...whatever, tell it to your blog

a pitbull in closing blogs

2007-03-15T01:14:00.000-07:00

that's it, folks. wtityb is no longer. sorry. i gave up on this blog long, long ago, if you hadn't noticed. i simply don't have the drive to write blog entries regularly and/or the patience for blogger's awful editing options. after this and a failed stint in college radio, i've finally resigned myself to believing what i've always suspected: i'm only built for personal consumption and casual conversation of obscurist musics, not proselytizing their existence. sorry. i recommend going to the rawking refuses to stop!, run by my more emboldened amis dave, for your indie blog needs from now on. you can find the link to your right.

- reed

dude!!!11

2006-09-22T06:09:00.000-07:00

Dudes. Dudes. Dudes. Dudes: I'm, like, totally done with summer school... dudes! So I'm going to start updating this thing again. I think. My first proper update will come by the end of this week, which will be the beginning of a relatively normal every-other-day updating schedule. Try to contain your excitement and don't vomit all over your pretty reddish-brown locks! lalz

9/26 edit: whoops. did i say the end of this past week? i meant the end of this week. sorry. when i made this entry i was still slightly drunk and sleep-deprived. i've been out-of-town since saturday and hence didn't have any mp3z to upload, making updating not at all worth anyone's while. i will proceed with the updates before the weekend.

what goes on

2006-07-21T01:01:00.000-07:00

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

2006-07-13T22:42:00.000-07:00

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

2006-07-11T13:08:00.000-07:00

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

2006-07-08T21:14:00.001-07:00

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

2006-07-04T17:03:00.000-07:00

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

everything degrades down to the most poisonous substance known to man

2006-06-09T22:23:00.000-07:00

Recently, I've been semi-obsessed with the Radiohead B-Side "Polyethylene (Parts 1 & 2)", mainly prompted from this video of a live performance of the song in 1997. It reminded me that Radiohead, as a band, has possibly the most consistently great b-side catalog I can think of. Some of their best material, really, can be found in their B-Sides.

Normally I'm not one to bait the recording industry's lawyers on this blog, as about 99% of what I post in mp3 format is of artists or an artist belonging to indie labels who, if having a problem with music being posted on blogs, tend to just shoot you an e-mail asking you to take whatever it is you have up down. That being said, I'm about to take a possibly huge risk with Radiohead being on a major, but, well, a) it's Radiohead, and b) it's Radiohead's b-side material, not their major releases.

Here, in a large zip file, is Radiohead's entire B-Side catalog (as far as I know). It's a huge RAR file (nearly 200 megs), and if you have a problem with scattered 128 kbps bitrates, then too bad. This is more meant as an opportunity to expose you to the richness of Radiohead's B-Side catalog than provide you with crystal clear copies, anyway. Because of the implied legal risk, I'm going to cancel the sendspace link within a week, so grab it while it's hot:

Download Radiohead's entire B-Side Catalog

edit: So not everything is included, really mostly only the B-Sides which should matter (songs not included on the LP's), but anyway, sorry, here's the tracks included:

2+2=5 (live)
A Reminder
Banana Co.
Bishop's Robes
Coke Babies
Cuttooth
Faithless, the Wonder Boy
Fast Track
Fog
Fog (again)
Gagging Order
How Can You Be Sure?
How I Made My Millions
I Am A Whicked Child
I Am Citizen Insane
I Want None Of This
India Rubber
Inside My Head
Killer Cars
Kinetic
Lewis (Mistreated)
Life In A Glasshouse (Long Version)
Lozenge Of Love
Lull
Maquiladora
Meeting In the Aisle
Melatonin
Million Dollar Question
Molasses
Palo Alto
Paperbag Writer
Pearly
Permanent Daylight
Polyethylene (Pts. 1 & 2)
Pop Is Dead
Punchdrunk Lovesick Singalong
Stupid Car
Talk Show Host ("Long" Edit)
The Amazing Sounds Of Orgy
The Trickster
Trans-Atlantic Drawl
Where Bluebirds Fly
Worrywort
Yes I Am
You Never Wash Up After Yourself

Just Bring Me Back My Girl

2006-06-07T21:19:00.000-07:00

The acoustic guitar is an instrument oft-ignored in the modern popular music landscape, if only because, well, it seems like everything's been done on it that could conceivably be done. It's an antiquated, tired vehicle of musical composition. Pedals and manipulation aside, pure, unadulterated acoustic playing rarely raises any eyebrows.

There are, that being said, exceptions to this perception. Recently, artists like Sir Richard Bishop (formerly of Sun City Girls) and even the layered psychadelics of GHQ have paid nod to John Fahey. Fahey is, arguably, the modern revivor of the acoustic guitar, taking many disparate playing styles and integrating them into cohesive albums with exceptional skill. Possibly the pinnacle of his early works is 1969's The Yellow Princess, which finds Fahey incorporating some minor percussion to his usually bare, back-to-basics style, with great results. Here's a song:

Download "Irish Letter"

Inspired, or perhaps exposed, by Fahey's innovation, Leo Kottke joined Fahey's label in the early 70's. His album, the aptly titled 6 & 12-String Guitar is an absolute masterpiece in general, and, perhaps, the primary flag-bearer for the "acoustic revival" occurring at the time. Here;s a song:

Download "Busted Bicycle"

Lastly, there are the modern incarnations, including the absolutely fucking amazing Sir Richard Bishop. Formerly of the slightly less focused indie/experimental group Sun City Girls, Richard Bishop has recently been exploring his playing skills in wonderful CD-R releases that have distributed recently. Really, really cool stuff, building on the ideas Fahey etc. generated. Here's a song from All Strung Out:

Download "Free Masonic Guitar"

Be A Hobo

2006-06-05T22:20:00.000-07:00

Moondog, the alias for Louis T. Hardin, was a pioneer in the minimalist/avant-garde music scene, if not its progenitor. Blinded at the age of 17 from a fireworks accident, he was taught at various music schools for the blind, but, in a remarkable example of the compensational amplification of one sense so often reported in those who lose another, largely learned chord structures by ear alone. I'll let an excerpt from an as-yet unpublished biography of Moondog, by "literary studies professor" Robert Scotto, explain some of the rest:

"Arriving with no contacts and only one months rent, for the next 30 years he became something of a cultural enigma. It was during this period of flirtation with the Big Apple that the Moondog legend began. Positioning himself on 54th Street and Avenue, later to be known as Moondog corner, he would entertain crowds playing his compositions on home made drums and some portable keyboards and reciting his own poetry. His eccentricity was furthered by the fact that sporting a long beard and a spear, he wore home made clothes consisting of a robe, a vikings helmet, and leather patchwork trousers again the influence of the Indians having effect. However, this unsual form of dress was to lose him prestigious contracts in the future.

As the legend would have it, musicians from the Carnegie Hall spotted Moondog just across the way from where he entertained. Impressed by what they saw they persuaded the conductor Arthur Rodzinski to let him sit in on rehearsals."
(read the rest at Moondog's official website)

Anyway, it's a really cool story, and this guy essentially came out with just the strangest avant-garde material in 1956, of all years, with his first self-titled release. None of it sounds in the least dated, and stands up to the work of later, more "modern" avant-gardeists with ease. Here are some songs:

Download "Lullaby"
Download "Surf Session"

Jay Babock versus The Man

2006-06-02T03:08:00.000-07:00

I mentioned this in my ArthurBall review, but I'll repeat it: I won tickets to the wonderful ArthurBall, which is one of two festivals Arthur Magazine has started to put on (the other being "ArthurFest"), this past February, and was led around by Jay Babcock, the editor and mastermind behind the whole project. I had no press passes, nothing of that sort - I simply was lost trying to find one of the art installations, and Jay patted me on the back, introduced himself, and talked Joanna Newsom with me as he led me around.

Arthur is, for the uninformed, quite possibly the only media outlet which supports independent culture with a true, unashamed allegiance to what being "independent" means. The "vibe," for lack of a better term, at both ArthurFest and ArthurBall is like nothing I've ever experienced - surrounded with artists and art which should be deemed "pretentious," but truly lacked any pretense whatsoever. So hearing something like what I'm about to post is just amazing. Jay, somehow, managed to get an interview with the band Godsmack, part of the "new rock" movement which has pooled its way into tired rock casings in the absence of true artistic presence from a popular rock perspective. In a convenient coincedence, Godsmack also happens to provide the music for Marine recruiting commercials, produces albums with military themes, and displays military imagery during their usually packed arena shows. Jay simply calls the lead singer of Godsmack on his obvious politcal and military allegiances, but does not pussy out there. Unlike even most extreme liberals lately, he "mans up" enough to really play hardball with this guy, and express his anger surrounding the thousands of meaningless deaths American occupation in Iraq is producing. The singer is completely caught off guard by this, and it's just fucking hilarious. In short, Jay Babcock is my hero, and here's the mp3:

Download the interview between Arthur Magazine editor Jay Babcock and the lead singer of Godsmack

Arthur is one of the few things which gives me some hope that the idealism I want to believe in as a "liberal" in this country is not being some sort of pipe dream, but entirely possible. Arthur is completely grass roots, and this sort of interview just brings a smile to my usually overly-cynnical facade.

For less political listening opportunities, I present to you another one of Keiji Hano's offerings this year, with Sitaar Tah! this time, the result being a sort of psychadelic freak-out you won't hear anywhere else. Here's the first of the album's two tracks, but be warned, it's a large file:

Download the first track of ANIMAMIMA

keiji haino's website
arthur magazine

2006, Part Eighteen

2006-05-31T21:55:00.000-07:00

Lo-Fi-FNK - Boylife (2006)

Europeans are strange people, and yet, time and time again, they prove their electronic ventures to be more effortlessly successful than our own. Lo-Fi-FNK do not make electronic music, but decidedly electronically-based, and wonderfully odd pop music. There are a variety of strangely isolated samples on this record - weird yelps, "WHOOP"'s, and grunts, belieing the Nordic-accented vocal melodies that comprise the majority of the album. It all seems unstrained, too, and just undeniably intriguing in the ease with which these guys seemed to make this record despite the oddness that is the result. Here's some songs:

Download "System (feat Maiden)"
Download "What's On Your Mind"

their website

________ in the house, yeah

2006-05-29T00:05:00.000-07:00

So Daft Punk at Coachella this year was easily one of the best performances I've ever attended, and, apparently, either somebody was granted a soundboard patch or they acquired the result of one, because an incredibly clear recording of the whole performance is now circulating online in mp3 format. Here it is:

Download Daft Punk's performance from Coachella 2006 (4-29-06)

It's nearly a 150 meg file, but it's worth a listen.

drop the citrus fruit lolz

2006-05-27T21:18:00.000-07:00

This is probably the ninth time I've mentioned Drop the Lime on this blog (or the second, whatever), but he deserves the recognition. His new full-length We Never Sleep is circulating, and finds Venezia (Drop the Lime) moving in more of a sort of "grimy dance music" direction (if that makes any sense), abandoning some of his trademark breakcore flair for captivatingly abrasive and snarling lower BPM. It is a stylistic change that was hinted at on this year's Shot Shot Hearts EP, and realized here, thankfully, with effectivity and tremendous resourcefulness. Here's some songs:

Download "Devil's Kicks"

Download "Butterscotch"

his website

i like my neighborhood

2006-05-24T21:14:00.000-07:00

Some tracks from the upcoming album of everyone's favorite slightly divisive craziness, Xiu Xiu, have apparently leaked. I hope Jamie Stewart doesn't write a song about me posting these, especially considering they sound unmastered, but here goes:

Download "Watermelon Vs. The Pineapple"
Download "Buzz Saw"
Download "Boy Soprano"

The aforementioned full-length, The Air Force, is due on September 15th.

their website

amirite

2006-05-22T22:25:00.000-07:00

I make a series of mixes for people to download via my getfile every year, and I thought I'd put up one of my (in retrospect not-so-great) mixes from last year in a nod to self-appreciation. Here's the tracklisting:

