The Wheel's Still In Spin

Noah and the Whale – Peaceful, The World Lays Me Down

Original Release Date: 16 September 2008 (Cherrytree Records)

Download “5 Years Time” (mp3)
Download “2 Bodies 1 Heart” (mp3)

As I walked to the first class of my second semester, International Sign Language 101, I had my ear buds in place. I was lost in my own world. In the five minutes it took to walk across campus, I began listening to the newest obsession on my iPod – Peaceful, The World Lays Me Down by Noah and the Whale.

The album opens with the wavering tone of a harmonium and the fade in of a distant sounding, face paced acoustic guitar riff. After a few finger snaps in beat, the atmospheric introductory music cuts away and Charlie Fink’s voice and guitar are front and center. “2 Atoms in a Molecule” begins with Fink retelling a dream of love. He imagines he and his lover “were inseparably entwined/ Like a piece of rope made out of two pieces of vine.” The full band kicks in and the singer awakes from his dream. He is alone. He laments about the pangs of love. And he asks, “If love is just a game, then how come it’s no fun?/ If love is juts a game, how come I’ve never won?”

I listened to these lyrical lines of lamentation about love and entered the classroom. I removed each ear bud and took a seat near the back of the room, where I usually sat on the first day of class. About two minutes before class began, in walked this woman with shoulder-length, coiled, raven hair. But this beautiful stranger was not the average unknown acquaintance. My crush for her began during my third week on campus.

I had noticed her in the dining hall. A couple times a week, we both ate a few meals at the same time. The first time I saw her, she appeared as an unattainable, attractive woman. From afar, I fantasized about her, but never had the courage to actually speak to her.

Hayes Carll – Trouble in Mind

Original release date: 8 April 2008 (Lost Highway)

You can call Trouble in Mind an alt country album, or Americana, or folk rock. But whatever genre the album gets classified in, it was 2008’s best country release by a long shot. The strength of this set of songs is three-fold.

Carll’s songwriting is unmatched – the Americana Music Association named “She Left Me for Jesus” as Song of the Year for a reason.

The production is spotless. There are instances when the music slides away and an acoustic guitar or slide or rimshot fills the moment with perfectly precision.

Finally, the diversity of this album is not a common quality of modern country albums. “Bad Liver and a Broken Heart” has the alt country rock sound of a Jason & The Scorchers tune. “I Got a Gig” has a swampy, Creedence feel to it. “A Lover Like You” opens with a ragtime piano riff and could be mistaken for a mid-‘60s Dylan track. And Carll covers Tom Waits on “I Don’t Wanna Grow Up.”

The album moves through its themes like a night of hard drinking. It starts out on the high of a good buzz with strength and confidence. As the liquor keeps going down, some thoughts of depression and nostalgia may kick in, but you still feel confident and able. In the end, you’re still longing for love and still have your sense of humor.

Download “She Left Me for Jesus” (mp3)

A Colorful Night of Drinking

He gently closed the bedroom door and diligently worked his way into the kitchen with the slow tempo precision that the hangover allowed. Not knowing why he was awake so early, he still knew what he had to do. After drinking a glass of water, he preheated the oven to 400°. He then pressed play on the kitchen boombox as the oven warmed.

Scott needed music right now – something to take his throbbing mind of its trouncing. He set the volume a little lower than normal; partly because he couldn’t handle it being too loud, but also so as to not wake up Lisa. What came through those speakers, Hayes Carll’s Trouble in Mind, could perfectly explain the evening he had and why he was making breakfast.

Lemuria – Get Better

Original release date: 26 February 2008 (Asian Man Records)

Download “Pants” (mp3)
Download “Dog” and “Dogs” (mp3)

Love and Loss

I guess I never expected to stumble onto that baseball glove, but finding it instantly brought me to a standstill in the back of his closet. It had that distinctive scent of toughened leather. Old and worn, the mitt was stiff from decades of neglect. There was still a long forgotten ball in the web.

