I was recently commissioned to do a two-hour playlist for a company who was holding a seminar / meet-and-greet in their offices, and it was about the “local” side of the “global/local” theme. So… they wanted some local and fresh music that was also a bit background-y. Consequently, this ended up being a bit of a “stuff white people like” playlist, completely ignoring hip hop, metal, noise, avant garde, etc. It’s also heavy on the easy listening of our current generation, a genre i call “croissant rock”. Fleet Foxes, Beach House, A Band Of Horse, Sigur Ros, etc. Anyway… no individual downloads (or descriptions) for this one… just a reasonably nice two-hour jaunt of mostly new local stuff for your enjoyment. Perhaps give a listen while reading a book at the beach, or while hosting a margarita-and-quacamole party? (feel free to invite!)

(NOTE – a few songs have been trimmed of their long noisy and/or buzzy intros or outros to make the flow between songs more immediate. Any songs that were edited in some way have been labelled as, wait for it… “[edit]“.)

NP: “Generator ^ First Floor” – Freelance Whales.
NP: “Shared Islands” – High Places.
NP: “Love Comes Close” – Cold Cave.
NP: “Animal Tracks” – Alex Bleeker And The Freaks.
NP: “Richard II [edit]“ – Titus Andronicus.
NP: “The Dazzled” – Crystal Stilts.
NP: “Something Higher” – Ela Orleans.
NP: “Green River” – Real Estate.
NP: “Mixed Drinks” – Eamonn Vitt.
NP: “Tellings” – Ida.
NP: “Rill Rill” – Sleigh Bells.
NP: “The River” – Oneida.
NP: “Sara Lisa” – Bronze.
NP: “Let’s Go Surfing” – The Drums.
NP: “Young Love Delivers” – Oxford Collapse.
NP: “Don’t Know Why (You Stay)” – The Essex Green.
NP: “Meadowport Arch” – The Ladybug Transistor.
NP: “What Would Wolves Do?” – Les Savy Fav.
NP: “(I Am Taking Out My Eurotrash) I Still Get Rocks Off” – Blonde Redhead.
NP: “Blood Dries Darker” – Woods.
NP: “Two [edit]“ – The Antlers.
NP: “This Love is Fucking Right! [edit]“ – The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart.
NP: “Happy Kid [edit]“ – Nada Surf.
NP: “I’m Going Away” – The Fiery Furnaces.
NP: “Back Before We Were Brittle” – Say Hi.
NP: “Static On The Wire” – Holy Ghost!.
NP: “Don’t Really Know Me” – Snowden.
NP: “Heavy Eyes” – The Depreciation Guild.
NP: “Tone Poem” – Rings.
NP: “Love More” – Sharon Van Etten.
NP: “I Fell in Love with a Dead Boy” – Antony & The Johnsons.
NP: “RAR_FILE” – .RAR file of all of the above songs. [169.5 MB, 122:58 minutes]

NR: “A Man Without a Country” – Kurt Vonnegut. Bought this forever ago, and finally read it. Completely funny in a totally this-really-isn’t-funny kinda way.
NR: “Too Much Happiness” – Alice Munro. Also finally reading Alice’s most recent collection. I knew three of the stories from versions in The New Yorker, Atlantic Monthly, or Harper’s, but… once again, Alice Munro knocks it out of the park. Our greatest living fiction writer.
NR: “The Inactivist” – Chris Eaton. David Foster Wallace meets Mad Men? With a little something more… real? human? Can’t believe I waited this long to read it. Perhaps order directly from “Insomniac Press” and support our indie publishers?
NR: “The Enemy Within” – Mark Bowden. Pretty fascinating, if a bit showy, article about the Conficker computer worm, and the cat-and-mouse game between its programmers and those trying to kill it.

NW: M*A*S*H re-runs on Hallmark Channel and TVLand, and the occasional Monty Python’s Flying Circus on IFC. DVR is good for something!

Any good shows in the next 12 days? I’m in NYC until early August, and would love some recommendations!

please hit me via email at nyc_AT_selfstarterfoundation.com if you’d like on the mailing list for when there’s a new post (or… configure your RSS-reader… this blog should be compatible, but i don’t use the things myself) or check me out on facebook / twitter (barf), where i will be including these updates, too.

NP: “Skill” – The Desperate Bicycles. “You don’t need skill, just the desire…”. 1978 DIY at its finest.
NP: “My Night Out” – The Homosexuals. More 1978 obscurity and randomness. This stuff should have been as *almost* as big as Wire, XTC, etc.
NP: “Celebrity Art Party” – The Embarrassment. 1981 Wichita weirdness. No, i’m not going chronologically. But i did just read this fun quote: “[The Embarrassment were] a bunch of four-eyed, messy misfits that made the Feelies look like body-builders.”
NP: “Hank Is Dead” – Chevy Heston. Shout-out to Leigh Lust in song! Hi, Leigh!
NP: “Far Pavilions” – …And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead. From the most recent Trail Of Dead record. It’s hard to get excited about another Trail Of Dead record, but, you know… if somebody played it for you and told you it was some new band from Chicago or a b-side by Japandroids, i bet you’d like it a whole lot.
NP: “Suggestion (live w/ Amy Pickering on vocals)” – Fugazi. If you ever got to see Fugazi live in DC in the early 90’s (or maybe even late 80’s), you may have gotten to see them do this version of “Suggestion” with Amy Pickering of Fire Party on vocals. This is ripped from a youtube video. Low volume, but… god damn.
NP: “Death Kit” – Karate. Vinyl rip of the first release of The Self-Starter Foundation. January, 1995. Officially a lifetime ago.
NP: “Machines” – Biffy Clyro. Sad Biffy song.
NP: “Sigh’s Smell Of Farewell” – Cocteau Twins. I’ve got Cocteau Fever!
NP: “Fishing Bird (Empty Gutted In The Evening Breeze)” – Grouper. Somewhere between getting Cocteau Fever and going to see El Perro Del Mar, i decided to go back and listen to some Grouper.
NP: “Kill The Action” – East River Pipe. From the record with one of my favorite album covers of all time. The back cover, as seen on this poster makes it even better.
NP: “Jimmy Jazz” – The Clash. It made sense at the time.
NP: “Stuart” – The Dead Milkmen. “You know what, Stuart: I like you.”
NP: “Sweet Jane” – Mott The Hoople. Nobody does contemporary covers anymore. I mean… Velvet Underground released “Loaded” in September, 1970, and Mott The Hoople recorded “All The Young Dudes” in May, 1972. I guess i don’t really want a bunch of Animal Collective or Les Savy Fav covers hitting the streets any minute, but… it seems like the only covers of contemporary songs you ever hear are ironic, and that seems strange to me.
NP: “Against Pollution (Live)” – The Mountain Goats. Live at The Bell House on the last show of the last tour. I still prefer the old solo shows, but this was the best of the full-band shows i’ve seen him (them?) do. Unfortunately this recording doesn’t quite capture the brilliance of the un-mic’d show-stealing Steely Dan-esque guitar solo dropped by the “other guy” from Final Fantasy, but you can hear it over the final 150 seconds if you listen closely.
NP: “Click!” – Das Damen. Always preferred Das Damen to Sonic Youth. Still do.
NP: “ITUNES_STREAM” – ITUNES USERS – stream all of the above songs.
NP: “WINAMP_STREAM” – WINAMP (and WINDOWS MEDIA PLAYER and REALPLAYER) USERS – stream all of the above songs.
NP: “PODCAST” – PODCAST of all of the above songs. [71.2 MB, 62:14 minutes]
NP: “RAR_FILE” – .RAR file of all of the above songs. [86.3 MB]

NR: nothing! too much time touring, not enough time to read.

