Music Diary Project Days 6 and 7

I neglected to make an entry yesterday, mostly because I actually left my apartment for a respectable amount of time. I did listen to about half of Bishop Allen’s Broken String when I woke up, which is one of my favorite morning albums. There was a fair bit of watching Miranda and reading the last two Hunger Games books (I had to give in once my friend apparently cared enough to mail me all of them), and then Emily and I saw Destroyer and the War on Drugs, which was surprisingly short considering the span of Destroyer’s discography, but I’m not complaining. Then I ended up at a party where I ran away from the dancefloor every time someone put on Ke$ha, which was a lot.

Today I drove around while listening to the Scott Pilgrim OST, because nice weather apparently makes me want to listen to garage rock, as well as “Warm Heart of Africa” by the Very Best. Somewhere in there were also listens of both Vampire Weekend albums as well as Check Your Head and Licensed to Ill.

Also this weekend, Das Racist released their video for “Coochie Dip City,” which is far from my favorite song of theirs, but still worth a listen. According to Twitter, Tony Kanal of No Doubt and Andrew VanWyngarden of MGMT have been added to the list of collaborators for their upcoming album Relax. Considering that the pool already includes Diplo, Neon Indian, Rostam Batmanglij of Vampire Weekend, and Twin Shadow, this is clearly only going to help Das Racist’s upward trajectory, but I can’t help but wonder if the combined effect might end up overshadowing DR themselves. Nonetheless, most of these people aren’t established as hip hop producers, so it will be interesting to hear them expanding their range.

Anyways, I’ve really enjoyed doing the Music Diary Project, I do think that it’s pushed me to think more consciously about my listening habits. I know my posts have gotten progressively less interesting as the week went along, but I like that I’ve been blogging more.

Music Diary Project Day 5

I spent the morning freshening up on Destroyer for the show tomorrow night with Kaputt, Destroyer’s Rubies, Streethawk: A Seduction, and the Archer on the Beach EP. It should be a good time, I’m really looking forward to it.

After listening to LCD Soundsystem’s Sound of Silver, I’d had enough emoting for the day and listened to Darwin Deez (pictured) as I drove to the grocery store. Green Hills traffic really allows time for some good thinking about subjects like the thrilling nature of my life.

I also checked out this new track from Donnis and Dev and wondered what the theme on Free Gucci 3 is going to be.

I did not step foot in Grimey’s at all.

Music Diary Project Day 4

Drove to work this morning listening to Discovery’s LP. I spent my time there listening to muffled versions of what my boss was listening to in the next room, which included the Black Crowes, Darwin Deez, Foster the People, and Grouplove (pictured). I’m really looking forward to the Foster the People album, “Pumped Up Kicks” and the MNDR remix are great.

Over lunch, I listened to Girls’ Album for the first time in a while, and it ended up being a much more diverse record than how I remembered it. When it first came out, I loved “Lust For Life” and “Big Bad Mean Motherfucker,” but dismissed most of the other songs. I think I’m going to keep giving it more of a chance. I also listened to this song from Matt Tong of Bloc Party, because I get very nostalgic for British rock music from 2004-2007.

After class, I drove to Grimey’s for the fourth time in as many days to sort something out (they know me now), still with Discovery in my car. Upon my return, I watched the trailer for the Beastie Boys Fight For Your Right – Revisited, which is pretty excellent and notably includes Will Arnett shouting “Come on!” That was followed by a listen of Check Your Head, then the semi-recent Childish Gambino EP after seeing the clip of Donald Glover on Fallon last night–hilarious.

I’m now listening to Kaputt by Destroyer. I’ve been thinking about how doing the Music Diary Project affects the way I listen to music, and I think it mainly causes me to listen to full albums more, because that’s easier to write about than “I just had a bunch of stuff on shuffle.”

Music Diary Project Day 3

I started the morning off right with Cut Copy’s Zonoscope, which is surely one of the finest albums of the year. That led into You & I by Cut Off Your Hands in my music library, which I never got super into, though “In The Name Of Jesus Christ” is raw and delicate in all the right ways.

A classmate and I drove approximately two blocks to see whether or not we had to meet. We did not, and celebrated the opportunity to be even lazier. “S&M” by Rihanna came on the radio in her car.

I listened to the upcoming Architecture In Helsinki album Moment Bends while eating lunch, befitting the pleasant weather. Afterward, I drove to Grimey’s (I don’t live there) and then Frothy Monkey and had the Strokes’ Is This It playing in my car. More specifically, it was the international version that I bought when I was in Ireland last year, which has the above cover art and the track “New York City Cops,” which I immediately skipped to. I know it’s extra pretentious that my favorite Strokes song is one that doesn’t come standard in the country I live in, but it’s just such a great tune.

At Frothy Monkey, I listened to the new Beastie Boys song, “Make Some Noise,” and watched the trailer for Crazy, Stupid, Love, which includes “Two Weeks” by Grizzly Bear and “Black Holes and Revelations” by Muse. I put on Hype Machine’s mix of Destroyer songs, as I was asked to cover their show this weekend, and then listened to the Hood Internet’s Mixtape Vol. 5 while sorting my pictures from the Warpaint show last night.

