Friday Playlist, Monday Edition: Menomena Is Great

I saw Portland OR's Menomena in concert last week, and they were incredible.  It was my 4th time seeing them live (in order, at the Rock and Roll Hotel in DC, the Black Cat in DC, Webster Hall in NYC, and last week at the Bowery Ballroom in NYC), and they never fail to put on a great show.  The encore could have been a bit stronger last week, but that's nitpicking.  They even pulled up a fan from the crowd who was dancing like a maniac to every song (it was clear this guy knew every drum hit, every change, every note) and let him dance up on stage with them during a song.  Pretty cool.

Despite losing a member shortly after the release of their last album (Brent Knopf left to focus full-time on the awesome Ramona Falls), Menomena went on to write and record "Moms" (which you can stream here), their first as a duo instead of a trio.  The album is dark and personal and really good and you should buy it.

Menomena at the Bowery Ballroom 10/11/12

I've been meaning to put together a Menomena playlist for a while now, and last week's concert finally gave me the nudge I needed.  Enjoy!

Google Music - Still a Mystery

After reading some interesting reviews of Google's new "cloud"-based music service, [Editor's note: can we please stop calling anything hosted online "cloud-based?"] imagine my delight (go ahead, imagine it) when a beta invitation arrived in my inbox yesterday.  I was particularly interested in its playlisting abilities - i.e. how well it performs in the task of "recommend a bunch of songs from my own collection that have qualities in common with the seed song/artist/album."  Over at Echo Nest, Paul Lamere (one of my music tech heroes, who's involved with a really cool company) did an in-depth head-to-head comparison of Google Music, iTunes Genius, and the Echo Nest's own API.  The result:  Google Music fails what Paul calls the "WTF Test."  Meaning, way too many songs in Google's playlists would cause the listener to say "WTF?  This has nothing in common with my seed song."

I've written about music recommendation engines in this space before, and generally I've found them to be a mixed bag.  While I do sometimes hear about new artists I might not have heard otherwise from the web-based tools, these days I'm actually more interested in diving deep into my own collection.  I have about 80,000 tracks in my digital collection.  I use a variety of tools to manage this beast, primarily SqueezeCenter, which is the software that enables streaming to a device such as the Squeezebox.  One of my favorite features of SqueezeCenter is its integration with a nifty little product called MusicIP.  MusicIP used to be a great tool for generating playlists based out of your own music library.  It's perfect for someone like me with more tracks than I can handle.  It finds hidden gems, reminds me of things I forgot I had, and of course generates a few WTF moments.  Sadly, the folks over at Amplifind Music Services discontinued support for this product a long time ago, thus ensuring that some of its most maddening bugs (my personal favorite is the one where it has trouble analyzing FLAC files on a network drive, but can analyze those same files perfectly on a local drive) will never be fixed.  Kudos to folks like whoever runs Spicefly, who keep the torch burning for MusicIP, but the fact is, it's never going to get any better.  And I haven't yet had the time to devote to learning the Echo Nest API enough to have it analyze my whole collection and thus fulfill the same function for me.  Which brings me back to Google Music.

Despite its purportedly high "WTF factor," and the fact that you can only upload 20,000 tracks, and the fact that they will delete any track that Google deems to have violated copyright (I'd love to know how they know which track is the one I ripped from my own CD, and which is the copy I might have given to someone), I was still hopeful that Google Music might, one day, fill the coming void in my life when I finally upgrade Windows and MusicIP breaks down altogether.  So now that you've imagined my delight at receiving an invitation to the beta, imagine my disgust when the stupid thing told me I already more than 2 authorized user accounts tied to my current device, whatever that might mean.  This for software that I've never installed before.  So I consulted their help page, which told me to simply go to my Google Music settings in my browser, and de-authorize my devices.  Now, finally, imagine the words I uttered upon discovering that, according to Google, my authorized devices numbered exactly zero.  I wrote to support, but haven't heard back yet.  So for now, Google Music doesn't even have a chance to fail the WTF test for me, it's too busy failing the WFI test (Won't Fucking Install).

Anyone else used this thing?  Let me know in the comments.

UPDATE: Google support got back to me, apparently this was an issue where by default the software assumed if you had any virtual machines on your computer that you were already using Google Music.  They have released a fix, so I'll be trying again soon.

Friday Playlist: The Best Albums Of The Aughts You've Never Heard*

*Unless of course, you have.

Happy New Year, everybody. In this, the first week of the teens, I figured I'd do like everybody else is doing and make a best-of list. But this isn't your typical year- or decade-end best-of list. This one is a tribute to those albums that you may have overlooked over the past 10 years. These albums were not by Spoon, or Arcade Fire, or Radiohead, or Outkast. They're not even by The Strokes or Animal Collective! This doesn't mean they're so obscure or indie that you've never heard (or heard of) them, it just means that these albums didn't really garner all the press and adoration that their more famous chronological neighbors did. And I'm here to correct that. For today's playlist, I've picked one track from each album, but I'm giving you a "hear also" tip for each one in the writeup in case you want to do some research on your own.

So, in no particular order, here we go (more goodies below the playlist!)...

• Miike Snow - Miike Snow [2009]
  The Swedish production team Bloodshy & Avant (who have produced and written songs for Britney Spears, J-Lo, Madonna, Kylie Minogue, et. al.) teamed up with singer/songwriter Andrew Wyatt to create an album of nearly perfectly crafted pop songs with killer beats and bizarre lyrics. Hear also: "Sans Soleil"
  
  
• Mother Mother - O My Heart [2008]
  Canadian band Mother Mother dropped one of 2008's catchiest albums with this Pixies-influenced, high-harmonied, fast-drummed, oft-syncopated album. The songs here are worlds better than on their debut Touch Up. If you get a chance to see these guys live, don't miss it, they're a lot of fun, and they can actually reproduce those ridiculous harmonies in a live setting! Hear also: "Burning Pile"
  
  
• Twinemen - Twinemen [2002]
  Q: What do you get when you take 2/3 of Morphine and add them to singer Laurie Sargent? A: The Twinemen, one of the most underrated bands of the Aughts. Combining smoky saxophone licks, droning bass lines, and hypnotic vocals, this album managed to completely transcend my expectations of a "post-Morphine side band." And their other 2 albums are pretty great, too. Hear also: "Who's Gonna Sing"
  
  
• Super Furry Animals - Rings Around The World [2001]
  Wikipedia describes this Welsh band's fifth album as "an eclectic record incorporating pop, prog, punk, jungle, electronica, techno and death metal." I would have to agree. This was an eye-opening album for me; I had rarely (if ever before) heard one album successfully encompass so many styles without sounding kitschy or turning into a joke. But these guys pulled it off, and then began their long slow descent into mediocrity (only this year have they started to turn things around). Hear also: "(Drawing) Rings Around The World"
  
