ikeepitreal

A guy at work posed the question today --"What are your 3 desert island albums"? I thought this would be easy until I flipped through the album covers on my IPod. Tough assignment, but here's my answers:

Miles Davis - Kind of Blue.

Miles and Sinatra are the only stylists to have perfectly placed every note, AFAIC. The beginning and end of modal jazz. Accessible and freaking awesome.

The Postal Service - Give Up.

Great lyricist and singer combines with a incredible electronic beatsmith? I'll have more please. I don’t know if Give Up invented or just popularized electro-pop but this is the genre's best.

Weezer - Weezer (Blue Album).

Every song on this album is fantastic (Only in Dreams is the exception that proves the rule). Who hasn't taken a road trip with their high school friends and successfully sung all the lyrics to the blue album along with the stereo? What's that, I'm the only one? Then you guys suck.

Posted by Mike at 09:27 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Having recently published some of my music to this audience, I've probably lost a skosh of street cred when it comes to doling out advice in indie music. But trust me with this one -- you must go to your nearest record store tomorrow. The Flaming Lips and Built to Spill are releasing long awaited new albums on the same day!

It has been almost 4 years since the Lips put out "Yoshimi" and over 5 since BTS dropped "Ancient Melodies". Both great efforts by amazing bands. All the reviews I've read of the new albums -- "At War With the Mystics" and "You in Reverse" are great.

I'll pick them up tomorrow and give my actual take in the comments. But unless you have a problem with bearded men singing in falsetto, you should probably give these two releases a listen.

Update: Turns out I had one of the dates wrong. Kind of ruins the whole point of the post (sigh). The BTS album comes out next week, don't know if Warner Brothers changed it because of the other release or if I just had the date wrong. Also, I was sick today and couldn't find the other one anywhere on the Eastside (stupid big box retailers). Anyhoo -- I've ordered both online at Tower Records cause they are $9.99 each and the Built to Spill CD is autographed. So I won't actually have a review for ya'll soon. (exhale held breath now).

Posted by Mike at 08:50 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

ikeepitreal.com is becoming a multimedia extravaganza!

I got some sweet recording gear for my birthday a while back, and I'm just getting around to recording stuff with it. I've always had a dream of playing cheezy covers in an funny but good way, giving listeners the hehe-wait-this-actually-sounds-ok experience. Plus if it's a joke, I don't actually open myself up to critisism! Hooray for low self-confidence!

Since I don't quite have the stones to hit an open mic, I'll stick to for recording for now. The end goal is to have an album full of these covers sometime this year.

Check out the first tune, recorded last night -- The Sign.

Please be gentle on the bandwidth and only download once. :) And just for kicks, some legal mumbo-jumbo...

This music free to share under a Creative Commons Music Sharing License.

Posted by Mike at 09:20 AM | Permalink | Comments (5)

I just spent some time this afternoon looking at the Amazon music blowout. There is enough good stuff there just in the $7.99 sections, so I thought I'd point out a few classics. There are a ton of greatest hits albums there too, but if you are a true music lover, you will pretend like they don't exist. Move along. Nothing to see there.

FYI, I've stopped my Amazon Affiliate experiment, so I won't get a piece of any sales. (In case you have some aversion to making me money, rest assured).

To the music:

- Miles Davis Kind of Blue. If you own one jazz album, this should be it.

- The Clash London Calling. Their best. I love "Lost in the Supermarket". Get this even if you always embarass yourself by confusing these guys with The Ramones (as I do).

- Johnny Cash At Folsom Prison. Good times listening to Cash win the prisoners over.

- John Coltrane A Love Supreme. Coltrane's prayer after he got clean and found God. So special they started a Catholic church based on it in San Francisco.

- Jeff Buckley Grace. Lots of aging hipsters love this one. I'm a latecomer, won over by hearing "Hallelujah" on several recent soundtracks.

- Public Enemy It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back. I don't have this one. But it's always on top 50 lists, and is pretty seminal for modern hip-hop. Guess I should take my own advice and order it :).

- Spice Girls Spice. I have a big soft spot for the Girls, and this is their best. Seriously. Best. Guilty. Pleasure. Ever.

- Miles Davis Quintet Relaxin'. This quintet was the best (Coltrane and Miles!), and if you like it straight-ahead, this is about as good as it gets.

- Chris LeDoux Western Underground. The pinnacle of modern countr... er, who am I kidding. LeDon't buy this one.

That was terrible. I'm sorry. I just had to LeWork that in there.

Posted by Mike at 07:59 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)

I bought this CD at a garage sale this weekend for 10 cents. Well actually, a quarter, because the lady didn't have proper change. When I listened to it and read the liner notes, I was suprised by a few things (and my suprise may reveal my utter ignorance of early 80's music and prog rock in general, but what the heck).

* Peter Gabriel wore makeup? That picture alone is worth a quarter. He looks like a cross between Bowie and Peter Criss (see I can drop a couple of names from the early '80's) .

* When they first stared making CDs, they didn't know a whole lot about the technology. Witness these two notes inside the liner:

The Compact Disc digital audio system offers the best possible sound reproduction -- on a small, convenient disc... No cleaning is necessary if the Compact Disc is always held by its edges and is replaced in its case directly after playing... Never use a solvent or abrasive cleaner to clean the disc. If you follow these suggestions, the Compact Disc will provide a lifetime of listening enjoyment.

