Travel Light

what do you think?

noreply@blogger.com (Travel Light) — Fri, 08 Feb 2008 05:03:00 +0000

www.travellight.tumblr.com

This Week

noreply@blogger.com (Travel Light) — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 23:22:00 +0000

!Atlas Sound - "Recent Bedroom" (Kranky)
@Box - "untitled 12" - (Rune Grammofon)
#Justus Fohncke - "Feuerland" (Kompakt)
$Krikor - “Rock hard in a funky place” (Kill The DJ)
%Mountain Goats - "Autoclave" (4AD)
^Poni Hoax - "Involutive Star" [Joakim Remix] (Tigersushi)
&Pwrfl Power - "Soft Boy" (Slender Means)
*Principles of Geometry - "Napoleon" (Tigersushi)
=Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks - "Baltimore" (Matador)
+Valet - "Kehaar" (Kranky)

finally!!!!

noreply@blogger.com (Travel Light) — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 01:48:00 +0000

"nice hat. what are you, like three?"

- girl in safeway

i was also wearing my lumberjack vest and bad-as-fuck train pins.

This Week (Last Week!)

noreply@blogger.com (Travel Light) — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 23:19:00 +0000

!1-Speed Bike - "Along With the Rest of This Racist System, We Left The Body Of Indy Rock On A Plateau For The Vultures To Eat" (Transformed Dreams)
@Bat For Lashes - "I'm On Fire" [cover] (Echo)
#DJ Donna Summer - "Rock Rock Rock" (Cock Rock Disco)
$Growing - "After Glow" (Social Registry)
%His Name Is Alive - "Happy Blues (Recloose remix)" (Silver Mountain Media)
^Kathy Diamond - "All Woman" (Permanent Vacation)
&Kit Clayton - "Grey Amber" (Nummer)
*Let's Go Outside - "I'll Lick Your Spine" (Soma)
=Sascha Funke - "Chemin Des Figons" (Bpitch)

they wanted to eat this party's brains

noreply@blogger.com (Travel Light) — Mon, 21 Jan 2008 17:52:00 +0000

The general agreement now seems to be that 'hipster' doesn't really mean anything, at least among those that are paranoid that they might be hipsters themselves. To some it still means overdressed. To some it means 'graphic designer.' To some it means 'works at a weekly newspaper.' To some it means anyone that's ever denied being a hipster.

Well, I saw very clearly what 'it' is on Saturday night. And, rest assured, most of you are safe.

I went to Philly for the first time for a party. It was at Diplo's mausoleum which is a better-than-average warehouse space and an actual ex-mausoleum. I have no idea where in Philly we were at. I'd mentioned on Wednesday that I might try and go up because Glass Candy was doing another show up there and, hey, it might be cool to see them play a all-night blue pill and sweat mess and I was hoping Mike Simonetti would do a set (nope). Then I said I'd never been to Philly--like, I've never even driven through--and a friend went ballistic and insisted. So, despite epic haggardness (but still nothing compared to right now, which is just some srsly next level hangover shit as in I never want to see a Natty Boh again until, like, Wednesday night at the very earliest only because I have to review Shadow and if I don't get ten hours tonight I'm a guaranteed to be a danger to myself and others tomorrow)...where the fuck was I? Oh, right: I went to Philly.

Events leading up to the point of this post in capsule: van breaks down, mega thugged on at a bar by the the mausoleum, someone who will go unnamed goes way way too heavy on alcohol and winds doing this dance that looks like he's trying to hold onto the wing of a jet plane or like he's a suffocating fish, I almost piss myself because dude got ONE motherfucking porta potty for 600 some odd people, lady I was dancing with's friend straight falls over like a felled tree, and did I mention the van broke down?

