A Small Good Thing - Into Flight

This track is one of the nicer pieces of ambient rock I've heard in quite a while. You've got all the usual elements: quiet intro, swirling guitars, a wordless chorus, and layers upon layers of churning sound. And, most importantly, it bucks the trend of a lot of music that touches in these genres in that these guys sound like they are having fun. Too often shoegaze acts take the name a bit more literally than they ought to, resulting in music that leaves you feeling listless where it tries to make you soar.

Not here. This is a smiling face lifted to the stars, a voice ringing out through the wide expanse, guitars that each strive to out-do the others. And more concretely, it turns out to be exactly what its name promises: a small good thing that reminds you of the joy in being alive.

Once again, it's the time of year when I've got way too much else going on to justify spending much time writing about music. So instead of doing some of the full reviews I keep promising to get around to, I'm going to put those in a holding pattern of indefinite length and try something else. For the next couple weeks, it'll be a new song every day (or at least every day I get around to posting).

But not just "new" in the sense of being current - it will literally be a song that I had never heard until that day. Usually I give myself at least a couple weeks with something to let my opinions settle a bit. But the result is that I spend a *lot* of time trying to come up with a perfect way of describing my reaction.

Continuing on the theme of music from 2007 that rocked, but which I never found the time or space to write about: today's entry is Holy Roman Empire, who bear a striking resemblance to Paramore, who I talked about last week. These folks focus a little bit more on the punk and a little less on the pop, but it's based on the same general premise that there are few things more enticing than female vocals on top of crunchy guitars playing catchy melodies.

I've got no time for the next few days to post, so I thought it would be a good idea to kick in the way-back machine and (re)mention an old favorite that most of you have probably never heard. The band is Super Deluxe, they were briefly big in the Northwest in the mid-90s, and for the brief period they were around they were possibly my favorite band on the planet.

Today I wanted to bring up yet another band with a solid 2007 release who play some solid punk-infused pop with just enough of a hardcore edge to keep you on your toes. The band is called The Flatliners and the record is called The Great Awake. It's about what you'd expect from a solid Fat Wreck Chords release - it may not set the world on fire, but it will give you some catchy punk tunes.

It's that time of year again, when all the "best of" lists begin to make their appearances. As usual, I'm going to wait until the year actually ends (or at least until Christmas) to post my list. Partly because I think it's a little silly to post a list when almost 10% of the year still remains, but mostly because I invariably discover tons of new, great stuff in December from reading everyone else's lists.

A kind reader recently tipped me on an artist that I've been enjoying a great deal. A Fine Frenzy is the stage name of singer-songwriter Alison Sudol.

I've posted about The Sinister Turns a few times before, but it never hurts to mention one of my favorite under-appreciated bands a little bit more. I managed to catch them last month at a little show in Somerville that was a lot of fun - they have some new songs that maintain the feel of their other stuff but take things in some slightly odd, extremely interesting directions.

I will always have a soft spot for quality bands from Seattle, and Throw Me the Statue are no exception.

They make music that is a whole lot of fun: combining the best of the 80s (poppy synths) with the gentle crooning of Northwest-heroes Pedro the Lion, and topping it off with a splash of the loose-limbed clatter of a whole host of bands running back to The Kinks.

One album that came close to making my 2007 list but didn't quite have the oomph is Riot! - the sophomore record from pop-punkers Paramore.

Overseas - Sonic Flyer

Oasis meets shoegaze and nine months later, out comes Sonic Flyer. This song features an absolutely killer intro - there are few moments in all of music finer than at 35 seconds when the vocals first come in - and while it drags on a bit at almost 8 minutes, this is a solid endeavor.

There's plenty more great songs to hear at their myspace, where you can get info about their Sun in My Pocket EP

The theme this week is my favorite records of the year. My last review was of the follow-up to my favorite record of 2007, so I figured today was a good time to tackle the sophomore release from The Submarines, whose debut record was my favorite of 2006.

If Declare a New State was about redemption, Honeysuckle Weeks is about the time afterwards when the more mundane issues seep back into your life. There are plenty of moments of sheer wonder, but those are infused with a widespread sense of easy comfort.

The Fall of Math - 65daysofstatic

Several years old in the real world but totally new to me is The Fall of Math, the debut album from the post-rock instrumental group 65daysofstatic. I reviewed their most recent record last year, but somehow never managed to pick up their first one, perhaps because it's never had an official US release.

Well, that's about to change. A copy came in the mail for me recently to celebrate the upcoming North Americana release and to set the stage for a huge upcoming tour.

I wanted to write about this record for two reasons. First, because it's great and I've been listening to it a lot. Second, it creates an opportunity to make a meta-comment on the way we approach music.

