Some artists write songs about themselves, pulling facts from their lives in hopes of finding some mutual truths that can connect with their audience. Others create more from their imagination, searching for the universal within the abstract. Still even more operate in a sort of grey area between the two, filling in embellishing details when their concrete surroundings fall short. Luckily for us, veteran songwriter Craig Finn operates on a different spectrum. As evidenced by a recent KEXP in-studio performance of songs from his latest LP, Faith in the Future, the Brooklyn artist (also of The Hold Steady) breathes life into every word and color into every story. Whether he is the central character, such as in “Newmyer’s Roof”, or an objective narrator, as in “Dennis and Billy”, Finn manages to combine melody and lyrics with deadly accuracy in aiming for the heart difficult of subject matters such as national tragedy and drug abuse. The songs from Finn’s performance are enveloping in scope and urgent in message. Lose yourself in their narratives below:
It's been a few years since we've heard from Denver band DeVotchKa, and in that time they've been doing the usual - you know, gardening, making babies, growing beards, writing ballets - just not releasing new material... at least not yet. Between occasional shows and a handful of concerts with the …
What happens when you strip away the feedback and distortion that defines a genre like shoegaze? Without all the fuzz, what of value remains? In the case of British band Ride, apparently quite a lot. Somewhat like shaving a cat only to find a bigger one underneath, we discovered during an acoustic …
