Italians Do It Better will be forever sexy. There isn't anything anyone related to that label can put out that just isn't the sexiest thing you are going to hear all day. They are in business to make music to make whatever you are doing sound fucking hot. Are you running an errand in your car? Are you listening to some from Italians Do It Better? You just got 100 percent sexier. You sitting at your desk at your shitty job listening to a track from Italians Do It Better? Your shitty job just got 100 percent hotter.
Mike Simonetti is the head of Italians Do It Better (at least I think so). This is his first solo release (which I also believe is true). Slow and steady does the trick here; some sultry vocals, some bass you could set your watch to, and nice retro synth parts. It's a big ol' slow boiled pot of awesome that's just simmering. Just simmering and being sweet. This is driving music late at night when your head is kind of foggy and all you want to do is stare out the window and watch the lights race by.
Also, what the fuck is the deal with the photo in this video. This photo is used more than any other photo on YouTube for electronic tracks. I know this for a fact because I just spent a year listening to music on YouTube and I see this photo at least once a week. Some fantasy artist is out there who created this photo who probably doesn't even know his work has become synonymous with electronic music on the internet. Somebody needs to write that person a check.
My love of all things John Talabot has already been clearly outlined around these parts. What has not been made as clear is how much I loved the Teengirl Fantasy album from last year. Specifically, how "Cheaters" was probably my favorite track of the 2010. Well thank god for the internet and thank god that Talabot took the time to take one of my favorite songs and make it even better.
The hook to "Cheaters" was always the vocal parts. That was the most interesting and compelling thing in the track. The intensity of the vocalist is what really drove the song and Talabot seems to have understood that as well. Talabot takes just the vocals, fucks with them, and lays them on top of some quintessential Talabot beats - Sunshine-y chord structure, drum parts that seem to be made out of glitter, and a hard and fast groove. All of the production though is meant to highlight and magnify the vocal parts. They are amped up even more in this track as compared to the original and the effects added to them just puts it over the top.
This isn't the first edit of "Cheaters", by a long shot, but it is the best one I have heard so far.
We are starting a new thing today were I periodically post pictures of extraordinary chickens. Get use to it. Also, feel free to submit you own pictures of extraordinary chickens, don't be shy.
Today I received a history lesson and that lesson was on Ron Hardy. I'm not going to talk about him as if I knew anything about him prior to this afternoon but what I learned was that he was one of the leading figures in the early Chicago house scene. This edit of Teddy P comes from some bootlegs of live sets he did in the late 80s. In other words, this isn't him playing a version he had produced in a studio beforehand, this is him producing the song live at the club. (!!!!!!!!!!!!!!) Single-handedly the greatest thing I've heard all week. The brilliant combination of perfectly timed loops with levels being thrown all out of whack to create an entirely different and amazing dance track. My favorite part? At the four minute mark where everything drops out except for the bass and Teddy P's voice slowly builds back in.
People use to ask Michangelo how he could create a structure as beautiful as David. Legend has it he use to answer that he believed David was always in the block of granite, his job was simply to remove the extra rock to show him to the world.
Ron Hardy - a man with a chisel who saw every song as a block of granite.
Yes, I know, I am clearly a day late with this one. But I was too busy eating my body weight in ham to remember to put this up yesterday. So lets just pretend this is a holiday song for everyone.
This is the closest we are going to get to a Christmas song around these parts. Bells and choirs warped into an ambient mix of loops and waves that melt into a pulsing string part. It builds, it crashes, it washes away. For a holiday track, or not, this really is a stand out one and I don't think I will need it to be Christmas to continue to listen to it.
Seriously, I'm in love with her, I'm in love with her anchor tattoo, I'm in love with the photo, and I'm in love with this song. Todd Terje seems to just bang out playful house edits that if were left in the hands of someone else would probably end horribly. I heard this 11 minute long beauty a couple of weeks ago and totally forgot I had it until yesterday. The feeling of coming across it was similar to the feeling I've had when I've found five dollars in my pocket. It's the simply joys in live that matter
No more year end lists. I can't take it any more. I wasn't kidding yesterday, I really don't see the point. All I've learned is that there is no consensus number 1 this year and nor should there be. There is literally too much music out there for anyone to listen to. Just by the law of averages there is going to be something out there that is always better.
I've been working on year end lists now for like a week so I'm getting kind of tired of doing them. I'm not entirely certain what their purpose is except that Americans love lists as much as they love reality T.V. So, for that reason here is a list of the 10 things that didn't suck this year. There will be some more formal "favorite tracks of 2011" and the like later this week but right now this is what we are doing.
Couldn't get enough of Eddie C and all of his nu-disco glory. This track, "We Need We", is what was responsible for my obsession. Those chipmunk-like vocals, that cold hard pitched chord progression, that mean ass bass line - it was all way too much. It's not worth getting into a discussion of what is retro and what is not but I think it is fair to say that Eddie C is making some of the meanest and original disco tracks out there. They're funky, soulful, shimmering, and groove based. They are just impossible to stop listening to.
Don't get me wrong, "Here is your trance, now dance" is probably in my top ten this year but "Who wrote the rules of love" is what blew the doors off for me. Listen to those old 808 drums, those old school synths just rocking it in the back, and then there are the vocals which are just out of this world. If anyone had released just this track in 2011 I think that would be a successful year. Instead, Omar S releases this and an entire funking LP that was out of this world and a handful of other EPs and singles this year.
Oh what the hell, here it is too....
If I need one track to explain what 2011 was about it is probably this one. Which is odd, because this track, literally, sounds timeless. It could have been made at any point in the last 20 years and I would have been none the wiser. 10 mins of analog synth glory just bursting from every seem. The shit is what it is.
He kind of ripped the wheels off the car this year and then blew the whole thing up. He then took the pieces and put them back together and that was Instrumentals. It was a mind fuck.
One of my top three LPs of 2011. I've always been a fan of Destroyer and his earlier output but Kaputt is his Ulysses. There are two parts to this Destroyer album; a song writer who can't be touched right now, and a man who has probably consumed just a little too much 70's/80's pop, and that isn't a bad thing. Don't give me any of this shit about Bon Iver and how he knows how to write a great song - Destroyer is the T.S. Elliot of music world right about now. I hear lines from these songs and I just don't understand why this album isn't being played everywhere all the times. And then there is the music. Jesus. Christ. This could have been an instrumental album and it probably would have still cracked my top 10. Perfect in every way possible.
His goal this year was to make everyone else look like clowns. I think he succeeded to a certain extent.
Also, if I was Drake I would be getting Knxwledge on the phone right this fucking minute. I'm liking his version of Drake more than I like Drake's version of Drake. He could learn a thing or two.
