I've wanted to write about 2 Foot Yard since Franny and I have started this blog. I've seen them play more than ten times and love them endlessly but it's difficult to put the experience into words, and even though they're the type of band I can enjoy at 41, but can also feel confidant that I could recommend to someone in their teens or twenties as well as people my parents' age, I never know how to begin explaining them to anyone. And most people who do so in print start by doing what I usually do... listing the three members' credentials: Carla Kihlstedt is a classically-trained violinist who is so talented it gives me a headache thinking about it. At one show, she explained that she needed to use a special violin for one piece. She'd had it restrung so that there were only E-strings. It was done for that one piece. Who thinks of something like that? She's also known for her work in Sleepytime Gorilla Museum and Tin Hat, the amazing Book of Knots project with Joel Harrison, and various commissioned pieces. Marika Hughes plays cello, beautifully, and is a member of the fabulous Charming Hostess and Red Pocket, and has played regularly with Vienna Teng. Shahzad Ismaily plays guitar and drums and is part of something else I love and can't describe properly: Marc Ribot's Ceramic Dog. He also produced Carla Bozulich's first Evangelista album and is all over Hello Voyager, and he's also worked with Tom Waits (as has Kihlstedt), Jolie Holland and Faun Fables.
From what I understand, the project was supposed to be Carla K's "solo project" away from Sleepytime and Tin Hat, allowing her to experiment with pop songwriting, and Marika and Shahzad were pulled in for the ride, but it evolved into something that's quite distinctly a band. Lyrically, they're songs are often tone poems usually tying the existential anxieties of daily life to a bit of anecdotal information: an octopus has three hearts, for example... so the song "Octopus" is a little fantasy that most of us can identify with... having three hearts to partition: one for your lover, one acting as a little private room made up of your private effects, and one condemned because of all the breakage. "Plane Song" is about a kid having a tantrum on a plane while you really really want to have one yourself. "Animal 29," a parable about the effects of scientific experiment on the natural world is based on this great urban legend. "The Great Escape" is a fragile little work about keeping a box packed to move away from the person you're not quite sure you love.
But as much as I like the lyrics (and tend to make lyrics a little too important when I judge music), 2FY is something that's all about the love of the creation of music to me, which is why I always feel they have to be experienced live. Each of these three people are exceptional musicians, and what multiplies their talent when they play together is that they found each other. I love things with strings... I kinda love that they often rely only on strings and harmonies. And it works especially well because when they play because they play off each other's energy. Every piece is perfectly plotted and yet, they're a perfect jam band.
They've just released a fantastic DIY album called Borrowed Arms under their own Yard Work label. It deserves to be heard, supported and purchased. And I think there might be fans of any of these three artists from their other work who may not know about 2FY or that the album has been released. So:
- Here's a link to CD Baby where you can buy Borrowed Arms for fifteen bucks.
- Here's a link to the album on Amazon.
- Here's their MySpace page where you can not only listen to four songs, you can digitally download the whole thing for 12 bucks (though I recommend getting the CD because the cover and packaging are lovely) and where you can also download Animal 29 as a non-album single.
It's important to note that 50 cents of each album sale goes to a fund for Food Change and the Canyon School in Canyon, CA.
Also, I don't want to embed video since this is a long post, but there's a great 2 Foot Yard show from Amsterdam on YouTube broken into digestible pieces. One piece features my favorite 2 Foot Yard song, a slowly-erupting ballad about the days we lose when we forget we're losing days. The crescendo at the end defines why I keep seeing them live. It's called "One Day in May" and here's a link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OlHjRCAdGK8
Another part contains the song 50 Miles which is a very old song by the Rev. F.W. McGhee, which has also been covered by the Carter Family, Iris DeMent and Natalie Merchant, and which appears on Carla K's original 2 Foot Yard album from a few years back:
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