"Cigarettes, Wedding Bands" / Band of Horses / Cease to Begin

This band is one of my favorite discoveries of the past year or so. I believe I heard their song "The Funeral" from their debut album on an indie-rock internet station, and I began to take notice of them. When Cease to Begin came out and was getting great reviews, I went ahead and took the plunge. Since then, I've been one of their biggest apostles, talking them up to almost anyone that will listen (in fact, I couldn't help but pimp them a bit ago on a random post here). I even got my wife to really like this band, which is a feat as she's really slow to take to new music.

I was really happy, though, when I found out recently that "Is there a Ghost?", the first single off this album, is one of Isaiah's favorites. The family was tooling around somewhere and we were listening to music, when Izzy asked me for "the ghost song". I had no idea what he meant, then my wife explained to me that she listens to that song a lot with him in the car and he loves it. It's the little things that make you giddy as a parent, really.

This album will forever remind me of a trip I took to Saint Simon's Island with Quinn last year to attend one of my best friend's wedding. I had just bought it, and put it on leaving Athens. Once I got to Greensboro, it was flipping over to start again...and I let it play. I did this over, and over, and over. Something about this music seemed to fit early Spring among the marshes and Spanish moss of coastal Georgia. Maybe it's because, as I found out later, although the band is based in Seattle (thus explaining the song "Detlef Schremph"), their singer is from South Carolina.

Speaking of Ben Bridwell, I knew later that they were destined to be a favorite of mine when I found out he's a HUGE Georgia football fan. I've read several interviews in whihch he, unsolicited, professes his love for the Dawgs. How cool is that? Check ou, for example, this one from Pitchfork:

Favorite TV Show at the Moment

Hard to say, because I'm not sure if a football team counts as a TV show, but when the University of Georgia Bulldogs are playing on Saturdays or whatever, that's my favorite show that could possibly be on television. Tomorrow versus Tennessee at 3:30 eastern!

Pitchfork: Well, the Vols being my home team, I guess I'll have to watch that.

So, it's not exactly football, tailgatin' music, but it's cool to see an indie band that doesn't treat the idea of sports in general as a haven for beefheaded mouthbreathers.

Here's the tune:


I love the heavy opening crash leading into the verse. Bridwell has a very distinctive voice, and he and his band have often been compared to My Morning Jacket, and I can see that for sure. They certainly have that same kind of jammy, etheral, reverb-ery sound to their music. They work the heavy / soft dymanic really well in this song, giving the verses and the accompanying lyrics lots of room to be heard. The heavy comes back in on the chorus, with the "While they lied at night, they lied at night, while they lied" refrain. Speaking of the lyrics, I'm having a bit of a time with them. There are definite themes of alienation, broken relationships, and death for sure there, but I can't piece it all together. I'm getting a real Flannery O'Connor, Southern Gothic kind of feel from them, though. Maybe someone could be brave enough to give it a go in the comments?

By the way, here's a really great live version of this song too. They really translate well live, and have impressive facial hair