in case you missed it

goodbye, babies:

i'm grateful, all the same

i love the new walkmen record. you should love it, too. there's a lot of good stuff there. right now, though, having listened to it a million times on NPR before it came out, i am most enamored with the two bonus tracks that came from buying it (with monies!) on iTunes. especially this little calypso number, which has the very lovely, upbeat weariness that makes this record so goddamn good. it just fits my mood, especially in the wake of the last show this weekend.

The Walkmen - Grateful by Weallwantsomeone

your memories are being run

p4k's best songs of the 90s has been what i thought it would be: a bunch of stuff i don't know, a bunch of stuff i don't care about, and a few absolutely spot-on choices. it finishes tomorrow and everyone will argue or complain about it, maybe, but so far there have been a few entries that i could not agree with more. the thing i like is how they picked the exact right songs from these bands-- i think it shows the connoisseurship that is the reason we read critics.

#178: Broadcast - Echo's Answer

simply one of my favorite songs.



#63: Modest Mouse - Trailer Trash

please note that they picked what are almost certainly their 3 best pre-2000s songs for this post: trailer trash, never ending math equation, and broke.



#21: Smashing Pumpkins - 1979

don't deny it.

i don't know but i've been told: you'll never die and you'll never grow old

september! i didn't plan on starting you off by reading through my old LJ, in reverse chronological order, becoming more mortified as the self-involvement went from huge to monumental and the writing went from bad to uniquely horrific. i was especially struck by the lack of empathy, and the sense of entitlement, and the meanness, smallness, and pettiness-- especially because i remember feeling the way i was feeling at all the different times that i wrote all the different things and i'm almost sure i didn't mean to be that way. the facts are stark: i was that way. ow.

so then i started looking through old songs, and old records, and of course gmail; the damn thing saves so much. i was especially struck by the seeming endlessness:

1-20 of thousands

totally nonchalant.

my point is not about the past specifically, though to say sorry for being such a nightmare to everyone, always, is probably a worthwhile thing to do every time i can; it's more about remembering and taking stock and, hopefully, identifying progress. i'm sure it'll happen plenty of times in the next two months before i move to norway, but i'm glad i kind of stumbled into it without any emotional push. i do a lot of internalizing and compartmentalizing (i like to think of insides as an elaborate, high tech recycling center), especially these days, so it is actually nice to dive into the history books and see what i've been avoiding and what i've forgotten.

still, it's nice to feel like there's been some progress. wiser, not wise; older, not old.

i go through all this before you wake up

[though said with hands in pocket, I mean it hand on heart]

from their brand new semi-acoustic reworkings EP "All's Well That Ends"; i like all of the tracks so much (surprise! but no, really, if they were shitty i'd ignore them). they are all surprisingly restrained without losing that essential LC!-ness (the exclamation point?) and are wonderful. this is my favorite of the bunch, not coincidentally because it's one of my favorites from the record and has some of the best lyrics on the whole damn thing. and lovely background vocals.

if your heart is bleeding make the best of it / there is heat in freezing, be a testament

thanks to jessica for exposing me to this.

if i could see all my friends tonight

i had heard that this single-handedly made the p4k festival worth it, but i didn't realize what that actually meant until i saw this video. gave me chills at work.

zomg azure ray

http://bedwettingcosmonaut.com/azure-ray-announce-new-album-tour-dates/

why is this so far away and most likely not attendable??!??!? I WANTS MY NARCOTIC ANGELVOICE SADPOP PLZ

home, let me come home

phenomenal song i've posted about before (thanks to andrew for tip); now remixed in an EVEN MORE HEARTBREAKING fashion (thanks to brittany for tip). i frequently think songs should be sadder, and this remix is so successful at elevating this song and accentuating the melancholy. love it.

tried to fight the creeping sense of dread with temporal things; most of the time i guess i felt alright

soundtrack to (highschool/college/all) goodbyes

have you ever, have you ever been all messed up?

haven't we met before / under brighter skies?

spent half a life deciding what went wrong

"we're going to play some canadian space rock for ya"

random thought: i need to move this over to tumblr. blogspot is comparatively busted.
other random thought: i miss lala a lot. i have to use hypemachine for any convenient music now and it's annoying.

for now: do make say think, aka a great band to listen to anytime but especially at work. loved forever, but some rarities/right-now jamz:

great live jam. sick bass.


two of my favorites in the same video, plus great banter.


adorable video for a tender history in rust, which has to be my favorite song to play on guitar.


great song i'd never heard before, entitled "hooray! hooray! hooray!"


and the first track on their newest record, that makes me happy as soon as the first guitar comes in. how do they get all their instruments to sound so fucking good? i don't know.

she says nothing seems the same / and i can't change a thing

future islands. holy crap. i love them so much. first, listen/watch:

long flight-- let the excellent cokemachine glow review do the talking:

The stand-out “Long Flight,” on the other hand, is a slow burn. It doesn’t bother with a chorus so much as a couple of fragmented refrains (“You can’t look me in my eyes anymore”; “Just ‘cause you needed a hand”) repeated and syntactically rearranged throughout the rest of the song like a frenzied villanelle. The repetition of the lyrics, combined with an ever-intensifying synth line, creates an almost unbearable tension—and, sure enough, Herring finally breaks half a minute before the song ends, thrashing and growling for only a few seconds and then retreating into a defeated whisper. Something about his outburst feels lonely and futile, like gnashing your teeth at a mirror. Because even though all the songs on the record are sung to a certain you, there’s an unshakable sense that the person Herring’s addressing isn’t listening.

swept inside-- new favorite. compared to the extremes he takes his voice to in some of these songs (the next one in particular), the calm delivery of this song is grounding. part of me wants everyone to listen to this one first, since it's so obviously good and because it's not as immediately challenging as the other two, but just trust me here.



an apology-- one of the best songs i've heard in so long. the video is fantastic-- his energy, at first, seems insane, until the ... tenderness ... of his delivery comes through. i think tenderness is the right word. andy first got me into this band by saying, quote,

can't explain why i love it so much
singer dude has a sort of tom waits/meatloaf/ shakespeare live theatre sort of thing going on
just give them a chance
it's like posessed meatloaf
i'm serious

note that THIS IS THE WRONG WAY TO APPROACH THIS BAND. i saved this one for last so you wouldn't go, ok, music that al;ec likes plus insane meatloaf singer, great, i think i will take a huge pass on that thank you. but you know what? you'd be wrong, and i want you to have the opportunity to be right, so, please. enjoy.



is it an epic breakup album? yeah, no doubt about that, but it has beautiful keyboards, some really serious peter hook bass, an amazing strange singer, and songs that i guarantee will be in your head for days. thank god for good new music.

if i live too long i'm afraid i'll die

great band, great song, great cover. has been on repeat for days.

goddamn it, amanda, goddamn it all

hi blog! here's a phenomenal new song about getting divorced.



and, for old time's sake, a phenomenal old song about getting divorced.