Somewhere Between Very Late and Very Early

In France in the wintertime, eight out of ten people wear black wool peacoats. The ninth person wears a black leather jacket, and the tenth person is me.

No real news this week, other than I'm finished with semester one in France and am headed back to Bozeman for the holidays. There may or may not be a show next week. We'll see what happens.



This weeks show:

"Somewhere Between Very Late and Very Early"

1 Roads - Portishead - Dummy
2 Let's Make This A Moment To Remember - Chromatics - Night Drive
3 Universal Traveler - Air - Talkie Walkie
4 You Are Here - Nathan Fake - Drowning In A Sea Of Love
5 Tuxedo Hat - The Octopus Project - On Ten Hundred Thousand Million
6 Couleurs - M83 - Saturdays = Youth

Download here.

It's another pseudo-narrative. I prefer doing them this way. What do you think?

Fresh wild rosemary!

Went climbing in Les Alpilles today, well to the East of Montpellier. It was cold (for France, anyway - almost 0* Celsius), windy, and sunny. Therefore, we went in search of south facing cliffs in the shade of the wind. Found some, and did some climbing. The rock was extremely clean limestone covered in little pockets. Most pockets were not very deep, leading to a style of climbing that was at the same time very technical and precise, and also a little bit physical. Warmed up (fell) on a 6b that I thought was a 6a, French freed up another 6b (when in France...), then did a 5+ to boost my ego. Belayed my partner on a couple 6c's then climbed (poorly) a couple slabby 6a's. I like slabs. It was a very cool location and surprisingly agreeable in the middle of December. The real kicker was the lack of other climbers and the abundance of fresh rosemary all along the crag! I trimmed a bunch and am now drinking some rosemary "tea". Not a bad final 2009 trip with Vertigo. No pictures, because I forgot my camera like a dunce.

I'll be back next Wednesdayish with another blog and some music.

I saw a magnificent landscape. It might have been a dream.

Speaking of magnificent landscapes, here are two photos of Seynes. This is an incredible limestone cliff about an hour from Montpellier. We simply don't have rock like this in the states. My photos are about as mediocre as the weather was that day, but basically it's a huge, slightly overhanging cliff littered with colonettes (basically stalactites that are attached to the wall because it's not steep enough for them to be free hanging) and neat colored rock. Great friction on the limestone and cool (hard!) climbing. There were a few climbs in the 5, a few in the 6, and the rest were from about 7a-8b or 8c (5.11d-5.14b). I don't climb that hard, so my options were a little bit more limited, but I did have the pleasure of onsighting a 6b and falling off of a couple 6b+'s (.10d and .11a, respectively). If you look closely at the second photo you might see a climber working on a route a little farther down the cliff.

This week's show is another pseudo-narrative:

"I saw a magnificent landscape. It might have been a dream"

1 On A Highway - Animal Collective - Fall Be Kind EP
2 Vanity Suite, Part A (One By One, The Lights Burn Out) - The Modern Electric - The Modern Electric
3 Vanity Suite, Part B (Divine, Starving, And Sleepless) - The Modern Electric - The Modern Electric
4 Comforted Full Version - Snowglobe - No Need To Light A Night Light On A Night Like Tonight
5 Ms June Remastered - Snowglobe - No Need To Light A Night Light On A Night Like Tonight
6 Simplest Love - Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeroes - From Below
7 Pretend - LIGHTS - Daytrotter Session 12/3/2009
8 Turning On - Cloud Nothings - Turning On
9 Hurts So Bad - Digital Leather - Warm Brother

Download the show here.




In music notes, I'd like to mention two artists. The first is Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeroes. They're a newish band with a record out called "From Below", and if you haven't already heard these guys you probably should. NPR has been all over this band's music, and for good reason: it's feel-good, sing-along folky radness. Buy the record, or download it using your favorite illicit method. Here's a concert they did with NPR.

Secondly, The Cloud Nothings. I just discovered these guys, and was pleasantly surprised on my first listen. I'd describe their sound as Lo-Fi, kind of a cross between Micachu and That Ghost. It's catchy, and you might like it. The record is called "Turning On".

That's it for this week. Check back around next Wednesday(ish) for more goodies.

Wednesday came WAY too fast this week.

And I don't have a playlist. For a change of pace I present you with some pictures.


