Song Post – Page 178 – Queen City Sounds and Art

Drooligan Take the Piss Out of Magical Thinking on “The Weather”

Drooligan1_crop — Drooligan, photo courtesy the artists

Drooligan’s “The Weather” is a fairly upbeat, somewhat whimsical song considering its subject matter. The lyrics thoroughly and near completely send up every day wishful thinking and the superstitions backing them. It mocks the whole notion of prayers and hopes solving anything including stopping inclement weather. With the accompanying music video the band demonstrates how silly it all is even if certain forms of magical thinking are relatively harmless as a pathology that gets so many people to think their ego (as, dare we say, manifested as nonsense like The Secret/the “law of attraction” and positive visualization as more than a method to focus the mind in addition to the faith in a supreme being or the universe intervening directly on the behalf of any particular human) will have an actual direct impact on their lives. Even as Drooligan is taking the piss the playfulness of the video takes off some of the edge as, after all, social critics who take themselves too seriously end up like low rent Robespierre in the end. Watch the video below and follow Drooligan at the links provided.

drooligan.com
facebook.com/Drooliganmusic
instagram.com/drooligan

Swedish Avant-Pop Songwriter Czita’s Debut Single “Pretty Eyes” is a Psychological Horror Short Film in Musical Form

Czita1_crop — Czita, photo courtesy the artist

Czita comments on standards of beauty and how we value other people tied to such considerations on her song “Pretty Eyes.” There is an unsettling but strangely alluring quality to the song as it sketches the ways people dissect the flaws of others and then decide what they find attractive and in the end discard the same people who can never, as real life humans, live up to the image, the fantasy, another person forms in their mind. The minimal bell tones and even more spare percussion, Czita’s darkly whimsical vocal delivery, the buzzy background melody and touches of synth give a spaciousness that feels like an emotional distancing connected to a paradoxical desire for the object of attraction. The song has a creepy edge but also otherworldly like a pop song for a Lucky McKee film. It’s Czita’s first single and promises a future of decidedly different, imaginative and boundary-pushing pop music. Listen on Soundcloud and follow Czita at any of the links below.

czitamusic.com
soundcloud.com/czitamusic
open.spotify.com/artist/40yYGiGlCiRcNj6v6Zd5bQ
instagram.com/czitamusic

“Saturday Eyes” by Inner Oceans is a Deeply Nostalgic Song About Honoring Loves Lost Without Trying to Live in the Past

InnerOceans2_sm — Inner Oceans, photo courtesy the artist

Though the tone of the new Inner Oceans single “Saturday’s Eyes” is one of melancholic nostalgia it’s misty melodies are anchored in early morning mind-wandering. The way the song builds into a gentle flow of emotions and imagery suggests indulging moments when you can look back fondly on a time when you had a love or a time in your life that retains that kind of feeling when things seemed bright and easy and open. But it’s more. The song also expresses how even if that time and those relationships are gone you can revisit them and honor the experience and allow it to illuminate your life in the present rather than surrender to the conceit that things were always better way back when. The accompanying music video was shot on an iPhone during the final year of songwriter and singer Griffith Snyder’s marriage which brings to pairing of song and image a poignancy and presumably a refreshing generosity of spirit and not just the ache and hurt feelings that are in many songs made in the wake of the dissolution of a relationship. Snyder has been writing affecting and adventurous pop music for years and this is the latest in a string of worthwhile releases. Watch the video below and follow Inner Oceans at he links provided.

soundcloud.com/inneroceans
open.spotify.com/artist/1u7T9riTxt6jCQsZTJX6nR

Rum for Breakfast’s Video for “Shoot You Down” is Like a Horror Short Without the Horrific Ending

RumForBreakfast1_sm — Rum for Breakfast, photo courtesy the artist

Rum for Breakfast’s “Shoot You Down” has some jangle and some psychedelia with a tinge of that idiosyncratic/eclectic folk rock of early Beck. Able yet unusual vocal harmonies, electric and acoustic instrumentation and a “Gimme Shelter”-esque dynamic apex. Which makes the video all the more mysterious with a character wearing a full head mask that could be a dog with no eyes. And that would be strange enough but the quality of the video is reminiscent of one of the segments of the V/H/S horror anthology series. Except this one like a horror short done by by Duplass Brothers Productions—odd but not inherently dark though suggestive of a serial killer’s video diary but one with more a surreal sense of humor than nefarious intentions. It could be disturbing but paired with the song’s charming melody it seems simply eccentric and we could certainly use more of that in a world where standardization and conformity is strongly encouraged. Watch the video and judge for yourself and follow Rum for Breakfast at the links below.

