Underwater Vocals

Still unable to locate a copy of a Writer album, I'm settling for youtube videos. There's lots of live videos of these guys, but as with most live music on youtube, the audio quality leaves much to be desired. This one is decent, so I hope you enjoy! The track is Miss Mermaid, and it's off of their 2010 album Brotherface.

What Color Is This?

As I mentioned yesterday, both the opening acts for The Album Leaf were pretty spectacular, and I was very glad to catch them both. I have unfortunately not been able to find a copy of Writer's album Brotherface but I have obtained Sister Crayon's Bellow which is a magnificent album. Previously a quartet, the band, hailing from Sacramento now has two female vocalists, Terra Lopez (the band's lead) and Dani Fernandez whose vocals work well together. Dani also provides beats courtesy of an MPC 1000. Jeffrey LaTour handles the guitar work and the keyboards. They have a dark ambient feel to them, but are rather soothing at the same time. Check out their track "I'm Still The Same Person" above!

In A Clamshell!

Last night was absolutely amazing. One of the most substantial concerts I've been to in a while, probably since seeing Kaskade for NYE almost a year ago now. Five friends and I made it to the Lafayette and headed downstairs to the Mississippi Ballroom to see The Album Leaf play. Not only did they play an amazing set, but both opening acts (Writer, & Sister Crayon) played some gorgeous music as well. The Album Leaf is a band I've enjoyed for quite some time and it was really magical to see them live. The Mississippi Ballroom was a great venue for them and the atmosphere was great. I had this sense of everything being in it's right place as they played, even with the #occupysd events going on and the nation kind of in an uproar, The Album Leaf was super soothing and mellow. Just the right thing at the right time. Can't wait for these guys to come back around and play their hometown again! The video above is for the song "Window" which was probably my favorite track they played.

First Show Of Rocktober!

Saw CSS last night with my friend JJ. It was the first show of my Rocktober project and also the first show I got free tickets to because of my blog. CSS performed great, Lovefoxxx is still sexy as hell and has kept her amazing stage presence, still dancing around and just so full of energy. Men, the opening act for the show had me feeling confused for a while. First off JJ and I were playing the "Is that a man or a woman" guessing game for quite some time. I had no idea who Men was until making it home and doing some research only to find out the lead of the band is JD Samson, who you might know from the band Le Tigre (check out their song "Deceptacon" here). So many things made sense all of a sudden! The side project is pretty good, but I definitely like Le Tigre better.

Crabcore!

A while back my buddy Mars introduced me to this band Attack Attack! with the song "Stick Stickly" (video here) and we had a good laugh at the ridiculousness of their "Crab-Core" style and cheesy edm interlude. Now they're making dubstep remixes of their own tracks. Entertaining, but still ridiculous music.

Fighting For The One You Love

I love when remixes have videos and this fantastic remix of Example's "Kickstarts" from Bar9 is a great one! The remix is much different from the original song/video which can be heard/seen here. And if you like this, or even if you don't, you may still like Bar9's remix of Deftones' "My Own Summer (Shove It)" which you can check out here: original & Bar9 remix.

Not Mr. Holland's Opus

This is "The Pavane: Opus #50" by French composer Gabriel Fauré reworked for a series of sequencers. Pretty amazing! The original, dated back to 1887, can be heard here.

Sorry to say, but I've been super busy and will be for the next couple weeks... Probably won't be too much substance to a lot of posts coming up. But you'll still get at least one song/post per day!

To Spotify or not to Spotify?

Spotify

Spotify has come a long way since it's initial release on October 7th, 2008. Now, just three days short of turning three years old Spotify boasts over 10,000,000 members, more than 1,000,000 of which are paying customers who've opted for the bonus privileges that come with it's Premium and Unlimited accounts, for $4.99 and $9.99 per month, respectively. With Spotify's new linking system to facebook which started up in September of 2011 it's popularity/user-base is sure to continue growing. So what is Spotify?

Spotify describes themselves as "a new way to listen to music," and their slogan seems to be "All the music, all the time." Spotify users have the ability to search for songs, and play them. Anytime, anywhere. Seems awesome right? It is for the most part, the library collection they have is massive, and you can import your own library into it for your own use or for your friends to use as well if you make a playlist with songs from your library that are not on Spotify already. There is some music, however, that is not on Spotify and artists can have their music pulled if they wanted to. Spotify's most popular feature seems to be it's playlist sharing feature, made much easier by it's integration with facebook. A user can make a playlist and "Publish" it making it available to all of their friends. Those friends can then listen to them, and if the user who made the playlist deemed it "contributive" then those friends can add to the playlist as well.

This program has some great features and I've been using it extensively for the last couple days. I've been checking out it's features, looking up information on it's business etiquette, and asking friends what they think of it. It seems to be a pretty solid program, but it does have some faults. The library system doesn't work as smoothly as iTunes' (or my own library system for that matter) and often shows the wrong album art, and track tags are incorrectly displayed, even though that material is saved onto the .mp3 file itself. I have a compilation album from LateNightTales which reads fine in iTunes, WinAmp, and Windows Media Player, and whatever else, but reads Late Night Tales in Spotify. This sounds like it's not too much of a hassle, but the problem is that only 4 songs on the 20 track album show up this way, so it thinks they are two different albums. The track tags are all correct so there seems to be no way to fix this issue, and it's pretty widespread, not just this specific album, though it is more noticeable on compilation discs.

