Side-trade mix CD review.

1. Noah's Ark - Coco Rosie
This is a really good lead in track. I like how its got an old record player kind of start up and sounds just a little vinyl. I first heard Coco Rosie in an earlier PDP round and enjoyed the tracks but hadn't looked into her any more. So it was a nice little surprise.


2. Let's Make Love and Listen to Death From Above - CSS
I'm really enjoying the group that hails from Brazil and put out Tired of Being Sexy for Sub Pop. Its a fun album that just makes you want to groove. And it mixes in very well out of track one. Definitely meets the rule, take it up a notch.


3. Oh Yeah - The Cliks
I find this song kinda weird; its kinda Alannah Myles-rock meets indie rock in my head. Okay, I get it. You want your baby back. I think I'd like this song if I was running in the rain. Or biking up a cardiac. I should maybe get some aerobic exercise.


4.Touch Up - Mother Mother
This band kind makes me think me of a cross between the Unicorns and Islands. And I like it! Model ships, sailing around?!? The South Pacific!?! Sign me up! And it sets up the next song very nicely.


5. People Folk - Tunng
I'd never heard of Tunng before but I like their sort of haunting chant. The band's MySpace describes them so:

tunng play a mesmerising mix of folky acoustics and busy electronica, overlaying electronic crackles, gorgeous harmonies, bewitching mantras and synthetic beats that are reminiscent of early Beta Band, 'The Wicker Man' soundtrack and Four Tet.

Now that I read that, they totally remind me of Beta Band - and they come up a lot on random on my iPod. I haven't heard too much Four Tet but I'm a little familiar with them. So far the transitions are excellent.


6. Satellite - Guster
I've loved Guster since I first saw them open for John Mayer years ago in Seattle. I've written other annotated tracklistings on them so I won't talk about them too much but I'm glad the chosen track is from a new album, as I'd sort lost touch with their newer works. And I really like the song itself, one of my favourite cuts on the CD.

Of course, I also had a Guster track on my An afternoon with iVincent. He's a space ninja. Part I mix CD.


7. Nobody Knows Me at All - The Weepies
I really enjoyed the Weepies. And I also have to comment on the ability to put two tracks by a kick ass band on a mix. Its been a while since I could do it. I'm also incapable of making a mix CD lest than 77 minutes long and most of the time its 79 and change, so I'm a little envious of the ability to make a concise 12 track CD.


8. It's Cold Outside - Over the Rhine
This song is an interesting phenomenon for me. The part of the file-sharing, blog-listening, Internet radio-scanning, music magazine-reading lifestyle that has so much music by so many artists on ones iPod that you don't know what you have. Our music libraries and are sort like Google, so big, so much information, that we're not really sure what we have - we just know we have a lot!

So I have three tracks by Over the Rhine on my iPod but I recognized the name and not the band. In my defense, one song is a cover.

I like this cut and it reminds me of my Revolver by Isobel Campbell & Mark Lanegan track. Because of the male-female duality and the touch of country.


9. Gotta Have You - The Weepies
Can I just say that I thought there were a lot of parallels between the side trade CDs? I thought The Weepies had a similar vibe to Hello Saferidre. This band reminds me of the 1990s and movies like Threesome and a generic Wynona Ryder film. I'm sooo glad the 90s are over but sometimes I'm a little nostalgic for them.


10. Feel Free - Winston
Its kinda quirky but overall I'm just indifferent to this track one way or another.


11. Transcontinental - Pedro the Lion
Pedro the Lion is a band I sought out because I thought they had a cool name. It was the same time I was checking out Ted Leo & the Pharmacists and while they stuck a bit, Pedro didn't. I'm glad that this track on is on the CD and reminded me that I wanted to check them out.


12. The City - Lo_Fi_Fnk
In some ways, this is the most controversial song on the mix for me. I really like this song and Lo_Fi_Fnk sounds like they'd be a lot of fun; I'd love to hear a whole album by them. I also think that maybe they are like United States of Electronica, and their awesome "Emerald City" track from Brandden's PDP3 mix, and are just a group of friends that got together for what seems one track.

Anyways, I just don't think it goes here. Its not a last CD song, or, rather, its not this CDs natural last song to me. I think it may be a little too up beat or something. Although this is only about 75% of the time. I do sometimes feel its a good to end on a high note. And I really love the beat!

