We will be using this shorter domain for our posts on twitter, and for a few things here and there!

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To my credit, Similes is an impenetrable, arrhythmic fog. Matthew Cooper, the man behind the moniker, has a track record of ambient releases, a genre born in the space between transcendent and tedious.

Brian Eno, the musician widely credited for the creation of ambient, once wrote that the music “is intended to induce calm and a space to think.” In this context, Similes rushes to buy wallpaper and curtains before building a doorframe. Cooper, an obvious member of the Pro Tools generation, squanders fine-tuned production on half-hearted song fragments.

Still, Cooper knows the trappings of ambient music: soft tones, innocuous chords, slow tempos and no singing. He violates that last rule for the first time on Similes, but does so timidly by burying his tuneless mutter low in the mix. He should have known better.

He also should have known that chaining Similes to a single mood would trap the record inside its own murky aesthetic. These are drones, not songs. Repeating the same progression for 11 minutes (“Cease to Know”) is no longer experimental – it’s lazy and it leaves little room for evolution or enjoyment.

Even more constrictive is Cooper’s reliance on piano and back-masked guitar, which lays a soggy foundation for every song on Similes. “If the colors and the shapes were clearly more defined,” he sings in the finale, a condition he would do well to indulge.

Sadly, of all the emotions the record strains to evoke, the only apparent one is disappointment. Deep yearning should lead to action, and this is Cooper’s problem: his voice is all welled tears and no balled fists. Only a child could enjoy this sort of sad indulgence.

The result is a piece of music unsuitable for active listening. Ironically, Similes is a soundtrack to its own failure.

Eluvium – Leaves Eclipse the Light

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Concerning the show, the Chicago-based band simply knows how to perform. They want to be known for more than just their “wicked cool and creative” music videos and they very well should be. However, it’s going to be tough for them to get proper recognition for such things as showmanship and musicality if they keep recording such “wicked cool and creative” music videos. We were informed at the show that they recently stayed up until four in the morning with 12 NASA engineers plotting their next video.  So be on the look-out for something nebular (space joke).  Although their show did live up to music video hype, the “music” of the evening did not steal the show.  It might sound horrible to a musician’s ear, but the most intriguing aspect of their show didn’t rely on musical ability.  Their creativity in presentation was what kept all eyes stage-centered.

They performed the song, “What To Do,” to the tune of traditional hand bells.  Kulash made a statement regarding how they were going to do what Sunday morning had failed to perfect. While the hand bells didn’t sound all that great and Kulash’s voice, due to mic positioning, sounded a country away, it was a noble and engaging effort.  The attempt might have been less than “Sunday morning perfection,” but the guts to stick their neck out and attempt hand bells is quite astounding, especially given how awful the hand bells typically sound.

Another stunt that is not specific to OK Go yet still packed a mean punch was Kulash’s mic cam.  We were in the balcony so we got a stellar view of the screen on which the cam was being displayed. It was eerie.  Kulash stared at us (via his mic) in a discolored black and white setting. Honestly, I don’t even remember the song being sung at the time.  I was more concerned with the Wizard of Oz, a.k.a. Damien Kulash, glaring down at me.

The last effect involved lighting.  This encompasses a few things. They had psychedelic lighting on the back of their jackets that scrolled, which was fairly cool.  Obviously they had classic stage lighting that highlighted Kulash, faded in and out, and accompanied the screen show.  But, the neatest lighting trick of all (and the one that made for the best pic) was the colored lights around the guitars that they donned toward the end of the show. With all stage lighting turned down, they appeared with different colored lights outlining their guitars.  It was at this point that OK Go busted into “This Too Shall Pass,” inviting the audience to stand in for the vocals of the Notre Dame marching band.  Tim Norwind, bass guitar and backing vocals, said that our singing wasn’t as good as a group of Europeans (Spanish, I think) who didn’t know English.  While that upset a few of the audience members who were hoping for their big break, most of us were harmlessly amused by the comment.

The band did play “Here It Goes Again,” but they didn’t cart out treadmills for a video reenactment. They did, however, display dancing treadmills on the projection screen. If you haven’t listened to the song without the visual effect, I highly recommend trying it just once. The song can stand on its own.  Of course, it is much better when it runs on treadmills.

Ok Go – Shooting the Moon

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OK Go – This Too Shall Pass from OK Go on Vimeo.

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Seeing as I am kind of obsessed with podcasts and subscribe to a ridiculous amount, I had a lot to listen to, from a fun and fascinating podcast  about the Muppets, to a live music session with the Cold War Kids, to an interview with Rosanne Cash done by NPR’s Terry Gross.   They were  all really fun and entertaining, but it was the Rosanne Cash interview that really stood out among the pack.  At the time of the interview, Rosanne had recently released her newest album, The List.  This record is a collection of cover songs that she selected and recorded from a list that her father, the legendary Johnny Cash, had given to her when she was just 18.  He recognized that his daughter was missing out on a good majority of the music that had influenced him, so he made a list of the ‘100 essential country songs’ and gave it to her as a both a gift and a bit of a homework assignment.  What an incredible gift.

The rest of the afternoon,I found myself of how much I would have loved to receive a gift like that and how excited I am be able to pass on a list like that to my own children someday. Then I started thinking through what my list would be called and what songs I would put on it.  But then I thought back to a question that Gross had asked during the interview.  Terry pointed out the fact that the past several years had been rough on Rosanne, with the death of both of her parents and her stepmother June Carter and then she lost her voice for three years then to top it all off had to go through brain surgery.  “It’s been a rough period. And when people go through a rough time, I mean some people turn to religion, some people turn to drugs or alcohol, some people have nothing to turn to, some people are lost, some people find this inner strength…there were times in your father’s life when he turned to drugs or pills and, but through all his life, I think he had a sense of Jesus in his life….So what about you? (What) have you had that has kept you through all this?” To which Rosanne responds “I adhere to the religion of art and music and small children.”

Yeah it’s pretty awesome that Johnny was able to have such a great musical influence on his daughter.  The List is an incredible album.  I highly recommend it. Her cover of Dylan’s “Girl From the North Country” is incredible and the duet she does with Springsteen on “Sea of Heartbreak” is breathtaking.   But unfortunately it won’t last.  As wonderful and powerful as music is, if she keeps looking to it alone for healing and comfort, she will eventually be let down.  I am still thrilled about that day that I get to pour hours into making the perfect Beach Boys mixtape for little boy or little girl to listen to while they go to bed.  But I am even more excited about the opportunity to spend every day sharing with my kids the love that Jesus has given to me.  And it is my hope that  rather than getting focused on grooming my child’s musical tastes that I will be able to pass on something much greater. So what kind of an impact are you going to have on your children?  And are you being intentional with what you pass on to them?

Rosanne Cash – Sea of Heartbreak (ft. Bruce Springsteen)

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Cold War Kids – Audience

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Cross your fingers?

Ben Walker – You’re No One if You’re Not on Twitter

EDIT: I fixed it! Hooray!

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Although Odd Blood touches on styles from several eras of musical and artistic evolution, Yeasayer remains at its core a psychedelic band hat enjoys challenging itself.  Indeed the most spot-on description of their sound came from the three gentlemen themselves: “Middle Eastern-psych-snap-gospel.” Guitarist Anand Wilder steps up his game, innovating new and even more transcendent distortions for the ear’s pleasure.  “Strange Reunions” is a glorified jam session of which any Cry Baby critic would be proud. Bassist Ira Wolf Tuton proves he is certainly not afraid to fan the flames of experimentation; occasionally transforming his four strings into a digital flute like it is no big deal. The slow, tongue-in-cheek ins and outs of “The Children” display an unheard of grandeur for “that other string instrument” – the much-too-often ignored bass.  Vocalist Chris Keating shows the most noteworthy strokes of genius of the album; even if he is unwilling to admit it. Keating is the heart and soul of Yeasayer. He vents an increasing curiosity with synthesizers like a kid with a new toy on his hands, not quite fully mastering it before putting it to real use. Rolling and thumping through the thickets of raw poetry, the fatherly ballad that is “Ambling Alp” attests to Keating’s songwriting talent in case this whole keyboard business does not work out. No need for precautions though. The warped bass beats and oh-so-danceable ivory riffs of “Rome” form easily the best song of the album…and perhaps the year.

Often compared to the likes of Animal Collective, MGMT, and Grizzly Bear, Yeasayer despises the idea of “scenes” or any gathering of several artists dictating what sounds good or bad.  What sets these three musicians apart from other under-the-surface bands can be summed up with one word – chemistry.  As evident on their lovable, energetic La Blogotheque sessions, the members of Yeasayer know each other through and through, their strengths and weaknesses, their preferences and pet peeves. With only two songs under three minutes in length, this sophomore release proves that Yeasayer is no mere throwaway indie blip on the radar screen. Odd Blood begs for dissection, ushering forth new discoveries with every listen.

Yeasayer – Ambling Alp

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Grade: B-/B

For Fans of: Guster, The Shins, Liam Finn

I’m pretty surre I’ve heard the argument made that every album, first through eleventy-billionth, is a band’s most important effort. Essentially, if you put out a horrible album, it can kill your career. When you get to sixth, the pool for comparison thins, and (under certain circumstances) it becomes a success in and of itself. This is where we are with Spoon and their newest, Transference.

Now, as I thought of other bands with six or more albums, my mind was of course drawn to Radiohead and analogies ran wild (hence the title). In a very rough way, Spoon is in the same place Radiohead was in with the release of Hail to the Thief (bear with me). The major difference being, Spoon’s last two albums have been their most accessible, while Radiohead’s 4th and 5th efforts were almost intentionally alienating. Spoon has picked up a lot of steam since “Gimme Fiction,” including multiple songs being featured on NBC’s “Chuck.”  Accordingly, the boys were faced with a crossroad. A larger audience means more expectations.  A good band shakes them with style.  Radiohead (again same place, different circumstances) let loose and made the least accessible of their records with Hail to the Thief. Spoon, on the other hand, has taken a much more gradual step. (And no, I don’t think Spoon is better than Radiohead. Pshhh.)

On first listen, I was a little disappointed.  I kept waiting for the radio-esque single and killer hook along the lines of “Don’t You Evah” or “I Summon You,” but it never really came. I was guilty of wanting another Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga, but I got something different, a little more cohesive and a little darker.  And while I think there is a stronger glue holding Transference together than previous albums, the same cohesion has made it less memorable. By no means is Transference a flop.  It has its own staying power, but it isn’t a catchy staying power.

