1. Mitski recorded a Daytrotter Session at SXSW and it was posted on Wednesday. My auto-renew subscription that I thought of cancelling paid off! (Also, noticed and grabbed older sessions from Courtney Barnett and Natalie Prass.)
2. In 2005, Aaron Dilloway left Wolf Eyes and travelled to Nepal for several months. Last week, a devastating earthquake hit the same country. On Wednesday, he wrote on Facebook: "Ten years ago I released this cassette boxset of my field recordings made in Nepal. I am now offering it for sale as a digital download and 100% of sales will be donated to the America Nepal Medical Foundation." Yesterday, he already donated $3000 from this. If you're only going to buy one collection of Nepalese field recordings this year, make it this one. (I might have donated anyways, but this spurred me to do so and also put a 3-hour album of field recordings atop the Bandcamp charts for a day. It was #3 Thursday.)
Since Nepal, Dilloway has been making some prettygreatnoise, too.
I don't worry about overplaying the As and Bs on my iPod because when I'm searching for something and I don't know what, I shuffle, and then "Browse Artist" (or "Browse Album" if a compilation).
Nothing's more disappointing than saying "Yes, that's who I want to listen to for the rest of the day!" only to realize that I'd just played the only song from that artist that I currently have on my iPod. That happened a few weeks ago with Stars of the Lid.
If I have a bit of an idea what I want to listen to, I shuffle just on my predefined broad genres. (I do wish there was a way to add artist/album/genre to a shuffle without going through the "on-the-go". Did you know that you can't put more than 999 tracks into on-the-go?)
Now that I've listened once or twice through, "Pedestrian at Best" still seems the standout from Courtney Barnett's album.
I was surprised that I had her name spelled right, straight from the start.
I forgot to think about anything to say. This isn't anywhere near my favorite Massive Attack song, but I've listened to it a lot this last week nonetheless.
My sister who lives in Alaska is visiting us for the next two days. Sorry if there's not much today. I may not even get in a Random ten of my own.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cQ3t0ZbFaGw
Pepper emailed me this quote from Eula Biss's book Notes from No Man's Land:
Each of us has certain clichés, I suspect, to which we are particularly vulnerable, certain songs we are compelled to play over and over again, certain words that undo us with their simple syllables. For years now I have been unable to think clearly if the lyrics of “Sweet Home Alabama” are within my hearing, or “Take Me Home, Country Roads”, or even “Long Walk Home”.
My only other though was asking for more WGOM canon nominations, but I like Pepper's idea better, even if I don't exactly get what kind of power these songs have over Bliss. Does she like them? Hate them? Are they super-earworms?
If you can figure it out, share your own. Or just any random ten. Whatevs.
I took advantage of my cold to listen to some new music. Aided by a Saturday trip to the library.
Some quick takes on passing listens:
Mitski Bury Me at Makeout Creek.
Mitski Retired from Sad, New Career in Business.
Mitski Lush (less about this one).
There's love for her around here, but I didn't have the same immediate reaction as everyone else. Her music reminds me a lot of Angel Olsen (I'm sure Will Oldham has already asked her to sing on an upcoming album), but more dangerous. I'm not sure her best songs hit the highs of Olsen's, but the albums are better overall. There's no drag at all... hit hit hit (as in "punch" or "jab"). I hear a bit of Regina Spektor in Mitski's vocal acrobatics, but Spektor could have turned each of these songs into 6-minute meanderings. I went to bed last night listening to "Shame"... uh, wow.
