My friend turned me on to these guys. They remind me of why I like music. Cymbals Eat Guitars...enjoy.
2009-03-31
Why There Is Music (Or: What Makes Me Think of Happy)
My friend turned me on to these guys. They remind me of why I like music. Cymbals Eat Guitars...enjoy.
2009-03-30
Dieu aime les français.
2009-03-28
vinyl rip
No One Does It Like You.
This video was shot on blue screen with only six dancers...
Directed by Patrick Daughters (the guy behind Feist's "1234") and Marcel Dzama; unveiled this week as part of MoMA's 'PopRally' program. Read more here.
2009-03-27
Also Listened to This Week (Or 'La La La Part II'):
My Maudlin Career by Camera Obscura
This album reminds me of Billy Joel. Which is not to say that it sounds like Billy Joel--though, like The Stranger or Glass Houses, MMC is predominately melancholy/bittersweet in tone, broken up by brief intervals of serious, well-polished pop. No, what I mean is: someday, we're all going to be old. Like, real old. Older than the oldest contributers to URFCKD are now. And when that happens, the Adult Contemporary stations on the radio (or whatever music-playing device we'll be tuning in to in the future) will be targeting us (instead of our parents). And MMC is exactly the kind of album that would top Billboard's 'Hot Adult Contemporary' charts (when that happens).
Does that make sense? I hope it does.
Now, I'm not complaining about the fact that MMC is the easy listening of the future. Quite the opposite: I like Billy Joel (note: I'm saying "like" instead of "love" because I want to seem hipper than I actually am). I tend to like accessible albums, and this is that.
Give it a listen here.
Brain Cycles by Radio Moscow
I would argue that this album should be played whilst yer sipping 3 fingers of bourbon (straight) and smoking. I don't care what you're smoking, though smoking crack probably wouldn't jibe with this album's energy (that's your call, though.) You should probably also be wearing something made of suede.
This is as much of a review as I'm willing to write. Interpret it as you will.
Listen here.
SUPER AWESOME BONUS!
(I didn't think anyone would actually want to d/l an entire Billy Joel album (and secretly, I'm hoping you all already have his complete discography, because I would love you more if you did). If I've misjudged you, and you would like to see a couple of 'listen' links for The Entertainer, let me know and I'll fix it.)
listening to music.
Directed by Spike Jonze
2009-03-26
La La La.
I've blogged about this before, but 2009 hasn't really been 'the year of music acquisition' for this one over here (aka 'me'). I've been listening, more or less exclusively, to David Bowie, Passion Pit, and The Kinks--mostly because that's about all I can stand these days. But I've been baby-sitting my sister for the past week, and the kid is involved in like, every extra-curricular activity there is, so I've spent a lot of time in cars. Cars that aren't my shitty van. Cars that actually have stereo systems. Which means, I've spent the past week listening to a combination of the radio and whatever my sister has on her iPod.
Which means, I've actually been listening to music. Unfortunately, my sister and I have very dissimilar taste in music; our common interests are few, as evidenced in this here Venn Diagram:
(Candidly speaking: I love the All American Rejects. Shut the fuck up and die if you have a problem with that.)
Anyway. Because I've had just about as much Top 40 radio as I can handle (and because this week's reading isn't really something that requires a lot of attention (and because I needed to find some noise to get Taylor Swift out of my head)), I've actually started looking for new music. Here's what I've listened to thus far:
Coyote by El Goodo
Coyote seems like a good transition from The Kinks to The Beach Boys (the latter of which I will start listening to, on repeat, as soon as it warms up a little.) Actually, I'm pretty in love with this album.
Click here to... um... 'listen.'
Outside Love by Pink Mountaintops
I'm still deciding if I like this one or not. But when I put it on the same playlist as Coyote and Fuckbooks and hit "Shuffle", it all goes together pretty nicely.
Click here to 'listen.'
The Floodlight Collective by Lotus Plaza
Moue. (Or "Meh", if you prefer.)
Click here to 'listen.'
