Said the Gramophone - image by Matthew Feyld

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by Dan

Portishead - "Deep Water"

Much of the new Portishead (I hadn't thought about this band in about 8 years) sounds oddly mashed together, with new and fascinating beats bullying Beth Gibbons' totally time-capsuled (but still lovely) vocals to an effect much like the musicians aren't paying much attention to each other. But the shortest song, the 1:39 "Deep Water", is exactly in step, it shares glances and grins. Completely different from anything they've ever done, and probably will ever do, it's out of place on the album, but I'm very thankful they included it. As some kind of proof, some sort of document that even Portishead, the dreamiest of underwater trance-weavers, is sometimes awake, at the table, making music to a crumby morning. [get the LP and a 'P' USB stick]

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from a Japanese bargain bin:

Lazy Knack - "僕は僕の手で君を選んだ"
song
lazy_knack.jpg
I can't say I'm totally disappointed with Lazy Knack, because I kind of knew what to expect. I was surprised, however, to find this cd came with a 32-page booklet. Usually reserved for collector's editions or retrospectives, Lazy Knack brought that out on their debut. But, true to their name, it's 24 pages of photos of them, all from the same photoshoot but with different backgrounds, and 8 pages of lyrics. In terms of the song, it's nice and peppy, it has a memorable, and even moderately likable chorus, and it's sung by two sexy sixteen year olds, it's a pretty run-of-the-mill moneymaking machine from 1995. But the booklet is what makes it worthwhile. It even reminds me of a hilarious part of my childhood brain I had forgotten; revealing people's blood type as some kind of "stat". Shimizu is type A and Katsuki is type O. But I didn't really need to tell you that, you can hear it in their voices. [Buy]

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Elsewhere: Barrett's Book Report

by Dan

I've been listening all day to Lookout Mountain Lookout Sea, the new and secretly escaped album from Silver Jews. It's incredible, and beaming, and lots of fun, but I dare not post anything from it today. It doesn't come out until June. Call me a tease or whatever you like, I just don't want to do it quite yet. Let everyone else say their piece first. Today, I'll post a song that Silver Jews cover on their new album, from happy weirdo Japanese pop alchemists Maher Shalal Hash Baz.

Maher Shalal Hash Baz - "Open Field"

Open field, with a window, open field, waste no time...
Those are the only words, but even those are almost unnecessary, like narration that describes what you're already seeing. As if the soft puffing horn, softer than a question mark, the sunshine guitar with green grass strings, the chorus of golden "ahhhs", the tall and waltzing clarinet, weren't indication, illustration, enough. [Buy]

Bill Wells & Maher Shalal Hash Baz - "Tipsy Cat"

Here I feel like I'm listening to Hot 8 doing a TV show theme song. And a more welcome combination I couldn't imagine. If I had to write a show based on this theme song (and I do, Sean wants more and more for these posts) it would be called "The Desmonds". It would be about a struggling family in the Bronx in the 70s. The father is a beat cop, the mother trying to go back to school, the daughter coming of age and falling in love, and the son getting by as a kid in the city. And it would have heart, tons of it. [Buy]

by Dan

Shenandoah - "We Camera"

It's raining and the old plates and ashtrays are filling up. Dawn came this morning the same way it left; silent and massive. Breakfast of television and grape juice, final fantasy tactics advanced. The sun has no plans of showing up today, why should I? [site]

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Okay, now I have to admit something: I am in Japan. I have been all week. I'm visiting my wonderful girlfriend and I will be until mid-April. So I've decided to take this opportunity to expose myself to some music I wouldn't get anywhere else. But I also have no money, so I've decided to go exploring in the bargain bins of japanese record stores. I've already found that, much like North American bargain bins, this music is not very good. So I think I'll share the cover art (the only thing I have to go on), what I think they should sound like, and then you can hear what they actually do sound like.

