Wu vs. Beatles - TEST

Wu-Tang vs. The Beatles - Enter The Magical Mystery Tour

This new mash up of the Beatles & Wu-Tang Clan isn’t really strictly a blend of Magical Mystery Tour with Enter the 36 Chambers, nor is it necessarily a combination of actual Beatles material. Most of the loops and samples sound like they’re taken from a reggae Beatles cover band, whatever the Dread Zeppelin of Beatles might be, or taken from Big Band arrangements of Beatles hits. Without working from the actual source material, the album suffers from the first time curiosity of the whole “How’d they do it?” thing. That said, all the songs are buffered with radio news clips of Beatlemania at it’s highest, clips of teenage girls camped outside of the Beatles’ hotel or interviews with the band at the time. These clips make what can be a tedious listen (27 songs here people) entertaining, and for every lackluster track or failed mash in the mashing up process, there’s a fit that is near perfect. Check the obvious mash up of “Got Your Money” and “You Never Give Me Your Money,” or especially “Uzi (Pinky Ring),” which flips through the dial of Beatles greatest hits with the change of Wu narrator, and as we know, any one of these songs can have a LOT of Wu narrators. Worth a listen to check the archival interview stuff overlaid over the music, and for the occasional home run combo.
It’s a free download now from Tea Set Records, check it out at http://teasearecords.net/wuvsbeatles.cfm

Beach House - TEST

Beach House – Teen Dream

For their third album, Beach House’s Victoria Legrand continues upon a grand sonic theme, building narcotic, intoxicating songs for a cloudy day and to “gather medicine for a heartache,” as she croons on “Silver Soul.” Mostly, Beach House songs exhibit this sort of rainy day, sleepy-eyed charm, but on Teen Dream, they let a few rays of sunshine come through the clouds. Not a full on summer day, but just a few rays of brightness in an otherwise cool landscape.
Beach House songs still have a singular quality of seeming to float, the atmospherics of the organ and the heavily reverb-ed guitar making these songs both atmospheric but still grounded by the deep and sonorous quality of the vocals. On Teen Dream, the drums have begun to do some of the work of the songs, elevating them to previously unforeseen tempos and actual energy. On “10 Mile Stereo,” a song that starts softly and builds to a seriously triumphant crescendo, both the steady increase in the energy from the drums and the energy in which Ms. Legrand belts out the chorus make what is without a doubt their brightest song to date. “Lover of Mine” uses the drums to craft what sounds like a charming document from the days of Rhythm & Soul, Vol. 1, something akin to a Beach House song that you could dance to.
The casual distance that makes Beach House both important and accessible, i.e., the strength of the melodies from both the guitar & the vocals, is all still here, as this record is not far from what one might expect the new Beach House album to sound like. It’s both a baby step forward from their stellar 2007 album Devotion and a slight slide step sideways from a sound that has thus far defined this band. Songs like the album’s 1st single “Zebra” and “Norway” still owe a debt to progenitors of the sound like the Cocteau Twins and Mazzy Star. Teen Dream manages to further these comparisons while making the statement that Beach House no longer needs to be compared to the bands that came before them, but compared with these bands.

Stories from the YMCA locker room

i smoke cigarettes, very moderately, and i know quite a few smokers as well. very rarely do i detect that smoker smell on someone i know, it's pretty rare. the other night i went out for a cigarette, and when i came back inside, my girlfriend remarked that it was the first time that she remembered me smelling like smoke. that said, i think we all know this guy: smells like there's a strong chance that he has a burning cigar from 1846 inside of his coat. a major fan of cigars and standing extremely close to me/you. older gentleman. we know this guy, eh? so, last place i expected to see this guy? crammed next to me in the locker room at the Y.

things i've done while unemployed

today i got a job. just a temp job, but a job nonetheless, so i'll be off the bread lines until january or maybe february, depending on how busy my temp job gets. seems like a familiar atmosphere, as my new job is working at an academic office at a university. while i was interviewing, i thought that i should make a list of all the weird, fun, unproductive & crazy productive things i've done over these past 6 months while unemployed. just as a little reminder.

• interviewed for a job at new school university. didn't get it
• interviewed for a job at an ad firm, working on my dream account. didn't get it.
• interviewed for a job working on the show ugly betty. didn't get it.
• had 3 emergency lunches with my girlfriend, working out how we were going to deal with my new job, after the 3 aforementioned job interviews.
• created, with my 2 best buds, a vegetarian cooking show for the internet.
  
