Having just returned from a trip to Malaysia, where internet and other related amusements are sparse, I went on a binge diet of podcasts and rss reading.  On an older podcast of All Songs Considered was a poll of listeners’ favorite albums of the year so far, one of which was the Islands’ album Arm’s Way.  I was a little wary, seeing as I didn’t entirely love their previous album, Return to the Sea – at times too cutesy and not melodic enough, it somehow didn’t manage to hit the right chords all the time.  Although there were some decent, lighthearted songs there, like “Don’t Call Me Whitney Bobby,” it’s not exactly an album I listen to very often.

Enter the All Songs Considered podcast featuring the song “Creeper” off their newer album.  I was instantly hooked.  Honestly, the riffs are just so damn catchy.  They’re not repetitive or weird or silly.  They’re just really good, catchy beats and tunes that are a fairly drastic, edgy turn from the earlier flippant, carefree tone that the band had.  Intrigued, I hypemachined them and, after a few listens, got the whole album.  Best decision I’ve made in a while.

I’ve never tried to go back to a band’s later stuff if I didn’t like their first album, and now I’m rethinking that notion – Arm’s Way is terribly catchy and its songs vary in tone and mood.  There are lots of layers and textures to each track, including a fair amount of strings – and you know I love me some strings sections.  Yes, their lyrics are still a little strange, but strange in an intriguing, engaging way.  The catchy, alternately melodic and more robust and edgy tunes override any other hesitations I have.  I’ve been listening to it on repeat for the past couple of hours.  Definitely the best album I missed this year.  I had to go back and give Return to the Sea another listen to make sure I didn’t like it.

I don’t know if I could explain my newfound obsession past that, so you’ll have to take my word on it and give it a listen:

Creeper – Islands

The Arm – Islands

Due to a recent spate of interactions with bloggers and some wandering around today, I’ve decided to do what I should have done a while ago and turn this baby into a partial photo blog.  After all, I like wandering, and I’ve been walking around various parts of the island today and actually remembered that hey – my phone has a pretty sweet camera on it, so I snapped some shots.

It’s the hungry ghost festival right now.  Traditional Chinese believe that during this month in the calendar year, their ancestors revisit the earth in the form of ghosts.  In Singapore, many people set up shrines with burning incense or burn offerings in metal cans to honor the ghosts or scare them away, and the belief is that the family should not eat out at night, and you should not wander around alone, lest stray ghosts find you.  The first six photos are various hungry ghost offerings that I encountered within a five-minute walk in a fairly central district.  The rest are various shots of the city.  Explanations of each when you click on the photos to enlarge:

That’s all for today.  I’ll post more when I do more wandering.

Current obsession: Daytrotter sessions (see the link in the links section on the right). Some wonderful in-studio recordings, among which I pulled up two pages of Peter and the Wolf tracks, which I’ve been listening to nonstop. The spare guitar riffs and the sound of his voice, which could belong to anyone you know… Hard to resist, really. You can judge for yourself:
http://www.daytrotter.com/article/677/free-songs-peter-and-the-wolf
http://www.daytrotter.com/article/1230/peter-and-the-wolf-encore

Bonus: A really great version of Kevin Devine’s “Just Stay” here: http://www.daytrotter.com/article/1176/kevine-devine

Guess what just came up on iTunes? That’s right, this old classic:
The Floor – Rooney
The days of stalking bands and embarrassing ourselves. I kind of miss them. Feeling only marginal amounts of shame right now. Mostly glee.

Oof. I spent the better part of a week uploading music from my ipod to my macbook for retarded reasons involving PCs being completely antagonistic to the idea of sharing. Bright side is that while I was uploading, I listened to whatever happened to already be uploaded, which resulted in a whole lotta rediscovered deliciousness. So here are some tracks that, 4 or 6 years later (6 years?! i feel so old), still pique my interest. I feel no shame whatsoever.

First, some mood music. As in late night, dim lights, chilling. Oh yes:
Black Black Heart – David Usher
Marcy Playground – Sex And Candy – Marcy Playground
A Demi-nue – SAÏAN SUPA CREW
Stay Tuned – Ambulance Ltd
Retour a Vega – The Stills
Fade Into You – Mazzy Star
Under the milky way – the church

Next, when you’re mellowed out, have some of this:
Love Goes On! – Go-Betweens
Comin From Tucson – Limbeck
All My Days – Alexi Murdoch
Toxic Girl – Kings Of Convenience
Under the Tracks – Creeper Lagoon

if you feel the need to listen to some sad stuff, go ahead – it’s okay, i’m with ya:
She Was Only In It for the Rain – Rocky Votolato
Mrs. Actually – The Like
Other Side of the World – KT Tunstall
La Cienega Just Smiled – Ryan Adams

but once you’ve gotten all the depression out of you, rock out a bit:
Whatever Happened To My Rock N Roll (Punk Song) – Black Rebel Motorcycle Club
Renegade Cavalcade – Ash
Mothers, Sisters, Daughters & Wives – Voxtrot