  
• Six By Seven - The Way I Feel Today [2002]
  These hard-rocking Brits manage to mix real emotions with hard-driving droney guitar rock without turning the whole thing into some sort of emo-metal crapfest. This song is a bit on their quieter side, but that doesn't make it rock any less. They released something like 6 albums in the Aughts, but this one is by far my favorite. Hear also: "American Beer"
  
  
• Beulah - The Coast Is Never Clear [2001]
  Members of the infamous Elephant Six Collective, Beulah came gently roaring out of the late 90's on a wave of lo-fi pop songs. They did some of their best work in the early aughts before disbanding in 2004. But before they went, they left us with some real pop masterpieces, including nearly every track on this horn-laden album. Hear also: "Popular Mechanics For Lovers"
  
  
• Spiritualized - Let It Come Down [2001]
  While never quite recapturing the psychedelic glory of 1997's Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating in Space, Spiritualized still put out some quality work in the Aughts, and I think this album was the most quality of all. It's got a cleaner, more streamlined sound than a lot of their stuff, and the vocals are more prevalent, which means that (despite his sometimes shaky singing voice) singer Jason Pierce's emotional range really shines through, to great effect. Hear also: "Lord Can You Hear Me"
  
  
• Badly Drawn Boy - Have You Fed The Fish? [2002]
  You've no doubt heard his work on the About A Boy soundtrack, but if that's been your only exposure to Badly Drawn Boy, do yourself a favor and check out this brilliant album. According to Wikipedia, this album featured "an increasingly mainstream pop sound which was not welcomed by all critics." Well, those critics should get their heads out of the sand, because this album is incredibly rewarding. It's a playful somewhat-concept album with resurfacing themes and lyrical leitmotifs that will keep your brain occupied while the rest of you is contentedly humming along. Hear also: "You Were Right"
  
  
• Gomez - In Our Gun [2002]
  Most Gomez fans will tell you that this is the album that doesn't sound anything like Gomez. It's also the last one before their slow but steady decline to the shell of a band they are today. This album is much more produced than their previous efforts, featuring multi-layered keyboard tracks, a harder-edged sound, and some of the catchiest riffs they ever wrote. If you're just getting into Gomez, start at the beginning and stop here. Hear also: "Ballad Of Nice & Easy"
  
  
• Say Hi To Your Mom - Impeccable Blahs [2006]
  Although the band (well, really one guy) has since changed its name to the more grown-up sounding "Say Hi," they still put out great lo-fi emo songs about stuff that nerds care about. On the subject of this album, Wikipedia says: "Their fourth release, Impeccable Blahs, was written almost entirely about vampires, though Star Trek is also mentioned." 'Nuff said. Hear also: "These Fangs"
  
  
• The Fiery Furnaces - Gallowsbird's Bark [2003]
  Before they went crazy and started recording albums with their grandmother, those wacky Friedberger siblings used to put out really-bizarre-but-still-listenable-and-actually-pretty-great albums. While not as weird as their second album, this one still has plenty of weird to go around, but also plenty of folk-influenced songsmithing. I dare you not to sing along to this track. Hear also: "Asthma Attack"
  
  
• The Sleepy Jackson - Lovers [2003]
  The All Music Guide describes this album as "a jukebox loaded with 35 years worth of trippy pop moments," and since those guys are pros, I'll just steal their words and say that I agree. There's something on here for fans of just about anything, from George Harrison to the Flaming Lips to (very) early Wilco. Each song is more or less from a different genre, so it was hard to pick one that was in any way emblematic of the album. So I just picked one I liked. Hear also: "Vampire Racecourse"
  
  
• The Thermals - The Body, The Blood, The Machine [2006]
  A pop-punk concept album about religion? With heavily political overtones? That doesn't suck? Yes, yes, and yes said the Thermals, on this, their best album. This collection of 3- and 4-minute ditties about losing, finding, and dealing with your faith is one of the catchiest albums of the Aughts, even if Hutch Harris's voice is something of an acquired taste. There is no song on this album that I skip on a regular basis. Hear also: "A Pillar Of Salt"
  
  
• Liars - Drum's Not Dead [2006]
  I will not pretend to understand what this album is about. This album is beautiful, noisy, a little frightening, dark, ethereal, and really just kind of amazing. Don't pick it up expecting songs you can latch on to easily, or expecting a lot of words to guide you through, or really expecting anything. Just turn off the lights, throw this on, and enjoy the ride. Hear also: "Visit From Drum"
  
  
• The Coup - Pick A Bigger Weapon [2006]
  This album has it all. Great beats, smooth flows, hyper-intelligent lyrics that go by so fast you don't even realize you've just gotten a people's history of [various subject matters] until it's all over because you were too busy bopping along to the funk samples in the background. Sample lyric: "When I'm running from the police/I don't have to rush/I'm so dope I just jump/In the toilet and flush." Sounds silly until you realize it's brilliant. Hear also: "I Love Boosters!"
  
  
• Cloud Cult - The Meaning of 8 [2007]
  In addition to being the most ecologically friendly indie rock band ever, Cloud Cult writes beautiful little pop songs that are, for the most part, surprisingly sad behind all the silver linings. Before they found fame with that esurance video, the majority of this band's output was a response to the untimely death of band founder Craig Minowa's infant son in 2002. This album is no exception, and while it has some of their most serious songs, it also has some of their most beautiful. Hear also: "Chain Reaction"
  
  
• Menomena - Friend and Foe [2007]
  Building on the "this music was made by sentient robots" vibe of their first album, but going deeper and darker, Menomena laid down some of their catchiest and most challenging songs on this album, and the result is an album that thoroughly rewards repeated listens and an ear for details. I haven't been this impressed by a trio of musicians since Morphine. Hear also: "Evil Bee"
  
  
• Johnson & Jonson - Johnson & Jonson [2008]
  Another intelligent hip-hop album from 2 guys that seriously know how to rock a sample. The beats are a great mix of funk, soul, rock, and good old-fashioned psychedelci hip-hop. This would be a great party album if the lyrics didn't warrant so much attention and close listening. Hear also: "Hold On John"
  
  
• El Guincho - Alegranza [2008]
  This album got a lot of comparisons to Panda Bear's Person Pitch, but there's one really important difference: this one's 100x more fun. It's got the same trippy reverbed-out vibe in some places, but it's also got weird chants, crazy Spanish instrumental bits, what sounds like tribal beats, and a bunch more stuff thrown in for good measure. This album is kind of like the auditory version of a night at a carnival. Hear also: "Fata Morgana"
  
  
• The Earlies - The Enemy Chorus [2007]
  This album kind of reminds me of Menomena's Friend and Foe (see above) in that it was a bit of a departure from what I thought this band was all about based on their first album, but it was also a really great album that built on some of their best traits and went deeper (and darker). There's a lot of multi-layered sonic weirdness going on here, but they (usually) all add up to some really cool aural landscapes (and some great songwriting to boot). Hear also: "When The Wind Blows"

What's the best album of the Aughts that didn't get any attention (or at least not the attention it deserved)? Tell me in the comments, and happy new year!

