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Tag Archives: music
Somnolescent Record Club #2: Cage the Elephant’s Thank You Happy Birthday
It’s been about a month since I dug deep into my musical memory banks, so let’s do another edition of that Record Club thing, yeah? To be honest, I’m not used to being this personal when I talk about music. Music has always been the perfect distance from me emotionally, close enough to relate to and enrapture me, but separate enough that I don’t have to share myself much when I share it with others. The idea of regaling the Internet with stories of me as a teenager lost in fantasy thinking of Pokemon OCs while listening to Silversun Pickups and Pixies records is both very fun and kinda embarrassing.
The other good thing about this series is that, because it’s effectively a very casual ramble about how I listen to music and the things I think about when I listen, it doesn’t take long at all to write. That’s good when you got three days to finish and publish it before the month’s out. :blobokhand:
Today’s record brings me right back to middle school, shortly before the world hit me for the first time. It’s a record I still enjoy quite a lot, the noisy, punky, gouged-and-warped pseudo-90s sampler tape that makes up Cage the Elephant’s second album Thank You Happy Birthday. It’s got a 7″ with it!
Somnolescent Record Club #1: Autolux’s Demos (2001-2002)
I’ve written a lot about music. Like a lot. A lot a lot. Usually, when I talk about music, it’s with this air of formality, either giving my opinion or digging into the details and investigating—I’m autistic, this is what I do.
I do listen to music for fun sometimes, though. I put on songs because they’ve been stuck in my head all day. I have characters and ideas I associate with albums and songs and specific times of my life. Sometimes, even—I will throw on a record.
I’d like to start up a monthly all-vinyl blog ramble series called the Somnolescent Record Club. For once, we’re gonna believe all the myths, get into the groove (quite literally), enjoy the tactility of the big art and the wax platters, and I’ll talk about my listening setup and all the things that run through my head when I put on an album. Today’s record is the vinyl-exclusive gold-colored Demos (2001-2002) from the mighty Autolux, whose debut album these demos were for I lived in in high school.
Hopefully, this runs more casual than you might be used to from me—that’s my aim.
MoriHime Album Release
Alas, it’s finally freakin’ here. My fictional band MoriHime’s debut album is officially out!!!! Featuring J-pop inspired tunes within a variety of different styles. Varying from power-pop, nu-metal, j-rock and even eurodance.
3-9-7-1-5: Exploring the Expanded Conet Project Boxset
Spring is here, my friends, and that means you’re all probably starting to leave your houses for sunny pastures. I have a bit of paranoia for you to take out there–obscured messages also sent out into the world, ones no one but the people they were meant for have been able to or will ever be able to crack. Who are those people? What do the numbers mean? Who are the Russian Man, the Spanish Lady, the Lincolnshire Poacher, Bulgarian Betty? What is Ciocirlia, the Buzzer, the Tyrolean Music Station? What the fuck does “snudering” mean?
Let me take you on a journey of circumstantial government intrigue. I’ll let the boxset explain before I do, run-ons preserved:
Almost every other piece of information on who is responsible for Numbers Stations comes from the part-time investigations of dedicated listeners. No government or person will admit to transmitting them, and only recently, due to the release of this CD set has GCHQ in the UK made its first ever public station on Numbers Station, saying that, “GCHQ are aware of the existence of Numbers Stations but cannot comment on operational matters”. Do “operational matters” include the ‘The Lincolnshire Poacher’ which is believed to be of British origin? With direction finding equipment it is possible to track down the location of transmitting antennas, and in the case of Numbers Stations which uses extremely powerful transmitters ‘Dfing’ [sic] the more powerful stations has proved an easy task for investigators but what exactly does it mean when you find an antenna farm on US government property blasting numbers in Spanish? Where and who are the recipients?
The mtlx Chronicle II
Back in January 2020, dcb wrote up his search for an elusive indie-electronic EP released on MP3.com: mtlx’s Last Summer. While he located a CD case for it at the library, the disc was missing–and unfortunately, the trail went cold from there.
I’m happy to bring you the entirety of Last Summer now! Yes, it’s been located, along with some words from one of its equally-elusive creators. Better yet, Somnolescent has been given the go-ahead to release a restored and expanded limited edition CD of the EP. Let me bring you up to speed. Apologies if I sound a little odd, it’s been an exciting day.
First Draft: Pixies’ Come On Pilgrim
Rarely do albums come out right on the first shot. Labels reject them, bands disown them, and they get added onto after release. Here on First Draft, we take a look at albums that got cut down or remade and see what difference the changes made.
This review looks back on the Pixies’ debut EP Come On Pilgrim, the infamous purple tape it came from, and the re-records of the leftover material scattered throughout the rest of their initial run, and whether or not the EP would’ve been better served as a full album.
First Draft: Failure’s Magnified
Rarely do albums come out right on the first shot. Labels reject them, bands disown them, and they get added onto after release. Here on First Draft, we take a look at albums that got cut down or remade and see what difference the changes made.
This second edition examines the home demos that almost comprised Failure’s second album, 1994’s Magnified.
First Draft: Wilco’s Yankee Hotel Foxtrot
Rarely do albums come out right on the first shot. Labels reject them, bands disown them, and they get added onto after release. Here on First Draft, we take a look at albums that got cut down or remade and see what difference the changes made.
This especially long-winded First Draft concerns the infinite permutations of Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, Wilco’s 2002 art rock opus which streamed online officially for the first time 22 years ago today.
First Draft: …The Dandy Warhols Come Down
Rarely do albums come out right on the first shot. Labels reject them, bands disown them, and they get added onto after release. Here on First Draft, we take a look at albums that got cut down or remade and see what difference the changes made.
This first review concerns the first attempt at the second Dandy Warhols album, 1997’s …The Dandy Warhols Come Down, as given to us by the band seven years later.
A Tale of Two Welsh Record Stores
If I didn’t tell you about it already, I was in Wales for three weeks last month into this month visiting Caby. It was genuinely life-changing, and even though it wasn’t that long ago, I’m still wishing I was back over there, and her and her family keep telling me how much they miss me too. Life is seriously much easier in person–and it’s a lot more fun when there’s adventure to be had! And what better adventure can you have than foreign record stores?
There’s two in Caby’s immediate area, and I hit up both to great success. It was a lot of fun digging through the bins, picking out CDs, telling stories, trying risks, and even having some encounters with some curious strangers! I even bought some Welsh-language music! While I continue to put off working on the much larger trip diary, let me laser-focus on the days I visited…