Consolidation

Since I can't get my act together and make a decent mix anymore these days, I decided (after Holly's comment) to finally get all the old ones uploaded in one spot. Twelve and counting currently via MediaFire.

Staving Off Bittorrent

One thing the Internet really needs is a site that matches record labels to MP3 vendors. You could then fill in artist and album-specific links, but basically I really want to know something like, Where can I buy the new Six Organs of Admittance record online?

Now, I know they're on Drag City, which means eMusic doesn't have them and apparently neither do Insound and Other Music. However Amazon is carrying it for $17.98 and iTunes has it for $15.99. But this is all at least label-specific information, if not album specific. For example, some labels only provide part of their catalog to certain stores, and I know eMusic sometimes receives albums long after their original release date, if ever.

This should pretty much be Google Shopping* with an awareness of international restrictions (Bleep won't let Americans buy a lot of rock music, but most of their electronic stuff is okay) and store preferences, since if thirty sources are selling a record for $9.99, I'd rather not have to page through a bunch of junk to get to eMusic or Other Music, which are my preferences for indie rock type stuff. And it would need to include iTunes and any other sources that aren't directly available through a browser.

*Yes, I tried doing a relevant search on the actual Google Shopping, and it was completely useless.

Downloading in the Future

I remember that periodically Charles and I used to revel, after some personal technological revelation or other, in the fact that we live in the future.

As I sit here listening to music through my new receiver (heavy and not really that futuristic) I marvel at the fact that I purchased one disc of this William Basinski box set (The Disintegration Loops) for probably $14.99 or so at The Record Collector in Iowa CIty several years ago, supposing that some day I might get around to acquiring the rest. That obviously didn't happen until one day I realized that I could legally purchase the remaining three discs (as eight MP3s) at eMusic for what amounted to under $3.

Progress is awesome.

8track

So Muxtape's got a successor, which seems nearly as straightforward if not quite as perfect. My first mix features Animal Collective, Panda Bear, Dept. of Eagles, Grizzly Bear, Fleet Foxes, The Dodos, Wolf Parade, and Deerhunter.

Disconnection Noticed

The other night I got Ableton Live set up on the Mac and attempted to put together some kind of mix, but it just wouldn't happen. In part this is probably because of all the scattered listening done in 2008. Not so much haphazard as listening to something for a few weeks and then discarding it, perhaps before its time. Even with stuff like Fleet Foxes and Bon Iver that I listened to death, after putting them away for a few months I'm not able to recall specific moments without re-listening, which makes the mixing process long and tedious.

I'm not sure what the remedy is, because I'm not sure this really qualifies as a problem. It feels like this ought to be related to Slow Listening Movement-type issues, but theoretically that's just what I've done. It does at least call into question the idea of a month of post-punk, or really a month of anything at all specific. Since I won't remember it all that well, at best it would slightly influence my listening habits.

There has to be some brilliant way to fuse concentrated bursts of listening and prolonged recognition. Hmm...

My 2008 Lists

New Films
Number Ones: Ballast, Still Orangutans, Loos Ornamental, Wendy & Lucy, Still Life, The Romance of Astrea and Celadon, Summer Hours, Pineapple Express
Right Up There: Momma's Man, Flight of the Red Balloon, Chop Shop, The Juche Idea, Synecdoche, New York, Let the Right One In, Milk, In Search of a Midnight Kiss, The Last Mistress, The Edge of Heaven, Paranoid Park, Captain Ahab, Shotgun Stories, Role Models, Hamlet 2, I've Loved You So Long
Satisfying: Pierre Rissient, Ashes of Time Redux, Profit Motive & The Whispering Wind, Forgetting Sarah Marshall, Son of Rambow, Timecrimes, Kung Fu Panda, Reprise, Sparrow, Christopher Columbus: The Enigma, Cthulhu, Zack and Miri Make a Porno, Boarding Gate, Yella, Days in Between
Oddly Appealing: Opera Jawa, Eat for This Is My Body, Great Speeches from a Dying World, In the City of Sylvia, La France
There Were Moments: Rachel Getting Married, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Blind Mountain, Be Kind Rewind
Others: Alexandra, Chelsea on the Rocks, The Pool, Continental

