Ten Thousand Tears Won't

This week I drove to Hayward each day. I have a black binder of CDs that I usually only take when I know I'm going to be driving a lot, like if I've rented a car over Christmas weekend. This binder is updated every holiday season with albums I know I'll like/other people I might be with might really like. I opened a page each day at random and took out the four CDs to listen to each day.

Day 1:

10CC - 10CC/Sheet Music

Prince - Purple Rain

Pavement - Crooked Crooked Rain reissue disc 1

Yes - Close to the Edge

Listened to CRCR the whole way through. The album sounded nice and fresh, I remembered every song. Near the end, the instrumental track and "Hit the Plane Down" aren't very good, but almost every other track is. I've always hated how the drums are on Pavement albums 2-5. SM's voice sounds really young. After the album proper the bonus tracks were all pretty groan-y. I didn't skip them because I was too focused on finding the place I was going, but I should have.

I put in Prince afterwards, it got about one minute into "Lets Go Crazy" and then began skipping and the CD player spit it out. Scratched.

Listened to 10CC/Sheet Music, skipped a few of the tracks from their first album, but some stood out as AMAZING, like "The Dean and I" and "Sand in my Face". Sheet Music was spectacular, I know it too well to be surprised or amazed by anything, but if you haven't heard it yet you will be both. I love almost every track and am even coming around to "Oh Effendi" which used to be too effensive for me to listen to. Skipped the bonus tracks.

I did not listen to Yes.

Day 2:

Laurie Anderson - Big Science

Robert Wyatt - Rock Bottom

Gillian Welch - The Revelator

Captain Beefheart - Trout Mask Replica

Listened to Rock Bottom the whole way through, the beginning and the end stood out. Due to the weather I was more focused on driving, I remember during "Alifie" thinking 'oh, I missed the guitar solo'. Put in Captain Beefheart afterwards. Liked it more than I remember, especially the third quarter of the album. I remember almost none of the song names, but there's a rocker that then saxes from the middle to end that in particular I loved.

Put Laurie Anderson in, got really in the zone during the first track, it began skipping heavily on the second track. Put in Gillian Welch, who I didn't expect to complement Laurie so well. She's sings "I was thinking last night about Elvis" to Laurie's "O Superman", both albums feature minimal and repetitive musical accompaniment, both assisted by a musical counterpart (Laurie's Roma Baran and Gillian's David Rawlings), they are both from the midwest. Things to consider. A truck caught fire by the side of the road, so I got to listen to The Revelator twice, skipping both Ruination Days the second time. "I Dream A Highway" was particularly well-received.

Day 3:

Wings - Greatest Hits

Louis Moholo Octet - Spirits Rejoice

Compilation - Ire Feelings

Avalanches - Since I Left You

Wings lasted about halfway through each of five tracks, and then Ire Feelings, apparently the twelveth compilation I burned in 2005, as markered to the face, got its chance. Some tracks are still very much a part of my mental repertoire, like the title track by Rupie Edwards and "Obvious" by Aztec Camera. Others were awful, there was an unidentifiable electro track and a terrible Fiery Furnaces song with bad drums. Some were interesting, "I turn my Camera On" by Spoon had some nice moments but never built to anything, "Center of the Universe" by Built To Spill brought back a fond memory of buying that album as soon as it came out in 199x and loving that track, "So Begins Our Alabee" by Of Montreal was pleasant and had a few good hooks. There was maybe one eye-opening Chills song that I don't remember the name of.

The Avalanches I wasn't thrilled about putting on, but had to have something to drive to lunch to and wasn't ready to play the Moholo card. It was immediately fun, but very same-y with everything repeating in units of four except the vocal bits (with one obvious exception) and I think I turned the CD player off at around track 6.

Louis Moholo was amazing and satisfying and I hurt my voice inventing harmonies above the melodies and throughout the solos in each song as usual. Had enough time for 5/6 of Rock Bottom (which I'd left in the van) and got my attention and enjoyment in.

Day 4:

Compilation - (Untitled Mix CD with squiggle)
Compilation - 'Arthur Russell'

Bruce Springsteen - Greetings From Asbury Park, NJ

Genesis - Foxtrot

The Untitled Mix CD (made in December 2008) was good, lots of still-faves, kind of un-noteworthy in that way. The songs that stuck out most were Fun Boy Three and Bananarama's "It Ain't What You Do (Its the Way That you Do It)" for its plainness and The Shadows "Wonderful Land" for its age.

Bruce climbed in the car on the way to lunch, I felt immediately cool with "Blinded by the Light" and then felt a little bit less cool for the next couple of songs. Skipped a few with lyrics about people hanging out and descriptions of cowboy clothes. Felt really cool again for "I Came For You" and then ejected it after "Its Hard to Be A Saint in the City".

