December 14, 2007

Trends in iPodery

Bringing up Vampire Weekend in that last post made me think about the fact that the end of the year is coming up. That means another top albums list. I imagine that this year's list will be shorter.

But anyway, that'll be a long time coming. For now, I just wanted to share some things I've been listening to that I think are pretty nifty. And then I want to know what else is pretty nifty that you've been listening to that I need to check out. The death of Oink has really put a damper on the last couple months of my music listening. Thankfully, I'm now on What.cd, which is a suitable Oink replacement, so I can now "sample" music to my heart's content again.

Artist names link to somewhere you can sample some of their stuff. In order from most accessible to least accessible (because Americans love lists):

  • Sea Wolf - Leaves In The River - This is just nice, mellow, indie pop music about love, but it has enough odd aloofness to keep it very interesting.

  • Bat For Lashes - Fur And Gold - Dynamic British girl band that's getting a lot of buzz. This whole album has been on loop for me a lot recently. And I love that, unlike with other dynamic indie female vocalists, the music actually has a ton of atmosphere. It's kind of ominous, and perfect for winter. "Trophy" is one of my favorite songs of the year.

  • Clear Tigers - EP - "Igloo" is one of my favorite songs of the year and I can't wait until these guys release a full album.

  • Black Kids - Wizard Of Ahhhs - Awesome title on this EP. Their music is like a cross between The Cure and Architecture In Helsinki. It's very 80's sounding. And, incidentally, many of the band members are, in fact, black kids.

  • Yeasayer - All Hour Cymbals - They have an interesting sound that is quite different depending on which track you listen to. Sometimes it's like Talking Heads mixed with Indian tribal chant, other times the vocals remind me of Rio-era Duran Duran. It's really a grab-bag of different sounds, all of them interesting and fresh-sounding, but it's still engaging and in your face, unlike some indie stuff where half the tracks are nothing but ambient noises on loop.

  • Le Loup - The Throne Of The Third Heaven Of The Nations Millennium General Assembly - Pretentious indie trash, but what can I say? I'm a sucker for that shit, especially when it claims to be a concept album! This is supposed to be all about Dante's divine comedy. Okay. Anyway, the album is mostly kind of just background music, but on three or four tracks it really comes together and is some amazing pop music. If the entire album were like the album's best track, "Outside Of This Car, The End Of The World!" (exclamation present in original title), then it would easily be the best album of the year.

And then there's also the new Band Of Horses album, and the new Okkervil River album, but they're well enough known that I don't feel like I need to hype them. So, what are you into right now?

Posted by Barzelay at 3:49 AM | Comments (0)

Oxford Commas and Sex Toys? Yes, and Yes

Thanks to a Wikipedia article on one of my favorite grammatical conventions, I learned that the following phrase once appeared in The Times, Britain's paper of record, in a description of a Peter Ustinov documentary:

"[H]ighlights of his global tour include encounters with Nelson Mandela, an 800-year-old demigod and a dildo collector."

I knew Nelson Mandela was a cool guy, but I had no idea how cool. Well, England, that's what you get for discouraging Oxford commas.

BONUS: "Oxford Comma" is also the title of a delightfully catchy song by the new "it" indie band, Vampire Weekend. They're a bunch of preppy guys (or that is, at least, the image they cultivate) who met at Columbia University, and they keep getting compared to Paul Simon in everything I've ever read about them. I lurve Paul Simon, so obviously, I had to check them out, and their music is really good. So go check them out and listen to "Oxford Comma" on their Myspace page (and then leave Myspace because it's a horrible site for anything other than listening to free tracks).

Posted by Barzelay at 3:33 AM | Comments (2)

November 8, 2007

Necessities of Hipster Culture

I get the 9:30 Club's weekly email about their upcoming concerts. It occasionally notifies me about some decent band playing there, although it increasingly is about whatever top 40's group that can't fill a stadium. Today it had a posting for an upcoming Debbie Harry show (the lead singer of Blondie), and I found it to be such an accidentally hilarious and apropos signifier of the hipster mindset.

Note the headline with which the concert is advertised. "Necessary Attendance." It's not that people would actually enjoy the show, but hey, if you want to have any sort of scene-cred, you damn well better attend this show. I mean, come on, she's a legend, right? Right?

I'm guilty of it, too. It's like the other day, I was playing Sonic Youth's SEMINAL! AMAZING! ESSENTIAL! INFLUENTIAL! album Daydream Nation in the car, and I was like, "Jeanette, isn't this an awesome album?" She was like, "No, I don't really like it. It's just repetitious noise and crappy singing." And I was like, "B-b-b-b-but Jeanette, it's such an influential and amazing and seminal album. You have to like it." But why should she have to like it just because I do? Or just because Pitchfork does? Or worse, just because we used to? Sometimes things can sound great in a particular moment in time, but then they just don't really work very well later on. And then, depending on the direction music takes, maybe they sound fresh again ten years later. Either way, if you have to justify listening to something by saying that it's "necessary," it's probably lost most of its impact. But hey, sometimes the hipster-lockstep does introduce some cool stuff.

Posted by Barzelay at 2:20 PM | Comments (2)

January 4, 2007

Photographic Evidence

In my Top Albums post, I mentioned that The Candy Bars' lead singer looks just like my good friend Chris Santoro. Well, I'd say this picture is dispositive of the issue. Chris is on the left. Also, they have identical speaking voices, and they both, apparently, do really well with the ladies.

Posted by Barzelay at 3:38 AM | Comments (2)

January 2, 2007

Top Albums Of 2006

A lot of great music has come out this year, and I've managed to listen to a small fraction of it. The spots on my top albums list are acquired based on how much I dug the albums, and I'd like to think that occasionally takes into account artistic merit, though imperfectly judged. I've seen a lot of other end-of-year top albums lists. The funniest one is here, and this one includes a roundup of all the top tens from the larger media sources.

This year's list failed to follow last year's trends of being mostly happy music, and mostly by foreign bands. The 2006 list's mood is much more ambivalent, and its bands are mostly American (or at least Canadian). Even when it's happy, the mood is more experienced, more worldly, as if they've been through a lot to get to that happiness. Last year's list was characterized more by innocent exuberance. In any case, the albums at the top of last year's list were much dearer to me than the albums at the top of this year's list. Nevertheless, this year had more depth.

Anyway, I hope that you learn about some great new music, and let me know where I went wrong. What did I miss? In which albums did I fail to see the genius? Which albums are you wondering how I could possiby like? Without further delay...

»» Continue reading "Top Albums Of 2006"

Posted by Barzelay at 2:41 AM | Comments (10)

January 1, 2007

The Most Disappointing Albums Of 2006
  • The Flaming Lips - At War With The Mystics
    I love each of the Flaming Lips' last four albums (excepting Zaireeka, which no one even has the equipment to listen to). I was expecting a lot, and this album completely failed to deliver. It was absurd where I was hoping it would have emotional depth, and it offered faux-emotion at those points they should have been silly. It doesn't rock like their older stuff, but neither is it a deep symphony like their newer stuff. It just sucks. Seeing some of the songs live helped a little bit, but only because they didn't play them the way they are on the album.
  • Red Hot Chili Peppers - Stadium Arcadium
    I loved Californication and By The Way. Those are two of my favorites of the decade. And Stadium Arcadium isn't bad. It's just alright. It's nothing special, and I wanted it to be something special.
  • Paul Simon - Surprise
    Some of Paul Simon's albums are among my favorites of all time. The Rhythm Of The Saints, Graceland, the self-titled album, and There Goes Rhymin' Simon are amazing, not to mention all the great stuff Simon & Garfunkel did. Paul Simon is innovative while still being catchy, melodic, and with witty and relevant lyrics. Then I heard that this album was being produced by Brian Eno, and I thought it was a little odd but that it might make for something interesting. Well, it didn't. It's boring. It lacks a single single.
  • The Hold Steady - Boys And Girls In America
    Everyone seems to love this album. There is so much hype over it, and it's on every hip critic's year-end list. So a couple months ago I gave it a listen. I found, to my surprise, that not only did I not love it, I didn't even think it was decent. I've listened to it a bunch of times since then, trying to see how my opinion could differ from seemingly everyone else's on it by so much. It is grating and utterly typical of the worst hangers-on to 90's alternative rock. It doesn't have an original sound, and its lyrics are like a dumb frat guy paraphrasing a Larry Clark movie. The only reason hipsters think this is even okay is that they are so disconnected from rock music that they don't realize how typical it is. If this were the first album of straightforward rock that you'd heard in three years, you'd probably think it stirred certain old affinities as well. It isn't because it's good, it's just because you've forgotten about all the other, better stuff.
  • The Shins - Wincing The Night Away
    This album is excellent. It's even grown on me since my initial review. The thing that makes it so disappointing is that they still haven't released the album. Everyone has had it for months. As much as I want to see The Shins be successful, I think their sales will suffer immensely because of the delay their record company has mandated. Perhaps this will serve as another example to other media companies that artificial delays are no longer acceptable.

