Said the Gramophone - image by Neale McDavitt-van Fleet

Archives : all posts by Dan

As Much As I Don't Like To Fly
by Dan

Young and Sexy - "Conventional Lullabies"

I try to time my breakfast so that I finish my eggs, toast, and hashbrowns all at the same time. Like some kind of breakfast tax collector, I visit every home in the area (the egg home, the toast home, and the potato home) and take my due. Eventually on the last day of the year (the end of my breakfast) all the homes will be taxed to death. This song is equally tidy, nothing is left behind; each promise will be equally filled before we're gone for good. [cd release Feb. 23rd]

The Kevins - "My First Glass of Champagne"

It's weird 'cause I know a Kevin just like this. Honest lies and all. It sounds like Jason Schwartzman as a guest on the Titanic. [site]

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woah, Matthew Friedberger is doing two solo albums. yes.

See below for Amazing Alden Penner and Kit Malo guest post (more tomorrow!), and below that for one of Jordan's best sentences to date.

3:09 AM on Feb 1, 2006.
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Just Wait
by Dan

National Eye - "ag1"

Enough has been said about the drawings of children being somehow more honest than the work of any great artist. We don't need anymore stories about how it's healthier, and cheaper mind, to cook for yourself. It's no longer news that people ought to be good parents, at least at first. But it seems National Eye have the rare ability of being able to breathe new life into things I thought were 'tired'. Group humming, little pieces of backwards music, big decisions. I want to go on a trip with National Eye, to some brown mountains, windy roads. [Buy Feb. 14th] [Promotional Podcast]

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Don Edwards - "Coyotes"

In a similar way to one of those change shakers that separates coins, you need to separate the obvious 'old cowboy dies' story and rather uninspired guitar picking from the extremely effective Whoo-Yip, Whoo-Yip, Whoo. This is from the film Grizzly Man which, however, should not be distilled in the same manner. The film, with all its own imperfections and unsightly possibilities, should be drunk like milk, not savoured, but something you check the glass after to make sure you got it all. The film and its best song are in counterpoint. Like the smartest kid in class is also usually the dorkiest. [Buy]

3:23 AM on Jan 26, 2006.
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Conservative Riding
by Dan

Casiotone for the Painfully Alone - "Bobby Malone Moves Home"

Casiotone has a direct line to my brain, like that place between your thumb and finger. That webby part, that kids in school told you would kill you if you cut it. Putting on Etiquette for a 7AM Sunday on a snowy highway, it's like a pressure point or something. Immediately paralyzing, all you see is white, all you feel is failure, all you want is that piano line to come back. Just please come back. [Pre-order]

Parenthetical Girls - "Here's to Forgetting"

Forgetting is something like burying, I think. It's not like the images and sounds you used feel just disappear, it's just that they get so weighted down by other things that you can't lift them up anymore. If you want to forget something or someone, how much other things do you need? About 6 feet worth should do. Lots of people are about 6 feet tall, so about one person's worth.
I feel like those little drums are little hands, digging down through the filler, down to those things. And there's amber light, rain streaks, and twisted sheets down there. [Buy]

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The New World, go. It's one, big, beautiful and terrifying idea. This guy's the best thing to happen to movies since political strife.

I'm sure this is old news by now, but for the few of you left, go listen to the Ricky Gervais podcast. I heard about it through Goldkicks, of all places.

3:37 AM on Jan 24, 2006.
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Im Ni Da
by Dan

Harmony Trowbridge - "No Photographs"

I feel like my head is being forced down when I listen to this. The feeling you get when you're sitting at the breakfast table in the quiet of the morning, looking at the toast in your hand, waiting for your body to finish eating so you can go to work: there are many things I won't do today. It's nice to imagine that you can miss someone this much. It's nicer to imagine that someone misses you this much. [site]

Pink Mountaintops - "Cold Criminals"

Normally, I wouldn't have posted this song, but since I needed to post the first song, this is like a perfect companion piece. It sounds so good right now, the swirling ambient background and the truck-backing-up beep are suddenly necessary, not excessive. The length is no longer a chore, it's an intriguing novel, a page turner. I saw him open for Destroyer forever ago and paid no attention. Now I really want to see this live, give. [Buy 1st album]

2:20 AM on Jan 16, 2006.
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I Wear A Sugar Coat
by Dan

TTC - "Dans Le Club"

After Ceci N'est Pas Un Disque, TTC only want to party. Or provide the party, rather, their position does not allow them to actually party. They are the prime-ministers, presiding over the representative government in charge of the picking up of fine ladies and being really important. I don't catch every word, but I'm confident this is an exact French translation of "In Da Club", split into three parts, with something about a VIP pass thrown in. I respect it, I feel cool when they're yelling at me, but it's true that I don't get it. [buy] [great video]

Dorian Hatchet - "Fast Runner"

I can't listen to this song, it makes me feel all Sunday-sad. But you should listen to it, it's good.
This is incorrect, but I keep thinking a guppy is singing the song, and that this stuff is happening to a family of guppies. It's still raw, unnerving imagery and blasting, careening melody changes, it still affects me deeply, makes me worry, worry, but it's just that everyone has guppy faces. Um, and guppy bodies. [site]

4:48 AM on Jan 13, 2006.
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Comme Avant
by Dan

Puerto Muerto - "Jean Lafitte"

She's so brave! Clearly drunk, she is promising the impossible; there's no way she could defeat the Spanish, nor could she avenge her relatives, nor is she an old man. But Jean is the bravest little girl in the green, smoke, shakey-plank tavern, and she's a delight to watch as she sings her song, it reminds you of a passion you always wished you had. [Buy]

Eugene Mirman - "Russia and Atari"

Spurred on both by Greg's recommendation of him, and Sean's recent mention of him, I thought it was time we all listened to Eugene Mirman in our own home. What's interesting to me here is the honesty of his story. He has a perfect sense of both how true the suffering of his family (mostly his parents) was, and how literally no one in the audience is probably acquainted with that amount of poverty. Usually, when comics are making "I was so poor" jokes, it's cause they grew up about as poor as most of the audience, but here it's not true. But he doesn't hold it against them; he's really a positive person. Yes. [Buy]

4:58 AM on Jan 11, 2006.
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Ask Me Anything
by Dan

The Teeth - "Oh, Bessie!"

Now, I've been playing a lot of Katamari Damacy, so I might be a little drunk right now, but this song is exactly like this game. The song starts tiny (little guitar) and rolls upon itself until it's as big as the sun. Little guitar leads to big guitar, which can then handle vocals, and the bassline (a bassline is smart, the foundation to dance!) comes next, which enables the song to handle galloping drums (more excited dance!) which rolls up handclaps next (for the join-along-ers) the whole while the lyrics are also a rolling ball, first growing up, then dating, then entire oceans (the earth, and you, are mostly water!) then marriage. By this point, the song is as big as the sun, and you can tell it is because it is so hot the singer screams, and without this scream we would not know the song is as good as it is. [Buy]

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Ponies in the Surf - "Gov't Brand #2"

This song is a difficult task. It's hard to get finished (they almost don't make it). It's an awkward dancer, but every so often, through sheer force of will, it moves just right, smiling to itself. "wwwwwwWEEE've been staying at your momma's house" is like cresting back into form, assuring us they had it the whole time. It's satisfying. To watch the loner kid kickin' it with themselves in the corner.

their cd release is tomorrow in NYC (at The Archive). I don't live there. maybe you do. [Buy from Asaurus (amazing label!)]

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happy birthday, sean.

3:24 AM on Jan 6, 2006.
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