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ALVIN

When I decided to get back into this after a couple month’s hiatus. I did a few things to try to make blogging easier and to make the posting and maintenance of words and music easier and less time consuming.

First I downgraded my theme to Kubrick and just changed the color scheme to match RRB. Second I began using PodPress which helps with posting music and provides those cool players at the bottom of each post. I gave up some flexibility in exchange for a little more simplicity.

However, since I’ve made these simplifications I’ve run into all kinds of little annoying permissions problems and I can’t get PodPress to recognize my media directory where I keep all the goodies.

I’m just writing this post as a test and to see what my current settings will do today. - NOW MY RICH TEXT EDITOR IS ALL MESSED UP!

I just found this new artist… “Pinch” who just put out his own album “Underwater Dancehall” but is better known for his minimalist production techniques on such gems as Burial’s most recent release; Untrue. Check this out but sample the rest of the album too at emusic. - Buy

Alvin

 

 Trauma [4:35m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

All of them?

Mona Elliott the voice behind Boston’s Victory at Sea gilds their melancholy sea shanties with elaborate grandeur and ruined majesty — like a castle covered in moss or a crumbling statue of David. On the album All Your Things Are Gone, Elliott, channels the loneliness of others in the song “Cecille”, with its wounded protagonist and thundering percussion, a mirror of Joy Division’s “She’s Lost Control”, and the ominous “The Party” tracks the slow, painful collapse of an individual who’s hellbent on bridge-burning. There may not be a whole lot of joy on All Your Things Are Gone, but that doesn’t make it any less thrilling.

I stole all of these words but they sound good. So does Victory at Sea.

She’s lost Control by Joy Division…

Cecille by Victory At Sea - Buy

The Party by Victory At Sea - Buy

Hey! Remember Pat MacDonald from Timbuk 3? I’m listening to his new album, Troubadour Of Stomp, right now. It’s very cool. Low, dirty guitar with the clean kind of production that makes it sound like its supposed to sound low & dirty. I’d put up a sample but I asked him if I could and he never replied so I better not. Bun works with him and his sister every summer in promoting the Steel Bridge Songfest and I don’t want to cause trouble. I guess it’s better just not to ask. (Like Victory At Sea and Joy Division)

 

 Cecille [2:09m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

 

 The Party [3:30m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

I’ve known Vicky Emerson for about a year and a half. I’ve met her twice in person. But I still consider her a good friend. She is one of those people who you instantly feel comfortable with and you feel like you’ve known her all of your life. We all know at least one person like that. If you’re lucky you know a couple of them. (I know a few) At the first concert I hired her for, she embarrassed me by calling me up and having me play piano with her. I am a musician and I have played some piano in my life but I was so unnerved that I could barely plink out the simple line she assigned me. I can’t even remember what the song was.

Anyway, I’ve hired Vicky to perform for the last 2 years at a little concert series that I’m in charge of. So I met her a year and half ago in June or July. She tours constantly so I am fortunate to have been able to book her twice. Especially since she used to live in Minneapolis and has since moved to Manhattan. She even gave my daughter some good tips on finding a New York apartment a few months ago. So you can tell that I would like her whether or not she had just release a great new CD.

The new CD by Vicky Emerson is self titled “Vicky Emerson.” I think this is her 5th or 6th release so you know if someone titles a new album after herself after 4 previously good releases, this one’s really going to be special. One thing about this recording… Vicky scored big-time by calling in on her friendship with world renowned steel guitar player Lloyd Maines. But with the addition of steel, it definitely changes the feel of the music to give it a Country bent. A step or two away from her usual “Alt-Folk” style. I still love the album. Vicky is still in there. I’m sure it will boost her sales in the southwest (Texas) where she tours regularly. You can buy “Vicky Emerson” at CDBaby or iTunes if you prefer. I’m sure you can get it along with the others at www.VickyEmerson.com. Here’s two of my favorites…

Watch for Vicky on tour or regularly playing somewhere in NYC.

 

 Wheat Fields [5:40m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

 

 Dance With Me [3:19m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Evel Knievel died today.

And his website crashed.

I Will Dare

X from Ain’t Love Grand - Buy

 

 I Will Dare [3:19m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

OK I’m going to start doing this again.

I stopped for a couple reasons… For one I had a ton of work happening at my business and posting was taking too much time out of my productive work time and I felt guilty doing this instead of that.

The other thing was, that, by posting about music and sharing what I liked, I found myself over organizing my music collection and using the iTunes rating tool to try to keep better track of what I liked and why I liked it. After 2 years of putting tunes into my rating system (*-Favorite Tunes, **-RedRecordBox Suggestions, ***-Good Tunes, ****-Good Jazz and *****-Trash it) I recently spent some extra time listening to my “Rated Music” and found that, for the most part, it was boring and all the same. As of this moment I now have 32,153 songs in my iTunes library. I know I’ve got about 20 tunes with a 5 star rating that I haven’t thrown out yet, and 725 rated songs 1 to 4 stars. HOW COULD I OWN 32000 songs and only have rated 700 in the past 2 years?

Here’s how… While writing this post I’ve been listening to an album by Pitchfork. Actually it’s 2 EPs packaged together called Eucalyptus/Saturn Outhouse. I like their music. Kind of reminds me of Frank Black right after the Pixies but a little heavier. I don’t really know anything about them, I find a lot of new music at EMusic through their daily free track or I find something I like on another Music Blog then go out and find the album. I listened to the whole album, I liked it but I didn’t rate it. It was just part of my day.

2 years ago, 10/18/2005 is when I started to devise and revise my system. Since that date I’ve listened to 10,023 songs (from 1 to 14 times each) and I’ve not listened to 21,886 songs that I own. So in the past 2 years I’ve listened to 2/3 of my music collection that I’ve been accumulating for about 37 years. All of my CDs are ripped to MP3 all of my cassette tapes (except Screaming Blue Messiahs’ - Gun Shy, it’s sitting right here) and most of my vinyl has either been replaced by CD or directly digital) I probably have about 150 vinyl albums in the basement that I haven’t transferred to digital yet but that’s only about 1500 to 2000 more songs that are missing here.

So music is just a part of my life and I probably go days without rating any music. It’s not that I don’t like what I’m listening to, it’s obvious that I don’t think that much about rating.

All that to tell you this. I don’t know if that just made any sense or if most people can imagine having that much music in their collection (it’s an obsession). I will try to serve you with a sample selection of what I’m listening to on a regular basis. I’ve got a lot of ideas at the moment, some friends that have just put out CDs, several great albums that have come out recently and some other things that i have rated 2 stars but haven’t shared yet.

Here’s one of those Pitchfork songs. I’ve listened to it 4 times in the last 20 minutes. I think it has something to do with a farm. Honest!

Buy

 

 Burn Pigs Burn by Pitchfork [3:33m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download