Looping State of Mind was in the top 5 albums this year as well. Every track was a banger and I'm only including this one only because I didn't want to post them all.
Lets talk about pizza. You know how sometimes pizza places offer pizza with a million toppings on them and shit in the crusts? And you know sometimes how you got your favorite pizza shop and your favorite pieces are the ones with just one or two toppings on them? That's what The Field is like. He is the motherfucker who makes the best fucking pepperoni pizza in town and that's it. He isn't going to make you a god damn pizza with arugula or pesto on it. It's going to be cheese, pepperoni and grease. And it's going to be the shit.
I want to get a truck with with bullhorns on the front and I want to drive around New Mexico. I want to smoke hand rolled cigarettes and I want it to only have a tape-deck and play tapes of The Band. I want to drive around little fucking towns no one has ever heard of in New Mexico and get drunk at bars with old people. And then I want to get in the truck and drive it up and down country roads through the hills. And think about all the shit I should have done. But it would be awesome because I would have a truck with bullhorns on the front.
The coolest thing I did this year? Go see Drive. Absolutely. Just thinking about the movie makes me feel cool and reminds me how cool the whole thing was. It was the apex of cool. I want to live in the movie. And yes, I want the fucking jacket. If you are red-blooded American male you want that fucking jacket. And I want to drive around town and this song be my personal soundtrack. The main reason the movie was so cool, the soundtrack. The original score was amazing and perfect but what pushed it over the top was the heavy dose of nu-disco from the Italians Do It Better crew.
Fuuuuuuuuckkkkkkkkk......I want to walk into a strip club and beat the shit out of gangster soooooooo bad. And this song would play the entire time. It would be awesome.
Ride your mechanical beast to heaven/Ride your beautiful bitch to the ultimate sin.
Numero uno album for me in 2011. It actually came out in late 2010 but fuck that. Best album in 2011 by leaps and bounds.
Based on these selections below it seems that 2011 was the year I fell in love with techo and electronic music from the 1990's and weird funk, boogie that needs to make a comeback.
Horribly late to the party, I know, but god damn I'm glad I got here at all.
The cover of this album is Bruce Lee. And right around 2:06 when the bass drops in is when I like to think Bruce Lee is up in heaven somewhere just laying a mother fucker on his back with a mighty kick to the sternum. 6 minutes of moody, angry Detroit techno from the mid 1990s. Disjointed synths that cut in and out like someone is almost afraid to touch them layered on top of a moaning organ rift that the whole thing is build off of. From top to bottom it is a thing of beauty. If this track was a machine it would be a giant Transformer with arms made out of Fords and Buicks and breathing fire. Detroit sounds like a pretty awesome place in 1993.
Speaking of Detroit in 1993....
One of the top five bass lines of the year? It just sort of slithers along and raps its self around you until you don't notice it and you got your head bouncing along to it. It's the hard liquor of bass lines, you don't know you are into it until its too late. Until its got you in its muggy little hands. You know those nights where you have been drinking and its getting late and you feel fine and then stand up and it hits you - you can feel your entire body just get drunk in the matter of two seconds. This is what this song is like.
Also, there is a flute section come around minute 6. Make of that what you will. It's still bitching.
Hands down the best vocal parts this year. No argument. I dare you to find a better female vocal part than the one in this track. You can't because it doesn't exist.
We all owe the fine folks over at Stones Throw Records a debt of gratitude for releasing this gem earlier this year. Not only are the vocals pristine but that funky boogie beat is nothing to sneeze at either. It might be a wholesome song about a couple celebrating their anniversary but that is one dirty, slimy beat. That bass that drops right from the start, artists would pay damn good money to get that on their album these days. Kind of the shit.
Yea, this song isn't going to be played out in the club anytime soon but that doesn't mean it isn't one of my five favorite songs of the year. Wolfgang Voigt, credited with this tune and multiple other gems, has devoted his life to making minimal electronic music that just pulls at you. Sometimes it is more epic sounding and grandiose like his work done under Gas. And then sometimes it is super fucking sexy like this tune. Seriously, if you were living in Germany in 1995 and you had this record you were probably banging all the time. All the time. Male or female. Doesn't matter. This track has one goal in mind - it is to get sweaty super sexy people out of their clothes and wrestling in bed with each other.
Blew my mind the first time I heard this. Seriously, where the hell has this been my entire life. I'm 29 years old and the first time I heard this was in October - something about society has failed for that to happen.
This song is all over the god damn place. It just sort of wonders back and forth without really giving a shit where it is going. It builds up like it is going to go for some huge grandiose thing and then it just collapses in on its self like a god damn black hole and starts off on a funky bass-line down another rabbits hole.
The record label says 1991 on the cover which means this was made when people still had the option of using rotary dial phones. How the fuck is that possible? I don't get it. I thought they only had trash cans to bang on and guitars made out of wood boxes to play then.
Or this is the sound of every computer in the world in 1991 loosing their collective minds over the nimrods programming them at the time. I like that idea better.
That time before the ending of the something before the new something starts. Which means people who have too much time of their hands' get to make lists of things that don't really matter. I'm not immune to this disease.
Seeing how we will have some of the best tracks of 2011 coming up later this week we are going to start off with something different. We are going to pay our respects to our elders and recognize some of our favorite songs that were new to us this year but were released before 2000.
Basically, this is just an excuse to talk about all the amazing music we found that won't fit into the other year end lists. Part I today, Part II tomorrow. Enjoy.
LeVar Burton as the funk police and red cod pieces. That is really all you need to know about this tune. And also that it has one of the most unforgettable voices in the world. It sounds like he has replaced his vocal cords with live electrical wires and every time he sings they cross and sparks shoot out.
I know we have covered this before but it is clear that the the 1980's were the product of a place and time we will never see again. I don't know whether it was the drugs or the technology but people felt like they could get away with anything it seems. Good or bad they gave it a shot and sometimes you ended up with products like this video to "Word Up". A glorious cultural artifact that deserves it own place in a museum somewhere.
The dude's name is Farley Jackmaster Funk. How awesome is that. Seriously though, this is one of the missing links between disco and new-jack swing. It's amazing. He might have a ridiculous name but he knows what he is doing with a tune like this. Some funky ass shit.
Also, we need to just talk real quickly about the costume changes here. I don't think a man wearing bold, single color sequin shirts has ever played as large of a role in a video since this one.
One of the best or worst dancers of all time?
- Hey guys I got this awesome 4 minute long disco track. It's got a sweet groove, some nice string work, and a catchy hook.
