Iron & Wine Brightens Our May

Iron & Wine fans will have much to be happy about next month.  His new tour kicks off May 4th and should be one of his best yet.  I actually have legitimate reason to believe that to be true. To decide his setlist for each of these shows, he allowed his listeners to get online and vote for the songs that they wanted him to play.  So each set should have a new and unique flavor to it.  Also each show will be played in a very small and intimate setting and will be recorded, mixed, and the put online for those who weren’t able to make it to watch.  So this year it doesn’t matter where you live, you can still experience Sam Beam live in action over at Played Last Night.

Now for the really good news coming this May.  On the 19th Sub Pop is releasing a new album called Around the Well, a collection of rare or previously unreleased tracks spanning from some of his earliest sessions to material recorded for 2007′s The Shepherd’s Dog.  It will be a double-disc set with the first half filled with more raw and unedited recordings and more of a lo-fi feel.  The second will highlight a more full sound of Iron & Wine as he is surrounded by other friends and musicians.  The title comes from my favorite Iron & Wine track, “The Trapeze Singer”  which was written for and can be found on the soundtrack to the movie In Good Company.  The album not only closes with that song, but also includes three other songs that Beam wrote for that movie.  Around the Well also brings us some hard-to-find cover songs such as New Order’s “Love Vigilantes” or The Flaming Lips’ “Waitin’ for a Superman” as well as his infamous cover of The Postal Service’s “Such Great Heights.”

As if all that weren’t enough, we now have word that Beam is working on a follow-up to The Shepherd’s Dog that he hopes to release early 2010.  Until then, I hope your ears bleed.

Iron & Wine – Lion’s Mane

3 Song Thursday: Justin’s 3 Favorite Songs of All Time

We here at ihopeyourearsbleed love lots of things, but 2 things in particular: lists and posts corresponding with days.  We have Music Video Monday, Remix Wednesday, and now joining the fun, 3 Song Thursday, which is a combination of our 2 favorite things.  The title pretty much explains what the posts will be about, but for those of you who don’t do well with inference, here is a short explanation:  Every Thursday a writer for IHYEB will pick a theme and 3 songs (or albums) that correspond.  It will be a glorious fun time, something that will help you fight through the oft times painful day that is Thursday.

As soon as I picked the theme for this post I regretted it.  Seriously, I just chose to try and decide what my 3 favorite songs of all time.  The worst thing about this is that as soon as this is published I will look at what I chose and immediately think of another song that I like better.  So I suppose I should modify the title to read “Justin’s 3 Favorite Songs of All Time That He Can Think of at the Moment”, but that is just unreasonably long.  Much like this intro.

Favorite Song of All Time #1

“Stardust”-The Essential Dave Brubeck

Dave Brubeck is probably my favorite artist of all time.  I remember first being introduced to his music in middle school finding myself absolutely stunned by his non-conventional rhythms and abstract song structures.  His album “Time Out”, an incredible exploration of obscure time signatures (5/4, 7/5, 9/8), completely revolutionized the way I heard and thought about music.  Music became so much more than something to fill the silent air, but a form of art deeper than any other medium.

Stardust is by no means an obscure song.  Everyone (and I mean everyone) has heard a version of this song whether or not they listen to jazz.  If you watch enough romantic movies it is bound to show up in at least half of them, providing the perfect background for new found love.  Bing Crosby sang it.  Nat King Cole sang it.  Ella Fitzgerald sang it.  In the ITunes store I found almost 100 versions of the song.

So why does the Dave Brubeck song stick out to me?  Ironically, despite what I just said about loving the complex nature of his songs, I love this version (from the album “The Essential Dave Brubeck” featuring Bill Smith on clarinet) because of just how simple and stripped down it is; just a piano and clarinet.  I have listened to this song hundreds of times and it still never fails to take me away.

Favorite Song of All Time #2

“Colly Strings”- I’m Like a Virgin Losing a Child

No song has ever been as lyrically profound to me as Colly Strings.  It seems that no matter where I am at in a relationship (romantic, that is) the lyrics speak to that moment.  It goes through every stage of a relationship; every wonderful, painful, fearful, regretful, happy moment.  Three lines that stick out to me every time I hear the song:

Confessingly this is the first time I’ve loved you, and God I mean it, God I mean it, I hope that I mean it.

Cause like dying young, idols got the best of me.  Well don’t stop calling, you’re the reason I love losing sleep.

Besides, we can’t believe without bleeding.

I have no idea who or what Andy Hull wrote this song about, but his lyrics are so transcendent of his personal experience that they become this universal story of the journey through love.

Favorite Song of All Time #3

“Such Great Heights”- Garden State Soundtrack

I am going to make a really pathetic admission here.  For a long time after I first heard this song I thought it was first recorded by Iron & Wine and later covered by The Postal Service.  The song was just so beautiful that I could hardly fathom it starting as an upbeat electronica piece (don’t take this to mean I don’t like the Postal Service version; I love it, in fact).  But I was an idiot back then and learned the error of my assumption, which only led me to be further amazed by this stirring rendition.  Sam Beam completely transformed this song into a slow ballad, while managing to maintain the integrity of the original.  I hardly consider this song a cover.  It is more a reinterpretation of an already beautiful piece of art, both complimenting each other so well that both benefit in the end.

I hope your ears bleed.