Spoon’s bread and butter lies in not trying too hard, and they haven’t fled camp.  The Spoon of old is recognizable, just with a few new tricks. They’ve been evolving over time, think “The Ghost of You Lingers,” and in due course Transference contains just a few more “Ghost”-like tracks. There is some synth-percussion on “Who Makes Your Money,” strange vocal delays on “Is Love Forever?,” and mid-song “I Saw the Light” completely changes directions, but for the most part it works.

Considering where Spoon is in their career, Transference makes sense. If they don’t start broadening out, all of their quirks will become predictably unpredictable. The same thing that has made Spoon so likable (simple, low-fi pop), is also their handcuff.  There is only so much you can do with a buzzy guitar, drum, and an old upright piano. I see Transference as being a sort of stepping stone.  A stepping stone with substance.  Not my favorite album of the young year, but one I’m glad to have in my library.

Spoon – Written in Reverse (Removed at the Request of Web Sheriff)

You can also check out a listen of the new album at NPR.

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Grass Widow, a rising all-girl rock trio from San Francisco, spoke to super fan and IHYEB contributing writer Brady Tackett through e-mail correspondence over the winter break. With two wonderful releases behind them (a self-titled LP and EP), the ladies are now poised for their next record.

Brady: How does San Fran influence the music? What’s your favorite surf band?

Raven Mahon: Definitely our environment influences us, but not necessarily in a summer of ‘67 kind of way or a California Surfin’ Safari kind of way. I’d say our foundation rests in the scene that existed in the Bay Area a few years back, before the explosions of MySpace and modern networking technology. When Hannah and I were in our first band together, Shitstorm, (which Lillian later joined) we played with friends in the parks a lot, practiced with a generator out by the bay and were essentially non-existent on the internet, as were most of our friends’ bands. I feel fortunate to have that time to reference, in an age when so much happens in virtual world.

Hannah Lew: I love surf music, but have never thought of SF as a surf town. I know people that surf here, but it’s too foggy for that sunny beach vibe. We do have a lot of So-Cal transplants here that bring the sunshine. Really if you tour through here, you’ll come to know that it’s sort of an island. It’s 6 hours to LA, 12 hours to Portland, and I don’t know how many hours east you’d have to go to hit a city, but basically we’re sort of isolated from the rest of the country. We kind of just do our own thing.

Brady: The press calls your music ‘punk.’ Does the political climate have an influence on songwriting?

Raven: I’m definitely aware that music itself can be a forum for discussions of political and/or social issues, and respect artists and musicians who are taking the opportunity to use their voices in that way. Our music tends to be more personal and based on our individual experiences, but we chose to exist as a band in an intentional way. That is where we feel we can express our politics. We participate in benefits and donate as a band, to causes we believe in, like the San Francisco All-Ages Show Space Project, Girls Rock Camp and now relief efforts in Haiti.

Hannah: We’re faced with many decisions everyday about how to do things as a band. When we play shows it gives us the chance to create an environment where people of all races and genders can participate.  We’ve never felt comfortable inserting any didactic messages into our lyrics or preaching at shows. For me, our music exists in a non-verbal place, where ideas and images can thrive, but not necessarily any “messages.”

Brady: What are your songs about and what will they be about in five years?

Lillian Maring: Our internal climates inspire what hopefully comes through in each song. We each have a tendency to deconstruct everyday experiences. The music itself may be upbeat but the lyrical content is often, for us, like condensing an hour’s worth of psychoanalysis into a couple minutes of melody.

Hannah: Our songs are generally about what we are going through or what we are passionate about/interested in. That being said, we are constantly taking those experiences and synthesizing them into something that we would hope could be universal and not self-indulgent. We’re able to write about very personal subject matter through our music, using metaphors and leaving room for people to insert their own stories. Sort of like a book without a cover.

Brady: What’s your favorite song that you’ve released thus far?

Lillian: We don’t play this one out anymore, but I really like “Time Could Bend,” from our self-titled LP on Make A Mess Records.

Raven: Hmmm.. I don’t have a favorite. But I like playing “Tattoo” and a song we’re about to release called “Uncertain Memory.”

Hannah: It’s like choosing your favorite child: I guess “Lulu’s Lips.”

Brady: What are Grass Widow’s plans for 2010?

Lillian: Release another full length, go to Europe. Help start an all-ages venue in SF.

Raven: To dedicate a lot of time to the project.

Hannah: To make this next record and tour!

Brady: How long have you guys known each other/been playing together?

Lillian: I met Hannah in the spring of 2006. I started playing with Hannah and Raven, as a fill-in drummer for their previous band Shitstorm, when I moved to SF in 2007.

Raven: Hannah and I met through our mutual friend, Wu Li Leung, who was also in Shitstorm. That was about 7 years ago?

Hannah: We’ve been playing as Grass Widow for around two-and-a-half years.

Brady: Hannah, there are some of your short films on your site. Any plans to use those in your work with the band?

Hannah: We’ve been throwing around some music video ideas that maybe we’ll have time to do when we’re done recording . I kind of work totally differently as a filmmaker than I do as a band member. I work better alone creatively as a filmmaker, whereas the band is so triangularly collaborative. Our collaboration is really special and satisfying, but I do look forward to having the time to focus on film. I’ve been working on a script that I may develop into a film in a year or so. You can check out my films at Hannahlew.com.

Brady: What do you do for fun?

Lillian: Shuffleboard, Web mastering.

Raven: Sleeping.

Hannah: Will Shortz, Monday thru Wednesday.

Brady: How often do you practice and where?

Raven: We have a practice space in a meat locker. For real. It’s about five square feet and we share it with our friends, Rank/Xerox (and Nodzzz for a while) and some stragglers.

Hannah: We practice once a week usually. Then we listen to our practice tapes and practice in our heads constantly. Constantly.

Brady: Dream tour (where and with what bands)?

Lillian: The world.

Raven: New Zealand, Turkey… with bands from those places.

Hannah: I’ll go where she goes.

Brady: What do you love about music?

Raven: It’s older than words.

Lillian: Music can provide an opportunity to transcend the literal or obvious interpretations of daily life, to create a space in which to form your own ideals and motivations. It can be a link to another world, another culture. It unites people.

Hannah: I can’t describe it.

Grass Widow – Tattoo

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Wu Tang vs. The Beatles – Save Me Dear (Radio Edit)

Wu Tang vs. The Beatles – Uh Huh (Radio Edit)

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The bump of dance music is here, but warm, strong and nearly unrecognizable. Four Tet, a.k.a. Kieran Hebden, has always culled interesting electronic music from a sea of eclectic rhythms and sounds, but Love is more focused. It’s the melodic light of his past work, refracted through years of experience.

And that experience is collective: Hebden’s mentor is legendary jazz drummer Steve Reid, who played with Miles Davis, James Brown and Fela Kuti. Hebden, clearly an apt pupil, benefits from all these influences.

“This Unfolds” turns something of a Beck throwaway into Maynard James Keenan in space. The songs are eclectic but together in quiet shifts in tone. “Circling” has chopped vocals in an Afrobeat rhythm and a charming bell pattern. Everywhere, Love rescues childhood nostalgia from whimsy.

Diverse as the Hebden’s sampled sources are, the glue of Love is a song structure unique to dance music. New sounds emerge right on beat. These songs forever add to themselves, building till the end of every song is a whirling, euphoric wave of sounds.

But from where did this newfound joy come? “Pablo’s Heart,” a 12-second recording of a child’s heartbeat recorded on a cell phone, is indicative of Love as a whole. It’s like a dance in celebration of new life. Maybe Hebden’s introspection has upgraded, expanded outwardly.

Four Tet – This Unfolds

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It all started back in 1994 when Chad Urmston, former Dispatch member and current State Radio frontman, went on a trip to Zimbabwe where he met and befriended a simple, but wise, gardener named Elias.  As Chad watched Elias work hard and struggle to provide for his wife and two sons, he was amazed at his ability to love despite his circumstances.  He grew to care deeply about Elias and from there, one of the band’s most beloved songs was birthed.  For those who have never heard it, it is a beautifully written song, that starts off with a prayer in Elias’ native tongue Shona.

But the most exciting part of the story, is what has taken place after the writing of this great song. First there was the fundraiser, started by two friends of band, which accumulated to $13,000, guaranteeing Elias’ boys an education.  Then came the grassroots organization, the Elias Fund, which works with local initiatives to empower Zimbabwean through strategic partnership and resource allocation.  The song has also inspired the band to start the Dispatch Foundation which has a similar mission to build and support community growth in Zimbabwe.  And there have been multiple benefit concerts all because of of this one song.

The obvious conclusion is to look at this story and to recognize the impact that this song has had on Elias and the rest of his community over in Zimbabwe. As great as it is, the song isn’t what I want to focus on.  Very few of you who are reading this are actually song writers, and those of you who are can’t just go out and say “I’m gonna write a song to inspire change in an impoverished country”, and then make it happen. And Chad didn’t do anything significant when he wrote this song. He was just doing what he was created to do, what he had done before and is continuing to do today as he writes songs for State Radio.  What was significant was his choice to go to Zimbabwe, and not just to visit and take pity on them, but he chose to engage in relationship with the people there.  It was the relationship that he developed with Elias. That is what was significant.

So I encourage you. Wherever you are, whatever you do. Take the time and put forth the effort to engage in relationships and then keep doing whatever it is God created you to do. Change will happen.

Dispatch – Elias

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And that’s how I got here. So I got to work one more time. I worked real hard to fill the CD the first time; with a whopping 23 tracks and 78 minutes of music, that sucker was chock full of goodness. I decided that this time around, I was going to go for quality over quantity.

Track 1.  I’m Actual – The Format

While this song is the second track, of The Format’s album Dog Problems, I found it a good opener to my mix for two reasons. First, was the opening line, “Can we take the next hour / And talk about me / Talk about me, and we’ll talk about me/ Talk about me, and we’ll only talk about me”. I liked this, because from the end of this song, the mix is approximately an hour long. The second reason is that I just love this song. It sets a tone of beautifully orchestrated music, preparing your palate for what is to come.  It’s like the hostess seating you at the table, and handing you the menu.

Track 2.  To the Dogs or Whoever – Josh Ritter

The transition between songs is perfect. The guitar comes in from out of nowhere, and before you know it you’re right in the middle of the song without even noticing that it really changed. This song doesn’t really follow a theme from the first song, it’s just here because I like it. It’s fun to sing in the shower, and in the car. It’s a good mix-cd song, so it’s on here.

Track 3. Float On – Goldspot

I don’t want to diss on Modest Mouse, but I really love this cover. Now this song is a spring-ish kind of song. The full name of this mix is Someday Soon Spring Shall Surface So Sing Some Songs, so this is the first song that starts to set the theme of the mix. This is the shortest “song” on the mix, and ends almost as abruptly as it starts. It’s an enjoyable listen, and is a great addition to the mix.

Track 4.  I Can See The Pines Are Dancing – A.A. Bondy

This one goes off theme, for almost a complete change of pace. Had I not already burned a few copies, and made fancy artwork/cases, I might reconsider the placement of this song. This song feels more… fall or winter to me than spring. But that’s almost the point of it all, that someday spring will come, but as for now we must enjoy the winter while it lasts. Or maybe not. Do pines dance in spring? I guess you just have to listen and decide for yourself.

Track 5. Remain – Tyrone Wells

Back on track with more spring-ness now. I first heard Tyrone on the internal Starbucks radio CD/mixer, and went home and bought his album on iTunes. His voice reminds me of a musician from Tulsa named Ben Kilgore, and the people familiar with both artists seem to agree with me. A solid track, and another great mix-CD song.

Track 6. Ramona – Guster

I think it should be a law that every mix-CD contain at least one Guster song. Nathan (our site founder and editor-in-chief) introduced me to them years ago, and I have since fallen in love. This song works well for this mix in both the sound/feel department as well as lyrically. I live in Oklahoma, as does the recipient of this mix, so when I found a great Guster song that mentions this great state I got a little giddy. “Ramona, you’re Miss Oklahoma /and you miss Oklahoma.” It’s a great line, and a great, great, GREAT song. Perhaps my favorite song on the mix, and the one I really wanted to leave an impact with.

Track 7. Life in Disguise – The Slip

This song pairs wonderfully with Ramona, and is great in it’s own right. A great spring-time night-driving song if I ever knew one. It finds great company between tracks six and seven, serving as the proper transition between the two. This song is amazingly soothing, and always makes me feel better.

Track 8. Cartwheels – The Reindeer Section

If you listen to this track, you’re probably going to say, “Hey that voice sounds familiar!” Well you’re right! You’re hearing the voice of Gary Lightbody, front-man of alt-rock band Snow Patrol along with some other Irish indie rockers as part of the super-group The Reindeer Section. It’s a great song. Just beautiful. This is the kind of night-driving song that WILL make you start day-dreaming. Consider yourself warned.

Track 9. Pills – The Perishers

I really loved the album Let There Be Morning by The Perishers. I mean, really love. I probably listen to at least one song off it every day. But enough about me, and more about this song. It’s kind of dark, talking about being dependent on substances to be able to sleep because a relationship is going so poorly, but not telling their significant other the truth about the root of it all. I just like how it sounds. Oh well. Next song

Track 10. Somerville – The Pernice Brothers

I was gifted this album by a friend, and I love it. This song is about being stuck in a dead end town and getting out of it with the person you care about. While I’ve never been there, Courtney is from a small town in Oklahoma called Harrah, so I figured why not have a song about small towns. It has a spring-y feel to it. It feels good. This is the kind of song you sing when you’re driving down the highway with the windows down. It’s cathartic and simple, but I love it.

Track 11.  Life is Beautiful – Vega4

This track is another key song of the mix. I was really aiming this one at her tastes, and I hope I got it right. The song is magnificent, and paints a beautiful picture in my mind. The pre-chorus just sucks you in, and then when the chorus hits that first time you just explode with wonder. When the song finally climaxes, your mind is doubly blown. This is the kind of song that needs to be at about the the halfway mark of a mix, and that’s just where you find it. The song keeps my listener hooked, and will surely keep listening after such a great song.

Track 12. You Do – Until June

Now we slow it back down. This song starts soft, light vocals and the sound of train cars. The piano and heavily-fx’d guitar wash over the audial canvas in a motion that will relax every thought in your mind. The song’s lyrics are christian based, but at it’s root appeals to the higher notion of just being able to understand the unexplainable. I like to imagine the night sky, stars and satellites overhead as I sing the hook over and over to myself.

Track 13. Julia – The Beatles

I love how delicate this song is. It sets up the mix for a much bigger song to follow, and The Beatles just really rock the subtly of this one. I suppose this song could have been better place if Courtney’s name was actually Julia, or if I was in love with her, but neither are true so we just take it at face value.

Track 14. I Ran Away – Coldplay

This next treasure is a rare Coldplay b-side to their hit single The Scientist. It’s a shame that it got lost amongst the hype of it all. For Coldplay haters, this song follows a predictable structure that can grow tiresome as it continues. If you like Coldplay, this is a great rare track; otherwise, skip it.

Track 15. Middle Distance Runner – Sea Wolf

This band is on my list of artists that belong on every mix I make. I wish more people were aware of their stupendous awesomeness. In retrospect I should have chosen a song off their newest album, but this one just kinda stood out to me. I’ve dangerously danced in the shower to this one a few too many times. This song sounds a bit like musical raining. I had the chance to listen to it in the rain a week ago, and it was awesome. Perfect rainy songs are perfect spring songs. Done and done.

Track 16. Morning Light – Graham Colton Band

Here’s the climax of the mix! You finally made it! This is such an appropriate song for the climax because of the first line, “Sometimes I think I pass you walking on the street, and I believe it.” What does this have to do with me or Courtney? Well, Courtney moved back home to Harrah and I had no idea. I had thought for the last three weeks that she was still living on-campus at my school. So I guess the song was true in that aspect that I thought I was seeing her on the street when I really wasn’t. This was merely coincidence, I found this out after I had made the mix. Trust me, its a better story than the real one.

Track 17. One Last “Whoo-hoo!” For The Pullman – Sufjan Stevens

Seven seconds of Sufjan. Are you ready?

Track 18. Within You – Ray LaMontagne

AAAAAaaaaaannnd that wraps it up. This great track from Ray is a brilliant close to his album, and now to my mix. This song is beautiful and just does a great job of tieing up all the musical loose ends, leaving the listener with a feeling of completeness as the song fades into empty sound.

And that’s it! I was so proud of it that I had to come share. I want to come back and share my greatest playlists more often, as well as get back into the remix saddle very soon. So be on the lookout for more great posts coming your way.

Until then, I hope your ears bleed someday soon. Ω

Related posts:

1. New Coldplay Live Album
2. Coldplay Sued For Plagarism
3. New Music from Noah and the Whale

The cold harnesses the mind and hones the senses. We see divisions more clearly: the geometry of a bedside table, the sharp difference of darkness and light, the separation of communal identity and the lone self. In winter, the watercolor smear of summer is gone and the world has suddenly come into focus.

Winter keeps us indoors for long spans, which is hell for restless people. But more time affords longer commitments, like that of listening to a record in its entirety. Here are some frosty nuggets.

Music Has the Right to Children – Boards of Canada

Music Has the Right to Children is a future-music dream city submerged in murky water and subliminal messages. Melodies dissolve just as they reach boiling point. Many sounds are so subtle they hardly exist, so strap on some headphones. Hazy jams like “Aquarius” and “Turquoise Hexagon Sun” loom high, stretching a hip-hop beat and warping it forever past time. If Kubrick made beats…

Boards of Canada – Aquarius

Kind of Blue – Miles Davis

“All Blues” is the winter song on the jazz record. These alien chord changes don’t ever touch ground, despite heaps of praise. A tense theme for driving home from work at the end of dusk, the song has no peers. Kind of Blue is so unassuming but it demands your attention. This kind of record is extinct; it’s for people that have to wait for things.

Miles Davis – All Blues

Kid A – Radiohead

I remember first listening to all of Kid A in the early morning, on a stretch of highway in Colorado. We passed cranes and incomplete shopping malls, all of it dusted with snow, to the chug of “The National Anthem.” The car coasted around a mountain pass during “In Limbo,” a drugged funhouse mirror. It’s an album, man, and each song is a stream into one frigid reservoir.

Radiohead – In Limbo

Knives Don’t Have Your Back – Emily Haines & the Soft Skeleton

Haines sets out on a desolate adventure from Metric, the electric-rock group, with nothing but a husky contralto and jazz in the liner notes. “The first three songs all begin with the same note,” a friend pointed out, and he’s right; this is a mood record. The music of a late winter night should be concentrated, sparse and factual. Haines’ path is sad and beautiful.

Emily Haines & the Soft Skeleton – Our Hell

Others:

• The Velvet Underground – The Velvet Underground
• 23 – Blonde Redhead
• The Moon and Antarctica – Modest Mouse
• Sanguine – Julianna Barwick
• Turn On the Bright Lights – Interpol
• Songs of Leonard Cohen – Leonard Cohen
• Demon Dayz – Gorillaz

Related posts:

1. Autumn’s Shuffle
2. Winter Gloves “Party People” Video
3. New Fleet Foxes Video – White Winter Hymnal

So today I want to shine a light on an organization that has chosen not to ignore Haiti.  Instead of just sitting at home and writing a check, the people at Paste Magazine are using the influence that God has granted them and have started a campaign to raise funds for the relief effort that is taking place in Haiti right now.  They have asked artists from across the globe to donate songs that they would give away to those who donated to the relief fund.  Right now there are over 200 artists that have contributed mp3’s for this cause, with a good portion of them offering exclusive unreleased songs.

Part of me feels a little sleezy trying to entice you into giving by telling you about all of the great music you can get if you do. But then again, if writing this post means that more money will be given, and more lives will be positively affected, then that is all that matters.  I hope that those of you who are reading this recognize the great opportunity to “love your neighbor” through financial gifts and are doing so regularly. But that is another matter. For right now I have some great tunes to tell you about.

Paste has managed to get an excellent and very eclectic group of artists to participate. Of Montreal, Bruce Cockburn, Switchfoot, State Radio, Deer Tick, Andrew Bird, The Decemberists, Duncan Sheik, Ludacris and literally hundreds more have given songs to help the people of Haiti.  And these aren’t just cheap b-side tracks that would’ve remained unheard.  There are some real gems to be found in this musical smorgasbord. So head on over to SongsforHaiti.org and make a difference while you download music today.

Here are a few of my favorites that I have discovered so far.

Dan Mangan – Road Regrets

Cary Brothers – Love Song

Related posts:

1. 3 Song Thursday: Anti-Valentines Songs
2. Songs of Winter
3. Songs in the Key of Inept

Related posts:

1. Music video of the Week: Grizzly Bear “Two Weeks”
2. Song of the Moment: (David Bowie I Love You) Since I Was Six
3. Unreleased Mountain Goats Love Song

For starters the character development is completely unparalleled. They are able to go farther with these characters than any other show, because of consistency and the intentionality in which they write. I heard recently that each writer has a certain character that they know, and I mean they know everything about them, even things we as the audience don’t know, things that may never even come into play with the script.  So then as they are writing each episode, and ideas are thrown out, they can then respond with “no, that can’t happen. Kate would never do that because…”  I’m not sure if that’s true or not, but I love that idea.  Also with all of the background stories and intimate details of their personal lives that we are given about their lives prior to the crash, you feel like you truly know these people.  Which makes it all the more easy to fall in love with them, no matter how flawed they may be.

I think that overall the acting is pretty superb, especially when you consider the enormity of the cast from season to season. From guys like Dominic Monaghan playing the fun-lovin’ drug-addicted rockstar, to Michael Emerson playing the creepy and sinister Benjamin Linus, to Jeremy Davies playing the extremely nervous, but lovable physicist Daniel Farraday, they are all just excellent.

Not to mention they do a fantastic job with the music. Very rarely do they use pop culture songs to score the show, but when they have it has worked really well, like in the end of the Season 1 episode “In Translation”, where they used Hurley’s discman to play “Delicate” by Damien Rice.  That was a great moment. But the best thing about the music is the original score performed by the Hollywood Studio Symphony Orchestra and composed by Michael Giacchino.  They often use the score to invoke some sort of emotion in the audience, be it suspenseful or joyous.

Another highlight of the show for me is all of the incredible philosophical and biblical references and metaphors intertwined in to the story, which I won’t get into, for I do not want to spoil any of the plot-lines for those of you who have yet to buy in to this incredible series.

This last love of mine is a piece of contention among many viewers.  This is where Lost has lost a great portion of its audience.  It’s the fact that each episode leaves you with more questions.  Every time you think the show is about to go somewhere and give you some answers and a bit of resolution, it turns a corner.  And often when it does give you an answer, that answer merely leads to more questions.  Where some people find this infuriating, I find it invigorating.  I love this aspect of the show for many reasons. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve finished an episode of Lost and immediately turned to the person next to me and started to ask them one of the many questions that I was left with.  And more often than not, that question has led into a great and very deep and meaningful conversation.  Not only that, but I feel like this is more true to life.  More often than not, in our quest for truth, and for answers, we have to wait a long time before we get them.  And then when we do receive answers, they often lead to more questions.

I think this is the way that our God often relates to us. “I am coming soon.” I mean how much more unresolved can you get than that. It’s been what a little over 2,000 years now .

It has taken me a long time to come to grips with the fact that I am never going to figure it all out. That I will never have all the answers.

So what do you think?  Is it ok for things to be unresolved?  What is your reaction to Lost when it leaves you with more questions than you can handle?  What’s your reaction to God when you seek Him in prayer dig into His word and all you are left with is more questions? Knowing that we will never be able to figure it out, do we just stop seeking?  Or do we seek harder?

Michael Giacchino – Hurley’s Handouts

Michael Giacchino – The Constant

Related posts:

1. 3 Song Thursdays
2. Guster Celebrates 10 Anniversary of “Lost and Gone Forever”
3. Flight of the Conchords

Adam Arcuragi – She Comes To Me

Related posts:

1. Song of the Day: Uzi and Ari
2. New Norah Jones Record, “The Fall”
3. Company of Thieves Contest

Shamelessly depicting such nuisances as melodramatic Nietzsche-crazed youths in “Giving Up The Gun” and the paradoxes of modern college students psyche in “California English”, lead singer Ezra Koenig coolly sidesteps the hallowed sophomore slump curse as any forward-thinking songwriter would.  Koenig relishes in his past follies, makes them intimate and personal – only now can he mock and poke fun without losing self-worth.  The occasional voice cracks of “Run” and the boyish shrieks and swoons of “White Sky” add to the comforting idea that growing up is not the same as accepting boredom and dull ennui.

Rostam Batmanglij seems nonplussed with his band-mate’s new direction and certainly has plans of his own concerning track arrangement, instrument selection, and even unexpected cross-genre influences (“Diplomat’s Son” features an M.I.A. sample that cleverly fills the soundscape between Koenig’s verses).  Much like a musical Kurt Vonnegut, Batmanglij boldly unveils new aspects of his creative style without reinventing his art to the point of disassociation.  He defiantly recommences the old signature marimba base beats that earned the band much negative feedback from the critical “authorities” of the day; yet display VW’s deep respect for some of the world’s most sincere music – West African percussion.

Despite being dubbed the “whitest band” two years ago (by none other than the founder of Stuff White People Like, Christian Lander), Vampire Weekend lashes back after a brief hiatus of recharging and realignment with Contra, a track list more like the intersection of experience and fun than the straight-as-an-arrow highway that forms most sophomore efforts.  Who needs music industry guidelines anyway?

Vampire Weekend – Horchata

Related posts:

1. Vampire Weekend Announce New Record, Contra
2. Vampire Weekend + Ra Ra Riot = Discovery
3. Remix Wednesday: Walcott [Insane Mix]

See full report…

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2. Music Video of the Week (Video Edition): The Frontier Brothers
3. Music Video of the Week: La Otra Banda “La Cebolla”

10. Regina Spektor – Far

She can be a little kitschy but she is so stinkin’ talented. Her vocal abilities never cease to amaze me . And she has cooked another great batch of interesting, contemplative, and downright enjoyable pop tunes. I think this album is exactly what you’d expect from Regina and more.  It’s goofy, but you’re her voice will knock you off your feet.  She’ll bark like a seal, and then slap you up side the head with one of the most profound lines you’ve heard all year. Don’t ever stop paying attention to this girl.  She ain’t just messin’ around.

Regina Spektor – Laughing With

9. Gomez - A New Tide

This veteran indie pop band has finally hit its stride. I was actually really suprised that this album stuck with me.  I just assumed that it would be just another pop record that I would just eat up and then allow to fade into the noise.  But that was far from the case. I have had this album since February and it only gets stronger with time. A New Tide just has a really fun and diverse sound.  But there is also a lot of depth to these songs.  If Britain doesn’t want to claim them anymore we’re more than happy to sing their praises here in U.S. of A.

Gomez – Airstream Driver

8. Bat  For Lashes - Two Suns

Natasha Khan may have outdone herself on this one. Those who have heard a track or two off of this record might find its inclusion on this list slightly puzzling.  That is because this album is more than just a collection of singles. It is an experience.  Khan has invited us into a world inhabited by her “desert-born spiritual self” and her “destructive, self-absorbed, blonde femme fetale” alter ego, Pearl.  Take a moment to sit down and put this record on from start to finish. The stories and the music that Khan brings to us are just absolutely mesmerizing.

Bat For Lashes – Pearl’s Dream

7. Neko Case - Middle Cyclone

Neko Case has one of the most beautiful and soothing voices I have ever heard.  Thank goodness she’s also one hell of a songwriter. I’ve been a fan of this New Pornographers collaborator for quite some time now, but Middle Cyclone has turned me into an enthusiast.  This was her first solo venture away from her alt-country roots.  Not that she left her sound behind, but she simply infused the power pop that she learned from her good buddy A.C. Newman into her own musical stylings.  And what we get  is a simply wonderful album, through and through.

Neko Case – Magpie To The Morning

6. Bad Veins – Bad Veins

The debut album from this little known indie rock band from Cincinnati has  been probably the biggest surprise for me. Not surprised that I like it.  I knew it would be on this list before the first track was even over.  What I’m surprised by is that this album is still virtually unknown.  I have yet to see this record on another year-end list and that is a shame.  There is a lot of depth to the music being played in this record, music that I believe will stay with me for a long time.

Bad Veins – Found

5. Phoenix – Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix

“From the mess to the masses.”  That is where French pop band, Phoenix has gone with their 4th studio album, Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix.  This album is a pop masterpiece.  Easily one of the catchiest records of the year with the two most danceable songs I heard all year (“Lisztomania” & “1901″).  They have come leaps and bounds since their 2006 “breakthrough” album, It’s Never Been Like That.  Not only have they created some of the best musical hooks of the year, but I am so jealous of their lyrical ability, especially for a group that is writing in their second language.  I am eagerly anticipating what they will give to us next.

Phoenix – Rome

4. The Avett Brothers – I and Love and You

One of the best folk groups of all time have just completed what may be looked back upon as their masterpiece.    With the help of producer Rick Rubin, this album is much more polished than any of their previoius works, much to the chagrin of their hard-core fans. I actually enjoy the change in flavor. But I could take it or leave it. The reason this album makes this list is because of the words.  Seth and Scott Avett have a way with words that in the past decade has gone completely unmatched.  This album picks up where Emotionalism left off, with brand new batch of personal, heart-wrenching ballads that speak to the very core of what it means to live and to love.  I urge you all to head to your local record store and pick up this album. For one of the greatest aspects of this record is the epic poem about love that Seth wrote and included in the album insert.

The Avett Brothers – The Perfect Space

3. Fanfarlo – Reservoir

This band has drawn comparisons to several of my favorite indie acts of the past decade, from Beirut to the Arcade Fire to the National.  Let’s use that as a reason for you to listen, and that alone. For these guys have no reason to exist in their shadow for even a moment longer. What they have accomplished on their debut album, Reservoir, is worthy of all the fame and accolades of the aforementioned acts. This album is sweet. It’s hypnotic. It’s bombastic. It’s grandiose.  And it is simply gorgeous.  Some of the best string and brass arrangements of the year.  And to think that I got all of this for only a dollar.

