So I promised album reviews, and reviews you shall get.
"So say the answer slowly/Say it if you know/Why it took thirty-eight chapters for/The Lord to answer Job"
Questions like these could drive a kid from the buckle of the Bible Belt crazy, but it's exactly this and other questions that Beau Jennings, the singer/songwriter soul of Norman, Oklahoma's Cheyenne, poses in the verses and choruses of
I Am Haunted, I Am Alive, Cheyenne's debut release on The Record Machine, a label out of Kansas City.
In the hills, rolling plains and frontier atmosphere of Jennings' native Oklahoma he finds his muse, but Beaus songs arent merely tales of Indian natives and over-eager settlers.
I Am Haunteds songs are bridges, character portraits that link the past with the present. In Believe and Escape, the albums weathered, whispering closing track, an soul from a time long past laments unrequited love by means of a murder ballad.
Jennings lyrics often hit like clever, ironic punchlines that your best friend might include in a story about a painful breakup. These interspersions match the production perfectly. In Say the Answer Shortly, arguably the best track on the album, Jennings questions and observations about life hover over James McAlisters (Sufjan Stevens, Ester Drang, Pedro the Lion) and Chad Copelin's atmospheric production, including synth pads, hauntingly anemic piano, Brian Wilson-like vocal harmonies, and slide guitar, among other sounds, to create a beautifully painful juxtaposition.
Juxtaposition is exactly the word to describe
I Am Haunted
Hopeful elegiac laments are followed by rousing train songs, followed by traditional folk ballads, and somewhere in between the ambient synths and the banjo, the murder ballads and the hopeful musings, everything sounds like it belongs there. And it does.
The greatest thing about I Am Haunted
is that the album
sounds like Oklahoma. It sounds like the dust bowl depression, the rolling hills, and the western frontier, but it also sounds like the Oklahoma of 2 am truckstop gas pumps, just-passin-through-nomads and local church kids looking past their Bible Belt society while hanging onto their heartland warmth.
This type of thing tends to catch on, so watch out.
Cheyenne - You Were the SoundCheyenne - HousesBuy I Am Haunted, I Am Alive from Insound.comBuy I Am Haunted, I Am Alive from The Record Machine
Not Posting is the New Posting
Let me ask you this question:
How often do you check a blog that posts infrequently? Once a week? Twice? Daily?
I posit this possiblity: Let's assume you're a daily checker. Let's assume I actually post sometimes. Maybe when I don't post, you're inclined to check back the next day. "Maybe he'll post tomorrow," you think to yourself. Maybe I will. What happens when I post? "Yes! A post! I'll read, comment, and consider my day more complete."
But then the next day comes. Oh, the next day!
Do you check my blog the next day? I suggest that you won't.
It's like how in college, everyone shows up the class before the test, but for the class
after the test... ghost town.
Discuss.
I [Heart] Apple
I'm in love, people. It's the real thing this time.
Apple has won my everlasting devotion.
"How?" you might ask. Well I'll tell you:
Within thirty minutes of
my last post, I was greeted to a package at the door containing my long lost Powerbook! Apple could have just fixed what I told them to fix, namely, my Superdrive. Instead, they fixed the Superdrive (as far as I know - I haven't checked it out yet), but they also replaced the screen, which had some random dead pixels and dark spots on it, and they also cleaned the trackpad and keys, as well as fixing the noisy hinge on my screen. Above and beyond, Apple; That's why I love you.
So, I'm back. With a vengance (and a Powerbook). It's good to be back.
Blogger Dead-Zone
Often, once you reduce your posting frequency down to less than once/week, you're starting to lose your fan base.
I never
had a fan base to start with. So, no worries, right?
I just wanted to let you know that the (s)Wheat Spot! hasn't died, but my precious Powerbook came up limping last week and had to be sent into Apple rehab to nurse a sore Superdrive back into health.
In the meantime, I've got two album reviews brewing for
Cheyenne's full-length album and the new Spoon album, and I'm sure that tonight's episode of the O.C., co-starring
Death Cab for Cutie will provide some fodder for reflection.
So, in my absence, consider this post a forum for free-form comment posting. Ask me a question about a band I've mentioned. Talk about the weather where you are. Muse on the ordination of the new Pope. Lament the inherent difficulties of long-distance relationships. Talk about the O.C., for crying out loud.
If you comment, they will read...
iTuned into the O.C.
In the fledgling days of the (s)Wheat Spot!, you could have mistaken me for an evil viral marketing tool for Fox to promote the O.C.'s new season, and, more importantly, the Season 1 DVD's. Lately, I'm sure you realize that I'm more of a jet-setting man-about-the-nation-kind-of-guy.
Never fear, though because while the O.C. has not been running consistent new episodes, they're back this week. Set your VCRs on Stun!
If that's not enough (and, for me, it never is), there's a new
Music from the O.C. mix out. Songs of note: A.C. Newman's "On the Table", arguably the second-best song on his album, "The Slow Wonder" (the first being "Come Crash" by a landslide - I will accept no arguments!); Sufjan Stephens - an increasingly-known nu-folk artist for those of you who like your damien rice with a chaser of weirdo (not to mention the fact that Sufjan is a Christian, as far as I know).
There's also a song off the
new Beck album,
Guero, called Scarecrow. It's not my favorite on the album, but it's good, and
very O.C.! So there.
I'm attaching some Sufjan Stevens mp3s. Enjoy.
Sufjan Stevens - Sister, off Seven Swans
Sufjan Stevens - That Was the Worst Christmas Ever
More Cowbell!!!
I'm a plagiarist. I never said I wasn't. But
Stereogum had a
"Don't Fear the Reaper"-Related Post Today, and I wanted to share the love.
What is it about this song? It's a love song.
Will Ferrell canonized it into the comedy pantheon. And once you hear it, you can't get it out of your head. It's the guitar opener; It's the cowbell; It's the sprawling guitar solos; It's everything, and it's nothing at the same time.
You know, I put my blog on one keystroke at a time... But once that blog is done, I make
gold records!
