Sundrenched

videos

2009-03-19T14:02:00.002-04:00

from Harvest Of Hope festival are up! On youtube, that is.

Clicky

Remember watch in high quality, and it's a playlist, so it'll play the next one automatically.

about...

2009-03-17T19:41:00.003-04:00

Last.fm today. Reading around their blog, and came up with this. It's still a demo and has some bugs, but listening to your music by tags and not by artists is an awesome idea. I've been using it and I'm pretty happy with it, especially since it's my own library. Made me an electronic/psychedelic mixed with some Canadian music and female vocalists, and it's been fucking awesome. Deerhunter, Apostle of Hustle, Yeasayer, Frou Frou, Handsome Furs, etc. Playlists I couldn't come up with by myself.

Another one of Last.fm's blog posts here. Apparently Techcrunch, which is a retarded enough site by itself, posted some false (and rather malicious) rumors about Last.fm. I read about it, was disgusted, and visited the Techcrunch article, and was even more disgusted. The author seems bent on not retracting or apologizing for anything, despite the rumor being debunked just about everywhere, even by the RIAA. So yeah I don't think Techcrunch is a very reputable site, avoid it if you ever feel a need for news on the internet.

wow

2009-03-17T02:41:00.002-04:00

Haven't posted in over a month. Just went to Harvest Of Hope fest last weekend, it was a blast. I have pictures up on fb if you're interested. I'll be uploading videos onto youtube sometime in high quality, hopefully.

Anyways I might have to switch back to iTunes, since the Songbird iPod add-on sorta died. Bleh.

where I need to be

2009-02-09T23:35:00.003-05:00

on March 6, 7, 8:

Yep yep.

give me back my tag!

2009-02-02T12:19:00.009-05:00

Don't tag something that isn't "indie" as indie. I was on Last.fm and saw that The Ting Tings were tagged "indie". First of all, they are associated with Sony BMG, clearly NOT an indie label. If you want to argue that their musical style is indie, it isn't. They're definitely more on the electronic side of things. If you want to tag it as indie because you think it's hip and you only listen to hip, indie music, then go to your music folder and immediately delete everything, stop being a sheeple, and decide for yourself what music is good and what isn't. Music is all about what it means to you, not what other people think.

Okay?

That got me wondering, what other artists on Last.fm could possibly be falsely labeled indie? Well apparently it's not hard to find.

Katy Perry (who can't sing, by the way) is tagged indie.

Lady GaGa (who I haven't listened to, but probably also can't sing) is tagged indie.

Fucking Britney Spears is tagged indie. Britney is probably the antithesis of indie music. She defines major label. SHE IS NOT INDIE.

If it goes that far then I'm saddened to assume that probably most artists on Last.fm are tagged indie by someone who hasn't a clue what indie is. None of these artists are indie by any definition of the word, so don't tag them as such! A band that is indie in terms of label and attitude is one to respect and cherish, because they will usually have better music, have a better fan base, and actually be sincere.

Much as I love The Ting Tings, I would never, ever consider calling them indie. The term indie has evolved in such a complicated way that it's hard to define what really *is* indie, but those artists clearly are not. So yeah, if I find you tagging shit as indie when you shouldn't be, I will sneak up in the darkest part of the night, slit your throat, and take back my tag.

mmm

2009-01-29T02:35:00.004-05:00

Revisiting the Canadians. I've got to say I'm pretty impressed. When I first became interested in music, I started with Stars, and found awesome stuff like BSS and Metric. Then I sorta lost focus from Canada, and started exploring stuff in the US as well.

Dear lord Canada produces good music. The US has got to be full of stupids to think that Canada is backwards. Oh wait the US *IS* full of stupids. I think I'll end up in Canada eventually because the music is awesome and I loved Canada from what I saw of it.

Anyways I've listened to a few new bands recently. Of course, I ended up listening to a bunch of Stars again, go figure. I've now got >5000 plays recorded. New Stuff: Apostle of Hustle and Emily Haines & The Soft Skeleton. Both are pretty closely connected with Broken Social Scene, since Andrew Whiteman and Emily Haines are at least part time members. The Emily Haines is mostly solo stuff which is much more toned down from Metric and involves a lot of piano, which is nice. I'm still in my initial listen to AoH, so I'll keep you guys updated. All I know is that it's pretty damn good.

dear lord

2009-01-18T02:10:00.003-05:00

I love Amy Millan.
In my opinion she has the greatest female voice I have ever heard.
Also if you go to a show live you can tell that they basically don't process her voice at all; she just has such purity in her voice that my heart twinges every time I hear it.

Anyways listen to this. She comes in at the end.

finally...

2009-01-15T03:33:00.002-05:00

Someone added a queue to Songbird.
one of the big features that was missing before.
Now all I want is better file and id3 tag management.
Also speed it up a bit, less memory and cpu usage, and we're golden.
Listening to Stars again.
And I set them as my desktop background.
:)

arrrrrr

2009-01-01T03:16:00.004-05:00

I've been thinking about a touchy subject since reading this article: musical piracy. This is a very prevalent practice that many people engage in, though few would agree on record that they actually steal music.

So here goes: I steal music. Wow big surprise huh? I'm always talking about new music, I'm in college so I have limited funds, connect the dots if you will.

Okay so I guess that makes me a perfect target for prosecution. I've written it down. I'm serious about it. But don't just think of me as an IP address to track down and sue. Hear me out first.

First of all the music industry is bloated. It is dated. It is operating at a less than optimum level. Why? First of all because of the CD. CDs are much more expensive than they should be, and the format is quickly losing popularity. Digital is where it is at right now, and because the music industry does not want to invest in the switch to digital formats, they are besieged by people who would rather simply steal an album than pay at least $10 for a CD that they are going to rip anyways (which is of uncertain legality, so breaking the law may be involved either way).

There are many creative and new ways the music industry could make the switch to digital. While variable pricing options instituted by Radiohead and Girl Talk might not work for every artist and label, other methods are definitely feasible. Artists could utilize downloads by making users watch a few advertisements then offering the download, or by trading downloads for spreading the artist's popularity, such as by emailing info about them to friends. Increased popularity is probably more desirable for small indie bands than a few cents in royalties for music sales anyways. Or do something like Amie Street and price music based on its popularity. When it is unknown, prices are low. If the music is good and people like it, the price slowly rises until a set level.

However I am not advocating the destruction of physical albums. I often enjoy the packaging that comes with albums, such as liner notes, artwork, and bonus material. Also physical formats such as vinyls are often of higher quality than mp3s. So keep these formats, but the music industry simply has to adapt to the digital age or fall due to rampant piracy.

Another possibility for artists is to simply go indie. A little creativity can produce great ways to spread the music and also make money. Artists often do not get much money from album sales. Most of it comes from merchandise sales and from live shows, so capitalize on that by making your music known. I know that I would be delighted if a band challenged me to find a way to make them known.

So what about me? Am I just trying to justify my theft of music? Allow me to clarify myself. Yes, I do download music. However, a few scenarios now arise from here. I may dislike the album, and the music rusts away in my library. I do not upload music onto p2p sites for others, so nothing further happens to the files. I probably would not have bought the album anyways, so in the end no harm is really done. If I like the music I usually blog about it, so in a small way I spread word of artists. I will show friends youtube videos and tell them to listen to tracks on Last.fm, which is legal, so I am still not furthering the spread of piracy. Also I will go to live shows for bands I like and at every single show I have been to I have bought merchandise. This more than offsets the small loss an artist experiences when I find an album online.

Also, if I really enjoy an album, I will go out and buy a physical copy, first to show my support for the artist, and second because I like higher fidelity music that comes packaged with interesting material.

So in the end I really am not causing the destruction of quality music that the RIAA claims I am. I do try to do my part for an artist, however modest my part may be. But also I would not have bought a few hundred albums at $15 each to begin with. I buy albums that I really like, and that is how it should be. I shouldn't have to pay an exorbitant amount for an album that turns out not to my taste.

Another important point: I have yet to see an artist complain about sales due to piracy. Simple logic dictates that if an album is good some people at least will buy it. Some people will download it, but if you are the one offering downloads you can decide how it works. So who IS complaining? The RIAA is complaining, claiming to be working in the interest of artists. The RIAA tells the artists that downloads are evil, and the artists agree since the RIAA is supposed to be working for them. What the RIAA does NOT tell artists is that they have options.

So what has to happen? I like to try looking for a positive approach, so here is my view: the RIAA needs to embrace the digital age and if it is truly working in the interests of artists and labels it should stop thinking about its own profits and start the transition to digital sales. If that does not happen then we really need to ditch the RIAA and encourage the artists to start looking for alternative methods.

Also, go to shows. Most bands are on a whole new level live anyways. Buy a shirt or poster while you're at it, so you can remember how awesome the show was. This is where bands really make their money, with no middleman taking most of the profit. If you are sincerely trying to support a band then I don't think that downloading an album or two is an unfair trade.

Maybe some people don't share my views and steal music simply because they don't want to pay for it, but I feel that this is not the majority. Most of us do it because it is much more simple than buying it. This small distinction creates an opportunity to capitalize from the situation.

they call me quiet girl, but I'm a riot

2009-01-01T02:14:00.006-05:00

Right after I post my "best of" lists I discover something really awesome. They were on the Last.fm Best Of 2008 lists, but I thought The Ting Tings were just another fad. Then I heard this track and totally changed my mind:

Anyways that's the track, and they have an awesome video here. Embedding is disabled or else I would totally have used that one.

Fuck this song is addictive. I'm going to add it to my list of favorites for 2008!

Also they were on NBC for the New Years celebration tonight, playing this track. Fuckin' A.

best of...

2008-12-29T18:43:00.011-05:00

2008!
Since everyone else is doing it, I guess I'll go ahead and list my favorites of 2008. Categories will include albums, artists, tracks, and shows, I guess. Some of them I'll divide into the best that came out in 2008, and my favorites in 2008 (not necessarily released in 2008).

For this I used my Last.fm charts for the past 12 months, and filtered albums in my music player for 2008. Hopefully I didn't omit any.

(Well that's great, the list I was compiling was wiped out when I had to restart my computer because it stopped responding. Remember to save your fucking documents.)

Anyways on to the lists!

