Indie Elevator

Have you ever been in a place, not like physically, like in a state, where you desperately needed music, but not music that made you pour over each poetic line in the deepest of thoughts and feelings? In this place, have you ever found you can't listen to your trusted favorites either, because you'll sing along in your head and subconsciously rock out without meaning to. Classical won't do it because of the sometimes urgent rise and fall that takes you by surprise when you don't want it to. I have been in this place many times over the years whether studying in college, writing, reading, walking through the Tallinn streets, driving, just whatever, but I just really put my finger on what genre this place needs: Indie elevator music.

When you're feeling this way, you need a beat, but not the Beastie Boys. You have things to think about or something to read and the clock is ticking away at you. You need information to sink in. Things need to get processed. You need to get somewhere. Still with me?

Well, I think I can help if this is what you need. I first heard the band Ratatat on a local radio station, KXUA, oh, probably two years ago. I never caught the name of the Ratatat song, but, the beat was spectacular, the hook totally had me rapping my thumb on my console and after the song was over, I realized that I had just really enjoyed that. It was effortless too.

This weekend, I was around the house cleaning and I used my new friends, 3GS and Pandora, to help along my efforts. Now, Beastie Boys or Tribe Called Quest are usually great for this activity, however, with the impressionable little ears I had around, not. I tuned up some Ratatat on Pandora. What followed was just what I needed. Good, chill music with steady beat to keep me on task.

I have a sample of what I'm calling "Indie elevator" for ya. Here is Explosions in the Sky playing "First Breath After Coma" and after hearing it this weekend, I stopped, ran to the iPhone dock to see what it was and then to my desk to write it down. The first two minutes of the video begin with friends walking in the snow and the steady sound of heartbeat and high notes that keep you and make you wonder what they are. At 2:28, it lifts beautifully, coming all out to paint a hopeful place, a place you want to be.

As I watched this video, I wanted to play that table game with that grandfather. I wanted to paint that canvas and thumb through records and play guitar with my friends at a local music shop. I notice how the girl in the video playing guitar occasionally rests her pinky finger on the body of the guitar she plays almost like one might keep a finger on a page as a bookmark and I notice this because, I do that too, sometimes.

It reminds me of the days when all we had were cd's and stereos. On a school night before bed, you'd put just the right cd on, one that takes you out of your day's teenage angst and deposits you into your bed for rest and dreams, big dreams at that. I remember waiting for the hidden track you know is at the end of the cd, like on the thirteenth song, or something. Somewhere between listening and waiting for the instrumental hidden track, your mind allows disconnect, then sleep.

This music won't necessarily put you to sleep, but the way it made me feel, relaxed and pleased, is why I like to call it Indie elevator music.

Ironically, while writing this post, I received an email alerting me that someone had something to say on my Facebook wall. I went to check it and saw on my Home page, that a friend had posted a link to the exact band I was writing about. So, I thought I'd share the love here too. Here is a link to Amazon.com's offer to buy Explosions in the Sky's record, How Strange, Innocence for $1.99.

And if you're with me here with this need for some Indie elevator every now and again, here is a list of some bands you should go check out:

Ratatat
Explosions in the Sky
RJD2 (Their song, " A Beautiful Mine" is the theme song for the tv show, Mad Men and is retro/jazzy cool)
Kinobe
El Ten Eleven
Longwave
Matt Chamberlain