Got a couple more for y'all

I've previously reviewed all these guys on my music blog before and the link's in my sig if you want to read more and see what I think etc...

www.myspace.com/karimfanous - great guitarist, cool bluesy folk sound saw him at an acoustic festival recently and he stole the show.

www.myspace.com/carofeatcharliebatchelor - not reviewed yet but soon to go up (pretty solid record tho! )

Let me know what you think...

also I LOVE RISE AGAINST and TIGER ARMY - not really the same genre but awesome!!!!!

So today I was sitting around with some of my friends watching football and the commercial for the new iPod nanos came on that features Feist's song "1234" and we all came out and confessed our love for that song, is that gay?

I had the exact some moment with some of my friends, except it was really just me confessing that I really like that song, and everybody calling me a faggot. Nikki and Tiffany can be so mean sometimes.

playing my first show with will/fill tonight at the note in chicago. we aren't really ready so...wish me luck.

Good luck, capin'. First shows are always nerve-racking.

Check you're lease man, 'cause you're livin' in Fuck City [assuming the gig goes well and attractive women are present].


Wang

it was mildy annoying being my anal self, but the show went well.

i see good things ahead.

i just really want to play a show where wang, dutch, bigkg, and mbreon are present.

MK, why don't you come open my show to benefit the families of White people effected by those disruptive, tree-hogging Blacks in Jena. Skynard is the main act, but Toby Keith and Nickelback are also going to be there, and the money will be used to resegregate the South. We wanted a clever name ending with "aid," but our combined efforts were only able to come up with "NO COONS!" but spelled with a backwards "R." Guess where it is.

This isn't the best place for this, but has anyone seen anything about this Jena(sp?) business? It's unfucingreal. They interviewed one person who was somewhat normal, and even he was a stretch. Most of them are so yokel-looking that I would almost be shocked if most of them [i]weren't[/] stuck socially in the year 1885, and they're all posing proudly in front of their tractors and whatnot. My theory is that anyone who owns a piece of farming equipment that costs less than three quarters of a million dollars is probably a racist. (I actually have an incredible story about a racist buying a tractor, but it's pretty long, so remind me to tell it some other time.)

Yea I followed the Jena 6 stuff, but this isn't the best thread for that crap.

So back to music, I've been messing with a few websites to listen to stuff at work. Anyone use either of these?

Pandora - there was a thread in general about this a while ago, nice to plug in an artist and get decent recomendations on other artist that are similar.

Imeem - Seems to be a myspace specifically to trade music/create play lists etc etc. I'm still playing with it, trying to figure out everything I can do.

I've used imeem when I forget my ipod, but it's been awhile. I have a few Pandora stations, I like it. I have coworkers who use Yahoo radio.

Today so far:

Down The River of Golden Dreams - Okkervil River
Girls Can Tell - Spoon
Grandmasters - GZA/DJ Muggs

Not sure what's on tap for the rest of the day yet.

Flashing Lights Remix - Feat Clipse

truth. sick beat. sick clipse.

someone burned the new smashing pumpkins for me right when it came out, and i just listened to it.

songs are pretty lame, but the guitar tones are fuggin harsh and jimmy chamberlin's drumming is always entertaining. in summary, i would've liked this record a lot if it had been released in 1995 when i was 14.

MK, I think I'm going to have to delete Tri Repetae++ from my iPod, because when I'm listening to it while walking, I walk in sync with it and look like a jackass. But I keep putting it on, anyway. I think I'm starting to get into this stuff, finally.

I've also been listening to a lot of Dan the Automator. Everything he does is just sick. Know of any great, weird hip-hop I wouldn't have heard of (don't mean to treat you like Pandora.com, but this works better)?

Anyone heard this Definitive Swim thing? It's legally free. I just found it -- haven't heard it yet, be the idea seems cool, and I though some of you would be interested.

lol. brown y booth = sickos. remind yourself when listening to tri repetae that it came out in NINETEEN NINETY FUCKING FIVE, and the beats still sound cool today. truly progressive music.

hmm as for weird hip-hop that you maybe wouldn't have heard of that i think is great??? how about

anti-pop consortium
a dude who's v v famous in some circles but it seems like a lot of people don't know about is j dilla.
diplo is sort of famous now for working with m.i.a. but his own stuff is cool and not that many people listen to it...

i guess in general some of the labels i like that put out consistently good left-field hip hop are like big dada, wea, anticon, ninja tune etc.



<3 def jux

the arcade fire - wake up... on you tube

i am jamming out to soft pink truth right now.

<3 drew daniel.

forgot how great this shit is.

Oh man, I'm already an English poser in that I wear Newcastle apparel and tell people to "slag off," so it was probably best I didn't find out about Ninja Tune. My day is pretty much shot on Wiki-surfing. I'm not sure what Dubstep is, exactly, but I want in. Only a couple albums are even completely downloaded, but I've already ordered a t-shirt and a little pendent on a stick to wave at people who might not already know I'm this fly.

Two albums that were turned up by MK's path of direction: Wiley - Play Time is Over, and Spank Rock - YoYoYoYoYo. I don't know if these albums are well-known, but they're both super, super cool.

Edit: This edit is about four hours later, and I've been listening to album after album, and I'm really, really enjoying it. With as unbelievable much ground I've covered, I think coming back to Spank Rock was the best part. I love this record.

Oh, also, now seems like a good time to study up on Roots Manuva a bit. What's their best album, second best, etc.?

I hate to do it, but I knew you (MK) had said something about Dubstep, so I broke down and used the search feature. Burial is in the queue (from some of the response it got, I'm assuming I won't actually enjoy it that much 'til I've had a little more electronianducation, but the idea of it is really appealing to me, so I'll just fake it until I actually learn to appreciate it, like I did with hip-hop and indie rock).

Right now, I'm really enjoying Skream. This is the first album of this genre I've really liked upon first listen.

I have a friend who's been gushing about this Spank Rock record. I really need to get on that.

I'm trying to find a copy of Ricardo Villalobos's Fabric 36 and for some reason all the torrent sites I use don't have it.

I am sad.


Today I'm listening to the Flaming Lips a lot, and then I've had an urge to listen to The Futureheads, so I'll do that later. Hold Steady's Separation Sunday is on the playlist, too. Not sure if I'll get to it, don't know if I'll have time.


Wang

Yesterday I finally was in a store that had a copy of Kayne's album... I grab it, get home and find out I got the edited version. There was nothing on the packaging indicating that, I am angry panda.

I had this vision in my head of you going to Virgin Records and handing some little jerk-off a 20-spot, walking out of their with a sad little bag and light pockets, and I couldn't take it. It was positively heart-breaking.

I nabbed it off Demonoid ages ago, so I'll be back with a hight-speed serve for Wang and anyone else who wants to be pretentious.

Chris Rock had something like this happen on MTV Diary a million years ago. It was awesome; he went have into the store and screamed at them for being so irresponsible putting edited garbage where anyone -- even children -- could accidentally buy it. Get was able to exchange it.

But you're not famous or followed by an MTV crew, so I don't like your odds as much.

Yea, I'm kinda fucked. It says that once opened it's not returnable... I'm slightly irritated. I'll go find a explicit copy and give this one to my son I guess.

Wang-Wang (hey, that could be your name it you were a Panda): I tried uploading to a server, but they won't let me do a file more than 100MB, which this is slightly larger than. I could do it in pieces, but I'm lazy. If you're on AIM later, I'll give it to ya'.

Sweeeeet!


Wang

It's fun, ironically stupid and clever, and the beats are awesome.

Drop the fatter raw verbal mic analog

Sorry y'all, but I didn't bring a gat along

Just a pen that does tricks like a magic wand

Get my cadence and a whole rap pattern on

As the sky just falls over Babylon

strawberry jam is sick

Yeah. It is. I'm going to start preparing my year-end list. It'll probably be Top 20, and it'll come out 3 days before Pitchfork's, and be completely incredible. (In this context, "incredible" means "not credible," instead of "totally awesome and mind blowing." It will be neither awesome nor mind blowing.)

Hey Wang, I tried to hook you up with those illin' jams, but you were wielyn, so I had to bounce. What's up with you on AIM, anyway? Do you use it some bizarre way or does like the router grabs half you in-coming bandwidth and leave you with no reliable communication, or are you just an AIM *******? It's gotten to the point where if I see you're on, I just assume you're still not reachable.

i am of the opinion that animal collective is the most overrated band of the decade. i spend a lot of time thinking about music so i can elaborate, but i don't want to intentionally poop on music that people dig.

Yeah, sometimes I'll be on and just not get IMs. Sometimes I'll hear the noise and a window will pop up, and nothing will be there. Sometimes nothing will happen. It's pretty awful, so I barely hop on anymore.

Sorry about that. I'll be on later today, and we'll figure something out.





I don't think anyone here will be offended. I don't have a problem if you crap on Animal Collective. I actually thought about this earlier, because I know you don't like Animal Collective at all, and I was honestly wondering why. I was thinking this while driving my car and listening to "For Reverend Green." Pretty odd, huh?


Wang

Mr Cab Driver - Lenny Kravitz
I Don't Wanna Be - Gavin DeGraw

Live versions of Tiny Cities Made of Ashes - Modest Mouse.
It's infesting me today.

Here's my thing with them. It's like Jurassic Park. To me, Animal Collective sounds like a group of guys who love to experiment with sound (which is great), but they seem to be so fascinated with whether or not they can create the sounds they're able to achieve that they never stop to ask themselves whether or not they should pile on the countless layers of noise they eventually add to every track, i.e. does another track of random shouting/instrumentation service the song in any way? I understand that sound collage is the point, and the songs are not the point, but I just find it hard to believe that anyone actually likes listening to Animal Collective records. A certain amount of whimsy is necessary when making records (or any piece of art), but Animal Collective sounds like 100% whimsy, where everything is recorded and mixed at random which, to me, makes for a very unmemorable and unenjoyable listen. I think they would benefit GREATLY from working with a producer who specializes in reining in just these types of artists (think dust brothers/nigel godrich re beck, dave fridmann re flaming lips), someone who would be subtractive rather than additive.

It seems to me that music critics (and music fans who tend to listen based on critics' recommendations) feel like they should like Animal Collective because it sounds 'different' than a lot of what's out there, but again, I just can't see how anyone would listen to their records and be like, "oh man, this is so flipping RAD."

anyway, my 2 cents.

I still haven't had really given AC the attention to fully form an opinion, as I'm just now washing all the Aerosmith out of my system after 15 months, but Wang talked me into listening to some way back. My impression was that it was pretty cool, but that I wasn't going to play it again. Obviously this isn't meaningful, since I thought the same thing about Radiohead a year ago, but I'm throwing it out there.

(I HAVE come to appreciate a handful Modest Mouse tracks, who although obviously aren't even remotely related I mention only because I think I mentioned I thought were really boring, and MK agreed with me on their "meh"ness. So there's really no way to tell how I'll feel in a week, regardless of hipness.)

As an aside: my father has an Animal Collective song on the Myspace he just started. I swear to Christ this is true. It seems like a joke, and I'm posting it because it's funny, but I'm starting to get concerned, because I was pretty sure he was flipping his lid four months ago, and now I'm getting calls from family members who hate me for shit like this every week, because I'm the only one who can take care of ANYTHING anymore. When he dies, I hope I'm not around, because no one else could possibly make arrangements. I'm living in a mother****ing dunce village.

I honestly felt the exact same way at first about most of their songs. And there are good number of Animal Collective tracks that I still feel wander too much, and that I don't enjoy. But a lot of their songs really are GREAT, CATCHY pop songs. The song "Who Could Win a Rabbit" was the first Animal Collective song I ever really, really enjoyed, and I gradually came first to appreciate their other stuff, then to enjoy it, then to crave it. The whole Sung Tongs album is brilliantly FUN as far as I'm concerned. I don't know how to express what I want to say about music most of the time, because my technical knowledge and vocabulary is woefully inadequate, but I really like a lot of their melodies, especially the ones on Sung Tongs. There are some really, really, really well-crafted songs on that album I feel like. After awhile, I really don't notice the extraneous "noise" anymore, because it all fits perfectly as far as I'm concerned.

Listen to the song "Winter's Love," a few times. I think both parts of the song are really well put together, and the melody is beautiful. I think the vocals -- much of it just noises -- really enhance the song. They don't distract me at all. Moreso than most of their songs, "Winter's Love" really seems to have been written with a specific melody in mind, and the entire piece stays on track. This is a song (among others on this album, most notably "Leaf House," and "Who Could Win a Rabbit") that I find myself humming when distracted, or jonesing to listen to. I'll admit I started listening to them because of the critical acclaim they received, and then because they confused me. But the only reason I still play their music is because I REALLY REALLY ENJOY THE SOUND OF IT.

Other Animal Collective songs that I think are really catchy:

Have You Seen the Words- Probably the most straightforward, non-weird song they've written and released. Great pop song. I could see it being played on the radio. I even put it on mixes for people.

For Reverend Green- Different for them, but Avey Tare's vocals -- yelpy and screamy -- are awesome



Wang

Tracks 1-8, boss: http://www.mediafire.com/?5etnn2gq3xo

And here's the rest: http://www.mediafire.com/?9pedjfkdm2r

Anyone else in love with Blackalicious?

lol

will re-visit the tracks you suggest. i do 'own' burned copies of everything they've done, and i definitely like sung tongs the most.

mahler's 5th right now. so hot. gorgeous.
edit with updates:
cure - fascination street
om - flight of the eagle

I saw them play live and it was great. Gift of Gab is pretty sweet.


Wang

i can understand what you mean and you know a lot more about music than me. if i was looking for structure, i would hate animal collective. if i was looking for well-thought out, tight melodies and what not, i would not like animal collective. also, i know a lot of people who pretend to like animal collective because they have become pitchfork darlings of late.

this being said, before i ever knew about pitchfork, or musical structure or anything like that, i liked animal collective. why? because its really ****ing fun to listen to, for me at least. whimsy is the word you used, and thats exactly what i like about it. its playful, doesnt take itself too seriously like a lot of indie, and i feel like they enjoy playing just as much as i enjoy listening.

another band that comes to mind is the unicorns. same sorta deal.


p.s. wang. winters love is one of my favorite songs ever.

Pharcyde, haven't listened to them forever.

And some Souls of Mischief

I downloaded two of their albums, but I haven't really been in the time, yet.

I haven't really been keeping up with rock at all, I've been so in hip-hop and electronica. Anything good I missed in the last month or so?

Also: Liquid Swords. Wu-Tang is OK, I'm starting to think. Maybe better than everyone else, ever.