February 11, 2010

here beneath my lungs, I feel your thumbs press into my skin again

radical-face

Ben Cooper is from Jacksonville, Florida, and sometimes makes music under the name Radical Face. Although it sounds like the band name of an exuberant bunch of 14-year old skater punks, Radical Face music is intricate and echoey, hummable and immensely enjoyable.

This song from his 2007 album Ghost has been the soundtrack to my afternoon. The ooooh-ey harmonies remind me a bit of Shins goodness, and I really like the clapping, shuffling percussion that makes the song feel like tape reels, winding and rewinding in a vacant room. One writer noted that the windchimes that start the song are almost “like the song was carried on a breeze through an open porch screen door.”

Yes.

Welcome Home, Son – Radical Face



electric president - the violent blueBen also plays music with friend Alex Kane and together they become Electric President, another band I enjoy.

They released a new album last month called The Violent Blue (on Fake Four Records), and the “first proper Electric President show in a long while” will take place at SXSW this year!

We’ll count that as just one more of the many reasons I am excited about Austin in five weeks.

Safe and Sound – Electric President (new song)

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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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