This Is So Cute!

A few months back, I heard a song on my favorite radio station (WRUW) called "Rocks And Penalties." It was cute, and really made me smile. 

First of all, the singers sounded young. Second, how can you not love a song with lyrics like

Don't take my word for it. Check Wikipedia. 

and

At that moment a coconut hit my head like a double-decker bus. And I saw a rainbow, and unicorns, and the Smiths, reunited. It was wonderful. They were playing "Girlfriend In A Coma." How ironic.

For the heck of if, I did some research. I learned:

- The band is named ShiSho.

- They're from Akron, Ohio, which is not too far from where I live.

- They ARE young. The band is two sisters, ages 10 and 14.

Here is a link to their website, should you wish to visit.
Here is a link to a site which has the audio track. You have to listen to it.
And here is a link to the a performance on YouTube. The sound quality isn't great. But it's still fun.

Enjoy. If you like it, please forward this to other folks whom you think would appreciate it.

Literary Man's Rant

Here's another post which illustrates my habit of nitpicking grammar, word choice, etc...

With regard to radio, I listen almost exclusively to college stations. One of my favorites is that of Case Western Reserve University, WRUW. I love them to death, so I probably shouldn't bust their chops. But I can't help myself.

Like I imagine every college radio station does, they hold an annual radiothon. One of the projects that this year's donations are being used for is a project to put their music collection onto a hard drive, to enable the DJs to have quicker access.  They sometimes run a PSA touting the conversion. I have to laugh. They say something to the effect of, "By 2014, we will have digitized our entire CD collection."

And I can't help but think, "Oh, so you have analog CDs somewhere?"

Raven In The Grave...Rave On!

I just picked up the Raveonettes' latest disk, Raven In The Grave. Two words: love it! Of course, I'm not surprised. I had heard about half of the songs on WRUW over the past month or so and really enjoyed them.

If I were still doing music reviews, I would rate this an A+. To me, it's simply a great album. Disclaimer: I'm a big fan of songs with distorted guitars and dreamy, hard-to-decipher lyrics, all mixed together in a wash of sound. In other words, the shoegazer genre; Lush was my favorite band from the 90s.

But this is no exercise in "nu gaze" music-by-the-numbers. I immediately was struck by the musical, lyrical, thematic, and sonic range across Raven's nine tracks

Do you want fuzzy guitars and a driving beat? The album leads off with "Recharge & Revolt," an anthem to fighting (literally) for your love. As an aside, I have to admit that when I initially heard the tune's opening power chord, my musician's ear flashed back to the Raveonettes' 2003 release, Chain Gang Of Love, which bears the cover note "Recorded In Bb Major." And they weren't kidding...it's all in Bb. I'm happy to report that even though this disk has its fair share of songs in that key, they do use other chords as well.  :)

Do you want tender? How about "Forget That You're Young," which breaks down a relationship, start to end, using a string of simple monosyllabic verbs:

And I see

         chase

         meet

         get

         hold

         kiss

         need

         please

         hurt

         scare

         leave

         miss you, and I forget that you're young.

Do you want to drift off and dream? Then cue up "My Time's Up," the best sleepy-time song this side of Julee Cruise.

My personal favorite tracks are "Apparitions," with its hollow, nearly amelodic vocal, the lyrically spartan "War In Heaven" (which I would bet money started life as a work of poetry), and the aforementioned "Forget That You're Young." The latter is one of those songs that I could listen to, then hit the << button and listen to again. Who am I kidding? That's what I do.

In conclusion, two more words: buy it. Or "download it," since as I write this, Amazon is offering the MP3 for half price, which includes a bonus track.