Husband and wife duo Whitehorse pack an emotional punch with the first single from their new album The Fate of the World Depends on this Kiss. (I promise I’m not wallowing in clichés here, the punch is literal. Watch the video.) Luke Doucet and Melissa McClelland, major talents in their own right, have continued their musical partnership that began last year with the release of their self-titled debut. Continue reading “Whitehorse’s Achilles’ Desire [Repost]”
Not sciency at all…But here’s the song I wanted to post. New video from one of my favourite bands, about love and being yourself in love and seems appropriate for the particular moment in time.
I first heard this song when I was about 8 years old at the 1984 Renfrew Fair. The cool older kids seemed to love it, and they were playing it non-stop on what I was convinced was the scariest and coolest ride at the fair: The Zipper. Released by Canadian New Wave greats Martha and the Muffins on their 1980 album Metro Music, it was written by Mark Gane while working for the summer checking wallpaper for defects. He said in an interview with CBC radio a few weeks ago that he changed the worker to an office clerk, because he figured that was more relatable than wallpaper inspector (fittingly CBC Music just hosted their first music festival at Echo Beach in Toronto, though that wasn’t the beach named in the song). It’s undoubtedly an early ’80s classic.
But unlike lots of other songs I encountered at the time, this one has always stuck with me as a favourite. Beyond loving the really rhythmic chorus and the repeated hook at the end, I think I love it because it’s a bit sciencey. The beach isn’t nostalgic or the memory of something that happened long ago. It’s “far away in time”, which always made me think that the song recognized space and time as connected. And “knowing I’ll be back at echo beach someday” always said to me that it’s not gone. It exists both then and now. It always felt like a planet visited in Dr. Who, far away both in space and time but not gone when you leave, not in the same way that childhood homes and toys are gone. I’m probably reading way too much into it but it was one of the first things I thought of when I started to learn more advanced physics. So for no other reason than that it’s a cool image of time, I wanted to celebrate this great song.
Editor’s Note: On Twitter today, there is a hashtag #twopaired making the rounds. Folks are posting favorite duets. That is not enough for us. This post has a duet of duets, featuring duo Tegan & Sara and duo The White Stripes both taking a run at Walking with a Ghost. Originally posted 22 October 2012.
Today’s song is a soft and hazy vignette from Irish singer-songwriter Lisa Hannigan (seen here with her harmonium). Venn Diagram places us in the apartment of a women letting her lover sleep as she awakes and quietly starts the day. The lyrics are careful and evocative, making the song feel like the start of a literary short story. Continue reading “Lisa Hannigan’s Venn Diagram”
The Finch and Pea 