I Could Be The Walrus - An all-inclusive music blog

Life, Soundtrack Included

2010-06-17T07:17:00.007-07:00

See this post, and the rest of this project at my new blog: Recording the Recordings

So, as part of my constant search for new music, I am often trying to educate myself on the history of the music I already enjoy and stretch my boundaries. So when I heard Tom Moon on the NPR show All Songs Considered talking about his new book, 1,000 Recordings To Hear Before You Die I picked it up for my best friend John87, who is probably more obsessed with music than I am. I tried wrapping it as a Christmas gift, but ended up reading it as I wrapped all the other presents. When I finally wrapped it, it was the last present left, and my wife was starting to get irritated, so I finally had to finish up. A couple months later I went back to the store and bought the book for myself. My goal is to hear every song.

I am already 221 recordings (mostly albums, but some songs scattered here and there, and also some box sets) into the book, and I just now decided to start recording the trip. Partly it's because there is so much music I often can't remember what the stuff I listened to sounds like. Partly it's because most of the recordings here are worth sharing, and this is a great way to point others in the right direction. And partly it's just fun.

So, with that said, I am now keeping a record of my journey through a great book, and a great challenge. As I said, I have already listened to 221 of the recordings. This includes about 125 that I have now listened to alphabetically starting with ABBA on page one, plus nearly 100 other recordings scattered throughout that I had already heard when I picked up the book. Since my interest in music generally lies in the rock and blues genres, I realized if I picked my way through the book, in the end I would be left with opera and classical, and I would never go back and listen to those recordings. So I started at the start, and I have choked down my medicine of British opera and experimental jazz, and along the way already discovered lost greats like Baby Huey and the Babysitters, Dock Boggs and others. So you might be wondering, am I listening to one of the recordings right now? Hell yes I am.

Artist: Nati Cano's Mariachi los Camperos
Album: Viva El Mariachi!
Album #221

I didn't know what to expect from this one, but it comes charging out of the gates from the start with "Los Arrieros." It was the perfect start to my morning, as I actually got a decent amount of sleep for the first time in a week. My son still has a problem with being put in his crib, but he is finally eating better, which helps to knock him out, and lowers the stress level for my wife and myself. The voices on this album are so plaintive and strong, and the strings twist in and around each other, raising the whole affair to heights so much higher than what you would expect mariachi to sound like. In fact, there are a couple songs, "El Gustito" and "La Maleguena," where the falsetto singing sounds almost like something you would hear in a traditional Hawai'ian song. Now that isn't to say that I'm not craving some Mexican food right now (specifically a fried avocado, but I don't know where to get that besides La Playa in Corpus Christi, TX), but in general this recording surprised me. I should really stop being surprised at this point though, because so many of these recordings shock me with their incredible sound, in genres I had never even considered.

Many of the albums I listen to can be found on Grooveshark, one of my favorite websites ever. I discovered it a few years ago when it first came out, and now it seems pretty mainstream with ads for Rock Band interfaced right into the player, so hopefully it won't go the way of so many websites I have loved before and disappear. I used to use Lala.com, but iTunes just bought them out last month, so my classical music hookup is gone now, and classical is very difficult to find on Grooveshark. I know eventually I will have to start paying money to finish this list, first with an account to Napster or Rhapsody to stream music, and then eventually buying the very rare albums. But for now, free streaming and the library are the keys to making it through most of the book. I know the above playlist is glitchy, but if you open it in Grooveshark you can rearrange the tracks and eventually they will all play.

Buy Viva El Mariachi! on Amazon

High School Kids Kill the Radio Star

2009-05-24T13:53:00.001-07:00

Love this. Originally seen here. Here's their myspace page. Haven't had a chance to hear their other stuff, but I thought this video deserved to be shown, because it just makes me happy.

New Lonely Forest Album Streamed for Your Pleasure

2009-04-22T06:50:00.003-07:00

So this band I've been talking about for over a year finally released a new album yesterday, and I forgot. The plan was to buy it in the morning on iTunes and have it on the ipod by the time I left for work, which then became today's plan because of how crazy yesterday was. So I will not be able to tell you what I think til later (but hopes are very high for a good one), but you can check it out for yourself. A little try before you buy, if you will.

We Sing the Body Electric

Hope you enjoy it and support a great local band. Oh, and see them in Seattle this Friday (since I will be out of town... damn)

Mike's 104 Songs to Hear Before You Die: Song #8

2009-04-05T10:01:00.004-07:00

Photo by Mike

Lynyrd Skynyrd - Free Bird

Who: Lynyrd Skynyrd, the kings of Southern rock.

What: Free Bird, over 9 minutes of rock ballad, blazing glory. The song is on Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Songs of All Time and is VH1's 26th Best Hard Rock Song

When: 1973, although I heard it on the radio in the 80's probably. I liked the song, but I don't think it was until 2005, and, this is not a joke, the movie Elizabethtown, when the band Ruckus (which mostly consisted of My Morning Jacket) plays it at the end of the film. All of a sudden I realized why people yell it out at concerts-- it's that good.

Where: Jacksonville, Florida. I have been to the bar, Free Bird's, to see a concert before. Jax loves their Skynyrd

Why: Ok, I don't have to say too much about this one, because I think it is a lot cliched for me to put this on my list, but man, 5 minute, 3-guitar solos that have that much power don't come around very often. Free Bird is listed 3rd on Guitar World's 100 Greatest Guitar solos of all time, but I think that's ridiculous. It's #1 for me without a doubt. This is one of only 3 songs my my list greater than 7 minutes long-- most songs just can't hold your attention for that long. Anyways, you've probably heard the song before, but try listening with fresh ears and see if you can deny loving it.

If I leave here tomorrow

Would you still remember me?

For I must be travelling on, now,

cause theres too many places Ive got to see.

But, if I stayed here with you, girl,

Things just couldnt be the same.

cause Im as free as a bird now,

And this bird you can not change.

Lord knows, I cant change.

Bye, bye, its been a sweet love.

Though this feeling I cant change.

But please dont take it badly,

cause lord knows Im to blame.

But, if I stayed here with you girl,

Things just couldnt be the same.

Cause Im as free as a bird now,

And this bird youll never change.

And this bird you can not change.

Lord knows, I cant change.

Lord help me, I cant change.

Here are all the songs covered so far

...plus some free bird covers- the Built to Spill guitar solo rocks- I need to get ahold of some more of their CDs

Here are the previous posts on my list:
#1) The Smashing Pumpkins - Muzzle (for teaching me how to be a teenager)
#2) Sufjan Stevens - Vito's Ordination Song (beautiful sounds, transcendent lyrics)
#3) They Might Be Giants - Number Three (goofy lyrics, unstoppable foot-tapping fun)
#4) Counting Crows - Four Days (beautiful harmonies, sweet metaphors)
#5) Drive-By Truckers - Two Daughters and a Beautiful Wife (heartwrenching lyrics, heartstring pulling slide guitar)
#6) Architecture in Helsinki - It'5! (fun!)
#7) The Thermals - Power Doesn't Run On Nothing (intensity, indignation, insanely good)

And John87's list:
#100) Sonic Youth- The Diamond Sea
#99) Ani Difranco - Both Hands (Live)
#98) Matthew Sweet - Girlfriend
#97) Eels - P.S. You Rock My World
#96) Vienna Teng - City Hall

Mike's 104 Songs to Hear Before You Die: Song #7

2009-03-30T14:59:00.006-07:00

Photo by Mike

Read a review yesterday that prompted me to pick this song, as the band just released a new album this year.

Here it is, numba 7:

The Thermals - Power Doesn't Run On Nothing

Who: The Thermals, Power Trio from Portland, OR

What: " Power Doesn't Run On Nothing, from their 2006 breakout album The Body, The Blood, The Machine, loosely based on a "young couple who must flee a United States governed byfascist faux-Christians."

When: '06, although I probably heard it in '07 (thanks to John87), but it sounds like it came from a distopic near-future, thanks to its "no-fi" production and paranoid lyrics.

Where: U.S. I suppose

Why: Righteous indignation pounded into your ears whether you like it or not, baby! The Thermals are not afraid to take on religion and government throughout this album, but this song is their most effective. The description of the U.S. as "just a child," and "old as hell," both ring true just a minute apart. The immediacy of Thermals' singer Hutch Harris' voice drives the song forward. When he shouts "we need the land you're standing on, so let's go!" you can see him leading the charge. That's pretty much it for this song- hardcore lyrics and righteous indignation- but it definitely makes a strong point using very little more than some power chords and shouting. If you like it, check out the whole album (none of the songs standout quite the way this one does) or check out their new one (that I believe I will be purchasing and reviewing soon, based on the strength of the title track) Now We Can See.

We are just a child
we are just a child
we are wide awake
but our legs are shaky
we're unaware
we're hyper-active
we stare into space
with grins on our faces
so give us what we're asking
for cause either way,
we're gonna take it
our power doesn't run on nothing
we need the land you're standing on
so lets go
move it

we are old as hell
we are old and tell
the children when to kill
and when to sit still
everyone doing what we say
till our dying day,
till our breath is empty
so give us what we're asking
for cause either way we're gonna take it
our power doesn't run on nothing
we need the land you're standing on
so lets go
move it
yeah you need to let it go
move it
yeah we're, more equal,
we'll move you people,
off the planet cause goddamn we need the fuel

so, so let the beat roll over,
the beat roll over,
everyone in line, one in line
so, so let the beat roll over,
the beat roll over,
everyone in line one at a time
they'll give us what we're asking for,
cause God is with us, and our God's the richest
our power doesn't run on nothing,
it runs on blood, and blood is easy to obtain
when you have no shame
when you have no shame
so let the sun bathe
let the sun bathe
we'll still have life,
we'll burn even brighter
we'll drain the well, turn all to hell,
leave the earth's surface to the worthless dirt
let the beat roll over,
let the beat roll over,
to everyone in mind,
everyone in line
you think we'll cease?
to see a reason,
to think it's fair?
to think it's fair,
to think we care?

Here is the song with all the previous songs on my list:

Previous songs on my list:
#1) The Smashing Pumpkins - Muzzle (for teaching me how to be a teenager)
#2) Sufjan Stevens - Vito's Ordination Song (beautiful sounds, transcendent lyrics)
#3) They Might Be Giants - Number Three (goofy lyrics, unstoppable foot-tapping fun)
#4) Counting Crows - Four Days (beautiful harmonies, sweet metaphors)
#5) Drive-By Truckers - Two Daughters and a Beautiful Wife (heartwrenching lyrics, heartstring pulling slide guitar)
#6) Architecture in Helsinki - It'5! (fun!)

And John87's list:
#100) Sonic Youth- The Diamond Sea
#99) Ani Difranco - Both Hands (Live)
#98) Matthew Sweet - Girlfriend
#97) Eels - P.S. You Rock My World
#96) Vienna Teng - City Hall

Mike's 104 Songs to Hear Before You Die: Song #6

2009-03-28T17:30:00.002-07:00

By the way, John, you are not ahead. You've done 5 songs- this is my 6th. So haHA sir, haHA. Anyways, in case you aren't familiar

#1) The Smashing Pumpkins - Muzzle (for teaching me how to be a teenager)
#2) Sufjan Stevens - Vito's Ordination Song (beautiful sounds, transcendent lyrics)
#3) They Might Be Giants - Number Three (goofy lyrics, unstoppable foot-tapping fun)
#4) Counting Crows - Four Days (beautiful harmonies, sweet metaphors)
#5) Drive-By Truckers - Two Daughters and a Beautiful Wife (heartwrenching lyrics, heartstring pulling slide guitar)

And John87's list:
#100) Sonic Youth- The Diamond Sea
#99) Ani Difranco - Both Hands (Live)
#98) Matthew Sweet - Girlfriend
#97) Eels - P.S. You Rock My World
#96) Vienna Teng - City Hall

Song Numero 6:

Architecture in Helsinki - It'5!

Who: Architecture in Helsinki

What: It'5! A delightful little pop thing... I can't describe it really

When: 2005 on their second album (that I thought was their debut) In Case We Die

Where: Australia, not Helsinki

Why: This one came on in the car today and I was like, "oh man, I love this song". Then I tried to think of why I love this song, and I just don't know. It might be the video that Dan sent me soon after the album came out. It might be the falsetto (I'm a sucker for falsetto). Or maybe it's just the frantic pace, the crazy lyrics, the random guitar and horn licks, the sheer fun of the song. The lyrics are actually a bit of a downer, but there's just so much joy in the sound of this song. And you know, this was also probably my first foray into indie pop. I think at the time this song came out I had heard a lot of new music, like indie rock, alt-country, alt-folk, brit rap, etc, but I hadn't heard any of the pop genre of the indie side, except maybe a little Polyphonic Spree, which I considered to be something all its own. So maybe that was why I latched onto this song. But anyways, it's a fun song, I highly recommend this album (much better than the debut) but especially this song is just... well, FUN.

Stranger danger,
Danger stranger,
When you gonna follow through?

The mistake you don't make,
Or the rain cloud covers above your house.
Steal the feelings,
Don't focuse on the flames girl.
Have I failed to impress you?
Could've sworn that wine
And one and four made two,
But it's 5!
It's 5!

Can I ride with you
Until the sunset gets all red?
And we'll get chased by the moon

Hope the passion don't fade
Since you decided he's your spouse.
Wheeling, dealing,
Joking things will change girl.
Have I failed to impress you?
Could've sworn that wine
And one and four made two,
But it's 5!
It is 5!

I'm gonna get all crotchety old man on your asses for a bit

2009-03-28T11:28:00.002-07:00

Ok I just have a couple of things I want to bitch about for awhile. The Intranets blog/facebook/myspace/twitter is the best way for someone with an opinion to make themselves feel important so I'm going to bitch here. Though there will be little to no consequence.

Anyway. Ok first of is Zune. Zune's are fucking ridiculous. My mind can not wrap around what kind of shit product this is. Not a good kind of shit either. The kind of shit you find in someone elses toilet when you lift up the seat, or stadium communal bathroom shit. I don't get how microsoft completly said fuck you to the macintosh ipod business model and product structure. How can they possibly hope to even compete against that juggernaut if they don't even atempt to make the product similar to the i-pod aka the universal mp3 play. We don't even call them mp3 players, everything is an ipod now.
The reason i complain about this is my sister. She got a zune some time ago for some insane reason. I think she thought it would be cool to fuck the man by not joining the cult of ipod. Well what she got was fucked. 2 years she's had it and has not been able to figure out how to add or remove usic from it. Her friend put a couple of things on and now she's sick of all the albums. I being the thoughtful music and technological genius that i am decided to help her out and share some of my hard "bought" music. 2 weeks it took me of trying to get this thing to work. 2 weeks to get a microsoft product to run on windows. And then when i finally did i had to look up websites on how to run the damn thing. Trust me there's a lot of websites out there for zune help...probablly more then actual zunes in circulation. Anyway now on the day of her birthday i'm finally getting the damn thing filled up with music. Even this is hard. You have to find the folders you want the zune software to read, then the zune folder scans everything and this takes forever then you have to go through the list of scanned folders to find what you want to add and then add it and then that takes forever. So ridiculous.

Anyway don't buy a zune don't support it and don't even think that it has any right to exist in the ipod world.God bless mac and their monopoly on mp3 players. This company not only makes a product that is affordable, easy to use, technologically sound, diverse and stylish...they constantlly are updatig every version of their brand. From hardware to software they're totally focused on improvements. So fuck you microsoft and really really from the deepest darkest diseased part of my soul fuck you zune.

Oh and happy 25th B-day Andrea

http://g4tv.com/attackoftheshow/aroundthenet/66493/Cat-Poo-One-Zune-Warehouse.html

ok the part of the above link's clip that's relevant to my rant is about halfway through the clip. The whole clip is still funny. But i love olivia's take on the zune. My mom actually likes this show too.It's hillarious especially their Around the Net segments.

DOOM DOOM DOOM the supervillain

2009-03-26T15:48:00.003-07:00

AHH DOOM ( aka Mf Doom aka Viktor Vaughn aka 90 other aliases) you make me happy. I don't know what it is about this guy but I love his albums more then I should. I think it's just the sense of fun he has in his music. Whatever it is his albums are always good if not great...and for the most part that goes for his new album Born Like This.

Ok history lesson cause i assume most people don't have the whole story on DOOM. DOOM is a rapper/producer/supervillain. He just recentlly changed his name from MF (metal face/metal finger) Doom to just DOOM. DOOM always wears a mask much like Dr. Doom in the fantastic four comic/terrible movie. Madvillainy His collaboration with producer Madlib is one of the best rap albums of the past decade if not ever.( a 93 on metacritic and #6 on it's highest reviewed albums ever) He also has some great work as Viktor Vaughn (Dr. Doom's pre crazy guy name) and just MF. Doom. Strangest of all he did an album with producer danger mouse, half of gnarles barkley, under the name DangerDoom which was released by cartoon networks adult swim and uses samples from it's classic shows...Yes it's as amazing and crazy as it sounds.

Okay the point here is DOOM is an amazing rapper. In terms of flow and wordplay there's hardly anyone who's as good. He's got a laid back but quick attack. Almost all his albums use samples to create a background story in every album and Born Like This is similar though it creates more atmosphere than story. Born Like This is DOOM's first album since 2006 i think. It's been a long time coming though ( I have to say I'm anxiously awaiting the rumored Madvillainy 2). He seems a little strained here and the album does seem a bit forced. There were rumors that he'd died and someone else had simply put on his mask...hence the name change...and at first listen i kind of thought he sounded a bit different... slower and not as laid back. This isn't to say this is a bad album. There's a lot of great moments and some really good songs. I really liked the guest rappers Tony Stark (aka Ghostface Killer taking iron man's name) and Empress Sharrh on Angelz and Still Dope respectively. Angelz is supposed to be on a DOOM Ghostface collaboration, which from this song I hope is coming out.

In the end this is an okay release...though an ok release from DOOM is still better then most. It's sort of like a comic book character who's story gets passed to a new writer and artist. It's a different comic and at first you long for the old writer to come back before you realize the characters themselves hold up a mediocre effort. If your a DOOM fan I'd suggest picking it up, if your not versed in his Supervillainy then you should start out with Madvillainy or DangerDoom. Either way DOOm is one of the premiere artist in underground hip hop and worth hearing.

Ha ha I'm now ahead of you mike...Here's my #96 song to check out

2009-03-26T09:29:00.003-07:00

Artist: Vienna Teng

Album: Dreamig through the Noise

Song: City Hall

Why: Ok another great album. It was definetally overlooked and I think unfairly clumped in with similar girl singer songwritters of the time. I bought, yes bought, this album after I heard an interview with Teng on NPR...pretentious indie kid alert. It struck me as a sort of relaxing piano led female vocal album. After a couple of listens I found it to be a lot more then that. There's some phenominal lyrics, great piano and beautiful melodies.

I picked City hall because of it's complex message of modern love. Essentially this song is about a lesbian couple in love going to city hall to get their marriage license. There's a crowd there so you get the feeling this is happening the day that a city, say San Fran where gay marriage is finally made legal. They've been waiting for years to commit to each other and finally they get the news they can and they drive 500 miles to city hall where it can be done...(i would walk 500 miles and i would walk 500 more just to be the man who'd walk oe thousand miles to be with you). There's just this great sense of happiness in the crowd. Everyone is going to finally be given the rights they want. What really hits home is the final few lyrics:

Ten years waiting for this moment of fate,

when we say the words and sign our names,

if they take it away again some day,

this beautiful thing won't change.

Man that's just tearjerking.This song obviouslly has a big impact nowadays with that ridiculous prop 8 assing in san fran and all those lovely happy couples getting their love marginalised. I could rant and rave about prop 8, but this is about music so I won't. The point is this: Love is love no matter who it's between. This song could easily hit your local top 40 radio stations and people wouldn't see it more then just a love song and that's what i think adds such a punch to it.

