I realized something about the gifts that I’ve brought to the table. They are all very dated. All of my music comes from a time when I was most impressionable. My collection has an obvious cutoff date from 2001, when I rededicated my life to the Lord. I didn’t stop purchasing music because of some strange conviction that secular music is evil. My priorities changed and so did my influences. There was some music that I burned in effigy (translation: threw away in a garbage can) as some misguided sense of sacrifice to the Lord, but all in all, my music stayed frozen in time. The Collective has forced me to pick the music I loved from its long untouched shelf, blow off the dust and download onto my computer. I am indebted to The Collective for this.

This album was huge for me in my late teens and early twenties. And I struggled with it. The most popular track on the cd is a song called “Dear God”. My atheist friends loved it because they felt it was an anthem for them. But, I don’t find that to be the case. “Dear God” is a song for the angry Catholic who can’t just seem to wrap their head around what kind of God would allow such evil in the world. For someone who would rather try not to believe in this type of God rather than grapple with the hard questions about God we all face. I loved (and still do love) this album for its gut-wrenching honesty, from lost-love, bitter heartache and this song that shows anger at a God they don’t understand. The album is fluid and flows together as a movement. This is one of my favorite cds on the planet. Please enjoy!

That’s Really Super, Super Girl

1000 Umbrellas

Dear God

In my search for new music, I often collect free mp3s from random bands I’m interested in and burn them en masse onto CDs with enigmatic names. On discovering them later, they may yield hidden aural gems, as is the case with this set of beauties from a disc cryptically inscribed as Car Side/Fire Side.

The first two are from a band called The Delgados. The Delgados were an indie rock band who formed in Hamilton, South Lanarkshire, in 1994, and disbanded in 2005. The band was formed after friends Alun Woodward (vocals/guitar), Stewart Henderson (bass) and Paul Savage (drums) were forcibly ejected from the band Bubblegum. Joined by Savage’s then-girlfriend Emma Pollock (vocals/guitar), the band named themselves after Tour de France winning cyclist Pedro Delgado

The next two are from The Helio Sequence. With Brandon Summers on guitar and vocals and Benjamin Weikel, who has also played for Modest Mouse, on keyboards and drums. The band produces an eccentric brand of electronica-tinged indie rock.

Then a little ditty from Scandinavian freaks Nanook of the North. Named after a silent documentary film about the lives of Eskimos, this band naturally became college radio darlings.

And last, perhaps least, is a song from National Skyline. National Skyline is a conceptual band formed in late 1996 by Jeff Dimpsey of Hum. Dimpsey originally formed the band in order to perform a 45-minute long song that he had written. They were initially an indie rock supergroup of sorts, with a rotating cast of prominent Champaign/Chicago area musicians. They did record the 45-minute song/album with Rick Valentin (of The Poster Children) in spring 1997, but it has never been released. The band’s name is apparently a reference to Bob Dylan’s album Nashville Skyline, though their music betrays no stylistic debt to Dylan, nor to country and western music.

Enjoy this fun, and educational romp through uncharted musical waters! Full steam ahead!

The Delgados: Coming In From The Cold

The heart of the album is the vocal. Skill and inflection matched by no one. Drawing from such influences as Jeff Buckley and U2, Gnecco skillfully conjures mood and environment every time the melodies breach his lips.

The songs I have chosen are from “Distorted Lullabies”. The full album is listen-able in my iTunes and under the playlist “The Gift”.  I’ve also included a video with a special live performance of my favorite Ours song “Medication”.

Fallen Souls

Sometimes

Meet Me In The Tower

Azure Ray, unfortunately, is no longer together, having broken up in 2004 to being their own projects. Dustin and I got to see them before they disbanded at a very intimate show at the Larimer Lounge, where they were just as fantastic live.

I hope you enjoy the songs I chose. Each one is very special to me in different ways, but now more than ever their music really speaks to where I am at just generally in life. It is a bit melancholy, very nostalgic and is best listened to on a rainy day.

November

Sleep

Rise

Fall Into Me

When I was growing up, I really wanted nothing to do with Elvis C. I wasn’t a huge fan of Elvis Presley and felt that Mr. Costello’s name was too close to Mr. Presley’s. Guilt by association. I am still lukewarm on the “King of Rock n’ Roll”, but I discovered my deep passion for Elvis Costello in high school.

I had many other ideas in my head, but I found out last week that, even though the concert is technically sold out, tickets to the Police concert with Elvis as the opener were available to me if I could talk my husband into paying close to half our mortgage payment for said tickets. I had a great Elvis compilation that I donated to a friend’s collection. I never seemed to keep any of my cds because I always felt music was so important to share.

