Cataldo has a new album out and it’s streaming for free on his website. I’ve had a religious conversion to the “music reviews are really pointless” school of thought so I’m not going to review it other than to say IT’S SOOOOO GOOD. GO RIGHT NOW AND LISTEN TO IT, FOOL. Also, I may or may not be in the choir of random, slightly drunk people at the end of the last song. It was 2am and my BFF from high school and I were in a house in Olympia with multiple pictures of naked Burt Reynolds on the walls. Sometimes these things happen and you end up on a truly quality album.
Son Lux Interview Tuesday May 6, 2008
You may remember the album review I wrote about Son Lux’s debut album a few months back. Well, as soon as I heard that album I knew it would be perfect for a project I was doing for my 20th Century Music class about the intersection of classical and modern independent music. I emailed him and he graciously agreed to answer some questions on the subject. I’m hoping to upload the whole project (it’s like a fake podcast, except way nerdier) but I need to fix some stuff first. The full interview is after the jump. (more…)
Andrew Bird Blogging for the NYT Thursday April 10, 2008
This is kind of old news, but Andrew Bird has been writing posts along with some other singer-songwritery type people for a New York Times blog called Measure for Measure which is about the process of songwriting. His posts are as eloquent as you would expect them to be and offer fascinating insight into his mind. A favorite quote from his most recent one:
Live shows are adrenaline-fueled and spontaneous: if you want to capture that then you should put out a live show recording. But the kind of record you want to listen to over and over again in your bedroom or car is something else — a carefully carved piece of sound.
In the second post there is a snippet of the new song which is fabulous even in its unfinished state.
Partial Bumbershoot Lineup Announced Wednesday April 9, 2008
Bumbershoot sent out an email with a partial lineup this morning:
Beck, Stone Temple Pilots, Lucinda Williams, Neko Case, Ingrid Michaelson, Del Tha Funky Homosapien, Jakob Dylan, !!!, Lee “Scratch” Perry, Saul Williams, Joe Bonamassa, M. Ward, The Walkmen, Asylum St. Spankers, Dan Deacon, MIDIval PunditZ, Blitzen Trapper, Bedouin Soundclash, Tim Finn, Dale Watson, John Vanderslice, Final Fantasy, The Fall of Troy, Orgone, Forro in the Dark, Ryan Bingham, Wreckless Eric & Amy Rigby, Arthur & Yu, Darondo and Nino Moschella, Pacifika
FInal Fantasy and John Vanderslice alone will be worth the price of admission, I’m sure.
Son Lux Friday March 14, 2008
KUPS is involved in a deal with the Volcano (the Tacoma version of The Stranger, or The Source* if you live in Bend) in which one of our music directors writes an album review each week in exchange for free advertising. This week was my first time writing one and I had no idea what to write about. The stuff that went up on rotation this week wasn’t too compelling or has been written up by everyone and their mom already (She and Him…god they’re everywhere) so I frantically started listening to every CD we got in the mail, and what do you know, the latest Anticon release pulled through for me. I’m not going to lie, part of the reason I picked it is because the cover art is so dang pretty, but the music is fabulous as well. The cover art was created with a computer program which uses audio inputs to create visual images. They put in music from the album and that is what it made. Pretty cool.
Here’s a track off the album
[mp3] Son Lux-Break
And here’s a really sweet video for that song
My full review after the jump. Here’s the link to it on the Volcano site so you can brag to all your friends (or smug fellow teachers as the case may be) that you know someone who has been published in the free weekly paper of the suicide capital of America.
*incidentally I recently learned that there is also a very prominent hip-hop magazine called The Source. The irony of this is not lost on me, or I suspect anyone who has ever set foot in Bend
New Cataldo Songs! Tuesday February 12, 2008
Cataldo has posted 4 songs from his new album up on his myspace. I had heard all of these songs live and thought they were fabulous, but I was not prepared for how truly amazing the recorded versions are. There is piano! And cello! And trumpet! And back-up singers! And they were mixed by Tucker Martine, who has worked with The Decemberists, Laura Veirs, and Sufjan Stevens! Awesome! Now that I’ve used up my lifetime allotment of exclamation points I will be going.
“New” Elliott Smith Song Saturday January 12, 2008
This song is thought to have been recorded with the Place Pigalle demos which went on to become Figure 8. I love how every few months we get a song or two of the rumored hundreds of his unreleased songs. It keeps his music fresh and every time something new comes out I get a reminder to listen to his entire catalog again. It’s nice to go back to old favorites once in a while rather than only listening to new stuff as my habits have skewed lately.
[mp3] Elliott Smith-Place Pigalle
Via IGIF | More at Elliott Smith B-Sides
Hello onslaught of people searching for Peter Bjorn and John! Wednesday September 12, 2007
So, over the past week my visitor count has increased DRAMATICALLY (my “most visits in a day ever” doubled on Monday) and it appears that the vast majority of people are finding me by searching for Peter Bjorn and John. That’s cool, but someone please enlighten me: what search engine are you using? Because I’m pretty sure you’re not going through the more than 30 pages of Google results to get here (I gave up looking at 32 and it’s my own blog). I’m just curious.
In other news, Leaves in the River by Sea Wolf is really fucking good, so go buy it when it officially comes out on Sept. 25th.
Also, since I’m now working at the radio station as Assistant Alt. Director I’m pretty much living there at the moment, and for the next 3 weeks while we get the new DJs hired/trained and catch up on the close to 100 CDs that need to be listened to (that’s as of yesterday, I’m sure the mail fairy has brought us 20 or so more by now). You all know what that means: I’m dead to you, along with my friends, family, homework, and very very dirty apartment.
All Smiles Monday July 30, 2007
All Smiles is one of those indie-rock super groups made up of current and former members of other well-known bands. Technically it is the solo project of Jim Fairchild, former guitarist of the now defunct Grandaddy (he also played a tour with Modest Mouse). For his recently released first album, Ten Readings of a Warning he has also enlisted the help of several other musicians, among them Janet Weiss of Sleater Kinney, Joe Plummer of Modest Mouse and Black Heart Procession, Solon Bixler of Great Northern, and Danny Seim of Menomena. The recording was done in a traveling low-tech recording studio in various homes on an analog reel-to-reel recorder, which is awesome because no one uses those anymore. Fun fact: when we moved from my childhood home when I was 13 we found a reel-to-reel recorder in our garage that we didn’t know we still owned. I have no idea where it is now…probably in our new garage.
Aaanyway, All Smiles sound is laid back with acoustic guitars and some piano. It’s your basic indie-pop awesomeness. I’ve recently realized how bad I am at describing music in a coherent and interesting way, so do both me and you a favor and click on the song links down there and listen for yourself.
[mp3] All Smiles-Moth in a Cloud of Smoke
[mp3] All Smiles-Pile of Burning Leaves
