New Music

I usually post a "Top Five for the Moment" list on Facebook. When I first got on facebook, back when it was just for colleges and no one's moms and dads had profiles, I went to great lengths to post as many bands as possible. There were too many to post. So now I list five at a time.

I noticed that there's an option on iTunes where you can categorize your music by times played. It's always interesting to see which songs you've played the most. For me, it's "Plasticities" by Andrew Bird, followed by various tracks by Grizzly Bear, Passion Pit and Dirty Projectors. I've listened to "Plasticities" 79 times in a little over a month on my computer.

Brett showed me how to make a Smart Playlist that's made up of songs never been played. Currently, I have 4080 songs that I've never listened to at my computer. That's almost 45 days of solid unheard songs. I like to put it on shuffle and start knocking them off the list. But I believe it's mathematically impossible to listen to more songs than I add to my computer.

Anyways, here's my top 5 for the moment*

*now with album art!
Titus Andronicus "The Monitor"


I read about this band on emusic. The band name is taken from a Shakespeare play. They said it was inspired by the Civil War. It was about self-identity, self-loathing. I listened to a few 30 second clips and decided it was worth the 10 downloads. Added bonus: it's 65 minutes long.

I burned a copy and listened to it on the way to Middle School every morning and no matter how tired I was, it got me pumped for the day. Something about screaming "Tramps like us, baby we were born to DIIIEE!!!" on the way to teach 8th graders made life good.

I've realized it's about how much of your identity comes from where you call home. Since leaving my childhood home in Chatham, I've lived in 11 different places for more than a month. My identity has been molded by all those moves, but none so significant as living in Roanoke. It's been almost two years since I've been back from Germany. The lead singer Patrick Stickles sings about and channels his home in Newark, New Jersey and puts a lot of his home into his art. I feel like I've known the guy for years after listening to the album. So I didn't feel to nervous about asking him for a Pall Mall after his show in Charlottesvile.


Local Natives "Gorilla Manor"



If you could combine all of my favorite bands of the last two years into 45 minutes, it would sound exactly like Local Natives. Their harmonies are the best of the Beach Boys, Panda Bear, Grizzly Bear and Port O'Brien. Their drums are the dodos through and through combined with the shades of Vampire Weekend (if the drummer was a member of Greasers and not the Socs).

I listened to this album on the way to and from teaching third grade. I would put it on Track 1 in the morning and everyday, the music started lining up with my drive. Same songs in the morning, same songs in the afternoon. "Airplane" playing at the stoplight at Starkey Rd. Seeing "Wide Eyes" and banging on the steering wheel on the way home.

Yeasayer- "Odd Blood"


I greedily consumed Yeasayer. It started with a video on La Blogotechque. Them singing "Red Cave" in the Paris Metro, banging out "2080" on a piano in a loft and having 20 people crammed into a little room screaming the inscrutable chorus. Then the incredibly beautiful "Tightrope" which just an infant of a song and wouldn't be released for another 2 years on the Dark Was the Night Compilation which, after having bought All Hour Cymbals, I bought.

To say that I was looking forward to this album was an understatement. I saw them play at Bonnaroo for 45 minutes and it was, in many ways the best show of the weekend. Brett, Jenny and I, all in agreement that Bruce Springstein sucks, stood and stared at an empty stage while Bruce played "Santa Claus is Coming Tonight" 200 yards away. We watched them set up their own gear and got more and more psyched. Then they played 2080 and I became one of those lucky few to scream the chorus at the top of my lungs.

That was June. In January, I downloaded the new single "Ambling Alp" and then promptly created mix CDs to facilitate listening to that song in my car. Then I realized that if you pre-ordered the new album on vinyl, you could download it a month early. So I did. I've listened to it, I loved it, I couldn't wait to get my vinyl copy. But I had to wait. Yeasayer live in New York. New York was buried by snow for like an entire month. They couldn't ship out the albums. So I had to wait. Not long after I got my vinyl copy, Brett and I saw them play at the Orange Peel.

But....I still want more. Luckily there's a remix contest for O.N.E. All of the remixes are posted on-line. That means I get to listen to that song get torn apart and reconstructed. Basically hearing the full extent of that song's potential. So, until I can get the next fix, I'll just have to listen to this and sit on my hands.


Jonsi "Go"


I can't believe that I used to write off Sigur Ros as "whale noises." It only took me actually listening to an album and seeing them live for me to get into them. Now Jonsi has taken it a step further and actually added a beat, a pulse and English lyrics. I always knew his lyrics would be really good, but I never took the time to learn Icelandic or Hopelandic, so I could never understand him. Now I know what's in that Elvish heart of his. Turns out he sings a lot about nature.

Sample lyrics "We all want to grow with the seeds we will sow...We all want to know when we are meant to go." I played it for Jenny and about a minute and half in, she snaps out of whatever beautiful trance she was in and said "Wow, I just went to my happy place" or something to that effect. Truly amazing stuff.



Grizzly Bear "Veckatimist"


I've listened to this album about about 30 times on iTunes. I was surprised at that, considering I wasn't the hugest fan of the album. Then I realized that it took me that many times to actually start to like it. I was searching through the hundred or so CDs I keep in my car. I was looking for a mix that had "Two Weeks" on it. Instead, I fond the actual album, complete with the little green Bonnaroo insignia on it. I've listened to about a dozen times since. I like it now. A lot. Maybe after 30 more listens I'll be more able to wrap my mind around this album.