Here is my review of Arrow, by Clare & the Reasons, which I did for a local newspaper here in Tacoma, Washington called The Volcano. 

Clare & The Reasons (Frog Stand Records 2009)

By Megan Mitchell

November 18, 2009

New York-based indie pop band Clare & The Reasons (Clare Muldaur, Olivier Manchon and Bob Hart, mainly) should not be dismissed as yet another frivolous romp through the format field of other artists in the genre.  Clare & The Reasons combine their talents to create their meticulously composed sophomore album, Arrow. 

Featuring My Brightest Diamond’s Shara Worden (on “This is the Story”) and a cover of Genesis’ “That’s All,” this album is sure to span a unique range of musicality.  Most of the songs feature a lovely string orchestra of violins, violas and cello, often backed by heavy bass drums and Muldaur’s whimsical, almost childlike vocalizations.  In addition to this diverse span of instruments, expect to hear some French horn, synths and lighthearted kazoo in the mix. 

Tracks such as “All the Wine” and “Ooh You Hurt Me So,” truly exemplify Muldaur’s hauntingly simplistic vocals, while still revealing the painstakingly precise compositional steps made to present this work of true artistry that spans multiple genres.

Workhorse (Lusine)

Give it about a minute and a half to kick in. For any Decemberists fans, this is who did the majority of female vocals on Hazards of Love.

Side Note: I have a new standing engagement writing on Wednesdays at: www.songotheday.com

My Brightest Diamond é na verdade o codinome do projeto da cantora, multi-instrumentalista e compositora Shara Worden, bastante virtuosa e com boas amizades, como por exemplo, manter contato e já ter trabalho com o músico Sufjan Stevens no grupo Illinoismakers. Já possui três álbuns lançados até hoje e atingiu popularidade com o segundo disco, A Thousand Shark’s Teeth. Começou sua carreira nesse projeto por volta de 2oo5 e apesar de estar até hoje na ativa, Shara não é muito conhecida no meio artística, mas sorte que muitos sites divulgam seu trabalho, tipo o     La Blogotheque.

Aqui para download o álbum A Thousand Shark’s Teeth      Download

1 – Inside a Boy

The following is a list of the ten albums that I feel, are the best releases in the last 10 years.  None of the decisions were made based on critical acclaim but merely on what I think are the most progressive and meaningful albums from 2000 to the present.  Every band is trying to do something different with their music and the following are examples of success in that goal.  Every one of these has a quality or style that is purely unique and influential.

10: TV On The Radio – Return to Cookie Mountain (2006 – 4AD, Interscope)

While Return to Cookie Mountain is not the most recent release by the band it is certainly the most notable.  On this album billows of drum and guitar sound accompany a very vocal-based album that is melodic and sing-able at times and merely a wall of sound at others.  The band, which operates out of Brooklyn, has created a name for itself in its unique genre-less compositions similar only to that of Radiohead and top 40 radio in Mars.

Notable tracks:

03. Province (this track features David Bowie on backing vocals)

06. A Method

9: Akron/Family – Set ‘Em Wild, Set ‘Em Free (2009 – Dead Oceans)

While everything on the album is recognizably Akron/Family, the album spans genres inexplicably.  Starting in a bit of a dirty blues-rock feel and moving through electronic tracks and folk concoctions, the band even hits on some borderline scream punk just to say they did it.  Often, transitions between acoustic and more electronically derived tracks are rough and uncomfortable but this Frankenstein of an album dances gracefully the entire time.  The band, from New York City, remains relatively undiscovered but they ought to be.  Akron/Family has a lot to add to the musical scene and effectively captures the style that many bands strive for.

Notable tracks:

01. Everyone Is Guilty

03. Creatures

07. Many Ghosts

8: The xx – xx (2009 – Young Turks)

The xx is amazingly simple but still a sound that’s very rarely made.  The London quartet functions with two vocalists in what seems like a dialogue relationship.  Overall, nearly every song has a calm intensity to it that satisfies repeatedly.  xx is greatly successful for the group’s first release so releases in the future will surely be under radar.

Notable Tracks:

03. Crystalized

07. Shelter

7: The Arcade Fire – Funeral (2004 – Merge)

I don’t know what to call The Arcade Fire’s but after I saw a concert on the Neon Bible Tour I was convinced that they were the house band from Eli Sunday’s church in There Will Be Blood. Apparently, living in Haiti leaves you pretty oblivious to American culture and the way music is being made over here because The Arcade Fire has created in Funeral an experience that is completely different than anything…ever.  There is a very eerie vibe surrounding the album and a deep emotion that lies within it.

Notable Tracks:

04. Neighborhood 3 (Power Out)

06. Crown of Love

07. Wake Up

6: Why? – Alopecia (2008 – Anticon)

Lead singer Yoni Wolf’s music is disturbingly honest but for some strange reason that is what keeps you coming back for more. Alopecia says everything you’ve wanted to say but haven’t had the guts.  It’s Jewish hip-hop that in all the ways Matisyahu is not.  Whereas most hip-hop is about the ego, Alopecia is about life.  These are stories of bad decisions, failures, and missed opportunities and they are all presented in very honest and effective ways.

Notable Tracks:

02. Good Friday

08. The Fall of Mr. Fifths

10. A Sky for Shoeing Horses Under

5: The Decemberists – The Hazards of Love (2009 – Capitol)

With the bands fifth release, The Decemberists delve even deeper into the story-telling style that they are known for.  On this album every track flows seamlessly to the other and themes come and go throughout the duration of the album representing the stories that are interwoven inside it.  The band draws on its resources for The Hazards of Love as Shara Worden of My Brightest Diamond, Becky Starke of Lavender Diamond, and Jim James of My Morning Jacket are all brought in to play various characters in the stories and provide vocals for the album.  The Hazards of Love is a seamless blend of music steeped in an ancient troubadour tradition and converted by modern themes and musical styles into what can best be described as a musical.

Notable Tracks:

03. A Bower Scene

08. The Wanting Comes In Waves/Repaid

10. The Rake’s Song

4: Architecture in Helsinki – Places Like This (2007 – Polyvinyl)

This album is beautifully fucking crazy.  Enough said.

Notable Tracks:

02. Heart It Races

03. Hold Music

08. Lazy (Lazy)

3: Bright Eyes – I’m Wide Awake Its Morning (2005 – Saddle Creek)

When Conor Oberst double released Digital Ash In A Digital Urn and I’m Wide Awake It’s Morning in 2005 he had officially divided his music in two.  Previous albums, which had mixed darker and more electronically-derived tracks like “Lover I Don’t Have to Love” with folk tunes like “Bowl of Oranges” had given birth to both a pair of very different-looking twins.  While Digital Ash was ill-recieved, I’m Wide Awake its Morning broke into an entirely different well of musical possibilities.  Not only did this album influence every Bright Eyes release since, it also spawned tons of followers in what is now “indie-folk”. Conor Oberst is the Bob Dylan of his time.

Notable Tracks:

04. Lua

06. First Day of My Life

10. Road To Joy

2: Radiohead – Kid A (2000 – Parlophone, Capitol)

Kid A marks the transformation of Radiohead from a band to a soulless fucking robot.  Fortunately it is the soulless fucking robot that people prefer.  Its amazing that an album as experimental as this one achieved as much success as it did but even though Kid A debuted without a single or music video, it was able to draw itself enough attention to go platinum in a week.  You know the rest.

Notable Tracks:

01. Everything In Its Right Place

03. The National Anthem

08. Idiotheque

1: Department of Eagles – In Ear Park (2008 – 4AD)

You may not have expected this one but I have a strong faith that, although very undiscovered In Ear Park is the greatest album that has been released all decade.  There is a huge difference between bands that record songs and bands that record art.  In Ear Park is not about chords and progressions but about what the music does when it gets inside your head.  While Department of Eagles consists of just Daniel Rossen (also known for work in the band Grizzly Bear) and Fred Nicolaus, this particular album was scored on a huge scale.  Starting out from the very beginning with a pretty simple guitar melody the album soon erupts into a very symphonic experience that will make your hairs stand on end.

Notable Tracks:

01. In Ear Park

03. Phantom Other

07. Classical Records

Din multitudinea de recomandări muzicale pe care le primesc on a daily basis se nimereşte ca din când în când să dau şi peste câte un album bun. Iată două dintre acestea.

Maimuţele arctice sunt cafeaua de care aveţi nevoie luni dimineaţa. Britanici pînă în măduva oaselor, se aşează în siajul trupelor de succes din Regat, asimilând influenţe dintre cele mai diverse: Beatles, Oasis, Queens of the Stone Age. My Favorite Worst Nightmare este albumul pe care veţi vrea să-l ascultaţi, cu hitul, evident, Brianstorm. (See you later, alligator…) 505 e piesa mea favorită şi în opinia mea cea mai bună a lor. Ascultând The Arctic Monkeys întineresc cu 15 ani. Fizic. Mental …

My Brightest Diamond, prin vocea Sharei Worden, ridică manierismul la rang de artă: timbrul a la Tori Amos (sic!) se combină cu inflexiunile în manieră Bjork şi cu o atmosferă tipic Cocorosie. Bring Me the Workhorse e un album rafinat, fără a fi excesiv sau ostentativ. Melodicitatea atractivă vine să întregească impresia pozitivă pe care o lasă părţile instrumentale. We Were Sparkling şi Disappear sunt bune exemple în acest sens. Iar după ce am ascultat piesa Workhorse, m-am convertit definitiv şi am dat automat un replay. Ba chiar mi-am pus şi căştile!

Not only does this label have a fabulous name, but its logo is really cute!  Look!  It’s a little cat!  A little cat sneezing!

And it’s home to some really great music.  I’ve already mentioned D M Stith.  But how about My Brightest Diamond?  I’ve just bought their Bring Me the Workhorse.  Wow.

Here’s my favourite track so far:

 Something about the controlled tension reminds me of that P J Harvey song, from To Bring You My Love.  You know the one that goes “…little fish, little fish, swimming in the water…”?

Atchoo.

Daha önce Lykke Li ve El Perro Del Mar’ın San Francisco sokaklarındaki performansını müzik defterine koymuştum. Ama blogotheque ekibini çok da araştırmamıştım. Ama bugün sitelerinde girdiğimde ve birkaç röportajlarını okuduğumda aslında ne kadar mükemmel bir proje olduğunu fark ettim..

Paris’te yaşayan bu guerilla ekip, müzik ve filmi sokaklarda, değişik mekanlarda bir araya getiriyorlar. Take Away Shows adı altında çektikleri bu canlı performansların özelliği farklı mekanlarda, spontane olmaları. Seçtikleri isimler de, çektikleri mekanlar da çok etkileyici! Bir asansörün içinde Arcade Fire, bir gitar dükkanının içinde Eric Truffaz, Teksas sokaklarında bir kamyonetin arkasında Jose Gonzales, nehrin ortasında bir teknede French Cowboys, kocaman bir mutfakta Efterklang, hareket halindeki bir minibüsün içinde Vampire Weekend, tuvalette Grizzly Bear veya süpermarkette Bowerbirds performansı izlemeyi kim istemez?

Fikir ortaya şöyle çıkmış.. Proje sahipleri Moon ve Chryde, Arcade Fire’ın Paris’teki konserinde sahneden inip herkesle birlikte sokağa çıkmasından ve performansını sokakta sergilemesinden çok etkilenmişler. “Aslında hepimizin müzikten istediği bu” diye düşünüp, Blogotheque’i, 2006 yılında kurmuşlar. 

“La blogotheque presente un concert a emporter” ibaresiyle açılıyor tüm video’lar. Ve her videonun çekim hikayesini okuyabiliyorsunuz site üzerinden..

Take away show’ların birkaçından bahsedeyim…

Yo La Tengo - Sokaklarda çocuklar eşliğinde With a girl like You, tek kelimeyle muhteşem bir performans (ekip de onları best of the best olarak ifade ediyor)

Eric Truffaz - Nobody Puts Baby in the Corner’ parçasının performansını bir gitar dükkanının içinde gerçekleştiriyor.

My Brightest Diamond - büyüleyici bir performans; ormanda ağaçların arasında yalnızda ksilofon eşliğinde bir Disappear performansı veya New York’ta suyun ortasında L’Hymne A L’Amour seslendirişi izlemeye değer.

Sebastian Tellier - Şahane! Belfort’ta gece nehirde bir iskelede, ateşlerin arasında eğlenceli bir performans.

Animal Collective - Alışveriş arabaları ve kukalarla Animal Collective’e yakışır bir performans.

Patrick Watson - Ekibiyle birlikte cadde üzerinde bir camekanın içinde veya metroda veya gece sokaklarda etkileyici performanslarını sergiliyor.

Architecture in Helsinki - gümbür gümbür bir şov. Heart it Races’ı apartman pencerelerinden sokağa bağırarak seslendiriyorlar. Sadece biraz daha iyi çekilebilirdi sanki..

Fleet Foxes - Armonilerini en güzel yankıyı veren Grand Palais’de sergiliyorlar.

Jose Gonzales - Teksas sokaklarında, hareket halindeki bir kamyonetin arkasında Hints’i seslendiriyor

Sigur Ros - La Closerie des Lilas’nın içinde Vid Spilum Endalaust performansı çok keyifli.

French Cowboys - ‘A Sall Away Show’ bu kez.. Nehrin ortasında bir teknede çok keyifli bir performans.

Vampire Weekend - Otoparkta Kids Don’t Stand A Chance performansı veya hareket halindeki bir minibüsün içinde Mansard Roof seslendirişler çok keyifli.

Beirut - Paris sokaklarında kalabalık orkestrasıyla kur dolu performansı çok güzel.

Arcade Fire - Bir asansörün içinde Neon Bible seslendiriyor. Mutlaka izlenmeli.

Efterklang - Grafitilerle dolu duvarların arasında, merdivenlerde Mirador performansı veya Bottom of the Hill mutfağında Echo Wave performansı çok güzel.

Lykke Li ve El Perro Del Mar - San Francisco sokaklarında After Laughter, Dance Dance Dance ve Somebodys Baby düetlerini yapıyorlar.

