ch3.blog

Dirty Projectors - 2009 - Bitte Orca

2011-01-05T21:33:00.002-06:00

Discovery tool: probably Andréa
Sounds like Ted Leo, Trachtenburg Family Slideshow Players
Web site

The word I've seen most to describe this band is hipster. Don't worry if you have no idea what this word means; no one really does. It's just one of those terms people apply to a category of new and different things that they just can't put their nose on. It's not even so much a music thing as much as a fashion style and overall attitude, and over time, people are slowly refining the definition and by the time they figure out what it means, the cool kids will have moved onto something new with new people lumping them into new a category. But I wouldn't call them hipster, which for me is way more electronic, because they're way more folk, as much as Kool-Aid Pickles are still vegetables (What?). Their 2007 album, Rise Above, didn't tickle my fancy, so I was surprised when I heard Stillness is the Move, and I was hooked. It's so funky that even Solange Knowles covered the song. Dirty Projectors makes me think of the 50s in the U.S. Yes, I know I wasn't around then, and yes, their name has no indication of the sort, but that doesn't stop them from conjuring those spirits of the Appalachians who seem to be stuck in that decade while the rest of the country and the world moved on. That's not necessarily a bad thing. It's a unique culture that has its own merits; why trash it and move to something else when you're got a good thing going? And I think that may be why they made this album, but I could be completely off my marker on this one.

ch3.blog music reviews on Spotify

Dragonette - 2009 - Fixin to Thrill

2010-12-29T14:56:00.002-06:00

Discovery tool: ??
Sounds like April March, Ghostland Observatory, Robyn
Web site

I remember Galore, Dragonette's first album, and just thinking, "Wow, this girl makes materialism sound so fun in so many different musical styles." On this new album, they combine sounds from bluegrass to 90s pop with their modern electronics and rock music and even slip in a song reminiscent of Galore. From researching this album, I discovered two disturbing particulars: first, in the Fixin' to Thrill video, she has such defined facial features, short hair, and wears a tan-colored 'tard that reminds me of Peaches. Peaches is good, and she's got her own trashy musician look, but I wasn't prepared for that from Dragonette. But don't worry, she's actually very nice looking and doesn't look much like Peaches in many other videos - phew! Second terrible realization: lead singer Martina is from Canada. That would be like mating with a dolphin. They're seemingly smart creatures, but they live in a totally inhospitable environment we can only visit in short periods without the necessary training. The DNA just doesn't match. ...okay, maybe it's not that extreme, and I really would love to live underwater (if anyone reading this has lots of money, there are plenty of viable underwater residences designed and ready to be built - go for it!), I'm just a little jealous that so many great musicians come out of Canada (and many horrendous ones as well, e.g., Creed). Oh, and third: she sings on Basement Jaxx's Take Me Back to Your House, a song I discovered years before Dragonette. Who'da thunk? But in the end, it doesn't really matter where you're from or what you look like, just if you enjoy what you're doing. End sappy motivational message here.

ch3.blog music reviews on Spotify

The Maccabees - 2009 - Wall of Arms

2010-12-22T20:49:00.000-06:00

Discovery tool: Edessa
Sounds like Bloc Party, Good Shoes, The Streets
Web site

I'm pretty sure these guys are from the U.K. If not, that's a pretty good imitation accent, but you might not be able to tell because half the lyrics consist of "ooooh! OOOOOH! OOOOOHHH!" Maybe that's a British thing. The Maccabees play some pretty standard modern British rock that just so happens to be very catchy. I'm still not sure why they call themselves The Maccabees. In Jewish history, The Maccabees were a group of Jewish rebels who went through Israel disrupting an opposing army with guerilla warfare tactics. I learned all this from the Disney made-for-television movie Full-Court Miracle in which some scrawny Jewish kids dream of winning a school basketball tournament. All they lack is their inspiring leader, their Judah Maccabee, to teach them the ways to win. The entire movie is wrought with motivational speeches and coincidences and miracles that would make even the most steadfast gentile cry. So what does this have to do with the band? Nothing that I know of. Maybe someone out there can enlighten the rest of us as to the connection between the band name and the historical band. Perhaps there is no connection, and they did that on purpose just so people would try to figure it out. Basterds.

ch3.blog music reviews on Spotify

Cake Bake Betty - 2006 - Songs About Teeth!

2010-12-15T20:43:00.000-06:00

Discovery tool: Monia
Sounds like 6 Day Riot, April March, Lady and Bird, YACHT
Web site

Cake Bake Betty's sound is so diverse. I hear synth, an out-of-tune piano, a harpsichord, and loads of unusual percussion. And then there's her voice which shifts between melodic songstress and light-hearted ditty. Most of all, I think pensive descibes the mood of these songs best. Judging by their myspace page, it sadly seems this band is no more, and now they're called FIELDED. And shucks, they have new music out that I haven't heard before. I very much dislike being out of the loop on important things like this. Someone please recommend me something easy to keep me updated on album releases and tour dates. That would be great. Thanks. But this FIELDED is quite different from Cake Bake Betty. It's almost gothic, and the artwork leads me to believe they write their songs with the help of wild and woolly creatures of the forest (who happen to have studied music theory). Not exactly my favorite video game, but I'll go with it for a while and see how things play out.

ch3.blog music reviews on Spotify

Menomena - 2007 - Friend and Foe

2010-12-08T04:43:00.001-06:00

Discovery tool: Monia
Sounds like Blonde Redhead, The Flaming Lips, Tom Waits
Menomena

How are you supposed to pronounce this band's name? I was introduced to it as "men-oh-meen-ah," and I had no idea what she was talking about. She's almost as much an anglophone as I am, so I was embarrassed when I had to ask her to spell it. "Oh..." I exclaimed to myself when I finally wrote it down at home, "Men-ah-men-ah," like in that song. Maybe that's not how it's actually pronounced, but that's how I say it in my head, and it's always weird to hear someone else pronounce something that you've never heard pronounced other than in your own mind differently than what you imagined. Menomena sounds like it could be a soundtrack to The Muppets, albeit a dark, somber, not-quite-for-kids version. It's not goth, it's just not completely happy, kind of foreboding in a way, but it's still great. The best part is how varied the album sounds from song to song; each track has its own unique, memorable libretto. What's even better is their 2005 release of three tracks ranging between 17 and 19 minutes each with some of the same motifs and moods, but more instrumental. I've listened all the way through that album so many times, as many, if not more, times as their other music. The music is slow in progressing, but it's well worth the effort. Enjoy the great klesmer beats for your studying pleasure.

'Round Brunnsviken

2010-12-05T11:07:00.001-06:00

Sometime this past summer I took some time from my relatively busy life to explore the areas around Brunnsviken, the lake near where I live. It's a big lake and connects to the archipelago that leads to the Baltic sea. I didn't test it, but I'd assume it's somewhat brackish, although not quite to the extent of the Baltic.

It took me about two days of walking totaling about 25 kilometers or 15.5 miles. The first day ended with me catching a bus on the other side of the lake because rain started to pour down. The second day ended a little better, but the royal burial ground still wasn't opened like they promised because it was still stormy or some nonsense reason. Lazy bums.

Despite that, I learned a great deal about the area and took some nice pictures. I compiled them into this image of just some of the places I visited (click for more detail). You may be wondering why I didn't get any shots of the lake. That's because it's a lake -- they all look the same! Well, not really. These are just notable landmarks in relative positions around the lake; the full set of pictures will be on Facebook soon (if not already).

Thao - 2008 - We Brave Bee Stings and All

2010-12-01T05:15:00.006-06:00

Album: We Brave Bee Stings and All, 2008
Sounds like 6 Day Riot, Camera Obscura, Seabear
Web site

For the longest time, I thought this singer was male. Man, was I mistaken. But her singing is well within my vocal range, so either she's singing quite low or I sing quite high. Who am I kidding? I don't sing. But if I did, it might sound a little bit like this ...but with more stringed instruments, more synth and more lasers. Reading about the origin of her success was quite enlightening, too. Apparently she sent a song to Laura Veirs, my favorite geologist turned singer, who's drummer produces The Decemberists and Sufjan Stevens (what a busy life this guy leads) and got her a record deal. Thao and her band also collaborated with Andrew Bird on his newest album (check that out when you have time) and toured with Rilo Kiley. Boy, with my vocals I could be doing the same thing if only I had focus, motivation or a shred of the long-term determination she has. I'm too impatient for this business.

Also, if you have Spotify, you can listen to all the artists and albums I've reviewed so far with this handy playlist. But sadly, Spotify has not every artist in its database, as is the case with Thao.

Parking lots in downtown Dallas

2010-11-28T07:10:00.001-06:00

I'm just sayin'.

Lady and Bird - 2006 - Lady and Bird

2010-11-24T05:40:00.001-06:00

Discovery tool: Dan
Sounds like Air, April March, Sufjan Stevens, The Bird and the Bee
Recommended for Andréa
Web site

I started out with the 2009 album of a live performance of Lady and Bird (album pictured above), then learned of an actual studio album from 2006. Suddenly I began to learn more about them such as how this is only a side project of two artists, Keren Ann and Barði Jóhannson, leader singer of Bang Gang, a band from Iceland. Man, I really need to check out these other artists, but I hope I'm not disappointed like when I tried out Death Cab for Cutie because of The Postal Service (I have very finicky taste as you might have already surmised). If you know me at all, you can probably pick out the elements that attracted me here: female plus male vocals, classical, acoustic guitar, and a varied and diverse sound that keeps me interested. Maybe the best part is that even though English may not be these singers' mother tongue, they sing clear enough that I can understand them. The ambiance of these songs approaches that of traditional songs, especially those on the live album because of the backing orchestra. You can actually hear the emotion in their melodies, at least I think that's what that is. And like Jenny Wilson, this band jumped way up in my automatically-generated most played list in my music library; and it wasn't just one song, but the entirety of that live album. It's that good. Check it out.

Editor's note: Since I couldn't find too many Lady and Bird songs for previewing, I've included some from Bang Gang. They're pretty much the same anyway. If you want the full experience, you better go out and pick up a copy of these albums.

Jenny Wilson - 2009 - Hardships!

2010-11-17T01:43:00.000-06:00

Discovery tool: Dom Kallar Oss Artister
Sounds like Anna Ternheim, Feist, The Knife
Recommended for Andréa
Web site

I wasn't too stimulated by Jenny Wilson's past albums, so when I watched her episode of Dom kallar oss artister, I wasn't expecting too much. Boy, did she correct me. This newest album is something magical with all its imagery. The first track, The Path, quickly jumped to the top my "most played" list in my music library. What I enjoy most is probably the "eep!" at the beginning or maybe it's when the back-up singers sing, "out of my mother," or maybe it's my soft spot for the simple, syncopated rhythm. Her music is simple, loosely structured, and full of soul (both the Black kind and the Halloween kind). Apart from the actual music, it's great that she involved some of the youth from one of the local suburbs in the singing and music playing. It's like one of those movies where the angry nun on the run from the law visits the inner city and tries to get the kids off drugs and promiscuity and into music except that she isn't a nun, isn't wanted for any crime, and she's going to the suburbs, not the inner city. I can't attest to the drugs or promiscuity part, so she may or may not have been trying to dissuade the kids from those things. Isn't that how musicians make their music anyway? But listen to Hardships! anyway and enjoy it for being so unconventional yet so catchy. Listen to all the little percussion sounds: claps, snaps and glockenspiels.

Dan Black - 2009 - Un

2010-11-10T12:53:00.001-06:00

Discovery tool: Internet
Sounds like Dirty Projectors, Grizzly Bear, Passion Pit
Web site

Dan Black is very much a pop music artist, so much so that I had to check the Internet to see if he was too pop to like. Don't worry, he's one of those that it's alright to enjoy because he's actually good, unlike all those artists that come out of major U.S. record labels. Apparently it's called wonky pop and includes artists like Lady Gaga, La Roux and Little Boots. Seriously guys. Can we stop making up words that have no linguistic basis? Wonky has a negative connotation, meaning shaky or unreliable, even stupid, but wonky pop is supposed to indicate pop music that's okay to listen to. Think before you create, people. That goes for all of you. Anyway, how do I describe his music without sounding like the obsessed fan that I'm not? It's very beat oriented, like hip hop, but it's also very melodic. Every song is different, and his voice has a very unique character. It's smooth, high and dresses like a barbershop quartet; just what I look for in a partner. And did I mention it's great music to dance to? It's still pop music at its core, manufactured for the enslavement of the masses that fail to reject capitalism. This is the music that sells not only albums, but drinks at clubs, and fuels impulse buying at trendy stores. Well, the connection there is weak, but I'm sure someone's studied these effects before, probably with the goal of maximizing profits in mind. But still, Dan Black is still okay to listen to as long as you keep your wits about you.

Field Music - 2009 - Measure

2010-11-03T06:57:00.000-06:00

Discovery tool: similar name to The Field
Sounds like Dirty Projectors, Grizzly Bear, The Arcade Fire, Umphrey's McGee
Recommended for Andréa
Web site

Wow, twenty full-length songs in one album. They've really been busy. The band is your basic guitar, bass and drum set up with authentic-sounding vocals from those days gone by. There's even the occasional piano in their songs that give them that extra flavor that neither Rock Band nor Guitar Hero has. Field Music reminds me of the oldie music that my mom listens to, which is why I think Andréa might like it. Sadly, the band has not reached as many people as they should have. But because it sounds like oldie music and almost no one has heard of them, it would be perfect for inclusion in Rock Band or Guitar Hero. The only difference is that then they'd actually be including good music instead of gross '80s rock, a time that I refer to as the years when rock should've stayed dead. Rock has never recovered since; just look at all the horrible sounds it has produced since then: Creed, Nickelback, The Jonas Brothers. It's bands like Field Music, while not superheroes among music revival, that bring rock music back to the past when it didn't blow chunks so that we may evolve it into something else, something better. Hopefully the same people behind AC/DC don't do what they did, but something tells me that because they're still out and about making "music" that they're still a threat we must take care of. Where's music jail when you need it?

Yes, and if you're really into Field Music, they're playing a concert in Stockholm on November 18, the same night as Crystal Castles. What to do? What to do?

Yelle - 2007 - Pop Up

2010-10-27T05:08:00.002-06:00

Discovery tool: Internet
Sounds like April March, Ladytron
Web site

Before I really started trying to learn Swedish, all other foreign languages just sounded like gibberish, but now that I'm more acclimated to the flow of Swedish, my ability to distinguish individual words has grown exponentially, and it isn't limited to just this one language. So now I can pick out words in Spanish, Italian, German, Danish, and even some French although I have no idea what they mean. This is quite useful when listening to Yelle. Who am I kidding? I don't listen to lyrics. I generally go by the mood of the song, the cadence of the words, the melodies and the interplay between them. They're generally upbeat, clean-the-house, make-you-wanna-dance songs, but that's not to say it's simple music. I'm sure there's a deeper meaning if you actually knew French. But that's what's so great about Yelle: you can enjoy the music on so many different levels. But what if the deeper meaning she's getting at is something to do with the fact that all the songs are in French and people enjoy them without knowing the language and it's actually some sort of subliminal reprogramming to make people subservient without their consent. Probably not, but it's always a possibility, and as we learned in our Theory and Method class, from a Constructivist perspective, you cannot ever prove this theory true or not. And if you live near Stockholm, you can enjoy a free performance by Yelle on November 20. Yes!

Broadcast - 2005 - Tender Buttons

2010-10-20T15:05:00.000-06:00

Discovery tool: Internet, hot DJ girl
Sounds like Jenny Lewis, Ladytron, Ms. Jones Soda, Stereolab
Recommended for Chadd
Web site

I remember sitting there, waiting for Passion Pit, and shyly glancing at the girl manning the DJ booth with some pre-show tunes. No, I didn't talk to her, and yeah, I know it's pathetic, but I got a lot of new music out of her and reconnected with many others that I had forgotten. She could possibly be my music twin, so in that way, we already have a connection going on, albeit a familial one. Oh, here I am talking about irrelevant events when I should be pontificating on the intriguing sound of Broadcast. This music brings me back to a time when things were simpler, when me and the boys would just cruise up and down main street chilling to some light tunes, inviting all the local kids to come out and jam with us. But these songs ain't your parents' wartime favorites; instead, they might be afraid of all these electronics. They're going to rise up and enslave us, y'know (the electronics, not your parents; they already did that). While Broadcast may not be appropriate in a hardcore dance setting, it sure makes for some relaxing, mellow background music for a warm, summer night. Does anyone actually make music for a cold, winter night? I can think of a few of the top of my head, and that's impressive, because the top of my head is almost non-existent compared to the rest of my repository of knowledge and still even less when it comes to my contempt for others. Yet, still I continue to write these.

A strange venture, this cooking is

2010-10-17T03:54:00.002-06:00

If you know me well, you know that I'm not much of a food person -- I like my gruel mushy and saturated with the starvation of orphans -- but once in a while, I crawl out of my comfortability sphere and try something new. Of course, I never do so on my own volition; this time, I was persuaded by my bestest friend, who after eating it in a restaurant in a faraway land many moons ago, had the urge to try cooking it at home.

The dish: Ebi Raisukaree inspired by Wagamama, rice served in a tiger prawn thai sauce, with lime, coconut, etc. (I am not much for fancy food lingo).

It turned out pretty well considering how inept I am at cooking, and how inexperienced we both were with the recipe. I may have to try out this "cooking" thing more often. And I couldn't have done it without my big enchilada, the head honcho, the leader with a beater. That's right, I'm talking about you, Jesus. I love you, man.

The recipe (from TasteBook):

400g king prawns (I like Honduran king prawns or tiger prawns best)
1 tin of coconut milk
2 tbsp of thai red curry paste
½ onion
2 tbsp of fish sauce
1 red chilli
1 lime
1 chicken stock cube
1 small bunch of coriander
2 small cups of rice

Put 2.5 parts water to 1 part rice in a pot with 1 tbsp of salt. Bring to boil and reduce to simmer until cooked. (Approx 15mins, but differs depending upon type of rice)
Butterfly the prawns by making a light incision down their back
Slice the onion and chilli finely
Put wok on heat and add curry paste, stir lightly, until the paste gives off its aromas, but ensure not to burn
Put onion, chilli and prawns in wok and stir fry until the prawns have turned fully pink (If you are using cooked prawns, then until the prawns curl and the back of the butterfly incision opens)
Pour in coconut milk and lower heat
Add fish sauce and crumble in chicken stock cube
Cook on a low heat for 5mins
Tear up coriander and chuck into wok, then squeeze half of the lime into the liquid
Cook for another 5 mins
Put half of rice into a small bowl and tip into middle of plate. Do this for both plates
Ladle curry over the top and garnish with a ¼ of the lime

Some lessons we learned:

Double-check whether you're supposed to use teaspoons or tablespoons before pouring.
Chillis are hot.
The wok isn't exactly necessary but adds to the feeling that you're making a Japanese meal.
Put oil in the pan so you don't burn the curry paste.
Add lime zest when feeling a little glum.
This recipe makes about 2.5 servings (not a standard SI unit).
Note to self: get a better camera.

Mr. Oizo - 2008 - Lambs Anger

2010-10-12T22:04:00.000-06:00

Discovery tool: Uffie
Sounds like gameboymusicclub, The Avalanches, The Dø, and much more
Web site

Mr. Oizo is a French electronica artist, so that's pronounced "wah-zoh" and not "oy-zoh" or "oh-ha-zoh" as a vocoder lampoons on the opening track. I was proud to know how it was spelled when a guy in Arizona mentioned his old cat was named Oizo. The genre of electronica is a varied and wide-ranging beast. Because artists can make and simulate almost any sound they can imagine in their little bird brains, there's a great deal of potential that we can harvest from this genre. I see a vast frontier yet to be conquered by these pioneering artists and Mr. Oizo is one of those working to push the outer limits of the genre outward. He's like a scientist in the medieval age when it was still untamed and wild, before it became systematized, regimented, and full of paradigms and norms. Notably, Oizo's been working with Uffie and Feedz in developing an electronica base with human singers. And that's just one example of this electronica artist-singer partnership, an archetype that's been around for decades, but is slowly ballooning into mainstream acceptence and not just residing as a special interest to people such as me. But if it becomes mainstream, won't it lose its "indie" appeal, you say? No, I say, and go back to your cave.

Silly capitalism, cities are for people

2010-10-10T03:00:00.000-06:00

I promise this is the last of my Nader binge.

Cars have an entrenched legacy in U.S. history. People tend to remember their first car, how much they cost, where they went, and who they went with. Cars seem to have their own personalities, and many take care of them like pets, feeding them with gasoline, changing their oil, washing them, getting new paint jobs, even naming them. They are an extension of the human body with people using them to fulfill their desire for power by racing others, pushing others out of the way, and as status symbols. They are refuges from the outside world, protecting from rain and heat and snow, and they make their passengers feel safe as they pass by and insult a slow-moving driver.

