Friday, January 16, 2009
MRI Lightpainting on NPR Science Friday
Ha, it's official. The NPR video just came out and it looks AWESOME. My internet anonymity is shattered but who cares this is sweet.
MRI Lightpainting on NPR Science Friday
Thursday, January 08, 2009
Jay Reatard Sums up my attitudes toward singles vs. albums
Found this in the Onion A.V. Club Interview with Jay Reatard and it spoke to me. I am an album-tard, and find myself seeking singles to define my musical tastes. Here, Jay puts this psychosis in a way I never could.
AVC: You seem to value immediacy in your music. Does that mean you prefer the singles format to albums?
JR: I prefer it in the instant-gratification way, in the same way that smoking crack will make you feel fucking amazing instantly, but probably working out and eating Spirulina for fucking two years in the long run will be more fulfilling for you. That's what LPs and singles are to me. A single is really quick, man. You can get it out, and in two months have it on your merch table. And albums can take a really long time. But when you get done with an album, it's a lot more fulfilling.
Jay Reatard
AVC: You seem to value immediacy in your music. Does that mean you prefer the singles format to albums?
JR: I prefer it in the instant-gratification way, in the same way that smoking crack will make you feel fucking amazing instantly, but probably working out and eating Spirulina for fucking two years in the long run will be more fulfilling for you. That's what LPs and singles are to me. A single is really quick, man. You can get it out, and in two months have it on your merch table. And albums can take a really long time. But when you get done with an album, it's a lot more fulfilling.
Jay Reatard
Joe Tower
Hey Everyone,
So I just stumbled across my good friend Joey's new blog. Along with being one of my oldest friends, Joey is a hell of a guy, a brilliant designer, with great taste in movies/music/media (Anathema and Chelsea Lately notwithstanding).
Check out his blog here, highly recommended.
The Joe Tower Graphic Design Blog
Enjoy,
Your Mom
So I just stumbled across my good friend Joey's new blog. Along with being one of my oldest friends, Joey is a hell of a guy, a brilliant designer, with great taste in movies/music/media (Anathema and Chelsea Lately notwithstanding).
Check out his blog here, highly recommended.
The Joe Tower Graphic Design Blog
Enjoy,
Your Mom
Tuesday, January 06, 2009
Drew Was Right About This Band
I'm a black hole where personal music recommendations go to die. Ask anyone. Many times a friend has recommended something revelatory to me. Some piece of music that changed their life in the most profound ways imaginable. Standard procedure for this is to say, "Oh sweet, [produced by Albini/featuring Keak Da Sneak/remixed by Timbo and Venetian Snares]? Nice", listen to it for 40 seconds, find myself unmoved, and go back to listening to Psalm 69 again for the 7,000th time.
I am an (pardon the stupid new word here) "experiential" music listener. Like many people, music generally only resonates with me when it has an attachment to a moment, a specific blank in time that can only be colored by a very specific song or album. Usually just a song though. Key goes into lock. Enlightenment follows.
A big recommend-er in my life is my friend Drew (way better writer than me). It seems Drew stumbles across life changing music daily. Good for him, but I can't tell you how many times he's tried to get me to "discover" The Ex, or The Birthday Party, or R.A. The Rugged Man, or mewithoutyou...holy shit...that one about 16 times in the last year. I'm sure all of this music is great, but it never hits me when it counts. If the only good Ex album happened to be playing the first time I did a whippet, or if a mewithoutyou song came on while I was feeling guilty about skipping Sunday School, I might be able to match his enthusiasm. But yea, none of this has happened, so I flail and genuinely have no opinion at all on the music (although I might make one up).
Until now. A few weeks ago, Drew sent me a song by this band, Manchester Orchestra. I don't know jack about them so if they happen to be your favorite band in the damn world, or if they happen to have a really fucking lame LJ community that I am "dissing" right now, save it. I'm lucky to even remember their name.
Anyway, the song, "Lid" sat in my itunes, until I came across it by accident yesterday and it moved me. It's earnest as hell, but hey, it can't all be irony and referential Vampire Weekend horseshit all the time. There's enough of that out there. Sometimes you need a building teeth-gritting confessional about heartbreak, murderous thoughts, and a final line as simultaneously devastating and beautiful as the last scene of that movie Let The Right One In (see it).
It really is a great song. The singer sort of reminds me of Built to Spill, and the earnest emotion sounds like a different world to ears steeped in minimal electronic blippery, noise, industrial, shitty rap, and hipster disco nonsense for the last few years. So...uhh....yeah. I took the long way to say this one worked out. So, thanks Drew.
BONUS: I will say though, that, recommendations aside, my musical experiences WITH Drew have been more profound than not. A brief list of highlights. Most of which involve a car.
