Ideas for Dozens (tiny)

Myrtle Strong Enemy

Tue, 20 May 2008 23:22:25 -0400

Crooked Legs by The Acorncrooked-legs-by-the-acorn.mp3 I’m always surprised...

Tue, 20 May 2008 15:35:47 -0400

Crooked Legs by The Acorn
crooked-legs-by-the-acorn.mp3

I’m always surprised that I’m not bored by The Acorn. At first listen, their songs seem so simple and ‘traditional’. I don’t know what it is exactly that differentiates them from so many other bands that kind of sound like this, but there’s just something spellbinding about their songs to me. Kinda like #Fleet-Foxes — I’m not necessarily into this genre, but these songs just feel really good.

(via Grabb.it)

"Windows 95 and MacOS are products, contrived by engineers in the service of specific companies...."

Thu, 15 May 2008 05:32:05 -0400

“Windows 95 and MacOS are products, contrived by engineers in the service of specific companies. Unix, by contrast, is not so much a product as it is a painstakingly compiled oral history of the hacker subculture. It is our Gilgamesh epic.”

- Neal Stephenson, In the Beginning…Was the Command Line

360° Light Field Display

Tue, 13 May 2008 21:45:28 -0400

360° Light Field Display

Feel the Love by Cut Copyfeel-the-love-by-cut-copy.mp3 This is definitely the Cut...

Tue, 13 May 2008 17:46:28 -0400

Feel the Love by Cut Copy
feel-the-love-by-cut-copy.mp3

This is definitely the Cut Copy song I can most get behind. It’s an interesting melding of #Clap-Your-Hands-Say-Yeah and classic #New-Order house. Jangly acoustic guitars float over rich bouncing bass lines. The drums alternate between a disco-y high-hat/snare alternation and a more conventional indie beat. Nasal affected vocals transform into vocoder. It’s an interesting blend of styles and this song shows it at its most effective.

(via Grabb.it)

Teen Drama by Times New Vikingteen-drama-by-times-new-viking.mp3 There’s a big contrast...

Mon, 12 May 2008 15:44:00 -0400

Teen Drama by Times New Viking
teen-drama-by-times-new-viking.mp3

There’s a big contrast between this “new lo-fi” stuff and the original 90s sound it’s aping that I haven’t heard anyone point out yet: digital lo-fi sounds are worlds apart from analog ones. Where cheap tape recordings have a warmth to their distortion, this digital stuff sounds super bright to the point of being grating. In comparison, classic #Bakesale era #Sebadoh feels like a bath of warm butter. Even the famously harsh #New-Day-Rising by #Husker-Du sounds soft and fuzzy. Add the contemporary dynamic-squashing mastering that this stuff undergoes and you start to hear how far apart it stands even from the recordings that most inspired it.

(via Grabb.it)

Another Day by Times New Vikinganother-day-by-times-new-viking.mp3 I just watched...

Mon, 12 May 2008 15:27:00 -0400

Another Day by Times New Viking
another-day-by-times-new-viking.mp3

I just watched an MTV News report on the rise of lo-fi music: http://perpetua.tumblr.com/post/34249893 in which #Times-New-Viking featured prominently along with #No-Age. No Age have been highly buzzful lately and I’ve really been trying to get on board, but I haven’t quite managed to succeed. I have to agree with Fluxblog: http://www.fluxblog.org/2008/05/wash-away-what-we-create.html Their songs are just a little too generically “90s teen punk” for me. The 90s retro movement that Fluxblog’s harping on definitely bothers me about it as well. While this song surely falls into that same genre trap, it has a stronger sense of pop drama. The way the high guitar follows the girl’s voice, reinforcing the melody, the more laid back beat, and the slightly darker more complicated harmony all make for a more emotionally evocative effect than any No Age I’ve heard. This is starting to get into old school #Sleater-Kinney territory, which is a rich vein of influence that wasn’t quite as brutally strip-mined as the main artery of the 90s “lo-fi” cliche.

(via Grabb.it)

Let’s Make Love and Listen to Death From Above (Spank Rock remix) by Cansei de Ser...

Sun, 11 May 2008 15:02:00 -0400

Let’s Make Love and Listen to Death From Above (Spank Rock remix) by Cansei de Ser Sexy
let-s-make-love-and-listen-to-death-from-above-spank-rock-remix-by-cansei-de-ser-sexy.mp3

I always used to think that the “Death From Above” in this song’s title was a band name; it was a hipster offer: “let’s have sex and listen to cool music”. But now I’m starting to wonder if “death from above” doesn’t have the more conventional meaning of bombs falling onto your house.

(via Grabb.it)

Knife by Cansei de Ser Sexyknife-by-cansei-de-ser-sexy.mp3 Rendering this dark,...

Sun, 11 May 2008 14:57:43 -0400

Knife by Cansei de Ser Sexy
knife-by-cansei-de-ser-sexy.mp3

Rendering this dark, haunting #Grizzly-Bear song in neon plastic synth colors ironically makes it sound like #The-Knife after which it is almost certainly not named.

