10 Songs You Probably Haven't Heard but Should Immediately

Note: The following was first posted here on 30 June 2007.

Isn't it a wonderful experience to hear a great song for the first time? The whole jaw-dropping experience where you realize you will listen to this one song until you know every word, until your significant other starts pleading not to hear it again. I love it, and the feeling I get from hearing a new gem is the reason I listen constantly. Below, I've compiled ten songs that don't seem to register when talking about music, but I have dreams that someday they will. Some of the artists are relative unknowns, some are completely knowns. I hope you enjoy, and feel free to comment.

1. My Oldest Memory – the Bowerbirds. Unless you follow the Raleigh-based Bowerbirds, I’m fairly sure you have not had this song pass through your ears. “My Oldest Memory” is the sixth track to the Bowerbirds’ debut, Hymns for a Dark Horse, and these fellows haven’t really gotten a lot of pre-release hype just yet for the album, which comes out July 10. John Darnielle is endorsing the album, so that is probably going to change. Pitchfork recently gushed over it, so I am hoping everyone will know about it before long. But you should run over the www.bowerbirds.org and stream the track a few times over. Make sure to listen to the chorus multiple times as well – definitely the centerpiece of the song with its sing along style. Bowerbirds are the perfect example of how jam-packed the Triangle music scene is right now with talent. The group is worthy of as much praise as any critic can generate, and from what I remember, they got next to nothing from Independent Weekly or the Daily Tar Heel this past year. Really, the Triangle market is so tough to compete in with acts like the Rosebuds and the Bu_Hanan groups stealing the spotlight, as well as the Old Ceremony. All those acts deserve their great reviews, but the Bowerbirds do not deserve this neglect. So go listen to the Bowerbirds, pick up their album, and take in the indie-folk guitars, quirky lyrics, accordions, and pristine home recording.

2. Epilogue – David Karsten Daniels. This fellow is another staple of our wonderful scene in Chapel Hill, and I hate that most people haven’t listened to him. Unlike the Bowerbirds, DKD did get some hype before his release of Sharp Teeth this spring, which is probably going to be on of the top albums of 2007. Yet, even the alpha and omega of pushing unknowns into the spotlight, Pitchfork, couldn’t make it happen for David. “Epilogue” is the ‘secret track’ tagged onto the end of David Karsten Daniels’ previous release, Angles. The man can write some rather depressing music, but “Epilogue” really has a good feeling bounce to it, at least in the guitar line. Perhaps that is why it was the secret song and not a listed track – it sounded too happy. David describes the song as, “Sometime, around town, you see the car your ex-lover used to drive. For a moment you flip out or your stomach kind of sinks. Then you realize it’s a stranger with the same make/model of vehicle. At that point you know you’re not as far away from things as you hoped you were.” That description came from where you should go to get the song, for free: Daytrotter. David’s Daytrotter Session featured a version of “Epilogue” that is well worth having, especially if you need an intro to the wonders of DKD. Make sure to pick up the three great songs above it as well. http://www.daytrotter.com/article/775/free-songs-david-karsten-daniels

3. Basketball Shoes – Hide and Seek. This song is 48 seconds long. The only way you could have it is if a band member gave you a CD-R copy. I’m pretty sure only my girlfriend and I still listen to this song. Hide and Seek was definitely the best spazz-punk/no-wave band out of Winston-Salem, and their live sets are dearly missed. Maybe if everyone goes to http://www.myspace.com/hideandseekwillkillyou and downloads “Jehovah All Over Yah” and then writes to Devin, Zach, and Savannah, we can get a reunion. I’d be there. I make it a point to put “Basketball Shoes” on each and every mix I make for people so they can enjoy the chorus of “You can play basketball in those shoes! / I can do anything in these shoes! / Recognize.”

4. Everything Reminds Me – Le Chevre. I really don’t know a whole lot about the guy that goes by the stage name Le Chevre. I was given a burned CD-R of a home made, self-titled release with 8 tracks on it way back in 2004 by this fellow. I think I remember he is out of somewhere down in South Carolina. Obviously, a bit obscure. The important part is, the music is for real, especially this track. I would describe Le Chevre as Postal Service that relies heavily on acoustic guitars, and a bit more kitsch in the synthscapes. The intro comes in like a good pop rocker, and the guitar work is actually pretty deft for what one would expect out of this genre. What pulls “Everything Reminds Me” together? The great hook of a chorus – “Nothing’s gonna get better until you pick up and start / Images don’t create themselves, but everything falls apart. / Everything in the world reminds me.” Yeah, makes no sense to me either. Sounds great though. I don’t know if this fellow even has a website, but if you feel like doing some investigative work, I suggest trying to find this material. I keep looking for Le Chevre to pop up in the ‘hot new act’ section of magazines like Alternative Press, right next to the flavor of the month.

