FoeWeel !!! ???

Art piece at the de Young Museum

It’s always such a strange thing for me to sum up an entire calendar year, to take a snapshot of it. Either the framed picture is actually a better portrayal of the year than it actually was, or it cannot fully encapsulate the grandness of it. It’s been a positively turbulent year for me personally, and as far as music, the four albums that stick out in my mind are Sigur Ros’ Med sud i eyrum vid spilum endalaust, Lykke Li’s Youth Novels, TV On The Radio’s Dear Science,, and Bon Iver’s For Emma, Forever Ago, which was on my list from last year as well–yeah, it’s that good. They are all great albums that work cohesively as an album and not just as filler for a few singles. I think the Sigur Ros and Bon Iver albums are masterpieces. The four albums mentioned above should grow old gracefully and they won’t make your kids, or grand kids cringe when you play them on your hi-fi stereo. So, here’s a toast to my incredible (y)ear, and below are the rest of my notable albums of the year.

Here at the offices of FoeWeel, we hope for this holiday season, and for the new year that your lips be less chapped, the ability to breathe be at least through one nostril, and may both of your ears be open to music, in all of it’s many forms.

Sigur Ros – Med Sud i Eyrum Vid Spilum Endalaust
Inni Mer Syngur Vitleysingur (Within Me A Lunatic Sings)

Bon Iver - For Emma, Forever Ago
re: Stacks

TV On The Radio - Dear Science,
Love Dog

Lykke Li – Youth Novels
I’m Good I’m Gone

The REST (in no particular order)

Lil Wayne – Tha Carter III - (Lollipop (Featuring Static Major)) – one of hip-hop’s strangest artists who embraces the mainstream as well as the underground. I can’t explain why Wayne is probably the only mainstream hip hop artist who resonates with me, but I guess when you have an entire genre of crap, it’s not hard to rise to the top. Unique delivery with always an interesting perspective, all masked with the hip hop bravado.

Vampire Weekend – Vampire Weekend – (The Kids Don’t Stand A Chance) – almost every track on their debut self-titled album is a pop single ready to be unwrapped and consumed for all of it’s sugary goodness. Take harpsichords, cellos and sparse reggae beats not seen since the Police, and you have an album that may be enjoyed by that housewife who lives in the suburbs with 3 kids who mistakes boredom for blandness.

Nina Simone – To Be Free: The Nina Simone Story (Box Set) – (I Want A Little Sugar In My Bowl (Live)) - A true artist. They should make a biography about her, and please don’t get Beyonce to play Nina. I think Gweneth Paltrow would be wonderful. Her range as an actor is beyond comparison and her hubbies band, Coldplay could do all covers of Nina’s songs. Wow, what a brilliant idea.

Flying Lotus – Los Angeles – (RobertaFlack feat. Dolly) The closest thing to blending abstract beats with hip-hop. Everything may appear to be slightly off, but it’s actually in the proper vestabule for your brain. One of the most forward thinking beat producers out there today, and the nephew of Alice Coltrane. It’s in the genes.

Hauschka - Ferndorf - (Rode Null) – A perfect soundtrack for a Tim Burton film, an animated one because most of his live action films aren’t that good anymore. It sounds as if Volker Bertelmann is conducting an orchestra with the players all inside his piano.

Liam Finn – I’ll Be Lightning – (Wide Awake On The Voyage Home) – the son of pop songsmith Neil Finn, of Crowded House fame. Another case to show that talent runs in the genes, an ecelectic mix of pop songs that continues his father’s excellent solo outings as well as the great career of Crowded House. Too much Yoko in Sean?

Kangding Ray – Automne Fold - (Quarante) – My mom once told me that the size of the bone on your wrist and the size of your ears determines your success in life. I wish I could remember this whenever someone is having one of their self-righteous moments. I think anyone who purchases a Ford, GM, or Chrysler should have this CD stuck in their CD player. You figure that one out.

