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The Songs of Early Summer

The first rule about not blogging is to not write about not blogging. So, on with the show.

Summer is only about half over (at least it was when I started writing this post), but I have enough new music to write about that I’m better off getting a post out now. But before I dive into the new I would like to quickly look back at spring and highlight what I’m still listening to and what I’m not. Don’t worry, it’s a short list consisting of White Lies and The Crystal Method. These are the only two albums from spring that I would listen to start to finish. The other albums have great tracks, but I’ve rated the good ones in iTunes so they show up in smart lists and the other tracks have faded in the dusty corners of my hard drive. Going even farther into the past two more bands have stayed in heavy rotation, MGMT and Cut Copy.

June

I’m not sure why, but June was an odd month, musically speaking. Moby, Paul Van Dyk and a remix album from Franz Ferdinand was balanced out with Mos Def and a worthy effort from Rancid.

I’ll start with Rancid because I (and a lot of other people) have been waiting patiently and impatiently for them to come out with a follow-up to Indestructible — a truly awesome album. It’s good, but it doesn’t have the coherency that the previous effort had. It sounds like a collection of tracks from their entire history. It annoyingly meanders around their various styles, but at least all the individual efforts are strong. The first single “Last One To Die” is probably my favorite track.

I blame this Paul Van Dyk album for introducing both Britney Speaks and Justin Timberlake to my iTunes library. Sure, I could delete them, but them what would I have to complain about?

Moby. Not my thing. This album, that is. Not Moby in general. The track “Mistake” is the only one I’ve bothered to rate (★★★). Oh, and Mos Def? This album just never really intrigued me. Oh well.

A word on remix albums: they usually suck. The last full-on remix album that I can remember actually being good is the first Bloc Party release, “Silent Alarm”. “Blood” isn’t bad, but too many of the mixes just drone on doing absolutely nothing, well, except for curing insomnia.

July

Kat listened to the new Yeah Yeah Yeahs on the last flight we were on and really liked it, so magically it appeared in the iTunes Library. There are some really catchy tracks on this album and it’s certainly not like a lot of their previous stuff that I’ve had a chance to sample. Overall, a win.

Oakenfold. Vegas…really? Why do I buy these again?

Now, Sticks ‘N’ Stones is easily my most played track over the last few months. I can’t stop listening to it. I will definitely buy his next release unheard.

2009 08 31 Patrick Music Comments (0) Permalink

The Music of Spring

Previously I had been hunting for new music, and I did a pretty good job finding bands that I liked. Then I took a little break from “new” and went back to “tried and true.” Mostly. The last two and a half months have seen releases from some of my favorite groups and they did not disappoint. For the most part. Please note that I’ve restricted myself to just albums released in 2009.

March

Over on These Three Bands I said “White Lies sound like The Killers covering Interpol with The Bravery producing.” It’s dark brit-pop with very polished production values. I love it. The U2 album wasn’t bad, but it’s certainly not something that I queue up. If I hear a track it’s only because I have my iTunes Smart Lists set up so that I actually listen to the new music I buy. But, I don’t hate it either and I assume that artists would rather inspire a feeling (positive or negative) rather than indifference. KMFDM have brought back a lot of “the sound” that drew me to them in the first place. Well done, gang! Gallery of Voices was recommended to me by Greg. It’s 80’s synth-pop and it’s glorious. The Prodigy. Yeah, I know…really? Yes, really. This album is great fun and has some great running tracks. Or driving fast tracks. Whichever.

April

Tim Skold does great stuff and in general I love when he works with KMFDM. This is no exception. Pet Shops Boys. Yes, yes…I know, and I don’t care. I am a fan of pop music. Pet Shop Boys used to make incredible pop music. They hit a bit of a dry spell, in my mind after Bilingual. They’re back. In my mind this is their best work since Very. Depeche Mode are old. They look old and sometimes they sound old. There are some great songs on this album, but as a body of work it’s just okay.

May

Danger Mouse has once again shown the world that the major music labels don’t know what they’re doing. He’s not alone in this effort, of course, but he is a bit of a media darling and so it helps get the message out. Good. The methods of production and distribution are no longer in the hands of the labels. I guess they’re still good for payola schemes though, so there’s that. The album is interesting, but not something I’ll put on heavy rotation. You should pick up Passion Pit if you want to like MGMT but need something more accessible. Green Day is Green Day. It’s fun, punk-pop. The Crystal Method have been quiet for too long. I know they’ve been doing a ton of work, but TV show themes and DJ albums were not enough to satisfy my needs. I’m still giving this album time to grow on me. It’s good, but I don’t know where this album goes on the scale compared to their other works. If you’re a fan of She Wants Revenge you’ll love the 4th track (Kling to the Wrekage) with Just Warfield on vocals.

2009 05 23 Patrick Uncategorized Comments Off Permalink

Hunting for Tunes

It’s a rainy Sunday, so I decided I would camp in front of the computer and demand new tunes from the intertubes. I wasn’t especially impressed with what Amazon or iTunes had to recommend, so I went back to my adopted roots, britpop. When I want britpop news, for better or worse, I go to NME.

