Welcome; Vote Show Pony; Laura Veirs; Panda Bear; Zeigeist; etc.
Welcome
Hi. Thanks for coming. The old kop’·ē·kăt’ has been dead for over a year now. During the interim, I obtained an MFA degree in creative writing from Chapman University, kicked around Europe for a few months, had my story “Discussion Questions” accepted for publication in The Bryant Literary Review, and found work teaching experimental fiction at The Orange County High School of the Arts. This is my new site. I think it’s pretty snazzy. If we have a history together, you should know that my writing on the new kop’·ē·kăt’ will be very similar to my writing on the old kop’·ē·kăt’. If we’ve only just met, I offer a warning:
My reviews may be inarticulate, poorly considered, and lacking in context. In that respect, they will be no different from the reviews you’ll find on many other blogs. However, I hope to avoid the snide negativity and pretension you’ll find on many other blogs.
For now I’ll try to write one big post each week. This first post is fairly small and music-centric. In the future, I’ll be talking about books I’ve read, movies I’ve seen, or anything noteworthy that happened to me during the week. (“There are many like it, but this one is mine!”)
So if you’re interested, check back here on Sundays. Get in touch. Let me know what you want, and feel free to smack me around if I’m not doing my job. Thanks for reading. I hope we can share something new.
Vote Show Pony
I’ve been meaning to post this song somewhere since I first heard it late last summer. Vote Show Pony’s Sorcha Hawkins lists Kate Bush and Prince among her influences. I love Kate Bush and I’m more or less indifferent towards Prince, but the idea of Kate Bush singing the Prince catalog makes me go all aquiver.
Do you feel like you’re heart’s about to rocket from your chest? Feel like there are anvils raining down on your head? Feel like you’re frantically running around with a lit stick of dynamite in your hands? Chances are, you’re in love. More songs should make use of cartoon tropes. They aren’t so far removed from reality as they might seem. Everything about “Love Hearts Love Hearts” sounds totally 80′s, which means that it sounds totally modern. This song is love in a stranger, sunnier place, and it’s easily one of my favorite tunes of the last year.
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An album is forthcoming. Soon, I hope. For now, you can visit her MySpace page and listen to a few more songs.
Laura Veirs
For some reason, I wasn’t ready to give Laura Veirs’ forthcoming album, Saltbreakers, much of a chance. I figured there was no way it could possibly match Year Of Meteors. I do enjoy being surprised. Remarkably, Saltbreakers is superior to Year Of Meteors in every way. There’s a greater variety of song styles at work here, and more references to oceans and sea life. Mer-folk, especially. Always a plus. I had trouble choosing which song to post here. “Ocean Night Song” is a fine addition to Veirs’ repertoire of wondrous, thumpy, mid-paced ballads (see: “Ether Sings,” “Firesnakes,”) that seem to have whole evenings of chilly stargazing folded up inside them. This former geologist has become a major songwriting talent. I’m sorry I ever doubted her ability to best herself.
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Saltbreakers will be released on April 10th.
- Official site | MySpace
- Buy Saltbreakers: Amazon | Insound
Panda Bear
You’ve been invited to a barbecue at a friend’s beach house. It’s a beautiful day and the food is great, but you can’t relax and have a good time like the rest of the guests. There’s something moving under the deck, moaning, scratching at the boards.
Reviews of this album have been overworking words like “sunny” and “psychedelic.” While those are certainly apt descriptions, many people seem to be overlooking just how creepy these songs can be. But that’s okay — I like long shadows. I suspect that Person Pitch resembles the noise that bounced around in Brian Wilson’s skull after Smile dissolved his brain. “Take Pills” is one of the best songs of the year so far. I’m not exactly sure what Noah Lennox is singing about, but I can guess.
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mp3 | Panda Bear – Take Pills
Person Pitch will be released on March 20th.
Zeigeist
This song was all the rage about a year ago, when it somehow wound up attached to certain leaked copies of Silent Shout, but I missed it at the time. Anyway, I’ve decided that I want Zeigeist to adopt me. They’re like a poppier version of The Knife, with Fischerspooner-style stage theatrics. “Tar Heart” lifts its chorus from “Running Up That Hill” — that’s two Kate Bush references today — and serves as a fine example of how to conquer the world, musically, on a second-by-second basis. If you’re looking for a no-fuss way to kidnap me, bait your trap with this song.
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mp3 | Zeigeist – Tar Heart
There are a number of Zeigeist tracks floating around online, and if you’re interested, I can point you in the right direction. Somehow, tragically, they remain unsigned.
Etc.
- Björk’s sixth studio album, Volta, will be released on May 7th. It will probably be amazing.
- A collection of songs sampled by Daft Punk. (via)
- Photo tour of The Boring Store, the Chicago branch of McSweeney’s 826 tutoring centers.
- Newspaper blackout poems.
- Fun promo reel of background media created for Children of Men. (via)
- [ytmnd] Arnold shares his deepest feelings.
- [ytmnd] The invasion of Iraq is complete.
3 Comments
so. fancy!
hi friend! brunch was brunchalicious. do you approve of the new boy? we must hang again soon. and i swear i’ll give your books back…
Lesenswerter Post, danke.