this is all i really need in life i find. so i'm marrying chad van gaalen.
I can hear the cries of the dead
maybe it's your neighbor
beating his dog in the basement.
I can hear the cries of the dead,
muffled by the ground
but still loud enough to make it out.
(maracas !)
monkey-webs of concrete road
disappear in time
weeds and trees that grow from seed
will cover us in time
swallowing all of the buildings
and every single piece of trash
I can hear the cries of the dead
maybe it's your neighbor
playing his trumpet in the basement
I can hear the cries of the dead
muffled by the ground
but still loud enough to make a sound
You went to the mountains, true
and painted what you saw
you came back late and hid the painting
underneath my couch
and I wasn't there when you made it
but i feel like i'm there when i'm lookin at it
Friday, October 31, 2008
Saturday, October 25, 2008
Fuck Nitro, Blink 182 Forever-YEEAAHJGHh!!
Last night's show was particularly crappy due to Nitro's having treated me like a caged bird up to this point and then unleashing me alone into the wilderness that is the management of our friday night show. Regardless, I was able to manage to share some music I've been enjoying lately and some of my integrity, plus a live, in-studio set by my band "Fuck [vampire weekend], Blink 182 forever YEAH!" I think that it's a nice name because you can fill in the brackets relative to your mood, but it emphasizes that Blink 182 are a forever universal truth. Just sayin. Also check out this show that's happening in Hartzfeld B at Lewis & Clark tonight.
Inside the Molecules 3:46 Chad VanGaalen
Hyacinth Grrls 1:47 Abe Vigoda
Unstoppable 3:33 Santogold
Bone Machine 3:02 The Pixies
I'm Going Out Of My Way 3:26 Stereolab
Timorous Me 4:34 Ted Leo & The Pharmacists
Road to Nowhere 4:20 Talking Heads
Monsterpussy 1:43 The Vaselines
Monkey Gone to Heaven 2:57 The Pixies
Badonka Donkey 2:57 Born Ruffians
Pages 3:34 Starlight Mints
For Emma 3:41 Bon Iver
Dance Song '97 2:50 Sleater-Kinney Dig Me Out
Counting to Infinity 3:27 Betelmire
Execution Day 3:00 The New Pornographers
Day In Day Out 3:08 XTC
Gallery Piece 3:48 of Montreal
Magic Spells 6:07 Crystal Castles
Time Stands Still 4:34 Cut Copy
Wednesday, October 22, 2008
Stereolab, 10/22/08, Wonder Ballroom
Among musicians, Stereolab alone reprsent a great deal of what I consider to be the finer parts of life. Commonly referred to as 'art rock,' their music is evidently the result of deep artistic experimentation with the presentation of musical and philosophical ideas and methods primarily through instruments, heavy on the moog synths. They've shown to have tapped some source that allows the beautiful imagination and creativity of Tim Gane and collaborators to spring forth project after project since 1990. Their sound can be no more accurately described than by words from their very song titles- a cosmic, chemical, visionary, ecstatic, sunshine, unconscious, refrigerator noise groove blast.
Besides all this 'post/art/kraut' rock stuff which kind of sucks to talk about, they are the most absofuckinglutely fun band to listen to. Many indie artists find our sweet spots through nostalgia. Anyone can be nostalgic and everyone's childhood is fascinating to look back on. Vinyl sets us spinning into a more simple, organic, and benign timespace. It's easy to exploit this theme in indie music today. Stereolab continually impress me by the places they look and show us, such as the art rock of the late 60s to which I myself and many others tuned into alternative music of the 90s would not have been otherwise introduced.
It was my older sister who introduced me to Stereolab, with their 2004 LP "Margerine Eclipse" and whom I always looked up to and imagined in green-er indie-er places on the west coast as I grew up. Stereolab makes me feel close to this ideal artcollegestudentlife, and the show on Saturday helped me see that part of that is still alive.
The most endearing and honest-seeming element of the show was how the band came on stage and singer Laetitia Sadier introduced the first song, just by saying "Hello. This song is called 'Percolator.'" This was quite an unexpected first-song choice from their 1996 "Emperor Tomato Ketchup." It served well, however, to whir in the set of hypnotic pop which combined aspects of their best repertoire of the past and the album being promoted, "Chemical Chords." The next song's title bounced through her French accent, "Neon Beanbag," the sweetly satisfying introductory track of Chemical chords.
Needless to say, the set was bomb: aside from some of the best tracks from the new album, they played classics "Ping Pong," "Lo Boob Oscillator," "French Disko," and some truly amazing tracks sans-horns from their 2006 rarities and B-sides album "Fab Four Suture." It was exciting to hear the radical, straight-to-the-point lines come from Laetitia's voice: "we treat our bodies like machines/ fascism winning" from "eye of the volcano" introduced as "a song about freedom fries." It was equally exciting to see her dance kind of like a robot, seeming self-conscious like a french teacher, yet very confident like a, say, French chanteuse.
