Brief foray outside of music, then back.

So, I don't know how much of a splash this made in headlines outside of the Tri-State area, but a small airplane crashed into an apartment building yesterday and in the ensuing media frenzy I found myself once again full of contempt for the media at large, the country, and humanity as a whole. As far as I know now, the only casualties were the two folks in the plane, yet radio news felt the need to inflate and deflate that number over the course of the day, sometimes it was two, sometimes there were four, I heard six at one point. As the reporting progressed, it became an opportunity to talk about all the things we've learned since September 11 and how much more prepared we are now for a terrorist attack on the city. Everyone was so quick to jump up and pat NORAD on the back for their quick response to the situation, after they sent fighter jets out over several American cities. If NORAD is so on top of their game, why was an aircraft allowed to get that close to the Manhattan skyline in the first place? It doesn't matter that it was a small personal aircraft, the incident still shows that the city is completely vulnerable. Does anyone realize how easy it is to get ahold of a Cesna? A lot easier than sneaking more than a dozen hijackers onto commercial flights, I'll tell you that. So just because one of the Yankees was flying the plane, we get to pat NORAD on the back. That plane could've just as easily been packed full to the motherfucking brim with explosives. But it wasn't, so pats on the back all around. You didn't do SHIT NORAD, you were just lucky.

whatever.

On a much more positive note, I was watching the King of Queens today and Patton Oswalt went to a shoe store with Jerry Stiller. Stiller went for some docksiders, Oswalt asked the attendant for a pair of Clarks Wallabees.

Also, I heard a fairly new Pipettes track, the B-side to the "Judy" single. For the record, I like Judy a lot better than this song. I mean, it's a fine song, but sometimes Lovey songs just make me sad and they say the word love in this song more often than I say the word "wack". And man, that's a lot.

"The Burning Ambition of Early Diuretics" by the Pipettes

I guess if anyone pays attention to that download link they're gonna notice that it's to Pitchfork. After two years of not going there, I caved again once I set myself up with a google reader.

Speaking of mp3 links stolen from other websites, I really really like the camera obscura song that was posted on stereogum today.

"If Looks Could Kill" by Camera Obscura

And if my contempt for Lady Sovereign hasn't grown enough lately, I saw today that she's covered a Sex Pistols song. I hate the Sex Pistols so much. She did cover "Pretty Vacant", which isn't the worst song in the world (that would be "Anarchy in the UK"), but it's still not going to win her any points with this guy.

two more gallants, eef, reconciled beef, etc

So I mentioned last night that Two Gallants are capable of rocking out a little harder than they do on the two tracks I linked to. Here's a great example of them rocking, and a rolling too.

"Las Cruces Jail" by Two Gallants

There's a guest post at Said the Gramaphone by Eef Barzelay and it made me realize I've never professed my love for him here. Well, here it comes. I really like Eef Barzelay. I guess I just professed my like, but I don't know, love's a serious word. I never really got into his band, Clem Snide, but I feel like maybe I should, since I enjoy his solo stuff so much.

"Ballad of Bitter Honey" by Eef Barzelay

After a good amount of time spent hating on the man, I've finally found some Bonnie "Prince" Billy songs that I like. This is one of them.

"The Seedling" by Bonnie "Prince" Billy

adios.

Goofus and Two Gallants

If I'm listening to music on the computer, I usually don't listen to a block of one band or atist (unless it's Belle and Sebastian or the Magnetic Fields, one song is just never enough there.) Tonight I switched things up a bit though and had a very enjoyable time listening to some Two Gallants. I haven't really listened to this band in a while and I have to say, I've been missing out. My little party was prompted by me stumbling across Daytrotter.com (one of a couple recent additions to our blogroll) and seeing that they had a bunch of mp3s of bands coming and playing songs for them. If you're not familiar with Two Gallants, or even if you are familiar with Two Gallants, you should check out these songs courtesy of the Daytrotter Sessions. These are a little more easygoing and less rocking than a lot of their stuff, but I really enjoy both songs.

"Damnatio Memoriae" by Two Gallants
"Lady" by Two Gallants

Also, I've been enjoying the snickers commercial where the guy sings the "happy peanut song" for a while now. I looked for it on youtube a while back and didn't find anything, but now it appears they've stepped their game up. I really do like this song a lot.

Movie Music

So there was a list recently, published by bullz-eye.com, of their top 40 music moments in film. There were some enjoyable ones, but the thing I really noticed was that there was one thing sorely missing.