Posted by Barzelay at 7:10 PM | Comments (5)

November 21, 2006

Mini-Reviews

Music

  • The Shins - Wincing The Night Away
    Not a revelation, but not at all disappointing. It's very good, and I can't wait to listen to it in crisper-quality. We have until January 23 to wait for the official release, thanks to Sub-Pop's marketing schedule, even though it's completely done now. On first listen, from the very first notes on the album, it feels so comfortable and pleasant returning to The Shins sound (and I'm not implying that it sounds stale or that it's just like the old stuff). They have such a distinctive sound. Some great bands grab one instantly, others take a while to insinuate themselves into one's musical pantheon. For me, The Shins were in the former category. I sat at my desk and listened to Chutes Too Narrow straight through twice when Jon Cooper first told me to download it. Nothing else going on, just listening. It was that good, that fresh. Would Wincing The Night Away have been the same, had I not already been familiar with The Shins? Maybe. Either way, it's a great album.

  • Beck - The Information
    Good, but more of the same. Sea Change was amazing, then Guero went in a completely different direction--it was a very good album, but it was clearly lighter fare than Sea Change, and it recycled a lot of Beck's earlier sounds. The Information might as well be "Unreleased tracks from Guero." That isn't necessarily negative, but Beck is at his best when he tries new things. This album won't surprise anyone with its sound. Still, Beck album are like sex and pizza; even when they're bad, they're still pretty good.

  • The Decemberists - The Crane Wife
    Great. The second track is a twelve-minute suite that is just awesome. This is the best album The Decemberists have put out, and I loved Picaresque and Castaways And Cutouts. And even though it's their major-label debut, this album is far less catchy than their previous ones. Twelve-minute songs don't make for easy radio play, even on college radio stations.

Movies

  • Tideland
    Probably none of you saw this, but this is Gilliam's darkest film to date, and yet it retains Gilliam's beautiful spark: hope and survival through fantasy and imagination. This is not going to be a movie for everyone. It's like The Adventures of Baron Munchausen but here he keeps the fantasy inside the young girl's head. At times I rolled my eyes, because it has a couple of the typical, over the top Gilliam characters. It also made me uncomfortable at times, which is pretty tough to do. But overall, I think it's an excellent and fitting addition to his oeuvre, not like that last piece of crap.

  • The Prestige
    Awesome movie. I really loved some movie from the first month or two of last year, but now I can't remember which one. Pending recovery of that memory, I will say with confidence that The Prestige is my favorite movie so far this year. It keeps up an impressive level of action and suspense, but still manages to satisfy the discerning film viewer with its wonderful acting, smart script, and beautiful cinematography, as well as the geeks with its reverence for both magic and science (is there any difference?). Definitely see this.

  • The Departed
    I loved this all the way through, but then the ending left me with way too many unanswered questions. I got the feeling that this one was cut pretty heavily to avoid it being a four-hour NC-17 flick. I'll reserve judgment until I find out whether an Extended Edition is forthcoming. This had some of the best dialogue I've ever heard in a movie. The dialogue here was Glengarry Glen Ross, Pulp Fiction good.

Posted by Barzelay at 11:33 PM | Comments (11)

August 2, 2006

No Fear And Loathing in Contemporary Crit

This column is like a disappointed State of the Union for pop-culture criticism. It bemoans the lack of strong voices (like, it says, Lester Bangs and Hunter S. Thompson) in cultural journalism, and explains it with our society's inability to assimilate technology. Instead, new tech is still seen as a "Gee whiz" thing that we play with, instead of as a part of our culture that really affects who we are and how we think.

"[W]e play video games and they play us: The console and the gamer affect each other in hundreds of ways, stimulating our sight and blurring our hearing, and teasing us with the illusion of control and then yanking it away."

We lack the makers of taste who tell us with authority about the things going on in the culture that we shouldn't be missing, and who do so with the audacity to imprint that opinion on everyone who reads it.

"[N]o great critics have emerged, and by that he means he's never been at a big lit/journo cocktail party and heard anybody say, "You've gotta read THIS WRITER. I could give a damn about gaming, but whoa, s/he writes about games like a house on fire!" Nobody has shown up with that bowl-you-over voice that takes a seemingly alien and marginal activity-- an activity that, like drugs, many in the audience will never even try-- and turns it into a must-read experience."

And in the background, there's this whole technology thing. We keep saying, "This is so cool, it's going to change everything." But we never get around to assimilating that change and writing about the world as if that tech wasn't some novel and fleeting diversion that needs to be explained, and analyzed for whether our grandmothers will be able to figure it out.

Instead, tech magazines are digging deeper ruts in fallow soil. Wired's devolving into Cosmo for geeks: It hypes and glosses over tech the way Cosmo turns the most spectacular human experience, the orgasm, into bulletpoints. And who else is out there in the popular press? We know that our readers probably play an Internet-enabled XBox 360 that can pipe movie trailers while they're listening to an iPod and instant messaging their friends on a laptop. But what's the real story-- that we're entertained?

The column is on Pitchfork, but I got it via Slashdot. And when Slashdot picks up a Pitchfork story, you know it's probably pretty interesting.

Also,

Posted by Barzelay at 5:40 PM | Comments (3)

July 21, 2006

Virgin Festival Pre-Sale

Jeanette and I just got our tickets for the Virgin music festival (code: nattyboh) in Baltimore on September 23. It sounds pretty awesome. There are a ton of bands playing there, including the Red Hot Chili Peppers, who I've been trying to see for ten years, and the Flaming Lips, who I've really wanted to see for several years now, despite their latest album sucking like the crackheads outside my office after being paid $5.


RHCP live. Yeah.

So far, that makes three fall shows with tickets purchased: Built To Spill (postponed from Spring), Architecture In Helsinki, and this. I won't be back before Rancid (August 16, $20), otherwise I'd definitely go to that. I wouldn't mind seeing Band Of Horses (Sept 13, $15 @ Black Cat), if anyone is interested. And at Sonar in Baltimore, I'd be up for GWAR (August 20, $15) and KMFDM (October 12, $20).

The lineup for the Virgin Festival is seriously awesome, and though it's by far the most I've ever paid for a concert ($97.50 + Ticketmaster's pound of flesh), I would willingly pay much more than that in total to see each of the bands individually. Check out the bands:

  • Red Hot Chili Peppers (are supposed to be amazing live--one of my favorite all-time bands)
  • The Flaming Lips (are supposed to be amazing live--one of my favorite current bands)
  • Gnarls Barkley (I can't deny it... "Crazy" is a great song)
  • The Who (are quite old now)
  • The New Pornographers
  • Drive-By Truckers
  • Thievery Corporation
  • Clap Your Hands, Say Yeah (suck live)
  • The Killers (will be mobbed by 18 year-olds)
  • The Raconteurs
  • Scissor Sisters (very danceable)
  • Brazilian Girls
  • Kasabian
  • Wolfmother
  • Keane
  • DJ Tiesto
  • RJD2 (good stuff, I might make it to the DJ tent for him)
  • John Digweed
  • Carl Cox
  • 2ManyDJs
  • James Holden

Posted by Barzelay at 2:52 PM | Comments (7)

July 4, 2006

Conscious Thoughts Persisting Through Dreams

Last night I went to bed with an Oingo Boingo song called "Capitalism" stuck in my head. I'd been listening to Oingo Boingo (composer Danny Elfman's funk/punk/new wave band from the 80's and early 90's) earlier in the night, and loving it. They are so damn infectious and fun. So I got that song stuck in my head, and went to bed with it running through my brain after having consciously been singing it for a while.

