Get Familiar w/ LISTENER

I was going to wait and write something on Dan Smith and Listener a little later, but it's difficult to not get excited about such an amazing artist who creates such original work. Shown to me by a good friend of mine, Listener's Dan Smith is known as the creator of a kind of out there genre of music known as 'Talk Music.' Talk Music you say? While it might not be for everyone, especially my lovely girlfriend, this two piece band really brings it in every track or whatever you might deem as an accurate label for what they might play, but rest assured it's becoming increasingly difficult to place any sort of 'label' on this duo. Dan Smith is the front man and most of the tracks come across as more spoken-word poetry rather than actual songs. One stand out track 'Ozark Empire,' which captured my interest in this group, is just Dan Smith spittin' lyrics over Christian Nelson, the #2 man in the group, banging an old washing machine with a baseball bat. Other 'songs' like 'Falling in love with Glaciers' and 'Wooden Heart,' the title track of their latest release, really showcase Smith's passion for what he does in his way too intelligent use of metaphor's and heart felt delivery of every word he says. It's really something to marvel at and respect, even for those who don't get it. While i could ramble on about the kind of musician Dan Smith is or how amazing his lyrics are, listen for yourself and see if you what you think...

listener- ozark empire or a snake oil salesman comes to your town

listener- wooden heart 

                            

Some people might not like this type of music and if that's the case, Dan Smith also has a side-project with about 6 or 7 guys called Deepspace 5. It's a rap group, think Jurassic 5 and the Roots. It's just a bunch of super talented people coming out with super positive hip-hop. Two of my favorite tracks are 'From the Outside' and 'Lord Willing.' As expected Smith adapts his highly intellectual lyrics to a wider audience and his verses definitely stand out among the array of high-class lyricists.