Posts published during June, 2009

06/22/2009

dirty projectors – stillness is the move

dirty projectors and bjork

my history with dirty projectors is a short one, but they seem to be turning up everywhere i look. first i heard their duet with david byrne – knotty pine – which is the opening track of the red hot compilation “dark was the night”, and i liked it quite a bit. then i read about their show in new york with bjork. i guess they wrote some original music for five voices and performed at housing works bookstore in new york city with bjork. the show was to benefit housing works, which according to their site works to end the twin crises of aids and homelessness. i wonder if bjork approached them or vice versa. either way, maybe the coolest thing ever. then i heard todays track and loved it. then i was walking to fill up my water at bonnaroo and was lucky enough to walk by their show and catch a few minutes of it. i never really searched out any of these things, so i feel like they are following me, but in a really good way.

then after all this happened, i remembered a video i stumbled upon many moons ago, long before id even heard of dirty projectors. it was on perhaps the coolest site ever for music fans – la blogotheque. this site does a bunch of what it calls “take-away shows”. basically, they pick all of your favorite musicians and film them performing in every day places. like arcade fire in an elevator. and yeasayer at some french apartment afterparty. warning: you may be compelled to watch every single video here, and i think there are about 100. dont say i didnt warn you, but you can thank me later if you havent already been fortunate enough to stumble upon this site. but sure enough i looked back and the crazy man and harmonizing three women that i remembered (although it turns out that the lineup changes up quite a bit) were in fact dirty projectors performing in, yes, some random mcdonalds.

so todays newish song is off their new album “bitte orca” and is rather funky if you ask me. one thing thats for sure is that these ladies can hit the high notes and really belt it out like its their job, which technically i guess it is. this jam, along with the other numerous appearances dirty projectors have made in my life recently (see above) have definitely peaked my curiosity in this group. does anyone have any other recommendations about where to start in their catalogue? something tells me that the sounds of “stillness is the move” are not really their usual sounds and that they are pretty versatile. i only wish i had stayed to catch the rest of their set last week.

UPDATE!!!! its happened yet again. apparently on tuesday, just one day after my post, the band was in a pretty bad car accident, just outside of detroit, aka where i live. fortunately everyone is OK and they are home resting now.

dirty projectors – stillness is the move

Dirty Projectors - Bitte Orca - Stillness Is the Move buy this track on itunes
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06/21/2009

my morning jacket – it beats 4 u

my morning jacket

my morning jacket is one of those groups that sort of snuck up on me. id heard about them for a while but for some reason, i thought it was going to be some sort of mtv punk group that i hated, a la fallout boy. so imagine my surprise when i heard their album z for the first time. not even close to anything i thought it would be. then i discovered the rest of their catalog and was fortunate enough to see them at the state theater last fall, and that just sealed the deal for me. definitely a top show ever. we actually got really lucky that we even got to see them because just 3 days after our show, the group was performing another show in, i think, chicago? or somewhere around there, when singer jim james slipped and fell and had to cancel a bunch of shows in the next few weeks (i actually have no idea how many shows were cancelled).

basically if you ever have a chance to see them live, you take it and ask questions later, at which time you wont have to ask any questions. the group is a bit of a regular at bonnaroo having played 5 or 6 of the 8 years the festival has been around. the other interesting fact that comes to mind is that singer jim james (im not sure if its the rest of the band or not) makes an insanely weird cameo in the insanely weird biopic (pronounced by’-oh-pic, not by-ah’-pic) “im not there”. it took me probably an hour to realize that all the weird characters were supposed to represent a stage in bob dylans life, but seriously, that movie went right over my head, and i usually like weird movies. but i definitely remember being more confused when suddenly my morning jacket was in the old west singing a song.

there were literally millions upon millions of songs i could have chosen from their repertoire and i would have been content. but in the end, the lucky winner was “it beats 4 u”. the first reason i chose this song is because it is awesome and i think it sums up mmjs sound quite nicely. the second reason is the use of text speak in the song title. the third is because i like to think that the whistler near the end of the song is andrew bird because really who else can whistle like that in the world? but then i also think it would be a random pairing…….

