August 30th, 2007 r8e8rcom
I went running yesterday in Prospect Park. It was a pretty sad sight, I was getting laped by 60 year olds. I kept trying to make little gaols for myself, “alright just keep jogging til you get that bend in road, then you can walk”. Spent about an hour out there, and was wrecked by the time I got home. This was only my 3rd time running since I moved to NYC, but I’ve found that its a great way to explore my hood. The other day my sis and I jogged down about 50 blocks south of my apartment and stumbled into Brooklyn’s china town and this weird street festival. I had no idea what was down there cuz I was always too intimidated by borough park and the looks I get from the chassids.
Ok, I have to admin, I’m not thrilled about these tracks, but he’s still my boy (DC represent….I guess). And I guess I still pine for the Dismemberment Plan days, even though I talked shit on every album after ‘Emergency and I’ and ragged on them after every show I went to (how many times did they play blackcat, seemed like every 2 weeks for a while there, didnt it). Well, anyway, I guess I feel bad now, also because pitchfork ripped his last album. So, what the hell, check it out, see what you think. Everyone deserves a second (third?) chance, right?
http://www.r8e8r.com/mp3r/Travis%20Morrison%20Hellfighters%20-%20All%20Y’all/05%20I%20do.mp3
http://www.r8e8r.com/mp3r/Travis%20Morrison%20Hellfighters%20-%20All%20Y’all/06%20Just%20didn’t%20turn%20me%20on.mp3
http://www.r8e8r.com/mp3r/Travis%20Morrison%20Hellfighters%20-%20All%20Y’all/04%20East%20side%20of%20the%20river.mp3
-mark
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August 29th, 2007 r8e8rcom
I just realized yesterday that I started this list over a year ago with 15 close friends and its now 57 strong. Sure, we had some people drop off here and there, and sure I’ve sent out some real shit here and there, and yes there has been a few lapses, but the important thing is that we’re still going. Most of you guys know me well enough to know that its no small feat for me to stick to doing anything on a regular basis (except maybe drinking and smoking). Its funny though, I went back to read some of our old emails and found that somehow this has morphed from highly critical music geek commentary to my personal journal on display, with some music at the bottom. Anyway, I thought it’d be cool to send out some facts and highlights from the past year of the review list.
- first email sent 8/3/06 with one track from Jeremy Enigk’s solo record. The subject was “Mark’s mp3 review board”, and it remained that for an entire week, until Matt B. sent a post telling me to change the subject since “everyone knows whos email list it is”.
- that same day Dave Hyland posted a scathing review of the Enigk track in which he suggested that Enigk was ‘getting old’. Trevor wrote a response stating that Lemmy was ‘getting old’ and still ‘kicked ass’. Dave’s retort was that his Mom was getting old and would kick Trevors ‘hipster ass’. This is where the review scale of ‘how many asses Dave’s Mom kicked’ came from.
- the unofficial most popular post (based on the number of replies) was the ‘crazy guy on the china town bus’ story, which featured tracks by ‘Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin’, but the popularity, it seems, had nothing to do the tracks as none of the replies actually said anything about them.
http://www.r8e8r.com/review_posts/china_town_bus.htm
- the second most popular post (again based on replies) was the ’shandie drinker’ post, where I was ridiculed for writing about drinking ’shandies’ and where we found out that term ’shandy drinker’ is British slang for an effeminate or possibly homosexual male.
http://www.r8e8r.com/review_posts/shandie_drinker.htm
-Trevor holds the record for most replies with a whopping 62, followed by Dave Hyland with 47, and Lawerence with 35. My old boss at Insound holds the record for the fewest, when I accidently forwarded him Dan P’s less than positive Cold War Kids review, thinking I was sending it to Matt B. His response was ‘was this meant for me? You know my friend just singed them to his major-ish label?’ At the time I was using insound server space for my mp3s. smart….real smart.
- post that generated the most downloads: Justin Timberlake pre-release mystery post. Come on, was there any question. This was the only time I posted an entire album, and the only time I didn’t label the post.