But they're also a huge economic risk. They lock you into your financial future, they require constant, expensive and unexpected maintenance, and who knows what you'll pay when you get into an accident. And I say 'when', because it's almost inevitable whether or not you're a good driver. Of course, this is what automobile insurance was created for, to alleviate the strain on your wallet when something unexpected like this occurs, through a simple, monthly payment whether something bad happens or not. And in most states, it's a required by law, again, regardless of your driving skills.

So let's see, a car comes with happy times, an extension of yourself, and sometimes safety, but also carries a huge financial burden from purchasing, to maintenance, to insurance. Add to all this that you're practically required to have a car if you want to get around the city (or otherwise you're financially tied to substandard public transport) because cities have sprung up around the utility of the car. There's almost no room for walking or biking as more than a leisure activity, and most never even do that as evident by their abyssmal health, probably because most of their free time is spent sitting in traffic rather than exercising.

Based on what I'm reading for class at the moment, it seems like it was the capitalist market that caused this to happen, and, from my own inference, city planners weren't powerful enough to stop it from happening. Instead, planners focused on mediating between capitalism and the city to fix some of the inefficiencies that it caused, but capitalism proved too great a force, and planners too small. Now, with a shift in idealogy with planners focusing on democracy and representing the people, they wage war on the inefficiencies created by capitalism in order to give the people a voice equal to the power of the anarchic free market.

Here's the tricky part: how can planners create unified strategies to represent everyone's diverse and often conflicting interests while capitalism relentlessly pushes forward? Is chaos the natural order of things? No, I don't think so. It seems to be more of a struggle of power, even if not intentional. While firms, businesses and entrepreneurs are less than united, often competitors in most situations, they have similar interests -- making money. The people, on the other hand, while united at times, never have the same voice. One person wants one thing, while another would bash him over the head if he stood between him and his desires. And yes, in some cases, it is that extreme; that's true capitalism without regulation.

Companies of today, being somewhat regulated, have worked out ways to minimize damage to their business while following the rules, except in many cases this means externalizing the damage to others such as people living downstream of a toxic factory, or all the species of the rainforest being relocated so we can cut down their habitats. If I'm reading correctly, this planning literature is saying that planners should be standing in the way from companies hurting others for the interest of business. However, most of this goes unnoticed and unreported for many years, and businesses maintain their reputation by donating small sums to charities and foundations.

Maybe this planning literature isn't saying that planners become such vigilant Nader crusaders, protecting the people and the environment from corporate crime, but it can still help out in the fight. When it comes to the automobile and the city and their impact on a person's necessary cost of living, planners have a multitude of tools to mend the situation: high-density, equitable zoning, urban design with a focus on people, taking a proactive stance on housing rather than letting the market decide inefficiently.

There are loads of people just waiting for this to happen, so why isn't it happening? It's because the market wields too much power and the people are pushed aside in the process. The planners have yet to take up the cause to plan for people, afraid of what will happen when they go against capitalism, the long-idolized economy of the industrialized world, the life blood that keeps the world moving.

I've been thinking about Ralph Nader a lot recently (not like that, you perverts) in contrast to Ron Paul and Libertarian ideology. They seem at odds: Nader wants more government control, while Libertarians want less government. At the risk of uproar, can't these two get along? Adopt Nader's aggressive regulation of capitalism while at the same time limit the government's involvement in people's everyday lives. Regulate the market and maximize individual liberty. There's enough supporters on both sides that if they team up, they might just stand a fighting chance against the established government.

I'm just saying'.

Of the three of you who actually read this to the end, am I just a crackpot, or is there something to this?

Basement Jaxx - 2009 - Zephyr

2010-10-06T06:26:00.001-06:00

Discovery tool: Internet
Does not sound like Basement Jaxx
Web site

When I learned of a new Basement Jaxx album I had never even heard of, I almost wet my pants. I love their creative, diverse repetoire, and was excited at hearing something new from them. Then I discovered that this was hardly what I was used to from them. It was new, different and strange, and that's just why I like it. Basement Jaxx is responsible for well-known hit songs as "Where's Your Head At?" and "Hush Boy" with their upbeat, catchy dance tunes, but Zephyr steers them into uncharted territories. It seems to me that they wandered the globe acquiring new sounds to incorporate into this album. Among the numerous sounds, I hear some Spanish guitar, Indian riffs, and even some video game and 8-bit electronics. Marvelous. And they manage to even throw in some catchy tunes, too. I wish I could get them to play at my next birthday party but I doubt it; they'll regret rejecting the invitation. Of course, I'll have better luck with a better attitude, so I'll keep listening to this album because it helps me into a better mood; gives me some much needed optimism in these troubling times. I can't wait to see what they have in store for us next, whether they jump back to their normal sound or continue with this progression. Either way, I'll definitely be first in line (metaphorically speaking) to grab it.

Take that, lack of employee benefits!

2010-10-03T12:30:00.000-06:00

If you've been spying on my browsing history (I'm looking in your direction, U.S. government), then you know that I've been on a Nader binge. You might also realize that I'm an avid enthusiast of puppies with knives, but that's a story for a different day. I read Ralph Nader's page on Wikipedia, I went through old videos of him on YouTube, and I watched An Unreasonable Man, which if you're looking for an unbiased look at the life of Ralph Nader, look somewhere else.

Okay, so maybe it wasn't so much of a binge as it was a brief love affair passing in the night (I'm sorry baby. I didn't think it would lead to this, but one thing just led to another, and, you know... It was my fault, I take full responsibility. Can you ever forgive me?). I learned a few things that I didn't already know. First, Nader's got some tough haters. Eric Alterman's interview in the movie made him out to be a vicious, rabid dog -- I could picture the foam dripping from his mouth -- and something tells me he really does have a burning chip on his shoulder with Ralph's name on it. Come on, buddy, why so serious?

Second, Nader doesn't want to be elected president. He wants someone else to step up and run on the progressive issues that he and his supporters ...support. In the absence of such a strong candidate, he was pressured into running, but there's always that doubt deep in his mind that nothing will ever change. Counter that with an unwavering will to never back down, and you've got the internal conflict that makes up the core of Ralph Nader.

What he would like to see is a suave, debonaire candidate with some real substance behind him or her. At the same time, he's fighting an entrenched political system that tries its hardest to ignore him at best. When he seems to be gathering enough support, the "forces" that run the system try their darnedest to illegitimize him with the majority of citizens laughing him off as just another guy with a funny name in a demeaning style similar to Ross Perot's funny ears.

But that's not what I came here to talk about today. When I attended Nader's speaking event last week, I got an idea to help push some of these issues he's so dedicated to: occupational hazards and benefits. He said that the U.S. has a poor record when it comes to taking care of its working citizens. Most jobs have little to no vacation time whereas in a country like Sweden has something like seven weeks a year. "What do you do with all your time?" he jokes, dying a little bit inside. It's the same with health care, dangerous jobs, poor wages, gender equality, and paternity leave among many other substandards.

He jovially jested that if we suddenly found out that low wages and no sick leave were an elaborate terrorist plot footed by Osama bin Laden, then the U.S. government would be all over that. So I thought, why not run a series of political cartoons (because we all like cartoons) depicting Osama bin Laden (a symbol for terrorism) directly causing these things.

For example, maybe one cartoon would show Mr. bin Laden sitting back in his office chair, feet on the desk, counting his oodles and oodles of cash while vigilant workers are plugging away with tiny salaries. Or perhaps bin Laden would be at the exit, putting an industrial-grade, steel chain around the handles so none of the employees could go out and frolic with everyone else on the summertime hillside outside. "Osama bin Laden's standing in the way of our freedom," it would proclaim, touching on the American values we hold so dear.

Now, I'm too busy (we're all too busy, huh?) to plan this out to include some satire about the U.S. government and its aggressive military policies, nor have I developed the artistic talent, but I'm sure someone out there cares enough and has the talent to draw this up and get it published, even if only on a blog. Let me know if you do, so I can take credit for it, of course (Just kidding. Ideas are free here.), but it would be cool if someone actually did it.

Pic related: it's my pathetic attempt at drafting these cartoons.

Stardeath and White Dwarfs - 2009 - The Birth

2010-09-29T01:53:00.001-06:00

Discovery tool: Dom kallar oss artister
Sounds like Pink Floyd, Radiohead, The Flaming Lips
Recommended for Andréa
Web site

Chances are you haven't heard of Ralf Gyllenhammer. Ralf's the lead singer of a band named Mustasch, and Ralf listens to Stardeath and White Dwarfs. This was my first connection to the band, but apparently their influence already reaches far and wide, all the way to the plains of Oklahoma and the land of The Flaming Lips. Their sound is very similar, falling in the psychedelic rock genre originating in the 1960s and '70s. They're such a throwback that The Flaming Lips invited Stardeath and the White Dwarfs to join them in reinterpreting Pink Floyd's The Dark Side of the Moon with special guest vocals Henry Rollins and Peaches. This was not a combination I expected. Now I don't really like Pink Floyd (blasphemy!), and I wasn't too impressed with that album, however, I enjoyed this album, The Birth, because it is light on the psychedelics and focuses more on interesting melodies and wistful imagery. As I listen to it again, I feel it's one of those albums that quickly becomes a classic, not because it's so inventive, but because it hints at artists of the past and builds on them with a modern twist. Maybe it's not what you expect, but it's still worth listening to at least once.

2009 Stardeath and White Dwarfs - New Heat from George Salisbury on Vimeo.

Ralph Comes to Sweden

2010-09-26T13:47:00.000-06:00

When I was younger, Ralph Nader was on my list of cool people. He was neither Republican nor Democrat, and yet he got considerable (for a third party) support from voters. As a young kid, I didn't know much about politics, only that Ralph Nader's name was funnier than Ross Perot's ears. I've recently started calling him Ralph Nader Ginsburg for some reason (imagine if those two had a love child). Hopefully people decide who they vote for in a more educated manner, but I have my suspicions that the world might be a little better had they voted for the man with the funny name rather than the alternatives, and seeing this guy in person reaffirmed those suspicions.

Ralph Nader toured Scandinavia in four days, giving lectures in some of the bigger cities - Helsinki, Stockholm, Göteborg and Oslo - speaking on the state of consumerism in the world. His message was simple, corporations have a stranglehold on the government and its people, all in the name of profit. They have no interest in treating their customers fairly, they use dirty practices like planned obsolescence, and they've successfully swayed politicians to create laws strictly to benefit themselves, not the people.

It's the sort of message I'm used to hearing these days, especially living in this country. This was the first time since 1982 that Nader had visited Sweden as he recounted his tales of the Swedish consumer advocacy groups locking horns with the evil corporate cartels and achieving many great victories.

Everyone in the audience seemed to be very amenable to what Nader was saying, while in the U.S., you'd probably hear mumbling and groaning and the occasional shout of "Commie!" or "Liberal!" I don't understand those people; why can't people learn to keep an open mind while at the same time being constructively critical.

I, being highly skeptical of almost everything, am still not sure if I agree completely with what he was saying or if I was just filling in the blanks with what I wanted to hear. I've long sought the downfall of the government, as any normal teenager would, but I feel my ideologies may be shifting. Putting more laws and regulations on corporations sounds like a good idea, so why haven't we been doing it in the first place and instead been pandering to their every demand.

What struck me most was when Nader asserted that "the United States is a third-world country according to Western standards." He said it was the only developed country in which its workers continue to work longer hours with lower wages compared to 40 years ago, and something like 30 or 40% percent of people live under the poverty line.

Regarding his notorious presidential campaigns, he said that the most important part of a president is his character and personality; a president will have advisers to support him. Nader certainly seems the introverted, studious type, but over the years has worked on his personality and worked to build up his reputation. He hosted Saturday Night Live, chatted with Ali G, exchanged words with Triumph, the Insult Comic Dog, and was even on Sesame Street.

At his talk on Thursday, he seemed a very youthful 76 years old, and had a likable attitude, joking with the other panelists at time. Hopefully he'll continue to live out his days doing what he loves - consumer advocacy and corporation bashing - and that we'll all learn a lesson or two from Mr. Funny-name Nader.

P.S. He gave me some ideas for projects, and hopefully I will write about those soon so that someone can get working on them.

Har Mar Superstar - 2009 - Dark Touches

2010-09-22T03:16:00.000-06:00

Discovery tool: Neon Neon
Sounds like Bee Gees, Black Kids, Little Michael
Web site

So he doesn't embody the established epitome of male perfection, but he sure has the charisma to make up for it, or so it seems. It could just be one of those image things, and he's really lonely at heart. It's the classic Ron Jeremy tale. Of course, I don't have any inside information so for all I know, he is living that high life. But the music is a different story. It's full of overprocessed dance music mixed with commercialized hip hop and inspired by the 70s. That's not to say it's unbearable. It's actually quite bearable, even enjoyable, and the music video for Tall Boy is simple and fun. Apparently it was shot on a very low budget, but it still came out looking really nice. But here again, as with Little Boots and LIGHTS, we see the outer space motif. I wonder what people will be glamorizing when we've conquered space and met lots of other extraterrestrial civilizations. Different time periods? Different dimensions? Bestiality? I'm sure we'll have many more frontiers out on the horizon to fantasize about, so don't you worry, Har Mar Superstar.

Busdriver - 2009 - Jhelli Beam

2010-09-14T16:49:00.000-06:00

Discovery tool: Dan
Sounds like a musical typewriter on speed
Web site

What makes people think they can smoke indoors? Seriously. It's not kosher, not in the least. Why doesn't someone make a song about that, I mean, songs are meant for complaining, right? In an attempt to falsify this theory (because that's what science is), I found the nearest music (near is subjective when it comes to a computer music library) and tested the theory. Busdriver was a poor choice for this - my verbal processing has long since overloaded - but it's awesome for some epic, lyrical melodies. As one comment on Youtube describes, he's like a poet laureate put to beats and set on fire. Most people will probably say, "Wow, just wow. He's awesome. I could never do that." But the transhumanist would say, "Alright, if he can do it, so can I," and then would practice tirelessly for six months straight until he met the talent of Busdriver. What he didn't anticipate is that this niche is filled; there's little room for mimics. Now, if he did it just a little different, synthesizing a couple different sounds, he might have something there. Just look at Ke$ha, a synthesis of Lady Gaga and Uffie. Now think of the success if you combined Busdriver with, say, Kylie Minogue. Epic, huh? Maybe.

The Mamaku Project - 2008 - Mal de Terre

2010-09-08T03:27:00.001-06:00

Discovery tool: Dan
Sounds like Detectivbyrån, Menomena, Oi Va Voi
Recommended for you
Web site

You there. Come closer. Yes, I'm talking to you. I have some information that you may be interested in. There's this new band in town, see? They come all the way from New Zealand and they've got a very jazzy, fusion sound. I don't even know what that really means, except that they're really good, and I think you'd really like them. Really. They're different from most anything you've probably heard and if you saw them live, like in South Korea in August, you might think they're just a bunch of hippies twirling things around and wearing funny hats. But don't despair, they deserve just as much attention as any other band, and there's plenty of deep pleasure to be found here, more than in many television shows and movies. They aim for your heart and if they miss, it's because you don't have one. You should really get that looked at. Oh, and did I mention, they make great use of the accordion, the king of instruments? I hope that doesn't deter you, and if it does, then you're a criminal and a rapist, good sir, and I will send for the authories who will be here forthright to deal with your treachery. Thus, it is in your best interest to at least listen to The Mamaku Project and if you don't love them, at least file them under "music for when you're bored of regular, boring music".

Gang Gang Dance - 2008 - Saint Dymphna

2010-09-01T08:21:00.001-06:00

Discovery tool: some playlist
Sounds like Animal Collective, Deerhunter, Dirty Projectors
Web site

Gang Gang Dance is quite diverse in its musical architecture hence why they're listed as experimental on Wikipedia. That's their catch-all term for anything they can't quite put their noses on. But I say, as many will, why file them into a certain category? You're not leaving them room to grow and explore which is exactly what they do on every album. I love how they shift from some ambient grooves to faster hip hop featuring Tinchy Strider back to some of the more mellow electronics -- makes for great dancing music (you don't have to know how to dance to know what's danceable, right?). The sad part is that because Florence and the Machine decided to use a phrase from one of their songs (House Jam) in one of their songs (Rabbit Heart (Raise it Up)) probably as a homage to the band which is common in genres like rap, Gang Gang Dance complained and now they get royalties from the Florence and the Machine song. That's in direct opposition to the tenets of the remixer's manifesto - culture builds upon the past. I guess not entirely, but it just seems so greed related, or maybe it's a marketing ploy. But in either way, greed is not sexy; it is not and will not be in vogue any time in the near future if I have anything to say about it. However, that doesn't stop me from genuinely enjoying their music. Heck, I didn't even know about this infringement until someone else alerted me to the theft. But even then, I just liked both songs even better. The marketing worked.

By the way, sorry for the live recording samples of the songs, but that's probably because Gang Gang Dance is heavy on the enforcing of the copyrights. Let's just hope they don't sue me, too.

Benn Jordan - 2008 - Pale Blue Dot

2010-08-25T16:40:00.003-06:00

Discovery tool: Youtube
Sounds like outer space
Web site

I sense an outer space theme here, but what else would you expect from an album entitled Pale Blue Dot? This guy, Benn Jordan, or as I like to call him, Double N (a reference to the ~~late~~, great Chadd), has quite a prolific career. You may have heard some of his stuff and not even known it. He's worked on the Dove Evolution campaign and created some branding for companies like Verizon. I don't know specifically what he's done for those companies, but Wikipedia tells me it is so. But he's like a jingle writer that actually produces albums. Most jingle writers get into the business because their artistic stuff doesn't sell but they can write for a commercial audience (complete speculation). At first, his music as The Flashbulb is mainly drill 'n' bass, breakcore, electronic music (basically superfast dance music), as evident by the video linked above. But this new album is a departure, more like a move to a new genre. It leads somewhere between ambient and evocative music, and sounds like it could even be a soundtrack to a movie. And the great part, even though the album and all the track titles are obviously space-themed, they work well with almost any imagery: the lonely, barren wild west; hunting elephants on the Serengeti; or just watching someone give birth. This is the kind of stuff I'd like to make. Something not too imposing, yet compels listeners to think and dream. Your music inspires me, Mr. Jordan, that you can count on, and so does your copyright activism (he released this album for free).

Vessels - 2008 - White Fields and Open Devices

2010-08-18T00:37:00.000-06:00

Discovery tool: Post rock on Wikipedia
Sounds like From Monument to Masses, God is an Astronaut
Web site

Vessels is post rock. Vessels is epic. Vessels for sale (from Google Suggest). And somehow I found a picture of Bob Ross when searching for a picture of the album cover. And what do they mean by "open devices" in their album title? At least they seem very technological judging by their comprehensive Web site chock full of information and intimate connection with their fans dating all the way back to mid-2006. The first track on the album is just short of mind-blowing and bleeds right into the next track. I wasn't expecting the singer to creep up like that, ever so quietly as I was minding my business enjoying the afterglow of Altered Beast. But it wasn't completely unwelcomed (unlike some bands...*cough*Callisto*cough*), and, in fact, has since grown on me, but I still think it may be a slight weak point. But taken another way, his unique voice is a selling point and is augmented by the awesome cacophony of post rock. It approaches bands like Pure Reason Revolution, but still sticks close to its hard-rock roots. It may sound a little crazy, but for me, this is good reading music. Long, flowing songs, not too distracting, and loud enough to drown out people who are inadvertantly trying to get my attention (the sad part is, he never even realizes it). By the way, apparently, like last week's band, this group isn't well known enough so that people post their full songs on the Internet, so you'll have to settle for sub-par recordings and live versions. Sorry. I guess if I weren't so lazy and afraid of the big, bad copyright police, I'd post them myself. And if you happen to be high, watch the video for A Hundred Times in Every Direction.

Supersystem - 2006 - A Million Microphones

2010-08-11T15:13:00.001-06:00

Discovery tool: Radio UTD
Sounds like Friendly Fires, Q and Not U, Shy Child
Recommended for Andrea
Web site

Formerly named El Guapo, this band pumped out some of the catchiest, yet simplest dance tunes of the mid 00s. Yet they broke up shortly after this album, an album which took me many long years before I finally got my digital hands on it - both occurrences sad (their breakup and my lack of acquisition), but they each have happy outcomes, even if the first is not so obvious. Finding this album took a great weight off my countenance, and I'm sure others noticed it. After the great Supersystem, the members split to travel down their own musical paths. Two members formed Shy Child, a similar band with greats such as Murder Capital and their awesome new album, Liquid Love, which I will review in due time, one joined the band Antelope, and one founded an experimental metal band with another named Orthrelm. A Million Microphones is very consistent when it comes to producing great music. I think their secret is their strong dance beat, lots of electronics, and their repeating choral cadence which makes it loads of fun to sing along to. And if you're at all pleased with this album, be sure to check out their previous album, Always Never Again, for such super great songs as Defcon and Born Into the World.

