lollapalooza

It is coming this Friday! I should have reports of the following bands when I return:
(presented in the order in which I will see them)
$ = I'm very enthusiastic about this act

Day 1:
$Cursive
eels
Stars
Ryan Adams
Secret Machines/Iron and Wine (can't decide!)
$My Morning Jacket
$Sleater-Kinney
Death Cab for Cutie

Day 2:
Be Your Own Pet (I've already seen them an I really don't like them, but whatever)
Nada Surf
$The Go! Team
$Built to Spill
Calexico
$Sonic Youth
The Dresden Dolls
$The Flaming Lips
$The New Pornographers
Kanye West

Day 3:
The Hold Steady
Ben Kweller/Nickel Creek (haven't decided which!)
$Andrew Bird
$The Shins
She Wants Revenge
$Wilco
$Broken Social Scene
Red Hot Chilli Peppers

i want my nickel back

Worst video ever. It's so sad that some kid "love[s] and respect[s]" this band enough to make a tribute video. But yes...the song is actually real. Also, if you know the Oasis song "D'You Know What I Mean?" you may see a similarity in vocal melody. Not that that song was good in first place.

The hilarious thing is the singer is singing about wanting to be a rockstar so badly and at the same time the kid's tribute video is showing that he has everything that he's asking for. He says "I'll trade this life for fortune and fame. I'll even cut my hair and change my name." This line is the epitome of a sell out. He said it in every way and he's absolutely serious with this song. I can't even believe it. You might have once said to yourself in a nightmare "what could be worse than Nickelback with country influences?" Well, it's happened. Fans in Portugal know what's up though. They threw rocks at Nickelback at a music festival.

lp quest

So I've taken it upon myself to get the actual LPs of my top ten albums... and a few others.

I've managed so far to procure a reissue copy of My Bloody Valentine's Loveless. I've seen OK Computer go on ebay less than a fortune. The Queen Is Dead seemed impossible at first, but I think ebay will solve this problem without robbing me of everything I have.

The big shocker, however, is Elliott Smith's Figure 8. Every copy that I've seen go on ebay has been at about the $250 mark. Some even with a "buy it now" price that high. That's ridiculous. It's from 2000, but apparently very few were printed. I mean, come on, even fully autographed copies of the Queen Is Dead are going for less than that. Slowdive's Souvlaki is also going to prove near-impossible as well, I think, as I've seen some of their LESS popular ablums go for $160, which is monetary murder.

The other challenge is the Wrens' The Meadowlands as I don't think it was every released on vynil. :( What are you going to do?

However, the good news is that my brother has a copy of Sonic Youth's Daydream Nation, which is an album that I have recently gained a huge appreciation for. Some of this top ten might need revising... It's almost as though I have another top ten in my head that was more recently formed. Oh this is impossible to reason out. So there may be a "top ten of the moment" sort of list coming soon.

I'm also going to work on sorting out my favorite albums of this year so far. This list will definintely include Band of Horses' Everything All The Time and Love Is All's Nine Times That Same Song. Just a hint to check those out.

remember me as a time of day

I have some free music to recommend today! The band Exlposions in the Sky has released for free on their website an album they did for a subscrition service on their record label, Temporary Residence. The album is called "The Rescue" and was released in 2005 in a very limited manner. It's still very good, even though not distributed as widely as their other work.

A quick summary of Explosions in the Sky:
They are known for the style called Post-Rock, which, for the laymen amongst you, is a style of music where typical rock instruments become part of orchestral compositions. Often other instruments are involved, such as strings, but in the case of Explosions, they stick to the standard rock instrumentation to play out their masterpieces that have transcended rock itself. They go for an extremely crisp sound that goes from very calm to extremely epic and grandiose, in a good way. It is all purely instrumental, yet extremely emotionally effecting. (You may actually know them as the band that did the soundtrack for Friday Night Lights.)

So here it is: "The Rescue"

1. Day One
2. Day Two
3. Day Three
4. Day Four
5. Day Five
6. Day Six
7. Day Seven
8. Day Eight










Enjoy this great music from an amazing band and check out their other records if you haven't heard them.

bored and rural-poor, lord, at 35, right?