rumforbreakfast.com
soundcloud.com/rumforbreakfastrfb
facebook.com/rumforbreakfast
instagram.com/rumforbreakfast_

Colour of the Jungle’s Spirited “Steel Tray” is an Anthem to Weathering the Storm of Life’s Everyday Entropy

ColourOfTheJungle1_sm — Colour of the Jungle, photo courtesy the artists

“Steel Tray” by Colour of the Jungle starts off like a full list of examples of not being able to get a break from everyday setbacks and ailments while being assured it’s all normal. But Jack Evans’ voice makes it obvious that he’s on the edge from having to struggle and strive with every little thing from a stone in his show, being prescribed multiple meds with side effects that seem only slightly less worse than life without them, stubbing his toe and dreams in tatters in the face of mundane issues like not enough time and not feeling up to handling everything thrown your way every day and out of explanations for your litany of failings and shortcomings. But there’s a spirited energy to the song that in spite of all the flak that the fact of still being alive has to mean something even if its that for now you’re able to wade through the entropy that you shrugged off more easily in the past. Though the band is from the UK it sounds like they spent a whole lot of time listening to American Midwest rock and roll from places like Memphis and Cincinnati where bands on the Goner imprint and The Afghan Whigs wax poetic poetic about life’s rough and tumble times while writing impassioned and gritty music as a method of self-therapy. Listen to “Steel Tray” on Soundcloud and follow Colour of the Jungle at the links below.

www.facebook.com/colourofthejungle
www.instagram.com/colourofthejungle
twitter.com/Colourojungle

Orions Belte’s Playful Cover of “Cherchez La Ghost” by Ghostface Killa is the Sound of Mischief Afoot

OrionsBelte1_sm — Orions Belte, photo courtesy the artists

In covering “Cherchez La Ghost” by Ghostface Killah from his 2000 album Supreme Clientele, Orions Belte have funked it up a little more but maintained its unusual rhythms. The guitar is more present and not as spidery, the keyboard more in the realm of mimicking Bernie Worrell at his most minimal. But all tasteful with flourishes of playfully warping the musical lines a bit. Like the original it’s well under three minutes but in that time the track goes through some changes suggestive of its pairing with visual narrative. The eccentric and whimsical quality of his cover sounds like something out of a Judd Apatow movie yet to be like a sequel to Super Bad as the song suggests that some mischief born of restlessness is potentially at hand. The cover will be released on July 12 when the group releases its Slim EP on Jansen Records. Listen below and further explore Orions Belte’s musical hijinks at the links following.

soundcloud.com/jansenrecords
orionsbelte.bandcamp.com
facebook.com/orionsbelte

warm nights Take You on a Journey to the Deep Places of the Heart on “cave dawnings”

warm_nights1_sm — warm nights, image courtesy the artists

Is “cave dawnings,” the title of the single by Los Angeles experimental rock band warm nights, a reference to Plato’s “Parable of the Cave” in a way? Because it certainly seems to be about coming to realizations from a place of personal darkness with hushed tones to impassioned heights a more active pace before ending on a not of streaming off into the distance having reached the escape velocity of one’s own personal gravity of emotional funk. The realization also comes in the form of self-honesty in admitting love for another despite the inevitable complexities that lay ahead of the initial, simple, non-logical impulse to love. In the end the narrator of embraces the totality of the experience as something shared. It is, refreshingly, not a simple love song where the act of falling in love is a redemptive experience that always seems to place the burden of things not being ideal the whole time on one person or another with a need to place blame or find fault as a pretext for splitting and going with someone “better.” It is a song that is both melodramatic and realistic at once, a rarity in rock music or any music. Sonically, fans of early 2000s post-emo indie rock will appreciate the expressive guitar work and dual vocals complimenting and providing counterpoint but warm nights is an inherently adventurous group of songwriters and its recently released album all inside takes you through some fascinating changes. Listen on Spotify and follow warm nights at the links provided.

open.spotify.com/artist/59XKrXxXIRhsWfGFkETnjv
warmnights.bandcamp.com/album/all-inside

Maya Beiser’s Cello Driven Interpretation of “Moonlight Sonata: Adagio” Brings a Modern Avant-Garde Sensibility to the Beethoven Classic

