We mogen Bartolomeo Cristofori dankbaar zijn. Ik moet er namelijk niet aan denken dat alle piano's nog gewoon naar een klavecimbel (hoewel ook een zeldzaam mooi instrument) zouden klinken. De techniek met de hamertjes die tegen een snaar slaan was in de zeventiende eeuw redelijk baanbrekend, en door de beste componisten geëerd in hun werk. [...]
Nicci's workplace had their annual Christmas Party at Malo tonight, which meant a couple hours of heavenly eating and drinking. Right now I am full of carnitas, potato and eggplant tacos, beef and pickle tacos and chicken/chorizo quesadillas. I could not be happier. If that restaurant wasn't so expensive (or maybe if I had a better-paying job?) I would eat there every night. Well, not every night - I'd need to eat at Qdoba and Casa Bianca and Patra, too! Hey, how about a mix tape? RULES for uninitiated noobs : With [...]
Hi everybody. I'm glad you could all make it. Welcome to the annual "Best Albums Of..." post, which is usually the time I put effort into composing a blog entry. In 2005 I wrote small blurbs about the top twenty-five albums of the year. In 2006 I wrote three-word reviews for the 50 best records of the year. Last year I went so far as to craft a complete sentence for my favorite 100 albums of 2007. This year...I don't know, I haven't started the list yet. I think I'm just going to write blurbs about the albums for which [...]

library tapes the rivers turned to cobblestone 2008 (française version) souvenirs de laforgue. petites misères de novembre. à l'aube, fuite. atmosphère fixe. coeur central. trop. je rêve. figé. dans l'infini bleu. perdu. soleil fichu. (englikhtonian version) Laforgue's souvenirs. november, small miseries. at dawn, escape. fixed atmosphere. central heart. too much. I dream. frozen. into the infinite blue. lost. [...]

This week on the show, we're causing co-motion with women and pixies. The debut LP from the Canadian band Women is as catchy as it is artsy. We've got a few tracks from that and the Library Tapes, Marnie Stern, and caUSE Co-MOTION!, too. Also, let's not forget the two new albums from the California's very own garage rock ruckus, thee Oh Sees. This is a pretty consistently cool podcast. The Needle Drop 10-25-08 Playlist: Women - " [...]

The haunting minimalism of David Wenngren's the Library Tapes is almost too deep to describe. How does one give justice to the almost astral plane delivered to the listener in this music? If anything on this new LP is easy to describe, it's how much the sound of the Library Tapes has changed since 2007's Höstluft . Wenngren's music is no longer sifting through the muddled world of lo-fi; his signature use of field recordings for sonic accompaniment is less prominent; and there are so many string arrangements, even the piano has found itself playing second fiddle. [...]
Sorry, Red Sox fans. At least you made it further than the Yankees did this year...Now, please enjoy this Sunday mix tape. Wait, before we begin, I want to take a moment to recognize Swan Fungus reader Bennett for his amazing attempt at trickery. After making a generous donation to the website, he was the proud recipient of one of my now-infamous "Thank You" care packages. His parcel included a mask, some weird little trinkets, a Rod Stewart backstage pass from a '70s or '80s tour (I don't remember which), and -- best of all -- a really [...]
Sorry, Red Sox fans. At least you made it further than the Yankees did this year...Now, please enjoy this Sunday mix tape. Wait, before we begin, I want to take a moment to recognize Swan Fungus reader Bennett for his amazing attempt at trickery. After making a generous donation to the website, he was the proud recipient of one of my now-infamous "Thank You" care packages. His parcel included a mask, some weird little trinkets, a Rod Stewart backstage pass from a '70s or '80s tour (I don't remember which), and -- best of all -- a really [...]

