Daft Punk is Playing at My House

...so get your ass to MT for the party.

Our featured track today is one I've been sitting on for awhile now. I first heard it on Jake Fogelnest's XMU show and it's one of those songs I loved upon first listen. The track is "Postcards" by An Horse, a band sort of 'discovered' by Tegan & Sara. So, let's see--they were made popular by Tegan & Sara, toured in Australia with Death Cab for Cutie, and feature a strong female lead (singer Kate Cooper). I'm not sure you need any other reasons to listen. Ok fine here's another:

How adorable is Kate??

"Postcards" is a track from the band's first and only album so far, Rearrange Beds. Firstly, Cooper's voice is intensely appealing to me. There's something about the hard way she pronounces her words--the way she chews them and spits them out. ie) and you came back; yes you came baCK.

It's the anger when she says TWO postcards in a month or so well I don't know, I just don't know.

It's the way she spits out the 'two' as though she's absolutely disgusted by the thought. And then you have the Aussie pleading of the chorus: But your skin's covered in postcards from you toooo me, toooo me...

Then, of course, we can't discount the somewhat opaque lyrics, grabbing at a kind of seething anger--warranted or no? She doesn't want these memories; she keeps stumbling across them at all the wrong times. Then, to top it all off, the postcards remind her that she's always wanting to be somewhere else. It's not just an old love letter reminding you of what could have been--it's a postcard from the Loire River Valley reminding you that a) you're not with the person you want to be and b) you're not where you would so rather be.

When you see me sit by myself, you'll think that I'm waiting for someone else. But I'm wishing for somewhere else; I'm wishing for somewhere else.

To put the final touches on this blog-asm, let's consider the irresistable guitar riff that starts the song and carries the verses. You can hum it forlornly or you can get your rock on. I'm a fan of efficiency so when I can use one song for two separate emotional states, I inherently support that song.

The rest of the album can be repetitive at times. Many of the tracks remind me of "Postcards" and while I think that is just an indication of how brilliant that lone track is, it can also be wearing to experience the same sort of deja vu for the length of an album. Their pop/punk/rock is refreshing though--An Horse has definitely put out a solid, rocking record and I've added them to the list of things Tegan & Sara have made me appreciate. (Following gay girls, asymmetrical haircuts, twins, self-deprecating stage banter, and the golden age of nineteen).


I'm including some standout tracks from Rearrange Beds as well as Tegan & Sara's "Nineteen" (for clear reasons) and a track by Hammock, "Always Wishing You Were Somewhere Else." When I listen to music, my mind often leapfrogs through different references the artist could have been making or the myriad extrapolations/connections/annotations I can make and then share with the world. Hence the Hammock add-on.


It's probably yet another manifestation of my OCD but it's fortunately less embarrasing/more socially acceptable than the one where I have to count Channel 22 twice before I turn off the telly. (Insert Debbie Downer face here).

What did YOU do this weekend?

This weekend my family took a 12 mile hike called the Highline, along the Garden Wall of Glacier National Park. We started at the top of Logan Pass and trekked high above Going to the Sun road toward a place called Granite Park Chalet. That's the trail, to the left. It's a pretty intense cliff ledge. I unfortunately don't have my pictures ready to post so I had to borrow some from the internets. However, these should give you a pretty good idea of a) how goddamn high we were b) how goddamn narrow the ledge was and c) how goddamn beautiful the entire 6 hour trip was.

It took us about four hours to reach Granite Park Chalet and it took another 2 hours to finish the hike from that point. When we could first catch a glimpse of the roof of the Chalet, we had no idea it would take us two hours to actually reach the campground. That was a bad time for us all, I think. We had just finished a two/three hour stretch of mountain vistas, snowfields, and thin, invigorating mountain air. The following two hours included increasingly warmer temperatures, avalanche debris, and shalefields--piles of sedimentary rock, everywhere. However, the valleys below us were so green and alive; the peaks around us were closer and and more awesome than anything we had seen before. I felt at one with the Garden Wall and with the Sun Road and with Birdwoman Falls and with every new valley we looked out on.


Unfortunately, we ran out of water with about 4 miles left to go. This led to a lot bitching, moaning, and ill-restrained panic. At some point, AC and I said to hell with sanitation and started cupping water from creek beds, Bear Grylls style. Although we never had to drink our own pee, I think we both would have relished the challenge.

When we came across a particularly refreshing creek and mini-waterfall, my family lost all decorum and climbed up to the falls in order to shove our heads into the cascading water. Several families passed us and ogled, probably because yours truly was moaning rather explicitly and inappropriately as the water rushed over my head and down my bosom. It occurred to me that I will never take drinking-water for granted again.

The 7 hour GNP venture is partly the reason for my absence from this blog. I also travelled to Spokompton, WA for a shopping trip. Nothing says NEW WARDROBE like studying abroad in a Third-World country, riiight?

