Broken Social Scene – “Superconnected”
A band I will have to put on my unwritten “bands I want to see live” list. I had the unfortune (very different from misfortune) of being too busy to see My Morning Jacket and Vampire Weekend perform in my town in the month of September. My Morning Jacket’s new album is much weaker than their others. The funk and falsetto (which I am a big fan of normally) seems a bit forced and over the top. But I would have seen them if I could have. I ended up saving a hefty wad of cash by missing the show. Instead I repeatedly listened to songs that would make me feel superconnected. I might sound pretentiously hip by by mentioning this song has a theme of postmodern distaste with hyperinvolvement, the information technology that consolidates individuality.

Lewis & Clarke – “Before It Breaks You”
This song drew me in instantly. It’s softness reflects Iron and Wine, but without the cold harshness of the iron and the luxury of the wine. A guitar somehow speak like a harp. The words might get judged as being overly poetic, but there is never a shallow boy-girl moment (like a deeper Rocky Votolato). This was a treasure in the haystack that I found for free. I should really figure out if the album is worth purchasing, which I’m not going to act on yet given my budget.

The Black Swans – “I. D. W. 2 F.”
A stranger voice than Tom Waits. There’s a non-accented deepness of a bizarre nasally gorilla. I should remind myself to write a song for this type of singing. They’ve got another recording of this when they were phoning in it (song is just past the middle of the track). If I’m not lazy I’ll look into more of this, because I was guttering this song all month. This song changes my outlook on desiring silverware.

I don’t wanna fork.
I just wanna spoon.

The Promise Ring – “Electric Pink”
Pre-Neo-Millennium emo. I’m not a scenester, but I’ll appreciate the occasional song that gets pigeon-holed into the emo genre. The fellow from Cap’n Jazz is in this band.

The Appleseed Cast – “Innocent Vigilant Ordinary”
This song was sitting in iTunes with a mediocre rating, but it grabbed me when shuffling through my playlist of dust-collecting songs. And it seems to transition well from the previous song.

Andrew Bird – “Heretics”
Bird makes his second appearance in my Monthly:Mixtapes. Another piece of greatness. If I was retired, I’d spend a year just traveling to see bands play.

Marching Band – “For Your Love”
A little cheesy instrumentation and song overall, but the right amount of catchiness. No legal listening version exists, but I got it for free somehow, I just can’t remember how.

Lucinda Williams – “Everything Has Changed”

I don’t want to talk to anyone

I guess there’s a sorrow that comes with change. I’m become more and more accepting of change. Taking a line from a science fiction B-movie: “The future is where we’ll spend the rest of our lives.”

mewithoutYou – “January 1979″
The chorus is the poorest part of the song, but because it isn’t so heightened, the whole song has a dynamic range that amplifies the depth of the song. The singing style is quite unique to this band, although you might compare them to At the Drive-In’s raw delivery. And January is still far enough away, but I’ve got it sitting in my September mixtape.

Dashboard Confessional – “Screaming Infidelities”
I am welcomed to be made fun of for this one. I like(d) Dashboard before they blew up later in the year. This has a high school nostalgia that I can’t get rid of. I can immerse myself in those feelings, no matter how cliche and overplayed this band is. If I were discover this on my own, I might have enjoyed it as much as I do. I don’t know if it’s a good thing that I can withstand being “anywhere with anyone making out”. My hair is everywhere. I’ve got curly locks.

Radiohead – “House of Cards”
Because I think that their latest record may be one of their very best.

And I’ll throw in “Reckoner” because it’s just as good and works well before or after this song.

Sonna – “Frone Taj”
This is included because I ended up playing so many times within a week (9 plays). It’s a nice instrumental post-rock tune.

Colour Revolt – Mattresses Underwater
A band with the smooth swagger of the Strokes, the intricacy of Andrew Bird, and the stirring power of I don’t know who (I’ll have to brainstorm and earstorm). They are not classical music in any way, but they seem to harness the ambient range in volume that implemented in classical pieces.

Golden Smog – “Cure For This”
I’m not sure what female is singing here, but it works. I can hear some Jayhawks singers in the background. It’s pretty.

Radiohead seems to fit well as a poster child of the current Pop Music. They have taken the sentiments typical of Pop Art and electromagnify it. The attitude of ambivalence and conflicted duality seem to be expressed in the sonic compositions. They blend electronic transformation with traditional instrumentation of rock or alternative music. They utilize unconventional and uglier tones melded together with pretty pitches. The realistic but slightly morphed singing creates a strong contrast with how the tracks are laid down that continues a saga of music. They might not be creating a new genre or anything, but I can see today’s culture being reflected in a good light by this band.

