Strand of Oaks//End in Flames

Monday's Mail is Wednesday's Show.
What is Monday Mail, anyway?

It was funny to get this email from Jessi at Goldest Egg:

Strand of Oaks is Timothy Showalter, an Indiana Mennonite turned Pennsylvania Hebrew Dayschool teacher who even drives the school bus for extra cash (and has sing-alongs with the pupils as they ease on down the road). While escaping a relationship gone worse, Showalter returned home one day to a house burned down, leaving all of his earthly possessions charred in flames. Spending nights in downtown hotels and on park benches with a borrowed guitar, he began to face the proverbial demons. Like any good roller coaster ride there came an upside, as inspiration grew like weeds within the rubble; songs led to shows, which led to tours of the US and UK with Jason Anderson and Kimya Dawson.

Strand of Oaks will dazzle audiences on this tour covering the mid-west and east coast with fellow crooner White Pines.

You might say, g, bad relationships and fires aren’t actually funny--and you would be right. They’re not. What’s funny about this email is that one of the shows that Jessi wanted to tell me about is one I’ll be playing with Palmyra. You may recognize that name, White Pines, from a previous local music OSS post. Palmyra’s playing a number of shows with Joe (White Pines) during March, including one on 3/3 in Brooklyn with Strand of Oaks. Bingo! Funny?

I hadn’t had the pleasure of listening to any Strand of Oaks until recently, but now that I have, I’m so excited that we get to play a show with him. His songs are pretty, quiet, lush and heartfelt. His lyrics are earnest without overdoing it, all set against a backdrop of the kind of acoustic guitar tone that makes me jealous, in a good way. Also he recently covered Bruce Springsteen’s “Used Cars” from my favorite Nebraska--a man after my own heart.

We'll all be together this Wednesday at Zebulon in Brooklyn. The show is free and starts at 8. Hope very much to see you there.

In case you’re not in NY, Tim and Joe still have a few more dates left on their tour.



End in Flames.mp3

This is what it feels like
To see the world end in flames.

The Innocence Mission//Brave

On my way to work this morning, an Innocence Mission song from a friend’s mix popped onto my iPod. I was suddenly sent reeling down the rabbit hole of nostalgia.

People talk about smell being the most visceral sense memory and I believe that they’ve scientifically proven it to be so. That said, certain old songs can really tug me to very specific places and times in my life. The Innocence Mission’s album Glow brings me straight back to 1999. I remember listening to it in my room while lying on my bed staring at the ceiling. I remember listening to it in my friend Liz’s car as we drove to school on cold mornings or home from volleyball games with the sunroof open. It brings me back to a time when I didn’t really have much to worry about and for that reason, I am finding revisiting this album kind of addictive. I’ve been listening to it all morning.

A friend informed me that IM is a Christian band. I was slightly shocked, largely because I could never understand the lyrics—when I looked them up for this song, it became very apparent. I went to investigate further. Exhibit A: In 2000, they released an album containing their favorite hymns called Christ Is My Hope. Exhibit B: Perhaps even more “damning,” the band met during their Catholic school's production of Godspell. Yeek. That said, I don’t really have anything against subtly Christan bands (see: Pedro the Lion) and definitely don’t have anything against Christians (actual Christians, not right wing wingnuts who think we’re all (seriously ALL of us) going to hell).

A few quick interesting tidbits about IM—if you think they sound a little like Joni Mitchell, it might be because their first few records were produced by Larry Klien AKA Joni's ex-husband who also produced many of her records. Also, if you were culturally aware in the 90s, they may sound familiar to you because of their extremely successful commercial placement. Their songs were on the soundtracks of two 90s classics—the film Empire Records and the TV show Party of Five.



Brave.mp3

You cannot still your limbs.
Somehow, knowing what you do know
still you tremble out and in.

The Pixies//I'm Amazed, Atom and His Package//I'm Downright Amazed...

Here's another double, to make up for my absence yesterday.

The word of the day is “amazed” for my amazingly intense (in more ways than one) weekend. Here are two short and sweet songs that tackle the subject in a distinctly different manner.

The first is a super jam from one of my favorite Pixies albums, Surfer Rosa. It leads with one of the most hilarious moments on the album—Kim Deal’s “They were so….quiet about it…”

It’s hard to tell exactly what Black Francis is amazed by—the subject matter is kind of all over the place (shock). That said, I’m amazed when I think about dancing in the halls of East Quad to this and other SR songs with a certain Michael Beauchamp.

The second song came off a sweet, sweet Mordam sampler I got in high school (height of punk era). Adam Goren AKA Atom and His Package was a friend of friends, which is how I came to know about him. Actually, his package (his electronic setup of synths and samplers) was pretty amazing.

It’s pretty obvious what he’s amazed about.



I'm Amazed.mp3



I'm Downright Amazed at What I Can Destroy With Just a Hammer.mp3

Before I died, I took my Honda,
And packed it up, up, up to Arizona!
I'm amazed!
I'm amazed!
I'm amazed!