Ok! I'm allowed to make updates to my top 10 albums of 2004 list until the 31st. At which point the list will be considered finalized. Why do I bring this up? The Secret Machines. This stuff is good! Here's what I have to say about them.

• Now Here Is Nowhere by The Secret Machines. I missed this one on Pitchfork, but managed to catch it on MTV2 of all places. Now Here is a stellar bit of rock music. There's definitely a Led Zeppelin influence here. Pounding percussion, indie vocals, and instrumentation that just sounds... huge. An amazing record.

So, this knocks that Modest Mouse album off the list. That was the one pick that I really wasn't sure about, and Now Here Is Nowhere is just so amazing, I feel much more comfortable putting it on the list.

See the original post with the new update here.

It seems like music is the only form of media that I really consume with any kind of passion. Seriously, I've seen maybe 10 new movies this year. And that doesn't make for a very good top 10 list. Likewise for books and TV shows. Although, I think I will say a word or two about video games, but that's for later. Right now, we get to talk about music! Sweet, wonderful music.

Scouring Soulseek for new music is about all there is to do here at home. But I've been listening to some good stuff:

• Jóhann Jóhannsson: Englabörn. I haven't yet been able to get his recently released Virðulegu Forsetar, but this album is really good. It's excellent "modern classical" stuff: string compositions, some piano, etc., but with the occasional vocoder/robot voice thrown in. Plus, it's Icelandic!
• Monolake: Hongkong. Late-90s IDM/Ambient Techno stuff. Every now and then I get on a kick for alien, minimalistic synth sounds. This fits that bill nicely.
• The Apples in Stereo. Well, after gushing about Ulysses, I realized I had never really absorbed much by Schneider's previous project. Her Wallpaper Reverie is a very enjoyable neo-psych outing.
• Cake: Pressure Chief. Every time a new Cake album comes out, I'm hoping for Fashion Nugget but all they seem to come up with is Prolonging the Magic. Well, Comfort Eagle was pretty good. But Pressure is just disappointing. "End of the Movie" is one of their bests though. Their cover of Bread's "Guitar Man" is okay. But generally it's just ho-hum.

That's the stuff I've really absorbed over the break. Hopefully I'll find a bit more good stuff before I post the requisite Top N of 2004 list towards the end of December. :)

Several months ago, I managed to get myself out the door to a really kickin' show here in downtown Lexington: Mates of State. It was a great show all around, but one of the best treats for me was one of the opening bands: a local group called Ulysses that happened to be the project of one Robert Schneider, one of the guys from the Elephant 6 group, which included bands like Neutral Milk Hotel, Olivia Tremor Control, and Schneider's previous project, The Apples in Stereo. Before the group dissolved.

Now, aside from the fact that a guy from the illustrious (to say the least) Elephant 6 collective had started a band based in Lexington, I was utterly blown away by their music. I really, really enjoyed it.

The problem was, I couldn't for the life of me find any of their tracks online, even on soulseek. Well, their album 010 was released recently, and I'm currently listening to it. It's quite good. It's very solid neo-psych/indie rock, still definitely in the vein of Schneider's previous Apples in Stereo stuff. I highly recommend it.

However, I have to put an asterisk on this review. Not for any particular flaw of this album in and of itself, but in comparison to the Ulysses set I saw at that concert. Apparently, that night their drummer was out, and so they did this amazing Spacemen 3-esque shoegazing drone-pop set that just blew my mind. And despite 010's lofi goodness, I'm still just left aching for stuff they played at that concert. Anyone have a bootleg??

Anyway, I highly recommend this stuff. Download (or, in this case, preferably pick up) a copy of this stuff. It's terrific.

I'm currently listening to Autobahn by Kraftwerk. It's beautiful, really. I remember, at GSP, almost four years ago exactly, getting on Ebay on a computer in NKU's computer lab with... someone cool. A girl named Sarah, maybe. Don't recall offhand. Anyway, I saw an import CD of Autobahn on the cheap and I picked it up.

It was at home when I got back. I remember listening to it, in my room. The music was amazing: liquid synthesizers rolling along. The pulsing electronic percussion. Wir fahren auf der Autobahn / Vor uns liegt ein weites Tal / Die Sonne scheint mit Glitzerstrahl. And all I could think of was how happy I had been at GSP. I was afraid I might not be that happy again. And listening to it now, I realize I haven't.

Oh my. "Common People" by Pulp is one of my favorite songs of all time (probably top 20, at least). Along with Ben Folds, William Shatner has apparently just covered it.