They are popular because of balance of tastes. I can’t say I like a fifth of what plays on pop radio, let alone all radio, but some artists are capable of a wide fan reach. I think Radiohead’s In Rainbows is one of 2007’s best albums, but that is irrelevant to the rest of the monologue.

Indie is Post-Pop

I can guarantee this term (indie) is the delimiter within the continuum just like Postmodern was/is to modernism. You don’t hear terms like Pop Film or Pop Books much these days. Indie Films, indie music, indie writers, indie-anything really. And Radiohead is considered “indie” by many last.fm users… I don’t need to get into an argument about what indie means, because it means many things. It’s a classification and a description that can describe anything such as a brand of sound (just like Christian music has a branded sound detached from the lyrical content). Independence (the unabbreviated indie) will never stay put in terms of terminology and in terms of dissecting for explicit exposition. Anybody who is on an independent record label is Indie. Anyone with a D.I.Y. approach is Indie. More broadly speaking– anyone who is in an independent nation is Indie!

The Indie debate normally ends up with the fact that it’s for hipsters. It’s also for whoever enjoys listening to such a classification. If it sits well with snobbish music hipsters and extends to others who just the the general style, then it is the new pop (as in “neo-popular”- aren’t I hip for using those words together?). Pop music evaded crisp definition too. Pop Music is not just the type of music that is cookie cutter crisp and in the C-Ionian scale with a familiar major key melody that will awaken “a genie in a bottle baby.”

I am not defending the use of indie (although I accept the term in a relative way) or the quality of things described as such. I know very well that this not-so-new but still vulnerable term changed and changes. Culture is going to push the envelop of meaning with any word, and being aware of this will calm the swelling of pointless argumentation that is never resolved of its sociolinguistic instability.

That’s the only way I can describe the chillingly odd voice of Jerry DeCicca, the singer for The Black Swans. The Black Swans borrow some of the Midwestern folk style with some extraordinary additions that make me say “Interesting.” The voice is like nothing I’ve heard. It’s not that it is so deep, it manages to be a bit nasally at the same time. There is a drawing out of words like Forrest Gump backed by the gritty smoke of Tom Waits. It comes across as a dust-breathing lumberjack who can bellow like Johnny Cash but has an airy flu of Bob Dylan with the vocal range of Louis Armstrong. I can mimic his singing easily enough, but I can’t get enough of the bizarre sound.

One of the members who violinned his way through the band is resting in peace. They are playing a show this October in their homestate of Ohio. Their lyrics are amuzingly awkword, yet crudely heartfelt.

You can get the printer driver offline easily!

I know this is petty, but I find it humorously bothersome (not really though) when someone says “You can preorder Aqualung’s new album Words & Music offline.” So I can order by phone or reserve one through the postal service because it is offered OFFline? Disconnect your modem! The internet is not required. There is a trick going around the not on but off of the internet showing a hack to access google.com offline (no cache required). ISPs have been a scam all these years. We don’t need to suffer speeds of dial-up or even cable internet services. And forget local disk space; everything can be stored remotely offline.

Maybe I’m wrong though. It’s possible the use of “offline” is meant to remove items from the internet.

You can get firefox offline.

In this example, the user is trying to say you can delete firefox from the internet so nobody can download and install it from the Mozilla website. This strategy is like a takedown of a website that will give you a 404 Error when visiting reliable sites such as youtube.com.

Kim Taylor is a better candidate for incessantly repeated airplay than Sara Bareilles. I wrote about this song over a year ago stating that I had heard it a year before that. Unfortunately, the studio mp3s are no longer hosted on her site, but I was lucky enough to catch her demo version when it came out, then her album version, as well as a live version. Her live sets are available with good listening quality at archive.org.

Tegan and Sara are another pair of females that I have been flooding into my August ears. Their latest album The Con is probably one of my favorites of the 2000s. Minnesota’s radio station The Current was gracious enough to capture a drum-free version of the title track for us.

Tegan & Sara are at it again in the same session with “Back in Your Head.” The simplistic piano reminds me of a criticism against David Albarn’s easy pop-like piano instrumentation. To me, it all sounds good. I would put up half their CD if I wanted to ruin the fact that a mixtape should have a mix of artists.

