Pat Van Dyke

And now, happy birthday to me! This concludes birthday week here at Five Songs.

Seam, “Sweet Pea”

I think this 1993 EP, Kernel, is actually my favorite Seam release, pound-for-pound. I’m not really sure why that is, exactly. It’s not necessarily super differentiated from their other stuff. I just think the songs on here work really well for me. Pump it loud!

Silkworm, “Written on the Wind”

We’re still in Josh’s College Years here, my friends. It’s a cut from my favorite Silkworm album, although it’s tough to pick just one record. What I really like about Libertine in particular is that many of the songs have a tons of space in them to let Michael Dahlquist and Tim Midgett do their thing. Just a lovely record.

Announcement time! I suspect everybody reading this is aware, but just in case, my friend Grant and I have started a new blog over at Game and Tonic. We’ll be chatting about games, booze, music, all kinds of stuff. Just a warning: it’s entirely possible that I’ll end up posting here less, as I only have so much time to spend writing. Anyway, on to the music!

The Karl Hendricks Trio, “You’re The Man”

There aren’t that many people that were as good as Karl Hendricks at the quietLOUDquiet thing. It’s a combination of his aggressive guitar tone during the loud parts, his ability to project emotion in both sections, as well as a fine sense of buildup and release. He also recognizes that sometimes you turn up the guitars and stay even on the vocals.