NW: Iron Man and Iron Man 2 double feature last Thursday. not enough baseball.

will be back in NYC for at least a couple of weeks in June and July. Fingers crossed!

please hit me via email at nyc_AT_selfstarterfoundation.com if you’d like on the mailing list for when there’s a new post (or… configure your RSS-reader… this blog should be compatible, but i don’t use the things myself) or check me out on facebook / twitter (barf), where i will be including these updates, too.

NP: “The Man Who Called Himself Jesus” – Strawbs. Reine from Dungen didn’t necessarily get me hooked on Strawbs, but they came up enough in conversation that i felt that IT WAS TIME to delve into the Strawbs discography. Well, one Great Lake Swimmers tour, and a lot of competitive record shopping, later, and… well… i’ve got the complete works on vinyl. This is the first song on the first album, and still one of their best.
NP: “Too Much Of Nothing” – Fotheringay. Can’t fall into the world of Strawbs and Fairport Convention and Sandy Denny without grabbing the first Fotheringay record. After seeking a copy for under $20 for six months, i finally found a copy in Central Pennsylvania. For 20 cents.
NP: “Something Higher” – Ela Orleans. The only song on .mp3 i can find from a NYC gal that apparently just put out a debut album on LP only. i need to score a copy somewhere, as this track is totally captivating.
NP: “Predictions” – Dragging An Ox Through Water. My friend Amy dragged (sorry) me across the street from the Dungen show in Portland to see her friend play. He plays under the name of Dragging An Ox Through Water, and damned if it wasn’t one of the most challenging and mind-blowing things i saw all year. It was even better than the 2 Voodoo Donuts i had that night, and, if you know me at all, you’ll know that that’s saying a lot.
NP: “Cakewalking” – Young Marble Giants. Nothing i really need to say about YMG you don’t already know.
NP: “Love Gets Dangerous (alt version)” – Billy Bragg. Except maybe… was the young Billy Bragg perhaps listening to some Young Marble Giants? I never made the (possible) connection until just recently.
NP: “Listen” – Chicago Transit Authority. I’ve been doing a lot of record shopping over the last couple of months. Finally got myself a nice clean copy of the first Chicago Transit Authority record. And then a second. And then a third. I think perhaps i have four copies now? oops.
NP: “Unconventional State Line” – Japan. Holy shit. why didn’t anybody ever tell me how awesome the first Japan record was? Damn.
NP: “Peace By Peace” – Crabby Appleton. I need to go back to Tom’s Records in Red Lion, PA and pick up the nice copy of this record he has there for $3 or $4. Really shouldn’t have put that back at that price. Dumb.
NP: “Dark In My Heart” – Lee Hazlewood. Been listening to a lot of Lee lately, too. There’s a certain cleansing effect that Lee has… i just can’t put my finger on it. i can’t “always” listen to Lee in the same way that i can “always” listen to Kris Kristofferson, but… they do strike me in very proximal lobes of the brain.
NP: “Come As You Are” – Caetano Veloso. I had no idea that this even existed until it came on shuffle the other day. Not sure exactly where it falls on the kitsch / enlightened-reading scale, but… i like it at face value no matter what.
NP: “Dumb Drums” – Thee Oh Sees. Hey! The 4th song that’s actually not over 20 years old. Yay!
NP: “Woke Up New” – The Mountain Goats. I’ve been wanting to play this for my Dad, but… I think it’s just too sad to do so. So I’ll just keep thinking it.
NP: “Tonight I’ll Be Staying Here With You” – Cher. Listening to a lot of Cher albums came first, THEN watching “Moonstruck” came second.
NP: “Somebody to Say Bye Bye To” – Michael Hurley. Well, damn, sister. It’s Michael Hurley. Never need a reason to listen to Michael Hurley.
NP: “Mama You Been On My Mind” – Bob Dylan. Took turns playing songs to break your heart one very late night on the Great Lake Swimmers tour. There were lots of good picks, and a couple of doozies… but Bret dropped this one at just the right time, and, well… contest over.
NP: “Lullabye” – Emitt Rhodes. Emitt has the uncanny ability to sometimes sounds like Lennon, sometimes to sound like McCartney, and sometimes to do it both at the same time (or even alternately within the same song). Been listening to some smooth AM gold kinda stuff lately, and Emitt’s really knocking it out of the fuzzy warm little park sometimes. Like… he would never hit one out at the old Polo Grounds, but put him in the old Tiger Stadium and he’d find a way to hit 33 in a year and make a couple of All Star teams.

NP: “ITUNES_STREAM” – ITUNES USERS – stream all of the above songs.
NP: “WINAMP_STREAM” – WINAMP (and WINDOWS MEDIA PLAYER and REALPLAYER) USERS – stream all of the above songs.
NP: “PODCAST” – PODCAST of all of the above songs.
NP: “RAR_FILE” – .RAR file of all of the above songs.

NR: Halfway through “At Swim-Two-Birds” by Flann O’Brien, started “Posthumous Papers of a Living Author” by Robert Musil, and in the middle of the last five New Yorker’s, Atlantic Monthly’s, and Harper’s.

NW: Went to go see “Make-Out With Violence” at the 92Y in Tribeca theatres (it was highly enjoyable). Finally watched “The Foot Fist Way” that i downloaded forever ago. Just watched S03E07 of “Gossip Girl”, so still five episodes behind, and i finally finished all six episodes of “Snuff Box.” As mentioned above, “Moonstruck.” Oh, and… up to S02E06 of the re-watching of “Twin Peaks.”

A note about the FIVE options you have now for listening to the playlist:

1) you can download each song individually. or just the songs you want to download, of course. each song is as high of bitrate as i have, and all of the ID3 tags should be correct. just right-click or whatever you normally do to download an .mp3, and then drag into whatever player you use. or you can probably just click on it and it will stream to whatever player you use. hell… it’s 2010. i’m not going to tell you how to play a damn .mp3.

