70 - Pour a Little Salt, We were Never Here

Here comes another song from that wonderful show, Chuck.

From Season 2, Episode 3 titled "Chuck vs. the Breakup"

It's a great song for Autumn.  It has a mournful finality to it, but also that little twinge of hope.  Again, that's what my ears hear.  The almost acoustic feel of this song really helps.  It's vocally driven with a guitar in the background.

Song 70
        "Skinny  Love" from the album, For Emma, Forever Ago, by Bon Iver

On reading the lyrics, the song seems odd at best, dark at worst.  But the tone and music paint it with a lighter touch.  I can't tell if that's deceptive or genius.  This is not a song that moves me because of the lyrics.  It's the music, the tone and the imagery it paints.

It's another one of those songs that makes me think of driving through the woods and countryside.  Late in Autumn, with heavy, cold, rain plopping steadily and slowly on the windows.

It's not much, but there it is.


grace, peace + hope
-Jesse

24 - I'm a Rattlesnake, Babe

In honor of the New Moon tonight, and I mean the actual New Moon, not that kool-aid dipping book.  This song is another one of the many I gleaned from Chuck.  Once again, after listening to the song, and seeing the scene/character they are attaching it too...it fits brilliantly.

It was used in Season 2's episode: Chuck vs. the DeLorean.  Yes, it's what you think it is.  At first listen I was confused by the lyrics.  Then I really paid attention and found them to be quite good and, maybe not profound, but not superficial.  I haven't given the rest of the album a listen, yet.  I'm sure there are at least a few more good track if not all of them.

Song 24/Day 24
        "Furr" from the album Furr by Blitzen Trapper.

The song tells a tale, in first person, of a young man who becomes a werewolf (now you get the moon reference?) until he meets a girl.  At least that's what it appears to be about.  There is a deeper meaning here.  He sings about running off with the pack and howling at the dawn.  Then he sings:

And I lost the taste for judging right from wrong
For my flesh had turned to fur
Yeah, and my thoughts they surely were
Turned to instinct and obedience to God

He's not really singing about becoming a werewolf.  He's talking about giving into a reckless life style.  Living wild, "as God intended."  He didn't have to judge what was right or wrong, because if he felt like doing it, it was right, and if he didn't it was wrong.  The instinct and obedience to God is an attempt to justify a "made this way," mentality.

But he clearly knows he is different from what he was.  If he is comparing this lifestyle to that of being a werewolf.  Not something most people would find to be a good transition.

But then he sees a girl wandering into the pack's territory, just like he had been years before.  He then leaves the pack to be with her:

So I took her by the arm
We settled down upon a farm
And raised our children up as gently as you please

He's growing up.  He says he enters a world he doesn't know.  Because he's dealing with not just fending for himself, between being a parent and husband.  It's a song about growing up and leaving the wild childish ways behind.

That makes me think of Autumn because of all the changes going on in nature, and what we do as a society.  The Summer is over and we start slowing down as we prepare for Winter.  Transition.  Change.  Time to move from carefree fun to harvest, and survival.  Well...in the olden days.

I feel like I'm at a stage in life like this.  Preparing for what is to come next, I need to start letting go of old ways and get ready.  To grow up a little bit (but I'm never going to get old!)

That's where this song takes me.  So enjoy it, and the New Moon-no moon night!  Try to see as many stars as you can!

  "Furr" from the album Furr by Blitzen Trapper.

-Jesse

20 - You're Not the Girl I Used to Know.

Another day another song.  Once again I return to Chuck.  (Told you there would be a lot of songs taken from that show!)  This song is quite a contrast to yesterdays more uplifting and hopeful tune.  It feels very Fallish, however.

Song 20/Day 20

"Goshen" off of the album The Rip Tide by the band Beirut.

I had never heard of this band before seeing the ultimate episode of Chuck.  And by ultimate I mean in the sense of final episode.  Which, I suppose I could have just said that, but I wanted to say ultimate.  So there.  =P

Yes.  I just stuck my digital tongue out at you.