I couldn't find many songs by them through my normal tool, but you can listen to clips from each track on the album here. Make sure you at least check out White Light, White Light and Not the Concept.

Vampire Weekend - 2010 - Contra

2010-08-04T13:39:00.000-06:00

Album: Contra, 2010
Discovery tool: Andréa, Dan
Sounds like The National, MGMT, Tokyo Police Club
Web site

If you listen to as much "indie" music as I do, you can start to hear that many bands from geographically proximal areas sound similar to each other. Obviously, this isn't the case everywhere. For example, many of the bands from Texas, such as The Mars Volta, Erykah Badu and Willie Nelson, sound almost nothing alike, but then again, there's that heaving blob of cesspool muck some people call country music (if you can call it that) genre that has forever scarred the image of Texas culture. But Vampire Weekend I associate with Boston and the East coast of the U.S. probably because of the song on their first album entitled Boston. On this album, however, they have California English and one called Horchata so now I'm starting to associate them with southern California. Ah! Quit messing with my associations! They're mine! Nice marketing scheme, though, even if it only works on messed up people such as me. They also have the attitude of trendy, hipster, Ivy League punks who want us to see them as different from generations past, yet they still cling to their capitalist, money-grubbing inheritance ways (total speculation not based on any evidence). That's not to say their music isn't good. It's very catchy and is on the forefront of today's pop music scene using a rock base (guitars and drums) emblazoned with electronics and synthesized sounds. They even try out the Auto-Tune vocoder effects revived by T-Pain. But overall, I think they're trying to bring back the surf rock of old. Dick Dale would be proud, where ever that crazy septegenarian is.

The Dø - 2008 - A Mouthful

2010-07-29T03:26:00.002-06:00

Album: A Mouthful, 2008
Discovery tool: YouTube
Web site

By now you should probably expect my consistent and incessant ranting about female vocals. At the risk of being blasphemous, there's something about her voice that reminds me of Conor Oberst, especially how she stresses certain phrases. Her voice is just so real, so raw; I can imagine her singing right in front of me. Perhaps one day she will be while traveling on her way back to Finland. It's so nice living so close to so many musicians. And speaking of Finland, they have a song in Finnish that actually sounds good. That's not too impressive compared to the only other Finnish songs I've heard which were beleaguered, out-of-tune karaoke tunes sung on a cruise ship by overdrunk undesireables. And just because I compare her to Conor, doesn't mean all their songs are sappy and emotional; most of them are filled jolity and good ol-fashioned fun. I can only wait for a new album, but until then I have these catchy melodies to keep me company.

Stuck in the Sound - 2009 - Shoegazing Kids

2010-07-21T00:06:00.000-06:00

Discovery tool: Guitar Hero?
Sounds like Cut Off Your Hands, Shout Out Louds, The Rapture, The Sleepy Jackson
Web site

Despite the fact that the members of the band came together through a common love of the band Nirvana (blegh!) and that this was their third album, I'm still enthralled with their rock sound and high-pitched voices. It's their raw fusion of power rock and indie music that I see potential in. If they just continue to refine their music, hone their talent, they should become a spectacular band. That's not to say this album sucks, because it doesn't; it's very thematically succint and the male falsetto is always something to enjoy. Some of the songs sound like late 80s or early 90s with some power rock. And speaking of power rock, I love the mood of What !? and Dirty Waterfalls and how they fade into one other. Too bad I can't find a good clip of it on the Internet; All I find are slowed down, live versions that just suck so hard. Well if they're not going to build off that, I may have to steal it at some point when I finally start that band of mine. They also have a track on Guitar Hero World Tour, Toy Boy, which sounds much more upbeat and light-hearted than what's on this album. Something tells me this band won't be fulfilling my expectations any time soon.

Beach House - 2010 - Teen Dream

2010-07-14T04:32:00.002-06:00

Discovery tool: Andréa
Sounds like Deerhunter, Grizzly Bear, MGMT
Web site

My roommate was looking up words in Swedish from a show he was watching - how amateur. That's what I did before even arriving in Sweden. Sure it helped, but not as much as getting some good, ol', sea, hub, echo, real conversational experience. In Swedish? Nah, in English. I'm lacking in that department. It's never gone that well. Every time I open my mouth, it's like, uh, bee chaos shooting forth at whoever happened to be around. Not the prettiest sight, but neither is your face with that cab-shoe hue or ...Uh oh, be a sec...

Beach House is mellow indie stuff. Its mood kind of describes my social ineptivity. In a good way? Maybe. Are you tired of my disjointed, all-over-the-place writing? Me too. Good night.

By the way, did you see what I did där? I used the effort I usually muster to write these (which isn't much) in a completely different way that really doesn't add any value. Bon appétit! (I have no idea what I did there; if you figure it out, let me know.)

Sohodolls - 2007 - Ribbed Music for the Numb Generation

2010-07-07T01:10:00.001-06:00

Discovery tool: Yahoo! LAUNCHcast
Sounds like Garbage, Ladytron, Pussycat Dolls
Web site

Despite that it was probably manufactured for mass consumption with an overarching theme of promiscuity and whoredom and a surprising amount of analogies between women and food, I still like it. But maybe others caught on and spurned it on principle thinking, if they're going to engineer music just to exploit kids like us for monetary gain, I will silently refuse. And I haven't heard much about their future plans because I bet those scientists realized how overt they were in this experiment and moved on to another band to try a new formula. Just think about how much good those scientists could be doing if they weren't using their power for evil, like promoting good bands, not just the sex-crazed ones. That isn't to say don't listen to their music, just don't think too hard about them unless, you know, that's your thing.

The Ruby Suns - 2010 - Fight Softly

2010-06-30T14:45:00.000-06:00

Discovery tool: Dan
Sounds like Animal Collective, Vampire Weekend
Recommended for Andréa
http://www.therubysuns.com/

An intern handed me a copy of The Ruby Suns' new album, Fight Softly, and I tossed it on my desk along with the rest of the new music I was supposed to process, listen to, and review, but it sat there, glaring at me, begging me to listen. At last, I could no longer resist its cajoling, so I queued it up expecting to hear another band showing off their cool, new, electronic, 80s sound or promising deep, introspective lyrics but what I got was different. It started with electronics, of course, but it evolved into something much more. A soundscape, if you will, of a distant world, yet at the same time, it retains its earthly connections through primal beats and tribal anthems. If Pink Floyd was the acid trip music of the 70s, this is the stuff of the two thousand teens, but people have yet to discover it, and we're cooler than drugs nowadays, right?

Soon enough, I found myself at a free concert of theirs fashionably hiding my giddiness because the hipsters -- oh gosh, not the hipsters again -- were out in full force, searching for their next obsession. They're so judgmental. I felt nervous for the band, hoping that the kids who just came to get drunk wouldn't throw their glasses (both those filled with alcohol and those of the black-rimmed variety) in disgust. Slowly, after a couple songs, the crowd seemed to get into the music. No full-on dance party, though, but I believe we all left with a new sense of what music can be.

P.S. I haven't shown up to the office in a while. I wonder if I still work there.

Aberfeldy - 2006 - Do Whatever Turns You On

2010-06-23T16:05:00.000-06:00

Album: Do Whatever Turns You On, 2006
Discovery tool: Radio UTD?
Sounds like Eskobar, Ted Leo and the Pharmacists
Recommended for Amber
Aberfeldy site

I always learn something new writing these reviews. For instance, it never even occurred to me that this band was from Scotland even though the name is obviously evident of that. Learning about bands reminds me that these are people, too, and they don't deserve to be exploited just for their talent and as sex symbols unless, of course, that's what they're going for, and then they're just exploiting themselves. But I don't think that's the case with these guys, at least not yet. They haven't really hit it big, but I think that they may with a new album which I can just feel trying break loose. They just need to get their act together, make a proper Web site, and keep writing these bright, catchy tunes. What I think really makes them good is that they have a solid light rock base and they include little electronic sounds and the occasional female voice. It's almost magical, like the little fairy sprites lingering in an ancient forest, though certainly not as gay as that may sound. But the important part is that they keep doing what they're doing, just do more of it.

Sian Alice Group - 2009 - Troubled, Shaken, Etc.

2010-06-17T04:20:00.002-06:00

Discovery tool: Vice Magazine
Sounds like Denali, Pure Reason Revolution, The Most Serene Republic
Sian Alice Group site

I'm drawn to bands that stray from the bathetic, overdone rock guitar music. It seems like producers nowadays pick up random kids from the street who only know how to play basic chords and they don't even care if they can sing. Seriously, do they even listen to the music before they put them on the radio? Anyway, if you couldn't tell, Sian Alice Group is different from the music we're usually subjected to in the commercial world of radio and shopping malls. It's more akin to the classical music of old if Mozart grew up playing with guitars and synthesizers. Well, maybe it's not that epic, but it's still very melodic and well composed with flowing letups and poignant apogees and let's not forget the female singer. The entire album is like a symphony for the modern age. It's a shame not more people appreciate this kind of music because I believe that if they really listened to it and made the effort to enjoy music, they would love this band's unique sound.

P.S. The Dusk Line is not from this album, but I couldn't find any other quality samples, so here ya go.

6 Day Riot - 2009 - Have a Plan

2010-06-09T10:52:00.002-06:00

Album: Have a Plan, 2009
Sounds like All Girl Summer Fun Band, Fight Like Apes, The Brunettes, The Ditty Bops
Recommended for Amber
http://www.6dayriot.co.uk/

Not only does this band have a perky female singer, it has catchy tunes that are apt to get stuck in your head until you trepan them out (Warning: Please have adult supervision when trepanning at home). But why would you want to bore out these songs? They're specifically engineered to make one happy. I think it was Jesus who said something along the lines of keep a song in your heart for when I send upon you misfortune, it's gonna hit hard. What's even more impressive, at least from my perspective of electronic music inundation, they create this sound without the use of fancy equipment, just the standard guitar, bass and drums with the occasional ukelele. And could somebody please tell me if this song, Breakdown, is a cover of another song? It just sounds so darn familiar and I can't place my nose on it. They also just released a new single on June 7, All I Need, coincidentally on the same day I checked their site. They must've been waiting for me.

Game review: Beat it down

2010-06-05T18:07:00.001-06:00

Time for another of my cynical reviews of something I found on the Internet. This time it's a flash game that melds together the concepts of Galaga and DDR (or Dance Dance Revolution if you never knew what the acronym stood for). The game, hosted on New Grounds, is a production of MadSpiritZone who also makes other flash games of similar quality and function. However, while the concept is great, the game fails to deliver except to those that are willing to sit through its many bugs and ambiguous instructions.

The premise of Beat it down, as described by the game is, as an emo kid, "resist to all that happy techno beat that is getting into your brain." So English may not be this guy's first language; maybe it was intentional to add to the 'character' of the game. That's fine, but after reading the instructions, I just don't understand what I'm supposed to do. So I try the game anyway.

The first level is pretty simple; I just move my gun and shoot the notes before they hit my 'brain.' It's a good introduction to the game as the notes are slow and only appear from one side, and you get to see what all the power-ups do. But then the second level pounces on you like a 40-something divorcée with the introduction of faster eighth notes and two-hit, linked eighth notes. It takes a couple tries, but I finally got past that level only to find myself bombarded from both sides with the addition of fast, two-hit sixteenth notes.

I just don't have the fortitude to keep trying when I know I'm just going to lose so badly. I suppose the game's name, Beat it down, not only attempts to be punny, but also describes what it intends to do to the players that challenge it. Getting beat is just not that fun and there are plenty of other things to waste my time on. But if you manage to press on, get lucky enough to purchase all the power-ups before the notes ram you into the ground, you may have a chance at maintaining your sanity to make it through the five, fretful levels.

It might sound like I'm complaining about little things, and I am, but that's what really makes or breaks a game for the casual gamer. Frustrating things like a steep learning curve and a bug like not being able to zap a note if it gets too close turns me off. And I think it's the same in most things you do whether that's writing a paper or putting together a concert. However, attention to details is the same as the difference between getting a B and an A on a school assignment; it's still the same assignment, but one has a little more polishing on the presentation. In the end, it all comes down to the person and how much they let these little things influence their judgment. But if you're looking to make a good impression on as many people as you can, details count.

Bowerbirds - 2009 - Upper Air

2010-06-01T19:48:00.002-06:00

Album: Upper Air, 2009
Discovery tool: Andréa
Sounds like Andrew Bird, Beirut, City and Colour, Grizzly Bear, Lionel Ritchie, Seabear, The Mountain Goats
http://www.bowerbirds.org/

Bowerbirds have been pretty hit and miss with me, so when Andréa asked me to join her and her friends to their show, I was a little hesitant but still open-minded enough to accept. Not too many people were there (except for that dancing girl from the Pattern is Movement show) so we got up real close as they played a very intimate show for us. Their female singer (the primary singer is male), Beth Tacular, played accordion, keyboard, and drums. While not all at the same time, it was still impressive. Maybe she's the one for me. I should probably be keeping track of all these so when I'm not so lazy, I can actively search for them or possibly train my women in these Beth-Tacular ways. Names I can easily use as adjectives are the best. Their music evokes a feeling of traditional living, going back to the basics, living off the land. I guess that's what folk music is supposed to do: document, proclaim and connect with the human condition. They manipulate their colloquial lexicon on a level I one day hope to achieve by listening to, studying and loving their music.

My Eurovision Blog

2010-05-29T16:24:00.002-06:00

After Sweden's terrible pick at Melodifestivalen, the country's nomination process for the Europe-wide music contest, I was disenchanted with the whole thing. It followed no discernable logic whatsoever. So I just forgot about it until my friend friend told me that Sweden didn't make it to the Eurovision final. I celebrated silently in my head and said a "Told you so," to the voting population of Sweden.

This reignited me attention, for I did not even realize the contest was going on, so I sat and watched every entry, whether it made the final or not, no matter how painful, and give my judgements. Of course, if you're following the Jesus guideline of judgements, my evaluations are worthless for I make hardly any music myself, and it is hardly flawless (but who's to say what's flawless or not?).

After watching and carefully listening to each song, I've narrowed it down to my top three and an honorable mention. Many of the songs, I couldn't even get through; they were that terrible, but that's expected of Eurovision. Why people like the terrible songs, I may never find out, but I did read once that most pop music is engineered at the same tempo as a human heart beat, and from there it's just down to the musician's or band's personality. Who knows?

The honorable mention goes to Serbia with Milan Stankovic singing something about being Balkan. First, I like the hypnotic brass section instead of the hypnotic eurotechno, and the syncopation brings an extra element. However, the voice modulation is kind of lame, and so is the dude's haircut. I don't know what Justin Bieber sounds like, but he kind of looks similar...but from Serbia.

Lithuania's InCulto has a strong song. It's very upbeat, the cadance of the voice during the verses is quite varied, which I like, and again, there's a fun brass section. The lead singer also looks strangely like Howie Mandel, and I wouldn't be surprised if he "disguised" himself as an Eastern European singer. Seriously, where has he been recently? But alas, his voice needs a little work.

In a close second, I pick Germany. Okay, so it's very pop-engineered, but at least it's not that terrible, terrible techno. Even though she sings in English, and a lot of Germans aren't very keen on that, I like the way she pronounces the words, but of course, I'm not listening to the lyrics which I suspect are quite repetitive and senseless. But the words have a good rhythm, especially during the verses. And while she tries to dance like a party girl, trying to be hot and such, she's no Alizee.

My favorite was Malcolm Lincoln representing Estonia. It's atypical of Eurovision, but a great, somber song. I've heard him compared to Depeche Mode, but I've also read that while most of the other songs of Eurovision are reminiscent of 10-20 years ago, his is the only one representative of the twenty-first century. So which is it, critics? Either way, I think his song is one I'll actually integrate into my daily music selection.

As further evidence that my music tastes are different from the rest of the world, Estonia and Lithuania didn't even make it to the final; they're on the same level as Sweden's terrible entry (I still haven't made it all the way through the song). While Estonia's was an enjoyable song, it's just not as enjoyable as the others live, and I'm still not sure why Lithuania didn't make it.

The overall winner was surprisingly and overwelmingly Germany. The fact that Europe's music taste and mine converged at this one point is both refreshing and confusing. But I take this news with caution and hope. Caution because it may not happen for a long time and hope that it may happen again soon. I like to cover all my bases.

The Helio Sequence - 2008 - Keep Your Eyes Ahead

2010-05-25T17:10:00.002-06:00

Album: Keep Your Eyes Ahead, 2008
Sounds like Q and Not U, The National
http://www.subpop.com/bio/the_helio_sequence

I had heard of this band long ago, noted their ingenuity and catchy, lofty melodies and filed them away into my normal music rotation on my computer until I received my new phone. In order to show off it's mp3-playing magic, it included several free tracks - some great, others not so great. One of them was from The Helio Sequence, but I had not heard it before. There was an album of theirs out there I didn't already have? Blasphemy. But sure enough I found it and loved it. What I think makes it so great is the almost space-sounding reverbing guitar and the different piano effects. They even sample a sound effect from one of the Mario games, I believe. All of this melds together to create a surreal chillout mood reminiscent of the rock bands of the '80s (probably not the ones you're thinking of). However, I think I prefer the older albums overall maybe because they had a more electronic and varied sound or maybe because I heard them first. But this album is still good if only for its calming effect.

Physics-based superheroes, plz?

2010-05-23T05:48:00.001-06:00

Do you dread the day your children ask you why Superman flies and you have a choice between the simple answer, "He just does," and the complicated answer: "Superman is an alien from the planet Krypton, and the radiation from our sun gives him super powers." Still, it doesn't provide a clear explanation, and said kid may ponder such dreaded questions that you knew your child would ask sooner or later but you're never quite prepared for as "Where do aliens come from?"

So instead of making up clever, but misleading answers, why don't designers create superheroes that obey the laws of physics. Yes, it's possible. Just picture this: A superhero who freezes things by absorbing their heat. His body temperature is very hot for brief periods of time, so he has to disperse all that pent-up heat in energy blasts. Alright, so that's pushing it a little, but I'm sure if those designers paid more attention to physics, they could still create superheroes (and villains) that actually have a realistic chance of existing. That's why Batman and Iron Man are so popular. (picture source)

Maybe if they're clever enough, they could even use superheroes to teach physics to their audience. It'll be another major win for parents as they'll have one less thing to worry about explaining to their kids, and we all know, the less you have to communicate with your kids, the more time you have to rebuild that life you once had. Just kidding; kids are great. You should get some.

IO Echo - 2009 - +++

2010-05-18T17:31:00.000-06:00

Discovery tool: Spring Palm Pre commerical
Sounds like The Long Blondes, Von Iva
http://www.io-echo.com/

When I heard the commercial, I loved Doorway, and I wish I had a cut of the song just as it was on the television. I was enchanted with how they mashed the different qualities of different media together, especially her raw voice. If only I could switch between them as the commercial led me to believe. Such a tease. The sound of IO Echo exploits the use of a moderately-fast rock tempo, heavy, gritty bass grooves, and the always-enlightening vocals of the female. Oh, and did I mention I love the nerdy computing command reference in their name? However, I'm a little weary with some of their songs; I'm a little afraid they're too slow or too classic rock for me. We'll just have to wait and see how I'm feeling about them when their full album comes out, if it comes out. I haven't seen much advertising of them other than that Sprint commercial and they don't even have a Wikipedia. I guess we'll see if they manage to work through those early band stages and build a respectable fan base.

Camels, Kayaks and The Ruby Suns

2010-05-16T16:50:00.000-06:00

What do camels, kayaks and The Ruby Suns, a band from New Zealand, have in common? At first glance, nothing, but let's examine them further.

First, kayaks. The first kayaks date back to at least 4,000 years ago in the Arctic. The Inuit used them for hunting and traveling, and it's still the preferred method of sea travel for many tribes. The Inuit are masters of kayaking and have perfected many skills such as harpooning and the awesome technique of righting a capsized kayak, a move we so unintentionally pejoratively call the Eskimo Roll. Time has seen use of the kayak spread across the world used for recreation, sporting and the British military even used them in World War II. In the world of Olympic kayak racing, the United States isn't exactly a strong competitor, but in 1988, one man, Greg Barton, won two gold medals at age 28; I've still got time.

Second, camels. The two surviving species of camel have been the workhorse of many cultures throughout the ages; in fact, the earliest domestication of these lumbering animals dates back around 4,000 to 6,000 years ago. Like kayaks, people not only use them to race (with robots instead of child slaves) but also to perform difficult tasks that would otherwise be labor intensive or dangerous. In Australia, they used teams of camels to pull houses -- I'm sure there's a good reason, but I forgot why. In nineteenth century United States, the Army experimented with a camel corps used for various purposes like scouting rough, dry terrain, exploiting the camels for their innate ability to go long stretches without water. It's also rumored the army used the camel corps to force native americans from Florida (Camels in Florida? Really?). But ultimately the camel corps didn't prove as useful as initial projections suggested, and they fired the analyst who came up with the projections and sold off their stock, although some escaped into the wild where they lived in peace and harmony with the bears and deer. The last reported sighting of a wild camel in the United States was in 1972, just north of Los Angeles.

