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Passenger: Music for the dark and humorous heart.

Someone told us playing in this tunnel would be “avant-garde”. What a bastard.

Every now and again you are pointed towards something which will shift your day, your mood, maybe your whole life, in a whole new direction. It would be a little presumptuous of me to say this band from Brighton in the UK will do all those things, but I feel safe saying they will at least catch you smiling without knowing it, maybe even reminiscing about another feeling lost so long ago. Either way, there’ll be an affect.

Passenger is a five piece band led by Mike Rosenberg and they slide into the pop/rock scene with a slightly different take on things. The melodies are sweet and the sound is earnest, but if you were to read the lyrics all on their own, you might think something wicked this way comes. The most notable track for the switch hit off their upcoming album, Wicked Man’s Rest, is “Walk You Home”, a upbeat diddy beginning in the world of puppy love and office crushes and ending deep in the shadows and high in the trees of stalkers and obsession. It actually took me a couple listens before I stopped bopping my head to the music and heard the lyric, “I’m the boy with restraining orders”. Can’t say that line pops up a lot in the love songs I usually listen to. Moving forward to a more straight forward track about loneliness and separation, there is “Table for One”, a beautiful ballad which paints not only a simple visual picture, but also an audio landscape to sweep the listener up into its arms. Then, just so we don’t leave out the other side of love affairs, the angry and angst ridden one, there’s “Do What You Like”, a song about letting yourself be played time and time again in the endless hope of winning in the end.

Each of the tracks mentioned above, plus all the others featured on their MySpace page and Official site, have a wonderful sense of purpose, a truth and honesty about feelings and emotions which we often don’t talk about openly. Adding an important extra touch is the humor and levity covering the songs and keeping them from becoming too heavy or melodramatic. Passenger achieves emo-pop power without the black nail polish, eyeliner and social morays.

For those people living in the LA area, Passenger is playing on 8/11 at the Hotel Cafe in downtown Hollywood. It’s a great venue, which I’ve been lucky enough to see them play at once before, and I can think of few better ways to spend a Monday night. Start your work week off right with some happy/sad/clever/infectious live music!

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Serpentor in Oil to Satan in Cell Phones: A day in the life of…(5/27)

1 – Think you have an obsession with 80’s toys? Go to this page and click on the letter “T” to see some amazing oil paintings of everything from Battlecat from Thundercats to Serpentor from G.I.Joe. [via Uncrate via robert burden]

2 – I know I’ve gotten older when I watch this video and the first thing I wonder about it, “Did they get clearance to roll down this road? What about cross traffic?” I miss being a Toys ‘R Us kid. [via pandachute]

3 – In a continuing desire to find new and innovative ways to donate and help others I came across this post about Give a Drop. Please check it out and help if you can. There are way too many things in this world that we take for granted without realizing millions and millions don’t have that same access to what we consider basic human needs. Give a little, trust me, it’s like giving back to yourself. [via JoshSpear]

4 – Just for those dudes out there who might have found there indie/quirky crush on Jena Malone wavering, watch this trailer for her new film and feel the flame once again. [via FilmDrunk]

5 – When you get these put into your house, you have one choice. Does this become a reference to King Ralph or There Will Be Blood. One of them ends up in a much larger cleaning bill. [via uncrate]

6 – With all the premiers being announced for next season, the one I was keeping an eye on was Heroes. NBC is going to relaunch the second season struggler with a one hour recap of the show to get everyone back up to speed, then a two hour season opener. Three full hours of Heroes. Will this win the fans back? Maybe. It has definitely won a spot on my TiVo, that’s as far as I will go just yet. [via starpulse]

7 – I love hearing stories about the loving and helpful people inside local churches, like this story about how they issued a restraining order against a family and their 13-year-old Autistic son literally banning them from attending because of his outbreaks. No offer to have him come in for more a private mass, no offer to assist in any way except to wipe their hands clean of a child they don’t understand how to deal with. Is he suddenly not one of God’s children? Hmmm…hypocrisy tastes familiar here. [via PerezHilton]

8 – A real tragedy for the film world, Sydney Pollack died over the weekend after losing a battle with Cancer. He was a brilliant writer and a consummate actor. The silver screen just got a little less talented. [via WWTDD]

9 – I want to openly say thanks to JoshSpear and his blog for not only providing such interesting things everday, some of which you see posted here, but for posting his appreciation for the band /Passenger, which after 30 seconds of listening I felt moved in a way that was more necessary than anyone, including myself, could have realized. Topping it off is finding out that they are going to be playing at the Hotel Cafe in LA on June 9, so you now all know where I am going to be that night. [via JoshSpear via MySpace]

11 – Somehow, deep inside, I always knew something was wrong with my cell phone, but I was nowhere near imagining this. I bet the IPhone is way a happier creature. [via Pandachute]

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