I did not post on Thursday, as that was Valentines Day, and I had to rush and get things ready for that special someone. No need to panic, because I’m back and I’m ready to roll. Here’s my list for the week.
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1. Johann Sebastian Bach 36
I have to memorize an hour and a half of music for one of my classes, and Bach figures prominently in that list. I enjoy it, but for now it’s homework, not pleasure listening.
2 Grand Archives 35
One of the CD’s I’m reviewing this week, and it’s pretty good. As with most albums, it starts off strong and ends a little weakly, but the start is great. I’m a fan.
3 Loney, Dear 31
Again, I’m addicted to “I am John”. Check it out.
4 Burial 29
I don’t understand why this CD has been getting accolades. All I hear is a repetitive mix of beats and unintelligible vocals. Maybe it’s just because I don’t like all this stuff, but I don’t see it.
5 Sonic Youth 19
Can’t stop.
5 Pink Floyd 19
This is very good study music.
7 Georg Friedrich Händel 16
Another casualty of the listening list.
8 Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy 11
I’ve never listened to him before now. I didn’t miss a ton, even if this is a cover record.
9 Electric President 10
Looked interesting, but I don’t remember a thing about it.
I went to Bonnaroo last summer, and I just found this piece I wrote the day or two after I got back. I had some amazing and strange experiences at the ‘Roo, and I definitely plan on going back this year. The lineup looks pristine.
I attended Bonnaroo over the weekend. It was slightly amazing. Thursday and Friday were decent, but Saturday and Sunday made everything worth it. Undeterred by a nose full of mucus, a throat full of thorns, and a head full of pressure, I braved the Tennessee heat to watch Old Crow Medicine show. Me and Trey had just met up with friends, but they wanted to go see someone else, and we were going to go with them, but as we began to walk by OCMS, they started to play “Wagon Wheel”. We never saw our friends again.
Immediately after that show, we pushed forward to steal a shade spot. There were four trees at that stage, and there are no reservations. We got a spot, and waited for Regina Spektor. The show was probably the most soulful performance by someone not in a Motown band. We decided to skip the next show (The Hold Steady), and go wait for Regina’s autograph. Pushing people, oppressive sun, Trey and I were separated for an hour and a half, and I swear someone was swinging a sledgehammer right at my temples. The line moved, as lines tend to do, and I realized I had neither something to sign or money to buy anything to sign, so I took my shirt (A wonderful gift from a friend), and presented it to Regina when my turn came. She laughed at the dancing 1930’s-style cartoon, and gave it an arrow. Of course, she added “Regina is here” to the arrow. It was touching.
The Hold Steady being almost over by that time, we headed back to camp to eat and for me to get a new shirt. We finally got Eddie on the phone. He was at the Spoon concert, and wanted us to meet him there with food for him. Being hungry ourselves, we snacked on sandwiches and Beanie Weenies, then packed up more for him. We found him passed out underneath a tree beside Spoon, and after a second of wondering what to do, he woke up, and Trey and I decided to go watch Franz Ferdinand instead. We didn’t want to get too close and stand next to sweaty rock dudes, so we hung out behind the trees. We sat for a while, and Trey then exclaimed “That’s Colin Meloy!!!!!!!!” and sure enough, it was. We hugged (Colin, not each other), and talked for a second, then talked to the rest of the band. Last thing I remember is him saying “I guess I’ll see you guys tomorrow” and me being a sarcastic jackass and saying “Well, you won’t see us, but we’ll probably see you”.
We left Franz early to eat and prepare for the next batch of shows, The Police and The Flaming Lips. We decided to skip the Police to nab a good seat for the Lips. Trey disappeared (We found out later he was hitting on girls), so Eddie and I headed to The Lips. He decided to “enhance his mind”, and borrowed 15 bucks for the occasion. That brings his tab up to $260.
Sitting in our spots at the Flaming Lips, we are talking music with a remarkably familiar person, and I decided to use the bathroom after chugging a bottle of water. On my way over, a guy stopped me and said “Do you go to Vanderbilt?”, “Yeah, I’m going in next year” “Me too” “Were you at orientation…Eighth and Ninth!….SAOP!…We played freaking Apples to Apples together man!!!” I then pissed and walked back to camp. He came over with his group, and we watched the Lips together. They defy description live. All I will say is that I enjoyed their soundcheck, and fuck the Police.
