Sunday, October 14, 2007

The Sampler - Tracks of the Week (Week 4)

Here’s this week’s rundown of songs that I can’t stop listening to:

Peter Bjorn and John – Young Folks

Peter Bjorn and John have been around since 1999, and have released three albums. On their latest album, Writer’s Block, (which is about a perfect pop album) they have the song “Young Folks.” The song broke the top 40 in the UK, and for good reason. The song begins with infectious drums that go into a whistling lead and following bass. The song relates the same old story of falling in love, but for people in between being young and hip or old and senile. This is a song that is guaranteed to get stuck in your head.

Orba Squara – My Favorite Song

You may have heard Orba Squara on recent iPhone commercials (and you can hear it on the recent short, “iPhoolish” at www.newsbleep.com), with the song, “Perfect Timing (This Morning).” This is an excellent song, but I think an even stronger one is “My Favorite Song.” The song glistens with bells over an acoustic guitar, and the vocals are unique: high, but not yelpy, they fit the song perfectly. They are slightly reminiscent of Wayne Coyne of the Flaming Lips.

Also, because I am an attention whore, I am going to put a plug in for my own music here. If you’d like a listen, just go to www.myspace.com/ournamesinthesand It’s admittedly not that great, but if you’d like a listen I’d encourage it. My new band here in Vermillion, Head 80 Foot Big, will also being playing one of the songs (60’s Doll) as soon as we can get a show put together.

1 comment:

Miles Rausch said...

Peter Bjorn and John - Young Folks

That is an infectious whistle line. I get it stuck in my head all the time.

Orba Squara - My Favorite Song

This feels very sing-songy. I think the mark of a folky-happy song is calling someone "friend". We don't do that much in conversation anymore. Not unless it's meant sarcastically. "Pal", "chum". We are slaves to sarcasm.

Also, I was honored to get plugged for my blatant copyright infringement.

Our Names in the Sand - 60's Doll

I sorta had a band once. I wrote a song, and I got together with four other guys and we pounded on it, and we made it into something. But, it was still basically my song with new trimming. This song feels more put-together than that. It feels like a group effort, a collection of ideas, rather than a leader and a set of followers.

Love the bells.