now hear this: The Chapin Sisters
OK thanks to someone on my flist, of course I don't remember who - it might have been shrift? *my brain is like a sieve* it was a post of four cover songs, that's all I know - I am now obsessed with this band.
The Chapin Sisters are three sisters (one step-) who are related to Tom and Harry Chapin, and they sing this sort of warped indie folk that just kills me. The song that was posted by [memfault] was "Toxic", which is a cover of the infamous (to everyone but me, apparently, since I live under a rock and don't listen to the radio/watch MTV) Britney song. I had never heard the original and was totally taken with the cover, and then when I heard the original? Even more impressed. They took this somewhat generic (aside from the string parts, which remind me of a cross between the shower scene in Psycho and Bollywood) top-40 number and turned it into a dark, moody folk song. There's something almost medieval/Renaissance-sounding to me about the melody/backing vox (it reminds me of "Greensleeves", actually1) that when combined with the post-modern lead - S. thought it was "twee" or that they were mocking folk with it, but I wouldn't say that, just that they're very aware of how emo and silly the lyrics are - is truly a stunner. I like how the lead goes from a whine to a whisper, a tart note to counteract the honeying swoon of the harmonies. They're like backwoods hillybilly angels, very O Brother Where Art Thou. The banjo is growing on me in that regard. I'm actually related to Carters of TN - but not those Carters, sadly.
So then I immediately set out to acquire all their music and find out everything I could about them. I will say that "Toxic" is atypical in that most of their songs are more straightforward folk, but the harmonies are still amazing and I like their sense of humor - their Myspace page says "Folk / Pop / Melodramatic Popular Song" (ha!). They apparently have only two official releases, an EP (available from CD Baby) and a split LP with Winter Flowers. The songs on the split LP are available on iTunes but with a shoddy transfer from the LP, I could do better. So I ripped some of the songs from their MySpace page and downloaded some MP3's from their website - two of which also had terrible sound quality - and found some live material on YouTube. Most of which (I left out the ones with the most egregiously messed-up sound) I have thoughtfully packaged for you, my beloved flist and any random passerby, and here it is - Sendspace link. This is a 22 MB zip archive containing 7 songs in AAC format, including 3 live. Here's one of the videos, the gorgeous "Let Me Go", though sadly it's only a partial version, missing the really cool a cappella intro.
ETA: I forgot, I'd wanted to say how much Erik would like this. *remembers band days with fond horror, fondness for certain participants mixed horror at my own appalling behavior* I should send it to him. Then I would feel so guilty about not having called him back after I got over being sick in February...2006. *is lame*
Band links:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chapin_Sisters (it has links to both their website and their MySpace page, as well as to the CDBaby EP and the split LP, in the interests of avoiding duplication)
http://www.rememberingharrychapin.com/circle/winter05/sisters.htm (this is a cute article about them in the Chapin family newsletter from 2005 - I wrote to Tom Chapin's website store admin, looking for that CD referenced in the article - "The Chapin Sisters Sing the Chapin Brothers" - because I am nothing if not thorough)
1 - And because it wouldn't be a "me" post without footnotes, may I just say that I will forever resent the fact that due to my WASP elementary school, I learned that song first as "What Child Is This" - bastardized Xtian version.
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ION, I'm terribly behind in my TV writeups, haven't written anything since the crack-addled inserts referenced in my last post, but at least I actually enjoyed the last few eps of most of my shows, and I appear to be finally getting over the Cold of Death that felled me all last week. Plus, S. has gone to Cali for a week, so I've got the run of the apt until next Sunday. Debating whether to go to LI to stay with my sister for Thanksgiving. Although really, why do I even bother "celebrating" Thanksgiving? It's such a lame holiday. I don't even really like turkey that much.
The Chapin Sisters are three sisters (one step-) who are related to Tom and Harry Chapin, and they sing this sort of warped indie folk that just kills me. The song that was posted by [memfault] was "Toxic", which is a cover of the infamous (to everyone but me, apparently, since I live under a rock and don't listen to the radio/watch MTV) Britney song. I had never heard the original and was totally taken with the cover, and then when I heard the original? Even more impressed. They took this somewhat generic (aside from the string parts, which remind me of a cross between the shower scene in Psycho and Bollywood) top-40 number and turned it into a dark, moody folk song. There's something almost medieval/Renaissance-sounding to me about the melody/backing vox (it reminds me of "Greensleeves", actually1) that when combined with the post-modern lead - S. thought it was "twee" or that they were mocking folk with it, but I wouldn't say that, just that they're very aware of how emo and silly the lyrics are - is truly a stunner. I like how the lead goes from a whine to a whisper, a tart note to counteract the honeying swoon of the harmonies. They're like backwoods hillybilly angels, very O Brother Where Art Thou. The banjo is growing on me in that regard. I'm actually related to Carters of TN - but not those Carters, sadly.
So then I immediately set out to acquire all their music and find out everything I could about them. I will say that "Toxic" is atypical in that most of their songs are more straightforward folk, but the harmonies are still amazing and I like their sense of humor - their Myspace page says "Folk / Pop / Melodramatic Popular Song" (ha!). They apparently have only two official releases, an EP (available from CD Baby) and a split LP with Winter Flowers. The songs on the split LP are available on iTunes but with a shoddy transfer from the LP, I could do better. So I ripped some of the songs from their MySpace page and downloaded some MP3's from their website - two of which also had terrible sound quality - and found some live material on YouTube. Most of which (I left out the ones with the most egregiously messed-up sound) I have thoughtfully packaged for you, my beloved flist and any random passerby, and here it is - Sendspace link. This is a 22 MB zip archive containing 7 songs in AAC format, including 3 live. Here's one of the videos, the gorgeous "Let Me Go", though sadly it's only a partial version, missing the really cool a cappella intro.
ETA: I forgot, I'd wanted to say how much Erik would like this. *remembers band days with fond horror, fondness for certain participants mixed horror at my own appalling behavior* I should send it to him. Then I would feel so guilty about not having called him back after I got over being sick in February...2006. *is lame*
Band links:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chapin_Sisters (it has links to both their website and their MySpace page, as well as to the CDBaby EP and the split LP, in the interests of avoiding duplication)
http://www.rememberingharrychapin.com/circle/winter05/sisters.htm (this is a cute article about them in the Chapin family newsletter from 2005 - I wrote to Tom Chapin's website store admin, looking for that CD referenced in the article - "The Chapin Sisters Sing the Chapin Brothers" - because I am nothing if not thorough)
1 - And because it wouldn't be a "me" post without footnotes, may I just say that I will forever resent the fact that due to my WASP elementary school, I learned that song first as "What Child Is This" - bastardized Xtian version.
-------------------------------------------------
ION, I'm terribly behind in my TV writeups, haven't written anything since the crack-addled inserts referenced in my last post, but at least I actually enjoyed the last few eps of most of my shows, and I appear to be finally getting over the Cold of Death that felled me all last week. Plus, S. has gone to Cali for a week, so I've got the run of the apt until next Sunday. Debating whether to go to LI to stay with my sister for Thanksgiving. Although really, why do I even bother "celebrating" Thanksgiving? It's such a lame holiday. I don't even really like turkey that much.