Looking Forward to Looking Back

I started writing somewhat free form year end lists a couple of years ago, recapping my own thoughts on the music of the year in an informal, personal style. Astutue readers may notice I skipped that tradition at the end of ‘07. I’m not exactly sure why. It just wasn’t a massively inspiring year for music in my opinion, and the thought of struggling to put together a few paragraphs of coherent thought on a subject that could basically be summed up by the word “meh” just didn’t appeal to me. Sure, there were the usual highlights (In Rainbows) and near misses (Volta), and old rediscoveries, but not enough to resemble an actual list.

So why am I writing this? Because this year is already way different.

There has already been a full list’s worth of inspiring, fascinating music, and there’s promise of even more on the way. I started off the year obsessed with the new Why? album, Alopecia, and it has yet to lose it’s quirky, neurotic charm. Re-arrange Us, by Mates of State, was released at the perfect time to become the soundtrack of my summer, and finds them expanding their sound to much grander dimensions, without losing any of it’s affectionate appeal. Then there’s Efterklang’s brilliant Parades, technically a 2007 release that I didn’t hear until recently. I’m still kicking myself for skipping their show at Nectar recently. Dosh put out a great new album that’s been in heavy rotation, and Daedelus has become some sort of pop chameleon on his latest record. I’m still digesting a glut of new music from Autechre (one album, one bonus remix album, and an hour and a half of downloadable remixes!), and a small serving of Joan of Arc songs (one album, but lyrically layered so deeply it feels like 4).

I’m actually looking forward to looking back on this year, especially with some of the promising upcoming releases that are impending (Mogwai, Ratatat, Venetian Snares, Beck?). 2008 has been exciting so far, and shows no sign of slowing down.

The Moment of Panic

Last night was the big D.iscontent show at the Baltic Room, where Timm and I debuted the live sets we’ve been working on almost non-stop since the beginning of the year. It was a lot of fun, with great visuals, a lineup of excellent DJs on either side of our live sets, and good turnout (especially for a holiday Sunday).

But there was one moment of sheer terror.

We’d showed up to sound check early in the evening, getting all or connections sorted out and hooking up all the gear to our laptops and the mixer. Everything was sounding good, and it was great to finally hear the sets on a big, booming PA. Timm’s set ran smoothly, and towards the end I got up behind the DJ booth to set up my gear next tot he decks. I get everything powered up and running, fire up my software, and take a look to make sure the software is responding to the gear.

And guess what? It’s not.

I restart the software. Still nothing. I unplug my gear and plug it back into the laptop. Nothing.

I turn to Timm with a sinking feeling in my stomach, and tell him he needs to cover for me. He’s a total trooper, so he improvs the end of his set, dragging out his last song longer than planned, with more variation than he’s practiced. Meanwhile, I hit the power on my laptop and begin the long slow boot back into Windows.

When it finally boots up, I plug my gear back in. Up pops a window, asking if I’d like to install new hardware. This is the moment when I reeeeeally start to worry. I cross myself and mutter a few obscenities. Fortunately, the solution is simple; I switch the two USB cables for my MIDI gear and audio interface. Everything clicks. My software responds. Disaster averted. The show goes on as planned. Which is good, since I was one more error message away from committing ritual suicide.

Static Gliding

I should probably mention that a new project just launched. Go visit D.iscontent! What is it? It’s a label-like, crew-like thing founded by myself and Hjalti, where we will be releasing music and gathering together other Cascadian musicians for collaborations, shows, etc. We’re accepting demos if you’re intrigued by what you see and simply must be a part of the excitement.

In case I haven’t mentioned it here yet, the live debut of the D.iscontent crew takes place on May 25th, at Static Glide Part 2, with Miniature Airlines (aka your truly) and Hjalti playing live PA sets at the Baltic Room, with DJs Travis Baron and Levitation Device keeping things bouncing. It’s free before 10, so you have no excuse for missing this. It’s also my birthday, so you have no excuse for not buying me drinks all night..

Static Glide Part 1, featuring Telephone Jim Jesus and DJ Egadz, went off last night, but not exactly as planned. Originally slated for the VIP Room at Neumo’s, the show was merged with Broken Disco at Chop Suey at the last minute. Damn Seattle Fire Marshall, making things all complicated! It still went off well, and hopefully interest will carry over onto our show in two weeks.

Why? & Mt. Eerie @ Vera

It’s an odd pairing, but in someon’es mind, there was some theoretical sense to it. Pairing a scruffy, mystical folkie from Anacortes, known for hushed, sacred songs backed by a nylon stringed acoustic guitar, with an equally scruffy, neurotically self-revealing pseudo-rapper/indie rock star playing with a full, fractured band. Luckily, in practice, it worked out beautifully.

We came in during Julie Doiron’s opening set, and my first thought was “Cat Power clone”. Serene’s Feist comparison turned out o be more apt as the set drew on though. She was standing alone on stage, gently strumming and fingerpicking an electric guitar and talking compulsively between songs. I think she might have spoken more words than she sang during the set. But there was something charming about her songs, delicate but occasionally fierce, sweet and sad.

I’d never seen M. Eerie before, despite several opportunities to do so. I wasn’t sure what to expect either. Phil Elverum solo, a full band, some odd configuration of exotic instruments and woodland spirits? It turned out to be Phil Elverum, joined by Julie Doiron on backing vocals, and another guitarist, playing all new material that they had written and recorded during the previous week. A giant sheet of handwritten lyrics, festooned with underlines and notations as to who was singing what part, was unfolded and served as a cheat sheet and setlist, and they plowed through a batch of songs so fresh they had to refresh each others’ memories between songs. Even with limited visibility of the stage, it was a great experience. the audience was unusually quiet and still, rooted in place as the music flowed from the stage. At one point, the projected videos on the back wall displayed some sort of metal scrapping in process, showers of sparks building and cascading in unplanned synchronicity with the rise and fall of the music. They even slipped in a cover of Björk’s “Undo,” which fit in perfectly with the haunting and sometimes desolate originals.