Another worry is Spotify's business model. It's been reported that "indie labels... as opposed to the majors and Merlin members, receive no advance, receive no minimum per stream and only get a 50% share of ad revenue on a pro-rata basis." Swedish musician Magnus Uggla wanted to pull his music from the service, stating that after six months he'd only earned "what a mediocre busker could earn in a day". The Norwegian newspaper Dagbladet reported in 2009 that record label Junior Racing had only earned NOK 19 ($3.00 USD) after their artists had been streamed over 55,100 times! This seems an all too familiar concept/problem with online music programs, but just how much money is Spotify making? Can they even afford to pay more? Luke Lewis of NME doesn't think it can and states he is "convinced the 'free' aspect of Spotify is unsustainable" and that if "Spotify is to have a future, it needs to be a viable business".

So what's in store for Spotify? Will it's popularity bring more customers, or will it continue to have a growing user-base of just that: users. I'll stick to the free program myself, but won't be utilizing it as much. The only feature I find attractive is the sharing of playlists. There are other websites that provide that feature, but not as many of my friends use them. Looks like another facebook conundrum: the program isn't that good, but everyone's using it, so it's hard to move away from it.

I'm With Bart On This One

Here's Rocktober as of now! Still looking for little shows here and there... especially free local stuff cuz I am broke after buying all these tickets!

Can't Spell Colors

This song has been stuck in my head, all goddamn weekend.

Pitchfork's Top 50 Music Videos From The 90's

Pitchfork's Top 50 Music Videos from the 90's

I'm sure I've seen the majority of these videos, but I'm going back and checking out the ones I haven't, and reliving some of the ones I have. The list seems pretty solid so far (I'm about half way through) and some of these videos are totes on my top list as well, some are not however, but, we all have our own opinions. What are some of your favorites?

I Can See Russia From My House!

Thanks random chick from Russia I found through livejournal! Thanks to your journal, I got all this!

Pew Pew Pew!

Someone asked me the other day about the Battles song "My Machines" I posted the video for, specifically about the guest singer on the track. Yes, that is in fact THE Gary Numan who is responsible for this lovely tune you may recognize from before I was even born, back in 1979: "Cars". Gary Numan who has 23 studio albums under his belt, 21 live albums, and 50 singles, just released a new album this year entitled Dead Son Rising. You can see the promo video for the album here.

Many musicians have given props to Gary Numan, citing Numan as an influence, as well as covering his music. Nine Inch Nails covered his song "Metal" (you can watch them perform it together, live here), as did Afrika Bambaataa featuring vocals by Gary Numan. Fear Factory covered his song "Cars" which also featured Gary Numan doing some of the vocal work. Even Basement Jaxx's popular hit "Where's Your Head At?" relies heavily on the use of Gary Numan's song "M.E." for its hook.

Epic Post-Rock Break-Down

Found a rad Post-Rock group from Portugal today called Indignu, this is their track "Choro Da Saudade" from their only album entitled Fetus In Fetu. Waffles didn't have their album, but thankfully what.cd did so I scooped it up off there. It's nice to have a post-rock group that speaks another language. Most of my post-rock library has no vocals but the little that does is all in English. It's also nice to hear stuff coming from a place I don't listen to much music from. I love finding bands from other countries... especially when they are a good band, and relatively unheard of (Indignu only has 1,398 fans on Facebook most of whom are definitely not U.S. citizens), because I love introducing people to new music.

If you liked this track and have plenty of time on your hands, some other post-rock bands I enjoy/recommend are 65daysofstatic, Explosions in the Sky, Collapse Under the Empire, If These Trees Could Talk, We Invented the Night, Maybeshewill, Mogwai, There Will be Fireworks, Three Steps to the Ocean, These Hands Could Seperate the Sky, And So I Watch You From Afar, Godspeed You! Black Emperor, Thee Silver Mt. Zion (Formerly A Silver Mt. Zion), and Mono (A Japanese Post-Rock band, not the same Mono I posted the other day which is a Trip-Hop band from the UK). As a side note, I love some of these band names, their album names, and their track names too. Epic epic stuff sometimes, just like their music. I consider Post-Rock to be the most epic style of music. It has such power, such emotion. It can be this giant powerful force that can be soft and soothing, but mostly it makes me feel like I can take on the world!

Some Kind Of...

The View by Lou Reed & Metallica

From the unlikely pairing of Lou Reed and Metallica comes this fantastic track, The View. These men have been working on the album "Lulu" since it's announcement in June and it is finished and shipping out for it's hard copy release on November 1st, though it was released today from online retailers such as iTunes.

