mytbc

Good Old Elitism

I am a fan of the band They Might Be Giants, who rock something awful, frankly. One of the best things about the band is their podcast. It’s nothing short of spectacular. It includes remixes of many of their songs, live versions, studio versions, just lots of stuff, really. And in Podcast 9A, they included a song by another band called The Vitamen. Now, this song, “The Problem with America,” was rather good. I figured I had two options. I could open the podcast up in Audacity and cut out the song, thus availing myself of listening to Cecil Portesque whenever I wanted to hear why America sucks. Or, and here’s a radical thought in this day and age, I could buy the CD.

Luckily, the CD was for sale on CD Baby, so I got an excuse to buy some more albums too. See, the $9 postage or whatever is a bit much for one CD, but is certainly palatable for 2, or 3. So, that night, I said to myself “3 CDs, sir”, and spent the next two hours browsing CD Baby. Yesterday, they arrived.

First of all, the Vitamen CD. Bit disappointing, frankly. There’s a fair amount of music on it, but I think it’s going to take a bit for me to get used to their singing voices before I really enjoy listening to it. I’ll give it time.

The second CD I ordered was from a band called Instereo , and it was their CD Super Hero. At first I was a bit disappointed, actually. The first two songs were far too “Hey look, I can play guitar” for me, when it was supposed to be a worship album. Something I could listen to on my mp3 player and help me focus on God. But, once I got past those, I’ve found it’s a fairly decent little album. Take The Pain Away (Serena’s Song) is a little Third Day, which is never a bad thing.

Certainly, there’s a few songs in there which would work well in a Church setting. Actually, come to think of it, all but the title track would totally work in a Church, as long as the first two lost a fair bit of guitar.

Now, the third CD that I got is an absolute stunner. I decided to search to find stuff similar to The Decemberists, one of the best bands I’ve had the privilege to see live. CD Baby suggested an album of Sea Shanties by some guy called John Kraus. I bought it solely for his version of the Mingulay Boat Song, and pretty much every song on the album is amazing. If you’re looking for an album of sea shanties, you are really looking to add this one to your collection. Donkey Off A Dead Horse. Buy it.

Man, I love reviewing music you’ve never heard of, makes me feel special.

Toodle pip