I figured that all those unconvinced of the beauty of Bonnaroo would be helped by this account from last year. Make sure you go to Manchester Tennessee this June, and partake of the Bonnaroo with me.
It’s another week, and another stress-filled Vanderbilt party! Tests have not gone well, but I press on, eager to please those who listen to my show on Wednesday Nights. Don’t fret, my music will stay great.
In case you had not heard, I did another show on Thursday, taking over for the Pocket Ninjas. It went well, as usual. I had two hours that night, and while I don’t feel like listing what I played, you can find it at wrvu.org, by searching for Jambalaya Jam under the Playlist Archives. But for now, the list!
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1 Sonic Youth 87
Ok, so I’ve decided that Sonic Youth is actually a great band. I’ve only been listening to their song from the Juno Soundtrack, Daydream Nation, and Sister, but they are great albums. I suppose I should listen to people more often when they tell me to listen to a band.
2 The Shins 30
Gotta love the Shins, even though that one commercial absolutely butchers “Sleeping Lessons”. A guy in my hall was obsessed with that song, so he inspired me to listen a bit more.
3 David Byrne 19
Been listening to his latest album, which was actually recorded for the 1984 Olympics, but the live show never really took off. This is a strange, but rather listenable, album. Oh yeah, it’s called “The Knee Plays”
3 My Brightest Diamond 19
Saw them opening for Sufjan Stevens in 2006, and almost forgot about them until I received their album. It is really good, quite criminally underrated.
5 Mute Math 18
Their live show at Bonnaroo in ‘07 was great (Even though it included a streaker of the male persuasion). See them live if at all possible.
5 Beck 18
Honestly, I don’t know how I listened to Beck this much. He’s ok, but I’ve just never really gotten that into him. Maybe it’ll be a Sonic Youth thing, one of these days.
5 Johann Sebastian Bach 18
Listening to him for class, the Baroque master that he is, at least according to my professor.
8 Explosions in the Sky 16
This is my study music. I like it, but study music it is.
9 Loney, Dear 12
“I am John” is a great song, a friend alerted me to it and I played it on my radio show Thursday. So why am I sad? Because I can’t play it any more this semester…
10 White Blue Yellow and Clouds 10
I just can’t get enough.
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So that is what I’ve heard this week. Next time, on Stalker Anonymous, we learn how to find people on Facebook, and use their identity for your own personal benefit!
Another show, another day, another post. If you feel like keeping up with what I play, and you’re just so into my show that you can’t wait to hear what I played, the you can go to the WRVU playlist tracker. If not, I’ll try to keep stuff posted up here, or at least post a link up to the site.
The Clash – Guns of Brixton – London Calling
Hot Chip – Ready for the Floor – Made in the Dark
Bon Iver – Skinny Love – For Emma, Forever Ago
White Blue Yellow & Clouds – Cheer Up In Your Sleep – Introducing…
Sufjan Stevens – To Be Alone With You – Seven Swans
The Acorn – Flood – Glory Hope Mountain
Sapan Jagmohan – Meri Aakhon Mein – Sitar Beat!
Canon Blue – Odds & Ends – Colonies
Frank Sinatra – Swingin’ Down the Lane – Songs for Swinging Lovers
Cat Power – Aretha, Sing One For Me – Jukebox
Pineapple Explode – Kid Burrito – Demo Tapes III
British Sea Power – Down on the Ground – Do You Like Rock Music?
Midlake – Roscoe – The Trials of Van Occupanther
Chris Walla – Geometry &C – Field Manual
Keith Frank – You’d Be Surprised – You’d Be Surprised
Hoots & Helmouth – Want on Nothing- Hoots & Helmouth
It was a fun show last night, but the end was rather nervewracking. I had “American Music” by the Violent Femmes all cued up and ready, but at the last minute it decided to bitch out and not play. So, I was left with nothing to play. I sat there for a second or two, just wondering what the hell I was going to do. Finally, I jumped on the mic and started talking, while I reached over and pulled a CD out of the rack and put it in. It was crazy. Past that, the night was average. I got a lot of calls and requests, but I could only find one song requested, because they both called with rather obscure things I had never heard of, and were not in the library.