Grizzly Bear – Küçücük bir tuvalette Shift’i seslendiriyor veya Paris sokaklarında yürüyen bir a capella korosu olarak The Knife’ı söylüyorlar.

Tom Jones – Otel odasında We Got Love, If We Should Ever Leave You, Green Green Grass of Home parçalarını seslendiriyor.

Bloc Party – Bar kapısının önünde This Modern Love’ın akustik performansını sergiliyor.

Stephen Malkmus - Kapanmış bir barın içinde, ters çevrilmiş sandalyelerin arasında We Can’t Help You seslendiriyor.

St Vincent – Çatı katı bir odada yatağın içerisinde Marry Me parçasını seslendiriyor.

Xiu Xiu – şişeler, kutular ve bilimum aparatlarla değişik bir Improvisation performansı gerçekleştiriyor.

Bu yazdıkların sanırım sitede bulunan performansların sadece 4′te biri.. Diğerlerini bizzat vatanında görmek üzere buraya tıklayın..

Favori videolarımı eklemek istiyorum ama liste çok uzar. O yüzden sadece birkaçını aşağıda ekliyorum, izlemenizi şiddetle öneriyorum. Yakında dvd de basarlar herhalde.. Basarlarsa her müzik severin koleksiyonuna gireceğinden eminim! Peki ben Blogotheque olsam kimi nerede çekmek isterdim acaba? Bunu bir düşüneyim…….. 

A Danielson nevével fémjelzett Sounds Familyre és a Sufjan Stevens kapcsán ismert Asthmatic Kitty Records kiadócsalád egy újabb testvérrel bővült, mely a keresztségben a Great Comfort Records nevet kapta. Irányultságuk egyértelműen keresztény, céljuk pedig, hogy a tradicionális amerikai egyházzenébe új lelket vigyenek, visszahozzák a régi himnuszok organikus hangzását. Indulásuk alkalmából egy válogatást is megjelentettek, melyen hagyományos gospel énekek hallhatók ismerős nevek előadásában, úgy mint Dave Bazan, Damien Jurado, Rosie Thomas, Shara Worden (My Brightest Diamond), J.Tillman (Fleet Foxes), Laura Gibson, Denison Witmer, The Welcome Wagon (Sufjan Stevens segédletével), Leigh Nash (Sixpence None the Richer). Saját bevallásuk szerint a Come, O Spirit! című lemez filmbe illő hangzással és némi Southern Gothic misztikummal szolgál a hallgatóknak.
Az alternatív folk kedvelőinek mindenképpen erősen ajánlott.

here are things i find charming and lovely these days, all of which have a fall-ish flavor. fine by me as i am thrilled that fall is just around the bend.

first of all is kirsten dunst, who might be my favorite actress (watch her in the cat’s meow, if you haven’t yet). it’s not the first time i have mentioned her on here and it won’t be the last. there is a really quiet way she holds herself, a lot of power in how she looks at people, how she carries her face. she can have a minute amount of dialogue and really steal the scene. i think that’s why she’s ended up being a kind of muse for sofia coppola (another favorite!).

i have followed her closely ever since she got cast (quite brilliantly) in interview with a vampire and out preformed two major actors, brad pitt and tom cruise, at the age of 12!

i love how she is like an understated fashion icon(how many people can really pull off an all flesh tone outfit, huh?).

i may be a little prejudiced because her every day fashion looks a lot like MY every day fashion: black and grays and scarves and jeans and flats!

i do not understand people who don’t find kirsten dunst lovely.

i am absolutely obsessed with these chloe leather lace-up wedge boots. at almost $700 they will only live in my dreams, but such dreams they will be! they remind me of something a modern day franny glass would wear going back to school.

this dolce and gabbana tulle and lace dress has been haunting me ever since i saw it in the august issue of W. i find myself driving to work and thinking about making a splash at some premiere (not that i go to premieres, this is my imagination mind you) in that dress. i haven’t even bothered looking at the price…it’s dolce and gabbana.

all the boys around me lately are wearing these watches by nixon and i want one very badly! clocking in at over $400, it will probably be just another nice fantasy, but i love the oversized watch face. i tend to like men’s watches on women, something about delicate wrists and clunky watches looks very modern to me (oo, geeze, or now that i am thinking about it, maybe i really have just read too much j.d salinger!).

my ears these days are full of the amazing shara worden of my brightest diamond. you may also have heard her as guest vocalist on the new decemberist album. her voice is angelic–and by that i mean like how angels were in the bible: beautiful and powerful and other worldly. Not sweet and cute, like something on a bumper sticker, yuck to that. shara worden has the best voice i’ve heard in ten years. and her etherial russian fashion model/rock-a-billy looks don’t hurt either!

8×10v04

my brightest diamond – tear it down (gold chains remix)
etienne de crecy – funk (bloody beetroots mix)
ting tings – shut up and let me go (lazrtag remix)
bjork – wanderlust (ratatat remix)
dirty south – let it go (dirty south dub)
foals – electric bloom (edwin van cleef remix)
lily allen ft mark ronson – oh my god (chris lake remix)
hot chip – boy from school (erol alkan remix)
riot in belguim – la musique (jbag’s boomboxed edit)

Want to see a bunch of photos from The Decemberists show at the Overture in Madison, WI on August 5th, 2009? Check here.

The Decemberists played August 5, 2009 at the Overture Center for the Arts in Madison, WI. Photos and a full review to (probably) come later, but for now, here are some videos from the night:

Ether Earbudded: Vol. 1
Okay, it’s true: I have a need to create music mixes and share them. I think the playlist bug bit me in middle school. My dad & mom would labor over my mom’s set lists for her jazz singing gigs (Long Island – Sonny’s Place, Seaford and NYC – Lenox Lounge). These days, I like to bind the connective tissue of songs: A nonmusician’s quest to create a 45 minute piece of music. Anyways, enough explaining, I hope you enjoy the mix; just click on the Ether Earbudded: Vol. 1 link.

Also – See post on my Grandfather, Warren “Tenor Sax” Luckey

Shara Worden, American songwriter and vocalist of My Brightest Diamond, talked about her music career, the participation with artists like The Decemberits or Sufjan Stevens, how she got to sing covers of “Tainted Love”  & “Feeling Good”… and, obviously, she made me laugh when this pretty woman said that I asked big questions.

- How did your music career begin?

- In music, it’s sort of a funny thing to talk about beginnings or arrival points as there don’t seem to be many.  One creates one’s own markers.  Music was very much a part of the way my family spent time together, so making records or performing wasn’t really a separate thing from our life.  I made my first record at the end of college, so perhaps that was the beginning.

- I had a band with guitarist Shane Yarbrough, called Awry, and we made two records together.  He decided to leave New York and pursue other things and, in 2004, I started playing with a string quartet and felt like it was a new season and a new musical identity.

- Around the time, I began playing with string players, I wrote the song “The Diamond” about someone very dear to me who had died, and that image of something precious which has undergone a real transformation seemed to embody all that was happening.

