Naive Harmonies

Somewhere along the way, Fine Tune Friday turned to vengeance

2009-11-13T09:52:00.008-05:00

Julian Casablancas, "Out Of The Blue" (2009)

find it on Phrazes For The Young

I'm suspending for a second that I don't like trying to analyze what people are saying in songs for this one, because it seems so obvious that Julian Casblancas is writing a Behind The Music: The Strokes here. Success, pleasure, vengeance, bitterness, madness at critics, and mistakes and apologies made...it's the entire story of the hype and hate directed at The Strokes for 8 years.

But no matter how much JC's rollercoaster ride nauseates him, it's a thrill for us. The driving glory of the chorus could sweeten up any bile. Don't miss the guitar step squeal it's way to an thrilling peak at 3:35.

Fine Tune Friday rolling dice with Christ at twilight

2009-11-06T10:38:00.006-05:00

Monsters of Folk, "Losin' Yo Head" (2009)

find it on Monsters Of Folk

This song reminds me a little of "Hoodoo Voodoo" off of Billy Bragg & Wilco's Mermaid Avenue, both because it's a great, cheerful, head-bopper rocker, but also because the compilation its on has made me reconsider the collaborators. I didn't like Wilco before Mermaid Avenue, and it was only that album that got me into them, and likewise, I never liked My Morning Jacket and was a lukewarm on M. Ward, but I'll have to revisit their stuff now.

As a bonus track (read: because I was having a difficult time trying to decide which track was my weekly favorite), here's "His Master's Voice" off the same record. It's an odd-but-beautiful closer to the record, thanks not only to the peaceful arpeggios and dramatic piano stabs, but the stunning and sudden chorus and assonant lyrics.

Monsters of Folk, "His Master's Voice" (2009)

find it on Monsters Of Folk

These Fine Tune Fridays are mine

2009-10-30T09:47:00.006-04:00

The Big Pink, "Velvet" (2009)

find it on A Brief History Of Love

If you had told me that this song was from the unexpectedly-fantastic Love & Rockets comeback record (which, as far as I know, doesn't exist), I would have believed you. For a second. I mean, really: if you threw "Mirror People '88" somewhere onto The Big Pink's new record, it wouldn't seem at all out of place.

"Velvet" is a pretty fantastic song, though. Nothing we haven't heard before, and A Brief History of Love is an album that sounds great as a whole, but I don't see returning to too much once it's fallen out of my heavy rotation, but for cloudy days at the end of a week, wanting to break out a little but not being able to, it's a perfect sound.

Don't forget to drop by and pay the Fine Tune Friday playlist on Lala a visit. It misses you, and loves you very much.

Fine Tune Friday in the gaps between my bones

2009-10-23T09:56:00.009-04:00

The Clientele, "Never Anyone But You" (2009)

find it on Bonfires on the Heath

The Clientele have been one of the few acts this decade that turn out full albums worth listening to as whole pieces, albums that could rightly be called "lovely" and cynically be called "Hipster Brunch Volumes 1-6". The songs may not always immediately distinguish themselves from one another, but the full album listens are about as rewarding as album spins get.

But just because the Clientele have a template doesn't mean that you aren't rewarded for digging deeper. "Never Anyone But You" has the standard crisp cymbals, lazy arpeggios and half-murmured vocals that you always get delivered by The Clientele, but the falsetto chorus is just enough of a hook to perk up the ears even when taking the full album as a whole. And considering the The Clientele standard is a comfortable kind of bliss, that's just fine.

When Fine Tune Friday gets closest

2009-10-16T11:13:00.007-04:00

The xx, "Crystalised" (2009)

find it on xx

The xx's barely-there sound is destined to make their debut this music generation's Dummy, or at least their Moon Safari: an album whose wider legacy is just being great makeout music.

I'm only just now warming up to The xx's cold sound, and I have to admit that their not-quite-on-key voices and over-drugged execution still make me keep my distance, but the dark and rainy recent days have put this sound into a flattering new light, the kind that keeps pulling my attention even if it hasn't gotten my full love. Yet.

