Mon, 13 October 2008  Ramblin' Man.... Happy Birthday.Listening to music makes me happy in some ways. Look, here I am listening to ... .. . good lord: Bauhaus of all things.... and I'm not in a bad mood. I actually remember Seattle '99, a studio with 5 friends. One of whom, Tom (mother' stills owes me for the phone bill) shooting coke and listening to this proto-industrial rumble. Good Times. If music was invented today they'd make it illegal. Music is an altered state in the same way that a deep conversation is mind fuck. I hear the Special's "Ghost Town" and I remember that roadtrip where I totally faked fanhood cause I hoped to get laid. How much of my current list is based off that premise? Shit, I may not be the best with the ladies, but all of them have turned me on to music which is in-arguably essential. The Pixies, The Talking Heads, Paul Oakenfold, Neutral Milk Hotel .. . I should make a list of the the sounds I got turned on to and who did it too me. Honestly, it would be a mixed bag, I should shelve that for a bit I guess. I'm pretty mixed up about all this stuff actually. Torn between celebrating and crying have I been reduced to that? I actually started to deal with deep buried emotional pain earlier this week, I might be getting to the point of maturity where I can spout masturbatory monologues of how life done me wrong and not actually be sarcastic anymore. Ah shit! Another round! Round the sun - open the bottle and let us listen to this music that I like ... . . I may never be Lester Bangs, I may yet be E. O. Wilson though. Fuck this life is getting on without me. I better lower that bar; I may never be myself but at least I won't be my dad. Danbert Nobacon - Nixon is my dentist I got my Obama shirt in the mail today. I do believe it is an omen. Got the Hope? Hank Williams III - Pills I TookThis was suggested by a certain "Mike Dunn". no no not the track - which is my own twisted sensibilty but the artist. Google on that man and I do hope you see me. BUKE & GASS - Rum for You (Edit)No thanks I'll have the wine. They Might Be Giants - The Shadow GovernmentGot their show at the Le Puisson Rouge. Man brings tears to my eyes. Cult of Sue Todd - Burn TampaTHE STAND OUT track - seriously not only do I find this in my heavy rotation but I also find myself absolutely floored over my own kick ass obscurity. Charlie Haden - Song Of The United FrontNow this cat is cutting country tracks now a days and that is fine for what it's worth. But he cut his teeth with the Liberation Music Orchestra and that is bonus in my book. Erin McKeown - BlackbirdsAlso a suggestion from Mike - now who would have thought that in my yearly return to Missoula the only hombre with an updated playlist of suggestions is a Freak Folk fan? Caesars - Jerk It OutHonest I didn't plan this. Of no bearing to this track, which is oversaturated 60's beach blanket bingo revivalism and nothing more, I must say that while in Missoula I had the chance to play a Dungeons and Dragons game with a group of Elementary Schoolers (let us just ball park the age as an average of 7) ... Carla Bruni - Those Dancing Days Are GoneNow that was exhausting and stupifiyng, good kids but they have the attention span of the cable news cycle. Now in returning to Brooklyn I may actually have the chance to play some 3.5 D&D with some local collegiate geeks. Feist - 1, 2, 3, 4If it happens it will be tough cause I know how distractions can do this to me where I lose focus on the important things and then wham 5 years later I'm wondering why I have a degree in Computer Science. Howard Hello - TelevisionWhich gets me thinking ... just how many CIS kids are where they are because of porn? I'm not saying that I wound up with this because of a brain wired in a pubescant formulation of priorities.. . . I'm just wondering. . . I don't see why it need be about me, right? Jeffery Lewis - The Last Time I Did Acid I Went InsaneWell sure ... yes yes that is the other half of the equation about how I got here, yes. Koufax - AnyMomentNowSee the important thing to remember is that is can all turn around right? That is why I've been working hard and going to school. To make this existence not merely about my mistakes but about my successes. The LK - Private Life of a CatI really think that is all I have to say about this - I mean music is important to me and to my context as a