The four hour drive takes you through some of the most beautiful parts of Big Sky Country. Sometimes I feel as though we aren't good enough to live here and I don't understand why we're allowed to at all.

As we drove around Flathead Lake (silver and looking like a long-lost body of water from Rivendell) I realized that Montana has quietly crept into my bones. I know I have to leave it because I'm not ready to be committed but...I know I'll be back here someday, for good. And that was an exhilarating and alien realization to come to.

My song today is Gold in the Air of Summer by Kings of Convenience. This is a track from an old album, Riot on an Empty Street. The whole album is full of a certain longing, a homesickness. That's even the name of track 2--Homesick. Even though this song is about a person and not a place, the piano at the end reminds me of here. It reminds me of home. I can remember where I was when I bought this album. I was driving home from Spokane, from Hayden Lake actually, and I bought this album at a Barnes & Noble with my friend, Kami. She listened to Keane while I listened to Kings of Convenience and stared out the car window. And I knew this place was blessed--there was gold in the air, and it shimmered across the lake.

Ny Batteri is from Sigur Ros' album Agaetis Byrjun which I've been told is Fat Cat in Icelandic. I like this song because of the Build-Up, because unlike other Sigur Ros songs, this build-up is unexpected. I'm not prepared for it for seven minutes--suddenly the drums drop in and the sound is all around you. It's like the hike this weekend: I knew something unearthly would be around the next bend, over the next crest, but I was never prepared for exactly how beautiful it was until it was all around me and in me.

California, I.O.U. (...too soon?)

I'm going to borrow some words today.

The spring is beautiful in California. Valleys in which the fruit blossoms are fragrant pink and white waters in a shallow sea. Then the first tendrils of the grapes, swelling from the old gnarled vines, cascade down to cover the trunks. The full green hills are round and soft as breasts. And on the level vegetable lands are the mile-long rows of pale green lettuce and the spindly little cauliflowers, the gray-green unearthly artichoke plants. ~The Grapes of Wrath

The Western land, nervous under the beginning change. The Western States, nervous as horses before a thunder storm...The Western States are nervous under the beginning change. need is the stimulus to concept, concept to action. A half-million people moving over the country; a million more restive, ready to move; ten million more feeling the first nervousness. ~The Grapes of Wrath

This is the kind of place where a person should really be alone, you know? when you bring a big gang here it somehow desecrates it not that I'm referring to us or anybody in particular? there's such a sad sweetness to those trees as tho yells shouldn't insult them or conversation only... ~Big Sur

Cold wind brings hints
of all the good food in Frisco
(& maybe all the love,
& surely all the hate)

Hey CA. Just wanted to say hi and I miss you. And the missing is metaphoric because I wasn't old enough to properly remember you.

And It Rained All Night

Actually, it rained all goddamn day. It was oppressive. I'm not one of those people who like rain or who find it romantic etc, etc. In fact, I think the only people who actually like rain are people who have straight hair. I'm gonna make a sister site to Stuff White People Like called Stuff Those Lucky Bastards With Straight Hair Like. Anyway.

It was kind of nice to wake up to rain on my skylights this morning. However, as the sound of raindrops was chased away by thunderclaps, I burrowed under my covers for at least 15 minutes before I could muster the courage to get out of bed. Sometimes saying you have a crippling phobia is really not far from the truth.

Today, I bought my first pair of Chacos. It was a big step for me. I've reached the fundamental truth that I am a Chaco Girl and will likely never wear another pair of non-Chaco footwear for the next decade. In 6th grade, I had the realization that I was Flip Flop girl. Now a Junior in college, I am finally trading "up." Jesus. I also bought a pair of hiking boots. I couldn't have been dyke-ier if I had run across the street to the Home Depot and gotten a tool belt and some plywood. It's fine; no one shot me on sight.

Now, don't cry foul on me but I've been listening to some Discovery lately. Yes, the duo includes the keyboardist from Vampire Weekend; yes, that band is pretentious and overrated. (although, Cape Cod Kwassa is a really good song, like for reals). Anyway, Discovery is one-part VK keyboardist, Rostam Batmanglij and RA RA RIOT lead singer, Wes Miles. Does that redeem them in any way???

The band's first LP is pretty experimental--not all of the tracks work for me simply because they're overworked in that way that only experimental music can be (ie) their cover of I Want You Back. Some of the tracks are just weird--a remake of "Missing?" Really, Papi? Really?

However, one real standout for the band is the second track, Osaka Loop Line. I love the synth beat for this track--how it literally loops back on itself and seems to have an error. I imagine the needle getting stuck and then pushing through to create that rubbed vinyl sound. I also really appreciate the way they play with the time signature--the track is constantly speeding up and slowing down, with an extended slow-motion effect towards the end of the track. To me, it gives the feeling of starting/stopping, of being on the underground...or the Osaka Loop Line. Which calls to mind...

