Interim

I've been grandly slacking at this website which is both fun and entertaining for me -- I don't know why. I'm sorry especially to the people who check in for new stuff. I had been planning my next post to be a thorough examination of Free Jazz called something like "On Free Jazz" or "My fist in your asshole: A guide to Free Jazz", but I didn't get to it yet. Stay tuned for that one.

I've also given up on combing my record collection. The apartment that I was going to be moving into, is no longer. I am now going to take residency in an as-yet-unconfirmed apartment in Philadelphia with my brother, Andy. As I get closer to the time of my departure, I will once again begin cataloguing my records and will give you some updates on my journey.

For now, here's a mix I made my girlfriend. I have entered this International Mixtape Project and I thought it might be interesting to look back at something I made the person closest to me and write about each song (or not). Okay:

1. Thin Lizzy - "Jailbreak" - Jailbreak: Fuck yes. Gotta kick this shit off hott. Ever since Ted Leo has been talked about in the indie press, Thin Lizzy has seen a minor revival (at least in my mind). And, yeah, Leo sounds like TL, but their brand of rock is much tighter and sweatier. This is one of their crowning achievements and an utterly fantastic driving song.
2. Neil Young - "Cinnamon Girl" - Decade (I don't know any better...got it off of iTunes...): This is, currently, my favorite Neil Young song. It's got that nice fuzzy, crunchy guitar tone and a simple, good refrain ("I wanna live with a cinnamon girl..."). My girlfriend doesn't really like Neil too much, so I put this on there to make her like him.
3. Prince - "Money Don't Matter 2 Night" - Diamonds & Pearls: Ladies love a good Prince song. It shows them that you can be sexual and non-threatening at the same time. I chose this one because I didn't think she ever heard it and it locks into a smooth sultry synth jam. This song has a great male dominance theme that women all secretly love.
4. MF Doom - "Potholderz (f/ Count Bass D)" - MM...Food: Sometimes I just choose songs because I like them at the time. This is one. I love this because of the beat and because when MF comes in for like 30 seconds he totally negates Count Bass D's (who?) rap.
5. Curtis Mayfield - "Give It Up" - Curtis: Not really sure if she digs on the Curtis like I do, but I threw this on anyways. I have a thing for Mr. Mayfield and this song closing out Curtis is prime stuff. All orchestral, harps, violins, etc. swelling up to this grand soul revue. Also, a great love song to his sweets.
   
6. Bob Marley - "Turn Your Lights Down Low" - Exodus: Another fantastic love song. I'm sure you've all heard this before. It's so nicely polished like the Prince song, and both never seem too slick.
7. The Zombies - "Time of the Season" - Odessey & Oracle: I put this on there because I needed a change of pace in the mix. This song keeps the low vibe of the Marley tune in the beginning ( all with hott mouth percussion) and then explodes into a psychedelic organ freakout.
8. The Arcade Fire - "Rebellion (Lies)" - Funeral: Another one that everyone (that reads this site) has probably heard before. I don't think she did and it's one of the better, more accessible indie songs that I like alot. So, in.
9. Built to Spill - "Carry the Zero" - Keep it Like a Secret: Ah, the meat of the mix. This song is one of my favorites of all time with that melancholy guitar strum at the beginning, the heady, squiggly solos, all the way through to the ad infinitum repeated outro. I wish I could hear them play that ending for like 10 minutes. And those damn drums at the end.
   