The point of this post: It gets to a time where the space is packed, as in dancing is just not possible. People are trying to leave and I'm one of them because I have to piss again and I'd rather handle it in the bushes. But, they're not letting people out because there's concerns about the police and people lurking outside making scenes. This I assume anyhow. So, the door, which is this big metal sliding garage door thing is shut. There's kind of a panic vibe by the door. And the brave and noble staff (I mean that. Crazy props to Cullen, Simon, and the Mad Decent peoples not including Mr. Diplo himself who ~~seemed to be getting a kick out of the situation in a rather prickish way but I could be wrong about that so friends of and the gentleman himself shouldn't take that too heavy~~ was pretty concerned and wound up helping with the door after I left the little door foyer/loading bay) don't really know what to do because there's all these people outside trying to get in bad way and there's no room at the inn at all for these kids. So, they get this idea: line up everyone that wants to get out, yell "bum rush" and hope the kids going out block the kids trying to get in because obviously the kids going out have the motivation of having to pee really bad. And shut the door again. Fast.

That situation made the kids outside NUTS. Rabid. Wild eyed and twitchy and oh my god I need in there sooo bad just because they won't let me in. I mean, to them, whatever was inside -- Nada was DJing at that point and, from where I was listening, it was actually starting to get old (really: moratorium on dropping MIA for two months. really: Serato seems to make DJs lazy*, IMHO) -- was the most important thing EVER. It was food. It was sex. It was the megaultimate-party-event-of-all-time that would be talked about for years-and-worth-dying-for. All wrapped up into one. Man, these kids were fucking zombies. They wanted to eat the party's brains. You should've seen them try to get under that door, shoving their wristbanded arms under, trying to dive under, total fever and panic in their eyes. And these, sirs and madams, are hipsters. I looked down at those reaching arms and all I could think was that this is the definition of hipster right there. Every time that door shut, the party just became cooler for them.

Poor fuckers, right? I dunno. What can I say? Why did I get in that van? I didn't want to go, really. I wanted to watch internet teevee and play with records. But, as I typed 'yeah...i'm still down' into my phone there must've been that echo from Wednesday: you've never partied in Philly?

On the other hand, I did catch the first ride I could back to Baltimore.

Sorry, I should've warned this was going to be a long one.

*I'm not really calling Dave Nada lazy there, though I did feel like I was hearing some obvious/same old, same old in the mix. BUT, aside from the obvious bit about Serato--that it's way easier to mix with--my comment about laziness more pertains to mp3 DJing from an ease-of-access perspective, e.g. when you have instant, cheap access to a shitload of new/hot jams, you might start to focus more on dropping shit first or always looking for the next best track and less on a solid mix. As in, man, I'll fit it in somehow. I can see how you'd wind up not caring so much about all of the fucking fantastic and creative ways tracks can come together and just on the individual tracks. When I did my first "real" DJ set, I was pretty worried about my total lack of mix skills and a friend tossed "all that matters is what's in the crate" at me. Well, no, unless you're playing jukebox at a wedding or some shit.

I'm Doing This Thing

noreply@blogger.com (Travel Light) — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 04:32:00 +0000

DJ Bear Ears plays at the Depot for Are We Not Men!?

with

Philly's Hurrah DJs

Mike T

DJ Mark Brown

Maybe like 10 p.m., maybe like $5

It'll be like being drunk.

This Week (Last Week?)

noreply@blogger.com (Travel Light) — Wed, 09 Jan 2008 21:03:00 +0000

OK, these aren't terribly new either beyond the first and last three. Also, I'm going to try and find a different cover of "I'm On Fire" every week from here on out.

!Black Ghosts - "Find A Way Through This" [Plastician & Skream Remix] (Southern Fried)
@Chloe - "Around the Clock" (Kill the DJ)
@Chloe - "Suspended" (Kill the DJ)
#Chromatics - "I'm on Fire" [cover] (Italians Do It Better)
$Farah - "Law of Life" (Italians Do It Better)
%Murcof - "Memoria" [Sutekh's Trisagion Mix] (Leaf)
^Park Attack - "What Wave" (Tigersushi)
&The Skull Defekts - "White Lights Burning Eyes" (Important)
*Sutekh - "The Diamond House" (Soul Jazz)

Honorable WTF Mention:

=Cowboy Junkies - "Sweet Jane" (Rounder) - as a nine-minute psych jam; from Trinity Revisited.

I don't know if it works--it doesn't impress much besides being kind of cliche--but Vic Chesnutt singing "Postcard Blues" is nice.

Regional Delicacies Part II: Oysters

noreply@blogger.com (Travel Light) — Sat, 29 Dec 2007 01:02:00 +0000

Since doing it drunk in Christmas Eve, I'm pretty into putting raw oysters in my face. Any food you practically have to make-out with to eat is kinda the tops.

As far as the vegetarian thing goes, well, think of it like this: Oysters are either really retarded fish trapped in a calcite box or plants of slightly above average intelligence, at best.

This Week (the "awwwww, who's a sad bastard?" edition)

noreply@blogger.com (Travel Light) — Fri, 28 Dec 2007 20:50:00 +0000

Most of these are NOT new songs. There are, however, a couple of pre-new songs here that are probably on the internet or something.

! Barr - "Half of Two Times Two" (5RC)
@ Beach House - "Some Things Last a Long Time" (Carpark)
# Burial - "A Distant Light" (Hyperdub)
$ Electrelane - "I'm on Fire" (cover) (Beggars)
% Elizabeth Anka Vajagic - "And the Sky Lay Still" (Constellation)
^ Human Bell - "Hymn Amerika" (Thrill Jockey)
& Jana Hunter - "A Goblin, a goblin" (Gnomonsong)
* M. Billy - "Weight of Gravity"
+ Magik Markers - "Empty Bottles" (Ecstatic Peace)
= Sian Alice Group - "As the Morning Light" (Social Registry)
= Sian Alice Group - "Days of Grace III" (Social Registry)

Regional Delicacies

noreply@blogger.com (Travel Light) — Sun, 16 Dec 2007 03:30:00 +0000

I've been meaning to blog about this for a while now, but something happened that made me drop everything to post about this insanity:

One of the interns, coming back from the corner sandwich hole, said these words: "I dunno why, but every time I ask for a kosher dog they give me a regular hot dog wrapped in bologna."

To the natives, this isn't much of a statement. (Though someone at the office accused the corner sandwich hole of antisemitism). See, the bologna wrapped hot dog is a real thing. As in, people order it. As in, a certain subsection of Baltimore has the thought on a regular basis well, I sure could go for a hot dog, wrapped in bologna. And, actually, since I first posted this, it has come to my attention that hot dogs are almost always wrapped in bologna. As in, saying "I'd like a hot dog" means "I'd like a hot dog wrapped in bologna." In this article it's referenced as a "Baltimore Dog."

Wouldn't it make sense just to make the hot dog that much bigger in the first place? But, what do I know? I'm not a food writer.

But, I shouldn't have been so surprised: Baltimore has some fucked up food quirks. A sampling:

Scrapple

Random pig parts mixed with cornmeal and fried. Mmmmmmm...like sausage but more absorptive.

The hot-dog-bologna thing

I don't think it has another name.

Lake Trout

...is neither from a lake, nor is it trout. Wrap your head around that. Most fried-stuff corner joints carry it.

New York Fried Chicken

You can find this at many of the same places you find Lake Trout. No one can tell me what's "New York" about it. It's like the "Alabama" Fried Chicken we used to get in Detroit that was served in little plastic produce bags.

Crab Chips

You might recognize this from the Wire. The corner dealers are all about crab chips. After verifying that there's nothing remotely like crab in them, Vanessa and I bought a bag a few months ago. They taste like regular chips with a lot of seasoned salt on them, which is called "crab seasoning" in the ingredients. Seriously inedible. Your mouth prunes up and you piss rocks for the next week there's so much salt on these things. I imagine. The bag is still in my cabinet.

Natty Boh

I ordered it for the first time as "um, National beer" (the proper name is National Bohemian) from the same bartender at the Mount Royal Tavern that now has a can waiting for me before I can close the door. It's a step above Pabst or Hamms and a bit cheaper. I've never seen it anywhere else.

The Luckiest Dragon

noreply@blogger.com (Travel Light) — Wed, 12 Dec 2007 20:45:00 +0000

Have you seen this?

