Last Tuesday I played what is, I guess, the first Natural Light show. Or live action. It's the name I have been using for a whole bunch of stuff. Mainly this blog, art stuff, and some music I've made / played during the last 9 month or so. After last Tuesday, I have derived the following statistic:
Number of good first shows: zero.
I played two cover songs. The first was WHY?'s "The Fall of Mr. Fifths" done as a capella rap sort of thing. Second was a cover of Casiotone for the Painfully Alone's "Killers".
Mr. Fifths went fine. Killers did not.
The biggest difference is probably my own outlook on what I wanted to achieve vs. what I did. Both songs were things I wanted to do, and with the first I did what I wanted to do. I don't really care whether or not anyone watching/listening liked what they were hearing. It's not about that. It is about feeling like I was accomplishing what I set out to do: performing my arrangements of music that means a tremendous amount to me.
I really do get that there might be a disconnect playing such a heavy song when the show started with a Rebecca Black parody. But it's what I wanted to do. Whoever laughed, as if "I know your mom was your age when she had your brother" was a punchline, you are not my intended audience. For this performance, or for anything I will ever create or do in my life. You are not what bothers me. That I played so poorly does.
A lot of it comes down to rehearsing in conditions that were a lot different from the performance itself. Not even now being in front of lights and crowd that probably doesn't care about your music specifically. Things like standing at a keyboard instead of sitting at a piano, basically turning into a totally different instrument under my fingers. Having a drum machine on my right instead of on the left. Things I should have foreseen, thought about, and planned for and didn't.
There were problems with my ability to play a keyboard, sequence, and sing at the same time. And there were technical problems, like something with the drums sounding pretty shitty running through the amp I had to use last minute. And problems with the event itself, where coordinator was insanely rude and asked me, act 18 of 21, to only play one song for the sake of time roughly 50 seconds before I went on.
I was kind of mortified and devastated immediately after, and thanks extensively to my girlfriend, and thanks a small, surprising bit to some guy who came up to me in the parking lot afterward, felt a little better the next day.
Still, I think the experience is something important to come to terms with and talk about while it's still vaguely permeating my thoughts. I won't really get a chance to talk about a first show ever again, anyway.
I don't know when I'll ever do this again (or have the chance to), but I'm not writing it off as completely as I was when I walked off the stage. I have been writing a lot of new stuff (terribly, terribly fragmented new stuff). A semi relevant one:
to never fall into that trap
of a disappointing live act
songs becoming old and played lived less
wearing out not unlike i did sometime after the 12th grade
the run-on of ritualistic mass transit
the reason for this, the reason to consider language in...finite
and it felt infinite
as for what i did to deserve this
went to college, got nervous
I still think about this all a lot.
Showing posts with label music. Show all posts
Showing posts with label music. Show all posts
Monday, May 2, 2011
Everything I am Listening To 4
Felt Drawings - Body
(stream/free download)
It's best to get this out of the way first: Body is an incredibly good album. Body is also an unrelentingly sad album. It details a great loss without hope anywhere on the horizon. Without a laptop in sight, sole-Felt Drawings member Dom Tiberio creates dark, industrial drones highlighted, but never brightened, with dancible synth-pop melodies. Instrumentally, the album is stuff you could dance to but never would. Over which Tiberio's frank lyricism informs the music, answering the question of why this music sounds this way. And why it has to.
It's not an unfamiliar dichotomy (see: the Smiths, the Cure, etc.), but is here taken further and is all the more intriguing for it. Body is pop music daring not to be, and uncaring where it lands. Music that is not literally hard to listen to, but music that can sober any mood. The refrain of "How is it Supposed to Be?" desperately demands "just tell me how to love / show me how it's done", before qualifying the question with the only two options left: "is it kiss and hug or is it punch and blood?" Felt Drawings is high stakes music. Everything or nothing.
There is a lot to love here on Body, but it is going to hurt. And if you are going in, understand you will have to play by some uncomfortable rules. If you put nothing in, nothing is going to come out.
As with life, as with love.
Yuck - s/t
Yuck's self-titled debut is the answer to the question of what it would have sounded like if the band that practiced twice a week in your neighbor's garage back in 1995 had been any good. It's pretty cleat these sounds of the 1990s are something artists find themselves longing for. A decade with tastes and innovations more scattered than united in any one way.
In 2009 Japandroids' Post-Nothing delightfully helped to fill a void that had existed since Pavement disbanded. Last year, Surfer Blood's outstanding debut Astrocoast captured a lot of the things Weezer did on the Blue Album. But it's this Yuck album, in 2011, that manages to decode whatever it was that made rock music in the 90s so loved. It's music that isn't only informed by, but speaks to a period of time ten years passed. This time, the music is not as a reaction to whatever it was happening in the late 1980s, but whatever is happening in the late 2000s (and what that is, I'm not sure anyone knows yet).
Beyond all that, Yuck has made an album of good songs. The album opens with back to back hard rockers and from there covers just about all the ground you'd expect. Things slow down on ""Shook Down", become beautiful on "Suicide Policeman", and eventually distort beyond recognition on Rubber, the album's slowburning conclusion.
Dirty Beaches - Badlands
As Dirty Beaches, sole member Alex Zhang Hungtai, channels the spirit of the 1950s pop utterly. He works inside the ghostly, vague memory of a decade that has gone more or less unacknowledged in the current collective pop music conscious. We nod to Elvis, sure, but contemporary pop music history starts with the Beatles. Many of these sounds are taken directly as Hungtai borrows from a variety of samples and standard melodies. The whole thing sounds like it was bootlegged onto tape by a motorcycle passenger, tuning their radio into some nonexistent copy album. And going seventy miles per hour.
Badlands is frustrating and difficult to understand contextually, but not particularly difficult to listen to and to like. It sounds nothing like anything else happening in music today, but borrows so heavily from its inspirations it creates a bit of a conundrum. Is listening to Hungtai lay down ghostly vocals over a 2 bar sample of Françoise Hardy's "Voilá" worth listening to? And if it is, is it worth attention, praise?
Probably. Because what sounds unimpressive on paper ultimately kind of works. Badlands sounds unlike anything else happening in music today, a phenomenon given weight by the fact that the 1950s have been so widely passed over for so long. With a carefully managed, but effortless—and when you play these songs side by side with the source material, the sensation of low effort is uncomfortably apparent—aesthetic, Badlands is an album worth of attention. If only to have an opinion on it, which is to have an opinion on what music created like this means.
As for praise, lack thereof, or condemnation, you'll have to call this one for yourself.
(stream/free download)
It's best to get this out of the way first: Body is an incredibly good album. Body is also an unrelentingly sad album. It details a great loss without hope anywhere on the horizon. Without a laptop in sight, sole-Felt Drawings member Dom Tiberio creates dark, industrial drones highlighted, but never brightened, with dancible synth-pop melodies. Instrumentally, the album is stuff you could dance to but never would. Over which Tiberio's frank lyricism informs the music, answering the question of why this music sounds this way. And why it has to.
It's not an unfamiliar dichotomy (see: the Smiths, the Cure, etc.), but is here taken further and is all the more intriguing for it. Body is pop music daring not to be, and uncaring where it lands. Music that is not literally hard to listen to, but music that can sober any mood. The refrain of "How is it Supposed to Be?" desperately demands "just tell me how to love / show me how it's done", before qualifying the question with the only two options left: "is it kiss and hug or is it punch and blood?" Felt Drawings is high stakes music. Everything or nothing.
There is a lot to love here on Body, but it is going to hurt. And if you are going in, understand you will have to play by some uncomfortable rules. If you put nothing in, nothing is going to come out.
As with life, as with love.
Yuck - s/t
Yuck's self-titled debut is the answer to the question of what it would have sounded like if the band that practiced twice a week in your neighbor's garage back in 1995 had been any good. It's pretty cleat these sounds of the 1990s are something artists find themselves longing for. A decade with tastes and innovations more scattered than united in any one way.
In 2009 Japandroids' Post-Nothing delightfully helped to fill a void that had existed since Pavement disbanded. Last year, Surfer Blood's outstanding debut Astrocoast captured a lot of the things Weezer did on the Blue Album. But it's this Yuck album, in 2011, that manages to decode whatever it was that made rock music in the 90s so loved. It's music that isn't only informed by, but speaks to a period of time ten years passed. This time, the music is not as a reaction to whatever it was happening in the late 1980s, but whatever is happening in the late 2000s (and what that is, I'm not sure anyone knows yet).
Beyond all that, Yuck has made an album of good songs. The album opens with back to back hard rockers and from there covers just about all the ground you'd expect. Things slow down on ""Shook Down", become beautiful on "Suicide Policeman", and eventually distort beyond recognition on Rubber, the album's slowburning conclusion.
Dirty Beaches - Badlands
As Dirty Beaches, sole member Alex Zhang Hungtai, channels the spirit of the 1950s pop utterly. He works inside the ghostly, vague memory of a decade that has gone more or less unacknowledged in the current collective pop music conscious. We nod to Elvis, sure, but contemporary pop music history starts with the Beatles. Many of these sounds are taken directly as Hungtai borrows from a variety of samples and standard melodies. The whole thing sounds like it was bootlegged onto tape by a motorcycle passenger, tuning their radio into some nonexistent copy album. And going seventy miles per hour.
Badlands is frustrating and difficult to understand contextually, but not particularly difficult to listen to and to like. It sounds nothing like anything else happening in music today, but borrows so heavily from its inspirations it creates a bit of a conundrum. Is listening to Hungtai lay down ghostly vocals over a 2 bar sample of Françoise Hardy's "Voilá" worth listening to? And if it is, is it worth attention, praise?
Probably. Because what sounds unimpressive on paper ultimately kind of works. Badlands sounds unlike anything else happening in music today, a phenomenon given weight by the fact that the 1950s have been so widely passed over for so long. With a carefully managed, but effortless—and when you play these songs side by side with the source material, the sensation of low effort is uncomfortably apparent—aesthetic, Badlands is an album worth of attention. If only to have an opinion on it, which is to have an opinion on what music created like this means.
As for praise, lack thereof, or condemnation, you'll have to call this one for yourself.
Tuesday, April 19, 2011
Yoni & Josiah Wolf (as WHY?) 04.17.11 Philadelphia, PA @ First Unitarian Church
This was the last of three Yoni Wolf solo shows three shows taking place in Philadelphia's First Unitarian Church this weekend, all three with opening support from Frances Quinlan of Hop Along. The space is small, not more than ten rows of pews, each seating three comfortably. The bands set up maybe four feet away from the first row. The extraordinarily intimate setting matched the purpose of the event perfectly And favorably eliminated both a crowd and the need for anyone to stand.
More with aesthetics: It was odd, seeing Yoni at his most put together. His hair showing no signs of the unruly curls that have pervaded WHY? promotional images since the cLOUDDEAD days; instead it is slicked respectably with product. His fairly characteristic mustache sits natural on has face, looking absolutely unnovel. It's the look of a man who might have things together: the same one who posted a picture to facebook of himself signing on first house a week ago..
But his words betrayed him, in the way they've made WHY?'s career doing. Dense, intricate internal rhymes characteristic of earlier WHY? material were matched by some powerful (and powerfully sad, chill-inducing) refrains. On the only item being sold at the merch table--a limited edition screen print--was written the phrase "I know with no uncertainty that I'm uncertain and I don't know." The line was the foundation for a chorus of a song in the middle of the set. Brutally effective, I felt myself wanting to sing along without knowing the words to sing. This question of "ok, but where next?" ran throughout the set, informing nearly all eight of the new songs.
With only two players, arrangements were unexpectedly sparse. Yoni mostly perched at a church piano that had fallen slightly out of tune, Josiah alternating between guitar and bass while operating a bass drum simultaneously. The songs were played with lots of thumping low end, drums keeping time layered with funk-inspired bass lines. Maybe rap-like, maybe not.
As mentioned above, the set (below, with some annotations, including fragments of lyrics so proper titles can be attached once these things have proper titles) was almost entirely comprised of new WHY? material composed between 2007 and now, to be recorded for the next WHY? record in May and June 2011. Stressed online, and again a song or two into the set, a strict rule against any recording was in place. And understandably so, but it's a bit of a bummer that no one will be able to hear these songs again for a few months. Or maybe more than a few, depending.
The hype is hard to handle, especially with the final product farther away than any of us would like. Doing this sort of trial tour so early is the makings for a tough, frustrating wait. In context, it's the highest compliment I can give the band as they and Snake return to the studio with completely new material for the first time in years.
Good luck, godspeed, etc etc. We're waiting to be blown away.
Further considerations: Someone managed to get hold of a setlist for one of these shows, so I am editing in what the setlist calls these songs. The set seems to be exactly the same, with phrases I remember matching up with the current "official" titles.
FRANCES QUINLAN
01. Freshman Year
02. Sally
03. Tibetan Popstars
YONI & JOSIAH WOLF
01. New - Paper
02. New - Always
03. The Vowels Pt. 2
04. Half a Person
05. New (My Most Intimate Geometry) - 27
06. Brook & Waxing
07. New - Distance
08. New - Kevin
09. New - Bitter
10. New - Straw
11. New - Mumps
12-13. Pick Fights / Deceived
Encore:
14. Close to Me
15. These Few Presidents
16. One Rose
More with aesthetics: It was odd, seeing Yoni at his most put together. His hair showing no signs of the unruly curls that have pervaded WHY? promotional images since the cLOUDDEAD days; instead it is slicked respectably with product. His fairly characteristic mustache sits natural on has face, looking absolutely unnovel. It's the look of a man who might have things together: the same one who posted a picture to facebook of himself signing on first house a week ago..
But his words betrayed him, in the way they've made WHY?'s career doing. Dense, intricate internal rhymes characteristic of earlier WHY? material were matched by some powerful (and powerfully sad, chill-inducing) refrains. On the only item being sold at the merch table--a limited edition screen print--was written the phrase "I know with no uncertainty that I'm uncertain and I don't know." The line was the foundation for a chorus of a song in the middle of the set. Brutally effective, I felt myself wanting to sing along without knowing the words to sing. This question of "ok, but where next?" ran throughout the set, informing nearly all eight of the new songs.
With only two players, arrangements were unexpectedly sparse. Yoni mostly perched at a church piano that had fallen slightly out of tune, Josiah alternating between guitar and bass while operating a bass drum simultaneously. The songs were played with lots of thumping low end, drums keeping time layered with funk-inspired bass lines. Maybe rap-like, maybe not.
As mentioned above, the set (below, with some annotations, including fragments of lyrics so proper titles can be attached once these things have proper titles) was almost entirely comprised of new WHY? material composed between 2007 and now, to be recorded for the next WHY? record in May and June 2011. Stressed online, and again a song or two into the set, a strict rule against any recording was in place. And understandably so, but it's a bit of a bummer that no one will be able to hear these songs again for a few months. Or maybe more than a few, depending.
The hype is hard to handle, especially with the final product farther away than any of us would like. Doing this sort of trial tour so early is the makings for a tough, frustrating wait. In context, it's the highest compliment I can give the band as they and Snake return to the studio with completely new material for the first time in years.
Good luck, godspeed, etc etc. We're waiting to be blown away.
Further considerations: Someone managed to get hold of a setlist for one of these shows, so I am editing in what the setlist calls these songs. The set seems to be exactly the same, with phrases I remember matching up with the current "official" titles.
FRANCES QUINLAN
01. Freshman Year
02. Sally
03. Tibetan Popstars
YONI & JOSIAH WOLF
01. New - Paper
Features lyrics shown on a video Yoni posted on his facebook a few weeks ago when he was recording the album 5 demos.
02. New - Always
"like that"
03. The Vowels Pt. 2
From Alopecia (2008)
04. Half a Person
Smiths cover. Same arrangement as on this RadioK session.
05. New (My Most Intimate Geometry) - 27
I actually have this one on a bootleg from early 2009, performed a capella. It sounded really great with piano at the show. The title above is what I named it on the bootleg when I cut up the soundboard two years ago.
