tim. (![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} o_song) wrote,@ 2007-01-20 19:24:00 |
|
Top 10 of 2006. #04. The Bees (U.S.) - High Society
The Bees (U.S) - High Society
(As far as I can tell, self-released.)
"The Country Life"
(2:39, 6.08mb)
Track 1.
"Catch Yer Own Train"
(3:16, 7.13mb)
Track 6.
These Bees aren't the ones paying back that chicken. They're the UK Bees. Anyway, in the early years of this decade, various bands made a name for themselves by being nominally indie bands who were making music influenced by 1970s singer-songwriter soft pop - Josh Rouse's 1972, Nada Surf's Let Go, and Guster's Keep It Together, for example. The music had the unassuming, winning melodies and sweet harmonies of bands like Bread, America, or the Eagles but without being quite so...inoffensive. The Bees (U.S.) have made an album that seemingly distils indie soft pop into its purest form.
"The Country Life" was one of the singles of the year for me, as I wrote earlier this year:
"The Country Life" is tremendously catchy, the stereotypical example of an effortless sounding perfect pop song. Reminiscent of the Irish soul shuffle of Van Morrison's "Jackie Wilson Said", the interesting hooks never stop coming; it starts with an acoustic guitar with a prototypical rock'n'roll riff (see: "Rip This Joint" by the Stones), before a drum fill leads into the first verse. Over a walking bassline and insistent piano, the lead singer, Daniel Tashian, sings, "her Mama thinks I'm made out of money, her Daddy thinks we need more time, sister's got her own opinion". Into the chorus, "So long" goes the hook, with great harmonies. The chorus ends with the lines I'm gone, I'll trade the trouble and the strife for the country life. The angelic harmonies on "country life" makes the country life sound like it's the best thing ever.
My Dad moved to near Mudgee when I was 15. To be honest, I found the country life pretty boring. I'm a city boy at heart.
"Catch Yer Own Train", a break-up song of sorts, with its shimmering honky tonk piano and blasts of harmonica, is surprisingly bluesy, but also unusually upbeat and bouncy for soft pop of this nature. Traces of country and Elvis creep into Tashian's voice as he sings the verses - they are from Nashville after all. By the time the singalong choruses have kicked in, it's sunk under your skin. Perfect pop in it's own little way.
I suspect that the rise of soft indie pop has a lot to do with the rise of emo. The music industry loves a bit of yin and yang sometimes - indie is nothing if not reactive to the mainstream. The mainstream of rock at the moment seems to be emo kids - your Chemical Romances and Panic! at the Discos. Against that, soft pop makes a lot of sense - if the current thing is tortured souls, teenage angst and transmogrified pop punk, there's a certain satisfaction in listening to music that doesn't even know that punk exists, that is too subtle and tasteful to scream out its angst.
I can't wait for indie yacht rock. Bring on all the bands influenced by Hall and Oates, Christopher Cross and Loggins and Messina.
The Bees (U.S) - High Society
(As far as I can tell, self-released.)
"The Country Life"
(2:39, 6.08mb)
Track 1.
"Catch Yer Own Train"
(3:16, 7.13mb)
Track 6.
These Bees aren't the ones paying back that chicken. They're the UK Bees. Anyway, in the early years of this decade, various bands made a name for themselves by being nominally indie bands who were making music influenced by 1970s singer-songwriter soft pop - Josh Rouse's 1972, Nada Surf's Let Go, and Guster's Keep It Together, for example. The music had the unassuming, winning melodies and sweet harmonies of bands like Bread, America, or the Eagles but without being quite so...inoffensive. The Bees (U.S.) have made an album that seemingly distils indie soft pop into its purest form.
"The Country Life" was one of the singles of the year for me, as I wrote earlier this year:
"The Country Life" is tremendously catchy, the stereotypical example of an effortless sounding perfect pop song. Reminiscent of the Irish soul shuffle of Van Morrison's "Jackie Wilson Said", the interesting hooks never stop coming; it starts with an acoustic guitar with a prototypical rock'n'roll riff (see: "Rip This Joint" by the Stones), before a drum fill leads into the first verse. Over a walking bassline and insistent piano, the lead singer, Daniel Tashian, sings, "her Mama thinks I'm made out of money, her Daddy thinks we need more time, sister's got her own opinion". Into the chorus, "So long" goes the hook, with great harmonies. The chorus ends with the lines I'm gone, I'll trade the trouble and the strife for the country life. The angelic harmonies on "country life" makes the country life sound like it's the best thing ever.
My Dad moved to near Mudgee when I was 15. To be honest, I found the country life pretty boring. I'm a city boy at heart.
"Catch Yer Own Train", a break-up song of sorts, with its shimmering honky tonk piano and blasts of harmonica, is surprisingly bluesy, but also unusually upbeat and bouncy for soft pop of this nature. Traces of country and Elvis creep into Tashian's voice as he sings the verses - they are from Nashville after all. By the time the singalong choruses have kicked in, it's sunk under your skin. Perfect pop in it's own little way.
I suspect that the rise of soft indie pop has a lot to do with the rise of emo. The music industry loves a bit of yin and yang sometimes - indie is nothing if not reactive to the mainstream. The mainstream of rock at the moment seems to be emo kids - your Chemical Romances and Panic! at the Discos. Against that, soft pop makes a lot of sense - if the current thing is tortured souls, teenage angst and transmogrified pop punk, there's a certain satisfaction in listening to music that doesn't even know that punk exists, that is too subtle and tasteful to scream out its angst.
I can't wait for indie yacht rock. Bring on all the bands influenced by Hall and Oates, Christopher Cross and Loggins and Messina.
