It’s Me Against A Wardrobe



Phoenix @ Bowery Ballroom 12/2/2004

Too Young / Victim Of The Crime / Run Run Run / I’m An Actor / (You Can Blame It On) Anybody / Funky Squaredance (part three) / Honeymoon / If It’s Not With You / Everything Is Everything / If I Ever Feel Better / Love For Granted // Everything Is Everything (acoustic version) / Party Time

Phoenix “If It’s Not With You” – I have no way of measuring my listening habits, but I think that it would probably be a good guess that on a purely scientific level, this is my single favorite song from 2004. Repetition has done nothing to diminish my love of this song (or the entire Alphabetical album, for that matter) – in fact, increased familiarity only seems to intensify my enjoyment. Familiarity is a big part of comfort, of course, and it seems as though Phoenix have designed their music for maximum coziness. I mean, listen to those chords! I’m no music theory guy, so I don’t know exactly what they’re doing, but it feels so elegant and smooth, with very clever progressions that evoke exactly the right in-between emotions with remarkable precision and grace. More than any other song that I’ve heard this year, this song feels like my life right now: cautiously optimistic; inching towards emotional maturity; smiling through frustration.

I think that I broke a personal record last night for the longest sustained smile of my life, starting from the intro of “If It’s Not For You” up through the conclusion of “If I Ever Feel Better.” The entire show was a thrill, but that three-song combo was intense, and amped up considerably by an enthusiastic, dance-happy audience. Phoenix are a remarkably tight live band (which shouldn’t come as a surprise given the meticulous sound of the records) with a frontman far more charismatic and hammy than I ever would have expected. They faithfully recreated the sound of the studio recordings on stage, but added little jams and altered the structure of the songs to keep from sounding too sterile. “If I Ever Feel Better” was extended significantly – there wasn’t any instrumental jamming involved, just the repetition of the hooks for an extra three minutes or so. It was like a big disco singalong. (Click here to buy it from Amazon.)

Ana Da Silva “The Lighthouse” – Normally, whenever I post music by an artist who has been involved in some other semi-famous band, I try to avoid mentioning it because I’d prefer that the music exist in its own context rather than in the shadow of another act’s body of work. Invariably, someone in the comments box will say “hey, did you know that ____ was in ________?” or something to that effect. So for today, I surrender. Ana Da Silva was in The Raincoats. This doesn’t sound very much like The Raincoats (it’s more like an incantation set to a minimal, repetitive electronic track), but there you have it. (Click here to buy it from Soul Seduction.)

Also: Over the next two weeks, I plan on posting some Christmas/Holiday themed songs. If you have anything odd, interesting, or obscure that you’d like to pass along for possible inclusion on the site, please send me an email.