It's big news in the realm of music: Two of the Big 5 record labels are merging, into what Pitchfork calls "One Grotesque Abomination." Indeed. If the grim predictions are true, and my guess is they are, indie labels should see a new influx of good bands who were, up until now, "lucky" enough to be on a major label. So support those indie labels, folks, and fight media consolidation.

Just a note about my music rankings: I do grade on a curve. That is, I think these ratings should be distributed on a Bell Curve. See, I've listened to maybe like three 1s in my whole life. Maybe 6 or 7 10s, but then I'm actively seeking good music, not bad. In general, most of my ratings are going to be 5.5-6.5, since I'm actively seeking out good music, the average value of my ratings necessarily will be slightly above the 5 average of the general music population.

That's all.

I listened to three new albums today. Nothing too exciting. Here's a breakdown:

• The Plastic Constellations, Mazatlan. Entirely average indie rock. Not bad by any means, but nothing exciting. 5.5.
• The Free Design, Stars/Time/Bubbles/Love. They say these guys influenced Stereolab. And I dig Stereolab. While fairly good 60's sunshine-happy-rock, there are far too many lyrics about butterflies. All in all though, not bad. 6.
• Jason Forrest, The Unrelenting Songs of the 1979 Post Disco Crash. This is more like it. Pitchfork called it "maximalist" electronic music. Think Basement Jaxx or maybe Daft Punk, but a lot more strange. It's got this sort of post-modern lack of focus that sadly strips of it of just about all emotional appeal, but it's quite interesting to listen to. 7.5.

In a perfect world, the band Wilco would have been slapped with a lawsuit for producing one of the most overrated albums of all time. However, this is not a perfect world.

But, all that press has a way of bringing out lawyers anyway. And this is an interesting one, indeed, at least from my (bizarre, warped) perspective. Irdial~Discs, who put out an fascinating four disc set of recordings of shortwave radio "number stations" (just follow the link), are suing Wilco's record label, since, apparently, Wilco sampled, without permission, over 1:30 of one of these recordings. Here is Irdial's take on the issue.

More overrated bands should get sued like this. Wee.

Kidding aside, I find this a little irritating. For one, these are shortwave radio recordings! Recording stuff off the radio isn't the kind of creative act that needs to be protected by copyright. Granted, the compilation is really great, and I appreciate what Irdial did, but come on. This is the kind of thing that ought to be public domain.

Secondly, and this really follows from my first point, the sounds and atmosphere of these number station recordings are fantastic, and a really great motif to build music around. I think Irdial, as a very independent media company, is totally out of line taking a copyright stance that seems more like the stance of a major label or studio in the context of creative re-use of their intellectual property.

So, as much as I like to see Wilco getting sued, I'm afraid I just can't support. And frankly, Irdial has really disappointed me.

Just finished listening to OnOffOn by Mission of Burma. My feelings about this album are rather mixed. Every individual song is pretty good. Not a single terrible track. But the album as a whole is, for some reason, overly long and boring! I give it a 6.

For a while, before I discovered Soulseek, it was very difficult to find music I wanted to listen to. I turned, for a time, to the iTunes Music Store, and it worked ok, despite the financial burden. Anyway, I still get there New Releases e-mails, and today I noticed that there was a new Magnetic Fields album. Woo!

So, I had some leftover credits on my account from the Pepsi/iTMS promotion. Not wanting to fire up Soulseek and try to find the album, I just bought some random tracks from the album, titled, briefly, i. Well, let's just say I was quite pleased. I'm a big fan of The Magnetic Fields. After all, Zach Loves Synthpop. Well, the tracks I listened to were great. If you're into The Magnetic Fields (or the related Future Bible Heroes, or other stuff like Freezepop, etc.) you should definitely give this stuff a listen.

Also of note, Pitchfork had an interesting news post today. Apparently Trent Reznor is in the process of recording a completely monophonic new NIN album. Really bizarre, but should be interesting. Then, after disseminating actual information, the Pitchfork writer, in true jackass form, proceeds to forgo journalism entirely to bash Trent Reznor. Yes, he's a goth dope. But this isn't doing much for Pitchfork's journalistic integrity. Ahh well.

I fully recommend the band Múm. It's weird, unless you keep an open mind or are already in to stuff like Boards of Canada etc., you'll probably not think to highly of it. But I recommend it. Honestly, I think it's some of the most beautiful music I've heard in a very long time. "Green Grass of Tunnel" from the album Finally We Are No One makes me happy. The album Yesterday Was Dramatic - Today Is OK in its entirety is similarly smile-inspiring. I love this stuff.

As an aside, I realize it's very non-music-elitist of me to have not thoroughly consumed Múm's ouevre already, as they're days of big hype were like in 2001 or something. But oh well. I'm just now getting around to it.