Old Films
Solid Gold: Young Mr. Lincoln, Sunrise, Le Cercle Rouge, Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid, The Good The Bad and The Ugly, Dead Man, Pulp Fiction
Hal Ashby at Northwest Film Forum: The Landlord, Being There, Bound For Glory, The Last Detail, Shampoo, Harold & Maude
Otto Preminger at Film Forum: Anatomy of a Murder, Laura, Daisy Kenyon
Charlie Chaplin: Monsieur Verdoux
(Post-)Modernism: Muriel, Last Year at Marienbad, The Immortal Woman, La Chinoise, Masculine Feminine, Vivre sa vie
Recently Neglected: Tropical Malady, La Promesse, Clerks II, Worldly Desires, My Neighbor Totoro
Ridley Scott at the Egyptian: Alien, Blade Runner

Recorded Music
Growing, Antony, Foals, Junior Boys, TV on the Radio (Tunde Adebimpe singing Neil Young in Rachel Getting Married), Beach House, Fleet Foxes, Bon Iver, "Happy House," Los Campesinos!, harmony, Bradford Cox, Jan Jelinek, Four Tet, Gang Gang Dance, "Graveyard Girl" live, Caribou, "wonky," Fuck Buttons, "Supreme Balloon," Truckasauras, The Clientele, Vampire Weekend, Villalobos, The Dodos, "Street Flash"/Water Curses, Hamilton Leithauser, "The Good Old Days," Shocking Pinks, James Pants' Stones Throw podcast

Live Music
Atlas Sound & co., Caribou & Fuck Buttons, Simian Mobile Disco, Truckasauras, Sera Cahoone, Los Campesinos, Beachwood Sparks, Iron & Wine, Comets on Fire, The Dodos, Man Man, Gang Gang Dance, Deerhunter, M83

Stuff I Obviously Need To Hear
Portishead, Flying Lotus, MGMT, Advisory Circle, Santogold, Nico Muhly, ...

Tracks from Lists
Mala "Alicia" (from Fact Magazine)

Books
The Extra Man (Jonathan Ames)
The Somnambulist (Jonathan Barnes)
The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao (Junot Díaz)
Personal Days (Ed Park)
Gilead (Marilynne Robinson)
Shortcomings (Adrian Tomine)
The Broom of the System (David Foster Wallace)
---
The Physics of Baseball (Robert K. Adair)
The Conscience of a Liberal (Paul Krugman)
Born Standing Up (Steve Martin)
Consider the Lobster (David Foster Wallace)
Black Postcards (Dean Wareham)
---
Let's Talk About Love (Carl Wilson) [33 1/3]
Master of Reality (John Darnielle) [33 1/3]
If You're Feeling Sinister (Scott Plagenhoef) [33 1/3]

Having made this a year-zero of sorts for beer, this is a list culled from everything I had this year (2009 will be just "new" stuff). It doesn't include tasting samples or your truly obvious local year-round standbys, but basically everything else better than good. Besides alphabetization, higher is better than lower.

Alaskan Smoked Porter
Deschutes Black Butte XX
Dogfish Head 90-Minute Imperial IPA
Duvel
Great Divide Oak Aged Yeti Imperial Stout
New Belgium Giddy Up!
New Belgium Le Fleur Messeur
New Belgium Lips of Faith: Eric's Sour Peach Ale
Russian River Pliny the Elder
Russian River Salvation
St. Bernardus Abt 12

Aktien St. Martin
Anchor Porter
Chimay Grande Reserve
Corsendonk Christmas Ale
Delirium Noel
Deschutes Abyss '08
Deschutes Cinder Cone Red Ale
Deschutes Hop Fest Pale Ale
Elysian The Great Pumpkin
Elysian Night Owl Pumpkin Ale
Elysian Dragonstooth Stout
Elysian Bifrost Winter Ale
Elysian Prometheus IPA
Hale's Cerberus Tripel
Hitachino Nest Espresso Stout
Hoegaarden
Lindemans Peche Lambic
Lindemans Framboise Lambic
New Belgium Abbey Grand Cru
New Belgium Old Cherry
New Belgium Frambozen
North Coast Old Rasputin Russian Imperial Stout
Ommegang Abbey Dubbel
Ommegang Rouge
Oskar Blues Gordon
Pike XXXXX Stout
Port Wipeout IPA
Rogue Chocolate Stout
Rogue Mocha Porter
Russian River Damnation
Samuel Adams Cherry Wheat
Stone Ruination IPA
Duchesse de Bourgogne

