the oh so quiet show

Happy New Year! …It still feels like last year. Fancy that.

My music listening this year was rather paltry. Despite that, I still had a hard time whittling down my list to 15 tracks (limited to songs that were officially released this year, as far as the Internet can tell me), some widely popular, some less so, and hopefully as least one you haven’t heard before but end up enjoying. The theme of this list: dancey, pretty, or all of the above. Tracks are in order of how I’d arrange them in a mix CD, not by how much I like them.

1. Animal Collective – In the Flowers

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Repeating what I said in January, this is my favorite song off Merriweather Post Pavilion. The 2:30 mark sets off this explosion of elation that could potentially result in dancing, if I weren’t firmly planted in my chair 110% of the time.

2. Kings of Convenience – 24-25

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I wouldn’t place Kings of Convenience’s latest album Declaration of Dependence above their previous ones, but it shows they’re still the best at playing beautiful, warm harmonies. And they’re still one of my favorite artists to see live.

3. Moderat – Rusty Nails

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I just blogged about how much I love this song. GO LOOKIE.

4. Dan Deacon – Red F

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OH MAN DAN DEACON, YOU’RE THE BEST. I can’t believe there was a time when I thought your music was irritating.

…Nah I lied, it’s really easy to see why his music could be perceived as irritating. Bromst made it easier for me (and probably many others) to get into. My ideal party would be Dan Deacon-powered. And have lots of balloons. That’s what his concert needs: more balloons.

5. Numéro# – Tonton Klaxonne

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This song by Montreal-based duo Numéro# is super catchy, but if it weren’t in French I probably wouldn’t like it as much. Since blogging about it in April I never did bother to look up the translation…oh wait, what do we have here? NOOOO.

6. Passion Pit – Sleepyhead

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Holy hell, I was obsessed with Manners this summer. I was determined to see Passion Pit live, so a friend helped me get tickets to their show in Philadelphia, which was the sweatiest experience of my life. Although it was fun, a lesson was learned: do not go to a concert at the First Unitarian Church in the summer ever again. Or at least bring a towel with you.

7. The Drums – Me and the Moon

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The Drums make me feel ridiculously happy. HAPPY FUN TIMES NAO [jerks around]…yeah.

8. Le Matos feat. Coeur de Pirate – How Do I Let You Know

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I listened to a lot of Coeur de Pirate this year, but as her album came out in 2008 I chose her more recent cover of this 80s-tastic song with Le Matos. More happy dancey-ness.

9. The Octopus Project – Wet Gold

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I’ve listened to The Octopus Project only sparingly over the last few years, which is silly since they’re…awesome. This song from their Golden Beds EP is my favorite.

10. Telefon Tel Aviv – Helen of Troy

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It’s my favorite song off Immolate Yourself. I have yet to listen to Telefon Tel Aviv’s other music…I should probably do that.

11. Mew – Hawaii

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It took a few listens for me to get into this song, but it became my favorite off No More Stories Are Told Today Sorry… (my second favorite Mew album, after Frengers). Mew has the tendency to write epic songs; I feel like this one fits three acts into five minutes.

12. Phoenix – 1901

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I wasn’t much into Phoenix until I heard Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix. CUE THE FUN HEAD BOPPING. If only I could have caught them at Trocadero.

13. Annie – Songs Remind Me of You

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I don’t like everything by Annie, but some of her songs are instantly addictive, like “Heartbeat” and this one from Don’t Stop.

14. Bat for Lashes – Daniel

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It’s dark. It’s pretty. GOOD TIMES. This is the only Bat for Lashes song I really like, but that probably means I should listen to more of her other stuff.

15. This Will Destroy You – Freedom Blade

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As soon as I started listening to This Will Destroy You, I bought all their releases (as should you). Not that there were that many for me to catch up on. This year they released two songs on Split, an EP with Lymbyc Systym. This song puts me to sleep, in the good way that achingly beautiful post-rock tends to do. It would also make a sweet soundtrack to watching a blizzard.

Alex gave me this song and now I can’t stop listening to it. Even if it’s too late for me to be listening to music this upbeat.

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Numéro# – Tonton Klaxonne

More info at Discodust. Except for what the song means. My understanding is that “klaxonner” means to honk, and “tonton” means…uncle? Huh. Someone else out there knows better than I do.

