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January 30, 2005
Hobos Hitching Trains
the Cansecos - What It Was You Said
Not a lot of people talk about the Cansecos, which surprises me. Their self-titled debut, released way back in '03, was definitely engaging enough to be fawned over endlessly, but now they've been relegated to something like the 2nd or 3rd-tier of hyped bands. Which isn't necessarily a bad thing.
'What It Was You Said' breaks right out of the gate with an intensely locomotive beat and Boards of Canada-esque synth vapors floating up through the cracks in the floor. There's a guitar in the background, sounds out of breath. And a laptop that intermittently coos and purrs. My favorite lyric from this song is 'silence/ with no provoking/you must be joking/could you not hear what it was I said?', which just reminds me of long, aimless car rides and mysterious lulls in conversation, both of which seem to happen a lot towards the end of a relationship. This song is a new pop gem.
You can buy the Cansecos debut LP from Insound, and listen to some more of their songs here, and then also highly anticipate their next album, which according to one Canseco (Gareth Jones), is coming out this spring: "cansecos comin at you with a new record in tha spring! We promise lots of space funk and bass-wave neuro-pop!"
I was hoping for bass-wave.
Posted by matt at 09:01 PM
January 28, 2005
Skeletons + Outtakes
Despistado - Bubbles
Another great band, broken up. Despistado called it quits earlier this month, no reason given as to why. However, just like Black Eyes (mentioned just yesterday!), Despistado decided to dissolve right after recording an LP- 'The People Of and Their Verses' will be released by Jade Tree on April 5th. But, weirdly enough, this album (which is actually their debut), will be brought to the public digitally, which I suppose either means as a free download (doesn't make much sense, but would be nice), or via iTunes or some other such crazy service.
Anyway, 'Bubbles'. This song is crackling summer tension. There's a (get ready for this) maelstrom (!) of percussion that blows through the entire track, while Dagan Harding and Leif Thorseth's guitars squawk and keen with dischord. If you play this in your car in, say, mid-July or so, with the windows down and everything- you will feel like a badass. It definitely adds a sense of urgency and intrigue to even the most mundane of activities, catalyzing late-night peel-outs and risky parallel parking. Be careful with it. The rest of their EP, the Emergency Response, which you can buy here, is just as good or better at provoking reckless, humidity-drunk behavior.
This cold weather is getting to me.
Here, below, is the third part of Dan's 'Adventures in Kenya' series.
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The philosophy department here is pretty funny. I TA for a philosophy of science class that is probably the most atrocious course I have ever seen. For two weeks, the subject was the benefits and drawbacks of technology. The "technology" was the science aspect of the course, while the "benefits and drawbacks" comprised the philosophical facet. One lecture was spent on the drawbacks of cloning. One point the professor made: "if we allowed human cloning, there would be an identity crisis. Your clone might sneak into your house and start pretending to be you. Hence, cloning is bad." I suspect that this lecture was inspired by a recent viewing of Arnold Schwarzenegger's "Sixth Day".
All types of interesting folks pass through the Guest House here at the University. The latest was Frans, a 50 year old gas chromatography technician from Holland. He is fairly jovial, and humorously rotund. Or maybe the other way around. Anyway, we agreed to split a car to Lake Begoria the other day, to see it's famous flock of flamingos (pictured on some of the postcards I sent out). Well, I wake up at 6 am and walk out the door of my house. Standing in front of me is Frans, grinning from ear to ear, decked out in brand-new, full-out safari gear from head to toe, down to a khaki peacock hat. It was like staring at a continuous series of beige; he looked like he was about to shoot an elephant. Appalled, all I could muster was, "Frans, have you lost your mind?" The only explanation I could think of was that he was undergoing a fugue that momentarily instilled in him the belief that he was Teddy Roosevelt. He shrugged, "what can I say, I am unbwogable." 'Unbwogable' is the slang word popularized as of late by an oft-played radio song here. So translated, he said, "what can I say. I let the dogs out. woof, woof woof." This was a bad omen.
However, the trip was pretty good, though Frans' inquiries to our guide concerning the edibility of flamingos were taken without the necessary gravity, in my opinion. There were flamingos as far as the eye could see.
Read installments: one and two of Dan's correspondence.