Released in 2008

Artists:

Fleet Foxes (last.fm) - Okay yeah I'll be unoriginal and say that the Fleet Foxes are the best new band this year. That's cause they are. Really. I personally like them better than MGMT because I feel that Fleet Foxes are a lot more authentic, less of a hipster fad, and the album is much stronger overall. I'll be talking about the album later on.
Land Of Talk (last.fm) - I might be slightly biased in Land Of Talk's favor because I saw them live, when they opened for Broken Social Scene. It doesn't hurt that they were pretty awesome live, and that was the first I'd heard of them. Also Elizabeth Powell gave an awesome rendition of Anthems For A Seventeen Year-Old Girl (watch) for BSS. (I think it was better when they played it at The Moon than in this video). Also their album has some really excellent songs for a variety of moods. More about that later.
She & Him (last.fm) - I found She & Him when I was in a folky mood, and instantly decided that they were worth listening to. She & Him is composed of Zooey Deschanel, an actress/singer (she's in a lot of new movies such as Yes Man) and M. Ward, a folk artist. I generally dislike actresses who try to sing, but I guess Zooey succeeded because she didn't try trashy pop music or decide to cover Sinatra.
MGMT (last.fm) - Haha so after trashing them for Fleet Foxes I decide to add them on the list. Irony, huh? Anyways their album had some good tracks like Time To Pretend and Kids, but they became such a hipster fad that I was turned off. The hype was definitely more than the music.
Bon Iver (last.fm) - On here simply because I loved the track Skinny Love. The rest of the album is ehh.
The Submarines (last.fm) - Only number 6 because technically they're not a "new" band, but they only came to prominence recently due to the Apple commercial I guess. They would definitely be either 1 or 2 for me if they weren't an honorable mention. On a cool note, Blake Hazard is the great granddaughter of F. Scott Fitzgerald.

Albums:

Sad Robo t s (Stars) - Sound the bias alarm! A new Stars album is basically guaranteed the number one spot, even if it's only an EP. However, I did listen to this album obsessively over a period of time, racking up 841 plays (for 6 tracks, 2 of which are mostly instrumental) since it's release. And I'm pretty sure most of that was in the span of a week or two.
Fleet Foxes (Fleet Foxes) - Okay tracks like White Winter Hymnal, Your Protector, Blue Ridge Mountains, and others show that this album is strong throughout, and though the tracks are all similar, they have enough distinguishing features to make each one unique and stimulating.
Honeysuckle Weeks (The Submarines) - I do like the previous album better because it is more thoughtful and sweet, but this album is still really good. Tracks like Swimming Pool (there's something about swimming pools that I adore. The Múm track and Banshee Beat by Animal Collective come to mind.), Submarine Symphonika, and You Me and the Bourgeoise were my favorite, though almost the whole album is enjoyable.
Something For All Of Us... (Broken Social Scene) - This is one of their albums in the "Presents..." series, this time featuring Brendan Canning. Though some people thought it was more of the same, I really liked Churches Under The Stairs, Hit The Wall, and Love Is New. The other tracks were good but did not stand out as much.
Some Are Lakes (Land Of Talk) - Sorry no link but this album is for a variety of moods. It's Okay when you're down, Young Bridge when you're not. Elizabeth Powell has a peaceful, pretty voice that completely suits the album.
Skeletal Lamping (Of Montreal) - One of my most anticipated albums, and it didn't disappoint. While each of the Of Montreal albums seems to have a distinct sound, this one has a lot of different sounds, from jazzy to edgy. Listen through the whole album for full effect.
Með Suð í Eyrum Við Spilum End (Sigur Rós) - Don't ask me what it means, I don't know. However it's a Sigur Rós album, and it's great. Also it has their first track that is sung in English. I've heard that Sigur Rós is a very "happy" band live, and I wouldn't doubt it.
Volume One (She & Him) - Folky, quirky at times, awesome most of the time. I'm definitely looking forward to Volume Two.
Censored Colors (Portugal. The Man) - I've listened to PTM on and off, and while I'm not completely familiar with this album I know that it's good overall. It has some interesting vocal effects not present in earlier albums.
Crystal Castles (Crystal Castles) - Some electronica that I actually like! Probably because it's not the generic indietronica that is so much more prevalent. Crystal Castles has some more experimental elements, which really helps it along.
Grow Up And Blow Away (Metric) - Again another honorable mention or else it would be much higher. Too bad it's not really a release, more of a rerelease or something.

Tracks (yeah I'm not going to describe individual tracks for you unless I have something interesting to say; I'll link them and let you listen):

14 Forever (Stars) - Not a biased decision, really my favorite track of the year.
On The Sly (Metric)
Churches Under The Stairs (BSS) - hmm I also filmed this. It's on my Facebook video if you're looking for a more rock-driven version. However the sound quality isn't quite as good.
It's Okay (Land Of Talk) - Sorry couldn't find an original audio version. I have it on my computer but idk how best to link it. I'll put it up if I figure something out.
Skinny Love (Bon Iver) - <3
Your Protector (Fleet Foxes)
St. Exquisite's Confessions (Of Montreal)
All Alright (Sigur Rós) - Makes me think of somewhere cold and icy.
Why Do You Let Me Stay Here? (She & Him) - Weird video.
Swimming Pool (The Submarines) - A nice live version.
That's Not My Name (The Ting Tings) - Late addition, sorry!

Personal Favorites of 2008
well I'll probably just include some of the older thing I think should be mentioned. In no particular order also, cause it's not really as interesting as the new materials.

Artists:

Stars - Yeah. This one is really first.
Okkervil River - Probably second.
The Submarines - Probably third. After this there's no particular order.
Murder By Death
Modest Mouse
Broken Social Scene
Metric
She & Him
The National
Land Of Talk

Albums (ordered)

Sad Robots (Stars)
Set Yourself On Fire (Stars)
Declare A New State! (The Submarines)
Down The River Of Golden Dreams (Okkervil River)
Don't Fall In Love With Everyone You See (Okkervil River)

Notice how much I like those 3 artists?

Tracks (no particular order, also probably omitted some, just wanted to name some other tracks I liked):

Galaxies (Laura Viers) - Thanks Mel!
14 Forever (Stars)
Sometimes Stop, Sometimes Go (Ms. John Soda)
Skinny Love (Bon Iver)
Killbot 2000 (Murder By Death)
Churches Under The Stairs (BSS)
Peace & Hate (The Submarines)
Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots Pt. 1 (The Flaming Lips) - I heard this a long time ago, thought it was weird. Didn't know how good it was then.
It's Okay (Land Of Talk)
Calendar Girl (Stars) - probably my all time favorite track ever. EVER.

And there you go! Hope you enjoy it. Watch some vids and listen to some music.
Happy new year!

heh

2008-12-25T02:43:00.004-05:00

Merry Christmas everyone!
Though I'm not particularly religious, I think a little love is always appreciated.

This is a cover of The Pogues' song Fairytale of New York by Stars.

Lyrics:

It was christmas eve babe
In the drunk tank
An old man said to me, won't see another one
And then he sang a song
The rare old mountain dew
I turned my face away
And dreamed about you

Got on a lucky one
Came in eighteen to one
Ive got a feeling
This year's for me and you
So happy Christmas
I love you baby
I can see a better time
When all our dreams come true

They've got cars big as bars
They've got rivers of gold
But the wind goes right through you
It's no place for the old
When you first took my hand
On a cold Christmas eve
You promised me
Broadway was waiting for me

You were handsome
You were pretty
Queen of new york city
When the band finished playing
They howled out for more
Sinatra was swinging
All the drunks they were singing
We kissed on a corner
Then danced through the night

The boys of the NYPD choir
Were singing galway bay
And the bells were ringing out
For Christmas day

You're a bum
You're a punk
You're an old slut on junk
Lying there almost dead on a drip in that bed
You scumbag, you maggot
You cheap lousy faggot
Happy Christmas your arse
I pray God it's our last

The boys of the NYPD choir
Were singing galway bay
And the bells were ringing out
For Christmas day

I could have been someone
Well so could anyone
You took my dreams from me
When I first found you
I kept them with me babe
I put them with my own
Can't make it all alone
Ive built my dreams around you

The boys of the NYPD choir
Were singing galway bay
And the bells were ringing out
For Christmas day

hooray

2008-12-24T03:21:00.005-05:00

30 000 tracks scrobbled on last.fm!
what a milestone.
I've been listening a lot to a playlist I put together.
You can look at it here, though you may not be able to listen to it (Last.fm says it's for subscribers only).
I've had music playing almost constantly recently, cause I've been in a sorta shitty mood. I think music is a better remedy than drugs in some cases. Antidepressants I just plain don't agree with unless it's a severe case.

I'm still trying to learn to bend notes on the harmonica. Slow going I guess, but it should be worth it. I think I can get almost a half note bend on some holes, but it's not quite there. I also need to start thinking in terms of music theory, instead of just playing shit.

And fuck I still haven't talked about Of Montreal or Broken Social Scene yet. I just haven't been in the mood to think really.

bands to see live

2008-12-18T14:40:00.005-05:00

I've been to a lot of shows that I really liked in the past semester, and some of us have been thinking about which other bands we would like to see.

So here's my list:
Metric
Okkervil River
Portugal. The Man
Sigur Rós
The National
Fleet Foxes
The Decemberists

These are the ones I would definitely go see. Okkervil River has been disappointing in their newer albums, but I think I would still go see them in case they play any of their awesome old stuff. I think Modest Mouse has moved beyond playing anything from Lonesome Crowded West, so I doubt I'd see them.

I am definitely going to see Stars again. Hopefully they'll come close though, so I won't have to be traveling or anything. All the bands I've seen this semester I would see again (Broken Social Scene, Of Montreal, Murder By Death).

Also I'm learning to bend notes on the harmonica. It's not an easy process unfortunately, but it's a necessary one if I'm supposed to become at all proficient.

hipsters

2008-12-18T03:27:00.007-05:00

I have very strong feelings when it comes to hipsters, but not in the way that is usual. Okay the wikipedia link won't tell you much about them, and I don't know if this link will work because it says the site is currently down for maintenance, so I'll try to explain what a "hipster" is for the curious.