So way to go ms. Mrs. Miss Vienna Teng. A great love song full of joy and happiness with a very political shade of grey to it. That's why I pick this song as one to check out. Yeahy.

#97 on my list of songs yah should know...

2009-03-25T10:51:00.003-07:00

Song: p.s. You rock My World

Band: Eels

Album: Electro Shock Blues

Why:
Ok again an album that you should own. Definetally on my top ten all time favorite albums, probablly around 3. On it's own to anyone this album is a phenominal example of a talented artist painting his life into an album. Usually I don't really care about the personal lives of bands I like, but this a special oocasion because the album is boosted by knowing what E the main Eels member was going through in his life. Within about 12 months E's sister commited suicide and I believe he found her dead in the bathroom, the opening track is 'Elizabeth on the Bathroom Floor'. Then his mother died of cancer...a lot of the songs tie into cancer and her death, but Dead of Winter is really discriptive. So this album is kind of a downer. E doesn't hold back at all in exploring his emotions and the sort of craziness that takes over your life during these times.

I really have sort of assimilated this album into my conciousness more then any other I know. During low points in my life electro shock blues has been a comforting security blanket and a sort of passing and active reminder that shit, gloriouslly opressing and downright 'unfair' shit happens. I always used to laugh at people who talk about albums that helpped them get better or when you hear someone thank an artist for helpping them. I kind of found that cheesy. Well I'll thank you mister E, you've definetally helpped me threw a jam opr two in my time.

So why p.s. you rock my world? Well it's the closing track and it's just a great ending to this whole album. In a moviue where everything is going wrong you sort of expect a holywood ending where all situations are resolved and smiles creep across the actors faces. Well anyone living through bad times knows that this sort of doesn't happen. And it doesn't here. The whole song sort of paints a picture of a time post tradgedy where your kind of just starting to go through your normal routines again, but still feeling that change in your life. There's lots of great lines: 'I was at a funeral the day I realised I wanted to spend my life with you' 'I don't know where we're going I don't know what we'll do' are a few. But the best , and what really hit me in the head after the whole albums feel was the last lines E sings... '...and how a careful man tries to dodge the bullets while a happy man takes a walk, and maybe it's time to live' So great. There's no yeah I'm a better person and I realise I'm gonna be ok and lfe is wonderful. That never happens. Instead you gat a sort of realization that you can't change the past and that worrying about the future is sort of futile so just live. But he doesn't stand up and shout I'm gonna live better. It's more okay I'm gonna try. That makes the song so much more realistic and powerful. On the eels next album in the opener Grace Kelly Blues E finishes the song by saying ' and me I'm feeling pretty good as of now. I'm not so sure when I got here or how. Sun melting the fake smile away. I think you know I'll be okay." So the character is getting by and trying to smile.

I always kind of cringe at really emotional songs sung or performed by people who don't seem honest or talented enough to convey their feelings. On Electro shock blues and p.s. you rck my world E and the Eels really do a great job of conveying a specific set of honest feelings and emotions that people go through. So you should listen to it. there nuff said.

Trying to catch up to Mike's list so that we meet at 50/51...so here's #98 on my list

2009-03-24T14:30:00.003-07:00

Song: Girlfriend

Artist: Matthew Sweet

Album: Girlfriend

Why: Well I sort of turned it on earlier today and thought...Hey I love this song and should write about it on the blog.

Okay first the album. Girlfriend is a stone cold unargueable Classic. Classic. Like one of the best albums ever and should and most of the times is on top albums of all time. Of course this is one that gets the shaft. There's a ton of stuff going on here and I think one of the big reasons why Sweet never had as huge a success as he should (though he did have 3 pretty big singles and if you listen to "Sick of Myself" off of 100% fun you'll reecognise him) is because of his sort of classic rock and alterna 90's mix. It's not really cool on either side. The people who like guitar heavy classic rock will probablly find it to young and people in love with that time periods alterna rock will probablly find the album to heavy in the old styles. But now...now there's no reason why not to go back and check out this album. It's gorgeous and well thought out and fun.

Why i love the song Girlfriend. Well I love the video and actually still sort of visualise it now when I hear the song 10 years or so later. http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x691y_matthew-sweet-girlfriend_music

Matthew Sweet - Girlfriend
Uploaded by jesus_lizard

It's got a phenominal guitar hook, a chorus that get's stuck in your head and it's just plain fun. It's the sort of well thought out fun energetic and skilled music I wish I could hear on the radio nowadays. Unfortunatelly that doesn't happen and instead I kep my I-pod on random, except when me and my mom listen to the Maxwell Show...god I love those guys.

Song 99 outa 100 to check into your ears...

2009-03-24T10:49:00.003-07:00

I kinda like Mike's format of orginization so I'll do it similar.

#99

Who: Ani Difranco

Song: Both Hands (live)

Album: Living in Clip

Why:
Ok there's lots of reasons to check out this song. First off is that you should own this collection. Living in clip is one of the best collections of live music by a phenominal live performer. The way the album is put together is something I loved. There's clips of the band talking, a great introduction to the band, they sort of make up a song on the spot and all the material is Ani's best stuff to that point. In otherwards it's one of those rare live albums that really gives you an accurate simulation of the performers live show instead of just being live versions of material you already own.

So why Both Hands....First is the great intro to the song. This building of an orchestrated version of the melody in the song, then it cuts out and it's just Ani strumming and singing. Second I really think this song cuts through the bullshit perception of what people think Ani is and what she really is. Most people have this view that she's just some stereotypical rrriot grrrl singing about woman problems and how much she hates men. And yeah there are those songs, but really Ani is a great guitar player and a phenominal lyricsist (sp?).

This song is (atleast my own interpretation (sp?) from listening) is about being in love. The way you fall in love crazy ridiculouslly. The time when your happy all the time and nothing can fuck with the endorphins in your head. This song is the end of one of those relationships. The narrator is thinking of the best time while experiencing the worst times. It's thins sort of complicated lyrics that kept me a fan of ani for so long. It's not just a song about love and not just a song about a break up, it's about breaking up with someone you love and it really captures that.

So there you go a great song, don't let your prejudgements get in the way of listening to it.

PS from Mike: John, you gotta learn how to add the song and the tags, man ( :

Mike's 104 Songs to Hear Before You Die: Song #5

2009-03-20T16:02:00.010-07:00

Photo by Mike

#1) The Smashing Pumpkins - Muzzle (for teaching me how to be a teenager)
#2) Sufjan Stevens - Vito's Ordination Song (beautiful sounds, transcendent lyrics)
#3) They Might Be Giants - Number Three (goofy lyrics, unstoppable foot-tapping fun)
#4) Counting Crows - Four Days (beautiful harmonies, sweet metaphors)

Ok, let's spin that wheel and see what pops up next... a great song from 2008:

Drive-By Truckers - Two Daughters and a Beautiful Wife

Who: Drive-By Truckers on their release Brighter Than Creation's Dark

What: Two Daughters and a Beautiful Wife, the tale of a man confused to wake up in heaven

When: January of 2008. I heard it just before the album was released through hypem, and in conjunction with another song (also on The List) I was compelled to purchase the album

Where: Surprisingly I was in Japan - the song sounds like pure Southern U.S. though

Why: This is an easy one. Even Dan, who is not a rock fan, and surely not an Alt-Country fan, loved this song on first listen. The storytelling prowess of Patterson Hood rivals my favorite wordsmiths of all time (read my review of Brighter Than Creation's Dark). This is a "goosebump" song if ever I heard one. A man who leaves his "two daughters and a beautiful wife" has his story wonderfully spun by Hood, who is backed by the most hallowed plucked and slide guitar (thanks to new addition to the Truckers, John Neff on pedal steel - insanely glorious improvement) that you will hear this decade. The story pops back and forth between the man wandering around heaven and his friends and family back on Earth. The bittersweetness is almost too much, really, but somehow it never seems over the top like many tear-jerking country songs do these days. I think this one stands on its own merits so I'll just let you hear it and decide. If you like the song check out Brighter Than Creations Dark and then go back and pick up older Drive-By Truckers albums; they are all great.

When he reached the gates of heaven
He didn’t understand
He knew that folks were coming over
Or was it all a dream?
Was it all a crazy dream?

He saw them playing there before him
What were they doing there?
It felt like home, It must be alright
Or is it just a dream?
Is it just a crazy dream?

Memories replay before him
All the tiny moments of his life
Laying round in bed on a Saturday morning
Two daughters and a wife
Two daughters and a beautiful wife

Meanwhile on Earth his friends came over
Shocked and horrified
Dolls and flowers at the storefront
Everybody cried
Everybody cried and cried

Is there vengeance up in heaven?
Are those things left behind?
Maybe everyday is Saturday morning
Two daughters and a wife
Two daughters and a beautiful wife
Two daughters and a beautiful wife

Buy Drive-By Truckers
Drive-By Truckers

100 of my own songs i've heard that others should hear before they can't use their hearing, but if your deaf already this is pointless sorry.

2009-03-18T16:35:00.004-07:00

Okay so Mike encouraged me to make my own little list of songs to talk about. I don't really have a list of 100 songs and these aren't necissarily my favorite songs ever. These are more along the lines of what i consider important and ear worthy of just about everyone.

#100 The Diamond Sea by Sonic Youth from the album Washing Machine.

First off the cover for Washing Machine just instantly sparks a smile and a youthful reminicents of my home in Chardon Ohio. Sonic Youth was my first crack band. I was addicted hardcore. Before there was the internet to steal music there were those idiots at sony BMG. I think that's the name of it. Pay for 1 cd and get 12 free just make sure you buy 20 more cds in the next year. Yeah I never paid them and I opened like 10 accounts. Plus i was like 16 so they totally couldn't prosecute me. Suckers. In one outing I got the entire available sonic youth dicography. It was sort of slim picking and I ended up with Washing Machine, Experimental jet set, sister and Evol.
I got into sonic youth thanks in part to another dead stapple of my youth, the wonderful and dearly missed radio station 107.9 the end. You ask anyone from cleveland ohio that was growing up in the mid to late 90's about the end and you will get a sort od doey eyed sad puppy dog stare. That radio station was the shit. The last day they were on me and my friends snuck out of school just to hear the last days broadcast...what did those crazy bastards do...they played It's the end of the world as we know it by R.E.M all fucking day on repeat. Awsome.

Anyway to give the end more credit, thatr fucking radio station played all 20 minutes of the diamond sea on a regular basis. Alllllllll 20 minutes of a song that devolves into earsplitting chaos for about 12 minutes. It's noise rock in it's purest feedback drenched glory. they actually played that song on the radio.In a major city. And it wasn't a college radio station.

Ok so about the song. It's really the sort of farthest point the band could take reverb symphonies. It hurts to listen to.http://www.overcompensating.com/posts/20090306.html
While the album as a whole really isn't a great shinning example of the craftsmanship of SY the song Diamond sea really sort of sums up the reasons why i love this band and why i love ear shredding guitar squeeling noise rock. So there you go, check out the song...

....to do a little game till my next song: my next song is off a live album by a female musician and the title has something to do with what i am doing right now.Yeah that's not much of a riddle or a clue really... i couldn't think of anything sorry.

Mike's 104 Songs to Hear Before You Die: Song #4

2009-03-18T16:23:00.006-07:00

So I'm finally on to number four in my continuing list of songs that I think you should hear before you die. Remember, these songs are based purely on my deep love for each one. Previous songs, some with a link to download, can be found here:

#1) The Smashing Pumpkins - Muzzle (for teaching me how to be a teenager)
#2) Sufjan Stevens - Vito's Ordination Song (beautiful sounds, transcendent lyrics)
#3) They Might Be Giants - Number Three (goofy lyrics, unstoppable foot-tapping fun)

So here it is, number 4:

Counting Crows - Four Days

Who: Counting Crows, my all-time favorite band, led by the poetic lyrics and endearing voice of Adam Duritz

What: "Four Days," the 4th track from the Crows' 3rd album, This Desert Life

When: November 2nd, 1999. I am almost positive I bought this album on the day it came out, as I did with their 2nd, 4th, and 5th albums: so I first heard the song on that day.

Where: In my bedroom in Cleveland. I love the fact that the song sounds like it was recorded in a bedroom as well... more on that later

Why: I think it is a little easier to explain why this one is on the list compared to the last one. The song is a beautifully phrased song about longing. All the protagonist "want[s] is something good, it gets harder every time." The love of his life keeps leaving, flying to Cleveland (one of the other reasons I love this song: he played it live when he came through Cleveland in '99, mentioning that it was one of four songs on the new album he called his "Ohio set"). I think the metaphor of a bird flying away, one that is not new, and that Adam himself has done before, is wonderfully executed here. The futility of seeing a bird rise into the night sky and having no way to stop it perfectly brings to mind the idea of a long-distance love leaving town.

The music itself has so much warmth to it that the song hardly sounds sad at all. The Crows love to do this, and Adam himself said he loves to juxtapose pretty music with harsh words, because most of the time people don't even listen to the lyrics. This record, like the two previous, was recorded in a mansion, different songs in different rooms. I'm not sure which room this was recorded in, but it has the more "padding" to it than any of the others. It has an analog feel that makes me think of a bedroom, or even more appropriately, a small living room with lots of soft furniture and lots of people. The harmonies on the song are better than any the Crows have done before or since, and I think that again adds to the overall warmth. Finally, the placement on the album after the desolate "Amy Hit the Atmosphere," and before the slightly less bleak "All My Friends," highlights the uplifting music, and increases the inkling of hope one can find in the lyrics.

So now on to my personal reason for loving this song. I had a long distance relationship with my wife, and the first time I was away from her was for about 6 weeks. When I was four days away from seeing her again I kept hearing this song over and over in my head (I wasn't actually able to listen to any music) and ever since then it has been my 4 days to go song (my 3 days to go song will also appear on this list eventually) when we are apart.

All I want is something good
It gets harder every time
She is leaving here tonight
Take a breath
Take your time
Spread your wings and rise
Make a mark upon the wall
Paint your face and pass the time
Close your eyes and she ascends
Hold your breath and ease your mind
Forty Thousand times
Time fades into the night
They descend and then they climb
Feathers falling through the night
Have you seen Ohio rise?
It has been four days and nights
All I want is something fine
It gets harder every time
She is sleeping far away
Take a breath
Take your time
Spread your wings and rise
Rise into the black Ohio skies

Counting Crows - Four Days (zShare)
Counting Crows (check out the download of them covering "Borderline" by Madonna)
Buy Counting Crows on iTunes

yeah yeah yeah's It's Blitz review

2009-03-17T11:27:00.002-07:00

Dear Yeah yeah yeah's,

FUCK YOU!

It's Blitz? what the hell is this dirvel? Seriouslly what happened to you guys. Where's mthe art star,date with the night, black tongue fierce rock power. Why are there keyboards and dance songs on this album? Why isn't karen O yelling at the top of her lungs?Why do you think you have to change? Why do you think you need to make mediocre pop trash.Why does your album IT'S BLITZ have no energy? Why the hell is the cover the most exciting part of this album?http://pitchfork.com/news/34603-yeah-yeah-yeahs-reveal-badass-iits-blitzi-cover/
I don't get it. You've lost me. I was a good fan. I bought your first ep and fever to tell before that maps video. I was there for you when Show your Bones kinda didn't work. I even pumped this new album up to my friends. You've made me sad. You've fallen to the gods of Mtv. I just can't follow you anymore. Enjoy your Spin cover article assholes....

Love,
One of your biggest fans
John 87

p.s. fuck you

well anyway this album sucks. I appreciate artists trying things out and evolving overtime. I love when bands do that, in fact i think it's necessary. What i hate is when bands cut away their 'edge' to make pop music. Fever to tell was pop music. The band was great in the loud scratchy guitar, paniced drums and karen o screaming like a siren. So over two albums they cut all that awya. Now it's soft electro dance punk and hushed vocals. Why? seriouslly what were they trying to do besides make more money and hit up the mainstream radio. There's no energy here,no catchy lyrics or fun songs. It's bland and blah. This album isn't the egg being squeezed by the random hand on the cover, it's the white wall behind it. so yeah don;t bother if you ask me. There's more then enough mediocre alterna bands out there.

My I-pod my other girlfriend...I send as much time with her as I do my real girlfriend...My Xbox

2009-03-17T09:49:00.003-07:00

So yeah I guess I've been on my own personal recession. Don't know why I haven't written much here ...it's been a month since I promised to post that mixtape...ha I break promises like I break hearts, by simply disapearing...that could have been funnier.

So I've spent the last month perfecting my lil ipod. I scrapped everything off it and just began putting things back on it one by one. It's kind of like the modern day album reorganising.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AQvOnDlql5g. So yea I just started going through my digital collection and scrapping all the stuff i really don't need. Really there's no need for anyone to have 35 lil wayne albums...yes there are more then 35 lil wayne albums. Anyway I learned a lot about myself...it was a growing experience....not really actually. I found out how big a pretentious music snob i am. Seriouslly who thinks that they need every single Sarah record single. Anyway I've got 68.3 gigs filled up now, all organised and with every album cover. I really enjoy the coverflow option on the new ipods. I think the album cover is an important aspect to all albums. It along with the album name sort of sets the inital tone before you even begin playing the music. So having those album covers available to flip through is a nice touch. Most of the time now i don't look up albums or artists I just sort of flip through till I find something I want to check out.

Now one of the major flaws I find with the new digital downloading era is the buy only one song from an album cause you can pay 99cents instead of 10 bucks. This really promotes the radio top 40 single format and sort of keeps down the little guys. I always kind of felt the arguement over illegal downloading was pushed so hard by huge record companies was because downloading really helpped a lot of tiny artists. I mean people refer to bands that are big on the bloggosphere now as myspace bands. Digital media is away of accessing an incredible amount of media very quickly and easily. Where before you had to access MTV and the radio to get new music now it's everywhere.Bands you'd never heard of are getting talked about without major label support. While I've been typing this I downloaded the new Alela Diane album, I'd never known about her if i hadn't gotten a recomendation from a blog about her great album the pirate gospel. Now she's got a review in Paste magazine and a slowly building career in the bloggosphere.

Unfortunatelly I can see the draw to the single format. I drive around most of the time with my ipod on shuffle and allow it to pump out a sort of radio station mix bag. It's nice to just get random songs, i mean nobody really can listen to 36.7 days worth of music and hear all the good stuff.

So here's a sort of compromise. Buy that single you like. bay Itunes your 99 cents. but then go and download the album somewhere else. Checkout what the artists do as a whole. I really think it's worth it to see what someone makes as a whole and not just as a part. It helps fuel creativity instead of just mundane pop fodder that is safe and sells well.

well that's my lil rant of the day.

Excuse me if I leak brains on your shirt-- my mind just got blown

2009-03-15T10:51:00.002-07:00

Wow. Just watch this:

Ok, if you liked that, how about 6 more tracks in the same style, different genres? Check out the site ThruYou for more amazing YouTube remixes by Kutiman. He's an Israeli artist (actually his last album was reviewed on Pitchfork and did pretty well - listen to the album streaming here) named Ophir Kutiel, and he spent 3 months working on the ThruYou project. I'm truly amazed by the quality of the work. If you head to his website and check out the credits for each video you will find the most banal of videos went into the masterpieces he has made. Trombone playing for a small group of people, complete with talking and silhouettes running across the screen, make for a YouTube video no one will ever see, but in Kutiman's deft hands it becomes the lazy drunken melody of a dub raggae song. I have heard DJ Shadow's name thrown out in comparison, and I also think of Girl Talk's work, and I think this is the both the climax of one movement (the YouTube generation's "look at me" videos) and the start of another (the collaboration over the internet is creating higher and higher quality output). Love it.