2) if you want to stream the entire playlist, you have two options. if you use Winamp (the far superior option for easily listening to .mp3s, in my opinion), Windows Media Player, or RealPlayer, just hit the “WINAMP_STREAM” link.

3) NEW option! iTunes users that want to stream the playlist, just click on the “ITUNES_STREAM” link, and it should work.

4) NEW option! for those of you that prefer/enjoy the podcast, i’ve joined the entire playlist together into one long .mp3. it’s a 160k CBR .mp3, so a bit lower-res than some of the original files, but… very convenient if you want to listen on the go without doing a lot of extra steps. just download, drag, and drop. the track listing is contained both in the comments field (will work in Winamp, but not in iTunes) and the lyrics field (will work in iTunes, but not in Winamp). it’s not truly a podcast at this point, but i’ll work to see if i can make this compatible with RSS-feeds and auto-subscription kinda things in the future… but the first step is out of the way.

5) the .rar file of all the songs in the playlist, including a playlist file. you should just have to download the .rar, unpack it, and then click on the .m3u file contained within, and it should play the entire list in whatever player you have set as default. for those of you that are, ahem, accustomed to downloading music from the internet, this may well be the easiest option.

and, well… shit. not much to say, otherwise. been drinking a lot of whisky, playing some basketball, doing a lot of record shopping, doing a lot of thrift shopping, and playing some poker. if ya got a poker game or a pick-up hoops game that needs a player, let me know!

and… most importantly… let me know what you think of the playlist, and let me know if there’s something i need to hear! i’m in the mood for some new stuff, both personally and professionally, so… hit me up with some links to some new music (and, if it’s something that you are working with / involved with, please let me know if it’s potentially “for public consumption”, ie. for possible consideration for a future playlist like this one.).

thanks!

i know i say it all the time, but… look for another playlist soon. please hit me via email at nyc_AT_selfstarterfoundation.com if you’d like on the mailing list for when there’s a new post (or… configure your RSS-reader… this blog should be compatible, but i don’t use the things myself) or check my out on facebook/twitter (barf), where i will be including these updates, too.

NP: “Panama” – Rock Plaza Central. It’s Chris from Rock Plaza Central doing a Van Halen cover alone. What more do I need to say?
NP: “Remember That Day” – Scrawl. I miss Scrawl. Really one of the most important bands in my life, when it comes right down to it. Women + dissonance + real world narratives… opened my eyes to many new avenues at a very impressionable age. And, they gave me some very good advice that i will never forget: “Respect your feet.”
NP: “King Twist” – Hazel. I loved Hazel, but when they put out this song and the liner notes said “The line ‘I remember that day’ is stolen from the song of the same name by Scrawl” I knew they were the coolest band ever.
NP: “Songs For John In D” – Kurt Vile. Wow this is a prettily done song. I think the title must be a John Fahey reference, but i may be stretching.
NP: “Doin’ It Again” – The Feelies. I got to see them two more times this week. i forget just how awesome that is (and how lucky i am) sometimes.
NP: “Cannibal Resource” – Dirty Projectors. Easily the best record of the year thus far. Like nothing that’s ever been done, ever.
NP: “Time Will Tell” – Jimmy Cliff. I’ve been playing the Jimmy Cliff album “Wonderful World, Beautiful People” a lot lately to try to make myself not be in such a bad mood. It’s been helping a little… now if only it would stop raining.
NP: “RoboCop” – Kanye West. Oh, shut up. It’s a good song. Don’t be a dick.
NP: “Don’t Fall In Love If You Want To Die In Peace” – Comet Gain. And this one kind of kills me every time.
NP: “Frozen Tongue” – The Non-Commissioned Officers. Certainly 2009’s most adventurous work, their double-album soundtrack to their self-produced zombie movie is an impressive listen.
NP: “No Doz” – Television Ghost. The best band I’ve seen all year? I think so. These Indiana teenagers blew my ears off with their Nick-Cave-early-Echo-&-The-Bunnymen-Drive-Like-Jehu acid wash. I’ve been listening to this record a lot while driving lately.
NP: “The Main” – Grant Hart. Those Grant Hart records are sorely under-appreciated in retrospect (and those Bob Mould albums are a teeny bit over-rated it turns out, too). I always said I wanted to be in the studio when Bob Mould recorded his vocal take in “Divide & Conquer” off of “Flip Your Wig”, but I’d kinda really like like to go back in time and hear Grant’s third verse here. The “Hell is the worst place that I’ve ever been to” stanza is the sound of a man coming genuinely unhinged.
NP: “Sister Evangeline” – Strand Of Oaks. Saw Strand Of Oaks open for Rock Plaza Central in Philadelphia a couple of weeks ago. I thought this song was the highlight, until he closed with a song that isn’t on the record that blew my mind.
NP: “I Will Not Take These Things for Granted” – Toad The Wet Sprocket. Yeah… I like Toad The Wet Sprocket. All of the first three records. Deal with it.
NP: “Stars” – Warpaint. Los Angeles weirdos with a pretty cool EP.
NP: “Hellhole Rat Race” – Girls. San Francisco weirdos with an even cooler EP.
NP: “Entire” – The Spinanes. Classic old Spinanes. I forgot how great this song is, but then I went back and listened to the “Manos” album for the first time in a long time the other day. Stunning.
NP: “Isn’t Life Strange” – The Clientele. I got to see them play this song 30 or 40 times on tour before they recorded it. But I was unprepared for just how beautiful this album version would be. Plus, I always kinda think this song is about me. It’s not, but i just think that.
NP: “Living With You Now” – Aidan Moffat + The Best-Ofs. The foul-mouthed elder statesman of Glasgow… Glad he is still spitting out records.
NP: “30_milkshakes__2009_06_20.m3u” – stream all of the above songs.
NP: “30_milkshakes__2009_06_20.rar” – rar file of all of the above songs.
NR: Finally finished “The Sound And The Fury” by Faulkner and am still pretty early on in “The Stories of Edith Wharton Volume 1″.
NW: Finally watched the last two episodes of “East Bound And Down”, just saw “Bunny Lake Is Missing” at the MoMa, went to go see “Away We Go” at Union Square, and about to finally go see the Anvil documentary tonight. And Die Hard 2 was just on AMC. And then there was the Father’s Day Bill Murray Marathon on AMC (Caddyshack into Stripes into Ghostbusters). Fucking commercials, tho! Oh, also… started watching “Snuff Box”, featuring “the other two guys” from The Mighty Boosh. If you love Bob Fossil and Dixon Bainbridge, you gotta check it out!

