Music That Moves Me - The Shondes "Are You Ready?"
Every great once in a while, a band or musician comes along that just has a direct line to my heart... that sums up everything I love and appreciate about music... that penetrates me to the core. The Shondes are - and have been, since I first heard them years ago - one of those bands for me, and their most recent album, Searchlights, is pure pop-punk perfection in my book.
Openly queer, emphatically Jewish, and politically progressive, these Brooklynites grab me every time with their amazing combination of gritty vocals, emotive violin, catchy guitar hooks and punchy drums. Their melodies and harmonies are addictive; their lyrics make me want to cry and sing out loud and rejoice all at the same time. They just hit that certain heartstring that makes me swell with emotion and admiration and enables me to get lost in the music. This third album from them is the best yet, production-wise, and cuts like "Are You Ready," "Close The Door," and "Ocean To Ocean" stand out as sure-to-be underground classics.
If you ever have the chance to see them live, please do it. You won't regret it. They tour the country often, though sadly don't make it down to my neck of the woods in New Orleans often enough.
Even if you don't think punk rock is your cup of tea, give them a listen. They might just change your mind.
Listen to a few of their songs and watch more videos at http://www.myspace.com/theshondes.
Comments
Pain and the Courage to Write About It
I've always liked to think I have a high pain threshold. I fall along the butch end of the lesbian spectrum and so the "I'm tough" mode suits me. Of course I'm not really so tough - I'm scared of lots of things. I'm scared of cancer. In this brave piece of writing by Elijah Oberman of The Shondes, he talks about describing pain that's indescribable.. of body struggles and of figuring stuff out... with friends and with family.. Thank you Elijah for sharing this. May you be well and keep on rockin'.
Shondes: Great music
I watched the vid and loved the joyful music, dancing.. upbeat.. fun! I went to their Myspace page and couldn't figure out how to buy their newest album but I did find this Shondes site at Reverbnation; I don't know which one they're updating, but the latter seems a little more current. I bought the new Album, Searchlights on ITunes, $5.99 for 10 songs.. not bad for terrific music. Thanks Mags for sharing the Shondes - I had not heard of them before.
oh that's awesome, sue!
oh that's awesome, sue! thanks for supporting them. they are really great folks who do amazing political work aside from their beautiful music.
they used to maintain shondes.com as their homepage but google says it can't find it anymore, so maybe they are updating or maybe they decided they had too many websites going already. i dunno. good to know about the itunes deal, though. and about reverbnation.
i have been a huge fan of theirs for as long as they've been a band. a few of them used to be in another band, the syndicate, which my production company, girl gang productions, once brought to new orleans long ago. that's how i know them. when the syndicate broke up, the shondes emerged as the new project of a few of the members and i have been a huge fan-nerd of theirs ever since. i am proud to also call them friends.
there's more background info on the band via wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Shondes