……so i just looked it up, and it turns out that andrew bird AND m. ward both appear on this album, and that andrew bird has also appeared on about a million other albums. without further ado, enjoy the show.

my morning jacket – it beats 4 u

My Morning Jacket - Z - It Beats 4 U buy this track on itunes
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06/20/2009

department of eagles – no one does it like you

department of eagles

well kids, im officially done watching the wire. the hbo series that has engulfed my life for the past several weeks. it was good, really really really good. favorite characters – clay davis, omar, snoop. clay davis, because he says “sheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeit” all the time and is a ridiculous state senator (nate told me hes based on a real maryland state senator). omar, because hes omar, and says “oh indeeeed”. omar comin’! and snoop, because it took me about 2 seasons to be sure that snoop was a woman. gt told me that snoop used to be exactly like her character in real life and that she talks like that too. id like to meet snoop. also, the montage was very insightful and both happy and sad. it also sort of sets up “the wire: the new class” or “the wire: the college years”. just like on saved by the bell:the college years, all of the characters from the wire will live in a co-ed, ridiculously oversized, pimped out dorm suite. it will be the cops on one side of the suite and the drug dealers on the other side. i cant wait to see all of the hilarious hijinx those crazy kids get themselves into this time!

on to the music. perhaps the best part of this project for me (other than the fact that i actually have something to pass the time other than watching 6 one-hour episodes of a show in one day) is that doing my 5 minutes of research per post gains me a wealth of knowledge and dispels many false thoughts that i once had in my head. for example, i knew that daniel rossen of grizzly bear was also a member of department of eagles. in fact, i was under the impression that department of eagles was in fact a side project of grizzly bear. however, since department of eagles formed in 2001 and the first grizzly bear album wasnt released until 2004, it would seem to be quite the opposite. how crazy is that? yeah, i guess its not that crazy, but that dont mean that its not surprising. i also thought that “in ear park” was the first department of eagles album, but thats definitely not the case at all. the good news for me is that they share a very similar sound with grizzly bear, who you may have noticed im rather fond of, so the more albums the merrier.

there is an internal debate right now about which song im going to post. im deciding between “in ear park” and “no one does it like you”. i really like the happy louder part at the end of “in ear park”, but i also really like the “i tried so hard” part of “no one does it like you”. but, im going to go ahead with “no one does it like you”, based on its mass appeal and overall excellence. the first time i heard this, the “i tried so hard” part reminded me of a citizen cope song, but i didnt know which one since im not up on the citizen cope. but then i saw citizen cope this past weekend and realized the song i was thinking of is the “every single day im alive” song, and i also realized that they dont really sound that much alike, so i felt a little better about things. i defy you to not think this is a great song. if you dont, you are probably a pedophile, a necrophiliac or a gangbanger. or youre just not that into this tune.

department of eagles – no one does it like you

Department of Eagles - In Ear Park - No One Does It Like You buy this track on itunes
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06/19/2009

for squirrels – mighty KC

for squirrels

ah, to be in 7th grade again. actually, i would really want to be in 7th grade because thats in that weird 10-13 year old age group where just about every kid is super awkward. its also just young enough that you cant ever do anything fun. but one thing that was good about 7th grade was the emergence of mid-90s alternative rock. what wasnt to love about it? while my tastes have certainly changed since then, there are still a few tracks i keep going back to. and yes, i ended a sentence with a preposition, deal with it.

todays track, mighty kc by now defunct gainesville natives for squirrels, is exactly what the title says – my favorite song in 7th grade. i seriously remember listening to this song over and over and over, which is weird. its kind of weird that i even ever got this album because i heard the song a few times on 89x and never caught the band or title but somehow managed to figure it out on my own. that must have been right around the time that the internet became pretty popular though. pretty sure i had an aol account at that time and that i would waste away hours talking to classmates at night about absolutely nothing because we were silly 7th graders with no real problems or concerns, except who was dating who, which translates to who says they were dating who, since thats really all dating was back then.

