I stumbled across The Midwest Indies on Spotify in one of my many discovery sessions. These usually start with a song from “my” library grabbing my attention. I’ll pull the artist up and start clicking through to related artists and sampling a few of each artist’s top tracks to see if anything stands out. Sometimes I find something new and compelling and start listening to one of the artist’s albums in it’s entirety. Such is the case with Truman.
About 5 weeks ago I moved to Chicago to start a new job and start planning out my family’s future when Courtney and Riley move here. I’ll be seeing my family for the first time in 6 weeks when I head back to Memphis for Thanksgiving this week. On the outset 6 weeks seemed manageable but it’s grown more difficult with every passing week. For the first few weeks I spent my evenings finishing The Wire one episode per night. Then I was tasked with getting my MCSA and started reading Mastering Windows Server 2012 R2 which lead me to start finding music to listen to while I was studying. All of this lead me to get back to one of my favorite past times, music discovery. Music can be so many things and is the background for much of our lives. Whether it’s to pass the time, to concentrate, to get energized, to get by or to heal; music is there.
I’ve recently been studying for my MCSA and have found that I need quality instrumental music to keep focused without distraction. I’ve started listening to a lot of Jazz which has been great but I think I’ve just found my new study music.
Chris Walla has always been intriguing to me. He and Ben Gibbard have always been hard for me to deconstruct because they’re such complex guys[1] with immense talent (as are Jason McGerr and Nick Harmer). When I read that Chris Walla was leaving Death Cab for Cutie a part of me died. Death Cab for Cutie is my absolute favorite band. Their music has been there throughout so many milestone moments and is woven into so many seasons of my life. It encapsulates the odd arrangement of my first year of college while still being a senior in high school. Their music is one of the few common interests my wife and I fell in love over. It carried me through some of my loneliest and saddest times and kept me going. The music video for Title and Registration was the visualization for one of my most memorable moments teaching a sermon. So naturally having a fourth of the band leave feels like the end of an era.
As I branch out into music with the site I’m starting strong with this pick.
While Weathervanes by Freelance Whales isn’t their most recent album, it’s definitely what keeps me coming back to the band. I imagine this album being recorded inside a robot which adds the theme comprised of unique sounds that runs through the album. Those sounds are layered into a five person band where the instruments include harmonia (think accordion), xylophone and banjo and it seems that everyone lends they’re voice to the mix. Judah Dadone and Doris Cellar’s vocals are spot on with the overall happy vibes that the album aims for. Lyrically the album tells stories with fairy tale style that sometimes brushes what I imagine it feels like to be a hip New York based band like these lines from Hannah: