January 7, 2010

I don’t wanna stop I wanna go, go, go

the apparitions

In 2007, one of my top twenty favorite songs of the whole year was a tune called “Electricity + Drums” from a Kentucky band named The Apparitions. I think a random reader recommendation pointed me over to their website, and within the first second of that song, I was snagged, and couldn’t wait to gushingly tell you all about it. My iTunes player currently advises that I have listened to it 186 times since then, partly because it is on both my favorite running mix, as well as my favorite party mix. Here’s why:

Electricity + Drums – The Apparitions

Right?! It really is a whiz-bang, whirling dervish of fun and handclaps that I’m still enjoying regularly.

The second part of the story (it all connects in wondrous fashion, just watch): On Tuesday night, I trekked through snow and fog to get up into the ski country of Colorado and see These United States. They were the last show I saw in the waning minutes of 2009, and I decided to bookend this year nicely with them being the first of 2010.

I was talking to These United States drummer Robby Cosenza about how joyously he drums, and he mentioned another musical project of his, Fanged Robot. When I googled up some Fanged Robot music yesterday, I was absolutely floored (nearly fell off my couch) to hear Robby doing an acoustic version of “Electricity + Drums” halfway through an old Band in Boston podcast. Turns out, Robby is also the drummer for The Apparitions, and he wrote that very song that I’ve been loving all these 186 unrestrained times. Full circle, pass go, collect $200! These United States guitarist Justin Craig is also in The Apparitions. Oh how I love it when good music all connects so randomly and seamlessly.

This acoustic version doesn’t have the handclaps (except the ones I add), but it makes my ears incredibly happy, as do the rest of the songs on that podcast. The way Robby does it here reminds me of Deer Tick meeting Ryan Adams, and his yowl also does the favor of letting me finally understand more of these superb lyrics that I’ve always just mumbled through, like “this town’s boasting some kind of warning, there’s no glow from the bulbs for the moths to get drawn in, you’re far away but I still hear you callin’…”:

Electricity + Drums – Fanged Robot

Fanged Robot has a show coming up in Lexington, Kentucky on the 22nd of this month.

1285These United States just finished a string of tour dates, and they are currently holed up in Boulder for a few weeks, working pre-production on their fourth studio album.

It will be the follow-up to their scorching, intelligent Everything Touches Everything, from which this barn-burner comes:

I Want You To Keep Everything – These United States

MY PICS FROM THESE UNITED STATES IN AVON HERE

14 Comments

  • Being in The Apparitions is kinda what got TUS started. When Mark from Vandaveer (who the frontman for The Apparitions) moved to DC and met Jesse and them, he introduced his Apparitions bandmates Robby and Justin to those DC dudes. And thus one of my favorite bands of the last two years (and I would imagine for many years to come) was born.

    Plus it’s awesome to see that someone else is repping The Apparitions.

    Sean Cannon — January 7, 2010 @ 12:15 pm

  • Yay for our adventure!

    Up top for musical connections!

    Bonus for you saying “whirling dervish” TWICE now!

    2010 is rad.

    Kathleen — January 7, 2010 @ 12:33 pm

  • i would marry 2010, the way it’s been so far, if i wasn’t already married to honey bunches of oats.

    2010= the year of doing. let’s go! yay for our adventure, and vocabulary.

    browneheather — January 7, 2010 @ 2:13 pm

  • Even more whirling dervish-esque…Robby isn’t covering that song. He actually WROTE it.

    J. Tom Hnatow — January 7, 2010 @ 5:24 pm

  • So i hear! i edited the post. and then my head exploded.

    browneheather — January 7, 2010 @ 6:16 pm

  • You gotta check out Vandaveer as well….aka the lead singer of The Apparitions. Great, great stuff. Divide and Conquer is the album. You will absolutely love it. I promise.

    MHM — January 7, 2010 @ 8:22 pm

  • Love TUS. Love Vandaveer. Love all the projects that result from these happy unions.

    Thanks for posting and loving them too!

    Beth — January 7, 2010 @ 10:50 pm

  • Happy chugging sounds….can anyone else hear Blondies ‘Sunday Girl’ swirling around the pylons and drum sticks? Such a great ear nibbling opening – reminds me of first hearing ‘Louie, Louie’ in a Camden Town record store and literally swooning for the rush of aching sound around me.

    Russell — January 8, 2010 @ 5:50 am

  • first there was god, then came the monkey, then came the roooooboooot.

    Kyle Meredith — January 8, 2010 @ 12:32 pm

  • kyle, you always know so much about how these things work. thanks.
    i guess all the best things really do come from kentucky.

    and yes to your FB question, i will email sooooon!

    browneheather — January 8, 2010 @ 12:35 pm

  • Kyle. You reference a great, great song there. One that is permanently lodged in my noggin. Too wonderful of a pop song not to like. And so much easier to love.

    For the uninitiated:
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=53VpNgpt3QA

    Dainon — January 8, 2010 @ 1:15 pm

  • see, dainon? you’re handy to have around too. thanks for that pop goodness. you should have bought me that CD at slowtrain like you were thinking.

    browneheather — January 8, 2010 @ 2:15 pm

  • First there was Darwin,then came the Elvis,then came John.Paul, George and Ringo…they MIGHT be giants but they also might just inherit the wind…..

    Russell — January 9, 2010 @ 4:06 am

  • I recently put Electricity + Drums first track on a mix cd (and not for the first time) thanks to your post about it ages ago. What a choooooon :)

    Caz — January 10, 2010 @ 10:36 am

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Bio Pic Name: Heather Browne
Location: Colorado, originally by way of California
Giving context to the torrent since 2005.

"I love the relationship that anyone has with music: because there's something in us that is beyond the reach of words, something that eludes and defies our best attempts to spit it out. It's the best part of us, probably, the richest and strangest part..."
—Nick Hornby, Songbook
"Music has always been a matter of energy to me, a question of Fuel. Sentimental people call it Inspiration, but what they really mean is Fuel."
—Hunter S. Thompson

Mp3s are for sampling purposes, kinda like when they give you the cheese cube at Costco, knowing that you'll often go home with having bought the whole 7 lb. spiced Brie log. They are left up for a limited time. If you LIKE the music, go and support these artists, buy their schwag, go to their concerts, purchase their CDs/records and tell all your friends. Rock on.

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