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.