This Guest Track is courtesy of A. Mantle, a sojourner, a scholar and a string band enthusiast. If you’d like to contribute to the Guest Track series, send an e-mail to guesttrack@thecorch.com.

One doesn’t always think to search for truth in a small wooden shack amidst the company of two shaggy white men and a black panting dog. Yet The Avett Brothers’ acoustic take on their song 10,000 Words proves that this isn’t a hopeless pursuit.

I first started listening to The Avett Brothers during my initial fascination with string bands last year. As an eMusic article explained to me, “A string band isn’t exactly cut-and-dried… generally speaking, it [refers to] groups whose foundations are in the old-time music of the ’20s and ’30s, before the early heyday of commercial country music and the subsequent rise of rock & roll.” In my experience, this usually means at least three things: acoustic instrumentation, vocal harmonization, and lots of twang.

And so we have the musical backdrop for the timeless wisdom of 10,000 Words:

Ain’t it like most people? I’m no different. We love to talk about things we don’t know about.

How often I feel the need to pontificate about how others choose to live their lives and to act as if I had a privileged perspective that they were not privy to. When I act this way, I know I play the fool and talk on things I don’t know about.

The Epistle of James, written nearly 2,000 years ago also dealt with similar concerns when the author reminded his recipients that they should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry (James 1:19b). Because The Avett Brothers remind me that in the age of Justin Bieber and Miley Cyrus, musicians might still have something intelligent to say, 10,000 Words is one of my favourite tracks.

10,000 Words

Rarely do I agree with the kind of people who comment on YouTube videos but in this case user slipismm has put it quite poignantly,

“[To] those 83 people that missed the like button… may God have mercy on your soul.”

He was referring, of course, to Regina Spektor’s music video for the song Us. And his sentiment is spot on.

There are so many things that make this song a favourite track that I don’t know where to begin. It’s infectious, to start. It’s frenzied pace, coupled with Spektor’s absolutely acrobatic vocals results in a down right stunning sound. She sings, “it’s contagious” and she’s right—and do you think she knows it?

I get the feeling that Spektor’s pop sensibilities are so finely attuned that she can manage to do nothing more than bang a bunch of keys and make it sound like a beautiful work of art. But that’s the beauty of a song like Us, I think. It’s really uncomplicated, perhaps even unmusical at times, but it sounds great and it works so well. It’s lyrics, a kind of end-of-the-world love theme, fit perfectly with the collapsing and expanding sound of the piano and her voice. I love it and anyone that doesn’t, I’m certain, must be already dead on the inside.

Us

Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the past month (and I don’t mean to discriminate against rock-dwellers, they have rights too) then you’ve no doubt heard of, if not seen the Old Spice Man: A washboard-ab’d man’s man who’s outrageous lifestyle is the premise behind the new Old Spice marketing campaign.

What makes these commercials so successful, I think, is that they’re hilarious, pretty clever, and just absolutely outrageous.

It’s obvious that Old Spice is going through a complete rebranding but perhaps the less obvious thing is that whoever they’ve got at the wheel is a complete genius. This is marketing for the 21st century. Their rebrand, “Smell like a man, man,” has become a complete Internet sensation. Their YouTube channel is getting a bazillion hits from people wanting to watch their hilarious TV spots and, what’s more, they’re pumping out new content daily online. They’re skipping the networks, skipping the distribution and putting it right online, for free, all by themselves giving people what they want which is, ironically, instant access to their commercials… and we’re eating them up!

They’ve gone even one step further by launching a new series, yesterday, of the Old Spice Man responding to messages from Twitter, Facebook, and other social media sites. He has even gotten into a back-and-forth with Alyssa Milano culminating in him sending actual flowers to her house. We’ll have to wait and see if the Old Spice Man wishes to continue their relationship—only possible if he next donates $100,000 to the Gulf Oil Spill clean up, according to Milano.

But the kicker is that we will wait and see what happens next… this is an ad campaign that’s actually grabbed our interest and kept us entertained. Rarely, would a person go out of their way to watch ads, but Old Spice has got us doing exactly that. If anyone was wondering how to make money in a modern society where people skip the TV networks, download programs themselves, and watch ad-free television on their computers, I think Old Spice has hit upon the formula, and it’s pretty common sense actually, make ads that are entertaining.

This Guest Track is courtesy of A. Mantle, a friend, a scholar and a music enthusiast. If you’d like to contribute to the Guest Track series, send an e-mail to guesttrack@thecorch.com.

I envy Glen Hansard’s voice. Listening to his voice is often a cathartic experience for me, so I imagine that it’s pretty amazing to actually sing with it. It must also be useful to have his voice when you’ve had a bad day, or when you wonder about the point of life.

I can just see it; a long line at the grocery store, Glen’s running late and he’s not happy; Glen get’s into his car, throws back his head and howls: I had to waaaaiiiitttttt REAL LONG, I had to waaaaaiiiiittttttt REEEAAAALLLLLL LONG……..to get my food…..to get my foooooood, and just like that, he’s feeling better.

Seriously though, the almost over the top emotionalism in Glen’s music is what thrills me. Everything is a big deal to him. Since I tend to live my own life in that fashion, I’m thankful that someone else can appreciate this view of reality.

Leave is one of Hansard’s masterpieces. This song is a temper tantrum set to music. I’m amazed to think that so much passion and energy are possible with only an acoustic guitar. I think that you will be too.

Leave

I don’t know a lot about The Jayhawks but I do know a few things. First of all, they seem to have just arrived, to the present, from the past. Seriously. Their music, their sound and their appearance is that of a band somewhere in the early 70’s, don’t you think? Their vocal styling, the way they’re recorded and captured lived, and even their harmonies are reminiscent of something much farther back in musical history. But this track is from 2006. It’s hard to believe.

The other thing I know about The Jayhawks is that this song is killer. On top of all the aged beauty of The Jayhawks style it’s simply a really good song. It’s simple and yet interesting. It lulls and soars and seems to be exactly the right length. Those harmonies do sound so good and the guitars, especially in this live version, are so crisp and clean and give the entire song a twangy kind of feel that I really dig.

Finally, I know that this song is perfect for a rainy, stormy day like today.

Save it for a Rainy Day

Yes, I like Fatboy Slim. He was pretty much all I listened to that one summer when I worked at Costco. Remember that summer? It was the last time the World Cup was on, in Germany. What a summer that was!

Besides being a fun, well-written and catchy song the video, like many Fatboy Slim videos, is really interesting. Oh, and I absolutely love the juxtaposition between the vocal acrobatics and the physical acrobatics on screen. Wonderful. Just you go ahead and try not to dance.

That Pair of Old Jeans

Here are the highlights from the pre-World Cup friendly between The Netherlands and Hungary. It looks like we’re ready for the World Cup! Now keep in mind, Hungary is currently ranked 57th versus the Dutch who sit at 4th…