Fanfarlo – Finish Line

2. Passion Pit - Manners

I have been absolutely in love with these guys from the moment I first heard “Sleepyhead” off of their 2008 debut EP, Chunk of Change.  I loved it, but I wasn’t excited about what they would release next. Rather, I was nervous, because Chunk was an accident, nothing more than a Valentine’s Day present for lead singer Michael Angelakos’ current girlfriend. I was worried they wouldn’t be able to recreate the magic.  Fortunately for us they couldn’t but they were able to make something even better. The best indie dance-pop album of the year was born in Manners.

Passion Pit – Moth’s Wings

1. Grizzly Bear – Veckatimest

How can an artist that has never had a record so much as graze my top 20 all of sudden create what I consider to be the best album of the year? The answer is simple they started channeling the spirit of my favorite artist of all time (Brian Wilson). The vocal arrangements and overall production quality of this album are absolutely breathtaking.  The vocal harmonies on this album are incredible and to a quality rarely achieved outside of Brian Wilson and his surfin’ buddies. Two weeks is one of the catchiest and most enjoyable song of the year, but outside of that, this album needs a little room to grow. So give the time it needs and you won’t regret it.

Grizzly Bear – Ready, Able

Related posts:

1. Most Anticipated Albums of 2009 – Part 4
2. Justin’s Favorite Albums of 2009
3. Brady’s Top Ten Albums of 2009

Related posts:

1. Animal Collective – Merriweather Post Pavilion
2. “Fall Be Kind”, An Uneven Triumph
3. Music Video of the Week (Video Edition): “Jeroen van Aken” by Gregor Samsa

United State of Pop 2009 – Blame It On the Pop

But what does that say about the state of pop music,  that all of these songs are similar enough to mashed up into one singular song?  I don’t think this a completely untalented group of artists.  I actually enjoyed a fair amount of these songs this year.  But I think it goes to show how much the labels and producers are controlling the sound on these records.  It’s no wonder we eat these songs up and then make ourselves so sick of them that we never want to hear them again. Because we’re essentially listening to the same song over and over again.  What do you guys think?

Here’s a list of all of the songs included in this year’s mash-up.

• The Black Eyed Peas – BOOM BOOM POW
• Lady Gaga – POKER FACE
• Lady Gaga Featuring Colby O’Donis – JUST DANCE
• The Black Eyed Peas – I GOTTA FEELING
• Taylor Swift – LOVE STORY
• Flo Rida – RIGHT ROUND
• Jason Mraz – I’M YOURS
• Beyonce – SINGLE LADIES (PUT A RING ON IT)
• Kanye West – HEARTLESS
• The All-American Rejects – GIVES YOU HELL
• Taylor Swift – YOU BELONG WITH ME
• T.I. Featuring Justin Timberlake – DEAD AND GONE
• The Fray – YOU FOUND ME
• Kings Of Leon – USE SOMEBODY
• Keri Hilson Featuring Kanye West & Ne-Yo – KNOCK YOU DOWN
• Jamie Foxx Featuring T-Pain – BLAME IT
• Pitbull – I KNOW YOU WANT ME (CALLE OCHO)
• T.I. Featuring Rihanna – LIVE YOUR LIFE
• Soulja Boy Tell ‘em Featuring Sammie – KISS ME THRU THE PHONE
• Jay Sean Featuring Lil Wayne – DOWN
• Miley Cyrus – THE CLIMB
• Drake – BEST I EVER HAD
• Kelly Clarkson – MY LIFE WOULD SUCK WITHOUT YOU
• Beyonce – HALO
• Katy Perry – HOT N COLD

Related posts:

1. 80’s Life, pt. 1: The Music
2. William Fitzsimmons Covers Kanye West
3. Kid Cudi’s “Moon” Mixes Fear with Zeal

Bondy has been on the road practically non-stop since release of Devil’s Loose back in June.  And as the new year rolls in he’s hardly wasting any time before heading out on tour again.  A week from tomorrow he’ll be making a stop in Fayetteville, AR @ George’s Majestic Lounge, and we’ll be there covering the show.  Bondy will be preceded on stage that night with up-and-coming singer/songwriter, Amy Cook.  Take a listen below to the first single off of her forthcoming record, Let the Light In.   For those of you not in the Fayetteville area, check out the tour dates listed below. We’ll be sure to let you know if it’s worth your time.

A.A. Bondy – When The Devil’s Loose

Amy Cook – Hotel Lights

JAN. 8           MEMPHIS, TN                       HI-TONE CAFÉ
JAN. 9           FAYETTEVILLE, AR          GEORGE’S MAJESTIC LOUNGE
JAN. 11         FORT WORTH, TX                LOLA’S
JAN. 12         SANTA FE, NM                     SANTA FE BREWING COMPANY
JAN. 13         PHOENIX, AZ                       RHYTHM ROOM
JAN. 14         TUCSON, AZ                          SOLAR CULTURE
JAN. 15         SAN DIEGO, CA                    THE CASBAH
JAN. 16         LOS ANGELES, CA              EAGLE ROCK CENTER FOR THE ARTS
JAN. 18         SANTA BARBARA, CA      MUDDY WATERS
JAN. 19         VISALIA, CA                        CELLAR DOOR
JAN. 20         SAN FRANCISCO, CA        CAFÉ DU NORD
JAN. 22         PORTLAND, OR                    MISSISSIPPI STUDIOS
JAN. 23         SEATTLE, WA                       THE TRACTOR TAVERN
JAN. 25         SPOKANE, WA                      THE BLVD
JAN. 26         BOISE, ID                                NEUROLUX
JAN. 27         SALT LAKE CITY, UT        URBAN LOUNGE
JAN. 28         DENVER, CO                          HI-DIVE
JAN. 29         LAWRENCE, KS                    JACKPOT MUSIC HALL
JAN. 30         AMES, IA                               MAINTENANCE SHOP
FEB. 1           MADISON, WI                        HIGH NOON SALOON
FEB. 2           ANN ARBOR, MI                   BLIND PIG
FEB. 3           BUFFALO, NY                        MOHAWK PLACE

Related posts:

1. A.A. Bondy Announces New Album
2. ACL Preview – A.A. Bondy
3. New David Gray Album + Contest

10: Fanfarlo Reservoir

Better with each listen, I am continually drawn into this heavily layered, lush album.  Every song so far has been my favorite of the album.

Harold T. Wilkins, Or How To Wait For A Very Long Time

9: Samantha Crain and the Midnight Shivers Songs in the Night

Lyrics read like poetry, her voice carries sincerity, and the music insists that your feet should tap.  Just the way folk was meant to be.

Samanthan Crain and the Midnight Shivers- Songs in the Night

8: Company of Thieves Ordinary Riches

This genre defying album incorporates blues, jazz, rock, and folk.  The resulti is something reminscient of a sound from another era.

Company of Thieves- In Passing

7: Manchester Orchestra Mean Everything to Nothing

Andy Hull continues to write heavily emotional and personal songs without coming off as angsty or annoying.

Manchester Orchestra- I’ve Got Friends

6: fun. Aim and Ignite

This album is fun, period.  Sorry, that was dumb.  But seriously, it is fun.

fun.- All The Pretty Girls

5: Animal Collective Merriweather Post Pavillion

How in the world does Animal Collective not only put out consistently great albums, but produce arguably their best for their 9th?

Animal Collective- Summertime Clothes

4: Phoenix Wolfgang Amadeaus Phoenix

The first time I heard “Lisztomania” I started dancing alone in my apartment.  Then “1901″ came on and the party really started.

Phoenix- 1901

3: Grizzly Bear Veckatimest

I am embarrased to admit that I shrugged this off after the first listen.  Then I picked it up a few months later and pitied my former self.

Grizzly Bear- Two Weeks

2: Passion Pit Manners

Far and away the most danceable album I have ever heard.

Passion Pit- Little Secrets

1: Other Lives Other Lives

This past summer a friend insisted I go see Other Lives in concert.  He informed me it would be the greatest live show I had ever seen.  I was skeptical.  I was wrong (by the way, forget the 140 characters on this one).  Is it fair to rank an album #1 because of how much I was blown away by their performance?  Probably not, but that isn’t completely the case here.  Sure every time I hear the album I am drawn back to that ethereal experience, but even outside of that it is an incredible album.  Musically polished and incredibly orchestrated, their sound is so intricate I can’t help but feel like I am being taken on an epic journey.  And lead singer Jesse Tabish sings with such conviction and sincerity, his voice works its way through my whole body.  A remarkable album in a remarkable year of music.

Other Lives- End Of The Year

Related posts:

1. Most Anticipated Albums of 2009 – Part 1
2. Brady’s Top Ten Albums of 2009
3. Album Review: Samantha Crain and the Midnight Shivers “Songs in the Night”

I HATE CHRISTMAS MUSIC

Why do I hate it? Well, in recent years it has just become a platform for crappy pop stars to keep re-covering the same christmas songs over and over. I don’t need to hear Carrie Underwood sing White Christmas, or Wynonna singing Silent Night, or any big shot artist covering a christmas classic to get me into the spirit.

I think I should stop being such a grinch, and just let the infographic do that talking. So here are some of my favorite original Christmas songs:

1. Alan Parsons In A Winter Wonderland by Grandaddy
2. Another Christmas Song by Stephen Colbert
3. Christmas Time Is Here by Vince Guaraldi Trio
4. Did I Make You Cry On Christmas Day (Well, You Deserved It!) by Sufjan Stevens
5. Don’t Shoot Me Santa by The Killers
6. I Hate Christmas Parties – by Relient K
7. Love Came Down At Christmas by Jars of Clay
8. When I Get Home for Christmas by Snow Patrol
9. Xmas Party by Middle Distance Runner

I love Grandaddy’s rendition of “Walking In a Winter Wonderland,” but that may also be because I’m a fan of The Alan Parson Project. The song features some subtle humor about Parsons, but knowing a thing about him is not required to enjoy the track. Stephen Colbert is getting exactly what he wants with the next song, he has become part of my holiday listening tradition, and it is hilarious. Fans of Arrested Development, Peanuts Cartoons, and The Royal Tennenbaums will recognize the next little gem by the Vince Guaraldi Trio.  Sufjan Stevens put out his giant box set of Christmas music a few years ago, and song #4 is probably my favorite from that whole collection. The Killers’s song about a guy potentially getting murdered by Santa is interesting to say the least, watching the music video is a must. If Christmas time just gets you down, then be sure to listen to the track by Relient K. I love the next song by Jars of Clay, who took an awesome beat and made an enjoyable new Christmas classic. Snow Patrol fans should not be without song #8. I’m a huge fan, and that song is just awesome. And finally, song #9 is by Middle Distance Runner. If you’ve never checked them out, I hope this song drives you to do so.

