Heartland: Keep the Dog Quiet + Mt. Alpentine

A second part. Wooohahahah.

Keep The Dog Quiet

My body is a cage.
This union is cage about a cage about a cage.
And this, and this town too.
I'll see you once in a while but I can't be seen with you.

There are a few references here and there that I can pick up on, and a lot I can't, but if I don't know my Arcade Fire references then I shouldn't be writing in the first place. Perhaps another paralell: both albums' penultimate track is an energetic, cathartic, wild beautiful mess of a piece with strings by Owen Pallet and drums by Jeremy Gara, and the ultimate track is postmodern strangeness, the opinion on which varies with the listener. But that's neither there nor anywhere.

The subject can't be anything but Lewis' wife. Able to directly talk to her last time, he can only draw a reference to her and his misgivings. Think of Midnight Directives the grandest of all images and directions. It's the grandest of all tottering, delusional, wild images that a man thinks is enough to drive him to a purpose. It's a false image of the utmost grandeur, of resolution in a decision that Lewis doesn't even understand. This quiet address, weak and yet insistent, is Lewis' discussion on the darker and weaker parts of his will.

"The union" seems to be explicitly their marriage, and perhaps implicitly Lewis' ties to anything at all, the ties he's breaking by leaving (but of course, does not have the courage to burn bridges and run away). The 3 cages could be taken literally: Lewis' cage surrounded by his wife's cage surrounded by the requirement of their union, but it doesn't need to be that direct.

More importantly, Lewis is trying to assuage a feeling of personal entrapment in his life by blaming his marriage, and even "this town" and this life. It's not as pretty a lie as in Midnight Directives, but it certainly has its irony. A man leaves his hometown to find god and salvation? Lewis'll have varying feelings about a homeland, but we'll see that his idea of what is intolerable starts from his wife, to his marriage and town, to Spectrum, to the whole fucking world, and eventually to the creator of this world, the god-author Owen.

Back to textual stuff: "I'll see you once in a while but I can't be seen with you" It's fun to play with who Owen is hiding from here, and it's not exactly clear. Perhaps his "clerical life" has consequences of who he's trying to impress? A lot of his thought later in the album is about being public: "voic[ing] our satisfactions," "on the pitch of the Avenroe grasses / I will sing, sing, sing to the masses." But his purpose is between he and god...right? There's not some human authority he's trying to plead. I'd read that more as a desire to be viewed as complete: to have no one be able to say "this man is not symbolically whole." He wants to obey his purpose, and is only able to make secret compromises BECAUSE he has such a purpose, and wants to be seen as whole, unironic, and complete. There's also an element of active vs. passive: "I'll do this, but I can't have this done to me" would be an accurate paraphrase, implying that his future will be all action action action, un-capitulating. This fits with his violent persona.

This place is a narrative mess.
The floor a tangle of bedsheets and battered sundress.
The journey once was consequential,
Now: sequential, sequential, sequential, sequential.

This stanza is key, in that is shows the cracks in reality. I could see two possible meanings to the first line. The first relates to Lewis himself. As the narrator, he (ironically) is our view onto the world; he could be describing the chaos of his own view and his place in it. He could also be mentioning the cracks in his desperate attempt to put meaning into things. But the second interpretation relates to Lewis' dissatisfaction with the whole story itself, created by Owen. He wants to, possibly, escape or entirely reshape the structure of everything in his own image. We'll see that he does just that.

"This place" is exactly what Lewis is distancing himself from, so it's cool to look at what those nouns mean and represent about what he's escaping, and why. The basis of his life, "the floor" consists of tangled sheets and a worn-down sundress...implying sexual activity with his wife is bringing him down, with a slight play on "undress"? Or that fabric, the way we cover ourselves and protect ourselves, is in some way against what he wants to base his life on? (Lewis Takes Off His Shirt becomes an awesome parallel then) A sly and esoteric reference to "Shake, Rattle and Roll" ? His distance from summery femininity? And battered...as if there was some sort of inherent conflict in her wearing it, or that there was conflict in their relationship? Sundresses weren't common 1300s fare, and perhaps the point is to put a crack in the chronology of the period to show a breakdown of the whole story (happens so much at later points). Rather then untangle and clean up the stuff on the floor, is Lewis simply running from the more complicated problems and fleeing into his dreams? It's one of the most poetically evocative lines in the entire album, and the possibilities are endless.

The last two lines are a bit easier: "My purpose used to matter, and now it's predictable." I see two possible meanings in that. The first, that Lewis thought that by marrying and starting a farm he could create the convenient concept of a life to bear. But the second is more prescient: that the purpose I just declared is placing me in a totally expectable role. I am reacting exactly, totally, and unequivocally as one would expect my archetype to. I am trapped in a story.

When will you silence your hounds?
The eldest sons to the altar of the Eternal Sound.
Their blood is spilled at the dawn.

The earlier analysis focused on Lewis' wife as the subject, but these lines start to make reference to Owen. I'm of the mind that the subject shifts, representing Lewis' total unsureness about what the fuck he's fighting for/against. But in the end: "when will you silence your hounds"; when will the shouting stop, when will the noise stop? There's a possible reference to hounds of hell, but I see mainly in this line (and in the title) a desire to keep things in control, and keep the inevitable out of the way. "Keep the dog quiet"; keep that loyal beast of nature away from my dreaming, keep his bark away from my singing.

Lewis continues his questioning of the higher power with biblical allusions: the last plague of Moses, and the Passover. It's cool that Owen picks out of the old testament, filled with images of a highly anthropomorphic and patriarchal god. It's the power and masculinity that Owen wants in his life, something that he praises in "Psalm 21" in Tryst With Mephisopheles. But here, he thinks on the cruelty of it: they are sacrificed as bidding, not unknowingly like in Egypt, but in a sort of death march toward inevitability. Yeah, Lewis embraces Owen, but that kind of death march is exactly what Lewis does not want with his life, the inevitable "sequen[ce]."

The sun, represented here in the "dawn," is made reference to throughout the work, but it's most relevant against the night of Midnight Directives. If that night was exciting and made for plans and plots, the day is for harsh truth. A cool structural part of the album is that is oscillates over day and night, which gives a sense of (a) the grand cycle of nature eternally at work, and (b) the short time frame Lewis takes to become transformed.

"Eternal Sound" is an interesting turn of phrase, not a reference that I can tell. Owen uses a similar turn of phrase in Tryst with Mephistopheles, in the context of "great white noise," and makes references to "seven inches of echo" in Oh Heartland, Up Yours! Lewis Takes Off His Shirt (thanks Thomas) The theme relates to a musical motif in the album: what is music, what is sound, and what is noise? That in turn ties into what words are, and what they can mean, and what they can pretend to mean. Lewis is mostly comfortable in his sense of Owen (hence, "sound"), and his reverence and vision of him is still of being "eternal" (which changes later); but cracks are starting to appear, urges and views that conflict each other, brought out in the light of the day.

A nation bound to your will, still, the violin plays on.
Plays its devotional song.
Once it was, once it was so essential,
Now: sequential, sequential, sequential, sequential.

This is a bit tricky. But: "music praises you." If music and sound are distinct things, one being the method of the story (In the musical allusions, in the words, in the references to singing and playing, in the whole damn medium of the album; and notice how most of the songs are somewhat upbeat, as if there's a manic clinging to music as expression which peaks at Tryst With Mephistopheles and breaks down at What Do You Think Will Happen Now?), and the other being Owen himself...true and open expression is bound to the more conflicted concept of the author. Music willingly has itself under the authority of God, and Lewis does not like that. Even though Lewis had praised god before, over the course of this song his opinion seems to dwindle to Owen himself being the subject of past essentially, now sequentiality. It's not clear, but I hear Lewis as saying, over the course of this tune "The stuff around me is derivative and trite and controlled, the whole place is derivative and trite and controlled, God and life are derivative and trite and controlled."

Such praise to God, Lewis asks, is it worth it? Why must one praise God? Although Lewis' purpose was immediately "clerical," the next few tunes drag him back to a heightened sense of reality. He refuses to ask the question of God, because such a vision is contradictory (containing the destruction of the masculine ideal in the "first borns," or being labeled as "sound"). So he pushes it all away, and leaves all the forshadowing and contradictions behind in this dark and frightening tune. A string crescendo, perhaps mirroring Lewis' mental progression, builds, halts as if taking a breath, and then:

Mt. Alpentine

Lead on, oh horse of mine, we will climb the side of Alpentine.
Lead on, oh horse of mine, we will voice our satisfactions.
Karma is the concatenation of your actions.

The most important bit of analysis in this song is that it is short, shouted, and ANGRY AND WILD AND MINOR AS FUCKALL. It's a clusterfuck of a lot of strings, vocals which barely manage to get out, and some synthy thing echoing in the background. It's practically noise, interesting if we accept music vs. sound vs. noise as a theme (it's kind of a weak point, but I think if it's an album about stories, it can be a story about an album): to escape the consequences of Keep the Dog Quiet, Lewis shrouds himself in pure noise and purpose, putting one goal in front of him: climbing a hill.

The climb has other implications to it. The choice of "Alpentine" is a funny thing; it's a very derivative name for a mountain, derived from the adjective "alpine." Certain aspects of Spectrum, especially the place names (as manifest in Flare Gun) are deliberately derivative; Owen makes deliberate cliches in order to enforce his commentary on the nature of stories and of fantasy.

The horse comes back a few times in the album, and is called Blue Imelda in Lewis Takes Action. I'm not very well acquainted with Spectrum, 14th Century, and what's more it is not contained in the scope of the album; but neither are all the allusions, and in the grander depiction of spectrum, it helps to grab from varied sources. So, an abbreviated run to Blue Imelda off of Spectrum:

Blue Imelda, She's the saddest bitch in all of Spectrum
She can't rely on business to keep herself satisfied
For we are only farmers, and the love of a farmer
Has one hand on the headboard and the other hand in the soil

Oh Lord, I'm yours forever, I will never take a lover
I'll keep myself as pious as my body will allow
For I am just a farmer, and the body of a farmer
Has one eye on the pussy and the other on the plough

I bow, I bend deeply
I'm sheepish and barely
Able to say it from beginning to the end
(Your shirt is torn to ribbons)
Woman, can I take you as a friend?

Sex and animals. Farmers don't care about the women but they care about the sex, farmers have natural urges and natures. But Lewis is leaving his farmership, right? (as suggested earlier, and articulated in Red Sun No. 5) He's a friend and a partner, I guess. Point is: Lewis can't get as far away from femininity as he'd like, or as he claimed he wanted to do. He'll have this horse. Yeah. Enough of that.

In the context of Mt. Alpentine, Imelda matters little, only as an echo of a subverting femininity on Lewis that he can't even recognize. Instead, Lewis focuses on a direct and concrete task, and then applies another value to it: "we will voice our satisfactions." What matter they? But the way that Lewis speeds down and attacks in Lewis Takes Action, Lewis is finding a way to exact his influence, to shape his world. If voicing his desires means making an ultimatum at the entirety of Spectrum, it would be a way for him to control. "Satisfaction" shows up in Red Sun No. 5 too, so it's important to look at what it means and implies: Lewis wants to declare what is enough for him, what make sense and is complete for him. Farmership can't, and apparently god can't but Lewis doesn't want to totally recognize that. So, just like through violence, Lewis is finding a way to make things definite. And so he climbs the mountain because he is insecure.

"Concatenation" is a programming term meaning to link two string variables together, and general word for connecting ideas. Lewis sees karma as a connecting force in his life, a grander order and sense, the assumption that what he is doing will be generally repayed, in some way, in some lifetime. Lewis is praying to some grander sense of justification, because his actions don't make sense to him. Maybe. But it's "your actions." Whose? That pronoun gets thrown about in life. Maybe it's the audience, and the phrase is a cry to us to try and see the order in our lives, as we're watching Lewis' crumble away. Or it could be Owen. Owen's storytold reality must have order to it, right? We hope? So if I Take Action, or climb Alpentine, it'll be ok? Right? Right?

HEARTLAND JUST GOT LEAKED

OWEN PALLET'S NEW ALBUM WAS JUST POSTED FOR SALE ON ITUNES

FORGIVE ME OWEN

IF YOU'RE GETTING IT FROM TORRENTS PLEASE BE SURE TO BUY IT

Physics: Proving Neutrons Exist (or Why Chadwick Got his Nobel Prize) (1/9)

Back in the 30s, the Joliot-Curies discovered a very high-energy radiation from polonium-emitted alpha particles to beryllium. The radiation shot out protons in a proton-heavy substance, parrafin wax, and so they suspected it was a high energy photon. Chadwick calculated the photon would have 52 MeV or so. Verify that.

Eg1 + Ep1 = Eg2 + Ep2
Eg1 + mp = Eg2 + mp + KEp By E = m + KE
Eg1 = Eg2 + KEp
Eg1 = Eg2 + (mp)(γ- 1)

pg1 = pg2 + pc
pg1 + (-pg2) = pc
Eg1 + Eg2 = pc By E^2 = p^2 for photons
Eg1 + Eg2 = (mp)(v)(γ) by the definition for momentum

Eg1 = [(mp)(v)(γ) - Eg1] + (mp)(γ- 1)
Eg1 = (mp/2)[γ(v + 1) - 1 ]
Eg1 = 52.67 MeV , by my plugging in, based on given data

A photon with such energy would cause a 410 KeV recoil in nitrogen. Show it.

Eg1 + EN1 = Eg2 + EN2
(Eg1) + mN = Eg2 + mN + KEN
KEN = (Eg1) - Eg2

pg1 = pg2 + pN2
pg2 = pN2 + (-pg1)
Eg2 = pN2 - (Eg1)

KEN = (Eg1) - [pN2 - (Eg1)]
KEN = pN2 - (2Eg1)
KEN - (2Eg1) = ((EN2)^2 - (mN2)^2 )^-1/2
(KEN)^2 + [4(Eg1)^2] - 2(2Eg1)(KEN) = (mN2)^2 + (KEN)^2 + 2(KEN)(mN2) - (mN2)^2
[4(Eg1)^2] - 2(2Eg1)(KEN) = 2(KEN)(mN2)
2(KEN)(mN2) + 2(2Eg1)(KEN) = [4(Eg1)^2]
2KEN[mN2 + (2Eg1) ] = [4(Eg1)^2]
KEN = [2(Eg1)^2]/[mN2 + (2Eg1)]

The right side is all constants, and Eg1 = 52 MeV gets me about .41 MeV.

Heartland: Lyrical Analysis: Midnight Directives

Owen Pallet just announced that he's giving up the FF name, because squeenix finally made the ":/" face long enough to convince his label that continuing under that name would be "unwise," specially for the album's release in Japan. "My name is Owen Pallett." Yes it is.

I guess that might represent a new direction in his songwriting style. The lyrics for heartland have been released for ages, and they definitely show a distance away from some of his past themes. Has a Good Home and He Poos Clouds both had heavy fantasy influences while being starkly, often disturbingly, realist, but the later album, plus the 3 EPs since then (counting X) showed even more wild imagery while being even darker; yet the video game references have died away. Yeah, I shrieked when I heard the Link's Awakening in "He Poos Clouds," but the "Into the mouth of Final Fantasy" was the last direct reference I've heard and can decipher. He is a tricky man, quiet in an aggressive way.

Anyway, my purpose is to do a post by post lyrical analysis of Heartland, anticipating it's 2010 release. I'm happy to say I'm daytripping up to Montreal to catch the end of his release tour. I bet I could find a bridge to sleep under, but I'll find a 10 dollar hostel near the Outrement and stick around after the show. So to the lyrics: let's go line by line

Midnight Directives

Cross her off the shortlist.
My blood is a red-winged bird.
The way will be lit by the bridges we burn, oh.

A lot of the album's themes have to do with masculinity, in relation to violence and sexuality, and they start planting their seeds here. The "her" to remove, very likely Lewis' wife, floats in and out of the narrative, like a specter of conscience or the like. But just as in the narrative, the violence supersedes that femininity: you can imagine the sharp movement of the pencil (a la Death Note) cutting her off from his "shortlist," an odd choice of word that probably highlights the way he's objectifying her into a list in his life.

He sees his life as dull, grounded; only through cutting her off and steeping himself in violence ("red") can he obtain any sort of freedom ("bird"). Lewis' blood boils and takes flight away from her, like a grand adventure. There's a paradox in the third line: "by burning the path behind us, we light the path before us" or even more directly, "kill the past to open the future." Lewis is making huge gestures that isolate himself from what he has, going through some darkness (otherwise, what need is there for light?) on his wild purpose. Burning, killing, trying to create light in what he sees as a dark world.

And come, tornado!
Carry me away from the croft.
Ruffle my hair, bear my body aloft, oh.

Speaking of the world about, it's the 14th century land of Spectrum, and apparently there are...tornadoes. There are two kinds of violence in Lewis' world: that within him, and that without him. The call upon nature to bear him up and treat him personally is a prayer to nature, to a cosmic unity and sense. But the world is already dark, the world already has tornadoes in him; the cosmic order that Lewis wants is just as violent as he is. "Croft" is an enclosed field area, and it makes reference to Lewis' profession as a farmer, a life he's actively rejecting.

As the cutlass came down on a Saturday night,
Left an un-planted field, left my daughter and wife.
Called away into service, for a clerical life.
Left an un-planted field, left my daughter and wife.

The chorus (repeated once later) sets definitely the thematic stuff in the first verse. Feeling a sense of adventure and youthfulness from (a) romanticized violence in a cutlass, and (b) a romanticized "night" on the Saturday, Lewis abandons his responsibility at home, both to his work and his (female) family. Two interesting notes on that first line: there's no need for the cutlass to have a wielder, all that Lewis seeks is his adventure; and there are possible religious connotations in Saturday.

The repetition of the fourth line only amplifies the leaving as a consequence of what he calls a "clerical life." The God-figure in the rest of this story is named Owen, aptly. Lewis sees his violence, and the violence he's seeking, as ordained from God. It's a duty! There's a solipsism in that. The implications of Owen as god sorta stretch out over the entire work, but there's a little bit of a play on the nature of fantasy (as one who focused his first two LPs on, bore the name of, and seemed to have been influenced by, fantasy works).

Thought I was a sad-boy.
Now I know, I know, I know I was wrong.
Since you came along, I can see how content I had been.

Lewis rewrites his past. The quip about "saturday night" above, implying a sort of youthful debauchery, also implies that Lewis is returning to a previous lifestyle/mindset. You could call it regression, but the main point is that he's rewriting the past. The supposed grown-up development that made him settle down confined him, and he's finding release in something he had already surpassed, or so we think. He needs to repeat the "I know" just to keep the momentum going (or Owen just needs to fill a line...). The "you" can't be anything but Owen, the greater sense of cosmic violence that he's returning to. He calls his pat "content," as if his soul has calm and unity in destruction. That's a bit of a contradiction in itself, but it'll be contested. It's also kind of fun to think of Owen swooping Lewis up romantically, but the role of sexuality/human-to-human stuff comes later. Right now, Lewis is freeing himself from the present.

