Music Monday: Interesting Music from Bobby

I live a cool, artsy, athletic, interesting lifestyle vicariously through Bobby. She lives in Portland and used to live near the Clown House. The stories she tells!

Anyway, Bobby has introduced me to too much great music to list, but here are some of my lasting favorites.

Cloud Cult
Albums I have: Advice from the Happy Hippopotamus, They Live on the Sun, The Meaning of 8
Videos: Lucky Today and Take Your Medicine and Chemicals Collide
Advice from the Happy Hippopotamus was the first Cloud Cult album I heard (and it consistently stays in my iTunes Top 25 Most Played automatic playlist), but if you want a more emotional experience, check out this review of Hippopotamus and then listen to They Live on the Sun. I am drawn to this music. It initially pulled me in with strong, diverse, interesting instrumentation, but then quickly hit me with lyrics that are at turns fun, touching, and heart-wrenching. Some of the harder-hitting songs don't work for me, but those misses are rare.

Menomena
Album I have: Friend and Foe
Video: Wet and Rusting and Rotten Hell
The lower voices are my favorite aspect of this band. Don't get me wrong: I like the sound as a whole and I like the lyrics, but I especially like when the bass guitar or bari sax goes from providing a lyric low rumble to showing the surprising agility of an NFL lineman. Anything that can get random Parisian kids jumping up and down has to be pretty good.

Hawksley Workman
Album I have: (Last Night We Were) The Delicious Wolves
Video: Jealous of Your Ciigarette and Striptease and You Me and the Weather and Your Beauty Must Be Rubbing Off
His lyrics are what make his music work for me. For some artists, I focus entirely on the music and don't even care about the words, but some artists pull me in with their lyrics. The music is simple, straight-forward stuff that seems like an extention of his voice.

Honorable mentions: The Wiseguys, Sleater Kinney, Franz Ferdinand.

Thanks to Bobby for introducing me to this music. It doesn't make me any more cool or artsy or athletic or interesting, but I like it anyway.