thepoetryofnospaces

Along the same vein’s as “Christmas Lights,” Casiotone For The Painfully Alone’s Owen Ashworth sings on “Cold White Christmas” about the loneliness of the holiday season and like, Baribeau, the post-college life of twenty-somethings. I apologize for putting up depressing holiday songs, but they’re so good! Here the piano tumbles and fumbles, slightly out of tune, the beat a little too slow, but the melody is sharp and visuals succinct and clear. Not everything is cheerful around the holidays and Ashworth captures the melancholy aspects quite effectively.

key lyric: “second shift as a fry cook that’s your holiday in grease”

If forty-two seconds of filthy exclamations about incest, masturbation and shit jokes is your thing than Blink-182’s, “Happy Holidays, You Bastard,” taken from Take Off Your Pants And Jacket is the perfect holiday treat.

Nothing says Christmas cheer like lonely folkie Paul Baribeau, but “Christmas Lights” off of his second record Grand Ledge contains the poignant wintery refrain, “everything was blue/except the christmas lights.” Just Paul and his voice, he basically sums up every twenty-somethings’ experience during the winter holiday when they go home for a few days or a few weeks and see a few old friends, sleep in their dusty old room that hasn’t change since high school and really take stock at where they are in life. It’s good to have a little perspective before the start of the new year.

key lyric: “even though I’m home now/I feel completely homeless”

In 1970 after the folky faux pas of Self Portrait (there is a song where Bob Dylan’s 60s voice duets with his country croon dear god), Bob Dylan released New Morning, a “return to form.” Then again when did Bobby D ever return to form? Anyway, the title track “New Morning” is a beautiful bouncy bluesy pop number that many may consider “light” and equate that with being trite. I beg to differ and rather enjoy the humble and modest evocations of the country life and simply being grateful for the quiet moments in that life. It takes a few listens for it to sink in, but this is when Dylan was truly on form.

key lyric: “this must be the day when all of my dreams come true”

Motion City Soundtrack were always a quirkier pop/punk band. The angst was still there but under the guise of the neurotic nerdiness of front man Justin Pierre. “A Lifeless Ordinary (Alternate Version)” is a great little bonus gem off the deluxe version of My Dinosaur Life, and stripped of the genre’s signifiers, really showcases their ear for melody and funny, self-effacing lyrics.

key lyric: “all this empathy is starting to wear me down”

Diamond Rings, “Wait And See” Special Affections

Lo-Fi pop with a fierce attitude.

sexy stuff.

full entry soon.

edit: scratch that. Honestly it’s pop perfection. I don’t need to say anymore than that.

Go listen now.

key lyric: “feelin’ like a bit part actor”

All the time we are asked, who is your favorite band/artist? What is your favorite album? What is your favorite song? And we all hate those questions, BUT I think it’s good to have an idea of what we like so WE HAVE SOME FAINT GRASP OF REALITY.

“Us Vs. Stuff” is my answer when people ask me, “what is your favorite song?” and seemed like the perfect tune to write about for my ONE HUNDREDTH POST. That’s right folks today is my one hundredth song-a-day. “Us Vs. Stuff’ is a magical song by Isaac Arms, solo project of one half of Blanketarms (also one half of the Spooky Ghosts side project). He only released one album, The Old Artificer EP, but it’s bloody brilliant. The song though, is why we are here. Isaac’s gruff, but-sweet-as-a-teddy-bear-and-as-melancholy-as-romeo-voice, a thick and rough baritone and a child’s glockenspiel are all the weapons here in perhaps the greatest proclamation of true love ever put to tape.

I apologize for being so prone to hyperbole, but again it all comes down to the “what is you’re favorite song” question and time after time it’s Isaac Arms’ “Us Vs. Stuff.”

key lyric: “But I’ll always fuck shit up/and I will always be bad luck/and I may never be enough/but I will swear/that I will pull out all my hair/until it’s plain to everyone/you’ve got every gallon of my love”

ps. stay tuned for a song-a-day round up.

Okay folks, I’m sorry this has turned into The Mountain Goats song-a-day on occasion, but John Darnielle has a penchant for horror related imagery in a lot of his songs. “Autoclave” off Heretic Pride is a more recent tune that gets to the heart of the matter (har har). I just as easily imagine our favorite movie monsters singing the great hook, “I am this great, unstable mass of blood and foam,” rousing sympathy for the likes of Freddie, Dracula or even Samara from The Ring. I’m sure John would agree.

key lyric: “sometimes you want to go where everybody knows your name”

Coheed and Cambria sounds like a Halloween band to me. Not that I don’t think they have more to offer, and they are a deeply guilty pleasure of mine that appeals to my inner nerd, BUT they are chock full of beautiful creepiness and eerie riffs and weird tales. “Feathers” off their fourth record No World For Tomorrow (for brevity sake) is actually a beautifully straightforward pop number with a sizzling hook and a scary woman who “done wronged” the protagonist. Claudio sings the tune like the unraveling of a mystery as we try to figure out what this woman did, but like a good haunted house we run out before we can solve it. Zoinks!

key lyric: “when there’s no more room for love/you’ll sell her off to the sharks”

Tupac Shakur’s “Ambitionz Az A Ridah” my seem like a stretch to call a halloween song, but really give it a listen. The synths and piano loop are eerie and ghostly, the beat sounds more robotic than anything. Lots of sound effects swirl in and out giving the whole thing a carnival-esque air. Tupac is fierce and rough on the opening track to All Eyez On Me in full battle mode. The man seriously doesn’t take a breath when he unleashes the tale of blood, money, bitches and life in constant threat and remaining on top. This is a sound of the man under the microscope except he’s standing proud and giving us the middle finger.

key lyric: “niggaz’ll feel the fire of my mother’s corrupted seed”