Okay. I was a bit of a grinch earlier, but if you examine the chart you will see that there does exist a small sliver of well done covers. So here’s three Christmas covers I do enjoy, and are part of my holiday canon:

1. Christmas (Baby Please Come Home) by Death Cab for Cutie
2. Holly Jolly Christmas covered by The Format
3. O Come, O Come Emmanuel covered by Belle & Sebastian

These songs may not be original compositions, but I much prefer these to the originals. Death Cab’s version of “Baby Please Come Home” is just great. And a classic from Belle & Sebastian.

I hope you’ve found some new additions to your holiday listening list, and we here at IHYEB wish you a very Merry Christmas!

Related posts:

1. fun. Give Away Original Christmas Song
2. 3 Song Thursday: Justin’s 3 Favorite Songs of All Time
3. Arrested Development Movie Confirmed!

The key component for change here was the switch to Modest Mouse and Kings of Leon producer Jaquire King.  He definitely adds a little edge to the final product on several tracks.  She is also playing with a completely new band who have collectively recorded with the likes of Beck, R.E.M., Tom Waits, Elvis Costello, The Roots and Herbie Hancock.  Also the “retired” Ryan Adams and Okkervil River’s Will Shef gave a helping hand and each helped Jones co-write a different song on the album.

The Fall is easily Norah’s best effort since her delightful 2002 debut.  Norah Jones enthusiasts won’t be disappointed and it is sure to attract a brand new batch of fans.  Take a listen to the opening track, which gives you a great idea of the shift taking place on this fantastic record.

Norah Jones – Chasing Pirates

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1. “Fall Be Kind”, An Uneven Triumph
2. Q-Tip – The Renaissance
3. Cold War Kids – Behave Yourself

When I first shared the song “Say Please” with you all back in July, I wasn’t really impressed.  It has since become one of my favorite songs of the year.  And I really enjoyed the video that they created to accompany it.  Enjoy the Music Video of the Week. And then listen to a few songs from the record that are streaming below.

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To make great music it doesn’t have to be difficult or complex and I think that a lot of the great artists of our time, get this.  Chris Martin definitely does.  And so does M. Ward.  I’m not saying these guys aren’t talented.  Rather, I think they are brilliant, because they both have the ability of taking a bunch of really simple and sometimes even mundane and piece it together to create something truly marvelous. And I’ve just recently discovered another band that has figured out how to do this as well.  Watch this live performance by instrumental band, Balmorhea and you will know what I mean.

Balmorhea “Untitled 1″ from Retread Sessions on Vimeo.

This is a band that I have absolutely fallen for.  Their 2009 record, All is Wild, All is Silent, is just phenomenal. I absolutely love it, from start to finish.  Take a listen to this remix by Library Tapes, of the same song you just watched them perform live.

Balmorhea – Coahuila (Library Tapes Remix)

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Dar Williams – It’s Alright

Greg Laswell – Your Ghost

Joe Purdy – Dead End Kids (vinyl edition)

Click here to get the rest of this joyous holiday mix.

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Of Montreal – Heimdalsgate Like a Promethean Curse

Enjoy this fun cover by the girl who helped make this happen.

Solange – Stillness is the Move (Dirty Projectors)

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The lonely thump of late-90s techno that was formerly a major influence on popular music gave way to a movement of open-minded, more cerebral musical ideas.

This year, the iPod generation embraced a quasi-disco revolution, the music industry’s funeral procession is halfway through and music is an almost-free commodity. And Beyoncé is still making hits! (She is one of our generation’s icons) Pop music culture is diverse, fertile and constantly inventive. These are the top records of 2009.

10. Set ‘Em Wild, Set ‘Em Free – Akron/Family

Bands like The Very Best, Animal Collective and Akron/Family consciously incorporate rhythms and textures from all points of geography, but the last group is special in its technical proficiency. The nods to Afrobeat are subtle like they should be, the songwriting is sound and diverse and if this music has anything, it’s spirit. Wild sounds like a utopian hippie commune, where everyone gets to sing lead.

Akron/Family – River

9. Drift – Nosaj Thing

When I met Nosaj Thing, prior to his opening set for Bassnectar at George’s in November, I behaved like a giddy little girl. I stuttered and posed eloquent compliments like, “your music is nice.” But what could I say? Jason Chung, the 24-year-old L.A. native behind Nosaj Thing, made one of the year’s most compelling records, an unsolvable hip-hop nightmare straight out of “Mega Man.” Eventually, Drift’s tracks sound a little too similar, but no one cares when the beats are as hypnotic as these. For nighttime activities.

Nosaj Thing – 1685/Bach

8. Logos – Atlas Sound

Fall has been more than kind to Logos, a record that stayed with me through road trips home and back. As a whole, it’s a contemplative record. Bradford Cox, the man behind the moniker, makes songs that get pleasantly lost in a cloud of introspection, and these are no different: “The Light That Failed” sounds like a swamp dive on barbiturates while “Attic Lights” meditates on the leisure of paradise. But Logos is never lazy. Like his recent work with the more popular band, Deerhunter, Cox integrates his affinity for doo-wop into many of these tunes. It sounds like it shouldn’t work, but…

Atlas Sound – Criminals

7. Alien in a Garbage Dump – Eric Copeland

So you’re throwing the most bumpin’ party of the year. You need a record the fellas can nod their heads to, some beats that make the ladies get down. This record is undoubtedly the poorest choice for that scenario. Alien is skuzzy, violent and downright ugly. The record mashes noise with hypnotic bits of song, sometimes letting them wander (a bold move, especially on the first two tracks), sometimes fencing them in (the excellent “Reptilian Space Beings, Shapeshifting Bloodsucking Vampires”). But Copeland somehow structures his noise experiments into a cohesive record. It won’t make you lots of friends, but Alien is the ideal headphones album, filled with hidden sounds and subconscious melodies.

Eric Copeland – Alien In A Garbage Dump

6. Last Night the Moon Came Dropping Its Clothes in the Street – Jon Hassell

Isn’t jazz supposed to swing? Or does it saunter? I know very little of jazz music and all its folklore. But I know that composer Jon Hassell’s newest record sounds like no jazz I’ve heard. Night creates a voyage through an Istanbul night, shrouded in fog, dotted with silky trumpet lines. Electronics burble for a few seconds, never to be heard again. The grooves are implied, meditative and forlorn. Delicious, like pipe smoke.

Jon Fassell – Time And Place

5. Childish Prodigy – Kurt Vile

The cover finds a bookish, fancily dressed kid staring into purple dusk as if his date had just abandoned him for a dance with the prom king. The songs of Childish Prodigy sync nicely with this scene: the only thing lonelier than Vile’s thick, groaning voice (think early Velvet Underground) is the swirling chorus of acoustic guitars. With titles like “Hunchback” and “Freak Train,” it’s obvious Vile’s got a case of the outcast blues, but he puts them to good use in psychedelic takes on Nick Drake (“Heart Attack,” “Dead Alive”). Who wants to be prom king anyway, right, kid?

Kurt Vile – Freak Train

4. Tarot Sport – F**k Buttons

My roommate listens to Explosions in the Sky when doing homework, which I accept but do not understand. Does post-rock lend hydrocarbon extraction a certain sense of urgency? Anyway, this Bristol duo win “best improved” by combining elements of that genre, with its endless, sincere crescendos, and danceable techno beats. It’s no coincidence that Tarot Sport’s best songs are also its most ambitious, with “Surf Solar” and “Olympians” clocking in at over 10 glorious minutes. The group is unafraid of experimenting with sounds, and this set of songs is paradoxically diverse and cohesive. If you want an A in geology, buy this album.

F**k Buttons – Rough Steez

3. Sometimes I Wish We Were an Eagle – Bill Callahan

The 2007 film, “The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford,” is one of my favorites. Brad Pitt’s depiction of the infamous Western criminal is sinister, yet always vulnerable. There are moments when, as a saddled James looks out over the sweeping plains, his eyes are glowing pools of reverence and sadness. Bill Callahan’s appropriately-titled Sometimes I Wish We Were an Eagle is one of those moments. Each song is a thunderhead with pockets of sunshine, minor-chord dirges (“The Wind and the Dove”) interrupted by subtle strings and French horn (“Jim Cain”). Callahan sing-speaks poetry in a baritone as thick and tall as the Smoky Mountains and on Eagle, his unrest has never sounded so at peace.

Bill Callahan – Eid Ma Clack Shaw

2. Merriweather Post Pavilion – Animal Collective

Much has happened in the world of Brooklyn sensations Animal Collective since this album leaked on Christmas Day of last year. Merriweather nearly reached the Billboard charts in vinyl sales alone (in the dead of winter, no less!), performed on Letterman (“Paul, do you have anything for the trick-or-treaters?”) and got praise from everyone from M.I.A. to Twilight author Stephenie Meyer. What’s the fuss? Merriweather combines the group’s penchant for repetition with very shiny production in their bounciest, most contagious songs yet, from “My Girls” to “Summertime Clothes” to “Brothersport.” Lyrically, the collective is less secretive, focusing on the communion of domestic life, the simple value of “Daily Routine,” strange and joyful monogamy. Next up: a record about bittersweet fame?

Animal Collective – Also Frightened

Animal Collective – Brothersport

1. Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix – Phoenix

All my friends love this album: the one that loves racing cars to the thrash of Metallica, the one that has a (worrying) crush on Ron Weasley, the sloppy-eyed burnout, the earnest farm boy, even my mom. Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix is not the most innovative release of the year, but it is the most universally likable. It’s your favorite child, skipping, grinning and forever curious. Thomas Mars sings in earnest questions: “Who’s the boy you like the most?” and “Where would you go with a lasso?” and “Could you go and run into me?” This French quartet has been playing together since childhood, and it shows in the fake out into of ”Lisztomania” and the rushing two-part “Love Like a Sunset.” Wolfgang is so clearly the work of a band, an album so pure in spirit and a piece much too fun to describe.