Metallica who is also celebrating their 30th anniversary this year, told Spin magazine they will be playing four shows at San Fransisco's Fillmore the week of December 5th. You can expect the shows to cover their entire music catalog (9 albums, 5 EP's and 4 live albums!), and you might even see Mr. Reed onstage with them. "These unique shows will include special guests and events, rare songs, varied set lists, odds and ends, and all the nutty stuff you expect from Metallica," the band said.

Metallica's full discography (according to wikipedia) consists of:

9 Studio albums, 4 Live albums, 5 EPs, 46 Singles, 24 Music videos, 3 Box sets, 1 Cover album, and 10 Demos.

It's A Trip Hop Kind Of Day

It's definitely a Trip Hop kind of day for me today... wish it were raining here or something, then things'd be perf. I've found myself listening to the likes of Portishead, Mono, Sneaker Pimps, and Morcheeba so far today. A little history/vocabulary lesson for you: the term "Trip-Hop" was coined by one Andy Pemberton (a writer for MixMag) in 1994 whilst describing this song, "In/Flux" by DJ Shadow. Here are some of my favorite Trip Hop songs... Hope you like them!

Portishead - Only You

Massive Attack - Splitting the Atom

Sneaker Pimps - 6 Underground

Bonobo - The Keeper (ft. Andreya Triana

Mono - Life in Mono (Original Video from 1996) (See the video they made in 1998 for it's re-release on the Great Expectations Soundtrack here.)

Morcheeba - Enjoy the Ride

Symbion Project

The band Symbion Project is a long time favorite of mine, and today was most definitely a Symbion Project kind of day. Symbion Project is the moniker of Kasson Crooker, a talented musician who has participated in several bands such as Freezepop, Splashdown, Larkspur, and Sirensong. He is currently in another group called The Planets Won't Let You Sleep Tonight, as well as also working on Symbion Project. Symbion Project has released 4 albums, Red in '98, Immortal Game in '03, Wound Up by God or the Devil in '06, and Misery in Soliloquy in '09. Kasson is also a Project Director for Harmonix (the video game company responsible for Frequency, Amplitude, Guitar Hero, Rock Band, and many more, and he was the Project Lead on Phase, Rock Band 2, Dance Central 1, and Dance Central 2 releases for Kinect/Xbox360. He has also had several other monikers that he has used to release music on video games, for instance in Amplitude, he uses DJ HMX, Komputer Kontroller, and Cosmonaut Zero. 

I met up with Kasson at a Freezepop show here in San Diego at the now defunct Beauty Bar a few years ago and he was quite fun to chat with. We talked about Freezepop, Symbion Project, and Amplitude, and he even signed a few albums for me! At the time he hadn't toured as Symbion Project and didn't intend on it any time soon: he just doesn't have enough of a fan-base to do so. So here I am, spreading the word about this amazing artist, in hopes that maybe one day, he'll have enough fans to want to tour, and I'll get to see him live!

From Zero To WOAH!

Dude rips it up at the end!

Love, Whatcha Doin' To Me?

An amazing video from an amazing band! Monarchy is playing TONIGHT at the Echoplex in LA. Some friends and I are about to head up there very soon to see them. I'm really excited for this show after seeing them play an amazing set at Coachella this year.

A Mon Or A Monkey?

Bonobo is playing during Roctober up in LA! Maybe I'll be able to make it to this show... it's during the time that Stephanie is in town and it would be fun to take her to it. I've played her some and she enjoys it, so we'll see. It's on the same night as Amon Tobin's show in Pomona which I'd rather take her to, but it's much less expensive, and I have tickets to a different Amon Tobin show anyway. Hrmmm... might have to move things around.

A Man With Class,

A man with style, Daedelus! I've seen him twice now, once at Coachella and another time at a small, free show at UCSD. This video is fun and I love the decor. There are two more videos from this set, one here, and one here. Enjoy!

Cover Me Ballad

Just found this beautiful cover of Bjork's "Hyperballad" by Robyn! Hope you like it!

Live At The Stage

Here's a little behind the scenes video of a band that my friend Michael plays the drums for called Abandon the Raft. They are my newest addition to Rocktober, playing October 11th in San Diego at The Stage, right across the street from Voyeur! Excited to see them again and watch Michael rock out on the drums! Feel free to check out their music on their facebook page and like them if you do!

4 Pages Of Lyrics!

This video is absolutely hilarious! This is Jeff Tweedy from Wilco, who just put out a spectacular new album called The Whole Love. Go check it out!

Do The D.A.N.C.E.

I absolutely love this video and the song/mashup is great as well! My friend Aja sent this to me a couple days ago while we were chatting about music. The choreography is great, and you may recognize the guy at the beginning as Martin Starr aka Bill Haverchuck from the tv show Freaks and Geeks, and he plays a role in Party Down!

In The Sunshine

Here's a video from the A, B, and the Sea show that I went to in San Jose. A, B, and the Sea is a surf/pop band from San Francisco that features a great friend of mine, Ben Laatsch who is partially responsible for my finally getting around to starting this music blog you're reading right now! He plays the bass guitar for them, and sometimes does his own stuff on the side as well. This isn't really the type of music I listen to, but I feel like it's important to support your friends and the things they do and he's a great supporter of the things that I do, so I gotta show him some R.E.S.P.E.C.T. Thanks, Ben!

