This next one is for a woman I haven’t seen in over 10 years named Jody. We traded a few messages on Facebook, and she asked me for some recommendations. So here we are. My abiding memory of Jody is that she used to ride around campus in the coolest Range Rover. In spite of that she was still nice to me. In fact, once I sat in that Range Rover, parked, dark outside, a spring in the air, and we…
…listened to Slowdive. I was doing the squee thing before I even knew there was such a word. That music went straight to my melancholic soul. Jody kept laughing so naturally and delightfully, like she always did, just enjoying the sight of me being so blown away.
Well, Jody, for you it seems appropriate to share a couple of clear, peeling bells, which aren’t shoegaze, but which do follow up that shimmering Slowdive aesthetic rather nicely. The first is the Australian band Howling Bells, including a track off their brand new album released this month. The second is a Russian singer/New York resident named Olga Bell, who has a recent EP that’s extraordinarily hard to find but equally as rewarding. Oh, and as a bonus track, I have to include some rare Slowdive as well.
The Pains of Being Pure at Heart are a band after my own heart. In the grand tradition of Slowdive, they release a self-titled EP containing a song with the same name, too. And they make it dreamy and blissful. They’ve just released an album (guess what it’s called?), which is where I first heard them, but for this post I decided to go back to 2007. Last weekend I found out that one of my friends works with a member of this band. Two degrees of separation; beat that with a stick. Yeah, whatever, so anyway… I stayed up all night trying to think of a good title for this post. Hope you like what I came up with. The Pains of Being Pure at Heart: The Pains of Being Pure at Heart
Without lyrics to entice exegesis, music can become anything you want it to be, and it reaches places you can’t touch. Tonight I will share with you four instrumentals from my library, each reaching separate itches that other songs won’t scratch. My places are different than yours, of course. Leave a comment and let us know what yours are.
1. I grew up in the rural part of rural Pennsylvania, where at night I’d hear trains from across the cornfield and I’d wake uneasily, remembering the trouble I had gotten into that day and how mad my Dad got. Tindersticks: Vertrauen II
2. I’d try to fall back to sleep, and suddenly I’m floating on a flooded world, my twin-size bed the last life raft for me and my friend from school. I hold her hand gently, and we become best friends, ready to be lovers when we get old enough. Brian Eno: Deep Blue Day
3. Older now, the same waters are imagined, and they’re inside out now. I’m the flood, and the world is a stone in my stomach. Joy is terrible and close. My Bloody Valentine: Glider
4. I’m still the flood, but now I’m friends with the water. I look over the tops of the trees of the childhood forest, over the farmers’ fields, over the toy trains, and into the window of a rowhouse with warm light. The Clientele: The Dance Of The Hours
Slow fade back in time to a misty dorm room, a musty mattress, and a rickety heater on full blast. 1991. I created a second home, my first real follow-up to the womb. Those were the woozy days of shoegaze, both a new awakening and a half-asleep haze. Kevin Shields fashioned this impenetrable canvas, thicker than Rothko, and he gave it a curious enveloping quality. The listener feels loved. Here then is my third favorite song, and I am hereby founding Subanimal Sounds on these three songs from three tragic but beautiful visionaries: Lee Mavers, Brian Wilson (with an affectionate nod to Van Dyke), and Kevin Shields. Enjoy.
Catbirdman answers to the name of Peter Beyer when the government, a co-worker, an ex-girlfriend, an alter-ego, or a Man on the Street calls. Many people also call him Pete.
As it is Catbirdman himself who is typing this, and as Catbirdman feels weird referring to myself in the third person, we are therefore gradually (and clumsily) transitioning this sentence into a first-person account of ME.
I was born in Pennsylvania, did a spell in The Midwest, camped out awkwardly in our second smallest state, Delaware, and finally found a home in Baltimore, MD, the Greatest City in the World (or so it says on the park benches). I like it here quite a lot.
I work at a direct marketing agency in Glen Burnie, and I have been involved in the direct mail industry for about 10-15 years. I enjoy my work, and though it is not my central passion, I make every effort to do well and to treat people well.
I write songs and am working on a full-length album called “Kitty’s First Words.” My favorite music ever is the body of work composed by Lee Mavers from 1986-1990 for the La's. After that, it would have to be Brian Wilson's SMiLE music, and after that, My Bloody Valentine’s Loveless.
Music, and sharing the same with friends, drove me to start this blog. We'll see where it goes from here.
