Just Sing What You Feel

music for a snowy, cloudy day

2009-10-15T09:35:00.000-07:00

music for a rainy day

2009-10-06T13:46:00.000-07:00

new Animal Collective MP3s

2008-07-23T16:13:00.000-07:00

so it turns out that Animal Collective's new song "Lion in a Coma" wasn't debuted at Pitchfork, as some have been reporting (and as I had suspected). They played the song on May 28th in Portugal, and luckily for us Animal Collective fans there is a very good audience recording of that show floating around. Anyone interested in hearing the new song and/or having an mp3 copy to play at your leisure, here it is...

Animal Collective - Lion in a Coma (Live)

and While you're at it, why not grab the Collective's version of Panda Bear's "Comfy in Nautica" that they've been playing recently (it's PHENOMENAL to see/hear in person)...

Animal Collective - Comfy in Nautica (Live)

The Daredevil Christopher Wright

2008-06-04T17:54:00.000-07:00

It's been quite the hiatus, but I'm back, at least temporarily.

The Daredevil Christopher Wright is a band based in Eau Claire, WI, and I discovered them last year when they played at my school which is just a short drive away. They have a fairly eclectic sound, but their songs are very accessible (in a really good way). While watching them perform live, I decided that they have a hint of Decemberists in them, and even some Animal Collective on one song, "Parade of Tigers", which features all three band members banging on one drumset while yelling and singing. They have a soft side as well, however. "Everything I Do Comes Back To Me" is one of my favorite songs in my music library. The song is acoustic, with a hint of cymbals and xylophone. Jon sings, "what if all of those things that you did came back to you/would you feel regret?" The text doesn't quite do the vocals justice though. His voice is so sincere, and the entire atmostphere (for lack of a better word) of this song makes it really great. It carries on for about 6 and a half minutes which is enough time to allow you to get completely enveloped.

The band will be releasing a new album soon (I don't believe there is a release date set at the moment), and they just posted one new recording entitled "The East Coast" on their myspace page. The song is a slight departure from the work on their EP, but it's absolutely wonderful, and it has me pretty psyched for the album.

If you live near Wisconsin or Minnesota you can check them out at the following venues this month:

Jun 12 2008

9:00P

House of Rock

Eau Claire, Wisconsin

Jun 20 2008

8:00P

Beaner’s

Duluth, Minnesota

Jun 21 2008

9:00P

Nomad

Minneapolis, Minnesota

Jun 22 2008

7:00P

Planet Supply

St. Croix Falls, Wisconsin

Jun 24 2008

8:00P

Paradigm

Sheboygan, Wisconsin

Jun 26 2008

7:00P

Project Lodge

Madison, Wisconsin

Jun 28 2008

8:00P

The Grand Little Theatre

Eau Claire, Wisconsin

New Buffalo

2007-08-08T16:02:00.001-07:00

New Buffalo is Sally Seltmann, a woman from Australia who makes some really, really beautiful music. Similar to Feist or Cat Power, her songs are driven by her vocals and lyrics, while the instruments are there to add just a little extra charm.

"Cheer Me Up Thank You" is the first track on her (fairly) new album Somehwere, Anywhere. and it also is my favorite track on that album. The song is a happy song, quite simply about someone who cheers her up all the time. Her voice, in addition to the simple strumming of a guitar, creates a very delicate, sincere song that captivates me. I hope it captivates you, too!

download "Cheer Me Up Thank You"

Peter Bjorn and John with Andrew Bird Review - Milwaukee

2007-08-07T15:50:00.000-07:00

I wasn't at this show, but my friend Lenny was, and he gave me the scoop via AIM tonight. Enjoy...

Me: hey

Lenny: hey

Me: so, tell me about the show last night

Lenny: k

Lenny: so the opening band, mcarthy trencheon or something like that, was pretty okay but i couldn't get into it. very country. they were introduced by a guy saying, "these guys are from omaha and they're friends of connor oberst. lots of slide guitar. songs about drinking and love.

Lenny: Andrew Bird played next

Lenny: and was fucking amazing

Lenny: oh and btw there was still that dumb construction, only this time i didn't get lucky so i was driving around for like 45 min. before i got there

Lenny: anyways, he had this thing set up, remember that big horn/gramophone looking thing he had? he had another one that like split into 2 horn/speaker things...and then it spun...and he played his looped violin through that and it had a surreal doppler effect. that was fucking awesome...it blew me away.