Sufjan and I were playing in a variety show called The Medicine Show, put on by our mutual friends, so we met and became friends.  Then a few years later he needed a band for this two week tour he was doing and I said yes.  I was recommended to The Decemberists by Tucker Martine and so a couple of The Decemberist fellows came to one of my shows at Schubas in Chicago.  We took photobooth pictures together that night.

- For the album “A Thousand Shark’s Teeth” (2008), I was studying Anselm Kiefer’s works and interviews in which he talked a lot about man’s desire to ascend to the heavens but the irony being that we have heaven on earth and there is no separation.  Up is down, there is here.  Sort of like Alice in Wonderland with everything being topsy turvy and not like you thought it was.  Musically, I was really inspired by Tom Waits and Samuel Barber.

- Nina Simone.

- We were practicing for a tour and I was playing the bridge of the song “Workhorse” and realized that the two hits in the bass were the same as the hits in “Tainted Love”, so it seemed a really natural segue to lead into that as a cover.  I first heard Nina Simone’s version of “Feeling Good” which is on a Live in Concert album of hers and I was so smitten by it.

- I am touring with the Decemberists in the role of The Queen through most of the rest of this year, doing a couple My Brightest Diamond shows and also working with Bryce and Aaron Dessner on a piece called “The Long Count” which is a musical and video piece based somewhat on the Mayan calendar’s predictions for the year 2012 and the 1976 World Series.

- I don’t know that I have a style per se.  I try to think of each different project as having different needs, the metaphorical vocal pedal, so each collaboration or each project has its own identity.  At a base level I think there are things my voice does and does not like doing, but style is not something I hope to be very attached to.

- It is not hard to do what you love.  Many other things in life are very hard.

- You ask big questions, dear Nayive!  I hope for happiness and realization of our connectedness and for wholeness.  I also hope I can eat some sushi tomorrow night.

Once in a while, I want to share with you some of the things that are currently inspiring me, things I’m falling in love with and discovering.  If you do it too, then we can all exist in this kind, sharing, friendly web world of friendships and connections … Or you’ll just be able to try some new flavours.  Either or.

Books

I can’t take credit for this recommendation.  The book was loaned to me by Rikki , whose husband found it in an airport bookstore, and it’s surprisingly good.   The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Annie Barrows and the late Mary Anne Shaffer is written in the epistolary form (comprising entirely of letters and telegrams) in England after WW2.  A spunky young author, Juliet Ashton (wonderful name!) receives a letter from one of the founding members of the German occupied-Guernsey’s Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society and begins a journey, discovering more about the book club and its many remarkable members in the hope of turning their stories into a novel. 

This book has reignited my love of the written word–specifically, the written word in letter form.   It has also made me fall back in love with peoples’ stories.  Lately, I’ve been interviewing a lot of elderly people for the paper in regards to their memories concerning certain events or periods in their lives, be it the Grimsby Beach Reunion, the Park School Reunion, the Tintern School Reunion (I’ve written the headline as: Tintern School Revisited and hope to God my editor keeps it and if so, that someone gets the Wordsworth reference!) and Grimsby during WW2.  I’ve had the opportunity to hear so many good stories and learn a great deal about history from those who lived it.  Reading this novel, I’ve experienced the same feeling.  Real life stories from real life people.  Although the novel is fictional, WW2 and the Holocaust did happen and those who lived through it are dwindling … I’m going to try to get as much out of them before it’s too late …

On a cheerier note, the book is a book lover’s delight: writers, book clubs, references to books, quotes about reading, and people whose lives are richer for their love of reading.  I’m still not finished because I like to read it in bed before I drift off to sleep in the cool of the night, but so far, it’s definitely one that I would recommend to you.

The Illustrated Jane Eyre by Dame Darcy.

Yes, I got this for my birthday. Thanks, Eric!

Music

Do me a favour.  Find Cassandra Wilson’s cover of “Harvest Moon.”  Limewire, mp3 rocket, iTunes, myspace … whatever you use, find it.  Wait until your favourite time of night when the busyness and business slowly dissipates and sleep is beckoning seductively in the distance.  Turn off all the lights, maybe light a candle.  Lie on your bed or couch or even the floor with your eyes closed and play this track.

…

Mmmm-hmmmm.  I told you so.

I also can’t get enough of My Brightest Diamond.  Think of a Celtic Grace Slick Illinoisemaker.  Funky, goosebump-inducing stuff.

I’m also really digging Apostle of Hustle right now, long before Stuart McLean played them on Sunday (more on The Vinyl Cafe later). 

And also, Chad Van Gaalen and Chris Kirby, but that is because of The Vinyl Cafe.  It’s-lazy-Sunday-morning-in-a-long-plaid-shirt-making-eggs-and-bakey-and-birdwatching-and-reading-every-darn-section-of-The National Post-kind of music.

Radio

It was a lazy Sunday morning before Eric and I headed out to the Royal Ontario Museum (ROM) to check out the Dead Sea Scrolls, mummies, dinosaurs and run through the bat cave like it was 1999.  I was feeling devilishly pleased about not having to go to church (I’m a lousy excuse of a Christian, I know).  I was checking out my birthday present–The Illustrated Jane Eyre–while Eric shaved or bathroomed or something of that sort.  I could hear this eerie, acousticky, Neil Youngish stuff playing from the radio downstairs.  I asked Eric what his parents were listening to.  He switched on his radio to CBC’s Radio One (or was it Two, Er?)  Thus, my introduction to Stuart McLean and The Vinyl Cafe.  Visit here for air times and other fun stuff.

When he started playing Newfoundlander Chris Kirby’s “Another Round” from Chris Kirby On Rum & Religion (fantastic title!), I was a goner.  I had to lie down on Eric’s bed and give into the inevitability of falling in love.  I generally hate most radio programming, music snob that I am, but I do not hate CBC’s Radio One and Two, especially Sundays with The Vinyl Cafe and Wiretap with Jonathan Goldstein.  It’s worth skipping church for, but don’t tell anyone I said that!

Movies

The Darjeeling Limited. 

Jason Schwartzman, Owen Wilson, Adrien Brody

Yes, predictably, I’m a huge Wes Anderson fan, but The Darjeeling Limited is the best.  Not only will you fall in love with India, trains, sitar music and Adrien Brody’s sad eyes, but you will be able to guess 10 minutes into the film the birth order of the three brothers.  If there’s one thing I love about Wes Anderson’s films, it is that he gets family dynamics and the complex relationship between siblings pitch-perfect, no matter how dysfunctional or oddball the family is.  I just bought this film for $10 at Giant Tiger and am one happy camper.

Rachel Getting Married

Although this film is, at times, squirm-inducing and uncomfortable to watch, Anne Hathaway does one hell of a good acting job, causing one to think, Princess Diaries who?  The music played by a real-life band is incredible, and the wedding itself is one that every wedding should aspire to emulate.  As the final credits roll beside a long-shot of Rachel, played by Rosemarie DeWitt, sitting in a comfy sweater in the early morning after her wedding, listening to the band play in the distance and sipping a piping coffee, you feel like you’ve just watched a documentary, not an original motion picture.

