Album of the Week IV

I know it's been more than a week since i've done this, but i finally found another album worth talking about.

Modest Mouse - Autumn Beds 7"


Stream "Autumn Beds" here
and
Stream the B-side "Whale Song" here

The single "Autumn Beds" is kind of just a Modest Mouse attempt at making a folk song... it's nothing special and it's pretty repetitive. Personally, i'm not a fan of the song. It's definitely not one of Modest Mouse's better songs, but it gets stuck in my head now and then and it's a pretty chill song to throw on every now and then.

What makes this 7" good is the B-side, "Whale Song." I would simply describe it as Modest Mouse revisits Moon and Antarctica. The guitar is hectic and dissonant, but the bass line keeps it driving along for the entire 3 minute intro. The vocals are exactly what i've been hoping to hear our of newer Modest Mouse recordings: the megaphone vocals in the background with a catchy line or two that Issac repeats and drills into your head. It all builds up and then just lets loose at the end in a classic, old-school Modest Mouse style. Definitely worth a listen.

-Stephen
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Album of the Week III

So this may seem kind of boring, because i know pretty much everyone has this album by now and has been talking about it a good bit, but hey, it's what i've been listening to most this week.

Dirty Projectors - Bitte Orca


This album came up out of no where for me. I had never heard a Dirty Projectors song in my life. I read some good things about this album, heard some friends say it was rad, and decided to get my hands on it. I threw it in iTunes and started off with "Cannibal Resource" and knew right away that i liked it. I don't know if it's folk or rock or pop, but whatever it is, it's good. Not only are the vocals intricate and hauntingly beautiful, the guitars sound so damn good! I don't know what they did, but someone was a genius when they recorded this band. I think my favorite examples of awesome guitar on this album are at the end of "Useful Chamber" (starting at 5:15) and throughout "No Intention." And "Temecula", my gosh, what is going on with the instrumentation in that song? Blowing my mind. It's sporadic but perfectly uniform at the same time. I know Austin was raving about the part in the song where he sings "There's a space for you in my basement. All you gotta do is help with the chores and do the dishes... and i know you will". Yup, i agree, that part rules.

What really keeps me coming back to this album pretty much every day is the unique way the voices of the three vocalist (one dude, two chicks) blend and harmonize. They seem to utilize the vocal talents they have just about perfectly. Some of the vocal patterns, harmonies, and octave jumps give me chills.

One word for this album. Beautiful.

-Stephen
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Album of the Week II

I know that most of you already have this album, but here it is anyway.

Dan Deacon - Bromst



--Click to Download Album--

After Last.fm kept on heckling me to listen to Dan Deacon, I finally did the good and ethical thing and torrented every album of his that I could find. As I do with most new albums, I put on Bromst and listened to it straight through.

It starts with the song "Build Voice" which takes a good 30 seconds just to build up to an audible level, but once it gets going it is both haunting and intense. But the song that totally blew mind was "Snookered." My gosh, I don't even understand how a song can sound that good. There are not many songs that I think deserve to be 8 minutes long, but "Snookered" defintely merits the time frame. The first half of the song is magical and gets more and more exciting as it move along... and then at 4:16 the song breaks loose. The drums, synth, and samples are all going full speed at this point. This is where I thought the song was incredible, and then it hit 4:48 and I have never heard anything like the type of vocal cutting that happens at that point. Totally rad. Another song I really enjoy is the last song on the album entitled "Get Older." The use of a vocoder near the end is pretty sweet.

another thing about Dan Deacon... i have no idea how he makes the sounds he does. just looking at his set-up is so confusing. i guess that's part of what makes it so good.



if you don't have this album yet, get it. it rules.
-Stephen
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My Girls - Gigamesh Remix

I've been pretty into remixes lately... mostly because of all the dance parties that have been going down. This is one of the coolest ones I've heard

--click to listen, right click to save--

-Stephen continue reading...

Album of the Week

This is a bit belated, but here's my first "album of the week" review.