Music 2.0 Roundup

Here's a quick roundup of some cool new (or just new to me) stuff happening in the exciting world of Music 2.0 (or whatever it's called nowadays):

• OWL Music Search
  This service has been around for a while, but I never really thought about it until last weekend when I needed to find some music for a 48 Hour Film I was making. I was looking through Jamendo but wasn't finding any Creative Commons-licensed songs that sounded like a song I had in mind - that's where OWL comes in. You upload an MP3 via their Java applet, select a 5-second snippet, and tell it to find songs that match. We didn't end up using anything from it because we changed our mind about the style of music we wanted, but it's still a very cool-looking service.
  
  
• CAL Playlist Comparison
  A project out of UC San Diego that plays you a song, uses some existing tools to create playlists with that song as the seed, and then asks you to rate how well each playlist meets your expectations. I'm hoping this information will then be used to improve different recommendation engines across the board.
  
  
• Free Music Archive
  Created by WFMU with a grant from the state of New York, this is a massive archive of "high-quality, legal audio downloads" that are pre-cleared for nearly every kind of non-commercial use. A feature I like is that you can browse the archive by "curator" and see what an actual human being (ostensibly with some credentials in this area) thinks of the different musical options available.
  
  
• Bandcamp
  When Del The Funky Homosapien made his latest album available for free, he didn't do it on his own web site or through iTunes or by sending out CDs with newspapers. He did it through Bandcamp, a very innovative web site which makes it extremely simple for bands to sell their songs over the web. What makes them awesome is that the band can set the price per track/album (including no price) and that they offer about 10 different levels of audio quality for us audiophiles/music nerds. The introductory video is actually pretty watchable.
  
  
• The Music Explaura
  Another recommendation engine, this time using a tag-based approach. I'll let them explain why they think their system is smarter than the average bear.
  
  
• Blip.fm Recommender Bot
  I confess, I don't really see the point of Blip.fm. There are a lot of different ways to tell the Twitterverse what you're listening to, and I don't see why they need their own twitter clone on their own site - don't we have enough things to click on in our day? Regardless, this is still a very cool idea: you "blip" a song (basically post a link to the song to Twitter via Blip.fm [which is actually streaming the music via Seeqpod]) and add a #recsplease hashtag to your tweet. The Recommender Bot picks up on your request, queries the Echo Nest API for similar artists, and tweets them back at you. I love this idea, and not only because it ties together something like 20 underlying tools.
  
  
• Last.fm Visual Radio
  Last.fm just released the latest version of their streaming music player. New features include pictures, combo stations, and station history. What will they think of next? Hopefully better-looking pictures without that weird screen-door effect over them.
  

Have you used any of the above? What did you think? Do you plan to? Why? Tell me in the comments.

Hey, I Found A New Pornographers Song I Like!

My loyal readers will no doubt recall that I hate the New Pornographers. No matter how many people tell me I'll love them, I have always hated them and probably always will. Imagine my surprise, then, when I realized that one of my favorite songs off of the great "Dark Was The Night" compilation album was by them! It's a great, bright, catchy poppy tune with some dark undertones, and I listened to it over and over before I realized that it also sounded really familiar.

The reason was, of course, that it's a cover of a Destroyer song off of his album "This Night" which came out in 2002. I'm not entirely sure how I feel about a band covering one of it's members' solo songs. I guess there's nothing wrong with it, and I'm sure it actually happens all the time, but I felt a little cheated to learn that it wasn't really a New Pornographers song that had finally won me over. But yet it was - I actually like their version better than Bejar's solo version. It's brighter, shinier, more produced (which in this case helps), and is really much more of an anthemic power pop song as opposed to a rock-out ballad.

And of course, both feature the brilliant line "when the company goes public/you've got to learn to love what you own." I'm not entirely sure what that means, but it sounds deep to me.

You can hear them both here and decide for yourself. What do you think?

Hey, Snow White

Friday Playlist: Some New Music

I've been listening to a lot of new music (well, new to me) lately, and it seemed like time to share some of it with both of my readers. And what better time to revive my "Friday Playlist" series! [Editor's note: do two entries constitute a "series?"] Anyway, here's what's in store:

• K'naan - "Waving Flag"
  I heard this Canadian (by way of New York, by way of Somalia) play live on NPR's stream of the SXSW 2009 Music Festival (I think he played the day after I left Austin). His show was great, and this song in particular got stuck in my head for some time. He reminds me of Wyclef in some ways, but not in a derivative way. His latest album is chock full of collaborators, so each song manages to sound very different from the previous one, yet they make a surprisingly cohesive album. Check it out!
  
  
• The Antlers - "Two"
  My brother has bestowed the coveted "best song of the first 3 months of 2009" award on this song. I would save that for the Andrew Bird song below, but this is still a great song. I give them props for letting the "intro" go on for over a minute before busting out the loud guitars and the chest voice.
  
  
• Andrew Bird - "Fitz and the Dizzyspells"
  It's the rhythm that gets me on this one. And his voice. And the melody. And the background vocals. And of course, the whistling at 1:46. It's just too damn catchy at that point.
  
  
• Dan Deacon - "Build Voice"
  I love Dan Deacon. "Spiderman of the Rings" was one of my favorite albums of 2007, and I was really excited when "Bromst" came out. I don't love this whole album yet, but it's growing on me. I disagree with those who say that it sounds exactly like his last one - this one is much harsher in many places, and much softer in many places. I think it has a lot more peaks and valleys than "Spiderman," and in several places there's much more emphasis on emulating an 8-bit sound than there was in his previous work. I haven't found a hit single like "Wham City" on this one yet, but I'm sure it's in there. This is the opening track and it's really beautiful.
  
  
• Sin Fang Bous - "The Jubilee Choruses"
  This is the solo project of Icelander Sindri Mar Sigfusson - better known (to some) as the founder of Seabear - and it's wonderful. Dreamy electronic pop with layered vocals, catchy hooks, jolly drum machine tracks, and an overall great vibe. This song makes me happy.
  
  
• Animal Collective - "Summertime Clothes"
  Some have said that "Merriweather Post Pavilion" is Animal Collective's first "pop album." While I don't quite agree with that (nor do I understand why the hell they named it after my neck of the woods' worst outdoor concert venue), this is certainly a catchy little song. But it's not their first catchy little song. See "Peacebone" or "The Purple Bottle."
  