-How about we do a bunch of drugs, take your 4 minute disco track and make it 12 mins long, add some more percussion and whispery vocal parts, and turn it into a monster of a disco track that will be played for the next thirty years by DJs all over the world.
-Done and done.
I don't think anyone can listen to this version of "My Sweet Lord" without wanting to sing along. It's just an amazing example of gosple mixed with some pop sensibilities and you end up with a god damn catchy tune. I mean the original was nothing to sneeze at but this one is a totally different animal. It's just got some bigger balls on it that's all. And they are swinging. Swinging hard.
Darkness isn't usually discussed when talking about reggae or dub but on "Flesh of my skin" by Keith Hudson it is hard to miss. Its a tense tune full of emotion that is trying to find it's way and when it does it is contained in the squeals of Hudson's garbled singing. Forgotten dub/reggae that sounds like it was made in someones basement with only one light bulb on. Pretty fantastic.
I am just a horrible person in the morning. I can't help it. I wake up and I just normally want to punch whatever it is that made me wake up.
I can't be the only person with anger issues in the morning, can I?
I will put on a 100% Silk track any time any place.
This is a house track that is huge and falling apart at the same time. There is something tying this racket together but it is hard to hear at first. It slowly grows and grows into some sort of monster future house track that just makes sense at the end. It ends with it being about the vocal but most of the fun comes from everything that leads up to climax. The slow crawl up to the top of the roller coaster is why going down the other side is always so terrifying/fun. And then it all starts to melt away in a mess of neon synth swishes and appreggios until it just sort of whimpers out.
Top 25 hits, coming next week. Gonna make it happen. For shoooooooooooore.
I think the reason this song is so good is that its got some seriously banging bass going on. Throw some looping synths lines over top of it with a pretty great vocal sample and you got what the kids call a hit.
It's sort of retro, sort of not. I'm sure that dude over at the Bliss Blog would disagree with me but I don't really care what he things. This one is just kind of a straight up banger and I think we need to treat it that way.
180 beat-per-minute African Shangann slowed down and stripped to its barest elements. Talk about locking in the groove; this one has the groove written on to it from the very start. A blunt bass sound paired with some weird percussion instruments and some seductive synth work. This one has minimal written all over it. It's got that tension that keeps your ears tied to it but its got that groove that just makes your gut want this to go one forever.
This is the raw, minimal style of house music that someone has taken the sandpaper to. All the rough edges have been completely smoothed away in favor of a slick, elegant style. Any loose ends have been completely done away with at the expense of the groove. No bells and whistles on this track - instead everything is put in its exact, right place. It's the track for the obsessive compulsives out there.
This shit makes me want to run through a god damn wall.
Irish metal. It makes sense really - I imagine the Irish have a lot of things they could be pissed off about. I want to have this guy's voice and just scream everything all day. Like the most mundane shit. Everything would be epic.
Things I love:
1. Metal band names
2. Metal band album titles
3. Metal band song titles
4. Metal band lyrics
5. Serious metal band album review (unlike this one)
New rule of thumb - trying to fill a chorus in your colorful two-step track and you just don't know what to put there? Take a sample of Drake, saying pretty much anything, and shift the pitch. Can't go wrong. I promise. In this instance Damu got a slice of Drake paying homage to Dead Prez. If they were looking to earn some hipster brownie points they couldn't have done much better with that find.
Energy is something this tune clearly does not lack. It makes me want to be in a car in a busy city and drive fast done the highway. I think it's the neon association I have with this track. It's like a rainbow of neon reds, oranges, and greens. Seriously, by the end of this track it sounds like the song is simply going to explode with everything its got going on. Sometimes less is more and then sometimes more is just a lot more.
Thinking about it now, I think the title of this track might be a shot at Drake. If it is, well played. Well played indeed.
Ummmm, can't get enough. There is literally nothing I don't like about this video. I love their outfits, I love the choreographed dances, and I especially like it when the singer humps the air when he sings "uhh, uhh, uhh".
Does it get dangerously close to sounding like Prince when he was at the top of his game in the 80's? Yea, but I think that is part of the charm here. The influence is clear and that's fine because it is still a banger of a track. Gotta respect that beat and that weird syth hook.
I know I have posted this song before but it is that good. Honestly, I can't even begin to discus how much I love this track. Easily in my top five songs I have discovered in the last two years. There is no reason this song should work with all that is going on in it. Let's just start with the fact that it involves a vocorder and it doesn't suck. Seriously, as a culture I think we need to reexamine how we have decided to denigrate the vocorder because this track makes a strong argument for the fact that we were totally wrong in are assessment.
Lots of whistles and bleeps and blumps. Basically it is a song made out of onamonapias but still managed to keep it funky. I mean this thing has a nasty groove. Nasty, nasty groove.
I like to think this is a love song written from a computer's perspective about another computer in the 1980's.
This one will make all the music dweebs on the internet wet themselves with joy. Combining three of the most talked about figures out there right now; Andy Stott, Holy Other, and TriAngle Records, this single is the hat trick of underground music this week.
This one sort of seems like a no brainer. Andy Stott who already traffics in dark, thumbing electronic music takes a crack at remixing Holy Other's dark, thumbing track "Know Where". You want to know why this remix works so well? Because as someone who has listened to a lot of both of these artists this year this tune could have been on either one of their albums. Holy Other's tune was already an off-kilter tune that sucked in all light near it. Stott's idea of a remix was to simply turn that darkness knob up a bit and polish the edges on this bad boy.
Dark is sort of a lazy way to describe this tune, it goes beyond that. Stott is a master at building an atmosphere in his tracks so that they create a specific time and place. You know you are listening to one of his tunes because you start to feel a little uneasy like someone is watching you. If you have ever come upon a group of people running in the opposite direction you are going and you have that split second decision - do I keep going the way I was going or do I turn and run away with these people? It's sort of like that. But in a good way.
The world is a large scary place packed full of daunting tasks and pitfalls behind every corner. Everyday we rely upon millions of years of evolutionary history in our DNA to make sure we get through it alive. We run from task to task just trying to make sure we get out in time before someone or something fucks us. It should come as no surprise that no one makes it out in one piece.
I don't know, I've been listening to a lot of metal this week. The above comments might have something to do with that.
Speaking of getting fucked, the nightmare that is finals week is almost finished. That's what this track is about - its the light at the end of the tunnel. The soundtrack to the last mile in all of its Italian house style. One long piano loop for your brain to explode to. Its track like these that help you realize that it isn't as bad as Cannibal Corpse leads you to believe. There is nothing wrong with Cannibal Corpse of course, I mean, when you want to kill someone you don't really want to listen to house music.
