2013-12-15
Wanderers by Asthmaboy
"Comprised of self-producing musicians Glindon Marten and John Boone from Seattle, Asthmaboy is one of the greatest hidden treasures of the current independent music scene. Their first offering in 2007, Later Days, consisted of cerebrally-satisfying pieces driven by acoustic guitar, ghostly echoes of accompanying piano and banjo, and enough lyrical wit and complexity to provide entertainment for a variety of listeners. Case in point: "Down to Puget Sound", which examines the end of the world via a "flaming message from space" from God. " - Kelley Bathje via The Folk Blog
Available at the price of your choice at BandCamp
Filmspotting #471
Out of the Furnace
"Yet delicacy exists here and there. I like the early scenes between Rodney and Russell, who mostly communicate via shoves, fake punches and the revving of car engines (Bale and Affleck are both very good). There’s also a surprisingly affecting moment between Bale and Saldana after their relationship has taken a turn for the worse. Here and elsewhere, Out of the Furnace has a real feel for loss." - Josh Larsen
Filmspotting #471
Pacific Rim
Pacific Rim made Adam's end of the year pick for one of 2013's top film surprises. Josh was not such a big fan but he can't stop Adam from liking it.
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Pacific Rim offers … monsters and robots. In the future, alien behemoths begin to emerge from a portal deep beneath the Pacific Ocean. Mankind has built skyscraper-sized battle robots to take out the beasties. (The machines are operated by human copilots residing in the head.) Godzilla vs. Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow? Sign me up. Yet there’s nothing evocative about Pacific Rim. It never quite tingles your brain the way superior science fiction can. -Josh Larsen
Adam liked it quite a bit more however so go see for yourself and listen to the episode below then see if either of their reviews warrants sending them a note to let them know if you felt differently.
Filmspotting #471
Filmspotting #453
This Year in Podcasting...
1. One of Filmspotting's sponsors is Fandor. There are a lot of streaming video media services these days and between Netflix, Hulu, iTunes and Google Play you'll find the latest releases as well as backlist content that's worth re-watching. For the stuff you can't find there though you might want to try Fandor. They specialize in the independent, hard to find and critically acclaimed films so if you're wondering where to find the Films on Filmspotting that you can't find via the usual channels this is likely the place. The first month is free and after that you can get a three month subscription for $22.50 or $70 for the year.
2. If you're looking to make a charitable donation in someone's name and you can't get through to The Human Fund try GiveDirectly, an organization started by Cambridge grads who collect cash and give 100% of it individuals in struggling communities in Africa who, according to the piece on This American Life, tend to find great ways to invest it in order to improve their quality of life.
3. For the health nut or aspiring health nut on your list we recommend Salt, Sugar, Fat. It was among the years' best non-fiction books and will ensure that you never look at processed food in the same way. It's also highly entertaining - you'd never have guessed how interesting the story of Lunchables is.
4. For the biologically curious who's more interested in what the body does with food than the industry that makes it, there's Gulp by Mary Roach which provides a colorful ride through the body's digestive system from end to end.
5. For lovers of tactile crafts, architecture and experimental storytelling there's Building Stories by Chris Ware. Ware was featured on This American Life this year when he shared the many ideas he came up with for superheros as a child. Building Stories is a box full of paper cutouts you use to make buildings as well as a series of pamphlets and documents that will tell one of the more interesting stories told on collections of paper.
6. If you are shopping for a teenage girl (or really anyone who's into fashion) and wont to show that you have some clue of what they might be into try The Rookie Yearbook Vol. 2 by teenage fashion phenom Tavi Gevinson.
7. For the graphic novel fan of any age one of the more interesting titles to come out this year was The Encyclopedia of Early Earth. It's about a storyteller who meets a woman he's drawn too yet magnetically repulsed by. It also features strange gods with beaks and a small boat.
