1/1

The Magnetic Fields “Andrew in Drag” On repeat...

Thu, 01 Mar 2012 10:04:23 -0500

The Magnetic Fields “Andrew in Drag”

On repeat repeat repeat.

Oh yeah, Kurt Vile’s Smoke Ring For My Halo is my favorite album of two thousand eleven....

Sat, 31 Dec 2011 20:31:12 -0500

Oh yeah, Kurt Vile’s Smoke Ring For My Halo is my favorite album of two thousand eleven.

Hands down.

Elbow - “Lippy Kids” Another favorite from 2011....

Fri, 23 Dec 2011 20:08:36 -0500

Elbow - “Lippy Kids”

Another favorite from 2011. Elbow’s Build A Rocket Boys!.

If you don’t know Elbow, you will learn about them now, and then more next year as they’re composing the BBC’s 2012 London Olympic theme. That’s a pretty big deal. Playing together for the better part of twenty years, they craft big, galloping, sometimes melancholic rock tunes. On their newest record, Build A Rocket Boys!, things are a bit quieter. When you play the record, you light a slow burning fuse that makes frequent stops on its way down to reflect on years gone by. Guy Garvey, Elbow’s singer, takes precious time to do this on “Lippy Kids”. A tune about being a kid and the wonder and confusion and failures and great triumphs that come along with it.

It makes me go soft, and think about helping my Grandfather, Tom, build a pigeon coop in the early 1980s when I was little. It then takes me to that time I snagged a golden can of Coors when I was a bit older, taking it into a hidden upstairs bedroom and having my first secret sip of beer and then hiding the can in the attic. It takes some more time, allowing me to remember grandiose adventures in my Grandparents backyard filled with enormous pine trees and the way my hands would be covered in sap after an afternoon’s romp. It gets especially quiet during the last minute or so, Guy Garvey steps back and lets it play out with those gentle keys and strums and that gentle pulse of bass. And then, as it winds down, I reflect on finding that crushed Coors can in the attic when we cleaned out my Grandfather’s house after he passed away last year. Sitting there for nearly 25 years, both covered in dust and freshly unopened all the same.

That’s the feeling this album gives me. It’s sort of miraculous.

Fucked Up - “Queen of Hearts” The year is closing....

Mon, 19 Dec 2011 18:34:59 -0500

Fucked Up - “Queen of Hearts”

The year is closing. Our stay in the temporal hotel room of 2011 is nearly done. With such ends, come lists.

I haven’t done a year end list in a long time. My musical intake has grown mutated, coming in from everywhere and leading out, endlessly. Leaving behind a mess of sounds hard to categorize and remember in any efficient way.

I could sit down, with a pencil and paper and think about it. I could think really hard about which albums came out, and put these albums in an order of my preference.

Instead, I will just randomly post songs from albums that I have enjoyed over the course of our year, 2011.

First up is Fucked Up. If you haven’t heard of Fucked Up, you should know they play pop laced hardcore music and come from the great white north. Their newest record, David Comes to Life, is a concept record. A rock album that has a story about a guy named David, who I think works in a light bulb factory, and his lover, a woman named Veronica. Lots of stuff happens over the course of the album, but mostly it just rocks. It never lets up. It’s relentless and driving. Rough and anthemic and hits all the right notes.

If I were a teenager when this album came out, I would likely have been overcome by it and obsessed. It has a certain charm that fills me with those long ago years. Not sure why. It’s just epic. It’s some sort of aural armor that surely would have elicited much comfort and questions as a young person, just as it now provides a sense of comfort and a bunch of false, yet profoundly familiar memories.

If you like what you hear above, check out this link below. It’s Fucked Up playing the entire album live. It’s quite something to watch. Damian Abraham knows how to scream, man.

http://pitchfork.com/tv/special-presentation/1883-fucked-up/3058-let-her-rest-queen-of-hearts/#player

A good friend once told me that anyone who dislikes The New...

Wed, 14 Dec 2011 09:32:27 -0500

A good friend once told me that anyone who dislikes The New Pornographers must have a pathological hatred of music. I am inclined to agree. Although they have slightly calmed down in terms of energy on their studio albums since Mass Romantic and Electric Version, they are no less essential. Music that drives onward and shreds it up. A band of musical superheroes.

