This used to be a music blog. But it hasn't been for quite sometime. Why? 1. The music business has changed. 2. The Internet has changed. 3. My life has changed. And, so, it is with a heavy heart that I officially put One Sweet Song to bed. But wait, you don't think I'd leave you empty-handed, do you? Because I wouldn't. You can still listen to all your OSS favorites: [...]
I saw this band in 2009 in the back room of a Bushwick bar with my pal EE. EE remembers: "Early spring 2009, back room of that bar on Bushwick Ave. I remember cold weather, dirty carpeting, and a weird opening band." Now, they've got Maeby in a music video where NY looks like LA and LA like NY. Movin' on up. I post this track with some reservation, as it tends to get painfully stuck in my head and then I have to sing anything I can think of to get it out [...]
Lately, I've been waking up with this song in my head a lot. It's weird, because I haven't listened to this album since I was about 16 years old. And yet, there it is, each morning, almost perfectly formed in my memory. Even the words of the chorus, impeccably preserved as if in some kind of ancient teenage amber. Maybe it's because the 90s (particularly the early 90s) are back in full force, and I'm not just talking about tiny floral print, vests, jean jackets, big floppy hats and Doc Martens (not being worn by [...]
Lately, I've been waking up with this song in my head a lot lately. It's weird, because I haven't listened to this album since I was about 16 years old. And yet, there it is, each morning, almost perfectly formed in my memory. Even the words of the chorus, impeccably preserved as if in some kind of ancient teenage amber. Maybe it's because the 90s (particularly the early 90s) are back in full force, and I'm not just talking about tiny floral print, vests, jean jackets, big floppy hats and Doc Martens not being worn [...]
An album I've been really loving lately is the new one by The War on Drugs. Although it sounds more like a Kurt Vile album than any previous release from the band (despite the absence of actual Kurt Vile from the band). I've still found a different, amorous spot in my heart for it. Half Dylan, half Springsteen: the vocal sound and lyrical themes are familiar, set against music that's more modern. There are a lot of standout tracks on Slave Ambient , but the first one continues to pull [...]
Have you heard of Brit School , the Croydon arts & tech. high school that's churning out many of today's most talented musicians? I stumbled upon it last night, after a pal posted the following song on FB. I have decided to go back in time and redo high school there. Is that something we can make happen? Already having gone through two band names (he now performs as Kid Krule), Archy Marshall aka Zoo Kid was born in, get this, 1994! Can you believe that small [...]
Yo, OSSers. How's it? I've been feeling pretty conflicted lately. On one hand, in the words of the great Jackson Browne , "All good things gotta come to an end." On the other, in the words of my constantly approximating generation, "All good things kind of like might have to come to an end, sorta." The argument with myself has been mostly going like this: Me: You should stop writing OSS. You haven't even posted for over a month. Me: Shutup. No. I [...]
Yo, OSSers. How's it? I've been feeling pretty conflicted lately. On one hand, in the words of the great Jackson Browne , "All good things gotta come to an end." On the other, in the words of my constantly approximating generation, "All good things kind of like might have to come to an end, sorta." The argument with myself has been mostly going like this: Me: You should stop writing OSS. You haven't even posted for over a month. Me: Shutup. No. I [...]
I am getting married in one month minus one day. At this moment, my life roughly breaks down into these percentages: 30%: Doing Wedding Shit/Obsessing About Doing Wedding Shit/Not Sleeping While Thinking About Wedding 29%: Sleeping 26%: Day Job 6%: Eating 4%: Playing Music 3%: Obsessing in a Debilitating Way About Everything Else I Need to Get Done 2%: Exercising Not that I'm losing it or anything. Not losing it. I am not losing it. On another note, those glorious days of summer have reached their peak and are now descending, as they [...]
Hello and good Tuesday to you. It seems like we all survived the great 405 shutdown of 2011. I spent the weekend mixing bizness with wedding planning, as I so often do these days. Six weeks and counting…wish me luck. Ethan was playing me this new tUnE-YarDs record when he was here visiting a few months ago. I was liking it, but didn't get hooked in a way that made me want to seek it out immediately. In these situations, I usually add the band name to the list of band names I keep in my actual day [...]