Me: whoa

Lenny: he played a few songs from eggs and few from armchair

Lenny: i wrote down the set list:

sovay
why
sparrows
some new song (self induced ritualistic torture(?))
he said he hated that name so he renamed it "Home of the water Jet Sellice"after Du Buque
Plasticities
Section 8 city (new?) i didn't recognize it
(some song i didn't recognize that he played with a stop motion video playing on the backdrop
the video was by Britta Johnson)
a nervous tick motion
...then he actually played an encore
which was Weather Systems, except it was totally reworked and slow and un recognizable but still neat

Lenny: then PB & J played and they were okay. they had really good showmanship, stepping to the edge of the stage and rocking and shit...but yeah, like i said on your facebook, it just made me wish they were the hives.

Lenny: i only liked Young Folks and then they played Teen Love (concretes cover) right after that, which i liked a lot. there were a lot of really young people there, getting really into it, and for some reason that kinda killed it for me.

Me: weird

Me: that seems odd

Lenny: but i still bopped my head

Lenny: oh! haha and some girl behind me asked me if i was at pitchfork

Me: haha

Lenny: and she recognized me because she was behind us at girl talk and i had my bag on again, so she recognized the bag

Me: haha, oh man

Me: i bet she hated you

Lenny: haha i know! I think she hated me more because i was like, yeah i didn't really like girl talk

Me: uh oh

Lenny: and she really loved it

Lenny: whatever

Lenny: oh and the crowd couldn't keep a beat worth shit. everytime pb&j wanted them to clap along they'd fuck it up after like 3 bars, and bjorn made fun of them for it.

Lenny: oh and then when i left it was a really terrible thunderstorm and i was lost for another half hour before i found the highway

Me: oh man

Me: that really sucks

Lenny: you should post this on your blog as a review for that show

Me: haha

Me: just copy and paste this conversation

Lenny: yes you should, haha

Lenny: it would be my first contribution to your blog

Pitchfork Festival '07

2007-07-18T16:11:00.000-07:00

I have no choice but to deem this year's festival a success. It's hard to not consider it a success when you have the chance to see so many great bands over the span of two days for just $35. I'm going to keep this short, because there has already been a ton of coverage of this festival on other blogs. I'll just tell you my brief opinions/thoughts, and you can ask me questions if there's something else you want to know.

My favorite acts...

1. Battles (they reproduced the sound from Mirrored incredibly well in a live setting. great energy. crowd loved them.)

2. Dan Deacon (his set was all about dancing and having a good time, all while trying to avoid crowd surfers falling on your head from behind and/or falling down and being trampled to death. his set was cut short because the crowd was getting too out of control.)

3. Menomena (musically, these guys were better than Dan Deacon. they played a really solid set, and the reminded me of how awesome Friend and Foe is. i've been listening to it a lot again since the festival ended.)

4. Stephen Malkmus (i was really excited for his set. he was first or second for my most anticipated acts to see going into the festival, next to Battles. i did enjoy his set, but it wasn't really what i was expecting. he played a solo set, and he played a fair amount of Pavement songs. unfortunately for me, i'm not that familiar with Pavement. it's really a shame, so i'm working on changing that in the coming weeks.

I don't feel the need to rank any more of the bands from the festival, as they were all pretty much on par with each other, from the shows that I actually caught. I felt like I missed a lot of potentially great acts, however.

I wanted to see, but didn't see: Of Montreal, The New Pornographers, Cat Power, Clipse Mastodon

Of those four bands, I'm actually most upset that I missed Of Montreal, and I've seen them live more than any other band. I watched their set from a distance, and it was spectacular. I know what it's like to be up front for an Of Montreal show, and it's one of the greatest things in the world. Fortunately for me, I might be catching them in October in Minneapolis (they announced a fall tour).

Overall, Pitchfork was a great time. The festival is so laid back that it's hard to not enjoy it, even if you're not there to watch bands play.

p.s. I didn't mention the sound problems (there were plenty of them), and I hope Pitchfork gets their crap together before next year. The problems didn't stop me from having fun, but minor annoyances like these can certainly hurt the festival in the long run.

I <3 Animal Collective

2007-07-10T15:53:00.000-07:00

Animal Collective's new album, Strawberry Jam, is due out this September, but as you know, album release dates mean nothing on the internet. This quickly became one of my most highly anticipated albums this year, once I found out that they were releasing an album this year.

Somehow, this album managed to surpass my expectations. There are a handful of 5-star songs here, and I just can't drag myself away from listening to this for very long. I've been listening to it as often as five times a day. It's crazy! This will definitely give Of Montreal a run for my favorite album this year. If I ultimately decide that it's not my favorite album this year, then I would be shocked and amazed if it drops any further than third place on my list. I just can't see it happening.

download "For Reverend Green"

video of "Fireworks" on youtube

those are just a couple of the 5-star songs.