It’s been a quiet few weeks around this blog, and I hope to bring back the daily posting. So, I’ll kick it off with this song. Listen to it a few times if you’re feeling a little down, or having a hard time getting your day going. I have to listen to it a few times myself. Off their first record, Mass Romantic, “Letter From An Occupant” is all I want in a pop rock song. It’s loud, Neko Case belts the shit out of it, Carl Newman backs it up with those harmonies and all those chords and keys and drums to boot.

It’s an anthem. Dig it.

In 2005 I saw The Russian Futurists play a show at Northsix...

Wed, 30 Nov 2011 14:12:52 -0500

In 2005 I saw The Russian Futurists play a show at Northsix (which, after it closed down, was renovated and reopened as the Music Hall of Williamsburg). Every show we saw at Northsix was depressing, regardless of the band playing. It was a cool venue, had a small set of bleachers, but for some reason we always felt miserable there. Nowadays, in its new incarnation, it’s great. It’s as if The Bowery Ballroom were xeroxed, and dropped from Manhattan to Brooklyn.

The Russian Futurists. They take the stage, and to a quiet audience say “This is a new one. It’s called Paul Simon” and to the eager ears of everyone in there, I was the one person who yelled “Whooooooo!” in response. Really loud. It was slightly mortifying, but mostly awesome. I had been listening to the song on repeat for a few weeks at this point, and I really dug it. They played it, and it sounded great.

Matthew Adam Hart makes music about love, heartbreak, drinking (especially rye), and being weird. It’s almost always upbeat and puts a smile on my face.

This track “Paul Simon” is off an older album, Our Thickness. Something about the horn hook, the lyrics, and general danciness of the song pleases me greatly. The video for it is wonderful. Give it a listen, and then maybe another.

His newest record, released last year, is called The Weight’s on the Wheels.

Here’s a special bonus track off the new one called “Tripping Horses”. It’s fun. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F__eEgsEXSg

Aesop Rock. “9-5ers Anthem”. Labor Days. Presented...

Mon, 28 Nov 2011 08:20:00 -0500

Aesop Rock. “9-5ers Anthem”. Labor Days.

Presented with no comment.

I got into Television late. It was only in the past year that I...

Tue, 22 Nov 2011 16:11:11 -0500

I got into Television late. It was only in the past year that I got Marquee Moon and realized that so much of the music I listen to owe this album.

Even if this is your first time listening to the song “Marquee Moon”, it will sound familiar to you. There are hooks, grooves and rhythms in here that are everywhere in the 34 years that have followed its release.

It’s the missing reference in LCD Soundsystem’s “Losing My Edge”

I leave it here for you to listen, without further comment.

It’s Monday, so let’s be a little bit quiet. Not too...

Mon, 21 Nov 2011 09:24:00 -0500

It’s Monday, so let’s be a little bit quiet. Not too quiet. As a matter of fact, let’s not be quiet at all.

It’d been a while, so I listened to My Bloody Valentine’s gonzo monumental album Loveless on the ride into work this morning. You’d think I would write about the opening track, “Only Shallow”, considering my recent discussion here with first track, first side and what have you, but no. Today, “Sometimes” is the MBV song that I hit repeat on a few times.

The weird thing about “Sometimes” is that, at least by My Bloody Valentine standards, what you have is an acoustic song. And by acoustic, I mean drenched in reverb, distortion, and other unidentifiable sounds that Kevin Shields creates with his tremolo electric guitar wand.

Mind you, there are no drums. There’s a clear strumming going on. These two reasons are why I equate the song with something as ridiculous as “acoustic” in my describing it.

See, I make no sense.

Play it quietly really loud and you’ll see.

I am carrying a broad sword. Dragging it, really. I’ve...

Sat, 19 Nov 2011 20:05:48 -0500

I am carrying a broad sword. Dragging it, really. I’ve been wounded. The hounds are on my scent, and it’s only a matter of time before they catch up, and I will have to take a final stand. I breathe deeply, taking in the icy air. It makes me feel clean. Slowly, I turn around. I let slip my friend who I have been dragging; she may or may not still be alive. I take a battle stance. I blink, slowly, watching the landscape ahead of me for the rush. And I see them. The creatures running, leaping across the snow, swinging through bare branched trees, teeth bared and glinting steal claws scraping. With any strength I have left, I lift my sword with both hands. And wait. This song is playing.

As the title of this blog hints at, I will occasionally write...

Thu, 17 Nov 2011 20:07:06 -0500

As the title of this blog hints at, I will occasionally write about my favorite (read: best) opening tracks on a variety of albums that I like to listen to. The second track in this series belongs to “Yes! I Am A Long Way From Home” by Mogwai off of their seminal record, Young Team.

