FRISSONIC

Well, it’s been a while since I’ve written about the Friday pick-ups from Graywhale. Blame my lack of … something. One problem I’m running into is that I generally try to rip my new music either the day of or at least over that weekend. Well, ha ha ha … guess whose optical drive is in a non-functional state. Go ahead.

Okay, there’s generally no connection between the two. So really, I don’t know why I haven’t written about the additions. Allow me to make up for it today.

If you’re expecting a long list, you’re going to be disappointed. However, if you’re in to quality music and new releases from semi-/established artists, you’re going to LOVE this week’s list.

As I mentioned in a previous post, Jesca Hoop’s “new” CD was actually released internationally in November of last year. That does not at all take away from the fact that her new CD is just as sonically inspiring and vocally lulling. Hunting My Dress was released domestically this past Tuesday in quality music stores (effectively ruling out Walmart, Blockbuster, Target, etc … not that those are quailty places to get ANYthing, but whatever), such as Graywhale.  

So here’s the list for today:

• Jesca Hoop – Hunting My Dress
• Samantha Crain – You (Understood)
• Sera Cahoone – Only As the Day Is Long
• The Ms – Future Women
• Interpol – Our Love To Admire
• The Reverend Horton Heat – Smoke ‘em If you Got ‘em
• Reverend Horton Heat – Revival

Sometimes, it’s all about quality vs. quantity.

My man Kyle hooked me up with Windham Hill Chill Vols. 1 and 2 as well for the cost of nothing. Thanks, Kyle! He also threw me a free movie pass for “Scott Pilgrim vs. the World.” The screening in a bit of a drive from my house, but it’d be worth it, right? Free movie? Just need popcorn. Yah. Pretty cool.

I’m stoked that Samantha Crain has a new CD out. Surprised, too. I didn’t see anything about it anywhere! Now that I check her site, it’s all over the place (of course).

It has been a wicked crazy week and some. Work has exploded. I think I mentioned that my boss retired a couple of Mondays ago. From the frying pan and into the fire, as it were.

Yah, yah … excuses excuses. Make the time, right? So here it is.

While I’m thinking of it, for all you fat fin fans, GW has a Facebook page that’s not to be missed. Please add them and support local music shops!

Of course, went to Graywhale for a quickie. So to speak. Hmm. ANYway, didn’t really peruse much as time was limited due to some geotagging test driving. Brought my camera along for the drive, randomly taking pictures at stop lights and other various locations. So, I have this app called GeoLogTag. It’s supposed to tag pics from ANY camera. After doing some poking around, I can understand why they make the claim: all the app does is “waypoint” your location at X intervals. I have mine set to continual. I believe it waymarks a location every 5 seconds, which is SUPER great for geotagging with accuracy. Anyway, after I take a bunch of pics, I import them into Geosetter. This program takes the images and bats them up a .gpx file that has all the waymarks listed. The program accesses this set of waymarks a couple of different ways: 1) you can email it to yourself, or (my favorite method) 2) it turns your phone into a virtual server, replete with a temp IP address for connecting and downloading the file to a specific location. Nifty, eh? Anyway, once the .gpx file is on your machine, you open it in Geosetter. It compares the time the waymarks were logged to the time the pictures were taken, and it adds the geotagging metadata to the image so you can view your image in geo-social picture sites like Flickr or Panoramio. Anyway, the bulk of my lunch was spent driving around and doing that.

The remaineder, of course, was spent acquiring more great music. Maybe it’s the loyal Western New Yorker in me, but today kind of had a theme. First off, I owned no Ani DiFranco. I now own 4 CDs. I owned no Natalie Merchant CDs. I now own 3. Still no 10000 Maniacs though. That’s bad. Didn’t even think to check for that. Oh well … something to hunt for next week, right?

So here’s the list of what I got today.

• Faceless Wolverines – Pardon Me, Are Those Your Claws on my Back?
• Ani DiFranco – Evolve
• Ani DiFranco – Dilate
• Ani DiFranco – Out of Range
• Ani DiFranco – Imperfectly
• Natalie Merchant – Leave Your Sleep
• Natalie Merchant – Ophelia
• Natalie Merchant – Motherland

Another Friday, another trip to Graywhale. The things I learn from going there …

For example, tomorrow is Record Store Day. At Gray Whale, all used CDs are buy 2, get one free. WHAT?! WHAT!? Yah. My morning was going to be about getting ready for game 2 of the Sabres/Bruins series (hockey, for all you who are not “in the know”). That has changed. Since I own a Killer Whale card–a must for anyone within 50 miles of a Graywhale store–I get in at 9. An hour or so of perusing, cavorting, etc, then home for the game. That’s the order of the day.