Transport, waterways and tramlines
starting and then stopping
disappointed people
the emptiest of feelings ~Let Down

Then there are the lyrics...the wanting and the missing and the bad timing and the bullet trains providing a background for the whole scene.

In Osaka I saw you last
your face pressed up against the glass
across the track you're lookin' at
as bullets passed behind your back
i tried to catch your eye...

I included some other tracks from the LP, just a few that caught my attention and didn't overwhelm me with DJ Look What I Can Spin tricks.

The Osaka/Tokyo theme of Osaka Loop Line and Orange Shirt set off a train reaction (hehe) in my brain which led me to Alone in Kyoto by Air. This is a track from Lost in Translation and I often use it on mixes as a way to pause between songs. It's basically a musical comma. Probs there's an actual term for that.

Then, of course, I had to end with Let Down--the namesake of my iPod. This is my favorite Radiohead song and it just so happens to deal with the fleeting-ness and emptiness of modern life.

I do it for the lemons

"Lemons, Aka (Bigfishlittlepond)" by Amos the Transparent is my song of the day. I talked about Matt Pond PA last night and then I got all wistful and wanting. After listening to this song several times on repeat, I've decided I really really like it.

'Cause everybody wants to be loved by another
Who'll hold their hair back as they let it all out

Protect those you love and listen to their words

'Cause no one's gonna let you get hurt, little bird

Look at this guy's beard and newsboy cap? How can you not fall in love with his endearing scruff??

The Day I Got My Visa and Got All Existential

My visa came in the mail today. My first reaction was to jump on my brother, hug my father, and run into my mom's bedroom to let her know my visa came--just in case she couldn't hear my screaming from the kitchen.

My second reaction was panic. This is pretty typical of me: unfettered excitement followed by an immediate sense of existential anxiety. Basically, "Oh shit, I'm really going to Africa." Right now, I feel totally incapable of offering any further insight on the topic.

Then the brother and I made some cinnamon-banana pancakes the size of my face. AC coined the term "mantastic" to describe the "mancakes."

Tonight, on my way home from a group viewing of "Sunshine," the moon was trapped between two peaks behind my house. You could only see one-quarter of the moon and the rest was hidden behind a single peak, throwing it into sharp relief against the sky. It was the strangest visual trickery, as though the moon was literally sinking into the mountains and draining the sky of light as it fell.

Because of this, and because of my last two weeks of sleep, my song of the day is "Dreaming of You" by War Tapes. I'd never heard of this band before this week; I wish I'd heard it when it was more appropriate to my life.

I saw you in a dream, a dream that always seems to be real. The truth is nowhere near and I don't care. I'll just sleep my life away while dreaming of you.

It's funny because it's the sort of song with the sort of lyrics that I wish were sung by someone else. I wish Matt Pond PA had written this song with a string section and a piano, you know? Consider this my open letter to Matt Pond and Co. to include an acoustic cover of this song on their next album/EP.

The only reason it's my song of the day is because a) it's been playing all week on XM's Alternative Nation b) It reminds me of the Cure and sometimes I can like things based on their similarity to Robert Smith alone and c) I think it's pretty damn astute: I'll just sleep my life away...

Continuing with the dreaming theme (and because I haven't posted a new song in a couple of days) is a track by Tiny Vipers, "Dreamer." It's just kind of a mesmerizing song. The singer, Jesy Fortino, vaguely reminds me of Joanna Newsom with a normal human voice instead of an elvish one. At any rate, it just sends me into this stupor, a rare body-stillness

How happy is the blameless vestal's lot
The world
forgetting, by the world
forgot.
Eternal sunshine of the spotless mind
Each pray'r accepted, and
each wish resign'd

Oh, fine...here's a Bjork appetizer

Also, please check out this article on Autostraddle. It's a really nice critique (roundtable style!) on the supposed "gay generation gap" discussed by Mark Harris in a recent piece for New York Magazine's Pride issue. Not only is Riese a pretty epic writer, but the peeps she gets together for the debate have some intriguing positions. MMMM--identity politics. YUM.

No, but really, a French rock band that rocks

So I had a request today from @juliananagan to play something from Bjork's new album, Volta. I also had a request for some Jont. I am denying both requests. However, I am only denying the Bjork request because I want to put together some really sweet tracks and some sweeter musings and, for that, I need time. I'm ignoring the Jont request because I don't know who the fuck that is.

