All there as I was told
Was blessed but wasn't sold
Back then you got it going
But never turned to something
What else? You know
You're not at all a saint
Not at all a saint

What you think you say
Think you're somebody with your name down?
And then you fall from grace
For the steak it followed me from the end zone
Growing sexes in a field
For this chick who's not for real
I mean not blonde
But never tale a peek
In this baggy little beep of a dance floor
What do I know?
Doesn't ring a bell.

Whatever death may come
Bloodshed in grandma's home
And there you got it going
Got every inch and counting
What else? You know
We're dressed up all the same

But then as I was told
Was blessed but wasn't gold
To shout, to cry, to holler
Short of a million dollars
What else? You know
You're not at all a saint
Not at all a saint

What you think you say
Think you're somebody with your name down?
And then you fall from grace
For the steak it followed me from the end zone
Growing sexes in a field
For this chick who's not for real
I mean not blonde
But never tale a peek
In this baggy little beep of a dance floor
What do I know?
Doesn't ring a bell.

Your ways, your face too
About this phase that I'm going through
Should I wait for it all?
For your ways and your fall
And the way that your laughing too
About the fact that the joke's on you
And the way that you fall
And the way that you fall
About this phase no one's going through
High on lo-fi, and something else too
And on and on, and on and on
And on and on, and on and on

« Ending Credits »
from High on Lo-Fi (2008)
Download mp3: Amazon + Amie Street + Bluetracks.ca + eMusic + iTunes

1. Nineties (or nineties sounding) indie: Built To Spill, The Halo Benders,.. stuff like that.. Damn that was a very fine drive, when i listened to that.

2. Lower than Low-fi: some kind of noisy lofi songs. Because i think that's sort of what tapes are all about. Think of stuff like No Age, but also Fennesz who uses a lot of distortion.

3. Bob Dylan, Pt. 1: well, part 1 means there is a part 2

4. Bob Dylan, Pt. 2: because it's impossible to fit every necessary song of Dylan on 1 tape of 90 minutes.

5. No, there isn't a Bob Dylan, Pt. 3 yet

6. Vintage Singersongwriters that sound timeless: Nick Drake, Bert Jansch, but also people like Johnny Flynn (i'll blog about him in the future), Ray Lamontagne, Ryan Adams, and so on.

7. Yep there is a part 2 of that Vintage singersongwriters.

Now i'm working on a singalong tape, so i can singalong. I notice I don't have that many singalong songs.

Other plans: The Canada-tape (with bands from canada), Pssssychedelic-tape (animal collective, comus), Some loud indie songs, and just a lot lot more.

Damn, it just keeps a very time consuming thing. Mixtapes.

I love it.

PS: tracklists on request.  (not that i'm a mixtapes authority, nor am i a messenger or king of the mixtape kingdom)

Sumándonos al homenaje que van a recibir Los Planetas el próximo miércoles en L'Auditori barcelonés, así anunciamos la publicación del esperadísimo nuevo EP de The Mountain Goats. Como ya les conté, el alma de las cabras John Darnielle permite la descarga de este Satanic Messiah aquí por la voluntad, como popularizó un grupo inglés ahora hará un año. Sin embargo, Darnielle sugiere para los que quieran tres niveles de donaciones, el congregant level por 3 dólares, el devote level por 6,66 y el acolyte level por 10, además de cualquier cantidad. 

Piénsenlo bien a la hora de hacer o no la donación, que como bien nos recuerda Darnielle en un documento adjunto a los mp3, ni la grabación ni la masterización de los cuatro temas del EP fueron gratis. O si por casualidad se encuentran en su camino un concierto de la próxima gira estadounidense de The Mountain Goats -con Kaki King- llamada Last Happy Night Of Your Life, pueden intentar hacerse con una de las 666 copias editadas en 7" de Satanic Messiah.

Y ya que estamos, no está de más aclarar que este EP no es, claro está, Black Pear Tree, el otro futuro EP de John Darnielle en colaboración con Kaki King y del cuál forma parte esta maravilla de canción que es 'Thank You Mario But Our Princess Is In Another Castle'.

Vía: Stereogum

Chad is an animator and musician who happens to do many(if not all) his own videos and also many of the bands he shares a record label with on Sub Pop. I'm actually shocked Chad isn't a household name...in indie fans houses at least. Take Neil Young vocals(Chad is also a Canadian - Calgary to be exact) and add some amazing lo fi folk a la the Microphones and you have Chad...but then again, that's almost too limiting as he seems to truly have a unique style that never quite fits into one specific category. See for yourself.