So by the end, I always forget that I didn't think it really went and am just enjoying the track.



Overall, I really liked this CD. Some bands I knew, some bands I wanted to know, some bands I hadn't heard of - a great mix! I thought the transitions were all really well selected and things flowed from one to another with no problems. The album as a whole is pretty coherent, with only the final track seeming out of place to the vibe being established. But in the end its so catchy, you forgive it.

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Global warming makes me hot under the collar.

I'm not an international trade law expert (though I wish I were!) but I'm curious about whether the EU may be able to take countries like the US and Canada to the WTO for unfair trade subsidies because they don't regulate, adequately, greenhouse gas emissions.

One could argue that climate change has become so widely accepted in the international realm and so much energy, if you'll pardon the pun, is being spent on the desire to move away from a carbon economy that it constitutes an accept international norm. While this is a "political" decision, it is also an economic one that, in effect, will create trade distorting subsidies for countries that do not implement emission caps and instead have voluntary and intensity targets

Of course, I think Canada and the US, as well as countries like China, are going down the wrong road in regards to their climate change policies. While China may be excused because only 400m of their 1.4b people live the good life, the US and Canada clearly are not responding quickly enough to changes in the market. This is likely to have a large negative effect on the development and mass production of alternative technologies, especially without the whole dynamic input of the $13t US economy. Yes, t for trillion. So far the only real movement is for things like ethanol and previous blogs have spoken of my disbelief that corn offers a viable solution.

Many people forget that the US is a huge exporter of advanced technology to China and many areas of the world. Low level income states will continue to rely on cheap Chinese imports to grow their economy but states like China, India, Brazil and South Africa are increasingly having the capacity to become powerful regional economic engines. Yet they are currently great producers due to low labour costs and not yet true innovators like the EU, US and Japan. Thus, developing nations will continue to need Western technology to grow.

I'm not advocating trade wars or litigation as an effective solution, I just wonder if it may be a viable option if countries – including Canada – continue to not take effective action against global warming.

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It's not just 12 year old girls and kittens anymore...

There's an interesting article on the CBC entitiled, "Are cellphones and the internet rewiring our brains?"

I'm not sure how many of you out in the online social networking realms of Facebook and MySpace are into this kind of thing but its something that interests me a great deal. I'm currently reading Momentum: Igniting Social Change in the Connected Age, which is alright but is really geared toward the non-profit sector and those that aren't familiar with online social networking and collaborative software - though it is very non-technical.

Once I've finished that book - and Daisy Miller for book club - I'm going to start on Wikinomics: How Mass Collaboration Changes Everything. I'm hoping this one will be a little more academically rigorous.

I read a short blurb about a month ago, I think on Foreign Policy but I can't seem to find it, that talked about using collaborative software for virtual mineral surveying in countries like the Democratic Republic of Congo. The author noted that people were using surveying maps from the 19th century in the Royal Museum of Belgium because of the danger of physical prospecting in the country. Repatriating the maps was considered unfeasible because the DRC didn't have the resources to maintain the maps and, as in many developing nations, the chance of corrupt officials stealing them for their personal benefit is quite high. So the idea was you put the information on the Internet and have armchair geologists do some work identifying potential deposits, like as Goldcorp did with great success in 2000. In this way, the people of the DRC could benefit when companies bid for mining rights because it takes some of the potential for corruption out of the equation, as how much they pay for those rights (and how much ends up in the public treasury and not the mining minister's personal bank account) is more transparent and fair.

I think the economic, social and political changes that come about through online social networking tools are fascinating. It's interesting to see that there may also be positive cognitive effects as well.

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Going "green" may be bad for your weekends.

I'm not a fan of using corn-based ethanol as an alternative fuel. I'd rather we look at crops that are less energy-intensive to grow and are more feasible in sub-par agricultural lands and leave our prime arable land to grow food to feed all the hungry people. I also believe that this is more of a political than environmental exercise, creating an unfair trade subsidy to protect a well organized lobby to the disadvantage of developing states.

The following, as a good Canadian lad, makes me like this solution less...


Ethanol's new victims: beer drinkers

We witnessed the tens of thousands of demonstrators decrying the rapidly (and exorbitantly) rising price of corn in the "tortilla protests" in Mexico City earlier this year. The protests came about as a result of the growing demand for corn-based ethanol, the Bush administration's biofuel of choice. But now there appears to be a new dietary staple under threat from the rising demand for ethanol: German beer.

Der Spiegel Online reports that a 2006 barley shortage will raise the wholesale price of German beer this May. Many brewing industry lobbyists attribute the price rise to farmers forgoing barley for corn in order to satisfy the global demand for biofuels, especially from the United States. In the past year, the price of barley has doubled on the German market, from €200 to €400 per ton.

But it's not just Germany that is set to see soaring beer prices. The chief executive of Heineken (the Dutch brewer) warned in February that the expanding biofuel sector was starting to cause a "structural shift" in European and U.S. agricultural markets, which could precipitate a long-term upward shift in the price of beer. Already, futures prices for European malting barley have risen since last May by 85 percent to more than €230 a ton, and barley production in the United States has fallen to 180.05 million bushels (in 2006)—the lowest level since 1936. Global stockpiles of barley have shrunk by a third in the last two years. All of this augurs ill for beer drinkers, who may soon be paying significantly more for their pints.

From Foreign Policy

Currently reading : Company By Max Barry Release date: 13 March, 2007

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Communications 130 Commentary

This was written for my first year communications course but it is an interesting topic, at least I think so... I'm not sure if this is my final draft so there may be a spelling mistake.


Power to the People or to the Corporation?

Net Neutrality & Canadian Communications

9 February 2007

When Internet usage exploded in the 1990s with the introduction of the World Wide Web, many suggested it could revolutionize modern society. The ability to counter the power asymmetries of governments and corporations by providing individuals with new information and communication tools was touted to increase democracy, promote equality, decrease poverty, enhance education and more. Lorimer and Gasher (2004) even claimed that the Internet appeared to be "challenging the role of the traditional mass media as the 'voice of the people.'" Yet they also sounded a note of caution with the long term ability of the Internet to challenge the established media. This paper aims to briefly introduce the reader to the concept of "net neutrality" for the Internet and locate it within the larger context of Canadian communications.

While the term net neutrality (NN) is a complex and contested concept that can be encoded or decoded in a myriad of ways, this paper defines NN as, "the principle that basic Internet protocols should be non-discriminatory, [especially] that content providers should get equal treatment from internet operators" ("Net Neutrality", n.d.). NN is a growing concern to some in Canada because of a report by the federally appointed Telecommunications Policy Review Panel. It suggested changes to the Telecommunications Act which could result in Internet Service Providers (ISPs) gaining the ability to give preferential (faster) treatment to content providers who pay a fee. Goodman (2007) claims that although the topic is subject of intense debate in the United States, it has been largely ignored in Canada. How a citizen feels about potential changes to one of the early fundamental principles of the Internet depends on many factors. One such way to try and understand the meaning of NN is to look at it from the three main perspectives on ownership and control of the mass media – libertarian theory, social responsibility theory and political economic theory.

In many ways, NN can be seen as the epitome of libertarian theory. If every piece of information is treated in the exact same manner – from an anarchist blog to a Coca-Cola video advertisement to cancer research posted on an university website – than individual choice is supreme. This is why many in the US refer to NN as the "First Amendment of the Internet" (Goodman, 2007). Yet to maintain that equality of information would likely require government legislation, something libertarians are quite against which could result in a paradox in their desire for freedom of expression.

For those who subscribe to social responsibility theory, an argument supporting the demise of NN can easily be made. As more and more aspects of life migrate to an online existence and available bandwidth becomes scarce, prioritizing certain data transmissions such as communication with emergency services personnel over other types of transmissions like surfing Internet porn seems more than reasonable.

While both theories have importance for the argument, it is the political economic theory that offers some of the best insights both for and against NN. The telecommunications industry argue bandwidth-intensive new media requires a fee-based system for the mass amounts of capital needed for next generation broadband connections, else major content producers will in essence be subsidized by individual Internet users. Advocates for NN suggest that since only large corporations will be able to afford the fees for faster service, this will continue to shift power into the undemocratic hands of powerful transnational media and non-media companies. Alternative viewpoints get squeezed out and the negative aspects of globalization cancel out the positive effects of McLuhan's global village. Various analysis with Marxist or Feminist theory would further explore how these power asymmetries support a specific class or gender/racial group. It is also important to remember that due to nature of media conglomerates in Canada, corporations are often both ISPs and major content producers such as Bell and Rogers. This may offer explanation for Goodman's (2007) claim that NN is currently not much of an issue in Canada.

When predicting the outcome of the NN debate in Canada, it is important to remember the historical record with projects like CA*net 3 the emphasis the government has put on technical capacity over the importance of protecting content (Lorimer & Gasher, 2004). Some problems do exist with relying too heavily on the political economic theory though – it risks being overly technologically deterministic and not taking human agency into account. Simply because corporate media is available at faster speeds does not necessitate individuals will stop seeking alternative sources of information.

Though communications is generally more concerned with the transformative nature of communication than transmission, NN is one area where the transmission could potentially have a transformative quality. This paper can not hope to exhaust all the aspects of the net neutrality debate but has tried to introduce how this emerging issue impacts that Canadian communications.

References

Goodman, L. (February 06, 2007). Government Documents Suggest Tories Not Nervous About ISPs Interfering With Net. Retrieved February 8, 2007, from Sympatico / MSN Finance Web site: http://finance.sympatico.msn.ca/investing/insight/article.aspx?cp-documentid=2816368

Lorimer, R. and and Gasher, M. (2004). Mass Communication in Canada. Canada: Oxford University Press.

Net Neutrality. (n.d.) Retrieved February 8, 2007, from Dictionary.com Web site: http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/net%20neutrality

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A hodgepodge post.

So I went to the Shins on Monday. It was a great show, they kicked some major ass live. I haven't listened to their new CD yet and my overall impression of it was that I was going to be a little disappointed but what I heard at the show was good. And all their old stuff off Oh, Inverted World and Chutes Too Narrow was aces! So I guess I'll give the new disc a chance.

The Friday before I went and saw Ben Kweller. And it was also really good. He was opening for Gomez and they were not good. We only stayed for a couple of songs while I finished the beer I was drinking and then fled before being subjected to anymore of that crap. Gomez... Anyways, on the way out we stopped at the merch both and I bought Erin a shirt that Ben Kweller signed. He hugged me twice - both times he initiated, which was a little peculiar but he seemed like a super nice kid. Just what you'd expect from his music.

I'm not sure if this is the start of spring concert season or just a couple early shows but it was awesome to be back at some live shows.


Also. I'm not going to get around to posting my best of 2006 so I'm instead posting this post I started about how I had started working on my top 10 list.



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So I've started work on my Top 10 of 2006. Number #3 right now is actually an EP of 16 minutes. I liked it that much.

There's some things that I don't think will be a surprise for people. Bands from both my PDP CDs of '06 are sported on this list. One I found through traditional mass media on a _____ magazine mix CD. Another I found through the new social dynamic of Web 2.0 applications - music blogs, independent Internet radio stations and social networking sites.

Some of them are really new finds for me in the last part of year but intrigue me enough that I'm working them into my PDP 5 mix.

One of the PDP cd's will get an honourable mention as a CD that became the soundtrack to my summer.

All of this and a bunch of new mix CDs for Groundhog's Day. I hope he sees his shadow and we get 6 weeks more of winter!

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These are from my notes on the list that I'm referring to above. I was selecting some quotes and stuff about some albums. These are in no particular order.


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We Are Scientists - With Love and Squalor
Original Release Date: January 10, 2006
From Amazon.co.uk
With their daft facial hair and questionable fashion sense, tank-top sporting Brooklyn supernerds We Are Scientists resemble those eccentric mathematics lecturers one use to see on Open University in the early 1970s. Do not be deceived by this veil of foolishness, for With Love and Squalor is a splendidly dexterous debut, a lubricated salvo of trim pop-punk cramming 13 songs into an honorably waffle-free 36 minutes.

Obvious touchstones include Franz Ferdinand (on fun setting) and the wit, jerk, and pop inclination of XTC circa Drums and Wires and Black Sea. Exploding into action with the adrenalin swoop of "Nobody Move, Nobody Get Hurt" and "This Scene Is Dead" and taking in such other fine moments as the reggaefied "Can't Lose" and the Terrorvision-meets-Buzzcocks "Callbacks," the album nods to the mope-rock of the Cure on the philosophical experience-is-the-best-teacher procrastination of "Textbook." With Love and Squalor places We Are Scientists in line for this year's Nobel Prize for punk-pop novelty. --Kevin Maidment

Product Description
We Are Scientists comprises of Keith Murray, guitar and lead vocals; Chris Cain, bass guitar and backing vocals; Michael Tapper, drums and backing vocals. EMI. 2005.


The Candy Bars - On Cutting Ti-Gers in Half and Understanding Narravation

beirut - Gulag Orkestar


Phoenix - It's Never Been Like That

Matt Smalley
Long Distance Call
Napoleon Says

Boy Kill Boy - Civilian



Tokyo Police Club - A Lesson In Crime EP


Figurines - Skeleton
Original Release Date: March 7, 2006
Product Description
On March 7, 2006, The Control Group will welcome Figurines through US customs. Female security guards double-take passport photos of the band, but x-ray monitors scan bits of Pavement, drops of early Built To Spill, an open Modest Mouse container, a couple Strokes, and a vial of Neil Young's frantic youth. "Skeleton" turns momentum on high. As Danish press raves, three music videos from the record are uploading new listeners faster than the single "The Wonder" can reinstate the group back to #1 on Danish National Radio. Which it did. It might be a secret to some, but Figurines are one of the most hard working Danish indie bands at the moment. Look for them on tour in the US this year.


Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Show Your Bones

The Future Heads - News & Tributes

Band of Horses -Everything All The Time
Original Release Date: March 21, 2006
Amazon.com
This Seattle-based band was formed from the ashes of the incredibly talented Carissa's Wierd [sic], whose mopey and self-deprecating songs were like some magical and baroque combination of the Magnetic Fields, Cat Power, and Leonard Cohen. Longtime friends of Iron and Wine, few fans in their native Pacific Northwest could understand why Carissa's weren't huge. But they weren't, and after three albums and few folks really caring, they naturally broke up. Band of Horses, led by ultra-charming CW bassist Ben Bridwell, is a remarkably different, though just as radically excellent, brand of indie-pop sulk. These songs are anthems to ambivalence, and Bridwell's lovely high-pitched trill will please any fan of Built to Spill, the Shins, and Modest Mouse. It takes a few listens to sink in, but Everything is transcendent, shimmering, layered, and smartass emo-pop fully ready for stadium saturation. --James Conde



Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin - Broom
Original Release Date: October 24, 2006


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Off the top of my head I'd have to say for albums:

1. beirut - Gulag Orkestar
2. We Are Scientists - With Love and Squalor
3. Figurines - Skeleton

Beirut has been number one since before the CD came out.

My favourite mix CD of last year was Kristen's PDP4 CD We're Number One and my single of the year was data Panik "Rulers and the States."

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What no one has been waiting for...

[Ed. Note: Sorry, I don't know how to make a cut in MySpace...]

Music Director: Paul aka Richie Tenenbaum
1. Coastguard - The Young Knives
I originally wanted to put this song from the Young Knives on PDP4 but it didn't make sense anywhere in the mix; although, I did have it in my 'Vicious Headbutt to the Chest' playlist I was making as a bonus CD. Anyways, I don't actually know that much about this band from the Midlands of England but they have a dirty, gritty sound that I really like. I think I got them off my favourite music blog, which I have to give shout outs to Shawn for telling me about but I won't do the same to you for fear you'll find the source of my power. But I have an EP of their's, Junkymusicmakemyheartbeatfaster and it's fuckin' aces! (Click here to read a review. http://www.fasterlouder.com.au/reviews/music/2905/)



2. Save Me - Jem
If the Young Knives represent indie rock on this album, then Jem is definitely where the coffee table music comes in. Middle of the pack in a row of singers that have dabbled on the edge of being edgy but inevitably are only that way to mainstream music listeners. Not that there's anything wrong with that! I have a very "Lillith" music history of the mid-90s. Ani DiFranco, Natalie Merchant, Sarah McLachlan, Sarah Slean, etc. I like the story the choruses of these two songs tell; it's very Greek, I think.



3. Oh Mandy - The Spinto band
The Spinto Band opened up for probably my favourite concert of the year - We Are Scientists headlining, Art Brut co-headlining with the Spinto Band opening. Unfortunately I got there a little late and so only caught one song by the Spinto Band and sadly it wasn't my favourite one, "Oh Mandy." This was the second of three songs I got from that blog. I'm still not that familiar with them but if they're around I might check out their next disc. I didn't know this before just now (because I didn't check this time when making my playlist) but Kristen had a Spinto Band song on her PDP4 CD, We're Number One. Spinto Band.

