Have you ever noticed how drummers make or break a live band?

Maybe you haven’t. Perhaps you’re completely oblivious or just too busy swooning for the crooners. (What the heck is a crooner, anyway? For some reason, I imagine it is someone wearing a coonskin cap while combing their hair.)

Regardless of whether you have or haven’t noticed, drummers make a big difference in a band’s live performance. The better their rhythm, the tighter the sound. The greater their energy, the more life the band’s performance has, even during slower songs. A singer may communicate a song’s message, but the drummer communicates the emotion behind it.

This was well demonstrated by one band I recently had the chance to see, Death Cab for Cutie’s opener, Youth Group.

It is more than unfortunate that drummer Danny Allen’s sensational beats don’t leap out of headphones and punch you in the face the way they do live.

I read about this band and their album about a year ago. I gave it a listen online and wasn’t thrilled or disappointed. Judging strictly from their album, Youth Group is the kind of band that seems pretty typical and uninteresting on a first listen.

But listening to them live, with each strike of the bass drum, every crack of the snare and run down the toms, Allen let Australia’s best kept secret out of the box to the thousands of folks packed into Whitman College’s auditorium that Wednesday night.

It is more than unfortunate that drummer Danny Allen’s sensational beats don’t leap out of headphones and punch you in the face the way they do live.

Youth Group is one band that, seen in the flesh, you can’t help but love — mostly because of Allen’s fantastic ability to turn a drumbeat into magic.

Check out their song “Shadowland” below — but I strongly suggest listening to it on a large stereo with the low end dialed to 11 so as to best experience that “almost live” feel. The iPod just won’t cut it, thanks to mixing that does little to bring Allen’s drumming out of the background and into your heart where it belongs.

[mp3 download]

At Ray’s Golden Lion in Richland on this special night, I got the chance to hear my cell phone ring blast through a full PA system.

Since first hearing the Crystals Skulls’ “Airport Motels,” I have been using this song as the ringtone in my piece of crap Motorola v551 because of its energetic opening guitar riff. (If you’re interested, the song is featured in mathcaddy radio session #15.)

Crystal Skulls guitarist Ryan Philips, a fellow Tri-Citizen, is one heck of a player. If you’ve heard the album (unique, jazzy light rock with lounge singer vocals) you’ll certainly agree that Ryan has some skill. In person, at two feet away, it’s far more impressive.

The show had some interesting moments: I was distracted for a moment as the band started to play “Airport Motels” and I thought that my cell phone really was going off. And when the band invited anyone interested to come up on stage and dance with the band, a very crazy guy did just that. He was quite entertaining, especially with his Hammer pants. He had some quite serious funk in his groove.

Another item of interest from the show was the drummer. The band duplicated their album’s jazz-rock tight-but-relaxed kind of sound perfectly, mostly with his help. His rhythm was perfect and after about 10 minutes, my cousin Steve pointed out why: he was wearing headphones and listening to an iPod, which he cued up at the start of each song.

It seems he was playing the band’s album on his iPod in order to keep perfect rhythm. Talking with him after the show, he confirmed Steve’s guess.

Steve wrote quite a lot more about more the show here. (In a more timely fashion, of course.)

Monday is my day off. I usually don’t use it very well… at all.

Take last Monday, for instance. As I started out the day, I had five things I wanted to get done– all of them for sheer enjoyment’s sake. I wanted to (1) watch a video of my cousin Steve teaching, (2) read part of a couple books, (3) listen to some new music, (4) learn a new song on my guitar, and, most importantly, (5) something else I can’t remember because it’s not that important right now.

Yes, those all sound like wonderful things to do on a lazy day off while my wife is off at school and I’m sitting around the house wearing pajama pants and a funny t-shirt that I am the only one laughing at.

But I didn’t do any of them.

So what did I do instead?!

I played the brand new FIFA 2006 on my Xbox. All day. It was an amazing accomplishment, when I think about it. It’s been a long time since I played video games regularly and it’s been ages since I actually went on a binge.

So, today, instead of frittering away the hours trying to set up the perfect cross from Rooney to Ruud, I am going to work today on finishing what I’ve started, as I have scattered around the house and various “drafts” folders piles of unfinished business.

FIFA 2006 and Man. U can wait a few more Mondays.

There’s a line from a song on the new Death Cab for Cutie album, Plans, that reminds me of a television show which reminds me of the song I have deposited below.

The DCFC song is “Soul Meets Body” and the line from the song is: “and if the silence takes you, then I hope it takes me too,” but what I always hear and am tempted to sing is: “and if the cylons take you…” Why? Because the wifey and I have been enjoying some Battlestar Galactica. If you don’t follow me, you should check out the show.

So what on earth does all of that have to do with the track I’m sharing with you, which is beautifully soothing minimalist neoclassical piano from Philip Glass?

Easy, Mr. Hypothetical Question Asker! I’m glad you asked. That is your job, anyway, so you might as well do it. Sorry if I’m working you a bit hard the last couple of days.

Ahem.

Moving right along… In one of the episodes from season 2, this simple and moving song is featured extensively. This song was my first introduction to Philip Glass. I can say I was pleased to meet the chap. In fact, I quickly snapped up this album - the very precisely titled, Solo Piano - on everyone’s favorite source for DRM-free music, allofmp3.com.

The rest of the album is similar, and it seems to be perfect for interesting but relaxed atmosphere music, as I found out this evening.

I hope you have someone special you can share this track with.

If you don’t have someone special, consider inviting Mr. Hypothetical Question Asker to join you. He won’t let you down.

Unless by “letting you down” you mean lowering you in a wooden pail down into a pit of crocodiles after binding your hands and feet with zip ties. He would do that, of course. Perhaps even while listening to the sounds of Philip Glass…

[mp3 download]

I’m a sucker for organs, banjos, and bells.

If it is your goal to musically get me to sit up straight and pay attention, throw any one of them in there at the beginning of your track.

The sheer force of an organ is undeniable. I don’t have to stretch beyond two recently popular releases to demonstrate their influence. Coldplay’s “Fix You” grabs my heart from the opening bar and Death Cab for Cutie’s “Marching Bands of Manhattan” sucks me right in.

Banjos are a little more rarely sprinkled than organs. Hearkening back to the fourth set of mathcaddy radio, where I first described the instant joy in hearing Sufjan Stevens‘ “Holland”, I realize that while that song made me take notice of him, it was his beautiful banjo strum on “Transfiguration” that made Sufjan my favorite artist. Then when Evan pulled out a banjo to add some pick-pick-pickin’ to his fun “Maria” recording [see here], I was Pete the Lego Pirate on Christmas!

And then there’s Bells… Ah, bells… And when I say “bells”, I’m going to throw in Xylophones, even though they don’t even come close to musically or visibly counting as bells. A few of my Bell/Xylophone greatest hits include Adem’s”Ringing in My Ear”, Old Canes’ “7th Fret Closer”, and They Might Be Giants’ wildly addicting and aptly titled, “The Bells”. There are actually gobs more than just these songs, but I’m drawing a blank right this instance on more.

So where am I going?

Right here.

John Vanderslice ’s acclaimed album, Pixel Revolt contains the pinnacle of indie rock bellfulness, “Trance Manual”, full of perfectly located harmonies, gently synths, and - you guessed it - wondrously ringing handbells.

Enjoy it.

[mp3 download]

ding, ding… ting, ting… Anyone else know any good songs featuring bells?

Anyone?

Hmm… Just crickets…