Valley of the Deep Beats: royalty, birds and forgiveness

I have found myself with a whole lotta free time recently and I've spent a lot of it reading. I've learned things like Will Oldham first made music under various incarnations of the name "Palace". There was Palace Brothers, Palace Songs, Palace Music and plain old Palace. That was from 1993 to 1997. Then after one release under his birth name he became Bonnie "Prince" Billy. Now he's 39, bald and kind of ugly (sorry Will). I took to his 2008 release Lie Down in the Light rather quickly and still turn to it often. It's kind of quiet and sweet despite his imperfect voice and feels like the work of a much older folk musician. I have never listened to any of his other fifteen recordings as "Prince" Billy, even though I have five of them in my possession.

In my reading I have also learned that this band I've been listening to called Shearwater actually started as a side project of another band called Okkerville River. That band, Okkerville River, made an album I liked in 2007 called The Stage Names. In particular, the song "Our Life is Not a Movie or Maybe" became one of my favorites of that year. Now I'm getting to know Shearwater's 2008 release Rook. Shearwater was formed by Okkerville members Will Sheff and Jonathan Meiburg. As it turns out, Sheff is no longer a part of Shearwater and Meiburg is no longer a member of Okkerville River. I'm not sure why any of this is relevant, but I found it interesting. Something else that's interesting, "Shearwater" is the name of medium sized seabird. Meibug has a Master's degree in Ornithology (the study of birds). I'm assuming he choose the band name.

I read that the band Broken Social Scene is less like a band and more like an outlet for bored musicians. Founders Kevin Drew and Brendan Canning are the constants. Just about everything else is up in the air. Sometimes Feist is involved. Sometimes she's not. You're a member a Canadian indie band? You're in the neighborhood? There's an open mic for you! Members of Stars, Metric and Do Make Say Think are all contributors. BSS has a new album. It's called Forgiveness Rock Record. I like the title.

Bonnie "Prince" Billy's second album, Ease Down the Road, was released in 2001. It's noticeably different than the 2008 album I liked so much. On "A King at Night" he sings things like - Where is my queen, she's as gone as she can be. She was a fine looking lady and she liked to go down on me, and I liked to go down on her too. I think it's safe to say Ease Down the Road is not quite sweet. It seems a bit more bitter, but maybe that's just because I haven't gotten to know it well enough. Something tells me that songs like "Grand Dark Feeling of Emptiness" won't exactly change my mind.

Jonathan Meiburg does the singing and songwriting for Shearwater. He doesn't sound like your normal indie band leader. His voice is almost operatic. He displays great range on Rook, and his writing is more dramatic than anything I've heard from Will Sheff and Okkerville River. The result is a sprawling sound with Meiburg softly setting the stage at one turn and then calling the whole show down the next. Mirroring Meiburg's voice, Shearwater doesn't sound like your typical indie group. This is intelligent, mature music. They're a less folksy version of the Decemberists, putting on a Broadway musical instead of a Civil War reenactment.

Forgiveness Rock Record doesn't sound all that different from the previous two Broken Social Scene albums (You Forgot it in People and Broken Social Scene). That's a credit to Kevin Drew, Brendan Canning and the other handful of regulars. There is something slightly different about the way this record sounds though and I can't quite put my finger on it. After the first couple of listens it feels like it's missing a heart. It's still a big sound with lots of percussion and lots of layers, but something didn't make it in the pot when this one got thrown together. I'm hoping that listening to it more will prove me wrong, but I'm not so sure.

This is what I'm listening to this week, along with some Radiohead, Over the Rhine, The National and all the old school hip-hop Pandora can throw at me.