And just to add a bit of trivia, scientists believe that ancestors of modern camels evolved in the Southwest United States (they weren't states back then) and spread to Asia, but the darn Clovis culture had to butcher all the North American megafauna including the camelops and the mastodon. Someone should put a stop to them once and for all. To make matters worse, the bactrian (two-humped) species of camel is currently critically endangered; less than 1,000 roam the wild these days. If I had money, I would buy some land and start breeding back the population. I'd also find a way to bring back the camelops and the mastodon and reintroduce them to North America. That'll show those pesky suburbs.

Third, The Ruby Suns. The Third album from The Ruby Suns really captured my attention (you'll hear more about that later). The band is from New Zealand which apart from it's thriving music, I associate with lots of birds, sheep, British colonizers and the Maori. The British colonized in the 1700s while the Maori migrated in canoes from nearby Polynesian islands in the 1200s. Historians note the Maori as a very warlike culture, instances of cannibalism, face tattoos, and very strict rules of cordiality (i.e., if someone threw your tribe a dinner, you had to reply with an even bigger dinner). Nowadays, while being the largest minority group in the commonwealth state, they have considerable autonomy and influence on state politics, but the ruling British majority still managed to rein in their war games.

Anyway, as you can see, I've been absorbing too much Wikipedia, and if you're still with me after reading this book report (it's just practice/procrastination for my literature review I have to do for school), then what can we conclude from this information. Obviously, kayaks are great for burgeoning cultures, and so are camels, but not many peoples have combined the two and reaped the inevitable benefits. The kayaks and canoes brought the Maori to the islands, and their warring ways have somewhat preserved their status in today's British-dominated society, but it's time that the Maori emblazon their power and eminence on the backs of hulking camels. No one messes with a man on a camel carrying a kayak. It's so simple. Why hasn't anyone tried it before?

The Main Drag - 2007 - Yours as Fast as Mine

2010-05-12T13:58:00.001-06:00

Discovery tool: Rock Band 2
Sounds like Straylight Run, Texas is the Reason
http://www.themaindrag.com/

For me, The Main Drag is a throwback to the emo bands of yore, you know, the original emo bands, when all that meant was a music genre instead of whatever it's morphed into today with it's fashion style, punk rock music, and vast emo and anti-emo cult followings. If you want to know what emo really is, the roots of it all, pick up a history book for once and read for yourself. I really just can't stand all those uninformed people that hate kids who superficially call themselves emo without an erudite basis for their aspersion. Of course, emo never really was a music genre in the first place. Anyway, about The Main Drag, I think what I like about them most is how authentic their music sounds, like it has some real feeling behind it. The down-tempo guitar riffs certainly help as do the lead singer's soft, soothing voice. However, not all tracks are like that; some are a little faster, with some vocal interplay, mixed in with some electronics as well. I'm sure if I listened to the lyrics, they'd be highly intelligent and even inspiring. Perhaps one day I will, but for now I will sit and enjoy the simple ambiance and maybe write a little poetry about straightening my hair.

P.S. Rumor has it The Main Drag has a new album out. If you like this one, you should have the decency to taste the rest of their stuff.

The Methuselah Project

2010-05-09T05:04:00.001-06:00

My friend and I went through a period of watching lots of movies, and after a while, we started to notice something very strange, something common in each of these movies. We would be deep into a film and all of a sudden we see this guy that we knew we had seen before, but it was only very briefly, short enough to make us turn our heads toward one another and say, "Did you see that, too?" He would be an older man with a long, ZZ Top-like beard. It wasn't the same guy in each film, and it was usually just an extra, but the motif was there, and he kept haunting us. We didn't know what it meant.

This was a while ago, and now I want to bring awareness to this phenomenon. Surely, there can't be one in every film, but we saw them in lots of movies. Fight Club, Frida, he's in there, but what I'd like to know is how many other movies have creepy, long-bearded extras. Someone (not me) should make a Web site about this, collecting the sightings of people all over the world. Through extensive research we can begin to posit hypotheses about his appearance in so many movies.

You might be thinking, as I am, there should be more long-bearded men as extras in movies at least to correspond with actual demographics and proportions of long-bearded to not-so-long-bearded extras. The Web site can also research that. Maybe there needs to be a bearded actors guild that negotiates with producers and directors to include a certain proportion of bearded extras per film.

And I don't believe movies like Lord of the Rings, Castaway, or The Kite Runner in which the main character has a long beard don't really count. We're just looking at extras here.

And if you're looking for something, you tend to find it everywhere, you say? Yeah, probably. But this is important, like making poop into food. Trust me, it's a messy process, but the result is totally worth suppressing your gag reflex to eat it.

Maskinen - 2009 - Boys II Men

2010-05-04T16:40:00.002-06:00

Discovery tool: Edessa
Does not sound like Boyz II Men
Recommended for the U.S.
http://maskinen.net/

Let's have a little Swedish lesson: "Alla som inte dansar är våldtäktsmän" means in English "All who don't dance are rapists". This was one of those phrases they teach you to listen for if you ever find yourself in a club, not dancing, with everybody slowly inching away from you. There's a good chance that this song is playing and everyone is now suspicious of you. Luckily this hasn't happened to me yet, but I'm still on high alert. However, this fast-talking, hip hop isn't the best to learn Swedish from, but it's a good check to see how you're coming along as you gauge how many words you recognize. But just think about how difficult it is to discern lyrics in English hip hop and multiply that for every week you haven't been in Sweden and your head may just explode. The good part is that you don't need to know what they're saying to enjoy listening to their music. If you inevitably start going to clubs, friends' parties, and anywhere else, really, you'll realize that much of the electro music is very similar to this minus the vocals, though I'm not sure if it's because of them or they were influenced by the club music. However, it's a good indication since one of their members is part of one of the scene-shaping music club groups that play at all the venues around town. He's taken that electronic sound and placed it in a hip hop setting with the result being dance music for all (except rapists). By the way, the name of the band is not pronounced like it would be in English, but it translates to "the machine".

2010-05-02T08:05:00.000-06:00

Do you think that if we weren't living in a money-based society that we'd root out all the musicians making music just for the fame and fortune? Do you think we'd finally be rid of the likes of Creed and Nickelback? Or do they actually believe that they make good music and will continue to do so? And who are these "fans"? Do they exist naturally in the wild or are they bought off and domesticated? Do we expend too much energy fighting these forces of epic fail for the greater good? Is their existence necessary as an example of what not to do? How do we stop them and prevent other terrible groups from taking their place?

I'm supposed to be reading for class, but it's way too uninteresting. All these papers I read are just putting a name to something I already know. I have a feeling that it will be like this for quite some time.

YACHT - 2009 - See Mystery Lights

2010-04-28T03:13:00.002-06:00

Discovery tool: The Blow
Sounds like Dan Deacon, Supersystem, The Blow
http://www.teamyacht.com/

Many may know Jona Bechtolt from his short stint comprising one-half of The Blow, and it'd be unfair to call this a side project. This is him, his main project, and simply put, YACHT is fun. He's been releasing albums under this name since 2003 and for this latest album, he's indoctrinated Claire L. Evans as a member who provides many of the vocals with Jona often in a supporting role. But Jona doesn't let his track record of simple, catchy dance beats falter. It sounds akin to techno with all of its repeating phrases and lyrics changing ever so slightly through the song, but it retains an indie rock feel with its mostly drum and bass base. If you don't like techno, don't let that put you off because there's enough variation here to keep you from going insane, though I must advise you, as your physician, that extreme prolonged exposure may cause spontaneous dance fits usually without any warning. You shouldn't have to worry unless you're listening to them all the time, however, I must emphasize the importance of getting a good, healthy variety in your musical diet. Don't be afraid of polka once in a while.

P.S. Check out the video on this Summer Song clip (click in the box in the top left of the player).

2010-04-25T16:18:00.004-06:00

It's amazing to see what people will do when encountering a disturbance in their personal space. I'm moving, and I took my blender back a week before just to see if people would be missing it. Yeah, it's a jerky move, but that's what Americans are, am I right? Am I right?

I was eating in our shared kitchen, shared between at least 15 people, with one other girl cooking her lunch for the next day, when the guy that primarily uses the blender comes in to check on his slow-cooking food. He starts complaining to the girl about how irritated he got today when he found the "mixer" missing. He connected this straightaway to the apparent food thefts, saying that he's almost sure it was the same person that stole the blender that steals the food.

They threw out a couple ideas about why someone would steal the blender - maybe they needed to sell it for cash, maybe it was a friend of someone's who took it with them after a visit - but whatever it was, the guy doesn't trust the people in the corridor anymore. Now he locks his door even to go to the kitchen. He took his toaster from the kitchen and put it in his room for fear of it being stolen as well.

The girl sympathized and lamented how terrible this situation is and recounted her own experience when money from the community kitchen cleaning fund disappeared. "Do people even notice this picture on the fridge?" It was a chart on a piece of paper of who contribute to the fund each month, but I'll forgive her because she's not a native English speaker.

Then they finally made an accusation. They were both thinking it was the same person, or rather, pair of people. They mentioned some of the other problems they had with these girls, associating them with the dirtiness of the kitchen and how the tables are always disarranged.

Finally they started theorizing solutions to this epidemic, but that didn't get very far so they started reiterating the problems in different ways. The guy left and his wife came in, so her and the girl started recanting these same issues. It started to get boring and annoying that they didn't even ask me, but I realized a couple things.

First, some people, like this guy, will make erroneous connections without any evidence as was the case in assuming the same people who steal food from him stole the blender from the kitchen. Second, this event, the "stealing" of the "mixer", seemed to trigger a little bit of community bondage as this guy, his wife, and this girl discussed the problem and attempted to figure out how to solve it. Some real change happened, too, although it was probably in the negative direction. The guy locks his door now, keeps his toaster in his room and trusts no one, but at least there's the imperative to change. How long this lasts and what comes out of it, only time will tell.

And if these people were more observant, they would have noticed that one of these accused girls left her mp3 player in the kitchen for an entire day now. They've been in the kitchen since then so either they haven't noticed it or they trusts the rest of us not to steal it.

I wonder how things will unfold through my last week. Will they confront the girls and ask them if they stole the blender? How far will they go to find the missing appliances? Will Jimmy Kimmel ever have time for Matt Damon? What new adventures await me in the next corridor? Find out this and more on the next installment of "Who stole the cookies from the cookie jar?" See you next time, folks.

UPDATE: Apparently it's not even this guy's toaster to begin with; my roommate found it in the garbage and put it in the kitchen, but he doesn't really care. We've got back-up toasters out the wazoo. And these girls apparently don't care about leaving their digital-music player in the kitchen because it's still there and they were playing with it again. It's all this one guy who's getting upset. Looks like his tizzy won't last long unless I do something about it. But what?

And he wrote this funny note, but I didn't have the heart to leave it up. It was just too rude. Be more subtle, dude.

2010-04-22T01:23:00.000-06:00

Kettel

Album: Through Friendly Waters, 2005
Discovery tool: Jenan
Sounds like Amon Tobin, Aphex Twin, Apparat, William Orbit

Ah, now this is some good, lyricless, study music. Apparently it's also part of the IDM, or intelligent dance music, movement which I'm still not sure why it's called intelligent. Perhaps when you listen to it, it also listens to you. Maybe that'll be the case in the future when real intelligent music finally emerges, but until then, I'm placated by these glitchy beats and lofty melodies. However, it's not really the kind of music I would think to go see a performance of; it's more of a personal experience that I enjoy in the confines of my own home reading things like Scaling Urban Environmental Challenges. It helps to make it a little less boring and redundant. Why are books so darn redundant? Why don't we yet have intelligent books yet? But I can definitely see why people would go see Kettel live considering it's very chill music and easy to dance to. I guess it creates a friendly atmosphere for meeting people or something like that? Total speculation, but in researching Kettel, I learned he toured with The Flashbulb who has a cover of an April March song, Chick Habit, which is really fast, hard and dirty if you're into that. But this isn't about The Flashbulb; it's about Kettel. Go listen to his music, but try not to fall into a blissful sleep.

2010-04-18T04:35:00.000-06:00

Have you heard of this hotforwords character? Sick, right? She takes advantage of men by appealing to their inherent yearning for lexicological stimulation. You can look at it a couple different ways. From the male perspective, this she-devil is using her ...brains to woo us into submission, and that's just not fair. It's only the most resistent of us that can look away for half a second to analyze this as objectively as a man charmed by a siren's song can. You could also say that she's giving women a bad name and playing into the traditional stereotype of temptress, being a woman who uses her ...intellect to influence others. And you could even make the case that she probably has help making all these videos and maintaining her Web site, and could possibly be directed or exploited by someone to make a profit *cough*GoDaddy*cough*. But that's just speculation. I believe she started on her own and people offered to help her out with a Web site and all that other stuff.

The sad part is that I remember learning so many of these words she talks about in high school. I hope this isn't the only thing that will get kids to pay attention in class, though they probably can't stop staring at her rack and forget everything she says.

Many of her other videos (I didn't watch that many) have quite dubious conclusions. For example, in her origins of Valentine's day video, she gives three possible inspirations for the holiday then triumphantly declares, there, I solved the mystery. Coroners don't give three possible causes of death for one individual and leave it at that. Well, I'm nit-picking.

I'd like to see how popular a rival channel would do if the host were not a cleavage-taunting coquette with a seductive, Eastern European accent. Maybe this is where I find my niche. I could focus on numbers and different number tricks and crazy number knowledge without sinking so low as to posture every five seconds to make the girls curdle. However, there's already an unrelated hotfornumbers channel, and a Web site of the same name that does some crazy stuff with words and their number values (i.e., T+E+X+A+S == M+E+X+I+C+O). If I got famous doing this, everyone would just compare me to her. And did I mention that I'm lazy? I don't have the time to keep all this up, but maybe once I've graduated and still haven't found a job, I can take this up.

2010-04-13T17:25:00.000-06:00

Eskobar

Album: Death in Athens, 2008
Discovery tool: The Erica in Sweden
Sounds like Kent, Salem Al Fakir, U2
Recommended for Nalani

Despite having a name that makes you salivate, or maybe because of, Eskobar shines like the sun through a cloudy day, and believe me, we have more of those days than any other in Stockholm. But I've heard murmurs of dislike, and I'm not sure why. Their lead singer is good looking with his moldable, Play-Doh mouth, and their sound is solid and varied. Maybe it's a little too commercial pop for some people or maybe it's too much indie rock or maybe it's just in between and people are confused by it. To this I say, don't be afraid, give it a chance and evaluate it without trying to categorize it. And that goes for all music you listen to. What I like about them is that they have a refreshing sound of slightly familiar tunes, and I don't detect too much of that subtle, Swedish pronunciation in his soft, soothing voice. Maybe I'm just hypnotized by his pretty eyes. It wouldn't be the first time. I just long to bump into him on a dark, Stockholm alley.

2010-04-11T06:46:00.002-06:00

If you've ever seen the documentary The Corporation, you're probably aware of the argument that corporations are becoming more like people, legally speaking. Corporations can bring law suits, contribute to political campaigns, and they have very questionable ethics all in the interest of maximizing profits. No matter if you believe their argument, I am beginning to see the same trend, although considerably less maleficent, when it comes to Facebook groups.

Groups used to have their own page structure similar to how events look, but now they're very similar to profile pages, sometimes even indistinguishable if you're not paying attention. And because groups weren't that visible - you would only see updates and posts if you visited the page regularly - the Facebook team included their updates on everyone's individual feeds with the rest of their friends.

But what most groups lack that we integrate inherently into corporations is the imperative to make a profit. Groups are more for social connections; they don't quite have that precedent for malicious intent. But maybe they're an example of the power when people come together with similar interests without a monetary incentive. They could be a basis for research on what it takes to get people to support a non-profit platform and the potential for change they have. Think about all the organizations and projects that got started via social networking. Who knows? Maybe these could play an integral part of a resource-based economy as a coordinating force or some such. I don't know. This was just a random idea I had one sleepless night.

And on an almost completely unrelated note, I was thinking about how the environmental movement is very similar to drug enforcement. They're both criticized as being full of hot air, largely ineffective for the money that the government invests, and glamorized on television. Additionally, cops tend to target drug users, a practice widely criticized as being ineffective; drug dealers are still going to find other customers. This reminded me of the environmental movement; we, the consumers, are the drug users, taking what we can get from a regulated source, and the production companies and supermarkets peddling the goods are the dealers. The environmental movement cannot keep targeting the users when the dealers are all selling the same, unenvironmental, trashy products. So yeah, they need to change the industry, but how? That's their task to figure out. I have to sleep.

2010-04-07T05:57:00.002-06:00

Robots in Disguise

Album: We're in the Music Biz, 2008
Discovery tool: Edessa
Sounds like Le Tigre, The Long Blondes, Von Iva
Recommended for Rock Band

This band sounds like a combination between Flight of the Conchords and a British feminist rock group yet they are neither. Maybe that's not to their advantage, maybe you think it is, but either way, they're still fun to listen to. They've been featured on the British comedy show The Mighty Boosh and playing with them on their live tour. If you watch a little bit of the show, you get the feeling that it's random and strange like normal British comedies but also somehow charming which reminds me of Flight of the Conchords. Their sound is slightly electronic but mostly rock with shrill, shouting female voices which takes me back to the 90s sounds of feminist bands like Le Tigre, though their lyrical messages don't reflect the same tone. But none of that matters; these are just the connections I've made to things in my past. You'll have quite a different experience, I'm sure. However, if you have the same, please let me know so I can add you to my list of doppelgangers or as I like to call it, my list of people I must kill and absorb their power in order to become the most powerful in the universe.

Analogy time

2010-04-04T05:49:00.004-06:00

The secret lives of Ned Flanders and Edward Norton

2010-03-31T01:08:00.000-06:00

mc chris

Album: Part Six Part 3, 2009
Discovery tool: Aqua Teen Hunger Force, MC Pee Pants
Sounds like MC Pee Pants, Subtle

It's a short album but chock full of hilarity and swearing. Half of the tracks are "skits" or completely spoken word that advance the overall story of which this album is only a small part. From what I understand, he's an amateur rapping bounty hunter in the style of Boba Fett from Star Wars who's been sent to hell and has to fight his way out. He's definitely in touch with his audience and largely influenced by the Internet evident from how he references things like World of Warcraft and the Amazon Kindle in a somewhat sarcastic way. I'm sure some people are annoyed by his voice, but I think that unique, high-pitched flow is a great asset to his songs, and if you see an interview with him, it's a little strange to watch him talk like that normally. I hope it's not a result of the cystic fibrosis he's been suffering from, but I guess that would be a tragic irony, being successful from something that's killing him. I think what puts a smile on my face is that it reminds me of my own way of thinking, it references obscure things, and it's just so darn random.

2010-03-28T08:30:00.000-06:00

So I learned about a new visionary, and I couldn't help but see the similarities between him and Paolo Soleri, forerunner of the arcology concept. This new guy (technically, old guy) is a futurist named Jacque Fresco, and they were born only three years apart during World War I on different sides of the Earth but somehow arrived in similar situations. And while you might think being nonagenarians might slow them down, it probably has the opposite effect because they have so many ideas they want to develop before they leave.

Let's start with the obvious: Soleri has his Cosanti and Arcosanti in Arizona, prototypical experiments of what cities might look like in the future, and Fresco has his Venus Project in Florida. Heck, those projects were even started within a couple years of each other in the golden age of hippie environmental solutionism. But where they may differ is in their focus. Soleri's philosophy revolves around a miniturization, complexity, duration concept as the key to surviving and prospering in the future while Fresco focuses on using robotics and automation to eliminate the tedium of life's necessitiesand free humans to explore their full potential.

Soleri grew up primarily as an architect and fought his whole life to think of ingenius solutions to problems rather than filling the established model just to please his superiors. He worked under Frank Lloyd Wright, and if you've heard anything about that episode, you probably know they didn't have the tightest bond. But he pressed through that, landed various jobs, and through many forays into many subjects, landed where he is now. Now Fresco, being the man of science he is, began as a technician and engineer and invented his way through many different lines of work. From his numerous and varied experiences, it's no wonder he chose to focus on solving the world's problems through social engineering, as he terms it.

Watching Future by Design, a documentary about Fresco, I noticed a couple nuances in his thinking. He talks about how the monetary system we use inhibits technology and how we should be using a resource-based system, but he also muses upon how civilization really isn't civilization as it could be. Many people see civilization as an achievement one gets when they reach a certain status, but heck, just by calling it civilization and thinking that it's some static definition, inhibits the growth of technology and progress. Civilization is one of those things that we should constantly be striving for with a definition that is constantly evolving. What a tease.