Posted by matt at 08:00 AM | Comments (1)
January 27, 2005
A Storm for Every Palm
Navies - Non-Contract
Remember what I wrote about Black Eyes? Well, Navies is cut from the same cloth: two singers (one melodic, one 'shouty'), heavy percussion, and disobedient guitars. To wit- 'Non-Contract' starts off with a sketchy guitar squall that sounds a lot like a giant metal spider sharpening its fangs against its hard, rusted legs (truly, I am a master of the elegant simile). Then a descending bass figure enters, stage right, shaking shaking shaking. This track is what you would play to celebrate the existence of plate tectonics, sort of an earthquake party jam.
Navies are part of the Dischord family, a pedigree you can definitely guess just by listening to their music. According to their website, they're putting out a five song CD EP some time in May (which they're recording right now) on Lovitt Records, and are touring all over the damn place. Plus they put up two mp3s from a recent recording session on their front page. Can't beat that. 'Non-Contract' exists only on a 10" split with A Day in Black and White, issued by Level-Plane Records. Buy it and love it, for yours truly (who doesn't have a turntable, at present).
Posted by matt at 08:00 AM
January 26, 2005
Super Comforters
Black Leotard Front - Casual Friday
A few propositions about this song:
1) It's the best 15 minute sexual harassment disco song ever produced by humans.
2) Black Leotard Front exist as a performance/visual art group. They really wear leotards when they play live. 'Casual Friday' was composed especially for one of their shows. Their band name brings to mind Mike Myers' 'Sprockets' sketch, for better or worse.
3) In a just world, some whimsically managed record company would allow me to fulfill my dream of compiling a mix of songs that deal with sexual harassment in the workplace. 'Cubicle Temptation: Look, but Don't Touch' would include 'Step into My Office, Baby', by Belle and Sebastian, and a song by Kool Keith that I can't remember the name of just now. You can tell I've really thought this through.
4) The members of the group include the dazzlingly talented Delia Gonzalez, Gavin Russom, and Christian Holstad. 'Casual Friday' appears on DFA Compilation #2, which you can buy from these excellent people (it's 3 CDs for $20! kind of a steal).
Posted by matt at 08:00 AM
January 25, 2005
Redheaded Wales
Gorky's Zygotic Mynci - Face Like Summer
Euros Childs sings this song like he's delivering the eulogy for someone who's still alive. It's a girl, younger than he is, who he might be in love with- but he has to be cautious, of course, since there's such an age difference. He comforts himself with his tender harpsichord. In the second verse, his sister, Megan Childs, joins him on vocals, and the rest of the band jumps in on the action. This track is all blowing grass, dandelions, high hills, sunglasses, wispy hair, and gun-shyness. In the end, I think, Euros goes for it. Also, he's Welsh. That must have something to do with it.
One thing this song reminds me of- a weird fixation I had last year with trying to decide whether I despised or enjoyed it when people say, "that bee bit me" (I've heard this uttered by adults at least 5 or 6 times in my life). Is it just apiarian ignorance, or some sort of casual disregard for the word 'sting'? I think I came out of this internal debate on the side of amusement- it's just so oddly adorable. Try saying it to yourself.
People, this is what you come here for: music, and disconnected, slightly delirious musings. You can buy the GZM album that this track is from right here.
Posted by matt at 11:59 AM
January 24, 2005
Caput Exlposion
Superwolf - What Are You
Matt Sweeney did the music. Bonnie Prince Billy handled the words. Superwolf. Grom-grom. It's really a shame, now that I think of it, that albums don't have the same sort of lame-a-tronic taglines that movies do, e.g. "Last time they Turned on the Bright Lights. Now they're just fucking around. Interpol - ANTICS.", or, "The title means 'of or pertaining to a rogue'. Also there will be pirates. Decemberists - PICARESQUE." These of course are all bad examples. I'm sure you all can come up with some better ones (hint: in the comments!).
Anyway, this is one of the prettiest songs from the Superwolf album, and features Matt's vocals (I think), backed up by Princetopher Will Oldham. And some thickly static finger-picked electric guitar (reminiscent of Nico's 'These Days'). Matt (or Will, actually, as the author of the lyrics) talks about spanking and having a sundress torn off (it's from a woman's perspective, as made obvious by one line I won't reprint here), which = great. This song is a lover's gentle contempt.
Purchase it at this merchant's place.
