what goes on

So, if you haven't already suspected, I'm taking a break.

You see, there's this thing, it's called college, and I managed to ignore it until the last possible moment. This has unfortunately created what is literally one of the more harrowing academic periods of my life so far. I simply am taking too many summer courses, in other words, and need to in order to get the fuck out of here by year's end.

You really shouldn't give a fuck about any of that. You, the however many meager amount of you, just read my blog and want to download what I post. I understand. However, I have a life, and blah blah blah blah blah. So the short of it is I will only be updating when I absolutely feel the need to do so/have the time to do so during the summer. I simply am too busy to commit to anything else. Come mid-September, however, I will have a break in the madness, and be able to resume regular updates.

So that's what's been going on. Sorry folks. If you want to listen to stuff, I have been listening to:

Grizzly Bear - Yellow House
Joe Panzner - Polished Rocks
Slepcy - We Are the Newest Battle Models
Junior Boys - So This Is Goodbye
Chad VanGaalen - Skelliconnection
White Noise - An Electric Storm
With Throats As Fine As Needles - With Throats As Fine As Needles

..among other things. Check them out. See ya.

you don't even know the topic

There's a pretty cool Modest Mouse documentary floating around on Video Google as well as YouTube, filmed way back in '97. It's terribly, terribly edited and therefore a little hard to follow at times (at one point the camera man films a whole conversation in the band's then touring van about, well, I don't even know exactly), but it's interesting for both its insight into a window when the band was still nubile and not nearly as polished, as it was filmed around the time of the recording process for The Lonesome Crowded West. Oh, and Elliott Smith randomly and begrudgingly appears. Here it is, in four parts because YouTube sucks:











And, for good measure, here's some Elliott Smith and Modest Mouse songs:

Download Elliott Smith's "Dancing On the Highway," the studio version
Download "Broke" by Modest Mouse, version from the Interstate 8 EP

regurgitation for the week of 7/10

It's summer time, and people are walking places, and talking, and sitting on things, and eating food, and drinking things, and swimming in various bodies of water, and just having a plain 'ol great 'ol time in the summer... time! That being said, here are a variety of songs I have been listening to that have nothing to do with summer time other than the fact that I am listening to them during summer time:

El Perro Del Mar -God Knows (You Gotta Give To Get)
I don't know how hot I am on this album, the first full-length from orchestral indie popsters El Perro Del Mar (self-titled). However, this song is just wonderful. Delivered with a pouty vocal from lead vocalist Sarah Assbring (yeah, seriously, rotflz, etc.), it's totally dreamy.

Tenebre - Somerset
Tenebre is a post-rock band which creates soundscapes out of stand-up bass and fret tapping guitar work. They're playing at some house here in Isla Vista in like a week or so. I enjoy their record, In Everything Give Thanks.

The Swirlies - His Love Just Washed Away
A band that has reminded me I'm mostly ignorant of shoegaze's "hay-day."

2006, Part Nineteen

The Hidden Cameras - Awoo (2006)

Due out later this year, The Hidden Cameras' latest effort is shaping up to win us over with consistency. Joel Gibb and friends provide another nice romp through intepersonal dynamics with his/their own trademark glee. Gibb is one of the most consistent songwriters existing in "indie" today, and once again he employs the lush arrangments of indie's favorite composer-misanthrope, which has me instantly excited. That is to say, really, you should listen to anything with Owen Pallett's string arrangements, and Hidden Cameras perhaps marry them to their compositions better than any other band I can think of. Here's the title track, which will be released as a single in September:

Download "Awoo"

Renew, Re-Use, Recycle

So you (the two of you) might be wondering why I haven't updated this blog in forever. The short of it is I've been moving and am incredibly busy with school, an AM radio show, work, and all that other nonsense. Therefore, my access to the internet has been limited to library terminals, and I can't very well post misanthropic indie music from there, now can I? No.

I will get internet access sometime this week (hopefully), and when I do, I should be up and running again. I thought I should also make clear (if only to hold myself to something if nothing else) what you might have already gathered: ...whatever tell it to your blog will be/is updated every other day of the week. I've been a bitch lately and also have taken weekends off, but I promise that will stop.

Anyway, look for this shit to be sulking all up in your face again by the end of the week.

- Reed