Tag: religion

Mid-Day Music Blast: MOWUKIS – “A Quick Stab In The Heart”

Leave a comment

 

I don’t know about you guys, but I immediately thought of Radiohead or Polyneso when I first heard these guys. Considering those are two of my favorite bands, that immediately made this one of my favorite new songs. MOWUKIS bio says simple: “I write music to lower the weight.” I’m not entirely sure what it means, but I have some guesses. My silly answer is that he writes so much music that he doesn’t have time to over eat. My serious answer is that he’s using music as a form of therapy, like a lot of us artists tend to. He’s lowering the weight of the world, or his soul, or whatever metaphor you want to use.

The song only has two verses, so even though I normally wouldn’t put a full song’s lyrics, it’s not too egregious. Let’s check them out:

“I…
I just fed the lions
made them such cowards
made them such a lie.
I had,
I had to draw out solutions
to keep this jungle of eyes
from eating my delights.

King,
Alone in full possession
A kingdom-broken-passion
A quick stab in the heart.
Walls,
To keep ourselves from motion
Citizens as pollution
Are slowly passing by.”

I feel like I could attempt to write an essay on these lyrics. Instead, I’ll hit a couple of high points. How does feeding the lions make them cowards? If you put them in captivity and give them a consistent meal, does their drive for hunting start to dissipate? If that’s true, and we generally know that it is. It changes them into a “lie”, a shell of what nature shaped them into over the millennia. We then see this King, who can make lions into cowards, ruling over a kingdom with a broken passion. A citizenry that is safe behind walls, but wasting their lives away now that all the passions are gone. It’s a really great mirror to the lions before and a beautiful song overall.

-Caleb

 

TOTD: Astral Cloud Ashes- “Old Moods”

Leave a comment

Did you think this was a one man band? Me either. It sounds like some of my favorite emotive music, like The Hotelier, or Moose Blood, or Mccaferty. The fact this is one dude is really impressive to me. “All my life I’ve been waiting for something real.” The thing every great emo song needs is a line that you want to scream in a crowd, or going down the interstate, or alone at home, and that line is just that for me. Even though my teen angst was supposed to expire almost 10 years ago, I still thoroughly connect with it, and I must say, even at 28, all my life I’ve been looking for something real.

Bio: “Influenced by both the rise of bitcoin and Japanese culture, “Dear Absentee Creator” is the new album from one-man-band extraordinaire Astral Cloud Ashes. Raw, grungy vocals pair with emotive and pungent melodies for a sound that is as catchy as it is heartfelt. Each track offers a different variety of emo/pop-punk/alt-rock/indie and more, so definitely be sure to give this one a listen!”

I love the call back to the “clockmaker god” in the title of the album. I’ve listened the whole thing, and I have to say, if you like this song, you’re doing yourself a disservice by not listening to the rest of the album.

-Caleb

 

Video of the Day: Jules Rendell ft. Goz-i-am – “The Return”

It really doesn’t get much more gorgeous than this. The music is soothing and beautifully sung. The cinematography knows how to be subtle with it’s shots of the gorgeous piano. On their press package they explained a bit about why they chose to do such a stripped down version of this track:

“There was something about the third single from my album IMAGINE, The Return, that called out for a more raw, emotional offering… maybe it’s because we all worry too much and deep down we want to be free of it. We stripped out the electronic aspects of the song and took it back to basics with just a grand piano and vocal, reminiscent of an Emeli Sandé reworking or an intimate Jessie Ware vocal.

We spend our lives worrying about things that don’t really matter. We chase after success, value achievement and stature, but it’s a trap that can tie us up. I think love is what can free us from all that stuff, a place of acceptance. That’s what the song is about.”

That’s what I love most about this song too. It almost sounds like a gospel song in structure, though she nicely mentions the “chains of religion” in the song. But what I mean is it’s one of those songs that makes you tear up and you don’t really know why. It warns us of worrying our lives away, while also seeming to swell to a sea of positivity and hope that touches something deeply human inside us. If it doesn’t, poke yourself with a stick or something.

-Caleb

Want to hear the original album version of “The Return”? We did too, so we added it to our June TOTD Spotify playlist. Check that out here.

 

Morning Commute: Caelo – “How Does It Feel”

Leave a comment

Good morning readers. If coffee isn’t enough this morning, we have a high energy track to wake you up. Mixing elements of punk, alt. rock, stadium anthems, and more, Caelo asks us “How Does It Feel” this morning. It feels good Caelo, it feels good. The thing I like most about this track is, on it’s surface, the riff is somewhat simplistic and straightforward, but as the song builds, you start to hear all of these additional elements that layer it and make it clear that Caelo aren’t just interested in being another punk band. The hook has a Foo Fighters vibe to me, and then later in the song we get some interesting synth elements that take it into an almost Muse-ish direction.

Basically I guess what I’m saying is, Caelo has successfully taken some of the world’s biggest rock sounds from the past decade, and mashed them together in a sound that is all their own. And the best part? This is a B-Side track. Go check them out on Spotify to hear more of their singles and really get a feel for the full array of potential in this band. You can also catch them on our monthly Spotify playlist right here.

-Caleb

 

TOTD: Erik Jonasson “Horizon”

Leave a comment

If you’d have asked me a month ago who this Swedish super nova was, I would’ve had no idea. Now, with over 6 million Spotify plays on an album that was just released earlier this month, Erik is turning heads. With a pure tone that pierces any defenses you may have built up, Erik Jonasson is forcing people to listen and take note of this rare talent.

One thing you will learn about me is that I absolutely love songs that sound like they could be a letter to someone. Oddly specific with an overarching point, these types of songs are a lost art. Erik Jonasson is a prodigious new artist.

The kicker in this song is the terminology he uses. I mean, a ton of artists write about the horizon, traveling, leaving, etc, but there aren’t many who talk about protecting their gold in a cathedral. To summarize what is happening in the lyrics, there is a person who is looking out at the horizon, and they know that their friend/partner/acquaintance wants to go out there and try to find the horizon, or travel and see what there is. The person then goes on to say how they don’t understand the attraction to going out there, and they’re going to stay in their cathedral and protect their gold. It’s an interesting phrasing, and when an artist makes an interesting choice, I like to dig into it.

Now, let’s get this out there from the beginning. You are about to enter a theoretical world. More than likely, the song is about an unequally yoked partnership where one person wants to go see the world, and the other wants stability in their life. It’s a wonderful way of describing that situation, and I love that idea. I want to go deeper and talk about one possibility behind the word choices of “cathedral” and “gold.” I’m a fairly spiritual guy, but I’ve also been close enough to organized Christianity to see a lot of the faults in what people are practicing today. One of the biggest ones, which is very common in a lot of churches, is filling the coffers in your own church while the rest of the world goes to shit. I think this song could be about that issue. Stay with me here. Is it likely that it’s about that? No, but it’s a perfect song for that dichotomy between types of Christians. There are a growing number of people who want to go out and help people all around the world and really chase after that horizon, but there are an alarming number of people who would watch the world burn if it meant that they could be Scrooge McDuck and dive into their swimming pool of gold coins.

With this theory, you can honestly replace Christians with any other word, and it works out too. From governments (especially in the United States right now) to individual people, there are groups that don’t care about anything or anyone outside of their “cathedral.” Those are the people that we can’t let win. Close-minded and fearful people shouldn’t dictate the actions of the free and the fearless.