owen pallett - A man with no ankles

Oh oh oh Owen Pallett, how strong my love is for you. You make me wish I never gave up the violin six years ago.

I am busy in catching up with the complete discography of Mr. Pallett and I'm just waiting on Heartland at this point to officially add it to my iTunes. My friend and I are doing a music exchange program in which she introduces me to amazing artists I've usually heard of, but never listened to before. One of which is Owen, and my love for him has only grown exponentially. His two albums as Final Fantasy are just brilliant. I love the sweet simplicity of Has A Good Home and the orchestral sounds of He Poos Clouds (which in my opinion is one of the best album titles ever). So needless to say, I can't wait to get Heartland in the mail.

Anyway, since I'm almost caught up, I can listen to his new stuff too without feeling overwhelmed by what I haven't listened to. His latest EP comes out today actually, and I've only listened to the opening track so far and I love it. But it's Owen, so I didn't expect anything less. Owen has a flair for melodic lines that refuse to get out of your head but in the best way possible. You'll walk around humming his tunes unapologetically. "A man with no ankles" is no exception. It falls nicely into my library of Owen tunes. I will be getting the rest of those tracks of A Swedish Love Story shortly.

Oh and I can't wait to see him live in less than a month. A small venue, incredibly low ticket prices and his only headlining show in the States as of right now. I can't wait. How can you ever say no to that face?:

Deerhunter - Halcyon Digest

OK, I'm promising myself I'm gonna update this more. I get into this lazy funk at night after a long school day where I just wanna bum around on FailBlog for hours on end or repeatedly refresh all my social networking sites until I get sick of seeing no updates.

So anyway, Deerhunter's new album leaked and so naturally I went looking for it. I found it streaming on NPR (which is coincidentally where I first listened to Congratulations and my love affair was basically born. Thanks NPR!) I've only listened to it all the way through once, but I love it. Sadly I was listening to it while writing a narrative for a class and therefore not fully absorbing everything, but from what I did pay attention to, it's wonderful. I could sit and vibe out to it all day.

Standouts are definitely the opening track Earthquake, which is very jarring at first with it's syncopated backing rhythm, but it's balanced out nicely by a calm, constant guitar line and reverb-y vocals. Starts out small and gradually swells. Love it. Also, a running theme lyrically (from what I could make out, that is) is the fear of getting old. Which is a fear I have. Ugh, getting old, no thanks. I want to be twenty forever. Basement Scene is a lament about not wanting to wake up, get old, be forgotten by friends. The beat is one you just want to sway to. It feels very vintage to me. The same sentiment gets echoed in the opening lines to the closing song, He Would Have Laughed, "I'll be bored as I get older." Getting old sounds like a real drag. Seriously. I agree. Again, the constant beat in the background holds together the various sounds being played with here, guitars, drums, tambourines; it's a beautiful clash.

Overall, there's a full sound throughout, that feels really throwback, 60's garage psychedelia with heavy guitars and lots of reverb mixed with other elements. Shall definitely be giving this quite a few listens.

Violens - Another Strike Restrained (Sadguitarius Remix)

The internet is an amazing thing.
Seriously, for the occasional hassle/ eating up of my spare time, it's such a wonderful thing. How else would I find all my music?

I discovered this band awhile ago and downloaded a few songs, but since my iTunes library is always being updated, their stuff got pushed to the side a little. Until now, when a fellow music enthusiast I know posted about them and rekindled my interest in them.

Violens (pronounced vy-lenz via their twitter page) is a band from New York with quite an intersting sound. And by interesting, I mean if you don't like loud and brash sounds, then don't listen to them. Heavy guitar riffs and harsh keyboard sounds, coupled with transcendant reverb creates quite the aural battlefield. See Violent Sensation Descends and their newest single Acid Reign for some blow your ears off awesomeness.

But the song of theirs that is currently on repeat for me is off their Summer Mixtape (which is available for free on their website). Another Strike Restrained (Sadguitarius Remix) is so so so good. I have no idea what the original sounds like, but I love this remix. I love the deep bass strumming in the background that just keeps going and going paired with the reverb/synth combo that gives the song a feeling of being intimidated, yet intrigued at the same time. Love it. Listen to it. You'll be hooked too.

Plus, Sadguitarius is a nom de plume of sorts of Ben Goldwasser, and, well, he's brilliant.

Download for free:

Summer Mixtape

Another Strike Restrained (Sadguitarius Remix)

Acid Reign

defining a culture

I've been doing a lot of thinking lately. Not that I don't usually think, but when my mind and body are idle, I tend to think about increasingly random things. Music really defines us as a culture.

I mean think about it. I say the 50's, you think rock n roll. The 60's and 70's: Woodstock, hippies, psychedelia. The 80's: cheesy synth fueled power anthems. The 90's: boy bands and some actually good rap. But I think that our generation has no one definitive music persona.

But why is that? My pseudo-educational guess would have to be the internet and it's ability to provide us with a much more diverse and easily accessible range of music to listen to. Hey but I could be wrong. Maybe it's only because I live in this generation that I have a first person view into our music culture. I mean the generalities I listed above far from only what came out of those eras. I just wonder in ten, twenty years what we will be known for. God help us if it is the Katy Perry/Ke$ha/Justin Bieber era. I may have to just go weep for the future.