Image: Cover of Yellow & Green album by Baroness

• Yes - The Fish (Schindleria Praematurus)
  Fragile (1971)
• King Crimson- Sleepless 
  Three of a Perfect Pair (1984)
• A Tribe Called Quest – Bonita Applebum
  People’s Instinctive Travels And The Paths Of Rhythm (Jive, 1990) 
• Ween - The Mullusk
  The Mollusk (1997)
• Caribou – Selfish Boy
  Tour CD (2010)
• La Barranca - El Gran Pez
  Tempestad (1997)
• Radiohead – Weird Fishes / Arpeggi
  In Rainbows (2008) 
• Metronomy – Corinne (Benoit & Sergio Version)
   The English Riviera Unreleased Remixes (Because Music, 2012)
• Toro Y Moi - Go With You
  Underneath The Pine (Carpark Records, 2011) 

I’m not dead, Motel de Moka is not dead…
It’s summer… So, let’s go swim!

Pd.
Gracias a @inconexa, @sonicgu y @gatosingracia por su -indirecta- inspiración.

Photo still: Hotel Chevalier

Wes Anderson’s long withstanding obsession with mellow, baroque pop and british invasion bands is fascinating to me. I keep uncovering my new, old favorite song every time I see one of his movies. I even have a playlist dedicated to his films, filled with songs and artists I discovered thanks to him and a few more songs that I think would fit in his next hypothetical movie. I’ve no idea what his next movie will be about but I’ve been thinking that his mostly muted, awkward characters would develop grandly in a fast-paced environment. It could be an interesting contrast. How about a movie about a speed racer? Or better yet, a road movie? A film about the life of a motorcycle drifter and his dreams of finding someone and settling down. Keep that thought while listening to this playlist. Hope you enjoy.

• Silver Seas – Imaginary Girl
  High Society (Cheap Lullaby / 2006)
• The Gants – I Wonder
  Gants Again (1966)
• Sailcat – Motorcycle Mama
  Motorcycle Mama (1972)
• Big Star – I’m in Love with a Girl
  Radio City (1974)
• Françoise Hardy – Only Friends
  Sings in English (1966)
• Margo Guryan – Someone I Know
  Take a Picture (Sundazed, 1968)
• Can - Turtles Have Short Legs
  Turtles Have Short Legs / Halleluwah (1971)
• The Feelies – High road
  The Good Earth (Rough Trade, 1986)d
• The Equals – Police On My Back
  Baby, Come Back (President, 1968)
• Donovan – Catch the Wind
  Catch the Wind (Pye, 1972)

It seems film directors are returning to the truths all pop music devotees have long tattoed to their heart: the collision of medium and man matters not, if it don’t sound good. In a recurring series tracing the links between movies and the pop music scores to which they owe so much, we’ll look at Wes Anderson’s ultra-stylized The Royal Tenenbaums and its mastery of the perfect pop music score. Film and cinema. Consider it a two-fer and settle in nice and close.

Pop culture fans tend to be self-mythologizers, building an odd nest out of the twigs and scraps of the movies and albums around them and claiming a place beyond themselves from the miasma that evolves. We force the arts into defining elements of ourselves, and copy and paste the way we might live up to them. Wes Anderson’s film is a masterwork of just this self-mythologizing. The grandiose characters—part cartoon-script and part Shakesperean tragedy—, the exaggerated costumes—from Mr. Sherman’s almost neon-blue jacket to Chas’s funereal black Adidas jumpsuit—and even Anderson’s Hitchcockian auteurism and its use of the same actors in widely-divergent roles links each movie to a larger awareness than any single film can lay claim to. Hints are given and fingers are pointed, but the links are there for the audience to follow at their choosing. Anderson rubs things smooth with his hyperstylized sets and costumes, but ultimately the film depends on pop music to connect itself to a world beyond its own colorful walls, and thus to blend the myth with the movie until there’s no longer any differentiating between the two.

- A kiss after supper: The Royal Tenenbaums by Derek Miller.