This one is from the hike in the Cevennes about a month ago. I think it's pretty funny because everybody looks very irritable, which couldn't be farther from the truth.
Looking out over the "mountains."
The fog was cool, and this hike gave me the impression that everything in France is just a little bit softer and more user-friendly. We stopped for an hour and a half for lunch, which involved an appetizer, entrée (literally translated, "entrance" or pre-main course), main course, a desert and no less than three (3!) kinds of alcohol, cheese, chocolate, and coffee. Then somebody blew up an empty bag of wine, placed it on the ground for a pillow, and promptly took a nap.This is a view down the street from the balcony of a "gite" (pronounced [jeet]). A gite, as far as I can tell, is a house that you can rent. We (the climbing club Vertigo) were there to eat and party and ostensibly climb the next day.
On this: This is the awesome tower of limestone that dominates the landscape surrounding St. Jean de Buèges. There are multipitch climbs on the far left face and on the pillar right in the center. There are also a number of south-facing single pitch routes on the right side.Which is where I took this picture. This is Sebastien, a skinny, chain-smoking, number-crushing stereotype-fulfiller of a Frenchman, and he's climbing something hard. He did it pretty fast, probably because he started craving another cigarette right around the third bolt.That's it for now. I might put up some music this week, but given my record, it's pretty likely that I'll just wait until next Wednesday.

Gas Station Coffee

"Gas Station Coffee"

1 The Boys Are Leaving Town - Japandroids - Post-Nothing
2 Refuse Angels - Crocodiles - Summer Of Hate
3 Teen Creeps - No Age - Nouns
4 Get In Or Get Out - Hot Hot Heat - Make Up The Breakdown
5 Golden Touch - Razorlight - Up All Night
6 Keep Yourself Warm - Frightened Rabbit - The Midnight Organ Fight
7 Cactus - The Pixies - Surfer Rosa
8 Close Behind - Calexico - A Feast Of Wire
9 Providence - The Love Language - The Love Language

download


This one is more of a narrative, a fictional journey illustrated with music. I'm pleased with how the progression turned out, and I hope you enjoy it.

As far as proper blog posts, I'm sorry. I'll get right on it. I have pictures from the Cevennes and from St. Jean de Buèges and stories from both to share soon. In the meantime enjoy the music.

"Don't say it's hopeless! Nothing is hopeless!"

This week's show:

1 Down By The Water - The Drums - Summertime!
2 Lauren Marie - Girls - Album
3 Ultimate Satisfaction - Bear In Heaven - Beast Rest Forth Mouth
4 Fake Blues - Real Estate - Real Estate
5 Moon And Moon - Bat For Lashes - Two Suns
6 Higher Than The Stars - The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart
7 Last Day - Other Girls - Perfect Cities

Here's the link. Enjoy!

I've got other things to say, but they'll have to wait. Expect at least a miniature trip report about hiking in the Cévennes and maybe a record review between now and next Wednesday.

Weekly Podcast!

Well, here it is.

This weeks theme:

"It's late, and if I hear an emotional song I might get emotional"

1 Broke - Woods - How To Survive In The Woods
2 Matthew 25:21 - The Mountain Goats - The Life Of The World To Come
3 Hymn # 101 - Joe Pug - Daytrotter Session
4 Overdue - The Get Up Kids - " "
5 Dong We Sang Away - Low vs. Diamond - " "
6 Goodbye - Fourth Of July - " "
7 Faces In The Dark - Generationals - " "

Download

Music comments

Chances are that if you talk to me on a regular basis I've already told you how amazing the new Mountain Goats record is. If I haven't told you yet, well, I'm telling you now. It's amazing.

All of the key ingredients are here: biblical themes, poignant lyrics, cancer, death, and that unique sense of sparseness and lyrical efficiency that John Darnielle seems to have completely mastered. It's called "The Life of the World to Come", and you should listen to it. Here's a link. [Fixed]

In other news, apparently Digital Leather is coming out with a new record. Their old one, "Sorcerer", was great. I thought it sounded like a perverse and violent Joy Division: Deep, flat, dark-sounding vocals and tinny drums were present, just like Joy Division, but also a heavy layer of fuzz and hyperactive synthesizers. The hooks were all there, too, but wrapped thickly in the meaty noise that made up the rest of record and evenly spaced between audio-violence ("Pleasurebot") and flat out trickery ("Hologram"). If this sounds interesting, it is. Here's a link.

So what about the new record? I haven't heard the whole thing yet, but found a few tracks to download on this blog. It's called Warm Brother, which according to Pitchfork is supposed to be offensive. Read into that if you want.

My first impression upon listening to these two tracks?

Frankly, I was a bit let down. The hyperactivity and tension that made "Sorcerer" stand out from all of the other Joy Division-influenced fuzz-bands seems to be largely missing. In their place are (relatively) clear vocals and a much friendlier approach. The first record was engaging, but these two new tracks seem immediately ready to fade into the background.

I haven't heard the whole record yet, though, so don't consider this a review. I'll let you know my complete opinion after I've heard the whole thing.

Also, The Antlers did a session over on Daytrotter last month. Check it out if you like The Antlers.

In the meantime, stay tuned. The podcast will update this week as usual, but it might be a day or two late. Don't panic.

Pleasure Island

Last weekend was Halloween, as I'm sure everybody in the States already knows. After all, you had to find a costume, attend a party or two, and maybe get some candy from the neighbors. In France Halloween is not that big of a deal. There were some costumes, but in general the holiday was just another reason to go downtown, drink a lot, and stumble around medieval streets all night. Which brings me to my next point: this place is like Pleasure Island. Remember Pinocchio, the Disney film? Remember the part where all of the boys were smoking cigars, drinking huge mugs of beer, and throwing bricks through church windows? That's Southern France, except instead of throwing bricks they pee on buildings, and instead of being boys they're grown men in designer jeans.

I have seen police officers here. But I've only seen about six, and they never seem to be doing anything. For a semi-socialist state, I certainly haven't noticed any real social controls in France. Nothing like in Bozeman, anyway. Not that I'm complaining.


In other news, I went climbing this past weekend, first at Collias on Saturday then at Thaurac on Sunday.

On Saturday I was one of the stronger climbers and ended up setting up topropes. Here's an awful picture of one of the cliffs:
If you look kind of close you can see a Parisian joker scrubbing his way up the cliff on toprope. I set that rope up, because Dominique decided he wasn't up to leading the last two bolts of a 4b. What you can't see is another toprope about four meters to the right with a hot-shit gym climber flailing around the first bolt, behind the trees. I set that one up too, for the same reason. To be fair, it was pretty sandbagged. The topo said 5a, I say 5c+, 6a. That's basically the same as calling a 5.10a/b a 5.7.

On Sunday, however, I went climbing with a number of stronger climbers, many of them women, which was humbling. Climbing 6a is only a big deal when surrounded by new climbers. When everybody around you climbs 6c (5.11b-ish) hacking your way up a mid 5.10 isn't so impressive anymore.


Here's some extra photos from a bike camping/squatting trip in September:

Montferrier:

No fires allowed:
Sleeping arrangements in a paintball bunker:


And finally, music.

This week on the Anarchy Breakfast podcast,

Songs About Jesus That Don't Suck

1 Head Rolls Off - Frightened Rabbit - Midnight Organ Fight
2 Jesus - The Welcome Wagon - Welcome To The Welcome Wagon
3 To Be Alone With You - Sufjan Stevens - Seven Swans
4 Jesus - Page France - Hello, Dear Wind
5 Jesus Wants Me For A Sunbeam - The Vaselines - The Way Of The Vaselines
6 Jesus Wrote A Blank Check - Cake - Motorcade Of Generosity
7 Christ For President - Billy Bragg & Wilco - Mermaid Avenue
8 Jesus And Tequila - The Minutemen - Double Nickels On The Dime
9 I Saw God - The Black Lips - 200 Million Thousand

Link here

More news & music next Wednesday.

Children are cuter in France

It's the truth. Maybe it's the language, spoken clearly and simply. Maybe it's the kiddie fashion. Maybe it's the guessing games on the tram. In any case, the children are cuter here.

That's all I have to say, really. Maybe later I'll put up some more words. In the meantime, music.

This week's playlist is called

"Songs to Listen to When You've Been Left All Alone"

1 Traveling Salesman's Young Wife Home Alone On Christmas Day In Montpellier, VT - Casiotone For The Painfully Alone - Vs. Children
2 I Lost You - The Walkmen - You & Me
3 Things Fall Apart - Built To Spill - There Is No Enemy
4 Genesis 30:3 - The Mountain Goats - The Life Of The World To Come
5 Colorado - Grizzly Bear - Yellow House
6 Plain Material - Memory Tapes - Seek Magic
7 The Darkest Side - The Middle East - Recordings Of The Middle East

link here

I've been slacklining a lot. For one, it's easy; there is a pair of perfect trees directly in front of my room and it takes me approximately fifteen seconds to get to them. It is also quite fun and I mentally connect it with climbing. But unlike climbing, I can do it alone. This is the principle virtue of slacklining: it allows me to feel active while simultaneously relieving me of the pressures of communicating.

So I have made a habit of it, in the same way that I have made a habit of hanging out in my room, reading about climbing on the internet and wishing I had somebody to go with. To my credit, I tried to meet some climbers at the local gym. I did meet some "climbers", but none of them actually climbed outside.

Last week, though, I did something about it. I joined a climbing club and went climbing outside on Saturday. After a cursory check to be sure that I was safe and knew how to tie myself in and belay, I took off on a fairly easy lead while the Frenchies watched from the ground to make sure I knew what I was doing.