Alice in Wonderland

This hasn’t come out yet and is due for release in March of 2010, but I can’t wait.  Tim Burton + Johnny Depp + Anne Hathaway + Helena Bonham Carter + Alan Rickman + Michael Sheen + Christopher Lee … it better not let me down!

“Alice laughed: “There’s no use trying,” she said; “one can’t believe impossible things.”
“I daresay you haven’t had much practice,” said the Queen. “When I was younger, I always did it for half an hour a day. Why, sometimes I’ve believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast.”
–from Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll

Shara Worden has been trying to break through as a musician for quite a while; She released her first album under the name of “Shara” after receiving her BM in classical singing, then released a few more under the name “AwRY,” moving to Moscow and back in there. She met Sufjan Stevens and went on tour with him as an Illinoisemaker, changed her name to My Brightest Diamond, and released Bring Me the Workhorse. She then released a remix album of Workhorse, and then A Thousand Shark’s Teeth in 2008, after which she sang on Hazards of Love as “the queen” and is now on tour with The Decemberists.

A noise can never be truly captured with words. No matter how long you spend trying to describe a certain sound, there will be something missing from the point of view of the reader; their mind will fill in any spaces that you may have left and interpret your words slightly differently than you intended. “Something of an End,” the opening track to Shara Worden’s debut as My Brightest Diamond, makes me wish that this wasn’t fact. I wish I could spend a paragraph describing to you each and every second of tension in this wonderful song, but I don’t have the skills. The first couple seconds are what can only be described as the sound of twinkling, but the song really gets started when the foreboding bassline enters, with accompanying hit-and-run drum slams. Shara’s beautiful voice begins, just as foreboding, speaking of literal physical pain and a life with not much time left. “And then the earth started shaking/and yeah, it was crazy/heaven and hell came crashing down/and then the earth started shaking/yeah it’s so crazy/ heaven and hell came crashing/they came crashing/it was beautiful/and terrible.” The song opens up like video of a flower during sunrise that’s been sped up and shaken to make it seem artsy, all in a quiet beat before the “beautiful and terrible” chorus begins and Shara’s true power wails at you eardrums. The sun sets, and the flower closes, but it’s potential and tension are still waiting inside the petals, while Shara breathily imitates a phone ringing. As she sings the verse, you almost dread the storm you know is coming at the advent of the second chorus. This dread is multiplied when, at the section I quoted above begins again, a noise that was quite plainly meant to sound like the moans of the damned frightens the hell out of the casual listener who didn’t know what she was getting in to. After the chorus resolves, the bridge has a feel of immeasurable pity for the victim of the beautiful and terrible incident. “It was something of an end/of a lovely and a wild thing/so beautiful in the morning.” The bridge raises shut, and the resolution is a quiet and heartbreaking confession that you would have never expected from the bone-breaking tension of the song up to this point. “I can’t seem to get it through your head/that I’ll always/love you.”

It seems perfectly reasonable at this point, then, to follow up with “Golden Star,” which is, let’s be honest here, a three minute euphemism for an orgasm. This, of course, calls for a droning that begins barely audible and keeps getting louder until you have expect it to just drown you in sound no  matter how far you turn down your speakers, but instead breaks at the perfect moment and turns into guitar strumming and a fun little intermittent line that sounds like violins being plucked… and probably is. The sound comes down for the vocals, becoming unimportant behind the story being told, until verse (“and I feel like a golden star,”) and chorus (“Explode!”) flow seamlessly into each other, with her holding one long note while vocals that sound like they’re on the radio in the 1920’s sing about being full and rejoicing. At the end of the second chorus, “explode” turns from a multi-tracked, laid-back soar into a vibrato-full wail and then pops up for a quick shriek. This leads to a bridge of the same lyrics as before, just sung as powerfully as she can manage over near silence. This song crescendos to a sudden but inevitable halt that you can’t help from falling in love with.

The album finally calms down with “Gone Away.” When I asked my father for hos thoughts on this song, he simply said “Aagh! It’s so damn depressing! Make it stop, Taran!” which I think really fits this tear jerking ballad about a lost love. I can’t tell if the love went off to war, or died, or just plain walked out, but it’s an extremely powerful song regardless. It almost sounds like Shara’s slowly weeping as she sings. However, she couldn’t keep a song completely subdued, so the heart-wrenching bridge, full of anger and resentment, rips out into the realm of recovery and realization that mourning gets you nowhere. You have to move on eventually. “Cause you’ve gone away/where there isn’t a telephone wire/still I wait by the phone./You don’t even write/to say goodbye./Goodbye.”

If strings could jam without sounding like a bunch of fiddles, it would probably sound like the intro of “Dragonfly” (which has a great video.) This is a song where all of the instruments gently come together; not a one is obtrusive or steals the sound, but each is imperative to the gentle flight of the dragonfly. “I once saw a dragonfly/caught in a spider’s web/as I looked at her once more/I thought that she was dead/So I left her alone and I went on my way/and I was dreaming of Paris and Pierre Boulez/and she called to me with a beat of her wing/yes she called to me and said “Free me.” The strings hold for a second, and everything else stops, and then they dive right in to a soaring and incredible chorus. I always thought there were more lyrics than there actually are, due to a lot of intense aah-ing on Shara’s part. It draws to quiet and possibly sad close, starting as it began, with slow strings carving out a smooth melody.

The next track starts out like a small child messing with the low end of a piano, and quickly progresses into the rockiest rock song on the album. With a title like, “Freak Out,” how could you expect anything less? Shara’s vocals in this one sound like sound like an evil queen who’s soaking up raw power, and then releases it by shrieking the song’s title. When the bridge rolls around, it’s like the queen is using this energy to wage war on an unsuspecting kingdom, and then after the battle is over, she walks slowly through the smoldering wastelands in which she is the only life. And yes, the wind-down really is that creepy.

From the explosive and ear-splitting to the quietude and creepiness of “Freak Out,” it’s good get back to good ol’ love-lost-land. (I get paid extra for alliteration.) “There was a silver a tree down by a river wide/that’s where we would go/to hang the pretty things/and watch the wind blow.” As the first verse draws to a close, you realize there’s no way that this story is going to end happily; the persistent yet so relaxed it’s almost drunken guitar just doesn’t have the potential to be anything uplifting. “There used to be a tree where we took out pretty things/we’d hood them by a thread/golden eggs, lipstick and feathers/pieces of glass/chandelier baubles and empty bottles of wine/and watch the light shine through.”
“I’m afraid to forget you
I am remembering you
You were sparkling too.”
On the word “too,” a chorus of first sopranos come in and just hold it and hold it over a simple a lonely plucked guitar, along with what sounds like some one slowly moving a chandelier back and forth, which just quadruples the effect of the imagery, which seems to slowly morph the guitar’s part to mirror the effect. I believe it’s safe to say that this is my favorite song on this album, which is saying a lot. I mean, just look at how much I wrote for “Something of an End.”

