Gold Sounds 9/16/08: Mellowish?

Mellow to start, probably not mellow as it goes on. Consistency is hard! New music in blue

Wye Oak "Please Concrete"
Mono in VCF "Spider Rotation"
Nick Drake "Which Will"

Calexico "Two Silver Trees"
Koufax "Roll the Dice"
The New Year "The Door Opens"

The Walkmen "In the New Year"
Falcon "The Sandfighter"

On the Might of Princes "The Swell and the Breaking"
Dredg "Brushstroke: A Walk in the Park"
Archers of Loaf "Audiowhore"

Pavement "In the Mouth a Desert"
Shudder to Think "Hit Liquor"

Appomattox "Style-Sore"
We Versus the Shark "Keep it Wolf"
sBACH "08"

Los Campesinos! "Drop it Doe Eyes"
Oxford Collapse "The Birthday Wars"
Mason Proper "Lock and Key"

Why? "Fatalist Palmistry"
Apostle of Hustle "Song for Lorca"
Alias "I Heart Drum Machines"/"Well Water Black"

The Notwist "On Planet Off"
Fujiya & Miyagi "Uh"/"Pickpocket"

Gold Sounds: sBACH's new s/t album reviewed

sBACH is the name of Spencer Seim's solo project. Seim plays guitar for Hella and also drums for The Advantage. Those familiar with either musical venture know, in a way, what to expect, and fans of both bands can almost entirely predict the album's sound. Seim takes equal parts Hella and The Advantage, adds a little extra 8-bit influence and blends them together to create this self-titled album.

Seim knows a good thing when he hears it. Songs such as "04" and "08" present really intriguing material, especially "08" with its complex, feedback-filled and awe-inspiring central guitar riff and surrounding drum/electronic freakout. Without a doubt, the song claims the crown of the album's best track. It's worth noting that "08" is significantly longer than most of the other tracks on the album (which, if you can't tell, are all named "01," "02," etc.). It's also worth noting that the intro of "01" is actually the intro to "08," but "01" abruptly switches gears about 25 seconds into the track to introduce a totally different-sounding song, full of guitar-picking and somewhat annoying beeping noises, which are reminiscent of a cell phone's default ringtone at times. Eventually the beeping speeds up in frequency and, thankfully, the track ends soon after.

As with "01", most of the album's 13 tracks run no longer than three minutes, and these tracks are basically hit-or-miss. There are a lot of good songs here, but most of them prove to be either much more interesting than enjoyable or much more enjoyable than interesting; the two are nearly always mutually exclusive. This situation causes most of the tracks to be pretty bland. For example, the screeching electronics of "03" nearly make the track unlistenable, which is unfortunate because the other aspects of the track are very well done. There's something to be said for experimentation, but experimentation at the chance of alienating the listener always proves risky, and unfortunately this kind of experimentation permeates the album. On the other end of the spectrum, "06" provides a great synth melody and accompanying outer space-esque bleeps and bloops. Nothing too crazy goes on in the song, but it makes for one of the album's best tracks.

It's of course worth noting Seim's obvious high level of musicianship. His guitar work in the songs is undoubtedly complex, as is his frantic drumming. The problem here isn't with his musical abilities, but with his ideas and how they're executed. For every good song on the album, there's a complimentary one that seems haphazardly pieced together, ruining the album's flow time and time again. Overall, the strength of the good tracks definitely warrants at least the initial full listen, but the large number of mediocre ones definitely hurts the album's replay value.

The album is out now on Suicide Squeeze records. sBACH will also be touring with Pinback this fall, with shows in the northeast spread throughout the beginning of October.

