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July 25, 2005
Virginia should never be jealous of Pennsylvania
So even though I'm not technically moving until this weekend, there's still a lot of work to be done beforehand, work which will preclude my posting much of anything on here (probably until around August 3rd or 4th); I didn't want to leave you all high and dry though, so here's a very small mix, entitled "Stuck on I-95 in Hot and Sweaty Traffic". It'll be nice to be back in Philadelphia, although I will miss Richmond pretty badly. Anyway, enjoy.
LCD Soundsystem - Slowdive (XFM Session)
Siouxsie and the Banshees cover, customarily mindblowing. BUYDFA 1979 - Black History Month
Molten bass grooves and a sickly addictive melody. BUYTim Hecker - (They Call Me) Jimmy
Tim Hecker is a straight-up genius, and this is from what may be his best album, "Radio Amor". BUY Philly band Racecar make brutally pretty music. BUYRacoo-oo-oon - Call Out Your Friends
Fauves running loose and panting, get hold of drums, wreak havoc. BUY Pop song masterpiece, per usual. BUYAnimal Collective - Always You
16 minutes of Sung Tongs-esque beauty. Live on Resonance FM and never recorded (never will be recorded, according to the band). Also, I've pretty much decided that however the studio recordings turn out, I'm about 99% sure that "Feels" will end up being my album of the year, just judging by the live shows I've heard. It'll be better than "Sung Tongs", better than anything they've done before. That's my guess. BUYP.S. Black Dice's "Broken Ear Record" is un-fucking-believable. Strong, thick beats, it's a perfect progression from "Creature Comforts", and actually pretty poppy. They've really outdone themselves with this one.
Posted by Kevin at 07:00 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
July 22, 2005
There was a lot of talk about dinosaurs and illiteracy
Luc Ferrari - Music Promenade (excerpted from Presque Rien)
Black Dice's 'Miles of Smiles' was one of the most exhilarating and bizarre tracks of 2004, and when I first heard it, I was taken aback by how alien and unlike the band's other work the music was. It just seemed to have no precedent. But, as is often the case, I was grossly mistaken. As Andy Beta pointed out in his review of the EP on P-Fork, Luc Ferrari's "Presque Rien" had mapped the same sort of landscapes, 30 years prior.
"Presque Rien" (trans. 'Almost Nothing') was put together by Ferrari and finally completed in 1970. It's composed of subtly manipulated field recordings that he made in a Yugoslavian village, pasted and taped together into what he intended as a sort of musical photograph. In 'Music Promenade', the most prominent element is the chirping of the cicadas, which is constant throughout the track. And it's this sound that Ferrari uses almost like a florist would use floral foam, as he zooms in on other discrete sonic objects and arranges them particularly, gracefully, over the length of the entire 'Promenade'. The cumulative effect reminds me of that line from Wilco's 'She's a Jar', when Tweedy sings, "And watch me floating inches above/the people underneath"; "Presque Rien" is like a really elaborate and gorgeous piece of eavesdropping (over the range of an entire village no less!).
You can find a bunch of Ferrari's releases right over here, but if you're interested in owning a copy of "Presque Rien" on CD, it's going to be a little bit more difficult (check out the original vinyl available for a mere $280) to obtain. Still, totally worth it.
Posted by Kevin at 10:02 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
July 21, 2005
Reading Dostoevsky like you really mean it.
Jan Jelinek, you can do no wrong. Farben is Jelinek's more, hmm, dance and dub-oriented alias (I think the accepted taxonomy was that Gramm was his more clicks-and-cuts name, and he released his best minimal techno under his own name), which he used to release 6 12" on Klang Elektronik from '99 to 2002. These were compiled on a 9-track CD called "Textstar" (so 6 of the 12" cuts were left off), which was just unrelentingly pretty and warm and compelling (I managed to find the CD at A.K.A. Music in Philly but then unfortunately was forced to sell it to support my gruesome habits of 'eating' and 'needing electricity').
