included it in her list of "Songs to make your life more awesome" instagram post (further proof that we are essentially twins, but I's like to go n record to say I like it first!

Also, I had been waiting for this since March (I know, super hipster of me to say I liked a song before it even came out but here's proof that I knew it's be awesome):

1. jules bitz ‏@itzbizr  Mar 30

   @ramonafalls Spore & Archimedes Plutonium still get me every time. Prophet remains one of my favorite albums of the last 5 years

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2. Ramona Falls ‏@ramonafalls  Mar 31

   @itzbizr aw, this arrives at precisely the moment I need some encouragement to keep going. Thank you so much for listening and caring.

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3. jules bitz ‏@itzbizr  Mar 31

   @ramonafalls yay, so glad to encourage! Your music is amazing, thank you for sharing your talent & I look forward to any new tunes!

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   10:29 AM - 31 Mar 2015

Musical Monday: Monday

So it's been awhile... 

But keeping with the theme, today's Musical Monday comes from an artist who's taken two years since his last song and has never given the clamoring masses what we've wanted, a full-length album, in the eight years since being a finalist in Australian Idol. I've talked about Matt Corby here before and this certainly won't be the last time, considering he'll be bringing us more songs this year (YAY!).

Musically, his sound has matured and progressed. He spent time trying to learn proficiency in all the instruments he plays on this album, which should be easy on this first song as all it is, is some snaps and stomps and his vocals. 

Well, it may be a bit more complicated than that, and what he accomplishes is beautiful but the lyrics are about losing his faith and, while he's never been an artist to shy away from deep stuff, this song makes me sad for Matt Corby the person. 

This song is filled with such beauty and melancholy intermixed with almost apathetic introspection. When it ends, it leaves you bereft and with an itchy pointer-finger over the replay icon.

Here it is, 

Matt Corby: Monday

Foto Friday: All Is Beautiful

This past weekend I had the wonderful opportunity to catch up with a dear friend out in Delaplane, Virginia. Since she had some errands to run in the morning and it was a bit of a drive, I left early to go for a hike so I didn't spend more time in the car than out of it. She recommended Sky Meadows Park and it was absolutely perfect. With many different small trails, overnight campgrounds, a covered picnic & grill spot, and a lovely historic area, it really has something for everyone.

My hike was made even more magical as I listened to the pre-release of the first of three Gungor albums to come out this year, One Wild Life: Soul (which I'll hopefully have a review of out soon). The nature imagery and orchestral arrangements of some of the songs and the songs of great praise to the Creator, made me stop in my tracks with an enraptured smile holding my hands out to embrace the wonderful world around me quite a few times.

Here are the photos I captured that day

Foto Friday: More May Flowers

For want of more creative ideas, and a desire to at least try to slowly ease back into blogging, here are some more May flowers taken either at my Mother's garden or the Smithsonian Rose Garden. I was at the rose garden before a kickball game on the National Mall and trust me, had my sister Ms Pinky not been there to limit my time to under a minute I could've spent 20 there taking hundreds of pictures.

(All photos taken with my iPhone 5s & edited in Camera+)  

And here's a celebration video for making it this far (someday I want to listen to this while meandering along a Mediterranean beach):

Musical Monday: Angus & Julia Stone Album Review

Rocking mellow with an edge.
That's how I'd describe the latest album from sibling duo Angus & Julia Stone. The self-titled album, which came out Friday August 1, is their third release together after taking a hiatus to pursue solo careers following their sophomore Down the Way.  While they are both solid artists in their own right, when they combine their sibling powers, their music goes to a whole-nother level.

So you can get a feel for it, here's the album preview on Soundcloud:



In this album, they take what's always been their strengths: dual-vocals singing emotionally charged lyrics, from both the male & female perspective, but their sound has matured and evolved in a more dramatic way.  In other words, they've grown up. It's like after your much younger cousin who was always a precious kid goes off to college for a few years and you realize the next time you see them they've become a fully-realized person. The break, exploring their own sounds through solo careers, and the reunion, based on the insistence of producer Rick Rubin, turned the sweet sibling indie act into a musical powerhouse.

They open strong with the rocking "A Heartbreak" and the statement "I met your parents, they were lying about falling in love" which sets the tone for the wry, insightful and usually cynical realism which is prevalent throughout the album. In most of the songs, they both adapt a speak/singing that gives them a disaffected too-cool-for-school delivery.  Julia leads "My Word For It" almost entirely in spokensong, with a sleepy sexuality she developed in the years since Down the Way. In this new sound, they play around a bit with being slightly out of tune/tempo, but in a way that showcases their mastery of the genre, while hearkening back to other singer/songwriter folk acts of the past and putting them in a league with the best of the present.