8. Lastly, if you need a gift for someone who loves late night or has an appetite for celebrity biographies there' Johhny Carson by his former business manager Henry Bushkin. Bushkin once has the qualification of being Carson's only friend and was also uniquely qualified to tell the world how different the real Carson was than the man who appeared on our televisions every night.
Till next week,
Pearcaster
P.S: If you send our mailing list to a friend we'll share our holiday traditions with you.
2. If you're looking to make a charitable donation in someone's name and you can't get through to The Human Fund try GiveDirectly, an organization started by Cambridge grads who collect cash and give 100% of it individuals in struggling communities in Africa who, according to the piece on This American Life, tend to find great ways to invest it in order to improve their quality of life.
3. For the health nut or aspiring health nut on your list we recommend Salt, Sugar, Fat. It was among the years' best non-fiction books and will ensure that you never look at processed food in the same way. It's also highly entertaining - you'd never have guessed how interesting the story of Lunchables is.
4. For the biologically curious who's more interested in what the body does with food than the industry that makes it, there's Gulp by Mary Roach which provides a colorful ride through the body's digestive system from end to end.
5. For lovers of tactile crafts, architecture and experimental storytelling there's Building Stories by Chris Ware. Ware was featured on This American Life this year when he shared the many ideas he came up with for superheros as a child. Building Stories is a box full of paper cutouts you use to make buildings as well as a series of pamphlets and documents that will tell one of the more interesting stories told on collections of paper.
6. If you are shopping for a teenage girl (or really anyone who's into fashion) and wont to show that you have some clue of what they might be into try The Rookie Yearbook Vol. 2 by teenage fashion phenom Tavi Gevinson.
7. For the graphic novel fan of any age one of the more interesting titles to come out this year was The Encyclopedia of Early Earth. It's about a storyteller who meets a woman he's drawn too yet magnetically repulsed by. It also features strange gods with beaks and a small boat.
8. Lastly, if you need a gift for someone who loves late night or has an appetite for celebrity biographies there' Johhny Carson by his former business manager Henry Bushkin. Bushkin once has the qualification of being Carson's only friend and was also uniquely qualified to tell the world how different the real Carson was than the man who appeared on our televisions every night.
Till next week,
Pearcaster
P.S: If you send our mailing list to a friend we'll share our holiday traditions with you.
2013-12-14
Government Plates by Death Grips
Government Plates isn’t here to teach you a lesson. When Death Grips are overt about what they think, they often come off like bratty teenagers, acting out against people who want to help them. Unlike the blunt, confrontational NO LOVE DEEP WEB, Government Plates lets you think for yourself and even if it doesn’t have an agenda, that doesn’t mean it’s nihilistic. It’s music that doesn’t care about how you feel, just how you react to it. All the same, it doesn’t exist in a vacuum and when Death Grips interact with the public, they can produce something elemental, in a literal sense where the periodic table can take violent turns: oxidation, sulfur fumes, nitrous, horrible fluorescents and neon, fossil fuel. Or, maybe a hydrogen bomb, with all of its attendant amorality: Death Grips provide the power, you provide the politics." - Ian Cohen via Pitcfork
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"This frenetic hip-hop trio creates songs that demand full attention and leave listeners breathless. Watch them live in concert to see what we mean. Death Grips is fronted by vocalist MC Ride, with drummer Zach Hill (formerly of Hella), and producer Andy Morin." - All Songs Considered
Death Grips released this album for free. You can download it here-
download: http://thirdworlds.net/files/govt-plates.zip
mirror: http://d01.megashares.com/dl/xven3gx/govt-plates.zip
Bullseye 2013-12-10
All Songs Considered 2013-11-19
L'Immortel by Franco Luambo Makiadi
