| Easiest to mix, hardest to title. |
[03 Jun 2009|11:01pm] |
"Celebrating Molehills" - Spring 2009
1. Los Campesinos! - Ways to Make it Through the Wall
2. Phoenix - 1901
3. Passion Pit - Little Secrets
4. Dirty Projectors - Stillness is the Move
5. Japandroids - Wet Hair
6. Franz Ferdinand - Can't Stop Feeling
7. Cymbals Eat Guitars - Wind Phoenix
8. Fleet Foxes - Mykonos
9. Animal Collective - Lion in a Coma
10. Dan Deacon - Red F
11. No Age - Teen Creeps
12. Crystal Stilts - Departure
13. Ra Ra Riot - Each Year
14. White Denim - Shake Shake Shake
15. Doves - The Outsiders
16. Metric - Gimme Sympathy
17. Gang Gang Dance - House Jam
18. Friendly Fires - Skeleton Boy
19. Bon Iver - For Emma
|
|
| Get the hell out of here, cold months |
[09 Mar 2009|10:45pm] |
"My Winter with Fictional Brothers" - Winter 2008/2009
1. Little Joy - The Next Time Around
2. Friendly Fires - Paris
3. White Denim - IEIEI
4. Franz Ferdinand - No You Girls
5. The Besnard Lakes - Cedric's War
6. The Little Ones - Everybody's up to Something
7. Animal Collective - My Girls
8. Of Montreal - We were Born the Mutants Again with the Leafling
9. Lil Wayne - Mrs. Officer
10. Deerhunter - Nothing Ever Happened
11. Here We Go Magic - Tunnelvision
12. Oh No Oh My - Wham Bam Thank You Spaceman
13. The Dodos - Red and Purple
14. Bon Iver - Lump Sum
15. Crystal Stilts - Crystal Stilts
16. Handsome Furs - I'm Confused
17. Fleet Foxes - Blue Ridge Mountains
18. TV on the Radio - DLZ
19. The Mae Shi - Divine Harvest
|
|
| Chris’s Top 10 Albums of 2008 |
[12 Jan 2009|10:45am] |
Unlike most (OK, every) music publication, I like to reserve my judgment for a year's best music until that year actually ends. Because you never know when you're going to, like, fall in love with an album on New Year's Eve. Not that that's happened yet, but it could. Anyway, here's my opinions of the best stuff from last year, and no, I didn't get much of a chance to listen to Lil' Wayne:
10. Of Montreal – Skeletal Lamping
Not only a lightning-fast follow-up to my #1 album of last year, Hissing Fauna, Are You the Destroyer?, but also something of a companion piece, in which the sexual deviant Kevin Barnes created halfway through his 2007 opus continues his misadventures in a breakneck collage of lecherous parties, awkward propositions and bitter feelings. The pastiche format makes Skeletal Lamping seem more like a mixtape than a proper LP, and some of it feels like a retread of Barnes’ previous album, but it’s still a fascinating collection of material, delivered by the kind of narrator you’re not likely to see elsewhere in the world of music.
MP3: Of Montreal - "An Eluardian Instance"
9. Wolf Parade – At Mount Zoomer
Several years after the success of Apologies to the Queen Mary and the interminable amount of side projects from both frontmen that followed, fans’ fears of a Wolf Parade dissolution were finally put to rest in 2008. Their follow-up album isn’t as immediate as their first, but it isn’t supposed to be; the intricacy of songs like “California Dreamer” and “They Grey Estates” shows off the talents of an older, more thoughtful band. And album-closer/rave-up/near-title-track “Kissing the Beehive” is the first WP song co-written by both Spencer Krug and Dan Boeckner; its success will hopefully lead to an even more refined sound on album #3.
MP3: Wolf Parade - "California Dreamer"
8. The Dodos - Visiter
Relaxed, intricate, frenetic, pretty, ramshackle, sprawling; a lot of adjectives can be used to describe Visiter, and many of them are contradictory. It’s a testament to the scope of the Dodos’ skill and ambition: not only can “Walking”, “Jodi” and “Undeclared” all exist on the same album, you can’t imagine them apart. Oh yeah, and the band is only two guys. Most other bands seem to be slumming it in comparison.
MP3: The Dodos - "Red and Purple"
7. The Mae Shi – Hlllyh
Namechecking gods and angels, forecasting Armageddon and ruminating on the afterlife, it’s easy to see Hlllyh as the younger, weirder brother of The Thermals’ 2006 album (and my #1 album of that year) The Body, the Blood, the Machine. But that’s not to disparage The Mae Shi’s career-defining album as a knock-off; only these guys could have created such a fascinating spaz-rock collage that bends into itself at the middle, creating a microcosmic Eurotrash remix of everything before and after. The Alpha and the Omega, indeed.
MP3: The Mae Shi - "Run to Your Grave"
6. Fleet Foxes – s/t
This album found its way to the top of almost every year-end list on the internet, and although I’m not exactly the target audience – as a City Boy, I’m not as taken by the pastoral overtones as many – it’s impossible to deny Fleet Foxes’ musicianship. It’s there in spades, from the layered-but-not-overstuffed harmonies to Robin Pecknold’s ethereal vocals. Folk music (whether Freak- or otherwise) had a huge year in 2008, and Fleet Foxes were right at the crest of it.
MP3: Fleet Foxes - "Blue Ridge Mountains"
5. These New Puritans – Beat Pyramid
Nothing about Beat Pyramid is exactly easy. Just trying to figure out the tracklist on the back of the CD can be a trying affair – and even then, the name of the first track is the second half of a sentence that begins with the name of the last track. The album itself is a labyrinth of cyclical themes, angular guitars and lyrics owing more than a little to Mark E. Smith, and new factes continue to emerge after dozens of listens. It’s the kind of album that would seem a product of careful elder craftsmen, but is surprisingly just the opening salvo from a gang of brash newcomers. If their next album comes packaged with a cryptography handbook, I wouldn’t be surprised.