10. Death Cab For Cutie - "405" - We Have the Facts and We're Voting Yes: I can't say I'm suprised that they're going to be on the OC. They're a fantastic pop group and this, even though its emo boy sad, is great for everyone to listen to. It doesn't fit the overall theme of "The Triumph of Our Endless Love" for a boy to girl mixtape, but it hopefully makes her think of me and get sad when she hears it. (We live a flight away.) Kinda sadistic and dickish, I guess.
11. Big Star - "September Gurls" - Radio City: Our official anniversary is in September so this one is apt, I guess. A nice pick up after the last one too.
12. Grateful Dead - "Box of Rain" - American Beauty: One of the best Dead songs ever, hands down. I remember reading in The Electric Cool-Aid Acid Trip that Jerry's guitar sounded like "rays of sunshine". I like that description -- it sounds like that in this song.
13. Beck - "Jack-Ass" - Odelay: No reason, just a really nice tune.
14. Doves - "Catch the Sun" - Lost Souls: I always liked this band and I never liked this song for some reason. I was wrong: it's great.
15. Dismemberment Plan - "The Other Side" - Change: This song has some great lyrics about love "There are times when you will not like the sound of my voice..." It's a great song we can all learn from: don't pick the other apart, it will undo you. And those damn drums.
16. Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti - "For Kate I Wait" - For Kate I Wait: I needed a sketchy stalker song on here. This'll do.
17. Magnetic Fields - "Luckiest Guy On the Lower East Side" - 69 Love Songs: My gay love song. I do love this song a lot: it's kitschy, campy and really perfect somehow. I honestly didn't know Stephen Merritt (main songwriter) was gay when I first listened to this record. God, I was naive.
18. Papa M - "Glad You're Here With Me" - Whatever, Mortal: Like this song because it's a way we all will feel after we've done shitty stuff. Repeatedly.
19. Bright Eyes - "Lua" - I'm Wide Awake, It's Morning: Download this song and tell me it's not the best close to a mix ever.
    

Sound of Nonsense

There is a new website called Sound of Nonsense. Very nice.

Old Records, Vol. 2

[I got through my books of CDs...some more choice cuts. I didn't really listen to all these as I planned, but I thought about them, I promise. By the way, Pitchfork was right, There's a Riot Goin' On by Sly and the Family Stone is majorly fucked up and very good.]

• Loose Fur: Loose Fur -- I might be the only one who really likes this record at all. It's got some great stuff on this collaboration of Jeff Tweedy (Wilco), Jim O'Rourke (Sonic Youth, Wilco, solo) and Glenn Kotche (Wilco). The songs are slick-sheen via O'Rourke's engineering touch but that doesn't mean things don't get messy and loose. It's essentially an outgrowth of Yankee Hotel Foxtrot but it strikes out its own path down through everything from Americana to Free Jazz. "Chinese Apple", "You Were Wrong" and "Elegant Transaction" are three of my favorite cuts and they tend to be more straightforward than the rest.

• Man or Astroman?: Experiment Zero & A Spectrum of Infinite Scale -- Remember this band? Devo and Dick Dale combined at the hip fed through Dr. Steve Albini's boards (at least Spectrum...). Surf-rock never gets the credit it deserves. Some of this shit is major tight, never outstaying it's welcome (2 mins.). Also, "A Simple Text File" is the best micing job ever -- a song performed by a Dot Matrix printer. Be prepared for the soon-to-come ironic revival of surf music (played by pasty white boys). Or was this it? (Cue LCD Soundsystem, "I was there at Suicide's first practice...")

• The Poster Children -- I have 8 records by this band, who was my favorite in middle to high school. I had no idea what indie music was then, I just heard this band, liked the cover of their album and I bought it. Thanks to PC, I was opened to a world of wonderful noise I'd have never known if it wasn't for their album Thank You's and website. Ah, nostalgia...

• Rye Coalition: On Top -- This record is so Jersey. Hard rock and roll made for hard bodies, tight pants and nicely waxed Pontiac Sunfires.

• The Secret Machines: September 000 -- This is one of the best records I've ever heard. It's the perfect length and always leaves me wanting more. Now only if Now Here is Nowhere could've been produced by Mr. Brian Deck...

• Smog: Knock Knock -- Do you know who this is? Do you know how great this is?

• Tortoise: Millions Now Living Will Never Die -- I know that everyone counts this among their favorite records -- and it should be. This is a direct influence of too many bands to be overlooked. I'll never forget the first time I heard this -- it was during my senior year journalism class in high school. We were studying film and we watched Fritz Lang's Metropolis while synching this up (our copy of the film had no music). I remember being totally fucked up by "Djed" playing to the film. The factory-assembled, mechanical drum work of John McEntire along with the fading and focus dubby textures sent my head for a loop. I felt like the stoners saying, "man...it's just like Dark Side of the Moon."

