andy ralph

my homeboy andy had a rad piece called Trash Clan in the 2010 OCMA biennial:

Andy Ralph Trash Clan OCMA 2010 Biennial from Charles Bergquist on Vimeo.

he's also in a rad band with his rad brother, jaime:

rad.

analogue pro tip

in spite of the 31,330 songs by the 2,909 artists stored in my itunes library, i've been playing a lot of vinyl while i work on projects at home.

having to get up to flip and/or change the records often brings some new perspective when i get back to the work at hand. plus, my butt doesn't fall asleep as much.

it can get tricky if paint is involved in the project, but it's still worth it.

heavy rotation

tickle your ear bones with some jams that are stuck on repeat on my iphone:

¡MUSICA CALIENTE!

AFX

just watch/listen. i really wish i lived in france eleven days ago. or that this guy would FREAKING TOUR AMERICA.

soundtrack to the summer

man, this blog is a ton of fail. right after i start reviewing rental cars, they cut out 3/4 of the travel i had planned for the rest of the year, HA! maybe something else "interesting" will "happen" in my "life" soon, but until then, enjoy Two Weeks, by Grizzly Bear. the official soundtrack to my summer:



click through to the HD, if your computer can hang... and buy the record, it's fantastic... don't buy the record, steph, i already did.

sonic boom

dunno what they're putting in the water in glasgow, but if you haven't been listening to hudson mohawke or rustie, your ears are suffering for it...

have a listen here.

a rebuttal

i recently read a blog post that referred to Linkin Park as a death metal band. pretty boys with gel in their hair singing melodically about teen angst hardly qualifies as death metal. to create death metal the guitars have to be tuned way down (and played much more skilfully), the beat has to be at least four times faster and the singer typically renders the lyrics with a dissonant growl.

a better example would be the aptly named Death, certainly among if not the pioneers of death metal. enjoy:



ps: no offense to the author of the other post, i just have this weird thing about music.

pps: the solo (at about 2:18) is so rad in this song.

side effect

fyi: a bunch all of the music links on this blog are gonna break when we switch ISPs. sorry, can't be bothered to fix them all.

that is all.

rave

this clip is rather nostalgia-inducing for me. i still prefer weird music in some tiny club to a big venue packed full of jerks who don't understand the music like i do...

competition

tim finally posted again, so i have to as well...

how is it the best gospel song i've heard all year is on a Ghostface Killah record?

The Prayer

routine

not much weblog activity due to complete normalcy of life, intermittently punctuated by the occasional Super Puzzle Fighter II TURBO HD Remix battle on xbox live arcade. in lieu of anecdotal musings, enjoy the top track of this afternoon:

Marlow - Road Kill

chrome hoof

one of my favorite things in the world is hearing new, good music for the first time. i think we're at some pinnacle of musical potential in history, just about everything has been done, i mean, "Noise" is an established genre nowadays... it's nigh impossible to describe a new band's "sound" without referencing some existing band(s).

there's a huge difference between simply copying a sound or style and taking existing ideas, influences and sounds and fusing them to create something "new" (for lack of a better word). to my ears, Chrome Hoof succeeds at the latter.

Tonyte
Symbolik 180

steph described their sound as "!!! and Primus had sex in a dark place and the kid grew up and said 'i want to make musicals.'" What's it sound like to you?

kill dem wit positive vibes

grab a red stripe, have a listen.

ps: said it before, sayin' it again, if you don't have decent headphones or a system with good bass response, you're missing half of it...

technorganic

"organic" is a big word in my world. i'm wearing jeans and underpants made from organic cotton. all my toiletries are organic (except my deodorant, sorry nature, but synthetics win on that front). steph and i shop at trader joe's and whole foods and try to frequent only non-chain restaurants that serve food made from scratch with local ingredients.

on the other hand, i drive a brand-new car, have an iphone in my pocket and am constantly upgrading my home theater. i believe this technological bent explains why i can't stand any reggae post-bob marley or any "world music" yet absolutely love it when those genres are co-opted by mostly british kids making music on computers.

Anti War Dub
You Bring Me Down

hijacked my mind and soul...

aaawwww yeah, babies... here it is: the summertime slow jam 2007. subwoofer highly recommended.