And call for submissions! Here’s the project details:

A few years ago, I had planned on covering a bunch of my favorite songs for an end of year comp, but only ever got around to covering one Postal Service song (Brand New Colony), so decided this year I wanted to put together another one, but all covers by my friends. It’s better as a collaboration, so everyone picks their own songs! And it doesn’t really matter whether or not you play music, you can just sing it a cappella, which is fun, too.

Our December 7th deadline is fast approaching so if you have an itch to sing a song and record it, send it to me and I’ll throw it on the “tape.”

When your song is done, send me these things with it (optional, mind you):

an mp3 of the original song
a top 10 list of other songs/albums
your address

We’re going to do several covers, as long as I get artwork for them. I have two covers designed; here’s one of them that I printed with the new Gocco printer:

I’m excited about this project, and was telling Owl that it basically forces all my friends that love to record and sing and do music stuff to do something with (relatively) little effort. AND we all get to see what we’ve been listening to for the past year, which is always a good way to stay connected to people you know and love.

I just started listening to Braid again today. It’s still really great, and I don’t care what you say. It’s what made me want to move to Chicago, it’s true.

I hope everyone had a good Thanksgiving. It’s the holiday season, yeah, and that means holiday music. This is my new favorite holiday song so far, it’s off the It’s Hard to Find a Friend Benefit Album. It’s worth every penny, and goes to a good cause (Toys for Tots), so you should check it out. Seven bucks = Great deal.

Ohtis - American Christians
[audio:12 American Christians.mp3]

I just picked up 33 1/3 - Neutral Milk Hotel - In the Aeroplane Over the Sea and it reminds me of how brilliant that album is. I thought I had written something about one of the times I was listening to it, but couldn’t find it in the archives.

A friend that I barely knew, Justin, had somehow gotten me to go bowling with him, and I remember driving with him in Vlad, my old Jetta. We hit the crest of the hill on 46th, right where it crosses Phinney and you get that astonishing view of Ballard and the Olympics in the distance, and right then, Holland, 1945 comes on.

Neutral Milk Hotel - Holland, 1945
[audio:06 Holland 1945.mp3]

Justin reaches over to the volume and just blasts it. The windows were open even though it was too crisp and cold to let the air inside. He didn’t care. I didn’t care. And then, this guy I hardly knew, just starts belting out the song as loud as he could. It felt nice, and I did the same thing. You probably should, too, sometime. This album is made for it. The song ended just as we pulled into Sunset Bowl.

I thought that maybe doing time-related themes was getting old, so here’s a quick one about the obvious. What was I writing 5 years ago?

[audio:fall.mp3]

Tracklist after the jump.

(more…)

Easily one of the best songs from late-90’s era Northwest indie rock, this is a perfect song for a crisp fall day:

764-HERO - Loaded Painted Red
[audio:http://www.infiniteregress.org/bmp/01 Loaded Painted Red.mp3]

-B.

I put together some mixes since Tim asked me to. Here’s the first:

[audio:http://www.infiniteregress.org/bmp/5MinMix1.mp3]

I spoke maybe too close to the microphone. -B.

60 minutes, 6 songs.

1. Iron & Wine - The Trapeze Swinger
2. Sufjan Stevens - Majesty Snowbird
3. Jawbreaker - Bivouac
4. New Order - Temptation
5. Built To Spill - Velvet Waltz
6. Explosions in the Sky - Time Stops

[audio:60minutes.mp3]

I know there’s quite a dichotomy of people out there when it comes to Sufjan Stevens, and I’m generalizing, for sure, but I know people that aren’t into him, and there are people that very much are, and end up crying at his live shows because it’s so great. I didn’t cry, but I did think it was great.

Naw, who am I kidding?! I was blubbering the whole time like a kid with a stubbed toe! I was like, “God, this is so beautiful that I want to stab myself in the ear so I don’t have to listen to anything else that will just surely disappoint me after hearing this!” Naw, just kidding, I wasn’t like that, but I thought it was pretty great, and this was probably news last year the first time he started playing Majesty Snowbird, but that song is I agree with others, one of the best songs he’s ever written. I’m not gonna post it, because it’s still everywhere on hypemachine.

The craft of songwriting, the progression through the different stages of the song is what I’m trying to get to here. The violins are sweeping and pull you up and away from the ground with wings and the voice control in the falsetto is impeccable. I don’t care if you don’t like the music, you have to admit that the dude’s got skills.

And oh, the drumming? I’ve said this several times to several people now: The best thing you can ever do for your band is to hire someone that can absolutely kill the skins; you can hear it in everything James McAllister plays, and you can also hear that he’s had serious formal training behind there. This makes everything that is supposed to be heard, heard loud and clear — He knows exactly when to pull back and when to wail. This is exactly what happened during the score of the BQE; the dynamics were defined and executed to a T. Just start listening at the 7-minute mark of Majesty, by the 7:20 mark, there’s so much going on, but it only lasts a second, and then (although most recordings don’t capture the movement of it) this absolutely piercing guitar solo comes in with a sharp, sharp fuzzy tone. I’d feel absolutely ecstatic to figure something out (or have someone feel like I do about it) like that.

The BQE was, to me, a lot like that. Hey, 10-minute songs, they’re the new 3-minute songs.

wouldn’t that be better?

Because it’s that time, and it’s my favorite time of the year.

Yo La Tengo - Autumn Sweater (From Black Session #115)
[audio:03 Autumn Sweater.mp3]

This one was on repeat in our rental car with the tiny steering wheel in Seattle. Jens Lekman is my pop-song-writing hero.

Jens Lekman - Your Arms Around Me
[audio:08 Your Arms Around Me.mp3]

what’s broken can always be fixed / what’s fixed will always be broken