What happened was this: Cathy and I walked to the edge of the reservoir's water and from her purse she removed a Ziploc baggie containing two filmy-tailed, rather stupid-looking goldfish that Pup-Tent had bought for her the week before in an isolated moment of kindness. We sat down on the smooth rocks next to the spotless, clean, infinitely dark and deep lake water. She said to me, "You only get one chance to fall in love for the first time, don't you." And I said, "Well, at least you got the chance. A lot of people [...]

20 SONGS (139MB) I generally dislike these mega posts because the overload of mp3s encourages picking and choosing, whereas ideally I like to think that people might listen to all the songs I post on this blog at least once. (Perhaps that's just a deluded fantasy of mine. Probably.) But, anyways. . . it's been a long time and I have some catching up to do. So here's a bunch of great tracks that I've come across over the last month. And here's all of them in a 139MB zip file . [...]

Two of my favorite bloggers have extolled the virtues of Tenniscoats ' Tan-Tan Therapy , the Japanese duo's new collaborative LP with Swedish outfit Tape . It's sort of unlike anything I've ever heard; Raven Sings the Blues says it recalls "wide-eyed children at play in a room full of instruments," which is the best possible way to describe the wonder and spark in these songs. " Oetsu to Kanki no Nanoriuta " in particular displays how gorgeously Tape's electro-acoustic arrangements frame Tenniscoats' impossibly delicate and fragile [...]

1. Panda Bear - Person pitch ( Paw tracks ) MP3: Take pills Despite its psychedelic density and abuse of looping techniques and reverb, Person pitch rarely sounds willfuly complex or menacing and is ultimately a frothy and gorgeous pop record that keeps on revealing the more you dive into it. Noah Lennox has achieved something magical with this album and it's truly worthy of every accolade heaped upon it. 2. Radiohead - In rainbows ( self released [...]

A truly wondrous release from Tenniscoats out on Sweden's inimitable Hapna records. Tenniscoats set to work like wide-eyed children at play in a room full of instruments; though I must say that they would have to be extremely musically inclined children. Simple melodies and repetitive vocals tiptoe around shimmering clouds of synth and exuberant fits of orchestration. Joined by Swedish electronic whiz kids and Hapna alum Tape, the duo gush and twirl their subdued melodies in a bath of electro-classical ephemera. Though Saya's vocals come across as delicate, they never cross the line into overly cutesy territory, she instead rides [...]
Wow! I'm speechless...well almost. I will tell you that the Japanese group Tenniscoats has teamed up with the Swedish group Tape for their new Hapna release Tan-Tan Therapy . The song "Baibaba Bimba" is what's left me speechless. I felt it from the start, with it's use of heavy breathing to replicate a Brazilian beat, the beautiful vocals and the finger-picked acoustic guitar. Tape added some unusual elements to this song and others from the new record, but everything is so organic nothing detracts/distracts from the easy vibe created [...]

I'm only just beginning to pick up on a trend towards thoroughly inappropriate sport-related band names. If it weren't for the fact that they would get goodness know what sort of a crowd turning up, I'm sure some promoter somewhere would be eyeing up a double bill featuring Soccer Committee and Japan's Tenniscoats. And just how inappropriate is that name? You could probably be forgiven, based on the nationality and the record label (the excellent Room 40 ), for expecting some sweet-voiced pop-tilted electronica. And you'd get [...]

Fall is really cool. Especially when you try to blog better. Okay, it's no secret that I've been slacking lately. I've been slacking on the blog in general, and specifically the Chilly Fall Mixtape Project, the feature that's supposed to keep me consistantly psyched on posting. I guess I've just been kinda lethargic lately, due to this chilly Fall weather and stuff, y'know. Enough excuses though, let's get back on track. I'm sure you'll notice a bit of simlarity in tonight's songs, probably in the vocals. Actually, only in the vocals. 7. [...]

(Artwork by Jeana Sohn) I know oh so little about Ass. That kinda sounds bad, huh. Ass is actually the name of the project of Andreas Soderstrum. Their's a minimal MySpace page (w/friends like Juana Molina, Tape and Blood Music I was instantly intrigued). I have a preview of a song from an upcoming record. It's the beautiful, mostly acoustic soundscape called "Two Different Ways". I suppose this is considered experimental music but it's hard to call it that with such beautiful melodies and such [...]