The Gaskets - Loose Change


--CLICK TO DOWNLOAD ALBUM--

The twins (Taylor and Jamison MacKillop) were the first ones to introduce me to The Gaskets. The Gaskets are no longer a band, and they never got really big, but I feel that the music they did make was a really fun twist on electronic pop. They were a duo from Richmond, Virginia that rocked it with just a microphone and a Yamaha RM1X sequencer. For some special shows they added a full band which was pretty rad (Taylor owns the live DVD if you ever want to see it).

The album Loose Change is full of catchy electronic funk and shout-out-loud lyrics. The first song that really got my attention is the the third track "Cold Busted." It's starts with an acoustic guitar loop that is intricate and yet easy to follow and then drops a beat with some fun lyrics about getting caught doing stuff you shouldn't do. Definitely a fun song. Recently my favorite song on this album has been "Eiffel Tower." This song is a straight rad danceable tune that has a chorus that gets stuck in my head and a breakdown/chant near the end that always makes me smile. The only song that I think is really weak on this album is "De Sunuke Sufain." Some chick guest sings on it and it just rubs me the wrong way.

here's the music video for "Eiffel Tower"


This is definitely a fun summer album to jam to and sing along with (which I've been doing a lot lately). So check it out and tell me what you think.

-Stephen


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Some Changes

You may or may not have noticed a few additions to Summer Teen Diary.

1. Over on the right side there is now a new section that's titled "Other Blogs." Feel free to edit it and add whatever other blogs you think people would be interested in. I added "The Onion" and "Tiger Cub" just to get it started. I don't really know many awesome music blogs, but it would be cool if someone could add one or two of those. I would at least be interested in reading them.

2. Also over there on the right Austin added his Last.fm weekly top artists. If you have a Last.fm and would like to do the same simply click on the "Get Your Own" button on Austin's, make sure you're logged in, and then click on "Make a widget from your own charts." You can do weekly top tracks or artists or just what you've listened to recently. Then go to the "Customize" button at the top of the blog and then click "Add a Gadget" in the right bar. Add the HTML gadget, put in the code that Last.fm gives you, and bam. Donezo. For some reason all the play counts are screwed up on mine, so i removed mine from the page.

3. I'm going to start doing and "Album of the Week." I will do a short review and put the album up for download so that you can check it out if you want. I will probably start either later today or tomorrow.

so feel free to add gadgets and random stuff to the blog. it could be a lot of fun.
-Stephen
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last week of classes

This is tomorrow
And I'm going to see Native and ITFOW in Kokomo on Friday if anyone wants to go with.

-Stephen continue reading...

Passion Pit - Manners

here's the new Passion Pit album for anyone who's interested: CLICK HERE

my favorite tracks are "Let Your Love Grow Tall" and "The Reeling"

-Stephen continue reading...

Kickin it off

Bonfire at my house on Friday at 10 pm. Everyone is invited.

and then this on Saturday of course:
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a series of lists

My standards are set very high for this summer. 

Awesome things about this summer:
- My parents are going to be gone for 7-8 weeks so I have a house to myself (and possibly a house mate) for pretty much the whole summer.
- Most of the friends that I truly love are going to be within a 30 minute drive.

- I plan on attending many concerts and one music festival.  Not to mention local shows.

- I plan on reading any Michael Crichton books I haven't read yet (I think there are only 3 or 4)

- 2 new tattoos

- Movies, movies, movies (at Aaron's?  I hope so)

What might suck about this summer:

- Working on Taylor paint crew. 

- Not having the twins around

What I hope will happen

- Wiffle ball at Shane's town house (well, more of just a property now)

- Bonfires at my house, Shane's house.... anyone else's house

- Dance parties.  With no padres around I'm definitely going to host a few.

- Writing some solo songs and then also making music with various people

- Road trips and/or Tiger Cub tour.

Other stuff

- I have to miss 4 days of work to fly out to my sister's wedding.  I'm actually kind of bummed I have to go to my own sister's wedding... is that wrong?

- I'm going to have to cut my hair for the wedding.  I don't know how I feel about that.

There they are.  My hopes, fears, and expectations.

I'm sitting in one of the video editing suites right now and I just finished my final film for digital video production.  It's not nearly as good as I had hoped.  But on the bright side it's pretty much the last major thing I had to do for the semester.  I'm as good as done.

I'll be seeing all of you soon,

Stephen

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