A hipster (in my view), is a person who refutes the mainstream. Everything about it. If something is mainstream, it sucks. Hipsters are very much into aesthetics. According to the might-not-be-working article, that's about all they're into. Also there's a streak of "irony" that permeates the culture. They view wearing vintage clothing and drinking cheap beer *cough PBR cough* as "ironic" and so very much desirable. Past this point hipsters are harder to describe. They usually listen to faddy indie music (MGMT, Justice, Animal Collective, etc), and very few will actually admit to being a hipster, due to the strong negative conotation.

Once you've been around college campuses long enough, you can easily pick out the hipsters. They often dress pretty ...hip, for lack of better descriptor. If someone has his/her right pant leg rolled up, you can almost be sure he/she is a hipster. People with fixed gear roadbikes? Very much likely. Tight pants, scarves, alternative lifestyle, the list goes on and on. They're also pretty rabid about music. They take pleasure in finding "new" bands and think people who listen to "mainstream" music to be beneath them. Of course these are probably the extreme cases, but you do see quite a few of them around campus, so not that extreme.

Okay, so a lot of those descriptions match me. Am I a hipster? Yeah, from those descriptions I guess I am sorta hipster-ish, but I feel there are major distinctions. Hipsterism seems to be a double headed culture. In one part there are those who try to be as different as possible. Just because they think different means good or whatever. But on the other side there are those who think being a hipster is the "cool" thing to do. So they try to emulate it and fail badly. That's probably where a good deal of the stereotypical hipster behavior comes from. These people think they are better than others because they are "hip". They mutate what might have been a relatively benign and enclosed subculture into the semi-mainstream mess we see all over the place. They become the sneering contemptuous mob that shows up at shows and annoys the fuck out of everyone.

And because the subculture has gone semi-mainstream, it sort of perpetuates itself and turns against itself. Obviously a subculture can't be a subculture if it goes mainstream, especially if the subculture emphasizes being non-mainstream. Everyone hates the label of "hipster", even though some of the original aspects are perpetuated and weren't really that bad. So while people may be hipsters, they sure as hell do not want to be called hipsters.

Okay so that's my analysis. Nothing too groundbreaking, but here's where I get really angry. The "hip" thing to do currently seems to be hating on hipsters. Like the second article I linked, a lot of people really think hipsters are completely without saving qualities. They adamantly reject anything that is hipster, and even make groups showing how much they hate hipsters.

So what is wrong with this? I dislike hipsters, or at least the current definition of hipsters, but I am not virulently against all of the principles of hipsterism, nor am I going to hate someone just because they fit some artificial mold, some created definition. By doing that you completely block out the possibility that there might be an individual underneath the veneer. You loathe a group of people not because of who they actually are, but by how they are seen.

This is really almost the same thing as hipsterism, except the new generation is consumed completely by their antagonism towards hipsters. You can never base a subculture exclusively on negativity, and in this case there aren't really any other qualities, such as music or aesthetics, to provide a positive influence. Hating on hipsters is gaining ground because hipsters have gone mainstream, and so they must be rejected. Does this possibly sound exactly like hipsterism? And now the tail end of hipsterism, the "popularity" aspect, is catching on as well. It is faddy to show your contempt for hipsters. So you make groups, you blog, you talk about how much you hate hipsters. Because you don't fucking know any better.

I don't really see hipsterism dying out, or this new fad supplanting it anytime soon, but the whole mess just seems like a vicious cycle of one group running and another group following, all the while contempt is spread throughout the culture.

I guess I'm trying to say dislike a person because of how he is, not because of how he is perceived. If a person is obnoxious, then by all means hate away, but maybe not everyone who owns a road bike or wears a keffiyeh is a total douche.

And above all else listen to music because it is good music. Don't listen to it because all the cool kids are doing it, or because you are trying to be unique. Base what you listen to on your taste, and take into account what others think. Don't just be completely devoid of taste. That makes you uninteresting.

Oh yeah and don't listen to all that mainstream music you hear on the radios. The hipsters were right about that shit, man.

wow

2008-12-12T03:56:00.002-05:00

I'm listening to some Sigur Rós. It's pretty depressing. I shouldn't be listening to All Alright in the middle of the night.

Anyways I have pictures and videos from BSS and Of Montreal. One day I'll actually post things about them, maybe.

I still can't bend notes on the harmonica. Also I want a banjo.

oh fucking shit

2008-12-06T03:03:00.004-05:00

Of Montreal!

I'm so sore that I have no intention of putting up pics/videos until tomorrow anyways.
And whatever pictures do get put up are probably all blurry. It was dark and I was trying not to jump all over the fucking place.

Actually I'm tempted to look at some of the pictures.

Hell I'll put up one picture on here, just for visuals.
And that's when he's clothed. I have a few where he's not so clothed.
And oodles of video. I don't know how much of each song I got, because there was a tall kid and my arms were sore from holding the camera up. Fuck tall kids who get in the way.

ugh

2008-12-05T11:48:00.006-05:00

Some dumb fuck asswipe decided to erase my picture, which took 2 hours and was very pretty.
It was up for less than 8 hours.
So I decided to write a little note:

What USED to be on this board before someone thought it would be fun to erase it:

While a whiteboard on my door does invite others to contribute, simply erasing my drawing was both petty and uncalled for. Do you also like to torture small animals? You might want to get yourself checked. I bet you’re also the person who thinks drawing penises on this board is highly amusing. Yeah, definitely go get yourself checked. College might be a bit much for you. Take a break or something. OH WAIT. Maybe you DID want to contribute, but I purposely removed the marker so that the picture could at least be up for ONE DAY. Too bad you couldn’t draw penises all over the board, huh? I’m SO sorry for spoiling your fun. My friend said this was an offense that calls for murder, but I don’t know where you sleep and frankly don’t think you’re worth it (also I wouldn’t actually think about murdering anyone, if any UF officials think that statement was serious). You probably wet your bed anyways. You know what? I’ve got the perfect job for you. You would fit in well with the Spanish Inquisition. They definitely seem like your sort of people. Too bad you’re a few hundred years too late. Too bad people have become more intelligent and open to art. Too bad YOU HAVEN’T.

Anyways I’m going to go enjoy this concert later tonight. You’ll probably be crying yourself to sleep. Have a good life.

I printed that out and stuck it beside the whiteboard, which reads "who the FUCK erased my picture? it took me 2 hours. thanks ASSHOLE"

Anyways concert tonight.

Of Montreal

2008-12-05T02:34:00.003-05:00

In preparation, I spent two hours with dry erase markers to recreate the album cover.
Of Montreal is TODAY.

well

2008-12-04T04:15:00.008-05:00

I guess this is the long overdue blog post I've been procrastinating. Now there's just so much stuff idk what to start with. So I'll start where I left off.

The Murder By Death concert. Holy fuck that was a good concert. It was also on my birthday, so that just made it more enjoyable. It's been a long time so the details are a bit hazy, but there were 2 bands that opened for them. One was a rock group with the singer on a piano, that was pretty cool. The other was William Elliot Whitmore I believe, who was also drunk, and kept saying "Fucking A". Anyways Murder By Death was fucking awesome. They've got this amazing cellist who has the coolest cello I've ever seen.
Her cello is just a narrow piece of wood. I guess it's an electric cello, so it doesn't need a resonating chamber. They played a lot of good songs, including Brother and most of the ones I like on Who Will Survive, but they DIDN'T play Killbot 2000. While I was disappointed by that, it was still a very good show. I got myself a Murder By Death shirt and poster, which has a flying turtle on it. It's pretty fucking awesome. (Fucking A!)

What have I been listening to recently? I've listened to quite a bit of Stars, as usual, but I can't really say I've branched out much. Hopefully I'm not getting old. I've also listened to a good deal of The Submarines. I really like the emotional quality of their music: wistful yet upbeat.

On November 20 I traveled back to Tallahassee for the Broken Social Scene concert at The Moon. I'll leave that for another post because I have a lot of picture and video that I want to add in, so I'll have to figure that out first. I found out that Land Of Talk is a very good band, and I've also listened to a lot of that. I'll also talk about them in the next post.

Most recently I've been fiddling with music software. I've previously tried using Songbird for a variety of tasks, such as searching for music or trying to listen to my library, but it was in a beta phase and didn't work for me. They recently released 1.0, and I must say it's worked much better. One of my previous gripes was that all my metadata tags were messed up because Windows Media Player decided to try to fix everything once. Then Songbird decided to freeze while reading the metadata, so my library didn't get organized at all.

I still use Foobar for organization and tagging, because it's just much better at it, but Songbird has nice playlists and it also boasts nice web integration. It has the core of Firefox, so it can browse the web pretty well. Also, it's completely open source, so there should be a lively community building up for it. I've already gotten some extensions for Last.fm support and safer web browsing. It's still in its early stages so we'll see how much I decide to use Songbird in the future. First of all they should implement some of the perks of Foobar, such as the ability to organize the library, and more comprehensive metadata support.

Just very recently I've been listening to a lot of Okkervil River. They're my second most played artist, but I don't listen to them regularly like I do Stars. I listen to them in very large bursts, usually when I've got something bothering me. I love folk music because of the darker content, the wistful feel, and I really do love the banjo. I've already given my views on the banjo, but hell it's such a beautiful instrument.
I'm pretty sure Okkervil River was the first "folky" music that I fell in love with, so I guess they sort of define good Indie Folk for me. Also a lot of their music is written in A major, so I can play along on my harmonica, which complements the music very well. I just need to get better and learn more techniques.

Oh yes and Of Montreal concert on friday. I'm so excited.

Yeah. Broken Social Scene report with pictures and video to come later.

omg

2008-11-21T04:32:00.004-05:00

I haven't posted in a really long time (I haven't even had a chance to talk about Murder By Death), but I've been really busy and shit.

I just got back from a Broken Social Scene concert in Tally. It's 4 am right now so I'm not going to actually say much about it except that it was probably almost on par with Stars, and the fact is that I'm simply not going to compare anything with Stars, because I'm so heavily in favor of Stars. Anyways Broken Social Scene was FUCKING AMAZING. I've got some nice videos and pictures that I'll upload tomorrow. The bass isn't that great in the vids, but the vocals are excellent, and probably better than the album version cause it's live.

busybees

2008-10-22T00:18:00.003-04:00

I've been pretty busy with school work recently.
don't really have time to write anything now since I still have to study a bit and catch up on sleep, but I've listened to some nice bands.

