Apropos of absolutely nothing, here’s the newest internet meme that probably won’t sweep the nation but whatever, it’s ridiculous: Selleck Waterfall Sandwich. The complicated premise here is that you take a picture of actor Tom Selleck, you take a picture of a waterfall, and you take a picture of a sandwich and you just MASH ‘EM ALL TOGETHER. What you end up with is magic. And by magic, I mean an actor, water, and deli meat. How can you even go wrong?
Now, two things: first, I know this has nothing to do with music, but, well, sandwiches. Second, some of the pictures are animated! Wakka wakka! *fart noise*
Best news of the weekday past hour! Marching Band, those Swedish wunderkinds, are back! The duo is set to release a sophomore LP entitled Pop Cycle in May 2010 on U & L Records. Pop Cycle is said to be slightly darker than Spark Large, which has to be expected, considering Spark Large had some of the sunniest, jangliest indie pop ever (it also made my honorable mentions list for best of ‘08). Plus, every band loves to get darker and more introspective on sophomore albums, am I right? Feel free to prove me wrong (ok, fine, there are obviously some out there but not many).
Forget the variety of instruments they use in their music? Well, that would be, oh, only the xylophone, marimba, banjo, and vibraphone along with the usual guitar and drums (and occasional strings). And euphoric vocal harmonies too. Right. Cool. Marching Band in May. Oh, 2010. Check out a couple songs from Spark Large below.
Yay! One of the most awesomest songwriters you may or may not have heard of, Josh Ritter, has just announced his sixth album, So Runs the World Away, will be released on May 4th in the U.S. This will be his first since 2007’s The Historical Conquests of Josh Ritter, and it will also be yet another awesome album coming out in 2010.
But I won’t swoon too much this time. Here’s a brand new song, “Change of Time,” for your listening pleasure. And a short teaser video with a clip from another song. And a message from the man himself. Basically, I’m just showering you with gifts today. Like Santa. Respect.
“So Runs the World Away” took me over a year to make. I’m proud of the fact that I’ve never recorded a song for a record that I didn’t believe in absolutely and that didn’t feel, in its writing, recording, and performance, like a moment of real inspiration. I love the songs on this record so much, and my thanks go to my incredible and talented band, my family, and my family of listeners wherever they may be in this fast-spinning world.
LOST started up again this week. You probably didn’t know that, so I thought I should tell you. If you did, you definitely weren’t reading Knox Road and instead spending your time creating and dissecting all of the theories and conspiracies the island has to offer for this final season. Well, then, what happened on Knox Road, you say? Have a peek.
*Pick of the Week* motel de moka: “Top 200 Tracks of the 2000’s Pt. 6″ If you haven’t been reading Moka the past few weeks you’re missing out on something special. The crew there is breaking down their top songs of the 2000’s with playlists for each one depending on the sound. Also, there are so many unheard of gems, as is the norm for motel de moka.
Old news, you guys: Sunny Day Real Estate played some shows a while back! I probably heard it was going down when the band announced it months ago, but I had never really been a fan of the band, so I didn’t care too much. Now, I’m not going to say that this video you’re about to watch converted me or anything, but instead solidified my growing adoration for the Seattle group.
This particular performance is from Late Night with Jimmy Fallon from late September 2009, and, excuse my French, but I quite like it. The band’s not really bopping around much or destroying the set (see: At the Drive-In, Mute Math), but the spot-on performance of the song “Seven” really just speaks for itself.
What better for a crazy blizzard than a Mixery? For those who don’t know, this is iTunes Mixery part nueve (nine). Here’s how it goes: I play iTunes on shuffle -> tell you which song comes up -> provide the mp3 and a tidbit -> continue until five songs and embarrassment are complete. Again, nothing’s off-limits – I don’t “fix the mix”. Have a look into my life…
Matthew Ryan – “Everybody Always Leaves” [MP3] (from From A Late Night Rise). Ryan is one of my favorite folk artists, so I’m happy this one popped up. His baritone vocals usually are sing-speak, though I’d argue this one has a little more sing. It’s also fairly electronic. Folktronica from Matthew Ryan!
The Mommyheads – “Angels And Weathermen” (from You’re Not A Dream). I’ll be honest, this is the first time I’ve listened to this song in over a year. Why? Because I have way too much music, that’s why. I know, it’s no excuse. “Angels and Weatherman” is a funky, rhythmic ditty from these guys who broke up in, let’s see…1998. They reunited to record You’re Not A Dream, which was released in ‘08.
Caribou – “Odessa” [MP3] (from the upcoming Swim | 4/20). Haha, seriously? I’m going through a Mixery of my entire iTunes library and a song I just received a week ago closes it out? Oh, Mixeries. How you continue to surprise! So, yeah…Swim is a much anticipated follow-up to 2007’s Andorra. Canadian Dan Snaith is the man behind Caribou, with electronic psychedelia as the backbone to a filled out, blissful sound.
Tuscaloosa’s Squirrelhouse dropped us a very brief e-mail that included two new tracks, “All That Shit” and “Jolene.” The songs are way more mature and developed than their earlier material. Very good music these guys are making! I remember back when they were sending press pictures shot in their little basement (so fast they grow up!). The e-mail also assured that they will soon be on the road and releasing a new album soon. Details to come (??)!