Eating Alone + Some Random Thoughts

2009-03-04T17:39:00.005-08:00

An osprey "eating alone"(Photo by Mike)

So I found this eclectic blog when I was looking for other "to hear before you die" lists called Eating Alone. It's this dude who makes music and also enjoys food. If he added wildlife to his list of things to blog about it would be too good to be true. Anyways, I made a comment and he decided to make a little spotlight on our blog: there was no point in the colon since I could have just made the word "blog" the link, but whatever. I know lately it's been just me, and before that just John87 and me, but Dan is finally getting settled in and is still excited about the blog and Drew still checks up once in awhile. It's totally true how we really are brought together by music in so many ways: we've been to concerts together, played rock band together, sang songs together, annoyed each other with music the others don't like, and on and on. Which brings me to part 2 of this post:

So my grandpa just died this past year. He was in his upper 70's I believe, and for most of my adult life he was wheelchair bound and a bit out of it. We would go visit and just watch the Indians play or just talk a bit, and I know my dad would go over and put on Big Band music and listen with him. I guess my grandpa really loved Big Band. So at our annual family Christmas party they played a cassette tape he had made for a party, and I was definitely a little confused, but from what I gather he threw a party yearly where there was a music challenge. He would spend weeks preparing the tape with snippets of a song and then the challenge was to guess the name and song. It was strange hearing his voice so strong and playful, because our conversations had been limited so much to just expecting a smile. It made me wonder if music affected him the way it affects me. I think my brothers and I are very similar in our love of music in a way that a lot of people just don't get. For instance, my wife just can't have music on all the time, and she doesn't listen to lyrics. I used to listen to a song 4, 5, or more, times in a row if I liked a particular part. If there is quiet I put on music. I think Drew and Dan are the same, although I'm not sure to what extent. And I think our dad has it, too. He once told me, when the song "I'm Your Captain" by Grand Funk Railroad came on, that he used to put it on repeat every night when he went to bed one summer. I remember I brought home my mp3 player and FM transmitter and he just about flipped: he thought it was the greatest thing since sliced bread. I told him I had Johnny Cash on it another time I visited and he borrowed it and had headphones on in the morning when I came downstairs, just listening as he laid on a chair in the living room. Is this genetic, like our bad tempers and our bursting laughter? Will I pass this almost compulsive love of music on to my kids or will they get my wife's passing enjoyment of it? Does it really matter to me? Yes. It does, because if my dad gets to have a relaxing end of his life I hope I can go over and watch the Tribe and listen to the Big Bands (Stones, Doors, Creedence) that he loves so much, and if I am so lucky to have my kids around me at the end of my life I could only hope for the same.

Music Review: The Tallest Man on Earth

2009-03-01T17:09:00.004-08:00

The Tallest Man on Earth: Shallow Grave
4 out of 5

Here's one I missed in 2008, and surely would have been one of my favorites of the year. I first read about The Tallest Man on Earth, AKA Kristian Matsson, a Swedish musician, in Paste, I believe. All I really remember about the article was the comparison to Bob Dylan, which of course seems a bit cliched, but they really pushed you to want to find out how much like Dylan he sounds. Well, I gotta say, he's pretty Dylanesque, although I honestly think his voice sounds more like John Prine, and his guitar work far surpasses both of those artists. Who he really reminds me of is Mason Jennings, because like Jennings' debut album, every song sounds like a favorite the first time. I think that is the mark of a great songwriter, and TMOE is that, for sure.

His voice is less than nothing special, but he is able to sing his simple, twisting melodies without much trouble, and his fingerpicked guitar marches along behind. I'm not going to lie, Ive listened to the album at least 5 or 6 times now, and I still haven't paid much attention to the lyrics, which is usually the first thing I do, but again, the lovely melodies and familiarity of each tune have made each song a winner. I especially like the opener, "I Won't Be Found," with its thrumbing guitar and TMOE's "huh's" annunciating the end of each line. It sounds like a lost classic, although I have almost no idea what it's supposed to be about. That song is followed by "Pistol Dreams," another beauty with just the guitar and simple melody. If there is a downside to the album, it would be that some of the songs that don't work instantly tend to slow down the breakneck pace of the hits. Overall, if you are a fan of simple folk I would highly recommend checking this one out.

Check out Aquarium Drunkard (great blog) for a few free songs.
Buy it on Amazon

Mike's 104 Songs to Hear Before You Die: Song #3

2009-02-25T21:01:00.008-08:00

Mmmm... random (Photo by Mike)

In the continuing feature of my favorite songs (Song #1 and #2), I can't think of a better song to do for the third installment, and the best part is it's the first one that popped up on my iPod:

They Might Be Giants - Number Three

Who: John and John of They Might Be Giants

What: Number Three, 88 seconds of pure, unadulterated fun

When: 1986 on their debut eponymous album. I have to thank John87 again for his musical education, as he forced the album Flood onto my brothers and myself back in about 1990, and then AGAIN introduced us to TMBG when Apollo 18 came out in 1992. But I probably first heard this particular song from my college roommate, Craig, who reinvigorated my love of the band.

Where: Sounds like somewhere in Georgia, but more likely Brooklyn

Why: I hadn't really considered how difficult it might be to convincingly explain some of my song choices. I mean, really, this song is just plain silly... and I guess that's what's so great about it. First of all, the premise is genius: this is the third song of a writer who only has two songs in him. The best part is that TMBG have gone on to make music for over 20 years, and just a few days ago won a Grammy for Best Children's Album. In fact, they used to have a local Brooklyn phone number you could call for a free new song, which they abandoned for a free song on a website until 2006 when they discontinued it. This is a band with no lack of songs.

The band showed their wit and sense of fun early on in their career, with sly phrases like "Now I'm in the middle like a bird without a beak," (a middle-finger reference). They also showed they wouldn't shy away from social commentary, with lines like: "A rich man once told me, 'Hey, life's a funny thing.' A poor man once told me that he can't afford to speak," as well as some lines about an aloof president who refers to the singer as "boy."

Finally, the hodown drums, jangly guitar, and countrified vocals seem built to make you dance. I find it impossible to keep myself from tapping my foot, if not full on dancing! And I really dislike country music, but this is obviously not your standard country music pop song. So give it a whirl, let me know if you have the same reactions.

They Might Be Giants - Number Three (zShare)

On a side note, I heard this great song by Weezer today, and I thought it very nicely summed up my stance on the importance of this list. I really hope everyone has a list of "Heart Songs." I would love to see others' lists, whether song by song or in whole. If you've got one just leave a comment and I will be sure to link to it or make it a post on our site.

They Might Be Giants
Buy TMBG on iTunes

Mike's 104 Songs to Hear Before You Die: Song #2

2009-02-23T19:30:00.010-08:00

A gate to another world (Photo by Mike)

So you know those Songs. The Songs that need to be spelled with a capital "S." The Songs that you couldn't live without, that define your life, your must have Songs. Maybe you don't and I'm crazy, but I have them. They are the songs that give me goosebumps, or make me instantly happy and need to jump around, or fully capture the depth of my melancholy.

I have over 13,000 songs on my iPod, with most of them rated, and only 104 are rated 5 stars. The system is not objective. These are not songs that necessarily have historical consequence, although some do, and some only do in the history of my life. They are not the most cutting edge, nor are they necessarily the best written or best played. They are, however, the songs that I consider to be the cream of the crop for my life. If you haven't, come up with a list of songs you consider to be must-haves.

So this is the first in a series of installments about my favorite songs. The title says "Song #2" because I already did a post about one of the songs, "Muzzle" by The Smashing Pumpkins. I will probably just put the list on random to pick which song to talk about in the future, but as I was listening today the song I'm about to talk about came on and I just felt compelled to start with it because I talked about a very similar (but not as good) song a couple days ago.

Sufjan Stevens - Vito's Ordination Song

Who: Sufjan Stevens, (who played over 20 different instruments on this album) with a few friends.

What: Vito's Ordination Song

When: 2003 on "Greetings from Michigan: The Great Lake State." I first heard the song soon after its release, thanks to John87 if I remember correctly.

Where: Michigan?

Why: The song itself has a beautiful calming pace, with the drums shuffling along, lazy trumpets, and plucking banjo building over the course of 7 minutes. At first listening the meaning of the lyrics may not be readily apparent, but knowing Sufjan Stevens it becomes clear that the words are about an all-loving, omnipotent God. Sufjan is singing words of comfort- a God who has always known you, is with you always, wears your clothes, "and your jacket, too." And the final touch is to let you know He has a plan for you. I can't think of a more simple way to convey trust in God than Stevens' words:

"Rest in my arms,
Sleep in my bed,
There's a design
To what I did and said."

He repeats them for over 3 minutes-- it's a mantra that fills you with a total sense of ease, relieves you of stress, lays you down in a bed made of trust. I think if you have a passing sense that there is a God, this song should be the first one you put on when things feel like they are falling apart. It's a reminder that the screw-ups and pitfalls are leading you somewhere: I hope it's true and I hope you believe it the way Sufjan does, the way I do.

I always knew you in your mother's arms
I have called your name
I've an idea placed in your mind to be a better man
I've made a crown for you; put it in your room
And when the bridegroom comes there will be noise
There will be glad and a perfect bed
And when you write a poem, I know the words
I know the sounds before you write it down
When you wear your clothes I wear them too
I wear your shoes and your jacket too
I always knew you in your mother's arms
I have called you son
I've made amends between father and son
Or if you haven't one, rest in my arms
Sleep in my bed; there's a design to what I did and said
Rest in my arms, sleep in my bed
There's a design to what I did and said

The Transfiguration

2009-02-22T16:12:00.004-08:00

(Photo by Mike)

Today in church we heard the reading from Gospel of Mark about the Transfiguration, so I had to pull out the great Sufjan Stevens song by the same name and share it. I love the fact that Stevens writes such great music that is not "Christian," but at the same time includes the strength of his faith so clearly. I still plan on making a playlist of current music that is spiritual but not written by "Christian music" artists. I find songs about God by Beck and Iron & Wine to be much more powerful than ones by DC Talk or Audio Adrenaline. I guess less is more sometimes. Lyrics and song are below:

The Transfiguration - Sufjan Stevens

"When he took the three disciples
to the mountainside to pray,
his countenance was modified, his clothing was aflame.
Two men appeared: Moses and Elijah came;
they were at his side.
The prophecy, the legislation spoke of whenever he would die.

Then there came a word
of what he should accomplish on the day.
Then Peter spoke, to make of them a tabernacle place.
A cloud appeared in glory as an accolade.
They fell on the ground.
A voice arrived, the voice of God,
the face of God, covered in a cloud.

What he said to them,
the voice of God: the most beloved son.
Consider what he says to you, consider what's to come.
The prophecy was put to death,
was put to death, and so will the Son.
And keep your word, disguise the vision till the time has come.

Lost in the cloud, a voice: Have no fear! We draw near!
Lost in the cloud, a sign: Son of man! Turn your ear!
Lost in the cloud, a voice: Lamb of God! We draw near!
Lost in the cloud, a sign: Son of man! Son of God!"

Jonathan Johansson

2009-02-21T10:52:00.007-08:00

So I recently found a blog titled The Lemur Blog which so far has a lot of electronic music that I am definitely not familiar with, but I really dig some of it, including this guy Jonathan Johansson. This is definitely music that John87 and Dan, and probably even Drew, would be more into than I am, but it is very chill and '80s and the guy's definitely got talent. It makes me feel like being in some sort of driving montage filmed in the 80's. So I checked out his site and it's all in Swedish, but whatever, he has a playlist on the side there and you can listen to his stuff. And as The Lemur points out I think the two best tracks are "All Vill Ha Hela Varlden" (great cover of Tears for Fears "Everybody Wants to Rule the World) and "Sag Vad Ni Vill." Both tracks can be found at the links below (again, thanks to The Lemur Blog). Enjoy. Also keep an eye on the Lemur Blog for translation of the songs into English. I hope to be posting more this week about a couple other albums I have been wearing out (see "Blasting Out Our Doors" on the right pane for a hint) that I think you might really like. Also hope to start hearing more music from 2009 even though I am still catching up on what I missed in '08.

EDIT: Here's the translation

Jonathan Johansson - All Vill Ha Hela Varlden
Jonathon Johansson - Sag Vad Ni Vill

Buy It

Challenge - Response

2009-02-15T10:48:00.004-08:00

(Photo by Mike)

So if you haven't read John87's post on February 14th, skip down to that before you continue reading-- this is a response to his challenge.

So I listened to "Per Second Second," and my initial one-word reactions were: intense, blunt, and incomplete. I also felt the song was fine, but not really a winner-- it felt like a demo. Then I pulled up the full album and started listening, and I realized before I even got to the song in question that some of the things I mentioned would help it fit right in with the album. The whole album has a little bit of a demo feel, just because all the songs are so thick, although it is interesting that I call it a demo sound, since the album took four years to record. The songs all seem to build and decline into one another-- there isn't a constant ramp throughout the whole album, but the songs just seem to build off one another. By the time you get to "Per Second Second," the immediacy of the song is really what the album needed. I still think the song is just ok, but I think I understand its purpose when I hear it as part of the whole album.

I don't think this theory is true with many albums, though. Some albums are greater than the sum of their parts; "Smile" by Brian Wilson, "A Grand Don't Come for Free" by the Streets, etc. But there are still a lot of albums, I think, that you could take a song and it stands well on its own. It's interesting, though, especially since John and I are very big on listening to full albums. I think that for me a lot of albums work better then songs mostly because I am so attached to the albums.

Yeah i totally know...

2009-02-14T15:59:00.003-08:00

Ok so i haven't written on here at all in February. Sadness... I klnow i need to finish up my awsome mixtape and post it. I do have a good excuse. Mike actually used several of the songs I wanted so I did the cheap bastard approach and reorganised everything. Sorry. I promise I will have the thing posted on Monday...why not today or tomorrow??? I just don't have time leave me a loan you whip wielding fat sweaty bastard.

Anyway I had an experiment I wanted to try. Something wierd and new. Get as many people as you want involved it's not going to take much more then a little bit of thought. I'd like to see how people react to a certain song removed from it's specific place in an album. Then see how the ideas and opinions about the song change when added to the whole album and then how it all gets melded together when you really know the album band and history.

So the song I wanted to try this out on is Per Second Second by the Wrens of their album Meadowlands. I picked this band album and song because it's a great album that doesn't have a whole lot of attention thrown to it. Anyway what I'd like you the singular person I am writting to to do is to listen to the song by itself a couple of times. Write down your reactions to it. What do you like or don't like about it. Then after you kind of 'know' the song listen to the whole album. After you listen to the whole album do a little research on the album. See what others say about it. I just want to see how you react to something over time. It's a great great album atleast so your only gaining good music in the process.

Not sure what I hope to see from all of this but it could be interesting. Anyway times up...Again I promise the mixtape by Monday.

Five by Five with The Lonely Forest

2009-02-13T09:38:00.004-08:00

Ok, a new segment here I'm gonna call 5x5. I ask 5 questions that are in the form of a Top 5 list. The first installment is with Anacortes, WA band The Lonely Forest. I included their song "We Sing In Time" from their forthcoming album ("We Sing the Body Electric, out on April 21st) in my top songs of 2008. I think there is a good chance the song could end up on your top list this year once you hear it. So here is the 5x5 with lead singer, guitarist and keyboardist John Van Deusen. Check out their older stuff on iTunes, check out the new album in April, and if you are local, check them out in 2 weeks, February 28th, playing in Burlington, WA, and following that, dates in Spokane.

* What were your five favorite albums in 2008?

1) Nature's Got Away - KARL BLAU
2) Vampire Weekend - VAMPIRE WEEKEND
3) Lucky - NADA SURF
4) Alopecia -WHY?
5) The Globes EP - THE GLOBES

* What five artists are putting out music in 2009 that you are
looking forward to (excluding your own)?

The Oregon Donor
The Globes
The Mission Orange
United State of Electronica
David Bazan

* Where are your five favorite places to eat North of Seattle?

Cafe Adrift - Anacortes, WA
Village Pizza - Anacortes, WA
Storks - Anacortes, WA
The Co-op - Mt. Vernon, WA
Boundary Bay - Bellingham, WA

* What are your top five sci-fi books/movies (in honor of We Sing the Body Electric)?

The Martian Chronicles - Ray Bradbury
Dune - Frank Herbert
A Wizard of Earthsea - Ursula K. Le Guin
The Space Trilogy - C.S. Lewis
A Journey to the Center of the Earth - Jules Verne

* Which five world cities would you love to perform in?

Toronto
London
Berlin
Moscow
Tokyo

iTunes
MySpace
Free Solo John Van Deusen Album
Burning Buildings Recordings

Lil' Wayne Reads Top Ten on Letterman

2009-02-09T11:49:00.001-08:00

This is great. Nothing more to say.

Lil' Wayne presents Letterman's Top 10 List
Uploaded by yardie4lifever2

Mixtape Mania! Part 1: Relationship Double Mixtape

2009-02-08T09:18:00.012-08:00

(Photo by Mike)

Alright, well at least I hope there's gonna be some mania! John 87 and I should both be posting today, and if you have a mixtape entry for a relationship from first meeting to tragic end, throw it up here, either on the site or in the comments section. The more the merrier. So I had a lot of different ideas:chronological songs-- starting with Beatles and Beach Boys for the nicer stuff, ending with newer stuff for the tragedy; not making it a breakup, but rather just dying of old age; what I finally went with was a boy/girl/duet sorta thing. I have less girl songs than boy songs, since as John87 pointed out, my brothers and I are sort of sexist in our musical tastes I guess. I think songs from a man perspective just click better with me, so they are more prominent in this mix, but I tried to stick to the theme, as well as highlight some of the songs that move me most. And yes, there is a Barenaked Ladies song on here. Try to keep an open mind-- I saw a televised concert where he did this song and he was litteraly crying during the song. The screaming is more than enough to warrent the addition. Oh, and the mixtape playlist is in multiple parts because not every song was on imeem or grooveshark, so I had to combine.

Mixtape 1_1

Act 1, The Courtship:
1. Mugison - Mugiboogie: Man - Sees woman, acts cool
2. Leona Naess - Calling: Woman - Has high hopes already
3. Jens Lekman - Kanske Ar Jag Kar i Dig: Man - Loses cool because he really likes woman
4. Bjork - Joga: Woman - Man makes her feel very intense
5. Mason Jennings - Nothing: Man - Still trying hard to win her over

6. Stars - What I'm Trying to Say: Duet - Confession of love
End Act 1
Act 2, Young Love
7. They Might Be Giants - Another First Kiss: Man - Enjoys the newness of relationship
8. Feist - Mushaboom: Woman - Dreaming of the future
9. Ben Folds - The Luckiest: Man - Deep in true love
10. Ingrid Michaelson - Die Alone: Woman - Intense need for man
11. Smashing Pumpkins - In the Arms of Sleep: Man - Intense need for woman
End Act 2

Mixtape 1_3

Act 3, Stale Love
12. Kathleen Edwards - Sure as Shit: Woman - Faded love
13. Mike Doughty - The Only Answer: Man - Feels woman, and love, fading
14. Sia - Academia: Woman - Feels desperate for man, who is not desperate for her
15. Counting Crows - Anna Begins: Man - Doubts love, feels woman disappearing
16. Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova - Falling Slowly: Duet - Last gasp to keep trying
17. Ryan Adams - How Do You Keep Love Alive?: Man - Trying to keep love alive
18. Rilo Kiley - Silver Lining: Woman - Letting love go
19. Beck - Lost Cause: Man - Losing hope
20. Ben Folds w. Regina Spektor - You Don't Know Me: Duet - Realizing maybe they don't have it
21. The Postal Service - Nothing Better: Duet - It's over
End Act 3

Act 4, The Fallout
22. Barenaked Ladies - Break Your Heart: Man - Thought he was over her, finds out he isn't
23. Fiona Apple - Parting Gift: Woman - Denial she was ever in love
24. The Streets - Dry Your Eyes: Man - Trying to accept end
25. Angus and Julia Stone - Sadder Than You: Woman - Realizes she misses him
26. Elliott Smith - Everything Reminds Me of Her: Man - Obsessing over woman

Mixtape 1_5

27. Leona Naess - Don't Use My Broken Heart: Woman - Coming to terms
28. The Avett Brothers - Pretty Girl From Chile: Man - More thinking he's fine, finds out she's fine, realizes he's not fine
29. Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Bang: Woman - Gets nasty
30. The Airborne Toxic Event - Sometime Around Midnight: Man - Can't shake her even as time goes on
End

Nelie Mckay will you marry me....or atleast never stop making music.

