Drone: Three Hearts

Anyone who's talked to me about music lately knows that I've been listening to tons of Animal Collective and field recordings (like Geir Jennsen's field recordings from Tibet). I listen to lots of music (can I call field recordings music?) in general, but just as AC and field recordings might seem strange to most people, after listening long enough, most of what "most people" listen to sounds strange to me.

Today, I discovered that WFMU publishes a podcast called "Airborne Event Dronecast with Dan Bodah," which they describe as "Your weekly ticket to droneland. Field recordings of waters, machines, subways, drums, frogs, ice, etc, and then those same recordings spindled, folded, or mutilated. Don't worry, that ticket will still get you through the phantom tollbooth."

Oh. My. Goodness.

I've had a few friends recommend checking out WFMU before, and like most occasions when friends make recommendations, I haven't followed through (even though they're usually right about my tastes, I insist on being a precious snowflake). And like most good things, WFMU is best discovered on one's own. But, man, it's good.

I'll admit it: Listening to 25 minutes of beating hearts might seem like a little much. And I understand that there are those who would question the necessity of this type of (re)mediation. In other words, why do I need a radio station podcast to give me the opportunity to just listen? Why don't I just put my ear on D.'s or Mojito's chest and enjoy? Or get a stethoscope, even?

Maybe, like my friend and fellow blogger David at ad vertiginem has recently suggested, this is further evidence of the "zombification" of the common "diePodder." In other words, maybe it's another example of the ways technology has further distanced us from each other and from the real world.

But I don't think so. I'm sure in Alexander Graham Bell's day, people were making similar arguments about the telephone: As in, "no one ever just sits down together for a good chat anymore." And, really, such sentiments are good at the level of intention, but at the level of practice, they just look like neo-Luddism to me.

But enough of that. Why not give a listen to those beating hearts yourself and see what you think? I'm not recommending it. I'm giving you the opportunity to discover it for yourself.

Dismembered

What do you get when Moby (yes, Moby) meets David Lynch?

"Shot in the back of the head."

ToW: A Hawk and a Hacksaw

On Tuesday, D. and I saw Andrew Bird give a stunning performance at Pittsburgh's Carnegie Music Hall (not to be confused...). Equally stunning and, to us, delightfully surprising were the opening act: A Hawk and a Hacksaw (who take their name from a line in Hamlet: "I am but mad north-north-west: when the wind is southerly I know a hawk from a handsaw" (Act II, scene ii).

Fronted by former Neutral Milk Hotel drummer Jeremy Barnes on accordion, bass drum, and tambourine; and backed by Heather Trost on violin and other strings as well as a couple folks (whose names I didn't catch) on sundry horns and woodwinds, these guys were amazing. Captivating.

I'll admit, some of it - including the this week's track - sounds like it could be the soundtrack for a fast-motion montage in a Guy Richie film (circa-1990's, Lock, Stock style), but not at all to its discredit. I've been listening to them all morning, and I can't get enough.

A Black and White Rainbow.

And while I'm at it, one from Andrew Bird:

Nomenclature.

Enjoy!

Track of the Week: "If I Had a Heart" by Fever Ray

Jeez oh pete! '09's shaping up to be a great year for new music from some of my old favorites.

Yep, Bob Dylan.

But also, Wilco's got a new one slated for June.

Andrew Bird just released a fine album Noble Beast.

In addition to the remastered reissues of Paul's Boutique and Check Your Head, word on the street is that the Beastie Boys have a new one in the works (my prediction: a "punk" album).

Animal Collective are relentlessly assaulting us with good stuff: beyond the truly excellent Merriweather Post Pavilion, they're re-releasing nearly everything they've recorded on Direct Metal Mastering vinyl (see, for example, the reissue of Spirit They've Gone, Spirit They've Vanished) as well as a long-awaited vinyl-only, live box set from Catsup Plate Records.

And that says nothing of the newer bands busting out on the scene.

Dreijer Andersson may not be new to the scene, but her solo project Fever Ray is. I'll admit it, I picked this one up thanks to Pitchfork's "Best New Music" section: So sue me (and, haters, just have a look at their 10 most recent best new albums and disagree with them. I dare ya).

