exit 10A off the mass pike

I'm moving to Worcester for the summer today. I have very few friends here, so expect a lot of updating. I plan on chronicaling my adventures in the woo out of boredom for all you readers that don't really exist. So if interested, keep on checking this other world.

it's essential to coffee

American Analog Set are the perfect band to sit back and relax to, as well as sip some coffee, light up a j, and perhaps read a book. They fit the soundtrack for both a rainy Sunday and a fine summer night. Andrew Kenny, the main man behind this band from the glorious indie scene in Austin, Texas, now has a new band on Barsuk Records called "The Wooden Birds." From what I've heard, it sounds a lot like American Analog Set but a little folksier, and perhaps a bit more bass heavy. I really like it and I'm looking forward to grabbing their first CD when it comes out on May 12th. They are also playing TT the Bears on April 18th. If I had money I would go. For now, we have this song.

The Wooden Birds - Sugar

Back at school. I feel like it hasn't stopped snowing for a week. It's been so cold. Here's a song, a song by The National that I think was a b-side from Boxer, and is on the Virginia EP. It's a slow mostly acoustic number. It's also featured on a black cab session and is my personal favorite on the whole site, so I included a link to that video. If you don't know about black cab sessions, basically it's this really cool website where they get mostly indie artists to get in the back of a black cab in London and they get to play one song in one take in the back of the cab, and it's all video recorded. btw, Happy MLK day all.

Black Cab Session - The National

The National - You've Done It Again, Virginia

tis the season

Merry Christmas, happy holidays, crisp Kwanzaa, etc. Hope the season treated everyone well. I thankfully received a brand new, pretty decent digital camera, so I should be able to throw a lot more pictures up on this here blog. But for now, a new song! This one is from a band known as American Analog Set, hailing from the Austin, Texas indie scene (spoon, okkervil river, explosions in the sky, etc). This band defines simple, low-fi, mellow music. A great band to listen to when relaxing in a nice heated room on a cold winter day with a cup of hot chocolate. The lyrics are really simple but I like them a lot, so I've decided to post them.

And her mom's from Indiana and she
She married an Asian man and they
They brought her from Japan to be
Happily suburban and I
I met her one summer when I was
I was just visiting ten days
Her wrists were island thin but she
She smiled like her Indy kin
And she's half

She's into strictly rich and
Overworked businessmen
She don't remember when
She used to hold my hands
After the Rollerland
After she closed the stand
Now it's supply and demand
And it just comes down to the math
And she's half

American Analog Set - She's Half

off we go, or so we say

So I have officially decided that my favorite band is most definitely Modest Mouse. Anyone interested in the band should check out this really cool documentary that was shot while they were making the amazing Lonesome Crowded West. Part one of five can be found below.



And my favorite mouse song of late? check it. off "Building Nothing out of Something"

Modest Mouse - Other People's Lives

record year for rainfall

It's raining out. It has been raining for I think three straight days now. I love the warmth for this time of year, but when you wake up at 4 in the afternoon hungover, it's pitch dark, and raining once again, it gets pretty depressing. Luckily, the Decemberists have a new song that can help us share the pain of this rain. This new song on their new series of singles, "Always the Bridesmaid: A Single Series" is shaping up to be one of my favorite Decemberists songs. I saw them the other night at the Orpheum Theatre in Boston and it was an amazing show, with this song being one of the highlights. BTW, These pics were all taken when I was in Chicago for Lollapalooza this summer.





The Decemberists - Record Year

let's try this again

The best music usually rewards repeated listening. A great test to this is animal collective, an extraordinarily strange sounding band that took me quite some time to get into. The interesting thing about animal collective is for such an odd, random sounding band, their music is really centered in pop. Once you've listened to their songs enough to understand it's form this becomes pretty evident, you just need to get use to it. So anyway, my favorite animal collective jam of late has been off their album "Feels" and it's called "The Purple Bottle." Listen to it a few times, check out the cool lyrics, and enjoy.

Animal Colletive - The Purple Bottle