Monsters of Folk – Monsters of Folk

The Monsters of Folk are a collection of artists who have been playing live shows together for four or five years now and who have just put together an absolutely incredible album.  They are (clockwise from the top-left as depicted on the album cover) Conor Oberst (of the band Bright Eyes and more recent albums released under his own name), Jim James (of the band My Morning Jacket—actually going by the name “Yim Yames” on this album), Mike Mogis (producer and member of the band Bright Eyes), and M. Ward.  Taken separately, Oberst, James and Ward have very different sounds, but in this album—which is more indie pop/rock than folk—they blend their voices incredibly, creating a record with 15 really great songs that are quite different from anything that any of these artists would release on his own.  Try out “Dear God (sincerely M.O.F.),” “Say Please” and “His Master’s Voice.”  Enjoy.

Well, we thought that Friday the 13th was the big day—the day we find out the sex of our baby.  As it turns out, the hospital requires that Kristen be a full 19 weeks pregnant, whereas the doctor told us 18 weeks.  So, we have to wait until next Tuesday to find out.  A whole four days.  I said it was a minor setback.  We’re still very excited to find out.  Lately, Kristen’s been thinking it’s a boy, but she dreamed last night that we had a girl.  We also took a few online quizzes, two of which said girl, one said boy.

Me—I’m convinced it’s a baby.

Glen Hansard & Marketa Irglova – The Swell Season

I was turned onto this album by listening to a preview on Pandora of The Swell Season’s newest release, Strict Joy (you may have seen it on counters in Starbucks).  After making this album in 2006, Hansard and Irglova took on “The Swell Season” for the name of their duo, and they made the soundtrack for the movie Once (in which they also starred), which won an Academy Award for best original song.  The song that won them the award is also on this record and is called “Falling Slowly.”  It is a really beautiful song.  The whole record is full of beautiful, heartfelt songs, mostly duets, that make for great evening listening.  ”This Low” and “Drown Out” are also great songs.  Enjoy.

David Bazan – Curse Your Branches

David Bazan, formerly the front man for the band Pedro the Lion, has recently released his first solo album.  For those of you familiar with Pedro the Lion, you’ll know that it was a band that often skirted the edges of Christian themes but managed to defy the label “Christian.”  After listening to this album, one is left to wonder if Bazan has lost his faith altogether or whether he has regained a more chastened, honest faith.  Whichever it is, Curse Your Branches is a profound bit of theology as Bazan wrestles with the aspects of faith that he finds troubling, as well as the difficulties of his own struggles with alcoholism.  The album starts off with a song called “Hard to Be.”  Here’s the first verse:

you’ve heard the story
you know how it goes
once upon a garden
we were lovers with no clothes
fresh from the soil
we were beautiful and true
in control of our emotions
til we ate the poison fruit
and now it’s hard to be
hard to be, hard to be
a decent human being

The concept of sin factors in heavily in his songwriting, but the bigger issue for Bazan is God’s role in the human condition.  In the powerful title track, Bazan uses these words:

all fallen leaves should curse their branches
for not letting them decide where they should fall
and not letting them refuse to fall at all

And again in the closing track, “In Stitches”—here are the full lyrics:

my body bangs and twitches
some brown liquor whets my tongue
my fingers find the stitches
firmly back and forth they run
i need no other memory
of the bits of me i left
when all this lethal drinking
is to hopefully forget
about you
i might as well admit it
like i even have a choice
the crew have killed the captain
but they still can hear his voice
a shadow on the water
a whisper in the wind
on long walks with my daughter
who is lately full of questions
about you
when job asked you the question
you responded “who are you
to challenge your creator?”
well if that one part is true
it makes you sound defensive
like you had not thought it through
enough to have an answer
like you might have bit off
more than you could chew

The record is full of thought-provoking lyrics like these.  And, by the way, the music is really good too.  Enjoy.

Friday, November 13th, is the big day!  We go in for our next ultrasound and we find out if we’re having a boy or a girl.  We are so excited to find out!

MGMT – Oracular Spectacular

This record was actually released at the end of 2007, so it’s been around for a while.  When I first listened to it, it had a couple of stand-out tracks, and the rest was hit-or-miss.  Over time, the whole album has been one that I have really enjoyed listening to.  Their sound is a little disco, a little psychedelic, and really creative.  My favorite songs are “Time to Pretend,” “Weekend Wars” and “Electric Feel.”  Enjoy.

Now that we’re out of the first trimester, I feel safe to share our exciting news!  We’re having a baby… on April 14th.  We are beyond ourselves excited and cannot wait to meet the little person growing inside me.  I was really nauseous for  about a month but only threw up once. The biggest hurdle has been combating the fatigue.  Bryant is convinced I would be exhausted anyways-  just teaching 3rd grade for the first time, let alone doing 10 hours a week of internship, going to class every Monday evening and commuting an hour each way.  It’s true…  this is a very stressful time to be pregnant.  It is just now becoming part of my reality as we’re openly sharing the news.  Although I think Bryant has thought of nothing else since the day we saw the little plus sign- I never imagined my husband turning into a complete mush.  It is already obvious who will be the disciplinarian in our house, and we haven’t even met the little one.   It has been strange to feel my body morphing into an unfamiliar shape.  You can’t really tell yet that I’m pregnant, most people at school still don’t know, but I can tell a difference.

We’ve had two ultrasounds- the most amazing experience of my entire life!  We’re going to find out the sex of the baby at the end of November.  The measurements all look great and the heartbeat was strong.  The baby was really active and at one point, appeared to be sucking its thumb.

We’re in love already.

The Low Anthem – Oh My God, Charlie Darwin

This record is very quickly becoming one of my favorites of the year.  The music is a really great blend of folk and Americana.  The first two songs on the album, “Charlie Darwin” and “To Ohio,” are absolutely gorgeous.  They’re soft and quiet with beautiful harmonies.  Then you get to the fourth track and you find an energetic blues/gospel song, “The Horizon is a Beltway.”  When I first listened to the album, it seemed disjointed because of the way it fluctuated between the quiet folk and the lively Americana, but they do them both so incredibly well that it actually works.  The three songs I’ve already mentioned are probably my favorites, but the album is full of great  songs.  You might also try “Cage the Songbird” and “To the Ghosts Who Write History Books.”  Enjoy.

For the last four years, Kristen and I have used only our cell phones and not bothered with a home phone.  For the last several months, though, I’ve been bugging Kristen about getting one since our home has three levels and Kristen tends not to keep her cell phone near her when she’s at home and she can be hard to reach.  But, we were very hesitant about picking up an extra monthly bill any sooner than was absolutely necessary.  After doing some looking, I was sure we would use a VoIP service, which uses your high speed internet connection rather than a landline.  It has the advantage of unlimited long-distance calling and extra features as part of the basic package, and runs only about $20-$25/month.  Then we found Ooma.

Ooma is like Vonage and other VoIP services with one very significant exception: absolutely no monthly charge.  Yep, we’re talking about a free phone service.  You pay up front for the hardware, between $200 and $300 (cheapest at Costco as far as I could tell), and unless you want to pay monthly for certain extra features, you don’t have to pay another dime.  You get voicemail, caller ID, call waiting, and other basic features, and you can call anywhere in the U.S.  It pays for itself in about 10 months.

Too good of a deal not to share it.