Erasing Grace – Shoot Me
Words like maverick or innovator make for a good copy. Because of that, they get tossed around quite a bit, with publicists their best to associate their artists with these titles. Yes, people react to the idea of an artist taking on the world. Yet, strangely enough, both the public and most of the modern bands that cater to the audience’s taste provide generic, bland versions of whatever is popular at the time.
Keep this in mind when you think of Patti Smith. In Just Kids, the songwriter describes how she always knew she was going to be an artist. It may have sounded arrogant or naive, but she was willing to herself, her reputation, and her self-esteem on the line for this. In mid-1970s New York, Smith’s emotional, intelligent poetry-punk was revolutionary and daring.
Erasing Grace’s Shoot Me takes similar chances. The song that also takes inspiration from 90s alternative rock removes all masks. The expressive vocals appear as we often do throughout life, desperate. And, in Patti Smith-fashion, once the song has built the tension to an almost unbearable point, it just let’s go. Poetic, brave, and emotional. It’s not the kind of music an AI would ever be able to produce.
The Third Sound – Your Love Is Evol
A friend of mine recently educated me on Haplogroups. The Haplogroups, essentially, are groups of people that share a common ancestry. It helps showcases the migration of people throughout the world. For the majority of European countries, Eastern Europe particularly, haplogroups are numerous and share the same plot of land.
However, there are exceptions. A few areas remain, essentially, inhabited by a single such group, as has been the case throughout history. These scenarios are usually restricted to inhospitable places where conquering armies would have rarely wished to travel.
Iceland is one of the least diversified countries in terms of haplogroups. This is also a land created by folks who wished no part in the dealings of regular society out in Scandinavia. I am told that most people there know each other, and all have seen Bjork around town. Pretty special place, eh?
I say this, because, Icelandic music is easy to recognize. Like a David Lynch movie, it features a particular kind of weirdness. The Third Sound’s Your Love Is Evol may be a jangly psych-rock number, but it bristles with an unsettling energy. It feels like music being made at the hippest bar in the town, the one in which nearly nobody is allowed to get into.