So here’s the new list of what I picked up today.

• The Juilana Theory – Love
• The Juliana Theory – Deadbeat Sweetheartbeat
• Evangelista – Hello, Voyager
• DulceSky – Media Luna EP
• Blue Bird
• Coughs – Secret Passage
• Colour Revolt
• From Bubblegum to Sky – Nothing Sadder than Lonely Queen
• Lois – Bet the Sky
• Lois – Butterfly Kiss
• Scout Niblett – I am
• Bettie Serveert – Log 22
• Cat on Form – Structure and Fear
• Cantinero – Championship Boxing
• Breaking Pangea – Cannon to a Whisper
• !!! (Chk Chk Chk) – Me and Guiliani down by the School Yard

I have other stuff by some of these bands, but not many. I already have Bettie Serveert’s “Log 22,” but only in mp3s. I’m familiar with Scout Niblett’s work, so I’m glad to have found that CD. I’ve heard a few snippets of some Juliana Theory material and I’m familiar with their history, but I don’t have any of their stuff. Well, okay … NOW I do, but I didn’t. That’s my point.

The Breaking Pangea CD interests me on name alone. I’m listening to the Juliana Theory’s Deadbeat Sweetheartbeat at the moment. It’s a shame these guys broke up after making this CD.

Dulcesky is a local band. In fact, they’re playing tonight at the Woodshed in downtown Salt Lake. Wish I had known that earlier today.

Anyway, more tomorrow. Probably.

I love it when I go to Graywhale and the guys start playing stuff they think I’d be interested in. That’s just awesome. Thanks!!

By that, I mean the new Scout Niblett CD that came out in January, Calcination of Scout Niblett. It sounded like new Joanna Newsom, but nothing I recognized. “No, man. This is Scout Niblett.” So she’s on my radar of things to watch out for.

Kyle also recommended Songs: Ohia’s last/Magnolia Electric Co.’s first CD, Magnolia Electric Co. He has pretty impeccable taste in music, so I just ordered it on Amazon.

Anyway, here’s today’s list.

• HIM – Sworn Eyes (this is not to be confused with H.I.M.)
• The Von Bondies – Pawn Shoppe Heart
• The Standard – Albatross
• Spiral Beach -  Ball
• Nedelle – From the Lion’s Mouth
• Julie Doiron – Heart and Crime
• Freakwater – Old Paint
• Moonraker – Peeg Vater
• Endochine – Day Two
• Morcheeba – The Antidote
• Morcheeba – Charango

I’ve heard some of Morcheeba’s stuff, but that was mostly from the mid-90s, circa Who Can You Trust and  Big Calm. Very Tricky/Sneaker Pimps type stuff.

Anyway, I’m feeling way under the weather today, so I’m leaving this post as-is for now and going to try to rest. I have some other stuff to discuss, but that’ll probably be later this afternoon or tomorrow. 5 words: the return of the king. And no–I don’t mean the movie (which is fantastic, and now out on blu-ray, but I’ll wait until the extended edition is released before I buy the set).

So I took my daughter to Graywhale on Saturday. What a joke that day was. I tried finding ONE copy of “Princess and the Frog” for my kids. I ended up buying it 4 times, two of which were the 3-disc blu-ray version. One of the single-disc versions which went back to a store, the return on which I actually made $10. Don’t ask how … I’m not even what happened. All I know is that I got back $10 more than I paid. It was really weird.

Anyway, the reason for going to Graywhale was an attempt to return one of the blu-ray3-disc copies. I definitely did not need two, so I figured I’d just take it back. Unbeknownst to me, they have a no-cash-return policy, and offer in-store credit. So I figured, “Well, I might as well peruse their CDs while I’m here.” Yah. Try that with a 4-year old hyper child.

I managed to escape with some good stuff though.

• Sigur Ros – Með suð í eyrum við spilum endalaust
• Sigur Ros  - (  )
• Dioramic – Technicolor
• Silversun Pickups  - Carnavas

Not a bad haul. Then in the mail, I got some more!

• Foma – Phobos
• Foma – Ice Caves
• Great Northern – Trading Twilight for Daylight

There’s more coming in the mail.

So, here’s what happens. I go to … wherever. I get new music. I bring it home, listen to it, and if it’s *really* good, I’ll hop on Amazon and see who has what. Sure enough, most artists have a whole catalog of stuff, most of which can be had for pennies plus shipping.

Such is the case with artists like Great Northern. I picked up their “Sleepy Eepee” at Gray Whale a few weeks back. The guy at the counter kept raving about them, so I figured they’d have to be worth a shot.

Come to find out, they’re really awesome. Solon Bixler, former 30 Seconds to Mars guitarist, is the band’s male vocal frontman. Rachel Stolte is the female singer. The two of them together create some really ethereal, atmostpheric vocals that really mixes with with the strings, drums, guitar and piano. Rachel’s voice is vaguely similar to Scarlett Johannson’s.

Anyway, highly recommend them. Much goodness is to be had.

HOLY haul. I swear, I don’t get how more people aren’t raiding Graywhale. Such an amazing collection of music. What is the matter with you people?!

So I was on the second floor, raiding the indie section, as often I am wont to do on my Friday lunch break. Over the in-house stereo, I hear this voice that sounds like the chick from Bat for Lashes. I ask the guy at the counter who it is. “Yah … umm, this is Portishead.” Now … granted it’s been a while since I’ve listened to them, and I do enjoy Beth Gibbon’s voice, but … really? It didn’t sound like anything of theirs that I have. “Is this their new CD?”

“No, it’s like their second or something.”

“Really! I have most of their stuff, but this doesn’t sound familiar.”

“Yah … you should check it out.”

So I grab my stack and head down stairs to pay. As always, the guy at the counter and I banter about what CDs I’m getting. Invariably, he’s heard of and listened to almost all of them. Luckyyyy (it’s hard to impersonate a “Napoleon” voice while typing, ya know?). Anyway, he was ecstatic that I picked up Saharah Hotnight’s Jennie Bomb CD. “Dude. These guys totally owned when they opened for the Hives. You’ll love ‘em.” Sure enough, very cool Swedish chick band. That’s hard to not like. Not to mention they have  a vibe very reminiscent of Juliette and the Licks. Again, hard not to like, right?

Upstairs guy comes down and says, “Hey, do you want that Portishead CD?”

“Sure. Why not?”

So he goes and gets it. Sure enough, it is indeed “3,” which they released in 2008. Downstairs behind the counter guy says that he heard that they’re working on new music, too. Much awesome-sauce! According to some articles, we can expect new P music in the last part of 2010. *Happy dance*

So here’s the list for today.

• Portishead – Third
• Cordero -  En Este Momento (really excited to listen to this one)
• All Smiles – Ten Readings of a Warning
• The Appleseed Cast – Two Conversations
• Saint Etienne - Finisterre
• Sahara Hotnights - Jennie Bomb
• CIAM – Anonymous
• Beep Beep – Business Casual
• Bettie Serveert - Dust Bunnies
• Blue-Eyed Son – West of Lincoln
• Books about UFOs – Let the Bridges Ignite (local Utah band!)
• The Beautiful Confusion
• Land of Talk – Applause Cheer Boo Hiss
• Layton – Grand Design (no, not a Utah band)
• Heloise and the Savoir Faire – Trash, Rats and Microphones
• Heather Duby - Post to Wire

See what I mean? AMAZING list. I also picked up the new “The Princess and the Frog” blu-ray for my girls, which has most excellent music by Randy Newman.

So there ya go. Can’t wait to dive into this stuff. I have a lot of Bettie Serveert already, so I’m sure that’ll be cool.

Yah. That title even confuses me.

So I got some new stuff on Saturday. EXCELLENT stuff, too. I’m telling you … my methods are fool-proof. Check out the list.

• Audrye Sessions – Self-titled
• Apollo Sunshine – Shall Noise Upon
• Clinic – Walking With Thee
• The Dead Trees – King of Rosa
• Dizmas – On a Search in America
• Division Day – BearTrap Island
• The Rocking Horse Winner – Horizon
• Pronto – All Is Golden
• Pony Up – Make Love to the Judges with Your Eyes
• Persephone’s Bees – Notes from the Underworld
• Neva Dinova – The Hate Yourself Change
• Van She – EP
• Straylight Run – Straylight Run
• Earlimart – Hymns and Hers
• The Elected – Sun Sun Sun
• Goldspot – Tall of the Yes Men
• Dragonette – Galore

Count ‘em … 18 CDs for about $60. And this stuff rocks. This stuff all got ripped and loaded Sunday morning before we went to my sister in law’s house for her birthday. My wife commented on the Audrye Sessions CD, which, for being on random, got a lot of airplay. Weird. She liked everything she heard of theirs though, which is awesome.

