Truth Hanging From The Door

The Father From Without and Within

2007-12-15T00:05:00.000-08:00

it may have been over a year since i last wrote here. i dont expect anyone to see this, but that matters not. hip-hop, in the tradition of all great forms of American music (i.e. ragtime, blues, jazz, rock and roll), exists almost listlessly. one may attempt to define the music, what gives it the title, a title owned more by one of the largest subcultures in America, but these definitions never seem just. something is always lost in verbalizing it. it is not the rhymes and its not the beats. itd both, together. the rhymes without beats is just "flowetry", an outlet for wanna bes with no rhythm. the beats without the rhymes is a great complimentary soundtrack, but coldy sterile at best. and like all great forms of american music, it emerges from the african american culture. and it grows and it grows because of its beauty, and as are all things beautiful in America, is purchased. next comes what is a product before what is art. chet baker, elvis, eminem. though extreme success compliment some major themes of hiphop philosophy - self-righteousness, survival - it seems to subtract from the artistic value. thus, today's split of hip hop, the hip rich mcs with airtime, and the humble poets with a myspace. no longer is hip hop a golden age, so raw, so fresh that no billion dollar checks can water down the expressed attitude.

this brings me to today's song, the forerunner of the hip-hop renaisance, Rza the Razor, patriarch of the wu tang clan, has achieved definitive hip hop. in my own opinion, the east coast in the early to mid 90s seem to be the Classical Greece of hiphop. nas is Achilles, biggie is Oedipus, and rza is Zeus. off the wu's new album, rza spends a whole three minutes com pairing himself to God, Allah in the song "Sunlight". he relates god's creation of earth to his creation of wu tang, of hip hop innovation. but in such masterful poetry. this is the perfect balance of rap attitude with beatmaker poems.

Wu-Tang Clan - Sunlight

2007-01-19T18:13:00.000-08:00

A few weeks too late, but still so funny.

NEVER DEAD

2006-12-31T21:19:00.000-08:00

I don't think that I have ever posted a hip-hop song ever, I may have once but I'm not sure. It's just not really my taste and most of it is just too fucking corporate and superficial for my taste, but there are some really talented mc's out there, and a ton of talented dj's, but they hardly get their due. Without a doubt, my favorite MC has to be MF DOOM, or Viktor Vaughn, or Metal Fingers, or half of Madvillian, or half of DangerDoom, or you may know him as his real name, Daniel Dumile. This guy is so literally separated from anything involving his image that he always wears a mask, in ever performance, video, appearance, or anything. Anyways, I think I came across the hip-hop song that does it for me, "Never Dead" off his Viktor Vaughn album Vaudeville Villain. The beats have this dark shade to it that is missing from so much hip-hop these days. So many MCs try so hard to create these images of die hard gangstas, so much so that they reach this absurd levels of comic book like villain-ism, and it isn't the least bit frightening, its just phony and comedic. So what DOOM did was completely embrace the whole comic book villain persona, and by doing this, he can scare the shit out of me. The character MF DOOM (metal face doom) is literally based on a comic book villain, Dr. Doom. Anyways, the music is just amazing, so is his flow. My favorite lines, always gives me chills, has to be: "on the radio, mack the knife/I watched him freeze roaches and bring 'em straight back to life/he used a different approach than I ever read/the only thing he ever said was 'the roach is never dead'". Thats just pure expression of control and power, so much more than you hear in any 50 Cent or Mike Jones song. After listening to this, so much hip-hop just sounds so bad...

Viktor Vaughn - Never Dead

2006-12-21T16:25:00.000-08:00

Noam speaks about human destiny

This is a really short but such a powerful video. I really believe Chomsky to be one of the most intelligent beings in contemporary society.

2006-12-19T15:51:00.000-08:00

Come Wander with Me clip

Jesus, this is creepy but so beautiful, so simple.

Animal Collective Live March 22nd 2006

2006-12-05T19:27:00.000-08:00


this a full concert of the ac, pretty good quality too

50 Yards of Burnin' Coal

2006-11-30T13:49:00.000-08:00

I love the Silver Jews, and they have a new video release today, for "Sleepin Is the Only Love". Very funny stuff...

"Sleeping is the Only Love"

Live At The Luminaire, London

2006-11-26T12:24:00.000-08:00

As some of my readers know, I don't really buy into the whole cute side of contemporary underground music, the side that involves and little baby robots and clever titles. Alot of it really comes off as some weird packaged deal, I mean it never takes long for people to taint sometime as young and innocent as this kinda indie electronic-pop, but it happens, and it has happened big time in like the past two years. But the one band that people have kinda placed in this catagory (even though its kinda a taboo now to be considered one of these bands) who really has some great songs is Casiotone For The Painfully Alone. Theres more depth to Owen's songwriting than you will find in most scene music right now, and for some reason his whole cheap keyboard and drum machine set up comes off a whole lot more honest than the hundreds of other bands that play like that. But anyways, here is a nice show I found of him, it starts out solo, but The Dead Science comes in like halfway and the songs sound great with a backing band.

Casiotone For The Painfully Alone - Live At The Luminaire, London.zip

01. Nashville Parthenon
02. Lesley Gore On The Tami Show
03. Young Shields
04. (Talking)
05. I Love Creedence
06. (Talking)
07. Scattered Pearls
08. Love Connection
09. Roberta C
10. (Talking)
11. New Years Kiss
12. Cold White Christmas
13. Jeane, If You're Ever In Portland
14. Tonight Was A Disaster
15. It Wasn't The Same Somehow
16. Bobby Malone Moves Home
17. (Talking)
18. Half Ghost

Total Size: 70.9mb
Total Running Time: 51:59
Recorded with: ECM909 Mic ---> Minidisc

2006-11-24T21:43:00.000-08:00

Lord I Wish I Could See

2006-11-05T07:42:00.000-08:00

The thing about blues, traditional blues, is that it may be the most honest period of music ever made. Most all of the blues musicians really did have the blues, and you cant think about their lives in comparison to musicians today. Musicians today make a life or a career out of music, they dedicate all they have to it, which is great, but its different from most early blues musicians. Most of these guys were actually farmers, or factory workers, or reverends, or criminals, and they wrote and played their own music on the side, as a form of sublimation, to express their pain. Alot of them didn't actively go out and get studio time to record their songs, a lot of the time they were discovered by people in the industry that came across them for one reason or another. They were constantly in and out of prison, constantly hungry and lonely, traveling and singing the blues. This song, Blind Gary Davis's "Lord I Wish I Could See" is literally about the day he went blind, and he really was blind. There is nothing more honest or pure than that. The song is about going blind, and how hard its been on him, but its not just about that. Download this song and tell people about it.

Blind Gary Davis - Lord I Wish I Could See

Weep Like a Willow

2006-11-01T14:44:00.000-08:00

I'm really sorry that I've been m.i.a. for some time now, a shit-load has been going on in my life, not to mention school, and so I haven't really had time to write. I've kinda been falling out of the loop with all the contemporary independent or popular music, but its not out of laziness or any negative reasons. It's because of traditional jazz, blues, folk, and country music. No where else, no other period of music, can I find the soul and sorrow and joy and celebration and spirit and culture that I so desperately need as in the notes of this music, of ol' American music, from the hearts, brains, and lungs of old Creoles and cowboys. Most of this new contemporary stuff just seems so fucking shallow, and silly. How can I be expected to respect a wave of young blood when theres an old Lionel Belasco record sitting in my room, waiting for me to put it on and listen. They are always waiting for me, and they are patient. They know that the time that spans between the time the needle stops and the needle starts may be long, very long, but when the needle is on the wax, it makes up for it. When the needle is on the wax, its all worth it. You sit down at your computer and the news you see bums you out, another corporation has killed something or someone for profit, for their personality-less persons, or you go to school and some biggot makes fun of a little Asian guy, who happens to be a better person than anyone you've ever met, and makes fun of him because of his voice or because he is small or Asian or weird or whatever, and it breaks your heart, its fucking unbearable. You walk down the street and see hundreds of people who live their life completely through and for the way they look, and they fucking know it, but that doesn't change a damn thing. They know it, they accept it, and they know its wrong, but that doesn't change, and that makes it so much worse. When you judge someone on their appearance, you are no better than a bowl of dust, or dirt, or mud. When you do that, you have no insight or perception or even a soul, you are not even human. Humanity is set apart by reason, but when you judge someone by their appearance, you are no using reason, and when you know you are doing this and know its not right, you are less than non-human, I don't even know what you are. You come home and your sibling is watching an eating competition on the TV, and over a million people are starving to death outside, banging on your doors and windows, crying, ripping their shirts and crawing out of their skin, now they have broken through the doors and windows, and they are at your feet, tugging, but you are busy watching the TV to help them out. What are we to do? What is a young American supposed to do to help anything about our contemporary world? Sometimes being American really bums me out, really really big time. I've been called ungrateful for our nations power and money and opportunity, but when we are forced to thank criminals, liars, and horrible, greedy, disgusting monsters for the power they have stolen and unjustly gained, I won't be grateful. How can I possibly be expected to thank any of them? I didn't ask them to be evil, I didn't want that. I didn't want them to begin their failed experiment for protection of tobacco and cotton croppers on the east coast three-hundred years ago, and I don't want them to run around the world, killing people, to institute and enforce everyone else to take part in their failed experiment that they are far too proud to admit is not working. Oh well, I'm getting carried away, but basically, it is our duty, or if I'm alone in this, it is my duty to preserve the culture of America and of the whole globe for future generations to be able to observe and preserve themselves. And a big part of this mission is to listen to traditional jazz, blues, folk, country, ragtime, and bluegrass. So, if you are with me, start with this song.

Peg Leg Howell - Turtle Dove Blues

Sad Sappy Sucker

2006-09-18T16:16:00.000-07:00

Modest Mouse has been one of my favorite bands for a while now, and I've listened to all of their album to death except for one, Sad Sappy Sucker. I had really only listened to "Four Fingered Fisherman" alot and wasn't really that interested because of how young they were when they made it, but I was at my friend's house and saw it while looking through his music, and asked if I could borrow it. I've been listening to it non-stop now since like Friday, and I it really kicks ass. First off, it draws a big influence from Daniel Johnston, especially Yip Jump Music with the accordian/organy keyboards and rough production. Even though it sounds alot like Danny J, its still undeniably mm. I mean, look: "what are you doing here? I came to get a case of factory outlet beer, then I go home I don't feel like I want to be by myself mice eat cheese for the most part, they do as they please then cat comes home mice don't feel very free to walk around." Oh, and God, "Think Long" may be my favorite Modest Mouse song, but I don't know if I'm saying that just because its so new to me. if you're not thinking at all i dont know why you're alive. I really don't want to support the label of teen angst music, but I am I teen, and I occasionally do have angst, so I need a small amout of this kind of music, and I think this one is perfect. It's the perfect angry teen album, I love it. Ok, here are two of the songs, if you've never heard it, pick it up.

Black Blood And Old New Agers

Think Long

Choose

2006-09-09T21:18:00.000-07:00

Take a step back and just let this song exist. Its in its in its in its in its. Its alive and living in its time. Its alive in its time and its place is here where it can stay when it can stay. Let it. This song is just like one of those life changing things you know? Its like, that point of reference is never the same after that, like what you compare every event to, its different now isn't it? It sure as hell feels like a different place. I think it might be a little too cold in here for me, but I'm gonna have a sit-in just so I won't miss anyone. Try it on for yourself, see how the water flows, the rain falls, the snow falls, the sleat sleats. See how this song sings

Velvet Underground - The Black Angel's Death Song

The Sweetness of Being

2006-09-05T13:42:00.000-07:00

You guys who read know that I am a huge fan of Joanna Newsom and all her work and also a huge fan of her long awaited new album's producer Van Dyke Parks, and that I've been dying to hear this record for a long time. Well, it leaked and I heard it, and I am so much more than impressed and satisfied. After hearing this album, I really couldn't help thinking that its the best thing I've heard since Neutral Milk Hotel's In The Aeroplane Over The Sea in 1998, and is personally one of my favorite albums ever. I was kinda worried about the addition of Parks' orchestral pieces, thinking they might have overpowered Newsom's voice and harp. I thought the loss of the minimalist quality of being alone would be harmed and then would lose the whimsical, story book feel her music gave me. But it honestly did not, at all. I've heard all but one songs on the album from live recordings, but it was like I had never heard any of them. The orchestra only highlighted and exaggerated the storybook feel of Joanna's music, giving the songs more character and adding to the stories. The songs are all pretty long, with many key changes and bridges and movements, wonderfully and skillfully complex melodies and rhythms, and of course, her incomparable lyrically style. A few of my friends have been able to see the fact that she is a talented songwriter, but they are bothered by her child-like vocals. But in this album, I think her voice sounds a lot more mature than it was before. The rain and gray sky exaggerated the greens of the trees outside, and it really sounds like this album. It seems slightly dark and gloomy, but almost overly adventurous and curious. I would feel really bad leaking the album on my sight, 'cus I really want it to do well, but for those of you who really feel like they need to hear it and promise to buy it when it is released, its not very hard to find. This is by far the best album of the year, and maybe one of my favorites, ever.

Only Skin

Time of No Reply

2006-09-04T13:20:00.000-07:00

Today started the annual time of no reply in my life. I have one every year, its the time where I sit down with my major events of the summer and tell them what that need to do to adapt to the school year, the fall, the lack of heat. For most western art, the winter has always been symbollic of a time of desperation and death, whether it be the lack of crops or the harsh snow, but its an undeniable theme. Well, in my own life, I've kinda observed the opposite. The heat in Houston during the spring and summer is never a relief to anyone. Its so horrible that the winter and fall become the seasons of adventure and happiness and flow and outdooors. Its kinda hard to explain unless you experience the weather for yourself. Every kid in Houston loves the winter because of the chance to wear a coat and hates the summer because of the humidity. For people raised here, it even moves beyond the weather. I've lived here my whole life, and this is now my 17th time of no reply. It has become a whole change in emotional and metaphysical matters, the winter is more optomistic and adventuresome. Well, its still hot today, really hot, but I felt the time of no reply in the air, and I felt everything coming in the wind. The winter is coming in the wind.

Nick Drake - Time of No Reply

Beach House

2006-08-27T10:41:00.000-07:00

I got an email from Carpark Records, who along with Paw-Tracks is probably my favorite label right now, about their band Beach House. Alex Scally and Victoria Legrand make up the band of what sounds like a whole lot more than, but actually is just a guitarist and keyboardist. The email sent this song, but forgot to give me the title of the song. Its a beautiful melody that I haven't really heard in any contemporary music like after the early 80's, its this sound of 20 year old or more American pop that has been almost forgotten, but these guys are bringing it back. The music is totally refreshing and I'm really into it right now. I'll be posting about a few other Paw-Tracks/Carpark bands this week. But here is the song by beachhouse, if anyone knows the title, please let me know.

Master of None

ALSO!
My good friends Seth and Colin are playing tonight at Super Happy Fun Land around 8 to 9ish, make it out if you can! Here is one of Colin's songs.

Clock Says 9 AM

Have You Got My Money

2006-08-26T15:11:00.000-07:00

Lazy, rainy, late summer day. Its the weekend so we have a few hours of forgetting the 3 month heat wave ended, and tonight the biggest party of the school year so far is happening, so its a pretty good Saturday. For now its time to chill out, take it slow, nap, and listen to Jana Hunter while waiting for time to give birth to our festivities. And hey! anyone in town on Sunday needs to stop by to see my friend Colin rock, I'll post a few of his songs tomorrow.

Jana Hunter - Have You Got My Money

Plateau

2006-08-24T13:48:00.000-07:00

I just reached that plateau of school, when its like you got to the point of being used to school, then you shut off your brain and go into zombie auto-pilot for 9 months, except for winter break which is always heaven. But I think I climbed onto this plateau today in 7th period when I received my first detention of the year. Its just one of those things where its like "Goddam, I'm gonna be stuck in this building all year." But we can't forget those weekly 48 hour breaks from the plateau called the weekend and the potential they bear but never seem to exactly produce. So in the celebration of a plateau, here's the Nirvana song called "Plateau" which reminds me of my brother so much, when he was in middle school. Another interesting thing about the plateau I learned this summer from my hero (Cliff Wiggington, world champion bagpiper slash my future brother in law b/c he is the brother of my sister's boyfriend) is that the only instrument that never reaches a volume plateau is the bagpipe. Like if you are playing a tuba and you add a certain number of tubas, you'll reach a plateau at which the noise can get no louder. You can add more tubas, but it won't get any louder. Well, with bagpipes, it can always get louder, always.

