I have been feeling uninspired lately. New music keeps coming out, but very little is grabbing me. Sure, this year has had some highlights, but it just isn't comparing to the wonder of 2007. Last year was like hitting a musical gold mine - everywhere I turned, a new band was coming out or an old band was releasing a new kick ass album. This year just hasn't been quite the same, I gotta tell 'ya.
As a result, I've found myself returning to stuff I was crazy about last year, or even two, or even THREE years ago. This has been an excellent reminder that good music is an excellent investment. Unlike many other investments that are part of the nation's general economic crash, good music is reliable, doesn't lose value, and will never require a government bail out. Good thing I invested all my money in music last year instead of in the stock market - I knew I made the right choice.
So, in honor of last year's gold mine of music, I'm picking one of my favorite songs from of last year, The Blow's appropriately titled "Pile of Gold", from the album Paper Television.
The Blow started as a project of Khaela Maricich, a cool girl from Portland. She is a musician-performing artist-writer-poet. She paired up Jona Bechtolt, and the band released three albums. Of course, I didn't hear about the band until they released Paper Television, their last album - shortly after the release, they split, and now the band is back to being a one-woman show. When I saw The Blow last fall, Khaela was performing on stage alone, singing along to music pumping out of her mixing board. It was seriously ballsy.
Khaela's lyrics are clever, funny, honest, relatable, about sex and love and loss and just feeling all the crap that we all do. She has a sense of humor. Some lyrics warm my heart and make me smile, while other lyrics tap into all those shitty feelings we don't want to deal with. Khaela says it all, frankly, without apology. And all those lyrics get put to a wild variety of beats and samples and sounds and influences, from drum corps to doowop to dirty electronica.
I think The Blow rocks. "Pile of Gold" was the first song I heard, and I was hooked. I think the intro sounds a little like The Knack's ubiquitous "My Sherona", and it has a killer beat. But above all, I love the lyrics, particularly the phrase "massive sapphic exodus", and Khaela's lesson in the economics of attraction, sex, and relationships. The whole album is great, you must check out "The Big U", "Parentheses", "Fists Up", and "True Affection".
Lyrics:
“Pile of Gold” Lyrics by The Blow
All the girls are sitting on a pile of gold
All the girls
And the boys you know they want, they want it
All the girls are sitting on a pile of gold
All the girls
And the boys you know they want it, they want it
Boys, we love you
Some of us don't
But plenty of us do
You should treat us good
You do that and you know
We're gonna uh-uh huh
Share more of our goods with you
All the girls are sitting on a pile of gold
All the girls
And the boys you know they want, they want it
All the girls are sitting on a pile of gold
All the girls
And the boys you know they want it, they want it
They want it, they want it
It's economic
Beneath the warmth that we export
Of course some boys will try to push the prices down
By pushing girls around
I've seen some do this
Learned to see through this
They get scared, so scared
Maybe we'll refuse to share with them
All join some massive sapphic exodus
Tell them
I know the truth that if you could
Learn to save enough to make some trade with me
All the girls are sitting on a pile of gold
All the girls
And the boys you know they want, they want it
All the girls are sitting on a pile of gold
All the girls
And the boys you know they want it, they want it
Boys boys we love you
Some of us don't
Plenty of us do
Treat us good
And you know we're gonna
Share share share
Our goods with you
© All rights reserved by The Blow.
If you like what you've heard...
The Blow's Myspace: http://www.myspace.com/theblowus
Khaela's blog: http://www.thetouchmefeeling.com/wordpress/
XOXO
Kim
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