Music You'd Better Listen To

Harry Manx - San Diego-Tijuana

Website / Myspace / iTunes

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Bahhhh. So much on my mind right now.

It’s good to be back. Sorry I left you without warning, but a 95%-disconnected week ended up washing over me. It was refreshing. Missing some things I love, but I got to love some things I miss. Like lying in bed and watching TV, or sitting down and just listening to music. Or reading. I read a lot.

Goddamn, there’s a lot going through my mind right now.

I’m slowly coming off the high of finally figuring out the solution to the problem that’s been plaguing me for the past 11 or so hours. I seriously spent 14 hours today at the office. My mind’s going numb from staring at Excel, Numbers, and phpmyadmin screens.

Harry Manx is a nice way to come down off this.

Y’know, I originally started this blog thinking that I’d be breaking fresh, new music. But, as I reflected this week, almost all of my posts have to do with music that’s at least 5 years old.

I had to stop myself from writing 3-5. I also examined my speech patterns, and realized that I rarely took an affirmative stance. Time to get serious and convicted.

But not felony-wise.

The Hold Steady - Cattle and the Creeping Things

Website / Myspace / iTunes

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Sooooo, I thought I knew what I was going to say, but I just had the most awesomest interruption of my writing process (seriously, I loaded up the track and opened up the Tumblr page I type into, and then I was interrupted).

A friend of a good friend of mine just broke up with his girlfriend, apparently. My friend messaged me over Twitter, and sent me this guy’s number, asking if I could call him and send him “hugs”. So I did.

After a little bit of a chat, we got to talking, and I mentioned this blog as something I was up to before heading to my friend’s for a small party. When prompted as to what I write about, I explained the premise, and offered a few bands I’ve written about lately. The Beatles, DJ Format feat. Abdominal, The Hold Steady.

Holy shit, he liked the Hold Steady. And we talked for an extra 10-15 minutes, just chatting about Hold Steady stories.

These guys are my Phish. People build friendships, lead their lives around music. Some bands have this huge cult following (see: Phish, or The Grateful Dead). Others have their more quiet followings, ones that aren’t so steeped in tradition.

He quoted Multitude of Casualties as his favourite song, I mentioned this as mine. I also gave that lyric from the other day from Citrus as my favourite lyric.

Small fucking world.

TRV$DJAM - Coachella 4

Website / Myspace

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DJ AM (very unfortunately) passed away today… It just feels right to post this.

While I was at a friend’s last night, playing beer pong and just hanging out, we were listening to the excellence that is TRV$DJAM, particularly the Coachella mixtape.

I wish I could say that I’m sad about this loss, but I don’t know the guy, and that tempers my emotion. A number of my friends and acquaintances were themselves friends or acquainted with Adam though; I only know him through their testimonies. And, if anything they’ve said about him, today or on any other day, is to be believed (which, in my opinion, it is), we lost another brilliant, and incredibly kind, artist today.

While I’m not “sad” right now, I feel a tribute is in order. Probably gonna spin this album — and especially this track, my favourite on it — all day tomorrow, along with the tunes he would often share on Twitter.

Here’s to a great mind, a great man, and a great soul. May he rock others who have passed on forever, wherever he may be.

The Hold Steady - Citrus

Website / Myspace / iTunes

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Bah. How have I *not* riffed on these guys yet? I think I kept promising to, but kept getting distracted.

I might have mentioned yesterday that my buddy from Toronto was in town (come to think of it, I did, ‘cuz I explained that I played some Abdominal for him), and he’s my friend who is similarly in love with The Hold Steady’s music.

Come to think of it, this track is only representative of Craig Finn’s lyrics, and I guess a little bit of his odd singing voice. It’s not at all like their normal stuff. Maybe I’ll post that tomorrow.

Yay! The line we were jokingly re-writing on the bus the other day is coming up.

“Lost in fog and love and faithless fear / I’ve caught fishes that made Judas reach for beer”

Anyway, the band is just… absurdly emotive, and reminiscent of everything I love about early Springsteen.

DJ Format feat. Abdominal - Vicious Battle Raps

Myspace (Format) / iTunes (Format) / Myspace (Abdominal) / iTunes (Abdominal)

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Awwwwww yeah. I had nearly forgotten about this track. Format’s beat is soooooo groovin’, and Abdominal’s flow is just… insane. Like, I’m just sitting here, enjoying the rhymes he be spittin’.

“Untrue? Fuck you, be this Jew’s retort.”

My other fave line is coming up right now. I played it for my buddy…

“like a chiseled Greek God… with the strength of 10 men. Who each possess the strength of 10 men”

“what about the right? Writing poems”

…okay, after that non-sequitur, I played it for my buddy who came to visit from Toronto and he loved it.

This track, the same duo’s Ill Culinary Behavior, and a track by Gangstarr and Big L (I can’t remember the name) were all my first introduction to real hip-hop. I mean, I was listening to this stuff in late high school, well after I discovered Eminem, Ludacris, Youngbloodz, and Biggie… But finally, I found the intellectual side of hip-hop, at which point everything just started to fall into place.