2008 Year-End Lists

Music
Textura: Ten Favorite Labels
Textura: 2008 Top 10s and 20s
Fact Magazine: 20 Best Mixes
Fact Magazine: 20 Best Albums
Fact Magazine: 100 Best Tracks
Fact Magazine: Lists from DJ /rupture and K-punk
Rough Trade: Albums of the Year
eMusic: Best Albums of 2008
eMusic: Philip Sherburne's 12 Electronic Albums
XLR8R: Top 25
The Wire: The Office Dissonance
*I've also posted The Wire's top 50 as an alphabetized artist list in comments.
The AV Club: 30 Best Albums
Resident Advisor: Top 15 Remixes
Resident Advisor: Top 20 Albums
Resident Advisor: Top 30 Tracks
Pitchfork: 100 Best Tracks
Pitchfork: 50 Best Albums
Blissblog: Lists of 8
Philip Sherburne: Comprehensive Blog Post

Books
Amazon: Best Books
Publishers Weekly: Best Books of the Year
NY Times: 100 Notable Books
The Millions: The Year in Reading

Film
Artforum: James Quandt (via Girish)
Roger Ebert: Best Films
New York Film Critics: Awards
indieWIRE: Critics Poll
NYTimes: Manohla Dargis' Top Ten List
NYTimes: AO Scott's Top Ten List
Film Comment: 20 Best Films (Released & Unreleased)

Etc.
Lifehacker: Top 10 Things You Forgot Your Mac Can Do
Planetizen: Top 10 Websites
New York Magazine: The Year in Culture

Transfusion #2: April 2006 Chart

Since list-making is about all I can manage in terms of writing/blogging sometimes, I figured I'd follow the pattern I've seen at group blogs such as Tape and House Is A Feeling, among other places.

So, six things I've been listening to and enjoying a lot lately, not in any strict order.

1. DJ Copy "Emotions"
I said what I wanted to about this when I posted the MP3 at my blog a few weeks ago. If you, too, would like to hear it (it's the old Mariah Carey chestnut with a new electro backing track), I can post it again. Just leave a comment.

2. Three 6 Mafia "Stay Fly"
I'm getting to this a little late as it was a big single in 2005, but I only got around to hearing it by paying attention to year-end lists. It may or may not frustrate you to learn that the lyrics are entirely about getting and staying high, but this track is much more about the means than the ends, as content goes. That is, there's not much content but the presentation (strings, backup singers, mildly clever rhymes delivered in an addictive fashion) is fabulous.

3. Dead Prez "Hell Yeah (Pimp the System)"
Via Diplo's DJ Shadow mixtape and the Emynd and Bo Bliz mix at Lemon Red.

4. The Decemberists The Tain EP
I've been really feeling this along with other heavier stuff (Dinosaur Jr., Black Mountain, Black Sabbath, Death from Above 1979) lately.

5. Band of Horses "Funeral"
Duh.

6. Tiga "Far from Home (DFA Instrumental Remix Edit)"
As Geeta Dayal says, "That bassline! The shimmering harmonics! I swooned!" She and other bloggers have also gotten me really excited to hear Carl Craig's remix of Delia and Gavin's "Revelee," which I don't have yet, so maybe that'll be on the next chart.

Day 24

What to listen to in 2009, other than a month of post-punk? Maybe more radio/podcasts. This year I've largely been listening to the Resident Advisor mixes in terms of ephemeral audio, but rarely do they provide a context for lots of different types of tracks, mostly just a lot of great transitions within the same genre(s).

DJ /rupture, on the other hand, will include maybe ten different styles in a one-hour show. "New bass and beats plus live guests (musicians, DJs, poets) and an ear for the global south. Cumbia. Dubstep. Gangsta synthetics. Sound-art. Maghrebi. International exclusives."

