Call it seasonal affective disorder, but Brittany’s post about the blues yesterday definitely got me teed up to continue the conversation. Other signs also pointed to why I should piggy-back my lovely hostess: yesterday's featured band The Black Keys’ just released a new music video for the glittery gospel rock "Gold on the Ceiling," off their latest release El Camino; then, of all things, a live version of Janis Joplin’s muggy, soul-crushing blues ballad "Ball and Chain" shuffled up on the ol’ iPod. But no, I thought, this is not a blues-only blog (though maybe it should be). Let’s mix it up at least a little.
Enter Scotland’s brogue-tastic electro-drone version of the blues: The Twilight Sad. Hand it to ‘em, because even their name would make Robert Johnson ask the devil about refinancing his soul just to keep up. This near-Glasgow-based indie trio has been shoegazing together since 2003, but they didn’t release an album until 2007, the critically acclaimed debut Fourteen Autumns & Fifteen Winters. Their heavy lyrics and multi-layered, multi-instrument soundscapes make a particularly deep impact in live gigs, where they’re known to add several players and crank that shit up to 11.
Aside from being a timely title for the season, "Cold Days" is a dark and brooding, yet still powerfully energetic block of audio venting, worthy of following up the Keys. There’s a focus to their intensity, like a laser beam of angst, and the trance-inducing electronic chords opening the track set the stage for the more profound eardrum assault on the way.
Though sonically the Sad don’t follow any kind of bluesy structures, their lyrics are the right kind of vague, dour mix that’s simple enough to not mean much to the casual listener further than "my baby left me," but they still ring true, straight to the ticker, in the raw emotion through which it’s vocalized – and that’s blues enough for me.
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