en http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.0/uk/ Thu, 1 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000 Thu, 1 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000 60 http://www.audioscrobbler.net/data/webservices http://www.last.fm/user/NormalInk/journal The Last.fm journal for NormalInk. Last.fm journals are a place to talk about all things music. http://www.last.fm/user/NormalInk/journal/2007/04/21/2wvm_nuts Sat, 21 Apr 2007 08:33:32 +0000 http://www.last.fm/user/NormalInk/journal/2007/04/21/2wvm_nuts My last.fm profile is really skewed towards chill music because I mostly use my computer to listen to music in the evening and when I'm going to sleep. I look through my lists and see sort of a hipster douchebag who's too cool to have any fun. During the day I listen to all sorts of more boisterous stuff on CD in my car. It bugs me…

…because of course the opinion a couple of total strangers form of me based solely upon approximate musical tastes matters so much, somehow.]]> http://www.last.fm/user/NormalInk/journal/2006/06/13/2wvl_the_new_cool_kids%27_survey Tue, 13 Jun 2006 07:58:03 +0000 http://www.last.fm/user/NormalInk/journal/2006/06/13/2wvl_the_new_cool_kids%27_survey Why the hell not? Everybody's doing it… PS: I skipped a bunch of songs that were instrumentals or in other languages and unintelligible.

Step 1: Open up whatever MP3 program you use and add every song in your collection.
Step 2: Put it on random.
Step 3: Post the first line from the first 20 songs that play, no matter how embarassing.
Step 4: Post and let everyone guess what song and artist the lines come from.
Step 5: Bold the songs that someone guesses correctly.
Step 6: Looking them up on Google or any other search engine is CHEATING!

1. I'm down on the water. I don't know so I don't bother
2. It's jazzy hip-hop hanging in my head heavy
3. She keeps her Moet et Chandon in her pretty cabinet (Killer Queen)
4. I've been bitten by the bug and I am coming down with oh (Fever)
5. Once in the backyard she was once like me (A Good Man Is Hard to Find)
6. At the dark end of the street that is where we always meet (The Dark End Of The Street)
7. I know a girl who thinks of ghosts (She Don't Use Jelly)
8. I'll ride your diamond ride it rough
9. I waited patiently for the Lord ("40")
10. Check it out. Check it out girl. Check it out. Bass
11. What mood is that you wear this time?
12. Please, give me a second grace (Fly)
13. I will never let you down (Dragonfly)
14. Everybody's here. Your puke stinks like me
15. Yes and no are just distinguished by distinction
16. So wide you can't get around it. So low you can't get under it
17. Sittin' here by myself waitin' a long time
18. It starts when you wake up
19. I wish you wouldn't say that (I Wish You Wouldn't Say That)
20. I am gross and perverted. I'm obsessed and deranged (I'm the Slime)

a-ha
Béla Fleck and the Flecktones
Books
The Commitments
Nick Drake
Doseone
Dub Narcotic Sound System Meets The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion
Flaming Lips
Funkadelic
Jimmie's Chicken Shack
Live
Kylie Minogue
Modest Mouse
N*E*R*D
Queen
The Roots
Sufjan Stevens
Talking Heads
U2
Frank Zappa]]> http://www.last.fm/user/NormalInk/journal/2006/04/26/2wvk_reverse-neighbors Wed, 26 Apr 2006 07:30:58 +0000 http://www.last.fm/user/NormalInk/journal/2006/04/26/2wvk_reverse-neighbors Whose neighbor am I?

If you see this message, and I'm one of your neighbors, please let me know. None of my neighbors have me as a neighbor, and I'm curious. I wonder how exactly the neighbor factor is calculated…]]> http://www.last.fm/user/NormalInk/journal/2006/03/14/2wvj_music_to_melt_your_soul Tue, 14 Mar 2006 09:11:39 +0000 http://www.last.fm/user/NormalInk/journal/2006/03/14/2wvj_music_to_melt_your_soul I've been in the mood to just zone out and just ride the music lately, so here are some selections that reflect that.


I've been listening to Alias & Ehren's Lillian at least once every couple days since I got it in December, and amazingly, it only gets better every time. It is one of the many projects of Alias, abstract hip-hop producer extraordinaire, and this time he's teamed up with his multi-instrumentalist brother Ehren for a tribute to their recently deceased grandmother, Lillian. The album comes off as more of a beautiful and subdued celebration of hazy memories past than a lament, though there is a mournful feel to it at times. Here, Alias continues his move away from the traditional hip-hop sound toward dreamy, fuzzy beats, and Ehren lends a taste of wild jazz, emerging through the all-enveloping static to demand your attention in the nicest way possible. Imagine a sax player off in the distance playing a haunting melody for no one but himself, so obscured by dark heavy rain that you can only make out the slightest outline of his hunched back, and you've got some idea of what this album's like.

