Maniacal Silence

JAMES BLAKE

2011-02-04T10:32:00.000-08:00

James Blake has been a bit over-hyped to be sure, especially in the UK. Most of the acclaim in my opinion is well deserved though. He was able, with 3 Ep's last year to jump all over the producer/dub-dance/r&b-esque/minimalist electronica map and did surprisingly well in all of those arenas. All at the age of 22 I may add..
With his first full-length though, he has decided to make an even bigger change and incorporate an instrument that has only showed up on a few songs to date, his own voice. And even when he has used it in the past, it was being sent through digital effects, flattened out and was chopped-up to a point you weren't even able to discern whether or not it was his. Not now though, his voice is front and center and you wouldn't be too far off calling this an electronic singer songwriter album. The most surprising thing about the album to me though, is the fact that you would be hard pressed to find one song on here that would be considered club friendly. I think some people are going to like it less because of that and other will prefer it. One thing for sure, the hype will only continue to buzz because he is definitely an extremely talented artist and his music is really good, sometimes difficult and a lot of the times - polarizing. Personally, I love it and am about to put the headphones back on and jump back in... Right now, the last two songs ("I Mind" and "Measurements"are hitting me the hardest after the first few listens.

Below is the first video "The Wilhelm Scream"

New Order - "Every Little Counts"

2010-08-12T22:19:00.000-07:00

this song just slows me down and sits with me the same way some of Velvet Underground/Lou Reed's slow and steady, maybe even sentimental songs do.. especially the calmer stuff on "Loaded"

Wire

2010-08-12T22:16:00.000-07:00

Heartbeat

playlist - 71210

2010-07-12T19:03:00.000-07:00

this list may not exactly jump out at you as being the quintessential summer playlist but today it combined perfectly with the 101 temperature and the hot asphalt.......

Deerhunter - "Fluorescent Grey" First heard this one on a split 7" that Reatard and DH did together. Each took a song from the others upcoming release and gave their best shot at the cover. So, the version of this particular song that I heard first was actually played/sung by Jay. Fell in love with it immediately although it should be noted that i do in fact like the deerhunter version a little more. don't worry reatard fans, he'll have another chance.

Pavement - "Shady Lane" - Just so very right on so many levels, the main one being that in just under a couple of months I'll be in NY watching them in Central Park.

Jay Reatard - "It Ain't Gonna Save Me" - favorite Reatard song. i have literally listened to this song 30+ times in a row on several occasions. Repeat!

Guided by Voices - "Tractor RapeChain" - it took me a long time to really get into BEE THOUSAND but this summer my ipod genius app is bound to be busy pulling 2 minute long gems from a non-lead singer that makes writing great low budget pop songs seem so unbelievably easy at times.

Japandroids - "The Boys are Coming Home" - This album just continued to grow on me in 2009. at times I found myself enjoying it even more than the other DIY punk band out of L.A. Nouns is probably better as a whole but songs like this not only competes with noAGE but they will destroy all of others

David Bowie - "Jean Genie" -Just sounded perfect today and with a song as good as this, that's all that matters.

XTC - "Summer's Cauldron" & "Grass" -for a band as good as XTC and more specifically an album as great as Skylarking, you just don't hear enough bands citing them as key influences. Especially in the current 80's craving indie environment. "Summer's Cauldron" and "Grass" are excellent and coincidentally it reminds me of the first two tracks from Animal Collective's Feels "Did You Hear the Words" & strangely enough"Grass".?

NEW ORDER

2010-06-25T23:20:00.000-07:00

one of my favorite New Order songs

NEW LCD!

2010-04-13T19:50:00.000-07:00

following up "DrUnk girLs" with two more new songs from This IS Happening..

"drunk girls"

"i can change"

"Dance Yrself Clean"

apple sucking tree

2010-03-13T08:02:00.000-08:00

Yea! Heavy and a Bottle of Bread

2010-03-13T08:01:00.000-08:00

please mrs henry

2010-03-13T08:00:00.000-08:00

TooMuchofNothing

2010-03-13T07:59:00.001-08:00

from NEU! to NOW

2010-03-09T07:45:00.000-08:00

NEU! HaloGalo

Liars - Proud Evolution

ventilator blues

2010-03-04T17:55:00.000-08:00

they have so many songs and he has so many 'spine cracking' vocals/lyrics but this one takes the prize... everything that he is able to do with his voice is on display here --- BLOOD, GUTS and SEX flying out one word at a time..

ENJOY

When your spine is cracking and your hands, they shake,
Heart is bursting and you butt's gonna break.
Your woman's cussing, you can hear her scream,
You feel like murder in the first degree.
Ain't nobody slowing down no way,
Ev'rybody's stepping on their accelerator,
Don't matter where you are,
Ev'rybody's gonna need a ventilator.
When you're trapped and circled with no second chances,
Your code of living is your gun in hand.
We can't be browed by beating, we can't be cowed by words,
Messed by cheating, ain't gonna ever learn.
Ev'rybody walking 'round,
Ev'rybody trying to step on their Creator.
Don't matter where you are, ev'rybody, ev'rybody gonna
Need some kind of ventilator, some kind of ventilator.
What you gonna do about it, what you gonna do?
What you gonna do about it, what you gonna do?
Gonna fight it, gonna fight it?

Joanna Newsom - HAVE ONE ON ME

2010-02-26T20:13:00.000-08:00

I didn't really get into her last album -Ys. I listened to it several times and there are without a doubt moments of natural beauty spread all over that record, I just never found myself feeling compelled to go back and listen to it. I also felt very little connection with the lyrics or maybe I just never gave them a chance due to the lack of affection for the music. Have One On Me however, sucked me in quick and has me spending a good part of my day at work helplessly craving the moment I am back at home with my headphones on, digging through a record that demands time but doesn't require you to have it all at once... It's huge and it's also very much a headphone album. Much like Person Pitch, its light shines brightest the closer you are to it.. And where Ys's lyrics felt so illusive, here, while still being extremely complex I get the sense that there's a real person hiding in there somewhere.

"Good Intentions Paving Co."