'Beautone' (is it pronounced the French way, like 'boh-tone', or is it more like 'byutone'?) has always been one of my favorite Farben tracks, just because it's so easy to curl up with. It's like a thick afghan that has small objects sewn into the folds and wales of the knitting itself: a shiny Christmas ornament, a swatch of sandpaper, miniature brass bells. From a different angle, this could even be considered a makeout jam. Or not. Close though. 4/4 beat, hollow and ghostly piano, occasional disco strings rotated in, lots of thick bubbles (that pop), and a bassline that roots through the track like a pig digging for truffles. It has wiles and charms.
You can find "Textstar" right here (it's worth it), and you can purchase the original 12"s from Klang Elektronik (aforeposted link). Farben also released a new EP in 2004 called "Presents the Presets: the Sampling Matter EP", which is available over at Forced Exposure.
Posted by Kevin at 09:21 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
July 20, 2005
Who Needs $$$ When We Got Feathers?
Built to Spill - Some Things Last A Long Time
This wind-up toy rolls gently down a grassy hill until it explodes, unexpectedly, and disperses 40 lbs. of brightly-painted shrapnel into the surrounding area. Doug Martsch and the guitar whine in sympathy to each other, petulance being its own reward in this case. What the guitar takes as its model is an indolent bee, as it buzzes through this track, tugging at the frame of each measure.
This song is hard to write about, for various (probably boring) reasons. I will say though that Built to Spill have made some songs that are seemingly woven from the qualia of warm-winded disappointment.
'Some Things Last A Long Time' is from "The Normal Years", which you can buy right here.
Posted by Kevin at 09:29 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
July 19, 2005
one pink they'll never sink
Wooden Wand - Warn Winch, Pts. 2-3
So there was an electrical fire in my office this afternoon. One minute, I was sitting there in my little octagonal workspace (true), trying to decide whether or not what I was smelling was burning plastic or some sort of industrial strength cleaner, and the next minute the servers (the computers, not the waiters) are smoking and throwing off a fragrance strongly reminiscent of burnt hair. Unpleasant. Point being, there's no time to describe this song, I inhaled a lot of that smoke and my blood hurts, so I'll just have to diagram it:
Pt. 2
_______bugzapper sounds||___[muffled background singing]
..........\
...........\___calm plateau of electric guitar noodling________
Pt. 3
Simply a hundred different strands of James Jackson Toth'sfrayed voice harmonizing and shifting (slightly, tectonically) against each other. "Pull me out", moving in all the separate directions of the compass rose. Just enough of a difference on each iteration that the cumulative effect is overwhelming but subtle. This is my second favorite song on the album ("Eagle Claw" holds the top spot, in case you were wondering).
Wooden Wand's solo album, "Harem of the Sundrum & the Witness Figg" is available from the very nice people (person, really) at Soft Abuse. Pick this one up tout de suite.
Posted by Kevin at 09:29 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
July 18, 2005
Sang a Song about 5 minutes ago
No offense to any of the women who bear it, but I have always disliked the name Judy. It feels frumpy, cumbersome, and broken. Judith is better only by merit of that silky interdental 'th' at the end. Judy is a name that is bent on unhappiness. But this song by Avey Tare has gone a long way toward making me actually sort of enjoy the sound of it.
