Someone Else Talking is a new column for Sound on the Sound in which I harass a musician long enough that they cough up the fascinating gems that are their current inspirations.  Be it music or food or film or folly, I want to know what’s getting these people up in the morning.  And because I want to know, you get to read about it.

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The Mallard has been a staple of The Daily Choice for years now, and everything she does is immediately squeezed on to my to-listen-to list.  Her music and her set-up have progressed greatly since I first started listening to her, and I’m more than excited that she, with her impressive new cohort Dylan Tidyman-Jones, will be lighting up the stage of a certain special Sound on the Sound 5th Anniversary show with their sludgy take on garage rock in just a few weeks.  The Mallard is close friend, and neighbor of mine, so I thought it only appropriate to kick off the inaugural posting of Someone Else Talking” with her fantastic discoveries.

Without further adieu, The Mallard:

I don’t own an I-POD and I walk everywhere in San Francisco, it’s the time I let my legs become metronomes and I walk to the beat of a song, though often they’re riffs or beginnings of melodies that I let churn in my head until I put some lyrics to or rearrange or until they either become an annoyance or a song. This is probably why I don’t have any songs in 3/4 or 7/8.

I also listen to only a few bands at a time. Sometimes too much, Noah can attest: “Jesus Christ on a fucking crutch* Greer, do you only listen to Thee Oh Sees and Ty Segall?”  I want to figure out their tricks and patterns (because that’s all songs are.) Once you hear them enough times, you can begin to predict the patterns. I can only assume that those bands are also listening to a few other bands too much. Then those patterns are getting stuck in their heads as they walk back from the liquor store. So here are songs that I listen to too much, my roommate are sick of them, I’m not.

*Noah does not have such a dirty mouth, I added the bad words for comic effect.

Semi-streets - Sic Alps

I think the perfect way to walk to this one is on piles and piles of crunchy leaves.

2 Mora Mora Land - Lightning Bolt

This is a great “running away from scary things” kind of song.

An Inquiry Perpetrated - Thee Oh Sees

You should wear your loudest sounding shoes or boots while walking to this one. (I’ve also been listening to Hounds of Foggy Notion a DVD of songs they recorded in fields and by highways in San Francisco).

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The Mallard - Old Hates Tatestale

The Mallard - Ex

Come see The Mallard at The Columbia Theater on August 5th. Do it!