i love my job. every day is different, i’m never bored and i love the people i work with. my only beef is that after a day on the computer, the last thing i want to do is come home and tumble. but every morning i come into work, i start up chrome, i see tumblr on my startup tab, and i get this nagging feeling. i miss it. i miss sharing that old song that perfectly underscores my day. i miss discovering that new song that totally makes my day. so i’m done. with not doing it. i’m going to try to set aside a little time every day. maybe i won’t have time everyday. but hopefully if it pops up on my calendar every single day in that magic moment right after lunch and right before the after-lunch crash, i’ll be able to sustain this thing. here’s hoping. weirder things have happened. you know, like when ‘Smile’ finally got released.

i love this album, and i love the metaphor it sets up. it’s life. it’s full of insanity and turmoil and desperation and lots and lots of noise. but it’s also full of beauty and magic and uncompromising originality, all wrapped in a package that somehow both embraces and defies the epic battle the album represents from production to release. boom. -d

*this is from the absurdly exhaustive 5-disc everyone-hates-mike-love-athon that came out a little while ago. it’s actually really good. it’s just a bit much.

granted, it’s a sweet extended demo cut of an awesome, obscure and kind of weird beach boys song from an incredible double cd called Hawthorne, CA: Birthplace of a Musical Legacy, but it’s comfort music nonetheless. man could these guys sing. and brian wilson was a genius. a total weirdo, but a genius. -d

seems pretty dumb that they’re waiting till the end of summer to release this little baroque pop gem. this is sun-drenched, not-a-care-in-the-world, so-glad-middle-school-is-over music that draws more than a little from its generic predecessors (ben folds, beach boys, etc). it’s not amazing, but it makes my head bob, and that’s about it takes to make a decent summer jam. -d

oh man. this project could have been so cool. these are two of the most interesting musical minds america has ever produced. and the album is not without inspired moments. ‘i got rhythm’ and ‘nothing but love’ could have been ‘little deuce coupe’ b-sides. i mean, straight up, golden era beach boys tunes. but with the exception of those two (and this intriguing if entirely too short ‘rhapsody in blue’ snippet), pretty much everything else feels like an afterthought that somehow manages to sound simultaneously over- and under-produced. (for some of the tracks they brought in this truly meager orchestra to fill them out, and it sounds musaky and awful.) anyway, an interesting idea with a mostly failed execution. but still an interesting idea. -d