SMS Text: FoodCourt Mixtape

This is my mixtape to you. It comes in at 62 minutes and 24 seconds, so you may have to get a 90 minute tape. You may even have to buy a cassette player, or just get one of these gadgets. Maybe, this is a way to convince you to go to my junior year Ring Dance, or maybe even the Senior Prom. We'll have cases of Becks beer, Peach Schnapps and Wine Coolers for the ladies, and whatever else we need to make the night memorable. I'll give it to you at Burger King, the place to drive to in between classes, and meet the girls from the sister school. And if I get caught for leaving campus, and get detention, it'll be worth it. I'll clean the toilets, tap the kegs for the jesuits, get on my knees.....to pray.

I hope you like the tape. It's probably best if you go to a quiet place, and listen to it through your headphones. I think these things come together better when you don't have too much time to think about it. Take a mood here, a lyric there, and you have this entirely new thing that's made up from the smaller parts, to help to capture a feeling that may be difficult to express through words, in our adolescence. How a song can take you to a place, this mixtape will take you to all of the places, experiencing all of the unexpected, and help you to remember this small moment, in our time together.


SMS Text: Food Court MixTape (Download)


Milosh - You Make Me Feel - a simple message of how "it" can make you feel. the music has that dream-like, delirious quality, just like "it". "you, beautiful moment in my life, a sweet wrinkle in time, so let's stretch this thing out"

Joseph Arthur - Honey And The Moon - maybe it's about a past love, but the melody has such optimism. "if you weren't real, i would make you up, now". "and right now, all your dreams are waking up"

Jeff Buckley - Morning Theft (Live) - "a heart that beats as both siphon and reservoir"

Björk - Headphones (Live) - the power of music to convey emotion. how music may be the most powerful language. "these abstract wordless movements". "i like this resonance, it elevates me"

Sigur Rós - Med Sud I Eyrum (With A Buzz In Our Ears) - we're traveling on a train and looking out the window into a vast open space of the future, and it doesn't matter where we end up, it's all about the journey and adventure to get there, together.

Hanne Hukkelberg - Ease - whimsical, yet painful. change can happen.

New Order - Every Little Counts - the laughter, for being stupid, together. not the greatest lyrics, but every little does count, like making a bed. "every second counts".

Damien Rice - The Blower's Daughter (Live) - "i can't take my mind off of you"

The Cinematic Orchestra - To Build A Home (featuring Patrick Watson) - home is not necessarily a place. is it a state of mind, or another person ? "Out in the garden where we planted the seeds. There is a tree as old as me. Branches were sewn by the color of green. Ground had arose and passed it's knees"

Daft Punk - Digital Love - so sappy, but such a great pop song about happiness and hope.

Cat Stevens - The Wind - when you least expect it, your soul will guide you in the right direction, or to the food court at the mall.

Iron & Wine - The Trapeze Swinger - a song about purgatory which I have often felt that I was trapped in as well. all of the beautiful haunting imagery in one of the most beautiful songs ever recorded. it has that sort-of sad optimism feeling to it. happy sad.

Bloc Party - Tulips (Original Version) - "this could be an opportunity". the drumming helps to convey the mood of urgency, and trying to convince someone that this is special, that this is real......

Radiohead - Go Slowly - i love how his voice flows through, and acts out the lyrics, "come slowly to me", "patiently".



There's a great site, Song Meanings which lists lyrics as well as user interpretations of each song, and it helped with the lyrics stated above.

Vote For Nude

Vote HERE for the Remix from the widget on my last post. If not, please don't vote for one of the cheesy dance mixes that seem to make up 90% of the remixes.

Here's the remix as well as one of the first times Radiohead played this song which was often referred to as "Big Ideas (Don't Get Any)", or according to ateaseweb.com "Failure to Receive Payment Will Put Your House At Risk". The last title is sort of appropriate for the mortgage and credit crisis that has put the world economy in turmoil. It was also the first time that I experienced Radiohead by themselves, as a year earlier I was at Randall's Island for the incredible Tibetan Freedom Concert where Radiohead was sandwiched in between A Tribe Called Quest and U2.


Radiohead - Nude (FoeWeel Remix)

Radiohead - Nude (Live @ Radio City Music Hall, NYC 17/04/1998)



Here's what the press has been sayin'about the remix :

Pitchfork: "It's like a sweet pair of white Vuarnet shades that's been put on Radiohead."

Vice Magazine: "Paul is Dead, Paul is Dead, Long live the revolution."

XLR8R: "It's not from Berlin, but we still dig it."