Fine Tune Friday is when I pick my favorite song of the week like I'm picking first for kickball. Subscribe or follow us on Hype Machine.

I smelt Fine Tune Friday's scent on the seatbelt

2009-10-09T09:36:00.005-04:00

Arctic Monkeys, "Cornerstone" (2009)

find it on Humbug

Arctic Monkey's new one sounds like it comes from the intersection of getting high and getting jaded, and I would call it a grower, but their other two albums were the same way: you can sense the hooks right off, but the longer you listen, the more you find the song's depths.

"Cornerstone" isn't going to give you a good mood when you weren't expecting one, but the sound of resignation has its places, and the subtle melody and lovely guitar arpeggios are the perfect soundtrack for a self-indulgent bad mood, an itch that feels perfectly scratched by song's end.

Fine Tune Friday is my favorite song of the week, decided and crowned in spite of everything. Subscribe or follow us on Hype Machine.

Don't put Fine Tune Friday down

2009-10-02T09:34:00.004-04:00

La Roux, "Bulletproof" (2009)

get it on Amazon

Yaz we can!

"Bulletproof" sounds like someone locked a copy of Upstairs At Eric's¹ in a room with Pro Tools and told them they weren't allowed to come out until they'd made a baby. And what a fine looking baby! You can see the beauty of pop in every look it gives: it doesn't matter where it came from, it just matters that it's there and you never want to let it go.

¹ How you can be rating things on a five star scale and not give Upstairs At Eric's a full five is beyond me. Insanity.

Fine Tune Friday feels it all around

2009-09-25T07:44:00.004-04:00

Washed Out, "Feel It All Around" (2009)

find it on Life Of Leisure

It's kind of dangerous to name your band after the best description of your sound, but for Washed Out, it works perfectly. Early 80's AOR and indie atmospherics are filtered through the last 25 years (and a few effects) into something that sounds wholly modern. The beat has a vague feel of dubstep, giving the song a feel of motion and excitement, even as it threatens to plunge you into sober stoned-out bliss.

Fine Tune Friday is a hand-picked and washed song, fresh from my library to your ears, every single Friday (see? That's where the name comes from!). Subscribe here.

Some Fine Tune Fridays will never change

2009-09-18T12:35:00.002-04:00

What you have to understand about Fine Tune Friday is that what it wants, it gets. And what it wants is whatever I can't get out of my head.

Kid Cudi, "Day 'n' Nite" (2009)

find it on Man On The Moon: The End Of Day

It's hard not to compare "Day 'n' Nite" to "Crazy" or "Hey Ya": songs that straddle the line between modern R&B, throwback soul and something else entirely, and become big hits for their obvious universal appeal. This song, even more than others, has haunted me this last week, even a couple months after I saw the trippy video. It's one of those times when the music sounds like the story that the lyrics are telling: stoned loneliness. Fantastic stuff, and worth sharing for those of you who, like me, managed to miss its ubiquity.

Fine Tune Friday is stalling and dying a sudden death

2009-09-04T10:07:00.005-04:00

Brendan Benson, "Poised And Ready" (2009)

find it on My Old, Familiar Friend

Say! This rock and roll stuff is pretty catchy, huh?

There's something almost anachronistic about Brendan Benson's latest, which is weird. I mean, there's still plenty of people making power pop and rock music, but I can't help but hear this record and, enjoyable as it is, feel like it's a little bit out of time.

But like any good band reliving a past sound, all that matters is how good it is, and "Poised and Ready" is about as perfect a slice of heavy-handed pop rock as you could get. The organ that comes in for the hyper-energetic last verse sounds like someone's leaning on it as hard as they can, and it gives me chills. Brilliant stuff, no matter what time it's in or sounds like.