Rating: 5.5/10. Key tracks: 06, 08

Listen: Myspace

Fifty/Fifty {9/10}

Hey all! Here I am at yet ANOTHER 12-2AM slot. Find me here every Tuesday evening bringing you lots of music. Anyway, on with the music:

[artist] - [track]
Elke - Till I'm Gone
Department of Eagles - No One Does It Like You
TV on the Radio - Crying
M.I.A. - Hit That
Deerhoof - Offend Maggie
Matt Bauer - Don't Let Me Out
Oh No Forest Fires - Swing And A Misdemeanor
Shad - I Don't Like To
Seachange - Personal Assistant
Army Navy - Saints
Empire of the Sun - Walking On A Dream
Annuals - Confessor
Blank Dogs - Ants
The Dutchess and the Duke - Reservoir Park
Japanese Motors - Single Fins & Safety Pins
Justice - Planisphere (Pt. 1, 2, 3, Final)
The Dodos - Eyelids
The Dodos - Fools
Electric President - Insomnia
The Most Serene Republic - Why So Looking Back?
T.Rex - Bang A Gong (Get It On)
Laura Marling - New Romantic
Windsor for the Derby - Maladies

Ambient Signal - 9/9/08

WRPI 91.5fm!
http://www.wrpi.org/ for webcast
6-8pm TUESDAYS NOW! Now my banner is correct again..

Songs in pukegreen requested by Tim

Boom bip - The matter (of our discussion)
Bitcrush - Colder
Alias and Ehren - Eman Ruosis Iht
Bright Eyes - Napoleon's Hat
Mugison - 2 Birds
Neva Dinova - Blackest Heart
Engine Down - Closed Call
Amina - Fjarkanistan
Last Days - Reasons to go
Talkdemonic - ending the orange glow
Alias - Weathering
StarFUCKER - Florida
Lykke Li - My love
Why? - Rubber traits
Liz Durrett - We build bridges
Shugo Tokumaru - Clocca
Ra ra riot - St. peters day festival
Blind pilot - Go on, say it
Little teeth - Oh drag
Chad vangaalen - Phantom Anthills
The velvet teen - Death
Prefuse 73 - Pagina Dos feat. the books
Beck - Broken Drum (Broads of canada remix)
Album leaf - Brennivin
Panda Bear - Comfy in nautica

pinkie swear

NEW DAY SAME TIME!

artist - track

the watson twins - just like heaven
tilly and the wall - chandelier lake
the ting tings - great dj
fujiya & Miyagi - knickerbocker
death cab for cutie - long division
mates of state - help help
the chap - they have a name
css - left behind
stereo image - dark chapter
daedelus - i car(ry) us
the chemical brothers - do it again
moby - i like to move it remix
hybrid - luke dzierzek - identity - king unique remix
bobby evens - freak-a-ziod robotz - rmxxology theme
the faint - get seduced
don rimini - ohow?
MGMT - electric feel - justice remix
the chemical brothers - galvanize
bizarre inc - i'm gonna get you
the faint - machine in the ghost
hercules and love affair - blind
alias - i heart drum machines
jovian - grenadine girl
the notwist - good lies
minus the bear - let's play clowns
my brightest diamond - to plutos moon
antenne - gloves on

-Emelie [ 11684 ]

Gold Sounds 9/9: First real show of the semester

The title says it all! New music in red.

Mono in VCF "Escape City Scrapers"
Appomattox "Either Way"

Pavement "Newark Wilder"
Archers of Loaf "Plumb Line"
Oxford Collapse "Vernon-Jackson"

The Walkmen "Red Moon"
Okkervil River "Starry Stairs"
Lesser Gonzalez Alvarez "A Twist in the Sky"

Fourth of July "Can't Sleep"
Mass Solo Revolt "The Site..."
Target Market "No Thrills"

Pinback "Walters"
So Many Dynamos "How High the Moon"
The Notwist "Gloomy Planets"

FEATURE BAND BLOCK
Talkdemonic "Leaving Light"
Talkdemonic "Ending the Orange Glow"
Talkdemonic "Duality of Deathening"

A Silver Mt. Zion "God Bless Our Dead Marines"

Lykke Li "I'm Good, I'm Gone"
Little Teeth "Oh Drag"
sBACH "04"

Death Cab For Cutie "Your New Twin Sized Bed"
Mates of State "Get Better"
Tokyo Police Club "Juno (Ra Ra Riot/Andre Maury Remix)"

Beck "Orphans"
Radiohead "Skttrbrain (Four Tet Remix)"

omg sup Emelie

Old music writings!

