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.