“No Battleships Today, That’s Nice”
Last week, I was catching up with Rachel, a dear friend of the blog, and she asked me what had been in my headphones recently. After a few false starts in writing a list of stuff to her, I thought to myself, ‘Wait, you’ve been absolute crap with your posting consistency at CotP. Why don’t you re-evaluate your neglect and write this for the blog?’ So without further adieu, the next two posts are what I’ve been listening to of late. Hope you don’t mind that I posted them here.
Snuffalufagus - No Battleships: A gift from another friend of the blog, Jacob. Snuffalufagus is primarily the project of Chris Braciszewski, with help on certain instrumental parts. “No Battleships” feels like a composition of two songs: the first minute and a half features Braciszewski singing over a spare recording; it sounds as though they recorded as the horn players were warming up. The horns then synthesize together into a slow Soullive-y kind of jam that drives the direction of the rest of the track. I’m still unsure as to what the song is about, I tend to get lost in the music on this one.
Jai Paul - BTSU: Another gift from another friend of the blog, Jon. Jon picked this one up from Jordy Smith’s site, which is a must follow if you’re into music and surfing and videos that aren’t titled so you can never find them again to re-watch. I’m a sucker for a well-executed falsetto delivery. Falsetto is the most fun to sing along to. This is a track to play loud on a warm, sunny day. Warm, sunny days will return, Northern Hemisphere folks, I promise.
Carmen McRae - Just A Little Lovin’ (GB Remix): This track was brought back to my attention with Sealy’s Super Bowl ad. No digging in the crates for this one, just watching the biggest television event our country has to offer.
Star Slinger - Mornin’: This track brings to mind something I’ve been meaning to pontificate about for a while: it’s really great that over the last decade or so, we’ve gotten to a place where producers are respected enough to have the option of putting out records on their own. In the past, to pay the bills, producers had to sell beats to pop artists (for the house/EDM producers) or R&B singers and rappers (for bands/artists like Ratatat and Star Slinger) that could stand on their own as full songs. I’m all for artists having that choice to make for themselves. It won’t surprise me in the least when Star Slinger is working on big budget hip-hop records in a year or two, in addition to releasing his own music.
Jónsi - Go Do: I had completely forgotten about Jónsi’s record until last month. My girlfriend Laura and I were driving through America in the midst of a move and stopped in Louisville to stay with a fourth friend of the blog, Graham. After a wonderful dinner and an impromptu tour of the city, the three of us ended up back at Graham’s spot playing the “what are you listening to?” game that’s equal parts thrilling (new music, YAY!) and nerve-wracking (for fear of playing something that makes you look like a dolt). Graham directed us to WPFK’s (which I can’t recommend highly enough should you find yourself in Louisville) website to their Best of 2010 list. It’s an eclectic mix, with lots of local bands mixed with the standard NPR fare.
After a few tracks from local bands, I put on “Go Do” without really thinking. We sat in complete silence and soaked it in. My eyes welled up, it may have been dusty in the room, I don’t remember. Since that night, I’ve been listening to “Go Do” every day. Surely, you have a track or two that just gives you the goosebumps and makes you weirdly emotional every time you hear it? That’s “Go Do” for me. I can’t really put it into words, it’s just a beautiful song.
And that’s that. Part 2 of this list coming shortly.