Phoenix – Lisztomania

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And luckily for all you procrastinators, who have yet to purchase Aim & Ignite, the giving doesn’t stop there.  For a limited time, fun.’s incredibly catchy and….fun album is available @ Amazon for only $5.  So treat yourself to an early Christmas gift.

fun. – Believe In Me

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Merriweather Post Pavilion

Fall Be Kind, the group’s new EP, remedies this by collecting the scrapped songs from the sampler-heavy Merriweather sessions that lean toward a darker aura. The production (dense as ever, with punchy bass and doctored harmonies on top) is the same, but these songs are more indulgent.

“Old ideas worth doing are taking their time,” Dave Portner sings on the opening “Graze.” Only this band would end their most commercially successful year with a release like this.

Simply put, the group takes chances. As a result, their releases are categorically uneven, dotted with skeletal song sketches, non sequitur excursions and (more often) classic tunes. “Bleed” and “On A Highway” are conscious mood pieces that serve as transitions and little more, while the bookends “Graze” and “I Think I Can” are enjoyable exercises in dichotomy.

But wouldn’t you know it: Fall Be Kind’s best song is also its outlier. “What Would I Want? Sky,” which contains the first licensed Grateful Dead sample, is a pop masterstroke that easily outshines all of Merriweather. With a hop-step rhythm and shimmering synthesizers, the song is the best thing the group has ever recorded and, hands down, the song of the year.

The group is desperate to transform the blasé into the surreal, so the lyric sheet conjures symbols, not stories. These are songs of taxicabs, flesh wounds and roadside workers, everyday images decorated with rhythm and meaning. “I Think I Can” is a balance of self-doubt and self-help, while “On A Highway” imagines a nightmarish road trip (perhaps the consequence of touring for three years straight?).

Animal Collective is a band that self-consciously moves from era to era; they’ve spoken at length to their disdain of stasis and their want of reinventing the songwriting process. They’ve made blunders, but they’ve also succeeded in every step of their growth throughout the decade.

As a new decade begins and the group moves to another era, the future is unsure. For Animal Collective, the climate is ideal.

Animal Collective – What Would I Want? Sky

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The album will be preceded by a vinyl 7″ release of the first single, “Written in Reverse.”  It will be available for purchase on January 5th and will include an exclusive B-side, “Mean Red Spider”, which won’t be available digitally.

Bob Boilen, the host of NPR’s All Songs Considered, had the opportunity to hear half of the album in the car of one of his publicist friends.  He had nothing but good things to say about the record. “Lots of people can play a poignant guitar part, but the next part of the art is mixing it at the right volume, placing it in the best position in the stereo field to serve the song, and putting just the right effect on it to either blend well with the song or act as counterpoint. That care and craft is what I was hearing in Transference.”

This past summer Spoon released a 3-track EP called Got Nuffin that is worth checkin’ out. The title track of which will also be found on the new record.  After a few more U.S. dates in early December, they will head over to the UK in early February to begin touring in support of the new album.  Here is the tracklist as well as a few live versions of some songs that will be found on Transference.

Spoon – Who Makes Your Money? (Live)

Spoon – Written in Reverse (Live)

Tracklist

01. Before Destruction
02. I Love Forever?
03. The Mystery Zone
04. Who Makes Your Money?
05. Written in Reverse
06. I Saw the Light
07. Trouble Comes Running
08. Goodnight Laura
09. Out Go the Lights
10. Got Nuffin
11. Nobody Gets Me But You

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Here’s a fun little remix to go along with the video.

Passion Pit – Little Secrets (Hey Champ Remix)

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I’ve been keeping my eye on the remixing scene during my absence, and it’s been pretty slow. No major activity by Soulwax or any other big name, and no real key albums dropping to remix.

Simply: it’s the slow season for remixes.

So let’s just take a moment to relax to some Beach Boys shall we?

The Beach Boys – Wouldn’t It Be Nice (The Girls Can Hear Us Remix)

Wait a second! This isn’t your grandparent’s Brian Wilson! This cozy little remix is a vibrant seizure of sound that will rock your cortex.

If it doesn’t, I promise a full money back guarantee.

I hope your ears get their moneys worth. Ω

(p.s.) I hate when remixers plug themselves in their own mixes. It’s stupid, and so was the “Mac OS X Alex” voice they used.  So “The Girls Can Hear Us”, if you’re listening… stop it.

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Guests is structured as a scattershot mix tape, a medium that suits DOOM better than the full-length. Songs dissipate just as they break a sweat and give way to a B-movie sound clip or a wordless coda. The bombastic horn samples of Born Like This are mostly gone, replaced by jazzy keyboard lines (“Sorcerers”) and slow-motion upright bass (“Street Corners (DOOM Remix)”).

Even in its scathing political critiques, Born was far too stoned to deliver any affective social message, much less a coherent verse. Guests doesn’t even feign substance, with DOOM rhyming about everything from a pants-less Nancy Drew to the cleanliness of his metal mask.

This sense of flippancy pervades nearly every song, most enjoyably on the honky-tonk “Da Superfriendz,” which could have been the soundtrack to “Peanuts” if Charlie Brown grew up in a Long Island ghetto.

Speaking of “friendz,” there are too many cameos here to count. Most notable are J Dilla’s production on “Sniper Elite” and Ghostface Killah’s (rather lame) verses in “Angels.” DOOM’s throaty rasp is distinct but grating, and it’s a joy to hear such a communal record from such an eccentric character.

Of course, DOOM has never been consistently great, and Guests has its share of flubs. Tellingly, songs with longer run times are usually the weakest: “Project Jazz” proves hip-hop and smooth-jazz muzak an ill-advised combination, while “My Favorite Ladies” dips its toe in misogyny.

Conversely, Guests shines brightest in glimpses of rhythm and melody in condensed tracks like “Quite Buttery” and “Yikes.” DOOM and his contemporaries have a lot of interesting sonic ideas, but the rapper has learned (probably from Dilla’s Donuts) the value of scarcity and doesn’t allow these tunes to outstay their welcome.

The record is an adequate retrospective of DOOM’s career, showcasing his perverted-soul beats and his weirdo rhymes. DOOM always forgoes club-bangers in favor of head-scratchers like “Bell of Doom” or the whimsical “Black Gold,” which is why critics love him.

Unexpected Guests, like the rest of the rapper’s work, is special in its sense of adventure and expedition. The B-side wins again!

DOOM – Quite Buttery

DOOM -  Da Supafriendz

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First he offered up a free sample, with the single “Stanislaus”, to give us a glimpse of what we could expect from his forthcoming sophomore effort, White Water, White Bloom. Which has since been released and received with much acclaim.  White Water was produced by Mike Mogis (Bright Eyes, Monsters of Folk), and sounds like a stripped down and slightly less energized Arcade Fire record. It has become the antidote to my disappointment with Neon Bible.

Then last month, along with several other beloved indie rock bands, Church too contributed a track to the New Moon Soundtrack.  How they managed to get so many great artists to give to this miserable series, I will never know.  Nonetheless, Sea Wolf has a great track on that stellar soundtrack as well.

And most recently, he has released a ghastly video for the single “Wicked Blood.”  I apologize for not sharing this with before Halloween had rolled on by.  Hopefully you will still enjoy it, even though the time has passed.

Sea Wolf – Wicked Blood

Sea Wolf – Stanislaus

Sea Wolf – The Violet Hour (New Moon OST)

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Despite the obvious fact that he was new to the instrument, a stranger thought irked me. Something about the clumsy beats was disarming, even appealing. The drummer’s mistakes lent the entire affair a very natural, very human quality (much to the annoyance of the eight other musicians on stage) that illuminated one of the purposes of religious music: to blur the division between musician and spectator, creating a larger group of participants.

“American Idol” ratings are near their highest at the beginning of each season, when one poor sucker after another sings a wretched rendition of some pop standard and then gets verbally berated. Why do people love to watch this? Well, we’re a sadistic bunch, for starters, but also because an inept musician is just another schmuck. We savor the commonality.

More importantly, the inept musician is an icon, a frozen point in the lifetime of all musicians, who constantly struggle to reinvent themselves by mastering their instrument.

In 1962, John Lennon begged the postman for a letter from his sweetheart to the tune of four chords and the most tired drumbeat of the era. The Beatles’ “Please Mister Postman” wasn’t even written by the band. Four years later, he sung lines about ego death adapted from the “Tibetan Book of the Dead” over backwards guitars and one of the most important drumbeats of all time.

Of course, Lennon and his Liverpool pals were no hacks in the mop-top years, but their relatively derivative songs certainly weren’t pushing technical boundaries. Yet the early, rudimentary songs are the ones fans remember with fondness, the ones that granted the Beatles the funds and popularity to experiment. Ironic how the archetypal experimental rock band are so branded by their inexperienced beginnings.

Unsurprisingly, the artists that top today’s charts are largely inept. The only new aspect of Auto-Tune is that its use is more blatant than before, and popular singers were lip-synching long before Ashlee Simpson. These technologies have abolished the former standard and blurred yet another line: the one between a musician and a pretty face.

You can wince when the guitarist who fumbles around on the fret board or the singer who searches, without success, for the right pitch. But you shouldn’t laugh because, hey, at least those schmucks are trying.

Pavement – Two States

The Beatles – Please Mister Postman

Daniel Johnston – Tongues Wag In This Town

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Fun – All the Pretty Girls

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This is only natural. Hip, young angst has nothing to do but cool down, from Catullus to Bob Dylan to Kanye West (impending). Hindsight strips hotshot posturing down to what it is, and Casablancas couldn’t stay mad forever.

As its title suggests, Phrazes for the Young is nothing if not self-aware. The album is literally comforting advice for young people set to upbeat music. Maybe the 31-year-old Casablancas has assumed the elder statesman role a bit prematurely, but it’s an interesting change in tone.

So Phrazes is a warning to arrogant young bucks, but more importantly, the album is an acknowledgement of weakness. “Yes, I know I’m goin’ to Hell in a leather jacket,” he sings on “Out of the Blue,” one of the album’s best songs.

The singer no longer buries his threats in distortion (“Oh, just take it or leave it,” he sneered in 2001). They’ve all been replaced with glossy self-help “phrazes” like “your faith has got to be stronger than your fear,” from lead single “11^th Dimension.”

