New location. Apparently this blogging tool is better than the one my brothers and I have been using. So... we also bought a domain name. My blog will still have the same name.

If you want to see all three of ours on the same page, go to www.troisbaboons.com

If you want to read just mine, go to www.troisbaboons.com/skyscraper.php

I will no longer be posting to this site, so go to the new one.  ¶ 9:34 PM

  Fucking Amazon. So I'm home on Spring Break and I figure I'll order a cd. The CD is by Bill Ricchini and he sounds like equal parts Elliott Smith, Nick Drake, and Belle and Sebastian. I nearly wet myself with excitement upon hearing that this unique hybrid existed. I even wrote it down on the elite list of cds on my hand. Only the best and brightest go on my hand, the albums that I have to have. The cd was in good company, surrounded by Saturday Looks Good To Me (they sound like they kidnapped Brian Wilson and forced him to record an album underwater), The Wrens (Pitchfork Media darlings and aging indie rockers), Sondre Lerche (a norwegian singer/songwriter who was writing pop songs when he was 16 that sounded better than 99% of 40 year old musicians can manage), Espers (psychadelic folk. it sounds like... classic, dark, wintery folk music with electric instrumentation thrown in to make it sound better), and... other bands that I don't exactly remember. I'll probably start writing about bands again instead of just music in general.

Anyway, so I manage to find all the albums in stores, all the albums other than Bill Ricchini, that is. So I decide to order off of Amazon. The shipping estimate is well within the time that I would be home. The estimated day comes around... I wait patiently for the mail... and its not there. No biggy. The next day I'm having a pretty bad day, but I figure it will all be okay when I can start absorbing my new album. Nothing. Well, it didn't get here today either, and I'm leaving to go to Massachussets tomorrow (or "Massa-twoshits as Jessica Simpson has so generously called it) and it's not here. That means it should arrive promptly the day after I go back to school. Thank you Amazon, I hate you all.

So... I should stop using this to rant about things that make me angry and start writing about music again. Don't worry, I have a bunch of albums to write about and recommend, and I'll do that when I'm feeling better. Tonight I'm a little sick and tired. No, not sick and tired of anything in particular, just sick and tired. Actually sick and tired. Join me next time when I start talking about actual albums and music again.  ¶ 5:59 PM

  I write. They say that the people who can't do, teach. I'll assume this applies to music to some extent too. Well, I sort of hope that it doesn't, because I would much rather be a musician than actually write about music. Don't get me wrong, though, I definitely love writing about music and I would be more than happy to make a career out of it. I would, however, be fucking ecstatic to make a career off of my guitar.

Fortunately for me I've been blessed with the voice of a cherub. A cherub without vocal chords. Based on my singing ability, I'm shocked that I'm able to talk with any level of even-ness. I think I have some level of guitar-playing talent, and I think I can write lyrics fairly well. I enjoy plugging around on my guitarEvery once in a while I pound out a song that I'm pretty proud of, but I'm not what you would call a "musician". If I ever made a career out of writing about music then I would be one of those musicians who only got any notice because he had connections, and possibly shamelessly promoted himself.

Nick Hornby, in Songbook, says that he became a writer because he wanted to be a rock star. He figured if he could never play anything worth hearing himself then he might as well write about people who could. Is it a greater tragedy to have some musical talent but not enough to make anything of it? I guess if I don't have enough talent to play music, I might as well write about it.  ¶ 7:54 AM

  New Stuff. If you've noticed, I changed the way my blog looks.

I've also added a dynamic picture in the sidebar at the right that tells you what im listening to at the moment you read the page. Or if I'm not listening to anything, it will tell you what I was last listening to.

Below it you will find links for my listening history page as well as my listening stats page.

I dont know if this is useful or not, but ill be damned if it isn't fucking cool.  ¶ 10:50 AM

  Elliott Smith. Nick Drake. One of my great regrets is that I never got to see Elliott Smith play live. Granted he looked sort of like this really ugly kid that I knew in high school, but he had a unique voice and a singular talent for songwriting. He, like many musicians before him, killed himself. He stabbed himself in the heart. He had the promise of a revitalized career after the release of his new album, and all his friends say they thought he was more focused and together than he had ever been.

One thing that always bothered me was when people would say "well, what do you expect? listen to his music." That is a load of shit. Sure he wrote about heroin addiction and tragic love, but that doesn't mean he was headed straight towards stabbing himself in the chest. No one expects that. A Spin Magazine interviewer commented on how friendly and open Smith was, expecting him to reflect his musical persona. The music isn't always the direct reflection of the artist, in the same way that a book isn't always the direct reflection of the author. I have been taught never to assume that the author is the narrator of the story, but why do we automatically assume that the singer is the same as their lyrical and musical content? But what it really comes down to in the end is that you can never expect someone to kill themselves based on their music.

