SLM Mixtape #57: Worldly Possessions

Worldly Possessions from SomeLoveMusic on 8tracks Radio.

Mixtape Monday!

Slow and sad to compliment another beautiful September day here in Denver

SLM Mixtape #32: Find a Hard Problem. Then Solve It.

Find a Hard Problem. Then Solve It. from TuffLuke on 8tracks Radio.

Ablutophobia - Sheep, Dog & Wolf
A Tale of Life Part 6 - Ghost
Toe Tore Oh - Dustin Wong
Toast To Life - All Will Be Quiet
The Only Tune Pt. 2: The Old Mill Pond - Nico Muhly
Tide - Small Things Amplified
Graveyard - Feist
Fljótavík - Sigur Rós

SLM Mixtape #27: Somnuri

Somnuri from TuffLuke on 8tracks Radio.

I Didn't Know - Tristesse Contemporaine
Yatton - Beak>
Shit-Hawk in the Snow - Moonface
Black Tounge - Feist
Other People - Beach House
Into the Night - Raveonettes
Sweatshop - De Staat
Born To - Jesca Hoop

'07's Music to Love More Than Music: Love, pt. 2

Jesca Hoop - Kismet
Like a mixture of about a hundred people (in my mind I can remember comparing her to Tom Waits, Casey Dienel, Nellie McKay, Norah Jones, and Nelly Furtado, and that's just off the top of my head), Jesca sings songs that seem to be lullabies conducted by sirens, lulling sailors into deep sleeps for malicious purposes. I like it, but the fact that her live show is a dreamy trip into a dark wonderland doesn't hurt.
Jesca Hoop - Silverscreen

Captain Dan & the Scurvy Crew - Rimes of the Hip Hop Mariners
Holy crap, I think I've just found my favorite sub-genre of Nerdcore Hip-Hop: Piratecore! I'm for effing real here. The beats are awesome, the lyrics are hilarious, and Cap'n D has the best voice for this.
Captain Dan & the Scurvy Crew - (sorry kids, I've just got a link to samples)

Loney, Dear - Loney, Noir
Like the Indie rock side project for the members of Sigur Rós, it's soothing and surprisingly upbeat sound fills the listener with hope and love. The lyrics are some of the most easily relate-able lyrics I've heard in while. Puts a smile on your face.
Loney, Dear - I Will Call You Lover Again

The Bastard Fairies - Memento Mori
Like the little sister of Rasputina, sounding like musicians who've recently moved to the old west playing Turn-of-the-Century-Londontown Street-Urchin Chamber-Music. Now add time travel in (transporting those musicians to today so they can use synthesizers and the like), and you have The Bastard Fairies. They talk about religion, love, and, over all, sex.
The Bastard Fairies - A Case Against Love
The Bastard Fairies - Whatever

Aqualung - Memory Man
one of the most evolved singer songwriter albums I've ever heard, save for the fact that a lot of songs sound kind of the same. Undeniably charming. Sounds kind of like some of the less produced Radiohead songs at times.
Aqualung - Vapour Trail

Battles - Mirrored
Buh dom.Buh dom.Buh dom.Buh dom.Buh dom.Buh dom.Buh dom.Buh dom.Buh dom.Buh dom.Buh dom.Buh dom.Buh domdomdomdomdomdomdom. When you hear them, you can't help yourself, all you can think is "oh my god what is this glorious glorious glorious music!?" It's Battles. And we've all got Battles in our lives. Unfortunately not every song on the album is Atlas, which is really what stops this album from climbing higher in my charts. That one song can really only carry an album so far.
Battles - Atlas

Feist - The Reminder
I hate 1234 now ... thanks pop culture for killing the crap out of that one. That one death made the album a little harder to listen to. I wish it was back many months ago when the album initially leaked and I got a copy of it and I got to hear studio versions of all those lovely songs she'd been performing for so long (seemed like more than a year). The album is just ... oh ... wonderful. One of the best BSS side/solo projects to date ... its just that ... man ... pop culture killed it...
Feist - So Sorry
Feist - Sea Lion