Golly I'm sassy today.

So the song, used in that last episode of what has become one of my favorite shows.  It is quite the melancholy tune.  Like most of the music in chuck, it fits emotionally with the story of that episode.  Even the lyrics, while not 'exactly' what the show was about, have a resonance to some of the things happening.  Particularly these lines:

You're the face in stone, through the land I own.
You never found it home.
You're not the girl I used to know.

How sad is that?  For me, that is saying that in this guys world, this girl is his world.  The face in stone, seems like he's dedicated his life to her, as if she were depicted in sculpture all over his life.  Not in a creepy, 'I love you so much I'm going to sculpt you all the time," but that he shaped his world around her, put her first.  But she never felt at home there.  And now she is no longer the girl he used to know.

I want to know what happened!  What pushed this girl away from this guy?  What is that story?

As it relates to Chuck, it makes perfect sense.  I won't divulge any spoilers, but it's quite fitting and spot on for how Chuck Bartowski would be feeling for his wife/spy partner/best friend, Sarah.

Now, for me, it feels like Fall because of the drums.  The drums feel like rain.  And I love rain.  Even more so in the Fall.  It's cold, and has a bit of bite to it.  The grey skies just amplify the colors of turning trees.

Separate from Chuck, the visuals I get for this song are a guy and girl having an argument/breaking up while driving through a rainy town.  Not a huge city.  But one of those "Main Street USA" places that grew up a little bit.  Spread out, have a few buildings over 3 stories tall.  Lots of parks and nature still about.  The whole time, the girl is distant.  Cold.  Like a part of her is missing.

Like I said, sad.  But not all stories end with, "happily ever after."  It kind of makes me think of the line from the movie "Devil's Own," when Brad Pitt's character Rory says,

Don't look for a happy ending. It's not an American story. It's an Irish one.

 More recently, it reminds me of a perfect backing track for the graphic novel, "12 Reasons Why I Love Her."  Written by Jamie S. Rich and illustrated by Joëlle Jones.  I stumbled across this book at my comic shop one evening.  It was the best random buy I've made in ages. 

Jones' art is captivating, and Rich's storytelling is great.  It's 12 little vignettes into the life of a young couple.  But it's out of sequence, so you don't know where the relationship is at the end of the book.  And Jones' changes up her style a bit between the chapters.  Great stuff, if you can get your hands on it, buy it, download it, or at least check it out of a library or something.


So, go on and check out the book and more importantly, the song!

"Goshen" by Beirut from the album, The Rip Tide.


-Jesse

11 - They Won't Dare Bring Our Names Up Again

The Concept:  Feature a song a day for every day of the most magnificent season of Autumn.  The songs are ones that capture the thoughts/ideas/images/feelings of the season for me. 

It's my "Autumnal Playlist" if you will.

This is another song from Chuck.  Well, it was from the artist first, but I heard it on Chuck.  It's played over a brutally heart breaking scene.  Surprisingly, I don't only associate this song with that scene.  Probably because it was just a bit of the song.  Saw the episode for the first time over Memorial Day weekend this year.  From Chuck - Season Five.

This tune, like many on this list, have mellow beginnings an build to something bigger and more driving.

Song 11/Day11

Today's Song:  "She Tows the Line," by Crooked Fingers on the album, Breaks in the Armor.
The only thing I don't like about this song, is the spelling of the title, and therefor miss use of the idiom.  I'm sure it was intentional.  But it bugs me.  However, the change in the spelling of Toe to Tow, works powerfully with the scene in Chuck that the song is used in.

Why I picked it?  This song takes me to the coast of New England in the Fall.  Now, I've never really been there, but I've seen enough pictures/movies/shows etc that I get an idea.  When listening to this song I feel the drumming of the steel grey/blue waves on the beach.  The white sand and dying tall grasses at the crest of the hill leading down to the shore.  There is a playful sarcasm carried through it.

I imagine a group of friends at a beach house, exploring the shoreline by day, having fun and laughing.  While night falls they light up a bonfire on the beach and have hot dogs and S'mores and all that campfirey goodness.

