SOUNDTRACK: AMANDA SHIRES-Tiny Desk Concert #146 (August 3, 2011).
Although the blurb suggests that I might know Amanda Shires, in fact I do not.
Shires has a powerful non-vibratoed voice and she plays several different instruments–what looks like a giant ukulele as well as the fiddle. She’s accompanied by Rod Picott on the guitar. He really seems to flesh out her instruments very well.
As to her sound, she explains before the final song, “I do have one happy song, we’re just not going to do it.”
The most remarkable thing about the first song, “Swimmer…” is her excellent whistling of the main melody. It is piercing and very catchy. Actually the whole song is quite pretty
Before starting the second song she asks if they are in a fast mood or slow mood. When the answer is fast, she immediately says they’ll play “Shake the Walls.” I really liked how the opening notes were plucked and strummed on the violin. The song is pretty simple and quiet until she plays a noisy violin solo in the middle which really livens things up.
Before the final song she asks if they’d like a song about suicide. Someone whoops in assent and they laugh. So she says they’ll play a song about trains. (“when you need a train, it never comes”). I really like the chord progression in the chorus.
Despite the downer music, the duo clearly had a fin time. Picott ends by saying “Its hard playing for smart people instead of our usual crowd.”
[READ: March 6, 2015] “Total Solar”
The protagonist of this is a journalist in Afghanistan. He has been speaking with a researcher from the United Nations Ornithological Department, who keeps introducing conversations with “If you really want something to write about…”
But rather than taking notes, he is drawing pictures of himself committing suicide in various gruesome ways. This relates to his writing a story about a contractor who’d been executed in a new way–using wire rather than a knife.
Yes the story is pretty brutal. (more…)
I Just Read About That... 