01 - Sun Kil Moon - "Exit Does Not Exist" (Modest Mouse Cover) - Tiny Cities
02 - Patrick Wolf - "Teignmouth" - Wind In the Wires
03 - Xiu Xiu - "Muppet Face" - La Foret
04 - Deerhoof - "Odyssey" - The Runners Four
05 - Flotation Toy Warning - "Losing Carolina; For Drusky"- Bluffers Guide To the Flight Deck
06 - Devendra Banhart -"The Beatles" - Cripple Crow
07 - Calla - "Stumble" - Collisions
08 - Clap Your Hands Say Yeah - "Heavy Metal" - Clap Your Hands Say Yeah!
09 - Holopaw - "Curious" - Quit +/or Fight
10 - The Most Serene Republic - "Proposition 61" - Underwater Cinematographer
11 - The Kallikak Family - "Guitar 1" - May 23rd, 2007
12 - Angels Of Light - "Michael's White Hands" - Sing 'Other People'
13 - Dwight Trible & the Life-Force Trio - "Waves Of Infinite Harmony" - Love Is the Answer
14 - Broadcast - "Corporeal" - Tender Buttons
15 - Super Furry Animals - "Frequency" - Love Kraft
16 - Jamie Lidell - "Multiply" - Multiply
17 - Wolf Parade - "Fancy Claps" - Apologies To the Queen Mary
18 - The Joggers - "Since You're Already Up" - With A Cape And A Cane
19 - Out Hud - "Old Nude" - Let Us Never Speak Of It Again
20 - Colder - "The Winter's Fields" - Heat
21 - Terminal 11 - "C'est What" - Illegal Nervous Habits
22 - Wilderness - "Post Plethoric Rhetoric" - Wilderness

Download

2006, Part Seventeen

2006-05-19T19:10:00.000-07:00

Kazumasa Hashimoto - Gllia (2006)

Continuing in my recent Japanophilia, Kazumasa Hashimoto's Gllia caught my ear with its extremely warm organic instrumentation pastiches, pieced together with a skill and meticulousness rarely found in electronic composition. Hashimoto shapes oboes, strings, xylophones, piano, guitar and other vehicles of relative instrumental obscurity into a fluffy pillow of pleasant noise, laying computer voice generators and other vocal manipulations onto that. It's a really cool listen, especially with some headphones. Here's some songs:

Download "Mr. Gleam"
Download "Milmils"

his website

2006, Part Sixteen

2006-05-17T20:37:00.000-07:00

Alex Smoke - Paradolia (2006)

Why this is getting little to no attention beyond word-of-mouth buzz is beyond me - Alex Smoke's Paradolia has skyrocketed to easily one of my favorite albums of this year. I was intrigued by last year's Incommunicado, but "Smoke" seems to have tightened his sound into an even sexier, thumping, lucid electronic juggernaut. Just when you think the album's settling into a steady cadence of beat oblivion, Smoke throws you a curveball with weird vocoder tricks and organic samples. Just ridiculously good stuff. Here's some songs:

Download "Make My Day"
Download "We Like It Insipid"

soma records

2006, Part Two Thousand And Fifty-Two I Mean Fifteen

2006-05-16T00:00:00.000-07:00

Human Television - Look At Who You're Talking To (2006)

Oh wait I have a blog, don't I? I should probably update. Sorry, I promise that was only temporary. I was doing okay for a while though, update-wise, you have to admit. Anyway:

Human Television are riding a wave of 90's pop-rock revivalism and doing it really, really well. Look At Who You're Talking To is a delightfully fun album with all sorts of dreamy guitar lines, swelling vocal distortion, and sublime pop hooks. It's the sort of album you can put on and listen to without a great deal of discernment and, yet, derive a tremendous amount of pleasure while doing so. Anyway it's a completely benign indie-rock record so you should listen to it if you want something fun and catchy yet effective. Here's some songs:

Download "On and On"
Download "I Laughed"

their website

2006, Part Fourteen

2006-05-08T13:12:00.001-07:00

Christina Carter - Lace Heart (2006)

This is a good follow-up post to Sibylle Baier, as Christina Carter could be viewed as a modern corollary to Baier's earlier work - loosely, at least. One half of generally lauded experimental duo Charalambides, Christina's solo work is slightly more accessible than her collaborative work. That being said, it still is full of disassociative melodies and the long, sprawling beginnings of freak-outs, just decidedly toned down, with gentle electric guitar strumming or picking her primary instrument beyond her own voice. Sounds decidedly Moon Pix-era Cat Power-ish at times (to make a really obnoxious generalization). Really, a pretty wonderful album, and one I've been listening to for a while, so I don't know why I didn't display it here earlier. Here's a song:

Download "Dream Long"

2006, Part Thirteen

2006-05-05T21:46:00.000-07:00

Sibylle Baier - Colour Green (2006)

This is, strangely, the second album this year I've enjoyed tremendously which also happens to be the first official release of relatively ancient underground recordings (the first, Darando's Let My People Go, seems to have mysteriously disappeared when I toyed with my Blogger Template's code a few weeks ago. Sorry about that, I'll work on getting it back up sometime soon, hopefully).

Sibylle Baier was a moody German twentysomething in the early 70's, and one day went on a road trip across Europe which inspired her to write this, a collection of equally moody, smokey, generally wonderful acoustic musings. The recordings were originally put on a reel-to-reel, which has been circulating in tape-trading circles, apparently, for years, and this is just the first time the recording has seen official release. Anyway, it's a wonderful piece of contemplative and sexy singer-songwriter material. Here's a song:

Download "Softly"

Coachella: Top Of the Pops (Day Two)

2006-05-04T21:51:00.000-07:00

Here's the second installment of my Coachella "review," this time of Sunday. Again, I didn't have a digital camera with me, so all of these photos are either from somebody over at the Coachella Message Board, or from some other source I shouldn't be taking them from. Like I've said before: I never said I was professional.

Giant Drag
Started out the day with these guys. I'm not a huge fan of the former goth girl angst found on their album, but the set was fun to watch. Annie Hardy, the lead singer and guitarist, was delightfully quirky in between songs, muttering such totally controversial (!!) things as "When I was 8, my boyfriend broke my heart and my hymen, and this is a song I wrote for him." (sic) And then, there was...

The Dears
I was a big fan of No Cities Left - in 2002. It's strange that these guys are still playing songs from that album (although, apparently, there's a new one due in Canada). Anyway, hearing "Same Old Plot" was great, but otherwise this band, like many bands of the weekend, seemed over-confident in the virtuousity of the synth. It drowned out their greatest asset: lead singer Murray Lightborn's Morrissey-like beltings. Not entirely what I had hoped, but still, I suppose, good to see them. We then went and saw a series of bands/acts in short succession starting with...

Murs, here. Pretty good, really. Seemed like he had some good crowd interaction going on. His three songs, also, were all about women, including a "song about blue balls."

We caught a glimpse of Senegalese blind couple Amadou & Mariam here. Seemed like a a pretty good romp through traditional African music (i.e. a bunch of white people with fannypacks and no rhythm feigning an understanding of a culture far removed from their own), but we only stayed for two songs. Checking out last year's Dimance a Bamanko is reccomended.

Caught a little Mates Of State and Louie Vega next. Mates of State have some good songs from this year's Bring It Back, which they played to the numerous dancing indie girls in flowy skirts in the audience. We were some yards out, though. Louie Vega we only caught about half a song of, prompted by the Daft Punk song which mentions both him and Joey Beltram, also at the festival. We both think we saw some of Gabriel & Dresden while waiting for him. Whatever, though - I mean, it was house music.

Ted Leo & the Pharmacists
Tyranny Of Distance is one of my more returned-to albums of the past decade, but Ted Leo hasn't been so good to me as of late. I thought Shake the Streets was essentially just the sound of Leo spinning his wheels (with the exception of "Me & Mia," which, itself, is essentially a rehash of Leo's tried melodic formulas). That being said, seeing him was still fairly enjoyable. I got to hear him play, arguably, his flagship song, "Where Have All the Rude Boys Gone?", as well as "Me & Mia," so I was happy. At one point he played an A-chord a few times and sang "We're gonna celebrate," to lead into asking us if we also thought Daft Punk was "fucking awesome last night." (sic) Yes, yes I did, Ted Leo. Anyway, good to see him, if nothing else, but no, nothing amazing. He probably would be better seen in a smaller setting.

Phoenix
My friend enjoyed this band and, recently, their upcoming full-length It's Never Been Like That leaked on the good 'ol internet here and I liked what I heard, so we checked these guys out. They were pretty good. The performance wasn't particularly energetic, but the strength of their "dance-Strokes" tunes is undeniable. Apparently, this is Sofia Coppola's favorite band, and my friend said he thinks he saw her peering on from backstage. Celbrity sighteeng!!11111111 Anyway, it was enjoyable.

(stolen from Dave)
Jamie Lidell
Without question my second favorite performance of the weekend behind Daft Punk. Jamie is a British crooner who delivers with a vintage soul sort of style, for the unfamiliar. His album from last year, Multiply, is pretty awesome. However, his live performance is even better: mixing up insane beatboxing, vocal looping and manipulation, and singing over that, essentially, plus a bunch of stage theatrics (including costumes and crowd interaction) - it was just a spectacle. You MUST see this guy live if you get the chance. I only wish it could have been longer. So, we left that with huge, goofy grins on our faces, and went to...

Bloc Party
Silent Alarm was one of my favorite albums of this past year, and one of the factors informing that decision was undeniably their performance during last year's Coachella. Then, they played inside a relatively intimate tent with 5000+ people cheering them on only two to three months following the U.S. debut of their LP. The energy during the tent that night, both from the crowd and the band, was palpable, and frontman Kele Okereke even acknowledged that they were nervous (translation: excited) about playing such a large crowd at the time.

This year's performance, after being inundated with the sounds of "Helicopter" and "Banquet" for over a year, was a little less thrilling from a personal standpoint. Moreover, however, the band seemed much more tour-weary, and were, essentially, going through the motions. But, oh, new songs! They weren't very good. Of course, I will have to wait to hear the studio renditions to make a verdict, but the one lyric I remember was from a slow ballad, and mentioned "MTV taught me how to grow my hair long." (sic) Ech. Anyway, not really a highlight, and we were hungry so we went to eat 7 dollar slices of pizza.

Caught a glimpse of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs after eating and hanging out in the film tent to cool down, which stopped working while we were inside. We were ridiculously far out from the teeming masses watching them, however, so we couldn't hear much, really, but looked fun. Apparently Karen O said something like, "This is the biggest fucking crowd we've ever fucking played to," and I wouldn't doubt she was telling the truth.

Editors
I've always thought this band's record was nothing to write home about - good, catchy tunes, but the same sort of anthemic, feel-good "adult" British rock that's been a trend for some time now. However, album aside, these guys completely blew me away with their live performance. It's possible, as my friend pointed out, that this was the largest U.S. crowd they'd played to yet, which is impressive considering Madonna was playing just next door, and a large crowd during her set, for any band, is impressive. Regardless of whether or not this was their biggest crowd, they played their hearts out, building huge swells around their soaring songs of love, urban ennui, and friendship. Really an amazing performance, and my hat's off to them for bringing the kind of grateful energy any band, up-and-coming or not, should bring to the stage every time.

Caught a glimpse of Madonna, but couldn't hear anything with 30,000 people cramming the tent and spilling out of its sides. Apparently she wasn't that special, and came on twenty minutes late. Anyway, we just wanted to say we had tried to get a glimpse.

We saw a little Mogwai at this point, who looked like they were absolutely amazing. As my friend said, "I wish I had gotten high and been in the first three rows. (sic)" And then:

Massive Attack
Compared to last year, Coachella was, generally, a lot less about showcasing bands who served as a pre-cursor to the newer acts playing alongside them - Massive Attack was one of this year's notable exceptions. Their influence on modern electronic, industrial, and trip-hop music is undeniable. That being said, this was a very, very cool set to witness. Bringing out Horace Andy and Elizabeth Frazier just added to the awesomeness. I sure wish Elizabeth had made an appearance last year with the Cocteau Twins instead of this (assuming she wouldn't have done both), but it was, still, undeniably awesome, and a great way for her to "make it up" to festivalgoers.

The only downside to this set was Massive Attack's inclusion in a long list of bands on both Saturday and Sunday who felt the need to bring up the Iraqi war. I, like most of the music obsessive crowd, am not very hot on the whole issue, either, but artists need to realize that, for the most part, they don't have the proper grace to write protest songs. Thankfully, Massive Attack did not display a whole song involving the war, only text on their LED display, but still. Anyway, this only detracted minorly.

Art Brut
So after Massive Attack, my friend and I, exhausted at this point, went to see the final act we planned to see for Coachella 2006: Art Brut. Admittedly, I've always been slightly resistant to Art Brut. I enjoyed them and their album, but felt they were, perhaps, more gimmick than substance. Their performance convinced me that they are, at the very least, almost completely singular, if only because of frontman Eddie Argos' cynnical accented musings.

