Showoff: “Falling Star” (1999)
Chicago band Showoff have been called emo-core, pop punk, and a bubblegum version of Green Day. Whatever way you want to label them, this tune’s hard to get out of your head after a few listens. In a good way.
Art is the music we make from the bewildered cry of being alive. ~Maria Popova
02 Mar 2013 Leave a comment
in Songs You May Have Missed Tags: falling star, showoff
Showoff: “Falling Star” (1999)
Chicago band Showoff have been called emo-core, pop punk, and a bubblegum version of Green Day. Whatever way you want to label them, this tune’s hard to get out of your head after a few listens. In a good way.
02 Mar 2013 Leave a comment
in Songs You May Have Missed Tags: shook down, yuck
The prettiest, most restrained moment from Yuck’s debut album. This young band’s sound marks them as obvious descendants of the 90’s lo-fi indie rock of bands like Dinosaur Jr. But the gently melodic mope of this song also puts them into Teenage Fanclub territory.
A nice song for making breakfast, relaxing with a chai, or to fall in love to. Whatever’s your poison.
01 Mar 2013 Leave a comment
in Video of the Week Tags: born and raised, david a. smith, john mayer
(Reprinted from Open Culture)
This eighteen minute documentary takes you inside the work of David A. Smith, an English artist who specializes in “high-quality ornamental hand-crafted reverse glass signs and decorative silvered and gilded mirrors.” (Got that? You may want to read that last part again.) In something of a departure from earlier projects, Smith designed an ornate “turn-of-the-century, trade-card styled album cover” for John Mayer’s album Born & Raised. His work is meticulous and exacting. And this “Behind The Scenes” film, complete with commentary from Mayer and Smith, captures the artist’s process in loving detail. Now please sit back and enjoy.
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The music of Mayer’s album is a perfect match for the art of Mr. Smith, and makes a great soundtrack for the film depicting his antiquated craft. If Mayer is smart he’ll keep this artisan on retainer and give all his future albums an unmistakable trademark style, as Yes did with Roger Dean and the Moody Blues with Phil Travers. That said I hope the job pays well; I can’t imagine many album covers have required more hours of painstaking work than this one did.
01 Mar 2013 Leave a comment
in Songs You May Have Missed Tags: over joy, steven page
Steven Page: “Over Joy” (2010)
Lest you dispute Steven Page’s credentials as perhaps pop’s most skilled purveyor of “dark bubblegum” since ABBA, check out “Over Joy” which might be the snappiest song about depression I’ve ever heard.
See also: https://edcyphers.com/2012/02/20/songs-you-may-have-missed-17/
See also: https://edcyphers.com/2016/04/07/songs-you-may-have-missed-581/
01 Mar 2013 Leave a comment
in Songs You May Have Missed Tags: clever girls like clever boys much more than clever boys like clever girls, pelle carlberg
Pelle Carlberg: “Clever Girls Like Clever Boys Much More Than Clever Boys Like Clever Girls” (2007)
Swede Pelle Carlberg has stumbled onto a general truth here: girls and guys are screening for slightly different things in the opposite sex. As entertainingly as he puts his idea across you’d think he’d have found a way to shorten the title.
See also: https://edcyphers.com/2012/02/27/songs-you-may-have-missed-29/
See also: https://edcyphers.com/2012/10/09/recommended-albums-26/