Molten Light by Chad Van Gaalen or maybe it's VanGaalen - I have seen it spelled both ways multiple times and honestly I don't know which is correct.

Flower Gardens by Chad VanGaalen - starts off curiously but you must hear him make stuttering really cool.

Mini TVs by Chad Van Gaalen - this is a pretty good live version but the recorded one is even nicer because it has all kinds of atonal guitar parts and weird sound effects.  The harmonica melody sounds a lot like something on a Neil Young album but I can't remember which song it is now.

The Glow Pt 2 by The Microphones - this is just for bonus points since I mentioned them earlier.

...rather I want to talk about Yellow Fever and the Carrots. I strongly suggest you check out the myspace pages for these two bands because there isn't a wealth of videos on them that don't look like they were recorded off a cell phone and their myspace pages represent them a lot better. The two bands actually share a member in Jennifer Moore(also occasional Voxtrot member) and both carry the flag of girl group influenced pop for the indie set. The Carrots are a more straight forward doo wop girl group sound but Yellow Fever has something really special to their sound. Listen to Hellfire on their myspace (linked above) and try to put your finger on it. At first it sounds like an Aislers Set song but then it turns into something totally "out there"(for a pop song). Anyway, I'm really digging it these days.

Donald by Yellow Fever - Fun Fact - this band used to be called Fart Face.

Hi there. I am currently free from the burden of employment. As such I have lots of spare time, which I spend sat on a chair, with music blasting into my ears and radiation slowly burning my eyes away. From time to time I sip coffee, in an effort to prolong this behavior. As a consequence, I think I might have developed ADD. This prevents me from reading more than a few sentences in the span of 60 seconds and listening to songs longer than three minutes in a single session. Remember the ‘60s, when every song was at most three minutes long? Man, those were the days; too bad Bob Dylan went and ruined it for everyone with an awesome organ riff.

But, hark! I am in luck, for my playlist holds the debut album of three ladies who cater to the needs of my Internet-burned brain. When I first heard the Vivian Girls, I looked back to the time I first heard the Ramones. There I was: a teen-age metalhead prostrating myself at the well-dressed feet of Yngwie Malmsten, when out from my speakers came this fast, catchy, danceable music played without a hint of pretension. It was immature, sure, but therein lay its charm (I have since abandoned the growls of angry northern men and settled comfily into my Converse shoes and Beatles hairdo).

I, for one, can’t have fun with an album if I don’t feel that the musicians were having fun when they recorded it. This record gets top marks in that department, let me tell ya. Dance-y beats abound, there are a few surf riffs here and there, but most of the 21 minute playtime is bubblegum-y pop with distortion. The pretty vocals and lo-fi production go beautifully together, conjuring up in my mind a favorite party number – 52 Girls by the B-52s. Just as that seminal track, here the lyrics are less important - she could be singing about Russian foreign policy and I would still shake my ass. Oh yes. Anyway, what was I saying?

Err.... yeah. It took a tremendous effort (with liberal use of the backspace key) on my part to write these three paragraphs. Thankfully, Vivian Girls is really easy to listen to. So easy, in fact, that you may not notice it when it first flies by. Upon a second listen-through, you feel compelled to turn the speakers up. By the time you’re listening to the album for the third time, you’ve pushed your chair somewhere to the back of the room. Fourth play: “I BELIEVE IN I BELIEVE IN NOOOOTHING I BELIEVE IN I BELIEVE IN NOOOOOTHING NOOOOTHING NOOOOTHING” <- that’s you.

- moceanu

8.5/10

vivian girls @ myspace

download the album

Megapuss - Surfing [2008]

66 MB / 192 kbps

{link.ge}

pass: ufologia

tracklisting: 01. erdian nahiago 02. momo ohera doa (instrumental) 03. goizeko seiretan 04. momo tostadak jaten (instrumental) 05. gora asperdura (1. nokturnoa) 06. ikeako albondigak 07. abandónate 08. momo alper bat da 09. abesti bat sortu nahi nuke 10. momo lanera doa (instrumental) 11. ikusi makusi 12. ez, ez, ez, konpromezurik ez 13. armario-gizona 14. momo hagintxoa zorrozten (instrumental) 15. momo ametsetan (2. nokturnoa) 16. kafe-makina gizona 17. me gustas tú 18. momoren irribarrearen jaiotza (instrumental) 19. berriz modan 20. momo 21. ixildu (3. nokturnoa)

valoración higgins: 8 / 10.
elurretan: su web (donde están disponibles éste y todos sus anteriores discos), myspace.