  
• All My Pretty Ones - "Mermaids"
  This song is about mermaids, the album cover art has a dude in a sailor suit, and the first line of the song mentions a ship. Add that all up with some honky-tonk piano, and this song sounds like a sea shanty gone rogue to me. It's also a great song. The oscillation between fast and slow manages to work without sounding jarring, and his voice fits this song really well.

Welp, that about does her, wraps her all up. Before I catch you later on down the trail, let me know what you think in the comments. What have you been listening to lately?

My Best of 2008

My friend Alex recently sent around his "best music of 2008" email, and it had a fascinating twist which I've decided to rip off:  instead of listing his favorite songs/albums/whatever that were released in 2008, he listed his favorite songs/albums/whatever that he first heard in 2008.  I like that approach - some of my favorite stuff I listened to this year came out long ago, but in my mind I'll always associate these songs with this year, regardless of their official release date.  And so I present to you:  some of my favorite songs that I heard for the first time in 2008.

I need to say that this list is extremely incomplete, and is of course distorted by memory...meaning that many songs were left off through no fault of their own, and some songs made it on due to repeated listenings trumping song quality.  But whatever, it's a list.  Enjoy!  (It's kind of long; I had a hard time editing this one down.)

Here's some reading notes to keep you busy:

• Birthday - The Very Best (Esau Mwamwaya & Radioclit) [from 'The Very Best' Mixtape]  This is everything a cover song should be: incredibly inventive and original, yet incorporating and accentuating the best elements of the original song.  The vocals and music on this one are provided in part by The Ruby Suns, an excellent band out of New Zealand to which you should be listening.  The whole mixtape this song is from is incredible, you can check it out (for free!) here.
  
  
• The Kramer - Wale [from The Mixtape About Nothing]  Washington DC's own Wale confronts racism and rap's use of the N-word head-on in this incredible track that starts off with a very disturbing clip of Michael Richards's infamous night at the comedy club.  This track warrants several listens to really catch all the lyrics.  I'm optimistic for Wale's future - he's got an incredible way with words.  Check out the rest of the amazing Mixtape About Nothing.
  
  
• Million Dollar Boots - Lord T & Eloise [from Aristocrunk]  I don't know a lot about these 2 white dudes who crafted ridiculous alter-egos and invented the word aristocrunk, but I first heard them on a mix of all the 2007 SXSW Music artists.  I love that they are basically a rap version of Billionaires for Bush.
  
  
• Jakolando - Extra Golden from Hera Ma Nono  Extra Golden hails from both Kenya and Washington DC, and they make beautiful music that makes me smile.  I hope you like it, too.
  
  
• Prefix Free - Parts & Labor [from Receivers]  I heard about these guys from my brother (of course), and I like their sound.  They remind me of a mix between Wire and Six. By. Seven.  This song is a little more chill than the rest of the album, but it's a great album.
  
  
• You're Gonna Miss Me - The 13th Floor Elevators [from The Psychedelic Sounds Of The 13th Floor Elevators]  OK, so this song is 42 years old and I just heard it this year.  So what?  It's still awesome.  For me, this is everything that Gloria should have been.
  
  
• Death to Los Campesinos! - Los Campesinos! [from Hold On Now, Youngster]  I had a hard time deciding between this song and My Year In Lists off the same album, but this one won out because of the chorus effect on the word "sugar."  Dig it!  I also like the Pixies reference in the title.  I wasn't as enamored of their newest album, but it's still pretty damn good.
  
  
• Mexican Standoff - Elbow [from Leaders Of The Free World]  My friend Kate introduced me to this band in 2008, and I've since gotten a bunch of their albums and really like them all.  They remind me a lot of Radiohead, sometimes of Leonard Cohen, sometimes Super Furry Animals, sometimes Badly Drawn Boy, but yet they always end up sounding original despite the heavy influences.  This song is one of my favorites off their award-winning album.
  
  
• Colors - Portugal.  The Man [from Censored Colors]  Despite their weird name, this band is really good and you should listen to them.  This song is not really indicative of their sound, which is cool because they tend to have a lot of different sounds, even on one album.  I promise they will not bore you, even when you're listening to their 23-minute long album opener off this other album.  This song really reminds me of The Sleepy Jackson, which is a good thing.
  
  
• Circus of Horror - Quiet Village [from Silent Movie]  One reviewer of this album, which is built out of all sorts of retro samples and riffs, as "the soundtrack to a dream," and I agree.  Sometimes the dream is dull, but mostly the dream is beautiful.  And in the case of this track, the dream is funky. 
  
  
• Bye Bye Bye - Plants and Animals [from Parc Avenue]  This song is catchy, melodic, nicely orchestrated (a piano! a chorus!), and overall high quality.  That's as specific as I can get right now, I have a headache.  Just listen to it and enjoy.
  
  
• The Art Of Driving - Black Box Recorder [from The Facts Of Life]  If you like the sound of this song (repetitive background, spoken lyrics, a sung chorus thrown in occasionally, barely hidden themes of sex and unrequited love), then you're in luck.  Every song on the album sounds exactly like this one.
  
  
• Geno - Dexy's Midnight Runners [from Let's Make This Precious (The Best Of)]  Before this year, I thought of Dexy's Midnight Runners as the people behind Come On Eileen.  And that was all I thought of them.  But my brother showed me that they could be more.  Much more.  They're actually pretty damn good.  I likes me some horns.
  
  
• Lackthereof - Fake Empire [from Your Anchor]  This album showed Lackthereof to be much more than just a Menomena side project.  It's a great album, full of emotion and beautifully understated songs.  My favorite track is their cover of The National's Fake Empire.  I actually prefer it to the original.
  
  
• One Pure Thought - Hot Chip [from Made In The Dark]  You can read how much I fucking love this song here.  I'm still somewhat obsessed with it.
  
  
• In The Rushes  - Islands [from Arm's Way]  I wrote about this song previously here.  It still blows me away when they change gears and go into A Quick One..., but now I appreciate the rest of the song, too.  It's good.
  
  
• Campus  - Vampire Weekend [from Vampire Weekend]  I tried hard to resist Vampire Weekend, but I failed.  They're just too damn catchy.  I'm glad the younger generation now has their own version of Graceland.  [Editor's note:  I'm not equating those two albums in terms of quality, but rather pointing out that one of them really ripped off the other one.  You decide which one.]
  
  
• Joset Of Nazareth's Blues - Titus Andronicus [from The Airing Of Grievances]  This band reminds me of the Clash, but a little angrier.  This song is a little more mellow than the rest of the album, but it's a fantastic album.
  
