Note to boys reading STG: Memorize this stuff - surefire way to get into a girl's pants. mmmmm I'm all tingly.

Note to Sean, et al -

With the possible exception of "All Fires", Ys eats Swan Lake for breakfast. Grow an attention span.

Swan Lake-wow, what a band! Love it.

But the mp3 is not working through your post. (for me, anyway).

It's kind of hard to compare Ys to Beast Moans, dontcha think? One album is deliberately polished, cohesive and professional (these shouldn't necessarily be bad words in the indie community). The other is deliberately(?) murky, lacking structure ("thesislessness" in the words of Pitchfork reviewer W. Bowers), and poorly produced.

I love all three members' solo projects, but I thought Beast Moans was kind of disappointing (except for "All Fires"). I guess I shouldn't be surprised at all the love for this album, considering how much love the individual members' bands tend to recieve on-line, but yeesh, such a sloppy, deliberately alienating album!! Given the members' solo works, it's obvious that was their intention, but all the academic justification in the world doesn't make it a good record for, you know, actually listening to (Swan Lake is hardly the worst offender in this regard, I might add). Even the most positive reviewers seem to be twisting themselves into pretzels apologising for it (see Pitchfork's review). So far (and I haven't scanned the entire interweb), the only bad review I've seen is on Tiny Mix Tapes.

Anyway, sorry for the rant. Had to get it off my chest.

Scott

Am I the only person that finds Swan Lake not so great? And Dan Bejar's Destroyer always seemed so pretentious to me. It's not necessarily bad, it just seems like there is so much more out there that offers something better. I don't know, different strokes I suppose.

courtney: works for me.

Scott: Okay this really, really isn't about Ys. I'm tempted to just cut my reference to it altogether. I didn't mean to compare the two albums, just the different kind of "muchness" that appears - the way both are indulgent (not in a bad way).

My feelings on Beast Moans are obviously really different from yours, but I think it's really unfair to suggest that all of its fans are hearing it in the same way (or have the same excuses to make). To me it's supremely listenable, fun and strange and chewy. I don't think it's badly produced. And I think it's the better than any Frog Eyes, Sunset Rubdown or Wolf Parade LP we've yet heard. (Also, conversely, I feel like I've seen a lot of bad press - maybe mostly on blogs?)

L: best comment ever.

i'd much rather talk about coincidences and fish-hooks.

Sean:

I didn't mean to suggest the fans were hearing this record in exactly the same way. It just seems people are falling overthemselves (in different ways) to justify the greatness of this album, academic or otherwise. Nothing wrong with that, and maybe I could have chosen a better record to take issue with regarding this phenomenon. I realise I have my own axes to grind when it comes to music! Maybe I'll yet warm up to this record. Usually, the best albums take the most work (and I do really love "All Fires").

However, I can't believe you think this is a better record than The Folded Palm, or Rubies/Streethawk, or Apologies..., but hey, to each his own.

who said anything about it being better than Rubies or Streethawk...

now it works

Apologies to Said the Gramophone:

OK, my mistake. In my haste to register my outrage with the world, I didn't read your post thoroughly. Still though, better than The Folded Palm and Apologies?

Anyway, as a fellow Canuck, it's nice to see all the (unconditional?) love for these guys.

I don't like Ys and I don't like Beast Moans

nothing comes close to Cookie Mountain and Yellow House this year.

The top eight most heart-breaking lines in "Farrar, Strauss, and Giroux" are:

1. "If there is such a thing as ill-timed August rain"
2. "To be a stone, a stone's throw from your throne"
3. "A century stolen from our hearts to a house on the hill"
4. "The eaves dripping"
5. "Like swallows in search of a burnt-out belltower church"
6. "No man has ever hung at the temporary age of 24--both feet on the floor"
7. "Listening to the bonafide stasis of sound"
8. "It was back amongst the living"

Sean - excellent post. You have a special talent for making me instantly & utterly obsessed with a song. I will now be listening to "Farrar, Straus & Giroux" about 500 times in a row. Thank you!

Though I'm certain we've never met and I have no idea what he looks like, I had a makeout dream about Dan Bierne last night. We snuck into an abandoned schoolhouse and got drunk with his highschool friends. Just thought you might like to know, in light of comment number one.

About a year and a half ago you posted a cover of the Shivvers' Teen Line by the superlative Hello Saferide.

Can you post it again please?

As a gesture of sharing the fantasticness that is Hello Saferide, here she is doing guest vocals on Farjemansleden by fellow swedes Vapnet. (thanks to getecho.blogspot)

http://www.fileden.com/files/2006/11/2/341366/Vapnet/Vapnet%20-%20Farjemansleden.mp3

Thanks

Stubbleupdate

I'm with you on the 'synchronicity of coincidences' thing; sounds just as good as a 'sleuth of bears' or a 'skulk of foxes' (the two best collective noun sets I know of).

weird, danica, I had one about you too! but it was you, me, Mitch Hedberg, and this kid from my elementary school who was afraid of wind. it was cool at first, but then suddenly no one had any skin, and it was all organs and muscle tissue. It went from sexy to nightmare pretty quick.

Cheers for the Swan Lake praise. I won't say it's better than Wolf Parade or Destroyer's more recent output, but Frog Eyes, yes. In any case, all three songwriters have a lot of great songs showcased here, this being one of them.

Yeah, Dan, that always happens when you forget yourself and try to bring back the ol' "your epidermis is showing" joke.

sweet jesus, have i lost my goddamn mind or is this just tuneless pretentious crap?? what is going on here? it's almost like these bands are screwing with you people; trying to see how crappy they can be and still have pretentious bloggers swoon over them.

call me when someone writes a TUNE! jeebus...pitchfork has sooooo much to answer for...

no matter how creepy or scaaary it gets, any dream where you get to be close to mitch hedberg, let alone possible make out with him is not a nightmare....

Sean, I stayed at work later than usually yesterday to read something on your website. Since I have got internet I really enjoy reading your blog. Actually it has been a first time I started reading someone's blog. Anyway, I printed out articles posted on 24 Nov and went home. I got on bus and started listening to "All I know is tonight" by Jaga Jazzist and reading what I printed out. I have to say that I was glad when I saw my name in one of the stories ;) but when I reached paragraph about coincidence and synchronicity and finally the line 'Who is with me? (who's even still reading this?), well I was really surprised as I had asked you about it few days earlier and now I was reading your article and you questions.

Moreover there is sth on with number 24 "temporary age of 24 ...". Today when I came back home after work my flatmate has told me strange events happened to her yesterday when she was on a trip (all were somehow related to the number of 24 and when her friend had asked her this morning how old she was then she realized her "temporary age of 24" ...

but nea worries, this is just a wee contemplation over the dinner