Plateau

Knee

2006-08-23T17:32:00.000-07:00

Guys guys guys, sorry I've been a little lazy the past few days, school just started and I've been keepin' extra busy all around the place, I'll try to update as much as I can. Anyways, you know those songs you love when you are like 2 years old or are changing trains on Eurorail and you hear a song in the background or hear a song you love in a dream is dismissed as a real song because its in your dream? And you know what its like to hear it again, today and have that feeling from so long ago? Well, I had one of those recently, my dear friend jrmb told me I had to listen to a few songs from this concept opera from the 70's called Einstein on the Beach. Well, it blew me away, unlike any opera or piece of music I had ever heard. Immediately I had to hear more of this composer's, Philip Glass, work and I hunted-noted-nted. Then I came across this song, the one I was describing earlier. One of the only things I remember about hearing it the first time was that I was very, very young and that it had something to do with theatre. This could have been my father playing it in his old '90 Acura on the way back from the Theater Under the Star's production of Hamlet, or if I heard someone whistling it at my sister's ballet recital. Wherever I was first exposed to it, it had a great effect on me. I know it seems like I would be able to remember more about the song that was so big a deal to hear, but it isn't like that exactly. It was a very subtle experience, almost a total subconscious emotion, one that I'm not fully aware of or even feel that much, but it is undoubtedly there and see its effects. Anyways, the song is called "Kuru Field of Justice" and it is beautiful.

Knee 5 from Einstein on the Beach

Kuru Field of Justice

Attic Room

2006-08-16T15:31:00.000-07:00

For some reason, I've kinda been treating the scene pretty poorly. It may be because of a break-up I had recently with one of the hippest girls I've ever met, or that my taste is maturing, but I just really can't stand most of it right now. I see way too many gimmicks and not enough depth, not enough art. I mean there is a whole lot more to sing about than like little robots or bad teeth. I find the current folk scene to be much more rewarding and interesting, which is pretty obvious as to what I write about. But anyways, to try to find the reason why I once like the scene so much, I've been listening to alot of it. And I came across this song by a band I really think I love and who I have written about before, Casiotone for the Painfully Alone. I know CFTPA isn't exactly as hip as Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, but his sound is similar to those types. This song has a depth and an honesty that is missing in the work of so many hipsters out there...

Attic Room

Fin

2006-08-15T19:55:00.000-07:00

The end of summer, school tomorrow. No more sleeping in, no more goofing off, no more nonsense. No room for nonsense. Sorry I haven't posted in like weeks, the end of summer has been really busy, my hours have been a little off, but now that the school year is here, I'll continue to write more frequently. Alot has happened this summer, in my own mind. I know its really easy to seem pseudo-intellectual when you talk about Jack Kerouac, but I really love this recording, and it kinda reminds me of the summer that just took its last breaths.

Jack Kerouac - Readings From "On The Road" And "Visions Of Cody"

Sunrise

2006-08-03T14:23:00.000-07:00

Sorry I haven't posted anything in a few days, I've been really busy and my internet connection has not been working. So Monday night was my big night, my first show, and it went pretty well, I feel. The venue was so perfect, anyone who hasn't heard of Super Happy Fun Land really needs to check it out, its one of the best spots in Houston. The other bands playing were all such kind people and great musicians, it was really a great time. One of the bands that played after me, Wildebeest, had been on the road for 3 days straight, no stops except for a brief one in Santa Fe to play a short set in a coffee house. One of the band members seemed to be napping on a couch while the other seemed wired and chatty, telling me about his tour so far. When the they played, they seemed pretty exhausted, and understandably so, but they still played so great, specifically at the song "Tractor Trailers". This song really blew me away, and I want you guys to hear it so you can know about them just before they make it big. Check out their myspace and spread the word.

Tractor Trailers

London Ear

2006-07-30T15:28:00.000-07:00

I've written about Ariel Pink many times in the past, he is an artist who I feel is extrodanarily original and talented, and here is a really, really great interview with him from last month in London. He speaks about his thoughts on fame, recording, and the beat of a song. I was already a huge fan on his music, but I respect him so much more after hearing him speak in a sane environment. He is truly such a more intelligent artist than I thought he was, and he is so, so funny and so, so interesting. Just listen to this, this guy is so cool.

Ariel Pink on London Ear, June 13th, 2006

Also:
Anyone in Houston who doesn't have anything to do tomorrow night should try to make it out to Super Happy Fun Land around 9ish. I'm gonna be playing along with The Bluebirds, Wildebeest, and Hussy Hicks. We'd love it if you made it out!

The Yellow Princess

2006-07-26T11:59:00.000-07:00

Its been raining alot in Houston this week, and I have been listening to a ton of Nick Drake/John Fahey, and its amazing how well both of these artists go with the rain and also how both of these artists are probably the largest influences on my own work. Everything about Fahey is really blowing me away right now, I've been practicing guitar more intensly than I ever have before now that I've been listening to him alot. His "American Primitive" style is just unlike anyone else's ever. Anyone who has never heard him before is in for a treat, here he is with maybe one of the most perfect American folk songs.

Commemorative Transfiguration And Communion At Magruder Park

Hangin' On a Star

2006-07-24T12:56:00.000-07:00

Sometimes when you are in the perfect setting with the perfect people and the perfect song for the moment comes on, you feel a sense of satisfaction that is hard to find anywhere else in life. This is a very rare event, but during the few minutes you achieve this, any shred of desire or major change leave your body completely. The animal instincts of the pursuit of more physical or emotional comfort are no longer present because you have reached the desired amount of both of these things, if not above that amount desired. So if you want this feeling, do this: play about 3 games of soccer with a couple of your closest friends when the weather is abit overcast, stop playing right as it begins to rain, go inside, shower, then lay on the carpet, drink tea, and listen to a Nick Drake record (preferably Made to Love Magic).

Hanging On A Star

Explorations Of Zaireeka

2006-07-18T08:36:00.000-07:00

My bud Boot 66 just released two ep's under the name PSY/OPSogist. If you look down a few blog posts, he commented and left links for the downloads. They are great Downbeat electronica collections, exactly like one half of my taste, the electronic half. I suggest you download these both, tell your friends about them, and then tell him what you think about it. These are really some great songs that you won't find many other places yet. I can see this guy getting pretty popular in the near future.

Explorations Of Zaireeka.rar

Cathode Ray Tube.rar

What We Have Known

2006-07-17T16:04:00.000-07:00

Sometimes I expect way too much from everyone and everything in life, or maybe I just have really high standards. Is having high standards a really selfish thing? Or is it a noble practice? And how can we be sure? Should I go through life expecting everything to be so much worse than it actually is, forcing pessimism so I can be pleasantly surprised by most things? Is that some type of denial? But I've always lived with high expectations of what was gonna happen to me, and when something isn't so great, it crushes me. It really does. Hopefully, eventually, I'll be able to form a shell around me and everyone I love, a shell that will create an equilibrium inside of good feelings of love and hope.

And all the baby boys we've born

With eyes averted from the storm

Sent off to die in perfect form

We know now what we have known

Last night I was dreaming with a green fairy, and in the dream I was attending River Oaks American Folk Music and Poetry Festival. This is not a real fest to my knowledge, but in the dream, it was a collection of performances by America's finest folk music acts on the neighborhood streets of the most beautiful part of Houston, River Oaks. The acts ranged from Sam Beam to Avey Tare, and I had a three day pass. I would wander beneath the live oak shade, stopping every few blocks to hear a passionate verse from some young neo-hippy about the taste of burnt tree-bark and the meaning of greed. The artists themselves spanned from the ages of 10 to 100, but I looked around at the audience and found only children and the elderly. An old Irish woman helped an 11 year old, oozing with premature sexuality, plant cantaloupe seeds into a small garden next to the stage holding the reading of a poetic non-sense without a microphone. Two five year olds practiced the Greek alphabet while swinging on swings. The highlight of the whole festival had to of been, without a doubt, Joanna Newsom's performance. She performed a new version of her already wonderful "What We Have Known" that lasted for an indefinite amount of time. It was the perfect length and it was the perfect song. The song went on for so long that eventually our three day passes expired, but we were not thrown out or asked to buy a new pass. Weeks passed with no breaks to eat, sleep, or drink. No one took a breath, but instead gave their breaths to Newsom who was passing around a bread basket for change and oxygen. She kept going, kept picking and kept singing, her eyes were watering both from her emotional exhaustion and her physical fatigue. No one grew weary or complained about the weather, everyone was happy they were there, that they were able to experience what they were experiencing. No one got bored or wanted the song to end. The song never got redundant or grew old. Slowly Newsom weaved a sonic-quilt with her notes, one made of orange and purple sounds that formed around her in a sphere, that separated her from time and physics. In this shell she couldn't age any more, or even feel tired. Inside her shell, and equilibrium of her good vibes formed, pushing all fatigue out into the street and pulling all of the people inside. Just as we were reaching the 10 year mark, the elderly were slipping away and the children were losing their innocence. But then came the pull of her song, into the shell. All of the audience was pulled in, and they all went back to the age they were when the song started. Everyone smiled, everyone now sang along, even though the words were no longer in English, for Joanna had already used all of the language's words. Everyone huddled together in the orange and purple, and sang and smiled and existed there, forever.

That's the kind of expectations I have for things. My demented foreshadows can be blamed on songs as beautiful as this one:

Joanna Newsom - What We Have Known

Ab-Synth Mix

2006-07-13T18:10:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow shall be a good day: John Benjamin returns from Greece (where he has been for far too long), I will no longer be attending summer school (which in return = later nighs/mornings, although summer school was really not that bad at all, I kinda enjoyed it), and its Friday (which is always good). This is a pretty long mix I made for tomorrow, longer than my mixes usually are, but tomorrow night will probably be better than my usual nights are. So here is to Friday, John, and the gifts he brings from Greece:

ab-synth.rar

1. The Dirty Projectors - Jolly Jolly Jolly Ego

2. The Olivia Tremor Control - Green Typewriters [continued]

3. Squarepusher - Iambic 5 Poetry

4. Hanne Hukkelberg - Ease

5. The Kinks - Nothing In This World Can Stop Me Worrin' bout That Girl

6. Silver Apples - Water

7. Boards of Canada - Wildlife Analysis

8. Panda Bear - On The Farm

9. Dntel - Fear of Corners

10. Animal Collective - Winter's Love

11. The Knife - Na Na Na

12. Le Tigre - Dude Yr So Crazy!!

13. Lou Barlow & Rudy Trouve - Xmas Family Dinner

14. Björk - Mouth's Cradle

15. Liars - The Wrong Coat For You Mt. Heart Attack

16. The Dirty Projectors - Ruff Finches Song at Ocean Park

17. Iua - Epilepsy

18. Animal Collective - Loch Raven

19. Lou Barlow & Rudy Trouve - Spoilt

20. Salatut Käyvät Julki - Paavoharju

This Land Was Made For You And Me

2006-07-11T12:50:00.000-07:00

Change all the American History books ever written! I mean, what else are we expected to do if Pat Robertson claims that none of the founding fathers of the United States Government were deists or athiests? He can't be wrong, because he is Pat Robertson, and you need to buy his book. Thats mostly the impression I got from our conference call with Robertson today. I was hoping for a much more intellectual conversation with a man I was trying my best not to judge before speaking to him, but I was let down I think. In his defense, I'm sure he was not prepared to answer a question much more complicated than "How did your time in the military effect your life?". Also, I had too high of expectations of what the conversation was gonna be like, I got really excited, too excited that I forgot who he was for about half a day. I'm not trying to diss him in anyway, he is an important and powerful man who took time out of his busy squedual to do something he really had no obligation to do. Plus, I don't think I'll ever forget him beging with his response to my question as, "Well, Daniel, I'm gonna have to disagree with most of what you said..." So thanks for calling Mr. Pat Robertson, I appreciate your time, but I wish we would have been able to discuss my question longer.

Oh well...

I'm still really busy because of summer school, so I don't have enough time to really write about anything else. This is a paper I wrote yesterday, its my reaserch paper for the summer. The original topic was a general overview and history of American Folk Music, which slowly turned into the history of post-depression art in America, which pointed to the Beatniks, which pointed to 1960's Greenwich Village, which pointed to, once again, folk music in the 60's revivalm which pointed to Woody Guthrie, which pointed to his song "This Land Is Your Land", which I feel is one of the most important American songs ever written. That or "Rhapsody in Blue". Well I know no one will really ever read this whole thing, but I'm gonna post it anyways because it looks like I worked really hard, and I did. I'm not 100% happy with the paper yet, I'm gonna change alot, but I really liked the end of it, so skip over to that if you want to. Plus at the end, I'll put two mp3's for you guys, just because you are the nicest people in the world.

This Land Was Made For You And Me

Throughout all of human history, man has had emotion. For reasons known only by our creator, man feels the need to express these emotions through many different typed of actions or works performed by an individual. As populations grow and grow, and as society as a whole continues to evolve, man’s way of expressing his or her emotion has also grown and evolved. This desire to express ones emotion has been manifested by History’s actions, wars, words, artistic works, and nearly all things man does on his own accord for a reason. This expression of emotion, or for a lack of better words, "art" exists along side every other part of a certain culture. Many believe that man’s ability to express himself is what makes man the most highly evolved and complex beings on earth, even more than simple things such as reasoning, organization, and spirit. The famous British artist David Hockney once expressed his own emotions towards art through a quote, "When you're very young, you suddenly find this marvelous freedom, it's quite exciting, and you're prepared to do anything." Art’s development and evolution is directly influenced by the history, geography, religion, and beliefs of a certain group of people. There are many parallels from civilization to civilization in the fields of art and culture, but there are always differences that allow one to have identity and freedom of thought. Just as all of the world’s complex languages, laws, sciences, maths, religions, and philosophies evolved from a much more simple thought, all of art evolved from man’s need to express himself clearly, so that he may be understood by other men, and more importantly himself. Of course, in the contemporary world, there are more forms of art than there ever has been, ever. This vast ocean of artist possibilities can be contributed to such cultural movements as the Italian Renaissance in the 15th century and to such political movements as the founding of the United States of America. Because the United States of America was not founded by the native peoples of the geographical region, but by immigrants, colonial peoples, and travelers, development of culture and art has been very unique and noteworthy. To use a nationalistic cliche that I find very true, and also find impossible to use too much, the United States of America’s culture truly is a melting pot of nearly every ethnicity, society, and culture from around the world. An American culture is just about as paradoxical as an American race. For about the first two hundred years of our nation’s existence, the United States of America found itself partially stuck in a cultural identity crisis. It seemed at one point in American history that the nation’s culture was just a lazily sewn together ragdoll of a whole globe’s identity. Then suddenly, America’s identity was identified by one man, and his simple song of protest, song of equality, and song of American emotion. To fully understand the significance of American folk music in respect to the globe’s cultural matters, we must observe the music’s long history and recognize those who made it what it is today.

The beginning of the 20th century supplied the waves that crashed hour after hour onto New York’s Ellis Island, and as the quick water’s tide reached the American soil, so did the culture from place where the wave came. Large congregations of Europeans on the Northeastern coast of the United States; the Asian, Central, and South American immigrants on the Western coast; the Native American tribes who spanned across the entirety of the land; and the large population of people from Anglo-Saxon and African decent that had already inhabited the continental United States all clashed in one complex version Hegel’s dialectic. American culture was lost in the letters and numbers of a twelve page long algebraic equation, and the people were waiting for the right person to come along and solve for the preverbal "x". The American people as a whole needed an identity that truly expressed the collective emotions of the people. Just as a few mathematicians stepped up to solve the never-ending math equation, the Great Depression came. The American population had forgotten about the art, the music, and the culture. They thought only of money, wealth, and class. Men lost jobs, took their own lives, and left their wife and children to fend for themselves in the infamous Hoovervilles, or areas of extreme poverty and unemployment. Other men hit the road, fearing the slow, lonely death of starvation in the gutter of 42nd Street and Broadway. This was the birth of the American Hobo: the lonely groups of traveling men, traveling to avoid reality, life, people, places, money, or traveling just to learn. One of the Hobo’s himself refereed to his traveling companions as, "soldiers in the dust, (Guthrie 19)", desolate worriers sitting in the hollow of a trail car that still held a thick coat of cement dust, waiting to be dropped into the middle of combat, into the war of reality versus denial. From the depths of the hazy railroad car arose the one man who would present his countrymen with their identity in the form of music, in form of art. He would be the first to express the pains and joys of being an American citizen in his time, or in any time. Woodrow Wilson Guthrie describes the episodical lives of the Hoboes, the American lower class, and the people in this bittersweet truth: "There is a stage of hard luck that turns into fun, and a stage of poverty that turns into pride, and a place in laughing that turns into fight (Guthrie 54)." The rest of Woody’s life would be dedicated to speaking for his fellow Americans, he would constantly risk everything he had, which never amounted to that much, for his more than honorable and more than passionate political and moral beliefs.