Anyway, story: as we approached the tent they were playing in, it was obvious that the previous band, Dungen, had gone a little overtime, and by a little I mean a full 20 minutes. Never being a huge Dungen fan, I wasn't too excited to see the end of their set, and less excited to see that they had gone so far over. You see, at Coachella, bands are each allotted 50 minutes per set, and everything has to end by midnight, or Golden Voice (Coachella's curators) face a $2000.00 per minute fine toward Indio's noise curfew. I assumed Golden Voice would not pay for a band as fresh-faced and relatively "unimportant" as Art Brut to play beyond midnight, but I was wrong. Coming on a full twenty-five minutes after they were scheduled to start, Eddie announced that Golden Voice had allowed them to play a full 15 minutes after curfew. For those not too good at math (don't worry, neither am I), that's $30,000 Golden Voice was willing to shell out for Art Brut. Eddie was just as baffled by this, but what ensued was just fucking great.

Say what you will about their album, but this band was meant to play live. Tons of back-and-forth, banter, just general charm. Eddie skipped rope with his microphone cord, walked through the audience, threatened to strangle us if we don't each start a band, etc. Oh, and in possibly the best on-stage moment of Coachella, the band played two or three minutes longer than allowed, resulting in the stage manager literally screaming at the drummer, pulling at his leg attempting to get him to stop doing rolls and getting us to scream. It was a momentary embodiment of what Art Brut does best: lighthearted meta-rock, and a far better way to end Coachella than watching TOOL while crammed together with 30,000 sweaty dudes in black.

And so was Coachella 2006. I'm sure I'll be back again, time and place allowing. It was a sweaty, intense experience, and I recommend it as a Hajj of sorts for any underground/indie enthusiast.

Coachella: Top Of the Pops (Day One)

2006-05-02T19:57:00.000-07:00

Oh, hey guys. So I'm back from Coachella, and man am I tired! No, seriously, I am. Moreover, I didn't bring a digital camera, and neither did my friend, so this is going to be a completely non-visceral experience! ARE OYU READY FOR TEH EXCITEMENT!?!11

Just kidding, you guys. I'll use this guy's pictures from his cell phone for some sort of basic visual component, as well as stock publicity photos! Yeah, I know, how cool of me, but it's better than just text. I'm sure I'll be able to obtain better quality pictures of the performances later, and when I do so, I'll sneak them in. Anyway:

Day One

This year was hot - hotter than last year, but not as hot as my first year (2004). Before the heat was apparent, my friend and I arrived at the Salton Sea, our campground, at about 9:30 at night, where we futilely attempted to make a fire, set up a tent, and generally camp effectively. I also had a semi-argument with some drunk hipster dude in an adjacent campsite about whether or not Elliott Smith's fans thought his suicide was expected and/or appropriate. We then woke up, had a mediocre "Date Shake" from the Date Gardens down Highway 111 (one of the most generally unnecessary concotions ever conceived), arrived at the polo fields by 10:45, walked in like the semi-veterans we were, remarked at how the Sahara Tent looked really fucked up this year, etc., then went and saw the following:

Head Automatica

Pretty mediocre, manic New York scenester rock, but they were, to their credit, "into it." This seemed odd in retrospect, however, when my friend informed me that lead singer Daryl Palumbo is also the lead singer for Glassjaw. Glassjaw, for the unfamiliar, is a semi-emo outfit which is basically Palumbo's creative outlet for his living with chronic Crohn's Disease. He obviously is feeling a little better if these are his new digs. Anyway, it was a way to start off the day, especially considering it was outside, giving us a glimpse of what seeing the other bands of the day would be like when 75% of them happened to be playing out in the sun instead of in one of tent stages. Oops.

The Like
Pretty mediocre, also, but perhaps more so. An all-girl band composed of the offspring of music industry pseudo-royalty, and they sounded as such. My friend thought one of the riffs sounded like The Pixies' "Where Is My Mind?" and dubbed it "Where Is My Vagina?" (lolz w/ Villa) We caught a few songs before apathy got the best of us.

White Rose Movement
Early part of this day just wasn't very good, and these guys were, in my opinion, probably the worst of the crop. 80's revivalist synth pop that sounded like something an EMI exec was convinced is the "NEXT KILLERS" and threw cash and big name producers at. The skinny spectre of a lead singer, on the other hand, was convinced he could sell his legitimacy by dancing like Ian Curtis, with is odd considering Ian Curtis danced, unattractively, like the epileptic white boy he was. Pretty much the guy was a huge douche bag, therefore. The music itself wasn't terrible, but this is the sort of thing I could do without in the "indie" scene.

The Walkmen
So finally, the "oh hey we're indie rock HEY GUYS HEY HEY LOOK AT US!" bands ended and someone who is only, as it were, incidentally indie began. I have been a Walkmen fan for quite some time, and have even seen them once before at my school's "music festival." They were, then, quite unenthused by our student body's surfer/stoner drunkard reception. Here they played the mainstage to a considerably more enthusiastic and familiar crowd. A fucking great performance, really. The songs on the new album (which has, less than a month from release, strangely eluded leaking) sounded great, particularly a big loud anthemic guitar song they used as an opener. Yes, they also played "The Rat," and lead singer Hamilton Leithauser is going to lose his voice by the age of 40 if he keeps continues to scream the way he did. They closed with their new single, "Lousiana," for which they used a saxophone and trumpet player for the end horn section, which I was happy about. Horns just inexplicably make me happy.

Animal Collective
Undoubtedly the weirdest set of the weekend, but I didn't expect anything less. Having a band like Animal Collective play a) in the middle of the day, b) on an outside stage, and c) for only 50 minutes, however, is a terrible idea. They only were able to play about 4 songs, and lost most of their supposedly semi-elaborate stage show as a result of the setting. Still, they were just as creatively enthused, conjuring up all sorts of psychotic unveilings. The new songs sound fairly decent - more reminiscent of their pre-Sung Tongs work (far more sprawling). We had to leave this, unfortunately, to go see:

Clap Your Hands Say Yeah
These guys don't upset me or piss me off in the least - in fact, they have some good songs, and their album's, overall, good. However, it's been generally established (not by me, just anyone who doesn't write for an online music mag) that they've received a tremendous amount of undue affection (9/10! ****1/2 out of *****! INSTANT CLASSIC, etc.), and their Coachella performance was perhaps the best evidence of that. These guys are a run-of-the-mill, in almost the truest sense of the word, indie rock band with nothing particularly remarkable about them except that they don't suck, and yet, easily, 5000 people were watching them play in a packed tent. I'm happy if those people find enjoyment in this band, but throwing all of your hopes and dreams on Clap Your Hands Say Yeah to revolutionize the world of pop music with what they've put on the table is just silly. If anything, this might be the single best example of people not taking pitchforkmedia.com with a grain of salt/sense of individual taste. Anyway, moving beyond my soapboxing, the performance really didn't carry all that well, either. They essentially went through the motions, and were about as energetic in front of 5000 people as they were in front of 500 during the video I saw of them at South By Southwest. We left after a few songs.

And I'm off

2006-04-27T22:46:00.000-07:00

Me and thousands of others are heading for Coachella as of tomorrow. I will therefore be out of updating ability until probably Tuesday - I know, sux0rz. I'll be back on Tuesday with a full report.

Oh hey I'm going, too

2006-04-26T17:30:00.000-07:00

This is being done (or has been done, or is going to be done) by any other person with a blog going (which, I'm sure, is an abnormally large amount relative to the rest of the population), but I'm going to Coachella and I feel inclined to let everyone know that. Lame, yes, but it's true. I am going. It is fact.

For those unfamiliar, Coachella was started in 1999 and is held in Indio, California. At the time, it was established as an "alternative festival" to its commercialized and unfocused peers, i.e. Lollapalooza, as well as an attempt to make a festival in America akin to what Europeans had been putting on for the better portion of the 90's. It has been tremendously successful, particularly since 2004, when The Pixies, Radiohead, The Cure, and The Flaming Lips all shared a headlining bill. My favorite part about the thing is usually not so much the headliners, however, and more the huge variety of side-stage acts. Goldenvoice, Coachella's organizing company, does a tremendous job every year of designing a top-notch line-up, and this year is no exception. There is certainly far more competition in the way of indie rock festivals now than there was seven years ago, but Coachella still stands out as, arguably, the industry standard.

Anyway it should be a good time, and it's this weekend. If you are looking for tickets, however, Sunday is now sold out completely due to the strange billing of Madonna, of all people, as a dance tent headliner. I have tickets for both days, though, thankfully. If I can manage to procure a digital camera, between my friend and I we should be able to take a bunch of pictures, and I'll post a little "review" or whatever.

Oh wait this is an mp3 blog. Here's some stuff from some of the less-known/heralded bands playing this weekend:

Download "Think Long" by Mates Of State from their 2006 LP Bring It Back

Download "Just For the Kick" by Coldcut from their 2005 LP Sound Mirrors

2006, Part Twelve

2006-04-24T23:38:00.000-07:00

Keiji Haino & Yoshida Tatsuya - New Rap (2006)

A completely under-the-radar sort of release, New Rap is the result of a collaboration between Japanese improv guitar god Keiji Haino and acclaimed Japanese underground drummer Yoshida Tatsuya. Loud and at times even cacophonous, Haino's high pitched screams and wails soar over Tatsuya's emphatic drum rolls and snare hits, as well as Haino's own manic mangling of his axe on this, not their first collaborative release. It's just totally caught me by surprise as a wonderful piece of artsy rock improvisation that is successful, which not all rock improvisation necessarily is. Here's a sample:

Download "West Broadway"

Leonard

2006-04-21T18:03:00.000-07:00

Sorry, I don't have a lot of time/energy to type out a blurb on this right now. All I'll say is Leonard Cohen should be completely obvious to most people, but it's amazing how few people know who he is. Author turned songwriter, started in late 60's, very good, here's a song:

Download "Suzanne" from Songs Of Leonard Cohen

johnnies come in packs of three

2006-04-19T22:21:00.000-07:00

Arab Strap write gritty, jarring songs about emotionless (or emotion-saturated, whatever the case may be) sex and the violent and helpless quality of infatuation. Aidan Moffat has one of the best Scottish drawls ever put to record, effortlessly pasting full songs out of what are, essentially, diary entries formed around poetic devices. Anyway, I've really been enjoying them lately, and particularly reccomend what is arguably their masterpiece, 1998's Philophobia, or anything in between (including last year's excellent The Last Romance). Here's a song:

Download "New Birds" from Philophobia

2006, Part Eleven (and re-launch, or something)

2006-04-17T22:43:00.000-07:00

So the blog's back after a three-week hiatus. Lucky you. I know, logo's sort of cool, right? It's a picture of Danish royalty watching the 1980's debut of The Ascension by Glenn Branca (see below). lalz. I made it in MS Paint because I no longer have the money to have anything to do with Adobe Photoshop. Double lalz. Anyway:

Home - Sexteen (2006)

Home is like a lost treasure from the Pavement and Guided By Voices-dominated lo-fi rock period of the early 90's that nobody knew about. Driven by the sort of fanboyish, slacker aesthetic that music encited, Home began releasing the first of what would become a staggering 12 casettes on their "label", ScrewMusicForever. Long after their lo-fi brethren had come, experienced critical and scene praise, and gone, Home continued with what therefore become entirely their own self-driven compulsion to make odes to the ordinary but intricate. However, like all compulsions, Home seemed to gain that sobering self-consciousness which can spell the end of compulsive desire, and disbanded two to three years ago after Home XII. Away from the symbiotic nature of their band's interplay, each member's individual artistic drive developed independently, and the trappings of their old style were shed. New arrangments were explored, if only internally, until the inevitable reunion of their individual talents was realized this past year.

Sexteen is the sound of a band re-united with new ideas, yes, which explains the stylistic polarities contained within, but it also is one far less characterized by big ego. These guys, having never experienced success, never even had the opportunity to let it go to their head. This is no better evidenced than in the album's premise: a concept work about about fucking. Yes, you read that right: it's a concept album about fucking. The result is slightly goofy, sure, but far more sincere than you'd expect, and moreover the refinement of their songwriting after nearly 16 years of practice completely trumps any gimmick to Sexteen's lyrical content. The sound is jumpy, foot-tapping, sometimes labored, but always delivered with that sort of whiny irreverence that lo-fiers did (and do, apparently) so well. It's a great album, and a complete surprise. If nothing else, it's an album allows you to listen to a song about foreplay and/or fingerbanging ("Teasing and Pleasing") that, somehow, manages to not come across as completely ridiculous, which is an accomplishment in and of itself.

Download "Push"

Sorry, dudes

2006-04-12T23:52:00.000-07:00

I haven't updated in almost three weeks now and that's bad. However, the first week I explained away already, and the rest of my reasons have to do with actually studying hard this quarter and for the remainder of my time here at this University, especially in light of the whole potential fifth-year thing. I can't afford that. Does this mean I won't be updating anymore? No. I probably will get back to the every-other-day basis updating schedule soon, it's just the beginning of the quarter seems to take the wind out of me more thoroughly than its remainder. Anyway, enough excuses.