i also have a vivid memory of us listening to the radio in class one day – im not sure why we were allowed to listen to the radio this particular day – and this song coming on, and someone talking about how one of the band members died in a car accident. turns out it was actually two band members and their manager, so theres also a pretty sad story associated with this group. after a little research, whats especially creepy is that this track was written about the death of kurt cobain (which i didnt know until just now, but it makes sense given the title of the song), so there are many allusions to death and the afterlife. the track and album were set to be released on october 3 of 1995, and the accident that claimed 3 members of the for squirrels family took place just under a month before the release date. kind of gives this understated song a whole new unintended meaning and is almost like a tribute to the deceased band members, written well before their untimely deaths.

ps. i promise to be much less of a downer tomorrow. but on a happier note, its friday bitches.

for squirrels – mighty kc

For Squirrels - Example - Mighty K.C. buy this track on itunes
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06/18/2009

tilly and the wall – bad education

tilly and the wall

one month in the books kids. as of today weve brought you exactly (actually a few more than) 30 totally awesome songs and plan on bringing you at least a few more over the coming days, weeks, years, centuries and millenia (right? not milleniums?). its sort of like making a mix tape every single week, except i dont have to worry about the songs fitting together in any sort of way. except if theres a theme week which there will be very very soon. then they will all fit together in some way. and that will be cohesive and good.

what is also exciting about today is that the lollapalooza schedule was released. im a bit disappointed in the schedule because out of the 6 headliners, i really only wanted to see two: kings of leon and depeche mode. and of course because i have no luck when it comes to festival scheduling, they are both playing at the same time on the first night. im definitely seeing depeche mode since i just saw kings of leon a few months back, but its still a little upsetting. other notable conflicts are fleet foxes vs crystal castles (crystal castles wins as i havent seen them), thievery corporation vs decemberists (likely gonna choose decemberists), lykke li vs tv on the radio, and silversun pickups vs mstrkrft vs band of horses. all in all not nearly as bad as bonnaroo conflicts.

today were going to bring you the quasi flamenco track “bad education” from nebraskan foot percussionists tilly and the wall. this was the first song id heard by them and instantly loved the foot stomping and clapping percussion and thought it fit well with the music of this song but i later found out that they dont even have a drummer and instead use tap dancer jamie pressnall for percussion. how cool is that? whats also interesting is that several of their members came from various conor oberst projects. and sorry bright eyes, but i think i like them just a little bit more. im kind of in love with the beat in this song and it would be sweet even if it was played on drums and not with metal bottomed shoes, but those make it even better.

tilly and the wall – bad education

Tilly and the Wall - Bottoms of Barrels - Bad Education buy this track on itunes
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06/17/2009

these modern socks – no one’s gonna miss me

these modern socks

now that im finally back to some sense of normalcy after a weekend of insanity and sleeplessness, its time to present this years bonnaroo lineup with some awards:

best show of the weekend – tie between wilco and phishs second performance

sweatiest performer with tightest clothing – bruce springsteen

best performance i didnt want to go to that turned out to be awesome – amadou and mariam

performance that was as eerie and unique as i hoped for and lived up to all my expectations – yeasayer

biggest disappointment – mgmt. im sure the show was great in the tent but we were so far back and there was some malfunction with the second set of speakers so we couldnt hear any bass. all the people in the tent looked like they were having fun and i heard it sounded great in there.

favorite bar of the weekend – the fruit bar. we subsisted mostly on bars for the weekend. granola bars, fruit bars, all bran bars, etc. but the fruit bar is ridiculously good. its basically a really soft fruit roll up thats about an inch thick. i need to find out if its available in america.

best footwear for the weekend – sanuks – wore them all 3 days with no problems whatsoever.

favorite vendor food – the chicken kabobs from the areppa stands.

shows i most wanted to see but missed because of exhaustion/conflicts – band of horses, phoenix, crystal castles, paul oakenfold, yeah yeah yeahs, grizzly bear.

any other categories youre curious about?

so that about sums it up. the rain was pretty bad on the drive down on thursday but after that it didnt rain again the whole weekend and the mud was minimal and very avoidable which made things about a zillion times better than they would have been. now that bonnaroo is over, you can get excited to hear me talk nonstop about my next getaway to pitchfork festival in chicago for my second year there.

