Clap Your Hands Say Yeah

As the tenth anniversary approaches for one of my favorite band's debut album, I thought it no better time than to write about it. As obscure as they come, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah came on the scene with their self-titled album in 2005. A raw, gritty, country twang overlapped with acoustic indie guitar riffs, CYHSY paved the way for folk/rock acts like Band of Horses and My Morning Jacket. And although they never had quite the following as those other two acts, they still remain a hidden gem amongst the depths of the indie scene.
Clap Your Hands Say Yeah opens with the jumpy rhythm of a carnival organ, Alec Ounsworth's bright vocals inviting you to "clap your hands" as the notes chop away. It's a short ditty that leads into "Let the Cool Goddess Rust Away," a better testament to what the album actually sounds like. The song is easy and calming, fast but not upbeat. Perfect for a Sunday afternoon, as is the whole record.
And as the album rolls along like a good road trip, at first it's hard to overcome Alec's strange tone quality. The music is like warm water, that his voice cuts through like ice, and although I'm probably making this sound like it's a bad thing, it's what makes their music so memorable and interesting. And it's what drew me to their sound in the first place, besides the obvious fact that Daniel Radcliffe liked them, and of course at the ripe young age of 15 I had to like everything he did, so that when we met, he would think I was cool.
It's the perfect summer album, casual, reminds you of farms, ya know, and it flows altogether like one giant song broken up into 12 movements. Some just instrumental like "Sunshine & Clouds (And Everything Proud)," that sounds like children laughing, and some like "Heavy Metal," the most upbeat, catchy and standout song on the album.
Clap Your Hands Say Yeah is about as country as I get, they use just the right amount of harmonica, and I don't mind Alec's drawl when it's backed by guitars that don't twang. Like Zero 7 on of my previous posts, they are one of those bands that sound nothing like anything else I own, and they are perfect for when I crave that variety. (And no one has usually ever heard of them so they are awesome when you're trying to out-hipster someone, you're welcome.)
Obviously in the three albums that have come out by them since, their sound has grown and they've experimented, especially on their second album, the electronic Some Loud Thunder. They actually released their fourth album Only Run, last June and it featured a melting pot of their first three albums, even a collaboration with The National's Matt Berninger, on it. (That song is called "Coming Down" and it's awesome, by the way.)
But despite of their growth, I will always hold a fond nostalgia for the self-titled. None of their other albums quite grasps the flow and warmth that makes up that record. Right now the band is on tour celebrating the tenth anniversary of it. I don't think they're coming anywhere near St. Louis, so sadly I probably won't catch it, but they are printing the album on vinyl for it, and you know I'm going to be making a trip to the record store for that. Because let's face it, I actually live at the record store. What?

Songs that will make me sound cool to Daniel Radcliffe:
Let The Cool Goddess Rust Away
Over and Over Again (Lost & Found)
The Skin of My Yellow Country Teeth
Heavy Metal
Blue Turning Grey
In This Home on Ice
Gimmie Some Salt

