he looks like he's having so much fun. thats what it should be about.

Banshee Rampant - North Shore Morning Commute from Spoked Media on Vimeo.

elephant in the corner.

it's that elephant in the corner, that huge mass of win that you are not aware of because it has always been there. well if its not completely obvious at this point I am talking about about a great album I've had for a WHILE that I forgot about until recently when it came up in a random play list.

My Morning Jacket. Its a forgettable band in my opinion honestly, and I can't quite figure out why. They have a few epic tunes that are amazing from an arrangement perspective, but I always seem to just pass them by when choosing music to listen to when I'm relaxing. I have been listening to their album "Z" recently. I wanted to point out a song I like quite a bit off of there, A random piece of amazing trivia, and bring your attention to the album cover, because its just an awesome piece of artwork.

First, I have really enjoyed listening to the song off of their album "Z" entitled "Dondante". It starts in a very calm low key sound, then has this amazing crescendo mid way through, such a big sound. This video (on youtube) is not the music video, but its quite strange when placed to this music and sort of interesting. (i like it.)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WKSdls_LfPc

Second, an amazing piece of trivia. In 2008 they played a FOUR HOUR long set at Bonnaroo with 35 songs, and with guest appearances from Kirk Hammett (Metallica), and Zach Galifianakis. Crazy and strange, all in one.

Third, check out this album cover! Nothing needs to be said, just stare in amazement.

all in all, it may be forgettable for someone like me, but its absolutely worth a listen for someone like you.

sander.

profound.

do you mean, pro to found?

i rode today for quite a long while, longer than i've really ever ridden at the watershed. I rode with Steve, (the other half of the Banshee Bikes owners club, ha) quite a treat to ride with a guy who's been up and riding there for quite sometime. for those who are not aware, the watershed in frederick is some of the most technical mountain biking that I've ever done, with out a doubt. Not to say I've been riding bikes for ever, but I've been to a couple of cool spots. Nothing, I mean nothing compares to the shed. Its the only place you can go ride some excellent well built, freeride / downhill trails, then go ride some challenging technical XC stuff. Great fun.

Steve and I did about 22 miles there on a loop he had planned out, totally wore me out, but hopefully I'll get a a few more trips under my belt and get in a little better shape.

I'm completely exhausted, and I can't wait to do it again.

i got all tingly and what not.

even if you're not in to bikes, thats a WELL done section of film.

sander

music decisions this week made easy.

easy.

so this week, we've got two bands that i've played through religiously almost over the past few days. "the bouncing souls" and "black rebel motorcycle club"

maybe you're thinking, what in the hell does this have to do with last weeks, Flying Lotus and Coltrane? well, the answer would simply be, nothing. I make an active attempt to not fall in to the group of repeat listeners.

I remember talking to a few professors (of music) when I was in school a while ago and they often said that we (younger people, younger than 50) are listening to music differently in that we are able to hit repeat, and listen to a song again and again with little effort. In their generation they were forced to pick up a needle and start the song over again. (you may be thinking, what the fuck, that doesn't matter at all?) The point that they often tried to make was that when they were listening to music, they took part in active listening, because they couldn't just play a song on repeat, it forced them to slow down and listen to music as a sole task. Not so much listening to music while driving, running, going to the store, grocery shopping, etc...

So I try to not become fixated on a particular record, song, or group (as much as I can anyway), and it makes the weekly music journal cooler if i'm bringing you fresh tunes to dig on.

"The Bouncing Souls? those fucking New Jersey MOOCHES?"

(excerpt from "Shark Attack" off their self titled album)

The Bouncing Souls are an awesome original punk / rock band who have a good balance of fun, up beat tunes that are easy to relate to, and also some nostalgic tunes about past experiences that the members of the band have likely had at some point.

Summed up in a short fashion would be as follows:

-Fun

-Fast paced

-Not too dramatic

-Classic east coast punk

Check out these youtube sample clips:

"Hopeless Romantic"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LUCCjmvdgSQ

"Anchors Aweigh"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sv7U5mGDpsc

As a contrast to the souls' we have Black Rebel Motorcycle Club. This is a more traditional rock group (when compared to the souls'), they are however falling in to a new category of acid rock or stoner rock. A staple of this style of music is constant homogenous movement, crunchy homogenous guitars, no drastic changes, no crazy van-halen esq solos, basically really basic (haha).

Not really worth doing an in-depth description of what these guys are about, maybe the classic parental comparison would fit here:

If Radiohead (OK Computer era) and Oasis conceived a child, it would likely resemble the BRMC, well at least more so than the milk man.

Black Rebel Motorcycle Club

"What ever happened to my rock and roll"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7EJdpuxTysU

sander.

a case of the mondays. listening segment.

Flying Lotus:

a spacial journey in sound. don't listen to reset, 1983, or cosmogramma with any expectation of anything. just sit back and enjoy. as always this record especially is supreme with headphones. sort of a techy, hip-hop, journey. his music is often used as the transitional music on cartoon network fyi.

Coltrane (Lush Life, in particular):

smoking smoking, SMOKING grooves. easy time period of jazz. the late 1950's in american jazz was in my eyes the absolute pinnacle of anything that ever was or ever will be, jazz. Why? well, jazz like many styles of music, has gone through phases. they are best related to "musical seasons". where in the late 1950s you have whats called "tonal" jazz. its that nice slow, smokey dark, sultry music. before and after the 57-59' tonal jazz era you had, be-bop (which was just like cramming as many fucking notes as you could in a bar, see charlie parker) and the first versions of "new-jazz" (strange off the wall stuff from ornette coleman) respectively.

anyway, the title track, and "like someone in love" are supreme, (a love supreme? sorry bad joke for all you coltrane fans, i know).

im going to try and keep this up again on this blog now as opposed to the other one. look for it on mondays!

sander

so, riding bikes is great.

yesterday was nice out. so very nice in the park, riding that bike just makes everything else seem like no big thing. people in the park were friendly. which is strange on a weekend.

starting to sort of enjoy riding with platforms as opposed to clips, not as cool climbing, but I feel that I'm a more fluid rider with flats.

rode today at the shed with some people, its amazing how that bike can really pedal around and do some moderate mileage on saturday, and do some gnarly drops / freeride stuff and fun fast jump lines with some minor adjustments on sunday.

the money spent on bikes seems so much more worth it, as compared to race cars, and other crap that isn't really as cool.

sander