GIVE IN

(EDIT: I have unsuccessfully attempted to use two different animated GIFs of figures dancing as the launching pad for this blog post. Now that the second one appears to have died, I officially give up. Congratulations, interweb; you win! Now my barely-lucid ramblings make absolutely no sense whatsoever! KUDOS)

See this dancing GIF? (EDIT: No, you don't, because people are fuckers. Grrr.) See the Youtube embed of "Telephasic Workshop" by Boards of Canada underneath it? These two things, when put together, create a very minimalist multimedia experience that is simultaneously pedestrian and sublime; these days, practically anybody could slap these together after a rudimentary tutorial, but this fact glosses over the impressive technological advances that make these mundane, silly things work. It's something that the modern web crusader is likely to gloss over; I know that I do often enough. Those moments when I release myself from my jaded pose and appreciate the minor joys available from finding and combining things like this are more precious to me than I normally like to admit; it's a window back into childhood, when everything was worthy of marvelling at it for hours and you had to work to be disappointed by the things you encountered. I'm rapidly approaching 40; by all rights I've outgrown that naivety and have cemented my place as an adult doing my best to make a name for himself. This makes me even more grateful when I can find something simple and stupid to make me forget about my adult worries for a moment and just smile for a while.

Also, Home Girl really is totally getting down to this beat (EDIT: Not that you can see it, or the dancing skeleton that was originally there. Fucking technology.) (as she should, and you should too because it is YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS).

hi I have been drinking

I really don't have much to say here other than the following:

1. hi dere I'm drunk
2. hi dere I'm in England
3. hi dere the Yeah Yeah Yeahs album is astonishing
4. hi dere I am going to waste the rest of my internet time looking at shameful porn regardless of the other dude in the business center

That is all; good night and goood luck.

HOLY SHIT HOLY SHIT HOLY SHIT

ok so this is definitely a little sooner than i expected to post again, but one of my absolute musical heroes is on youtube, and i cant wait for the usual flood of adulation and rose petals to be spread upon my blogging doorstep before sharing this with you.

brace yourselves.

so i played the violin for many years, and despite the fact that i quit when i decided that the electric bass was cooler (because i was at the time what modern retro-internet-engineers refer to as a "douchebag"), i still have one beacon of classical violin performance that has been a specific touchstone in everything i have valued in expressive musicianship ever since. Leonid Kogan is the greatest musician of the 20th century. Oh yeah, no, I know that you think that this is a bold claim, but shut up and listen.

Lalo Symphonie Espagnole (1st Movement)
Bach Partita No 2 VIDEO
waaaaaaauuuu VIDEO

INTRODUCTORY COURSE IN THE AWESOMENESS OF METAL YAAAH DUDES TEH HORNS

So yeah, I get it, this whole metal obsession I have is probably a bit baffling and confusing and should I go so far to say UNSETTLING given my terribly advanced age and obvious deep interest in the classier side of life (I have been drinking fancy beers of late sometimes and I own a house and all that grownup stuff). So I understand how this metal thing might be perhaps a bit challenging to your perception of me as a well known blogger that enjoys the finer blog-centric aspects of life, like windsurfing and my stable of finely pedigreed draft horses and such.

Trust me, I am as confused as you are.

So it would be easy to offer the modernistic technorchestral stylings of Ulver or perhaps the art (bears) rock (against rock) stylings of the unimpeachable Sleepytime Gorilla Museum but c'mon yawn this isn't going to topple any of your preconceptions about that ugly little jean-vested cousin of rock that throws up horns behind the high school tennis courts and says meekly "oh hey I am metal it is OK if you aren't really in the mood for me, I get it, and besides there is an unopened pack of Magic The Gathering cards I must attend to."

SO
for them I think it is time that we shed all our postmodern semi-appreciation whatsits and stop fronting and cuddle up to fantastic ugly messes like Mastodon (oh hey the new album is not quite so METAL btw, but this has all that THIN LIZZY stuff the tru metal dudes love) and the unpronounceable band name sludge-monkey stylings of Torche. Oh and to quiet the death to false metal crowd, here is Olympia Washingtons contribution to the 2nd (3rd? 4th?) wave of black metal Wolves In The Throne Room.

ONE OF MY FAVORITE METAL LABELS DUUUUUUDES
ULVER
SLEEPYTIME GORILLA MUSEUM
MASTODON IS STILL WORTH LISTENING TO I PROMISE
TORCHE SHOULD PROBABLY GET OFF THEIR ASS AND HAVE MORE THAN A MYSPACE SITE
WOLVES IN THE THRONE ROOM (WHO DEFINITELY LIED ABOUT THAT "VINYL ONLY EP" THING.) I STILL LOVE YOU, YOU JERKS.

YES!

Pet Shop Boys released an album called Yes last month. I finally picked it up after prying my ears away from the new Depeche Mode (which, btw, is easily my album of the year so far, and if you haven't heard it yet you FAIL). Embedded below is the video for their lead single, "Love Etc."



I'm not going to say that "hard-hitting" was ever an adjective I consciously associated with PSB, even at their raviest. Their appeal lies in the intertwining of their super-warm synth lines with sometimes cynical, sometimes wistful, sometimes hopeful but always thoughtful lyrics. I will admit, though, that my first reaction to this song was to scratch my head a little bit. It isn't a bad song, not by any stretch of the imagination, but it does seem to be somewhat... complacent, particularly coming from the group responsible for "Rent" and "Yesterday, When I Was Mad"; it's almost as if they internalized the arch pose of "Being Boring" to the point where it is no longer satire, it's their life. Two things happened that made me reconsider:

• I saw the above video. There still an aura of understatement about it, something kind of astonishing considering the dayglo color palatte and the hypnotically-rhythmic videogame imagery running through it, but it still brings a sense of vibrancy to the song missing from a cold listen to it.
• I listened to the full album. Not only is this song perfectly indicative of the lush atmosphere permeating Yes, its own charms are greatly enhanced by leading into a song ("All Over The World")that bases its bridge riff off of "The Nutcracker Suite"; it's difficult to get worked up over shoehorning limp football sloganeering into a song when you're boggling at the blatantly fake horns blaring the March at you. In all honesty, I can't decide if I love it or hate it.

At any rate, once I was able to realign my thoughts and place Yes in its proper place (warm, gentle album from aging synth-heads who are more interested in doing comfort food than pushing boundaries), I started enjoying it a lot more. I don't like it as much as I liked Fundamental or Release, but it's not something I regret buying. (The newest Prince albums, OTOH... Yikes.)

http://www.petshopboys.co.uk (dead end world?)
https://www.lotusflow3r.com/th3b0mb.html (what the hell, why are you ruining my childhood memories with this shit)

SCREAM ON

On Tuesday's "American Idol", Christian widower Danny Gokey attempted to sing Aerosmith's "Dream On". It didn't quite work (although it worked well enough for him to beat out Allison Iraheta). This is that performance distilled to its essence:



I wish the entire thing had been like this.

what the hell

Can someone explain to me why I have a copy of Kidz Bop doing the Crazy Frog version of "Axel F" on my computer?

http://www.kidzbop.com/music (what happened? I am confused)