Episode 43: Gimmie Jimmy Carter
Listen here.
1. “You’ve Got To Believe in Something” – Spin Doctors (from You’ve Got To Believe In Something)
2. “Frow Show Theme” – MVB
3. “My Pillow is Threshold” – Silver Jews (from Lookout Mountain, Lookout Sea)
3. “Absolutely Sweet Marie” – Bob Dylan (recorded 19 May 1998, San Jose)
4. “Jambalaya” (demo) – Hank Williams (from First to Last)
5. unknown song – unknown artist (southeast Asia) (from Yeti #5 compilation)
6. “Steppe Spiritual” – Sun City Girls (from Mister Lonely OST)
7. “Underground Antes Da Primeira Hora” – Quarteto Em Cy (from Quarteto Em Cy)
8. “Vô Batê Pá Tu” – Baino and Os Novos Caetanos (from Baino and Os Novos Caetanos)
9. “Book of Numbers” – The Mae Shi (from Hillyith)
10. “Rainbow Flag” – Matmos (from Supreme Balloon)
11. “Sullen Lamp Lighters” – Computer at Sea (via MySpace)
12. “Agnes B Musique” – Sonic Youth (from SYR7: J’Accuse Ted Hughes LP)
13. “The End of the Tour” – They Might Be Giants (from John Henry)
“Air” – Greg Davis (download) (buy)
from Curling Pond Woods (2003)
(file expires May 5th)
Greg Davis’s cover of the Incredible String Band’s “Air” has me from the first keyboard tone, which simultaneously seems like it should be some kind of thrift store organ, but is too warm and rich to be so. Soon enough, though, come harmonies and a strum that lands somewhere between Western swing and uke-driven exotica. The verses are mostly mood — way more so than the original version — something more forceful than the wordless mmmming and just enough to gently nudge the tune along. But they’re beautiful, too. After a fairly New Agey beginning (“breathing, all creatures are”) it drops down to ominous folk mystery: “you kissed my blood, and the blood kissed me.” “Air” is a sunset in unfamiliar colors.
(Actually, I’m pretty sure Doug Sisk is still alive.)
o Kottke breaks down the knuckleball using Josh Kalk’s PITCHf/x tool. The latter is amazing. Honestly, most of the math is entirely beyond me, but graphing the way a pitcher’s pitches break is a way to visualize a pitcher’s work, and is beautiful. It’s modern art, really, each chart somehow finding the truth of a particular player. Of course, the highly modern colors on the white background contribute, too.
o Slate‘s Matthew McGough on the golden age of baseball movies.
o Safeco Field in San Francisco has some kind of free live network for Nintendo DS users. Sounds fun, fersure, but such a strange platform to do it with. I mean, I guess DSes are popular and all, but wouldn’t it make more sense to develop it for the Blackberry or something? (Thx, VB.)
o The Mets latest 5th starter/hope, Nelson Figueroa, is the definition of the contemporary international journeyman. Born in Brooklyn (represent!), in the past year Figueroa has pitched in Mexico (all-star), Taiwan (Series MVP), the Dominican Republic (Series MVP), and the Caribbean (Series MVP). Definitely an Omar Minaya type of player. (via Metsblog)
o A whole mess of links about the 1964 World’s Fair which spawned Shea Stadium.
“Agnes B Musique” – Sonic Youth (download) (buy)
from SYR7: J’Accuse Ted Hughes (2008)
(file expires April 30th)
One testament to the productivity of Sonic Youth is the insane and amazing bootleg site Kill Yr Idols, which posts at least one album/cassette/7-inch by Sonic Youth or its members pretty much every day. Totally illegal, fersure, but an exception should be made for the nobility of the cause. (“Downloading keeps the links alive: please link this site on blogs, forums,” they proudly proclaim.) The territories keep growing. The newest ephemera, an entry in the venerable and psychedelic SYR series, and released on vinyl only earlier this week, isn’t up yet, but it surely will be soon.
In some ways, both jams on SYR7 — “J’Accuse Ted Hughes” (from All Tomorrow’s Parties in April 2001) (2000, according to KYI) and “Agnes B Musique” (from the band’s Murray Street studio in 2001) — could be drawn from almost anywhere in the musicians’ vast collective/solo/side-project output. In theory. In practice, it’s the Jim O’Rourke-era lineup, demonstrating why they’re Sonic Youth. On “Agnes B Musique,” Steve Shelley hangs quietly behind an improv begins genially, the sheets of glittering noise coming later, drones within pulses within drones. Good with the lights off and the headphones on.
