Tonight’s selection comes from one of my more culturally tasteful reliable Twitter friends @picky_girl

Artist: Summer Fiction
Song: Throw Your Arms Around Me
Recommended by: @picky_girl

@picky_girl mentioned that Summer Fiction were from the Philly area. A little more than ten years ago I was dating a girl from Bucks County (Philly area) and we went to the Jersey Shore for a week. All I remember about that trip is that we listened to the Deftones a lot. I’m throwing that out right now. I only know the band name and where I spent my summer vacation more than a decade ago. This review will be influenced by those two things, my imagination, and nothing more. I am nothing, if not scientific.

Who it sounds like before I listen to the very first note:

A Creative Writing Grad Student Who Read Esquire Magazine in the Late 80s: I used to have a subscription to Esquire when I was younger because there would always be these long short stories and I felt super cultured reading them in a grown up magazine, even if I didn’t know anything about fashion or how to mix a martini. A few years later I was at the University of Wisconsin – Milwaukee (Panther Pride, Represent!) and I worked my way through the creative writing department until I was in my senior year and I shared classroom space with cardigan wearing, soft handed children of the suburbs on Tuesdays and Thursdays. On Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, I spent my time installing carpet and hauling furniture with ex-cons and guys on work release with crude tattoos. By that point, I felt more out of place in a desk because the things that seemed important with the guys who were getting ready to go on to their MFA programs were worlds removed from me. All of that is said because Esquire used to have a Summer Fiction issue and maybe that’s where these guys came up with their band name. If it is, I’m going to guess that they play Mope Rock that talks about feelings and broken hearts with clean guitar tones, very soft drums, and a singer that is Nise Morrissey.

Seymour Glass: I run a publishing company that does fiction. So it’s natural that I’ll want to love this band. Back when you could still shop for new music in an actual record store and you browsed the racks hoping to find something with an intriguing cover or band name or something you kinda remembered some dude telling you about but you might not have remembered exactly, I found a cd from a band called Seymour Glass. It wasn’t long after I’d read Franny & Zooey for the first time. I bought the cd based solely on the band name. It was clear that Salinger’s fiction had a profound effect on the band/singer. If it’s like that, there’ll be a little more moodiness, a little more low end, a little more distortion on the guitar. I’ll want to like them, based on their name and my love of fiction, but it could be an uphill climb. Seymour Glass never hit me the way I hoped they would. Then again, that was a pretty high bar to hurdle.

Neutral Milk Hotel: Maybe Summer Fiction will live up to all expectations and will be hyper-literate with inventive instrumentation that never borders on mindless noodling. Maybe it’ll be passion instead of effects that carries the song. Maybe it’ll be genuine enough that it will actually be heartbreaking. Maybe Darryl Hall will do a guest spot as the elder statesmen of the Philly heartbreak scene. Like I said, @picky_girl has had good tastes in the past. Maybe I should just trust her on this one.

I’m turning off the Mariza, clearing my audiopalate and making with the play button. Let’s go!

:05 Right now we’ve got some acoustic guitar strumming going on that reminds me of an upbeat country song. It’s got the slightest hint of twang. It also sounds like something that might have come out of the mid-60′s pop music world before things got too real with Vietnam and the protest.

:20 No vocals yet, but I’ve got the head nod going. It’s a comfortable song and feels good. It makes me feel happier for having listened to it so far.

:28 Vocals are a great complement to the instrumentation. I know already I’m going to dig this. I’ll tell you what I hear if you promise not to hate me for it–it’s like Connor Oberst’s less hurt friend. And as this song goes on, I think that a comparison to the last Bright Eyes album I bought–I’m Wide Awake it’s Morning–would be a totally fair one.

1:24 After hearing the chorus for the first time, I will not be surprised if this song pops up in a movie at some point. The movie might actually be called “Throw Your Arms Around Me” and this song would play at the moment when you need your heart tugged on earnestly. There’s an honesty in the delivery that gives off the vibe of “everything’s going to be ok, or we’ll die together” without being over the top melodramatic. I appreciate that in my old age.

1:30 We’ve got some subtle piano entering the song (at least I don’t remember it from earlier). It’s helping with the overall build of the song.

1:58 I broke my arm running the bases If you put a baseball reference in a song, you’ve got a 75% chance of making me a fan. Let’s see how this line is coupled. Tripped over laces, cut by the blade. If I heard that right, I can dig it.

2:18 Super gentle harmonies. I was wondering if we might hear something like that. I’m a fan. Perhaps, as the song drives on, we’ll get even more.

2:34 We’ve got strings. Violins? (I have to confess, I don’t always get that right). Working on the same theory as the piano earlier in the song. It’s all building on itself, but not in a heavy handed way. This song is good low key. It knows the mood it’s setting and it does so without calling too much attention to what it’s doing.

3:10 I’ve really talked myself into this song making good as part of a movie soundtrack. If anybody from Hollywood (or some dude sitting in a Des Moines coffee shop writing a screenplay that he’s sure is going to be the next big indie movie) reads this review, and you’ve got a story about two people coming together to celebrate love in a fractured world, you should definitely check out this song and give me an Executive Producer credit when you roll ‘em.

Final Thoughts:

This was a perfect song for tonight.

It’s sonically different from Seymour Glass (and more preferable to me). I could see Summer Fiction sharing a bill with Neutral Milk Hotel. The energy is a little bit less frenetic on this one song compared to the whole of In the Aeroplane Over the Sea but the general sense of melancholy is there and just as honest. I also hear what it might sound like if Blind Pilot, Arcade Fire and the Avett Brothers sat down in a studio and decided to record a song.

If the rest of the album is like this, it will make its way into my collection. With the shaky beauty that is bandcamp.com I’ll be able to listen before I buy.

Let me know what you think!