Lower your expectations and Bon Iver

OK, we're back from a brief hiatus. Sort of. I am beginning to realize that my attempt at daily posting on this blog was a little bold, and I am pretty amazed that I was able to keep it going for this long. So as an act of quality control and time control I'm going to have to scale it back slightly. We'll still have our weekly updated lists on Friday, and if there isn't a list to post then there will still definitely be a Friday post always. Tomorrow we have a great list from Megan that will go up, and will blow your mind. Still a lot to cover from this Ricky list, but I'm really going to have to get ahold of some of the stuff because I don't have any of it. I don't think I'm going to set a schedule of posting, like Monday, Weds, Friday unless that is something you really want to see. It will still definitely be about 3 times a week. Then once we have the Megan post we'll go back and start getting into some of these old lists. Still waiting on a Matthayes, and TJ has already started his Recommends list number 2. Don't let him lap you...you should make a second as well. Anyone make one of these Gittings recipes yet? I could really go for some curry right now.

I'm pretty sure most of the readers of this blog already know about Bon Iver. This comes from the Gittings list and he strongly urges you to check out For Emma, Forever Ago. He also recently released an EP called Blood Bank which is good, but not quite as good as Emma. I stand behind both of these picks. Here is his website to check out, and a pretty comprehensive Wikipedia entry (the part about For Emma, Forever Ago is particularly interesting). The album is pretty soft and contemplative, mostly (if not all) acoustic. But the arrangements are very thick, with layers and layers and layers of vocals that sort of remind me of Dinosaur Jr's "Feel the Pain" where whatshisname sings in octaves. I was curious how he recreated it live and according the wiki entry he depends on his audience to sing along to achieve the vocal layering of the record. This youtube clip is him performing by himself, but I really recommend you check out the album. Oh, and not suprisingly it is available from (the awesome) emusic.com. Here is Flume from For Emma, Forever Ago:

Killing Yourself To Live--Chuck Klosterman

Mike Ward calls Killing Yourself To Live by Chuck Klosterman the funniest book he's ever read. This means a lot to me, so I just ordered it with a Barnes and Noble gift certificate that I had from Christmas. We'll see about this one, but I must admit excitement to give it a try. A seemingly good description of the book:

For 6,557 miles, Chuck Klosterman thought about dying. He drove a rental car from New York to Rhode Island to Georgia to Mississippi to Iowa to Minneapolis to Fargo to Seattle, and he chased death and rock 'n' roll all the way. Within the span of twenty-one days, Chuck had three relationships end -- one by choice, one by chance, and one by exhaustion. He snorted cocaine in a graveyard. He walked a half-mile through a bean field. A man in Dickinson, North Dakota, explained to him why we have fewer windmills than we used to. He listened to the KISS solo albums and the Rod Stewart box set. At one point, poisonous snakes became involved. The road is hard. From the Chelsea Hotel to the swampland where Lynyrd Skynyrd's plane went down to the site where Kurt Cobain blew his head off, Chuck explored every brand of rock star demise. He wanted to know why the greatest career move any musician can make is to stop breathing...and what this means for the rest of us.

If the description interests you, there is a longish excerpt (I believe from the beginning of the book) RIGHT HERE! I could see how this guy's approach could annoy a number of readers over at Amazon that gave the book a bad review, but it seems right up my alley. Good call Mike Ward...looking forward to the rest.

On a side note, what do you all think of this Bon Iver guy? I'm listening to For Emma, Forever Ago at the recommendation of both TJ Huff and Mike Gittings. I think they hit it with this one. Real good so far. The first time I listened to it was in the car and the second time in some good headphones. This is a headphone album for sure.