vichan

I got tagged. I seem to get tagged for music memes quite a bit.

List seven songs you are into right now. No matter what the genre,whether they have words, or even if they're not any good, but they must be songs you're really enjoying now, shaping your season. Post these instructions in your LJ along with your 7 songs. Then tag 7 other people to see what they're listening.

(MP3s are optional. I just like exposing you guys to what goes in my ears.)

1. T-Rex - Cosmic Dancer - 'Cuz I've been on a giant T-Rex kick recently, and this is one of my favorite T-Rex songs.
I danced myself right out the womb, Is it strange to dance so soon

2. The Animals - Sky Pilot, Pts 1 & 2 - This song hurts, but I love it, and I fucking love the take of this song. SOMEDAY I WILL DUPLICATE THAT DRUM SOUND. It's crazy - it sounds like they recorded the snare on it's own track and then ran the line through a rotary or a phaser effect when mixing, but I honestly have no idea what they did.
He mumbles a prayer and it ends with a smile, the order is given, they move down the line,
but he's still behind and he'll meditate, but it won't stop the bleeding or ease the hate

3. B-52s - Rock Lobster - I think I want this song played at my funeral.
We were at the beach. Everybody had matching towels. Somebody went under a dock. And there they saw a rock. It wasn't a rock. It was a ROCK LOBSTER!

4. Godspeed You! Black Emperor - Lift Your Skinny Fists to Heaven Like Antennas - Gathering - They generally record their pieces for release on vinyl, so this is technically one side of the record that they label as one song. So... 22 minute long song alert, which is really more like four songs, but they all flow together and it's worth it: it's gorgeous. The first piece is my favorite. It builds and builds, and it's so... gawd. I think this song is LIFE: you're born and you're happy, you have good times and you have hard times, and you can come out triumphant in the end. If you have never heard of these guys, you have to hear this shit. This is probably one of my favorite instrumental pieces of all time, and it's ALWAYS on my current listening list. (You can tell I'm really passionate about this song because I'm apparently writing you guys a novel about it.)

5. Mark Lanegan Band - Hit the City - I haven't been able to stop listening to Mark Lanegan/Screaming Trees stuff recently. And male/female duet vocals always grab me when they're done something like this.
Ghost arrives at its bitter end, To the promised land and the dark descents

6. Misfits - Hollywood Babylon - I realized I had this song a few weeks ago. (Yes, I have so much music that I sometimes can't keep track of it all.) I wish I'd realized that when season 2 of Supernatural was airing. :)
Where did they come from tonight? Who came along for the ride?

7. Panda Bear - Comfy in Nautica - Panda Bear is one of the members of Animal Collective, and this is one of his solo pieces. A friend of mine described it as sounding like the Beach Boys on Xanax, although I don't really hear that.
Coolness is having courage, courage to do what's right. I'll try to remember always just to have a good time.

I... will tag my entry, not people. I suck at tagging people, 'cuz some people don't like getting tagged, and others might want to get tagged and get left out. This way everyone's happy. (Yanno, I don't think I've ever actually explained that before. There ya go: there's my reasoning behind not tagging people.)

... in other news, I'm home on a Saturday night because I'm having cramps from hell. I did see My Bloody Valentine 3D today, though. I'll post about that tomorrow. All I'll say for now: JENSEN IN 3-FUCKING-D, HOLY FUCK, MAN.

Some people like to insist that vinyl is a lost format. They don't know that many artists still release albums on vinyl. They insist that those that prefer vinyl just like the 'vintage retro' feeling of pops and clicks, or that people who like vinyl are just snobs.

Okay, so I'm a snob. I'll freely admit it. In fact, shoving vinyl versus cds versus MP3s aside for a moment, there's a lot of music in general that I don't like. I'm one of those people that are convinced that if Kurt Cobain hadn't died so soon, today's popular music would be drastically different. (Read: better.)

Here's the thing: I listen to a lot of music. I make a lot of music. I've been recorded with quite a few different techniques. I'm not going to get into the full argument of analog versus digital because I'll bore the hell out of most of you, and I'll wind up sounding like a giant ass. I'm already going to sound enough of an ass without getting into the endless debate of analog versus digital.

I don't like over-produced, super compressed music. It's flat. It's boring.

I like analog. I like mid-fi. I like lo-fi. I like the crunch of feedback through a distorted amplifier. I like the natural sounds of picks scraping strings, sticks hitting cymbals, fingers sliding up and down fret boards.

I digress. I digress like WOAH. What the fuck. I'm not talking about recording right now. 'Scuse me for getting sidetracked.

I like vinyl. I LOVE vinyl.

You get a decent direct-drive turntable with some quality speakers, and you definitely hear the difference.

I recently got my hands on a vinyl copy of The Delgados' The Great Eastern, which is one of my top ten albums of all time. (You guys have probably heard me mention it before.) I also happen to have the album on CD and MP3. Tonight, I put my constant bitching to the test. I hooked everything up to the same speakers - my mp3 player, my CD player, and my turntable. And I listened to the whole album. Song by song, I listened the first track, once on each device. I didn't distract myself by reading or surfing the web. I just sat back, and listened.

I confirmed what I already knew: vinyl is deeper. The subtleties come out; things you can't hear on CD or MP3 are audible. So... screw all y'all. Vinyl fucking rules.


And so this isn't a completely self-indulgent post: have a couple of short MP3s that are drastically different from each other, and that most of you will probably hate. (Okay, this is actually just making it even more self-indulgent, but I DON'T CARE. IT'S SATURDAY.)

1. Times New Viking: The Early 80's - This is gonna grate a helluva lot of ears. You know how I mentioned that I like lo-fi? Well, this is about my threshold of the lowest lo-fi I like. I love these guys, and the lick on this song is just... MMM. Love it.

2. Of Montreal: For Our Elegant Caste - Off of their new album, Skeletal Lamping, which is easily the weirdest album they've ever done. It's terrific, though, and it's strange because IT'S SO FULL OF SMUT. Just to warn you, the lyrics of this one: "We can do it soft core, if you want, but you should know I take it both ways." (Also, another reason today's vinyl ain't failing: you buy the vinyl and you get a free digital download. Mmm, yeah.)

Here we go.

I'll be straight: music is one of the biggest, most important parts of my life. I like to sometimes say I'm addicted to rocking; I start getting antsy if a week goes by and I haven't played with a few other people. (Which is the reason I'm in 3 4 bands. I must feed my addiction.) If I don't have practice, recording, or a show, I find people to just jam with for a couple of hours.

I love it.

This is why I'm sharing this, though: I guess I'm sharing a part of myself.

This is one of the more active bands I'm involved with, Kong Sauce. This album was recorded last year, but we're finishing up another one that I'm immensely excited about; if you guys like this one I'll see if I can pass the new one along, as well.

Any comments will be passed along to the band. If you're interested in getting a nice hard copy of the album (with cover art and everything), let me know and I'll see what I can do. :)



Feel free to distribute, as long as you don't claim it's yours. ;)


( Kong Sauce - The Grass Valley )

Heee heee heee.

I'm evil.

Lithium by Nirvana The Polyphonic Spree (covering the excellent Nirvana song)

Click.

Seriously.

I have days of flist stuff to catch up to.

But everyone needs to watch this:

Man Man - Banana Ghost

Amazing.

Um... yeah.

These are my old neighbors. Cool people.

I helped make this - sets, puppets, etc. I had no idea it was on YouTube. :)

Kill the Hippies - Teenage Suicide Bomber

(Might offend some people, but you gotta look at it with humor. Pay attention to the names of the stores, especially.)