But Soleri has a very similar concept in his document, not a monument rhetoric. People always bring up that mantra at the main project, Arcosanti, in that the plan as it is planned will never come to fruition because we should change it as we go along to adapt to changing circumstances. Additionally, there is no ending point, but a constant changing goal to strive for. And if you didn't follow that, I think they both just advocate that we should always be trying to improve and avoid being stagnant. These seem like pretty simple, common sense concepts when you think about them, but we don't always act that way in real life. It kind of goes against my belief that everything should have beginning, middle, and end, but yes, I know not everything is about me.

And one more interesting tid-bit about these old guys: Strangely, they both rely on relatively younger women. Fresco has Roxanne, described on Wikipedia as his "partner" whatever that means, and Soleri has Mary. It doesn't appear to be anything sexual, but maybe they just need someone around to do those things that you lose your ability to do when you're that old. They need the physical reprieve so they can maximize their mental output.

Being in such similar lines of work, I wonder if they've ever collaborated together or even met. Surely, they've heard of each other, but it'd be interesting to hear their opinions on one another. I feel that they could actually do some nice work together, you know, if they have time between their construction projects, world tours and baby kissing.

2010-03-24T06:14:00.001-06:00

From Monument to Masses

Album: The impossible leap in one hundred simple steps, 2003
Discovery tool: Post rock on Wikipedia
Sounds like Offlaga Disco Pax, Pinback, The Avalanches

From Monument to Masses is another band that makes extensive use of samples, they're not from other songs but, more traditionally, spoken word excepts of all sorts: political speeches, newscasts, random people on the street. However, it's not all that angry or off-putting like some of the early music that I remember hearing in my younger days. It seems to be more of a chronicle or anthology of events and ideas. The first track of this album, Sharpshooter, deals with the events of September 11, 2001, but it's much easier to digest set to some invigorating post-rock music. Their music is far from neutral, though. It has a subtle, somewhat ironic, snap to it that often makes you think twice. I've caught myself of many occasions listening to a song and recoiling, "Did he really say something that absurd?" I especially enjoy it when I can name where a particular audio snippet comes from, like at the beginning of The Quiet Before. I thought I was the only one who had seen that movie; it'd be nice to meet someone else who has seen it. Where do I meet these people?

By the way, their 2005 album, Schools of Thought Contend., is a compilation of their songs remixed by other artists which isn't half bad. And while it's very different from the original version, I really like Loquat's interpretation of Comrades and Friends if only for the singer's voice.

2010-03-21T05:12:00.001-06:00

This week was full of international events, and by full, I mean there were two that I went to. The first was a conference hosted by the Brazilian chamber of commerce in which they were discussing issues such as biofuels, energy and all sorts of related topics. Besides the food and seeing Sven Kullander (there's a song in which it sounds like they say his name, but that's a long story), I was most interested in a talk given by a guy about the 2014 FIFA World Cup and 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro (I like the picture on that page of Lula shooting an arrow at a target at point-blank range). He was mainly talking about how these events are drivers of land acquisition and transportation infrastructure improvement; you know, the standard stuff. And while he talked about how all this will make Brazil such a better place at the expenditure of only €210 billion over the next six years, he didn't talk about where all this money is coming from or how the investment will be paid backs.

That's one of the major criticisms of these world events. While on one side of the spectrum, there are those who say we should not be holding these games if they're not economically viable, and on the other side are those that say these games are good for global development and international relations and have positive indirect and residual effects even if they don't pay back the money in due time. So how, then, do we make a return on the investment we put into these events? Or wait, is the question really why do we keep using money as a tool for measuring progress? Don't mind my anti-monetary rhetoric.

The second event was the Royal Palace Sprint, a cross-country skiing race encompassing the king's crib. This seventh running of the race held shortly after the Olympics was the first time that a Swede won, as the Web site brags. The night before the big race, they celebrated the Swedish Olympic winners of which I've become very familiar with over those two weeks. I remember the epic men's 30 km when Johan Olsson was leading by several seconds throughout the race but finally ran out of steam at the end and was overtaken by the younger Marcus Hellner (I have no hope in four years, do I?). It was great to finally see them in person, and I even almost talked to Marcus, but as you know, I am not the best at starting conversations, let alone keeping them going. And then they had the band of Calle Kristiansson, an Idol winner, playing covers of bad songs from the U.S. At one point, his head exploded (see picture). It was not my cup of tea (but what is?) so I scampered back home and prepared for the next day of races.

There were many more people in attendence this day - the site boasts over 10,000 - and we got there just in time for the semifinals. I had no idea who made it or what the announcers were saying except for their brief interjections of common English phrases which made no sense out of context, but it was still fun to watch the skiers race one way and dash back the other way. It's the first time I've been along the side of a track at a sporting event and come to think of it, the first time I've seen cross-country skiing in person.

Cross-country skiing seems to be one of those very harsh sports in that even if you win one race, you could come in dead last in the next. Such was the case here, especially for the men's race. Out of the four Swedish medal winners, only one qualified for the finals and he came dead last. I guess that means that by some stroke of luck I could end up winning, but I'm going to need a lot of luck. Good thing Sweden kills off loads of rabbits each year for heating and possibly to make into pickle juice so I'm sure they wouldn't mind giving me a few lucky rabbit feet (yes, I realize it's ironic that these rabbits themselves were not so lucky as to be caught and fed into furnaces).

2010-03-16T19:48:00.000-06:00

65daysofstatic

Escape from New York, 2009
Discovery tool: Post rock on Wikipedia
Sounds like Explosions in the Sky, God is an Astronaut, Iris

They recorded this album live, so you'll have to just deal with the random shouts and cheers (apparently clapping is a secondary priority at concerts these days). There seems to be one girl that makes it her business to scream at any sort of pause; she must be drunk out of her mind. While I found this band under the post-rock section of Wikipedia, I don't think these guys exactly fall into the post rock that I'm used to. Maybe just because it was live, but a couple of the tracks are entirely electronic, techno even, however, the rest are fairly representative even if they do employ a fair amount of synth work, but I would much rather classify them under progressive rock because of their obvious building up and breaking down throughout most songs. Some of their songs build up so much and the instrumentation gets so heavy; it just boggles my mind, perplexes me beyond all reason, why someone would think to put this in the post-rock category, but I'm sure he had his reason (because we all know that only men edit Wikipedia ...right?).

2010-03-14T08:44:00.003-06:00

Another Melodifestivalen came and went without anything particularly notable. Manboy was confusing; who, in their right mind, would want to be called a manboy? Salem Al Fakir was Salem Al Fakir, and his song wasn't too outstanding because it had the same structure as last year's Eurovision winner, Fairytale (then again, don't they all?). Still, if anyone had a chance of winning Eurovision, it would be him. The juries all agreed and gave him the most points, but the song that the viewers picked to represent Sweden this year was the one I hoped wouldn't even be considered. I've tried several times, but I still haven't gotten through the whole song. Anna Bergendahl's voice is terrible; it almost makes me want to stop listening to female singers. It's worse than country. Slow songs with obvious, epic crescendos have no place on my music palatte. (photo source)

But that is the way of Eurovision. It seems all the formulaic, ostentatious songs get picked to represent even the most progressive countries on the music frontier. Yes yes, I realize that not every song is going to please me, but I just can't fathom that there are so many people out there that like such sucky music. Even with that being said, I still enjoy some of the worst, like Verka Serduchka's 2007 second place Eurovision song. I can't quite put my finger on it, but the song always puts a smile on my face. It's probably the accordion. (photo source)

All this competition got me thinking, "Why don't we have something similar in the U.S.?" I mean, we're already divided into states and from there we can get regions which compete on the national level. Heck, we could even include Canada, the Carribbean nations, Central America and Mexico. It would be a first step toward a North American Union, because as we all know, the Eurovision song contest was the precursor to the European Union.

But there are some hurdles to leap over first: what about regions? How can we divide up the geography so that people will be mostly happy and not cause international divisions? I'm a full proponent of having regions that cross borders, especially in conjunction with the U.S. (i.e., Pacific/Southwest: California, Arizona, Nevada, New Mexico, Baja California, Baja California Sur, Sonora, Chihuahua)The key to international participation will be making sure the competition isn't centered on the U.S.

Another key aspect to consider are the broadcasting rights. Sure, we have semi-monopolistic broadcasters in the U.S., but it becomes a little less regulated in the South. I wouldn't want this to be an opportunity for the likes of NBC or ABC to expand their manifest destiny to the Carribbean and add them to their evil media empire. Unless, of course, they're already there and nothing bad has happened. I would want this to be an opportunity to build home-grown enterprises and empower the people through the power of music. Okay, I know that sounds cheezy, but I'm sure it'll also be good for people in the U.S. to get a glimpse of the culture from these lesser seen territories.

Let's see if I can explain how I'd want this to go down in a few sentences. First, states would be free to choose a song to represent them at the regional level in whatever way they like - most probably a contest where residents vote - whichever way the people agree on. The songs for each state or territory compete within their region in a text-message voting system with experts juries from other regions giving points to the ones they deem best. One song from each region competes at the national level with semi-finals and the rest of that stuff. Pretty much the same as Eurovision but in North America.

But there's still the problem of these horrible songs creeping through. I guess we'll just have to see what the people like. And who's going to get this started, you say? Well, if no one's done it, and I find myself with some time, then I guess I'll work on it, but that won't be for another year or so, so good luck with international relations until then, suckers.

2010-03-10T11:49:00.003-06:00

Air

Album: Love 2, 2009
Discovery tool: Darina
Sounds like Belle and Sebastian, The Bee Gees

Air is the perfect sort of music to put on in the background for almost any occasion whether it be a small get together with friends, dusting shelves or messing around with papier-mâché. Their sound is both unassuming, inviting and not the least overbearing, not like those angry-man bands that scream, "LISTEN TO ME OR I'LL SING LOUDER AND SOUND MORE CONSTIPATED!" (That's right, I'm talking to you, Creed) I can't think of many who wouldn't like this music; even my mom might since it's so similar to the 'lite rock' she listens to on the radio but the contemporary additions of electronic sounds and the French might draw her away and label yet another of the bands I like strange. You know, now that I think about it, the name really suits them because it's around us all the time and it's neither repulsive nor apparent. However, being so naturally integrated into the environment like air can be disadvantageous since people will pass right by without rightfully acknowledging what keeps them alive, this lubrication of life. But, of course, you can go the other way and claim that too much Air will kill you, so just limit yourself, will you?

2010-03-07T10:50:00.001-06:00

When I was getting my tickets for the Florence and the Machine show, there were two different sets of tickets to choose from, and somehow I chose the one for the upper floor. Luckily, I wasn't the only one and my friend ended up trapped in the viewing room with me. We supposed that maybe they were the last tickets to be sold, but we bought ours weeks apart. It could happen, though, or maybe they were just messing with us. Nevertheless, the view was poor, and the action too far away to feel. The seats were several meters from the glass, and we couldn't just sit up close to the glass because no one else would be able to see behind us. But there were two teenage girls at the front sitting on a speaker off to the side, and I was about to go sit next to them saying, "Hey there little girls, mind if I enjoy myself next to you and your friend?" But that would be creepy. Does it make me creepy just thinking about it?

Despite what you might believe, I actually wasn't too excited about this concert, but when someone the night before was asking who the opening band was and no one knew, I took it upon myself to look it up and to my surprise, it would be Sian Alice Group, a group I've identified to have the potential to be awesome like The Most Serene Republic and Pure Reason Revolution. Oh, that would be marvelous. They ended up playing songs from their new album with little deviation, putting on a good sampler show for the kids who never heard of such a band, much less know how to pronounce it. Florence later slurred it as "Shawn Alice Group"; I guess it's a British thing. From where I was sitting, the lead singer utilized some very repetitive motions and stiff movements to great effect, and I could only surmise that she is one of those new Japanese robots. It worked for me. They put on a good performance, just what I expected. (photo source)

Now Florence came on as quickly as she could - they didn't even close the curtains for the set change - and she entered with the presence of Jacob leading international water negotiations. For those of you who weren't there for either of those, it was forceful, yet gentle. We knew her intentions, and we let her do her thing (it's not like I could have done anything from inside my glass balloon). I'm not in love with all of her songs, but she defintely has stage presence. If it weren't for the '70s, people would write her off as a crackpot, but now they'd characterize her as a free spirit. She loved teasing the crowd, and she really came to life during the obligatory encore when she asked for some audience participation. At first, it was a 1-2-3-JUMP! But then she got a little carried away and had everyone squat down and prepare for a big jump. This didn't work as well as she planned as my friends in the field reported to me afterward since no one had any room much less to squat down.

It was a good performance, and I'm sure it would've been better had I been down in the muck with the rest of the peons, but I kind of enjoyed relaxing in a chair and looking down my nose at everyone. I felt powerful, at least until we left and stood in the cold waiting for our proletariat friends. Good thing we did, because we met some others we knew from another time and one thing led to another and eventually I caught wind of a free Marina and the Diamonds show later in the week. Now this will be good, I thought, and I have the mandate now to insert myself deep enough into the crowd so that Marina will notice me and make up for the nose-bleed seats at Florence and Sian Alice. (photo source)

And it wasn't that difficult since we got there about an hour and a half early. That gave me time to lament my troubles over a cold beer, at least if I were of the drinking kind; the only lubricant I need in my system is good old EcoPower. But they tried to tempt me by giving me a coupon for a free beer; little did they know, I had a friend aspiring to expand the limits of being a drunkard (just kidding?).

Oh right, the show. We inched our way to the front of the stage ever so slowly in this small venue and waited. Soon enough she came out with her skeleton crew of one bassist and one big pianist. She played very stripped-down versions of her album songs, and I was so close I could almost feel her breathe. I just hope my mouth wasn't wide open making me look like some creepy guy who came to feel her up with my eyes. That was not my intention; I don't think of her like that. I enjoy what she does with her voice and tonight I got a first-hand demonstration of that power. She was ruthless and rugged manipulating the air between her and me and executed her performance ever so flawlessly. She believes that you shouldn't have too much of a good thing because she finished after only five or six songs leaving everyone wanting more. Perfect, she thinks, now they'll have to buy my album to satiate their craving for me while I sit and stuff my face with some creamy semla goodness. She also disproves my assertion of the obligatory encore. Darn, she's just too good.

(And that brings the semicolon count to four. Pathetic.)

2010-03-02T18:17:00.000-06:00

Explosions in the Sky

Album: All of a Sudden, I Miss Everyone, 2007
Discovery tool: Wikipedia?
Sounds like God is an Astronaut, Red Sparowes, This Will Destroy You

When I saw that this album was from 2007, I thought to myself, "Self, surely they must've released an album since then," but when I went in search of such an album, I found that it has yet to be written. The New Years' post on their home page answered my query directly stating how they wished they would create more music, but that they're "slow movers" which I'm sure most people would infer as either they're lazy or that musical genius takes time. Judging by their previous albums, I would say it is the latter. They have been described as cinematic and elaborate and may be one of the most famous post-rock bands for these qualities. It's no wonder that they named themselves after a euphoric characterization of fireworks. It's that sort of wonder and amazement that they try to recreate with their music in what may more accurately be described as classical rock if we use classical in the same way we talk about symphonies, rhapsodies, and concertos of yore. And all this sound comes from guys who originated in Texas (one in Illinois) and had a real treat to write the music for the high school football film Friday Night Lights which takes place near their hometown of Midland. Sadly and probably blasphemously, they would be the only reason I would watch the film.

2010-02-28T06:58:00.000-06:00

I go through periods when I have faith in humanity, and certain episodes can trigger that faith to collapse into disappointment. Such was the case with this neighborhood association meeting. It was the annual meeting, the one where they really have to get residents to come and participate and elect board members for the next term. I came with great expectations of change; the current organization was less than visible, its Web site stale and probably riddled with out-of-date information, and many people didn't even know the organization existed (and yes, I spell organization with a z, the correct way). Of course, when they announced that only people with legitimate contracts with the landlord could vote and participate, as I feared, I sunk in my chair and resigned to only observe. It would be an exercise of small-scale democracy in action at least for those residents who actually cared enough to show up.

According to Swedish standards, the meeting started late. The leadership from the previous year came in like a posse and asked for some help to commandeer some tables and grab some snacks from the local grocery store at about five minutes after seven. The meeting was set to start at seven but didn't get underway until thirty minutes later. Maybe they knew what they were doing because by then, there were at least forty people in attendance, much better that last year, so we were told.

They passed out the snacks, drinks and agendas in Swedish, and began with the current chairman asking how many people knew Swedish. It's an international community dude, of course not many knew it. That was strike one against the current administration - not knowing your resident population. But to their credit, the fact that most people's first language is not English also didn't help to keep the waters of communication unobstructed. Like when the chairman proposed that he would continue as chairman for the meeting, there was vocal disapproval because people thought they were voting for him to be chairman for another year.

But they finally came to the elections, what almost everyone came for, except those who came for the snacks. The chairman immediately called for candidates for the chairman position without explaining what he does, or what the other positions do, or how the voting would work. I almost felt like he was blindsiding the people into accepting him as chairman for another year, but as the silence was broken by an intrepid, young Eastern European guy declaring his candidacy with his lofty vision and grand ideas, the chairman soon seemed to be defending the integrity of the organization from this unproven guy who had not the Swedish skills to interact with the landlord.

This intrepid guy's slogan: "How hard could it be?" As much as I like chaos, even that made me worry.

Another guy, very confident and well spoken, nominates himself focusing more on his abilities as a candidate. He seemed to promote himself as an alternative to the intrepid guy, but as we found out later, him and the intrepid guy were somewhat working together. It was more obvious when the confident guy voted for the intrepid guy instead of himself.

But I'm getting ahead of myself; there was an important confusion before the voting. The people thought when the current chairman said he could only guarantee himself until August, they thought he would continue his term until then and the elected candidate tonight would take over then. Even the intrepid guy thought so. Was there something about him that just confounds and muddles everything he says? His English was very clear, and I understood fine, but maybe everyone else didn't have the comprehension or logic I do and jumped to the wrong conclusions.

I really wanted to take over and give this meeting some clarity and order, but I promised myself I wouldn't.

The chairman kept calling for a vote but people kept asking questions about the position and how the meeting was run and the actual voting procedure. As expected, the voting commenced about an hour into the meeting, longer than anyone expected and was overall hectic. The two guys who volunteered to count the hands up kept coming up with different numbers, and a third person stepping in wasn't helping. The fact that they counted and recounted six or seven times for each candidate frustrated many and some of them even left.

The current chairman won by a narrow margin. I couldn't believe how many votes that intrepid guy managed to swindle. But because he didn't win, he ran for the vice chairman position as he stated while running for chairman. Sadly, he won that position, and now I fear for the future. Sadly, what he doesn't realize is that he can do everything he wants without a position of leadership. He just needs to work hard and work with the people. He'll be thoroughly disappointed when he realizes this position won't get him the power he desires. If I were the chairman, I would already be thinking of ways not to let this new vice chairman succeed me if I had to step down mid-term.

The meeting progressed with a mandate to finish before midnight, so in addition to confusion, the meeting continued with great urgency at the cost of hearing the opinions of all, as one attendee pointed out. The voting was still shaky; when one vote came to a tie, no one knew what to do, so one of the candidates offered to decide it with a coin toss, but he ended up losing. Usually in those situations, the chairman offers the deciding vote, but no one seemed to know that.

There was much more confusion and by the end, at around 9:30, with the audience dwindled to around 20 die-hard residents, the election was finally finished. I was so distraught that I didn't even offer my services to the newly-elected Web master, the position I originally came for but was ineligible to take. No one even wanted the job; he took it because he unfortunately spoke up saying he had a little experience with that stuff, and he was the only one to end up with two positions.

But what have we learned from this? Well, meetings need order and protocol, at least to the point that people aren't left wondering what's going on. The leadership needs to know how to conduct the meeting as well as the organization's policies, especially the voting procedure. Maybe they need a better voting system in general to avoid the guy who looked like Jesus from miscounting all the time. And because the population is mostly non-Swedish, they could have at least made an agenda in English.

The confident guy, candidate number two from the chairman election, echoed one of my thoughts I've had about this place for a long time. "The majority of the people here are transient, they stay for less than six months and leave. Most of them cannot hold these year-long positions but we also cannot shorten the term lengths because the entities that this neighborhood association deals with like the landlord would not have the same relationship and bargaining power as someone in the position for a longer time period." He proposed that they need to reconfigure the entire basis of the organization, but I don't think it needs to be rebuilt.

They need a new strategy with more communication at its core. They need to think about what people need and want, then go and find out what they actually need and want and start negotiating for that. But most importantly, get people involved and aware of their existence by communicating what's going on. As one guy noted, he's lived here for two years and only found out about this association that day.

One thing that might help, is an on-line forum to discuss what's being done, as well as letting others voice what they would like to see. There's already a forum that people use mostly for buying and selling odds and ends, but it would benefit from an active public feedback section where organization members and the residents can interact directly.

