It’s Tuesday and that means it’s time to pull out your wallets and get payin’ fer what you been listening to! It’s the right thing to do and besides, good karma will get you laid! It’s true! So, let’s get to it….
When you hear the first chords off the new Born Ruffians album, Say It, you might think, just for a second, that you loaded up Frog Eyes. The quivering, quavering, shimmering chords start & stop, all a capella style & shit. And just as you look down at your mp3 player of choice, probably right around the 0:19 second mark, half-expecting Mercer to start yelping at you, the drums and bass kick in & you smile & you bob your head. You really can’t help it.
Okay, like I intimated yesterday, I’m going to be all controversial & whatnot right now. Say It sounds like — *gulp* — what the Vampire Weekend album should’ve sounded like! There. I said it.
Now, before you shoot off a nasty email to the editor (me), hear me out. The ONLY reason that comparison or statement or whatever pops in my head is the Afro-centric bass, percussion, well, general rhythm section, okay? But, instead of lacing the song with overt this-is-what-we-are-supposed-to-sound-like-isms, loaded with inside jokes, that this boy will never understand, you just have a fun & soulful pop/rock thing going on, letting their influences guide them & not their hype control them!
And man, is it fun! Playful on words, on annunciations, on riffs, on, well, on everything. Take the first song to pop out, “Sole Brother”, you kinda want to sing Soul Brother, but you can’t, he’s really sing about what a pain in the ass his sibling is! ha!
Or in “What To Say”…
When I get up I’m speaking slooow,
When I get drunk I’m speakin’ mo’.
Get to drunk and I don’t speak at alll.
Get to close to you and I don’t knoooow….
What to saaay!
Then a light R&B melody kicks in while vocals compete with a playful guitar for lead lyricist! Yeah… And that’s the serious song.
Where with Vampire Weekend, unless you come from a word of, well, of Oxford Comma’s and popped-collared polos, you might be left out in the cold, not invited to the party… Born Ruffians mom worked at as a 5 & Dime waitress, buying gas to get to work daily on the shitty tips she made the day before, and THAT I can relate to!
Am I projecting imagery on a band without any basis of facts? Sure! But hey, if Pitchfork can do it, so can I, right? ;) haha!
Anywhosal doosal, I think I tweaked enough people with this one (sorry, I do like Vampire Weekend, fine, just not nearly as much as the hype surrounding them and as for Pitchfork, well, they are just easy targets) sorry!
Back to reason for the season, Say It. Fun, catchy, good times man from a band clearly having some fun good times themselves, what else do you need?
01 Oh Man
02 Retard Canard 03 Sole Brother
04 What to Say
05 The Ballad of Moose Bruce
06 Higher & Higher
07 Come Back
08 Nova-Leigh
09 Blood, the Sun & Water
10 At Home Now
Good morning cowpokes! It’s gonna be a good day, right? Right. And to help make sure that is so, here’s some viddy-vids to get the day started right!!! WOOT! Have a jim-dandy of one!
Alright my friends, it’s about time for this bird to take a day off and go see Mama & Sister Tsuru down in Flo-Ri-Da! But before I do…. RIDE UPDATE!
Did you see that the TSURURADIO SUPER AWESOME NO-FRILLS BIKE RIDE for BREAST CANCER on APRIL 3RD has been updated with Maps & Routes??? That’s right! The routes are solidified! Here’s what we’ve got…. We’ve got a lovely riverside bike path 10 miler, a slightly more challenging 20 miler, then the epic 50 miler for the experienced and seasoned riders! Going to be EPIC!!!! Are you riding with us? I hope so!!! If not, then wherever you are, get some friends together, bring $10, $20, whatever a pop, put it in a pot, go for a bike ride and send it to your favourite charity! That’s the whole point! Anyone can do this. You don’t need to wait for a Lance Armstrong to show up, or the American Diabetes Association to put on a ride or a run or a whatever, you can do this anywhere and at any time! BUT, if you are in Columbus on April 3rd and you got a bike, I sure hope to see you at mine!
Now unfortunately for these gams o’ mine — NOTE: need to sing a parody of Guns & Roses “Sweet Child O’ Mine” but cycling version that goes “Sweet Gams O’ Miiiiiiine” at my next group ride — there won’t be any riding this weekend for me as I’m not about to try to pack my bike for a tiny 3 day trip to Tampa, but seeing the family (including my snowbird Canadian in-laws (two birds, or make that about 5 birds, with one stone!)) more than makes up for it, eh? I think so too. Time off tomorrow means a busy day today, so what do you say we get right on to los musica, my little going away present to you, and man it’s a doozy! 2.1 hours, 26 songs of new, less than new, and pretty darn old songs that have gotten stuck in my mind, my ears, and in my heart, all laid out in proper listening order, packaged up, labeled up, zipped up, & uploaded just for you.
*smooch*
So let’s do this! Get ‘er loaded up on her player of choice and have a wonderful weekend! I’ll see you all on the Twitters, the Facebooks, &/or our Society this weekend but if all that’s not your cup o’ tea, well, then, I guess I’ll see you back here on Monday. Until then, enjoy as…
tsururadio. The musical obsessions, meanderings, and field observations of Aaron Tsuru most often presented in mixtape format, the way the good lard intended!
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