Thanks For Reading.

Hans OpDeBeeck - The Stewarts [Grandma And Grandpa] (2006)

Larkin Grimm - Pigeon Food (mp3): Dip your oversized wooden spoon into this turgid pile of folk and serve grandma a dollup of emotional metaphor. You will never know if her new hip makes her more hip unless you ask. [*Anyone who understands the relevance of the lyric "Feed my soul to the roaches" should leave a comment NOW].

Rafter - Hope (mp3) [From the upcoming album"Music for Total Chickens"]: You know you're out of control when you have to remind yourself to NOT go to work today. This track scores the dream you'll have on Monday where you're climbing up a mountainous metal ladder to ring the accomplishment of a golden bell... but when you finally reach it and start whacking at its surface, you realize it's ringing at the same tone as your alarm clock and it's time to wake up to start from the bottom rung.

Architecture in Helsinki - Wishbone (Franc Tetaz Remix) (mp3): Burn this track onto a mixtape for your cousins who will be sufficently residually stoned to appreciate the computerized voices while watching the local news coverage of bouncing cranberries.

Grape Nuts

Daniela Rossell - Untitled [Ricas Y Famosas: Paulina On Her Father's Desk] (2000)

I found out today that Phillip Morris, convicted corporate racketeer, profits off my daily breakfast of Grape Nuts, the Philadelphia cream cheese on my bagel, my constant snacking on Cheese Nips, my occasional "ethical" statement of choosing Boca Burgers over factory-raised animals, and my nostaligia-fueled bias towars Miracle Whip. The operative word here is "choice" and the operative concern is how impossible it is to make choices in daily life without supporting large-scale structural evils.

I guess I don't know why I continue to be suprised that everything in my life sits in a morally-bland marinade of someone else's ownership. The whole situation reminds me of last week when I tried to eat Grape Nuts with a headache. Though they tasted fantastic, the reverberations of crunched dissonance made it a horrendously painful experience. With each bite I convinced myself that I could somehow put more thought into a gentler masticative pressure and successfully mash the joyous granules without reaping the negative effects. Of course I ended up with an empty bowl and a migrane. Grape Nuts can no longer be eaten with the pervasive headache of corprate irresponsibility or we'll all just keep chomping away and hurting ourselves. What does a society have to go to eat its breakfast in peace?

Nellie McKay - There You Are In Me (mp3) : Nellie rushes around in a dissonant, confusion-induced neural brainstorm until she breaks through a realization that she and her memory will always exist as having once existed.

The Ladybug Transistor - Splendor In The Grass (mp3): A twanged retropop ballad of firsts, complete with an angelic chorus esteeming the proverbial perpetual pasture.

The Slip - Poor Boy (mp3): These guys played Madison's Cafe Montmartre last night with a restrained unshaven swagger that almost disguised whitebread whiteboy pitfalls of sprinkling jammy guitar with harmonica solos and ending every song in broken summary chords.

Foreign Islands - We Know You Know It (mp3): The annoyance of the dissonant guitar that starts this track is second only too how played out guitar dissonance is. Luckily the heavy beat and Le Tigre vocals restore its relevance.

The Waiting Fatalist

Loretta Lux - The Waiting Girl (2006)

When the lightbulb clenches and the ceiling falls black, it is time to answer the door. When the doorknob screams yellow and cushions swallow back, it is time to wash the dishes. When the dishes drip evenly to match the meticulous tile, it is time to check that the window is closed. When the window breathes frozen and the blinds are adequately filed, it is finally time to change the lightbulb.

Robbers On High Street - The Fatalist (mp3)

The MP3 Calendar

Renee Nault - Torontopia (2006)

[featured on Chromewaves' new banner]

Plan your concert schedule by previewing MP3s of touring bands with upcoming stops in the area...