"If I Had a Heart" is the haunting opener from Fever Ray's self-titled album.

Enjoy!

Thru You: The YouTube Mash-Up, ReMix, Megajam

Do yourself a favor while you're slacking off at work or procrastinating on that essay, book, project, Spring cleaning, yoga practice, feeding the kids, etc., and check this out.

Titled Thru You: Kutiman mixes YouTube this fascinating project seamlessly mixes together strange little, digital odds and ends into some decent music. Even more, it highlights what's best about collaborative digital environments: together, we can make some cool shit.

As explained by the man himself:

Together for Life

From Pitchfork:

If I were Bob Dylan, I would spend my days in sweatpants watching "The Price Is Right", eating fresh strawberries and cream, and maybe getting up to sign off on a few official bootlegs every few months.

It's a good thing I'm not Bob Dylan. After revising what it means to be a rock star, bringing the idea of rock'n'roll to something close to high art, and becoming the legend among legends, Dylan is still going at age 67. As previously reported, he's coming out with a new studio album-- his 46th-- called Together Through Life. The LP comes out April 28 via Columbia. That picture of an old-school couple making out in the backseat of a giant car is the sure-to-be-scrutinized cover.

The self-produced affair (under Dylan's Jack Frost alias) follows 2006's Modern Times and was inspired in part by French director Olivier Dahan's upcoming film My Own Love Song with Renée Zellweger, Forest Whitaker, and Nick Nolte. Dylan wrote the new song "Life Is Hard" for the road trip flick and then Together Through Life "sort of took its own direction," according to an interview with the songwriter now up on his site.

In the chat with longtime rock journo Bill Flanagan, Dylan talks about the heavy influence of Chess Records on the new album and how his recent artistic resurgence has changed his creative viewpoint: "If there's an astrologer with a criminal record in one of my songs it's not going to make anybody wonder if the human race is doomed. Images are taken at face value and it kind of freed me up."

Dylan invented and then figured out how to break almost every rock stereotype there is, so it's only right that he continues to age with striking grace.

Dylan's never-ending tour continues this spring with a six week trek through Europe.

I'm giddy.

Track of the Week: "Trouble Weighs a Ton" by Dan Auerbach

The first track from the Black Keys's frontman Dan Auerbach. This guy can do no wrong, in my opinion.

"Trouble Weighs a Ton"

Enjoy!

Track of the Week: "Legal Tender" by Handsome Furs

This one comes from the duo comprised of Wolf Parade's Dan Boeckner and his wife Alexei Perry: Handsome Furs.

The other bands involved in the collective that gives us Wolf Parade and Handsome Furs - Frog Eyes, Sunset Rubdown, Swan Lake, et. al. - seem to get more attention than the Handsome Furs, but, in my opinion, the Furs are the best of the bunch.

Here's a new one from their forthcoming album Face Control.

Legal Tender.

Enjoy!

Track of the Week: "Let's Talk About It" by White Denim

This one comes from White Denim's recent Exposion, available here in multiple formats ranging from FLAC files to a "one-year subscription" that comes with the album on both wax and in a million digital bits as well as a 7" single of this week's track.

"Let's Talk About It"

Enjoy!

GeekDad, the SuperBowl, and the new Dylan?

Even just thinking about Wired's blogging collective of sci-fi loving, mustachioed, game-playing, tech-freaky fathers puts a smile on my face. I love those guys at GeekDad so much. From reviewing Star Wars themed lego creations to raving about the "10 Science Fiction TV Series [They] Can't Wait to Watch with Their Kids," these guys make it clear that they unapologetically love being good fathers while completely embracing their geekdom.

God Bless 'Em.

Most recently, one of them - Ken Denmead - commented on his picks for the worst Super Bowl ads. Unsurprisingly, the GoDaddy.com ads were blasted. I'm not a parent (I'm certainly a geek), but even I was a bit put off by the excessive and entirely unnecessary sex appeal of the ads. Moreover, my intelligence was a bit insulted: rather than tell anything about the GoDaddy service, the ads just flashed some flesh under the assumption that sex sells, even when the product may have been a bit ambigiously pitched.