So I've recently been reminded of some things I wrote for classes a few years ago, and also realized that pretty much no one read them besides the intended professor..but who knows, maybe you'll find them interesting:

Saccades: Experiences with Non-verbal thought/listening
Basically my long thoughts on how language is an inaccurate representation of our experiences, and questioning if language makes us experience music less purely

Explorations in Lo-Fi music
Exploring the issue of why certain artists seek out "warm" recordings, or leaving a certain level of authenticity in there music..referencing artists like the album leaf and neva dinova/bright eyes

enjoy! I'd love to hear thoughts...

Our shows are moving!!

Hey everyone..just a quick note..our fall schedule will be online very soon at www.wrpi.org..but until then, the following shows featured on this blog are now on at these times:

Hello Pretty City with Laura 7-9am Tuesday (No change)
Gold Sounds with Tim - 2-4pm Tuesday
Pinkie Swear with Emelie - 4-6pm Tuesday
Ambient Signal - 6-8pm Tuesday (the classic time slot..I've been on the air since Oct 2004..my first one was 12-1pm on tuesdays..then 6-8 on mondays..then finally 6-8 on tuesdays starting fall 2005 i think..HOW INTERESTING)

(Sorry mike..i dont know where you are on the schedule yet..i forgot to check)

Ambient Signal - 9/3/08

WRPI 91.5fm!
http://www.wrpi.org/ for webcast
6-8pm Wednesdays

Next week I'll most likely be moving to Tuesday 6-8..my super old time slot

Sufjan Stevens - Concerning the UFO sighting
Talkdemonic - White gymnasium
A Weather - Spiders, Snakes
Swan lake - All Fires
The Notwist - One with the freaks
Young galaxy - Swing your heartache
Mason Proper - Life's cornucopia
Saxon Shore - This shameless moment
Venetian Snares - Szerencsetlen
Shugo Tokumaru - Parachute
Chad VanGaalen - Willow Tree
Liz Durrett - Wake to beleive
Mad gregs - Old man
Fujiya and Miyagi - Uh
Laura Marling - Ghosts
Ra Ra Riot - Ghosts under rocks
Stills - Snow california
Alias - Well water black
Don Cabellero - Loudest shop vac in the world
Charlie Everywhere - Lucy's underground (see video below from their Live show!)
Ambulette - When i see you
Cat power - Maybe not
Husky rescue - Sweet little kitten
Neva Dinova - On/Off
Nico Nuhly - Skip town
Animal collective - Banshee beat

See you next tuesday!

Charlie everywhere live video featuring some of my own VJing in the background! I'll be making a music video for C-Ev later in the fall..super excited!


Charlie Everywhere - Troy, NY - 08, Aug from Sébastien Barré on Vimeo.

pinkie swear

I'm back! My show is moving to Tuesdays in a few weeks (hopefully). Blar and I are up for nomination for Best Music Director and Best Specialty Music Director at CMJ this year.

artist - track

Beck - Orphans
Bittersweet - Come Along With Me
Mates Of State - Help Help
Daedelus - Make it So
The Chap - They Have a Name
Midnight Juggernauts - Into the Galaxy
Minus the Bear - Let's Play Clowns
The Egg - Forwards
Antenne - Gloves On
Bitcrush - No Bridge No Water
Near the Parenthesis - Modernisme
Lights Out Asia - Radars Over the Ghosts of Chernobyl
Alias - I Heart Drum Machines
Stereo Image - Dark Moves
Fujiya & Miyagi - knickerbocker
Chemical Brothers - Hey Girl Hey Boy
MGMT - Electric Feel - Justice Remix
Moby - Crookers Mass in Here
Booka Shade - Charlotte
65daysofstatic - Dance Parties [Mechanised]
Preshish Moments - Make Me Better
CSS - Let's Reggae All Night
M.I.A. - Paper Planes - Scottie B Remix
Audio Bullys - Shot You Down feat. Nancy Sinatra
Alias - Resurgam
Mogwai - Auto Rock
Modest Mouse - Dashboard

-Emelie [ 11519 ]

Fifty-Fifty {9/2}

[artist] - [track]