I've Got A Fever

Fever Ray has such an amazing video catalog, I can't not share it. They've only released one album, but they have 6 videos from it! Pretty amazing. And not a single video is bad... they're all spectacularly put together videos with amazing directing and super emotional... very fitting for Fever Ray's music! Here they are:

If I Had A Heart

When I Grow Up

Seven

Triangle Walks

Keep The Streets Empty For Me

Stranger Than Kindness (A Cover of a Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds song)

Don't Let The Walls Cave In On You!

What does a 52 piece orchestra have to do with Basement Jaxx?? Well this song of course! There's a whole album too, and there was a couple of shows! You can see some live video here, but the sound quality is quite shite. Maybe they'll make a dvd or something? The Metropole Orkestra is currently working with Todd Rundgren and has worked with a wide variety of musicians like Burt Bacharach and Serj Tankian of System of a Down!

How Long Is This Line?

S.P.Y is a drum and bass artist that is starting to pick up the pace and get noticed. He's worked with a few artists I have known for a while like Total Science and some others. He hasn't got any videos yet or a soundcloud to point you to, but I'm sure he will have more than just his myspace hopefully soon. For now, check out this remix he did of Zero 7's "In The Waiting Line," and you can search for him on youtube and check out some of his stuff there.

Aaaliiiceee!

Pogo is a great sample artist chopping up Disney movies among other things and putting them together in a fashion to create a song. I have a few favorites but this is the first one I saw. I saw it featured on Yooouuutuuube.com and feel like it is still better watched there for the full effect. Pogo just played a show in Solana Beach that I knew was coming up but completely forgot to follow up on and I missed it. Shucks. Hopefully next time!

Falling Down

Battles + Gary Numan + Vertigo = one highly anxious feeling video. Love it!

ps. Escalators freak me out.

Can't Breathe

I was thinking back to Coachella this year and there's a few things that stand out to me as flat out disappointments. Magnetic Man was one such artist. Having heard this song and his whole album prior to making the trip out to the desert in Indio and walking the lush polo fields that Coachella rests upon I thought Magnetic Man had so much potential, but his set was just awful. Even this amazing song wasn't even up to par. Such a shame. The album version is great, but slightly reminds me of how bad it was live. Hopefully I didn't ruin this song for myself by seeing him perform. Haha! 

Cut N' Paste

Cut Copy is playing at 4th and B on October 14th! I really want to go to this show, but it is the same night my friend returns from Indiana for Fall Break. I'd take her, but the doors open before she arrives and I don't want to risk missing the show if her plane is late upon arrival or other such occurances. They are also playing on the 12th at the Palladium in Los Angeles... maybe I can swing going to that show instead of the SD show? Here's a few of my favorite tracks from them.

Need You Now

Lights & Music

Hearts On Fire

BeginStep

My friend asked me to make her a "Dubstep for Beginners" mix disc so I'm including this as a bonus track at the end! 

Re Burn

Found out about a group I'd never heard of before while I was at Burning Man this year as well. NeuroDriver! Great techno! I saw them twice, this set, and once at Osiris as well. At Osiris I even got onstage dancing with them and they gave me a mix disc he made specifically for Burning Man!

Don't Burn The Mushrooms!

Infected Mushroom played an amazing set consisting of music from their album "Classical Mushroom" and prior, so, all old stuff. They even played my favorite song by them, Symphonatic! This song is from their other set though, since I couldn't find many good quality videos of the other set. Looks like the guys from Infected Mushroom had some fun while they were there as well, check out their own video here!

Home From Burn

I have returned! Burning man was an epic adventure: everything I had hoped, dreamed, and imagined plus so much more! This photo is the schedule at Osiris, one of the many "music venue" camps at Burning Man this year. This was Osiris' first year, but they managed to pull some amazing musicians. Ken from the Crystal Method played a set there, and NeuroDriver, as well as many others. I saw Ken spin two sets while I was out there, but I can't find any good videos of him... not even decent videos, so here's another compilation video for now, and when I find one, I'll post it!

Rites of Passage from Croshane on Vimeo.

Temple Burn

Burning down the Temple of Transition.

Man Burn

Burning The Man!

OctoBurN

My second favorite art car at Burning Man 2011. (Can't find any good ones of the Magic Carpet which was my fav, but this is great too!)

Burning Man 2011's Earth Harp At The Temple Of Transition

The Earth Harp at the Temple of Transition was amazing. Here's a couple videos of it so you can really capture the feel of it, and actually be able to see what was going on.

Aerial Burn

An awesome view that most people don't get to see!

Spin N' Burn!

My favorite piece of art on the playa this year!

Whole Burn

Fantastic recollection of many things Burning Man with an emphasis on the Opulent Temple.

I Want To Go Home

I really dig the concept of the playa being "Home."

Off To Burn

Gone to the Playa! For the next few days I will go back and fill in when I return, wonderful videos of my favorite things on the playa!

