nathan k. | methodist girls

You won’t get to third base with these songs unless you’ve lived life, not unafraid, but unafraid to live.

 
A few hours ago my friend Nathan emailed to me gifts. Gifts of new music are always welcome around here (Thanks Mr. K). And as I ride eastward from Chicago aboard a bustling Amtrak train towards East Lansing Nathan’s latest release Methodist Girls is the perfect traveling companion.

Methodist Girls opens with Sloppy Love. For me this doleful beauty elicits a poignant depiction of our human hearts. How emotions get jostled from lover to lover. Eventually we grow jaded, lovelorn and even cynical. But we plod on hoping and searching for love, and at times we find it no matter how fleeting or lopsided. Continue reading “nathan k. | methodist girls”

la dispute // wildlife

Who says loud agitated music isn’t beautiful or thought provoking? Not I. Although the lyrics of La Dispute aren’t always incendiary political affairs, they feel like it. What’s also readily apparent, is these guys don’t lack, well, rage or talent . However, the good thing about this band is that they channel all the bitterness and beauty of living into deeply emotional fare. Their new album Wildlife (out now via No Sleep Records) is filled with tales of trail and error, longing, love lost, and lots of boiling over angst aplenty. And through it all this five-piece tour de force from Grand Rapids, MI sound like a veritable punk-rock orchestra of sound. Each song is refined chaos, more than anything else, hitting you square in your chest. Leaving your pulse racing, your brow sweaty and your fist clenched. But what do you do after this just under an hour album cranks you up to 11? You thank your lucky stars for every little ounce of joy you can eke out of life. Peace. Continue reading “la dispute // wildlife”