Notes and Mayhem (1/8/11)

Oh my god my room needs some attention. There are clothes everywhere. This is not like me. I am so much more clean than this. THE TIME HAS COME TO SPEAK OF MANY THINGS. If you could see this room, you would say something drastically foul.

For all those concerned/excited about Alex and I's impending living situation, the three finalists are Chicago, Minneapolis, and Portland. There's a lot of love for Boston between us, and it'll always be with me, but there's a time in a man's life when he needs to kick some doors open, yaknowwhaimsayyyinnn.

Julia and I are rendezvousing in Boston today to speak of top secret Middleclass Haunt secrets. YOU WILL NEVER KNOW WHAT THEY ARE.

On the music tip, here's some Byrds and Raiders for you a la yesterday's post:

Two classics.

After spinning monstrous amounts of my new vinyl last night, I've come to the conclusion that this record:

is absolutely phenomenal. 

Here's a little nugget of Garage Punk Hideout trashiness as well. I just found this blog/forum a few days ago, focused entirely on Surf/Garage/Punk, which is pretty much everything I'm into now, and they've got stellar podcasts:

KICKS FROM THE BOOT #17 - The Garage Punk Hideout

New Year Vinyl Haul

My car gets rescued from the Auto Shop today, looking so fly and handsome, and I've got to celebrate. Cause I'm feeling good. So I took a little trek down to Record Exchange in Salem, my favorite record shop since before I noticed girls were attractive, and I was looking to spend about 20 bucks. Whhoops. Don't let me loose in an independent record shop without a leash. I'm gonna hand over the title to my house or something someday in exchange for an original sealed copy of the first Herman's Hermit's record, I know it. It'll be embarrassing.

First up:

"The Best of the Animals" on MGM Records, looks like an old school original pressing. I was just down in Brooklyn hanging with Villanueva and listened to this record before he woke upon my headphones on his roommate's turntable and this record kicks utter ass. Best part about this is that the guy at the store threw this in for free since it's not in perfect shape and I was throwing down around $50. 

For funk-hotness:

"Anthology" - Sly and the Family Stone, 1981 Epic/CBS Double Vinyl, Promo copy. I looked at the tracklisting for this and couldn't resist. It's got pretty much everything funky Sly did from 67 up til a little after "There's A Riot Goin' On", no bullshit, no suckage. Kinda pricey at 13 bucks, but for 20 tracks and such pristine condition, it's totally worth it.

What's that psychadelic jangle I hear?:

"The Byrds Greatest Hits", 1967? Columbia Records. A classic. It doesn't have "Lady Friend" on it, aka "Probably one of top 5 most underrated, underheard best pop songs ever", but besides that the tracklisting is pretty impeccable. I had the opening to "Mr. Tambourine Man" as my ringtone for a while. All in all, for $2? You gotta do it, son. And I did.

KINK KRAZINESS:

"The Kink Kronikles", 1972 Reprise Records. 2 Records. 2 Much music. Man, I stacked up on a lot of "Best of" records, I didn't really notice when I was up there (just wait until you guys see the jewel of this vinyl raid though). Okay, so here we've got Kinks awesomeness starting in '66(? maybe?) and ending in '72. So no "You Really Got Me" era stuff, but there's "Waterloo Sunset" (OMG BEST SONG EVARRR), "Lola", "Sunny Afternoon", "Dead End Street", a bunch of great stuff. 10 bucks, and The Kinks have an awesome gap toothed frontman, so how can you not financially support that? It's got a cool British legion-y soldier/actor/Buckingham Palace dude on the front riding a horse, and that's gotta be worth at least $3 alone.

Maybe don't get on that plane, guys?:

"20 Golden Greats by Buddy Holly & The Crickets", 1978 MCA Records. The photobooth craziness continues, and can only be matched by the craziness of Paul thumbing off this record for free for me too. Awesome cover.

Finally, we get into the Garage:

"Midnight Ride with Paul Revere & The Raiders", Limited Edition Columbia Re-Release. This is an awesome addition to my garage record collection. "Kicks" is a classic, I'll have to upload that video soon too. Pure '60s pre-punky spunkiness. You gotta check out the tasteless colonial America costumes these guys would wear:

Maybe those pants are a little too tight for my imagination? A whole lot of man is up there in that picture.

AND NOW, THE MAIN EVENT:

DEAR LORD, IS THAT A THIRD MAN RECORDS 2010 REISSUE OF "WHITE BLOOD CELLS"?!!! Yes, it is. Only 500 of these were made, and they're going for hundreds of dollars on eBay. The record store was selling it for only 22 dollars, and it was the financially responsible thing for me to do to buy it as quickly as possible and not pee my pants.

