Phoenix and the Turtle

The members of Pheonix and the Turtle have been around for quite some time, but the modern version of the band formed in the summer of 2003 and has been going strongly since. This lush and melodic band hails from Yucaipa, a small place in southern California. Their odd name likely comes from a poem by William Shakespeare. In this poem of the same name, the Bard writes:

"Let the priest in surplice white,
That defunctive music can,
Be the death-divining swan,
Lest the requiem lack his right."

Apologies to all of my (thus far nonexistant) readers for going for the pretentious quoting of the poem (and me only on my second main post! I'm on a roll!). But this stanza sort of encapusulates P&tT in a few lines. sort of. They have quite a unique sound. One way to describe it would be to imagine if Canasta hooked up with Azure Ray's Orenda Fink and started doing Mogwai covers. Or you could imagine the Polyphonic Spree getting totally depressed and then doing an album with a bunch of strings.

It's not that P&tT is a very depressing band at all. They do some remarkable things with their instruments and fans of the band frequently describe them to be like that first big hill of a roller coaster... a slow buildup until it all comes crashing down. Each composite part of a typical P&tT track features a slow, steady, powerful drumbeat, a strong base line, and a stunning melody from the equally stunning vocalist/violinist/multi-instrumentalist Valerie Curtis. Although the violin is not used in every track, it has become one of the most famous and integral parts of the band. However, each of these distinct parts combines to form a tune that is understated, yet potently so.

Each movement of a particular song leads its audience through a variety of feelings and emotions. The urgency of the strings, the buildups of the drums and bass, the driving guitar playing and sparse lyrics are all mechanisms, which provide the narration. Instrumental atmospheric elements combine to tell a story. When the vocals kick in, it jerks one out of the trance-like reverie that the rest of the song presents.


Many of the songs are really deceiving in that manner. definitely worth a listen. Keep an eye out for the band's new EP.


Pianos.mp3

The band's site, www.phoenixandtheturtle.com/ , is down at the moment. When it is back up, their music will be for sale at The Shoppe. Until then you can chech out their myspace at http://www.myspace.com/phoenixandtheturtle

I am glad I finally finished this post. I lost it twice in the process x_x
I am also now pumping this feed into facebook. um, isn't that interesting?

Woman of the Hour: Junko Yanagida



For the longest time, London-based Concrete and Clay (http://www.concreteandclay.com/) has been giving the world music from a largely invisible singer-songwriter/spoken word artist, Junko Yanagida (sometimes called, simply, JUNKO). This bilingual intern at Professional Sound Services (http://www.pro-sound.com) in New York, New York went to school at the university of Hilo in Hawaii and later went to school in NYC for SSL, DBX, ProTools, and other sound-type equipment. She does quite a bit of sound design and music. Miss Yanagida has quite an interesting ear for music, and does genre experimentation quite unlike anything I've heard before. By juxtaposing an equal amount of two different languages, she gives many of her songs an almost bipolar feel - her flowery english languages is both balanced out but at the same time thrown totally off-kilter by the insanely dramatic japanese. Her overall effect, often acheived by sampling classical works over a simple hip hop beat, gives the effect of japanese surrealism while maintaining a certain amerian familiarity. However, she does experiment with other things as well.

By The Beach.MP3 - By The Beach is an earlier song of Junko's. This is a short and simple track that features the lighter and airier side of her voice set to a strumming acoustic guitar. The chord progression works quite well though. A second version of this song, "sea turtle wireless" features the same track, except an advertisement for a fictional communications company (of the same name) is overlayed to the original.

Sakura Michi.MP3 - This is, of course, a bit of a play on words.
In Japanese, Sakura means "Cherry Blossom". and "michi" translates into both "path" or "method" and also "not yet known". Junko speaks of unfufilled spring love in the time where the famous cherry trees of Japan are blooming - a time of great cultural signifigance in the Land of the Rising Sun. notice the creepy flute and the japanese drums interlaced with the slow beat. Also, I really dig the eerily childlike voice in the bottom parts of the track.

Flowers.MP3 - a quintessential track. I LOVE the sampled flute.

Junko's Japanese text is darker than her English - and if it was in English it would probably sound unbearably overwrought:

"If I can forget everything, I want to forget everything. If this is my decision I cant blame it on anyone else. Everything I can see is messed-up and makes me puke. I want to throw it all away but I can't runaway from it. I need help but no one will help. Damnit! I want to do something. Kill. Damn!"

The Japanese are so dramatic with their entertainment. Then Junko switches to English and the flower talk. This is a very creepy, cool track that, if done by a native English-speaker, would probably sound like garbage art-school schlock. Wait for that chorus to hit. Call me a sucker for 1) anything Japanese, 2) classical music and 3) hip-hop (ha) but this is an amazing song in general.

Enjoy the songs and if you have any comments for the artist she can be contacted at Smallfry2004life@aol.com.

Well, that's it for now! I will be yelling about someone else soon.

O"blog"itory Introductory Post

Hello, everybody. Welcome to Birdsong, the latest cultural phenomenon to hit the intarwebs since spam mail. I don't really have much to say for my first post, other then to introduce myself. My name is Sean, and I am a freshman 0ver at Arcadia University. I figured that I wasn't a proper college student without giving into my indie urges and yelling about music. I have a bunch of witing experience and I have a load of obscure bands to share... so, well. here I am.

I'm keeping this post breif so I can work on doing the layout and finding a decent music hosting service!