Everything That Happens Will Happen Today

Your song still needs a chorus
I know you'll figure it out
The rising of the verses
A change of key will let you out

David Byrne and Brian Eno do it again...30 years later. I'm really digging this. Download "Strange Overtones" (my favorite track so far) here. Hopefully going to see him again October 24th in Ann Arbor. Skye and I caught him a few years ago performing in the Walker Art Center Sculpture Garden. I think I will forever associate that show with a) The dude dancing in front of us...an older, larger man. I remember thinking that I hope one day I would be able to just let go and dance like that. It was a sight...and b) Incurring a rather large parking ticket on skyes car by parking in a non-parking area. The sign was covered in moss, I didnt see it! We were on our first real date so it wasnt quite the impression I was hoping to leave. She married me anyways and David Byrne is still releasing amazing music so all is still right in the world.

PS Do yourself a favorite and get hip to Mr Bryne's Blog.

Mid-Summer Music 2008

I just have to tell someone about these jams...

Grouper
Dragging A Dead Deer Up A Hill

Whispery ambiance that harkens back to the glory days of early nineties 4AD releases like Cocteau Twins and This Mortal Coil. When I heard "Heavy Water/I'd Rather Be Sleeping" for the first time I felt like I was spying on my wife, Skye, growing up in South Dakota. 4AD releases shaped her aural landscape as a highschooler and I'm starting to understand the relationship of the music to the horizon and lonely expanse of the open plains. Anyways, isn't that the best album title you've ever heard?

Listen to "Heavy Water/I'd Rather Be Sleeping"



Fight Bite
Emerald Eyes

So this year I fell hard for Beach House's "Devotion," an album that I've proceeded to pimp out to every soul that would bear to listen. My carpool buddy, Marc has got to be sick to death of it by now. Anyways, lucky for him I've found a fresh, new successor to my obsessiveness. Fight Bite is like the crunchy to the smooth Beach House peanut butter. But you know, it still tastes like peanut butter, which is awesome. And who doesn't love peanut butter? If you don't love peanut butter you can get the hell off my blog, that's for sure. But seriously, lush, dreamy haze pop...I can't get enough of it.

Listen to "The Accident"


Au
Verbs

Au's Verbs is like a brilliant gem forged far beneath the mountains of Appalachia, plucked from the soil by a celestial being and presented to the inhabitants of earth. "Here you go earth buds..." it might say, "No matter what you do, whatever you decide to do is ok. You're ok. Now here's some jams to loose your mind to."

Listen to "RR vs. D"


The War on Drugs
Wagonwheel Blues

Doesn't this guy sound like Dylan? Dylan and the Boss? Plus Petty? But wait, they sound like something completely different than that too. Huh. This is my declared Summer Jam 2008.

Listen to "Taking The Farm"


Some other stuff worth checking out: The new Mogwai jam, "The Sun Smells Too Loud," and stuff from Human Highway, M83, and Ratatat. Listen to all of it here: http://tigerfile.muxtape.com

One dies, 2 stranded on Mt. Rainier

Trapped on the Muir Snowfield with zero visibility and 70 mph sustained winds. Its crazy to say that I know exactly what that feels like. We were in the same location with the same conditions only a month ago today when we decided to turn around.

Feeling real lucky to be alive and sad for this loss. I heard it was the husband of one of the surviving hikers that died. The helicopter picked them up yesterday morning.

"The three individuals are experienced mountaineers who had visited Camp Muir in the past and have enjoyed hiking and climbing on Mount Rainier for many years. Two had previously reached the summit. On Monday afternoon, they became trapped on the Muir Snowfield by a sudden blizzard while descending from a day hike to Camp Muir. Early Tuesday morning a 911 emergency call came through to park rangers advising them of overdue hikers on the Muir snowfield. Due to heavy, drifting snow, seventy miles per hour winds, and near zero visibility, a rescue team was unable to safely initiate a search at that time. At about 7:15am, one member of the party found his way to Camp Muir and was able to direct a search team, made up of climbing guides and park rangers stationed at Camp Muir, to the party’s location near Anvil Rock. All three of the stranded hikers were under shelter by 8:30am. Three doctors, who were at Camp Muir as clients of one of the park’s guide services, provided immediate medical care. Mr. Burceag was unconscious and unresponsive upon arrival. Rescuers were unable to revive him."
-Mike Gauthier, National Park Service Ranger

"Hiker dies on Mount Rainier, 2 wait for rescue"

Amy Stein

"We at once seek connection with the mystery and freedom of the natural world, yet we continually strive to tame the wild around us and compulsively control the wild within our own nature."

Amy's work stopped me in my tracks this morning. I think she's really mastered the delicate proportion, not too much and not too little. She gives you the cast of characters but she doesn't flesh out the narrative entirely. She leaves the fun part for you! Don't they feel like dioramas set in the real world? God knows I love me a diorama.



I mean look that this one. Look at this little flash of brilliance...the way the fence obscures the expression of the girl...it just slays me. She can stay in this moment of terror forever now because of that little move.

Anyways, if her "Domesticated" series isn't enough to convince you of her awesomeness, might I direct you to a few other series that you can all collectively lose your shit to...

Stranded


Halloween in Harlem


Add her to the "she just does it for me" list.

"Alors ca te fait kiffer de filmer ca fils de pute?

Justice touches a nerve with the overtly violent "Stress."



I'll be the first to admit, it's a bit disturbing, but disenfrachisment can drive people to commit diplorable acts. "Violence becoming banality" as a theme should come as no surprise, the French media has struggled with this for decades. This is the kind of footage that was shown for months on end on the evening news during the Clichy-sous-Bois riots.

For a decidedly less violent look at Parisian street culture in music video form might I direct you to another Ed Banger artist, DJ Medhi's "Signatune," also directed by Romain Gavras.

DVNO

Yes. So very much yes.

Falling back to earth...alone.

Joe Kittinger, first man in space.