comfortable tunes and a famous frog

over the past few posts, i must have let on that, at some point in my life, i was, and probably still am, a total metalhead.

this is true. up to a point.

but it's also true that i listen to a lot less of it these days, have a lower tolerance for things that go crash and bang and chug and growl and roar and scream almost all the time, and now only take it in limited doses of HevyDevy music.

of late, almost a week now, methinks, i've been listening to Outerhope, but it wasn't until last night that i realized how deeply the music has sunk into my world.

i first heard hair of them 'bout a month ago, when i heard a band called "Outerhope" would be playing at the First Philippine Graphic/Fiction Awards Unmasking event, and checked-out their online samples. i was thoroughly pleased by the light Sesame-Street-esque sample from Learning to Rollerskate. promising. very much so. could be just the kind of good tunes i'm looking for--i thought. oddly, however, catching the tail-end of their gig at the Unmasking left no impression on me, so for a while, they slipped into the feral, lose-your-things -here and never-find-them-again clutter at the back of my mind.

last Sunday i found their CD plugged into a listening station over at Tower Records. remembering my rather pleasant experience with Learning, i decided to give it a go. and so, though i'd not intended to purchase anything, i found myself pulling my wallet out at the cashier with the CD, Strangely Paired, in my other hand and, eventually, walking out of the shop with it. (legally, to avoid any possible confusion that may arise from my abbreviated account.)

i haven't been listening to it non-stop the way i used to whenever i'd take to some good tunes, but it has been on my spinner on and off over the past few days, and it has permeated my brain, soaked-up my soul, and pretty much tinged everything with oddly placid, if somewhat sentimental and nostalgic, shades of, well, pink and ecru.

that's a good thing.

Outerhope are siblings Michael and Mikaela Benedicto, whose fluid, whimsical and nostalgia-inducing music is reminiscent of the day-dreamier side of Belle & Sebastian.

it's hard to pick-out faves from the playlist, but if i really had to, i suppose i could say i've taken a shining to Learning, Morning After, Another Daybreak, and the "bonus track", Final Hour (with A Shortcut Through Mushrooms).

this isn't quite as groundbreaking as, say, updharmadown's fragmented and is only unique and different when taken within the larger context of most other bands out there on the local scene today (and even then, many will probably think otherwise), but Strangely Paired is nontheless a beautiful collection of refreshingly sweet yet unsaccharine, comforting if slightly melancholy tunes that will be on my spinner for a long time to come.

*

and now the famous frog:



i love The Daily Show, and i love the muppets, so how could i not post this as soon as i found it?

can also be viewed directly through youtube, the most fatally effective productivity-fucker i've discovered thanks to our broadband to date.