Greg Dulli – Live @ The Triple Door - (Candy Cane Crawl) the former frontman for the Afghan Whigs, current member of the Twilight Singers and the Gutter Twins. If I could be reincarnated as any musician, it would probably have to be Dulli. Blues and alcohol drenched evenings on the road while wearing his heart on his sleeve. Puss and blood make a great combination for a guitar solo.

Goldmund – The Malady Of Elegance – (Image-Autumn-Womb) Just for the record, any statement can be made in to a sentence. The beauty of writing is that it can be freeform, and not the new James Frey variety, but one that makes sense and deliver the goods-TWSS. It has always been tough to sift through the crap. You have the ad agencies stuffing everything down your throat, which is supposed to be better, stronger, faster, but how do you know what is real, what is true. Go read a book, and not one that is recommended by Oprama. Stop watching TV, listen to KCRW, or WXPN and don’t trust anyone who lives within 5 miles of a strip mall.

Girl Talk – Feed The Animals – (Set It Off) – it’s a mashup of everything, and I mean, everything. It has a ton of 90′s hip-hop which I largely ignored for good reason, but it won’t cause constipation like listening to Coldplay.

Fennesz – The Black Sea – (Vacuum) – I make soup, yeah soup, to Fennesz’s music. It takes some time, but it usually turns out pretty well. It seems to put a smile on me lady’s face. Listen closely, it’s actually the Beatles played at indistinguisablly low levels. You have to enhale all of the cleaning solutions in your house to understand this one, but it’s worth it, once you get out of the hospital.

Flight Of The Conchords – Flight Of The Conchords – (The Most Beautfiul Girl (In The Room)) – Seriously…..witty lyrics, great melodies..how can you not like these guys. It truly is a tear on my face, and not just rain if you don’t understand the genius behind these guys.

The Dodos – Visiter - (Park Song) – Yes, they are from San Francisco. I like the DooDoos. Do they still live here? Local music here is pretty lame. Subtle across the bay are pretty good, but as far as smaller bands, musicians, where are they ? Maybe the heyday has been laid to rest by such greats as Sammy Hagar, Huey Lewis, Pointer Sisters, Metallica, Mark Kozelek (kidding), DJ Shadow, Amon Tobin (??), American Music Club (??) and Journey.

CLP – Supercontinental – ( I’m So Trill feat. Tunde Olaniran) – Phon.o and Chris de Luca tone down their breaks for people to talk over. I think they should just get Beans and Lil Wayne to wrap all over their beats. Who else is a good wrapper?

aus – Antwarps – (Lethargic) Do your feet ever just start sweating when you are wearing shoes ? Random foot sweats. I’ve noticed that my armpits seem to sweat more than when I was younger. Instead of wearing deodarant/anti-whatever, I just play aus for a bit after I get out of the shower and keeps me dry in the places I need to be dry during the daylight hours.

Animal Collective – Water Curses EP – (Street Flash) If the Beach Boys were actually good, or if they would have progressed beyond Pet Sounds. Scratch that. Familiar music made in unfamiliar ways. They are getting better with each new release. If we lived under water, this is what music would sound like to us.

Adele – 19 – (Best For Last) – you might say that it’s another female soul singer, another Winehouse, but is that bad? A little more pop, and a little more health. No boob job or tats, yet.

Byetone – Death Of A Typographer – (Heart) – If you take some of the excess felt/cloth off of the Q-Tip before you use it, you might be able to get more wax out. If you get more wax out, you will be able to hear the subliminal messages in Coldplays’ music (some examples: GP is the greatest actress ever), and you will be able to appreciate music’s progression in the form of Byetone. If not, just shove the whole Q-Tip in there and leave it there for a few days.

