music of the week: band of horses and the new year
these songs are by the new year, and covered by band of horses.
so i was watching the o.c. the other day (as i love to do) and a song came on and i thought, ‘this songs sounds pretty familiar’. it took me a second to place it because it was a cover, which threw me for a few reasons. 1, it sounded quite a bit different than the original 2, the original is by a pretty obscure band and 3, how in the world did this ever make it to the o.c.? i believe i’ve extolled the musical virtues of the o.c. in the past. they’re consistently playing new music or old classics from the jayd mcferson archive but this seemed like a stretch even for the o.c. let me give you a little background on these songs. first of all, they’re the same song, ‘the end’s not near’ by the new year. i’m presenting two versions for you here. the first is the version that appeared on the o.c. which is the cover by band of horses and the 2nd is the original recording. now let me share with you why the appearance of this song on the o.c. is so crazy to me.
many years ago, a buddy (see link above) introduced me to a band called bedhead. their music was really subdued, but they managed to convey this sense of urgency. their songs were really mellow but tended to slowly pickup pace and intensity to the point where you were on the edge of your seat just waiting for the song to break wide open, waiting for it to deliver what it seemed to promise. but it never did. it never gave you that resolution that you were hoping for. Never. they were amazing. i’ll include one of their songs at the end of this post as well to give you a good idea of what i’m talking about. just make sure that you listen to the song the whole way through. don’t even start to listen to it if you’re not going to finish it out. you’ll see what i mean. well, by the time that the band had been introduced to me, they had already broken up, but i still gobbled up everything that they had put out. i grabbed every album, every e.p…. everything i could find, but it still wasn’t enough. i felt like a piece was missing. well, a couple of years later i find out that some of the original members of the band were putting together a new band under the name, ‘the new year’. without hesitation i bought their first album. i have to say that i really liked it, but it wasn’t quite bedhead. and in a way i’m glad. i don’t think i want to see a cheap imitation of the original. i prefer the fact that they did something new, but there definitely are some shades of bedhead in their music. just enough to keep me satisfied. flash forward several years to me watching the o.c. in my sisters basement scratching my head thinking, ‘this song sounds pretty familiar’.
so, here we have 3 songs starting with the most recent and working our way back through history. i really liked the band of horses cover when i first heard it, but i’ll admit the more i listen to it, the less it does for me. i still love the original. and then there’s bedhead. i’ll forever love that band. enjoy.
[audio:BandOfHorses-TheEnd’sNotNear.mp3] [audio:TheNewYear-TheEnd’sNotNear.mp3] [audio:Bedhead-TheRestOfTheDay.mp3]