Friday, November 17th
[Rathskellar 9:30PM]: The Changes - When I Wake (mp3)*
[High Noon Saloon 9:30PM]: Amos Lee - Sympathaize (stream)
[Bellini Lounge 8PM]: Kelly Pardekooper - Hayseed Girl (mp3)
& Josh Harty - Minna Miller (m3u)

Sunday, November 19th
[Darling Hall, Milwaukee 9PM]: Hooligan Ship - Dixylanderc (mp3)
& Dites Donc - I'm On The Pill (mp3)

Tuesday, November 21st
[Cafe Montmartre 9PM]: The Slip - Even Rats (mp3)
& The Lovely Feathers - Frantic (myspace)

Monday, November 27th
[Club Majestic 8PM]: The Black Keys - Your Touch (myspace)
& Dr Dog - Aint It Strange (mp3)

Tuesday, November 28th
[Club 770 9:30PM]: Tokyo Police Club - Nature of the Experiment (myspace)

Wednesday, December 6th
[Cafe Montmartre 9PM]: Shapes and Sizes - Wilderness (mp3)

December 8th & 9th
[Madison Pop Fest]: Joanna Newsom - Sprout And the Bean (mov)
& Chin Up Chin Up - This Harness Can't Ride Anything (mp3)
& Smog - I Feel Like the Mother of the World (mov)

Tuesday, December 12th
[Shank Hall, Milwaukee 8PM]: Jeremy Enigk - Been Here Before (mp3)

You Never Got Me Right; Never Could Keep Me Down

Christa Sommerer & Laurent Mignoneau - Lifewriter (2006) [movie]

Lifewriter translates typed text combinations into unique living organisms much like ribosomes translate mRNA into vitally diverse proteins. Or like neural systems translate sensory stimuli into unique thoughts that leap off our tongues and interact with their surroundings. Such a device visualizes a world where our efforts have real impact instead of the reality of being filed in static documents and forgotten in historical filing cabinents.

After working two unanticipated ten-hour-days on a salary, I wish my resolve would boom in the voice of Aretha Franklin or Mick Jagger. It instead spills out as drool on my pillow to a wafting Air lullabye fronted by a Joni Mitchell vulnerability and Casiotone self-consiousness. Sometimes my waking life feels like one of those psuedo-autobiographies by unmentioned ghostwriters with no meaningful interest in the story except pushing it towards comfortable pleasantries and linear structures.

Frida Hyvönen - You Never Got Me Right (mp3)

Frida funnels Joni Mitchell with two fists wrestling a Swedish Ouija board to spell "FUCK". This track is specifically confrontational, but most of the others lean towards the complexly emotional.

Jóhann Jóhannsson - Odi et Amo (mp3)

Jóhann's meditative avant garde casts the peace of Air in a bleak Icelandic minimalist twilight.

Over the Rhine - Flown Free (mp3)

Karin inspires me to retreat to a piano instead of a mattress, but doesn't offer the full-bodied strength to carry the instrument up four flights of stairs to my apartment. This song empowers with characteristic OtR honesty but also lends the support of an overdramatic choir chanting Amen.

Casiotone for the Painfully Alone - Lonesome NM Nights (mp3)

Owen Ashworth is trapped in a cold rigidity like baby Jessica McClure in a 1987 well, but his subtle screams of distress are never answered.

Don't Let Them Fool You Into Thinking You've Won

Connor Harrington - All Aboard For A Great Day Out (2006)
[From this month's exibhition "See Saw" at Soho's Lazaride's Gallery]

It seems to me that if the see-saw is a metaphor for rapid changing paired with indecision and the sea is a metaphor for endless wandering, then I'm probably riding on a sea-saw. One whose puns and metaphors outweight its content.

Gethin Pearson and The Scenery - Lost at Sea (mp3)

Soiree - Across the Sea (mp3)

Klaxons: 24, You: 0

Fisherspooner - Never Win (2005) [stream]

If you haven't heard of the Klaxons, the gang of indie kids (the new jocks) will be around to metaphorically kick your pale ass with their hard-hitting, pretentious sarcasm. Tight synths are worn like jerseys while vintage references and finds are touted with the pride of plastic golden trophies and lapel-mantled American Eagles. The pounding strong-Strokes guitars sprint the bases and turn the joyous hook towards home with stylishly slanted headphones worn with immortality and an aloof attitude towards sliding in "safe". In this world, son, passionately soaring vocals will always win and will always be there to heckle you into self-loathing with their unwaivering coolness. If you convince mom to buy you a record player they might invite you to bring it to a listening party... or just laugh when you try to fit it into your locker.