Over some quiet tones, a monologue is spoken by a woman who is reciting a piece written about a Mogwai gig in Bergen, Norway from 1997. The words are simple, but describe Mogwai’s music with absolute clarity.

The song begins with quiet cords, and builds up until it shatters, releasing a galaxy of distortion that swirls around you, soaring upwards with its battering, beautiful sounds. Mogwai’s loud-quiet-loud dynamic is here, in its purest form.

It’s always been one of my favorite Mogwai songs, and I’ve been lucky enough to have experienced it live a few times over the years. It’s also the one Mogwai song that elicits the strongest emotional response in me. Judging my Mogwai’s standard of making you feel ways about things, this is a tall order. Something about the monologue in the beginning, and the build, and the release; it all comes together to create a beautiful, moving song. If you get the chance, listen to it while you are actually a long way from home. It does something, with its strange phonomancy, that will soothe you and prepare you for adventure.

I’m a little late getting around to listening to...

Wed, 16 Nov 2011 09:44:04 -0500

I’m a little late getting around to listening to Mastodon’s newest record, The Hunter, in earnest. I heard it when it was streaming around release time, but never went back to it. It wasn’t that I didn’t enjoy it, it just dropped off my radar. It’s a different beast, so to speak, than Mastodon’s other heavily concept driven work. You can argue that The Hunter is about creatures and beasts and the like, which there is some evidence to support that, but overall I think it’s just a sweet collection of excellent, heavy, progressive metal. I was a fan of their previous release, Crack the Skye (which many weren’t), but The Hunter really satisfies me.

Here’s the really quite pretty(!) track, “Creature Lives”.

In a previous post, I’d mentioned how I discovered Kurt...

Mon, 14 Nov 2011 17:45:00 -0500

In a previous post, I’d mentioned how I discovered Kurt Vile’s music this year with his release Smoke Ring For My Halo. Vile’s music is an amalgam of classic rock, bedroom centric introspection, outward weirdness and, again, rock rock rock. Smoke Ring For My Halo took me so completely by surprise, that it disarmed me for nearly the first dozen times I listened to it. I listened to it obsessively for a few weeks. Non stop. During my commute, at night falling asleep, left in on repeat at home. Just an absolute stunning record that showcases Vile’s talent for songwriting. It’s killer.

We went and saw Vile and his band, The Violators, play Webster Hall Friday night. Aside from a rather shit crowd, the show was excellent. The set was quite good. They opened with Vile on stage, solo, playing Blackberry Song and then the Violators joined him to tear through a bunch of great songs. It got progressively noisier and dirtier as the set went on, until the Violators left the stage, and Vile played solo again to mellow the room out. Many of the songs were played differently in both structure and tempo, which made for a nice live experience. He shied away from clear vocals in favor of a much more mumbled, half in / half out of the mic style of singing, but it was no worse for wear.

The video you’re watching, or already have watched, or are watching again, is for “Jesus Fever” off Smoke Ring For My Halo. It’s just about the grooviest song I’ve had stuck in my head this year, and I bet you’ll be humming it while brushing your teeth or taking the garbage out in no time.

Dig it!

Jonny Greenwood and Thom Yorke of Radiohead cover...

Fri, 11 Nov 2011 11:16:00 -0500

Jonny Greenwood and Thom Yorke of Radiohead cover Portishead’s “The Rip”.

I just recently watched an old interview with Ed O’Brien and Thom Yorke, around the release of Radiohead’s In Rainbows, where they discussed the difficulties of feeling self confident enough to make new music. Yes, Radiohead was saying this. They’d been between records for some time (Hail to the Thief was 2003) and the recording process was difficult because of this.

Anyhow, they mention Portishead in the interview, and it’s relevant. It’s interesting because balancing family and marriage with hobbies and creative urges is tough. Even for Radiohead.

The original version of “The Rip” can be found on Portishead’s album Third.

Here’s Portishead playing it live on Jools Holland: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MKVBtEuPSwc

The way your sweat would pool (for a good 35 minutes)

Wed, 09 Nov 2011 22:06:00 -0500

Here’s a mix for you. It’s short, just under 35 minutes, but it’s concise.

(Kurt Vile - Downbound Train)

For a long while I confused Kurt Vile with another, late artist, who had a similarly odd last name. Apparently, Vile is legitimate in his surname and his music is quite different as well. He’s a long hair and hails from the street of Philadelphia. He played in The War on Drugs, who keep a tight sound, but made his way on his own to express his certain brand of bedroom recorded rock in a new way.