MP3: These New Puritans - "Elvis"
4. Cut Copy – In Ghost Colours
Australia’s big success story in 2008 was, oddly enough, not the Nicole Kidman film Australia. Though Cut Copy snuck into hipster consciousness via the unpolished indie-rock vibe of “So Haunted”, the further successes of “Lights and Music” and “Hearts on Fire” showed that we all kind of missed the unpretentious fun of Euro-house after all. Who knew?
MP3: Cut Copy - "Lights and Music"
3. Los Campesinos! – Hold on Now, Youngster…
A hyperspeed sugar rush for the blog generation, the “second-most punk band in Britain” live hyperbole and breathe irony. Their music finds an impossible midpoint between twee-pop, punk and hipster art-rock which, on paper, should not work, but in practice becomes one of the most unique and confident debut albums in years.
MP3: Los Campesinos! - "Sweet Dreams, Sweet Cheeks"
2. TV On the Radio – Dear Science
Dear Science could have easily been called Zeitgeist (if the title wasn’t already used for a certain band’s infamously disappointing comeback album last year) – in a year of political and economic ups and downs, hope and fear from within and without, TVOTR seemed uncannily attuned to all of it. Was there a better soundtrack for the end-of-the-world despair and anger felt by 2008’s newly disenfranchised than “DLZ”? Or a more appropriate theme for Obama’s November sweep than “Golden Age”? But Dear Science also succeeds as the band’s most comprehensively solid LP yet, a diverse collection of songs whose greatness doesn’t end with the singles. It’s a defining statement from a band able to see the world - and, finally, themselves - with an astounding clarity.
MP3: TV On the Radio - "DLZ"
1. Hot Chip – Made in the Dark
And here, what’s left of my critic’s cred goes out the window. Made in the Dark is admittedly an uneven LP, and any album with several tracks I usually skip shouldn’t really be considered for the top spot on my list. But Hot Chip’s new album sails past many other arguably better-structured albums based on the simple fact that, more than any other music produced this year, I can’t imagine 2008 without it. Without dancefloor necessities like “One Pure Thought” and “Ready for the Floor”, this year just wouldn’t have been nearly as much fun for me or my friends. Songs like “Don’t Dance” and “Wrestlers” turned lazy nights into dance parties, elevated traffic jams to wild sing-alongs. If you could quantify the amount of happiness produced per minute, Made in the Dark would probably cover the rest of the albums on this list combined. And in the end, shouldn’t that be what matters most?
MP3: Hot Chip - "Hold On"
Honorable Mentions
    
My Morning Jacket – Evil Urges / Bon Iver – For Emma, Forever Ago / NOMO – Ghost Rock / White Denim – Exposion / Friendly Fires – s/t
|
|
| Standards |
[14 Dec 2008|02:48pm] |
Today the line at the coffee shop is long and slow. The colorful holiday menu is larger than normal, plump with with cheerfully-worded limited-time drink flavors, so the slow crawl of progress may be due to customers unable to decide between the new Egg Nog Delight smoothies and Peppermint Surprise lattes. The silver streamers and tinsel are meant to give the impression that the customer has stepped into a snow-capped winter wonderland even warmer than the mid-60s Southern California weather from which he has just escaped. Familiar holiday standards pipe through the room, a tacit reminder not only to remember the season, but to find joy, nostalgia or solace in it, depending on one’s situation. Four songs have completed before I reach the register.
The barista at the counter tells me it's getting more difficult. This is surprising, since their response to my question of how they're doing is typically the same as mine to theirs: "Good". Today my barista is out of his comfort zone. "It just gets to me, sometimes. I don't know how much longer I can do this." He says this without stress or malice, as even-tempered as I've always known him to be. Something about the job is simply getting to him and that's all there is to it. The line is long and I have my change, so I don't hold things up further to ask for details. I'm pretty sure I have them already.
The standards pipe outside of the store as well. Not loudly, but audible over conversations and parking lot noise. The songs are all old and widely recognizable. Some are recently-recorded updates, but performed without innovation or objectivity, informed by nothing from the last 50 years of culture. They are safe and careful like a watchful mother, and every customer on the patio is an independent adult.
Some time later I have finished my writing and head to Albertson's for an errand. There on a bench in the parking lot is my barista, eyes closed but upright, palms up, breathing slowly. This is a unique kind of holiday zen, where peace is found amidst firing engines and rattling shopping carts. He doesn't smile but he is happier. For a few minutes, discord is his holiday.
