Listening Assignments 12.26.08

It's an odd thing, not doing the thing you've always done. Due to the timing of this instance, it's been nice to spend time doing all the things everyone else is doing. The hustle and the bustle, the joy and the aftermath. I'm cleaning up shreds of paper and tape, putting things back together again, and listening to these songs. I thought it was fitting to share them in the interim between here and there, wherever "there" may be. Consider no post "the last post" until I say it is. Take that, winter!

1. School of Language - Rockist Pt. 1 - Let's practice our vowels. A. E. I. O. U. Repeat. Y gets no mention and I never considered it a vowel either, so screw it. Now stomp your feet and stand up in your chair and raise your hands above your head and chant and chant like some spirit-filled evangelist and break your face with the force of your smile. There's a reason I'm excited. This is what Field Music has become. [from Sea From Shore|buy]

2. Kyte - Eyes Lose Their Fire - I want something to build inside of me. I want that thing to matter and resonate outwardly like shrapnel. I want to fly, to fall, to sink, to swim, to drown, to be reborn. I'd like this song to manifest itself. [from Two Sparks, Two Stars|buy]

3. Arizona - The Glowing Bird - There is nothing weird about this song, except perhaps that it is awesome, while myriad other songs are not. The dynamics and pacing are inspiring, the song itself beautiful. And when the guitars come in, glowing like phosphorus, at 2:48...wow. [from Glowing Bird|buy]

4. White Denim - Sitting - This song is more than a little like love. Immediate chemistry, inseperability (what a word!), welcome weirdness, bouncy rubber roses and chocolates, and saxophone. But then it starts to fade, often at the least expected time. And you think it's done for good, and you wonder why it's come to this, so soon. And then it starts to come back into view, just around the corner. You're like magnets, pulling closer together, tearing through the walls between you. And now you're back, baby, and it made sense all along. [from Eleven Songs (Explosion)|buy]