Listen to every song from Fine Tune Friday on Lala.com

You and Fine Tune Friday and a flame make three

2009-08-28T10:02:00.009-04:00

Akron/Family, "River" (2009)

find it on Set 'Em Wild, Set 'Em Free

For those just tuning in, Fine Tune Friday is me picking out a new song every week and crowning it the best. Subscribe here

When Limo Crazy* and I used to share an office, we would trade CD-Rs filled with mp3s to provide the audio for our daily music conversations. The stuff that Limo gave me shuffled into my ears (because I'm a shuffle kind of guy) and some of it was a revelation. Some of it I wasn't so crazy about. One of the bands that I was consistently not crazy about was the songs from Akron/Family's self-titled record.

So it was a pretty big surprise when "River", a song that got into my library through a Mojo comp, kept perking up my ears when it shuffled its way to me (because I'm a shuffling kind of guy). It's got an early 90's vibe to it, but maybe that's mostly the arpeggiated guitar part. More than the time is the feel: a carefree melody, poetic lyrics, little tastes of catchiness. Bless them for cutting a little bit of the freak from their folk.

* who is currently lost in the wilds of Brooklyn. I knew we should have tagged him with a sensor before he left.

Fine Tune Friday set my heart ablaze

2009-08-21T10:00:00.001-04:00

Trashcan Sinatras, "Morning Star" (2009)

pre-order the CD from trashcansinatras.com (out in US in Fall 2009)

When the Trashcan Sinatras first showed up almost 20 (!) years ago, they would never exactly be the kind of band that you'd call frantic or thunderous, but with the intervening years and their return records of the 2000's, their indiepop can veer dangerously close to indie adult contemporary.

But just because their tempos have slowed as their hair has grayed, their knack for nailing a killer melody hasn't faded at all, and "Morning Star" (which is not, as far as I can tell, about garden burgers) is as luxuriously beautiful as anything in their catalog, even if it doesn't have the kick of Cake or the lush experimentation of the underrrated A Happy Pocket.

As a footnote, TCS's show at the Rock and Roll Hotel last week was fantastic, though I don't understand why they've completely disowned Cake. It's not as though it's some radically different music style. Depeche Mode and The Cure don't have any problem with throwing in the crowd-pleasing hits, but just because TCS don't play arenas doesn't mean we wouldn't be thrilled speechless if they gave us "Obscurity Knocks".

If Fine Tune Friday's got a gun, then he's shootin'

2009-08-14T13:46:00.005-04:00

For those just tuning in, Fine Tune Friday is me picking out a new song every week and crowning it the best. Subscribe here

Kleerup featuring Lykke Li, "Until We Bleed" (2009)

find it on Kleerup

Like a lot of people (right?), I'm starting on my end-of-decade list of songs, and in the writeup (SPOILER ALERT), I've noticed a word I keep going back to is "fragile". Weird as it is, heartbreak is beautiful, and when someone sounds broken, it's beautiful. PLEASE DO NOT READ TOO MUCH INTO THAT.

Lykke Li has "fragile" stamped all over her like she's a million dollar vase being shipped across the country, and she tops any moment on her own album with this defeated turn with some Scandinavian electronic artist that I'm too lazy to research in depth. Lykke Li doesn't just sound fragile on this song: she sounds absolutely defeated; almost too wrecked to get up to sing. I think it's gorgeous, but then, if you're not like me and go in for movies and music that are unbearably depressing, you may not quite see it that way.

Fine Tune Friday will save you

2009-08-07T08:02:00.012-04:00

The Fiery Furnaces, "The End Is Near" (2009)

find it on I'm Going Away

For some odd reason that I can't begin to guess, I keep imagining this song as soundtracking a montage scene of misery in one of those Peanuts movies from the 70's. There's Charlie Brown walking through the rain with his head hung low, and there's Schroeder playing the piano part in his warm home as Charlie walks by. It would seem just as trippy and out-of-place as any of the non-Guaraldi songs that they used in those movies.

Weird views into my deeper psychology aside, I'd like to welcome back the brilliant quirk-pop version of the Fiery Furnaces. Their inscrutable, ADD noisefest tendencies were left at the door for this record, and while nothing on this record tops "Here Comes The Summer" or "We Got Back The Plague", it's a great record; a slew of bizarre ear worms that makes for some great, itchy listening.

