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I've been a fan of the indie band "Built to Spill" for many years. Their super-extended guitar jams and ethereal lyrics are excellent for 'tron'ing out (programming for long periods of time). The band released their first album in about 3 years, and it's titled "You in Reverse".

I downloaded the "Going' Against Your Mind" single from iTunes a couple months ago, and consider it one of my favorite songs on the new album. As with most Built to Spill songs, it provides wide expanses between the vocals that encourage improvisational guitar-work. Other good songs include "Just a Habit" and "The Wait".

Natalie isn't much of a Built to Spill fan, but she selected "The Wait" on my iPod while we waited at a traffic light in Pleasant Hill that took nearly 5 minutes to change green since the wait was killing her. I think that Built to Spill songs are successful at making constrained circumstances bearable. Such as being stuck in a car at a traffic light for 5 minutes in 85 degree weather with the windows down. Their songs always put me at ease.

We'll be seeing Built to Spill at Slim's in San Francisco next month on one of the 4 nights they will be performing. I'm totally excited, but Natalie doesn't share my enthusiasm. Her self-diagnosed Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD) makes to difficult to endure their long-running songs (7+ minutes each). She saw them perform live once before, and said that they played "The Plan" for 25 minutes. She's lucky to have made it out alive. Hopefully that experience won't be repeated :)

Posted by Scott at 12:13 PM | Permalink

Last night, Natalie and I saw the band "Taking Back Sunday" at the Fillmore in San Francisco. She and I have enjoyed the band's first two CDs that came out in 2003, 2004. We didn't realize that the band's popularity has spilled over into the mainstream - like, totally.

We were probably in the Top 25 Oldest People in Attendance. Out of a couple hundred. The sea of teenagers sporting acne, wine coolers, and curfews was really difficult to not notice. A highlight, or what might be considered the most awkward moment I've ever witnessed at a concert, was when some random guy came on-stage during one of the opening acts and proposed marriage to his girlfriend. It was supposed to be an aggro', neo-punk rock show; instead, it seemed more like a high-school dance or sporting event.

...Anyhow, it was a good wayto spend what would have otherwise been an average Wednesday evening. But one can't help but wonder "what's next?" when you find yourself feeling too old to be at a concert.

Posted by Scott at 5:08 PM | Permalink

It had been about two months since I last purchased music, so a few weeks ago I shelled out $60 for some CDs that I've been admiring. Those include the latest from Broken Social Scene, Ulrich Schnauss, and old releases from Built to Spill and Modest Mouse. I'll write up a review of the Broken Social Scene album soon, but in the meantime I'll just say that it's a wonderful example of what indie rock ought to sound like right now. With the sudden expanse of my music collection, and my habit of playing podcasts during my commute, I won't be without listening good material.

Posted by Scott at 10:03 PM | Permalink

We recently recorded (or as Natalie says, "taped") an episode of Austin City Limits on Tivo that featured the bands Modest Mouse and Guided by Voices. I watched the first 10 minutes of the Modest Mouse performance and was reminded of how much I loved the band back in 2002 and 2003. I imported four of their albums into my iTunes library a long time ago. This is the beauty of iTunes, and digital music jukeboxes in general: music you haven't listened to in years is as easy to locate and listen to as music you've been listening to repeatedly for the last couple days. Not so with CDs: you keep a couple CDs in your car trunk, at your desk, on top of the stereo at home, etc. At no point is all of the music located in a single place. In this case, I just looked up my old Modest Mouse albums, transferred them to my iPod in less than a minute, and was listening to some nostalgic tunes during my morning commute to work.

Modest Mouse produced some really amazing albums in their early days ("Moon and Antarctica", "Lonesome Crowded West"), but have been diluted in recent years ("Good News for People Who Love Bad News"). I stopped listening to them in 2004 when Natalie started giving me a hard time about the popularity of "Good News..." with the O.C. crowd. I have since arrived at the conclusion that the O.C. crowd can have the "Good News..." album, and I'll take the rest. What is it that makes the quality of a band's work degenerate so? I read a review of their "Lonesome Crowded West" album that said "...Modest Mouse made better music when they were all drunk and on acid." Maybe so. Here's to booze and acid...

My favorite Modest Mouse albums are:

The Moon & Antarctica

Lonesome Crowded West

Posted by Scott at 9:19 AM | Permalink

About two weeks ago, I picked up the latest album from the UK group Ladytron. The album is titled "Witching Hour", and is an excellent example of the resurgence of electronic synth-rock. The female vocals are both sexy and serious. The instrumentals are exhilarating, and I find it difficult to not embarass myself by rocking-out in my car during my commute when certain songs are playing. My favorite tracks, in order of preference, are:

• 2 - Destroy Everything You Touch


• 8 - Fighting in Built Up Areas


• 3 - International Dateline


• 13 - All the Way

Posted by Scott at 8:53 AM | Permalink

I have been hearing the term "podcast" for several months; but, until recently, I didn't understand the real benefits of having an audio subscription. The latest version of Apple iTunes includes the ability to subscribe to audio programs in the same way that web browsers like Firefox allow users to subscribe to RSS feeds from Blogs. What's cool is that iTunes will automatically download and manage podcasts on your system, and even include them when synchronizing with an Apple iPod.

So, instead of fetching the latest copy of the newspaper from your front porch, you could just pick up your laptop or portable music player with up-to-the-minute audio programs provided via a podcast subscription.

Also, the subscription exists only within the scope of your podcast application; in no way does the provider of the audio content oversee the subscription. This is a great example of software applicaitons taking care of the boring repetitive tasks like checking for updated content.

Posted by Scott at 9:24 AM | Permalink

I recently stumbled upon an old favorite-band of mine called Red Stars Theory. I was absolutely addicted to the passionate, atmospheric, reverb-overload rock group in 2000. I had encoded their full-length self-titled album a few years ago and gradually forgot about them. It's weird how "stumbling" over digital audio files seems like a misuse of the phrase. Anyhow, they are an awesome band composed of members of Built to Spill and Modest Mouse. All of their music is incredible. Similar bands that I like are Godspeed You Black Emperor! and Bright Eyes.

Posted by Scott at 12:51 PM | Permalink