Wednesday's Emotional Setup: Into Your Hideout
First off, a brief note: Operation Successfully Pay Tuition has gone off without a hitch. I'm back down to around $140 in my account, with rent coming up before my next paycheck, but I used my last paycheck to pay tuition and Mom is still sending me some money once she gets paid. Thanks again to her, Dad and K. for the help.
This week's song is not findable (if that's a word) on the mighty Allmusic Guide. The band, Pilate, is Canadian, on a Canadian label (called Maple Music, no less), and is at an odd stage of development; big enough to have their video in rotation at MuchMusic, small enough that they're playing a no cover show at the Keg, our on-campus bar next week. They also boast a fairly nice website (I like the floating menu) that at one point describes them as "Radiohead meets Crowded House". Fair enough. 'Into Your Hideout' is the only thing I've heard by them, and I do love it; not enough to go running after an album copy, though.
The song starts with a simple riff. It's one of those riffs that's been used in hundreds, maybe thousands of songs, and doesn't sound one bit weathered. For a debut single, it's actually a pretty good idea - everyone who loves that riff (and the closest I can come to describing it is to say that it kind of goes duh. duh-duh-duh-duh-duh-duh. duh. duh-duh-duh-duh-duh-duh. and so on). From there the rest of the song, more floaty and piano-based than you might have thought, comes in, and so does Todd Clark's voice. He's a fine post-Yorke rock frontman, more throaty and as a result less 'wussy' than Yorke or Chris Martin, but still capable of the now de rigeur falsetto when called for it.
Its got hooks, its got a very nice chorus, it's got a middle eight that is extremely Radiohead-esque, circa OK Computer. It's just another of those songs you hear on the radio, and ultimately you'll love or hate it for the same minor, personal types of reasons I do. For me I love the riff (which is reintroduced every verse), I love the tone of Clark's voice (especially his empathetic weariness, one of my favorite vocal emotions, on the lines "My legs fail me/The ground hails me/Distant lights are calling"), I love the chorus, and I especially love what the two lines of the refrain are:
And I stole into your hideout
And it's cold there now
One of my favorite current commentaries on the cost of self-imposed emotional isolation. Or at least, that's how I'm taking it.
(K. thinks the song sounds like recent U2, by the way.)
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This week's song is not findable (if that's a word) on the mighty Allmusic Guide. The band, Pilate, is Canadian, on a Canadian label (called Maple Music, no less), and is at an odd stage of development; big enough to have their video in rotation at MuchMusic, small enough that they're playing a no cover show at the Keg, our on-campus bar next week. They also boast a fairly nice website (I like the floating menu) that at one point describes them as "Radiohead meets Crowded House". Fair enough. 'Into Your Hideout' is the only thing I've heard by them, and I do love it; not enough to go running after an album copy, though.
The song starts with a simple riff. It's one of those riffs that's been used in hundreds, maybe thousands of songs, and doesn't sound one bit weathered. For a debut single, it's actually a pretty good idea - everyone who loves that riff (and the closest I can come to describing it is to say that it kind of goes duh. duh-duh-duh-duh-duh-duh. duh. duh-duh-duh-duh-duh-duh. and so on). From there the rest of the song, more floaty and piano-based than you might have thought, comes in, and so does Todd Clark's voice. He's a fine post-Yorke rock frontman, more throaty and as a result less 'wussy' than Yorke or Chris Martin, but still capable of the now de rigeur falsetto when called for it.
Its got hooks, its got a very nice chorus, it's got a middle eight that is extremely Radiohead-esque, circa OK Computer. It's just another of those songs you hear on the radio, and ultimately you'll love or hate it for the same minor, personal types of reasons I do. For me I love the riff (which is reintroduced every verse), I love the tone of Clark's voice (especially his empathetic weariness, one of my favorite vocal emotions, on the lines "My legs fail me/The ground hails me/Distant lights are calling"), I love the chorus, and I especially love what the two lines of the refrain are:
And I stole into your hideout
And it's cold there now
One of my favorite current commentaries on the cost of self-imposed emotional isolation. Or at least, that's how I'm taking it.
(K. thinks the song sounds like recent U2, by the way.)
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