Frightened Rabbit :: "The Twist" and "Head Rolls Off" [Live on Daytrotter]

I spent at least three of the last six hours in the back seat of a car, traveling at, quite frankly, unsafe speeds on a road that seems to relish claiming the wreckage of poor driving decisions and ill-advised lane-changes. Seat behind the driver, head leaned against the window, you aren't far from the mortality of the jersey barrier directly to your left. It hums by at furious, unfeeling speed, maybe thirty-six inches from your ear. If you're paying attention, you realize the finer than fine line between your continued living and your completely plausible and possibly imminent death. But, to dance with death means that death is dancing with you, moving to your coordinated floor plan; to court disaster means that disaster can't secretly be courting you. To live thirty-six inches from your own demise, if you wait and watch for it, is a moment where you can feel really alive. Undoubtedly, we are here and we are lucky for it.

Listen :: Frightened Rabbit - "The Twist" (Live on Daytrotter)
Listen :: Frightened Rabbit - "Head Rolls Off" (Live on Daytrotter)

Frightened Rabbit :: "Living in Color" and "Nothing Like You"

Back in 2007, Frightened Rabbit took a blunt object to our brains and hearts. Lyrically, it wasn't always the most nuanced (neither were our responses) and musically, it wasn't ground-breaking but none of that seemed to matter. From first interacting with "Modern Leper" to discovering "The Twist" and, in my group of friends, a new way of talking, "New band, new song, twist song, twist band, twist sandwich" (Looking at you, Nate), it was the perfect record.

Now, we are headed for a new release from Frightened Rabbit in March 2010. It's rather incredibly called Winter of Mixed Drinks, also a lyric from song "Living In Color." Like most things the band does, it appears overly emotional, destructive, solipsistic and crushing with shreds of a building pathos. With first single, "Swim Until You Can't See Land" already in the can and hitting the web, this week two more tracks filtered out during a live session on the BBC. "Living in Color" and "Nothing Like You" are the logical next step: A little more guitar driven, a bigger sound, something you could throw at an incredible engineer and mixer and make sound like it's going to explode your heart. What do you do with a recording budget that dwarfs your last record? Something like this. Lyrically, it's all still there: "I am floating with my eyes closed/with no sails/I am soaking, I am weathered/by the winter of mixed drinks." Get ready to feel sorry for yourself all over again, world - Frightened Rabbit are roaring back.

Listen :: Frightened Rabbit - "Nothing Like You" (Live on BBC6)
Listen :: Frightened Rabbit - "Living in Color" (Live on BBC)

The Lonely Forest :: "We Sing In Time"

A result of changing speech cadences, we've taken to saying "new" and then a noun. It indicates pleasure. It indicates approval. Someone plays a song you like. You say: New band. New song. The rough translation is: I enjoy this and would like to hear more. New song. This new way of talking (new talking) is almost complete owed to the marbled-mouthed, Midwestern speech patterns of one of our most recent friends. We took to it like wild fire. New fire. New friend.

So, I suppose it's no coincidence that The Lonely Forest's "We Sing In Time" spoke immediately to me. "I'll find a new breath. A new life. To take me away." It's pretty dramatic. Now it helps that The Lonely Forest are writing about progress. More specifically, they're writing about how progress, even the end of humanity might provide opportunities for new life. New song.

Sonically, The Lonely Forest sound like a sped-up version of Band of Horses; same throbbing drums and resolving melodies. Same ethereal vocals. It's good. So say it with me, say it with our entire group of friends. New song. New band.

Listen :: The Lonely Forest - "We Sing In Time"