late again, but a post

So I started this post ages ago, sometime like the 5th or something ... and I'm finally getting around to finishing it.

Someone commented and wanted me to reupload the Sufjan rarities, so that is a coming post. More coming posts include the start of my best of 2007 and then my best of 2006, a little backwards, but you'll have to deal with it. The semester is ending so that's a ton of work and I may have a co-op over Christmas break, but I'll find time to make a few posts between working and writing music with Neal for Where There is Fire We Will Carry Gasoline. We're gong to try to write and record an ep and play some shows, so keep a heads up for dates and maybe a track or two from the ep. In the nearer future, I realized how much I like the demo acoustic recording of "Runner Up" so I'll be doing a little mastering work on that ... a tiny bit of compression and reverb to make it sound a little nicer. That should replace the old version on our myspace in a matter of weeks.

Here's my potential list for best albums of 2006. I'm sure I forgot a few but I'll add/narrow it down to 10 by early January...
Juana Molina – Son
Thom Yorke – The Eraser
Mogwai – Mr. Beast
My Brightest Diamond – Bring Me the Workhorse
M. Ward – Post War
Bob Dylan – Modern Times
Converge – No Heroes
Denison Witmer – Safe Away (Re-Release)
The Velvet Teen – Cum Laude!
Yo La Tengo – I Am Not Afraid Of You And I Will Beat Your Ass
Isis – The Absence of Truth
Unwed Sailor – The White Ox
Copeland – Eat, Sleep, Repeat
Jeremy Enigk – World Waits
TV on the Radio – Return to Cookie Mountain
Chad VanGaalen – Skeliconnection
Beck – The Information
The Thermals – The Body, The Blood, The Machine
Tortoise – A Lazarus Taxon
The Long Winters – Putting The Days To Bed
The Album Leaf – Into the Blue Again
The Format – Dog Problems
The Decemberists – The Crane Wife
Joanna Newsom – Ys
His Name Is Alive – Detrola
Sound Team – Movie Monster
Islands – Return to the Sea
Band of Horses – Everything All The Time
Final Fantasy – He Poos Clouds
Built to Spill – You In Reverse
The Raconteurs – Broken Boy Soldiers
Liars – Drums Not Dead
Mono – You Are There
Wolfmother – S/T
Loose Fur – Born Again in the USA
The Flaming Lips – At War with the Mystics
Cat Power – The Greatest
Appleseed Cast – Peregrine
Anathallo – Floating World
Aloha – Some Echoes
Sparrows Swarm and Sing – Oh Shenandoah, Mighty Death Will Find Me

EP’s of note:
Foxhole – Push/Pull
Jesu - Silver
David Bazan – Fewer Moving Parts
Jose Gonzalez – Stay in the Shade

Two weekends ago ... was one those weekends of shows. Thursday was Anathallo and Page France in Baltimore, Friday was Owen, Appleseed Cast, and Copeland in Philli, and Saturday was a Roustabout in State College which was rather unmentionable, except for the playing of The Flaming Lip's Zaireeka (I think that's how it's spelled), which is 8 tracks of 4 simultaneously playing discs. It was none less than breathtaking.

I'm pretty sure Ottobar wasn't allowing pictures, and my camera was not cooperating so I didn't get any shots there. Both Anathallo and Page France were amazing. I try to see Anathallo once a year, and luckily that happened on Thursday, and I was as blown away as I was every other time I've seen them. They mostly played stuff from Floating World which is good, but I really love their older material. I got my wish and they played "Holiday at the Sea" and broke into a verse of Joanna Newsom's "Milk Eyed Mender" in the midst, which was really suprising, but pulled off perfectly. I love Page France for "Chariot" and "Junkyard," but watching the whole set, I got a little bored. Yet, the girl that play keys and does background vocals is really cute. All that said, it was a great show.

[mp3] Anathallo - Don't Kid Yourself You Need a Physician
[mp3] Page France - Junkyard

Then Friday night was Acute, Owen, Appleseed Cast, and Copeland at TLA. This show was beyond words. We missed Owen, Acute was fine for an opener ... entertaining enough. And then Appleseed Cast. No matter what they play, or how many original members remain, their shows are so emotive. They don't really play anything before Low Level Owl much anymore, but the newer stuff is still really good despite falling short in comparison to Mare Vitalis. Copeland put on an awesome show as well. I haven't seen them in years, and I wasn't sure how I'd react to seeing newer songs live and just how they perform in general. I was pleasantly suprised. Stage banter was a little lacking, but the set flowed entremely well and the show was great with the additional lights and backdrops. A couple pictures below of ASC and Copeland ...