She & Him is a band with M. Ward and Zooey Deschanel, a pretty popular actress, which is awesome, since movie stars who try to sing usually fail. The music is folky, and I'm slightly in love with it right now. I think she sounds a bit like Regina Spektor.

The Submarines are a duo who I heard about from Drew today. They have some really good tracks, though some of them remind me of some other bands. Not necessarily in a bad way.

Anyways they're good.
check them out. They both also feature female vocalists. yay!
Murder By Death and my birthday on Saturday!

mindmelting

2008-10-16T02:38:00.006-04:00

1 word to describe Ravi Shankar. UF invited him here somehow to play, and with student tickets being $10, who could resist seeing such an important figure in music? Not I, said the dog. For those of you who don't know (he was before our time), Ravi Shankar is a sitar player who has made a huge impact in musical history. He is associated with George Harrison of The Beatles, who learned sitar from him and helped introduce him to Western music. He's got crazy music cred for introducing the sitar to the West, and also for composing the soundtrack to Gandhi. Oh and he's the father of Nora Jones and Anoushka Shankar. He's won all sorts of musical awards and national honors for his ambassadorial work, such as the Bharat Ratna (Jewel of India). So yeah, he's pretty famous.

At the concert I was seated pretty much in the back, due to my student ticket. Actually scratch that, all the way in the back of the orchestra section. I was against the wall. And to my left was a huge setup of computers and stuff for the sound and lighting. Not that that was bad. I got a pretty clear, if small, view of the stage; I'm not complaining. Ravi Shankar, his daughter Anoushka, and Tanmoy Bose were the most important figures at the concert. Anoushka also plays the sitar, while Tanmoy Bose plays the tabla, which is a small drum set sort of thing. There were also 2 tanpuras to provide drone in the background. Anyways Ravi is now 88 years old or something, so he's pretty fucking old. When he walks in he gets a standing ovation already.

I admit, I vastly underestimated Ravi's ability due to his age, especially since the concert started off with a slow raga. He looked old, but still in good health. He didn't play any of the really virtuoso stuff that I had seen in a video in the first piece (which still came out to like 25 minutes...), and it seemed like Anoushka played much stronger than him. The first half of the program (2 pieces, about an hour long) was pretty trippy. From just the mood and tone of the music I could imagine all sorts of scenery. And since ragas don't exactly resemble modern music, the transitions from the slow beginning to fast ending was very gradual. It was a long journey to be taken, instead of multiple steps. The sitar has very spacey, drawn out chords with vibrato all over the place, thus the notes would almost visibly trail out into the atmosphere. The tabla doesn't come in until the pace picks up, so for about 5-15 minutes (I completely lost track of time during the concert) the sitars would just create crazy paths and layers. With the tabla included structure was added, and usually it became faster and with increased beats. At this point it seemed that Anoushka had the virtuosity that Ravi used to have, while Ravi focused on more emotional sounds.

During the intermission all I could think of was how crazy Ravi and Co. was, and how crazy a "Sitar Hero" game would be, with a sitar remote with like 12 million buttons and tablas, which require fucking intense rhythm to be able to play. Also I thought of how funny it would be if Anoushka suddenly pulled her sitar vertical to activate star power. At this point my thoughts were still more or less coherent, and I could sit there and soak in the epic-ness of what I had heard.

The second half promised to be more lively, as Ravi bantered a bit with the audience and promised a "tabla solo" which I was crazy looking forward to, since Tanmoy Bose was already insane just laying down beats for Ravi and Anoushka. Little did I know that the second half was just 1 piece, about an hour long. I've only heard 2 pieces that long ever, this and a Tchaikovsky piece that was played by 3 Russian musicians, Piano Trio in A minor, op. 50 "In Memory of a Great Artist". Both of them were the pinnacle of epic. The piece started slowly, which wasn't a bad thing. After a while (no sense of time, remember?), it escalated slowly and only then did Ravi and Anoushka's sitar skills really come out. It turns out that Ravi Shankar still has enough sitar skills to put every guitar shredder to shame. And Anoushka? omfg. As Wilson said, "The student has surpassed the master". Anoushka learned sitar solely from Ravi, so it makes sense that she's even better than he was.

At this point I was just sitting, not thinking, letting the music take control of my being. I could definitely hear more Western elements in the last piece, and Ravi and Anoushka often traded melodies back and forth. I remember that they were all happy and seemed to be having fun, which is what I think music should be. It should truly be from the heart and done with great joy. Eventually it reached a point when both sitars were going crazy and the tabla was laying down some sick beats in the back. And then the tabla solo comes up. the sitars went to playing a simple chord progression, while Tanmoy Bose increased his efforts about tenfold. At that point I don't think time existed. I cannot say with any clarity how long that solo was, it was just a blur of hands and fingers hitting drum heads. At one time when he was sustaining gawd knows how many beats per minute, someone decides to shout "YEAH", and everyone just goes nuts. Ravi holds up his hand, the crowd quites, and Tanmoy continues. About then was the point of about complete mindmelting. As he ends the solo by somehow hitting a low droning note, the crowd erupts again. They actually stop playing so he can acknowledge the applause. I can only imagine how much my hands would hurt if I had tried playing that. Then they go right back to the piece. Which by this time is not really registering anything except "epic" in my mind. At the very end Ravi gets another standing ovation, this time for much longer, and we stumble for the exits.

So yeah, probably the second greatest concert I've ever been to, first being Stars because I've got more of an emotional connection with them. Ravi's skills outstrip those of Stars, but his style is not my style, and his time is not my time.

I'll blog about the stuff I've been listening to later, since this is a pretty epic post about a pretty epic concert already.

upcoming concerts

2008-10-11T19:57:00.003-04:00

Murder By Death at Common Grounds Oct 25 (my birthday!)
HEALTH at Club Downunder Oct 27
Broken Social Scene at The Moon Nov 20
Of Montreal at The Venue Dec 5
yay!
much better bands than the beginning of the year. I was going to be very disappointed if there weren't better bands. Broken Social Scene should be amazing, even if they play mostly new material. I'll try to get them to play Almost Crimes. I might also be going to A Place To Bury Strangers, since it's at CDU and Ethan is offering me a ride, so it's free.

Still listening to much of the same folk stuff. listened to specifically The Mountain Goats for a while and now Murder By Death. I've got a music listening test coming up so I'm going to be listening to a lot of "classical" music. Actually it's not classical, it's Baroque and Medieval, but the classification is colloquially classical (alliteration much?), so that's what I'll call it.
I've got to identify a bunch of stuff about the composition and composer, so I'll be studying a lot this coming week.

the glaciers made you

2008-10-02T21:26:00.003-04:00

and now you're mine. Seriously, listen to that song (Your Rocky Spine, by Great Lake Swimmers). That's another song that I'm going to listen to obsessively, since it's just so amazing. Unfortunately the rest of the album isn't as good, which is disappointing, because I haven't gotten to the rest of the album yet and I would have liked it to be just as good.

Recently I've listened to a lot of more Folk music. I've always listened to some, such as Eisley, Okkervil River, The Decemberists, etc. Recently I've also acquired Fleet Foxes, some Shearwater, The Dodos, Iron & Wine, and now Great Lake Swimmers. I haven't had much opportunity to listen to The Dodos or Shearwater yet, but The Dodos sound good. I never really listened to Folk as a genre, and instead listened to artists individually, but the right kind of Folk (I guess Indie Folk) is actually quality. Folk appeals to me because of the banjos, which I love despite the hillbilly stereotype. In the right settings and the right style the banjo is actually a lovely instrument, having a warm tone and flowing rhythm. It's unfortunate that banjo is only present in more "backwards" genres. Another quality of Folk music that seems to be less prevelant elsewhere is vocal harmony. While other genres tend to put differing melodies together, Fleet Foxes and Eisley harmonize the same melody very well. It might be because harmony is one of the defining qualities of Folk music, though I saw no reference on Wikipedia.

Apart from that, Of Montreal's new album Skeletal Lamping has leaked, though a few days still remain until its official release. Musically it is much more diverse, with a constantly changing sound and style, a lot of which is really fun, like the R&B stuff in St. Exquisite's Confessions. Also Okkervil River released a new album (The Stand Ins), which I completely didn't hear about. It's still inferior to the early albums, but much improved over The Stage Names, which, except for Unless It's Kicks, lacked emotion and basically sucked (ohNOES, Roland is being a pretentious music critic).

I also got a harmonica, partly because I have to bring an instrument to music class on Friday, partly because I've been needing an instrument, and partly because my uncle is pretty baller at harmonica. He's this sorta skinny guy (everyone in Taiwan is skinny) with a huge philosopher beard, he smokes, he's a professor in Taiwan, and he has epic harmonica skills. He also has a really cool harmonica. I don't know if it's just because he's not a parental, but he seems like a really cool guy. I think he also does calligraphy and random philosophical awesomeness. He also told me not to get worked up about my parents. Cool points for him!

I've also ordered a Kalimba, which is similar in layout to a piano, though the mechanism and sound are completely different. The first time I saw it was a video of Architecture In Helsinki, where some guy was just plinking along, looking awesome all the while. When I read about it in some article I recognized it and finally knew what it was called. Anyways this is an instrument of African descent, and it comes with pickups! I'll actually have reason to bust out that amp that I've had under my bed for a while.

deafness update: half way!

2008-09-28T02:01:00.003-04:00

woooooo! 12 hours to go, which will hopefully be spent in sleep for the most part.
I watched some short films with the headphones on, so I could still somewhat hear them.
There's also a neat Firefox extension called "Ubiquity", which I'm messing around with and should be useful in the future.

deafness update 2

2008-09-27T21:20:00.002-04:00

Well it's been about 7 hours now. I don't think there's much to report.
I tried listening to some music through my headphones but only got a little bit, which sucks, cause I really want to listen to music now.
And I read Switch Bitch by Roald Dahl in one sitting. It was a short story collection for adults, which is surprising since Dahl usually wrote a bunch of (very good) children's stories. I liked the book, though one of the stories was sorta crazy.
And then I took a nap, which I also did yeterday.

deafness update 1

2008-09-27T16:35:00.003-04:00

So it's been 2.5 hours since I put in earplugs and it's pretty crazy.
I'm used to it now but it's funny because I can't hear the tv or anything.
I can, however, hear my thoughts very well. I guess this is good for concentration, except I like music on when I'm doing anything.
So I think I'll make some stencils today, and probably go to a concert later, to experience it. I'm thinking it will actually be better, because I can hear the lyrics instead of just overwhelming amounts of sound.