All in all, I think it was a great year, and I just wanted to thank you all for allowing me to fill your inboxes with my ramblings and musical explorations. I hope everyone found something here that they enjoyed.
peace, love, and your mom,
-mark
Ok, that was a long one so here’s some tracks from the upcoming release of Montreal’s Sunset Rubdown. Sunset Rubdown began as a solo project of Spencer Krug, of Wolf Parade fame, who released the Sunset Rubdown debut Snake’s Got a Leg in July 2005. Eventually, the group expanded to include Camilla Wynne Ingr of Pony Up!, Jordan Robson-Cramer of XY Lover, and Michael Doerksen. This record (Random Spirit Lover on Jagjaguwar) doesn’t come out til Oct. 9th so enjoy, and don’t tell anyone where you got it from:
http://www.r8e8r.com/mp3r/Sunset%20Rubdown%20-%20Random%20Spirit%20Lover/04%20The%20Courtesan%20Has%20Sung.mp3
http://www.r8e8r.com/mp3r/Sunset%20Rubdown%20-%20Random%20Spirit%20Lover/09%20The%20Taming%20of%20the%20Hands%20That%20Came.mp3
http://www.r8e8r.com/mp3r/Sunset%20Rubdown%20-%20Random%20Spirit%20Lover/08%20For%20the%20Pier%20(and%20Dead%20Shimmering.mp3
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August 28th, 2007 r8e8rcom
Saw this guy on the train yesterday that looked exactly like Peter from Family Guy. Round features, think glasses, crooked smirk. I immediately associated this real human being with that bumbling cartoon character. I couldn’t help staring at him. Thinking how I wanted to tell him how much I enjoyed his work. Then I thought, well maybe this guy is really a crazed psycho serial killer that makes himself look like Peter from Family Guy to lure his victims in. “Hey guys, look at me! I’m a harmless, well-intentioned idiot. I’m funny, right, and I’m a nice guy”. Then, just when you least expect it, BAM, he whips out a chainsaw and chops you to pieces.
Taken By Trees is ex-Concrete Victoria Bergsman’s new project. Victoria was singer and songwriter for that all-girl outfit for eleven years up until deciding to leave her bandmates Maria Eriksson and Lisa Milbergin in July of last year. You may just recognise Victoria’s voice from Peter Bjorn & John’s infectious Young Folks single (Keith, don’t act like you don’t love that fucking song, whistling and all). Victoria has decided to follow her instincts and record a debut album of her own. Aided and abetted by fellow Peter, Bjorn & John co-horts Bjorn Yttling on various instruments and string arrangements and John Eriksson on all ‘very personal’ percussion instruments, marimba and vibraphone. The album also features guitar by Andreas Soderstrom, plus Verity Susman from Electrelane, who provided piano arrangements as well as backing vocals. Victoria and Bjorn produced the album together.
http://www.r8e8r.com/mp3r/Taken%20By%20Trees/Lost%20&%20Found/Taken%20By%20Trees_Lost%20&%20Found_01_Lost%20and%20Found.mp3
http://www.r8e8r.com/mp3r/Taken%20By%20Trees/Lost%20&%20Found/Taken%20By%20Trees_Lost%20&%20Found_02_Too%20Young%20(TTA%20Remix).mp3
http://www.r8e8r.com/mp3r/Taken%20By%20Trees/Lost%20&%20Found/Taken%20By%20Trees_Lost%20&%20Found_03_No%20Letting%20Go.mp3
-mark
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August 27th, 2007 r8e8rcom
Had a great weekend. Went camping in Sloatsburg……ah, good ole Sloatsburg….wait, is that right? (someone help me with this one) Also corrupted more kids with a 4 am Coney Island excursion again this weekend. We trekked all the way out there only to miss what could have been an amazing sunrise because we realized sometime around 6am that we were basically sitting in a cloud. Still there was something calming and tranquil about sitting on a life guard chair staring out into the ocean and listening to the waves crash while surrounded by fog. What wasn’t cool was the amount of red bull I had to consume the next day to appear remotely conscious. All in good fun, and well worth it. maybe.