Stereogum: "Reve Ximer Trseb"



Radiohead - Nude (FoeWeel Remix)

Nude Remix

Radiohead - Nude (FoeWeel Remix)

EarWaxBeGone December 2007 Compilation

Picture provided by Wikimedia

I am not doing a "best of" list this year. I had some songs and some albums put together, but I figure if you go through my posts throughout the year, you can find out what I dig/dug. As most of the tracks are still up for your listening or d-loding pleasure, go dig. I actually did put together a list of best albums which is on a friend's new site which should be ready sometime next year, so...... Instead of lists, I put together a compilation of songs, some old, some new, some crude.....some just hard-to-find.


People Press Play - Always Wrong
Ben Benjamin - Selective Periphera nov1
Thom Yorke - A Rat's Nest
Mikkel Metal - Brikan
Saul Williams - Black Stacey (Deadbeat Remix)
Matthew Dear - Deserter
Pinback - Devil You Know
Spoon - Black Like Me - Spoon
Franz Ferdinand - All My Friends (LCD Soundsystem Cover)
Nina Simone - Since I Fell For You
Cold War Kids - Electioneering (Radiohead Cover)
Diplo - Young Folks Pussy

D-LODE

(Hit Ctrl and then Click and "Save Link As", or Right Click and "Save As") otherwise just click on the link above and let it stream on your computer.

The Other Cover

Far Niente Winery 2007

i guess i need to work on my year end lists. i've already picked out the best singles of the year which i only have three, but maybe i'll have more. so, before the craziness of the past few weeks, i went to see spiritualized for their acoustic mainlines tour at bimbo's 365. after reading all the positive reviews on other shows from the tour, i was looking forward to it as the only other time i got to see them was in 1997 when they opened up for radiohead and they preceded to play feedback for an hour with barely any discernible lyrics. i enjoyed it, but i think everyone else in the audience felt like it sounded like microphoned fingernails against a chalkboard. so, we get to the show and it turns out to be a sit down affair. fine. 3 gospel-like singers, 3 string players, one rhodes electric piano and one guitar playing and singing jason pierce. great idea, but.... what makes spiritualized so great and the fact the 'ladies and gentlemen we are floating in space' is one of my favorites is that they create all of these layers of sound by the vast amount of instruments they use while not overwhelming the song itself. the greatness is not with the lyrics or pierce's voice. it adds to the overall piece, so when you strip out what makes these songs unique, you are left with something far from interesting. oh well.


Joy Division - Ceremony (Alternative Rock) - after hearing radiohead's version of 'ceremony', i noticed that thom yorke was trying to imitate ian curtis rather than bernard sumner. this track is a rare version with ian curtis on vocals. the movie 'control' is worth seeing although it does make the guys in new order look a bit inconsequential, but they were part of 2 of the most influential bands ever in music.

Radiohead - I Want None Of This - from the 2005 help! release, it's basically a solo piece with a piano. they played it a bunch of times on their last tour, but here's the original. haunting.

Just Listen, etcetera, etcetera

Thom Yorke, Binaural Recording ?

if you're a music fan, by now, you probably have a feeling that you can't get away from all of the radiohead news and up to the minute, literally in some cases, feelings and conjecture on 'in rainbows'. i don't know how people are anointing it the greatest album ever, or even the greatest radiohead album only after a few listens. i find that my favorite, or my greatest albums of all time come about after time. 6 months to a year, at least. also, after all of these reviews from every type of source, i've come to realize even more that record reviews are entirely subjective. there is no way to be objective. yes, you can say about an album that it is an original piece of music going beyond convention and all of the critics can agree and fawn over the originality and purpose, but music is so personal and for true music enthusiasts, who is it to say that their favorite album or piece of music is not a greatest album of all time ?

what do i think about 'in rainbows' ? i don't know yet. it's engaged me enough to want to experience it in different environments and on different systems. only time will tell if it is one of my favorites. i saw this documentary on the pixies and frank black was talking about how he once had this car with a tape deck that had the 'they might be giants 'flood' tape stuck in the deck and how he initially hated the album, but after awhile he realized how good it was and how much he loved it.

listen to 'in rainbows'. give it a chance and you make the call. that's part of the reason the release was done simultaneously to everyone. although it is a radiohead album, it is still a unique offering especially in the recording technique.