NME told me that there is this thing called The Download Festival, which looks awesome. Now, because I’m an old curmudgeon, I don’t go to festivals. Festival line-ups are, however, great places to look for new tunes. My review process is simple:

  1. Get name of band
  2. Search for band in iTunes or at AmazonMP3
  3. Listen to the 30 second samples
  4. File under: Yes, No, or Maybe

Now, the festival site has a download section where you can download one track from each artist. While that’s a cool gimmick, I’ll stick with my process. Here are my results (Remember, you will file music in your own way and that’s okay! This just happens to be my take.):

Yes

While I would buy or have already purchased tunes from these bands, White Lies and Louis XIV were the ones that I immediately knew were for me.

No

  • Yeasayer
  • Mates of State
  • Brand New
  • Mutemath
  • Rjd2
  • Blitzen Trapper
  • Alberta Cross
  • Vedera
  • The Parlor Mob
  • Caribou

Maybe

2009 03 01 Patrick Music Comments Off Permalink

Aerial Recollections, Continued

Palace of Fine Arts

The Port

I’ll spare you, fine reader, the before and after presentations. You, being of keen mind and sharp wit, no doubt know what atrocious originals these shots came from.

Going through these old single megapixel shots reinforced a very important photography lesson for me — the best camera is the one you have with you. Without that little Canon, I would only have what images my mind can store. Digital file corruption and data loss pales to what happens in my mind.

2009 01 07 Patrick Photography Comments Off Permalink

San Francisco Aerial Photography

Aperture 2 is an amazing piece of software. I’ve been going back through photos that I long ago gave up on and seeing how Aperture might bring them back to life. Sure, in this set I had to give up on color and crank the contrast up to 11, but in the end the shots are at least viewable now. The starting files are from a Canon S110. In other words, crappy little JPEGs.

Pro tip: plane windows suck to shoot through.

BeforeAfter
3172234577_3c4eb556a0_m Bay Bridge - San Francisco
3172234507_04b7d5d507_m Bay Bridge - Oakland
3173066422_a58c06dab9_m Alcatraz
3172234743_f68accb84a_m San Francisco
Lean, Mean, Flying Machine
2009 01 06 Patrick Photography Comments (2) Permalink

Bands I May Need to Watch

Bands I May Need to Watch

I know I’m behind the times. In fact, I’m so aware of it I actually do know what I’m missing. It’s quasi-intentional. I can only listen to so much music at one time, which is typically one song at a time.

This makes buying a lot of new music at one time annoying. It creates yet another backlog in my life. I’m already behind in photo processing (tagging, editing, posting), book reading, and Netflixing. Also, those holes in the yard don’t dig themselves. [Note to self: Think about paying dogs to dig holes. May need obscene amounts of supervision, be sure to do a full cost/benefit analysis first]

So here is a small list of bands that just didn’t make the cut in 2008. Don’t worry guys, it’s not you, it’s me.

2009 01 05 Patrick Music Comments Off Permalink

Music for 2009 (Hopefully)

As much as I would like to do a jwz-esque 2008 music wrap-up, I just don’t have it in me. So, instead I’ve put together a list of what I’m looking forward to in 2009. I’ve done just a tiny bit of research on release dates and my release date extrapolations should be treated as the “worst kind of science” (even if the kids do love me).

Interpol

Their last releases were July 2007, August 2005, and October 2002. So, hopefully later this year we’ll see a new release from them. I’ve been happy with how their albums have progressed and have every expectation for their next release to be even better than Our Love to Admire.

The Hives

It’s doubtful that there will be a new release this year. They still seem to be touring animals and they appear to be closer to a 3 year release schedule (April 2000, July 2004, Oct 2007). That being said, I would love to hear a new release this year.

Rancid

It was supposed to be out in the summer of ‘08. Then it was the fall of ‘08. Then it was ‘09. Now it’s TBA.

Nine Inch Nails

Trent Reznor is no longer bound by major label rules. I expect a number of releases. What will they be like? Who knows. Less like Ghosts I-IV I hope.

The Strokes

Gigwise has some quotes that have a new release in 2009, so, you know…yay.

The Chemical Brothers

As far as I know there are no rumors of a 2009 release. It would still be nice to get a new Chemicals though.

Franz Ferdinand

It’s already available for pre-order in iTunes.

We Are Scientists

According to their website, they started writing the new album in December. In an underwater cave. So, it should go quickly.

OK Go

They were recording tracks last October. Tick tock…

Underworld

In my limited amount of searching I haven’t found any news. But, hope abounds.

The Crystal Method

I’m pretty sure I read something last year about there being a new album in the works.

Editors

As I composed this list it suddenly became clear to me that I detest sites, even band sites, that auto-play music. What makes them think I’m not already listening to music?

Arcade Fire

It looks like there will be a concert DVD from the Neon Bible tour. No news of new music though.

Leftfield

Yes, they’ve been “disbanded” since 2002. I don’t care. I want more.

