6.30.2010

"come to witness now the sinking of the ship / throwing pennies from the seatop next to it"

listen to this song.

immediately.

some of the best lyric construction i've been privy to in a long while.



"the more i seek the more i'm sought"

6.29.2010

both of today's songs are from the promise ring's 2002 record, wood/water.

it's been a hell of a day (again). i went with old favorites to tuck into it.

first: for having lost the guitar i've carried with me since high school.



second: one to map what it felt like to walk out of the building today and imagine the next school year in the same stride.



"i've been around before / this time i don't know what's in store."

6.28.2010

been a hell of a day.

if you don't have an ear for lo-fi filth in your pop production i'm gonna wave you off right now.

this song sounds like the weird of my last 14 hours, finally resolving into melody.

i hope it scratches your itch too.

6.27.2010

among my favorite songs from a band that ranks easily among those i hold most dear.

you may be familiar with glen hansard from the film once and his work with the swell season. fact is, for a few years there, seeing the frames live was like going to an old time revival.

sometimes rock and roll can set right your ragged little soul.

kind of thing you need.

sometimes.



for good measure, here's the song that follows on the record:

6.26.2010

making up for yesterday. dropped another one.

i'll log the first half of a move as my excuse.

by way of contrition, enjoy some more dan mangan. this song dangerously skirts colloquial cliche, but is better for it.

bittersweet.

6.25.2010

today, the freshmen who started the same year i started teaching graduate. some of the best people i've ever known will be leaving the school, a few of which aren't students.

"we must pack up every piece

of this life we used to love

just to keep ourselves at least enough to carry on."

this song is for them:

now, sentimentality pushed to the side, new music. thanks go out to sean for this one.

like springsteen? how about the vocal intonation of a young warren zevon?

this song is just shy of eight minutes long, but it does a decent job of earning them with enough jubilant high points to warrant the occasional vamping.

off to dance poorly and make sure to get my money's worth out of the open bar.

enjoy the gateway to your weekend.

6.24.2010

no narrative, just a couple of songs.

some noisy, ramshackle, anarchic fun:

give this track a minute or so to get going:

6.23.2010

leaving a drink-up reunion of some old friends, this track popped up on random.

it'd been a while since i'd listened to rival schools' 2001 record, united by fate, and this track held up perfectly to my marginally drunk walk in the 90-something heat.

enjoy the guitars, growl, and joyfully juvenile lyrics.

6.22.2010

i am unapologetic for having fallen for pete yorn's 2001 record musicforthemorningafter.

unfortunately, everything he did after it was sometimes forgettable and more often embarrassing.

this track reminds me a great deal of the sort of (affected, admittedly) youthful desperation/ambition that made yorn's first record worth listening to.

add a couple moments of buckley-esque plaintive vocal flourishes and i'm sold.

6.21.2010

isaac brock of modest mouse has this side project, ugly casanova.

it is pretty incredible.

tomorrow, the soundtrack for a film drops that has new 8 new tracks from ugly casanova on it, and this one track from the 2002 release sharpen your teeth.

it is definitely in your best interest to check out the whole record, but here's another favorite from sharpen your teeth.

6.20.2010

canadian rap. leads off a verse with hockey rhymes.

it's pretty canadian.

it's pretty nerdy.

it's pretty good.

6.19.2010

a track from the weakerthans, who share some band member dna with propagandhi (who contributed yesterday's song) in the form of john samson.

6.18.2010

was in the mood for some middle 90's today.

delivered:

6.17.2010

seems that i didn't properly submit this post last night.

rectified.

6.16.2010

melodic, catchy, unobtrusively produced, clocking in under two minutes.

sign me up.

there's just something about this british chick rocking these jazz/blues vocal conventions that really works for me.

6.15.2010

this video is awful.

this song is pretty great. if a little plodding.

thanks to rob this time around.

6.14.2010

thanks go out to my brother zach for this one.

6.13.2010

do you like james brown? prince? big boi?

6.12.2010

i barely had to even cast a line into the soupy internets for today's song.

check out lost in the trees.

6.11.2010

the original version of "strangers" by the kinks:

Holy man and holy priest
This love of life makes me weak at my knees
And when we get there make your play
'Cos soon I feel you're gonna carry us away
In a promised lie you made us believe
For many men there is so much grief
And my mind is proud but it aches with rage
And if I live too long I'm afraid I'll die

i posted the wye oak cover a few days ago. definitely worth checking out as well.

6.10.2010

i've been getting a bit of mileage out of wye oak over the last few days. a solid, poppy cut from their 2008 record, if children:

don't be surprised if they show up again in the next few days.

the songs of may...

...all in one handy zip file.

http://www.mediafire.com/file/zzn1zai2oog/May2010.zip

i'll try to do this for each month.

today's song(s) will come later.

6.9.2010

some good old fashioned filthy trash feels pretty good sometimes. enjoy the archers of loaf triple play:

6.8.2010 [cover]

this is one hell of a kinks cover, right here.

Wye Oak covers The Kinks

you should hit up the a.v. club undercover for some other interesting cover song/artist pairings whenever you have some time to kill.

6.8.2010

found myself amused by this today.

6.7.2010

two women singing at opposite ends of emotional register.

first, a playful taunt:

second, the reassuring, but honest, confidant:

i was a big fan of nina nastasia's 2003 record, run to ruin, and i'm glad to see her pulling off this sort of tasteful orchestration and subtle vocal phrasing this time around.

6.6.2010 (amends)

okay, as arrears for my dropping the ball yesterday, have two:

do you remember superchunk?

and an old favorite from billy bragg.

6.5.2010 (whoops...)

so, yeah, i forgot to post yesterday.

fell asleep around 10pm. on the couch. in front of two fans.

it's hot out there. and in here.

don't judge me.

hopefully this little nugget of 1969ness will keep you at bay. dammit.

6.4.2010

got a bit sidetracked today. lease applications. sleep deprivation.

here's a comforting bit of personal favorite.

also, go watch some mitch hedberg right now

6.3.2010

delicate, pretty, slow. sitting still and waiting for the humidity to break.

6.2.2010

summery, derivative, poppy, cute.

i'm good with it.

it's been a good day.

6.1.2010

these chicks kick ass.