Bears - "You Can Tell"

2007-07-02T13:50:00.000-07:00

Bears released an extremely solid album last year, entitled, simply, 'Bears'. They seemingly came out of nowhere and won over a lot of new fans. On album, you're hearing the work of two guys, crafting a collection of pop music that's oh-so-pleasing to the ears.

"You Can Tell" is a song from their fairly new EP 'Shortest Day of the Year'(released in early April of this year). It's actually my favorite song that I've heard from the band thus far.
The lyrics are pretty straightforward:

"Adjusting to having to think about more than myself is not so simple for me and I know you can tell"

That's the chorus, and it really is the base for the whole song, lyrically. It's about someone's hardships with his or her girlfriend or boyfriend. What made me fall in love with it is the sincerity in the vocals, and that's hard to describe in words.

download "You Can Tell"

visit Bears' website

5 Albums That Surprised Me (in a good way) in 2007

2007-06-26T16:33:00.000-07:00

The following are albums that I've been listening to a lot this year, and thoroughly enjoying. Most of these artists I hadn't even heard of before this year.

Battles - Mirrored
I knew nothing about this band or any of the band members' other projects until a friend of mine played me a song from this album in March (thanks Billy!). The song was "Ddiamondd", and at first I started laughing out loud because I was totally unprepared for what I was hearing. The song starts with really fast vocals, but they're just gibberish (as far as i know). I wouldn't consider myself a person who really gets into experimental music, but this album definitely rocks out enough for me to get my feet moving. The song "Atlas", which is my favorite song on the album, apparently contains the following lyrics at some point during the song:

"singer is a crook, whoa-ey-oh
singer is a crook, whoa-ey-oh
singer is a crook, whoa-ey-oh

kitchen is for cook, whoa-ey-oh
sissors at the barber, whoa-ey-oh
The Chorus Doesn't matter" [source]

haha, I love Battles.

download "Atlas"
download "Ddiamondd"

Jeremy Messersmith - The Alcatraz Kid
Jeremy Messersmith is just a down to earth dude from Minneapolis. He played at my school this year, and he was a super cool guy. He took time to talk to the crowd, tell some short stories, and he even played bowling with some people before he took the stage for his set. I have a soft spot for singer/songwriters. If you can create a song with just an acoustic guitar, and it's good, then you have my respect. Jeremy takes it to a higher level at his shows, trying to imitate a full band experience, I guess you could say, by looping other instruments and vocals. However, what matters to me most is his lyrics and the stories he tells through his songs.

download "Novocain"
download "Beautiful Children"

LCD Soundsystem - Sound of Silver
Okay, so the only other LCD Soundsystem I've ever heard is "Daft Punk is Playing at My House", even to this day. I really think I should check out some older material of theirs, but I'm a bit nervous that it will not live up to my expectations after listening to 'Sound of Silver' many, many times this year. From start to finish this album is solid. "Someone Great" is one of the best songs of the year as far as I'm concerned. I have nothing but positive things to say about this album, and I have nothing to compare it to, so I guess I've said all that I need to say.

download "Someone Great"

YACHT - I Believe In You. Your Magic Is Real.
Holy crap this album came out of nowhere and made me really happy really fast. I precisely remember my first time listening to this album. I couldn't stop raving about it. A lot of the album is just silly, but it's so much fun. Once I got to the song "I Believe in You" I was taken aback at one particular moment. That moment comes at about the 1:56 mark, when Jona sings "Why is there a picture of a penis on your fridge door/it makes me feel awkward." I wasn't sure if I heard that lyric right, so I did a "wait, what?" and replayed it. Sure enough, that's exactly what he said. It was then that I knew I was a YACHT fan for life.

download "I Believe In You"

Brother Ali - The Undisputed Truth
I'm not the biggest hip-hop fan in the world, but I really appreciate good hip-hop. Brother Ali is another Minneapolis artist that played a show at my school this year. The show was one of the best shows I've ever experienced as a fan of music. It was all about involving the audience and everyone uniting as one and saying "fuck the man". There was so much energy, and Brother Ali performed some very moving a cappella renditions of songs from 'The Undisputed Truth'. He demanded the crowd's respect for these songs, by not singing unless everyone was completely silent. I loved this for two reasons. One reason being that there is just something special and eerie about a large group of people standing around in nearly complete silence, and the other reason being that absolutely all of your attention was directed to his lyrics, which are sensational, by the way.

download "Truth Is"

Oh, I forgot to mention Bloc Party

2007-06-24T17:24:00.000-07:00

Somehow, I managed to leave them out of my 'disappointing albums of 2007' list. This was easily the most disappointing album of the year for me. In fact, I don't even think it's remotely good. It sucks, because I absolutely love 'Silent Alarm'. I guess I'll just have to hope for a rebound whenever they release their next album.