His newest release, Smoke Ring for My Halo wears its inspirations vividly, but it really hits a deeper place beyond those familiar melodies of Petty or Springsteen. I found myself relating to his lyrics, in some odd stunted, fever dream sort of way. His grooves are delicious.

This track is off his new EP, So Outta Reach. It’s a Springsteen cover.

I’ll post an original song of his soon.

(Atlas Sound - Amplifiers)

Bradford Cox of Deerhunter plays as Atlas Sound. Much like Vile, these recordings were bedroom-centric, but obviously they’re much bigger than four walls can hold. With the newest release, Parallax, Cox shows the grandeur of Deerhunter’s recent epic release, Halcyon Digest, but in a more personal, lounge singer tapping his cigarette ashes on your table sort of way.

Amplifiers, the second track of Parallax, is a good indicator of the feel of the record. It’s chill and involved.

(M83 - Reunion)

Anthony Gonzalez, mastermind behind M83 has created the perfect organism with his newest release Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming. Gonzalez has synthesized every good thing about M83 and crafted a masterpiece of electronic pop shimmering with retro sounds. “Reunion” is a huge sounding song, more so than “Midnight City” which is the album’s lead single. It’s epic, it’s android John Hughes, it’s Ducky lost in time, it’s Pretty in Pink re-scored, it’s The Breakfast Club of your brain. I can’t even imagine what a fucking ripper this song will be live, surely getting the crowd jumping and dancing. At least, in a perfect world.

(The National - Lit Up)

Off their just-about-to-explode album, Alligator. A true New York City song, and album, if I’ve ever heard one.

I can talk to you about The National ad infinitum, which I just might at some point. For now, just close your eyes and nod and sway along.

(Spiritualized - The X Files Theme)

Spiritualized covers The X Files theme. There couldn’t have been a better interpretation. Spook out

(Mogwai - How To Be A Werewolf)

Hardcore Will Never Die, But You Will. That is the title of Mogwai’s newest record, and in a string of bizarre album (and song) titles, it ranks among their best. It’s one of their best albums, too. It’s clean, it’s driving, and it shimmers like all Mogwai recordings do. I’ve been known to say it’s their best since Happy Songs For Happy People, but months after its release I’m leaning towards it being, possibly, their best record after Young Team.

How To Be A Werewolf is a strikingly cinematic song, that also drives with that special brand of shred that the Scottish Guitar Army have been making for years. What makes Hardcore Will Never Die, But You Will such a fine record is how they’ve managed to perfectly blend their special Mogwai only dynamics with their penchant for crafting cinematic scores (The Fountain, Zidane) creating something that sounds tremendous.

Listen to this in your car while you cruise around, or listen to it while you’re jogging in the forest, or when you’re trying to sleep. It will all work, it is an everyman’s Mogwai song.

(The Besnard Lakes - Albatross)

From Montreal STOP Create spectral radio espionage rock soundtracks STOP Band leader, Jace Lasek, science fiction Peter Frampton STOP Albatross an unstoppable rock song STOP Olga Goreas belts it out END

(Arab Strap - New Birds (live) )

The best It’s-not-worth-getting-back-with-your-ex song ever. Live version. If need be, get drunk and CRANK this song.

The way your sweat would pool (for a good 35 minutes)

http://www.mediafire.com/?5lkaviqol8a1eyz

Kurt Vile - Downbound Train (Bruce Springsteen cover)
Atlas Sound - Amplifiers
M83 - Reunion
The National - Lit Up
Spiritualized - The X Files Theme
Mogwai - How to Be a Werewolf
The Besnard Lakes - Albatross
Arab Strap - New Birds (Live)

We moved a few weeks ago and I unearthed a large number of CDs...

Wed, 09 Nov 2011 21:33:00 -0500

We moved a few weeks ago and I unearthed a large number of CDs that had been in storage for months, and in some cases, years. Among them was The Lonesome Crowded West by Modest Mouse.

It’s been spinning in my car for a week or so, but the song I keep playing over and over again is “Doin’ the Cockroach”. Today alone I listened to it on the drive home from work six times, easy.

It’s one of the quintessential Modest Mouse songs.

I dunno, it just rules.

Who needs Johnny Marr?

I discovered the band Thee Oh Sees the other week. My friend...

Tue, 08 Nov 2011 20:58:00 -0500

I discovered the band Thee Oh Sees the other week. My friend Ryan told me to listen to them, and since we’re musically in tune, I figured I would.