back to the music. todays track is no ones gonna miss me by minneapolis band these modern socks. this group is pretty much electro-pop goodness. i especially like the spaceyness (fake word alert), the the unassuming drumbeat, and the bass explosion near the end of the song. its kind of a pretty sad song, both pretty and sad. kind of like my return home after bonnaroo. pretty because i get to take showers and sleep in beds now, but sad because the excitement is over and im going back to work tomorrow.

these modern socks – no ones gonna miss me

These Modern Socks - Picking a Lock At the Speed of Light - No One's Gonna Miss Me buy this track on itunes
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06/16/2009

the white stripes – im bound to pack it up

meg white of the white stripes

i have a funny family story involving the white stripes. its not funny at all unless you know the parties involved and since most of you dont, im pretty sure this wont be funny at all. in fact, you probably wont talk to me ever again after reading this. but 2 or 3 summers ago, way way after the white stripes became uber-famous, one of my cousins got a text from another cousin that just said “hey, have you ever heard of the white strips?” and i know he wasnt talking about white strips. funny, right? and then i found 5 dollars.

truth be told, i was a little late to the white stripes train, but not too much i guess. i do have my old roommate bobby to thank for introducing me to them freshmen year, even if that son of a bitch tricked me in the process. he would often listen to todays track, im bound to pack it up, from their album de stijl, and one day i asked him who it was by and he told me the beatles. and ill be damned if i didnt believe him for a good 3 months until i tried to find this elusive beatles song with no luck. i know hes probably reading this right now with that big goofy smile getting the last laugh, but youll get yours bobby, youll get yours. of course meaning that im going to destroy him in mario kart wii, perhaps the best game ever.

was it really that naive of me to believe him though? with maybe the exception of the last verse where jack white sings way up high and almost hits the note he planned on (part of the beauty of this track), it really could be mistaken for a beatles song with the simple guitar and percussion, vocals that could arguably mistaken for a beatle (again with the exception of the end of the song), and the once-strummed final chord is vintage beatles. and what about the “ba-da-ba-da-ba-baaaahs” interspersed within the chorus? yeah, pretty sure nobody would ever make that mistake but me. this is also a ridiculously easy song to play if youre just learning guitar, so its got that going for it too, which is nice. this is the grit of the white stripes (strips?) at its finest.

side note : to insert the little player below theres a bit of code i have to type every time, including the word “titles”, and without fail, it always makes me think of “ill take famous titties for $500.”

the white stripes – im bound to pack it up


The White Stripes - De Stijl - I'm Bound to Pack It Up buy this track on itunes
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06/15/2009

metric – help im alive

metric

im going to write this post based on how im expecting this day to go. then we can play a fun game and compare my predictions with how i actually feel and see how close i was. ready? go. i feel funny. whats happening to me? i cant see aaaaanything. is this real life? ive barely slept the past 4 nights, ive eaten nothing but garbage, i havent showered in what feels like weeks, and i have to sit in a packed minivan for the next 10 hours. but boy was it worth it! lets just say im very happy that i took tomorrow off work for my recovery day because im definitely going to need it. i may need the rest of today just to take the best shower ever since im maybe the dirtiest ive ever been right now.

while im counting down the minutes until said minivan ride is over and said shower is scheduled to begin, i thought id share with you a track by canadian rock group metric, led by the tantalizing emily haines, whos also a former member of canadian collective broken social scene. when i first started listening to broken social scene, i thought it was strange that there were upwards of 10 members at any given moment in the group but didnt think much of it. then i slowly began to realize how many of the members had other successful projects of their own. but i guess i dont know if these peoples groups were famous because of broken social scene or vice versa.

this song is the opening track of metrics latest album fantasies and is really one of the first songs to be considered for posting in the early infancy of this site (nearly 4 weeks ago. holy cow!). i think the reason i dig it so much is because it has so many distinct themes. theres the theme of the verses, the “beating like a hammer” theme and the chorus theme. and they alternate between major and minor, which makes it even more interesting. i think down the road i will have to post the excessively good twelves remix of this song, which i think ive talked about before, but want to let the album version soak into your brains first so you can fully appreciate the magic.

metric – help im alive

Metric - Fantasies - Help I'm Alive buy this track on itunes
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