A Song To Divide The Distance

(EDIT) There's actually a video for it! Holy Crap!

Tomorrow I leave for my first trip to the playa! I’m so excited for Burning Man 2011: Rites of Passage!

This is my favorite Glitch Mob song, “Between Two Points ft. Swan” from the album Drink the Sea. Everytime I think of you while I’m out there, this song will remind me of you…

we’ve got forever
slippin through our hands
we’ve got more time
to never understand

falling footsteps
weighing heavy on me

behind darkness
beneath candles
whispers waltz
around our dreams

the shortest distance
between two points
is the line
from me to you

feet turning black
is this the path we must walk
no turning back
wish i could just hear you talk

can something like this be pulled
from under our feet
leaving our skin
and burning coals to meet

tell me now

the shortest distance
between two points
is the line
from me to you

the shortest distance
between two points
is the line
from me to you
me to you

Falling In Love With...

Haley VS. Deadmau5 "Falling In Love With Brazil" (Kaskade Mashup) by Kaskade

Haley VS. Deadmau5 - Falling in Love with Brazil (Kaskade Mashup)

This is a great mashup made by Kaskade. The track mixes up Deadmau5' "Brazil" and Haley's "Falling in Love." I just wish someone in particular were here to dance with me to it.

Rappers Have Feelings

Ok ok, so this isn't a song, but it is sampled in one! Dodge and Fuski's "Fierce" is now one of my favorite dubstep tracks just for the sheer genius of their sampling one of my favorite shows in the world, Flight of the Conchords. This sample comes from one of my favorite episodes that also hosts one of my favorite songs from Flight of the Conchords, "Hurt Feelings (Tears of a Rapper)."

All Rivers Flow To The Sea

This just in... A breathtaking new track from a fantastic group, Florence + The Machine! This track was just released today and if it's any indication of the new album to come I'm very, very excited!

If my high school self...

Met my current self and we had a long chat about music, I'd probably think that I was brainwashed or just straight lying out of my ass. Hell, my former self might even off himself thinking he didn't want to be part of what was to come. What I'm speaking of specifically is how much I listen to pop music these days. With artists like Britney Spears and Ke$ha making more money and realizing what's hot and in turn getting good producers to give them that dance-like feel that so many electronic dance acts have, it's no wonder that some of these pop artists are making their way through my ear holes. Here's two of my favorite newer pop tracks, Dev's "In the Dark" and The Cataracs' "Top of the World ft. Dev." In case you're wondering how these two groups are related, The Cataracs discovered Dev on myspace and are now her producers.

Dev - "In the Dark"

The Cataracs - "Top of the World ft. Dev"

Dagger Dagger Dagger

I've a renewed love for Team Sleep since hearing Deftones' front man Chino Moreno's new project †††. Chino is also the vocalist for Team Sleep and while Team Sleep and Deftones never really sounded similar besides the vocals, Team Sleep and ††† remind me quite a bit of each other. I know I posted about ††† not too long ago, and posted a Deftones song and a Team Sleep song in that post as well, but at the time I was unable to find the specific Team Sleep song I was looking for, and now I have. So here you have it, "King Diamond."

Calvin Harris Hurry Up And Drop That Album!

Known for such amazing tracks like "Acceptable in the '80s," Calvin Harris has dropped 3 amazing tracks, two of which have fantastic videos, the other just a little generic live video most electronic music artists tend to release. I'm really excited for this album and look forward to it's release (whenever that may be). Here's the three new videos for your listening and viewing pleasure.

Feel So Close

Bounce

Awooga

Supergroup?

TGIF! Here's a nice quality cover of a horrible, horrible song.

Another Party Rocker

This video cracks me up to no end. Love the "Is he hurtin' or is he jerkin'?" line. Definitely a musical comedian, all of Dirt Nasty's videos are knee-slappingly funny. Check out his video for "1980" as well. Who else can pull off having Alf and and obscene amount of cocaine in their videos??

Heavy

Ladytron has released a spectacular new album Gravity The Seducer. That is to say it's spectacular if you like their sound. The band hasn't ever really strayed away from their previous albums, a sound I'd describe as something like a child birthed from a threesome comprised of Goldfrapp, Crystal Castles, and The Knife. This song, "White Elephant" pretty much sums it up as a whole. Definitely worth a check out!

Hardly Bluegrass, Strictly a Festival? Strictly Bluegrass, Hardly a Festival?

Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival sounds like a great kick off for Rocktober! Hardly Strictly is a great festival and there's a ton of bands playing that I'd like to check out like, A.A. Bondy, Buckethead, Bright Eyes, M. Ward, The Felice Brothers, Broken Social Scene, Dark Star Orchestra, DeVotchKa, Bela Fleck, Kris Kristofferson & Merle Haggard, and many more!

Many Songs, Maybe

I have a dear friend who leaves tomorrow for Indiana (we live in San Diego, for those of you readers who don't know me) and I'm pretty bummed about her leaving. It's her last semester of college, so at least she's almost done! This track is for her. It's "Just a Song" from the new Girls album entitled Father, Son, Holy Ghost.