|
|
| Yep... I haven't forgotten. |
[09 Dec 2008|09:43pm] |
"Good Choices, Bad Decisions" - Fall 2008
1. The Futureheads - The Beginning of the Twist
2. Noah and the Whale - 5 Years' Time
3. TV On the Radio - Golden Age
4. Iggy Pop - The Passenger
5. Primal Scream - Beautiful Summer
6. Hercules & Love Affair - Blind
7. My Bloody Valentine - Come In Alone
8. These New Puritans - Elvis
9. Fleetwood Mac - Go Your Own Way
10. Tokyo Police Club - Your English is Good
11. Brendan Canning - All the Best Wooden Toys Come From Germany
12. The Dodos - Walking
13. The Notwist - Where in This World
14. Of Montreal - An Eluardian Instance
15. Squeeze - Cool for Cats
16. My Morning Jacket - Remnants
17. Cut Copy - Strangers in the Wind
18. Los Campesinos! - Sweet Dreams, Sweet Cheeks
19. Bloc Party - Ion Square
|
|
| it's only late because it's kinda still summer in LA. |
[21 Sep 2008|04:44pm] |
"Grindstone Nosediving" - Summer 2008
1. These New Puritans - C. 16th
2. Tokyo Police Club - Nature of the Experiment
3. Brendan Canning - Hit the Wall
4. Wolf Parade - California Dreamer
5. The Dø - On My Shoulders
6. Los Campesinos! - My Year in Lists
7. The Futureheads - Sale of the Century
8. Bloc Party - Signs
9. Radiohead - Jigsaw Falling into Place
10. The Mae Shi - Run to Your Grave
11. We Are Scientists - Ghouls
12. Midlake - Roscoe
13. NOMO - Rings
14. Primal Scream - Uptown
15. Enon - Pigeneration
16. Sigur Ros - Inni Mer Syngur Vitleysingur (I think?)
17. My Morning Jacket - Lay Low
18. The Walkmen - The Blue Route
|
|
|
[14 Sep 2008|12:13pm] |
David Foster Wallace took his own life Friday evening. His wife came home to find he had hanged himself. He was 46.
I always wanted to take a class with DFW at Pomona, but timing and bureaucracy got in the way and it never happened. I'm not sure I ever even saw him in person, though I would hear all kinds of stories about his bandanas and the spit cup he used to bring to class.
It took me three tries to get through Infinite Jest, but I finally completed it last year and I'm glad I did. I was anxious to see what kind of novel he would produce next, but now there probably won't be one.
I guess I always felt some kind of phantom kinship towards him, being a writer as well, though I never knew the man. I can only imagine what his friends, family and students are going through right now.
|
|
| Not that I'm known for understatement or anything |
[22 Jun 2008|08:48pm] |
"'08 is O.K." - Spring 2008
1. Great Northern - Our Bleeding Hearts
2. Tokyo Police Club - In a Cave
3. The Futureheads - Radio Heart
4. The Mountain Goats - Lovecraft in Brooklyn
5. Hercules & Love Affair - Athene
6. White Denim - Let's Talk About It
7. Tapes n' Tapes - Hang Them All
8. Los Campesinos! - This is How You Spell, "Hahaha, We Destroyed the Hopes and the Dreams of a Generation of Faux-Romantics"
9. Hot Chip - Ready For the Floor
10. M.I.A. - Come Around
11. Cut Copy - Nobody Lost Nobody Found
12. My Morning Jacket - Evil Urges
13. The Apples in Stereo - 7 Stars
14. Dan Deacon - The Crystal Cat
15. Spoon - Finer Feelings
16. MGMT - Kids
17. The National - Ada
18. Les Savy Fav - Scotchguard the Credit Card
19. LCD Soundsystem - All My Friends
|
|
| This was Coachella 2008 |
[01 May 2008|06:21pm] |
So this last weekend was, of course, the latest iteration of one of the premier music festivals in the nation - and, OK, probably the world. For the first time, I was there for all 3 days of Coachella this year, which turned out to be one of my better plans, since this weekend provided me with one of the best concert experiences - if not the best concert experience - of my life.
Yeah, I know: sensational much? Not really. While I've seen my fair share of excellent shows by a single artist/group, or even a day full of good performances, this was 3 days of amazing sets by a mind-boggling variety of artists young and old, upstart and historic. Everything I love about music and performance was showcased at one point or another during the weekend: from the unpredictable antics of Les Savy Fav to the flawless musicianship of My Morning Jacket to the raw jubilation of Dan Deacon to the epic audiovisual thematics accompanying Roger Waters, it's pretty amazing how varied and strong the entire festival was. I couldn't even choose a favorite act, to be honest.
That's the short version, but if you want more details, keep reading. I've also stolen a bunch of photos from flickr and elsewhere on the net for illustration - and, unlike some past entires, these photos are for real.
Harrington can't see who's rocking the party from way up there.
| Friday started off nuts with an early afternoon set from Les Savy Fav. It was hot as hell without a cloud in the sky (as we've come to expect from Coachella), but that didn't stop insane and probably drunk LSF frontman Tim Harrington from jumping around the stage in various states of undress, climbing on scaffolding, groping fans, and otherwise putting an incredible amount of screaming, raving energy into what could have easily been a subdued, let's-just-get-through-this-alive set. And yes, the photo on the left shows Harrington climbing over three stories up to the top of the scaffolding - with mic plugged in but without a safety net - to lead the crowd through "Who Rocks the Party". I was a little afraid this would be That Infamous Show Where the Guy From Les Savy Fav Fell to His Death, especially when he started dangling - but before long the guy climbed down without incident, and we all breathed a sigh of relief.
Up next was Dan Deacon, who I hoped would be worth it since I was missing the Battles set a few tents away. And, wow, was it ever. Though his music by itself doesn't grab me as much as a lot of indie dance acts, transformed into the live experience it becomes an infectious monster that can't be ignored. But a lot of it has to do with Deacon himself, who has got to be the least pretentious guy in the scene. For one thing, he doesn't even play from the stage; he plays at the front of the floor itself, nearly surrounded by dancing sweaty bodies, often joining in on the fracas himself. And for a few songs at the end, he set up some strange dancing games that asked the crowd to create an ever-growing tunnel of arm links, or to have several guys run around in a circle high-fiving the crowd, pulling more people into the circle until the whole tent was high-fiving each other in merry chaos. Listen, this was probably the most unabashed fun I had the whole weekend, and I'm really looking forward to seeing what kind of nuts shit goes on when this guy headlines his own, longer-than-45-minutes show. When he comes back into town, I'm going, you're going, everyone we know is going. So be ready!
| Cut Copy came on next, and they rocked pretty hard as well. They had a tough act to follow but performed admirably, playing "So Haunted" and "Lights & Music" and all the other jams we wanted to hear. Also of note: the lead singer looks eerily like Stephen Malkmus.