The Wrens - "Everyone Choose Sides"

A relatively new video for one of my favorite songs from one of my favorite albums. I believe they made this long after the album's release to promote its release in Europe, where they seem to having quite a bit of success. The concept of the video is kind of hardy-har-har, but it's still fun. If you haven't heard the Wrens before, you might find the lyrics a little hard to understand. So here you go:

….13 grand
a year in the meadowlands
bored and rural-poor, lord, at 35, right?
I’m the best 17 year old ever
worked these sands
I won’t go back again
quitter quitter one boy bitter - rough luck
man to man hand to hand fight 40
we’re losing sand!
a wrens’ ditch battle plan
record after record black and deckered tack! tack!
definition: hell and high water
fatty come a courtin’ lord the money!
everyone choose sides
the whole to-do of what to do for money
poorer or not this year and hell’s the difference
let’s talk plans and luck said, ‘double damned
were you give women worth winning or what?
a wasted share of shots at high-tide heaven’
greener grasses fade from where you wind up
everyone choose sides
I’m back! I’m back! So sing to raise the blind up
I’ve walked away from more than you imagine and I sleep just fine
we fought and brought up more - the shovels high up
on the 10-ton line

(these aren't actually the full lyrics, but they're the ones posted on "the wrens website".)

If you liked it, the mp3 is available here: "Everyone
Choose Sides"

The Wrens are also the nicest band of all time. This
might actually be true... At MacRock I got hauled on stage by Kevin during "Boys
You Won't" to play percussion with drumsticks on amps, etc. with a bunch of
other people. I just got the MacRock dvd and there I am on stage in my NASA
tshirt. Ah, what a nerd. I stayed around after the show and got to meet Kevin.
He was seriously the most normal and modest "rock star" I've ever met. Even on
the scale of normal people he's just incredibly chill and nice. It was
unbelievable.

a torch to drive the savages back to the trees

Wolf Parade - "Modern World"

Great song... good video, but creepy as hell. Really cleverly done and nice concept.

and yes, I still assert that Spencer Krug, the singer, sounds like Kurt Cobain on this track.

girl talk

I recently discovered a DJ named Girl Talk (Gregg Gillis) and his new album Night Ripper. It is a 16 track album, which some would call a giant "mash-up." Over the span of these sixteen tracks, he samples over 150 other songs, ranging from pop hits (retro and current) to "indie" classics and everywhere in between. For example, in one song he samples Young Jeezy, Notorious B.I.G., Nirvana, X Ray Specs, and Elton John. Everything is in there somewhere, from Sonic Youth to Boston to Annie to Weezer and The Verve.

The composition stays with this one formula, however: rap vocals on top and the other songs changing much more rapidly below that in the mix. With its quick pace, it is ideal for a party where no one would have any idea what was going on, except that they're hearing song after song of their favorites. This album is definitely one for those with short attention spans. Any given sample of a song that is not sampled for vocal content usually only lasts for 30 seconds at most. I argue against the term "mash-up" being used to describe the album, however, because Girl Talk uses such small clips from some of the songs that he really is creating his own from these other songs. He's not simply looking for ways to blend together popular songs, but he's creating a new sonic texture in doing so.

He carefully plays lyrical content off of the backing music he has chosen, often for ironic purposes. For example, in the opening track "Once Again" we have the Yin Yang Twins "Whisper Song" overlaid on The Verve's "Bittersweet Symphony." The Verve's piece feels pristine and beautiful while the Yin Yang Twins sing vulgarly about their base sexual desires and how they are going to appease them. This sort of contrast makes the listener chuckle quite frequently throughout the album through adding a sense of irony that keeps the whole composition even more exciting to listen to.

Whatever Mr. Gillis is doing, the result is a hell of a lot of fun. Don't expect meaninfully crafted song, but expect to rock out.

Anyway, here is the site for the album along with some sample tunes:
Girl Talk - Night Ripper

unique new york / amerrrrrrrrrricaaaaaaaaaaaa!

stories from the city relayed to me:
-my mom saw two barges yesterday
1 had tens of thousands of rusted manhole covers on it
the other had crushed cars on it stacked 35 high (she counted)
think about how many people drove all those cars and on the roads of those manhole covers
how many roads would that be? if it were maybe 5 manhole covers per mile (estimating high) and 30,000 manhole covers on the barge... that represents 6000 miles of road. that's enough to go across the country twice.

