Frightened Rabbit What does it take to keep warm?

I heard of this Scottish group a few back from my bud over at I Am Fuel, You Are Friends and have placed their song (Backwards Walk) on mix CDs to many friends last summer. The way Frightened Rabbit builds their clanging percussion and layered guitar through their songs almost reminds me a bit of 80's U2 circa The Joshua Tree with some indie rock trickled in with a kick ass whiny voice.

Supporting Death Cab For Cutie, releasing The Midnight Organ Fight from Fat Cat Records last April, and the various instances I run into their songs at the most random of places has put them back on my radar...big time...again. Frightened Rabbit recorded that album in Connecticut and say the album's title is a "euphemism for sex." Not too surprising after you hear the endless stories of sex, relationships, and heartbreak that is set in a rather direct and "fuck you" tone. Here's another example:

Frightened Rabbit - Keep Yourself Warm

What's Your Summersong?

I'm going to put this out there and if you like, take it. And if you don't, you can send it right back: By the looks of it, I'm guessing no school or parent would let any member of the band Eels near their children. Looks are only skin deep, but I think their skin is pretty thick.

I was asked at work the other day what my summersong was and Eels' "Fresh Feeling" was the first thing that popped to mind. Why? This song seems to pop up almost daily during my 4-mile morning bike ride to work, creating the perfect soundtrack to the rolling fields, streams, llamas, horses, sheep, cows and bridges I pass each day en route to my music industry job in Boulder.

Birds singing a song,
old pain is peeling,
this is that fresh
that fresh feeling.
Words can't be that strong,
my heart is real,
this is that fresh,
that fresh feeling.

Without taking the time to write-out, ponder and second guess a list of my top 5 Summersongs, here they are in no particular order apart from #1:
1. Eels - Fresh Feeling
2. Apostle of Hustle - My Sword Hand's Anger
3. Delta Spirit - People, Turn Around
4. Josh Ritter & Hilary Hahn - Girl In the War (live)
5. Frightened Rabbit - Backwards Walk

Why else do I love this song?
1. A friend recently put this on a mix and though I'd heard it before, this seemed to be one of the songs that needed a re-introduction to my playlist.
2. Yet another song originally introduced to me by Braff and Scrubs

I'm back and after a week of bounding and bouncing in the Teton-Bridger forrests, I'm sore and ready to sit down for some more tunes. The 8 hour drive wasn't as bad as you'd think especially when you're noticing the vast plains of Wyoming errupting into the jagged young ranges that make the Teton range so notorious with a great soundtrack backing me up. So what was I listening to during the drive? Joe Pug, Josh Ritter, Vampire Weekend, lots of Frightened Rabbit, Bon Iver on repeat, Sam Cooke, Raphael Saadiq and Justin Townes Earle. And let me not forget the multiple times I played Johnny Flynn.

I've recently been on this Americana, old-tyme music kick. The music that perfectly accompanies a relaxing porch afternoon or a warm spring day in the backwoods of Yellowstone and Teton-Bridger. Dusting off albums with Cooke, Dylan, Van Zandt, Nelson as well as the barrage of young gunslingers like Joe Pug, Justin Townes Earle and Johnny Flynn (all of whom I've previously posted on in case you need to dig up the Mountain Tempo archives). Ironically, La Blogotheque greeted me with a session of Mr. Flynn mid-week during a needed snowfall. There I lay in the nook of a loft on the hillside watching the fog lay over the Tetons with Flynn strolling "The Box" through a bodega Take Away Session. Give it about two minutes to warm up and you'll see a great Flynn session.