Sun, warmth, beach, drinks. That is all this song makes me think about. It's like a gin'n tonic with a lemon twist in audio form. Not too harsh, not too soft, just the right about of boozy-ness to keep you going. It's the refreshing cocktail on the 90 degree day.
I would kill for a 90 degree day right. Kill. Que the Cannibal Corpse.
This is kind of the shit and also reminds how I really want someone to explain to me how they made this stuff in the early to mid 1990's. I feel like this would take forever. There was lyric in a song I remember that goes something like "it use to take them days to make Acid music now it takes them minutes". Which I always thought was funny because it was probably true. Making a 10 minute long remix like this one had to have been no easy feat. I imagine it involved a lot of tape and making sure you hit corresponding buttons at the exact same time so things sync-ed up.
This is kind of amazing though, it is so long that it is as if it has movements. Constant throughout are these classic techno-y snares, but there is also this nice warm upright bass sound that bounces along throughout. He is a nice mellow, not too techno-y, house track. Especially with these weird, cool synth sounds that weave across the track.
Also, I have to do the obligatory mention that Carl Craig is from Detroit. Also, the next time I go to Detroit I want to hear this shit from every street corner.
I had a professor today ask me if I was dyslexic because of my writing. He tried couching it in terms of that he gives tough criticism, that's his deal. Which is really no better than if he had said "no offense" before asking me if I was dyslexic. Both instances are just attempts to get away with being a cock.
I also learned today that their are high-yield Time Traveling accounts that people open, deposit money into, the money accrues interest, and the account stays open until the human race learns how to time travel. Once this happens the account is emptied to pay for someone in the future to come back in time to rescue you and take you to the future.
You can literally do anything for money these days.
I really like the name Legowelt and I REALLY like his Wikipedia page. Lets check out some of the highlights.
1. He describes his sound as, "a hybrid form of slam jack combined with deep Chicago house, romantic ghetto technofunk and EuroHorror Soundtrack." Your guess is as good as mine of what the hell that means.
2.Some aliases and side-projects he has are Catnip, The Chicago Shags, Gladio, Smackos, Smackulator, Squadra Blanco, Salamandos, Raheem Hershel and Venom 18. How awesome are these names. If making music doesn't work in the long run he should think about just coming up with band names and copyrighting them before anyone else can and then selling them to people. Or they all sound like they were made my a 14 year-old child. I can't decide.
3. And, of course, he looks like this.
I actually have no idea if this is him. I just like to think it is.
Seriously though, I'm digging this track. It's kind of dark, kind of spooky. Builds and builds and never really goes anywhere, but that's O.K. really, I like where we are at. I'm going to ask that when they come to take me to the future that they play this song as we travel there. It seems appropriate.
I seriously can't stop listening to this. Which is bad for all other music on the planet because I just ended another Knxledge bender not two weeks ago. He's my MVP of the month, that's for sure. It was an unanimous decision with him receiving all available votes except for some clown that voted for that She & Him Christmas album. Don't worry, he isn't invited back.
The sounds in his tracks make me wonder how they just don't fall apart. It's like he makes his tracks out of chewing gum and tooth picks and puts them on the edge of a cliff. I'm just waiting for them to fall over into a million pieces.
What is the deal with rappers thinking they are going to meet the girl of their dreams in the strip club? They do know that these woman are there to make money not because they are looking for love, right? It is purely a business transaction. I would argue that if a rapper was looking for the girl of his dreams he should first start anywhere other than the strip club. Like, literally, anywhere else. A doughnut shop, the mall, the gas station, a cess-pool. There have to be better options out there.
LOTS of bad club music this weekend. Every night in Akron ends the exact same way - at the gay bar. Which is fun and all but everyone just turns a blind eye to the fact that they really are playing horrible music. Just the pits.
I think I'm suppose to know who this Blood Orange group is but I'm just drawing a blank right now. I do know that this remix is pretty banging though. Oddly enough, after some failed searches on Google I determined that Biceps are the same people over at Feel My Bicep. Small world.
Seriously though, I'm digging the nice mellow drive we got going on here right now. It might be because it's raining, I've had a couple glasses of wine and it's Sunday night but it just feels like this is the right thing to be into right now.
I ended up listening to a ton of weird African music this weekend coming from not so good speakers. Even better, for the first half of the time the bass was turned almost all the way down. It sounded like it was recorded in a land without bass. It could have been recorded in a trashcan. In reality though it was pretty amazing. Or as my brother put it, you don't have to ever worry about originality when it comes to crazy African music. It is sort of inherent to the concept.
Yep. That is exactly what it seems. A Celine Dion remix. I don't know what to say. I really don't. I mean I can tell you I never listen to Celine Dion and that is a technically true statement but there is something about this one. I don't know what happened, I clicked on this and nine minutes later I was still listening to it. A little too brash techno-y for me at some points, but you gotta take the bad with the amazing.
Enjoy it while it lasts people, don't expect many more Celine Dion remixes around these parts.
Pure genius. I'm so happy this is happening. EP out now, album rumored to be on its way. This is why people need to learn how to keep secrets. This is the kind of shit that makes a rainy, crappy Tuesday all that much better.
I'm sure Madlib could sample that fucking Chipmunks record from when we were kids and make it sound sick. He just has a groove sense amount him that he has this ability to break anything done into it's essence which is some sort of groove. And it makes me so happy.
How many blunts were smoked during the making of this album? Over/under is 1 million and I'll take the over.
I've had two Thanksgiving dinners already and it only Monday of Thanksgiving week.
This one is getting posted because I was listening to a Beats In Space with Morgan Geist who is one-half of Metro Area. I also kind of like it because the video is just of the record spinning but you can barely even see it. In fact, you can't see much of anything in this video but two or three times today I have just caught myself staring at it. I don't know what is wrong with me.
It was steel gray out today. Or, as I like to put it, the sky was really low today. It's sort of like you can almost just reach out and pull yourself down some cloud. I imagine thought that it would be pretty gross and probably full of like rats or something.
In the interview Morgan Geist mentioned how he is really comfortable putting songs in the middle of long disco tracks, which is not this at all, but I think that was a pretty interesting way to think about a lot of the stuff out there. Especially on the disco end, they are like really long mixes that also have smaller songs wrapped up in them as well.
Also, his current project is called Storm Queen which is the best fucking name and this track from it is the shit.
Jesus Christ, the new Mazzy Star single was clearly only made to listen to while doing heroin? Or if you were in a constant state of melting this would be pretty good for that as well. Also, go look up some photos of Mazzy Star. A - they look exactly like you would think and B - they are having zero fun. Too much heroin I think.
