Radio.Blog and The Old Ceremony
I had the opportunity to see The Old Ceremony as part of the same benefit where the Mountain Goats played on Friday. It was such a delightful surprise. These guys are from Chapel Hill. What was funny is that I had asked Shannon why there were so many people wandering around with suits. When The Old Ceremony began, it was clear that all the besuited ones were actually in the band. I’m such a sucker for any band with a fiddle, any band with a cello, and any band with a Hammond organ. TOC had all three, as well as the usual singer/guitarist, bass player, and drummer. They also had a very energetic guy on keyboards, and the Hammond organ player also played vibraphones (although I always see them and think of them as a marimba – too much musical training). At first, I was just taking pictures (as I do), but their sound really drew me in. They had wonderful real songs. I always feel like a good sign of a band is that its songs are reminiscent of classic songs I’ve heard before, but they don’t have that derivative feel (like Lenny Kravitz sounding like Curtis Mayfield, etc). After the show, I told Django Haskins, the band’s lead singer, that I was really impressed with the set, and that he should take that as a huge compliment because I was a real opinionated bitch with a strong tendency to roll my eyes when I hear good music. I bought a CD that night, and I was especially drawn to two of the songs in particular. The lyrics are excellent, which wasn’t something I was able to judge when I saw them live.
The first song on the disc, Talk Straight, so clearly expresses something that is such a big theme in my life: the importance of honesty in relationships. I have a lot of friends with all kinds of personality flaws (lawd knows I have my fair share of them, too), but what they do share is integrity, genuineness, and honesty. They don’t fear telling me the truth, even when they know it might hurt me, and for that, I am grateful. The other song by The Old Ceremony that I’ve been listening to is Papers in Order, knowing the my papers are, in fact, not yet in order. But it is sort of something to aim for. I’ve added both of these songs to my new Radio Blog, which I’ve now moved over to the sidebar, along with the other song they did which really rocked my socks off. During that song at the gig, John and Peter of the Mountain Goats were visible in the door, dancing their butts off! When they went on later, John made a point to mention how amazing TOC were. Man, he wasn’t wrong. Really impressive. I can’t really afford to see them open for Squirrel Nut Zippers, but they are playing a smaller gig nearby very soon. I’ll be there. No doubt.
I’ve also added another selection of songs I’ve been listening to lately. I first heard Heartless Bastards at Alibi after choir one night. I could have sworn that it was a man singing. After I got the tracks, it was clearly a woman. I don’t know what I was thinking. The song Blue Day has become one of my favorite tracks to listen to when I’m on the elliptical machine at the gym.
I got a chance to see Telepath again last night, and they were, once again, really excellent. I’m working on editing the pix and video I took and it will be heading to my Flickr and YouTube pages soon. I’ve thrown two of my favorite Telepath tracks over into the Radio Blog, too. You also get a Kristin Hersh, a little Wolfmother, and a live version of Crazy by Gnarls Barkley that you’ve maybe not heard.
Enjoy, people. I’ll add more as I’m inspired to do so.
