Tuesday, February 01, 2011

Unsolicited Song of the Week: Voices Carry

From Nashville, Tennessee and their forthcoming CD, please enjoy indie-pop rockers Paper and their instantly addictive "Everybody Talks."



Paper is the brainchild of multi-instrumentalist and singer Mike Marsh, who also does duty in Dashboard Confessional (they're one of those "Emo" bands; I'm told all the kids today just love 'em). Seriously, this song got under my skin even before the whole band kicks in (circa the two minute mark) and to my surprise I find myself genuinely looking forward to the rest of the album.

In the meantime, there's more Paper music and links over at their Facebook page, including a very nice cover of Peter Gabriel's "Solsbury Hill."

Oh, and in the interests of full disclosure, I should add that Paper's bass player is Craig Schlesinger, a much younger cousin of mine who I've never actually met. Given that he's a much better bass player than I ever dreamed of being, that's probably just as well, since I already hate the talented little SOB.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

sounds a little like E and the eels at the start. i like it too.

The Phantom Creep said...

Stylistically not my cuppa tea, but very well done. Oh hell, if it came on the radio I wouldn't turn it off.

Anonymous said...

I would never have hung in longer than 30 seconds without the heads up from Steve that something was going to happen at the two-minute mark. You need to give the listener something at at least the ten-second point to incent them to invest in listening further in the song. The more time that passes without something happening, the more of a sucker you feel like, and the less likely you are to invest in another song with a slow buildup (or in this case, no build up). This song gives no clue that its going to burst into orgiastic release at two minutes. For all I know after the first minute and 59 seconds have passed, is that it's going to go on like this forever, and that it is what we in the business call a crappy song. I wouldn't have given it a full minute without the heads up. George Martin was right when he coached the Beatles to put their hooks right up front, and not save them for after the verse, however beautiful the verse. As a consumer, I'm not psychic. You gotta give me some slight indication, some instrumental foreshadowing, some little wink or nod that tells me, "hang in there, pal, this is gonna be worth it."

steve simels said...

Behold the perils of having too long an attention span for some folks.
:-)

I blame MTV, obviously....

Anonymous said...

Craig Schlesinger . . . Adam Schlesinger ... all of you bass players . . . Familial connection? Or just coincidence?

Anywho, catchy melody, once the song part starts (and which ends too quick). Maybe that's the point. This emo/indie is too ironic for me, but god bless these kids for doing what they do.

AP