The Weather Station's "East" -- haunting, tentative, lovely contemporary folk song

I caught the haunting, beautiful song "East" by Toronto band The Weather Station on a podcast today and was transported. The lead singer's tentative, lilting vocals are just heart-breaking. The band's got the track up as a stream on its MySpace page -- I ripped it and it's gone straight into my playlist. Link

[#1 posted by scottfree , March 17, 2008 9:30 PM]

Aw, cheers for that. Maybe because its late night/early morning but that reminds me of missing school on account of snow; you know the few days of childhood real life.

[#2 posted by Clumpy , March 17, 2008 9:31 PM]

Hmm. . . sounds like you might like Cat Power, or even earlier Regina Spektor. But definitely check out Cat Power, especially "The Greatest".

[#3 posted by Jake , March 17, 2008 9:43 PM]

Yeah, I was just listening to Regina Spektor right before hearing this song - they are very similar and you'd probably like her too.

Good band!

Cheers,
Montag

[#4 posted by Takuan , March 17, 2008 11:48 PM]

ahh, that's what I heard..... good choice

[#5 posted by f sharp a sharp infinity , March 18, 2008 12:30 AM]

If Cat Power is to be checked out, I suggest beginning with 'Moon Pix'. The Greatest is, quite ironically, far from her greatest record.

[#6 posted by Mike8787 , March 18, 2008 12:48 AM]

I suggest Cat Powers' "Lived in Bars".

[#7 posted by Michiel , March 18, 2008 2:54 AM]

Wow, man.. I've got this song you totally got to listen to.. Change your life, man..

[#8 posted by twig , March 18, 2008 4:16 AM]

If you like this, I suggest:

Hem, especially Rabbit Songs
Anna Ternheim (especially "I'll Follow You Tonight," you can find some of her stuff on YouTube)

and Rio En Medio, because nothing else sounds like them.

[#9 posted by Jeff , March 18, 2008 5:40 AM]

Thanks, Doctorow, that was very pretty. You might enjoy some of Sufjan Stephens' stuff. Try it, you might like it.

[#10 posted by carlo , March 18, 2008 6:25 AM]

I just sent this post over to my girlfriend, thx! Hopefully now she'll forgive me for waking her up this morning. (it's the little things.)

[#11 posted by artbot , March 18, 2008 11:19 AM]

"I ripped it and it's gone straight into my playlist."

Too bad that didn't read, "I performed a micro-transaction and paid this artist directly for their wonderful work."

Maybe I'm missing a proper definition of the word "ripped".

[#12 posted by sparkdale , March 18, 2008 11:54 AM]

You might also be interested to know that the Weather Station currently has a monthly residency at the Tranzac near Bloor and Brunswick. I saw them play at Wavelength recently (great weekly music series at Sneaky Dee's) and it was absolutely wonderful.

[#13 posted by seanodonnell , March 18, 2008 1:38 PM]

@11 sadly, like most artists theres no such option.
Why more artists dont do something to make it easy to reward them I dont know. But for those interested this review has a direct link to an mp3 of east.
http://www.herohill.com/2008/01/reviews-weather-station-east.htm

[#14 posted by w000t , March 18, 2008 1:57 PM]

I almost skipped following the link on this one until I read the comments. Thank you guys for letting me know this is similar to some of my favorite artists. I'm glad I checked it out.

I agree that this is similar to some of Cat Power's best stuff. The Greatest is probably not Cat Power's best album, but it truly is one of her best songs. The lyrical style of The Greatest is very similar to East (i.e., "tentative, lilting... heart-breaking").

Here's a few similar artists I haven't seen in the comments yet:

Sinead O'Connor - You'd forgotten about her hadn't you? Shame on you.

Basia Bulat - Although she's much more of a soprano, the mix of vocals and instrumentation is very similar to The Weather Station.

Sufjan Stevens - Very similar musical sensibilities from a male artist.

[#15 posted by Burz , March 18, 2008 2:06 PM]

A pretty song! Ah, but Myspace, the Pied Piper of NewsCorp.

Not sure which is worse, linking to the web-bugged Scientology video or linking to active content at NewsCorp. Cory, you might use a good tech consultant to help protect your readers.

[#16 posted by Clumpy , March 18, 2008 3:45 PM]

@Jeff - Interesting. When I listened to this I thought that it sounded like Sufjan's music to Cat's vocals.

[#17 posted by Jeff , March 19, 2008 10:12 AM]

Clumpy, although Sufjan's song "Going to the Country" is a Christmas song (just a little bit), I think it has some of same qualities. He uses intruments like the Banjo and ukulele. I love his "Sister Winter."