Dancing to some of my favorite Stereolab songs as well as to krautrock-ish (this basically means really repetitive) jams engendered some sort of understanding with these artists, but, true to their essence, I can continue collecting their millions of LPs, EPs, singles, and B-sides and still discover new things about "Margerine Eclipse" after my billionth listen. I encourage you to take a listen, as no one on earth hates Stereolab.
Besides all this 'post/art/kraut' rock stuff which kind of sucks to talk about, they are the most absofuckinglutely fun band to listen to. Many indie artists find our sweet spots through nostalgia. Anyone can be nostalgic and everyone's childhood is fascinating to look back on. Vinyl sets us spinning into a more simple, organic, and benign timespace. It's easy to exploit this theme in indie music today. Stereolab continually impress me by the places they look and show us, such as the art rock of the late 60s to which I myself and many others tuned into alternative music of the 90s would not have been otherwise introduced.
It was my older sister who introduced me to Stereolab, with their 2004 LP "Margerine Eclipse" and whom I always looked up to and imagined in green-er indie-er places on the west coast as I grew up. Stereolab makes me feel close to this ideal artcollegestudentlife, and the show on Saturday helped me see that part of that is still alive.
The most endearing and honest-seeming element of the show was how the band came on stage and singer Laetitia Sadier introduced the first song, just by saying "Hello. This song is called 'Percolator.'" This was quite an unexpected first-song choice from their 1996 "Emperor Tomato Ketchup." It served well, however, to whir in the set of hypnotic pop which combined aspects of their best repertoire of the past and the album being promoted, "Chemical Chords." The next song's title bounced through her French accent, "Neon Beanbag," the sweetly satisfying introductory track of Chemical chords.
Needless to say, the set was bomb: aside from some of the best tracks from the new album, they played classics "Ping Pong," "Lo Boob Oscillator," "French Disko," and some truly amazing tracks sans-horns from their 2006 rarities and B-sides album "Fab Four Suture." It was exciting to hear the radical, straight-to-the-point lines come from Laetitia's voice: "we treat our bodies like machines/ fascism winning" from "eye of the volcano" introduced as "a song about freedom fries." It was equally exciting to see her dance kind of like a robot, seeming self-conscious like a french teacher, yet very confident like a, say, French chanteuse.
Dancing to some of my favorite Stereolab songs as well as to krautrock-ish (this basically means really repetitive) jams engendered some sort of understanding with these artists, but, true to their essence, I can continue collecting their millions of LPs, EPs, singles, and B-sides and still discover new things about "Margerine Eclipse" after my billionth listen. I encourage you to take a listen, as no one on earth hates Stereolab.
Saturday, October 18, 2008
Falling over KLC
During this show we concluded that our lives were joke and also that this was our playlist. Oh and it's themed by songs that are fall-ish/autumnal:
1.) "Red and Purple" - The Dodos
2.) "Silver Sands" - Stereolab [Playing at Wonder Ballroom Saturday night tonight]
3.) "Young Bride" -Midlake
4.) "I Want it to Get Out" - Hospital Shiop
5.) "Twisted Tongue" -Woods Family Creeps
6.) "Autumn Sweater" -Yo La Tengo
7.) "Fall Song" -Colourmusic
8.) "Sleep With Darkness" -Jackieboy
9.) "You're Free" -Adrian Orange
10.) "Stars and Sons" -Broken Social Scene
11.) "Hurley" -Pinback
12.) "Streets of Fire" -New Pornographers
13.)
14.)
15.) "These Days" -Nico
16.) "Camping Next to Water" -Badly Drawn Boy
17.) "Le Plus Beau du Quartier" - Carla Bruni
18.) "When th Wind Blows" -Dear Nora
19.) "Rough Gem" - Islands [whoa Nitro and I both tried to add this to a playlist this week!]
20.) "Sea Lion Woman" -Fiest
21.) "Rock Me Now" -Metric
22.) "Oh! September" -Mirah/Ginger Takahashi
23.) "Somewhere There's a Feather" -Nico
24.) "Let's Call it Off" -Peter Bjorn and John
1.) "Red and Purple" - The Dodos
2.) "Silver Sands" - Stereolab [Playing at Wonder Ballroom Saturday night tonight]
3.) "Young Bride" -Midlake
4.) "I Want it to Get Out" - Hospital Shiop
5.) "Twisted Tongue" -Woods Family Creeps
6.) "Autumn Sweater" -Yo La Tengo
7.) "Fall Song" -Colourmusic
8.) "Sleep With Darkness" -Jackieboy
9.) "You're Free" -Adrian Orange
10.) "Stars and Sons" -Broken Social Scene
11.) "Hurley" -Pinback
12.) "Streets of Fire" -New Pornographers
13.)
14.)
