Archives : all posts by Dan

Duels - "What We Did Wrong"

Three images:
1. David Bowie hitting a row of tee-balls out of the park. One, two, three, four, five, six home runs, no outs.
2. Matthew Friedberger's piano, finally fixed, rushing downstream, him laughing from inside.
3. The Harlem Shakes, wrapped in a Beatles flag, jumping off a ten-storey building into a waiting hammock.

Duels are loud, without being compensatory, regular without being uninteresting. This should be a "hit". As in, it should hit you. [Buy]

Frog Eyes - "A Latex Ice Age"

On phoningitin, Carey Mercer describes this song as being, about his girlfriend, evocative of great happiness, that every time he hears it (hears himself playing it, I guess) he hears birds singing and sees sun shining. This is the first version of this song where I can relate to that. Every other version is so dark brown, so distant church-bell resonant, I never saw it as anything but another ominous dirge from the best producers of ominous dirges the world has ever known.

But now I see it.

It's a bedtime story, it's a grinning shrug, a giving up on all that doesn't matter. It's still a plodding march, but the kind you do at a wedding, or the way a baby slowly marches towards the light. [Buy The Golden River expanded re-issue]

posted in memory of the cancelled Frog Eyes show. next time, please come soon.

[I asked my good friend Roger to write today's post. It's not a guest post, even though, in my house, he's my guest.] -Dan.

I find it (sort of/entirely) funny that Dan asked me to post just because he knows how few opinions I have. Any opinion I "form" is based on agreeing with attractive women to further conversation. So, what I've done for you is transcribe what the prettiest girls I know had to say about these songs. They get it so you can, too.

Mazarin - "Another One Goes By"

Nico: His voice reminds me of that "Video Killed The Radio Star" guy. It kind of makes me want to smoke even though I really shouldn't. Especially in the summer, it just gets like auggggh. But, yeah, I like it. Is that....goodshouldIsaymore?

Ginesse: I really like that it kind of sounds like a Motown song. And I'm a sucker for slow guitar solos. It gets the gold star of winners, definitely. But I think I like the Walkmen version more. Oh, but now I don't know. Are they gonna read this? Because I really like theirs, too.

Moss: You have really warm eyes. [Buy]

TV On The Radio - "Blues From Down Here"

Nico: I feel like I should be rolling up my sleeves to mop up a slaughterhouse, but at the same time I can't stop swaying my head and shimmying my hips. I love this band. I don't know if any other singer gives me right-away-chills more. Are you checking to see if you have goosebumps?

Ginesse: Wow. This is really sexy in a summer-boyfriend way. You need to make me a cd. But actually do it this time.

Moss: (hard to understand what she was saying because of all the making out that was going on). [Buy old stuff]

A delightful (relatively) new website, Daytrotter.com, is responsible for the live recording of four songs a week, by artists of a wide range. Nothing has really grabbed me, though, until now. Of course, it's Casiotone. But whatever, you can't help but be you either.

Casiotone For The Painfully Alone - "Jeanne, If You're Ever In Portland (live on Daytrotter)"

With The Donkeys as the backing band, Casiotone's country leanings begin to lean like one of those push-under puppets. Slumped over into the red. But it's still cutting, it's still full of blades, that slide along the strings and along his vowels, and down the backs of his characters. Because the saddest stories aren't afraid to admit that there's some really good stuff about life.

"It's just miles, it's only miles..",

Casiotone For The Painfully Alone - "Tonight Was A Disaster (live on Daytrotter)"

This drum, this bass, this organ, this growing (like a sponge toy, unwatched) guitar, are your only friends now. Because, as with every Casiotone song, this song is about you, and you deserve all of your feelings. You're so precious, you're in the details, the way you slide off your shoe, the way you cough away from the keyboard.

And then he says "Take it, Tony", and Tony knows where to take it. Up above your head, hovering over you when you're lying in bed, your very own cloud.

[Site] - go, go, go. they are performing such a nice service, like justconcerts has, like phoningitin does. and I'm probably going to post about them again when Sunset Rubdown and Frog Eyes do stuff together on there. That is, if I survive their concert on Saturday.