CAN

2010-02-23T14:53:00.000-08:00

TAGO MAGO - "halleluhwah"

EGE BAMYASI "Vitamin C"

playlist 2/20/10

2010-02-19T21:30:00.000-08:00

1. Slint - "Breadcrumb Trail" from spiderland

2. Autechre - "Clipper" from tri repetae

3. Talk Talk - "After the Flood" from laughing stock

4. Miles Davis - "John McLauphin" from bitches brew

5. Can - "Soup" from ege bamyasi

6. Yo La Tengo - "Sudden Organ" from painful

7. Velvet Underground - "Heroin" from VU (banana)

8. Television - "Torn Curtain" from marquee moon

9. Portishead - "Small" from third

10. Animal Collective - "Alvin Row" from spirit they're gone, spirit they've vanished

LIARs

2010-02-17T21:21:00.000-08:00

SISTERWORLD - Out MArCh 9

otheR siDe of mT. HeArt AtTacK

"HOUSEclouds"

MADVILLAIN

2010-02-16T19:18:00.000-08:00

Madlib and Doom are back in the studio and I read that they are almost finished with the follow up the best rap album of the decade - MADVILLAINY

I haven't listened to much rap/hip hop at all over the past few years so I have no clue what's what but Madlib and Doom are simply doing something that I don't see anywhere else. Madlib cuts up his soul-jazz favorites and drops beats that feel as though they are melting away from the song while Doom spits his free verse-outer space rhymes with such ease and confidence that it's as if he's sleep rapping......just too damn good.

"You could either ignore this advice, or take it from me
Be too nice and people take you for a dummy
So nowadays he ain't so friendly
Actually they wouldn't even made a worthy enemy
Read the signs: no feeding the baboon
Seein as how they got ya back bleeding from the stab wounds"

"Accordian"

"Fugaro"

Hot Chip - One Life Stand

2010-02-16T18:33:00.000-08:00

Hot Chip have become one of my most dependable bands over the last few years. Warning is still a record I go back to regularly and it hasn't lost any of its power. They play off of each other so well that it makes their songs appear somewhat simple but it's simply a testament to their abilities. Made in the Dark was not as tight throughout but the standouts on there were as strong as anything that year and they showed, with songs like "One Pure Thought" just how edgy they could make their electro-pop sound. Coupled with "Ready for the Floor", I would say no other record had a one-two punch as powerful in the past few years.

One Life Stand doesn't have the dance power singles W&MITD did but as a whole I think it may be better. After the first few listens, I actually didn't know how much I liked it and I think I was just trying to hard to find that call to the dance floor jam that I expect from them. Now that I've spent more time listening to it though, I wouldn't necessarily say that the catchy power-pop is missing it's just hidden more effectively and it comes out in smaller doses. The songs share a similar structure and compositional likeness that definitely makes this feel more connected than the others. The song that shares the name with the album will more than likely end up on year end lists everywhere has grown into one of their best yet. There are so many parts to the song that make you want to just keep pushing repeat; the drumming provides the perfect backdrop, carrying the song while the rest of the band add their now perfected touches in all the right places. They only seem to be getting better with age and I can't wait until the next one...

"Thieves in the Night"

"One Pure Thought" from MITD

Beach House - TEEN DREAM

2010-02-05T14:29:00.001-08:00

I could write all day of the power of Beach House's latest... probably several hours alone on "Silver Soul". The last time I felt this particular way about a song was when i first heard track 1 on Sigur Ros' Agaetis Byrjun. It really tears me up every time and clinches on to a particular emotion that is only awakened every once in a while. I must admit it took me three days to even listen to the rest of the album... NywAy ListEN for YOUrself!

2009

2009-12-08T21:36:00.000-08:00

Well, it's that time of year again.... I've now been taking a little time at the end of the last 3 years to jot down my favorite music from the last 12 months. Even though nobody reads this thing, it allows me to go back and grab some of those moods and feelings that are so closely related to my favorite songs/albums and feel them again. As I sit here remembering and listening to 2009 again, I immediately, with little thought, that it was one hell of a year for music across so many genres. The year started off with probably the best album of the year with Merriweather Post Pavillion in freakin January. The competition was extremely stiff it's just that Animal Collective's decade run of great and challenging albums ended with their best and it's too bad for the other bands in 09 because the record was just too good. Bands like Grizzly Bear and Phoenix proved that working your ass of and being incredibly good will eventually grab the attention of music consumers and people will start to listen. I personally feel like the 00's best music years were the first and last, from Kid A to Fall Be Kind.

As excited as this makes me, I am also still confused and somewhat upset that more people still aren't aware of just how strong the music was this year and really how good it has been for a while now. The majority of listeners will walk away from 2009 still offering up names like Jay-Z, U2, Coldplay, Green Day, etc.... Really? Still? I mean I have nothing against any of these artists as they all, arguably have a stone cold classic hanging on their wall (although i would spend a lot of time arguing against Coldplay and Green Day) I just think accepting this as the years best is flat out lazy.

I know I run the risk of sounding like a cynical, asshole-snob but I don't feel bad about it when the records are sitting there on my shelf (who am i kidding, in my itunes library). The music this year, for my came from all over the map. The bands and albums on the list come with wildly diverse influences and are part of extremely different genre's, styles, scenes, on and on..... There were a few musical themes this year, the most notable probably coming from a lazy, sunshine drenched beach near you. It seems like every song that came out this summer was accompanied with some made up word/genre i.e... Glo-fi, Shitgaze, Chillwave, anyway you probably get the picture.... Mostly recorded on tape, open spaces filled with 80's AM radio synth hooks, lazy-beach combing lyrics and all built around layers of colorful, blissed out fuzz. And by the time you get through all of that, and it's a lot, you finally get to the music and if you are me, you are pleasantly surprised for the most part because the actual music turns out to be pretty damn good, interesting and some of the bands do a great job of making their music sound like those hot days on the beaches that started this whole mess anyways. I even think that a few of the bands have more to say and probably even have more good records ahead of them . But the bands that made the real impact on me this year were those that come from a place not so easily categorized and have either worked to find a sound all their own or , changed their sound all together (again) only to shockingly transmutate into something, possibly even better than before. They all share the willingness to unashamedly create music that they feel absolutely compelled to make. One of the most admiring aspects of this years best records is that you get the overwhelming feeling that you are getting a album that is also extremely honest. I recently read where Kurt Cobain, in responding to a remark about Nirvana being the Sex Pistols of the 90's; he answered like always, in a humble and remarkably insightful way, "for both bands, the music is a very natural thing, very sincere". The records below all feel, to me to ne

So, after all that, I will finally show you how I managed to wrap up this strange, frustrating, sometimes hopeful and shamefully war-stained decade with a year in music that was ever-changing, sometimes nasty, always uncompromising and most importantly ---- fun.

