Support your local Giantess

I pre-ordered the deluxe edition of the forthcoming Black Mountain CD and my order included a couple free digital downloads. One of them was the Insound Holiday Sampler, called Let's Get Digital 4. I was hoping it was a collection of Christmas-themed Dubstep versions of Olivia Newton John songs...but alas, no. It's merely a collection of 2007 favorites that Insound and Mavi Jeans put out to sweeten your tassles around the yuletide kebab fire this holiday season.

In keeping with yesterday's Turkish-related post, Mavi was founded in 1991, in Istanbul. If you have an extra 3 minutes, go to their website. Soon you will be looking at images of scowling young men and women wearing jeans on their heads. All I can say is...finally. 

I've only listened to 1/2 of the sampler it so far but one track stood out from the zeros and ones - 'Stella Please' by Giantess, a Vancouver-based rock band with connections to Destroyer, Black Mountain, et.al. They used to be called The Battles but changed their name as to not be confused with Battles. 

The lyrics of the song essentially seem to be a guy begging his girl not to give up 'cos look how hard he's trying to better himself. Which is pathetic - I know because I've been there - but done in a charming way here, with some nice wordplay and a little bit of elegant swagger on the riff.

Wait, did I just use the word 'wordplay'? Yugh.

Anyway, the song is pretty bad-ass, in a shambolic pop, Pavement-y kind of way. Check it out:

Stella Please - Giantess

I stumbled around the web looking for more info on the band and ended up on the MySpace page for another band named Giantess, which I initially mistook for the same band. But I soon realized that I was an idiot and that they are a different band altogether. Still awake? Great - then go check out 'Firing Squad':

(Portland-based) Giantess on MySpace

Pretty sweet, eh? I'm kinda burned out on acoutic guitar fingerpickery with breathy male vocals but this one got to me - maybe because it's so simple and lovely and the chorus climbs like a stealthy vine. The other tune up there, 'End It', is also really beautiful and sung by the female half of these sleepy romantics. 

Now go start a Giantess in your town.