me estoy jugando el puesto, coronel perkins, pero no me podía resistir. elurretan, un grupito amateur que de amateur lo que tiene es que no trabajan para una sangrante discográfica, nada más. digamos que lo dejamos en un 8, no porque lo que suena no sea bueno, sino porque aún les falta un pequeño empujoncito. están ahi, mano a mano con los proyectos imposibles, escribiendo un pop sencillo que tira de acústicas y se deja querer por el folk de raíz vasca. es, digamos, como si los grupos que alli florecieron en los noventa lo hubieran hecho reconociendo de donde vienen. me cuesta encontrar referencias cantadas en euskera (se aceptan sugerencias), pero ésta es una imprescindible.

como digo, autoeditados (aunque si no he entendido mal es posible comprarles el disco), reunidos en torno a una grabación anual que cuelgan en su web para el disfrute de las masas. honesto, como pocos, y como casi ninguno de los que van de profesionales, con un disco en el que quizá cuesta alguna canción en concreto, pero que en su conjunto tiene su gracia. me gusta, especialmente, el comienzo, y sobre todo me gusta leer con alegría la cotidianeidad de unas letras que nos llevan a pensar en la bondad de los muebles -y la vida- ikea (ikeako abondigak), en la vida soñada del hombre de la máquina del cafe (kafe-makina gizona), en una oda al aburrimiento (goizeko seiretan), en un veo veo subidito de tono (ikusi makusi), en las correrías de momo distribuídas en sucesivos cortes, ...

déjese querer por una letra en euskera, y aprenda que para disfrutar de una canción en una lengua extraña (por distinta, no por rara), no hace falta que sea en el tópico inglés. que vivan nuestros políticos, que hacen que nos resulte ajeno algo tan bonito como cercano.

It's totally friday and I'm heading west to Texas today! on behalf of the Porch i hope you enjoy this week's micromix filled with lo-fi delights. I can't get enough of Julianna Barwick and this Reckoner remix is so gorgeous.

:::DOWNLOAD FRIDAY FEEL 7:::

The Microphones - I Want Wind To Blow
Broadcast - Black Cat
Castanets - No Voice Was Raised
Paavoharju - Mitä Sinä Et Ole
Radiohead - Reckoner (Julianna Barwick Remix)

Fall! I don't want you to fall
I don't want you to follow me
And I want you to play
And I want you to know
And I want you to make my day
And I want you to play

« Out of Joints » - High on Lo-Fi (2008)
Download mp3: Amazon MP3 + Amie Street + Bluetracks.ca + eMusic + iTunes

Take a wave, a sip, a tongue
What you're checking for, looks-appeal?
The sex is in the field
But the chimps have failed, and all the whales
What you're checking for, Mother Nature?
This chick has gone way too long

But sure you get lonesome
And when you get lonesome
The chase it seems faster, deviant and mean

Sail away from this ulcer
And play your cards faster
Now all that we can say is that
The play's about a sleeping sheep

Now wait, stop, take hard
Drugs, they're safe and okay
A matron, the jocks trade
And soft the chicken sits on me

Hurray for change! And save the rain
But the bay you got into me
And check yourself for ape
Just to fall and ride and say "I was trapped"
But today you're God into me
And nothing beats urban people

Today you're behind me
The way you're behind me
The chicken can sign me
No wait, that's a bayonet

But the chick is a Harley
And Olive's a Tuesday
Away you got away, and awawawawawa...
What you got to say?

Left of the whale, you save it all
The way you're going to play
Against all odds to start a family
Oh no, the way, desire, the way, oh no!
The way you've got to plan from the start
Which is there to follow you

Now wake up, face drop
But chase down, waist down
But awake now, hands down
But awake now, say "Stop."

« Urban People » - High on Lo-Fi (2008)
Download mp3: Amazon MP3 + Amie Street + Bluetracks.ca + eMusic + iTunes

Red is gonna get to you
Red is gonna get tomorrow
Red is gonna get tomorrow
Red is gonna get it all
Red is gonna get it all
"Oh, wait! Stay!"
And pray, and start to cry...

