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I’ve Got The Conch
•11/14/2011 • 3 CommentsYouth Lagoon released a great record this year called The Year of Hibernation.
It captures the youthful fright that Win Butler stuffs into every Arcade Fire record: there’s a wide-eyed wonderment, a real ‘us-kids’ sentiment that’s hard not to identify with at any age.
Here’s “17,” one of my favorite tracks from that debut.
Youth Lagoon’s “17,” from The Year of Hibernation.
I attended a concert Youth Lagoon played last night at The Red Palace in Washington, D.C. As a bonus, here’s a short video I recorded of them playing “Daydream” as the show’s brief encore.
Youth Lagoon’s “Daydream” at The Red Palace from HeiBräu on Vimeo.
For Services Rendered
•11/11/2011 • 4 Comments
To me, the service you choose to listen to music on a mobile device comes entirely down to two things – selection of music and streaming quality. I’ve been concerned lately that Rhapsody can do better in both areas, so I’m switching to Rdio come January 1st. Rdio neatly rolls in the social aspect of sharing one’s music with others – like so many other well-examined decisions in one’s life, mine in this case is because my friends are all doing it.
Time will yet tell whether some innate weakness in their fine print prevents them from providing a share of music that I demand, and I abandon their banner and return to Rhapsody. But it’s had its own shortcomings. The list of my earmarked albums unavailable on Rhapsody is long indeed.
Spotify enters the conversation on intrigue alone, having recently come over from Europe where it’s been immensely popular. It’s free, so I’ll continue to examine it.
While all three have less-than preferable streaming bitrates (and Rdio is even elusive about the actual breakdown of their variable bitrate when streaming), all three bring something to the table that the monolithic iTunes platform has yet to offer – unlimited music listening at the monthy cost of about one record.
The number of great streaming services signals the end of an era in one clear way: for the avid listener, a streaming service must accompany the purchase of records by traditional means. The luxury of sampling and deciding for oneself what’s worth owning is simply too valuable to dismiss.
Which service do you use?
Hundred Years War
•11/10/2011 • 4 Comments
With the release of the latest Atlas Sound record, I’ve been working on the website and listening to Bradford Cox records.
Here’s two of my favorite cuts from Deerhunter’s Weird Era Cont., the excellent, under-listened companion record to Microcastle.
“Backspace Century” exemplifies the cyclical haze that characterizes so much of Bradford Cox’s music. It’s a harsh, intoxicating theme (“send my regards to those that suffer endlessly”) that calls to mind a sickening blend of alarm bells.
Deerhunter’s “Backspace Century,” from Weird Era Cont.
“Vox Humana,” by contrast, is a modernist, meandering spoken piece that rests on a gentle 50s ballad. It sounds like rejection and cigarettes outside of a gymnasium decorated for Enchantment Under The Sea, filled with highschool sweethearts in frilly dresses. Beautiful.
Deerhunter’s “Vox Humana,” from Weird Era Cont.
I’ve already been hard at work on my best-of lists, which despite varying levels of engagement in other areas of writing on my website, have come out every year for the past seven years. That blows my mind. Unfortunately, due to the redesign, there remains a lot of formatting work on years 2004 through 2007 that will absorb a lot of time after the new year.