We caught the tail end of Vampire Weekend, who seemed fine enough. I like their sound just fine, but don't really think they warrant the hype that surrounds them, so they weren't a big priority for me. After them were The National, who were predictably solid. Clearly going all out for the big festival, they had a piano and a small horn section on hand to add even more layers to their textured sound. I've seen these guys several times, yet they always manage to keep their songs sounding fresh, changing up rhythms and adding new little touches all the time. And they even played "Ada"!
After The National was some group we'd never heard of called The Swell Season, so we went nearby to grab a bite to eat. Over dinner, we were still in earshot of the stage, and suddenly realized that their third song sounded like a cover of the Oscar-winning song from Once, "Falling Slowly". Then we realized it actually was the song... and then began to suspect that the singers were the actual actors from Once. We ran over and our beliefs were confirmed; we listened on as they covered The Pixies, and then Kraftwerk! Weird stuff, but fun.
| 
from rollingstone.com. Can you find me in the Dan Deacon crowd? Look carefully.
| We checked out a few songs from The Verve - I was never a big fan, but they actually sounded pretty damn good. Ditto with Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings. The best part was the short, stout Jones inviting a tall, awkward white dude on stage so she could sing a love song to him. Fatboy Slim was way late to the stage, so I missed him - instead I saw Professor Murder, a really great up-and-coming reggae-influenced indie rock act from Brooklyn. The crowd was really small, but once they put out a full-length I'm sure they'll find more fans. Also, weirdly coincidental that the band who took their name from a Mr. Show character has a lead singer looks a lot like David Cross.
Saturday afternoon found us huddling in shade as long as possible. The heat was serious, and only a light wind kept us alert and energetic. After a lazy, long-distance observation of VHS or Beta and Minus the Bear, we headed over to MGMT, who were (thank god) playing in a tent. Their set started a little slow, but by the time their hit singles rolled around I couldn't be happier, even despite the bleach-blonde girls gone wild reject next to me who had probably been drunk since noon, staggering all over the place and screaming "WHOOOO!" at every possible instance.
| 
this is probably what the show looked like when you weren't being trampled to death.
| I caught a little of Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks. I love Pavement, and I like SM's solo work a lot, but his new album was too jammy even for my tastes, and unfortunately my constant hope for an all-Pavement covers show (they happen! sometimes) went up in smoke, so after a few songs I moved over to the dance tent in preparation for Hot Chip. Some guy - the internet tells me he's Erol Alkan - was DJing some house/techno whatever, and I'm not a raver but I gotta say it was pretty damn fun to dance to. After his set the tent filled up real fast for Hot Chip. Thankfully, unlike last year's "Hot Chip in the Tent" show, it was a little cooler and the breeze kept us from roasting alive. The set, of course, was fantastic, if pretty similar to what they played last year. At least this time I knew the words!
Islands was late to start, so I couldn't watch them for long - they seemed interesting enough, but dammit, I had to get a good spot back in the dance tent for MIA. So back I went to dance in front of another DJ - this one Junkie XL, I guess - and it was also really fun. But the crowd got thicker and thicker and thicker until, just before MIA, there was barely any room to move. Definitely no room to dance. But some assholes were charging through the crowd anyway, shamelessly pushing everyone and anyone to get... I dunno where. Two guys next to me got into a fight - like a typical bar fight, "fuck you, nigga, no FUCK YOU, nigga", which was pretty much the antithesis of everything else going on in the festival.
| 
we almost didn't care what happened to Prince once Morris Day kicked out the jams.
| 
OH FUCK PRIIINNNCE
| Overall MIA was probably the biggest disappointment of the weekend. Not just because the crowd was one of the worst I'd ever seen, but MIA herself - despite a pretty impressive visual show this weird-ass costumes and cool video clips - seemed kind of out of it, threatening to leave the stage several times if the house lights weren't turned off (even though they didn't look on to me). Plus there were lots of technical snafus, causing four different "Paper Planes" false starts throughout the set. The gunshot sound effect was over-used ten minutes in, but that didn't stop the DJ from using it over... and over... and over. And god, that crowd! I couldn't even leave early. It was almost enough to swear me off of festivals... except...
Directly after a great moody set from Portishead, Prince took the stage, and rocked all of our faces off. I never thought I would be that excited over a Prince show. Sure, I heard he was a good performer, but I was never a big fan of his stuff. Regardless, he had me - and everyone - in the palm of his hand from minute one. This man is a fucking performer, as are all the people he surrounded himself with, including Morris Day (!) and Sheila E. And yeah, he covered "Creep", slowing down the beat and twisting some of the words, then led us through a fist-pumping cover of "Come Together". And of course there was "Purple Rain". No "Kiss", but still an amazing, 2-hour, larger than life performance I'm not likely to forget anytime soon.
Sunday found the tiredness catching up to us. Lots of dancing and lots of sun plus little sleep equaled a potentially sluggish afternoon, and once again it began with lazy chilling in the shade watching whoever happened to be in the shade - in this case it was The Cool Kids, bragging to the crowd how they brought their moms to the show, and how many other hip-hop acts we know of do that?
At the risk of missing Sean Penn's first performance, we headed over to watch I'm From Barcelona, who right out of the gate were crazy nuts fun. First of all, there were 17 of them. Secondly, one of them was a superhero in a red cape who showed us the hippest Swedish dance moves. Thirdly, they immediately threw giant red balloons at us ("Perhaps you can help us," implored the lead singer, "We're being attacked by red balloons"). They jumped right into infectious versions of "Treehouse", "Oversleeping" and all kinds of other songs I can't remember the names of. It felt like we were on some cracked-out episode of Captain Kangaroo, but we couldn't be happier. "You guys aren't strangers anymore," the lead singer told us, "You're part of our family." Fittingly, the last song ended with a conga-line made up of band and crowd alike.
| Emily convinced me to stick around for a few songs from Duffy, who, like Amy Winehouse, is a soul singer from the UK (even her first name, wisely dropped, is "Aimee"). Her stuff was nice enough, but not really my thing. Plus, I wanted to get over and see The Field for a few minutes before heading over to Stars. But their stage was empty, and the crew didn't even look close to being finished setting up. Were they just way late getting started? After sitting around for a few minutes, I grabbed some food and headed for Stars. I found out the next day The Field had had to cancel ahead of time. Guess nobody thought to put up a sign?
