with love and squalor

DIGIVOLVE MOFUCKA

2011-10-13T12:49:00.001-07:00

so i guess i've grown up (really i've moreso degenerated) but whatever, head over to lovefromendtimes.tumblr.com if you still care to hear/see/experience whats relevant to me these days

Global Warming is weak in the pants

2010-02-08T12:36:00.000-08:00

i said it, what. Its so god damn cold outside, and i'm no pussy. Yes thats a picture of me, but don't leave me now. Although my appearance may shock and appall, I'm truly benign.
Reader, I write to you through the filth and residue of psychedelic pretensions only plausible in an intro to video art class. As my classmates tool around on final cut creating what they call art (and some call kaleidoscopic bullshit) I reflect on my temperature preferences and respective music tastes. As previously stated, its cold. In every facet of life its cold. Outside, frigid; inside, stark; middleside?, dangerous... oh so dangerous. But where this pans out in the end is a shout out to seattle trio Cold Cave. They make cool music that sounds somewhere between a melodic representation of andy warhol's 'factory' and new order if mr. kurtis wasn't so damn into himself and was still around... so i guess it wouldn't be new order just joy division...[he hung himself you see]. And by 'sort-of-like' i mean exactly like... and by that i mean completely ripped off, but I'll err on the side of 'sort-of-like' because what Cold Cave do is good, and i enjoy that. The opener Cebe and Me is deck as f, and those words in succession are a true accolade to those seattle based bastards.
So check out cold cave, they are pretty cool
and by cool i mean cold
and fuck is it cold
..........
i'm a cat

Who the fuck are The Wrens?

2010-01-08T13:04:00.001-08:00

When New Jersey does something right I feel like a moment needs to be taken, just to let everything thing sink in you know? Just a moment to say a prayer for loved ones, and admire the miracle that is anything good coming out of new jersey. Now i'm sure it feels like 911 to hear those words, "Good and guido-land" in succession, however lets take a moment to reflect on cool things that came from NJ.
-John D. Rockefeller operated his standard oil company from Bayonne

-Cymbals Eat Guitars are from there....
...hmm. I guess we can revisit this later.
Oh wait, the point of this post, the fucking wrens (its actually just the wrens). Today i saw on some stupid website that this band was working on a new LP, and i had never heard of them before so i checked out their highest reviewed album "the meadowlands". To my surprise they were kind of whiny and lacking in awesomeness. As i later embarked on a treacherous adventure to buy boxes for my mother, a strange task that I'm still confused by, i was struck by the chorus of 'Happy,' a song off the album, which had wedged itself into my head. Suffice it to say i grew angry and started cursing violently to rid the melody from my brain, but to no avail, just a bunch of scared children playing four-square next to my vehicle. I don't know why i was parked in a playground either. The point, the wrens aren't actually good, they use magic to embed their music in your head. Oh, and they are from New Jersey, however i'm not sure if we should take a pause for them yet. I...I just don't know what to think anymore.

This + Acid = Nightmares for the rest of my life

2010-01-06T10:13:00.000-08:00

So The Knife may or may not be one of my favorite electro-duos of all time. My hesitancy is in this; their music is, in my snooty opinion, the most avant-garde pop music today [emphasis on the pop because bradford cox is churning out shit that is stupidly avant-garde, "carve your initials on the wall"? Too weird...] and their finesse in crafting intense atmosphere all the while creating a dance tune is remarkable, however with their more recent score for the Darwinian 'Tomorrow in a Year' has me concerned that they may in fact be the devil. I don't know how that would work, or what that even means, but im just saying...i mean they dont even try and hide it really

Spin took that photo, apparently ever since the shoot spin has been plagued by a curse of sucking ass, and its weird because the knife had the foresight to give them the curse before they were a duo... spin sucks. But really, the opera is fucking crazy. Check this bitch. God, the swedes, they think they are so cool.

Also, I'm perfectly aware that it looks like Olof Dreijer is ejaculating out of his eyes. Perfectly aware...