One lonely night in 1940, Woody heard a young Kate Smith singing her rendition of Irving Berlin’s "God Bless America". Guthrie had heard enough of showbusiness’s hottest stars entertaining the population with forced and plastic feelings of patriotism, and he decided that he would do something about this misrepresentation of the American people. He humbly picked up a pen, paper, and his trustworthy guitar that had, from on his back, traveled countless tracks of railroad and had helped avoid countless swings to the chest from angry, drunken Hoboes. He wrote a simple song that he felt was a more honest and accurate expression of what it meant to be America in 1940, and this same song is still sung today by school children, politicians, parents, teachers, doctors, lawyers, Hoboes, and artists all over the country today. He called the song "God Blessed America for Me" at first, but after reworking the lyrics and the simple chord progression, he changed the title to "This Land Is Your Land". After four more years of aimless traveling through the land he loved, Woody recorded his song of honest, American expression in 1944. The recording was released with 9 other songs and a small booklet that contained the lyrics and a few of Woody’s now famous sketch drawings. The record was sold for a quarter a copy, and after a few years and a handful of quarters later, "This Land Is Your Land" became the song of the American people. Never before had they observed a person’s work, their expression, their art, that so perfectly represented the people’s beliefs and so much more. Woody Guthrie’s understated legacy in the backbone of American culture cannot be captured in under seven pages of computer paper, nor seven volumes of four thousand paged tomes. It can be captured, though, every time one of his 60 year old recordings is played, or when an American student stands out and protests against the American government, or when a corporation fires a hardworking laborer and his family doesn’t give up on him, they keep going, they keep loving. They live on through the strife and inequalities. It took a childhood in the Depression ear Oklahoma Dust Bowl and about a life and a half constantly on the move for Woody to fully understand what America was all about, and what made his beloved country so special. It was the people.

Woody’s passion for the American people inspired and enraged Americans ever since his day. He single handedly caused the American folk music revival in the forties, fifties, sixties, and seventies by publishing his memoir Bound for Glory, by publishing his simple folk songs, and by spreading the love of the American population. One specific setting where the passionate spark of Guthrie that turned into an uncontrollable fire of youth, country, and love was in New York City’s Greenwich Village in the late 1950’s and early 1960’s. With the help of Woody and other pioneers, artists of all types began a movement of folk music, folk art, and folk literature that would later be known as the Beatnik movement in literature, and the revival of American Folk music in music. Bob Dylan, the Seeger family, Joan Baez, Peter, Paul and Mary, and Jack Kerouac all emerged from this setting, all inspired by Guthrie’s now legendary life. American folk poet Allen Ginsberg, who was a large representative for both Jews and Homosexuals in this time, wrote in his poem of frustration and confusion simply titled "America", "My mind is made up there's going to be trouble/You should have seen me reading Marx/My psychoanalyst thinks I'm perfectly right/I won't say the Lord's Prayer/I have mystical visions and cosmic vibrations/America I still haven't told you what you did to Uncle Max after he came over from Russia (Ginsberg)." Here is the newfound courage to speak out against inequalities. Here is the reaction of the American people represented through art. Woody’s work was also recognized and respected by the government that later labeled him an untouchable, betraying communist. It was just years after the US’s Department of the Interior hired Woody to write songs and recognized as a great citizen that he was redlisted and horribly persecuted by government officials for being a card holding member of the communist party, and also for his constant singing of anti-war and anti-racist protest songs. Having already lived the life of five men, the end of Woody’s life is the most sorrowful portion of his story. He was diagnosed as a man living under mental illness. Many people, such as Bob Dylan claimed that he was perfectly healthy, saying he, "was locked up just because he had a case of the shakes (Dylan)." It was later discovered that after a life of poor health and hard living, Woody had in fact inherited Huntington's disease from his mother. From late 1956 until his death in October of 1967, Woody spent his days receiving treatment for a disorder he was convinced he did not have and was unable to go out once again into his beloved country and witness how greatly his legacy had touched the lives of the American People.

Shortly after Guthrie’s death, Bob Dylan, the folk musician who based nearly his whole life on the life of Woody Guthrie, was asked to write a few words about what Woody meant to him. After weeks of contemplation, Dylan’s finished work was a five-page poem titles "Last Thoughts on Woody Guthrie". The basic theme of the poem is having absolutely no direction or answers in life at all, and the poem closes with these few simple words:

"You can either go to the church of your choice

Or you can go to Brooklyn State Hospital

You'll find God in the church of your choice

You'll find Woody Guthrie in Brooklyn State Hospital

And though it's only my opinion

I may be right or wrong

You'll find them both

In the Grand Canyon

At sundown"

Geeze, that took a while to write yesterday, but I'm gonna add alot though. Its too narrow I think, even though the first paragraph is stupidly vauge. Oh well, here are some important mp3's that relate to the paper:

Woody Guthrie - This Land Is Your Land

Bob Dylan - Last Thoughts on Woody Guthrie

Allen Ginsberg - America

The 701 Club

2006-07-10T17:35:00.000-07:00

Ok, after a long hour of hard work and discussion with myself, I've concluded to give this little speech, then ask the questions:

I must apologize before I ask my questions, when I heard I was going to have the chance to speak to THE Mr. Pat Robertson, I immediately started writing down questions, then I was told we were limited to three, so I tried my best to cram all of my thoughts together. So I guess alot of my questions may be way too complicated to answer in the time I have to speak to you, and if they are, please let me know. If you'd like to answer these questions in full, I'd be more than pleased to send them to you via email.

1. What is your opinion on Bush's war on terror and how it parallels to both the Vietnam war and the "white man's burden" or 18th and 19th century imperialistic England? Why do you think we are still in the war, even after our original justification and those that followed turned out to be false? What do you believe God thinks of this war, and how do you think God felt about the Crusades of the 13th, 14th, and 15th centuries? Basically, is killing in God's name always a justifiable act?

2. I ask this question in recognition of the fact that our country was founded by a group dominated mainly by Deists and Atheists, and the fact that capitalism is bases around the philosophy of social Darwinism: do you think democracy and capitalism are the systems of government that God would most want us to have, and wouldn't a theocracy or some type of religious socialism (one that would worship Him with complete equality and sharing of wealth, as Jesus so passionately has instructed to do in Matthew 19:21 "If you want to be perfect, go, sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me,") be more appropriate, Godly, and Biblical? If yes to democracy, what scripture would support that opinion?

3. How can we be sure when to take the Bible literally or believe implied texts? How can we be sure the Bible is the exact word of God when there has been 2000 years of translation, arguments, murders, wars, versions, interpretations, dogmas, reformations, and so forth? What if even one little sliver of truth was lost in the Bible's vast history, and that sliver of truth is the thing that would give eternal life to all men, not only those who have been exposed to the Gospel and believed, but to all of God's children, who we have been told since we were babies that are equally created and loved in His eyes.

Is that a little too much? I think its too much...

The 700 Club

2006-07-10T12:42:00.000-07:00

I just took a step back and thought about the past few posts on my blog, and I realized how completely repetitive my posts have become. I'm very sorry about that, and to mix it up a little bit, I thought that I would post a little political rant instead of writing about my true love, music. Well, I'm in the last week of summer school and tomorrow we are having a conference call, during class, with Pat Robertson. I have no idea how our summer school progeny managed to book him for an hour or so for discussion, but I think it either has to do with Dr. Ed Young or Robb, a kid in my class who has a dad who knows everyone, seriously. We have the impossible homework assignment of writing three questions to ask him, and I have no idea where to begin. There is so much of my own personal beliefs and experiences and everything that get in the way of asking a man like him a question that is less than two paragraphs long. Three simple questions.

Not so simple.

I know I have to ask about his opinion on the war against terror, how it parallels with both the Vietnam war and the "White Man's Burden" of 19th century, imperialist's England's colonization of Africa and India. I might ask him why the benevolent God of the Gospel and post-Pentecostal New Testimate would encourage such a imperialistic conquest. Why would he liars to use His name to gain the power they so desperately need, and why He would let large parts of the population be deceived by the liars. I also might ask him if he thinks democracy is the best way to run a country. I'll precafe that by saying that our nation was founded greatly by Diests and Atheists, and if we were really living in a nation based on the Bible and the belief in God, why wouldn't we have a theocratic system of government? And why are Christian's still killing each other in Northern Ireland, and who is right, Catholics, Protestants, or Atheists, and how can we be sure? And how can we really trust the bible with our whole body and spirit after its long, crooked history of translations and adaptations to monarch's whims and whatnot. There's too much for me to ask. So I'm asking you, the reader, if you are reading this, to comment and give me a few ideas of what to ask. Or you can email me at danieljosephtyler@gmail.com, or you can IM me at danieljtyler.

Thanks. I'll report how it went tomorrow.

All So Sudden

2006-07-09T20:52:00.000-07:00

Last year Animal Collective's Feels was one of my top two, hands down. The perfect jangling, echoing follow-up to the nearly impossible-to-follow-up Sung Tongs. I've listened to this album alot, and I mean alot. Those of you who have been reading for a while know my passion for A.C. and that I listen to them more than most bands, but even by those standards, I listened to Feels alot. I have to admit something though. I have to admit, and I am ashamed of the way I was, but I think now I've changed for the better. Ok, my sin: anytime I used to listen to Feels, I always skipped over "Loch Raven" and "Bees". I'm not sure what it was, maybe the titles, or the intros, or just a weird habit, but I don't think I ever had listened to either of those songs in their entirety. BUT, tonight, as I was studying for my test on the Great Depression for my summer school class tomorrow, I was listening to my iTunes of shuffle. And then came the bees. Followed by my blushing. Followed by tears of embarrassment, and then followed by tears of joy and beauty. As soon as the song finished, I stopped working on my review sheet (I think I was reading something about the NIRA), and went right to "Loch Raven" and listened to it in its entirety. Once again came the cycle of blushing, crying, and crying. Then I listened to each song over and over, again and again. I blushed over and over, cried again and again. There is something about "Bees" that I am not really able to put my finger on, it has something to do with the swarming effect the song has on the listener, its slowly surrounds you and then attacked suddenly at the end, as the lyrics suggest. And although "Bees" is so so wonderful, "Loch Raven" was the real treat out of this little happening. The ending vocals stands as one of A.C.'s greatest accomplishments of harmonic beauty, and that is saying a whole lot. Well, I have a section of chapter 34 to read about the Dust Bowl, so I have to turn on some Woody Guthrie and stop writing here, but I felt posting both of these songs was the least I could do to apologize to them. I'm sorry Bees, I'm sorry Raven. Forgive me, please.

Bees

Loch Raven

Drawing Restraint 9

2006-07-09T09:56:00.000-07:00

I don't even know where to begin with this. I've just now heard about Matthew Barney because I am so out of the film/art loop right now, and only payin' attention to music. But he's Bjork's boyfriend, they have a child together, and his newest film is playing in Houston right now at MFAH. I need to see this, it looks remarkable...

Trying To Breath

2006-07-08T09:10:00.000-07:00

Dear God, the summer has been pretty weird the past few weeks. I'm sorry about the lack of posts, but I've been keepin' busy and haven't really had alot of time to write. Last night I had a pretty crazy night and I woke up not feeling so great. On the way home from my friends house this morning, I was listening to Jana Hunter, specifically "The New Sane Scramble". I've said it before and I will say it again, I think that Jana is one of the best musicians in Texas and even in the whole country. Shes the center of a wonderful music scene in Houston that I'm so excited to be able to witness and even though I'm still a big time rookie, I hope I will be able to consider myself a part of the scene some day. There are such great things happening here right now, its so exciting.

Jana Hunter - The New Sane Scramble

Through a haze of American History class, endless car drives in River Oaks, and thick clouds of smoke, I've kinda been stumbling through the past few weeks. My girlfriend is in London studying art history until July 22nd and one of my best friends is in Europe until the 12th. I haven't had a true eating or sleeping schedule in many, many days. I've been doing weird things, things I can't really get my head around. I've been thinking things and dreaming things I won't understand for years to come, and I've been feeling things I don't think I'll ever be able to understand. I have a headache from last night and my right ankle hurts from playing soccer so much. I have three papers to write by Friday on American Folk music for my summer school class, and I have my first gig the end of this month. I had a bug bite on my leg that I scratched a little to hard, and a piece of paper in my pocket with a song that I don't remember writing. Old friends and new places, glass pipes and interviews, anxiety and recreation, ex-girlfriends and keeping yourself together. Why is it that I'm able to get so worked up about things when I'm only 16? Why is it that Marx makes more sense to me than The Da Vinci Code? I don't know what day it is but I do have a miraculous sense of direction. I've been reading Woody Guthrie's Bound for Glory and I feel the need to roam. Not necessarily as a hobo, but I need to keep moving. My body can't keep still for too long, I'm afraid my blood will settle down in my veins, it will quit flowing and I'll be stuck in a chair in the back of a room for the rest of my life, unless I travel, unless I move. My friend John found Meals For Children on myspace. He is just a kid, but so much more. He is so talented and this song kinda sounds like my summer so far.

Meals For Children - Coming Back To...

Whoa

2006-07-04T17:42:00.000-07:00

Its about 7:30 on the weirdest day of my life. I'm unable to explain what has happened because I don't even know what has happened. The 4 day weekend caught up with me, so I need some music to bring on the 3 day school week that starts tomorrow.

Animal Collective - Moo Rah Rah Rain

My Money On My Mind

2006-07-01T10:52:00.000-07:00

England just lost, and I'm weeping. If France doesn't win later today, I'm giving up. I always go for my heritage, and now that England and Poland are out, France is my last hope. Geeze, its gonna be a good game.

Anyways, I haven't really been listening to anything the past few days except Dear Nora's Mountain Rock, its just a brilliant album. Simple, sweet, original songs. Dear Nora is doing what so many indie bands try desperately to do, but fail. Having a cute but strong female presence. Too much is the bittersweet attempted in music these days, and too much is it done poorly. But Dear Nora does it so well, and its such a joy. Sorry that I'm writing like a 4 year old right now, I had a big night last night and I'm very upset about that game. Anyways, download these songs and pray for France.

The Lonesome Border, Pt. 1

Hung Up

Watchmen

2006-06-29T10:05:00.000-07:00

Well, I went to the Peter and the Wolf show last night, but because I'm only 16 and in summer school, I had to be home by midnight, so I actually didn't get to see them play. But I did get to see the two great opening bands: Inoculist and Listen Listen. Both are Houston based, and I really enjoyed the performances. Inoculist has a very mellow sound with jangly complex guitar playing, kinda like Modest Mouse's "Sleepwalking". The frontman is Jana Hunter's brother, John Hunter, he was sick but it was still very mellow, very cool. Next was Listen Listen who first had some troubles setting up and then some troubles with mics, but when they finally started to play, its was worth the wait. Their sound was pretty downbeat and pretty dark sounding, although the guys looked really nice and happy. It was kinda strange for the first two songs, but about halfway through their third song, "Watchmen", their whole thing kinda made sense. The singer stopped playing guitar and started banging on half a drum set as the pianist picked up in a kinda jazz-noir riff, and the violinist played a beautiful accompaniment. It was really great, keep your eyes open for these guys.

Listen Listen - Watchmen

"In My World"

2006-06-28T10:15:00.000-07:00

I don't have that much news in the music world for right now except that I landed my first gig! Its gonna be at Super Happy Fun Land, but its still in a while, July 31st. So anyone who reads this and lives in or around the Houston area, try to make it out. Coincidentally, Peter and the Wolf plays at Super Happy Fun Land tonight, which I'll be attending, and I suggest you attend as well. Its should be a very good show.

Well, I don't have much to say, so here's a song I've been listening to a lot recently. Ariel Pink is brilliant...

Trepanated Earth

2006-06-25T17:06:00.000-07:00

This Side of the Blue

If you remeber my begging for a cultural movement for the youth of America today a few posts back, well I think I know who I was looking for. I've known about and loved these artists for a long time now, but for some reason, I overlooked them when I was writing that other post. They are so real and so legit and so brilliant.

Elephant Boy

2006-06-24T08:52:00.000-07:00

I've never really read anything about John Prine in relation to TVZ or Bob Dylan as far as songwriting goes, and I don't think he is quite up to par with those two, but he is up there. I know that country music is not the hippest thing around these days, but I really grew up with these songs. As kids, I think our taste is formed by our parents taste in a large part. They expose us to the music they love and have loved, and this passionate exposure has a sort of subconscious effect on us, a subtle love transferred from parent to child. John Prine is a musician I know that my father is passionate about, along with Guy Clark and TVZ types, and I can remember listening to a lot of his songs in my father's old Acura, and having to pull over and open the trunk to change CD's. While a lot of Prine's songs are the kinda goofy, drunken, Jerry Jeff Walker type of country song, he still has the few songs of pain and memory and regret that can only be found in this type of country music. The reason I am posting these songs is because my brother is in town for the summer from college, and he played "Souvenirs" one night in the bathroom we share, and I nearly broke down in tears. Its a beautiful song, I hope your hipness won't hold you back from admitting that a country song that isn't by Johnny Cash is good. And the only reason a lot of kids like Cash is because of that film, which really sucks.