Are you ready to be deliriously happy yet? Because if you are, you’re in luck – here are some of the most mindlessly happy songs I’ve heard. The kind you can’t help cracking a smile and dancing stupidly to:
Look Good In Leather – Cody ChesnuTT
(Look Good in Leather is homage to my friend Julia, with whom I used to make ironically silly, irresistibly catchy mixes back in the day)
Mars Loves Venus – The Brunettes
(My favorite – and only? – kiwi band.)
Smile – onelinedrawing
Dont Fade Away – The Waking Hours
Dog Out Of Water – The Color Bars
(Seriously, I swear my mind goes blank when I hear this song and I can’t resist the urge to make silly movements and bounce around.)
Sleep on needles – Sondre Lerche
Friends of Mine – Adam Green
(Adam Green was Kimya Dawson’s counterpart in the Mouldy Peaches. He also looks deceptively like Julian Casablancas of the Strokes in person. Many confused girls at a concert I attended kept shouting, “Juuuuliiiaaaaan.”)
Be Gentle with Me – The Boy Least Likely To
Blood and Peanut Butter – BC Camplight
(Don’t be put off by the name of this one. I have no idea what it’s about, but the song is delightful.)

And, I suppose, out of a need to end with a dramatic flair, one of my favorites from the theatrical stylings of the Dears:
Who Are You, Defenders of the universe – The Dears

And there you have a rough guide to various musical phases in my life.

My new favorite thing is KEXP’s (Seattle public radio) *free* podcast of live indie band performances. I wish more awesome radio stations like this existed, especially near me. I downloaded something like 18 of their in-studio/live performance recordings and have been listening to them all of today. Highlights include the We Are Scientists set, a surprisingly high-energy (for a purely audio recording) Ratatat set, a really nice, if short, Cold War Kids set (providing more satisfaction overall than their strange, quasi-drugged performance at Sasquatch), and my favorite rendition yet of Beirut’s “A Sunday Smile” on one of their (many) live recordings, which I like so much that I’m posting here: http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?i=19627226&id=76030848

Vive la musique gratuite. Nothing better than free live music.

My sister referred to “National Day” the other day, which designates Singapore’s independence. And I assumed she meant the 4th of July. So happy 4th of July! Celebrate with some All-American favorites.

First, a live song from the Raconteurs, lovebaby of Jack White and Brendan Benson:
Consoler Of The Lonely (Live at Bonnaroo 2008) – The Raconteurs

For that matter, why not have some Brendan Benson solo goodness to mellow it out:
What Im Looking For – Brendan Benson

Next, something from Wolf Parade’s newly released sophomore album. I always need to listen to them a few times before I can tell which songs I like. Language City is one of those songs that I love for its layers of complexity:
Language City – Wolf Parade

And, of course, some of the new Ratatat, because I have to let off some of the pent-up energy that I have for their SF show on September 8th:
Shempi – Ratatat

I appreciate American indie folk, so have some Sufjan Stevens:
The Henney Buggy Band – Sufjan Stevens

Page France is unbearably cutesy, sort of Tilly and the Wall-ish, and I can’t resist this one somehow. Wait ’til about 1 minute 40 seconds in:
Junkyard – Page France

Something catchy to shimmy to from Vampire Weekend (somehow this makes me want to dance outside in a park):
A-Punk – Vampire Weekend

Okay, okay – I know the Verve is British, but Jay Z is definitely American, and this mashup is way too catchy to pass up:
mashups-jay-z-and-the-verve-bittersweet-dirt-off-your-shoulder.mp3 – The Verve vs. Jay Z

The last track from the Hold Steady’s new album, Stay Positive. I have a thing for group choruses:
Slapped Actress – The Hold Steady

And to close it off, a live recording of A.A. Bondy, whom I’ve been obsessed with for a while now. What’s more American than an acoustic guitar, a harmonica, and really sad lyrics?
A A Bondy.mp3 – AA Bondy

Happy barbecuing and fireworking and all!

And as such, am posting an appropriate song.

San Francisco – The Weepies

Walking back from the Caltrain station last night (I missed the last bus back to campus), I decided to listen to a playlist that I’d made sometime around winter/spring quarter of last year. Its results have elicited a strange mixture of joy, embarrassment, nostalgia, and guilty pleasure. A sampling:

Winter In The Hamptons – Josh Rouse
Beauty and the Mess – Nickel Creek
Ocean of Noise – The Arcade Fire
Jumper (2006 Remastered LP Version) – Third Eye Blind
I Summon You (demo) – Spoon
Unchained melody – Righteous Brothers
Fast Car – Tracy Chapman
The Man – Pete Yorn
Je Suis Jalouse – Emily Loizeau
Lonelily – Damien Rice

The conclusion: when I am pissed and stressed, the end result is that in addition to being incredibly emo and self-indulgent, I also have alternately really good and really embarrassing music taste.

…And I have between 3 to 4 pages of this 10 to 15 page paper done. But I’m writing in spurts. This will get done. There is lots to say. I just can’t make myself actually write the rest of it out. Is it bad that I don’t have many citations? Well, it’s mostly my rant against DRM and the DMCA anyway. But why isn’t it done already?!

On the bright side, The Fleet Foxes have been sustaining me. Add another song to the work mix:

Mykonos – Fleet Foxes

So, so good. Robiiiiiiiin!