OBLIVIATE!! (oh HP, oh JK, oh WB, you got me again!)

New HP. Well fuck.
When I read the first Harry Potter book, I did so in one sitting, then promptly forgot the entire thing. Whenever a new one came out I would read ALL of them over again with undiminished zeal in preparation, and finally hunker down with my brand new hardcover, complete with awesome cover designs of various magical happenings.
I had basically forgotten there were any more Harry Potter movies to be made, and then all of a sudden, #6 is coming out in a few months! #6! that means there are two more to look forward to, it also means there are 6 movies and 8 books with which i will gleefully fill my time until July 15th. All I know is that Voldemort is coming and Harry MUST stop him with the help of his friends, his unparalleled wizarding skills, and courage. I cannot wait to re-experience all the juicy plot details that have been wiped from my memory.

Reasons Harry Potter is excellent:
1) wands (spells, patronuses, vine wood with dragon heartstring or holly with phoenix feather? duels, etc)
2) Wizards. period.
3) Hogwarts. I want to ride a mystical train to a moat, get in a little boat, disembark at a castle, have some dumb hat predict my future, and then eat a delicious magical banquet and hang with ghosts.
4) hormonal magic. I would like my angst to find expression in whimiscal mishaps resulting from my magical personage.
5) Brad Neely and Wizard people (probably old old old news for most of you, but it just doesn't stop cracking me up. ever.

]
5)a) the hot foot spell, monstermash, zumacrum,

*if you don't have patience or time  for the whole thing, skip the first 3 minutes, or, if you have srs ADD skip the first 6.

Ways Harry Potter sucks:

Some people will die before all the movies come out. Some people may have died without finishing the books. I may be dead before I see all the movies. This is a shame, and the thought of it chills me to the bone. Although, to be fair, it may be more an issue with mortality than with Harry Potter specifically.

Oh Jens!

The Sweptaways are a HUGE a capella choir of good looking well-heeled Swedish ladies (myspace, or, if you read Swedish, blog), and that's about as much as I know about them. On their second album, The Sweptaways Show, the ladies are joined on each track by a different pop singer, including one or two familiar names, like JENS and Pelle Almqvist from The Hives (who kissed my hand at a show when I was 14), Robyn (!), and a whole lot of people I don't know. 

You can listen to all the tracks for free and download them for $$ HERE.

The kitsh factor of this project may be off-putting for some. As for me, the sound of more than two voices together gives me chills and often makes my eyes sting like I'm on the brink of tears (not to mention I'm a little bit of a scandinav-o-phile (?)), so 30+ Swedish voices, (<3) Jens Lekman's (<3) included, definitely does it for me! >

Credit to Jonas Edvinsson for tweeting this video and making my week!

Ok, it's too gorgeous outside to sit around indoors writing. But i do want to share something quickly. In Berlin I was fortunate enough to make the acquaintance of two incredibly talented people from Riga, Latvia. VJ Linards Kulless (who has a sparse internet presence, mostly in Latvian, so no links) and DJ Galka Kulio.

Galka is a costume designer, DJ, and artist. When I met her in Berlin I developed an immediate friend crush on her. I was overwhelmed by her wit, drama, look, and candid honesty. She and Linards are two of the friendliest most fascinating people I have ever met, which, theoretically, speaks well of Latvia (or maybe of Berlin). Anyway, it took me two months after meeting her to properly peruse her blog, and I'm pretty much in love with everything she makes. Looking at the photos of her costumes and other work feels like being punched in the stomach by a hand wearing a glittering pink glove. Her work is urgent, distressing, sexy, colorful, and fun. Seriously, just go LOOK at it. Here is a song from her pop group, 'Simferopol No More.' It, like everything else she does apparently, is awesome.

Simferopol No More: Krima

I've finally had some free time on my hands so here are some buttons I made from images from old children's books. These are all the pictures I could find of birds that were small enough to go on a button.