Utah Sunset, 2007

Sigur Rós – Inni Mer Syngur Vitleysingur (Within Me A Lunatic Sings)

A silver river
Illuminates the whole world and blue eyes
Cut the starry sky
I make a wish and now I close my eyes
Yes, do that, may it now come true
Oh no

At the speed of the stars
Inside my heart explodes, an airplane rumble
Cracked open the earth sings
I make a wish and now I close my eyes
Yes, do that, a little dance
Everything is forgotten in a bliss, and may it come true
I open my eyes
Oh no

My best friend whatever may happen
I swallow a tear and breathe in your hair
Making a ruckus, we cry on each other’s arms
When we meet
When we kiss
Lips burning, holding hands
I see you waking up
I see you naked
Within me a lunatic sings
Always you wade, we run faster
Everything becomes smaller, I scream louder
Am about to wade, going away

My best friend whatever may happen
Making a ruckus, we cry on each other’s arms
I swallow a tear and breathe in your hair
When we meet
When we kiss
Lips burning, holding hands
I see you waking up
I see you naked
Within me a lunatic sings

This is my mixtape to you. It comes in at 62 minutes and 24 seconds, so you may have to get a 90 minute tape. You may even have to buy a cassette player, or just get one of these gadgets. Maybe, this is a way to convince you to go to my junior year Ring Dance, or maybe even the Senior Prom. We’ll have cases of Becks beer, Peach Schnapps and Wine Coolers for the ladies, and whatever else we need to make the night memorable. I’ll give it to you at Burger King, the place to drive to in between classes, and meet the girls from the sister school. And if I get caught for leaving campus, and get detention, it’ll be worth it. I’ll clean the toilets, tap the kegs for the jesuits, get on my knees…..to pray.

I hope you like the tape. It’s probably best if you go to a quiet place, and listen to it through your headphones. I think these things come together better when you don’t have too much time to think about it. Take a mood here, a lyric there, and you have this entirely new thing that’s made up from the smaller parts, to help to capture a feeling that may be difficult to express through words, in our adolescence. How a song can take you to a place, this mixtape will take you to all of the places, experiencing all of the unexpected, and help you to remember this small moment, in our time together.

SMS Text: Food Court MixTape (Download)

Milosh – You Make Me Feel - a simple message of how “it” can make you feel. the music has that dream-like, delirious quality, just like “it”. “you, beautiful moment in my life, a sweet wrinkle in time, so let’s stretch this thing out”

Joseph Arthur – Honey And The Moon - maybe it’s about a past love, but the melody has such optimism. “if you weren’t real, i would make you up, now”. “and right now, all your dreams are waking up”

Jeff Buckley – Morning Theft (Live) – “a heart that beats as both siphon and reservoir”

Björk – Headphones (Live) – the power of music to convey emotion. how music may be the most powerful language. “these abstract wordless movements”. “i like this resonance, it elevates me”

Sigur Rós – Med Sud I Eyrum (With A Buzz In Our Ears) – we’re traveling on a train and looking out the window into a vast open space of the future, and it doesn’t matter where we end up, it’s all about the journey and adventure to get there, together.

Hanne Hukkelberg – Ease – whimsical, yet painful. change can happen.

New Order – Every Little Counts – the laughter, for being stupid, together. not the greatest lyrics, but every little does count, like making a bed. “every second counts”.

Damien Rice – The Blower’s Daughter (Live) - “i can’t take my mind off of you”

The Cinematic Orchestra – To Build A Home (featuring Patrick Watson) – home is not necessarily a place. is it a state of mind, or another person ? “Out in the garden where we planted the seeds. There is a tree as old as me. Branches were sewn by the color of green. Ground had arose and passed it’s knees”

Daft Punk – Digital Love – so sappy, but such a great pop song about happiness and hope.

Cat Stevens – The Wind – when you least expect it, your soul will guide you in the right direction, or to the food court at the mall.

Iron & Wine – The Trapeze Swinger – a song about purgatory which I have often felt that I was trapped in as well. all of the beautiful haunting imagery in one of the most beautiful songs ever recorded. it has that sort-of sad optimism feeling to it. happy sad.

Bloc Party – Tulips (Original Version) – “this could be an opportunity”. the drumming helps to convey the mood of urgency, and trying to convince someone that this is special, that this is real……

Radiohead – Go Slowly - i love how his voice flows through, and acts out the lyrics, “come slowly to me”, “patiently”.