Electrelane is a band from Brighton, England that Trevor turned me on to. They were formed in 1998 by Verity Susman (keyboards, farfisa organ, lead vocals, guitar, saxophone, clarinet) and Emma Gaze (drums). Nowadays, the band is composed of these two plus Mia Clarke (guitar, backing vocals) and Ros Murray (bass). The last 2 records were recorded by Steve Albini, but Im not sure if he was involved with this one. These tracks are from their latest release, ‘No Shouts, No Calls’, released April 30, 2007 on Too Pure.
http://www.r8e8r.com/mp3r/upload/Electrelane/No%20Shouts,%20No%20Calls/Electrelane_No%20Shouts,%20No%20Calls_01_The%20Greater%20Times.mp3
http://www.r8e8r.com/mp3r/upload/Electrelane/No%20Shouts,%20No%20Calls/Electrelane_No%20Shouts,%20No%20Calls_06_At%20Sea.mp3
http://www.r8e8r.com/mp3r/upload/Electrelane/No%20Shouts,%20No%20Calls/Electrelane_No%20Shouts,%20No%20Calls_08_Saturday.mp3
-mark
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August 24th, 2007 r8e8rcom
Im so unmotivated today. Not tired at all, just have this feeling like I want everything I do today to amount to nothing. Kinda wanna just leave work and go wandering around the city for a while. Go shopping and not buy anything. Maybe just walk to see how far I can walk uptown. Find a stoop to sit on and just people watch for a few hours.
Mathangi “Maya” Arulpragasam, (born 17 July 1977 in Hounslow, London, U.K.) is a British artist of Sri Lankan descent. As a baby she moved with her family to their native Sri Lanka, where her father became increasingly politically active in militant activities. As the Civil War escalated the rest of the family was forced to flee as refugees, first to India and then the UK. ” M.I.A.” [”Missing In Action”] references both her London neighbourhood (Acton) and her politically tumultuous youth. These tracks are from her latest release, ‘Kala’, on Interscope.
http://www.r8e8r.com/mp3r/upload/M.I.A.%20Feat.%20Timbaland/Kala/12%20Come%20Around.mp3
http://www.r8e8r.com/mp3r/upload/M.I.A_/Kala/11%20Paper%20Planes.mp3
http://www.r8e8r.com/mp3r/upload/M.I.A_/Kala/07%20$20.mp3
-mark
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August 23rd, 2007 r8e8rcom
Pray, pray, pray that none of you guys ever have to deal with the NYC middle school selection/application/admission process. Its totally insane how intimidating the whole process can be. They seriously have a middle school for everything you could think of, automotive schools, law schools, performance arts schools, dance schools, christian, catholic, jewish, orthodox jewish, baptist, international?, journalism, drama, music, technology, etc, etc, etc. Its great to have so many options, but at the end of the day, its middle school right. You’ve got math, science, english, history, PE. And each one of these school all have their own rigorous admission requirements. Test scores, auditions, teacher recommendations, essays, interviews. I mean, come on, lets not get too fancy here. I know what you’re thinking, I’m way too old to go back to middle school, but I feel like its never too late.
This is long overdue, I know. Maybe we can get some good discussion with this one. I’m going to skip the background for these kids, so here’s some tracks from the most recent Yeah Yeah Yeahs EP, released on Interscope on 7/24/07.
http://www.r8e8r.com/mp3r/upload/Is%20Is%20EP/05%2010%20X%2010.mp3
http://www.r8e8r.com/mp3r/upload/Is%20Is%20EP/04%20Isis.mp3
http://www.r8e8r.com/mp3r/upload/Is%20Is%20EP/01%20Rockers%20To%20Swallow.mp3
-mark
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August 15th, 2007 r8e8rcom
You ever have one of those days where you’re just so tired and worn out that nothing seems to bother you at all. You know, you’ve just worked for 2 days straight, or you’ve been up dancing and drinking for an entire weekend. When that Monday rolls around you feel like it should hurt, but somehow it doesn’t. You just sorta walk around in a hazy cloud of complete apathy. Someone could walk up to you and punch you in the face and you’d prolly just stand there staring at them with a dazed look and a tenuous grin. Its funny cuz Im reading this book about axial age religions and every description of enlightenment, be it becoming one with ‘The Way’, finding Nirvana, or experiencing the ‘Unmoved Mover’, they all seem to describe that same state of mind. Which tends to make me think that it could be possible to drink your way to enlightenment. And if that’s true my vote goes to Jack Daniels for patron saint of alcoholics. You feel me?
The only things I know about Narrator is that they are originally from Chicago, their latest album was released on Flameshovel, and that they lost a drummer while making this record and grabbed fill-ins from Russian Circles and Oxford Collapse to finish it.
http://www.r8e8r.com/mp3r/upload/thenarrator/04%20SurfJew.mp3
http://www.r8e8r.com/mp3r/upload/thenarrator/11%20Chocolate%20Windchimes.mp3
http://www.r8e8r.com/mp3r/upload/thenarrator/09%20Breaking%20the%20Turtle.mp3
-mark
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August 14th, 2007 r8e8rcom
Krautrock is such a ridiculously funny word, isn’t it though?
