{"id":194,"date":"2005-10-19T11:27:37","date_gmt":"2005-10-19T18:27:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/archives\/2005\/10\/19\/laura-veirs\/"},"modified":"2005-10-19T21:18:28","modified_gmt":"2005-10-20T04:18:28","slug":"laura-veirs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/2005\/10\/19\/laura-veirs\/","title":{"rendered":"Laura Veirs"},"content":{"rendered":"

Lie to me and tell me everything is all right<\/em><\/p>\n

One of the great things about the iPod is you never know what you’ll hear.\u00c2\u00a0 Put it on random and suddenly a favorite track from years ago will fill your brain and for that one special moment you’ll be reminded of who you used to be.\u00c2\u00a0 That’s what happened when I heard Jonny Lang’s "Lie To Me".\u00c2\u00a0 And as the riff was pounding in my brain, as I listened to the North Dakotan emote, I wondered, how did I DISCOVER this.\u00c2\u00a0 MTV.\u00c2\u00a0 Or maybe it was VH1.\u00c2\u00a0 They went on it because Jonny was young, and cute, playing an older man’s music WELL!\u00c2\u00a0 The track was so infectious that I checked out the album.\u00c2\u00a0 And found a bunch of winners.\u00c2\u00a0 I even went to see him at the Troubadour.\u00c2\u00a0 I don’t go out to hear new bands anymore.\u00c2\u00a0 I just don’t have the desire.\u00c2\u00a0 Then again, I’m not exposed to new bands.\u00c2\u00a0 I’m just dunned by people in the business to go see their new charge.\u00c2\u00a0 So I can exult in the joy of their investment.\u00c2\u00a0 So I can write about the music and give them a leg up.\u00c2\u00a0 This is so far from the way it used to be.\u00c2\u00a0 When by just being a fan you were exposed to stuff.\u00c2\u00a0 And hooked.<\/p>\n

I don’t watch MTV anymore.\u00c2\u00a0 Not even the reality shows.\u00c2\u00a0 I gave up on "Real World" when it was clear that it was only a springboard to stardom and had almost nothing to do with reality.\u00c2\u00a0 As for music…\u00c2\u00a0 The thought of being exposed to anything but high-priced rap on the channel is a joke.\u00c2\u00a0 And that’s what VH1 has become.\u00c2\u00a0 A joke.\u00c2\u00a0 A sniveling E! clone.\u00c2\u00a0 And terrestrial radio is either the same stuff they play on MTV on Top Forty or the same old tracks on rock stations.\u00c2\u00a0 All presented like we care.\u00c2\u00a0 And I don’t.\u00c2\u00a0 To quote an old song, baby, how’d it ever get this way?\u00c2\u00a0 To where there’s no center.\u00c2\u00a0 No clubhouse.<\/p>\n

The other night I read this magazine "Paste".\u00c2\u00a0 They reviewed all these albums I’d never heard of.\u00c2\u00a0 I wondered whether I should believe.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s not only that I desire a filter, I desire to be on the pulse.\u00c2\u00a0 Oh, I want a few bands that only I know about, that I can proselytize about.\u00c2\u00a0 But society is about belonging.\u00c2\u00a0 I want a modicum of acts that have fans.\u00c2\u00a0 I want to be a member of a club.\u00c2\u00a0 There used to be a club.\u00c2\u00a0 They called it FM radio.\u00c2\u00a0 Listen to a station and you knew not only the new music but everything that was happening in town.\u00c2\u00a0 Now I read reviews of acts in the L.A. "Times" and am stunned that they were even playing.\u00c2\u00a0 I mean back in the seventies I just KNEW what was going on.\u00c2\u00a0 Who was playing the Forum, even if I wasn’t interested.\u00c2\u00a0 Cars paraded those KLOS stickers given out at gigs.\u00c2\u00a0 Oh, KROQ does something similar, but it’s smarmy.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s all attitude.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s middle-aged people ripping off kids.\u00c2\u00a0 There’s no respect.\u00c2\u00a0 Just the same joking attitude that pervades our society.\u00c2\u00a0 Yeah, we know this sucks, but this is the SYSTEM!\u00c2\u00a0 You can’t fight the system, can you?<\/p>\n

