Vetiver - The Errant Charm

This album is great for walking around campus, driving the streets with the windows down, or sitting in a living room absorbing the vibes. The tone is one of meandering melancholy, though not downtrodden in the least. Songwriter and bandleader Andy Cabic handled each of the compositions brilliantly, often complementing his ambient guitar parts with cool, collected keyboard sounds, propelling the track ever-forward with ebullient (read: peppy) drum machine loops. The lead guitar parts are reserved, but sweet, melodic, and pleasing when they top the mix. There are vocal harmonies abound here, but never layered too densely. As the album progresses, it moves from a sound of idling idyll into a driving midsection of (relatively speaking) steadily heavier jams until “Faint Praise”, where Cabic pulls his ambient guitar picking down from the clouds in a contemplative mood, leading into the album closer, “Soft Glass”. This final track is a nice showcase of both the folk rock roots and the more explorative arrangements. This recording is a mature work with a refined sound, and an excellent collection of songs, so have no fear loading this into a CD deck at the station or your personal music library.

MOZAIX

New background! Click to enjoi and/or download.

Tame Impala/Stardeath and White Dwarves/Kuroma at The Jackpot, Lawrence, KS - November 29, 2010

Tour Poster from www.tameimpala.com

What looked to be a promising evening of psychedelic, phasey grooves at Mass Street's Jackpot Music Hall turned awry quickly, as unknown technical issues led to considerable portions of the mix not making it through the monitors and to the crowd. After opener Koromo played through their set of noticeably bratty, sincere, and neo-90's-influenced music, the crowd was noticeably upbeat, pleasantly surprised and eager for more from the later groups. The obligatory tear-down/set-up break time came and went, but Star White (as one plaid-clad fellow referred to the second group on for the night) didn't appear too close to being ready to play.

Star Death and White Dwarves carry the dignified merit of recording and later performing with indie rock standouts The Flaming Lips on their 2009? remake of iconic Pink Floyd album Dark Side of the Moon. The album met mixed, generally positive reviews, but the live performances seem to have spoke the loudest, kindling a new energy in an LP of eternal quality.

So anyhow, one of those Aussies from Tame Impala  - grabs a microphone and announces to the crowd that they would be refunding everyone who paid ca$h (a pox upon your family, Ticketmaster!), and after a brief sojourn in the biting Kansas winter winds, the crowd gained freentry to the Jackpot. After another brief setup period, a group of musicians assembled from Tame Impala and Stardeath and White Dwarves made their way into what I would go so far as to call a righteous jam. The band went through a rotating lineup that included notable Lawrence resident (and Topeka, KS native) Kliph Scurlock, drummer for psychedelic jam legends The Flaming Lips. The band played on for perhaps 25 to 30 minutes of freeform music for their free show, again providing pleasant surprise to those who waited outside for the performance.

Despite major technical difficulties, the night turned out to be a success thanks largely to all of the bands, The Jackpot, and the crowd working together. Not bad for a Monday, right? 


Videos to come.

The World's Most Popular Psychoactive Substance

Coffee.
After the resident Mr. Coffee machine in the apartment bit the dust (about three weeks into use), it was time to graduate to new means of caffeine intake. These classic methods require a bit more work than the newer drippy spitters, but these classics have been wonderful. Behold the results:

Bodum Chambord French Press - $30

Bialetti Moka Express Stovetop Espresso Maker - $30

The two really shine when mated with cold, filtered water and any of the delicious coffees available at The Merc (9th & Iowa). I prefer the Instant Karma blend from Lawrence's own Z's Divine Espresso for my press coffee. It's bold, but not quite so dark as a French roast, and features smooth flavors with subtle hints of dark chocolate and perhaps blackberry - I'm not certain. Roastgardless, make sure to get a course grind when using with a French Press to avoid excess dregs in your mug (paper filters still work with these, just press them down). Conversely, you want to be certain to get a fine grind of the espresso blend, nearly as fine as Turkish coffee. Here, I stick with Z's again, this time the Organic Espresso Blend. Their website describes it as:


"The real thing folks! NOT some over roasted stuff like you find in the grocery store. Rather, 5 beans chosen, roasted and blended specifically to bring that great coffee flavor to drinks made with steamed milk—sweet, smooth, a little chocolaty, and NOT bitter. NOT recommended for drip coffee or press pot brewing—just espresso. But do what you want. Go figure."


One more thing:
The Bialetti Latté/Cappuccino set includes the original espresso maker and a very effective milk frother. I have found that it is worth the extra $15 to have home-made lattés, cappuccinos, and macchiatos. Any of these make great gifts! If you are looking for a little something extra, buy coffee and bundle them. If you are looking for something a little more affordable, just get the coffee!

Klimt Background

The first of many computer backgrounds I hope to release, this is a Photoshopped version of Gustav Klimt's 1907 Water Snakes II (Friends II). Click the image wherever you would like (to see full resolution)!

Quiet Houses

Listen to Fleet Foxes.

The gist of this post comes down to the four words above, so you may as well start your download or playlist now, then come right on back here. Born from a Seattle suburb, this five-piece group makes beautiful and harmonic melodies that evoke a sense of spatiality, peace, and calm. In 2008, the group's excellent Sun Giant EP debuted, followed by their still-better self-titled LP (see left).

Leads Robin Pecknold and Skyler Skjelset share a gift for creating masterful and wonderous vocal arrangements, which seems to sonically differentiate Fleet Foxes from other folk-influenced contemporaries such as The Dodos, Bon Iver, and Iron & Wine. The music comes across as wide as a national park (see video). Percussion is rhythmic and upbeat when present, expressed with excited tambourines, simple shakers, open and acoustic tom-work, not so unlike that of Grizzly Bear's Christopher Bear. Instrumentation is somewhat varied, at least for the genre, predominately featuring a two-acoustic-guitars, vocals, and drums lineup. The group does well integrating electric guitar (Sun it Rises), mandolin (Blue Ridge Mountains), and flute (Your Protector), evoking different moods as they see fit. The overall mood is one of mature calm, painted in the utmost of sincerity by a young band destined to make more beautiful music in the coming years. Hear them for yourself.

Yellowstone from Andrew Curtis on Vimeo.

Thxgvn

Old School 1940 Reproduction from Color Slide - Image via the Denver Post

Happy Thanksgiving.
Take a step back and appreciate every last thing you can, then go ahead and find a few more things that you just haven't valued in the world. Feel free to treasure those things too.

I saw these pictures a couple months ago, which were created by restoring rare color slides from 1939-1943 into photographs. It is strange and interesting to see these types of scenes in color, given that most accounts of this era represent it in black and white. While they don't necessarily pertain to Thanksgiving, they sure do make me feel like eating a hearty meal with friends and family.

Have a good one, and don't forget to give thanks all year.
Alex