Stars were pretty good, and my only real chance to see the Arts & Crafts collective since I was not gonna be able to see Metric later in the day. After them was Gogol Bordello, who I had been warned about but still surprised me with their incredible stamina and skill. I think saying "they have the energy of a hundred Zachs" is pretty accurate. Not too familiar with their music, but goddamn did they put on a show. Afterwards was a public service announcement from a drunk and/or stoned Sean Penn, who wanted us all to get on his bus the next day (?) to travel down to New Orleans with Everlast (??) to somehow help poor folks, though he could remember where we needed to sign up (?!), telling us "you guys know where it is" (?!??). Apparently he got some takers anyway.
| 
"Attack", yelled the Swedes, "ATTACK"
| My Morning Jacket took the stage, and promptly knocked every song out of the park. I was glad I boned up on the awesome newer songs like "Evil Urges" and "Touch Me I'm Going to Scream Part 2", while "Anytime" was a welcome surprise and "Lay Low" was as badass as I could have hoped. But before I knew it, they were off the stage, and it was time for the main event.
OK, I was looking forward to Roger Waters. I love Pink Floyd, and I'd heard good things about his solo tour. But none of that really prepared me for the kind of spectacle this show was. 2 and a half hours of pitch-perfect Pink Floyd songs from The Wall, Wish You Were Here, Animals, fuck, even The Final Cut, with ridiculous larger-than-life set pieces, insane pyrotechnics and multimedia extravaganzas that were actually thematically relevant to the music. And yes, a giant inflatable pig that implored us to vote Obama. This was nostalgia rebuilt and remodeled; the big, epic experience that made Pink Floyd's records feel almost two-dimensional in comparison. Waters and his army of incredible musicians did indeed play the entirety of Dark Side of the Moon, which ended with an incredible rotating 3-dimensional light sculpture of the album's iconic prism refraction, bathing the crowd in a rainbow of light. Then an encore with "Another Brick in the Wall pt. 2" and "Comfortably Numb", and we were let out into the night. Justice was actually still playing in a tent nearby, but I passed, figuring they would be a little disappointing after the spectacle I'd just witnessed. I was tired and satisfied enough as it was.
| 
apparently, when the pig floated up into the sky shortly after this picture was taken, that wasn't supposed to happen.
|
|
So that was the weekend. I'm sure it helped that we had awesome lodging in Palm Springs, and I think I've figured out a good way to avoid most of the traffic grief that generally comes with the Coachella situation. And, more importantly, I got to share a lot of the above experiences with some of my best friends... even though many more were missing, which is too bad, because I know a lot of you would have enjoyed it.
Coachella is seriously getting better every year. Who's up for 2009? |
|
|
| Relocation |
[18 Apr 2008|12:44pm] |
One last heave on the latch and the rust cracks and snaps splintering to the ground, the iron door groaning and heaving slowly out into the night. He hasn’t been up here in ages. Apparently, neither has anyone else. He paces across the roof carefully, reverently even, stopping a few feet short of the edge. He can see most of the surrounding blocks from here, the streetlit veins of the city crisscrossing out into the horizon. Lines he could trace from birth.
He thinks of the day’s events, of every day’s events. The slow hazy bleed of lights and shapes out into the cold pre-dawn, heavy trucks shaking the silence off of the roads. Doors opening. Engines humming. Aromas. Clatter. Capitalism at work. And soon thick mobs of arms and legs ebbing and flowing across the sidewalk. It’s time for work and then it’s time for lunch and then it’s time for work. Hands shaking and exchanging. Statements and murmurs and risk analysis and gossip. And then the evening ritual of hurried errands and desperate navigation against thick shoots of dying light. Brief words across dinner tables and the steady undertow of packaged entertainment. The city’s muffled nightlife holds its secrets in, clawing at permanence, against time, against obsolescence. But the underground patchwork timetables all end at precisely 11:35. Soon engines cool and musk dissipates, and the air is cool and crisp and silent once more. This is yesterday and this is tomorrow.
A cold wind cascades up and around him, an expulsion from the alleys below. It knows how best to pierce goretex and cotton, to slice through flesh and bone. It boomerangs around and pulls a crushing weight through his heart, dragging him to his knees. Enough to bring him back. Then it’s up and gone, lost in the atmosphere. And it’s just him on the roof, above the cycle but wrapped within it.
He gets to his feet, sees nothing has changed. This is his city and he is a stranger in it.
|
|
| I know this is not a real update, but |
[06 Mar 2008|08:51pm] |
Don't Forget to Hate Your Day Job - Winter 2007/2008
1. Professor Murder - Dutch Hex
2. British Sea Power - Down on the Ground
3. Iron and Wine - White Tooth Man
4. Les Savy Fav - Patty Lee
5. Klaxons - Totem on the Timeline
6. The Futureheads - Help Us Out
7. Spoon - Don't You Evah
8. Fugazi - Cashout
9. The National - Racing Like a Pro
10. The Apostle of Hustle - The Naked and Alone
11. Kevin Drew - Lucky Ones
12. White Denim - Darksided Computer Mouth
13. MGMT - Electric Feel
14. Kanye West - Flashing Lights
15. Black Kids - Hit the Heartbrakes
16. Modest Mouse - Steam Engenius
17. Hot Chip - Hold On
18. M.I.A. - Paper Planes
19. Editors - Spiders
Didn't have room for Vampire Weekend or Besnard Lakes. Sorry guys.