When Congolese jazz guitarist Franco Makiadi died in 1989, the whole of Zaire (formerly the Belgian Congo) went into mourning; it was a fitting farewell for a musician who, over the course of 40 years, issued over 150 albums, containing more than 1000 songs, and who had a decisive influence on the shape of African music. - All Music Guide
Bullseye 2013-12-10
Trill O.G. "The Epilogue" by Bun B
"Bun B was half of UGK and still is one of the South’s greatest hip-hop lyricists. Alongside partner Pimp C, he spent two decades rhyming and recording classic hip-hop and helped establish Texas as a force to be reckoned with in the national hip-hop scene. Pimp C died six years ago this month, but Bun has continued to record and release music as a solo artist. His newest album, Trill Og the Epilogue, was released in November." - Bullseye
Bullseye 2013-12-10
The Constant One by Iron Chic
"The Constant One unwittingly serves as its own listening guide: Jason Lubrano‘s vocals are often doubled or tripled, if not group-hugged by the 15-deep “Iron Chic Solid Gold Singers.” Even solo, there’s a throat-straining grit and grain that still makes it sound like he’s ad-libbing over himself. Either way, you’ve learned how a group chant of Iron Chic lyrics sounds like, so go ahead and shout along in your car or your cubicle. Because they’re fun as hell anyway—“I don’t...I don’t fucking know!” “You had a heart of gold/ I know because I fucking sold it!” “get high/ say ‘fuck the world’ when we’re done with that!” “I can’t feel a fucking thing!” The lack of a Parental Advisory sticker should be inexplicable, except for the fact that The Constant One spends 40 minutes recalling the exact opposite of parental advisory; I’m pretty sure the first time your folks let you fend for yourself over a weekend, you heard the pick slide on “Bogus Journey” the moment their car left the driveway." - Ian Cohen via Pitchfork
Bandcamp $8.99
Bullseye 2013-12-10
Rise of the Fenix by Tenacious D
Jack Black was on Bullseye this week to talk about his career, the upcoming Tenacious D album (he didn't want to say much about it for fear of having their ideas stolen), an HBO pilot he's been working on for a show called The Brink which may or may not ever see the light of day and to share his experience working on High Fidelity. He says he almost didn't do the film because he really likes music... and didn't want to talk about bands in the film. It didn't make any sense as an explanation and the only conclusion one can make is that Jack Black likes music so much he's gone a bit crazy but it was fun to hear him talk about it.
Tenacious D's last album, Rize of the Fenix came out in 2012.
Bullseye 2013-12-10
2013-12-13
The Boy Who Loved Math: The Improbable Life of Paul Erdos by LeUyen Pham and Deborah Heiligman
Most people think of mathematicians as solitary, working away in isolation. And, it's true, many of them do. But Paul Erdos never followed the usual path. At the age of four, he could ask you when you were born and then calculate the number of seconds you had been alive in his head. But he didn't learn to butter his own bread until he turned twenty. Instead, he traveled around the world, from one mathematician to the next, collaborating on an astonishing number of publications. With a simple, lyrical text and richly layered illustrations, this is a beautiful introduction to the world of math and a fascinating look at the unique character traits that made "Uncle Paul" a great man.
Amazon $9.99
NYT Book Review - Books of the Year 2013-12-08
Wave by Sonali Deraniyagala
A brave, intimate, beautifully crafted memoir by a survivor of the tsunami that struck the Sri Lankan coast in 2004 and took her entire family.
On December 26, Boxing Day, Sonali Deraniyagala, her English husband, her parents, her two young sons, and a close friend were ending Christmas vacation at the seaside resort of Yala on the south coast of Sri Lanka when a wave suddenly overtook them. She was only to learn later that this was a tsunami that devastated coastlines through Southeast Asia. When the water began to encroach closer to their hotel, they began to run, but in an instant, water engulfed them, Sonali was separated from her family, and all was lost. Sonali Deraniyagala has written an extraordinarily honest, utterly engrossing account of the surreal tragedy of a devastating event that all at once ended her life as she knew it and her journey since in search of understanding and redemption. It is also a remarkable portrait of a young family's life and what came before, with all the small moments and larger dreams that suddenly and irrevocably ended.