It triggered one of those happy memories that I needed. On those warmer nights, when he got home from work, we used to play catch in the backyard. This was just during the couple of years that I played little league. I was never good, at least not during games. My throws were always too short or off their target. I don’t think I actually ever caught a ball out in left field where they usually put me. And I only had two hits, both in the same game during my second and final season. But in the backyard, though, he made me the star. Every popup he threw landed in my glove; my diving catches looked graceful; my return throws thwacked into his mitt.

This moment of reverence quickly turned into an overwhelming feeling of preoccupation. It seemed things were not going my way lately. First, there was the most recent of my uneventful break-ups. Then, my dad. Here I was going through his closet, going through everything. I needed a drink. A drink and some music.

I knew where my dad kept the liquor. I poured some Jameson over ice cubes into a tumbler and put Get Better by Lemuria onto the stereo. The first track, “Pants,” opens with a slicing guitar riff. The opening lyrics of this album are addressed to a lover, but also speak to musicphiles like myself. “You never missed a word I tried to fit/ Inside a chorus, inside a verse, all my intros and the bridge.”

Thao With The Get Down Stay Down - We Brave Bee Stings And All

Original release date: 29 January 2008 (Kill Rock Stars)

Download “Beat (Health, Life And Fire)” (mp3)
Download “Bag Of Hammers” (mp3)

      Pick up your phone, fucking pick up your fucking phone. It isn’t panic. It isn’t shock. I can’t say I didn’t see this coming. I can’t say I somehow willed it upon myself. It doesn’t matter how much advance notice you get; when you’re forced to swallow shit, it won’t go down easy. Just answer your fucking phone.
      “Hello.”
      “I’m getting fired today.”
      She could hear the direct urgency in my voice. Still, she had to ask, “What? How are you so sure?”
      “Trust me. I don’t have much time to talk right now. I have a meeting with Drew and Rick scheduled just before the end of the day.”
      “And you’re sure that’s what it’s about?”
      “I called Susan and asked her if she knew why I suddenly had a meeting my editor and the CEO. Drew’s always harping on me, but why am I having a meeting with Rick too? She paused and then said she wasn’t supposed to talk to me. She said it wasn’t because of my writing. She couldn’t believe it was happening to me.”
      “OK. What do you need right now?”
      “I don’t know. I’m going to Louie’s for lunch. I’m taking a long lunch today. Can you leave work early? I can’t fucking believe this!”

      At Louie’s, I first heard Thao Nguyen’s We Brave Bee Stings And All. Honestly, at the time, I didn’t pay a lot of attention to it, but only because the day I was having. He had it playing when I got there. At least that’s what he said. Where my mind was, I don’t remember any music playing. Luckily, he gave me a copy of it before I left. When I think through the events of that day, the actions interplay with the songs.

Rocky Votolato - Makers

The content of this review was originally posted on the online music and popular culture magazine I See Sound on 16 Feb 2006.

Release Date: 24 Jan 2006 (Barsuk Records)

Download “Portland Is Leaving” (mp3)
Download “Tinfoil Hats” (mp3)

Alex, Kevin, and Josh were best friends in high school. Now, 14 years later, Alex was getting married. Kevin and Josh were back home together for the first time in years, and, in the interim, they’d both been through a lot of changes. While Alex stayed in touch with both of them, Kevin and Josh hadn’t talked to each other in quite a while.

When they were in high school, the three of them would often walk along the train tracks that cut across their small, midwestern town. Now, the night before Alex tied the knot, Kevin and Josh found themselves with a loss for things to do or to talk about. They’d been hanging out together for the past few days. There was Alex’s bachelor party. They’d been out almost every night they’d been back to their childhood hometown. However, when you’re back home in rural Indiana, you can only go out to the same few bars so many times before you get bored. So they started walking along those tracks again.

They’d forgotten a lot about the town in which they grew up. Kevin, on the other hand, had been living in Phoenix for about 2 years. He avoided settling down. He moved every couple of years. He regretted how most of his relationships floundered to an end. Josh was living in Boston because he had joint custody of his son with his ex-wife. He couldn’t move from that Massachusetts harbor town without giving up something he held as the most cherished part of his life. Walking on the gravel beside the railroad ties, they started talking about how the town had grown and changed.

