Singled Out: A Sunday Smile by Beirut

There is no mistaking that familiar voice sailing along the swells of brassy, golden horns. The mouth it originates from moves swiftly, dragging out the last syllables of select words, or are those really words? They're more like sounds, cries of emotion that can't be tied down by wholly confining pre-established vocabulary, but freely delivers its message through its sheer volume and it lifts even the heaviest of hearts. We hear it fed through a megaphone, an audio trick that we've heard before, making his voice sound even more foreign and faraway than it already is.

The lone voice belongs to of course, Zach Condon, the one who brought us last year, The Gulag Orkestra, an album that for most of us ventured into unfamiliar territory that was filled with the hearty sounds of Balkan brass orchestras and made trumpets more than just mere solo decorations within songs, but centered the particular brass instrument in the spotlight and most likely inspired a mousy haired youngster out there to leave the finger-blistering guitar in the closet for a shiny, promising trumpet along with a much needed spit cup.

And yes this is one of the new songs off of the October 9th-slated album, The Flying Club Cup and it's called "A Sunday Smile". You may have heard it already from watching the Take Away Show presented by La Blogothèque, which Zach Condon preformed with one of his musical influences, The Kocani Orkestra. Without them, The Gulag Orkestra would probably never have existed, seeding its gypsy sounds within Condon, but this time for the new album, the seed was planted by the late musician and lyricist Jacques Brel.

From start to finish the song plays out like a circus affair, a towering Jack in the Box with the handle winding round and round, accordions squeezing the summer air and stretching to reveal a painted design like a flag unfurled caught in a breeze. The album is said to be the result of French influences both culturally and musically and the visual inspiration for Condon this time around was the photograph that is now gracing the cover of the album.

Beirut right now is somewhere in Brooklyn rehearsing for their upcoming tour that will hit off at Brooklyn's Masonic Temple on Sept. 20th, following two more New York dates and making their way to the somewhat major American cities before leaving on a jet plane to spend November in Europe.

I confess, I cannot even begin to describe how excited I am about The Flying Club Cup. The only thing that could possibly be better than the new album releasing, would be seeing Beirut themselves on Sept. 24th at the Wordless Music Series in New York at the Society for Ethical Culture venue.

If you're even doubting if it's worth to see them live, oh which is surely a crime, you had better watch the Take Away Show that features Condon with The Kocani Orkestra playing the reprise of "Siki Siki Baba" (scroll to the last video) and then you'll wish you were there just like I do every time I watch it and that whatever you did on July 30th, 2007 would never have topped standing in the Parisian venue, La Flèche d'Or and being part of the audience that happily sang and swayed as one. And if you are already convinced, you had better watch it anyways. It's the best live show footage I've seen in years, Vincent Moon is a mad hand-holding cameraman genuis!

Stream + Download + Purchase:

A Sunday Smile | Beirut

Links:

» Beirut's Official Site
» Pre-Order The Flying Club Cup
» Beirut's Official MySpace
» Beirut's Tour Dates
» La Blogothèque presents: #60.9-60.10 Beirut + The Koncani Orkestra playing "A Sunday Smile" (video)
» La Blogothèque presents: #60.1 Beirut + The Kocani Orkestra playing "Siki Siki Baba" reprise (video)
» YouTube: Zach Condon singing "Knife" by Grizzly Bear (video)
» The Kocani Orkestra's Official Site
» Wikipedia: Jacques Brel

~anne

Singled out: Postcard From Kentucky by Rocky Votolato

This is how I'd like to remember Texas, the way Rocky Votolato sculpts the stories in fly-over states and the ones down low, with swaggering harmonicas, rolling drums, a heart-strumming banjo and a low voice revealing some rare kind of Western wisdom while singing bottom of the bottle songs.

His fifth studio album, The Brag and Cuss following up Makers is full of lost and found sepia-toned sounds of America out West, rootsy, folksy and in every way so darn good to sing along to. I recommend streaming the whole album here, all of songs are warm and wonderful for a lonely summer night. "The Wrong Side of Reno" has won my heart along with "Lilly White", "Silver Trees" and oh the whole album is just a charmer. The eleven track album will drop into stores next Tuesday, June 19th, including the first single "Postcard from Kentucky".

