” OMG, a post ! ”

01. Why? – This Blackest Purse
Eskimo Snow (Anticon, 2009)
02. Grand Archives – Oslo Novelist
Keep In Mind Frankenstein (Sub Pop, 2009)
03. Sonic Youth – Empty Page
Morning Becomes Eclectic, August 26, 2002
04. Trans Am – North East Rising Sun
Sex Change (Thrill Jockey, 2007)
05. Silver Starling – Closer
Silver Starling (Last Gang Records, 2009)
06. Nosaj Thing – Ioio
Mary-Anne Hobbs Presents: Wild Angels (Planet Mu, 2009)

note: The entire MdM members have been kidnapped by the martians. My dog ate the hardrive, and there was no music in later have of 2009… :P OK. I am squeezing a post in between busy time and that never finished decade list. Here are fun recent tracks that I like. Think crisp winter morning edgy dream pop. If there is such thing. One part new wave, one part dream pop, 2 part gentrified IDM synth, and 5 parts cool mint and winter breeze. Large open air. This almost sound like something Canadian TV would play. On serious note, check out Sonic Youth performance from last month at Morning become eclectic (courtesy Aquarium Drunkard) It never cease to amaze me how Sonic Youth has become the sound that can fit everywhere. Maybe finally experimental rock has been tamed and ready for public consumption… They play at NPR radio for pete’s sake. Second album is Mary-Anne Hobbs from planet Mu. Watch how the sound is toned down compared to her other IDM mix. It almost sound like a rock album. The track above is the proof if you don’t believe me. Anyway, everybody’s albums in above list is enjoyable. I think they work out nicely.

see also: Modern Mood

image: HogueLikeWoah

The ugly truth is that economics is a science in the way that medicine was a profession while it still used leeches to balance a person’s vapours. Yes, some are always better than others, and certainly more entertaining, but they all tended to kill their patients.

The most intractable part of the current financial crisis, and the ongoing problem of the US economy is the huge tax which is levied on the American public by its corporations, primarily in the financial and health care sectors, and a political system based on lobbyists and their campaign contributions.

There are hidden taxes and impediments to ‘free trade’ at every turn. The ugly truth is that capitalism-in-practice hates free markets, always seeking to overturn the rules and impose oligopoly if not outright monopoly through barriers to entry, manipulation of the political process, distortion of regulation, predatory pricing, brute force, and the usual slate of anti-trust practices. – Zero Hedge.

Feist – Lovertits (with Gonzales)
Open Season (Arts & Crafts, 2001)

Few songs make a great B-side gems, where it can illicit so many quirks from the 00′s . This seemingly innocent hip-hop remix with Feist and Gonzales is actually a cover of Peaches’ ultra kinky electro punk piece. Not only the song is a decadal self referential, it also captures certain small room gentleness that blossom in the 00′s. I thought a great time capsule list for 00′s rock song should open with this one.

Interpol – NYC
Turn On The Bright Lights (Matador Records, 2002)

A debut album by Interpol with classic matador/Pixie sound. The attempt to glued back NYC after the terror attack is memorable. It also mark the beginning of retro pop punk that swept the entire blog which was the official party sound.

Asobi Seksu – Thursday
Citrus (Friendly Fire, 2006)

Since Moka was so serious about shoegazer, around this album release I actually put meek effort to listen to more shoegazer. Well, if you need a shoegazer album with dream pop slant, and typical fuzzy buzz of the 00′s. This album is a fun one. A legit indie too.

The Go! Team – Feelgood By Numbers
Thunder, Lightning, Strike (Memphis Industries, 2004)

Party Time. I still am not sure what mix the Go Team consist of, but if you want to know what J-PoP made in Southern England would sound like.

Jens Lekman – A Sweet Summer’s Night on Hammer Hill
Oh You’re So Silent Jens (Secretly Canadian, 2005)

There was a brief, mini Swedish invasion around this album release. There must be at least 4 swedish pop track that MdM post, and I can’t remember any of them. Go to swedesplease.net to sort it all out.

Camera Obscura – Teenager
Underachievers Please Try Harder (Merge Records, 2003)

Underachievers Please Try Harder! lol. A fun little retro rock album. Very sweet sounding and Camera Obscura was all the rage in mid 00′s. Camera Obscura and Belle Sebastian for some reason were always come in pair. It’s all in attitude and execution. New idea is overated.

My Morning Jacket – Off the Record
Z (Ato Records, 2005)

Hard to believe this group is from Kentucky. And their wiki entry reads lke hardworking, climb the ladder indie band. They deserves it too. Hope they keep rocking. I particularly like this song trippy end. see wiki.