Fuckbooks by Condo Fucks
Fuckity fuckity I can say "fuck" fucklevenity fucking times fuck! (That was a joke. I like the word "fuck," and don't hate on people who use it gratuitously.) I'm marginally aware of, and kind of remember liking Yo La Tengo, and I tend to like cover albums, so you'd think I'd enjoy this a lot more... As is, I like it, but overall, I'm mostly indifferent. I think it could grow on me, though.
Click here to 'listen.'
So. There're other albums I've... 'found' online this week, but these are the four I've actually listened to. Also, stumbled across this today; thought some of you might find it worth a listen:
"Illinoize is a free remix tape put together by Montreal-based producer Tor, sampling songs from multi-instrumentalist and indie hero, Sufjan Stevens. racks are sampled from his 2005 LP Illinoise, as well as 3 of his other albums, 'A Sun Came', 'Seven Swans' and 'Songs for Christmas', blending Sufjan Steven's acoustic guitar, piano and horns with MC's Aesop Rock, Big Daddy Kane, Gift of Gab (Blackalicious), C.L. Smooth, Outkast, Brother Ali, and Grand Puba."
Download it here.
That's it. That's all I had to say.
2009-03-24
Deep Smit.
I started reading "Neverwhere" today, a task I've neglected for over a year. Not sure how it happened, as I love Neil Gaiman, but there it is. I was about two chapters in when I decided to take a "Daily Show"/"Colbert Report" break. And lo! who should Colbert have on the show but Mr. Neil himself?
The Colbert Report | Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c | |||
Neil Gaiman | ||||
comedycentral.com | ||||
|
I love that man. Ten-four.
(P.S. Because I'm like, one step away from being a crazy fan-girl, I was a little take aback by the fact he was wearing a suit for Colbert. As it turns out, his father died recently, and the interview came right at the end of a week-long trip to the UK, which meant it his wardrobe options were limited to the funeral suit. Read about it here.)
(P.P.S. Ok, maybe I'm only like, half a step away from being a crazy fan-girl.)
Cuts Like The Knife
On Edge
Psssssshhh
I'm supposed to be on a plane to Denver to meet my family after which we fly to Costa Rica.
I paid $200 to get a new passport rushed to me, drove to Seattle to file the paperwork in person.
They didn't send it out on time.
I haven't gotten it yet.
At 5:03 my flight will leave without me.
WTF.
I still get to go, I'm just at the mercy of Fedex.
BUT...
I did a fun tattoo this weekend on my friend Derek from Colorado.
I'm coming back to Missoula Wednesday April 29th through sometime around May 13th, to finish some old tattoos and hopefully do a bunch of new ones too. Strangely, I'm kind of excited to see Missoula again.
2009-03-22
file sharing
Oh Music Groups...
This is a long post so I apologize in advance. This is the YBSAT (Your Band Sucks Aptitude Test). It was posted by the website somethingawful.com and I thought all of you would appreciate it. Its a little dated but I believe it to still be fairly relevant and quite funny. I've showed this to some of you already.
1. I’m starting a band because:
a. I’m overflowing with natural talent (+1)
b. I’m bored (-1)
c. There’s this girl I like… (+0)
d. I just got a great haircut (-5)
2. My main motivation to make music is:
a. Fame (+0)
b. My soul demands to express itself (+1)
c. Pussy (-1)
d. The Lord (Automatic fail if you’re white)
3. My bandmates bonded over:
a. Our musical chemistry (+1)
b. Our shared love of They Might be Giants(-1)
c. The desire to record some hilarious novelty songs and post them on the internet (Fuck off)
d. Speedballs (+5)
4. If I couldn’t make music, I would:
a. Work in a record store (-1)
b. Kill myself (+1)
c. Work at Guitar Center (-10)
d. Be a music journalist (Automatic fail)
5. My friends all:
a. Worship me (+1)
b. Encourage me (+0)
c. Encourage me to keep practicing (-1)
d. Rotate instruments like a big musical commune where we can all play our part without being judged (-10)
Part Two: Your Bandmates
Next, we will assess who is in your band and what their qualifications are.
