new math for old equations

many moons ago a friend - known by the moniker of math dance or t-bone - turned me onto the genre known as, 'math rock' through owls and joan of arc ... scare quotes aside, i am a hug fan of angular guitars and chaotic percussion... so, i have repeatedly tried to make a mix to emphasize this point (this has been a 3 month process), but i can never bring the number of songs down to under 20... anyway, the result of my indecisiveness, after hours of humming and hawing, is below... including a couple difficult to track down owls tracks...

one of my all time favourite bands

1. owls - we are the owls
2. owls - later
3. owls - what whorse you wrote id on*
4. owls - everyone is my friend
5. owls - anyone can have a good time*
6. owls - holy fucking ghost***
   

incestuous bands (including the owls above)

7. joan of arc - gin & platonic*
8. joan of arc - white out
9. cap'n'jazz - little league
10. make believe - say what you mean
11. make believe - ep track two
12. make believe - 'boom!' sounds like '--hiss--' from inside it**
13. ghosts & vodka - good luck with your multiple personalities

canadian 'math-ish rock'

14. women - shaking hand***
15. wooden stars - orphans
16. wooden stars - boating accident**
17. zeros - the disappearance of skyscrapers

keep dancing

18. pterodactyl - first daze
19. pterodactyl - december*
20. pterodactyl - one with everyone
21. marnie stern - every single line means something**
22. marnie stern - transformer
23. maps & atlases - witch*
24. maps & atlases - artichokes
25. battles - ipt -2
26. battles - tonto

the best of the rest

27. foals - red sock pugie***
28. foals - mathletics
29. foals - the french open*
30. algernon cadwallader - some kind of cadwallader
31. hot club de paris - the friendship song
32. hot club de paris - the haunting
33. dirty projectors - six pack**

*stars demarcate level of fucking awesomeness*

download pt1. - http://www.yousendit.com/download/MnFpcmxmcGs1UjdIRGc9PQ

download pt2. - https://www.yousendit.com/download/MnFpcmxmcGtsUitGa1E9PQ

all russian minimalists/suprematist compositions by: Kazimir Malevich, El Lissitzky, and Nina Genke...

trade winds on the highway and the burden of Prometheus

"I hear the ruin of all space, shattered glass and toppling masonry" - james joyce

"In this loveless everyday life eroticism is a substitute for love" -henri lefebvre

"A rose is without a why" -angelus silesius

"The storming of the winter palace will now come in the monsoon season" -andy merrifield














i have weird obsessions. i eat a lot of avocado, i like to watch the way coffee dries on spoons, i cannot sleep in the same spot for more than two weeks straight, i tend to deal in totalities, i refuse to wear pants in bed, i have an unhealthy fixation on long shadows the last hour before the sun sets, and so on... as far as art goes this year i've fixated on images of chairs, old books, owl (burrowing owls being the most delicious variety), images of nature from the 1800's, long exposure shots at night and now my new muse seems to be balloons (preferable of the red variety)...













so i've been listening to the new foreign born and white rabbits albums over and over lately. perhaps this is because i can sing in the range (by this i mean i can sing in the range of rod stewart), or maybe i just need a break from 'math rock' which had been the main noise coming from my apartment window for the last month. either way, there is something to be said about simple and straight forward rock songs that can bring about visceral feelings and capture the most intricate emotions with the simplest howls and chords... the cadence and rhythm of everyday life, what seems both familiar and foreign, leisure and alienation, creation and routine, speaks is audible tones to those who listen.

