Wednesday, December 24, 2008

Top Music of 2008

Top stuff

Tobacco Fucked Up Friends: melotron strings, talk boxes, chugging shit-beats, short songs, a strange collaboration with Aesop Rock. Just perfect.

Flying Lotus Los Angeles: mangled percussion mixes with swooping sounds, tore-up samples, simmered in hyper compression.

Chris Corsano The Young Cricketer: junk percussion meets gamelan meets the freest of jazz drumming.

Autechre Quaristice: The duo goes back in time, again and again, visiting their past works and updating them. So many ideas – I will make time for them.

Nine Inch Nails The Slip: In a review, I said "A brief drone and we're off: '1,000,000' growls with Stooges riffs and hypnotic, distorted dive-bombs; the broken, unquantized swagger of 'Letting You' drips with overdrive, reaching near Atari Teenage Riot proportions before gradually peeling off with some skewed pop tracks, the bi-polar pedal-screwing solo on 'Head Down', a piano/vocal interlude, two atmospheric instrumentals and the hyperactive closer, 'Demon Seed'."

Honorable mention

Steinski put out his What Does It All Mean? 1983-2006 Retrospective, the mix-tape dreams are made of; an equal blend of humor, cool and certifiable badass collage-work by the master.

Matmos worked their magic (Supreme Balloon), eschewing microphones in favor of all manner of synths (with a guest spot by Terry Riley!)

Power Pill Fist’s (bassist of Black Moth Super Rainbow) Kongmanivong is a terrific display of crappy programming and audio engineering. So many do this crunchy, loud 8-bit aesthetic, only a few get it right – he got it right.

Odd Nosdam released a collection of remixes and b-sides with Pretty Swell Explode, all really atmospheric/hip-hop/dusty.

Head Resonance Company’s 19 Tracks for Unknown People is "Scrappy drum machines crackle under walking basslines, synth bells and bit-reduced news reporters ('4'), delay pedals feedback wildly with horn fragments, thunderous brass and "warning!" sirens ('6') and robots make they own version of jazz via Moogs and energy stabs ('10')."

Pink Skull Zeppelin 3 (dance music for people who don’t want to dance, and the Ghostface/Spank Rock/Amanda Blank remix is still on repeat)

Christian Weber Walcheturm Solo (38 minutes of upright bass)

A Place to Bury Strangers S/T (Joy Division and early The Cure goes loud, so loud they broke a 10" vinyl press)

New things to me:

Can – what took me so long to find this band? I always knew I would worship at their musical feet (esp. the albums Monster Movie, Soundtracks, Tago Mago and Ege Bamyasi.)

Black Moth Super Rainbow – obviously (see all the numerous references above), I’ve taken this and run run run.

Tuesday, December 23, 2008

I'm trying to win stuff

This is for a contest for music stuff.

"How to WinTo win the whole lot, tell us about the lamest holiday gift you ever received in less than 200 words. Winners will be chosen based on the best (or lamest) answers. "

My answer:

It’s a tie: 1) my drunken step-father laughing and yelling “there is no Santa!” at me as my mom is leaving him on Christmas day (I was nine) and this other thing.

My grandmother used to offer a lot of charity to people in her church. One lady in particular, a blind woman, always hit up the congregation for favors. At age twelve, my grandmother commissioned this woman to craft my Christmas present. As I ripped apart the wrapping, I could feel and see an ungodly fabric emerging – something akin to a bedspread in some creepy 1960’s psychedelic lair. Inside was a two foot stuffed orangutan doll. The limbs, loose and misshapen, probably belonged to a dilapidated Raggedy Ann; the aforementioned patchy fur was a rash waiting to happen; at the end of each arm, a pasty, plastic left hand (you read that correctly). But the worst part was the jarring smile and eyes which opened as I laid the ape down, closed when I picked it up. Just haunting! (Note: Poltergeist came out the summer before I received this gift and, despite my grandma’s feelings, I kept this thing buried in the bottom of my toy box at night.)

And lest we forget (this has nothing to do with anything, but today I was thinking about the first time I saw this and how it blew me away)...

Tuesday, December 9, 2008

This doesn't work with my library

1. Put your Music on shuffle.
2. For each question, press the next button to get your answer.
3. YOU MUST WRITE THAT SONG NAME DOWN NO MATTER HOW SILLY IT SOUNDS!

IF SOMEONE SAYS “IS THIS OKAY” YOU SAY?def. rmx - Thomas Korber

WHAT WOULD BEST DESCRIBE YOUR PERSONALITY?Days in Thirds - Parts & Labor

WHAT DO YOU LIKE IN A GUY/GIRL?Wild International - One Day as a Lion

WHAT IS YOUR LIFE’S PURPOSE?May this be love - The Jimi Hendrix Experience

WHAT IS YOUR MOTTO?Electric bear - The Notwist

WHAT DO YOUR FRIENDS THINK OF YOU?Satan's Kickin' Yr Dick In, Part V - Racebannon (I couldn't make that up)

WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT VERY OFTEN?Le Isole Dell'amore From Le Isole Dell'amore - Piero Umiliani

WHAT IS 2+2?Ponytail - Panda Bear

WHAT DO YOU THINK OF YOUR BEST FRIEND?Querulanten - Einstürzende Neubauten

WHAT DO YOU THINK OF THE PERSON YOU LIKE?Resonants 3 - nonnon

WHAT IS YOUR LIFE STORY?Caravan - Wes Montgomery

WHAT DO YOU WANT TO BE WHEN YOU GROW UP?Life Changes - Wu-Tang Clan

WHAT DO YOU THINK WHEN YOU SEE THE PERSON YOU LIKE?Arvio [Long Edit] - Pan Sonic

WHAT DO YOUR PARENTS THINK OF YOU?The Downward Spiral - Nine Inch Nails

WHAT WILL YOU DANCE TO AT YOUR WEDDING?All In Love is Fair - Stevie Wonder (that is one sad wedding)

WHAT WILL THEY PLAY AT YOUR FUNERAL?Tough Guy - Beastie Boys

WHAT IS YOUR HOBBY/INTEREST?Something I Can never Have - Nine Inch Nails

WHAT IS YOUR BIGGEST SECRET?You Can Do it Too - Pharrell Williams

WHAT DO YOU THINK OF YOUR FRIENDS?Boundless Boundaries - Onra

WHAT’S THE WORST THING THAT COULD HAPPEN?They Get it From an Elf's Head - nonnon

HOW WILL YOU DIE?Who Wants to Die? - Dub Trio

WHAT IS THE ONE THING YOU REGRET?The Hands of Small Children - Marilyn Manson

WHAT MAKES YOU LAUGH?What do we mean by coaching? - Chris Corsano

WHAT MAKES YOU CRY?Miles Runs The Voodoo Down - Miles Davis

WILL YOU EVER GET MARRIED?Track One - Günter Müller (from Reframed)

WHAT SCARES YOU THE MOST?Astrakhan - The Bowling Green

DOES ANYONE LIKE YOU?R.U.O.K? - KMFDM

IF YOU COULD GO BACK IN TIME, WHAT WOULD YOU CHANGE?1850 (Icy Demons - Pink Skull Remix) - Pink Skull

WHAT HURTS RIGHT NOW?Turning On - Echoboy

WHAT WILL YOU POST THIS AS?K'vakarat - Osvaldo Golijov