October 30, 2006

Monday Music Roundup

This week the sixth food group becomes Very Small Candies of Different Varieties. So far I’ve sampled some Nerds, some Twix, a few Almond Joys and a tiny box or two of Milk Duds (my favorite). Thank god this only comes once a year or you’d have to hoist me out of the house in a specially designed lift for the very obese, after removing the doors from the hinges.

A newspaper reporter from New Hampshire contacted me the other day for a story she is writing on the shrinking Fun Size candy as we know it (she found my previous post on this travesty). While I am pleased that this “important” issue is getting some coverage in the media (!), she had some extremely deadpan journalistic questions to ask me on the phone. The very very best one was: “Do you believe that these candies now accurately represent the size of fun?” There was a beat of serious silence on the phone line, and then I burst into laughter, for which I immediately apologized. Because she was not joking as I had thought.

How big, exactly, is the size of fun?

Every Day Is Halloween
(Ministry cover)
The Postmarks
Okay, well let’s just get this one out of the way. Halloween is tomorrow and so most Americans are busy doing things like scooping the slimy innards out of pumpkins to make jack-o-lanterns, and hastily assembling costumes out of what is left in the thrift stores and on the picked-over racks. You? You are cool and collected, listening to this hazy, jangly version of a Ministry song. This is the first of a series of free “seasonal downloads” from Miami’s The Postmarks‘ MySpace page. Their debut album comes out January 2007 on UnFiltered Records.

To The Floor
Shrift
I mentioned this sexy little album last year; Shrift is a duo composed of Nina Miranda (from Brighton-based Smoke City) and producer Dennis Wheatley. This trip-hop song is a spun-sugar pink confection with a faint ’80s sheen to the floating female vocals, but with an updated twist. More than anything, it reminds me of the Phoenix track in Lost In Translation, and I do believe this song would fit like a glove in the Tokyo nightclub scenes with Bill Murray and Scarlett Johannson. Listen to this and I defy you to say otherwise. From this year’s Lost in A Moment album (Six Degrees Records).

Black Magic
Jarvis Cocker
This song is off of former Pulp frontman (and reigning titleholder of pleasantly-smarmiest voice in England) Jarvis Cocker‘s upcoming self-titled album, coming out next month in the UK. The title of this song should really be “Crimson and Clover, Pt. 2″ because it is a huuuuge rip off of that stick-in-your-head psychadelic hippie ’60s singalong — but that’s not to say it’s bad. I actually find it quite enjoyable. And I think we can agree that perhaps this song has a better title than this summer’s “Cunts Are Still Running The World.”

Nevermind The Phonecalls
Earlimart

Earlimart is originally from Fresno, California, and now relocated to the smoggy hipness of Los Angeles. Pitchfork recently unveiled this, the first of three tracks off their upcoming unnamed 5th full-length album. Earlimart’s last outing, 2004′s Treble & Tremble, was often compared to the work of frontman Aaron Espinoza’s late friend Elliott Smith. Espinoza says, “It’s tricky. I’m never ashamed of my relationship with [Smith] or his effect on me or my life or the band. I could never think that’s a bad thing if people want to put us in the same sentence with him or something . . . and I wouldn’t ever say that the album wasn’t influenced by him, but it wasn’t meant to be a tribute thing.” I can hear those threads in this track, but it is more up-tempo pop with a clean & catchy feel. I like it a lot.

Blue Hotel
Willie Nelson
Who would have thought that Willie Nelson would have one of my favorite album covers so far this year? Maybe Ryan Adams is rubbing off on him, making him sleek and stylish for the masses. Wait, Ryan isn’t sleek and stylish. Nevermind, maybe not. But Ryan did produce Willie’s new record Songbird and penned this tune off of it (hear Ryan’s original version here, live). Ryan and the Cardinals also played on the album. I think Willie is a national legend but also an acquired taste, like a good strong whiskey on the back porch.

Please let me know today if you have any trouble with these links – it’s my first attempt at the new EZArchive madness. Update: All files are now Savefile. Arrgh!

