Blog: Soapnix

The Previous - Sister, if... The Previous - A Nerd's Night In Sometimes, there are the songs I find on mixtapes that I wish I had found on my own. Here’s a couple whose magnetic goodness finally charmed me enough to seek out the rest of the album. CD available at CD Baby. (That's where I got mine!)

Smoosh â€" Its Not Your Day To Shine w Smoosh â€" Pygmy Motorcycle One of the best things about being back in school is getting to take the afternoons off (even it does mean spending the night in the library). Last Monday, I shamelessly used my privileges to hang out on the HUB lawn, drink free Odwalla , and catch a set by those Seattle phenoms, Smoosh . I’ve been reading lots of press about the two sisters (aged 13 and [...]

Chris Moore - Derailed Calexico - Sunken Waltz Recently, I have recalled these tracks which came to me in January of last year. I don’t know why, but I’ve been thinking about last year a lot. In part, I suppose, because it seems hard to believe it has only been a year. A year ago, everyone was still talking about the political campaigns not as if they might mean something; as if change was possible. It’s almost funny to think that now. [...]

Much as I love to share my music tastes with the world ad infinitum, I gotta wonder...where the hell are the rest of the Soapnix? On vacation without me, I suspect. In that case... Lync is one of those bands I discovered "accidentally." (Accidental is just a lazy way of saying the moment of our introduction was a nice and entirely unexpected surprise.) Sometime in 1999 a friend of mine got a CD-R of Modest Mouse MP3s and a few other tracks as a bonus. Little did I know two of those bonus bands would remain favorites [...]

I didn't stumble across Unwound until maybe a year or a year and a half ago. Shortly thereafter I purchased their double album Leaves Turn Inside You after hearing the hypnotic and blissfully melodic "Demons Sing Love Songs" for the first time. Easily one of the most solid, haunting and inventive tracks I have heard. I recently read a review in which the writer rattled on at length about the glories of the album, gave the record a rating of 9 out of 10, and failed to say a single word about this song. I wanted to cry. [...]

I'm not sure what it is about Hilltop Hoods that reminds me of Gang Starr- maybe it's the decent rhymes with a good mellow flow well-matched to creative, catchy beats. Granted, there's no one quite like DJ Premier and Guru, but listening to these guys might make you wonder why there aren't more Australian hip-hop groups. Hell, it makes me wonder why (once again) there aren't more decent hip-hop groups in this or any country. Thanks to Craig for the tip! listen: Hilltop Hoods - Testimonial Year (from "The Calling") [...]

For fans of My Bloody Valentine's 1992 masterpiece Loveless (like myself), Ride's Nowhere has been proclaimed by at least a few to be the nearest runner-up among the records released during the shoegazing wave of the early 1990's. That said, it's definitely worth listening to all these years later. Taste and Vapour Trail remain two of my favorite songs from the decade, but I'd be lying if I said the rest of the tracks weren't great as well. If you've yet to hear any shoegazing albums, this is a good one to start with. listen: Ride [...]

Patty Larkin - Who Holds Your Hand I love this song for the four lines : So I put a cup of tea on And I looked at Rand McNally I put a couple shoes on And I hurried down the alley Sometimes, it is just that easy.

I've been looking forward to the next Silver Jews release for a few months now. The fact that the master tapes narrowly escaped being burned up in a fire last spring at a Memphis studio adds a little something to the anticipation. I won't deny that I stumbled upon Silver Jews only after coming to fully appreciate Pavement. Foolishly, I hoped for something vaguely resembling my favorite band; after all, Malkmus was involved. Yet years later, I remain grateful that Silver Jews is not and was never a Pavement side project. So, if you're like me [...]

Blue Rags - Must Be Movin' On The Blue Rags released two mediocre albums. One of them on Sub Pop , which is probably how it ended up in my hands for a ridiculously cheap college student price. After negotiating the purchase, I went straight home and played it to great excitement. My flatmate came home shortly after and I played it for him too. He didn't like it as much, but that didn't stop me from slapping it in my bag and catching a flight to Salt [...]

When I was in college, "movie night" was nearly synonymous with Fridays after school. I know a lot of people that probably spent those same evenings I spent watching classic foreign cinema or Woody Allen films with my friends getting trashed and making out with as many girls as possible. It's not that I had something better to do, mostly I was just a massive geek. Not a whole lot has changed, actually. Nevertheless I have to wonder how the mood of their evenings would change if Howard Hello were on their party playlists. A friend of mine who's now [...]

This song was inspired by the film Magnum Force , the second film in which Clint Eastwood plays bad ass loose cannon San Francisco Police detective “Dirty� Harry Callahan. The title is a line that Callahan says to his corrupt boss Briggs (played by Hal Holbrook!) before he drives off in a car that explodes at the end of the film. Why was Robyn watching Magnum Force of all things and how did the idea of writing a song about come to him I’ll never know but this song is freaking [...]

Dar Williams â€" Are You Out There Vagabond Lovers â€" Midnight Radio I’ve been listening to Sirius radio recently. Surprisingly, I really like it. I like it enough I’m eyeing that lifetime subscription and reviewing bank accounts. It’s sick how much I’m willing to spend on my ears. However, financial reason has prevailed â€" for the moment at least. They say satellite radio is the next FM radio, but I grew up to late to understand what that means. [...]

Eszter Balint - Amsterdam Crown This song isn't about the feeling of ceaseless motion or a straight travel song. This song isn't about travel at all. This song is about cities. Eszter perfectly captures the feeling of being a city without any connections to the city, its people, or its culture. The feeling is a weird one; one I knew well long before I left the US. Everytime I feel like I'm walking through a movie set or a diarama I whisper, "September forever, Amsterdam in the [...]

Clare Burson - Another Day Down I've written about Clare Burson before , but I didn't have this track for you then. Instead of trying to post together a compilation of road songs or a good travel mix, I'll just post some of my favorites. Maybe it's the lack of sleep, maybe it's being in the same place for almost two years, but I can't think of anything but travel songs these days.

Mountain Con - False Horizon Mountain Con - The Goodtimes I discovered Mountain Con by grabbing their first CD from the free bin at Cellophane Square in 2000. The disc normally sits at the bottom of my collection, but when it arises it takes my stereo by storm and has to be forced off by friends tired of hearing me sing along to a band they've never taken the time to know. They're playing on the mainstage at the [...]

Forgive me my silence. My writing matches my ears and when they rested so did this site. Now that I’ve nestled into the Cascades and skimmed the Olympics again, I’m ready to resume the projects I love. I have long wanted to put together mix CDs or samplers related to Soapnix. One day, I may come through. At the moment, I’m binding together a set of movement-related songs I’ve fallen for this year. If I can make a cohesive set out of them, I’ll post the track listing with highlights here. [...]

You've Got To Pick A Pocket Or Two Reviewing The Situation - both from the 1963 recording As I casually flipped another few CDs onto the most convenient pile, I sighed. “I have enough three-star CDs�, I thought to myself, “I should only purchase the five-stars from now on. Then I would always be excited to listen to my collection.� The problem is my collection overflows with musical genius executing with great mediocrity (yes, I’m looking at you Aimee Mann [...]