It would probably help if I gave you an mp3 to go with the last entry. Here she is:

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Animal Collective – In The Flowers

While “My Girls” was the first song I latched onto as “MUST…LISTEN…5 TIMES IN A ROW,” “In The Flowers” is now my favorite song of the album. Mostly the part around the 2:30 mark. I don’t think of many things as “beautiful,” but that’s…what it is. In my mind. But in my mind it also makes me think of explosions. Not bad explosions, but happy ones, like if someone shot a cannon full of cupcakes. Or something.

On a random housekeeping note, I just upgraded my Wordpress from something from the dinosaur age to 2.7. My template is unfortunately a tad wonky now, something that I’ll correct…eventually. When it’s not almost 2 a.m. As you can see, I rarely update this blog anymore (no time for music anymore = sadness), but I figure I should keep it because it’s my only Wordpress blog and thus my only vehicle for learning how to use it. It seems like a useful skill to have as a professional (er, I use that term loosely) blogger who doesn’t want to only know how to use Movable Type.

I really ought to listen to more music though.

Beware.

A few songs of mild happiness. If you don’t like them, I’ll cut yew.

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Kylie Minogue – In My Arms

This song is Calvin Harris up the wazoo. Because he partially produced it. I’ve never really been into Kylie Minogue, but that might change with her latest album.

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Lykki Li – Little Bit (Diego Chavez Remix)

It took me a while to get into Lykke Li, who I will put into the “Swedish pop” category even though that’s kind of vague. And that’s why I give you mp3s. It’s like giving out samples of food instead of having to come up with any kind of well though-out description of what I want you to ingest. Wooo. So yes, this remix is what got me interested, a dancier version of the original. [via The Lemur Blog]

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Switches – Every Second Counts (Ocelot Remix)

I didn’t like this upon my first listen, and then quickly became mildly obsessed with it. And I don’t know why. Ocelot transformed the original song into something full of awesome and unicorns and Jolly Ranchers. [via discodust]

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Neutral Milk Hotel – In The Aeroplane Over The Sea

Admitting this will probably make me look bad, but this is the first time I’ve really listened to Neutral Milk Hotel. The whole 10-year-anniversary thing piqued my interest. I’m sure I tried listening to them before; they must not have meshed with my 12-year-old brainwaves a decade years ago. Now they mesh. I am happy.

Hey…uh…how’s it going?

I keep thinking that I can’t keep this blog going, or I can’t seem to update it more than once a month. But there’s no point in killing a site that I’m already paying for (I run all my sites under the same account.) And if anyone happens to stumble upon my monthly (or sometimes bi-weekly) brainfart, then…okay.

I’ve actually been listening to a lot of music lately, something that takes a bit of time away from writing about it. Not that I really “write” as much as “brainfart.” You might be better off going to these other blogs that share some very good qualities: 1) They update multiple times a month/week, 2) They post a lot of mp3s, and 3) I like them:

1. BiBaBiDi
2. Superlaser (100 points for the animated gif in this entry, which has the ability to amuse me for a disturbingly long period of time)
3. Discodust
4. Disco Workout
5. Redthreat

I sense a theme. Um.

I spent the last month of last year getting into “stuff you can dance to,” which is a big change from my previous preference of “stuff you can sleep to.” I still listen to the sleepy stuff; I just even it out with the non-sleepy stuff. Only problem is that there’s a thin line between “dance music I like” and “dance music that makes me want to gouge my eyes out, which doesn’t make sense because you don’t listen to music with your eyes, but the pain of stabbing my eyes would detract from the pain of listening to something semi-unbearable,” which is why I sift through blog after blog, listening to god knows how many songs, and find a few gems from a bucketload of digital goo, which somehow makes it worth staying up until 2AM every day wasting my time on the Internet. (I think that was a run-on. Forgive me.)

Here are some of the gems:

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Minitel Rose – Valerie Côte Ouest

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The Presets – My People

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Copy – Actual
(Copy is the only artist here that I’ve listened to a lot. A lot-lot. I have yet to find anyone else who listens to him with the same frequency. If you want to change that, you should get his albums. Weeee.)

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Adam Sky – Ape-X

You get 4 songs. Yup, that’s it. TOODLES.

Fail.

I didn’t have any holiday-appropriate imagery on hand, so here’s something my friend made in response to his plane being delayed. Freakin’ sweet!

So as you may have noticed, I don’t really update this blog anymore, but it’s not dead either. Or else I wouldn’t be updating it. I’ve been annoyed with Wordpress lately because it’s fuxoring my HTML and makes me want to crawl back into a warm blanket of Movable Type, which also drives me insane but maybe less so than Wordpress at the moment. Anyhoo, if you don’t deal with different blogging tools then you have no idea what I’m talking about. Blah blah blah hi.