When I got down a few minutes later, Sébastien told me, "tu as galopé cette voie!" (you galloped up that route). After one more check to be sure that I could lead belay everybody was pretty satisfied. I spend the rest of the day swapping leads with Sébastien on harder climbs.

The limestone in France is great, and there's an almost infinite amount of it. I can't wait to get out and sample some more French rock, hopefully in the form of some multi pitch routes (grandes voies). I forgot to take pictures, mostly because I was busy climbing. I'll see what I can do about that next time I go out.

In other news, more music! I'm trying something new this week, instead of simply uploading all the songs in a folder I've synthesized them all into a podcast of sorts. It's about about 30 minutes long and 15mb. It's in .m4a format, which should work fine with iTunes, and this way it's more like a radio show. I'm still hosting my files with Mediafire because I haven't found anything easier and I'm not sure I'm up to the technical challenge of setting up a feed podcast (the kind that you can subscribe to). Let me know if the format and host are working okay.

Track List:

"Every Time I See You I Get a Funny Feeling in my Stomach"

1 Falling In - Ha Ha Tonka - Daytrotter Session
2 Home - Edward Sharpe and The Magnetic Zeroes - Daytrotter
3 In The Summertime - The Rural Alberta Advantage - Hometowns
4 Have I Told You? - Dreamdate - Patience
5 She's Fantastic - Sondre Lerche - Phantom Punch
6 Stockholm Syndrome - Yo La Tengo - I Can Hear the Heart Beating as One
7 Since You Stole My Heart - Saturday Looks Good To Me - Every Night
8 God Made The Automobile - Iron & Wine - Around The Well
9 Undeclared - The Dodos - Visiter
10 After Hours - The Velvet Underground - The Velvet Underground

Download here.

Autumn and More Music!

After three years in Bozeman, I'd forgotten how to enjoy Autumn. Don't get me wrong, Bozeman is a magical place, but mostly in those other three seasons. Fall in South West Montana is generally wet, muddy, and gray.

Not so in the South of France.

It's gorgeous outside. The sky is clear, the temperatures hover in the high teens Celsius, and the healthy trees shudder in "Le Mistral".

The French, of course, are well bundled for the moderate conditions, mostly in black. I've been reveling in the temperatures. Autumn is nice, as it turns out.



In other news, I've made another playlist. This one is shorter and based on a theme. And fair warning, it's louder and more abrasive than last week. The Tracklist follows:

"I Love You but it's Easier to Insult You Than Tell You the Truth"

1 The Ideal Weight - GoGoGo Airheart - Love My Life...Hate My Friends
2 Friends In Quotations - That Ghost - Young Fridays
3 Gentle Violence - Black Lips - Let It Bloom
4 Barbed Wire Love - Stiff Little Fingers - Inflammable Material
5 Modern Girl - Sleater-Kinney - The Woods
6 Sometimes I Can't Stand You, But That Doesn't Mean I Don't Want You Around - Icarus Himself - Coffins
7 Emotion Is Cancer and I Got No Cash For Chemo - O Pioneers!!! - ...Like We Care About The Wolves
8 Expelled From Love - The Raveonettes - Lust Lust Lust
9 Everything Always Goes Wrong - A Place To Bury Strangers - Exploding Head

Download here

Keep checking back - I'll try to put something up every week. At best, you'll get some news and maybe (gasp!) some photos. At the very least, a playlist.

Oh yeah. Music

So the last blog was a little cheesy. It also happened a month and a half ago. Anyways, I'm back.

First order of business: Music

I miss The Anarchy Breakfast. In place of creating a playlist and subsequently putting in on the air, I've created a playlist you can download instead.

For your listening pleasure: Nothing To Hide

It's an even mix of (slightly) older stuff and brand-new music.

Track - Artist - Album - Year
1 Blood On The Motorway - DJ Shadow - The Private Press - 2002
2 Man Next Door - Massive Attack - Mezzanine - 1998
3 Princess Bride - Cloud Cult - Aurora Borealis - 2003
4 Unspoken - Four Tet - Rounds - 2003
5 Angels - Wax Poetic - NuBlu Sessions - 2000
6 Two Dancers - Wild Beasts - Two Dancers - 2009
7 Crystalized - The XX - XX - 2009
8 Bear - The Antlers - Hospice - 2009
9 Thirteen - The Antlers - Hospice - 2009
10 You Have My Eyes Now - The Clues - Clues - 2009
11 Nightingale / December Song - Sunset Rubdown - Dragonslayer - 2009

I hope you enjoy it.

À la récherche du temps perdu, òu à la récherce du temps trouvé?

So. It's been an awesome summer, but that is coming to an end. You wouldn't know that summer is ending by the heat in the South of France, but it's true. For pictures of climbing and summer adventures, I would refer you to Facebook. But I'm in France now, and the time has come to talk about that. Below I present you with some of what I have written. I talked to my parents today, as well as Kassy and Sierra. If you're reading this and I haven't talked to you, send me an email, because I would like to hear from you.

You would think that loneliness would come slowly, a gradual realization that creeps up like an incoming tide. You wouldn't think that the intensity would commence within hours of the realization that this is it: just you, by yourself with no means of communication save old-fashioned "talking", and that only to unwilling strangers who may speak your language but are much more wiling to listen to you struggle through theirs. It would also seem that a sudden, insense and disheartening loneliness would occur most plausibly in the complete absence of people; that simply the proximity of other breathing, loving bodies would somehow dampen the discomfort of your own inability to connect.

This is not true. I have felt most loneley in the midst of my struggling interactions. My bag was lost in the process of my travels to Montpellier, and I tried desperately to find it that first night, speaking French. I failed.

But the next day I found my bag. It was lost, of course; my plane out of illings was delayed, causing me to miss my short connection in Minneapolis. The speech-impeded woman at the Minneapolis ticket counter was apologetic; she put me up for the night at the Day's Inn (Bloomington, close to the airport) and gave me some food vouchers for breakfast, lunch and dinner. I ate at Chili's that night, on account of it being close to the hotel, and talked to Kassy and Sierra.

I drank with Stu the next day, my 21st birthday, at a classy joint called the C C Club. I was carded, which was gratifying, and we drank draft Schlitz (the beer that made Milwaukee famous). Stu is a hell of a man, bursting with life. He is from Milwaukee, and looks it. Although he wears a moustache now, I always think of him as a bearded man, because he was such when I first met him and it (his beard) made such an impression on me that I subconsciously marked it as his distinguising feature. We only had two beers each, but in such a hurry that honesty erupted from our mouths. We talked about music, about Bozeman, and aout the remarkable circumstances of our meeting (The french word, "réconnaissance" seems most appropriate here). My flight left at 5:30, and after a delayed departure from the bar and hellish (Midwestern deluge) driving conditions, I made it to the airport (aeroport) one hour after I had hoped to be there. I made my flight, however, and my bag made it to Paris.

That was it. The original plan, before my flight was delayed out of Billings, was that I would pick up my bag in Charles De Gaule, take it to Paris-Orly, and then check it to Montpellier. What actually happened was tedious and stressful, but the simple conclusion was that I ended up in Montpellier with my carry-on and a baggage claim that simply said "Il doit nous téléphoner".

I make an unconscious point of getting lost on the bus system in every new city I visit. I did it in San Francisco, I did it in Minneapolis, and I did it in Montpellier. After a couple round-trip rides to and from "Place de l'Europe" (where the airport shuttle dropped me off) I discovered that the blue line on my map was for the tram, not the bus. I made my way to the central train station and after three attempts found a place to sleep in "Hôtel Nova".

One learns a lote from being in a place where he knows little. I learned that "complet" means "no vacancy", and in my desperate search for food that night learned that "Thom avec colignons" means tuna with pickles.

The next day I bought a phone, some nice beer, and a baguette. I also needed a power adapter (adapteur universal pour la France) and fingernail clippers, but I forgot about the latter and Carrefour did not have the former. I went to a "parc" (also known here as an "espace verte") to drink my "bière" and call "service baggage" and after a few moments the woman on the phone told me that my bag was at the airport.

Now I had a problem: namely, a huge, mostly full bottle of great "bière". I approached a likely candidate.

"Bonjour. Je dois partir, voulliez-vous le reste de ma biére?"
"Non, merci. Proposez-ça à la groupe-la."

"La groupe-la" gave me similar response. Apparently beer is not that big of a deal in France, or maybe drinking after a stranger is. Whatever the case, I threw away the rest of my beer (a horrible waste) and hoofed it to the tram and the the bus station for the airport. The shuttle did not leave for another two hours, so I went to a local "Bar-tabac" (a fantastic French concept, the tobacco shop with beer on tap) and drank and read Edward Abbey.

I retrieved my bag from the airport, and with my large "sac-à-dos" I began the search for a place to sleep, beginning around the train station where I had found lodging the previous night. All of the hotels in the immediate vicinity were "complet". The night before I had found lodging in the third place I looked, this time it would take seven tries. But armed with a map I went down the list of the lowest-rated hotels, and armed with a phone I learned one by one that my chances on a Feriday night were looking slim. I trieds Hotels Majestic, des Étuves, Nova, Abysse (Hotel of the Abyss, I couldn't make this shit up), des Alizes, the "Auberge de jeunesses" (youth hostel), and finally found a bet at "Hôtel les fauvettes", which I think means "Hotel of the wild ones." It's a nice place. My room is across a courtyard from the receptions on the third floor, just off of a glass-walled corridor. It was hot last night, and will be tonight, but quiet and the couryard is great. This is where I now sit, eating my dinner of a baguette, some camembert (du Normandie) and a large bottle of Belgium's best distributed "premium" beer called Goudale (bière blonde à l'ancienne).

I chat with the staff here. The assistant was born in Paris and tells me about the wonders that lie beneath the Louvre. The owner is from Strausbourg, on the German border, and speaks casual (but very good) French and excellent German, the assistant tells me.

"Tu écrires touts les jours?" the owner asks me.
"Non. J'essaye, mais..." I reply.

I write, however, primarily because I want to, and secondarily because I fear that if I don't write frequently I will lose my comfortable fluency in English. I already fin myself thinking in French, which is good for living in France, but I also find myself desperately searching for words in English that only a week ago would have come to me like an obedient dog.

The owner has a dog, a small, black, curly-haired monster, and it is not obedient. It barks at every visitor (probably not a desireable trait for a dog that lives at a hotel) and doesn't stop.

"Tiens-toi!" The clerks yell, but the dog doesn't listen.
"Il n'écoute pas, hien?" I remark.

"Hien" is a conjunction rarely seen in textbooks, sometimes recorded in written diologue, but used frequently and indiscriminately by all but the classiest "Français". Its pronunciation is somewhere between "eh" (Canadian) and "uh" (Midwestern), but nasal and fluid. And I find myself using it.

"C'est tout, hien?"

And.... we're back!

I present for your consideration some tracks (in no particular order) that I have been enjoying lately:

The Thermals - Now We Can See
This track comes from the album of the same name, and I swear it's the best summer record I've yet heard. The Thermals make power pop with a Pacific Northwest flavor, and are responsible for some of the best hooks in the business. Music video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QJu611UdfxA


Phoenix - 1901
This comes from the new record Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix. Phoenix is French electro-rock-pop and they're great. Go ahead and try to listen to this while standing still. I bet you can't do it. The song is here (not a music video): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BSLbW1S5gHA

The Vaselines - Son Of A Gun
Okay, so this isn't new. But Sub Pop just released a new compilation called Enter The Vaselines, and this track is still great. Check it out, and the rest of the Vaselines catalog as well. Recommended if you like Beat Happening, sweaters, or apple pie. Song here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B0qIARknhMg

Bat For Lashes - Glass
Bat For Lashes' record Two Suns has gotten some very positive and well-deserved press from the indie-rock tastemaker that is Pitchfork Media. That aside, this record (and especially this opener) is eerily fantastic and unmissable. Best heard in the dark. Video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hnYJykzBseI

Akron/Family - Many Ghosts
The new one from Akron/Family is called Set 'em Wild, Set 'em Free, and it's all over the place: sometimes noisy, sometimes eerie, sometimes hooky. This is my favorite track, but the rest of the record is worth hearing as well.

An Horse - Postcards
I was looking for some girl-rock last week, and this track hit the spot like a frosty American lager after yard work. It's fun, and if you're a sucker for a good pop hook like I am, check it out.

There has been some great stuff on Daytrotter.com in the past few weeks as well. My favorites are Immaculate Machine, Low vs. Diamond, Joe Pug, and Generationals. Check out the aforementioned website and look around.

Corn!

Spring is here: Campus is littered with goggle tans, the bikes have come out of the garage, and the resorts are closing. It's time for the "second season", that lovely time of year when skiing in shirtsleeves and wearing sunblock are mandatory. Kerstin, Kassy and I went out to Beehive yesterday for our traditional Sunday Sabbath in the Church of The White Dome and did some beacon drills (find your buddy, not an Easter egg) and skied some lovely, silky, velvety corn.

Skiing is like a drug that you try to get your friends addicted to. Here's Kassy, I think we might have her hooked.
Kerstin decided to try the telemark thing today, I think there's potential here. But for goodness sake, shorten those poles!
Unfortunately, telemarking is difficult. Half the binding, twice the work. Just ask Kerstin.
Here I am, enjoying the heck out of spring in Montana and avoiding sketchy pockets of snow like the one that broke on the opposite slope.
Oh, it's fun.
This was just a fun trip into the mountains for a little beacon practice and some sun. There were no objectives, just nice skiing. We'll keep milking the snow until its gone.

Alaska!

I used to live in Valdez, but unfortunately during my time there I was not a backcountry skier and almost completely missed out on the epic Chugach mountains. Imagine my excitement upon returning with a pair of telemark skis and skins. We spent two days at Alyseska, but I didn't take any pictures because, well, I don't feel like bragging about skiing a at resort.

The snow was classically Alaskan, by which I mean variable. Sun crust, a little corn, some stiff windblown powder, and bulletproof sastrugi. The weather was fantastic, which is somewhat rare in Alaska, so we were lucky on that front even though it didn't snow while we were there. The avalanche danger was also fairly reasonable, another nice bonus. A big wind event happened right before we arrived, explaining the conditions. Here are some pictures:


Alaska is a wild place where almost all of the skiing happens above treeline. The snow can be either the best or the worst in the world, and the weather is, in a word, unpredictable. The views are not to be missed, and when it's great, it's outstanding. There's a reason that Valdez is the home of no fewer than four heli-skiing outfits and is featured in just about every ski movie since the mid-nineties. At the same time, epic days require epic patience and the ability to wait for the right conditions. If you have time and the opportunity, don't miss Alaska. And don't be fooled into thinking that the only way to ski it is from a helicopter.

Samantha Crain & The Midnight Shivers - Songs in the Night

Samantha Crain & The Midnight Shivers - Songs in the Night

Samantha Crain is remarkably and irritatingly young. Her new record, Songs in the Night, is American folk-pop, and it's phenomenal. This is where the irritation comes in. If you are much older than 22 and you haven't yet created something marvelous, get to work - this girl is running circles around you. Her croon is somewhere between Feist and Basia Bulat and more bouncy than ambient. The obvious single of Songs in the Night is the title track, with a catchy chorus and instrumentation that highlights Crain's knack for optimistic melody. "Cross our fingers/ towards the strong/ 'cause my baby's gonna be alright/ I got songs in the night for you" sings Crain, with a comforting sort of confidence and an optimism that is convincing in its simple delivery. But Crain is not limited only to cheerful pop tunes, and the convincing optimism is soon replaced by an anxiety of independence and the grimly suicidal Bananafish Revolution. "It's a perfect day for dying/ it's a perfect day for them to start crying" she belts out, prepared to contradict those who simply say "She'll be alright/ like she always is." The eerie beauty and melodic artistry with which Crain delivers these bleak words is what sets Songs in the Night apart.

Crain's debut full-length feels like the surprisingly gratifying fulfillment of a promise. The Confiscation EP, Crain's previous release, told stories and whet the appetite for more. Instead of stories, however, Songs in the Night tells feelings. Closer The Dam Song methaphorically demands catharsis, and it works beautifully as a final tombstone for the record: "I wish the dam would break/ 'least then there'd be some moving/ 'least then there'd be some destruction/ 'least then there'd be a famine, a coffin, a tear."

I'm outta here.

I'm headed for a springtime break in the Great White North. Trip report to follow.

Crystal Antlers - Tentacles (2009)

Crystal Antlers - Tentacles

That's right, another album review.

Here's the test for this one: Are loud guitars and histrionic vocals a deal-breaker for you?

If the answer is yes, ignore this record. It comes out on April 7th, and it's full of histrionic vocals and loud guitars.

The music is busy, with plenty of chugging rhythms and high pitched guitars, not to mention the vocalist's scratched and abused screams. Sound rough? It is, to an extent. The beauty of Crystal Antlers is in the synthesis of noise. Individually, the instrument tracks would likely sound like a musician in his bedroom expunging some excess angst. But the band weaves these sounds together to form a cohesive and textured and, surprisingly enough, heavily melodic sound. The melodies are lovely but disguised, and the hooks are intensely gratifying. I'd love to comment on the lyrical content, but I'll be damned if I can understand the guy. Instead, his voice becomes a particularly scratched and bloody thread in the tapestry of Tentacles, and taken as another instrument it fits very well into the context of the music.

So do I recommend this record? The short answer is yes, but with reservation. If you failed the first test, you should still ignore this record. But if you happen to be a fan of prog-metal, noise, or Titus Andronicus, this could be your favorite album of 2009. Look for it in April.

Backcountry skiing

First off, complaints:

This has been an exceptionally poor snow year in the northern Rockies. We got maybe 8" total in all of January, and only a little more than that so far in February.

That said, there is still plenty of skiing to be had, it's just not waist deep powder. We found nice powder a couple weeks ago in Middle Basin, but all three skiers had camera troubles. If the cameras had been working the snow probably would not have been as good. Last weekend Kerstin and I skied the same area and found some very maritime "powder", as it was pushing 50 degrees farenheit. Sloppy and soggy were the adjectives of the day, but it was still pretty fun.

Superbowl Sunday I went up Blackmore with Kerstin, where we found everything from corn snow to bulletproof wind crust to breakable sun crust. Blackmore is a beautiful mountain, though, and a good skin. We started very early and were able to get three laps in before we saw any other groups, which is always nice.

Kerstin and I skied up Bradley's Meadows the Sunday before that and found 4 of the 8 inches of snow we got in January. It was super light champagne powder, the real "cold smoke" on top of frozen crust. That was fun too.

This week is looking extremely hot, and I won't be surprised to find spring-style skiing this weekend.

That said, here are some pictures of skiing this year.

Kerstin in and around Bradley's Meadow:


Early start at the Blackmore trailhead:
Ridge up to the peak of Blackmore:
Negotiating the crust:
Soft and wet in Middle Basin:Mid turn, farther down the same slope:

More crust on the Western Exposure:
We're getting pretty good at this crust thing by now:
Flat eastern exposure, soft and wet:All things considered, any skiing is good skiing, especially you're sharing the slope with only one or two other people. So we'll keep heading out, and one of these days we'll find some soft and deep.

Private Dancer - Trouble Eyes

Private Dancer - Trouble Eyes

This is not a music blog. This blogger, however, is a DJ and therefore listens to music. This is a review of a record by a band called "Private Dancer".

There are a few ways that records are reviewed, and these methods I feel can be summed up in questions: How do I feel about this record? What does this record mean/Why is this record important? What does this record sound like?/How original is this record? Do I reccomend this record?

This is, of course, a ridiculous way to approach a "review", but here's the plan: I'm going to answer the aforementioned questions.

How do I feel about his record?

I feel pretty good. Listening to it, I'm interested. The sound is fairly dense, and I suspect my mother would not like it. She doesn't like music with "muddled" sounds. However, there are some cleverly hidden hooks within the "sonic collage". I love clichés.

What does this record mean/Why is this record important?

Short answer: Who knows.
Long answer: This is rock music, no doubt. Rock music is not necessarily meaningful, but sometimes it is. This is the beauty of the genre. Like literature, it can be entertaining, it can be thought provoking, and it can be both. I have done absolutely no research on this band, so I don't know who they are or where they're from. If I had to guess, I'd say they're late-twenties white men, with beards and book collections. Probably more than two college degrees between them, and definitely some wit. So what does this record mean? Who knows. But I like it, it makes me feel cool.

What does this record sound like/How original is this record?

The first song and many others on the record sound like proto-metal, very much like Detroit's Awesome Color. That shouldn't mean anything to most people, so imagine MC5-style rock played by a bunch of white college graduates, only less militant. The musicianship is good, however, not sloppy, and not everything on the record sounds like raw meat. Track number second, "1000 year wave" is a slower cut, still with a little fuzz but also a clear, melodic and very pleasing lead guitar. It's somewhere between instrumental rock (like Unwed Sailor) and I-don't-know-what. I like this track very much, though. The rest of the record is not uniform, dancing between hooks and noise and clever lyrics. The last track, "Do You Like To Read?" strongly evokes The Hold Steady with its lyrical delivery, and the words suggest to me that Private Dancer does, indeed, like to read. Original? Not particularly. Private Dancer, like The Hold Steady, plays sometimes abrasive rock music that seems to draw on seventies arena rock. But unlike The Hold Steady, they are also capable of toning things down. This record is a new take on a well established genre (noisy rock), but the hooks are pleasing and the lyrics are interesting enough to warrant a close look.

Do I recommend this record?

Yes. If you like rock music, you might like this band. I do.

Ski Discovery

So there's this ski area called Discovery just west of Anaconda, MT. It's about a two and a half hour drive from Bozeman, and lift tickets are $35. I'd never been there, so Alfred and I decided to "explore the West" and check out this area, since backcountry skiing right now is exceptionally shady. That turned out to be a good idea. Discovery got 6" the night before we went, and it snowed probably 4" during the day. So while there were fresh tracks to be had in the morning, there were more fresh tracks to be had in the afternoon. Very cool. Discovery has three faces, which are roughly geared towards beginner, intermediate, and expert skiers. The front side had greens, blues, and some black diamond runs that were really fun. The "intermediate side" was mostly black diamond with one lone blue cruiser. The "backside" is almost entirely double black diamond, with some slopes steeper than 40 degrees and almost nothing mellower than about 30-35 degrees. Lots of snow, no lift lines, plenty of room on the slopes, and a super low-key vibe means we'll be back in the future.

Some pictures:

We left Bozeman around 7AM

We're almost in Anaconda.
Alfred, finding some soft snow on the mid-difficulty side.

More turns on the very nice (and mellow) single blacks.
Me, trying to maintain my composure in the softness that accumulated throughout the day. This run was not opened until mid-afternoon, so it hadn't been skied much yet.
All things considered, Discovery is awesome.