Monday, March 16, 2009
Monday Music #11 (Mia Vigar, Sarah Rabdau, and Cathy Davey)
I'm not a background-music kind of person. If I'm listening to something, I spin stories out of it and into it. And I know something isn't to my taste if I'm unable to do that. It'll slip right through my ears without my mind noticing. In other words, it's placid.
I very rarely use that word as a compliment. Merriam-Webster defines it as "serenely free of interruption or disturbance." This is a great schema for relaxation, but not so much for music. I like interruption and disturbance. I like songs that, if placed into the background even for a second, kick and claw their way back into the forefront.
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You cannot say Mia Vigar is placid. You just can't. Maybe if you haven't listened to her music and just parse your first impressions by singer-songwriter stereotypes and the current SSA baby-names list, but the former has been discredited about a thousand times if you look, and the latter is the very definition of "don't judge a book by its cover."
"Soothsayer" is explosive. It's not hyperbole in this case - this is about twenty kinds of crashing, shouting, and careening. There aren't lyrics, just the aforementioned shouts. That isn't hyperbole either. The vocals are screamed, yelped, sometimes sounding like guitars, sometimes like a crime scene.
This might seem a bit surprising at first, if you go by titles. "Soothsayer" suggests spoken truth, and truth that is, well, soothing. Just the sound of it - those soothing 'oo's - suggests closed eyes, arms held out, and Truth gliding over the listener like a salve. Truth doesn't always work that way, though. Oracles are sometimes loud. And a person who knows the future would be just as likely to sound like this.
I like it, any rate. But if that isn't to your taste, you'd probably like "I Dare You" better. It's one of those retro-pop songs which almost everyone seems to be doing - but not quite. It's as if someone like Kristeen Young was told to sing one of them and decided to mess with it any way she could: prickly, almost spoken-word vocals which, at times, seem to run out of their lines, a grumbly guitar part that wanders in and out periodically, various little touches in the background. And they all work. They make it not-quite-finished, a little off, but compelling. Not placid.
Listen here.
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If you'll allow me to be inconsistent for a second, I'm going to start judging books by their covers and say that someone whose band is called the Self-Employed Assassins isn't likely to be very placid. And indeed, Sarah Rabdau isn't.
She's got plenty of songs up on her Myspace. My favorite - and this shouldn't be surprising, considering the theme - is "Riots and Revolutions." Everything about it is completely on. The vocals and piano surge wonderfully, as do the drums, from first appearance to when they bunch up at the end. It's perfectly constructed and in no way placid.
Listen here.
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Cathy Davey wouldn't have made it onto my list of all-time favorite musicians if she was placid. So naturally I was overjoyed when I read she was working on a new album. On her Myspace, she writes: "I have a feeling it will be a far more rounded child who is good at interacting with others and has better manners, but not so confident as to be petulant or talk back. No. This will be a Victorian child who makes hand crafted presents for you and who enjoys sharing sweets with others."
This still doesn't mean placid. There are two demos out, and they're already wonderful. Her singing's better and more confident than ever, and - personal bias, but still - I love fairy tale themes, so songs like "Little Red" are already aimed squarely at me, it seems.
The child she mentions might not be petulant or talk back, but maybe she'll go off exploring the rooms of the house when the grownups aren't looking. Or maybe not. There are more demos and an interview coming in the next few days. I can't wait to find out.
Listen and download here.
1 comments:
thanks for writing about the song. Glad you liked 'Riots'.
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