'Judy Biworker' is from the great Esopus Magazine #4 compilation, which, if you remember from when I wrote about the Vetiver track, was constructed from readers' descriptions of their childhood imaginary friends. The musicians then took the vignettes and wrote songs based on these figments. Here's Judy Biworker's origin:
I had an imaginary friend-two, actually, but one was my best friend. Judy Biworker. We only spoke on the phone; it was a red plastic dial-up phone. She lived in Buffalo, New York, and that was due to all of the candy manufacturers being located there.Mary Ellen Carroll - New York, NY
'Judy Biworker' is soft, meowing ambience. It sounds like a guitar being slowly massaged and tapped, with the resulting notes distended into something sweet and ropy, like brightly colored saltwater taffy. And this melody is one of Avey Tare's absolute most heartbreaking (next to maybe 'Winter's Love', and the forthcoming 'Banshee Beat' and 'Turn into Something'), especially when he's singing lines that are naturally (because of the subject matter) wrought in hard nostalgia, like "Judy, Judy/I call to you today/I hope that Buffalo's not gray", and "and I hope/and I pray/that I can meet you there someday". The few parts of this song when Avey Tare harmonizes with himself are just jawdropping- I think after hearing this, it's not really fair to refer to Noah (Panda Bear) as 'the pop one'. 'Judy Biworker' is easy on the ears.
You can find this, as I mentioned above, on Esopus #4, which is available right here (and is absolutely worth it, since the magazine itself is extremely well-written and designed).
Posted by Kevin at 07:33 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
July 15, 2005
Swear to someone with a paperweight, I did not steal this one
the Wet Secrets - Boat Gas Death Train
OK, let me confess that I did in fact steal this song from Razorblade Runner (Rollie, to be specific), but I also think it deserves some wider different exposure. Plus I kinda like the idea of mp3blog re-runs. Come to think of it, I'm surprised no one has done that yet, i.e. established a site that does nothing but post the 'greatest hits' of other mp3blogs. Not like an aggregator. That's not what I mean. More like mining the old prose classics of blogs like Said the Gramophone or Fluxblog (whose archival blog would no doubt be named "Refluxblog", and if there were any justice in the world, would somehow have a GERD theme), and re-posting the original commentary and music file, perhaps along with additional commentary on the original itself (it'd be like finding really bizarre marginalia in a library book). On the other hand, that would probably be just a little too meta and cutesy to take. My wild dream of ouroborotic mp3blogs will have to wait until some sort of saturation point is reached. Or until someone is bored enough to actually entertain this idea.
'Boat Gas Death Train' is a function with a domain of {distortion} and a range of {organ}. There is absurdity hanging off of every radial arm of this thing (optional image: prehensile tinsel strands [pink] dangling from a plastic Christmas wreath), especially when it comes to the lyrics. Rollie said vocal style = J. Casablancas, and that is true, but it is also equally Nicholas Diamonds (you know, Unicorns, Islands), with a voice hidden behind a dressing screen of static and fuzz. Another quality this song shares with the music of those bands: it is virally catchy. If this song were in the public domain, I would use it in my forthcoming and imaginary television commercial for the product "Go-Yo" (Mayonnaise On the GO!!), have it play over a montage of people dressed in business casual attire furiously and discreetly squirting small tubes of mayonnaise into their mouths. The Wet Secrets indeed.
You can purchase the Wet Secrets' album, "Whale of a Cow" (which they apparently wrote in a single week- that is to say, the week that they initially formed) by emailing Blackbyrd Myoozik.
Thanks to Matt for posting for me yesterday, that was a great entry. Hopefully he'll be doing that more often in the future (if negotiations go well).
Posted by Kevin at 01:45 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
July 14, 2005
He cuts the tape with his hands and a knife which is more than I can say for you
Mount Eerie - Fuck the World (this file, she is big, okay?)
It's no secret that I love the fuck out of Phil Elv(e)rum. The bonanza of Mt. Eerie projects coming out in the next few months has me so excited that I could literally pop, covering the ensuing three-meter blast radius with my entrails and joy. I can pretty much count on no fingers the number of people who are doing as much as Phil with analog recording and group sing-alongs.
Speaking of which...
"Fuck the World" (which, consequently, is not a cover of the Queers song of the same name) starts off with a lengthy horn intro over which you'll find yourself humming "I Want to be Cold" from The Glow, pt 2 (aka Best). Right around the time you start looking at your watch and wondering if this track is an instrumental, people start singing, and then it's just Phil, and then everyone else again. They do that a few times.