After "A Heartbreak" the highlight of the front half is "Heart Beats Slow" when their off-tempo, almost off-key voices blend together. They're at their best when the achingly earnest emotion highlights the feeling of love lost, love thrown-away, love yearned for. The second half of the album slows quite a bit after Julia's "Death Defying Acts," an anti-love song. The cleverly minimal "Other Things" takes the moment before a fight and in the way it never develops musically beyond the introduction created the tired here-we-go-again familiarity of well-worn arguments between intimates (whether family or lovers).

Where A Book Like This was somewhat minimal in the instrumentalization, and Down the Way added a depth of sound, Angus & Julia Stone has an edge and polished sheen that wasn't quite there before, it leans a little more rock on the scale of indie pop/rock. Additionally, in their past work they penned their songs separately, where in this album they co-wrote the songs for the first time, which plays off by melodies and lyrics playing to both their strengths.

If you get this album, you have to buy the Deluxe Edition as my personal favorite track is actually one of the three bonus tracks.  "All this Love" stands in sharp contrast to most of the album, in that it is a complete 180 from the cynical realism permeating most of the tracks and is simply a happy, uplifting, feel-good track, reminding us listeners that "there's all this love if you need it." Call me a sucker for earnest, sugary-sweet joy but I had this one all repeat all weekend.

Got the album? Tell me your thoughts in the comments below or on twitter: @itzbizr

Musical Monday: The Jezabels Concert Review

TODAY MARKS THE FIFTIETH(ish) MUSICAL MONDAY POST! HUZZAH! 

By my count this it the 50th Musical Monday post, it only took a dash over two years to get to this milestone (see the first one here, sidenote: the first Musical Monday actually got published on a Tuesday)... here's hoping we reach 100 before 2016!

We now return to your regularly scheduled programming:

Last week I saw the Australian pop-rock band The Jezabels in concert at the Rock & Roll Hotel.

Now before you go thinking I go to awesome rock shows every week, I had bought the tickets awhile ago for a date in mid-April. Sometime in March, the band announced it would be postponing the concert date and that all rickets would be good for the new June 18th date. Turns out their Australian tour ended up getting extended in some way and they also headlined the Sydney Opera House(!!!), which is why we had to wait a few extra months to see them stateside. It was definitely worth the wait.

Opening Act: Gold & Youth

Gold & Youth is a band from Vancouver, BC (where I'll be in 2 weeks, what a coincidence!) who are currently on a (inter)national tour on Canada & the US. I had heard them on KEXP somewhat recently and was pleasantly surprised to find them opening this show.

A modern version of 80s synth pop, my friend thought they sounded a bit like The Cure and other bands of that era.  They shared vocals between band members which adds a depth to their sound. Their set was tight, well-executed and sounded great.

Here's a look at their 2013 Album Beyond Wilderness

The Jezabels

There was supposed to be a 12 second video of the concert but blogger was being difficult.

Their show was polished, professional and deserving of a larger venue.  They sounded absolutely fantastic live and the vocals by Haley Mary were powerful and emotive, and were sometimes accompanied by keyboardist Heather Shannon. Nik Kaloper played heart-pounding rhythms on the drums and Sam Lockwood brought the rock & roll with his guitar.


They describe their music as "intensindie" and and brought that sort of intensity to playing their show.  The band got right to playing and there was very little if any, banter towards the audience and I don't even remember them introducing the individual band-members, the music itself was entertaining enough.  Haley Mary and guitarist Sam Lockwood had a few choice dance moves, but unfortunately the stage was small enough, there really wasn't a lot of room for movement.

Here's a look at the video for their latest single look Look of Love from their 2014 album The Brink

Look of Love turned out to be one of my favorites live, as during various chorus repeats Haley would lose herself to the music and start spinning, with one arm waving freely along to the music. While I admired the professionalism they brought, it was the spontaneity of moments like this that were the highlights of the night. If they make it back to the States, they're definitely one to catch live!

Here's what I first posted about them in 2012 for their video to the single Endless Summer:
Epic drumbeats, a ridiculous vocal range, passionately ambiguous but dark/nostalgic lyrics, means it must be the Jezabels. The video is just as epic w/ a cinematic Beauty & the Beast-esque storyline, horses, & Australian ranch.