Continuing in yesterday's tradition of bands with ampersands, I've been hearing about Amadou & Mariam for a while now. Although the duo's been performing since the 70s, this is really the first song I've heard from them that truly grabbed me. The song's obviously got a political bent, which does a lot to give it some serious soul (from my now-limited understanding of the French language, I would say the song is focused on corrupt political leadership). That said, it's the use of varied soundscapes that really grabbed my attention. Amadou & Mariam met at Mali's [...]
Have you ever noticed how many Iron & Wine songs are about death? I mean, honestly guys, it's a lot. Here are three of my favorites. The first two are from the fantastic album Our Endless Numbered Days (even the title is about death) and the last one (which is maybe only about death in the abstract) is from the new(ish) Walking Far From Home single (thanks, Tash). Some artists just write songs that are so inherently emotional. The drama of the music and the sentimental nature of the lyrics in all three [...]
Friday Shout/Chant: Local Music Friday What's up with Local Music Fridays? Dear old friend and general mountain-of-a-man Michael Beauchamp's new(est) band Red Tail Ring (you may remember their introduction here ) recently released a two-disc set of songs, Middlewest Chant (mostly originals) and Mountain Shout (hardcore trad). You probably just realized that I was looking for an excuse to actually pair the word "hardcore" with "trad." Ok, you're right. I'm really enjoying both discs [...]
Wow. Between now and last we spoke, I rode some roller coasters and turned 28. Well, that wasn’t all…but those are the highlights. I’ve also become something of a road warrior, making the 45-mile-per-way quest from Costa Mesa to Los Angeles each day for work. Intense commute times are particularly fertile ground for album obsession and that is exactly what has happened here. I heard this song while listening to KCRW (another maintaining-sanity-whilst-driv ing mainstay). At first, I didn’t think much of it. The awkward lyrics were kind of a turn off…but then, a few [...]
A Jam Majestic and Untamed: Local Music Friday What's up with Local Music Fridays? Guys, I am just going to stop making promises about post frequency/quantity/etc. We both know I can't keep them. With the moving and the wedding planning and the new (sort of demanding) job, I'm like a deadbeat dad with a million shitty excuses. Not cool. So from now on, you'll hear from me when you hear from me. The only thing I can completely guarantee is that the jams will stay totally [...]
I'm not sure how this one slipped through the OSS cracks, but this song was IT right around when I was leaving NYC. I first heard it while driving to a gig at Party Xpo in Bushwick with Karl and Patrice. Everyone knows that the only station to listen to when driving to shows is Hot 97. I suppose I'll have to find a West Coast replacement soon. The second the song came on we were fucking entranced. Oh, that glorious synth line. Oh, that incredible flow. Oh, that hilarious [...]
OK, dudes--you have to forgive me. This is a TOTAL guilty pleasure situation, but I just can't get the sample from this song out of my head. One big room! Full of bad bitches! I will freely admit that I am having some difficultly fully getting my head around Oakland rapper/phenomenon/thing Kreayshawn , although I do have plenty of speculative hypotheses. One thing I know for sure is that there's almost nothing I could say that this video couldn't. Thus: Gucci Gucci.mp3 [...]
I can't thank my good pal Tash enough for introducing me to this amazing set of comps, LA Burnout and LA Burnout 2 . I've become completely addicted to these catchy, somewhat forgotten odes to the city of angels. These jams are teaching me that I might have gotten it wrong. When I first got here, I was convinced that LA had no soul. Now I think that LA does in fact have a soul. It's may be a sleazy, washed-out, drug-addled, sun-baked soul, but it's a [...]
A situation came up tonight that reminded me of this song. In fact, it's probably a bad sign that there are a few ongoing situations in the general vicinity of my life that correlate well to this song. Of course, it would be incriminating for me to tell you who "daddy" is (hint: not my dad) and what the " Thunderbird " is, but I will say that in at least one of the aforementioned scenarios, I may be referring to an actual car. Is it just me or does, "Your dad took [...]
OK, so I know I'm a few days late on this...ok...a week and a half. But I really wanted to post this song in honor of Easter. Because I think we all deserve a new Jesus at least once a year, regardless of our religious upbringings/beliefs. As a person of Catholic and Jewish lineage, I have the maximum amount of guilt humanly possible encoded into my DNA. This is why one year I gave up guilt for lent. This year though, much like my this Jesus post, I totally messed up my give-up-something-for-lent timing. Anika and I are [...]
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