• became intimately acquainted with a website called twitter
• spent entire days at movie theaters
• became such an expert at movie hopping that i can now not only jump from theatre to theatre without having to wait more than 5 minutes for the next show to start, but not only that, can execute such a maneuver while watching the 2-3 movies i plan on seeing in that day in the order in which i want to view them.
• multiplied my previous blog output x 100, at least
• came in 2nd place in my fantasy basketball league, won my fantasy baseball league and am currently a front runner in my fantasy football league
• coincidentally, spent way too much time working on my fantasy sports leagues
• became a much better cook
• coincidentally, got fatter
  
• took my appreciation of fine whiskeys along to include the appreciation on fine gins, rums, vodkas & scotches
• coincidentally, got even fatter
• applied for at least 5,000 jobs, of which i heard back from maybe 5. one of which, a job for the NYC Park Service, sent me a postcard to let me know they'd received my job application via the internet, giving me an even greater understanding of how the state government could get itself into a financial crisis
• was admitted to grad school
• rode a sea-doo for the first time ever.
• of the previous two achievements, it's hard to say which one i'm most proud of.
• became marginally dependent upon my girlfriend and my mother, making 2009 the first time i've been financially dependent upon anyone besides myself since 1994 (i.e., the year after i graduated high school)
• got cable
• after watching step brothers for the 4th time, developed an obsession with making microwave nachos
• coincidentally, got fatter
• moved into the nicest apartment i've ever lived in with my nicest girlfriend i've ever had, and feel pretty good about that
• ate at el compadre in echo park twice in one day
• went on an unprecedented number of weekday day trips
• went to the beach in NYC for the first time, went to Cape Cod for the first time, saw San Jose for the first time since I was 1 year old
• got a job working 1 day a week at a retail clothing store, and surprisingly had a lot of fun while working there
• worked 5 days working with my buddy bradley beesley, and not surprisingly had a lot of fun working with him
• spent a monday guiding my mother & other ladies from oklahoma around canal street area purse shopping
• had my folks over to my house/apartment for a dinner party for the first time ever
• worked every connection i've ever made, begged every friend i have, and generally sniveled up to everyone imaginable trying to find work
• got hooked up with awesome work opportunities, including the best job prospect i've ever had, from a friend...of my girlfriend's
• burned 1 full day watching 7 UP & coke commercials on youtube
• got hit on at union pool by the daughter of a noted nyc family whose family's last name is also the name of the street 2 streets over from the one I live on
• quit playing basketball
• coincidentally, got even fatter
• got really depressed
• felt really great about not having to work & having the time to work on anything i wanted to

this list could be twice as long, believe it or not.

test - deer tick

When listening to Born on Flag Day, it's really hard to tell that Deer Tick front man John McCauley is from Rhode Island. No, seems like the casual listener would take one quick listen to the Red Dirt songs and McCauley's predilection for taking his songs out onto the vast, open midwestern skies and bellowing a big ol' howl at the moon, and said listener would guess Mr. McCauley is from T-E-X-A-S. This version of Red Dirt or Americana (an distinction i'd guess the band wanted folks to take from the record, based on it's Mellencamp-esque album title) is what the kids in Dillon, Texas listen to when they're driving their beat up pickups down a dirt road, looking for direction, and a party to boot. The album sounds a little like it was recorded to sound good and a lot like it was recorded to sound like

Album Review

See my reviews on Discosalt. Here's the new one for the new Joe Pernice solo covers album.

Stories from the YMCA Locker Room

"Jimmy" - Westside Y, NYC
While dressing, and still partially nude, man comes by the row of lockers where I am. I recognize man and have been giving a courteous nod hello, mostly because when I first saw him walking around I thought he was veteran character actor Ray Wise. I'm dressing quickly as he gets on the scale.
"Well, i've lost 5 pounds"
me - "well congrats, pal. i've gained 5"
"oh, but you don't need to lose any weight. you. look. great."
he then chats me up about where i'm from & where i live. i somehow did not mention that i work(ed) at Sesame Street, which would've had Single White Female potential if i would've. given my habit of saying the wrong thing at the wrong time, it's a miracle i didn't. anyway, he then says:
"here. let me give you my card. give me a call, i'll take you out to dinnah"
2 days pass, i walk into room with machines at the Y. he's on the first one, facing out towards the door. i walk to the farthest, most hidden machine in the room, and one that is facing a wall, and i have my iPod on & headphones in & volume UP. i'm using said machine when i feel a tap-tap-tap on my shoulder. i say:
"hey jimmy, what's up?
him - "oh, i was just thinking about you today...i went to the post office today, i went there because, because i had to get some stamps. i went there because i, i wanted to get some Love stamps, but then i thought of you, because i saw that they have Oklahoma stamps."
"great. i'll tell my friends back home"
him - "hey, when are we gonna get that dinner?"