Category Archives: Friday Music Day

Friday Music Day

Friday Music Day: Live Music is Awesome

12 Comments

DK and I took in a concert a bit ago. I now have the album that the band was touring (Blue Wave by Operators), and I have two observations.

  1. It's always just a little bit disappointing when you realize that there's just no way to translate the energy or the muscle from the live setting to a little disc. In a live setting, the drums exploded throughout the room, the synthesizers nearly deafened me, it was a sound that enveloped everything. Much as I like the album (and I do like the album quite a bit - it's my favorite of the young year, I think), there's just no way it can hold up.
  2. It's really fun the extra stuff you notice on the album that you wouldn't otherwise notice without having seen the show. For example, the drumming on this record is great, but it's great in a way that I might not have noticed without having seen it performed in front of me. Likewise, I quite sure that I wouldn't have appreciated the difference between the synth sounds that are on this album without seeing it live.

All of this makes me pretty disappointed that the Sigur Rós show is on my anniversary.

Friday Music Day

FMD 4-8-16: I’ve Seen It Go Away

26 Comments

"When you've seen the very best, the rest can't hardly play.
I've seen it, [citizens], and I've seen it go away."
One of the best "Get off My Lawn!" songs ever.
----
I forgot to stop and put a schedule together for the next bunch of months of FMDs. I'll for sure do that after today.
If you haven't yet, sign up for a 5-8 week turn at FMD duties below. Say something like, "I'll do _ weeks!" and I'll put it all together. If there's a period that doesn't work for you mention it.

Update! Here's the schedule for nearly the remainder of the year:
Nibbish: 4/15 through 6/3
freealonzo: 6/10 through 7/8
MagUidhir: 7/15 through 8/12
Zack: 8/19 through 9/9
Can of Corn: 9/16 through 10/21
Philosopher: 10/28 through 12/2

Friday Music Day

FMD 4/1/16: Indecision

24 Comments

OK, let's have people sign up for another 5-8 week turn at FMD duties below. Say something like, "I'll do _ weeks!" and I'll put it all together. If there's a period that doesn't work for you mention it.
Or I can go back to writing nothing interesting here for months on end.

Friday Music Day

Friday Music Day … Pinch Hitter

29 Comments

My Mom was in town for a conference yesterday. She stopped by my office to drop off some stuff (borrowed travel mugs, random toys for the kids, etc.) and said she'd included a few (looked like about 25) of what she suspected might be my CD's, CD's they had that she didn't know the provenance of, or discs that they didn't want anymore and thought I'd like. I was pretty sure I'd collected all of my belongings from their house when we moved back to Minnesota 8 years ago, or in the interim, so I'll be interested to see what she gave me ... and what they think I like.

Anyway - drop your random below.

Friday Music Day

Friday Music Day: Random Thoughts

25 Comments

No big overhanging theme this week, just a couple of musings.

  • I've decided that while I like the shoegaze aesthetic, I would really like a little more life out of the vocals (MBV excepted, but they might just be getting grandfathered in). Basically, I probably won't turn off the radio if a MBV-clone comes on, but I'm about done buying their music.
  • I don't "get" jazz, per se (and almost certainly never will - I'm not sure I have the patience for it), but I've been enjoying listening to Kind of Blue while doing desk work lately.
  • There hasn't been any new music from 2016 that I'm that crazy about yet. A song or two here and there, but nothing that's going to stick with me.
  • Listening to a lot of Grimes still, though. Art Angels is great.

Drop your random 10s!

Friday Music Day

Friday Music Day: WGOM Venn Diagrams

45 Comments

Pepper: I think I need a Venn diagram showing the extent of overlap  in the musical interests of [you, DK, and Daneeka's Ghost].

nibbish: I would actually like to see a vein diagram of a lot of the people at the WGOM. free and I would have two nearly distinct circles.

Pepper: You've still got  control of FMD, right? If you can find a way to get people to indicate what they like out of a list of 25 or so artists or songs, I bet there's a way to represent it in some sort of visual way.

Daneeka's Ghost: Come up with a list of 20 and then everyone gets to add 5 of their own that everyone gets to weigh in on.

It could quickly spiral into insanity or actually be really interesting. I'd volunteer my spreadsheet enthusiasm for this.

Sure. Why not?

In addition to your random 10's this week, go here. Put a checkmark next to an artist you enjoy, then add five more musics you enjoy at the end.

Friday Music Day

Friday Music Day – It Was My Lover.

53 Comments

I was listening to Currents by Tame Impala the other day, as I tend to do with some frequency (it was my favorite album last year, after all). "The Less I Know the Better" finished, and then... it came on.

"Past Life" would probably be annoying enough, what with its ham-fisted spoken word and merely "okay" chorus, but then there are those super pitch shifted vocals and the absolute stinker "It was my lover" line (at least that one's good for a laugh). The song is terrible.

It got me thinking - there are plenty of albums that I enjoy that have a song or two that I dislike, but not many albums that I truly love that have a one star song. I can't think of any others off the top of my head.

So, what say you? Do you have an album that you absolutely adore, but with a song that you absolutely loathe?

Friday Music Day

Friday Music Day — Love

23 Comments

William Miller: So Russell, what do you love about music?

Russell Hammond: To begin with… everything.

What is it about a band or particular song, or just music that makes you just love it?

Obviously for me this is all about Guided By Voices. Why do I have 1000 songs from this cultish band from Dayton, OH? Why will I spend weekends listening to nothing for GBV for hours on end, looking at web sites, books, old YouTube videos and the like?

I wanted to answer that question as part of this Friday Music Day but found myself flustered. All I can say it’s “the music” maaan. Catchy melodies, esoteric lyrics, the sheer volume of songs, the fact that they never hit it big all gets jumbled in a giant vat of greatness for me. So there. I can’t go deeper than that, sorry.

But fortunately someone has. The article in the link pretty much covers it all. Even though it’s two years old, the article has particular resonance since it appears that a version of the band has reformed and will play at least one show this summer. Who wants to go?

http://overblown.co.uk/losing-game-pricks-guided-voices-retrospective/

So why do you love a particular band? Are you more articulate than me? Put it in the lists.