Here are some random songs:

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Aphex Twin – Vordhosbn

I never listened to Drukqs much when it first came out, but lately this track has become one of my favorite songs. It sounds like. Calculated craziness. Or something. Whatever Aphex Twin tends to sound like. “Insanity.” This makes me wanna run around and smash things. Not really.

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Metronomy – Trick Or Treats

I don’t know why I like this song by Metronomy so much. But I keep listening to it. So I guess the brain wants more. I think I ganked this from BiBaBiDi (one of my favorite blogs). Also comes with a weird video:

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Fionn Regan – Noah (Ghost In A Sheet)

I’m still listening to too much Fionn Regan. This song in particular. Because it’s pretty. And sad.

I don’t know why I’m speaking in so many sentence fragments today.

Time to bake cookies.

FIVE SONGS! FOR YOU! OKAY?

Okay.

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Aarktica – Seventy Jane

This song by Aarktica (a band that I admittedly haven’t really listened to aside from this song) gives me the impression of…a turning point in an ’80s teenage movie, where everything starts going slow and fuzzy. Worst description ever. Yet that’s all I imagine. Like time has stopped. And things are warm and fuzzy. Or something. Whatever it does to my brain, it’s caused me to listen to it upwards of 25 times in the past few days, so…yeah.

Might just be me.

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Shinichi Osawa – Star Guitar (Chemical Brothers cover)

I ran across Shinichi Osawa quite randomly while…randomly searching for Chemical Brothers mp3s on The Hype Machine. If the song didn’t say “Featuring Au Revoir Simone” I probably wouldn’t have thought to listen to it. Which would’ve sucked, since this has been my “WUUUHAAHAH HAPPY?!” song for the week. Like “run around the room crazy happy” kind of happy. And isn’t that what we all want? To run around our rooms with flailing happy arms? …No?The original song is great too (awesome video and all), but Shinichi’s version is a tad faster and benefits from the vocals of Au Revoir Simone. IT IS FULL OF WIN.

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Daft Punk – Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger (Alive 2007)

Listening to live Daft Punk songs through your headphones is probably 50000 times less exciting than hearing them live in concert, but it’s still shizzloads more exciting than listening to…a lot of other stuff. This was my main “WUUUHAAHAH HAPPY?!” song before Shinichi’s came along. Of course, it still fills me with happies and triggers arm flailings. Flailings!

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Fionn Regan – Be Good Or Be Gone

Like many things, I’m slow on the Fionn Regan uptake. But better late than never.His songs are full of prettiness. GO LISTEN. OKAY, COOL.

Oh, and watch this song’s music video.

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Yelle – Mon Meilleur Ami

A large reason that I like Yelle probably has to do with not understanding what the hell she’s saying. And that the whole mishmash of stuff I don’t understand sounds French, which is nice. She could be talking about killing baby dolphins for sport or something equally repulsive and I’d still like her because I DUNNO WHAT THE HELL SHE’S SAYING, FALALA. (That also has a lot to do with why I bow at the altar of Hakan Hellstrom, switching French for Swedish.)

Seriously though. Um. Catchy. Oh, and i know I can stick her lyrics in a translator, but that would ruin some of the fun. I know some French and can identify things every now and then, but not to the point where I can understand a significant part of a song, which is fine with me.

huge mp3 collection|buy mp3|download mp3 online

Aphex Twin Mashups by 100 dbsThose work pretty well, I think.

I’ve been listening to the live version of Daft Punk’s Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger too much lately. Mixing it with Aphex Twin’s I’m Self Employed mellows it out a bit.

I meant to post this two weeks ago, but I fell behind.

So here are some songs I was listening to two weeks ago. In the paaaast.

Update: Zach recovered my post! Holy crap! Thanks, dude.

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Taken by Trees – Lost and Found

Victoria Bergsman’s solo material under the name Taken By Trees appeals to the sleepy head-lolling part of me. Which is pretty much when I’m on the train on the way to work and on the way back home. Amazingly, I’ve never missed my stop.So, this song is lovely. Lilt-y. Soft and sweet. Like cotton candy. Mm, candy.