So what did we learn today? Besides the fact that I shouldn't be doing this because I've got no more in my big plastic tub for new records and I did it any way because this place is a crack den for me? First, it sucks to go to Bruins games and watch them lose, even though going with awesome people makes it way better. Also, the documentary on "A Nightmare on Elm Street" I got from Netflix was an impressive way to spend 4(!) hours. Thank god they acknowledged all the subliminal (and awesome/hilarious) gay themes in Part 2. According to Robert Englund, they love that film in Europe. Wrong dude, they love that film right here in America. More specifically, anywhere in America I happen to be. Because I love that film.

TESTIMONIAL: "All Delighted People," a.k.a the Classic Bait-and-Switch

The first two songs on “All Delighted People,” Sufjan Stevens’ new 8-song EP, will break your heart. If you’re at all familiar with the singer-songwriter’s 2005 release “Illinois,” this won’t come as a surprise. As on his earlier offering, the backbone of “All Delighted People” is Stevens’ voice; a voice without a single speck of grit in it. With “Illinois,” Stevens used his voice as a jumping-off point, skillfully weaving layers of instrumentation in and around it. Conversely, “All Delighted People” starts on—what for this artist at least—is an almost bare note. “Tomorrow you’ll see it through,” he warbles. The soprano “ooh”s that back him up lend the song the air of a tragic march—if there is such a thing—being sung by a church choir. This notion is reinforced when the ensemble is swept up into the first refrain: “all delighted people raise your hands,” Stevens preaches. You exhale. You’re willing to forgive him the conceit of borrowing so many lyrics from “The Sound of Silence."

“Enchanting Ghost” is the best song on the album and, at only 3:40, it’s one of the shortest. Here Stevens takes the stripped-down, brutal honesty of the first track one step further: the melodic parts are sparser, there are fewer instruments, and what little there are he mutes or sets slightly off-pitch.














These two tracks trick the listener into thinking the EP marks something new. Don’t get me wrong, I like “Illinois.” In college, my friends and I would mute “Planet Earth” and watch it with “Illinois” in the background, and we all agreed that it was a suitable soundtrack. That’s how good of an album it is.

But Stevens’ one fault is that he’s too much of an artist. Even when a song on “Illinois” is momentarily cacophonous, the pieces inevitably fall back together like a glass jigsaw puzzle. His lyrics are the same way. They’re personal, profound, but saturated with awareness of just how beautiful they are. Stevens never puts a toe out of line. So unless you’re in the mood for divine, straight-laced beauty—which has its place—you’re not in the mood for his music.

After those first songs, the EP moves back into familiar territory. What struck the listener at first as a kind of stripped-down honesty very quickly becomes a monotonous drone. Songs like “Heirloom” and “Arnika” plod stubbornly forward, indifferent to drooping eyelids.






















You could forgive Stevens’ reliance on Simon and Garfunkel in the first iteration of “All Delighted People,” but it’s more blatant in the second one, the so-called “Classic Rock Version,” and by this point you’re no longer willing to play along. The first one is better anyway—it moves along at a more natural pace, and that’s saying a lot of a 12-minute song. Why should we have to sit through another 8 minutes that just isn’t as good?

Because as in “Illinois” at its worst, Stevens gets carried away showing us what he’s capable of. With this EP, he could have revealed that he’s a flawed human being like any other, except a little more extraordinary--someone who can show us the beauty in our own imperfections. But he failed.

--Julia Rose

P.S. You can download the EP for $5 from Asthmatic Kitty: here's ze link

New Staff

The Dervish.


The RoQ Martian.

I Left My Gat In NYC (The Notorious B.I.G. vs. Coldplay & Jay-Z)

This is a rough edit of Coldplay's "Lost+" (featuring Jay-Z) with "Machine Gun Funk" by Biggie. I'm starting to realize that if I want this shit to be any more polished, I'll probably have to get more expensive equipment. However, that probably won't happen because I'm in college and I'm broke. I like the mix though, some of it is just me messing around.

DOWNLOAD HERE:
http://www.mediafire.com/?yjetyn0lnlw

I Want Your Soul x Lights & Music (Cut Copy vs. Fake Blood & Armand Van Helden)

The two tracks are meant to be together like peanut butter and jelly.

Download:
http://www.mediafire.com/?utknwmmdo44

Flashing Light Horror (Lil Wayne, Kanye West & Jay-Z vs. RJD2)

A remix of a remix -- done with DJ Cinema's awesome re-visioning of "Flashing Lights." Best heard at midnight.

Download here:
http://www.mediafire.com/?jwvmdmnqn3y