While asleep, I remember having dreamt at least two different dreams. When I awoke, the song was still in my head. It just continued along as if I'd never even gone to sleep.

It's unusual that my conscious thoughts survive the context shift from wakefulness to sleep and then back, continuing unimpeded on the other side. Sure, if Im thinking about something before I go to bed, I can generally recall it in the morning with little effort. But in this case, it never stopped. I can't really know whether or not the song was also playing in my head all night, through my dreams, making the characters therein groove to the funky beats. I can't really know if my conscious thoughts persisted through the night or were put on pause. But it sure makes me curious.

When we go to sleep, do we suspend our consciousness, invoke subconsciousness, then suspend subconsciousness again in order to wake up? Or do the two co-exist persistently, and we merely shift from perceiving the conscious to perceiving the subconscious? It seems apparent to me that our subconscious is also lurking, alive but suppressed somewhere, while we are awake. But it is much less apparent to me that our conscious mind does the same while asleep. But if it does, think of the possibilities! If only we could access our conscious mind during sleep, we could achieve such amazing peace by living out all of our fantasies and fears, and practicing for our waking state. I suppose that's the pinnacle of lucid dreaming: permitting one's conscious mind full access to one's subconscious mind. Or is the other way around, our subconscious occasionally gaining access to the dormant conscious?

I don't know. It's something to ponder tonight while sleeping. Perhaps when I wake up, I'll have the answer (as has been shown to occur quite often, supporting the persistent conscious mind theory). When you dream, dear reader, do you ever dream lucidly? Can you ever consciously control your dreams? How much of your conscious mind do your dreams have access to? Do you ever wake up thinking the same thoughts with which you went to sleep? Do you think you think those thoughts all night, or merely invoke them again upon waking? So many questions...

Incidentally, my libertarian and conservative friends would love that song. Wait, do I have conservative friends? Shout-out in the comments if you're a conservative who actually reads my blog. Excerpted lyrics and a link to download "Capitalism" are below, as well as another conservative Oingo Boingo song that seems to advocate the death penalty ("Only A Lad"), and for a minor! But before you go gushing to Michelle Malkin, you should know that the first track on the album is called "(I Like) Little Girls," and seems unapologetically to praise pedophilia, and "Nasty Habits" praises private deviant sexual proclivities. You win some, you lost some.

"There's nothing wrong with capitalism There's nothing wrong with free enterprise Don't try to make me feel guilty I'm so tired of hearing you cry There's nothing wrong with making some profit If you ask me I'll say it's just fine There's nothing wrong with wanting to live nice I'm so tired of hearing you whine"

"You're just a middle class, socialist brat
From a suburban family and you never really had to work
And you tell me that we've got to give back
To the struggling masses (whoever they are)
You talk, talk, talk about suffering and pain
Your mouth is bigger than your entire brain
What the hell do you know about suffering and pain..."

Sample: Oingo Boingo - Capitalism.mp3
Sample: Oingo Boingo - Only A Lad.mp3

Posted by Barzelay at 5:37 AM | Comments (2)

May 5, 2006

Eef Barzelay

So I finally met Eef Barzelay. He played at Iota last night, and there turned out to be no backstage area into which I could attempt to sneak. In fact, ever since I first downloaded The Ghost Of Fashion after finding out about him when googling myself, maybe four years ago, I had assumed that I would eventually see him live at some point, and I hoped I'd get a chance to meet him. Now I did, and it was predictably anticlimactic. The conversation went something like this:

I walked up to him and said, "Hi Eef! Is that how you pronounce it? Eeeeef Barzelay?"

"Uh, yeah. That is my name."

"Guess what my name is... David Barzelay!" And then I paused, expecting him to go, "Wow! That is friggin' amazing! We're probably, like, cousins or something! You're my new best friend, cousin! It's so cool to meet you!"

But he didn't. Instead, he just sorta leaned back and said, "Oh. Cool." That was it.

"Uhh," I continued, "so, I started listening to Clem Snide," his band, "four or five years ago after googling my name."

"Oh. Uhh... okay... uh... well, you're probably the, uh... the only fan we have who discovered us that way," he said, while looking around the room with disinterest.

It continued for another half a minute or so, but never got more interesting than that. Needless to say, we are not now best buds. We did not exchange e-mail addresses, or compare our family histories to determine whether we are distant relations. We did not discuss Israel, or bond over having such a fucking cool name. And when we parted, there was not the warm hug or handshake one gives to family.

It turns out he was born in Israel, and there are a ton of Barzelays (and even more Barzelais) in Israel, even if there aren't many at all in the United States. So it makes sense that he would be less than overwhelmed with the relevation that he has a fan with the same last name. Personally, I was very excited when Jenna Barzelay befriended me on Facebook last year. I was like, "Wow! That is friggin' amazing! We're probably, like, cousins or something! You're my new best friend, cousin! It's so cool to befriend you!" Eef, on the other hand, was like, "Yeah, so what? Your name is like 'John Smith' in Israel."

full-size video here

Oh yeah, but the show was great. His inter-song banter was especially good. It ranked in at least the top ten, maybe the top five shows I've ever seen for inter-song banter. He was really hilarious. In fact, I think he'd do just as well with stand-up as he does with music. He told a story about the last time he played in D.C., how a woman came up to him after the show, and asked him whether he is autistic, because she works with autistic children, and he reminds her of them.

It was really funny at the time, and if you'd seen Eef perform, you might agree with the woman. He does have a lot of Rain Man mannerisms. But it all adds to his charm.

He sounded good, too, and he played mostly new material (a good portion of it was even newer than his album, released about a month and a half ago). And wonder of wonders, he didn't do a fake encore! He gets major, major props for that.

Posted by Barzelay at 4:33 AM | Comments (4)

April 30, 2006

Eef Barzelay in concert in DC!

Eef Barzelay, singer of alt-rock indie band Clem Snide, is coming to D.C. He's playing at the Iota Club & Cafe in Arlington on May 4. In addition to being, notably, the other Barzelay one can find by googling, and probably being a distant cousin of mine (there aren't many Barzelays in America, and even fewer who aren't spelled "Barzelai"), he's actually a very accomplished musician. I first discovered him maybe four years ago by googling my own last name (Shut up. You do it, too.). But it turns out his band is actually fairly well-known, and he's getting a ton of press right now for his new solo album. And besides, he has, objectively, the coolest name ever.

His new solo album is called The Ballad Of Bitter Honey, and it got a 7.2 from Pitchfork. And while I preferred him with the backing band, it's pretty good. The title track is a first-person tale of a female rap-video booty-shaking extra, and starts out, "That was my ass you saw bouncing/ Next to Ludacris./ It was only on the screen for a second but/ It was kinda hard to miss./ And all those other hoochie skanks,/ They ain't got shit on me./ And one of Nelly's bodyguards,/ He totally agrees." It's hilarious and off-putting, but the song actually ends up being quite touching.

Clem Snide sounds kind of like early Wilco but with heaps more irony, and, in my opinion, complexity. They had a relative hit several years ago with "Moment In The Sun," which was on some soundtracks and compilations and such. And "Ice Cube" is just a damn catchy song. I'm most familiar with their album The Ghost Of Fashion, so both those tracks are from that album. Anyway, check out these three tracks, and let me know if you want to go to the show on Thursday (I'll drive).

The plan is to go there and try to get back stage by convincing them that I'm his cousin or something. Not that it's any big deal. He's not big enough to require a ton of security, but I'd like to meet him. I'm sure he's found me by googling at various points, as I have him, and I think we need to start a dialogue. A historic googleable Barzelay accords at Camp Iota. But I've always wanted to sneak backstage at a show, and I feel like this is the perfect opportunity (perhaps too good an opportunity to count, even). So, if you want to come participate in my social engineering, let me know.

Sample: Eef Barzelay - Ballad Of Bitter Honey
Sample: Clem Snide - Moment In The Sun
Sample: Clem Snide - Ice Cube

UPDATE: Not at the Black Cat. Someone's DC Concerts calendar was wrong. Updated to reflect the true location, the Iota Club in Arlington.

Posted by Barzelay at 6:38 PM | Comments (0)

April 5, 2006

Go to college, or download music? Your choice.