Every moment in Can't Hardly Wait.

To be fair, I was twelve years old when this movie came out. My musical tastes might have changed a little since then, but probably not. But see, one of the things that I think is cool about this movie is that there are some songs I hate, that I love in this movie. Perfect case in point.

"Paradise City" by GNR, brozef

There are few things in this world that cause me the amount of discomfort I feel when Axl Rose opens his mouth, but I'll be a liar if I tell you that I don't enjoy the hell out of this song in the movie. It is just god damn perfect. I have that shit on my computer now though. Eeww.

Plus, there's always the chance that the name of the movie will inspire some youths to open their ears to the Replacements.

"Can't Hardly Wait" by the Replacements
"Kiss Me on the Bus" by the Replacements
"Bastards of Young" by the Replacements

Although there's probably a better chance that they'll start listening to the band that they play during the scene where the cops rush the party. Oh man, what was that again?

"Dammit" by Blink 182

Well there you have it, that's the post about a movie from 1998 and four songs from two different decades that aren't this one. Man this is cigarbox is one hip spot.

Josephiend

This Ghostface/Hi-Tek track is sonic crack.

"Josephine" feat. Ghostface by DJ Hi-Tek

New Beck is also cool. I've seen it slammed a couple places, but what's the one thing we've learned from reading Cigar Box Guitars? That many out there are stricken with what we call, "wrong opinions".

"New Round" by Beck

Mixtape Murdaaa

So I put together a playlist to burn for driving in my car a while back, a mix if you will. I really enjoy listening to it on rainy days, but maybe someone else will like it for a beautiful day like today. Some of these songs have been up on Cigarbox before, but today it's not really about the individual song as much as it's about the set of songs as a whole. Anyways, without any further adieu, I present to you

Cigarbox Guitars Volume 1: El Producto

1. "Imagine" by Dizzee Rascal
Man, I like this song so much more than the John Lennon song of the same name. The production is just beatiful. Absolutely beautiful. The postal service needs to listen to this song and take notes.

2. "Rain Edit Interlude" by Prefuse 73
So maybe this song is why I like listening to this mix so much in the rain. The first time I played the "Surrounded by Silence" album in my house, my dad kept complaining that my record player had to be skipping, it couldn't sound like this on purpose. YOU JUST DON'T GET IT, MAAAAAN.

3. "Once Upon a Time There Was an Ocean" by Paul Simon
One of my firsts posts on Cigarbox was about how awesome the most recent Paul Simon is. I really feel like Paul Simon just doesn't get enough credit anymore for being an awesome musician. The guy has made music that goes in so many different directions, from this album with Brian Eno to his early American Folk sound to the African Folk sound on Graceland. The way he sings, "nothing is different, but everything has changed," at the end of this song is absolutely heartbreaking.

4. "I and I Survive" by Burning Spear
This is one I picked up off of Soul Sides. As guest blogger Joe Schloss explained, this song is a great example of musicians using the absence of sound to create a musical soundscape. Fucking cool song.

5. "Talkin' Bout Hey Love" by De La Soul
This might be my favorite De La Soul song of all time, off of what's definitely my favorite album, De La Soul is Dead. Does this even count as a song, or is it technically a skit? I'm not sure. Either way, the Stevie Wonder melody is just wonderful.

6. "Analyse" by Thom Yorke
Thom's solo effort was a bit of a letdown to me. That's not to say I don't like the songs individually, I do, but as a whole the album just wasn't as captivating as I expected. That being said however, I like the piano on this song a lot.

7. "One For The Head" by M.I.A.
This beat reminds me so much of this little casio keyboard I had when I was younger. I really wish I could find that little keyboard.

8. "Arc of Time" by Bright Eyes
I've said it before and I'll said it again, Conor Oberst is a master beatsmith.

9. "(This Is) The Dream of Evan and Chan" by Dntel
Yet another song that the Postal Service should listen to and take some notes on. According to Wikipedia, Ben Gibbard had a weird dream involving Evan Dando and Cat Power (Chan Marshall) and this song was born. It also has a video you can watch here, but I don't think the group had anything to do with the video.

10. "Hollow Bones" by the Wu-Tang Clan
I was in Florida with my family years back and I bought a magazine to read, just because it had the Wu on the cover, raising the Iron Flag. It came with a CD sampler and this was the Wu song they chose to be on it. Ghost's finish to the song makes me wish he rapped like that more often these days.

