FLAMED AND ASHEN
by Sean
Please note: MP3s are only kept online for a short time, and if this entry is from more than a couple of weeks ago, the music probably won't be available to download any more.


 

Kim Jong-Il and friends, from official sources

Clues - "Approch the Throne". One day your best friend made a treehouse. It had ivy, gables, arches. In the sunset it glowed. Whenever anyone in the town walked by, they remarked upon it: That's a nice treehouse. After your best friend fucked you over, you bought matches. You bought a crate of matches. You bought a crate of matches and a San Pellegrino bottle and in one long foaming choking hiccuping gulp you drank the soda-water down. You filled the empty glass bottle with rubbing alcohol. You climbed the tree with your bare hands. You threw matches all through the place, by the handful, tucking them into curls of ivy and nooks in the gables. You jumped from the tree and almost broke your ankles. You hoisted the bottle full of alcohol over your head. You lit it on fire. You hurled it at the match-infested treehouse. It exploded in a shock of light. It burned brighter than any rivals. Across the town, everyone put their hand over their eyes and said, Holy shit. The embers fell and alighted on your head like a crown.

We have been writing about Clues since they played our Pop Montreal showcase in 2007. They are Alden Penner, Brendan Reed, and friends. Former members of the Unicorns, Arcade Fire, Les Angles Morts, playing pop music that can punch through secret garden walls. [more songs / buy - it's terrific]


Constantines - "Do What You Can Do (alternate version)". This is "Do What You Can Do", except Bry Webb sings instead of shouting. It makes the song's final crashings all the more welcome, all the more earned. It doesn't matter when a lunatic cuts his lover's name into his arm, sells his home and builds an observatory, drives his car into an underpass. It matters when a level-headed person does this, when their eyes go wide and they say to themselves: Do. [buy the Constantines' Too Slow For Love EP of alternate versions, together with the Kensington Heights LP, for a short time together just $5.99]


---

Said the Gramophone's 2009 Funding Drive will remain open just over the weekend and then close for a whole year. Thank you from the bottom of my heart to everyone who has donated so far.

Posted by Sean at April 3, 2009 12:41 PM
Comments

I used to be able to download songs but couldn't do so since last month. The only change I did was update my safari brower. I could download from other music sites. What is wrong? I am desperate for a solution! Appreciate some help. Thanks!

Posted by LadyS at April 4, 2009 12:48 AM

"Approach the throne" - music _is_ Fugazi's "Repeater"

Posted by ken at April 4, 2009 8:51 AM

Sent a small donation this morning; wish it could have been more but y'all caught me right after rent.
Keep up the excellent work. The music and writing at STG has inspired so much of my artwork it isn't even funny.

Posted by bigbigtruck at April 4, 2009 2:42 PM

Post a comment







(Please be patient, it can be slow.)
about said the gramophone
This is a daily sampler of really good songs. All tracks are posted out of love. Please go out and buy the records.

To hear a song in your browser, click the and it will begin playing. All songs are also available to download: just right-click the link and choose 'Save as...'

All songs are removed within a few weeks of posting.

Said the Gramophone launched in March 2003, and added songs in November of that year. It was one of the world's first mp3blogs.

If you would like to say hello, find out our mailing addresses or invite us to shows, please get in touch:
Montreal, Canada: Sean
Toronto, Canada: Emma
Montreal, Canada: Jeff
Montreal, Canada: Mitz

Please don't send us emails with tons of huge attachments; if emailing a bunch of mp3s etc, send us a link to download them. We are not interested in streaming widgets like soundcloud: Said the Gramophone posts are always accompanied by MP3s.

If you are the copyright holder of any song posted here, please contact us if you would like the song taken down early. Please do not direct link to any of these tracks. Please love and wonder.

"And I shall watch the ferry-boats / and they'll get high on a bluer ocean / against tomorrow's sky / and I will never grow so old again."
about the authors
Sean Michaels is the founder of Said the Gramophone. He is a writer, critic and author of the theremin novel Us Conductors. Follow him on Twitter or reach him by email here. Click here to browse his posts.

Emma Healey writes poems and essays in Toronto. She joined Said the Gramophone in 2015. This is her website and email her here.

Jeff Miller is a Montreal-based writer and zinemaker. He is the author of Ghost Pine: All Stories True and a bunch of other stories. He joined Said the Gramophone in 2015. Say hello on Twitter or email.

Mitz Takahashi is originally from Osaka, Japan who now lives and works as a furniture designer/maker in Montreal. English is not his first language so please forgive his glamour grammar mistakes. He is trying. He joined Said the Gramophone in 2015. Reach him by email here.

Site design and header typography by Neale McDavitt-Van Fleet. The header graphic is randomized: this one is by Neale McDavitt-Van Fleet.
PAST AUTHORS
Dan Beirne wrote regularly for Said the Gramophone from August 2004 to December 2014. He is an actor and writer living in Toronto. Any claim he makes about his life on here is probably untrue. Click here to browse his posts. Email him here.

Jordan Himelfarb wrote for Said the Gramophone from November 2004 to March 2012. He lives in Toronto. He is an opinion editor at the Toronto Star. Click here to browse his posts. Email him here.
our patrons
Said the Gramophone does not take advertising. We are supported by the incredible generosity of our readers. These were our donors in 2013.
watch StG's wonderful video contest winners
search


Archives
elsewhere
our favourite blogs
(◊ means they write about music)

Back to the World
La Blogothèque
Weird Canada
Destination: Out
Endless Banquet
A Grammar (Nitsuh Abebe)
Ill Doctrine
A London Salmagundi
Dau.pe
Words and Music
Petites planétes
Gorilla vs Bear
Herohill
Silent Shout
Clouds of Evil
The Dolby Apposition
Awesome Tapes from Africa
Molars
Daytrotter
Matana Roberts
Pitchfork Reviews Reviews
i like you [podcast]
Musicophilia
Anagramatron
Nicola Meighan
Fluxblog
radiolab [podcast]
CKUT Music
plethoric pundrigrions
Wattled Smoky Honeyeater
The Clear-Minded Creative
Torture Garden
LPWTF?
Passion of the Weiss
Juan and Only
Horses Think
White Hotel
Then Play Long (Marcello Carlin)
Uno Moralez
Coming Up For Air (Matt Forsythe)
ftrain
my love for you is a stampede of horses
It's Nice That
Marathonpacks
Song, by Toad
In Focus
AMASS BLOG
Inventory
Waxy
WTF [podcast]
Masalacism
The Rest is Noise (Alex Ross)
Goldkicks
My Daguerreotype Boyfriend
The Hood Internet

things we like in Montreal
eat:
st-viateur bagel
café olimpico
Euro-Deli Batory
le pick up
lawrence
kem coba
le couteau
au pied de cochon
mamie clafoutis
tourtière australienne
chez boris
ripples
alati caserta
vices & versa
+ paltoquet, cocoa locale, idée fixe, patati patata, the sparrow, pho tay ho, qin hua dumplings, caffé italia, hung phat banh mi, caffé san simeon, meu-meu, pho lien, romodos, patisserie guillaume, patisserie rhubarbe, kazu, lallouz, maison du nord, cuisine szechuan &c

shop:
phonopolis
drawn + quarterly
+ bottines &c

shows:
casa + sala + the hotel
blue skies turn black
montreal improv theatre
passovah productions
le cagibi
cinema du parc
pop pmontreal
yoga teacher Thea Metcalfe


(maga)zines
Cult Montreal
The Believer
The Morning News
McSweeney's
State
The Skinny

community
ILX