Cassie Hunt at MIT's paper The Tech writes a column about her experience with the RIAA's settlement negotation center. It really highlights the blind absurdity of the RIAA's practice of making examples of average students who have done nothing everyone else hasn't done. The most egregious but more savvy offenders (me?) don't get caught (yet) while regular kids get sued for a few Top 40 tracks.

"But as much as I tried to argue that I was in as unique a situation as someone with medical expenses, there was no getting through. Bowie even had the audacity to say, “In fact, the RIAA has been known to suggest that students drop out of college or go to community college in order to be able to afford settlements.”

Are. You. Shitting. Me."

Personally, I've always maintained that, were I to get sued for copyright infringement and be forced to pay one of the RIAA's settlements (approximately $3500), that cost would be well worth the amount of music I've downloaded.

But for those who haven't been following this whole situation as closely, when the RIAA sues someone for copyright infringement, she is stuck with two apparent choices:

  1. Pay statutory damages under 17 U.S.C. § 504(c) that, for many people, would total millions of dollars.
  2. Negotiate a settlement with the RIAA's settlement center.

»» Continue reading "Go to college, or download music? Your choice."

Posted by Barzelay at 7:24 PM | Comments (5)

March 25, 2006

Animal Collective, Ted Leo, shows, music

Shows seen this week: 2
Fake encores seen this week: 2
Hipster mullets seen this week: 2

Coincidences? Nope. Quite the contrary; I've been to two concerts at the Black Cat! Animal Collective on Tuesday and Ted Leo on Friday night. Both were shows I'd been looking forward to for a long time.

Animal Collective is an amazing, experimental band that made #2 on my Top Albums of 2005 list. I was curious what the hell they'd do live. I was looking for more weirdness and experimentation, and they delivered on both fronts. A band called Storsveit Nix Noltes opened, and they were delightful--kind of like an Icelandic polka version of Esquivel. I can't wait to hear more from them. Animal Collective's highlight was "We Tigers" from their second-to-last album, in which the band laid down their instruments, picked up their mics, and engaged in an exuberant, converging acappella evocation of the jungle. I know that sounds like a pretty ridiculous description. And yeah, they were ridiculous. And awesome. Definitely obtain their albums Feels and Sung Tongs, if you have the means.

I've been listening to Ted Leo for a couple years, and his music is so much fun. Since my first listen, I've taken it as a given that he'd be awesome live. That kind of energetic music is always great to see. Reminds me of my days going to some ska show every week or two at The State Theatre in St. Pete, and every single show being amazing because of the energy and pure fun of the music and the bands. Anyway, Ted Leo ended up being a big disappointment; he lost his voice somewhere during the third song. Like the trooper he is (the guy has to be over 40 now) he trudged on through a short set while sounding pretty bad. He has such a good voice, and you could tell he was really bummed out, so that took a lot of the energy out of the show. But we did get to do some good dancing and singing along, so on the whole, it wasn't too bad.

No band has yet stood up to the challenge that I posed: Whatever band declines to do a fake encore will instantly become my favorite band ever.

Besides a guy who was six-foot-six with a giant afro who decided to stand in the front row, another guy looking as redneck as anyone I've ever seen, a bartender apparently trying to use the old hanky code to let us know he likes to be fisted, and the guy who sat at the bar, facing away from the stage for the entire show without looking back toward the band, who nevertheless knew the words to every song (why attend a sold out Ted Leo if you have no interest in seeing him play?), the crowd was as expected. And then there was the couple to the right.

This couple totally caught me off guard. I was fresh off of having read this Pitchfork review of Ted Leo's latest album, that asked, "Can you feel yourself getting old?" So when I saw this couple, I was thinking, "Damn, is some of the music I've listened to for a while getting that stale?" Indeed, there was a huge surplus of older people at the Ted Leo show. For that matter, at twenty-three, even I have looked older than most of the crowd for about five years now at shows. And just last week, I was called out on wearing a corduroy blazer that I thought was still pretty hip--I was informed that, in fact, it was not. Damn. Aging. I took solace in the fact that I was able to identify so many of the undesirable characteristics of the aging concert-goer, as noted below. With such skills remaining, perhaps I can stave off the reaper of relevance for a few years more. Click the picture to the right to see the full-size version. Any other critiques I've missed?

In related news, after one listen all the way through, I'm pretty sure The Flaming Lips new album At War With The Mystics is my biggest musical disappointment of the decade. Built To Spill's new album You In Reverse, however, is still great after three or four listens, "Mike Joooooooones" and all.

Posted by Barzelay at 3:00 AM | Comments (19)

February 28, 2006

The new Built To Spill album, or "Who is Mike Jones?"

So I thought that I had downloaded a pre-release of the new Built To Spill album. And indeed, it does have all the songs, and seems to be mastered and complete. The songs are classic Built To Spill, and I really like it. Except for one peculiarity:

At sporadic times but roughly every thirty seconds, the album features guest vocals by rapper Mike Jones, singing his trademark line, "Who is Mike Jones!"

World's worst mash-up, or world's best copy protection? For instance, listen to the opening strains of "Wherever You Go," the fifth track on the album. I've sampled the first seven seconds for your convenience.

Two theories have been proposed to explain the presence of the singularly ridiculous rapper. 1) The band, knowing that the pre-release would leak, included Mike Jones as the world's most successful and innovative form of copyright protection. Their goal of copyright protection, however, is somewhat problematic since they almost certainly took the Mike Jones sample without his permission, thereby violating his copyright. So, explanation the next. 2) Whatever release crew did the rip and distributed it onto and throughout the internet, included the sample as a joke. However, this is problematic because no release crew would want their releases tainted, and therefore lose their hacker cred.

Either way, the album is very good. I'm afraid I might grow fond of this version of the album and come to miss the sample. It's comforting knowing that, whatever problems there are in the world, every thirty seconds, Mike Jones will be there to ask who he is. I can't wait to sing the new songs in the shower, "Who is Mike Jones" and all. And at the shows, I can't wait to hear this guy singing the Mike Jones part at all the appropriate times.

Anyway, congrats to Warner Brothers on the first form of digital rights management that I've ever known to work. It allows listeners to try out the album (and cross-promotes another "artist"), but is too annoying to keep them from buying it. Now if only the album cost $5 (which is the ideal price point for a musical album, in my view), they'd sell two million of these.

Posted by Barzelay at 1:48 PM | Comments (3)

February 27, 2006

Built To Spill is coming (tons of exclamation marks)

After inadvertently attending a DC blogger happy hour, and just beginning to make an effort to read some of the DC blogs of people I met, I've already been immeasurably aided.

I discovered from a post by The Rock Creek Rambler that Built To Spill is coming to DC in support of their new album. He helpfully provided a link to the pre-sale (username: spill, password: tickets) which has already started but has not yet sold out.

Which is to say, I am seeing BTS on May 8. Since Built To Spill is one of my favorite (maybe my current favorite) band, and I've never seen them live, that is really super awesome, and if I was a lot more thirteen-years-old, I'd be typing a lot of exclamation marks.

Also, check the updated spring concert schedule.

Posted by Barzelay at 10:56 PM | Comments (1)

February 25, 2006

Stars at Black Cat

Tonight I went to see Stars at Black Cat. Part of the U-Street hipster scene, Black Cat is a horrible place to see a show. The main room is quite long from stage to back, and the stage is only about a foot and a half high. If this weren't bad enough, the lead singer of Stars is maybe five-foot-six. This means anyone under twelve feet tall can't see them. Surely the place is hip, with its brick inner walls and kitsch paintings in the stairwell, but one would think the scenesters would latch onto a more suitable venue.

The opening "band" was Magnet. Stars did the obligatory thanks to the opening band, saying "they" were good. Magnet, incidentally, consisted of one person. If you are a single person and you wish to have a band consisting solely of you, the band should be named after you. Yes, that also applies to Bright Eyes, Caribou/Manitoba, Cat Power, Iron & Wine, Neutral Milk Hotel, The Russian Futurists, Self, Rogue Wave, etc. Maybe Magnet gets off the hook because they are apparently from Norway, and I guess they do things differently over there. The singer for Stars said, "Everybody in Norway writes great pop songs and has great trousers. I don't know how they do it." That was funny.