15.) "These Days" -Nico
16.) "Camping Next to Water" -Badly Drawn Boy
17.) "Le Plus Beau du Quartier" - Carla Bruni
18.) "When th Wind Blows" -Dear Nora
19.) "Rough Gem" - Islands [whoa Nitro and I both tried to add this to a playlist this week!]
20.) "Sea Lion Woman" -Fiest
21.) "Rock Me Now" -Metric
22.) "Oh! September" -Mirah/Ginger Takahashi
23.) "Somewhere There's a Feather" -Nico
24.) "Let's Call it Off" -Peter Bjorn and John
Sunday, October 5, 2008
Starfuckerssss
Some friends and I saw Portland's own Starfucker play last night at Reed College's Student Union. They played with [New Zealand's] the Ruby Suns, whom, dear listeners, I painfully sacrificed my attendance of for your sake, in the honourable name of Naughty Ezra!
My fourth time seeing Starfucker perform affirmed the fact that any time I see them, I will end up much happier in life. It's true. And I realized that I can say that my relationship with Starfucker is different than that with most artists and comes the closest to qualifying as just that--a relationship. A Wilamette Weekly blurb describes the recent release of their self-titled debut as a "[nostalgic collection of] songs that, strung together, are a document of Portland’s year-plus romance with the band." I remember having no expectations, unimpressed yet by their name or their large glasses or their pink tank tops as they took the stage my first time seeing them at PSU with Kick Ball. Both bands provided what would turn out as the best show I'd attended up to that point. Starfucker, I now know, are one of very few bands who will consistently compel the fuck out of a crowd with a true presence. Never speaking between songs, their sounds tell the audience of a time when artists acted as a green light for social action. Whenever I see them, their synth-melody-heavy sound deeply impresses both senses of melancholy and carefreeness, demanding clapping, bouncing, and a bit of showing off. As one Reedie somehow pulled off a hanging striptease above the band, others in the front of the very crowded Student Union were emboldened to get up onstage alongside the band. While Starfucker is primarily a project of songwriter Josh Hodges, the band proves a smooth cohesion of the necessary layers of their pop songs, especially when moving crowds are surrounding the three members and 'uckin with their shi'. I appreciated this intellectually and then proceeded to know why such a sweet sound ironically riles up such mosh-y crowd behavior throughout their rather satisfying length of a set. Despite not playing a large portion of their album, an overabundance of obnoxiously-colored pants and shirtless dudes, and the general overwhelming sense that a Lewis & Clark student traumatized by write-ups gets when visiting Reed, seeing Starfucker play again made me feel like an extremely refreshing meet-up with a good friend and a hundred new friends. And you know we'll be there when they're back on Dec. 4 with Blitzen Trapper at the Wonder Ballroom!
I am fairly certain of a tirelessness of spinning this album, so you'll get Starfucked too, my Naughty Ezras!
-Katia K. Krusselovsky
Saturday, October 4, 2008
Firstshow Firstshow
For our first show tonight, we thought we'd introduce ourselves and catch you all and ourselves up by revisiting all the shows we went to this summer and fall in Portland, Santa Cruz, San Francisco, and St. Louis. In other words, we've been graced with the presence of each band on this playlist in recent months (note: a more accurate expression of our means of reaching shows would be: riding our bikes miles in the rain, catching the godforsaken 72 bus line, or the ever-successful driving stoned). Some memories were easier to recall than others. Some were just too painful (see: nameless opening bands who sing about Street Jizz).
1. "Rawnald Gregory Erickson the Second" -Starfucker
2. "3000 Flowers" -Destroyer
3. "There Are Birds" -The Ruby Suns
4. "I'll Believe In Anything" -Wolf Parade
5. "Let's Make Love and Listen to Death From Above" -CSS
6. "The Train Song" -The Next Door Neighbors
7. "Hella Nervous" -Gravy Train!!!!
8. "Challenge" -Japanther
9. "No More Long Years" -Matt & Kim
10. "Computer Camp Love" -Datarock
11. "High Rise" -Ladytron
12. "Don't Stay in Bed" -YACHT
13. "Silvertiles" -Matt & Kim
14. "Where Do You Run To?" -Vivian Girls
15. "It'll Be a Breeze" -The Long Winters
16. "Tropical Yeti Song" -The Pharmacy
17. "New Grace" -High Places
18. "Move" -CSS
19. "Creature" -Guidance Counselor
20. "Pop Song" -Starfucker
21. "White Winter Hymnal" -Fleet Foxes
22. "Save Ginny Weasley from Dean Thomas" -Harry & the Potters
23. "500 Fingernails" -Why?
Some other things you were fortunate to experience/cursed to have missed:
- Discussion of the prostitution rings on SE 82nd
- New Zealand accents
- The sound of the underbite
- Re-instating the humor in the word "cum"
- A synthesis of the term "Naughty Ezra"
- An in-depth interview with sophomore Camille Tapia on Reed College
-Katia K. Krusselovsky
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