Caribou is Dan Snaith (b. 1979), who formerly recorded under the moniker Manitoba. Known for altering his sound with each subsequent release, he incorporates electronic psychedelia, krautrock rhythms, and breakbeat drums and creates a swirling, lush panorama. These tracks are from the upcoming release, Andorra, which is due out on Merge August 21st.
http://www.r8e8r.com/mp3r/upload/caribou/Andorra/04%20She’s%20The%20One.mp3
http://www.r8e8r.com/mp3r/upload/caribou/Andorra/01%20Melody%20Day.mp3
http://www.r8e8r.com/mp3r/upload/caribou/Andorra/08%20Irene.mp3
-mark
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August 13th, 2007 r8e8rcom
Found out my license was expired this weekend in DC. It was embarrassing because I couldn’t get into most of the bars and they wouldn’t serve me alcohol at the restaurant. I had to sneak a few glasses of sangria and I felt like I was in high school again. Part of me wants to just say fuck it and never get another one just to spite the DMV and the whole auto industry. Fuck a car, fuck a license. I’m down with a walkers ID, cuz I’m down with walking.
Hailing from Tampa, FL, Candy Bars were formed in 2003 by Daniel Martinez (from the guitar department) and Ryan Hastings (the percussion department). With no bass player and a name intended to counteract the gloomy nature of their songs (yeah, its a stupid name), the duo began splitting their time between open mic nights and local nighttime hot-spots. Wanting to explore a more dynamic musical territory, the band officially became a trio in early 2005 with the addition of cellist Melissa Castellano. These tracks are from the release, Ti-Gers In Half and Understanding on New Granada Records.
http://www.r8e8r.com/mp3r/upload/Candy%20Bars/On%20Cutting%20Ti-Gers%20In%20Half%20and%20Understanding%20Narravation/01%20Landscape.mp3
http://www.r8e8r.com/mp3r/upload/Candy%20Bars/On%20Cutting%20Ti-Gers%20In%20Half%20and%20Understanding%20Narravation/04%20The%20Flood%20in%20your%20Old%20Town.mp3
http://www.r8e8r.com/mp3r/upload/Candy%20Bars/On%20Cutting%20Ti-Gers%20In%20Half%20and%20Understanding%20Narravation/02%20Works%20Cited.mp3
-mark
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August 9th, 2007 r8e8rcom
I woke up the other night to a tree coming through my window. I was still in that wake-sleep state and couldn’t tell what the hell was going on. Water was pouring into my apartment in buckets and when I tried to look outside all I could see was a wash of rain, like my apartment was at the bottom of an ocean. There was a loud roar like a train going by and I thought ’this cant be real I must be dreaming’. I think I put a cardboard box against the broken window and went back to sleep. I woke up the next day and find my window is actually broken and there is a puddle of water in my apartment. When I get outside I see trees covering the sidewalks and streets. It wasn’t until later that day that I found out I slept through a fucking tornado just a few blocks from my house.
Bat For Lashes is the work of British singer/songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and visual artist Natasha Khan. Born in 1979, yet combining influences that span decades, Natasha’s work dwells in the elemental, emerging in timeless forms. Her live shows, with accomplices Ginger Lee, Abi Fry and Lizzy Carey, are made up of thunderous marching band drums, desert guitar, ballet school piano, harpsichord, sub-bass snarls, hand-claps and naive beats, with the women fluidly switching and swapping their instruments between songs. Recorded in London and Brighton, Natasha co-produced the album with David Kosten (Faultline). These tracks are from ‘Fur and Gold’, on Caroline which was released August 2nd.
http://www.r8e8r.com/mp3r/upload/Bat%20For%20Lashes/Fur%20and%20Gold/05%20Sad%20Eyes.mp3
http://www.r8e8r.com/mp3r/upload/Bat%20For%20Lashes/Fur%20and%20Gold/01%20Horse%20And%20I.mp3
http://www.r8e8r.com/mp3r/upload/Bat%20For%20Lashes/Fur%20and%20Gold/06%20The%20Wizard.mp3
-mark
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