I'm going to dip way back in my pictures for a few from the October 7th John Frances, M. Ward and Juana Molina show. M. Ward was great, but I most enjoyed Juana Molina. She plays solo live and builds up the her songs peice by piece with a sample pedal using voice, keyboard, and guitar. I was exteremly impressed with her performance; definitely look her up.

[mp3] M. Ward - Big Boat
[mp3] Juana Molina - Micael
[mp3] Juana Molina - Malherido
[mp3] Juana Molina - No Seas Antipatica

back again

I’m so sorry to the five or so of you that haven’t given up checking on my blog every week. I’ve dropped the ball, but I’m picking it up and I’m ready to play kickball with you and all the neighborhood kids, so make sure you invite them. As much as I’d be up for it everyday, I think I’ll only dust off the bases once a week or so, maybe twice. Along with the weekly frequency I’m promising you right now, I’ll also promise that posts (or kickball games, if you are still running with that) will be of substance and include 3 or so bands/songs/news items/albums/whatever I feel like talking about. So see you around … On with the post.

Wincing The Night Away leaked about 2 weeks ago. That’s the new Shins album for those of you that think you’re cool enough to not keep track of those sort of things. But everyone is desperately in love with The Shins and has no reason for you to not have new album within your clutches, actually due from Sub Pop January 23. I listened to this record every waking minute for the entire week after I got it, and promptly got extremely sick of it. I actually started telling myself it was so bad that it was probably something thrown together just to leak to the material hungry fans and then make fun of those fans when they thought their new record was so great. I mean face it, The Shins take forever to release new material. But, then I gave the record a rest and forgot all that nonsense and it is great, fantastic, phenomenal, and amazing beyond belief again. I was debating on whether to share the first or second song with you, since they are both so good, and I really can’t think of a better way to start the record than with those two songs … well, “Austrailia” won out against “Sleeping Lessons” and there you have it.

[mp3] The Shins - Australia

Yo La Tengo wants to be your favorite band ever. I feel like I Am Not Afraid of You and I Will Beat Your Ass sounds loosely reminiscent of older material from the ranks of Belle & Sebastian, Broken Social Scene, The Magnetic Fields, and of course Yo La Tengo themselves. It’s no Summer Sun, and no Nuclear War EP (my introduction to YLT, which turned me off to them at first until I really figured them out), but it lays somewhere beautifully and gracefully balanced between their flat-out weird material and the spaced out days of And Then Nothing Turned Itself Inside-Out (my favorite YLT record). I just got the record this week after having some older YLT records heavy in my rotation and realizing the idiocy in my ways … so I tracked it down. Nothing has sunk in too much, and the 10+ minute bookends on either end of the album are a little bit of a turn-off, otherwise I really love the album. My favorite song so far has to be “Daphnia,” mostly because it reminds me of And Then Nothing… It’s not really characteristic of the rest of the album; sorry to those looking to find that song. Noting this fact to myself after I typed that and intended to upload “Daphnia,” here’s more representative “Beanbag Chair" instead. .

[mp3] Yo La Tengo - Beanbag Chair

It’s usually your instinct to ignore those friend requests on myspace that look like they are just lame bands employing some stupid scripts to increase their exposure and friends counts. I thought Glassacre was one of those bands, but damn was I wrong. They call new Australia-based web label Hidden Shoal Recordings home. I haven’t had a chance to listen to the other artists on Hidden Shoal but I’m sure I’ll be pleased when I get around to it. The songs they have on their myspace are atmospheric and spacey while still retaining enough of a pop element to catch your ear. I’m keeping an eye on them, you should too.

[link] Glassacre's Myspace

There was some blog buzz surrounding Tokyo Police Club maybe as far back as the spring. And since that buzz, their EP A Lesson In Crime, has sat very lonely in my itunes begging for a listen. Well I finally did a couple weeks ago, and I really enjoy it. I call it Bloc Party meets Ted Leo and that seems to work while not being too accurate whatsoever. See what you think.