Library Tapes - Fragment VIII After a sleepless night and a hectic day of scrambling around the place, the inside of my head feels a bit like this song right now. Library Tapes are a Swedish duo that use piano and violin to create a particular kind of distance, other-wordly ambience - a little like Stars of the Lid without that clinical degree of perfection. They play Anseo on the 12th of November, Waterford's Electric Avenue on the 14th, The Whisky in Cork on the 16th, and then The Ruby Sessions in Dublin again [...]
Pitchfork reviews Swedish artist Library Tapes : http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/ article/record_review/146131-l ibrary-tapes-a-summer-beneath- the-trees
New reviews at The Silent Ballet of new albums from both Detektivbyrån and Library Tapes

Where are all the "sodey pop" drinkers!? I think I should start today with good news: I haven't consumed any sodey pop since last Tuesday afternoon (3/25). That's one full week without sweet, delicious, refreshing sodey pop. Really, it hasn't been that much of a struggle. For the past seven days I have consumed only water, and three bottles of Arizona Iced-Tea. I only used No-Doz for the first two days, and have not popped any more since Wednesday or Thursday of last week. Personally, I wish I didn't drink the Arizona [...]
So Groundhog Day is the total realization of the ridiculous superstitions people in the United States have. I mean, how the hell are we supposed to trust a rodent to predict the weather when humans can't even do with the most sophisticated technology around? Just ain't gonna happen, but I guess it's fun for them to try. Anyway, here's a split mix to celebrate Staten Island Chuck seeing his shadow

January 14th Akron/Family - Love Is Simple MP3: Akron/Family - There's So Many Colors MP3: Akron/Family - Phenomena January 15th The Books - Lost and Safe MP3: The Books - Be Good to Them Always MP3: The Books - It Never Changes to Stop January 16th [...]
Hello my loves. I'm currently scribing from the kitchen, where Sari is preparing a massive Sunday afternoon spread that includes homemade bruschetta and all sorts of yummy snacks. We're several bottles in, and it's been a generally beatific day. Not sure what the plan is tonight, but I have to be asleep at a reasonable hour thanks to another voluntary airport run in the wee hours of tomorrow morning. Hopefully this won't happen again for a while. Now here's the music. RULES for uninitiated noobs : With 100MB of webspace, I give birth to [...]

I like how TIME magazine has an article called "Should Schools Fingerprint Your Kids?". Apparently in Boulder Valley, Colorado, kids pay for their lunch meals via fingerprint. That's not what I thought the article was going to be about -- I think it was going to be about actual fingerprinting, in the presence of police officers. Because when I was in elementary school, my class had to go to the auxiliary gym to be fingerprinted by the town police. I couldn't have been more than ten years old at the time, and the fact that they used my youthful naivete [...]

Last night was so embarrassing I won't even describe how I spent it. Sure, I left the apartment at five in the afternoon and didn't return until after 4am, but the hours in between were so utterly unremarkable I feel it could actually damage my reputation if I recounted the details for you. I awoke to my phone ringing at noon. There were television characters making cameos in my dreams this morning. RULES for uninitiated noobs : With 100MB of webspace, I give birth to a weekly Mix Tape to be deposited on your iPods or [...]
Though the combination of classical piano and field recordings is starting to become a genre unto itself, it still amazes me when someone can pull something so powerful from something so simple. Swedish artist David Wenngren has on his third and now solo record, created a stirring set of songs that are littered with melancholia and a wonderfully antique sense of ennui. Höstluft sits on your chest like the memory of each year squandered, his sense of loss filling up your lungs. There's a touch of bittersweet but its filtered through the dusted and scratched lens that Wenngren [...]
Hey, I'm finally getting a paycheck for that job I did all those months ago. Remember the one? I was doing stuff online for this company, but I signed a non-disclosure so I couldn't talk about it? Well, I should have "the bulk of what is owed to [me]" in the coming days. Hello new music gear, goodbye...uh...cheapness? No, no that's not it at all. I'm still cheap. Goodbye...penny-pinching? Is that a synonym for cheapness? Oh, I don't know. I guess all this means is I can stop living on $50 a week for the next few months. [...]

library tapes höstluft 2007 (française version) Tout s'assombrit. A nouveau, il pleut. Je cherche l'été. L'avez vous vu ? S'est-il perdu ou a-t-il seulement manqué sa correspondance en gare de Juin, le 21 dernier ? Un disque précédent - tout aussi extraordinairement calme que le premier - de Library tapes avait pour titre "sentiments pour quelque chose perdu". Quoi ? L'Eté ? Peut-être bien... leur nouvel album s'appelle " [...]