6. I met my bandmates:
a. At a punk concert (+0)
b. In high school (-1)
c. At a performance art “happening” where our future guitarist and our future bassist were screaming foreign obscenities at the audience and smearing themselves with their own (and each other’s) feces and vomit (+1)
d. The Berklee College of Music (Automatic fail)
7. My band consists of:
a. A guitarist, a bassist, a drummer, and a vocalist (+0)
b. A guitarist, a bassist, a drummer, a vocalist, and a DJ (-10)
c. A guitarist/vocalist and a drummer (-15)
d. Just me and my MacBook (Automatic fail)
8. My band’s guitarist plays a:
a. Fender (+0)
b. Gibson (+1)
c. Ibanez (-10)
d. We don’t have a guitarist (Then you’re not a band, dipshit)
9. My drummer’s idol is:
a. Keith Moon (+0)
b. John Bonham (+0)
c. Neil Peart (Automatic fail)
d. Animal from the Muppets (+1)
10. My band’s bassist is named:
a. Something normal, like John, Amanda, Charles, or Kate (+0)
b. Christfuck Dahmer (-1)
c. I don’t remember due to his or her irrelevance (+1)
d. Flea (Automatic fail)
11. My band’s vocalist is:
a. A swell guy and an accomplished shower-singer (-5)
b. Not really a great singer, but the best out of the four of us (-10)
c. A megalomaniac asshole (+0)
d. An escaped lunatic (+1)
12. My band’s name is:
a. Something cool sounding that doesn’t particularly mean anything (+0)
b. Something studiously thought-out and filled with personal meaning (-5)
c. Something HILARIOUS like “Ninja Jesus” (Automatic fail)
d. xX You, My Bitterest Sorrow Xx (Double automatic fail)
Part Three: Genre
In this section, we determine your band’s artistic potential by arbitrarily pigeonholing it into a genre.
13. My musical influences include:
a. The Beatles (+0)
b. The Eagles (-5)
c. The Red Hot Chili Peppers (Automatic fail)
d. Obscure German shit from the 70s or postmodern architecture or something:(+1)
14. I would describe my band to the press as:
a. Punk, or some variant thereof (+0)
b. Metal, or some variant thereof (-50)
c. Fuck you, you fat journo faggot (+1)
d. _____-core (Automatic fail)
15. Our subgenre could be described as:
a. Jazz Fusion (Automatic fail)
b. Nerdcore Hip Hop (Automatic fail)
c. Emo or Post-Hardcore (Automatic fail)
d. None of the above (+0)
16. I grew up watching:
a. 120 Minutes (+0)
b. MTV’s coverage of Dan Cortese making boner jokes at a beach house (-1)
c. VH1 (-10)
d. When Animals Attack! (+1)
Part Four: Live Show
Playing live is an important part of any new band’s establishment. This section will determine whether or not your band is cut out for life on the road.
17. Our venue of choice is:
a. The teen center (-5)
b. Impromptu “guerrilla” shows on rooftops because we think we’re clever (-5)
c. Arenas (Automatic fail)
d. We don’t play live because our sonic experimentation can only be captured on recordings, and plus we’re kind of shy (Automatic fail)
17. Before singing live, our singer warms up by:
a. Eating a spoonful of honey (-1)
b. Smoking a pack of cigarettes (+0)
c. Getting too drunk to sing (+1)
d. A circle of high-fives and a pep-chant with his “band brothers” (-10)
18. On tour, we drive:
a. This sweet van that our dad bought us that used to belong to our church youth group (-10)
b. In an old hatchback, bodies stacked like cordwood, PAs jutting into our ribs (+0)
c. Like I said, we’re more of an online collaborative thing so we don’t really play live so much as send tracks back and forth in MP3 format and mix them together in ACID 4.0 (What the fuck are you even still doing here?)
d. Drunk (+1)
Part Five: Miscellaneous
In this section, we will ask vital questions that defy easy categorization in order to determine with finality whether or not you’re cut out to form a band.