“Did you ever think there’d be a Wal-Mart here?” and “Did you think that Hanson’s Hardware store would-a closed and a Lowe’s would’ve opened?” were types of questions that got the conversation started. Then the dialogue shifted to their memories of younger days.

Reliving some of the mishaps and adventures of being teenagers, Kevin, who’d been doing most of the talking, said, “This reminds me of a line from a song called ‘White Daisy Passion.’”

“That’s on Makers the new Rocky Votolato disc,” asked Josh, a little surprised.

Morningwood - Morningwood

The content of this review was originally posted on the online music and popular culture magazine I See Sound on 22 Jan 2006.

Release Date: 10 January 2006 (Capitol Records)

John walked into Used Discs with one CD in his hand. Once you get over 600 CDs, as John did about 3 years ago, you need to occasionally go through the collection and trade back a few. There are some albums you never listen to again. So John usually carries a small stack, 5 to 10 discs, into Used Discs because he’s purged his collection.

In his hand he had Morningwood’s self-titled disc.

Tom, the owner of Used Discs, welcomed John to the store. He was a little excited. If John was carrying only one disc that usually meant that he had discovered something new that Tom needed to hear. That would not be case today.

“What album is that?” Tom asked.

“A piece of crap,” replied John. “I don’t care if you won’t give me a cent for this album. I need to get rid of it. I was going to throw it away, but I figured you might give me something for it. I hate it, but I could see how someone might like it if they don’t care about good lyrics, like overly repetitive music, and enjoy bands that seem like they were packaged to make people think they’re more about getting laid than playing good music.”

“Wow. It’s that bad, huh?” Tom took the disc in his hand and was shocked by the shot of the band in sexed up prep school outfits.

The Elected - Sun, Sun, Sun

The content of this review was originally posted on the online music and popular culture magazine I See Sound on 16 Jan 2006.

Release Date: 24 January 2006 (Sub Pop)

Download “Not Going Home” (mp3)

He drew another drag from his Lucky Strike. Waldo the Clown was on a break and using this time to get as much nicotine from his filterless cigarettes as he could. It was going to be a long day. Waldo was performing at a 10-year-old’s birthday party. He’d arrived at 11 am and started by shaping balloon animals, throwing confetti, honking his clown horn, and general acting silly. Right now it was 1 in the afternoon and the birthday boy was opening presents. Waldo figured he had enough time to inhale at least 5 Lucky Strikes and today he needed each one of them. Then it would be another 2 or 3 hours of giggly antics before he could get back into The Clownmobile and drive home. It paid the bills and usually he liked the joy clowndome brought to other’s lives. Usually.

Last night he fell asleep listening to The Elected’s new CD, Sun, Sun, Sun. The Elected features Blake Stennett (Rilo Kiley guitarist and co-writer) on vocals, guitar and keyboards. Waldo started listening to the album, and once his thoughts wandering to his former girlfriend, he put the album on repeat and let the layered lushness put him to sleep. When things were good between Waldo and Julia, things couldn’t get any better. But when things took a turn for the worst, they hit bottom.

He woke up, put on his coats of clown makeup, painted a big red smile on his glum and reflective face, and slipped into his baggy, colorful outfit and oversized shoes. Then he started The Clownmobile (actually a station wagon painted in primary colors with “Waldo The Clown” on each side in bubble letters) and drove to little Stevie McManus’s 10th birthday party. When he was “on” he forgot about his life outside of clowning. Now that he was chain-smoking Lucky Strikes, he had some time to contemplate Julia and The Elected album.

Just like Waldo’s mood, Sun, Sun, Sun was full of emotional ups and downs. It had moments of overconfidence (“I can’t lose” repeating itself on “The Biggest Star”) mixed with desperation (“Would you come home, baby, if I take it all back” on “Fireflies in a Steel Mill”). This record has great country style rockers (“The Bank And Trust”), soul influenced tunes (“Old Times” and the long jam of “Biggest Star”), stripped down acoustic based songs (“Sun, Sun, Sun” and “Desiree”), and impressive love songs (“Beautiful Rainbow”).

Two Gallants - What The Toll Tells

The content of this review was originally posted on the online music and popular culture magazine I See Sound on 12 Jan 2006.

Release Date: 21 February 2006 (Saddle Creek Records)

Download “Las Cruces Jail” (mp3)
Download “Waves Of Grain” (mp3)

Rod heard about the Two Gallants’ What The Toll Tells while skiing at Arapahoe Basin. He always listens to his iPod the whole time down the hill. On the lifts, he would take a hit or two from his bowl, unless he was riding the chairlift with someone who might take offense to his drug use. Then he would just sit and listen to his iPod. On this ride to the top of the mountain for his final run of his day, he was sharing his pot with another ski bum. They started talking about the music to which Rod was listening and the conversation soon led to discussing different musical genres.

“We’ve been calling it Pulk.” Rod referred to the music he and Tad, his roommate, were recording in their living room back in Idaho Springs. They had a couple microphones always on stands next to the couch and a computer with a Digi002 ProTools setup. “It’s punk folk.”

“Like, what do you mean?” asked the ski bum.

“We’re trying to have the energy and rage of punk, but we want to stick to the intimacy of folk music and just use two acoustic guitars.”

“Cool, man. You should check out Two Gallants.”

The Hold Steady - Separation Sunday

The content of this review was originally posted on the online music and popular culture magazine I See Sound on 6 Jan 2006.

Release Date: 3 May 2005 (French Kiss Records)

I dated an intransigent Catholic girl once. She loved the religion for all its rituals and traditions. Both her parents were deacons and she planned on following in their footsteps. I didn’t have the same passion for Catholicism, or any form of Christianity. I’d go to church with her every Sunday, though. I would support her and her beliefs, even if they weren’t the same as mine. Ultimately, our spiritual differences were the reason we broke up. Last I heard, she had devoted her life to her religion, spending a year evangelizing around the country and eventually going back to school for it. I choose a different life.

The Hold Steady’s Separation Sunday is an allegorical drug story. It tells the tale of Holly’s resurrection to the Minneapolis scene. She was entwined with the same ceremonies and customs as my ex-girlfriend, but in a very different way. Holly, or Hallelujah as her parents named her, would skip CCD class to buy drugs. She drank, she inhaled, and she disappeared. She was born again and had multiple visions, sometimes of saints and sometimes just seeing double visions of her fucked up friends.

There is a complete cast of characters throughout this album, but they all are pieces in Holly’s story of reemergence. Some of them go on vision quests, some of them die, some of them gossip, but they usually have their stash in their socks and a party on their mind. They tell each other, “Hold your breath and I’ll dunk your head. When you wake up again. You’ll be high as hell and born again.”

Vampire Weekend - Vampire Weekend

Release Date: 29 January 2008 (XL)

Vampire Weekend's self titled debut was met with strong reviews when it came out. Finally, the album has been given the treatment of The Wheel's Still In Spin's short story review.

Missed Classes

Tom walked into the room, grabbed the blue marker and put another slash next to his name on the dry erase board. “48. Beat that.”

The contest started honorably. If they kept track of the number of classes they each skipped, they theorized, it would keep them from skipping too many classes. Consciously or guiltily, they would strive to do better by keeping a record of their missteps.

However, after the first few weeks of the quarter their admirable intentions quickly spiraled in the wrong direction. As Tom bragged about his the 48th missed class of the quarter, Philippe pointed out that his count was up to 53.

“Are you listening to this album again?” Tom asked to change the subject. Philippe and Micah gave a confident non-response to Tom’s question in an attempt to prove how rhetorical it was. They continued to play Halo 3 and ignore their classes and Tom’s entrance.

While Vampire Weekend’s self-titled debut has become over-saturated, it’s hard to deny its appealing quality. The album is loaded with melodic bass lines, syncopated rhythms, and alluring melodies. It is most often referred to as an Afrobeat influenced album, but there is more happening on this album. This modern college rock album is indie pop influenced by both African popular and Western classical music.