15) Black and White Years - Nursery Myths ep
14) F### Buttons - Tarot Sport
13) Neon Indian - Psychic Chasms
12) Baroness - The Blue Record
11) Animal Collective - Fall Be Kind ep
10) Fever Ray -Fever Ray
9) Grizzly Bear - Vecketamist
8) Girls - Album
7) Dirty Projectors - Bitte Orca
6) Mastodon -Crack the Skye
5) Phoenix - Wolfgang Amodeus Phoenix
4) the xx - xx
3) Flaming Lips - Embryonic
2) Atlas Sound - Logos
1) Animal Collective - Meriweather Post Pavillion

Atlas Sound - Logos

2009-10-21T12:07:00.000-07:00

more grey-day bedroom pop

Shelia

Logos

funkadelic/sly - funk you

2009-10-05T20:05:00.000-07:00

Funkadelic - "Can you get to that"

Sly & the Family Stone - "Poet"

san fran weirdos make near perfect debut

2009-09-26T17:15:00.000-07:00

Girls - Album

Early on in listening to the Girls excellent debut I was fascinated at how they were able to make the record sound so old and so new, often at the same time. The most impressing part, however, is just how they're able to do it with such ease. They seem to slip in and out of decades to create a sound all their own.

This record couldn't have come at a better time for me either as I began seriously getting into Elvis Costello late last year and really didn't listen to much else for months after first soaking up the unrivaled one-two punch of My Aim Is True and This Years Model. Girls definitely share his affinity for late 50's, early 60's pop and have a very specific and distinct sense of melody-- but what Album and EC's classics share more than anything is how all three are just loaded from start to finish, with such incomparable and convincing songs. Each one could be placed anywhere on the album and it wouldn't change a thing. Individually, they're all just so damn good.

I don't want to overstate the oldie influence because like I said earlier, there are plenty of more recent sounds on the record as well. No Age's blissed-out Cali fuzz, the early acoustic guitar on Goddamn reminds me a little of Grizzly Bear (also Nick Drake- Pink Moon) and they even throw in one successful attempt at shoegaze to go along with more than enough new ideas of their own.

Lyrically Christopher Owens is direct and oftentimes simplistic (in a good way) but never dull and always incredibly honest. He's definitely had a rough life and you see it in his lyrics, but rather than fall on a knife over and over again, you get strong sense of; I made it through all that shit and now I'm going to have sex, do drugs and make unbearably likable music.

I spent a lot of time focusing on Girls influences and comparing them to other bands, both old and new but make no mistake, this all their own and it's an album that is content to be just what it is. Move over Fever Ray/Animal Collective/Dirty Projectors, 09 has a new leader.

"It isn't right to sit around and think about the awful things that get you down, you've got to try to wear a smile no matter how hard it can be to do. I can make myself go crazy crying over times I've chased my broken dreams but what is life without a dreamin', even I know dreams can still come true..." - "Lauren Marie" from Album

Highlights - Hellhole Ratrace (probably the best song), Summertime, Goddamn and many, many more...

Also, check out the perfectly fitting video for Hellhole Ratrace below, it does an excellent job of showing the mode of the entire record.

give me more...

2009-09-26T16:37:00.000-07:00

When it comes to experimental electronic music, everything from Bowie (Low) to Aphex Twin and everything in-between can be traced back to these three bands. Other than Velvet Underground, I don't know if any other bands deserve more back rent than the three below.

CAN - "One More Night"

NEU! - "Hallogallo"

KRAFTWERK - "Europe Endless" (all of these are unbelievable but this one takes the prize)

a post from DJ Rupture's blog....

2009-08-05T11:14:00.000-07:00

FABLED

You heard the one about the scorpion and the frog?

A scorpion and a frog meet on the bank of a stream and the scorpion asks the frog to carry him across on its back. The frog asks, “How do I know you won’t sting me?” The scorpion says, “Because if I do, I will die too.”

The frog is satisfied, and they set out, but in midstream, the scorpion stings the frog. The frog feels the onset of paralysis and starts to sink, knowing they both will drown, but has just enough time to gasp “Why?”

The scorpion replies: “It is my nature…”

* * *

We can learn several things from this fable.

One: animals can talk to each other. Since scorpions have no vocal cords, this might indicate telepathy. If human scientists devoted more time to unlocking the mysteries of inter-animal communication and spent less time building weapons to be abused by those in power, then many conflicts could be avoided. I, for one, would like to talk to elephants.

Two: It is possible to feel the absence of feeling (”the frog feels the onset of paralysis”). In the amphibian world, drowning operates as a metaphor for the negative sublime. It is something the genus experiences second-hand, at an uncanny step of remove.

Herodotus alluded to certain unorthodox interpretations of this fable which cast the frog’s mortal feeling of no-feeling as a register of empathy for inert objects such as chocolate bars or computers. (Greek empatheia, literally: passion). Herodotus’ status as a liar and a plagiarist do not lessen the acuity of this scholarship. Unlike our telepathic insect, he was sponsored by the Greek goddess of victory.

Three: It is the scorpion that pulls humanity down. If you yourself are not a scorpion, or if you can’t swim, then you are unable to play every move of every game in the cooperation zone, because sooner or later you will meet a scorpion. A real scorpion. Many live in arid or semi-arid areas where unpolluted water is scarce. Yeats’ judgment that “things fall apart, the center cannot hold”, because “the worst are full of passionate intensity” is a recognition of the fact that scorpions are real.

* * *

reader response # 1 : I’ve always been fond of that Yeats quote. “The worst are full of passionate intensity” is an obvious but essential piece of knowledge. The first time I came across the story of the scorpion and the frog, it struck me as somewhat insulting and reactionary – a person’s nature is definite and static, and there is no hope for them to change, even as their lives depend on it. It’s a engagingly doomed-romantic notion, sure, and it’s been pretty much the basis for all of favourite films, book and plays, but the optimist in me doesn’t want to BELIEVE it.

Dear reader: Martin Heidegger’s ‘The Heraclitus Seminar’ references (somewhat inconclusively) a variant of the tale much more in line with your optimism: instead of stinging the frog, the scorpion performs a mad celebratory dance — the bug has realized that its essence can be changing, dynamic, just like Heraclitus’ famous river, into which one both can and cannot step twice. ‘Biology is not fate’, it thinks in its chitinous little head.

