Not music related, but quite funny

Damn you, BOC

There's a plethora of pre-Twoism Boards of Canada stuff out there, but it's insanely rare-- In some cases, under-10-copies-in-existence rare. As a collector and obsessive, this scrapes over my brain like a cheese grater. On the bright side though, that being said, I guess I can be thankful I at least have vol. 2 of A few Old Tunes. It's actually really good...and just about impossible to find. Apparently BOC treats these works as non-works, and ignores them and keeps them out of the public eye. Why this is, I have no idea...but it makes me sad. Sad like this monkey.

The Ditty bops

Ok, aside from the fact that they're both really cute yet equally unattainable, I like their sound. Ditty Bops, you rock.

Omodaka

Omodaka is japanese electronic, and man, it sounds eccentric...but I like it. Here's the music video for Omodaka's version of Cantata no. 147



I really like the video, and it's rather blunt imagery.

Then there's this one:


It's ...strangely catchy...and so very very weird. I'm a sucker for this stuff, I really am.

Watch this. It's fun.

I do so love the music and grumpy strangeness of Tom Waits.

Upcoming NASA (North America South America) Project

Ok, this project sounds really friggin awesome. Read that article...the scope of musicians they're bringing in to work on that compilation is just incredible. I really hope they find a label to produce it for them, and soon. If anyone has more recent info on this please let me know. Also, you should check out Squeak E. Clean's site, as it is amusing.

Derail

Try as I might, I just can't keep to a schedule with this blog. Partly because I'm forcing myself to write about a particular subject, and partly because...I'm forcing myself to write about a particular subject. I think I'm more suited to op-ed type stuff, so screw it. Yeah, I'll write about music...just not right now...because I don't feel like it.

I'm not under the gun. Why torture myself. Also...it's not like people read this thing anyway. Well, aside from my imagined fanbase of course. To you, I apologize profusely, I do not intend to offend.

I will write more later today. In the meantime, please enjoy the happy cellphone camel picture I snagged from The Consumerist.

A digression...and then a few points of interest

NOTE: This first paragraph is just a journal-ish chunk, so please feel free to skip it if you want.

As this is my first semi-serious attempt at maintaining a blog, I'm still figuring out how to go about it, and I imagine this blog will always be perceived as amateurish (by me most of all). Having truly come to this realization (I'm looking at this whole project as practice and a way to hone my writing/thoughts), I'm not going to try and break into any truly serious articles here (although it will probably happen from time to time). I'm looking at this space more as a place to just shoot the shit, so to speak, with my gigantic imaginary fan base. The theme will always be music related in some way, though. Well, I'll try to keep it that way, at least.



Right, onto the points of interest. Here is a site elaborating on one of my favorite genres: trip-hop. I found it interesting, and I think it's a good starting point for anyone wishing to delve deeper into this quadrant of the musical universe. Tricky is, particularly in the album Maxinquaye, the quintessential trip-hop artist. If you're looking for a starting point in your explorations of this genre, Maxinquaye is it. Portishead's Dummy is a close second if you want more female vocals...but be careful: too much concentrated Portishead may lead to depression, and long sessions of staring out into the mist on dark and rainy afternoons.

I will say that I can't agree with that site that Morcheeba really belongs in this genre after their 4th-5th albums. They've just strayed a little too far into a more...dare-I-say...overproduced alley? I can't say I care too much for Fragments of Freedom (their third alb) either. Fragments just sounds too forced at times, although I admit Coming down gently is a guilty pleasure, even if it is trying a little too desperately to sound like a remixed 70's organ-grind jam with some Jethro Tull-ish flute tossed in for kicks. To me, at least, Morcheeba was at their finest with Big Calm, their second album--and if you want to sample some of Morcheeba's sound, this is the album I would suggest. Their first album, Who can you Trust?, is good too, but they shine brightest in Big Calm.

Air is an excellent group as well (despite the fact that they're French)...but they're in a more calm and breezy place than many of their contemporaries. 2004's Talkie Walkie is a good place to start with these guys, as the music is more accessible to new-comers than some of their earlier stuff. In particular, I point you to Cherry Blossom Girl, which is track two I believe. I'm not saying Air's early work is bad...it isn't, but I think you'll appreciate it more after you've gotten used to them in Talkie Walkie. Incidentally, if you like Cherry Blossom Girl, you'd probably like Mandalay as well...but more on them later.

Faithless...well, I've been listening to Faithless since the God is a DJ EP came out. I quickly backtracked a bit and snagged their first album Reverence as well, but yeah...I've been a fan for a while. While I can definitely see them belonging in trip-hop territory at times, they definitely have one foot firmly in the house music genre. I was a little disappointed with Outrospective, as it failed to do anything new with the group's sound, but No Roots was excellent. I haven't heard To all New Arrivals, but reviews of it are not very favorable on the whole.


I'll type more later. I need some sleep.

Tired of Being sexy

There's a band from Brazil. Their name is CSS, which is short for Cansei de der Sexy in Portuguese. If you can't piece together what this means in English, then there's nothing more I can do for you, I'm sorry. This is supposedly a phrase Beyoncé muttered (in english of course) at some point in reference to herself. Sounds about right. Anyways, CSS thought it made for a great band name...and so it does.

