Sister Suvi - "Golden". Spent some of yesterday with Merrill Garbus, the woman who is Tune-Yards and one third of Sister Suvi. We took our bikes to the quarry, threw on our walkmen, went down deep. In the gloom we listened to Billy Joel, Pavement, mined copper and zinc. We came out with our jean-jacket pockets full. We biked back to my place, stopping for dark beer and honeycomb toffee. We listened to the Velvet Underground's Loaded and smiled and laughed, window open, crows weaving in murders outside my open window, and with our metals spread flat before us we hammered, hammered, hammered our armour until it was brass.
A wonderful double CD compilation is being released tomorrow, by Australia's Chapter Music. On Disc 1, some of the best songs by Kath Bloom - a 70s and 80s folk-singer first introduced to me here by Jordan. And on Disc 2, covers of these songs by artists like Josephine Foster, Bill Callahan (Smog), Devendra Banhart, Mark Kozelek and the Dodos. Unusually for such a comp, the covers are on average very, very good. Both discs are. Also unexpectedly, I think my favourite cover is by an artist I had never heard of. Marble Sounds' take on "Come Here" is more straight-backed than Kath's, has european marbles in its mouth, but the longing is still there, cast in hopeful silver. There in the plain-faced waiting, the level-voiced singing, is four whole hearts of wanting; love that sounds out hot from the organ.
And Kath's original version, well, it's the sound of a cup that runneth over.
One week ago, we launched our 2009 Funding Drive. Inside of just two hours, we raised $315 and met our goal for this year's technical expenses. Our eyes just about fell out of our potatoes. For the rest of the week, we kept open a fund for people to donate to some of mine, Dan's and Jordan's other projects. Over these seven days, we received a further $1,127. The figure is staggering. Literally, if I had to walk while typing this, I'd be staggering. It's hard to articulate just how much the continued generosity, warmth and contact from our readers motivates and inspires us. Not just at Said the Gramophone, but everywhere in our lives. We're blessed, kissed, coaxed, and made credible. It means more, I think, than you can know.
So to the 77 people who donated this year - our appreciation is deep as seas. Special thanks go out to Howard, who made the single largest donation, and to Brian, whose was the first donation to be received this year and who is the only person to have donated every year since the funding drive's inception. To the others who are also here, chirping in the wings - thank you too. We hope you'll want to keep reading.
(We'll be sending out individual thank-you emails & postcards as soon as we can!)
I've been reading and enjoying this blog for the past 2 years, and over that time- been introduced to some amazing songs and artists. If I was older than 20, and had money I would have given you something!
Anyway, this was more of a comment just to say thank you and keep up the good work.
I'm in a similar boat with Vincent. Wanted to express my gratitude for this site and what you do. Even when the buffer rate is encrouching on my enjoyment of any given song I stream from here, at least it feels like there's somebody on the other end managing bandwidth, making sure everyone gets a fair share. Like a telephone operator in the digital era.
From that great scene in the listening station in 'Before Sunrise' - vertive glances and Australian folk... Mm, Mm, Awesome.
by beverlyhillssupperclub, Apr 7, 2009
Sean - I tried to donate during the drive but had multiple rounds of trouble with PayPal. Not sure if this happened to anyone else. Email me your snail mail address and I'll send a donation that way.
Clues - "Approch the Throne". One day your best friend made a treehouse. It had ivy, gables, arches. In the sunset it glowed. Whenever anyone in the town walked by, they remarked upon it: That's a nice treehouse. After your best friend fucked you over, you bought matches. You bought a crate of matches. You bought a crate of matches and a San Pellegrino bottle and in one long foaming choking hiccuping gulp you drank the soda-water down. You filled the empty glass bottle with rubbing alcohol. You climbed the tree with your bare hands. You threw matches all through the place, by the handful, tucking them into curls of ivy and nooks in the gables. You jumped from the tree and almost broke your ankles. You hoisted the bottle full of alcohol over your head. You lit it on fire. You hurled it at the match-infested treehouse. It exploded in a shock of light. It burned brighter than any rivals. Across the town, everyone put their hand over their eyes and said, Holy shit. The embers fell and alighted on your head like a crown.
