The Octopus Project
mp3: Malaria Codes
Dear The Octopus Project,
I hate saxophones. I really do. This isn’t meant to be an offense to my conspirator nathaniel tyrant, who spent many years in high school playing the sax (I just didn’t have the heart to tell him at the time how I felt), but just give me an example of a song that is good that has a sax in it — I remember being 18 and having to skip past “Question Mark” on Elliot Smith’s XO because the tenor sax in it sounded like a sewer pipe. Oh, remember that band Morphine? That was even worse — I mean the whole band was based around the freakin instrument.
Trumpets, on the other hand, are another story completely. Just try to name a song that features trumpets (and trumpets only) that isn’t the greatest thing in the world. Here is a list of some of my favorites:
American Football – For Sure.
Broken Social Scene – Pacific Theme
The Killers – Beleive Me Natalie (dude, the song is good)
Okay, I can’t really think of them all at this point. But the point is, trumpets are the King Midas of the scene. They can pop up at the end of the song and seal the deal — making a great song even better, more triumphant (If you haven’t guessed — I am into triumph). In these songs the trumpet section is the point at which the heavens are opened and I am lifted up on a chariot of rock. By the way, you guys by no means need help in the rocking department. I saw you in May at Velour in Provo, and your set was loud and powerful. Many songs on your album One Ten Hundred Thousand Million, particularly “The Adjustor” and “Music is Happiness” fly off of the ground from the get go and steadily build up dense layers of electro pop, without letting up. “Malaria Codes” also steadily builds, but it seems to be going in a different direction. This revelation seems to be a bit more reverant: The heavens are still opening up, however, when the trumpets sound this time, they sing me gently to sleep.
Sweet dreams,
Rob
video: music is happiness
arab strap – there is no ending. case in point. this song would be nothing without the trumpets. great blog rob.
I’m pretty sure, though I don’t have it in front of me to confirm, that Nation of Ulysses has a sax on “Shakedown,” but, like I said, I might be wrong. If I’m right, then the sax is in at least one great track.
another good trumpet song is “don’t deconstruct” by rilo kiley. but i put it on a tape for a girl i knew in high school who played trumpet in band and she didn’t like it. maybe it was really a coronet?
“Scared Straight” by the Long Winters has some wonderful trumpet action, but it also has sax, so I don’t know what that means. But I believe they refer to their brass section as The Long Horns, which is pretty clever.