It'll drive a man crazy to age from the outside in.
But I have a plan, it's a trick with a prick of a pin.

"Age" and youthfulness, yeah. Think of "outside-in" aging as feeling your body crumble and decay, weaken, stiffen, and fade while your mind clings to a past ideal. It's...watching everything fade away from you as you're totally lucid, rather than "inside-out" ing, becoming sedentary in mind and then in body. The former is too much for a man who idolizes his youth, so he rebels not only against the life he's created, but from age itself.

The second line is a bit vague, but has some elements. Lewis' method is destruction and cutting ties with the past; what is the plan? What is his purpose? I see two possible answers: 1) Pain -> reality. I will place a pin through things, create pain to call back to the "real world." 2) Deflating and reducing. I will take a pin and reduce life down to its bare essentials and truths, away from all hot air (haaaa). 3) Gay sex. "Pin" has a long history, dating back to Shakespeare, of meaning the penis, and "prick" has one too. The distance from femininity, coupled with the sense of being swept away and a bit of knowledge beforehand that Owen is putting themes of his own sexuality into the work, all make it somewhat plausible that Lewis is finding his youth through some sort of interaction with a penis. The artistic implications of gay sex here aren't exactly clear, especially in the strange context of religious life; but it could symbolize a return to pure masculinity (think the Greeks).

For a man can be bought, and a man can be sold,
And the price of a hundred thousand unwatered souls
Is a bit of meat and a bit of coal.
It's a bit of meat and a bit of coal.
It's a little bit of meat and coal.

A "man" (always a man) can be reduce down to his barest elements and controlled by his fuel. Lewis recognizes, in some capacity, that his trip back to his past through god/Owen. Just as he made his wife into an item on a "shortlist," he's just an input/output machine. This part is a bit tricky, but the second line help. For those who are wilting and "unwatered," needing sustinance, give them the objects to fuel fires and animals. Lewis is becoming an animal, I guess. Or equating himself with one, because he sees no worth in man beyond this. Everything in his current life is stale and objectified; so in his escaping, there's an ironic element of becoming the ultimate animal or object. Again, a little bit of outside information: the last three lines are sung like flute trills, like a wild and giddy curse.



I'll try to finish this over break, to escape my grandmother.

Concert Review: Final Fantasy + Mountain Goats

I'm kind of sick, so my thoughts aren't that organized, but that was a very good show.

Owen opeened. I have a live recording of him at Vienna, and he's...awkward and shy, usually. But he was really branching out in a bashful sort of way. No self-deprecation, no confusion...some exhaustion, but also quite a bit of energy. So his playing was top fucking notch, like amazingly. I knew everything when it came, mostly because the show was a lot like the vienna concert. I felt kind of alone there up front (JMV had a later ticket...I wish I had bought you that section 2 ticket the lady had), among a bunch of Mountain Goats fans(I only knew one song Guff had sent me; my summary of the period when they came on is that they were good but not what I wanted at that mentail state and I was also sick and restless so I didn't listnen to all of it, they did a fine job) being there for Owen.

He played a lot of very, very ambitious stuff from his new record, and that came along very very well. It's shaping up to be amazing, from what I've heard live and on demo. Across the board, though, he approached each song with as much vigor as he could muster. He plays with his boyfriend now, and they make a very good team. It's hard to find a guitarist that can finger pick the same line of a bowed violin doing 16th notes, but Owen's dating one. Nice, huh? They're all cute and shit (I wanna take 'em home).

Owen was on synth and violin and voice, with his loop pedal and his exactness. Thomas was on guitar and percussion and vocals + whistling. Just...goddamn, hearing some of those songs live are religious. His records are pretty good, yeah; but the joy of seeing him life is connecting with the process of musing, evolving right there in front of you with every push on the loop pedal. It helps for me that I've done so much research / fangirling on the guy (for Arcade Fire and Great Lake Swimmers, I've listened to it) that I can connect to him personally as well as through his music. So I got to enjoy his personality and process, as well as the beautiful music he let out. He's a very sincere musician, skilled and exact.

I got to meet Thomas right between the acts. I had been trying to catch owen and failed, so I sort of waved at Thomas saying "Goodbye," but he actually came over and we had a conversation. I talked about the Vienna show, and I would've liked to have talked more about his musicianship and their interplay, because it was so effective. But it was just light wonderful chatter. He's a lot more open and amiable than Owen (who clearly has a lot of pathos and shyness going on, bless him)...yeah, I think he pitches. Anyway, very nice conversation. I told him my name.

Mountain Goats set: above. It was really nice, but I wasn't looking for loud guitars at that point in time. However, anyone who said they're bad live are exaggerating. They're ok live.

Afterwards I was sort of wandering about when I, at the help of others, found their tour bus. I sat down near it and struck up a conversation with a guy about the music and about percussion as well. Someone tapped me on the shoulder and said Owen was walking by (unaccompanied by any adoring fans, the absolute SHAME!) and I gave him my love. It was more awkward and fangirly than I would've liked, but I felt I expressed what I was feeling. He hugged me and said he couldn't stop looking at my hair. I left in all smiles. If I am more lucid tomorrow I am going to feel gooooooooooooooood.

Stream of Consciousness First Impressions: Kaz's Pack, pt. 2

John Vanderslice - Radiant with Terror

I've heard this man's name somewhere before. I love the build here, the hypnotic sway of "back and forth back and forth" lends to a greater swelling, punctuated by the slightly distorted acoustic twang and those...glockenspiels? That takes courage, to use glockenspiels. Great sense of rhythm to grow, it's understated but very very grand. Nice chords, I guess. Why double-track those lyrics, really? Still, to get so much flow and build out of such a simple, radiant (ha) intro is quite the feat. Percussive weirdness is sorta strange, not as effective as he'd like it to be. Still, this song soars really really far. Wow, he's tight, those quickstops are nice. I'm glad it's as short as it is; he knows that you can't drag that on too long. The brightest star must flash for the shortest time, right? Unless you're a quasar or something. But this is wonderful! Great, hypnotic build, quite a lot of variation on a simple theme.

Mando Diao - The Wildfire (if it were true)

To be honest, Mando Diao is awesome and wonderful when I manage to not listen closely to it. I love his grooves death, and this song is no exception. The synth part, stretching past everything, really rounds out the song. But the acoustics and drums make a fine set of percussion. I wish the rhythm electric did more then arpeggiate chords; it's those kinds of things that could give his songs the variety and inspiration which I'm looking for in him. Really nice bass notes in the pre-chorus part. The chorus soars really well, and from a non-analytical perspective this is fantastic. But it's not fulfilling, sorta like a chocolate cake with crusty frosting. The drums could be fit better into this particular groove, it doesn't flow as smoothly as some of his other things. More onbeats, more melody, etc. Great pop writer, just enough for me forgive the saxophones on the chorus (hehehe). Basslines are really inventive, that's a plus, but not appropriate in many parts.

Manic Street Preachers - Be Natural

Accordion unfolding of a strange jazzy chord, then switching into that guitar progression...I use that one one a lot, I to iv, it creates a sense of sighing and opening. The drum use is sorta typical late-80s use, but they're pretty inventive I guess. Very subtle use of synth. Wow...once things get going, the drums are a huge asset. Occasional subtle doubling of the guitar melody, which is in itself wonderful. Great bass/drum work on the verse part, I like the swirling lyrics especially because they contrast with the guitar line really effective. Is that an accordion? It's a strange but wonderful addition. Nice guitar arpeggiations on the second verse, used in a really growth/melody method. Drums compliment everything perfectly. Woah, beat driven breakdown is surprising and well-executed...this is like the typical epic rock without all the crap about it. It feels more sincere, even a bit smaller. Guitar/vocal/rhythm guitar interplay for this song will be the thing I take away; it's able to soar only because there's such an unfolding and shrouding of a melodic line. It's not really my style, as it sort of borders on classic rock stylings (clearly influenced by the more modern stuff), but I like it a lot for what it is. They just toss in this wonderful bits of brilliance. They know how to vary dynamics too, which is good, hehe.

Mew - Snow Brigade

Oh, sweet, a chance to get into these guys more like you asked . Sonic rumblings and unstated sorts of things going on. There's an interplay in this noise which I like, is all their music so abstract. Those are chords. What's coming ne- OH. Violins and then these guitar lines again INCORPORATING those noise bits. Holy shit, that is fantastic drum work, making a perfect groove. The guitars don't need to overstate anything. They round it out really nicely on the prechorus. They make some strange choices for chords, and it's a bit harsh when that monster groove comes back in, which even the floaty lyrics and the echoey pizzicato can't fix. There's a...self-indulgent sort of melancholy in the lyrics, but whatever. Wow. That's fantastic breakdown, great guitar work and intervals, perfect use of drums to contrast while the guitar does its lyric weirdness. Good hits on that synth, nice swelling noise. They have the best sensibility about noise and what the ear hears that I've heard in a while. I wish they rounded out the vocals a bit, but that's just me. They're good! Am I correct in hearing the Norwegian / northwestern european influence? This song goes on a bit long, and it can't wholly fit together for me. But it's a great tune, great tune. Ahhh, fadeouts. Classic.

