it was all a blur
< author: david >
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\ Sufjan Stevens \ Illinois \ MP3 | Casmir Pulaski Day \ |
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\ To be shared with all. Teach your children now and give them hope. Never before has an artist caused me to reflect on all the ways I choose to live my life. This record continues its breath after you switch off the ingnition. I cannot leave my truck until the song has finished. I cannot. \ \ \ |
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\ Wolf Parade \ Apologies to the Queen Mary \ Listen | My Father’s Son \ |
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\ A friend of mine said this record was contrived. I think Kelly Clarkson is contrived and that ended up making a lot of people’s favorites. Eh, sometimes I get sick but then I get better.\’c2\’a0 Ode to my fiery heart. Wolf Parade sends me runnin’ hurdles in my colored underwear and I cannot deny that, contrivance or not. \ \ |
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\ Broken Social Scene \ self-titled \ MP3 | Ibi Dreams… \ |
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\ Sheesh! - This is a rooftop party, late night, season of the summer.\’c2\’a0 Let’s go save some refugees for I am a powerful dreamer in the day. Some call me Johnny but I prefer Braided. Grab hold child, for it can’t rain forever. This is the soundtrack for an evening of putting up new wallpaper in the dining room with my lover. One day I will be a lucky homeowner for my father is a mortgage banker and he will show me where to sign. \ \ |
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\ Skygreen Leopards \ Life & Love in Sparrows Meadow \ MP3 | Mother The Sun Makes Me Cry \ |
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\ You can sing along or make up your own words.\’c2\’a0 This is why psychedelic folk kicks ass.\’c2\’a0 I wish I had this record as a child to play after every time I was scolded by my mother. It is not that she was evil but with the Skygreen Leopards she could only be beautiful. This will heal your stinging sorrow and the wildflower honey ease your breath. Let us hop aboard the Iron Rooster and see where it takes us. My eyes are open. \ \ |
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\ Boredoms \ Seadrum/House of Sun \ Listen | Seadrum \ |
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\ AHhem! AHhem! When what you should have done my dear was wake from your deep slumber in the early morn and place the silvery disc into your music player pressing the |> button only to fall softly under soft soft sheets. Lying with restful eyes while thinking about the future of your day. Around minute ten (10) you will rise from your bed to bathe and the piano will wash your skin. Clean well behind the ears and between the toes and your skin will show such beautiful signs of life. A quarter (1/4) into the second movement reach for your robe and begin to brush and floss, your teeth are beautiful and will stay this way with excellent care. Finally you must get dressed and the anticipation of your first activity has allowed you no attention span for such primitive callings and you desperately wish to hit the [ ] button. Alas minute 43 is here as you inspect your dress. My day has begun I will learn new words and migrate with birds - who knows what today will bring. Time for my morning run with the Buffalos.\’c2\’a0 They are pretty rough but I fight back.\’c2\’a0 Pound for pound.\’c2\’a0 I enjoy the underwater segments the best! \ \ |
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\ Sam Prekop \ Who’s Your New Professor \ Video | Something \ |
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\ Late nights with southern breezes.\’c2\’a0 I just screened in the porch to keep out the mosquitos.\’c2\’a0 My children tell me stories of their day while I fix the family radio. They do not know this but the radio is fine. I could listen to them all evening, yeah! \ \ |
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\ Devendra Banhart \ Cripple Crow \ Video | I Heard Somebody Say \ |
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\ I want to ride a beach cruiser through the Andes mountains sippin on Orange soda and maybe stop every 30 mins to catalog the natural wonders I see. Is this not to be expected? What is the largest honeybee you have ever laid eyes upon? The silver sicles will lead you to the grandest of them all but only in the early morning. \ \ |
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\ Sigur Ros \ Takk \ Video | Glosoli \ |
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\ Everything you do from here on out will be more important.\’c2\’a0 This is the source of value and meaning.\’c2\’a0 Consider the passion you felt when you saw Chariots of Fire for the first time. If you have not seen it maybe consider the first time you went to the bathroom by yourself. Monumental. The world is now different. \ \ |
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\ Animal Collective \ Feels \ Video | Grass \ |
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\ When I was little I wished there was a hatch in my floor under my bed that opened to a slide which was a 100 ft long going under the crust of the earth. I would slide down into a dark candle lit pit shaped like a sphere with a flat floor. There would be an old stove with hot chocolate waiting (I’m serious) and it was lined with books. I read a lot when I was a kid but stopped in my teens. My mother was the type to go to the library and learn about the rule of how many books you can check out in one category. Our volvo stationwagon was all books. I would also slide down there and practice kung-fu with this old toad type thing who was my sensei. I don’t know why but hey when you are 8 you will imagine all types of shit. Animal Collective takes me back there. Wild and imaginative. \ \ |
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\ Marth Wainwright \ self-titled \ Video | When The Day Is Short \ |
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\ Finally some good country. In a genre that has truly had some recent battles, a beautiful sound emerges. It is so good that you probably won’t even agree that it is country. But it’s country, for there’s a tear in my beer. \ \ |
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Honorable Mentions:
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Books - Lost and Safe [Tomlab]
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very impressive sampling, layering, and mixing - audible adventure.
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Okkervil River - Black Sheep Boy plus the Appendices EP [Jagjaguwar]
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Great songwriting - taught me more than 10 new words.
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Blood On The Wall - self titled [Social Registry]
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Bad ass. Dark and thrashy but for everyone - even the pretty ones.
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Edan - Beauty and The Beat [Lewis Ent]
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Best hip hop record of the year and should have been in my top ten but I stuck with the records I listened to the most. The flow is from the 80s and not to mention the psychedelia influences. Shed some light.
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Top Ten Live Shows:
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(in no particular order)
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Sufjan Stevens | click here for review
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Broken Social Scene | click here for review
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Saxon Shore
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Grizzly Bear | click here for review
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Dead Meadow
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Tarantula
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The Double | click here for review
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Benzos
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Great White Jenkins
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American Minor
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*I saw Sam Prekop do 4 songs with Archer Prewitt in the studio at WTJU Charlottesville - it touched what I believe is my soul.
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Top Ten EPs:
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(in no particular order)
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Foreign Born - In The Remote Woods [Startime]
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Black Angels - Self-Titled [Light In The Attic]
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Voxtrot - Raised By Wolves [Cult Hero]
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Skygreen Leopards - Jehovah Surrender [Jagjaguwar]
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Early Man - Self-Titled [Monitor]
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Prefuse 73 - Reads The Books [Warp]
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Secret Machines - Road Leads Where It’s Lead [Reprise]
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Antony & The Johnsons - You Are My Sister [Secretly Canadian]
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Animal Collective - Prospect Hummer [Fat Cat]
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Diamond Nights - Once We Were Diamonds [Kemado]
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Top Ten Songs:
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-full album was not strong enough to make it on my top ten but these songs were strong enough to make it on a number of mix cds.
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(again, in no particular order)
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Spinto Band “Oh Mandy” - Nice and Nicely Done
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The National “Abel” - Alligator
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Beck “Go It Alone” - Guero
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Black Mountain “Dont Run Our Hearts Around” - Black Mountain
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Bloc Party “Banquet (Phones Edit)” - Silent Alarm Remixed
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MIA “Sunshowers” - Arular
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M. Ward “Hi Fi” - Transistor Radio
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Airborn Audio “Best Shit In The World” - Good Fortune
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Spoon “Turn My Camera On” - Fiction
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Yesterday’s New Quintet/Sound Directions “The Horse” - Funky Side of Life