06. Brook & Waxing
From Alopecia (2008)
07. New - Distance
"keep distance"
08. New - Kevin
"I know with no uncertainty that I'm uncertain and I don't know."
09. New - Bitter
"liar pretends to confess"
10. New - Straw
"no, I am not ok, boys"
11. New - Mumps
"as ill as I am"
12-13. Pick Fights / Deceived
From the Rubber Traits CD-single / Dumb Hummer 7''. A really cool surprise. I've never seen either of these Rubber Traits/Dumb Hummer b-sides turn up on any bootleg or "almost live" album.
Encore:
14. Close to Me
Cure cover. Posted to the WHY? Myspace in 2008, but to be released on the forthcomng OIBrecords Split Series Vol. 5 this year.
15. These Few Presidents
From Alopecia (2008)
16. One Rose
From Eskimo Snow (2009)
Monday, March 14, 2011
Everything I am Listening To 3
Astronautalis - Midday Moon (single)
(stream/purchase)
We know some stuff about 'The Four Fists', a forthcoming collaborative EP from Astronautalis and P.O.S. A title, for one. What it's about (F. Scott Fitzgerald short stories converted into song. And, sure, why not), for a big second. Astronautalis' upcoming, untitled solo album is different. He's playing this one close to his chest, and the release of Midday Moon is one of our only clues (the other being that the good company of anticon.'s Alias will be handling a few tracks) as to what the thing is going sound like.
And it sounds pretty remarkable. When asked, Andy told me that James Blake (who I'll get to eventually, promise) wasn't a direct influence on the track's production, but it's impossible not to hear for those familiar. Which is a Good Thing. Tons of synths sounding at once cut in and out like saws, over which Astronautalis does his hip-hop thing. He's distanced a bit from his whiskey-worn persona that informed a much of 2008's Pomegranate. It never worn out its welcome, but movement toward the quiet and the not-there is refreshing. Whenever this thing gets a name, it'll be one to remember to look out for.
note: I'm going to include a link to artist's bandcamp pages when available/possible. Mostly because it's a great service that let's you give a few dollars directly to artists who deserve it.
Destroyer - Kaputt
Kaputt is mostly songs that will kinda sorta remind you of Destroyer's Rubies, but is actually reminding you of something else. Which is to say, most of Kaputt lands closer to 2008's Trouble in Dreams, when the jazzy, carefree Bejar-sound started to wear a bit thin. Things are certainly better on Kaputt, but for all of the programmed drums and loops that replace the jaunty live energy of Destroyer's Rubies. Somehow, for all this, the final product is just not all that exceptional for someone who has been keeping an ear out in Bejar's direction.
The album closes with the standout "Bay of Pigs (Detail)", a track that might be humanity's first and only foray into the, uh, ambient-disco genre. That Kaputt's highlight is plucked mostly wholesale from an EP released on the tail-end of 2009 probably means something, but it was interesting then and is maybe even more interesting now. The unexpected synth stabs still suggest new direction, but do so when change for Destroyer is needed more than ever.
The Mountain Goats - All Eternal's Deck
This is not a twist in the vein of Mount Eerie's Black Wooden Ceiling Opening. It is not exactly the unexpected black metal record that the All Eternal's Deck art, title, and super legitimate, super hyped production credits might suggest. Those hopes and assumptions were dissipated after a listen to the album's first single, album opener, and slow burner "Damn These Vampires". It sounded like a good Mountain Goats song but not much like something anyone would call metal.
If the inscrutable hype/power of death and thrash metal is anywhere to be found here, it's not too obvious. All Eternal's Deck will not destroy your speakers (but as always, your mileage may vary regarding damage done to your heart. Oh, ho ho.). It's not an affront to the music of dad rock dads. Really, the album doesn't even make much of a mess. The most brutal moments don't borrow from Morbid Angel-producer Erik Rutan, but certainly hold their own against anything else John Darnielle has done post-boombox. The fury of "Estate Sale Sign" can run with Heretic Pride explosion "Sax Rohmner #1", while the slightly quieter "Prowl Great Cain" scalds a lot like "No Children".
The occasional twists in approach that pepper Mountain Goats albums are easier to spot but harder to conceive of. "High Hawk Season" brings in some barbershop harmonies, "For Charles Bronson" is a song Darnielle could have written and recorded at any point in his career, while "Never Quite Free" could have never come before now. The imbalance is strange, but ultimately it works both because Darnielle is Darnielle: someone with inexhaustible talents as a songwriter, and an ear for things that work for him and never against.
still soon:
Tim Hecker - Ravedeath, 1972
Bright Eyes - The People's Key
Deerhoof - Deerhoof vs. Evil
Radiohead - The King of Limbs
James Blake - s/t
Akron/Family - S/T II: The Cosmic and Journey of Shinju TNT
Lil B - Illusions of Grandeur
†‡† - Ghetto Ass Witch (EP)
Sam Mickens - Sinistra Secco (EP)
(stream/purchase)
We know some stuff about 'The Four Fists', a forthcoming collaborative EP from Astronautalis and P.O.S. A title, for one. What it's about (F. Scott Fitzgerald short stories converted into song. And, sure, why not), for a big second. Astronautalis' upcoming, untitled solo album is different. He's playing this one close to his chest, and the release of Midday Moon is one of our only clues (the other being that the good company of anticon.'s Alias will be handling a few tracks) as to what the thing is going sound like.
And it sounds pretty remarkable. When asked, Andy told me that James Blake (who I'll get to eventually, promise) wasn't a direct influence on the track's production, but it's impossible not to hear for those familiar. Which is a Good Thing. Tons of synths sounding at once cut in and out like saws, over which Astronautalis does his hip-hop thing. He's distanced a bit from his whiskey-worn persona that informed a much of 2008's Pomegranate. It never worn out its welcome, but movement toward the quiet and the not-there is refreshing. Whenever this thing gets a name, it'll be one to remember to look out for.
note: I'm going to include a link to artist's bandcamp pages when available/possible. Mostly because it's a great service that let's you give a few dollars directly to artists who deserve it.
Destroyer - Kaputt
Kaputt is mostly songs that will kinda sorta remind you of Destroyer's Rubies, but is actually reminding you of something else. Which is to say, most of Kaputt lands closer to 2008's Trouble in Dreams, when the jazzy, carefree Bejar-sound started to wear a bit thin. Things are certainly better on Kaputt, but for all of the programmed drums and loops that replace the jaunty live energy of Destroyer's Rubies. Somehow, for all this, the final product is just not all that exceptional for someone who has been keeping an ear out in Bejar's direction.
The album closes with the standout "Bay of Pigs (Detail)", a track that might be humanity's first and only foray into the, uh, ambient-disco genre. That Kaputt's highlight is plucked mostly wholesale from an EP released on the tail-end of 2009 probably means something, but it was interesting then and is maybe even more interesting now. The unexpected synth stabs still suggest new direction, but do so when change for Destroyer is needed more than ever.
The Mountain Goats - All Eternal's Deck
This is not a twist in the vein of Mount Eerie's Black Wooden Ceiling Opening. It is not exactly the unexpected black metal record that the All Eternal's Deck art, title, and super legitimate, super hyped production credits might suggest. Those hopes and assumptions were dissipated after a listen to the album's first single, album opener, and slow burner "Damn These Vampires". It sounded like a good Mountain Goats song but not much like something anyone would call metal.
If the inscrutable hype/power of death and thrash metal is anywhere to be found here, it's not too obvious. All Eternal's Deck will not destroy your speakers (but as always, your mileage may vary regarding damage done to your heart. Oh, ho ho.). It's not an affront to the music of dad rock dads. Really, the album doesn't even make much of a mess. The most brutal moments don't borrow from Morbid Angel-producer Erik Rutan, but certainly hold their own against anything else John Darnielle has done post-boombox. The fury of "Estate Sale Sign" can run with Heretic Pride explosion "Sax Rohmner #1", while the slightly quieter "Prowl Great Cain" scalds a lot like "No Children".