To make up for it I'm going to post this huge megamix I assembled which is, in reality, completely arbitrary, but is nonetheless titled "The Best Of 2006 Part One". Well, I guess that's what it's titled - it doesn't really have a title. Anyway, the point is it's a 31-song mix that's meant to highlight some good material from the first half of this year based upon my estimates of what is good. 2006 has been a pretty dense year already, so I'd imagine more indulgent sprawling mixes can be expected from me and others. Here's the tracklisting:

(Band/Artist - Song - Album)
01 - Band Of Horses - The First Song - Everything All the T ime
02 - Ceephax - Hardcore Wick - Hardcore Wick 7"
03 - Eliot Lipp - Rap Tight - Tacoma Mockingbird
04 - Lilys - Where the Night Goes - Everything Wrong Is Imaginary
05 - Stereolab - Excursions Into Oh, A-Oh - Fab Four Suture
06 - The High Violets - Invitation - To Where You Are
07 - Colleen - The Ukulele Song - Mort Aux Vaches
08 - Citay - Shalom Of Safed - Citay
09 - GHQ - Drift-Void - Cosmology Of Eye
10 - Et Ret - It Was Pure Folly - Gasworks
11 - The Fiery Furnaces - Teach Me Sweetheart - Bitter Tea
12 - Destroyer - Painter In Your Pocket - (Destroyer's) Rubies
13 - Kieran Hebden & Steve Reid - Morning Prayer - The Exchange Session, Vol. 1
14 - Whitehouse - Language Recovery - Aceticists
15 - No-Neck Blues Band & Embryo - Five Grams Of Widow - EmbryoNNCK
16 - Herbert - Harmonise - Scale
17 - Drop the Lime - Unfold - Shot Shot Hearts EP
18 - The Knife - We Share Our Mother's Health - Silent Shout
19 - Ellen Allien & Apparat - Way Out - Orchestra Of Bubbles
20 - Delays - Cavalry - You See Colours
21 - Tokyo Jihen - Shuraba (Adult Version) - Adult!
22 - Wet Secrets - Boat Gas Death Train - A Whale Of a Cow
23 - The Ladies - Non-Threatening - They Mean Us
24 - Danielson - Kids Pushing Kids - Ships
25 - Belle & Sebastian - Song For Sunshine - The Life Pursuit
26 - Loose Fur - Wanted - Born Again In the USA
27 - Darando - I Want Your Love So Bad - Let My People Go
28 - Home - Raging Angel - Sexteen
29 - Mogwai - Auto-Rock - Mr. Beast
30 - Scott Walker - Cossacks Are - The Drift
31 - The Arctic Monkeys - When the Sun Goes Down - Whatever People Say That I Am, That's What I'm Not

Download

The Genius of Glenn Branca

2006-03-26T21:54:00.000-08:00

I'm considering making a series called "The Genius Of" for this blog, but that all seems a bit much currently. I don't know how often I'm going to discover genius-level artists I hadn't previously been enamored with, really, but we'll see. But, of course, I am the final word on genius, right? Right. So I'm torn. Anyway:

Glenn Branca composes symphonies for electric guitars. Sound bizarre, indulgent, even ludicrous or terrible? Possibly. However, it truly only sounds that way, because Branca has produced some of the most interesting takes on the range of the guitar as instrument ever put forth. Indeed, he might be the only man who not only has faith in the electric guitar as something beyond "low" culture, but also has that notion evidenced in a superb discography.

Starting in the late 70's, Branca formed the avant-gardeish groups Theoretical Girls and Static, but he was best known for his tendency to show up in smokey underground New York dens to shred confusingly complex imrovisational pieces. These little creative fits spread word quickly of Branca's singularity in the "scene" of the time, and so his first release, Lesson No. 1 (For Electric Guitar) was met with considerable attention and praise. In that record you can hear the beginnings of Branca's ambitions with his instrument. Eventually, those ambitions translated to Branca composing whole Symphonies of electric guitar in 1981, some of which call for as much as 100 guitars to build huge swirling walls of sound over single bass drum beats. The results are just fantastically engaging for anybody who has enjoyed, especially, post-punk/post-rock, but are certainly also valuable for anyone who has been touched by the versatility of the electric six-string. I've absolutely fallen in love with his work, and so should you.

Highlights include (but are not limited to) Symphony No. 6 (Devil Choirs At the Gates Of Heaven), The Ascension, and Symphony No.'s 8 & 10 (The Mysteries).

Download "First Movement" from Symphony No. 6 (Devil Choirs At the Gates Of Heaven)

The Genius of Kate Bush

2006-03-17T20:32:00.000-08:00

Recently I've "discovered" the work of British songstress Kate Bush, and why it took me so long I don't know. She's perfect for my musical temperment - poppy, emphatic, a little weird. Going back through her catalog has just been an absolute pleasure. Some have compared Joanna Newsom's voice to Bjork, which is ridiculous, because it's much closer to Bush's alto. Unlike Newsom, however, Bush has a sweetness to her intonations that keeps you feeling like she's about to explode in sobs. Don't get me wrong, her music is in no way dominated by depressive themes, it's just this particular way her voice has of carrying a subtle, underlying emotionality. The quality of her melodies and the centerpiece of her voice transcend even the cheesiness in some of her older work's instrumentation. Just fucking great. I haven't really checked out much of her (supposedly) triumphant return in LP form from last year, Aerial, but from her older catalog a good place to start is either with The Whole Story or Hounds Of Love, working your way from there out to her other works. Here's one of her better singles:

Download "Cloudbusting"

2006, Part Ten

2006-03-14T17:16:00.000-08:00

GHQ - Cosmology Of Eye (2006)

John Fahey is achieving a sort of strange resurgence in recent years, and with good reason. The man pioneered, arguably, the use of the acoustic guitar outside of its normal means. With that in mind, artists like Jack Rose and Six Organs Of Admittance are quietly nodding to their under-appreciated patriarch with complex layers of acoustic snarl delayed and amplified to striking result. When listening to Cosmology Of Eye I couldn't help but identify GHQ's collaborative efforts as belonging to that small sub-movement. However, where, say, Jack Rose opts for the more traditional incarnations of Fahey's work, GHQ throw in a variety of noises and allow it to build and swell around acoustic guitar resembling Fahey's latter, more experimental work. In fact, they often don't incorporate any acoustic guitar at all, and yet it still all sounds decidedly "Faheyan." A boiling ocean of sounds can be found, ebbing and flowing in symbiosis, only to seperate just as seemlessly as they collided. The result has been described as "Indian raga," and there are some Eastern sounds here, but the album tends to transcend those ties as well. Just a great record to throw some headphones on and listen to, in general.

Download "Black River Apples"

2006, Part Nine

2006-03-12T22:36:00.000-08:00

Tokyo Jihen - Adult (2006)

J-Pop. Jesus, what bad connotations - let's see: anime, anime robots, people who dress like anime robots at comic conventions, people who prefer cartoon breasts over real ones, etc. It is, however, a genre which music enthusiasts must admit is largely unexploited. And here come Tokyo Jihen, who have produced, possibly, the first really valuable piece of music from the genre, transcending the narrow attentions of people who watch too much Japanese Animation on [adult swim], and breaking out into a larger audience. The normal qualities of the style are here: Japanese fascination with jazzy keyboards, cliche American drum soloing, sweet female vocals with rising choruses, incorrect English usage, etc. However, it is put together with such direct precision, so sleek and streamlined and deliberate, that it's almost impossible to not sway your head to. It's the most realized statement from J-Pop possibly ever, allowing it to progress from a weird cauldron of American infleunces to finally sounding distinct. Even regardless of its tyings to J-Pop, the musicians play so intensely and deliberately that it sounds anything but limp, which, arguably, is usually the genre's downfall. Definitely worth a spin, even if you decide it's not your thing.

Download "Shuraba (Adult Version)"

2006, Part Eight

2006-03-10T02:43:00.000-08:00

No-Neck Blues Band & Embryo - EmbryoNNCK (2006)

No-Neck Blues Band came to my attention only last year, and they're undeniably intriguing. They're a band that simply take the creative, fiery, spontaneous energy of simply playing with either each other or other musicians, and put it to record. There's very little structure to No-Neck Blues' Band's music, but it comes across so entirely genuine and dedicated to the process of music-making, the true exploration of sounds and the pursuance of musical ideas, that it's easy to think they're a little beyond you (also, they're more jazz-influenced than blues influenced, so the name is inappropriate, although they truly have incorporated almost all conceivable styles in the 15 years they have been making music). It possibly took, then, a collaboration with likeminded "space jazz" band Embryo to flesh out their ideas in a more grounded forum. EmbryoNNCK is just a pleasure to sit back and listen to. It is the sound of creation and experimentation, of music guided only by the feelings it incites in its players. It also resists "weirdness," staying well within the confines of avant gardeism without calling undue attention to any one of its individual parts. Jazzy, beautiful, it's just a great and varied expanse of music. Listen and hear if you, too, can dig.

Download "Five Grams Of the Widow"

2006, Part Seven

2006-03-07T18:16:00.000-08:00

Danielson - Ships (2006)

I'm sort of falling out love with music that associates itself blatantly with the term "indie." I'm speaking primarily of the heart-on-sleeve, anglocized, twee-influenced acoustic guitar music that has, recently, begun to get even mainstream music's attention. There are definite exceptions - I, like everyone else, thought The Arcade Fire's Funeral was wonderful, for instance. However, it just all has begun to seem a little contrived and unfocused to me lately. Danielson's Ships, therefore, has been a good release for me because it is, by all indications, that very type of music. However, it sheds that sense of hashed-out cookie cutter songwriting that seems to plague other groups as of late. There are some really emotional and weirdly atonal melodies going on here, ones that combine to create a strange but sing-songy aesthetic. The instrumentation is not its distinguishing factor(it sounds Sufjan Stevens/Architecture In Helsinki-ish - "indie big-band"), it's the strength of the songwriting, lyrics, vocal arrangements, and melodies. Definitely my favorite indie darling release of the year.

Download "Kids Pushing Kids"

2006, Part Six

2006-03-05T21:12:00.000-08:00

Herbert - Scale (2006)

For whatever reason, I've ignored the output of electronic/organic composer Matthew Herbert up until now. I have absolutely no idea why. His older work, from what I've tried to catch myself up on, is pretty great and strikingly eclectic. He's done everything from big-band work to electronic soundscapes. Perhaps that is why this album is catching some waves of buzz recently - it seems to marry his disparate styles so well, and doesn't cling to the heavy-handed social consciousness his other recent releases exhibited. Instead, he again employs long-time vocal collaborator Dani Sicilano, crafting a neo-soulish record with unusual sampling and instrumentation. In typical Herbert style, samples are ingeniously and meticulously placed over pulsating beats, carrying the undeniably catchy hooks and melodies Sicilano and company vocalize. A really fun and accessible record with some amazing songs which highlight the strength of Herbert's compositional style. Check it out.

Download "Moving Like A Rain"

Balls... OF ARTHUR (lolz)

2006-03-04T16:10:00.000-08:00

I'm not sure why it's taken me nearly a week to remember to write something about this, so my apologies. This past Saturday, February 25th, I attended ArthurBall at the Echo in Los Angeles. For those not in the know, Arthur Magazine is a hyper-progressive, free publication from the Los Angeles area. It emphasizes free-thinking, mind liberation, open discussions on culture and art, etc. I was unfortunately unaware of its existence until last year, largely due to my Los Angelian displacement here in Santa Barbara. What brought it to my attention was the announcement of something that seemed like a sort of ultra-underground adjunct to Coachella, called ArthurFest. I attended that this past September, and it was a wonderful experience, with some of the best performances I've ever seen (Sonic Youth, Olivia Tremor Control, and a solo Cat Power, to name a few). So when I won tickets to a smaller-scale winter version of the festival, called "ArthurBall", this past weekend, I didn't hesitate to travel back down to my Southern Californian homestead.

What I encountered echoed the "vibe" of ArthurFest - elaborately dressed, twenty-something bohemians with a definite sense of informality and lack of hostility. There was music, yes, but also films, and even a "vibrational healing center", all spread around the Echo Park area. Trying to locate the latter (everything was sort of endearingly disorganized), Jay Babcock, editor and, arguably, the lifeblood of Arthur Magazine saw me staring blankly at one of the little map handouts, and walked me over to the "healing center" a block or so away. He, too, like his creation, was very informal, entirely amiable.

