The Ditty Bops -- Moon Over the Freeway
1 rating since posting on Tuesday, June 6, 2006
|
in Everywhere
website
|
Overall Rating based on 1 rating |
|
|
Advertisement
|
|||
|
Unsu...
|
Charming in the strictest sense...you literally feel charmed when you hear it. I heard the this band on KCRW a couple years ago and immedietley wanted to go buy the album. It is a eclectic mix of jazz, western swing, folk, and a little bit of rock. That album, their first, was great. And they've matched themselves with the new one, but at the same time adding a little something to their style. They mixed some old genres and did something new and interesting with them. Thier voices complement each other beautifully, and their harmonies are mellifluous. The lyrics have the playfulness of swing, but with a bent that makes them easier to relate to being modern listeners who grew up in a different time. Often silly and clever, sweet and cute, and other times simply poetically descriptive of experience. The music itself has a similar range of affect. I really like what they have done with "western swing", a very creative genre from the 40s and 50s that used the steel guitar in quirky ways, which, like a lot of interesting music, never became very popular. It was always a fun music to listen to, but the cheesiness of the lyrics could easily get on your nerves, which was unfortunate because sometimes they used the voice very creatively. I think the Ditty Bops remedied this problem with western swing with some of the songs on this album (when the lyrics are cheesey, its a clever sort of cheesey). You can hear both albums streaming decent quality on their website under the "songs and lyrics" section ( www.thedittybops.com/songs.htm ). The song that hooked me was "Walk or Ride" from their last album (a not overly didactic song about treading lightly and living lovingly...or something). There are a lot of songs on both albums that are equally good in different ways. They we're being advertised on myspace for a little while( www.myspace.com/dittybops ). The first video on their myspace page, "Short Stacks" is one of thier least interesting songs as far as thier harmonies go. I like the second one though, "Wishful Thinking", not their best, but it shows thier western swing influences nicely--its a cute video with a sense of humor that is prevalent in their music. - Unsubscribed , posted 08/02/06 |
The Ditty Bops -- Moon Over the Freeway was recommended for:
- Tribe: Defuncted
- Tribe: Audio Engineering
- Tribe: TenThousandVisions
- Tribe: music theory and music metatheory
- Tribe: Benevolent Dictators/Dictatrices
- Tribe: TripSeven