2009-01-31T17:26:00.003-08:00

Ok first off my mixtape is awsome. I'm just finishing up the song placement. It's totally got a creepy stalker feel. That probablly comes from playing Braid relentlessly for the last few weeks....i still haven't finished that devil game. Anyway I'm gonna say let's try and post our mixes by next sunday the....i think 7th or 8th. Then we can like review the tapes and post our reviews in the next week after that.

Ok so I'm reviewing another album from last year.By last year I mean 2 years ago. I bought the album a year ago and never really listened to it till recentlly. By recentlly I mean like an hour or so ago...Just kidding I've given this a lot of thought over the last few days.

Nellie Mckay is back ladies and gentleman. Ok maybe none of you listen to her. Well shame on you. Get away from me is a PHENOMENAL pop gem. It came out in 2004 and still has a lot of repeat in my ears. I actually bought the re-release that came out like 2 years ago. Anyway this girl is fucking hillarious. She's like a one girl Monty python singalong. Her newest/2 year old album Obligatory Villagers is like a classical musical. Like if you close your eyes you can kinda make out a story...missing the chatting in between songs. Nellie is a really supberb aranger. The songs really feel like classic 50's style musical. I can see guys in navy costumes and girls with huge hair and red ribbons dancing across the stage. Her lyrics are her sharpest ever. I agree with allmusic.com it takes a few listens to really catch on to what she's going on about. This is a giant step between albums. Pretty little head her second album had a few phenomenal songs but was really bloated and had some kinda miss steps. Kinda like melloncollie accept without the bonus of cultural importance. But Obligatory Villagers is a fun intelegent well written romp. Mckay is a really talented muscian and artist. Hope she keeps her shit up.

PS THAT"S A BOAT

\ /
\/

Mixtapes

2009-01-31T14:47:00.006-08:00

(Photo by Mike)

Ok Yonny, I will see your mixtape challenge-- as ive mentioned, my post was deleted due to mp3s posted on it, so listen.grooveshark.com or imeem.com are probably our best shots for posting the playlist. With both of them you can add your own songs to the site if they arent there. What do you think, a week? Hopefully I could do a mixtape by then. I have also been working on a post about 5-star songs. I have 13,000 mp3s or so, with about half of them rated (John knows how my family is-- Drew with his GLB and video game drafting and me with my bird lists-- we are organizers. I love rating my music) and much of what hasnt been rated yet is stuff I don't really listen to much or is my wife's-- and I have only 101 5-star songs. These are the songs you can't live without. To hear them is to change the flow of your day. So I would love to do a post with covers of my 5 star songs, but most of them don't have covers. So I am trying to find some. OK, still super busy all the time, but in and out of love mixtape challenge #1 is on. Drew, Dan? You guys in? That goes for anyone else out there, too. Just post your list in the comments section on this post or wait til ours come out on Sunday and post then. Mixtape Sunday! Just to recap the theme-- Relationship from meeting to tragic end-- can be a double tape due to the heaviness of the subject, and because John87 already did it.

Mixtape,tape worms and M83 and the Walkmen on Conan o'brien

2009-01-28T10:44:00.003-08:00

So i have a wierd relationship with conan o'brien. I love him. Desperatelly. I have since highschool. H made it ok to be a nerdy white kid. Well not all right i just thought hey maybe there's a way to become famous because of it. ANyway me and my friend Aaron always said we'd run out to L.A. one day and make our own conanesque talk show. He'd be the lanky uber nerd and I'd be the andy ricter side kick. Well those dreams faded and Aaron is one of my least favorite people on the face of the earth. So i fell out with conan...one of those wierd association things yer brain does. Well recentlly i got back in to mr. CO. And man two days in a row he has had great musical guests. He always has had great music taste. Great bands that only get tv exposue on his show, the max weinberg 7, his own songs...Obrien is a nerdy indie kid.

Anyway the two performances were by The Walkmen and M83. Try and look them up on the olde you tube . I was really impressed by both these bands. Late night talkshows have got to be hard for musicians. You only get one song, about 5 minutes, in front of an audience that is sitting down and not really even there to see you. Both of these bands really knocked it out of the park. I'm amazed at the walkmen's vocalists. He has one of the best howling screams maybe ever and he's really great at just going from scream to sing in the blink of an eye. M83 really played the shit out of Kim and Jesssie. This was one of my favorite songs and albums from last year. M83 have a very electronic sound, heavy (atleast on this album) in 80's synth. To see them pull this song off live and so well was just another notch in a talented bands bedstand.They were so restrained and really seemed to play perfectly together. Also they have some amazing equipment. Really wanna see those guys live.

Anyway, mike has yet to come up with a mix tape idea. I've been carefully crafting a sort of story arch double album mixtape. Yeah complex shit don't look at it directlly. But it's gonna be a relationship going from meeting someone to the eventual tragic break up. I got this from my little ipod shuffle experiment, which went on for about a week and 1100+ songs before my sis captured the pod and stared playing ryan adams. 99% of songs on my ipod and probablly everyones is about either being in or falling out of love. So I'm taking some of my favorites and editing them into a sort of concept album....so if you wanna step up to the plate and try to best me go for it.I'll try and finish this up after super bowl sunday (go cardinals fuck steelers).

That's it. Oh I don't know how to edit this web page, i.e posting comments and changing what it is that's 'blowing out my speakers'. I'm dumb like that.

The good,bad and crazy of the art of ipod shuffling

2009-01-23T15:50:00.002-08:00

Ok so I've championed the art of the album as a whole more then once on this here website. And I stick by my belief that now one can truly be considered an artist in the field of music without being able to create an album...elvis i'm looking at you buddy( on a side note one of the best lines ever in a song ever is from Public Enemy: Elvis might of been a hero to some but he doesn't mean shit to me...hells yeah.). Anyway lately, and especially in the morning while driving I have had the serious problem of trying to decide what music to listen to while doing said driving. So I've been doing the ole I pod shuffle. Taking all 16772 songs on my lil juke box and mixing them together.

Today alone I've poured through 283 songs...not that i've listened to them all, i skip a lot....Let me pause here and say that I've come to realise as much as I love the man there is no reason for anyone, let a lone a lame suburbanite as myself to have 28 lil' wayne albums...4 full albums and like 2 more albums of his best songs....plus everything he's ever done on anyone elses records is enough...But the really cool thing is I'm listening to a lot of stuff I wouldn't normally get around to listening to...I'm listening to soul coughing right now and loving it, that only ever happens when I'm around mike.Now It's bring da ruckus by wu-tang clan."bring tha bring tha mutha fuckin ruckus'' still the best opening to a hip hop album maybe ever and i'm sure someone could argue one of the best hip hop albums ever. But there we go I'm thinking and talking and enjoying music i usually just pass over.

The thing is we live in an era of music unlike any other before us. There is an infinite amount of content at the fingertips of any who reach for it. My parents talk about having like a dozen LP back in their highschool and college days, and my parent are pretty music savy: bowie,eno,queen,csny, niel young...they like good stuff and like it a lot. Can you imagine only having 12 records....I can't imagine going a year without getting 12 new albums. I'm obtaining through questionable paths 8 albums right now.(now i got pahses and stages by willie nelson playing, see this is fun). Anyway there is so much you can have at your fingertips. I have about 1400 albums on the ole ipod. 1400!!! that's a lot even by the amount that i digest daily. so of course there are things that are being pushed to the side.This tends to make songs and music in general less important. I mean in reality there are probablly 12 albums i could name that are like the ultimate of ultimate of importance to me and that literaly have attached themselves to my soul.oooh there's an article, john's big ones and why they are so...strangely enough me and my mom share one of these intense album connections and we will never listen to that album at the same time....try to guess what album it is and if you get it right you get 80 indie points 600 friend points and a cookie.

So back to the point, maybe there isn't one...there usually isn't one, like a Fiery Furnace song...(1917 off the FF's blueberry boat album is in my ears). We have so much music floating around us just there for the taking. So what do we choose to listen to. Does that make each song, each album more or less important. When you pick to listen to A over B are you saying A is better because it's getting that precious air time in between your ears. What does that say about you...for me I'm a lot more country and a much bigger pussie then any of you can imagine...shhhhh. ('there were rumors he was into field hockey players'....ok 1000 indie points if you can tell me what that little opening tangent is from, hint: it's spoken in the studio before the song starts and it's a girl bass player saying it)

One of my favorite things about this little shuffle effect is the mixed up memories that come a long with the music. I never realised how one song can send me spining on a daydreamic tangent. I was thinking about tennis class in bisbee arizona and my old freind nigel for the first time in like 5 years because of a beck song i hadn't heard in just about as long. (now i'm groovin to Be thankful for what you got by Massive attack, and thinking about katie melocik my ex-friend aaron's cool sister, who introduced me to this band, and the art of smoking bannana peels). I've just been in this wierd state all day thinking about all these personal connections that specific songs that randomly come up on shuffle have on my life. It's like this wierd dream state, the people at the coffee shop must have thought i was really high, just stairing off into space smilling and giggling to myself...wierdo.

Here's the problem, and especially for me. Music is an addiction to some. Obviouslly i have a pretty bad case. Listening to music like this just juices me up. I've now started a list of things I want to listen to again, things i want to share, things i want to blog about, songs i need to download. I mean it's totally absorbing. To the point where real and important things in life, like watching battle star galactica are going to be possed over so that i can feed the addiction. I mean I've added 11 albums to my dl list since i started this little blog. Oi i am sick. And now I've written a lot and have really no clear point , thesis or agruement. See blogging is like a kloisterman novel...it's just rambled barely coehisive thought based around cultural events. And yes let's end with that reference and critisism...(oh and i'm ending with 'If not now then When' by the Books...and if you have never listened to the albums Lemon of pink or Lost and Safe by the books you would do yourself a favor and mind meld with that beautiful shit.)

I've got 4 minutes before my character in WoW lands in Marshal's refuge so let me tell you why the rock hall sucks...

2009-01-19T14:36:00.002-08:00

The Rock and roll hall of fame is a museum about music....That should be the first warning to everyone. The second warning sign is that the rock and roll hall of fame is in Cleveland Ohio. Yeah I love this city as every other miserable brainwashed browns fan, but come on..... really? I mean they don't even hold the awards ceremonies here....ok this year they are and they are gonna be lame.

There's lots of reasons why the concept itself of a rock and roll hall fame is just stupid. What is rock and roll? Who decides what is considered rock and roll. Apparentlly Grand Master Flash and Wanda Jackson are similar. Also the people who get inducted are so steralised and uncontrovertial....Black Sabath got passed up i believe 5 times...black sabbath the band that created and perfected a modern staple in pop music Heavy Metal don't get imediate recognition. And yeah I'd like to nominate some people well let's just say Sonic Youth was up for induction in 2007 and they still aren't in....lame

Ok besides tangents on why the nomination process is lame the museum itself is ridiculouslly boring. It's a museum to rock and roll....i already said that...but take a second and think about that. A museum to the most explosive performers in human art that we have....and there's a museum to it. with things hanging on the wall, and not even good shit that leads to insight of the artistic mind, it's just junk that got throw on a wall....jimi hendrix's drawings from when he was 12 about the USC football team....yeah i don't care....his mixer was kinda cool. I mean there were tvs with like 5 minute repeating clips about different eras, but they were all the generalized thoughts sort of redigested. I mean we all know that there were hippies in san fransisco fighting "the man" and doing lots of drugs. But like where did that start from. Where did lsd come from, who were the originators of the san fransisco sound, where were the cool places to go? I mean there were books there documenting all of that, but it was behind glass.I mean i learn more from watching fucking VH1 then i did at the museum i payed 22 dolars to get into.

I guessone thing that makes me so mad is that people are sooooooo ignorant about music. How pop music affects us all day everyday. You hear one song everyday in some form or another. I just think that if people became more informed about what they were listening to they might make better choices, look deeper into the art form they are so involved in and actually take something back more then a simple smile on their face. There's alot more then the music in your ears. There's the thoughts the lyrics the vast pyramid of history behind influences and sounds. How did we get here? What is this artists saying about the past present future? Do they have anything to say at all? Here's a museum dedicated to this great art form and most of the space is taken up by cars these people used to drive and dummies wearing stage outfits. And all the clothes and cars are nice pieces from the high points of the artists careers. Where's the ast bottle of jack that janis joplin drank. Where's the tshirt and jeans jon bonom puked himself to death in?Where's the outfit madonna wore when she walked into sire records off the street and demanded a record deal? where's that cool shit. The history laid out in away that leads to insight and thought. Not a giant white room with 25 pictures that represents the history of the African American influence in rock....and sorry danny but what the fuck was whitney houston doing in there.

Anyway this is what is wrong with music. Well it's a symptom of the whole. We can just listen and not think about it. We can have all the young kids get shit cramed down their throats for half their lives until they just don't have the energy to look up something genuinelly cool.I mean brittnay spears has had her career resurected more then once....why.? Because nobody cares that she makes terrible trite music with no heart. I mean she could have made some phenomenal music, the bitch has been through a lot, instead you get blackout and circus. Yeahy. And she will probablly be in the roc hall one day...sigh. I have to agree with Jonny Rotten who when asked why he and his band mates weren't going to accept the nomination to the hall " it's a piss stain"

Dar Williams Mix for Anne

2009-01-19T09:51:00.000-08:00

For Anne's Open House Background Music

Mike's Best Songs of 2008

2009-01-13T04:53:00.004-08:00

Well I already posted it once, but Blogger deleted it because I tried to share some of the mp3s. Anyways, here is my list, minus a couple songs that weren't on Grooveshark. I tried only 1 song per artist, but there were 2 amazing Drive-By Truckers songs this year and I had to include them both, "Two Daughters and a Wife" and "That Man I Shot" were tied for number 3. Also not showing on the playlist, "We Sing in Time" by The Lonely Forest. Technically the album comes out this April, so you can use it on your list at the end of this year-- I bet it'll be considered. Check them out on myspace

I'm just gonna keepem comming New Ideas and New music 2009

2009-01-10T00:12:00.003-08:00

Ok so I like mike's idea of a mixtape contest...I'll let you come up with the rules on that one Mike.

I also think we should try to get more people writing on here. I'm gonna talk to a couple of friends and see if they wanna start making posts...the more the merrier I think, then we can have actual bloggy type suggestions and what not. Danny you mentioned a friend of yours who was into the same stuff as me, try to get her around to the idea.

I also thought we could have a little music book club sort of thing. Pick an album every week or so...everyone get it, listen to it and write a review and discuss. could be interesting. Just don't want everyone throwing down big bucks...we might wanna pick some back channels to discuss ways to get the music spread around wink wink nudge nudge.

Ok so New music for the year I'm looking forward to this year...

A.c. Newman- Lead singer of the New pornographers, he's never put out anything i didn't like

Yeah Yeah Yeahs- they said they were taking a big break and going to the studio in august so i can only assume they're gonna follow up Show your Bones...it's been like 4 years.

Belle and Sebastian- They should put something out. They have a steady stream of eps rare material and what not...but i heard rumblings they were gonna put something out soon.

Decemberists- Yeah a full rock opera by these guys. They put out some good songs last year on the Bridesmaids eps. But I love their full albums.

Radiohead- believe it or not they are already back in the studio. Hail to the Thief took them 2 weeks to record so maybe we can get something new from them this year...that would be a long stretch though.

Arcade Fire- I really hope they get over the sophmore slump. Really neon bible was just meh compared to Funeral which was spectacular.

Joanna newsom- I'm just hopping and preying here. I just want to see her live again. Seriouslly she is the most angelic person, there's this white glow that emulates from her hands to her magical harp.

Fiona Apple- I wrote the last post about her after i got word that she had new material ready to go. Not sure the entire truth or when to expect this, but i always like her work.

Jay-z- Blue print 3. Blueprint 1 andAmerican Gangster was great, but kingdom come and Blueprint 2 sucked....let's hope it's the former on the 3rd blue print.

Andrew Bird - can't remember what the name is but his new album is comming out in like a week or two. Should be good, he's always consistent.

Metric- Emily haines said there was for sure gonna be a new metric album this year. Probablly by the spring time. So yeahy. In the mean time check out the mainstream ep that came out this year, It was pretty damn good.

Sarah Harmer- She's one of my favorites ever and it's been way to long for someone who has their own damn studio to put out new material. So yeah do it already.I have written you many love letters and sent you many small dead animals....you owe me.

I'd like to see a new shins album out this year, but i doubt that will happen.

Oh yeah Sufjan Stevens should finally put out his next states album this year. Everyone thinks it's gonna be calfornia. I'm gonna roll the dice and say he goes for Alaska. Come on he could write like 8 songs about Sarah Palin and the caribou and the pipeline and eskimos and snow and fish and polar bears...well if he doesn't write it then I am.

Ok well that's all people I'm hopping for in 2009. Feel free to add anything you might be lookin forward to.

Beck+Scientology=suck and XTC+Skylarking= yeahy happy

2009-01-09T23:37:00.005-08:00

Yeah I'm on a role here. I seriouslly am just going to continue to write posts about things I think are important in music. I doubt there's many people reading these so...here you go Mike this is about XTC a really great band and their magnum opus Skylarking. This is also about album construction and Beck being an idiot scientologist.

Ok so if I haven't made it known yet, I love the album as a format. I gues what this means to me is that when a band or artist or monster under the bed puts out a cd I really wanna hear a whole product. Not just one song then the next with no connection or flowing theme. This doesn't mean all the songs have to continually work into one another. Just that they should have the same sort of feel and emotion behind them. An album should be a snapshot of the artist during the time they made it. A sure sign once great artist have fallen apart is when they force music to come out and their albums sort of start sounding confusing...I'm looking at you Beck (i get it your a crazy scientologist that's no excuse for the last three albums you've put out....Modern Guilt, yeah i liked it better when it was called mutations and it didn't suck and also...cut your hair)

Ok so at some point I'm gonna mention XTC. XTC is this great british band. I got into themonly after they'd broken up and gotten back together. They had one of those rare comeback albums that was both high quality and not a retread on their old material....It was called Apple Venus vol 1....if you check the band out check out bothe these albums their both stellar stuff. Anyway XTC are one of those hidden gems we probablly would have all been into if we were born a decade earlier and in England....there's a lot of those.

So yeah Skylarking is an excellent example of an album that's got a theme and organised sound to it. The sort of all around theme is nature and the freedom of running about in the english country side...you should all try it one day....There's birds chirping, songs about rolling in the grass and even in the downer songs the melodies keep the feel light and upbeat. Todd Rudgren produced this album, look him up he's important, and he reallt pulled XTC out of their new wave tendencies and moved them into more melodic and organic sounds.

