old habits, young ways

the yearly christmas card is currently winding its way through the various capillaries of the u.s. postal system. if you don’t get yours sometime within the next week, and you think you should be getting one, drop me a line. i don’t have all that many friends, and overlooking any of them is not a crime i would consciously commit.

you can see a tracklisting over on the mix list. it’s always a toss-up on what will get included and what won’t, and i’m sure that with another month (or with one month less) to puzzle and ponder that the likes of okkervil river’s “for real” and andrew bird’s “nervous tic motion” and goldrush’s “let you down” and some countless others would have gotten some well earned play time. ah well. there will always be more mixes.

in case anybody’s interested about which national parks the photos are from: the cover picture is taken from the top of one of the mesas at mesa verde, and the disc picture is from mesa verde as well. the lizard in the tray is at petrified forest. the booklet’s inside is at grand canyon, and i believe is a picture of the hermit’s trail. the tray back was taken at black canyon of the gunnison.

audioscrobbler becomes last.fm

it looks like audioscrobbler as its own entity is no more; long live last.fm, apparently. the upshot of this is that i’ve updated my music profile link to the last.fm page it was getting redirected to anyway. if you’re big on music, you should use something like this service (it tracks your music listening), so that i can keep up on new music more easily, by heading over to your profile and seeing what you’re listening to this week / etc. i think it’s nifty, anyway.

rain music

some songs for the moment. granted, these songs are better suited for a slower rain, as opposed to the torrents outside, which goes to show what kind of music i like. i should throw together a proper rain mix, at some point.

• massive attack - protection
• royal city - dank is the air of death and loathing
• badly drawn boy - stone on the water
• low - stars gone out
• counting crows - raining in baltimore
• metric - calculation theme
• yo la tengo - damage

a set of songs more fitting for the downpour could be bookended by massive attack’s “mezzanine” and tricky’s “feed me.” another notable alternative to this list would be to just listen through yo la tengo’s “i can hear the heart beating as one,” though i might just be saying that because the song “autumn sweater” is on that disc, and could well place in my personal top 5 songs list.

the district sleeps alone tonight

the first song on the album give up by the postal service, titled the district sleeps alone tonight, is easily the album’s best. driven equally by its simple pop melody delivered via ben gibbard’s emotive voice and jimmy tamborello’s beats, this song is an example of the best sort of result one can hope for out of a “supergroup.” i do now know whether this melody would be stronger if set against conventional instrumentation; certainly, the beats are appropriate, and serve to capture the sense of apology and subsequent catharsis that springs from backdrop of loneliness, but it is also the case that this topic is ben gibbard’s bread and butter in death cab for cutie, where it is handled quite adroitly as well. regardless, this is an excellent song.

the tain

one would think that colin meloy would be content to continue writing sea shanties. instead, he has written a five act, 18 minute song loosely based on an eigth century celtic epic, the tain bo cuailnge (here’s a somewhat shorter summary). i love it. from the zeppelinesque riffs that kick it off to the redemptive closing strains, it’s just fun to listen to. head over to hush records and get a copy, and perhaps take a look at the lyrics, or the pitchfork review that alerted me to the existence of this venture.

on a related note, the decemberists cover of bjork’s human behavior is good listening as well (thanks, drew). i have noticed that while i don’t really ever listen to bjork any more, i do generally like covers of her songs, e.g. a love-cars cover of hyperballad i heard at a show last spring, and death cab’s rendition of all is full of love.

mason jennings show

mason is fun to see live, and this made a nice valentine’s day activity. i especially enjoyed sorry signs on cash machines and mason’s cover of / tribute to elliott smith’s angeles.

satellite rides

i may have missed the old 97’s show this past weekend, but i went out and purchased myself this disc with the money i would have spent on the concert. this is a great cd, full of good songs, with nary a bum track, and many greats, e.g. my longtime favorite, the slow singer-songwriteresque “question.”

dead cities, red seas, and lost ghosts

a cross between my bloody valentine’s loveless, air’s moon safari, and something altogether more upbeat. i was prompted to check this out by pitchfork’s year end list, and am glad i did. i guess electronic music is one of my guilty pleasures - like reading sci fi books or eating reisens.

halloween, alaska

beautiful, melodic electro-pop. this is to the love-cars what the postal service is to death cab. i bought this cd without having first heard all of the songs on it, so you know that i had high expectations; i am glad to say that the album lives up to them. the group members are a bit of an amalgam of love-cars and 12 rods, so all of you minnesotans, be proud of the twin cities music scene.

chutes too narrow

catchy. good. i want it for xmas.