(via Grabb.it)

"What is it going to take for you to get the message that customers don’t want the things that..."

Sat, 10 May 2008 03:27:08 -0400

“What is it going to take for you to get the message that customers don’t want the things that architecture astronauts just love to build. The people? They love twitter. And flickr and delicious and picasa and tripit and ebay and a million other fun things, which they do want, and this so called synchronization problem is just not an actual problem, it’s a fun programming exercise that you’re doing because it’s just hard enough to be interesting but not so hard that you can’t figure it out.”

- Joel on Software, Architecture astronauts take over

Moscow in the 80s

Fri, 09 May 2008 23:43:13 -0400

Moscow in the 80s

"If you want to see what it looks like when we become our parents, check out the idea that the..."

Thu, 08 May 2008 15:57:28 -0400

“If you want to see what it looks like when we become our parents, check out the idea that the internet is getting in the way of kids these days having an authentic indie-rock experience. That’s only true if the internet is somehow inauthentic, e.g. not a culture of its own, and I think refusing to acknowledge that is much more evidence of being out-of-touch than not liking emo.”

- clapclap.org knows writers who use subtext and they are all cowards: Punk Grammar

Hello World program in Piet, a visual programming language

Thu, 08 May 2008 15:47:58 -0400

Hello World program in Piet, a visual programming language

All Streets: San Francisco area

Thu, 08 May 2008 13:08:20 -0400

All Streets: San Francisco area

Launch Yourself by Ademlaunch-yourself-by-adem.mp3 This was the first Adem song I...

Wed, 07 May 2008 20:48:27 -0400

Launch Yourself by Adem
launch-yourself-by-adem.mp3

This was the first Adem song I ever heard and is still by far my favorite. The melody is choked full of hooks. The sound is warm and intimate. The percussion is playful and pushes things forward. The arrangement is original and satisfying. A lot of the rest of his work falls too far into the boring/generic area just adjacent to this sound that I like to call The Coldplay Zone. It’s not a pretty place. But then again, it’s not an ugly one either…

(via Grabb.it)

To Cure A Weakling Child/Boy Girl Song by...

Wed, 07 May 2008 20:45:27 -0400

To Cure A Weakling Child/Boy Girl Song by Adem
to-cure-a-weakling-child-boy-girl-song-by-adem.mp3

Really cool #Aphex-Twin cover/mashup here. The incredible musicality of #Richard-D-James era Aphex means that it often strikes softer-timbred (even classically-instrumented) musicians as good fodder. In this case, I thnk #Adem is actually right since the pleasantness of his tones brings out the beauty of a lot of Aphex’s melodies while the complexity of Aphex’s arrangements push this song out of The #Coldplay Zone of comfortable edgelessness into which Adem too often falls. The end result sounds a bit like a missing song by #The-Books — your folks could probably listen to it without complaining but it’s also possible that the experimental music kid in the internet cafe might dig it too.

(via Grabb.it)

Creator by Santogoldcreator-by-santogold.mp3 Woah! Crackly old vinyl sound, squeaky...

Wed, 07 May 2008 19:54:20 -0400

Creator by Santogold
creator-by-santogold.mp3

Woah! Crackly old vinyl sound, squeaky vocals, and beepy lo-fi synths. Very #MIA. Haven’t really heard anyone go this much straight after her style before. Santogold (at least here) isn’t as vocally exciting, but I definitely dig the production. MIA works with the best (esp. #Timbaland) and there’s lots of rich ground to mine there.

(via Grabb.it)

"he’s so bland he makes Maroon 5 sound like Fugazi"

Tue, 06 May 2008 19:42:02 -0400

“he’s so bland he makes Maroon 5 sound like Fugazi”

- Fluxtumblr on Ryan Adams

“Thriller” (Michael Jackson cover) - Ben...

Tue, 06 May 2008 18:10:00 -0400

“Thriller” (Michael Jackson cover) - Ben Gibbard
thriller-michael-jackson-cover-ben-gibbard.mp3

Sincerity is Ben Gibbard’s super power. Except for the screams of pop recognition from the crowd, he almost manages to make Thriller into a murder ballad. It’s an impressive feat.

(via Grabb.it)

Lover’s Spit by Broken Social Scenelover-s-spit-by-broken-social-scene.mp3 ...

Tue, 06 May 2008 17:12:00 -0400

Lover’s Spit by Broken Social Scene
lover-s-spit-by-broken-social-scene.mp3

This song is timeless: lush, beautiful, catchy, moving, and original. It has a similar quality to #Transatlanticism by #Death-Cab-for-Cutie — even though it’s made of simple parts combined in a minimal way, it’s still extremely expressive; somehow with each repetition it become more compelling, pushes closer to the emotional heart of things. It’s an approach that’s very “post-rock”: you can only make pop like this in a world where #Godspeed and #Tortoise have broken down the barriers that kept patient atmospheric swells and more linear classical structures out of rock.

(via Grabb.it)