1. The time he picked me up from a bar, or a party, or something with a bunch of his friends and we blasted Alan Parsons' Tales of Mystery and Imagination REALLY loud (especially "The Raven") and sang along. Best. Album. Ever.
2. Anything involving Strapping Young Lad's "City". Especially the time we dressed up like Coke dealers, put that album on and drove to my friends 18th birthday at Deja Vu (strip club).
3. The night we got extremely high and drove to see System of a Down and Slipknot at Target Center. We put on Buck 65 and got so into whatever album it was that we got unbelievably lost in our own hometown, only to show up a little bit late for System of a Down.
4. That System of a Down Show.
Selected Bibliography:
Alan Parsons - Dream Within a Dream/The Raven. Not the official video...if there is one, I'll eat my hat.
Strapping Young Lad - "Detox"
Buck 65 - "Pants on Fire"
I am an (pardon the stupid new word here) "experiential" music listener. Like many people, music generally only resonates with me when it has an attachment to a moment, a specific blank in time that can only be colored by a very specific song or album. Usually just a song though. Key goes into lock. Enlightenment follows.
A big recommend-er in my life is my friend Drew (way better writer than me). It seems Drew stumbles across life changing music daily. Good for him, but I can't tell you how many times he's tried to get me to "discover" The Ex, or The Birthday Party, or R.A. The Rugged Man, or mewithoutyou...holy shit...that one about 16 times in the last year. I'm sure all of this music is great, but it never hits me when it counts. If the only good Ex album happened to be playing the first time I did a whippet, or if a mewithoutyou song came on while I was feeling guilty about skipping Sunday School, I might be able to match his enthusiasm. But yea, none of this has happened, so I flail and genuinely have no opinion at all on the music (although I might make one up).
Until now. A few weeks ago, Drew sent me a song by this band, Manchester Orchestra. I don't know jack about them so if they happen to be your favorite band in the damn world, or if they happen to have a really fucking lame LJ community that I am "dissing" right now, save it. I'm lucky to even remember their name.
Anyway, the song, "Lid" sat in my itunes, until I came across it by accident yesterday and it moved me. It's earnest as hell, but hey, it can't all be irony and referential Vampire Weekend horseshit all the time. There's enough of that out there. Sometimes you need a building teeth-gritting confessional about heartbreak, murderous thoughts, and a final line as simultaneously devastating and beautiful as the last scene of that movie Let The Right One In (see it).
It really is a great song. The singer sort of reminds me of Built to Spill, and the earnest emotion sounds like a different world to ears steeped in minimal electronic blippery, noise, industrial, shitty rap, and hipster disco nonsense for the last few years. So...uhh....yeah. I took the long way to say this one worked out. So, thanks Drew.
BONUS: I will say though, that, recommendations aside, my musical experiences WITH Drew have been more profound than not. A brief list of highlights. Most of which involve a car.
1. The time he picked me up from a bar, or a party, or something with a bunch of his friends and we blasted Alan Parsons' Tales of Mystery and Imagination REALLY loud (especially "The Raven") and sang along. Best. Album. Ever.
2. Anything involving Strapping Young Lad's "City". Especially the time we dressed up like Coke dealers, put that album on and drove to my friends 18th birthday at Deja Vu (strip club).
3. The night we got extremely high and drove to see System of a Down and Slipknot at Target Center. We put on Buck 65 and got so into whatever album it was that we got unbelievably lost in our own hometown, only to show up a little bit late for System of a Down.
4. That System of a Down Show.
Selected Bibliography:
Alan Parsons - Dream Within a Dream/The Raven. Not the official video...if there is one, I'll eat my hat.
Strapping Young Lad - "Detox"
Buck 65 - "Pants on Fire"
Monday, January 05, 2009
Happy New Year + K'Naan + MRI
HAPPY FRIGGIN NEW YEAR!
Lets kick some major ass in the next one.
So my K'Naan feature made it to MetroPop a while back and I forgot to post about it. I like the feature, but due to the space constraints of writing for a magazine, I am not entirely happy with the result. The reason - K'Naan doesnt really fit into a one page article - you could seriously write a book on the mans life and the topics he brings up. Article notwithstanding, my interview with him was an amazing experience, and thanks to my mentor/editor at Metropop for turning it into something readable.
K'Naan Feature on Metropop.com
Other than that, its been a good one so far. I've got a lot of things I'd like to write about, so hopefully I get around to that. In the meantime, MRI has a new post up, so go check it out.
MRI Lightpainting
Take 'er easy, dude.
Lets kick some major ass in the next one.