Bloc Party – Helicopter
Silent Alarm (Vice Records, 2005)

Bloc Party is so representive of retro pop punk of the 00′s. The block party and Arctic Monkey. They are too sleek and cool for regular knuckle dragging blues punk, but not too shiny that Spin magazine can destroy them. I should also mention Franz Ferdinand.

Arctic Monkeys – Riot Van
Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not (Domino, 2006)

The band that breaks the recording industry sign up rule and do promo themselves and crash the chart. Everybody on the net we elated, the new age has arrived! Nobody knows for sure what age, but these lads rock hard and nobody cares.

M. Ward – Fuel For Fire
Transistor Radio (Merge Records, 2005)

M. Ward has that heart breaking quality in all his song. Way too serious for an age where everything was accelerated to stratosphere before anybody can understand how an event work. But check his album anyway. Here is amazon teaser “a collection of songs “about childhood memories of a utopian radio power”, dedicated to “the last of the remaining independent radio stations.” With songs normally associated with the front porches of Louisiana, back when families gathered around the radio instead of the TV, “Transistor Radio” fits somewhere between your great-grandfather’s collection of 78 rpm records and current and timeless artists such as Iron & Wine, Gram Parsons, and Tom Waits. Guests include Jim James (My Morning Jacket), Jenny Lewis (Rilo Kiley), Howe Gelb (Giant Sand), and Jordan Hudson (The Thermals).”

So that’s my little B-side short party list. The 00′s time capsule. second companion list of 00′s best of.

see also: I Remember 00′
image: [Steven Meisel for Vogue Italia July 2007], [The Sun and Doves]

” The classic feel of downtempo ”

01. Flying Lotus – Orbit Brazil
1983 (Plug Research, 2006)
02. Joe Beats – Sleep Or Bust
Diverse Recourse (Bully, 2007)
03. The Truth – Truth Theme
Fila Brazillia Remixes: B2 (Twentythree Records, 2003)
04. Dorian Concept – Trilingual Dance Sexperience
Trilingual Dance Sexperience (Affine Records, 2009)
05. Nosaj Thing – Quest
Drift (Alpha Pup Records, 2009)
06. Cinematic Orchestra – Channel 1 Suite
Motion (1999)
07. Fluke – Bermuda
Risotto (1997)

note: I am not sure where everybody is. I am in mellow, don’t wanna do anything mood. So this list is a bit meandering. Part survey what’s new out there, part old favorite, part random bits that I wanted to post long time ago. Nothing ground breaking, comfy familiar Brooklyn by way of UK electronic sound. Hey speaking of, anybody ever been to Helsinki? Is it really cold in winter?

image: paijailu

The remaining systems within ten light years are the binary red dwarf system Luyten 726-8 (8.7 light years) and the solitary red dwarf Ross 154 (9.7 light years). Our closest solitary sun-like star is Tau Ceti, which lies 11.9 light years away. It has roughly 80 percent the Sun’s mass, but only 60 percent its luminosity. The closest known extrasolar planet to the Sun lies around the star Epsilon Eridani, a star slightly dimmer and redder than the Sun, which lies 10.5 light years away. Its one confirmed planet, Epsilon Eridani b, is roughly 1.5 times Jupiter’s mass and orbits its star every 6.9 years. – wiki

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” As Big as the Solar System ”

01. Luigi Nono – Liebeslied
Wien Modern (1990)
02. Kronos Quartet – Spem in alium “Sing And Glorify”, P. 299 (arr. Kronos Quartet)
Black Angels (1990)
03. Tarentel - Blessed|Cursed
The Order of Things (Neurot Recordings, 2001)
04. Fridge - Harmonics
Happiness (Temporary Residence, 2001)
05. Nels Cline/Greg Bendian – Venus
Interstellar Space Revisited (The Music of John Coltrane) (2005)
06. Slint - Washer
Spiderland (Touch & Go Records, 1991)
07. Rachel’s – Artemisia
Selenography (Touch & Go Records, 1999)
08. The Kilimanjaro Darkjazz Ensemble – Parallel Corners
The Kilimanjaro Darkjazz Ensemble (Planet Mu, 2006)
09. Broadcast - Look Outside
Noise made by people (2000)
10. Ralph Towner – Piscean Dreams
Solstice (ECM, 1975)

Note: Wow, posting has been sparse. Here is a big one, try to make it last for a few days :D. It’s really big, I like it. A simple post-rock mix with few string tracks. Random really, I just need an excuse to post the above beautiful solar system exploration map. So, post rock with a tinge of spacey feel is in order. Float around the solar system for a moment. In the meantime, we still trying to sort things out. (no really…really really… )

image: National Geography via Gizmodo

Moka is preparing a big end of decade list, so I thought I make few companion lists along with it. A look back and summary for where MdM has gone.

