Mapmaker

Today's Music For a Friday Afternoon is Mapmaker, by Parts & Labor. This album came to me, somehow, as I found the first track ("Fractured Skies") and decided it was worth investigating further.

And, I'm glad I did. This is very much a modern rock album, not the kind of rock you would hear on the radio, but the kind that isn't afraid to let its instruments - even the drums - carry the show. Some vocals, sure, but not the sort of strained rasp that would give the illusion of rage or darkness to the uninformed. Really, this entire album made its way into my workout playlist less than a week after my first full listen. It's glorious hard rock, music that isn't afraid of horns. The whole album is pretty good - the opening and closing tracks ("Fractured Skies", again, and "Knives and Pencils", respectively) are the standouts. However, there really isn't a weak link.

In short, this music might not be for you, but give it a shot. This is what indie rock should be, not Conor Oberst whining about how nobody loves him for two hours. Sorry, Conor.

In Other News:
Sorry for the short blog post but it's Friday and I have to move. Wish me luck. Parts & Labor deserves a better blog post but that may have to wait.

I voted. Maybe it's for your candidate and maybe it isn't.

On Avery Island

Today's Music of the Day is Neutral Milk Hotel's On Avery Island. Naturally, I got this after having found In the Aeroplane Over the Sea, but I'll try to judge it on its own merits and not just make this a straightforward comparison blog.

On Avery Island is kind of bizarre and meandering, but has a pretty interesting sound. It's very much Neutral Milk Hotel, all fuzzy and nasal and full of crazy instruments. It does seem to have some more electronic elements than I would have expected, but nothing that would lead you to believe the lo-fi sound is at risk.

I found this album a little more difficult to get into, but rewarding nonetheless. It has some pretty good songs, though even at their most upbeat, there is nothing to rival "King of Carrot Flowers" or "Holland, 1945". "Song Against Sex", the album opener, is pretty good. I suppose if this album suffers from anything, it's being a little too reserved, as it doesn't have one certain anthem that the rest of the songs rally around.

In short, this is one of those albums that isn't bad by any means, and I actually enjoy listening to it. However, I can't say that it really connected with me, but I'll probably end up listening to it more than albums I like better in the future, for the sake of trying to figure out exactly what I think about this album.

In Other News:
I slept a little last night but I need more rest.

I'm probably going to miss Halloween just for the sake of moving. Not a big deal but still kind of sad. Hopefully the new place gets a little more sunlight.

My strategy of not buying groceries and eating everything I have, in order to minimize the moving process, isn't working out as well as I would have liked. Just a couple more days...

Postcards From Italy, or How I Learned To Stop Worrying and Give Radio a Chance

Dear Grand View College Radio,

I just wanted to tell you thanks, for playing decent music in the mornings lately. You really caught my attention a couple weeks ago when you let some guy play all of Kind of Blue on a rainy day, which was about the best thing that could have ever happened to anyone. Because of this, I decided to give you a chance.

And so far, you've been pretty good! Granted, you play too much bad rap in the late afternoon, and your kids show on the weekend is unwelcome (but not surprising, given that all of your student DJs are likely hung over). In the mornings, though, and sometimes even in the evenings, your playlists are pretty decent. Some of the artists you've given me in the last week alone are Devotchka, Hot Chip, Okkervil River, Bon Iver, even the Dead Kennedys. As much as I'd like to mourn the death of radio and just listen to my White Stripes CDs on the way to work, you've probably given me enough reason to keep your frequency as one of my radio presets.

Of course, this morning, you played 'Postcards From Italy', the Beirut song that everyone loves. I had to sit in my car and finish listening to it, and for a moment, there, I was in Portland, jumping around like a teenager with the worst headache I've ever had, living for the horns and the strings and the crowd.

Don't get too excited, okay? I'm still going to listen to the 90's at Noon sometimes when I am out and about over the lunch hour, and at night I'll probably opt for NPR's Night Music if you're playing Mike Jones or something else equally silly.

Sincerely,
Your Local Catgun

In Other News:
I have to start sleeping sometime. Cripes.

I'm also a little confused today but it's probably nothing. As usual.

Music I'm listening to today: Neutral Milk Hotel - On Avery Island, and Parts & Labor - Mapmaker. I really like both of them, though they are quite different in sound and tone. Full reviews likely coming later this week. If I feel like it.

The Places We Lived

Today, I thought long and hard about reviewing a special album for my 150th blog post. Perhaps it would have been one of my favorites, or just something I considered to be important in terms of music history. However, I decided against that, and instead will complain about another album.

Hence, Today's Music of the Day is The Places We Lived by Backyard Tire Fire. This is an album I claimed via eMusic after having heard the title track on the radio one day when I was driving to get groceries. This song was a light, enjoyable piece of pop fluff, something like a rustic Architecture in Helsinki might play. So at the end of the month, when my eMusic downloads came through, I tracked this album down and downloaded it, largely on the merits of taking a chance on some new music.

It turns out that I didn't like this album all that much. The title track has a nice progression to it, but the rest of the album was sort of airy and unaffecting. It made me think that the band might have found the opening sheet of an A. C. Newman song and decided to run with it, without getting any of the electricity that comes in the latter parts of his songs. I suppose another listen might endear this album to me a little more, but I don't see it; this seems to be the sort of cute, earthy album I didn't actively dislike but that just didn't connect with me.