5. Grendel’s Mother – The Mountain Goats. “Grendel’s Mother” is the odd case of a lesser-known song by a better known artist. Why is it lesser known? It stretches back to Zopilote Machine, John Darnielle’s 1994 release that was recorded on a Panasonic boombox. Couple the poor recording by most standards with being towards the end of an out of print record, and your make your case for inaccessibility. I’m a sucker for literary allusions in song, and no songwriter today does that better than John (he majored in English literature). Darnielle flips the perspective on us – we are not hearing of the triumphant Beowulf anymore, but instead the vengeful mother of a slain son. The usual quite Mountain Goats rage is there still in the chorus – you can run, but I will carry you home in my teeth.

6. Controversy – Prince. People should all know this song by heart and there should be a choreographed dance to go along. It just seems to get lost because it was released in that pre-Purple Rain period when people were still trying to figure out whom this fellow was. The whole purpose of the song is to bring to mind all these taboo or controversial subjects. In the opening lines, “Am I black or white? Am I straight or gay?” The first chorus, which kicks major ass – “Do I believe in God? Do I believe in me?” It isn’t often that you find existential musings being dropped over a beat your parents would have really enjoyed wearing spandex to. What is really the most controversial part of the song? A bridge that consists of the purple one reciting the Lord’s Prayer over that insistent beat. Also, this song is seven minutes long, which gets points in my book for being an extended jam.

7. Julianne – Wood & Steel. Wood & Steel is a bluegrass band from the triad area. Not ‘nugrass.’ Not that quasi-imitation bluegrass that has been perfected by the Avett Brothers and Old Crow Medicine Show and gets a crossover indie crowd. There is no outlaw aspect here, no rough edges. When these guys play live, it is a suit and tie affair. Just some seriously talented musicians playing insanely difficult music. “Julianne,” the third track from their release The Old Ones are the Best Ones, was written by mandolin player Joey Lemons. It is fast, it is good, there are tight harmonies, and it is best when played loudly while driving down two lane blacktop. If you woman ever leaves you at home because you are no fun, listen to the pleading lyrics of “Julianne” and use them to get her to stay home with you. You won’t regret it.

8. Dooley – The Dillards. People get confused when I try to explain who the Dillards were. The Dillards were occasionally characters on the Andy Griffith Show from years ago, where they played themselves, but weren’t called the Dillards. They were called the Darlins. So the Darlins were the Dillards being the Dillards. Got it? Good. I’ve never heard such amazing banjo playing as done by the guy who pulls of notes here. Never before has anyone played so fast, continuously. The lyrics are great – this song is about a local moonshiner who is the town hero, though no one will admit it. Well, the song is just about the moonshiner. It is amazing to hear where bluegrass was in the sixties, and the Dillards must have been one of the best groups of the decade. The best bet for finding this track will be looking on the net for an anthology or best of work. Just make sure to stay away from their late-career albums. Pure trash when compared to the likes of “Dooley.”

9. Quit – Hey Mercedes. Hey Mercedes’ debut album, Everynight Fire Works, was the album that I listened to non-stop from eighth grade until I finished high school. Most older kids thought they were mediocre or worse because they grew up on Braid, and were loyal to that band. I remember being sixteen and standing outside MSU skatepark in Kernersville and having a discussion with a member of a now well known band that thought Everynight Fire Works was terrible because it sounded like a Braid ripoff. However, no Braid album had “Quit” on it, did it? This is a behemoth track that I think was the best indie rock song ever written. There’s the guitars! The guitars! And Bob Nanna. Go get this, find it wherever you can now that they’ve broken up and were on a tiny label. Even if you don’t like that original brand of emo from the nineties, go pick this album up and stare at the cover for as long as you can. Yeah, amazing, I know.

10. Don’t Turn Around – The Everybodyfields. This is the first track to leak from the Everybodyfields’ third album, Nothing is Okay, which is set to make some noise towards the back end of August. I must say, it is quite a treat to see the ‘fields employ a full band, and I can’t wait to hear the rest of the album. While recent live sets have featured strings, pedal steel, electric guitar, and keys, the drums really do fill this track out. Sung by male half of the band, Don’t Turn Around brings a shinier feel to the waltz tempos of the first two Everybodyfields albums. “Don’t Turn Around” holds all the great aspects of old songs by these guys, but the larger instrumentation does a great job of supporting Sam’s country warble. Be ready for the great guitar solo in the middle, and think about how this track could be a sign of everyone not being sad that Songs:Ohia isn’t what it used to be. Go to http://songsillinoismp3.blogspot.com/2007/06/new-track-from-everybodyfields-ramseur.html for the download.