August 1, 2007 | Posted by David B. at 9:12 AM

Go learn your geography

oxford collapse

It's both heartbreaking and inspiring that there are thousands of amazing bands out there that not many people know about. When I stumble on a great band that I hadn't heard of before, I get excited to hear the rest of what they're about. It's like a new world opens up.

How did I not hear Oxford Collapse until a couple weeks ago? Shame on me!

Oxford Collapse - Please Visit Your National Parks.

This song, to me, is every single thing I love about good indie rock. It meanders around its structure, its melody stretching the limits of the song until you think it might all break down. The musical tension in "Please Visit Your National Parks" works wonders with the seemingly simple and dramatic lyrics: "You should be standing right next to me/Instead of two feet in front of me/Go learn your geography." I think we've all been in this situation, either as the person in front or the one in back, and these lyrics perfectly illustrate what it feels like.

The Oxford Collapse are from Brooklyn, and this song is from their newest full-length Remember The Night Parties. The cover depicts a kid jumping onto an inflatable Noid, which is reason enough to buy the record from Sub Pop.

Comments

Oddly enough, I was just thinking the same thing when I first saw them a week and a half ago. Shame on me, too!

Posted by: Valerie at August 1, 2007 2:34 PM

I remember reading about them on iTunes' monthly indie spotlight series. They tend to have an admirable mix of buzz bands and under the radar bands in the series... Though I have stopped paying attention to it since I switched to Windows Media Player.

Posted by: David at August 1, 2007 11:01 PM

Yeah, it's good stuff. I especially like "o-e-o-e-o."

Hey, guess what--sometimes I keep good records, and I discovered that Mark posted this song last October! (See http://music.for-robots.com/archives/001664.html). No complaints from me. Nothing wrong with giving everyone a second chance to discover this band.

Posted by: John Branch at August 2, 2007 3:05 PM

Hey John Branch,
Yeah, I discovered that myself the other day. Oops. I decided to just keep it up because it's an awesome song. But thanks for the heads-up.

Posted by: Robot David at August 2, 2007 7:37 PM

thanks db. i really, really needed this.

Posted by: penelope london now at August 9, 2007 6:19 AM


Topic Thanks for sharing a very good explanation

Posted by: neon tabela at August 29, 2009 2:39 PM
Post a comment









Human verification is easy! Type n in this box to prevent your comment from being rejected:


Remember personal info?

Human verification:

To help us fight the good fight against comment spam, you must enter your anti-spam key as indicated on the left. Don't forget to do this! Your comment may end up in the junk bin if you dont...