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The Future of the Ghost – Freak Out

This song by The Future of the Ghost appeals to the part of my brain that would dance if it knew how to. Instead, I just bop my head around. In private. [bop bop]

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Delete – Sunk

This song by French duo Delete sounds really crunchy. Like, “Ah, that’s what it sounds like to eat your own teeth,” crunchy. Why that appeals to me, I have no idea.

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Caribou – Sundialing

I’ve listened to Caribou/Manitoba before, but for some reason Andorra is his first album that I felt compelled to listen to over and over again and maybe swaddle my head in if it were a pillow. It’s comforting with little happy bits in it. Like a brownie with nuts. Unless you don’t like nuts in your brownie. You can come up with your own analogy.

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Girl Talk – Hold Up

I only just started listening to Girl Talk a few weeks ago. Yes, my timing is a bit off. Anyhoo. His 500-songs-smashed-into-one method immediately appealed to me. Somehow he takes a bunch of songs I probably wouldn’t like on their own and turns them into something awesome. Like combining flour, eggs, butter and sugar to make a delicious cake. I wouldn’t want to just eat plain flour, you know?

So basically, Girl Talk is baking delicious cakes.

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Joe Dassin – Les Champs-Elysées

One of my friends gave me this song by Joe Dassin but I didn’t listen to it much until after I saw The Darjeeling Limited (which I enjoyed aside from the wave of motion-induced nausea that set in about 2/3rds through the movie). It’s in French. It’s kind of happy.

“Il y a tout ce que vous voulez aux Champs-Elysées / There is everything you want on the Champs-Elysées”

I don’t really agree with that (what if I want a…a PONY?), but it fits the bill as “a very nice street to walk down.”…On second though, maybe it does have everything.

Although it’s unnecessary to say something is a note to myself, this is a note to myself: Taken by Trees (Victoria Bergsman’s solo project)

While bleeping around:

I’m quite surprised I like the above album. It’s…dancey. And I recently had a conversation with friends about my undance-itude. There is visual evidence of me dancing, but it’s more like me being dragged around by other people in a dance-like fashion.

I actually have that Phonem album…on vinyl. Which is completely pointless when you don’t have a good record player. Which I don’t.

I’m tired. Thus ends this insubstantial entry.

Feist – The Reminder

I should’ve gotten Feist’s “The Reminder” earlier. Like when it first came out in May.

But I’m slow. So I have it now. And I really like it. I listened to it while passing through the swampy marshy crap in the Meadowlands under a murky sky that looked as though it were about to barf rain, yet it all looked pretty while listening to Feist. SHE IS DRUGGING ME, THAT’S WHAT, OMG.

Nah, not drugs. Just prettiness. Here are two examples of the prettiness:

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Feist – So Sorry

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Feist – How My Heart Behaves

I suppose I could post some lyrics that I really like, but …lyrics don’t usually mean a great deal to me unless I can relate to them. And I suppose they wouldn’t mean a great deal to you either unless you had some connection to them. And these lyrics are kind of depressing, so nevermind.

Actually, I like this bit from “So Sorry”:

We’re so helpless
We’re slaves to our impulses
We’re afraid of our emotions
And no one knows where the shore is
We’re divided by the ocean
And the only thing I know is
That the answer isn’t for us
No the answer isn’t for us

Mild depression may be abated by watching Charlie the Unicorn. Enjoy:

If you didn’t watch it in its entirety (and you know who you are, NO HIDING)…you should. There’s a really catchy song at around the 2:30 mark. Why deny yourself of such joy? Whyyy?

Becky Stark and David Byrne

Thanks to my awesome friend Janet, on Friday night I saw Becky Stark of Lavender Diamond perform a few songs at the NYPL as part of a Miranda July fun fest. The night ended with David Byrne (who interviewed Miranda during the second half of the night) playing guitar with Becky during the song, “Garden Rose” from the latest Lavender Diamond album, Imagine Our Love. It’s perty.

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Lavender Diamond – Garden Rose

Although I knew that I already liked Lavender Diamond, I wasn’t set on seeing them in concert at Maxwell’s this Saturday until seeing Becky perform solo. She is…she is…quite unique. In an awkward way. To the point that I couldn’t tell whether she was really that awkward or if she was being funny for the audience. But does it matter either way? Not really. Because she sings like an angel stuffed with the love of 10000 teddy bears. She spoke softly and lightly with a wide grin on her face most of the time, every so often breaking into a strained giggle, besides the one time she cursed herself for repeating something she had just said. I really wonder what’s going on in her head. Is it just filled with looove and joooy?

