Pneumatic Tubes

Here's some lovely psych and folk-tinged orchestral pop from Pneumatic Tubes.  New album "Runner's High" should be out later this summer on Ghost Box imprint Belbury Music.  In the meantime, listen to the very Midlake sounding new single "Yellow, Green & Gold" below and download the track here.

Daily Jam - My Autumn's Done Come

Someday I’ll finally be too tired to go out. I’ll be too tired to meet with friends or talk with strangers. I’ll be too tired to run, or dance, or explore. Instead, I’ll sit back in a comfy chair as my joints crack, resting my weary body, probably enjoying a cocktail, watching the leaves turn brown and fall from the trees, as my own hair gets whiter and sparser on the top of my head. For a little while, I’ll be content. And then I’ll eventually close my eyes. And go to sleep.

Though he was only 37 years old when he wrote and recorded it, and would go on to live for another 40 years and change, Lee Hazlewood’s “My Autumn’s Done Come” is probably the best ode to old age ever written. First appearing on the 1966 album The Very Special World of Lee Hazlewood, there is something so gentle and accepting within its melancholy calm, refrains of a life without regret, a shedding of unimportant things, a focus on simpler pleasures, and no fear of death. And the orchestra swirls.

Hazlewood’s brilliant career as a producer, composer, and musician is littered with scores of landmark releases and broad experimentation. Whether it be his psych-country-pop albums with Nancy Sinatra, his rockabilly guitar twang with Duane Eddy, or his orchestral-pop work with Hollywood, the man’s sound was truly his own, incredibly distinguishable from his contemporaries, and exceedingly difficult to pin down or label. Hazlewood was never quite country, never quite psychedelic rock, never quite old standard, though he certainly waded through all of those genres and more. “My Autumn’s Done Come” plays on all of them.

An almost somber piano and guitar melody plays as soothing chorale vocals swoon in the background. Strings gradually ebb and flow as a deep and salty voice sets the scene. An aging man takes his seat. The song sounds like being too tired to even bother anymore, like a passive apathy, but without the pessimistic aftertaste. It is beautiful. It is inevitable. So just let the time wash over you…and try to smile.

Check it out below, our Daily Jam.

Daily Jam - Love Is Blue

If there is some supreme being out there, or a super race of creatures beyond our own limited understanding and perception watching and observing us, toying with us, playing with us for their own amusement and entertainment, I have one request for them. Just one thing that I want. So, here it goes:

Dear Demigods,

    If you ever put together a cinematic montage of my life’s events, milestones, highs, lows, etc., please score said montage to Paul Mauriat’s orchestral, instrumental version of “Love Is Blue.” I think it would look pretty damn great. Thank you for time.

                                                                                                                                        Tommy W

Released in 1968, French orchestra conductor Paul Mauriat’s take on “Love Is Blue,” or “L’Amour Est Bleu” for you French purists out there, quickly became a #1 hit in the US, and has since, over the decades, garnered a seeming plethora of different covers, versions, interpretations, and so on. It’s a simple, melancholy melody that easily gets under the skin and into the ears, and then stays there for all eternity.

I think I first heard the song when I was a kid in an elevator or a department store somewhere (it is an easy listening gem after all), and that time being of the pre-internet age, it took me years to figure out what it was. I searched to the best of my adolescent ability before putting the quest on the back burner for some time until I finally figured out the song title and artist when I was in college. A mild and pleasant euphoria followed. In a lot of ways, I miss that sense of discovery and excitement, that veritable high that ensues when you stumble upon something you’ve been looking for. With an endless array of information now at my fingertips at any given second, I don’t really get that sensation any more. The closest thing I get to it is when I come across a rare record while crate digging. That will have to do.

Song hunting aside, “Love Is Blue” remains a personal favorite of mine, the harpsichord and the string sections painting a most serene setting, the melody weaving a perfect and lovely moving tapestry…like a montage…a montage of my life. All of you omnipotent aliens out there, get on that.

In the meantime, check it out below, our Daily Jam.

Daily Jam - Danse Des Mouches Noires Gardes Du Roi

I've got what looks to be a long and exhausting week ahead of me with work and such, and i get to play the part of single dad this weekend.  So, taking a deep breath and starting the week with some orchestral, jazzy psychedelic French pop from Jean Claude Vannier.  Here's "Danse Des Mouches Noires Gardes Du Roi," our Daily Jam.

Sault

Sault dropped a new album out of the blue this week, and it finds the mysterious producer/artist in different waters.  On "Air," the artist pushes his funk, soul, and hip-hop sounds to the side for something more celestial.  Interstellar jazz and cinematic orchestral pop collide with choirs and an immense atmosphere, like calling down the heavens.  It's a wonderful and beautiful detour.  Check out the album opening "Reality" below and order the record here from Forever Living Originals.

Daily Jam - Berlin

I guess it just feels like a '60s German, psych-tinged, orchestral pop kind of day.  So here's "Berlin" by Heidi Brühl, our Daily Jam.

Daily Jam - She's Gone Away

Still mostly working from home.  Still watching the kids.  Still worried about what's going to happen in the Fall.  And the next few weeks of work are looking to be crazy busy.  So let's just try to forget about all that for three minutes or so with some Burt Bacharach.  Here's "She's Gone Away," our Daily Jam.