Souvenirs

Sabu Visits The Twin Cities Alone

Red Hunter is SO Cool

2006-06-22T09:46:00.000-07:00

Red and friends, aka Peter and the Wolf, are pretty much on fire right now. They have just released a new album, Experiments in Junk, that is on its way to my house, and also have been getting alot of publicity for their sailboat tour. I'm taking American History this summer so that I'll have room next year for AP Music Theory, and every friday we are to bring in a current event for class discussion. Last week, I brought the ABC News story on the sailboat tour, and how it has evolved into a large scale protest of many different things in America today, mainly oil obsession. While Red really didn't plan this tour for publicity or for the admiration of the American folk-youth, he got both of those things. I suggest everyon buy this album, become his friend on myspace, and (for fellow Houstonians) go to the show at Super Happy Funland on the 28th. Here are two mp3's to preview the new album...

the window

strange machines

Nothing's Gonna Make Me Stay

2006-06-20T20:20:00.000-07:00

Sometimes you happen to come across a song that you have had on your computer for a long time, but you've never really listened to. And sometimes, this certain song is by an artist you really like, and on an album of theirs you like. And sometimes, when you come across this song, it sounds exactly like the way you feel, whether you feel the shittiest of shitties or the highest of highs, it sounds exactly like you. Well that just happened to me. "Suitcase In Hand" by Casiotone For The Painfully Alone. I've been a CTFPA fan for a long while now, he is so my taste: super lo-fi electronica with cleverly pitiful lyrics. Well, I really feel like shit right now, I'm pretty down, and it seems to me like not alot of things are gonna make me stay in town right now, but I know I would never be brave enough to hit the road on my own at age 16, especially because I don't have a car and there isn't really a train station in Houston. Jesus Christ, music is truly the greatest thing on earth, its the only thing you can always count on. It will always make you better. It would lay down in the street for you. Tell music you love it, because it loves you.

Suitcase In Hand

Bess, You Is My Woman Now

2006-06-18T11:06:00.000-07:00

I'm really a huuuuuge jazz rookie, I know nothing about it. A topic I do know a little bit about, though, is George Gershwin. I know that he changed the way people thought about and approached music in general and is arguably the greatest musician in American history. I think many people would agree with me that "Rhapsody In Blue" should take the place of
"The Star-Spangled Banner" as our national anthem, for it is a nearly perfect piece of music. Also, it encompasses the feeling of America, the culture, the good part of American culture. Now, I'm by no means a rah-rah "U.S.A-all-the-way!" kinda guy (even though I cried when we lost 2 players in yesterday's game), I'm a pretty liberal guy, more of a Green member than Republican or Democrat. There are alot of things I dislike very strongly about America. BUT, one thing that I am very proud about and borderline obsessed with is the culture of America, the culture that is a hybrid of every ethnicity and nationality possible.

From folk to jazz to blues to rock, none of this would exist without the (to use a huge cliche) meltingpot of culture from around the whole world into 1890's Ellis Island, 1920's Chicago, 1930's New Orleans, 1950's midwest. I don't plan on living in the States my whole life, I'm a traveler, and I plan on not living in one place too long. There will be alot of things I won't miss in the least bit in the states, but one thing I know that will be very hard for me to leave behind is this mess of identity that has so occupied my thoughts since childhood. This identity crisis that was solved by one man: George Gershwin. He added it all up, he made sense of our cultural mosaic through his work. It became clear that America's culture was every culture. Now, there are some large portions of America that are completely without any culture, the suburbs and stuff. And don't try to pass emo music as culture, suburban kids, thats just silly, meaningless, shallow music that underexposed kids think is edgyey or cool. Its getting close for my generation's cultural representatives to be made known, and I hope to God it is not the current suburban emo scene. Gershwin, Guthrie, Beatniks, Dylan, Ramone, Reed, Allen, Kaufman, Kushner. Who is next? Who is our's? Lets hope its a name worthy of the others, or even better. One needs to stand up, and about emo, I haven't heard any that I can actually relate to, and my personal opinion is that most, if not all, emo kids dress the way they do and listen and play the music they do not because either a lack of artistic, political, literary, and musical exposure, or because of the need to fit in with a group of people for whatever reason. This may sound very closed minded, but trust me, I have tried that all out, and it didn't do it for me. I found it shallow and unrewarding, even frustrating at times. I saw intelligence in some members of this movement, but America's love for ignorance, money, and underexposure doesn't allow it to thrive or grow. So, that having been said, if the great artistic mind of my generation, the one that emerges by doing something beautiful, new, and intelligent while being able to perfectly represent the feeling of his or her contemporaries in America at that time happens to be an emo musician, I will recognize him or her as doing so. But I don't think that will happen.

Anyways, the real thing I was gonna talk about was that yesterday, while shopping for a father's day gift, I came across a copy of Ella Fitzgerald & Louis Armstrong's Porgy & Bess, the Gershwin American jazz opera. I was blown away. I've never seen this performed nor seen the film version, but musically alone, it is remarkable. Like I said earlier, I am a jazz rookie, but I was really able to recognize it's magnitude. I'm pretty worn out from that ramble earlier, but download these songs and see if you catch my drift.

Summertime from Porgy & Bess

Bess, You Is My Woman Now from Porgy & Bess

Rhapsody In Blue

It's Not Funny

2006-06-16T09:34:00.000-07:00

From Mr. Show to Arrested Development to his own stand-up, I've watched in awe at David Cross's comedic genius. I really think, in my own opinion, that he is the funniest man on the planet. He has single handedly brought back the art of the comedy album with his two Sub-Pop records It's Not Funny and Shut Up, You Fucking Baby. Mr. Show is maybe tv's greatest show ever, and Arrested Development isn't far behind. My friends and I are pretty much obsessed with David, and we listen to his records alot together. Last night one of these friends made me read this blog post from David's blog, and it may be one of the funniest things I've ever read. Its a letter to Larry The Cable Guy responding to the chapter he wrote in his book about the "P.C. lefty" comedians, led by David. First off, if anyone has ever heard David's stand up, he is one of the most politically uncorrect public speakers I've ever heard. He makes fun of everyone who deserves it, and although he is one of the most liberal people I can think of, he is not politically correct. Heres a little section from the letter:

Hello Larry,

It's me, David Cross. Recently I was shooting something for my friends at "Wonder Showzen" (the funniest, most subversive comedy on American T.V. at the moment) and when we were taking a break one of the guys on the show asked me if I had seen some article in something somewhere wherein you were interviewed to promote your new book "Please-Git-R-Done" (published by Crown Books $23.95 U.S.) and they asked about your devoting a chapter to slamming me and the "P.C. Left". Since I stopped following your career shortly after you stopped going on stage wearing a tool belt with cable wrapped around your neck (around your appearance at "Laffs 'n' Food" in Enid, Oklahoma Aug 23-26 1999?) I said I wasn't aware of the article. They went on to tell me that you said basically (and I am not quoting but paraphrasing their recall) that I could kiss your ass, that I've never been to one of your shows (true) and that I didn't know your audience (untrue).

Hilarious. David Cross is a brilliant man we should all listen to. Seriously. But start with listening to this:

Certain Leaders in Government Look or Act like Certain Pop Culture References!

Yesterday Was Dramatic, Today Is OK

2006-06-13T16:24:00.000-07:00

I've been listening to more electronica than anything else the past few weeks. My preference in music seems to come in waves of genres. Or not really genres necessarily, but kinda the tone in which the music seems to be made. Folk is more of a personal, innocent tone; rock is an angry or lazy; electronica is kinda more chill, but also for good times. I'm a very mellow person in general, so most of my music isn't too upbeat, and this kind of electronica, the kind I always talk about, is my version of party music. This is the kinda stuff I listen to before and after parties when I want to get "excited" (just for those of you who do not know me, I'm a very calm person, and not loud, I do not get that noticeably excited very often). One of the albums that I've been listening to a bunch this past week is Mum's Yesterday was dramatic, Today is ok. The tone of Mum, while sounding nothing like folk music, reminds me of alot of folk music. It has a childish sense of innocence represented perfectly by the sparse rings and bells, also the Super Mario sounding synths. But do not let this description fool you. They are not some gimmick indie-pop band that sings about robots or something that lame scene kids will think is cute, they are the legit kind of innocent, which seems to bebecomingg more and more rare in the indie music world. Well, heres a good song from the album, and buy it if you don't already own it, its great.

Asleep On A Train

Apologies

2006-06-12T21:18:00.000-07:00

I wrote a little while ago about the announcement of the new Jimmy Tamborello a.k.a. James Figurine album Mistake Mistake Mistake Mistake, but now some of the songs are floating around. Compared to both Dntel and even the Postal Service, these songs are much more upbeat, more dance songs than minimal electronica. Its less my taste, but still great none the less. The album drops on July 11th, the date got moved forward, and anyone living in NYC can hear the album on the 29th for 5 bucks at the Listening Party. I'm very excited about this album, I'm a huge fan of Jimmy's work, and even though its not as strongly my taste, I'm sure I'll still be able to enjoy it alot. Be sure to pick it up when it comes out, I can see this album getting pretty popular this summer...

Apologies

Zum Tee Zu Neerstrom

2006-06-11T13:07:00.000-07:00

Ok, There isnt much I can really say about today's band due to the fact that I cannot read or speak German, but what I can do is give you a list of their influences (velvet underground, knarf rellom, jeffrey lewis, trio, herman dune, le tigre, sparks, ton steine scherben, bob dylan, die sterne, prewar yardsale, rod stewart, talk talk, reebosound, nino nexo, nick drake, whomadewho, eins zwo, daniel johnston, kyuss, bruellen, pavement, sebadoh, sentridoh, grauzone, dfa, moldy peaches, can, neu, the mountain goats, maximo park, gisbert, fugazi, warrior soul, arto lindsay, david bowie, the holy childhood, bonnie prince billy, smog, catpower, the make up, sonic youth, ac/dc, the fall, vincent gallo, the sea and cake, jackson c. frank, beck, spliff, max mueller, laid back, moondog, mutter, hot chip, paleface, whirlpool productions, tjian, yo la tengo, siegelhead, ween) and tell you that I like their songs alot. I found German band Daantje and The Golden Handwerk on MySpace, and they are maybe the best I've found on there. The songs are just really cool sounding, kinda low-fi Lou Reed-ish, but in German, so it sounds mad. Sorry I don't have much to say about them. I really don't know that much. Anyone who does, please inform me.

Zum Tee Zu Neerstrom

Wer Erschoss Happy End?

Loscil

2006-06-07T17:03:00.000-07:00

Scott Morgan a.k.a. Loscil is back with a new album Plume that has just recently dropped. Those of you who have been readers for a while know that aside from folk music, my favorite genre is minimal electronica, or click/glitch electronica. Loscil is one of my favorite artists of this scene, maybe aside from Dntel. Click/glitch can be a hard genre for individualists, there is a huge number of artists who fall into this plateau of uniform sound. Its easy to find 2 or 3 or 4 or 5 or 934986 artists who will have very similar sounds. But what I really love about this kind of music, what makes it so special, is when you find an artist who is different from the rest, set apart from that plateau. When you find these people, when you find Scott, its so beautiful and so special, its unlike other music. Well, I'm sure a review for Plume will follow in the near future, but for now, here is a few tracks from one of Loscil's better albums, in my opinion. This album happens to be free for download here. Listen and you'll understand why this music can be so special.

Stratus

Cotom

Hamish Henderson Collects

2006-06-06T09:40:00.000-07:00

I know it seems like I've been really lazy lately, and I apologize. I've been extremely busy and out of town for a week, but I'm back now, and its summer, so I'll have alot of time to write here. I just got back from Scotland, and the culture and music did not disappoint. I was lucky enough to come across of copy of this extremely interesting collection of field recordings called Hamish Henderson Collects in Edinburgh. The art of field recording is something I feel is way too overlooked by most people. Seeking out and collecting beautiful music can sometimes be as special as making your own beautiful music. This collection has quickly become one of my favorite field recording albums, along with Jeff Mangum's Orange Twin Field Works - Volume 1. Henderson spent many years collecting, and he really ended up with a wonderful collection. The songs in both Gaelic and English are both beautiful and haunting. They are all acapella and sung by elderly men and women, the way they heard it growing up from their mothers and fathers. The record is really broad in the scope of different sorts of Scottish folk songs, from different regions and people. It opens with Willie Mathieson, a retired farm servant who has spent his whole life collecting songs. From a little child until his death he had written down 600 songs. Then the album moves through the whole area of Scotland, both the lowlands and highlands. It was a really great trip I had, and this is a great album I will always have to remember it. Pick it up, its worth it...

Finlay Maclean - A Mh'airi Bh'an 'Og

Summer Heat

2006-05-26T13:58:00.000-07:00

I leave for Scotland bright and early in the morning. I know the posts have been very rare recently with the end of summer and finals and such, but when I get back, I'll be in full swing. I'm looking forward to the music I'm gonna come across, the Scottish folk stuff. My trip to Ireland didn't disappoint musically or any other way, and I have a friend in Scotland who happens to be a piper, so I think I'll get to hang out with some folk musicians. It should be a great trip, and I know I'll be listening to alot Bert Jansch, so I'll leave you with one of his songs, which is only appropriate, I feel.

Bert Jansch - Summer Heat (Live)

Im Going Down With You

2006-05-24T18:58:00.000-07:00

The band Quarter-Pounder has just been brought to my attention, and geeze, what a great tip. To start off, here is the bio page from their website:

Charles (b.1973) and Robert (b.1975) Peacefull originally hail from the Isle of Man. They moved to London in 1990 and formed The Gifts, a post-punk band in the vein of The Birthday Party. The Gifts did the usual circuit of London venues for two years building up a cult following, but acrimoniously split whilst recording what would have been their debut album, and Robert and Charles went their separate ways. Robert married and settled in Tottenham, working as a packer in a meat factory, until he was made redundant in 1995. Charles, meanwhile, moved north and took a number of jobs in the Manchester/Stockport area, including spells at a burger bar and a building site, until finally finding employment on the Ninian Central oil rig in the North Sea, a job he held down for four years. He at this time initiated contact with his brother, who had by now divorced his wife and begun a series of short-lived homosexual relations. The tentative correspondence soon ended, when Charles served thirteen months in HMP Barlinnie for aggravated assault. On release in 2001, a period of homelessness ensued, ending when his parents managed to contact him and prevail upon him to attend Robert’s second wedding, which he did. It was the first time the brothers had met in eight years. Robert had just begun taking medication for the depression and obesity which unfortunately had come to dominate his life. After a long period on the dole, he had found employment as a Label Inspector for a tinned food company. The job was lonely and boring in the extreme, and did little to rid Robert of his daemons leading to his suicide attempt of last year, in the midst of the break-up of his second marriage, when his fragile mental state collapsed completely. It was ironically when Charles was visiting him in St Ann’s Mental Health Unit that the idea of them making music together again was first suggested. Since his brother’s wedding, Charles had returned to his errant ways disappearing off the radar for some time. There were reports that he was drifting in South America but for a couple of years his whereabouts were unknown. In the summer of 2005, only a few weeks after Robert was allowed home, the brothers began recording songs in the front room of a friend’s house. The process was hampered by the fact that, at some point in his travels, Charles had had the ring and pinkie fingers of his right hand amputated, apparently as a result of an infection from a tattoo. As of current writing, Robert is back at his parent’s house on the Isle of Man, recuperating, and Charles is thought to be living somewhere in London. It is currently uncertain when they may record again.

Wow. Theres not much to say about that, the story speaks for itself. I'm sure its not hard for you to guess what the songs sound like. The closest band I can compare them to is Lullaby for The Working Class, a one time Saddle Creek band, the best Saddle Creek band in my opinion. Very low-fi, very painful, very beautiful. You can download alot of the songs off the site for free. Check these guys out, its really a special band.

Chet Carter

The Mill Song

Back, Kinda

2006-05-22T18:31:00.000-07:00

Ok, so my regular computer is basically frozen in time right now, as are my 10,000 songs that were neatly organized on my iTunes. I'm on my sister's brand new laptop right now. I'll never see those songs again...

