Look through you, cuz I thought we went there…
Allah-Las – No Voodoo
Genre: indie surf-rock
Feeling: the conch shell in hi-def
Album art is a wonderful thing. Sometimes, the art paints a definitive picture for the music. At the moment, I can think of no better album art-music connection than Allah-Las eponymous debut. Everything about the artwork does it for me–from the the 2D tableau of the sand meeting the ocean, the beautiful and mysterious model, to the conch itself–I can’t listen to this stellar album without its album artwork jumping to mind.
And by the way, if you have 40 minutes to burn, sit down, throw some headphones on, and listen to the Allah-Las first album. You’ll be transported to a world filmed sepia, a trip of both nostalgia and warning. It’s not really beach music, but more music you’ll remember when you’re on the beach late in the day and the world is laid bare before you.
“No Voodoo” isn’t the most obvious choice of the album, but it’s a midpoint. “Busman’s Holiday,” “Tell Me (What’s On Your Mind),” and “Catamaran” all stand sturdy as singles. But if you so choose to spend 40 minutes of your time diving into the Allah-Las, you’ll find there’s a mood for every song, and I just so happen to be in a “No Voodoo” mood.
Lyric Sample:
“…Done a lot for you,
Like the time before….”
Matthew Logan Vasquez – Austin
Genre: Austin Americana, “in the style of Helpless”
Feeling: leaving home, never forgetting home, returning home
I know, I told you to take 40 minutes out of your day to listen to an Allah-Las album. Now, I have the audacity to suggest a 14 minute escapade down the beer stained streets of Austin, Texas? Well, if it gives you any comfort, Mr. Logan Vasquez is better known in his role as frontman of indie-rock-meets-alt-country outfit Delta Spirit, and he doesn’t take his solo work as a time to dabble in the experimental. No, Matthew dives headfirst into the Texas sun-soaked, classic rock blessed, Pitchfork reviewed epic jams he grew up around in the state capital, and stretches it out to tell the story of his anti-coastal anabasis.
“Austin” gives the listener a (relatively) quick and dirty insight into the singer’s mischievous upbringing, his emigration west, and his return home, a more complete man (with a better half or two).
Lyric sample:
“The city has changed,
but so have I”
Local Natives – Airplanes
Genre: LA indie rock
Feeling: pondering your ancestors
One of my favorite band names, Local Natives have a patented sound known for aggressive yet subdued drumming battling for supremacy against two-to-three part harmonies. “Airplanes,” off the band’s debut, is their bread-and-butter.
This piano and rim-of-the-drum driven tunes tells the story of Natives singer/guitarist Kelcey Ayer loss of his grandfather, and is one probably familiar to many. The song’s lyrics are simple and, frankly, heartwarming:
“I did not know you,
As well as my father, father knew you
…
It sounds like we would have had a great deal,
To say, to say to each other
I bet when I leave my body for the sky,
The wait will be worth it”
Grizzly Bear – While You Wait for the Others (live acoustic, on a boat)
Genre: acoustic indie rock, for the intelligentsia
Feeling: seems like a nice way to spend a summer afternoon in Scandinavia
This video is hands-down my favorite acoustic recording. Not only is it a beautiful rendition of “While You Wait for the Others”–a stand-out track on Grizzly Bear’s breakout 2009 album Veckatimest (named for a tiny island off of Woods Hole, MA)–but the 2009 video was early in the coming wave of “au-naturale” youtube recordings where bands are smooshed into uncomfortable settings, given an acoustic guitar and told to make do with whatever they can bang on.
While NPR’s Tiny Desk concert series may have predated Grizzly Bear’s boat session, they can’t match the spontaneity of “While You Wait”–the shining Danish sun, the amused if not bewildered Danes suffering from sunburn and enjoying some Carlsbergs, the ferry passengers milling about and bumping into the indie rockers session, the cameraman growing bored with his subject and turning voyeur on the tourists walking on the art museum.
Oh, and if you’re interested in what chords guitarist Daniel Rossen plays, good luck. Rossen, as well as his fellow Grizzly bandmates, studied music at NYU and are known to happily apply theory to practice.