• XTC: Skylarking -- Yup, it's still the best record of the 80's.
  

Old Records Vol. 1

[I'm so geeked out from work that I now work a spreadsheet when I come home. That's embarrassing. Luckily, I will soon be moving out of sunny Moorestown and into Philadelphia.

But the spreadsheet, it's not all for nothing. I've decided as a resource for myself, and others, I will compile a list of all the records I own. That means everything: CD, CD-R, LP, 7". It's going to be a daunting task given how much fucking music I really own. Is this a waste of money? Not really, but it could be considered one. The book value of every CD would make me a very, very rich man.

The real reason for this post isn't for me to bitch/brag about the depths of music I own, but talk about some of the gems I haven't enjoyed in a long time. P.S. The list isn't even half-done so I may write again about this at a later date.]

• The American Analog Set: From Our Living Room to Yours -- I bought this record about 5 or 6 months after I saw the band live opening for Stephen Malkmus (I think?). To tell you the truth, I wasn't that psyched by what they sounded like, but I think I was acting snotty because to my untravelled ears, it was emo. I was trying to get away from emo because, well, it was making me a huge pussy. Anyways, this record isn't emo, its just some beautifully hushed music that travels fluidly to a motorik beat. There's plenty of organ, melancholy guitar figures, brushed drums and breathy voices, but it never seems over-dramatically emotional.

• Auburn Lull: Alone I Admire -- I still haven't listened to this in a year or so, but I was reminded what a great record this is. Auburn Lull make shoegaze music like it's a brand new thing: huge walls of watery sound that Kevin Shields would have been jealous of.
  

• Beachwood Sparks: Once We Were Trees -- I used to listen the shit out of this record when it first came out. It's no wonder the Beachwood Sparks share their first letter with the Byrds, Big Star and the Beach Boys: they totally rip them off. But that's okay, because those bands had some really good songs. This is some really nice California, dreamy pop and "By Your Side" is a really great cover song. By the way, is this band still around?

• Blonde Redhead: Melody of Certain Damaged Lemons -- I saw this band open for The Red Hot Chili Peppers and Foo Fighters. Kind of a weird choice. I was in my modern-rock phase of my life. (I still stand by some Foo Fighters stuff, especially "Exhausted"). This record has some really good shit though, baroque songs that seem stripped down somehow.

• Built to Spill: Keep It Like a Secret -- "The Plan" and "Carry the Zero" are two of my favorite songs ever. This band is really great even though Ancient Melodies of the Future is still bad.

• Dead Meadow: Dead Meadow -- This record still brings me back to the first time I saw them at PS211 in Winston-Salem, NC. No one was there (20 people tops), the sound was bouncing off of every wall, and it was really LOUD. When they launched into "Sleepy Silver Door" I started leaning forward into the sound coming off their amplifiers just to keep from getting flattened. Man, that was fun.

• The Dismemberment Plan: Emergency & I -- For better or worse, this album changed my life forever. And I still have never seen a better band live. Best show: West Philly at the Rotunda in 100 degree temperatures with my shirt soaked through cause my shit was boogeyin'. Second best: The Plan at Go! Studios Room 4 -- Freshman year at WFU, took a Greyhound bus to get there, no way home. Dalek opened = hot shit. Really found out what fun music should be. Hitched a ride with a guy from Guilford College who started to cry (!) about some shitty emo band who had a song called "I Am Robot" (cause we're all controlled and mechanical you know...I can't imagine what it'd be like if I couldn't feel...). My appreciation for emo stopped there.

• The Fucking Champs: IV -- A great band that has allowed me to unironically explore the world of heavy metal. This record kicks ass from beginning ("What's a Little Reign") to end ("Extra Man"). It never seems too Steve Vai or too Motley Crue. Rather, it takes all the goodness of heavy music an distills it into 13 virtuous instrumental nuggets, and one with some vocals.