NP: “Free th City” – Surf City. Naming themselves after a Jesus And Mary Chain song, they wear their influences on their sleeve, but… what a great rush of a song. Hot damn.
NP: “The Fraudulent Singer” – Colossal Yes. So catchy. One of those songs that makes you believe in college rock and shoves away all of those “why do i even bother?” kinda doubts.
NP: “So After All” – Airship. If there’s one band I ever put on these playlists that I can fairly certainly say “you’ve never heard this band before, but you should listen to this now because they’re going to be huge someday,” Airship may be it. Grab their 4-song EP on eMusic. Now.
NP: “Death” – White Lies. Yeah… the album kinda sucks, and I hear they are pretty much enormous douchebags, but I kinda like this song anyway.
NP: “Baby Baby You’re My Baby” – Herman Dune. Keeps spitting out the twee hits.
NP: “Know Me” – Toad The Wet Sprocket. Yeah… two playlists, two songs by Toad. Just listen to it and shut up.
NP: “Father And Son” – Cat Stevens. Yeah… it’s kinda the hit. But it’s a great song, and it was in my head for a couple of days while out on tour with The Twilight Sad, so we gave it a couple of spins in the van.
NP: “Love V” – The House Of Love. Nice little instrumental that jumped out at me the other day. i should really listen to those other House Of Love records more, but it’s just so hard to not pick the first one.
NP: “2541″ – Grant Hart. I thought this one of the saddest songs I’d ever heard when I was 17. 20 years on, and I still agree.
NP: “We Are Full Of Light (That Blinds Us At The Moment Of Our Most Needing)” – Rock Plaza Central. Fucking hell… been listening to these Rock Plaza Central recordings for months and months and months, and this song still sends a tingle down my spine everytime I hear it.
NP: “Miss You” – Any Day Parade. Locals trying to do some boy/girl country rock. They’ve got some solid songs, but I keep missing them to see them live.
NP: “Hungover Together” – Best Kissers In The World. Toby Keith and Carrie Underwood need to cover this shit and make Gerald Collier a rich man. Please.
NP: “The June Bug Dance” – Hurray For The Riff Raff. I DID get to see these kids a couple of weeks ago, and they blew me away. Lead singer / songwriter does the repetitive thing a bit too much, but… I like Rock Plaza Central, so I can’t fault her for that. But… that’s my only critique. This is a solid older song, but the new songs these kids played were pretty outstanding.
NP: “Modern Romance” – The Twilight Sad. Sweet and tender Scottish hooligans… who knew they could be so pretty?
NP: “Brass Buttons” – Lemonheads. I’ll admit… I had never heard the original of this (or at least don’t remember it, if i did) when “Lovey” came out, but… this is a really lovely take on this Gram Parsons song. Say what you will about Evan Dando, he’s always had an ear for a good song, and has covered them with care, melody, and feeling. From Lucinda Williams to the Misfits, from Patience & Prudence to the HAIR soundtrack, he’s dropped some amazing ones on us through the years.
NP: “Ramblin’ Gamblin Man” – Bob Seger System. Wake up! It’s time for some rock and roll! Makes me want to run away from home.
NP: “Every Picture Tells A Story” – Rod Stewart. There’s something about the line (and the delivery of the line) “The women I’ve known I wouldn’t let tie my shoe” that gets me every time. Also, at the end I’m always tempted to ask “What’s a ’story donut’?”.
NP: “Petals On An Austin Rose” – The Capstan Shafts. Catchiest 64 seconds I’ve heard in a long time (although this is a coupla years old).
NP: “Do You Like To Read?” – Strand Of Oaks. This song reminds me a lot of “Songs For A Blue Guitar” by Red House Painters. Maybe not quite as good, but… still… pretty high praise (or at least I mean it to be.) Can’t wait until he records the song with the line “I’ll be the first one in the water, and the last to swim.” Jim James has some competition…
NP: “30_milkshakes__2009_06_19.m3u” – stream all of the above songs.
NP: “30_milkshakes__2009_06_19.rar” – rar file of all of the above songs.
NR: same as post above.
NW: same as post above.

It’s all about Rock Plaza Central over here right now… the new album just came out last Tuesday, and i would really appreciate it, if you are at all interested in RPC (or just want to do me a favor), if you would purchase the record this week. As you probably know, first month sales are massively important. So… here are some links for where you can purchase the record in whatever format you prefer:

eMusic (MP3)
Insound (CD)
Paper Bag Records (LP)
Amazon (MP3)
iTunes (MP3)

i should mention… the LP is limited edition of 300, hand-screened and hand-numbered, and absolutely beautiful. I forgot to buy a copy when the band was here a couple of weeks ago, so i need to order one myself, actually.

Here’s the 8.0 Pitchfork review of the record.

Frightened Rabbit will be back in NYC for these shows next month:

07/17/09 Hoboken, NJ – at Maxwell’s – SOLD OUT
07/18/09 Brooklyn, NY – at Siren Music Festival

That’s about all that’s going on right now… Looking for a part-time job, and trying to go see as many movies as possible. If you’ve got any job offers or movie recommendations, please drop me a line and let me know!

And this is the playlist that’s a lot more where my head is at the moment. This is the foil to the “not fooling anybody” playlist.

NP: “Absence Makes The Heart Grow Fonder” – Loudon Wainwright III. “When I see you again expect some champagne wine, and on Valentine’s Day expect a Valentine”.
NP: “Nothing’s Alright” – One Hundred Dollars. “It don’t matter that we’ve been in love. No, it don’t matter that we’ve been in love”.
NP: “For No One” – Chet Atkins.
NP: “Silver Eagle Express” – Kinky Friedman. “Now my heart’s a worn and weary vessel”.
NP: “Lullabye” – Hurray For The Riff Raff. “Let’s pack up and go, let’s dance close and slow”.
NP: “Still” – Great Lake Swimmers. “I’m still searching for whispers in between yells”.
NP: “The Last Day Of Our Acquaintance” – Sinéad O’Connor. “I will meet you later in somebody’s office”.
NP: “Black Pear Tree” – The Mountain Goats & Kaki King. “Somebody’s gonna get screwed”.
NP: “Capt. Spalding’s Song About The Nurses” – Loudon Wainwright III. “Now that we’re without them, we can hardly stand ourselves”.
NP: “Sangre De Stephanie” – Lifter Puller. “I’m glad you invited him. Like to know what I’m up against”.
NP: “Street Lights” – Kanye West. “I know my destination, but I’m just not there”.
NP: “Good Year For The Roses” – Elvis Costello & The Attractions. “At least you thought you wanted it”.
NP: “Not Gonna” – Radiolaria. “Not gonna follow you round up and down town like a pup pup pup pup pup pup puppy dog”.
NP: “For No One” – The Beatles.
NP: “I Was Born To Love You” – Chevy Chase.
NP: “The Idiot” – Fol Chen. “Everybody here thinks I’m an idiot”.
NP: “A Very Sad Song” – The Sound Of Arrows. “1,2,3,4 I’m So Lonely”.
NP: “Let’s Fall Back In Love” – Slow Club. “Sleeping, I’ll be sleeping, into the afternoon”.
NP: “Love On My Side” – Lost In The Trees. “I got love songs, I got songs that make you cry”.
NP: “In Louisville At 7″ – Max Richter.
NP: “Little Shadow” – Yeah Yeah Yeahs.
NP: “Come Tomorrow” – Townes Van Zandt. “Or maybe it’s the knowin’ she’ll be gone”.
NP: “A Song For You” – Willie Nelson.
NP: “30_milkshakes__2009_04_10.m3u” – stream all of the above songs.
NP: “30_milkshakes__2009_04_10.rar” – rar file of all of the above songs.
NR: Just finished “Lark & Termite” by Jayne Anne Phillips and “A Light In August” by Faulkner. Both were pretty outstanding.