Far and away, the most interesting cover was the Dragonette CD. Glossy pink and black. It looked like a vinyl purse, for all intents and purposes. And I mean *glossy*. It’s like someone took shellack to the jewel case insert. The two songs of theirs I sampled while ripping were cool. Kind of electronica with a twist of angry female pop. Not bad.

More later. Just thought I’d share the good news.

Another Friday lunch hour, another trip to Graywhale.

By the way, Team USA just scored again on Team Finland. 4-0. Gold medal bound, baby!!

It pays to open your mouth at the register. I just happened to ask if the guy had heard of Joanna Newsom. Not only had he heard of them, but the guy next to me at the other register had heard of her and had seen her on some obscure rack upstairs.

I am addicted to peanut butter M&Ms. </tangent>

ANYway, I went upstairs and grabbed it, bringing the grand total to 11 CDs for the day. Here’s the list.

• Inkwell – These Stars Are Monsters
• The Happies – If We Were Really Here
• Interpol – Our Love To Admire
• Josephine Foster – Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing
• Foma – Inverness
• Insta – Checklist for Love
• Great Northern – Sleepy Eepee
• God Help the Girl
• The Fever – In the City of Sleep
• The Appleseed Cast – Peregrine
• Joanna Newsom – The Milk-Eyed Mender

I have some other Appleseed Cast and Interpol, the rest were all a spin of the Russian Roulette barrel. I’ve yet to be let down entirely, so I’m not concerned.

I still haven’t ripped the CDs I bought last week. There’s a reason though, weak as it is. So, I hook our computer to our HD TV so we can wach HD content. We have a blu ray drive in the machine, and I have a smattering of HD documentaries that are pretty cool. Since the tower is hooked to the TV and I sit on the couch and do everything from about 10 feet away, I don’t like getting up and down every 3-4 minutes to switch out the CDs. So they’ve sat in their corner for the last week.

Today, I’m buying a blu-ray player. Panasonic DMP-BD80. Some guy near my house is selling one for $100. Nice. So that means I can move my tower back to the computer desk and start ripping. Woo hoo.

A couple of things today. One, I went to the local Graywhale up near the University yesterday. Great guys in there. Really knowledgable. They know their stuff! I went up there looking for some Hungry Lucy CDs, but alas, I completely forgot to ask. Surprise to me: I didn’t know they had 4 full-length CDs. I thought they just had a smattering of recorded songs that I just happened to stumble across several years ago, probably due to the fact that every internet search yielded the exact same results: nothing except some information about Christa Belle living in NYC. At least, I think that’s what it was about. Just for kicks, I googled the name again the other day … this time with stunning results. Wiki article. Official site. Discography. The whole 9 yards.

Anyway, with that in mind, I went to Gray Whale to see if they had any of their CDs. Completely forgot. However, I did walk out with some great new stuff.

• Bluebrain – Soft Power
• Q Stands for Q (QsfQ) – In Dreams Awake
• Cazals – What of Our Future
• Sam Champion – Slow Rewind
• The Court and Spark – Witch Season
• Elf Power – Creatures
• Gentlemen Reg – Little Buildings
• Silversun Pickups – Pikul

I find it odd that Pikul was still in its original plastic with the original security seal. People … THIS IS SILVERSUN PICKUPS. You know … Lazy Eye? Checkered Floor? Panic Switch? Yah. I’m just saying.

Interestingly enough, none of the band members are actually named “Sam Champion.” Gonna have to find out the reason behind the name.

It’s pretty cool when you go to the counter and the guy behind the counter says, “Nice stack of music! You have some really good taste.”

“Okay, yah … but here’s the thing: I know one of those bands.”

*blank stare*

“You mean you’ve never heard of most of these bands? You’re just buying them?”

“Yup.”

“Wow. Umm … why?”

Then I spell out my criteria for buying CDs: insert and CD art can’t suck and song titles can’t suck. As a general rule, I try to avoid CDs with the artist’s face covering the whole CD (read: a la Diane Birch). However, there are times when I let that go and take a gamble (i.e. Diane Birch). For the most part, it’s always paid off.

These CDs all have that asthetic that I require. It doesn’t have to be the second coming of Picaso or Michaelangelo, just not stupid looking. The Sam Champion CD utilizes a minimalist approach to the cover art, employing a single color on a white background, but it works.

Anyway, I swear I covered this in another post, but I can’t find it. Oh well.

So that’s the new music for now. From Gray Whale, anyway.

Next up: Review of the new Hungry Lucy CD.