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In a companion piece to the love flick 500 Days of Summer, director Marc Webb tapped into his creative juices and concoted a little romantic vignette for the starring duo Zooey Deschanel and Joseph Gordon-Levitt, set to She and Him’s minor hit “Why Do You Let Me Stay Here?” Naturally, I eat up anything Ms. Deschanel touches, and this was no exception. Enjoy.
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…as in, the one that isn’t absurdly dark and violent and must have been the Shakespearean equivalent to a baroque period. Titus Andronicus came out of nowhere in 2008 and delivered unto the underground world of music fuzzy guitars, a singer that couldn’t sing, and overall a band that sounded one martini away from keeling over. Yet, somehow, it all worked so well, everything meshed to create a fun sound that evoked a feeling that nobody could quite put their finger on yet. Enter “The Monitor,” just as fuzzy and drunk as their debut but with a more focused and lighthearted approach; with it, everyone realized it was a feeling reminiscent of the infantile punk rock scene of the 1980s, without being punk rock. Fun bleeds from every second of every song TA plays out, and losing oneself in the wave of it is all too easy. Listen to the sample track “Titus Andronicus Forever” at the top of the post, stream it on Myspace, or preorder the album here.
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Fang Island‘s new album has been described by band members themselves as “everyone high-fiving everyone.” Despite the fact that bands usually aren’t good at describing their own music (Tom Delonge repeatedly claiming his next AVA album would change the world comes to mind,) this is exactly what I’d liken the music to: a room of everyone just feeling good and handing out high-fives, pardon the pun. Arguably the first sleeper hit of the year, “Fang Island” takes everything right about The Postal Service and Japandroids and smashes it together into one; is that not a recipe for an awesome sandwich with a side of hipster? Pick it up here.
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Ah, the post-Valentine blues. Don’t act like they haven’t hung over your head one year or another; the feeling of solitude and heartache only such a pseudo-holiday can bring. Yet, as the old saying goes, misery loves company, and boy, does As Tall as Lions songwriter Dan Nigro make good company. The band’s early self-titled release chronicles not a budding romance or a messy courtship, but the ruinous aftermath of a naïve but fiery love’s thrashing.
We start out in the midst of an already-tumultuous relationship, rang in with a forceful beat behind Stab City. Such vigor seems to flow through the first half of the album, in the somewhat dainty Song about Luna, A Break A Pause’s caustic tongue-lashings, and the not-at-all-surprisingly impassioned Love Love Love. The appropriately haunting Ghosts of York meanders with an unsettling tone behind its story of a slow downward spiral, which follows through the second half of the album as its theme. At least, until the end; Maybe I’m Just Tired culminates such a twisted trip perfectly, juxtaposing the very dreamlike echoes and chimes with a somber piano and Dan’s hurt, longing voice. Chills still creep down my back whenever I hear the closing line, “But I know I’m not good enough, for you.”
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Lucio Leone’s a downstate New York guy living in the upstate, as a Communications undergrad at Cornell. Radio-staffer, Lighthouses Rule author, and chili fan alike, he covers music and miscellaneous for A&V.
Since Valentine’s Day is just on the far side of the weekend and its magical scent of heartwarming commercialism and “desperate-to-get-laid” is dancing on the air, I figured the time had come to pop in the eternally perfect love compilation, The Magnetic Fields’ 69 Love Songs. On searching the Googleweb for it (my copy’s…gone,) I came across How Fucking Romantic, a blog with an idyllic purpose: to collaboratively illustrate the entirety of the three-disc set. Needless to say, it’s my new favorite site to check, at least for the next few days.
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