big honking playlist of lots of stuff from the last couple of months… let’s just get straight into it.

NP: “Let It Go” – The Asteroid No. 4. Shimmering pop song. Think The La’s, Ride, The Church, Trashcan Sinatras… Amazing.
NP: The New Kid Revival – Her Space Holiday. Another amazing pop song. Been listening to it for months, and as soon as i hit send I’ll realize who his voice reminds me of.
NP: “The Rat” – Dead Confederate. One of two songs with the lyric “bang bang” in this playlist. What are the odds? You’d think this song should be more sinister, or more moody, or more rocking… but it treads a fine line, and it’s pretty great.
NP: “Right Hand on My Heart” – The Whigs. I still don’t like this band. But this song has grown on me in a middle-of-the-road My Morning Jacket kinda way.
NP: “Oh My God” – Ida Maria. I was kinda trying to get Frightened Rabbit to cover this.
NP: “Tone Poem” – Rings. Hypnotic and mindbending… and actually pretty good, too.
NP: “El Vestido” – Juana Molina. I still love the older records more, but… this new Juana Molina record is a really enjoyable listen.
NP: “Short Films” – Spangle Call Lilli Line. Pretty pretty PRETTY song. I kinda wish it didn’t have the violin in it though.
NP: “Cooling The Medium” – Martha + The Muffins. Just bought this record on vinyl for the hell of it. Not really very good, but the chorus of this is nice.
NP: “The Airport Line” – The Week That Was. Love this. Really timeless and awesome.
NP: “Hallie And Henry” – Say Hi. Another album full of great pop songs… it’s hard to keep up. This is my favorite off the (now truncated) new Say Hi album.
NP: “Pull The Wool” – Right On Dynamite. More great pop. You want these guys playing your birthday party.
NP: “Tell Me When You’re Ready” – The 1990s. I was hoping this record would be better. It has a few moments, though.
NP: “Miles Davis & The Cool” – The Gaslight Anthem. Believe the hype, at least about this song by these guys.
NP: “Darkness On The Edge Of Gastown” – Japandroids. Stealing bits from late 80’s Dischord, early 90’s Sub Pop, and the current fuzzy LA all ages scene, Japandroids are a 2-piece from Vancouver who are making some serious noise. This is an older song, but there’s a new album coming out shortly.
NP: “Buy Your Own Fries” – Barack Obama. Stupid and ironic, it’s still kinda funny that this exists.
NP: “Whole G” – Phleg Camp. Classic Montreal emo. (a sentence that’s never been written before? possbly.)
NP: “Rone” – Callers. Pretty and timeless. Almost seems like it should be in a David Lynch movie, but I don’t really know why i’m saying that.
NP: “To The Ghosts Who Write History Books” – The Low Anthem. A somber little shuffle.
NP: “(Don’t You Believe The Words Of) Handsome Men” – Rock Plaza Central. The first single from the new record coming out at the end of May.
NP: “Sundown” – Gordon Lightfoot. Chris Eaton steals that line from this song, so I figured what the hell. It’s a better song than i remembered it being..
NP: “Frankie’s Gun!” – The Felice Brothers. Possibly the best song I’ve heard in a year.
NP: “Back Door Man” – John Hammond. This has to be the definitive take on this song. At least to my ears.
NP: “Rhode Island Is Famous For You” – Blossom Dearie. What a cute song. Sad that we lost Blossom this year.
NP: “Color Spills In” – Honey Clouds. Pastels meets Sone? I don’t know anything about these people but they’ve written at least one great song.
NP: “Joan Of Arc (Maid Of Orleans)” – Parenthetical Girls. Stumbled upon their set at SXSW, and they closed with a really inspired cover of this enigmatic OMD song. This version isn’t as visceral, but still: nicely done.
NP: “Heavy Eyes” – The Depreciation Guild. Moody and shimmering and damn-near perfect..
NP: “The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart” – The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart. The closing song on their debut EP, and my favorite song in their live set.
NP: “30_milkshakes__2009_04_09.m3u” – stream all of the above songs.
NP: “30_milkshakes__2009_04_09.rar” – rar file of all of the above songs.
NR: “The Sound And The Fury” by Faulkner, David Foster Wallace excerpt of an unfinished work in The New Yorker.

Some musical updates… how about that?

A couple of nice things that happened during the last two Frightened Rabbit tours have made it to the light of day in the past couple of weeks.

They did really nice sessions with Sound Opinions and World Cafe. Check them out here:
Sound Opinions
World Cafe

Last fall we filmed our performance on Josh Schwartz’s new web-only TV show “Rockville, CA”. Our episode (#13) airs in 2 weeks (April 21st), so I wanted to send this now to give you enough time to, like, get caught up on the really tricky and confusing story line:
Rockville, CA

And then just last week they were featured on a pretty cool new service called Spooonful. Spooonful’s thing is that they pick one good solid awesome artist, give you a decent amount of vital information, and they tell you about it once a week in a simple easy fashion. It’s kinda refreshing. And… i say this with no irony whatsoever: it’s the perfect thing to get your parents or older brother to subscribe to. You know, those people that say to you every holiday “I don’t know how you do it… i just don’t have time to pay attention to new music anymore.”
Spooonful

The newest 30 Milkshakes band is LA’s Fol Chen. Have been fans for a long time, and we’re excited to be officially working with them. They just had a really nice piece on NPR’s “Fresh Air” program:
Fresh Air

They’re also getting played everywhere from BBC Radio 1 to KCRW. They’ll be playing a week of dates in London in June, and then look for them on tour in the USA all summer hopefully!

