10-20-11 - "Morning Song" ~ We Are The City

So you've already read about the band whose show I attended on Monday night.  An unexpected benefit of being there was discovering these guys along the way.  Hailing from British Columbia just like tourmates Said The Whale, We Are The City brought an engaging brand of progressive indie rock with keyboard (which of course gets them a +1 in my book).  The downside was that I really only caught their last song, due to a prior commitment.  But that was enough for me to check them out further.


Morning Song is the back half of a just-dropped EP, and happens to be the song I caught at the show.  (The front half is called Mourning song, and leads into this one quite well - check it out too!)


The piano style reminds me a bit of Keane, but the guitar and vocals differentiate them from the brit piano-pop group.  Evocative lyrics will draw you in, with imagery of the ocean and the frailty of human life.  Asymmetrical phrasing generates an unsettled mood, making the resolution all the more powerful.  The song's subject matter is the suffering in the world, and the hope that burns within us despite the pain.  


Sweet video of the band performing the song out in nature in - you guessed it - the morning:

Perhaps the best part?  You can download the track FREE on Bandcamp!  (but if you like it, I highly recommend going back and buying the $2, 2-song EP to support the further endeavours* of this talented young group...)


* - see what I did there?  I spelled it like a Canadian would, eh?


Morning Song ~ We Are The City (bandcamp)


"Do you feel fine? 

Please pull me like the moon pulls the tide 

And if I'm set to walk on land then my sandy bones will turn to glass and I'll wait for them to crack..."

6-21-11 - "Sons & Daughters" ~ The Decemberists

Here's a catchy and hopeful song for the summer solstice.  By the way, have you ever stopped to think that from the first day of summer (i.e. - today, unless you're one of the fine folks from the Southern Hemisphere who checks out my blog) on, the days are getting shorter?  Summer is actually the waning of the days... so every day of your summer is less awesome than the last.  What a downer, eh?


But anyway, the song.  It's about the hope of moving forward to a new place and starting a new life.  I think a listener could apply it to starting a new phase in life, as well; you don't have to be immigrating to a new country or anything to draw meaning from the song...

"We'll build our walls aluminum
We'll fill our mouths with cinnamon..."

5-26-11 - "The General" ~ Dispatch

You learn something new every day, or so they say.  Today I learned that Dispatch was formed at Middlebury College.  I learned this because I looked them up (yea, never had gotten around to listening to them previously) after I heard one of their songs on my cousin's iPod shuffle whilst driving home to PA from... Middlebury College.  Small world, eh?  My cousin just graduated from Midd, and I was up there for the ceremonies (and to extract her from her dorm room - no small task!)  Anyway, the song is really chill and really sweet, and has a good message...


Not that I'm anti-war, but the concept that often times the wars which are fought in this world are "not worth fighting" certainly has some truth to it.  The world's a messed up place, and most of the battles fought are over land, power, racial hatred, religious hatred, etc... all kinds of things that we wouldn't need to fight over if people weren't so self-centered and had love for their fellow man.  Regardless of how you feel on the subject, the groove of the song is well worth a listen... and you know a song's legit when it has its own Wikipedia entry...

"I have seen the others
and I have discovered
that this fight is not worth fighting, no...
and I see their mothers
and I will no other
to follow me where I'm going..."