Discover Top Posts Tagged with #magic central

Breathe Owl Breathe - House of Gold

What a lovely song from a lovely album. This band is great for ‘cozy-winter-y-sit around-the-fire-days’, and dancing like your Dad. This is how the dance goes! These are the very steps! Oh yes, there are hand claps! *clap clap* I squint my eyes, I reach out my arms... I b-b-bump into things!

#breathe owl breathe #house of gold #magic central #indie folk

I was afraid of losing you. I was afraid of losing you.

#Breathe Owl Breathe #Across the Loch #Relationship #Magic Central

Visit Original Link

Dragon - Breath Owl Breath

Let these words speak, let our eyes never meet, cause' even if you loved me, What would the people think? What would they do to you? They'll just keep fighting and I'll keep writing to you.

Even though I fly through the smoke, doesn't mean I made the flare. On my head, fire in my throat, doesn't mean I made the flare.

#magic central #dragon #breath owl breath #lejamz #witty lyrics #devine tune

Breathe Owl Breathe- Magic Central (Full Album)

#suzysmusic #this makes me happy #breathe owl breathe #magic central #music

Breathe Owl Breathe - "Explorer"

Michigan folk-pop trio Breathe Owl Breathe makes music for that small space between autumn and winter, a soundtrack for the falling leaves, or maybe, more accurately, for the leaves that cling to their limbs as long as they can before succumbing to the inevitable. A freeze is never too far from any of their tracks, and that constant winter threat infuses subtle desperation into their melodies and lyrics. This is a band that plays music to stay warm, and, more importantly, to warm their listeners.

Miccah Middaugh's quiet, monotone vocals combine with shimmering acoustic guitars, precise percussion, and timely strings; this juxtaposition of light instrumentation against a low, sometimes spoken word drawl produces cold-weather-emotional conflict as unique as it is shiver-inducing. The occasional backup harmonies fill out their sound, and the male/female vocal dynamic earns them comparisons to other freak folk, acoustic-hippie acts, though categorizing them with the typical 21st century folk adjectives—charming, whimsical, childlike—downplays the dramatic weight of their music. There's a heaviness at the root of Breathe Owl Breathe's thematic obsessions—broken hearts, questioned spirituality, lost childhood memories1—that rewards repeated listens like few folk artists out there today.

(Great song. Listen, but pay no attention to this weird fan-video. Too many zoom-ins on cats)

Middaugh's an imagistic songwriter, a musician who specializes in planting moments and images into a listener's head like any good storyteller or poet. His songs rebel against traditional narrative tropes in that they aren't folk ballads, but they don't disappear into the poetic abstract either. There's careful specificity to his lyrics. At one point during "Board Games," off 2010's excellent LP Magic Central2, he sings:

When I was younger I had me a fortune teller friend She'd tell me about my future It always stopped when Black stallion in an open field Thunder and lightning and it all seems too real and then Right at that moment she'd clap her hands ask me how I feel

This is a clear situation with specific characters and rich imagery, but it's not a narrative scene, just a moment, a memory lingered upon because of its dark, mystical implications. It's enough for the band, and the listener, to be brought into this moment without being brought out of it with words. In fact, that feels like the point to a lot of Breathe Owl Breathe songs—bury the listener with images, then let them find their own way out with only the threads of the initial melody as their guide.

Every song is like a trip through another nostalgic tunnel of snow. Some stay close to the surface and others burrow deep into frozen ground. Their most successful tracks do both, like "Silent Movie Reel," the third cut off 2013's Passage Of Pegasus3. This is, at the outset, a carefree flashback of a song, drenched in violins and questions like "where have all the movies gone with intermissions?" There's a Wes Anderson sweetness to the entire endeavor—images of kids in movie theaters, dance halls, choirs, a disco ball rising over a lake. Playful, yet at the end the sweetness turns to ice, and Middaugh concedes that even the warmest memories or fantasies still contain images that may send lightning up your spine:

I'm not cold, I'm just shivering I'm not lost, I'm just in love You broke into this heart not to steal anything Put everything back just how it was

These four lines end the snow trip on a clever, somber note, revealing how the exuberance of the first three and a half minutes of "Silent Movie Reel" might be masking a deeper hurt, a yearning for someone out there to help make life feel like it once felt.

Middaugh's desire to re-experience the past will surely strike a chord with certain listeners, but his fast-paced lyrical jumping from one poetic image to the next might strike others as distracted, sometimes keeping songs from feeling finished4. Occasionally, to me, it feels like he tosses everything he's got into a particular track, cooking with all the imagery and narrative ingredients at his disposal instead of exercising restraint and crafting something more symmetrical, focused, of a piece.

I don't think this is necessarily a bad thing, because it keeps every one of his tracks interesting and engaging. But sometimes, in the midst of my obsession with Magic Central a few years ago, I wanted one song to stand out above the rest. How powerful could a focused, less abstract, stripped down Breathe Owl Breathe track be? Especially if embedded within a record filled mostly with their free-form style. "House of Gold"5 came close to fulfilling this idea for me, but it still fits into the rest of the record so well that it doesn't separate itself fully. Again, not a terrible thing—I'm all about a cohesive record that puts the listener into a lovely musical-trance state for the duration of a track-list—but, like it or not, we live in a "singles" world. Short attention spans demand that one song to help us define a band. Sometimes I want that track to share with friends and colleagues, the one cut that can get others as hooked as I am.