Oh, and I play again tonight, taking over for the Pocket Ninjas, so be sure to tune in and rock out to my sweet sounds. 10PM to Midnight tonight.
Until tonight,
Mikil Taylor
P.S. Every Wednesday from 11PM to Midnight, check it!
This will be a short post today, because I need to send all my extra time towards studying for tests (3 on Wednesday! Arrgghhh!). But I do not forget my loyal readers, because you don’t exist yet. With hope, you will materialize out of the blue some day.
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1 Sonic Youth – 54
I have never really listened extensively to Sonic Youth, despite many people telling me exactly how stupid I am for not doing so. Well, what finally got me listening was, of course, the Juno soundtrack. Their cut on the album was sublime, so I assumed there was something I was missing. There was, but it’ll still be a little longer before I think I really get into them.
2 Bon Iver – 38
One of the CD’s I had to review this week. My only things to say about this album are that it sounds like an acoustic TV on the Radio and that you need to buy this album immediately. It’s that good.
3 The Moldy Peaches – 34
Listening to them again, although I don’t know how I did it 34 times. I guess I can just lose myself in the music, even if it isn’t the smoothest or prettiest.
4 The Replacements – 33
When I first heard them, I thought I had accidentally put on the Goo Goo Dolls. Turns out that all the accusations of the Goo Goo Dolls being mere Replacements imitators were completely true. To be honest though, I don’t know who does it better. I’m a bit biased, being that the Goo Goo Dolls were my absolute favorite band for the longest time, and I’ve only listened to one Replacements album.
5 The Flashbulb – 26
The band who decided to release their album free to the users of What.cd, in hopes that they would donate if they liked it. To be honest, I love the idea but could care less about the album. It’s fine, but it’s just really not my style.
6 White Blue Yellow and Clouds -24
I can’t get enough of this band, and even though their album was just released, I want to hear their next one.
7 The Exploding Hearts – 21
Good punk band who met with tragedy when their tour van flipped 7 years ago and killed a few members. They had only released one album, and would have hit it big if they had been able to release more.
8 Modest Mouse – 18
Best band of all time.
9 Tally Hall – 16
One of the least known amazing bands I know about. They traverse so many genres, and play them all so well. No one knows about them, but with subsequent releases they’ll just hit it bigger and bigger.
9 Lucy Bland -16
The other album I had to review this week, only I didn’t like it quite as much. It was ok, but nothing really stood out. Very rainy album, if you know what I mean.
EDIT: I figured I’d give some more info on my Lucy Bland review, as it was a pretty good album (3 out of 5), but the Bon Iver CD just overshadowed it. The first track stood out the most to me. The soaring strings rise behind the spot-on vocals, which, coupled with the electronic drums, makes it an interesting track to listen to, and it doesn’t lose any of its appeal with time. The rest of the album is really consistent. It was hard to decide between giving the entire album one star or zero stars, because every song could be played, but none stood out as being much better than another. I ended up giving about half the album stars. A good album to read a book to.
Short week, short reviews, but my show this week will just keep on getting better. You’d better tune in on 91.1 FM on Wednesday from 11PM-12AM, or on WRVU.org. Either one will do.
Another great announcement, this time coming from What.cd, one of the many bittorrent sites to spring up to take the place of our beloved OiNK, is that a record label owner has decided to release his latest album on the website, and it has obviously spread to just about every other site on the internet. He wants those who like it to send money, since he’ll likely make more that way than going through Best Buy or something.
Here’s the transcript of the announcement. Hello listener…downloader…pirate…pseudo-criminal…
If you can read this, then you’ve more than likely downloaded this album from a peer to peer network or torrent.
You probably expect the rest of this message to tell you that you’re hurting musicians and breaking just about every copyright law in the book. Well, it won’t tell you that.