This is just a small part of what I see as the age of civic participation. People will soon become less focused on themselves and making money and will focus on creating a better life for themselves and those around them. We're still in the very, very beginning stages - people still love their money - but I have hope that with better governance and strategies to implement participation, people will learn to consider the well-being of others without thinking about themselves and their family first, foremost and at all costs, even the demise of others for that extra advantage. I know there's always a solution to benefit all. We just have to work for it.

2010-02-24T03:11:00.000-06:00

Russian Circles

Album: Station, 2008
Discovery tool: Post rock on Wikipedia
Sounds like God is an Astronaut, Red Sparowes, Tool

Russian Circles is a middle of the road band in my survey of post rock; it doesn't stray too far from the established genre, though it may be a little bit heavy metal. It reminds me of the music in the Command and Conquer games of yore (such a generic title now that I think about it, yet accurately defines the premise of the game). It's the kind of music that slowly builds over time and before you know it, you're listening to some pretty epic rock music that may just get your heart racing. With that being said, maybe you shouldn't listen to this if you have a heart condition, are pregnant, or if you're aurally epileptic. Don't say I didn't warn you. For the rest, enjoy the pleasant sound landscapes (whatever that means), the roaring metal phrases, and the seamless transitions in between. My sources (band Web site, Wikipedia) tell me that they've already released an album after this one, Station, in late 2009. I guess I should be reviewing that one, but maybe I'll just save it for a later time, you know, when I'm not lazy to go out and find it.

2010-02-21T19:01:00.000-06:00

Why is it always pants (the noun) and never pant? And why scissors, hardly ever scissor? Even in Swedish, it's byxor (pants), not byx and kläder (clothes) not kläd. Technically it's pantaloons, but that doesn't help much. After looking it up, they belong to a category of words that are plurale tantum or "in the plural only." Of course, I'm probably not using it correctly there, nor is it a very good, concise or well-organized article, but it gets the job done.

But why are these words always plural? Pants I can understand. They refer to the legs of the garment, but couldn't they come up with a better word to describe the whole thing. It's unlikely we'll make a garment with more or less than two legs. How about 'lower covering' as in "Honey, pull my lower covering from the dryer! I think the pee is dry now!" It's got potential but surely there's something better than pants.

Clothes don't have an excuse. You can always get them in a singular form. My best guess is it's a marketing ploy to get people to buy multiple items of clothing at the same time due to a common communication error. Scissors are a bit trickier. As the nemesis of everything cuttable including clothes and pants, they are yet useless unless composed of two blades. And further, they only work with one hand, and if you don't understand why or just feel like reading, head to the Wikipedia article.

Speaking of which, Wiktionary has an entire category listing many of the different English words that are only plural, most of which I've never heard of. Like what's a collywobble? Er wait, that sounds perfectly fine singularly. Looks like someone needs to fix their Wiktionary page, and that someone is you.

2010-02-16T20:01:00.000-06:00

LIGHTS

Album: The Listening, 2009
Discovery tool: iLike
Sounds like Ladytron, Little Boots, Owl City
Recommended for Erica

LIGHTS, sometimes known as Valeria Anne Poxleitner (I can see why she goes by LIGHTS), is a cute, prolific blogger, with a large online following sure to include many male fans, both young and creepily old. I learned about her separately before I realized it was her sweet voice on the Owl City song Saltwater Room as well as some others. They tour together often putting on great shows, so I hear, but I don't think she has the same strong, piercing, immature voice as Owl City, and her songs aren't as upbeat but they're still good. I'm quite partial to her female voice, as you well expected, and I loved Saltwater Room more than most of Owl City's other tracks. I see her evolving into something like Owl City with stronger synth beats and more upbeat tracks. I'd like to hear more from her like the breakdown near the end of Ice. Maybe she'll try to compete with Owl City by singing about even more mundane things than teeth cleaning, although I could also see her being ruthlessly exploited by big music companies for her sexuality rather than her sound. Her origin (I feel like we're talking about superheroes now) reminds me quite a bit of Little Boots in that they both started with online videos and have quite a lot of online content. They also both describe their music as having a spacey feel, as she states on her Web site, she "makes intergalactic-electro music." And she's got a pet tarantula named Lance. While that's probably a perfectly safe hobby, I'm just glad she doesn't limit herself to those outdated feminine stereotypes.

2010-02-11T17:16:00.001-06:00

Sick Log: SD 2010.02.11
Perhaps it was a perfume or someone's skin cream. Maybe it was a new food I tried, possibly kiwi or the mushrooms on my pizza. Or maybe I just came into contact with a visciously passive carrier. Nevertheless, the fact still stands that I am sick. Hopefully I'll figure out the cause at some point in the future so as to avoid another debilitating day, and hopefully it'll only last this one day rather than persist over the weekend or even into next week. That cute dog licking my leg probably didn't help since soon after my symptoms flared, but it was my fault for wearing shorts.

Luckily, I know a thing or two about runny noses and sneezes. If you haven't noticed, much of my free time is devoted to introspection, diagnoses and model-making.

The stuffiness of the nose seems to abate when you relax your face completely; that includes your jaw and your nose. It takes a lot of practice to command all those muscles but with time you'll start to feel at ease and a little like you're meditating. However, meditation usually makes me sleep so it's an effective method for that, too.

When you feel a sneeze coming on, it usually manifests at a point when you have enough air in your lungs to force it out. Every breathe in is closer to a sneeze while breathing out will abate it and at a point, it will dissipate while the effects of the sneeze will still manifest. Your nose will temporarily loosen and all the mucous within it. It takes a lot of practice, but it's very rewarding in the end. No more messy hands and airborne pathogens. And it's far better than forcibly stopping it especially when there's the risk of your ears bursting and your eyes exploding (according to urban legend). Speaking of which, while almost everyone I've ever met says it's impossible to keep your eyes open during a sneeze, I can do it. Sadly, I've been too embarassed to gather others' attention before a sneeze to show them. It just seems kind of rude.

The time between thunder and its corresponding lightning gives a general idea as to the proximity of the storm. So why not as the number of successive sneezes increases, the closer the apex of the sickness? Okay, so this one isn't particularly true, but I still have a lot of research to be done on successive sneezes and their significance while I'm still sick.

And this has been Useless, Random Facts, brought to you by the letter S and the hippie shake.

2010-02-09T19:39:00.000-06:00

This Will Destroy You

Album: This Will Destroy You, 2008
Discovery tool: Post rock on Wikipedia
Sounds like God is an Astronaut, Explosions in the Sky, Isis

Hailing from San Marcos, Texas, this blend of chillout music and instrumental metal pierces to the core if only ever so subtly, like a creep compared to a flow if you're familiar with geological terms. It demands attention passively, as in if you leave it on and ignore it, you'll end up feeling calm with a slight sense of guilt for not thanking it. I would much rather Texas be known for awesome music like this than be stereotyped with cowboys, deserts, cacti, and in-the-closet gays. Now that I think about it, this music would make a really great soundtrack to an open prairie movie to incite a feeling of adventure and exploration. Maybe that's why I like it so much, being a geography major. If you really know me, I don't like to travel; I like to explore. That's what I do here when I'm reviewing all these experimental and sometimes fringe bands at the cusp of something wonderful that I am the first in my circle of influence in experiencing. Of course, that's mighty presumptuous of me, which is why second to exploring, I love sharing. Ack, you see what they made me do? I pushed them to the back of my mind as they were playing and now I'm spilling my feelings all over the place. I ain't no sissy, but it sure does feel great to get that off my chest. Thank you, This Will Destroy You. Maybe there's a hint as to their ultimate purpose in their name. Hmm....

2010-02-05T10:09:00.000-06:00

I'm not dying (as far as I know), but if I were, I'd like to see that my legacy lives on so others can be inspired by my life of relentless ideasmithing. Being the very organized person that I am, I want my personal effects shipped home and enshrined and the contents of this blog and all the notes and ideas on my laptop analyzed, harvested and published for the monetary gain it is worth. Of course, that worth won't come anywhere near the cost of the legal battle when they find out most of this drivel is plagiarized. ..hehe, suckers.

2010-02-03T14:35:00.000-06:00

Hockey

Album: Mind Chaos, 2009
Discovery tool: Loudcrowd
Sounds like 311, LCD Soundsystem, Rod Stewart
Recommended for Edessa

Every band has their part in the '80s revival; apparently Hockey's is to channel the ghost of Rod Stewart. No matter whether or not you like Rod, or Mr. Stewart, Duke of Sex Appeal, as he would rather be called, Hockey is still worth listening to for a younger, hipper interpretation complete with upbeat dance tunes and a saucy attitude. I think that these songs would be great fun to play on Rock Band or Guitar Hero and they're rock enough to qualify. It sure would beat all those other sucky songs on there. Ugh...classic rock. I'd probably have to survive on a steady diet of purely classical music if I lived back then, but if I had my knowledge now, I'd surely be rich, famous and successful in no time. That's what everyone wants, right? I mean, that's why you become a musician in the first place, no? But then you start thinking whether the music you listen to was motivated by promises of riches and fame or if it was inspired as a gift to others. Maybe all that doesn't really matter, only that you enjoy what you like and you like what you enjoy...whatever that means. I know you'll have great fun with Hockey even if you're not into the sport.

2010-01-31T10:02:00.002-06:00

Dear blog,
We've been friends for a while now so I feel I can be honest with you. Through these years, I've abused you, exploited you, and neglected you, among many other things, and you've stood by me, hardly uttering a word of discontent. But the guilt has been building inside of me for all this time, and it's high time I let it all out. I hope you don't mind me using you as a canvas for this guilt to spill out on.

No! Errggh... I can't do that to you any more.

From now on, I want you to have a say in what I write on you. I want your active participation in this project, after all, we're partners. I want to know what you want. Why don't you communicate with me? Do we not speak the same language? Are you really a Swedish blog or maybe Chinese? Does the .com in your name stand for Communist? Or is it that I'm not ready yet? What must I do to prepare myself for your influence? Do I lack faith? Do I ask too many questions? Perhaps I need to quit all my inane prattling and just listen for once.

. . .. ... ..... ........

Okay. So you speak in mathematics. Er, you're a part of me? You speak through my mind and you're a macro-entity existing on an invisible plane. Oh, and I shouldn't be repeating everything I hear? Alright... alright... got it. Now we have a plan. I look forward to our new-found collaboration. I enjoy the irony of this static letter turning into a conversation, and I intend to show my English teachers of yore how a true genius inspires his audience. We build the future, not them. We get what we want. We all get what we want. When we share, when there is no competition, there is no scarcity, there is no lacking.

Wait, what am I talking about? I think I connected to the wrong telepathic channel. It must be the snow interfering with the signal. One day our minds will be one, ch3.blog, and I'll be able to ease my burden of guilt, but until then, I'll continue doing what I am doing because it's the easiest way I know how to freely express myself. Until you're willing to come forward and offer your active participation, all I ask is that you maintain your willingness to be scribbled upon with my pithy, yet baseless, drollness. I can only hope that you're not harboring so much hatred toward me that will one day explode with bloody shrapnel across the entire Earth finally forcing us to seriously consider colonizing other planets for profits that are less than guaranteed.

2010-01-27T05:55:00.000-06:00

Pure Reason Revolution

Album: The Dark Third, 2006; Amor Vincit Omnia, 2009
Discovery tool: Post rock on Wikipedia
Sounds like Evanescence, Iris, The Most Serene Republic
Recommended for Erica (ha!)

Female vocals? Oh goodness, gracious. Wait, vocals in post rock? Post rock so catchy I can sing along? Well, they may be impostors of post rock, but they certainly are high in my list of favorites. The interplay of the male and female voices is something I covet so dearly, and the gaplessness of the first album just makes it even more enjoyable. There's a subtle shift from The Dark Third to Amor Vincit Omnia. They include more electronics and distortions to create a calmer, maybe less urgent mood while they aren't as focused on their epic, hardcore sound. It's not a bad thing, just different.

Still, with this mix of electronics, hard rock and string instruments, male and female vocal interplay, I'm surprised I haven't heard of this little gem sooner. If Erica were to ever like post rock, she would like this group, but I doubt that would happen any time soon. Maybe. I shouldn't be so presumptive. Perhaps Emily or Amber? Nah. Thinking out loud here, I don't believe I could marry someone if they don't appreciate bands like this. Even if she hasn't heard of them before we meet, she will hear, and I hope she doesn't just fake it to placate me. That reminds me, I created an application for all my future female prospects that I should definitely dig up and update. The first copy will go to the female singer of this band.

And while searching for videos, I found out about this awesome German show, Rockpalast, that showcases awesome bands and awesomely posts all the videos online!

2010-01-20T15:47:00.000-06:00

Caspian

Album: The Four Trees, 2007
Discovery tool: Post rock on Wikipedia
Sounds like Explosions in the Sky, God is an Astronaut, If These Trees Could Talk

When you listen to so much post rock as I do, all the artists and albums can start to meld together into one massive superband, its constituent parts hardly distinguishable. I really have to make a conscious effort (and the writing of these reviews helps) to find the differences that separate them from the rest so that we can sever them from that giant megamonster of a band and grant them their individuality once again. But even without those differences, these bands have much to celebrate, especially when post rock heritage month comes around each year. Caspian exhibits those signature guitar-driven melodies and masters the ambient, chill-out mood even if testing the limits with some of its more epic finales. But that's part of what makes them stand out; they get a little bit hardcore, but they also get a little upbeat at some points. It's not the same drolling tone across the entire album, and I've definitely got a weak spot when it comes to gapless tracks.

2010-01-17T12:03:00.000-06:00

Usually when an old, drunk man falls over on the train platform, it's a hilarious event, but there was something genuinely pathetic about this man. A young man attempted to help him up but was spurned, however, the old man took the opportunity to strike up an intimate conversation with this kid who was obviously uncomfortable, especially when the old man grasped the kid's arm like he was telling him something very important. I'm sure it was nothing. At least it wasn't me he was talking to. I can barely understand Swedish, let alone from a drunk man with slurred speech who probably wouldn't understand that I didn't know Swedish.

If you haven't already noticed, this is one of those posts that has really nothing to do with anything, more so than usual.

Later that night, I was waiting by the trains for some friends who never showed, reading a book for school, watching the passengers as they egressed to their various destinations. Two girls caught me looking at them in the train so I quickly averted my gaze - that's just awkward - but my eyes eventually made it back to them, and they were still looking. I did what I always do and cowered, curled up in a ball on the floor and sucked my thumb (metaphorically). I continued glancing every couple seconds and hopefully they were charmed by my bashful countenance. My friend told me to check blickar.se (missed connections in Sweden) but I still have my doubts I'll ever see them again.

But things were looking up. I got to hang out with these friends at an expensive, trendy restaurant with all sorts of snobby-looking, upper-middle-class kids. It was all in the name of attending a club opening by famous Swedish pop musician Robyn and a lesser-known associate, Lojsan. They played DJ while we sat and ate all the while getting shoved in the back when someone walked by. They didn't hate us, Swedish interior designers just aren't that concerned with making ample room for people traffic. But it wasn't much of a club atmosphere. There were too many people to dance and we had too much stuff to leave lying around for any old Bengt to steal. We had nothing better to do than debate whether Robyn's androgyny and androgyny in general was a turn on. Apparently, it depends on the person.

The going to of this club opening led to a visitation to a birthday party the next night (gosh, that was a horrible sentence). According to French Fluxus artist Robert Filliou, on January 17, some 1,000,047 years BP, Art was born "when someone dropped a dry sponge into a bucket of water." How they had buckets or sponges, we may never know. Södra Teatern was gracious enough to throw a birthday for Art of the free variety, though since it was broadcast over radio, it was mostly aural art, but I didn't mind.

Again, no planning for the sheer mass of people pressing and pushing to get from one point to the other in this small venue, but we managed to get around without any of us getting pregnant. One of us did get crabs, but we'll let you figure out who that was on your own. The first group we saw was Den Svenska Björnstammen (The Swedish Bear Population), and before they started, we were warned that these seven scrawny guys from Norrköping got naked at one of their previous performances. Great. Just what I wanted to see. They had a really nice sound...until they started singing, but luckily they cranked up the electronics much louder than the microphones. One of the singers had a sick mullet, a really disturbing trend I've started to see around.

In the other room, we caught the tail end of some more experimental electronic music from THE MOTH. Strange was definitely a good word for it. It was the kind that seemingly makes no sense until you start focusing exclusively on all the beats, boops, and beeps and the inhuman sounds of the singer shaking rhythmically back and forth, mashing her palm on different knobs and buttons. Strange, yet entrancing. I bet they were on ecstasy or some such drug.

After those fiends, they brought out a table full of electronic devices, an IKEA lamp, a ragged doll which was strangely familiar and a keyboard of which I had the same type when I was a kid. I could tell this was going to be interesting. The lady introducing him compared him to Voltaire in that the eighteenth-century playwright was said to have died performing one of his plays on the stage. And when this scrawny British kid from Norway started his electronic symphony, I could tell why people thought he might be dying. His dance moves could be compared to a criminal being tased or perhaps an epileptic seizure, but it made the performance all the more enjoyable. His music was thick, like if music were butter thick, filled with all sorts of beats and noises from all his crazy homemade sound devices. His between-song banter only made things more confusing as he was talking about shooting zombie elephants on the Serengeti, electronic ballads, and fairy lands just to scratch the surface. What's even more (in)credible is that everything on his Web site concurs with his off-the-wall stories. Pneumonia recognized it as British humor although very fringe at that. If you liked gameboymusicclub, you'll split your pants for Captain Credible. He's definitely who I'd want to DJ my wedding.

But the main event I was anticipating was Annie who was DJing in one of the rooms, but I feared more of the non-dancing observed in Robyn's DJing the night before. It would've helped if they turned down the lights and put on some of the lights that incite dancing but the room was too fancy, in a building from the 1800s apparently, and Swedish people don't dance in fancy rooms as Pneumonia purports. But it was okay because I got to see Annie.

And strangely, on that night, I ended up seeing a total of seven people I knew that I wasn't intending on meeting, however, I only talked to three of them. I really need to work on my conversation initiation skills.

2010-01-12T20:38:00.001-06:00

gameboymusicclub

Album: gameboymusicclub, vol. 2
Discovery tool: Annika
Sounds like video games!

Oh, I do so have a weakness for video game music, especially that of the primitive 8-bit variety. It takes me back to a special place in my game-obsessed childhood...Zelda...Donkey Kong Land...Final Fantasy...Earthbound... I do so appreciate what this musical collective of 8-bit artists around the world promote. Now, you say, only nerds listen to this music, eh? But I disagree because this stuff has universal appeal. Not a soul doesn't play video games, right? And so everyone should be aware of their roots. Okay, so my argument is specious at best, but I'm tired. I'm not at my peak performance; that's come and gone, but I'm hoping it will come back. And I also hope I can host a party that warrants the booking of this collective. Now excuse me while I got find an emulator and some of the best games ever created.

I don't have a preview for you this week, sorry, but feel free to head on over to their Web site (above) for a taste.

2010-01-10T02:20:00.000-06:00

Sweden has the world's largest model of the Solar System? Really? According to this Web site, that was obviously designed in the 1990s, it does. And the model of the Earth and Moon is just a stone's throw away from my bo (home), in the National Natural History Museum just outside Sweden's biggest and only IMAX theatre. I must've walked right past it. Stupid me.

According to the site, the model is scaled at 1:20,000,000 so if the average distance from the Earth to the Sun is 93 million miles as we all know, then the model of the Earth should be about 4.65 miles from the model of the Sun which is supposedly the Ericsson Globe or Globen in Southern Stockholm. As for proportions, it seems to be reasonable but the Wikipedia article does not explicitly deny or confirm this. They have the diameters and everything, but they want us to do the verification ourselves. Lame.

Granted, because of the scale, I can only visit the planetary bodies within the asteroid belt (which isn't even represented itself in the model, neither is Ceres), but I hope to make it to the rest at some point though as you might deduce, it's not the highest on my list of priorities. However, my favorite of the models might just Jupiter because it's so creative, a floral arrangement outside the airport. And dang, if only I knew to look for Uranus in Gävle; maybe I'll make it back there some day.

Also on the Solar System site was an invitation to the inauguration (which we'll unfortunately miss due to a field trip) of a new body in the Sweden Solar System model club, Saltis, discovered at the Saltsjöbaden Observatorium southeast of Stockholm in Nacka in 2000 by Alexis Brandeker. Conveniently, the observatory is at the same relative distance from the Globe Arena as Saltis is from the Sun and to be proportional, the model is one millimeter in diameter, a mere dot in a larger artwork. Maybe I could write my thesis on this. Come on, I'm dying for ideas here.

Sun - Ericsson Globe/Globen

Mercury - Stockholms Stadsmuseum - they keep it heated because of its proximity to the sun.

Venus - KTH, Stockholms Observatorium - it's very hot on Venus, I'm sure that snow cap wouldn't last long. Apparently there're two models of Venus.

Earth (Source) - I'm still not sure where the model of the moon could be.

Mars - Mörbycentrum - I walked right past this twice before I saw it.