We have been writingaboutClues since they played our Pop Montreal showcase in 2007. They are Alden Penner, Brendan Reed, and friends. Former members of the Unicorns, Arcade Fire, Les Angles Morts, playing pop music that can punch through secret garden walls. [more songs / buy - it's terrific]
Constantines - "Do What You Can Do (alternate version)". This is "Do What You Can Do", except Bry Webb sings instead of shouting. It makes the song's final crashings all the more welcome, all the more earned. It doesn't matter when a lunatic cuts his lover's name into his arm, sells his home and builds an observatory, drives his car into an underpass. It matters when a level-headed person does this, when their eyes go wide and they say to themselves: Do. [buy the Constantines' Too Slow For Love EP of alternate versions, together with the Kensington Heights LP, for a short time together just $5.99]
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Said the Gramophone's 2009 Funding Drive will remain open just over the weekend and then close for a whole year. Thank you from the bottom of my heart to everyone who has donated so far.
I used to be able to download songs but couldn't do so since last month. The only change I did was update my safari brower. I could download from other music sites. What is wrong? I am desperate for a solution! Appreciate some help. Thanks!
by LadyS, Apr 4, 2009
"Approach the throne" - music _is_ Fugazi's "Repeater"
by ken, Apr 4, 2009
Sent a small donation this morning; wish it could have been more but y'all caught me right after rent.
Keep up the excellent work. The music and writing at STG has inspired so much of my artwork it isn't even funny.
Paleo - "Month #9 (Shining the Moon)". I've been waiting since April to share this song, from Anonymous Monk's Spring Calendar compilation. It's a song about September and thank god the month has finally arrived. The kids are putting on their new school uniforms, the leaves are turning colour, we're all sick of picnics and barbecues and lazing in the grass in short sleeves. When Paleo salutes September, creaky-voiced and tuba-assisted, part wee! and part rattle-tat, we know he's saluting the fact that winter's almost here. Can't wait til the moment we gotta put on our winter boots, put our bicycles away. Can't wait 'til there's firewood crackling in the hearth and we have more time to compose silly beautiful DIY folk-pop songs in our grannies' attics.
[This terrific comp includes great songs by Karl Blau, Golden Ghost and others. Really well worth buying (and perfect for making mixtapes.)]
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Elsewhere: Thrilled to pieces by the launch of filmmaker Vincent Moon's new blog, Fiume Nights.
when did the whole 'diy' thing become a free pass? it's the same with wavves.
by eh, Apr 2, 2009
(to clarify, i don't have anything against lo-fi music -- the microphones for instances is brilliant. but lately it seems as though critics and blogs are passing off really unexceptional music as something more than it is simply because the artist used crappy recording equipment.)
by eh, Apr 2, 2009
I think the song's great. It doesn't necessarily do anything that hasn't been done before, but who says that every song has to be a trail-blazer? Why can't it just be a good song?
Said the Gramophone is now around six years old. Six years is a very good age to be. We know how to walk, run, jump and crack jokes. We know the words to a few songs. We've invented code-words, made some friends, and we are learning how to draw shoelaces.
Six years ago, there's no way Dan, Jordan and I could have imagined ourselves here in pistachio-green, saying, "Hi again, all you".
This is the third annual Said the Gramophone Funding Drive. It's when we ask for your generosity.
Last year the three of us played you more than 500 songs and wrote more than 250 posts. Each day we threw one, two, three hours of our lives at this silly, sometimes splendid thing. It doesn't take much more than that to keep all this going. But it does take something. (That something is: money.)
Said the Gramophone does not take advertising. You may have noticed that most websites, and certainly most mp3blogs, do. Words that have been used to describe this decision: "stupid", "silly", "naive", "nice". Every week, someone new asks us if we want to put up ads - a few days ago I was even stopped on my bike. But our foolhardy decision has stuck, and this means that not only are we a little poorer than we might be - once a year we have to come to you and say Please give.
If you enjoy this site, please give. TIME magazine may like us but still Said the Gramophone is never going to be the biggest mp3blog in the world. We are too set in our weird, woolly ways. We try to do just one thing - writing with spirit about the songs we love, - and to do that one thing well. Our audience is you. That's it. There's no one else. You small, strange gang. We cherish our rare contacts - and every spring we ask for your help.
This year there are two funds for donations. Both will be open for just one week and then we will go back to our quiet noisiness.
