Steel Train - Turnpike Ghost

What really gets me on this song are the little things: 

1.  I love the little “oh, oh, oh” during the verse…these tiny background vocals make the synapses in my brain start to tingle.  Steel Train is all about making difficult parts sound like ultra-simplicity.  

2.  Jack’s guitar playing is beyond astounding as he scurries and thrashes through this song.  

3.  The overall energy on this track makes me want to chase my cat all around the apartment. This has been one of the few songs that really kick started the summer for me.  

4.  Steel Train is able to evolve continually but almost in a reverse order - starting with the very dynamic and instrumentally advanced “Twilight Tales…” and moving forward to the almost garage-rock-stripped-apart tinge of their “Self Titled” current album.  I have not seen any other band who is able to do this.  

*Side note:  Jack (lead vocals and guitar) once dated Scarlett Johansson, had a terrible breakup, wrote a record about her - and now she is one of the many women to sing Steel Train’s newest album in a companion double disc where each song is re-arranged and performed by a female vocalist - extremely exciting idea  (check out the album “Terrible Thrills Volume One” for these songs) 

Thrice - Come All You Weary

“Come all you weary, with your heavy loads.

Lay down your burdens find rest for your souls

My yoke is easy, my burden is kind,

I’ll take yours upon me and you can take mine…

…find rest for your souls.”

I feel as though I am a completely biased listener to this song.  I have been a huge fan of Thrice for a long time and may be in the minority here when I say that they have continued to excel and improve with each album.  

I recently got into a fight about the fans at Thrice shows who yell out “Play Deadbolt” or “T&C” which basically are two back catalogue songs that consist of thrashing guitars and screaming vocals…not my usual cup-o-tea when it comes to music.  I explained to this “fan” that the band looks at these songs as not representative of their current lives and don’t enjoy playing them anymore.  Playing these songs from the past is like asking a college graduate to enjoy the same hobbies he did when he was in middle school.  Our conversation ended when he said I was on my “high horse” and “one of those people” who likes bands who are “scene.” 

I am just so scene that my favorite song by Thrice is one that sounds like Bob Dylan stealing the slide guitar player from his son’s band, while being exiled to Riker’s Island while serving a jail sentence for failing at love.  Very scene…

I challenge this “fan” to find anything, by any current band or from Thrice’s back catalogue that has a 1/4 amount of the soul and dexterity that this song has. 

“…rest for your souls…”

Nada Surf - Are You Lightning

Nada Surf is always referenced as a “has been 90’s band that has made a comeback in the 2000’s with indie success.”  I personally do not even understand how a statement like that makes any sense - it sounds like typical music journalist jargon to try and sound “indie”.  This especially doesn’t sit well with me when a band had one hit which had fair airplay on MTV and the radio but then continued to make very intelligent pop without disappearing from the music world.  

This track can only be described by the stereotypical word “beautiful.”

Tender vocals gliding upon subtle guitar create an atmosphere of melodic beauty that resonates more and more with every tap of the piano keys.  

The lyrics represent what I think of as a lazy afternoon hiding away with the only person who can make you feel alive and wonderful…with the lyricist asking “are you lightning?”

I am a true believer that the slower the song is, the louder it must be played to truly be able to hear every moment occurring.  

Dancing violins, reverb stricken guitars, lazy day drums and lyrics pondering the perfect day…nothing else matters when listening to this song.  Please enjoy!

The Last Shadow Puppets - My Mistakes Were Made For You

Imagine a world were music is a sort of recipe that combines the best ingredients from the past…a sort of amalgamation of beautiful melodies, textured guitars and killer intelligent hooks that could only be reverberating from the stereos of 1960’s convertibles.

Now take this imaginary world and make it a reality.  The Last Shadow Puppets consist of two main members, one of them being the lead man from the Arctic Monkeys.  The Zombiesque (Colin Blunstone Zombies, not “Night of the Living Dead” zombies) croon of Alex Turner paired with some of the smoothest musicianship this side of a James Bond film has been played with constant pride on my ipod.  

Anyone who enjoyed the 60’s might shrug off this song as too similar to everything else they heard growing up.  Truth is…this track is good enough to accept that compliment.  

Play this one at volumes only acceptable while increasing speeds down the canyon in order to catch that Russian Spy in the car ahead of you…

I am going to attempt to share the best music I hear with the world.  There are a handful of artists who have done a sufficient job in keeping the world of music creative, exciting and evolving as the world of radio plays continuous loops of popular music to the masses…these are just a few of those artists “keeping the dream alive”.

The Black Keys - Too Afraid To Love You

- The album “Brothers” is a complete funky-groovable masterpiece containing music that keeps that good ol’ heart of yours pumping blood while your shoes may need some new soles, as this keeps your toes a’ tappin’.  All silly speak aside, the work compiled together in this thumping collection of soul uses gliding harpsichord, soulful lyrics, booming vocals and 50’s production cues to display classic soul meshed with garage rock.  

This pulls together everything I love about motown, takes away the cheesiness that can build from group vocals and combines it with some of the best musicianship of the last ten years.  

Just let the last line ring in your head…”drivin’ me out…of my mind….”