I wasn't lucky enough to be born to parents with good taste in music, so I missed out a little growing up and have had quite a bit of catching up to do. Every so often, I seem to reach back for something that I've missed. Sometimes I find something cool, sometimes I don't. Either way, I learn something new. One thing I learned recently is that new music is sometimes very good at sounding old. This is good news because, let's face it, some day we're gonna run out of real old music, aren't we?
Yes: Espers, a psych-folk band from Philadelphia, has recently released an EP of covers. The songs are old. The band is new. Blah blah blah. Weed Tree (Locust) is Espers turning it's dark, folky hymns to the past. The covers include songs from Nico, Blue Oyster Cult, Durutti Column, and a few traditionals like “Black Is the Color,” as well as one original song, “Dead King.” Espers do a good job at sounding kind of old already, so songs like the medieval-y traditional “Rosemary Lane,” which makes me feel like I'm at a Reniassance Fair (minus the cleavage and weird sticks of meat), tend to fortify the vibe they're kinda going for. Seriously, this song isn't just old--it's olde:
+ Espers:
Speaking of dark and old, Tarnation was a great band who was a big part of that whole dark, spooky Southern gothic country explosion that happened in a dream I had recently. Seriously, I don't know who you could compare them to, but the mostly female vocals sound a little like the ghost of Patsy Cline's equally talented lovelorn younger sister, Petula. The music is slow, twangy and with lots of reverb and only brightens up occasionally for a few upbeat numbers here and there. This song, featured on both their debut, I'll Give You Something to Cry About (1993) and their second and best album (and first for 4AD), Gentle Creatures, is especially good at sounding old, if maybe at the risk of sounding slightly affected:
+ Tarnation:
No comments:
Post a Comment