Anyone who knows Brittany and I, knows about Beautiful Notions. Born out of an escape from the workload and frustrations of architecture school, we've been remaking/ruining perfectly good songs for four years now.
Now translated to the working architecture world about 1,700 miles away, we've rekindled our lo-fi hack-job approach to musical creation. Our next victims are of the holiday variety and we're excited to officially announce our latest project: the yet-to-be-title Christmas album. Keep your eyes open for a December "bad Christmas sweater CD release party" and enjoy this teaser:
It's been a bit of a hiatus from the blog world. Not so much that I've been uninspired or uninterested, just a little busy. Luckily, I still get a daily listen into the music world (while doing other work) whether through following about 20 blogs, getting acquainted with the weeks new releases on tuesdays, or reading up in magazines. I really love finding new artists, albums and sounds. Unfortunately, for every enjoyable song I hear, I probably sit through at least portions of twenty truly terrible ones. Lucky for you, you won't find in this blog post any of those musical equivalents of a class of third graders learning "hot cross buns" on the recorder.
Recently I've been fortunate to stumble upon three new bands that I'm excited to share. First up: Free Energy out of Philly. I think they had a song featured on IMEEM at some point and it really struck me. This is that music that just feels good to me. It's fairly simple and playful and has those shades of Weezer accessibility that I remember first introducing me to a serious love of music when I was a young lad in Kansas. They recently had a west coast tour fall through but said they'll probably be in Cali in early 2010. Should be a fun show.
Free Energy - Dream City
Free Energy - Free Energy
Oh man do I love this band this week. Even better is the fact that I have tickets to see them at the Rickshaw Stop on November 22 for a mere $10. Freelance Whales are out of Queens and put out a beautiful album, Weathervanes, recently. Chock full of songs influenced by the likes of Sufjan Stevens and The Postal Service and just a great listen.
Freelance Whales - Location
Freelance Whales - Generator ^ 2nd Floor
Quebec Antique released their debut album, The Abbey Tapes, and are relatively unknown out of Oregon, Texas. It's another really beautiful album, much sleepier and moody than the previous two, but check out the songs on their myspace page and I'm sure you'll really appreciate the build of their music and the swelling textures.
I recently learned that there is a sulfur hot water springs near San Luis Obispo that college students there affectionately refer to as the "soak-n-poke". While pondering what words may rhyme with "folk", I've struggled to think of anything else. Thanks a lot hot springs. Not surprisingly though, these two words could not be more opposite. Where there is folking, there's a good chance there's not a lot of poking, as many of the best folk artists tend to look like so:
I watched the movie Sugar last night and midway through I recognized a Spanish version of the song "Hallelujah" by Leonard Cohen. I don't know much about the man or his music, but remembered enjoying that song when I've heard it (although uncomfortable and confused as it played during a sex scene in Watchmen). This, along with last week's Strictly Bluegrass festival here in the city, got me thinking about my secret love for the genre.
Undoubtebly due to my parents, I've carried a fondness for folk music throughout my life. Consider this an intro to several upcoming posts on songs that I associate with my family, childhood and Kansas existence. As an adult, I've enjoyed the storytelling and moodiness of Neil Young and Mary Gauthier. It'll be interesting to look at the artists that my parents listen to and ultimately led me to find my own preferences in the folk genre.
(Papa Townsend in the tie and me trying to hide in the background on the far left)
If you like the following songs, I highly recommend the full albums on which they're found.
Neil Young - The Painter (from the album Prairie Wind)
Mary Gauthier - Mercy Now (from the album Mercy Now)
After a long hiatus, I've been hard at work on my latest mix, figuring I'd need something big to re-enter the blog scene with. A lot has transpired in the music world since my last post. Kanye managed to annoy Mr. Smooth himself, Obama, some killer albums have been released by major DJs and a whole slew of remixes and dance music have continued to fill up my Hype watchlist. The noticeable number of really great new songs with female vocals that I had begun to gather led me to focus on that theme, bringing you the best of lady-centric danceables mixed with some current electronic favorites including Deadmau5 and locals Thrill$ N Grillz.
Looking forward to co-hosting a big halloween party with the other half of DJBN, so mark your calendars. To get you revved up for the event, I give you the "GIRLS NIGHT OUT" Mix.
