March 16, 2010

Mates of State//Proofs, My Only Offer

I think I got into Mates of State, husband-and-wife indie pop team Kori Gardner and Jason Hammel, somewhere during my freshman year of college. I went to see them live soon after and my friends and I were all just amazed at how IN LOVE they seemed. I think we joked about them having sex on stage. Sorry. We were young and crass.

It’s weird—when I first saw them, I felt like I would never be in a relationship that was like that (or, that was like their relationship seemed—who knows how it really IS), so whole and good and together. Now that I finally am, their music conveys a new kind of energy to me and I hear the love bliss in the sound even more than before.

The Mates are kind of an interesting band because I really do think that their “togetherness” is integral to their sound, just as Quasi’s apartness as a couple influences their sound. While Quasi’s members go eagerly into their own strong directions and make amazing music from there, MoS have a strangely pure harmony that is kind of unique to them, as if the music is a representation of their fused aesthetics.

The couple is still together and they’re still making music (and PETA ads) too. They also have a few kids now. Cute.

If you can’t take the all the cuteness (once they even served as the house band to everyone’s favorite borderline precious radio show), you might be tempted to skip out on the Mates. But I’m telling you, don’t! Just give it a try and let yourself consider for a moment, however brief, that true love might exist. I promise it will be catchy poppy fun…and you can always listen to Moz next.



"Proofs" is the first song on My Solo Project and I love how it starts.

Proofs.mp3

The lyrics to "My Only Offer" read like a nano fiction modern classic.

My Only Offer.mp3

I’m on tour next week, my darlings, so OSS will be off until Monday. Hope you have a great week!

3 comments:

Lisa@goodknits said...

oh, I love Mates of State! "An Experiment" off of Team Boo was the only thing to get my baby to stop crying when he was a wee one.

g said...

craftattacks: That is just about the cutest thing ever.

Unknown said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.