My Score On "Shades Of Blue" Is 8080

Kodomo is an artist I've been listening to for a while but never really read about.  He recently came up in conversation with a friend and we got to talking about him and did some research only to find out he's Chris Child! I had no idea and wouldn't really expect it given the difference in the types of music. I imagine there is a large number of Kodomo fans that've never heard this track, here. It's the first song I heard by him which I found on a video game called Amplitude, under his name, Chris Child, not his moniker, "Kodomo."

Do I Know You?

I'm spotting this song everywhere and am pretty impressed by it. It's topped Hype Machine's charts now and has a fun little video... The album should be released here in a couple days... keep your eyes peeled for it!

Also, check out this awesome little remix of it by Bibio here.

Strong Song

Really loving the Jazzy vibes on the new Hercules and Love Affair album "Blue Songs." There is still some nice Disco infused tracks, and their usual Indie-Rock stuff, but the few tracks on the album like this one here are my favorites. Hope you enjoy!

I Gotta Tell You Something...

...I wanna view your dreams.

I wanna pull out your crazy,

pull it over me.

I really can't stop listening to this ep. Chino Moreno has done it again with †††. Deftones rocked my world when I was in high school and took me a little ways into college until I grew out of the the whole heavier sound (though they did have a few softer songs). Deftones still have that draw though, that I put them on from time to time, and have even seen them live in the last couple years and would do so again. Timeless bands for the win. After the draw of Deftones fell a bit Chino came out with the band Team Sleep. A much softer band I fell asleep to many nights, or listened to whilst driving through windy roads in the summer with the windows down and stereo cranked. I never saw them live but would love to some day. Now this project: †††. So far all they have is a short little 5 track ep. entitled "†" which both the album title and band name are unsearchable in google. Way to go to! Check out my favorite track off the new album here, as well as one from Team Sleep, and Deftones as well.

†††

Team Sleep

Deftones

Rocktober, Rocktober, Rocktober!

If you’re friends with me in real life you’ve probably heard me talking about this project constantly. I’m really excited about this idea and seeing it take shape from a wonderful conversation with my great friend Ben on the drive from San Diego to San Fransisco and form into this website and evolve into this massive month of musical mayhem is just so unreal…. I never could have imagined it would become as large as it has. It just feels right. Like I was meant to do this. I’ve got some ideas for the future and it’s kind of given me more meaning in life and something to look forward to. I’m in love with music and life right now more than ever!

Triforce of Music!

So I've found yet another show to add to the list for Rocktober... and it's probably the nerdiest thing I've wanted to do in a long time. This year the Legend of Zelda turns 25 and to celebrate it's birthday there are going to be 2 concerts with a full symphony performing music from the iconic video game series. One in London, and one in Los Angeles. Tickets are like 50 bucks which isn't too steep especially for something I'm imagining is going to be such an epic once in a lifetime kind of event. I'm super stoked for this show and hope I can get some other nerd friends to come along for it!

Zelda-Symphony

Seltsac Latsyrc

Saw Crystal Castles post this on their facebook yesterday and thought I'd share it with you. The video and the music is reversed and track is quite beautiful played backwards. Check it out for yourself, here's both versions in case you don't know what the track already sounds like.

Original:

Backwards:

Moose Mountain!

Yesterday and today I had the amazing opportunity to join some friends for a reunion of sorts. Jesse's friend Andrew invited us to join his family and some friends to his families cabin, dubbed Moose Cabin, which is located on Moose Trail, about 3 hours Northeast from Oakland. I had an amazing time listening to amazing live music played by a number of older men who were family and friends. Great jam style music was played all day and they were excellent musicians. The cabin was decked out with a great pool and lots of amazing people as well. I feel super fortunate to have been able to enjoy such a wonderful weekend with Jesse and Austin, and to have met all the wonderful people I met up there! This picture is one of the many decorations they have hung/displayed around Moose Cabin.

Great Site For Discovering New Bands

My friend Matthew Thomas showed me Turn Table FM a while back and I’ve been utilizing it quite a bit. It’s great fun and has potential to be even greater than it already is, especially now that Kanye West and Lady Gaga have decided to give TurnTable some financial help to the tune of $7.5million. That’s a nice chunk of change, eh?

We Are Dancer

Rad new video from Beats Antique! Thanks for posting this Kyle! Also Cheers to my first reblog! Maybe someday I'll write something worth reblogging. ;)

pqhooligan:

Here is Beats Antique’s new video for their song Revival

Also, they’re working on a video for their new song called Cat Skillz off of their upcoming album, Contraption Vol. 2 that will be released in October 2011. 

If you would like to be a part of the shoot, or if you’d like to help contribute, check out their Kickstarter page here - they have a lot of great incentives for helping:

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/beatsantique/beats-antique-new-music-video

When I Was A Child I Had A Recurring Dream

An amazing display of musicianship! "Recurring" is one of my favorite Bonobo tracks, and this little cover is executed with amazing style. Check it out!

Shpongle Live!