The scorpion expresses this epiphany to the frog via a mixture of pheromones and vibrational communication, putting it at odds with Herodotus’ postulations of animal-to-animal telepathy and leading to the historic suppression of this tale by a strangely powerful Flemish legal council, of whom Yeats was a sympathizer, esp. during his theosophist latter years, a time of intense public ridicule, when the poet’s wife George wrote volumes ‘automatically’, channeling the spirit of Leo Africanus, who does not read blogs because he is dead.

In the so-called Upbeat Heraclitian variation, the animal pair cross the river to safety. Upon reaching the shore, the altruistic frog returns into the stream for a swim. Moments later the scorpion gets eaten by a bat. Waves of positivity emanate from the human observer, gently touching all within radius, like the surface of a pond into which one has just thrown a bag of cats. The dark legend of poetry is that it is true.

---If you don't already listen to his music, start now (great video below). Also, you can keep up with his very interesting and intuitive blog here - http://www.negrophonic.com/

just can't get enough....

2009-06-30T16:02:00.000-07:00

perfect songs from near perfect albums

Grizzly Bear - While You Wait For The Others

Dirty Projectors - Temecula Sunrise

Animal Collective - No More Runnin

Best of LP of the year...

2009-06-10T11:39:00.000-07:00

Dirty Projectors - Bitte Orca

I have only had it a few days but in that time, I have not been able to stop listening to DP latest. They have always made challenging music, sometimes to the point that the moments of greatness are lost in the complexity of the music. However, on Bitte Orca they have perfectly combined their experimental arrangements and great songwriting into pure art/pop genius. Check it out

Current Picks

2009-05-11T13:56:00.000-07:00

Bat for Lashes - "Glass"

Fever Ray - "If I had a Heart"

Bill Callahan - "All Thoughts Are Prey to Some Beast"

Fucked Up - "Crooked Head"

Cymbals Eat Guitars - "And the Hazy Sea"

AC on Letterman

2009-05-11T08:05:00.000-07:00

Animal Collective - Summertime Clothes

Mastodon - "Oblivion" & "The Last Baron"

2009-04-20T21:14:00.000-07:00

To say the least, this does not match up with any other style, genre, or sound of music that I have listened to in years (and maybe ever) but I just can't deny the talent and originality of Mastodon, especially in a genre that in my opinion, is seriously lacking much to talk about.
Their newest album Crack the Skye, definitely needs to be heard at least once by all music geeks, (and I promise not all will like) if only to experience the brute force and full speed, pulsating rhythm's that comes out of every second of this remarkable concept album. I make sure and include the word concept intentionally, because, like with all their albums, the concept is every bit elaborate and salient as the insane music set behind it; in this case, I believe it's about a kid traveling through a worm hole to meet Rasputin, only to enter his body in order to escape being killed and together they will dodge this assassination???? However, when Rasputin is killed, the kids soul manages to escape through a crack in the skye.....
These extravagant concepts can get a little crazy and maybe even silly to some extent but that is who they are and if it's what they need to channel the music that comes flying out of their instruments with such gut wrenching power, then so be it!

I will probably only listen to this for a short time but the last couple of weeks have proved for a nice change of pace from the more subtle, dance, new nu-wave, freak folk, experimental, etc... that is filling up the underground music scene constantly. And don't get me wrong, I'll probably pick TVOTR, Deerhunter, Liars, Animal Collective, M.IA., and of course, Radiohead most days of the week but like is said, since my somewhat out of control obsession with TOOL, Mastodon has been the first prog-rock, heavy metal band to awaken that need for raw power. That being said, for Mastodon, this is really a change of pace for them. They brought Brendan O'Brien to produce the record and I guess you could say it's more accessible than anything to date, with slighlty (I mean ever ever so slightly) slowing things down, focusing more on singing, and even fdisplaying a few traditional guitar solos.

Now, for the two songs> Oblivion is the closest thing Mastodon could have to a radio friendly song and it's also a great way to open up the LP, showing their more fluid, rhythmic and even shows off a chorus that really lightens up the song and at 4:40 when it hits for the last time, the lyrics (below), you've been taken.....

"Falling from grace, cause I’ve been away too long.

Leaving you behind with my lonesome song -

now I’m lost in oblivion."

The Last Baron strectches out to some 13 minutes and in my opinion, it's the best thing they've ever recorded, with every passing second, you seem to get totally ripped apart and when it does finally come, to put you back together, it's downright startling and clearly reminds of a moment in TOOL's The Grudge from Lateralus, where everything comes from so many different directions only to meet and form a sound only few bands are capbable of doing and they both make it seem so easy!

one of my favorite songs of the past 10 years...

2009-03-27T11:17:00.000-07:00

Liars - The Other Side of Mr. Heart Attack

a few suggestions...

2009-03-25T09:25:00.000-07:00

Dan Deacon - Bromst

Max Tundra - Mastered By Guy At The Exchange

Radiohead Plays Creep in Mexico!???!

2009-03-19T09:38:00.000-07:00

Monday night in Mexico City (with Kraftwerk) Radiohead, for the first time in forever played the ever infamous classic CREEP. It turns out that with the lights and crowd assistance, it was pretty f@!**#( good!

Watch....

Bonnie "Prince" Billy - THE DARKNESS

2009-03-09T15:27:00.001-07:00

Without getting into a lot of bull shit, let's just say that 2007 - 08 were a rough couple of years, too much self inflicted pain (sometimes a really good kind of pain) to put into words without making it a book. Anyway, the dirty brown haze finally lifted with the life saving arrival of my daughter (and of course my wife, brother, and friends) and also a good mix of great records.

BPB's I See A Darkness has become, well crucial to say the least, particularly the said album title track. You can also find this track on Johnny Cash's Solitary Man and it must be said that he does an amazing job of recreating the dark and passionately ambiguous lyrics. The song has brought me smiles, tears, screams, and it even caused me to get honked at repeatedly as I sat, unable to press the gas at a stop light the first time it spun in my car.

It's definitely a singular album with great lyrics and an unrivaled voice that shows its true power when you sit down and give it the attention it deserves. The album is slow, dark, and deeply affecting and at its core it's as real and full of life as any album I've ever listened to. It truly has the ability to save you from the darkness...