These are some of the things we did in the past year: introduced you, perhaps, to artists such as Ponytail, Withered Hand, Sister Suvi, Tune-Yards, The Whiskers, Carl Spidla, Jumbling Towers, Adam & the Amethysts, Lykke Li, the Dodos, Women, the Soul Stirrers, the Instruments, Diamonds, Babe Terror, Kasai Allstars, Wild Beasts, Hologram, Sibylle Baier, Kleerup, Young Coyotes, Abe Vigoda, Karl Blau, My People Sleeping, Wale, Forest Fire, Freak Paeans, Rye Rye, School of Seven Bells, Lord Dog Bird, Jib Kidder, Gossamer Albatross, Titus Andronicus, Witchies, Styx Tyger, Nico Muhly, Passion Pit, Esau Mwamwaya, Pretend You're Happy, Francois Virot, Buraka Som Sistema, Eternal Summers, Eagleowl, Land of Talk, Meursault, Doug Randle, Marvin Pontiac, Nneka, Fever Ray, Parlovr, the Phantom Band, Twin Sister, Micachu and the Shapes, the Daredevil Christopher Wright, Clues, Emperor X, the Best Show on WFMU; wrote stories about rusted butterflies, "Kokomo" in the subway, listening to Percy Sledge, seeing the Silver Jews, having a crush on Stephen Harper, Mikaeus Andante, Mayo Thompson at the library, Bruce Springsteen surveys, and oh hundreds more; offered guest posts by Ariel Kitch, Amber Albrecht, The Whiskers, Adam & the Amethysts and sort of the Silver Jews; shared our favourite songs and favourite albums of 2008.
We did a lot with little, but it was only worthwhile because of our readers' kindness of spirit, eagerness of ear, and dope handclaps. Thank you so much for all your comments and clicks, your hoots and chides, your tips and toodle-oos, your back-blogs and back-rubs. Thanks for telling your friends, your uncles, your sisters, your thesis advisors about us. Thanks for adding us on Facebook. Thanks for playing our favourite songs to your lovers. Thanks for having patience with our bullshit. We understand that not everyone can afford to donate to a silly website. Regardless of dollars or cents, pounds or zloty, thank-you thank-you thank-you all again for continuing to make this one of the most rewarding things in our lives.
And a great song to send you on your day, to paint yr walls a heart's watercolour blush. I mentioned it before in passing, but it deserves more. (via shake yr fist)
Hey Said the Gramophone. I'd love to donate but guess where I live: Iran! We don't have credit cards or such stuff. But I love this blog and I run an indie music blog here in Iran: http://www.thiswinkis.com
It's both a dangerous and difficult thing to do but that's the fun thing about it.
Let me know if my blog can be on StG's favorite blog list.
Your hosting costs are only $300 or so? Sell some ad space -- you'll cover that amount easily.
by S, Mar 30, 2009
...and like that, S misses the point.
One of the things that keeps this site as awesome as it is is its cleanliness. It is as advertised, nothing more. Words, pics, songs.
That's too negative, though; I'll use this space now for something better. Thank y'all for existing. The internet would be a bleaker place without stg, and as the drive counters will tell you, I'm not alone in thinking so. Thanks, guys.
For the last three years or so STG has been my happiness back-up generator, and I don't think there's thanks enough to do you all justice, but still, thank you, times infinity.
Haunted House - "Sierra Trail". I dreamed about a rock-band last night. I don't remember anything about them except that the word "Pip" was in the band's name, in a kind of nautical sense. And that the fish-men lunged forward when they played their guitars. And there were bass on bass and whale-shark on keys and the lead singer was some kind of crayfish, wild-eyed and furious, raging at us through a seaweedy warble, speaking English backwards in a way that trawled our hearts. The band trundled over the same beautiful chords, part 80s chintz and part 00s noise, like an FM radio drowning in an aquarium, like Minneapolis getting eaten by a black hole, like all my longings getting tied to my old tape-decks, my hopes all mashed in the trash compactor. ["Sierra Trail" is from wondrous Lifted Brow 4 book/CD set (previously)/ More of Haunted House at Cardbirdseat / MySpace]
Glass Cake - "Blanket". Cold wind last night. Blew out all the candles. Fixed the creaks in the floor. When I got up in the morning, all the honey had gone hard, like crystal. The milk had disappeared. There were holes in my sweaters. The windows had been polished and the swings had been ripped out of the swing-set. I had a bracelet on each wrist. Upstairs my lover lay sleeping. [MySpace / via Popsheep]
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Some really beautiful moments in Sigur Ros' short visit to the Take-Away Shows (with Vincent Moon returning to the camera). A proud, hermit-crab kind of band, it seems; but a magical one. I like the instant when the camera swings round and captures a woman on the phone - the mundane in all this fairy-music. But elsewhere I do get a little sad at the way Sigur Ros' bombast can these days fit into a coffee-shop.
I apologize for posting that comment twice. My connection was disconnected mid-post and I clicked the Post button a second time. It was impatient of me and I will now wear the dunce cap.