In Other News:
I'm in somewhat passable condition today. The weekend was harrowing but great fun.

Why the hell is winter here already?

Jeff Mangum Update That Is Far Outdated

http://www.slate.com/id/2185219/

Yeah, pretty much. The link is completely safe but probably of no interest to you unless you like Neutral Milk Hotel, which I am willing to bet is at least one of the three people that looks at this site. The link is not recent, having been established in 2006, but it's still an interesting (albeit brief) read.

Otherwise, I probably am due to blog about In the Aeroplane Over the Sea one of these days, but not today. It seems like a fine album to blog about when I hit some kind of monumental number of blog posts. Also, it's hardly an obscure album any more, so I have doubts as to what I would say that hasn't already been said by a better writer, or at least one who is more polished.

In Other News:
I am traveling this weekend so don't flip out if you can't contact me for a couple days. Capoeira! I am on vacation tomorrow and Friday.

I'm not asking you to do anything, just please don't yell at me for a couple days. That will be plenty.

Up

Today's Music of the Day is Up, by R.E.M. I gave some thought to writing about another R.E.M. album, such as the superb Reckoning, but Up seems like an album that has more mixed opinions than most R.E.M. albums. Plus, it has some sentimental value to it.

Up, for those of you non-R.E.M. fans, is the first album that the band made after Bill Berry left to go farm somewhere in Georgia. It's very much not an R.E.M. album in either mood or sound, even with all the distinctive Stipe vocals. This album is decidedly withdrawn and rooted in despair, with nary a friendly rock song to be found. It's strangely electronic in many places, not quite a shoegaze album (do people still use that term?). This album, more than any other, doesn't fit with the rest of R.E.M.'s catalog; I suppose only time will tell if it's a welcome departure or just an anomaly.

(Someone made the point that this album had some interesting parallels to Radiohead's Kid A; both albums were radical changes from the band's traditional sound, going more electronic and sparse, but the reception for each couldn't have been more different. Up was viewed as something of an abberation, whereas Kid A was viewed as a bold statement.)

Having said all that, I do enjoy this album for what it is, even if I would have preferred something more along the lines of New Adventures in Hi-Fi. As it is, the album had some high points, a fair amount of meandering, and some songs that were fair but just not affecting. I don't think it's one of R.E.M.'s better albums, but it's not bad, just far different than what anyone would have expected. In hindsight, it looks much better; at the time, some long-time R.E.M. fans really thought we were seeing the band put one foot in the grave.

Well, enough depressing historical perspective. This album does have some songs that I like - the Leonard Cohen-inspired "Hope" is pretty good, and everyone should enjoy "Lotus". "Falls to Climb" is too somber to really be enjoyable but it's a nice song. If this album had carried the sneer of "Lotus" all the way through, with a couple semi-anthems like "Daysleeper", it would have been a more natural progression.

So, to summarize: Not the best R.E.M. album, but an interesting listen and a historical curiosity.

In Other News:
I'll be damned if Ben Folds' "Mess" isn't the song of the day for me.
"and i don't believe in god
so i can't be saved
all alone as i've learned to be
in this mess i have made..."

HOLY CRAP http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gonzo_Ballet

The Earth is Not a Cold Dead Place

Today's Music That Should Have Been Discussed Long Ago is Explosions in the Sky's The Earth is Not a Cold Dead Place. This is an album I've been in possession of for over two years, and I've really enjoyed it.

Explosions in the Sky are the kind of band that won't have a dramatic difference in style from album to album, and their music is very much the definition of post-rock. By that, 'post-rock', I mean songs that have very few to no vocals and don't have radio-friendly song lengths all the time.

EitS manages to tell fantastic stories without any words; their particular brand of post-rock sounds exactly like what the band name would convey, a spectacular event that is too far away to completely absorb. The Earth is Not a Cold Dead Place may not be their greatest album, but it's certainly an accomplishment, a triumph for anyone who appreciates the guitar. This album is full of six-and-eight minute epic songs, led by a ringing guitar that you might expect if the Edge had left U2 in 1988 and lived alone with some decent amphetamines. While this isn't really a 'hard' rock album in most senses of the word, I'd be lying if I said the guitar didn't kick things up a notch (I suspect that somewhere, in the belfry of the band's repertoire, there are guitar riffs that would cause Slash to melt or at least stop pimping Guitar Hero all over the place).

It probably is worth noting that EitS did the score for "Friday Night Lights", a decent movie about a small town and its football team, and the music really works in the context. Is there anything EitS can't do?

Anyway, I wholly recommend this album, as long as radio hasn't ruined your tolerance for actual music. Think of this album as being full of little symphonies if you will, or a guitar out on an adventure to save you from Nickelback, but just listen to it. I could go on and on about this album. The entire album really works as a whole, but the individual songs stand alone; in particular, the closer, "Your Hand in Mine"

Plus, this album cover is glorious. Look at it:












Please, Explosions in the Sky, don't sue me for using this, it just looks great. I'll take it down if you want.

In other news:
Hooray for Friday.