"They've crucified the sun! They've crucified the sun!" - Henri Lefebvre

1. Foreign Born - Blood Oranges
2. Foreign Born - Lion's Share
3. Foreign Born -It Grew Out Of You
   
4. White Rabbits - Percussion Gun
5. White Rabbits - The Plot
6. White Rabbits -Rudie Fails
7. White Rabbits -Company I Keep
8. The Walkmen - Dónde Está La Playa
9. The Walkmen - The Rat
10. The Walkmen -We've Been Had
11. The Walkmen - Lost In Boston
    
12. SoundTeam - Fastest Man Alive
13. SoundTeam - No More Birthdays
14. SoundTeam - Back In Town
    
15. Spoon - Paper Tiger
16. Spoon - I Summon You
17. Spoon - The Two Sides Of Monsieur Valentine
    
18. Cold War Kids - Hospital Beds
19. Cold War Kids - The Soloist In The Living Room
    

download link: https://www.yousendit.com/download/MnFocHBPd0E5RlpMWEE9PQ













the last four images are from http://www.maxwanger.com/
not sure about the rest but probably somewhere in the www.fffound.com archives

revisions and re-ups

you may know the handsome man above from such posts as 'glava is not an acceptable drink to bring to a party'.... davy dirty 'switchblade' staawnhouse as he is know to some is now a korean icon and will soon be releasing a k-pop album which will include duets with super junior, rain, and big bang... thus, vanilla tofu (as he is known in the backstreets of s.k.) has not had the time to download the two playlists i posted on may 9th before they expired... here they are again - as my links only stay up for two weeks because i refuse to pay for file hosting - for my prairie cousin...
1.http://www.yousendit.com/download/MnFqRFFYTkEwVW5IRGc9PQ
2.http://www.yousendit.com/download/MnFqRFFYTkFreEFLSkE9PQ












so i always do this, i post a playlist and then a couple of days pass, and i realize i forgot to include one of the bands i should have. in the case of the last playlist i forgot 'years', which is a sprawling and beautiful album by ohad benchetrit (member of do make say think and contributer to broken social scene, et al.). less 'atmospheric' and 'post-rock' than dmst and less pop orientated than bss, i have really enjoyed the album... here are the four songs i should have included in the last playlist:

1. Years - Con't Let The Blind Go Deaf
   
2. Years - Are You Unloved
   
3. Years - September 5, October 21 2007
   
4. Years - The Major Lift

download link:
http://www.yousendit.com/download/MnFqRFFUMGNrYUFLSkE9PQ




all images minus the initial masterpiece from my dear friend patrick at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/p_tumbleweed/

unfinished novels and other things we lost in the fire

In the past two weeks the books, tunng, and efterklang have all come up in completely unrelated conversations with unrelated people who would surely have conversations had they met in the past two weeks. This seems like a fitting motivations to post some of the above artists and a couple others who dove-tail with whatever genre the books, tunng and efterklang fall under...

1. The Books - The Lemon Of Pink
   
2. The Books - That Right Ain't Shit
   
3. The Books - None But Shining Hours
   
4. The Books - Twelve Fold Chain
   
5. The Books - Three Day Night
   
6. The Books - Enjoy Your Worries, You May Never Have Them Again
   
7. The Books -Excess Straussess
8. Tunng - Woodcat
   
9. Tunng - The Wind Up Bird
   
10. Tunng - Jenny Again
    
11. Tunng - Man In The Box
    
12. Tunng - Sweet William
    
13. Tunng - Take
    
14. Tunng - Soup
15. Tunng - Spoons
    
16. Tunng - Cans
    
17. Tunng - Mother's Daughter
    
18. Tunng - Tale From Black
    
19. Tunng -Surprise Me 44
    
20. Efterklang - Mirador
    
21. Efterklang - Towards The Bare Hill
    
22. Efterklang - Monopolist
    
23. Efterklang - Jojo
    
24. Psapp - Wet Box
    
25. Psapp - Hi
    
26. Psapp - Eating Spiders
    
27. Psapp - About Fun
    
28. Psapp - The Counter
    
29. Talk Demonic - Dusty Flourescent/Wooden Shelves
    
30. Talk Demonic - Manhatten '81
    
31. Talk Demonic - White Gymnasium
    
32. Talk Demonic - Ending The Orange Glow
    
33. Talk Demonic - A Hundred Faces In The Neon Forest
34. Talk Demonic - Recorder (demo)

Dowload Link:
Pt. 1 - http://www.yousendit.com/download/MnFpQ3R3Q3QzMWwzZUE9PQ
Pt. 2 - https://www.yousendit.com/download/MnFpQ3R3Q3RJMHRMWEE9PQ