The occasional twists in approach that pepper Mountain Goats albums are easier to spot but harder to conceive of. "High Hawk Season" brings in some barbershop harmonies, "For Charles Bronson" is a song Darnielle could have written and recorded at any point in his career, while "Never Quite Free" could have never come before now. The imbalance is strange, but ultimately it works both because Darnielle is Darnielle: someone with inexhaustible talents as a songwriter, and an ear for things that work for him and never against.
still soon:
Tim Hecker - Ravedeath, 1972
Bright Eyes - The People's Key
Deerhoof - Deerhoof vs. Evil
Radiohead - The King of Limbs
James Blake - s/t
Akron/Family - S/T II: The Cosmic and Journey of Shinju TNT
Lil B - Illusions of Grandeur
†‡† - Ghetto Ass Witch (EP)
Sam Mickens - Sinistra Secco (EP)
Tuesday, March 8, 2011
You Are Listening to Los Angeles
http://youarelisteningtolosangeles.com/
It's publicly available, live LAPD police band radio played over ambient music.
This is probably one of the better internet things I've come across in a long, long while. Really beautiful and serene, but alive and intriguing at the same time. Maybe sort of frightening.
Really, really good.
Or you can make your very own local police scanners, here. Link there leads to the NJ section, but pretty much everywhere in the US is available.
Oh no, a urinal at LAX has "continual flush".
It's publicly available, live LAPD police band radio played over ambient music.
This is probably one of the better internet things I've come across in a long, long while. Really beautiful and serene, but alive and intriguing at the same time. Maybe sort of frightening.
Really, really good.
Or you can make your very own local police scanners, here. Link there leads to the NJ section, but pretty much everywhere in the US is available.
Oh no, a urinal at LAX has "continual flush".
Wednesday, March 2, 2011
Everything I am Listening To 2
Buck 65 - 20 Odd Years
Buck 65 has been hard to deal with for a while.
And 20 Odd Years more or less solidifies the unfortunate trend that Buck 65 is just...a whole lot better when someone else is handling production duties. 2009's Bike for Three! collaboration with Belgian producer Greetings from Tuskan found the whiskey-rasping MC sounding more competent than he ever did on 2007's "Situation".
Something about rapping over his own work brings out the worst in Buck. He constantly defeats his concepts with completely cringe-inducing lines. Had opener "Superstars Don't Love" been handled by someone else, maybe we wouldn't have to uncomfortably shift in our chairs as "rural China" gets rhymed with "girl's vagina". Sigh.
The rule--for better or for worse--holds here with 20 Odd Years, an album that collects four limited edition EPs released months apart last year celebrating Buck 65's twenty (!) years recording. For better, because Buck sees 20 years time as a cause for celebration and has invited a lot of friends along. This is where things are good. Really good. Nick Thorburn's work on "Gee Wiz" goes beyond his floaty vocal on the song's hook. On "Stop", Hannah Georgas delivers a pop chorus that completely dominates the rest of the song on its own merits.
Yeah, there are missteps so bad they are unforgivable. It's so hard to deal with solo-Buck on "Zombie Delight" when it's surrounded by great collaborative efforts. It's unfortunate to have to pick apart these outings when whisperings of a second Bike for Three! album are on the horizon. I hope it comes soon.
The Decemberists - The King is Dead
It is nice when a band does something completely unexpected. The sensation is diminished slightly when the product is essentially a laid-back collection of R.E.M.-tinged Americana. And so, "The King is Dead" is not exactly groundbreaking stuff, and a lot of the record's pleasantness (the record is nothing if not pleasant) has to do with relief. But there are a lot of people with tiny parts of their hearts (rightfully) that will always remember first time they heard "Red Right Ankle", an important little moment in so many of our histories. And so a return from the preposterously unlistenable "Hazards of Love" is welcomed.
For most of the record's duration, The Decemberists abandon the niche that made, and eventually betrayed, them. Colin Meloy shows he can write a melody without it being inspiration from absurd historical fiction. His singalongs can exist without seven distinct movements. "The King is Dead" is ten songs that don't try to be much more than ten songs. It's what the band needed. A RESET button has been hit. The slate mostly erased. Don't backslide now, guys.
still soon:
Tim Hecker - Ravedeath, 1972
Bright Eyes - The People's Key
Deerhoof - Deerhoof vs. Evil
Destroyer - Kaputt
Radiohead - The King of Limbs
Sam Mickens - Sinistra Secco
James Blake - s/t
Akron/Family - S/T II: The Cosmic Birth and Journey of Shinju TNT
The Mountain Goats - All Eternal's Deck
Buck 65 has been hard to deal with for a while.
And 20 Odd Years more or less solidifies the unfortunate trend that Buck 65 is just...a whole lot better when someone else is handling production duties. 2009's Bike for Three! collaboration with Belgian producer Greetings from Tuskan found the whiskey-rasping MC sounding more competent than he ever did on 2007's "Situation".
Something about rapping over his own work brings out the worst in Buck. He constantly defeats his concepts with completely cringe-inducing lines. Had opener "Superstars Don't Love" been handled by someone else, maybe we wouldn't have to uncomfortably shift in our chairs as "rural China" gets rhymed with "girl's vagina". Sigh.
The rule--for better or for worse--holds here with 20 Odd Years, an album that collects four limited edition EPs released months apart last year celebrating Buck 65's twenty (!) years recording. For better, because Buck sees 20 years time as a cause for celebration and has invited a lot of friends along. This is where things are good. Really good. Nick Thorburn's work on "Gee Wiz" goes beyond his floaty vocal on the song's hook. On "Stop", Hannah Georgas delivers a pop chorus that completely dominates the rest of the song on its own merits.
Yeah, there are missteps so bad they are unforgivable. It's so hard to deal with solo-Buck on "Zombie Delight" when it's surrounded by great collaborative efforts. It's unfortunate to have to pick apart these outings when whisperings of a second Bike for Three! album are on the horizon. I hope it comes soon.
The Decemberists - The King is Dead
It is nice when a band does something completely unexpected. The sensation is diminished slightly when the product is essentially a laid-back collection of R.E.M.-tinged Americana. And so, "The King is Dead" is not exactly groundbreaking stuff, and a lot of the record's pleasantness (the record is nothing if not pleasant) has to do with relief. But there are a lot of people with tiny parts of their hearts (rightfully) that will always remember first time they heard "Red Right Ankle", an important little moment in so many of our histories. And so a return from the preposterously unlistenable "Hazards of Love" is welcomed.
For most of the record's duration, The Decemberists abandon the niche that made, and eventually betrayed, them. Colin Meloy shows he can write a melody without it being inspiration from absurd historical fiction. His singalongs can exist without seven distinct movements. "The King is Dead" is ten songs that don't try to be much more than ten songs. It's what the band needed. A RESET button has been hit. The slate mostly erased. Don't backslide now, guys.
still soon:
Tim Hecker - Ravedeath, 1972
Bright Eyes - The People's Key
Deerhoof - Deerhoof vs. Evil
Destroyer - Kaputt
Radiohead - The King of Limbs
Sam Mickens - Sinistra Secco
James Blake - s/t
Akron/Family - S/T II: The Cosmic Birth and Journey of Shinju TNT
The Mountain Goats - All Eternal's Deck
Wednesday, February 23, 2011
Everything I am Listening To 1
Mogwai - Hardcore Will Never Die, But You Will
I haven't listened to a Mogwai album since Happy Songs for Happy People--which was listening to significantly less than Mogwai Young Team (but more as a result of MYT's strengths than HPFHP's weaknesses)--but an album carrying this name and this album art (look at it) is a lot tougher to ignore than something with a silly looking eagle on it.
And maybe it's not as good as Young Team. And maybe it's not as loud and brutal as the title might imply (still bring earplugs to the show), but it is a solid album. More the most part, Mogwai make music that sounds like Mogwai; it's a fine thing, that. Here and there little memorable bits emerge (it was the 'Death Rays' synth noise that make me call it the best song I've heard in 2011. Only two days into the year, but still). Overall, then, Mogwai remains a post-rock-ish band who makes post-rock-ish albums.