24 hour deafness

2008-09-27T14:07:00.003-04:00

So for music class I have to put in earplugs for 24 hours to experience deafness I guess. So I'm going to have to go 24 hours without music, which will probably be harder than the same artist for a week or whatever.

Anyways I put them in at 2 and conversations basically don't work. I can still hear sorta but not really. It's pretty crazy since I can't hear the TV or any ambient noises.

I'll see what happens when I try to do various things and if hearing affects them.

iTunes

2008-09-22T20:25:00.006-04:00

Well it seems like I've stopped using iTunes completely. I'm not sure how this is going to turn out because I've used iTunes for just about the whole time I've listened to music, even though I don't have an iPod or anything. It had a nice layout and playlists were nice, and I'll probably miss being able to listen to other people's music (not that it was usually very good), but reduced sound quality really isn't that great. And it's not just some indistinguishable difference either (Like what kinds of cables or small differences in bitrate), because I've used iTunes, then switched to the Last.fm player and thought that it sounded better, BEFORE I heard about the reduced sound quality of iTunes.

Anyways, I figured out how to organize libraries using Foobar, so now I'll just use that for all of my tasks. Window Media Player is simply terrible, because it doesn't read ID3v2.3 tags correctly, so that obviously doesn't work for me. Also, it doesn't organize very well, though it DOES have the ability to transfer music to my mp3 player, which is as shame since the tags don't work despite WMP claiming they do.

The new Stars EP is exceedingly good (especially since I've been waiting for a new album for a looooong time). I've listened to it for 259 times in the last 2 days or something, and I'm still not sick of it. Maybe I should do another experiment with just 1 album for a week.

hooray

2008-09-21T12:39:00.004-04:00

Lots of stuff happening recently. First of all there are some really good concerts coming up. Of Montreal is coming December 5th, and that show should be completely crazy. Their new album Skeletal Lamping is coming out soon, so there will probably be a lot of new things at the concert. And they're crazy anyways, so a good show can be expected. Also Murder By Death is coming sometime near the end of October, I don't really remember when.

I heard it first in Lauren's car and thought it was pretty good. I didn't do anything about it for a few weeks, then suddenly became inspired and got some of the albums. Mainly I listen to Who Will Survive And What Will Be Left Of Them (a mouthful, anyone?), since it's pretty much epic. I really like Murder By Death because of the instrumentation. They have good keyboards and include a cellist, which is fucking awesome, since their tracks sound amazing. Just listen to Killbot 2000 and you'll be forced to agree. You can even download it for free there. The whole album is great, so I think it'll definitely be worth going to that concert.

Also I forgot to mention last post that I got my Stars shirt and poster. I didn't have anything to hang the poster with for a few days, until I went to the poster shop near the Union and got some sticky stuff. It's on the wall opposite my pillow so I can look at it as it glows at night I guess. And now I have the new EP. From what I've heard (it's currently on the first play through) it's really chill and quite good. I've always liked the chill Stars material (On Peak Hill, Don't Be Afraid To Sing, Calendar Girl, etc), so now I can listen to this EP when I'm in the mood. I'm quite happy I got the CD, because now I can make high quality rips (about 900 kbps lossless yay!) and listen to it with my good headphones.

Oh and two nights ago I went to a concert with Calvin. There were a bunch of local (meaning Florida, I guess) bands playing. They were all decent, though only the last band, The Dead Songwriters, really stood out. I got a shirt and CD for $10, cause it was pretty fucking cheap and pretty good.

shit

2008-09-14T02:28:00.005-04:00

I don't know how long since I last updated this, I really should do it more often.

First we'll talk about the new music. I got quite a bit of post-punk stuff like Joy Division, She Wants Revenge, and the rest of the Interpol album. I've also hung out with Allan often, and he's always got the same mix on, but it's so fucking good and chill, so I basically got the CD and listened to it, especially Santeria by Sublime. I've also listened to some really nice shoegaze in the form of Asobi Seksu, which is pretty different from My Bloody Valentine because the vocals are warmer and more emotional, while there isn't a sonic atmosphere surrounding you.

I've also been putting together lots of playlists and smart playlists on itunes. One of the reasons I like itunes is the ability to put together smart playlists and normal playlists, and being able to "stack" playlists by including them in other playlists which update automatically. Anyways I've put together some mood playlists, which can come in handy in different situations, such as chill music when you're studying.

Which leads me to the next topic: software. itunes recently revamped itself in a fresh new format and included a feature called "Genius". I haven't used it that much but it's supposed to get better over time and put together playlists for you to listen to. I tried it out and it seems to work pretty well, though a few strange songs were included. itunes also has superior auto-organization abilities, which other players seem to lack for some reason. However, I read today that using itunes in Windows will decrease the audio quality you hear because itunes is meant primarily for Macs, and hardware differences cause the problems. Also, itunes doesn't support my mp3 player, which is annoying, so I decided to try out some new players.

First I used WMP, but it didn't recognize a lot of my tags and even turned a lot of them into foreign languages, which was pretty fucked up, so I asked Drew what he recommended. He told me about Winamp and Foobar, which he said was highly customizable, which intrigued me so I decided to try it. It was a bit hard to use at first (as are most things), but the key to avoid being old is the ability to adapt, so I kept at it and learned how the things worked. It turns out that it is indeed very versatile, and I'm looking forward to using it more, and I do particularly enjoy higher sound quality.

Also if you really want good quality get a pair of hi-fi headphones, the bulky ones that look slightly ridiculous, but the quality and bass is so much better that I am all for it, and I sometimes stuff them in my backpack and walk around campus with giant headphones in my pack.

her name is Yoshimi

2008-09-06T16:24:00.004-04:00

She has a blackbelt in karate. Okay, Wilson was talking about how he wanted to mix this old-school rap song and Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots Pt 1 by The Flaming Lips, which I had heard many years ago (when pluto was still a planet). I didn't really like the song then, since I had about 0 musical taste and I thought it was weird, but when Wilson played it I basically fell in love with it. I haven't really listened to the rest of the album, since Yoshimi is the 3rd song and I can't get past it, so I've listened to this song about 30 times already and it hasn't been a day.

Sooo yeah I like this song. So I drew it on the mirror, which is our room's way of leaving notes to each other. It's a very happy sounding song, though it's supposed to be about cancer or something. Isn't that odd?

ohshit

2008-09-05T12:57:00.001-04:00

I just thought of a great band name.
Catching .22s

okay

2008-09-05T10:39:00.004-04:00

So I haven't posted anything for a while, while I've listened to a goodish bit of music. In terms of new stuff I've basically listened to a lot of Belle & Sebastian, which I got from Wilson, my roommate. I'd listened to them before, but for some reason never did really become that interested, but that happens with bands now and then. Belle & Sebastian is basically twee pop at its best, it's very mellow, quite happy at occasions, and songs like 'for the price of a cup of tea' just make me want to dance.

Belle & Sebastian is probably one of the best bands from Scotland ever, but have about zero visibility in mainstream music even though, as my roommate mentioned, they would be perfect for radio.

I've also been listening to a playlist I put together, composed of generally unhappy music. It's definitely not "emo" though, and I titled it "wistful" just cause that's all I could think of, so I don't really know what it is. I'm pretty good at putting together these sorts of playlists, and I like listening to them, so whatever. It's not like I'm unhappy, I just like it. I can also listen to Calendar Girl just over and over too, which I did yesterday for a bit.

Wilson also gave me a bunch of different things. There seems to be a goodish bit of post rock, some gypsy/Eastern European music, and other things like Belle. I still don't understand how we listen to like mutually exclusive material, but there it is.

Also there is a new Stars EP available! It contains about 20 minutes of material and 6 tracks, one of which is a live version of 'Going, Going, Gone' from Nightsongs. I've been waiting for one ever since In Our Bedroom but didn't expect any new material so early. It's available here, in either digital or physical format. I bought an actual CD, but it's not shipping til the 16th. I also got a $5 shirt and a glow in the dark poster, so that should be exciting. Stars is definitely my favorite band, so I'll gladly buy CDs and merch to support them. I actually haven't heard the new material aside from some 30 sec previews, but it sounds like it should be good. BUY IT.

kay I think that's about it for now. I'm sure I forgot something.

updateish

2008-08-24T20:08:00.003-04:00

Listening mostly to older things like The National and BSS, and some instrumental stuff like Sigur Rós. My roommate and I are going to share music, so I put a lot of cool stuff on a hard drive. I think his stuff is also pretty cool, though the stuff we listen to is pretty exclusive.
So I added:
Okkervil River
Animal Collective
Beulah
BSS
Handsome Furs
Metric
PTM
Of Montreal
Neutral Milk Hotel
Stars
The National
Wolf Parade
Sigur Rós

If anyone thinks of anything I should add feel free to add suggestions

kay

2008-08-18T14:44:00.003-04:00

I'm moved in to college! I've pretty much got my laptop set up, though all my playlists and counts and ratings are gone. I'm sure I'll figure it out sometime, but it's a bit of a pain with all my ratings gone.
Anyways I just wanted to wish everyone good luck with everything this year, especially the rising seniors with their college apps, and everyone now going to college.

back!

2008-08-14T22:11:00.005-04:00

From Taiwan. I've been moderately busy preparing for college, but I've had some time to look into some music. I got Last.fm to play nice and can now embed my library on my blog, so that's all fun. The new Last.fm is looking pretty spiffy, and has some nice features such as creating multiple playlists for people to listen to. However, you need 45 artists and it's a hassle putting the playlists together. I may end up making a few to see how it works.

Anyways on to what I've been listening to. I listened to some Say Hi (Last.fm) when I got back, cause I was being picky and didn't know what to listen to. The band is pretty good, a bit different from what I usually listen to, which falls in the indie pop/rock/folk mix, but they're worth a listen, especially if you're into heavier guitar stuff and a slightly cold, dark atmosphere.

