Available as a digital download on October 10th… tracklist:
CD 1 AND VINYL
15 STEP
BODYSNATCHERS
NUDE
WEIRD FISHES/ARPEGGI
ALL I NEED
FAUST ARP
RECKONER
HOUSE OF CARDS
JIGSAW FALLING INTO PLACE
VIDEOTAPE
CD 2 AND VINYL
MK 1
DOWN IS THE NEW UP
GO SLOWLY
MK 2
LAST FLOWERS
UP ON THE LADDER
BANGERS AND MASH
4 MINUTE WARNING
Price of Discbox: $85.00 USD
Price of Digital Download: ANYTHING YOU WANT
I FUCKING LOVE THIS BAND… RECKONER! LAST FLOWERS! 15 STEP OPENER/VIDEOTAPE CLOSER!
animal collective has developed a practice of playing brand new material at live shows, often written days before the tour. some of these appear on their upcoming album, but more likely they are pushed back to the next record. although it hasn’t reached the blogosphere at large, three of the new songs that were played on the last tour are generating buzz in some circles (the three in question are Daily Routine, Material Things, and Brother Sport). it seems as if my prediction that Strawberry Jam would be the pinnacle of their psych-pop sound was dead wrong, and that they’re taking that approach to new heights with their new material.
i feel like this band is reaching its peak right at this moment. panda stepping back and doing person pitch was a blessing not just for us listeners, but for the band as well. his unique sense of melody is so perfect in contrast to avey’s, maybe because he’s finally developed some confidence in his own ability. the next AC record is easily my most anticipated release of 2008 (taking the top spot from radiohead’s LP7, which has taken so long to finish that it would take an act of god to meet the hype).
although it appears to be discontinued, i’ve been reading back issues of “the intelligent gambler,” which is a poker newsletter put out by ConJelCo. today i’m going to link to a particularly choice column about “the fallacy of pot odds.” the examples given are based on omaha hi/lo but the logic can be applied to NLHE as well. there’s also a bit on the history of marked cards… i recommend them both.
as i was watching last night’s CNN Youtube debate, i couldn’t help but think that there’s really nothing different being done here. sure, the public is posing the questions, but CNN is shifting through and screening them anyway. how is this different than asking some self-important voter in the crowd what they think? there should have been a poll on Youtube to select the questions… obviously CNN is responding to michael moore’s claim that they aren’t a voice of the people, and this is their lame attempt at proving him wrong.
and then, they got goatse’d.
apparently obama and hillary were the only two that noticed the stalwart internet phenomenon that continues to disgust people even today. beyond the obvious humor that i find in this–being a fan of ridiculous internet culture–it’s very unfortunate. i hope this won’t provide the media with an excuse to stifle free speech and user-created content when they’ve barely gotten their toes wet.
too much has been written already about this slow-burning, deeply engaging docu-drama that has enjoyed four equally glorious seasons on HBO. for that reason, i’m going to demand that anyone who reads this entry rent the first season and find out for themselves. the endless superlatives that get tossed around about this show don’t even do it justice. The Wire is a masterpiece that, like many before it, won’t truly be appreciated until 20 years down the line, when it will be recognized as one of the shows that fully realized the power of the medium.
if you don’t believe me… check metacritic.
so Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows leaked in full this morning. they’re not even scans though, just shitty digital pictures. my advice is to wait anyway (if you go looking for it, be warned: the comments on all the blog posts are packed with spoilers) .
Panda Bear threw the western 90% of the U.S. a bit of a curveball on his recent Person Pitch tour, leaving every city left of Baltimore to imagine just what it’s like to watch one of the best records of the year performed by a dude standing in front of a computer.
Exciting as that sounds, it’s about to get excitinger, as freelance filmmaker “Mike” will bring footage he shot at all four of Panda’s U.S. dates to a nebulously comprehensive DVD set. Mike explains on his Eat Tapes website that, with Panda’s blessing, he captured all the shows in full, which he’ll put on a DVD with these specifications:
However, Mike goes on to explain that the Bowery Ballroom charged him $250 to film on the site, and in order to recoup the expenses, he may ask for a $5-10 donation for a bonus disc that’ll include just about everything he shot at the shows. I guess we’ll see.
Mike’s still working on the DVD, but hopes to have it ready soon. Keep checking his site for updates, and scope the preview video while you’re there. Thanks to reader Kasey Dixon for the tip!
after spending a good amount of time with it, i’ve concluded that the Korg KP2 Kaoss Pad is best used with a sampler or a “loop station” somewhere in the signal path. for live performance there just isn’t enough recording space or flexibility with the built-in sampler. it would also be nice to have some sort of toggle switch that allows an effect to be applied to a loop or an input source to really allow some more flexibility. beyond those (minor) concerns, so far it’s really been a blast to use, and i would recommend it to musicians, DJs, and hobbyists alike.
i don’t really have much for today. personally it was a bad day for me poker-wise, and apparently the WSOP Main Event isn’t going too well either.
“The hand of the day came after dinner, when four players got all the money in on Table 61. When the hands were revealed, one player held AA, the next held AA. Player 3 held KK and the fourth player was in deep trouble with 10/10. When the board came down 57643 all four players got their rebate on the four-way chopped pot. We thought that only happened on the internet, too.”
so somehow, ever since blogging exploded several years ago, i have refrained from creating my own and actually maintaining it for any length of time. none of the fantastic music, movies, or events in that time period ever drove me to do so. which makes this post pretty significant, and pretty odd that it’s based around something with so little to talk about.
anyway, this cloverfield thing. i bought my tickets for “Transformers” last night somewhat begrudgingly, because for the first time in recent memory the internet failed me and all videos of the trailer were taken down by Paramount at that point. anyway, just to throw my two cents out there, the trailer was fucking fantastic. the confusion and mystery were captured perfectly (through Blair Witch-esque handycam footage), the opening dialogue was natural and genuine, and best of all it revealed absolutely nothing about the movie.
i’m a sucker for viral marketing, but it’s really puzzling why so many people in this industry don’t understand the value of mystique and interactivity the way J.J Abrams does. musicians don’t seem to get it either, with the exception of Trent Reznor’s Year Zero ARG and Radiohead’s cryptic blog Dead Air Space (the radiohead ballwashing will surface in my future posts as well, because i just can’t help myself). Cloverfield has already spawned some bizzare web puzzles, and it’s safe to bet that there will be more before January.
so as soon as this trailer hit, the theories started in. is it the black smoke monster from Lost (release date 1/18/08 ~ number 108)? is it based on H.P Lovecraft’s “The Call of Cthulhu?” i’m liking the Lovecraft theory at the moment, but just like Lost, i don’t invest time in theories because there’s too many shitty ones.
“The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of the human mind to correlate all its contents. We live on a placid island of ignorance in the midst of black seas of infinity, and it was not meant that we should voyage far. The sciences, each straining in its own direction, have hitherto harmed us little; but some day the piecing together of dissociated knowledge will open up such terrifying vistas of reality, and of our frightful position therein, that we shall either go mad from the revelation or flee from the light into the peace and safety of a new dark age.” — H.P. Lovecraft (the opening paragraph of Cthulhu)