Now, this list is by no means exhaustive. I’m sure there are many bands that will release new albums in 2009 that I will be totally jazzed about. It may even be that because I’m not expecting them, they will be that much more delicious.

2009 01 02 Patrick Music Comments (1) Permalink

Dogs and Cameras

It’s always interesting to see how different animals deal with cameras. Even with our two dogs, Tovn and Bash, the difference is striking. Tovn is always under the impression that the camera is made out of delicious treats.

Tovn

Bash on the other hand, she thinks that cameras steal your soul.

Bash

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2008 12 22 Patrick Dogs
Photography Comments Off Permalink

More on Music

The last post focused solely on what music I had actually bothered to purchase in 2008. Not that I “pirate” a lot of music, you know, seeing as how the Library of Alexandria for music is no longer around. You know, because that would be…wrong. I haven’t added much to my collection in the past few days, besides The Killer’s “Human” remix EP and their Christmas single (which is quite forgettable by the way).

I’ve been trying to analyze what I listened to this year and figure out if I’ve become a music curmudgeon. You know the music curmudgeon. All music after this arbitrary, yet very important date, is crap. “New music sucks and kids should get off my lawn!” I yell that at people a lot, and by “yell” I mean “imagine myself yelling”. The yard bit that is. It’s fun. You should try it. It’s almost cathartic. But I do find myself not liking a lot of music, but I don’t think this is a change from previous times. There is always so much music available that it’s completely normal to not like some percentage, be it large or small. Even a small percentage of “all” music would be a ton of music.

I do keep coming back to the fact that new music that I like is derivative of bands that I like and consequently the opposite is also true, I don’t like new music that is derivative of music that I never did like. Now, I’m tossing around “derivative” pretty freely, and I should clarify that I don’t mean “note for note copy”. A lot of people think Interpol rips off Joy Division. I’m not one of them. I do think they owe a lot of their sound to Joy Division, but they are not copying their songs. Creative derivation is natural and we would be in a much less diverse world if this wasn’t the case.

One thing that has changed is that I’ve lost my taste for live music. I have no patience for concerts. They are loud, expensive, and the sound is crap. The energy is typically amazing, but I always come away feeling a bit ripped off. The last concert I went to that I felt that I got my money’s worth was Ministry playing at the Bill Graham Civic Auditorium back in 1990-something. Sepurtura and Helmet opened for them. We sat in the seats until Ministry came on stage and then headed to the pit. I got kicked in the head and didn’t even know it until I got back to the car and saw a heel print on my forehead in the rear-view mirror. Yeah, it was that awesome. Nothing has been that good since then. Flogging Molly was fun, but it was loud and frankly I thought the sound was crap. They’re such fine musicians that having everything blasted at me with the amps at 11 really sucks.

So, there it is. I finally figured out where my musical tastes have gone curmudgeonly.

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2008 12 17 Patrick Music Comments Off Permalink

The 2008 Music List

I enjoy listening to music immensely. I used to fancy myself a collector, and having a Tower Records employee for a roommate didn’t really help that situation. When I happened to travel to other towns I would lookup the used music shops and spends more time than I really should have flipping through CDs and vinyl. There was a brief period of time when I thought I could make a nice chunk of change going around buying up rarities and selling them online. This was, of course, before the days of eBay, Amazon, and every other interweb outlet for used music. To further carbon date myself, CDNow still existed and had a telnet interface. Normally this is when I would yell at the kids to get off my internet and then regale them with stories about how we used to have modems and resumable downloads with Z-Term.

But, I digress…as I am wont to do.

My intake of new music has certainly slowed down. As with all people growing older, I attribute this to the crop of bands “today” being mostly crap. Luckily for me, this is a timeless truth. So now even when I venture into the realm of “new” music, it almost has to pass a litmus test of sounding vaguely like a band that I already like. As a for instance, Joy Division leads me to Interpol, which in turns leads me to the Editors. Unfortunately, none of these bands had an album release in 2008 (Joy Division’s “Best Of” doesn’t count, Interpol’s Our Love to Admire and Editors’ An End Has A Start were both 2007).

The good news is that technology is getting close to that point where it almost seems like magic. I use the soundamus service to find new releases based on music that I already like. It takes the bands that I’ve told last.fm that I like/listen to and runs that through Amazon to give me a calendar of releases that I’m probably going to be interested in, be it bands I already listen to or ones that Amazon thinks I’ll like. This is incredibly cool, even when it only tells me about bands I already like (see: Oasis, James, Flogging Molly, The Killers, etc.)

The following list are the albums that I bought in 2008. Yes, I know that 2008 isn’t over yet, but my soundamus calendar tells me that there aren’t any interesting releases (not counting singles or EPs) coming out in December. This isn’t a review and they aren’t ranked, although I hope to write more about the music of 2008 that I really liked next month. The band links are to last.fm pages and the album links are to Amazon MP3, with the lone exception of Chinese Democracy which is iTunes only.

So, there it is.

2008 11 28 Patrick Music Comments Off Permalink