March Music (& Movie) Mini-Medley
I am not the type of person that sees a lot of movies; I could probably count the number of times I’ve been to a movie theater in the past three years on one hand. Today, however, was a rainy day here in Santa Fe, New Mexico, and not being a local Santa Fe-an, I didn’t have much to do on a rainy day. I decided that since there were actually a couple movies out that I wanted to see, I’d go catch a flick, as the moviegoing public is wont to say. The movie I chose to see is The Inside Man, “A Spike Lee Joint” starring Denzel Washington, Clive Owen, and Jodie Foster, and I was incredibly impressed. As you may have gathered, I am no movie critic and I hardly fancy myself to be knowledgeable on matters of cinema, but I would absolutely recommend the movie to anybody, it was entertaining and suspenseful and Denzel (we are on a first name basis) and Clive Owen (we are not) were absolutely superb. You may be asking yourself at this point, “why is he writing this? This is not a movie blog, it is a music blog!”, and for that reason I am going to give up on my review of The Inside Man and simply say that if you are reading this, you should see the movie at your soonest convenience, I doubt you will be disappointed.
There is, however, a music-related aspect to this tangent: the song used in both the opening and closing credits of this film is quite excellent. It is very foreign, as the title and artist may suggest, and the lyrics are in no way related to English, but it is a downright funky tune, so much so that the first thing I did upon getting home from the theater was dive into researching and downloading the song. It is called “Chaiyya Chaiyya Bollywood Joint”, which is an extremely fitting title, and it is credited to Sapna Awasthi and Sukwinder Singh. I realize that it may not be as instantly compelling to those of you who have not yet seen The Inside Man, but this should only serve as further motivation to see the it as soon as possible. As per usual, song is downloadable below:
Sapna Awasthi & Sukwinder Singh, Chaiyya Chaiyya Bollywood Joint
As I mentioned previously, I am currently on vacation, and after reading Pitchfork’s glowing review of the new Band of Horses album, Everything All The Time, I decided to pick up the album for vacation-time listening. I realize that virtually every music blogger and their grandmother has beaten me to the punch on this one, but this is truly a great album. Obviously, epic lead single “The Funeral” has been posted everywhere, and because it is one of the best songs I’ve heard all year, for the two of you that have not yet downloaded this song, Good Weather for Airstrikes is giving you that opportunity one more time. I cannot stress enough how great this song is. In scanning many of the other blogs posts on Band of Horses, I noticed that one song I believe to be far superior than much of the album is conspicuously absent. That song is “The Great Salt Lake”, and I honestly feel that it rivals “The Funeral” as the best song on the album. Every time they hit the chorus and repeat that title line I get goosebumps, and I can’t help but replay it over and over. Obviously, with such a positive review I wouldn’t deign to give you, the reader, a case of aural blue balls by not making the song available for download, so it can be grabbed along with “The Funeral” below.
Band of Horses, The Funeral
Band of Horses, The Great Salt Lake
Finally, to complete my mini-roundup, I direct your attention to the criminally under-appreciated Sondre Lerche, who’s singer-songwriter style has recently been compounded with some quality classical instrumentation courtesy of the Faces Down Quartet on his newest album, Duper Sessions. The lead single from that album, “Minor Detail”, is melodic pop songwriting genius in a tidy three-and-a-half minute package, and is, like every other song in this post, [highly recommended]. To sweeten the deal and to hopefully increase Sondre Lerche Awareness (there really should be a LiveStrong-esque armband about this), I’ve included possibly the best Sondre Lerche song, the title track from his previous album, Two Way Monologue. Excellent lyrics abound in Lerche’s songs, but I feel that this track in particular highlights his song-writing dramatically. Pick up both of the songs below, and let the praise for this 23-year old Norwegian start flowing throughout the blogosphere!
Sondre Lerche, Two Way Monologue
Sondre Lerche, Minor Detail