So, today, I share my love of Elvis Costello. And I say to him, “Mr. Costello, I’m giving you a longer look everyday I write the book…”

Everyday I Write The Book

Oliver’s Army

What’s So Funny ‘Bout Peace And Love

Here is what their website says:

The New Frontiers are a band on the front lines of this battle with their debut full-length offering, Mending; they wisely let their music do the talking. Sonically, the band once known as Stellamaris offers up their take on a quieter, more introspective brand of indie rock. Anchored by singer Nathan Pettijohn’s emotive vocal delivery, and complemented in kind by an equally skilled Dallas-based supporting troupe, The New Frontiers present tunes with a quiet sense of majesty that still manage to pack a colossal emotional footprint. Their pacing is deliberate, but never sedate and their sound is at once both contemporary and traditional. The overall musical stew is one that combines dashes of alt-country, brit-rock, and indie-pop (among others) towards a final mélange sure to win over sets of ears for years to come.

From the opening swells of “Black Lungs,” Mending grabs a hold of its listener, but not at all in a forceful, brutish way. It is instead the type of prompting that begs for acquiescence, and the rest of the LP only cements that notion. Whether it is in the heartbreaking emotion of “The Day You Fell Apart” or the patient reflection of “Man Down,” The New Frontiers pack an abundance of poignancy into their entrance onto the world’s stage. It is all necessary, though, as exposure to the work’s later pieces requires preparation. For as listeners delve into the unassuming anthemics of “Mirrors,” the sparse acoustic/falsetto magnetism of “Passing On,” the sweeping grandeur of “This Is My Home,” and the ethereal moodiness of “Walking On Stones,” it is readily apparent that this is not your typical radio-rock fodder. This is not to say that the tracks on Mending wrestle with issues of accessibility, instead that they maintain a profound depth beneath their lustrous surface appeal.

Songs:

Black Lungs

The Day You Fell Apart

Who Will Give Us Love?

(Shoegazer, dream pop, space rock, psychedelic, and freak-folk.)
Shoegazer is a genre of alternative rock that emerged from the United Kingdom in the late 1980s. It lasted until the mid 1990s, peaking circa 1990 to 1991. Bands that embodied this sound, such as My Bloody Valentine, The Jesus and Mary Chain, Ride, and Slowdive, often maintained a motionless performing style, standing on stage and staring at the floor while playing their instruments; hence, the idea that they were gazing at their shoes. The shoegazing sound featured extensive use of guitar effects, and indistinguishable vocal melodies that blended into the creative noise of the guitars. Few shoegazers were dynamic performers or interesting interviewees, which prevented them from breaking through into markets in the United States. A lump description given to shoegaze bands in London in the early 1990s was “The Scene That Celebrates Itself” In the 1990s, shoegaze groups were pushed aside by the likes of American grunge and Britpop, forcing bands to breakup or evolve into a different style. Recent times have seen a renewed interest in the genre, among so-called “nu-gaze” bands.

While the bands I have picked don’t belong to the original shoegazer movement, their sounds all borrow heavily from this style. From the heavily synthesized vocals, blending into the guitar fuzz, to the reverb of instruments sounding like they were played in a huge expanse… the main ingredient is major echo that gives the impression that the music is floating to you, maybe from a long way off. Also included, are bands that belong to the revival of psychedelic/freak-folk genres that blended the resurgently popular folk and shoegazer ideas.

1. “Untitled” – Interpol
2. “One More Robot/Sympathy 3000-21” – The Flaming Lips
3. “Brother” – Annuals
4. “Is There a Ghost” – Band of Horses
5. “Static Waves” – Pacific UV

All of these tracks are awesome, but my personal favorite is Static Waves by Pacific UV. Enjoy!

Pacific UV – Static Waves

February First, Two-Thousand and Eight

So here I have five songs to offer. I am finding it very hard to listen to and enjoy any other music right now. These are songs of therapy for me. There are two from Bleach, whom I have listened to since I was a young teenager. Bleach have always been a go-to band for me.

The list may be short but the last two songs are fairly lengthy so you will get your money’s worth.

The relevant track from this gift will be “Sufficient” by Bleach. I was thinking about bringing only this song but found solace in the four others also.

So roll down the window, stick your head out and let the warm breeze brush your face. My gift to The Collective is some summer love.

List of Songs to be found under the playlist: Summer Mix

1. Cat Stevens – The Wind
2. Elbow – Fugitive Motel
3. Band of Horses – Great Salt Lake
4. The Mamas and the Papas – California Dreamin’
5. Emeliana Torrini – Unemployed in Summertime
6. The Postal Service – The Dream of Evan and Chan
7. The Smashing Pumpkins – 1979
8. Arcade Fire – In the Backseat
9. Ryan Adams – New York, New York
10. The Smiths – There is a Light That Never Goes Out
11. M. Ward – Chinese Translation
12. Kate Bush – Cloudbusting
13. Radiohead – Subterranean Homesick Alien
14. Amy Winehouse – You Know I’m No Good
15. Modest Mouse – Dashboard
16. Bjork – All is Full Of Love
17. The Veils – Lavinia
18. David Grey – Sail Away
19. Vanessa Carlton – I’m The One

Featured songs:

Band of Horses – The Great Salt Lake

The Mamas and the Papas – California Dreamin

Radiohead – Subterranean Homesick Alien