Mission of Burma - This is not a Photograph

My dad got me into these guys, they're wonderful. Great basswork, especially with the drums. Great guitar groove, but the groove of the whole feels a bit halting until we get farther in. Wow, great use of noise to keep things going. Very good punk work here. This is not a photograph, etc. Like a lot of punk, all I have to say is that I like it and it's fun and exciting, and in this case pretty artful.

American Music Club - Myopic Books

I love the atmopsheric quality. Very plaintive lyrics, simple acoustic works, quietly glowing, evoking. Like the piano atompshere to...hell, this sorta borders on ambient, or at least has roots there. I love the Dino Jr. reference, but as funny as it is, the guy manages to be almost dull, but not quite. Anyway, nice out there piano intervals. The hand drums fit in really nicely, because hey, we're just walking around this street praying and thinking. But it's ok, I'll find a bookstore. The chords on the acoustic are really nice, getting all the right intervals. There's no chance music going here, just a sort of pure musing, arcing up. Maybe the worst is over...these guys remind me of Bell Orchestre somewhat. Like the breakdown, like a point where you stand still and don't look at anything while your thoughts go everywhere. What is the nature of happiness, is the point, I guess. Flashes on, flashes off, like being visited. I really like this, my girlfriend would really dig this.

Atmosphere - Panic Attack I think I heard some asshole on /mu/ saying good things about this or something, plus a good friend recommended it. I like the groove alright, it's a bit weak in parts. But it's building and getting momentum. Wow, I like his rhymes and sonorities. He knows how to vary things, make syllables shorter to create a tension, all while the guitar held note soars over. He pays a lot of attention to what he's doing. His chorus looses some power for me, because I don't really like the beat as much as other grooves. Drums aren't meant to be that subtle and offbeating in this kind of pattern. Love the noise flying through things. He's making a real statment, trying to make things real. Yeah! He's good. Nice changes under the samples. Um, yeah. Cool.

Unjustness

the new fuck buttons is wonderful and exciting and open and yes, rooted in the dance stuff, but the music still unfolds, creates, excites, evokes, just like the former noise music, but now through a different medium; forgive me please

Stuff I'm Spinning / Piano

I've just been idly plugging things in, too reduced by sickness and fatigue to do some honest reviews. I feel cloudy.

Heartbeat Radio - Sondre Lerche. The guy did some fantastic work for "Dan in Real Life," and some of his other records have some interesting parts to them. When he strips away his rock influences for his acoustic focus, or generally turns down the rock for more lounge-style stuff, I'm often frustrated. His songwriting can be frustratingly convoluted, and although he has a pretty good sense of melody, his lyricism can be frustrating . He has a smooth sound, and occasionally his lounge stuff reaches good points, but the most of "Two Way Monologue" was difficult for me. Same with "Heartbeat Radio," except now he's discovered violins. His arranging in certain parts is good, and "I Guess It's Gonna Rain Today" has some wonderful intervals...but damn, he just doesn't know how to create flow and hang with it.

Tarot Sport - Fuck Buttons. I was really excited when I heard they had a new album, and I'm still working through it. However, my first impression is...disappointment. I don't like the dancey aspect to it. They used the 4/4 bass drum as a sort of pivot before, a basis or a spine, around which the song pivoted, struck against, shone with...I'm thinking directly of "Colours Move," but the regularity of the drums in a few other songs from Street Horrrsing provides a similar effect. I feel like they're...letting up a bit. That's just my first impression; I expect it to grow on me blah blah blah.

Fluent in Stroll - Big D and the Kids Table. The newfound cute self-defined "Stroll" genre is an excuse for '50s throwback and childish lyrics spiced with that same, somewhat annoying, female backup. I loved their earlier stuff, but I don't like the direction of this. Shame.

Kasabian. I'm listening to everything I can find, I love it I love it I love it I love it.



My chopin prelude (Db major for Kessler, the name "Raindrop" is highly inapt) is going awfully. I barely practiced and had no lessons ove the past three weeks. I've lost my technical ability over the parts, and I can barely play the second part of the middle section (with those rich, dissonant, tortured chords). Since it's such good music to hole up to and bash away at, in stress or peace, I think I'll spend my free time remastering certain technical aspects.

This totally leaves open all the texture-related and gesture-related and personal stuff that I should be doing. I need adjectives, and I need to stick with them and express them. I've had a few wonderful discussion about the nature of silence in the piece, and about the strange pivot point of the Ab/G# and its importance/relevance. I can barely do roman numeral analysis and I want to entirely split apart the piece and look for those golden gels and glowly liquids undearneath its placid skin. It has an unmatched range of emotion, but because the 3 statements of theme are so simliar (with the rich opportunity for contrast in the ornamentation), flow is so vitally important. How do you lead up to the creeping terror of the B section? How do you surface from it? How can you emerge from the silence, cascading down the piano in that Db major chord, with such expectation of rising again? To what? Where are we going?

I am thus overpowered by the work.

Comedown

I've been crashing all of today, half because I was up till 2 and got up at 6:30 for classes.

But, the other half is because Prop One passed in Maine, and now a large group of society of people who love each other very very much cannot get the institutional benefits, societal stability, and personal comfort that comes from a marriage. I'm slightly heartened by the small margin of the victory, as was true in prop eight; currently, the activism power of Human Rights' groups aren't enough to unseat deep-rooted beliefs and fictions about homosexuality or about queer rights. We'll always have Massachusetts, Vermont, Connecticut, and soon New Hampshire, but Maine isn't exactly a hotbed of liberalism. So there was a veto.

One of the frustrating things about all this is the strange state of the queer voice in all this. Of all the 10 states with the highest population of LGB (ignoring our Ts and As and Qs, as usual), none of them have gay marriage laws in place; and of the states with the highest percentage population, only 3 do. And then there's fucking Iowa! If Iowa of all places does it, why not Maine, with the 5th highest percent population of LGB folks?

I'd love to take a greater look at other statistical influences here, like religious focus in certain states compared to the results of propositions like Cali's 8 and Maine's 1, but...I'm too busy crying over all of this.

Concert Review: Toro Y Moi + Jemina Pearl + Islands

First: holy shit.

Second: I spent the entire night in front row directly, Jemina Pearl's head was six inches from my crotch, Nick Diamonds stroked my head and sang the first few lines of No You Don't with me.

It was a wonderful concert! The Flaming Lips concert a few weeks back made me realize that I am never again going to have as wonderful and transcendental an experience as I did then, and that's ok. So I'm coming into concerts more humbly, and there's a lot to like at the show.

I'm in loooove with the Middle East downstairs. It's a dive, the ceilings are slanted, the whole thing is sprawled out, shit just happens there and there's no bullshit in the way of it. Shit without bullshit. Just people playing shows from 9 PM to 12 AM, with 8 AM doors.

I got there at 8:15 or so, after stopping in with my girlfriend. The place has the definition of shitty bathrooms, but I quickly changed into a nifty new tshirt and some nice, simple jewelry. I love the coat check, took a lot of stress of my back. Because I get very...physical at concerts, screaming lyrics and using my entire body as a sort of air instrument, and in this case sort of worshipping the crazy presence of Mr. Diamonds, so it's nice to not have to carry shit. I didn't get to see my friend James there, which sucked and made me feel lonely, but my friend's roomate was there, and we chatted for a while about the music. I'm pretty bad with talking to strangers at concerts, except if I'm pumped and they're inebriated, but I did get into a conversation with one guy. Mostly, I just held my ground and listened to the music while texting in the interim.

Anyway, music. Opener was Toro Y Moi, also introducing himself as Charles. He came on stage in a sweater over a long-sleeved collared shirt, with these really thick glasses, and did his thing for 40 minutes before vacting. A really nice, humble sort of guy, and he did wonderful with the niche he put himself in. That niche was...transamerican synth-pop tinged with hip-hop and a bit of psychedelia, which is a surprisingly fleshed out genre (Rrrrrrrratatat! sorta). But hell, he had really good beats and varied them at good points, was a decent keyboardist, knew how to put a good soundscape (necessary for psychidelia) and good rhythms (necessary for pop) and good beats (necessary for hip-hop). All in all, I was very intrigued and happy with what went on. The guy is also the humblest, nicest guy you'll ever find, if that's a plus. But with his macbook and his korg and a mic...he did quite a bit very well. I was really happy about it.

I spent most of last night diving into Jemina Pearl's newest, and my general opinion of her stuff is somewhat positive. She's agressive and honest, in a refreshing sort of way. Of course she falls so easily into useless cliches, and her powerpop style leads to a lot of undue comparisons (and collaborations) with Iggy Pop. I had no expectations, and what I got was generally good. I knew the songs, and they have a good beat and a few goods riffs, while managing to somehow NOT be total hipster bullshit. I hate to say it, but it was cute. However pissed she is, I still got that vibe: "Aw, here's what Jemina's doing! She's writhing and spitting and kissing her guitar-playing boyfried. how nice" I'll give her a lot of credit for putting all of her spirit out there, even if it was clear that she was...either pissed or tipsy coming into the show. They were tight enough, they were together enough. It was alright. Not my thing. But you know? I think Iggy was there, looking disdainfully at the group. Mighta just been another weirdo with spiky black hair.

There were two disappointments to the Islands show: the fact that their ensemble was so small (no violinist, no bassonist, no freestyler like Bus Driver, just drums, a guitar/synth player, Jamie on Guitar/Synth, and Nick on guitar/vocals; and the sorta obvious fact that they are not the subtle and skilled players that seemed to record Return to the Sea. None of that...really mattered to me. The folks in the front few rows saw the setlist as it was on the floor...and we starting freaking out in excitement.