As another aside, if you dig Múm at normal volumes, it's even better really loud. Give it a try. At any rate, this is probably some of the music I'd want to be listening to if I knew I my hearing was going to fail soon anyway. :)

Thanks to Lane for recommending a fantastic band: The Fiery Furnaces. It's rather late for me to go about trying to describe them. I'm horrible at it anyway.

I initially got a Mates of State vibe from them. There's piano there. Which is like an organ, I guess. And guy-girl vocals. But I just chalked that up to hearing them about the same time I saw Mates live. Turns out it's a brother-sister duo, so to some extent, I was at least somewhat close on that initial impression.

I also detect a hint of The White Stripes in there. Not exactly, but sort of. They've got that sort of bluesy, roots feel at time. The instrumentation is much wackier, and definitely not as sparse as the Stripes (or Mates of State for that matter). In any event, AMG lists the Stripes as a "similar artist," so again I am vindicated.

All in all, this is great stuff. The tracks "Two Fat Feet" and "Asthma Attack" are my favorites of the generally-quite-good album Gallowsbird's Bark. Check it out.

So, as I mentioned before, I went to go see Mates of State tonight. Before tonight, I thought of Mates of State as a very solid band. But their live show is awesome, and I think they've managed to entrench themselves as one of my favorite bands. Perhaps not top 20, but up there. I really dig this stuff.

They opened up with one of my favorite songs, "Whiner's Bio", and played through just about all of their latest album, Team Boo. They played some older material as well. For me, though, the highlight of their set was the closer: an absolutely amazing cover of Nico's "These Days", which is actually one of my favorite songs of all time. Jason sang, no drumming. And Kori's organ was beautiful. That made the whole fucking night.

Mates of State's stage presence is really quite cool. You watch them play, and they're just staring each other down. It's so readily apparent that the two (husband and wife) are in love with each other, and it totally spills over into the music. It's great.

Also of note were the opening bands and the swag I managed to net. I can't say much about the swag until next I see Blake. He missed the show, but I've got a kickass gift for him. :)

The local bands were very good. Summer Melts Faster started out with a pretty rocking set to warm up the crowd. They're sort of a post-punk inflected At The Drive-In. Quite good. The second band really blew me away, though. Ulysses, typically a quartet, was missing their drummer for this show. The result was a much more subdued guitar/synth/synth act that absolutely rocked. Really awesome lyrics, great guitar, and these awesome layered synth sounds. It reminded me of Galaxie 500. But it rocked flat out. And the guys were really cool.

All in all, I had a great night. A lot of fun. The Mates set just left me feeling very positive. I've been in a great mood all night. It's great. Awesome music. Awesome night. It's good.

Also of note: I'm going to see the band Mates of State tonight. I rather like the band. They're quite quirky, and their music is fantastic. More when I get back tonight.

Sigh. And apparently Blake Ellis isn't coming. But, as he already knows, I'm going to go anyway. :D

Currently listening to some of the most exciting new music I've heard in a while. The band Ratatat is this sort of indie rock outfit inflected with kick-ass electronics. It's really awesome stuff. I'm sort of at a loss to make a good comparison. I guess in spirit they're a little like Stereolab, but less disco français and more of the Pixies, I guess. That's just a stab in the dark at a description, but don't let that stop you. Listen to this stuff. It's awesome.

I'm feeling a little depressed. That happens when I listen to just about anything Mark Kozelek ever recorded. That's not to say listening to Mark Kozelek is a necessary condition for me feeling down, it's just that I always end up playing the Red House Painters or Sun Kil Moon when I'm feeling bad. Anyway, here's the song "Carry Me Ohio", by Sun Kil Moon, of the album Ghosts of the Great Highway, an excellent listen... if you're in that kind of mood.

I'm so excited about renewed blogging that I think I'll take a minute to talk about my current musical adventures:

I'm currently listening to a band called Ganymede. They're synthpop. I've been quite into synthpop lately. Ganymede is quite good. Really, they sound like Apoptygma Berzerk and the like, but without being overly Industrial/Goth. This is a good thing, as I love the sound of AB and others of that ilk.

Listening to Ganymede's album Space And Time, I must say all the tracks (at least on the first disc, I haven't listened to much of the second, a remix disc. What I have heard is pretty good Euro-ish dance stuff, though.) are worthy listens, if you're into the genre. The highlights for me are:

• Hong Kong. This song reminds me of something, I can't put my finger on it.
• Frequency 1000. Lovely vocoder intro. And I'm sucker for vocoders!
• Daylight

I'm quite excited to hear more of this band, and similar groups. Once I get some more hard disk space, I'm probably going to check out the bands Isis and Neuropa. Because Neuropa is a damn cool name for a band.