3/19

Selda Bagcan - Turkulerimiz - 1

1/6

2006

These are the albums that I liked a lot this year. Not the "best"
albums but just the ones I happened to listen to a lot, the ones
that were what I needed to hear.
Swan Lake - Beast Moans
The Capstan Shafts - Euridice Proudhon
The Curtains - Calamity
Lucky Dragons - Widows
Tim Hecker - Harmony In Ultraviolet

And EPs:
Sunset Rubdown EP
The Finches - Six Songs
Lame Drivers - Captain Amazing

Songs:
The Concretes - Chosen One
Ekkehard Ehlers - Misorodzi
Nina Nastasia - Jim's Room
Casiotone For the Painfully Alone - Holly Hobby (version)
Beach House - Saltwater
Why? - Dumb Hummer
The Envelopes - Sister In Love
Sibylle Baier - The End

12/6

Weirdly, I had never heard Nina Nastasia until a week or so ago.
Wow. Some of it is really incredible, Run To Ruin especially.
"Jim's Room" from On Leaving is also pretty stunning.

11/28

I've been really into the Paul McCartney song "Another Day."

11/20

The Finches! I would like to emphatically recommend the Finches,
their six song ep but even more than that their live show.
Simple but with much heart.

9/25

I never thought the Kings of Convenience were anything special
but I recently heard their album "Riot on and Empty Street" and
the first track, "Homesick," is really incredible. The lyrics
are what's so great -- some of the best about depression I've
heard in a long time. There's a part that
goes, "searching boxes underneath the counter on a chance that on
a tape I'd find/ a song for/ someone who needs somewhere/ to long
for." I like that it's "somewhere" and not "someone" that's
being longed for.

9/11

Please check out the Curtains and the Shaky Hands!

5/19

I was in East Side Marketplace today when the Fleetwoods' "Come
Softly To Me" came on the stereo. My oh my, I am such a sucker
for that song.

5/14/06

I live in a cave. That said, I heard a pretty fantastic Pop song
the other day; no, really, a POP song, "These Words" by Natasha
Bedingfield. I've been informed that this was a "hit" on the "radio"
a few months ago. It probably should only be two minutes long but
it's a sweet one. Speaking of pop, but on the more artful side,
the Concretes' "Chosen One" is really a gem.

5/8/06

Thanks to Ba Da Bing records for putting out the Th' Faith Healers
Peel Sessions and the Beirut cd. "S.O.S" and "Curly Lips" from the
first one and "Scenic World" from the second. Yes Yes Yes.

3/19/06

The Lavender Diamond/Queens of Sheeba split is very nice. The
Diamond side, "The Song of the Impossible Occurrences" is easy and
sweet and needs to be slow danced to.

3/18/06

Saw a phenominal band the other night. "Ponytail" from Baltimore.
Really, really fantastic. Make any effort you can to witness these
guys yourself.

2/19/06

I picked up the Magnetic Fields' "I Don't Believe You" 7 inch the
other day for a few dollars. It's from '98 and the version of "I
Don't Believe You" is synthier and more upbeat and really, really
great.

2/2/06

The version of "Peach, Plum, Pear" from Walnut Whales makes me a
little teary eyed every time I listen to it, and for no other
reason than that it's a very great and very sad song.

2/1/06

The collection of Notekillers stuff from the late 70s and the
Silver Daggers 7 inch are both great.

1/31/06

There's actually a great BBC session on the Delta 5 cd that was
done in 1981, so, later than the other stuff. They sound like a
real band, not just a bratty, punky one. It's very Gang of Four.

1/30/06

At the Fire Records website it says the reissue of "On Avery
Island DELUXE" has been moved to April of this year, but there's
still no information about what's going to make it "deluxe."

1/29/06

The Bat's song "Neighbours" from the "And Here Is 'Music For the
Fireside'" EP is a real winner and a heartbreaker. I really like
"Earwig," too. Actually the whole EP is great and the Bats are
great.

1/28/06

Kill Rock Stars reissued a bunch of Delta 5 stuff, "Singles
and Sessions 1979-1981." It's great that their 7 inches are
back in print cause "Mind Your Own Business" is such a classic.
"You" is really good, too. The other stuff not so much. Not
bad but there's plenty other stuff like it out there, which is
probably why they were never a household name to begin with.
Isn't it weird that the Delta 5, the Au Pairs and LiLiput all
have songs called "You"?

1/27/06

God bless the Buzzcocks.

1/26/06

I sort of have a radio show now on BSR in Providence. 88.1 FM
or on the web at www.bsrlive.com. The show is called "Ape &
Caveman Radio" and the shows are archived here. It's not
really a show because I don't have a time slot but whenever I
sub for someone the show will be recorded there.

1/24/06

I picked up a Delgado's 7 inch because, well, it was free and
I remembered liking "The Great Eastern"(I think that's what
it was called) in highschool. The a-side is a song called
"Everybody Come Down" and it's actually really great in an
early 90s twee-brit-pop kinda way. Something to bop along to.
The b-sides are fine, "Don't Leave Clean" and "I See Secrets,"
and, stangely, play at 33rpm when the flip plays at 45.

1/23/06

The Guided By Voices song "If We Wait" from the Sunfish Holy
Breakfast EP is incredible.