I skipped, for various reasons I now realize are lame, some three Lucky Dragons shows in Portland. Like for sleep. Or food. Work. Had-other-shit-going-on.

Sunday, after a cool seven hours in the office trying to write 600 words on Matmos in a surly mental fog brought on by a pair of seriously late nights, I'd all but given up on the show. Besides, it was raining, my bike had just snapped a brake cable (front, natch), and, well, I just really wanted to read for a scotch or two at the Tavern. Mainly, I just wanted to be alone, and there's something to be said for being alone in a public place. With Scotch.

But, after about a page and half, a pair of loose friends came in to get a couple of take-out bottles for the show. Ten minutes later I'm riding my rear brake down from Bolton Hill in a heavy rain.

Lucky Dragons played at Floristree, the sixth floor of a six-floor warehouse building (that has, like, two other pseudo venues in it) in a part of Baltimore that's, oh, 6 out of 10 on the sketch scale. But I've never heard of anyone getting jacked and the neighborhood lurkers seem pretty accustomed to the steady stream of hipstery, arty looking white kids coming and going every day. It's a cool thing they have going. No one in the DC/Baltimore area can match it for booking. Good sound. Big. Friendly. All door monies go to the band. And, again, it's a lived-in warehouse.

Back to Lucky Dragons. He played some album stuff--cracked out laptop folk stutter, mainly--which was beautiful and musically un-live, aside from some vocals and play with a MIDI pressure pad of some kind. His part was mainly an entirely possessed and sort of sexual interpretive dance. Thrust and genuflect, thrust and genuflect. That sort of thing.

The second half was "Make a Baby" and that's really why I'm writing here now. Fischbeck passes out these tapestry shrouded cables with metal contacts at the end. A few people in the audience know what's up and get really close. He doesn't explain anything, just demonstrates. He grabs a girl's hand, one of the folks holding a cable, and it makes a sound, a sort of droning bell sound. And he grabs someone else's hand and the pitch changes. He grabs a hand and puts it on another person's arm. People start getting it. More crowd around. Fischbeck goes around the room, inviting people into the circle. Strangers are touching and grabbing other strangers. Suddenly, you're stroking someone's fingers while someone's holding your elbow. The sound gets more and more complicated, and more and more beautiful.

Everyone's smiling because they get it, get that this isn't just some technological magic trick. You can't make these sounds (in the end, it doesn't even matter what they are) by yourself. You could have all of Fischbeck's pretty cables to yourself and you couldn't do much with them. You could hit them against things, whirl them in the air, jump rope; nothing will happen. You need the people around you to make it work. You need to touch them and you need to let them touch you. "Make a Baby" is like an aural schematic of this beautiful animal thing that doesn't have a name really.

The other bands were good, but that's for another time. In the end, I stayed at the Floristree until well past three, drinking beer, playing with cats, and talking about these things with a friend.

Pissed Jeans Is Better Than Everything Ever

noreply@blogger.com (Travel Light) — Wed, 28 Nov 2007 23:19:00 +0000

The moment it hit me: shirtless frontman Matt Korvette singing into his bassist's asshole. The cap on a show of sweat and self-groping. Pissed Jeans (aka The Jesus Lizard) was opening for Black Dice, which made it all the more apparent that the latter has lost their grasp on nonsense. Methinks they don't get along too well in the green room.

Jeff Mewbourn of Beatbots A/V Club recorded the whole thing which you can find here. I recommend that you do. You'll also find audio from both Ponytail and WZT Heart's sets. The latter is a fantastic 20-minute tribal noise jam. Jeff recorded BD's set too but hasn't gotten a reply from the band as to whether or not it's kosher to post the audio. I recall it hewed pretty close to Load Blown with some Broken Ear Record in there for good measure. People danced and it didn't hurt.

