Chessie

Songs inspired by trains and railroads. Trains, more than any other form of transportation I think, let you sit and think to yourself. In planes, one is too separated from the earth and not engaged in their surroundings. Driving in a car is a communal experience, and if you're driving alone, at least a small part of you're energy must be dedicated to paying attention to the road. Sitting and looking out the window of a train connects you to you're journey. Swiftly passing over the land at a constant rate, weaving by the contours of the earth, the traveler has had the opportunity to have an intimate connection with every freeze frame along the way.

Memoryhouse

Get caught up in the rapture

Memoryhouse - "Heirloom" from Jamie Harley on Vimeo.

Noel, Jonah and Me

Remember back beginning summer in '93 when it didn't matter?

Jonquil New EP

Paul Simon rytham meets Local Natives harmonies

Marina and the Diamonds Remix

Starry Eyed Remix

Best Coast- Crazy for You

Capturing the obsessive quality of attachment in young romance, Cosentino strings together flawed rhyme schemes with blunt, and almost juvenile lyricism with sometimes equally childish sentiments (want to kill you/but then I'd miss you). Themes of longing and self doubt point to an unhealthy infatuation with a removed "more than friend" (There's nothing worse than sitting all alone at home/ and waiting waiting by the phone/ I hope that he's home/ waiting by his phone). Contrary to reason, whats left after this pity party is a profound sense of honesty. She's saying, pointedly and effectively, exactly what has been wracking her brain all along.

Two choice picks-



This song is comprised of not more than three lines of repeated verse, yet and innumerable quantity of feeling can be extracted...

The Knocks

Hot off the press before summer fades to fall...

Brothertiger

Zorbing

Our hero jaunts along the cobblestones humming while animated bluebirds nip at his stride. The spring rain has cleansed the path anew. Blissful in youth.

Wild Nothing

Thundering synths anchor the beat while the layered tones reach upward

Millionyoung Remix

"Hush the scattered sound of time dispersing"

Beach Fossils

Combining the melodies of Real Estate with the lyrical apathy of Best Coast.Sifting through wavering layers of hazy summer jangle has never been so fun.

Burn Bridges- Dom

Riding the glo-fi wave, and crossing over to the 90's college rock arena

Galaxie 500

"Tugboat" from Today

If music could convey a perpetual dissatisfaction of a continuous condition of angst. "There's a place i'd like to be;" he hasn't been there quite yet, but someday, perhaps with someone, he knows he'll get to that place, and more importantly, state of mind. And that assurance is given concretly in the final minute of chords, strums and contemplation. The post-modern longings of a 90's youth from the inside out.

http://sadsteve.com/preview.py?url=http://bylamplight.com/another-world-war_post-punk-begins/19%20Tugboat.mp3&song=Tugboat&artist=Galaxie%20500

I Think Ur A Contra- Vampire Weekend

After giving it some time to ruminate, I think it's my favorite track on the new album. Listening to the lyrics at face value, you'd think there was an anger and frustration on the part of the singer, but the music expresses the complete opposite. He's at peace with this girl; there's a new found and profound understanding being sung. It almost begins as an epiphany of sorts and blossoms into a true recognition that he's really over this girl and ready to move on. The girl on the album cover perhaps?... (not really, (Koenig found the pic) but I'd like to think so)

A jingly synth rises above layered guitar tones leave you starry eyed

Million Young- Hammock

Plays like a late 90's coca-cola commercial, they rollerskate, at times hand-in-hand, between shadows and late-afternoon California sun. The sun blinds you, but it only adds to the bliss of the melody.

CSS- Knife (Grizzly Bear cover)

CSS transfers the conveyance of restraint admirably- a true "cover" in that sense.

Despicable Dogs (Washed Out remix)

And the credits roll...



Curtisy of Chris

Tycho- Coastal Brake

At the risk having something that sounds like it would fit in pertectly to a Honda commercial...

Fiya- tUnE-yArDs

Showcasing the transformative powers of music on self-perception. Despair -> Actualization.



Courtesy of Drew

Destination (Cassian Remix)- Dead Arms

Best Coast

Songs from a girl stuck in limbo- full of longing, boredom, burnt out and fuzzed over by a California sun in winter.



You don't know whether to sympathize with her or recoil from her droning tone. Its remarkable that such a seemingly uninvolved voice can hold so much want.

Golden Cage (Fred Falke Remix)

Combine Erlend Øye and Fred Falke and you get the below: a whistful 8 minute tune where echoes bounce around creating an almost ethereal quality that plays off Øye's equally dreamy lyrics and voice. Still captivating in the new year.