VAGUE SPACE

New Music Thursday

Here's a new track from Sufjan Stevens, apparently a B-side from his 2004 Seven Swans release that is being re-released in a vinyl-only form with an additional 7" that includes this song from the Sounds Familyre label.  It all sounds very complicated to me, especially since I have no way to play vinyl, but if it gives us a chance at new Sufjan, I guess we'll have to take it.

• Here's the new track...
  
  • Download Sufjan Stevens - "Waste of What Your Kids Won't Have".mp3
• And here's some other vintage Seven Swans material, for those of us who fell in love with Sufjan in his pre-Illinois days.
  • Download Sufjan Stevens - "All the Trees of the Field Will Clap Their Hands".mp3
  • Download Sufjan Stevens - "He Woke Me Up Again".mp3

And here's some new Okkervil River  -- the first track off his forthcoming album, due in August, which, now that I've listened to all of Boxer and Plague Park, is also my most anticipated new album.  I actually posted a live version of this track a couple months ago and this version is pretty faithful.  And as always for Will it seems, absolutely brilliant.

• Here's the new track
  • Download Okkervil River - "Our Life is Not a Movie or Maybe".mp3
• And here's a couple tracks from the 2003 album, Down the River of Broken Dreams, which I somehow neglected between the brilliance of Sheff's debut (featuring the incomparable "Red" and "Westfall") and of course, 2005's absolutely astounding Black Sheep Boy and the follow-up Appendix.  But his middle album is just about as great.  Pick up a copy today.
  • Download Okkervil River - "Dead Faces".mp3
  • Download Okkervil River - "Song About a Star".mp3

• And finally, a rare track off a Moscow, PA label called Summersteps' 2nd tribute album to avant/folk-blues singer Jandek, featuring a bunch of covers of his songs by artists you might have heard of, including Jeff Tweedy (Wilco), The Mountain Goats, Eric Gaffney (Sebadoh), and Okkervil River.  The album is from 2005, and the song actually starts very slow and is seemingly not very good, but it picks up halfway through and ends with Sheff's trademark desperate flourish.
  
  • Download Okkervil River - "Your Other Man".mp3

Season in Review

What a roller-coaster television season, one marked mostly by disappointment, but with a few bright pleasures, including a single brilliant shining example of quality network television comedy.  There was little else.  I've stopped watching TV as much in recent years, which you've probably noticed in my lack of blogging about the pleasures of television, and it is admittedly quite freeing.  I don't miss having shows to watch, for it seems as if (even with DVR) you become beholden to the shows as more than mere entertaining distractions from daily obsessions.  Several times this season, even with my limited schedule of must-watch programs, I've stared at a list with three or four O.C.s and a couple Losts and felt more resigned than anything at my need to watch them.  The truth is, it's better not to get involved, to spend my time socializing or reading or writing or listening to music -- heck, almost anything is better than being forced to watch another confusing episode of Lost... and that's one of my favorite shows.  And I've found I can only take my television in small bites for the most part.  The Daily Show and The Colbert Report - yes, of course, but they only take about 15 minutes each and then some Food Network, some baseball, maybe a glimpse of Seinfeld, and that's basically my viewing day.  I have other things to do.  The point is, when I was younger, for better or worse, I could easily make a list of some top 20 or 30 programs in a season that I've at least watched on a semi-regular basis.  Most of those were sitcoms, back when sitcoms were still programmed, but still, I had serious trouble coming up with 10 shows to make this season's list.  And I don't regret it.  Looking at the state of the top 10 in fact, I'm kind of glad that at least three of the programs will not be returning next season.  I just don't have the time anymore.

Contrast and Compare

Contrast and Compare the following...

