apple juice

2008 was a slow year for me in terms of music. Not bad in any way, just a bit slower. I settled in on a few albums and didn’t really go outside my box too much. Here are a few of my favorites (I included some links to amazon if you’d like to pick them up):

These first two are my “saturday morning/raining/sad/tired/quiet/mellow” records.

• Sun Kil Moon – April
• Bon Iver – For Emma, Forever Ago

My “time to dance and party” CD:

• Cut Copy – In Ghost Colours

My favorite album to drive to (and not because the first track is titled “Freeway”):

• Aimee Mann – @#%&*! Smilers

My favorite albums for rocking:

• The Hold Steady – Stay Positive
• TV On the Radio – Dear Science
• Wolf Parade – At Mount Zoomer

And finaly, three local favorites:

• Tapes ‘n Tapes – Walk It Off
• Jeremy Messersmith – The Silver City
• Haley Bonar – Big Star (Billy!)

Did you have any big favorites this year?

listening to more vinyl has its positives and negatives. on the negative, there are no scrobblers for vinyl, so you can’t see that I’m listening to the electric moog orchestra. on the positive, you can’t see that I’m listening to the electric moog orchestra.

We saw a wonderful concert last night at the Cedar Cultural Center, Psapp, Juana Molina and José González.

This was my first time at seeing a concert at the Cedar, and I was quite impressed. I am one who enjoys the slightly slower speed of sitting down on a chair, and listening to a concert without getting jostled about. The sound, as advertised, was excellent.

Psapp was up first, and I think you could say they gave new meaning to the word eclectic. Between songs they were throwing little stuffed kittens into the crowd. During the songs they tapped away at toy guitars, little horns, and other strange toys. It was a fun time though, and the crowd was clearly into it.

Juana Molina came on next. I’m not sure the crowd new what to make of her at first. The way that she performs is very interesting. She played alone, but with the aid of a few keyboards and some very intense looping equipment. Each song builds into a quiet fury as she adds layer after layer. It took me a minute before the song would gel but once it built, it was very entertaining. She was also quite funny on stange, delivering some very strange interludes about the english language, cat and dog noises, etc.

Then finally José González took the stage. I was very impressed by his music from the very first listen, but I remember saying, I wish it were longer! As he performed his songs, there was little break between, and no introduction or information about them. A tad dissapointing because I want more, but the songs themselves were wonderful. At the end of the first set, there was a beautiful surprise when he covered TearDrop by Massive Attack. This is a haunting electronic song, and at first I didn’t recognize it. But the goosebumps were running up and down my arms when I spontaneously started singing along. The crowd gave a rousing applause as he left the stage. He came back for a short encore, which was greatly appreciated. I’m looking forward to hearing more from him in the future!

The past few weeks, as I’ve been making my morning and evening commutes, I’ve been listening to the radio more than usual. FM Style. I have an iPod with thousands of songs on it, but for this short 15 minute trip, I’m letting the DJs be my guide. We’re really blessed in Minneapolis at the moment because we have a number of excellent public radio stations across the FM dial.

I thought it would be fun to walk you across my presets. I have six of them, as you can see to the left in the photo. Since I am somewhat a geek, there would really be no other way for me to order them other than numerically sorted left to right.

Preset number 1: 89.3 The Current. This is the new “indie” station from Minnesota Public Radio. Well, actually it’s not as new now, since they’ve just had their 1 year anniversary. Perhaps what I enjoy the most is hearing Mary Lucia on the radio again. She used to be on the REV 105 way back in the day… okay, 10 years ago, but that station was awesome, and I dare say that The Current is awesome as well.

Preset number 2: 89.9 KMOJ – The People’s Station. This is a public “adult urban contemporary” station, whatever the heck that means. Basically, hip hop. Although they do stray into a bit to much of the slow jams in the afternoon for my tastes… The morning shout-outs are always a good time. I wish they would play more local artists, but a lot of that is covered by other stations on the presets as well.

Preset number 3: 90.3 KFAI – Fresh Air Radio. Since there are 24 hours in a day, I would say you have about a 8/24 shot of flipping on this station and hearing languages other than english. As far as I can tell, their day is split into hour long blocks, box o’ chocolates style– you never know what you’re gonna get: Pakistani club music? Cambodian folk music? Joe from Fargo on the Banjo? Good times.

Preset Number 4: 91.1 KNOW – MPR… Minnesota Public Radio. This is fairly self explanatory, news, talk, etc.

Preset Number 5: 99.5 – KSJN – Classical…

Preset Number 6: 106.5 – Radio K – The real college radio. To be honest, they play a lot of obscure stuff that I don’t like, but on the way home last night, there was a four song set of some crazy local electronica and I was in heaven.

So… what’s on your radio?

Hey Everyone! Happy 2006!

I haven’t posted any sort of retrospective about music for the past year. Since I’ve lost my thunder on any sort of Top 10 best albums, before having read all the other critics’ lists, I’d like to post “5 Albums from 2005”.

These are in no particular order, but these are the 5 that I listened to and enjoyed the most in the past year (thanks to iTunes for keeping all my stats).

• Much to Matt‘s chagrin, I loved Sufjan Stevens’ album “Come On Feel the Illinoise”, it’s been a soundtrack to many of the events of the past year: Road trips to (ironically enough) Chicago, lazy saturday mornings, working in my office at my new job.
• Next up is Clap Your Hands Say Yeah. Much to Sonja’s chagrin this has been one of my top played albums from the past year. Yes, the lead singer sounds something like a bleeting goat (sonja says “cat in labor”), but he’s a vocal stylist, you gotta love it!
• Hello! My name is M.I.A.! It makes me want to go to India or Sri Lanka and boogey down.
• Dangerdoom – The Mouse and the Mask. This is a collaboration between Dangermouse and MF Doom. Dangermouse was behind last year’s “Grey Album”, and the beats on this new album are awesome. There is also some weird cartoon network thing going on in the background, you’ll have to google for the full story…
• Lastly, but not leastly, is Spoon’s “Gimmie Fiction”. They’ve made some of my favorite songs in the past 5 years, and their newest album is excellent.

Well, there you have it! These albums have my highest recommendation!

Here are some pictures I found on flickr from the arcade fire concert.

Pictures from chriswarren: arcade fire set

Just got back from the Arcade Fire concert at First Avenue tonight. It was an amazing concert. They have 8-12 people up on stage for every song, and they don’t hold back. The crowd was dancing and grooving, singing along to every song.

After the show, I played frogger with the moving mass of people and made my way over to the table selling t-shirts. At the table was none other than the violinist for the band, whose name is Sarah. She signed my ticket for me.

First of all, what band that plays before packed audiences and on national television has their band members come over and sell t-shirts after the show?

Secondly, I was trying to coach myself to say something all cool and poetic or something, but what came out was: “That was an awesome performance, I can’t wait to hear your new CD.”

Fine, I guess, but I should’ve said, “It’s awesome that you sing without a microphone up there.”

Oh well, members of the Arcade Fire, if you read random websites, I enjoyed your show, and I hope you always play as hard as you did tonight.

Here’s a review at the startribune