I’d seen Why? before, once as a band and once as a guest with Hood, reprising his role as an additional vocalist on songs from Cold House. This time, the band was back in force, with frontman Yoni’s brother Josiah on drums and vibraphone (usually at the same time, amazingly) and bass at one point, and a slew of additional keyboards, guitars, basses, and percussion being passed around the remaining musicians. The musicianship of the Why? live band is incredible, both for the range of instruments and the range of textures and tones they produced. Yoni switched off between glockenspiel, keyboards, bass, guitar, and a couple of drums and cymbals while singing. The brothers Wolf even split drum kit duties on one song, with Josiah playing the kick drum with his foot and Yoni playing cymbals and snare while he sang.While guitar and bass were prevalent, the vibraphone and glockenspiel took on a lead role in many of the songs, floating on top of a bed of warped synths and rhodes piano. Except for obscure gems like “Early Whitney” or “Darla,” they played all my favorite song, mostly from Elephant Eyelash and the new, stunning Alopecia. The full house demanded an encore, and got the only song that I was really hoping for, “By Torpedo or Crohn’s”.

Earlier in the evening, the soundman had been playing C&C Music Factory between sets, that combined with the all ages crowd and darkened room to give me a feeling like I was at a Junior High dance circa 1990. It was another of the night’s many odd pairings, but this one didn’t work as well as the other musical matchups did, for reasons that are probably obvious.

Checklist

I’m feeling pretty accomplished this week. I finished the seventh in a series of annual T-shirt designs I’ve been doing, finalized a logo for an upcoming project, made some headway on a webpage I’m working on, and gave some critiques on an essay and a live electronic set. In between all of that, I managed to fit in a BBQ in the beautiful Seattle weather on Saturday, meeting some cool new people and their cool dogs (and hanging out on a rooftop overlooking downtown), brunch, too much coffee, and a football game (of the European kind). I even managed to fit in a little reading and a little BSG.

That is what weekends were meant to be.

Welcome to the Apocalypse

IMG_5172, originally uploaded by successless.

This photo doesn’t really do it justice, but the end of the world took place on Saturday night.

My house was overrun with fallout refugees, zombie killers, and plague victims. The only recourse was to drink copious amounts of alcohol and hone our survival skills through minigames.

When it was determined that we were skilled enough to survive, we left the comfort of our temporary shelter and descended upon the nearby Buckaroo Tavern for more supplies and reinforcements, paying no mind to the curious stares of the poor unfortunate souls who didn’t realize it was all over.

Armageddon ended with yellow cake (the edible kind, not the radioactive kind), cartoons, and much needed sleep. Then we woke up, and everything was back to normal. Mostly.

A Week In The Dark

I just finished my first week of work at my new job. It was hectic and stressful, but not because of the job itself. More so because my key broke off in my ignition on what was supposed to be my third day. What seemed like a simple matter for a locksmith to deal with turned into an ongoing ordeal involving a new ignition, a $1000 bill, a bus trip from Redmond on Friday night, and a lost day of work. Things start looking up, and something has to come along and rain on the parade, I suppose. Hopefully I’ll get my car back today.

On a more positive note, I’m really enjoying the new Hot Chip album. Almost as much as the new Why? album. And I’m still wrapping my head around the new Autechre. Every time one of their albums comes out, it takes repeated listening over several weeks to really get inside it and understand what’s happening, musically and technically. By the time my copy of the limited edition version arrives, I should be ready to take on the bonus disc…just in time to go see them in April.

As for now though, I’m gonna watch some participatory democracy in action at the Central Library, then do some relaxing and try to forget the whole car ordeal. Music will probably help. So will red wine.

*Headdesk*

Oh man, this is probably the most astute takedown of Sony’s plan to renounce DRM you could possibly read. I mean, you see a headline that reads something like “Last Major Label Holdout Ditches DRM” and think it must be a good thing, right? Then you read their actual plan, and it’s like your forehead is involuntarily drawn towards your desk at an excessive velocity. Thud! Idiots! Is it even physically possible to have a lesser understanding of your market?

Ich Sein Nicht Ein Berliner

I shouldn’t be here right now.

I should be approximately 5,050 miles away, in Berlin. I should be staying at the Backpax hostel, preparing for a completely debauched and raucous celebration of the New Year. I should finally have a stamp in my new passport, the one that was supposed to be stamped in France earlier this year, on the trip I never ended up taking. I should be visiting the Bauhaus Design Archives, Checkpoint Charlie, the Gainsbourg Lounge, The Holocaust Museum, Karl Marx Allee, Potsdammer Platz. I should be taking notes on cool records shops, cafes, bars, and clubs in my Moleskine City Notebook that I got for Christmas. I should be buying a train ticket to Poland, for a trip through the Polish countryside into Krakov.

This year was apparently not my year to visit Europe though.

I’m disappointed for sure, especially since the reasons I couldn’t make it are so banal and stupid. But it just gives me extra reason to make my way over there during 2008. Look out…

Best News I’ve Heard This Week

I really hope this story is true. I saw the stage production of C.D. Payne’s Youth In Revolt back in Santa Rosa, after reading the book (multiple times). It was a tiny little show that only touched on the first chunk of the rather large and engrossing story, and the no-budget production with age-inappropriate actors didn’t exactly leave me thrilled. But  Michael Cera would be perfect for the part of Nick Twisp, so as long as there’s a decent director involved, this should be good. Hopefully Hollywood doesn’t fuck this one up.