from the picture above, and from a listen through flat monitor headphones, some of the recordings are binaural which is a recording technique used to basically create a three dimensional sound as if you were experiencing the music in a live environment. when i first started listening to the album, i kept thinking that everything sounded so loud and chaotic. this was on my home stereo which is mainly configured for movies. i then listened on a normal pair of earphones which didn't sound that much better. there's definitely a full sound in my car, but still somewhat displaced. yesterday, i used my sennheiser hd-25 headphones which are basically flat monitor phones and i could hear such depth and nuances in the music and a spacial clarity. i don't know for sure which songs were recorded using this technique, but i suspect at least 'nude', 'house of cards' and 'videotape'. and i suspect that any good pair of headphones will bring out the sound even more than on a conventional stereo setup, but does this make the actual recording great. no it doesn't, but at least it makes it interesting for your ears, and for your mind.

say what you will about radiohead, but they continue to challenge the listener's imagination of what popular music should sound like today. they make timeless music by taking tools of the past and creating sounds of the future.


Here are some more artists that continue to push music in new directions:

Akufen - Severed Finger Samba (Techno) - a good workout for you car stereo. the king of the slice and dice. stop playing with the radio and pick a station.

Snax featuring Jamie Lidell - Honeymoon's Overdose - i think i got this on from modifyer. sounds like old school lidell beats with the his voice over it.

Aphex Twin - Avril 14th - a nice piano piece that was featured (stolen) for a snl digital short. richard d james, a genius. the original rick james, .....................

Radiohead (In Rainbows) - Live 2006 part3

Jackson Pollock, Autumn Rhythm (No. 30), 1950

radiohead has followed a similar arc to pollock's career. pollock, like radiohead began painting and constructing art in a typical function where accuracy of form was his suit. for radiohead, i would say that this would refer to 'the bends' album. a great rock album, but nothing too unusual, just what every rock band especially coldplay has strived to achieve since it's release. and as pollock's work became more abstract, so to does the work of radiohead. abstract, yet still accessible and as with pollock's work, the more you understand, the more you appreciate the genius of the work and what it took to create it.

CD one and vinyl:

01 15 STEP Live @ The Greek Theatre, Berkeley (2006-06-23)
02 BODYSNATCHERS Live @ Hummingbird Centre, Toronto (2006-06-08)
03 NUDE Live @ Bill Graham Civic Center, San Francisco (1998)
04 WEIRD FISHES/ARPEGGI Live on BBC
05 ALL I NEED Live @ Pukkelpop, Hasselt (2006-08-17)
06 FAUST ARP (?????)
07 RECKONER Live @ The Gorge, Seattle (2006-06-01)
08 HOUSE OF CARDS Live @ The Greek Theatre, Berkeley (2006-06-23)
09 JIGSAW FALLING INTO PLACE Live @ Hummingbird Centre, Toronto (2006-06-07)
10 VIDEOTAPE Live @ Hummingbird Centre, Toronto (2006-06-08)

CD two and vinyl:

01 MK 1
02 DOWN IS THE NEW UP Live @ The Greek Theatre, Berkeley (2006-06-23)
03 GO SLOWLY Live @ The Greek Theatre, Berkeley (2006-06-24)
04 MK 2
05 LAST FLOWERS (Thom Yorke Solo) Live @ Methodist Central Hall (2005-04-15)
06 UP ON THE LADDER
07 BANGERS AND MASH
08 4 MINUTE WARNING

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Part 1 is HERE.

01 15 STEP Live @ The Greek Theatre, Berkeley (2006-06-23)
02 BODYSNATCHERS Live @ Hummingbird Centre, Toronto (2006-06-08)
03 NUDE Live @ Bill Graham Civic Center, San Francisco (1998)
04 WEIRD FISHES/ARPEGGI Live on BBC

------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Part 2 is HERE.

05 ALL I NEED Live @ Pukkelpop, Hasselt (2006-08-17)
06 FAUST ARP (?????)
07 RECKONER Live @ The Gorge, Seattle (2006-06-01)
08 HOUSE OF CARDS Live @ The Greek Theatre, Berkeley (2006-06-23)
09 JIGSAW FALLING INTO PLACE Live @ Hummingbird Centre, Toronto (2006-06-07)

Radiohead (In Rainbows) - Live 2006 part2

the greatest design ever ?, the eames LCW


CD one and vinyl:

