Summer Listening

So I definitely don't have as much time or money to invest in music these days...it takes a lot more to impress me and I'm usually end up waiting for the indie bands of yore to release new and interesting music rather than seeking out new bands. Most of the time, bands like Death Cab for Cutie or Wilco release an album that's nice but doesn't move me like the album that first drew me to them -- how could it? I used to pride myself on being on the cutting edge of the indie scene; now I'm just happy to find music that speaks to me.
So for summer listening, here's what I've got going -- it's pretty current, but not anything you haven't heard of if you're a fan of good music (heh.):


1. Dirty Projectors. "Stillness is the Move." Bitte Orca. Domino Records, 2009.
The disjointedness of the music and lyrics come off like a soundtrack to a dream, all full of meaning but with little regard to sequence or a linear narrative. Its rhythm is made up of revolutions, fits and starts, and ends with the heady muse, "Isn't life just a mirage of the world before the world?" -- and well, the illusion of the self before myself can't get enough. Milo especially likes to bust a move to this track as well, so it must be good -- he gets his little hand going and bounces at the knees.
Approximate Lyrics.
Official Website with streaming music.
YouTube video.



2. Avett Brothers -- "The Ballad of Love and Hate." Emotionalism. Ramseur Records, 2007.
In this alt-country extended metaphor, Love is an unbending sweetheart doting on a hard-living wanderer called Hate. Delivered in the raspy pitch-perfect voice of Seth Avett, lines like, "I'm yours and that's it, whatever. /I should not have been gone for so long./ I'm yours and that's it, forever" could warm even the most weathered of hearts.
Approximate lyrics.
YouTube live performance.


3. Bon Iver. "Brackett, WI." Dark Was The Night (Red Hot Compilation). 4AD, 2009.
Approximate Lyrics
Ahhh...Justin Vernon. There's very little that his voice could offer that I would not adore. Of all things, though, it's bass line in this song that really gets me right from the start. It's really hard to hear the exact lyrics -- I miss the days of liner notes. But this verse is lovely:
"and every summer is a hot token
to the cold, cold take of lust.
and every autumn singes
with the business of sadness."
One thing I'm noticing with the lyrics of these first three songs is that I'm a sucker for the interplay of opposites and with the latter two, for good ole fashioned personification.

More to come...