Toronto’s Make Your Exit make a stirring brand of piano tinged rock, reminiscent of Drink Up Buttercup or Cold War Kids.  It’s rough around the edges; it’s frayed at the seams.  It’s stories retold until they’re familiar, comfortable.

This song in particular, entitled “Leave This Town,” runs the well-worn path of the need to get the hell out of wherever, and then, after lead singer Jeff Buckley (!) makes his impassioned plea, the band devolves into a meandering jam, as if to soundtrack the sight of the familiar skyline disappearing through the rear window of a car.

Make Your Exit’s most recent EP – entitled Remind Me the Reason I Came – has been out for about a year now, but it’s just recently made its way to me.  Beyond this track, the entire 7-song affair is excellent.  I hear The Walkmen in the way their songs sound, and a confident undercurrent connecting everything together.  And for real: can we start talking about the great bands coming out of Toronto of late?

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Make Your Exit – Leave This Town (mp3) from Remind Me the Reason I Came EP

2010 has become the year where larger, sometimes corporate forces have latched onto the indie scene.  Between Converse and Mountain Dew and Levi’s and Adult Swim, there have been a gamut of new songs and covers of classics done by excellent artists.  And while it’s gone undetected by me to this point, Dr. Martens is doing the same thing to celebrate their 50th anniversary.  With artists like Noisettes, The Duke Spirit and N.A.S.A. covering Buzzcocks, Sham 69 and Max Romeo, respectively, there are lots of cult classics on display, and they are all lovingly redone.

The Cinematic Orchestra daringly covers Jeff Buckley’s hauntingly fragile and beautiful “Lilac Wine” from his lone, definitive album Grace.  It’s faithful to the original’s timbre, and while it doesn’t take it anywhere new, it ends up being a nice reminder of a much beloved artist.  Jason Swinscoe – founder and lead singer of The Cinematic Orchestra – has a voice similar to Jeff Buckley’s, so it doesn’t sound unnatural, and the song gets a little more dressed up with the addition of strings.

(NOTE: I was unaware that this was also a Nina Simone cover, so thanks to commenter Todd for pointing that out.  I should do a little more due diligence next time.)

Head over to Dr. Martens’ website to check out the rest of the free tracks, which you can get for an email address and your name, and check out the Jeff Buckley cover below.  Coming on September 17th is the most intriguing entry – a cover of Cold War Kids’ “Something Is Not Right With Me” by Michael Davis of MC5 and D.O.A. fame.  Stick around for that.

The Cinematic Orchestra – Lilac Wine (Jeff Buckley/Nina Simone Cover) (mp3)

Maybe it’s just me, but this past weekend went way too quickly.  It was here and gone in what seemed like an instant, and now we’re back to the weekly grind.  Such is live, I suppose.

Anyway, if you don’t know what this project is about, go here to check out my complete list, and get the brief rules.  And once you’re finished, read on:

117. Jason Mraz – No Doubling Back (mp3) (3:33) [Time Remaining: 466:36]

I suppose that Jason Mraz has always been the goofy troubadour that he currently is, but when I first found out about him about 8/9 years ago, it was far more endearing than it has since become.  And, the guy can sing.  The earlier recordings I have of him, in a coffeeshop in San Diego, imperfections and all, got played for a year straight at least.

“No Doubling Back” is a break-up song – but it’s light and breezy while being forthcoming about the end of a relationship that’s no longer working.  The end is painfully obvious to the narrator, but neither party has said anything about it.  And I’ve never been quite able to get over just how much I enjoy it.  (As an aside, the song is 4:39, but I’m not counting the banter for the first minute:06 toward this project.  If anyone cries foul, I’ll change it, but I don’t think anyone cares.)

118. Jeff Buckley – Lover, You Should’ve Come Over (mp3) from Grace (6:44) [Time Remaining: 459:52]

Even if this were not one of the greatest songs of all time (which it is), it would be included for the line: “she’s a tear that hangs inside my soul forever” – which is the most beautifully depressing thought I can imagine.  The song is rife with references like that, but that one catches me every single time.