One of my favorite things is how the two writers (Andy Partridge and Colin Moulding) hit on so many varied topics. On the same album you've got songs about making love in the countryside, providing for a new family, getting married and children asking god if these there and if he is when he's going to save him. It's the melodies and pop arangements that keep everything together. Rudgren said he struggled a long time in trying to order and arange the songs on the album so that they would sound more coehsive. Like making a mixtape that's a real mix tape and not just songs thrown together. In fact when I originally bought this album I thought it was a best of collection of their early work. It wasn't until I looked at the liner notes did i realise it was a single album.

So yeah XTC's Skylarking is a great example of an album that the band worked to combine theme, melody, tone and song placement to create a full album.You should check it out at your local library...or no, just go download it on Itunes.Or buy the actual cd...if people do that still...losers. But make sure you get the version with Dear God on it. It's the best song on the album and was originally a bside. But strangely enough a song about god with a child talking through half of it was a huge hit in england. So they took out one song and put on Dear God.I know those people are wierd right.Or you could be totally cool like me and get the album and the extra song.I am awesome...

EDIT BY MIKE:
Skylarking

So here's one for the other guys and their irational fear of female singers

2009-01-08T16:59:00.003-08:00

Ok I'm wired, bored and have about 60mg of different legal chemicals pumping through my body...let's talk about Fiona Apple. Or more directly let's talk about her album Extrordinary Machine. It's a rare case and not many people paid attention to it. But they should have, there's lots of great songs on this anomally.

What's so different about this album is that there are two versions of this cd. The Jon Brion produced version that got scratched at the last moment and the actual album that got released. All but one of the songs are the same...in the sense of lyrical content and structure, but the executions are dramaticlly different.

A little background information. Jon Brion is a producer, composer, movie scorer guy. He does a lot of great work, most notably Eternal Sunshine for the Spotless mind. He's also been the producer on some of your favorite works by the Eels, Rufus Wainwright and I'm not positive but i think a couple of things Beck did. Anyway he has a total sound of his own and you, after listening to some of his work, pick out a track that he's worked on. There's this heavy string dominated sort of chugging orchestral feel to it. On Extrordinary Machine the orchestra swirls in and out all over the place. They dominate some of the songs and in some places it sounds like the singer and the background music are fighting for the dominante presence on each song. This really works for most of the songs. Especially "Not about Love" "Get Him Back" and "Not about Love". In these songs the fighting back and forth emphasises the anger, confusion and just raw emotion of the songs. She really seems to be standing on stage and the music is taking the place of whoever these songs are directed at....I'm looking at you Paul Thomas Anderson, look him up.

Anyway rambling on...So yeah Brion and Apple put together almost the entire album before the record label came down and said they didn't want to release it because there weren't any singles on it....aka what happened to Yankee Foxtrot Hotel by Wilco...So Apple took the time to go over the songs again. She decided she didn't really like all the mixes and that Brion had really taken the songs in a direction she wasn't pleased with. So in walks Mike Elizondo, who is....you guessed it Dr. Dre's protegee. Yes that's right Dr. Dre and Fiona Apple. Well it's not exactlly that. What Elizondo did was strip down the songs and put the vocals first on the tracks that needed it. What came out was really great sounding more Top 40 friendlly album. Which isn't really a bad thing, not that this album sold, I'm sure no one reading this has heard it.

Ok so what's the point of my jib jabbing to a bunch of people who don't exist. Well it's this. Producers matter. They change the whole direction of sound. They translate the bands ideas and live sounds into something formated and constucted. Radiohead call Nigel Godwritch (SP?) their th member( he's produced all their good albums). ruined the strokes and Regina Spektor in one year...I fucking hate that guy. So when you see one of your favorite bands has a new album comming out, check out who's producing it. Or go through your cd collection/scroll through your Ipod and check out who produced some of your favorite albums. You might have a couple producers pop up over and over again, maybe check out some of the work they did with bands you don't know. You might be pleasentlly surprised..... Ok it's football time....football football...so yeah have fun, write some comments so that we know someone is reading this shit. I talk to myself at night for hours, don't need to spend time writing to no one as well...assholes. Just kidding I love you fuckers.ut not enough to check my spelling or grammar.

Animal Collective's Merriweather Post Pavillion...a review...yes i like it

2009-01-08T16:15:00.004-08:00

Ok I'm gonna first come clean and say I used to hate Animal Collective. Hate. I hated Sung Tongs. I thought it was annoying and couldn't understand why everyone was not only talking about it ,but talking about how much they loved it. So there I don't always know what I'm talking about. I don't really love Sung Tongs now, but I like it enough and enjoy individual songs mor ethen the whole album.

Like most things in music that I start out hating I now Fucking love Animal Collective. I went out and bought the vinyl version of MerriWeather Post Pavillion on tuesday after I had downloaded the album...and i don't have my record player at my house....or a job to afford it. Strawberry Jam and seeing them live was what did it for me. I may not have described to everyone reading this just how incredible it was to see them live in San Fransisco, but it was my favorite concert ever and it literally rearanged my brain chemistry....everytime I hear a song they performed that night I flash back and just smile dumbly.Whenever I want to get in a good mood I throw on strawberry Jam and wallah insta happiness.

Now I open with my initial hat for Sung Tongs because admitadelly Animal Collective isn't for everyone. I played it for my mom today and she politelly gave it 3 songs before asking to play actual music. This isn't your average pop album, the song structures are not well...they aren't really there and the lyrics don't dip deep into storytelling or charecterization or really any normal themes in modern music. What is here is a sort of dreamy ocean of emotion...good emotions. Happiness joy smiles and grins and kisses on cheeks thrown into blenders and then pieced together again.

This is the Collective's (Panda Bear,Geologist and Avey Tare... Deakon isn't on this album) pop album if you will, and it's much more "listenable" to the average "listener". The album is a cullmination of all the bands earlier works including their side and solo projects...Panda Bear's Person Pitch in particular is dominating here... It's like they sat down, looked at their entire discography and pieced together all the pieces that work. Or more likely they took all the songs that they loved playing live and how they loved plaing them and used that as a template for the new album. In interviews the band has called this their Soul album, meaning the bands true soul comming through for the first time. And yeah i can feel that.For the first time they don't sound like they're emulating the music they use to like but instead really fine tunning their sound to be the definitive Animal Collective sound.

I could talk about individual songs or lyrics, but no...this is an album.It flows together as a whole. Much like a live set these songs seem to tie into one another perfectlly, there's very few breaks in the sound. It's a lot like panda bear's solo album, the ambient sounds overtaking the music only to fade to the background again as the next piece starts.I also can't really pin point a favorite part. I've caught my self singing, humming or thinking about almost every song on this album. I acually woke up this morning mumbling 'lion in a coma lion in a coma can't you smell the aroma'...it confused my dad. My favorite thing about this album is the tone and sort of charecter it take. It's so child like an innocent, so fun in a skipping threw the park kinda way. The band sings about family, friends and falling in love. They sound so sure of these ideas of joy and happiness it just so reassuring in such fucked up times.

My favorite aspect of any music is the way it transforms your prain chemistry. The sort of psychic force it has on you. Sad songs making you sad, or comforting you when your upset. Happy songs filling out those car rides with the windows down. Dance music making you shake your ass like an idiot from midnight till 4am....think about that, what other legal substance has such control over our emotions and lives in such vastly drastic ways then music. Animal Collective fits in with the best. They are a joy. They're smart talented artists who really know what they want and how to create it. I envy them and pity anyone who won't give this album a serious try. Your missing out. Just open up, throw those old thoughts on what music is out the window and jump down the rabbit hole for awhile. It's fucking crazy down here and it's much much better then real world.

John's Post is 6 Minutes Old; Time to Bump it

2009-01-07T10:46:00.002-08:00

Hey, sorry John-- I liked your post, but I just wanted to post this link:

Hypem Zeitgeist

I don't know if anyone but me from the site posted their list to this metalist, but it was one of my favorite reads last year, and helped me find a lot of music I missed.

Other News: my fave songs are ready and I just need to build a playlist for them-- I have 20 easily, but I'm narrowing to ten, and I have a few more post ideas as well, so look for more from me. Anyone for a playlist competition?

Boring quiet first review of 2009 for an album that came out last year.

2009-01-06T17:41:00.004-08:00

So yeah there's lots to talk about and not a whole lot of time. First I definetally want to throw together another list of albums to check out from last year. Ten is never really enough especially this year when there was a lot of great material released. So yeah I'll try and put some more suggestions together in the next few days. There's also great stuff comming out for 2009. I'll try and make a list of things for people to keep an eye out. Animal Collectives new album is AMAZING. I'll give a review later but I want to listen to it some more.

So yeah let's start the first new year's post with an album i didn't really checkout till the begining of this year. Mount Eerie's ''Lost Wisdom". This is a tiny litttle album, 10 songs in 23 minutes. If you aren't familiar with Mount Eerie they are really just one guy: Phil Elverum. Elverum used to make music under the moniker of The Microphones and their album The Glow pt. 2 is a phenominal piece of work. On ''Lost Wisdom" Elverum teams up with Julie Doiron who has some great albums in her own discography. Elverum sound is always about space. These are very low fi, no production accoustic works. It sounds like it was recorded in an abandoned house. The ambient sounds of the space that these songs were recorded in are always present and this makes the sound incrediblly intimate. Doiron is an amazing addition to the sound. Her harmonies and shaky voice really add to the pallet of the album. Pallet wow what the fuck does that mean. My favorite song on here is 'Voice in Headphones'...50 indie cred points if you can tell me what the backround chorus is from...no looking it up either it took me three listens to figure it out, and it's awsome. This is a really great quiet piece of accoustic music. If you like Sun Kill Moon, Jana Hunter, Iron and Wine i Highly recomend checking out this album. And if you like this one go look up The Glow pt. 2 by The Microphones. Anyway yeahy there you go. I'll write some more stuff later in the week, but I'm sharing one computer with 4 family members right now and it's worse then sharing the bathroom at a frat house. Anyway have fun fuckers.

John87's Songs of the Year (In Playlist Form)

2008-12-28T16:31:00.001-08:00

Scroll down to read about this playlist while it plays...

Songs of the year....make it your next mixtape....

2008-12-24T19:40:00.003-08:00

Ok so yeah I love the format of the album. One long group of songs with theme and common interests. But then there are some songs that just pop more then anything else.

10.Tv on the Radio- Lover's Day It's about sex. A whole day of sex. Get everyone in the world together and just get biblical with each other. What makes this song so great is that I know Tv hates the America we live in. They hat the way we treat our fellow man. They hate how dumb people don't care about how dumb they are. They hate that Britany Spears, Rhianna and Beyonce are making millions and they have day jobs. And what do they end their album with. A love son to the world about hope and glory and fucking so hard you break the bed and have the neighbors call the cops. Call it Lover's day.Yes of course there are miracles under our sighs and moans. I'm gonna take you home.....beautiful.

9. Q-tip -Life is Better Yeah Qtp put out a record this year. Your lame for not knowing that. And yeah I'm lame for liking the song with Nora Jones on it the best of the new q tip album. But really why fault norah. I actually really wanna meet that girl. She does good stuff, maybe a little to coffee house but she always puts harder in it. But q-tip just flows for like 2 minutes straight in this song and it's a reminder of how shitty mainstream hip hop is. It's turned into what pop country is...a mockery of what the art form used to be. Thanks Abstract, you brought the heart this year.

8. Erykah Badu- The Cell Ok so Q tip and Erykah revived smooth 90's hip hop this year and both put out their best albums. So yeah I know you didn't know that...it's cool i'm here to help.The cell is just a shake down. It's kind of like the song you throw on at a party while your looking for something better, but then realise how great a groove it's got. You look up and the entire party is just freaking on the carpet. It's that smooth.

7. Hercules and ove affair- Blind Antony's voice is so a world in it's own. The Antony and the Jonson records are so full of sorrow and ache.Who knew that he could turn it into such a sexy cross dressing diva howl. Blind makes 90 year old women break their hips. That beat is so solid and Antony just is magnificent. Yeah by the way that's a guy if you didn't know, he's like 6'11'' .I didn't go into many gay clubs this year....Shadows just had better tunes sorry Grid....but everytime I did Blind would play. Everyone would look conused and Erica always asked me what the hell this was. It's disco baby, leave your shame at the door.

6. The submarines- you me and the bourgeises. Yeah this song is in an Ipod commercial. Yeah I heard it and then went and imediately downloaded this album. Yeah I get it I'm a sell out. But I also get to stomp along to this corny little pop gem and you don't so really who is the loser here.

5. Lil Wayne- LA LA (carter 3 mixtape version aka the real one) It's a poppy beat, a high pitched chorus and lines about being a teenager and hoping that the crack your carrying in your mouth won't pop and ruin your day. This is a 3:30 of Weezy history. From birth to the present. He never faults here and really never stops accept to catch his breath. Weezy is the best rapper alive and god I hope he plays this song live.

4. The Decemberists- Valerie Plaime Colin Melory is a cheeky bastard. I hear he's a total self centered ass. But yeah he's smart so let him be. This is a love song about Valerie plaime the Bush administrations outed spy. It's fun and dissolves into a ...well ok it turns into a beatles song and its fucking hillarious. Hey we have the government of doom destroying our bravest men and womens lives....let's write a pop song about it.

3. Fucked Up- Son the Father Ok this is a song that starts out with about a minute and a half twirly little flute solo, turns to a heavy metal live show opening then evolves imediately to a post punk fist punching song. I like to listen to post harcore when I fall asleep, the total chaos and unfiltered emotional violence tends to put me to sleep.I don't know why. But anyway this song is a poerfect begining to a crazy mess of an album....mess is good

2. Portisehead- magic doors/threads These songs flow into each other. The last note of threads actually just reverberates in the backround through out all of threads. Great albums are made out of great songs. Duh. But these songs have to messh and carry the same themes and feelings. magic doors/threads is a great end to the best record of the year and the best comeback ever. Just god i get shivers, beth gibbons takes you so deep into her ether soaked brain and she just is so nonchalant about it. Like it's so effortless for her to pour that voice of hers out.She really is not human.And from the 4 minute mark of threads on you get the best music of the year.

1. M83 Kim+ Jessie Yeah this is soaked in cheesy 80's movie popcorn glitz. Yeah there are synths to the point of gaging. Yeah it's a corny love song. Yeah it's just the best thing this year. You have no heart and no appreciation for music if you can't just let yourself fall for this little tune. It's so sweet. like 4 year old kids calling each other boyfriend and girlfriend cute. This is the darling of the year for me and it should be yours to.

ok I ended on a low note. but i'm tired and being urged to go to bed. So yeah goodnight.

This is a long one...like a double album.

2008-12-24T18:36:00.004-08:00

My brain works better when I'm tired. Well at least I tend to write better when I'm tired. Not that i can write good or anything.rofl. God I hate cell phones. Anyway. I'm tired, cranky, heartbroken and angry on this X mas eve. So let's discuss the best music of the year and see where we end up.

I realised today that I just don't give a shit about the top ten structure anymore. This was a growing up experience and a little after school special music chimed in behind me as I thought this.Now to any geek this is blasphemy. But I'm also the guy who things genres are ridiculous...I like Miranda Lambert and shes pop country that doesn't mean if you buy me a Toby Keith record i won't punch you in the face.

Ok back to the point. Why make lists at all. Do i really think The Walkmen put out an all around better record then Wolf Parade and so i should give them a number 5 spot instead of 6. Should I put Kathleen Edwards on as number one because i listened to that record every night this year i healed my heart with liquor and junk food, i listened to it a lot...oi my liver, or M83 because I had maybe the most intimate connection between music and myself I've ever had with my first listen to that record. Or do I act cool and pick cut copy,crystal castles, the doodos or something else with crazy indie cred...Vampire Weekend does not count kids, they were on the cover of Spin fuck them in their river cuomo cardigan sweater wearing faces... I like all that shit. And to be honest the record that got the most plays from me came out last year...Bishop Allen's The broken string.

So why make a top ten list. Why take the time and think this over. Ponder the depths of 1 year of music. I mean really it's just one revolution round the sun.Why can't we just continually discuss what we're listening to day by day month by month and not clog everything into one tiny time period. With that here's my top ten. Smiley Smile.

10. Okkervil river- The Stand Ins...never thought this band could continue to do anything intersting after black sheep boy. But the one two punch of stage names and stand ins is as consistant and meaningful as any other bands out put.

9. It's a tie between 2 EPs. The Decemberists first Bridesmaid issue and Metric's Mainstream Ep. I love the Ep format and once wrote a paper saying that the music industry would devolve back into releasing smaller single based releases with the popularity of Itunes and dumb teenage girl listening habits. Both these albums are great little reminders of talented bands and what they like to do when no one is really listening...i mean how many people reading this knew either these bands put new shit out this year.

8. Lil Wayne- Tha Carter 3. Sorry weezy my broken heart knocks you down. My former romantic interest is in love with Mr. Carter. As am I. We were born literally two hours apart and may meet for the first time on the fourth. Anyway Weezy has put out much better shit.But this is a joke album as funny as any Flight of the Concords shit. Look at the god damn cover. I think weezy decided to give a big fuck you to all the people who don't listen to his real shit, the mix tapes he spews effortlessly....he has put out 8 other albums this year alone. So weezy took the money and ran making a pop album for the ages and the biggest payoff in music history....i'll discuss wayne later.

7. The Walkmen- You and Me. This is a barrage of drunken dizzy just got off a 12 hour shift in the greasy restaurant kitchen where I make barely enough money to pay rent and by food I'm tired stoned and want to fuck but I'm to miserable to get of the couch. Maybe not. But that's how I felt the first time I heard this album. I pulled the car to the side of the road at midnight and just sat and listened. Loud, full bodied screaming howls of blue collar poetry. Beautiful collages of horns strings and echoing reverb drenched guitars. Yes Virginia The Walkmen are back in our lives and god bless for that.

6. Joan as Policewoman- To Survive Yeah this could fit into any 40 year old coffee shop dwelling hockey moms playlist. But this album is sad and sexy and full of this kinda cool 70's vibe. Like I can see that the people making this album had a lot of fun hanging out in the studio. It's not remarkable in any way. It's just good and made me feel good. and yeah it's not cool but i like i also like Rhianna so fuck you guys.

5. Wolf Parade- At Mount Zoomer. I love Spencer Krug and will continue to champion any piece of shit he throws at me...Beast moans...really some on that was baaaaaad. Thank god Wolf parade made crazy pop music listenable again. Kissinbg the beehive would hold the whole album up even if the rest was just static and coughing. A great follow up to a classic album.

4. Los Campensinos! Hold on now Youngster. I saw these guys in california right before i moved back last year. My metal loving roommate took me to the show with his metal loving friends and i was expecting ear drum killing violence. Instead I got unadulterated ear drum killing glee. I imagine that everyone in this band likes candy. They like getting notes from secret admirers and they like playing pick up games of soccer in the park in their pajamas. This album is crazy child minded twee glee. Nothing got me bouncing like a 3 year old more then this record.

3. Kathleen Edwards- Asking for flowers. I already talked about this album. But after a year of pouring over this amazing album I came to this conclusion: I am so very glad I am not a women. The depths of emotion that the sweeter gender must feel would be unbearable for my brain to handle. I can barley handle an average day of ups and downs in my dull male world. Edwards like all those country hard women before her lays out a plee to the male world. Stop fucking with us, you are making me angry drunk and sad and I hate fucking strangers out of spite. No album this year ever put me into anothers head so fully then this one did. I'm sorry Miss Edwards, the men of the world will try harder next year i promise.