Fine Tune Friday crunched the numbers and they fell within

2009-07-31T08:39:00.004-04:00

Tiga, "Beep Beep Beep" (2009)

find it on Ciao!

"Beep Beep Beep" would be teetering precariously on the end of falling into indie dance pop beige-ness if it wasn't for two things:

1. The synth pulse and timbale spaz that starts at 2:46. At exactly this point, the song goes from "Oh." to "Wow!", and when you start it over again, the whole song sounds fresh and exciting.

2. The lyrics, which nails the oft-used construction of love and technology:

My car goes "beep beep beep"
The time goes "beep beep beep"
The world goes "beep beep beep"
But you go "Ooh ooh oooh"

If you think those are dumb, then you and I probably shouldn't talk pop lyrics anymore.

Where's the freedom in Fine Tune Friday if you're all alone?

2009-07-17T10:53:00.007-04:00

This week is one of those times where I really show to myself why I do this Song Of The Week exercise. I start out thinking that there was no clear song that stood out, but I need to pick one, so I find some new song that I liked somewhat. But over the course of re-listening and writing, I really come to love it.

Discovery, "Carby" (2009)

find it on LP

Discovery's album clearly has a concept, but it still manages to sound sincere. The blippy R&B dreamed up by Rostam Batmanglij and Wes Miles can't help but bring in the melodic indie touches of their day bands (Vampire Weekend and Ra Ra Riot), no matter how hard they want it to sound like straight R&B. It's a breath of fresh air even if it's not actually a great record.

"Carby" (featuring Vampire Weekend's front man Ezra Koenig, not that you can tell through the vocoder) has an fantastic pogoing two-note hook in the chorus. It's not the kind of thing that I usually go in for, but the carefree feel is irresistible.

Fine Tune Friday in the front row and singing

2009-07-10T18:30:00.006-04:00

Iron & Wine, "Kingdom of the Animals" (2009)

find it on Around The Well

There's a distinction to Sam Beam's (aka Mr. Iron & Wine) sound that is can start to drone after just a few songs. "What's this?", you think. "More quiet plucked acoustic guitar with whisper-sung vocals?" It's starts to all blend together after a while.

But the funny thing about his stuff is that after it's all blended together, it starts to separate again after a few listenings. The individual melodies harden and the production seasonings start to give each song a distinct flavor.

All a roundabout way of saying that "Kingdom of the Animals" at first faded into the quietly-plucked, whisper-sung wallpaper of the odds-and-ends collection Around The Well, until round about when the iTunes play counter hit four and it was suddenly clear that this song is freaking gorgeous. It seems carefully considered and rambling at the same time, and is a song about discord wrapped in the sound of contentment. Beautiful.

Leave your Fine Tune Friday at home

2009-07-03T06:37:00.011-04:00

If you read Troy's 4-caws review of Florence & The Machine over at Kindness of Ravens, then you're probably already as struck by it as I was, but when a song gets repeated as much as "Dog Days Are Over" has in the last 24 hours, there's no point pretending that anything else is my song of the week. And Troy's great writing means I get to phone this one in.

Florence & The Machine, "Dog Days Are Over" (2009)

get it on Lungs

It's pretty often that I retch over a white British woman wishing she was a black American soul singer, and it's almost as often that I completely forgive the charade when the songs transcend any of the singer's wishes to be someone else.

So, yeah...file under Amy Winehouse. But it's the sheer intensity of this song's chorus that makes it just an irresistible repeater. While the mandolin and harp textures are a great touch, this song would have had a better life as a disco burner a la "Don't Leave Me This Way" instead of with the hard drums. Maybe someone will remix it.

I don't know why I'm complaining, though. This song is a stunner. The insistence of its sound is an insistence to replay, something I've been more than happy to comply with.

