April 2, 2012

rake me over a line of coals, throw me into the sea

This weekend was pushing 80° all along Colorado’s Front Range, and I enjoyed the bejesus out of every single one of them.

Saturday night I was at my favorite vinyl-loving buddy’s house for the first BBQ party of springtime, and Andrew pulled out a Floating Action record from 2009 and laid it carefully on the record player, lowering the needle onto some specific sort of fantasticness from those audaciously raw opening drumbeats:

50 Lashes – Floating Action

Sure I’m a few years behind the curve on this one, but it’s never too late to have happy ears. Floating Action is mostly one guy, Seth Kauffman of North Carolina, creating music that he describes as “a southern band that longs for the West Coast.” I think Andrew described it as reggae for indie kids, and I loved the squonk and quirk and groove – kinda like the winning warble of Okkervil River’s Will Sheff fronting a soulful dusty band somewhere on an island.

Floating Action is part of the Park the Van Records family (also the home of Dr. Dog, Generationals, Spinto Band) — and speaking of Dr. Dog, here is a wonderful video of a song project commenced for the Shaking Through Series, showing Seth working with Scott McMicken of Dr. Dog as curator and producer of a song in two days, “Dead Reckoning.” Read more about their creative process and get that song on the Shaking Through site, for free.

For the months to come, I recommend their 2009 self-titled record, and the new one that’s out now called Desert Etiquette.

As a wonderful bonus, here’s Floating Action on Daytrotter covering my favorite Rilo Kiley song ever, complete with triangle flourishes at the correct moments.

Silver Lining (Rilo Kiley cover) – Floating Action



Get three free other songs from Floating Action over here, and a whole live EP here. And turn it up for springtime.

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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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