Bring Back Pluto

adventure.exe

2009-11-24T19:55:00.000-08:00

This past weekend I went up the road to Nashville TN to see one of my favorite bands perform. THE MOUNTAIN GOATS! I've been excited about this show for months. I've seen the mountain goats play before, but it was about 4 years ago and it was at at a festival. Not my ideal situation to see a band I absolutely adore. When I found out they were playing only 3 hours away from me, I jumped to buy tickets!

I got to the venue about 40 minutes before doors opened and the line was already super long. After waiting a while, I got in and found an awesome spot near the stage. Before the mountain goats played, I had to sit through 2 openers. The first was a singer named Larkin Grimm. Never heard of her before last night, but I enjoyed her set. It was cute hippy folk music that charmed me. Besides being mesmerized by her music, I was mesmerized by her face!

She is sooooo beautiful. I internet stalked her because I was so curious about her background. Found out she is a mixture of Afro-Caribbean, german, Sinti, English, Kree, and French! And what beautiful unique mixture! Here's her performing one of her songs

After she performed, I got to see the Final Fantasy. I had heard of them, but never listened to any of their stuff. It's mainly one guy, violinist Owen Pallet. I absolutely loved his set. LOOOOOVED! He had amazing stage presence and hilarious banter in between songs. I fell in love with him more and more with every song. He does this thing where he sings or plays a couple of bars on his violin, records it, loops it, and sing/plays with the recorded track(s) in real time as well. I was amazed as I watching him looping, using his pedals and hearing him create a sound that sounded like a room full of strings at times! AHhh! You just have to see it!

See?!

After internet stalking him, I found out he co-wrote and performed the strings on The Arcade Fire's "Funeral"-one of my favorite albums.

and then I saw the band I was waiting for. The mountain goats. They were...ok. I think what just made the show ok and not AMAZING was that John Darnielle played with a live band. It wasn't The Mountain Goats that I fell in love with. It was a mountain goats with a harder sound. Not the soft acoustic Mountain Goats that sing me to sleep at night.

Still had a good time and glad I got to go! If this tour comes near you, GO GO GO! And if you don't catch any of these acts on this tour, just go enjoy their music! You won't be disappointed!

The Mountain Goats
Final Fantasy

Fredrik

2009-03-09T14:34:00.001-07:00

One of my first crushes ever was in first grade on a guy named Fredrik. He was taller than me, always wore turtlenecks with something embroidered on the neck(my favorite was a dinosaur), and was missing his two front teeth. This post however is not about him. It is about a Swedish band named Fredrik. I guess you can say I have a crush on them too. I discovered them on a mix on Fuck A Great Lake last week and haven't stopped listening to them since.

Fredrik is a 6 piece band from Sweden. Just one listen of their song "11 years" and you'll know why I'm crushing on them! Listening to their music is like listening to a bedtime story complete with lovely melodies and soothing vocals. I fell in love with them so much that I broke my 3 year(give or take a few months) streak of having not bought a cd. I ordered their album, "Na Na Ni" and one of their EPs from their website. You can listen to "Na Na Ni" in it's entirety on their website and there's also a link to purchase the music. I'm crossing my fingers that they will play a show and I will get to see them before I leave Europe. Until then, I'll be content with my "bedtime stories".

I leave you with my favorite song from Na Na Ni, "11 years" and it's equally cool video!

Fredrik - 11 Years from The Kora Records on Vimeo.

Fredrik
http://www.sagomusik.com/
http://www.myspace.com/fredriktheband

The National

2008-08-23T00:59:00.001-07:00

A friend of mine sent me a link recently with a video to a song he thought I'd dig.

I watched and at first listen I hated it. The guys voice sounds lazy and unpolished and really annoyed me. After awhile and with help of the lovely instrumentals, it grew on me. I replayed the video about 4 more time and decided I really liked it! I decided to investigate more and I got the album, "The Boxer"-where the song "Slow Show" is from. BIG MISTAKE! That song is not a true representation of the album. The album sucks. It sounds like the same song over and over with different lyrics. Big fail. Don't get that album. But! Do listen to "slow show". :) It's cute.