At the starting notes of “Disappear,” you immediately get sucked into the bouncy ride. This is one of those songs where I just sit and slowly sway in rhythm with a contented smile on my face, occasionally quietly singing along. I love just sitting and listening to all the subtle changes that make the song so much fun to listen to. The chorus can definitly be described as swelling; it’s sort of like a beach. Each phrase starts just as the wave is coming near, grows with the wave to a crash, and then slides away. I also realized during the chorus that nothing else can accomplish the same sound as the human voice (although strings can get pretty close,) and that really high aah’s are a very useful weapon in this band’s arsenal. As the chorus draws to a close you get a quick glimpse of the dystopian ending in store for you. After another verse and chorus, (including “Don’t be too *giggle* shocked.” which just make me giggle everytime I hear it.) the song turns into a minor key warning. “I don’t think we’re meant to stay here very long/I’d rather move on.”

The lone bass jam that starts “The Robin’s Jar” tells of yet another sad story, but this one is more of a tragedy than a breakup. The first verse tells of finding a dead robin the backyard, “But we were so sure that things hadn’t gone to far/so we prayed to God above/that he’d bring it back to us/and we put it in a jar/and waited/and waited/but Mama made us bury it/Mama made us bury it in the backyard.” The lone bass just keeps on going, but since the story’s over you wonder what else could be in the song. It’s probably just going to repeat again. That’s what I would have done. But that’s not sad enough. The second verse comes in and starts talking about the narrator’s best friend; how great she was, how pretty she was. “With the world pressing in on our backyard/she fell in backwards./We prayed to God above that he’d bring her back to us/so we put her in a box/and waited/for something to happen/but nothing happened/and Mama made me bury her/Mama made me bury her/Mama made me bury her in the backyard.”

Since that was such a feel-good number, let’s go with another song about death. Upon hearing “Magic Rabbit,” my first impression was “Wow, I never thought I’d hear a song this depressing that was about bunnies.” But from the first moment of that keening violin and meandering guitar, you know things aren’t going to end well for the rabbit. “I had a magic that would sing/maybe I took her from her mother too early/She never came out of recovery./Even on summer days she’d complain/she couldn’t get the chill out of her bones.” I just love the way Shara sings “out of her bones,” and even more the way she sings the word “chill.” It gives me chills. And when I’m listening to this song, I can’t help but picture a blonde haired maiden in a castle tower by night, and a cute little baby bunny by day. I also love that she has little glimpses of harmony, sung by a man to give that lower register. The chorus is, of course, just as creepy as the verses, but this song is growing on me, pretty damn fast; quickly becoming one of my favorites off the album. Another thing that gives me chills at the end is the blood curdling scream she gives on the last “rabbit:”
“Are you fading away, magic?
Are you fading away? All the rabbits died
Are you fading away in the spotlight?
Are you fading my magic rabbit”
And the following guitar hits are practically worthy of a nu-metal album, underneath Shara almost croaking the word “rabbit” over and over again in a drugged out rage. God, I love her. So much.

I’m even in love with what I initally considered to be the weakest song on the album, “The Good & The Bad Guy,” a song of wanting a man no matter how he treats her. She loves him on his ornery and hear-breaking days just as much as on his gorgeous and wonderful days. If he even has those anymore. She’s just so much fun to sing along to, even (especially?) on these slow jazz inflected songs.

The album wraps up with the title track, “Workhorse,” another dark song about the death of an animal. I feel like I’d just be repeating myself if I wrote a big long thing about this song; it doesn’t differ a whole lot from the formula of “Robin’s Jar” and “Rabbit,” but that in no way makes it a lesser song. It’s just as good as the rest of the album.

Just to put a topper on this, I want to reiterate that her version of “Feelin’ Good” is really quite spectacular, and the only reason I know who she is in the first place. (Actually, I’m pretty sure I first heard of her in a blurb in The Onion when she had a show in Madison.) If you haven’t seen my review of Dark Was The Night, it’s on there.

Bring Me The Workhorse

This is my favorite part of the interview, not only because I finally get to ask Shara about her performance of one of my absolute favorite pieces of classical music, but this was definitely the most philosophically interesting part of the evening. Hopefully, you will be as struck with her ideas as I was.

TIH: Do you keep up with contemporary classical music at all: Golijov maybe, or others?

SW: I haven’t seen his opera, but I have seen Dreams and Prayers of Isaac the Blind the string octet, and then I’ve seen Dawn Upshaw perform of few of his songs.

TIH: A lot of these composers now are drawing on pop music with increasing frequency, do you see that line between art music and popular music beginning to blur?

SW: I used to be really concerned with that and that was where I was wrestling for those years of Shark’s Teeth. I think I just got tired of thinking about that, because I was so concerned with it that at the end of the day it wasn’t so much a philosophical question for me as it was “what have I chosen to do with my life?”. And as I’ve gotten to be really ok with what I have chosen to do and really surrendered to the songwriting, this year I have sort of bizarrely gotten more classical jobs.

TIH: Really? Like what?

SW: I’m going to do a song cycle called Penelope Songs and that’s like classical, written music that’s sort of like Samuel Barber, but with drum kit. So I am recording that this year. And then I am working on something with Bryce Dessner for BAM in October and that’s more of a classical kind of thing and then the Clogs record.

TIH: To me, that seems like another sign of that sort of convergence, like pop is our folk music being adapted to classical forms.

SW: If you’re listening to Ligeti or Boulez – there is that idea of music as a science. Or the Second Viennese School, they really did create a new musical language. And we are employing some of that language now, it’s just normal for some new chord to show or for some atonal moment to happen, or Sonic Youth, you could say was developing a new language in a way that was echoing that. So there is that interesting thing where Aphex Twin or Chris Clark and all those warp records guys are doing things that are very progressive rhythmically and that sort of echoing things that were happening in IRCAM and there’s that dialog now. But I still think that Itzhak Perlman needs to be Itzhak Perlman and I still firmly believe in the science of music. Whether or not I am a part of it, I still really think that that music needs to exist; that it’s a worthy pursuit of your life.

TIH: You put together a performance of Pierrot Lunaire. Why? There are not a lot of people who really want to do that.

SW: Yeah. That was the hardest thing I have ever done in my life. The Sprechstimme part itself isn’t hard. Rhythmically, that piece is incredibly challenging and you have so many technical things to think of like, really how close am I going to try to get to those pitches. And it’s something that I, since I don’t have perfect pitch, would have to do a lot in order to get closer. So, because the technical world is so challenging, if you can get through it, it’s this really beautiful piece of music that’s really beautiful and really moving and just incredible. But just to learn it and get it integrated into your body where you’re not having to think about what you’re doing is really hard.

TIH: I’d love to do something like that, but that would be pushing my abilities a little bit.

SW: Well have you heard those recording of these guys doing Mahler with string quartet and accordion? Or doing Wagner, excerpts from his operas in that way, not with a singer, but it’s so awesome! And that was part of what I was thinking with “Black and Costaud”. These songs are public property. You can cover this song just like you can cover a Bob Dylan song. Do it your own way. There’s no reason why, just because it was written on paper that it has to be exactly this way. If you want to do it, do it.

TIH: Did you record your performance?

SW: I was so sick that week. That the recording was such a disappointment, because I was having to do it just the way that my voice would do it that day rather than how I had prepared it.  I wanted to do “Der kränke Mond” again, which is the one with just flute. I wanted to record that, and I still might do that, but it will take a little time.

TIH: You can put that on the new album.

SW: Yeah, as a B-side

Sorry, no #faibw post this week. Instead I have even more Shara Worden for you. (I wonder if you can guess what’s coming tomorrow.)

The Indie Handbook: When you conceive of an album, does it emerge as a sort of cohesive unit, or each song separately? What sort of emphasis do you put on song order?

Shara Worden: My criticism of A Thousand Shark’s Teeth is that it was very separate and because it was recorded over such a long period of time, there was kind of ideas behind it: I was really trying to work on strings and orchestration, that was really a priority, but the kinds of songs are really all over the place. So I did spend a lot of time thinking about the song order. And the songs that I sort of injected into the album were “Inside a Boy” “From the Top of the World” and “Ice and the Storm”. So those are all the more poppy, rocky ones and then I also really manipulated “Pluto’s Moon” from its original form. Originally, it had just been a string quartet then I made it into a guitar song. So I had to sort of reconcile myself to doing something over a long period of time and not really conceiving it as a unit. It was really more of a “here are these ideas that I am going to play around with and see what happens”. This is the fruit of many years of meanderings. The whole time, when you’re in the process of committing to an older idea, and presenting it in the present moment, you’re like, “should I really be doing this, or should I just move on?

TIH: You seem to use a lot of those sorts of unconventional rhythms and meters, a lot of 3+3+2 and those things. Do you find yourself drawn to those types of things? Clearly, you’ll get a lot more radio airplay with a straight 4/4 and three chords.

SW: Yes, I am going to live, apparently, in the experimental avant garde world.

TIH: That wouldn’t be so bad. As far as I’m concerned, you can go full-on microtonal, if you want.

SW: But then I’d go insane! That’s what’s so great about the Portishead record or M.I.A. With her singing and multi-layering, she’s kind of doing this microtonal, I don’t know if it’s on purpose, but the effect of it is really, really cool.

TIH: Well, the opening of “Freak Out” also has that sort of shimmery, gamelan quality.

SW: Hey, that one has repeated notes, too “I think we should jump on the piano”. Hey, you were right.

TIH: Yeah, and the sort of percussive singing style propels it forward.

SW: Well, that’s the sort of direction I am going. The thing I am interested in now is rhythm, and so I don’t know if there will be many strings appearing at all on the next record. I’ve been trying to define my harmonic language, so now I’m really excited about finding a rhythmical language.

TIH: These days, it seems like more and more artists are taking a sort of chamber music approach to song writing. Are you noticing similar trends?

SW: Yeah, definitely. It seems like something that has been culminating for a long time: Andrew Bird, Joanna Newsom, and obviously the Decemberists. I don’t know. It’s fascinating. There’s a certain resistance, maybe to the immediacy or the quickness with which we are consuming music and I wonder a little bit if it is a bit of a rebellious reaction to that three minute, you can download this and you’re gonna want to download five other records today and your gonna want to download five more records tomorrow. And eff that, you know. Who was the jazz guy that just released a 74 minute song so you would have to listen to the whole thing? So I think there’s some desire for a longer narrative. You know, Antony’s record, I feel like is sort of like, completely the opposite of what you might expect for right now, that need for distraction away from what is happening in our society and he just says “cool, let me break your heart even more”. Of course, who knows, really, why things are happening, but I think it’s a little bit punk. I think it’s a sort of bizarre expression of the punk spirit, like “Yes! I’m going to write a narrative based on fairy tales!” And I’m thinking Awesome! Can I play the bad lady?

Critics like to talk about a band’s literary influences as if they (the critics) have actually read more than 12 words together that anyone other than they themselves has written. Read these 485 words and you will at least be able to talk about Shara Worden’s literary influences without making stuff up.

The Indie Handbook: I know the last time I saw you, about two years ago, you had made mention of At the Back of the North Wind, during your concert. I forget what song you were introducing.

Shara Worden: Well, it was definitely the impetus for writing “From the Top of the World”. I guess it was more the pictures and this ideal. Sort of like, um…which Chronicle of Narnia is it where they’re on the boat and Reepicheep dives into the water?

TIH: Was it Voyage of the Dawn Treader?

SW: Is that it? And they get to the end of the world. And so it was kind of this melding of that. And I had also been looking at a lot of Anselm Kiefer paintings and a lot of things that have ladders in them. Anselm, his whole life in many ways has been dedicated to sort of examining our desire to ascend to the heavens, but the irony being that Heaven, [un]like the way we understand space to be, is not “out there”, but it is actually here, and there is no up or down, there is no East or West, which also plays into Alice in Wonderland. So, I feel like fairy tales and these kinds of children’s stories have actually known things for a hundred years and writing things for a hundred years that science is only proving now.

TIH: I’m curious about Alice in Wonderland.

SW: I did some singing and instrumental-izing for a puppet production of Alice in Wonderland in New York, I think right before Workhorse came out, so that would have been 2006. So I did that production of Alice in Wonderland and the people that did the video for “From the Top of the World”, those were the folks that I worked with.

TIH: So Lake Simons…

SW: Yeah, Lake Simons. I had already written the song “Magic Rabbit”, but that show came up and it was really special for me. So Alice just keeps coming up. I mean, it’s sort of ubiquitous.

TIH: Would you like to do more involving different media?

SW: Yeah. We did a puppet show for one song in the fall when we were touring and it was so fun and so special. I really loved it. So we’ll see, hopefully.

TIH: You worked with Tim Fite on that video as well. Do you have any plans to do more work together in the future?

SW: It’s just kind of when it happens. He’s definitely one of my favorite artists and a dear friend. The last sort of thing we did together was a Paul Robeson tribute album. I sang a song for him, but I don’t know what’s going to happen or any details about that.

I hope everyone enjoyed the gorgeous holiday weekend. Now that you’re back in the city, easing into the week (hopefully with a little tan), we here at ev2bk wanted to welcome you back with a free show and a stellar new video. Tonight in the ev, Pianos is hosting the weekly Cross-Pollination show where two local singer-songwriters will each play a 45-minute solo set, followed by a three-song collaborative set where both artists share the stage. The two-hour concert is free and doors open at 7:30, so if you’re in need of your new music fix for the week, go check it out.

Liberated Matter created the Cross-Pollination concert series with the goal of strengthening the local music community and forging bonds between musicians and creating new collaborations. They pair musicians based on the diversity of their music styles as well as the compatibility of their sounds. Cross-Pollination at Pianos has been going on for two years now (since June 2007). They partnered with the American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers, ASCAP, to produce the event.

Tonight’s featured local performers are Alex Drewchin and Louis Schefano (aka Louis) formerly of the mostly one-man-band, Regia. Listen below to get a sample of what you might here tonight from Louis Schefano, from his EP “Louis’s Freak Show Revenge.”

My Brightest Diamond, led by the operatically-trained, Brooklyn-based, singer-songwriter Shara Worden, performed at a past Cross-Pollination concert. The band released their first album, Bring Me the Workhorse, in 2006. Today’s jam comes to you from their 2008 release, A Thousand Shark’s Teeth. The haunting vocals on this track, at times reminiscent of Joni Mitchell, and the Anime-meets-Pixar escape video are definitely worth checking out.

