A few months ago I purchased a cheap electric guitar on ebay.  I have no idea how to play guitar.  Nevertheless, it’s been integral in the music that I’ve written since I bought it.  It really forces me to slow down and play simple things that I wouldn’t play on the piano.  You can get real comfortable on your primary instrument–so comfortable that you can end up feeling like you’ve exhausted your options when really there’s so much more you could do.

I guess what I’m saying is I’ve been on a simplicity kick recently.  Combined with my untrained guitar playing I’ve been listening to a lot of music that focuses on developing simple ideas.  The group AlasNoAxis led by Jim Black is really the pinnacle of what I’m talking about.  Before I get into AlasNoAxis, I want to talk about the leader for a bit.  Jim Black is one of the most amazing drummers that I have ever heard.  He has had bands with any number of incredible musicians including Kurt Rosenwinkel, Tim Berne, Dave Douglas, Andrew D’Angelo, and Ellery Eskelin.  Black has the ability to play pretty much anything you could ever and never think of.  But it’s his creativity and critical filter that separates him from other technically amazing drummers.

AlasNoAxis features Jim Black on drums, Chris Speed on tenor saxophone and clarinet, Hilmar Jensson on guitars, and Skuli Sverrisson on basses.  I’m constantly blown away by the way these guys take a simple melody or rhythmic idea and make it the greatest motif you’ve ever heard.  Of course, some of their songs sound like the craziest, most insanely difficult thing you could possibly play but again, Black’s critical songwriting (and the band’s playing) ensures that every twist makes sense and is neccessary to the overall composition.

In retrospect, I’d like to revise my statement about me being on a simplicity kick.  I think I’m on more of a make-sure-it-has-a-purpose kick.  Now more than ever people get caught up with what they can do and don’t stop to ask whether they should in the first place.  Nine times out of ten, the anwer is going to be “don’t do it.”

Here’s the first track off of the album Habyor entitled Talk About.

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And a video of them playing Maybe off of the album AlasNoAxis.

I’m back with the second installment of the Ohrwurm series.  This time I’m going to talk about the Brooklyn-based band, Frances.

I learned about Frances from my friend Julia Tepper (who actually plays violin in the group) while we were both part Keegan Dewitt’s band (when he still lived in Brooklyn). When listening to their Night Light EP that was released in 2006, I was immediately impressed by the intelligent songwriting of bandleader, Paul Hogan, both instrumentally and lyrically.

For some reason, these songs remind me of the outdoors and folk tales.  It might be because they’re so organic… surprising yet expected… impressive while remaining approachable.

Here’s the first track off the Night Light EP entitled Sale.

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Their site says there’s soon to be a full length album.  I can’t wait.

Here’s the first in a series of posts that I hope to make in which I let you know what I’ve been listening to.

Artist: Efterklang
Album: Parades

Efterklang is a band out of Copenhagen consisting of five core members (Mads Brauer, Casper Clausen, Thomas Husmer, Rune Mølgaard, and Rasmus Stolberg) but expanding to 11+ while touring and recording that have been stuck on repeat on my Zen for the past year. I came across their album, Parades, while I was at my old job, Musicians On Call, and I was going through boxes of CDs that had been donated from the FADER magazine. I was picking out CDs based purely on album art and orchestration (there was just too much music to actually listen to everything so I had no choice but to judge the book by its cover) and had no idea what I was in store for when I picked out Efterklang’s latest album.

Strings, brass, glockenspiels, vocals, guitars, percussion, samples, and more are layered throughout this album creating some of the most epic music I’ve heard. People say Sigur Ros is epic… people say Yeasayer is epic… and I agree with both of those statements but now imagine a combination of Sigur Ros and Yeasayer. Your resulting group would probably be something along the lines of Efterklang.

Ultimately, these are sophisticated pop songs with so much depth that, even after a year, I’m hearing new things every time I listen.

Horseback Tenors (by Efterklang off of their album Parades)

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Mirador – october 2007
The video for Mirador the first single off of Parades. The video is directed and designed by Hvass&Hannibal and UFEX and animated by Nan Na Hvass & Jens Christian Høgni Larsen.