The next morning, Serge went out to breakfast with his friend Etienne. They ate eggs benedict with steak knives, yolks running. Serge used his hands to depict the Rolls-Royce, the bicycle, the slow way that they collided. At first he used passé simple. There were three kinds of glint in his eye.
"She was just a girl, Etienne; but mon dieu, what a girl. What a girl, what a girl, what a girl..."
"Pretty?" said Etienne.
Serge rolled his eyes, "Oh come on, voyons, oui, pretty as- pretty as- ..."
Etienne raised his eyebrows. His friend was not often starved for words in matters such as these.
"A gazelle," Serge said finally, "long, long, long. I watched her drink from a bottle last night and I could have spent the year watching. I brought the Rolls to a stop and on the road she tossed her hair, she got to her feet, she showed me her eyes."
"She showed you her eyes and you took them," Etienne smiled.
"I felt like a bear, looking at her. Felt like a raincloud. 'Melody Nelson,' she said. That was her name."
"Sounds like a song."
"It will be a song. I will make it a song. I need to make a song. The slowest-ever song. Slow as the way she brushed her hair from her face. Slow as her tongue darting across her lips. I do not know if I will see her again. A suite of songs."
"A whole album?"
"An album of jaguars, gazelles, moons. Rose quartz, black plastic, white steel, red hair. Ah, oui oui. Choirs, strings!"
"All that?"
"All that," said Serge. He scraped the knife along his tongue. "Did I tell you the red hair was her natural colour?"
"Yes," said Etienne.
"The way she felt... The way she felt, Etienne, when finally I brought her lips... When I tasted them."
"When she gave them," said Etienne.
Serge shrugged. "A girl, Etienne. A gazelle. Young, taut, tall, quick. Her heart leaps and strains in her breast. Hands meant to hold rose-stems. Feet meant to lie in sheets."
"Okay, okay."
"I should never see her again. Why would I? Let her live wild, away. She will die young. I know this. I will worship at her altar like a supplicating native. I will burn ferns, blacken my eyes. I will eat ash and lay in the sand. I will feel the sun all up and down my skin and I will remember last night. Birds will howl in my ears and I will feel wine in my mouth. Strings! Bass! Choir! Kettle drums! Trembling and then sudded storming noise! Oh, I can hear it, Etienne."
"Café?" said the waiter.
"This morning, with sugar."
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Serge Gainsbourg's 1971 masterpiece, Histoire de Melody Nelson, which must make Jarvis Cocker long to have been born 20 years earlier, which Beck must dream of making, which has been sampled right and left, which makes even me wish to be a Parisian ladykiller, which is deep and tin-hot and thrilling, has just & at last been reissued in North America. Light In The Attic have released it in CD and 180gm gatefold LP, and you can buy it now. Do.
We also have one copy to give away! For your chance to win, leave a comment below, with the most seductive french word in the world. It doesn't have to be a real French word - it can be something you've made up, that you imagine balanced on yr tongue like a sparrow. We'll pick a winner later this week.Contest now over! Thanks for all the amazing submissions. Most of them seduced me, and most of them ought to win, but there can be only one and it was Matt, with hanches. Congratulations, sir.
someone should write a song with all these words, especially the fake ones. Then some british-speaking girl would sing it softly and it would be awesome
by bouudiii, Mar 24, 2009
saperlipopette
by yvanpk, Mar 24, 2009
Gigantesque.
As in Gi-(whispered), Gant-(wide-eyed), and Esque(soft; long enought for the tip of the nose to find the little nook behind the ear).
Not just because of the way it sounds, but also, what it means to the Romantic, and also what it would sounds like if Charlotte Gainsbourg said it to you.
approfondir - to increase the depths of (as in obsession) or to plunge into the depths of (as in well what else)
by alex, Mar 26, 2009
"clafoutis" (it softly rolls off your tongue with a tinge of exquisite titillating provocation, like when you say "clit" with a come-hither look for example, and also simply because it tastes like it sounds, sweet.)
In my imagination, it means "iron [the metal] yourself" or "make yourself like iron."
(soft, soft lips
magnetic, electric hips)
by Laurel, Mar 28, 2009
don't know french-- but that song was beautiful. i listened to the whole thing -- which is rare when i first hear a song.
thanks again for the rad music
Red River - "Something Good". Our mysteriousfriends in Red River have released another album, something partly handpainted and called Grassblades. Bill Roberts stands on a small stage, wearing a sheet like a cape. He stands with friends in t-shirts and jeans and baseball-caps and skirts, friends whose violin cases have stickers for Chiquita Banana and Page France. They play. "Something Good" is a song whose creation can be easily understood; whose singing can be easily imagined. The lyrics are plain, loving, pious. But the "love" Roberts sings of, the "good" - these are not the stuff of chapels and rosaries. They are the stuff of tides, night rides, bare feet, grassblades, Chiquita Banana. This is a song to keep in a flask in your pocket, something to sip on the bridge.