"Woodcat, oh once a girl
but not since the incident
Lives in the darkness making friends with the animals
Eyes burning yellow
I miss your sweet kisses
I miss having coffee in bed watching TV

The ghost of an image
it's just fleeting glimpses
You're there then you're gone
through the roots and the nettles
I miss your hard edges
I miss your bone marrow
I miss having coffee in bed watching TV

And we all had a lovely time

I'll look for a man
to turn me into a hare
Just like they did
when you did what you did
And the court came around
and the verdict flew out
And the rats ran about
and the change trickled down

And they left your brown body
gentle and shivering
Back in the clearing
with the deer in the evening
And I'll come and find you;
small sleek and silent
And we'll live like lovers
in an old wooden rhyme

And we're in for a lovely time

Come close up to me,
fire in an open hearth
Raised in a vessel
of our only action
Some satisfaction,
some sweet satisfaction
From all of this everything,
spun 'round the middle

And they said it was a lovely time "

- tunng, woodcat

east further east, lessons in french diplomacy...

i find it strange that with arrivals and departures, the discontinuity of temporality, the flux of escape, i find myself returning to the music of my youth - the comfort food for hungry ears. all this aside, its more than simple times, editted memories and nostalgic youth, the rhythm of home and its soundtrack seems to be something which binds our competing narratives together. this is a point i was reminded of when watching olenka and the autumn lovers earlier this week (a band ive written about before and think deserve much much more acclaim than they receive). the point is memories harmonize in the strangest setting and in the most unfamiliar faces, the key is knowing when to listen...

1. magnolia electric co. - it made me cry
2. mimicking birds - burning stars
3. olenka & the autumn lovers - flash in the pans
4. gillian welch - winters come and gone
5. the wheat pool - peniel, sk.
6. wilco ft. fiest - jolly banker (cover)
7. basket of figs - holland
8. tom wait - hope i dont fall in love with you (early version)
9. paul duncan - the lake pt.2
10. arthur russell - maybe she
11. the deep dark woods - all the money i had is gone
12. john prine - angel from montgomery
13. iron and wine - halfway to richmond
14. okkervil river - red
15. jeff tweedy - i am trying to break your heart
16. sun kil moon - floating
17. the band - tears of rage

download link:
https://www.yousendit.com/download/dVlwZFhzR3N6RS9IRGc9PQ





- listening to tiny rhythms and the compromise of sleep - she's reaching for a confession in her purse, this was the last waltz in monmartre - moving east to roman shadows and wooden foxes, the things we lost in the fire - between the shivers of drying sheets on the radiators and the thirst of arctic salt - nailed down to the floorboards with the arsonist of my memories -

press your daydreams into vinyl.

i've been overseas in paris and dublin for a couple weeks so i guess its time to get back into procrastinating and make some posts... here is some relatively new stuff that has been floating around/leaked or been released which i have been enjoying over the last couple of weeks...

1. the dirty projectors and david bryne - ambulance man
2. the national ft. bon iver - vanderlylle cry baby
3. deerhunter - famous last words
4. mount eerie - sighing
5. james blackshaw - cross
6. passion pit - little secerts
7. vibes - night court
8. magic arm - daft punk is playing at my house (lcd soundsystem cover)
9. the hylozoists - the french settle in
10. jason lytle - rollin' home alone
11. apostle of hustle - blackberry
12. the big pink - velvit (gang gang dance remix)

download link:
https://www.yousendit.com/download/dVlwZFhzR3M5NVYzZUE9PQ




images from: fffound.com and http://www.flickr.com/photos/21525853@N00/sets/72157594319963667/