Andrew Bird is brilliance. I can appreciate his style more than Sufjan Stevens (I admit the skills, but it sometimes doesn’t do it for me), although they both have that special virtuosity to their compositions. I think it is because Sufjan can’t whistle like a hybrid bird/theremin. If Andrew Bird didn’t have a behind-the-scenes mastermind mixing in the live pieces, he is one of the best arrangers I’ve ever come across. He seems really in tune with the motion of his work. This live cut is utterly different sounding from the version on Armchair Apocrypha. How about a another take closer to the original?
Keep Reading the Rest…

I admire the ideas of George Berkeley. He’s probably misunderstood. He probably didn’t think what he was saying was the absolute nature of reality in it’s precise form. He merely brought to the surface that you can be completely sane and logical and believe that the physical doesn’t exist (or more accurately, that the material world is created in the immaterial mind foremost thus being a byproduct of immaterial and its existence being a collective perception). He isn’t a contemporary man with knowledge of today’s technology or advancements, but I think his ideas (whether true or not) still hold up fairly well. I don’t hold onto his philosophy as the elite definition of metaphysics, but I have certainly incorporated a similar mindset into my not-so-concrete conception of reality that is compatible with my outlook on life.

My Morning Jacket tapped on Berkeley’s shoulder by bringing up some of his ideas into song, this one being called “Steam Engine.”

So I do believe, none of this is physical
At least not to me
So, I do believe
That anywhere it goes
It’s always with me
It’s not the dream
That makes you weak
It’s not the night that makes you sleep
But it’s a voice, and it’s a choice
To call you out, or stay at home
So, I do believe
None of this is physical
At least not to me
So I do believe
That anywhere it goes
It’s always with me
It’s not the beast, it’s not the sheets
So soft and warm, all over me
But it’s the touch, you need so much
To move around on this green earth
Take your money and your drugs
Take your money and your drugs
To anyone who wondered
What old Jesus meant to me
Take him out to go diving
In Red Patoka sea
The brain melts in the twilight
With the boar and moving trees
Your skin looks good in moonlight
And Goddamn those shaky knees
The fact that my heart’s beating
Is all the proof you need

We got ‘em
We got ‘em
We got ‘em
We got ‘em
[ad infinitum]

What I get from this is money and drugs can be taken as unimportant as they are physical. It’s not the night that makes you sleep, as you could sleep with any physical surrounding. Anywhere you go, your mental perception is always with you. The brain melts in the twilight with the boar and moving trees because the vision of the “external world” is captivating because we can sense it.

We got ‘em. We got the bits of the universe in our mind, but not necessarily in vivid consciousness [We are not the universe though; Pantheism isn't what is meant here]. We are finite and imperfect, so we will never fully understand it all. But a greater perceiver can.

July is certainly a trip. It’s a pronouncement of lingering summer. It marks the start of changes and getaways. It was like a prequel to a round trip vacation and the month has return to even more new explosions. You can insert some of your favorite party jams as well if you feel the need.

Lykke Li performing the song “Little Bit” in a minimalist setting. She possesses a rhythmic quality that compliments the pitch perfect voice. This is a unexpected find that is bound to become more popular as time goes on.

“All You Do Is Talk” by Black Rebel Motorcycle Club. They are not black. I haven’t seen any motorcycles. I have no clue if this club is actually full of rebels. What I can tell you is that this song is mighty fine. Shown here is a quality version live. Grab Baby 81 if this sounds like sound you’d like more of. This is one of a few great songs from the album.

Shotstar

God Bless This Mess [m4a file (AAC). No video available.]

I’m going obscure on this one. Shotstar is one of those bands that weren’t much to shake chicken legs at, but they managed to create one song that stuck with me. They are a no-hit wonder. They no longer exist or have a following, but they were local so I can remember them. And I went to high school with a family member of one of the players. I saw them perform once, but I know they played often in the beginning of the decade. The song I’m showing you is what I consider the high point of the band. “God Bless This Mess” has a well-done production with some nice dynamics that make the melody pop. The rest of the album is nothing compared to this song. If this was released as a single, there would be more to imagine of how good they could have been.
Keep Reading the Rest…

The Sea and Cake is the name of an album, an artist, and also derived from a song “The C in Cake.” I’m not familiar with the song other than it being from an avant-garde indie band out of Chicago. If you asked me a couple weeks ago, I’d know nothing of all three. The album I never heard until I came across the entire thing streaming online. The Sea and Cake play a jazzy type of alternative music, maybe even turning into indie funk at times with a not-so-funky vocal thrown in. They give off a Yo La Tengo vibe, but they have a distinctive style that may fly well with curious ears. The oh so majestic Last.fm offers you listening powers to this album with handy streaming media. Start “Jackin the Ball” now.

The cool thing about this is that is stems all the way from 1995. That’s over a decade behind us and it still suits the sound that is around today. Ahead of their time is what I say, however cliche.

Listen to all 10 songs.