The words that all these folks sing at you have a decidedly misanthropic cast--perhaps unsurprisingly so in a song called "Fuck the World." If you have a problem with that you shouldn't have downloaded the song. Also you should get over it.
The point at which you notice that the track is over 11 minutes long will vary from listener to listener. Personally, I hope you notice because you see that your risotto is almost half-done by the time the song ends. I say that mostly because risotto is good, and I only want the best for you.
Bye!
Posted by matt at 01:15 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
The first person to put chalk in the erasers will get hell of detentions
Hello, Molars readers, this is Matt speaking. I'm the President & CEO of greenideas Media, LLC, the parent company of Molars, and the weblog slavelord who keeps Kevin shackled to a desk and churning out soft-surrealist prose about bands you like.
At the moment, Kevin's on a white-slave exchange program in Kyrgyzstan, so I'll be filling in today. Later on, I'll put up a track and say clever things about it, just like Kevin would. And just to give you fair warning, this material will be on the test, so you don't get the day off just because there's a sub.
Posted by matt at 11:44 AM | Comments (3) | TrackBack
July 13, 2005
hail the discipline brick, bringer of teeth!
Editor's Note: Since I'm so busy, today Molars will take another detour into the recipe section. Lots of good music to write about (I want to write something more about that Wooden Wand solo album), but not enough time to do so (I'm leaving my current job and home in Virginia to move to Pennsylvania at the end of the month, so a lot of stuff is up in the air right now).
Anyway. I first heard about this Lemonade Shake from Ms. JW, who spoke of it in a manner that made it sound like it was possibly the most perfect beverage ever crafted by human hands. In Chicago, it's apparently served at a certain Costa Rican restaurant (don't know the name- but that should narrow it down, there aren't many restaurants in Chicago, right?), and it has lots of ice and lots of mint in it as well. I couldn't find any comparable recipe online, so this one is a cobbled together mosaic of a Lemonade Shake, frankensteined from many different sloppy lemon-derived drink recipes. Feel free to adapt it to your own tastes.
Lemonade Shake
1 1/2 cups vanilla ice cream
1 cup lemon sorbet
1/2 cup lemon juice
(optional) 1/4 cup champagne
garnish with a mint leaf (or blend them in, if you're feeling adventurous)
If any of you make it, let me know how it turns out. Music again tomorrow.
Posted by Kevin at 09:36 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
July 12, 2005
Cantaloupe Rinds and Saltwater
Golden Birds - Thermometer
Golden Birds were an association find: they played a show out in Berkeley with the incomparable Wind-Up Bird, and any band performing with Joseph Grimm is at least worth checking out. Turns out they're not only quite good, but are also engaged in an intensely cool project right now.
The Golden Birds are trying to play all 50 states, in the space of 51 days. Grueling probably doesn't even begin to describe it. But that's not the best part: their aim is to play on the steps of the Capitol building of each state, unamplified, at dusk, and for free. Today they'll be in Boise, Idaho, and if all goes well, they'll end up playing on the steps of the Capitol on the 23rd of August. Make sure you check their itinerary to see if you can still catch them on their (and this isn't hyperbole, in this case) epic tour.
'Thermometer' is a suspension bridge, with thin, cold guitar lines supporting the weight of the song (also figuring prominently are some amazing cut-up sounding drums, which give the track a little bite). On the surface and at the start, this is a song that seems to be about someone with a kind of monstrous tic in their maxillofacial muscles- but lyrically speaking, 'Thermometer' is really a sort of triptych. The TMJ struggles of the first character give way to a small, tender love note sandwiched in the middle, which then dovetails nicely into a weird but moving tangent about a girl who "carries a thermometer in her purse, and/Strain in her face from always bracing against the worst, she/Says everyone has a secret love affair with a malady, yeah/So don't take it out on yourself". The second to last line in that verse is perhaps the most romantic articulation of Munchausen's Syndrome that I've ever heard. Let me say: this song is very, very pretty. You will not be disappointed.