Ani DiFranco – Cloud Blood
To the Teeth (Righteous Babe. 1999)

To the Teeth is the last album I remember buying because I heard it on radio. I had been driving all day when this song come in and air changes. It is not just another tune, but somebody shared her work about a journey, something that I was doing too. In a way it was the classic story about how a song connect and moment sneaks up. Around this time internet Amazon started selling CD and mp3 rages over the net, first generation of portable mp3 emerged and people start writing about music online. How recording music reaches me changed forever. Music on radio never has the same impact anymore. A new era begun.

Feist – Gatekeeper
Let It Die (Arts & Crafts. 2004)

A beautiful song with pure lyricism and honest instrumentation. Gatekeeper is an intensely detailed small room acoustic piece. Maybe it’s a bit nonsense to claim that the blog made this song. But I think the blog played significant part spreading Feist’s work. It appeals to everybody because in the early days of mp3 blogging, so many of mp3 bloggers were starting musicians or people who works in recording community and this type of delicate sound with lyricism was missing in radio and television. She is a media darling now.

Sufjan Stevens – Casimir Pulaski Day
Illinois (Asthmatic Kitty. 2005)

Not many people know that this earnest folksy song was cover of Big Black, a hardcore punk from Illinois. Sufjan Steven interpretation defied expectation. He captured what a lot of people think was not offered by mtv and the like. A delicate work on deceivingly simple daily subject instead of Britney Spear or Mariah Carey mega media drama. Sufjan Steven was a legit blog favorite because of that and a superstar for all that matter. Everybody posted and talked about him endlessly around 2005 and 2006, people gives loves to smaller recording labels output like Asmatic Kitty, Fat Cats, Domino. The mp3 blog scene was born. Songs were not merely reaction to the airwave, but distinct preference.

Chavela Vargas – Macorina
Chavela at Carnegie Hall (Wea Spain. 2003)

Moka lifted her eyebrows when I posted this. But I thought what Vargas work and what she is saying is exactly what need to be on the blog. Breaking boundaries and explores all corners of music. It’s celebratory and grand. The crowd roars.

Ray LaMontagne – Crazy
online unofficial released? (2006)

The year was 2006. The british TV found Gnarls Barkley – Danger Mouse and Cee Loo duo – hip-hop soul piece. And it quickly spread across the atlantic. Before long St. Elsewhere was released. I have deep suspicion Gnarls Barkley started the elaborate online viral marketing for themselves. In between that time Moka posted Ray LaMontagne cover of Crazy. MdM traffic trippled that day and MdM was inside 20 top mp3 blogs. Gnarls Barkley won Grammy and was a legit hit of mid first decade of 21st century. In the meantime we still don’t know if Ray LaMontagne cover can bought officially somewhere or what crazy costum Gnarls Barkley will come up next.

Cat Power – The Greatest
The Greatest (Matador Records. 2005)

Heart breakingly pretty song by blog darling Cat Power. Around the time of this album release the biggest of mp3 blogs are actually influential enough to push an album along in a chart. People pay attention because the blog consistently pointed out interesting works for the mp3 era. The industry started sending people. The second biggest indie label group Beggar Banquet begun interacting actively with blogs while trying to sort out the legality mp3 files for promotion before later joining an industry cartel group dealing with music online. MdM decided to hard ban all major labels work and put a break on all BB output along with them.

Nouvelle Vague – Guns Of Brixton
Nouvelle Vague (Luaka Bop. 2004)

When they kick out your front door. How you gonna come? With your hands on your head. Or on the trigger of your gun? You can crush us.
You can bruise us. But you’ll have to answer to. A fun cover of Clash’es punk classic, in bossa nova acoustic no less. I thought this innocent Parisian project captures perfectly what the blog was doing. The rebellious independent energy of early punk. Earnest fun tunes, high sophistication, wrapped in simple idea in layers of styles. There is nothing new in what the blog is doing, except following what people has been doing for ages. Sharing fun ideas.

Animal Collective – My Girls
Merriweather Post Pavilion (Domino. 2009)

Here we are at the last year of first decade. Another blog favorite that never makes sense to radio because it sounds so terrible on 96kbps. A lo-fi folktronica with musical root in psych rock and late 60′s highland country side. Like in the early days the big public suspicion is that it’s all a big insider joke started few bloggers instead of interesting work ahead of its time.