Red River play Clancy's, in Long Beach, tonight. And Hollywood's Knitting Factory on March 30. Buy their albums, which are cheap as sand. And Mike Turner's short tour film, Riverbeds, is as modest as a memory passed.
Casiotone for the Painfully Alone - "Natural Light". In this song of just 2min24, Casiotone doesn't give us enough time to fall in love with the keyboard riff. Wait, wait, wait - yes he does. Yes, I'm already in love with it. Just because he doesn't give me enough time to realise I'm in love, not 'til after the song's over, doesn't mean it didn't happen. Because that's the way with so many of the best things. You don't realise until after how good they were; or how deserved. [buy]
Well every other music blogger is at SXSW, so at the very least you're original or perhaps you're way ahead of the curve while everyone is distracted. :)
god, this red river song is so softly changing my life. Why do I let myself spend so much time away from here, your songs are as necessary for me as blood and breath.
by c.h., Apr 1, 2009
the first song is amazing.. the beat caught me instantly
This is a daily sampler of really good songs. All tracks are posted out of love. Please go out and buy the records.
To hear a song in your browser, click the and it will begin playing. All songs are also available to download: just right-click the link and choose 'Save as...'
All songs are removed within a few weeks of posting.
Said the Gramophone launched in March 2003, and added songs in November of that year. It was one of the world's first mp3blogs.
If you would like to say hello, find out our mailing addresses or invite us to shows, please get in touch:
Montreal, Canada:Sean Toronto, Canada:Emma Montreal, Canada:Jeff Montreal, Canada:Mitz
Please don't send us emails with tons of huge attachments; if emailing a bunch of mp3s etc, send us a link to download them. We are not interested in streaming widgets like soundcloud: Said the Gramophone posts are always accompanied by MP3s.
If you are the copyright holder of any song posted here, please contact us if you would like the song taken down early. Please do not direct link to any of these tracks. Please love and wonder.
"And I shall watch the ferry-boats / and they'll get high on a bluer ocean / against tomorrow's sky / and I will never grow so old again."
about the authors
Sean Michaels is the founder of Said the Gramophone. He is a writer, critic and author of the theremin novel Us Conductors. Follow him on Twitter or reach him by email here. Click here to browse his posts.
Emma Healey writes poems and essays in Toronto. She joined Said the Gramophone in 2015. This is her website and email her here.
Jeff Miller is a Montreal-based writer and zinemaker. He is the author of Ghost Pine: All Stories True and a bunch of other stories. He joined Said the Gramophone in 2015. Say hello on Twitter or email.
Mitz Takahashi is originally from Osaka, Japan who now lives and works as a furniture designer/maker in Montreal. English is not his first language so please forgive his glamour grammar mistakes. He is trying. He joined Said the Gramophone in 2015. Reach him by email here.
Dan Beirne wrote regularly for Said the Gramophone from August 2004 to December 2014. He is an actor and writer living in Toronto. Any claim he makes about his life on here is probably untrue. Click here to browse his posts. Email him here.
Jordan Himelfarb wrote for Said the Gramophone from November 2004 to March 2012. He lives in Toronto. He is an opinion editor at the Toronto Star. Click here to browse his posts. Email him here.
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Said the Gramophone does not take advertising. We are supported by the incredible generosity of our readers. These were our donors in 2013.
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and it will begin playing. All songs are also available to download: just right-click the link and choose 'Save as...'
It's about time I left a comment.
I've been reading and enjoying this blog for the past 2 years, and over that time- been introduced to some amazing songs and artists. If I was older than 20, and had money I would have given you something!
Anyway, this was more of a comment just to say thank you and keep up the good work.
I'm in a similar boat with Vincent. Wanted to express my gratitude for this site and what you do. Even when the buffer rate is encrouching on my enjoyment of any given song I stream from here, at least it feels like there's somebody on the other end managing bandwidth, making sure everyone gets a fair share. Like a telephone operator in the digital era.
From that great scene in the listening station in 'Before Sunrise' - vertive glances and Australian folk... Mm, Mm, Awesome.
Sean - I tried to donate during the drive but had multiple rounds of trouble with PayPal. Not sure if this happened to anyone else. Email me your snail mail address and I'll send a donation that way.
thanks for the great work. It's very appreciated!