Man, they’re pretty great.

Cursory research shows they’ve been around for a long time, they’re from the Bay Area, and they play this psychedelic tinged garage rock that is just sort of carnivalesque, tinged with evil, and, especially, is very weird.

Here’s the title track off their new record Carrion Crawler / Dream “Carrion Crawler”. This song is sick and it’s hooky as hell and slows down and picks up at all the right places.

Just what is it doing at around 3:00? Seemingly ending? Yes, but it’s just getting started.

Dig. It.

This is an older post from me from my other blog...

Tue, 08 Nov 2011 09:41:00 -0500

This is an older post from me from my other blog (thexeroxmissive.tumblr.com) but since it’s about Mogwai, and I tend to listen to them a lot, I’ll be writing about them a lot here.

A lot of my musical memories come from concert experiences. Mogwai is a band I’ve seen a dozen times or so since 1999. They’re one of my favorite bands and I’ve rabidly followed them over the years. My intention for 1/1 is to include all manner of my musical mind; writing about single tracks, full albums, bands, concert experiences and how all of these ingredients have affected personal experiences of mine.

Mogwai’s music has been a constant in my life for a long time now. This particular experience below was rather important for me.

Listen to this shit loud, with headphones. Not tiny computer speakers.

I needed to drown it all out, so today, during the ride into work I listened to Mogwai’s 20:12 crushing epic, “My Father, My King”. It’s a Mogwai song for special occasions. There is a time when a barrage of this caliber guitar, bass and feedback is needed to console oneself; to seek clarity amidst all that beautiful noise.

In the early days of its live incarnation, before it was recorded, the band would simply call it “Jewish song” on their set lists. It takes a central melody from a Yom Kippur prayer called “Avinu Malkeinu”. Live, the song evolves into a floating, living, breathing organism that becomes an occurence above the crowd. It lingers, layering upon itself and releasing droning feedback, dripping tendrils of squelch and fuzz onto the audience. On more than one occasion, during these early days of their playing it, it was simply reffered to as “that thing” by fans.

My first experience with it, and among the finest of any Mogwai show I’ve seen, was at their June 24th, 2001 gig at Irving Plaza in NYC. Bardo Pond supported (wherein Mogwai joined them onstage to play Bardo’s “Tommy Gun Angel” with them), the setlist was legendary. Among its selection was a deafening, frightening version of “X-mas Steps” (where Dominic turned his bass up so high before the kick in, that he scared the hell out of the band. Blessedly, there is actually footage of this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QdBKoiPE78Y) and an encore of “Sine Wave” that played Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream” speech over it. And, of course, “My Father, My King”; one of the most intense transcendent musical experiences I’ve ever had.

1/1

Tue, 08 Nov 2011 08:57:34 -0500

Tumblr doesn’t allow for URL titles to include “/’, so instead of calling this blog “1/1” I’ve decided on “first track, first side” (since, I wasn’t able to use 16:30 either). “1/1” is the first song on Music for Airports. It’s the first track on side one of the vinyl, and it’s play time is 16:30. I figured I’d start this tumblr, which will primarily be about music, with what I consider the atom of my musical preferences. It’s just about the cleanest song I know. It’s minimal, it’s nearly non-existent at points, and, if you listen close and long enough, it strangely becomes a melting, slow as molasses version of “Frère Jacques” for a few notes. The history behind Eno’s ambient music is quick and interesting. He was laid up in the hospital after a car wreck, and due to a body cast, he couldn’t turn up the volume of the radio that played in his room. It was just quiet enough to hear, but would mix with other field sounds and come in and out. Just enough to amplify the sounds of what was around him, but not loud enough to fully devote attention to every note. It mixed with everything else, and he got ideas.

In turn, Music for Airports, and “1/1” in particular has given me countless instances of ideas and epiphanies, it’s helped me fall asleep, it’s helped me concentrate, it’s helped me invent an (so far, fictional) idea for time travel, etc. The power of “1/1” has allowed me to reset myself, to decompress and start fresh with the way I feel and has quieted jumbled and often chaotic thought and brought everything back to ground. The album title itself is curious because Music for Airports was played as an installation piece in New York’s LaGuardia Airport in the Marine Air Terminal to help soothe the bedlam that is often found in airports. I wish this album was played everywhere, all of the time in hopes that our world might calm down a little bit (perhaps, without even being aware of it).

“1/1”

Tue, 08 Nov 2011 08:56:18 -0500

“1/1”