Cyberspace is the Place: Song(s) of the Day

I stand by the fact that Myspace is the bane of my existance, and yet, at the same time, utterly impossible to quit. Way worse than smoking. But aside from online communities, the internet is sometimes a pretty neat device. Why am I so turned on by the internet today? Because all three of today's songs of the day were found using it.

Rejoicing the Fier (and other bad puns): Song of the Day #1 The Fiery Furnaces "Seven Silver Curses" from the forthcoming album Rehearsing My Choir (Rough Trade)

Not too long ago, I had to beat the Freidbergers' cover of "Norwegian Wood (This Bird has Flown)" into my head so many times that in the end I would think it was the best fucking cover in the world. Well buddy, it sure is the best cover in the world. And though I still listen to it on a daily basis, my fix for more was beginning to get the best of me. I was jonesin'. No doubt about it. When I finally found "Seven Silver Curses" I threw it on the mp3 player and let out an orgasmic sigh upon the first few seconds.

Then something went weird. The high didn't go sour, it was just different and I got paranoid. My first thought was "Wow. I didn't think they could get less accesible." Worried that the honeymoon was maybe over and that I'd have to search for for a new sonic obsession, I hit the streets. I knew where to go. Queen of the Paw Paw Tree, Lady of the Straight Street, Funtasia Jones is the authoratative source all things jiveable. So I found her, slapped her some skin and let her get a hit of the "Seven Silver Curses". I tried to talk but she shushed me. Her first words: "They are trying to alienate everyone."

That's all I needed to hear. I wasn't going crazy and this was the good shit afterall. I went back and listened to it two dozen more times, more than a solid three hour tour. And it all made sense. They're trying to alienate every BUT me. The sweet melodic parts, including a lilting piano part delicately played by Matthew, became that much sweeter. Eleanor was in top form, twistin' and turnin' all over the song. And the anti-star of the show, 83 year old grandmother of the siblings, Olga Sarantos, lends a gruff, grizzled, weathered voice, telling it how it is, or like it was rather. I liken her to Bea Arthur with an smoker's lung. It is her story that really drives the song.

Download the song on Infosupernet Highway or be square!
The Fiery Furnaces - "Seven Silver Curses" (via Insound)

Promise Unfullfilled: Song of the Day #2 The Clientele - "Since K Got Over Me" from the the forthcoming album Strange Geometry (Merge)

I promised no more wimpy bullcrap about failed relationships but The Clientele's "Since K Got Over Me" is probably the most sunny, optismistically sounding music from this fogged out London group yet. The catch? It contains probably the most heartwrenching relationship aftermath lyrics since Kelly Clarkson's "Since You've Been Gone". Hi-ohh!

The trio, who gained my heart by being completely ignored by the indie frat boy crowd while opening for Spoon, mixes their signature folky, pyschy, dream pop with an unabashed realistic recounting of the haze you find yourself in post-breakup. The deliriousness, the seemingly unwashable unhappiness and the feeling that everything is "so lucid and so creepy", they all factor in. Singer Alasdair MacLean handles the vocals with a gentleness that is overcome with sleepy mental anguish. Wrapped in a beautiful melody, MacLean elegantly tears his hair out by the handful. Just lovely.

The World Wide Webbing is so in! Download it baby!
The Clientele - "Since K Got Over Me" (via Stereogum)

Reliving the Glory Days, You Know, College: Song of the Day #3
Grandaddy "Pull the Curtain" from the forthcoming Excerpts From the Diary of Todd Zilla EP (V2)

Whenever I hear Grandaddy I insantly become an old man, recounting fond memories of college. I asscoiate Sophtware Slump with the second semester of my senior year. All of my friends have heard this recollection a number of times, so much so where they do the knee-jerk vocal reaction everytime: "Oh righhhht. You have told me this story..." Of course, I continue. It goes like this. I woke up 6pm on a Tuesday with a beer bong stuck to my lips. The familiar taste of Natty Light and mushrooms are still very fresh on my pallette. On one side slept a bustier blond version of an younger female version of Ernest Borgnine, on the the other a little foreign exchange student from the Phillipines named Manuel. I assure you, he had long hair and I was experimenting.

Something like that. Actually the real story is being knee deep in snow on the lacrosse field talking pictures of a the old run down scoreboard for a beginners photography class, listening to "Crystal Lake". It honestly was a zen moment if I ever had one (though I am gonna try to induce one by reading Siddhartha and listening to Six Organs of Admittance this weekend). My jeans and Vans were soaked through and freezing and Jason Lytle was crooning about winter games and "residing by the duraflames". Amazing.

Since then, we've had the immaculate Sumday, and a tease in "The Nature Anthem" but "Pull the Curtain" brings Grandaddy back in full swing, with an EP and a LP on the horizon. But "Pull the Curtain" presents a side of the band that was largely absent on Sumday: the Rock (think "Chartsengrafs" or "Summer Here Kids"). The song starts out gentle but when buzzy guitars begin to chug and the keyboards begin to bleep, the serene memory of taking pictures in the snow goes poof and I'm giving old ladies the devil symbol while driving on the street and kicking ugly dogs during my power walk. The song is not super outstanding, but it serves as nice little preview of things to come and good opening for me to share more made-up college war stories.

Downloading on the Interweb! It's the best!
Grandaddy - "Pull the Curtain" (via Insound)

Now excuse me, there is Myspacing to be done.