He was often compared to Nick Drake, and apparently he hated the comparison. I would wet myself if anyone ever compared my music to Nick Drake's, but I think Elliott Smith created something separate and equal to Nick Drake. Unfortunately, it seems like they will have similar fates after their deaths, gaining notoriety and recognition only posthumously. Also, both seemed to be reaching their peaks when they took their own lives. Elliott Smith's last album, due to be released sometime this year, may end up being a double cd affair. Those recording it with him said it was his best material to date. Pink Moon was no doubt Nick Drake's best album. Maybe Nick Drake and Elliott Smith were far more similar than anyone thought.

As Nick Hornby once put it, "which came first, the music or the misery?". Were Nick Drake and Elliott Smith tortured because of their music? Was their music a product of their inner demons? It seems like a viscious cycle, where one feeds on the other. They are fighting demons so they write their songs. In writing, recording, and performing these songs they have to recall the demons. The songs reminded them. In the book "Nothing Feels Good" that I mentioned in my Emo post, Dashboard Confessional's Chris Carrabba (yes, I know he pretty much is Dashboard Confessional) talks about how performing songs about the most painful moments in his life is akin to reliving them. Performing these songs must have been like looking at a picture of an old girlfriend who broke your heart into so many pieces you just never got over her. So the misery is a function of the songs AND the songs are a function of the misery.

Assuming that either of these men could have been saved by medication, I wonder if they would have chosen it. Another assumption I am making is that if they were medicated, they would not have created the music they created. I once had a conversation about this with a friend and we ended up on separate sides, she saying that she would rather create amazing art than be happy by taking drugs. Her artistic side ended up being more important to her than her happiness. I, on the other hand, decided that I would rather be happy than create amazing art as the result of my sorrow. What good is beautiful music to you if you're depressed? I indulge my artistic side in order to make me happy, what good is it if it won't be truly cathartic enough to save me from my own depression? I would rather be happy than artistic. Would it have been worth it for them to take medication and be happy at the expense of their art? It's selfish for any of us to say that they were better off making music that we could enjoy. After all, it's never been our decision, it would always have been theirs. But is the artistic enjoyment of a great number of people worth the cost of happiness to one person? I don't think so.

Makes me wonder how many great artists may have been prevented from creating their greatest work by antidepressants. I wonder, but im glad they had a chance to live happy rather than tortured lives. What does it matter if I want to hear a great album if they had a chance to live happy.

Elliott Smith and Nick Drake created some of my favorite music ever. Pink Moon, Five Leaves Left, XO, Either/Or, Roman Candle, these are some of the greatest songwriting albums ever recorded. I love them to death, but I would rather these people have lived happy lives instead.   ¶ 4:31 PM

  Pitchfork Media. Pitchfork Media, for one reason or another, is slowly destroying my life from the inside out. So, it all begins when I start listening to less music that might be stamped with the big "E" word. Call it an effect of Spring, call it an effect of college, but I've been listening to more indie rock now. I wouldn't call myself an Indie snob (I might be, though) but I think I have a fairly extensive and comprehensive collection of indie rock. I have developed a love for indie pop. Pop music that throws back to the 60's, like Saturday Looks Good To Me, or just something like the Shins that walks the line between experimentation and familiarity. If it can be called indie pop, chances are that I likes it.

So, in order to bulk up my indie pop collection, I start reading pitchfork. I hadn't really heard of it before now, only in passing from my friends. Well, pitchfork is a group of indie snobs. They enjoy harping on certain kinds of music and just being generally a huge bunch of assholes. Which is why I can't stop reading it. Pitchfork is like that friend of yours who hates so much that when they like something, you assume that it must be the greatest thing since sliced bread if it made even an asshole happy. Granted, sometimes that friend of yours likes some stupid crap that no one should ever listen to, but for the most part their recommendations are pretty solid.

Unfortunately, I had a lot of catching up to do as far as the indie pop went. Coming in this late in the game, all I could hope to accomplish was grabbing some of the great albums and calling it even. That in itself was a challenge. I must have spent the better part of three days avoiding hygiene and food in order to read more reviews on pitchfork and catch up on years worth of music that i had thus far neglected. Luckily, someone on campus had a lot of the cds that I wanted, though not all of them.

Enter Newbury Comics. They had none of the cds I wanted to buy. It's gotten to the point that they dont even have the cds I want in their warehouse, so they can't order them for me. Newbury Comics blows! Not really, but they enjoy mocking me. I'm sure you know what I'm talking, you go in looking for an album and all they have is the little card telling you where the album would normally have been. I think the bastards leave the card there just to laugh at you when you freak out because your album isnt there. Pitchfork has made my tastes so obscure that even Amazon requires 4-5 days to ship the cds I want because there is only one copy in their warehouse. Some of the stuff I want isnt even in print anymore.