I do have some good Bloc Party related news, however. Smoosh has been covering "This Modern Love" on their current tour, and you can grab an mp3 from their San Francisco show from Spinner.com.

5 Disappointing Albums of 2007

2007-06-22T17:02:00.000-07:00

Unfortunately, every year has at least a few disappointing albums. Please don't confuse "disappointing" with "bad" though. The majority of the albums that I find disappointing this year aren't bad albums at all. However, you have to take into account the previous work of these artists. In my opinion, I find the following artists' previous work to be superior to the albums they released in 2007.

here they are (in no particular order)

Architecture in Helsinki - Places Like This
First I didn't like it, then I did, then I didn't. This album is just not what I want to hear from AIH. I don't want to hear Little Miss Piggy shouting out vocals. I just want my old AIH back. The AIH I used to know and love. :'(

Ted Leo - Living With the Living
This has been the biggest disappointment for me so far this year. My expectations were too high, and the album was not at all what I wanted to hear from my favorite rocker. Some songs are good, yes, but overall I just don't dig this album.

Voxtrot - Voxtrot
I like the EPs so much more than their first full-length album, and that's really a shame. This album, like Ted's, has some standout tracks, but overall it falls short of what I was hoping to get.

The New Pornographers - Challengers
I really don't want to knock this album. It's not a bad album. It's just....boring. People are saying it's more complex than their previous work, and it takes some getting used to. However, I've tried "getting used to it" about 6 times now, and for the most part I'm not hearing anything new. I predict that this will be an album that sits in my collection for a long time, but rarely gets listened to.

Pinback - Autumn Of The Seraphs
Okay, this one is still fresh, so these are first impressions that I'm writing. I've actually been listening to this a fair amount, and I like it, but when I compare it to Pinback's entire catalog, I can't help but be disappointed. Basically, this album just sounds like 'Summer in Abaddon', so if you like that you'll probably like this.

My Favorite Albums of 2007 (so far)

2007-06-21T19:18:00.000-07:00

Normally I don't do these middle-of-the-year-favorites lists, but 2007 has been such an incredible year. It has undoubtedly been the best year for music since I started caring and actively seeking out new music on a daily basis. So I'm just gonna do a little 'Top 10' list of the albums that I have enjoyed the most this year.

I should point out that I'm not going to include Elliott Smith's 'New Moon' in my list, simply because I had already heard most of the songs prior to its release, and it isn't really a new album. That said, I'll probably listen to it more than any of the albums on my list, in the long run.

Alright, here we go. I'm making this list as I write this entry, so I'm not entirely sure how the final list will look.

My Favorite Albums of 2007 (so far)

10. Andrew Bird - Armchair Apocrypha

I didn't think there was any way he could top '...Mysterious Production of Eggs', and I don't believe he did with 'Armchair Apocrypha', but it's a hell of an album, and it's much better than I had anticipated. The standout track for me is the wonderful collaboration between Mr. Bird and Mr. Dosh, entitled "Simple X"

download "Simple X"

9. Caribou - Andorra

Last year I remember listening to 'The Milk of Human Kindness', Caribou's previous album, and thinking "this is pretty good. I could get into this." Well this year I checked out his new album, and throughout my first listen I thought, "holy shit, this is really good!" I discover more things to like about this album with each listen. It's a very 60s-inspired pop album, but in kind of a psychedelic way.

download "Melody Day"

8. Wilco - Sky Blue Sky

To be honest, I didn't like this album for a while. It had to grow on me a lot, but now I love it. Nels Cline absolutely rips it up with his guitar work. Although Jeff Tweedy's vocals are certainly present, the band has chosen to let the instruments do a lot of talking on 'Sky Blue Sky', and that's what I had a hard time getting used to at first. I'm so thankful I gave it some more time though, as I absolutely adore everything about this album now.

download "What Light" (the song this blog is named after!)