Lil B - Angels Exodus
It's a mystery why this things ends up being nearly as listenable as it actually is. There's more to appreciate here than the astonishing horribleness of 2010's "ambient based freestyles" collection "Rain in England". But the tracks where B might just show evidence of becoming a competent MC are probably not the ones to show your friends. It's the "Life Zombies" (some sort of Resident Evil ode) you'll play for friends in the car. "1 Time" sounds like he's getting there, and "Vampires" might be one of B's best tracks to date, until he closes by doing his best Andy Samberg-"boiled-guuse" voice while exclaiming "don't let the vompires getchoo!" a few times. Choices are
Lil B - Free Music: The Complete Myspace Collection
This is a mixtape that collects all of the tracks Lil B uploaded to his various (uh, 120+) MySpace throughout 2009/2010. So, here's a 676 track, 40 hour long, 2.5 gigabyte collection that I spent more time cleaning out hard drive space than I've so far been able to stand sitting through a fraction of the thing. It's completely triumphant. It's a 0.0 and it's a 10.0. It's a testament to B's mission to be "based for life", but a totally indigestible one. The best we can hope for is to listen to a track here and there, understand and be glad this insane, unfiltered level of proliferation is over with.
Lil B - Red Flame (Devil Music Edition)
And finally, Lil B's first mixtape of 2011. Though the distinction seems a little silly, since both feature stolen beats and original McCarthy GarageBand creations. Either way, positivity seems to be the theme of this newest "rare music" collection, picking up where "Motivation" left off. Again, this trends away from the truly bizarre, but manages to end up something Lil B really never was before: sort of forgetful. His background track skipping and his claims at Red Flame (Devil Music Edition) being the most influential and prolific mixtape of all time are what gets remembered. With some three "albums" and who knows how many mixtapes on deck for the rest of the year, there's probably not much reason to worry.\
Tennis - Cape Dory
A band that sounds like another band making music for a different season. Tennis, Headlights, summer. But the reason I like Headlights, despite them probably being, objectively, sort of kind of dull, is because they sound like fall. It's not hard to hear the sounds of summer's exit in their little pop medleys. "So Much for the Afternoon" sounded like slipping into sleep as the sun began setting earlier even before Casiotone for the Painfully Alone made it undeniable on his remix.
Maybe Cape Dory will be a really nice album to play while sleepy once this snow melts for good. it's just a matter of remembering it until then.
Beans - End It All
More weirdo rap. But in the most opposite of ways compared to, say, oh, the Based God. While the Pretty Bitch sometimes seems like he doesn't always have enough (and not only content-wise; he sometimes just sort of stops), Beans' flow is unrelenting. He talk/raps through every inch of his fourth album (his first in the good company of anticon.), over beats sent in from all over (Four Tet, Tobacco, some dude from Interpol), sounding different but sounding pretty far from B's GarageBand compositions.
Listening to the 30 odd minutes of End It All, it's not hard to draw (MF)/DOOM comparisons. Music that is so obviously rap, but so far stylistically distanced from 99% of what is going on in the rest of the genre. And not always in an accessible, easy, or likable way. The allure is difficult to explain, but the album's length makes it easy enough to sit through a few times, even if you don't end up any closer to explaining the compulsion.
Braids - Native Speaker
"Feels-era Animal Collective with a girl singer". That description works, but kind of dodges a better one: that Braids also sounds a lot like the Brooklyn-based duo High Places. It's, again, a vocal thing. Mary Pearson sounds a lot like Braids' Katie Lee. And it's a watery loop thing. And it's "not a totally outstanding yet" thing. Native Speaker's standouts are almost always surrounded by fun-limiting droney nothingness sequences that work against the outstanding momentum tracks like "Lemonade" so effortlessly build.
soon:
Tim Hecker - Ravedeath, 1972
Bright Eyes - The People's Key
Deerhoof - Deerhoof vs. Evil
Destroyer - Kaputt
Radiohead - The King of Limbs
Sam Mickens - Sinistra Secco
James Blake - s/t
The Decemberists - The King is Dead
Buck 65 - 20 Odd Years
Akron/Family - S/T II: The Cosmic Birth and Journey of Shinju TNT
I haven't listened to a Mogwai album since Happy Songs for Happy People--which was listening to significantly less than Mogwai Young Team (but more as a result of MYT's strengths than HPFHP's weaknesses)--but an album carrying this name and this album art (look at it) is a lot tougher to ignore than something with a silly looking eagle on it.
And maybe it's not as good as Young Team. And maybe it's not as loud and brutal as the title might imply (still bring earplugs to the show), but it is a solid album. More the most part, Mogwai make music that sounds like Mogwai; it's a fine thing, that. Here and there little memorable bits emerge (it was the 'Death Rays' synth noise that make me call it the best song I've heard in 2011. Only two days into the year, but still). Overall, then, Mogwai remains a post-rock-ish band who makes post-rock-ish albums.
Lil B - Angels Exodus
It's a mystery why this things ends up being nearly as listenable as it actually is. There's more to appreciate here than the astonishing horribleness of 2010's "ambient based freestyles" collection "Rain in England". But the tracks where B might just show evidence of becoming a competent MC are probably not the ones to show your friends. It's the "Life Zombies" (some sort of Resident Evil ode) you'll play for friends in the car. "1 Time" sounds like he's getting there, and "Vampires" might be one of B's best tracks to date, until he closes by doing his best Andy Samberg-"boiled-guuse" voice while exclaiming "don't let the vompires getchoo!" a few times. Choices are
Lil B - Free Music: The Complete Myspace Collection
This is a mixtape that collects all of the tracks Lil B uploaded to his various (uh, 120+) MySpace throughout 2009/2010. So, here's a 676 track, 40 hour long, 2.5 gigabyte collection that I spent more time cleaning out hard drive space than I've so far been able to stand sitting through a fraction of the thing. It's completely triumphant. It's a 0.0 and it's a 10.0. It's a testament to B's mission to be "based for life", but a totally indigestible one. The best we can hope for is to listen to a track here and there, understand and be glad this insane, unfiltered level of proliferation is over with.
Lil B - Red Flame (Devil Music Edition)
And finally, Lil B's first mixtape of 2011. Though the distinction seems a little silly, since both feature stolen beats and original McCarthy GarageBand creations. Either way, positivity seems to be the theme of this newest "rare music" collection, picking up where "Motivation" left off. Again, this trends away from the truly bizarre, but manages to end up something Lil B really never was before: sort of forgetful. His background track skipping and his claims at Red Flame (Devil Music Edition) being the most influential and prolific mixtape of all time are what gets remembered. With some three "albums" and who knows how many mixtapes on deck for the rest of the year, there's probably not much reason to worry.\
Tennis - Cape Dory
A band that sounds like another band making music for a different season. Tennis, Headlights, summer. But the reason I like Headlights, despite them probably being, objectively, sort of kind of dull, is because they sound like fall. It's not hard to hear the sounds of summer's exit in their little pop medleys. "So Much for the Afternoon" sounded like slipping into sleep as the sun began setting earlier even before Casiotone for the Painfully Alone made it undeniable on his remix.
Maybe Cape Dory will be a really nice album to play while sleepy once this snow melts for good. it's just a matter of remembering it until then.
Beans - End It All
More weirdo rap. But in the most opposite of ways compared to, say, oh, the Based God. While the Pretty Bitch sometimes seems like he doesn't always have enough (and not only content-wise; he sometimes just sort of stops), Beans' flow is unrelenting. He talk/raps through every inch of his fourth album (his first in the good company of anticon.), over beats sent in from all over (Four Tet, Tobacco, some dude from Interpol), sounding different but sounding pretty far from B's GarageBand compositions.
Listening to the 30 odd minutes of End It All, it's not hard to draw (MF)/DOOM comparisons. Music that is so obviously rap, but so far stylistically distanced from 99% of what is going on in the rest of the genre. And not always in an accessible, easy, or likable way. The allure is difficult to explain, but the album's length makes it easy enough to sit through a few times, even if you don't end up any closer to explaining the compulsion.