Pitchfork can usually be trusted for a good review. Just remember what kinds of music and what artists they don't like, be careful when you read it. And for God's sake, please dont dip into the archives, or you'll end spending all your money on cd's that you'd never heard of before. You'll search for days and days to find a single album that no store within your tristate area has. Suddenly none of your friends will know what you're talking when you mention a band. You'll be going to shows alone. Your only salvation will lie in making copious mixes to turn people on to the artists they dont know they love yet. However, that means you'll spend all your time making mixes. You'll also be spending money on CD-R stacks that you could be spending on that rare album you've had your eye on.

But seriously, be careful when reading pitchforkmedia.com. It ruined my life and it could ruin yours.

Most importantly, don't become a music snob. Nobody likes them.  ¶ 5:25 PM

  Zero 7 and AIR. Following in the wake of my last Blog concerning techno music, I find it only fitting to discuss AIR and Zero 7 now. AIR was most certainly around first, and as far as I'm concerned, perfected the floating electronica that they still manage to dominate. Moon Safari is still widely regarded (with good reason) as one of the best chillout albums ever made. It's just jampacked with classics. Sexy Boy was all over commercials and movies, and im sure you actually know the song even if you don't think you do. It's been everywhere at one time or another. Kelly Watch the Stars was another great song, with an entirely synthed vocal track. AIR is kitschy, but they know it. At the same time, its beautiful music to sit down to and just kick it.

Moon Safari was a triumph of kitsch, it managed to be relevant, entertaining, and beautiful while still being light and thin. Other albums may have fallen beneath the weight of these contradictions. Unfortunately, 10,000 hz didn't fare quite as well, and it was generally thought by my brothers and I (the ultimate arbiters of musical taste) to be good, but lacking in one area or another. If a friend had made it, I would have been terribly impressed, but this was AIR. They needed to release something new and fresh like the first album. Unfortunately, this album just didn't have it, whatever "it" was. Maybe it was too experimental, maybe it sounded too thick and overproduced, maybe their sound just wasn't as fresh anymore. Either way, as far as AIR albums go, this one sorta sucked.

AIR did a bunch of soundtracks, most notably the soundtrack to the Virgin Suicides. It was a great soundtrack. I think that while making this soundtrack they remembered what it was that had made them great in the first place, a certain level of minimalism and atmosphere that they had lost. Playground Love is a great song that everybody knows even if they think theyve never heard it. The rest of the album is great as well, and a perfect example of how great AIR can be.

Maybe taking this to heart, they moved on and made Talkie Walkie. Someone told me it was produced by Nigel Godrich, the man who produced Radiohead. AIR is a pair of producers, why would they need a producer? This didnt make any sense to me, so I read into it, it turns out he mixed and recorded it. Problem solved. Anywho, Talkie Walkie marks a tempering of their ambitions with their original formula, and a great one at that. Up until I heard this album, I thought that AIR died after Moon Safari and even went so far as to explain Zero 7 as what AIR would have ended up sounding like if they hadn't started sucking. Talkie Walkie made them more relevant than ever, and showed me that AIR is at least as relevant as Zero 7 if not more. Perhaps not any more likable, but definitely fresher. The first song on Talkie Walkie, Venus, is pretty much just three piano chords that repeat. It doesnt sound terribly awesome to hear someone explain, but it really surprised me how much I liked it. The next song, Cherry Blossom Girl, goes back to the sparkling guitar that they have been so well known for in the past. The last song they wrote for the Lost in Translation soundtrack, it's called Lost in Kyoto and marks a deeper sort of song for AIR, that of a more complex and atmospheric guitar piece. If they decided to take themselves in this direction for their next album, they would definitely distinguish themselves from the crowd even more.

Zero 7 is a great band as well. Perhaps not as revolutionary, but great nonetheless. Their debut album, simple things, was gorgeous. It was swirling and beautiful in ways that AIR wasn't. It was an amalgam of soul, techno, and just beautiful guitars. The song Destiny is one of my favorite songs ever, and perhaps one of the more beautiful and echoing songs ever written. It DRIPS sunshine. The rest of the album is beautiful as well, sometimes jazzy, sometimes soulful, but almost always sundrenched.

Unfortunately, they seem to have released the same album twice. No one can exactly fault them for taking something beautiful and sticking to it, but it is always a little disappointing to see a band with a lot of promise for development release the same album twice. When It Falls is a great album by any account, but it seems slightly less relevant because it's not as fresh as the first was. The first seemed to be an upgrade of Moon Safari, they took what AIR did so well and expanded on it. On this album it seems that they've expanded upon... nothing. This is not to say that it is any less beautiful or affecting, however.

If I had to pick between buying the latest AIR or the latest Zero 7 album, I would tell you to buy the new AIR. My overall advice is to make sure you own the debut and latest AIR album and the debut Zero 7 album. In that combination, you get the best of everything. All the others are pleasant but secondary to these three.

In conclusion, chillout music rocks.  ¶ 3:37 PM