A Shame

noreply@blogger.com (Travel Light) — Sun, 25 Nov 2007 22:25:00 +0000

Why, why, why, whywhywhy do I even give a damn anymore? What kind of pathetic obsessive am I that I give this much of a fuck what slash who a newspaper on the other side of the country prints? I should take a walk and admire the leaves, read something, play with the dog (that I'm dogsitting). It's a holiday and stuff; I should relax, maybe blog about the nice Thanksgiving I had (Tofurky, a lot of Bushmills and soy nog, board games), and not dwell on the latest hundred words of swill that's staring at me in another browser window. Or at least I could have a sense of humor about it.

Here's the deal. You give someone 70-120 words and $10 to write something intelligent, informed, and halfway entertaining about a band/show.Good deal, right? And, if you have the first clue about what you're talking about, pretty easy. In the right mindset, it can be done in 20 minutes. Rack up like five of them a week and you almost have rent (OK, deep North Portland moldy basement rent). So, there's no excuse for this:

Under the Blacklight isn’t just the title of Rilo Kiley’s latest offering, but also the recipe for success when it comes to DayGlo—the ink that gets its glow on when the lights go down. Will you too come alive under the black lights at Rotture when San Francisco’s Eats Tapes make its way onstage to engage in a bit of experimental techno? With local Knights of Neon, DJs Pocketrock-it and DJ Bonaparte there for a boost, all bets are on the night’s beats outshining any luminescent shades of green, pink and orange.

Wha? I come away from that with "experimental techno" and a round-a-bout, not terribly clever endorsement of said "experimental techno" and a whole lot of filler. Under the Blacklight? Why? So we know you're down with Rilo Kiley? We need to be told what DayGlo is but not what kind of music to expect? So we know you're down with DayGlo. Right. Got it. Maybe some context at least? I feel like I just got stalled for a hundred words while the writer ducks out the backdoor. A good writer can make up for being uninformed--mask it, anyhow--but a bad one has nothing to hide behind.

A few years ago, Willamette Week had about the standing of the Tribune within Portland's ignored, somewhat bitter electronic music community. Aside from the whole becoming an editor thing, changing that is what I'm most proud of. I don't particularly like seeing it torn down in front of my face.

But, hey, this blurb probably got the writer on the guest list, at least.

I Care About Detroit

noreply@blogger.com (Travel Light) — Wed, 21 Nov 2007 20:23:00 +0000

Someone made this list about which cities are safe, which are dangerous, and which ones are sorta in between. I don't know how they did it, but given they've scored 368 cities down to the hundredth of a point, I'm willing to take their word that some work went into this. All apologies to Portland readers; you did not "win." I know that's hard to wrap you're head around. Mission Vallejo, CA won.

Fun facts about Mission ~~Vallejo~~Viejo, CA from Wikipedia:

-"The median income for a household in the city is $78,248, and the median income for a family is $86,902."

-"At the center of the city is a man-made lake, Lake Mission Viejo, a private association for Mission Viejo residents with custom waterfront homes, condominiums, boat rentals,and swim beaches."

Detroit, my hometown (median income: $29,526), lost for the fourth year in a row and Baltimore (median income: $30,078) came in 12th from last. A group email discussion ensued at City Paper about slogans B'more could derive from all of this and Lee's contribution was "Baltimore--Still Better Than Detroit." Yeah, that's probably true at this point in most ways. People actually move here, more and more actually. Baltimore doesn't have to worry about extinction; Detroit does. Literally.

Needless to say: not good thoughts.

Then, this morning, Matos sent me a song. I'd never thought about just how cool it is that you can do that, just send someone a song. It's a nice idea. The song is Smokey Robinson's, "I Care About Detroit" from the Complete Motown Singles Vol. 8. It's cheesy. It could be like a radio commercial or something--maybe it was--but it has this spoken intro...

Listen:

boomp3.com

Totally unrelated, a few hours later we're bouncing around an email discussion about this week's Metro Times cover story, "The 100 Greatest Detroit Songs Ever." The vibe is "awe."

The photo is of the Belle Isle Arboretum, my favorite place in the city for so many reasons.

October Office Ambience

noreply@blogger.com (Travel Light) — Fri, 02 Nov 2007 23:17:00 +0000

Special emphasis on “ambience” this month; can’t explain aside from it probably has something to do with my earlier post on new job/city stress and “pretty” music. I can’t handle much more first thing in the morning beyond some variation on Eno-eque deep-tripping hippie jamz or folk slash folk-smear.

Laraaji, Essence-Universe

Dude worked with Eno on Ambient 3. Deep, shimmering tones that move like the moon/sun/stars move across the sky. The two on here are around half-hour each but it only takes five to ten minutes of that to burrow heavy into your skull and stick in there like a vibrational salve/resin.

White Rainbow, Prism of Eternal Now

Yep. Still.

Black Mirror comp

Ian Nagoski’s distillation of his absurd collection of 78s. Gathered over his life from more far corners than everyone I know will have visited, combined, by the time we’re all dead. The curatorial principle was asking people, wherever, what they listen to--what their friends listen to--and not what he thought he should be hunting (an obsessive music academic and record store owner, he would’ve had a good idea). "World" music for cultural anthropologists.

Jay-Z, American Gangster

Weird, conceptual, and entirely without flow; this will be the best/worst album of the year.

Kode9 & the Spaceape, Memories of the Future

Creepy, narcotic grime/dubstep very much so from the future.

This is "Kingstown." Listen:

boomp3.com

Panda Bear, Person Pitch

Yeah, I know I got on this train late. Someone’s certainly already told you why this is the greatest thing…ever.

Supersilent 6

“Like the hold music in heaven.” – Lee Gardner

Yeasayer

noreply@blogger.com (Travel Light) — Wed, 31 Oct 2007 20:22:00 +0000

I ~~could pass on the~~ have become totally heartsick over this band. According to my last.fm profile, Yeasayer is my third favorite artist since I've had a last.fm account--like a whole year--and ~~but~~ this song is still my favorite...

Yeasayer, "2080" from All Hour Cymbals (We Are Free)
boomp3.com

Monarch

noreply@blogger.com (Travel Light) — Tue, 30 Oct 2007 22:02:00 +0000

I wasn't foolin' about this band in my last blog. As you may or may not know, I'm especially wary of most anything indie-rock, but this little band has crept into my heart like very few things I've heard this year. It may be that I'm in a weird/stressful place with the new city which makes me predisposed to "pretty" music lately (Lloyd & Michael, Picastro, and Rachel's are also in heavy rotation), but this is tremendous. They're a two-piece--another cute couple band--with a sound that puts the swollen communal/dramatic vibes of the Arcade Fire through this weird Kim Deal/Chan Marshall/Jeff Tweedy filter. Skygazing melodies, basement folk, and we're-all-in-this-together gut grazing lovliness for the unsmug gallery set.

I suppose I say the latter mainly because that's where I saw them live for the first time: A place called the G-Spot by the Streetcar Museum--which, a while ago, I thought was an abandoned mill --populated by furry forest dudes, horn rims/hipsters, little kids, and a lot of people that just looked like total vis arts pros. Oh yes, also the artwork of one of my idols, William Schaff , who was also in attendance with his dog (who licked my face!), albeit in a bad state of drunken sadness. In any case, I shook his hand and said "your paintings mean a lot to me." I'm going to pretend that he had any capacity for understanding and/or caring just then, but I suspect not.

Listen to their music here

Baltimore

noreply@blogger.com (Travel Light) — Tue, 30 Oct 2007 22:00:00 +0000

Baltimore

Found this thing on my second day in town. Bmore goes straight for my heart.

If you know me at all, you know this is probably the best thing I've ever seen.

My office is indeed this cute.

This is part of a cluster of abandoned mill buildings up Falls Road.

Can't remember the dudes name, but he was in fact playing a fluorescent light and tweaking it via pedal into some heavy-as-fuck proto-industrial business. At Floristree, which reminds me of a much larger Fritz.

Incredible concert space in an abandoned church.

Surprise! Bmore loves Dan Deacon.

My very bare apartment. Thank god it's so small.

I'll post a picture of the Tavern soon.

I have a desk.