Tim Sweeney is another fairly wide-ranging guy, within the confines of dance music. Largely disco and disco-revival (DFA, Rong Music, etc.) but inclusive of plenty more as well. Probably I thought of Beats in Space while reading the New Yorker profile of Cliff Bleszinski and Epic Games, founded by another Tim Sweeney.

I've also been listening to more talking heads at work recently: KCRW's Bookworm and The Treatment, and other odds and ends like the New York Declaration of the International Necronautic Society, mentioned in Zadie Smith's review of General Secretary Tom McCarthy's Remainder and the unaffiliated Joseph O'Neill's Netherland.

Day 22

I got bored the other day and visited Idolator, always a bad idea. Even if the posts themselves aren't vitrolic and inane, the comments inevitably are.

The striking thing was how personally people react to lists. As some sort of attack on character or value. Much of the time I think this is a negative outcome of popism vs. rockism, the largely successful argument for all musical styles and sounds as potentially worthwhile, the idea that a critic or engaged listener ought to be not only open to but perhaps enthusiastic about hearing any/all things at any/all times.

Not that individual scenes (and they still exist) wouldn't or don't create their own internecine squabbles, but the discussion on Idolator re. year-end lists thus far suggests that debates aren't so much over the relative merits of individual works as charges of genre-ism, ie How dare your website not include my second through fifth favorite metal/country/teen-pop records on your list?

All this seems to have very little with the actual enjoyment and appreciation of music. In a pragmatic sense, that's what list-season ought to be about; comparing notes, figuring out what you might have missed or forgotten about, then putting your headphones back on, closing your eyes, and not worrying about it anymore.

Day 18

I suppose what I like most about the TV on the Radio album is that it feels like they're saving "big" music from its traditional proponents. That is to say, when I listen to it I think of the Arcade Fire, Coldplay, maybe U2, but always in contrast. Particularly the vocals. The singing on Dear Science ranges all over the place emotionally, but assiduously avoids the completely overwrought, which is basically the one mode in which Win Butler, Chris Martin, and Bono vocalize, even when they whisper.

Beyond that initial impression, what strikes me about the sounds on the record, apart from the sheer range of them, is that nearly every song is beautiful in one way or another, either a trademarked Dave Sitek wail of feedback, or gloopy, shiny synths, or Tunde Adebimpe cooing low, or Kyp Malone gliding over top of everything with his unearthly, feminine falsetto.

One idea I had for comprehending the year in music is a system like The Album My Morning Jacket Should Have Put Out: Microcastle. In that vein these guys are probably filling in for both Wolf Parade and Hot Chip, neither of whom fulfilled my admittedly very high expectations.

Day 16

Listening to a KEXP "documentary" on Echo and the Bunnymen today, I was reminded that I never really followed up on reading Rip It Up and Start Again all that well. So between Martin Luther King, Jr. Day and Presidents' Day it's going to be all post-punk/new wave (1978-1984) all the time.

So once I glance at what I've got already, and look at what the library has to offer (unfortunately they only sort by "Rock music." and decade), it'll be time for a downloading spree the likes of which have not been seen since... volunteering days, maybe?

Day 13

According to eMusic's blog, 17 dots, "Reverb is so in right now."

You could pretty much replace that with, "Giving money to people named Andy Slabaugh is so in right now," and I would feel about the same. It's kind of sad.

The song/video they point to, "Come On Over In Your Silver Car" by Desolation Wilderness, is perfect. Almost enough to get me back reading the Forkcast every day.

Day 12

I feel like they read my mind.

It might be hypocritical, but for the most part I try to avoid indie electronic mixes. The excesses of Justice and some/much of blog-house has something to do with it. It could also be that I prefer to listen to mixes of things that are new and strange, but that's not always the case. Most likely it's that a lot of stuff like this comes from bloggers who've listened to enough dance music, or dance remixes of indie hits, to cobble together an hour's worth of mix fodder.

The DJs behind Allez-Allez, though, have no credibility issues. Ewan Pearson, Lindstrøm, The Black Dog; the roster they've accumulated for their blog so far is as impressive as you'll find anywhere.