  
• Tonz 'o' Gunz - Gang Starr [from Hard To Earn]  This is turning into a long-ass list, and I'm getting tired.  So I'll just say that I'd never really listened to Gang Starr before this year, and I wish I had.  This album is great. 
  
  
• Pwnd - The Mae Shi [from HLLLYH]  Don't let the first few seconds fool you, they're going to start yelling!  This is another great album about religion (see also:  The Thermals).  The words are great, the music is loud, and the beer is cold.
  
  
• Flesh Failures - Lightspeed Champion [from Covers EP]  After seeing Lightspeed Champion at SXSW last year, I listened to his album over and over again and became something of a fan.  His cover of one of my favorite songs from Hair makes my spine tingle.
  
  
• Palmitos Park - El Guincho [from Alegranza]  When I heard this in January, my brother told me it was destined to become one of his (and my) favorite albums of 2008.  He was right.  This album is like a party in your ears.
  
  
• What Up Man - The Cool Kids [from The Bake Sale]  I love the use of a human being saying "clap" and "bass" in the background of this song as percussion as opposed to using the actual sounds.  Brilliant.  Also they can rap pretty well.
  
  
• The Twist - Frightened Rabbit [from The Midnight Organ Fight]  This song almost makes me cry.  It's that sad.  But it's also totally awesome.  The lyrics are just so sad, e.g. "Twist, and whisper the wrong name/I don't care, and nor do my ears/Twist yourself around me/I need company, I need human heat."  Sigh.
  
  
• Don't Run Our Hearts Around - Black Mountain [from Black Mountain]  This song reminds me of Black Sabbath on their day off.  Or something.
  
  
• So It Goes - Nick Lowe [from Jesus Of Cool]  I can't believe I went this long without listening to Nick Lowe.  Thanks to my anonymous friend for turning me on to him.  I don't care if this is a thinly veiled ripoff of Reeling In The Years, it's way more fun because it doesn't take itself half as seriously.

Well, that was exhausting.  What did you love that you first heard this year?  Tell me in the comments, and happy (almost) new year!

A One-Man Pandora

Very often I'm asked by friends or relatives "hey, I like such-and-such band, who do you think I might like that I've never heard of?" I usually can come up with one or two bands, or I point them to Pandora or Last.fm or Slacker and tell them to try those out for some other opinions. But I've never charged for it...before now.

As part of Washington Improv Theater's recent silent auction, I donated my services as a mixtape DJ. The offer was this: you tell me some bands you like, and I try to compile a mix for you of bands I think you might enjoy. That's it. My friend Shawn ended up with the winning bid [a whopping $40!], so I made him the mix below.

Here's what he gave me in terms of guidance:

Recent stuff that I've come to enjoy: Bon Iver, The Hold Steady, My Morning Jacket, Sigur Ros, The Polyphonic Spree, Band of Horses.

Standbys: Radiohead, Ryan Adams, Flaming Lips, Mercury Rev, Coldplay (their latest album is friggin' fantastic), Oasis, Wilco.
...
I like just about anything, but I've never been a big fan of metal or punk. Not that I'm against power chords, I just like a little melody with them. If you're going to include something like that, think later Clash.

I didn't want to just fill it up with bands that sound exactly like the ones he mentioned, and I didn't want to force him too far outside of his comfort zone by loading him up with Slayer and Megadeth tunes. I also erred on the side of adding a few songs that are pretty similar-sounding, in the hopes of exposing him to more artists he might not already know (the guy is pretty well-versed in music already). So I took a dash of intuition and mixed it with a heaping spoonful of my own totally subjective taste, and came up with this:

I realized while making this that it's hard to mentally separate "songs I love" from "songs I think this person would like." What do you think? Was I way off the mark? What would you have done? [Editor's note: he didn't mention them, but Shawn is also a huge Steely Dan fan. Would that affect your choices?]

Santogold: I Am Late To This Party

Do you like Yeah Yeah Yeahs, M.I.A. and Amy Winehouse? Ever wish you could listen to all of them at once plus a little more? Well then Santogold is for you.

I say I'm late to this party because I am - Pitchfork reviewed her album back in May, and I'm sure all the cool kids and hipsters knew about her way before I did. But no matter - I can still enjoy things even if (gasp!) I'm not the first one to hear about them.

I'm not much of a reviewer, so I'll let her music speak for itself, but I will say that this album is, for the most part, great. The three tracks below remind me of the three artists referenced in the first paragraph, in that order. What do you think?



Sorry to use the 30-second clips again, but A) imeem didn't have the tracks I wanted, and B) someone actually bought an MP3 from the last post (thanks!) and now I have a taste for blood.

Amazon MP3 Widget: Hot or Not? Also, Some Songs I Like

In my never-ending quest to find more playlist widgets than I could ever possibly use, I recently discovered the Amazon MP3 Clips Widget, which lets you build a playlist of 30-second samples of songs available for purchase in the Amazon MP3 library. I think this is very cool in some ways, but not so cool in other ways. Or to say it another way, I think it's both Hot and Not.

Hot:

• You can add a whole album at once.
  
  
• It's really easy to build your playlist. Like, really really super-easy. (imeem, I hope you're reading this).
  
  
• The files are not DRM'd in any way. Eat it, Apple. Eat it hard.
  
  
• It has the potential to make me money. [Editor's note: please purchase some MP3s via the links in the widget! Please! My children need wine!]

Not:

• At first I thought you could only have 1 playlist widget, but now I'm not so sure. However, it still gets an entry in the "Not" category for being unclear on that point in their FAQ.
  
  
• Sadly, Amazon doesn't have every album ever made in their library...and unlike imeem, you can't just upload a song you want in your widget.
  
  
• 30-second clips are lame. Totally lame.
  

By the way, if you want to read some writeups of the best albums of 2008 (so far), there's a great one over at Music For Ants (thanks to Nate for the link) or you can vote for your own choice at NPR's All Songs Considered blog (or join in the NPR-bashing over at Idolator). Anyway, here's why I chose these songs:

• That's Not My Name by The Ting Tings
  Like the rest of the world, I've been infected with this ridiculously catchy ear candy and have been unable to shake it. That's all I can say in my defense. I have my brother to thank for introducing me to them.
  
  
• Run To Your Grave by The Mae Shi
  Once again, I can thank my brother for recommending this band to me, when I was looking for stuff to download during the last free-leech period over at waffles.fm. This whole album is totally awesome (and you should buy it from Amazon using my widget), even if most of it seems to focus on the theme of a vengeful deity.
  