Lyrics - I See A Darkness

Well, you're my friend, that's what you told me
And can you see what's inside of me
Many times we've been out drinking
And many times we've shared our thoughts
But did you ever, ever notice, the
kind of thoughts I got
Well you know I have a love, a
love for everyone I know
And you know I have a drive to
live I won't let go
But can you see it's opposition,
comes arising up sometimes
That it's dreadful antiposition,
comes blacking in my mind

And then I see a darkness
And then I see a darkness
And then I see a darkness
[ Find more Lyrics on
And then I see a darkness
And did you know how much I love you
Is a hope that somehow you, you
Can save me from this darkness

Well I hope that someday buddy
We have peace in our lives
Together or apart
Alone or with our wives
And we can stop our whoring
And pull the smiles inside
And light it up forever
And never go to sleep
My best unbeaten brother
This isn't all I see

Oh no, I see a darkness
Oh no, I see a darkness
Oh no, I see a darkness
Oh no, I see a darkness
And did you know how much I love you
Is a hope that somehow you
Can save me from this darkness

for kenneth and chase

CUT//COPY 3/7/09 Granda Theater - Dallas, TX

2009-03-09T09:17:00.000-07:00

The show started off kind of slow with the lead single Hearts on Fire and to be honest, kind of stayed that way for three or four songs. The lights they had set up were not being fully utilized and the show just seemed surprisingly bland. After all, their music (in a live setting) really needs and works better with a strong presence of "Lights AND Music".

This must have been the plan, though, because at about song 5, the lights were on in a big way and the show really took off. The crowd went from interested spectators to all out rave fiends. By the time the encore arrived, everybody was thoroughly involved and CUT//COPY let it be known that they understood the way their music was best served up; with a large dose of lights and music.

Paintings...

2009-03-05T10:45:00.000-08:00

DEERHUNTER

2009-03-05T09:27:00.000-08:00

"Nothing Ever Happened" & "Saved By Old Times"

I realize these two songs are somewhat old news and have been written/talked about for several months now and hell, I've even regarded them as two of my favorites from 2008....but this morning on my way to work I had one of those indelible experiences where the songs made perfect sense and proved to be absolutely crucial. Just listen and then go buy the damn album...

Elvis Costello

2009-02-14T13:15:00.001-08:00

Why in the hell have I just now started listening to Evlis Costello. His music is as affecting and genuine as anything and his lyrics are as potent as Dylan's. He could have stopped recording after "My Aim is True" and "This Year's Model" and still have had two of the most crucial albums of the 70s and any decade for that matter. The early albums had an uncanny way of melding a number disparate sounds and genre's (rock, punk, new-wave, soul, r&b, country) onto one album without any problem. Every idea and sound on the first two records is so perfectly formed and executed that it's simply overwhelming. And don't stop here, his next records are just as pleasing...

MY AIM IS TRUE - "Watching the Detectives"

THIS YEARS MODEL - "Pump It Up"

Electronic/HipHop/Jazz/Dub

2009-01-31T18:58:00.000-08:00

The Bug - London Zoo
"Poison Dart"

Madvillain - Madvilainy
"Rainbows"

Burial - Untrue
"Archangel"

Listening to NOW

2009-01-29T16:09:00.001-08:00

Miles Davis - In A Silent Way, Bitches Brew, Sketches of Spain

I started, casually listening to Miles last year but only recently have I begun to realize what it is that is so unique and powerful about his music. It takes total control of you in a way only a few artists/bands ever have and probably ever will....it demands absolute attention. Sometimes while I'm painting and listening to Bitches Brew particularly, I feel like the music has pushed me into a corner, forcing me to listen to every note as they bounce off the side of my brain like 10,000 racquetballs shot out of a cannon at the same time in a 12 * 12 room. It takes over all of my thoughts and to say the least, it's a bit overwhelming.

Listening to NOW

2009-01-29T16:09:00.000-08:00

Animal Collective - Merriweather Post Pavillion

2009-01-27T11:49:00.000-08:00

Summertime Clothes

Brother Sport

The Dismemberment Plan - Emergency and I

2008-12-27T08:40:00.000-08:00

In the northeast, "The Plan" have been an underground indie favorite for more than a decade now. Stories of their shows where fans are frequently encouraged to join the band on stage for dance-punk freakouts, has been written about in every online indie music blog I've ever read. And their break-up in 2004 not only devastated their fans but also led to an extreme backlash to their frontman, Travis Morrison's attempt at a solo career. In fact, Pitchfork infamously gave his first and only solo record, "Travistan" the ridiculous 0.0/10.0 and sadly caused some stores to not even sell the CD. So, before I even listened to their now classic, "Emergency and I" I felt like I already had some kind of strange relationship with the band and their music.

Immediately, the record knocked me on my ass... It's the perfect blend of a lot of the stuff I listened to through college and the indie/post-punk/dance I've been intensely catching up on over the past three years. Talking Heads meets Glassjaw meets Hot Chip...All of these sounds were literally jumping out of these songs and punching me in the face. Jittery rhythms, spine tingling start-stop guitar work, and great dance jams pulsate throughout the record, bringing their already mentioned, Talking Heads influence to the forefront. And like the art-rock pioneers, they have an uncanny way of bringing all of these disparate ideas together for catchy and unforgettable anthem-like hooks ("what do you want me to say"). These songs have been sitting on the edge of my brain for a week now causing me not to go as long as an hour without putting on the head phones and without even thinking about it, making my way to songs like "You Are Invited" and attempting to rattle off Morrison's unique and unrivaled lyrics.

It's always strange listening to records like this a decade after its release. So much has already been written about the album, it's made its way on several "top of the ____" lists, the band breaks up, etc... It's like listening to Kid A before OK Computer or the bends... there's a very real excitement that comes with hearing an album upon its official release. It feels like it's yours and most importantly, you don't have somebody else's opinion affecting your own experience. But, when so much innovation and challenging music like this is on the table, who the hell cares?

12/12/2008

2008-12-16T19:29:00.001-08:00

This past Friday, December 12th, my wife delivered our first child, a beautiful baby girl. It was, without a doubt, the most courageous and powerful example of human determination I have ever witnessed. Without going to into much detail, this turned out to be anything but a normal delivery. Adelyn was in what is called, a posterior position (face pointing up)which makes it all the more difficult to get the baby out. The child is fine basically, but it puts an unbelievable amount of stress on the mother by forcing her to push more than usual. Chrissa ended up pushing for almost 2 1/2 hours and in the process tore her cervix. After Adelyn was born, because of the tear, Chrissa lost a significant amount of blood. It took about an hour but due to outstanding work of our doctors and nurses, Chrissa and the baby came out of the situation alive and well.