Stars was pretty decent, but they were very weird live. The two main people were moving and interacting in strange ways. Someone said the last time they saw the band, the lead singer had announced that he was on acid. As a result of their weirdness, they kind of came across like a parody of an indie rock band.
UPDATE: Here's a picture I found of the lead singer doing the kind of strange stuff about which I'm writing.

In fact, while seeing them, I kept thinking that was what it would be like if The State did a skit where they made fun of the indie rock scene. The lead singer would be played by Thomas Lennon, and the other (female) singer actually looked a lot like Kerri Kenney (if she had a female-female baby with Juliette Lewis). They were acting quite dramatic and hilariously. Then Ken Marino would play the second guitarist, Ben Garant (with a wig) would play the bassist, Joe Lo Truglio would play the drummer, and Kevin Allison (in drag) would play the violinst.

Oh, and If, just once, a band would forgo the now-obligatory fake encore, I think they would instantly become my favorite band ever, even if their entire preceding set had been terrible. At least this concert was mercifully free from crowd surfing, picture-taking, and the band addressing the crowd as the city in which the concert is held ("Hello, Washington, D.C.!").

Posted by Barzelay at 2:22 AM | Comments (10)

January 23, 2006

Crack Cocaine and the Snitch Bitch Hoes who interfere with distribution

Wow. I'm so glad things like this actually happen! Pay particular attention to Footnote #1. Tip from Jeanette.

U.S. v. Murphy, 406 F.3d 857 (7th Cir. 2005).

We begin with the facts. Pamela Hayden agreed to become an informant for local law enforcement after being arrested on drug charges. In December of 2002, she made two controlled purchases of crack cocaine from Darron Murphy, Jr., which led to his arrest.

On the evening of May 29, 2003, Hayden was smoking crack with three other folks at a trailer park home on Chain of Rocks Road in Granite City, Illinois, Murphy, Sr., who had sold drugs to Hayden several years earlier, showed up later that night. He was friendly at first, but he soon called Hayden a "snitch bitch hoe" [FN1] and hit her in the head with the back of his hand. He said he saw her name in discovery materials from his son's criminal case and that she was responsible for putting him in jail. He put a gun--a small chrome-plated one--to her head and said he was going to kill her for putting his son in jail. He said this would be her last night and her body would be found in a ditch. Murphy then placed several calls, telling Hayden he was calling his people to get someone to dispose of her car.

FN1. The trial transcript quotes Ms. Hayden as saying Murphy called her a snitch bitch "hoe." A "hoe," of course, is a tool used for weeding and gardening. We think the court reporter, unfamiliar with rap music (perhaps thankfully so), misunderstood Hayden's response. We have taken the liberty of changing "hoe" to "ho," a staple of rap music vernacular as, for example, when Ludacris raps "You doin' ho activities with ho tendencies."

Baker, who dealt drugs for Murphy, eventually arrived. Murphy asked Hayden for her keys before eventually ordering her outside to retrieve them from her car. Once out of the trailer, Hayden tried to run away, but she was thwarted by Baker, who grabbed her right arm. Murphy again told Hayden to get her keys. When Hayden stalled, an impatient Murphy hit her with the butt of his gun, splitting open the top of her head. After struggling for a few more minutes, Hayden managed to get in her car and drive away. A sheriff's deputy discovered her at 4 a.m. She had a bleeding gash on her head and bruises on her arm.

Police later arrested Murphy outside his home and discovered that he was carrying crack cocaine. They also arrested Baker inside Murphy's home. A search of the home revealed more crack, a syringe, baking soda, a digital scale used for weighing narcotics, and firearms, including the small chrome-plated one identified by Ms. Hayden.

Posted by Barzelay at 12:03 AM | Comments (5)

December 28, 2005

About That List

Yeah, so I just want to point out that that list took forever to put together, and I sincerely hope that everyone gives those things a listen. If any of the links didn't work before, it's because those songs were still uploading. They should all be done now.

Posted by Barzelay at 2:04 PM | Comments (0)

Top Albums of 2005

I'd been reading some critics' lists, and then we talked a lot about this year's albums last night at Jon's house. So, I was inspired to pick my top albums of 2005. I'll eventually do my top movies, just like last year, but I've got way too many left to see.

I've noticed two trends in this year's list: my top albums of the year are mostly happy music, and they are disproportionately from countries other than the United States. That's cool.

First, the honorable mentions. These are all albums I was into this year, but that didn't make the cut. A few may only be because I heard them too late in the year to really assimilate them yet.

  • Beck - Guero
  • Coheed And Cambria - Good Apollo, I'm Burning Star IV, Volume One: From Fear Through The Eyes Of Madness
  • The Decemberists - Picaresque
  • Fiona Apple - Extraordinary Machine
  • The Go! Team - Thunder, Lightning Strike
  • Jaga Jazzist - What We Must
  • John Vanderslice - Pixel Revolt
  • Love Is All - Nine Times That Same Song
  • M83 - Before The Dawn Heals Us
  • Rogue Wave - Descended Like Vultures
  • The Rosebuds - Birds Make Good Neighbors

And now, top albums, along with sample songs and explanations.

  • 15. Iron & Wine - Woman King EP

    This EP would've definitely ended up much higher if it weren't only six songs. Despite that, it's twenty-three minutes of the best music Sam Beam has ever put out. It's got more rhythm than he normally has under him, and most of it is supplied by random knick-knack percussion, which seems to be a theme of this year's top albums (see #1, 2, 8, 10, 11, 12, 14). This pared-down rustic banging is the perfect beat to graft onto his music.

    If you haven't listened to Iron & Wine before, do so. The hushed and earnest singing and quiet picking is not something that will immediately astound you: this is music you've really got to listen to, and give attention to. It's ultimately extremely rewarding. The guy's full-lengths are great too, particularly The Creek Drank The Cradle.

    Sample: Iron & Wine - Woman King
    Sample: Iron & Wine - Jezebel
    Sample: Iron & Wine - Freedom Hangs Like Heaven
    Sample: Iron & Wine - Evening On The Ground (Lilith's Song)


  • 14. Clap Your Hands Say Yeah! - self-titled

    Clap Your Hands Say Yeah! is such a strangely titled band that I was immediately interested. It surprised me at first by being so disaffected: the silly title, art, and first track ("Clap Your Hands!") can't help but inspire smiles, which is a promise never lived up to in the rest of the album.

    Instead the rest of the album seems to be defined by life not living up to promises. The songs are weary, ironic, and apathetic, the singer whiny and mumbly. It's a testament to the songwriting that the album overcomes these impediments to make the listener care. It's a very enjoyable album, and I really liked it a lot until I saw them live. If they hadn't been absolutely terrible in concert (all the worst things about them were accentuated, they seemed to hate being there, the singer didn't give a shit and never said a coherent word, etc.), this would've been a lot higher. Nevertheless, it remains a wonderful and unique album.

    Sample: Clap Your Hands Say Yeah! - Clap Your Hands!
    Sample: Clap Your Hands Say Yeah! - Let The Cool Goddess Rust Away
    Sample: Clap Your Hands Say Yeah! - Details Of The War
    Sample: Clap Your Hands Say Yeah! - The Skin Of My Yellow Country Teeth
    Sample: Clap Your Hands Say Yeah! - In This Home On Ice


  • 13. Stars - Set Yourself On Fire

    Stars is amazingly catchy, like Death Cab For Cutie with a stronger voice, and adding a female singer. They're also playing DC this semester. I've heard on good authority that they're quite exciting in concert.

    As with Death Cab, my biggest problem with them is just that they aren't that innovative. We've heard this before. But Stars does a great job of it (and this record beats the hell out of this year's Death Cab release). So yeah. Great album, really catchy. "Your Ex-Lover Is Dead" would easily rank in my top ten songs of the year.

    Sample: Stars - Your Ex-Lover Is Dead
    Sample: Stars - Set Yourself On Fire
    Sample: Stars - The Big Fight


  • 12. The Eels - Blinking Lights And Other Revelations

    This double album is sprawling and self-indulgent and uplifting and beautiful. It's an album for people who have the time to stop and enjoy the world. The Eels echo this: in "From Which I Came/A Magic World," Everett sings, "And I was happy to be alive/ In a magic world." When it's good, it's really good. When it's bad, it may be a bit boring, but it's still pleasant.