That song and most of the others buzz with clever ideas and sounds: drum machine click-pops with trumpets with outdated synthesizers with genre songwriting. Amongst it all are joyful melodies that seem to stick to the roof of your mouth.

But even at a mere eight songs, Phrazes is full of dead ends. “Ludlow St.” is a country ballad with drum machines and it’s about as successful as one would expect it to be. The real clunker is “Glass,” an overstretched and hackneyed piece of radio fodder Casablancas probably wrote in his sleep.

For this reason, Phrazes feels more like a collection of one-offs than a proper album. The singer has grown confident in his serene new worldview but struggles to sell those ideals without sounding like Dr. Phil.

If there’s a unifying theme, it’s that middle age is confusing. So is “cool.”

Julian Casablancas – Out of the Blue

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matt pond PA

I really love this group a lot and in fact I find that almost their entire catalog fits that autumnal season very well, especially Several Arrows Later.  But instead of choosing a track from that album I thought I would kill two birds with one stone and include this excellent cover of another band that fits the fall season very well, Neutral Milk Hotel.

matt pond PA – In An Aeroplane Over the Sea (Neutral Milk Hotel)

Iron & Wine

Here is a guy I am sure you are all familiar with by now.  Someone who like Nick Drake also got his first big exposure through the “Garden State” soundtrack. Well I find his contemplative lo-fi folk music to be great company on a sunny fall afternoon.  One of my favorite things to do is to go for a drive in the fall while the leaves are in transition and this song I chose for you here is one of my favorite companions along the way.

Iron & Wine – The Trapeze Swinger

M83’s Saturdays = Youth

Saturdays was an album that I heard last year and it went in one ear and out the other without making much of an impact.  But this fall it has penetrated down to my very core and has become one of my favorite records.  And I attribute a lot of that to the season in which it was heard, both physically and in my personal life.

M83 – Graveyard Girl

Explosions in the Sky’s The Earth Is Not a Cold Dead Place

One of the best experimental quartets around.  They were the first instrumental band that I was able to really get into and I find myself consistently going back to this album each fall. You might recognize them from their work for the soundtrack to “Friday Night Lights,” the television show.

Explosions In the Sky – Your Hand In Mine

The Radio Dept.

Here is another group that I would say has an autumn feel to their entire catalog.  Something about their music just takes me back.  It just puts me in this very retrospective mood. It’s not uncommon for music from my past to take me back to the time when it first captured me. But I just discovered this band about a year ago. I don’t know how they do it.

The Radio Dept. – Pulling Our Weight

Here are a few more tracks to help round out the playlist.

TV on the Radio – Family Tree

Grand Archives – Torn Blue Foam Couch

Broken Social Scene – Guilty Cubicles

Conor Oberst + Gillian Welch – Lua

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“Autumn wins you best by this its mute appeal to sympathy for its decay.” – Robert Browning

There’s nothing like the majestic melancholy of autumn. The cooling winds, wood smoke and mosaic of sunburned colors make for a truly magical few weeks, tainted only by a quiet apprehension of winter.

Maybe it’s the slow fade of fall that makes me nostalgic, but every October, I’m reminded of the autumns from years past, and specifically, what I was listening to in those times. Here’s a hint: the timbre of an acoustic guitar is sweet honey when enjoyed with falling leaves.

Nick Drake

You may have heard him in a car commercial or buried under the clatter of a Starbucks or on the immensely popular soundtrack for “Garden State.” The songs of Nick Drake, an influential folk musician from the early 70s, are commonly pegged as “autumnal,” and with good reason. Ornate finger picking and alien chord changes build songs that are purposefully sparse, ideal for contemplation. The perfect soundtrack to Sunday afternoon drives.

Nick Drake – From The Morning

Radiohead’s In Rainbows

Radiohead certainly are an intentional group of fellows, and I would venture that the October release of In Rainbows was no accident. The tender electric guitars, rim clicks and the most lush string arrangements this side of Billie Holiday’s Lady in Satin, are proof. Better still, In Rainbows sees the band getting their R&B on when Yorke does Al Green on “House of Cards.” Best enjoyed with a lover.

Radiohead – Nude

Radiohead – Faust Arp

The Roots’ Game Theory

The music of autumn should feel detached and lonely, but still pine for company. Game Theory embodies this by behaving like a belligerent child, furious one moment (“In the Music” openly scoffs at police) and welcoming the next (“Long Time”). Roots songs embody a variety of characters, from a caustic girlfriend to a redeemed prince of the ghetto. The common denominator(s)? Realism, soul singers and FUNK-Y guitars.

The Roots – Baby

Dave Brubeck Quartet’s Time Out

Brubeck will never get the respect of jazz greats like Miles Davis or John Coltrane because, unlike those artists, he’s always been content to coast for miles on one aesthetic. Where Davis and Coltrane continued to reinvent themselves late into their careers, Brubeck is still playing “Take Five” at all his shows. He must know it’s a shtick, but he also must know that it’s a good one. The gimmick of Time Out is strangely endearing; it’s a quaint jazz record with an outsider mentality.

Dave Brubeck Quartet – Blue Rondo A La Turk

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The deluxe edition of this New York based trio’s electronica/dream pop debut, Alpinisms, was released about 2 weeks ago and has been in surprisingly heavy rotation since then.  The single “Iamundernodisguise” somehow manages to lodge itself in my head everyday, which probably creeps people out as I constantly chant the chorus under my breath.  The rest of the album is equally as hypnotic, with lots of emphasis on rhythm and layered vocals.  This duluxe edition  include alternates versions, live cuts, demos and new mixes, plus an alternate take of the aforementioned song.  Let it make your ears bleed.

School of Seven Bells – Iamundernodisguise (alternate version)

School of Seven Bells “Iamundernodisguise”

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They did a great job developing this little 10-line plot into a pretty fascinating full-fledged story.  They did a great job of inviting the reader into the world of the “Wild Things” and I quickly found myself very invested into the each of the characters.  Unfortunately though, Jonze left us with very little resolve when it came time for Max to choose to sail back home.  But for me that didn’t really prevent me from enjoying this beautiful movie.

The little boy that they cast to play the part of Max just absolutely blew me away.  12 year old Max Records’ performance was just phenomenal.  It was amazing to see the little guy carry a cast like that.  I have a feeling that this won’t be the last we see of Records.

Overall it was just a gorgeous film.  I loved the way it was filmed, and the Australian landscape was a great choice for filming the island of the “Wild Things.” And most importantly, the Karen O. scored soundtrack was a lovely match.  When it came time to record the record, Karen O. enlisted the help of several of her indie music peers, calling themselves Karen O. and the Kids.  The kids include Tristan Bechet (Services), Tom Biller (co-producer with Karen O and member of Afternoons), Bradford Cox (Deerhunter), Brian Chase (YYY), Dean Fertita (The Dead Weather), Aaron Hemphill (Liars), Greg Kurstin (The Bird and the Bee), Jack Lawrence (The Dead Weather), Oscar Michel (Gris Gris), Imaad Wasif (New Folk Implosion), Nick Zinner (YYY) and an untrained children’s choir.  And trust me, you can expect the kind of greatness that should come from an all-star lineup like this.

Karen O. and the Kids – All Is Love

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The BQE is, for one, an orchestral suite, commissioned by the Brooklyn Academy of Music and adapted from a 2007 performance at the Howard Gilman Opera House. Now it’s also the soundtrack to Stevens’ homemade film of the same name.

Of course, the package includes all sorts of eclectic goodies, from View-Master disks to a 40-page color comic book. “Maximum” is the word with Stevens, from his early electronic work to the widely lauded orchestral pop of his 2005 offering, Illinois.

Thus the expressway is a strange but perfect muse for the artist. Throughout seven movements, The BQE weaves a day in the life of the roadway, including a tranquil sunrise (“Movement I: In The Countenance of Kings”) and the whirlpool of exits and interchanges (“Movement III: Linear Tableau with Intersecting Surprise”).

The influences (mostly classical) are countless, but Steve Reich looms large over many of the suite’s best moments. In fact, for the first time in his prolific career, Stevens sounds more like a modern composer than a pop star.

Visually, The BQE is devoted to the bleached, tidy aesthetic of any Wes Anderson film. Like the expressway, the hula-hoop serves as bizarre symbol of futility and frivolity. The result is a vibrant, slightly pretentious ode to urban sprawl; it’s a wholly singular work.

So, the entire affair is something of a red herring, but what isn’t with Stevens? “Movement IV: Traffic Shock,” is the prime example; it pairs 8-bit synthesizers with a chorus of flutes for an unexpected thrill. On the heels of an orchestral reworking of his 2001 electronic album, Enjoy Your Rabbit, it’s clear the artist is arranging his past for the purpose of a new weird future.

Sufjan Stevens – Movement III-Linear Tableau with Intersecting Surprise

Sufjan Stevens – Movement VI—Isorhythmic Night Dan

Related posts:

1. New Sufjan Stevens Record…Sort Of
2. New Sufjan Film & Soundtrack
3. New Sufjan Song, “There’s Too Much Love”

The Hood Internet – Cult Logic Forever (Drake vs Miike Snow)

Lemme map out what was changed here.

(Miike Snows’s “Cult Logic” – Vocals) + (Drake’s “Forever” – Music ) – Eminem =  The Hood Internet’s “Cult Logic Forever“

Incase mathematic symbols cause your head to spin, I just said that the mashup is the base track of Cult Logic with the vocal part of Forever, minus the Eminem section.

If anything, I’m just going to treat this song as something that helped bring Miike Snow to my attention. I’m huge on electronic-pop and this guy delivers.

Miike Snow – Cult Logic

So I hope that you find something of worth on this fine remix day. I hope your ears are satiated. Ω

Related posts:

1. ReMASH Wednesday: Teenage Electric Lobotomy
2. Guster Celebrates 10 Anniversary of “Lost and Gone Forever”
3. Remix Wednesday: Wilco + Football + Rap Music = Sweet Fun

Ben Folds & Nick Hornby – Picture Window (Demo)

This actually isn’t the first time that Folds and Hornby have written together.  Back in 2004 the duo co-wrote the song “That’s Me Trying” for William Shatner’s album Has Been.

William Shatner – Has Been

Related posts:

1. Ben Folds Releases A Cappella Record
2. Ben Folds Live
3. William Fitzsimmons Covers Kanye West