And then there’s Rock Plaza Central. The long-awaited follow-up to “are we not horses” is finished, in the bag, and coming out May 26th in Canada and June 16th in the USA via Paper Bag Records. It’s titled (are you ready for this?) “…at the Moment of our Most Needing, or If Only They Could Turn Around, They Would Know They Weren’t Alone”. And, honestly… it’s a masterpiece. I couldn’t be happier with what they’ve accomplished.

Just for you dear readers, here’s a special link with three songs (streaming) from the album:
Rock Plaza Central album sampler

Magnet did a little preview piece last month here:
Magnet

And here’s a just-shot blogotheque-style version of another song off the new album:
“Them That Are Good, And Them That Are Bad”

Hey… announcement: looking to sublet 1BR apartment at 2nd and 9th from April 14 through May 15, or possibly longer for the right situation. please email me if you are interested, or feel free to forward along. here’s the craiglist posting:
http://newyork.craigslist.org/mnh/sub/1113965236.html

Also… are you searching for a stupid and easy to remember email address? well… have I got just the thing for you. A while ago, on a lark and a joke, I bought the url www.cookiesandfucking.com. You can email me at cookies AT cookiesandfucking.com. Anyway… if you’d like your own lifetime custom @cookiesandfucking.com email address, i’m gonna start selling them for $10. drop me a line and we’ll figure out the process, but you’ll get a username, password, mail server address… i can set up the email to automatically forward to another email address if you’d like, and you’ll also be able to use it with blackberries and web-based mail programs. Or Outlook or whatever you use. You know… like a real email address. Think about it!

We’ve missed lots of good music and lots of good concerts, but… let’s see if we can get this thing up and running again.

Here’s a new playlist.

NP: “Black Fur” – Fredrik. This record is a couple of months old at this point, but I’ve just come around to it. A couple of songs are a bit same-y, but… the one’s that standout are truly standouts. This is about as captivating of an album-opener as you can find.
NP: “Train Station” – Hooded Fang. Going through a bit of an indie-pop phase. This is a little-known new band from Toronto, from their self-released EP. Expect to hear more about this band soon.
NP: “Brother” – Royal Bangs. 2009’s Broken Social Scene? Could be. You’ve been tipped.
NP: “Wizard Buys A Hat (Live)” – The Mountain Goats. Live at the Brooklyn Masonic Temple show in May. One of the more amazing intros you’ll hear, and way longer than the song.
NP: “Throwing Bones” – The Phantom Band. New Glasgow band, this record comes out in January and is ALL OVER the place. I couldn’t whittle this description down to even five genres if i tried. Intriguing, but I’m not sure if I like it.
NP: “Two” – The Antlers. It’s not often i use the word “majesty” without saying it like Strong Bad in my head. Most of the time, it’s pretty sarcastic. So, when i use it genuinely, I definitely recommend that you should pay attention. Forthcoming album “Hospice” by The Antlers is simply majestic. If you only download one of these songs, make it this one.
NP: “Never & Always” – The Lucksmiths. A couple of months late to this one, but… there’s a new Lucksmiths album that I really almost missed. So, to make up for lost time I’m gonna put two songs on here. Here’s a classic boppy Lucksmiths song.
NP: “California In Popular Song” – The Lucksmiths. And here’s the sublime side of the Lucksmiths. God I love this band.
NP: “I’m Not A Robber” – Alexis Taylor. Hot Chip lead singer’s solo album. Basically sounds like lo-fi Hot Chip demos, with more a bit more computer noodling. Which is just fine by me.
NP: “High Noon” – Toy Fight. French band on CitySlang Records. We saw them in Berlin and they were awfully endearing.
NP: “Wizard Buys A Hat” – The Mountain Goats. The “studio” version of the song, from the Satanic Messiah EP.
NP: “Fire On Corridor X” – All The Saints. Coming out on Touch And Go next month, this isn’t like any record on Touch And Go you’ve ever heard. I gotta give it ten or twenty more listens, but… it’s pretty striking the first few passes.
NP: “All Messed Up” – Thee Hypnotics. From a record that came out in 1990 that I’ve been looking for a digital copy of sporadically for a while. Then I go and read a review of All The Saints and somebody mentioned Thee Hypnotics, and then i looked it up. Kismet!
NP: “Meshkaina” – Traffic Sound. You haven’t lived until you’ve heard four drunken Swedes sing along to a Peruvian song about mescalin at the top of their lungs. Which isn’t to say it’s a pleasurable experience.
NP: “Quiet Little Voices (Live)” – We Were Promised Jetpacks. Recorded live during an opening slot for Frightened Rabbit.
NP: “Keep Yourself Warm (Live)” – Frightened Rabbit. And… recorded during their headline set the same night. A bit scrappy, but it definitely captures the majesty (67% serious, 33% Stong Bad voice) of the Frabbits in action.
NP: “30_milkshakes__2008_12_11.m3u” – stream all of the above songs.
NP: “30_milkshakes__2008_12_11.rar” – rar file of all of the above songs.
NR: Nothing. Truly: nothing. Sad.

There are some upcoming shows we want to tell you about, so… we shall tell you about them now:

Tuesday, December 16: The Antlers, Dark Dark Dark at Cake Shop.

Wednesday, December 17: The Antlers, Depreciation Guild at Public Assembly in Brooklyn.

Saturday, January 17: Frightened Rabbit at Bowery Ballroom. Honestly… this show is almost sold out, if you are planning on going… you better buy your tickets this week!
advance tickets:
http://www.ticketmaster.com/event/0000415E98C14EFE?artistid=1097391&majorcatid=10001&minorcatid=60

Saturday, January 24: Oxford Collapse at The Studio at Webster Hall.

Saturday, February 7: The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart, caUSE Co-MOTION, Depreciation Guild, and Zaza at Mercury Lounge.

I’m sure there’s lots of other shows that we’re missing… quite frankly, we’ve been pretty out of the loop lately. So, hopefully we’ll be more, umm, in the loop, in January. We hope to see you soon, but… no matter what: Happy Holidays!

I’ve finally purchased a new external hard drive, so… once i get all the new music i’ve been stockpiling on there (umm… literally 80 GB awaiting importing), these playlists should come more often. In the meantime, here’s a great long playlist, and then a very exciting announcement below about Oxford Collapse.

Here’s this week’s playlist.