-my brother just sold season 1 of dharma and greg to a guy in slovenia through ebay. the people of this world really are united.

and remember... just because you're wearing heavy medieval armor doesn't mean you can't rock out in commemoration of the discovery of a new continent:


"What time is love?"


thanks to brandon for this one

top tenor

To begin my musical trend of discussion, I feel I should introduce my taste. Recently I tried to compose my top ten albums "of all time." This phrase can be taken to mean the top ten albums of what I have been exposed to in my life. There are many albums I wish could have made this list, but I was trying to go for the albums that were solid and near perfect, if not perfect throughout their entirety. Here they are:

10. Pixies - Doolittle

A pivotal album in rock history. Don't even try to debate me and say I'm overstating. "Wanna grow up to be ... be a debaser!"





09. Elliott Smith - Figure 8

Elliott Smith filled out to his full potential with huge instrumentation. I picked this narrowly over Either/Or, even though it isn't his most intimate work, but I believe it is his most powerful in other ways.





08. The Stone Roses - The Stone Roses

The beginnings of britpop, mixed with shoegazey undertones and there's a reason that The Observer rated this the best album ever British album. "I don't need to sell my soul... he's already in me."




07. Weezer - Pinkerton

Angst and depression excellently expressed. The evolution of Weezer that barely any critic liked at the time, but how good it was. A bit childish sounding in many ways, but perfect for the time at which I discovered it.



06. Slowdive - Souvlaki

Chilled out shoegaze at perfection. I love this genre, and I absolutely adore this album. Washes over you and leaves you floating in every sense.




05. The Wrens - The Meadowlands

Modern indie rock at its absolute finest. The Wrens' sound from Secaucus refined so perfectly with more sentimentality and care put into the songs. Shades of this were visible with songs like "Won't Get Too Far" on Secaucus, but now they are fully developed and span greater dynamic ranges within particular songs. "Thirteen Months in 6 Minutes" is a song that affects me more than almost any other I have heard.


04. Weezer - Weezer

Some of the best pop rock ever done. I absolutely adore these guys in their earlier stages (used to be really obsessed). This album got me into music much more and made me want to play guitar in the first place. From great party anthems to very meaningful sentimental songs, this album has it.



03. The Smiths - The Queen Is Dead

Best work of Morrissey + Best work of Marr = Best Work Evar. Perfect album. "And if a ten ton truck kills the both of us, to die by your side is such a heavenly way to die."





02. Radiohead - OK Computer

Perfect combination of pop rock and experiemental electronic with a touch of ambient and you have an amazing album. Balancing these elements is hard, but Radiohead did it perfectly. Radiohead's best, which is saying a lot.



01. My Bloody Valentine - Loveless

This album influenced my view of how music should be more than any other piece. It has also influenced my guitar playing style more than any other album I have ever heard=> an absolute, relatively unknown classic. The rest of the albums are all good, but their ranking in places 10-2 may have just been the product of the moment. However, I can honestly say that this is definitely #1.

wow

boards of canada - dayvan cowboy

This video is one for the dreamers, or rather those who can't sleep. Try watching this at 5 in the morning.

and so it begins

I've created this blog as an outlet for my personal musings on cultural and societal observations. These will probably range from my favorite hobby of seeing trends in others' behavior (not the livejournal style passive aggressive statements of yesteryear), to comments on my current musical tastes. I'll try to get around to what I'm into in music, as well as what I'm tending to do with my own compositions. I hope this will prove interesting. I also hope to throw in some interesting links to videos, songs, and webpages along the way. I've started it off with a link to my last.fm page so anyone can stalk my music preferences up to the minute. The origin of the title of this blog is the Interpol song "Public Pervert." The song title would be appropriate if this blog were to diverge into societal critiques continually, but I hope to avoid this. The line that I love so much is this:

"If time is my vessel then learning to love must be my way back to sea."

I find this quote very apt in many ways. Think about it for a while.