Just today I listened to Iron & Wine (Last.fm) and The Wrens (Last.fm). Iron & Wine is surprisingly good, considering how folky I expected it to be. Turns out that it's not THAT folky, and though it's somewhat softer and smoother than the usual fare, many of the songs are quite sweet and thoughtful. Good for those calmer, dreamy days. Like if you happen to be lying on a dock somewhere looking at the clouds, and happen to have music handy. Iron & Wine has a tropical (maybe?) sound that often reminds me of Islands (Last.fm), which I thought was pretty unique.

I don't even know where I pulled The Wrens out of. I think it was some blog on my rss feeds that I read. It started out sorta slow so I was wondering about the "indie rock" label, but it quickly picked up and, once again, surprised me. I guess there's a lot of good unknown music out there, which is a real shame, since the artists probably deserve more money, and no way in hell are major labels promoting small artists. Anyways they have a song (Everyone Chooses Sides), supposedly about how they gave up a major career to keep their artistic integrity, which is quite a commitment. So I'll help advertise and tell you to go listen!

Well that's about all that's happened musically recently. I could talk about my trip for ages but it's not really the point of this blog. I might start a personal blog sometime to talk about all the other shit that's going on, but Lauren says that's "faggy". ohwells.

well

2008-08-09T13:26:00.003-04:00

You can listen to my library. Basically everything last.fm has ever logged and recognizes.
It's a pretty good selection.
I still can't embed it I don't think.
it might be hidden somewhere though?

Oh and I got some spiffy headphones!

waaa

2008-08-04T11:43:00.001-04:00

New format for last.fm
I'm still trying to figure out how to embed things, so I'll keep the old stuff for now.
Still not back from Taiwan, so I can't really discover anything.

fuuuuuuuuuuuck

2008-07-23T10:04:00.001-04:00

my headphones broke.
rawr need to listen to music to sleep.

wooooooooo

2008-07-12T09:05:00.005-04:00

So I'm not really listening to new stuff, but I've been listening to a lot of the SSLYBY album Broom. I don't have Pershing on my mp3 player, but I liked Broom better anyways. Probably because I haven't listened to Pershing that much. Anyways I play Broom when I'm going to sleep and before I get through the album I'm out.

meh

2008-07-04T03:17:00.005-04:00

I'm in Taiwan... so the odds of finding/listening to new music are slim.
Hopefully I'll have interesting things to do instead though.
I guess i'll have to make do with the music in my mp3 player.

EDIT: I also listened to some HEALTH prior to leaving Taiwan, and it's actually pretty listenable. I'll see if I can find the remix album somewhere, since it's supposed to be easier on the ears.

EDIT2: Forgot to mention it, but at Preview I also heard the new 65daysofstatic EP. They've gone dance/techno, it's pretty weird, not necessarily in a bad way. There are also vocals, which are pretty unheard of for 65dos.

EDIT3: Oh and happy 4th of July (at least it's the 4th around here). Can anyone tell that I'm bored?

don't forget to breathe

2008-06-28T22:01:00.003-04:00

So when I was at Preview Ethan asked if I listened to Beulah. I told him I didn't, but I had heard of them. So he told me to play a track on his laptop which conveniently hooked up to the car, and it sounded pretty good. The song was "A Good Man Is Easy To Kill", which is a reference to Flannery O'Connor's short story "A Good Man Is Hard To Find". Apparently the lead singer Miles Kurosky enjoys the works of Flannery O'Connor, and the song is about a car accident his father was in. Beulah is now disbanded but was part of the illustrious Elephant 6 Recording Company, which included Neutral Milk Hotel, Of Montreal, and The Apples in Stereo.

Anyways I'm listening to the album Yoko, which is their last and supposedly best work. A lot of the songs are bittersweet, because Beulah had already announced their breakup. It's less poppy than the other album The Coast Is Never Clear, which contains the song Ethan played. Some classic indie pop is always worth a listen, and it's a shame that they disbanded. Ethan said that the lead singer is doing some solo work, so hopefully we'll see some of that in the future.

so tired

2008-06-27T22:12:00.006-04:00

Sort of a change in the routine cause I'm not going to be talking exclusively about music this post. I just got back from Preview (college orientation), and while the actual Preview sucked, the rest of the time was pretty good. Driving was pretty boring, but I listened to Modest Mouse there and back in the car. When I got there I hung out with Ethan and toured the town for a bit. We got some coffee at Maude's and I listened to people talk about bicycles, which seem to be pretty fucking intense.

Theeeeen I went with Ethan to the 2nd Street Bakery I think it was called, and chilled there for a bit. Then off to dinner at the Buddha Belly, which had pretty amazing curry in huge portions. Apparently their spicy isn't really all that spicy. After that we went to a bicycle repair place Ethan volunteers at called The Kickstand, in some sketchy part of town. While I didn't know much terminology about bicycles, the process of watching them fix bikes was pretty cool. I'm pretty sure I'm going to spend some time there in the Fall.

Blaaaaah blah blah (stuff about preview) wasn't really exciting. Our staff member was from Sarajevo and was pretty funny and helpful, so it wasn't absolutely terrible, and I knew some people (I hung out mostly with Allan and Binita). Ethan gave a lot of advice about classes and scholarships and stuff, as he's also majoring in Biochem. So I'm pretty set with scheduling and I've got lots of opportunities, though I want to get out of the humanities class I'm in right now. If not it's not a big deal, but it seems sorta boring.

The next night I was going to sneak out and go to a concert with Ethan, but it ended up that he hurt himself and couldn't go. Which was probably for the better because I had to drive back today after the final Preview day, and I was already really tired.

Anyways now I'm really looking forward to both academics and ...nonacademics at college, since the culture around UF seems pretty cool. There's a lot of organic/vegan stuff and neat sketchy places around, places worth exploring, and really cool people. It's pretty awesome because I'll be hanging out with all sorts of people, like friends in Hume, Lauren, Ethan, and a lot of decent people I met the last few days. And I'll be dividing my time between studying, partying, bikes, and who knows what else (I mean that in a completely clean way, meaning there are lots of cool things to do besides partying). As I discussed with Allan, going from high school to college is probably the most important and liberating step in your life. In no other time will you gain more freedom. No parents and curfew (take that as you will, and please be responsible), no 7 hour blocks of school, and you'll have lots of time to do new things. So I think people should really have as many memorable experiences as possible. I'm sure I will.

the window is the door

2008-06-20T16:21:00.004-04:00

Sometimes you just need something for when you're in a slump, and Maritime seems to work perfectly for dark days. Brand New is also pretty good for misery, but I think Maritime makes you feel better. While the later albums are faster paced and more aggressive, I think Glass Floor is an excellently built album for when you're lying in bed. And the album artwork is great!
I don't think Maritime is very well known (even in indie circles), though they definitely deserve to be. The new album (Heresy and the Hotel Choir) is also more popular, and has twice the Pitchfork rating as Glass Floor, but I'm still partial to the latter because it is more coherent and has better songs, in my opinion. The new album does have good songs, though I think Be Unhappy should be in Glass Floor because it's more similar to that material. Anyways if you're depressed about something I do recommend listening to Maritime.

handsome furs

2008-06-19T17:05:00.004-04:00

Yes, uncreative title this time. I'll make up for it by posting pictures. But yeah, this post is about Handsome Furs, which is great. The act is associated with Wolf Parade, connected by Dan Boeckner, guitarist/vocalist in Wolf Parade and basically the same in Handsome Furs, though supported by his wife. Boeckner is the one with the lower and grittier (I think) voice in Wolf Parade, doing the vocals about half the time.

I think Handsome Furs is a good associated act for Boeckner, since he can sing for the whole album instead of just half, and he has quite a distinct voice. The general feeling of Plague Park (the album) is similar to Wolf Parade material, though I think there are a bit less vocals in Plague Park. It's also possibly a bit more sparse and electronic, though that's definitely up for interpretation.

well...

2008-06-16T20:05:00.002-04:00

I listened to some stuff that isn't exactly regular fare for me. Crystal Castles is definitely more Electronica and it's not really indie, though it IS on Last Gang Records, which also includes Metric and some other indie bands. So it is indie in the sense that it's on an indie label, but... not exactly? They released a self-titled album and I recently got around to listening.

Anyways it's pretty good. Not that I really know much about Electronica. But it's not the generic repetetive stuff. The vocals are blurred and hard to understand, but I guess that's not really the point in this genre. Regardless (IRREGARDLESS is not a word!), it sounds neat, so I like it.

And then there was some band called HEALTH associated with a song (Crimewave), I'm not exactly sure how, but it's also a self-titled album, and it also has a track called Crimewave, though it's a LOT different. HEALTH is a lot more... noisy? It's described as noise rock per the Wikipedia, so it works, but I was expecting something a lot more like Crystal Castles. Didn't really like HEALTH first time through, haven't listened since.

oh dears...

2008-06-11T18:29:00.003-04:00

Well I've been listening to a rather strange combination. Namely, The Dears and Sigur Rós.

Sigur Rós came out with a new album, which is probably the best new album I've heard in a while. Which is saying something, since they're always singing in Icelandic or their own Hopelandic. Oh shit apparently the last track is in English, and I haven't even noticed. I don't even know how to start to pronounce the new album's name, so... Með suð í eyrum við spilum endalaust. Listen. Even though it's un...understandable, it's still pretty amazing. It starts off with a few lively tracks, which is a new thing for Sigur Rós, since they describe themselves as slow motion rock. In any case, it's definitely a good progression. Then it slows down into the characteristic Sigur Rós style, minimalistic and beautiful. The last four tracks are my personal favorites, lonely and sort of bleak. They evoke empty and cold landscapes. Beautiful ones though. Either the music or the AC had me shivering last night.

The Dears are supposed to have a new album in the works, but I've been listening to Gang of Losers again. I never did listen to a lot of The Dears, even though I liked them, so now I'm listening to a lot more. It's pretty hard to describe The Dears, except that they're pretty unique. A good example is Bandwagoneers. Creative name, great track. Take a listen.

more thoughts

2008-06-06T18:27:00.003-04:00

I remembered something else. What a fucking surprise right?
Anyways. Calvin told me that my musical tastes were pretentious once, so I've been evaluating myself a bit since then. Yes, I may br a bit pretentious about music, but that's mainly because mainstream music does, in fact, suck. A lot. The umbrella song comes to mind. A perfect example of bad music.