person but this is getting ridiculous I'm just wasting time and space writing down my string of consciousness figuring out the set list. Mickey Hart, Zakir Hussain, Sikiru Adepoju & Giovanni Hidalgo- Dances With WoodAlright alright alright - this is about the music then not about me or some greater 'truth' about myself. Coincedentally this sounds like trance made via organic instruments.... hmmm. Isobell Campbell and Mark Lanegan - Ramblin ManNow do you see what a fine mess this is? I was supposed to be all somber when I was introducing this song. it is supposed to be a reflective consideration of my own compulsion to flee the emotional turmoils of my life -and how they are bound up in other people. How I both want to please BPA - Toejamthem so they don't leave me and also run from them so that I don't have to be responsible for them. Legendary Pink Dots - Torchsongbut really it is just a song, and it doesn't mean anything .. . and I'm just feeling messed up because of midterms and work and how my mom is doing ... she sasy that the physical therapy is coming along pretty ell and she may qualify to retire early. Which is kind of like happiness right? Pernice Brothers - Discover A Lovelier YouBut, actually, things are good. I mean sure they could be better, but that is always the case. If you take a large enough sample of the universe you find out that there is nothing permanent nor certain - and yet we still, by chance, exist. . . Talking Heads - Once In A LifetimeAnd along with us are other chances and people and purposes. And sometimes you find yourself in college and sometimes you find yourself selling your plasma to the Portland blood bank to make rent. The Be Good Tanyas-The Littlest Birds Is anything a surprise? Have I finally quit being crazy? Was all the fun I had when young just a fluke of chemicals and not actually an appreciation of Brooklyn Rider - Crosstownthe world as it really is? Yeah, actually I can pretty much believe that to be the case. I'd like to think that it is entertaining to third parties if I leave out the details that happened in between. Bauhaus - Bela Lugosi's Dead Certainly it wasn't all just studio apartements and drugs? No. It was the kafkaesque moments of being escourted out of Amazon.com because after two weeks of coming to work and getting paid they realized I wasn't in their HR system. The Velvet Underground - Rock & RollIt was being fired from KFC for building a snowman, on off hours, in their parking lot ... The Dandy Warhols - Easythough admiteddly when it got smashed by that SUV and I threw the
disembodied head at the windshield and it turned out to be the regional
manager I couldn't particularly blame the store manager for his
decision. Really, imagine his position. Ezra Furman - We Should FightBut that is what makes it all the more astonishing! Things have changed - I've changed! This summer I was the lab assistant to a immersive molecular biology course . .. The Slits - Ping Pong Affairexcept it was at a community college. Paul Oakenfold - Ready Steady GoIs this it a string of anecdotes and misremembered memories? Didn't I use to have greater dreams? Do I taste the vomit of my body rebelling or is it the bile of my soul dying? The Clash - Capital Air with GinsbergIs that enough self important omphalous gazing or what? Do I have to have god damn soliquiy with cabeza here to get a MacArthur? Wynton Marsalis Septet-Juba And A O'Brown SquawThis music list is as authentically an accurate representation of my self as one can expect in our modern age. Or at least can be expected from me. image from: Berkely Breathed, "Opus" - hey I'm sure you get this all the time Mr. Breathed, but I really was influenced by your stuff when I was young and I've found it to be a well spring of wisdom throughout my life. note to future self, you once lived with a girl, and every morning you woke up to find flowers at the foot of the bed. each of you thought the other had put them there. It turned out to be the cat though. POSTSCRIPT: The birthday day itself was absolutely incredible featuring Central Park, Thai Food, Tequila shoots and a Mathematical based tattoo from Greenwich village, a walk in on Banksy's Pet Store, a dine and dash of margaritas and churros, a creepy deep house experience at club LOVE, and then the two hour train ride. Top it all off with a roll out of bed and go to morning Sunday class moment. Thanks for everything Babe. I guess I was just having a stupid moment there taking life seriously. Comments[0] |
Sat, 20 September 2008  09.19.08 Pitfalls of CompilationsLike every able minded wit in this new century's culture wars, I have a podcast. In all humility it is a simple affair, intended to be bi-weekly, it now struggles along at almost a monthly pace. The original intent, beyond the glorious wealth and epic fame of being a podcaster, was to create a feedback loop of finding new music, making it available as a piece, and then, of course, finding more. Little did know the amount of time needed to put together one hour of music. I bete musicians feel the same, only more so.. . Part of the issue is time spent listening to music. I had seriously underestimated the amount of time and attention that this requires. The basic necessity, to listen intently to a song, compounded by the ridiculous wealth in good music that our age best exemplifies, is basically absurd. Thanks to the internet, WFMU's Antique Phonograph show is as easily available as that Moxie Fruvous bootleg I got kicking around somewhere. By which I mean; the obscure areifacts are everywhere it just listening. And once you start you realize how endless it all is. I spend more time now "culling the herd" than finding the selections. My average show starts at around three hours long - then I spend a few days listening and removing and adding on, until I've gotten to that CD-R sweet spot of 80 min. Usually another couple of days are spent juggling the order of tracks until their sequence is coherent. Another dat tweaking levels and getting the fades right, and often a last minute substitution or two. Fianlly the set list is compiled, and depending on time constraints I may link to the artists and I may write comments. In the olden days of "leisure time" I'd even record spoken bits to intro and seqway songs and sections. this is unlikely to happen now. In the interests of saying something, here are the rationalizations for track inclusion and highlights for the mix I have here: 01 - Amon Tobin - Get Your Snack On The heavy textures and repititive moments of this are given a lighter and jazzier feel by the diverse organic sounding palatte of samples. 02 - Matmos - Zealous Order of Candied KnightsFollowing on from that orgainc sound is Matmos who has made some of the most insightfult inroads of producing along thematic lines. This is from their Civil War album. 03 - People Like Us - My Son Jim (excerpt)04 - Hifana - Wamono PV 05 - The Books - It Never Changes to Stop 06 - Kid Koala - Fender Bender Probably on of the most skilled turntabilists of this generation. This is one of the more expansive tracks from his first album - it features a large variety of well meshed vinyl. 07 - Cex - OD'd on First Base08 - Dj Food & DK - Let's Play Drums From thier "Now, Listen!" album this "track" is not the best - but it has a very good beat, yes? 09 - Kid606 - MP3 Killed The CD StarOne of the more accessible tracks from this laptop artist, here edited to a more managable size. 10 - Mum - Abakvid Tvaer Hædir,,,,sundlau11 - Dj Vadim - Dig Yourself Baby 12 - Prefuse 73 & the Books - Pagina Cuatro 13 - Dj Z-Trip & Dj P - Uneasy Listening Track 4 Off of their freely downloadable album of the same name. 14 - Amon Tobin - Foley RoomA studio heavy music concrete with a largely IDM influenced percussion the track is a step away from his earlier jazzy sound. 15 - Dj Shadow - Building Steam with a Grain of Salt (excerpt)16 - Proem - Negativ - Bolt Action A17 - Proem - Negativ - Bolt Action A 17 - Skalpel - Tension 18 - Plastiq Phantom - Experimentation on Foreign Light 19 - Negativland - What's Music (excerpt) 20 - Radio Soulwax - paul simon - ladytron - (guitarsolo) 21 - Volcano The Bear - Five Hundred Boy Piano (excerpt) 22 - Richard Devine - block, variation 23 -Kid Koala - Basin Street Blues 24 - Squarepusher & MC Twin Tub - Full Rinse 25 - The Art Of Noise - How To Kill 26 - Man or Astroman - A Simple Text File A wonderful printer piece, true electronica image from: Nietzsche Family Circus Coincidentally this is from a music diary for the Brooklyn College cc1.3 class. The mix itself was done in the vein of finding electronic music of a certain odd caliber after a discussion of the matter with the professor. For those curious, yes, college is going well, thanks for asking. I may not be making these show too often anymore but it is a nice break from the studies - and in this case fits in well besides them. Comments[0] |
Fri, 11 July 2008  Oh there ain't a cloud in heaven which has got more than a single silver lining. the lucky days do come and go but is it just my life that is being lost in this town? or someone else's life? or something else of mine? Does it seems like it's me changing - how do I know it isn't that I've found what someone else lost and since I've not got one of my own I have space to fill and fill it I will with whatever I find in this city specific sorrows. Like the anonymity is really starting to get to me lately, maybe, but who knew I needed definitions to be happy? Why the last thing I want to do is burn it down, but there is that list. The list of other things to try before I burn it all down. I don't want poetry I want to punch someone in the throat. === I got accepted to Brooklyn College, but probably shouldn't go. === Sophie Tucker - School for Red Hot Mamas Benny Sings - Get There Fionn Regan - Hey Rabbit Smog - Four Hearts in a Can Drop nineteens - (plus fish) ABBA - You Owe Me One Modern Lovers - I'm Straight Radiohead - Jigsaw Falling into Piece Blind Boys of Alabama - Servant's Prayer Amen Dustin's Bar Mitzvah - Artrocker (Feat. Dan Treacy) Books - Read, Eat, Sleep cLOUDDEAD - Physics of a Unicycle Devo - Speed Racer Black Moth Super Rainbow - The Afternoon Turns Pink Robin Thicke - I'm A Be Alright Small Faces - Ogden's Nut Gone Flake Solomon Burke - Baby I Wanna Be Loved Kung Babar Elefant Spoon - Believing is Art The Sea and the Cake - Polio Damon Albarn - Closet Romantic Matt Costa - Trying to Loose my Mind Josh Ritter - Mind's Eye The Guess Who - Rain Dance Gaelic Storm - Nancy Whisky The Mountain Goats - Blood Royal The Sparrows - Wofee Woyaa He Ni (bra-dipo beat ga) [From Voodoo Funk welcome to town hope the show goes well] atans rieger blakc metul 666 teh bark ov teh tevil vnd barg biekernis DER SECOND SONG FROM TEH EVOL ALBAM! - DER TRUE BLAKC ME=== Image From: Big Fat Whale's The Classy Dozen Comments[4] |
Sat, 14 June 2008  As always and ever it is my great joy to snatch from the hands of time the moment of life unmeasured.This month has been fairly erratic - I've gotten a position as a fancy lab assistant at school which, I humbly must admit, I doubt I am qualified for. Of course there are many things I'm not qualified for which I do anyways, or which people pay me to do. It really is a great thing when people believe we live in a meritocracy and the playing field is uneven. I blame the liberals for the former and the conservatives for the latter, just so you know my stance on these things. The situation makes it so that for each inequality you can leverage in your favor the more open people are to thinking you the rightful holder to that which by error, accident, hook and crook you've been able to obtain. All this leads up to the notion that by attaining something I'm unqualified for I've actually shown how qualified I am. Which makes me feel remarkably good about myself while also putting me in a position where I recognize the pointlessness of my situation. On that note, let's listen to some music. Twilight Hotel - Viva La Vinyl Ralph Gean - star trekkin' rock n' roll cowboy Kate & Anna Mcgarrigle - sugar baby Gorillasuit - Everybody at the beach Hal Blaine - Trippin' Out (June) Bull Moose Jackson - Big Ten Inch Record Nylon Rythm Machine - Been through so much together Islands - 08 Volcanoes Luigi and Antonio Russolo - Corale Arrah and the Ferns- Skylark Nellie McKay - Identity Theft Conor Oberst - 12 I Don't Want To Die In The Hospital American Breed - partridge weiners spot The Seeds - mr. farmer Noonday Underground - boy like a timebomb April Aloisio - Duid Deed Faith no More - something for the girl with everything (with sparks) Ernest Ranglin - Memories of Baber Mack Laibach - NSK Salty Pirates - Black minds and white lies Jorge ben - amor de carnaval Ennoi Morricone - L'estasi Dell'oro (The Ecstasy Of Gold) Cinematic Titanic - Piece of Eights Los Campesinos You Me Dancing COIN-OP - Karl killed Nicholas Scientific Cricket - barbarashop cricket Crystal Castles - Alice Practice Flaming Lips - One Shot Archie Shepp - Scag Mice Parade - Guitars for plants Image from: Teaching Baby Paranoia Comments[0] |