[mp3] Tokyo Police Club - Citizens of Tomorrow

And as far as me and making music, there is new material coming. Where There Is Fire We Will Carry Gasoline is a little dormant, but the awesome remix of “Something About Maps” featuring samples from The Joseph Albers Experiment “4” is still up on the myspace. Neal and I have tentative plans to record an EP and do some brief touring this winter and hopefully that will pan out, but I am still saying tentative in front of plans. We did record something about a month ago … nothing formal, but something. We did a collaboration, improvisational piece with Brendan Sullivan under Neal’s temporary solo moniker of Windows, but it’s 45 minutes long. We might burn a bunch to CD-R’s sometime in the future, throw them in some creative home-made packaging, and sell them for a couple bucks. For now, you’ll just have to wait for me to have the motivation to take 2 minutes to make a clip of the piece and throw it on our myspace. There’s another up and coming project I just heard about. A good friend of mine, currently living in Southern California, has asked me if I would like to write some music to back a CD of his poetry. I have no idea what direction this is going, but I’ll keep you posted. I’m currently working on chopping up, sampling, and using a couple little songs Neal recorded himself in his Windows project. One of these finished products will most likely be the first thing you’ll here from me via the Where There Is Fire We Will Carry Gasoline myspace.

yorke

So The Eraser is old news, but I can't get enough of this album. It is seriously laptop rock at its finest and I wish I could program like this album. All the car windows down, stereo at max, 60 degrees, backroads, and this album. Things can't get much better than this. "Atoms for Peace" is my personal highlight of the album. Yorke's vocals continuing soaring higher and higher, never gaining edge or making their way to the realm of harsh or annoying. The beats and melodies (as with the rest of the album) are so fresh, ethereal, and ... there's a part of it that cannot be explained. Enjoy.

[mp3] Thom Yorke - Atoms For Peace (yousendit uploaded 9/13)

i'm back ... into the blue again

Into the Blue Again, The Album Leaf's new lp, hit shelves today. It's as brilliant as anything you'd expect from Jimmy Lavelle, and if you liked songs with vocals that were few and far between in previous albums, there's actually more than one. The signature complexly layered tracks, unique and quiet beats, and general synthesized excellence remains from previous albums, growing and progressing in sound only very subtlely. Into the Blue Again is an amazing follow-up to In A Safe Place, and will only further satisfy and impress those who loved the previous album. I'm sure I'll have more to say as my full listens increase from my initial three.

[mp3] The Album Leaf - Always for You
[mp3] The Album Leaf - See in You (Yousendit uploaded 9/12)

Well it's good to be back. I'll most likely start posting semi-daily again now that I finally broke down and posted again. There is a possibility I may start doing an album review once a week as well as posting my regular findings within the music world and mp3s. Hopefully people are still reading this...

the summer continues

So I've been having a glorious summer working at Philmont Scout Ranch despite no time for new music. What new music I have been listening to has been mostly of the bluegrass/folk persuasion. If your current tastes don't include these genres, I suggest you track some down. I don't really have too many suggestions since most of what I've been listening to has been played be friends/people around. So track down some bluegrass and folk and start listening ... until the end of the summer, Sean.

parting words

I'm headed off to New Mexico tomorrow, so that means there is a good chance Where There is Fire will be going dormant for the summer (at least until Aug. 22 when I'm back). I'm working at Philmont Scout Ranch on Conservation staff and I'm really excited to be backpacking all summer and getting paid for it. There's a chance my partner in crime musically (Neal from Where There is Fire We Will Carry Gasoline) will start posting duties, but I don't know if I'll be able to fill him in on how to do this via email. The Rescue EP is uploading as I'm typing so that will be available again to everyone who wants it. Otherwise, this is a goodbye, have a great summer, see you in the fall from me. In the meantime...

I'd like to introduce you to an amazing band that calls PSU its surrogate home (while Erie is their true hometown). Jimi Jive (and the Coefficients of Friction) sounds sketchy as a name, but once you listen, all assumptions going along with the name will disappear. I don't know exactly how to describe them, but it will definitely catch your ear.

[myspace] Jimi Jive


Here's a band plug for another project involving my friend Neal. Along with a few other helpers of the art school variety, The Josef Albers Experiment is just that, an experiment. Sound and music aren't written, they are inspired in each moment. Every 20 to 30 minute piece is captured by the mere internal mic of a mac, but sounds completely the opposite, like each instrument was carefully mic'ed and then the fourtrack started rolling, capturing a sprawling lo-fi symphony. One of the "members" is Brendan Sullivan who does his own equally impressive, rather different solo work.

[myspace] The Josef Albers Experiment

[myspace] Brendan Sullivan


And finally Explosions in the Sky's The Rescue EP. And a link to the rare Sufjan tracks I uploaded a bit ago. See the tracklist in this post.

[zip] Explosions in the Sky - The Rescue (rapidshare)

[zip] Sufjan Stevens - Rarities & B-sides (rapidshare)


Signing off, Sean.

a rant

I just looked at some of the hundreds of comments on the recently closed blog TheIndieConnection. The site used to post whole albums free for the downloading of the general public via rapidshare. I don't know the whole story, but appearantly a band found out about their whole album being posted, got pretty pissed, and a whole shitstorm ensued. (If anybody knows the whole story, I'd kind of like to know.) Anyway, there was a lot of arguing about the ethics of posting whole albums for download in the music community.