Anyway, music. I won tickets to both days, but on Sunday I was a little too occupied by other "responsibilities" (whatever those are), so I chose not to attend. However, what I saw on Saturday reaffirmed, as ArthurFest did, my faith in underground music and artists:

(all live photos except Colleen's courtesy of Ice Cream Man)

Opening band The Society Of Rockets played a charming set of anthemic guitar music. Behind them and onto them was projected various animations and video clips, which made their music (reminiscent of The Wrens) that more captivating. As best I could tell, the songs concerned lost love and dealing with the approach of middle-age. Very varied instrumentation, including accordion, a theremin, and even a sax section. Really good way to start out the evening.

Finnish/French duo Mi & l'Au performed an intimate acoustic set, which, honestly, was one of the biggest surprises for me of the day. Really hauntingly beautiful and disarming. Their back-story is a little too repeated in the stead of describing their music, but it is undeniably interesting: basically, the two shared a cabin together somewhere deep in the Finnish wilderness, and would spend days playing nothing but music together until a product was reached. Their self-titled album from last year is worth checking out if you're at all into neo-folk revivalism or just pretty guitar music.

The first artist I was previously familiar with was amazing French ambient artist Colleen. Her performance was particularly special because she rarely plays America, and she confirmed this was her first appearance in Los Angeles. Keeping true to the creative process for last year's The Golden Morning Breaks, she crafted soundscapes entirely out of organic instruments, looping cello, guitar, clarinet, chime, and music box melodies over and over again to culminate in these huge, wonderful walls of sound. She was a very nice woman, too, and was appreciative when I thanked her after the performance. Definitely one of the day's highlights.

At around this point I checked out Leg and Pants Dance Theatre, which was a performance piece with fairly disturbing poetics, coupled with electronic tracks, and movement. Definitely interesting, but not a highlight.

Unknown Instructors were the other creative debut happening at the "ball" (the other being Josh Homme of Queens Of the Stone Age debuting the 5:15ers the next day). This was the second time I had seen a side-project of former Minutemen bassist Mike Watt, and it was arguably even more entertaining. A sort of free-jam by Watt and two other musicians, the group played a funky din over spoken word recitations, creating a very cool, "head-y" viewing experience. Unfortunately, I was only able to see two "songs."

At this point I met up with my friend Tommy, and we watched a few songs of metal-ish duo OM. I can't find any pictures of these guys (and I'm too cheap to get a digital camera, apparently), but they were interesting. I never knew a 4-stringed bass could emit so much noise. To be honest, however, they weren't really "my bag" - I'm pretty perplexed as to why scenesters/hipsters have recently become fascinated by metal. I understand the quality of musicianship for some of these bands (Mastodon, etc.), but beyond the "drone-metal" being done by Sunn O))) and company, I'm not particularly enthused.

Joanna Newsom is a very divisive artist. The arguments "against" her are fairly varied, but most come back to the rather asinine complaint that her voice is "too weird." I consider this a bad complaint because the music community has embraced other "weirdly voiced" artists, such as Tom Waits, or even Belle & Sebastian's crooner, and not even batted an eye. Joanna Newsom's voice, like those artists, indeed adds to her aesthetic, in my opinion. Anyway, so I'm a huge champion of the lady if you were having trouble deriving that, and this performance was virtually transcendent for me. She didn't play more than three songs from her 2004 release The Milk-Eyed Mender, but hearing her debut her epic new unfinished album was a treat. She would say things during her performance about how she was screwing up occasionally, but it certainly wasn't noticeable - her harp playing is awe-inspiring, and the strength of her overall performance just great. Definitely did not disappoint.

So anyway, praise to Arthur Magazine. Jay Babcock and friends are some of the most fervent supporters of underground culture and music, and they do an amazing job of putting on events. Look out for ArthurFest's line-up this upcoming fall, or, if you're going to South by Southwest this year, check out Arthur's recently announced side-staging, The Happening.

Pitchforkian Music Culture, etc.

2006-03-01T16:05:00.000-08:00

Pitchfork (www.pitchforkmedia.com), for better or for worse, has become the face of underground music, and certainly primary ambassador for "indie" music to the larger music "community" (if popular music can still be said to be a community). Their lists of top albums are collected into huge ZIP files and circulated across the internet like canon, their reviews scrutinized and argued about - in general, their opinion carries a huge amount of weight, perhaps too much. It's easy, then, to want to resist their pervasiveness in the underground music scene, and ignore their rather reactionary worship of certain artists. I guess I'm posting this as a way of explaining myself - I'm going to try to, as little as possible, post about albums or artists you might read about on Pitchfork. However, their tastes and mine are inevitably going to be linked occasionally (see The Knife and Destroyer already this year), and it would be dishonest of me to not like an album or artist simply because Pitchfork also does.

Sorry, I'm ranting. I guess all I'm saying is that I'm walking a fine-line here. During my 2006 highlights, if Pitchfork has already praised an album that I consider interesting, I probably won't post about it. This is for no other reason than you will hear about whoever it is, most likely, everywhere, and I would just risk being redundant. Don't get me wrong, if you follow Pitchfork obediently, you will probably have better taste in music than if you didn't. At the very least, they do highlight alternative music exclusively. I'm just trying to provide some alternative to that by highlighting artists I think everybody is ignoring. However, if Pitchfork has yet to praise an album, even if I think they will, I'm virtually obligated to also spread the word. Such is the case with the following two albums, which recently leaked their way onto the internet, and most likely will be Pitchfork fodder. However, they are both so fucking good, any "Pitchforkian" assimilation will be deserved:

TV On the Radio - Return To Cookie Mountain (Due Late Spring 2006)

TV On the Radio, three years ago, were the "it" band in the underground community. Their vocal style, consisting of weird, layered, and distorted harmonies, was entirely unique. Their production style was manic and captivating, a punchy blend of distorted guitar and beats. So, after their wonderful, emphatic Young Liars EP in 2003, their first full-length, Deseperate Youth, Bloodthirsty Babes, was a bit of a dissapointment. It still was great, don't get me wrong, just not quite the indie-rock messiah opus some were (probably stupidly and arbitrarily) hoping for.

It's been a long two years since TV On the Radio began work on a follow-up, and, through the piracy magic of the internet, a rough cut has leaked. And, well, TV On the Radio seem to have lived up to the hype at the best possible time - after it has gone away. The weird vocal style is still there, but this time much more bold and confident. The trip-hopish beats are still there, but are mixed and sequenced in a much more deliberate manner. It just sounds fucking great, honestly. There are so many sounds coming at you that it's easily one of the most listenable yet complex albums to come out of the underground crop in the past decade. Major labels seem to think so, too - TV On the Radio just signed to Interscope. With that in mind, I'm a little afraid of RIAA goonies hunting me down for giving you a sample song. It shouldn't be very hard to find, though (just download a Soulseek client - www.slsknet.org). Do check it out, though, it's a great album.

Listen to: "Snakes And Martyrs/Hours," "I Was A Lover"

The Fiery Furnaces - Bitter Tea (2006)

Matthew and Eleanor Friedberger are producing divisive music. Their first album was perfectly accessible (and largely underrated), but their second, 2004's Blueberry Boat, was this huge, sprawling, really, really, really long masterpiece or farce, depending on who you talk to. Last year they released an album with their atonal grandmother croaking out weird stories of her past, with Eleanor, the primary vocalist of the Furnaces, singing or speaking awkwardly over her matriarch's musings. That album seemed to be the final straw - webzines who previously were Furnaces champions panned it, while others contested that, at the very least, it was entirely unique and indicative of some sort of genius.

The Furnaces seem to have gone into more familiar waters again, no grandmother this time. However, the sprawling songs with many shifts in timing and melody found on Blueberry Boat remain, only this time a little more succinct. In my opinion, this is also Matthew Friedberger's best songwriting and production work to date. Strong melodies only hinted at on songs like "Evergreen" (see 2005's EP release) are finally beginning to sing-song their way into his massively creative headspace more prominently. The result is another work from the Furnaces that seems like a daunting listening task at first, but this time slicked up a bit for an easier transition. You'll find yourself falling in love with first the lyrics and melodies, and while that keeps you listening, the virtual genius of Matthew's little production subtleties will help you realize its lasting greatness. It's really their most well-executed release to date, and one I hope will continue a trend.

Download "Teach Me Sweetheart"

Erik Satie

2006-02-23T18:28:00.000-08:00

I've been getting into ambient music lately, which in the modern context is becoming a slightly ambiguous genre label. I've been trying to shift from modern incarnations, however, and focus on the genre's roots, which basically means I've been getting more into Brian Eno's ambient work. Eno was a part of Roxy Music, leaving them in the early 70's to produce a series of excellent, ahead-of-the-curve, electronically influenced pop records. However, during the 70's he also started going into an unexpected direction that came to be known as his ambient period, and, because it had never truly been "done before", consequently the advent of ambient music itself. This period was most fully realized with the release of Ambient 1: Music For Airports, an album consisting entirely of largely non-melodic piano music over a background hum. He accompanied the release with an essay on ambient music theory, and in it he cites a French classical composer named Erik Satie as an influence.

Erik Satie was a pianist producing work in the late 19th century and through the early 20th, until his death in 1924. During that time he fashioned a revolutionary idea of "simplicity in the extreme," which is pretty self-explanatory, as a new method of piano composition. Perhaps the best realization of this idea comes in his piece Trois Gymnopedies, a short three section piece of sparse piano music. Described by Satie as a piece that was meant to set the tone for an activity but never draw attention to itself, it basically is the first ambient piece ever composed, and it was composed in 1888.

Anyway, I recently was able to grab a huge box-set of Satie's work, titled Trois Gymnopedies & Other Piano Works, released in 1999. Trois Gymnopedies itself is just great. I made a post a while ago about music to study to, and this is just an extension of that idea, if not the basis for all the music I reccomended. Really cool stuff for being so old. You can download the piece below.

Download Trois Gymnopedies

2006, Part Five

2006-02-22T21:19:00.000-08:00

Loose Fur - Born Again In the USA

Well, gosh darnit if Jim O'Rourke isn't awesome. And, about a week ago now, Steve Villa and I saw Jeff Tweedy, Wilco frontman, solo in concert, reaffirming to me that he is also awesome. It therefore seems entirely logical (to me) that combining the two would produce amazing results, and it has, here in their second side-project outing under the name "Loose Fur."

Producer luminary O'Rourke met Tweedy and other Loose Fur member, Wilco drummer Glenn Kotche, when he was called in to add "direction" to Wilco's now-classic Yankee Hotel Foxtrot. Much of what you hear on the final result of that weird, production-heavy album is partially a result of O'Rourke's finely tuned ear. O'Rourke himself has proved to be not only a genius in more abstract composition, but also has a sizeable cult-following through his solo pop outings. Some were a little dissapointed, then, when Loose Fur's first album in 2003 was not some sort of surpassing of both O'Rourke and Tweedy's solo ambitions, but rather was just a good record. You must remember, though, that this, in the truest sense of the word, is a side-project for both men; an excuse to have fun and bounce ideas off each other, not make the everlasting statement of their careers. Born Again In the USA is a continuation of that idea. Equal parts americana, pop, and experimentation, it just sounds really, really solid. O'Rourke has always been at his best producing organic instruments, and they are leveled and layered so well in the final mix that it's just an honor and a pleasure. An undeniably fun, great record; nothing groundbreaking, no, but certainly worth a listen, especially if you're already a fan of either Wilco or O'Rourke. It doesn't need any more ornate of a description than that.

Download "Stupid As the Sun"

(download instructions: right-click "Copy Link Location" in Firefox, or right-click "Copy Shortcut" in Internet Explorer, paste onto URL/address bar and change "hzzp" to "http", press enter, follow instructions for download. If you can't figure out how to download and listen to these files leave a comment for this entry and your Instant Messager name or e-mail address, and I will contact you. Keep in mind that if you are looking at an old entry, YouSendIt links like these expire after a given amount of time or a large amount of downloads, so the files may no longer be available. Sorry.)

2006, Part Four

2006-02-18T22:45:00.000-08:00

Drop the Lime - Shot Shot Hearts EP

I namedropped Drop the Lime in the little blurb I wrote on Terminal 11's Illegal Nervous Habits for my Top 10 of 2005, and I'm worried I gave the impression that what Luca Venezia is doing under that moniker is not worth listening to. That's not the case, at all. I talked of him to indicate how, in my opinion, Mike Castaneda (Terminal 11) seems to have a more visionary approach to lassoing in all of these disparate IDM and drill'n'bass pastiches that have been going on lately - in comparison to someone like Venezia, at least. However, that might have been a little unfair, because Venezia is a little more unapologetically drill'n'bass/experimental, and his IDM-ness doesn't really register prominently anywhere in his music. What he is doing is fucking awesome and captivating, though, and completely worth paying attention to. This 8 song EP, a follow-up to last year's excellent This Means Forever LP, is short but still consistent. The same super-high BPM underlie Venezia's distorted yelps. His vocals are almost punk-ish; very abrasive, really ballsy, and lyrically super irreverent. It's refreshing, too, to hear Venezia slowing down on a few tracks toward the end of the EP, showing that his strength doesn't just lie in "BPM oblivion", but also real sample mastery. Really awesome stuff. Again, if you like this, be sure to check out his LP from last year, also.