So my K'Naan feature made it to MetroPop a while back and I forgot to post about it. I like the feature, but due to the space constraints of writing for a magazine, I am not entirely happy with the result. The reason - K'Naan doesnt really fit into a one page article - you could seriously write a book on the mans life and the topics he brings up. Article notwithstanding, my interview with him was an amazing experience, and thanks to my mentor/editor at Metropop for turning it into something readable.
K'Naan Feature on Metropop.com
Other than that, its been a good one so far. I've got a lot of things I'd like to write about, so hopefully I get around to that. In the meantime, MRI has a new post up, so go check it out.
MRI Lightpainting
Take 'er easy, dude.
Tuesday, December 23, 2008
Top anything of anything 08
NO TIME TO WRITE THIS BUT IM GOING TO ANYWAY. IM BOARDING A FLIGHT IN 3 HOURS TO FLY HOME AND IM STILL AT WORK MAD SHIT TO DO BUT IM GOING TO DO THIS ANYWAY BALLS BALLS BALLS. THERE IS NO ORDER, NO LAW, THIS WILL BE HORRIBLY EDITED AND MOST OF IT PROBABLY WONT WORK BUT WHO GIVES A RATS ASS THESE KIND OF THINGS ARE ASININE ANYWAY.
1. Mae Shi - Run To Your Grave (Live at the sweaty-crack Market Hotel in Brooklyn this summer)
Ant and I got half naked for this one, not cuz we're gay or nothin' but because if we didn't, we would have DIED. The inverse of two naked dudes - one hypothermic, one not - spoonin' each other naked in a sleeping bag. We really do do this all the time.
2. Bourbon Ball French Toast at Lynn's Paradise Cafe in Louisville.
Somehow this video got like a billion views. I don't blame anyone who watched 30 seconds of this, but half a minute with this little beauty was not long enough. As Goldie said of the time he slept with Naomi Campbell, "I had to whack off like 4 times before I did it so I could last longer". Thats how this French Toast was for me...only without the drum and bass and gross-ness.
3. Lil' Wayne "A Milli" live in the round on FNMTV
Not only is this song fucking amazing, this is one of the best performances I've ever seen. Awesome enough to snap me out of an entire year's worth of web-cruising ennui.
4. Steve Reid and Kieren Hebden - "NYC"
Not even sure if this is out yet, so if not, refresh this page at around midnight in 8 days and POOF! Relevance! I've always dug Four Tet, and I thought his other collabos with Steve Reid were worthwhile, but this is the next step, more congealed, and fuckin beautiful. I'd call it this generations "On The Corner" if we even had a "Generation" or if I ever had the patience to sit through "On The Corner"
Check Out "Lyman Place" Here
5. Hot Chip - Made In The Dark
Early 2008 was pretty sweet solely because of my intimate involvement with this record. I was tasked to write a piece about the album for Metropop, and while the piece is just OK as far as I am concerned, my time spent in the hedgemaze that is "Made In The Dark" will never be described on paper. The record is big...really big. Bigger than the tiny blokes strumming guitars that we all first heard on the Mexico EP, and their "debut" Coming On Strong. With this one, from mere mortals they became Ultraman villains, huge shifting behemoths stomping entire cites under disco boots, ultra-rare sneakers, and wrestler boots.
6. Tokyo Gore Police
90 minutes that I wouldn't take back if you paid me. 90 minutes happily devoted to the most glorious Cronenberg-ian, RoboCopping, Body Horror-ing, Penis Cannon blasting Blood Leg flying Head Exploding Pigfucking insane madness since...well...fucking...anything. See this movie. Bring your Grandma, your girlfriend, and your ex-girlfriend. Who dares wins.
Uhh... NSFW OR ANYTHING ELSE
7. Evil Nine (Ft. El-P) - "All the Cash" (Glitch Mob Remix)
Yeah I know I already wrote about this, but it will be still be brilliant for at least the rest of the year.
8. Michelle and I getting featured on NPR. Thats just sweet. Sorry for the shameless self-promo but I'm proud god damnit.
9. CHECK OUT THE TITS ON TITUBA.
Best band name ever. The rest is inconsequential.
10. Discovering Shugo Tokumaru
His closet full of tiny percussion, his weird blues/slide-guitar via Japan riffs, and the way he pronounces "Parachute".
11. This Dan Deacon Performance, and the 14 hours that led up to it. Thanks Miles and Ant (and Milos, sort of), ya fucks.
12. The Bug - London Zoo
The sequel to Kevin Martin's debut as The Bug, Pressure. Call this one "The Legend of Curly's Gold"....except...good. Martin still fucks with the dancehall sound, burying it 6 feet below a rotten strata of broken speakers and fried amplifiers, tended by a scattering cabal of paranoid maniacs and thinkers with megaphones. Turn it up and say it with me now. "Skeng".
