I was afraid I'd eat your brains

Fan Girl Challenge- Favourtie Musicians People [1/?]- Matt D. Berninger 

I mean, let us please talk about this. I love The National, and I love Touche Amore even more so this was a peculiar but perfect fit. ’Available’ surfaced on The National’s ‘Sad Songs For Dirty Lovers’ LP, and was what I looked to when I heard High Violet for the first time and had to hear what else this amazing band had to offer. I started with ‘Available’ on Sad Songs as it is track 7, and that’s where I’ll jump to if I’m unsure of where to start.

There are a few real TA musical anomalies in this cover. I mean for a start, Touche Amore vocalist Jeremy Bolm is singing, as opposed to his trademark scream. This is the first time (to my knowledge) that Jeremy hasn’t either screamed or spoken on a record, and it sounds incredible. The dude just doesn’t sing, well until here. In fact, he only screams towards the end of this track, and that’s where the original gets more abrasive too, so it’s not unwarranted in any way.

Furthermore, structurally it’s fairly by the book, but more surprisingly the tempo stays fairly to the original. The track lengths are super similar to one another, with only a few seconds in it. Normally, TA will pound through a song in two minutes, sometimes over, mostly under.

This is a really welcome change of pace as far as I’m concerned, the guitar tones are incredible and that bass just keeps rumbling away in the background. Elliot Babin stays in the backseat here, and adds nothing that doesn’t need to be added. This is cool, as the dude is an incredible drummer, but plays here in an incredibly musical sense, allowing the ability and melody of the song to shine through.

Lastly, this is (digitally) on a No Sleep compilation called ‘A Comp For Mom’ which is a compilation of exclusive (mostly) songs from No Sleep affiliated bands. This compilation was intended to help fund some medical bills for label owner Chris Hansen’s mother, and is now sadly released in her memory. This is a completely non-profit release for the label. All money generated is going to help pay medical bills and contribute to the Linda Hansen Memorial Fund. A small community of great people clubbed together on this release and made something truly special for a great cause, and grabbing a download of the whole thing is like $5, so maybe £3? Don’t be cheap dude.

This is a bit longer than I would normally go on for. I guess I just had a little more to say.

When in fact: