i sold my bed, but not my stereo

Pre-birthday birthday wishes for muh August Baby !

Onwards!

Album: In A Tidal Wave of Mystery

Artist: Capital Cities

Year: 2013

Not so very long ago I was in the car with my parents listening to 70's Funk and Motown when one of them [probably my mom] said that: THIS was REAL music. And the other [probably my dad] agreed and replied: They were musicians. You don't HEAR bands anymore.

I think we've all been in this situation. To be fair I'm pretty sure OUR parents were even in this situation. 

Hell, I think once the birth of music changed from Sacred to Secular our ancestors, riddled with fleas and cloaked in perfumes to hide the stink, even caught hell for listening to a new era of music with those teeny bopping troubadours filling the young maiden's head with indecent thoughts. 

I didn't say anything because..welp..they're mostly spot on. Without the aid of Satellite and Internet Radio where you can get whatever you'd like instantly, when and where do you find a band of musicians?

That play instruments.

Like, from the Brass Section?

Yeah THOSE kind of instruments. Instruments you learned about in Elementary Music and probably played throughout High School. 

Of course this would also mean actually BUYING an entire ALBUM and not just plucking songs out of the air to forget about later on after 2 weeks of non-stop rotation until the next jiggly synthesized house-doused mainstream radio mindlessness comes along. 

Because if albums WERE bought in their entirety, [digital download, hardcopy what have you] a LOT more people would be surprised by what they heard. 

Including parents.

I stopped and I thought to myself at the time, the last song that was recent enough to have band instruments on it, and that was off of Matchbox Twenty's EP, with full blown trumpets that sounded so much like Tower of Power it was beautiful. 

This would also include flute from MB20's debut album, Darren Hayes' use of incredibly powerful Bells from his double-album, and of course the native instruments from both Linkin Park and Nightwish. Both songs with no mainstream appeal and no real video and so anyone who had enough sense to seek out these albums one way or another and LISTEN to them they would be pleasantly surprised. 

And so I sadly came to the conclusion that there wasn't any live trumpets that was recent enough for me to disagree with otherwise.

Until about a couple weeks ago when the musical guest on Conan was Capital Cities.

AND THE TRUMPETS DUKE. THE TRUMPETS.

It was SO perfect and such a breath of fresh air my mind turned to mist and I had to buy their debut as immediately as possible. 

And I was in NO way disappointed. Live trumpets come in sprinkled here and there to add textures to songs, and even the Andre 3000 "Farrah Fawcett Hair" is a deviation from the norm that it is silly and enjoyable without the doucheyness of 3OH!3's PermaFrat Party. 

Which is what the album as a whole is: dancey funky upbeat fun. And hopefully Capital Cities will pave the way for more feel good music that not only sounds good but isn't afraid to use instruments.

Now THAT'S what I call music. [Is it too late for that company to change names?] 

Moral of the Story: Too Electronic to be Indie, but too Indie too be called anything else Capital Cities is such a warm bubbly refreshment for the ears, whoever says they DON'T like it, probably shouldn't be trusted to borrow your car or watch the dog when you go on vacation.

Does a Body Good: BUY THIS NOW. ALL OF IT. There IS no stand out track because ALL of it stands out.

Facebook Review: Dear Capital Cities, Thank you for not being afraid of using legit big band instruments throughout your debut album. You don't know how much it means to me. Also, thank you for bringing back some funky electro grooves that are sunny enough to not have me revert to 3OH!3's douchey frat pop to cap off the end of summer with. P.S. Dat Video!

Go and seek out AAHHLL the music an artist is capable of.