Song of the Day

SXSW Song Of The Day – Lambert – Vienna

Posted on by Gary in Song of the Day, South By Southwest | Leave a comment

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Photo Credit: Andreas Hornoff

“Vienna” from Lambert‘s album True is not unsettling at all, even if it is performed by men wearing demonic leather masks in (rather sparse) traffic.

But Dear Sir, I must write to object. Why couldn’t they have chosen a garden variety ten-lane Los Angeles freeway to emphasize the contrast between the quiet, demure creeping of the keyboard over the true evil that is California traffic? I couldn’t begin to tell you the answer.

Or how about against a burning pyre that puts their instruments in real danger of spontaneous ignition from the radiative heat while their fingers dance upon the fire that crackles with the same musical intensity?

What I can tell you is that flights from Germany are not expensive and come with free beer, and… wait. OK. Maybe they also have worms in their heads to help them consume those beers and… OH that’s why the masks! Their music slides under their own skins and grows leather masks from the inside out! Everything make sense now. Forty years from now that mask will be so huge that it will begin to make its own sound and music, and it will sound, prophetically, exactly the same.

None of this will not happen if you listen to this music. Have fun!

Lambert plays the Central Presbyterian Church on Thursday, March 19 at 7:00pm.

Song Of The Day: Hamerkop – The Splendour That Was Rome

Posted on by Gary in Song of the Day | Leave a comment

Hamerkop‘s album Remote is as remote from remote as one can be if the word conjures up images of Fargo. On this new album, the Baltimore-based synth pop duo of Annabel Alpers and Adam Cooke concocts numbers like “The Splendour That Was Rome” (yes, with the correct spelling).

“The Splendour That Was Rome” reimagines Imagine Dragons’ conspicuous urge to project from the pop of the world, with a more laissez-faire approach. The construction can seem a bit simplistic. It does, however, create the immersive quality as a shimmering, diamond-dusted Midwestern snowstorm, like the one in which I am sitting through and hence the review.

Hamerkop’s Remote is out now on Drag City Records.

SXSW Song of the Day: Sparkling – I Want To See Everything.

Posted on by Ricky in Song of the Day, South By Southwest | Leave a comment

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Photo credit: écoute chérie

It’s not often that you hear a song that requires you to be beyond bilingual but this uplifting tune from the band Sparkling is one such song. The band really commits to the language bit, but it fits the tone of the song.

Sounding like a late ’80s new wave band, Sparkling is a 3 person band from Cologne and everyone from Germany speaks many languages so I guess it’s no surprise. That’s all I can find about this band, so this post ends now.

Sparkling plays Buffalo Billiards on Monday, March 16 and at Seven Grand on Wednesday, March 18.

SXSW Song Of The Day: Ali Barter – January

Posted on by Paul in Song of the Day, South By Southwest | Leave a comment

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Photo Credit: Lindsey Byrnes

In this writer’s humble opinion, some of the best, most compelling songwriters of the past few years just so happen to be Australian women with guitars – think Courtney Barnett, Alex Lahey, Julia Jacklin, and Stella Donnelly, just to name a few. And after listening to her sophomore album Hello, I’m Doing My Best, I just may have to add Melbourne’s Ali Barter to that list.

Hello, I’m Doing My Best, released in October of last year, showcases Barter’s songwriting quite well. Songs like “Backseat” and “Ur A Piece Of Shit” grab the listener with their punky attitude and energy while other tracks take a more introspective approach. “January” falls into the latter category with its lyrical portrait of someone wistfully examining their life with the advent of another new year:

Hey there January
Looks like we’re alone again
Another year is over
Left the same way it came in
Said that I’d be thinner
Said that we’d be better friends
But I’m still on the treadmill
Change the channel

And on a side note, I will point out that the video for “January,” featuring Barter laying by the side of a pool littered with empty beer cans as others continue to party around her, presents a reasonable facsimile of how one can sometimes feel by the end of the week during SXSW.

Ali Barter plays Friends at 10:00pm on Thursday, March 19.