So, a couple of quick things this week. I'm working on a longer post, but it's like, extensively researched and stuff, so it will be up hopefully by next week.
First, Kimya Dawson has a new album coming out called Thunder Thighs. There are two really great songs on the interwebs now, both featuring one of the greatest music artists going in any genre AESOP ROCK!!!
This is not to downplay Kimya, as this looks like it will be one of her best records, nor is it to ignore that one of these songs also features John Darnielle of my favorite band the Mountain Goats. Here are the songs in question, enjoy:
Walk Like Thunder by kimyadawson
http://soundcloud.com/somekindofawesome/kimya-dawson-miami-advice-feat
*****
The other thing is, I have this other venture going right now that I want anyone reading this to check out. It's called Revolving Spleen and the point behind it is to bring unsigned artists who are giving something away for free into the light and connect them with an audience. I've gotten some positive response so far, but I need more people to contribute, and of course more people to be fans.
Read more here and here
Check out the facebook page and follow the Spleen on twitter too @revolvingspleen
The idea is for fans to get free music and artists to get free exposure, so anyone who finds the idea mildly interesting should check it out. I've been plugging this all over the internet because it's the thing I'm working on that I care for most right now. Please help the Spleen bring free music and community spirit to the world of true indie music.
Wednesday, March 23, 2011
Tuesday, March 15, 2011
The Brain Forest -or- Eat, Prey, Love
So it begins:
"I started out in search of ordinary things"
Which is basically the way I started out myself a couple of days ago. Looking for an album to listen to. Searching through the stacks (long since digitized) for something to satisfy a particular itch I was having.
You know the itch, don't you? That feeling that sneaks up on you and says "Hey, aren't you tired of listening to the Mountain Goats for the billionth time?" And this is not meant to negate my general feeling that when all else fails, the Mountain Goats will always work. Because they will...
The general problem that arose, and I bet you know this feeling too, was that NOTHING was satisfying me. I mean, I could listen to anything from Nina Simone to Pavement (and I did) and there was no crack in the surface of the mighty bubble of indifference which surrounded me.
I decided to break what has been a general rule for me and visit Pandora.
Look, I can't fault Pandora. It's an excellent service with a genius idea behind it. But just something... something about it seems cheap to me... like just skipping the whole idea of finding something that blows you away and messes with your mind for days. Instead you just tell the algorithm about some stuff you think is cool and it tries to play stuff that's like that. There's a complex set of characteristics that are analyzed. Wheels turn. Pipes sputter. Computers... compute. Things happen. Really, it will play you some cool stuff. It's amazing as an alternative to radio. So, really, my prejudice against it is pretty silly. "You mean there's a thing that plays random songs like the radio, but will play you stuff YOU like?" Yeah, I know, it sounds awesome to me too. And it kind of is. But something in me rebels. I want to seek out something. I want something to call to me out of the depths of the universe and say, "Listen". I want Holy Synchronicity to show up and slap me in the face with something I can't deny. Like how, in learning about The Residents, because they were supposed to be something special (and yeah, they are), I found two bands that over time I would grow to love much more deeply (namely: Renaldo & the Loaf and This Heat). Not to mention, these services designed to match up listeners with music they will like (yeah, I'm looking at you too last.fm) always seems to be more miss than hit for me on the hit and miss scale. This is strange because I am one of the least discerning listeners I can imagine there being. I love most music I hear.
Anyhow, as a result of listening to Pandora for about an hour or so with my girlfriend, I discovered two new songs that I dug. I've now heard the respective albums. One was sort of disappointing and I will be kind enough not to mention the name. The other was Molly Johnson's Another Day which seems really wonderful, but will require further study. But alas, this is not what I came here to write about.
What I came here to write about was how my girlfriend, being the instrument of synchronicity she is, suggested we listen to a mix a friend of ours made for her. One of my favorite songs on this excellent, all killer/no filler mix was "Eid Ma Clack Shaw" by Bill Callahan. For those who don't know, Callahan used to go by (Smog) (or just Smog without the parenthetical part) and in my opinion, Smog was kind of hit and miss. Don't kill me Callahan fans! I like Smog. It's just a matter of taste... there were moments of greatness and moments of disappointment for me with Smog. Overall, I'd give all of Callahan's work that I have heard a pretty solid thumbs up. My lack of complete enthusiasm for Smog had led to me to not jump immediately on his later work, when he started going by his real name. "Eid Ma Clack Shaw" had interested me for a while, since my good friend, who has excellent taste, had put it on this mix. Yet for some reason I had not picked up the album. The title of said album is something I can't even think without getting excited. Ready for it: Sometimes I Wish I Were an Eagle. Even outside the context of the actual album, which makes this title even more awesome, this is an awesome title.
As you can probably guess, this IS a post about Sometimes I Wish I Were an Eagle. Obviously, I was reminded of the awesome song by the mix. I wasn't prepared for how good it would be. Here's my response to STARTING the album, as posted on a message board:
I have to tell you, I'm on my third listen through the album right now and it is just one of those gems that only Holy Synchronicity can bring you.
The point of the album, and its title, to me, would have to be the amazing song "All Thoughts Are Prey to Some Beast". In this song, no joke, an eagle scares a bunch of smaller birds out of a tree that looks like a brain, and then, while dreaming of his great future, realizes he is alone. In the end the eagle himself leaves. Even if there was nothing metaphorical going on here, that would be a damn fine song.
"Faith/Void" is the only place Callahan looses me at all. That's not to say the song doesn't resonate with me, but I made the mistake of reading his own words on it (which can be both a good idea and a bad idea with almost any song). It seems he's aiming for some kind of atheist manifesto here, which like... I mean I don't have much use for atheism, not because I believe in some monolithic God, but because I don't see the point of it (it being atheism). But really: 1)I don't have to agree with lyrics to like them and 2)I don't actually disagree with anything he says in the song anyhow. I especially like the line "A void without a question is just perverse". I'm with him in sentiment anyhow. Why is it even important for me to bring this up? Because I have that kind of love for this album that needs me to analyze it, then overanalyze it, then analyze it some more. I need to find as much common ground with it as possible.