"We are over!" ["War is over"?]
Red is gonna stand
Red Afghanistan, gonna stand
But stay home and recount
And Red is gone again
Red is gone again, gone again
"I'm clean and sober"
And Red is gone again
Stand and start again, start again
"Oh please! Send me away from this anthem"
And there we go again, starving for a friend
Start to finish now

Red is gonna get to you
Red is gonna get tomorrow
Red is gonna get today
Red is gonna get it all
Red is gonna get to stay
Red is gonna get to you
Red is gonna get tomorrow
Red is gonna get to say
Red is gonna get to see
He's gonna get it all the same

What about now? "What about now?" Get it?
Red is in and he's gonna get it all
What about now? "What about now?" Get it?
What about now? You're gonna get it right
What about now? "What about now?" Get it?
Red is in and he's gonna get it all
What about now? "What about now?" Get it?
What about now? You're gonna get it *POP!*

« Red's Foot Down » - High on Lo-Fi (2008)
Download mp3: Amazon MP3 + Amie Street + Bluetracks.ca + eMusic + iTunes

Going back awake with nothing indoors
Can't get self-degrading to become
Going half the length and stopping chases at your door
Going blind south the hill that you recall

I know ‘bout transparency, I've seen our life through glass
I guess I'll be fast asleep, solemnly, and dressed in black

Going back awake with nothing indoors
Can't get self-degrading to become
Going half the length and stopping chases at your door
Going blind south the hill that you recall

Knowing that the lake is not a window
Can't get the illusion to become
Knowing that the lake is running dry for all you know
Knowing that your time is running out

« Kissing Kansas Goodbye » - High on Lo-Fi (2008)
Download mp3: Amie Street & Bluetracks.ca

Note: This track was called "A Doubt in Kansas" on the first version (2007) of High on Lo-Fi (temporarily still available on iTunes, eMusic and Amazon MP3). The instrumental ending is a minute shorter on the second version. And yes, the title is a reference to The Wizard of Oz reference in The Matrix.

And don't you have something to do
Safe the games you play, dungeon dragons gone emo
Cause the more you complain ‘bout the twist of your fate
The more we laugh because the joke's on you

Waiting for it all, nothing ever happens with you
Waiting for it all, no one's ever going to call you
Waiting for it all, waiting for the dream to come true
Aiming for the heart, aiming at your heart

Waste through the race you can't lose
Too afraid to fall, too afraid to let it go
Just a step in the hay, just a phone call away
Just a hint of real to face

Take that, cut the chicken some fat
Are you game or fish? Are you sure you wanna know?
Step away from broadband, get yourself a girlfriend
Now give us your credit card number

Won't you suffer more, won't you suffer more, won't you?
Watching from afar, watching from afar you feel blue
Won't you suffer more, won't you suffer more, now won't you?
Aiming for the heart, aiming at your heart

Waiting for it all, nothing ever happened to you
Waiting for it all, no one's ever going to call you
Waiting for it all, waiting for the dream to come true
Aiming for the heart, aiming at your heart
Bleeding in your lonely heart

« The Waiting Game » - High on Lo-Fi (2008)
Download mp3: Amazon MP3 + Amie Street + Bluetracks.ca + eMusic + iTunes

tracklisting: 01. a little longing goes away 02. be good to them always 03. vogt dig for kloppervok 04. smells like content 05. it never changes to stop 06. an animated description of mr. maps 07. venice 08. none but shining hours 09. if not now, whenever 10. an owl with knees 11. twelve fold chain

valoración perkins: 9 / 10
the books: su web, myspace.

la búsqueda de un nuevo sonido nos lleva, con algo de retraso, a los libros. al contrario de lo que dice la voz en the wind-up bird de tunng, "the books have nothing to say". pues esta vez sí. no sólo porque se salen de una dinámica musical que sólo el mashup (por ofrecer nuevas lecturas de material anterior, y no un simple refrito de estilos que provoca más bostezos que expectación) ha conseguido liberarnos, sino porque amplía horizontes en el concepto de canción sin tener que llevarnos de la oreja a la biblioteca y escalar las estanterías hasta 'experimental art', 'impressionisme' y tales y cuales.

abundan las flotaciones (a little longing goes away), las atmósferas orgánicas (estado que defiendo por igual tanto en la música como en el campo de batalla; be good to them always), los 'samples' de colegio privado y el polvo de los años cincuenta ingleses. hay espacio para la calma (un poco con urgencia becketiana; smells like content y an animated description of mr. maps) y narraciones radiofónicas simultáneas sobre la creación en el lienzo (venice). el coronel higgins negará todo placer en semejantes modernidades mientras se dirije a su tienda de campaña a poner en marcha el fonógrafo.