This is what I really want to talk about though - Omar S - Presents Colonel Abrams - Who Wrote the Rules of Love
Jam of the week so far. Take some Detroit House, smash it together with some soul, a pinch of R&B and you get this masterpiece. Recommended if you like things that don't suck. It has sort of funk, boogie feel to it I feel. I don't know if I've just been listening to too much Dam-Funk recently, but its got some soul-balls to it. A little two-step possibly. Damn, I like this the more and more I listen to it. Columbus, Ohio - stop listening to that awful bass shit and check this out. You'll like it, I promise, it sounds like actual music.
The British describe this as a "proper peach". I would tend to agree.
You know what grad school does to you? It makes you angry - like all the time. I'm just angry all the time now and at like inanimate objects. I'm angry at this book in front of me, at this stupid paper, at this room, and pretty much at this entire building. The pressure from grad school is building up so high that it is crushing my soul inside of me and turning it into an enormous diamond of hate. That's what I have in me right now - a 14 carrot diamond of hate. It's priceless if you ask me.
I think my love of the Junior Boys is 75 percent my love of their vocals. These dudes could sing a fucking Chinese take-out menu to me and I would think it was sexy. In my head these dudes' days are a combination of doing blow, making cold hard beats, sleeping with the sexiest woman in the room, and then breaking that girl's heart by telling her he doesn't really love it. It sounds exhausting really.
This shit is the shit though. Junior Boys vocals and some cold beats from Kelly Polar. It's a god damn sandwich of forward leaning dance music and sexiness. Some sweet disco-like strings, ice cold electronic beats, and sad Kraftwerk electronic chords. The Junior Boys have a tendency to sing about the cold, distance that inevitable engulfs a relationship that is about to go up in flames. And still, it is fucking cool.
Ohhhhhhh shit. It's Tuesday. It's election day. Time to party.....right? Don't tell me I'm the only one getting hyped that it is election day. You know what they use to do one election day? It was a national holiday that everyone got the day off. Every went and voted (everyone being land owning, white males) and then got drunk and partied in the name of democracy. How fucking awesome is that? Why aren't we doing this, citizen participation would be significantly higher.....and that would be good for Democrats. Just saying.
I haven't stopped listening to this track for two days now. I literally sit here listening to it over and over. Disco edits are one of the only things that are going to make this winter season bearable. Seriously though, this is one sun soaked modern take on disco and it is undeniably fun. Soulful vocals, disco strings, some sweet drums....god damn, I could listen to this all day.
Because I've never heard it at the club. That's why. I mean, if it isn't Skrillex it clearly isn't house music.
-Skrillex isn't house music. It is barely even music.
Whatch you say boy?!
-I said, you're correct Skrillex is the shit.
That's what I thought.
- But this is also kind of the shit. I mean, listen to that beat, it sounds like it was made on a Casio keyboard but its still got that groove. Some classic 808 drum sounds thrown in for good measure, some dense, dark chord progressions, and some sprinkling of synths and you got yourself a banging forward sounding house hit.
Boyyyyy I thought I told you before, if it isn't Skrillex its shit! I love the his ENERGY. Its what electronic music is suppose to sound like. [Punches other guy in the face.]
-You're right I don't know what I'm talking about. I stand corrected.
Holy shit this thing beats. I can't stop listening to it. I like it so much that it made me go and look up the Musiq Soulchild version of "Be Friends" that it samples, and you know what? That is also a pretty sweet jam.
Seriously though, it is amazing what the internet will bubble up to the service some days. Before today - I had never heard of Knxledge. Ever. By 7:30 tonight - I can't tell you how much I like his stuff so far. It's great. Listen, I'm having a hard enough time trying to learn how to talk about electronic music without sounding like an idiot so when it comes to hip-hop producers I'm still sort of at loss for words. And, to be honest, the reason I'm probably as in to this song right now as I am is because its funky. It's got some boogie in it. A sweet fucking bass line, some catchy, melodic courts, and I've always been a sucker for chopped and screwed vocals. And, those fucking horns. God. Damn. Stop it already.
Also, if you can't relate to this song you probably have something wrong with you.
OK, follow me here...earlier this week Dam-Funk was on Beats In Space, and, well, it was the shit. It was an awesome hour of boogie, funk, and just some nasty songs from him. Some new ones, some old ones - just an amazingly solid hour of music. Can't recommend it enough. Anyways, that got me going on like a funk boogie hunt. Next thing I know I'm watching this video of Wolf + Lamb on Beats In Space from earlier this year and someone in the video was talking about how this Franklin Thompson album Anniversary was his favorite album of the year so far. So that is how we got to this gem. Again, I can't thank the world enough for the existence of YouTube. If it wasn't for YouTube I wouldn't have this album in my life right now.
Those vocals, that guitar, that bass. This just isn't fair. I may be like four years late to the boogie party but I don't care. I'm hooked.
I read an interview with Dam-Funk talking about the reason people like boogie and funk is because people want to hear funky bass-line, synthesizers, and melodic chords, and he is god damn right. Both of these tracks have a repetitive state in them that force you to pay attention to what is going on but then it's too late. He's sucked you in and kinda of just want it to go on forever.
Also, as I said, I'm moonlighting over at Keep On Repeat and a little something for them as well. Come check out my review of the new Kuedo album Severant. Not to give anything away, but I kind of dug it.
On a scale of 1 to 10, how excited are you for the King Midas Sound remix album?
- I don't know who that is?
What?! What is wrong with you girl! This shit was the shit like two years ago. You know, bass thumping dub about god knows what. It sounded like someone had broken into a reggae studio, decided to play all the records in it slowed down by one-third, and turned the bass up to 11. It would have made Lee Perry blush.
Here watch this.
(Editor's Note: Yes, I'm well aware that it is just a picture of weed. But pink weed?! Who knew!)
Oh my god it is going to be awesome. I can't wait. Normally, when I hear someone is putting out a remix album of an album they had previously released I would never even think about picking it up. But, it is Hyperdub material and the people working on it are awesome. So, let us rejoice and wait in nervous anticipating like a group of school girls.
Also, got a new post up over at Keep On Repeat. Don't hate. Come over and join the fun.
It's amazing what you can learn on the internet. Remember the electronic duo The Knife? Well, one half of that crazy duo, the male to be exact, tours Europe as a DJ under the name DJ Coolof. More intrestingly, he has a secret side project that he bills himself as Oni Ayhun. So, to recap, one half the secretive electronic duo The Knife is traveling around Europe secretly DJing and has another secret project that he is putting stuff out under the name Oni Ayhun. You have to wonder if this guys really wants anyone to hear the stuff he is putting out because he is making it really fucking hard to stay on top of this.
