"I wasn't someone they'd invite"

I'm writing today's entry from a bar and while decidedly drunk. It is kind of a wonderful world we live in when such things are possible. Well that and the subsequently much-needed spellcheck. I saw the band I want to cover today next door to where I'm having a handful of beers at the moment. One of the bigger regrets in my finally leaving Brooklyn was the amount of great bands that have surfaced from that area since I moved. It's hard to pick a favorite, but Bishop Allen would be near the top of the list. The only thing preventing The Broken String from holding up against the groups debut album is that many of the songs on it are recorded versions of tunes available via their EP a month project from the year prior. It's a claim of low writer value to point out that for a band whose debut was entitled Charm School that the group's strength is their simplistic, but charming song-writing. While the catchiest of mosst pop songs requires a certain low-common-denominator, Bishop Allen instead are simultaneously smart and funny with their songs, offering simple sentiments with universal appeal. So much so that I haven't been all too surprised to see some people peg the writing as a far less morose Magnetic Fields. I might even call them uplifting. It's a fairly interesting experiment that asks what it would sound like if a pair of Harvard intellects organized with some friends to piece together some compelling, sometimes folk-ish pop music. I'm quite excited to also include the video, which shows off great Bishop Allen is at being offbeat without being overtly weird. You should probably recognize this song from a recently circulating commercial.

Well that was the last person I expected to see in the bar tonight. Time for me to pack up and go home.

Bishop Allen - download "Click Click Click Click"

visit the band
buy the album