Switched On [Vap] [Costume]
No You Don't [Vap] [Costume]
Disarming the Car Bomb [Vap]
Tender Torture [Vap]
Creeper [Arm]
Where There's a Will, There's a Whalebone [Sea]
Vapours [Vap]
Heartbeat [Vap]
Don't Call Me Whitney Bobby [Sea]
On Foreigner [Vap]
The Arm [Arm]
Devout [Vap]
EOL [Vap]
I'm In Control [Vap]
----
Rough Gem [Sea]
Swans [Sea]



Parts of this were to be expected. They're still early in touring Vapours, so they're of course going to play the whole damn thing; and since Jamie wasn't around for Arm's Way (and perhaps because its quality is slightly lower), they won't do much from it: so if we're lucky, we'd get some key hits from Return to the Sea. Thus, we get 4 fantastic songs from the album, 2 of the best ones from The Arm, and almost the entire Vapours album (missing The Drums, I think, which is fine), which they managed to make very, very cool live.

I was a bit frustrated at the beginning of Switched On. Yeah, Nick in his white jumpsuit and diamond-studded cape was cool enough, and his batman glasses were even cooler, and his strange and dancey theatricals were nice and all...but I was struck by how...open their sound was. With only 3 guys on instruments (and the drummer on samples as well), there's not a lot of mobility to take everything that was detailed and exciting about their music. They held together well; they had the energy and the synergy, and they played and had fun with it. Nick seems to be a pretty understated sort of guy ("Woo, yeah." "You're awesome, Nick!" "Haha, thanks." "Are we awesome?" "Yes, you are in fact awesome...yes you are. I'd have to say that, though the purpose isn't to compare, that we are in fact more awesome." "Yeah, you're right."), and so it sort of fit. Most of the melodic lines and divisions of part were contained throughout the whole thing; it just took Nick 2 songs to take his cape off and pick up the guitar. No You Don't also showed their limitations, but also their strength of spirit.

It was at this song, Disarming the Car Bomb, that I noticed how every song was being done under tempo, seemingly for the sake of the instrumentalists. Anyway, Disarming annoyed me for the longest time, but live it's pretty nice! Think Ideoteque song become IDEOTEQUE CLOSER. Great beat, great use of drums. The drums were pretty constant throughout the whole thing, he didn't let up much to let things pass, instead just redoing rhythms and going along with a groove. He was on fire, though. It was great. Tender Torture was really good, Nick added in the guitar well, the the versatility of Jamie and the other guy was pretty clear, on synth and guitar.

Creeper was a song that they took a bit of creative liberty with. I think they changed around certain parts, cut out in a few places that weren't cut out, and might've messed with the structure a bit. I expected they'd play it live, and they did not disappoint. What was clear after No You Don't was made abundantly clear now: these guys can do amazing things on simple sorts of beats. Whalebone was great and all...it was sort of a letdown not having any freestyling over the bridge part, but they shortened it and groooved around a bit. All live acts have to face the challenge of muddiness in sound, and they did a very good job at keeping things...lucid. They kept it much more stripped down then Jemina (who is the biggest cause for my current deafness, fuck her boyfriend), but they were so energized that it was easy to get into.

Vapours was all cute and shit, clearly Nick just wanted to be cute and shit too. And so he was. Heartbeat was great, as expected: beat-driven and direct, so great for them (harkening back to the Unicorns, I guess). Don't Call me Whitney, Bobby was fucking religious. I just...everybody knew it, everybody was into it, the drummer made it better, everybody covered the parts of the song, but the sound was rounded out. It was better live. It was short and wonderfully sweet.


On Foreigner, and soon after that EOL, and I'm In Control are all in my mind a) generally bad songs, and b) songs that they did a really good live job in. Think of...Radiohead adding that bassline under The Gloaming in the Hail to the Thief tour. Kinda like that. They just do more with the synths, draw better beats together and make them less...floaty and stupid. The Arm had a few musical fuckups in it, but it had a lot of good pausing and changes of feel, which made it very very seizing and compelling: WHERE THE FUCK ARE WE GOING NEXT WOOO ISLANDDS ARE FOREVER WOOOO.


They left, came back, and played the opening chords of Rough Gem (the fucking tease actually played the opening guitar part for Volcanoes, and then switched. the bastard) and everybody went to and through the roof. It's a classic, it was distributed across iTunes and made famous, and it's just a really good song. They handled the instrumentation well, and let the synth catch a few liens while having hand claps on the quiet "Dun-dun-dun" of the hook. It was slower, but the drums and the synth really fit together nicely. They weren't their best at musicanship

In the few moments that I could actually hear the chords of Swams, I could tell that they were fucking up. A lot. It's a complex and detailed song, one requiring a lot of work and focus, and they didn't have the skill or the composure for their closer. But you know? It was fine. The memory factor was enough. They played it downtempo, making it around 11 minutes, but everything was tthere...fuck, did they add a few beats on the first proggy (major) part after the third statement of the theme, then going into the final (minor) proggy part? I think they did. That fucked me up. But all-around, I was psyched enough not to care about being off by two frets or playing in the wrong key. It was Swans, for christ's sake. It was Swans!

All in all: I loved the concert because I love Islands and Nick's funny and they have a good synergy. Also, Nick has really smooth hands. I think he just wanted to feel my hair.

Anyway, a summary: FUCK YEAAAHHHH

Random Concerting, and Why It's a Sort of Okay Thing

Although I keep track of my favorite artists through livekick (a wonderful tool; I downloaded iTunes on my windows partition on the pc just to export the xml library into livekick, and I hate Apple!), some of my happiest moments have been concerts somebody has said to be "Hey, shit, wanna come to this concert?"

Best memory like that was Tuesday last November. I was talking with a senior I sort of knew, hanging out in the Chem Lab doing problems and generally chewing the fat. He mentions how he's going to the Of Montreal concert tonight, front row seats. I say I'm happy for him, I know them vaguely. Later in the day, I'm walking down the hall expecting for another frustratingly long night of homework, and passes me by and says "Hey...my friend who bought the tickets isn't here...uh, you wanna go?" I jump on the opportunity...and suddenly we drive into Boston to see Gang Gang Dance open for Of Montreal. Blew my fucking mind, Kevin's a great showman. His wife painted my face and stroked my face with a whip. The senior kid had some vegan cake they were passing about, and got sick. We talked about music, and he clearly identified himself as the kid who jumped on one indie craze and moved to another after a few weeks (modern Flaming Lips, Neutral Milk Hotel, Of Montreal...that's sorta unfair, he had some Lou Reed). But yeah, I randomly got to go to a concert of a group I didn't know. Gang Gang Dance is now one of my favorite artists, and Of Montreal is up there.

I've had a lot of good experiences seeing concerts of groups I didn't know. The OM concert I jumped in was totally out of the blue, and that was pretty fun I guess. The Anti-Flag show was really really great, even though I didn't know much punk at that point. I saw Sigur Ros just when Meo Sud debuted, and it was an amazing show and I was able to connect with it, even if I only knew Svefn-en-Genglar (err) and some of (). The symphony shows I sometimes go to don't really count, I suppose; but there's been a lot of fun to be had from just saying SURE YES I'LL GRAB THESE TICKETS or I'D LOVE TO GO IN PLACE OF YOUR FRIEND! And I make sure to pay it forward by rarely letting people pay for tickets I buy.

But...damn, there's always something lost. The Black Moth Super Rainbow concerts I've been to have been really wonderful, but I'm just not that well-versed in their entire discography. I'll here a cut here, a cut there, and I'm left to admire these wonderful soundscapes that I...really don't have any emotional connection to. I saw Radiohead and that was fucking AMAZING...but I hadn't checked out In Rainbows before going. It's not like I didn't enjoy everything and wasn't transported by it; but I couldn't understand how much of a religious event it is to see 15 Step live. And some shows just fall flat. I try to give music a chance, but it gets hot in clubs, and I get thirsty and it's too distorted to hear. I spent the majority of the Down concert sorta...hanging out in the back, half asleep. There's so much loss in just going in blind; I'm trying to make sure to listen to the headliner, and the last opener, before going, just for context (kinda failed for Jemina Pearl, though. Eh.)

I bring this up because there's the annual Mighty Mighty Bosstones show that my sister and I might like to go to. I guess it's more about if I want to be in proximity to my sister.

Islands

I've been listening to Islands non-stop for most of the weekend. I'm seeing their Middle East show in Boston on the 4th, and I'm wondering what to expect. I've been reading about the Arm's Way shows, and how much screwing around they did; leaving the stage and gallivanting around the streets, and letting Bus Driver freestyle in the streets before folks dispersed. I have classes the following morning, so I hope things don't go too late; but hell, it could be fun.

I discovered Islands a few years ago through Keat, although it took me a while to plug them in and give them a serious listen. I've been fangirling over them to anybody and everybody since I plugged in "Return to the Sea" on a long car ride home.

"Return to the Sea" struck me in a lot of different ways. Yeah, I liked the creepyness and darkness that their lyrics contain, but once they overdid it in "Arm's Way," that lost its luster. The tone of the album struck me immediately. They put a lot of work into production, like any good pop album, but there are so many small touches that make the album magical for me to this day: the loose snare on "Don't Call Me Whitney, Bobby," the wailing at the beginning of "Swans," the slightly detuned whistling on "Humans," the clicky beginning percussion for "Volcanoes," and the untouched piano of "Bucky Little Wing." They paid a lot of attention to atmosphere and tonality, how the album would actually sound in your ear and how important that was. I apprecaite that a lot.