I believe Shangaan is some sort of South African electronic, dance, music craze. And, the song sort of sounds like it as well. All I can think about when I hear this song is those fucking horns everyone was blowing into during the World Cup games in South Africa. They created like this constant, low level, drone - as if the crowd was hoping that the power of their drone would somehow wake the dead or cause the earth to cave in on its self.
Instead, what we have here are some wild fucking horns over top of what, in all honestly, could be a beat production from a discarded Knife track. This one of the most interesting, wild, and fun tunes I have heard in a long time. I can see some people being turned off by it at first, but I really think there is something here. It's a grab back of electronic beats, of sorts. Off-setting, but if you give it enough time, you end up coming around to it. One of the premier songs released this year I think.
First things first, come check out my inaugural effort over at Keep On Repeat. Chris, the founder of the site, was nice enough to invite me to come join the team so plan on a lot more signature half thought through thoughts on music. Possibly even some interviews, and/or some original mixes and podcasts. Its going to be a blast.
Ummm are we certain that Burial isn't some type of crazy scientist that spends 10 months a year secluded in a dark, dang lab somewhere trying to produce tracks to melt peoples' brains? No, we can't say that for certain.
This is going to sound lame, but I have been a huge Burial fan for years. Untrue is not only in my top ten albums of all time, but its mood, feel, and sound define a long period in my mid-twenties. His influence has been felt through multiple genres of music, and whether you like him or not he is a force to be reckoned with.
This post isn't going to be about how I wasn't all that into some of the things he has done since that album. I can't fault him, he needed to make some cash on his new-found fame, try some new stuff out. Can't hate on that. But this is the first track since Untrue came out that got that hair on the back of neck to stand up again. And I think it was probably somewhere around the 8:30 mark where it happened. It was that horribly distorted vocal sample that is less of a person and more like a ghost that did it. Don't get me wrong, the entire song is blindingly awesome, but it was hearing that strongly warped female(?) vocal that brought it all racing back. It was the vocal sample, the rain like feel, the dark mood, and the synths that sound like they could be cold winds. God. Damn. Is he good.
Please, please, please come out with a new album soon.
(Editors note: I fucking love Oneohtrix Point Never. Can't wait for the new album. Just, had to make sure that was clear.)
So, there was slight to-do over a record review today on the inter-webs. Or, at least, I made a to-do about it in my mind. The review was of Real Estate's new album Days and can be found, here, in the on-line publication Dusted Magazine. Another music critic, who will remain unnamed seemed to have taken offense to this portion of the review.
Days will be called chill, but in reality it is a powerful narcotic that is built to simultaneously desensitize emotion and incite nothing in its place. In many ways, it is the most dangerous kind of album that can exist at this time.
In response the unnamed music critic sent just the bolded section of the review out in a tweet today and, in classic reviewer fashion, seemed to discount the comment because it was insufferable navel gazing. Is the above review the classic case of a music critic taking themselves and their work too seriously, yea probably. But, it wasn't like the critic who sent out the tweet isn't the exact same type of critic who loves navel gazing but only if it isn't about anything too serious, we would hate to ruin anyone's vibe about the new Real Estate album.
Its not that the unnamed tweeter had an issue with this guys review of the new Real Estate album. I don't give a shit about that. The problem is that in less than 140 characters unnamed music critic wanted to discredit the review because of once sentence that he either disagreed with or thought was too far reaching. If you think the guy is wrong then it is on room to prove to me why you think so, otherwise, Mr. Pot, please meet Mr. Kettle.
Last, the review is correct, all this chilled-out stuff needs to be taken with a grain of salt. At what point do we ask a fad to stop being a fad and start adding something of substance to the conversation. Bands like Real Estate and Washed Out aren't doing or saying anything wrong, but they aren't pushing anything forward it seems either. If you can honestly tell me that in five hears you are still going to want to be putting on those albums you something is wrong.
Holy shit fall is laying it on thick. Have you seen a tree recently? They all look like they are on fire. Seriously, on fire.
I want to be famous for falling love.
This seems like some appropriate Sunday, hangover listening. I don't think my brain could really handle anything more intense right now. This isn't about me though, this is about you.
Fall listening at its finest. Have you noticed how if you stare at a group of trees in the fall all the colors of leaves kind of look like the milky way? It's just a trail of reds, yellows, and oranges clustered around each other all looking like they could explode at any minute. They all just hang there in the trees, tenuously, waiting for either a strong breeze to take them to the ground or a light to cause them to catch on fire. That's what Cass McCombs is like - you don't realize he as is good as he is until about 15 mins later when you are walking around doing something else humming "I went to the hospital/They put me in a bed/And I always do/What my mother says". Yea, you just don't realize it until it's too late.
Special Saturday post for all you'll - trying to make up for the posts we missed earlier this week.
Desire, I want to live in the world that Desire sounds like. It sounds super sexy and super awesome. I imagine it's a world where woman whisper their desires in sultry voices in the back of crowded clubs. Lots of neon, probably. I like to think I would have some sort of leather jacket and a motorcycle. Yes, I know this is lazy, but I think it might be the world from Bladerunner. I of course would be charged with hunting down robots disguised as humans.
Holy Crap! What a horribly busy week. I would like to thank my micro-economics professor for taking the stress level from 5 to 10. Couldn't have ask for more out of you
Slow. It. Down. Always a good idea if you are looking to maximize that groove. Damn.
I don't know if this is suppose to be some sort of religious thing, but according to some comments on the YouTube page it seems that some people don't like the new album for its religious references. I don't know what they are talking about. Either way though this track is totally bitching.
Besides being a musical genius, Cass McCombs also has the satorial style of a man who knows what the fuck he is doing.
Really, just look at him in that photo. God damn, I want that shirt, I want that suit, I want that hair. The worst is that he looks like he isn't even trying. In fact, chances are pretty good that he may not be trying. He may in fact have slept in that suit last nigh, but it doesn't matter, that is how that suit is suppose to be warn - its suppose to be lived in.
If you research Cass McCombs the reoccurring narrative is that he is a wreckloose, a vagabond, a man without a home. He songs sound like. His songs are are places to live to in with him. He sounds like a man who given this ultimatum before - meet me here at dawn and I'm leaving whether you show or not.
"Meet Me Here at Dawn" is chalk full of little spaces and crevices to crawl into and feel the space around you and see what he is talking about. They are between the sloppy guitar playing,the beats between the snare drums and the pauses in his breath. You get inside of them and you try them on for size. They feel like flannel shirts on a brisk fall day.
