Low Fi

To my elders,

I am a fan of Low-Fi. I love how vinyl records sound. I like mono-recordings, even when they sound weird to our surround-sound-inclined ears. I read books before seeing the movie whenever I can. I folded my notes in class in High School. Mostly because texting didn't exist yet. But also because note folding is cool. I sew. Particularly skirts. Because I never like the ones you can find in the stores nowadays. They just aren't 1950s enough for me. And I like old movies.

One of the most mind-blowing theatre experiences I have ever had was: a 6 hour, silent, black and white, German Nosferatu from the 1920s. With a live piano player. Seriously. (note: I did not watch the entire film. I stayed for about half an hour. It was Nuit Blanche in Toronto a few years back. Its hard to sit in the dark at 4 in the morning and not fall asleep) And it was completely, and I mean, completely amazing. I had a kid-on-Christmas-morning expression on my face. I get those sometimes. My mom thinks they're funny.

But actually what the low-fi thing is about is music. Someone Still Loves You, Boris Yeltsin, an Epic-ly named band from Missouri, who have 3 full length albums and a number of E.P.s (thanks to whomever posted them. That is not an easy band to find stuff like that for), are having a "collection" album, Tape Club, out next month. A Collection of unreleased and E.P. only, and demos and songs that obviously aren't completely finished and have lovely little voice snippits at the beginnings and ends of the boys talking. Which you can actually stream, for free, here. Because SSLYBY is awesome.

But my point to all that, is that there are some songs where you can like, hear the single mic in the middle of the room with the band playing the song all at once. (I'm fairly sure they did not actually do this, but some of their stuff sounds so 60s that it feels like they did.) And their music is amazing. Not necessarily on first listen, often on first listen, their songs gets clouded with the unpolished-ness, the unintelligible lyrics, or the odd balance of the instruments or treble/bass. But 4 or 5 listens. That's where its at. They are a band that grows on you. Quickly. Until, like me, you can't even listen to it while reading because the songs are so good they distract you; you can't pay attention to the book because you just want to sit and listen.

-K