The songwriting is also topnotch.

The arc of the album was the most compelling thing, for me. I maintain that "Swans" is a work of genius, and part of my reasoning for that lies in how it traces the rest of the album. It begins quietly and evocatively, far away from the noise and bluntness of the Unicorns year (there's a huge biographical aspect here, of course), slowly complexifying. Melody, even in the bass part is vital, and they use the drums to allow their song to unfold and curl back, letting the bits of piano or electric or wailing. The first verse / chorus part is balanced in its parts, not letting guitars or noise become the predominant force. In the second part, the piano gets so much more rhythmic importance, and the crazy wailing and the guitars trade prominance and importance. They keep grooving on those same bits, and have a nice breakdown which bleeds back into so much more noise. We get one last, simple restatement, before everything gets back into full force, turning finally into a flat out prog rocky sort of ending. But just after that, all the parts break away into their parts, holding rhythms and bathing in the same noise without much in the way of direction. Where the hell are we? Where did we go in the last 9 minutes?

The song becomes more and more complex and layered, eventually more noisey and rocky, then breaking down, just as the album does. The sardonic "Humans" and creepily light "Whitney" become longer and more beat-heavy songs like "Rough Gem" and "Joggin' Gorgeous Summer," which in turn culminate in "Volcanoes." They're playing around with what pop does; sit back and hop along, or grab you. The end of the album is a huge decrescendo from "Volcanoes": "If" and "Ones" exist in their own, frightening sort of stripped down universe, and "Bucky" is simple in a way that no other song on the album dares to be. Just like "Swans," we built up to the crazy proggy stuff, and then had to face the consequences and results: this after-noise, this openness and use of silence in "Bucky" or the hypnosis of "Ones."

"Bucky," I think, is the best possible way to end the album. The song is simply piano and some vocal backing, and the structure is simple. There's no subtlty, on one hand, and no noise, on the other. The subject matter isn't creepy, like death or cannibalism, but simply stated and sad: racism and friendship, death and departure. It's the perfect cap on the album: "despite all the places and crescendoes we've gone through, let's break everything down and talk about something incredibly organic for a while. you'll have to wait through 4 minutes of rain to hear it, but it's worth it." And it is! It's a strange and exciting end to the kind of journey we've just gone through.



I highly doubt we'll hear much of "Return to the Sea." Even though Jamie's back, they have better songs to play at concerts. The entirety of "Arm's Way" sort of sucks, but has a better beat and must be easier to play; and of course, there's the new album to tour, and a lot of those cuts are very good for live or for radio. I expect "Switched On" for an opener, and somewere in there: "No You Don't", "Vapours" (maybe a closer), "Tender Torture" (definitely), "Heartbeat" (probably), "Disarming the Car Bomb" (likely), "The Arm" (totally), "J'Aime Vous Voir Quitter" (unless this is really a veiled reference to Jaime leaving, in which he wouldn't like to), "Creeper" (clearly), "We Swim" (maybe), "I Feel Evil Creping In" (yeah), and maybe "Rough Gem." Trust me, though, if they throw in "Swans" or break things down for "Bucky," you can be sure I'll be grasping at Nick and Jamie in lurv. I'll be on the sides hydrating during Toro Y Moi, but I'll be up at the front for Jemina Pearl.

So fucking EXCITED!

My Love Affair With Sufjan Stevens

So there's been a lot of activity on the Sufjan front. He's touring a bit, and he has two new releases but no new material. It's ironic to me that his two releases are so...retrospective.

Run Rabbit Run is a string version of his strange and wonderful Enjoy Your Rabbit, 14 electronic instrumental songs filled with rhythmic weirdness and fascinating rhythms (for a sample, check Year of the Boar segueing into Year of the Tiger). I think he's referenced a zodiac-themed album as a sort of stepping stone: his use of the names of the zodiac represent his own inability to find names for songs, to define and encapsulate a song in a title. A Sun Came! is weird and very experimental in a sometimes good, sometimes bad way. Despite his maturity in Enjoy Your Rabbit, there was more to do before he could become the "Titles longer than the song itself" master. To have Osso redo the album is to re-recognize that stage in his career: the experimentation, the difficulty to name and to encapsulate, the density and difficult of his works.

Ironically, Michigan and Illinois (I don't know seven swans that well, so I won't talk about it) are all about encapsulation. Using long titles, and a whole state as a concept, subjects filled with both researched and experienced feelings and events. The Michigan project got him going into this vein, and he was so enthusiastic to contain everything in song that he took 3 discs, two from Illinois and one from the Avalanche, to paint everything he could. He wanted to paint the entire fifty states, using his inquisitive and emotional outlook to take everything in, everything. He wanted to put true experience into his melodic, often sparse, often acoustic, often plaintive and simple style: the exact opposite of his early career.

The BQE is a mix of the two. Exploring the subject of the Bronx-Queens Expressway, Sufjan is again trying to contain an abstract in song. But he's not picking such a large subject as New York (he had mentioned New York as the next possible state subject, at one point), but rather something a bit more managable. He is using a mostly acoustic medium to try to contain all of his spirit, but he uses electronic sounds and eschews vocals. He divides things into names, but also relies on classical format and divison: Prelude, interlude, movement. It's less an album than an orchestral suite, a huge undertaking no longer limited by his own skill at his 5+ instruments.

Maybe this was always the fate of his music. One of the most striking things about Michigan to me was the use of electric hums between songs, and the fleeting, highly distorted guitar solos. Illinois ended with a nonvocal track, and had all sorts of nonvocal interludes, with a bit of electronic styling in it. Avalanche was a bit heavier in that respect. He threw in a track on Dark Was the Night that was all electronic...I dunno, seems to me like he's been itching to get back into the instrumental suite style. But will it work? Returning from his highly popular, melodic and environmentally evocative music, will it work?

FUCK YES. It works brilliantly. Unlike perhaps some of his other albums, you really have to devote energy to actively listening, otherwise you might say: "Absolutely nothing happens in this album until Movement 4 when the crazy electronics come in." I'm only halfway through the album and I am seriously in love with it.

The Prelude on the Esplanade is a sonic gem, a tone exploration of shouting cars and difficulties, flitting around tonalities of sort of major keys, enticing us onward and crescendoing, brought onward and onward and onward until this brilliantly tonal fanfare. At first, I was disappointed with the fanfare when compared to, say, The Black Hawk War [yadda], but I'm getting more into it. The chords arc up over the tonal center, and fall back down. He tells us: getting on trains is awesome, yo, but you gotta get somewhere too. Feelings of movement are given a real tonal, and not just crazy noise, center. The horn work is phenomenal.

So we're on the train now, I guess? And we get very quiet and artful pieces. Invaders stands out very strongly against the others, in that those three notes at the end of each phrase are like a horn, or a siren. Throughout the piece, horns and woodwinds take and let go of that carrying call, and the drums stop pausing behind it and time itself seems to stretch a bit. It's a fantastic piece of work, beautiful sense of growth in it. The first few songs I remember less well, but they're in the same vein: melodically genius, sonically enthralling, quiet and exciting.

But hell, Movement III into Movement IV is probably my favorite thing to come out of speakers ever. Seriously. Horns in III take their sweet times, using the space and uncertain time signature to create a sense of...I dunno, a clearing filling with trees that slowly grow and intertwine. You figure out it's in 7/8, certain horns take that little embellishment at the end of a phrase, but there is still so much growth and tension. Those embellishments don't fall on the beat, and it's hard to tell how many horns are playing at the time. Unlike a lot of his Michigan music, the complexity doesn't come from the interlocking of simple, melodic lines; everything is dense as fuck. You get a sense of buoyancy from it, though, a sense of rising to something; those embellishments become a symbol of clarity, those 7/8 phrases get a bit more clear. We're rising, drums and more bass sounds come in, instruments shift to maybe create a hole in those dense interlocking branches, and suddenly, suddenly HOLY SHIT WE'RE GOING LIGHTSPEED. It's like Rainbow Road in Mario Kart or something. It's a totally different sonic texture, choppy and hyperactive, and just like in the best parts of Enjoy your Rabbit, oboes and beats mix really well. I imagine myself speeding down a highway at like 125 km/hr dancing and running and rolling and all sorts of things. It's a huge climax, but strangely he's not afraid to put on the breaks and take away density. He understands that the sounds themselves make the tension here; so he'll through in off-color notes and bits of strange tonality that create excitement and direction, and POOF it'll go back to that part with the oboes. Incredible stuff.

I'll post more when I have a greater opinion. I got inspired to listen to Sufie because of a road trip through Illinois and Michigan.

Also: NEW FUCK BUTTONS ALBUM, MY DEAR GLORIOUS CLOUDS YES.

Stream of Consciousness First Impressions: Hiro's Pack pt. 7 + Kaz's Pack pt. 1

Midlake - Roscoe

Cool synth+electric, setting up a circular groove, and around which that perfect bassline spreads, and the rhythm gutiar works, adding...well, rhythm to the drum line as it comes in. Really good growth and introduction, that. The drum fills help create ebbs in the flow, perfect and creative addition of ride cymbols which creates a feeling of surfacing to air. Once again through...vocals are nice and all. Harmonies expand and contract, making even more flow. Flow like water. The harmony for the chorus-like part is especially badass...awoooo...now a creative rhythm and melodic acoustic on low and high frets. Gosh, these guys know how to write a song and put the bits together. Nice solo, descending lines, calmed with those double-tracked vocals after. Bass shifts surprisingly, again ebbing and flwoing. Now a rising, not descending line into the solo, which reaches farther than its counterpart while being borne into the past. 1891 must be an epicly deep, percussive yearh. Soaring, shouting, all still cyclical and excited. Ride sticks along for the last verse. and so you can just here the beginning cycling line there. Woooo!

