Sigur Ros

Since the late nineties, Sigur Ros have established themselves as the premier purveyors of delicate orchestral melodies ripe for feature film soundtrack inclusion. Who among us can forget the lilting piano strains that signal the beginning of "Hoppipolla" or the explosion of sound that "Saeglopur" bursts into mid-stride?

If nothing else it's impossible to forget the titles. The band themselves are nearly as inscrutable as their music, particularly since the members are notably boorish in dealing with the press.

Case in point: last years disastrous NPR interview (which can still be seen online, replete with "director's commentary") during which the band is somewhat polite yet awfully reticent for radio.

One wonders why they even agreed to render the interview. Publicity? Contractual obligations? Free coffee at the studio?

Granted, the majority of the questions are approaching inane, yet there's little question the band could have been more gracious. Instead they come off as bleary-eyed sedative addicts.

Though, personally, I wouldn't have it any other way. It is so very droll to read the comments of the fans as they blindly defend their precious heroes and decry the career choice (among other things) of the interviewer.

But I digress.

Since news of Hvarf/Heim broke mid-2007, it's been no secret the band has been crafting a new record for months. So it was with great fanfare that the band recently released the first single from the new album on their website, titled "Gobbledigook".

Believe it or not, I spelled that correctly. "Gobbledigook". I really wish this was an April Fools post, somehow that would make this whole entry even more amusing.

The album cover and music video are also readily available on the web. Sigur Ros has a grand tradition of gorgeous disc packaging and thoughtfully crafted video clips. So what majestic aesthetic are we presented with this time?

Naked people running and/or dancing. Lots of naked people.

Why? Because we all know naked bodies equal poetic art. By this logic the AdultCon conventions should be worthy of highbrow review in the New Yorker.

Were he still with us, I'm sure Helmut Newton would love this new direction. As for me, I'm simply pleased to behold a group so wonderfully bizarre.

Thanks Sigur Ros, for providing beautifully eclectic music with a hearty serving of unintentional hilarity. What will you guys think of next?

Wait, don't tell me. I want to be surprised.

"Gobbledigook" from Með suð í eyrum við spilum endalaust (2008)

[Yeah, I had to copy and paste that title.]

Al Stewart

Today we honor two vastly different English gentlemen: the well-read modern troubadour Al Stewart and the Elizabethan naval commander Richard Grenville.

In 1976, Stewart released his song "Lord Grenville", which somewhat fictionalized the final days of Grenville's life in addition to touching on the specifics.

Though the accounts of Grenville's exploits and inevitable demise are somewhat speculated upon, depending on the source, the following is the version from Al Stewart's own website:

Sir Richard Grenville (1542-1591)

English Naval commander. He was sent with a fleet of 13 ships to intercept a Spanish treasure ship in the Azores. On August 31 they received news that 53 Spanish ships were headed out to meet the treasure ship. Other ships in the fleet weighed anchor and headed out to sea.

Grenville's ship, the Revenge, was delayed and cut off. The ship was becalmed in the lee of a large galleon. After a hand to hand battle lasting 15 hours, involving 15 ships and 5000 men, the Revenge was captured. Grenville was carried aboard the Spanish flagship, where he died a few days later. The exploit is commemorated in a poem by Tennyson titled "The Revenge".

The following excerpt from Cornwall Calling offers a few more details:

On August 31st 1591 the Revenge with about a hundred men fought a battle against some fifty Spanish ships. Battle ceased as darkness fell, and the next day the Spaniards were surprised to see the Revenge still floating. Its mast and sails were gone, its holds were flooded. Grenville ordered his chief gunner to sink the Revenge to stop it falling into enemy hands, but the survivors wanted him to surrender.

Grenville agreed provided the Spanish would grant them full honours of war, and return them to England immediately. The Spanish commander agreed and the battle ended. The Revenge was captured, and Grenville, mortally wounded, was taken on board the Spanish Admiral's ship San Pablo, where he died a few days afterwards. Shortly afterwards an enormous storm sank the Revenge and 14 Spanish ships.



"Lord Grenville" from Year of the Cat (1976)

Gus

"Floodlights" from Word of Mouth Parade (1999)

Curtis Stigers

Adult contemporary radio stations briefly flirted with Curtis Stiger's album Time Was back in '95, as they had three years earlier with his self-titled debut, but ultimately mainstream stardom was to elude Mr. Stigers.

Aside from being a quite talented saxophonist with an ear for crafting radio-friendly pop melodies, Mr. Stigers also possesses a distinctive voice most notably suited for jazz. Today we revisit his finest album with two time-related tracks culled from the aptly titled Time Was.



