Heather Lyons's Blog, page 15

and another thing!! by kid canaveral

so, woe is this blog, friends. how lonely it's been, without my attention. my inbox has been filling up with songs and every time i saw one of those emails, i would think, "i ought to be blogging about music," but then one of my characters would whisper in my ear, "stupid, do you want to get our book done or what?"

obvs, the characters won.

however! today song is actually one i've been writing to. and . . . i like it so much, it must be shared.

i've blogged in the past about how cool scotland's kid canaveral is. in fact, i think it was two years ago that i pegged one of their songs (left and right) as one of my 10 favorite songs of the year. it was off a very excellent album entitled shouting at wildlife which i still find myself listening to.


and another thing!! is off of that same album. first off, let's talk about how adorbs it is that there are two exclamation points after the title. as somebody who uses probably way too many exclamation points in emails, facebook status updates, and tweets, i can only find this endearing.

now, as for the song - it does have an endearing quality to it, but it is, in no way, the cheerful song it would initially lead you to believe. i remember the first time i'd heard it after a long spell of not hearing it - i had my ipod on in the background, and i instantly felt all cheery and boppy. it wasn't until midway through the song i remembered, "oh yeah. this isn't happy! why am i bopping?" but damn, if and another thing!! doesn't try to fool you into believing it is.

couldn't be so happy now i'm seeing the back of it
another thing, another thing
busy doing nothing, there's no skill in the knack of it
another thing, another thing
this stops right now
another thing, another thing
we stop right now
another thing, another thing

let's go wash our faces in the sun
and let's go clean your arms

and sometimes, sometimes i need you more
than other times, other times
so let go, let go
i'm all right

couldn't have done it better if i knew at the start of it
another thing, another thing
if i'd known it better i'd avoided the half of it
another thing, another thing
this stops right now
another thing, another thing
we stop right now
another thing, another thing

let's go wash our faces in the sun
and let's go and clean your arms

and sometimes, sometimes i need you more
than other times, other times
so let go, let go
i'm all right

and sometimes, sometimes i need you more
than other times, other times
oh, let go, let go
i'm all right

profuse apologies if i butchered any of those lyrics above. i have this very large feeling i have.

ANYWAY! stream the song below:



the band did an excellent session for song by toad ; grab the mp3 below:

(mp3) and another thing!! (live toad session) by kid canaveral (via song by toad - go HERE to see/listen to more from the session)

and here's a live performance of and another thing!!:


And Another Thing!! by Kid Canaveral (Live) from Straight to Video Records on Vimeo.

go HERE to buy shouting at wildlife , the album and another thing!! is off of.

home sweet home by russell howard

so, today's song, home sweet home by singer-songwriter russell howard , took me by surprise, and here's why. i have a bizarre prejudice against the phrase home sweet home.

i know. WEIRD, right?

i can't exactly tell you why other than to admit i have a bias against certain words and phrases (which is ridiculous, considering i'm a writer and everything). they're like nails on a chalkboard to me. and home sweet home has been one of those phrases in the past that i shy away from ever personally using because: a) it's utterly cliché, b) it's radically overused, and c) it reminds me of something needlepoint and framed.

HOWEVER. this song. friends, this song made me realize there is at least one place that i dig this phrase, and it's right here. a song about displaced love, home sweet home is an intimate look at what it feels like when the person you adore has moved on in both location and heart. it reminds me a lot of one of my favorite books, anna and the french kiss by stephanie perkins (go HERE to read my rambling adoration of this story) - in it, the MC, anna, reflects on what home is. is it a location? a building? or is something more? here's the first time she really starts to consider what it means to her:

And for the first time since coming home, I'm completely happy. It's strange. Home. How I could wish for it for so long, only to come back and find it gone. To be here, in my technical house, and discover that home is now someplace different.

But that's not quite right, either.

I miss Paris, but it's not home. It's more like . . . I miss this. This warmth over the telephone. Is it possible for home to be a person and not a place? Bridgette used to be home for me. Maybe St. Clair is my new home.

and russell howard gets that concept. home sweet home is truly a lovely song, with it's gentle guitars and heartbreaking vocals. i ended up putting it on repeat, just totally enamored with the following lyric:

i did not ask to cross my stars with you.

so, so gorgeous.

and oh, friends, doesn't that really sum up how one feels about love once it's gone? love is such a tremulous, fragile thing. it's hard to control, hard to find, and even harder to let go of. and i simply adore how howard has dealt with that idea.


home is in the city
a city i've never stepped in
she moved there last september
i heard she's got a boyfriend

and all i want is what you have
i don't work this hard just to be glad for you
and home sweet home is in your arms
and i did not ask to cross my stars with you

and home is in the city
a city i've never slept in
she said i should come there
if only for the weekend

and all i want is what you have
i won't come that far just to be mad at you
and home sweet home is in your arms
and i did not ask to cross my stars with you

home sweet home
oh, my home is not my own

home is in the city
a city i've never seen

(mp3) home sweet home by russell howard

here's another song off howard's latest release, safe to say, which sounds totally different than home sweet home (but in a good way!):



go HERE to buy city heart , the album home sweet home is off of.