Accordions are always a great beginning.

Category: Music
Recommender: Alex E.
Band: Apollo Ghosts
Album: Hastings Sunrise

One thing I should mention before I launch into this 156 adventure: I should not be starting with music, it is not my strength at all (odd, coming from the former music education major).  I have very few skills in describing music well.  Also, I don’t pay attention to lyrics, which could make this whole writing about songs every week process a little difficult (on both me and my reader).  I can write a wicked book review, but music, not so much.  That being said, here we effing go.

Alex is kind of a god among music maniacs (the remainder of this paragraph will merely serve to feed his ego further).  Legend says that you can find him at the record store every Tuesday, because (in case you were unaware) that’s when all the new releases come out.  At trivia night, he is our saving grace during the audio speed round.  Whether or not we want to admit it, we typically fail that round when he’s not there.  It is for these reasons that I went to Alex for my first aural recommendation.

True to form, this album is a fantastic find.  Apollo Ghosts is a band hailing from Canada (Hastings Sunrise is a neighborhood in Vancouver, fyi) and they are not known at all.  They have a MySpace, but even my mom has a MySpace for music.  Somebody (Catbird?) at The Catbirdseat describes the band and album as “a perfect blend of ’70s Punk/New Wave/Power Pop, ’80s College/Jangle, and ’90s Slack Mofo Indie/Twee.”  Personally, it’s statements like that which cause me to hate talking to people that get obsessed about music and bands and knowing stuff about it that I don’t (care to know about at all).

However, none of that matters because this album is delicious.  I have to admit, it’s the accordion that grabbed me from the start.  How can you not love an album that begins with an accordion?  (I have Amelie to thank for this belief.)  “Dobermans” is just a great entrance (but sadly the accordion never returns?).  Then, to utilize a horribly common phrase, they completely switch gears on the next track.  Yet, I didn’t care at all.  “Land of the Morning Calm” sounds like some punk band, it’s true – but I like it.  Things tone down a little after that (pun intended).  There’s some lyrical witticism about a ghost (that seems friendly, but they yell at it anyway), heading to Peking, and a nice little punk diddy to Yokohama – which is a tire company?  Wait, what?

Then I got totally sold.  “Maybe with Me” is a great track that I can just completely sink into.  It’s catchy but not in an overcrowding way.  There’s a back and forth between the lead singer and this girl (I tried to research, but they are unknown and I didn’t try that hard), then trumpets come out of nowhere, and the guitars are strumming gorgeously.  I love it.  It’s followed by “Angel Acres”, which reminds me of Ben Folds Five’s “Fred Jones” in its slow play on words awesomeness.

The rest is all equally fun.  The closing title track, while not matching much of the rest of the album, sounds closer in a way.  The acoustic guitars, while not making their first appearance, just bring you in for the finale perfectly.

I owe a debt of gratitude to Alex for getting things off on the right foot.  I pressured him with being the first of the 156 Recommendations and I feel as though things are off to a (wordily) good start.  Coming up later this week: a murderer and all around sociopath and a hospital that speaks through audiocassettes.  I am freakin’ pumped.