|
|
| Chris’s Year in Music 2007: The Top 10 Albums |
[18 Jan 2008|12:42pm] |
|
2007 was a hell of a year for music. From the beginning of the year (and even earlier thanks to online leaks) our ears were aroused, assaulted, and challenged by musicians stepping up their game in pretty much every genre of music. I love that no single album has swept the critics' or fans' lists this year; and how could that happen, with so many strong entries? Though many brash newcomers made their presence heard, 2007 was pretty clearly the Year Of The Follow-Up, with celebrated acts such as Spoon, The Shins, M.I.A., LCD Soundsystem, Les Savy Fav and many others turning in material as strong – or even stronger – than their acclaimed previous efforts. Even indie monolith Radiohead surprised fans, critics and average joes alike, not only with a radical new take on album distribution, but with the most (surprisingly) human sound the group has employed in over a decade.
So, yeah, a very strong year – probably the strongest since 2002. But what, in my opinion, was the strongest? Read on, ye mighty, and compare…  10. Editors – An End Has a Start
Reviled by some, sure, but I still love their sound. Despite its similarity to their first album, An End Has a Start still manages to build on their reputation with "Spiders", "The Racing Rats", and omnipresent single "Smokers Outside the Hospital Doors". Who says a band has to reinvent itself every year?
 9. Iron and Wine – The Shepherd's Dog
So it turns out that acclaimed folk singer-songwriters can pretty radically amp up their sound with the addition of a full band and complex instrumentation – and actually come through the whole process sounding even better than before. Hopefully, John Darnielle is taking notes.
 8. Arcade Fire – Neon Bible
Arcade Fire conquered the world all over again with this album, smartly switching up their themes from relationships and introspection to apocalypse and the world outside their windowsill. Next year: AF tackles existentialist cosmology and the contestant threat entropy poses to Canada.
 7. M.I.A. - Kala
Kala consistently, even infuriatingly, repels any kind of classification. Sure, parts of it are firmly rooted in punk, or hip-hop, or house, reggae, Bollywood, acid rave, and whatever else you can think of; but the sum is far more than its parts, a post-everything pastiche as singular as it is disparate.
 6. Klaxons – Myths of the Near Future
This is the sound of the future arriving in hallucinations and fever dreams, of blueprints for chromium deep-sea shuttleways, of blind odysseys under a golden belt of acid rain. Of navigating the fourth dimension. In short, an album that shows the well of imagination has not run dry.
 5. The Shins – Wincing the Night Away
An indie victory on the Billboard charts, this album also found the Shins more confident and adventurous than ever, delivering their strongest batch of songs to date. From the exuberance of "Australia" to the amputated curvature of "Split Needles", Wincing the Night Away showcases many possible futures for a band at the top of its game.
 4. The National - Boxer
More restrained and intricate than their 2005 masterwork Alligator, Boxer nevertheless retains the band's trademark edge. With its tightwrapped tensions ("Brainy") and miniature epics ("Apartment Story"), the album plays like a concise microcosm of everything The National does best.
 3. Radiohead – In Rainbows
There's nothing really left to say about In Rainbows; I think we can all agree that we love this album regardless of how much or how little we paid for it.
 2. LCD Soundsystem – Sound of Silver
It's weird that there's nothing digital about Sound of Silver. Not a single blip from anything other than an analog source, as the party line goes. Maybe it's hard to believe because this album sounds so firmly futuristic in a world ever-increasingly written in binary; when even the stylistic throwbacks (from Kraftwerk to Lou Reed) sound fresh and modern, you know you're listening to something special.
 1. Of Montreal – Hissing Fauna, Are You the Destroyer?
The best album of 2007 shares its theme with about 60% of the rest of popular music: heartbreak. But what sets Hissing Fauna, Are You the Destroyer? above the pack is Kevin Barnes' unflinching attention to detail, warts and all. In chronicling the collapse of his relationship, his spotlight glares most firmly upon himself, casting him in a kaleidoscope of roles, from pleasure-chasing junkie to hallucinating isolationist to delusional socialite. The result is at times difficult and heartbreaking, at others funny and even danceable. Barnes's final conclusion is actually hidden away at the beginning of the album in "Suffer For Fashion", when he sings "We don't want these days to ever end, we just want to emasculate them forever", acknowledging the transitory nature of our lives as well as the danger in trying to force permanence. Perhaps when faced with an enormous loss, it's best to just write an incredible album about it, get over it, and move on. Easy enough, right?
|
|
| Chris’s Year in Music 2007: Whoops |
[15 Jan 2008|10:55am] |
|
I can't listen to everything every year; some stuff is going to get unfortunately overlooked. Sometimes I won't even really get into an album the first half-dozen times I listen to it, sometimes it's not until I see the band play a really awesome show, etc, etc. Basically, here are the top 5 albums from 2006 that I would've probably put on my 2006 list if I knew then what I know now. You know.
 5. The Walkmen – A Hundred Miles Off
Like many others, I unfairly wrote off this album when, after a listen or two, I determined that none of its songs were as good as "The Rat". The truth is that none of these songs are as immediate as their 2004 hit; but songs like "Lost in Boston" and "Danny's at the Wedding" have their own kind of muscle, and give A Hundred Miles Off more cohesion and accomplishment than the band's previous work.