Download "Cold Hearts"

2006, Part Three

2006-02-15T23:40:00.000-08:00

Ellen Allien & Apparat - Orchestra Of Bubbles (2006)

Ellen Allien released an incredible piece of cross-genre dance music in 2003 with Berlinette. With really, really wonderful layered and sampled vocals over fairly inspired beats, it was simply one of the most refreshing things to be released out of any electronic sub-genre. It was therefore a fairly large (although, in my opinion, overblown) dissapointment when her followup, last year's Thrills, consisted only of throw-away house tracks with little in the way of adventurousness. In my opinion, she's completely redeemed herself with this, her first collaboration with German IDM luminary Apparat. There are more vocals, yes, but even the dance tracks are infused with more unsettling sample-based life than Ellen Allien's solo attempts, thanks to Apparat's "intelligent" command over looping and sampling. If you need something to bob your head to, look for it.

Download "Way Out"

2006, Part Two

2006-02-11T18:02:00.000-08:00

Destroyer - Destroyer's Rubies (2006)

Dan Bejar is one of 3 notable singers and songwriters in The New Pornographers, and his really fey, distinctive voice has arguably been one of their best assets, if not an underused one. Bejar is one of the looser components of the group, however (The Pornographers are really A.C. Newman's baby), and spends most of his time touring or recording for his solo project, Destroyer. This is the third album of Destroyer material in the past five years, and, comparitively, is the sound of Bejar finally feeling a little more comfortable in his own skin. 2004's Your Blues was a great record, don't get it me wrong, but the instrumentation and arrangements hinted that Bejar was holding something back. The title track and opener for Destroyer's Rubies, a nearly 9-minute long epic, is therefore suprising. It's fucking great, though, too, with typically veiled lyrical allegories, and so many sections that it could easily be 2 or 3 seperate songs. The rest of the record is also just as solid; again much more deliberate-sounding than previous efforts. It really is one of the best things to be coming out this year, and will probably only serve to deify Dan Bejar more than he already has been in the underground music community.

Download the title track "Rubies"

2006, Part One

2006-02-09T18:55:00.000-08:00

This'll be the first in a multiple-part series of posts I'll do all year, assuming I don't lose interest in doing this blog before then. I'll post random 2006 releases/leaks I've been enjoying, you can follow through with buying or, uh, "buying" the whole album, or ignoring me entirely. Basically, though, checking out the artists or the new albums by the artists you already know = goal of posts.

The Knife - Silent Shout (2006)

This has been my first album-length orientation to these guys. I first heard of them through the strange video for the equally strange MIDI-synth song, "You Take My Breath Away," and, well, they certainly are strange, but wonderfully so. The work of Swedish brother-sister duo Olof Dreijer and Karen Dreijer, The Knife sort of sound, at times, like they originated inside a boombox, other times like they belong gyrating at some sweaty rave, sequencing on horse tranquilizers. Layered vocals and really cool electronic experimentation make for a surprisingly catchy record, one which the strange delivery only lends, perhaps, some credibility to. A lot of people are attending to Tiga's Sexor over this, but I think The Knife are far, far more interesting.

Anyway, you can watch the really creepy Chris Cunningham-like video for the title track at the link below, or follow the second link to download one of the better tracks, "We Share Our Mother's Health":

Watch "Silent Shout" Video

Download "We Share Our Mother's Health"

Derived or coming from Montreal

2006-02-07T18:31:00.000-08:00

After thoroughly polishing Of Montreal mastermind Kevin Barnes' knob in my Top 25 of 2005, I reasoned I should keep everybody informed about what he's up to. A new album is in the future, although the tentative title and release date being thrown around escape me (I never said I was professional). However, a small EP release has just seen the light of day in the past week, entitled Deflated Chime, Foals Slightly Flower Sybilline Responses (I know), and includes two new tracks (the other two being "Wraith Pinned To the Mist and Other Games" and "Disconnect the Dots", from the last two LP releases). Upon first listen, it sounds like Barnes isn't about to give up his creative freedom, which, in my opinion, is a good thing, as they're pretty production-heavy. Anyway, here they are for questionably legal download:

Of Montreal - Psychotic Feeling

Of Montreal - Noir Blues To Tinnatus

Coachella 2006, etc.

2006-02-07T01:01:00.000-08:00

So for the past two years, some variation of people I know and I have gone to this big, weird, utopia-like experience called the Coachella Valley Music And Arts Festival. It's a good time, filled with weird moving baby effigies, mechanical monstrosities that destroy said baby effigies, tents, sweaty hipsters, ovepriced water, and some of the best line-ups of music to ever exist in festival form. Indeed, some of the best live music performances I've ever seen have been there, and I imagine that it will only remain that way.

This year the line-up seems a little less inspiring to some, but, really, everybody's a little spoiled from previous years. Personally, they would have to bill a 90 year old Alzheimer's patient forgetting and then remembering stories of his own incontenence again and again for me to not go; the experience is that amazing. Here's who's going to play:

Saturday, April 29th:

Depeche Mode
Daft Punk
Franz Ferdinand
Sigur Ros
Damian "Jr. Gong" Marley
Common
Atmosphere
Carl Cox
My Morning Jacket
TV On the Radio
Ladytron
Clap Your Hands Say Yeah
Tosca
Cat Power
Animal Collective
HARD-Fi
Derrick Carter
Devendra Banhart
She Wants Revenge
The Walkmen
The Juan Maclean
Imogen Heap
Audio Bullys
Lady Sovereign
Deerhoof
The Duke Spirit
Eagles Of Death Metal
Lyrics Born
Matt Costa
The New Amsterdams
The Zutons
Platinum Pied Pipers
White Rose Movement
Chris Liberator
Colette
Joey Beltram
Hybrid
Living Things
Wolfmother
The Like
Nine Black Alps
Celebration
The Section Quartet
Shy FX & T Power
Infusion

Sunday, April 30th:
Tool
Massive Attack
Yeah Yeah Yeahs
Bloc Party
Paul Oakenfold
Scissor Sisters
Matisyahu
James Blunt
Sleater-Kinney
Mogwai
Coheed and Cambria
Wolf Parade
Coldcut
Phoenix
Digable Planets
Amadou & Mariam
Little Louie Vega
Mylo (DJ Set)
Seu Jorge
Gnarls Barkley
The Go! Team
Kasakade
Metric
The Editors
Art Brut
Dungen
The Dears
Jamie Lidell
The Magic Numbers
Los Amigos Invisibles
Jazzanova
stellastarr*
Micahel Mayer
Murs ft. 9th Wonder
Mates Of state
Gilles Peterson
Infadels
Gabriel & Dresden
The Subways
Minus The Bear
OneRepublic
Be Your Own Pet
Youth Group
Giant Drag
Kristina Sky
The Octopus Project
Ted Leo & The Pharmacists

See you there. If you'd like to go with Steve Villa (my friend) or I, you probably can, or if you need advice about where to stay/what to do from some "veterans", also let me know. We avoid the hassle of getting a hotel room within 50 miles of the festival grounds and/or dealing with the jam-packed festival grounds camping by camping near that beautiful visual reminder of human dominance (or lack thereof) over nature, the Salton Sea, and would be more than happy to see somebody we knew there/share a campsite.

My Top 10 (25) Albums Of 2005

2006-01-31T20:06:00.000-08:00

I listen to a lot of music. It's progressed beyond the point of hobby to mild obsession, or at the very least my primary form of escapism in life (yes, it's *even* superceded alcohol!). There could definitely be worse things, obviously, so I guess I shouldn't be too self-deprecating. However, all this music listening can also get a bit lonely, primarily because a lot of the artists I now listen to are "underground", or "indie", or whatever, so it's not as if I can share my enthusiasm with more than a handful of people. Actually, I'm overstating that, I really don't tend to feel lonely in my listening, more just a need to show other people what I think is new and innovative.

I'm trying to explain, I guess, why I'm making this self-indulgent little list. It's purpose, I hope, will be to expose some of you to some music I thought was wonderful this past year that you may not have otherwise heard of. It really is bothersome to me that people don't have many artists that they can claim they listen to for their artistry; it's seems more and more people, in maybe an off-shoot response to the huge void that is mostly substanceless mainstream music, either begin grasping for straws with those who do have some semblance of actual credibility with simultaneous success, or have ceased being music fans altogether, choosing to go the route of casual listening. You shouldn't be backed into a corner by corporations that see nothing but the bottom line. I'm not so self-important to think that I'm going to be your sole savior from that based on this thing, but hopefully it will spur you to look at other internet resources for music. That's really one of the only true ways out at this point, and whether or not you like all that I have listed below, at the very least do some research of your own. Read online music sites, go to music message boards, go to a local record store and ask a clerk, hell, even watch Subterranean on MTV2. Whatever. Just don't be a sheep. Okay, end rant.

(blogger.com/blogspot is being a bitch and I wasn't able to format this the way I wanted, so it doesn't look all that pretty. Fucking blogspot.)

The Not Top 10.

25. Merzbow - Sphere - the godfather of noise "music" introduces me to his craft. Use headphones and possibly be high.

24. The National - Alligator - pure indie-rock, but passionately so. Possibly some of the best blatantly heart-on-sleeve lyrics I've ever heard.

23. The Joggers - With A Cape And A Cane - the guitar album of the year.

22. Broadcast - Tender Buttons - warm psychadelia-evoking female vocals meet the cold steel of electronic blips and bloops.

21. Boris - Akuma No Uta - Japanese band has, seeing our lack of rock, learned to rock better than we can.

20. Dwight Trible (& The Life-Force Trio) - Love Is the Answer - soulful warm-voiced Jazz singer employs various hip-hop production luminaries with great results.

19. Aoki Takamasa & Tujiko Noriko - 28 - "J-Pop" singer teams up with Japanese ambient-IDM genius.

18. (Smog) - A River Ain't Too Much To Love - massively underrated singer-songwriter innovates while remaining consistent after over 10 years of output.

17. LCD Soundsystem - LCD Soundsystem - overweight aging hipster/production genius finally makes a statement in album form, complete with the singles that created all the hype.

16. Oneida - The Wedding - overlooked indie trio makes own instruments, produces big, wonderful, dreamy chaos.

15. Sleater-Kinney - The Woods - the best all-girl band still making music makes their best music. Loud and more ballsy than their rock peers with actual anatomical balls.

14. Russian Futurists - Our Thickness - understated Canadian electronic group makes infectiously catchy album... understatedly.

13. Broken Social Scene - Broken Social Scene - huge Canadian indie-rock supergroup takes their sound to the farthest reaches of supergroupness, absolutely massacre sophomore album curse.

12. Akron/Family - Akron/Family - "freak-folk" meets electronic meets wonderful melody.

11. Bloc Party - Silent Alarm - the album that all other bands with this sound have been trying to make is finally made.

Top 10

10.

Jens Lekman - Oh, You're So Silent Jens

Jens Lekman is a very strange man. His singing is marked by a distinctive Swedish accent, producing an equally indistinctive awkwardness in his lyrical delivery. He sings of heartache, lack of heartache; really mostly mundane things, sort of middle-class anthems with subject matter as simple yet profound as meeting girls in European Iraqi war protests. He's obsessed with his own little peculiar benign world-view, championing his own heroes and points of interest (see his songs about Rocky Dennis, the man the 80's movie Mask is based upon). His rhyme schemes are sometimes a little abrasively elementary, jutting out like a big, skinny, pale Jens Lekman elbow. Yes, he's emotive; so much so that he openly laments not having been (supposedly) laid in a year on his website. If you think I'm painting a picture of a rather pathetic figure, I am. He sort of is.

In underground "indie" music you run into a good deal of "white boy ennui." It's either strikingly blatant, such as in "twee" indie-pop music (really, really cloying stuff, like emo x 2 million), or, more often than not, masked under a few not-so-well constructed layers of pretension. Jens Lekman employs neither of these precedents, he is simply Jens Lekman. It's arguable, in my opinion, that he's one of the few artists bringing some credibility to a whole slew of whiny white boys, most of whom have packaged their emotional tripe into shiny little music videos and thrown on a layer of mascara for good, maximum emotional measure. It's annoying because these guys *really* have nothing to whine about, they're doing it in a direct appeal to those who are naive enough to think that they do. I don't want to pigeonhole Jens, however, into belonging to this rather distasteful trend, because he doesn't even really whine. His songs have some "aw, shucks" content, sure, but it comes across as entirely genuine. Most of the time, really, he's just describing to you how bewildered he is by life and all of its strangeness, especially in the face of his own burdgeoning adulthood. The result is a wonderful, weird, sing-songy album that, thankfully, even most indie-pop "afficiandos" are recognizing as wonderful.