7. Arcade Fire - Neon Bible

I couldn't realistically expect to get an album better than 'Funeral' from these guys. I was right in expecting that, but that's not to say I'm disappointed with their second effort. This album somehow managed to live up to the hype (I honestly wonder how that's possible). From start to finish, everything get at least 4/5 stars in my book (with the exception of "ocean of noise". not a huge fan of that song for some reason).

download "No Cars Go"

6. Feist - The Reminder

This, along with Wilco's new album, was pushed to the back burner after my first listen. For whatever reason though, I gave it a second chance and it was pure bliss. I don't even care what words Feist chooses to sing in her songs, or if her words even make sense. As long as she's singing something, I'll be happy. Man, if only I could marry a voice...
So beautiful, this album is.

download "One Two Three Four"

5. Spoon - Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga

This album will rank high on at least two of my lists this year. One being this list here, and another being my 'Worst Album Titles of 2007' list. In fact, I'd be willing to bet that it will come in at #1 on the other list. Album title joking aside, 'Ga x5' is a groovy collection featuring some of Spoon's best work. It's so good to know that Spoon hasn't lost a beat, because I had high expectations for this album, and after Gimme Fiction (which I wasn't a fan of), I didn't know what I was going to get from these guys. Well, what I did get was an album that forcefully grabbed my invisible glass pane of expectations and dropped it from a 40-story building, completely shattering the dang thing.

download "Don't You Evah"

4. The White Stripes - Icky Thump

When the title track of this album leaked onto the internet a couples months ago, I was blown away. I was ready to hear what I hoped would be an album full of "Icky Thump"-like tracks. What I got was even better. Jack White kind of goes all over the place on this album, but it works. While listening, it's very evident that you're hearing a White Stripes song, whether it be a blues-y "300MPH Torrential Outpour Blues", a Tenacious-D-like "Conquest" (seriously, I always think about Jack Black singing this song when I hear it), or the odd, Celtic folk style "Prickly Thorn, But Sweetly Worn". I'll take this album over 'Get Behind Me Satan' any day (and I wasn't a hater of that album).

download "Catch Hell Blues"

3. The National - Boxer

This album slowly won me over, and it won me over in a big way. I was a casual fan of 'Alligator', their last album, but something about the new album is just a little bit more captivating and intimate to me. Matt Berninge's lyrics are the thing that makes The National so interesting and wonderful. It's as if he puts himself and/or others into hypothetical situations, of the littlest importance sometimes, and writes songs out of said situations. There are characters who the listener isn't introduced to, and these characters do things that don't necessarily make sense, but once the songs continue the listener can make some sense of them, or they can make something up to satisfy their own idea of what is happening in the song. It's an interesting take on songwriting, and Matt's vocals do nothing but enhance the words that he writes, by adding a level of richness to the bands' sound that makes the experience of listening to them extremely engrossing.

download "Mistaken For Strangers"

2. The Shins - Wincing the Night Away

I don't feel that there's a lot I can say about this album that hasn't already been said. It's been out since January, so if you're reading this you're most likely well aware and familiar with it. It's my favorite Shins album for sure, but all of their albums are very important to me. 'Wincing the Night Away' feels like a much bigger deal than the last two albums. Everything about it indicates that the band is more mature, and that's neither good nor bad in my opinion. It just so happens that the increased maturity paid off greatly on this album. It feels like an album as opposed to just a collection of songs compiled onto a disc, and that's great. There's a wonderful flow to 'Wincing the Night Away'. Fortunately I was able to catch them on their first tour for the new album, and all of the new songs sounded fantastic live. It really is a great time to be a Shins fan.

(if you want a song, ask me)

1. Of Montreal - Hissing Fauna, Are You the Destroyer?

Another early 2007 release takes its place as my favorite album this year (so far). Again, I don't think I can say much about this album that you don't already know. I suppose I should make it known that I'm a huge Of Montreal fan, so I'm sure that played a part in this being my #1 album through the first half of the year. Kevin Barnes is at his best when his lyrics are personal, and this album is a clear example of that.

download "No Conclusion" (from the 'Icons, Abstract Thee' EP, released after the album)

New Blog

2007-06-20T16:00:00.000-07:00

I have created a new music blog in hopes of actually blogging about music on a frequent basis. After I abandoned whereisyourmind.com, I was experiencing blogging withdrawals, so I'm back. My former Pixies-inspired title has been replaced with a Wilco-inspired title (the new Wilco album rocks, btw, so be sure to check it out).

My first order of business is deciding what method I will use to share songs. I believe I have about 20MB of space to upload to, but that won't get me very far. I may resort to sendspace/yousendit/etc., but if I can find a cheap hosting plan somewhere, I'd like to go that route.

I will keep you all updated. I hope to get this thing going soon.