The Digital Outhouse

Made in Heights - “Skylark Interabang?!”

As much as I wanted to grace your screens with a picture of Alexei Saba’s very attractive face, I can’t discredit Kelsey Bulkin’s vocal contributions to Made in Heights’ music. So here is an artistically ambiguous photo from their Facebook.

Excellent independent music has never been hard to find in Seattle and this is partially due to local icons like Saba (aka Sabzi) who is also known for his ingenious work with Common Market and Blue Scholars. Made in Heights only has two albums, both of which are annoyingly good, making it difficult for myself to feature just one track. I can’t be the only one who likes sonically ethereal indie with the tiniest bits of hip hop. Can I?

Whatever the case may be, I recommend listening to everything they’ve ever made together.

Beck “Soul Of A Man”

Throughout the years, Beck has has steadily proved that the soul of a man is indeed the dark bottomless pit everyone envisions it to be. 

Well, a dark bottomless pit with a candy center. Yeah, we’re Tootsie Pops. 

Emmy The Great “Exit Night (Live)”

I have always felt that music is an expression of people’s inner most feelings, a way to communicate on an almost transcendent level.

With that being said, Emmy The Great remains to be one of my favorite “transcendent communicators”. Why? Well, first off, Emmy does happen to be quite great, but it’s not because of her band name, or because she is stunningly beautiful (and enough emphasis cannot be placed there).

No, she’s great because there is a sincerity present in each of her songs that (somehow) doesn’t equate to complete and utter bullshit. It’s real, and seriously, what more can you ask for? 

Except maybe a date.

Charlotte Gainsbourg “Heaven Can Wait (Breakbot Remix)”

I don’t know about y’all, but I do believe you would be hard-pressed to find a better example of an artist taking one thing (and a beautiful thing at that) and creating a completely separate work of art (but isn’t that what art is anyway?)

Maybe Gainsbourg and Breakbot should get together some time. Just saying.

Stars “Your Ex-Lover Is Dead”

While Mr. Renostache opted to go for the cordial Valentine’s Day greeting, I simply cannot (though this has absolutely nothing to do with my personal feelings towards the holiday, which are, in fact, overwhelmingly positive).

Today’s particular song obviously touches upon a subject most of us are familiar with: ex-lovers (and makes for a great tie in for today’s lovely holiday). But of greater interest to me is the underlying theme of vacating oneself from a former love.

Torquil Campbell and Chris Seligman exchange verbal lacerations (yup) at one another throughout the course of the track, and while both travel down seemingly contrasting paths, both clearly convey a sense of apathy towards (presumably) one another.

Undoubtedly, one of the most important characteristics of humanity is our ability to forget (and perhaps to a certain extent, our optimism of the future). This allows us to move forward and recover from seemingly devastating tragedies. Without this we would be fucked.

If you can’t see how this connects to song in question, I’ll lay it out for you:

There’s one thing I want to say, so I’ll be brave
You were what I wanted
I gave what I gave
I’m not sorry I met you
I’m not sorry it’s over
I’m not sorry there’s nothing to save

Personally, I don’t see how you can feel nothing for someone you truly loved. I’d title the song “The Person You Tricked Yourself Into Believing You Loved But Didn’t Really Is Dead”.

Happy Valentine’s Day :)