Throughout the delivery, we had my BOSE headphones sitting with us on the bed playing Beatles songs. It really was perfect and probably more importantly seemed to calm the both of us, so, I only find it fitting that this song close this post.

pitchfork's top tracks-2008

2008-12-16T14:15:00.000-08:00

1 - Hercules and the Love Affair - "Blind"

2 - Fleet Foxes - "White Winter Hymnal"

3 -Hot Chip - "Ready for the Floor"

All of these are probably in my top 10 but my top 3 looks something like this:

1 -TV ON THE RADIO - "DLZ"

2 - Deerhunter - "Nothing Ever Happened"

3 - Black and White Years - "Power to Change"

Top Radiohead Songs

2008-12-15T12:16:00.000-08:00

I was asked to create a list of my top 50 Radiohead tracks for another site I belong to, so, I figured I would share it with you. However, because I feel that after 30, it becomes a little redundant, I stopped the list there. I did take a lot of time forming the 30 though and I'm pretty confident in this list....

1-How to Disappear Completely
2-The National Anthem

3-Subterranean Homesick Alien

4-All I Need

5-Everything in its right place

6-Electioneering

7-Sit Down Stand Up

8-Climbing Up The Walls

9-Morning Bell (Kid A)

10-Life In A Glass House

11-Pyramid Song
12-Where I End and You Begin
13-Weird Fishes
14-Videotape
15-Just
16-Idioteque
17-Fake Plastic Trees
18-Packt Like Sardines
19-karma police
20-Paranoid Android

21-In Limbo
22-House of Cards
23-I Might Be Wrong
24-There There
25-You and Whose Army
26-Life In A Glass House
27-Bodysnatchers
28-Knives Out
29-Optimistic
30-Planet Talex

Top 10-2008

2008-12-11T08:02:00.000-08:00

1- TV on the Radio -"Dear Science"

2-Black and White Years - "Black and White Years" - go get this record NOW!!!!!!!!

3-Deerhunter - "Microcastle/Weird era"

4-No Age - "Nouns"

5-Fleet Foxes - "Fleet Foxes"

6 - Portishead - "Third"

7 - Hercules and the Love Affair - " Hercules and the Love Affair"

8 - Of Montreal - "Skeletal Lamping"

9 - Crystal Stilts - "Alight of Night"

10 - The Knux - "Remind in 3 Days"

My current top 5...

2008-11-03T17:11:00.000-08:00

1 - Fleet Foxes: "Fleet Foxes" - I like a lot of these freak folk groups (Blitzen Trapper, Dodos, White Magic) that seem to be coming from everywhere. However, I have been listening to this debut for several months now and it sounds as good as the first few listens.

2 - T.V. on the Radio: "Dear Science" - Just listen to the damn thing and you'll understand.

3 - Bob Dylan: "Blonde on Blonde" and "Bringing It All Back Home" - Somethings never change; I just can't stop listening to him.

4 - The Knux: "Remind me in 3 days" - The first rap album that I've enjoyed this much in years. Outkast with great rock riffs -and they play their own instruments too!

5 - John Lennon: "Plastic Ono Band" - I just started listening to this again and I can't believe how great the lyrics are and how I and why I haven't paid more attention to them before.

Go buy it now...

2008-09-26T11:34:00.000-07:00

TV on the RADIO!!!
"Dear Science"

I can't say enough about this record and I've only had the damn the thing for 5 days. Where a few of their releases have felt scattered and at times inconsistent, Dear Science is all of their best ideas molded into one very complete and focused record.

The energy of the record throws itself at you immediately and is really what separates it from the other great releases of the year. As the hand-claps begin, you can't help but get your ass off the couch and pay attention; asking yourself what will come next? Adibempe is stronger than ever and his lyrics as powerful and contradicting as any Radiohead song you've heard in the last 5 years. Just as you begin to feel a sense of optimism coming through the speakers, you're hit with a line like "HEY JACKBOOT!/F--k your war!/Cuz I'm fat and in love/And your bombs are fallin' on me for sure/But I'm scared to death/That I'm livin' a life not worth dyin' for."

Go buy it...

Deerhunter: Microcastle

2008-09-20T12:26:00.000-07:00

Despite all the hype and critical acclaim surrounding their first LP, I never really got into it. I found it interesting and could tell the band was talented but for whatever reason, I just never felt the urge to put that much time into Cryptograms.

Then comes their follow-up, Microcastle, that is only available for download right now and comes out officially in October. I decided to give it a try, mainly because I really enjoyed Bradford Cox's solo project, Atlas Sound and like I said, you could easily the talent as well as their original sound. After one listen, I could tell I was going to be spending a lot of time with this one. I don't know what the die hard DH/Crypto fans are going to think about it though because it's definitely more accessible than its predecessor. However, everything that made their first album so successful, on an experimental level, is still present on Microcastle, it's just tighter and I think more developed.

This is definitely an album that needs to be listened to from start to finish (at least the first few times) to really get a feel for how well each song turns into the next. The mood and energy of the album transitions so seamlessly, quickly moving from these colorful pop soundscapes into quick and powerful rock songs.

Below are the tracts that need to be heard...FAST, but I definitely suggest spending the money to buy the entire album.

"Nothing Ever Happened"
"Saved by Old Times"
"Never Stops"

8/10

not your ordinary list...

2008-09-19T23:20:00.000-07:00

I know it's ridiculous but here is a list of my favorite Dylan songs. The list is always changing with one exception and that is number 1 always being number 1. It's without a doubt my favorite. I always feel as if i'm getting swallowed by this song, it has complete control of me for 7+ minutes. The rest of the list is pretty common with a few surprises...

1- Visions of Johanna
2- Shelter from the Storm
3- Masters of War
4- Idiot Wind
5- Subterranean Homesick Blues
6- Ballad of a Thin Man
7- Like a Rolling Stone
8- Just Like a Women/Lay Lady Lay
9- All Along the Watchtower
10- Pledging My Time/Hurricane

SUICIDE - 'Suicide'

2008-09-18T11:41:00.000-07:00

suicide's self-titled debut is seven unnerving genre bending songs. it's not only a perfect electronic fusion of velvet undergound and the stooges but it really set the stage for post-punk, pop synth, and even 90's industrial rock.

"Frankie Teardrop" - one of the best songs of the 1970's

"Girl" - simple but eerie lyrics lay over the top of dizzy electronics and haunting organ sections

the BEst DanCE/ROck of 2008

2008-08-25T01:48:00.000-07:00

Hercules and the Love Affair
"Hercules Theme"
"Blind"
"Iris"

Cut Copy
"Feel the Love"
"Hearts on Fire"
"Strangers in the Wind"

FLEET FOXES

2008-06-09T23:40:00.000-07:00

In the mood for some good freak folk???

