Songs We Like

Fixed Faces “Get Tough”

It’s wonderful to have friends across the underground music scene – and when you’re having a blue day Joey from Fixed Faces sends you their latest unreleased song “Get Tough.” Hell – these guys can write a pop song. Somehow the British Invasion is alive and well in Greenville. This is The Kinks at their most poppy. This is classic garage rock mixed with the songwriting expertise of the Brill Building. Here is a song I feel truly jealous about – because everything here – the guitar, the melody, the back-up singing – is a hook.

Want to hear us talk about this song? Check out episode #100 of our podcast at hlycrp.com.

THE THERMALS, “RETURNING TO THE FOLD”

Songs We Like

decisions today, and listening to The Thermals’ “Returning To The Fold” feels as urgent and present as when the song was released. Hutch Harris’ lyrics twist in knots over blind faith and deception, with lines like “I regret leaving my soul/I forgot I needed it to feel” and “But I still have faith/If I ever had faith/Wait for me, wait for me” tracing the deep divide between the narrator’s beliefs and the reality he’s in. The track, a brief aside from the album’s story of escaping a fascist faux-Christian America, sounds like a blueprint that garage rock’s been building off over the past fifteen years: pulsing rhythm guitar, cymbal-heavy drums, and soaring, half-shouted vocals draped over top. It’s well worth a revisit, for the compassion and verve that The Thermals bring to their music and for the all-too-relevant commentary it contains.

Want to hear us talk about this song? Check out episode #100 of our podcast at hlycrp.com.

DEFAULT AMERICAN, “THE LIFE OF ME”

Songs We Like

The faint hum of feedback bookends Default American’s “The Life Of Me,” an unanswered sound that’s there if you’re looking for it throughout the song. It’s an apt metaphor for a song about addiction: the hum is ever-present, and ready to either take over or fade into the background at a moment’s notice. The track charts a similarly twisty road to recovery, as lyrics describe leaving rehab and feeling that “the thought of being sober was one I could not afford.” Default American builds the back-and-forth over acoustic strums and full band crescendos, lucidly tracking the pressures that lead to dependence and the tumult of trying to get clean.

Want to hear us talk about this song? Check out episode #100 of our podcast at hlycrp.com.

Here it: https://defaultamerican.bandcamp.com/album/the-life-of-me-single

LA PALMA, “OHIO”

Songs We Like

La Palma’s “Ohio” finds intimacy in earnest, contemplative lyrics over lo-fi acoustic picks and strums. The best bedroom pop feels like gazing into a jewel box the artist created, and Chris Walker’s lyrics walk the line between sentiment and sentimentality with ease. As the song considers the simple desire to see a loved one before declaring “I know we’ll be okay,” the track blossoms into a fragile finger-picked bridge, with the repeated refrain “Ohayo gozaimasu/Old Ohio is gone” carrying us into silence. It’s a gorgeous exit to a reassuring song in this time of uncertainty and disconnect.

Want to hear us talk about this song? Check out episode #100 of our podcast at hlycrp.com.

Hear it: https://lapalmamusic.bandcamp.com/track/ohio

The MIssing Stares, “Isolation”

Songs We Like

Bow down to the kings and queens of garage rock-n-roll. Classic 1950s rock-n-roll blues guitar, sped up and doused with liquid attitude. The vocals are distorted to the level that you can’t understand anything – but it doesn’t matter. This is a shot of adrenalin straight to the heart. AND THEN… half the way through this burning garage anthem it slows and snakes around and rearranges its molecules into an extended psychedelic rocker. One way or another this song will fry your mind.