Hey Marseilles at The Fillmore, San Francisco (2010)
In case you didn’t read the other music post on my blog (ha!), I’m throwing in some posts about music just to capture more of the road trip experience this year. I’m a huge music fan, and one of the things I enjoy about long drives is the chance to enjoy long stretches of time listening to music, at a volume a bit higher than the family usually enjoys.
There are two approaches to road trip music. Either choose music to fit the mood, or to change it. When I was leaving Arcata a while back and had a long drive ahead, I chose two CDs (so retro, right?) for the start of the drive. First up, I had some Debussy playing, a perfect soundtrack to accompany the dramatic turns and darkening skies as I worked my way through the mountains east of Arcata.
By the time I reached the Trinity River, the weather had turned mild and sunny, and the meandering curves and pleasant skies went perfectly with the Hey Marseilles album “Lines We Trace.” I love this band – a septet from Seattle, with a rich sound that comes from incorporating strings and brass into something almost but not quite acoustic rock. They have all the talent but none of the showiness or affectations of Arcade Fire or The Decemberists. Any other Hey Marseilles fans out there, let me know!