NP: “A Vespertine Haunting” – Alive In Wild Paint. A band that sounds like Coldplay on Equal Vision Records? Bizarro.
NP: “Tears In The Morning” – The Beach Boys. Just a damn pleasant song.
NP: “Time After Time” – Cyndi Lauper. I gave the Cyndi Lauper debut album a bunch of listens last week. What a seriously amazing work of art this thing is. Check out the Bonus Tracks below for some more from it.
NP: “Adam And Nathan Totally Kick Ass” – El Ten Eleven. For fans of Ratatat and Holy Fuck… this is some seriously catchy electronic instrumental rock.
NP: “Accountants Dream” – Entire Cities. Toronto band checks in with a deliciously fun record. This song kinda gets me fired up in a very teenage way.
NP: “Rat Pack Dad” – Half Cousin. I don’t know anything about this. Reminds me of Hood, with a bit of something else that I can’t put my finger on. As soon as it stops playing, I forget what it sounds like. Then I click on it again, and I remember. Strange.
NP: “Master Of The Universe” – Hawkwind. Andy from Frightened Rabbit has taken to wearing a Hawkwind shirt with regularity, and it’s gotten me on a Hawkwind kick.
NP: “Stripmining & Refrain” – James. The last number (or two, depending on how you look at it) on their masterpiece (in my opinion) Strip-Mine.
NP: “Stood Up To Leave” – Jules Mark Shear. New Jules Shear album! Oh, my! I had no idea. Jules is best known for being covered by other folks, but I’ve always been a massive fan. See Bonus Tracks below for some more Jules Shear goodness.
NP: “You Don’t Come See Me Anymore” – Malcolm Holcombe. New record from drunken fuck-up Malcolm Holcombe proves he’s officially taken the baton from Steve Earle.
NP: “The Sun Smells Too Loud” – Mogwai. This seems to be everybody’s favorite from the new record, because it’s so damn pretty. But… you know what? it’s really fucking pretty, so I’m putting it on here.
NP: “Young Love Delivers” – Oxford Collapse. The next single from their new album “BITS” Look for a kick-ass new video in the next couple of weeks.
NP: “Little Ones” – Parts & Labor. If I told you this was an early 7″ on Lazy Records from 1986, you’d believe me. If I told you this was some new California 15-piece quasi-religious ensemble, you’d believe me. Amazing.
NP: “Block Preachers (Edit)” – Richard Pryor. Classic Richard Pryor.
NP: “A Beautiful Place” – Robert Wyatt. Simply beautiful. Download immediately.
NP: “The Prettiest Tree” – Slow Down Tallahassee. A bit too indie-by-numbers, I suppose, but a pretty lovely song nonetheless.
NP: “Fear And Convenience” – Thao. Remember the other day when you said that you were ready to hear a songwriter that combined the voice and inflection of Edie Brickell and Tanita Tikaram and wrote songs that sounded like Stephen Malkmus or Isaac Brock was the principle songwriter in Wilco instead of Jeff Tweedy? You don’t remember that conversation? Never mind, then. I’m a bit late (a lot late) to posting Thao, but… better late than never.
NP: “George Says He Has Lost His Way In This World” – The Clientele. Song from the new EP. The Clientele have just simply hit their stride. It’s amazing to watch and hear a band 100% being themselves.
NP: “Love In A Car” – The House Of Love. A couple of weeks ago I listened to The House Of Love’s first eponymous album from 1988 for a day or two. In particular, “My Love In A Car” over and over and over again. At the time I said, “I’m not much of a writer, but I think I could put down a good 5000 words David Foster Wallace style on this song if I wanted.” I feel a bit awkward about the DFW reference, but it IS true. Here’s a hint: you might be disappointed with the fade out on the first 15-20 listens, but by the time you get to the 50th listen, you’ll recognize just how genius the fadeout on this one is.
NP: “Blood” – The Middle East. I know nothing about this. Not even sure how or where I got it. But this is a pleasant and pretty song.
NP: “Sparkle” – The Nothingdoers. This is either boring and predictable, and comfortable and quaint. The jury’s still out.
NP: “On A Letter” – The Sea And Cake. Time after time, album after album… The Sea And Cake really do just keeping getting better. It’s easy to forget that that’s true, but if you pay attention for a little bit, then you realize. Kinda amazing.
NP: BONUS TRACK “Girls Just Want To Have Fun” – Robert Hazard. Philadelphia lost it’s only real New Wave hero a couple of weeks ago when Robert passed away. Growing up in PA, i thought that Robert Hazard was a pop star the world over. Sadly, that just wasn’t true. But he did write this gem.
NP: BONUS TRACK “Girls Just Want To Have Fun” – Cyndi Lauper. And what an inspired cover this is.
NP: BONUS TRACK “All Through The Night” – Jules Shear. More from Jules.
NP: BONUS TRACK “All Through The Night” – Cyndi Lauper. And Cyndi’s cover from her debut album.
NP: BONUS TRACK “If We Never Meet Again” – Reckless Sleepers. Jules Shear’s shortlived band, with, for my money, one of the 20 most beautiful songs ever written.
NP: BONUS TRACK “If We Never Meet Again” – Tommy Conwell & The Young Rumblers. Another Pennsylvania-only legend. A nice cover, but i can just never forgive them for the small change to one of the most subtle and lovely lines in the original. Listen close and you’ll hear it.
NP: “30_milkshakes__2008_09_30.m3u” – stream all of the above songs.
NP: “30_milkshakes__2008_09_30_part_01.rar” – rar file of all of the above songs (Part 1).
NP: “30_milkshakes__2008_09_30_part_02.rar” – rar file of all of the above songs (Part 2).
NR: Nothing. Being incredibly lazy and bad about reading.

Please come out tonight (Monday night) to our favorite new club to wish Oxford Collapse a bit of a bon voyage at the end of their long US/Canada tour. With a little help from the fine folks at Jack Daniels, Oxford Collapse will be sharing the stage with MiniKiss (yeah… the Little Kiss Tribute Band: http://www.minikissonline.com), there will be drink specials all night, AND we have pretty much unlimited guest list. Wanna come out and party with us?

Monday, October 6
Le Poisson Rouge
—————-
Oxford Collapse
MiniKiss

for guest list, just RSVP to this email with your full name, and whether you need a +1 or a +2.

directions / info:
158 Bleecker Street
New York, NY 10012
http://lepoissonrouge.com

It’s a big week. On Tuesday, we’ll be volunteering at the Barack Rock event at Music Hall Of Williamsburg. It’s 7 bands and 6 comedians donating their time to raise money for the Obama campaign. Here are the advertised entertainers:

Tuesday, October 7
Music Hall Of Williamsburg
—————-
The Fiery Furnaces
Andrew Bird
Les Savy Fav (Acoustic Spectacular!)
Guster
Martin Bisi
Alina Simone
AND SECRET MUSICAL GUESTS!
Lizz Winstead
Eugene Mirman
John Roberts
Kumail Nanjiani
Adira Amram
Heather Lawless
(not listed in order)

for more info, go here:
http://www.myspace.com/barackrockoctober7th

advance tickets:
http://www.ticketmaster.com/event/0000413AD6CD6C1B?artistid=1261202&majorcatid=10005&minorcatid=0

or you can go to the Mercury Lounge Box Office from noon to 7:00 PM to avoid the ticketmaster fees

I’m not going to attempt to give you all a political lesson, but suffice it to say: if you are an Obama supporter, and haven’t donated any money, then you need to change that. I’m not saying you need to go to this event, but… you need to make a contribution. Here’s an easy tip: sell a couple of things on ebay, and instead of keeping the money, paypal it to the Obama campaign. Then it doesn’t cost you anything!

