Undress Me Robot » music

Bon Transmissions

Spencer Sugarman — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 22:46:16 +0000

Bon Iver recently spent some time at the MySpace studios, recording a beautiful four-song session and an interview. Have a listen over at MySpace Transmissions or download the four-song EP for free. I’ve said it before, but even more here is a soft and delicate sound that fills the room with comfortable darkness. That’s just Bon Iver; laying in the grass as the sky fills with dark oranges and reds until everything goes black and it’s just you and the crickets.

naked mix #12 (9/07/08)

Spencer Sugarman — Sun, 07 Sep 2008 06:35:28 +0000

Photo via ffffound.com

This mix is a seven-hour road trip, conveniently depicted by seven songs traveling from afternoon sunshine to nighttime calm. Frankie Lymon and The Teenagers begin the trip with a small bit of upbeat oldies; a two-minutes-and-forty-four-seconds injection of smiles and light. Hour two rolls in, and with it comes Ben Sollee, loose and airy and easygoing. Home is still close behind, and every now and then a voice from the passenger seat still sings along. Yes, the second hour strolls by with optimism and brightness, and it isn’t until the third hour that the conversation slowly peters out, replaced by a growing landscape. John Vanderslice understands this. He understands there comes a point where you realize the situation you’ve entered. But maybe We/Or/Me understands better, because that realization doesn’t mean doom. It just means four hours have passed by, and the landscape’s had time to bloom into open fields and rows of trees that overpower the asphalt and traffic lines. And staring out the window in silence isn’t bad. And it isn’t bad. And it fills that whole hour, and pushes into the fifth. But as the sixth hour looms over the horizon, the bright lights and big cities come back into your mind, and with Chad VanGaalen alongside you can almost hear the train rumbling past on the opposite track. That is, until the sun goes down, and with it the windows, letting the cool breeze blow in to wake you up. Optimism wrapped in a sweet, uplifting chill. Optimism wrapped in I laugh more often now, I cry more often now, I more free and the other day, this new friend of mine said something to me (“just because something starts differently doesn’t mean it’s worth less”), and just as to prove how right he was, then you came. Six hours of driving, hard trekking it across hard roads, and you are more alive now than you ever were then.

The last hour? All Beulah, all giddiness.

Frankie Lymon and The Teenagers – Little Bitty Pretty One
Ben Sollee – A Change is Gonna Come
John Vanderslice – White Dove
We/Or/Me – Tell Sarah
Chad VanGaalen – Rabid Bits of Time
Peter Bjorn and John – Objects of My Affection
Beulah – S.O.S.

Stream from imeem:

Waiting for the Beat to Kick In

Spencer Sugarman — Sat, 16 Aug 2008 23:09:01 +0000

dan le sac Vs Scroobius Pip – Waiting for the Beat to Kick In (naked edit)

At seven minutes long, with nothing but spoken word and some droning loops, “Waiting for the Beat to Kick In” is going to strike many as pretty terrible. Boring. Except this is Scroobius Pip on the mic and dan le sac on the beats, and this isn’t a song: this is a story. Scroobius Pip drags you along as he falls through the rabbit hole, and it isn’t until the end, when you start to see the ground rushing faster and faster to meet you, that you even realize you’ve been knocked off your feet.

Now quite accepting of the totally surreal time I was having I rounded a corner,
And continued onto my next encounter,
Resigned to the fact this was some dream or hallucination,
I made my way through the now dark street,
To the one window that had a light on,
I walked through the unlocked door which incidentally had blinds down,
And a sillhouetted figure like a film noir scene,
But sadly no sign saying Private Eye.
As I entered a voice promptly said..

“This journey’s almost over, I’m the only one left,
Allow me to introduce myself; my name is Walter Nepp,
The other guys have taught you things of great positive worth,
But I’m afraid I’m here to bring you back down to Earth,
See you can live your life in control and be nice,
But even that will not promise you a happy life,
You may think yourself in general to be a nice guy,
But I’m telling you now – that right there is a lie,
Even the nicest of guys has some nasty within ‘em,
You don’t have to be backlit to be the villain,
Whether it be greed lust or just plain vindictiveness,
There’s a level of benevolence inside all of us,
You can paint yourself an image and live in your own little dream,
But this ain’t a dream, it’s one big silver screen,
So when you think you’ve got your happy ending don’t ever forget it,
It ain’t over til you hear the sound of your end credits,
You’ll be waiting for the beat to kick in,
But it never does,
Waiting for you feet to grow wings,
That lift you above,
All of these tiresome things,
That you know and love,
Waiting for the beat to kick in,
But it never does,
Waiting for the beat to kick in,
But it never does,
Waiting for you feet to grow wings,
That lift you above,
All of these tiresome things,
That you know and love,
Waiting for the beat to kick in,
But it never does.”

naked mix #11 (8/12/08)

Spencer Sugarman — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 01:33:23 +0000

In 1998, HUSH opened shop, fueled by the burgeoning technology of CD burners. In the ten years since, HUSH has subsisted on the passion and community of the Portland music scene. But they are offering a gift not just to local fans and friends, but to the entire world. DECA: A HUSH 10th Anniversary Compilation is a tribute to the changing record industry, and a small and beautiful peek into the long list of wonderful acts HUSH has worked with over the years. And it is as free as you want it to be.

We’ve decided to offer this exclusively as a digital download because we’re intrigued by the idea of creating something that takes up more space in your heart and your head than in your house, or in our house, or on the postal truck.

This naked mix is a smattering of the tracks offered on DECA. If you hear even one moment of one song that you like, I implore you to go to the website and download the entire compilation. (If only for the Colin Meloy track you won’t hear anywhere else.)

1. Novi Split – Hollow Notes – There is that inevitable point in the generic Hollywood romantic comedy when the star boyfriend does something terrible to his star girlfriend and loses her, seemingly forever. Filled with anger as he is thrown out of his own apartment, he walks the streets aimlessly, realizing he has lost the one thing that matters most in the world: love. Slowly this regret melts into determination, and he rushes back to reclaim her heart in hand.

This is those moments wrapped up in a song; not because the song is saccharine or banal, but because, like those scenes, they tug at your heart despite their predictability. They hit just the right notes, reach just the right crescendos, have just the right feeling to accompany those weak journeys home at night.

4. Run on Sentence – The Afterlife Pt. 1

7. Norfolk & Western – Hiding Home

10. Loch Lomond – Elephants & Little Girls

21. Casey Dienel – Asleep at the Wheel

27. Dat’r – Humm-na

Fresh Born

Spencer Sugarman — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 14:17:10 +0000

“Fresh Born” is the first single from Deerhoof’s upcoming record, Offend Maggie. Download the sheet music, make your own version, upload it to your webpage or blog, then post the link here. Deerhoof’s version of “Fresh Born” will be shared soon too.

The Stand Ins

Spencer Sugarman — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 23:38:43 +0000

The Stand Ins, the upcoming album by Okkervil River to be released in September, has hit the underground internets, and well… First impressions? It’s fantastic. Okkervil River has been smoothly putting out more and more upbeat songs since 2005’s Black Sheep Boy, culminating in an album that takes all the energy of Black Sheep Boy and 2007’s The Stage Names and brings it to A Happy Place. Oh sure, Will Sheff still emanates melancholy, but by-and-large this is a fun album.

Okkervil River – Pop Lie

Track listing:

01 The Stand Ins, One
02 Lost Coastlines
03 Singer Songwriter
04 Starry Stairs
05 Blue Tulip
06 The Stand Ins, Two
07 Pop Lie
08 On Tour With Zykos
09 Calling and Not Calling My Ex
10 The Stand Ins, Three
11 Bruce Wayne Campbell Interviewed on the Roof of the Chelsea Hotel, 1979

The album is also a great concept, acting as a sequel to The Stage Names. Check out the poetically paired album art:

Books Received

Spencer Sugarman — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 02:57:26 +0000

Books Received is a periodically updated feature on Design Observer of some books they like. Some design books, as you might have guessed.

Staff picks:

Jutta Schickore, The Microscope and the Eye: A History of Reflections
Tod Lippy, Esopus
Alix Lambert, Crime
Alberto Manguel, The Library at Night
Mel Bochner, Solar System & Rest Rooms: Writings and Interviews
Indi Young, Mental Models
Luke Wroblewski, Web Form Design: Filling in the Blanks
Tom Vanderbilt, Traffic: Why We Drive the Way We Do

Bonus!: ESOPUS Magazine has a stream of the mix CDs that came with the first seven issues. Artists range from A to Z, and the themes for each mix are fantastic. (e.g., CD #2 is “Musician-couples wrote a song inspired by the Craig’s List “Missed Connection” personal ad of their choice.”)

This House Can Fit Us All

Spencer Sugarman — Sun, 22 Jun 2008 17:26:48 +0000

Little Pictures – This House Can Fit Us All from eep! productions. The first single from the debut album “Owl+Owl”, released July 2008 on Lil’ Chief Records.

Topspin, digital music marketing

Spencer Sugarman — Sat, 21 Jun 2008 19:56:47 +0000

Ian Rogers has unveiled Topspin, a new digital music marketing platform. The unveiling is more or less a well-done press release, meaning it says a lot without saying anything at all. However, Rogers did link to three of the ten artists they are working with: Josh Rouse, Jubilee, and The Dandy Warhols.

