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Four (covers) for Friday

Schools are closed today in anticipation of snow.

Crazy.

I think we are forecasted to get an inch of snow. So on this day that it will be impossible to leave your house, here’s some music to pass the time.

First Aid Kit – Universal Soldier (Buffy Sainte-Marie Cover) / First Aid Kit is a couple of Swedish sisters (20 years and 17 years old) doing the folk thing.

Bon Iver – Come Talk to Me (Peter Gabriel Cover) / Got this song from my brother-in-law. Bon Iver and Peter Gabriel? Too much goodness in one place.

Lissie – Bad Romance (Lady Gaga Cover) / I realize that having anything “Gaga” on here is shameful. Just shameful.

J.Period & K’Naan – Relationships Lay (Bob Dylan Tribute) / Not a cover per se, but you know… K’Naan.

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Four for Friday (Returns)

A while back, I was putting some songs up every Friday.  I know that the A.A. Bondy rant as of late has been all you’ve needed to keep you musically happy for a while…  but there is more!

Each of these are songs from albums that have been eagerly anticipated by some (or just by me).  Have at it.

Arcade Fire – Ready to Start

The National – Conversation 16

Menomena – Taos

Lissie – Bully

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Four for (a mellow) Friday

I’m looking at a pretty low-key weekend, and so here’s a few to set the tone for those doing likewise.

The Morning Benders – Promises

Beach House – Walk in the Park

jj – Let Go

Lissie – Wedding Bells (Hank Williams Cover)

Be careful not to slip into a coma while listening.

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deja vu

Lissie – Everywhere I Go

I was going to wait until next week, but seeing as we’ve just wrapped up Exodus, maybe now is the time to talk about it.

What’s the point of chapters 36-39?  Why does Exodus’ author feel the need to repeat nearly every word from 25-28?  Wouldn’t it have been enough to simply say “The Israelites had done all the work just as the LORD had commanded Moses” (Exodus 39:42)?

Bear in mind that whatever writing materials they might have used (tablets or papyrus/parchment) would have been costly and so each words counts.  Why not a little more detail back in Genesis on Jacob wrestling God?  Or some more explanation of Abraham’s near sacrifice/murder of Isaac?

Instead, we have a painstaking account of Israel meticulously constructing the Tabernacle in a way that exactly corresponds to the instructions God had given them.  And I suppose that’s the point.  Moses (or whoever wrote it) wanted future generations to understand that God’s instruction is not something to be spurned lightly.

We live in a religious culture that goes to great lengths to emphasize it isn’t what you do in relation to God that matters, but how you feel about God.  As long as our hearts are right, then all the external stuff called religion really isn’t of consequence.  In fact, it may be detrimental.  I’m not sure we can read too much into this, but my guess is that the Israelites felt that God needed to be heeded…  even in the details.