2010-01-06T21:15:00.002-06:00

Mew

Album: No More Stories Are Told Today I'm Sorry..., 2009
Discovery tool: Bengans Skivbutik
Sounds like Black Kids

Mew isn't for everyone, but it should be. I would classify their music as closely related to classic because of their grandiose, symphonic sound, but they're still vastly different with good reason. Their music is complex and earns a multiplier bonus because most of their tracks melt into one another. This album, compared to their And the Glass Handed Kites seems to be more structured and blends its base sound into new frontiers. The track Tricks of the Trade is a little electronic, and many of their other songs incorporate a rich dance beat just to show that they can make music that everyone likes. Overall, the vocals of this band give the music a very ethereal feeling. For some reason it just seems more manly to be able to sing so high, but maybe that's just my preference for female voices creeping up. Listen and love.

2010-01-03T09:36:00.001-06:00

It's official. The BBC declares 2009 rampant with electro-pop music and only sees more of it in the near future. Their annual top music list was filled with bands such as Little Boots, Florence and the Machine, Empire of the Sun and La Roux, all bands that are heavy on the synth and skimp on the rock. But there are at least two things that strike me as strange about their list. Who are White Lies and why do they like them so much if they suck so much? Did anyone else notice that most of the bands in their list hail from England or other British Empire countries? No, of course you haven't even bothered to look at the article because you're either too lazy or too captivated by my writing.

But it's all opinion and inherently attracts dissenting opinions. Such is the nature of the dialectic. Now that we've got that out of the way, who would I choose as the top three emerging artists of 2009? Who do I want to hear more from in the future? Let's see. That's hard. There are many bands that released an album in 2009 and are relatively new to the music scene. Since I'm pretty terrible with making decisions, I'll give you my top four and some honorable mentionables.

First, of course, is Empire of the Sun. I've written about them before, about their ephemeral style and emotive music videos. I can only hope one day to live with them as a consort (not the spousal definition) in their empire. Then there's Florence and the Machine, the woman with dulcet lungs and her harmonious melodies. As much as BBC touts her, there's still plenty of room for her to grow, and she seems like a fascinating person to meet, probably even more so if I were a psychologist ('cause she's a little ..eccentric).

Next, Passion Pit. Live, loud, lilting and they set your insides a-jittering with their danceable tunes. They may seem like jerky college guys in person, but that doesn't make me like their music any less. Rounding out my top four, I deviate from the BBC's list with Stuck in the Sound, a French band that I recently got hooked on. Despite the fact that the members of the band came together through a common love of the band Nirvana (blegh!) and that this was their third album, I'm still enthralled with their rock sound and high-pitched voices. You'll hear more from me about them at some point, I'm sure.

As for honorable mentionables, I've picked first Marina and the Diamonds who only released a fantastic EP (that's a short album for all you who don't speak music) but left me craving more, and if Mowgli's Road is any indication, I won't be disappointed. The second is Sian Alice Group, a semi-post rock band with a euphoric sound that takes patience to appreciate but is well worth the mental effort.

According to my selections, I'm hoping for a mostly electronic year with a little bit of rock and a surge of post rock and surprisingly, I don't stray too far from the BBC. And while I love Little Boots as a upbeat, pop musician you listen to as an escape, I'm not sure if I'm completely impressed with her direction as an artist. She's got the connection with her fans down, and the male audience aged 14-40 captivated, maybe she could tone it down a little. I'm not saying make the songs slower, I kind of despise slow songs, but her songs, with her talent, could be more melodic and complex. Maybe she could become a post-rock pop star which would definitely get her some attention. Whatever she does, I'm still rooting for her success. I've got the downfall of other things to ~~plan~~ look forward to.

2009-12-30T11:27:00.000-06:00

Callisto

Album: Noir, 2006
Discovery tool: Post rock on Wikipedia
Sounds like Explosions in the Sky, Iris, Red Sparowes

They start off nice and peaceful, like most post-rock, but I was not expecting the interruption of that screamer/growler. The second album, the one I'm not technically reviewing because I didn't like it much, has a singer over most of the tracks and the screamer has a much smaller roll. Actually it's probably the same proportion as before, however, the more I listen to him/it, I begin to understand and appreciate what he does. It helps that I just finished listening to some Swedish lessons and was thinking about different sounds in languages. The screamer makes sounds that normal people have to train themselves to pronounce and likewise understand, like those Inuit throat-singers or those weird in-breathing sounds of Finland and further north. However, I'm not sure I enjoy the addition of this singer on that album over the previous. I would even venture to say their music would be much better without him.

Remember that Callisto is your basic post-rock music - melodic, slow-paced, complex drum and guitar - it's good for background noise, and it's not for everyone, in fact, I may be off the mark on this one; perhaps off my hover rocker (because we'll have those when I'm old enough to be in a rocker all day), but don't be discouraged by me. Venture into the unknown and have a gander at its many wonders and horrors.

2009-12-27T16:49:00.001-06:00

So I took a vacation last week and didn't post a summary of my Copenhagen trip. Trust me, there wasn't too much to drool over, but I'll try and give you the highlights.

Believe it or not, but I saw my first IKEA in Sweden on this trip from the highway as we passed. Not only did I see one in Linköping, but I saw a second in Jönköping and a third in Malmö! So much cheap and apparently difficult-to-assemble furniture. I spent most of the journey looking at maps on my phone and having difficulty trying to sleep in a single seat on a bus. Others attempted to fix this by sleeping on the person next to them (they knew each other before) or sleeping in the middle of the aisle like the crazy, old guy who starting talking to me in Swedish but when I told him I didn't speak Swedish, he started talking to someone else. Old people... I fell in and out of sleep while the driver was listening to the most eclectic radio station. They played stuff like Air, Regina Spektor, All Saints and the DJ sounded like Delilah. Just wait, Swedes, she'll be syndicated over here soon enough. There was plenty of opportunities for pictures, like the fighter planes outside Linköping, but it was way too dark so here are some examples from Flickr.

We crossed the Öresund bridge into Denmark early in the morning and it was nice not having to show our passport or being searched at the border *hint hint*. They closed down the bridge last time President Obama came to Copenhagen to lobby for the Olympics in Chicago, so why not this time when all these world leaders were congregating in the Danish capital? I tried not to think about this too much as we drove through the city and as the bus dropped us off in the middle of the street, then disappeared. There were lots of people biking, especially as a means of commuting to work and compared to Stockholm, many of the buildings were much more modern in their architecture.

Our main focus and base camp was the Klimaforum hosted at a recreational gym and pool. It seems they host things like this often, and I'm sure they made a killing off selling snacks and food. The place was filled with hippies, environmentalists, entrepreneurs and lots and lots of journalists. I didn't learn much from the conference itself, just from observing the people. There's a lot of people who like to blame others, who like to point out problems, who like to fight for rights, but not many who are proposing ideas and fixes. Those people are unwanted any way. People just want to make money. There was a lot of hope, though, like the assembly of religious leaders talking about how to heal the planet with positive thinking and good energy. The problem is that the people who are open to this idea listen intently while everyone else avoids it as crackpottery. How do you convert the un-believers? Make a connection.

I ended up sitting in the hallway trying not to fall asleep for fear of the roving paparazzi and missing the bus, but I found someone from our party and asked them when the bus left to our sleeping place (confidential), and realizing I had plenty of time, I wandered around the cold, cold city. And when I say cold, you should really believe me, the man who doesn't wear a jacket unless it's absolutely necessary. Let me tell you something, I was freezing my buns off mostly because I was wearing five layers on my upper body but only one on the lower. I wandered around, but my main objective was seeing Christiana, the syndacalistic neighborhood that enjoys relative freedom within Copenhagen. While it's good to have choice, the image of the neighborhood has been marred by the weed selling and occasional violence which residents would attribute to the police who constantly dog them. Understandably, I felt quite put off by their hardened faces - I'm very wary of strangers - and "no photos" signs but I'm sure they were very friendly people. My bladder was full and the only free bathroom I knew (besides the street) was back at the Klimaforum, so I hightailed it back noting the obvious police presence especially when three full vans emptied onto the platforms at the central station, but I had to empty my bladder, so I didn't stick around to watch.

There were more boring seminars (I'm sure people not as cynical as I found them useful) and I even watched a fight almost break out over the capacity of a room. Afterward, they had a riot-planning meeting or maybe I misunderstood them, but I noticed the obvious presence of some journalists trying to help out, probably to get a scoop on the protest, but they weren't fooling me. Who knows? Maybe they had good intentions.

The bus took us to our sleeping place. We slept. It was very cold inside the rooms compared to the hallways and we had a weak breakfast. A couple rolls with jam is a very light breakfast, but I stocked up for food throughout the day. Saturday was the day of protest, and our first was a lead up to the bigger march later that day. We were supposed to "flood" the streets with the blue panchos changing pace through the march to simulate the changing currents of water but all it did was go from a slow meander to a dead halt. We got to the main plaza and were supposed to hang around while all the other "blocs" would march in but we decided to wander around the city again and hopefully catch up with the big protest later. We saw some of the seaside, the little mermaid, the royal palace, got free hot chocolate, and made it back in time for the protest to start. Gosh, it's so hard to get these hippies organized, like herding chickens into a KFC.

Walking like some sort of blow-up mascot was very unenticing so I distanced myself and observed the marchers, the public, the journos, and the police which showed their force by lining up along the route anywhere they could. These protesters disregarded them to quench their rebellious urges but I heard tales of some taking it as a challenge and started causing mischief and damage. Lots of them got arrested and many that weren't involved all in the name of public safety, of course. But I avoided all that and walked from the back of the protest to the front looking at all the "floats" noting how the public wasn't really impressed. It reminded me of that Benjamin Button story that I had just watched the film adaptation of in that it started off slow, there were lots of people in the middle and lots of confusion then it kind of died out near the front. Okay, maybe you had to be there, but I expected a large presence at the front with a big banner and lots of shouting, but no, it was just a bunch of people walking disjointedly like zombies.

At the end, at the Bella center, the protesters had set up a large stage with a DJ playing some music. She was very nice and the music was great, but as I sat there for probably more than an hour waiting for the rest of the people to get there, I was cold, and didn't know how to get back to the place to sleep so I ventured the many kilometers back to the Klimaforum hopefully to find a friend. I did find someone and I got back safely and repeated the whole depressing breakfast cycle. On Sunday I slept, covering my face but I'm sure some creepy people used it as a perfect opportunity to take a picture of a tired seminar participant. Heck, I would take the opportunity. The ride home was much more relaxing as I had three seats to myself and I even saw a fourth IKEA. I must've missed that one since it was just outside of Stockholm.

By the way, I was just skimming through some of the brochures and other materials I picked up as souvenirs from my trip and read through the pamphlet from the Copenhagen police. Despite the pre-emptive arrests and random searches in pre-announced "check zones" that they so readily reserve the right to, what stood out the most to me was that they misspelled Copenhagen at the end of the English translation. You spend at least a couple hours coming up with this text, researching necessary police actions within the law and putting it through several translators, and probably a publisher and no one caught that mistake? English is probably the language all these people have in common and every probably read that version. How does that reflect on your police force? Unless it really is spelled Copenhagne.

2009-12-23T07:24:00.003-06:00

Basement Jaxx

Album: Scars, 2009
Sounds like Estelle, Anjulie, Noisettes
Recommended for Ali, Stephie

Here's another album from the dance frenzy group of Basement Jaxx. While they stretch their musical portfolio, which is already quite large, I must say I am still more attached to their previous albums. Perhaps I just need to give it more time for it to grow on me. But that doesn't mean this isn't a great album. It encompasses so many moods, from haphazard elation to poignant woe to optimistic hopefullness (okay, I was just making up words). Of course, I love it when they use the vocals to add to the melody, and I love all the little samples and small instrument parts in the background. How do they come up with all this stuff? It always sounds like there are so many people making this music. Perhaps they utilize the labor of indentured servants. That's still legal, right? Oh right, it's called paying off a house or car and it's more complexly structured. And the cover of this album is just totally awesome. I want that.

2009-12-16T04:34:00.001-06:00

If These Trees Could Talk

Album: Above the Earth, Below the Sky, 2009
Discovery tool: Post rock on Wikipedia
Sounds like Explosions in the Sky, Red Sparowes, Tool
Recommended for post-rock enthusiasts

I think this is the kind of intelligent, progressive, futuristic music that everyone at some point wished they mine some sort of divine knowledge from. Most are humble enough to admit their lack of intellect, others boast their realizations, yet others, in an act of frustration, claim there is no higher meaning. I'm not here to tell you that meaning or even if there is one, but I believe that is something everyone should search for within themselves, and the answers are not the same for everyone. No one is right; we just all have our own interpretations. Well, enough of the philosophical preaching; I'm too young for that anyway. I enjoy If These Trees Could Talk as some good chill-out music, however, I often wonder what it would be like to have an mp3 player and walk around the streets playing this music. Maybe some wires are crossed in my old brain and I'm thinking about this music as a score for a film - what an interesting film it would be - and that by having the mobility of an mp3 player, I can engender that movie as the every day situations of my life. This movie, however, would not live up to my expectations as the events of my day are usually mundane, or there needs to be some distortion of time to tell the exciting events of my entire life. Maybe I just need to try it and see what comes out of it. Now someone just needs to carelessly discard their mp3 player.

2009-12-10T07:40:00.004-06:00

I've always detested protesters. They're unruly, unorganized, and nothing really gets done as a direct result of their actions. The media always refers to them with impotence, as a casual occurrence. "Oh, those protesters. Ha ha ha, back to you in the newsroom, Greg!" We from the innocuous suburbs are conditioned to think nothing of them though that's not entirely the case since many of these protesters are from the suburbs. But it's true in my case; they just haven't sparked my interest enough to entice me into their biddings.

But this weekend I'm heading to Copenhagen, the site of the COP 15 climate change conference, in a bus full of activists to meet up with thousands more. It'll be fun to see what actually goes on at these things, what makes these people protesters. From what I've seen so far, there's quite a bit of organization with a parallel climate conference, mobile food vans and loads of accommodation for the flux of participants. By the way, that's a pretty nice-looking Web site and where I found this crazy weird video. Listen to that hilarious Danish accent, and why does Coalman look like Abraham Lincoln?

Hopefully they'll actually change things, but it's doubtful. The people that go to these are already supporting the cause, and the ones who make the big decisions are too busy and too invested to listen to these "unimportant" demands. The advocates against climate change need to reach those people and those companies who are willing to change their habits though the companies probably won't change without an economic incentive. Instead of just complaining about the companies, why don't these activists start up their own companies and establish them with sustainable, environmental practices. Shut out the evil-doing companies by competing directly with them. If you have so many supporters, it shouldn't be too hard. And by entering the industry, you'll learn firsthand what it takes to keep a company afloat to provide for your customers. And if a company doesn't work, perhaps you should reject the established definition of company and create a new archetype to suit your needs.

Out of all the messages of this conference, I want people to remember these:

Global warming is irrelevant. The world is changing in more ways than a global temperature change. Climate change is the blanket term to describe rising sea levels, encroaching deserts, failing crops, more frequent floods, more intense tropical cyclones, shrinking forests, species extinction, etc.
As such, focusing on reducing carbon dioxide emissions alone will not abate all these conditions though it can help. A carbon dioxide offset market is just pushing the responsibility onto others and will not help.
Companies are the enablers of environmental degradation and climate change. They are propped up by governments and perpetuated through consumerism driven by marketing. We need sustainable alternatives.
Sustainability involves every step of the production process. Minimizing extraction from the environment, minimizing contribution to waste, minimizing useless and harmful byproducts (including carbon dioxide and airborne toxins), maximizing product lifetime and versatility.
A focus on economics == poor environmental sustainability practices.

No, I haven't given up hope for humanity. I still think, even with massive climate change, we can adapt. Many people will perish, especially in less capable countries, but we will ultimately survive once we learn how. We need to learn how to do more with what we have to make room for more people. But most importantly, things change and it's not always a bad thing. We just have to be open. Let's see if my opinions change after going to Copenhagen.

2009-12-09T05:12:00.002-06:00

Mystery Jets

Album: Twenty One, 2008
Sounds like Friendly Fires, Grizzly Bear, Klaxxons, Q and Not U
Recommended for Andrea

I know I harp on the ingenuity of musicians with complex melodies and such, but sometimes a little upbeat pop music is just what I need. It would be unfair to group them with the other 80s revival bands like Ladyhawke since these guys have a very broad and varied sound reminding me of music from the 60s, 70s, as well as the 80s. I especially fancy the music video for Young Love; videos that incorporate elegant typography get an A+ from me. But I feel I must warn you: these songs will get stuck in your head. The lyrics (I can actually discern them) are simple and catchy. If this warning makes you apprehensive, just remember that these songs will put you in a better mood, perfect for rainy days and Mondays (I do rather like rainy days though).

2009-12-06T10:38:00.000-06:00

From what I understand, this was a pretty typical journey on a cruise line to Helsinki. There are those who take it to commute home and there are those who take it to have a good time, and then there are those who take it so often, they try to make the best of it and party all night long. The bulk of the people we met were of that mindset. Oh yeah, and the city was gorgeous as well.

The start of our journey was marked with tardiness and confusion. I had no idea where to go, and when everyone else showed up way late, we ventured over to the cruise line, but there was some difficulty getting our tickets. Let's just say we made the best of it and turned it into a family reunion. By the time we got the tickets, they told us we had to run to the boat in order to make it on time. It felt almost like a sequence from Indiana Jones in which the door would close as we sprinted for it. But no, it was just a man standing in the doorway directing us inside. I think it was nice of the boat and all its passengers just to wait for us, then I saw people even later than us come aboard. Slackers.

Cruise ships aren't known for being plain, and this was no exception. There were lavish chandeliers hanging from the ceilings, slot machines around every corner, and let's not forget about the tacky carpet from the eighties, but then again, the tackiness of upholstery seems to be a trend in Stockholm; just check out the patterns on the seats of the trains. Even the people were elegant, well at least the cruise employees. The rest of the people were straight out of a Six Flags Theme Park - all these people crammed into one big entertainment venue mingling with one another. We saw the equivalent of less-than-average amount of teeth hill-billies, working prostitutes, alcoholics who aren't afraid to show it in public, and pot-smoking, trance-loving Finns that camp in front of our rooms together with middle-class yuppies and unassuming international families. I guess that's what happens when classes mix.

The funny thing about living in a cramped four-person room on a cruise ship for two days is that you tend to find out a lot about people whether we wanted to or not. We learned not only their background, but who they are as a person as well, and hopefully people didn't get too horrible an impression of who I was those two days because I wasn't quite myself. I even tried to dance a little which I've never been able to before. Maybe it was much easier because we were on a ship rocking back and forth. I quite enjoyed watching the herd of people move from side to side with each teeter of the ship. For some reason, the effect felt much more pronounced in this room.

We abstained from much more of the debauchery and retired to our rooms early in the morning only to find the drunk Finns still going at it strong in front of our rooms. You should've seen their rooms in the morning, like a war zone, not that I'd ever seen one in real life. I surveyed the damage as the rest of our party slowly awoke and got ready for a day in the city of Helsinki. The ship felt lifeless in the late morning especially compared to the night before with the loose women and passed-out drunks. The cleaning crew had done their job and was now working on making the ship presentable to the next group of passengers and their misadventures.

The city seemed equally as dead as we disembarked from the ship but it slowly came to life as we entered the main parts of the city. We passed by many buildings, churches, statues, and people on our tour though we found it was much the same as we've seen in Stockholm, only on a smaller scale. My roommate proclaimed to me at home that Helsinki is more of a European city than Stockholm, but I wasn't seeing it. To me, Stockholm is a European city because before Helsinki, it was the only one I knew. I think my favorite attraction of the city was the big white Russian church because we actually went inside. And outside, some of the residents were having a little Christmas-like processional down a small alley. We ate at a Texas-themed restaurant despite our misgivings of its lucrative prices and stereotypical portrayal of Texas and the Southwest. We had to pay for water, sick. I think most of us agreed it was a disgrace and an insult to the name of Texas.

We had a little bit of trouble getting back o nto the boat when one of our passengers forgot her boarding card. It was not fun when she had to purchase an entirely new ticket for 52 Euros ($75-100!). The journey back home was much more tame since it was Sunday night, and we spent it with some Finnish karaoke (the worst kind) and playing cards into the early morning. I had to rush home to meet up with my partner for a project in class since I didn't realize how late we would be in the morning. I got there only a little bit late but I still felt bad for making her wait. She probably hates me, but seemed amenable as we worked. She sure can hide it well.

