Skip to main content

Frightened Rabbit is Ill But They're Not Dead

I forgot to mention you can dance to it


Sounds Like: Ten years ago you left your mother and father and sisters and your best friend and your good friends and you promised to write and you meant what you said and you tried to you really really tried to call but there were waves and the night swallowed everyone and the food on the islands and those accents and all the sounds from across the desert and it's funny what makes you miss Kansas and you finally come back not for good but you return even if only for one day and we're all there and this is what we sound like when we finally see you again.

RIYL: Josh Ritter, Hefner, The Shins, Elvis Perkins, Richard Buckner

Reaction: It is difficult to hate a defenseless fluffy mammal. It's even harder to listen to Scottish alt-folk-singer-songwriter-laddie-lads Frightened Rabbit and not feel the hot rush of inspiration creeping through the notches in your spine. I have a tendency to gush about bands I like, but who can fault a band that opens with an emotional hurricane of a song and calls it "Modern Leper"? Surely this is a not a band for hipsters and scenesters, but a band for poets. Deftly shrouded in spirited harmonics lies the doubting voice of an anxious, confounded character. His are questions and revelations sung at top volume to portray their inspired nature--or so we are led to believe. He could, of course, be lying through his tilted Hibernian grill. Regardless, he's the only one I've heard who can sing "choo-choo train" and be taken seriously.

Band :: Frightened Rabbit

Album :: The Midnight Organ Fight

Song :: I Feel Better



Comments

Anonymous said…
I bought it am very very happy now. Its fall here and this sounds perfect playing through the house as the grey storms come over the mountains toward my house.

These two bands, you would like them cause these guys rip a little from the first, and the second is just great: The long winters. The lord dog bird.

DZ

Popular posts from this blog

Celebrate Halloween with Peter Squires's New Video, "Witch"

I don't usually do festive or holiday posts. In fact, the closest I get is writing some kind of seasonal bent against a track, and only then when I've had too much coffee and can't find any relation to a song other than what the weather is doing. I just think holiday-themed posts / articles are lazy. But Halloween is different. Why? Because Halloween, to paraphrase Wesley Willis, whips a horse's ass. So when Ryan from The Musebox put me on to Peter Squires a few days ago, I knew it was going into the annals of Duck & Cover (that's right, I said "annals" on the Internets). From the Press Release: Peter’s direct and honest vocal delivery is reminiscent of contemporaries such as Kimya Dawson and Luke Temple. The album is all heart, laid bare for our aural pleasure. Woe Is Me was recorded in Peter Squires’ Brooklyn bedroom and is available on his website for fans to download at no charge. The first video from the album is “Witch” and it was just rele...

The Pogues + The Dubliners = St. Patrick's Rovers

In celebration of St. Patrick's day, and because I spent a good deal of time living on Ireland's west coast (if you can call Limerick a coast), here's an old video of The Pogues and The Dubliners singing "Irish Rover." I love the fact that Shane MacGowan is puffing away at a rollie on stage--and I'm pretty sure it's not water in that styrofoam cup. This video reminds me of a musician I palled around with during my stint in stab city. A mesmerizing performer, Damo would often celebrate the fact he scored a gig before the gig itself. When it was time for him to go on, he would be completely trollied; too drunk for his own performance (which, if you knew Damo, you would concede is no small feat). Damn, I miss those guys.

Lucero Video for "Darken My Door"

Darken My Door from Lucero on Vimeo . It's good to see that a serious band doesn't have to take itself seriously. Even better when a band's fans don't take them too seriously. "Darken My Door" off of Lucero's latest album, 1372 Overton Park , is a song about losing stuff--girlfriend, money, dignity. In fact, a lot of Lucero's songs are like that, but I'm not getting into that now. I'm talking about the video, which has so much to love. Obviously, I love the fact director Alex Mecum has used a puppet as the protagonist. But it's what the puppet does that makes this video so much fun. Puppet eating chili dogs, puppet drinking whiskey, puppet giving blow jobs . . . Hell, there's even puppet vomit! It's ridiculous, yes, but also tragic. By the end of the video, if you don't feel a little sorry for the scruffy faced whore puppet, then you have no soul. Here's a little more about the videos for Lucero's new album: To promot...