Joy Orbison is a god

2010-01-03T22:47:00.000-08:00

Fuck, dubstep is cool. I've been sitting on ableton for the last hour trying to make funky beats, but nothing will ever phase the funkiness that is Joy Orbison. I don't get his name which is apparently something either humorous or cool beyond its face value. Oh well, I guess I'll listen to Wet Look for awhile. Damn you Joy..

Maybe I'll Rethink This Business

2009-12-31T15:28:00.000-08:00

Its around that time of the year.. well a few hours prior actually, to that fated night new years. Most make resolutions at this time, and in truth nothing has seemed resolute for the last couple months, so i suppose i will follow suit. Instead of subscribing to the fey cliche that is leaving nicotine forever, i will rather put in motion a few do-able resolutions. aside from the few compositional tasks im setting forth, which seem sort of daunting albeit personal, I'm gonna try to actually run a weekly blog. So, assuming anyone who isn't jack actually looks at this stinker
renovations are soon to come.
R O B O
take that asshole!
... damn
failed hyperlink and the realization i only hyperlink the word asshole

No one cares... They really don't

2009-11-12T15:26:00.002-08:00

My fb is a few seconds from getting deleted for a variety of reasons, but most importantly this movement is due to the heinous amount of ABSURDLY pretentious/obnoxious status' updates. Stop posting YouTube videos to show off your exquisite music tastes, or nonchalantly dismiss something public you adolescent hipster fucks. I can't handle it anymore. Now, as for music since that's the crux of this blog, suburban beverage bybreal estate is great. Done.

testing hyperlinks

2009-09-20T13:21:00.000-07:00

dont stress
asshole

Lo-Fi house, better in theory

2009-08-15T15:40:00.000-07:00

uhh, well i think theres an interesting idea behind this one, however in practice it kinda fell through. The bass-ish rhythm is in this sort of weird triplet-ish arpeggio, and then the actual beat is just in standard four.. i dunno it just didnt work how i planned it too. i think im going to try to re-record it because it could work, but check out the first draft if you will

b-b-breakinggg; Sleepy Choirs

SLEEPY CHOIRS

2009-08-15T02:26:00.000-07:00

my new recording moniker :] check out what ive been working on, its a rough demo

Rattlesnakes

Doing All The Things That Wouldn't Make Your Parents Proud; The Pains of Being Pure at Heart

2009-07-27T17:41:00.000-07:00

Its been awhile, very limited readership of mine, but please forgive my absence; I've been pretty busy. As summer treads along I find myself in pursuit of those headbopping songs to blare as I haul ass up the 85 to pick up the bass player for band rehearsal, and i'm not quite sure really but its been all about the cheesy romantics with me this passing summer season. Really, I really cannot think of song that embodies that maudlin/cliched/awesome teenage indie-pop romance nonsense than the verbose "Doing All The Things That Wouldn't Make Your Parents Proud" by the slumberland shoe-gaze/indie-pop badasses, The Pains of Being Pure at Heart. From its onset the chirpy guitar and keyboard riffs evoke classic Smiths and Belle and Sebastian, however the droning reverb conjure a more Black Tambourine-ish feel, either way its just grade-A indie pop for any occasion. The fey lyrics make you bite your lip with joy, "I don't want to talk till 3 AM/ I don't want to hear your favorite records turned up to ten" set to the bouncy rhythm sets your head in a pleasant sway as you lose yourself to the irresistible urge to dance like a jack-ass behind the wheel or in the passengers seat granted your position in the car. In no way will "Doing All The Things That Wouldn't Make Your Parents Proud" change the face of music, its short, sweet, and another song to put on a summer playlist to see this season too its close.