Mr. Moonlight
space_girls_small.jpg
what they should sound like : screeching. like an interstellar acapella noise-rock choir. With a song called "Guardian's Waste" there should be 4 of them on rocket sounds, 4 of them on monster sounds, 4 of them on blaster sounds, and 1 of them to speak a monologue in a low voice, in Japanese, about a journey to a distant planet for another oil harvest, only to find an enormous jagged-edged blade-monster with 9 brains called Jikkuban guarding the bounty. Only through a culmination of 13 souls (the singular being could, I suppose, be named "Mr. Moonlight") can the monster be defeated. But perhaps to kill for fuel is not in line with Mr. Moonlight's morals, or perhaps it is.

what they actually sound like .

by Dan

Orouni - "The Perfume Conspiracy (feat. Mina Tindle)"

Orouni has been a reader of StG for years, but has waited until now to tell us about his musical project. It's a shame it's taken so long, or it's just our lucky day, or it's got a found-a-penny timing to it that's just right for the music. The way I like this is the same way I like overhearing something confessional I wasn't supposed to, or someone wearing a costume while taking public transit, or doing something really corny like looking for shapes in the clouds. It's a brief and simple beauty that's more tied to imagining than experiencing. It's more tied to an idea of Paris than to Paris, if I may be so bold. [site]

The Pica Beats - "Right With the Down Crowd"

The best things about early Figurines, Midlake, even Interpol, the easy inviting air of The Pica Beats make them hard to resist, despite any trying you might want to do. They're not concerned with anything other than that simple beat, tapping along like mainstream radio's weathered and constant heart, and with their music music music. [site]

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so, it has come to our attention that we have won Best Weblog About Music in the 2008 Bloggies. This is completely surprising, given that we were up against some of the biggest, but it just means that you weren't kidding during that funding drive this weekend: you really are the greatest, most integral and grinningly supportive readership that exists. So with a half-handshake, a slight curtsey, a smirking bow, and misty misty eyes, thank you.

by Dan

Port O'Brien - "I Woke Up Today"

When I posted this song the first time, it was much slower, and shorter. This is apparently the definitive version of the song, because I don't think it will get any slicker, tighter, more on point than this. It's like everything has come into focus for Port O'Brien, and they have retained their heavy swaying beauty even in this light. You know when you watch old TV shows on new "cleaned up" DVD editions, and you can start to see all the flaws really clearly, and you think "man, just put the 'syndicated re-run' filter on this."? Well, that's not happening with Port O'Brien, they clean up wonderfully. They've made a hi-fi LP to follow up their low-fi EP, and it really suits them. They've gone from curiosity to wonder.

Their album All We Could Do Was Sing comes out May 13th and it's very very good.

[MySpace] [Site] [EP version]

by Dan

This is it, the last round of winners of the Wonderful Video Contest. The first two rounds of winners were here and here, but these are the top 5. This is the biggest contest we've ever had, and we've gotten some of the most incredible submissions, it's been truly inspiring. So, here they are, 5 special artists that I know you'll love as much as we do. Please do let them know.

5. Octopus Project - "Queen"
video by Paul Bullock
scriptdistro @ gmail.com


Paul Bullock's film was one of the first that we received, and with it came the fluttering, glinting sense that holy hell, this contest might turn out marvelous. It's a video that says so much, so lightly (and its star has a face that says so much, so unguardedly). We asked for people to make videos they loved for songs they loved; to glue to the screen the tingles and sparks of a song touching their lives. Well let Paul's work be a lesson: You can write a poem with scraps of 8mm film. You can paint a love in shades of remember-when.
(awarded the Sub-Pop prizepack)

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4. We chose to award the pair of videos submitted by Steven Cochrane. They each benefit from the existence of the other, they make each other stronger, you'll see.

Mecca Normal - "Arsenal"
video by Steven Cochrane
wreckingball @ gmail.com


In "Arsenal" we're seeing the strange wreckage of a strange world. The sky, with two constant suns, has somehow flooded the earth, broken through windows and now lies in a rippling lake in all the bedrooms, staterooms, ballrooms, and beds. A loud and harsh serenity, a cold hug.

