Christian
recommended a great new band to me:
The Besnard Lakes. Listening to them reminds me of Brian Wilson and Pink Floyd and My Morning Jacket. There are shiny falsettos, dream sequences, and reverb-drenched solos. It's music that I want to share with my girlfriend. A Google search then led me to the band's record label,
Jagjaguwar. There, I found a happy surprise: entire albums — freely flowing streams of music — not only from The Besnard Lakes, but also from a couple of other interesting bands,
Odawas and
Alex Delivery.
These bands are so interesting, in fact, that even Jon Iverson likes them. This is not to say that Jon Iverson is a music snob. I wouldn't say such a thing. "Is it too unfair to ask for great art from new bands?" I don't know, Jon. Is it fair to ask for great art from anyone? I don't know, I really don't know. I'm just saying that Jon Iverson isn't easy to please. Which can be a good thing, when you think about it. It's exactly the reason why, when Jon admitted to me that he actually liked Odawas, I felt like I'd won a prize.
Holy shit, I said,
Somebody buy me a drink! I found a band that Jon likes!
It made me happy.
How did you describe their music, Jon? What was it? Rainy morning music? I wonder, then, if you'd like them still as much on this sunny, sunny afternoon. I do. I'm listening now. Turns out that Odawas is just as nice when there are no clouds in the sky. And I bet they're even nicer on the hi-fi. So far, I've only enjoyed them through the computer. The most wonderful thing of all, from a certain audiophile's perspective, may be that the album itself is available primarily on vinyl. Primarily, I say: The LP package
also comes with a gratis compact disc version.
Yet I wonder, also, exactly what it is that Jon likes so much about the music. You see, he's always asking for something "new," and, though I agree that Odawas' album,
Raven and the White Night, is excellent, it doesn't strike me as being
new. Perhaps it's the combination of seemingly disparate elements. There are synthesizer squeals, acoustic guitars, and distant whistles. Perhaps it's the mingling of eastern and western influences. There are strings and bells and bangs and moans. Perhaps it's just that rainy morning mood.
And Alex Delivery? Alex Delivery reminds me of summertime trees set afire by cicadas. Or it reminds me of working from 7am to 4pm at the chemical plant, the rhythm of pumps and the scent of carbon steel pipe. The album,
Star Destroyer, I am proud to say, was mastered just like ours: At
West West Side, by Alan Douches, and, so, I know it'll sound good. The shimmers and shifts and rings will definitely thrill through the hi-fi.
These are not "audiophile recordings," but they are recordings that, I think, audiophiles will enjoy, happily.