FM; by Junior Boys

2009-06-26T19:08:00.000-07:00

So let me start by saying that if I was asked to give this song a score on a scale of 1-10 I would give a 10 without a shadow of a doubt. I try to be overly critical of music, even music I really REALLY like-- fuck I'd give sovereignty an 8. FM is perfect, and this perfection is achieved through a ridiculous amount of scrutiny in composition and a knack for songwriting. Looking solely at composition the sheer complexity and thought put into the layout of the song grants FM mad kudos from this douche bag, me. The extended metaphor--the comparison of a waning relationship to an old FM radio-- is presented from the very start of the song and continued through precision in sound-scape. The song begins with a dry ringing noise, one that is just barely audible, and its pitch quietly undulates as jostling cracks and whirs, which serve as what seem to be an unsynchronized percussion section, stir the strangely vacant atmosphere as singer, greenspan, begins his characteristic cooing. a few beats in, the true melody of the song enters and arpeggiates as Greenspan presses towards a chorus, but we'll cover the actual words later, for now lets focus on what is conjured from a purely instrumental perspective. The coarse ringing intermittent with crackles and shocks serves to emulate the fiddling with the radio that Greenspan suggests lyrically. Looking at his words, when the melody plateaus in these quiet and disconnected sections--like the intro for instance-- Greenspan's words are somewhat distant from what it is he is seeking to express, 'lets leave tonight/ one last time/ before it gets to cold' conjuring nothing more than an image. However as the melody shifts into its more structured sentiment, Greenspan too progresses to the more central and powerful fears he is trying to relay. So, the song begins in the haze like a radio on an empty station, distant from whatever it is Greenspan is trying to tune into, and then as if tuning that broken FM radio the song becomes less and less fuzzy until culminating at the chorus. This dynamic continues throughout the whole song, and the effect is nothing short of brilliance.
On top of the compositional feat for which FM stands, it also evokes that archetypal maudlin romance through simplicity yet familiarity. The most powerful line, for me at least, is in the first verse. The arpeggiator kicks in and Greenspan whispers "and then one more year/ becomes one more year/ and you'll forget me soon I fear// Through the crooked roads/ and the static codes/ from that hotel radio." A lot of it comes through his delivery, but that genuine fear of being forgotten over the expanse of a long distance relationship is one that, if felt before, is conveyed so beautifully by Greenspan here.
Much in the fashion of "Junior Boys" there is no true crescendo, or any real point that you lay down as an "aha" moment. Its the piece in its entirety that brings that feeling, the whole song is relentlessly moving, hopelessly romantic, and fucking fantastic.

Sovereignty; by Japandroids

2009-06-22T09:25:00.000-07:00

I'm not sure what it is that Japandroids did right. I've been grappling with it for awhile now, but since their debut released like, what was that two months ago? I dunno, erroneous, I have been able to return to this song over and over again and find its lyrical simplicity and single hook so damn refreshing. Brian King (singer/guitar) capitalizes on that hallmark teenage angst reviewing he and some sweethearts scheme to run away and elope, and each stanza evokes that kind of hair-raising nostalgia. "forget the rushing/ Forget the weather/ we'll turn our christian names together/ we'll leave all our friends back home-- we'll leave tonight/ and we'll leave together/ and they'll say it ain't right/ and we'll say whatever/ we'll write all our friends back home" That misunderstood teenage romance always feels heartbreakingly relevant, evoking those lost loves and what not, yet simultaneously it pulses with the exuberance of youthful freedom and recklessness. The return to "leave/write all our friends back home" at the end of each line causes a little heartswell, It might just be me bust theres just something so universal about that ideal. The song quickly reaches its anthem-ic chorus in which King cries "it's raining/ in Vancouver but i don't give a fuck/ cause I'm in love with you tonight!" On paper it kind of looks silly i suppose, but its effortless in practice. The result is the kind of crescendo, that in a live setting, would lead to a pit of bouncing hipsters, which in my eyes spells success.

This song, along with Japandroids and "Post-Nothing", is deck as F. So... listen to it.

a word

2009-06-22T09:20:00.001-07:00

The purpose of this here web-page is to give a weekly review/chat of whatever song I like most at that time. Yes, the title is a Salinger reference. Now that thats out of the way, please feel free to tell me how much you disagree or agree with whatever it is I'm saying. enjoy

<3 Robo