1/16/06

Picked up the Raincoat's "Odyshape" today. The liner notes
seem to imply that Robert Wyatt and Charles Hayward of This
Heat play drums on the album but it doesn't say on what tracks

1/7/06

Philly has a pretty awesome indie-pop scene bubbling up. Check
out the Teeth, the A-Sides, B.C. Camplight and War on Drugs.
The Teeth's "Oh, Bessie" is really a smash hit. Oh, and (the
sounds of) Kaleidoscope are also great.

1/5/06

There were a few albums I forgot to mention:

31 Knots - Talk Like Blood
The Bats - At the National Grid
Tiny Hawks - Fingers Become Bridges

12/31/05

Year end time!

Absolute favorites:
Keith Fullerton Whitman - Multiples
Colleen - The Golden Morning Breaks
Sleater-Kinney - The Woods
Okay - Low Road and High Road

Other great, great albums:
Broadcast - Tender Buttons
Oneida - The Wedding
Hudson Bell - When the Sun is the Moon
Pierre Bastien - Pop
Death Vessel - Stay Close
Konono no. 1 - Congotronics
Antony and the Johnsons - I am a Bird Now

Reissues:
Karate Party - Black Helicopters
Orange Juice - The Glasgow School
Lucky Dragons - Sewing Circle
Jens Lekman - Oh You're So Silent Jens

Compilations:
Thai Beat A Go-Go Vol. 3
Invisible Pyramid: Elegy Box Set

EPs and Singles:
Pathways - Productivity 7"
A-Frames - Police 1000/Traction 7"
Espers - The Weed Tree
Lame Drivers - Captain Amazing

but I haven't heard the new Deerhoof yet!

12/29/05

I put on "It Was Hot We Stayed In the Water" for the first
time in a long time tonight. It sounds like another time
and place now. "Ice" was the first Microphones song I ever
heard because it was the one up for download at the K Records
website. It was one of those rare and wonderful times when
a song is strange and shouldn't make sense but sounds
completely right. The line "from under the ice I saw you in
warm clothes" is still one of my favorite lines.

12/28/05

There's this Bevis Frond song, I don't know the name or
album, with the line "And I loved her for the way she wore
her hair" which is one of my favorite lines of all time.

12/18/05

There's a great article in the latest New York Review of
Books on a book about the Brill Building scene in NY in the
late 60s and how crazy the songwriting scene was. The book
is called Always Magic in the Air.

12/17/05

Just in case you didn't know, Jeff Mangum did a solo show at
Aquarius Records way back in 1996, which can be downloaded
here: http://www.elephant6.com/sound/neutral.html, and which
is a must for Neutral Milk Hotel fans big and small.

12/16/05

I'm very excited because I picked up Geoff Mullen's new
split cassette tape with Reef Blip(who I've never heard of)
on Tabel Records(who I've also never heard of) today. As far
as Geoff Mullen goes, he's one of the most talented people
making music these days and all of his recorded output is
excellent. His first album, "Thirty-Six Trillion
Manifestations," is getting (re)released on Keith Fullerton
Whitman's Entschuldigun label(birds of a feather...) next
February as "thrtysxtrllnmnfstns," so you should be getting
excited that you'll be able to get your hands on some really,
really great music. His tracks on the Invisible Pyramid comp
are great, his Armory Radio project is great. As far as Tabel
Records go, all the tape says is "tabel 001 providence, ri,"
so who knows who these guys are.

12/15/05

Tiny Hawks' one-sided LP "Fingers Become Bridges" is really
rocking my world right now.

12/14/05

I love the Flying Burrito Brothers' "Gilded Palace of Sin"
very much.

12/13/05

Saw Belly Boat at the Tap Room tonight. Very fun and there
were a few really great lyrics that are stuck in my head.
Hopefully we will be playing with them on January 1st in
Portland.

12/11/05

Kraftwerk's Ralf & Florian is a great, great album and
nothing like their other stuff. I love that pitter patter
of happy drum machines and the sloppy synthesizers. And the
hand claps.

12/10/05

God bless Nilsson Schmilsson.

12/9/05

Heard some of the new Jens Lekman album in the car ride back
from Conneticut tonight. Sounded really good. There's a
song about ruining a party that's really great, sturdy. As
soon as we got back I put on Arthur Russell. Here's the
weird part. Apparently Jens Lekman is working on cover
versions of some Arthur Russell songs? But I just found that
out now. So there you go, I am a clairvoyant genius.

12/8/05

The first Volcano Suns album fucking rules.

12/7/05

Listening to Clap Your Hands Say Yeah makes me feel kinda
insulted because it's so obviously about the lowest common
denominator. I expect more from my pop music, thanks.
Speaking of which, good god, "Murmur" is an amazing record.

12/6/05

I am very excited that ReR records is re-issuing This Heat's
catalog. It was criminal that that stuff was out of print.
They were really a magnificent band. "Horizontal Hold" from
their first album is one of the most amazing songs ever put
to tape.

12/5/05

Karate Party's "Black Helicopter" LP is really an excellent
thing. The quality of S-S Records' releases is pretty
stunning. A-Frames' "Police 1000/Traction" 7" is also great,
and I usually don't go for their stuff. Antenna Erupt is
fun.

12/4/05
I can hear Jeff listening to 14 Iced Bears in his room and
it's a whole lot better than I remembered it being, even
though I was the one that recommended it to him the other
day.

12/3/05
Jason was playing some stuff by Chrome in the car the other
day and it sounded pretty great.

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