Also, on a side note, check the new header at the top of the blog. I made that too!

posted by: Carissa

Two Weathers'

Milledge/Margarete

Slowcore Days

Carissa is team Carmissa's resident expert on slow jamz, so I may be getting in a little over my head here- but rainy days call for slow songs and man is it ever raining out today.

Growing up, my tastes gradually shifted from alt rock radio, to punk rock, finally to indie rock when I started ninth grade at the dawn of the current millenium. At that time my sonic landscape was populated with the heart on your sleeve, guitar driven indie pop of Belle and Sebastian and Rilo Kiley and the unabashedly self indulgent middle class boy blues of Bright Eyes and Cursive. As I entered college my eyes were opened (mostly by Ryan Newmyer) to a world of 'smarter' indie rock including bands like Pavement and The Silver Jews. These days, as evidenced by the success of Dan Deacon, MGMT, and passion pit, people seem to embrace the catharsis of sweaty electro spaz dance marathons, rendering the nights I remember sitting on my step dad's porch discovering Belle and Sebastian with my first love, and those whiskey fueled Silver Jews sing a longs, somewhat quaint and dated.

Surprisingly, the Pitchfork review of the Dark Was the Night compilation expresses my feelings on current indie rock pretty well. The gist of it is basically that while the guitar driven, melodic, folkie indie that had its heyday in the 90s and early 2000s was good, it hasn't grown much and has become a bit stale, being displaced by what Carissa and I have dubbed 'indie prog' (Swan Lake, No Age, Women, etc) and music with a heavy synth and computer component (Passion Pit, Hercules and Love Affair, the list goes on forEVER).

Lately, maybe because of ATROCIOUS weather I've been experiencing, I'm finding myself drawn to current purveyors of folkie slow jams featuring stringed instruments and drums and am being reminded that some people are in fact still finding ways to make the sounds I came of age to relevant, beautiful, meaningful, and innovative. Here are a few of them:

Elephant Micah (he recently made most of his music available digitally on his website with the request for donations. Joe O'Connel works hard and I recommend you throw a few bucks his way)
Malaysia
Passage
Feedback, So Long

Miles Benjamin Anthony Robinson
Buriedfed
The Debtor

Deer Tick
Baltimore Blues #1
Ashamed

Bon Iver (duh)
Blood Bank

Julie Doiron
myspace

photo credit to Carissa Hamman, photo of Microwave Background circa 2005

Dent May

The internet and I are new friends, we've been on a couple dates, he tried to feel me up once, but I don't want to get too physical because I'm not sure I trust him yet. So, you know, we are still getting to know each other and I discover some unexpected facet of his personality every day. With this in mind, I confess that even though I've listened to a bunch of Daytrotter tracks I haven't actually spent much (read: any) time on their blog until today.
1. Their manifesto is pretty good, but I felt like they were shaming me for blogging (am I being over sensitive and paranoid or could the 'daytrotters' stand to lighten up a bit?)
2. The reason I even went there was to hear Dent May's session from April 6. The article accompanying it was a little weird. it was all about the dilemma of the smart, sensitive, funny, but, alas, vaguely nerdy guy who can't get any hot girls because they are wasting their time with hot jocks who are going to leave them. OK, first of all, fuck that. and second of all, fuck that again. I don't think the 'cool nerd' has any trouble. They are a vaguely non-threatening but hip and good looking type that always get the girl on tv and in movies (Seth Cohen much?) and as far as I can tell in real life.
3. This may come as a surprise, but the point of all this rambling is that Dent May and his Magnificent Ukelele is awesome. His songs are cheesy in the vein of Jens Lekman or Adam Green-which i really like. You know, the throwback crooner style, I'm kind of a sucker for it. My favorite song of his is When You Were Mine, which, it turns out, is a PRINCE cover!

thx 2 kv 4 the tip

HUNGER

Vigilante Justice

he's getting knifed in case you couldn't tell.

