Little Green River

A few days ago I discovered the band ILYAIMY (“I Love You And I Miss You”, inspired by some urban sticker performance art project several years ago). They call themselves “acoustic grunge,” but having no metal background I’d describe them as a combination of riot-folk guitar, RHCP-esque bass, Guster-like conga, Dragonzord’s girl-boy harmonics, Louis Armstrong’s growls, and just plain badass piano. You can tell that every member of the band is both passionate and competent; you can hear every instrument. And the music’s heartbreaking–in a blues sense, not an emo sense. I want to make love to their lead female vocalist’s voice…

They have a few songs up on their website–Will is my favorite one up there, though Matador showcases their female vocalist’s voice the most. Deep in the AM‘s good, too.

The song that really turned me on to the band, though, was a track Nelson had, called “Valeri.” I thought the song was gorgeous the first time I heard it. Now that I’ve read the story behind the song, though… man…

Valeree was a wonderful summer romance. She moved back to Florida and we wrote back and forth to one another in our almost identical tiny black-inked handwriting for over a year afterwards. The letters stopped suddenly and I had always wondered why. Years later she wrote to me on a whim, wondering who I was. She’d been dancing in a club and a big steel moon thing fell from the ceiling and struck her on the head. It totally wiped out years of her life and her only memory of me was the letters and photographs we’d been sending. She used the money from the settlement to build her own art gallery.”

I’ll put the track up here so y’all can listen in.

I leave Philly in less than two weeks. My playlist’s getting bittersweet.

1. The Ballad of Tundra – Evan Greer

2. Save Tonight – Off the Beat
3. All My Little Words – Magnetic Fields
4. Valeri – ILYAIMY
5. Transatlanticism – Death Cab For Cutie
6. High and Dry – Radiohead
7. Annie Dan – Speechwriters LLC
8. No Place Is Home – ILYAIMY
9. I Don’t Want to Live on the Moon – Sesame Street
10. I Could Be Nothing – Great Lakes Swimmers
11. Do Impossible Things – Jens Lekman
12. No Signs of Pain – Azure Ray
13. It’s Only Time – Magnetic Fields
14. I Want Something – Evan Greer
15. One – Tina Dico
16. Your Hand In Mine – Explosions In the Sky

Finally done with this one. It’s based on a dancepunkish guitar sample Kevin recorded last year called “Green Alarm.”

(It’s extra short because the instrumental parts that aren’t listed. The guitars sing the chorus.)

It’s the dog days of summer when a girl don’t need no man
To be a warm shoulder in a winter wonderland
Tried to burn my self-doubt but it just got a tan
So I guess I’ll stay with you ’til I’ve got a better plan

We jumped in the pond but the neighbors all complain
They zoned off all the beaches under sprawling names
Skinny dippers waiting for the melting day
When the sea’s in every backyard in LA

So it’s finally July
Every day a wild ride
Crickets live, mosquitoes die
And no one seems to realize
That these sunny days are getting shorter…
…and longer again.

Fathers, teach your little girls to play guitar and
Daddies, teach your daughters to ride a railroad car
Twinkle twinkle, coppers’ lights or shooting stars
Our hearts skedaddle, the horizon’s not so far

Now, to teach it to Nelson and Brian and/or find a non-frighteningly-out-of-tune piano to record it…