The Laun Mix-Tape

Chris Laun came at me with this idea a long-long time ago. And I promised him a spot when there was some down time. Little did he know that he was getting a prime-time Friday morning spotlight. This is good stuff, and a good idea. I haven't even listened to these songs yet but I know that this is a good idea. I've recently finished reading The Brief and Wonderous Life of Oscar Wao, which came highly recommended by a couple of our listers. This book was as good as promised. Tune in Monday for a full report. This one is worth a damn, that's for sure. Anyway, from here on out is Laun. Listen to these songs at work. What else do you have to do?

This is another music-based recommend but it's got a bit of a twist to it. It'll hopefully be sort of a collaborative recommend if it works the way I'm intending.

Last year when the best-of lists started popping up on Google Reader I came across a couple blogs that had their top songs of the year. In checking out a lot of the music on there I found that there were a lot of great songs that were by people I had never heard of and had never heard friend's mention. Since then I've had a policy of making a point to listen to every mp3 that is shared on any of these blogs especially if it's by someone I've never heard of before and haven't formed an opinion about. If it was something I liked, I would save it to my computer. I wound up with a playlist of great songs by artists I know very little about.

So I've made a playlist of some of my favorites from the past few months. I don't know exactly when these songs were released. I believe they're all fairly recent but they could be from albums that are a few years old or ones that haven't come out yet. I tried to pick a mix of different kinds of songs so hopefully there is something here that will appeal to you.

Obviously the main goal here is to share music that I am really digging with you guys. The second goal is that if any of this is familiar to you that you can make recommendations or anti-recommendations back to me. Or if you don't know any of it but are inspired to explore further that you can report back with what you find. In that sense it could sort of be like we're discovering new music as a group.

You can listen to the whole thing at drop.io/launmix01. You can comment on each song there if you want but make sure you sign your name as it doesn't have any other way to keep track of who says what.

And here's the track listing:

Forest Fire - Slow Motion
Meursault - The Furnace
St. Vincent - The Strangers
Phoenix - 1901
Malajube - Porte Disparu
Nneka - Heartbeat
Jumbling Towers - The Kanestown City Rips
Bodies of Water - Under the Pines
Mystery Jets - Flakes
Laura Gibson - Spirited
Zu - Ostia
We/Or/Me - Tell Sarah
The Bird and the Bee - My Love
Parlovr - Pen to the Paper
Emperor X - Go-Captain and Pinlighter

Oh brother. I hate it when I come in to work early and check Friends Recommend to discover what new recommends are waiting for me only to realize that it's Thursday (my posting day) and not only is there nothing being recommended to me, but I've got nothing to recommend.

We seem to be on a TV Show kick this week so I'll keep the flow going. One show that I've recently come to appreciate is the British series Spaced. The overall plot is that Tim and new friend Daisy pretend to be a couple in order to rent an apartment together. The show features Simon Pegg and Nick Frost of Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz fame.

As Tim and Daisy seek to develop their careers and find love, they receive counsel from and get caught up in the lives of their landlord Marsha and neighbor Brian. All in all, the show is pretty bizarre and surreal at times, and frequently references and parodies movies and other TV shows. Sometimes it's a little too bizarre for its own good, but the cast keeps it together and make you really feel for the characters. Youtube has a lot of really of boring clips from the show, but there were plenty of laugh out loud moments. Again, sorry for not knowing how to embed these. Someone should explain that to me.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4X-_UL08uuI


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RFEJstPBwvw&feature=channel

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z3KfnPHiTqY&feature=channel

The IT Crowd

Today I wanted to talk about a show I've really been getting into lately: The IT Crowd. This is a British comedy show that is filled with absurdist humor. Basically it's about two nerdy guys and their lady manager working in an IT department. These nerdy guys are classic sitcom characters. One is extremely naive and childlike, the other is the brains behind their schemes. This is my favorite episode of any comedy show that I've seen this year, and had me laughing the hardest. This clip happens midway through the show. The two guys (Roy and Moss) are at a play with their lady boss, and they don't want to use the bathroom bc of a bathroom attendant. So Roy uses a handicap bathroom, even tho he could get in trouble for using it.



What's great about this is he has to spend the rest of the episode in a wheel chair. I love when shows have characters get in situations like these...

So, maybe if some of you are inclined, you'll torrent this episode (if that's your thing). I looked everywhere for a stream of the entire episode, but came up with nothing. So here's a torrent link.

Lookwell!

"Lookwell!" might be the funniest television series that was never made. It was created and written by Conan O'brien (I am looking forward to his return to late night next week) and Robert Smigel (The guy behind Triumph the Insult Comic Dog and those SNL Cartoons) way back in 1991. Sounds pretty good so far right? Wait it gets better. The show was about a washed up actor (played by Adam West) who used to be a famous TV cop. In between auditions and teaching an acting class he attempts to solve crimes. He feels he is entitled to do so because he was awarded an honorary police badge back at the height of his fame. Hillarious! The pilot episode of the show was the only one ever made. If you have 22:40 to kill, please enjoy...




What is the second funniest TV series that was never made? I am glad you asked. I can't be sure, because I can't find the pilot episode anywhere, but judging by the shows Title sequence, it might have to be "Heat Vision and Jack". Jack Black played an astronaught who comes back from space with super inteligence. Owen Wilson played his talking motor cycle/best friend. Wow. If any one has a copy of this show, I need to see it.

Radiolab

After about 50 recommends to check out NPR's Radiolab, I finally decided to take Huff up on it this morning. I am not yet finished my first episode, but it is concluding as I type this. Radiolab is hosted by Jad Abumrad and Robert Krulwich and I must admit it is a pretty fantastic program. If you have a job where you can sit and pay attention to an hour-long podcast I highly recommend it as a way to pass your time at the office. It is hard to listen to if you can't really pay attention, because you miss a lot of what's going on. But if you can really tune-in it might become a new favorite for you.