  
• Lay It Down by Al Green
  Would you believe I've never actually heard a whole Al Green album before his latest one? That's just one of the many gaping holes in my musical education. Here's some geekery for you: a friend of mine posted to Twitter about the great NPR piece about this album, which led me to "borrow" it from stmusic.org. I don't think any actual human interaction took place in that chain of events. All hail our robotic overlords! Also, this song is really catchy and puts me in the mood for love, if you know what I'm talking about. And I think you do.
  
  
• In The Rushes by Islands
  All together now: my brother introduced me to this band [Editor's note: how do people without siblings hear about new music?] and so far I would give them a solid B. However, they have 2 things going for them: 1) They were started by two guys from the Unicorns, who get a B+, and 2) Towards the end of this song, the band goes totally crazy and starts covering/rewriting A Quick One, While He's Away by the Who, which is without question one of the greatest songs ever written. So that's pretty cool.
  
  
• Here's Your Future by the Thermals
  The Body, The Blood, The Machine is one of those albums I can put on whenever I don't know what I want to listen to, and 99 times out of 100 I'll be perfectly satisfied with my choice. It's another entry in the "vengeful deity" category, and I think the imagery of the lyrics coupled with the simplicity and energy of the music make it a fantastic album whether you're in the mood to really listen to it, or just have it on while you drive around really fast, honking the horn and saying "whoo!" to the ladies.
  
  
• Million Dollar Boots by Lord T & Eloise
  I don't have the words to properly explain these guys, but think "Billionaires for Bush" meets "mediocre hip-hop." I know that sounds terrible, but go watch the video and be enlightened.
  
  
• Chemicals Collide by Cloud Cult
  These guys are amazing. You'll never guess who introduced me to them. They have a new album which I like even more than The Meaning of 8, but this song has been a heavy favorite in the rotation this summer. In addition to being eco-heroes, this band is also able to draw inspiration from really, really sad things and make beautiful music out of it. That makes me hopeful.
  
  
• Dead Fingers Talking by Working For A Nuclear Free City
  Despite their overly long band name, I recently became a fan of these guys through an unnamed sibling. This song doesn't really sound like the rest of the album, but I dig it a lot. I hope you will too. Amazon had 2 entries for it in its database, and for some reason this one seemed to be much higher quality than the other one. So there you have it.

What do you think? What songs are stuck in your head this summer? What's the best album of 2008? Will I ever make a cent off of this widget? Let me know in the comments.

Rockbox Rocks My Socks Off

I recently had to replace my MP3 player, which I loved. I had an Insignia NS-DV4G, which is a little 4 GB player that can play a couple file formats, show album art and other JPEGs, and play videos. It also has a digital FM tuner, which is a big deal for me since I'm a C-SPAN junkie. Anyway, I accidentally destroyed it while on vacation, so I ordered up a replacement and prepared to settle back into my digital music player comfort zone. The very next day, Woot put up a Sansa SanDisk e280 for about half the retail price. That's an 8 GB player for about the same price I just paid for my 4 GB Insignia. I had to bite.

And bite I did. After the new player arrived, I upgraded my firmware, loaded it up with some tunes, and then started nitpicking at the functionality of the thing until I had a firm list in my mind of its shortcomings. Browsing my favorite MP3 player forums, I slowly came to realize that I wasn't at the mercy of the manufacturer's firmware...I could use something called Rockbox instead.

I won't do a full review here; plenty of others have already done that. But I will say that if you have an iPod, SanDisk, or another supported player, you should definitely check it out. It gives you a bunch of cool features, such as the ability to play FLAC files, totally customize the look of your player via themes, browse your device's folders, and a ton of other cool stuff. I think my favorite feature is that when you install Rockbox, you end up with a dual-boot player, meaning you can still boot into the player's original firmware if you so desire. And my second-favorite feature is that it lets you play Doom on your MP3 player.

Rockbox is totally free, and it's open source, so if you don't like it, you can make your own build and do things your way. It does have some drawbacks, such as shortened battery life, slight learning curve, and way too many options to set, but overall it's a great way to take control of your MP3 player.

And now, a note about size: I have a decent-sized (some would say large) digital music collection. Shortly after I got my Squeezebox, I decided to go entirely digital, and converted all my CDs to FLACs. Since then, my library has grown my leaps and bounds (thanks, bittorrent!) to encompass a little over 60,000 tracks. Obviously, no MP3 player around today is going to let me take my whole collection with me. As such, I don't really see the appeal of an 80 GB or even a 40 GB player. For many people, that 80 GB iPod [Editor's note: I hate iPods] lets them carry around their entire digital music collection, but for me, I would have to face the arduous task of choosing my favorite 80 GB of MP3s. Instead, I used to have a 2 GB player, which let me carry around just what I was currently really, really into. Then I upgraded to 4 GB which let me do that plus some old favorites and podcasts. With my new player, I really have no idea how I'm going to fill 8 GB. What's your take? Do you prefer to carry around all the music you own, or do you like to have a sampling on hand? Let me know in the comments.

I Hate The New Pornographers

Yes, it's true. I know this may come as a shock to all my friends. For about as long as I can remember, my friends have been telling me that I would "love" The New Pornographers. I like pop music, I like indie supergroups, I even like the occasional Canadian musician who happens to be in that band (Dan Bejar, I'm looking at you). And I like redheads. This all adds up, supposedly, to the perfect musical storm for me. And yet...and yet, their songs leave me cold. Not just cold, but vaguely angry and wishing I had my three minutes back.

I saw them at the 9:30 Club this week (minus Bejar, unfortunately); I bought the ticket because A) Okkervil River was opening, and B) everyone in the world has told me I need to give this band another chance. The results:

A) Okkervil River was amazing. Will Sheff's heavy-lidded intensity matched his poetic lyrics and dramatic voice perfectly, and the songs all took on great new facets live. Despite the fact that the keyboardist looked like Ted from Accounting, and the fact that they were all wearing suits [Editor's note: The Walkmen wore suits when they opened for Spoon in Philly last week. What's the deal with the suits?], and the fact that, as my friend Eduardo put it, "no matter where you move that capo, you're still just playing C, G, and D," they put on an incredible show comprised of brilliant songs played excellently. I guess you could call me a fan.

B) I walked out about 2/3 of the way through the New Pornographers set. Between the oh-so-witty banter and the endless 2-part-harmony-let's-all-repeat-the-chorus-together-10-times-in-a-row-then-end-the-song setlist, I just couldn't take it. I did bop my head along to one or two songs, and when they covered ELO's "Don't Bring Me Down" in their encore, I stepped back inside to sing along, but other than that, this show did nothing to win me over.

So: if any of my friends or loved ones are reading this, please, please stop recommending The New Pornographers to me. It's just not going to happen.