It's finals time in the Houston high school music scene, so not too much stuff in our world has been happnin', but I'll try my best to write about something interesting. You guys know I'm not the biggest rock music fan in general, I'm mostly a folk guy, but I am very passionate about a few rock bands, specifically Pavement, Pixies, and Modest Mouse. Through my hours of studying, or blank staring at review sheets, I've been listening to nothing but Modest Mouse and some Lightnin' Hopkins (who I'll be writing about soon I'm sure). But I've never liked or respected Modest Mouse more than I do now, I really cannot get over them. I know its not like some new find, they have been one of my favorite bands for maybe two years now, but I've never really listened to them this intensely. And now that I have started writing music, I can really appreciate Isaac's songwriting. He's truly a master. Some people call his lyrics too blunt or obvious, but I don't think they are. Even if they are slightly blunt, they are still the way they should be. His words wouldn't be nearly as powerful if he were to add too much literary value. I already think there is a great, great amount of that in there. Just listen to "Four Fingered Fisherman", the opening line is "You're in the back seat and you say to yourself, 'ok, doesn't matter anyway'." I see that line as a very simplified explanation of one of Isaac's major themes: life is out of our control. Its like trying to help the driver of the car with directions, you know where to go, and you tell them how to get there, but it doesn't help, they don't listen, so you just say "Whatever." that's how he sees life, and I don't think he's too far off. All of this and I haven't mentioned his guitar playing. I don't usually play electric guitar, just acoustic, it's always kinda scared me for some reason, like the drums, it seems like there is just too many different technical ways to do every single little thing. But Isaac has inspired me to pick up my borrowed electric guitar again (thanks Seth, I know I've had it for a year now...) and start playing around with it. No one can bend a goddam note like Isaac, no one. Ahh, I'm so obsessed with them right now. Just try listening to only them for a week, and you'll be talking like me. I've had a constant battle between my girlfriend and I about Modest Mouse. I've been playing them in my mom's car (Suburban, I don't have my own and its the only one anyone in my family trusts me to drive) nonstop, and she constantly complains, saying that he sounds like a bitter, chubby drunk guy (which isn't too far off) and that the songs are "gross". I've been thinking about it, and I'm not a sexist man at all, sexists are simpletons, never had any use for me (try to name that movie), but I don't think girls can really relate to Isaac or Modest Mouse that much, . Its very much guy music. And I don't mean lyrically, because on paper they are these absurd poems that anyone could relate to, but I mean completely with their whole sound. I don't know. I hope that doesn't offend any die hard female mm fans. By the way, if there are any who have read this, let me know, I want to be wrong about that. Here is a pretty cool bootleg of Modest Mouse I found though, from 09-26-01. It was recorded in the parking lot of Criminal Records in Atlanta, the sound is a little off, but its still a great show, enjoy. Ahh, I bet you can tell I missed writing here by the length of this post...

01 - Paper Thin Walls

02 - Third Planet

03 - Trailer Trash

04 - Lives

05 - Diggin Holes in the Water

06 - I Came as a Rat

Thanks to this great site for the mp3's...

Sorry...

2006-05-19T12:58:00.000-07:00

I've been having major computer problems this week, I'll be back asap.

Time Will Take It All

2006-05-15T13:34:00.000-07:00

I love Sam Beam. He had a huge year last year with his two hit EPs, and now he has recently moved to Austin and is laying low as far as I know. I've been listening t alot of The Creek Drank The Cradle lately, and I had forgotten how great of a folk album it really is. There are some true classics from this one, but one song "Promise What You Will" really stands out for me. You hear the lyrics of an unsure lover, inexperienced by all means. This same character type seems to be the narrator of all of Iron and Wine's songs. You hear this innocence and curiosity in Sam's songs, but at such a personal level. He seems to be writing about the things that other muscians are afraid to write about in fear of sounding weak or naive. But Sam is the strong one. He is the one asking questions and taking risks. The instrumentation is so great in this song as well. We have alot of the elements of great American folk: banjo, guitar, mandolin, steel guitar. A wonderfully personal song for a horribly impersonal Monday. If you've never heard this album, do yourself a favor and pick it up.

Promise What You Will

Summer Album 4: Pixies Doolittle

2006-05-11T13:57:00.000-07:00

In the heat of summer, when its been about a month and a half, you reach that point where you are so off of any schedule that could ever be, and you get a little bit demented. The 6 pm to 6 am days kinda turn your brain upside down, and then you start having fun in really strange ways, ways you wouldn't be able to imagine in a regular mindset. This point is kinda like living in an episode of Pete and Pete, or listening to Doolittle. This album is for the 2/3 of the summer, where the boring starts to get weird and a little dark. Songs like "I Bleed" and "Debaser" sound exactly like this state of mind, where your lack of activity is having psycadelic effects. Maybe I'm the only person in the world who experiences this, my mind is pretty weird, but if anyone else knows what I'm talking about, let me know. The absolute theme of this late summer state of mind is "Mr. Grieves". Just listen to Frank's opening demented laugh over the lyrics "Hope everything is alright", its the epitome of boredom-induced pshycotic behavior. Be warned though, only pull this album out when you reach this state, for it will not have as great of an effect before then. This is another one of my all time favorite rock albums, there are some great songs on this. "Hey" and "Here Comes Your Man" alone makes it a classic, but everything is good. You must buy this if you've never heard it, but be sure to save it for the right day.

Mr. Grieves (!!!)

Summer Album 3: Animal Collective's Campfire Songs

2006-05-10T13:57:00.000-07:00

This album, along with Nick Drake's Pink Moon, is the biggest influence on my own personal songwriting. I think this is, at this moment, my favorite Animal Collective album, but that changes alot. Its a tie between this and Sung Tongs. But anyways, this is the album of summer nights, this is the album of back-porch psychedelia. The recordings are all live, from a backporch surrounded only by screen doors. There is a minimalist quality to this album that we really haven't heard from A.C. anywhere else. Its only Avey, Panda, and Geologist, composed entirely of acoustic guitars and singing. The album consits of only 5 songs, lengthy ones, and they sound just as you would have guessed they would sound. Psychedelic campfire songs. There is nothing better for listening to while walking around your neighborhood streets at 3:30 AM on a summer Monday, harmonizing with Avey and Panda's beautifully overwhelming melodies. The whole album flows together, almost into one big song, but there still is an array of different emotions and themes in the album. Just look at the difference between "De Soto De Son" and "Doggy", the first being a love song about marshmallow people, and the second is a poetic tale of a child's dog's death. There is a wonderful array of sound and feelings while the album remains beautifully simple. This album feels like the fight between the cold night air and the hot summer days have every 24 hours. This album feels like the summer at night.

De Soto De Son (!!!)

Summer Album 2: Pavement's Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain

2006-05-09T13:36:00.000-07:00

This is truly one of my favorite rock albums of all time, its near perfection as far as rock music can go. Malkmus and his wonderfully lazy songs are great for hazy summer days and active summer nights. Each song on the album fits a time of a summer day perfectly. "Gold Soundz" is for late afternoon, driving around the Galleria area with the windows down before some big party that one of the college kids is throwing. "Elevate Me Later" is what you listen to after you've just snuck out of some boring dinner party and are on your way to a park to talk with some girl you just met. "Heaven Is A Truck" is what you play at 5 a.m. when you are your three best friends are laying on the couch in your friends house, trying to fall asleep while trying to stay awake. "5-4=Unity" is what you listen to on the way back from summer school, while your making plans for that night. "Stop Breathin" is what you listen to on repeat the one weekend you are grounded from going out, its just you, a tape player, and a paintbrush. "Range Life" is absolutely the anthem of the first day of summer, it really is. I mean, the lyrics say "out on my skateboard the night is just hummin'/and the gum smacks are the pulse I'll follow if my walkman fades/but I've got absolutely no one, no one but myself to blame/don't worry- we're in no hurry/school's out, what did you expect?" And finally, my favorite rock song ever, "Fillmore Jive". This song is for the summer after party. Late night, hot weather, tired kids. Everything about this song is so so right on and so good. The production, the lyrics, the jamming, the over all sound. This is what rock music should sound like, in every way possible. Over all, this album just has the lazy feel of summer, the way the heat makes you not want to get up when you are lying on the grass, the way you can see a blurry mirage by looking down the street, the way sexual tension between every boy and every girl is increased by 1000%. This album is the summer of rock albums.

Fillmore Jive (!!!)

Summer Album 1: Weezer's The Blue Album

2006-05-08T13:41:00.000-07:00

Ok, I really need to apologize for the lack of posts recently, alot has been going on in my life, and alot more is just starting to go on now. That having been said: summer is almost here. For some reason, I have this very convincing feeling in my head that the summer of '06 is one that will be remebered for years and years. I'm not sure what exactly will happen, if it will be on a public level or even on my own personal level, but I know, I just know its gonna be big. Every year since about the 6th grade around this time (last weeks of school, finals, first weeks of summer), I've found myself listening to a few specific albums over and over. These album just have the feeling of the beginning of summer. The excitement and nervouses that comes with the potential of fun and love and experience that will come out of the next three months of insane heat. From the very beginning, 6th grade for me, I've listened to Weezer (or The Blue Album) over and over during this time. While other summer albums have come and gone, this one has remained a constant. I realize this is not the most hip album to listen to or talk about, but you cannot deny a work of art that once represeted everything you were feeling at one time in every way possible. I don't mean to call this album or Weezer's topics immature, but it just happened to really speak to me at the age of 12. So I must warn you right now, this week's theme won't be so hip, but its honest, and that's all that really matters, I think (if I'm wrong, someone tell me). There's no better album for a nerd than this one, and that's why I really felt it. I was a big time nerd in middle school, whether it was drawing comics during school or watching foreign movies at night with my 4 only friends, I wasn't the coolest guy around. Just listen to "In The Garage", what a perfect way to boost the confidence of a 12 year old film geek. And also, 6th grade is the begging of middle school, a.k.a. the awkward years, a.k.a. a real difference and recongnition of the opposite sexes emerfes, a.k.a. the first time you fall in love. And around this time, the first time you feel love, or what you are calling love for a lack of better words, its intense, and you really really feel it. And thats where "Only In Dreams" comes in. I can't even remember who the girl I had a major crush on at this time was, but I'll never forget how I felt, and how this song sounds exactly like that. "You say, 'It's a good thing/That you float in the air... in the air./That way there's no way I will crush your pretty toenails into a thousand pieces'." Words spoken by a timid antisocialite for timid antisocialites.

In The Garage

Only In Dreams (!!!)

Soundtrack 4: The Squid and the Whale

2006-05-04T17:51:00.000-07:00

The most recent film of this week's series of soundtracks, but don't let its young age fool you. Its a great film with a great soundtrack spanning from Bert Jansch to The Cars, and wonderful songs in between. The film is about confusion, seperation, and the teenage years in an 80's Manhattan setting. The best song on the films whole soundtrack (which happens to play at the film's climax) is Lou Reed's "Street Hassle", the epic 12 minute cello/guitar/Lou's vocals ballad about a girl who overdoses on heroin. The cello riff at the beginning always gives me chills, even when I'm not thinking of the main character in the film running beside the lake of Central Park on his way to the museam. Earlier this year, around the time of the film's release, I spent one long drive with my friend listening to this song over and over, discussing what we thought it was all about and how Lou Reed is probably the person we would want most at a party that goes wrong, there is no one more street smart. I think Noah Baumbach, like Wes Anderson, had these songs in mind while he was writing the script, because its almost as if the music inspired alot of the film. Wes and Noah are almost partners (the wrote The Life Aquatic together, and Wes produced this film), and both filmmakers have a great sense of music in regards to a film. Pick up this DVD and soundtrack, they are both great.

Lou Reed - Street Hassle

Soundtrack 3: Harold and Maude

2006-05-03T16:19:00.000-07:00

Hal Ashby's 1971 classic about a strange relationship between a young man and an old lady may be my all time favorite film, the soundtrack being no exception. The songs on the soundtrack are most probably more famous or known than the actual film. The soundtrack consits of entirely Cat Steven's song, of the Tea for the Tillerman/ Footsteps In The Dark era, his best in my opinion. Cat is able to express that feeling of complete awareness of your surroundings, and still choosing the innocent thing. Just as Harold make decisions others see as strange or wrong, he still makes them because he knows that what he has is more important that what anyone could ever want. Its about know what you want, and knowing what people want from you, and choosing the right thing, even when everyone else thinks its wrong. Just as the unofficial theme says, "You can do what you want/The opportunity's on/And if you can find a new way/You can do it today/You can make it all true/And you can make it undo/You see/Its easy/You only need to know". Its a wonderful thing. Everything about this movie exists in a wonderful atmosphere. Its pure bliss. If you have never heard of Harold and Maude, please pick up the DVD and a few Cat Stevens records, you won'tregrett it, I promise.

Cat Stevens - If You Want To Sing Out, Sing Out (!!!)

Cat Stevens - Trouble (!!!)

Soundtrack 2: Good Will Hunting

2006-05-02T14:22:00.000-07:00

Ben and Matt's classic produced maybe one of my favorite songs made for a film ever: Elliott Smith's "Miss Misery". Gus Van Sant, as most of us know, is a big supporter of the underground music scene of Seattle, he even has some home recordings himself. When you think of underground Seattle, you think of Elliott, so he was a nature pick for the film's soundtrack. Elliott's beautifully tragic pop-folk melodies perfectly complimented the softly lighted settings of Harvard and Boston in the film, and also the emotions of the title character in his stuggle to find himself, and the mystery as to what he should do with his life. The film contains the Either/Or (my personal favorite Elliott album) era songs, and the one original "Miss Misery" that brought Smith the height of his fame, a performance on the Academy Awards. His song was nominated for an Oscar, but was upset by the much more popular, much less interesting "My Heart Will Go On" by Celine Dion (ehhhh). This songs is really fantastic, one of the best songs from one of the best songwriters of the 90's. I'm sure none of this is new to you, but if it is, purchase the film and the soundtrack, they are wonderful.

Elliott Smith - Miss Misery (!!!)

Soundtrack 1: Bottle Rocket

2006-05-01T14:03:00.000-07:00

Ok, so I'm back with a theme week: soundtracks from some of my all time favorite films or films with some of my all time favorite soundtracks, however you want to look at it. But all this week I'll be writing on the soundtrack, a beautiful art that is oh-too-overlooked by most filmmakers. We will start the week with a Wes Anderson film (who better to start with?): Bottle Rocket. Simply put Bottle Rocket is one of my favorite films by maybe my all time favorite film maker, and the soundtrack compliments it perfectly. I think Wes has perfected the soundtrack, just look at all of his films. No one has ever used Between the Buttons or Charlie Brown songs as perfectly as Wes; he is always able to find some lost, obscure pop song from the sixties, or even the nineties, to parallel the emotional state of the scene in the film. We shall not forget the wonderful wonderful orignial scores composed by ex-Devo frontman Mark Mothersbaugh. He has always said that he writes the script with the songs in mind, and it really shows. Bottle Rocket is maybe the funniest movie ever, touching on the themes on innocence, excitement, and maturity, and you can really hear this in the songs. No better example than The Proclaimers' "Over And Done With", a Scotch-folk-pop song about the loss of virginity and watching a man die, and the lack of an effect these events had on the band members' characters. Also, take Love's "Alone Again, Or", a theme of the relentlessness of one's innocence in love. A beautiful soundtrack to a beautiful film, pick up both if you know whats good for you.

The Proclaimers - Over And Done With (!!!)

Love - Alone Again, Or (!!!)

A Number 7

2006-04-26T14:51:00.000-07:00

I've been so busy this week, and I'm way too grumpy right now from a lack of sleep, but I thought I'd give you kids a small little post. Last weekend, I was lucky enough to view The Devil and Daniel Johnston, a film I've been waiting forever to see. 2006 has already produced two of my favorite music related documentaries I've ever seen about two of my favorite artists ever: Townes Van Zandt and Daniel Johnston. I think I may have liked this one more than Be Here To Love Me, but both were wonderful.

I was so surprised to see how insane Daniel actually was. I had always thought he was just a severe manic depressive or something like that, but he was actually this delusional artist. He was always in and out of hospitals and would constantly avoid medication, which would lead to these insane escapades that sent his friends and families searching for him. He acted very irrational and impulsively at times, its a wonder how his songs turned out so amazingly. And his songs are amazing, they really are. Some people really just don't feel it, and its a shame. Its something you have to feel the very first time you ever hear it, he isn't someone who really grows on you. You either get it the first time or you don't, and I wish everyone could get it because its such a great thing, loving his songs. Another thing that really amazed me was his dedication to his art and music. His whole life people told him to stop, to work on something else, that he wouldn't get anywhere with his art, but he didn't listen. And he succeeded so well. He worked so hard on his songs, too. He wrote them and played them on whatever instrument he could find, recorded them on a little tape deck, and he would personally go out and hand out his tapes to everyone who would take one, and then go home, rerecord the whole album, etc. I feel like I'm just recalling events and facts from the film, so I'll stop. But the film was so beautifully made, its a large collection of these rare tapes and videos and film samples from Daniel's whole life. All in all it was extremely impressive and such an interesting story. I was trying to explain to one of my friends why I liked Daniel so much, because he is one of the many who just doesn't connect with it. I thought for a long time, and I concluded with this: its the most raw music, its so pure and honest. I used the analogy of arts and crafts in a mental hospital. The doctors have the patients draw pictures or paint something, anything, to see what they are really thinking or feeling if they are unable to express it otherwise. That's whats Daniels songs are like to me. It is so pure. Also, for anyone in Houston, Daniel happens to be playing in town on Sunday at the Orange Show Centre for Visionary Arts, I just found this out, and I hope I can go.

Museum of Love (!!!)

Phantom Of My Own Opera (!!!)

Ok, It Doesn't Matter Anyway

2006-04-23T10:06:00.000-07:00

To rip off To Die By Your Side (out of complete respect), I thought I would write about a cover on a Sunday, just because Sundays were made for covers. A cover, in my opinion, is one of the most misunderstood type of song in music today. We see it alot these days, especially in the indie world, but its rare that its pulled off perfectly, or even that well at all. I'm not a big fan of covers in general because great ones are so rare. Of course there is the obvious critique that's like "Whats the point in recording and playing a song that you didn't write? Isn't that missing the point of music and art in general?" I do feel this critiquing is very justified. For the most part, there isn't any art involved with covers, its more journalism than anything else. Alot of the time people just play the song exaclty like it is, not changing anything, keeping it the same. Or on the contrary, people will change the song completely, recording it the opposite way the original artist did, and I really view this as parody and satire, and not that cool. But, in the rare event of a perfectly covered song, it can be so beautiful. Case in point: Sun Kil Moon's cover of Modest Mouse's "Four Fingered Fisherman".