Posted by matt at 11:47 AM | Comments (1)
January 20, 2005
Kate Bush is running up that hill
Futureheads - Hounds of Love
This is an amazingly energetic cover, via Barry Hyde and co., of the Kate Bush album's title track. If you don't know the Futureheads, this is a nice introduction. Same goes for if you're sinfully ignorant of Kate Bush's work (who's got a new album coming out in March of this year, supposedly). 'Running up that Hill (A Deal with God)' was my first exposure to KB's work, and it was like being playfully punched in the face by a fist gloved in cashmere. Does that make sense? Her songs are sensual and forceful. I dare you to listen to this song and attempt not to go around all day singing the lines 'take my shoes off and I'll throw them in the lake'. I'll go so far as to refund your mouse-click if you don't like this track.
Anyway, what follows below is the second part of my friend Dan's adventures in Kenya. It contains: pharmaceutical troubles, philosophy of science, sandals, grass tracks, and little old voyeuristic ladies.
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I think that the mix of social isolation, larium (ed. note: larium is an anti-malarial drug), and disorientation has caused some real weird psychological dynamics lately. I'd say I've experienced a mild delusional thought or two, from the larium. One night (after taking the medication), I found myself thinking that half of my head was caving inward. Pretty unusual, how it works. Rather than necessarily believing the delusional thought, it is more 2nd-order. Instead, you actually recognize that you have that thought as a legitimate candidate for belief in your head, whereas normally it never gets to that point; it gets squelched out a lot earlier.
The little old lady that cleans my little house walked in on me on the toilet last week. That is both a good and bad thing. Good because that means that I have a little old lady who cleans my little house. Bad because she screamed something in swahili and hasn't been able to look me in the eye for the past week.
To earn my keep, I have begun TA-ing a philosophy of science class at the university, while also serving as an undergraduate advisor. The nickname, "Professor Mzungu" has stuck, which is sort of the equivalent of calling an African American faculty member at your college "Professor McBlackmeister."
Research has been going well. I've interviewed a lot of local runners, most of whom are insanely talented. Probably 15 guys who live within 2 miles of me can break 2:12 in the marathon. One guy named Amos Tuwei, who is serving as my unofficial guide/training partner (I think he is a bit iffy on the trustworthiness scale, though), is a 20 yr old 1500m/800m runner who started running a year and half ago because he decided he wanted to go to an American university on scholarship. After a year and a half of training, he is running 3:45 for 1500m (which is about a 3:58 mile), and 1:47 for 800m, which is nuts (I saw him do a 1:50 800m on a grass track, with shoes that look like sandals). Needless to say, I do my hard runs when he does his easy jogs, and after we finish a 45 – 60 minute run, I feel like I am going to pass out.
There is one 19 yr old who all the runners kind of made fun of as the slow one around here, kind of the Piggy of the group. He runs a mile in around 4:06. So basically I have now assumed the position as the group's Piggy. Where are my glasses?
I am trying to set up a shoe donation program with various us shoe companies, as my lastest (latest; wow, what a telling slip of the fingers) philanthropic project. Most of the runners I have talked to use 3rd hand shoes that are almost unrecognizable. If I can even get a 20 pair donation from asics, nike, or whoever, I think it would make a pretty big difference in their training (given it is usually only injury that holds them back). Even 2nd hand shoes would be a huge improvement.
Amos Tuwei is taking me to his home village of Burnt Forest Monday, where I will meet some other runners, including his brother (a 16 yr old who is running 29 minutes for 10k). But if you don't hear from me in a month's time... well, Amos did it.
Read installment one of Dan's correspondence
Posted by matt at 05:21 PM | Comments (1)
January 19, 2005
I got a secret that I need to tell
Pink Mountaintops - Can You Do That Dance?
Phwoar. That is the sound of what happens when this song is played: someone at a party puts on a pair of extra-long long johns, pulls the waistband up to his/her shoulders, and gyrates on your coffee table, spilling drinks everywhere and declaring sternly that no one in the history of the world has ever been as drunk as they are. It could be true. Anyway, 'Can You Do That Dance?' is simple fuzzed-out guitar, creepily sexy drums, blunt interrogatives, and gorgeous back-up vocals.
