TumblNina

I had a really hard time picking just one song from Zoe Keating’s One Cello x 16 Natoma to share since the layering of the cello in each track is so aurally novel and beautiful. I tried generating a random number, but Matlab picked 8, “Legions (Aftermath)” and that track was least representative of the album as a whole in its slow fade out. I ended up picking “We Insist” since it was under 10 mb so I could upload it without degrading the sound quality. Like on the rest of the tracks in this album, this song tells a beautiful multi-layered narrative via the cello.

I am a sucker for songs that entail clapping, and Peter, Bjorn, and John’s “Eyes” from their forthcoming album, Gimme Some (March 29),has some nice ones and is generally a nice little ditty to bop around to.

That said, I was largely underwhelmed by the rest of the album. Some of the lyrics were nauseatingly cliché, and the beginning drum beat of “May Seem Macabre” sounds exactly like Bloc Party’s “She’s Hearing Voices.”

Mos Dub’s “History Town” comprises two of my favorite things: impeccably placed and timed samples of Desmond Dekker’s “Shanty Town” and multiple references to Brooklyn (by Talib Kweli and Mos Def). This one is on 2010’s Mos Dub. Thanks to Justus for the steady flow of good music.

I heard Mazarin’s “For Energy Infinite” rather early this morning before heading to the mountain and it set a nice synth-poppy mood for the day. Thanks to Greg for finding it in a video game.

I was very excited to hear Bad Books’s cover of Built to Spill’s “The Plan” from the moment I heard a riff from the track during their sound check and setup at an ApKmicroshow - you can watch the video here - and it sounded awesome, as most things Built to Spill do. Bad Books posted the song and video recently so I thought I would share the awesome.

I have spent many days listening to Maps & Atlases’s 2010 release Perch Patchwork trying to pick a favorite song, and I finally settled on the closing track, “Perch Patchwork.” They remind me in certain tracks of the Dirty Projectors in their vocal intonations, and have a few lovely instrumental tracks as well. This album is beautiful - thanks to Lauren for bringing it to my awareness. 

(A continuation of yesterday’s song of the day post.)

Some songs are incredibly pleasing to my ears for reasons I can’t explain.  Dreamend’s “Interlude” on So I Ate Myself, Bite by Bite is such a song on an overwhelmingly great album - overwhelmingly in the sense that far more of the album is great than not great, not in the sense that I am overwhelmed by its greatness.  It is just over 2 minutes long, instrumental, and very lovely to wander around the produce section of Wegman’s to.

I loved Penny and the Quarters’s “You and Me” almost as much as I loved the movie I heard it during, Blue Valentine. “You and Me” is a lovely little 70’s soul ditty.  Blue Valentine is one of the best films I have ever seen, to which I credit Derek Cianfrance’s unique approach to creating the film (discussed by Ryan Gosling in a recent interview with Terry Gross on NPR’s Fresh Air).

The Rural Alberta Advantage’s “The Ballad of the RAA” has a sort of alt-country sound, the vocal intonations and violins of Our Lady Peace, and some bell sounds that remind me of Oh No! Oh My!.  That is a weird combination, and I like it.

I wanted to listen to more of Yellow Ostrich after hearing a few amazing covers, and “Whale” from 2010’s The Mistress is such a great original track of theirs.  I like songs about the sea, and their clever instrumentation, so this is my song of the day.

Today’s song of the day is more of an audio of the day - Jennifer Egan reading Lore Segal’s “The Reverse Bug” on the New Yorker: Fiction podcast (11/19/10).  I caught up on the past few months’ fiction pieces and I found this story to be so fantastic (both in the sense of a superlative and as a very bizarre story) that it stuck out from the podcasts I have listened to and any short fiction I have recently read.  I have never heard such a beautiful and thorough discussion of genocide, and since I have not had much time to listen to music today, I am sharing this short story instead.   It is 44 minutes with an introduction and commentary, and wonderful for an early drive on a weekend morning.

 You should stop reading here if you plan on listening to it!!!  But I suppose only if you like surprises.

I was struck by how poignantly Lore integrated the telling of multiple seemingly discontinuous tales, how the stories turned out to be so elaborately connected (and in such a short space).  The addition of a science fiction element (the technology imagined for this reverse bug) to a story with so many historical elements - the stories of characters who had lived through or had relatives impacted by WWII in a number of countries at a number of times - really seemed to bring the story to a different plane.  There is so much happening in this story, and all of it there for a reason, and so beautiful.

I am a sucker for clapping, whistling, and fiddles in songs, and Andrew Bird has these in spades in “Section 8 City” from 2010’s Fingerlings 4 (Gezelligheid Chicago).  

This Monday’s mix of the month is a mix Adam Gonzo made for the Live at Home series in July (I guess I am a bit behind on mixes!).  It had me at Yo La Tengo.  Full tracklist below.

Yo La Tengo — Let’s Save Tony Orlando’s House
Beach House — Zebra (Them Jeans Drum Edit)
Steely Dan — Do It Again (12” Maxi Mix Version)
Hall & Oates — Private Eyes
Fleetwood Mac — You Make Loving Fun
Fully Fitted — Shake It (Bladerunners Edit)
DJ Technics — Everything (Supa Mix)
The XX — Shelter (Them Jeans Drum Edit)
Fleetwood Mac— Little Lies (Skinny Friedman DJ Edit)
Hercules & Love Affair — Blind (Frankie Knuckles Remix)
Kanye West — Love Lockdown (Cousin Cole Remix)
Pumpkin Patch — Doobie Bras
Phelps — Pitfield Girl
SugaSwing Session — Sayin’ It and Doin’ It
Cymande — Brothers on the Slide (Ruffy & Tuffy Edit)
Caribou — Odessa (Junior Boys Remix)
Michael Jackson — Rock with You (Potions Edit)
Sharam ft. Kid Cudi — She Came Along (J. Re-Edit)

The Slits’s “Earthbeat.”