Too Much Love

In Berlin I didn't have a whole lot of internet access and phone calls were difficult so I was basically cut off from family and friends in North America. This resulted in obsessive journaling, which evolved into obsessive drawing as a sort of short hand. A picture is worth a thousand words and all that. In keeping with our mission statement, and in recognition of the value of making things purely for the joy and relief of making them, I am going to post some of them, starting here:

"There was no past-tense in the verb 'to love' for Cordelia"-Evelyn Waugh, 'Brideshead Revisited'

everyone knows I am a huge sucker

While listening to the new Mirah album “(A)Spera” for the first time through I was very surprised to hear the familiar lyrics “let’s take the time to walk to together while we have the sun…” Though, I do happen to prefer the original recording much better, it was still strange to hear a song that was so personal to me. The song that was originally recorded for Mirah’s album with Ginger titled “Songs From The Black Mountain Music Project,” is found in a more disjointed reincarnation on "(A)Spera."

Though I have been listening to Mirah for a very long time, somehow I was able to miss the fact that she had a new album out. I guess my excuse is the same that I have for the fact that I haven’t even written anything for this blog yet. I am pretty out of the loop. I feel displaced and I have not been living in my own space for a while. I feel like a squatter bound for a life of feeling guilty about eating other people’s food and using a computer that is not mine when no one else is here.

For me, at least, one of the reasons behind the creation of this blog is an effort to regain my inspiration. A few things are happening currently that are (hopefully) making this a reality including the advent of spring as well as finally moving into my own space where I hope to have time and resources for creating again. I have scarcely taken a photograph in the past 3 months.

Right now sitting in this apartment in which every wall is made of windows, feeling the breeze that is warmed by the sun blowing over my legs and listening to this album on repeat feels like a beginning for me. Almost every song is bringing tears to my eyes and though this could be a reminder of sadder and more important experiences, like constant heartbreak or overwhelming beauty that is experienced from extreme lack of sleep, or even premenstrual syndrome, it doesn’t really matter. I am accepting it whole-heartedly with open arms.

Mirah - The Forest

Mirah - Generosity

Mirah - Education

posted by: carissa

Its Blitz!

Heads Will Roll

I know I posted a song from the new Yeah Yeah Yeahs album in another post, but it got deleted and I'm still working on getting our posts back so I'm writing about it in detail now, even though I've sort of been sitting on it for awhile. I was listening to 'Its Blitz!' again today and I am constantly surprised by how much I love this band. I was introduced to the band with 2003's Fever to Tell. I loved it, like most people, but I didn't give the band hardly any thought after that. I associated them with a whole team of NYC based 'art punk' bands who gained some mainstream success around that time, particularly The Strokes. I loved 'Is This It' too, but I thought one album of it was enough and I didn't think The Strokes would ever make anything different. I felt the same way about the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, so when Show Your Bones came out, I wasn't too interested.

But then, I worked at the Earlham College radio station (WECI), and it was laying around with its awesome cover art and compelling title, and everyone was talking about how excited they were to listen to it, and then Carissa played 'Phenomena' on our radio show and it was just so...hot. It stuck with me and I gave the rest of the album a listen. I was absolutely blown away. 'Turn Into' and 'Warrior' are two of my favorite songs, I listened to them all the rest of that year constantly.

I was afraid 'Its Blitz' would disappoint after I'd been so blindsided by 'Show Your Bones.' Not a chance. I was blindsided again! I guess the Yeah Yeah Yeahs are just a really good band who make consistently good albums.

most bands that come out I like when they are new, a few tracks from their album are good indie dance party fodder and then they fade out of my mind, quickly becoming dated. In the moment, the bands and songs sincerely mean a lot to me, but the new newest best release of the week is always on deck. I'm not sure i feel great that that's the way I listen to music these days, but as wise man Arthur Weiss says: It is what it is. The sheer volume of music, and music that I like, make it difficult for bands to stick. I think we are going back to a culture where the concept of the single is more important than the album. I'll post more of my thoughts on that later, but for now lets focus on how rad these songs are!





note* I guess i can't send you directly to the mp3s anymore so I have to get more creative with how to give you all tracks.
OH YEAH, HAPPY APRIL FOOL'S DAY!