If you follow the Music Court on Twitter, you probably already know that I attended a concert on Monday night.* It was fun, and the crowd was very much alive and rocking with Alex Clare and his talented band.
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Top 10 Songs of 2014 – #10: “Something Had to Give” by COMPNY
2 Dec
To kick off our Top Ten Singles of 2014, I present you with a catchy, hymn-like tune from British newcomers, COMPNY.
Selfishly, this takes a spot in my top songs solely due to those first few piano notes; every time I hear them, I think of “Falling,” the theme song of David Lynch’s masterful Twin Peaks. That is to say, I was immediately pulled in by the prospect of mystery and darkness. The song is much brighter than this though, which is what held my attention. The choir of voices that chant the track’s chorus is too pleasing to ignore. Turn this track up, leave it on repeat for a few hours, and you’ll come back world-weary, full of melancholy. But that’s where we thrive.
You can buy COMPNY’s debut AA-side single, “Begging Me to Come Back”/“Something Had To Give” here. Connect with COMPNY via Facebook, Twitter, Soundcloud, and YouTube.
Lyon to San Francisco, All the Girls, My Casiotone
26 Nov
In today’s society of instant gratification, it can be hard to branch out your musical taste. Instead of giving new music a chance, we tend to just skip to the next track that is better aligned with a genre or style that we have connected with in the past. Lose that mindset right now, because unless you already operate on a hearty diet of chiptune and toy instruments, you won’t recognize the greatness of Odessey & Oracle and the Casiotone Orchestra.
This album is a little weird, but in the absolute best way. The first track,”2016,” is dripping with psychedelia and ambience, held up only be the melody of the vocals. That is only the beginning, though; what follows is a collection of endearing and occasionally somber songs, making good use of drones and casiotones. It can at times sound like Rennaissance fair music, but there is something deeper happening beneath the flutes and tambourines. The lyrics, though cohesive and organized, are sometimes spat out in run-on sentences. There is a strategy here, but it depends on every aspect of the music converging to make this vision come to fruition.
Taking their name from an album by The Zombies, this French trio is intent on emulating ‘60s psychedelia. Odessey & Oracle currently have a five song EP up on their Soundcloud, which is representative of the strongest tracks to be released on their full length effort with the Casiotone Orchestra. Once you buy the record, though, give your attention to the series of Inventions that weave between the other tracks. They are not the most staggering songs among the other gems, but I do feel the Inventions provide some much needed grounding for the album. This is a testament to a well-structured album.
Odessey & Oracle and the Casiotone Orchestra will be out 12/12 on Carton Records. You can pre-order the album here. Find more information on Odessey and Oracle on their website.
P.S. The title of this article is a nod to Crystal Fighters’ “Solar System.”
No Vacancy
21 Nov
Writing just the title of a song can be a very crucial display of your artistry. Most songs have obvious names, clearly so that a listener may be able to remember it later to look it up and buy it on iTunes. But some bands take a different, but equally tame approach, naming their song something tangentially related or clever. Of Montreal takes the cake for throwing all naming conventions out the window, but my favorite titles are the misnomers. The best example of this is Band of Horses’ “No One’s Gonna Love You”; the lyrics are actually the exact opposite of how callous the track’s name may suggest: “No one’s gonna love you more than I do.” This is so brilliant, so casually passionate. Liza Anne makes her own mark with “Room.”
Especially after my obsession with Glasser’s most recent album full of ideas of physical space, Interiors, I initially assume Liza Anne’s single is a place, an area of her home that perhaps she has felt emotion that she’ll share in the lyrics. Emotion she shares, but the room she speaks of is not tangible. “I shoulda known you didn’t want me, you didn’t have any room to want me,” she accuses. This “room” is an assessment of space, but there is none left. Contrary to what I assumed from the title, there is no room.
“Room” will have a digital release on December 16th. Check out more information on Liza Anne on her website.
Just for Kids: Sadako by Fairchild
20 NovIt’s springtime in Australia, so winter’s most energetic music is going to come from that area for the next few months. First, I’ve found Fairchild, who provide power pop that is the appropriate amount of fun and drama to their lyrics. Their first single is “Arcadia,” with a funky accompanying video.
Where the toe-tapping rhythm meets drama in “Arcadia,” the rest of Fairchild’s latest EP, Sadako, follows suit. It builds into anthemic choruses, but something feels so familiar in them; I am reminded of the powerful chords on Coldplay’s Parachutes. “Outside” is nostalgic, but not for the past, for the present. It is full of emotion, as is what I find the strongest track on the EP, “Waiting For It”. The buzzing guitars and horse-trot rhythm; then the anthemic chorus comes in, meant to be whispered rather than shouted.
I also would like to share the story behind the title of their EP:
‘Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes’ was a book written by American author Eleanor Coerr and tells the story of a Japanese girl who was two years old when the devastating Hiroshima atomic bomb was dropped. She became very ill and was told of the legend if you make 1,000 paper cranes it can make you better. Feeling inspired by this story, a friend of vocalist Adam Lyons made him 1,000 paper cranes for good luck while he was at university. They hang above his bedroom, where the band recorded and produced the EP.”
I remember reading this book as a kid. I remember wanting to have those cranes hanging in my room. I picked up origami shortly after, but never with enough enthusiasm to make one thousand of anything. This was definitely a daydream I’ve had, where I would fold day and night until I had completed the task, and I would hang each one carefully from the ceiling, making sure to make them varying heights, as if they were all part of a flock mid-flight. I suppose this EP could be a sonic interpretation of that daydream, this nostalgia.
I have no doubt that Fairchild could be a crossover hit, on both mainstream and independent radio. It’s only a matter of getting people to pay attention.
Fairchild’s Sadako EP is out now. For more information, visit their website.
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