MayaBeiser1_crop — Maya Beiser, photo courtesy the artist

Maya Beiser’s actual heartbeat was recorded and used as the pulsating beat heard in the distance in her interpretation of the Beethoven classic “Moonlight Sonata: Adagio” from her forthcoming album delugEON due out August 30 on her own impirint Islandia Music Records. The layered cello rather than the original piano brings an especially sonorous tone to the piece. She expands, restructures and extrapolates throughout but returns to the iconic figure at the center of the composition on a recording that sounds like it was captured for an old 78 of music meant to be played during screenings of a Theodor Dreyer or F.W. Murnau film. Yet the subtle changes reflect a modern classical and avant-garde sensibility and knowledge of sound design and digital production processing that is used to give the song a wide sonic range as well as an intimacy with the original to give it a slower pace (and thus “Adagio”) when the original goes into its faster section. The effect being to give this version of “Moonlight Sonata” an emotionally weighty denouement to the outro of the nearly echoing heartbeat. With the deep level of immersion, skill with impromptu tonal inflection and sonic imagination it’s no wonder Beiser has worked with the likes of Brian Eno, Phillip Glass and Steve Reich, to name a few, over the years. Listen on Soundcloud and follow Beiser at the links provided.

youtube.com/user/islandiamusic
twitter.com/CelloGoddess
facebook.com/TheCelloGoddess
instagram.com/thecellogoddess

Zahn | Hatami | McClure Capture the Sonic Architecture of Life Inside of a Quantum Optical Circuit on “Prysma”

ZahnHatamiMcClure_crop — Zahn | Hatami | McClure, image courtesy the artists

“Prysma” is an international collaboration between German sound design/electronic music composer Uwe Zahn, Iranian ambient/field recording producer/musician Porya Hatami and Irish textural ambient/synthesizer/production artist Darren McClure. The artists collective called Zahn | Hatami | McClure are releasing an album on July 12 called Ypsilon, from which this track is taken. There is a deep sense of space and distance conveyed here perfectly with volume control and dynamics in the track. Like what it would be like to live inside a giant, quantum, optical circuit outside of standard space-time as beams of light travel overhead and in the near and middle distance carrying data along nearly invisible pathways and directed automatically to the appropriate exits while processed to whatever mysterious purpose. From the melodic to the textural all the sounds seem incidental in creating a coherent musical as well as environmental experience in the listening and because of this seemingly effortless and natural quality the brilliance and chemistry of the collaboration is obvious. Listen on Soundcloud and follow the trio at the link below.

n5md.com/artist/Zahn-%7C-Hatami-%7C-McClure

Ecce Shnak’s “Velociraptor Swayze” Transforms Despair Into an Inspirational and Surreal Flight of the Imagination

EcceShnak2_sm — Ecce Shnak, photo by Averie Cole

Ecce Shnak is a seven piece art pop band from New York and its new single the eccentrically titled “Velociraptor Swayze” virtually overflows with musical ideas that might not otherwise work together if not for the group’s unique musical imagination. The rhythms are compound and free flowingly evolving throughout with dynamics suiting the emotional mode of the moment. And it’s a song about someone who broke the narrator’s heart with the prescription to go after the perpetrator like the titular velociraptor but in heroic and dramatic fashion like Patrick Swayze in, say, Road House or even Dirty Dancing. One of the lyrics is, “Bring me his head on a birthday cake.” There are no words minced here but it is couched in an upbeat and bright song with a lot of sonic color filling out the minimal percussion. Through that bit of creative legerdemain the band transmogrifies despair into an absurdist flight of fancy without dishonoring the feelings that inspired the song. Fans of of Montreal and Bitte Orca-period Dirty Projectors will appreciate the idiosyncratic songwriting sensibilities on display here.

The group will release its new album Metamorphejawns on July 19 through Records, Man Records. Following that Ecce Shnak will celebrate the occasion with a pay-what-you-can event called Shnakfest at 267 Wyckoff St. in Brooklyn on July 20. The proceeds will benefit the grassroots climate change organization Extinction Rebellion and the New Sanctuary Coalition. Only the incredibly unperceptive, delusional and invested-in-fossil-fuel-industry types are refusing to recognize that human caused climate change that will destroy all economies and most all life on earth is a thing right now and not after we’re all dead. Also, basic human rights recognize no boundaries and the inhumane system of detentions and deportations existing in the USA is neither moral or effective. The festival will include, according to the press release, several “rishankulously love other bands from NYC and beyond” as well as aerlists, clowns, flame eaters, sword swallowers and other such refinements. But if you can’t make that you can check out the single below and follow the septet at the links provided.

ecceshnak.com
twitter.com/EcceShnak
facebook.com/ecceshnak
instagram.com/ecceshnak