Friday, February 9, 2007

Great Songs With Piano and pre-song Chatter

I was gonna post about these two songs in two separate posts, but then I decided to tie them together for three reasons: 1) Both songs rely heavily on the piano, and both feature pre-song studio chatter, which sounds really edgy and authentic. 2) Both songs fit into the same genre, namely what my buddy Alan likes to call "Sad Bastard Music," which I suppose is all I really listen to. 3) I didn't really feel like posting twice.

The first song was actually recommended to me by said buddy Alan, and the artist is Joe Purdy. Now, Purdy is not actually a new artist (by my count he's come out with seven albums), but he's new to me, and I enjoy his tunes a great deal. His sound of both his music and voice reminds me of Adam Duritz of Counting Crows, though his sound is a little less poppy (This is not a Counting Crows knock...I'm a huge fan), and is more basic folk. The album that I bought is titled You Can Tell Georgia, which is not his latest, but I bought it because I had heard a track from it called Can't Get It Right Today. Part of the song’s beauty comes from its simplicity; it’s just a stripped down, slow-paced folk/rock song, where the chord progressions stay the same be it in the verse or the chorus; with the obligatory mandolin solo thrown in there (any song with a mandolin is okay by me). The pre-song chatter is very entertaining if you listen to it enough (which I have) because you can sense how annoyed Purdy is getting by the mandolinist's (is that a word?) questions. I give the entire album my recommendation, with other stand-out tracks being "You Can Tell Georgia," and "Balcony/Green Eyes" ("Green Eyes" is basically the exact same song as Bright Eyes'
"Land-locked Blues," only with different lyrics and without the EmmyLou Harris accompaniment. Not sure who ripped off who here, but "Land-locked Blues" is by far the better track.)

The second track is by a band called Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin. I like the general feel I get from this band with their humorous name and their website's proclamation that they are the "the third best band on Wheeler Street in Springfield, Missouri. Great stuff. Also, their last tour was with a band named Harry and the Potters...also funny. I also like some of their catchy melodies on the album that I bought after a recommendation from Men's Health of all places, titled Broom. The stand-out track, in my opinion, is one with piano and pre-song chatter called "What'll We Do." The song, again, features a pretty piano bit, and soft harmonies that seem to be sung by about five different people. Anyways, I enjoy listening to it, and I think you will too.

But what do I know, I also like Matchbox 20.