“Silver Bells” / Paper Ships
I remember sitting on a Brooklyn bus with one of the members of Paper Ships, Steve, back in ’05. There was this roly-poly sweaty guy listening to a cassette player, singing aloud at the top of his lungs to the DMB song coming through his headphones, swinging his body in time with the beat and making a big slobbery scene. When you get that lost in a tune, you know it’s gotta be a hit. And when you don’t care if your craziness shall be burned/scarred into the memory of multiple onlookers, then you know your muse must be great.
I have caught myself making a similar spectacle while listening to “Silver Bells.” One time, my curb-side gyrations even gained me a fellow dance partner (thanks, homeless dude). Out of the few songs Paper Ships “released” on their EP before inevitably calling it quits, “Silver Bells” was the closest thing that came to a pop song. (A future post shall highlight my favorite “serious business” track.) The bouncy guitar is just so fricking catchy that as soon as this tune was secretly sent to my inbox, I couldn’t stop listening to it. I kept envisioning the singer as some sort of floating-memory to dudes on a chain gang; this whole picture rounded out entirely by the clankity clank cowbell ending.
But truly, it’s the guitar that makes this song. After years of having conversations to the sound of Steve strumming along to some “insignificant” tune which would stick in my head for days, he finally took some of my bitching to heart and stepped out of the shadows of other musicians, and concocted something pretty awesome. He has since done a small tour in the US and Canada drumming for DePedro and continues to jam with a variety of great artists, including his sister. Keep a look out for him in the future, and in the meantime, check out his blog, particularly his hilarious live-blogs of today’s tween-dreams.
A Piece In the Air 