    If you haven't listened to The Eels older stuff, get Beautiful Freak and Electro-Shock Blues. You might remember the song "Novocaine For The Soul," which was pretty popular back in 1997 or so, and that's on Beautiful Freak.

    Fun Fact: Mark Oliver Everett, a.k.a. The Eels, is the son of Dr. Hugh Everett III, Ph.D., a.k.a. the author of the "many-worlds" hypothesis).

    Sample: The Eels - Trouble With Dreams
    Sample: The Eels - Hey Man (Now You're Really Living)
    Sample: The Eels - I'm Going To Stop Pretending That I Didn't Break Your Heart


  • 11. The Brunettes - Mars Loves Venus

    These guys were, strangely, just signed to Sub Pop. They're a couple from New Zealand, and are just tons of fun. Kind of like Belle And Sebastian, but a bit less quiet. They've got the random percussion thing going like Architecture In Helsinki (my number one this year), who are from Australia. Maybe it's just that region, but both of these bands are just so delightful to listen to. They always make me smile. Listen to "Loopy Loopy Love" and I dare you not to get it stuck in your head--in a good way.

    It's so cute that it's almost too cute. But they don't take themselves very seriously, and that really saves it. Despite that, the supposedly autobiographical lyrics are quite earnest. But the sound is like an Annette Funicello beach party movie for pre-teens from the early sixties. Very interesting mix of instruments and a sound that ends up being as catchy as anything I've ever heard.

    Sample: The Brunettes - Mars Loves Venus
    Sample: The Brunettes - Loopy Loopy Love
    Sample: The Brunettes - Too Big For Gidget
    Sample: The Brunettes - Best Friend Envy


  • 10. Of Montreal - The Sunlandic Twins

    These guys have put out a ton of albums now. This album isn't as cohesive (though not as excessively strange) as Coquelicot Asleep In The Poppies: A Variety Of Whimsical Verse, nor as rocking as Satanic Panic In The Attic. Nevertheless, this has the same joyous spirit. It's happy music, just like a lot of this year's top albums.

    Very silly, whimsical, sweet, poppy, and danceable. I can't believe this stuff isn't playing in every gay club around.

    Sample: Of Montreal - Requiem For O.M.M.2
    Sample: Of Montreal - Wraith Pinned To The Mist And Other Games
    Sample: Of Montreal - Forecast Fascist Future
    Sample: Of Montreal - So Begins Our Alabee


  • 09. The Russian Futurists - Our Thickness

    I also only heard his older albums this year, The Method Of Modern Love and Let's Get Ready To Crumble. I'm way into all of them. The old ones were more straightforward and rocking. But this new one is so danceable. So much rhythm and melody. It's just got such groove!

    This is to indie what Prince was to music in the 80's. This album even has titles like Prince songs: "Hurtin' 4 Certain," and "Why You Gotta Do That Thang." Don't listen to this expecting dance music or funk. Go in expecting normal electronic indie rock, and you'll be surprised. This album reminds me a lot of Self, one of my favorite bands ever. Like Self, John Vanderslice, and M83 combined.

    Sample: The Russian Futurists - Paul Simon
    Sample: The Russian Futurists - Sentiments Vs. Syllables
    Sample: The Russian Futurists - Why You Gotta Do That Thang


  • 08. Devendra Banhart - Cripple Crow

    I've been listening to Devendra Banhart for about a year now. His old stuff was great, but this new album just kills all the old stuff. It's so interesting and fun and haunting. It's like the strange and creepy guy finally made a bunch of friends. There are a lot more instruments in on this, and it really does wonders.

    His strange vibrato is instantly identifiable, and he uses it well. He can be creepy and dark, and he can be ebullient and straightforward. There are twenty-two tracks of classic songwriting on this album.

    Sample: Devendra Banhart - Long Haired Child
    Sample: Devendra Banhart - Dragonflies
    Sample: Devendra Banhart - Mama Wolf
    Sample: Devendra Banhart - Chinese children


  • 07. Bloc Party - Silent Alarm

    These guys are British. They're getting a lot of praise. Every song on the album is good, the way I remember music being in seventh grade. When I'd not eat lunch so I could save up my lunch money and spend it on CDs, and feel like each one was totally worth my $15.

    They do what they do very well. It's amazing that they're not selling out arenas. Sounds to me like they could easily be super-popular, straddling the gap midway between Coldplay and Radiohead. There's also now a Silent Alarm Remixes album, to which I'm looking forward to listening.

    Sample: Bloc Party - Like Eating Glass
    Sample: Bloc Party - Helicopter
    Sample: Bloc Party - Compliments


  • 06. Wolf Parade - Apologies To The Queen Mary

    Right after I started listening to this album, it got so popular that it's silly. I was about one week ahead of the rest of the world on this one, thanks to some friends of mine who are deep into the music scene. Anyway, the album deserves the praise.

    This contains what might be the best line of the year: "God doesn't always have best goddamn plans, does he?" It's in "Dear Sons And Daughters Of Hungry Ghosts," which is one of my favorite songs of the year. But this whole album is great. Give it a listen. Nay, give it two listens.

    Sample: Wolf Parade - We Built Another World
    Sample: Wolf Parade - Fancy Claps
    Sample: Wolf Parade - Dear Sons And Daughters Of Hungry Ghosts


  • 05. Andrew Bird - The Mysterious Production Of Eggs

    On the tenth track of this album, "The Naming Of Things," Andrew Bird sings, "You remind me of you." And well, at first listen, this reminded me of every other boring and unremarkable pop singer/songwriter I'd ever heard. I'd heard a lot about this album before listening to it, and my first impression was, "What's the fuss about?" But after a full listen to this disc, it doesn't really remind me of anything else at all, except Andrew Bird. It's quite unique, and it's terribly hard to even speculate as to who this guy's influences might be.

    In any case, it's a great pop album that's infectious, creative, and catchy. It is mostly kind of quiet, but each song also touches on a lot of different sounds. The songwriting is at once corny and brilliant. One line from "A Nervous Tic Motion Of The Head" really sums up how I feel about the songwriting: "Though the words we speak are banal, not one of them's a lie."

    Sample: Andrew Bird - A Nervous Tic Motion Of The Head
    Sample: Andrew Bird - Fake Palindromes
    Sample: Andrew Bird - Opposite Day


  • 04. Sigur Ros - Takk

    This band is so innovative that it's insane. They're like the Icelandic Radiohead, and they sound kinda like a more fully realized version of Godspeed You! Black Emperor. All of their past albums have been sung in their own made-up language that they call "Hopelandic." This time they sing in Icelandic. I can't tell the difference. In any case, this album is more accessible and more beautiful than their past albums. This one sees them writing songs, rather than merely writing experiments, albeit very successful ones. If you get a chance, check out their videos as well. They're great.

    Sample: Sigur Ros - Glosoli
    Sample: Sigur Ros - Hoppipolla


  • 03. Sufjan Stevens - Come On Feel The Illinoise!

    Sufjan Stevens is one of the greatest artists in music. He's a devout Christian, and sings about it, and yet manages to make me love him. This album is miles ahead of his last couple albums, which were themselves wonderful. He has quite a gift for making anything at all, no matter how mundane, into a moving song.

    This album is all about Illinois. His last one was all about Michigan. Supposedly he eventually wants to do all fifty states. If he can keep up this level of quality and managed to do that, it would definitely make him quite the musical legend. He'd rank up there with the greats. Even if he doesn't he's already making wonderful music. The instrumentation varies. His vocal accompaniment varies. The melodies are often soaring, with strings all over the place. It may have lost some of the intimacy of Seven Swans, but it's made up for it in scope. Sufjan Stevens is very observant, and manages to find the humanity in everything he sees.

    Oh, and by the way, this album is number one on just about every other top albums list I've seen.

    Sample: Sufjan Stevens - Come On! Feel The Illinoise
    Sample: Sufjan Stevens - Chicago
    Sample: Sufjan Stevens - Casimir Pulaski Day


  • 02. Animal Collective - Feels

    This one also ended up on a lot of critics lists, and rightly so. It is exuberant, effusive, and emotional. It has all the joy and purity of a child indulging his most wild impulses, and yet is extremely innovative and enjoyable. This is one of only albums in a long time that I've been able to just lay down and listen to. Not listen to while doing something else, just lay down and experience. This group is like Lord Of The Flies before everything starts going wrong. It's like Where The Wild Things Are. I love this album. Their last album Sung Tongs was great, but this one was a big improvement. They've now started writing songs to guide their outbursts and wild harmonies. They're coming to DC in March, and I can't wait.

