Posts tagged sharon van etten
Q1: Important Songs
2012 is 25% complete and I’ve managed to scrounge up a lovely baker’s dozen. Just nine more months before 2013 engulfs this beautiful mess.
January 01, 2012: Kathleen Edwards “Change the Sheets”
January 08, 2012: Blaudzen “Le Chant De Cigales”
January 15, 2012: Laura Gibson “Skin, Warming Skin”
January 22, 2012: Sharon Van Etten “Serpents”
January 29, 2012: Hospitality “Liberal Arts”
February 05, 2012: Damien Jurado “Museum Of Flight”
February 12, 2012: Cate Le Bon “Ploughing Out, Part 1”
February 19, 2012: Bowerbirds “Tuck the Darkness In”
February 26, 2012: Y La Bamba “Houghson Boys”
March 04, 2012: Fanfarlo “Lens Life”
March 11, 2012: Grimes “Oblivion”
March 18, 2012: Alex Winston “Locomotive”
March 25, 2012: Yukon Blonde “My Girl”
Sharon Van Etten
Sharon Van Etten’s upcoming release, Tramp, is truly remarkable. Believe it or not, there are songs on this records that I love even more than this one but I don’t want to spoil the surprise. Get it now. Only some sort of fucked up 2012 miracle could knock this record out of my top five. It is perfection.
“It was a close call sitting in the back of the room with a boy, knew it all but they didn’t know. Closing on my black eye feels safe at times, certain emblems tell me it’s time. Serpents in my mind, looking for your crimes, everything changes, I don’t want mine to this time. You enjoy sucking on dreams so I will fall asleep with someone other than you. I had a thought you would take me seriously and listen up. Serpents in my mind, I am searching for your crimes, everything changes in time. You’ll stay frozen in time collaging girls, controlling minds, you hold a mirror up to every body else. Serpents in my mind, trying to forgive your crimes, everyone changes in time. I hope he changes this time.”
Photo by: Dusdin Condren
Little Scream
Little Scream: The Heron and the Fox
Laurel Sprengelmeyer came to the moniker Little Scream while in Montreal, by way of the Mississippi River banks. “The Heron and the Fox” reads as a miniature tale of regret in which she observes those who have lost and remembers what she’d like to return to. Accompanied by a collage of delicate guitars and orchestral palpitations she’s bound to make you forget what was so worrisome, at least for a short while.
Her debut full length, The Golden Record, is due out April 12, 2011 on Secretly Canadian. She’s all set to hit the road in the Spring with Sharon Van Etten (including a stop at the Doug Fir, oh my, I’m excited).
“Stranded in a snow storm in a town you forgot I take advantage of a warm car and I reassess my life. So many years I’ve given up and now my years seem shot. I take my place among the truckers and I show ‘em what I got. I told the striper at the bar that the shots we got were magic, make a wish and it’ll come true. As she smiled her golden tooth glinted in the light and I wondered what she wished for, I just wished for you. They say everything is possible but I know that it’s not true, especially not when it comes to you. Oh, I don’t know who I am and I don’t know what I’ll be. Feels like I’m stranded in an ocean of clear uncertainty. Wish I could conjure up the chutes and ladders to bring me back to the place before I ran away and finally lost my tracks. Oh, that magic curtain canyon where lovers dreams came by is like a drive in movie screen that is pressed against the sky. All those pictures float, they’re happy just for a little while before they’re swallowed up in the vastness of the open night. Dream in colors, red and gold, dream and colors run right through. Oh, Caroline as my witness I never meant to cause you pain. And sweet, sweet forgiveness, you can go back but it’s never the same. Oh, I’ll give you all the color that are left here in my box if you would drive a picture into which we could both draw and you would be the heron and I would be the fox and you would fly above me, hoorah.”
Best Records of 2010 - A Top Ten
This year, most than ever, the criteria I used for selecting my ten favorites revolved around whether I liked to listen to the album all the way through. If the album had a few wonderful tracks in the start and bored me by the middle it didn’t make the cut.
In a world of music that revolves around singles and mp3 download-ables I sort of wonder how much attention is paid to the full album experience any more, or further, whether there will be much of a point to releasing anything longer than an EP in a few years. Regardless of what direction the music world as a whole takes there’s something to be said for albums that are enjoyed from first to last whisper and here are the ones I enjoyed the most this year…
10.
The Thermals - Personal Life [link]
“I’m gonna change your life. I’m gonna steal your soul. I’ll keep you warm at night. I’ll leave you in the cold. I’m gonna change your life. I’m gonna leave my mark. We can lie in the light. We can wander in the dark.”
The Thermals got personal just in time. The simplicity and insight of this record won me over and kept me company all year long.
KEY TRACKS: “Never Listen To Me”, “Not Like Any Other Feeling”, “A Reflection”
09.