Gorillaz - D-Sides
B-side collections are always tricky to rate, because I'm never quite sure about how to go about thinking about the songs. Should it stand alone, or should I think of it as a companion piece to the album the songs are B-sides to? I liked the remixes, and the B-sides were sometimes good enough to stand on their own, but the album as a whole would be a pretty piss poor excuse for a Gorillaz album, so I can't rate it too high. I liked it though.
Gorillaz - Rockit

Let's Go Sailing - The Chaos In Order
Cutesy indie pop straight from the playground of your heart. Simple and beautiful, no more no less.
Let's Go Sailing - We Get Along

A Fine Frenzy - One Cell In The Sea
Apparently everyone seems to know at least a little about A Fine Frenzy. All I know is her string section and backing band really give her songs life, but the would be nothing without Alison Sudol's smoky voice and wonderful piano playing
A Fine Frenzy - Near to You

Saturnine - Remembrance Of Things Past
Few artists can get away with basing a song or an album off of a Proust story, but to then do so and release it for free as the band's swan song ... now that takes some major sand. The sound is that of many different bands, drawing heavily from the Velvet Underground, Saturnine's album is good, despite it's tendency to, occasionally, drag on. I'm trying really hard not to bash the album for it's shortcomings, because it really is a brilliant album, but it's not perfect. Check it out. If anything, you can, after listening to the whole album, say you know a Proust story.
Saturnine - (Get the whole album here)

Earthless - Rhythms From A Cosmic Sky
It was only a matter of time before post rock bands reached back and explored the roots of popular rock and roll and extrapolated upon the sounds of 70's Rock. This is what Wolfmother would sound like if Wolfmother were Explosions in the Sky if Explosions in the Sky were Godspeed You! Black Emperor. The album has two 20 minute epic Post-Rock concoctions and a cover of a Groundhogs song that I can only assume is there so they can have something that might someday get radio play. None of this matters however. What matters is that this is one of the most competent 1970's Classic Rock Style Post Rock albums of all time. Never mind that it is probably the only album in that specific genre.
Earthless - Godspeed (edit)
Earthless - Cherry Red (Groundhogs Cover)

Architecture In Helsinki - Places Like This
There were a few albums that I heard this year that, when I heard them, I instantly thought that they sounded like they'd been out for years. That's not to say that I thought they were ripping off other people's sound, or that they were rehashing their own sound, but that it was instantly nostalgic. You hear it and go "oh yeah ... man ... that was such a good summer." Thing is it wasn't album of the year in whatever year I'm reminded of, despite it's nostalgic qualities, and that means it doesn't climb much higher on my list.
Architecture In Helsinki - Debbie

Sigh - Hangman's Hymn
Deep and brooding, these boys created quite the epic, with themes that I'm sure could only be unearthed by being sat down by the members of the band and having them explain it to you (mostly because the lyrics are gloriously unintelligible). Charging songs, every part brutal. While not the top of the pops, it is one of the most competent Death Metal albums I've heard in a while.
Sigh - Introitus/Kyrie

"I Love You Inside and Out"

Last Wednesday I received 2 free tickets to Feist, so I my buddy JJ ventured on down to the Ogden to see what our girl Leslie had to offer. I hadn't been to the Ogden since my Metal days (or, if you prefer, Metal Daze [Julio knows what I'm talking about ;) ]), so I was all ready expecting this to be a weird night. We got to the theater just in time to get a drink and get down in front, where I ran into a friend, Mackenzie, and her friend, Lindy, and within a minute my group of just JJ and I grew to 6 people (the extra 2 were just 2 random guys who were kind of cool at first) ... all of which rather stoked to see Feist. After a small amount of small talk, Jason Collett took the stage.

I was expecting that, since Jason, much like Leslie, hailed from Broken Social Scene, Jason's set would border on spectacular. In reality, it bordered on mediocre. It's sad when I'm more entertained by an act's stories about the songs than i am with their songs, but not as sad as the fact that the highlight of his set was when Feist came out and played drums. When the highlight of your set is when someone else is on the stage, then we've got trouble. It wasn't bad, but I just don't want to get caught up in the whole "hype them because they came from an amazing band and might be better later" cycle that I have been known to get into. I just wasn't that impressed.