Highlights: Back And Forth, Lillian, Netting Applause


I got Soweto Kinch's Converstations With the Unseen (I know it's misspelled, but that's how it appears on the site, and I'm not sure how to fix it) from my former boss at Reed some time last school year. He in turn had gotten it from a friend, and didn't really know anything about it (turns out it was a mercury music prize nominee in 2003). I previewed it, thought it sounded interesting, and promptly forgot about it. Every once in a while since then, I've noticed it, but not until about a week ago did I give it a proper listen. I'm kicking myself, and hard at that. This is the best jazz I've hear since Miles Davis' Kind of Blue and it's sits prettily more or less at the other end of the jazz spectrum. For the most part, Conversations is every bit as hot as Kind of Blue is cool. Add to that the fact that Mr. Kinch also deigns to grace us with his considerably ill flow a number of times on the album, and you've got a winning combination. I had my friend rocking out on the toilet, this shit's so infective.

Highlights: well, really the whole thing, but Doxology really gets you going


Andrew Bird is one of the best (if not the best) songwriters around today. His melodies are totally unpredictable, yet they seem immediately familiar once you hear them. Nowhere is this clearer than on his latest offering, Andrew Bird and the Mysterious Production of Eggs, but shortly before that came the EP Weather Systems. While not as good as Mysterious, Weather Systems is a far more serene and often more interesting listen. You may be familiar with some of Bird's earlier work as the violinist in the Squirrel Nut Zippers, and this EP showcases his brilliant playing wonderfully. Ranging from catchy pop to damn near classical, all his songs are undeniably Bird. In the course of the album, we are also treated to another of his considerable talents: whistling. He is an impeccable whistler, hitting notes with more precision than most people can manage singing. This is both a fantastic introduction to the genius and fun that is Andrew Bird and a must for any Bird fan's interested in the development of the sound of The Mysterious Production of Eggs.

Highlights: First Song, Action Adventure, Weather Systems


If you're looking for something fascinatingly beautiful and strange, Paavoharju is for you. With equal parts lush lo-fi strings, delicately soaring vocals, and 8-bit game sounds, the Finnish group's album Yhä hämärää is one of the most gorgeous things I have heard in months. It opens with grating, chunky static trailing off and returning lazily, and from this slowly emerges a distant melody, finally erupting into the shimmering guitar, vocals, and electronics of the second track, and it doesn't let up until the final track. Sounding sometimes like driving folk, sometimes like ethereal piano-pop, and other times like the soundtrack to Metroid smothered in dirt and glitter, this album is one wild ride.

Highlights: Valo tihkuu kaiken läpi, Kuu lohduttaa huolestuneita, Ilmaa virtaa

PS: I have no idea what any of that means. Anyone know Finnish?


Enjoy this, and if any of these tickle your fancy, just ask and you shall receive.]]> http://www.last.fm/user/NormalInk/journal/2006/02/01/2wvi_my_musical_formulae_could_use_some_work,_but_whatever Wed, 1 Feb 2006 10:19:38 +0000 http://www.last.fm/user/NormalInk/journal/2006/02/01/2wvi_my_musical_formulae_could_use_some_work,_but_whatever Good lord.


I downloaded Tortoise and Bonnie Prince Billy's The Brave and the Bold around a month ago and was originally unimpressed. I was a moron. That, and I was listening to it using software that makes all music sound more or less like crap. Looks like this might be one to buy. It's a collaboration between two indie heroes on a number of covers of varying popularity. I highly recommend this to anyone as, aside from the first track, it's all very accessible (read: easy on the ears) yet the reinterpretations of these songs are fascinating. If you didn't know beforehand, you would have no idea it was a cover album.

Highlights: The Calvary Cross (originally by Richard Thompson), Pancho (originally by Don Williams)


To a lesser degree, another album I downloaded around the same time but have not appreciated until now is Antony and the Johnsons' I Am a Bird Now. At first I couldn't get over Antony's very distinct falsetto, much less understand what all the hype was about. Now that I've gotten over the initial shock of a male vocalist who has the timber of Nina Simone after a few drinks and the emotional quality of Conor Oberst on a bad day, I can appreciate Antony and the Johnson's for what it is: transsexually-charged and almost intimidatingly self-assured mature piano pop. You know what? Fuck that gender-identification bull. It's just good. Damn good. I'm still not sure what all the hype is about, but we are talking the indie music press, where everyone gets to be popular music's saviour, at least until next Tuesday.

