actually sort of digging the new EP in spite of myself. this is what i wanted the album to sound like. but it didn’t. take 2.

somehow listening to a lot of amon tobin segued into these guys. not sure why. i guess like tobin, it’s sort of experimental. and parts of this new album do hit pretty hard. but it lacks the gut-scraping intensity — and the menace — that alternately leak and explode from most of tobin’s stuff. in fact this track is downright cheery. weird, but cheery. -d

this is one of my favorite complete albums of all time. when it came out, there was all this great hubbub about how jon brion had produced a version of the album, but that she (read: sony) wasn’t totally sold on it so she (ibid) brought in some different producers to tweak it. ultimately it was the latter version that got released, but not before the former leaked onto the web and became a holy grail among torrents. (i only recently got my hands on a decent rip of it.) personally, i love them both. regardless of production, her voice and songwriting are a combination that just won’t quit. but jon’s version is pretty special. novelty aside, there is something about his obsessive little plinks and clangs that perfectly complement fiona’s own well-documented neuroses. the result is an album that somehow feels as quietly precise as it does wildly untethered. it’s a total trip, and practically perfect. -d

still feeling a little experimental after yesterday’s track, so here’s something from the other side of the spectrum: a slipping, swooping instrumental from andrew bird via johnny greenwood. -d

*this is off a bonus disc he released as an “ambient experimental” companion to his absurdly good Noble Beast. both are worth owning.

so far this year, no artist has gotten more hype than james blake. he is on basically every list of 2011 up-and-comers. everybody from kcrw to the bbc seems to be completely enamored of him. so when i went the emusic to check things out, i was expecting something relatively accessible. something unique and cool sounding, but also palatable to a reasonably general audience. what i heard instead was actually unlike anything i’d ever heard before. i still don’t really even know how to describe it. at its most basic it’s probably dubstep, but it’s layered with these quasi melodies and crazy harmonies that sound more like zapped out R&B. it’s awesome but it’s totally avant garde. and to be honest, i can’t believe that so many major media outlets are lining up to love this. i mean, it’s easy for me to love, i don’t have to market this madness. but even if you’re a jaded exec you can’t really deny there’s something pretty brilliant happening here, and all i can say is ups to the big boys for having the grapes to get behind it. -d

present by virtue of banjo rule outlined yesterday. also because it sets a really weird, interesting tone. often i think of songs in terms of what kind of film scene it would underscore well, and with this one i have absolutely no clue, and i sort of like that. -d

new side project from TV on the Radio guitarist Dave Sitek. at first, i was just going to write ‘you had me at TV on the Radio’. but then i remembered that this guy produced that Tom Waits cover album that Scarlett Johansson did a few years back and i was like, llgugll. but then i went back and actually listened to some of that, and it’s really not as bad as i remembered it. plus i knew he’d done work with the yeah yeah yeahs and a few other bands toying with an edgier pop sound. so then i looked up his wikipedia page and learned some more things, but nothing that interesting. fortunately by then “>the album was done downloading. so i listened to it. and it’s righteous. like 80s post-pop, if that’s a thing. groovy and kind of gritty and full of crazy guests. in retrospect (and in light of this clustercuss of a post), i probably should have just said ‘you had me at TV on the Radio’. -d

i’m still not entirely sure how to talk about the jonsi show last night. we spent most of the ride home trying to figure out how we would explain it to people, but ultimately ended up just sitting there listening to delta spirit and fleetwood mac. the pictures i’ll post all suck, somehow even worse than the pics from the national show. (same venue, incidentally.) so i’ll just describe two moments from the show, and hopefully you can extrapolate from that how i’m feeling about things.

moment 1: it’s a transition between two songs. the stage is pitch black. then the drummer in the ‘where the wild things are’ crown hits the bass drum so hard that everything from the proscenium to my chest cavity rumbles and resonates. as he does, a stream of light explodes from behind him, illuminating him through the fog. as my breastbone settles back into place, the light fades to black. after a few seconds of blackness, he hits the drum again, and the building rumbles again. this goes on for about a minute and a half. the venue is completely silent.