Apistat Commander

• Download Sunset Rubdown - "Apistat Commander".mp3
• Download Parts and Labor - "Apistat Commander".mp3
• Or the original by Xiu Xiu... Download Xiu Xiu - "Apistat Commander".mp3

(by the way, one of those versions is my favorite song of 2007 to date)

• Buy Xiu Xiu's Remixed & Covered

Salvador Sanchez

• Download Sun Kil Moon - "Salvadore Sanchez".mp3
• Download Sun Kil Moon - "Pancho Villa".mp3

(yes, they are the same song by the same singer with the same lyrics, and they sound completely different somehow.  I think I like "Pancho Villa" better, but it's close.  Oh, and for the history/sports buffs out there, you'll know that "Salvador Sanchez" was a Mexican featherweight boxing champion who died in a car crash in 1982 when he was 23, while "Pancho Villa" was the nom de guerre of Filipino flyweight champion Francisco Guilledo, who also died prematurely at age 23 in 1925 due to complications from a tooth infection.)

• Download Mark Kozelak - "Salvadore Sanchez (live)".mp3
• Buy Sun Kil Moon's reissued Ghosts of the Great Highway

Born on a Train

• Download Arcade Fire - "Born on a Train (Magnetic Fields cover)".mp3
• Download Magnetic Fields - "Born on a Train".mp3

For the Captain

• Download Okkervil River - "For the Captain".mp3
• Download Okkervil River - "Another Radio Song".mp3

(These are sort of the same song, just completely different versions, off different albums.  Both are good, although you'll recognize "Another Radio Song" as one of my top 3 favorite songs of 2006)

• Buy Okkervil River - "Black Sheep Boy" - The Complete Edition (with 20 tracks@!)

Much, much more after the jump (I went a little crazy with the downloads)...

Happy Memorial Day

This week has reminded me why I hated the Democratic Party for so many years.  Weak-willed capitulation of their supposedly core values and the values of those of us who elected them into power this fall by giving in 100% to President Bush's childish refusal to compromise over any issue regarding the Iraq War by passing the supplemental spending bill that does nothing to bring the troops home.  So as you sit down to your picnic and BBQ, please remember the brave men and women who continue to needlessly die and get wounded by officiating a civil war in a foreign country that never did anything to attack us.  And for a more informed look at this issue than I can provide, please take a listen to the great Keith Olbermann's Special Report from last Wednesday.  Here's an excerpt.

You, the men and women elected with the simplest of directions—Stop The War—have traded your strength, your bargaining position, and the uniform support of those who elected you... for a handful of magic beans.

You may trot out every political cliché from the soft-soap, inside-the-beltway dictionary of boilerplate sound bites, about how this is the "beginning of the end" of Mr. Bush’s "carte blanche" in Iraq, about how this is a "first step."

Well, Senator Reid, the only end at its beginning... is our collective hope that you and your colleagues would do what is right, what is essential, what you were each elected and re-elected to do.

Because this "first step"... is a step right off a cliff.

Lost Season 3 Finale

I don't have much to say about it, because I'm really not sure what the fuck happened at the end, but I guess it was enjoyable.  Charlie died, which I was looking forward to, but because they redeemed him in the past couple episodes, I actually was mildly upset to see the little Hobbit go.  He was the only "good guy" to meet his fate, though, as the Losties basically kicked the Others' asses in this episode and wiped out a whole slew of them, including Big Tom, who I'm going to miss, and a bunch of random baddies that I won't.  Also, the two chicks in the Looking Glass station don't survive (including the one who played "Laura" - the girl that Steve Sanders has a brief one-night-stand with in college and later claims he date-raped her on a "very special" episode of Beverly Hills 90210).  And Mikhail takes a harpoon to the back, delivered by Desmond, and somehow survives it.  He seems unable to ever die, much like Locke, who comes back from the dead with visions of Walt (or was it the actual Walt?) and then somehow finds the Losties at the radio tower and shoots Naomi in the back just as she's about to signal their way off the Island.  Then Jack grabs the satellite phone and, despite Locke threatening to shoot him and Ben's warnings about the nefariousness of Naomi's crew (possibly confirmed by Penny telling Charlie that she doesn't know who Naomi is right before Charlie dies), Jack signals their boat and whoever picks up seems all too eager to come "rescue" them.  Then of course, we flash forward to the flash-forward that we've been watching the whole episode (that we all thought was another lame flashback), this time with a drug-addled Jack pleading with Kate to go back to the Island and Kate (looking clean and refreshed) refusing.  So yeah, quite a lot happened. 

