SOUNDTRACK: THE BLOW-“Parentheses” (2006).
I learned about The Blow from NPR Music. The lads played a new song by them, but this song, which is also available on NPR, is from 2006. I don’t know anything else about The Blow. But I do know that “Parentheses” is a delightful little pop confection (with enough elements of weirdness that explain why it was never a hit).
“Parentheses” immediately sounds like something I’ve heard before. That chorus is just so perfect—“when you’re holding me, we make a pair of parentheses” that I can’t believe no one has thought of it before. Of course, the bit in the verses about the deli aisle is certainly unexpected.
I normally don’t like the bap bap // bap drum beat, but it’s perfect here. The stripped down nature of the music (simple chords on a few different keyboard sounds) accompanies this perfectly. It’s sung with Khaela Maricich’s sweet and almost fragile (but not) voice.
It is so catchy I have now listened to it three times in a row. And that little guitar tail at the end is very inviting as well. I can’t believe this song wasn’t huge.
[READ: September 26, 2013] Desolate Heaven
I read this play because of my friend Ailish—I’ve never seen anyone with a name almost like hers—Ailís—before. And, given the Irish name it is no surprise that the story is set in Ireland. But rather than Dublin, it is set on a desolate beach. We see two young girls: Orlaith (13) and Sive (12) messing about. They are acting like adults—complaining about the beach and “the kids” and how everything is awful. Despite some tensions, the girls bond over their difficult lives. Each lives with a single parent and in each case, the parent is an invalid. Each girl has to do everything for her parent in addition to going to school. And in the next few scenes we see just how desperate their situations are: Sive’s mother has broken her pelvis (and has been unable to move for two years) and Orlaith’s father didn’t get up at all today because he didn’t feel he was able to.
In the next scene, we see the girls acting out a plan—to meet at the beach with as much money as they can grab. And just like that, they are off on a road trip. (more…)
I Just Read About That... 