moment 2: encore, song two, the finale. ‘grow til tall’. it starts quietly. the woods painted on the backdrop, seen through a projected window, are slowly blanketed by digital snow. the venue even feels chilly. then over the course of the next 10 minutes, the song builds to something i can’t begin to describe and the serenity of the stage is shattered (along with the projected window) by a digital thunderstorm that seems to last forever. i stand there, slack-jawed, wanting to capture a video of it but unwilling to extract myself from the moment. finally the stage erupts in one last cacophonous burst of synth, screams and strobed lightning, and the stage goes black. everything is silent for a moment, and it’s then that i realize that i’ve broken into a cold sweat.

this guy’s music continues to fascinate me. so much so that tomorrow night when my brother and i go to see him open for the National, i have to admit that i am more exited to hear him than i am to hear Matt the Grey. -d

a few days ago, i posted a link to an article about ‘age of adz’ and the death of sufjan as we know him. a few people took the link in the context in which i included it (which was tongue-in-cheek) without actually reading the article (which actually ends up being incredibly complimentary of the album). so i just wanted to clear a few things up: 1) the album is unique and incredibly cool-sounding, and 2) i don’t necessarily agree with everything in the article. i just found the tone amusing, the point of view interesting, and the LOTR metaphor just plain rad. (come on, Matt Berninger = Gandalf? somebody call Pete Jackson. and Howard Shore, for that matter.) so shut up and enjoy the good music. -d

frequently (and rightfully) called sufjanian, i hope these guys don’t take it as an insult or a knock to their creativity or originality. they have a great sound. and unlike sufjan, they seem dedicated to this particular sound, which allows them to work with it and take it places the sufjan can’t while he’s off making dance records and trying to burn down Gondor. (funny article right there, btw). -d

i’m a man who loves his covers. as luck would have it, i’m also rather fond of grapefruit, french and mooses, making this prolly the most fitting sotd ever. honestly, i think covering a song well is one of the hardest things you can do. done poorly, it’s embarrassing for everyone. but done right, it’s so right. it’s like adapting a book into a movie. striking a balance between respecting the original material and finding your own voice and all that. a good cover of a good song is usually a sign of a good musician. the sign of a great musician, however, is when you can take a song that maybe wasn’t so great originally and turn it into something spectacular. case in point. these guys are nuts. girlfriend + boyfriend + room full of instruments = righteousness. to really do the song justice, tho, you owe it to yourself to go to their youtube page and watch the VideoSong that accompanies the track. (VideoSongs are little music videos/pieces of performance art that accompany their tracks. they follow 2 rules: what you see is what you hear [no lip-syncing for instruments or voice], and if you hear it, at some point you see it [no hidden sounds].) pretty sweet stuff. -d

incidentally, this isn’t my favorite pomplamoose song. it’s this one. but i didn’t post it here b/c it’s for sale on their myspace page and these guys are talentatious and very deserving of your money and mine. (i think maybe they can’t sell the beyonce one cause they didn’t write it. or maybe cause they left out the unbearable bits.)

some actual glitch. from japan even. heard it on kcrw a while back. resurrected this morning. extremely tight. yet another sweet sweet byproduct of garth trinidad taking over the evening dj slot from jason bentley. (M-F, 8-10pm. and if you have to choose one night, make i vinyl tuesday.) -d

i’m in st. louis this week, helping take care of my sister’s family while she’s sick. so it’s me and two little girls from 7am-5pm. it’s madness. wonderful full-tilt jungle madness in vivid crayola technicolor. twenty fingers flying in a thousand directions, simultaneously creating and destroying. sometimes harmonious, often at odds, never a repeat or a rest. direction and emotion change without notice or apparent motivation, the only constant a breakneck pace. and yet each time it comes to an end, despite feeling a bit disoriented, you’re smiling, satisfied and a little sad it’s over. kind of like this song. -d

this morning i had to drive to long beach for a legal proceeding involving my company. not something i was looking forward to. in fact, the knot in my stomach had been steadily growing as the week went on. by 9 this morning i could feel it in my throat. and the elliott smith the ipod had picked for me was probably doing exactly what e.s. meant it to — making things worse. next track. this came on. the choir sang the intro. and as soon as the percussion dropped, i remembered it’s friday. i remembered i like to drive with my windows down. i remembered i’m invincible. and i remembered that no matter what, i’ll always be a better person than bill lee. i win. -d