Straight From the Horse’s Mouth: Sean Moeller’s Daytrotter Picks for 12/2/14

The shortened holiday week still gave us enough days to post a few batches of really great new sessions, many of which feature some lifers. Here’s the best of the best from Thanksgiving week on Daytrotter, 2014.

The Naked Eye


This duo from the UK makes me want to get to someplace dim and chock-full of dirty cigarette smoke. It would be best if we were a few bottles of wine deep into a night that got started late. There should be a bear-skin rug on the floor, and there should be a general mood of romantic noir. Everything should be darkened and given to a feeling that we could all just float away with these sins and broken promises. Check out The Naked Eye’s session here.

The Memphis Dawls


Had some beautiful flashbacks to when I heard Lucius for the first time, listening to the song “Liar,” from The Memphis Dawls’ second session. It’s one of those songs that grabs you by the collar, braces your back appropriately and then leans you back and plants a serious, passionate kiss right on your lips. You find that you’re swooning before you’ve even gotten to the chorus of this song about the cheating, snake work that happens between two people who claim to love one another. Listen to The Memphis Dawls’ session here.

Anberlin


It’s quite incredible that, after all of this time, with all of this technology, there have been no great advances in people just being people. There have been no great advances in people figuring out how to make themselves easier to be with, or easier to stay with. There’s still a fire that needs to be lit. There’s still an attractiveness that needs to be met to get from one tiny point in the continuum to the next tiny point. It’s a draining ordeal and it’s a nerve-rattler. It’s always such an impossible and terrifying undertaking—to even begin the thought process that another person will care enough about you to want to be with you exclusively, until the day that you both die. It makes you break out into a cold sweat just reading the words above, doesn’t it? We use drinks and food to grease the wheels, but all of that is a charade. You’re asking for so much. It’s hysterical. People mess up so much. The restlessness that’s harbored in all bodies just awaits the smelling salts, or an unpredicted hunger. Florida band Anberlin has explored these unknown endings for the past 12 years. Lead singer Stephen Christian sings about “wanting to the your last first kiss” here on this session, and it’s one of those romantically laced sentiments that we’re all so quick to call bullshit on. What a dream. What a fat chance there, right, but it happens. The very tiniest of success rates still propel us forward and likewise encourage us to keep much close to the vest. It’s something that will never be mastered. The endings will never be seen before they end. Check out Anberlin’s session here.

PAUMA


The men that this young band paints are ones who know themselves way too well and still can’t figure out how their shit for brains work sometimes. They sing, “I’ll fall apart in a way I’m too used to,” and these folks plug on, trying to get all of the horrible outcomes out of their bodies before everyone really starts keeping score. They’re hoping that these are just those silly little growing pains that everyone has to endure, even when they sound more serious and lasting than anyone would like them to be. Check out PAUMA’s session here.

Caroline Spence


This Nashville singer/songwriter writes the kind of smoldering, sad songs where it’s plain to hear that the wounds are fresh and they’re still very sensitive. “Don’t Call,” in particular is one of those warnings to a former lover who’s messed up one too many times and there are no more second chances. Listen to Caroline Spence’s session here.

I found myself listening to a lot of submissions this week, and there were a lot that I loved. Please seek out the music of these great young artists that I stumbled upon last week: Habibi (thanks Howard/Overcoat), The Far West, The Shoe Ins (check out “I Pledge Allegiance To Your Body”), Adam Louis Schatz, The Red Headed Indian, Sammy Brue (thanks Joe Fletcher), Kadhja Bonet, Hosts, Aquilo, Oyinda (thanks Bruce at WXPN), Victor Florence, She’s A Keeper, Cash + David, Oracle Room, Gymnast, Salt Cathedral and Esse. Now get out there and have yourself a week.