"Or Were You Just Making Conversation?"

Do The Right Thing as performed by Muppets

So I've finally buckled down and admitted that I've been sick for basically the past month and bought some Emergen-C, which I've been told is basically the holy grail of sick remedies. Well it looks like it's working because the nasty cough I've had for the past few days isn't as nasty. ... I guess all that is pretty irrelevant as far as this whole blog thing goes...

Aaaanyway here is some music I've been listening to recently and what I think of it (you know the drill by now):

The Diggs - ctrl-alt-del
Verdict: Love (<) +
Nice, pained music with dancy baselines and ghostly guitar work. For some peculiar reason they remind me of something that Jimmy Eat World could have become if they evolved more around their slower stuff. Their songs just sound amazingly genuine. I wish my version of the title track was better because I really really like it, but, alas, it is what it is. Also, "Brigante" is a super rad tune which I wish I had a better version of so I could host it unabashedly.
The Diggs - Careen
The Diggs - Recovery Forever
The Diggs - Two Months Off (Underworld Cover)

The Terrordactyls - The Terrordactyls
Verdict: Love More (<3)
Adorable Twee-Folk with some really rather intelligent and heartwarming lyrics. I mean, if Kimya Dawson likes them, who couldn't automatically just adore them? Haters ... that's who. Don't hate, appreciate:
The Terrordactyls - I Want to Cry
The Terrordactyls - Zombie Girl
The Terrordactyls - Long Live The Party (Andrew W.K. Cover)
The Terrordactyls - Devices (feat. Kimya Dawson)

[Guess what? Terrordactyls are coming to a town near you ... and Denver! to Rhinoceropolis! Yay!:
03/01 Olympia, WA 1502 Legion Way
03/06 Seattle, WA Fusion Cafe
03/07 Seattle, WA The Vera Project
03/08 Portland, OR Kurt’s House
03/09 Oakland, CA Ghost House Gallery
03/10 Santa Barbara, CA The Oven
03/11 Phoenix, AZ The Phix
03/12 Austin, TX SXSW Fanatic Promotion Showcase
03/21 Durham, NC Bull City HQ
04/02 New York, NY The Canal Room
04/08 New York, NY Pianos
04/13 Columbus, OH Wholly Craft
04/20 Denver, CO Rhinoceropolis]

Matt Costa - Unfamiliar Faces
Verdict: Love (<)
First listen through, I was bored. Upon further review, I got awkwardly nostalgic, and really enjoyed it. At times sounding like a 4 person band version of the White Stripes w/ a horn section. Sometimes it sounds like a Scottish M. Ward (don't ask me why I think that, I just do)
Matt Costa - Emergency Call
Matt Costa - Trying to Lose My Mind
Matt Costa - Heart of Stone

HEALTH - HEALTH
Verdict: Love More (<3)
Believe the hype.
HEALTH - The Problem Is (Thrust Lab Remix)
HEALTH - Crimewave
HEALTH - Triceratops
HEALTH - Heaven

Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks - Real Emotional Trash
Verdict: Love (<) -
The root songs were pretty well done, but all the ridiculous jamming out was, I felt, unnecessary, and took away from my enjoyment of the album. But, it is Malkmus, who will probably never not be on top of his game.
Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks - Real Emotional Trash
Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks - Baltimore
Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks - We Can't Help You

The Teenagers - Reality Check
Verdict: Like () +
Wow. Few bands have been so unexpectedly vulgar and dancy at the same time. It was fun, but not the explosion of fantasticasm I was expecting, especially with all the hype around them. Id still Love to seem them live however.
The Teenagers - Homecoming
The Teenagers - Sunset Beach
The Teenagers - Fuck Nicole

P.s. here's the stop-motion video for The Terrordactyls song with Kimya Dawson "Devices":

"But The Things You Do For Love Are Going To Come Back To You One By One"

Aesop Rock feat. John Darnielle - Coffee:


As many of you who read this blog with any amount of regularity may know, I'm pretty heavily obsessed with the Mountain Goats, and on Tuesday, I finally got a chance to see them live. Ever since I heard the Coroner's Gambit, The Mountain Goat's 2000 release, I was hooked. John Darnielle's hilarious awkwardly worded lyrics reminding me of me, his voice sounding all too much like that of Jim Henson's (to me at least), who, like many other people, was an integral part of my childhood, and the inventive topics and stories he sang about all gave him an easy access card to my heart, one that has not been revoked, and probably won't be for quite some time. John Darnielle and his posse coming to Denver has been loooong awaited.

