Songs For Seagulls: A Folky Kind of Life

List of New Folk Bands

2010-04-19T17:23:00.000-07:00

I have recently found a bunch of artists that are new to me that I wanted to put up on here. Look into them! They are really good! I'll probably keep adding to this as I find more.

Horse Feathers
Fleet Foxes
Iron and Wine
Andrew Bird
Great Lake Swimmers
Lara Gibson and Ethan Rose
Bowerbirds
J. Tillman
The Felice Brothers
Langhorne Slim
The Everybodyfields
The Tallest Man on Earth
Joanna Newsome
Fionn Regan
Laura Marling

Random Words: Vol. 2

2010-04-14T03:44:00.000-07:00

We’ll go into the dark
To places that hate the light
He is the prince of Newark
Often found to be bright.

Traveling great distances,
To places never seen
We are the best of friends
Sharing the best of dreams

Running through town's orchards
Sword fighting in the night
Running away from boredom
Flying the highest kite

Climbing up the willow trees
To fight the willow beasts
Jumping ‘round, and falling down
And joining their great feasts

Don’t run that way
That’s the way they’re coming,
Coming after us in our sleep
Don’t run that way
They’ll kill us,
And take us to places full of creeps

He didn’t make it through the meadow.
He didn’t make it through the fight.
The prince is dead now, I am troubled.
The prince is dead now, I must fight.

With great courage and death to be found
We went running, faster than the rain
Standing on great mountains, built into the ground
He was tortured through the worst of pain.

My heart now is troubled
My heart now is heavy
Figuring out how to survive
Figuring how to not get weary
They almost found me in the bushes
Almost shot my head
They almost killed me
If not for the owl, I would be dead
Lying to the guardsmen
Fleeing through the halls
Running around the cherry bush
To hit them with rocks and bullet’s balls

“I challenge you, a fight to the death”
The one said to the other
“I know that with your death behind me
Will give me great power”

So fight they did until the death
The two both charging blindly
Fighting fierce, and fighting strong
And trying, ever trying

Wars with great generals
Is how this story ends
Kings and Emperors all lose life
With great loss mixed in trends

So when you next decide
To try to kill my best friend
Double think, and triple think
Or it will be your end

Random Words: Vol. 1

2010-04-14T03:38:00.000-07:00

Embassy

The activity of the sea
Is bringing the life back to me
I rowed out to the ocean
So we could just be

Are we there yet?
Glastonbury?

It took us the long way back
It told us the wrong date
I asked them not to lie
We’re not going to make it there
Then why, even, have we tried?

Fleet Foxes!

2010-04-14T02:59:00.000-07:00

Fleet Foxes, Fleet Foxes, Fleet Foxes! A great name and a great sound. I really enjoy their self titled album. It is one of those that I can listen through, enjoy, sing along, and wish I knew how to play each instrument in every song. Their music makes me feel like I am back in time, a time I don't know, where the advances of technology are not with me, where life is simple. Not as many electrical wires going around the bottom of your desk, or in the middle of your hallway, but more plant roots surrounding the base of a tree, or crawling out of the ground and up a monument or house. Not as many boy bands, but musical artists who write their own music and travel around on foot to share their creations with others who appreciate their music.
White winter hymnal starts off with an incredible sound, as the lead singer begins: "I was following the, I was following the, I was following the," While a couple of the other members of the band start off with him. They follow through with him the rest of the verse, until some, "Ooo ooo ooo ooo, woo"s start coming in. The drums are a soft, but inviting and relaxingly slow beat. The instruments blend so well together that you begin to get completely lost in the words. Winter comes to mind, then summer. You think, "Who is Michael? What is the background to this story? How does Michael falling turn the snow red as strawberries in the summertime?" So many questions and thoughts come into my mind, making me search for answers, while the guitar and the drums all continue on, growing upon themselves, never waiting for you to catch up, just enjoying themselves as they continue on in sounds that bring colors of green and brown, and falling leaves to mind.
What can I learn from their lyrics? What can I do to make my own? What Michael's do I know that are clumsy and can bring great thoughts to mind? This whole song is wonderful, it stretches my mind and makes me want to search myself to find what melodies and chord progressions I have hidden away that I don't know about, waiting to be found and shared.
Their performances of their music live sound great, exactly the way I would expect it. They seem so mature with their music, it gives me hope that there are people out there writing music to play it, to write it, and enjoy it, not just please their boss or a crowd. They seem to do their own thing, and that is what I think they do best. I hope that there are more bands out there like this one.

Folk Music

2010-04-14T02:56:00.001-07:00

This blog is in a setting of folk music. I won't necessarily write album reviews, or write histories of bands, or anything really too organized. I will write as I feel the need, and keep it as an open database for all of my folk music enjoyments. I don't know what this blog will do for anyone else, or if anyone will read it. I really don't know what it will do for me, we will find out, but it will be fun along the way.