I’m in catch up mode, so I figured now might be the best time to use what duplicates the two of us may have come up with between our two 1K lists thus far. Obviously Andy and I will have some similar favorites. Today I will include two of my favorites that have already been represented on his list.

65. Jeff Buckley – Last Goodbye (mp3) from Grace (4:32) [Time Remaining: 739:54]

There is not much I can add to the conversation about this wonderfully talented artist taken well before his time, so I will only briefly discuss my experience with this song. I have loved this song nearly my entire music listening life. Released when I was a pre-teen, the power and beauty of this song were not lost on such a young listener.

66. Josh Rouse – Winter in the Hamptons (mp3) from Nashville (3:08) [Time Remaining: 736:46]

Josh Rouse’s voice is never finer, in my opinion, than in this song and on the entire record. For me however, the timing of this song may have been more appropriate back in the spring. Much like Andy stated when he wrote about the song, listening to it is great fodder for wishing our long Rochester winters away.

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Finally, as a bonus for today I am attaching this song, because I messed up and didn’t post it correctly when I initially put up the edition of my 1K that included it back in July. It is song number forty-three in my list but the song was never picked up. So here it is again.

Kings Of Leon – California Waiting (mp3) from Holy Roller Novocaine

Submitting to my irrational dislike for odd numbers, I’m only going to post one song for this week’s chapter of my 1000 Minutes Project.  Rest assured, however, I’m kicking myself for not having posted it earlier on – it’s just that good.  I’ll even throw in an alternate version of it, but that version isn’t part of the project.

30. Jeff Buckley – Last Goodbye (mp3) from Grace (4:35) [Time Remaining: 824:32]

The beginning of the song is fairly innocuous; the guitar starts, then the rest of the band shuffles in one-by-one, until the moment it all comes together after about twenty-four seconds.

The music is more upbeat than the lyrical matter should allow, but it has a boozy feeling about it.  A night of drinking, an ill-advised cab ride to his former significant other’s house, and we pick up the one-sided conversation.

It’s pleading, a little embarrassing to watch, but there’s nothing that we, the listeners, can do to stop it.  It’s the last thing you’ve always wanted to say to a now-ex, that last ditch effort to get yourself back in his/her good graces.  And while the entreaty may have had an affect on the other person, ultimately, it’s fruitless.  The storyteller is left to wander the nameless streets, wallowing in the past.

The song is powerful – one of my favorites of all time.  The subject is instantly relatable, because it’s an experience that most of us have had.  It’s honest about the end of a relationship, about the wrenching feeling that accompanies such a loss.  It doesn’t treat the other person poorly; it doesn’t call names; it’s decidedly adult.  It ends without resolution, without closure, because it’s rare that that is ever achieved in these situations.

It fades out slowly, and ends sparsely.  A couple of final plinking notes on a piano are the unpronounced end to a grand, albeit futile, gesture.

BONUS!: Jeff Buckley – Last Goodbye (Alternate Version) (mp3) from Eternal Life [single]

(This version has a different introduction, and a couple additional lyrics.  The strings from the album version are absent, but the song doesn’t lack for it.  It’s just a different retelling.)

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This Tuesday brings you, dear readers, a veritable treasure trove of terrific tunes.  We’ll start it off with an alternate, b-side version of a song you should already love, then you’ll make your way to a song that was loved intensely for a summer, only to have it put away until now, washed down with some excellent math, and we’ll cleanse your palate with a Billy Idol cover from those reuniting rockers who like to be naked. Let the feast commence.

Jeff Buckley – Last Goodbye (Alternate Version) (mp3) from the Eternal Life single

Marjorie Fair – Waves (mp3) from Self Help Serenade

Radiohead – 2 + 2 = 5 (mp3) from Hail to the Thief

Blink-182 – Dancing With Myself (mp3) from Five Years on the Streets

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