Stephen McBean, the weird-bearded mastermind of Black Mountain (whose debut LP was just given a stellar review on P-frok last week), is the main artistic and songwriting force for Pink Mountaintops, whose summertime LP release was somewhat ignored. the PMs are sort of a corollary group to Black Mountain, it seems, since a lot of the players on both LPs are the same damn people (a lot like the Constellation Records/GY!BE axis of performers). So if you're interested, stop on by the fantastic Jagjaguwar label and pick up a copy.
Posted by matt at 09:33 PM
My blazer is on fire
Rusty Santos - True Prep
A well-concealed fact about myself: I went to a small prep school near Philadelphia, from 8th to 12th grade. It's a strange atmosphere, being in prep school- it combines some of the freedom of college with strict traditions and wild academic competition. I mention this only because there's a line in this song where Rusty Santos says, "I'll drop out of prep school/go living on the lam", and it reminded me of this kid who, when I was in 10th grade, just up and disappeared from school one week. He was in the grade below me, and a 'boarder' (he lived at the school- I was a 'day student', a commuter) so we had few friends in common. But everyone was talking about it- what his parents were doing (freaking the fuck out), and what the faculty thought (that he was clearly insane, or mentally damaged somehow), and I remember sitting in the library's front lobby when someone came in and announced that they had found him somewhere in Delaware. He was just tired of school, so he caught a bus and left.
Not a classic anecdote, but this song has a feel to it that's very reminiscent of a certain particularly pointed anger that seemed to exhibit itself every once in a while among my prep school classmates- whether they were angry at their parents for sending them there, angry at their teachers, or with themselves for not being good enough (at sports or academics- either way)- that sort of young, untested anger all has the same weird and violent tinge. And you can hear it here- in the way Santos beats the living shit out of his guitar, and his matter-of-fact pronouncements of destruction.
'True Prep' was recorded live at an art exhibition in 2003, at the Coral Room. It also now appears, in studio-recorded form, on Santos' new album, The Heavens, released on Uunited Acoustic Recordings (two u's, that's right), which is the same label that put out that compilation 'They Keep Me Smiling' (curated by Hisham Bharoocha). You can buy the Heavens for a song ($10) from the wonderful Social Registry label. One quick interesting fact about Rusty Santos: he's produced the last few Animal Collective recordings, including the unparalleled 'Sung Tongs'. Smart guy.
Posted by matt at 08:00 AM | Comments (1)
January 18, 2005
Symbolic of your logic
Q and Not U - Wonderful People
Not much time to write about this now (hiring, firing, payrolling), but this song exists in a possible world where the Bee Gees are listed alongside Minor Threat and Fugazi as prime influences. Falsetto: so best.
Posted by matt at 08:00 AM
January 17, 2005
Really Glop it On
Babyshambles - Killamangiro
This song, by Pete Doherty(crackhead from the Libertines)'s new side-project, might just be the best Brit-pop song I've heard since Blur's 'Girls & Boys', and maybe one of the best that I heard in 2004. It's just got relentless energy- the guitars are vicious and gnashing, the bass chugs and bounces, and those drums! oh, those drums. Pete Doherty is also in possession of one of the most interesting smokey/back-of-the-throat voices in rock, and it's definitely in full effect here. The lyrics are weird as hell- the chorus is 'Kill a man for his giro today'- and you've got to admire that. You'll be singing this junk to yourself after only half a listen.
You can check out the very red-light video for this song here, and then buy it (maybe) over at Rough Trade (whose online shop seems to be down at the moment). It's also available at Other Music, because I've seen it there (even if they don't have it listed online).
Posted by matt at 08:00 AM
January 13, 2005
Screened-in and Lightheaded
Campfire Songs - Two Corvettes
This is one of the better (and sadder) things Animal Collective have ever done. Recorded on a screened-in porch in Maryland on three mini-disc recorders, and in one nonstop take, 'Campfire Songs' is maybe the prettiest album that AC have done- it's all acoustic guitar ebb and flow (similar to, if you know the song, 'Visiting Friends' on 'Sung Tongs'), and their ridiculously solid vocal harmonies. I like to think of 'Two Corvettes' as a love song between cars (which it's not). This album is out of print now, but Catsup Plate (which is a great label) has plans to reissue some time in the next few weeks, hopefully.