The Arthur Russell compilation included many of my favorite songs of his, but similar to the first compilation, I was less surprised, as I frequently spend time with these songs. "You And Me Both" from Calling Out of Context was a positive jolt, didn't expect to like it as much as I did, almost skipped it. "Habit of You" and "Your Motion Says" are amazing. Didn't listen to Genesis, though I would have liked to.

I almost cheated by bringing Haircut One Hundred's first album and Built To Spill's "There's Nothing Wrong with Love".

Day 5:

Win - Freaky Trigger

Prefab Sprout - Jordan: The Comeback

Terry Allen - Lubbock (on Everything)

Elvis Costello - Punch the Clock

I made a noise of moderate excitement upon flipping the CD book open this morning at around 5:50 a.m. What good CDs! We began with Freaky Trigger, getting about six tracks in, switching more for traffic reasons than from glee exhaustion. Can't believe this album isn't on everybody's top faves list, "We could go crazy with the Coca-Cola!".

Terry Allen brought things to a more Highway 17 place, drawly and piano-y. There are about four tracks that begin 'well she was...' with very similar musical accompaniment, skipped those (except Wolfman of Del Rio, which is SO GOOD) and there are a few tracks that don't play fair, (the ones about art) but many tracks were savvy winners of my morning.

At lunch, put on Punch the Clock and had to contain my enthusiasm for both opening tracks while behind the wheel. Between the lunch journey and the beginning of the trip home, got to about track 10, greatly appreciated many of them, especially Shipbuilding. Prefab Sprout on the way home, several tracks had scratches, but not enough to eject the CD, sang most strongly along to Carnival 2000, Moondog, and All Boys Believe Anything. Paris Smith was the most unfortunate scratch casualty. Finished off the Arthur Russell compilation.

Exhausting week!

Spring and So Forth

We went on tour. It was spectacular, I keep having dreams about it. My dream last night- we were driving around in a tiny car made of hair and wire. I went to take a tour of an abandoned Wal-mart that people had been squatting in and when I came back the other rabbits had converted the hair car into a sporty one-seater, which was frustrating! But it looked cool and went much faster. I checked to see how long it would take to get to Tacoma from Sacramento, I looked at a video screen and it showed a monster from Rampage! tearing down a building in Tacoma. I then remembered that we could just use Dylan's van to get there.

Here's a clip of our show in Riverside where Conner and Dylan did double drums throughout George Gershwin.

In my room/on walks/buses/dreams I am working on a new album. We're playing a bunch of shows this month around town and mini-jaunts here and there and then are hunkering down in our Summertime bunker to record. Spencer, Max and I have a Prefab Sprout-related surprise in store. Tour(s) sometime in the future, we'll let you know.

Records I'm enjoying greatly -

Spontaneous Music Ensemble - Karyobin
Immediately after our last show at Zami I found myself in a mid-to-heavy blues (the No Motion Blues) and put on a sad song to celebrate this grief. Michael woke up and came in to ask who the band was. I looked for something more low-key, finding Karyobin first. I wrote my first song in a long time as it played. Everybody came home from the wharf and shared a hilarious experience.

Dirty Projectors - Bitte Orca

Sublime - Sublime
Came up on our way down to San Luis Obispo, after my initial protest-vomit sounds ceased, I was surprised to find myself having remembered al the words.

Yo-Yo Ma and Bobby McFerrin - Hush
In Bolinas Vanessa played this for Maria and I while we fretted over the sudden disappearance of Rachel, who had been captured by fortune tellers.

Paul Bley - Open, To Love
"Ida Lupino" is my waking up on the weekends jam.

And two top songs -
Get Away Free by Pangea
News by Tune Yards

Perfect Waves is for sale at Insound.

Perfect Waves

Our amazing album Perfect Waves is now available. You can get a digital version for free. If you want a physical copy with beautiful art and such, send me an e-mail at Tyler dot Martin at Gmail dot com.

To celebrate/distribute, we're going on tour in a few days with Antarctica Takes It.

Tour Dates (check in for updates of exact addresses and times for where we are playing):

April 10, 2009 - Portland, OR - Deacom Manor (with Church, Total Bros)
April 11, 2009 - Olympia, WA - Mikrofest
April 12, 2009 - Seattle, WA - New Crompton
April 13, 2009 - Bellingham, WA - Montague Manor
April 14, 2009 - Port Townsend, WA - (TBA)
April 15, 2009 - Tacoma, WA - (TBA)
April 16, 2009 - Portland, OR - (TBA)
April 17, 2009 - Arcata, CA - Yellow House
April 18, 2009 - Oakland, CA - (TBA)
April 19, 2009 -San Luis Obispo, CA - KCPR Sessions, Cal Poly (with Pangea)
April 20, 2009 - Santa Barbara, CA - Biko Co-op (With Pangea)
April 21, 2009 - Riverside, CA - Seeds Under Snow Collective (with Da Bears and Pangea)
April 22, 2009 - Fresno, CA - Warehouse on Peach and Ashland
April 23, 2009 - San Francisco, CA - (TBA)
April 24, 2009 - Sacramento, CA - Bowling Alley (With Colour of Love)
April 25, 2009 - Santa Cruz, CA - Zami Co-op (With Colour of Love)

If you live around any of those TBA days and run a venue or know a band, light up our inbox.

Jams Rabbit

My Computer is Broken



Thanks Max

Perfect Waves is coming out in a few days.

Party Fowl

The ipod got to about thirty seconds into the big drum explosion after the lyrics "If I could just leave my body for the night..." before somebody switched it to The Kills (or was it the Thrills?, it certainly wasn't the Chills). About fifteen minutes later, "Single Ladies" was playing and the dancefloor was full. I found myself moving like Beyonce in the video. 

Albums of 2008

I spend a notable portion of my time searching for music that is new to me. These are albums that I discovered or rediscovered this year that I was impacted by and spent a significant amount of time listening to and thinking about. There are so many good albums from the past and I encourage you to listen to the following albums as they are all as good or better than the albums that came out this year:

ABBA - The Visitors

Adam and the Ants -Prince Charming

Allen Touissant - From a Whisper to a Scream

Arthur Russell - World of Echo

Aztec Camera - High Land, Hard Rain

Big Audio Dynamite - This is Big Audio Dynamite

Blancmange - Happy Families

Bruce Springsteen - The Wild, The Innocent and the E Street Shuffle

Charles Mingus - A Modern Jazz Symposium

Charlie Haden & The Liberation Music Orchestra - The Ballad of the Fallen

Chris MacGregor's Brotherhood of Breath - S/t

Elton John - Honkey Chateau

The English Beat -Special Beat Service

Jose Afonso - Cantigas do Maio

Julia Shamas Holter - Eating the Stars

L. Voag - The Way Out

Louis Moholo - Spirits Rejoice!

Oliver Nelson - The Blues and the Abstract Truth

The Passage - Pin Drop

Prefab Sprout - Jordan: The Comeback

Rahsaan Roland Kirk - Volunteered Slavery

Split Enz - Second Thoughts

Steely Dan - Countdown to Ecstacy

Sudden Sway - Spacemate

Tom Ze - Estudando de Samba

Van Dyke Parks - s/t

Van Morrison - Saint Dominic's Preview, It's Too Late to Stop Now, Veedon Fleece

Victor Jara - Te Recuerdo Amanda

Warren Zevon - Excitable Boy

Win - Freaky Trigger

  

Girl Talk and Of Montreal - TMI

 
There are commercials you might see at 3 in the morning for oldies compilations where it will say the name of the artist and then show a clip of them performing on American bandstand. Wings "Band on the Run", Sly and the Family Stone "Everyday People". You hear a seven second snippet, and then the next bit kicks in. If you stay up all night, these commercials may come on seven, ten times. They become their own song entities, the best parts stick out and cling together. Night Ripper and Skeletal Lamping are two albums that reminded me of this phenomenon - rushing at you with lots of pointings-at of greats past (NR obv more explicitly). They overwhelm, but once you accept this, once seen all at once and then bit by bit (how many of us have visited the wiki page for Night Ripper to see where the best bits came from? How many of us downloaded "In a Big Country" because of this?), there are some really rewarding moments. Near the end of "What Its All About", I felt this wow moment, Jackson Five and Queen? what great invention! Or of Montreal's statements - 'when we get together, its always hot magic' that Kevin wrote and dressed in the spirit of Prince and other soul-pop phantoms, they stand out now more heart-rousing, more ostentatious, than many of their tame contemporaries. Keep aimin!

Arthur Russell - Crate Digging

 

Arthur Russell only released one album in his lifetime (World of Echo, the third album of his to get after Another Thought and Calling Out of Context). This is the fifth album-length release (if you count First Thought Best Thought) following his death. It is the least consistent, but gives the best idea of his wingspan. The first part is gentle cowboy croonings, the second part is awkward loft sketches at NY downtownness and the third part (my favorite) is fresh jewelled beats dropped from angel places. "Habit of You", and "Hey! How Does Everybody Know" with their running through opening doors, glee and dance drums, unstoppable! "Big Moon", "Janine", very great. "Your Motion Says" < Terrific! Your eyes they are just glances, your mouth it is just kisses, your hand is just a handshake and I am just another guy! Lyrics of the year, finally heard. 