What I would like to tell you is that my record label understands that a large portion of people pirate music because it is easier than buying it. CDs scratch easily, most pay-per-download sites have poor quality and ****ty DRM protection, and vinyl is near impossible to find or ship without hassle.
In many cases I wonder why people buy CDs at all anymore. A few like the tangible artwork, some haven’t adapted to MP3s yet, but most do it because they have a profound love for music and want to support the artists making it. Kind of restores your faith in humanity for a moment eh?
So, now what?
Like the album? About to go “support the artist” on iTunes?
Well, don’t.
Alphabasic is currently in a legal battle against Apple because NONE of our material (Sublight Records included) receives a dime of royalty from the vast amount of sales iTunes has generated using our material.
Want to buy a CD just to show your support?
If you don’t particularly like CDs, don’t bother.
Retailers like Best Buy and Amazon spike the price so high that their cut is often 8 times higher than the artist’s. Besides, most CDs are made out of unrecyclable plastic and leave a nasty footprint in your environment.
If you do particularly like CDs, buy them from the label (in our case, alphabasic.com). After manufacturing costs are recuperated, our artists usually receive over 90% of the actual money coming out of your wallet.
In addition, all of our physical products are made out of 100% recycled material.
Want to show your support?
Go here and browse our library of lossless, DRM-free downloads.
Already have that?
Then feel free to donate whatever you want to your favorite artist. 100% will go directly to them.
Hell, you can even donate a penny just to thank the artist.
If you really like ‘The Flashbulb – Soundtrack To A Vacant Life’ and want to show your support without it going to greedy retailers, distributors, and coked-up label reps, then click the button below.
[link to http://www.alphabasic.com/index2.htm ]
If you send us your mailing address, Alphabasic may occasionally send you various goodies (overstocks, stickers, even rare CDs) in appreciation and encouragement for your support.
Thanks for reading.
Who knows if my little business plan here will work to fund new releases, but even failure is better than the crappy label/distributor/retailer system musicians have suffered from for over 50 years.
We hope you enjoy the music as much as we do releasing it.
Finally, if you plan on sharing this release, please include this file. The only reason it is here is to show the listener where he can support his favorite artists!
Since I love that last Sufjan song so much, I’ll show you guys what I played last night. It’s a Youtube video, and a great rendition of the song.
Interesting news, I got a call from Nelson last night, the media services who run the TV ratings. Apparently they’re now doing Music ratings, and they asked me to take part. It’ll be interesting, and I get paid $25 to do it, so I’m pretty happy with it. I bet they’ll be surprised by the amount of non-mainstream music listening that goes on on computers, and how much music played is not bought on iTunes. Just doing my part to change the guard from Warner and Sony to Barsuk and Sub Pop.
Alright everybody (You know, the three or four people who stumble on here in the next few days. I can see you), it’s time for that “Top Ten” nonsense. I know, nobody out there cares what my musical interests are. The funny thing is, though, anyone who has the misfortune of listening to WRVU on Wednesdays from 11PM to 12 AM (And don’t even get me started on what a bitch that timeslot is to write…) is stuck listening to my musical tastes. So, even if you don’t care, it might affect you one day. Pay attention.
Andrew Bird is quite talented. I had never heard of a Violin being plucked before I started listening to him (And no, I wasn’t under a rock before then). I got Armchair Apocrypha when it came out, listened to it a time or two, and forgot about it. I had fallen in love with The Mysterious Production of Eggs, but I just thought that AA didn’t have the same magic. I was wrong. I listened to this, off and on, all week.
This was one of my programming assignments this week, and I liked it quite a bit. Very rock. I actually met them when they came into the station last semester before they played at Exit/In, and talked to one of the guys about Bonnaroo. I was afraid of reviewing their CD, because I liked the people, and I didn’t want to hear shitty music that changed my opinion of them forever, but I had nothing to fear. Mission Control is excellent.
My other programming assignment this week, only I didn’t like it as much. It was good and all, and they had some tracks that I couldn’t help but like, but the album just didn’t do it for me. You’ll probably find me never listening to this again, but that’s more of a personal choice than a sweeping judgment of the band.