Last year's Tiny Cities album from Sun Kil Moon was an album of perfect covers, and I know most people heard it, but if you didn't, you must pick it up. Mark Kozelek made these beautiful versions of some of the better Modest Mouse songs into folk arrangements, its such a great album, one of the best from last year. But what was so different about these covers: they respectfully changed the sound of each song nearly 180 degrees, but still kept the same emotional feel of it all. The songs sound so beautiful, too. Modest Mouse, in my opinion, is one of the greatest rock bands right now, if not the greatest, I adore their songs, but I think I like this version of "Four Fingered Fisherman" better than the original.

Sun Kil Moon - Four Fingered Fisherman

Modest Mouse - Four Fingered Fisherman

Heroes And Villains

2006-04-21T19:11:00.000-07:00

While their music is not necessarily always my taste, I sometimes get in the mood to listen to some Brian Wilson and Van Dyke Parks, and I'm always in awe of their talents. Of course when these two names are mentioned, everyone thinks Smile, and rightly so. Smile is really, in my own opinion, one of the greater pop albums ever made. Parks' Song Cycle is easily one of the most overlooked American albums of all time, seriously. These guys are just two complete musical geniuses, and everyone knows it. This post isn't gonna inform anyone, but I'm in one of those technical/experimental rock music moods, so I've been listening to a lot of these guys lately. I know everyone has heard Smile, but please pick up Song Cycle, its really just this insane psychedelic-Americana album, I promise its like nothing you've ever heard. Its this crazy sonic odyssey, its hard for me to describe. You'll hear a full Broadway musical orchestra, then some weird sythazised clavichord and Van Dyke's distorted voice crooning a semi-abstract poetic phrase. Its some really interesting music, more people need to hear it. Oh, some also very exciting news about Van Dyke Parks is that he will be producing and helping with the arrangements of Joanna Newsom's new project (which has the potential to be my all time favorite, no joke). I love when visionary artists like Newsom and Parks, or Wilson and Parks, get together and make something weird, unheard of, and beautiful.

Van Dyke Parks - Vine Street (!!!)

Brian Wilson - Cabin Essence (!!!)

Dreamin' Man

2006-04-20T13:55:00.000-07:00

Neko Case's release Confessor Brings the Flood is one of the best of the year, in my opinion. I'm really a huge fan of hers right now, shes doing some really great stuff. One of the things that's not so great is NOT PLAYING IN HOUSTON. She even maid it a point at her Dallas show that, "We'd never fucking play Houston...because Eddie Money lives there, and he's a fucking mean guy!" What this means is I will not be able to experience her live show for quite some time, and also I won't get a chance to purchase her tour only EP Canadian Amp that I've been hearing alot about. I've found one track from this EP, a Neil Young cover, "Dreaming Man".

I've been a Neil Young fan since I was a child, he was one of my first true great loves of music. He's one of those musicians who you grow up on and really helps form your taste and likes, he is very important to me, so a cover of his songs is always appealing to me. And who better than Neko? She give the song a much younger feel, a little more upbeat and mandolin was added, and of course her signature echoes. So here ya go, both the original and cover, and if anyone has the EP and are willing to share it with me, please let me know, I'd be greatly indebted to you.

Neko Case - Dreamin' Man

Neil Young - Dreamin' Man

New Orleans, 1910

2006-04-19T17:32:00.000-07:00

Blogger is being lame right now, I just wrote a pretty good post on this British folk musician David Broad who I found on MySpace, so I guess I'll do it again...

I recently sold out and got a MySpace music for my own songs (become my friend!), and while drowning the endless abyss of bands and musicians on the site, I came across the British folk musician, David Broad. With describing his songs, my work is already done. His profile says: "i think what i play most is American folk music, stuff like country blues, Appalachian ballads, country, gospel. I wish i was living in Greenwich Village in 1961 if that explains it better. i make up arrangements of traditional songs, one day i might write some songs but i know people who can do it alot better. i play the guitar mostly but sometimes mandolin, banjo and harmonica." This is very true, except I think hes more New Orleans 1910's than he is Greenwich 1960's. His songs have the whole traditional folk thing that I adore, but there is an underlining darkness, hence his genre selection "Folk / Blues / Gothic". This guy is just really my taste. I hope he keeps with the music, and that he will someday start writing his own songs. Become his friend and let him know that people are hearing his songs. Encourage him, we now have the ability to do so, and I say we do.

Pretty Polly

In The Evening

Grand Canyon at Sundown

2006-04-18T14:06:00.000-07:00

Things are getting busy, busy, busy around here, post'll start slowin' down. Hello Dolly is taking over starting today, so this one is gone be short. I adore traditional and folk music, as you guys know, and I've been listening to Woodie Guthrie alot this week already, so I thought I'd put a few of his songs up here. Theres not much else to say about these songs other than you can hear its influence on just about any genre of music around today, and you can hear a melting pot of every culture and type of music in his songs. Oh no, I trying my best to stay out of a huge discussion of my thoughts on American culture, but its something I think about alot. People forget the U.S. is really a colony, and thus there is no original "American culture". Not to take away from the native Americans, because they have a wonderful and rich culture that I'm really interested in as well, but Americans as a whole. There is not and American race or a certain ethnic group, Americans are Americans because they live in the same country. To use an old cliche, its a melting pot of just about every culture around the world, and American folk music is a wonderful example of this meltingpot. Just listen to Woodie, and you'll hear the whole world coming out of one man's mouth.

Fastest of Ponies (!!!)

Stewball (!!!)

Go, Go, Go

2006-04-17T10:12:00.000-07:00

Daniel Johnston continues to raise my personal charts of favorite artists. His music is such a rare explosion of insanity and brilliance and emotion. I feel so passionatly about his stuff, his songs just really do speak to me so much. I've found in my own songwriting and recording that he is maybe my biggest influence, even when I'm not aware of it. I know some people who don't like him, they think hes too depressing, that he puts a damper on your mood, that he will ruin every good time with his tear jerking songs. While this is true in some cases (just listen to "Careless Soul" from 1990) he can also write these beautifully wise and sweet pop songs. All these songs still of course have an underlining sense of the pitiful and depressing, but they are still so beautiful. For those of you who have tried to get into Daniel and haven't been able to because of whatever reason, try this song: "Go" from Respect. Hopefully his words of sad wisdom over a sweet pop melody will act as a transition into listening to all of his music. I'm not trying to press his music onto everyone to listen, I understand its really really not for everyone. But I feel so passionatly about it that I want to give everyone the chance to feel the same way about his songs. Well, I hope you guys like this song, I think its so amazing.

Go

Hold On...

2006-04-16T11:44:00.000-07:00

While looking through the Animal Collective fan boards Collected Animals, I came across a wonderful recording of AC's Avey Tare with Kria Brekken playing an extremely calm and quiet set together at the lower east side's Stone on the 12th. They played 8 untitled, soft jam-like songs and a cover of Chris Smither's "I've Got Mine" that I haven't been able to stop listening to for hours. Many of you guys know that Animal Collective is really one of my favorite bands around today. I love what they are all about, and I think they are true artists. You guys also probably know that my taste in music is much more relaxed and quiet than loud and active, so I'm more of a Campfire Songs kinda AC fan than say a Here Comes the Indian type of AC, so this recording is absolutely perfect for me. Its only the sweet and sad side of AC, not the rage and intensity we often see. Brekken's voice is a shoe-in for Avey's sounds, they blend perfectly together in these duets. This is really a beautiful set, thanks to Alias Pail for these mp3s.

1. Untitled 1

2. Untitled 2

3. Untitled 3

4. Untitled 4

5. Untitled 5

6. Piano Instrumental

7. Untitled 6

8. I've Got Mine (!!!)

9. Guitar Instrumental

Clair de Lune

2006-04-15T20:33:00.000-07:00

After viewing the wonderful Riri Shushu no Subete, I was of course in the mood for some classical music, specifically Debussy. I also felt very inspired and emotional. So I came to my computer and tracked down a few songs, "Clair de Lune" being one of them, burned it onto a CD, and headed straight for the car. With the windows down, I headed down to Memorial Drive, then turned on Chimney Rock (for any of you who live in Houston), where the song began to pick up for the first time. The hilly stretch of Chimney Rock between Memorial and Woodway was strangely empty for 9 o'clock on a Saturday. I sped down, head leaning just enough to the side that my hair was blowing in the wind. It was about 72 degrees, but felt in the 50's. I was going about 40 mph, but it felt in the 70's. At the next red light, I was waiting about 6 feet from the parking lot of a Blockbuster, where a security guard who was about 80 years old was resting his eyes and leaning back in the seat of his patrol golf cart. I thought of turning down the music, so that I wouldn't wake him, but I thought, "No, let him wake up. Let this song get stuck in his head, that he might whistle it while partoling the empty lot for the next 4 hours of his late night shift. Let him dream about this song, and dream about his girlfriend from elementary school, 70 years ago, when Houston was no more a metropolitan area than the country side two hours from here. Let him dream of his first kiss, his first fight over a girl, his first heartbreak. Let him live 70 years ago again, if not for more than a few hours." I love music.

Clair de lune

My Little Sparrow

2006-04-15T10:31:00.000-07:00

My copy of Birdmonster's No Midnight finally came in the mail today, and I've been listening to it all morning. Where rock is not my favorite genre of music, and I don't even find myself listening to it that much, there are some exceptions of rock music that really gets to me because its so pure and so real. This album is one of those exceptions (as are all the albums by Pavement and Modest Mouse). So much now we hear rock music that is just so forced and stiff and dishonest. There is too much dishonesty in music these days. There has been for quite some time. I know I'm only 16, but its very noticeable. That's why an album like this is so refreshing, such a breath of fresh, cold air. When these songs were written and recorded, no one in the band said lets do this to appeal to this group of people or lets change this so we can sell more records. They just made rock music. And that's exactly what they should do. There have been some really good albums this year, and this is one of them. Definitely buy this one if you wanna support any honest artist, any true artist. 13 flawless rock songs for the summer of 2006.

Sparrow (!!!)

No Midnight (!!!)

Ya, Ya, I Know

2006-04-13T21:09:00.000-07:00

Ya, ya, I know everyone has probably already hear about this, but I mean I can't call myself a mp3 blogger without writing about it, right? Right.

But for those who don't know, Sufjan Stevens is releasing a collection of Illinois outakes this summer. Very exciting news. Its a release that will feature "21 songs, instrumentals, interludes and demos, including three alternate versions of Chicago, as well as cameos from Clyde Tombaugh (the man who discovered Pluto), Adlai Stevenson, Henry Darger, and Ann Landers, to name a few. We thought of calling it ILLINOIS PART II, Saul Bellow Strikes Back, or RETURN OF THE KILLER OUTTAKE, but common sense weighed in, and we decided to use the title song--THE AVALANCHE--as the centerpiece for a collection that gathers all the musical debris from an album that keeps on giving." Of course the clever song titles and sweet folk melodies will follow soon, and you can read the whole tracklist here. But for now, the title track, in all its Sufjaness:

The Avalanche

Door Behind My Mind

2006-04-12T14:32:00.000-07:00

What is it about folk music I love so much? It just seems to me that folk is one of the last things in the whole world that people take part in for only the most pure intentions, only for catharsis or communal interaction or celebration. Its so pure, so pure. The one song that really stuck out to me more than any other from John Robert's CD was probably "October Song" by Bert Jansch. Folk music at its purest. Jansch is really known for his guitar playing abilities, and rightly so, but here he really shows his talent not only as a guitarist, or even a voice, but as a poet.

"I used to search for happiness I used to follow pleasure
But I found a door behind my mind
And that's the greatest treasure
For rulers like to lay down laws
And rebels like to break them
And the poor priests like to walk in chains
And God likes to forsake them"

John and I have seemed to be talking about this line all day today at school. The topic of the song is very vague and the theme is not too specific. It mostly seems like a poem of advice for a younger person Bert loves, kinda a "I know what's best for you, but I'll let you figure it out on your own" type of thing. Everything about this song gives it this feel. His voice has a wise, experienced man in the back of a pub playing an old traditional Scottish ballad and solftly weeping kind of sound. The guitar playing is his signaturee complex picking, a major key, very natural and organic playing. I'm going to Scotland at the beginning of this summer, and I see this as my theme of the trip. This song is so real. Its so tangible. You feel what you are supposed to feel and there is nothing fake or forced or unnecessary things like that that we hear in so much music today. Its folk music.

October Song

Our Own Best Inventions

2006-04-10T19:50:00.000-07:00

jrmb

Its not too often that my dear friend John Robert Muller Benjamin recommends a musician or band for me. He often recommends a novel or a work of art of a film, but rarely music. Whenever he does throw me a bone in the music realm, it is always lifechangin'. He single handedly exposed me to the likes of Nick Drake, Dntel, and Lali Puna, some of my all time favorites. But yesterday, he handed me a mix of 24 songs by Joan of Arc (today's post), Bert Jansch (tomorrow's post), and others.

I don't have alot of time right now, nor do I know much about Joan of Arc, but this song is truly amazing. All I know about this band right now is that they've been around since 1995, and they have a somewhat infamous frontman, Tim Kinsellas, who "released a live album that wasn't live, an eleven-song record with only ten songs on it, and changed his name to Kinsellas because he was feeling plural". Very interesting, more to come later in the week from John's mix. The posts will be slowing down in the near future due to my involvement in my high schools production of Hello Dolly, but I'll try to update as much as possible.

Joan of Arc - Questioning Ben Franklin's Ghost

Sadness is Beautiful

2006-04-09T12:43:00.000-07:00

Ok, this one is hard to beat for album of the year. I don't think it can be beat(maybe unless Joanna finished her new album by the end of this year). Sibylle Baier's Colour Green. Only two times in my life before yesterday has listening to an album changed the way I listen to music. From now on, every song I listen to, I'll listen to differently than I would have if I had never heard this album. I'm really kinda speechless about it. I don't know if it just so perfectly speaks to my own taste, or just because I was able to relate to it more than anything else I've ever been exposed to, or maybe its just that good. I don't know where to start. For those of you who know my taste probably know what it sounds like. Hushed vocals, sparse guitar picking, minor keys, mostly 3/4 time, lo-fi folk music. Very minimal, very poetic, very in touch with nature. All of the songs, excluding the final track "Give me a Smile", are composed entirely of one guitar and her voice. Her voice is so beautiful, as are her words. Think a young beautiful girl channeling Nick Drake atop the Alps on the first day of spring. A wise, understanding sadness, a beautiful yet pitiful understanding of life, while at the same time so naive and so youthful. Each song on this record is a classic, an instant classic. This record is an instant classic. Sorry if this isn't descriptive or informative at all, but in all honestly, I am speechless.

I chose not to give the context and the history of this album before I gave my own thoughts on it just because I felt that I needed to emphasize how strong this album is without its incredible story. You must understand that this album would mean just as much to me even if it had no special history. Sibylle's son Robby Baier wrote in 2005 when this album was being put together for release: "'Colour Green' was recorded in Germany in the 1970-1973. In a particularly dark and moody period of her young life, Claudine, a friend of Sibylle's, dragged her out from under the bed and took her on a road trip to Strasbourg, ending up across the Alps in Genoa. Upon the return from this trip Sibylle felt her spirits renewed and she set out to write the song "Remember the Day", grateful for being alive. It was the first song she ever wrote. Her music is simply amazing in its intimacy and closeness. Recorded in the late 70's in her home on a reel to reel recording device, the songs on "Colour Green" are intimate portraits of life's sad and fragile beauty. It is a gem of an album that will blow your mind. Sibylle is a star who chose to shine for her friends and family instead of the whole world." What is more interesting than that? Where has there been a more pure or true setting for artistic expression than that? What is better than that? What? I know Vashti Bunyan comes to mind. Both artists are incredibly similar both in history and style. But Sibylle is better in my opinion.

You may thing I am exaggerating, but I'm really not. Buy this album, it is already one of my all time favorites and it came in the mail last night. I really love Orange Twin and what they are all about. The Criterion Collection for film, Exact Change for literature, and Orange Twin for music. I stayed up all night last night listening to it over and over and over. I was so exhausted, but I stayed up. I had just gotten 3 hours of sleep the night before because of prom, but I still didn't sleep. I listened. You must listen to this album, my words cannot do it justice.

Tonight (!!!)

Says Elliott (!!!)

Blowout!