AND

Jolie Holland - "Damn Shame"
video by Steven Cochrane
wreckingball @ gmail.com


Songs are like seashells. When we hold them to our ears we hear other things. We hear the gulls circling, the wind blowing, the waves coming in. It's what we try to write about at Said the Gramophone, and it's what Steven Cochrane so beautifully, patiently, does here. He shows us the song inside the song. The hidden part. And through the window, all the wind and trees.
(awarded Sennheiser CX-300s, Young God prizepack)

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3. Justice - "Waters of Nazareth (Beast of Dance)"
video by Ninian Doff
ninian.doff @ gmail.com


This gets the "best video made under a loophole" award because it's jaw-dropping, electric, unnaturally amazing and a wonderful idea, but to an abridged version of the song. In his email, Ninian wrote "there's nothing in the rules that says it has to be a whole song!" And it's true, there was no rule against partial songs, but that was this piece's biggest hurdle. Of course, it clears that hurdle with a giant leap, with extendo legs, and super spaghetti arms, and runs off into the woods. This one holds a special place in my heart because it, like some of my favourite things, makes me wish I'd thought of it.
So Ninian, we're giving you this prize foremost as a prize (for beautiful, buzzing, friction-based fun) but also as an incentive to finish the song. It has such amazing potential to be the best video for that album.
(awarded the Matador prizepack, Oddica prizepack)

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2. Joanna Newsom - "Book of Right-On"
video by Benjamin & Stefan Ramirez Pérez
b.ramirez.perez @ googlemail.com


If you weren't already sure that this contest has brought together literally the best fan videos in the world, this just seals it. Benjamin and Stefan Ramirez Pérez completed their Joanna Newsom video (and their other equally fucking amazing video) in time to submit to the contest, and we're honoured to share it with you now.
It's delicately constructed out of 6,000 frames (each containing window frames or picture frames) like a house of cards. The clarity and achievement of vision kind of speak for themselves, so I'll just say that my favourite part, when the grass grows black out of the pictures that have fallen on the floor, gives me chills every time.
These young men (19!) have an extremely bright future with talent like this, so I'm not at all concerned about their success, I'm just glad we got to be around for the beginning.
(awarded Sennheiser CX-300s, Dead Oceans prizepack)

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1. Animal Collective - "Peacebone"
video by Luke Wilhelmi, Heather Petersen, Natalie Alanante, Jessica Downs and Junelle Taguas
oddsmarker @ gmail.com


The winner of the Wonderful Video Contest is by four girls and one boy and it is all hand-sewn glee & hand-squirted horror and it's wild whimsy & weird wonder, and it made us laugh and it made us gasp, and it surprised us all over its every turn, and it made us smile so wide, and it made our hearts leap with the pleasure of a good song,
and you know it made us return to the song called "Peacebone", forgotten & neglected, and it made us like it better than we ever had before; and we love the look of the puppets and the dances of the puppets and the guy that says "Bonefish", oh we love him every time, because this here's a video like a flower to your eye, like a stupid
& gorgeous & joyful face for a song that's no less happily dumb. Thank you.
(awarded the Grand Prize)

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Thanks again to our sponsors: Sennheiser, Absolutely Kosher, Vice, 4AD, Dreamboat, Jagjaguwar, Dead Oceans, Oddica, Merge, Rough Trade, Misra, Secret City, Secretly Canadian, Sub-Pop, Young God, Polyvinyl, Matador, Arts & Crafts, and The National Film Board of Canada.

and see you tomorrow.

by Dan

M.I.A. - "Paper Planes (DFA Remix)"

The biggest hurdle for me to enjoying a remix is forgetting how good the original is. "Paper Planes" is one of the most memorable songs of last year, so trying to forget it is kind of impossible. Which is why DFA is so right-on by getting rid of the gunshots. No gunshots? Yes! No gunshots! And it's still a successful song. It finds a marvelous beauty in M.I.A.'s singing, it places her squarely in the place of a funk diva, and look at her go! No one on the corner has swagger like this. And there's even a jaunty piano solo at the end, where DFA is channelling Huey Smith for a minute or so. It's a risky, brilliant vision of a song I previously considered untouchable. [site]

Thee Oh Sees - "Block of Ice"

1. The B-52's, on medieval beach blankets, stilettos in the sand.

2. Grace Slick lost in a punching-bag gauntlet, being chased by monster-cops.

3. Thee Oh Sees, surviving only on bridge mixture and broadband, emitting light from every point of impact. The pick on the strings, the sticks on the skins, the bones at all the joints.

[April 8th]

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