--

speaking of disasters, this is the last post I'll do before my first comedy show since a long time. Watching rehearsals makes me pace back and forth laughing, so I hope that's an endorsement. come out, say hi. thank you to those that came to the play last month, it was wonderful to meet you.

Existensminimum - "Changing Lines"

You know how famous crooners will cover new songs in an "I'm a crooner" kind of way, with lots of brass instruments, and a tongue in their cheek? Well, two things about this song: i) it would sound so much like an ACTUAL song written by one of those guys, that it wouldn't have that kitshcy quality ii) it really OUGHT to be recorded as one, because I think it would be fantastic. Stephin Merritt, you should do it. All it needs in addition is more obvious running metaphors (or is it subway metaphors?) and a big vocal finish; it should go up instead of down.

That heartbeat, that pulse, is the constant pressing of the "inflate" button. [Buy]

Heypenny - "Parade"

If LCD Soundsystem didn't realise anyone was listening, or if that sequence where all the cards jump off the deck at the end of solitaire, were a song, it might sound like this. I feel like sitting up straight when I listen to this. Sometimes, the song goes and takes a swim (the pool is ten blocks away) and comes back. [Buy]

***

Harry Truman, Candice Bergen, and Dylan; happy birthday.

Think About Life - "After the Blue Sun" "The Matt Shane Song"

Think about this song. Think about the most inappropriate timing. For someone to walk into your bedroom. And play chopsticks on a pot they used to make themselves macaroni and ketchup salad. Of a statue, of a basketball player, that gets off his podium and offers it to you. Think about running out of words, and only being allowed to scream from now on. Unintelligible, primal, screams. They would be gleeful. I know that they would. [Buy]

The Sea & The Gulls - "Seagulls"

The loneliest crowded beach in the world. Even when everyone starts singing in unison, folk dancing in the sand, there's not a smile in the bunch. It's still cloudy, kind of cold, the kind of weather where seagulls are really noticeable, are really more like harbingers than decoration. [Info]

Tilly & the Wall - "Bad Education"

It's too late, you should be sleeping, but you're not. It's an orange, wooden night, and this is the song the band plays the night before you're off. It's not time for goodbyes yet, no, there's still smiles to be passed around; it's time to take advantage. Wring the last drops of enjoyment out of these minutes, force it out, it's all that's left. Choose someone, make eyes, otherwise you'll regret it. Desperate, ferocious, smashing. [pre-order Bottoms of Barrels]

Parenthetical Girls - "Love Connection"

Parenthetical Girls sit in your lap and slap you in the mouth. They write lyrics that devastate and melodies that swirl, music with a sweet power that sneaks up on you, disguised in a plaid skirt, knee-highs. You don't even understand it, but your ass is being kicked, you're being beat up, and you come to when it's over, and you're in love. [Buy new CD re-issue of (((GRRRLS)))] [and this song is covered beautifully on Etiquette]

Sunset Rubdown - "Us Ones In Between"
**note: this is another StG video compressed for a video ipod, or just for you to watch. Our new server doesn't seem to like .mp4, so you might need to "save link as.."**

Whew. I finished this literally minutes ago. I'm not going to gush any more about how much of a powerful force in music Spencer Krug is. I know you're all sick to death of me saying it. This song is so much. So much gleaming and crash. It's been raining for four days straight in Montreal, and I've also been listening to this song for four days straight. It's that strong. [Buy this right now]

Soltero - "Rosie Day"

By the gravel-road intro, you're expecting some sort of "this rosie day has a thorn" kind of song, but not so, it's a skipping, dusty lark. Rosie is the coniferous Girl from Ipanema. Watch out. She'll getcha. Rejectcha.
[Why did this not go huge? It's a powerhouse album! Buy!]

Zoe Baker - "Speech for the President"

8-year-olds wrote speeches for the President. An impersonator recorded these speeches. What results is funny, really silly, but also unnerving, disarming. The repetition of "are you intimidated?" here is really striking. it's like a radiohead cd insert. Plus, admitting your nickname is Toilet is hilarious. [more]