Bark, Hide and Horn (and worms)

All the men call me Ham, the first space chimpanzee

So according to Eric there were no worms in North America until an English ship dumped soil into Jamestown (happy 400th birthday New World) so that they could grow tobacco... or something to that effect. This greatly paraphrased, second hand piece of information comes from a National Geographic printed at some unkown time to me.

However, I do know that Bark, Hide and Horn, a folk rock band from Portland Oregon, found inspiration in National Geographic's from 1957-1967.

"Folk-rock" is a bit of a generalization that I stole from their myspace. What I hear in the songs is the unpredicability of early Modest Mouse, some well done electronic pop, some formulaic yet immortal country progressions, and melodic folk with a shimmering trumpet.


Chris Eaton of Rock Plaza Central worried that RPC's new album "Are We Not Horses?" might come off as a bit too cooky for people, being a concept album about robotic horses that think they are real horses. BHH's theme for "Treasure of the Everglades" comes off as even more cooky because the songs are written from the point of view of the different animals showcased in the magainze dealing with various bizzare circumstances. But don't let the silliness of the following playlist synopsis turn you away, the music is beautiful and original and another step toward the masterpiece of the first decade of the second millenium.

The BHH myspace playlist will include: a plea to Jane Goodall from the suicidal astro-chimp Ham, the prettiest song about snail sex you've ever heard, a spider madly in love with his latest catch of fresh fireflies, a freed honey ant slave who was doomed for sacrifice, and a grizzly out for revenge on the naturalists who took his lover away from him.

If ants and snails could make music like this; so bursting with desperation, fear, anger, vengence, and sorrow, more people might realize that we'll be sad when they're gone.

sorry, no mp3s, available, go here: http://www.myspace.com/barkhideandhorn (I'd suggest "The Treasure of the Everglades" as a first listen, it's a superb song)

now to play golf in the house

Aaron MacDonald / The Leaning Towers

The Internet is a Hoover Vacuum

I will admit that I kind of cheated... I found this band from reading Said the Gramophone; a much more established planet in the blogosphere. Then I left that planet, which wholly served it's duty as an informative signpost, to explore the life of Aaron MacDonald and The Leaning Towers in the vaccuous internet.

Portlander's Aaron MacDonald and Emily Cosgrove together make the unsigned, The Leaning Towers in 2007. Extrapolating from my research, I believe Aaron and Emily also composed 'Aaron and Emily' in 2006, and Aaron MacDonald was 'Aaron MacDonald' in the years including and preceding 2005.

How did I come to such a conclusion you ask? Well, it's because on the band's website they have at least a good chunk (though I would guess all) of their repitoire of recordings posted on the internet, for free! Each song has the title, the date it was posted, and a snipet of the lyrics, it's fantastic! I started clicking on random songs based on the titles and the bits of lyrics. On Winamp, some come up as The Leaning Towers, others as Aaron and Emily, and others just plain Aaron MacDonald.

Based on the posted dates of the songs you can follow nearly three years worth of creation. You get to learn about all their friends; who has stayed and who has left, share their moments of giddiness and sorrow, and get to know both of their voices as you know those of your closest friends.

Some songs are genius, some are good, and others...well, you know, not every song is your best song. When there's over 100 songs posted, it's hard for all of them be good. That would be an amazing feat. In general, I like the early Aaron MacDonald stuff a bit better than The Leaning Towers, there's a bit too much electronic pop in the for me. The 2006 and earlier songs have not nearly as much synth or other electronic sounds as the Leaning Towers new disc, "The Eleventh Hole", and that's just more my style.

From what I can tell, Aaron is a phenomenal multi-instrumentalist and has a superb sense of arrangement. Banjos, trumpets, tubas...with so many songs you're bound to hear just about everything that makes noise. He and Emily are both in another band, and then Aaron is in 3 or 4 more as well. He is someone who truly lives for music

Leaning Towers Myspace

Aaron MacDonald/The Leaning Towers <-- this is where you can get all the songs. Here is a list of favorites I've found so far in no particular order, just to give you some direction: Fend off Autumn, The Simple Machines, Timothy, In the Snow, A Cure For Meat, Heidi In Her Military Coat mp3: The Leaning Towers - Rich Enough to Ignore It

mp3: Aaron MacDonald - Just Stay Gone