Supergrass - St. Petersburg It's encrypted.

Yeasayer - Sunrise Yay!

More strange harmonies. Textured and creepy piano, screeching and striking. The crying and noise evolves into a beat, distrubted...maybe a bit ineffective but very cool. Nice bass, great use of vies to evoke and string things together, but the rest of the groove keeps on behind it, for better or worse. Beats get more interesting, but omsething's off...there's no...basis. Listening more to the percussive entrances/exits make it cooler/more interesting, but something isn't going right. Nice touch on the chorus. Doesn't feel like a breakdwon after it, though..wasn't in it to break, you know?Vocals build nicely but never did make for the the epicness of the start. It's denser...and not much else. Looking pack, the percussion deserves a lot more credit, but it's all too choppy to have flow, that's it. The flow doesn't work for me. The bass and voice and vibes just aren't enough. I sort of want to say "Too artful," but what I mean is that they should clear away the crap and really do what they do well. Simplify, simplify, simplify. Nice, though.

Camper Van Beethoven - Take the Skinheads Bowling

Hops into a solid groove. Like the balence: held notes on the top electric, some shift in the lower electric, and nots of good shhift in the bass. Drums is a good balence of simplicity and interestingness...oh screw you Hiro. I am laughing so hard. Thi is just...lul.

Peter Bjorn and John - The Chills

Cool fuzz-bass and good drum groove under that vibes shit and the shhhing. Breaks down nicely. The drum work is really good...even if it's a loop. Love the haunty shifty vocals. Great reintroduction of material into the verse. An unexpected breakdown...buildingand receding with drums. But once everything roars in...there isn't much actually there. It's a sweet groove, but it's just sorta burning, having some stuff thrown in. His reedy voice is less soulful, stirring, and evocative then needed...that's one of my bigger problems with PB&J, they have great hooks and great beats, and then things just sorta sit there and feel less interesting. I could see this being wonderful for dancing. Most of this stuff is wonderful for dancing, dear.

Ratatat, Slim Thug, T.I. & Bun B. - Three Kings

Again, great beat on their part. That electric is a bit annoying, but the drums and synthy moanings are really good, vary nice with the voice. Again, no discernable point in lyrics besides misogyny and hubris, great breakdown as we get closer to the chorus form, adding and removing things. Some of the rhymes are nice, but neither rapper so far is really impressing me. I like this kind of stuff, rap with a bit more variation in the beat and change as things continue on. It's quite the challenge to make a hip-hop beat and hide it an sorts of other percussion, and still have it flow, which this song acheives. But this Slim Thug man just strikes me as an asshole. Third guy I like a bit better, plays with rhythm more. Some of my favorite rappers, mostly Doesone and Subtitle, use crazy rhymes and sonorities along with rhythm and subject. But none of them are particurally inspiring. Good, but not my thing. Rhyming a bunch of things with "ug" is also pretty stupid in its own right, I'll say.

Midlake - Young Bride

Builds, emerges out of the silence on violin and octaves on the acoustic...staging, setting. The violin plays on a blues scale solemnly and reflectively, the acoustic builds up, and these drums which are simple yet really compelling, and easily and effectively altered. Like a tired old woman. They know when to stop speaking to make it awesome. Adding in bass creates more flow, and then they cut it in half by adding the second, stronger snare. Builds together for the chorus, the crazy shimmering over all that we've created, that we now receede. Drums and bass start it back off, drums starting off and become slightly more complex, more exciting and dense. Nice throwaway double and triple tracking for effect. It still feels organic and natural, even though that electronic wailing and sorta bright synth tone sits over everything. Great second set of vocals on the chorus, which is a tapestry of sounds in the most exciting sort of way. Awesome. Nice breakdown to violin solos, now building and mirroring each other so as to evoke...more of that natural growth, despite the fact that we've gotten so much energy. Third chorus is just ten times more badass because of this, and because of the extra vocal work going into it. Oh man, oh man, oh man. Wonderful! Great intervals on that vocal line, reminiscent of the violins. That's smart, that's friggin' smart. I love it! Keeps going, perhaps a bit less exciting, but there's a good solo over it so I don't care. Midlake is amazing, amazing. We're drowning in more synthy winthy wonderful hundred-fold intensity then further dying away into its source, grasshoppers. Oh boy that was fantastic and wonderful. LOVE.



Jesse Sykes and the Sweet Hereafter - Birds over Water

Unfolding in an arpeggio, to those violin notes flittering about the dominant, ready to resolve...wow. Evoking, pulling. Electric is simple and really fantastic, manages the same thing. Percussion moving little, but not needing to. Electric builds more, allowing the violins to really push what's going on. It's slowly, it's somewhat bluesy, but that's great. Rumbling of a snare, I think?, in the background. Nice chromatism, everything, the rhythm and the flow, rest on that guitar. But now it's secondary, jumping in with piano to frame each vocal line, adding all this drama. Vocals fit perfectly, descending and bridging those two chords. More activity on violins and guitar and piano, plus vocal harmonies, make more tension. We're almost, but not quiet, at a regular percussion, not just epic frames and throwins. Rides and snares jump in and create it. Here we are. Shit, man. Voilins create tonality, electric frames and creates rhythm and tension, resolved by the nature of the chords itself. Piano is really percussion. A really good balance and mix exists here, how amazing. Gosh. Like birds over water, such a buildup, after we've had all of this. The chords are changed to awkward counterparts, needing even more resolution and care, and the piece meets that requirement fantastically. Oh wowie. Love it, love it! How wonderful! The formula is getting old but I don't care. Acoustic is just...so damn pretty, evocative. Breaks to a solo part, she really knows what she's doing and how to achieve it. I love everything follows the path of the guitar, even though the guitar is the supported one: all of the emotion lies there, and thus brightens everything around it. How...that's just impossible. Impossibly done. Fall down on me. I can't even hear everything because I'm on this fucking plane and this is just making me feel warm inside. Fall down on me. Second solo, holding on notes and then descending, using piano to vault back up to the tonic. Each resolution to that tonic is such a sweet release of pain, like she's holding back very subtly and then bringing us home. I feel carried, loved, appreciated, welcomed in in this respect. She's speaking to me. Secondary acoustic is simple enough to really enhance everything. Such damn good use of violins. Like seriuosly, holy shit Kaz. If the rest of this pack is that good you should win a Nobel Fucking Peace Prize. I love you so much.

Stream of Consciousness First Impressions: Hiro's Pack, pt. 6

PNAU - Embrace The opening builds nicely, as that one bass/synth note arrives out of nowhere and, along with slight percussion, creates a beat out of those chords. Great beat, nice electric riff. Pacing is nice and slow. The vocals sit on that major second, creating a sort of pivot, but it's not that effective. Chorus is awesome, good high notes bringing the progression into awesome land. I do really like the beat, and it's very danceable, which is a huge merit. New synth chords, broken down bassline, and 16th notes on the hihat all create a a sense of achieving, but again...it doesn't impress me or astound me much. Nice bridge, it's a sense of restraint that hasn't been present before. Builds back up again very well, they're influenced by techno tradition without succumbing to it. Strange choice of becoming a verse after that, but it's ok. Ok third chorus is badass with the drums. I turned up the volume and it got better. A lot of their music is lines sticking around the same few notes, and using deviations from that to create material: the vocals in that one interval in the verse and the high notes on chorus; repeated bassline; that same guitar riff on the verse, and a few other things. That's where the techno part comes in for me, since that's what a lot of techno is. This song doesn't really do it for me, but it's pretty cool. It doesn't need a real hook that it comes back to, which is an achievement.

PNAU - Freedom Acoustic and echoey sorta progression is SUPER COOL. The echoes create some nice syncopated / offbeat rhythms, and the acoustic texture adds a lot to the song: each 2 measures starts rough and ends soft. It was a good decision to have the vocals be softer, and start their line towards the 2nd measure. Really good balance...and then they send this strange falling vocal line over it. Nothing else is really changing interestingly, but that vocal line does quite a lot to sustain a piece. They're so groove oriented, which is a really cool thing to be doing...nice droning in the background, but it's sort of a cheap trick to fill in the parts where the percussion cuts out. Small bits of echoes here and there do the same thing. It's great and all, but I'd prefer they invest their energy in making a bit more happen. They're great at flow, and great at groove, but the song is missing a lot for me...direction, maybe. Or a hook. Then again, it's fine how it is, moving along nicely. It's not really my thing, but it's good!