Feist took the stage after a short wait doing her signature vocal looping effect while behind a white sheet, her silhouette matching that of the cover of The Reminder. After that, she stepped out, received the crowd, and began the next song as all the lights went out and two lights hit a disco ball, filling the Ogden with a most magical feeling. After that song the stage lights were brought back up and a shadow-puppeteer person located off stage made little shadow interpretations of Feist's songs which were projected onto the back of the stage. It was pretty much business as usual for Feist and her crew from the point on. At one point someone screamed out "Inside and Out!" and Feist played it, which encouraged everyone else to start screaming out the name of the song that they wanted to hear. I couldn't help myself, so I screamed out "Lovertits!" (a song Leslie did with Peaches, then re-did with Gonzales). This act, something JJ referred to as "obscure at best," caused everyone around me to look at me as though I'd just said something very sexist. To their confusion, Leslie laughed, played a few bars and sang a few lyrics from Lovertits, then laughed some more, and went into the next song. I was happy :).

But by the end of the night, I felt a little unfulfilled. I don't know what it is, because when I listen to live sets and studio recordings and remixes, I love Feist's work, but live ... everything just seemed half-hearted and not fully developed. I got the feeling that Feist has some growth to do still. But I'm happy I went either way. Here's a reason for you to be happy:

Band: Feist
Date: 2005-06-21
Venue: KCRW

Intro
Secret Heart
Gatekeeper
Honey (Tears)
Now At Last
Interview
Mushaboom
Let It Die
Intuition
Outro
Inside and Out

After the show JJ, Mackenzie, Lindy and I took a little trip to Pete's Kitchen to reflect on the show and get some awesome food. It was a great night made better by a show and by friends.

"You're My Lovertits"

So, apparently all the Denver bloggers are going to be at Feist tonight ... myself included. I hope to see ya there :)

Feist - La Sirena
Feist - Lovertits (with Gonzales) (Remix)

"With Great Power...""Asleep Now...""Secret Heart..."

So ... Spiderman 3 is coming out in basically enough hours to have a count down, and I'm freeking Hopt about it. Who else is seeing a 12:00 am showing, cause I sure as hell am. With the release of a blockbuster film comes the release of the soundtrack, in this case, a pretty flippin good one. Here are my favies:

Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Sealings
The Flaming Lips - The Supreme Being Teaches Spider-Man How To Be In Love
Rogue Wave - Sightlines

In other news, as everyone well knows Rage Against the Machine had their little Coachella stint and now everyone is up in arms about how amazing everything is going to be in the world now that the boys are back in town.

(The Mountain Goats - the Boys Are Back in Town)

Well, I don't mean to bring anyone down (which, in reality, I don' think the opinions of one blogger will be doing much), but their reunion show and following few shows do not have me too stoked. And the rumors that there might be a CD in the works ... come now, lets be honest with ourselves.

Any time any band ever gets back together for a few shows, just for old time's sake, there is always a rumor of a new CD. Regardless of whether or not a new CD is released, fans are disappointed. If it's not made, the fans are sad. If it is made, then it's either a live CD of songs we've all heard before, or it's a new CD full of new material. The New CD route doesn't sound too bad, until you factor in the fact that the artists have all grown in their own separate ways, and have long sense lost the momentum of working with the other three guys. Not to mention Tom Morello's new solo act and how that will not only effect the direction of the music, but how it will effect the tour (because, if Tom is concerned with getting any press about his new stuff, he will want to tour to pump some life into his all ready vibrant album, and, I think, if he's on tour with RATM, people just won't pay any attention to him).

Face the facts people, RATM was, was, a good band.

Now, I'm not saying there is no chance there will be a new CD, and that that new CD won't be amazing, I'm just saying that I have my doubts. These boys are no longer our good old boys.

My buddy JJ has a good sum up of the happenings at Coachella, and Vietnow has 7 live tracks from the show, which actually don't sound very promising.

In last, but certainly not least, news, Feist's new album FINALLY came out. Buy it. It's ... it's a rawkgasm. Here's a live set by my lady:

Band: Feist
Date: 2006-01-27
Venue: Park West, Chicago, IL

Safe and Secure
The Build Up
When I Was a Young Girl
Four Teen Age Boys
So Sorry
Secret Heart
Fighting Away the Tears
Phantoms
Mushaboom
Sea Lion Woman
Intuition
Major Label Debut (Broken Social Scene cover) [well, since she's in that band, I dunno if it's so much a cover ... whatev]
Let it Die