Sunday, September 14, 2008

Song of the Week #4


This week sees the return to a more melodic style of music, or as some might call it, a more manic depressive style of music. I've been a fan of 'Owen' (not his actual name - his real name being Mike Kinsella, but lets not go there) for a few years now, having first heard of him through a Red House Painters forum topic entitled 'If you like Red House Painters you'll also like...'. In fact I got quite a few artists from that particular topic, so I'm very much indebted to it.

His music is, if nothing else, just really good background music - kind of like the music of Iron and Wine. By way of illustration, let's just say that if I were to make a movie, and if I were to add a scene involving a montage of a guy and a girls everyday life after a breakup -- you know, lonely walks in the park, sitting at home looking at old photo albums -- then the music playing over that scene would definitely be something by Owen (or perhaps 'Song For a Blue Guitar' by Red House Painters...ooh, tough call. Maybe I'll post the latter on the blog and then I'll add a poll to let my readers decide. That will create intrigue, right?).

(As a side thought, would anyone be up for co-writing a movie with me based on that one imagined scene I just described? Would it help if I told you I have previous experience in the film industry?)

Anyway, the song in question which is this weeks much coveted 'song of the week' is called 'One Of These Days' and it's taken from Owen's latest offering entitled 'At Home With Owen'. It's actually a song I've only just become familiar with, but I'm really liking it. I just love the way his lyrics are so normal. This might seem strange in print, but he actually manages to fit the words 'acoustic guitar strings' into this song without it sounding out of place or silly. Or at least I think so anyway.

Like Kevin Devine, I've had the pleasure of seeing him play live (at the same gig no less), but he didn't play for very long which was a little disappointing. Still though, he's an artist I'm always coming back to listen to, and maybe you'll end up liking him too, just as you did Sun Kil Moon and Kevin Devine and Rogue Wave........................*cough, and then sheer silence*.

Just so you know, 'Owen' has actually been quite a big influence on my guitar stylings too, what with him being a huge proponent of the beautiful DADGAD tuning. He's by no means an amazing guitarist, but some of his finger picking is particularly pleasing to the ear, especially when he does some overdubs. So anytime I end up finger picking in my spare time, or indeed on the church music team, I usually end up sounding something like Owen, which I think is no bad thing.

Anyway, here's the song. Enjoy, and let me know what you think, if you indeed think anything about these songs at all (judging by the level of response I get, people either don't have any opinions, or they detest the songs so much that they feel like they'd hurt me if they told me the truth, and so they're waiting until they actually like a song before commenting. If that's true, then keep it up. Sometimes the truth really does hurt a little too much).

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