The Klaxons - Not Over Yet (mp3)

Stereophonic Musical Arranged Contests

Amanda Ross-Ho - 100 Arranged Marriages (2003)

This Amanda Ross-Ho sculture is one of 100 Arranged Marriages she orchestrated between random objects found strewn throughout her studio and house. I've been collecting some romantic objects myself and will be sending them to "sleepnotwork", "jenny", and "miranda"... lucky readers and winners of the Super Crazyish Halloween Giveaway Extravaganza Bonanza and its associated prize packages. Please email your mailing addresses to ImJustSayinIsAll@gmail.com by Friday to redeem your goodies.

But the fun doesn't end there! Commenters in the next two weeks will be entered to win one of three Borat posters and either a copy of his CD or a sticker! Has anyone see this movie-film yet? I found his making-promotion on Conan to be quite informative... about the nature of Conan's pubis and to watch out for a lady named Shirley who left his "anus was hang loose like a tired dog". Aside from the anti-semetic comedy classics including "In My Country There Is Problem", Borat's track "Born to Be Wild" is suprisingly fresh in this age of Man Man's yelping instrumentation, everyone's staccatoed vocalizations, Beirut's worldly eclectisism, and the thoughtful poignance of ironic covers.

Borat - Born to be Wild (mp3)

An Indie Wisconsin Votes NO!

Elmgreen & Dragset - Coupled (2001)

If gay people get married, where will it end?

Coupled Dollys will certainly ruin our country's ability to move heavy objects.

If you live in Wisconsin and no one has told you which way to vote yet, the following tracks sing in a choir about how An Indie Wisconsin Votes NO on the proposed ban of equal civil unions for commited relationships. But you don't have to take my word for it.

Sunset Rubdown - They Took A Vote And Said NO (mp3)

The Gossip - NO, NO, NO (mp3)

Bright Eyes - NO Lies, Just Love (mp3)

The Antiques - Down To NO County (mp3)

Dreaming of Paperwork

Pepon Osorio - Untitled (1994)

[from the installation "No Crying Allowed in the Barbershop"]

Ra Ra Riot - Dying Is Fine (mp3)

When existential contemplation starts to get boring, just dress up some denial in ska new wave and dance it around the room like you've seen on Dancing with the Stars. Your overconfident amateur plodding can't miss the rhythmic repetition of the bouncy chorus and the Frames-esque violin solo will surely cut-in before your lungs need a break. Save Ferris has never sounded so much like Arcade Fire.

Feel Like Dancin?

Elmgreen & Dragset - Hipsters (2005)

For those of you who've been following the blog regularly, a Beyonce-shaped crack has recently burst open the flood gates of gitty, shitty pop music. The synthy, drum-machine-paced aftermath is not something I'm going to apologize for, but rather embrace and share (threatening comments are welcome and, well... expected). Just in time for your weekends, here are a few songs to break down the exhaustion plaque clogging your work-atrophied dancin' thighs.

Dover - Let Me Out (mp3) [Thanks They Tell Us That We Lost Our Tails]

Shiny Toy Guns - Le Disko [Boys Noize Remix] (stream)

Scissor Sisters - I Don't Feel Like Dancin' (mp3)

Beyonce - Irreplaceable (stream) [I could choose another song in a minute, matter fact, IT will be here in a minute.]

Rosemont Family Reunion - Kennedy Song/Stomp (mp3)

Borat - You Be My Wife (mp3)

Borat - In My Country There Is Problem (mp3)

DJ Never Forget - 2nd Class: The Story of A Laptop DJ (mp3)

Story Tracklist:
Always Something Better (Trentemoller Remix) - Trentemoller
La Ritournelle (Metronomy Mix) - Sebastien Tellier
Yours To Keep ft Annie - Teddybears
Computer Heat - Cansei de Ser Sexy
I Dont Feel Like Dancing (Linus Loves Vox) - Scissor Sisters
Muscle Cars (Freeform Five Remix) - Mylo
The Party's Crashing Us (I Am The World Trade Center Mix) - Of Montreal
Trick or Treatz (South Central Remix) - Metronomy
Mama's Room (Weird Science Mix)- Under the Influence of Giants
Standing In the Way Of Control (Soulwax Nite Version) - The Gossip
Whoo! Alright-Yeah...Uh Huh - The Rapture