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Now, something a little different: in September 2002, one of my friends from school, Dan, went to Kenya on a Fulbright scholarship, to study the training methods and the religion (which is apparently a mix of Christianity and animism) of the marathon runners there. He sent out emails to people back home in the States about once a week, and these little notes always struck me as being particularly funny and well-written. I've always wanted to publish them in one form or another, and this seems like as good a forum as any. So on Fridays from now until the forseeable future, there'll be a song, some comments from me, and then an installment of what Dan called his 'version of 'Heart of Darkness' if Conrad had been on ecstasy the whole time'. Here's the first email- enjoy.
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The past two weeks in Kenya have been kind of up and down.
Nairobi is a really bad place to be if you look like a foreigner. It pretty much was really not very good. I would say that someone tried to rob or scam me at least 2 or 3 times a day. You fortunately (or unfortunately) learn in maybe a couple hours that being "streetwise" just means being completely paranoid (at least for the first few days). That man with no legs - DANGER! That kid on the corner who dances for shillings - DANGER! That stranger asking you which hotel you are staying in - well, that's okay. In one scam, these guys on the street said that they worked for a tour company, and just wanted you to take a brochure from their office upstairs. I didn't go up, but I heard later in the day that they pulled a knife and rob some tourist once they got him into a building. Given my expertise in ka-rate, I would have probably tried to (unsuccessfully) use my "angry cat" form on him, blindly clawing at eyes and genital region(s).
The only good thing that came from being in Nairobi was that I met the national cross-country team coach, who said that I could stay with the team when they have training camp in february. I was pretty glad to leave, thinking anywhere has to be better than there. then I got to Eldoret.
In Eldoret I stayed in a brothel/hotel for the first 4 nights (about 2 bucks a night, 1.25 for a "half-night"). It wasn't really that bad, except the noise kind of keeps you up at night. But Eldoret is a much smaller town, so crime is generally much less of a problem. I think that once people see you are there for the long haul (not just breezing through), they start to generally treat you a lot better.
But now I am at Moi University, where they are really going overboard. I feel bad, because I think they had to have thought I was a visiting professor or something (the last and only other Fulbright person here was, so I was told). Upon my arrival they were no doubt immediately disabused of that notion. In anticipation of my arrival, they set up an office for me (hopefully not kicking someone else out to do it), and also let me use one of the University guest houses for the year. For about 200 bucks a month, I practically get my own house about a mile from campus (I will have to share it if other people come), and a nice old lady who cleans and also cooks breakfast in the morning. It's pretty sweet.
So my days can now best be described by that episode of Seinfeld where George sits in his office all day trying to look like he's doing something with the Penske file. It's not all that bad.
Did my first workout yesterday. Ran a mile at 5:20 on the grass track, and thought I was going to start coughing up blood. A group of soccer playing children laughed at me.
today, I did another workout on the track, and every mzungu runner's nightmare came true. Those soccer-playing 6 yr olds started running with me. I was running neck and neck with them through the backstretch. when we hit the home stretch, though, guess what happened? I totally wasted them. Then everything started turning orange and I went home.
Anyways, that's the abbreviated version of what has happened so far. If you would like a postcard, send me your address, because I really need to look busy doing something during the workday. I will send them as long as I can afford it (I am trying to stick to a 1000 shilling/day budget, which is about 12 bucks).
Posted by matt at 06:56 PM
Myriad Pyramids, pt. 2
Metro Area - Miura
Morgan Geist and Darshan Jesrani as Metro Area have constructed an icy landscape with 'Miura', which comes from their self-titled 2002 debut. Those of you that listened to the Purple Flash Orchestra cut from Morgan Geist's 'Unclassics' that I posted a month or so ago will find that Metro Area's work maps the same unsteady ground as the electronic disco tracks from that mix.
That was a warm-up paragraph.
'Miura' starts off with a bass pulse that sounds exactly like the reverbrations of a swimming pool's high-dive board, at the moment that the diver's weight leaves the board completely. Bass drum and handclaps. 'Oh-oh-uh-oh' chorus injections from a soft voice. Slashingly cinematic strings. There is a lot of cloudy space in this track. If this song were to be played in a club, it would be someplace where cartoonishly pink women get down with Beaker-esque Muppets, and the bar's constructed entirely from glass and chrome. A club that you could peek at, but not dance in.
An easy solution is to just buy the Metro Area LP. (Also check out the Kelley Polar Quartet's 'Rococo' EP, if you have the chance. KPQ are viciously good.) It's good to be back.
Posted by matt at 08:00 AM