2. M83 Saturdays = Youth. Kim and Jessie is the song of the year. I don't want any arguments because you are wrong. You just are. I put this album on for the first time about a month ago. Middle of the night and I was tired and just wanted to get some sleep. I did not sleep that night. I was changed. 6 times in a row i listened to this record. I don't know what it was about that night. It was sort of like having a crazy one night stand with someone who you meet again a week later and become friends. This is the Elaine from Seinfeld of records for me. But it's gorgeous and inspired by M83 lead man's love of 80's films. It's inspired. It's its own world and if you don't get it well go listen to coldplay.

1. Tv on the Radio- Dear Science God damnit I swore.....I swore on my life this would not be my favourit album of they year. I got it I listened to it. I was stunned. It wasn't at all what I thought. In fact let's say this about 2008...If you thought you knew what the album your favourite band put out this year would sound like your a liar. Everything changed. Everything got better. Our idols honed their craft and proved they were worthy of our ears. Tv on the radio did nothing more amazing then anyone else I just think that this album sums up 2008. We are all changed and or changing. The curtain around the world of ours is falling. Tv on the radio knows this. They're smart.There are so many records I didn't mention, this is a safe list really. But when I look back at 2008 I'm amazed. This has been the best year for music since I can not remember. Just under the surface of top 40 are jems in any variety. Every 'sigh' genre got more progressive or refined. Everything changed everything got better. We are lucky for our ears and our emotions. We are lucky we know what good music is.

Ok time to stop typing. Damn this is a long one. Have a good Christmas fuckers.

p.s. so I'm an Idiot. I'm tired that's the problem. I actually didn't put Portisehead on this list. God I am stupid. This was the best album of the year. So ha Tv on the radio. AnywayI'll write another post about this album and why it's a timeless masterpiece later. Sorry portisehead.

Mike's BDay

2008-12-23T07:35:00.003-08:00

Just a quick shot from the hip-- tacking on to John's post. Went to my father-in-law's today, and he pulled out a couple records by Tom Paxton-- a guy I had never even heard of before, but evidently he's still making music. I was totally into the style-- kind of a John Prine thing, but a better voice, nice guitar work. I ran out of time, but next time I'm bringing my iPod and playing him some stuff that is obviously influenced by that time and genre. It's a cool way to connect, and a great way to learn about some new-to-you music. Two way street, ya know? So I am with you John-- discourse is the best way to find new music. That's the whole point of this blog, too, right? Alright, time to go celebrate my birthday and listen to some great music and eat great food and be with great people.

Year's Ends

2008-12-21T14:10:00.002-08:00

So me and drew we're talking about how year after year me and him are becoming more and more removed from that little thing called the music scene. In fact this is a common discussion I have with most of my fellow music assholes of the past. Are we getting old and more involved in actual life? Is music just not as interesting as it was five years ago? Or is it something else?

Well there is no excuse people. There was some amazing sounds made this year from some amazing artists. Now is the time to find out all about all the things you missed. First there's the abundant Internet and it's never ending cornucopia of music blogs and websites. There's also , I hear, free music to be had by something called downloading. So combine the two. Comb the Internet and your local bookstores music magazine rack for all sorts of top of the year lists. These people actually get paid to do what we do for free....listen and talk. What chumps we are.

Speaking of talking....tis the season. I encourage everyone to strike up a conversation with that relative or church going friend you only see during the holiday season. Maybe they have something new to turn you onto. Maybe cousin frank has the new M83 album and is just waiting for someones mind to be blown out all over the xmas ham. Or maybe not. But there's always the oldies but goodies. I find the more talk you have with this medium the more you get out of it. My god albums like Kid A and In the Aeroplane over the sea have to be discussed. Plus just talking about music draws you back into the fold. I just got done discussing a portisehead/radiohead collaboration with my friend Aaron an hour ago and now I have 12 albums downloading, legally of course. Tonight I will fall asleep debating Hot Chip and Bon Iver in my head as sugar plum fairies do whatever the hell they do to you with your eyes closed...fuckers.

Anyway take a bit of time this holiday season. Turn on your Ipods, cd players or Internet radio station and take a look what's out there. We are getting older, but that's no excuse to let that olde friend music, who has been there with you through every high and low of our lives, disappear. They deserve a little better then that. Happy xmas, merry new year.

Best of 2008

2008-12-08T14:31:00.004-08:00

I hardly find it fair for me to make a list since I doubt I heard 10 whole albums from this year alone, but I know mike wants to know. I am more comfortable with my favorite songs of 2008. The basis for this list is simply what I listen to. In the end that is what it's all about. The list is alphabetical, but more so a coincidence since my number one song from 2008 was "Sometime Around Midnight" by the Airborne Toxic Event. Here are the rest:

Best of 2008

There are some regulars here: Ben Folds, Mates of State, Tilly and the Wall, Coldplay. But there are two worth mentioning briefly: Kaki King is Katherine Elizabeth King from Atlanta, GA. You should be interested to know that she was the first woman ever listed as a "Guitar God" in Rolling Stone in 2006. But she's also "an out-loud and proud lesbian" seriously kicking ass in the music world. Check it out: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bbJnwk3GBiM She & Him is Zooey Deschanel and M Ward. We all knew she could sing and I'm happy to see Deschanel's debut was well received.

Dan

Mike's Top Ten Best Albums of 2008

2008-12-04T17:10:00.022-08:00

EDIT: If you got here via Largehearted Boy welcome-- please look around the site and also check out our growing Best of 2008 lists:
Dan's Favorite Songs
John's Top Ten Albums (despite his rant)
Mike's Top Ten Songs of 2008

Alright, I was gonna wait til it was closer to the time I would be home, but Hypem forced my hand by doing their annual poll of top ten posts. So here is my list for this year's top ten albums (best songs of the year will follow soon). I hope to see everyone else's lists on here soon-- we can debate them at Xmas. Also, hope you like the color change-- I had to agree with Dan the black just didn't look right...

First the honorable mentions: there were a couple albums out there that won't make my list due to the fact that they aren't my style, but they were definitely interesting listens. Those would be the 8-bit sound (new to me) of Crystal Castles self-titled debut, and the spastic dance-a-thon of Girl Talks Feed the Animals. Great albums for the party inclined music seeker.

I also enjoyed Conor Oberst's first solo outing, and the new Death Cab album. The new Okkervil River album The Stand Ins wasn't bad, but not nearly as complete as last year's The Stage Names. The Streets put out a new one that had a few catchy songs, but he still didn't bring it like on his first two albums. These were all hanger's on, but didn't do quite enough for me.

Finally, honorable mentions purely because I didn't get to hear as much of them as I wanted to-- Seven Mary Three, Filter, Ryan Adams, Beck and The Presidents of the United States all had new albums this year, but I never really got to sit down and listen to them. Hopefully after Xmas I'll have a little extra spending cash to pick them up and give them a full listen.

And now my actual Top Ten Albums of 2008

10) Kings of Leon - Only By The Night
As much as I didn't want to bite off on this album, it's hard to deny it's likability. I've been a KOL fan since Aha Shake Heartbrake, and while this one doesn't have as much swamp rock to it, they've traded up for arena rock, and this is a nice introduction to the band if you hadn't heard of them before.

9) The Whigs - Mission Control
A spare garage rock, power chord banger of an album, this trio from Athens, GA bring back the 90's alt-rock feel and combine it with a little southern twang. Rockers "Like a Vibration" and "Right Hand on My Heart" are standouts, but dreamier songs like "Sleep Sunshine" balance the album nicely.

8) TV on the Radio - Dear Science,
TVOTR have moved a bit towards the mainstream from their former hazy trip-hop, but don't let that fool you. These guys still have a sound that is off the wall. This album has added more funk elements to their sound, and it's a catchy listen from start to finish.

7) Drive-By Truckers - Brighter Than Creations Dark
Songs like "That Man I Shot," "Two Daughters and a Wife," and "The Righteous Path," show why Patterson Hood is one of the best songwriters in music today. The album is a bit long at 18 songs, and there are a few clunkers in there, but this album survives on the strength of some great songs throughout.

6) Counting Crows - Saturday Nights & Sunday Mornings
Well, I wished this album would have been higher, but the Saturday/Sunday split of the songs really makes this album hard to sit through in one sitting. Definitely a strong outing from the Adam Duritz and the Crows though, with the strongest songs being, surprisingly, their rockers rather than their soft songs. The first half of the album is a winner for sure (songs like "Cowboys," and "1492.")

5) Mike Doughty - Golden Delicious
While M. Doughty from the Soul Coughing days may be gone, fans of that band can still hear bits and pieces of that great band in the newest solo effort from Mike Doughty. The album is still a bit overproduced and contemporary, but it's hard to deny that Doughty can turn a phrase and write a tune. Upon repeated listens this album's songs shine, especially "Fort Hood," and "I Got the Drop on You." If you loved Haughty Melodic you will love this, and if you liked Soul Coughing, you may need to give this one some time, but it will eventually win you over.

4) The Black Keys - Attack and Release
The Keys have moved out of the garage and into the basement as producer Danger Mouse takes the duo out of their blues rock comfort zone into a ghostly, psychodelic romp. Though not as successful at this than they are at straight rock, this album has a great flow start to finish and the song "I Got Mine" wins the Riff of the Year (try learning it yourself-- it's hard to stop playing it).

3) Vampire Weekend - Vampire Weekend
These guys were blowing up on The Hype Machine when I first discovered it, and eventually I was curious. Glad I was, because they're debut is awesome. I love Paul Simon's Graceland, and this album owes its existance to that one. The Afro-pop beats and Ivy League lyrics make for a great repeated listen.

2) Bon Iver - For Emma, Forever Ago
This one has been on my short list since January when I was in Japan and had a CD alarm clock and put the Paste sampler in it. I woke up to the song "Skinny Love" every day for about 2 weeks before I realized how great a song it really is. The album has such a strange feeling of coldness (recorded in a cabin in Wisconsin in the middle of winter) and yet an amazing warmth (walls of vocals, steady rhythm guitars) that has made it my most played of the year... but that wasn't enough to make it my....

#1 Album of the Year!
Sun Kil Moon - April
Incredible. What else can I say about this one? Mark Kozelek has a way of writing songs that find a way to penetrate your soul. I'm serious. I love this album, and while it takes some time (74 minutes to be exact) I feel like I just watched an amazing movie when I'm done listening. If you don't own it, buy it. Your rainy days will never be the same.

Please feel free to add your list in the comments section below!

Mike made me do this.

2008-11-23T12:13:00.002-08:00

So let's ramble about for awhile. I've been sitting in the dark void of my parents house for almost a week now on vacation. My brain is mush. There's a crazy lady installing cable here. She's been here for four hours, I know she has two kids named brandy and monica, she's gettng subway for dinner and she wears a red scarf.
Ok so Mike wanted to know why Deerhoof was a good band. I could go into how they are mainstreaming deconstructionist japanese metal into a popular "listanable" format. That's a long boring discussion and most of you have never heard of The boredoms...aside from their drummer Yoshmi who has a whole album about her killing pink robots. So let me just say thet Deerhoof are great because they are fucking hillarious. They have a song in which the chorus is Panda pan-pan-pan-da panda panda-pan-da-China- Night light. Come on. How is that not beautiful. They aren't all up on their high horse claiming to be beautiful experimentalists. They just like noise rock and twee music and mixing the two together.I listen to Deerhoof when I need to not think about the crazy shit in my life. Or really organised thought at all. Anyway the point is this. Music has lots of different sides to it. As does all art. Deerhoof is abstract joy. It's not for everyone. A lot of people would look at it and say my kid could do that... and a bunch of kids did. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w9OXHToasy8 So I find Deerhoof to be this totally unrelentless machine of unfiltered joy. Like a bunch of kids running around at chucke cheese loaded up on red bull. They are so full of energy and anything and everything they do puts a smile on their face. And also there's a shitload of screaming. This of course is to be taken in moderation. Usually I listen to the new deerhoof when it comes out, put it on the shelf after a couple of weeks, then pull it out when i need like an hour of their specific medecine. Those times alone when we allow ourselves to be utterly unhinged. Yes I have jumped around my apartent in only my boxers screaming out every word of Apple'o. And then reality came back and I had to do something shitty like go to work. But for that glorious 31.2 minutes i was a careless child. And that's why they're an awsome band. They have the ability to move your brain into a whole different sphere of thinking if you let them. And no drugs are involved...well your brain is pumping all sorts of shit out on it's own. So there as incoherent as i can make it... Deerhoof is good because it makes me happy. Put that in your philosophical book of proofs and smoke it. And really in the end who cares...Totally not doing spell checker...or editting this...

EDIT: Mike's 104 Songs to Hear Before You Die: Song #1

2008-11-22T19:46:00.007-08:00

So two things, both inspired by Dan. The first was a great couple of mix CDs he made me. Although it wasn't all my style, I liked listening to the things he thought were worthy of a mixtape, and almost every song was new to me. There were a few gems, and in fact the first 3 songs on the 2nd disc went great together, so I wanted to post them:
MP3: The Airborne Toxic Event - Sometime Around Midnight
MP3: Leona Naess - Unnamed (This Song Makes Me Happy)
MP3: Jens Lekman - Kanske Är Jag Kär I Dig

He also mentioned the free mp3 of the day at Spinner, and I was intrigued, because I'm always a fan of free music. So I headed over and checked it out. I was a little disappointed just because it's an AOL run site with not a lot going on, but they had a segment called I "F'in love that song," and it invited people to submit the song they freakin' love. So I couldn't help it, and I submitted the first great song that came to my head. Since they haven't posted a new one in over a month, I think it may have been a waste, which is too bad, because I love writing about why I love a song. So here is my first submission, and I plan to do some more (I think Sun Kil Moon "Glenn Tipton" will be next.)

"Muzzle," The Smashing Pumpkins
From 1995's Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness

You know that friend you have who thinks they know good music because
they can sing all the words off whatever Top 40 radio song is playing
at the moment. Well that was me. I loved listening to music, but I
was misguided as to what made a song "good." Enter The Smashing
Pumpkins' "Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness". I hadn't even
heard the soon to be ubiquitous "Bullet With Butterfly Wings" yet, and
knew the band in name alone when a friend bought me their double album
for my birthday. Although Siamese Dream is usually argued to be their
strongest effort, for a junior high kid with all the emotional drama
that goes along with it, the roller coaster ride of Mellon Collie
seared itself onto my soul as a personal soundtrack. The album lead
to the realization that there was music being made out there that
could really speak to me on a personal level, which, at the age of
fourteen, is an exciting thing to learn. No song wrapped me in its
own self-importance more so than Muzzle. From Billy Corgan's nasal
yelp of "I fear that I am ordinary just like everyone," to the
over-the-top, pounding drum roll in the second verse, the song thrust
me into true teenagerdom. I remember writing the lyrics out on
notebook paper, daily, during study hall, including the litany of
things Billy claims he "knows" at the end of the song. I think I, and
every teenager who has ever been oppressed by the emptiness of youth,
knew the silence of the world, too.

I fear that I am ordinary, just like everyone
To lie here and die among the sorrows
Adrift among the days
For everything I ever said
And everything Ive ever done is gone and dead

(chorus)
As all things must surely have to end
And great loves will one day have to part
I know that I am meant for this world

My life has been extraordinary
Blessed and cursed and won
Time heals but Im forever broken
By and by the way...
Have you ever heard the words
Im singing in these songs?
Its for the girl Ive loved all along
Can a taste of love be so wrong

(chorus)

And in my mind as I was floating
Far above the clouds
Some children laughed Id fall for certain
For thinking that Id last forever

But I knew exactly where I was
And I knew the meaning of it all
And I knew the distance to the sun
And I knew the echo that is love
And I knew the the secrets in your spires
And I knew the emptiness of youth
And I knew the solitude of heart
And I knew the murmurs of the soul
And the world is drawn into your hands
And the world is etched upon your heart
And the world so hard to understand
Is the world you cant live without
And I knew the silence of the world

What Is It Good For?

2008-11-03T14:26:00.009-08:00

So when I was growing up my mom always used to give me a hard time that my generation stole everything from her generation (bell bottoms were back in style, movies and music covers were rampant, and she thought most of our music sounded like copycats of her music growing up) and we didn't have any original material. Good thing for her I wasn't into gangsta rap or goth music I guess. Anyways, there is a grain of truth to what she said, because most of the bands I like wear their influences on their respective sleeves, but she also mentioned that her generation's music had great protest songs that our generation could never duplicate. Well, I think I can make a strong argument against that, although I think much of my generation, and easily most everybody else, have no idea the great protest songs that have come into being in post-9/11 America. So on the eve of the most historic election in generations, here are some of my generation's memos to The Man.

(P.S. - I love doing playlists like this, but I always (a) forget something I meant to include (b) forget something that I should have thought of and (c) am introduced to something I had no idea about but would be a perfect match to the list. So, please, comments or posts with your own protest songs)

Protest Songs Playlist :
1) Wilco - War on War
2) Rilo Kiley - It's a Hit
3) The Decemberists - 16 Military Wives
4) The Thermals - Power Doesn't Run on Nothing
5) System of a Down - B.Y.O.B.
6) Nine Inch Nails - Capital G
7) Drive-By Truckers - That Man I Shot
8) Mike Doughty - Move On
9) Elliott Smith - A Distorted Reality Is Now A Necessity To Be Free
10) Bright Eyes - Land Locked Blues
11) Tom Waits - Day After Tomorrow
12) Outkast - Love in War
13) TV on the Radio - Red Dress
14) Bruce Springsteen - Last to Die
15) John Fogerty - I Can't Take It No More
16) Radiohead - 2+2=5 (The Lukewarm.)
17) The Smashing Pumpkins - United States
18) System of a Down - Boom!
19) Green Day - American Idiot
20) The Arcade Fire - Windowsill
21) Devendra Banhart - Heard Somebody Say
22) Drive-By Truckers - The Homefront
23) TV on the Radio - I Was A Lover
24) Mike Doughty - Fort Hood
25) Bright Eyes - Let's Not Shit Ourselves (To Love and Be Loved)
26) Pearl Jam - World Wide Suicide
27) System of a Down - F*** the System
28) Bloc Party - Helicopter
29) M.I.A. - Pull Up The People
30) Outkast - War
31) Blitzen Trapper - Furr

Expect an embedded playlist and some mp3s to follow, but I just want to get this up for now...

New (?) Music First ( ?)

2008-09-21T10:00:00.004-07:00

Ok, so we have been hella busy up here in the Pacific Northwest, including heading back to the Midwest, so I have barely been able to take care of my life, let alone this blog (I think that may have happened to everyone, but you know, I don't think this blog is dead, just on vacation.)

So this is just a quick post to say what's I've been finding lately and hopefully prompt some others to post some new music as well. Hopefully our lives will slow down more and I can really get back to this, and maybe we'll get some momentum back before the end of the year lists.

So, items of note:

Went to Bumbershoot, which was incredible. The crowds were exhausting, I must admit, but we saw some GREAT shows, and a lot of partial shows as we walked around, too, including the Old 97's, Del the Funkee Homosapien, Battles, and Death Cab for Cutie, (and a pretty surprising performance from the Offspring). But the real show stealers for us were Vince Mira and Mike Doughty.

Vince Mira is a teenager from LA who was playing on the sidewalk near Pike's Place Market in Seattle when the local news evidently caught wind of his playing and gave him some PR. Even though he is under the voting age, his voice is a spot-on copy of Johnny Cash. Although this is somewhat gimmicky, there's no denying his skill, and he does a lot of great oldies, not just Cash. His EP was produced by John Carter Cash, Johnny Cash's son, which is interesting as well. When we saw him live we were totally impressed-- his voice was great, his guitar playing was good, and it was a very strange experience to hear Johnny Cash's voice singing in fluent Spanish (Mira used to sing classical Mexican music before his voice changed at the age of 13). Anyways, check him out, he'll be picking up more steam in the future I'm sure.