There's this lady I know that has a blog about travel. It's in its beginning stages, but is interesting and a good way for her to express, digest and discuss this quasi obsession of hers. I was thinking tonight about various great experiences I've had while traveling and also about certain memory triggers. Does your life unfold to a soundtrack?
A defining moment in my life on multiple levels was my four months studying abroad in Italy in 2005. It was an unbelievable experience and an immersion that was completely foreign to me in my life to that point. That semester brought with it powerful memories of food, cities, landscapes, trains, language, cultural events, wine, history and architecture, and great friends. Now, along with the collection of photos and storytelling, I have strong association of certain music to this events to trigger memories. A classmate and friend of mine, Mike Baskett, let me copy some albums from his laptop while we were studying in CastiglionFiorentino and introduced me to Dntel and The Wrens (no, not the old R&B group).
As I'm sure most college students across the US at the time were, we had this little obsession with The Postal Service a few years prior and when I heard that James Scott Tamborello has earlier been involved in the solo project, Dntel, I was intrigued. As is common, Dntel strikes me as the experimental and more abstract origin of the Postal Service pop approachability. This was perfect for providing a spacey epic backdrop that kind of stutters and pops as it stumbles out of the headphones. I hear this and imagine myself sitting alone at Villa D'Este sketching, or taking a moment to soak it all in at the top of the mountain over Lake Como.
Dntel - Anywhere Anyone
The Wrens appealed to me in a much more simple and irrational way. Living in New Jersey and with very little mainstream success, this group had just the right amount of obscurity and pep to keep me interested. I don't really remember falling in love with their 2002 album, The Meadowlands, but I do know that I played it over and over again. I even have a very distinct memory of listening to a song while walking up the hill in Castiglion to the bus stop some random morning. This is striking to me because I have a poor memory in general and retain very little unless it has an emotional or strong visual impact on me. I can't really explain that bust stop memory at all.
If you're looking for a break from your routine. I have a couple of great options for you this week. Tomorrow night, Justin (Commodore 69) will be DJing at his monthly Laszlo show, Computer Rock. They've been known to play killer music, project nintendo on the wall, and generally keep you up past your bedtime on a school night. This month hosts a special birthday celebration for local NONEWYORK
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Thursday night at Hotel Utah, Tanner will destroy your eardrums as a part of the band Raised By Robots. Their shows are always energetic, loud and unpredictable including a recently added horn section. You can also check out their eclectic sound on muxtape. If you listen closely, you may just hear the subtle noises of stage diving.
The Ticketmaster / Live Nation merger, yet another bully monopoly move in the corporate world, has been on my mind lately after reading the lengthy article about ticket prices in a recent issue of Rolling Stone. As a consumer, I'm obviously unnerved by the fact that ticket price averages have tripled in the past 15 years (~$25 to $65) and Ticketmaster can easily be held responsible for that atypical percentage increase. It is also, to some degree, a reflection of the evolving business. Many artists make most of their money on live shows, where they get a big cut of the earnings, as opposed to the ever-increasing inconsistency in revenue from albums sales where the record companies reap most of the profit. I'd always rather the money go to the artist, but concert prices are increasingly making live shows less accessible to the average consumer.
Luckily, there are still options even in the most obscure of places. I have many fond memories of seeing live shows of small unknown bands at small unknown venues. I grew up driving to places like The Bottleneck in Lawrence, KS (among others) and was happy to see they still sell tickets independent of ticketmaster. Similarly, here in San Francisco, you can see amazing shows at The Independent for low prices and avoid the ticketmaster trap. Here are some upcoming shows I'm excited for:
July 16
Kanye West's DJ, A-Trak will rock the stage with opening acts from Theophilus London, Treasure Fingers, and I've heard rumors of Rye Rye.
August 25
Chicago/Portland band Fruit Bats will be on tour promoting their upcoming album under the killer label Sub Pop.
September 18
Out of Selkirk, Scotland and now in Glasgow, Frightened Rabbit are a great band who recorded a fantastic album with an even better title, Midnight Organ Fight.
September 19
Victoria Christina Hesketh, known as Little Boots out of the UK released the album Hands recently to provide you with even more 20 something girly "good time" pop music.
Follow the artist links and check out some of their tracks. Even more good news? All of these shows are under 20 bucks. What?!