And, mark your calendars for this one, the long-awaited return of Frightened Rabbit:

Saturday, October 18
Music Hall Of Williamsburg
—————-
The Spinto Band
Frightened Rabbit
The Sw!ms

advance tickets:
http://www.ticketmaster.com/event/00004105AF6273ED?artistid=1015844&majorcatid=10001&minorcatid=1

And… here’s a dumb note: any poker players out there? i’m reviving my old home game, and looking for a few new folks. mostly $2/$4 limit rotation, but maybe a little $.50/$1.00 PL omaha, or NL, too. Drop me a line if you are interested in more information!

Wow. alright. it really has been far too long again. a bit of a decent excuse this time, as I recently had a computer stolen, and have slowly been getting back up to full speed. There’s nothing good about it, but… one thing that did come of it was that I lost all the music I had that wasn’t already on the external hard drive. So, I’ve went back and discovered some stuff I missed the first time around. I’ve got like 60GB of stuff waiting to be imported to Itunes already, so… i should be able to put together a bunch of playlists in pretty rapid succession. But you don’t want to hear about that. Here’s some music, and then a very exciting announcement below about Oxford Collapse.

Here’s this week’s playlist.

NP: “For Love Instead” – In The Pines. This isn’t new, but it’s new to me. Kansas City band made an awfully fine record full of simple melodies and plaintive strings. It’s wrought, but not overwrought.
NP: “Summer’s Not The Same Without You” – James Yorkston. It’s nice to hear James sing a simple song without too many production bells and whistles. He drops the whispery, gauzy atmospherics and knocks me on my ass with this straight up little love song.
NP: “Emer’s Dream / Aisling Eimear” – Colm Mac Con Iomaire. Violin player from The Frames drops this absolute gorgeous instrumental album. If I ever produce a movie, I’m having this guy do the score.
NP: “Hungry Heart” – Aidan John Moffat. Speaking of accents, how can I not highlight this cover?
NP: “Holding Out For A Hero” – Doveman. Speaking of covers, how can I not hightlight this? Doveman covers the entire Footloose soundtrack song-by-song. Either the boldest or the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard. It definitely works, though.
NP: “Beautiful Eyes” – The Aluminum Group. I will always have a massive soft-spot in my heart for The Aluminum Group. They’ve made a couple of the most ridiculously overlooked records I’ve ever loved. And while this new one doesn’t quite live up to some of their previous work, I’ll still listen, and I’ll still try to cram them down your throat.
NP: “Needlepoint” – The Spinto Band. The long overdue new album from The Spinto Band is finally here. I need to give it about 25 more listens, but… it’s already grown on me tons, and I can’t wait to see them with Frightened Rabbit in a couple of months.
NP: “Alright” – Shh… This Is A Library. Honestly, the worst band name ever. I can’t even believe I’m typing it. And the record is inconsistent, but has some flashes of brilliance. Needs an editor and somebody to call “Oberst” on him every now and then, but… maybe somewhere down the road could be somebody to keep an eye out for.
NP: “Here It Is” – Sennen. If you’re going to name yourself after an early Ride single, you’d better have the songs to back it up. Not just the style, but the songs. Sennen don’t have either, unfortunately. But they DO have a couple of pretty songs. Eight-tenths deduction for appropriating the name.
NP: “I Love You Like A Madman” – The Wave Pictures. OK. I don’t know how the hell I never found this one last year, but… I’m kinda obsessed. Honestly, if you download just one song out of this bunch, make it this one. And if you don’t like it, then, well… I don’t even know what to tell you. Maybe just keep it to yourself, and know that you’ve got something to work on? (For a bit of a hint, though… think Go-Betweens, Jonathan Richman, and Jens Lekman).
NP: “My Mother The War” – 10,000 Maniacs. Oxford Collapse covered this at their last couple of shows. I’m chagrined to say that I didn’t recognize it, but I’m also man enough to admit it. I’m also man enough to admit that it caused me to go back and listen to nothing but 10,000 Maniacs for an entire day last week.
NP: “Bear Face” – Abe Vigoda. The younger, scrappier, punker parallel evolutionary branch that brought us Vampire Weekend in NYC.
NP: “Danseparc (Every Day It’s Tomorrow)” – Martha And The Muffins. This stuff is pretty dated, but… it’s still kinda nice to hear a couple of these songs remastered and reissued.
NP: “Graveyard Dog” – Sunset. I liked this for a little while, but now that I’ve heard it like ten times while making this playlist… now I’m not so sure. I like the OMD-keyboards in the verses… it makes me think of The Breakfast Club, but I guess it’s just too long for its own good, and the drums are starting to sound too much like early Nine Inch Nails.
NP: “Night Terrors” – Wild Sweet Orange. This isn’t really the most representative song on this album, but it jumped out on one of the listens, so I threw it in here. I definitely recommend you track down some more music elsewhere, as the rest of the album has a much different production value.
NP: “In The Battle Of Sun Vs. Curtains, Sun Loses And We Sleep Until Noon” – Woodpigeon. A nice little pop song with a snarky Indie 2.0 song title.
NP: “30_milkshakes__2008_08_20.m3u” – stream all of the above songs.
NP: “30_milkshakes__2008_08_20.rar” – rar file of all of the above songs.
NR: New Yorker article about “The Chameleon”. Lots of web stories about how to encrypt your laptop data for travelling through airport security.

Please come out Thursday night to celebrate the release of “BITS” by Oxford Collapse. Their fourth (and finest) full-length, it came out last Tuesday on Sub Pop. Here’s the show info:

Thursday, August 21
Glasslands Gallery
Oxford Collapse
Italian Ice
Seance
Skiing

advance tickets:
https://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/41319

more info:
289 Kent Ave (between S. 1st & S. 2nd)
Brooklyn, NY 11211
L to Bedford, J to Marcy
http://www.myspace.com/theglasslands

And, mark your calendars for this one:

Saturday, October 18
Music Hall Of Williamsburg
The Spinto Band
Frightened Rabbit
The Sw!ms

advance tickets:
http://www.ticketmaster.com/event/00004105AF6273ED?artistid=1015844&majorcatid=10001&minorcatid=1

And… here’s a dumb note: any poker players out there? i’m reviving my old home game, and looking for a few new folks. mostly $2/$4 limit rotation, but maybe a little $.50/$1.00 PL omaha, or NL, too. Drop me a line if you are interested in more information!