Shpongle tickets have gone on Sale! See ya there? So far it will be me, Matthew Thomas, Jesse Manning, and Megan, a friend of Jesse’s that I met at Coachella a couple years ago. Hopefully Mars and Monica will join in, and Bianca as well, who I met at the last Shpongle show.

Blog Score!

I heard back from Rosemary and I totes scored a pair of tickets to see CSS! Anyone wanna come with me??? Super stoked to win tickets to see them! Thanks so much Rosey! Here's "Hit's Me Like a Rock," a new track from those sexy Brazillians for ya! Look for their new album sometime this month according to Lovefoxxx in a recent interview with MTV Brazil.

Here's a link to the website from which I won the tickets in case you'd like to check it out. It's a great site and a super useful tool to find out about what's going on in San Diego at just about any given point in time! http://www.sddialedin.com/

October Is Itching Closer!

This project is becoming more and more real as tickets have started showing up from ticketmaster and I’m delving more and more into the idea of going to so many shows in October. I’m excited for the fun of seeing all these wonderful bands and stoked that I live in a place where this is even possible. If I were still in Grand Forks North Dakota there’s no way I’d be able to see so many bands I love within one month.

So far the tickets I have on hand are now Amon Tobin, Portishead, and Royksopp/Robyn. I was told that I could get on the guest list for Trentemoller by a friend, which I’m super stoked for. The less shows I have to pay for for this project the better because hey, I don’t have a money tree in the backyard. Hopefully I can win those tickets that Rosemary is giving away over at SDDialedIn as well to help fund this project… still haven’t heard back about that yet. Here’s hoping!

Another reason I’m stoked about this project is where it’s putting me at the end of the month. October 29th is Simon Posford’s birthday, and he’s playing that show up in San Fransisco somewhere. This means not only will I see Shpongle 3 times this year (Previously at Coachella, and The Wiltern in LA), but I will be in the Bay Area for Halloween and I’ll get to spend more time with my SF based friends. I’m heading up to the Bay Area in a couple days actually to visit some friends and get some stuff for Burning Man figured out. Super excited!

Just Another Concert In Nantes

Found out Beirut is playing the same day as Why? (October 4th) and I'm not really sure what to do. Both bands are great and I heard about both of them from the same person. I think I'm leaning more towards Beirut, but I think I'm going to ask her which she thinks I should go to. Or, I might just see which one's cheaper... all these shows in October is putting quite the dent in my wallet!

Leaflet

I've been looking for shows that I can get my friends to tag along for during October and The Album Leaf is one of them. They're playing the legendary Mississippi Ballroom at the Lafayette in San Diego on October 8th. Two friends of mine are coming along so far and hopefully since it's a cheap show more friends will come.

This video for "Always for You" is quite the emotional rollercoaster. It's rather heart-wrenching at times, but pretty sweet as well.

LCD Soundsystem's "All My Friends" Gets A Make Over... LEGO Style!

Found a cool little remake of LCD Soundsystem's "All my friends" and thought I'd share it with you. When I first found it, I thought it would be cool to see them both at the same time, so I opened them both up in two windows and synced them up... now I'm putting them both on the same page so it will be easier for you! Hope you enjoy!

Original:

Lego Remake:

Free CSS Tickets?

Oooo! I want to win this!

Looks like Rosemary over at www.sddialedin.com got some free tix from 4th and B for the CSS show... Maybe if I link her to my tumblr and she see's my project for October she might deem me worthy of a ticket?? I can only hope so!

Sacrificing In The Limelight

Found this remix the other day by accident while trying to find another. Unfortunately The Symbion Project remix of Lamb's "Gabriel" is not on youtube as of yet. I intend on finding out how to do so and then I can show you guys! I dig the little rap addition to this track though, and am super glad I found it. Hope you enjoy!

I Just Want To Keep On Dancing

Laserkraft 3D are back with a hard hitting track titled "Weightless" (and another great track "Digitale Madchen," here.). Much less dance-oriented than their last hit "Nein Mann" (Seen here.), "Weightless" has more of a rock and roll touch to it. The lyrics are probably the biggest provider of this sound change, though the music's feel has changed a bit as well with it's heavier guitars. Really excited for them to release a whole album.

I Need A Haircut

While sharing music videos with a friend and talking about our favorite music videos of all times, I had to do some re-adjusting to make room for what is now my second favorite music video. Here it is, uncensored and ready for your viewing pleasure, Scissor Sisters' "Invisible Light."

Mmmmmmm Lovefoxxx

Throw another show in the mix for October! That's right, CSS is playing in San Diego October 7th! Love these guys so much. They have great energy on stage and have played two amazing sets at Coachella. Can't wait to see them a third time! The singer is soooo hot! *drools* See ya there if you can make it!!

Almost Had A 7th Show On The Calendar For Rocktober

I found another show I wanted to add to the calendar, Primus is playing a show @ The Wiltern in LA but the show occurs on the same night as the Royksopp/Robyn show @ The Hollywood Bowl. I already have tickets to the Royksopp/Robyn show, and in this case, I’m leaning towards just sticking with that choice, but what if I find another show on some other night and it’s not as easy of a choice? Buh. So much music, so little time!

