The Royal Firecrackers – Medicine Lodge
The worst part about rock n’ roll is that it gives you the impression, quite falsely, that there are even better thrills out there than this one. That’s not the case, or, at least, not for a long time, and not without considerable personal expenses.
But how are we to learn other than through our own mistakes? You might find yourself searching for gold dust and digging with sweat on your brow each day to find it until you realise you’re just wasting time.
The Royal Firecrackers’ country-tinged indie-pop of “Medicine Lodge” is a song about those kinds of dreams, about the ideal of finding something that will give you a greater payoff than everything that you’ve received so far.
Musically, The Royal Firecrackers get by on charm and good-natured personalities. All of that is reflected in the jingle-jangle guitars and pleasant, strong melodies.
Mike Rathke – Ere Waning Light
Music’s generally gotten louder, and audiences’ capacity to receive a good shock has diminished. But, arguably, music’s not become any more powerful no matter how much we’d like to tell ourselves this thing. Why, you just have to listen to some 1950s rock n’ roll records to get a roar that is louder than heavy metal, or hear some of the old folk songs if you want something darker than gothic-rock.
And, because we can only reach the past if we take the time and build a bridge right up to it, Mike Rathke has taken it upon himself to start the construction work. His studies have brought him all the way to 4th-century Milan and to St. Ambrose, a man who turned from governor into bishop overnight and who worked to steer the Church according to his own ideas about Christendom.
St. Ambrose authored a small number of hymns. And those would, most likely, get lost to history if they weren’t uncovered from time to time. Mike Rathke injects some modern, romantic pop sensibilities into “Ere Waning Light,” creating a lush-sounding, modern spiritual that neither the Church nor indie-rock audiences could deny.
