Five Songs, Chapter Four
"Trains to Brazil" by Guillemots
I wrote about this song a while back, and now it's available on iTunes as part of an eight-song record by the band. Some of the other tracks are pretty good, too, but buy this one. If you're not dancing around to it almost immediately, I'll give you your money back. (Offer good for the first two people who want their money back.)
"Drain" by Jay Farrar
A friend recently said she'd been listening to this song, and I was glad she inspired me to go back to it. It's from Sebastopol, a very good album that I haven't listened to much at all over the past few years. It was released right around 9/11, and at first I wasn't crazy about it, partly because the standards set by Farrar's band, Son Volt, were very high. Pretty quickly, though, its moody songs became the constant soundtrack to my strange routines around that time -- I most vividly remember listening to it while standing on a bus going downtown after work, trying to avoid the subway as much as I could. It's sentimental, I suppose, to say that the music attached itself to the moment (meaning those few weeks), and that the moment was not one I wanted to recall much over the ensuing years. But I'm slowly getting back into the record, and this song in particular is really beautiful.
"Orange Sky" by Alexi Murdoch
This was the soundtrack for a movie preview that I saw with my sister a few years ago, and a while later she tracked it down and gave it to me. I'll be damned if it isn't mostly a shameless Nick Drake rip-off, but I'll be equally damned if I don't like it more than almost anything by Drake.
"Car Song" by Madder Rose
When you want it to feel like 1994 all over again.
"Unaccompanied Cello Suite No. 1 in G Major" by Bach (performed by Yo-Yo Ma)
When you want it to feel like 1719 all over again.
I wrote about this song a while back, and now it's available on iTunes as part of an eight-song record by the band. Some of the other tracks are pretty good, too, but buy this one. If you're not dancing around to it almost immediately, I'll give you your money back. (Offer good for the first two people who want their money back.)
"Drain" by Jay Farrar
A friend recently said she'd been listening to this song, and I was glad she inspired me to go back to it. It's from Sebastopol, a very good album that I haven't listened to much at all over the past few years. It was released right around 9/11, and at first I wasn't crazy about it, partly because the standards set by Farrar's band, Son Volt, were very high. Pretty quickly, though, its moody songs became the constant soundtrack to my strange routines around that time -- I most vividly remember listening to it while standing on a bus going downtown after work, trying to avoid the subway as much as I could. It's sentimental, I suppose, to say that the music attached itself to the moment (meaning those few weeks), and that the moment was not one I wanted to recall much over the ensuing years. But I'm slowly getting back into the record, and this song in particular is really beautiful.
"Orange Sky" by Alexi Murdoch
This was the soundtrack for a movie preview that I saw with my sister a few years ago, and a while later she tracked it down and gave it to me. I'll be damned if it isn't mostly a shameless Nick Drake rip-off, but I'll be equally damned if I don't like it more than almost anything by Drake.
"Car Song" by Madder Rose
When you want it to feel like 1994 all over again.
"Unaccompanied Cello Suite No. 1 in G Major" by Bach (performed by Yo-Yo Ma)
When you want it to feel like 1719 all over again.
Labels: Five Songs
posted by JMW at 12:02 AM
3 Comments:
As you have such strong memories associated with the song Drain, as it's tied to such a specific moment, it might be worthwhile to consider the lyrics, which are lovely, strange and instructive, and perhaps peculiarly suited to New York at that aftermath moment:
Stay away from injury
Stay away from bad reactions
Find some people
And hang around after dark
Better off living
Put the effort on building
And deal with the devil
When it seems the time is right
Drain your eyes
Slow down
But don't drop behind
Better off creating
Than facilitating
Some downward action
Feel the pulse that's radiating
Hope to you and all the best
Save room for an open mind
Take it as it unravels
No need for an alibi
FYI -- Trains to Brazil by the Guillemots is FREE right now on iTunes. And good.
-- Comish
dezmond, some of us don't want to be trapped in the amber of 1972, and were discovering some pretty great music in 1994.
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