So my main goal was to go see Mike Doughty, formerly of the band Soul Coughing. Drew, John 87, and I saw him back in... hmmm, 2003 or so in Cleveland and were thoroughly impressed. His stage banter is hilarious and his "gangadank" guitar playing is pretty flippin' cool. He always gives the crowd a spiel about how he is about to lie to them and tell them the show is over, and then they are going to turn around momentarily, and then turn back around for the encore. Pretty funny. Anyways, he had a pretty big crowd considering Death Cab was playing at the same time, and he put on a great show with his new band (he has had a rotating group of touring members) and really had a few more jam sessions then he did last time, which was cool. Anyways, I'm biased because I love Doughty's work, but if he ever comes through town, I highly recommend checking him out, especially if you like any of his Soul Coughing stuff, because he does play a lot of older songs (Janine, Soft Serve, St. Louise is Listening). Even my wife was really impressed, and I had hyped it up majorly for her, so yeah, check him out. Oh, and stand by for a rant coming up about how Soul Coughing is one of the most underrated alt-rock band of the '90's.

Ok, that's more than I had time for today, but I have a few more posts I want to get out about some great new songs I've heard, so look for more later this week.

Concert Review - The Lonely Forest

2008-06-20T11:29:00.005-07:00

So I went and saw The Lonely Forest at Washington Park in Anacortes on Wednesday, and I have mixed reviews. Don't be confused, though, because the band was AWESOME! The reason for my mixed review was because I found out about the concert on the bands myspace page, and all it said about it was time and place and a list of bands. Unfortunately when we got there we realized it was sponsored by a youth development center, and the average age was probably around 14. Soooooo, we kinda hung out around the outskirts and just enjoyed the park.

All of the bands we saw were good (The Globes and The Oregon Donor), but we got a little closer to watch The Lonely Forest perform. The musical ability of the band is definitely not in question, as both drummer Braydn Krueger and bassist Eric Sturgeon wailed on their instruments, and singer John Van Deusen's vocals ranged from a decent falsetto coo to a larynx ripping scream. The band opened with "We Sing in Time," which is the song that really hooked me on them, and it was almost a picture perfect copy of their studio version, which was all the more impressive when Van Deusen went to his loudest and raspiest. We were actually a little taken aback by the volume and emotion that blazed out of the speakers at first. They did a few other songs I really enjoyed, too, including "Tomato Soup"," Two Pink Pills," and a cover of XTC's "Statue of Liberty." I think they are much more impressive live than on record, which will hopefully help them generate some more press outside the local area.

The band's sound is a little hard to pin down, but I think they sound a bit like Dismemberment Plan in the way their melodies sound, and Van Deusen's voice is like a more rocking Colin Meloy of the Decemberists. But there are plenty of elements that remind me of Jimmy Eat World, Muse, or Weezer, and other bands as well. Anyways, I encourage you to check out their myspace page, see them live if you are in the Pacific Northwest, and look for their sophomore release when it comes out. I think this band has all of the tools it needs to make it big. If so, you heard it here first!

Bands to Hear - Local bands

2008-05-26T13:46:00.003-07:00

Hey, so I almost went to a show last night in Seattle-- we realized by the time everything went down it might be a bad idea since there is a 15 page Neuroscience paper due on Tuesday, but I was really excited because all the bands are from our local area, so here are a few that I thought sounded really good and I hope to see playing closer to home in the future:

The Lonely Forest: Basically just down the block in Anacortes, WA, this trio is one of the best things I've heard lately and they are getting a lot of attention and working with producer Jack Endino (Nirvana, Soundgarden) on their new album. Great indie rock-- check out "We Sing in Time" on their myspace page.

The Mission Orange: From a little further down the road in Mount Vernon, WA, the Mission Orange is a two-piece band, but sound nothing like the duos I've been listening to lately. They are very Built to Spill in a garage-band kind of way.

The Nextdoor Neighbors: I can't say this band is from down the street, since they are from Olympia, which is on the other side of Seattle from me, but they are local and they are fresh. Not really my style, but I'm still impressed and I know Dan and John J will enjoy it. Sort of a mashup of Smoosh and the Fiery Furnaces, with a voice similar to Regina Spektor.

New Artist: Jens Lekman

2008-05-26T05:37:00.005-07:00

I don't have much to say about one of my new favorite artists except if you're not instantly wooed give it a few tries. I'm posting a quick list of my favorite songs, but I suggest if you like these that you seek out more.

Jens Lekman Greatest Hits

The Black Keys play "Secret" show in Cleveland!

2008-05-05T04:02:00.004-07:00

Hey Cleveland denizens, local rockers the Black Keys are playing a mySpace secret show at Beachland Tavern on May 7th. Obviously not a secret, so you might want to get there EARLY since it is FREE and FIRST COME FIRST SERVE. Doors at 8pm. And in case you happen to be a Black Keys fan, you might be interested to know they have a song in Grand Theft Auto IV-- "Strange Times" from their newest album, Attack & Release. Good to see these guys getting the publicity they deserve! Also worth checking out is a live interview the keys did on public radio. Look for it under the Take 5 archive.

Black Keys Website
Black Keys MySpace

New Music Tuesday - Drive-By Truckers

2008-04-23T00:52:00.006-07:00

Drive-By Truckers - Brighter Than Creations Dark
4 out of 5
First things first: Rock Band. Is. The. Most. Fun. Video. Game. I. Have. Ever. Played. Ever. I need to play that game with the basement crew, because it is unbelievably fun. Played it first for free at a rec center with a guy and we played for like 4 hours straight. Then he ended up buying it and we put it on a projector on the side of a building and a huge group of us played. I almost lost my voice, and eventually had to be the goto guy on the drums because no one else could keep up on medium difficulty. Incredibly fun. Ok, on to the review.

Check out this video: A Ghost To Most

Add to My Profile | More Videos

The Drive-By Truckers lost one of their songwriters/vocalists with the departure of Jason Isbell to pursue a solo career. Original writers and singers Patterson Hood and Mike Cooley remain, however, and bassist Shonna Tucker has stepped up and penned a few songs and lent her amazing (and unreleased, until this album) vocals. At 19 songs, Brighter might seem like a hefty serving, but the tracks seem to roll into each other so continuously that the album doesn't drag, despite a huge variety of different styles thrown down on this record.

The album is a continuation of the DBT's investigation of "The Duality of the Southern Man," and the listener is once again thrust into the lives of the unlucky, the unhappy, and the unloved. Mike Cooley may have the better voice and a great writing style, but Patterson Hood steals the show on this one with some amazingly gripping songwriting. On opener "Two Daughters and a Beautiful Wife," a man gets to heaven and doesn't understand where he is. And he left behind, you guessed it, two daughters and a wife. The song chugs along on rhythm guitar and banjo, but Hood's pleating voice combined with Tucker's complimenting backing vocals and the hollowness added by new guitarist John Neff's pedal steel (beautifully employed throughout the album) make it a haunting and lasting story.

Cooley has some fine songs as well, like "A Ghost to Most" and "Bob," the latter about a very simple southern man, who lives alone. In true to life fashion, the story of Bob is both humorous and sad, and DBT paint another story of someone you know or know of.

Shonna Tucker's voice is sultry and deep, similar to Neko Case. She only gets three songs this time out, but it's a nice break to hear her pretty and sad voice on tracks like "Purgatory Line," and her backing vocals balance Hood and Cooley's deep, rough voices nicely.

As I mentioned before, though, Hood steals the limelight with biographies like "The Righteous Path" ("Don't know God but I fear his wrath/ and I'm trying to stay focused on the righteous path"), "Daddy Needs a Drink" ("To calm down his badness/ to execute his gladness.../So Mama fix one quick/ pour it nice and strong"), and "The Homefront" ("And she paces 'cross the floor/ and she can't even get to sleep/ since Tony went to war"). The real winner on the album though is "That Man I Shot," a nightmarish and realistic portrayal of a soldier's troubles with his part in the war. All guitar feedback and frenetic pace, you can feel the man's inner struggle with the man he shot, as he "still can see him, when I should be sleeping, tossing and turning." Upon close listening you can even hear a woman's voice saying "Baby?" amidst the opening feedback, heightening the nightmare feeling. With haunting lyrics like "Sometimes I wonder if I should be there/ I hold my little ones until he disappears/ I hold my little ones until he disappears/ I hold my little ones until he disappears," it stands as one of the greatest songs written about our generation's war yet.

I highly recommend this album, and while I can't say there are no missteps across the 19 tracks, I can certainly forgive them because of the sheer amount of great music released on Brighter Than Creations Dark.

Drive-By Truckers Website
Drive-By Truckers MySpace

MP3: Drive-By Truckers - Two Daughters and a Beautiful Wife
MP3: Drive-By Truckers - That Man I Shot

New Music Tuesday - The Whigs

2008-04-15T05:22:00.004-07:00

The Whigs - Mission Control
3.5 out of 5

Ok, so I wanted to review the new Blood Red Shoes album this week, but unfortunately the U.S. iTunes doesn't carry it, so I'm gonna have to find another way to get my hands on it. In it's place I'm going to review a little bit of an older one: Mission Control by the Whigs came out in January of this year. Mission Control is a great sophomore effort, with a few standouts amidst a solid group of loosely country-based rock songs. The album opens with "Like a Vibration," which introduces us to Parker Gispert's slightly twangy, raspy holler and Julian Dorio's furious drumming. The drumming in particular is important to note, because when the songs start to feel a little stagnant and like your typical alt-rock, power chord ditties, the drums are what lift the Whigs above their peers by pushing the songs along. The Whigs take a few risks on this one that pay off as well, as on the pretty and lazy "Sleep Sunshine." Parker's drunken drawl, slide guitars, and a lilting drum and chord progression make for a slightly psychedelic, laying-in-bed-with-a-hangover song.

The gold star of the record, however, goes to the straight-forward rock anthem "Right Hand on My Heart." Opening with a great pounding drum beat, and closely followed by a continuously pounded distorted note, it's instantly grabbing. By the time Parker starts singing, "All the fallen leaves will find their branches again," there's no way out. One repeated verse, one note backing it, and a desperate chorus add up to one seriously catchy song. Add in a wild man yelp and a blistering guitar solo and you have my early leader for song of the year.

Although not terribly original (think of a more comprehensible Kings of Leon or a less countryish Son Volt), this is a solid rock album you can put on and listen to from start to finish, with other highlights like the horn-infused "I Got Ideas," and the two-chord stomp of "Hot Bed." If you use iTunes pick this up for only $6.99

The Whigs Homepage
The Whigs Myspace

MP3: The Whigs - Right Hand on My Heart
MP3: The Whigs - I Got Ideas

New Music Tuesday - The Black Keys

2008-04-08T02:49:00.003-07:00

The Black Keys - Attack & Release
3.5 out of 5

I love supporting Ohio music/sports/agricultural superiority, so nothing gives me more pleasure than the way the Black Keys have exploded out of Akron, Ohio over the past few years. They were under the radar for a few years, but their latest album, Attack & Release, was produced by none other than Danger Mouse (of "the Grey Album" and Gnarls Barkley fame) and was actually written as an album for Ike Turner to sing. So I'm gonna go ahead and say that they are no longer under the radar.

So how did their collaboration with the Mouse go? I'm not going to lie to you: this is not the Black Keys as you know them. They have moved out of the garage, away from the one guitar/one drum set mindset, and away from straight blues+punk rock. But just because they have expanded their sound away from a formula that has worked outstandingly in the past, it doesn't mean they haven't made a great CD. It might take you a few listens to get used to the cleaned up sound, but there is a lot to love here.

The first single, "Strange Times," starts out as very straight-forward blues rock, standard Keys stuff here. But when Dan Auerbach starts to sing, you notice a lot more reverb and distance in his voice, rather than the right-next-to-you-rock sound. Once you get to the refrain, any Black Keys fan might be a little lost: is that a choir? As I said, different doesn't equal bad. This album the keys have added choirs, keys, banjo, and yes, even a flute. The next song, "Psychotic Girl," gets even more trippier than "Strange Times," with plenty of "spacey" sounding stuff going on, but the Black Keys wear all this new flash well.

The first few times I heard the CD, the more straightforward rockers ("I Got Mine," "Remember When (Side B)") were the songs I considered to be the best. After more listens, though, the trippy "Psychotic Girl," the nearly hip-hop drum and flute infused "Same Old Thing," and the sweet, bluegrass backing vocals and slow organ crawl of "Things Ain't Like They Used to Be," have turned out to be just as good, if not better, than the garage rock that got me into the Black Keys in the first place. Dan's guitar, despite being mixed much lower than usual, is still superb, but what really makes the new songs compelling are the beautiful bluesy lyrics crooned throughout, combined with great songcraft.

While there are some forgettable songs (generally the slower songs with less of a distinct melody) the Black Keys have proven they are no one-trick pony, with a little production help from Danger Mouse. While the album as a whole doesn't reach the near perfection of their album Rubber Factory, there are plenty of great songs to make this one worth your while. If the Black Keys can take some of these newer styled songs and put them on an album that leans a little more heavily on their traditional sound, their name might be more well known than the other little guitar/drum duo with a color in the name.

Black Keys Homepage
Black Keys Myspace

MP3: The Black Keys - I Got Mine
MP3: The Black Keys - Psychotic Girl

Bands to Hear

2008-04-07T05:26:00.005-07:00

Blood Red Shoes: Stealing Dan's thunder, but hearing some of his new bands I was reminded of another boy/girl band I saw when I was in the desert and watching international MTV. I was blown away, and the second time their video came on I cranked it up... loud (in fact I've listened to it 3 times during the posting of this blog)! They were just mentioned in Spin Magazine, so I'm sort of disappointed I didn't mention them earlier. Pretty soon everyone will know them. This song is the one I saw, and they have a new album coming out in about a week. May see a review from me soon!

MP3: Blood Red Shoes - It's Getting Boring By The Sea

Bands to hear

2008-04-06T10:03:00.005-07:00

hey guys, just wanted to share some bands I've been obsessively listening to. I don't know much about them, but search around their myspace and I think you'll be pleased. First up,

Bryan Scary and the Shredding Tears
- They're a little all over the place, but the energy is intense - I bet their concerts are off the hook. Most songs start and end completely different so it take a few listens to get a good grasp.

Angus & Julia Stone
- This australian brother-sister pair has been gaining momentum the last few years, and when I heard Paper Aeroplane I was an immediate fan.

The Born Ruffians
- These guys were in Cleveland last week. I wish I had known I would have mentioned sooner. Start with Foxes Mate for Life, an all encompassing track.

My Music Doesn't Suck.... You Suck

2008-04-04T01:27:00.007-07:00

I don't know if any of you have had this same problem: dude picks up my iPod and starts scrolling through it. After a few minutes, he says, "What is this? You have the worst music EVER!" I said, "What's on there that's bad?" His reply: "I have never heard of any of this."

Just because you haven't heard of something doesn't mean it sucks. Everyone has heard of Britney Spears and N*Sync. Does that mean they are good music? Ignorance pisses me off. Just because it's not on the radio doesn't mean it's not worth hearing, and just because it is doesn't make it good either. I have to say there is something to a song everyone knows-- "Hey Ya" comes on and the kids are dancing, the grandmas are dancing, you get the picture. But what about the songs that could be the "Hey Ya's" if only they were heard? So here is a quick 20ish songs that should be classics, but that most of the people in my world have never heard of. Self-imposed rules: gotta be a song most people I work with don't know from a band they've probably never heard of; not on my best of 2007 list; one song per artist.

In no particular order:
Sleater-Kinney- One Beat
Drive-By Truckers- Sink Hole
Ween - Voodoo Lady
Scissor Sisters - Take Your Mama Out
Mike Doughty - The Only Answer
Elliott Smith - Southern Belle
Iron & Wine - Lion's Mane
Sufjan Stevens - The Predatory Wasp of the Palisades is Out to Get Us!
Red House Painters - Make Like Paper
The Whigs - Right Hand on My Heart
The Thermals - Power Doesn't Run on Nothing
TV on the Radio - Wolf Like Me
The Streets - Don't Mug Yourself
Dizzee Rascal - Stand Up Tall
Ryan Adams - Note to Self: Don't Die
Broken Social Scene - It's All Gonna Break
Rilo Kiley - A Better Son/Daughter
Tilly & the Wall - Reckless
Uncle Tupelo - No Depression
Regina Spektor - Us
Deltron 3030 - 3030
The Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Date with the Night
Vampire Weekend - One (Blake's Got a New Face)
Rodrigo Y Gabriela - Stairway to Heaven

Happy Happy and Broke

2008-04-02T12:39:00.001-07:00

Ok so yesterday I finally broke down and bought Rock Band. 180 dollars gone. Let me tell you it was waaaaay worth it. Good lord this game is so much better than Guitar Hero. Gone is all the hair metal and heavy metal, in it's stay is all sorts of sweet indie and alternative rock. The fucking New Pornographers have a song on here. Did you hear me I was drumming to a New Pornographers song. It's soo cool. Anyway this is all loosely music related. If you have the cash i hghlly recommend it. Especially if you have friends. Next weekend I'm getting some friends over to my new apartment and it's gonna be band time. Ok well that's it on Rock Band.

Les - Best of 2007

2008-04-01T19:21:00.008-07:00

First of all, I never announced my favorites from 2006 so heres a quick late nod to "Stairs and Elevators" - Heartless Bastards, "Robbers & Cowards" - Cold War Kids, "Night Ripper" - Girl Talk, & "Till the Sun Turns Black" - Ray LaMontagne

Okay, let's get down to brass tacks (don't sit on 'em). My top albums of 2007 is kind of a cheat because I didn't hear one of them until 2008. Rules don't apply today... this is my list.

HM. "Because of the times" - Kings of Leon

5. "Graduation" - Kanye West

4. "In Rainbows" - Radiohead

3. "All Hour Cymbals" - Yeasayer

2. "Armchair Apocrypha" - Andrew Bird

1. "Person Pitch" - Panda Bear

I hope I can edit this later, because at some point I would like to break down my favorite songs.

New Music Tuesday - Sun Kil Moon

2008-03-31T23:17:00.006-07:00

Sun Kil Moon - April

4.5 out of 5

I'm glad I'm married to my first love, because Sun Kil Moon's new album is going to turn you into a giant, emotional, blubbering mess of a human being reminiscing about yours. If the album is titled "April" in order to appropriate an overall theme, it isn't the April of sunny days of backyard baseball or sundresses and Easter. This is the April of "showers" fame, of walking down a chilly, wind-blown street, of sitting inside on a gray day with nothing to do but think about lost loves and the past. In fact, I'm not sure if Mark Kozelek (Sun Kil Moon is little more than a stage name for Mark's solo work) knows how to write a song that isn't in the past-tense. If you are a nostalgic person at all, this album is your holy grail. Mark conjures images of friends and lovers, and shrouds them in idealism and longing. He does this atop a backdrop of the most trance inducing fingerpicked and/or fuzzy guitar until you are a part of his inward and backward looking world. If anyone knows and embraces his obsessive ability to dig up the past, its Kozelek, with lines like:

I have all these memories, I don't know what for.
I have them and I can't help it.
Some overflow and spill out like waves,
Some I will harbor for all of my days

Some part of me is amazed that he harbors any of his memories because he seems to tell a whole life in each song.

The album starts with a couple of distorted Neil Youngian epics (much in the same vein as his first SKM release, "Ghosts of the Great Highway"), "Lost Verses" and "The Light." They clock in at 9:43 and 7:50, respectively, but Mark finds a way to keep his songs from becoming exhaustive. If it is possible to be intricate and simple at the same time, that would describe his style. His music has many layers, whether from his intricate fingerpicking, layered solos, or vocals, but his songs are never hard to follow, as they were in his days as the leader of The Red House Painters. Once he finds some intricate pretty little thing, he plays it again and again, until it sounds so simple and so light. This is what leads to the meditative and lulling aura of this album. And just before a song starts to get too repetitive, he mixes it up, as he does in both "Lost Verses" and "Tonight in Bilbao," where at the end of the song he introduces a completely new beat and invigorated melody. These little shifts always come at just the right time, and breathe new life into a song you think you have figured out.