11. "Mysterons" by Portishead
I love Portishead. The second time I saw the Strokes, they played this whole album before Kings of Leon went on. Once I heard the drum on this song, I basically fell in love with it. I went out and bought the album, I think the next day.

12. "This Room" Remix by the Notwist
For a while, I was only familiar with the Notwist's Neon Golden. I heard some of their older stuff, from when they were more on the thrash side of things and I wasn't really interested, so I never really delved deeper than the one album. Then I heard this song and it definitely has a very different sound from Neon Golden, but I really love it.

13. "Just the Thought" feat. Masta Killa and the Gza by Prefuse 73
Another great one from Surrounded by Silence. The effects used after the gun and sword references are so clutch.

14. "Artificial Intelligence" by Autechre
This is pretty much just simple digital music, but I rock reeeally hard to it when I'm all by myself.

15. "Stand Up Tall" Ghislain Poirier Remix by Dizzee Rascal
When I made this mix the first time, I had the McSleazy remix of this song on it. This version is just so much better though. My life won't be complete until I hear this song while I'm out on the dancefloor. This song makes me shake my moneymaker.

16. "Afterclap" by 13&God
13&God are a Notwist offshoot that I honestly don't know a whole lot about. I do know though, that the spoken parts, "Big Money! Big Prizes!" remind me of Requiem For a Dream and I like that a lot.

17. "Battle" by Wookie
Man, this song is cheesy as hell. It's all about fighting temptation and negativity and shit like that by relying on your faith. I dunno, on paper I should hate this song, but it makes me dance. I like the keyboards a lot, even though they're pretty quiet in the mix.

18. "Milkman" by Aphex Twin
The lyrics to this song are so awesome. This song always reminds me of KMFDM, even though it's not thaaat similar.

Download the Mix

I'm Really, Really Sorry Colin

but I jumped the gun on saying I wasn't crazy about The Crane Wife. I don't know if it's the adjustments between the leak and the final release or if it's just grown on me, but I'm enjoying it. It's definitely different, and I'm still not sure how I feel about hearing a female vocalist that's not Petra (who according to Wikipedia is Jack Black's sister in law??), but I'm definitely starting to fall for this album.

I really like this song, even though it really reminds me of "Miss You" by the rolling stones. I hate the stones.

"The Perfect Crime" by the Decemberists

Also, In the movie Daddy Day Care, Steve Zahn totally looks like Colin Meloy.

Okay, it's not as uncanny when you have an actual picture of Colin to compare to.

but I don't care.

Tekzilla

Today, Ed Lover put me in a very uncomfortable place. No, I'm not talking about the back of a Volkswagen Rabbit, I'm talking about him spinning "Sexy Back" during a break from talking to DJ Hi-Tek. I really didn't want to miss a second of Hi-Tek on the airwaves, and I get easily distracted once I start flipping stations, so I felt compelled to stay on power105, but Godammit, I hate that fucking song. I didn't even know it was Justin Timberlake until a couple weeks after it started popping up on the radio, with all the stupid fucking vocal effects. Anyway... I ended up getting home before Hi-Tek was back on the air, so me listening to "sexy back" was all in vain.

Anyway, Hi-Tek told Ed Lover that him and Kweli were gonna be heading back into the studio for another album together. YES. Should be good, seeing as the first Reflection Eternal joint is one of my favorite albums that I've ever bought.

"Keep it Moving" Feat. Q-Tip, Kurupt, & Dion by DJ-Hi Tek

"Soul Rebels" feat. De La Soul by Reflection Eternal

Also, check out Spine Magazine for a chance to win the album.

Knowledge Reigns Supreme

My first exposure to KRS-One came through the Sublime song, aptly titled, "KRS-One".

"KRS-One" by Sublime

Aside from the Wu, I didn't really get into Hip Hop much until I was into high school, so it was a while before I finally heard him on a track from a lyricist lounge comp called "CIA (Criminals in Action)".

"CIA (Criminals in Action)" feat. Zach de la Rocha and Last Emperor

Man, I loved that fucking song. It had Zach from Rage and Last Emperor, the former being one of the idols of my younger days and the latter just fucking astounding me with his flow. Today, I was listening to music on my laptop and I realized that I was listening to the song they sampled in "CIA".

"La Murga" by Willie Colón

It's called "La Murga" and it's by Willie Colón, tromboner, bandleader, and one of the pioneers of the so called "New York Sound" of Latin music. The strings on this song are awesome and the trombones that make up the sample have such a heavy badass sound.

les saaavy fav

One of my favorite bands in high school, and they still kick ass. Sweet ass post-punk stuff, and a crazy ass lead singer (that's him on the left in the picture).

In These Woods - Les Savy Fav
Their best work is probably this 5 song E.P. called Rome (written upside down). Production keeps a high energy feeling, which is supposed to reflect their live performance. I missed them live freshman year of college. I was supposed to see them at the Knitting Factory, stayed through the Hold Steady set (really a great set) and had to leave to catch the last train to Jersey. They are at the top of bands I want to see.

Rebrobate's Resume - Les Savy Fav
Few opening lines are as recognizable to me as this song's:

Blessed be the doctor, blessed be the nurse

This is the better version of this song on the extremely solid singles comp Inches rather than the original version on the sometimes weak album Go Forth. The cymbals towards the end just are a frenzy that make this song sound like a live recording.

Livingston Taylor

So as I've alluded to, I've been pretty ill over the past two weeks, so I haven't really been up to much. So then when my mom offered me an extra ticket to go see Livingston Taylor (yes, James' little brother) in the early evening last night, I was down. I've been a fan of Livingston's for a while, but to be honest, it wasn't a show I would've gone out of my way to check out. I'm so glad I did. The man just took the stage by himself, switching back and forth every so often between the piano and his guitar, and it was incredibly captivating. It really made me miss all the folk music shows I used to get dragged to as a child. At one point, Taylor started telling a story about his desire to add guitar to the olympics, he then started picking on this great bluegrass tip, and began impersonating two announcers doing commentary over his performance. It was hysterical, and while he was talking and joking around, his fingers were flying on the neck. The show was in a fairly small town hall and our seats were right in the second row, so there was a very intimate conversational feel to the whole show. I really wanted to share some of his songs with you, but when I went looking for my old CD book, I realized that it's been in my friend's car for the past three weeks. So we're going to have to make do with this live track. It's poorly recorded, but you can still hear his great fingerpicking.

"Falling in Love With You" by Livingston Taylor

On the subject of live music, I also happened to catch the Pixies on WLIW last night. I have a weird relationship with this band's music. I like it. I like some of it a lot. It's just one of those things, where I don't find myself going "Oh hey, I wanna listen to the Pixies" very often. Performing live, it was a totally different story. They were able to put so much more energy into the songs, it was really great. Plus an overweight, unattractive frontman renews my hope that I'm going to be the savior of rock and roll in the near future.

"Gigantic" by the Pixies

They rocked "Gigantic" in a particularly hard fashion.

"Velouria" by the Pixies

I had an idea once that I was going to see if I could spend a whole weekend listening only to songs that were titled with girls' names. So I gathered together a ton of such titled songs, and even though I never actually went through with the "experiment", I did end up finding a bunch of new songs that I liked. This is one of them.

Black Hammah!

So although he may not write for the site superoften or even read it all the time, the Black Hammer is an integral part of our team, and my motherfucking boy. Regretfully, the lingering effects of a vicious testicular malfunction (no shit!) kept me grounded in Westchester, but even without me, our boy has crossed that threshold into manhood. Happy Birthday, Matty.

"I'm a Loner Dottie, A Rebel..." by the Get Up Kids

"Bring it on Home to Me" by Sam Cooke

The Black Hammer made it a lot easier for me to admit to liking the Get Up Kids and I wouldn't know nearly as much about Gospel, Soul, and Sam Cooke as I do now, if it weren't for this guy.

Black Hammer is 21

So we just got back from the city and it was Black Hammer's (a.k.a. Matt C.) 21st birthday. It was alot of the liquid love (including some shit called a "lethal weapon", after which he could barely get home). It was a great time but the Green Hornet wasn't there, which make the Whack meter max out. It was a good time though.

I decided to put up a song tonight that you probably know cuz it's a true ass classic.

Bridge is Over - Boogie Down Production
Just a great song. That piano is just perfect. The first song we heard when we got back, and one of Hammer's faves.

Also, last night we had a little party at my house and it was an 80s theme. Sounds lame, and it is, but it was definitely a good time. Certain songs from the 80s will still bring the house down.

Oh Sheila - Prince
Poison - Bel biv Devoe (I know it's from 1990, but it worked pretty well)
Man in Motion (St. Elmo's Fire) - John Parr (a personal favorite)

Sorry, just random stupid 80s songs, but it is 6:30 in the morning. So I will leave you with this: