#300

I've been buying music again and I'd love to tell you more about it. But, looking over what I've bought, I realize that long conversations about it would be pretty much ground already covered, except for maybe two things. First, I've really liked the new Animal Collective album, Merriweather Post Pavilion. It's a bit what I'd imagine Brooklyn would be like if it woke up one morning and decided to become Africa. Check it out, if you're in to that kind of thing. And second, the new War Child compilation Heroes is pretty decent. Basically, a bunch of stars (David Bowie, Iggy Pop, et al) chose artists to cover one of their songs and if you buy it the money goes to war affected children. Needy kids nonetheless, I wouldn't go as far as to buy the whole thing ("Search and Destroy," sadly not that good). Here's what I would recommend though:

• "Leopard-Skin Pill-Box Hat"/Beck
• "Heroes"/TV On the Radio
• "Straight to Hell"/Lily Allen
• "Transmission"/Hot Chip
• "Do the Strand"/Scissor Sisters

The Scissor Sisters track is the standout of the bunch, at least for now. I could see it getting some playtime at a house party or two.

Oh, and this is post #300. I originally thought about doing something bigger than this, but why bother?

Dunk

Whether you're a basketball fan or not, this is ridiculously cool.

The devil's in the details

You know how when you go to natural history museums they are usually filled with things like this?
Turns out at the American Museum of Natural History, if you pay attention, it might be a little more interesting.



Jeff and I both had the same thought when looking at this diagram - the Japanese invented Lucha Libre.
Beads are nice, but I wanna know where Mandarin keeps his rings!

Time on Hands

I may not have a Valentine, but I've sure got one of the most organized iTunes libraries you'll ever see, and that warms my heart almost as much.

This is why...

I was going to post a glib one liner about how I'm still disappointed that it's "Hall and Oates" rather than "Haulin' Oats," but then I came across this blog posting from the New York Times. I could go on and on about how the system is backwards (and it is), and how hard it can be at times for a scientist in an old field to accept the work of a scientist in a young field, but that would be boring. Let me just say that the way the system is set up now (at BYU, the head of one of my labs paid an electricity bill to the school from his grant money, even after the school took ~50% of his grant money before he got it) makes it real hard to be a prof. Trust me, this is reason #1 why I don't want to go in to academia.

Where am I going with this?

My musical life can be divided into two distinct parts. Part one is trying to grow my Jazz collection (140 albums plus odds and ends). Part two is everything else (roughly the same size plus tons of singles).

These two halves are at odds with each other.

The first part is well thought out, organized and makes me incredibly dull during conversations about music. I know what my next purchases are going to be and why. The second part is a scattershot collection of bits and pieces. Strange explorations and dead ends with a few good strong veins of interest. However, it appears that I'll always be that guy who signals a band's change from cool to corporate. I'm just waiting for Pitchfork to block my IP address.

So, what's the point in telling you all this? Well, I've got $13 in iTunes credit, and I'm open to suggestions. Here's a list of recent purchases to get the ball rolling:

Singles
Human - The Killers
E-Pro - Beck
La Mer - Charles Trenet
Ready for the Floor - Hot Chip
Ophelia - The Band


Albums
Parallel Lines - Blondie
In Ghost Colours - Cut Copy
Let it Die - Feist
LCD Soundsystem - LCD Soundsystem

2009's got an early candidate

Proving yet again that nothing can't be done with Legos.