I guess that's what this song makes me want to do.  Anyone up for it?

The lyrics feel a bit ambiguous to me.  They seem to have significance to the singer, but it kinda feels like he's giving directions and using landmarks that out-of-towners wouldn't know.  But I still like it.  Especially these:

see it so clear in her eyes
she won't be bringing it up again
so she rises and goes
so they'd never know
that she even came here at all

Enjoy the tune.  I've not gotten around to exploring more from the artist...but would like to someday.  Perhaps when I go on that trip to New England shores in the Fall.

"She Tows the Line," by Crooked Fingers.  Toe or Tow the line.  There is a difference!

-Jesse

04 - My Family Lives in a Different State

So here's the idea.  Feature a song a day for every day of the most magnificent season of Autumn.  The songs are ones that capture the thoughts/ideas/images/feelings of the season for me.  It's my "Autumnal Playlist" if you will.

 Today's choice was a hard one.  There are so many great songs out there.  I wanted to feature a Mumford & Sons song in celebration of their new album today, but decided to wait.  I was really feeling a few songs that would work.  I almost picked a few that were a bit more upbeat and celebratory in feeling.  In the end it was one that has a mournful hopefulness to it.

With out further ado (except to ado that there will be no more ado...)

Song 04/Day 04

Today's Song: "Rivers and Roads"
by The Head and the Heart from the album The Head and the Heart


My "discovery" of this album came sometime last year between October and Christmas I believe.  So, by default, most of the songs on it will make me think of Autumn.  For me, music tends to stick to the season/atmosphere I first heard it in.  Not always, but a lot of times.  If the atmosphere/season is in a bland nondescript mode...then the song/thing can find it's own legs.

For example:  When ever I eat pickles, I think "October."  I didn't know why for the longest time.  Then, last year my mom told me we would go to the Dillsburg, PA "Farmers Fair" in October, and I would have a pickle.  So...maybe my first memories of eating pickles was at this fair...in October. Hence my thinking that pickles taste like October.

Moving on.  Rivers and Roads was one of the tracks on this album that really struck me the first time listening to it.  It has such a subdued mellow opening, then abruptly starts to build.  The rest of the album is equally fantastic, and I'm sure there will be another song or two from The Head and the Heart in the rest of the 90 Songs.

I came across this band when I was in Target.  The cover art just kind of jumped out at me and said, "Hey!  This chick is hanging out with a dude in a sheep mask.  So...you'll want to take a listen to the tunes!"

So I did.  As I rarely purchase a physical CD anymore, I checked out iTunes when I got home.  Sure enough there was the interesting cover with the girl and sheep guy.  With in the first few samples I was sold.  Got the whole album.  A lot of the tunes are great for belting out when alone in my vehicle.  There is a folky rock vibe to their style.  I can say I haven't really heard anything else quite like them.  The instruments and vocals blend really well.  And the female singer has such a singular voice in today's music.

This particular song, while already an album favorite of mine, became more so this Spring.  When I finally got to watch the final season of Chuck (this show introduced me to a lot of good music) and got down to the final moment of the series, what song starts playing...yes...Rivers and Roads.  It was such an excellent choice for the scene it played over and behind...nigh perfection.

I won't spoil the show's ending, but if you ever get to watch it (the whole series, otherwise the impact of the finale won't be...impactful,)  I think you would agree.  It was quite pleasing to recognize a song I liked so much on a show I liked so much.  Especially since it was the last thing you heard on the show (besides closing credits.)

The reason it makes me think of Autumn, aside from having first heard it in Autumn, is the imagery the music and vocals make.  Not the lyrics exactly, but the soulful howls and starts and stops.  It's abrupt and choppy, but in the best possible ways. 

I'll spare you the scene it paints for me.  Take a listen and see what it paints for you.  Get caught up in it and get lost on some back roads as the leaves start to change.

Day 04/Song 04 - Rivers and Roads by The Head and the Heart

enjoy!

-Jesse