Review: Psapp – Tiger, My Friend (or) a stained glass window
The latest Psapp record Tiger, My Friend is pristine electronic pop that ranks right up there with The Postal Service’s Give up and The Notwist’s Neon Golden as tops within the genre. It also occurred to me that I’ve been listening to quite a bit of this stuff lately. You know, poppy electronica that’s been (Read more…)
Review: Horse The Band – The Mechanical Hand (or) shimmy shimmy shake
I laughed when I read their sound described as, “Imagine a 5 year old playing Nintendo and drinking Kool-Aid as he gets run over by Pantera’s tour bus,” and I’m laughing as I write this. Mainly because HORSE the Band is a terrible name for a band and also a terrible name for a horse, (Read more…)
Jeff Tweedy live 1-25-06 (Abbey Pub)
This past Wednesday (1/25/06) my friend Jacob went to see Jeff Tweedy at the Abbey Pub in Chicago. I (unfortunately) was busy and couldn’t attend this benefit show for Gary Schepers in which 100% of all ticket and door money went to him and an additional $1800 was raised through a ticket auction. I did (Read more…)
Review: Obadia – Where Does Dust Come From
My wife and I enjoyed Obadia’s EP Where Does Dust Come From? during a friendly game of scrabble (which I won) last weekend. This fun little 7-song EP contains “traces and excerpts from a larger mass of recordings” that film-maker and knob-twiddler (Stéphane) Obadia recorded between April 1998 and December 2003 in Paris and Stockholm. (Read more…)
Review: Smoke Or Fire – Above The City (or) safety in prime numbers
Smoke or Fire was originally known as Jericho before they moved to Richmond, VA from Boston. After the move they changed their name to Jericho RVA and (later) to Smoke or Fire. Their latest album Above The City is a fast and furious 12 song barrage that is (as is the case with so many (Read more…)
Review: Paavoharju – Yhä hämmärää (or) our lady of the worthless miracle
Paavoharju hails from a remote corner of Finland and (perhaps) because of their isolation (at least to my ears) their music is quite unique. The music on their latest album Yhí hímmíríí is very hard to pinpoint or label. There are certainly nods to the music of India and the east and almost medieval sounding (Read more…)
The great cystsfts mixtape project
So last week I told everyone that I was looking for a little help making a new mix CD for my wife to listen to. I asked the readers of this here blog to give suggestions and send in some songs. Well, the response was more than I expected (apologies to everyone who’s songs didn’t (Read more…)
Review: Part Chimp – I Am Come (or) born in a witches cauldron
Part Chimp hails from the UK and plays noise rock that (even at moderate volumes) sounds deafeningly loud. They (for the most part) throw melody out the window and spew forth a sludgy and bombastic cloud of pummeling guitar feedback and crashing cymbals. Even when the music quiets and the guitars go clean, you know (Read more…)
He really cannot be trusted
Big thanks to everyone that submitted music for the CYSTSFTS? Mix Tape Project as I now have more than enough great songs to put on a CD for my wife. The results will be posted sometime this week along with the mix I made (which is much more predictable) for her. In sadder news Jacob (Read more…)