    Sample: Animal Collective - Did You See The Words
    Sample: Animal Collective - Grass
    Sample: Animal Collective - The Purple Bottle
    Sample: Animal Collective - Banshee Beat


  • 01. Architecture In Helsinki - In Case We Die

    Architecture In Helsinki's new album In Case We Die is just awesome. It moves from genre to genre about every fifteen seconds, but remains happy and joyous the whole time. If Animal Collective is like a seven year old acting out his jungle fantasies, Architecture In Helsinki is like a ten year old at his most ambitious. It's silly and beautiful, and unique, and weird, and catchy.

    I have yet to find anyone who likes them as much as I do, but I also have yet to find anyone who doesn't like them. I saw them live this year with Chris Barbour, Michelle P., and Sarah Conway, and it was my favorite concert of the year. They were so happy to be playing, happy that the crowd was enjoying it. There were nine band members, and they all switched instruments on almost every song. All the random percussion you hear on the album is even better in concert: they had a clothesline strung up on stage from which they hung pots and pans, and other random things to bang at carefully planned intervals. It was one of my saddest nights of the year, but some of my happiest two hours of the year. If you can listen to this album and not smile, then you have no heart.

    Sample: Architecture In Helsinki - Neverevereverdid
    Sample: Architecture In Helsinki - It's 5!
    Sample: Architecture In Helsinki - Do The Whirlwind
    Sample: Architecture In Helsinki - In Case We Die
    Sample: Architecture In Helsinki - The Cemetary


Posted by Barzelay at 6:29 AM | Comments (8)

December 21, 2005

Spring Concerts

I'm excited about some of the spring concerts, particularly Animal Collective, Stars, and Wu-Tang. I'm posting this so other people know, and so I can keep track of it, but I will keep adding to this throughout the semester, linking to this, and bumping it to the top. Let me know if you want to go to any of these.

Underlining means I already bought tickets.
Strikethrough means it's either already happened or it's sold out.

  • We Are Scientists, Jan 18 @ Sonar
  • Less Than Jake, Jan 20 @ 9:30 Club, $18
  • Cake w/ Tegan & Sara, Jan 21 @ 9:30 Club, $35
  • Robert Pollard (ex-Guided By Voices guy) and The Rosebuds, Jan 28 @ 9:30 Club, $15
  • Deerhoof, Jan 28 @ Black Cat, $10
  • RJD2, Feb 4 @ 9:30 Club, $15
  • Wu-Tang Clan (ODB tribute), Feb 12 @ Sonar, $TBA
  • Wu-Tang Clan (ODB tribute), Feb 13 @ 9:30 Club, $50, 7:00pm
  • Wu-Tang Clan (ODB tribute), Feb 13 @ 9:30 Club, $50, 10:00pm
  • Electric Six, Feb 18 @ Black Cat, $13, 9:30pm
  • Stars, Feb 24 @ Black Cat $12, 9:30pm
  • Belle & Sebastian and The New Pornographers, Mar 5 @ 9:30 Club
  • Belle & Sebastian and The New Pornographers, Mar 6 @ 9:30 Club
  • Clap Your Hands Say Yeah!, Mar 8 @ 9:30 Club, $14
  • Kaki King, Mar 8 @ Jammin' Java, $15
  • Metric, Mar 9 @ 9:30 Club, $TBA
  • The English Beat w/ Soul Asylum, Mar 17 @ 9:30 Club, $25, 8:00pm
  • Animal Collective, Mar 21 @ Black Cat, $13, 8:30pm
  • Stereolab w/ Sam Prekop with Archer Prewitt, Mar 21 @ 9:30 Club, $18, 8:00pm
  • Ted Leo and the Pharmacists, Mar 24 @ Black Cat, $13, 9:30pm
  • Dinosaur, Jr., Apr 5 @ 9:30 Club
  • Art Brut, Apr 9 @ Black Cat, $12
  • Wolf Parade, Apr 12 @ Black Cat, $12
  • The Go! Team, Apr 19 @ Black Cat, $12
  • They Might Be Giants, April 26 @ 9:30 Club, $25
  • Built To Spill, May 8 @ 9:30 Club, $20
  • Built To Spill, May 9 @ 9:30 Club, $20
  • Pinback, May 12 @ Black Cat, $15, 9:30pm
  • Pretty Girls Make Graves, May 15 @ Black Cat, $13

Posted by Barzelay at 7:43 PM | Comments (9)

November 25, 2005

My Freak Ears And Their Final Appeasement

I'm proudly not an owner of an iPod. Sure they're cute and all, but I don't really have a use for them. When I'm walking somewhere, I like to hear what's going on around me, and I like chatting up random strangers. I don't work out (I play a few sports, but don't do anything where interaction isn't required), and I don't drive enough to justify the purchase, or even putting it on some fanciful wishlist.

Despite not owning an iPod, I have on many occasions used the standard, white iPod ear bud headphones. I was, until yesterday, using Ryan's spare iPod ear buds for use with my laptop. Unfortunately, iPod headphones and I are not compatible. Something about the shape of my ears make it so that the iPod ear buds not only refuse to stay in there, but make my ears ache after about fifteen minutes of use. Now, maybe I have freak ears or something, but if so, then I'm sure a large number of other people have similarly freaky ears.

Continually displeased with ear buds, but desirous of their convenient size, I set out looking for other options. I considered some really nice but expensive options (Ultimate Ears Custom Headphone Plugs, $550; Super-Fi 5 Pro, $250; Shure In-Ear Headphones, $180; Sony Fontopia Series, $50; Apple In-Ear Headphones, $40), and even sought some of them out in stores to try on. But anything under $50 just didn't pass muster, so I soon decided that I wasn't willing to pay what it would take to make my ears comfortable. Until yesterday when I discovered Radioshack product number 2102547.

I was in Radioshack and saw some Radioshack branded in-ear headphones with foam rubber padding around the in-ear part, and a shape completely different from other headphones I'd seen. They were $20, and Radioshack had a nice return policy, so I bought them. Now I've used them for a day or so, and wow! All my problems solved (well, my ear bud problems, anyway).

I highly recommend these things if you are displeased with the comfort of ear buds, or if ear buds don't stay in your ears. The headphones come with a bunch of replacement foam rubber pads, though it doesn't seem like they'll really be needed. These headphones have no trouble staying in my ears, feel perfectly comfortable for hours at a time, and have the added benefit of acting pretty much like earplugs and blocking outside sound. Not only that, but the sound is great too. The lows and highs are powerful and full.

So, I strongly recommend these. And I can't believe that I'm the only person I know who has this problem with standard ear buds, so I posted this to help out my faithful and strange-eared readers.

Posted by Barzelay at 5:14 AM | Comments (5)

September 13, 2005

If Links Were Nickels, I'd Have $0.55

Posted by Barzelay at 1:24 AM | Comments (4)

July 4, 2005

Independence Day Alt-Rock Albums List: The Seeds Of My Subversiveness

My friend Chris Santoro asked me today to compile a list of my top ten alternative rock albums. He's been on an alternative kick and wanted to see what I liked so he could listen to all of it. We set some rules: I tried to compile this based on the list I would've made if you'd asked me in 1997. I've tried to avoid letting my current tastes affect it.

First, while looking through my albums and checking dates, I came across the album cover to Ministry's album Filth Pig. It expresses how I feel about most of the shows of patriotism I've see recently.

Anyway, the arbitrary time barrier means some albums released in 1997 or even 1996 were not under consideration even though I may in fact have listened to them by then (such as OK Computer, for instance). In addition, some things included here would fit more comfortably into "industrial" music, but they got played on our local rock station, 98 Rock, so I've included them. On the other hand, I haven't included a lot of great metal bands that were played on the same station (King's X, Metallica, Down, Pantera) that I listened to at the time. It's arbitrary, but it's my list, and I wanted to preserve what I felt defined alternative for me at that time. The trouble is, I couldn't narrow it down. So, I've got a Top 21 numbered list, then I've got an additional 39 ordered alphabetically, rounding out a top 60. What do you think?