Huoratron

2008-05-20T13:03:00.000-07:00

Huoratron owns my soul with this

it reminds me of a mixture of Vitalic's "Poney" video quality and Aphex Twin's "Come To Daddy" absurdity

plus his music is composed of two tweaked out gameboys

go to Huoratron.com and check the better quality video of "$$ Troopers"

Say Hi

2007-11-29T17:40:00.000-08:00

If you've been paying attention to my Last.FM you already know that I've been obsessing over the band, Say Hi To Your Mom. They've been topping my weekly charts for the past month. I'm a little late to jump on the bandwagon. They've been around since 2002, but I am only just hearing about them! Why oh why didn't anyone tell me about the awesomeness known as Say Hi To Your Mom? Actually, the band has decided to shorten their name to Say Hi with the release of their new album, The Wishes and The Glitch. The album will be released in stores on Feburary 8th, 2008, but is available for purchase online. I made the purchase and am very pleased. Check out the Say Hi store to make yours.

I forgot how I stumbled into this band, but I'm glad I did. I heard one song, fell in love, and immediately acquired the other 4 albums! A lot of times I find myself doing that with a band and being dissapointed! But not with Say hi! I fell deeper in love. I love the random lyrics and the whispery non-chalant(not in a bad way!)vocal style of lead singer Eric Elbogen. Each of the Say Hi albums has it's own charm, but my favorite is definitely Impeccable Blahs written oddly enough about vampires!

do yourself a favor and check this band out! Here are two of my favorite Say Hi songs. The first is the one that made me fall in love and the second is my all time favorite Say Hi song. Enjoy!
Prefers Unhappy Endings
Let's Talk about Spaceships

Links
www.myspace.com/sayhitoyourmom
www.ilikesayhi.com

Thee More Awesome

2007-09-11T17:09:00.000-07:00

I've only recently gotten into one of the latest bands on anticon records called Thee More Shallows. They're a 3 piece from Cali whose primary song writer is Dee Kesler. I hadn't listened to Book of Bad Breaks until about 5 am this morning, but I haven't stopped listening to it all day.

Head to their myspace page for more!

I've uploaded Night at the Knight School and highly recommend it. It's very hypnotic, yet at the same time popping with energy. ok, so maybe popping isn't the right word... Elements of it remind me of Fog. I'm a fan of bludgeoning synth sounds, so this fits great in my book.

Hope you enjoy as much as I have.

Also, here's the video for "Fly Paper"

mum's the word

2007-08-26T22:15:00.000-07:00

So, I was browsing around YouTube and came across this video by mum, an experimental Icelandic group that I have never heard of before. I really dig the video (you will too!) and plan on checking more of their music out.

Anywho, watch the video. If you don't like it, you can punch me.

mum's official website page

Writer's Block

2007-08-15T16:23:00.000-07:00

I'm alive! The title of the blog is not only the reasoning behind my recent absence, it's also the title of the latest album by Peter, Bjorn, and John. Ha...ha. That was my attempt at humor. Peter, Bjorn, and John is a Swedish Indie pop band that has become pretty popular recently due to their song, "Young Folks". You know the one...with the infectious whistling and the animated video. It's been everywhere! In commercials and in an episode of Grey's Anatomy. Even Kanye West rapped over the instrumental version of the song on his mixtape. If by chance you live under a rock and haven't heard it, here's the video which is as equally awesome as the song is.

That song is not the only gem on the album. The rest of the album delivers! "Amsterdam" is a catchy little diddy that holds a special place in my heart for obvious reasons. But it's a different city's namesake that takes the cake for me. "Paris 2004" is my favorite song on the album. I love the instrumentation and the vocals. The chorus, "I'm all about you, you're all about me, we're all about each other" has such simple lyrics, but it definitely defines the feeling of being in love!

There are only a few albums that I can listen to without skipping a track and this is one of them. I enjoy every song! If you haven't given it a listen, please do.
Here's "Paris 2004" and a "Call It Off" remix which was done by GirlTalk. Enjoy!
Paris 2004-Peter, Bjorn, and John
Call It Off-Peter, Bjorn, and John remix by GirlTalk

Sunday will never again be refered to as Spunday

2007-08-12T11:05:00.001-07:00

I'm beginning to wonder if Soph is alive blogging-wise.