For your pleasure, here's one of the very few TNP songs I actually enjoy:


And of course some Okkervil River to balance things out:

You would see an embedded player here, but...imeem apparently has a small snag in their licensing deals that results in some tracks that play fine on imeem.com turning into 30-second preview versions when you embed them on your own site. This song, "John Allyn Smith Sails," fell victim to that, so kindly click on it to go hear the full version at imeem. It's worth it, it has a Beach Boys cover at the end!

Do you have any bands that people insist you're just going to love but you end up hating? Let me know in the comments.

Guilty Pleasures

The other day my brother and I were driving up to Philadelphia to see Spoon and The Walkmen in concert. On the way up, my brother was, as usual, playing me hundreds of bands I'd never heard of before. My friends always think I know a lot about obscure bands until they meet him. Anyway, he played me a song by Mika, which blew my mind, but left me feeling vaguely guilty.

I know I have a ridiculous sweet tooth, and that can manifest itself in my taste in music. Sometimes I know a song is vapid, stupid, unoriginal, and even terrible...but I love it anyway. That was the case with that Mika song, and it inspired me to put together a playlist of some (certainly not all) of the songs I'm embarassed to like. They're not all sweet, but they all make me smile (unless someone's looking).



For your reading pleasure, here's a little background on each one (this gets a little wordy, but a friend of mine requested "more stuff about why you picked the songs," so now all of you get to suffer):

• "Grace Kelly" by Mika from Life In Cartoon Motion
  Like I said, I hadn't heard of this guy before my brother played him for me on our road trip. My brother's going through a rough patch right now, but when this song came on, he smiled, and that made me happy. It might also have been the psychotically catchy chorus and the Freddy Mercury-lite vocals. For what it's worth, Pitchfork gave this album a whopping 1.5; apparently they don't like the musical equivalent of eating too many Peeps.
  
  
• "Hey Nineteen" by Steely Dan from Gaucho
  My aforementioned brother hates Steely Dan, so I find it hilarious that I love them, since I inherited the broad basis for my musical tastes from him. I have my friend Eduardo to thank for turning me on to the Dan, and this song in particular, and my friend Shawn to thank for turning me on to some albums beyond their greatest hits. [Editor's note: the alert reader will notice at this point that this song appears on my mixwit tape in a previous post. Congratulations, alert reader.] Of course my favorite part is the embarassing section in the middle where they put the song on hold for a minute to sing about how "the Cuervo Gold" and "the fine Colombian" "make tonight a wonderful thing." Aww, yeah.
  
  
• "Party Up (Up In Here)" by DMX from And Then There Was X
  In college I lived with my friend Evan during my senior year. At the time, I was very into Phish, and Evan was very into hip hop. It took a while, but he finally wore me down and instilled in me a love of the stuff that continues to this day. Which is why it's embarassing that one of my favorite hip hop songs is this vulgar display of what happens when you add DMX on an off day + a Casio keyboard set to "loud." What can I say? I dig repetitive backgrounds. Who cares if the guy doesn't know who Barack Obama is?
  
  
• "Rhythm Bandits" by Junior Senior from D-D-Don't Don't Stop the Beat
  My friend Abby introduced me to this Danish pop duo several years ago, and at the time I thought "this is the emptiest pop music I've ever heard...I love it." Well, time has passed, but my opinion hasn't changed. The only word I can use for these guys is "ridiculous," so I will use it now: this song is ridiculous. Don't be surprised if you start dancing to it.
  
  
• "Toy Soldiers" by Martika from Martika
  I don't usually feel guilty about listening to 80s music, since some of it's pretty good. Not this one, though. I imagine Martika thought she was part of the solution with this anti-drug ballad, and I can just imagine some guy standing on the corner, about to buy that first hit of sweet lady H, when suddenly this song comes drifting out of the window of a passing car (driven by some teenybopper who got lost in the wrong part of town on her way to that new mall that totally has a Nobody Beats The Wiz) and he pauses, and thinks to himself, "I don't want to be a toy soldier! Fuck this! I'm outta here!" etc. I hope that really happened, because it's the only justification I can think of for liking this song, apart from the total awesomeness of the "step by step" part, which does in fact seriously rock.
  
  
• "Chunari Chunari" by Biwi No. 1 from Monsoon Wedding (OST)
  My wife fell in love with this song a while back, and it started making its way onto every road trip mixtape we made for a while. This song is only embarassing to like because it's about a half hour long and I can't understand a single word of it, and I have a vague sense that I might be offending Indian people by blasting it while I drive. But it's catchy like a cold.
  
  
• "Pop" by *N SYNC from Celebrity
  At some point in college my friend Dave played me this song, and I was so taken with it I spent the next hour and a half making him play it on repeat in the car. After that he got mad. The version on here is just one of the several thousand mixes of this song that are out there, and they're all great. Some people say there's nothing wrong with liking this band or Justin Timberlake solo. I am not one of those people.
  
  
• "Bitch, Please" by Snoop Dogg & Xzibit from Top Dogg
  No one ever accused Snoop or Xzibit of being progressive, but sometimes (like all the time) I think Snoop just goes out of his way to be regressive. This song is a fine example of that - from the offensive title (even though I think it's directed at a dude, which is maybe slightly less offensive) to the "I'll be gentle/sentimental/shit, we fucked in the rental/Lincoln/Continental" line, which really sums up this song's raison d'etre. I have no idea why I like this song, but I do.
  
  
• "I'm The Man" by Anthrax from I'm The Man (EP)
  When I was in junior high my friend Geoff introduced me to heavy metal, and my life changed forever. This is not really a heavy metal song, but I never would have heard it (nor would I have played it approximately 50 times a day in 8th grade) had I not taken a turn towards the land of long-haired men with loud guitars. I still go back there once in a while, but that's another blog post. Anyway, this song is stupid and it makes me laugh.
  
  
• "This Is How It Feels" by Inspiral Carpets from Life
  I think my favorite thing about this song (apart from the awesome 3-note keyboard background propping the whole thing up) is that they sound so damn serious. I think to Inspiral Carpets, that really was how it felt to be lonely. Poor guys.
  
  
• "Pure" by The Lightning Seeds from Cloudcuckooland
  Back when I went to summer camp, I struck up a correspondence during the year (that's snail mail for you kids out there) with one of the waitresses [Editor's note: is busgirl a word?] from my summer camp's cafeteria. We wrote long-ass letters back and forth about nothing, and then one day she sent me this tape. It was this weird English band that I'd never heard of and the album had some crazy name and I hated all the songs...except for this one, which I believe may have made me cry at the time because it was so beautiful. It's not, but sometimes when I listen to it I can still hear it the way I heard it back then, and...excuse me, I have something in my eye.
  
  
• "Bouncin' Round The Room" by Phish from A Live One
  OK, liking Phish can be embarassing. While their music can be quite sophisticated technically and they do put on an amazing live show, they are also capable of producing mind-numbing pablum that even 4-year-olds wouldn't sit through. I apologize to all my friends that had to hear this song again and again and again and again until even I finally had enough of it. I can't even sit through it now.

So, what's your guilty pleasure? Tell everyone in the comments.

PS Those AdaptiveBlue links on the album names are showing up because AdaptiveBlue kindly responded to my feedback and upgraded their SmartLinks plugin to recognize Amazon links built using the "quick linker" widget. Thanks, guys!

Mixwit Makes Me Feel Young Again

I agree with the Washington Post's Kim Hart: Playlists really are the new albums. That is why I go to such ridiculous lengths to embed them on my blog, even as I'm thwarted by technology at every turn. Still unable to create a mix tape at Muxtape, I decided to try my luck over at Mixwit, the latest oddly-named make-your-own-mix-and-save site.

The results were far superior - for one, I actually got to make a mix! That was exciting. The whole process of making it was ridiculously simple: the site lets you search for music using either "the world's greatest mp3 search engine" Skreemer, or "why has no one arrested us yet" Seeqpod. [Editor's note: actually Seeqpod seems to be relatively legit - they were a sponsor at one of the SXSW parties I attended, and their t-shirts are top-notch.] If neither of those has your song, you can simply post a link to your mp3 file wherever it's hosted, no questions asked. That's pretty cool. I see sites like this kind of like head shops: hey, we don't know what you're going to put in that 4-chamber water pipe covered with grinning skulls and Phish logos, but we trust you to do the right thing.

Of course because I'm a bit on the obsessive side about my music, I had to upload my own versions of a couple songs that I found via the search...because they weren't tagged correctly. That drives me crazy. But other than facing my own anal-retentive demons, the site is a breeze to use. It streams the uploaded tracks like a champ - I'd love to know more about how the site works. Their blog says that they're running on a Rails host, and I think I know that playlist grid control from the Adobe Flex toolbox, but it might just be a regular Flash element. Either way, it rocks.

This whole process made me feel young again (I haven't made a physical mix tape in approximately 1,000 years) so I decided to make a mix of songs that I'm way too young to enjoy. These songs aren't necessarily aimed at someone older than me in every case, but I feel like liking them means I should be a lot older than I am. Anyway, I love them all. Enjoy, and please post links in the comments to your own mixtapes!

UPDATE: Holy crap! The little wheels turn as it plays! And the tape moves to the other side as you progress through the playlist!! I am amused!!!

The Long and Winding Road

I have a lot of ways of finding about new music, many of which I plan to blog about here in future posts. But I think my favorite methods are the old-fashioned ones, like hearing about a great band from someone, or just seeing a show of a band I've never heard of before. I learned about Baby Dayliner that way, by seeing him open for The National a couple years ago at the Black Cat. This bizarrely tall dude running around the stage like a madman while his laptop dropped mad synth-pop beats behind him totally blew my mind. I don't know how the hell I would have heard of this guy had I not seen him live.

My favorite tale of finding a band through personal experience actually involves 2 shows, 3 bands, 1 week in New York, and a brother's love. For my 30th birthday [Editor's note: when the fuck did I get so old?], my amazing wife took me to live in New York for a week. We rented a cute little basement apartment on the Upper West side and had a great week spending all our money in the big city. One day, I got the hankering (as I often do) to go see some live music. So I asked my friend Zack if he knew of any cool bands coming to NY, or any cool venues at which to go see live music. Zack's usually good for that sort of thing. Well, this time he surprised me by telling me that his brother's band Sono Oto was going to be playing live at Pianos, a very hip place on the Lower East Side. Finally, a chance to see my friend's brother's band play live, and visit one of the hippest spots in Gotham, all on a weeknight! 3 birds, 1 stone, I'm there. So off we went.

Here's the part where I have to confess that I did not really like Sono Oto's set. My friend's brother did a very good job on the keyboards and vocals and the guitarist was great, and all the songs were fine...but to my ears they all sounded a little too similar to each other, and a little too much like Paul McCartney "lite." After the show, despite the fact that neither of us were all that into it, my wife and I each paid full price for a CD. Such is the cost of friendship. [Editor's note: the CD - "The Apple EP" - is actually surprisingly great, very catchy, and full of great pop songwriting. Shows what I know.]

OK, so maybe the main act was a bust for me. But here's the cool part. One of the opening acts (which were all hand-picked by Sono Oto since they were the artist-in-residence at Pianos that week) was a band by the name of Bryan Scary and the Shredding Tears. Wow. I don't really know how to describe their set, other than: ridiculous (in an awesome way). There's a whole bunch of guys in this band, and they all dress up in weird old-timey mortician outfits (more or less) and play these insanely creative songs that would sound like the result of a jam session featuring ELO, Queen, Yes, and a bunch of other bands no one's listening to nowadays. My favorite part is the way that they can go through 5 different influences in the course of a 4-minute song. We were blown away. Oddly enough, neither of us bought a CD, I think because we were still in shock from their set. I bought their album later, though, and have yet to listen to it and get bored.

"Well," we said to each other, "that was totally cool and strange, but we'll never see these fellows again." How short-sighted we were! Ah, but we were just children then. I'm almost 31 now. More to the point, some months later, I learned via tourfilter that Mr. Scary and the Tears were coming to the back room of our very own Black Cat. We also saw that some opening act was coming, some band I'd never heard of from Seattle named Head Like A Kite. Despite the fact that the Black Cat's web site referred to them as "creating lush indie-pop soundscapes" or some bullshit like that, we decided we'd show up early, drink some beer, and check out these lush soundscape creators. As you can imagine since I'm spending so much time building up to this part, we loved them. Well, I loved them - can't speak for the missus. They used a vocoder! (Not the one pictured on wikipedia, some sort of modern one - but still, any time it sounds like a robot's singing, I'm on board). The band is 2 guys + a bunch of old home movies. They make really cool music that does indeed border on lush indie soundscapes at times. But that's not the point. The point is, I never would have bought their album Random Portraits of the Home Movie and become a big fan of theirs had I not emailed my friend Zack months before and asked "so, where do you go see live music in Manhattan?" And the rest, as they say, is history.

For your listening pleasure:

• Mrs. Gracy's Revenge by Bryan Scary and the Shredding Tears (it has a kazoo!)
  
  
• Tell Mommy You Want A Sip Of Beer by Head Like A Kite
  

So, how do you go about finding new music? Were you ever surprised by an opening act and turned into a fan?

PS By the way, Bryan Scary didn't disappoint at that Black Cat show, even though they played to a crowd of no more than 20 people. And the beer was delicious.