music link
On the vanguard of new music
Last night on the radio there was
this piece on Clap Your Hands Say Yeah!,
a band which has been having a big debut on the music blogs. They
sounded somewhat familiar, but I didn't recall hearing anything about
their story, until they got to an excerpt from
In This Home On Ice.
I had heard it before. It was on my MP3 player
and on my computer, dated the first week of July. It took a little
bit of searching, but I figured out that I had picked up because
it had been featured on
Fingertips Music
at that time, which had the following praise:
But maybe the best example is at the end of the verse, a moment that sounds to me like the song's central pivot point (and best hook): the way the melody works through the same note twice with a classic (actually classical) chord progression through to the tonic, or home chord. Adding that extra line delays resolution even as it makes resolution all the more inevitable and delicious--extra-delicious, really, in the context of this nervous-seeming song. Don't by the way miss the wacky moment of Queen-ish anarchy in the bridge, which adds to the song's odd brilliance.Yes, it has all that, and a good hook besides.
And now, four months later, there's a news
piece about the phenomenon on mainstream media. I have considered myself
well past the age where I could be on the edge of something new and
exciting in music, but here I am identifying with the new tastemakers,
and it feels strange.