Nice to hear someone approach this stuff from the proper angle.

Day 11

Interview

Bandmembers Lizzi Bougatsos, Brian DeGraw, Tim DeWit and Josh Diamond utilize all manner of percussion, keyboards and electronics to create a sort of melting-pot avant-pop, music that hints at everything from synth-pop to hip-hop to new age, from psychedelia to Middle Eastern dance music to Afrobeat.

I was expecting good things Monday night, a few less when Growing canceled, but was not prepared for far and away the greatest set of all time.

There have been reports aplenty of Gang Gang Dance's unpredictable and terrific live shows, but it's difficult enough to be clear and direct about music in the first place, let alone a sprawling improvisational live show. At their peak the band seemed to be using two to three percussionists, including a full drum set with plenty of kick, steel drums, and a drum machine, possibly either programmed or played, a bed of sustained synth chords, a higher and more melodic synthesizer line, one or two guitars, a voice kind of like Bjork in a pleasant but definitely otherworldly mode, and enough reverb and delay to swallow the crowd whole. Not to mention the spectacle of Liz Bougatsos shimmying around with waist-length hair and tallest heels I've ever seen a performer wear. The superlative sound at the Triple Door certainly didn't hurt.

For the most part, though, this will fall prey to what I'll have to call the Jan Jelinek curse. That is, even if the record is a not-bad reproduction of what they played tonight, I may not recognize it given the lack of lyrics, hooks, or anything traditionally memorable in a pop sense.

Day 3

It seems that Jan Jelinek has put out a new album under the name Ursula Bogner on his new label and invented quite a backstory. Given the lack of true obscurity in the age of the internet, I suppose PR like this fills a necessary niche in the musical landscape.

What excites me about this stuff, though, is not the pseudo-history associated with it, but the atmospheres it conjures in your head. Early synthesizer and computer music sounds like it's coming from some sort of fantastic place that may never exist. If I had some sort of public place to design--a bar, a restaurant, a coffeeshop, maybe even a club--this is exactly the direction I'd go in. Modernist furnishings and artwork, oscilloscopes and other odd and kind of outdated-looking electronic equipment, and most definitely background music like this.

Maybe the OHM compilation, the BBC Radiophonic Workshop, Farben records and drone music by Jelinek and others. Most certainly Keith Fullerton Whitman, particularly Multiples. Ghost Box records and library music.

The obvious name for such a place would be "Back To The Future," but just as obviously that would be an impossible name to use.

Cornucopia

I'm honestly not quite sure how this compares with when I was at KRLX, but it seems this year the avalanche of good new music has gotten out of hand. There's a ton of stuff I haven't gotten my hands on yet, and at least another good month of releases to go, but I'm already forgetting very good stuff that came out earlier this year, simply due to quantity. MP3 blogs became definitely unnecessary several months back.

iTunes is showing about sixty records I've liked enough to keep around so far from 2008.

2562: Aerial
Animal Collective: Water Curses
Antony and the Johnsons: Another World
Atlas Sound: Let the Blind Lead...
Beach House: Devotion
The Black Keys: Attack and Release
Black Mountain: In the Future
Blood on the Wall: Liferz
Bon Iver: For Emma, Forever Ago
Booka Shade: The Sun & The Neon Light
Caribou: She's the One
The Clientele: That Night, A Forest Grew
Cut Copy: In Ghost Colours
Carl Craig: Sessions
The Dodos: Visiter
Ellen Allien: SooL
Fleet Foxes: s/t
Fleet Foxes: Sun Giant
Foals: Antidotes
Four Tet: Ringer EP
Fuck Buttons: Street Horrrsing
Gentleman Jesse: Introducing...
Girl Talk: Feed the Animals
Growing: All the Way
Hercules and Love Affair: s/t
Hot Chip: Made in the Dark
James Pants: Welcome
Jeremy Jay: A Place Where We Could Go
Kelley Polar: I Need You To Hold On...
Lindstrøm: Where You Go I Go Too
Loco Dice: 7 Dunham Place
Los Campesinos!: Hold On Now, Youngster
M83: Saturdays = Youth
Matmos: Supreme Balloon
MRC: Miniatures
Morgan Geist: Double Night Time
My Morning Jacket: Evil Urges
No Age: Nouns
Philip Sherburne: Salt & Vinegar
Ricardo Villalobos: Vasco
Sally Shapiro: Remix Romance, Vol. 1
She & Him: Volume One
Shearwater: Rook
Sian Alice Group: 59'59
Sun Kil Moon: April
Syclops: I've Got My Eye on You
These New Puritans: Beat Pyramid
Truckasauras: Tea Parties, Guns 'n Valor
TV on the Radio: Dear Science
Vampire Weekend: s/t
Vivian Girls: s/t
The Walkmen: You & Me
Wolf Parade: At Mount Zoomer
VA: Body Language Six (Junior Boys mix)
VA: Steppas' Delight (Soul Jazz dubstep compilation)
VA: You Are My Mate (Dial compilation)

I know I can only make good use of about a third of this volume, but the trouble is deciding precisely which third.

Old Sept. Blues

I could talk your ear off about My Morning Jacket, in fact I already have.

Sometimes the depth of my reaction to the music they play makes me uneasy, like something that ought to be reserved for relationships with, you know, real people. I remember standing in the Ascot Room in 2003 completely baffled that they were playing to such a small crowd (~100 hardcore fans), and hoping that eventually the audience would grow.

It has and the experience is different. My ambivalence about certain songs on Z and Evil Urges certainly plays a part, but it's also weird to be assaulted by a light show and bludgeoned by enormous stacks of speakers. McCaw Hall sounded magnificent, but nearing the two-hour mark I found myself wishing for something a little less overwhelming. I believe the quiet parts are now generally louder than they were five years ago, but I could be wrong. It's also harder to ride the music to four or five monstrous peaks rather than one or two.

The prevailing feeling for me is one of an intensely intimate relationship that couldn't last at that level forever. Now it's complex and even bewildering, compulsive more than anything. Expectations are impossibly high and memories will always seem more powerful, more real than what's actually present and happening today. The music coming out of the speakers will never sound as good as the music I hear in my head--only louder.

Then again, I'd still probably give up every other amazing show this year for an enormous room full of people high-fiving each other the entire way through "One Big Holiday," or shivers from the old familiar reverb on something like "Dancefloors." It's all a little confusing.

Sad, Sad Song(s)

ADDENDUM: Apparently Hutch Harris has referred to music on the new Thermals album as "songs from when we were alive." Apropos and awesome.

---

I was thinking today, listening to Bon Iver, about how much I seem to love funereal* music. For Emma, Forever Ago is more precisely a breakup record, though if you didn't listen to the lyrics closely its solemnity could fool you.

Off the top of my head I listed three potentially top-50 records explicitly about dead acquaintances: Songs for Drella, Panda Bear's Young Prayer, and M. Ward's Transfiguration of Vincent. Devendra Banhart's Rejoicing in the Hands sounds like it has to fit in here, but I've never read anything to qualify it conceptually. Pink Floyd's Wish You Were Here technically qualifies, though mostly I was listening to that five or six years ago. As far as breakup records go, there's also Blood on the Tracks and probably a few more I can't think of right now. I can't go much further in such a conceptual vein, but there's a lot of stuff that feels similar.

This is an important contrast from another mode, let's call it "alienated nostalgia," in which you'll find Junior Boys, "Marquee Moon," Thom Yorke's solo album and others. I tried to describe this one back in August of 2006.

Of course there's plenty of overlap. My Morning Jacket used to work very close to funereal, particularly on the first album and parts of their second, though it's not a place they go very often anymore, except live. Joy Division are closer to alienation, though "Atmosphere" would be funereal and Susanna and the Magical Orchestra's cover of "Love Will Tear Us Apart" is very deeply so. LCD Soundsystem's "All My Friends"/"Someone Great" diptych. Scores of hip hop tracks are shoutouts to dead compatriots, though I specifically think of Bun B's "The Story," which was already sad/inspiring when his partner was in jail, and then attained a level of brutal irony when Pimp C died not long after getting out. Black Mountain is loud and funereal on their most recent record, and the Thermals are loud and frequently nostalgically alienated, though it might not sound as such at first listen.

Dubstep is another "hauntological" genre, though strictly hauntology would be a third field of its own. Burial is mostly nostalgically alienated, but Kode 9 & The Spaceape are more funereal. Shackleton's "Blood On My Hands" is powerfully funereal, particularly with likely reference to the World Trade Center towers.

Properly very little of this is goth and really not at all emo. The first requires moody wallowing and the second aggressive wallowing and for the most part this is constructive, forward-looking stuff. Making a monument to get past something rather recording oneself jumping back in the same, sad puddle.

*The only thing I've ever played for anyone eliciting the word "funeral" (except Band of Horses) is Sagor & Swing. More properly, that's the sort of music you might hear in a funeral parlor when you go in to discuss details with the mortician than at an actual funeral.

Last of the Summer Music

TV on the Radio is great. I noted on Saturday that even though they might not be the most stunning live act, they're engaging and in contrast to almost every other band in existence, their set is energizing. Most of the time after a show, no matter how great it was, you might be buzzing a little bit but also a little worn out. TV on the Radio are inventive and interesting enough that they actually give back energy to the crowd, which is something special.

Mogwai is really loud. Like, loud with my earplugs in. I'm still not sure exactly why people get so excited about them, though I might figure it out someday. Fuck Buttons went exactly as expected, which is to say perfect. I've never been part of a more attentive (standing) audience. Half an hour into the set it was an extreme aberration when a couple started talking sort of loudly, and they received more annoyed glances than I've ever seen. In my opinion this reflects quite well on both Fuck Buttons and their fans.

Then there was Bumbershoot. The Walkmen were strong and made great use of a horn section. And "The Rat" is still amazing even though I haven't listened to it regularly for a few years now. I actually had sort of forgotten about the refrain near the end ("When I used to go out...") so it hit me extra hard; a nice surprise.

Man Man are obviously on a different level from almost all other bands. I still don't know what I'd do with that racket coming through my headphones, but in a live context it all makes perfect sense.

Black Keys played the only full set I saw on Sunday, and they did their thing as solidly as they always do. The Black Keys in a small room are to the Black Keys in an arena as a sports car on asphalt is to a sports car on gravel. Still a good time, though. The Shackeltons were kind of fun, The Whigs were kind of dull, Final Fantasy (I stayed almost until the end) was a good experience, especially the overhead projector art, if not my favorite set of music, and Tapes 'n Tapes sounded better than I'd imagined. Then again, everybody sounded great at the Rockstar stage.

Exactly the same way nobody (except The Thermals) makes any sense sonically in the Exhibition Hall. Dan Deacon played from a table on the floor, organizing a dance off, relay races, and a sort of square dance-type promenade thing which form a giant two-sided ring around the room. He also played with the house lights all the way on, claiming he'd prepared for an outside show in the sun. I don't know that I've ever seen security actually enjoy crowd control before, but they were obviously having a good time orchestrating the organized mayhem. I wonder how much they'd been briefed about this one beforehand. The sound was weird, and the bass actually only sounded good underneath the stairs.

Arthur & Yu were a revelation live, approaching the sonic richness of Fleet Foxes, which I hadn't expected from the demo-style fidelity of their album. I kind of regretted leaving early for Battles, whom I found amazing but still not compelling.

So now I'll probably take a break and skip The Juan Maclean (I don't relish anything approaching closing time in Fremont on a Wednesday night) and whatever else might happen prior to the Decibel Festival, when I hope to take in more electronic music than humanly possible. Highlights: Audion, sets in Volunteer Park, and Dixon very late Saturday night (4am?). It's very frustrating that My Morning Jacket precludes the ambient showcase, but I still hope to head over to Neumo's afterward for some of The Bug and hopefully all of Supermayer's set. Napping and strategically sleeping-in will be key.

And SXSW 2009 is very tentatively on the calendar. Plane tickets should be okay, and I'm sure hotel rooms are still bookable at this point. It'll probably be more film- than music-oriented, considering the insane stories I've heard about trying to get into the more popular shows there, but anyway.