The Death of Enthusiasm

Girl Talk is a dude named Greg Gillis who makes what you could call "mash-up" music, but instead of taking two songs and combining them, he takes a more wide-screen view of pop music and crafts epic, 40 minute dance tracks consisting of samples from hundreds of different songs. There are different tracks on the CD, but for practical purposes the disc is a continual mix consisting of 10-15 second selections of various artifacts from the pop universe, each one becoming either hilarious or awesome (or both) due to the extreme re-contextualization Gillis applies. I could go on about how I think Girl Talk is music's answer to Andy Warhol, but I must impress on you that this music is insanely fun to listen to. I put this on in my headphones at work when I need to get stuff done and you can probably hear my foot tapping three cubicles over. Check out this track where he matches up Metallica and Lil' Mama in a way that is somehow more awesome than I would have imagined.

Music Playlist at MixPod.com

Labels: year-end listening rock

In House With No Home, Horse Feathers has managed to combine two of my major musical fetishes: backwoodsy Gothic-folk like Iron and Wine and multi-part string arrangements a la "Eleanor Rigby." That they manage to do this without sounding precious or like Bob Dylan clones is pretty amazing. Right now I am seeing a growing number of bands with roughly this same aesthetic and I absolutely love it. If you like this, there is a band called Breathe Owl Breathe that sounds similar, only with more banjo. Check out the track below, which is so good that the rest of the album could suck and I would still put it in my top ten (the rest of the album is great though).

Music Playlist at MixPod.com

Labels: year-end listening rock

BAND NAME UPDATE:

We picked Bandolier since we were tired of thinking about it. I hate myspace, but until I get the whole facebook page up and running it will have to do (Facebook makes you send them photo verification that you represent the band etc..). See the link on the sidebar.

Labels: bandolier, music

Like last year, I'm going to list my favorite albums of 2008. This time I'll do one album per post since I don't think anyone appreciates marathon blog posts (especially ones about music you've never heard of nor care about). As an added bonus, I'll include a track from the album for you to sample.

This week it's number ten:

10. Human Highway: Moody Motorcycle



Human Highway make some kind of sunny, 70's AM radio sounding music and I like it. The songs on this album range from light and playful (like the track below) to melancholy and the hooks are pretty outstanding, which makes sense because one of the guys in the band is a commercial jingle writer. Although I don't consider this album great, it does serve as a great road trip soundtrack and so I award it spot number ten.

Music Playlist at MixPod.com

Labels: music, year-end listening rock

My little bro is now in the MTC. Good luck little guy.

As some of you know, my roommate Dan and I have a little recording project (and occasional live act) called State College.

State College started about three years ago when we started playing music and writing songs with our friend and fellow roommate Robbie (the early songs are unspeakably bad, by the way). Fortunately for him, Robbie moved on to bigger and better things (marriage, children) but Dan and I continued playing because we have nothing better to do.

Recently we've been playing with a keyboardist and vocalist named Natalie, and we have some big plans for the immediate future such as: more live shows, recording new songs, rerecording old stuff, road trips to Idaho, buying expensive audio equipment, etc.

The problem is that we need a new band name.

"State College" doesn't sound like anything to me anymore, but one of my friends commented that it sounds like a name that some frat dudes would use if they were really into Dave Matthews Band at the time. Plus, with our new member, we don't really sound the same and we need a name more evocative of our sound (indie-folk? alt-country-pop?).

We have a few candidates so far, but no clear winner. Here are a few examples:

Bandolier-I like this one, but Natalie dislikes the fact that it contains the word, "band." Touche.

The Baltic States-Natalie likes this one, but I dislike the fact that it contains the word "state."

Brother Green-No one really has anything to say about this one.

The Old Ephraim Singers-This one I like because it has something to do with local lore, and I like the "singers" ending because it's like the old time folk groups like The Almanac Singers.

In short, we want something vaguely folky, but not too on the nose. I wish all the good bird names hadn't been taken because they are pretty awesome (The Jayhawks, The Cardinals, etc.).

If you are so inclined, vote for one on the right or suggest something in the comments.

Labels: band names

My friend Amber tagged me to list 6 of my "quirks." To be honest, my quirks could be more accurately described as personality flaws. Here are the top six reasons that you probably don't want to be friends with me anymore.

(I almost didn't do this because my blog isn't really about me as a person so much as a monument to my own cleverness. Don't expect more soul baring anytime soon.)

1. I am lazy. Yes, I work full time and go to school full time, yet somehow I am still very lazy and I seem to be getting lazier as time passes. I expect to be out on the street in a few years, laying on top of a huge pile of garbage bags, my head tipped back, mouth agape, in the off-chance that a few drops of rain might fall in, thus relieving me of the chore of drinking liquids to maintain life.

2. My talents allow me to be mediocre at a lot of different things. After a quick round of painful introspection I have concluded that although I have many hobbies, (songwriting, comic drawing, short story writing, visual design stuff, snow riding, banjo playing...) I'm not particularly good at any of them. Think of me as a failed jack-of-all-trades.

3. I'm a music/movie/pop-culture snob. Maybe my snobbishness helps me feel better about how I'm not that good at anything? I guess I can always take solace in my superior tastes!

4. I never keep in touch with anyone I don't see on a regular basis. Seriously though, I'm a bad friend and if I don't happen to live/work with you, don't expect much.

5. I tend to get obsessed about things with little provocation. (For an example of this see my post concerning my month-long Osmond Family obsession.) This means that if I were to ever start using hard drugs, goodbye life! Also, I tend to scare off potential love interests with my laser-guided affection bombs.

6. I'm really non-photogenic, like, big time. Not that I always look bad (although that's usually the case), but I just never look like myself. Be prepared to wonder who the Asian lady is in your wedding photos only to realize that it's me with my eyes closed. Sorry.

Labels: brutal self evaluation

Update: For Halloween this year I was a PC. Dan was a Mac. Funny right? (Because Dan kind of looks like Justin Long and I kind of look a little fat, especially with a pillow stuffed in my shirt.)