My advice, after this experience, is trust synchronicity, or the music gods, or whatever... if you trust, you won't be let down. That's all.
"I started out in search of ordinary things"
Which is basically the way I started out myself a couple of days ago. Looking for an album to listen to. Searching through the stacks (long since digitized) for something to satisfy a particular itch I was having.
You know the itch, don't you? That feeling that sneaks up on you and says "Hey, aren't you tired of listening to the Mountain Goats for the billionth time?" And this is not meant to negate my general feeling that when all else fails, the Mountain Goats will always work. Because they will...
The general problem that arose, and I bet you know this feeling too, was that NOTHING was satisfying me. I mean, I could listen to anything from Nina Simone to Pavement (and I did) and there was no crack in the surface of the mighty bubble of indifference which surrounded me.
I decided to break what has been a general rule for me and visit Pandora.
Look, I can't fault Pandora. It's an excellent service with a genius idea behind it. But just something... something about it seems cheap to me... like just skipping the whole idea of finding something that blows you away and messes with your mind for days. Instead you just tell the algorithm about some stuff you think is cool and it tries to play stuff that's like that. There's a complex set of characteristics that are analyzed. Wheels turn. Pipes sputter. Computers... compute. Things happen. Really, it will play you some cool stuff. It's amazing as an alternative to radio. So, really, my prejudice against it is pretty silly. "You mean there's a thing that plays random songs like the radio, but will play you stuff YOU like?" Yeah, I know, it sounds awesome to me too. And it kind of is. But something in me rebels. I want to seek out something. I want something to call to me out of the depths of the universe and say, "Listen". I want Holy Synchronicity to show up and slap me in the face with something I can't deny. Like how, in learning about The Residents, because they were supposed to be something special (and yeah, they are), I found two bands that over time I would grow to love much more deeply (namely: Renaldo & the Loaf and This Heat). Not to mention, these services designed to match up listeners with music they will like (yeah, I'm looking at you too last.fm) always seems to be more miss than hit for me on the hit and miss scale. This is strange because I am one of the least discerning listeners I can imagine there being. I love most music I hear.
Anyhow, as a result of listening to Pandora for about an hour or so with my girlfriend, I discovered two new songs that I dug. I've now heard the respective albums. One was sort of disappointing and I will be kind enough not to mention the name. The other was Molly Johnson's Another Day which seems really wonderful, but will require further study. But alas, this is not what I came here to write about.
What I came here to write about was how my girlfriend, being the instrument of synchronicity she is, suggested we listen to a mix a friend of ours made for her. One of my favorite songs on this excellent, all killer/no filler mix was "Eid Ma Clack Shaw" by Bill Callahan. For those who don't know, Callahan used to go by (Smog) (or just Smog without the parenthetical part) and in my opinion, Smog was kind of hit and miss. Don't kill me Callahan fans! I like Smog. It's just a matter of taste... there were moments of greatness and moments of disappointment for me with Smog. Overall, I'd give all of Callahan's work that I have heard a pretty solid thumbs up. My lack of complete enthusiasm for Smog had led to me to not jump immediately on his later work, when he started going by his real name. "Eid Ma Clack Shaw" had interested me for a while, since my good friend, who has excellent taste, had put it on this mix. Yet for some reason I had not picked up the album. The title of said album is something I can't even think without getting excited. Ready for it: Sometimes I Wish I Were an Eagle. Even outside the context of the actual album, which makes this title even more awesome, this is an awesome title.
As you can probably guess, this IS a post about Sometimes I Wish I Were an Eagle. Obviously, I was reminded of the awesome song by the mix. I wasn't prepared for how good it would be. Here's my response to STARTING the album, as posted on a message board:
I FINALLY decided to grab this. I'd been wanting an album to kind of blow me away a little and nothing was working. I'm only two songs in to listening, and even though I've already heard the second song on this album about eighty times, I feel like I found what I was looking for. As I type, the third song is starting and... I mean my assumption doesn't seem wrong at all. The title and the cover and the song I already knew and the song I've heard all of that I hadn't before and the song I'm just passing through right now all tell me this is the thing (or one of them) I was missing.
I have to tell you, I'm on my third listen through the album right now and it is just one of those gems that only Holy Synchronicity can bring you.
The point of the album, and its title, to me, would have to be the amazing song "All Thoughts Are Prey to Some Beast". In this song, no joke, an eagle scares a bunch of smaller birds out of a tree that looks like a brain, and then, while dreaming of his great future, realizes he is alone. In the end the eagle himself leaves. Even if there was nothing metaphorical going on here, that would be a damn fine song.
"Faith/Void" is the only place Callahan looses me at all. That's not to say the song doesn't resonate with me, but I made the mistake of reading his own words on it (which can be both a good idea and a bad idea with almost any song). It seems he's aiming for some kind of atheist manifesto here, which like... I mean I don't have much use for atheism, not because I believe in some monolithic God, but because I don't see the point of it (it being atheism). But really: 1)I don't have to agree with lyrics to like them and 2)I don't actually disagree with anything he says in the song anyhow. I especially like the line "A void without a question is just perverse". I'm with him in sentiment anyhow. Why is it even important for me to bring this up? Because I have that kind of love for this album that needs me to analyze it, then overanalyze it, then analyze it some more. I need to find as much common ground with it as possible.
My advice, after this experience, is trust synchronicity, or the music gods, or whatever... if you trust, you won't be let down. That's all.
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