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.