But there's a difference between differentiating between music and differentiating between "indie" and "mainstream". A lot of people are really just into the indie scene and care less about the music, so they can act cool and show off to friends. For me I think it's the other way around. Yes, I may still be a music snob, but I enjoy the music and that's pretty much what I care about. It's not so much about the scene. There are people who walk around decked out like scenesters who couldn't tell you the first thing about the music they supposedly listen to, and I think the trend is growing among middle schoolers, cause there have definitely been more kids like that around Chiles.

So what I'm saying is, if you want to be indie, fine, but make sure you actually listen to the music. And you actually like it. Don't go around waving the Garden State soundtrack if you're just trying to get laid. Haha I think this is making me sound more pretentious. Now I'm distinguishing between real and fake indie.

I think I'll write a how-to guide for spotting fakers. They dress pretty badly (bad, the mechanism which allows you to...) , they listen to REALLY generic indie/emo stuff, and they can't actually name an album past the most recently popular one. They also name-drop like crazy and act snobbishly because people don't recognize a band. Whereas people who actually like the music encourage others to listen to it. They also do not always follow the current trend, instead exploring based on suggestions from friends and musical quality.

k just thought some things should be cleared up.

shit

2008-06-06T17:47:00.008-04:00

It's been more than a month since my last post, since I guess I just totally forgot about this.
anyways I've been listening to a lot, though the number of artists is limited.

My last.fm pretty much illustrates that. I listened to quite a bit of Okkervil River for a week or two (about 700 plays, just on itunes), then waaaay too much (about 1000 plays) Modest Mouse. Not the new stuff, mind. At the expense of sounding pretentious, the old stuff (Lonesome Crowded West, and Building Nothing Out Of Something) is much better.

Recently I've been listening to some more ambient/instrumental stuff, like 65daysofstatic. I was a bit skeptical about instrumental music at first, cause by definition there aren't really words... But after listening to this I've realized it's really good. While it may not be as good when you're just listening to music (debatable), it's still very good in the background when you're working.

Uhhh right now I'm listening to Yeasayer, and I've got a Deerhunter album in the queue (is that how it's fucking spelled?). Yeasayer is described as experimental, and I guess that's the general direction I've sorta been headed. There have definitely been a lot of instruments in my recent musical selections. I also listened to Sigur Rós, Múm, and Oceansize along with the 65dos.

Ehh Lauren's been to a lot of concerts that I'm pretty jealous of. The National, Modest Mouse, 65dos, SSLYBY, and probably other stuff that I can't remember right now. There's nothing playing in Tallahassee that I'm interested in, except Portugal. The Man, but they're coming when I'm going to be out of town.

Also I've decided that Stars is good drunk music. Don't ask me why, because I don't really know myself, but it just sounds like it would be excellent while drunk. Same with Brand New. Stars has some magical quality that's hard to describe. I'd say it invokes a wistful feeling, but that's not the whole picture. Just listen to it yourselves and maybe you can relate. Brand New basically encourages you to get drunk. No need to analyze much deeper.

I'm sure there are more musical adventures I've been on in the past month, but that's about it for now. I'll try to write more often.

so...

2008-05-02T23:30:00.002-04:00

I know I've been on a not-so-temporary hiatus from piano, but I think it's time I started again. I guess I'll still play some classical for technique and stuff, but it's been a long time since I realized that I don't want to be some concert pianist with some orchestra or something. Ever since I was introduced to indie music I've felt that writing that sort of thing would be much more interesting. There's only so much you can express with a pair of hands and a score.

I know I can't just jump into composition and be awesome, so I'll start learning some theory, now that I might actually have some free time, and keep up my piano technique in the meantime. I've also got Nick's electric guitar, which has been sitting on a shelf in my closet, so I might as well mess around with that. I guess no one should actually expect much, since I don't know far this is going to go, but I've always felt weak with theory and sight reading, which are both pretty important, so learning some of that can't hurt at all. And if it turns out that I'm decent at composition -however one becomes decent at composition, probably from experience- hey, even better.

But basically I think the important thing is to learn a few key concepts, such as different chords and shit and going with it. Just reading information isn't going to help, so I'm going to start having fun with music.

damn

2008-04-23T14:42:00.006-04:00

It's been a while. So I've been listening to a bunch of stuff recently. I don't exactly remember the last thing I posted about, so I'll go back a bit.

For about a week I listened to Modest Mouse, about 95% of which was from the album Lonesome Crowded West. At first I listened to some of the new albums, then Lauren told me that they were shit, because the singer had lost a bunch of emotion from his voice. I thought that was a bit odd, since all the posts on last.fm were debating about whether or not Modest Mouse had gone emo. Later on I figured out that while the music and melodies had indeed grown more "emo", if we must use the word, Lauren was right and his voice had become pretty boring. Not exactly a good trade-off in my opinion.

Then after that I listened to The Mountain Goats, which was very interesting. The lyrics are pretty intelligent and the songs often allude to figures and events in history. For example, "Sax Rohmer #1" alludes to Sax Rohmer, the writer. Sept 15 1983, which discusses Israel, was the date that Israeli premier Menachem Begin resigned. Babylonian gods, crater lakes, and fictional characters are all included.

After The Mountain Goats I listened to a LOT of Regina Spektor. For about a week straight. Not as intensely as Stars, but you get the idea. I started listening a long time ago, but only really got into it recently. So now I've played Regina 400 some odd times. Which means that according to last.fm She's my second most played artist. Craaaazy. I didn't even realize I was listening that much.

And this week I am on to playing something different. I think this structure of listening to music is better, even though I don't listen to a lot of stuff. One of my biggest complaints about finding new stuff was that I never really got into anything. Well now listening to an artist for a week at a time allows me to become better acquainted with the artists.

It was a pretty hard weekend for me, and The National helped, cause it's so soothing. So then I realized how good The National was, and it's off to a few days of that. Of course it's not going to be religiously like Stars, but a few days of mostly The National can't hurt!

also...

2008-03-31T09:57:00.001-04:00

On another note, this week I'm listening to whatever Lauren tells me to listen to. She gave me a huge amount of new stuff and a 99 song playlist. Just getting through it all will probably take more than a week.

ende

2008-03-30T21:29:00.002-04:00

Well it appears that I've successfully listened to Stars for a week straight. not only that, I listened to more tracks per day than the average, I'm pretty sure. So to answer our question of "Is it possible to overdose on Stars?", I would give a resounding "NO!".

I enjoyed the music the whole time, never getting tired of it, showing the incredible talent that Stars possesses. Like I've said in a previous post, I don't know why exactly I like them to such an extent, but there's just some special connection. A lot of it probably has to do with the fact that Stars is pretty much fucking amazing, cause they're not really trying to be especially "trendy" or "hip". It just happens. Like Torquil said in an interview with CBC Radio 3, the most punk thing you can do write now is to write a love song. It's not about the looks, media attention, or fame, it's about the music.

And that, perhaps, is why the Stars shine so brightly.

halfway!

2008-03-26T17:37:00.002-04:00

So I guess I'm halfway through my little experiment, since it's wednesday. I started sunday/mondayish cause I listened to Stars all sunday too, so this makes it the third/fourth day, about halfway in between.

About now I'd say it's impossible to get tired of Stars. I've played Stars more than 300 times since the weekend, and it's going pretty swimmingly. In the car I've been listening to Heart exclusively, and I must say it's a very good album. Though every album by Stars is good so I can't really say it's better. Also it doesn't have The Calendar Girl, which is basically the best song ever. I would put Set Yourself On Fire first, since that album contains Calendar Girl, Your Ex-Lover, First Five Times, and One More Night. Then I'd probably put In Our Bedroom and Heart at second, since they're both still amazing but in different ways. Nightsongs still has good songs like On Peak Hill but some of them I don't like all that much, as opposed to the other albums.

Anyways 3 and 1/2 more days to go! About now it seems like no problem. I might even double the total plays of Stars.

experiment time!

2008-03-23T22:27:00.002-04:00

So I've been listening to a lot of Stars these past few days, and I started wondering if it's possible to overdose on them. I don't think it's really possible cause almost every song is so fucking amazing and I love them so much, but let's find out. So starting today I'll listen to nothing but Stars and see how long I can keep it up. Of course, I'd not like to listen to Stars for the rest of my life (or maybe I would?! I'm so confused!) so I'll set the limit at week. If a week is up and I've listened to Stars and only Stars for the whole time, I'd say it'd be impossible to overdose on them. I won't count if I accidentally listen to something else, cause it's not really such an experiment anyways, but if it's purposeful or it happens a lot I might have to change my mind (eep!).

wah!

2008-03-19T22:01:00.002-04:00

A lot of new stuff I've been listening to: Beirut, Bombay Bicycle Club, The Books, Built To Spill, Mates of State, Modest Mouse, Say Hi, Seabear, Taken By Trees, Tilly and the Wall, etc. And that's just the stuff I like. A lot of US stuff, which is different, I guess. Seabear is Icelandic and Taken By Trees is Swedish though.

The best thing though is probably an older The Decemberists album, Picaresque. I thought it would be random like Her Majesty, which had songs about chimbley sweeps and stuff, but it wasn't. I think it's at least equal to The Crane Wife, if not better. They ARE different, though, so comparisons don't work out that well. Picaresque has lots of good songs and I especially like The Bagman's Gambit.

pronouns

2008-03-10T22:23:00.002-04:00

So I've been wondering about which pronoun to use with a band. Or on a similar vein which "be" verb (is, are) to use. I came up with three ways to think of it.

The first way is to use the number of people in the band. This will designate most bands as plural because that's basically the common definition of a band. There are solo artists that record under a band name, but a majority of bands have more than one person. Therefore I don't think that this is a very effective way of... classifying?

The second way is to say "it" and "is" all the time because you are referring to a band. A band is a group of people, and therefore it is singular. i.e. "the band is...". I also don't like this approach because it doesn't account for discrepancies such as in the third case.