 4. Professor Murder Rides the Subway
A short but promising EP from a Brooklyn four-piece named after a Mr. Show rap-battle ringer. As if that weren't awesome enough, it turns out their music is pretty great too – somewhere in between the raucousness of Les Savy Fav and the rhythms of The Rapture. Their 2007 single "Dutch Hex" sounds even better, but is still just a taste – we need a full-length from these guys, stat.  3. The Futureheads – News and Tributes
The angular British rockers' self-titled debut was well-received, but I thought a little slight; News and Tributes fills out their sound, proving the band can really shine at more than one tempo. Added domestic bonus: the awesome Area EP which is as intense as anything they've recorded. Buy American!  2. The Little Ones – Sing Song
Continuing the "EPs from bands who really need to put out a full length" trend, The Little Ones really began to find success in 2007 thanks to this infinitely catchy batch of pop-rock. The Shins had better watch the fuck out in 2008.  1. The Rapture – Pieces of the People We Love
Continuing the "Unenviable follow-up to a monster hit" trend, Pieces of the People We Love found The Rapture following up their monster single "House of Jealous Lovers" with a conscious movement away from grime and toward a deeper embrace of their disco influences. Not that this album is a throwback, it's just a hell of a lot of fun, unabashed and – rare as it is these days – unironic.
|
|
| Chris’s Year in Music 2007: The Shows |
[14 Jan 2008|12:12pm] |
|
Okay, so I do some form of "best music of the year" every January, because I like listening to music and I also like pretending I know how to write about it. I also like putting together lists while wearing a paper crown that reads "IMPORTANT MUSIC CRITIC". This year I'm splitting things up into 3 days, and I'm starting with something new: ranking the best shows I saw in 2007. Then tomorrow something different, and the day after that will be the best albums. So let's begin; because where would we be as a society if we couldn't assign ranked numerical values to our favorite things?
(some photos not taken from the exact show I saw. oh well.)
5. The Thermals (The Echo, 4.6.07) 
2006's Album of the Year winners (as awarded by myself) kicked my ass in the face for a solid 90 minutes, which is an amazing amount of time considering the breakneck speed of their set. Also of note: the new Echo concert space (called the Echoplex I guess?) is about three times as awesome as the old one, so see a show there if you can.
4. Of Montreal (The Avalon, 11.9.07) 
Nothing can really prepare you for the glam spectacle of an Of Montreal Show. So it's best to just embrace the sword fights, archangel costumes, ghetto MS Paint animations, and all the other crazy shit going on. The music is still great, and where else are you going to see a man-leopard pile-driving a cross-dressing cowboy?
3. Broken Social Scene (The Orpheum, 10.30.07) 
Sort of misleadingly billed as "Broken Social Scene Plays Kevin Drew's Spirit If…", this show found most of the band's nebulous lineup playing a lot of the upbeat songs from Drew's solo album as well as lots of old BSS favorites, with some pretty awesome surprise guests. I'd always wanted to hear how "Almost Crimes" would've sounded with Emily Haines singing, and now I do. Bliss.
2. Rage Against the Machine (Coachella, 4.29.07) 
If you've never been in a mosh pit 60,000 people strong, you're missing out. It didn't erupt into the apocalyptic violence some were predicting, but the first Rage show in seven years still felt like a mass ignition, a call to action that only the deaf could ignore. True, they haven't exactly capitalized on this, with only a handful of other shows and no new material in the works; but, for at least one night, we were all ready to take the power back.
1. LCD Soundsystem / The Rapture (Coachella, 4.28.07)  
Okay, so it wasn't a double bill so much as one act following another at a festival, but where else are you going to get this kind of one-two punch? With the 105º+ heat finally fading in the evening, the Coachella crowd's energy returned, and we could dance the night away over two kinetic sets and an unforgettable desert night.
--
Honorable mentions: I've still got love for Arcade Fire, Klaxons, Metric and The National, who also played great shows this year. And, no, I never got to see Daft Punk at Coachella. I know, I know.
|
|
| in music-related news |
[12 Dec 2007|07:24pm] |
Against Gravity - Fall 2007
1. The Olivia Tremor Control - The Opera House
2. The Little Ones - Cha Cha Cha
3. Modest Mouse - Dashboard
4. Interpol - No I in Threesome
5. Radiohead - Weird Fishes/Arpeggi
6. Metric - Combat Baby
7. Blonde Redhead - 23
8. The New Pornographers - All the Things that Go to Make Heaven and Earth
9. Built to Spill - Center of the Universe
10. Les Savy Fav - What Would Wolves Do?
11. Klaxons - As Above, So Below
12. Professor Murder - Champion
13. Of Montreal - Gronlandic Edit
14. The Rapture - The Sound
15. Justice - D.A.N.C.E.
16. Peter, Bjorn & John - Amsterdam
17. The Besnard Lakes - Devastation
18. Kevin Drew - When it Begins
|
|
| oh fuck run and hide |
[08 Dec 2007|01:46pm] |
Hi!
So, it has been a little while, I think. A lot's been going on, and I guess I'll always be bad at keeping this thing updated. The big news is that I went to Ireland for a week over Thanksgiving. A lot of people thought it was weird that I was going primarily to see an ex-girlfriend, and yeah, I admit, it was pretty weird. But the situation that brought about the trip was weird in itself, and I'd always wanted to go to Ireland, and I figured I could handle the situation, so I didn't back out. And it turned out to be a pretty great trip. Ireland is a beautiful country, and Dublin is expensive as fuck but still a fun time. I also got to hang out with Kristl for a night, which was awesome - we hadn't seen each other in over 3 years, so it was fun reconnecting, trading old Pomona gossip, all that kind of stuff.
It's kind of funny, a lot of people (I found out after the fact) expected Janice and I to get back together because of the trip - but that was never my intention, I don't think it was hers either, and it didn't happen anyway. If anything, the time we spent together further underlined the vast inherent differences between us which make a serious relationship impossible to maintain. Win some, lose some. I'm on a dating sabbatical anyway - I need to focus on my writing right now, and the fewer distractions, the better. Of course, I say this, but in a few minutes I'll be heading into the other room to play the Wii. Ha.