01 15 STEP Live @ The Greek Theatre, Berkeley (2006-06-23)
02 BODYSNATCHERS Live @ Hummingbird Centre, Toronto (2006-06-08)
03 NUDE Live @ Bill Graham Civic Center, San Francisco (1998)
04 WEIRD FISHES/ARPEGGI Live on BBC
05 ALL I NEED Live @ Pukkelpop, Hasselt (2006-08-17)
06 FAUST ARP (?????)
07 RECKONER Live @ The Gorge, Seattle (2006-06-01)
08 HOUSE OF CARDS Live @ The Greek Theatre, Berkeley (2006-06-23)
09 JIGSAW FALLING INTO PLACE Live @ Hummingbird Centre, Toronto (2006-06-07)
10 VIDEOTAPE

CD two and vinyl:

01 MK 1
02 DOWN IS THE NEW UP
03 GO SLOWLY
04 MK 2
05 LAST FLOWERS
06 UP ON THE LADDER
07 BANGERS AND MASH
08 4 MINUTE WARNING

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Part 1 is HERE.

01 15 STEP Live @ The Greek Theatre, Berkeley (2006-06-23)
02 BODYSNATCHERS Live @ Hummingbird Centre, Toronto (2006-06-08)
03 NUDE Live @ Bill Graham Civic Center, San Francisco (1998)
04 WEIRD FISHES/ARPEGGI Live on BBC

Radiohead (In Rainbows) - Live 2006 part1

noguchi coffee table

this is the first of four posts that will cover most of the tracks listed for the new radiohead album. most of the songs are from the 2006 tour and i have chosen the best recording available. i'm sure the songs have evolved, but here's a nice taste of the future.

as for the new distribution method, i think this way of thinking will help push the progression of music because it no longer allows a big corporate entity to make art a commodity and force feed it down our throats. we decide.


CD one and vinyl:

01 15 STEP Live @ The Greek Theatre, Berkeley (2006-06-23)
02 BODYSNATCHERS Live @ Hummingbird Centre, Toronto (2006-06-08)
03 NUDE Live @ Bill Graham Civic Center, San Francisco (1998)
04 WEIRD FISHES/ARPEGGI Live on BBC
05 ALL I NEED
06 FAUST ARP
07 RECKONER
08 HOUSE OF CARDS
09 JIGSAW FALLING INTO PLACE
10 VIDEOTAPE

CD two and vinyl:

01 MK 1
02 DOWN IS THE NEW UP
03 GO SLOWLY
04 MK 2
05 LAST FLOWERS
06 UP ON THE LADDER
07 BANGERS AND MASH
08 4 MINUTE WARNING

Radiohead - In Rainbows, October 10

Guess what comes out in 10 days ? Damn, that pound to dollar exchange rate!!!!!! If you just get the download which does not include the extra disc of songs, double vinyl as well as other printed goodies and the download to boot, you can choose what to pay for the download. yes, you choose how much you pay for just the download. how cool is that !!!!

GO NOW.......


RADIOHEAD

A House With A Hole In It

bernal heights, san franicsco

i came upon this house a few months back and it's an interesting idea in terms of bringing more sunlight into the top tier of the house, but will it stand the test of time? the lower northern part of bernal heights has some interesting homes from some adventurous people. some look odd stuck in between victorians, but they seem to have some forward ideas, at least from the outside. i'd like to build a circular house. well, a house where the outside form is a circle. no square or rectangular base structure. somewhat like frank lloyd wright's guggenheim in new york. it would be 2 floors. think of a barbell. the two floors would be separated by a tubular elevator and the top and bottom floor would have glass wrapping around the entire outside structure. practicality has no place in my dream.

now, to the songs that will help you dream,

Radiohead - Worrywort - a b-side from the knives out single. maybe a little bit to straight forward for where radiohead was at the time, but such a great song with a warm melody.

Fridge - Ark (Herbert's Fully Flooded Mix) - now that the supergroup, where two thirds of the members are adem and four tet, have reunited for an album, here is a lookback to what we can expect.

Badun - Fyrtarn - i don't know much about badun. this track was taken off of the new wire tapper compilation and it has the twisted beats with the jazz infused base that makes it so interesting. need to do some more exploring on this one.

False - Fed On Youth - this matthew dear track is part of the new best-of compilation, 'nothing much' from richie hawtin's minus label and it proves again why dear makes his best music off of this alias. there's no denying that his varied musical talents lends itself to having so many different monikers (audion, jabberjaw, false), but with all of the attention to his current matthew dear proper release, 'asa breed', a vocal pop techy offering, this track which i think hasn't been released 'officially' yet, will probably get lost in the mix. hopefully not. because it is probably one of the best techno tracks i've heard in a long time. it has that grooved sub bass and layered kicks to make your organs clean themselves. warning: this track may damage your speakers, or cause you to go out and buy speakers that can handle the low frequencies.