In the 1969 revision of the Roman Catholic Calendar of Saints, the feast day of Saint Valentine on February 14 was removed from the General Roman Calendar and relegated to particular (local or even national) calendars for the following reason: “Though the memorial of Saint Valentine is ancient, it is left to particular calendars, since, apart from his name, nothing is known of Saint Valentine except that he was buried on the Via Flaminia on February 14.” The feast day is still celebrated in Balzan (Malta) where relics of the saint are claimed to be found, and also throughout the world by Traditionalist Catholics who follow the older, pre-Second Vatican Council calendar. February 14 is also celebrated as St Valentine’s Day in other Christian denominations; it has, for example, the rank of ‘commemoration’ in the calendar of the Church of England and other parts of the Anglican Communion. – wiki

” Valentine day list. No.2. late ”

01. The Velvet Underground – Pale Blue Eyes
The Velvet Underground (1969)
02. The Lovin’ Spoonful – Coconut Grove
Greatest Hits (Buddha, 2000)
03. Bert Jansch – A Woman Like You
Birthday Blues (1969)
04. Moby Grape – Sitting By The Window
Moby Grape (1967)
05. Arlo Guthrie – My Creole Belle
Running Down The Road (Rising Son Records, 1970)
06. Richard Hell & the Voidoids – New Pleasure
Blank Generation (1977)
07. The KINKS – Everybody’s Gonna Be Happy
The Ultimate Collection (2003)

Note: A short list for lazy evening Valentine Day. Highland, british invasion rock. Definitely groovy 60′s.  I guess you can say this is MdM version of a box of chocolate. So don’t play the list too many times. Just enough. And happy V-day to everybody out there.

Image: trustypics

1. EMA – Past Life Martyred Saints (Souterrain Transmissions)
Listen: Anteroom

Martyrs are not victims. There is no self-pity or cool detachment to their pain. This is the mantra by which Erika M. Anderson lives in her songs. Past Life Martyred Saints is an intimate but uncomfortable album, it will make you feel guilty for the hearts you’ve torn apart and it will make you feel weak for all the times you’ve been hurt and felt victimized for it.

2. Colin Stetson – New History Warfare Vol. 2: Judges (Constellation)
Listen: Fear of the Unknown and the Blazing Sun

The first time I heard Colin Stetson he was the opening act for Godspeed You! Black Emperor and it was absolutely mind-blowing. Some of us mistook him as a sound engineer and were caught completely by surprise when he started playing. One by one we fell into a silent trance as he created out of thin air the most magnificent, heartbroken beasts I’ve ever heard from a one man band. Recorded in one take with no overdubs, Judges captures the thrill of hearing him live with precision. Not only is the record technically impressive and conceptually novel but also highly compelling at a musical level. Inspired by post-rock and electronic pioneers, Stetson favors sonic aesthetics over experimentation, every deviation sounding calculated enough as to not scare the feeble away but smart enough to hook the most demanding listeners.

3. Shabazz Palaces – Black Up (Sub Pop)
Listen: Swerve… The reeping of all that is worthwhile (Noir not withstanding)

Experimental hip-hop that finds its roots on avant-garde jazz acts such as Sun Ra instead of disco and funk. I’ll be completely honest, english being my second language I have a hard time trying to understand hip hop lyrics, so I suck at appreciating the genre for one of its defining features and yet the multiple twists and turns in Black Up give it a replay value like few other albums I heard this year. Breezy, psychedelic and extremely unpredictable.

4. Braids – Native Speaker (Flemish Eye)
Listen: Lemonade

Native Speaker feels to me like an erotic reinterpretation of Animal Collective’s ‘Feels’; on one hand it has the same approach in creating pop music: Loops of haze, rock instruments stretched to odd realms and cryptic lyrics; on the other one, we’ve never heard Animal Collective create songs as deeply personal and carefully constructed as the ones in Native Speaker. There’s a definite streak of innate sensuality and maturity which gives the music a whole new level of influence and meaning.

5. Robag Wruhme – Thora Bukk (Pampa)
Listen: Wupp Dek

It’s always a treat to hear a producer who is proficient and well known around the techno community turning away from the dancefloor to release music that borders outside of their usual field of expertise. Thora Vukk is Wruhme’s exploration of his music’s more melancholic, contemplative side, while keeping the sense of tension and attention to detail that he has perfected as a techno producer. The result is warm, gorgeous album that is fascinating, at least on an aesthetic level. Chillroom microhouse.