Best Coast - Crazy For You [link]
“I wish he was my boyfriend. I wish he was my boyfriend. I’d love him ‘til the very end but instead he is just a friend. I wish he was my boyfriend. There’s nothing worse than sitting all alone when I’m at home waitin’ by the phone.”
It’s not that she’s that shallow, it’s that she’s that wonderful at saying things so many of us think about love in a succinct way to a catchy melody.
KEY TRACKS: “Crazy”, “Goodbye”, “Bratty B”
08.
The Mynabirds - What We Lose In The Fire [link]
“We are ships on the ocean passing on our way back home. We collide for a minute and we move on. But I got something I don’t wanna lose. I’m not ready to leave you. We are born from each other then we find our way back home. Every road seems familiar, we’re just remembering where to go.”
Lisa Burhenn has created an album that simply haunts me. The soul, the feeling, the melody, the imagery, all of it. I just love hearing it.
KEY TRACKS: “Numbers Don’t Lie”, “Ways Of Looking”, “Wash It Out”
07.
The Love Language - Libraries [link]
“A season for the both of us, a reason that rose off the coffin, blown wishes off the dandelion, the truth is all these changes take time. I had you with broken arms, competition has lost its charm, smoke signals blur the new frontier, loud whispers are the hardest to hear.”
This man does new-oldies right and I when I hear this record I want to scream along in my fake-singing voice while grinning carelessly and that is a good time!
KEY TRACKS: “Pedals”, “Summer Dust”, “Heart To Tell”
06.
Delta Spirit - History From Below [link]
“Say good morning to my friends, oh my lord it’s six am. The day ain’t nothing but a sentence paid, you work so hard and nothing changed. The union crooks treat me like a pawn they said to strike and I lost my job.”
This record has got a lot of heart. It’s got heart to spare. It fills hearts up when they’re half empty. Yes it do.
KEY TRACKS: “Bushwick Blues”, “Vivian”, “St. Francis”
05.
The Walkmen - Lisbon [link]
“You’re someone else tomorrow night, doesn’t matter to me cause as the sun dies into the hill, you got all I need. You pulled the blanket across my eyes, it’s a tragedy. Take a lonely look from my side, it’s a tragedy.”
This band has a sound and attitude all their own and with this album they returned to what made me love them in the first place, back when I heard “Everyone Who Pretended To Like Me Is Gone” for the first time.
KEY TRACKS: “Juvenilles”, “Blue As Your Blood”, “Stranded”
04.
Beach House - Teen Dream [link]
“You know you’re gold, you don’t gotta worry none. Oasis child, born so wild, don’t I know you better than the rest? All deception, all deception from you.”
Everywhere you read, it’s the groan and growl of Victoria Legrand that makes this band so special and those writers are right. But honestly, it’s the key change in Zebra that first had me hooked. It’s just so… emotional.
KEY TRACKS: “Zebra”, “Used To Be”, “Better Times”
03.
The Tallest Man On Earth - The Wild Hunt [link]
“There’s a crow moon coming in well you keep looking out. It is the hollow month of March now sweepin’ in. Let’s watch phenomenon’s that rise out of the darkness now within the light she is my storming heroin.”
It’s the polarizing voice. No, it’s the guitar. No, it’s the metaphor that’s destined to be dissected in tenth grade english classes led by hip teachers everywhere. It all just comes together so beautifully. It’s remarkable, really.
KEY TRACKS: “Burden Of Tomorrow”, “King Of Spain”, “Love Is All”
02.
Sharon Van Etten - Epic [link]
“To say the things I want to say to you would be a crime, to admit I’m still in love with you after all this time, I’d rather let you touch my arm until you die. Seduce me with your charms until I’m drunk on them go home and drink in bed and never let myself be in love like that again.”
This record is other side of love coin opposite Best Coast’s childish rants. Sharon speaks to the depth and passion of heart break. She negotiates with herself. On Epic, she’s honest, hurt, human and exposed.
KEY TRACKS: “A Crime”, “One Day”, “Love More”
01.
Joanna Newsom - Have One On Me [link]
“Easy, easy, my man and me we could rest and remain here easily. We are tested and pained by what’s beyond our bed; we are blessed and sustained by what’s not said.”
To say I love this album is simply not enough. I’d like to crawl into this world she’s created and live in it, some days I feel like I already do.
KEY TRACKS: “On A Good Day”, “Esme”, “Soft As Chalk”
11/12/10: Doug Fir Lounge
By a twist of fate and little bit of self-promotion I spent Friday evening at Doug Fir Lounge shooting the remarkable Sharon Van Etten and the steady Junip for the Portland Mercury’s music blog, End Hits.
Sharon’s set was fantastic! There’s nothing better than seeing an artist perform just before they realize exactly how well things are going. She sings with ease and emotion making those songs look easy but when you listen to the record you realize songs like that don’t come easily. You know what leads to songs like that? A super heartbreaking year. Wonderfully though, she’s rising to the occasion and people are taking notice.
Junip was, you know, fine.
More photos here, like always.