Sufjan Stevens

Monday was no ordinary Monday. Instead being terrible like it usually is, Monday, April the 20th brought a lot of good things: a visit from my boyfriend and a Sufjan Stevens concert at the Peabody Opera House. Now, I don't honestly listen to him that much, I know, I know. Blasphemy. But it's not for lack of not wanting to, I just never got around to it. I know how legendary he is, however, so I bought tickets because, well why not? He was half an hour away.
As we raced to the show, I got more and more excited. Partly out of actual excitement, and partly because we weren't sure whether the tiny etched "7:00" on the ticket meant doors or "7:00" meant Cold Specs, the band that was planned to open the show. And as we pulled up, and got a pretty good parking spot for downtown St. Louis, if I do say so myself, the general assessment was that we hadn't missed a thing.
We took our seats in the beautiful opera house, hipster kids surrounding us in waves of facial hair and thrift store outfits, and as I looked up at the dome of the theatre, and its bear emblem traced in white light, the auditorium slowly faded to black and a man with a blue cap stuck in his back pocket walked solitarily to the piano. As he started to play three chords in a slow and steady rhythm, more people walked to the stage and the sound grew and grew. When it reached its peak, the man slowly got up from the piano and walked to the front of the stage, grabbed his guitar and at the very peak of the sound, everything grew quiet and he played an intricate picking melody.
Suddenly, high definition screens in a pattern of elongated hexagons behind them began to show home movies and my first two thoughts were, "wow, that is quite the elaborate set for the opening band," and "wow, that guy is immensely good at guitar for the opening band."
When he opened his mouth that's when I knew, well after "wow, that guy sounds exactly like Sufjan Stevens." Apparently "7:00" had meant the beginning of the show and we had completely missed Cold Specs. Sorry Cold Specs! I'm sure you were great.
Having only heard about two songs off of his new album, Carrie & Lowell, I had no idea what the show would be like. We all sat in our seats and Sufjan never spoke to us, it was more of a performance than a concert. But it worked. His soft melodies and acoustic rhythms were more for sitting than for dancing. The one time it got a little upbeat was when he did an electronic version of "All of Me Wants All of You," which I wish was a version I could buy because it was spectacular.
He played the new album, almost entirely in order. Once he had finished playing most of the album, he finally spoke to us and gave a long prayer about how death will occupy all of us, and to live each day fully alive. After, he played a few beautiful songs from Illinois and Michigan and then started what would be the initial finale of the show. The song had no lyrics, but started out slow, and pulsed almost like breath. Disco balls slowly lowered and the screens in the back started emitting rainbow colors that faded in and out. About every minute the song grew faster and faster and built and built until the entire theatre was a swarm of sound, light and color. It was almost overwhelming, but such an experience, and so different than the memoir we had just listened to. As the song eventually ebbed, the band stopped playing and waved goodbye. We all stood up and didn't stop clapping and cheering until he came out again, to play a four part encore.
Throughout the entire set, what amazed me the most was how accurate and perfect his performance was. It sounded so similar to the recordings, it was almost unnerving, but it was all live.
Two hours after the man with the cap sat at the piano to play those first three haunting chords, Sufjan thanked the crowd and returned to his spot at the piano. The first three chords he played now were ones that everyone knew, even me! As the band jumped into "Chicago," the entire place cheered and sang along, much more willing, now that the songs weren't so delicate. And after a second standing ovation Sufjan and co. walked modestly off the stage.
If you have a chance to see him on this tour, I would highly recommend it. He is truly one of the most talented and interesting performers I've ever had the pleasure of viewing. So do it! And get his new album too, and all of his other ones, because, you'll all be proud of me, I've been listening to him just about nonstop ever since, and they're all amazing.
SO DO IT.

Until next week, peeps.

Zero 7

The first time I heard Zero 7 was probably when the majority of the population did, as we watched Garden State. The jazzy, yet mellow "In The Waiting Line," gave the perfect backdrop for the drug ridden scene that Zach Braff presents in his film; the song almost psychedelic, but with feet planted firmly on the ground. It was quickly after that I picked up two of their albums, When It Falls and The Garden.

Zero 7, made up of two Brits, Henry Binns and Sam Hardaker, and a smattering of guest performers, make jazz electronica a thing, and a thing we didn't know we were missing. Their album When It Falls, more electronic, goes back and forth between soft acoustic/synth ballads and upbeat instrumental orchestrations that would have just been hindered with words. No two songs sound the same, but the sound never changes. (Believe me, it's great driving music.)

Their album The Garden, is probably their most upbeat and whole. The jazz influence is most evident on this one with many big band sounds and arrangements. It also has the most impressive vocal lineup of their discography, pulling in acts like Jose Gonzalez and Sia Furler, better known now as the masked pop diva, Sia. Her unique vocals give Zero 7 the powerful balance that the instrumentation needs to be complete. Instantly recognizable, her voice almost fits better with a jazz band behind her than a pop synth group, which is more of her style now. She is still equally as impressive in her new endeavors, however.

While Sia sings a few tracks on When It Falls, one being the better known "Speed Dial No. 2," most of the female vocals are done by Sophie Barker and Tina Dico, their voices floating above the softness of the melody underneath them with a light and airy tone, a little more fitting than Furler's, for the mellow album.

Aside from the vocals, part of the reason Zero 7 are so impressive are for their instrumentations and the arrangements they have on the album without vocals. To this day, they are like no other group that I listen to, or have heard of. It's like a great movie soundtrack that you actually want to listen to without context of a scene in front of it. The duo actually formed an experimental instrumental project called Ingrid Eto after their release of The Garden, and before they made their fourth album Yeah Ghost. It would definitely be worth taking a listen to.

That being said, if you need something to help you get to sleep or space out tonight, I would highly recommend soothing your soul with this group. In the meantime, I have two more albums by them that I need to pick up, and I'm sure they are super rare and hard to find. (If you guys ever see any of their vinyl, please let me know.) Happy hunting!