It starts out with Votolato setting up a too familiar scene, "Jack Daniel's in one hand/a basic light in the other/my two best friends for so long/that I can't even remember...." Casey Foubert (Pedro the Lion) on the banjo follows his vocal melody closely and James McAllister (Sufjan Stevens) let the drums stay dry and remain out of the spotlight for this song.

For the most part, the song has an unwavering melody making its familiar rounds with each verse, but there are three certain points when his voice swells with emotion, rising higher above than the repetitive string of notes before, striking the listener most unexpectedly. Even though, it happens multiple times throughout the song, the sudden turn is so genuine that your reaction will remain a wonderful surprise and you'll come to look forward to those larger waves to overwhelm you when the song is played again. The thing with Votolato is that he doesn't come off as a sad sack, he sounds his best when injured and you don't need to have your arm twisted to sit down and join him in the ditch he dug himself in. You sit down, nodding and singing the blues away with him or try to anyways.


Stream + Download + More:

Postcard From Kentucky| Rocky Votolato


Links:

» Rocky Votolato's Official Site
» Stream The Brag and Cuss
» Pre-order/Purchase The Brag and Cuss
» Rocky Votolato's MySpace
» Rocky Votolato's Tour Dates

~anne

Singled out: Kid Gloves by Voxtrot

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{Here is a new addition to the different types of regular posts we write here. You could say this song inspired this new type of regular post, to be honest we just really wanted to post about this song and then it seemed like a good idea to make it into something bigger than just a one-time post. There were a lot of songs that could've started this, "Heretics" by Andrew Bird, Arcade Fire's "Intervention", but it seems Voxtrot's a stronger incentive. Maybe we're trying to right some wrongs, but in the end it was this song that made this post happen.

Anyways, not all the songs we'll feature will be technical "singles" the name was just too good to pass up. But the mp3s of the songs featured have to be offered to the public from either the band's own site, MySpace, record label and/or their promotional company websites. These are the kind of songs that everyone will know the words to at a show and we hope you will learn them too.}

This is the first song offered by Voxtrot to preview their self-titled debut album slated for May 22nd. This isn't going to be the first single though, that's "Blood Red Blood", which will be available on May 14th on a download and a limited edition 7" for UK featuring the single with a b-side called "New Love & Loan Shark". Anyways, there are a lot of mixed feelings on "Kid Gloves" and here is our take on it...WE LOVE IT.

It starts out with a swift stroke of guitar and a dark atmosphere is unveiled by the hard as nails drumming, ominous background vocals "uh-uh" and a skittish xylophone that you'll hear repeated throughout parts of the song. Ramesh Srivistava's voice rings out and there's a sense of urgency with the stressed words and sharp intakes of breath; it comes off more like what Voxtrot sounds like live. When Ramesh is singing the instruments seem to distance themselves from the vocals. Instead of crowding up the song, there are long notes held down on the keyboard and occasional shimmering crashes of cymbals.

There are quite a few places where the song builds up, that job falls to the keys and the drums, both working together sharing the same rhythm. The "uh-uh"s come back with a cleaner layer with faraway drums and a soft quilt of guitar and bass-work. Then the fuller noise returns increasingly building up to a potential climax. There's a neat guitar solo fuzzing out paired with faint background "woooos". Just when you think the song ends, they build up one last time and by now Ramesh's voice can almost be considered a growl having increased with emotion as the song moved on.

For people who have been familiar with Voxtrot's previous material, this is drastically different. I think the closest song we can connect this to is "Missing Pieces" off of their first EP Raised By Wolves. From this song we feel they're moving away from The Smiths and definitely their Belle & Sebastian references now, but we'll see on the album in May. "Kid Gloves" has the bark and the bite, actually there is more of everything really. More instruments and much more going on in the song compared to their past songs. "Kid Gloves" will probably need to be allotted some time for it to grow on listeners, which may come across as alien for Voxtrot fans so use to falling immediately headoverheels. So fans suck it in and grow up, they did.

Stream + Download + More:

Kid Gloves| Voxtrot

Links:

>>> Voxtrot's Official Site
<<< Voxtrot's MySpace
>>> Purchase Voxtrot's EPs & other merch
<<< Read our post on Voxtrot's summer tour

~anne