The Theater Fire - "These Tears Could Rust a Train"

Every bar of this song exudes modesty. Perhaps the guitarist - a player of some skill - had once been accused of hotdogging, because now, though he plays confidently and with feeling, a few bum notes are thrown in for appearance's sake. Sometimes, when he slides up the neck of his guitar, he makes a sound like that of glass shattering - but not wanting to alarm us, he makes it not the sound of enormous window panes falling from the top of skyscrapers, but of bifocals falling off of a short woman's face, or maybe of little blown glass dragons falling out of a child's hand, onto hardwood floors. He loves the person who he is singing about here, but he doesn't make his love out to be of any great importance or consequence. Overall though, he thinks she's as close to perfect as someone can be (for him, anyway), except that he sometimes feels inadequate in her presence. The drummer uses a kit with only two drums and a high-hat; anything more would be like bragging, I guess. [Info]

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Horse Feathers - "Finch on Saturday"

Hear hear! I hear Cat Power and M. Ward in the singer's voice, but more than anything else, this song reminds me of Arthur Russell's exquisite "A Little Lost". As with "A Little Lost", here the violin plays outside of all the dominant violin traditions: not as a classical instrument, nor as a fiddle, nor as part of a pop string section. Here it is a pop lead, playing slow and lovely riffs that define the song's melody. [From the upcoming PDX Pop Now! compilation]