I checked out the episode entitled Musical Language. This is the plot description:

What is music? How does it work? Why does it move us? Why are some people better at it than others? In this hour, we examine the line between language and music, how the brain processes sound, and we meet a composer who uses computers to capture the musical DNA of dead composers in order to create new work. We also re-imagine the disastrous 1913 debut of Stravinsky's Rite of Spring...through the lense of modern neurology.

All of the segments in this episode were really interesting. One highlight for me was an investigation of the Speech-to-Song Illusion. Basically the concept of this is if you hear a spoken phrase repeated a couple times, it begins to take on the character of song. The example here is pretty amazing. This is actually the exact example used in the show. Their is a recorded excerpt of a couple of sentences of a woman speaking, and after the excerpt concludes they loop the phrase "sometimes behave so strangely" (Play "Listen: Sound Demo 1). You don't really get what is happening at first, but on the play back this phrase takes on a songlike character that the rest of the paragraph doesn't simple because you've heard it repeated a number of times. I highly recommend you listen to at least Sound Demo's 1 & 2 to get the full effect. I heard the beginning portion of the podcast in my car this morning, and as soon as I heard the phrase it popped out as being "music" instead of "speech." Neat!

Other highlights for me were an investigation of Igor Stravinsky's Rite of Spring (a favorite composer of mine). In 1913 Igor Stravinsky premiered "The Rite of Spring" which was a revolutionary composition, full of harsh harmonies (not reallly for today, but in 1913 they were harsh), and asymmetrical rhythm, and is a portrayal of the Pagan sacrifice of a girl in Spring. Anyway, during it's 1913 premier the Rite of Spring induced a riot within the first 3 minutes and the piece wasn't even performed in it's entirety. Supposedly a lot of people in the building actually liked it, but a LOT of them hated it starting fights and shouting. The very same piece was performed a second time one year later to rave reviews and pushed Stravinsky into superstardom. Radiolab looks into why the first time it was performed it caused a riot and the second time it made Stravinsky so famous that the piece was used in Disney's Fantasia:



There's a lot more great stuff in just this one episode, so I can't wait to check out more. They are all available for FREE on iTunes. So you can put a bunch in an iPod and have them saved for a boring day. Really good stuff. Thanks, Huff...what are other favorite episodes?

Along the same lines as this podcast, check out this video of Sarah Palin Sings. (I guess this goes along with Ricky's post from yesterday as well):

Recommended Distractions

So I never listen to music anymore, the books I read are only OK, and the movies I watch are horrible. Assuming you've all heard of The Office, that doesn't leave much to recommend from the little T.V. that I watch. I do however spend an inordinate amount of time browsing web page after web page. The internets are an amazing things. You can view great, pointless videos like this one:



I don't know how to embed youtube videos or anything else for that matter. So suck it up. The other great thing about the internets (***extremely- inside joke warning***) is that you can go online to buy shoes offline. Amazings!!

Here are some of my favorite places to visit on the internets.

This is Boing Boing. This is a great recommend site. Also great is Neatorama. It's a way less techy internets than this BoingBoing. If you like independant games, steampunk, DRM debates and guest bloggers than BB is for you. Otherwise it's Neatorama.

I also love Men who look like old lesbians. Although, I think the are wrong about many of these men.

Cake Wrecks is gross an hilarious and makes me sad for the world. Post Secret is kind of all of those things too. Actually Post Secret is every emotion of every person all at one place without any judgement of any of it.

Bent Objects is amusing and worth a look every few months. As is Faces in Places.

I sort of enjoy this Photoshop Disasters, but there is also something about it that I hate, but I do not know what.

I love The Big Picture although their subject matter has gotten boring lately.

Finally, It's Nice That is a great art recommender.

Sorry if this is kind of a half-assed blog post, but I got into an accident on the way to work today and I lost half of my ass in the wreck.

Late at night

There are some things that are perfect for late at night. Taco Bell may be the first thing that I think of, and I'm sure many of you agree. Taco Bell really is at its best between the hours of 12am and 2 am. But when I'm driving home during the late night, I like listening to quieter music. A few albums that have been my late night main stays for a long time: Neko Case's Blacklisted, Ryan Adams' Cold Roses, Elvis Perkins' Ash Wednesday and Iron and Wine's Our Endless Numbered Days, among other things. These albums have exactly what I want for the wee hours; beautiful/haunting songs filled with introspection and heartache. I do some of my best thinking while listening to this kind of music. And when I'm driving home from God knows where at Jesus knows what hour, I often look forward to the car ride to reflect on things, and put on the latest late night playlist. I'll also buy some albums specifically for the purpose of playing it only during late night car rides. This week I added to the late night rotation with the purchase of Camera Obscura's new album "My Maudlin Career". I actually haven't been that big a fan of them, but I bought this on a whim and was immediately knocked out.

Camera Obscura are a Scottish chamber pop group along the lines of Belle and Sebastian. Listening to them, one gets the feeling that the singer has had a lot of bad relationships. Every song seems like she's trying to woo someone, or is heartbroken. The production and arrangements are what really stand out at first glance. They're very much along the lines of the big sound of the 1960s girl groups. There are tons of strings and brass on everything, even woodwinds (which I can't recall the last time I heard an oboe on anything). Also, for this kind of music, the singer is singing about things I want to hear: "silvery lakes" and "dusty libraries". And woeful phrases like "In your eyes, there's sadness enough to kill the both of us".

Here's a clip of the single. If you like this, then I highly recommend getting the album. It's one of those rare ones where I enjoy every song. Some of the songs are actually really upbeat and happy, I swear.