Stay safe, goblins.

12 Comments

  • I am looking forward to this album’s release tomorrow. I love all of Willie’s collaborations. Can’t wait to hear their take on the Dead Tune. Looks like a nice selection of covers and a couple originals. I like the album art, too.

    Linda Lee — October 30, 2006 @ 9:19 am

  • The EZ Archive links don’t work, Heather. Apparently you have exceeded your bandwidth allotment for the day — it says “checkback tomorrow”. I notice the Aquarium Drunkard has had it with EZ Archive and replaced it with another service, for just this reason.

    Frank — October 30, 2006 @ 9:31 am

  • Sorry, still not working…

    Anonymous — October 30, 2006 @ 9:56 am

  • No bueno. No music.

    Dainon — October 30, 2006 @ 10:16 am

  • Hmmm. Funny that my EZArchive is giving that LAME error message, seeing as how I have not been able to use *any* bandwidth today (or yesterday or the day before).

    If y’all click Refresh, I’ve updated the links with SaveFile ones that should do for now.

    heather — October 30, 2006 @ 10:29 am

  • You know, with all the scare of razor blades in apples and other stuff like that as well as the concern over the expanding waistline of the US. I do believe that this new smaller candy is the new size of fun.

    sad but true……sigh

    torres#3 — October 30, 2006 @ 12:14 pm

  • i love earlimart. good call.

    Chad — October 30, 2006 @ 12:25 pm

  • That is a great post…
    What IS the size of fun…what was your answer to that by the way?
    If you dig Dwight Yoakam…he just re-issued his first album as a double cd…well worth picking up…
    As far as Halloween….The MISFITS are my first choice of a soundtrack…
    Later.

    SINEDDIE — October 30, 2006 @ 1:29 pm

  • man Ezarchive has been giving me greef as well…and as I surf around more seems like everyone is having issues..

    Styeiles — October 30, 2006 @ 5:18 pm

  • “I think Willie is a national legend but also an acquired taste, like a good strong whiskey on the back porch.”

    Amen, Heather. I have nothing but respect for Willie, but I don’t care much for his music. I’m listening to his version of Blue Hotel right now and it’s not bad, but it doesn’t come close to Ryan’s. The 9/19/2006 Boarderline show in London version is nothing short of breathtaking with Ryan and Neal Casal’s harmonies paired with the mandolin. I saw Willie’s version posted on Aquarium Drunkard (I think?) and didn’t listen to it then because I knew it just wouldn’t be nearly as amazing.

    Callie — October 30, 2006 @ 7:18 pm

  • I’ve been a fan of Willie’s since the late 70′s when my folks played Shotgun Willie and Stardust at every dinner party they had for months. Know every note on those two and swiped their copy of Red Headed Stranger too. But someone should tell Ryan Adams that lightning doesn’t strike in the same place twice. Jack White already took a country legend and laid rock arragements on thick. It worked for Loretta Lynn ’cause she hadn’t had anything significant out in years but Willie’s released one of the most vital recordings of his career as recently as last March (You Don’t Know Me: The Songs of Cindy Walker). Songbird sounds as awkward and forced as his reggae record did.

    Michael Lubenow — October 31, 2006 @ 5:34 pm

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Bio Pic Name: Heather Browne
Location: Colorado, originally by way of California
Giving context to the torrent since 2005.

"I love the relationship that anyone has with music: because there's something in us that is beyond the reach of words, something that eludes and defies our best attempts to spit it out. It's the best part of us, probably, the richest and strangest part..."
—Nick Hornby, Songbook
"Music has always been a matter of energy to me, a question of Fuel. Sentimental people call it Inspiration, but what they really mean is Fuel."
—Hunter S. Thompson

Mp3s are for sampling purposes, kinda like when they give you the cheese cube at Costco, knowing that you'll often go home with having bought the whole 7 lb. spiced Brie log. They are left up for a limited time. If you LIKE the music, go and support these artists, buy their schwag, go to their concerts, purchase their CDs/records and tell all your friends. Rock on.

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