hey hey hey, just relax all of you people from ohio and put away the haterade. it was only a joke. sort of. not really. plenty of awesome things have come out of ohio, such as the millenium force at cedar point. i guess thats really about it. perhaps bashing ohio is metro detroits way of deflecting all the bashing off of themselves, since everyone whos never even been to michigan seems to know all the ins and outs of detroit and how “dangerous and run down” it is. perhaps its some sort of subconscious support of the michigan/ohio state rivalry by all residents of michigan, regardless of which michigan school they support. perhaps ohio just is the worst place ever. i guess we may never know. wow, this post really turned into a hate on ohio rant….i hadnt planned on that….

….what i HAD planned on was sharing another excellent song with all of you, even those of you from ohio. todays tantalizing track is brought to you courtesy of akron/family (shoutout to ulia for introducing the two of us). im not gonna lie people, ive only got two of their albums so i dont claim to be an expert on this group, but i do know that i loved their self-titled album from the first time i heard it. even from the first song, you’ll notice the combination of lo-fi production and electronic elements working in harmony. in fact, it seems like you almost never hear any sort of digital elements married to any sort of folky beats. my heart thinks akron/family is folky, but my mind is telling me theyre some new genre hybrid. im confused, but i like it. simple, but complicated. hell, even one of their album titles embodies this – “love is simple”. is it, really? really, akron/family? i will give them the benefit of the doubt because my friend nadia told me theyre one of the best live bands ever.

what is simple, however, is this tune. so simple, in fact, the lyrics consist of only 14 words. “the power i afford you is the one i wish i had over you”. thats deep, man (im kind of serious about that). my favorite part of the song is about 45 seconds into the song when the slide guitar and subtle bass line enter. add in a slight reverb effect, and you wind up with some juicy sounds. ….but not in a gross way. youll probably figure this out soon, but im a sucker for songs that start out quiet and have a huge buildup. i wouldnt say this song neccesarily applies as that, but theres definitely a nice contrast from the beginning, with just one guitar and vocal track, and the multiple instruments and vocals at the end (make sure you listen past the false ending in the middle of the song). i clearly did akron/family no justice in this post, at all. but listen to them anyway.

akron/family – afford

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