19: Upon hearing the term “Nu-Metal,” you get a distinct feeling of:
a. Nausea (+0)
b. Camaraderie (Automatic fail)
c. White guilt (+0)
d. Having just murdered the person who uttered it (+1)
20. If I were to tell you that Freddie Mercury was the greatest vocalist of all time, you would say:
a. Fuck you, grandpa (+1)
b. Who the fuck is Freddie Mercury? (+1)
c. I hear that, man! Fuckin’ A! (Automatic fail)
d. Are you making a pass at me? (+0)
21. If you had to choose between fame and artistic fulfillment, you’d choose:
a. Fame (+0)
b. Artistic fulfillment (+1)
c. I wish… for more wishes! (You can’t do that)
d. Heroin (+2)
22. The greatest punk band of all time is:
a. The Clash (-5)
b. The Sex Pistols (-10)
c. The Ramones (-15)
d. Dude… Johnny Cash was like the original punk, if you think about it.(Automatic fail)
23. The greatest metal band of all time is:
a. Black Sabbath (+0)
b. Metallica (Automatic fail)
c. Iron Maiden (What are you, fifteen?)
d. How the fuck should I know? (+1)
24. Prog rock is great because:
a. The musicianship is amazing (Automatic fail)
b. I can get really stoned and just go on an amazing trip in the land of awesomeness (Automatic fail)
c. I’m a completely worthless, boring idiot (+0 for honesty)
d. I can tell if someone is a completely worthless, boring idiot just by their faded Dream Theater t-shirt (+1)
25. Nas is like:
a. Life or death (+0)
b. I’m a rebel (+0)
c. My poetry’s deep, I never fell (-1)
d. Half man, half amazing (+1)
26. My favorite female guitarist is:
a. Lita Ford (-10)
b. Bonnie Raitt (-1)
c. The one in my band (Automatic fail)
d. What? What the fuck are you even talking about? (+1)
27. I tend to dress:
a. In a zoot suit (-15)
b. In leather and safety pins (-5)
c. In tight jeans, Chuck Taylors, a faded t-shirt and a half gallon of hair-shellac (-10)
d. Like a normal human being (Automatic fail)
28. I deserve wealth and fame because:
a. I’ve worked hard for it (-1)
b. Then I could devote my time and money to important causes, like Bono does(-10)
c. I’m really no dumber or more revolting than any other rock star (+0)
d. I want to build a life-sized replica of Michelangelo’s David out of cocaine, and then get enormously fucking high off it for years or until I die (+1)
29. There hasn’t been any good rock and roll since:
a. 1969 (-1)
b. 1977 (-1)
c. 1989 (-1)
d. Jim Morrison died (Automatic fail)
30. My promotional tool of choice is:
a. Photocopied flyers (+0)
b. Word of mouth (+0)
c. Constant pandering to the press (+0)
d. Myspace (Automatic fail)
Scoring:
-100 to -20 points: You’ll just have to settle for playing air guitar along with Aerosmith albums, you worthless hick.
-19 to 0 points: Don’t start a band. Your appalling taste will doom you to a career of pure humiliation and defeat.
0 to 15 points: Sorry, you may have a few things going for you, but you just don’t have what it takes to start a band that’s anything but totally fucking terrible.
15 points or more: Congratulations! You have the YBSAT blessing to start a band.
2009-03-18
for fans of the O.C.
the creator of the O.C. has a new indie rock web sitcom entitled Rockville, CA. Thought you all might be into it, since everyone seems to be a fan of his and Skins.
Click here to jump to the WB website where the first four episodes are streaming.
I'm about to check it out, but apparently the website is running like its servers are from 1995......It might be good, or it might not. But at least in idea it seems interesting.
Everything That Happens Will Happen Today (Or: I Think I'm In Love With an Album Made By "Old People")
2009-03-17
a present from me to you.
2009-03-16
Coming Out
2009-03-11
2009-03-10
My Words Don't Work
2009-03-08
This Is Me in My Twenties
2009-03-07
While You Were Watching The Watchmen...
I was watching this cinematic masterpiece:
(Only watch the first minute or so.)
Timeless.
2009-03-06
is hiphop dead?
2009-03-03
What Do You Listen To? (Or: Did I Really Spell "To" With two "Os"?)
http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/article/news/149493-science-sez-lil-wayne-makes-you-stupid-sufjan-and-radiohead-make-you-smart
songs i kicked out of my iTunes.
I Don't Think They'll Let Us Join...
I've know about the No Cuss Club for a while, but just saw this video:
My favorite part? When the two older gentlemen, after having been scolded by the blaspheme brigade, ask if they can hang with the posse of tweens. Creepy.