Band of Horses is responsible for arguably my favorite song in the history of recorded music.  I’m not the biggest fan of their first album EVERYTHING ALL THE TIME (though it made me like them), but I dig their second album CEASE TO BEGIN alot, and when I say alot I mean it’s got a few good songs on it, which is more than I can say for most albums nowadays.  

Detlef Schrempf, my vote for best song on the album (and of all eternity), is so beautiful that no matter how many times I listen to it, I never get sick of it.  I’ve definitely listened to it more than any other song in the past year.  I think I’m going to dance with my mother to it at my upcoming wedding FRIENDS HONOR.  Still I was wondering why it was named after a former Supersonics forward.  Is it the band’s Seattle roots?  Not sure.  I checked out one of my new favorite websites, songmeanings.net, in my attempt to figure out why they would name such a beautiful song after such an ugly, NBA whiteboy (see picture below). Here is what I found out…

Here’s a couple more gems not found on either of their two official SUBPOP releases. The first is a slow version of my favorite song from their first album, “Wicked Gil”, the video below is of them performing it live in Seattle.  The second is from the O.C. television show soundtrack, called “The End’s Not Near”.  

The End’s Not Near

Band of Horses Live at SXSW music festival in Austin, Texas, 2006.

Filter magazine did a dope cover story on Band of Horses last fall when they’re album dropped, sort of a road log of the west coast wing of their tour. Of course, I’ve got the issue tucked away in my collection, but you can check it out online here.

Band of Horses official website