"Explorer," the first track off the flip side of Passage of Pegasus, is that song6, and not because it embodies Breathe Owl Breathe's previous work, but because it pushes the boundaries of what this band is supposed to sound like, instrumentally and lyrically. The most obvious difference here is the synth-keys that make up the core melody, keys that constantly improvise off the repetitive hook that opens the track. That synth is a new sound for this band, unheard on the record before now, and that, I think, is by design. The first thirty seconds take the listener by surprise, separating the track from the rest of the album, elevating its importance. No wonder then that "Explorer" is the first single off the album, the shortest track out of ten, and the one song with its own dedicated music video (so far). But there's more to its uniqueness than its brevity and synth driven beat. The lyrics, tone, and point of view all signify a slight departure from Breathe Owl Breathe's previous work, and suggests an exciting new direction for them to pursue.

It's a song about a character from childhood, the friend in the group that pushes the envelope, climbs the tallest trees, thinks up the wildest fantasies for their friends to enact, keeps the whole gang out later than curfew and makes everyone late for family dinner. This is the titular explorer of the track, and he's got a full time job to climb higher than before, a goal that develops the character and also speaks to the band's own desire to further their sound, to be that kid in the group taking the whole endeavor to new heights. The song complicates its message though, characterizing this explorer as far from infallible:

And if you fall on your throwing arm Skip the stones more times than we can count And no one will tell

The narrator of the song is complicit in keeping the memory of the explorer idyllic, warm and nostalgic, but the listener can sense a creeping sadness in the tone, a yearning for the past when the kid's only real problem (I starved with plenty) wasn't really much of a problem at all. When the last verse arrives alongside a few final measures of the catchy synth melody, it simultaneously situates the song as both a pleasant, frozen memory and a call to moving forward with life:

I got to move on I can't live in the past You were the first to sign my cast

The improvisational, yet controlled pop-song structure, coupled with careful rhythmic repetition that never wears thin on the ears, provides balance to the track that feels new and impressive. It's exciting to hear a group break through to the next plane, even if that plane is imaginary and made up by writers/fans like me. Simply put, the song just feels fresh and surprisingly relevant to the current dance-pop musical landscape. Even if Breathe Owl Breathe doesn't ever swing their sound into the synth-dance wind again7, there's pleasure in knowing they can make you tap your feet and sway your hips just as well as anyone else.

"Explorer," along with the rest of Passage of Pegasus, feels more accessible than their previous work without feeling like a sharp departure from what's gained them an already lively fan base. And still, what's most appealing about Breathe Owl Breathe's music is how perfectly it encapsulates a changing of the seasons—leaves turning, dying, falling, autumn disintegrating into winter—and how that time-stamped mood gives their music an extra dose of power this time of year (probably why their last three releases have been in the fall/winter). Leaves clinging for their lives to tree branches personifies the trio to a T, since much of their music focuses on grown men and women clinging to youth and childlike wonder with an intensity few artists nowadays can match. Calling such a light sounding, folky band intense might seem inaccurate after an initial listen, but lyrically, despite their playfulness, Breathe Owl Breathe tackles the dark and majestic more often than not.

Some of my favorite lyrics: Remember when the magic was magical before the magic turned dull? and I wear my pain like a lion wears its mane. ↩︎

The best albums are usually the ones you buy on a hunch, and Magic Central was a total hunch. I special ordered it after hearing the first track on KEXP's song of the day podcast, and immediately became obsessed, with the A-side especially. Sweet pink vinyl, killer artwork; I wore that record down. Highly recommended. ↩︎

It's been such a packed season for new music (new Dr. Dog, Head and the Heart, Arcade Fire, Dismemberment Plan, Paul McCartney, Of Montreal, and more) that Passage Of Pegasus snuck up on me with its Oct. 15th release date. Kind of flew under the radar compared to the press I remember around Magic Central, but after spending some time with it I'd say it's been well worth the wait. Every edition of the record comes with unique, original cover art from Middaugh, giving the packaging a handmade vibe that fits their homegrown sound perfectly. Buy it here: http://breatheowlbreathe.bandcamp.com/album/passage-of-pegasus ↩︎

Either he hops all over the map or zones in on an image almost to a fault, like on Magic Central's "Swimming" or Passage of Pegasus' "Ferns Move," both of which focus so intently on a central image that it starts to get a touch repetitive. Middaugh's at his best when he strikes a balance between obsessing over a single moment and philosophizing about life's ironies that surround those moments. ↩︎

Damn catchy song: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vF3iMJBztOg ↩︎

Notice, I say song, not music video. I'm not really a fan of the video. It's fine I guess, just kind of standard, and beyond that opening of the guy getting sucked into the fireplace, none of the images pop half as much as some of Middaugh's lyrics. Music videos are strange; they can sometimes hinder a song and ruin one's initial connection to the track. It's like when someone adapts a book into a movie. A film may overwhelm the way you saw the material in your head and you walk out of the theater thinking, "It's not supposed to look like that!" Same for a music video, though to a lesser extent. I got into the song "Explorer" before they released the video, and I'm not sure I would've liked it as much if I'd heard it the first time by watching the video, because the images would take my attention away from the songcraft. Basically, this is my longwinded way of saying that the song deserves a listen outside of the video, so switch tabs or something and just let the audio do the talking. ↩︎

What's cool about the sequencing on Passage of Pegasus is that those synth noises are nowhere to be found on the first half of the record, and then after "Explorer" they pop up all over the place on the rest of the B-side. This gives the record unique direction, like we're hearing the band grow and play with more toys as they get more and more comfortable. ↩︎

#Breathe Owl Breathe #Explorer #Passage Of Pegasus #Magic Central #Michigan #Folk #House Of Gold #Hometapes