More MN Musik

Very few "new" "literate" "serious" songwriters are actually original, insightful, or tuneful. Or they're only one or two, seldom all three.

I heard the song "Amygdala" by the Honeydogs on the Current the other day, and liked it so I bought it....

....Back up a step, I've never liked the name "Honeydogs". Not that I thought about it, it's just a visceral thing....

....I immediately had faves and then other songs I didn't like at all. Elan Vital, for instance, sounded like a 10cc knock-off from The Original Soundtrack. As I listened a few more times though, something sort of clicked in my head and I realized that not only wasn't Elan Vital a cheap rip-off, it was a fucking brilliant musical and lyrical statement. All the songs started connecting with me (musically first, that's how I operate), and in short order I came to realize that I was listening to a work of rare musical genius. Heads or Tales, for instance, literally almost reduces me to tears. Yeah I'm a softy. Blow me. I catch myself humming the songs, lots of different ones, to myself. One will get stuck in my craw and I'll have to stop what I'm doing and go put it on. It's that kind of connection.

The lame part, of course, is that I'm just now discovering Adam Levy's songwriting. Here's this freakishly amazing band in my home town and I never gave them a chance because I didn't like their name. Sheesh.