Braids - Native Speaker
"Feels-era Animal Collective with a girl singer". That description works, but kind of dodges a better one: that Braids also sounds a lot like the Brooklyn-based duo High Places. It's, again, a vocal thing. Mary Pearson sounds a lot like Braids' Katie Lee. And it's a watery loop thing. And it's "not a totally outstanding yet" thing. Native Speaker's standouts are almost always surrounded by fun-limiting droney nothingness sequences that work against the outstanding momentum tracks like "Lemonade" so effortlessly build.
soon:
Tim Hecker - Ravedeath, 1972
Bright Eyes - The People's Key
Deerhoof - Deerhoof vs. Evil
Destroyer - Kaputt
Radiohead - The King of Limbs
Sam Mickens - Sinistra Secco
James Blake - s/t
The Decemberists - The King is Dead
Buck 65 - 20 Odd Years
Akron/Family - S/T II: The Cosmic Birth and Journey of Shinju TNT
Tuesday, January 25, 2011
Daytrotter Notes, Jan 6-Jan 10
January 6 - Lone Wolf
Piano on the first track sounds really cool. I don't know if it's how it was recorded (hot and peaking all over the place), or if it's some sort of synth sounding like a piano and a harpsichord sounding at once. Whatever it is, the effect is really neat and is definitely a compliment to rest of the sad-but-still-jaunty-and-catchy song. That fake, long, hyphenated word describes the session pretty well. The other three songs in the session are all played on guitar, where pretty, driving, fingerpicked melodies compliment the strong, soulful (?) vocal really well. This was nice.
Notable track(s): 15 Letters
January 6 - Active Child
Legitimately pretty songs, maybe even ones that accomplish something beyond sounding pretty. It is pretty obviously the striking voices, somewhere between Andrew Bird and Shearwater's Jonathan Meiburg, are responsible for a vast majority of it, but the sparse, airy strings don't hurt.
Notable track(s): Wilderness
RIYL: Shearwater
January 7 - Happy Birthday
The first song, 'Evergreen', was a pretty, slow, pleasant sounding song that probably reminds you over a dozen others, but in an ok way. I liked the little bass line that is mostly tucked away beneath the guitar. The other three songs really took a turn, devolving into a messy sounding, raucous distorted, still twee-ish thing. The sort of music that might be fun live but doesn't really interest me on record too much.
January 8 - We Are Country Mice
Words thought of: southern rock, classic rock, psych-rock, the 60s, the 70s. We Are Country Mice sound like all of those things, for better or worse. I am probably not well-versed enough in any of those topics to name names, but the band definitely spends a lot of time sounding like something you've probably heard before. The final track, "Close Behind", caught my attention more than the others, staying fairly minimal and spacey (and staying sounding a lot like Pink Floyd (ooops, a name), until the thing explodes in its 90 seconds. Crunchy, echoey guitars.
January 9 - Wartime Blues
The riff-driven "California Winter" draws heavily from the same sonic palate Modest Mouse (which I'll be careful to not call "theirs" (see: a few sentences down)) has drawn from on several slower songs, while the rollicking "Grain Belt" would, musically, easily fit in somewhere on Bright Eyes' LIFTED. I hate that I can't do more than say "sort of sounds like Modest Mouse!" or "sort of makes me think of Bright Eyes!" when it comes to things that can be described at a high level as some combination of indie/folk/rock. But it is those comparisons are the ones that are easiest and most apparent for me.
I can talk about things that beep and boop a lot better than ones that twang.
January 10 - OK Go
Inoffensive, if not genetic indie rock/power pop stuff. All of the reverb on "White Knuckles" surprised me (I really like reverb, guys), but really all it does is drag out each sound of what is, more or less, to me anyway, completely ineffectual music.
Piano on the first track sounds really cool. I don't know if it's how it was recorded (hot and peaking all over the place), or if it's some sort of synth sounding like a piano and a harpsichord sounding at once. Whatever it is, the effect is really neat and is definitely a compliment to rest of the sad-but-still-jaunty-and-catchy song. That fake, long, hyphenated word describes the session pretty well. The other three songs in the session are all played on guitar, where pretty, driving, fingerpicked melodies compliment the strong, soulful (?) vocal really well. This was nice.
Notable track(s): 15 Letters
January 6 - Active Child
Legitimately pretty songs, maybe even ones that accomplish something beyond sounding pretty. It is pretty obviously the striking voices, somewhere between Andrew Bird and Shearwater's Jonathan Meiburg, are responsible for a vast majority of it, but the sparse, airy strings don't hurt.
Notable track(s): Wilderness
RIYL: Shearwater
January 7 - Happy Birthday
The first song, 'Evergreen', was a pretty, slow, pleasant sounding song that probably reminds you over a dozen others, but in an ok way. I liked the little bass line that is mostly tucked away beneath the guitar. The other three songs really took a turn, devolving into a messy sounding, raucous distorted, still twee-ish thing. The sort of music that might be fun live but doesn't really interest me on record too much.
January 8 - We Are Country Mice
Words thought of: southern rock, classic rock, psych-rock, the 60s, the 70s. We Are Country Mice sound like all of those things, for better or worse. I am probably not well-versed enough in any of those topics to name names, but the band definitely spends a lot of time sounding like something you've probably heard before. The final track, "Close Behind", caught my attention more than the others, staying fairly minimal and spacey (and staying sounding a lot like Pink Floyd (ooops, a name), until the thing explodes in its 90 seconds. Crunchy, echoey guitars.
January 9 - Wartime Blues
The riff-driven "California Winter" draws heavily from the same sonic palate Modest Mouse (which I'll be careful to not call "theirs" (see: a few sentences down)) has drawn from on several slower songs, while the rollicking "Grain Belt" would, musically, easily fit in somewhere on Bright Eyes' LIFTED. I hate that I can't do more than say "sort of sounds like Modest Mouse!" or "sort of makes me think of Bright Eyes!" when it comes to things that can be described at a high level as some combination of indie/folk/rock. But it is those comparisons are the ones that are easiest and most apparent for me.
I can talk about things that beep and boop a lot better than ones that twang.
January 10 - OK Go
Inoffensive, if not genetic indie rock/power pop stuff. All of the reverb on "White Knuckles" surprised me (I really like reverb, guys), but really all it does is drag out each sound of what is, more or less, to me anyway, completely ineffectual music.
Saturday, December 18, 2010
Records in 2010.
(cross-posted, but I just wanted this here)
TOP TEN ALBUMS of MMX:
10. The-Dream - Love King
09. Menomena - Mines
08. Los Campesinos! - Romance is Boring
07. Perfume Genius - Learning
06. Xiu Xiu - Dear God, I Hate Myself
05. Zola Jesus - Stridulum II
04. The National - High Violet
03. Kanye West - My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy
01. Former Ghosts - New Love. / Best Coast - Crazy for You
Other good things listened to:
Caribou - Swim
Crystal Castles - Crystal Castles (II)
Deerhunter - Halcyon Digest
How to Dress Well - Love Remains
Josiah Wolf - Jet Lag
LCD Soundsystem - This is Happening
Laurie Anderson - Homeland
Lightspeed Champion - Life is Sweet! Nice to Meet You
Mark McGuire - Living with Yourself
Owen Pallett - Heartland
Salem - King Night
Sufjan Stevens - The Age of Adz
Surfer Blood - Astrocoast
Titus Andronicus - The Monitor
Twin Shadow - Forget
Wavves - King of the Beach
Wolf Parade - Expo 86
TOP FIVE EPS of MMX:
05. Parenthetical Girls - Privilege pt. I: On Death & Endearments
04. Felt Drawings - If You Only Knew
03. Los Campesinos - All's Well That Ends
02. Sufjan Stevens - All Delighted People EP
01. Parenthetical Girls - Privilege pt. II: The Past, Imperfect
///
And so by now you've probably noticed the two albums occupying one spot. And the number one spot, at that.
It's not even about the trouble in putting one over the other. It's about how difficult, maybe impossible, it is for me to imagine one without the other.