Since much of the value Topspin adds is in the artist control panel which is behind the scenes, these three examples show only the very tip of the proverbial Topspin iceberg. The visual design for each of these is done by the artist, Topspin is the enabling platform underneath. And what you can’t see, the back office where the artist manages pricing, catalog, metadata, fans, and most importantly marketing campaigns and analytics, is our bread and butter.

What struck me was the “The visual design for each of these is done by the artist” line. Really? I suppose this is a matter of technicalities; changing some colors in your MySpace or Virb profile is technically visual design, I guess. The Dandy Warhols site eschews the cookie-cutter template design a bit, but only to replace it with something really sparse.

Based entirely on these three examples (which are all we have to go on, but see below), Topspin seems perfectly primed to do….nothing great. The hidden “back office” is definitely a huge boon to artists and labels alike, but it is nothing that could not be achieved with good web statistics software (like AWStats or even Google Analytics) and a listserv manager. This is not to say that such a product will not be successful. Even if cheaper alternatives exist, bands/labels are likely to look to the company that combines all the services into a single, easy to use package. Maybe not so special, but admittedly pretty useful.

Outsourcing a significant portion of band management might not be especially tempting to big labels with enough money for a personalized solution (or a general disdain for digital music in general), but it’s perfect for independents. And not having to rely on big money for this sort of thing is going to allow a lot more bands to remain independent and a lot more indie labels to remain competitive.

My biggest complaint with Topspin is that they seem to be creating a system in which every band website is the same. Examples may be released in the near future that display a greater ability to produce original design, but I am skeptical until then. However, I am also open-minded, since the cheap design is almost positively a result of the bands being independent (probably no dedicated web team).

Another factor (and consequence of the bands’ independence) is that Topspin might not be utilized in exactly the intended way:

We are about demand creation, not demand fulfillment. I call this out because the line is admittedly blurry in our above examples, since our first product is very much about direct-to-fan marketing, which in many ways resembles demand fulfillment from the consumer perspective.

This begs the question of why unveil a product using examples that poorly display the product, but we’ll see.

No matter what, please take all of the above with a big grain of salt. Why? Because as I mentioned, Topspin is a brainchild of Ian Rogers, who knows exactly what he is talking about when it comes to digital music. His line Convenience wins, Hubris loses assures me that this whole endeavor is in good hands, regardless of any startup bumps along the way.

naked mix #10 (5/29/08)

Spencer Sugarman — Thu, 29 May 2008 18:42:22 +0000

Photo by barbecution

Sometimes it feels like inspiration refuses to come, no matter how many bottles of vodka you pour down your throat in honor of the muses. But after awhile, the music slowly sneaks up on you, and suddenly this weird mixture of hip hop and hip pop and pop rock coalesces right before your eyes. Like a stream of light beating in the night, there it is.

Ghostface Killah – Jellyfish (Feat. Cappadonna, Shawn Wigs & Trife) – Look, I have no idea how to talk about rap. The whole genre is defined by its grit, speed, and pulsating rhythm, so all of that is out. What is left? The scenery? The community? Okay, fine, this song is four best friends freestyling around a case of beer; a three-act play about heartache and temptation; an ode to the oldest story in the book.

Devil’s Gun – Million Miles – This song is a trick. Underneath the uplifting dance beats is a melancholic reflection of a downward spiral. The music imbues the words with optimism, but suddenly the music drops out, and we’re left wondering how hopeful the singer really is: “I see the way you’re moving, and I worry about you. I can see you falling, and I want to catch you.”

Thrushes – Heartbeats (DtheNextLevel Mix)

Islands – Kids Don’t Know Shit – Continuing the peppy trend of deceptively sobering tunes, “Kids Don’t Know Shit” is the anti-anthem. It is the song you write after years of failure, when the cynicism finally gains a firm hold. “Kids don’t know shit,” Islands’ Nick Thorburn sings, “everything we learned is wrong. Deep down we knew it, we knew it all along.” But you have to wonder just how jaded Islands are when they wrap the words up in rock and catchiness.

Somone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin – I Think I Wanna Die

Festival – Valentine – If all you knew about “Valentine” was that it is thirty seconds short of the perfect pop song, you might get a good understanding of the song. “Valentine” is, appropriately, for all intents and purposes, a tease. It starts slow, turns it up a notch a third of the way through (0:48), and then when another third passes (1:15) it turns it up a notch again. By this time you are primed for greatness, and the next 45 seconds are spent in anticipation. So when the fade-out starts at 2 minutes, all you can do is throw up your hands in disgust and hit play again.

Withered Hand – I Am Nothing

Frightened Rabbit – Keep Yourself Warm – When Scott Hutchinson sings “you won’t find love in a hole,” the whole thing seems adolescent. But he keeps repeating it over and over again until the absurdity falls to pieces. What remains is this bare, honest song that wasn’t hiding in the first place, and you realize the candidness isn’t scary, it’s refreshing.

Astronautalis – Short Term Memory Loss