I've spent the last week listening to David Bowie's epic masterpiece The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust. Its about time I listened to that album.
I've spent the last week listening to David Bowie's epic masterpiece The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust. Its about time I listened to that album.
BLOG
And everybody wants to be special here
They call your name out loud and clear
Here comes a regular
Call out your name
Here comes a regular
Am I the only one here today?
Wye Oak's shift from guitar to bass with The Shriek actually flows really well, a radical surprise given the shift of musical style that Jenn Wasner's bass playing gives it. Having her vocals mixed up higher certainly helps. I miss the guitar freakouts, but it's solid through and through.
Brian Eno's Apollo is wonderful stuff. Magnificent throughout. Not digging Thursday Afternoon quite as much, but the former album is great.
Agalloch's newest seems a bit lackluster so far. It seems a bit too transparent of a stylistic throwback--this'll make two albums in a row from them that don't ever quite resonate with me.
Swans's To Be Kind gets released in under a week! Been listening to it over at NPR for the last week and been getting even more excited.
The Boat People - 9
The Power of the Dog - 7.5
The King of Pigs - 7
I've been listening to Thursday Afternoon and Shutov Assembly all week, to go along with my dive into FM Synthesis. I like both, but Shutov Assembly might be Eno's secret masterpiece.Quoting dreamdead (view post)
New electro mix up!
http://www.mixcloud.com/DJQrazy/remix-nation/
The Princess and the Pilot - B-
Playtime (rewatch) - A
The Hobbit - C-
The Comedy - D+
Kings of the Road - C+
The Odd Couple - B
Red Rock West - C-
The Hunger Games - D-
Prometheus - C
Tangled - C+
Bah, Kathleen Hanna's Lyme's disease returned, leading to the Julie Ruin's cancellation at this summer's Pitchfork Music Festival. Sarah and I had really gotten into the Go Fast album (and, to a lesser extent, Le Tigre's debut), and we were really digging Hanna's focus on self-definition and feminism amidst more danceable rhythms--the title track on the TJR album is magnificent. Sad we won't get to see 'em.
Just ordered The Sound's Jeopardy/All Fall Down/From the Lion's Mouth compilation--very excited for this one. The tracks I've listened to were exceptional.
The Swans' newest is slowly revealing itself. Need more time for it, so hopefully it'll keep revealing new layers.
The Boat People - 9
The Power of the Dog - 7.5
The King of Pigs - 7
Jeopardy is the best album I've heard all year, bar-none. Stone cold classic and once of the best post-punk albums ever. Gets better with every listen too. From the Lion's Mouth is great as well, just not as singular, spare and uncompromisingly awesome as its predecessor. Need to get to All Fall Down post haste.
The new Swans is great. It's a bit of dust-settling after the apocalyptic fury of The Seer, but it has its moments of intensity as well of course. It took longer for me to fully appreciate it than The Seer, but I ended up loving it.
Jeopardy is great.
Last 10 Movies Seen
(90+ = canonical, 80-89 = brilliant, 70-79 = strongly recommended, 60-69 = good, 50-59 = mixed, 40-49 = below average with some good points, 30-39 = poor, 20-29 = bad, 10-19 = terrible, 0-9 = soul-crushingly inept in every way)
Run (2020) 64
The Whistlers (2019) 55
Pawn (2020) 62
Matilda (1996) 37
The Town that Dreaded Sundown (1976) 61
Moby Dick (2011) 50
Soul (2020) 64
Heroic Duo (2003) 55
A Moment of Romance (1990) 61
As Tears Go By (1988) 65
Stuff at Letterboxd
Listening Habits at LastFM
Look at these ridiculous features on the Jack White Lazaretto vinyl:
My turntable doesn't do 78rpm so one bonus track is out for me. And how the hell do you play it from the inside out? Pick up the needle after every song? Or do you place it in the middle and the grooves push the needle to the outside? So weird, kind of cool. Mostly weird. Jack White, ladies and gentlemen.
last four:
black widow - 8
zero dark thirty - 9
the muse - 7
freaky - 7
now reading:
lonesome dove - larry mcmurtry
Letterboxd
The Harrison Marathon - A Podcast About Harrison Ford
Boris's new album, "Noise," is the first album of theirs to altogether excite me in years. "Angel" is of course devastating, and having heard it live last year makes it even more resonant. Love that this album seems to be the one-of-everything in the musical stylings rather than committing exhaustively to a drone or stoner album template. Hoping it continues to excite so that the next two weeks just keep generating wonder.
The Boat People - 9
The Power of the Dog - 7.5
The King of Pigs - 7
Loving the Alvvays album very very much. NPR's streaming it for the time being.
Those first five songs might make up my favourite Side A of the year. Could've been a perfect EP right there, but then there's four more perfectly fine tracks to back it up as a legitimate (though still too short) full length debut. Any fans of Camera Obscura, Chvrches, Best Coast, Real Estate, et cetera... This one's for you.
Last 11 things I really enjoyed:
Speed Racer (Wachowski/Wachowski, 2008)
Safe (Haynes, 1995)
South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut (Parker, 1999)
Beastie Boys Story (Jonze, 2020)
Bad Trip (Sakurai, 2020)
What's Up Doc? (Bogdanovich, 1972)
Diva (Beineix, 1981)
Delicatessen (Caro/Jeunet, 1991)
The Hunger (Scott, 1983)
Pineapple Express (Green, 2008)
Chungking Express (Wong, 1994)
That's pretty cool.
The severed arm perfectly acquitted itself, because of the simplicity of its wishes and its total lack of doubt.
The new How to Dress Well album is slowly growing on me. This year has been weak for me, but I'm really looking forward to the new Shabazz Palaces.
New FlyLo is called "You're Dead!" and has outrageous cover art that I'm not too sure about.
Still probably my most anticipated of the year.
I've been on the Sturgill Simpson bandwagon the last week or two as well. THAT is what good country music sounds like.
ETA: His album is up there with the new St. Vincent and War on Drugs records for me. Those are the three I've obsessed over at various times this year. I also really like the new Swans, but I don't think Michael Gira is aiming for obsessive repeat listening. Nor do I want to know what that would do to my psyche.
This is the year for female-fronted/solo artists for me, excepting The War on Drugs. Sharon Van Etten, Angel Olsen, Hundred Waters, and St. Vincent have all done stellar work in my mind. This year's Swans album has clear standout tracks (opener, A Little God, Oxygen), but I'm having to work harder to find investment listening to a full side of the album at any one time.
Otherwise, not sure I'll hear anything as ethereal as Boris's "Angel" this year. Perturbator's newest is also pretty good. And Sun Kil Moon's "Benji" totally clicked on a Chicagoland-to-Oklahoma drive last month, which was wonderful. It only works at certain times, when it can coexist with my attention, but that one listen was among the best I've had all year.
Standout year for me so far... need to look into the Sturgill.
The Boat People - 9
The Power of the Dog - 7.5
The King of Pigs - 7
He's amazing. A true talent in a sea of mediocrity.
Have you heard Jenny Scheinman's new album? She's a renowned jazz violinist. Her new album is alt-country, with Brian Blade - the best drummer in the world - on drums. It's incredible.
Holy shit @ that Sturgill Simpson. That's phenomenal stuff.
Losing is like fertilizer: it stinks for a while, then you get used to it. (Tony, Hibbing)
...and Bill Frisell on the guitar? Wow. That guy is incredible. If you want some dreamy fusion jazz guitar that evokes Jean Luc Ponty, you need look no further.
Losing is like fertilizer: it stinks for a while, then you get used to it. (Tony, Hibbing)
Both of his albums are extraordinary.
Totally. The album is a study in alt-country minimalism, with a hint of atmospheric jazz because of Frisell and Blade. Many of the tracks consist of only vocals, drums, and guitar.
I haven't, but I will now. Brian Blade is my favorite drummer.
Heck yeah, the dude is incredible.
I've been bouncing around a bunch of 2014 stuff this morning. Everything from YG to Cloud Nothings to Todd Terje to Angel Olsen and Hundred Waters (both of which intrigue me, but I think I'll need to spend more time with them). I just put on this album and about a minute into the first song I thought "This. This is what I was looking for."
Also, I always thought Sun Kil Moon was a drone metal band (clearly, I was conflating them with Sunn O), so the initial few seconds were a bit jarring. Good stuff though.
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