An album called "New Love." that might not actually be about new love at all, until the final track.
And an album called "Crazy for You" that might not actually be a document of feelings that are very crazy at all.
They come from very different places musically. Synths and programmed drums; sharp precision reverberating outwards forever. And guitars and fuzz & distortion pedals; what the ocean might sound like.
And somehow they, two albums that have nothing to do with one another, touch. The sound of an ending and of a beginning. Or what might be a beginning. Or should be. The sound of one album informing the other, forcing you to listen to it in a completely different way. To think about different things. Different times. People. What now? What next?
The answer isn't here, but people wondering the same thing are.
2010 has been kind of tough. And I think it would have been a lot tougher without all of the music I've mentioned here, but these two particularly have held incredibly large places in my heart for a while now. And will for a while to come.
Let's go.
TOP TEN ALBUMS of MMX:
10. The-Dream - Love King
09. Menomena - Mines
08. Los Campesinos! - Romance is Boring
07. Perfume Genius - Learning
06. Xiu Xiu - Dear God, I Hate Myself
05. Zola Jesus - Stridulum II
04. The National - High Violet
03. Kanye West - My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy
01. Former Ghosts - New Love. / Best Coast - Crazy for You
Other good things listened to:
Caribou - Swim
Crystal Castles - Crystal Castles (II)
Deerhunter - Halcyon Digest
How to Dress Well - Love Remains
Josiah Wolf - Jet Lag
LCD Soundsystem - This is Happening
Laurie Anderson - Homeland
Lightspeed Champion - Life is Sweet! Nice to Meet You
Mark McGuire - Living with Yourself
Owen Pallett - Heartland
Salem - King Night
Sufjan Stevens - The Age of Adz
Surfer Blood - Astrocoast
Titus Andronicus - The Monitor
Twin Shadow - Forget
Wavves - King of the Beach
Wolf Parade - Expo 86
TOP FIVE EPS of MMX:
05. Parenthetical Girls - Privilege pt. I: On Death & Endearments
04. Felt Drawings - If You Only Knew
03. Los Campesinos - All's Well That Ends
02. Sufjan Stevens - All Delighted People EP
01. Parenthetical Girls - Privilege pt. II: The Past, Imperfect
///
And so by now you've probably noticed the two albums occupying one spot. And the number one spot, at that.
It's not even about the trouble in putting one over the other. It's about how difficult, maybe impossible, it is for me to imagine one without the other.
An album called "New Love." that might not actually be about new love at all, until the final track.
And an album called "Crazy for You" that might not actually be a document of feelings that are very crazy at all.
They come from very different places musically. Synths and programmed drums; sharp precision reverberating outwards forever. And guitars and fuzz & distortion pedals; what the ocean might sound like.
And somehow they, two albums that have nothing to do with one another, touch. The sound of an ending and of a beginning. Or what might be a beginning. Or should be. The sound of one album informing the other, forcing you to listen to it in a completely different way. To think about different things. Different times. People. What now? What next?
The answer isn't here, but people wondering the same thing are.
2010 has been kind of tough. And I think it would have been a lot tougher without all of the music I've mentioned here, but these two particularly have held incredibly large places in my heart for a while now. And will for a while to come.
Let's go.
Tuesday, December 7, 2010
†mas
†mas
by Natural Light
12.7.10
this is wf-05
MEGAUPLOAD
00:00-02:50 :: "Run Away with Me" - Jens Lekman
02:50-04:36 :: "Got Something for You" - Best Coast & Wavves
04:36-09:39 :: "Christmas Reindeer" - The Knife
09:39-14:14 :: "Cold White Christmas (Daytrotter version)" - Casiotone for the Painfully Alone
14:14-16:23 :: "When it's Time for Christmas" - Swastika Girls
16:23-21:03 :: "Do You See What I See" - Sufjan Stevens
21:03-22:40 :: "Silver Bells" - Dan Deacon
22:40-23:31 :: "Hark! The Herald Angels Sing" - Casiotone for the Painfully Alone
23:31-26:27 :: "Christmas Party" - The Walkmen
26:27-29:40 :: "Christmas in Oakland (live)" - Casiotone for the Painfully Alone
29:40-32:50 :: "Christmas Isn't Christmas" - The Boy Least Likely To
32:50-37:45 :: "Thank God It's Not Christmas" - Parenthetical Girls
37:45-42:50 :: "Sister Winter" - Sufjan Stevens
Please pardon several repeat artists. I tried to minimize tedious. Certain songs just sort of deserve to be here, I think.
I hope Christmas is a nice thing for everyone. I hope this helps.
Monday, December 6, 2010
RIP CFTPA (December 5 1998-December 5 2010)
Casiotone for the Painfully Alone played their last ever show last night in San Diego. I guess it's not a big deal, really, since it's more the end of a name than the end of a person. Owen has already announced he's going to be continuing making music almost immediately under the name Advance Base.
Still, the old songs are done. I am excited for the new ones.
But it's still sort of sad for me. Casiotone for the Painfully Alone has probably been the most important musicians to me, personally, artistically, emotionally, personally, whatever. I think I knew twenty seconds into "When the Bridge Toll Was One Dollar" in 2007 that it was the most "me" music that I've ever heard.
His five totally incredible albums document a really neat artistic progression. Things change but each sort of still manages to hit all of the right notes, for me, all the time.
I am still sort of happy there's a picture of me on his site.
I don't hesitate to say he's probably one of the best storytellers living.
I am really glad I was able to see him back in April 2008, but sad I've missed every other show he's played in any major city around me since. Including, most recently, when I saw Blonde Redhead (and I don't regret it at all).
I am just a little sad I'll never get to see White Jetta live. That song has been really important and close to me.
CFTPA, I love you and I will miss you.
Advance Base, I will see you soon.
Still, the old songs are done. I am excited for the new ones.
But it's still sort of sad for me. Casiotone for the Painfully Alone has probably been the most important musicians to me, personally, artistically, emotionally, personally, whatever. I think I knew twenty seconds into "When the Bridge Toll Was One Dollar" in 2007 that it was the most "me" music that I've ever heard.
His five totally incredible albums document a really neat artistic progression. Things change but each sort of still manages to hit all of the right notes, for me, all the time.
I am still sort of happy there's a picture of me on his site.
I don't hesitate to say he's probably one of the best storytellers living.
I am really glad I was able to see him back in April 2008, but sad I've missed every other show he's played in any major city around me since. Including, most recently, when I saw Blonde Redhead (and I don't regret it at all).
I am just a little sad I'll never get to see White Jetta live. That song has been really important and close to me.
CFTPA, I love you and I will miss you.
Advance Base, I will see you soon.
Thursday, December 2, 2010
Actually about today.
Good Day Today by threeminutesthirtyseconds
I have a lot to do!
I am going to new york...city!
I may or may not be denied admittance to something taking place at a bar!
It might be a really expensive way to waste nearly fifty dollars!
I still don't know what I am doing.
I have a lot to do!
I am going to new york...city!
I may or may not be denied admittance to something taking place at a bar!
It might be a really expensive way to waste nearly fifty dollars!
I still don't know what I am doing.
Sunday, November 28, 2010
†mas plans.
I am starting work on something called "†mas". I think it will be nice Christmas collection full of music that is both undeniably about (the) Christmas (season) but also does not have too much to do with actual Christmas music. That sounds nice.
Maybe I will even play/sing a song(s)! I might have to break into a friend's house to use their piano though. Shhh.
Today is going to be ok.
update: waaaaay not ok really.
Maybe I will even play/sing a song(s)! I might have to break into a friend's house to use their piano though. Shhh.
Today is going to be ok.
update: waaaaay not ok really.
Saturday, November 27, 2010
New Love.
when your body doesn't feel it
when you can't see it in your heart
when we both stay up all night just listening to someone else's breath
give me new love
when you are my first thought when i climb into bed
when i'm your first thought when you wake
when everything else just seems to fall short
light a candle for us
give me new love
give me all your love
give me all your love
give me new love
These are words written by my friend freddy, who makes really amazing music in a band called Former Ghosts, and which appears as a song called "New Love" on an album of the same name. You can listen to it here. I sort of don't like the idea of just posting someone else's words, but I don't know what else to do when you hear someone say something better than you're ever going to be able to. How it nearly serves an an answer or response to "Thieves" kind of freaks me out.
