100th Post: Thank You Umbrellas!

100 posts.  I can hardly believe it.  I guess you could say we’re pretty legit now.  Maybe?  Well, I really didn’t think that I would last this long, or that I would have this much success.  So first of all I would like to thank all of you loyal readers.  Without you guys this would just be me rambling to myself for no reason about music I already know about.  So thank you for your support and encouragement.  It is my desire that for the next 100 hundred posts that we would provide a place for you to come and discover new music that doesn’t suck and that is helping make this world a better place.  So in my effort to do just that and my desire to honor a band that is not only one of the many inspirations for writing this each week, but the band that gave us our name.  So it is with my pleasure to introduce to you….Umbrellas.

I first discovered this band right before the release of their self-titled debut off of their record label The Militia Group in the summer of 2005.  From the moment I first heard the piano intro to the opening track, ‘ The City Lights’, I knew that I was going to fall in love with this band.  Scott Windsor has created the perfect blend of pop music: between his soft and airy voice, the catchy melodies flowing from the piano, smooth guitar riffs, tight drum beats, and then throw in a little hint of depeche mode-like electronica.  It is like heaven in my ears.  And I haven’t even mentioned his phenomenal lyrics.  Some say he’s pretentious. I say he’s brilliant.  There were many moments during my first experience with this album that literally gave me goose-bumps.   The first one was through the entirety of the aformentioned opener.  It can still do it to me almost three years later.  It is an absolutely fantastic song.

Umbrellas – The City Lights (removed 2/13/09)

And then the second moment came in the song that brought us to where we are today, ‘Ghost’.  This song builds to an incredible chorus where Windsor just belts out such a gorgeous refrain that contains the words from which we got our name.  It’s hard to not get goose-bumps just thinking about that first listen. But it isn’t just the chorus that gets me.  I love every word to this song, and I hope that you will come to appreciate it as much as I do.  And I hope that hearing this song will also give you a greater love for our site and the history behind it.

Umbrellas – Ghost (removed 2/13/09)

Ghost

I don’t know what I’m doing or where I’m going.

When I get there and I sort things out,

I hope that I do it well.

It’s the excitement, the anxiety, then the let down.

It’s the vivid dreams that fall away from our memory.

I won’t be your sorrow anymore,

or that crutch that validates those pictures inside your head.

When you hear this song I hope your ears bleed.

‘Cause it’s in this song that I hear you.

When you hear this song I hope you head for the hills.

It’s there that you’ll find me and you’ll lose me.

‘Cause it’s there that you’ll be beautiful.

Simply gorgeous.  Well I’m not going to even touch on their sophomore release today.  But I’m sure you’ll read about it here at some time in the future. Until then…I hope your ears bleed.