I was driving to A16 yesterday to buy a new pair of hiking boots when I heard Death Cab For Cutie on XM’s Loft.\u00c2\u00a0 This song called "What Sarah Said".\u00c2\u00a0 I flipped the buttons, seeing what else was on the system.\u00c2\u00a0 And when I came back to the Loft, Death Cab was still playing.\u00c2\u00a0 But now the tune had turned instrumental.\u00c2\u00a0 And was really good.\u00c2\u00a0 This cemented it for me.\u00c2\u00a0 I had to check the band out.\u00c2\u00a0 This locked me in.\u00c2\u00a0 Mike Marrone gave it his imprimatur.\u00c2\u00a0 The President of the club was telling us it ALL it was good.<\/p>\n

But what came next was even better.\u00c2\u00a0 "Galaxies".<\/p>\n

I don’t know why I remembered the name Laura Veirs.\u00c2\u00a0 Maybe because it was so close to Meredith Vieira.\u00c2\u00a0 But it was in a distant memory bank.\u00c2\u00a0 Until I heard this tune on the Loft.\u00c2\u00a0 And another one after it, "Lake Swimming".<\/p>\n

Are you a fan of the first Suzanne Vega record?\u00c2\u00a0 There’s a mood, a FEEL to that record that I’ve never heard replicated.\u00c2\u00a0 Like you’re in a thinking girl’s bedroom.\u00c2\u00a0 And she’s letting you into her world.\u00c2\u00a0 Story by story.\u00c2\u00a0 THAT’S what this Laura Veirs music sounded like.\u00c2\u00a0 I haven’t been enraptured by a record on my wavelength in EONS!\u00c2\u00a0 This was not another pretty girl trashed up to sell her body.\u00c2\u00a0 This was somebody I might know.\u00c2\u00a0 That I might WANT to know.<\/p>\n

Well, I learned that Laura Veirs was not another Britney clone when I got home and fired up her Website.\u00c2\u00a0 She’s not beautiful.\u00c2\u00a0 And that’s such a relief.\u00c2\u00a0 And how interesting that her album’s on Nonesuch.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s getting to the point where you can almost trust the label.\u00c2\u00a0 That if they put something out, it’s good, or at least deserves notice.<\/p>\n

But one of the great things about Laura Veirs is she’s NOT been noticed.\u00c2\u00a0 There’s not the usual oppressive hype.\u00c2\u00a0 I discovered her the OLD-FASHIONED way.\u00c2\u00a0 In passing.\u00c2\u00a0 On the RADIO!<\/p>\n

What did Frank Zappa say?\u00c2\u00a0 Writing about music is like dancing about architecture?\u00c2\u00a0 That’s why I tend not to get into the actual songs themselves, the musicality.\u00c2\u00a0 My goal is only to describe the mood, the feeling I get when I listen to the music, so you’ll check it out.\u00c2\u00a0 I’d like you to check Laura Veirs out.<\/p>\n

You can’t hear my favorite track on the album so far, the opener "Fire Snakes".\u00c2\u00a0 But you can stream a bunch of songs on her Website.\u00c2\u00a0 And even watch a video for "Galaxies".<\/p>\n

Go to: Nonesuch<\/a>\u00c2\u00a0Launch the player.<\/p>\n

Choose your connection speed and "Galaxies" will start playing.\u00c2\u00a0 Of the four tracks available, after "Galaxies" play "Magnetized".\u00c2\u00a0 THIS is the sound and feel I’m talking about.<\/p>\n

You can also go to lauraveirs.com.\u00c2\u00a0 Not that there’s much there.\u00c2\u00a0 Which kind of works at this stage of the game.\u00c2\u00a0 She’s a mystery.\u00c2\u00a0 You want to know more.<\/p>\n

<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Lie to me and tell me everything is all right One of the great things about the iPod is you never know what you’ll hear.\u00c2\u00a0 Put it on random and suddenly a favorite track from years ago will fill your brain and for that one special moment you’ll be reminded of who you used to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-194","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-the-music"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p96vPs-38","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/194","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=194"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/194\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=194"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=194"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=194"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}