Golden Birds are fairly prolific, and are releasing (they'll have it with them on tour, soon) a new EP, called "Transamerica", which you can sample (two songs) on their website. 'Thermometer' is taken from their full-length album, "Carrier" (which was incidentally the old name of the band), which is available right here.
Posted by Kevin at 09:29 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
July 11, 2005
It's beyond me what a girl can see
Rusty Santos - This Direction
Rusty Santos, who I've written about previously, has a knack for writing oddly-arranged but perfect little pop songs. So many of the tracks on "The Heavens", Rusty's most recent LP, have that tossed-off and effortless feel- as if Santos rented a practice space in the city for a day on a whim, brought in his friend Dave Portner to help with production, and sat down and just recorded a great album. No rehearsal, just some loose ideas bouncing around and caught on tape. But even though the songs feel spur-of-the-moment, this music is obviously very well thought-out and polished.
'This Direction' is the best example of what I'm talking about. Besides having one of the strongest melodies on the album, 'This Direction' also sports one of the most interesting arrangements: starting off with a simple interval progression on acoustic guitar, and mouth-percussion (kind of a punched-in-the-stomach grunt from Rusty), it really breaks out when the drums start kicking and Santos sings his first lines in a tone that sounds like he's giving some much-needed and frank advice to a friend. And let me say that there is something intrinsically exciting about someone playing the living shit out of their acoustic guitar, as if they're wringing the song out of the instrument itself, where it was previously held captive (viz. the Microphones 'I Felt Your Shape').
"The Heavens" is available right here, and word is (via the very nice and knowledgable Rob Catsupplate, who just helped re-design the Animal Collective website into something gorgeous) that Rusty is working on another album, to be released in the near future. R.S. used to have a website over at www.rustysantos.net, but it looks like that's gone for the time being.
Posted by Kevin at 07:33 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
July 08, 2005
This place is a haven for blueprints
Kiss Me Deadly - Dance 4
While it is true that I wrote about this band merely a month ago, I just can't get this song out of my head. 'Dance 4' is the track that leads off Kiss Me Deadly's staggeringly pretty EP, "Amoureux Cosmiques", and it's even better than 'Dance 1' (the song I posted last month), with more glittery, scrawled guitar lines, and breathy-sex vocals from Emily Elizabeth. However, where 'Dance 1' just wants to seduce you into something quick and sweaty, 'Dance 4' is more like a slow-burning, searing crush coming into its own- where you realize, gradually, that tender glances and small, delicate touches can accrete into something meaningful, surprising, addictive. To put it another way: 'Dance 1' is the unquestionably attractive girl/guy who is hot and knows it, while 'Dance 4' is the guy/girl who is awkwardly adorable and is just prime marriage material, etc. This song will take care of you and cuddleslut it up with you on cold nights.
"Amoureux Cosmiques" is out now on Alien8, and you should buy it. (Produced by Jace Lasek of the Besnard Lakes). I cannot fucking wait to hear what their album (which is due this Fall) sounds like.
Posted by Kevin at 03:24 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
July 07, 2005
One defective hour
Westbam ft. Nena - Oldschool, Baby (from Michael Mayer's Fabric 13)
Questions that you might ask about this track:
Q. Is it true that pianos were often used as instruments of siege in the middle ages?
A. Uh, yes. Although pianos back then were made mostly out of cow hide, human teeth, and strips of freshly-peeled birch bark. Terrible weapons. Flung over the crenellated walls of forts, pianos would burst open and release highly-trained teams of ransacking toddlers (the word toddler in those days referred to a bearded man of small stature).
Q. Is that the Nena?
A. Do you mean the Nena that broke your heart in first garde by refusing your proposal of marriage and who subsequently flung your plastic engagement ring into the mounds of mulch near the playground, or the Nena that sings songs as featured in such movies as 'The Wedding Singer'? Cause it's the latter.
