This Friday’s music post is brought to you by Jonah.

We’ve had this album in the car for a while and Jonah really likes it and I think it shows just how strange and eclectic his musical tastes run. It’s so funny how sometimes he’s just as happy listening to a “farm Songs” CD filled with kid’s songs about animals and then he suddenly turns the corner and requests something like Sleigh Bells. The other day when it hit in the rotation I decided to skip it because Mark and Corbin were both sleeping and it’s kind of loud (as you will see below) and he said from the back of the car that I really should change it back and that he wanted to listen to that one.

Sleigh Bells isn’t for everyone. I’ve read that they are classified as noise-pop, which is a genre I didn’t even know about. Anyway, it’s made up of a guy and girl who met by chance, he coming from a hardcore band and she coming from some poppy Nickelodeon stuff (and was most recently a teacher). When you listen to it there’s this amped up sound that just walks that line of being totally distorted, like they’ve got the base turned up just a little too loud and it’s about to blow. It’s a unique sound, to be sure, but I don’t know if there are a lot of people who could listen to their whole album and not get a little tired of it. Slanky also mentioned that he’d read that even though it’s a pretty unique sound, do they really have more than one album of this style in them before it gets old? I read an interview with them on Pitchfork and it gave me a lot more insight into the artistry they are trying to achieve with it. Alexis Krauss, the singer, talked about how even though she’d been involved in a very poppy light genre of music she’d always felt like hard core music was (what she referred to as) a more honest form of music. I can see what she’s alluding to, if you think about how artistic something is in reference to how individualized, new or unique it is. That age-old what is art question..

Anyway, there’s a lot of other good stuff in the article which I will link to here.

And now the music, if I can get the uploading program to actually work for once.

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I have no idea what this song is about but it’s my favorite one on the album, Treats. I think I might like it because it’s got a lesser amount of distortion. I should really also include one that has more so you can get a feel for it.

Ok, here you go, this one’s called Crown on the Ground.

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As it turns out, the two times I’ve used Shazam in the last couple months have yielded the name of the same band, The Drums. Obviously they’ve got something that catches my ear! I mentioned this to Slanky and, as only a man with a true love of music would do, he immediately came home with their album.
I don’t know a ton about them yet but I really enjoy the ease of their music. It’s fun and rocking but not trying too hard. Jonah’s also been enjoying them and when the album’s on in the house he immediately searches for his drum sticks (I suppose that means they are aptly named). I read somewhere that they are touring with Surfer Blood, another totally awesome band we’ve been listening to here, but it looks like that tour is only happening in Europe. Could be due to the fact that they are on a UK label. I’m sure they’d be fun live though.
I’ll try and find a youtube link since we haven’t gotten the album upstairs for download yet.

This song is called “Let’s Go Surfing”. For those of you into the kiddo music you may recognize lyrics at the end of the song.