Songs Of The Week #14: MinneSarah & TCDroogsma

El Perro Del Mar, California Wives, Django Django, Lost Brother, & Gloss...

Hello again, MP3 junkies, and welcome to Songs Of The Week #14!

If you're looking at your computer screen wondering just what the hell “Songs Of The Week” is, let us break it down for you:

1. The Current gives away a free song each weekday as a download.
2. At the end of the week we ask two of our regular contributors to give us their thoughts on the songs
3. They submit those thoughts to us without having read what the other thinks.
4. We post them.
5. You listen to the songs and read the thoughts
6. You laugh and/or think up a snarky comment.
7. You vote in the poll on the right side of the blog.
8. That's pretty much it.

This week we asked MinneSarah & TCDroogsma to tell us what they thought. If you'd like to download the songs for yourself and play along at home (highly recommended), click here to be brought to MPR's “Song Of The Day” page.

So, thoughts?

01. El Perro Del Mar – Hold Off The Dawn (from the album Pale Fire)

MinneSarah:

     “Perro del mar” means “dog of the sea” - that is adorable.  I would expect nothing less and that is what I received.  This song is very Tegan & Sara served with a little eighties new wave and peppered with lasers. The mixing reminds me of some old school Madonna, which I say as an utmost compliment.  One of the lines is "no need to talk about the future."  That sums up this song perfectly.  If you can remix the past so skillfully, why bother? 

TCDroogsma:

     I really like this song.  It's not the most memorable song, either lyrically or musically, but it's definitely one that's going to come up when the iPod's shuffling and I'll immediately remember, "Oh yeah, this is a good tune.

     The lyrics are something about not worrying about the future and worrying about the present, though the desire to, "make a new past," makes this sound like the theme song in Winston Smith's nightmares.  Regardless, this one goes down smooth.

Final Score: MinneSarah -3/5

                   TCDroogsma - 3/5

02. California Wives – Blood Red Youth (from the album Art History)

MinneSarah:

     This song starts off pretty boring, and then, BAM - Replacements guitar.  Nice.  The lyrics are about coping mechanisms for what "those people did to you, in your blood red youth."  Consider me as intrigued as I was during the Radiohead video for "Just," wondering what the hell is going on that would call for such dire reactions.  I don't want to give it away - hey, did anybody ever figure out why those business folks were just lying on the ground? 

TCDroogsma:

     Wives in California must still be listening to indie rock from 1998.  Seriously, this song is very good more for what it isn't than what it is.

     With so many of these SOTD's, you have the skeleton of a great song.  However, because it's 2012, most of the artists decide to the Moe Sciszlak "po-mo" route ("y'know, weird for weird's sake).  California Wives does a great job of taking a hook and building around it with some brilliant female harmonies, a fantastic lead guitar hook, atmospheric keyboards and some determined vocals.  I have no idea what, "those people did to you in your blood red youth," but I'm glad it didn't include things like "listening to Kid A" or "learning 6/8 time signatures."

Final Score: MinneSarah - 2/5

                   TCDroogsma - 3.5/5

03. Django Django – Default (from the album Django Django)

MinneSarah:

     Full disclosure - I already liked this song and have listened to it extensively for the past two months.  Django Django is an up and coming British-ish band with spunk.  This song is catchy, has non-annoying psychadelic elements, and the singer's voice is solid.  I've genuinely liked the originality of everything I've heard from them, and I'll jump on the NME bandwagon and say, yeah, I've got a hard on for these guys.  Also, they've got to be better looking than Django Reinhardt. 

TCDroogsma:

     Speaking of weird-for-weird's-sake, Django Django (2013 is going to go down as the "Year Of Django") is just an example of what I'm talking about.  Somewhere in here is a very good song.  It builds on some really simple riffing that, while threatening to take off, never quite gets their. 

     In place of the rock we're treated to some computer manipulated vocals and a swirling keyboard that adds almost nothing to the song.  It's not quite Alt-J levels of stupid, but it's certainly unnecessary.  I really wish Jamie Foxx was somehow involved in this.

Final Score: MinneSarah - 4/5

                   TCDroogsma -2.5/5

04. Lost Brothers – Bird In A Cage (from the album The Passing Of The Night)

MinneSarah:
    
     I'm not a fan of American roots music (although, I'm a big Roots fan, go figure), but this song isn't terrible.  More disclosure - I was born in Kentucky.  While I know that this may ruin my MinneSarah cred (I was conceived on White Bear Avenue, bitches), it makes me think of the kind of music I may have been more tolerant of had I grown up in my birth town. The simplistic lyrics are sort of refreshing compared to the first world problem bullshit seems to permeate most songs these days.  I can relate to lyrics like, "Gonna dig me a hole to put the devil in."  Why the hell didn't I think of that?  This song gets points for being upbeat and featuring saloon piano, but it's nothing I'd ever want to listen to on my own time. 

TCDroogsma:

     Listen, we've all had our battles with the bottle.  Sometimes it seems like having a drink is the only way to cope.  You know what's never the answer?  Banjos.

    
     Seriously, this band should be called Mumford's Sons Of The Lost Avett Brothers.  If the goal of the song is to jauntily explain how hard it is to turn down a drink, mission accomplished.  This song would only sound tolerable if I was drunk in at a East Tennessee Jambaroo.

     And no, I am not the guy on the right.  I'd have given myself at least a 2/5.

Final Score: MinneSarah - 2/5

                   TCDroogsma - 1/5

05. Gloss – Front Porch (from the single Front Porch)

MinneSarah:
 
     So you like Johnny Marr too, Gloss?  This song is a treat, as it combines a lot of elements that made the eighties an exciting time musically.  Marr guitar , echoey deadpan vocals, and an upbeat supporting actor in the drums.  Britpop will nevah die!

TCDroogsma:

     Over the last couple of weeks the SOTD's Friday Minnesota entries have been Robust World (jangly stoner pop) and Gospel Gossip (jangly shoegaze).  Well, MPR gets the jangle (or "djangle") hat trick with "Front Porch" and I'd say it's the best of the three.

     Let the record state that this is some world class jangling, though.  I'm not going to compare this to Johnny Marr, since that's the highest praise there is, but I'd like too.  Would you settle for Peter Buck on his best day?  You'll have to.  Couple the guitar work with some vocals (and lyrics) that invoke Paul Banks drunk at a karaoke night and you've got yourself a nice little number.  Pretty great for a debut single.

Final Score: MinneSarah - 4/5

                   TCDroogsma - 3.5/5

Well there you have it, everybody!  Another week's worth of singles listened to, reviewed, and filed away, never to be heard from again.

As always we would like to mention that this blog and its contributors are in no way affiliated with Minnesota Public Radio, The Current, or any of the artists above.  We're just music fans with keyboards.

For more MinneSarah be sure to give her a follow on Twitter and/or Instagram (@MinneSarah).  When MinneSarah is not contributing to the blog she is, evidently, living at The Science Museum Of Minnesota.

For more TCDroogsma be sure to give him a follow on Twitter and/or Instagram (@TCDroogsma) or head over to his personal blog Flatbasset.  When TCDroogsma is not contributing to the blog he's probably asleep.

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