Jarhand - Immaculate Machine
Dear Confessor - Immaculate Machine

I wrote yesterday about the new record from the New Pornographers, commenting that "if it was some band I had never heard of, I would probably praise it as a fine new entry in the genre of 'New Pornographers-esque' indie rock."

I usually cringe a little bit when people talk about 60s-inspired pop. Even though I love a lot of the music that actually created that genre, I find I have very little patience for the throwbacks. So I was a bit skeptical of The 1900s until I heard "When I Say Go" and all my doubts drifted away. I'm a complete sucker for this sort of rolling piano/bass beat and the way the chorus rises up and the piano follows along just blows me away.

1. I voted for Obama today. I'm going to be out of the state on primary day (January 8, this time around), so I stopped by the Town Clerk's office and filled in my absentee ballot. The primary system without a doubt gives unearned and unfair power to a few predominantly white and homogeneous states, so it is definitely in need of some reform. That said, there's something pretty amazing about casting a ballot where you have good reason to believe it will have a major significance.

There's something incredibly comforting about a good lo-fi song. It feels organic and close in a way that even the very best studio-produced music never can. It's hard to do well, which is why final versions usually sound better than demos and why words like "rough" or "distant" don't usually inspire people to listen.

But that's part of the charm - that the line between some folks in a bedroom with a laptop and that transcendental moment of unshorn perfection.

The only thing I like about Valentine's Day is that it gets people thinking about the people they care about. But in my mind, every day ought to be Valentine's Day. When you have someone that you care about, who makes you feel like the world is a bright and beautiful place, why do we need some artificial holiday to get us to recognize that daily miracle?

It's not like I only listen to love songs one day of the year. I listen to them every day, because love is a universal experience, one that infuses us in every moment. It makes no sense trying to lock it away. It should be all around us - to keep us warm on cool nights, to shield us from the drudgery, and to inspire us against all odds.

So, a few love songs that I enjoy any day, not just on one day in February.

Love So Pure - Puffy Amiyumi

Made a quick trip down to Boston this weekend to The Sinister Turns, a really great band I wrote about back in July, but who have been thoroughly under-represented by the rest of the blog world. C'mon people...

Anatomy Assessment - The Sinister Turns

Anyone who has been reading here for any length of time knows about my adoration for Mat Brooke and Carissa's Wierd. I posted back in great detail on the subject back in September, while also lauding the emergence of Brooke's new band Grand Archives. And now that they've released their self-titled debut, I wanted to return to the subject.

Brooklyn Girl, You're Going to Be My Bride - Barton Carroll

This track from singer-songwriter Barton Carroll is exactly the kind of free-flowing folk rock that really gets me going. It's energetic, loose, and exceptionally clever without being too cute, with the line "I know she's drowning in boys and a lot of hipster noise" only the most obvious example.

I'd like to continue a trend I started last month of posting on great songs that are so good that they overwhelm my ingrained concern about over-produced pop-punk. Today's band is called The Starting Line.

Island

This song is serious Warped Tour fare, but in the very best way. Infectious, a bit of bombast, and a guitar line that would make the toughest Jimmy Eat World fan (yeah, yeah, a contradiction in terms...) swoon.

It's the sort of song to make you wonder whether all those other stuff they did before might not have had a little more substance than you ever thought. I mean, if they can write a song like this, surely there must have been something more significant going on with their earlier emo-to-a-fault tracks, right?

Some exciting news about one of my favorite bands of the past few years: Antarctica Takes It!. Via Pitchfork, we hear that they have found a label and will be giving an official release to The Penguin League, which was my second favorite album of 2006 (and which contained my favorite song of 2006).

Today's post is the 400th here at Heartache With Hard Work. I never would have guessed when I started all this two years ago that I would still be going strong now. But it's been a lot of fun, and it's really gratifying that so many people have stopped by to read what I've got to say.

Music is all about types, isn't it? The more I write about it, the harder it is to avoid dropping a "sounds like..." - something which is especially hard to do given the number of bands I really enjoy these days who all play variations on the same power-pop-meets-New Wave theme.

Sorry for the dearth of posts. I'm back home where the internets are slower than Bengie Molina. Was dial-up always like this and I just had no frame of reference? Or has it actually gotten slower? Anyways, instead of posting about one of the many, many bands I was planning on trying to squeeze in before 2007 runs out, I'll talk about one which has the notable advantage of MP3s online that I can deeplink.

I don't normally have much interest in regurgitating press material, but sometimes it's a band I love and a turn of phrase that so perfectly captures every reason why I love them, and I just can't help myself. So here's how the new Tullycraft record was described in a recent e-mail:

(h/t Neatorama)

I almost think I have to subscribe to this, just to have as a conversation piece laying around the house.

SOS - Abba