There is nothing Fine Tune Friday can't do

2009-06-19T10:48:00.005-04:00

Dirty Projectors, "Stillness Is The Move" (2009)

get it on Bitte Orca

Dirty Projector's aimless quirk generally misses me, but "Stillness Is The Move" hits the target...and then makes it explode in a slow-motion action movie kind of way. The stride of the chorus is as luxurious a melody line as you could hope to hear as their Talking Heads worship gives way to Tom Tom Club worship. The complex catchiness of this treads that exciting line of being just pop enough to be a hit, but just odd enough so that everyone would think it was completely unexpected if it was.

Add to all of that the lush keyboards coming in at the end, and you start to understand why the singers got excited enough by the song when we saw them a few weeks ago to get their microphones off the stands and dance around stage, breaking the cool they'd kept up to that point.

I should also mention that I first heard this song when Limo mailed it to me. I got in trouble the last time I didn't give him credit.

Fine Tune Friday thanks you for a lovely evening

2009-06-12T07:53:00.008-04:00

Dance music is like action movies: the elements of greatness seem so simple, and yet, even though there's plenty of people doing it enjoyably, there's precious few who can really nail them perfectly.

The Juan MacLean, "No Time" (2009)

find it on The Future Will Come

The Juan Maclean are (is?) kind of a frustration. For every near-perfect indie disco single like "Give Me Every Little Thing" or "Happy House", there's two or three plodding piano pieces or electronic fuck-arounds.

"No Time" doesn't approach the genius of the other singles, but it still scratches the dancefloor and pop itches real good like. John Maclean and Nancy Whang (LCD Soundsystems keyboardist) give this song their best "Don't You Want Me" polish and never let up the beat, but it is--like every other good dance pop songs--the quick stabs of hooks that keep it going: "Shut your mouth" and the sublime cheesiness of "Everybody need loving". The now-standard tambourine and woozy synth climax don't hurt either.

(see also: Fine Tune Friday playlist on Lala)

Sent shivers up your Fine Tune Friday

2009-06-05T11:12:00.004-04:00

An unhealthy obsession with my own personal history, my little song-of-the-week project and lala.com all collide with the Fine Tune Friday Lala playlist. You may not be able to hear all of them in their entirety, but you can spend hours of time with my immaculate taste in music.

This week's:

Pink Mountaintops, "Vampire" (2009)

find it on Outside Love

What better way to end a week of shitty weather that puts everyone in a bad mood than another day of shitty weather that keeps everyone in a bad mood? The perfect antidote is a knee-buckling slice of gorgeousness, a true moment song custom made for headphones, where you don't even regret the subsequent tinnitus.

The grey moods of the early song give way to pure beauty at 2:54, where the lush peak turns your feelings of the song's theme from Twilight to Let The Right One In. I've listened to this song 7 times in a row, and when it starts up again, I can't stop it. This song will drive legions to the vampire recruiting offices in strip malls the world over.

Fine Tune Friday would like to request a late pass

2009-05-31T16:53:00.010-04:00

I love it when bands deliver on hype or promise. It was fun in the eighties to see bands like U2, REM, The Cure and Depeche Mode get to a point in their career where they were huge, but they just needed to come up with that one album with a handful of songs that climbed up the charts and took them from popular to superstars, to come up with those right songs at exactly the right time.

It still happens now, but on a much smaller level. Animal Collective and TV On The Radio didn't become superstars, but they were still able to take their signature sounds and find the people who wanted the style with a little less quirk. It's that thrill of watching a band honing their sound to something that you know they love and makes more people see the brilliance of their work.

Grizzly Bear, "While You Wait For the Others" (2009)

find it on Veckatimest

I always liked Grizzly Bear okay, but none of the songs connected with me for longer than the song. But this song's hit was immediate and lasting. The trade off between the swooning leads and the lush harmonies of the backing vocals in the chorus are about as knee-buckling a musical moment as I've had in a long while, and it's only heightened by the middle bit that echoes the chorus's harmonizing with even more decadence, as though the band couldn't resist going back for more, diving all the way in. The stabs of guitar add a perfect sour to the melody's sweet and you end up with one of the most divine songs of the year.