If the first two songs recall "Ghosts of the Great Highway," the rest of the CD is an amazing expansion on his latest CD, "Tiny Cities," both physically ("Tiny Cities" was barely a half hour long, while "April" is more than double that), and musically. The fingerpicking is incredible and moving. Songs like "Unlit Hallway" (which sounds beautiful with some vocals from Bonnie "Prince" Billy), "Tonight in Bilbao," and "Blue Orchids" demonstrate that Mark is still one of the most impressive and underrated guitar players around. The arpeggios in both the bridge and end of "Tonight in Bilbao" are mind-blowing, and in "Tonight the Sky" his solo noodles into fuzzy oblivion.

Despite all of the wonderful guitar and catching melodies, what really makes the album work is the way Mark Kozelek can spin a yarn. In the gorgeous song "Moorestown" he sings, as on most of the tracks, of a lost love. Obviously, this has been done before, but he has the ability to put you there, in the shoes of the protagonist, by using the starkest details while at the same time singing about somewhere that could be "Anytown, USA." "Her walls are Mediterranean blue/ Her baby sister picked the hue," against "We'd spend our days just driving round/ Old parking lots and neighborhoods/ Our framed and charming Moorestown."

I think time will tell if "April" will be as good as "Ghosts of the Great Highway," which I still consider to be Mark's finest work, because his music is enticing at first, but the more it's heard, the more it's understood and the finer it becomes. This is easily the best, most complete album I've heard this year, and I demand you pick it up. 74 minutes will never go by so fast again.

Buy it straight from Kozelek's

Caldo Verde Records (7.99 download)

Sun Kil Moon - Moorestown

New Music Tuesday - Counting Crows

2008-03-30T01:45:00.005-07:00

Counting Crows - Saturday Nights and Sunday Mornings

4 out of 5 stars
Ok, so Tuesday is a little late this week, as Anne was out visiting. But I still managed to download and listen to this CD a few times since then. This is my most anticipated CD in years, and despite my obviously high expectations, it exceeded them! This is the first full length release from the Crows since Hard Candy back in 2002, so they've had more than enough time to work on this one.

The CD is a concept album of sorts, with the first half ("Saturday Nights") being hard rocking songs of partying, and the second half ("Sunday Nights") being the more somber, regretful day after. It's a great way to highlight the fact that the Crows even have hard-rockers, and of course the downtrodden songs are always lead singer Adam Duritz' forte.

The album starts with "1492," a song I'm pretty sure the Crows have been touring with for a few years, and I think they just finally found a home for it here. The guitars are wailing and the song is loud and immediate. It's definitely "Saturday Night," and it kicks the album into a stream of songs with loud, layered guitars, plenty of neat little licks, and wonderfully written songs. Adams voice sounds great on every song, and each song feels like the band is playing live-- they are filled with energy.

The last song of "Saturday Nights" is "Cowboys," the best song the Counting Crows have done since "Mr. Jones." The song is loud, immediate, filled with paranoia and despair, and catchy as hell. The "come on, come on" lyric from "Accidentally in Love," is back, but this time it is the flip side of love; it's the selfish need of love and attention. It's the song after one too many drinks, when you're starting let all your insecurities out and frankly, you're kind of scaring people. It's a great lead-in for Adam to start telling his Sunday morning stories.

The last half of the album has the Crows going very country, in the way they did on the album This Desert Life. More Americana or roots rock than Nashville, but the songs have plenty of slide guitar and banjo. The slow songs are more forgettable than the first half of the CD, but one of the highlights is "When I Dream of Michaelangelo." Adam steals a line from his "Angels of the Silences" from Recovering the Satellites to string a little song about faith and sex and God. Duritz evidently misinterpreted Michaelangelo's scene with God and Adam as not having just touched fingers, but as Adam not being able to actually touch God: "And he seems so close as he reaches out his hand/ But we are never quite as close as we are led to understand." If there is a better line about alienation from your creator, I haven't heard it. "On a Tuesday in Amsterdam Long Ago" Adam does his recquisite solo piano, horribly sad song ("Raining in Baltimore" on August and Everything After, "Colorblind" on This Desert Life). "Come back to me/come back to me" he croons, mournfully, over and over, and the song would be a little repetitive if it weren't for the emotional impact of Adam's voice. It's also got a great little line in there: "She is the film of a book of the story/ Of the smell of her hair." The album ends with a nice little song about getting dumped called "Come Around." It's sort of a happy song in disguise, as it's about a guy who is hard on his luck, but he is on his way back up.

Overall, the album does start to lag because of the slow/midtempo songs starting to back up, but this is a great CD for all Counting Crows fans and rock fans in general. It's not indie, but this isn't your standard pop either. The music is wonderfully made, lyrics full of emotion and story, and it sounds like a band having fun. Check it out.

Counting Crows Website

Counting Crows - Cowboys
Counting Crows - 1492

I guess the point is i really fucking love this album

2008-03-28T11:34:00.003-07:00

Ok in the last blog i wrote i said i'd bought the new Kathleen Edwards album ' Asking for Flowers'. So i'll give a quick review for you all. The review is this BUY IT. Get over the fact that it's a girl singing. Get over the fact that she has a country twang to her and BUY this album.
I've been a fan of Kathleen Edwards since her first album 'Failer' came out in 2002. It was a great pissed of country album. She wrote great songs about drinking, bars, sex, drugs, loss. Now i know what your thinking. My baby took my dog i'm gonna drink and be a cowboy music is crap. It is. All of it. This is different. The reason is that Kathleen edwards is an incredible lyrisist. She tells these brief little stories and builds the songs around them. They're much more touching and emotionally powerful because of her abilities as a songwritter.
'Asking for Flowers' is a big shift from her first two albums. She's grown comfortable in her skin. While her second album 'Back to Me' was better then 'Failer' because it took the anger and sorrow up a notch, 'Flowers' is better then 'Back to Me' because it tones everything down and really looks inward. These songs are very personal. Specific moments in her life are laid out to pen a complete picture of Edwards' life.
Let's just take one line from the title song apart. This is a song about a woman in a long term relationship comming to terms with her lover not really loving her. Her life has been less then it could be because of this man. '' Asking for flowers, is like asking you to be nice. Don't tell me your to tired, ten years i've been working nights'' everything you need to know about that couple is right there in that line. Working class low income family. He's mean to her and doesn't buy her flowers, which is all she really wants from him. Yet she still wants to love him and again he pushes her away saying he's just to tired. All of this tied into a single line of her song.
The singer songwriter is the most self centered type of music. No matter what you do your paining a self portrait. People assume they know you by the way you come across in your songs. Nina Nastasia is a dark eyed lady of the night, Kristen Hersh is pretty fucking crazy, Joni Mitchell is much smarter and much sadder then anyone else on the planet. These are all stereotypes i get from listening to my favorite female singer songwritters. Kathleen Edwards is a girl who can drink you under the table, fuck your brains out, come home covered in dirt after being away for 4 days and who beats the shit and trashes the car of someone who does her wrong.
Ok this is getting all disjointed in long because i didn't prewrite and i'm at the library and can't listen to the person i'm talking baout. So i'll wrap it up.
This is a great album. Start to finish every song is solid and i haven't skipped a song. I've bought about 20 albums in the last month and this one is getting pretty much all of my time. Buy it, listen to it and love it.

Ok let's start

2008-03-24T16:23:00.002-07:00

Ok not much time. I'm on my way home from work, but i did want to make a post to say that I am going to post.

So I've been buying a lot of music. Even for me. Yes, I did say buying. I'm rebuilding my CD collection from scratch. I've been getting 3 cds every 2 weeks, maybe more if I'm not spending my money on anything else. Today I bought Against Me- New wave The Headlights- Some Racing, Some Stopping and Kathleen Edwards - ( I forget the name but it has something to do with flowers). I love Kathleen Edwards and she's one of the few people I will buy a cd of the day it comes out without hearing anything about it. Her first 2 are grea Alt country and her writting gets better every album. Against me is an interesting pun-rock group who suddenlly got political. I didn't give it much of a listen, but i will tonight. The headlights are a lot like Saturday Looks Good to Me.....the cricket noise means nobody knows who that is. There Indie pop along the lines of belle and sebastian and architecture in helsinki.... more b & s though. Anyway I'll drop some reviews after i give them a few listens.

Anyway I have a lot I want to write about. I'm going to spend some time to night puting together a post and put it up tomorrow. Have fun everyone.

P.S. Yeah I can't wait for the new Sun Kill Moon....and who got you into them mike?

An iPod Diary

2008-03-23T07:05:00.012-07:00

I recently connected my iPod to my computer for the first time in what has no doubt been nearly year. As such, the track count recorded by my mini is a close approximation of my most played tracks of 2007. The list is organized as the most played starting with Jack Johnson, which I wouldn't have expected but now I realize I do listen to that song kind of a lot. I was also amused by the clear distinction in tempo between the first 10 and the other 10. I underestimated the psychoanalytical potential of this post.

There were two songs I couldn't find on imeem so they got the boot: "Maybe you can owe me" by Architecture in Helsinki and "The Calendar Girl" by Stars. One album that didn't crack the top 20 but dominated the next group was Yann Tiersen's soundtrack to "Amelie."

John will post eventually, right?

New Sun Kil Moon Album Streaming on MySpace

2008-03-19T21:33:00.002-07:00

My friend Nick just told me about this one. From Sun Kil Moon's Website:

April, the new album by Sun Kil Moon, is being streamed March 18th through March 20th at www.myspace.com/sunkilmoon. The album will be in stores April 1st and is available to order now at http://www.caldoverderecords.com/

Since I've been counting down the days til this release, it's pretty exciting news. He is touring as well (2 dates in Japan, what do you think the odds are I could make it there?) and as Nick and I can tell you, his show is amazing and definitely not ordinary. "No pictures, no recording, no talking." Yes, no talking. Anyways, my review of this will be up on April 1st, but check out this preview first.

We're from Barcelona

2008-03-18T18:33:00.009-07:00

It shouldn't be any surprise that I'm a sucker for the band genre of bordeline-cult-ensembles. We're from Barcelona fits neatly on my imaginary shelf where I would hypothetically keep tiny versions of the Polyphonic Spree and Architecture in Helsinki to play me happy songs on a rainy day. Their album debuted in 2006, but it's clearly still making an impression. Their debut US performance also just happened to be at Lollapalooza last August. I'm not convinced they'll have as lasting of an impression on me as Architecture has, but wanted to share with you anyway. I don't have quite the enthusiasm to write as thoroughly as Mike, so here is what some satisfied pitchfork writers had to say:

Pitchfork song review: “We're From Barcelona” *****
Pitchfork Album review: Let me Introduce All of My Friends [8.4]

I'm From Barcelona Myspace

New Music Tuesday - Mike Doughty

2008-03-18T04:08:00.009-07:00

Mike Doughty - Golden Delicious

Mike Doughty is one of my favorite wordsmiths of all time. How can you beat a refrain of "is Chicago/ is not Chicago?" Or how about "the best I ever did with my love/ said just three honest words to you/ three droplets in a pail of lies/ three gems among the alibis." The guy can make things sound right that just shouldn't sound right. When he was the frontman for Soul Coughing his lyrics hardly mattered because of the craziness going on around them, but when he went solo his lyrics were right there front and center. And luckily so was the guitar- his "gangadank" guitar style is buried in those old SC songs, but in his solo stuff you really start to hear the personality and skill involved with his guitar playing. That's why this CD is so hard to swallow. On his first major label solo album, Haughty Melodic, he sounded a lot more adult contemporary than most Doughty fans were expecting. If you didn't like that direction, this album is not gonna help. Not that Golden Delicious isn't a good album, it's just not as good an album as Mike could make.

The album starts off with two songs very much in the style of the single from his last album, "Looking at the World From the Bottom of a Well." Plenty of layers and keyboards and guitars and pianos, that really hide the essence of his music in Q104 goodness. "Fort Hood" and "I Just Want the Girl in the Blue Dress to Keep on Dancing" are catchy and all, but the third track, "Put It Down," starts to appeal a little more to the old school fans. Still plenty of production, but the word playing in the refrain and the "na na na's" done in a way you haven't heard before spice it up. This is followed by the biggest misstep in M. Doughty's backlog; "More Bacon Than the Pan Can Handle," a song that attempts to recall the Soul Coughing days and fails painfully. He follows this up with "27 Jennifers," which is another catchy song, but was better when he did a simpler version with a guitar and a drum machine on his Rockity Roll EP.

The first of a string of great songs hits after that. "I Wrote a Song About Your Car" works because the simplicity of the production allows the songwriting to shine through. Then the truly stripped down song, "I Got the Drop on You," grabs you. Dark and heavy, just Mike, a guitar, and a little piano trickling in. The emotion bleeds from this song that seems to be about Doughty's drug addiction days (many of his songs in the past can be read in the same way, including "Looking at the World"). Another beautiful song follows, the partially bi-lingual "Wednesday (Contra la Puerta)," and Doughty paints a somber, pretty scene without really telling much of a coherent story. The end of Golden Delicious heads back towards mid-tempo rock with catchy songs like "Luminous Girl," "Nectarine (Part 1)," and "Navigating By the Stars at Night." The CD ends on a particularly weak note with the syrupy "Book of Love," which dies, despite the simple accompaniment, due to the weakness of the lyrics.

Overall, if you are a Doughty fan, you should definitely check this out, because there's enough of the stuff you love about his music trying to dig its way out of this album. If you are just an alt music fan, I would still recommend this CD, but it's not the strongest stuff in his catalog (check out Skittish/Rockity Roll or any of the Soul Coughing albums for one of the most underrated bands of the '90s). Hopefully we will see more from Mike Doughty soon, and if you have a chance to see him live, DO IT! His shows strip his stuff down to just the good stuff, and plus he keeps them good fun with excellent banter, ad libbed songs, and guitar playing you will be trying to learn for weeks afterwards (until you pretty much give up).

Mike Doughty Website (on tour now with The Panderers, who sound pretty good too)

Mike Doughty MySpace

Tilly & the Wall - Beat Control

2008-03-17T16:24:00.012-07:00

I'll never forget my introduction to Tilly & the Wall, and I'm willing to bet whoever was with me that night won't be able to either. Few bands exist that have the talent of removing bodily inhibitions quite like them. I became the guy standing too close to you, dancing in a way that can only be compared to the way Pheobe runs. Without further ado, I present my first obsession of 2008: Beat Control.

Tilly & the Wall Myspace

Bon Iver - For Emma, Forever Ago

2008-03-12T23:51:00.007-07:00

Bon Iver - For Emma, Forever Ago
Submitted by Mike
jjjjj

Alright, I know I just posted, but I can't help myself, because I am obsessed with Bon Iver (pronounced bonn eevair, french for "good winter"). Guy's name is Justin Vernon, and, like Sam Beam, he self-recorded and produced his album For Emma, Forever Ago. Frustrated with his career and thinking of giving up professional music altogether, he holed up by himself in his dad's hunting cabin in Wisconsin, snowed in for four months, just to figure out his life. Evidently he brought along a few instruments, because the music he made up there is amazing. His voice is often compared to Tunde Adebimpe of TV on the Radio, but his sound is much more like Iron & Wine. His vocals are reverbed, layered, and include lots of falsetto, and the acoustic accompaniment is simple, but includes plenty of random noise to keep things a little ghostly. Anyways, he's picked up a ton of momentum due to blog buzz, an 8.1 pitchfork revew, and he's listed in Paste Magazine's 4 to Watch for March. He's touring right now (played the Grog Shop in Cleveland March 6th, so Drew and John J you missed your chance) and I'm gonna obviously miss his Seattle show, but yeah, if there is anyone else out there reading this, you should go see him. Okay, that's it.

Bon Iver Myspace

Bon Iver - Skinny Love.mp3

Dan's Best of 2007

2008-03-12T01:51:00.007-07:00

Dan's Best of 2007

I was having a hard time coming up with lists long enough so I reduced the numbers to 5 & 10 (+HMs). Playlist included as well....

Top 5 Albums of 2007

HM "Raising Sand" Robert Plant & Alison Kraus

HM "The Mating Game" - Bitter:sweet

5. "Wincing the Night Away" - The Shins

4. "Too Young to Fight It" - Young Love

3. "The Reminder" - Feist

2. "Armchair Apocrypla" - Andrew Bird

1. "Life in Cartoon Motion" - Mika

Top 10 Songs of 2007

HM "All Will be Well" - Gabe Dixon Band

HM "Click, Click, Click, Click" - Bishop Allen

10. "Hey there Delilah" - Plain White T's

9. "Silver Lining" - Rilo Kiley

8. "Dark Matter" - Andrew Bird

7. "Beautiful Girls" - Sean Kingston

6. "Two" - Ryan Adams

5. "1234" - Feist

4. "Candyman" - Christina Aguilera

3. "I go to sleep" - Sia

2. "D.A.N.C.E." - Justice

1. "Grace Kelly" - Mika

Mike's Best of 2007

2008-03-08T20:36:00.004-08:00

Mischief's Best of 2007

Alright, due to my being a compulsive lister, listener of new music, and spreader of my opinions this is my first blog post for Drew, Dan, and the Johns. The Best CDs and songs of 2007. I had a hard time making it only 20 songs-- I could definitely do 40, but I am limiting myself, because who wants to read a list over 20? By the way, playlist below has the full list (minus one that I couldn't find, and one accidental live version). Ok, without further ado:

Top 10 CDs of 2007:

10) The Shins - Wincing the Night Away

9) The Arcade Fire - Neon Bible

8) MGMT - Oracular Spectacular

7) Battles - Mirrored

6) Radiohead - In Rainbows

5) Ryan Adams - Easy Tiger

4) Rilo Kiley - Under the Blacklight

3) The White Stripes - Icky Thump

2) Modest Mouse - We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank

1) Iron & Wine - The Shepherd's Dog

Top 20ish Songs of 2007:

HM) Make It Wit Chu by Queens of the Stone Age from Era Vulgaris

HM) Bodysnatchers by Radiohead from In Rainbows

20) Antichrist Television Blues by The Arcade Fire from Neon Bible

19) You Got Yr. Cherry Bomb by Spoon from Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga

18) Detlef Schrempf by Band of Horses from Cease to Begin

17) Two by Ryan Adams from Easy Tiger

16) Ddiamondd by Battles from Mirrored

15) Pretty Girl from Chile by The Avett Brothers from Emotionalism

14) Halloweenhead by Ryan Adams from Easy Tiger

13) Boy with a Coin by Iron & Wine from The Shepherd's Dog

12) Electric Feel by MGMT from Oracular Spectacular

11) Rag and Bone by The White Stripes from Icky Thump

10) Our Live is Not a Movie or Maybe by Okkervil River from The Stage Names

9) Spitting Venom by Modest Mouse from We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank

8) Little Weapon by Lupe Fiasco from Lupe Fiasco's The Cool

7) We've Got Everything by Modest Mouse from We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank

6) White Tooth Man by Iron & Wine from The Shepherd's Dog

5) The Moneymaker by Rilo Kiley from Under the Blacklight

4) D.A.N.C.E. by Justice from Cross

3) Time to Pretend by MGMT from Oracular Spectacular

2) All My Friends by LCD Soundsystem from Sound of Silver

1) Stronger by Kanye West from Graduation

2004-02-17T19:44:00.000-08:00

First post, and probably last.