It also completes the little triptych at the beginning of my mix.



4. Tell Me In the Morning - Cold War Kids
One particular group whose newest album I'm eagerly awaiting to get my hands on is the Cold War Kids. Cold War Kids help make California - with its return to an increasing progressive state (for the US) - cool again. You can listen to cuts from 2006's Robbers & Cowards, on their MySpace. (http://www.myspace.com/coldwarkids) The track "Hang Me Up To Dry" is particularly good and it seems Kaylin agrees since she put it on her PDP5 PB + J Forever mix! This is also one of two bands that Erin has put me on to that are on my mix.

The cut that I chose came their With Our Wallets Full EP, which they recorded in November 2005 on Monarchy Music. You can check out some of their limited releases and download some covers they did (including "The Littlest Bird" by the Be Good Tanyas, awesome!) for some benefit show at their website, http://coldwarkids.com/music.htm.



5. Mirror In The Bathroom - The English Beat
For the longest time I was having trouble figuring out how to move from my triptych at the beginning of the mix into the rest of the story I was trying to tell. I was out at a restaurant one night and "Mirror in the Bathroom" came on and I instantly thought this could totally work. I changed out track four, one that I thought I was forcing, for the Cold War Kids and put in the English Beat and felt like I'd really turned a corner with getting the CD into a final polish.

I don't have much else to say except that I ripped this song off a Grosse Pointe Blank Soundtrack I have. John Cusack rocks! We even have the same birthday, twelve years apart...



6. Still Fighting It - Ben Folds
I really gave up a lot of my self-imposed "rules" on this PDP mix. Like not checking more stringently to see that the Spinto Band had appeared before (I requested Carmen's permission when I repeated Wolf Parade on my PDP3 because I have "issues"). Or having a problem with repeating a band I'd used before. In fact, if you count the limited edition bonus PDP3 CD I made, monochromatic neuroses, then I've used Ben Folds three times. Coffee table music but good coffee table music. Everyone knows Ben Folds but mostly because of an abortion song.

Oh sweet, sweet irony.



7. Super Bon Bon - Soul Coughing
My friend Kate mentioned one time via correspondence that she was listening to a lot of 90s stuff she'd been into, including Soul Coughing. I must confess I'd never heard of them before but when I downloaded a bunch of songs to check them out, this was one of the tracks that I came up with.

Some of their songs sound like something from Everlast's Whitey Ford Sings the Blues album of 1998, which definitely qualifies them as coffee table music but on this particular cut you get the edgy hint that makes you think that maybe they're cooler than you think. I'm not sure, I don't know them that well.

I like the clashing aural qualities of a soft Ben Folds song into this track that has a pounding base line straight out the their New York hometown. This is some badass 90s! And then into my favourite track of the CD...



8. The Idea Of Growing Old - The Features
So here is the proof that I didn't give up all my "rules" of making a mix CD. I'm not sure when it started but sometime over the past few years I've slowly been moving to the opinion that track number eight of a playlist should be the best track on the record. "Rulers and the State" by data Panik was track number eight for PDP4 and was my single of the year for 2006!

I can't remember what I was searching out when I downloaded a few tracks from the Features 2004 album, Exhibit A but I liked it so much that I ordered the CD to get it all and support a great band. Take that RIAA! I hate you DRM!! Anyways, the CD doesn't disappoint as there are a bunch of great tracks on the album.

Their website says they're working on a forthcoming release but I might think about getting the new EP Contrast to tide me over. (http://www.thefeatures.com/)



9. Love Tragedy - I Am The World Trade Center
I think that I found I Am The World Trade Center by accident when I was investigating I Love You But I've Chosen Darkness. No, wait... It was Chin Up Chin Up. I had used their song "We Should Have Never Lived Like We Were Skyscrapers" on PDP4 and, well, you can see connection... Really though, you should check out both these other bands if you don't know them yet.

I think I might like the quieter song "Metro" or the much more Euro-club song "September" (my friend James would really like that track - think Le Disko from Since Leaving Rome PDP4) but I think "Love Tragedy" worked better as bridging to the second half of the CD. I've got The Cover Up and Tight Connection on order.



10. Autumn Sweater - Yo La Tengo
Yo La Tengo is the second song by a band that Erin told me about. I really like their mellow sound. We went to the show in the fall but that was at the end of some hellish days for me and I was very feverish at the concert.

That said, you should check some of this band's catalogue. Especially "The Weakest Part" on 2006's I Am Not Afraid Of You And I Will Beat Your Ass or perhaps "You Can Have It All" from 2003's And Then Nothing Turned... I love bands where people change instruments and the lead singer role changes back and forth.



11. Dirty Business - The Dresden Dolls
Ah, the Dresden Dolls. Bizarre cabaret-punk stylings straight out of Boston but you wouldn't be surprised hearing that it was out of a traveling carnival. Anyways, I find the Dresden Dolls appealing to listen to once in a while but I'm not sure that I really like them. I thought they made a good bridge here and almost serve as a jolt of espresso and help illustrate that line between indie and coffee table.

The jangling piano and the casually graphic and unvarnished honesty of the lyrics makes for a good song, at least in small doses.



12. Oregon Girl - Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin
Here we move back into indie rock. And another band that plays to my love of Russian names, just like ¡Forward, Russia! on my Opposite of 'A Vicious Headbutt to the Chest' PDP4 mix.

I think I might have found Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin on some neighbour's page on Last.fm (http://www.last.fm/user/paulydangerous) and downloaded it for the name and bought their album Broom for the music. I also started seeing their record up on some blogs and mentioned in a couple year end lists. It was something that I was toying with being on mine. So check it out if you have the chance.



13. Sailing Seas - Abandoned Pools
This CD certainly is about my friends and how I tend to base a lot of a person's merit on music. Did I ever tell you that story about the quasi-blind date that I went on years ago? She worked for big-pharma and wasn't really into music. I can't see why that didn't pan out...

I heard this band while listening to WOXY.com, a former broadcast radio station in Ohio that has since become an Internet-only station. My friend Lavena was always talking about WOXY and the efforts to save the beloved indie rock station and it sounded so appealing that eventually I started tuning in. It's now my primary Internet radio station. For info on WOXY, check out their website http://woxy.lala.com/about/. While there you can listen to some new music. It plays a lot of good indie rock and quasi-indie rock/coffee table music like Abandoned Pools.

I heard "Sailing Seas" one day and I knew that I had to figure out how to make it go into my mix.



14. Tricycle - Psapp
One of the drawbacks of having so much music at your easy disposal - iVincent is sitting at just under 6,000 tracks - is that you can really lose things easily. Especially if you're like me and always trying to check out people's suggestions, reading/listening to blogs or industry magazines, listening to promo CDs from NME, etc. Well, I used to do it a little more when I worked at HMV but we all do it... It's why we're in a mix CD club!

I got Psapp off Shawn's source but for some reason I never gave them a real listen. I think this track started coming up on shuffle every once in a while and every time it made me sit up and notice. It's a pretty rad track and it's what makes me want to buy the full album, The Only Thing I Ever Wanted, from Domino - a label I really like. The only thing that makes me leery is the whole Grey's Anatomy theme thing. It's like purposefully buying a book that Oprah recommended. Shudder. But I'll probably get over this particular neurosis and buy the CD.



15. Sleep Better - Pete Yorn
Oh, Pete Yorn! Definitely some coffee table music I was into about four-five years ago or so. Right around when musicforthemorningafter came out. I mean with a title like that, how could I not love him!? Well, his Spiderman OST song was okay but I never really got into his next album and never listened to his record from '06.

But in 2002, I was really into his disc and I went to his show with Corey and saw/heard Grandaddy for the first time so it all evened out I guess. And this particular song really has some excellent cow bell - Christopher Walken would be proud. Coffee table music and indie rock, indeed!



16. Kate - Sambassadeur
Sambassadeur is a band from Gothenburg, Sweden and make up part of the current wave of Scandinavian bands that I've really been enjoying lately - Figurines, Shout Out Louds, Mew, Peter Bjorn And John. Kudos to Steve on his PDP5 concept album, Sweden Made Me.

I heard this song one night on WOXY and I loved it! It came out on an EP they put out last year, Coastal Affairs. I think I read somewhere they were working on a new LP for sometime soon. I'm looking forward to hearing it. That's pretty much all I know about this band, for now...



