before there were snakes on a plane...

there was tv on the radio.




















what a month of live music! october kicked off with anais playing a show for a bunch of somervillioanairs (thanks, bostonist!) at toad. as the month progressed, i managed to catch great big sea (shout out to ahmek), tv on the radio, and broken social scene.
now that the obsession has been somewhat satiated by a live performance, i'm staying away from posting any more tvotr tracks. but seriously, don't waste any time: see them live now. they're the future of music 'n shit.

october... october's mix is fumbly and disjointed, much like i'm feeling these days. i wish i could tell you that there is some sort of cohesion to this latest collection, but "i'm not gonna stand up here and lie to you," as m. ward would say. at one point, i thought this mix should be all jazz. then i was thinking all brazilian music. in the end, i think it works track to track if not in the aggregate.


i'm thinking of getting serious about music again. right now, names floating around include academagician (should i go for some kind of four tet-ish kind of thing) , parade turned traffic (as some sort of troubador project), and... well, that's all i have for now. stay tuned on that front. here's the mix:

1. mark turner - zurich
2. boston afrobeat society - ebami eda
3. amadou et mariam - la fete au vilage
4. broken social scene - stars & sons
5. calexico - love will tear us apart
6. silver jews - let's not and say we did
7. demetri martin - personal information waltz
8. m. ward - let my love open the door
9. emily haines & the soft skeleton - our hell
10. fred hersch trio + 2 - a riddle song
11. linda draper - parasite
12. howie gelb - my grandfather's clock
13. martha wainwright - bloody mother fucking asshole (sic)
14. gilberto gil & jorge ben - nega
15. telefon tel aviv - ttv
16. broken social scene - lover's spit
17. yume bitsu - song seven

download: http://www.bazoomercom.com/ari/October%20'06.zip

i never would've thought that a jazz tune would provide my favorite all-time groove, but this is it. mark turner's zurich has influenced a lot of my electronic stuff; i think of the drum production as the gold standard of groove-based music. absolutely perfect. on that note, it's not often (if ever) that i get to hype a friend's band, but you have to hear the boston afrobeat society live to fully experience their greatness. you'll be hearing from these guys soon enough. ed reminded me that i had been meaning to put a track by senegalese duo amadou et mariam for quite some time. it's tracks like this that make you realize how completely absurd the label "world music" is (google david byrne's essay on the subject). i absolutely loved the movie half nelson, for which broken social scene provided a soundtrack. stars & sons, from my favorite of their albums you forgot it in people, will make you want to rock out walking down the street. calexico covering joy division sounds like a disaster waiting to happen, but instead it comes across as how wilco's spiders (kidsmoke) was supposed to sound. there is something satisfying about indie rock bands that don't take themselves too seriously, and i would put silver jews in this category. mindless fun! if you haven't caught demetri martin's segment trendspotting on the daily show, i highly recommend a quick trip over to youtube right now. then come back and listen to him and will forte discuss what happened two weeks ago. speaking of wilco-influenced covers, m. ward borrows a bit of the YHF-era production values on this pete townshend cover, a second inclusion from a fabulous cover album entitled sweethearts 2005. emily haines... how can she sound so happy in broken social scene and so heartbreaking in her own stuff? i still love her. fred hersch's piano playing: understated style, unmatched execution. i put linda draper on a couple of mixes for friends not really knowing too much about her, but she is great at the atmospheric production. howie gelb provides a nice segue track on the m. ward-produced tribute album i am the resurrection. rufus' sister martha wainwright manages to nail the pitfalls of love almost literally on... well, you'll know the chorus soon enough. gil & jorge rock the hell out on nega, reminding us that sometimes the best grooves are just two guys with guitars, voices and a shitload of rhythm. and telefon tel aviv is here to remind us that sometimes a computer can help too. i love the epic one-two punch of broken social scene's lover's spit and yume bitsu's song seven as an end to this month's mix. strong and powerful, but layered with complexity. some food for thought... see you next month.