Tennis Pro

On one of the podcasts I listen to every week, they recently (well, a few months ago, give me a break) had David Drury - singer of a band called Tennis Pro - on the air. They had previously played a few of their songs, but I hadn't looked up what they were. It turns out, this Seattle band recently made a movie called Big in Japan (watch the trailer), about the band's tour through Japan and the general feeling towards American rock and roll there (hint: they effing love it).


So, Tennis Pro is fantastic. They have one song up on their MySpace page and a few MP3s available at their website. Also, because they're still trying to recoup their tour, you can get all sorts of goodies in exchange for a donation - up to and including a private concert. I recommend "Shelly Gets High" and "Kimberly", but my favorite of their songs is the one backing the trailer that I linked earlier.


Definitely going to need to get more of their music. The actual sound is very standard guitar-bass-drums indie rock/power-pop, done extremely well. Go listen.

My Oh My

There are two reasons that I wouldn't think that the song "My Oh My" is awesome: I've never paid any attention to baseball or Dave Niehaus, and I've never really listened to Macklemore. Those reasons did not do anything to change the simple fact that this song is really fantastic.

It's about growing up in Seattle, and the impact that Niehaus had as the announcer for the Seattle Mariners. Even without it having any bearing on my own life, it's one of the most poignant songs I've heard in a long time.

Soundtracks

Just watched Pirate Radio - though if I was British it would have been twenty minutes longer and called The Boat That Rocked - and it had the most fantastic soundtrack. I actually had all the music before I saw the movie, but seeing everything in context was really amazing. I didn't think many movies could make me appreciate the Beach Boys, but they did it. "My Generation" was also used about as fantastically as I've ever heard a song used in a movie.

Speaking of most fantastic way a song has been used in a movie: "Golden Brown" in Snatch, and whatever crazy J-pop sounding thing that's used during the final fight seen in Kick-Ass.

That's all!

Two Songs (and a third, but only in passing)

"When They Really Get to Know You" - David Bazan

David Bazan, formerly Pedro the Lion, sings with the kind of voice that makes the happiest songs seem heartbreaking and the saddest songs into masterpieces. This one is a comparatively upbeat-sounding number that drips with Bazan's most potent sarcasm: "Put on whatever makes you attractive/if it's not you then do it for the sake of fashion". It's really fantastic. 

I can't talk about Bazan without mentioning "Bless This Mess", if for nothing else than the line (when talking about his baby daughter): "Wondering if she'd soon despise the smell/Of the booze on my breath, like her mom".

"Old No. Seven" - The Devil Makes Three

A great bluegrass number all about the infinite Jack Daniel's that the singer gets to drink in heaven. Annnd how it makes him want to sleep with angels. And how they don't really like that, so he has to go to hell. Basically bluegrass is fantastic and everyone should listen to more bluegrass.

Daytrotter

So, I just rediscovered Daytrotter.


Daytrotter.com is a wonderful site that allows you to download in-studio tracks from a huge number of bands, for free. Bands go in, record a set of songs, and then you get them! For free! I had forgotten about the site for a while, but I just went back and downloaded 14 sets. That's 54 songs, from 9 bands, and all I had to do was sign up. Blitzen Trapper, David Bazan, Dutchess and the Duke, Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeroes, Josh Ritter, Mountain Goats, Say Hi, Tallest Man on Earth, and Throw Me The Statue. Woo!


The service does use its own downloader, which you have to install first, but it's just in Java so it's pretty much painless. I also had to go in and move around the files to get them into iTunes without cluttering up my computer with copies, and delete the "Welcome to Daytrotter" track that comes with each set, but really those are not big deals.


UPDATE: The new Downloader just came out, now it's slicker and can add the tracks directly to iTunes!


It's free, dangit. C'mon.

Brass & Shellac

Among the many ridiculous (but great! Well, mostly) LPs I received for Christmas, one caught my eye for a couple reasons. Whipped Cream and Other Delights, by Herb Albert's Tijuana Brass, stood out for both the very pretty lady on the front covered in whipped cream, but also for its version of "Love Potion No. 9". The whole record goes to about the farthest lengths a brass band can, genre-wise. I expected it to stay in the realm of swing and blues, but there are a couple numbers that veer much more to the side of jazz. Apparently this is the band that first recorded "The Lonely Bull" (though that's not on this record), which was covered fantastically by the Dusty 45s - another point to Herb Albert.

I'm not nearly well-enough versed in this style of music to give a decent review of this 45 year-old album, but suffice to say that it got a lot of playtime when my apartment was converted into a speakeasy. Also, the cover of Love Potion No. 9? Pretty good, you guys.

(Note: according to Wikipedia, Love Potion No. 9 was "rendered in 'strip-tease' fashion" on this record. Bonus points!)

New Vinyl

So much of it! I've only listened to 6 Songs by The Stranglers so far (Hannah gave it to me!), but it was great. We had only heard "Golden Brown" off of the Snatch soundtrack before; it's a great song, but we didn't know what the rest of the music would be like.


It was great. Only six songs (yeah, the title gives that part away) but all of them good.


More posts when I listen to more music!