Music Awards

Couple of housekeeping bits and pieces to get through.

Firstly, I never told you about my 6000 miles… Album of the Year for 2018.

That album was Thank You For Today by Seattle indie rockers Death Cab For Cutie. Highlights like Gold Rush and Northern Lights are supported by plenty of happy, bouncy er… indie rock tracks, like Autumn LoveWhen We Drive and Summer Years, together with the wonderfully loving Your Hurricane. The album ends with a surprising mix of naked upright piano and nostalgia as Ben Gibbard describes an aging rocker growing old disgracefully in 60 And Punk. It’s wonderful.

Go and listen to it.

So, with 2018 finally done and dusted, we can look at the inaugural 6000 miles… Single of the Month award for January 2019.

And, with over a week of the month still to go, this one is not going to be beaten. White Lies: Tokyo

Close your eyes and ignore the alleged hotness that is Harry McVeigh, and you could be at (a more professional version of) a Alphaville concert. Bold, commanding lyrics above unapologetically new wave synth: this is really, really good stuff.
Right up my alley.

This and some of the best tracks from Thank You For Today can be found on the 6000.co.za Inspired by 6 Spotify playlist.

Dyes Inlet

Cue song lyrics: (YES, IT’S ON THIS PLAYLIST)

I remember your silhouette on Dyes Inlet
Against the silver sheen of a moon like painted glass
Under stars out on a pier; a celestial sphere
We were weightless as the waves that disappeared

Death Cab For Cutie waxing lyrical, but what the hell is a Dyes Inlet?

Well, it’s a:

Picturesque bay featuring boating, swimming, a waterfront park, marina, boardwalk & boat launch

in Washington, USA.

It has a 4-star average on Google, with 3 reviewers scoring it as 3-star, 4-star and 5-star respectively. Let’s look more closely at that spread.

Mysterious Amy Piper went for 3 stars, but declines to tell us why. Maybe some episode of unrequited love occurred here – an event which would surely usually lead to a 1-star rating – but the sheer beauty of the place held its own and she couldn’t help but add on a couple of marks for overall attractiveness. We’ll never know though, because Amy doesn’t expand on her reasons for scoring it thus. Tease.

There’s no holding Brian Salway back though. He’s scene the light, and it’s beautiful. 4 stars from Brian. He would have given it more, but he was unaware of the access to downtown Silverdale.

Brian should have read Jerry Miranda’s review. Jerry Miranda is a huge fan of Dyes Inlet. It’s (equally) the best place he has ever been and he literally couldn’t mark it any higher. Jerry Miranda loves being out on the open ocean inlet either in his kayak or driving his boat. And while those are both great things he can do at Dyes Inlet, it’s the access to downtown Silverdale that really swings it for Jerry Miranda. Other inlets offer watersports opportunities, but there is no other inlet that has that all important access to downtown Silverdale.

Of course, alternatively to get to downtown Silverdale, you could use I3, and then head off down NW Newberry Hill Road, before hanging a left onto Silverdale Way NW, but try doing that in a canoe. Near impossible and downright dangerous. But no. Dyes Inlet has it all when it comes to symbiotic waterborne transport and means of entry to downtown Silverdale. 5 stars. Five.

I’m with Jerry Miranda. The simple fact that there is a rocky point in Dyes Inlet which is called “Rocky Point” means that I’m going to also give it a 100%, 5/5, top of the class review. Simple nomenclature wins every time. There’s also a “Mud Bay”, which (via satellite view on Google Maps) appears to be pretty much silted up; a “Windy Point”, where the trees are all leaning over, and an “Ostrich Bay” (but no: sadly none).

Gold Rush

When I hear a song and I enjoy it, it doesn’t bother me who it’s by.

I’m not proud.

Obviously, if it was by Beyonce or Sicky Dion, I might have other thoughts, but then I wouldn’t enjoy anything by them, so moot point.

And of course, there are some bands and artists that I am more likely to enjoy; Death Cab For Cutie seem to be becoming one of them. I heard their new track Autumn Love this week, and loved it.

And I would love to share it with you, but there’s no video just yet, so I’m going to have to use their last release Gold Rush – in which lead singer Ben Gibbard takes a walk along his local pavement sidewalk playing a more subservient version of Richard Ashcroft.

Although this wasn’t the video I wanted to share, I do like the song and the narrative of the video: everyone being too concerned with their cellphones to notice that the world is irrevocably changing for the worse around them.

The eventual, inevitable smothering of our protagonist is not lost on me.

I feel his pain.