Tag Archives: Indie

The Civil Wars

Posted on March 29, 2010 at sometime around 3:19 pm

civil-wars

For Fans of: The Swell Season, Damien Rice, Lisa Hannigan, She & Him, Alison Krauss & Robert Plant

I love the honesty of the lyrics for Poison and Wine.  I love the sound even more.  Who isn’t a sucker for a killer male/female duet? No one.

Joy Williams is known in the Christian industry for her 11 Dove Nominations, but now seems to be steering more towards music that is accessible to people of all faith backgrounds with her new endeavors in her band The Civil Wars.  Here are the lyrics for Poison and Wine, their first single I’ve posted above:

You only know what i want I you to
I know everything you don’t want me to
your mouth is poison your mouth is wine
you think your dreams are the same as mine

I don’t love you but I always will
I don’t love you but I always will
I don’t love you but I always will
I always will

I wish you’d hold me when I turn my back
well the less I give the more I get back
your hands can heal, your hands can bruise
I don’t have a choice, but I’d still choose you

I don’t love you but I always will
I don’t love you but I always will
I don’t love you but I always will
I don’t love you but I always will

I don’t love you but I always will
I don’t love you but I always will
I don’t love you but I always will

I always will
I always will
I always will
I always will

Joy Williams has partnered with JP and has written a fantastic description of her new group, The Civil Wars:

Poison & Wine is a musical snapshot about the dichotomy of love - that while it can be the thing that destroys you, it can also be the very same thing that beckons and builds you. JP and I are both married have been for several years now - and we got to talking one day about what a tug and pull our individual relationships can be. The longer you know someone - and the longer you allow someone to know you - the more the light and shadows inside each person become more vivid. This song was our attempt at being as brutally honest about the dangerous and beautiful process of knowing and being known. (-Joy Williams, The Civil Wars)

One of my favorite lines in the song shows the awesome commitment to their spouses: Your hands can heal, your hands can bruise. I don’t have a choice, but I’d still choose you. The first part of the lyric shows the complexity of a human relationship.  With every interaction, we can make a positive influence in someone’s life or damage them with our words.  The second part of the lyric explores our uncommitted world.  This lyric is very important, and to me, says, “even if I had the choice to leave, with all of our hardships and differences, I still choose you, because I love you. I always will.”

You can download their music for free below at NoiseTrade:

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Like or Dislike? What does the song “Poison and Wine” mean to you?

Do you agree with their description of the realities of love?

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Bon Iver #MusicMonday Week 9

Posted on March 8, 2010 at sometime around 8:21 pm

bon iver

For Fans of: Glen Hansard and Pitchfork fans.

Bon Iver is the essence of high quality, indie music.  With his unique sound and relaxing, yet emotive, vocal performances, Bon Iver is making my list of top artists to recommend for 2010.  NPR has labeled Bon Iver as being among the “50 Most Important Recordings of the Decade” and ”For Emma, Forever Ago” was ranked number 29 in the Rolling Stone’s Top 50 Albums of 2008.  Bon Iver has now formed a group called “Volcano Choir” with some old friends, but still more great music.  Check some of it below:

Life Performances:

From his highly recommended album “For Emma, Forever Ago”:

From Bon Iver’s EP Blood Bank:

For more, visit Bon Iver’s official website here.

What do you think? Is it too “out there” for you, or do you like it?

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Death Cab for Cutie #MusicMonday Artists You Must Hear Week 1

Posted on January 4, 2010 at sometime around 11:45 pm

death_cab_for_cutie

I’ve decided that I am going to attempt to recommend one indie-ish artist (which I’m defining as not overly well known rather than not being signed to a major label) every single Monday.  In the twitter world (a world unto itself), there is a popular hashtag known as #MusicMonday, and since I’m a fan of sharing my love of music, I will be using Monday’s as the day I post these recommendations. This is also conveniently my day off from work each week.

With this week’s first recommendation, we start with Death Cab for Cutie. DCFC are a Grammy-nominated, alternative group, so they are pretty well known at this point, but their gentle, melodic sounds are still unknown to many.  Death Cab’s frontman, Ben Gibbard, is one of the greatest songwriters of our time.  His creative take on love and emotional poetics combined with a creative rock sound makes for a good time on the ears.  Rolling Stone reviewed their album Transatlanticism and accurately assessed the songs as “melodic” and “melancholy” and “about feeling both smart and confused, hopelessly romantic but wary of love.”  While describing the reasons for writing music, Gibbard said, “because life is very short, because there’s only a brief period of time to really connect with people…it’s important to recognize that.”  Gibbard songs help us explore love, and what better thing could there be to explore?

Enjoy.

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Below is their song “Little Bribes”.  The video was made by a fan (and is actually my favorite video of the ones shown below).

Death Cab for Cutie - Little Bribes from Ross Ching on Vimeo.

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“I Will Possess Your Heart” - Death Cab’s most famous single nominated for “Best Alternative Song”. This has a long instrumental introduction, but make sure you make it to the lyrics at the 4:41 mark.

Best lyric: “How I wish you could see the potential, the potential of you and me…”

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The song to ring the New Year with:

“There’d be no distance that could hold us back.”

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Happy New Year. Here’s to lots of great music this upcoming year.

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Indie-Greatness

Posted on March 17, 2009 at sometime around 1:39 pm

Independent music is unheard by so many.  It’s hard to know what is good out there in the indie scene, so I’ve done the hard work for you (well…some).  I’ve posted below a mix and short review-type writing on each song for your listening pleasure.  Click the play button in the player above to stream and/or you can download the individual .mp3’s at the end of this post.  Enjoy and let me know what you think!

“Save Me” by Aimee Mann

Inspired by the film, Magnolia, “Save Me” cries out from the depths of every one of our hearts.  “But can you save me, from the ranks of the freaks, who suspect they could never love anyone?”  Magnolia is a provocative but necessary film that pushes us all to love those around us, despite how different we really are from each other.  Aimee’s theme track for this film is perfect.

“There is So Much More” by Brett Dennen

“I wonder how so many can be in so much pain,
While others dont seem to feel a thing
Then I curse my whiteness,
and I get so damn depressed,
In a world with suffering,
Why should I be so blessed?” Read More »

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Video Killed the Radio Star, But What Happened To Christian Music?

Posted on February 3, 2009 at sometime around 5:17 pm

Nearly every time I am driving through a new city, I check out the different radio stations.  Of course it is all the same (and usually about the same place on the dial).  You have the rap station up in the 106 frequency, country at 105/103, top 40’s music around 101/96, Christian around 90, and indie or jazz at 88/89 on the FM dial.  I throw that out there just as information for the next time you go to the next major city as a general guide, but it also serves my first point: radio is so predictable.

mtv
MTV killed the art of music.  It took what used to have to be pictured and turned it into a visual platform.  It is like when a children’s book, such as Chronicles of Narnia, gets turned into a movie and a child no longer has to make up a picture of Aslan (not that I did not enjoy the movies, just saying…).  The imagination and open-ended side to the songs is now gone.  That is what makes music good though!  That ambiguity that allows you to identify with the song with where you are at and how you are feeling makes for a beautiful interpretation.  Since every teenager has raging hormones that they do not know what to do with, MTV plays videos that play to their desires (well…they used to play music videos anyways).  Don’t worry, I’m not insulting your intelligence by stating we live in a culture plagued by sex, it is just that when I went to MTV.com earlier today, I found this on the side panel: Read More »

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