The End of an Era

After having my Best of 2009 post deleted for the second time, despite it only containing links to buy the records themselves, I've decided to bite the bullet and move over to Wordpress. I don't want this broken record to destroy this blog I've worked so hard on in the last few years.

So I hope you'll join me over at.
www.linesthroughlines.wordpress.com

www.linesthroughlines.com will also forward you there. It's easier to remember.

Thanks, everyone.

7.8.09 Listening Assignments

It's not Monday. And I started this @ 3:38 in the morning. Screw it, anyway. I'm jumping back in headlong...

1. Discovery - So Insane - Someone said this reminded them of the Postal Service and I fought the urge to reenact what the five fingers said to the face. Yes, it's electronic. Yes, it's over-hyped to such great heights (which tends to happen if you're the musical offspring of two legit powerhouses: Vampire Weekend and Ra Ra Riot). But this is not in the same stratosphere as TPS. Anyhow, they decided they didn't care about meter and tempo in this one, and it suits them well. This LP is growing on me, despite my initial best efforts to loathe it. [from s/t|buy]

2. Slaraffenland - Away - If you've been following my twitter feed during the blog's hiatus, you heard this yesterday. It begins like any song could, but ends like few songs can. Looping arpeggiation deployed to the utmost effect, building for the song's entirety. It feels imperfectly perfect, which I've determined to be exactly what the doctor ordered. [from Here All Beautiful Collides: A Sampler|site]

3. Kurt Vile - My Sympathy - Fingerpicked on strings bent to death, this song is a gasp of evaporated air in a solitary cell. The last breath of a man whose days are written, stone-carved, in the virtual tombstone of an almost-wasted life. I only wish it could be longer than 2:31. It might make more sense if it were 3:48. [from Overnite KV!!!|myspace]

4. George Benson - This Masquerade - If you're under 30, you'd swear it was Stevie singing this beautiful sauntering melody, but you'd be wrong. It's George Benson, full of soul and moxy. And you've learned something new today. [from The Greatest Hits of All|buy]

Broken Record

As you may have noticed, yet another post has been removed by Blogger due to yet another unsubstantiated anonymous DMCA takedown request. The post in question, on the particularly awesome Patrick Watson, was posted by permission using approved promotional songs. If that's not ok, then what is the damn point? I'm supposed to risk my entire blog to post songs that are APPROVED by a band, their label, and their publicist? E-mails to Google go unanswered, even though the DMCA e-mail says to respond w/ any questions. Watson's promo guy is out of town.

So here we are again. Time does not heal all wounds. It only makes the kick in the teeth more soul-crushing.

Telekinesis!

I've been roused from my slumber by kinetic energy, radiating from the gooey brain mass of one Seattle young man named Michael Benjamin Lerner. His project, Telekinesis, is set to drop its first record April 7th, aptly titled Telekinesis!

There's something old school to this indie-pop, one of those timeless things. It's forthright and dependable, sunny and deep, and owing to talented producer Chris Walla, tasteful and unique. Interesting guitars and melody will simply never go out of style, nor will boatloads of heart.

As it turns out the name is fitting...You're going to feel something move in your chest and the only explanation is magic.

Listen:
Coast of Carolina
I Saw Lightning
[from Telekinesis!|buy]

Linesthroughlines goes Twittering

www.twitter.com/lineslineslines

I finally got a twitter account and I think it'll fill this void I've been feeling since my faith in Blogger began to sink. I'll be posting songs there (and I'm fairly sure I can pull it off since it's not a searchable database), along with some terse prose about the mentioned songs (140 character max, including the web address). But you'll be able to hear what I'm listening to, to download it, to follow the progress of the blog, and to read other random tidbits that come to mind.

Let's have some fun with this.

www.twitter.com/lineslineslines

bookmark it (or follow it if you're a member yourself.)

Still over it...

You may not have noticed, but my top 60 songs of 2008 post was reinstated following my successful appeal of the DMCA takedown notice Blogger received. There never was anything illegal about it in the first place, so it's not a surprise, but the ordeal provided the crux for the motivation to make a change in how I'm doing things around here. But still, I won, and it sure felt good. And I don't have "the solution" yet, so I was prepared to ease back into some music writing here while all the pieces fell into place...

...and then I got an e-mail two days ago informing me that yet another post had received a notice and been taken down. This particular post was from November...0f 2007. Well over a year old, the original post for my first all-covers mixtape Blankets V.1. Every link on the post had long-since expired, making absolutely nothing about the post even potentially copyright-infringing. And yet it's gone anyway. So we're back at square one. Blogger is dead to me.

But there is new life ahead...

America the Beautiful

This.

School of Language, Now Enrolling K-12

I mentioned School of Language last week and I thought it fitting to do a little followup. This is one band/album that somehow never breached my ears in 2008, despite being the logical progression of one of my favorite bands of 2007 (Field Music) and coming out in early February. SoL is basically FM's leader David Brewis' solo incarnation, launched after he felt Field Music had come to its fitting conclusion. This could have been a sad thing.

The fortunate thing is that Sea from Shore could have been a side-step (or even a step back) from '07s Tones of the Town, and instead is a leap forwards. This attempt is weirder, in best ways, spinning off-kilter like a juggled saucer while somehow maintaining the stranglehold on impeccable pop taste at which Brewis has always excelled. Where linesthroughlines' fave Aloha has fallen off, SoL has happily donned the indestructible cape of melodic (and, in this case, meticulously arranged) odd-rock. It's bookended with four masterful "Rockist" tracks, the final reprise of which attains the heights only hinted at in the first. It feels like summiting K2 at daybreak, the world unfolded like a magazine under a glowing, gauzy haze of clouds. Like the most beautiful morning of your life.

Sometimes a sad thing turns into a happy thing. Sometimes something strange hits your ears and you just want to forget everything you knew previous to that moment. And if I could re-do my Best Albums of 2008 list, this would be top 5 with ease.

Listen:
Marine Life
Extended Holiday
[from Sea From Shore|buy]