Here's something you might be interested in.
Ask a Hipster — Advice you didn't know you needed
Big Screen — Movie commentary
Blurt — Music's inside track
Booze News — San Diego spirits
Classical Music — Immortal beauty
Classifieds — Free and easy
Cover Stories — Front-page features
Drinks All Around — Bartenders' drink recipes
Excerpts — Literary and spiritual excerpts
Feast! — Food & drink reviews
Feature Stories — Local news & stories
Fishing Report — What’s getting hooked from ship and shore
From the Archives — Spotlight on the past
Golden Dreams — Talk of the town
The Gonzo Report — Making the musical scene, or at least reporting from it
Letters — Our inbox
Movies@Home — Local movie buffs share favorites
Movie Reviews — Our critics' picks and pans
Musician Interviews — Up close with local artists
Neighborhood News from Stringers — Hyperlocal news
News Ticker — News & politics
Obermeyer — San Diego politics illustrated
Outdoors — Weekly changes in flora and fauna
Overheard in San Diego — Eavesdropping illustrated
Poetry — The old and the new
Reader Travel — Travel section built by travelers
Reading — The hunt for intellectuals
Roam-O-Rama — SoCal's best hiking/biking trails
San Diego Beer — Inside San Diego suds
SD on the QT — Almost factual news
Sheep and Goats — Places of worship
Special Issues — The best of
Street Style — San Diego streets have style
Surf Diego — Real stories from those braving the waves
Theater — On stage in San Diego this week
Tin Fork — Silver spoon alternative
Under the Radar — Matt Potter's undercover work
Unforgettable — Long-ago San Diego
Unreal Estate — San Diego's priciest pads
Your Week — Daily event picks
Crushed Stars: Convalescing in Braille
I'd like to think that everyone has moments of nearsightedness. That eases my chagrin at the knee-jerk wince evinced earlier this year when Crushed Stars were making waves with "99 Red Balloons." The wince was about the original as transmitted by Nena. I didn't bother with the Crushed Stars version until its latest album manifested on my desk, at which point I realized I'd been missing out on yet another Portlander who's making poetry with music. For instance, the CS cover of the balloon song plunders a minor-key dreaminess barely evident in the original.
Since I have a weakness for pretty music that's in no particular hurry (Satie is a god to me), my resonance with Crushed Stars, let alone Tear Ceremony, Todd Gautreau's previous immersion in a more electronic ambience, was a matter of time.
Guitar notes dropping like rain on "Eyeliner" would dance well with the deeply considered plucking of Don Peris. Gautreau's subdued vocals, which evoke a gentler John Cale, peer in and out of this rain. Everything on CIB is similarly lovely, although the run of "Technicolor" from one sheltering doorway to another is slightly more hurried. The minimal keyboards and mellotron-like breaths of the instrumental "Frost on Wires" approach radiance, as does "Ocean."
- Album: Convalescing in Braille (2010)
- Artist: Crushed Stars
- Label: Simulacra
- Songs: (1) Eyeliner (2) Black Umbrellas (3) Sutures (4) Technicolor (5) Spark (6) A Day without You (7) Frost on Wires (8) (Fall) (9) Beatrice in the Otherworld (10) Ocean
Here's something you might be interested in.
Crushed Stars: Convalescing in Braille
Crushed Stars: Convalescing in Braille
I'd like to think that everyone has moments of nearsightedness. That eases my chagrin at the knee-jerk wince evinced earlier this year when Crushed Stars were making waves with "99 Red Balloons." The wince was about the original as transmitted by Nena. I didn't bother with the Crushed Stars version until its latest album manifested on my desk, at which point I realized I'd been missing out on yet another Portlander who's making poetry with music. For instance, the CS cover of the balloon song plunders a minor-key dreaminess barely evident in the original.
Since I have a weakness for pretty music that's in no particular hurry (Satie is a god to me), my resonance with Crushed Stars, let alone Tear Ceremony, Todd Gautreau's previous immersion in a more electronic ambience, was a matter of time.
Guitar notes dropping like rain on "Eyeliner" would dance well with the deeply considered plucking of Don Peris. Gautreau's subdued vocals, which evoke a gentler John Cale, peer in and out of this rain. Everything on CIB is similarly lovely, although the run of "Technicolor" from one sheltering doorway to another is slightly more hurried. The minimal keyboards and mellotron-like breaths of the instrumental "Frost on Wires" approach radiance, as does "Ocean."
- Album: Convalescing in Braille (2010)
- Artist: Crushed Stars
- Label: Simulacra
- Songs: (1) Eyeliner (2) Black Umbrellas (3) Sutures (4) Technicolor (5) Spark (6) A Day without You (7) Frost on Wires (8) (Fall) (9) Beatrice in the Otherworld (10) Ocean