Tenth of December
One of the most important and blazingly original writers of his generation, George Saunders is an undisputed master of the short story, and Tenth of December is his most honest, accessible, and moving collection yet.
Writing brilliantly and profoundly about class, sex, love, loss, work, despair, and war, Saunders cuts to the core of the contemporary experience. These stories take on the big questions and explore the fault lines of our own morality, delving into the questions of what makes us good and what makes us human.
Unsettling, insightful, and hilarious, the stories in Tenth of December—through their manic energy, their focus on what is redeemable in human beings, and their generosity of spirit—not only entertain and delight; they fulfill Chekhov’s dictum that art should “prepare us for tenderness.”
Kobo $14.99
Amazon $11.99
NYT Book Review - Books of the Year 2013-12-08
Love at Goon Park by Deborah Blum
This week's episode of TAL is another rerun, but it's a pretty classic episode. Ira Glass tells the story of the psychologist Harry Harlow's experiment with Rhesus monkeys, which found that monkeys were drawn to a soft, plush "mother" figure over a stark, metal one, even if the metal one was a source of food, and the plush one physically hurt them. It's a pretty well-known story, but Ira talks about the man behind the experiment, Harry Harlow, a champion of unconditional love in theory, but kind of a crappy parent in his own life.
You can read more about the contradictory figure of Harlow in Deborah Blum's book, Love at Goon Park: Harry Harlow and the Science of Affection.
Kobo $12.39
Kindle $9.39
iBooks $11.99
This American Life #317: Unconditional Love
2013-12-07
Once I Was an Eagle by Laura Marling
"The whole [album] functions as a 55-minute piece where the songs are woven together in very clever ways. ... I just can't imagine what kind of music she'll be making in 20 years, because she's so fully formed at 23." -Stephen Thompson
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Laura Marlking has what All Songs Considered is calling a "heartbreaking" new song. Proceed at your own risk.
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"Eagle was made over 10 days, with just a cellist and Johns (on carefully-placed drums, piano, organ) providing accompaniment; Marling recorded her vocal and guitar parts in a single take each, and in one day, though it somehow sounds even more immediate. Present in both her singing and her playing is a ferocity that now seems to have been lurking there all along; at times, too, she’s possessed by a newly emergent serenity, and an astonishing ability to shift between the two modes. This is especially evident on Eagle’s opening tracks, four songs written as a proper suite and a fifth that feels equally of a piece. Together they seamlessly, almost imperceptibly, build from somnambulant finger-picked acoustic to a wild fury of howling cello and frantic tabla-style percussion, “Take the Night Off” leading it off the way a rainshower usually precedes a hurricane; by “Master Hunter”, the suite's cap, Marling is inhaling relationships and spitting them back out as heaving piles of splinters and ash." - Rachael Maddux via Pitchfork
iTunes $9.99
Rdio
Amazon
All Songs Considered 2013-12-04 - The Year in Music
All Songs Considered 2013-04-23
Modern Vampires of the City by Vampire Weekend
"Every song [has] its own voice, every song [is] lyrically spectacular, and deep. ... This [album] is different. This one's more life-infused." -Bob Boilen
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"It feels well thought-out. The lyrics are fantastic. There are twists and turns, and the music goes to unexpected places. This record is a home run in terms of putting out a third album. You know now that there will be a Vampire Weekend making records for a long time." —Bob Boilen
"They're just a fun band. They know what they want to do and they have their own sound." -Marah Eakin on Bullseye
"The four members of Vampire Weekend — Ezra Koenig, Rostam Batmanglij, Chris Baio and Chris Tomson — made their third record over a period that began in 2009, while they were still recording Contra, the band's second album. Now the record is done. It's called Modern Vampires of the City, and it comes out on May 14. I think it's the band's best yet, not a minor accomplishment for a band that had so much success its first time out." -All Songs Considered