Rilo Kiley - Portions for Foxes
Maybe Smith - Open War
Talking Heads - This Must Be The Place
The Walkmen - In The New Year
Empire Of The Sun - Walking On A Dream
Jane Vain & the Dark Matter - C'mon Baby Say Bang Bang
My Brightest Diamond - Inside A Boy
Of Montreal - Nonpareil Of Favor
Late of the Pier - Broken
MGMT - Metanoia
Portastatic - Some Small History
Land of Talk - Some Are Lakes
Joseph Arthur - Temporary People
Faded Paper Figures - Metropolis
Shugo Tokumaru - Green Rain
Passion Pit - Sleepyhead
Violent Femmes - Kiss Off
Final Fantasy - The Butcher
The Tunics - Paris, France
Fredrik - Alina's Place
Alt-Ctrl-Sleep - Take Care
Arms - Kids Aflame
The Year Of - Stephen Hawking
Kristoffer Ragnstam - Happy Mistakes
Department of Eagles - No One Does It Like You

Gold Sounds: Labor Day/really late edition

Late fill-in tonight (guess that goes without saying). I seriously didn't think I was going to do this until 10 minutes prior and sans external harddrive, so sorry about the predictable music choices. New music in red.

The Walkmen "Donde esta la Playa"/"Flamingos (for Colbert)"/"On the Water"

Menomena "Oahu"
Menomena "Wet and Rusting" (awesome music video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2iqg3LVx2Ws)
Lacktherof "Doomed Elephants"

Brendan Canning "Love Is New"
Broken Social Scene "Fire Eye'd Boy"
Kevin Drew "Safety Bricks"

The Dismemberment Plan "Girl O' Clock"
Q and Not U "Soft Pyramids"
Tiger Bear Wolf "Wrong Lens, Wrong Film"

The Tiger Lillies "Gypsy Lament" (request!)
Beirut "A Call to Arms"/"Nantes"
Gogol Bordello "Start Wearing Purple"/"Sally" (request-ish)

ROCK BLOCK: The 'I don't know why people go batshit over these bands, but maybe I'll change my mind after listening to them again' edition
The National "Start a War"
The Hold Steady "Sequestered in Memphis"
Wolf Parade "Soldier's Grin" (Wolf Parade's aight, I guess)

PINKIE SWEAR: The Tim Gilman edition
!!! "Heart of Hearts"
Daft Punk "Around the World"/"Harder Better Faster Stronger" (from Alive 2007)
Justice "Phantom"/"Phantom pt 2"
The Dismemberment Plan "The Other Side (remix by Justin Norvell)"
Bitter:Sweet "Get What I Want"

Whoa, that last block was awesome. Later!

Afternoon Jams (Pinkie Swear stand-in) - 8/27

It comes 5 days late but better than never I guess.... Will do better once the fall schedule is setup and kicks in.

Dan Deacon - Wham City
Cass McCombs - That's That
Animal Collective - Peacebone
Ra Ra Riot - Ghost Under Rocks
Settlefish - Summer Drops
Joe Lean & the Jing Jang Jong - Brooklyn
Jans Lekman - A Postcard to Nina
The Clientele - That Night, a Forest Grew
The Sea and Cake - Window Sills
Okkervil River - Our Life Is Not a Movie or Maybe
Beirut - Elephant Gun
Los Campesinos! - You! Me! Dancing!
Herman Dune - I Wish That I Could See You Soon
MGMT - Time to Pretend
toe - グッドバイ
Spoon - You Got Yr. Cherry Bomb
Bloc Party - One Month Off
Thunderbirds Are Now! - Sound Issues Smart Ideas
Black Gold - Idols
The Hush Sound - Honey
Deerhoof - Perfect Me
Ambulance LTD - Straight A's
The Dark Romantics - The Death of You

Gold Sounds:Another surprise Friday edition 8/29

Here 6-730? Oh WRPI, the things I do for you. New songs are red. Songs with overtly sexual lyrics are blue.