No Children

I stumbled across this excellent live version of The Mountain Goats' classic "No Children", from their Tallahassee album, in which the audience at the show sings the entire song while the band plays.  It's pretty awesome, especially considerably the totally sadistic but completely enjoyable lyrics of the song.  Beautifully demented.  Enjoy...

• I hope that our few remaining friends
  Give up on trying to save us
  I hope we come up with a failsafe plot
  To piss off the dumb few that forgave us
  I hope the fences we mended
  Fall down beneath their own weight
  And I hope we hang on past the last exit
  I hope it's already too late
  And I hope the junkyard a few blocks from here
  Someday burns down
  And I hope the rising black smoke carries me far away
  And I never come back to this town
  Again in my life
  I hope I lie
  And tell everyone you were a good wife
  And I hope you die
  I hope we both die
  
  I hope I cut myself shaving tomorrow
  I hope it bleeds all day long
  Our friends say it's darkest before the sun rises
  We're pretty sure they're all wrong
  I hope it stays dark forever
  I hope the worst isn't over
  And I hope you blink before I do
  Yeah I hope I never get sober
  And I hope when you think of me years down the line
  You can't find one good thing to say
  And I'd hope that if I found the strength to walk out
  You'd stay the hell out of my way
  I am drowning
  There is no sign of land
  You are coming down with me
  Hand in unlovable hand
  And I hope you die
  I hope we both die

• Download The Mountain Goats - "No Children".mp3
• Download The Mountain Goats - "No Children (live)".mp3

You Are What You Grow

We are a fat nation.  And if you've ever been to the Wal-Mart in your local suburban town (a place for "thrifty" shoppers), you might notice something else.  The poorest among us are the heftiest.  How is that the poor are consuming more calories than are healthy while suffering with low levels of income for food purchase?  Doesn't make a whole lot of sense, does it?  Well, this great article from The New York Times magazine enlightens things.  For the last 25 years, our governmental regulations in the form of the Farm Bills, have helped subsidize certain farm products - namely corn and soy - that are used to make, mostly, sugar and fat for processed foods, which in turn makes these products much cheaper on the supermarket shelves than fresh fruits and vegetables that are more nutritious.  These products are also, of course, tastier, and have big corporate advertising budgets behind them.  The carrots and apples and bananas?  Not so much.  They would just extend our lives.  And we're not in the business of extending the lives of our citizens.  At least not the poorest ones.

From 1985 to 2000, the article states, the real price of fruits and vegetables has risen 40%.  For soft drinks (which are basically liquid corn - that's what the #2 ingredient on every Coke, Pepsi, Sprite, or Mountain Dew bottle is -- "high fructose corn syrup," behind only water), the real price has dropped 23%.  Corn is heavily subsidized (along with soybeans, wheat, cotton, and rice) to the tune of $25 billion a year.  By comparison, the Farm Bill does almost nothing to support farmers growing fresh produce.  Here's an excerpt from the article by Michael Pollan, author of The Omnivore's Dilemma:

A public-health researcher from Mars might legitimately wonder why a nation faced with what its surgeon general has called “an epidemic” of obesity would at the same time be in the business of subsidizing the production of high-fructose corn syrup. But such is the perversity of the farm bill: the nation’s agricultural policies operate at cross-purposes with its public-health objectives. And the subsidies are only part of the problem. The farm bill helps determine what sort of food your children will have for lunch in school tomorrow. The school-lunch program began at a time when the public-health problem of America’s children was undernourishment, so feeding surplus agricultural commodities to kids seemed like a win-win strategy. Today the problem is over nutrition, but a school lunch lady trying to prepare healthful fresh food is apt to get dinged by U.S.D.A. inspectors for failing to serve enough calories; if she dishes up a lunch that includes chicken nuggets and Tater Tots, however, the inspector smiles and the reimbursements flow. The farm bill essentially treats our children as a human disposal for all the unhealthful calories that the farm bill has encouraged American farmers to overproduce.