My Brightest Diamond – Inside a Boy:

-Melissa

I recently had an opportunity to sit down with Shara Worden of My Brightest Diamond, one of my favorite songwriters of all time, in hopes of getting some answers to a few questions I have always wanted to ask her, and maybe (hopefully) convince a few single ladies that I am considerably cooler than I actually am (as World’s Sexiest Vegetarian finalist Gareth Campesinos! would say: “I am nothing if not a pragmatist”). So, here is part one. I will post the rest of it for you as the week progresses.

Oh, also, I’ve never actually interviewed anyone before, so I’m sorry if I suck at it. (Like I said, I am not for real cool.) Anyway, there it is.

The Indie Handbook: You studied voice at the University of North Texas. What was that experience like?

Shara Worden: In school the only role, the only kind of complete role that I had was in L’enfant et les sortilèges, so playing the child was a turning point for me. Where I was able to find pleasure in singing again…so because I got to play a kid …I was able to be playful and explore so I think that piece in particular has had a really special place for me because it’s a fairy tale in its own way.

TIH: So, is that why you did “Black and Costaud”, your own personal connection to the song?

SW:  I think that I, for many years was trying to reconcile myself with the idea that I had chosen songwriting because, in classical music, you dedicate an enormous amount of time to doing one very, very specific thing, which [is] to sing this really difficult music, well, and beautifully, and with feelings, and connection. [And] to compare that with writing songs, which is very internally motivated – If you hear someone like Itzhak Perlman play or Yo Yo Ma or really amazing classical players – Renée Fleming or Barbara Bonney – and you just think Wow, you’ve devoted your life to doing this one thing really beautifully…. That’s really profound to me and I feel like there is something really honorable – there is so much energy in life put toward destruction and put toward negativity and I really admire people who dedicate themselves so fully to something that is so beautiful – I’d rather explore lots of different kinds of things, and I found myself more excited about songwriting and more enthusiastic about spending hours and hours. It’s the same amount of time spent on making music, but the sort of form results in a different thing.

TIH: How would you say your classical training has influenced your songwriting?

SW: Honestly, the singing, I don’t think about it at all. But at the beginning of the writing process for Shark’s Teeth, I was listening to a lot of Boulez and so I was trying to write songs, more so trying not to be prescriptive of the songs, not dictating the form of the songs. Allowing the harmony to take it to a different place, or not having repeated choruses or kind of trying to find different ways of setting the text, so in a certain way the texts was more important, the texts and the harmonies were the priorities. You can see that with songs like “Goodbye Forever” or “If I Were Queen”

TIH: The thing I love about your music is, at least on Workhorse, that your melodies are really unconventional, at least they seem to me to differ from a lot of pop music – you use a lot of repeated notes…

SW: I’m curious which ones you mean, where you are thinking that, because I was conscious of it only for Workhorse.

TIH: Now that you’ve put me on the spot, I can’t remember titles of them, “Workhorse”, for instance.

SW: Well, on that one for sure I was thinking about it, because it was right after “Today” had come out and there was “Yesterday I woke up sucking a lemon, Yesterday…” and I thought Hey, you can use rhythm rather than using melody, so that was my experiment in that. It’s actually very atypical for me.

TIH: I thought I noticed it on five or six tracks.

SW: Yeah, for Workhorse, for sure. Though what is more natural for me is to do the octaves, big intervallic jumps, like on “Disappear”, for instance.

TIH: Your work with Padma Newsome: what sort of things did you work with him on?

SW: Well, to keep it specific to the record, I would bring him an idea for a string quartet, an accompaniment or arrangement for a song and he would give me suggestions on it. Say, “I think if you invert this, it will sound like this and this is why,” or “bring the bass note up here or you need to spread out” just how you should voice things, helping me learn about the ranges of the instruments. We would listen to different classical pieces, and look at the scores and figure out how things were working. Or I’d bring in something I liked, Rebecca Moore or a Björk track, and he would listen to it and give his feedback on what he thought was cool, what he didn’t think was cool. So it was a lot of [that]. He played me Ligeti for the first time.

TIH: I do love Ligeti.

SW: Yeah, so he was trying to bring in a bunch of different things that he thought I would like, and things that I, as a vocalist, was maybe not familiar with.

TIH: There is so much we miss out on. Did you look at any of his music in particular?

SW: Yeah, we did. We looked at Clogs music a lot and trying to figure out different ways of writing things. Like if you want something to be freer, what information do you give a player? Like in jazz, is there a head, is there a melodic theme, and when does that return? Clogs is actually pretty improvisational, but highly organized improv, so we would study how the organization but also looseness and lack of organization works….It was funny that we started out and he was sort of my mentor, but now we are like collaborators. I sang on their new record. It’s not out yet, but sometime this year.

More Musical Lunacy
(and I’m not apologising for the pun)

Having recently compiled the quick Bird Songs list, I had a bit of a think about other common themes prevalent in the songs in my library. (I daresay that the most of them are common to most people’s collections). For this list I chose the moon . While an obvious, perhaps cliche, choice, songs that refer to the moon count as some of my all-time favourites.

The moon itself has some very real and intriguing ‘magic’, of which I’m sure the majority of people are aware, so I won’t go into that – I’ll just head on in to the list of top 5 moon songs I have in my library.

Moonlight Drive – The Doors
One of the best songs ever to celebrate the night. The music is lilting and a little playful, the lyrics are almost the same, belying the seedier undercurrent that lurks in the darkness.

Favourite lyrics:
Penetrate the evening
That the city sleeps to hide

The Moon – Glen Hansard & Marketa Irglova
Quite simply, everything about this song is majestic – delicate and hauntingly beautiful lyrically, vocally and musically. Doesn’t get much better than that!

Favourite lyrics:
Shut the door to the moon
And let the birds gather
Play no more with the fool
And let the souls wander

To Pluto’s Moon – My Brightest Diamond
Another incredibly affecting song. The lyrics kind of catch you unaware - you find yourself listening to them all of a sudden and realising their gravity, and the music is absolutely mesmerising. (Ok, so it’s not referring to earth’s moon, but it’s a moon just the same).

Favourite lyrics:
Why did you go like this
I slam against the wall of permanence
(just to add, that line nails the moment you’ve realised something is gone forever so sharply and succinctly).

Drawing Down the Moon – The Tea Party
To this day, even years after they disbanded, and many more since I first heard this song, The Tea Party remain one of my favourite bands. They never really got the recognition they deserved for producing some of the best music of the 90’s, though I’ve probably listened to this song enough for about 100 people.

Favourite lyrics:
She’s drawing down the moon
I can see it in her eyes

Moondance – Van Morrison
Sometimes I’m surprised that I like this song so much, then I listen to it and wonder how I could ever consider not liking it – it’s just not possible. A  lovely song that always puts me in a good mood.

Favourite lyrics:
And all the night’s magic seems to whisper and hush
And all the soft moonlight seems to shine in your blush

And because I’m a bit ♥ about this song right now:

S4E