So Primus is releasing a new album called Green Naugahyde and the tour is to accompany the album release. I ordered the album so I can at least get that and review it since I’m missing the concert. I’ve yet to see them though, so it’s kind of a shame that I’ll be missing them again this time. I did see Les Claypool three times on his last tour though. Hopefully next time!

I’m just happy that I have more than 1 show a week. I’m really stoked on this idea, and I’m gonna do my best to keep trying to post once a day. I know I will have a chunk missing for Burning Man, but it’s possible I can keep a journal of stuff while I’m there, but it most likely won’t be only music related as I intend to keep this tumblr. We’ll see!

Walk This Way

Apparat - Black Water by Mute UK

Apparat has returned with a great new track released to his Soundcloud and word of a new album nearing completion. The Devil's Walk set to be released sometime this Autumn will feature this track, "Black Water." The track has a build up that reminds me of a lot of post-rock bands. Enjoy!

Current Calendar

Have you heard the news? It's true! A SIXTH show has been added to my October schedule. Why? is coming to LA and putting on a sit-down show with a Q&A. Strange?!? Indeed. But it sounds hells of cool. This video is a track from Alopecia, which came out in 2008. Special thanks to my great friend Goata for introducing me to this band in the first place! You can read about the show and check out another video for the track "These Hands/January Twentysomething" on pitchfork, here: http://pitchfork.com/news/43196-why-announce-sit-down-tour/

So now the current calendar looks like this:

October 4th - Why? @ Largo at The Coronet, Los Angeles, CA

October 16th - Amon Tobin @ The Music Box, Los Angeles, CA

October 18th - Portishead @ The Shrine Auditorium, Los Angeles, CA

October 22nd - Royksopp & Robyn @ The Hollywood Bowl, Los Angeles, CA

October 26th - Trentemoller @ The Belly Up Tavern, Solana Beach, CA

October 29th - Shpongle @ (I'm assuming The Fillmore), San Fransisco, CA

I'm so fucking excited for October now, you have no idea. I've actually started to just keep looking for shows and see how many I can pack in. If you live in SD/LA and see any shows you think I might like let me know! Or if you're in SF and know of any shows at the end of the month? I still need something fun for Halloween in the Bay Area!

An Additional October Show!

That's right! One more to add to October's already crazy lineup of concerts! Trentemøller is playing The Belly Up in Solana Beach, CA October 26th. Anders Trentemøller is from Denmark, and I recently saw him at Coachella. The set played at Coachella was short, only 6 songs covering about 50 minutes. I'm excited to see this show at The Belly Up because not only will it be a longer set, it's bound to be much more intimate as The Belly Up is a pretty small venue. Here's a couple videos to give you the feel of his music.

The first three are official videos, the third, "Even Though You're With Another Girl" being my favorite of the three.

Next is a video of a live performace of "Silver Surfer, Ghost Rider Go!!!" which is quite epic indeed. It's a shame we won't have all the cool stage theatrics at The Belly Up, though.

And lastly, a remix by them, of another band I'm seeing in October: Royksopp.

Who Needs Coffee When You Have Glitchy Goodness?

This morning's 'getting ready for work' album is Autechre's "LP5." Here's track 6, "fold4,wrap5."

My Musical Calendar For October!

October is bringing a ton of music!

Sunday October 16th - Amon Tobin @ The Music Box in LA

Tuesday October 18th - Portishead @ The Shrine Auditorium in LA

Saturday October 22nd - Royksopp & Robyn @ The Hollywood Bowl in LA

Saturday October 29th - Shpongle Live @ (I'm Assuming the Fillmore) in SF

I'm so excited for all this! Very excited to see who comes along, and greatly anticipating one person in particular! <3 <3

And So It Begins...

Finally getting around to starting a music blog like I've been saying I would forever. After numerous half-assed attempts I'm really going to work on this one. I aim to post daily, and include a multitude of things including (but not limited to) these:

1. articles/reviews about music (albums, songs, remixes) I hear that've been recently released or are due to be released soon


2. recounts/reviews of shows I am going to, or plan on/want to go to, maybe pics for the shows if I take photos


3. favorite music videos


4. end-of-year recollection of favorites


5. basically anything music related I want to put here

I'm sure I will miss some days, but I want to keep going even if I do. I'm tired of missing some days and then just not getting into it again. And most of my music blogs in the past have been semi-secretive... this one I've told most of my friends about, and hopefully if I don't post in it, they will get on my ass about it.

I've thought about all the music blogs I've read religiously, scoured through, and skimmed over, and a lot of them have all these things I'm intending on using this site for, so I've decided to take it a step further and I want to work on projects for this blog. The first project is this:

Go to as many shows as I can in October.

Tomorrow I will post about the shows I have so far and I will continue to post about ones I add along the way. I hope this music blog/project/thing will grow to be a part of my life to the point that I can't not post every day. I think music is the most important thing in the world (to me anyway) and I want to share it with everyone possible. Here's to the begining of a new me, a new music blog, and loads of excellent music!

Cheers!

-Frederick Crowley