My Morning Jacket "Touch Me I'm Going to Scream Pt. 1"

Okkervil River "Singer Songwriter"
Mason Jennings "Soldier Boy"
Matt Sharp "Goodbye West Coast"
The Weakerthans "Sun in an Empty Room"

Yeah Yeah Yeahs "Phenomena"
Weezer "You Won't Get with Me Tonight"
Parts & Labor "Unexplosions"

Ra Ra Riot "Too Too Too Fast"
Kristoffer Ragnstam "Sorry for Being the Man of 1000 Questions"
Dead Can Dance "American Dreaming"/Poster Children "Shotguns and Pickups"/Talkdemonic "Mutiny Sunshine" (The 'I messed up but made it sound awesome' mix)

Pinback "Boo"
Yo La Tengo "Autumn Sweater"
Pattern Is Movement "Maple"

The Walkmen "In the New Year"
Willie the Moak "I'm the Janitor Man"
Matt Pryor "Confidence Man"

My Morning Jacket "Touch Me I'm Going to Scream Pt. 2"

Gold signal/Ambient Sounds 8/27/08

WRPI 91.5fm!
http://www.wrpi.org/ for webcast
6-8pm Wednesdays

Sharing a show with tim today (of gold sounds)..yeaah. Tim's songs need more room to breathe.

Black Mountain "Angels"

Autolux "Great Days of the Passenger Element"

Pattern Is Movement "Elephant"

Tacks the boy disaster - Paris
Doves - The man who told everything
Go Find - Over the edge

New Buffalo "It'll Be Alright"

Mogwai "Cody"

No Age "Eraser"

Mice Parade - The Boat Room
God is an astronaut - All is violent, All is bright
Maserati - The world outside

Fujiya & Miyagi "Knickerbocker"

Okkervil River "Lost Coastlines"

Apollo Sunshine "The Funky Chamberlain (Who Begot Who)"

Don Caballero - Lord Krepelka
Mad gregs - Twelve tone
The Faint - Forever Growing centipedes
Alias - I heart drum machines

Pegasuses-XL "The Big Haunt" (NEVERMIND..CD SKIP)

The Books "Read, Eat, Sleep"

The Velvet Teen - Spin the wink (Little kid remix)
Nico Muhly - Mothertongue I: Archive
Fog - The Poor Fella

THE END

Gold Sounds Impromptu Set: 8/22/08

'sup, I'm playing music today. I wasn't expecting it either. New songs in maroon. Almost new songs in forest green.

Pavement "Spit on a Stranger"
Adem "Loro" (Pinback cover)
Herman Dune "Son of Samuel"
The Notwist "Good Lies"

The Last Shadow Puppets "Calm Like You"
Port O'Brien "I Woke Up Today"
Julie Ocean "#1 Song"

We Versus the Shark "Gothic, Y'all"
Bridge and Tunnel "Call to the Comptroller's Office"
Garrison "Know the Locale"

Oxford Collapse "Young Love Delivers"
Violent Femmes "Crazy" (Gnarls Barkley cover)

Mono in VCF "Escape City Scrapers"
The Drones "Dog Eared"
Animal Collective "Banshee Beat"

Drive Like Jehu "Sinews"
We Versus the Shark "Keep it Wolf"
Hum "I'd Like Your Hair Long"

Ben Gibbard "You Remind Me of Home"
The Get Up Kids "Campfire Kansas"
The Decemberists "Cocoon"

Death Cab for Cutie "Title Track"
Low "California"
Neil Young "Out on the Weekend" (request)

Built to Spill "Time Trap"
Anthem In "Hold on to Me"
Get Him Eat Him "Not Not Nervous"

PAVEMENT RELATED BLOCK (Yeah)
Pavement "Stop Breathin"
Preston School of Industry "Where You Gonna Go?"
Broken Social Scene Presents Kevin Drew "Lucky Ones"

But for real, it's good to be back playing music.

Ambient Signal 8/20/08

One month til my birfday!