There’s a great site, Song Meanings which lists lyrics as well as user interpretations of each song, and it helped with the lyrics stated above.

Lloyd Dobler, Say Anything...

I understand for one’s progression in life, one should reflect back on the past, but to actually relive it is a different hallucinatory experience altogether. I know that with this blog I am constantly preaching the aspects of music that makes it so personal for the individual, especially me, without divulging too much personal information myself, but a series of strange coincidences that I did not tie together until this morning have left me feeling as if I have been somehow transported back in time, some 20 years. Where to start ?

I am currently studying for a standardized exam which is in 2 weeks. An exam similar to the required regurgitation of worthless information that one usually takes in the high school era of their life. Similar to any of my schooling years, I have tried to do everything to procrastinate from this inevitable brain drain of information, like write this blog entry. Do I truly need to know that “potable” means drinkable, or that Community Property Laws are based on Spanish law shaped by the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo ? I mean, thanks for that Scrabble word and that tour of history, but how is that information going to help me to become the Thumb Wrestling World Champion. Besides the schooling aspect of my mysterious time travels, my social life has reverted back to that transitional 80′s to 90′s period as well.

The mall. A place of undeniable fluorescent beauty that became the new town center of any suburban oasis. Apart from Skateland, this is where teenage relationships formed and dissolved, sometimes both, in a matter of hours. Vans, Jams, OP shorts, Parachute pants, Z cavarichi’s, Girbaud Jeans and Rolling up your jeans were just some of mistaken forms of identity during this era. The family wood paneled wagon was there to transport you to this neatly packaged digestable form of culture. The center of any mall was, and still is the food court. So, a few weeks back I went to a mall in the outskirts of San Francisco, as parking would be easier, to purchase a black tie for a wedding. I figure I needed a black tie anyway, and considering the fine line between a wedding and a funeral, the function fell in nicely with the form.

At the mall, after purchasing my symbol of life and death, I went into the Apple store which is another strange coincidence for other reasons, but also the fact that Apple, for me brings me back to my teenage years, because it’s always been the main computer of use in my life, even before email and the internet. At the Apple store, I met someone and after a brief tutorial on the Mac for the both of us, we had lunch in the food court. Maybe I should elaborate on how I got this person to actually have lunch with me, a stranger, but I can’t divulge everything, and it’s always up to the female to decide, for whatever reason. Maybe I just said the two magic words, “food court” and her eyes lit up like a newly plugged-in Lite-Brite. I don’t think she was as concerned for the fact that we live in SF and that we were having a meal in the food court, at the mall, but I just couldn’t get over it. Unfortunately, there was no Sbarro Pizza, or TCBY Frozen Yogurt, but I guess it just proves that you meet people in the most unlikely of places. What impact does this person hold in my life could make this story even stranger, but for now, I kind of do feel as if I was a rejuvenated senior in high school with all of the anticipation and energy to explore the many possibilities of life, and the world.

Here are two songs from that so-called critical period of my life and two songs from my period of life, now.

Bjork – Sun In My Mouth (Recomposed by Ensemble) – from an E.E. Cummings poem, on her, in my opinion, best album. subtle, delicate and full of incredibly textured emotional songs.

Sigur Ros – Med Sud I Eyrum (With A Buzz In Our Ears) – this song has that sweeping soundscape Sigur Ros is known for, but with that tribal quality. One of the best albums I have heard in quite a long time.

The Replacements – Within Your Reach – the Mats’ Pleased To Meet Me was a fixture in my car radio senior year in high school. There was something ironic about driving my parent’s car, dressed in jacket and tie, going to a Jesuit prep school and blaring music that had just become part of a big corporatation, but was still somewhat rooted in ethos of punk rock. This song was on a previous release, but I had found it on the Say Anything… soundtrack, which is another seminal high school movie for me.

The Cure – Closedown – this song has a close rhythmic pattern to the Sigur Ros song above. Another moody piece from another album full of sweeping sounds from the late 80′s.