The debut album from this Seattle based band is close to flawless, and in my opinion, as present day folk based records go, unmatched. The albums force comes in the form of powerful and sometimes haunting vocal harmonies that act as the strongest instrument in the band. The record is also the perfect length, short enough not to lose interest and definitely long enough to leave you satisfied.

Tiger Mountain Peasant Song

" In the town one morning I went
Staggering through premonitions of my death
I don't see anybody that dear to me

Dear shadow alive and well
How can the body die
You tell me everything
Anything true

Jesse
I don't know what I have done
I'm turning myself to a demon"

The album needs to be heard in full but here are a few of my favorites...

"White Winter Hymnal"

"He Doesn't Know Why"

"Your Protector"

a few new ones...and one old one

2008-06-07T02:38:00.000-07:00

Portishead - "Machine Gun"

No Age - "Eraser"

Joy Division - "Isolation" (at the moment, my favorite song)

enjoy!

Grizzly Bear - "Knife"

2008-04-05T03:20:00.000-07:00

listen to these....now!

2008-03-25T22:37:00.000-07:00

Television - "Guiding Light"

Velvet Underground - "Oh! Sweet Nuthin'"

For your reading pleasure...

2008-03-23T00:26:00.000-07:00

Radiohead
Kid A

[Capitol]
Rating: 10.0

I had never even seen a shooting star before. 25 years of rotations, passes through comets' paths, and travel, and to my memory I had never witnessed burning debris scratch across the night sky. Radiohead were hunched over their instruments. Thom Yorke slowly beat on a grand piano, singing, eyes closed, into his microphone like he was trying to kiss around a big nose. Colin Greenwood tapped patiently on a double bass, waiting for his cue. White pearls of arena light swam over their faces. A lazy disco light spilled artificial constellations inside the aluminum cove of the makeshift stage. The metal skeleton of the stage ate one end of Florence's Piazza Santa Croce, on the steps of the Santa Croce Cathedral. Michelangelo's bones and cobblestone laid beneath. I stared entranced, soaking in Radiohead's new material, chiseling each sound into the best functioning parts of my brain which would be the only sound system for the material for months.

The butterscotch lamps along the walls of the tight city square bled upward into the cobalt sky, which seemed as strikingly artificial and perfect as a wizard's cap. The staccato piano chords ascended repeatedly. "Black eyed angels swam at me," Yorke sang like his dying words. "There was nothing to fear, nothing to hide." The trained critical part of me marked the similarity to Coltrane's "Ole." The human part of me wept in awe.

The Italians surrounding me held their breath in communion (save for the drunken few shouting "Criep!"). Suddenly, a rise of whistles and orgasmic cries swept unfittingly through the crowd. The song, "Egyptian Song," was certainly momentous, but wasn't the response more apt for, well, "Creep?" I looked up. I thought it was fireworks. A teardrop of fire shot from space and disappeared behind the church where the syrupy River Arno crawled. Radiohead had the heavens on their side.

For further testament, Chip Chanko and I both suffered auto-debilitating accidents in the same week, in different parts of the country, while blasting "Airbag" in our respective Japanese imports. For months, I feared playing the song about car crashes in my car, just as I'd feared passing 18- wheelers after nearly being crushed by one in 1990. With good reason, I suspect Radiohead to possess incomprehensible powers. The evidence is only compounded with Kid A-- the rubber match in the band's legacy-- an album which completely obliterates how albums, and Radiohead themselves, will be considered.

Even the heralded OK Computer has been nudged down one spot in Valhalla. Kid A makes rock and roll childish. Considerations on its merits as "rock" (i.e. its radio fodder potential, its guitar riffs, and its hooks) are pointless. Comparing this to other albums is like comparing an aquarium to blue construction paper. And not because it's jazz or fusion or ambient or electronic. Classifications don't come to mind once deep inside this expansive, hypnotic world. Ransom, the philologist hero of C.S. Lewis' Out of the Silent Planet who is kidnapped and taken to another planet, initially finds his scholarship useless in his new surroundings, and just tries to survive the beautiful new world.

This is an emotional, psychological experience. Kid A sounds like a clouded brain trying to recall an alien abduction. It's the sound of a band, and its leader, losing faith in themselves, destroying themselves, and subsequently rebuilding a perfect entity. In other words, Radiohead hated being Radiohead, but ended up with the most ideal, natural Radiohead record yet.

"Everything in Its Right Place" opens like Close Encounters spaceships communicating with pipe organs. As your ears decide whether the tones are coming or going, Thom Yorke's Cuisinarted voice struggles for its tongue. "Everything," Yorke belts in uplifting sighs. The first-person mantra of "There are two colors in my head" is repeated until the line between Yorke's mind and the listener's mind is erased.

Skittering toy boxes open the album's title song, which, like the track "Idioteque," shows a heavy Warp Records influence. The vocoder lullaby lulls you deceivingly before the riotous "National Anthem." Mean, fuzzy bass shapes the spine as unnerving theremin choirs limn. Brash brass bursts from above like Terry Gilliam's animated foot. The horns swarm as Yorke screams, begs, "Turn it off!" It's the album's shrill peak, but just one of the incessant goosebumps raisers.

After the rockets exhaust, Radiohead float in their lone orbit. "How to Disappear Completely" boils down "Let Down" and "Karma Police" to their spectral essence. The string-laden ballad comes closest to bridging Yorke's lyrical sentiment to the instrumental effect. "I float down the Liffey/ I'm not here/ This isn't happening," he sings in his trademark falsetto. The strings melt and weep as the album shifts into its underwater mode. "Treefingers," an ambient soundscape similar in sound and intent to Side B of Bowie and Eno's Low, calms after the record's emotionally strenuous first half.

The primal, brooding guitar attack of "Optimistic" stomps like mating Tyrannosaurs. The lyrics seemingly taunt, "Try the best you can/ Try the best you can," before revealing the more resigned sentiment, "The best you can is good enough." For an album reportedly "lacking" in traditional Radiohead moments, this is the best summation of their former strengths. The track erodes into a light jam before morphing into "In Limbo." "I'm lost at sea," Yorke cries over clean, uneasy arpeggios. The ending flares with tractor beams as Yorke is vacuumed into nothingness. The aforementioned "Idioteque" clicks and thuds like Aphex Twin and Bjork's Homogenic, revealing brilliant new frontiers for the "band." For all the noise to this point, it's uncertain entirely who or what has created the music. There are rarely traditional arrangements in the ambiguous origin. This is part of the unique thrill of experiencing Kid A.