  1. Soundgarden - Superunknown
  2. Alice In Chains - self-titled
  3. Stone Temple Pilots - Purple
  4. Smashing Pumpkins - Mellon Collie And The Infinite Sadness
  5. Dave Matthews Band - Under The Table And Dreaming
  6. Self - Subliminal Plastic Motives
  7. Soul Asylum - Let Your Dim Light Shine
  8. The Toadies - Rubbernecker
  9. Silverchair - Frogstomp
  10. Weezer - Pinkerton
  11. Tripping Daisy - I Am An Elastic Firecracker
  12. Bush - Sixteen Stone
  13. Green Day - Dookie
  14. The Presidents Of The United States Of America - self-titled
  15. Rage Against The Machine - Evil Empire
  16. Superdrag - Regretfully Yours
  17. Nirvana - Unplugged
  18. Offspring - Smash
  19. Pearl Jam - Ten
  20. Foo Fighters - self-titled
  21. Oasis - What's The Story (Morning Glory)

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Posted by Barzelay at 11:57 PM | Comments (2)

June 15, 2005

Skorporate Skellouts

My little brother plays guitar and occasionally sings in a punk band called Used Wisely. They regularly play shows for free at tiny little punk record stores and occasionally open for other slightly better known but still local bands at small clubs.

Today my brother was complaining that they don't get enough gigs and never get paid. He said he and the main singer were gonna start a side project that would have more appeal, by combining punk with ska, and playing ska-punk. And then he called their genre "skunk." You know, ska+punk = skunk. I thought that was ridiculous. Ska bands always do that. I used to be really into ska and thought it was hilarious back then as well. Let's look at some ska band names, shall we?

The Skatalites, The Mephiskapheles, The Amazing Skasmonauts, Bim Skala Bim, Cobra Skammander, Flux Skapacitor, Fried Ska-lamari, Jimmy Skaffa, Los Skarnales, Muhammed Skali, Oedipus Skamplex, Shrimp Skampi and the Skallops, Skacapella, Ska Trek, Skabba The Hutt, The Skaburbians, Ska'd For Life, The Skadaddles, Skadatel, The Skadfathers, The Skadolescents, Skagina, Skahumbug, Skaladdin, The Skalapenos, The Skaletons, The Skalcoholics, The Skalett Letter, Skali Baba and the Forty Ounce Horns, Skalicious, The Skalidays, Skaliosis, The Skam, The Skamigos, Skamakaze, The Skamatics, The Skamish, The Skamodores, The Skamps, Skampton, Skandalizer, The Skandals, Skanic Boom, The Skanker Sores, Skankin' Pickle, Skaos, Skarface, Skaramanga, Skarmy Of Darkness, Skarotum, The Skatapults, The Skathics, Skatoon Syndicate, The Skatterbrains, The Skauthentics, The Skavacados and the High Flying Horns, Skavoovie and the Epitones, The Luke Skawalkers, The Skawfull Waffles, The Space Skadets, Uncle Skam, Viskasity, The West Side Skafia, and my own personal favorite: Skazel Tov!

So, in response to this ridiculousness, I wrote a song for my brother's band.

Posted by Barzelay at 7:37 AM | Comments (3)

June 4, 2005

The musical baton

Sorry to be blogging so much, but I'm recovering from a lengthy internet deprivation and reading the backlog of others' blogs. So, here is some music meme thing.

Total volume of music files on my computer
98.2GB. Yeah, I have a lot of music. About 99% of that consists of full albums. I have approximately 1700 full albums.

The last CD I bought
They Might Be Giants - The Spine
I buy They Might Be Giants albums because they offer them in unrestricted, high-quality mp3 format on their website, with proceeds going to the band itself. Before this, I think it was The Mars Volta's first full length.

Song playing right now
Paul Simon - "She Moves On," from The Rhythm Of The Saints
Lately I've gotten really into a lot of great old music that I should've listened to long ago. This includes Paul Simon, The Police, Neil Young, Queen, Talking Heads, ELO, and more.

Five songs I listen to a lot, or mean a lot to me
I don't know. I listen to so much varied stuff. One song in this category would definitely be I Mother Earth - "Used To Be Alright" from Scenery And Fish. Beyond that, I don't know.

Five people to whom I'm passing the baton
Do it if you want.

Posted by Barzelay at 7:51 PM | Comments (0)

May 3, 2005

Music I've missed

Kobayashi's post about the new Nine Inch Nails album inspired me to check out Amazon.com to see what else has been coming out recently, since I haven't heard about any of the new releases. Turns out, I've missed so much, and had some catching up to do. I downloaded about fifty albums tonight. Now the trouble will be listening to them. Bands that I have an interest in who either recently released an album, will be releasing an album soon which I have already, or for whom I missed a release somewhere:

Nine Inch Nails - With Teeth
Ben Folds - Songs For Silverman
Reel Big Fish - We're Not Happy 'Til You're Not Happy
Bad Religion - The Empire Strikes First
Weezer - Make Believe
System Of A Down - Mesmerize
The Decemberists - Picaresque
Bruce Springsteen - Devils & Dust
Garbage - Bleed Like Me
Goldfinger - Disconnection Notice
Hot Hot Heat - Elevator
Jack Johnson - In Between Dreams
Louis XIV - The Best Little Secrets Are Kept
Queens Of The Stone Age - Lullabies To Paralyze
Mindless Self Indulgence - You'll Rebel To Anything (As Long As It's Not Challenging)
Moby - Hotel
The Bravery - self-titled
The Gorillaz - Demon Days

Those only include the upcoming releases that have leaked.

Please add to this list if you know of anything cool that I might not be privy to.

Posted by Barzelay at 5:46 AM | Comments (0)

April 25, 2005

Concerts, McGill

Ugh. So busy. Had no time to hang out at all this weekend. Missed all but the headlining bands at Rites. Hootie and the Blowfish sucked. They ended up returning to their roots as an unremarkable fraternity cover band. Robert Randolph was awesome. Cake was pretty good.

Tonight is Iron & Wine at Exit/In. Tomorrow night is Fishbone (but they're opening for some stupid band. who cares, it's fucking Fishbone). I've been to a whole lot of concerts, and the best live band I've ever seen, by far, is Fishbone. They opened for George Clinton & P Funk, who are known for their live shows, and Fishbone made them look like boring, garage-band amateurs. I'm definitely going, if anyone else wants to go.

Due Monday: Animation Project, Roman Civ Term Paper, Math Logic Take-Home Final.
Due Tuesday: Conquest Of Mexico Final Paper, Dante Final Paper.

Tuesday night is a mandatory dorm meeting where we'll vote on constitutional changes. After that, since Wednesday is reading day, we have fun stuff planned. We're showing this year's McGill Slideshow, and reading the McGill Awards, then having a Coffeehouse. If you have pictures for the Slideshow, email them to Milie (AIM: browniegonebad). If you have McGill Award ideas, email them to Holly (AIM: BLR103). After that, we're having the last Coffeehouse of the year. So, come Tuesday night around 8:30pm for all that jazz.

By the way, they decided to split this year's McGill Award (the one that has money with it) between Lucas and I. So, we each get $375, and will be throwing a badass party at some point. I'll keep everyone posted.

Posted by Barzelay at 5:19 AM | Comments (0)

April 18, 2005

Re: Meme

UPDATE: I forgot to meme others. I pass the Caesar's Bath Meme to Sarah, Claire, Christy, Chris, and Karen.

Posted by Barzelay at 4:24 PM | Comments (0)

August 5, 2004

When it rains, it pours...

I figured I'd just catch up with more of the stuff I never posted about but should have.

So, They Might Be Giants were awesome, although I wish we would have gotten there sooner so that we could stand closer. They were very funny and witty and cool, and the music was great. They didn't play Istanbul, which was disappointing to me, but they did play Ana Ng, which is my favorite TMBG song.

In any case, I highly recommend that you go to their concerts when you have the chance. They are a great live band. They make up songs each night about the venue where they are playing (ours was at Stubbs BBQ... so they sang a song about Stubbs BBQ). They have all sorts of things they do that are funny and keep the audience quite interested. They also played for almost 2 hours, which was great.

But, a mini-rant: Why must every band do 3 encores now? Just play longer, everyone knows you're gonna do it.

Posted by Barzelay at 1:35 AM | Comments (0)