I want McCombs to tell me stories of adventure and loss, and I want to hear them around a campfire with a strong drink.
When ever we talk about music that is dark, forebording, or ominous, the review at some point always compares it to either Blade Runner or makes the analogy that it could be the music from a dystopian future. I know, because I do this all the time. This new Andy Stott album will inevitably be compared to the soundtrack of some future where the sun doesn't exist anymore and all or our brains have been replaced with computer chips. Yes, this is a dark album. For sure. But that does not mean it doesn't beat.
Honestly, you know what this reminds me of? Mid to late career Tom Waits sort of. Tom waits would take dark sounds made from unrecognizable instruments and place them in songs where they were surrounded with just as many other unrecognizable instruments to create song that was one part carnival and one part haunted house. Andy Stott's songs are not nearly as playful, but listening to a track like Bad Wires you can hear how this guy is on just a different wavelength than other electronic musicians. This is barley an electronic song. It is going to be classified as an electronic track, but I think that is sort of missing the point.
It's been a long day. This is going to be short. If you don't like it, then don't click on the link. But, if you think people should stop being exploited for the rich few, then maybe you should click on it.
There is a special place in hell for microeconomics, shitty written microeconomics textbooks, and microeconomics teachers that confuse entire classes. I'm just saying.
Just saying.
Some clown decided to take this song and do a chopped and screwed version, which is just absurd. Who would ever listen to this and think, "you know what, this track just is not slow enough. If only he had slowed it down by enough third. If only he had drank even more syrup, maybe then I would like it more." Whoever did that probably needs to stop drinking so much drank.
As you can see, the 'Big' in Big Moe was simply a declaratory fact. He, literally, was big. Besides the damage carrying all that weight around will do to your heart, being addicted to drank probably doesn't help a whole lot. But it will possibly make you an awesome rapper. It is a true cost/benefit analysis. You could not drink drank and be an average rapper or you could drink drank and have a bad ass hoe from the south side, just sitting on the bar, and stunning like a star. But then, you might get attacked and your heart may explode. If I knew what was happening in my econ class I might be able to graph this for you. Sadly, I don't, so my suggestion would be drink drank until you are sitting at the bar stunning like a star, at that point you probably don't need to drink anymore.
Fall is here in full force, I finally get to walk down the street and buy a Yuengling tonight, and this Mark McGuire song is the shit.
God. Damn. Do I love Mark McGuire. He solo album from last year was amazing and some how this one is even better.
He is a man using his guitar to fight the forces of evil. A man with a single mindedness towards laying waste to all that stand in his way. He decided years ago to use his guitar shredding skills to shine the light of justice in the crevices of society where all things evil and unjust reside.
He woke up one day and said, "no longer will evil and tyranny spread its poison across this land. I will hunt each and everyone of them down and use my own hands to bring justice upon them. I will strike them down with my ax and dip my hands in their blood and spread it into the ground where darkness once was. Anywhere there is evil I will be in search of it to level justice upon it. Anywhere there is tyranny I will find it and destroy it. You will know me by the dead I leave in my wake."
He seems like a pretty intense dude if you ask me.
Yes, my love of all things Clams Casino has been disclosed previously.
No, I'm not going to stop posting Clams Casino tracks. It's my internet and I do what I want.
Seriously though, album of the year? I need a compelling reason to not make it that, and as of early October I don't have one.
It amazes me that these tracks were originally suppose to be used for rappers to rhyme over. No one looks at a Andy Warhol piece and says, "you know what this looks like a good place to start my painting, I'll just start painting on top of this." This isn't an attack on Lil' B for his version, I don't know who out there is going to jump on this track and make it better. Why take something that is already totally fucking awesome and muddy it up with something else. It only distracts the listener from what is already perfect. Great jazz musicians use to talk about how the absence of a note is just as important as the presence of a note - there is an instance where we have the perfect amount of notes, we really don't have to add anymore.
Rarely do producers beats do much for me. Of course you have the outliers, but rarely do I want to just listen to the producer's beats. Clearly, Clams Casino is different than most other producers out there right now and I would venture to say it is because of the space or atmosphere he creates with his songs. "I'm God" is a perfect example of a track that is this mixture of ethereal and airy-ness. When I use the term space I mean it in a literally way - you can feel and hear the spaces in the track. The little moments of silence and hiccups between beats and the vocal track break up the continuity of the the track and add another dimension of depth. The song reminds me a lot of the album cover. What seems to be a close up picture of black marble is really just a visual of the sounds on this album. The cracks in the marble reveal shades of white and gray while the disjointedness of the production breaks open previous ideas of beat making and creates whole new ways of looking at it.
Or I'm thinking about it way to hard and it is just a totally bitching album.
If you go to the soundcloud page for this song you will see it has been played 97 times this week. I am responsible for at least a third of that action.
I think the reason I'm really digging this stuff right now is that if fall was a time of night it would be post 2:00 am when the bars are closed and your kind of riding high but you know the fun is almost over but you don't want to stop drinking so you go to your friends house and continue on there. Some people are in the living room still grasping on to the last few minuets to dance while the rest of you are standing in the kitchen drinking carry out beers. This is the song that is playing when you are drinking the shitty carry our beers in the kitchen. This isn't the midnight glam of a few hours before but the early morning disco to make you see that at some point all this is coming to an end and you are most likely going to wake up hungover but, fuck it, that is part of the fun.
Apparently, the person I need to thank for this is Johnny Jewel, the mastermind behind this group and several other bands on Italians Do It Better. The dude knows how to write a pop song and he knows his way around some pop hooks. This track might not share the high velocity nature of some other disco beats but that doesn't make it any less cold, sexy, and devastating.
I want to live in Desire's world and I want to live in it now.
Because I think that is what is happening here with the soundtrack to the film Drive. The first five songs are stunning, brilliant, haunting, and beautiful. All just rapped up into one gorgeous five song segment. Everyone one of these songs make me want to wear a satin jacket with a scorpion embroidered on the back of it.
All four of the first five tracks are straight from artists associated with the Italians Do It Better label which is responsible for one of the best albums in the last decade: After Dark. A compilation of, at the time, unknown American artists taking Italian disco, pulling the rug from out underneath it to make a whole new type of creepy, sexy, disco. If the Drive soundtrack proves only one thing, it is that Italians Do It Better clearly have their eye on the prize - that being making the darkest, sexiest, ridiculously addictive disco.
I don't even know if I can call this disco, this might be something entirely different. For sure, "A Real Hero" is probably not a disco track. I don't think it is a dance track of any sort, maybe an electronic song? Clearly, what makes it is the sultry, whisper-y pipes of Electric Youth. Don't get me wrong, the music with its perfectly placed beat is awesome and super dystopian sounding but how can you ignore that voice. It's amazing. I've listened to it over and over and I have no idea what she is signing about I just he sounds that don't make and sense to my ears. There is just something about her voice where she could be singing almost anything and I would want to hear it.
It's too much to handle. Tomorrow we discuss the Chromatic's "Tick of the Clock" and why I can't stop listening to it.
Holy crap I'm tired. In the last three hours I have studied microeconomics, stats, public policy theory and locked myself out of my house for an hour. It's been a busy evening.
I swear to god when I get more time we will go into this guy in more depth. This Sully character's new album Carriers is pretty amazing. Not too heavy on the dub-step, no too heavy on the weird bass that I'm starting to hate, and just the right amount of suspense. If it is anything it is surely original.
Torrential down pours and fall sunsets. That is what we got today in central Ohio. All sorts of horrible rain in the morning and then a pleasant evening. Kind of strange. Sort of like the world took pity on us for having pissed on us all day and awarded us a sunset. Or, it is just a pathetic attempt at lulling us into a state where we do not realize that winter is right around the corner. As you can see, I may have some trust issues.
I found something that made getting out of bed this morning worth it. An hour long mix done by Eddy C that is all Eddy C material. God. Damn. Work was parable today because of this.
It is labeled as a deephouse/nu-disco mix, for some reason they don't have an option to label it "life affirming". I think that should be an option.
My love for Eddy C runs deep and true. This mix only strengthens those bonds of love.
Yep, I know, I screwed up. I left you guys hanging without anything posted for two whole days. But, It's sunny, warm(-ish), and I got something for your hangover. You can thank me later.
Mellooooow as fucccckkkkk.
The start of this song feels like a chopped and screwed remix to me. This is The Field at his mellowest it seems. In albums past, The Field seemed to be making a name for himself by taking vocal samples and manipulating them into shapes and textures unlike anyone else. Those ghostly vocals are still on this album, but sometimes they are less vocal samples that are meant to be heard as vocal pieces and more like instruments. Instruments in the sense that the vocal samples are being used just like other sounds and instruments, mostly in a looping format.
A little piano piece looped over an over again, is the background for some mellow drum loops put just far enough in the back to not overwhelm the feeling of the track. For as mellow as this tune is though, there is a clear sense of anticipation and movement. It starts slowly with mostly just the keys and a small drum sample and it builds with extra layers of ghostly vocals, electronic loops, more drums, until it ends with pretty much just a vocal sample repeating and some bells. Word on the street is that The Field is incorporating more and more live musicians into his albums and live show and I think you can really hear it on this track. Between the piano piece, the drum samples, and the xylophone that comes in at the end, they all have this quality to them that I would guess comes from them being played live. It's a interesting idea of combining electronic instrument and real instruments together to create what is in essence an minimal techno song.
Not a bad way to deal with your Sunday morning hangover. Turn it up loud and get some caffeine in you. You'll feel better, I promise.
I guess we have been sort of in a nostalgic mood recently. If you can count being sucked into mid 2000's house music nostalgic. I'm just going to go ahead and say, yes, we are being nostalgic and it's fucking awesome.
Before the days of witch house, post dub-step, hazy-core, and chill-wave there was a man in France making dance music named Alan Braxe. Standing six feet, four inches tall, with a face that was easy on the eyes, and dressed to the nines, Alan Braxe stalked the streets of Paris at night haunted by the gifts that God had given him. Underneath his dashing looks and come hither stare was a man being crushed by what he knew and could never un-know.
While the rest of the world in 2005 was knee deep in cheap credit and multiple homes, Alan Braxe was a man who had been given an unsolicited gift. His gift - the ability to make devastating house songs that destroyed space and time and made reality questionable.
The stories are more haunting than anything. When people talk about them you can see a certain haze come over them, they have tendency to stare off into space, their foreheads will start to perspire a little, and they will have a hard time speaking. Legend has it one hot summer night, in one of those clubs in Paris that are underground in a 800 year-old catacomb that you can only get into if you know someone Alan Braxe dropped this song for the first time. Depending on who you talk to details may differ, but everyone will agree - it felt like space and time ceased to exist. People who were there described have feelings of euphoria followed by feeling like their bodies didn't exist anymore. They will swear that people on the dance floor just starting flowing into one another like when water pellets run into other water pellets they make a bigger water pellet. They will describe that for those four minutes they knew for a fact that reality was just a figment of our imaginations' and that nothing really existed and that life as we knew it was a lie.
After that night Alan Braxe was never the same. You can't un-see the things I have seen, he would tell people. He grew pale, he stopped eating, he stopped shaving, and he swore he would never play the song again in public. To this day, if you ask him about it he won't acknowledge the question. The closest he has ever come to talking about it was in an interview he did for an quasi-anarchy zine in Paris soon after reports started surfacing of the event.
"One man shouldn't have this much power - the power to show people the true nature of the world, the true nature of the universe. Space, time, and reality are walls that our minds use to make sense of the world, but now, I believe they are only that - walls. Walls that are meant to be broken through."
I don't care that I locked my self out of my apartment and had to climb in through the window to get in.
I don't care that I had to sit through three hours of worthless instruction today in class.
Guided by Voices is back together and they are putting out a new album. Just by typing that on the screen some how it thaws this stone cold soul of mine. It means all things are possible - even when you think something you love will never return. Hold on to hope, because it might just come back.
We have to put up a fight. We can't just let fall steamroll into town without putting up a fight. It is our patriotic duty. If we can't even do that then the terrorists have truly won.
Fuck. And. Yes. Some clowns over at Pitchfork said this was a one hit wonder. Yes, that would be true if you only ever listened to this song and never listened to any of their other stuff but I would be hard pressed to call the The MFA a one hit wonder. Also, I think this is all more Superpitcher's doing than anything so lets just not throw the baby out with the bath water.
German? Check
Minimalistic? Check
Kompakt related? Check
I don't really see how we can go wrong here. Yea, it might be a little cold, but a type of cold where you have been in a super hot bar and you go outside and it's a little chilly and it just feels right.
I'm thinking like ice cubes on your skin - but not for some random reason but because someone is putting them there for a purpose. And the skin under the ice cubes burn, just a little bit, and you want to take it off but the ice is starting to melt and water is cooling the burn and your skin. And you can feel the water sort of run down your skin and leave a path of wetness behind it where it has cooled different hairs on your body. Yea, this track sounds something like that.