2009-12-02T06:56:00.001-06:00

Shitdisco

Album: Kingdom of Fear, 2007
Sounds like Reverend Horton Heat, The Hives, Cut Off Your Hands

However did I discover this band? I can't imagine it was anything too mainstream like the radio because they would never play a band with a name like this. Shitdisco is a member of that fast rock without ears bleeding genre, and they add an element of dance beats to their sound. I can only imagine what it would be like to see them live. It's even more fun to imagine who else would go see them. I really wish I knew more people that are interested in this type of music without being repulsive in every other aspect of their lives like I'd imagine. Does that mean I despise myself for liking this kind of music? Is my self-esteem that warped? Maybe I should go see a psychologist while you evaluate for yourself if this is your cup of tea. I'd still like to hear from you if you really do really enjoy this stuff to prove myself wrong.

2009-11-28T04:50:00.002-06:00

This was the first time I had seen a band live more than once (Eisley doesn't count since we missed all but probably two songs of their set), and to make it even better, I got to see two bands I had seen previously. Grizzly Bear was the main act with St. Vincent as a special guest whereas I saw them in separate concerts in the summer, each with their own opening acts.

Because I went alone, I was highly confused, as usual. For some reason, the lady at the door made me throw away my water bottle. Seriously? Why? It's not like I would smuggle in alcohol that's readily available at the bar. It was only water. That dirty pirate lover. And apparently people don't mind checking in their coats at the cost of some money which is yet another reason that I don't wear a coat. The waiting room was a bar, another testament to Sweden's pervasive drinking culture, and let me tell you, by the end of the night, many people were pretty drunk.

I sat for a while by myself until they let us in the main room and then two other guys that I had identified as fellow loners started talking to me. One was from Göteborg so I took the opportunity to practice my Göteborska on him, and I asked him, but his name was not Glen, but I called him that anyway. The other guy was from Iran who had some awesome sideburns and we even had a mutual friend (not my roommate). We stood there awkwardly until the show started, remarking how St. Vincent was two minutes late.

It was actually only Annie the singer on stage which made for a more creative, more intimate performance. On the one hand, I feel sorry for the rest of the band that couldn't make their way overseas, but I'm also grateful that she could be so personal with us. She utilized all her equipment, starting off with some beats and piecing together each song on the fly. It was like watching a mad scientist with a benevolent disposition at work in her lab. I could tell she was flirting with the crowd, and while I was jealous, I knew she was only performing for them; the real stuff she is saving for me. I recognized her signature head bobbing and head shaking, though it wasn't as pronounced as the last time, but still made me smile. I kept waiting for her to say she was from Texas so I could scream or something, but alas, she never did. What a tease. By the way, I think I'm the only one in the world that gets annoyed when people start clapping to the beat during songs.

She mostly remixed her own songs, confirming to us her musical genius. She really is going to be David Bowie some day. I particularly enjoyed her "bossa nova" version of Actor Out of Work, and thanks to Andréa, I was prepared for her duet with Daniel from Grizzly Bear of The Party. Overall, it was a low-key, down-tempo show that was such a different experience from the last show. At this point, I knew I was glad I decided to attend.

Grizzly Bear was very much the same as the last time, playing all of the same songs in the same way, but they had some pretty inventive lighting. They had four apparati of six lights each hanging in glass jars. We found out later when they were thanking their stage support that it was Michael Brown who did the lighting. Methinks there's something about certain names that make it mandatory to repeat the full name; Drew, Stu, and Gooz didn't get that full name honor.

Despite constantly being pushed in all directions as is customary in a concert, I felt it was my duty to stick around for the entire show no matter how hot and uncomfortable it got. Besides, it was their final concert of a 10-week tour, their longest yet, and it was Thanksgiving, which they and the crowd acknowledged several times. At one point, because it was the last show, they offered to play any song, and some drunk girl who had been yelling out, "Ready, Able" all night finally got her wish satisfied, and if this weren't a Grizzly Bear concert, I would think she's announcing to the world that she's a common prostitute. Another drunk guy screamed about how they never played in Lisbon, and he sounded a little angry. At the end when they played their encore, some drunk girl yelled out, almost as if on cue, right as they finished and before people started clapping, "I'm not drunk!" Oh, you people slay me.

Some other things happened after the show, like I saw that DJ girl who stole my musical heart from the Passion Pit show but I think I creeped her out good and well. I really wish I could turn it off sometimes and not be such a pansy and run off without talking to people.

2009-11-25T14:30:00.001-06:00

Guillemots

Album: Red, 2008
Discovery tool: Edessa
Sounds like Robbie Williams, Klaxxons
Recommended for Tanayia, Caitlyn

Edessa told me that she really loves the song Clarion but not really any of their others, so my brain told me to check out the rest, for I had to see why she felt the way she did. I was a little surprised that she didn't like these other ones that much. Maybe it was the voice or maybe it sounded too commercial to her, jag vet inte. Nevertheless, I have to agree with her that not every single track is the greatest, and I really do love listening to Clarion over and over. I think I would describe their sound as modern big band music. Their songs are mainly vocal driven with loads and loads of big and loud and diverse sounds. You see, in the future we just don't use brass instruments as much as we used to. But don't discount their entire album just because of Edessa; I'm sure there are a few other songs you'll like. And they have a female playing the double bass: so hot.

2009-11-22T05:18:00.003-06:00

My mom was flipping through channels one day, back before digital television and we could get PBS (thanks a lot, Obama (and don't try and blame Bush, because you pushed the deadline out, so you take the blame)), I heard a familiar voice narrating a visually stunning program on sustainability. She continued surfing, and I rushed to my room to continue the program because with PBS you can potentially miss so much when there aren't any commercials. The program focused on many of the fields I'm interested in, including architecture, interior design, urban planning and globalization. Furthermore, it emphasized goals of sustainability, mobility, accessibility, community, culture, nature, recycling, reuse, and invention. From then on, I was hooked, but PBS didn't have a regular program schedule so I had to find the series through alternate means.

I finished watched all the episodes I could find of e² then put it aside for a while until I recently thought about how it related with my education. I rewatched some episodes then went in search of their Web site and found that there were now more! Ecstatic as I was, I quickly consumed those (with little waste byproduct) and rekindled my love affair. Watching so many episodes back to back helped me appreciate some of the more subtle aspects and themes such as when they reuse clips when talking about certain topics. They may even foreshadow subsequent episodes like in an episode following Jonathan Rose when they showed him at a conference talking to Ed Mazria who would be the subject of a following episode. In this respect it briefly reminded me of another of my favorite television programs, Arrested Development.

Similarly, e² uses Brad Pitt as their narrator (they used Morgan Freeman for one season for some weird reason) in a way that distances himself from the action and makes you forget who the face is behind the voice. That is, until I watched an episode profiling some of the sustainable rebuilding happening in New Orleans after that fateful hurricane. One of the interviewees mentions that Brad Pitt was the one who started one of the particular projects but he is never interviewed or acknowledged as being the narrator except for in the credits. I'm sure there are many other subtleties I have yet to discover, and I anticipate watching these and plenty of new episodes of e² to find more.

2009-11-18T04:11:00.001-06:00

The Avalanches

Album: Since I Left You, 2000
Sounds like Amon Tobin, Ratatat, Free the Robots
Recommended for Justin

Sampling is very popular in the DJ and music enthusiast culture, but I only just recently discovered it and subsequently enjoying it. I'm not completely entranced by it though I appreciate it's artistic value. It's usually hit or miss for me but I think what sealed the deal with this group were the transitions from song to song; I am such a sucker for continuous play albums. And this isn't the glitchy sort of sampling that I was first introduced to that probably put me off for quite some time. All of these tracks are danceable and you barely have time to breathe in between. I also love the variation between tracks. There's still that base dance beat but the music covers sounds from all the recent decades. I think about seventies kids dancing in the street, a party on an international flight with stewardesses from the sixties (when they were still called that) serving mixed drinks from the devil, and even a slow jam from the eighties. Mmm, I love variety and consistancy all bundled into one shiny package. Oh, and check out the awesome music video for Frontier Psychiatrist.

2009-11-15T09:20:00.000-06:00

Do you remember that scene in Evan Almighty in which Evan has to start reading some new laws that some other representative is looking to pass. He brings home a stack of papers just for one bill, and if I remember correctly, one of the essential plot elements is hidden within those papers. And I bet this movie isn't entirely fictional; many bills are humongous in length, just as convoluted, and some guy is probably building an ark in his backyard.

So I decided to see how I could help because surely they aren't going to do it themselves and neither are those poor, defenseless trees that they cut down and the octopussies they had to squeeze for all that ink. I believe I can help with the number of pages problem, but I'm afraid the octopussies are just going to have to continue taking it for now. If you take a look at this new bill presented by the infamous John Kerry (Why is he infamous? Don't ask me.) called the "Clean Energy Jobs and American Power Act".

I just know there's something devious in there. If you look at the actual bill, the margins are set so far into the paper, but for why? Maybe for some binding after printing and some note taking, but I don't think they need that much space. If I just adjust the right margin to a little bit farther out keeping the same line spacing and left margin I modestly calculate that it will save at least two lines on each page, which is about 8% of the entire page, reducing this 821-page bill by about 65 pages. I've found conflicting data as to how many sheets of paper come from a tree, from 9,000 all the way to 90,000 sheets depending on the tree, but any reduction in the amount of paper used should be warmly welcomed, although not warm enough to kindle a forest fire.

And it would save even more money if they just read everything on a computer or mobile device specialized for reading, taking notes, and collaborating with others. [Insert plug for Amazon Kindle or related device here.] But I realize that congress can't make big jumps in policy so why not use 100%-recycled paper exclusively or print double-sided pages? Hopefully they're smart enough to be doing this already.

Of course, it still doesn't solve the complexity and confusion of every bill. How do congressmen have the time to read all these? Maybe that's why they have staffs and interns who probably have a copy printed for each of them. But if they can read bills and give a short summary, then why not have a summary in the bill itself then enumerate the details in the body? Oh, I just don't get you people.

2009-11-11T05:24:00.001-06:00

Promise and the Monster

Album: Transparent Knives, 2007
Discovery tool: Annika
Sounds like Joanna Newsom, Laura Viers, Mew, The Knife, William Eaton
Recommended for Andrea

If a shrill voice and solitary guitar are enough to produce beautiful music, I should be a star by now. However, I don't think that's the aim with this music. There's a certain humility in these songs, somewhat depressing, yet somehow transiently hopeful. The addition of a backup string section sometimes even gives it a sense of fortitude and urgency, especially in tracks such as Night Out. As you might have picked up on, I'm not that good at parsing words from the sounds that come out of peoples' mouths, so I take every opportunity to appreciate the melody of the lyrics rather than their content. She makes it very easy to sing or hum along even if I don't know the words. But even without words, the music still conjures up images in head. I won't tell you what of, so as not to influence your experience. There'll be plenty of time to influence in the future, but if you'd like some now, please let me know, and we can work something out.

2009-11-09T06:41:00.001-06:00

First of all, I just know the snow was waiting for us to go on this field excursion. It started as we arrived at the bus and didn't let up until late on the first day. On top of that, it was cold, at one or two degrees above freezing, and it took a toll on my fingers and toes. I resorted to double stuffing my shoes with some black cloth I carry around and my knitted camera case after enduring numbness at the first stop. The first stop, just as the rest, was out in the countryside off on some side road. At any time a chainsaw massacre could've broken out and it would be too long before anyone noticed, and twice as long before they found our bodies. No no, I wasn't plotting anything. You don't have to plot destiny; it just happens.

Anyway, the first stop was at Gillberga Gryt which was a boulder cave caused by isostatic rebound pushing the land upward and fracturing the local rocks in such a way that a cave formed, though not what you'd think as a normal cave. It was more like crawling through the cavities between toppled dominoes or a fallen Jenga tower. In fact, some of the crevasses were so narrow, I was surprised a grown man or woman could fit through them, but we're exceptionally malleable creatures. It was so small that we had to split into three groups, one went in while another toured the outside and another held down the fort and watched our stuff. When it was our turn to wait, we saw two men in the forest headed in our direction, and naturally we were suspicious but we still tried to be friendly. They replied to our greetings then walked away with their Swedish redneck ponytails through the woods but not on any recognizable trail. I was sure they would come back when we least expected and hack us to bits, but alas, that did not happen.

We didn't have to endure any squishy ground or much muddiness at our next stop, which was to explore the area at the coast of the Baltic Sea where we could readily observe the ravages of regional uplift. Some Swedes had built a fishing village here many, many years ago, and at that time they built everything right on the coast, but now the ground had risen so much that their little inlet had become an enclosed lake and they couldn't get out to sea to fish. Sad story, but prime territory for squatting, except for the fact that it gets so cold and windy near the coast. Oh yeah, and it's a nature preserve, so the government would probably frown on that, unless perhaps, they recreate the living conditions of the early 1900s for all the people that come through. Maybe they could go a little bit further back and persecute people for being witches and plunder neighboring lands. And maybe they'd play the nyckelharp which directly translates into key harp which from peoples' descriptions, I believe it is a harpsichord.

It was getting dark by this time and we had already skipped one stop due to time, so we trekked out of the creepy forest and onward to Gävle, famous for its giant goats of winter, artificial goats, of course. The burning of these goats is perhaps why they're so famous, but alas, we found no goats so either it burned early or they haven't gotten around to it yet. The town was typical of other Swedish suburbs, at least from what I've seen of the cities around Stockholm, and this city isn't technically a suburb, it just wasn't all that big, however, there were still plenty on the streets. It felt like we were finally meeting real Swedes, those that weren't tainted by the globalization felt in Stockholm. I'm still undecided if that's a good thing. It was my first time in a hostel, and it was very strange, perhaps because the people running it were locals or because the other patrons were much older than I'd picture normal hostel patrons. Oh, and did I mention that Swedish people love their locks? One to get in the building and one for the room, and they only gave each room one set of keys. We should've just slept on the bus and saved the money. At least we got a typical Swedish breakfast.

Our main objective on the second day was to travel to another bog and take some core samples. It was much warmer today, getting up to eight degrees Celsius, but we still had to trek through the squishy ground. That reminds me, I still need to clean off my boots which weren't meant for this kind of activity. The coring equipment seemed so primitive; we had to jab a giant pole into the ground, twist it around, grab the sample, and retrieve. We got some pretty interesting samples as we progressed deeper and deeper, and I have a feeling that in our lab analysis we'll get to know those samples much more than we ever wanted to. Did I mention we were on a bog in which we sunk into the vegetation and swamp water with every step? Fun.

We ate lunch in this small village that I'm pretty sure was the setting for some horror movie. The city was a bunch of white buildings of which it seemed there was no life outside except at the restaurant we ate at. I bet they all belonged to some secret society and loathed us outsiders for coming in and disturbing their peace.

The final two stops were more geological oddities. The first were some free-standing springs at the base of an esker sustained by the impermeable clay layer beneath the ground. It was eerily quiet and the water was so still. It seemed much thicker than water, too, like it was mixed with corn syrup. Disappointingly, we still found no bodies, so we ventured on to the next stop which was the highest point of an esker north of Uppsala. By the way, don't ask me what an esker is; I'm still not exactly sure myself, but it would help if I had an informational video showing how they're formed. Yeah, that would be nice. We made it back to school Friday night and while I was tired, I still managed to go out that night at the behest of others.

I know I made our trip sound miserable, but it really wasn't that bad. I got to know some of the people in our class, and hopefully they had a good time as well. But more importantly, I got to practice my Swedish and learn loads of new phrases, phrases which should not be repeated in polite company. And I learned how to say mirage in four different languages which will certainly come in handy one day. I'm sure of it.

2009-11-04T09:31:00.005-06:00

Maserati

Album: Passages, 2009
Discovery tool: Post rock on Wikipedia; split CD found working at Radio UTD
Sounds like Explosions in the Sky, God is an Astronaut, Out Hud

Post rock! Yeah. If you're unacquainted with this modern genre, it's basically complicated rock. It's not three verses, a bridge, then "breaking it down" for two more minutes. However, that's not to say it isn't structured. You might compare it to light techno performed on guitars and drum, and there's little to no singing. But every post-rock artist is different. Take Maserati, for example. I first heard of them on a split CD with Head Automatica I found while at Radio UTD and probably played one or two of their tracks, but I didn't think too much about them but I've recently been on a post-rock stint, trying to expand my horizons, if you will. Maserati, I believe, is very characteristic of the genre with its cascading guitar-driven melodies and solid drum and bass rhythms but not the drum and bass you find in the clubs, however, the album does include three remixes, two of songs from their previous album which isn't too bad. It's definitely worth checking out if you like Passages. I couldn't picture them putting on a concert unless its one of those that everyone shows up to stoned and they veg for hours on end remarking at the end how short it was.

UPDATE: Jerry Fuchs, the drummer of such great bands as !!!, The Juan Maclean and Maserati, died on November 8 from a fall down an elevator shaft. That's quite unfortunate, and I hope this post didn't have anything to do with it. At least we have his music to remember him by.

2009-11-01T08:32:00.002-06:00

Our first class in this program was just an introduction, but it has taught me a great deal. The education you get is based on what you put into learning what it is you want. Learning is the focus rather than the classes; they're just there to nudge you in some direction. But more importantly, group work can be fun, at least when your teachers don't seem to mind. In order to test these limits I took it upon myself, with the inspiration and encouragement from fellow group mates, to incorporate a pink elephant into each presentation we gave. It really helped me apply some of the techniques I have learned over the years and was also another element to focus on to keep me interested during this course. I am quite pleased with how they turned out so I have decided to share them here for everyone to marvel at. And yes, I ripped off the ideas for most of these images, but I guess that was kind of the theme.

This was supposed to be animated, but I guess Blogger had other ideas so you get to stare at trees. Trust me, this one was good.

2009-10-28T08:42:00.004-06:00

Noisettes

Album: Wild Young Hearts, 2009
Discovery tool: H&M
Sounds like All Girl Summer Fun Band, Amy Winehouse, Basement Jaxx, Anjulie

Hmm, these guys (guys and girl) seem to be getting popular. I heard of them long ago with a previous album and didn't think too much of them. They seemed like a metal band trying to be edgy by having a female singer. Then one day, I was in ye olde H&M looking for clothes and remarking on their excellent taste in in-store browsing music when I heard Wild Young Hearts. I didn't know it at the time so I snagged what lyrics I could distinguish and when I found out who they really were, I was stunned. Could this really be that metal band from 2006 all grown up? Why yes, but I suspect there may have been some major management motivation to restructure this into a mainstream band. This album is diverse full of dance music, heart-felt ballads, light ditties with only a faint hint at their rock 'n' roll past. I can't say I'm in love with every song, but I admire her authentic voice and how they've tailored these songs to it. But diversity is good; there's something for everyone, and it keeps things fresh, and everybody loves fresh food (you hippies).

2009-10-25T08:43:00.002-06:00

Where can you see one king, two Nobel laureates, and plenty of really old men in suits? No, not the Nobel award ceremonies, but at an energy symposium hosted by my very own university. The agenda of the conference was to discuss the latest research, policies and politics of energy resources and production. They covered man topics from alternative fuels for transportation, subcritical nuclear power, energy efficiency, and most especially climate change and how it's going to shape the way we proceed from here on out.

The program alone was enough to draw me in, but the speakers and the way they presented the issues and their lack of consensus was what left me with a void. Instead of answers, I was left with disappointment. Where I was looking for ways to solve the world's problems, I only found old men touting their research of what has already happened and little on their predictions for the future. Even more, their outlandish technological solutions left much to the imagination. But I must remember that this is a conference of researchers; they are not meant to give answers, only postulate based on past data. Even with the king there I half-expected some sort of blatant policy recommendations. I was surprised the king stayed as long as he did, even through lunch.

The two Nobel laureates, one in chemistry, the other in physics, definitely had a distinct character about them. The first was a typical, humble old man whose charm compelled all those in attendance to hang on to every sentence, especially when he asked questions from the audience. The other had a commanding presence, that of a really knowledgeable man; he was the only person to give two talks, one on alternative fuels and another on subcritical thorium reactors - such a versatile repertoire.

However, even their character could not keep my attention. The dynamics between fraternal jesting and academic bickering did not make me want to listen, but I forced myself to listen anyway hoping that I could understand why their opinions differed. Most of the time their differences were semantical and superficial and others were cut short in the interest of time even though they stayed ahead of schedule through the symposium. It would have been neat to see how argumentative the panel discussions could grow if they weren't working under the constraints of limited time and the king. They were already escalating quite critically before the moderator had to intervene.

But instead of paying attention, most of the time I watched the men manning cameras and the program organizers signaling the speakers and moderators. The cameramen were quite adept, and I think I may have learned more from them than from the speakers. The main coordinator on the floor, a lady in a smart pant suit, was busy running around and checking everything as it was going on. I could sense the heightened level of stress during the question and answer portions because I know exactly what it is like to be in her role, but I feel she did a fine job and there were no critical slip ups.

Overall, I think the symposium was lacking in its substance. The presenters could have been a little more engaging and presented more concrete conclusions. Perhaps it was because they had so much time and they spent much of it with needless details and side stories or perhaps it was because there were so many speakers that the opinions differed so much. But such is the world - more opinions than there are people - and a true leader is the manager of those opinions.