New Music Tuesday

New album from The National is released today.  Buy Boxer here if you don't already have it, and if so, go get it.  It's absolutely wonderful.  More low-key than some of the highlights from Alligator (there's no "Mr. November" here), but I think an actually more complete and interesting record than their great 2005 release.

• Download The National - "Slow Show".mp3

New album from The Handsome Furs is also released today.  I've blogged about the new side project from Wolf Parade's Dan Boeckner here and here.  But words cannot describe just how good Plague Park is.  Go buy a copy today.

• Download Handsome Furs - "Cannot Get Started".mp3

I wasn't all that into Deerhunter's second full-length release Cryptograms from earlier this year, but their recently released follow up EP Flourescent Grey has a couple excellent songs on it, including this one below.

• Download Deerhunter - "Flourescent Grey".mp3

I'm also not all that into many of the Polyphonic Spree's content (too '60s, too hippie for my tastes), but this song off their forthcoming release The Fragile Army is pretty damn catchy and good.

• Download The Polyphonic Spree - "Light to Follow".mp3

And finally, on Emusic - the absolute best pay-for-music site around (sorry, iTunes), where you get 40 tracks for $10 a month and you can start with 50 FREE!! (no strings attached at all) - I found the following two-track release from The Microphones, the first under the Microphones moniker since 2003.  The two songs are "Don't Smoke" and "Get off the Internet" and I have no idea when they were recorded, but the release date is listed as March 2007.  Here's one of the two tracks.  Go to Emusic for the other one.

• Download The Microphones - "Don't Smoke".mp3

Season 3 Finale

Ok, I'll admit it.  I applauded.  I absolutely smiled and applauded when Jim snuck his head into the conference room in the middle of Pam's talking head with the camera and asked if she was free for dinner.  She said yes, he said "Ok then, it's a date" and she started to tear up with happiness.  I did not cry, but I did applaud, alone in my living room at just past eleven after a doubleheader defeat in the softball game and in the midst of a week-long illness.  Pathetic?  Perhaps.  But way to go, Jim.  And my love for Pam knows no bounds at this point.  What an amazing ending to Season 3. 

And then of course, after the commercials, another bombshell drops, this one more on the hilarious side, as Ryan finds out that he's the one getting the job at corporate.

• Kelly: Who was that?
  Ryan: Nobody.   You and I are done.
  Kelly: What?!

NOTE: Here's the click to watch at NBC.com link (clicking on the picture will not take you there - I'm about as good with HTML as Creed).

Jerry Falwell is Dead

Christopher Hitchens, author of God is not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything, appeared on several television programs this week to talk about Jerry Falwell's death at the age of 73, but his best performance was on the Fox News program Hannity & Colmes, where complete idiot demagogue Sean Hannity attempts in vain to shame Mr. Hitchens for expressing his delight at the death of Mr. Falwell.  Now, I can't say that I'm a big fan of Mr. Hitchens, since he was a strong proponent of the Iraqi war (and maybe still is), but on religious issues and the ridiculously outsized role of religion in America (and in Iraq of course), I couldn't agree more.  I just completed his book and it was absolutely brilliant, describing the historical and modern-day frauds of religious devotion and praising literature and science instead of supernatural fictitions, the exact opposite of what occurs in American society today.

Mr. Falwell was, according to Hitchens in this interview, "a vulgar fraud and crook" and the peity that many media outlets reserved for his death was, in Mr. Hitchens' opinion and my own, completely undeserved.  It is so very refreshing to hear someone (even a British man) speak out on national television against such hypocrisy.  And the best part of the interview is when superstitious dolt Hannity tries to defend Falwell for all his good charitable work (almost all of which seems to concern him giving scholarships to his brain-washing institution, money that was given to him through his "ministry") and dismisses Hitchens' complaints by saying Falwell "may have mispoke once or twice".  After the break, I have a list of Mr. Falwell's statements.  Once or twice is not exactly the order of magnitude that anyone with a IQ over 80 might conclude (hence, why Hannity quoted it).

Enjoy.