Hahaha, the freestyle at the end is ridiculous.

Duck Sauce - aNYway (DJ DLG Remix)

Myspace (Duck Sauce) / Website (DLG) / Myspace (DLG)

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So if you’re into the whole blog-electro scene, you’ve already heard of these guys. But if you’re not, let me (belatedly) introduce you to Duck Sauce, A-trak and Armand van Helden’s new side project. And here’s my favourite remix of one of their two debut tracks, aNYway.

It reminds me, in this odd way, of the feeling I used to get while lying in bed, late at night, listening to the radio while falling asleep on a school night, and The Cardigans’ Lovefool would come on the air. The lyrics, while not overly depressing, carry a hint of melancholy… but the music behind ‘em doesn’t betray any sadness.

Anyway (no pun intended), I was just listening to this while preparing my famous burgers with my buddy who’s in town from Toronto. He laughed at me at one point, I can only imagine the image: an awkward-looking Montreal Jew standing there, with blood all over his hands (cow-blood/beef-juice, not my own), bouncing up and down with a shit-eating grin on his face.

Seriously, today was an accomplishment. While I didn’t get everything I wanted done, everything I did get to was done right. The burgers came out spectacularly (they led Zac to describe them as “the best burgers [he’s] ever eaten”), the emails I sent were well-received, the short story I hammered out this morning brightened the days of the people it was intended for, and I got another two chapters through Moneyball.

Seriously, great fucking day. And this lingering taste of awesome, awesome beef, cooked in bacon fat and canola oil, gives it the perfect ending.

The Daredevil Christopher Wright - Parade of Tigers

Website / Myspace / iTunes

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Ohhhh man. I promised to put these guys up a month ago, back when I saw (and posted about) Built To Spill. Sorry about that!

Anyway, this post comes a bit early today because I’m about to head to Chicago’s famed Art Institute and hang out for the day, probably parking myself in front of a piece or two for an hour or more each, just to sit and think, and watch the surroundings. Ohhhh, the benefits of having purchased a discount membership!

So, you may be asking yourself “why are you posting Daredevil now?” and that, my friends, is a pretty good question. Simply put, they’re playing at Chicago’s Darkroom tonight, and I’m excited to see ‘em for my second time!

Also, I just noticed the little weird panning bird calls they’re doing on this track. Sweeeeeet.

The Beatles - Oh! Darling

Website / Myspace / Amazon

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Ohhhh, man. I hadn’t heard this song in ages until this morning, when it woke me up.

I feel so odd about this track… there’s nothing exceptional or magical about it, like there is about A Day In The Life, or Eleanor Rigby. Its strength, in my eyes, comes from the simplicity of a fairly standard (8-bar? 12-bar?) blues riff mixed with Paul’s passionate vocals.

Damn, am I glad I reloaded all my Beatles into my iTunes. I have a pretty extensive collection, but I had to cut it to my favourites/the bare essentials when I was running out of disk space. But now that I have a sweet bus-powered USB hard drive, I’m back to the 100+ gigs of music I like to call my own.

So, as I sit here eating a peanut butter sandwich, and my roommate raises the volume of the TV in the other room to counter my music playing here, I salute you, Fab Four.

The World/Inferno Friendship Society - Brother of the Mayor of Bridgewater

Website / Myspace / iTunes

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I know, I’m such a tease. I mentioned Craig Finn yesterday, and I’m putting up a track by his keyboardist buddy/bandmate (Franz)’s (apparently former) side project. Or other band. Or whatever you wanna call these guys.

Hell, I really just want to post the Punks Jump Up remix of Miike Snow’s Animal, but I’ve done that already. And the rule of any good mixtape is not to repeat the same song. And I see this blog as one giant mixtape.

So instead, you get one of my favourite bouncy choruses ever.

It’s weird, man. I totally thought I wouldn’t truly enjoy ska again, aside from the nostalgia I feel when I still listen to my favourites (Reel Big Fish and Catch-22, for the record). And then I heard these guys.

Granted, it’s not traditional ska, or really pure ska… but the ska influence is undeniable, with the off-beat emphases and the horns. It’s like… Skamericana.

You’re welcome.

(Also, I learned on my roadtrip that Bridgewater is a real place… in Massachusetts. Like where the rest of The Hold Steady are from. You’re welcome again.)

The Mountain Goats - No Children

Website / Myspace / iTunes

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Wait, what? I’ve been posting for a month-ish (actually more by now) and I still haven’t posted any Mountain Goats?

Darnielle is one of my two favourite active songwriters (the other being Craig Finn — the guy’s lyrics are beautiful), and this track got me through a particularly bad breakup in my second year at U of T.

It doesn’t fit the mood tonight, though. I’ve been working for hours on a new project I’m starting, and I should be ready to do the alpha launch tomorrow morning, if not tonight! Seriously… news tomorrow on this stuff.

But yeah. Time to post some Mountain Goats.

(I actually have 4 versions of this song… down from 10. And I sing it regularly while walking on the street, too.)