Otherwise... my screenplays are coming along in fits and gasps - I've been producing a lot of pages, but serious (and accurate) criticism from my writers' group keeps sending me back to the drawing board. Sooner or later I'll have an ironclad 90 pages, you'll see. Rabbit and Bear Paws book 2 is almost done, and I've started writing book 3. Did I mention that last time? Things have been moving slowly, but that's to be expected when one guy (Chad) is doing 90% of the work, poor guy.
Fuck, and it's almost Christmas! I need to get presents for people. And I need to figure out what I want. Something realistic. Somehow I don't think "an extra 6 hours every day" is in the cards.
|
|
| VICTORY |
[14 Oct 2007|10:39pm] |
Okay, I'm finally on Facebook!
Come find me and say hi, if I haven't already found you.
|
|
| Hey hey hey, what is going on here? |
[03 Oct 2007|05:12pm] |
Goddamn. So much to say that I probably won't even say most of it. Where to start?
1) Okay, well. The main reason I haven't been posting much - okay, at all - is that, when confronted with any free time lately, I've been using it to write. Which is good because it means I've actually been very productive. I wrote most of another draft of GARAGELAND until I realized it had too many conceptual flaws, and now it's on the backburner while I work on CON BOWL, my mysterious 4th screenplay which I'm actually making good time with (Though it's still only a first draft). The main reason I've been on fire lately is that I've joined an informal writing group which meets weekly to critique each other's work. It's been a great motivator since I've had to have new pages ready for everyone once a week - the downside of that being, obviously, the lack of time.
2) Job continues as normal. Sometimes I have time to get writing done (like today!), and sometimes it's so stressful I want to bang my head against a falling anvil. I've gone from being my own department to supervising several people (including Tim Harvey from Pomona! awesome) within said department. We're definitely the coolest department (since I run it, obviously), and oddly enough the only department that isn't fucking imploding from stress and chaos and all kinds of other things. It's high time I got a raise, but of course the boss is dragging his feet.
3) I've also been spending my free time reading Infinite Jest, which has been slow but rewarding, and I think I might actually finish it this time. You can check out my real-time progress on my MySpace page.
4) Speaking of MySpace, I think it's about time I got a facebook account, maybe. But then I will have myspace, livejournal, hi5, friendster and facebook. Friendster will clearly have to go, but that will still be 4 accounts when I obviously can't even really handle 2.
5) Susanne sadly moved out at the end of August, and went on to grad school at University of Washington. Sad, but the girl wants a degree or something. So Zach and I have a new roommate, Marissa from Santa Cruz. We found her on craigslist - I know, I was skeptical too, but we met her and immediately recognized her as super cool, so she's moved in and everything is going great. She has a pet chinchilla named Gizmo, so ask to see him if you come over sometime.
6) Got a new TV. 47" Toshiba LCD, widescreen, hi-def, etc, etc. It's awesome, and I got a good deal on it, but the amount of stress and drama and corporate fuck-ups I had to deal with in actually getting said television almost offset everything else. I can't even believe that UPS is a successful national company - internally they're a disgraceful mess. How hard is it to make one pickup appointment?
7) I just recently came off of a fairly intense summer relationship (another reason I haven't been posting at all), and when I say "intense" I don't mean it in a disgusting way, it was just very... all-encompassing. And it was good, but it did have significant stressors, and now I'm ready to enjoy being single again. (Which means I'm probably just going to hang out and play video games on the weekend for a while instead of going out to bars, or whatever.)
So things have been interesting. What's new with you?
|
|
| and what's the deal with this guy |
[22 Sep 2007|05:46pm] |
Dueling Centers of the Universe - Summer 2007
1. The New Pornographers - Adventures in Solitude
2. Hot Chip - My Piano
3. The Futureheads - Cope
4. The Little Ones - Loves Who Uncover
5. Interpol - All Fired Up
6. The Young Knives - Mystic Energy
7. The Klaxons - Gravity's Rainbow
8. Patrick Wolf - The Magic Position
9. The Good, the Bad and the Queen - Herculean
10. The Clash - This is Radio Clash
11. The Shins - Turn on Me
12. The National - Apartment Story
13. Modest Mouse - We've Got Everything
14. The Rapture - Whoo! Alright Yeah... Uh Huh
15. Sea Wolf - You're a Wolf
16. The Handsome Furs - What We Had
17. Editors - The Racing Rats
18. LCD Soundsystem - Us v Them
19. Band of Horses - St. Augustine
Weird season. Busy season. Sorry I haven't updated for a while - I'll make time for more personal entries before long.
|
|
| I'm trying for themes these days. |
[17 May 2007|09:32pm] |
Keeping Up with the Culture - Spring 2007
1. Oh No! Oh My! - Reeks and Seeks
2. Peter Bjorn and John - Objects of My Affection
3. The Apples in Stereo - Skyway
4. The Thermals - How We Know
5. The Little Ones - Oh, MJ!
6. Metric - Dead Disco
7. Klaxons - Forgotten Works
8. The Shins - Australia
9. The National - Brainy
10. Of Montreal - Faberge Falls for Shuggie
11. Land of Talk - All My Friends
12. LCD Soundsystem - Get Innocuous
13. The Rapture - First Gear
14. Herbert - Birds of a Feather
15. CSS - Acho Um Pouco Bom
16. Hot Chip - No Fit State
17. The Flaming Lips - My Cosmic Autumn Rebellion
18. Arcade Fire - No Cars Go
|
|
| navigation |
| [ |
viewing |
| |
most recent entries |
] |
| [ |
go |
| |
earlier |
] |
|
|
|
|
![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small}
slingy's journal