Spencer Owen and Spencer Owen and Spencer Owen - Genius bedroom leaving the comfort

The Light Touch is a big step forwards, working outside of his bedroom in a studio for the first time and has some AMAZING songs - Jeu de Treize a clapalong city epiphany and Alex in the Shower about worrying about death and the Light Touch where rhythmless drums and increasingly unrestrained voice inviting us to let go. Spencer Owen's Meaningless Query (a cover album) contains a "You Don't Love Me When I Cry" that floors as the drums bend in sympathy with the space shuttle-launch vocals nearing Nyro's and a how'd-he-do-that faithful "Crosseyed + Painless". ITunes Changed My Life is the strangest of these albums, created with brief loops of popular and obscure tunes as the backdrops. "Archeology Song" pits a repeating bass figure and squawking guitar to interweaving vocal harmonies as he declares 'All your children are poor unfortunate victims of systems beyond their control'. The opener "Interviewing..." is a great introduction to the pop language of Spencer, the dialogue between now and past in one's head coming out of the speakers. Maybe the most indicative snippet of the album is the outtake laughter at the end of this album's version of "Jeu de Treize", the whole disc was recorded in two days, I hear.

Pangea and Vampire Weekend - Wow pop 

On September 13th 2008, I was talking to someone out by their car at the Chavez co-op when Pangea started playing. I heard the first notes and started SPRINTING towards where they were playing. I had seen them the year previous and remember being pleasantly surprised. They were acoustic then and each song had some magic in it. This time it was electric piano and bass and drums, they opened with "Waste of Time" (sounds just as great on CD as live). I remember rushing into the room they were playing and moving up front and a steady stream of amazement as I felt what it must have been like to own a great seven inch record, like the Distractions, like the Chills, like Orange Juice but different, but with the same POSSIBILITIES. These five songs are all almost perfect (and available to hear at their myspace). For about two weeks, my housemates would know I was coming home because the melody from "You Sleep Too Much" would come whistling from my mouth all the way down the block. 

Vampire Weekend's album is really good too, even though they cut "Boston", which was my fave (maybe because of the 'when you went to the kitchen I prentended you were dead/a morbid streak runs through my family' lyric < this aside I think a key piece to my appreciation of this band). We listened to it a lot in the car and Conner finally came around to it (oh, so THIS is how you want me to drum). I have John Darnielle to thank for spotting these guys early. I remember last year or earlier clicking over to their myspace at his suggestion and being pleasantly startled.

Max Tundra and Portishead - Older Bolder

Portishead is a band from the nineties. I haven't heard any of their albums from the earlier period. I imagine the songs would be too slow and sad for my tastes (=bright and quick). I saw a post on matrixsynth.blogspot.com (a top fave) where the nonsinging band member was going through crates of microphones and explaining what each of them were good for: bass drum, vocals, old synthesizers. "Machine Gun" was an AMAZING song that popped up a few times on unexpected speakers. This is an easier more digestible Scott Walker's the Drift.

I waited a long time for Max Tundras. I remember Summer 2000or1 downloading on Napster his first album Some Best Friend You Turned Out to Be along with some other electronic things at Dan Frank's house and burning them to CDR in the cold morning light and returning to my house and plopping down on the couch and trying to sleep, but I couldn't. The music was too busy, my head couldn't distract itself from trying to understand but I didn't want to get up, I needed to sleep, even if laying down wasn't panning out. I remember finally drifting off and Trevor coming over and scraping a rake against the window above my head - it was in the top five scariest moments of my life with compressed everythingmusic and blankety darkness tangle and what appeared to be a murderous muck monster's blade hand. Probably stayed up another day or two straight after that. I'm glad his two albums later came out. Its a mischevious, full, cold one.

 

Performances of the year- Chills and thrills
The El Hobos < They have maybe broken up? Responsible for about two months of solid heart light

Spencer Owen (with Sandy Owen and Sean Smith)

Birds Fled from Me 

Perfect Waves Back in Action

Plugging away at the new album. Been going through a lot of 'is this great?' 'this is great!' 'is this rubbish?' 'this is rubbish' 'this is great' conversations with myself. I think we're going to wind up great. Trying new things and making sure they are done right! Strings this weekend. Mixing with bro 25th, 26th, hopefully done soon after.

A couple weeks ago we played at Chavez with a band called Pangea. They have recorded a stunning EP, which you can listen to most of on their myspace. Stunning.

We're playing at Zami! on Monday.