I started making a mix for today and before I knew it, I had 4 hours worth of songs. I'm still in the process of cutting it down and trying to decide where I want to go with it. At first, it was just going to be a bunch of stuff that I got over the past week. I decided later, while scrolling through iTunes, that at some point I'm going to have to upload an Anticon mix of some sort. I just love them too much to not get it out to people that are unfamiliar. They offer such a wealth of art and viewpoint.

Anyhow, that''ll come later. For now, here's stuff!
I figured that the initial Sole track would be a pretty good opener. It's short and fairly straightforward/autobiographical. really like track 2. The Brad P song is pretty cool. He's local, one of the singers of Snowglobe. The track is off of the Makeshift 5 compilation, out now around Memphis' record shops(Shangri-La, Goner, SpinStreetm Last Chance, etc.). "Suburb Party" was my favorite track on this Mike Ladd-lead project from the early 2000s. It features El-P and Vast Aire...

The Original Cyndi track is from several years ago. 2 of my studio partners were in that band in its original incranation. This was my favorite track from that period. The quality is ehhhh, but the song is excellent. The DAT Politics song is put on here just to annoy people that hate that type of music. I borderline hate it as well. Borderline.

Harlan T is another local, whose new album is getting really decent press. I still like the first one a lot more, but....I thought since this is more recent, it should be shared.

My brother let me borrow Samurai Champloo last week. I've never been into anime, but I thoroughly enjoyed it. Fat Jon did some of the music for it, so when I got online and started looking into him more I found out he had done this album with Laptop guy, Styrofoam.

I downloaded 3 albums worth of Einstürzende Neubauten yesterday and am still ingesting and digesting them. This is some seriously crazy shit. I left off most of the tinnitus inducing early stuff... I recommend them highly so far.

blah blah, where's Soph? I don't really feel like writing. Sorry if today sucks. I hope you enjoy the music anyhow.

The cover is included in the zip file itself. It's silly of course...

Trax

Album
The mix itself!!

Additionally, I just finished Dune(the 1984 film that David Lynch claims no cut of). What the fuck? I wish I rode a giant worm. He who controls the Spice...

2007-08-12T11:05:00.000-07:00

Mixes Are Fun

2007-07-30T16:38:00.000-07:00

I'm the type of person that is always making mixes, whether they are for others or not generally doesn't matter as I end up listening to them way more than the recipient probably ever could. This mix is a fairly typical one. I take a bit of everything I have been listening to and cater to a friend in particular(of course weeding out what they may hate). I love this mix. It's a greatest hits of my late winter to now. The artists are a mix up and some have already appeared in this blog. Hope you enjoy what you've not heard.

In the last post, I inserted a Lost Sounds' track. Well, on this mix, I've upped the take, adding in two more tracks from Lost Sounds related folks. The first track is by Mouserocket(fronted by LS's Alicja Trout) and is remixed by Jay Lindsey aka Jay Reatard. Also featured later on is a track by Lindsey himself. I really like both, as Lindsey shows his aptitude on both ends of the mic cord.

Also of note, the Beach House track. I am sad that I missed them when they played the Hi-Tone a few months ago. very sad. This track is my relaxation piece. There's nothing superb about it. At all. Really. I just love it for whatever reason. It sounds whole/complete and most things these days do not. Plenty of air to breathe in what sounds like an insecure track.

I like to augment the Beach House track with the Mice Parade song. I spaced them out on the cd, but they're great back to back.

I found the Oh No! Oh My! track on a Kitsune Maison compilation. I had heard them before through their myspace page, after learning that Tim of Snowglobe was to be joining them temporarily on tour, which then turned into a full time stay. I was unimpressed with the myspace songs and wrote them off completely until i heard this track. (Of note: I still remain unimpressed with all else I have heard.../sigh...why can't Snowglobe be bigger and better?).

It was hard to place the Lost Sounds track, seeing as how it is so abrupt at the inset.

The Caribou song should be lsitened to on headphones. This should also be applied to the Low track. I love their organ sound. We have one similar at the studio and I love the bass hums that resonate from it.

The Heart Attack= 1 Part Cee-Lo Green + Plantlife This track has been floating around the internet for a good while, but in case you have not heard it...

LOL The In Living Color piece is wtfdelicious(to me anyhow, not so much Soph). I found it on the mad decent(Diplo) page.

The rest is pretty much your standard fair of pretties and delights. Enjoys!

Cover Art by me:

TraX:

The mix itself!!

P.S. The Matthew Dear track is sexy and fabulous and excellent. I wish the rest of his album held up like so. [flat trumpet sound]

Also, my cover was chopped off. If you open the image in a new window, it should open properly.

Loud

2007-07-21T16:35:00.000-07:00

The term "Lazy Sunday" generally describes my sundays. These songs, however, will inspire everyone and anyone to be unlazy, if not by merely putting you in a haste to turn the volume knob down, in the case of the Lost Sounds' track, or by making you shake your ass/get a headache in the case of the dDamage track. :) Either way, shit is loud.

Lost Sounds:
Lost Sounds were a group from Memphis, TN(hometown overdue love), who "disbanded abruptly yet not unexpectedly in 2005" and were comprised of Jay Reatard(just now getting love on Pitchfork) on synth, guitar and vocals, Alicja Trout(who is in more Memphis bands than any other front person that I know of...they include Mouserocket, Black Wave, River City Tanlines,et.al.)also on synth, guitar and vocals, Rich Crook on drums, and the later added bass player, Patrick Jordan.

I only recently got into them after relistening to the Makeshift 2 compilation and really enjoying their track on there. Maybe I'll post it later. Visited their Myspace page and found "I Get Nervous". It was around 6 am and I hadn't yet been to sleep. I spent the next four or five hours trying to find info on them and releases available.

dDamage:
I know little of them. I just got into them last night after a Last FM friend recommended them to me. Their latest album Shimmy Shimmy Blade features a crazy mix of indie rap's finest from Bigg Jus to TTC to Doseone. Apparently, they're a duo comprised of brothers. Based out of Paris, they make crazy headsplitting music.

To be honest, there are only a handful or tracks that I really like from this vein of hiphop. I love the creativity(and album art), yet hope that one day there'll be a wunderkind rapper that gets in front of a group like this. An example of such would be that I like Dalek's music, but hate the rapper himself.

anyhow, hope you enjoy these.
Lost Sounds "I Get Nervous""

dDamage "Punkture"

underrated?

2007-07-20T01:07:00.000-07:00

In this age of Atmospheres and Amy Winehouses, it's important to get noticed, yes, but it's also important to have talent. :D This trio from Bushwick consisting of Cool Calm Pete, DJ Pre, and Jaymanilla do the deed on their 2003 album "Mechincal Royalty" released on Embedded Music. Pete's namesake calm flow matches well with the gruffness of Jaymanilla. Uploaded for your listening pleasure is "Birds", a gem about women with loose morals. The rest of the album isn't generally like this track, yet I feel a concept track like this comes along rarely and needs to be shared. I think these three are fairly underrated and deserve a bit of your busy schedule.

for more info on Babbletron, check out:
http://www.embeddedmusic.net/artist_babbletron.html

Babbletron - Birds

Hello!

2007-07-19T18:51:00.001-07:00

Hey readers!

if there are any here yet....

I'm Sophia one of the writers of this blog. I also keep a personal blog- The Sweetest Pea. Feel free to visit me there!

I created this blog partly because I was bored, but moreso because I've always wanted to start a music blog. I could never run it alone , so that's where Jeremy comes in! He'll be contributing to the blog as well. The name, Bring Back Pluto, was inspired by the Aesop Rock track of the same name. The track is off of his upcoming album, None Shall Pass which will be released on August 28th. Jeremy recently acquired the promo copy and I've been listening to it pretty much non stop. The entire album is awesome! Heaven to my ears! I may be a little biased. Afterall, I do love Aesop Rock(seen him 4 times!) and can count on one hand the tracks of his that I don't like. Bring Back Pluto is definitely my favorite song off of the album thus far. But the others are just as head bobbingly addictive! The album was produced by Blockhead, El-P, and Rob Sonic so I guess I shouldn't have expected anything but awesome from it. Here's a preview of what to expect from the album. The title track, None Shall Pass. Bet you can't listen to it without nodding along :)

None Shall Pass-Aesop Rock

test post

2007-07-19T18:47:00.000-07:00

test post, a mix will come later tonight.