Listen to (click to download songs that have links): "Pocketful Of Money", "Maple Leaves"

Miss Alex White - Miss Alex White & The Red Orchestra

Miss Alex White was the biggest surprise for me this past year, if only because she came out of absolutely nowhere. Very few of even the most underground music circles were even namedropping her. I acknowledge, therefore, that there's a danger to my placing her so high on this list, because she is, really, a complete unknown at this point. What fanfare she *is* getting is decidedly miniscule, and still centers around her hometown Chicagoan fanbase. The danger I'm referring to, then, is that maybe this *isn't* that great, and the few of us enamored with her now are just caught up in some feverish excitement of discovery. The truth is I really don't care.

Miss Alex White (and her Red Orchestra) emerge from the decidedly still nubile genre of "garage punk", which is a fucking stupid genre name. It's a classification that accurately describes the record's muffled quality, like it's being processed through tin cans or something, but, in my opinion, also is a dismissive sort of term. It literally connotates that she's coming from inside some garage somewhere, an amateur not to be taken seriously. This is the sort of reaction you must shed yourself of when listening to her, but, thankfully, it's really not that difficult to do. This record is so fucking rockingly catchy, it's ridiculous. Her voice echoes belly-driven out of stacks of amps like a woman possessed. And her Orchestra, well, they aren't shabby either, backing a sound that is easily the most anthemic album of this past year in my opinion. There are artists who are attempting to re-create an instant, a long dead moment in the history of rock and roll's sound who are falling alarmingly short in comparison to this red-headed monster of a lady. I only hope others will share in my enthusiasm and spread the word.

Listen to (click to download songs with links): "Picture My Face", "On Time"

Vitalic - Ok, Cowboy

If you think about it, an alectronic artist being French by deafault is really the common American conception, whether it's spoken openly about or not. After all, electronic music has thrived as a European phenomenon in ways that American listeners have largely been unable to appreciate, and the stereotypes we associate with French people ("frogs", or, basically, images of strangeness, the polarized opposite of American way of life and culutre in the Western world) are perfect models onto which we can project our perception of electronic music as being weird and inaccessible. The truth is, however, that France is not the primary producer of the stuff reaching American ears, trumped by either other European sources or, more often than not, hailing from the good 'ol USA. There have been exceptions, but the French, largely, have played a minor role in the still very much undergroundish American electronic "scene." However, if Vitalic, or Pascal Arbez, is any indication of an upward trend, I think we can all abandon our cross-culutral estrangement for just a bit.

Ok, Cowboy howls from the depths of an electronic movement many thought abandoned. It pulsates, bombasts, samples, and squeels its way into your sense of rhythm in much the same way Daft Punk did with Discovery in 1997. I hate to make that comparison, since everyone seems to be doing it, but Vitalic does, indeed, sound like Daft Punk when they were a little more inspired and fresh (see this past year's blah Human After All - don't worry, not many other people realized they released an album, either). However, Vitalic's sound does not constitute pure imitation. He puts his own, wonderful spin on his progressive-dance forefathers' style. I think it's strenghth, really, is just that; it's not as confined to the boundaries of style that Daft Punk sometimes limit themselves to. The result is an album that, unlike recent Daft Punk outings, you are more than able to listen to from start to finish, rather than finding yourself drawn to only certain songs more often than others. It's a wonderful, danceable return to form for the house/progressive sub-genre that isn't being approached with the same skill by anybody else out there right now.

Listen to: "Wooo", "Trahison"

Matt Elliott - Drinking Songs

Drinking Songs is a snarling howl of a record; a true piece of underbelly. It breathes the steam rising from Parisian sewers in the dead of winter, drunk on rot gut, vomits all over itself, then collapses in an alleyway to smoke Pall Malls and weep. It fucked your mother. Sorry, no, it didn't do that, I just got too caught up in seedy imagery for a second, but you get the idea.

This is undoubtedly the most appropriately titled album I have on this list. Elliott paints a fantastic and, yes, depressing sonic approximation in a little over an hour of the cognitive shifts experienced in solitary drunkeness. The slow rise of intoxication first relaxes you, with a few low guitar notes, then, as the stuff collides with your limbic system, you become terrified. There are these horrifying choruses on this album that lend to its overall palpable atmosphere, like voices of the damned echoing your building sense of momentary drunken profundity; as if everything you now experiencing, in this dive of a bar, is the start of a cascade of horrible decisive events leading to the twilight of your existence. Have I scared you? Good. This isn't a "safe" record, it's difficult to listen to not only for its meandering length, but also just the uncomfortable affecting quality it has on you. It strains you to maintain emotional and reactionary honesty over its 65 sloping minutes. The beauty of it is its release; the end of the listening experience is a catharsis, a release of the foreboding emotions it incites. It's a harrowing listening experience, but it's so unique and artistically bold that it's undeniably interesting, and, I thought, really great.

Listen to: "What's Wrong", "What the Fuck Am I Doing On This Battlefield"

Terminal 11 - Illegal Nervous Habits

Among the promotional literature available for Terminal 11 that's online, there's a statement by some promotional guy at CockRockDisco, his label, which sounds like it was made on a 2am coke binge, with the following manic descriptors: "This guy Terminal 11 comes along and takes all that IDM music, breakcore, and whatever else (ed: ???) has been done in the last 4 years, completely changes it around, makes it -like- a billion times better (and faster), and then smacks you upside the head and says 'Duh.'" I've met one of these people before when my friend was still playing guitar for some Avril Lavigne copycat in LA (her name is the less 12 year old girl friendly "Tovah"), and they indeed do have these overly-casual mini speeches prepared at all times for a lot of their artists, just in case they meet you in a parking lot or something! (!!!!) This particular PR machine certainly doesn't deliver his lines the most eloquently, but his comment about Terminal 11's borrowing from many electronic sub-styles isn't entirely inaccurate.

IDM music has been decidedly in a rut for the past year or two. For the less familiar, IDM is short for the incredibly stupid sub-genre moniker (notice there are a lot of those on this list) "Intelligent Dance Music." What makes IDM "intelligent" is entirely unclear, much less what makes it danceable. It's not danceable. In fact it's so undanceable that it arguably is second only to "ambient" music in terms of electronic styles that suggest a need for careful headphone listening; a little bobbing of your head may come out of the experience, but it's nothing anybody would forgive you for playing at a house party. I'm digressing, though; the problem with IDM in recent years is the lack of ideas that many of its artists seem to find themselves runnng into, and the subsequent lack of enthusiasm from the listening public. They've all coped differently, with mixed results: Squarepusher now incorporates guitar-harmonics, Four Tet just seems to now make records that he thinks sound like what people expect from him, and even the grandaddy of them all, Aphex Twin, is nowhere to be found but under a different moniker (AFX) producing self-indulgent multiple disc sets. It's a little depressing, because many expected IDM music to sweep the "scene", finally allowing electronic music with some substance to rise out of its obscurity and stop only flirting with mainstream attention. So am I implying Terminal 11 will be the savior of IDM? Not necessarily, but he's certainly the closest thing I can think of, at least in the truest sense of what IDM is.

Illegal Nervous Habits is a big wall of fast-paced sound. It resists the boiled-down approach of other artists like Drop the Lime, who have largely abandoned the interspertion of samples for BPM oblivion, and even side-steps the honorable sound collages of labelmate Jason Forrest. In their stead, Terminal 11 (real name Mike Castaneda) shows the strength of his digital sequencing. It's a fucking insane experience, even for the non-musician, to try and discern what in the hell constitutes what you're listening to. The sound manages to not be abrasive, however, and is amazing enough to, at the very least, make one wonder why Castaneda's only website is a MySpace.com music profile. This is the same man who casually dimisses his craft as "Anger Management Thru Audio", but I think anything similar would just come across as too personal to Castaneda and therefore unaffecting. This isn't the case, and he's such a bright talent that he deserves far more recognition than he's receiving.

Listen to: "Adcar", "C'est What"

Venetian Snares - Rossz Csillag Allat Szuletett

Sometimes I think I can be a little obssessive about certain things (namely all of this), and, well, I definitely am, but then I feel better about myself when I reflect on people like Aaron Funk. Aaron has been largely a quiet domino in the IDM/drill'n'bass community for a little over a half-decade, completely escaping the detection of many, many radar screens. Rather than focus his energy into singular projects, Funk countered the apathy he perceived with what seems like a creative bipolar fit. In the past five years there have been 223 seperate releases under the Venetian Snares name. That's an average of 45 releases of some sort a year, no less than 3 to 5 of which are usually full-length albums. This seems insane, and is. Moreover, it explains why, ironically, Funk may be experiencing such difficulty maintaining much of a fanbase - but, then again, that might be just how he likes it.

So what makes this, out of the wealth of his releases, a noteable record by Funk? It's hard to say, but two ideas come to mind: first of all, the sound of this record is just so much more focused than anything else, it seems, Funk has attempted. It has a seamless quality, a record Funk can finally claim has a sense of continuity which his other records, many times, lacked. The microscopic glue which holds together this effort, to come to the second idea, is the strings. The record is littered with big, bombastic cello, sharp violin and viola samples which Funk so craftfully employs against his usual cold whirlwind of electronic beats and squawks. It's a rather simple idea that no one, to my knowledge, has executed half as well as it is here. It is pleasing, arguably, also due to its simplicity, breaching the gap of Funk's obviously creatively vast resources to find some common ground. It is a wonderful, manic, and really, really listenable release that should not be ignored.

Listen to: "Hajnal", "Szerencsetlen"

Holopaw - Quit +/or Fight

Country-influenced music (for a lack of a better term music with "twang") has always been a thorn in my side. It's a component of too many musical styles I enjoy to be completely avoided, however, and so I occasionally have to take my medicine. Regardless, I still draw the line as much as possible, and my exclusions include, but are not limited to, Creedance Clearwater Revival, "Skynyrd", the Eagles, some portions of Steve Miller's career, etc. Generally, a lot of the stuff that's considered "classic rock." What's the source for my hatred? Well, it seems like it's most likely not *completely* arbitrary if you examine my heritage. My mother is a Southerner, from deep in the heart of Virginia, no less. Unlike her four other sisters, she fled her then very repressive (as opposed to today's regular-ish oppressive) homestead, abandoning also my emotionally vacant grandfather, and headed West for various dens of urban oblivion. She did this around my age now (her early 20's), and, quite frankly, was made the black sheep of the family for it. She was a rebel of sorts, really. So, in keeping with that rebellious spirit, she's made hints that she also began to listen to more "progressive" music of the day (Beatles, Joni Mitchell), and implies also that she rejected Country music and all of its off-shoots. However, it's not like she directly instilled in me any hatred for Southern music, so it must have been some sort of subconcious side-effect of her parenting. So you can imagine my surprise when I absolutely fell in love with as "twangy" a record as Holopaw's Quit +/or Fight.

Holopaw hail from Florida, a state which, while spiked with Cuban and Caribbean accents in its urban centers, still suffers from a humid blanket of Southern-ness elsewhere. To call their sound anywhere on the same level of Southern pride or showmanship as "CCR" or whomever would be stretching it, though, I admit. After all, their word-of-mouth is stemming almost exclusively from hipster congregations. However, it retains enough elements that could be considered "Southern" to make my "twang radar" initially steer me away. I was certainly wrong to do so. I've heard this album described as the most relaxing of all organically-produced music of this past year, and that would not be much of a stretch. Lead singer John Orth's vocals are simply angelic; hushed observational proclamations over the superb fingerpicking of guitarist Tom Reno create these perfect little lullabies that charm the living hell out of you. There are occasional breaks in the lull, however, with lyrical mentionings of pot smoke and cuss words, but the unpleasantries subside quickly enough to only make the record itself seem less saccharine. It's beauty in understatement that I can't think of being achieved with the same skill by any other band in recent years. Hopefully if you, too, are twang-resistant, you might also find some comfort in Holopaw's wonderful little oasis.