Highlights: My Lady Story, For Today I Am a Boy


Another recent favorite is Jürgen de Blonde's Hidden Rabbit, which is one of the most sonically anchored acts that I've heard from tomlab. Don't get me wrong, Tomlab can throw most labels on their asses any day of the week, but a little punchy bass is nice here and there. Think Aphex Twin * (Múm + The Shins + Tortoise) / 3, sorta. This isn't from the past year, like the other two albums above, but I feel it's still worth a mention.

Highlights: Surlepont, Simple Observations of Basic Facts, Shady Brain (For Britney Spears)]]> http://www.last.fm/user/NormalInk/journal/2005/12/22/2wvh_my_top_20_of_2005 Thu, 22 Dec 2005 23:52:00 +0000 http://www.last.fm/user/NormalInk/journal/2005/12/22/2wvh_my_top_20_of_2005 So yeah. Bandwagon time! (no pun intended)

20. Takk
19. The Sunset Tree
18. Arular
17. La Foret
16. A Healthy Distrust
15. Alias & Ehren-Lillian
14. Damian Marley-Welcome to Jamrock
13. Demon Days
12. Blinking Lights and Other Revelations (disc 1)/Blinking Lights and Other Revelations (disc 2)
11. Be
While Common's lyrics are decent, he's not really breaking any ground. Where this album really shines is in the marriage of Common's seasoned flow and Kanye's fantastic beats. Rarely have I heard an album opener as ear-grabbing as Be (Intro).
10. Extraordinary Machine
Took them fuckin' long enough. I still can't decide whether I prefer the Jon Brion or the Mike Elizondo version. Regardless, this is her most intersting and mature album yet.
9. The Milk of Human Kindness
Man, I want Dan Snaith and Cake to co-produce the next Gorillaz album. This album has some of the best pop hooks I've ever heard. This would rocket up my list if it had some more vocals to anchor it.
8. Illinois
Sufjan Stevens makes some of the most beautiful and lush music I have ever heard, and I'm tempted to say that this one tops at least what of his I've heard. This is easily one of the most enjoyable and catchy records I've ever heard.
7. Picaresque
God, I love The Decemberists! The stories they weave are fantastic little slices of a life we've never known yet still seems intimately familiar. Not to mention the music. Never have I enjoyed the accordion so much. This is one of the few groups that make immediately accessible yet unique music.
6. Lost and Safe
On their latest album, The Books take what they've learned from their first two albums and apply it to a more standard pop song structure. While not as surprising as their earlier work, we still have the mind-boggling samples and the intense beauty. I am very glad they've taken this step, as I felt there wasn't much more they could have done in their previous format, and this, being a more nebulous stylistic core, now allows them a little more artistic freedom.
5. Late Registration
One of the very few artists around deserving of even most of the hype surrounding them. No, he's not doing anything that hasn't been done before, but it's just so good! The Kanye West - Jon Brion connection yields some incredible results. This album is danceable, accessible, artistic, fun, heartfelt, and beautiful. Gotta love Diamonds from Sierra Leone (Remix) (feat. Jay-Z) blasting on a massive stereo system.
4. 13 & God
This collaboration between The Notwist and Themselves just blows me away. Gorgeous, lush, catchy pop and hip-hop all in one easy-to-digest package. The lyrics are nothing to sneeze at either.
3. Andrew Bird and the Mysterious Production of Eggs
HOLY CRAP! I loved the Squirrel Nut Zippers, but this! This is even more brilliant. I could listen to this album a thousand times and still find new things to love. There are so many styles on this album, and he places his stamp firmly and deftly on all of them.
2. Mugimama - Is This Monkeymusic
Well, to be perfectly honest, I like this album for the same reasons as Andrew Bird's album, minus the Squirrel Nut Zippers bit. This album, however, is even more eclectic, more stylized, and more beautiful. 2 Birds is possibly the most beautiful thing I have ever heard.
1. Buck 65 - Secret House Against the World
Buck 65's latest offering stunned me. I'm serious. The first time I listened to it, I could not believe what I was hearing. Never. NEVER have I heard such growth in an artist. This beats Radiohead discovering computers. This beats Beck finding disco. This beats The White Stripes adding a third instrument (OK, that one was mean). This is one of underground hip-hop's golden boys delving into country and Paris, and creating something incredible. This was, for me, far and away the best album of the year. It opens with a barreling Johnny Cash impersonation backed by impeccable production. This is followed by a rousing Tom Waits-esque bar piano number with beautiful, swirling strings. We move into hard rock, confessional singer-songwriter fare, and even some straight-up massively chill beats. And throughout it ALL, we never once lose Mr. Richard Terfry's unique stamp. What I really love about this is that in hindsight we've seen this coming for years with his last few albums, but still, nobody expected anything like this. He's been peering over the edge of a great chasm, and while his previous album was his running start, this album is a headlong leap into uncharted territory.

PS: Why the fuck are so many of these albums not on the site??]]>