I'll be at the show at the 930 tomorrow (thanks, Christian). Anyone else?

Note: posted late thanks to Friday train riding and Saturday heavy drinking.

Some guy is mentioning Fine Tune Friday in his prayers

2009-05-22T10:23:00.004-04:00

I try to reserve this weekly spot for something new, but I have to be true to the tune that moved me the most that week. And there is no question that this was it.

Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds, "Dig!!! Lazarus, Dig!!!" (2008)

find it on Dig!!! Lazarus, Dig!!!

A friend of mine has a favorite question: what strikes you most when you first hear a song, the music or the lyrics? I'm a music man, but only because lyrics take longer to unearth. But when the words are gems, they can end up creating hooks that are more haunting than any melody.

And this is where I've found myself in the last two weeks with "Dig!!! Lazarus, Dig!!!": haunted. I've been an insane man for it the last couple of weeks, with lines just on the tip of my tongue, and only a tenuous hold on social normality keeping them repeated in my head instead of muttered out loud.

I'm in awe and envy of Nick Cave's blunt language. I'm usually attracted to puns and bittersweetness, not the crude force of words like Cave's, where the world is being grabbed at instead of requested.

Lazarus, 0:35: He came from New York City, man, but he couldn't take the pace. He thought it was like a dog-eat-dog world. But he went to San Francisco, spent a year in outer space with sweet little San Franciscan girl.

...where "sweet" sounds so sleazy. There's no grasping for description here. The girl is San Franciscan, and the old-fashioned cliche of "dog-eat-dog" is fine for describing New York.

Larry may be Christ, or maybe not. Maybe this is the second coming or a fact-finding mission or maybe it's just some guy. The whole song is both hinted and blatant, treading the waters of complete blasphemy and then diving deep without anyone really knowing what the hell's going on.

Lazarus, 2:38: I mean, he...he never asked to be raised up from the tomb. I mean, nobody really ever actually asked him to forsake his dreams.

Anyway, to cut a long story short, fame finally found him.

I'm addicted to those words. Completely addicted. A maybe-Christ totally losing hold in a blame game, followed shortly by fame, followed immediately by complete ruin.

And through all of it, in the one moment that strays from the main riff, the one part that dares to introduce a chord change, there's the line that takes the non-commitment of agnosticism and delivers it with the fire of complete conviction:

Well, I don't know what it is, but there's definitely something going on upstairs.

Amen.

Fine Tune Friday is a liar, and that's the truth

2009-05-15T12:55:00.005-04:00

St. Vincent, "Actor Out Of Work" (2009)

find it on Actor

As someone who constantly cranks on and on about creative rhythms, it's a little embarrassing to admit that my favorite track on the St. Vincent album is the most straightforward: a catchy tune with a driving beat than never lets up. It's not very representative of the record, which is full of crackpot-genius arrangements and more lilting vocals.

But maybe that's exactly it: there's nothing wrong with a good, driving R!O!C!K! beat as long as it clearly comes from a mind that's looking for the best rhythm, rather than just the easiest, as is so often the case the with standard rock 'n' roll.

Fur or fowl or Fine Tune Friday

2009-05-07T16:54:00.002-04:00

Aw, I've been a little harsh on 2009. Poor little guy. Never meant to hurt anyone. Just because he hasn't taken music a step forward doesn't mean he doesn't have plenty of good listens in him. Yeah, Camera Obscura and Neko Case have given more of the same, but didn't we like the same? We did.

Bonnie 'Prince' Billy, "I Am Goodbye" (2009)

get it on Beware

Billy's new record Beware is stingier with the moments of knee-buckling beauty that last year's Lie Down In The Light was packed with, but with this song, it brings the hooks that even Light's oral sex hymn "So Everyone" can't touch. It's lyrically sparse (unusual for BPB) and begging for the type of "someone get a guitar and lets sing along" singalong that everyone dismisses as corny but secretly desperately wants.