Anyway, I'm delirious with exhaustion, as if you couldn't guess. But that shouldn't detract from the sheen of this track (which is inestimable), and the falling-tetris-block inevitability of those rich and sweet piano chords. Nena sings through ghostalline waves of her own voice, and everything mixes together in a dangerously addictive way. 'Oldschool, Baby' is taken from Michael Mayer's masterful Fabric 13 mix, which you can buy right here.
Posted by Kevin at 09:35 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
July 06, 2005
the trials of Faberge
Kool Keith - The Girls Don't Like the Job
Let's try this again. Behind Black Leotard Front's 'Casual Friday', and Belle & Sebastian's 'Step Into My Office, Baby', 'the Girls Don't Like the Job' is one of the few songs I know that would be most at home on a 'music for sexual harassment' compilation. But unlike those other two songs, 'Girls...' is very subtle, with only a hint of impropriety. Kool Keith is dead calm in this track, dropping hard corporate jargon and switching back and forth between an immediate, clear vocal sound and something that's more like a secondhand recording off of an answering machine (waaaay off-mic and slightly distorted). The beat is thick and lazy and lukewarm, but it's garnished with both a menacing bassline and a synthy squeak that sounds like a sickly fire alarm, and it totally makes the song.
There are some CLASSIC lines in this song, but my favorite by far is the 'I want you to fax yourself to China OK? Do this now' that Kool Keith just throws out there in the background between the first verse and the chorus. Speaking of which, the chorus is particularly tempting in a 'Wall Street/Boiler Room/American Psycho' mantra-esque way (I have nearly had to choke back saying 'I hire and fire/give you checks when it's hot' during various training classes that I've taught). This song would be nice accompaniment if you wanted to grow a mustache, put on a perfectly tailored gray suit, slap a pair of aviator sunglasses on your face, light a cigarette, and invite all of your employees into a small conference room for an unexplained mass-firing. Break the news to them, then give them a parting gift of a handful of Pamprin and their choice of 3 items from the vending machine down the hall.
'The Girls Don't Like the Job' is from "Black Elvis/Lost in Space", which you can buy right here. Someday I will get around to part 3 of this mix, "Cubicle Temptation: Some Asses Look Better With Hands on Them" (the title is always changing).
Posted by Kevin at 06:34 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
July 05, 2005
Your dental plan is a bottle of whiskey and a torque wrench
Once I put the song up, this will be the second in my proposed 12 or 13-part sexual harassment in the workplace mix, but right now I'm having trouble putting together rational thoughts. More later in the day.
-- You know what? Let's just call this one a washout. My computer at work fried itself over the weekend, and while I was planning on putting up a song today, that doesn't look likely right now. I'll make it up to all of you tomorrow, I promise.
These Are Powers - South Angel
Posted by Kevin at 08:13 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
July 01, 2005
Noun plus verb plus adverb minus interest
Calla - Mother Sky (Can cover)
Some mildly lazy sentences regarding Calla:
1. Lead singer Aurelio Valle is a deadly whisperer. His voice is a little snake's tongue flickering in your ear. Possibly nice, but also slightly disturbing.
2. Calla play curvy, vicious, gut-wrenching music. It's cathartic, but only in a post-vengeful-homicide sort of way.
3. This cover of Can's 'Mother Sky' is impressive, but really, you have to see them play it live. They draw it out to an insane length, and the bass is deep and loud and elemental enough to reset your heartbeat (not an exaggeration, my friend left the show with a newfound arrhythmia).
4. Calla has just recently signed to Beggars Banquet, and they have a new album, "Collisions" coming out on September 27th. Couple months ago they still had an mp3 of the new song, 'It Dawned on Me' on their website, but looks like they took it down. New direction seems to be in a poppier, albeit bleak, vein.
5. This cover is from a split EP that Calla did with the Walkmen, which is very, very good, and which you can find here, along with the rest of Calla's releases, which are all worth your time and possibly your disposable income.
Posted by Kevin at 09:39 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack