Raise your hand if you’ve ever been super excited to find out about a band, downloaded (I mean, purchased), everything you can find…and then discovered that they just broke up two months ago.
That happened to me with an odd little pop-rock band out of Los Angeles called Telecast. Fronted by the extravagantly named singer-songwriter Ferraby Lionheart, Telecast existed for a fraction of 2006, barely long enough to release an EP before breaking up in the midst of recording a full-length album. I actually emailed Lionheart to find out what happened and to plead with him to finish the album…to which he simply replied, “I got tired of that kind of music”. Hard to argue with that.
Luckily, he didn’t get tired of music in general. His songs are cleverly written and undeniably catchy. Sure, his voice sounds like Billy Corgan with a cold, but that’s all part of the quirky attractiveness of his music. “Tickets to Crickets” is off Lionheart’s first solo release, and it’s a simple, joyful, fun piece of pop.
What makes this a beautiful song:
1. The title. This song’s got a bit of a broadway feel to it somehow, and there’s no better mental image for this song than a community of excited crickets lining up under the marquee to buy tickets for the latest insect production of “Anything Goes”.
2. The percussion. No drum kit, exactly, but finger snaps, tambourine, sticks, and timpani? Awesome! It’s even more fun when you imagine a chorus line of crickets snapping their fingers at the 55-second mark.
3. The end. After being a happy, cutesy song for two and a half minutes, it wraps up with the most unexpected chord progression that is at once confusing and satisfying to humans and crickets alike.
Recommended listening activity:
Having your first ice-cream cone of the summer.