The music on this Compact Digital Disc was originally recorded on analog equipment. We have attempted to preserve, as closely as possible, the sound of the original recording. Because of its high resolution, however, the Compact Disc can reveal limitations of the source tape.

What we know now:

- Digital encoding of any sort is inferior to high quality analog recording. It's funny that it was ever thought otherwise.

- I see people clean CDs all the time with windex/soap and water, etc. I think that's the preferred method of cleaning now.

- "A lifetime of listening enjoyment". There is a lot of concern now about so-called "CD rot". This is especially the case for early 80's manufactured CDs. And interestingly enough, the label side of the disc is the fragile side.

* I always got the impression that Gabriel was a great songwriter, but there are a couple of huge lyrical duds on this album. Check out the lyrics to "Shock the Monkey". Now imagine all the backup singers in the band chanting/grunting "SHOCK" repeateadly . If you get a chance, you have to listen to this song for the unintentional comedy factor.

* And Peter Gabriel keeps it real:

Although this album was compiled from four concerts in the Mid-West [sic] of the United States, some additional recording took place not a thousand miles away from the home of the artiste. The generic term of this process is "cheating"...

- Very cheeky Peter. You win points from me for your spelling of 'artiste' and for calling yourself out for altering a live recording. Way to keep it real.

Posted by Mike at 11:23 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

In college, I played in a jazz combo called "Nature Boy". We would play the college coffee shop once a week and open up concerts for the Jazz Band and Willamette Singers. The piano player, David King, recently took one of our recordings and added melodica to the head. The new recording is here.

Nature Boy lineup:

* David King: Piano, Melodica
* Matt Hoffman: Bass
* Phil "Hollywood" Hanson: Drums
* Yours Truly: Trumpet, Guitar, Harmonica, Vocals (with varying degrees of success)

BTW, if anyone knows how to get a hold of Phil or Matt, lemme know. :)

Posted by Mike at 03:29 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

- TelevisionElbow

- A Solid Mixture of Tar and Gravel

- WarmRoughHousing

- Affable Guinea Pig

- Hearse Intended to be Given to an Attractive Female

- The Burnt Sienna Polka Dots

- Created to Leak

- The Ignited Kissers

Inspired by Mcswenney's Lists.

Posted by Mike at 03:20 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

A take on Sufjan Stevens' Come on and Feel the Illinoise

My friend Zach turned me on to Sufjan Stevens about a year ago. I believe his exact words were -- "Here is some trippy Jesus whisper-folk you might be interested in". Ever since, I've been burning copies of this guy's music for everyone I know.

We'll start with the prerequisites. It seems that every review of his shows or albums includes the following information, but it is important, so here goes:

- He started a bold project to record an album about each of the 50 US states in 2003, with Michigan.

- The next year, he took a detour, releasing Seven Swans, which is an emotive and sometimes depressingly creepy look at Christian theology.

- Back on track this spring, Illinoise was released. He claims to be releasing another state at the end of this year (rumors mention Oregon or Rhode Island).

His music is eclectic in general, and Illinoise is no exception. How can a Christian, emo, 24-instrument-playing guy who's biggest trick is strumming the banjo make such accessible and beautiful music? How is this same music the biggest thing with the hipster kids and indie shoegazers? How did this guy cause Seattle's alternative weekly The Stranger to write a open minded, pro-faith review? I dunno -- but maybe you should give it a try too.

At first glance, the baroque interludes and woodwind quintets that break the album up, and the stream-of-consciousness lengthy song titles may seem to be the work of a young songwriter trying too hard. But Sufjan may be the one person that can pull it off. Read his bio. In his writing, he treads the line between too-wordy-cleverness and affable-self-deprecation. His music straddles a similar line. Both strike a chord with me.

And in the spirit of (not) keeping it real, I'd like to explicitly point out that I got this album a month before it was released (with the now-recalled Superman cover seen above). I let Zach believe it's because I have some ins in the Christian community. Really, I just ordered it direct from the label. Just as long as ya'll know, I heard of him first.

Posted by Mike at 11:06 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Thoughts from the Olive Garden bathroom...

You know the song Volare that they *always* play at Italian resturants? Well, according to my limited knowledge of Italian-American culture (straight from the movies), this song must be accompanied with a big croud of people stumbling around and singing arm in arm. It's a dream of mine to be invited to an Italian wedding someday, assuming they really are like that (I don't wanna know if they aren't).

So, is there a WASP approximation of this phenomenon? Some sort of celebratory, generation-spanning sing-along? The closest I can think of is Sweet Caroline. I know it's a poor substitute, but it has most of the elements. Does your Mom know it? Check. Can you sing along without knowing the words? Check. Does it sound better when you are drunk? Check.

I'll still be waiting for a wedding invitation, but in the meantime, I've always got the piano bar down the street -- "sweet caroline... DUH DUH DAAAAAA!".

Next time in this space: A substitute for Italian wedding soup...

Posted by Mike at 02:37 PM | Permalink | Comments (29)