2006-04-08T19:39:00.000-07:00

Pavement is probably my very favorite rock band, ever. I'm not using the title rock in the oh-too-broad usage it gets too often these days, I mean real rock 'n roll. Rock is not my favorite type of music, those of you who read my blog know this, but theres something about Malkmus and crew that just clicks with me. Whenever I talk about Pavement with some of my friends, we always just sit there, thinking of what we can say about them. We always just end up concluding on the fact that their songs are the coolest songs ever. They were the coolest band. Theres not too much more you can really say about the topic, well there is, but it could always just be compacted into the phrase "their songs are the coolest". They really made some really solid rock albums, anyone who has never heard them must be sure to pick them up, they are so great. I was just in the mood to write about some cool people. Heres a great track from the bands KCRW Radio Session from 02/25/97, it really shows what they are all about. The fact that S.M. gives the wrong title of the song, and also calls the DJ "Trish" just perfectly represents their music. The song is pretty hip too.

Niel Hagerty Meets John Spencer In A Non-Alcholic Bar (KCRW session)

He Poos Clouds

2006-04-07T14:02:00.000-07:00

Everyone's favorite gay indie violinist, Final Fantasy, is back with his second album He Poos Clouds. I know, not the coolest album title ever, but I'm telling you guys, this album is the real deal. When he began writing this album, he had three goals:

1. A set of songs that attempt to modernize each of the eight Dungeons & Dragons schools of magic.

2. Every song will be written for string quartet and voice.

3. Nobody who listens to it will ever again entertain thoughts of suicide.

The goals were reached. Owen Pallett made his Indie Broadway Musical, and its wonderful. It sounds like a hybrid of 2005's Final Fantasy Has A Good Home, Morrissey, musical-satire, and classical music. Pallett has not done away with his trusty loop pedal, but it did get alot less use than last year's album. There's a quartet in every song, and also percussion, piano, organ, and harp. I think the added elements to this year's album really helped complete Owen's sound. I'm a big fan of minimalism, so its easy for me to think a sound is too saturated with noise, but this album is not the case. While it is much more complex than his first, its still similar. Like most things Owen seems to do, the album is somewhat of a joke. Read about his thoughts on the album here in this very funny interview. Pallett is really showing signs of true deep rooted talent in complex, clever, and intelligent music arrangement and composition. This album is really brilliant, it doesn't come out until the 13th, but preorder it here. One of the best albums of the year so far.

This Lamb Sells Condos (!!!)

Song Song Song (!!!)

Gulag Orkestar

2006-04-06T14:16:00.000-07:00

19 year old Zach Condon, a.k.a. Beirut, debut album Gulag Orkestar has recently been released, my copy of which is currently in the mail. I was planning on hearing the whole thing before I wrote about it, but I couldn't wait. I've only heard two of his songs, but its enough. Think Neutral Milk Hotel, Final Fantasy, and The Magnetic Fields, but from east Europe. I guess that's the easiest way to describe his songs, or at least the two I have heard. I'm personally a big fan of eastern European folk-music. There is something about it that sounds like a mixture of every culture around the world. If you weren't told what you were listening to, you would have no idea what area of the world this music was coming from, that's a whole different story though, I could talk about that for a long time, just buy Jeff Mangum's Orange Twin Field Works - Volume 1, then you'll understand. One of the most notable things about this release is Zach's age. His work far surpasses the expectation most people will have for a 19 year old. Buying this album is taking part in the beginning of a great career. There are no guitars on this whole album, its made up of horns, violins, cellos, ukuleles, mandolins, glockenspiels, drums, tambourines, congas, organs, pianos, clarinets and accordions. Something else that is very, very exciting: alot of the drumming on this album was done by Jeremy Barnes, yes yes yes, the same Jeremy Barnes of Neutral Milk Hotel. This guys 19, has connections with the bands that influenced his music, and is releasing a very well reviewed album, keep your eyes open for Beirut.

Mount Wroclai (!!!)

Postcards From Italy

James Figurine

2006-04-05T13:56:00.000-07:00

jimmy tamborello.

Probably my two favorite genres of music in this portion of my life are the whole experimental folk thing I talk about all the time, but also minimal electronica. I haven't really posted on this that much before, I don't know why, but its a big part of what I listen to. I feel that the mindset and the creative approach both minimal electronica artist and experimental folk artists have is very similar, more so than any other types of music. Everything to me sounds so new, real, and fresh all the time. No other music really sounds like it, either genres. Both types of music are also the ones that captivate me more than any other kinda. I always find myself losing myself in an experimental folk/minimal electronica record for hours and hours. The most interesting thing about this whole situation is that both of these types of music are possibly the least alike in the technicalities and physical playing of the songs. Where electronica is a totally electronic/digital/synthesized scene, the experimental folk is, for the most part, all acoustic and completely organic. Its a really interesting contradiction I think. Both of these types of music make me feel the same thing when they are so different.

One of my favorite minimal electronica artist is, of course, Jimmy Tamborello. Where you might not recognize his name, you will definitely recognize his bands, Dntel and The Postal Service. Jimmy's OTHER band, James Figurine, has just finished their new album called Mistake Mistake Mistake Mistake, and it'll come out in Europe on Monika Records at the end of June and then in the U.S. on Plug Research in the middle of July. This album is supposed to sound very new and different from what Jimmy has done in that past, but that can be said for every album he's ever made. On the influences of the album, Jimmy said, "In November of 2001 my band Figurine went on a short tour of Germany with Lali Puna. Our label there, Monika, set us up with a driver to get from show to show. She only brought three or four tapes to listen to on the drives, mostly techno. I'd never paid much attention to dancefloor-oriented electronic music, but listening to the same tapes over and over again (especially Kompakt's pop-leaning Total 3 and some 7's on Parfum) while driving through Germany made a giant impression on me. So this record was supposed to be an extra melodic, minimal techno record with some sparse vocals, but my technopop tendencies got the best of me, the songs slowly filled up, and this is what I ended up with". I can't wait for this release, Jimmy's really one of the greats around today, he is a true original. There aren't many vocals on the album, but Jenny Lewis does appear on one of the tracks!! Very exciting news. For now here are some of my favorite tracks by Dntel, they all get a (!!!):

Your Hill from (This Is) The Dream Of Evan And Chan CDS

Loneliness Is Having No One to Miss from Early Works for Me If It Works for You

Suddenly Is Sooner Than You Think from Life Is Full Of Possibilities

March Just Ended, But It Also Just Came Out

2006-04-04T14:19:00.000-07:00

Yes, yes, yes, with the end of each month of 2006 comes the release of another Bishop Allen EP. March may be my favorite release this year from Bishop Allen, I'm really loving it right now. This one song "The Monitor" may very well be my favorite song by the band ever, which is saying alot, they made one of my favorite albums to listen to. It reminds me a ton of their song "People You Meet", more downbeat, less poppy, and also the wonderful handclaps. You can read the explination of their 2006 project(s) on this post I made earlier this year, and for now download this mp3, also buy the EP, its just 5 bucks including shipping. Bishop Allen makes such great pop music.

The Monitor (!!!)

People You Meet

Feathers

2006-04-03T14:25:00.000-07:00

Devendra Banhart and Andy Cabic's Gnomonsong label will be releasing the debut self-titled release from the medieval like psych-folk band Feathers on the 11th, a release I'm personally very excited about. Basically a way to describe the 8 piece band is a much darker, less American Sufjan, with alot more psychedelic influences. These guys really have talent. There are 8 members, all of whom compose the songs, and about a billion different instruments. This is a definite must buy for anyone into freak-folk or good music in general, this I predict will be one of my favorite releases of the year. I haven't heard the entire thing yet, but when it comes in the mail, I don't think I'll be let down. Also, the band originally put this album out maybe last year or the year before I think by themselves on a vinyl only release, but I think its fair to say its an '06 release. Once again I notice a band of this type really practicing the whole subtle lyrics idea. While I am a huge fan of lyrics in general, I really enjoy to hear this technique used from time to time, Animal Collective is one of the founders of this I think. Its the use of very hushed or nearly inaudible vocals to allow a much more vast area for interpretable of the song. You kinda have the opportunity to write your own lyrics to what you feel from the songs. I really think that's cool. But please buy this album now, you guys will love it.

To Earth His Own

Old Black Hal With a Dandelion Flower (!!!)

Blister, Please

2006-04-02T09:54:00.000-07:00

I don't really have anything new to write about today, nor have I in a few days, but I have like a billion albums in the mail, and I'll have reviews for those later on this week, so be patient. But as the past week of posts have shown, I've had a huge week of listening through my 7000+ songs on my iTunes, a process that was started by my late iPod (RIP). But its kinda been a massive project, and I've come to the conclusion that Neutral Milk Hotel's "Two-Headed Boy Part 2" is not only my favorite song ever recorded, but maybe one of the best songs ever written. Ending the greatest album of all time, THBpt2 wraps up In The Aeroplane Over The Sea, the Anne Frank/Mutant Boy epic, in a strange sweetness that only Mangum could produce. First off, the song has one of the best choruses ever ever ever:

And in my dreams you're alive and you're crying,
as your mouth moves in mine, soft and sweet,
Rings of flowers round your eyes and I love you
for the rest of your life, when you're ready

If you listen to Live at Jittery Joe's, Jeff explains that he wrote the song "about a family that lived in the 1940's in Europe, and I had dreams specifically about one member of the family, the daughter." obviously about Anne. My own interpretationon of this song, in the context of its companion song "Two Headed Boy Part 1", Jeff uses the illustration of a two-headed boy locked in a glass jar, trying to communicate with his lover via radio, a radio built with the radio wire she feeds him with tomatoes. My interpretationon: lover= Anne = any person Jeff loves and strives to connect with in life; two headed boy = Jeff; radio = Jeff's art, uses it as a means of communication, to express his love to these people when he feels he can't any other way. I don't know if that makes any sense to anyone, but I tried to make it clear. I could write a book about this song. But, listen to it for yourself, and if you've never heard it, you owe me one...

Two-Headed Boy Part 2

Young Prayer

2006-03-31T20:24:00.000-08:00

Those of you who read here often know that Animal Collective is truly one of my favorite bands around today. I really adore their work, I see them as maybe the most creative and innovative musicians around in the past few years. Like I've mentioned earlier, I've been listening to alot of full albums over and over, all the way through because of my broken iPod. One of the albums I've found myself listening to alot is Panda Bear's Young Prayer.

Panda Bear, a.k.a Noah Lennox, one of the four (sometimes one of the two) members of Animal Collective, recorded this lo-fi experimental folk album (just my taste) as a kinda final gift to his father, who was terminally ill at the time. There are no titles to any of the songs on the album, nor are there very understandable lyrics or tangible melodies. Basically, what it sounds like is a collection of improvised Gregorian chants over sparse guitar strums, hand claps, and piano keys. Its one of the most emotionally raw recordings I've heard. While it is a final farewell to his father, it is not all that dark. Its very thankful and warm at times, very appreciative and loving. Especially track 5, a looped chant of what I think is Noah singing "I will have sons and daughters" over and over, all ontop hand-claps. Obviously Panda loved his father, and wanting to make him something special before his death. Just as there is a definite presence of cheer and joy, there is an equal presence of pain and grief, just like an A.C. album. Note track number 9, looped piano chords over Noah's painful yelps, very dark, very haunting. I really feel passionately about this album, just as I do with anything this creative, new, or emotionally honest. I read in an interview that A.C. most likely won't be making a new album for a few years now, so I wouldn't be surprised to see another solo release for Panda in the near future!

Untitled 5

Untitled 9

Dusk At Cubist Castle

2006-03-30T14:58:00.000-08:00

I'm pretty busy right now, so I don't have alot of time to write a big post right now, but those of you who know me know that I'm obsessed with Jeff Mangum/Neutral Milk Hotel/Elephant Six/anything connected to that scene. Well, I have been listening to a whole lot of The Olivia Tremor Control lately, especially their album Music from the Unrealized Film Script, Dusk at Cubist Castle. I really feel they are one of the most creative bands ever, seriously. Their whole career was based about making the soundtrack to a film they knew would never be made. Anyone involved with Elephant 6 is a genius in my opinion. 10 of the 27 tracks on this album are dedicated to the song "Green Typewriters", one of the songs is "Green Typewriters", then it is proceeded by 9 "Green Typewriters [Continued]". Its really an interesting album, you guys should buy it, but for now, may 2 favorite continuations of this one song.

Green Typewriters [Continued]

Green Typewriters [Continued]

Good Little Soldier

2006-03-29T15:32:00.000-08:00

My iPod is broken.

While that is one of the worst and most tragic things that could ever happen to anyone ever, a good thing has come out of it. I download alot of albums, alot. So many that I don't get around to really listening to the whole album like I should. I download or buy an album I have heard good things about, but because of the speed and convenience of an iPod, I end up being overwhelmed with songs to listen to, so I'm not able to focus on one album as much as I should, because really good albums are always made as an album, and are made to be listened to as an album. But because of the recent explosion of my iPod, I've been burning alot of these albums out onto CDs and really listening to them, listening to them as albums. For this reason, the broken iPod has had some positive effects, while it still really hurts...bad.

One of the albums I listened to, the one that really blew me away as to how I overlooked it so long is Andrew Bird's Andrew Bird & The Mysterious Production Of Eggs. I mean, I've read about it, and I've listened to the songs, kinda. But what was it? Was it the certain mood I was in? Was it the weather outside? Was it the time at night? Something was special about the listen I had last night. Folk, jazz, rock, experimental, and even classical can be used to describe Andrew's sound. Hes very often, and rightly so, described as a cross between Rufus Wainwright and Jeff Buckley. Just listen to the melody of MX Missiles at the 1:20 mark, it blows me away, or the tempo change at 3:40 in Opposite Day, brilliance. That just the sound, thats just half the story. Its hard to say whether the music or the lyrics are better. The lyrics are really just so, so intelligent and beautiful and witty and any other adjective you would want to hear describe his lyrics. He writes these sublty angry and distressed lyrics with notable poetic flow. Hes been around for a while now, ahh I feel like I've missed so much. Where this whole post may sound like I'm some idiot for not really listening to him before, well... ya I guess I was an idiot for not really listening to him before. To spare embarrassment later in your life, start listening to him now:

Measuring Cups

MX Missiles (!!!)

Opposite Day

The Start Of Something

2006-03-28T13:24:00.000-08:00

Truth's good friend Derek from Good Weather For Airstrikes has recently teamed up with Ben from Work For It to make a first of its kind music blog, a site dedicated entirely to downloadable music videos: Videoteque. These guys work insanely hard on this site, and its new this week and there are already ALOT of downloads for everyone. Go check it out, its a great blog.

Voxtrot is playing Walter's On Washington this Saturday and I suggest anyone in the Houston area should go out and see the show. Most everyone knows Voxtrot by now, a young band from Austin who have released two great EP's of the 60's and 70's French-pop persuasion. They are one of the really exciting young indie rock bands right now I feel, they have a nice future ahead of them. I'm not gonna say too much on the band, they've gotten alot of blog buzz already over the past year for their EPs, and also I think the song pretty much speak for themselves. So, if you live in Houston, try to make it out, and even if you don't live in Houston, download these songs:

The Start Of Something (!!!)

Mothers, Sisters, Daughters & Wives

What's Left, It's Your's

2006-03-27T14:07:00.000-08:00

Maybe the biggest blog-buzz band around since CYHSY, Birdmonster is releasing their debut album, No Midnight, on April 11th. This release is gonna be one of the biggest indie releases of the year, I think. This band's popularity has already grown so much over the past few months thanks to the blogs and the oh-so-underrated word of mouth. I posted about them not too long ago, about their EP, which I adored, but I'm so excited about this album, so excited. Those who have heard the album have been saying really great things (and thanks to these blogs for the files), and I've only heard two songs, but from both of these, I can tell you its gonna be good. Theres something about the songs. Where my taste is primarily folk and experimental music, I usually am not that worked up about a rock band. I often get bored with musicians who aren't doing something either completly new or adnormal, and maybe thats something wrong with me, but I also can't stand musicians who desperatly try to portray their songs as something more than what they are. I'm really not making sense, but these guys I'm not bored with at all. Its so pure. Its just really good rock 'n roll. I had major troubles describing that, sorry. Listen to the 4:10 mark on Spaceman, and you'll understand what I'm saying. Preorder the record from their site, and download these songs right now! Both of these get the (!!!).

Balcony (!!!)

Spaceman (!!!)

The Three Babes

2006-03-26T11:56:00.000-08:00

Chris over at Lonesome Valley (one of the better blogs around in my opinion) recently wrote a great post about his experience with hearing Joanna Newsom's The Milk-Eyed Mender for the first time. Those of you who have been reading my blog for a while, you know that I'm a major Joanna fan, I've posted about her more than once, but Chris's post really made me listen to The Milk-Eyed Mender closly last night, and I had forgotten about her song, or her rendition of the song "The Three Babes". The song is an old traditional appalachian ballad, and although I had heard it numerous times before, it really spoke to me last night. I've recently been having this huge, for the lack of a better word, identity crisis in regards to my music taste. My taste has contiually been leaning towards folk music, and even traditional music like this song. I haven't been listening to rock music that much at all recently. Also, I've been listening to alot of blues and jazz since I saw Woody Allen, and I've never listened to that before. Theres something in these songs that you can't find anywhere else, in the folk songs. I've noticed alot, especially in this specific track, a deep tone of honestly that indirectly makes the sound very dark. I'm not sure where this is going right now, but I have this feeling that I need to go on a musical journy across the country. A musical right of passage through the backwoods of the appalachians. This seems unlikly, but it still sounds like such a cool idea to me.

Anyways, Joanna's version of this song is pretty much a cover of Texas Gladden's version. Gladden's is acappela, making it ever more dark and haunting. Listen to both versions, they are both very different in the feeling, Gladden's is more pitiful and desperate than Newsom's anger and rage in the song. The presence of an instrument makes all the difference. Sorry for a very incoherent description of my mindset in regards to my musical taste, I'm still trying to figure it out, and I promise that the jounry across the country, the right of passage, will happen before
I go off to college, and it will be amazing. I hope you enjoy these tracks though:

Joanna Newsom - The Three Babes

Texas Gladden - The Three Babes

Fox Confessor Brings The Flood

2006-03-25T10:32:00.000-08:00

This review is long overdue because I purchased this album a few weeks ago, and right after I got it, it blew me away. But until now, I never got the chance to review it. So far, 2006 has produced some really good indie alt-country, but with The New Pornographers's Neko Case's new release, Fox Confessor Brings The Flood, its justified to say that 2006 has produced great indie alt-country. I have these two phrases that I've thought of while trying to think of the best way to describe the album: "if Morrissey was a girl, and then recorded a country album" and also "a more talented Rabbit Fur Coat".

Neko may have THE best voice in indie music. She can really, really sing. Her gospel influenced tunes are very similar to those of Jenny Lewis's Rabbit Fur Coat, excpet, like I said, she is more talented. And thats saying a lot, because I happen to be a very big Rabbit Fur Coat fan. I get the whole Morrissey thing from the echos of the album. Its the first thing about the sound I really found interesting, aside from her voice. It gives the effect of a church performance, once again emphasizing the gospel influence. So far I think this may be my favorite album of 2006, but its still early in the year. Buy this album, you won't regret it.

Star Witness

Hold On, Hold On

At Last

Woody Allen and his New Orleans Jazz Band @ The Carlyle Hotel

2006-03-24T13:17:00.000-08:00

Ok, so I just got back from my trip to New York, and while I was expecting a great time, I was not expecting to have a monumental music-related experience. But this did happen.

I always try to keep a very open-minded approach to music, my taste spans from folk to pop to hip-hop to experimental. I really try to listen to anything, even to the point that I try not to use genre names. But I've never really listened to Jazz at all, just because I know it has the ability to completely swallow one's attention to music, and its so intimidating to me. But, I think that may have changed because of this experience.

I've been a HUGE Woody Allen fan for a long time now. For those who don't know this about me, before I started getting really passionate about music, I was obsessed with film. Literally obsessed. But that has passed for the most part, all film buffs get to the point where they have seen all the best films made, and you realize great films are only being made once every few years now, they are rare. But you get to the point where you have seen most of the good films, literally. And I reached that, and as far as film making goes, it takes a lot of time and is less cathartic for me than playing music, and I'm rambling now, but I my passion for film is important to this story. Anyways, Woody's films are some of my favorites ever, and so for a long time I've kinda idolized him, and I knew that he plays every Monday at the Carlyle in New York, so I made it a point to go see him while I was there this week. Also, I had seen the film Wild Man Blues about Woody's band, so I have been interesting in this whole part of his life for a while now.

The cafe where the show is held is pretty high class. The cover charge was $85, and I had to wear a coat and tie, as you can see. You can also see my excitement.

We had already eaten, so we didn't order anything off the ridiculously high-priced menu, but I couldn't talk because I was so excited. I just looked around the small, dim-light room at all the (pseudo) intellectuals who look like the kind that are often mocked in Allen's films. Then, then The Manhattan Minstrel (Eddy David, a.k.a. my role model) walks into the room, wearing a baseball cap and carrying his tenor banjo case and begins his tuning. The other 6 members walk in one by one, doing the same. Then, finally, Woody walks in subtly, head down, carrying his old clarinet case and wearing a casual orange sweater. He quietly sits down, head down, and started to put his clarinet together.

The band played about two songs without my full attention, I was still in shock of being in the same room with one of my heroes. But by the third I was captivated by the passion each musician had for the music they were playing. Never have I witnessed artist loving the art they are making more than these, they really love it. The music, Dixie Land Jazz, or Old New Orleans Jazz, isn't all that popular anymore. Its kinda more blues-ish with a lot more ragtime than modern jazz. But there isn't a more fun or innocent music. Allen has made a living on pessimism and angst, but maybe the reason he loves his music more than his films (watch Wild Man Blues and you see that he really does) is because the music he plays is a celebration of the happy parts of life. No matter how infrequent these happy parts of life may be, they are still there, and you can hear them in the songs.

After a breathtaking full-band set, all members but Eddy, Woody, and the bassist Conal Fowkes left the performance area and sat back at the bar. The show had been really great so far, but this is where the show got monumental/life changing. It was so intimate and seemed even more emotional and important to the players than before. They played another 4 songs, and then Woody started cleaning and deconstructing his clarinet. Eddy then asked him if he still knew how to sing, and Woody said something quietly that only Davis could hear, then proceeded to sing the last two songs in a surprisingly good/high tenor voice. During the outro of the very last song, Woody slipped on his orange sweater and rushed out the back door of the cafe. A perfect exit for a wonderfully humble show.

I purchased a CD from the Minstrel after the show, and even told him how much his performance meant to me. I'm obsessing over this album right now, Woody With Strings. Its the Davis, Allen & Fowkes trio, like the last few songs of the show, with a string quartet, playing their favorite Jazz, Blues, and Ragtime songs. You can order some of the band's albums on the site, and I suggest you do so, but for now, here are my two favorites from this album:

Wild Man Blues

Frog-I-More Rag

Also, I'm having major iPod/Computer problems at the moment, so the posts may be slowing down in the near future. Just a warning.

P.S. - Thanks to my sister for the wonderful pictures. Yes, that was how close we were to them.

Manhattan Mixtape

2006-03-17T20:16:00.000-08:00

I'm heading out in a few hours for NYC, and of course, I use this trip as an excuse to make another mixtape. I'll be gone for a few days, so there won't be any updates until like friday, but I hope this will hold you over.

The Manhattan Mixtape (follow the links)

1. Jana Hunter - Restless
2. Townes Van Zandt - Rake
3. Silver Jews - Rebel Jew
4. Liars - A Visit From Drum
5. Colleen - Summer Water
6. Dntel - Suddenly Is Sooner Than You Think
7. Lali Puna - Middle Curse
8. Modest Mouse - Broke
9. Animal Collective - Baby Day
10. Neko Case - John Saw That Number
11. George Gershwin - Rhapsody In Blue

Trailblazing

2006-03-16T15:11:00.000-08:00

I've been listening to a lot of Jana Hunter's music for a few months now, since like the end of last summer, but right now I'm more into her music than I have been in the past, and that's saying a lot. Last night I was listening to her split album with Devendra Banhart, and the song "Crystal Lariat" blew me away. I had heard it before, but for some reason, it really spoke to my emotions at the time. Jana from my hometown, Houston, and is a regular at the coolest record show here, Sound Exchange. Jana's music is very lo-fi folk, which is really just exactly my taste. With a lot of help from Devendra Banhart, she's gotten the least bit popular in the whole neo-folk scene, but she is really one of my favorite artists around today. She released her debut full-length last year, Blank Unstaring Heirs Of Doom, and it might be my favorite record of '05, and no I'm not forgetting about Illinoise. Her songs are all fairly simple, not moving much past acoutic guitar, although you do hear some violin/cello every once in a while, maybe a result of her classical music playing youth. There is a haunting honestly in the songs, even if you can't understand what she is saying from all the recording fuzz, or the echo of her multi-tracked voice. Just listen to "Crystal Lariat", her voice is layered maybe 5 or 6 times. It has the effect of a chorus of cheerful friends carrying on an old folk song, it has such a good effect. Well, anyone who is at SXSW right now, make it a point to go to at least one of her two shows tomorrow. You won't regret it.

Farm, Ca.

Crystal Lariat (follow the links) (!!!)

Heatseeker's Safety Den (follow the links)

Bonus:
I promised that if I finally found this file, I would post it for you guys. Well, I found it. It is really my favorite TVZ song right now.

Townes Van Zandt - Rake (follow the links)

Also:
Don't be afraid to leave a comment every once in a while. If you like the blog or like a song I post, let me know. Its very encouraging to get some feedback.

Rebel Jew

2006-03-15T14:14:00.000-08:00

The Silver Jews have been known since the late 80's as a band that never tours. But, for the first time in their history, the band has set out on a 11 city tour across the States' east coast. I've always found the Jews very interesting, David Berman's position as the only constant member really is weird to me, I think, especially because Steven Malkmus is a member often on. The tour is about half way done now, and they aren't coming anywhere near Houston, so I won't be able to see them, but I did find a bootleg of one of the shows. Berman's painful drone voice sounds just as you would think and want it to sound live. You can hear the band's inexperience with performance, but its still a good recording.

Tour Dates:
March 2006
10 - Athens, GA - 40 Watt Club
11 - Atlanta, GA - The Earl
12 - Asheville, NC - Grey Eagle Tavern & Music Hall
14 - Carrboro, NC - Cat's Cradle
16 - Charlottesville, VA - Satellite Ballroom17,
18 - New York, NY - Webster Hall
19 - Cambridge, MA - Middle East Club Downstairs
21 - Philadelphia, PA - First Unitarian Church
22 - Baltimore, MD - Ottobar
24 - Columbus, OH - Little Brothers
25 - Ann Arbor, MI - Blind Pig

The Show:

Silver Jews @ The 40 Watt, Mar. 10, 2006 Part 1 (follow the links)

Silver Jews @ The 40 Watt, Mar. 10, 2006 Part 2 (follow the links)

1. intro/banter
2. Random Rules
3. Smith and Jones Forever
4. dedication banter
5. I'm Getting Back Into Getting Back Into You
6. Sometimes a Pony Gets Depressed
7. Trains Across the Sea
8. sound banter
9. New Orleans
10. Bob's shirt banter
11. How Can I Love You (If You Won't Lie Down)
12. Fit fans banter
13. Inside the Golden Days of Missing You
14. sweaty banter
15. Dallas
16. Horseleg Swastikas
17. apology banter
18. Sleeping is the Only Love
19. joke banter/tuning
20. Slow Education
21. Punks in the Beerlight
22. cover banter
23. I Loved Them Every One
24. applause/banter
25. Buckingham Rabbit
26. applause/thanks

Angst and Hillbilly Haiku

2006-03-14T18:42:00.000-08:00

Guy Clark, Townes Van Zandt, and Mozart are probably the three musicians I have really heard since I was a small child. Classical and country music are the two things I will always associate with my family, especially my father. He often told me of how he got the chance to play the fiddle with Townes Van Zandt at the house of one of his co-workers in '79. My dad and his co-worker where the only ones at the party that had a steady, non-artistic job. Because of my dad's paying of the food and drinks, they allowed him to play, and he stood near the back of the room and played in awe of TVZ's humble presence.

Watch this.

Well, I just got back from the new film Be Here To Love Me, a documentary about TVZ's life and music. I've never been a bigger fan of his in my whole life than right now. He truly is one of the greatest American songwriters ever. My friend Chris once discussed the debate of Bob Dylan vs. TVZ as the greater songwriter. He is the songwriter's songwriter. He is the cult icon. I get frustrated with most of my contemporaries, almost all of my contemporaries. My generation has become so totally obsessed with labels and genres that limit their tastes in music. An underground folk/country singer/songwriter isn't the description that most kids my age would really react to, and its really a shame. Songs of this quality are so rare. His one song "Rake" is taking over my life right now. Its really a shame, I can't find an mp3 of the song anywhere, I've been streaming it off the film's MySpace page for an hour now, I suggest you do the same until I find ya a downloadable file. TVZ's life was not the happiest one, as you might tell from the minor keys of his songs. From an early age, he was constantly having troubles with addiction. Airplane glue, heroin, and then finally his fatal addiction to alcohol. He was a constant drifter and traveler, always looking for himself on the road, and always playing music. He married three times and had three children, but as he once stated, he had to give everything up for his life as a musician, he had to blow off family and wealth and happiness to write songs. And he wrote his songs. And they were perfect. He wrote perfect songs. Overall the film was pretty good, as far as music documentaries go. When you have a subject this good, its hard to make a bad film. Please see it or buy the DVD, then buy TVZ's albums. He really is one of the great American songwriters:

Pancho and Lefty

Be Here To Love Me

To Live Is To Fly

My Starter Won't Start This Morning

In My Pocket

2006-03-13T14:00:00.000-08:00

I know that I've put this song on the blog two times already, but I must dedicate a whole post to it. I'd say that about for 4 months now, I've listened to "Winter's Love" by Animal Collective at least one time a day. It is so rare that you hear a song with such pure energy and emotion. The hand claps, the guitar strums, the vocal yelps, every element of this song perfectly expresses what Avey Tare and Panda Bear are feeling here. No words or images could do these emotions any justice, only these noises. A.C. have always made it a point to keep their lyrics under wraps, to hush them slightly or to use strange diction so that each listener would derive their own interpretations or even their own lyrics from what they are hearing. Its a totally involved listen. When I listen, I feel the excitement and the nervouness of the very beginning stages of a relationship, when you don't know what exactly to expect, though you know something huge is on the way. It breaks my heart when people are scared off by A.C.'s weirdness because they never are able to see the sweetness. They do have their darker moments, such as Spirit They're Gone, Spirit They've Vanished or a few songs from Campfire Songs (just listen to "Doggy"), but their past two albums really have had major themes of love, no matter how strange the love may be. So please, listen and be illuminated.

Winter's Love

In The Fog Again

2006-03-12T12:19:00.000-08:00

Birdmonster's debut 3 song EP dropped last year, and it was one of '05's more exciting releases. Chris brought them to my attention and to many others attention as well, he has been playing a big role in the bands publicity, and he even set up a showcase where the band played, you can read about it here. But I listened to their EP a ton last year, and here is my favorite song from it, thanks to MOKB. Their first LP is on the way, and very exciting. This band has so much potential, keep your eyes open for them, they will be big. Oh, this song is so good:

All the Holes In the Walls

David Thomas Broughton

2006-03-10T16:11:00.000-08:00

I love artists like this, especially when I hear them for the first time. Yes, its another freak-folk artist, and yes also at the same time a down-beat electronica artist, but these musicians are really doing something special. I really dont like grouping bands and artists together with these words and genre titles just because it can sometimes be limiting and can effect the way people listen to them, but I use it as a means of comparison, not as a limitation. But as I said, I'm just now finding out about David Thomas Broughton, even though last year he released the wonderful 5 track, 40 minute debut The Complete Guide to Insufficiency. Nick Drake comes to mind when you hear these songs, but you hear his true uniqueness in his voice, and also in his use of looping. Nearly all-acoustic guitar with maybe one or two looping pedals, he holds a very minimalist approach to making music, but his songs are still so encompassing. You'll find yourself listening to his songs over and over all day. You'll listen to him for hours on end. This album was recorded in 40 minutes, which is about its total length, and in a small church. Basically Broughton sounds like a folk musician from the late 60's until he starts to loop his guitar, then you realize its pure contemporary minimalist bliss.

Ambiguity (!!!)

Walking Over You

Roscoe

2006-03-09T16:45:00.000-08:00

Everyone in the whole entire world seems to be talking about Midlake this week, and the remastered and official album version of the track "Roscoe", the unofficial and early version of which I posted back in January. Those of you who have been reading from my very first post know that I'm a big time Midlake fan, and am actually kinda connected to them in a way, one of my close friends is cousins with Eric Pulido from the band, and if you read the January post, I write about a talk Seth had with him. But I'm gonna post "Roscoe" again, just in celebration of their recent burst in popularity, and the kinda soon release of their new album The Trials of Van Occupanther (July). The sound of this new track is very much less Radiohead than their past work, and alot more Fleetwood Mac, its a very good change in sound though. So, the new remastered version of "Roscoe":

Roscoe

The Getty Address

2006-03-08T15:28:00.000-08:00

Those of you who will be attending SXSW next week should try their best to make it out to the Dirty Projectors show. Dirty Projectors is Dave Longstreth and his friends, who constantly change, but make this very interesting/extremly creative music, the latest of which is their "glitch opera" The Getty Address, a lo-fi electronic based opera about Don Henley. Not only is this an album, but alos a film. Vs. Anna Films has been making chapters to the saga for each song on the album, and next weekend at SXSW will be the first public showing of the film. So if you can, be sure it make it out, but for now, some mp3s:

Jolly Jolly Jolly Ego (!!!)

Finches' Song At Oceanic Parking Lot

Ladies, You Have Exiled Me