I've spent a lot of time in the past few months listening to music to keep me company rather than advise. Things that aren't comforting because they offer any kind of conclusion, but because they end up making you feel even just a little bit less alone about being so insane over something you can't explain.
Which is sort of weird, since that is a lot like what you have been. Not an answer or magic solution, but someone who has started to help me understand again.
I am not sure how much more convinced I can become of something. I hope I am doing the right things. I hope the idea of what feels right means something. I hope we define being "ok" the same way.
I hope there is a difference between romantic and pathetic.
I'm a mess again today. This is hard.
when you can't see it in your heart
when we both stay up all night just listening to someone else's breath
give me new love
when you are my first thought when i climb into bed
when i'm your first thought when you wake
when everything else just seems to fall short
light a candle for us
give me new love
give me all your love
give me all your love
give me new love
These are words written by my friend freddy, who makes really amazing music in a band called Former Ghosts, and which appears as a song called "New Love" on an album of the same name. You can listen to it here. I sort of don't like the idea of just posting someone else's words, but I don't know what else to do when you hear someone say something better than you're ever going to be able to. How it nearly serves an an answer or response to "Thieves" kind of freaks me out.
I've spent a lot of time in the past few months listening to music to keep me company rather than advise. Things that aren't comforting because they offer any kind of conclusion, but because they end up making you feel even just a little bit less alone about being so insane over something you can't explain.
Which is sort of weird, since that is a lot like what you have been. Not an answer or magic solution, but someone who has started to help me understand again.
I am not sure how much more convinced I can become of something. I hope I am doing the right things. I hope the idea of what feels right means something. I hope we define being "ok" the same way.
I hope there is a difference between romantic and pathetic.
I'm a mess again today. This is hard.
Tuesday, November 23, 2010
FA Sequel
FA Sequel
by Natural Light
11.4.10
this is wf-04
MEGAUPLOAD
00:00-00:35 :: "Fall Again Field Recording" - Natural Light
00:35-01:54 :: "It Started with a Mixx" - Los Campesinos!
01:54-05:11 :: "Fake Empire" - The National
05:11-07:39 :: "Half of Two Times Two (Never Version)" - BARR
07:39-11:44 :: "Where You're Coming From" - Matt & Kim
11:44-14:20 :: "Catholic Pagans" - Surfer Blood
14:20-18:53 :: "(This is) The Dream of Evan and Chan" - Dntel
18:53-21:28 :: "Islands" - The xx
21:28-23:15 :: "New Homes" - Lucky Dragons
23:15-26:47 :: "Night" - Zola Jesus
26:47-30:37 :: "Black Purse (Amp Live Remix)" - WHY?
30:37-32:36 :: "I Say "No"" - Mount Eerie
32:36-35:31 :: "When I'm with You" - Best Coast
35:31-39:06 :: "Apologetic Shoulderblades" - Baths
39:06-43:10 :: "This Heart's on Fire" - Wolf Parade
Never given. Sorry. I hope someone hears it.
There is some sort of sequel...sequel I am doing now. It has a lot of fun songs on it. Just kidding they are all devastating.
Fall Again
Fall Again
by Natural Light
10.15.10
this is wf-03
MEGAUPLOAD
00:00-04:48 :: "Tone Kill Two" - Odd Nosdam
04:48-07:56 :: "Cherry Tulips (TJ Lipple of Aloha Remix)" - Headlights
07:56-12:00 :: "Pa Pa Power" - Dead Man's Bones
12:00-15:26 :: "I'm Waiting to Know You (edit)" - The Fiery Furnaces
15:26-18:15 :: "Pantone Cyan" - WHY?
18:15-20:12 :: "Flutes" - Serengeti
20:12-23:56 :: "Maple Leaves (7'' Version)" - Jens Lekman
23:56-26:52 :: "Lesley Gore on the TAMI Show (version)" - Casiotone for the Painfully Alone
26:52-29:59 :: "I Do What I Want, When I Want" - Xiu Xiu
29:59-34:08 :: "The Purple Bottle (Stevie Wonder Mix) (edit)" - Animal Collective
34:08-37:44 :: "What Do You Think Will Happen Next?" - Final Fantasy
I don't really want this around anymore.
Tuesday, November 2, 2010
(for them)/(for you)
(for them)/(for you)
by Natural Light
10.6.10
wf-02
MEGAUPLOAD
1. (for them)
00:00-04:54 :: "Pursuit of Happiness (Nightmare)" - Kid Cudi (feat. MGMT and Ratatat)
04:54-08:06 :: "Scandal at the Parkade" - Owen Pallett
08:06-11:33 :: "Autoclave" - The Mountain Goats
11:33-17:10 :: "Runaway" - Kanye West (feat. Pusha T)
17:10-20:19 :: "Baby We'll be Fine (The National)" - covered by Mobius Band
20:19-20:30 :: "I Do What I Want When I Want (ringtone) - Xiu Xiu
2. (for you)
00:00-00:29 :: "Possible Love Interest (ringtone)" - Casiotone for the Painfully Alone
00:29-06:23 :: "Save Your Love for Me" - Suckers
06:23-11:16 :: "Red String" - Former Ghosts
11:16-14:45 :: "Green Gloves" - The National
14:45-17:20 :: "Half of Two Times Two (Newer Version)" - BARR
17:20-20:37 :: "Weaknesses" - Parenthetical Girls
20:37-24:28 :: "Simeon's Dilemma" - WHY?
X. (for anyone else)
A. "common yellowthroat (female)"
B. "i wished you fell"
C. "triptych"
D. "10-10-10"
E. "29th"
F. "http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gStSBJ1E5-A"
This probably took somewhere between 6-10 hours over the course of a week to get it just how I wanted it. Which probably seems really ridiculous, but it kind of takes a long time when you try to reevaluate something in the context of everything else. Which I probably did four or five times. The song that was the definitive inspiration for the whole thing didn't even end up included by the end.
There's some pictures included too.
Saturday, October 30, 2010
Fall Mix 2010
Fall 2010 Mix
by Natural Light
09.09.10
this is wf-01
MEGAUPLOAD
00:00-08:22 :: "O Superman" - Laurie Anderson
08:22-12:07 :: "Don't You Want to Be in a Cult?" - Black Moth Super Rainbow
12:07-18:00 :: "apt.A (2)" - cLOUDDEAD
18:00-22:47 :: "Monkey vs. Shark" - Thee More Shallows
22:47-26:57 :: "Thinking of You" - Laurie Anderson
26:57-29:41 :: "Lazarus Phenomenon" - Bike for Three!
29:41-31:21 :: "America Too" - Hymie's Basement
31:21-34:42 :: "My Patriotism (WHY? remix)" - Serengeti & Polyphonic
34:42-39:32 :: "(All's Well That Ends) In Medias Res" - Los Campesinos!
39:32-44:25 :: "Tithe" - Menomena
44:25-45:48 :: "O Superman (Oddnosdam Remix)" - Subtle
This is the first in a bunch of mixtapes I've made in Q4 2010. Each has had a pretty different purpose behind them. I've been mostly happy with how they have turned out so far.
This one, plainly titled (but maybe that was part of the point) just "Fall 2010 Mix" is a lot of things I was listening to during the autumn of 2008. It's very sleepy, pretty unhappy, and doesn't really end anywhere hopeful. Sorry. It's probably good if you have to take a long train somewhere at night.
And just a general thing about these mixes: I have mixed them down into one big mp3 file, partly out of respect for all the artists whose music I am putting here for free and without permission, and partly because I think how these things have been sequenced is pretty important to the overall listening experience (and most true to actually doing this on a cassette). It's probably stupid because if you even care enough to download the thing, you should be able to listen to it however you want. But I think it's how I am going to leave it for now.
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