CSS has gained a bit of attention recently, due in no small part to this little ad for a certain company's overpriced music gizmo. The sad truth is that I didn't even realize they were in a commercial until someone pointed it out to me. I stumbled across the band a few months ago on Pandora, which is the only thing keeping me sane at my dreary office job, but I digress. Their first album has been out since '06, and I am sad I didn't stumble across them sooner because they are amazing.

When I first sat down to write this post, I wanted to get a little more background on the band....but honestly there's not a lot you need to know. The group started as a loose collective of friends, and did shows in their native land, and became a hit on certain music sharing sites. Eventually they signed to subpop records and made their first (and to date only) album, which is self-titled. "Music is my hot hot sex," the song playing in the aforementioned ad, is the highest charting single out of South America in the history of Billboard, clocking in at #63 in the top 100 in 2007. Not too shabby.

As to the band's sound...they're pseudo-pretentious. I know that sounds wierd, but the more I think about it, the more that description fits. Keep the songs but strip the lyrics and replace them with more artsy, haughty ones and they would be pretentious. Thankfully they don't do that (although I'd probably still like them anyway). Think Ladytron, but infused with some spunky punk energy. They also kind of remind me of Robots in Diguise only, you know, less British and more Brazilian. Yes, I used the word "spunky"...but it needed to be done because they are, and they need to make another album, damnit. I hunger.

A Revelation

Take heed, (imagined) loyal followers, for I have news of note. Well, news in that it's news to me. I recently aquired a worthy album by a band known as Universal Hall Pass titled "Mercury." It's an excellent album, skipping and hopping between genres so often, I'm quite sure that's the reason All-music hasn't bothered reviewing it properly, even though it's been out since 2004 (lazy bastards). I'm trying to think of an accurate way to describe UHP's sound, and the closest I can come is a voice that sounds very reminiscent of Beth Gibbons(only more peppy and cheerful), sometimes more like a soft Regina Spektor, and occasionally just a hint of Björk. Don't let the styles of those compaired artists mislead you though, as the sound of UHP jumps the gambit from tracks with trip-hop and drum n' bass elements("Dragonfly") to laid back crooning("No one") to Alanis Morisette-like alt rock ("Special Agent").


The creative power behind UHP is a bright lady by the name of Melissa Kaplan. The name rang a distant bell for me...and rightly so, as I've discovered she's contributed to dozens of movie and game soundtracks. I became intrigued by her sound and decided to do a little more digging into her past musical forays, only to discover another amazing band she fronted by the name of Splashdown. Well, ex-band, I should say, as tragically, Splashdown is no more. Even more tragically, their albums and EP's are very rare indeed--the only copy of their first album , "Stars and Garters," that I could find is selling for $70 on Amazon. Yikes. Fortunately, for those of you who care only about the music itself, you can find a complete catalogue of the band's work available for free legal download here ,and this includes a complete album that was never released because of squabbles with their then-label Capitol Records (those swine!). You can read up on the full history of the band on that site, so i won't go into it here...needless to say, they were an amazing band with a lot of promise that got the shaft from a big record label. Shock and alarm, right? Man, what a rare and terrible occurence.

I'm getting off track here--the point is, you should check out this lady and if you like her stuff, buy it and support her cause, for indeed her music is worthy of praise and money. And cake.

The box that must be opened

Pandora is amazing. I just felt that needed to be said on this blog. If you don't know what I'm talking about, proceed directly to this site right now, at this very moment. Do not pass go, do not collect your damn money. I'm not quite sure the exact methods Pandora actually uses (mostly because I've been either too lazy to read the nitty gritty info, or too busy actually making channels to play) to cycle through songs, but it's damn good....most of the time. Occasionally it will spew out some abysmal drum n' bass track in my trip-hop channel, or a steaming heap of a T.A.T.U. song in my folky-pop channel, but other than that it's fairly competent.

I do have some mixed feelings on it though. On the one hand, it's a fantastic way to find new artists to get into. On the other hand, after I've established a few solid channels I become complacent and very lazy in my playlist making and music gathering, and that's no good....plus there's the whole random crap song that pops into the que and harshes the vibe.

On the whole though, it's amazing, and if you aren't using it after I just handed you that perfectly good link two paragraphs up, then you are obviously some kind of fascist swine, and I want nothing to do with you or your wretched audio-deprived ilk.

I avoided writing a blog for years...mostly because I read so many other blogs and said to myself, "self, if you write a blog and sound like just another boring schmo no one will read your blog. Look at all these poor saps, for example. Sometimes their content is perfectly reasonable, but they convey it in such a bland, sodium-free saltine kind of way you want to just crawl into a makeshift tent in your living room and take up knitting... because let's face it, it's the best route to take at this point." Well, I really don't go into that much detail when I'm talking to myself, but you get the idea. Also, for the record, I have nothing against knitting.

So, before I actually start, I have resolved never to write a boring post here (well, boring in my eyes...which is also totally subjective, but what can ya do?). This, dear reader, can be much more difficult than it sounds. Sounding spunky and perky ALL the time can be quite taxing... also, people are more likely to punch you in the face, and that's just no good. I will stop here for now, as this is more of an introductory post than one with any real substance.