Songs to drive to:
Home
Passing By
When It Falls
The Space Between
Speed Dial No. 2
Throw It All It Away
The Pageant of the Bizarre
You're My Flame
This Fine Social Scene
Your Place
Crosses
Waiting To Die

Wednesday

So this week is a busy one for me, trying to get everything together for my move this Saturday. And apart from learning the sad fact that the new Maccabees album doesn't come out until August, I made a playlist to get me through the rest of the week. Feel free to peruse and utilize at will, and don't judge the guilty pleasures.

Wednesday

1. David Byrne & St. Vincent - Who

2. Deep Sea Diver - Always Waiting

3. Feist - My Moon My Man

4. The Elwins - Off The Wall

5. Calvin Harris - Pray To God (Feat. Haim)

6. The Maccabees - Marks To Prove It

7. Cub Scouts - Do You Hear

8. Friendly Fires - White Diamonds

9. Little Comets - A Little Opus

10. Peter, Bjorn & John - I Know You Don't Love Me

11. Washed Out - Don't Give Up

12. Phoenix - If I Ever Feel Better

13. The Strokes - The End Has No End

14. The Temper Trap - Rest

15. The Answering Machine - Cliffer

16. The Decemberists - The Perfect Crime #2

17. Yellow Ostrich - WHALE

18. Young The Giant - Eros

19. Zero 7 - The Space Between

20. The Antlers - Hotel

21. St. Vincent - Human Racing

22. Here We Go Magic - A Different Ship

Julian Casablancas + The Voidz

Sorry I missed last week! Last Wednesday night I found myself watching a hilarious movie by the name of What We Do In The Shadows. Everyone needs to see it. Seriously, we laughed literally the entire movie. But I'm back now and super excited to write this week's post.

Since The Strokes are my favorite band, of course I'm going to think that anything Julian Casablancas does is brilliant. This record is no exception, and quite possibly his masterpiece. I really do feel that Tyranny is the record he's been wanting to write his entire career. Quite the collage of sound, the record rollicks from quick synth beats, to harsh guitar, to the sounds of old radio shows, a lot of the time in the same track. Fans of his first solo album, Phrazes For The Young, this record is not that endeavor.

Truth be told, this record isn't quite as solo as his previous project. Teaming with the group The Voidz, he creates a sound much harder than The Strokes, much more complicated and political, but with the same guitar styles that I truly think make up my soul's sound. The two tracks that strike a resemblance to The Strokes would have to be the album's hauntingly beautiful, 11-minute first single "Human Sadness," and the dance-y "Dare I Care," which is my personal favorite from the album.

As one of my friend's frankly put it, as we listened to the album in my car one day, "it doesn't really make sense." And if we're going to be honest, sometimes it doesn't. The guitar will be playing a melody completely erroneous to what's under it. "Human Sadness" is a symphony, going through different movements of sound to come full circle to a quiet end, but shaking you up along the way. And while I love it, many people criticized it when it came out. Personally, I just think he created a record a few years ahead of its time.

I was fortunate enough to hear them play live at Governor's Ball. I didn't know what I would expect, but I hoped he would come out with a blazing "11th Dimension." The show we saw was quite different. Since he was with The Voidz, he didn't touch anything from his previous record, and this was before Tyranny came out, so I stood there in New York City, amongst the biggest Strokes fans in the world, and no one knew a single word or a single note that any of them played. I vaguely remember them playing "Where No Eagles Fly." I mean, the chorus is Julian yelling "meat, predators eat meat!" It doesn't just leave your head. But, oh, how I wish I could hear it again now that I know the album.

Tyranny is an electronic whirlwind, and not one for the weak hearted or lover of dance beats. Take "Father Electricity," for example. The song is a ball of energy, almost seeming to stimulate all five of the senses, but it doesn't lack musicality or catch. It layers rock synths over African drums, and it does it well. And personally I believe that "Xerox" actually sounds like a xerox machine. If that's what they were going for, then they nailed it.

My personal goal is to learn most of the words to the album, but it's a doozy. Julian is famous for his muffled vocals and forgetting the words onstage in his performances, but you literally can't understand a single word he says on this album. I've even tried following the official lyrics and I'm not convinced he's actually saying some of the things I'm reading. But the vocals just blend in with the tumult of sounds and act as the roof to hold all of them in.

Julian strove for perfection on this record, and you can tell. Every song is like a puzzle piece with nothing out of place. From start to finish, the album is long, but you don't want it to end. It just makes me so excited about what he can do next.

"Beyond all ideas of right and wrong, there is a field, I will be meeting you there."

Songs that sound like my soul:

Take Me In Your Army
Human Sadness
Father Electricity
Johan Von Bronx
Dare I Care
Nintendo Blood