Little Miss Echo – Optigan
Similar artists: Stereolab, The Beach Boys, Chris Cohen
Genre: Jangle Pop, Psychedelic Rock, Indie Pop
Are you feeling relaxed right now? Well, good for you. And I wouldn’t want to put you off what you’re doing or get you to feel guilty about feeling good. But for most people, most activities on most days trigger, at least, sharp pain, a general discomfort, a feeling of unease. Other than a few excentric masochists, nobody would invite this into their lives. It only makes sense to try and seek out methods to get those things to evaporate, if only for a moment.
You might call it “an endless pursuit of escapism.” And, yeah, it sure is. But not everyone has had the good fortune of getting to treat music like an incredible art form of which they must know all the ins and outs. The vast majority of people are just trying to get by and using pop songs as a way to mentally reach a better place.
Music listeners need the kinds of sounds like Little Miss Echo’s “Optigan.” These are sounds that help transport the listener to a different place, help set their mind at ease, and allow them for a while to dare to dream. In such a mean little world, this is a pretty wonderful thing to have. And if the kind of vocal melodies that The Beach Boys’ Brian Wilson came up with, a man whose influence is clear across Little Miss Echo’s music, then there’s hope for the future captured in pop songs still.
Janus 4-14 – June Meets Tulip
Similar artists: Counting Crows, Elvis Costello, Teenage Fanclub, The Lemonheads
Genre: Jangle Pop, 90s Rock
People do say that one doesn’t know what one has until it is all gone. But that’s not exactly true. People often don’t realize it even well after they’ve lost something special. Fearful of nostalgia, they try to convince themselves that whatever it is that they’re getting has to be just as good. All they need to do, they tell themselves, is readjust their settings.
When it comes to art, the first thing that goes is blinding romance. Then, the bittersweet misery is out the door as well. Before you know it, every song is about managing a fortune and picking up girls, and every painting is a comic book recreation of Marilyn Monroe. It’s all dull, but few people dare admit something special got lost in the shuffle.
Janus 4-14’s “June Meets Tulip” is a song that belongs to the great pop songwriting tradition of melding romance with despair and putting a sweet beat behind it. It may remind you of 90s alt-rockers Counting Crows or of the likes of Van Morrison, who they used as a reference point. It belongs to something great, mighty old. And, putting fears of nostalgia aside, it’ll be mighty sad if we don’t have these kinds of songs anymore to whisper us through the ups and downs of getting a hard broken and put back together again.
Eduard, thanks for the awesome words about June Meets Tulip. This made my night.