So I didn't post last night. Whoops. It's not like I was too busy driving Going to the Sun Road for the first time in my life...what?! I also heard "Wonderwall" on my drive home and was too struck by the music, the Flathead River, and the extraordinarily, unnaturally bright moon lining the clouds with silver to sit on my couch and blog about much of anything. The sky was evenly divided--Storm clouds to the West of me, storm clouds to the East of me, and a sliver of bright, Montana night sky that seemed to honestly trace the river. Anyway.




I'm gonna go with some Phoenix today, which if we're friends, you've probably already heard. If you haven't heard these songs then probs we're not as close as you thought. Kidding! First though, I listened to the Wanting Comes in Waves today and had a funny conversation with myself about that song title:

Friend: Are you still in the mood for sushi?

Me: Meh. The wanting comes in waves.

he.he.

It reminded me of when I started substituting "obama" for "change."


ie) "I gotta run upstairs and obama my shirt before we leave. Give me a sec." Or, "I really should learn how to obama a tire before I drive Titties to Massachusetts for spring semester."

So. Phoenix. I first heard of this band on the soundtrack for Lost in Translation. They have a track called "Too Young" and I just got swept up with the exuberance of it. It sounded to me like something slightly cheesy, slightly synth-y, and totally irresistable. It sounded like what I imagined the ages of 20-27 feeling like. And I LOVED it. When I found out the band was French, I scoffed at the very notion. When I found out their lead singer used to play with the founding members of Daft Punk, it was love.

The next two tracks are off of the band's latest, most acclaimed album--Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix. (Stupid) It's like, Phoenix and Grizzly Bear got hot at the same time and I'm that annoying indie kid going, "HA--I liked them fiiirst." (But it's true).

Phoenix is a really, really remixed band. And usually the remixes are pretty bomb. In the case of the Alex Metric mix of Listzomania, I think it's kind of a sonic shitshow. It's disjointed and out of rhythm and busy and chaotic. And none of these things in a cool, Kid A kind of way. Check out both versions anyway though because maybe I'm crazy on this one.

However, the DLID custom mix of 1901, in my opinion, is better than the original track. Let's play a game where you vote on which one you like better.

For me, customized 1901 draws on all the song's original strengths and then slows them down with this wicked beat I kind of want to eat because it's so damn delicious. The song takes on a different tone for me--it's less frivolous, more thoughtful. When he says I'll be anything you ask and more, I feel that, I feel the needling persuasion, the kind of voice-cracking sincerity.

It's just better slower, ok? Not that I have an opinion on this or anything.

Social Security FAIL.

So guess what? You know how your social security number is this sacred nine-digit code that is the key to unlocking all the secrets of your identity and you're told from an early age to keep it to yourself and never ever share it with anyone cuz they'll STEAL it? Well, as if the flimsy paper card printed with your social security number on it was not worrisome enough, as it turns out any half-wit from Carnegie Mellon can use really complex mathematical formulas to guess that 9 digit code of yours.

WHAT.

Yeah. Check out the article--at the end of it, I realized I could probably figure out the social security numbers of anyone born in 1995 in Eastern Montana. That's fucked up. I guess I thought it was a randomized system but apparently the US Census Bureau isn't that sophisticated yet. Which, I mean, not a shock but still a shock if you get what I mean.

On Awesome Augers and Women Rockers

You know those commercials for that "Smooth Away" thing that, I dunno, scrape the hair off your legs? Those make me feel wildy uncomfortable. I mean, I heart infomercials but I am not buying what they are selling. Maybe if Billy Mays was selling it but he's no longer with us and all I've got left in remembrance is an Awesome Auger and a little brother who recites Billy's infomercials when he's nervous. It's a funny little tic.

Speaking of little brothers, typical cell phone reception battle at casa de Fort Knox:

Me: For the love of Christ why can I not get one fucking bar of service on this couch?

Austin: You should put it in the magic basket of wonder.

Me: What are you smoking?

Austin: You know that basket of hand towels on the kitchen counter behind the couch? Three bars of service when you stick your phone in it. I'm not kidding!

Me: I love you. And I love the electromagnetic anomaly beneath this fucking house.

Anyway. Today I was listening to Metric's new single on my XM radio (I refuse to recognize Sirius) and I realized that Emily Haines is one of the few women on my iPod who can crush my music sexism. I mean, unless you're Karen O you're kind of a joke in my book. So today I'd like to celebrate one of the women in modern rock music who has given hope to future women in modern rock music and their chances of a favorable review on this really really important blog.

You can thank a certain Frankenstein for this blog post--I was wavering between Metric, Phoenix, and Woodpidgeon until she put in a request for some "Help! I'm alive." I think what I love about this track is how it seems like two songs welded together except I can feel the seams and I like them--it lends a certain energy to the track. It's a nice trait of the group.

Enjoy the new single from Metric's fourth release, Fantasies, and also enjoy a few of my favs from their album Live It Out as well as a remix for Stars on their album of remixes, "Do You Trust Your Friends."

7/7/09