“She’s goofy!” remarked a woman sitting behind me. That wasn’t the first adjective to pop into my head—awkwardly hilarious was more like it—but I guess she fits under the category of “goofy”. You forget it all when she starts singing. Her voice rings so clear. Not mature, not immature. Just…I dunno. It’s nice. You know when you have a stuffy nose and it suddenly clears up? Like the mucus has all been whisked away by a magic nose…angel? That moment of clarity is like Becky’s voice. Kinda. I think the audience was hesitant at first, possibly wondering, “What in the…” when she started playing, but I think a little more love was spread after getting us to participate in a sing-a-long (well, I stayed silent for the benefit of everyone’s ears around me).

BECKY STARK, YOU ARE THE QUEEN OF AWESOMETOWN!!!

The Simple Life

I think Even could sing a cat food jingle and I’d probably love it.

[scratches head]

Whether that’s good or bad, I’m not sure. He has three new tracks from his upcoming album, The Simple Life, up at his myspace page. At first listen I thought, “Mm…okay,” nothing relevatory, but since then I’ve listened to each song a gajillion times, roughly. AHHHHH, WHYYYY OH WHYYY…(um, because I like them)…

I’ll admit I’m pretty tired of his lyrics. I dunno, write a song about waffles, dammit! Okay, waffles don’t sell records, nor are they the most inspiring subject to write a song about.

But even if there are no waffles, I’ll keep listening. I’ve been listening relatively non-stop for 5 or 6 years. That’s a quarter of my life! That’s a…lot.

I keep getting emails from record labels and whatnot and I don’t know why. Do you people even read this site? If you did you’d notice I barely update, that I probably won’t write about what you want me to write about and I DON’T CARE ABOUT SXSW OH JESUS.

Alright, I know you’re just doing your job. Hm. Well, while you’re in Texas, I’ll be in Paris. Not watching any live music, but sidestepping around doggie poo in the streets and gorging on pastries. I WIN, OH YEEAAH!

Darn, I forgot my bathing suit

Panda Bear

Actually, I’m lying; he was my latest obsession more than a week ago. I don’t know why I can’t blog as much as I used to. (Watching a gazillion episodes of Nip/Tuck doesn’t help. Kidz, don’t get addicted to fucked up TV shows. NOT COOL I caught up on three seasons in just a few weeks.)

You can find lots of new Panda Bear tracks online from his upcoming album Person Pitch, so I don’t see the point of uploading any for you. At the very least, listen to “Bros”. And “Comfy in Nautica”. And every song you can find. I could probably download the whole album now, but I’ve found that downloading entire albums before they come out destroys the satisfying effect of buying a shiny flat plastic disc that I will ultimately rip MP3s from anyway. I still like my plastic discs.

So what’s up with this music that makes me love it so much? If I had any idea what taking valium felt like, I imagine it would be something like Panda Bear’s music. …But I’m just guessing. There’s something oddly soothing about his music. Like wrapping my head in a warm towel. Or wrapping my brain in a warm towel, if I didn’t think the invasive surgery would hurt or possibly leave me braindead. Even though I don’t really know what the hell Panda Bear is singing half the time, it still puts a smile in my face. Not literally, but somewhere inside I feel it. Even though the weather has been so cold lately that I feel like the wind is ripping off my face, this music gives me the sense that there’s warmth somewhere, temperature-wise and in an emotional sense.

HA HA HA HA.

I am sleepy. Back to my auditory valium, I go.

Peter is blurry

Posting about a concert a week after I’ve gone to it is somewhat pointless. But I’m really lazy. So lazy that I sat in the balcony at the Peter Bjorn and John concert last Tuesday at Bowery Ballroom. I only sit in the balcony at the insistence of friends, but I was thankful that night to plop my bum down for a few hours and not have my nose squished against the back of an obscenely tall guy (because I almost always end up behind an obscenely tall guy) or suffer from “the nerve endings in my feet have died” syndrome.

crowd

I would have never known the show/crowd was so “bad” if I hadn’t read Brooklyn Vegan’s immediate response to the show. Hmmm. Um. Well, I didn’t go to the first two shows. I’d say that the Bowery show was a lot like the first time I saw them, except I was looking at the band from a different angle. I must be one of those people most other people hate—the kind that doesn’t dance (a rock could dance better than me) or seemingly move to any kind of beat. I sat quietly and still the entire time while staring at the band. That’s how I soak it in. Don’t like it? Eh.

You can download live mp3s from ryspace (plus a few more). I wasn’t annoyed at all by Bjorn’s memory lapse during Amsterdam. It may have bothered me if another artist did it, but Bjorn…nah. They played my favorite songs (The Chills, Up Against the Wall…oh, and that really popular single I overheard someone whistle the other day. Over and over again and over again. DO NOT WHISTLE THE SONG, YOU WILL ONLY KILL IT) and they looked happy while doing it. More people were talking during the show than I would’ve liked, but you can’t do much about that. The show was enjoyable and I left feeling tired and satisfied.

snow?

…And cold. It’s snowing? W-T-F? Ah well, it made the otherwise gloomy Bowery look a bit prettier.

Okay, I’m already making another post…why?

MAGNET. The artist that I love dearly, that few other people care about…(okay, that’s not true, but his fans aren’t concentrated in the US so being a Magnet fanatic can feel lonely).

I’m not a horrible webmaster; I just don’t get much info. So while randomly looking at website stats, I found some news about his upcoming album. It’s coming out on March 26th (in Norway, at least) and will be called “The Simple Life”…which I don’t know if I can get used to since it just reminds me of the reality TV show. But. Well. [shrugs]

You can listen to one of his new songs, “Lonely No More”, at sonybmg.no. The song is rather upbeat and happy feeling, which is good…right? Even if I absolutely love his depressing stuff? I WANT DEPRESSION! Give to me.

I mean…this is lovely. I’m not used to it yet, but I suppose I will be after I play it a gazillion times. Wee!

Oh, on second thought this song actually is depressing because it reminds me of my loneliness. Sweet! I feel better now.

Hi.

I don’t update this thing much anymore, as you may or may not have noticed. If I’m making monthly posts, my heart probably isn’t into it. I think a whole semester of decrease music listening took its toll on me.

So, what’s the point of this message? Er…just to say that I’m not dead, but I’m not going to update this blog very often either. Meaning that if you are a involved in music PR/marketing whatnot, you shouldn’t bother emailing me or sending me CDs or anything of that sort because I’ve gotten to the point where I just delete emails and stare at a pile of unlistened CDs. Sorry. :[

On that note, here is a nice song:

what the hell is that green thing?

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Andrew Bird – A Nervous Tic Motion Of The Head To The Left

I’m supposed to be studying for my computer programming final that will kick my butt in less than 12 hours, but…

[beep boop] BEGIN PROCRASTINATION TIME [beep boop]

Loney, Dear

I don’t remember whether I talked about Loney, Dear before, but judging from the infrequency of my posts, I’m going to assume, “not so much.” Here is a song that I quite like from Solonge:

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Loney, Dear – I Lose It All

Oh, am I supposed to convince you to download this song? Besides, “Because I like it”? Well…

bun bun

BECAUSE BUNNY SAYS SO. You can’t resist the bunny. Do as bunny says. Bun bun bun.

(Where did bunny come from? My housemate got her as a gift for our homestay family. I told her it wasn’t a good idea, but my god, this bunny melts our icy cold hearts with fluffy fluffness goo. It’s sick.)

[beep boop] END PROCRASTINATION TIME [beep boop]

Too lazy to write a real entry. This will be short ‘n sweet.

The Mary Onettes

Inspired by guitar pop from the 80’s and indie bands from the 90’s they sound like a Swedish relative to Echo & The Bunnymen, New Order och The Jesus and Mary Chain from the future.

…OKAY.

Why am I obsessed with this song?

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The Mary Onettes – Lost

Their only release so far is a 4-track EP on Labrador. You can listen to 75% of it on their myspace page.

As the title says.

Bichi

I first listened to Bichi by randomly looking through Hobby Industries’ website. Yeah, it’s a common pastime; I am weird. Bichi makes the kind of fluttery glitchy plinky electronic repetitive music that I enjoy for some reason that I don’t know. Maybe my brainwaves are messed up (okay, not maybe so much as “yes, definitely”) and the pinks and pops line up with them. [shrugs]

Melodium

I also like Melodium (myspace), whose latest album is out on audio dregs, a label that is notable for providing me with happy music for the past four years. Melodium sounds quite happy to me. At least, I hear xylophones, and those things make me happy. And acoustic guitars. And pianos. And pings. And tinkles.

…I’m easily soothed. Especially when I don’t have to pay attention to lyrics. I’m too lazy for that stuff. Like right now. Can you tell. From my disjointed sentences. And lack of question marks. Okay.