I've thought this for a long time ... how is it hurting business if a lot of the people that download these albums are not listening to them that much and wouldn't even buy them in the first place. 99% of the time, if you like something enough that you listen to it consistently, you'll buy it, you'll make an effort to see the band, and you'll buy their merch. Most people don't have the kind of money to throw around that they are going to go buy the more intruiging new releases of the week without really hearing them. For the most part, artists only get a small portion of the actual cd cost and make most of their money touring. As an artist, what's the cost of having your album sit on a computer as mp3s to be sparingly listened to? At most, the album will eventually grow on the listener and they will want to support you. If people aren't going to buy music in the first place, how's business hurt by downloading? Those who only illegally download are still a minority by far. The music business as far as album purchasing is still thriving, but it's obvious the business model is changing. In a hypothetical world without non-purchase downloading, would there be a significant boost in album sales? I think it would be an insignificantly small gain, and exposure would be lost. Hype within the advertising and review domain can only go so far.

People trust their own ears above all.

I'm sorry to go political per-se for a post and forego the mp3s, but I think it's an appropriate topic, especially for those of you reading this, in this niche of music listeners and internet users. I'm neither condoning nor supporting this slippery subject. Just offering my perspective from where I sit, reading the blogs, seeing what goes on, and yes, downloading albums.

I'm up for convincing; comments welcome.

onlelinedrawing live

Onelinedrawing is more a name for the ongoing musical work of Jonah Matranga than it is a band name. Yes, he did record under that name, but currently he is touring and playing songs from all of his past projects. Onelinedrawing implies limits, but Jonah has none. He's been writing music for over a decade and he's incredibly humble about it. Jonah is no rock star. He just loves playing music and seeing people enjoy it and relate to it.

Seeing him live was amazing. He's been playing solo, no longer associated with a band since Gratitude split. I haven't heard much about why that happened, but he gave the impression that he didn't like being in Gratitude at all. It was too rock and roll or something of that nature. The show was in Alumni Hall (here at PSU), which is huge, so the small crowd spread out in the front quarter of the room. Being such a big room, the presence was great while Jonah still managed to keep the show really intimate. He even brought a battery powered amp outside when they started to tear down. When I say solo, I mean not entirely. For a few songs, he was backed by Jersey emo/punk outfit Pick an Exit. It was cool that they learned the songs, but they weren't really cut out for it.

If you've never heard anything Jonah has touched, you need to. His voice is like nothing I've ever heard before. You need to hear it, trust me. There are more mp3s in the scrapbooks section of his website.

[mp3] Onelinedrawing - We Had a Deal *Highly Recommended
[mp3] Onelinedrawing - A Ghost
[mp3] Far - Man Overboard

Jonah also played a cover of The Deftones' "Be Quiet and Drive" live. If you want to hear a live recording, check out this post on onehundredscenes.


The pictures are pretty good, so i put them at the end of the post so they can be big and don't overlap with the blog links and stuff.
Photos from the Alumni Hall Show (04.07.06):

indie conspiracy theories

According to certain notoriously unreliable sources, full of pompus "journalists" (a-hem pitchfork) and spread around by some innocent bloggers, Sufjan Stevens and Rosie Thomas are having a baby. Also, the two recorded a collaborative album with Denison Witmer to be released this summer. Well, sorry to get all your hopes up for cute children and uber-folk, but that is what we call a little white lie. Give Mr. Witmer's name a click and see what the first item in his news says, not to mention that he's been telling the funny story about was spoon feeding pitchfork stories at his recent shows. Indie's too uptight, we do need to joke more.

[mp3] Rosie Thomas - Red Rover (feat. Sam Beam)
[mp3] Denison Witmer - 24 Turned 25

Some of you that read this personally know me, and if you do, you may have heard my theory that Sufjan will actually never release another states record. In combination with the announcement of the release of The Avalanche: Outtakes and Extras from the Illinois Album, the info stunt provides all the info I need to try and convince you Sufjan is done with states.

If you can joke about being pregnant, you can joke about making albums for all 50 states. If you release a b-sides record adding on to the all ready hour topping super sucess of an album you released last year, it probably means you don't feel like writing any more songs about states so you'll just record the ones you have and move on. After A Sun Came, Sufjan made a complete genre jump with Enjoy Your Rabbit and it may be time for that again after Illinois. We have not seen an EP release from Sufjan yet, only albums. That's my prediction on what's to come as far as new material: an EP or two. He'll probably explore some different corners of his songwritting abilities and record them with instrumentation done by himself. Afterall, he has been hopping around with the Illinoismakers for quite a while and most of them have their own bands and projects. Several just saw pretty major new releases and could really benefit from some time touring to support the releases.