Don't get me wrong: I don't need my ads to be blatent endorsements of their represented goods and services. Often, the crew working on an advertisement consists of talented filmmakers, writers, directors, etc. who are trying to break into the film industry, and so they build a resume and forge an artistic identity through branding themselves while helping to endorse brands.

Such must be the case for the Dylan/Will.I.Am Pepsi ad (embedded below).

I don't typically comment on Dylan's endorsements. They haven't bothered me much, and my sense is that it's far easier to criticize (and to make the obligatory, sarcastic "I guess the times are a-changin'" comment) than to understand or accept. In the 60s, Dylan reportedly said that he'd let his music be used for the endorsement of ladies underwear: at the time, it was almost preposterous to imagine an underwear ad. But, sure enough, in the early aughts, there was Dylan, strumming and singing in a Victoria's Secret ad. Didn't bother me. With the release of his most recent album (Modern Times), Dylan did an iTunes promo in which he sang one of my favorite tracks from the album ("Someday Baby"). I like the song, the commercial is well done, I dig Apple, I have an iPod...so...whatever.

But one thing bothers me about the SuperBowl ad. Wait for it. Let me describe.

The commercial - visually beautiful, artfully done, thematically significant - essentially compares popular cultures of previous generations with the pop culture of today's youth, reminding us that "every generation refreshes the world." Overtly, it suggests that Shrek is the new Gumby, that Jack Black is the new John Belushi, that the cell phone slowjam tribute is the new Bic lighter...And that Will.I.Am...I say again, Will . I . Am ... is the new Dylan. Look, I even like the mash-up. It's a decent mix, and Dylan notoriously approves of interpretations of his songs (see the Dylan-approved soundtracks for Masked and Anonymous as well as I'm Not There).

But, really? The new Dylan?

Track of the Week: 6 Ghosts by Nine Inch Nails

I'm not gonna lie: I have tremendous respect for Trent Reznor. At about the same time Radiohead were shattering traditional methods of music distribution, Reznor was also digitally releasing some amazing material sans record label (and without asking his fans to qualify their appreciation by coming up with their own price).

The guy is intelligent and talented. Don't believe me? Check out NPR's World Cafe interview.

This week's track comes from a massive, 36-song instrumental collection called Ghosts. Reznor made the first of four parts of this collection available for free download. And it's good.

6 Ghosts.

Enjoy (and don't be afraid).

Track of the Week: "Rolling Sea" by Vetiver

From Vetiver's forthcoming album Tight Nit.

Rolling Sea.

Enjoy!

Track of the Week: "You Remind Me of Something" by Bonnie "Prince" Billy

When I lived in Louisville, I was often told I should check out local act Will Oldham aka Palace Brothers aka Bonnie 'Prince' Billie. As usual, when I'm told I should check out any cultural product (be it film, television show, album, artist, etc.), I'm resistant. Oppositional, even. I mean, c'mon, I'm a unique, precious snowflake: irreducible to your simplified assumptions regarding my artistic preferences, tastes, etc. You don't know me, man.

So, I never got around to checking out old Will.

Thanks to a recent New Yorker article, I decided to give him a shot. That's right, my friends don't know me, The New Yorker does.

Everyone who said I'd like Oldham was right.

"You Remind Me of Something"

Enjoy!

Unwavering bands of light: What's post- the post?

I'm fond of talking, theorizing, about what comes after Postmodernism. Some see the whole PoMo thing as a paradigmatic example of exaggerated, pretentious intellectualism. I don't.

As a literary and cultural movement, it has given us useful language and a situational discourse to understand the underpinnings - the psyche - of our contemporary culture. More importantly, it's given voice to a multiplicity of perspectives that have traditionally fallen outside of academic discourse. It has sought to liberate marginalized groups by not only giving them a voice, but also by seeking to understand what it means to "be" ~someone~.

It essentially asks my favorite question: Why are you you? Its responses to this question have been various, and they typically suggest that the Postmodern identity is ideologically interpellated, socially constructed, subject to contextualized performative imperatives, unstable, under continual construction, without a core essence, open to continual possibility, and so on. I don't find this scary, or even existentially overwhelming, as some do. I actually find it hopeful. And important.

But what comes next? Historically, at least in America, cultural shifts - in literature, art, film, etc. - have coincided with wars. As many theorists have observed, cultural production is intrinsically linked to both economics and the widespread concerns of the masses. These things show up in the art. During periods of war, economics are affected as are our cultural concerns. The time is beyond ripe.

Appropriately the tone and focus of various academic discourses has been shifting: I've noticed a greater attention being paid to aesthetics. Postmodernism essentially did away with aesthetic concerns, noting that aesthetic taste is, on one hand, subjective (and thus socially constructed) and, on the other, without essence (like the PoMo subject). If anything, PoMo gave us the aesthetic of the abject: piss, shit, blood, vomit, that which is within me and I violently expel (read Kristeva, if you dare). I think we've gotten what we need from the abject and are ready for a new sense of aesthetics.

I think this also points towards the development of a new understanding of ontology, of being. I think that we'll see something that seems like a return to considerations of essentialized identity, but I think these considerations will be unfettered from religious associations, and, by and large, will be free from considerations of the permanence or infinite status of the soul. Rather, I think these considerations will, in some ways be extensions of pre-existing understandings of subjectivity - and will thus have an existential component. In other words, I think we may see considerations of the subject reconsider the possibility of a vestige of selfhood that isn't explained by the complex interrelationships of genetic preconditions, environmental factors, social constructions, and so on. I think we'll see a Post-Postmodern formation of subjectivity that considers both the complex interaction, and the process of putting together fragments of selfhood, as resulting in a ~something else~ that isn't necessarily reducible to the focus of previous considerations of subjectivity.

I'm seeing evidence of this shift a lot these days (but perhaps it is only the reflection of my own perspective). Consider the lyrics from the new Animal Collective album I recently mentioned:

Am I really all the things that are outside of me?

Would I complete myself without the things I like around?

Does the music that I make play on my awkward face?

Do you appreciate the subtleties of taste buds?

Or maybe Vonnegut - being, as always, ahead of his time - wrote it best when, after writing himself into Breakfast of Champions as both author and character, changed his perspective from this:

I had come to the conclusion that there was nothing sacred about myself or about any human being, that we were all machines, doomed to collide and collide and collide.

to this (in the voice of the book's artist Rabo Karabekian):

"I now give you my word of honor," he went on, "that the picture your city owns shows everything about life which truly matters, with nothing left out. It is a picture of the awareness of every animal. It is the immaterial core of every animal - the 'I am' to which all messages are sent. It is all that is alive in any of us - in a mouse, in a deer, in a cocktail waitress. It is unwavering and pure, no matter what preposterous adventure may befall us. A sacred picture of Saint Anthony alone is one vertical, unwavering band of light. If a cockroach were near him, or a cocktail waitress, the picture would show two such bands of light. Our awareness is all that is alive and maybe sacred in any of us. Everything else about us is dead machinery."

I'm still working this out, but I'm curious: What do you think, you unwavering band of light, you.

Church Mouse

How can he know and not be crazy?

Track of the Week: "My Girls" by Animal Collective

I love this band so freakin' much. Their new one... Merriweather Post Pavilion...geez oh man, it's good.

Pitchfork Review.

Buy it from Domino.

Listen to "My Girls".

Enjoy!

Track(s) of the Week: From the Top Ten

Five Track from my Top Ten:

High Places - From Stardust to Sentience: Dreamy and ethereal. This track is a perfect depiction of the entire album.

Man Man - Mister Jung Stuffed: From the first "Been locked down way too long" of this opening track through the final "Who are we to love at all" of the album's closing tune ("Whalebones"), Rabbit Habits is the funnest circus-ride of an album that I know.

The Dodos - Red and Purple: I'm amazed when two-man bands are able to produce a sound this full. I know, recording studio hocus pocus and all that... but, still, there's a richness to The Dodos that's unexplained by the effects of layering tracks.

Sleepingdog - The Sun Sinks in the Sea: Hypnotic. Mesmerizing. Polar Life is like forced meditation. The entire album manages to stay consistently entrancing without sounding repetitive.

Gang Gang Dance - First Communion: Saint Dympha made the top ten largely because it's been the backdrop for my writing for several weeks. It's a good album, but it's particularly good for passing the time spent in the excruciating work of wordsmithing.

Enjoy! If you like it, buy it (if possible, buy as directly from the artist as you can - by picking up something at a show, purchasing through their websites, or going through their record labels).

Track(s) of the Week: Honorable Mentions

Five tracks from my Best of '08 Honorable Mentions:

Cat Power - Song to Bobby: The one original tune (not counting Chan's cover of her own song) on Jukebox. Also, an unapologetic love letter to Bob Dylan.

Ratatat - Mi Viejo: These boys have some great remixes out there.

Juana Molina - Dar (Qué Dificil): Juana Molina is incapable of making songs that aren't completely infectious. Listen to this and don't like it. I dare you to even try.

Tobacco - Hairy Candy: All analog. From a limited vinyl release. And (perhaps too surprisingly) a Pittsburgh native.

Department of Eagles - Around the Bay: A solid tune from a solid album. If I'd had more time to spend with In Ear Park, it may very well have ranked higher.

Best of '08

Earlier this week, Pitchfork published the results of the aforementioned readers' poll, and although my original picks for best albums of the year didn't fare as well as I would have hoped, it's a good list.

They're going to begin announcing their official Best of '08 lists tomorrow, beginning with honorable mentions, and so I thought I should throw mine out there - less in hope that it will predict their picks (it won't) and more to validate my choices as unintentionally non-hipster (as opposed to decidedly counter-cool).

The problem with lists: In any top five list, the first four are solid and the fifth is a nearly impossible and perpetually shifting position. In top 10 lists, you get a solid four, followed by three or four that could have been number five, and a few more solid choices to round things out.

I'll admit that my picks have changed since I last posted them. But, so what? I can change my mind, can't I?

That said: My 10 Favorite Albums of 2008

1. High Places - S/T
2. Man Man - Rabbit Habits
3. Jay Reatard - Singles '08
4. The Dodos - Visiter
5. The Black Keys - Attack and Release
6. Born Ruffians - Red, Yellow, and Blue
7. Sleepingdog - Polar Life
8. The Raconteurs - Consolers of the Lonely
9. Death Cab for Cutie - Narrow Stairs
10. Gang Gang Dance - Saint Dympha

My Top 10 Honorable Mentions (coincidentally, the list that will more likely resemble Pitchfork's top 10)

1. TV on the Radio - Dear Science
2. Cat Power - Jukebox
3. Fleet Foxes - S/T
4. Bon Iver - For Emma, Forever Ago
5. Ratatat - LP3
6. Juana Molina - Un Dia
7. Deerhunter - Microcastle / Weird Era Cont.
8. Tobacco - Fucked Up Friends
9. Abe Vigoda - Skeleton
10. Department of Eagles - In Ear Park

I'll save further commentary for later this week, but for now, feel free to post your lists here. And keep an eye out for tracks from some of these bands in this Friday's "Track of the Week" post.

Track of the Week: "Old Panda Days" by Casiotone for the Painfully Alone

To continue the series of tracks from bands I've recently seen live and who, after the show, slept on my couch,* this week's track comes from Casiotone for the Painfully Alone (cftpa).

After seeing cftpa in a small, artsy venue in Pittsburgh a few weeks ago, I invited Owen Ashworth - cftpa's creator and sole member - and his brother Gordon (who's band Concern also played) to crash on my couch, and, to my surprise and overly-enthusiastic delight, they took me up on it.

I first heard cftpa on the first installment of the limited David Horvitz Picture Disc Series from Aagoo Records, and I immediately fell in love.

"Old Panda Days" is the track from the picture disc series that sealed the deal on my gushing fandom. Enjoy!

Buy cftpa's recent full length Etiquette here or digitally through iTunes. Also, see the band's MySpace page for some extraordinarily awesome and rare wax, including the highly recommended Ashworth brothers' collaboration on a couple Springsteen covers printed on a square slab o' vinyl.

* Note: unless in the extremely unlikely event that another band happens to sleep on my couch between now and next Friday, this will be the last track in the "bands who've slept on my couch" series. I don't go givin' that couch out to just anyone, you know.