Listen to: "Found (Quit +/or Fight)", "Curious"

Xiu Xiu - La Foret

It seemed, at first, like it would be a show devoid of spectacle. Lined up outside of the Glasshouse in Pomona on a chilly winter night were a menagerie of scenesters. They all wore uniforms; there were the girls' jeans on the boys (scenester/hipster males really can only be described as 'boy' when dressed like this), random, gawdy, cut-together pieces of fabric constituting the skirts and jackets and whatever of the girls. The silence was only broken once, when a sulking misanthrope asked to bum a cigarette off of me. I obliged, and he said nothing additional except to ask me if I knew who Xiu Xiu were (maybe my lack of bangs confused him), to which I replied with something like, 'Well, yeah.' He nodded sullenly, turning away back toward the doors which had yet to be opened. Man, this is certainly depressing, I thought. Finally, this rather uncomfortable vigil was ended, and we all were allowed inside the Glasshouse's really gawdy and tattered insides. I was convinced that what I was about to see was going to be more theatrics than substance; the outlet of a man who is, possibly, certifiably insane, and, I assumed, pretentiously so. Maybe he would come out in a thong. Maybe he wouldn't play the show at all, and would just yell at us about Ian Curtis or how the Beatles sucked or something. In fact, I had so many assumptions that night, I really wonder in retrospect why I wanted to go. I was wrong to come with so much extraneous baggage.

Indeed, Jamie Stewart, the arguable sole person behind Xiu Xiu, is much more of a down-to-earth person, as the show proved, than you would expect from listening to his music. As he was setting up his equipment, for whatever reason, at a Xiu Xiu show, the sound man put on the Notorious B.I.G.'s "Hypnotize" over the PA. Stewart began to bob his head a bit as he set up a crate with 20+ help-desk bells on top of it, among other weird "instruments." I was lured in possibly at that very moment. The music is what really matters here, though, and my point in telling that story is to prove that Xiu Xiu should not be dismissed. This is an important point because, well, Xiu Xiu's music is easy to dismiss. Stewart sings of disturbing things delivered with an equally disturbing, intense vibrato which makes his delivery one of the more captivating in any genre. He's weird and awkward and fucked up and awkward, and, it's possible, there's nobody who conveys that assertion better (barring maybe one of Stewart's musical forefathers, the 70's art-rock group Suicide).

In the end it really comes down to personal taste and threshold of receptivity in terms of whether or not you will enjoy Stewart's intensity. However, I think there can be a case made against calling Stewart "pretentious." Pretentiousness implies a deliberate, self-absorbed effort to be different at all costs, with completely contrived results. Whether you enjoy the result or not, it's apparent from just watching the guy be so amiable on-stage only until he launched into a song that his music truly is an outlet for... something. It's difficult to say that you would like to occupy the same tortured mind space Stewart obviously withdraws into creatively, but the results are just absolutely joltingly weird and, in my opinion, awesome. This, as well as last year's Fabulous Muscles, have been Stewart's melding period, where he's finally found that perfect balance between the pop-electronic melodies he's only previously flirted with and his intense showmanship. These are his best releases, and La Foret is important if only because it continues the trend excellently.

Listen to: "Muppet Face", "Bog People"

Out Hud - Let Us Never Speak Of It Again

Dance music is sometimes hard to endorse for overly-contemplative, fervently anaylytical music fans. I suppose the logic is that "the beat" appeals to such a lowest common demoninator aspect of musical complexity (or, the argument goes, the lack thereof) that the overall worth of dance music is somehow compromised. It seems too easy, its release and satisfaction so immediate, that those concerned with bullshit labels such as their "cred" get a little uptight when it comes to anything that makes them feel like dancing. So, when a record like Out Hud's Let Us Never Speak Of It Again comes along, where beat teams up with sample so harmoniously, there is the same resistance present, but there also is something pretty funny if you stay in "the scene" for long enough; a *reluctant* nod of affection, even admiration. You see, in "the scene", sometimes albums slip through the cracks of uptight hipsters' over-analyzation, and are so undeniable that even hipsters must recognize them. However, in those cases, the recognition seems begrudged, like its an embarassment, and if the group/artist in question fails to deliver in their next effort, they will undoubtedly be slammed because, well, "there was never anything there to begin with, man." That seemed to be the overall reception to this, Out Hud's second effort, and everybody just needs to loosen the hell up, I say. Sometimes the best things come in the simplest of packages.

Out Hud spiked some interest three years ago with the mostly "instrumental" (no vocals) compositions found on their debut S.T.R.E.E.T. D.A.D.. That record seemed a little constrained, however, conforming to the emerging trends of its peers (other "dance-punk" offerings, such as those from !!!, two of the members of which comprise part of Out Hud). It therefore wasn't taken very seriously, an alternative for those too alarmed by what they saw as undue praise toward other "dance-punk" artists, specifically The Rapture. Three years have passed since then, and where S.T.R.E.E.T. D.A.D. was the sound of Out Hud's late-night jam sessions and loose ideas, Let Us Never Speak Of It Again is an album of complete thoughts. The group's original, goofy elasticity remains, but organic instruments have largely and wisely been abandoned, replaced by some of the most symbiotic meetings of bouncy beats, jangly guitar samples, and synths put to recording. This is an important step for the already faltering dance-punk genre, because it exhibits a bow to the electronics that inspired the trend, and have always really dominated its soundscape. Out Hud realized that rock/punk song structure can be achieved through their cold computerized machinery as well if not better than just playing over some bleeps and bloops. The result also, consequently, exhibits what the dance-punkers have always offered the larger electronic genre; a fresh, fun, and catchy approach in contrast to many of the other genre's recent tendency to become lost in its own heady ideas. Guitar samples, spliced out, collide with handclap downbeats here, sounding a little, at times, like very, very early boombox-ish hip-hop production. It's such a bouncy-elastic, can't-get-this-song-out-of-my-head tour de force that as an album, in my opinion, it is instantly timeless. Listen now.

Listen to: "Old Nude", "It's For You"

Of Montreal - The Sunlandic Twins

Kevin Barnes is the best kind of genius. Hiding himself behind first a collective, then a band, and now essentially just a moniker, he is a genius to be continually discovered; the quiet kid who has internalized hundreds upon hundreds of times the essentials of pop melody, and used his talents selflessly for the promotion of other musicians' greater good, not just his own. It has been a long time coming, but Barnes is finally, forced through circumstances, learning to stand on his own.

Of Montreal has been the perfect atmosphere for anonymity. Emerging in 1996 from the Elephant 6 collective, which has spawned such underground greats as Olivia Tremor Control and Neutral Milk Hotel, the band seemed tremendously promising, especially in the then recent news of Olivia Tremor Control's disbandment. At the time, Kevin Barnes teamed up with a rag-tag group of musicians and produced three to four records' worth of big, sprawling, "indie Sgt. Pepper's"-like albums. They received a good deal of praise, but, upon retrospective listening, ultimately come across as Kevin Barnes records muddled in layered instrumentation, allowing his melody and vocals to shine through only when the ambitions of the other musicians did not get ahead of his vision. Moreover, they also failed to achieve 60's-ish epic imitation as well as their Elephant 6 peers did, resulting in efforts that were often written off as mediocre Olivia Tremor Control rehashes. This is where Barnes went wrong.

In 2003, fate finally pushed Kevin in a more solitary direction; Of Montreal's line-up, which had already been in a state of flux for 7 years, virtually ceased to be a line-up at all. Instead of abandoning the project he first started, Barnes recruited his wife, and only a *few* other musicians to produce 2004's wonderful first sign of true, unadulterated Kevin Barnes compositions, Satanic Panic In the Attic. Critics went absolutely nuts for the stuff, and with good reason; this was Barnes finally where he belonged, making simple pop tunes with some of the most unique yet effortless lyricism that prior Of Montreal efforts had only hinted at. However, Barnes isn't one to steal the show, and you can still *hear* his compromises in the studio; conceding a riff or an idea here, a layered vocal there, in favor of fielding the input of the people he was playing with.

Sunlandic Twins has liner notes which read, "Produced, arranged, composed, performed, engineered, and mixed by ~~Prince~~ Kevin Barnes." After finally fully taking the reins of his beast, this was Barnes' way of letting people know how absolutely uncomfortable he is with his singularity. He felt indulgent, like he was claiming he was some sort of multi-instrumentalist genius (Prince) just by stating the fact that he made this record *entirely* on his own, and while humility is a virtue, it's absolutely unnecessary in his case. It's not that Sunlandic Twins has *better* songs than Satanic Panic In the Attic, it's that it finally sounds like the boiled-down essence which has only sweetened Of Montreal efforts prior to it. This is unadulterated Kevin Barnes, his accidental pop opus that is finally revealing to the world just why he should be revered and respected. It reveals the true inner world of Barnes' creative space, one that is of wonder, melody, handclaps, rising synth solos, funky bass lines, and complete bewilderment. His previous strengths, apt lyrical reflections on love lost and gained in the face of life's tremendous complexities, finally truly collide with his simultaneous knack for hook and melody. It's a wonderful, wonderful, pristine album of pop music created by one of its finest, and, ultimately, completely overlooked troubadours.

At times, one must finally realize what his strengths and weaknesses truly are, and when to seek support in others for that which is lacking. Barnes has finally realized that, as a composer and performer, he truly needs no one else. It's not about being selfish or narcissistic, it's about recognition of your own talents, and sharing those talents with others. It is in his sharing with an audience, not his conceding to outside pressures, that Barnes truly shines as a musician, and Sunlandic Twins is hopefully only the start of his gifts. It is partially because Barnes is finally coming into his own and *still* not receiving the recognition he deserves that I consider this the #1 release of 2005. If Kevin Barnes wants to remain in a shroud of faces safely in the background, hopefully I and others will continue to urge him toward the spotlight.

Listen to: "The Party's Crashing Us", "So Begins Our Alabee"

Music to fall asleep/study to

2006-01-26T00:17:00.000-08:00

If you know me, I'm not the most studious individual ever (shut up, asshole). However, when I do, living with three other dudes can make for a need to give myself something to if, in a panic about my "future" or whatever, I actually decide to study. They've said classical music can aid in this sort of thing, even boost (debatedly) cognitive performance/memory retention, but I'd also add ambient music into the brain-music equation. The dreamy understatement that underlies ambient music can make studying much more enjoyable and concentrated with a pair of headphones thrown on, in my opinion. It's relaxing enough that, I imagine, you could fall asleep with it too, if you'd like, and has helped me a few times in relaxing for a good 19 hour sleep, also. Lol @ self-deprecation. Anyway here's some albums you should check out if you'd like to test my assertion, as well as a few non-ambient pieces that I think also suit studying/relaxing pretty well:

Anything by Stars Of the Lid

The Dead Texan - The Dead Texan

Anything by Eluvium

Fürsaxa - Lepidoptera

Anything by Marsen Jules

Secede - Tryshasla

Anything by Colleen

Samples:

Stars Of the Lid - Austin, TX Mental Hospital, Pt. 1 (from The Tired Sounds Of Stars Of the Lid)

Eluvium - Cast On the Cast/Light Cloud (from Talk Amongst the Trees)

(download instructions: right-click "Copy Link Location" in Firefox, or right-click "Copy Shortcut" in Internet Explorer, paste onto URL/address bar and change "hzzp" to "http", press enter, follow instructions for download. To extract after download you need a program called WinRAR, which you can install quickly by clicking this link. If you still can't figure out how to download and listen to these files leave a comment for this entry and your Instant Messager name or e-mail address, and I will contact you. Keep in mind that if you are looking at an old entry, YouSendIt links like these expire after a given amount of time or a large amount of downloads, so the files may no longer be available. Sorry.)

Mark Kozelek = God

2006-01-23T02:57:00.000-08:00

Steve Villa and I went to a show in LA on this past Saturday to see Mark Kozelek perform solo, and it couldn't have been more wonderful. For those not "in the know", Mark is the former lead singer of Red House Painters and the current of Sun Kil Moon, and you may or may not have heard the Red House Painters track "Have You Forgotten" on the Vanilla Sky soundtrack from some years back. If you didn't hear that then he was also in Cameron Crowe's Almost Famous as the groupie-loving bassist. Anyway he's one of the better singer-songwriters still alive and undeservedly only seems to have a cult following (although a devout one). Here are a few samples:

Red House Painters - Smokey (from 2001's Old Ramon)

Sun Kil Moon - Neverending Math Equation (Modest Mouse cover from 2005's Tiny Cities, a collection of MM covers)

(download instructions: right-click "Copy Link Location" in Firefox, or right-click "Copy Shortcut" in Internet Explorer, paste onto URL/address bar and change "hzzp" to "http", press enter, follow instructions for download. To extract after download you need a program called WinRAR, which you can install quickly by clicking this link. If you still can't figure out how to download and listen to these files leave a comment for this entry and your Instant Messager name or e-mail address, and I will contact you. Keep in mind that if you are looking at an old entry, YouSendIt links like these expire after a given amount of time or a large amount of downloads, so the files may no longer be available. Sorry.)