In conclusion, the 50 states thing is a bulff. He thought it up and ventured to throw it out there that it might be a cool ambition to have and his fans changed that ambition to a burning expectation. Now, I think he just laughs when he's setting up for a show and he hears two fans arguing about whether the next album will be New Jersey or Arkansas (both with their basis in only a single piece of evidence). It's all hype, and I think it's really funny.



[zip] Sufjan Stevens - Rarities & B-sides (rapidshare)


As if that weren't enough Sufjan for the day, I've uploaded a zip onto rapidshare containing all those compilation tracks you really wish you had. To find out about everything he's ever touched, so you can find it all, check out this fansite - All Good Naysayers, Speak Up! The only things not inculded are really old Sufjan associated tracks (like Marzuki stuff), the Chicago remix that was an iTunes bonus track (because it just wasn't that good, and remixes abound ... better ones), live stuff (because there's tons of that and you can find it everywhere) and the 5 Michigan bonus tracks because they only exist in vinyl form, so I think they should only be listened to in vinyl form (I'll only listen to rips if the LP is really hard to find and the songs exist nowhere else, but I have the Michigan 2xLP). In case you missed those links ...

[link] All Good Naysayers, Speak Up! (All the Sufjan info you've ever wanted to know)
[link] Confabulators: Illin'-Noise! Remixes by mcDJ (if you loved Illinois, you'll love this)

These songs are all so good. Sufjan can never dissappoint. If you've only heard one or two, you practically have an entire new album to fall in love with clocking in at 53 minutes of unheard Sufjan. The order I'm assigning is arbitrary - all the tracks have the proper tags for what album they are from and the track number on that album. They are all mp3s of various bitrates unless noted.

01 - I Can't Even Lift My Head [To Spirit Back The Mews]
02 - The Avalanche (AAC) [Illinoise iTunes Bonus Track]
03 - Woman At The Well [8.21 Blue Bunny Compilation]
04 - Opie's Funeral Song [Mew's Too]
05 - Far Physician's Son [8.21 Blue Bunny Compilation]
06 - Variation On "Commemorative Transfiguration & Communion At Magruder Park" [I Am The Resurrection: A Tribute To John Fahey]
07 - God'll Ne'er Let You Down [To Spirit Back The Mews]
08 - She Is [Dream Brother: The Songs of Tim & Jeff Buckley]
09 - The Lord God Bird [All Songs Considered]
10 - All Delighted People [Eye of the Beholder, Vol. 1]
11 - Borderline [Hope Isn't a Word]
12 - Bushwick Junkie [To Spirit Back The Mews]
13 - Damascus [Seen/Unseeen]
14 - What Goes On [This Bird Has Flown: A 40th Anniversary Tribute To The Beatles' Rubber Soul]
15 - The First Full Moon [To Spirit Back The Mews]

shameless promotion

I don't think it's too typical for bloggers to post their own music on their mp3 blog, but I'm going to dip into shameless self promotion for a post. I decided to make a myspace for the ongoing project I have going with my friend Neal that has the same namesake as this blog. We started Where There Is Fire We Will Carry Gasoline in the fall of our senior year of high school so we could play a battle of the bands and provide something other than the usual bands that show up at those sorts of things. We wrote one song and did a cover (to never be mentioned again because it kind of sucked). We've collaborated ever since to produce sprawling, epic musical pieces blending many genres including indie, electronic, experimental, and ambient among many others. Hopefully we can get our two polished and 100% complete songs "Runner Up" and "The Apocalypse Will Not Be In Tune" recorded in some manner before I head to New Mexico for the summer, but I don't know if that will happen. Cross your fingers.

Anyway, the song I have up on the myspace is something I started back in February from some samples I decided to play with and pulled out the other week with the goal of actually finishing it. I have too many skeletons of songs just sitting around that just need a lot more work structure-wise. I guess my problem is I'm pretty comfortable and familiar with Fruityloops, but I haven't really mastered it yet, nor have I taken the time or effort to expand my VST plugin and sample library to have the tools to be able to tackle putting what I'm thinking in my head onto the screen. A lot of times ideas don't translate to samples and sequencing so that's a problem too, since I don't own recording gear or have really easy access to any.

Where There Is Fire We Will Carry Gasoline on myspace

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