6. Thee Oh Sees – Castlemania (In the Red)
Listen: I Need Seed

Of all the indie bands that have adopted the garage rock influence, Thee Oh Sees are, in my humble opinion, one of the most fun around. At 16 tracks, Castlemania is their longest album to date yet there isn’t a single song in here that outwears its welcome. Every track keeps things fresh by throwing a wild, eccentric touch into the mix which makes them sound like a forward thinking, modern band that isn’t particularly concerned with revisionism.

7. Vinicius Cantuária & Bill Frisell – Lágrimas Mexicanas (E1)
Listen: Aquela Mulher

One of my favorite discoveries this year was Vinicius Cantuárias’ music; an elegant sort of Brazilian jazz that seems to fit all my moods and seasons. On ‘Lágrimas Mexicanas’ he is joined by guitar-virtuoso Bill Frisell and the result is a very colorful sound that switches between Frisell’s heavily geared, atmospheric stylings and Cantuaria’s Brazilian sensibilities. Although it doesn’t quite bring anything new to the table this album is an absolute pleasure to listen to.

8. Chain & the Gang – Music’s not for Everyone (K)
Listen: Why Not?

Chain and the Gang frontman, Ian Svenoniu comes up with an upfront, snobby attitude and the unruly approach of a punk star, rocking out unironically while critiquing the very own genre’s conventions. Mordant and unusually funny, the enjoyment of this album depends on how much you appreciate tongue in cheek sloganeering and cynicism.

9. Crystal Stilts – In Love with Oblivion (Slumberland)
Listen: Through the Floor

While Thee Oh Sees sound like they are pretending they’re a 60′s garage band that travelled in time to use today’s technology, Crystal Stilts behave like gravekeepers. They think of their dead idols as purveyors of a sound now rotten and decomposed, creators of long forgotten anthems that are now bathed in a ghoulish atmosphere. Do not, under any circumstance, attempt to undig them. The dead should remain buried deep underground. Leave them be. Hear what their spirits are whispering and reinterpret it for any of us living that might still be listening.

10. The Go! Team – Rolling Blackouts (Memphis Industries)
Listen: Ready To Go Steady

I remember being annoyed by the songs in ‘Thunder, Lightning, Strike‘ when I first heard them back in 2004. It took me 4 years to finally understand, digest and admire the band, nowadays it has become one of the most treasured pieces of my music collection. When ‘Rolling Blackouts’ came out earlier this year I already knew what to expect, the energy of a horny, raging bull charging into a room filled with cheerleaders, brass-blasting walls of sound and a complete lack of subtleness. If this sounds like your thing, then it is as amazing as it sounds.

Note: I’ve had this post ready for months now, almost thought of killing it and storing it in the fridge… I mean it’s probably a bit late for best-of lists but maybe it will help you discover something you missed out. Hope you enjoy.
Also: Schils Favourite Albums 2011 & his Top Mixes and Compilations.

Photo: Lars Tunbjörk

• Stephen Malkmus & The Jicks - No One Is (As I Are Be)
  Mirror Traffic (Matador, 2011)
• Deerhunter – Desire Lines
  Halcyon Digest (4ad, 2010)
• Dj Shadow - Scale It Back
  The Less You Know, The Better (Roc-A-Fella, 2011)
• Julianna Barwick - Vow (Diplo & Lunice Remix)
  The Matrimony Remixes (Asthmatic Kitty, 2011)
• Steve Mason - Lost and Found
  Boys Outside (Double Six, 2010)
• James Figurine - Apologies (John Tejada Remix)
  Forgive Your Friends (Monika Enterprise, 2006)

The winter is just around the corner, and the last entry which I had around here, was totally dedicated to summer.
Never too late for a welcome to an omnipresent autumn.
Regarding the playlist … I wasn’t very sure about including that Deerhunter song, although it is one of my favorites  from the group. I got stuck in the idea that it disrupts the overall mood of the other songs … in the end, though, I wanted it to reach out and I dared to include it. Hope it doesn’t affect your enjoyment and you enjoy the rest of the selections.