Ne’er did a sentence scar as deep as that one. I can still hear the words coming out my father’s mouth when I did something particularly stupid as a teenager. Disappointment: one of the miseries of life. Be it a result of the loss of a favorite t-shirt or when the surprise birthday party you’ve been carefully planning is carelessly revealed to the once-unknowing celebrant, we’ve all been there.
Several months ago as I descended the stairs of my favorite basement record shop I was met by a mountain of (mostly UK) magazines and newspapers. Boxes and boxes arranged chronologically, some spine-up, some not: Musician. Q. Melody Maker. NME. Select. Uncut. Guitar. Decades of musical history could be accounted for on the yellowing pages. All of it ripe for the picking…all for me.
There is a method to perusing such a goldmine. When faced with a delicious media treasure, I first search for the name of my all time favorite band. The chronology of said periodicals made this very easy. Scouring 1985 through the present I was unhappy to find zero about my hero, Kevin Shields (and entourage), but soon moved on, made a second pass and selected a few gems featuring stories about the The Stone Roses, Madchester and battles between turntable brands, all at the low, low price of twenty-five cents a piece. Still salivating, fingers dirty, I looked at the whole of the collection once more and stopped. I turned to the owner,
“Somebody died, didn’t they?”
He nodded affirmatively. The surviving loved ones gave everything to the shop. They unloaded it. This changed the situation considerably. I looked closer.
I learned that he (I imagine a ‘he’) was a John Lennon fan. Not the Beatles so much, as there were newspapers from all across the globe dated December 9, 1980 lovingly protected with a layer of cellophane food wrapping, yet virtually nothing chronicling the British invasion. Elvis Costello seemed a favorite and the collector (or someone he knew, I’ll bet) wrote a DIY ‘zine, the name of which escapes me now, though I recall typewritten pages, several copies of the same issue, being Xeroxed in black and white, stapled and dated 1970-something. His collection was well-worn, not meant for a museum. I couldn’t help but think there had to be someone close to him who could, who should, inherit it; someone to care for it, add to it, keep it alive. Looking down from that pearly-gated, invite-only gig in the sky, he had to be disappointed. Truly.
I bought the magazines. I broke up the collection. Flipping the pages slowly (and a little sheepishly) over time, the adverts about the newest latest in hi-fi, the dawning of the Compact Disc and a new LP review of Pills’N’Thrills And Bellyaches before we knew it was going to make history were highly entertaining. It all made me happy, joyful even.
The music lover’s abandoned collection is still in the shop, or should I say the remains of it are. Every time I visit it is smaller and smaller and I always give a look-see to check if something special was missed the time before (or the time before the time before). His collection does live on – in the collections of many other people, including my own, and is still growing. At one time I pictured him shaking his head in disappointment at the mishandling of something he cherished so very much; I now like to believe he’s quite okay with it. I would be.
I don’t know that the bedroom solo projects of people recording under monikers will come to an end anytime soon. Sure, we’ve heard the “chillwave” of Washed Out and Toro Y Moi and we’ve heard the lo-fi experimental stuff of tUnE-YaRdS and U.S. Girls, not to mention countless others (Wavves, to mention one glaring omission), but now we have Twin Shadow (aka George Lewis). Like the others, he’s great. Just a fact. He’ll be releasing some sort of EP this year on the up-and-coming Terrible Records.
If 2008 was the year for lo-fi and 2009 was the year for thoughtful experimentation (not necessarily so, but), perhaps 2010 will be the year for thoughtful lo-fi experimentation. Perhaps. Or perhaps it will just be the year that U.S. Girls came onto the scene with a wonderfully lo-fi experimental album that fuses basic tribal elements with haunting synth and her own raw emotions. (Think a more intense and less-cutesy tUnE-YaRdS.)
Go Grey is the second full-length release by Megan Remy, who under the moniker U.S. Girls makes very impulsive-driven songs that typically use only one or very few sounds and might seem just as appropriate in a modern art museum as in your iTunes. Like I said, this is experimental stuff, and I don’t mean “Lady Gaga wore Kermit the Frog heads” experimental. Remy seems to play off her emotions rather than long, overwrought song writing, so the songs are less “traditional” and more “something else entirely.”
Hallucinogenic images would seem all too fitting for Go Grey, because the thing is practically an acid trip and a half. That’s not to say there isn’t any diversity in the music. “Red For Radio,” is as wonderfully stripped down as you can get and showcases a rare moment in which we can understand what Remy is saying (please! More! I bet your lyrics are wonderful!). But opening track “Turnaround Time” plays more like a haunted, futuristic tribal anthem, which seems to be her specialty. Further down the track list is “I Don’t Have a Mind Of My Own,” which sounds a lot like a cover of some 70s punk song. The girl does it all, what can I say?
After nine songs and less than 30 minutes, Go Grey is a beautiful album if you enjoy both: A. Very lo-fi and B. People making music that doesn’t sound like what you traditionally consider “music.” If you’re not down with either one of those counts, you might have trouble with U.S. Girls, but I’m not so sure that Megan Remy gives a shit about that.
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