Liking Bright Eyes does not mean that you are emo. That needs to be cleared up right now. Of course, his songs always bring out the melancholy in me, and they tend to be contemplative and sad, but I like Conor Oberst, dammit! I just wish he hadn’t been anointed “The next Bob Dylan”. Its like the frantic search for “The next Michael Jordan”. Everyone, no matter how good, will fall short and be labeled a disappointment.
Rock band, very stylized, and very very good. I knew a person back home who idolized Muse so much that he would suck their collective penis if given the chance. Regardless, the band is good.
New zydeco from N’awlins. This was kind of the first time I had listened to Keith Frank, and I enjoyed it. Probably not enough to always listen to it, but it was definitely time well spent.
I was obsessed with Bishop Allen last year. I would check things every day to see if I could find their latest EP of the Month. I got January through April, and they were full of some of the best songs I’d ever heard. Then May came, and it was really disappointing. Listening to it now, I don’t know how I thought that, because the May EP is really good, but young people do young things. The story has a happy ending though. I got the rest of the EP’s, The Broken String, and have re-fallen in love with the band.
The only reason I have this album is because of the band name. I’ve never heard of them before, can barely find them on Google, and the album is rather nondescript. However, the name is too good to pass up without a listen.
I have two new CD’s this week. Bon Iver’s “For Emma, Forever Ago”, and Lucy Bland’s “Down to Sea Level”. Bon Iver’s album is just top-notch, and I am rather undecided about Lucy Blands album. I need another listen.
I had my very first show last night, and I realized how long it’s been since I’ve done this by myself. But, after a short transitional period, everything ran smoothly and I got settled down. I still mainly played long songs, because it made things much easier though.
So, without further ado, here is my playlist from last night. It can also be accessed at wrvu.org and clicking on “Playlists”, then finding Jambalaya Jam.
Parliament - Prelude -The Clones of Dr. Funkenstein
Velella Vellela - Your Name Here - Flight Club EP
HIJK - Alibi - The Pen and the Letter
Bonnie Prince Billy - I Came To Hear The Music – Ask Forgiveness EP
House and Parish - Summer Programme - One One Thousand
Beirut - Nantes - The Flying Cub Cup
White Blue Yellow and Clouds - Hushabye - Introducing….
Please Quiet Ourselves - I Don’t Care - Please Quiet Ourselves
The Silver Jews - Smith & Jones Forever - American Water
David Byrne(The Gift of Sound) – Where the Sun Never Goes Down - The Knee Plays
The Dragons - Mercy Call - BFI
On a separate note, I just found the most amazing cover of Shiny by the Decemberists at http://youtube.com/watch?v=pf5JqDa8cKs&watch_response. I think I’ll play it next week or soon thereafter.
I realize I am a newb at internet posting, but I’m just getting started here and I’m in a hurry. Sue me.
As of today, Last.fm will be allowing you to play full-length tracks and albums for free!! Of course, they have already been kind of doing this with their radio service and with 30 second previews of songs, but now all you have to do it is to click on the song to hear the entire thing. One problem is that it only allows you to hear a song 3 times before it prompts you to subscribe. The subscriptions, not out yet, have unlimited track playing. No price has been named. I hope it is cheap, but we’ll see. I’m guessing it’ll be at least $10 a month.
According to the article, they have deals in place with EMI, Sony BMG, Warner, and Universal, so we will get some good tracks. I’ll now be posting links to as many songs as I can. The only bands from Monday that were not available to play on Last.fm were Pineapple Explode (Not surprising, because they are a small band) and Pilots vs Aeroplanes (Who never were that big anyway). The Moldy Peaches and Adam Green don’t have their full-length tracks on the site, but they do have samples.
Another great part of this is that independent artists can now be paid for how much their songs are played on the site. For most bands, it won’t be much difference, but it will only serve to further make record labels irrelevant. I’m almost surprised they agreed to it.
http://blog.last.fm/2008/01/23/free-the-music
On a related note, I will now be linking my top ten artists of the week to last.fm, as well as my top songs of the week, providing I can find them, so you guys can all listen to them for free.
My show also starts tonight at 11PM, and I encourage you all to listen, because it will kick more ass than an ass-kicking machine.
