Listeners’ Choice!

A few days back I made a post asking for entries for a listeners’ choice post, where you guys out there get to pick what you want to showcase on Radio KRUD – here’s the results!

“Cool Waves” – Spiritualized [ buy Ladies & Gentlemen We Are Floating in Space ]
Garth writes in: “Spiritualized combines indie-style rock with a bit of gospel. It’s a testament to their talent and creativity that they make such a seemingly mismatched combination work, and work well. Like Godspeed You! Black Emperor, they like to build up to a climax over the course of a song. The selection here, “Cool Waves”, starts off with a simple tune and a
spare arrangement, and builds to a powerful finish backed by a choir. It’s from their album “Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating In Space”, and all-around excellent album. The title track, a sort of fugue built from interlocking vocal parts, is also highly recommended.”

(I agree, the song is like a choir + string / wind ensemble + a hint of rock, and it’s very relaxing… the song gradually builds up, and then gently lets you back down.)

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Next, three songs from Evelyn:
“Carolina Girls” – Chairmen Of The Board [ buy Beach Music Anthology ]
Evelyn is a big fan of shag (beach) music, and I can fully imagine myself listening to this while crusing down those straightaway roads to the beach. It’s rather peppy. It makes me think of somebody taking only half of the E Street Band (the sound isn’t as full as in Springsteen’s songs) and giving them some Prozac! Either that, or Boz Scaggs’ backup band.

“Come Undone” – Cravin’ Melon [ buy Squeeze Me ]
Since Evelyn is from the Carolinas, she’s also decided to provide us with this rocking song from South Carolina band Cravin’ Melon. Not that bad of a tune. You can definitely tell they’re a southern band by their style.

“Teenagers, Kick Our Butts” – Dar Williams [ buy End of the Summer ]
Finally, we have Dar Williams’, Evelyn’s favorite singer/songwriter, performing “Teenagers, Kick Our Butts”. “She’s been compared to Joni Mitchell and the like,” says Evelyn – I’ll have to take her word for it, as I haven’t heard Joni Mitchell, at least not knowingly. 🙁

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“Sing, Sing, Sing” – Barrage [ official site ]
For the final submission, Todd brings us this track by Canadian group Barrage: “I changed my mind at least 3 times about which track to submit.  I love the whole album, and it’s difficult to get an idea of Barrage’s show from just one track.  But since I was a jazz band member in high school, this song gets a tiny boost over the rest. A violin version of a swing classic? Fantastic.”

Oh. My. God. Big band jazz meets string ensemble. My jaw dropped when I started to hear this for the first time – I started listening before really reading the blurb Todd wrote, and when I heard the violins I was spellbound. If they ever come by this way on tour or something, I definitely need to see their show if the rest of their material is anywhere near that. Wow. That makes me think of T-Tauri, whose cover of The Saber Dance I downloaded back in the day off of mp3.com before the site changed ownership, except this isn’t as rock-oriented as T-Tauri is.

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Well, that’s that for today – if you’ve ever got something you just want to share, feel free to send it my way along with a quick blurb about the song if you’d like! Thanks to our submitters for this round – you’ve all got good taste in music. 😀