NO TIME TO ADD ANY MORE/WRAP UP. 08 WAS AWESOME. LETS START ANOTHER ONE. ME. OUT.
1. Mae Shi - Run To Your Grave (Live at the sweaty-crack Market Hotel in Brooklyn this summer)
Ant and I got half naked for this one, not cuz we're gay or nothin' but because if we didn't, we would have DIED. The inverse of two naked dudes - one hypothermic, one not - spoonin' each other naked in a sleeping bag. We really do do this all the time.
2. Bourbon Ball French Toast at Lynn's Paradise Cafe in Louisville.
Somehow this video got like a billion views. I don't blame anyone who watched 30 seconds of this, but half a minute with this little beauty was not long enough. As Goldie said of the time he slept with Naomi Campbell, "I had to whack off like 4 times before I did it so I could last longer". Thats how this French Toast was for me...only without the drum and bass and gross-ness.
3. Lil' Wayne "A Milli" live in the round on FNMTV
Not only is this song fucking amazing, this is one of the best performances I've ever seen. Awesome enough to snap me out of an entire year's worth of web-cruising ennui.
4. Steve Reid and Kieren Hebden - "NYC"
Not even sure if this is out yet, so if not, refresh this page at around midnight in 8 days and POOF! Relevance! I've always dug Four Tet, and I thought his other collabos with Steve Reid were worthwhile, but this is the next step, more congealed, and fuckin beautiful. I'd call it this generations "On The Corner" if we even had a "Generation" or if I ever had the patience to sit through "On The Corner"
Check Out "Lyman Place" Here
5. Hot Chip - Made In The Dark
Early 2008 was pretty sweet solely because of my intimate involvement with this record. I was tasked to write a piece about the album for Metropop, and while the piece is just OK as far as I am concerned, my time spent in the hedgemaze that is "Made In The Dark" will never be described on paper. The record is big...really big. Bigger than the tiny blokes strumming guitars that we all first heard on the Mexico EP, and their "debut" Coming On Strong. With this one, from mere mortals they became Ultraman villains, huge shifting behemoths stomping entire cites under disco boots, ultra-rare sneakers, and wrestler boots.
6. Tokyo Gore Police
90 minutes that I wouldn't take back if you paid me. 90 minutes happily devoted to the most glorious Cronenberg-ian, RoboCopping, Body Horror-ing, Penis Cannon blasting Blood Leg flying Head Exploding Pigfucking insane madness since...well...fucking...anything. See this movie. Bring your Grandma, your girlfriend, and your ex-girlfriend. Who dares wins.
Uhh... NSFW OR ANYTHING ELSE
7. Evil Nine (Ft. El-P) - "All the Cash" (Glitch Mob Remix)
Yeah I know I already wrote about this, but it will be still be brilliant for at least the rest of the year.
8. Michelle and I getting featured on NPR. Thats just sweet. Sorry for the shameless self-promo but I'm proud god damnit.
9. CHECK OUT THE TITS ON TITUBA.
Best band name ever. The rest is inconsequential.
10. Discovering Shugo Tokumaru
His closet full of tiny percussion, his weird blues/slide-guitar via Japan riffs, and the way he pronounces "Parachute".
11. This Dan Deacon Performance, and the 14 hours that led up to it. Thanks Miles and Ant (and Milos, sort of), ya fucks.
12. The Bug - London Zoo
The sequel to Kevin Martin's debut as The Bug, Pressure. Call this one "The Legend of Curly's Gold"....except...good. Martin still fucks with the dancehall sound, burying it 6 feet below a rotten strata of broken speakers and fried amplifiers, tended by a scattering cabal of paranoid maniacs and thinkers with megaphones. Turn it up and say it with me now. "Skeng".
NO TIME TO ADD ANY MORE/WRAP UP. 08 WAS AWESOME. LETS START ANOTHER ONE. ME. OUT.
Monday, December 15, 2008
El-P Glitch Mob Zombies
Evil Nine (Ft. El-P) - All The Cash (Glitch Mob Remix)
Can't stop listening to this. El-P's density is his most attractive asset, and that's not a fat joke. Like most of his tracks, his lyrics are a grower, but the beat here is instantly accessible (a shower? too much). Regardless, the louder the better, and the dense lyrics ricochet off the Glitch Mob's drums like stray bullets.
Heard this at Le Pouission Rouge (worst. venue name. ever.) last weekend while Glitch Mob fucking KILLED EVERYONE...including their shitty opening act.
Thats all I got. Work has been wicked busy, and if anyone is going to be in Minneapolis next week. Call me. We drink the beers.
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