Pulsing organs and a stuttering snare delicately propel "Morning Bell." Yorke's breath can be heard frosting over the rainy, gray jam. Words accumulate and stick in his mouth like eye crust. "Walking walking walking walking," he mumbles while Jonny Greenwood squirts whale-chant feedback from his guitar. The closing "Motion Picture Soundtrack" brings to mind The White Album, as it somehow combines the sentiment of Lennon's LP1 closer-- the ode to his dead mother, "Julia"-- with Ringo and Paul's maudlin, yet sincere LP2 finale, "Goodnight." Pump organ and harp flutter as Yorke condones with affection, "I think you're crazy." To further emphasize your feeling at that moment and the album's overall theme, Yorke bows out with "I will see you in the next life." If you're not already there with him.

The experience and emotions tied to listening to Kid A are like witnessing the stillborn birth of a child while simultaneously having the opportunity to see her play in the afterlife on Imax. It's an album of sparking paradox. It's cacophonous yet tranquil, experimental yet familiar, foreign yet womb-like, spacious yet visceral, textured yet vaporous, awakening yet dreamlike, infinite yet 48 minutes. It will cleanse your brain of those little crustaceans of worries and inferior albums clinging inside the fold of your gray matter. The harrowing sounds hit from unseen angles and emanate with inhuman genesis. When the headphones peel off, and it occurs that six men (Nigel Godrich included) created this, it's clear that Radiohead must be the greatest band alive, if not the best since you know who. Breathing people made this record! And you can't wait to dive back in and try to prove that wrong over and over.

-Brent DiCrescenzo

Picks...

2008-01-30T07:43:00.000-08:00

Black Mountain: In the Future - "Angels"

Vampire Weekend: Vampire Weekend - "Oxford Comma"

Pick of the day...

2007-12-30T08:32:00.000-08:00

The Clash: Combat Rock - "Straight to Hell"

Sam Cooke: "A Change is Gonna Come"

(two of the best songs ever recorded)

HapPy NeW YEaR

Picks for the holidays...

2007-12-22T09:20:00.000-08:00

Rufus Wainwright: Rufus Wainwright - "Foolish Love"
Rufus Wainwright: Want Two - "The One You Love"
(actually anything by Rufus sits well with me around this time of year)
Jens Lekman: Night Falls Over Kortedala - "And I Remember Every Kiss"
Van Morrison: Hard Nose to the Highway - "Warm Love"

happy holidays to all.....

Pick of the day...

2007-12-17T15:59:00.000-08:00

Pixies: DOOLITTLE - "I Bleed"

Pick of the day - 12/16/07

2007-12-16T18:07:00.000-08:00

Clinic: WALKING WITH THEE - "Welcome"

Best of 2007

2007-12-12T21:07:00.000-08:00

1. Radiohead: "In Rainbows" - A record showing a band playing perfectly together and giving 2007 an emotional kick in the ass. (suggested song) "All I Need"
2. Arcade Fire: "Neon Bible"- Lyrics play a much more significant role in this wordy springsteenesque second album from what may turn out to be the most important "new" band of the decade.
3. Of Montreal: "Hissing Fauna, Are You the Destroyer?"- Listen to the first 30 seconds of "Gronlandic Edit" (my song of the year) and this bouncy psych-pop sound seemingly invented and perfected by Kevin Barnes explains it's place on this list.
4. Peter Bjorn and John: "Writer's Block"- If you've turned on your T.V. in the last six months you couldn't help but hear the catchy whistling tune "Young Folks" flowing through some ridiculous advertisement. Aside from the fact that the album has a few weak tracks, I probably had this in my car longer than any other album this year.
5. Animal Collective: "Strawberry Jam"- I have yet to figure out just what this record sounds like or where the hell it came from; the closest I can get is Brian Wilson's "Smile" but with a much stronger electric guitar influence and a melodic beauty all it's own.
6. Okkervil River: "The Stage Names"- This Austin based band defines what good folk based indie rock should sounds like, and throws in a fantastic take on The Beach Boys "Sloop John B".
7. LCD Soundsystem: "Sound of Silver"- The closest a man can come to combining dance and rock music and have it sound so "silver".
8. The National: "Boxer"- A dark, lyric driven album that can put you to sleep at night as well as wake you up and get you going in the morning. Not to mention, drumming that is unmatched in all of 2007.
9. Jens Lekman: "Night Falls Over Kortedela"- Uses a combination of horns, strings and keyboards to surprise you with every theatrical production on this exceptional record.
10. Burial/M.I.A: "Untrue/Kala"- I have to include both of these on the list and if "Untrue" had come out earlier in the year it would have probably been much higher. It reminds me of early Massive Attack and the choppy parts of "Kid A" that give you a very unsettling but curious feeling untouched by most musicians. M.I.A. comes back from her acclaimed debut to out do herself with a spastic album that separates itself from anything else this year.

ALMOST:

Wilco: "Sky Blue Sky
Sunset Rubdown: "Random Spirit Lover"
Spoon: "Ga Ga Ga Ga"
The Bees: "Octupus"
Modeselektor: "Happy Birthday!"

CLINIC - "Internal Wrangler"

2007-12-04T17:42:00.000-08:00

I was just turned on to this band/album recently by a Pitchfork review and have listened to nothing else since and feel obligated to share them with you...

The first track sets the stage perfectly for an album that comes from nowhere and succeeds in developing a sound all it's own. "Voodoo Wop" begins with layered drum samples that sounds like a high school marching band, building to an almost thunderous point before ever so gently sliding off into some kind of electro-surf song. This kind of erratic behavior is just about the only thing you can count on with this album and is really what makes it work. The first seven tracks drive at an almost lightning pace, filled with quirky beats and random sounds that range from crashing water to train sirens. There are constant horn stabs and lyrics that are borderline inaudible and sound like a child speaking for the first time. Track 9 and the highlight of the record, "distortions" takes the pulse of the album to a steady but slow beat and for the first time uses lyrics to form the song. The lyrics, for me really say what the album sounds like; confusion, instability, and a beautiful loss of control.

" I've showed me once to often.
You'd never know how often
I've pictured you in coffins
My baby in a coffin"
(from distortions)