The third approach, which I prefer, is to look at the name of the band and go from there. For example, Stars is plural, so you would say "Stars are...". Modest Mouse is singular, so you would use the appropriate form with that.

Really it's not that big of a deal, and there probably isn't one right way to say it, but I usually prefer to use the third method. When it doesn't apply because the band name isn't a noun, I defer to the first method, using the number of people. The second method I use sort of exclusively when I start out by saying "the band" instead of the artist name. You can still say "Stars IS...", but it sounds sort of funny.

massive update.

2008-03-02T12:39:00.003-05:00

So I haven't posted in a while because I've been sorta (not really) busy, but I've been listening to some new stuff from Amie Street, mostly indie - ish things. The Double, which is pretty obscure, has some decent songs, and is compared to Wolf Parade and Animal Collective on last.fm, an interesting combination. I've also listened to some art rock by Oceansize, and it's a refreshing change, though I probably won't get very into it. While I can listen to and even like different genres for brief periods, I usually can't listen to them for extended periods.

Anyways the coolest thing I've been listening to is Sigur Rós, yet another Icelandic band that's similar to Múm. They have a very soothing effect, and Sigur Rós describes themselves as "slow motion rock", a fitting label. Not only are they Icelandic (and automatically cool), but they also sing in "Hopelandic" sometimes, which is from what I gather a fictional language. How fucking cool is that? If you're interested a good song is Hoppípolla (jumping into puddles), and it's even been covered by We Are Scientists, who are very unlike Sigur Rós.

hmmm...

2008-02-25T14:25:00.004-05:00

So I don't think I've been listening to much that is new recently. I listened to a lot of Stars and Broken Social Scene, especially Swimmers and Almost Crimes, which are excellent songs. The Almost Crimes video is matched perfectly with the song, so go watch it!

basically you can just Youtube the video or the download link (from the Arts&Crafts website) is here.

odd...

2008-02-18T15:54:00.003-05:00

Every so often, I stop listening to the new stuff I've found and go back to a few tried and true bands like Stars, Death Cab, and Broken Social Scene. And every time I do this, I wonder why I feel so much more connected to these bands than the bands I've discovered more recently. I don't know why, but it seems like the older stuff has much more significance in my life than new material. Now undoubtedly some of this is explained by the fact that I've been listening to Stars, Death Cab, etc for a lot longer than anything else, and a lot of other bands that I started at about the same time sit unplayed in my library.

So part of it is because these are the best bands that have stood the test of time. However I also think that because these were among the FIRST bands I listened to, they have additional significance. There is something very romantic and mysterious about Stars, and not solely because of their music. So as more and more bands are discovered, there is less "mystery" about them, because you can compare them to stuff you've listened to previously. While this is useful for classifying music and finding similar bands, it decreases the uniqueness of new music. But when you find something that is truly different, however, you can really get into it, because of the novelty. Of course, this novelty makes it harder to appreciate the music at first, but once past that, I think your enthusiasm for the music is higher than if it was more similar to previous artists. A prime example of this process is Animal Collective. It was so far removed from the less experimental indie I've been listening to that it took a few weeks for me to even play a few tracks. Then I suddenly discovered that it was a lot of fun, and now it's something like my 6th most played artist.

So if you want a mathematical formula,
enthusiasm = (talent of the band) + (length of time you've been listening) + (novelty of the band)
where talent is generally constant, perhaps rising with time, time is obviously increasing, and novelty is inversely proportional to the number of bands you've listened to that are similar to the new artist.
and that's only if you're absolutely desperate for a formula, since my variables are vague and only give general trends.

I'm awake, I'm awake, I'm ready to go...

2008-02-15T22:33:00.003-05:00

So tonight I've been basically listening to two songs repeated, cause they're so good. One of them is Photobooth by Death Cab for Cutie. For some reason I'd never listened to Forbidden Loves EP, so I hadn't heard this song, which is basically amazing.
The other song I've been listening to is one I'd heard a few weeks/month ago, called Bedhead, by Shotgun Jimmie. The first time I heard it was on a CBC Radio 3 podcast, and couldn't find the song anywhere, so I've listened to that particular podcast a few times. Today, however, I had a flash of inspiration and went to look for Shotgun Jimmie on last.fm. Not only was he there, the song was available as a free download, though only in 128 kbps.
The song is so incredibly fucking chill that I just love it. The whole song is basically the singer trying to get someone (probably a girlfriend or spouse) out of bed. OUT, not IN. cause the spouse/gf happens to be very sleepy. There are no references to drugs, sex, alcohol, or anything else common in music. It's also the only time I've heard "super sleepy head" in a song and not burst out laughing. Actually it's the only time I've heard that phrase in music, period. It's sorta like a children's song for adults, but not. beautiful.

Someone Still Loves You

2008-02-13T22:39:00.003-05:00

So basically Lauren convinced me to listen to more music, even though I am supposed to be on a ban for new music. I'm pretty happy I did, because Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin (yes, very long name) is really good. I got the album "Broom". I haven't looked into their biography much, but their music is excellent. It sounds a bit like Voxtrot mixed with a little of the accoustic guitars of Okkervil River. The end result is a warm, tuneful product that flows well in their relatively short (maybe I'm just used to 8 minute long trippy stuff) songs. That's not saying that it just goes by without anything to remember the songs by. Anna Lee is a very good song, and Anne Elephant has wailing in it. Wailing.
According to Lauren the next album is not allowed to be called "Mop".
how unfortunate.

the bees the bees the bees the bees the bees

2008-02-10T20:31:00.000-05:00

Yeah that was sorta random. It's a good way to describe Animal Collective, from Baltimore, MD. Their music is heavily experimental and probably amazing while tripping. There are lots of random noises in the music, and the lyrics are often disconnected. It's interesting to note that they're connected to the band Múm, and in one song (Banshee Beat), they also have the theme of Swimmingpools. The music is pretty hard to get into at first, but once you get past the first plateau it's definitely a lot of fun. oh and the title of this post is from the song Bees. In one part it goes "the bees the bees the bees the bees (repeated a few more times) rewewrrewwerrewrwe". Just like that. no joke. You really need to listen to actually get an idea.

Okkervil River

2008-02-10T20:06:00.000-05:00

So there's quite an indie scene in Austin, Texas, apparently. The first I heard about it was Eisley, a while ago. Then Voxtrot came around, and now Okkervil River. idk how it came about, but Lauren mentioned how much she liked the band and sent me a track, so I got some of their albums, and they're really good. Lots of accoustic guitars, sorta like Neutral Milk Hotel. They're material is diversified and thoughtful, not focusing on love, or death, or whatever. For example, Westfall is about a guy who killed a girl, The War Criminal Rises and Speaks is about a fictional lieutenant who massacred a village in a war, and so on. The guitars make it sorta folkish, but it's not so folky that it would turn people off.
I've definitely got too much new music right now, so I'm not going to get more for a while. I'll probably write some stuff about the other stuff I haven't written about yet.
ugh.

Plate

2008-02-04T18:02:00.001-05:00

I've pretty much got too much stuff to listen to right now, so I can't really like anything intensely. I've got Feels by Animal Collective to listen to, Two Hours Traffic, Múm (I hate how I have to copy-paste that all the time...), The National, and !!! (chk chk chk). There's also stuff I haven't even listened to yet, like My Morning Jacket, the Juno sound track, and various other things. ugh.

Relapse?

2008-02-03T16:19:00.000-05:00

So every so often when my music is on shuffle I'll get something I haven't heard in a while, like Neutral Milk Hotel, which surprises me because I've forgotten how good they were. This happens quite often, because I'm always looking for new music, so old favorites get pushed aside while I listen to the new stuff. It's also occurred with Brand New and Death Cab For Cutie many times. I listen to Stars a lot, so I don't really forget about them, they're that good. Anyways I think I have too much "new" music right now so I'm going to go through and actually get into the ones I like.

múm and The Postal Service

2008-02-02T23:58:00.000-05:00

So I'd been wondering what múm sounded like, because of the dreamy instrumentals and electronic stuff in general. So let's think, what other artist has dreamy instrumentals and electronic elements? The Postal Service! I'm pretty sure those two would go well together, and I'm trying it out right now. Up to this point the music is going smoothly. I bumped my head on a ceiling so if this note doesn't sound too intelligent blame the house.

Múm!?

2008-02-01T14:39:00.000-05:00

So I was randomly looking through music, and I happened across this band called Múm. It's some Icelandic band that does some nice instrumental and electroglitch indie. The sound is sort of like the older Architecture In Helsinki, with instrumental tracks and breathy vocals. It also sounds a bit like Broken Social Scene because of the distorted instruments. They occasionally have strange tracks, like Rhuubarbidoo, which has high pitched woodland animal-like voices, and They Made Frogs Smoke 'Til They Exploded, which just sounds funny. They also have a strange obsession with "swimmingpools" (one word). Apparently it's not so random because Lauren had already heard of them and there's some connection with Animal Collective.
All in all good background music when you need to work, but also good for just listening whenever.

Analysis: Stars!

2008-01-30T22:47:00.000-05:00

So Stars is definitely my favorite band ever. Like they say, they have a euphoric, dark sound that just appeals to one. I remember in an interview that Torq said that they take a song, make it sound beautiful, and make it as dark as possible. I think that that's an amazing combination, and they're albums are full of good songs, not just one or two good songs with a bunch of filler.
They use lots of instruments well (in a show I saw them constantly changing guitars), not too many prerecorded tracks in the background, and Amy Millan happens to have the sweetest voice I've heard. Go and listen to "The Calendar Girl" right now. You'll know what I mean.

Their stage presence was very good, and the live show was better than their albums, which is ALWAYS a sign of good music, especially if the albums were excellent already. It means that they didn't edit the album heavily, thereby making the music sound better than it actually is.
Anyhoo this is just a general overview of Stars. I'll probably talk more about specific songs or albums later.

Yeahhhhh...

2008-01-30T22:30:00.000-05:00

first post lol!
basically a blog for me to talk about the music I've been listening to recently.
maybe useful for people interested in Indie?
maybe whenever I decide to start writing music/learning to write music I'll also talk about that.
so basically right now I need a usb-audio interface to plug microphones and shit into a laptop.
oh and some mixing software or something.