Midlake - Head Home Flute and synth! Awesome. They're dancing around each other, one repeated and one orbiting it. Great sense of build when the drums come in, but it doesn't stop there; the progression has this strange chords that don't quite resolve, giving a greater sense of growth. Nice piano, but it's a bit obnoxious once the vocals come in. Vocals are sparse and subtle enough, like the basswork, to make it interesting, while the piano forms the real bass of things. Chorus brings intro-y part back. That's some good bass work. That bass pattern feels a bit too country-style for this song, but it creates a bit of a bluesy effect. Is that a bit of Thom Yorke in the vocals? I'm starting to love the way the piano keeps driving along. Great vocal harmonies. Nice drum cutout. Their form seems to breakdown a bit, and I don't know where I am, but it's cool! Great tonalities and playing and all. They keep on building things, although the drum fills under the guitar solo might be a bit over the top. Guitar solo is a bit self-indulgent as well, but it uses held notes nicely. I just noticed the synth part on the chorus (?), it's pretty sick. I think I'll head hooooooome. Hypnotic, and notice how so much of the complexity has been reduced for clarity? They're paying really good attention. This part, with vocals and piano unison is just fantastic. Sort of a breakdown / outro that refuses to die, just keeps building and evolving. Another guitar solo which sits nicely over everything. It had to end with a fadeout, with that kind of momentum. Really nice, I'll be glad to hear this again.

The Futureheads - Hounds of Love Great, more strangeness. Oh man, that's fun and also really cool. Intersecting lines which are inverses of each other sketching chords which the guitar takes and turns into awesome. Really effective drumming. I like how the vocals just keep going over the verse part. The 3-3-2 split for drum beats doesn't really drive me, but it's growing on more. When the electric really starts humming, that's really badass. I'll take my shoes off and I will be really enjoying this stuff. The drum builds nicely, to the ride and to these much larger beats. Vocals are interesting, I like it. Great rhythm and tone. Short and really cool!

Wolf Parade - It's a Curse Yay wolf parade. Love the rising noise going into the serious drums. Piano one measure vs. dropping guitar line is very cool. Wonderful flow. Vocals are really good, using strong notes to accent the beat. Bass notes are really cool chords, grunting and driving. After the chorusish part (which is strangely loose), they mix everything a bit more. Synthy bass takes more focus, and it's awesome. I see why these guys are compared to Arcade Fire a bit, the way they build is very simple but very well thought. I'm not feeling the chorus, until oh major key stuff. Piano finally fits in nicely. Still love how the vocals drive the beat along. It just stays on the place they've gotten to...they're all about this really cool build and just making it more awesome and different and nice. Synthy stuff in the last 4 measures even, and even though I don't exactly where we went, it was really fun and I liked going there!

Peter Bjorn and John - Let's Call it Off Nice beat. Drives forth. Nice rhythm guitar, really smooth and creates a nice chord structure. It's a strange choice to have steel drum and echoey guitar mimicking their line. Very good use of drums to drive into the verse. Vocals are strange, and don't really fit in the tonality of the song. But it's exciting because of the bassline, which is nice. They throw in this great hits, just like at the beginning of the verse, and now into the chorus. I love the chorus, very nice chords. Great songwriting, it all fits together wonderfully. Great offbeats on the acoustic in the chorus, that's why I love it so. That set of three beats at the end of some drum beats really drive things forward nicely. Haha, referencing the intro with all this momentum now. It's fun, I realize; even though the verse is heavy and all, this lick is really light. And then that one part of the intro is the chorus, oh man! I'm not being too clear, but I guess suffice to say I love their tone, the way they build, and their songwriting. Good call.

My Morning Jacket - Lay Low There's a really good flow in the drum beat: the bass is at either side of it, so the middle part of it is like coming up for air. Great guitar work, setting up the rhythm, and then working a melody off of it. It's a simple, really great grove. Vocals float along, perhaps a bit out of place. Bass rounds things out, piano is cute. It took me a moment to realize what time signature or whatever. But it's polyrhythmic and cool and bright and energetic...while still maintaining a really good beat. It doesn't need to be hypercomplex, since they have such great attention to detail already. It's so damn tight. Bluesish, I guess. Rising chords at the end of the chorus are really great, supported well by drum hits. They play only as much as they need to. That's a pretty good guitar solo, actually relating to the flow of the song. The solo just goes on. Those piano chords are like...arches in a cathedral, I dunno. But the groove keeps on hopping along, getting more creative, sometimes adding doubled solos, changing drumbeats and flow. It's exciting, it's energizing. What are they going to do next? And even if the solos just go on and on, they're wonderful to listen to. Nothing about this is boring, and that's real feat.

Peter Bjorn and John - Nothing to Worry About The opening vocals are creepy but hypnotizing...took me a while to realize they're English. Nice beat to draw it off, and then they put a few sonic hits and goodies over that one groove for a few measures. And you know? That's fine. I love their pacing, they really know when to slow down. Nice bass work. Great groove, they put a lot of stress on the onbeats and it's awesome. I've got nothing to worry about just drives down to one of the drum hits...that's really exact. I love all the little stuff they throw in, it's interesting...but it's not like they're substituting for material. And behind all that, that...what's the adjective for that guitar line, wavy, wiggly? The one behind the entire song that comes in after the intro? Nice. Cuts out and only the guitar and some goodies. Short and tight and really cool.

Ratatat and The Notorious B.I.G. - Party and Bullshit Nice buildup to add in the guitar. Whole thing is a good beat, nice and syncopated, cuts out nicely. I don't really like BIG's rhyming, but I like his rhythm. Ratatat is paying a lot of great attention to the beat, so it all flows nicely. They do cool creative things with the aabaabaabaab pattern that is modern rap. I love ratatat's little touches, the tiniest cut-out riff really adds to the flow. They're really creative. BIG does great work too. All around, a good track...BIG's narrative is a bit flat, a bit stupid, and his rhyming isn't that creative, but it has its moment. But the pretty good rapping with the very good beat work make this a really good cut. Gotta love Ratatat.

Classical Music: Fuck Yeah!

My teacher and I were delving into a Chopin piece I'm working on, the raindrop prelude (awful name), and not just technically either: we talked a lot about singing, about weight and the transfer of weight, about tone and pulsing tones, about direction, about syntax (holy shit "tempo rubato actually means stolen time...what a wonderful imagery), and most of all about silence. The use of silence which surrounds a piece in the beginning and the end, and the way pieces flow from that: does it break the silence (Polonaises)? does it flow from it (Db prelude)? And even more vitally, how does the piece interact with silence over its course? Tempo is a means of pushing away silence, but the composer can interlace silence with the pattern of notes notes, but the color, the tempo, the everything! So much of 20th century experimentation, like the concept of color-tone melody or Klangfarbenmelodie, was about redefining the nature of the way notes interact, and silence plays a huge role! I thought of Webern, among other composers...and my mind turned to the likes of Grouper and Lichens, and the way they play with silence and repetition, with only a guitar, a sampler, and a voice.

That in turn got me thinking about the role of classical music in society. In American culture, at least, there's such a sense of...elitism attached to it. People are astounded at the high prices of good Symphony seats (I'm going tomorrow ftw), and yet shell out so much more for front-row concert tickets. There are a lot of explanations for why...because of the elitists who claim it as the only true form of music?...because of America's desire to overthrow what was a very European culture, and attempt to redefine it with jazz (huge goddamn irony) and rock'n'roll and pop and all?...because of all the intellectual pressure some music puts on its listener?

And this isn't the modern period of "classical music" that's typically referenced, it's your Baroque, Renaissance, Romantic, and slightly post-romantic stuff that's focused on! All the big names of the past ages. Mozart noticed, Wagner peeked into, and Schoenberg blew wide open the peak to all this atonal shit that can clear out concert halls. The sometimes super-intellectual and dense and distant, the sometimes ugly, the sometimes rapturous and jaw dropping and terrifying sets of sounds that can be passed over, so quickly, as experimentation and junk. And that's not just Europe! Starting with Ives and going into Cage, music feel deep into experimentation far beyond anything in Europe: in the '50s, the aftermath of WWII left dozens of huge names in California, and in the '60s electronic music created a generation of musicians like mathematicians or scientists. There were pieces written that were silence (and motionless Dance accompaniments to them), pieces that comprised of fists smashing keys, music that was all made on tape reels, compositions based on Chinese divination techniques, music scores that were a sentence or two, music that consists of 40 or so violins playing the same note, and slowly, one by one, diverging until a 40 note chord fills the speakers. It's unbelievable! It's horrendous! It's exciting! It's experimental! It's American! It's so rich and can be so amazing! But nobody notices!

Even as folks like Gershwin and Copland tried for the popular feel, there was a retreating faction of composers who retreated into their darkened studio-laboratories. Minimalists like Steve Reich and Phillip Glass, who tried to reduce all of music to its corest elements, are despite their attempts still far away from the popular stream. Thus pop music became the norm, and

I'm not saying that any sort of musical degeneration has occurred. That's a bullshit deconstructive useless thing to say! I have a lot more Beatles, or Islands, or Sufjan Stevens, or Bjork, or Ry Cooder, or Anti-Flag, or Sun Ra, or Nine Inch Nails, or mine and my girlfriend's stuff combined than I do Schoenberg or Mozart.

But man, doesn't the stereotypical maniacal, calculated, unemotional, sadistic villain enjoy a dash of classical music while he's slipping on his stereotypical black leather gloves? Isn't the classically-focused elite so often, so joyfully, and so enthusiastically satirized or rejected by pop music, folk music, punk music, metal, noise...despite the fact that the language they use is so similar? Cadence, rhythm, tonality and all that...they're the same!

What I'm saying is, classical music has a really unjust stereotype. Not every band you hear on the radio is worthwhile or interesting; not every one of Mozart's symphonies are amazing transcendent automatically beautiful pieces. That's nostalgia. People have never, ever stopped making good music. But I wish people would search a bit more, and just find certain pieces that really speak to them. To find a way to ignore all the criticism and analysis of classical pieces, as you've learned to ignore that reedy 20-something who runs the counter at your local record store.

There's just so much richness to be found! Why hold yourself back?