Today, it’s raining…

Today, the warm front has moved in and it has begun to rain.  Supposedly we are in for many days of rain.  I don’t mind that so much, as long as the weather doesn’t use up all it’s good storms in one fell swoop.

Anyways, the rain has made me glad of my new find.  Sigur Ros.  I know it’s not new to some people, but I have just discovered them.  I gave the album, Takk, a chance.  Takk is Icelandic for “thank you”.  I heartily extended that sentiment to the band.  My friend Michael was talking to me about the band and why I should check them out.  He said, when asked to describe the band, “Can I use the word Epic?”  Yes, Michael, that is exactly the right word.  This music is the soundtrack to life, dreams, and emotion.  You can’t understand the words, unless you speak fluent Icelandic.  However, I think words would be a hinderance to this band.  Their utterings sound just like vocalizations to me.  And that is what the music begs of you; a release.  So when Jon Por Birgisson (and forgive the fact that I don’t have Icelandic font) releases his voice, he does so as another layer of instrumentation over the music that is already penetrating your being.

I love Smashing Pumpkins and everything they did.  But I have to go on record as saying that Takk is everything Melancholy and the Infinite Sadness wanted to be when it grew up.  The expansiveness of this record is amazing.  I imagine that these guys opened a box of music from heaven, and were blessed with the God given talent of being able to harness the music and direct it in a way so that it could be brought here for us to have a sampling of glory before we reach that wonderful time that will be Heaven.  This is NOT to say they are a Christian band.  I just feel that this music has no other birth place than that.  I will definitely go back and study the back catalogue.  In the meantime…

It’s raining and my soul is soaring with Sigur Ros as the guide through the raindrops and into the sun that is obscured but glowing on top of the clouds…

My unquenchable thirst…

In my ever expanding library of music, I have added several more artists.  I will properly review them soon, but just to get some names out there I am hastily writing this post so you maybe can check them out for yourself.  I recommend going to pandora.com and plugging them in so you can hear a whole song by them.  If you go to amazon or iTunes or any such place, you’ll usually only get a 30 second clip.  Another reason I love pandora so much.  Without further ado, here is my list:

Iron & Wine – know I mentioned them before, but just putting the new stuff up here.

Elliot Smith – very moody.  I started with “Roman Candle”.

The Bats – Very “Byrds”-like.  I started with “At The National Grid”. I love Western Isles.

Great Lake Swimmers – I started with “Bodies and Minds”.  Imagine Nick Drake and My Morning Jacket spawning a child and you’ll understand GLS.

 

ok, that’s it for now.  Maybe one day I will sit down and do a grand opus of my musical journey.  Hey, after all this is my space; if nothing else, I’ll see how I’ve grown…hopefully.  Feel free to shoot new names my way that you feel fit these genres.  As the title says, my desire is unquenchable.

Iron & Wine

I am a rabid music lover.  Can anything more completely free our soul on this earth than music?  I believe that one day I will write the perfect tune to give thanks to my creator, but unfortunately I don’t think it will be on this earth.  I loved J.R.R. Tolkien’s “Silmarillion”.  His thoughts on the creation of that world involved all beings singing in harmony together.  The supreme creator gave the tune to the beings he created and they took it and added their touches so that the tune became even more and even greater than the original.  But then there came a dis-harmony.  A being wanted to create his own tune and that was not in keeping with the original tune.  It’s a fascinating read and take on creation as explained in the Bible.  If you subscribe to the biblical story, you can see how it is a great parallel to creation, God, Satan, and humans.

Anyways, that all said…I have discovered a new group.  Well really this guy is kind of a solo performer, but he employs other musicians so he goes by the name Iron & Wine.  Now, maybe I am slow to pick up on the scene, but this guy is fantastic!  The sound is everything I have ever dreamed of imitating or producing.  So this is my little plug for Sam Beam a.k.a. Iron & Wine. 

This is music to listen to on a screened in porch, alone on a daybead, while a soft rain falls in some trees, as you enjoy a good glass of wine at about 1:30 in the afternoon, so that when the cd finishes you can drift off to sleep only to awake at about 5pm on a gray evening as the rain is giving way to a fading sunset.  Does that sound like the perfect afternoon?  It does to me. 

Well, I hope you try him out, and that you enjoy him that much!  If you do, and if you want to hear Sam for free, plug him in at Pandora.com and have alisten to him and the genre that he hails from.  I think you’ll be happy before you know it.  Or if not happy, at least at some modicum of peace.

Patiently waiting for summer breezes,

Corey

pandora.com

For those who haven’t checked this out via my links or on their own, may I boldly suggest you do so.  As I am a music freak, I am constantly on the lookout for ways to find new music.  I HATE, and did I mention, HATE, the radio.  So don’t even bother asking or telling me about why I should listen for new stuff there.

So imagine my surprise at finding this little gem of a website, pandora.com .  What you do is type in your favorite band/group/artist and then it generates a “radio station” of music in the stylings of your favorite.  So for instance, I typed in Iron & Wine, and new favorite of mine and got a killer station from which I have discovered two new groups called Great Lake Swimmers, and The Bats.  Whenever I use “new”, I mean new to me.  The Bats have apparently been around for 23 years??????

So check out this website and if you feel so inclined pay a little money to help sponsor it.  I might one day when I get money to throw to good causes like this.  Until then I will enjoy the free service and reap the benefits of someone else’s genious.

C