17. Have You Seen Me Lately? - Counting Crows
Oh yeah, moving from indie rock back into some coffee table music. The Counting Crows were one of my favourite bands of the 90s though I don't think their music has held up that well. I think August and Everything After is still a pretty decent disc and they have some other good songs but yeah, mostly in the past and when the nostalgia is rising. I do own four discs that I bought and one that someone burned for me though.

I was listening to my iPod on shuffle one day and this song came up. I'm not sure if it shuffled into or out of one of the songs surrounding it on my playlist but I remember thinking that it worked and I do think I enjoy it here.



18. Bouncy Ball - Ladyfuzz
I have no idea where Ladyfuzz came from. None. I look at the songs I was downloading around then and nothing rings a bell. Maybe it was a band Carmen told me about or wanted me to try and get? It sounds like a Carmen band!

I think I have one other song by Ladyfuzz but it is not as good. I have the feeling that this band will be a one hit wonder to me, something awesome if you're doing high kicks with your friends but otherwise you never think of them. They're one of those, "oh those guys, I love that song!" kind of band.

Unless someone knows something that I don't but should...



19. Keep Moving - Ivy
This is a song that I'm pretty sure I also caught on WOXY. Unless it was maybe Auralgasms (http://auralgasms.com/). That's another stream I sometimes listen to. A lot more electronic and dream pop, whatever that is...

Either way, I haven't found out a lot more about Ivy. It was more like a song that got stuck in my playlist. I heard it and downloaded it and kinda threw it in somewhere to see if it worked with the overall feeling I was trying to create. And it stuck as track 19.


20. Givin' It Up - Josh Rouse
Since I'm breakin' rules in this mix, I'll break two right here. Josh Rouse has shown up before on my mixes and for good reason. He's one of my favourite artists and it was this review by the Onion (http://www.avclub.com/content/node/14588) in 2003 that turned me on to him. I've gotten his last few discs and seen his last two shows in Vancouver but need to go out to pick up his newest record, She's Spanish, I'm American, a new side project featuring artist Paz Suay. (http://www.myspace.com/shesspanishimamerican)

Here's another rule I'm going to break. I'm actually going to talk about my hidden track somewhere. I heard this track come up on random one day, looks like I originally downloaded it some day when I was looking for some Placebo, another band I'm iffy on whether I like them in more than tiny doses. Anyways, right away when it came up it made me think of Carmen. If you take a peek at the PDP1 mixes (http://procrastinationdanceparty.wikispaces.com/PDP1) you'll notice that track 19 on her mix is "Running Up That Hill" by Kate Bush. I decided to put the cover song that I use for my hidden track as a tribute to Carmen for founding the most awesomest club ever, Procrastination Dance Party! Thanks Carmen!


The end...

1:52 AM - 0 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment

This doesn't count as an actual post.

I've got the first 16 tracks annotated in near-finished quality. I'm hoping to get all the tracks written by Friday night and get it posted by the end of the weekend if not sooner.

For those looking for pictures from Groundhog Day festivities, I'm also trying to get the files saved into a little more manageable size and then I'll zip them into a few larger files and email them off.

1:13 AM - 3 Comments - 1 Kudos - Add Comment

Blog Teaser.

I've started working on my annotated playlist for PDP5. Unlike my Top 10 of 2006 that I've let hope fade away on, I really believe I should finish the personalized tracklisting.

Maybe even by the weekend!

1:04 AM - 0 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment

Blog Update.

So I've started work on my Top 10 of 2006. Number #3 right now is actually an EP of 16 minutes. I liked it that much.

There's some things that I don't think will be a surprise for people. Bands from both my PDP CDs of '06 are sported on this list. One I found through traditional mass media on a NME mix CD. Another I found through the new social dynamic of Web 2.0 applications - music blogs, independent Internet radio stations and social networking sites.

Some of them are really new finds for me in the last part of year but intrigue me enough that I'm working them into my PDP 5 mix.

One of the PDP CD's will get an honourable mention as a CD that became the soundtrack to my summer.

All of this and a bunch of new mix CDs for Groundhog's Day. I hope he sees his shadow and we get 6 weeks more of winter! I need more time to finish my list.

I wonder what other people are thinking for their Top 10's.

1:22 AM - 0 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment