Archives : all posts by Dan

Boat - "Greasedip Hairclip"

We are old fans of Boat. But now is the time to give them your full attention; they've got their fully assembled, newly-recorded (better versions of older songs) full-length, so we have to observe the ceremony of their being wheeled into the limelight.

And what better song to start us off than one that explodes as soon as you touch it? As per (marvelously) usual, it's bash-y, stomp-y, and that four-simultaneous-vocalist peaking thing comes right out of the gates. Raise the curtain, start to applaud. [Buy]

Rachel's - "Frida Kahlo"

More close to what I'm feeling, this one. Have you ever tried to sit down and think of something interesting about yourself? Ever tried to add your life into some kind of sum? This song is like watching yourself try to do that. It's like sweeping with the lights off. It's like kissing a pillow for real. [Buy]

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Also:

Consistent yet necessary Daytrotter plug: The French Kicks - "Go On" - starts deviously, quietly menacing, cracks open in the middle, and the whole thing is full of cymbals/symbols. people make up reasons to connect with each other.

and

welcome back, Sean.

I've been working on these since Sunday night, pretty much straight through to now. Sorry they weren't up sooner in the day, this heat, this heat is hot, wet, slow.

Parenthetical Girls - "The Weight She Fell Under" (visual)

Warning: not for everyone. also credit to Adam Beck for some footage, and thanks to the hundred unnameable photographers from google image search.

This whole song is breathing, heaving. The whole album is terrifying, harrowing, flower-wrought. Get it. [Buy]

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Holy Fuck - "Tone Bank Jungle" (visual)

Warning: huge file

It's trying to get at you. the glass, the speakers, they're not impermeable. [Buy]

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also, happy birthday Monica. and I'll see you in a few weeks.

Benni Hemm Hemm - "Beygja Og Beygja"

Iceland is a rare geographical oddity. If driving at a certain speed, and with the wind in your face, you can actually start singing, drive straight and sing your own harmonies, as the line you sang before will literally "hang" in the air. It has to do with auditory properties and how they relate to the weight of the air, combined with Iceland's geothermal characteristics. Used right, this technique allows you to do your own over-dubs, and even sing a round with yourself. This song was done live, on a windy day, from a covertible, in what's called "catch-up sound" fashion. It kind of tickles your ear a bit, doesn't it? [Buy]

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Elsewhere:

Absolut Noise has three tracks from Dräp en Hund, two 13-year-old girls who are way too confident, way too powerful for 13.

The new re-issue of My Life In The Bush Of Ghosts has come with a fantastic website idea. Registered users can download the loops from the original album and remix them, submit them, and basically get attention. Of course, the leader of the pack is a presidential satire, but there's room for a lot more. If you make one, send it to me too, I bet our readers would make some good ones.

Chad vanGaalen - "Wing Finger"

I picture this performed to an egg, a necessary serenade for every egg to hatch. Chad vanGaalen, his voice worn out from the bird warbling for 10 hours a day, bringing as many little hatchlings to life as one banjo and two muted trumpets and some simple organ can do. It's the chick that brings the bass drum, the xylophone, joins in, plays along, whistles, and all those other fitting, tired, lively things. [Buy Infiniheart]

Matthew Friedberger - "Ruth Vs. Rachel"

The looseleaf is a landscape. Blue lines on white, are either roads or the ridges of hills, you need a scale this big to handle this song; it plays the whole page. And when the strings swell, the margin lights up. There was writing on it a while ago, but it was beaten out, by a big-haired, an oversized-shirt beefy bully Nolan. The flute leaves us where we started, packed up in a car. [Pre-order]

T.D. Reisert - "Concordat"

Repeat these things out loud as you listen: "I can't keep up with you, you're going too fast for me." "I don't love my wife, I want to be with you." "Stop wasting my time." "Is it raining in Canada?" "Is she still there?" "I don't speak English, I never spoke English before."

This is a frozen summer song for nights with only smoke, trees, and glances. [Buy (only 100 in print)]

Vic Thrill + The Saturn Missile - "Hi On Wade"

In the future, every child will be born with a special button, located on the back of the knee joint, or "kneepit", that, when pressed, will give the child or person (they will have this button their entire lives) a last 2:04 of supreme living. It is unclear whether the person obtains super-powers for this time, but they will certainly be more effective to the world for that 2:04 than most other people in their regular lives. However, once pressed, it will be the final 2:04 of the person's (or child's) life. This is the song that plays in your brain during that time span. [MySpace]

okay, so it's not Carl's first day yet. in fact, it's me again. deal.

The Diskettes and The Port City Allstars made a split mix tape, and it's so marvelous, I want you all to experience some of it.

The Diskettes - "Do What You Need To Do" (preview)

The Diskettes made their side into one giant 15-minute track that is so much fun it gave me like three different sets of chills. I wanted to put the entire 15 minutes track up, but I couldn't in good conscience, so instead I clipped it to a 5-minute preview. It's a series of covers, blended perfectly with both self-referential and not, stock radio clips. But what's so wonderful about this stuff is that all of this stuff is so new: they're not covers people usually do (maybe the MASH theme) and they're not stock clips I've ever heard, everything is so fresh, so good. It's like a free breakfast that turns out to have more than just granola and yogurt. Above and beyond.

The Port City Allstarts - "I Dig Pop"

It sounds like this guy is playing the guitar with his mouth. Or the guitar is somehow in his mouth. And songs that use the alphabet like an easy chair are what AM radio is made of, and yet missing.

[Buy!]

Frog Eyes - "Caravan Breakers (Daytrotter session)"

Okay, this blog is becoming a Daytrotter fanblog. I can't help it, when they're posting stuff like this.

The new Frog Eyes album is going to be a beast, a lurching swaying creature with eyes that look so human. It'll be a great flag, raised up to fly in the wind, as a signal to lost peasants and low-flying planes. I want to hear it.

This song is a painting of scenery and characters in three acts:

ACT I - "the teenagers smoke up on the trails.."
What feels like a portrait of suburbia to me. The main character seems to be a kind of drug dealer, and I see those night suburban streets, with orange lights that light the house and the bike path beside it that goes past its backyard. He is walking along the path, hating the people in their homes, telling himself that he knows what he's doing.

ACT II - "I prey on the weak and the old, caravan breakers, they pray for the weak and the old.."
The business in action. The constant pull that he feels between his conscience and the strong rationalization he's set up for himself. Even just getting paid makes him feel at once incredible and terrible.

ACT III - "..."
The aftermath. Perhaps he's sampling his own merchandise, or he's spending his money on something he hates.

[buy a new ep]

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David Bazan - "Backwoods Nation"

I feel like a lot of David Bazan's songs could be performed a cappella without much loss of emotion, his voice seems to seethe and bleed on the other instruments, and that's where they get their strength. And his protest-song-literality here makes me think that getting this stuff out of his head was more important than the form it took. He has no time for dressing up a message, it's too important.

[buy a new ep / see him on tour]

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tomorrow: Carl Wilson's first day!