“Small Shape” – Akron/Family (download)
recorded live at Tonic, NYC, 15 July 2005
from Yeti #5
“They Will Appear, Behold” – Akron/Family (download)
recorded live at KVRX, Austin, TX, 12 March 2008
Two new Akron/Family tracks. The first, “Small Shape,” comes from a live set at Tonic in July 2005, and was recently included on the disc accompanying Yeti #5. From the bottomless catalogue of the band’s two-guitar era, it begins with a lush double-strum, a xylophone doubling the bassline as Seth Olinsky’s vocal begins. The structure is slow, if such a thing could be said of a structure, its movement beginning when the xylophone changes allegiance and begins to double a vibrating guitar as harmonies pile up and, eventually, Dana Janssen begins a marital beat. (Can’t wait ’til the issue gets to the top of the reading queue. It looks amazing, and the rest of the disc definitely is: Sublime Frequencies outtakes, excerpts from Jeff Mangum’s record collection, deep cuts from editor Mike McGonigal, etc.)
The second, “They Will Appear, Behold,” is more recent, from a South by Southwest radio session by (I’m pretty sure) just the core trio. With Afro-pop inspired guitar, and an equally slow-structured pulse, it even sounds a little like The Slip at first. Though the lyrics are a bit, shall we say, crunchy (even before they tap Sioux holy man Black Elk for the title refrain), they are hardly didactic, and unfurl over a patient, potent melody/chant.
“Here No More” – The Breeders (download) (buy)
from Mountain Battles (2008)
(file expires April 25th)
I’m going to say it anyway, because it’s right under our noses and it might get missed: Kim and Kelley Deal’s harmonies are what make the Breeders so lovely, even in 2008. There are (possibly apocryphal?) stories about the twins singing country duets for truckers in their native Dayton that I remember reading in Circus circa Last Splash. Until bootlegs surface, “Here No More,” from the new Mountain Battles, will suffice. The melody is decent, really just serving as a vehicle for their sweetly decaying singsongs to make something nice between them, pleasing genetic harmonics in full effect. Hardly radical, but it doesn’t need to be.
The twelfth in an ongoing collection of functional webpages and–dork- like tools (excluding any/all Google programs)
o The new and old bins at WFMU, complete with notes from music director Brian Turner and other DJs.
o More online mixing at muxtape.
o Melodyne promises “direct note access” polyphonic sampling. I suspect technology like this might be similar to alchemy or divining rods, but I’m sure it’ll work for some people.
o Notable digital archives from newspapers and magazines, for free and for pay.
o Omnisio allows the user to make YouTube playlists which join together multi-part movies.
o Scribd is a free OCR scanning service.
o Sorry, a break with the self-imposed ban on Google tools ’cause it’s too cool: GoogleEarth now layers current New York Times headlines over its maps, so one can read the news geospatially.
Episode 42: Springtime in Bourgwick
Listen here.
1. “Tower Records Ad” – John Lennon (from WFMU Radio Archival Oddities compilation)
2. “The Children of Rock and Roll” – Ron Lennon (from Rutland Weekend Television)
3. “Frow Show Theme” – MVB
4. “Fallen Snow” – Au Revoir Simone (from Fallen Snow)
5. “Air” – Greg Davis (from Curling Pond Woods)
6. “They Will Appear, Behold” – Akron/Family (recorded March 2008, KVRX)
7. “Theme From Ulcerative Colitis” – Yukio Yung (from Valborgunmassoæfton)
8. “As Tears Roll By” – Daniel Lanois (from Shine)
9. “Richmond” – The Faces (from Long Player)
10. “Life Goes Off” – Jim O’Rourke (recorded 16 September 2002, Aoyoma Cay)
11. “A Certain Guy” – Mary Weiss (from I Hate CDs: Norton Records 45 RPM Singles Collection)
12. “Spooks” – Radiohead (recorded May 2006, Copenhagen)
13. “Asozan” – Yamataka Eye (from Re… Remix?)
14. “Empty Bell Ringing in the Sky, no. 5” – Pelt (from Empty Bell Ringing in the Sky)
15. “Mountains of the Moon” – The Grateful Dead (from Aoxomoxoa, original 1969 mix)
16. “Here No More” – The Breeders (from Mountain Battles)
o A massive archive of Sonic Youth bootlegs and side projects.
o Garfield minus Garfield.
o Brian Dettmar’s gorgeous book autopsies.
o Product vs. Reality comparisons.
o Philosopher John Rawls on baseball.