Rdio
iTunes $9.99
Amazon $9.99
All Songs Considered 2013-12-04 - The Year in Music
All Songs Considered 2013-06-11 (Best of 2013 So Far)
Bullseye 2013-05-28
All Songs Considered 2013-05-01
All Songs Considered 2013-03-26
Overgrown by James Blake
"To me, James Blake is the missing link or the rosetta stone that connects all these different genres together, because there's a little bit of hip-hop, soul, R&B, electronica, singer-songwriter, [and] future." -Robin Hilton
"Just in terms of sound, like how he uses sound to create atmosphere. It's very different from anyone else. No one makes songs like [him]." -Bob Boilen
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"Host Bob Boilen revisits James Blake's "Retrograde," a goose bump-inducing and soulful cut that opens with a hummed line, inspired by Sam Cooke's "Trouble Blues." -All Songs Considered
I think James Blake is an example of a new songwriter — a new artist, a new musician, a new producer — that manages to express beautiful things with his voice and with modern technology, with synthesizers, drum machines and electronic instruments. And that's, for us, the perfect example of how we love to interact with electronic music instruments. -Daft Punk Bangalter on James Blake
Rdio
Amazon $7.99
iTunes $7.99
All Songs Considered 2013-12-04 - The Year in Music
All Songs Considered 2013-11-05
All Songs Considered 2013-06-17: Daft Punk Guest DJ
All Songs Considered 2013-03-19
Doris by Earl Sweatshirt
A member of the Odd Future collective, Robin Hilton calls the 19-year-old Earl Sweatshirt an "amazing talent." - All Songs Considered
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Earl Sweatshirt is part of the L.A.-based hip-hop collective Odd Future, led by Tyler, The Creator. NPR Music's Frannie Kelley says Earl, who's just 19 years old, is the "strangest, most cerebral member of the group, and his album has been highly anticipated." This song was produced by Earl and Frank Ocean and features him rapping. - All Songs Considered
It's dense, well-written, and long-awaited. Earl Sweatshirt's album Doris is out August 20th. -Bullseye
Amazon $10.99
iTunes $10.99
Rdio
All Songs Considered 2013-12-04 - The Year in Music
All Songs Considered 2013-08-19
Bullseye 2013-08-13
Yeezus by Kanye West
"The sound of it and the content, how he is really trying to be political, mythical, and, of course, his narcissistic self at the same time, I think I will be coming back to this record for the rest of my life." -Ann Powers
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"That is a moment on a record that's deep and needs a lot of listening." All Songs Considered on Bound 2.
Rdio $11.99
iTunes $11.99
Amazon $11.49
All Songs Considered 2013-12-04 - The Year in Music
All Songs Considered 2013-06-18
Same Trailer Different Park by Kacey Musgraves
"One of the signs of a really great album is when you have a room full of music people, and they're talking about their favorite songs, and there's five different songs from a record up for consideration. This record had that." -Stephen Thompson
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"We're in a golden age of amazing female country singers. I love the incredibly hooky banjo lines that run through this record. It's unbelievably infectious. As a whole, it's coming from a very distinctive perspective. She has a point of view that's very consistent on the entire record." —Stephen Thompson
Rdio $9.99
Amazon $9.49
iTunes $6.99
All Songs Considered 2013-12-04 - The Year in Music
All Songs Considered 2013-06-11 (Best of 2013 So Far)
Woman by Rhye
"Not only are they love songs and sex songs, but they're affection songs. They're about a loving relationship." -Stephen Thompson
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"I love the mystery of this band. You almost don't know anything about them, and it's clearly by design. It's a slow, sweet, sexy and beautiful album. There ... are strings, there are horns, but they're all subtle. They are all played very quietly so you don't even think about them." -- Stephen Thompson
"The sexiest thing I've ever heard in my life." -Bob Boilen
"The sexiest thing I've ever heard in my life." -Bob Boilen
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