This show really introduced me to an unknown aspect of why I enjoy The Mountain Goat's music: John Darnielle lives in an entirely different world than me, and has for some time. Not only because he's a self-made rock star, but in how he (seems to) see the world. This really comes through in his songs, which frequently just take one section of time from someone's life, and describes everything around that situation, often times without directly addressing the true topic of the song. And this boy's done this for more 500 songs. He takes such interest in small fragments of stories, and fleshes them out giving even the smallest detail previously-unforeseen importance. Best lyricist of our time. Period.

The Bowerbirds opened, and I really don't have very much to say about them. They didn't seem very confident, and the music seemed to be lacking because of it (and because of other reason). But they were inventive, and you could tell they were having a good time. I'd heard their album prior to the show, but it didn't really stick out to me as much as I had hoped it would. I do think that if they added a little more depth to their music, more life, then it might have been more fun. Maybe next time. Here are a few of their more lively tracks:

The Bowerbirds - In Our Talons
The Bowerbirds - My Oldest Memory
The Bowerbirds - Dark Horse

I did happen to record The Mountain Goats' whole set on Tuesday, and, while it's not the best quality, I think it's rather fitting, because John Darnielle's lo-fi stuff is what seems to be the foundation of his fame. But for those of you who don't want just the lo-fi stuff, here's some b-sides that are really pretty good quality:

The Mountain Goats - Collapsing Stars
The Mountain Goats - Attention All Pickpockets (feat. Kimya Dawson)
The Mountain Goats - Butter Teeth
The Mountain Goats - New Chevrolet In Flames

(Because John Darnielle isn't too keen on his new material leaking, in demo form or bootleg form, I'm not going to host the recordings I have of his new songs. Chances are that when you do hear them, they'll be of better quality than what my little recording device can pump out.)

Band: The Mountain Goats
Date: 2007-11-06
Venue: The Hi-Dive, Denver, CO

Intro/tuning
Wild Sage
Hast Thou Considered the Tetrapod?
Craters In The Moon (New)
Banter
You Or Your Memory
Young Caesar 2000
September 15th, 1983 (New)
Maybe Sprout Wings
Banter
Love Craft In Brooklyn (New)
Dance Music
Going to Georgia
We Were Patriots
See America Right
Encore Cheering + Banter
No Children
This Year
House Guest (Nothing Painted Blue Cover)

One of the best shows of the year. Not the best I don't think, but definitely up there.

"I Like Giants, Especially Girl Giants/I Am Just a Huge Manatee"

That's a fan-made music video set to the music of The Moldy Peaches. Much like the lyrics of the Moldy Peaches, Kimya Dawson's solo material is often laden with surprising vocabulary, which is a fancy way of saying "I wouldn't expect, from the sound of her music, that she would say the word 'fuck.'"

Kimya got her start in the music biz, to my knowledge, by performing with her male counter part Adam Green (the musician, not the panda bear) in their justforfun band The Moldy Peaches, which, despite contemporary music critics, was a great band. They make me smile and dance. Here they are making you smile and dance:

The Moldy Peaches - Nothing Came Out (the music to the music video above)
The Moldy Peaches - NYC's Like a Graveyard (their rock n' roll song)
The Moldy Peaches - Who's Got the Crack? (funniest song in a long time. For some reason I can just picture a "Scooby-Doo" style "gang" of kids sitting around in a hollowed out shell of an apartment building sitting in a circle, looking cute, and singing this song)

Sometime shortly after the release of the Moldy Peaches LP and a whole heck of a lot of touring, Kimya and Adam both decided to do their own solo stuff. Then, shortly after she started her solo stuff, she got pregnant. But, like the trooper she is, she still performed, making her performances even more adorable and heart warming.

Band: Kimya Dawson
Date: 2006-07-11
Venue: The Paradox Theatre, Seattle, WA

Intro
Trump Style
Banter
I Like Giants
Smoothie Song
Banter
Underground
The Beer
Banter
[new song]
Outro

That last one was kinda short, so here's another one. A Pre-Pregnancy Live Set:
Band: Kimya Dawson
Date: 2005-05-19
Venue: The Bike Barn (not this Bike Barn, but one in MA I think. Though I don't really know)

Intro
My Mom
Singing Machine
Sheer Wonder Baby (Herman Düne Cover)
The Beer
Reminders of Then (The Moldy Peaches Cover)
Being Cool
Lullaby for the Taken (The Lady Took the Baby)
On the Road Again
My Bike
White Houses (Vanessa Carlton Cover)
Fire
Underground
Moving On
I Like Giants
Will You Be Me
Loose Lips

P.S.: Expect a HUGE post on the Monolith Music Festival