Radio On!

Tuesday Check-in Then

I'm a little late on my Monday check-in. Very busy at, uh, work, and I didn't get a chance to search for anything new. But, this morning I decided to dig into the new Massive Attack I picked up a bit ago.

I was never really a Massive Attack fan. I had a lot of friends who were (1998?), and so I listened to a lot of it while riding around LA at 2am looking for some stupid party. I was a huge fan of the Mad Professor remix of "Protection", though.

No Protection - Massive Attack

Anyway, so far, in my new "I kinda like electronic music" phase I am enjoying this. I don't have a favorite song on the album yet, so I'll just share the whole thing with you:

Heligoland - Massive Attack

As always, if anyone has suggestions (2010 releases only) for me, I'd love to hear them.

Surfer Blood — Astro Coast

Hey, I just found this album and I really like it. Here's a song sample.

Floating Vibes - Surfer Blood

It reminds me of one of my favorite albums in 2001 by a band called Arlo. Here's a song sample from that album. Totally underrated.

Kenji - Arlo

Monday Check-In: 2010 Is Here!

Over the weekend I bought a new laptop, so today I've been getting my environment together for work. This also marks the first day where I go 2010 only so I took advantage of the empty iTunes library and filled up on a bunch of stuff I'd been meaning to listen to for 2010.

Here's a few songs from some albums I'm listening to today.

Asleep on a Train - Cars & Tra...

You Must Be Out of Your Mind -...

Angel Echoes - Four Tet

Monday Check-In: Bye Bye 2009

We're coming up on the end of the anything-from-2009 portion of this project and I think I've scraped enough music together for February and beyond. Last week I started listening to Four Tet's new, uh, unreleased album (released today!).

Originally I was going to stick to stuff that had seen a release date, but it's hard to know something is available to hear when my selection is so limited.

I got another good tip from Tom: using Aimee Street to see what people are listening to based on the current price (the site slides the price up with popularity).

Another thing I'm realizing? My taste in music is changing. I'd very rarely venture into much electronic music. I have no clue what these things are: dub, house, downbeat, drum and bass, mork. But I am liking stuff that seems to be in the "electronic" genre.

Also, I promised Mike I'd not include anything originally released before this year. So those Pavement albums getting re-released are now off the table. He's right, it's a cop out.

Long Weekend

For the first time in I don't know how long I had MLK day off, so Amber, Mark and I stayed home while it rained outside and hung up some art.

We also listened to some music (from 2009 of course) that a friend recommended to me. Along with Sleigh Bells, Leonard suggested Darkstar's "Aidy's Girl is a Computer" which is not like anything I ever listen to, yet it was the perfect soundtrack.

Aidy's Girl is a Computer - Da...

I do not know what genre this is, but if you have any suggestions on more like this, I'd appreciate it. We have a lot of art to hang!

Friday Wrap-Up — Music Blogs

I listened to a lot of "SLEIGH BELLS" this week followed by some Jay Reatard and the ridiculously named "The Pains of Being Pure at Heart" and some other random 2009 stuff. As February 1 gets closer I have started keeping track of new releases by reading music blogs.

MBV Music is a great super-blog put together by Catbirdseat, Large Hearted Boy, Said the Gramaphone, Chromewaves, and Fluxblog.

Other music blog suggestions would be appreciated.

Jay Reatard

Before today I only had some idea who Jay Reatard was. I'd seen a live performance on Pitchfork (them again!) when they had launched their video site and then never thought about him again.

When I heard he passed away earlier today I figured I'd check and it turns out his last album was released in 2009—so I gave it a listen. Ooops! This is good stuff. I am a dope!

“I like simple music,” he says, “—songs that that are broken down to a few elements. A lot of people say, ‘You do that because you’re dumb.’ But it’s a choice. I’m trying to write something that you can immediately decide whether you like or not.” — Jay Reatard, Death + Taxes Magazine

Watch Me Fall - Jay Reatard

Monday Check-In: Second Week

One of the things that's already made itself known about this project is the feeling of comfort I get from old music. A few times last week I needed to throw on something familiar and had nothing to turn to. As the year goes on I think I'll find music to regularly turn to, but even now as I grow attached to stuff from 2009 I am sad to think I won't be able to keep listening.

Despite that, I am enjoying this project very much. Not only am I discovering some really great music, I have enjoyed talking to friends who have contributed stuff for me to look into.

I did have a lapse this weekend as I thought Ida Maria's "Fortress Round My Heart" was released in 2009, but it turned out to be 2008. Mark liked it though.

This week I started listening to "The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart" (I know, right?). But still, pretty good band and they play with some speed which is nice.

Come Saturday - The Pains of B...

Young Adult Friction - The Pai...

I need to check out what music is being released this month, because come February I am going to move on to the 2010-only portion of this project.

Sleigh Bells

Leonard pointed me towards a band called Sleigh Bells that I've been listening to on my walk to work. Here's a Stereogum introduction with some mp3s.

By the way, a rule of thumb for reading music blogs: The end of the page is marked with the phrase "post a comment below".

Monday Check-In

Today's my first official day on this project. I've started with The Japandroid's "Post Nothing" because most of my music is guitar driven and noisy. There seems to be a lack of that kind of music in the lists I've seen. But I'm hopeful I'll root it out eventually.

Meanwhile I'm still looking for stuff to check out. Here's The Hypemachine's Top 50 Artists of 2009.

So far my list for the week sounds like this:

The Boys Are Leaving Town - Ja...

...And The Hazy Sea - Cymbals ...

With Real Estate, Yo La Tengo, and that Yeah Yeah Yeahs album I didn't like the first time.