"This Time" from Time Was (1995)

"Time Was" (Duet with Shawn Colvin) from Time Was (1995)

Sam Cooke

British singer James Hunter once recounted a story concerning the universal appeal of Cooke's music:

"I was on a train once, uh, comin' home from somewhere that night. And there was a few - lots of tired commuters, and somebody a few seats down had a... a whatcha call it...a little stereo playin' Sam Cooke stuff really softly on it there. And normally when somebody's got music going on in the train somebody gets irritated. But that trip, no one, there wasn't anyone on the train that didn't dig it."

I hardly need re-tell the oft-told tales of the legendary life of Sam Cooke. One only need initiate a brief search engine jaunt to bring up detailed articles of his life, career, and untimely death.

Still, even if unfamiliar with the specifics of Cooke's life, who hasn't heard his work? Classic tracks like "Bring it on Home to Me" and "Chain Gang" are mainstays on oldies radio. Here, however, we'll focus on lesser-known but equally sublime masterpieces from Cooke's storied canon.




"Just For You" from Portrait of a Legend 1951-1964 (2003)




"Rome Wasn't Built in a Day" from The Man Who Invented Soul (2000)

"Sugar Dumpling" (Original Version) from The Man Who Invented Soul (2000)

The Alan Parsons Project

What better way could there be to kick off the 2008 Memorial Day weekend than with the first two cuts from Eye in the Sky by progressive rock band The Alan Parsons Project?

The first three cuts?

Absolutely!

The Alan Parsons Project - Eye in the Sky (1982)

1) "Sirius"
2) "Eye in the Sky"
3) "Children of the Moon"

The Pogues

The Pogues debut record Red Roses for Me signaled a new era in Irish pop music with its brilliant fusion of traditional Irish folk music and the youthful potency of punk music.

Though the novelty was certain to eventually wear off, as such things are wont to do, The Pogues continued to reinvent their style with two successive albums.

Rum, Sodomy, & the Lash is unquestionably their greatest achievement, boasting both heartbreaking ballads ("A Pair of Brown Eyes") and raucous drinking songs ("The Sick Bed of Cuchulainn").

Third effort If I Should Fall from Grace with God maintains a close second position to the previous album. Though not quite as memorable, it contains the Pogues most cherished entry in their canon - "Fairytale of New York".

"Streams of Whiskey" from Red Roses for Me (1984)

"A Pair of Brown Eyes" from Rum, Sodomy, & the Lash (1985)

"Fairytale of New York" from If I Should Fall from Grace with God (1988)

Josh Ritter

American folk singer/songwriter Josh Ritter built a steady following on the strength of his first two albums, but his artistic growth did not reach copious fruition until the release of Hello Starling in 2003. Second track "Kathleen" has become such a prominent icon that Ritter's handwritten lyrics were recently auctioned on eBay for charity.

"All the other girls here are stars, you are the Northern Lights" brilliantly introduces the track, though it is true the album is also suffused with sharp subjective thought as well. The solemn lamentations of "Man Burning" illustrate that quite well: "I regret the things I've done, bitter words and fiery tongues."

In 2005, Hello Starling was re-released with an extra disc that contained a four song live set including "Kathleen", "Golden Age of Radio", "You Don't Make It Easy Babe", and "Snow Is Gone." It's highly recommended, as Mr. Ritter is legendary for his colorful live performances.

When The Animal Years appeared swiftly on the heels of that re-release, pre-release samples from the album were snapped up faster than doughnuts at a weight loss convention. Mr. Ritter suddenly featured in multitudes of music periodicals, including a grand write up in Paste - and there was bounteous reason for this fervor.

"Girl in the War" fronted a delicate, yet brutally honest anti-war stance, "Wolves" featured a rolling piano intro and called to mind a successor to Neil Young's throne might be at hand, while the lyric "Best for the Best" suggested a burgeoning songwriter who has the chops to rival Dylan.

As if the world needed any more proof of Ritter's inimitable talent, fourth record The Historical Conquests of Josh Ritter arrived in stores in August of 2007. The minute the jangly, excited guitar strum of "To the Dogs or Whoever" strikes the eardrum, it promises something ambitiously extravagant. It is distinctly Ritter, name dropping historical figures and following it up with profoundly mystic lines like "The stain of the sepia the butcher Crimea."

"Right Moves" could have been a hit single were the masses not hopelessly superficial, "Empty Hearts" contains one of the most accessible singalong choruses of the year, while "The Temptation of Adam" serves to exemplify Ritter's songwriting prowess.

The track is a distillation of a romance between a soldier and a woman named Marie hunkered down in a missile silo, described as a "top secret location three hundred feet under the ground." The lyric is hauntingly beautiful as it treads the course of the courtship amidst the foreboding intonations of "W.W.I.I.I.", the soldier's answer to Marie's question of "what five letters spell apocalypse?"

Occasionally, in order to fully understand an artist, it is helpful to read a bit about their background and lifestyle. Writer Josh Jackson, in the aforementioned Paste article, assists with this sufficiently with the following excerpt:

"With his curly mop, scraggly beard, sweater and secondhand corduroy jacket, Ritter looks more like a college professor than either of his parents, who both teach neuroscience at Washington State University, just across the state line.

Though he left Idaho after high school, he’s at home in the woods of the Northwest, where he first began writing songs. He points out the different types of trees—enormous cedars, cottonwoods, ponderosas, willows and Douglas firs.

Further up the mountain from Ritter’s childhood home, his best friend Rocky Weitz’s family owns hundreds of acres.

'I could disappear into those woods for hours,' Ritter says. 'Just take a book and spend the day by myself.'"

"Song for the Fireflies" from Golden Age of Radio (2001)

"Kathleen" from Hello Starling (2003)

"Wolves" from The Animal Years (2006)

"The Temptation of Adam" from The Historical Conquests of Josh Ritter (2007)

BONUS TRACK

"Peter Killed the Dragon" from Live at the Record Exchange EP (2007)

The Hiatus Comes Full Circle

The long wait is over. After being lulled into a coma by now resolved circumstances (the particulars of which are protracted and uninteresting) HHDC is back and ready for semi-regular postings!

Dolorean

De Lorean. The quintessential automobile icon of eighties wealth and excess was also one of the finest American sports cars ever conceived. In 1980, it was a safe bet that anyone with a lingering partiality to some abstract exotic carmaker would immediately dissapate that partiality upon viewing a stainless steel DMC-12. The swanky machine just exuded speed, even when utterly immobile.

But I digress.

Portland-based act Dolorean is a five piece band which serves as the primary vehicle for singer/songwriter Al James. Their earliest proper album, Not Exotic, is a glorious vestige of Midwestern Americana encapsulated into beautifully structured melodies. There are elements of country and bluegrass present, but it is first and foremost a folk record.

Album opener "Morning Watch" subtly sets an appropriately serene mood before jettisoning the dawn for the more convivial "Traded for Fire" and "Jenny Place Your Bets". Both are wonderfully envisioned tracks that, at least stylistically, seem to serve as companion pieces to each other.

The real gem of the album, both lyrically and musically, is "Sleeperhold". With it's Biblical intonations and intricately delicate melody, "Sleeperhold" ranks quite high in the top twenty tracks of 2003.

With sophomore record Violence in the Snowy Fields, James and co. expounded upon their Americana slant and added a harmonious CSNY vocal element to the mix. The title track and "The Search" stand as some of their finest work - and perhaps the closest Dolorean ever comes to letting loose.

"My Grey Life (Second Chances)" would fit magnificently in the closing credits of some darkly bitter drama. "I believe in second chances, for everyone. . .but you." Brilliant.

You Can't Win, with its artistically chic cover shot, has become perhaps the most successful of Dolorean's records - at least from a critical standpoint. "Heather Remind Me How This Ends" is a song so hauntingly alluring it will stick with you for weeks afterwards.

The ninth cut from the record, titled for the coordinates of the area where ex-Beach Boy Dennis Wilson's ashes were scattered, is absolutely spellbinding. Its construction consists of merely scant instrumentation and wordless singing, but the execution is nothing short of sublime.

Dolorean is a phenomenal act with few contemporaries that can even approach their mastery of the nearly-lost Americana genre.

If their previous work is any indication, it can only get better from here. . .

"Sleeperhold" from Not Exotic (2003)

"Violence in the Snowy Fields" from Violence in the Snowy Fields (2004)

"Heather Remind Me How This Ends" from You Can't Win (2007)

Pinetop Seven

Perhaps the closest Pinetop Seven has come to mainstream attention came in 2005 when "Witness", a cut from their album The Night's Bloom, appeared on a Paste Magazine sampler disc. A year later, National Public Radio featured a track from rarities compilation Beneath Confederate Lake on the "Song of the Day" segment, a track for which this weblog is named after.

Though popular success has eluded Pinetop Seven, the band has been immensely active in the Chicago music scene since at least the mid-nineties. Mid-Western Americana is perhaps the most apt genre description of the band's work, as their rustic sound is reminicent of a film score to a dark, moody Western.

Their eponymous debut displayed a firm grasp of the Western genre, replete with a cover depicting a bristling battle between two gunslingers. "Tennessee Pride", with its ominously foreboding amble, is the final and best track on the record. The track could be seamlessly placed in an episode of Deadwood...in fact, I'm surprised none of the band's work wasn't enlisted for use in the HBO program.

Sophomore record Rigging the Toplights is unquestionably Pinetop Seven's finest work to date. First of all, the album features "Drying Out", a song that could possibly induce tears from the dismal tone alone - add to that aching lyrics such as "The winter here has not been kind", and you have a simply sublime piece of work.

Their latest LP, The Night's Bloom, displays dramatic creative growth - particularly in tracks like "Born Among the Born Again". A supporting banjo has never been utilized so masterfully, I would argue, as in this album. "Witness" is another standout, once again featuring haunting lyrics that remain with you long after the track is over.

In addition to the offerings here, the band has a detailed website which features numerous downloads of some of their best songs.

"Tennessee Pride" from Pinetop Seven (1997)

"Drying Out" from Rigging the Toplights (1998)

"On The Last Ride In" from Bringing Home The Last Great Strike (2000)

"Born Among The Born Again" from The Night's Bloom (2005)

"Hurry Home Dark Cloud" (Alternate Mix) from Beneath Confederate Lake (2006)

Kings of Convenience

Almost single-handedly, Simon & Garfunkel took the folk music playbook and modified it to create a sound deeply rooted in folk yet immediately accessible to casual radio listeners. Their 1964 album Wednesday Morning, 3 AM is a landmark recording in the furtherance of popular acceptance of folk.

Though the album was not an overnight success, within two years the group would shoot to stardom under the momentum of fans who could not get enough of the airy acoustic guitars and lyrical witticisms. Part of the credit is due to Paul Simon's exceptional songwriting prowess, and part of it is due to the otherworldly harmonizing between Simon and Garfunkel.

Over thirty years later, up and coming acts are still working off the S&G folk modifications, many of them adding their own enhancements and alterations to the mix. Belle & Sebastian are perhaps the most notable of these ardent folk followers, but an oft-overlooked outfit is the duo comprising Kings of Convenience.

Norwegian musicians Erlend Oye and Eirik Glambek Boe, playing together since their mid-teens, formed the band in 1999 and managed to release their debut Quiet is the New Loud only two years later.

The beauty of KoC songs is in their simplicity. "I Don't Know What I Can Save You From", with it's soothing, hushed vocals that would become trademark, sidles along amiably despite the ominous overtones of the lyrics.

"Toxic Girl" gained the twosome significant attention, featuring both in a wireless advertisement and in the film Shallow Hal. What strikes the listener most about the album is that though there is some scoring to the songs, and scant percussion here and there, the bulk of their work is straight acoustic singer/songwriter stylized folk music.

It is a refreshing sound free from the noisy overproduction and needless instrumental meandering that permeates the sound of many modern indie acts.

After a diverging remix album called Versus, Kings of Convenience released sophomore effort Riot on an Empty Street in 2004.

With this release Oye and Boe built upon the folk tradition, displaying extensive creative growth and expanding the scope of their sound by leaps and bounds. "I'd Rather Dance With You", unquestionably the poppiest track on the record, excitably bounces along with a danceable beat. It was the second single culled from the record and potentially misleading to newcomers as to the overall characteristics of KoC's sound.

The first single, "Misread", showcases the duo at their absolute zenith. The breezy acoustic guitars and mellifluous vocals are rarely in finer form, and this alluring dynamic is displayed in other tracks such as "Live Long", "Cayman Islands", and "Gold in the Air of Summer."

Leslie Feist, who herself released an album that year, features on two tracks: "Know How" and "The Build-Up".

The folk genre is crowded with acts who attempt to emulate what Kings of Convenience have done, but the honest truth is that Oye and Boe are peerless. Any skepticism to this declaration can be quelled by simply listening to their work, both of their albums are highly recommended.

Let us hope 2008 holds a new one from Kings of Convenience. . .

"Toxic Girl" from Quiet is the New Loud (2001)

"Gold in the Air of Summer" from Riot on an Empty Street (2004)

BONUS MP3

Erlend Oye/Phoenix "If I Ever Feel Better" from DJ-Kicks (2004)