Welcome to my side of the 'net. I ruminate over music, books, movies, places, or people that have somehow made me what I am or continue to influence me to this day. I usually post links to mp3s of songs I find interesting.
ATTENTION:
The mp3s linked to this site are for evaluation and sample purposes only. The files are only hosted temporarily, so if they're unavailable, it's gone for good. If possible, some of these links are sourced back to the musicians's official website. Please make sure to support the musicians featured herein by buying their records, going to their shows, and purchasing their merch.
What better way to feature the occasion than to have director Dario Argento's film soundtrack collaborators Goblin? The band did the Dawn Of The Dead theme from George Romero's classic 70's shocker.
Asobi Seksu has seen quite a change in lineup over the years. What remains consistent though in both the studio and onstage would be Yuki Chikudate on vocals and keyboards and James Hanna on guitars and vocals. For those unfamiliar, Yuki sings in both English and Japanese. I love how singing in a different language seems to bring about a sort of newness to the way lyrics would roll out. The unfamiliar nature of having to listen to a foreign language set to music can bring about a new layer of mystique.
What the core duo explored for a new album release is the experiment of reworking their psychedelic shoegazey pop into a more stripped-down affair. Thus the Acoustic At Olympic Studios album. Peeling away the layers of distortion and heavy drums would reveal the delicate nakedness of the arrangements on steel-string guitar and piano. Yuki's vocals also shine with brilliance as a result of the sparse sonic backdrop.
Compare and contrast today's feature, New Years, between the audio from the record and the clip. The differences stand out. Check out the Citrus album for the original studio version.
The band will be on tour outside of the US over the next few weeks.
Tegan & Sara's latest album Sainthood has got to be the latest last minute addition to my list of favorites in 2009. It's amazing how catchy these songs are. I think part of the strength behind these tunes happen to be in the capable hands of Death Cab's Chris Walla behind the boards and Jason McGerr on drums. There's still so much for me to squeeze out of this since it's only hit the street yesterday.
The twins will be out on the road supporting this record all winter long (no Seattle dates though...hmm...). To keep us fans sated, here's the video to Hell.
Prolific music video director Marie Jamora has been in New York for quite a while for a project. It's presumed that she's in the middle of making her first feature film. She was also around The City to document a couple of Manila-based indiepoppers Ciudad's shows (with a modified lineup that included +/- frontman James Baluyut on guitar), one of which was a showcase at the CMJ Music Festival.
One of her recent efforts saw release last weekend in the form of Kjwan's latest music video Pause.
Sino Sikat's 2nd Album has perhaps been my most anticipated Pinoy record release this year. I was so wowed by this group's self-titled debut as they easily mixed rn'b, jazz, funk, and blues into one steaming hot soup.
This new record sees the band breaking pop radio territory by writing more accessible jams that would draw more than music fans to listen to what they're doing.
The band has already made the rounds at television stations promoting this new record. I wish them all the best with gaining a whole new set of listeners with this effort.
Today's feature pays homage to both Steely Dan and Jamiroquai. You'll also want to check out the live performance of Wherever You Are off MYX to hear another hot number off the platter.
Explosions In The Sky have come to the forefront of the post-rock genre. Along with bands like Godspeed, You Black Emperor, Kinski, and Mono (as well a legion of others), these outfits have breathed new life into modern music by mixing the sensibilities of crafting soundtrack music, unconventional arrangements, and lots of mood with the raw power of guitar-based rock. These bands blaze the trail and are doing what their progressive rock forebears were doing back in the '70s.
If you're interested in checking out what kind of intensity this band brings, especially in a live setting, you can start with this bootleg captured last summer at Central Park in New York. Note: this is a huge file size. If you want to pick up individual tracks to peruse, you can proceed here to download.
James Murphy a.k.a. LCD Soundsystem is giving away the latest single Bye Bye Bayou legally. Here's the catch: once 20,000 downloads are reached, the deal is off.
Proceed to the link above to get in the queue for the price of an email address.
Finally, the latest Flight Of The Conchords album I Told You I Was Freaky arrived in stores yesterday. If you followed this season's HBO series, you would've heard pretty much every song included in this collection. I did notice that most of the songs are heavier on synths and electronic percussion. IMO, this is a great change from the acoustic guitar-based jams off the EP and the debut record. Thus far in the listening stage, I seem to enjoy more of the musical output that Bret and Jermaine churned out on this go-round.
Southern metalheads Baroness have finally released their long awaited Blue Record. I believe the group will be going for some sort of color theme for their releases if the last one was called The Red Album.
Lots of the songs on this latest release seem to possess stark contrasts to their debut. Gone are the long and sprawling epics. They are now replaced by shorter songs with tighter arrangements. This isn't necessarily a bad thing for the band, especially if they have to mix things up live. These shorter songs could serve as punctuations for the longer pieces that they've historically done if you'd also check their split single and the two EPs they've released thus far. They'll be on tour for the rest of the fall and winter. Too bad there aren't any Seattle dates thus far.
The live track is part of the second CD on the Blue Record. You'll hear the band introduce Isak with a short tribute to Jimi Hendrix's Machine Gun. They also played the song that way when I saw them last summer.
Friday night may have been rainy in the flood-strewn streets of downtown Seattle, but that didn't stop Sunny Day Real Estate's homecoming after being on the road for a month from happening.
The group continues to enrapture fans with their complex musical arrangements and Jeremy Enigk's abstract lyrics. The intensity that the band delivered that night was more tempered, more controlled. It was so different from the unbridled force that they showed when I first saw them at the Kitsap County Fairgrounds for Endfest back in 1994. Those two performances may have been slightly different in a sense that the earlier one relied on youth and enthusiasm and the latter leaned on experience and wisdom of age to power through the sets. Both were effective approaches to anyone out there to see them from a performer's standpoint.
The songs they played rushed back quite a bunch of memories: those afternoons after work, listening to KGRG while waiting for my bus ride, I then first heard SDRE's 47 being played almost every day. This was the summer after Kurt Cobain shuffled off this mortal coil. This to me also was the signal of change that once again was supposed to happen to the Seattle music scene. This band is the link between the old grunge school and the sounds of today we all hear in Death Cab For Cutie and their contemporaries.
I can't believe that there was a 15 year gap between when I first saw them and this event. I'm sure that quite a bunch of folks in the audience were also there with me in that rainy field that late summer day to re-experience a bit of youth even if it was just for one evening.