In the evening, I was in a carpool to go have dinner for a friend’s birthday party, and the girl who was driving was going for some middle school church camp steez* with Plus One. Afterward, I was part of the contingent that ended up at Sweet CeCe’s, which had a GAC special on Sugarland playing on the TV. I attempted to foster a healthy debate on why Lady Antebellum is a politically incorrect band name.

When I got back to my place, Vampire Weekend frontman Ezra Koenig’s Paul Simon cover was one of the first things I saw on Twitter. Now, I am listening to Das Racist’s Shut Up, Dude.

*I never went to church camp when I was in middle school (or ever), but that’s what I imagine it’s like.

Music Diary Project Day 2

The first album I listened to today was Holy Ghost!’s upcoming self-titled album, at around 11 am. Let me preface this by saying that I am a big nerd; it started with my parents shielding me from everything that they deemed trendy, then I just became the sort of person who spends an extraordinary amount of time staring at a computer and can argue about the merits of various Doctor Who companions. When I heard this album for the first time on Friday, driving around wearing my (fake) leather jacket and non-Wayfarer Ray-Bans (I can’t wear a more iconic style due to my high prescription), I felt like a legitimately cool person. This is something that rarely happens to me, but listening to Holy Ghost! brought on a total confidence boost. Their sound is just so refreshing, and they’re a DFA band tipped to pick up where LCD Soundsystem left off. Holy Ghost!’s live act isn’t too shabby, either, from what I can remember from seeing them open for Chromeo last August. The album is currently streaming on Hype Machine.

After that, I finished up my review of the Kills’ Blood Pressures and listened to about half of Midnight Boom as well in the process. “Love Is A Deserter” was somewhere in the mix as well, because that’s the first song I remember hearing from them.

In the evening, I went to see Warpaint perform in-store at Grimey’s (pictured above). My friend Jess had Sirius XMU playing in her car. I don’t remember all of the songs, but there were tracks by Ratatat and Tobacco somewhere in there. “Rich Girls” by the Virgins definitely was playing on the way back, and I will not apologize for still liking it despite the seeming fakeness of the band. Anyways, Grimey’s was playing some Delicate Steve before the band went on. Warpaint had to play as a three-piece because Emily was sick and resting up for the main show later on, but I still enjoyed hearing them live way more than I had on record–maybe it’s the bass sounding stronger?

I went back to my apartment for a brief stop to eat dinner, sort photos, and watch two episodes of Parks and Recreation. Then, it was off to Mercy Lounge to see Warpaint again. I listened to more Holy Ghost! on the way there, and I remember the venue playing “I Can Never Go Home Anymore” by the Shangri-Las as background music at one point. The Family Band were the first openers, and I totally zoned out, but I think that was the point. PVT played after that, and as Australians, they took it upon themselves to apologize for Keith Urban. The quartet Warpaint was even better than the trio Warpaint, those ladies sure know how to jam out.

I am now listening to James Blake to calm myself down before going to sleep, and I apologize for my 1:30 am voice.

Music Diary Project Day 1

Every day this week, I’ll be chronicling what music I listen to for the Music Diary Project.

Oberhofer 2/12/2011

I checked Twitter first thing this morning and Donald Glover aka Childish Gambino had posted a new song, so I listened to that. Soon after that, I felt compelled to make a slightly delayed playlist for the first quarter of 2011, which ended up looking like this:

1. Cut Copy – Need You Now
2. Theophilus London – Why Even Try? (ft. Sara Quin)
3. Oberhofer – Away FRM U
4. The Kills – Satellite
5. Die Antwoord – Rich Bitch
6. Arveene & Misk – Love & Lust
7. MSTRKRFT – Beards Again
8. Childish Gambino – Freaks & Geeks
9. Chromeo – Hot Mess
10. Das Racist – Swate
11. Kid Sister – Gucci Rag Top (ft. Gucci Mane)
12. Architecture in Helsinki – Contact High
13. Peter Bjorn and John – Breaker Breaker
14. Anna Calvi – Blackout
15. James Blake – The Wilhelm Scream

These tracks aren’t in the order of how much I like them, I just hastily threw together what I thought would sound the best. I know some of these are on albums that came out last year, but I’m going with single/song releases. A twelve track mix probably would have been better, but oh well. You can listen to all of the songs here.

For the rest of the day, I’ve been working on my review of the Kills’ new album Blood Pressures, which drops tomorrow. I’ll be sharing my full thoughts on it soon enough, but it’s definitely very different from their previous material. I did take a break at 6 to go see the Apache Relay perform at Grimey’s. They’re a great alt-country band from Nashville, and I highly recommend their new album that’s dropping next week.

Bonus picture of what I ate for lunch. Multigrain toast with cream cheese/pesto spread, smoked salmon, and poached egg.