Bonus Points For Being An Insomniac

I'm a little embarrassed to admit that I like to watch Bret Michael try to "find his soulmate," but I'm doing it and I'm doing it without squinting.  I bring this up because I never get to watch it on time or even at a reasonable hour.  It came on at 02.00AM and I watched, and I was disappointed to see that yet again, that stupid girl with the cheek piercings (I know, ridiculous) was given another chance.  Whatever, I'm getting side tracked.  My point is that I watched it tonight (this morning) and after it was over, something wonderful happened.  VH1 has programming called "Nocturnal State" that comes on way late at night and ends way early in the morning, but enables VH1 to still consider itself a music channel.  I don't usually watch this programming because it gives me an overdose of Ingrid Michaelson and Sara Bareilles and other artists I generally respect but don't want to listen to, but I hadn't found the remote yet and so I continued to watch.  The first song on caught my attention.  

His name is Donavon Frankenreiter, and though he sells out shows and has imitators on Youtube, I've somehow not heard of him.  I was thinking he sounded a lot like Jack Johnson, and I decided to Wiki (I love how that's become a verb.  Wiki-Wiki) him to see what his influences were and find out more about him, and sure enough, he's a long time friend of Jack Johnson's, and in fact used to rent a room at his parents' house in Oahu, Hawaii.  This is just terrific.  I never wanted to admit publicly my love for Jack Johnson, and now I don't have to (I just did!  It felt great!).  I have a whole new artist who sounds incredibly similar to admit my love for.

Terrific.  Anyway, the song I heard was called  Day Dreamer, and if you're like me and don't want to admit that you like Jack Johnson, listen to his music.  It's a wonderful compromise.

Today's Post Is Brought To You By The Letter B.

I'm finally in the right frame of mind to write again, so I feel like I should continue the ABCs.  Maybe later I will do my homework, too.  Who knows what could happen??!?

B:

! Beirut - Elephant Gun.  The song starts with a simple ukelele and builds gradually to what seems like an entire symphony.  I've not heard a Beirut song I don't like, and I think that Zach Condon, who essentially IS Beirut, is one of the most creative song writers I've ever heard.  He's heavily influenced by Balkan Gypsy music, and recorded his first album almost entirely on his own.  He may very well be the only person who didn't graduate from high school that I will ever have a crush on.  What an awesome guy.

@ Bright Eyes - Will You Will You Will You Whatever, I don't actually know the name of the song.  As much as I hate to admit it, Bright Eyes is kind of a staple of Indie rock.  As much as I hate to admit it, I'm going to.  Conor Oberst did a lot for music.  Fuck, that was harder than it should have been.  This is a completely tolerable song for me, though, even up to the point that Conor Oberst BARELY sounds like a sheep when he sings at least part of it.  It's off the album Lifted Or The Story Is In The Soil, Keep Your Ear To The Ground.  I don't think I butchered that title, but I certainly butchered the song title.  How am I supposed to do this?

# Ben Folds - Army.  I'm particularly attached to this song partially because of the way he performs it, but partially because of the story behind it.  It is my favorite Ben Folds song(But for the record, Terra, I almost used Annie Waits) because of how he performs it.  He gets the audience involved through the entire song, he seems like he really needs to perform it, and it's an upbeat song.  Granted, he gets the audience involved a lot, and does something similar with a lot of different songs, but I had to choose one and this one is my favorite.  The first time I saw him live, he explained the song, even to the individual lines.  It's a story of how he came to be the musically internationally renowned Ben Folds, instead of Ben Folds Esquire or M.D. or any other sort of thing.  He changed a few details for sake of making the song flow better, or rhyme better(He changed "Hardeez" to "Chick-Fil-A," for instance).  It's a great song by a great artist.  Check him out.

$ Andrew Bird - Fake Palindromes.  Once again, I chose my favorite song.  I have a feeling I'm going to be doing this a lot.  I thought Andrew Bird was especially important because he's coming to my home town in March, but also because he's musically different from most artists.  He calls himself a professional whistler, and I'm honestly sorry I didn't choose a song in which he whistles a lot.  He's very good, but he's also a very good singer, and a fantastic song writer.

I'm going to confess, I really just want to skip to the letter M.  It's going to be my favorite, I think, but I know I'll have a major problem choosing what Mates of State song to post.  Oh well, motivation to continue.

The ABCs Of Your Indie Rock Education

Due to popular demand, I am beginning an educational tour of Indie Rock as told by the American alphabet.  I was initially going to do one song per letter and post the entire alphabet at once, but when I couldn't narrow even the letter A down to one artist, I decided to do it letter by letter.  This might even be beneficial, and most people will probably be more inclined to learn a couple new bands at once over twenty-six.  Good idea, Rabbit.  So without further adieu, I give you the letter A:

! Aberfeldy - Summer's Gone.  This song has gotten some great PR, mostly due to a Diet Coke commercial featuring clips of it.  A lot of people in turn know the song in the same way that they know the song "Picture Book" by The Kinks.  A couple lines here and there, the basic melody, really all that's important about any song to most people.  The band is from Scotland, is named after a town there, and they are still together.

@ AIR - High School Lover.  This is sort of a sister song to Playground Love, which could easily be Air's most popularly loved song.  I personally prefer High School Lover, partially because it's certainly an abbreviated version, and partially because it, unlike Playground Love, is entirely instrumental, and I appreciate music that can float without lyrics.  The song is a bit dreamy and romantic, and has a tendency to make me feel really nostalgic.  Air is from France and they are still together.  They're about due for another album, too, I think.

That's all I have for now.  Tomorrow, I'll address the letter B.  Surely Beirut will come up.