WRPI 91.5fm!
http://www.wrpi.org/ for webcast
6-8pm Wednesdays

Menomena - Weird (Dekoder Remix)
The Velvet Teen - Gyzmkid
Sigur Ros - Vid spilum endalaust
Forget cassettes - Quiero Quieres
Battles - Atlas
This will destroy you - The world is our ____
Broken Social Scene - Windsurfing nation
Sunset Rubdown - The taming of the hands that came back to life
Efterklang - Mirador
Feist - My Moon My Man
Azeda Booth - Big Fists
The Faint - Get Seduced
Mugison - Mugiboogie
Conor oberst - Souled out!!!
Horse feathers - Curs in the weeds
Obi Best - Green and white stripes
Colourmusic - Put in a little gas
Apollo Sunshine - 666: The coming of the new world government
Midlake - Roscoe
Bright Eyes- Southern State
Ester Drang - All the feeling
Talkdemonic -Tides in their grave
The Album Leaf - Shine
Hammock - Kenotic

pinkie swear

artist - song

minus the bear - let's play clowns
tilly and the wall - jumbler
the ting tings - shut up and let me go
the notwist - good lies
beck - orphans
daedelus - make it so
hercules and love affair - blind
css - lets reggae all night
jovian - grenedine girl
mates of state - help help
midnight juggernauts - into the galaxy
twink - what the dickens
the egg - walk on the snow
antenne - gloves on
my brightest diamond - inside a boy - son lux remix
the frequency - talk to me
bitter:sweet - sugar mama
modest mouse - dashboard
eliot lipp - opening ceremony
MGMT - electric feel -justice remix (OMGSFKJSKGH SO GOOD!)
moby - i like to move
fabric noisia


-Emelie
[11204]

Gold Sounds: We Versus the Shark "Dirty Versions" album review

I was in the middle of writing a pretty long (and long overdue) review of We Versus the Shark's newest album, but then my computer messed up and I lost it all. Here's the abbreviated version:



We live in a time of cultural stagnation, with music being no exception, what with the majority of up-and-coming bands aping rock bands of yore (and very few of them worth your time, in this reviewer's humble opinion). In this climate, it's good to know that some musicians are more concerned with creating new, unique, and interesting music, We Versus the Shark among them. Have you ever heard anything as intense as opener "Hello Blood?" The blistering track starts immediately at full force and doesn't let up for its 2:46 duration. Exhilarating? Check. Inventive? Check (Oh, the time changes. Oh, the dual guitar lines). Listenable? Check, and that's the most important check of all; We Versus manage to avoid completely alienating the listener while treating them to something totally original. The album's not without its faults (lyrics/vocals occasionally seem like an afterthought, last track "Practical Animals" falls victim to some questionable mixing decisions, and a certain track-to-track cohesion is somewhat lacking) but it's loud, it's frantic, it's inventive, and yeah, it's dirty. What could be better?

Rating: 9/11. Key Tracks: "Hello Blood," "Dogs," "Gothic Y'all," "Keep it Wolf." Also, numerical ratings are kind of silly, don't you think?

Listen to We Versus the Shark live here. It's a high quality bootleg that's worth your time. All but the first and last song are featured on Dirty Versions, and they sound just as good live as they do on compact disc. Of course, the two non-Dirty Versions tracks are also worth a listen.

The more traditional route: Myspace

Ambient Signal 8/13/08

WRPI 91.5fm!
http://www.wrpi.org/ for webcast
6-8pm Wednesdays

Talkdemonic - Ending the Orange Glow (World radio premier? i was told i was the first to get this cd in the US)
Amiina - Sexfaldur
A Northern Chorus - This open heart
Why? - Fatalist Palminstry
Helio Sequence - Hallelujah
Son lux - Break
Cursive - Into the fold
Red lions - Bay of naples
Cortney tidwell - la la
Falcon - Listen In
Conor Oberst - Sausalito
Horse Feathers - Rude to rite
Azeda Booth - Lobster Quadrille
Faint - Fulcrum and Lever
Apollo Sunshine - Singing to the earth
Silent Years - On our way home
Curse of company - parade divine
Samantha Crain - Traipsing through the aisles
Cut Copy - Feel the love
Decemberists - The crane wife 3
Denali - Do something
Dandy Warhols - Sleep
Alias and Ehren - Lillian
Mercury program - Slightly Drifting