I was in a bad mood a couple nights ago and texted a few people to have them suggest a cure. My favorite response came from Paloma. Half of her texts made me feel worse; for example, she texted something about how every hour you spend in front of the television increases your risk of dying by something like 10 percent. Doubtful, maybe, but since I had just watched HP6 the night before, this assertion was really no help. But the effects of such texts were completely washed by others revealing her idiosyncrasies, ‘I also watched the Matrix every night it’s been on in the last 2 weeks. Now vying w Howl for my most-watched movie of all time.’ Only for Paloma and maybe my youngest brother, Alexander, would Howl’s Moving Castle, be their most-watched movie of all time. Somewhere between learning about polar bears being left-handed and reading Salinger’s alternate obituary in The Onion, I started to feel better.

Anyway, here is my stab at a cure for the winter blues. This is also a response to Paloma’s request for some ‘this-is-no-time-for-lethargy music.’ I am pretty sure I’m not the only one feeling this slump. The most recent episode of 30 Rock was titled ‘Winter Madness’; in other words, Tina Fey’s take on Seasonal Affective Disorder. Apparently February is the last month during which individuals in the Northern Hemisphere will usually experience symptoms of Seasonal Affective Disorder – so I learned when writing two papers on SAD last semester.

Here are some excellent tunes so cheer up. This is especially for the guy at work who said he’d gone through our playlist twice already and needed more. This is also for the girl who I sent one of these tracks to – you told me that you ’LOOVED!’ it. I promise, you’ll feel the same way about the rest of these.

photo by Ravi Bhalla

PLAY TRACKS

‘The Sun’  Portugal. The Man

‘Dog Days are Over’  Florence + The Machine

‘O.N.E’  Yeasayer

‘Take Care’  Beach House

Consider this list my “favorite new tracks of 2009” list.

Click here to listen to the selected tracks

Imagine this.

Leaning backwards in your chair to the point where it tips over, but instead of you hitting the ground with a hard thud, you go right through the ground and you get swallowed up and dropped into a dark cushiony endless abyss. What, this has never happened to you? Well it did to me, the first time I listened to Radiohead’s “These Are My Twisted Words.” From a purely tonal standpoint, the guitars present a smear of notes down a descending line that exist outside the realm of conventional tonality. From a more textural standpoint, the guitars layer the smear on thick with heavy delay and other time based effects.

To break down the instrumentation, it’s nothing out of the ordinary -especially for Radiohead: guitars, drums, thom’s voice, bass. The difference is what Radiohead manages to do with these instruments. We’re not talking about virtuoso technique or any truly incredible display of musicianship. The magic here is in the composition and the recording. Like I said, “These Are My Twisted Words” really delivered me to a place I’ve never been. Radiohead showed, through this song, that there are still sonic realms where standard rock instrumentation hasn’t been yet.

This is what listening to these songs looks like (taken from the inside of my car during a carwash).

There are hardly any recognizable instruments or components in Animal Collective’s “Guys Eyes” from their latest album Merriweather Post Pavilion. Regardless the song is something that Brian Williams Wilson (nice catch) would have been happy to have produced if he was still with the Beach Boys today. My sister said it perfectly when she that it was like Animal Collective created a new color. It was that groundbreaking for me when I finally figured out what the hell Animal Collective was. “Guys Eyes” has these beautiful vocal harmonies that swarm around like well choreographed bees. Any singular bee is hardly distinguishable from the rest but the result is a spinning pattern of thick vocal counterpoint. In this way, the only recognizable component of the song, the singing, becomes a mess in itself. This is the kind of mess that will make me listen to a song a hundred times over without ever deciphering the mess.

I’m going to throw Grizzly Bear’s “Slow Life” featuring Victoria Legrand into this list because it had a similar affect on me as the previous two songs. The moral of the story I guess is auditory experience. However, there have been some songs in the past that have had life changing effects for me in terms of how I listen to music. First is Beck’s 2002 song “Paper Tiger” form his album Sea Change. The song perfectly melts together the timbres of a guitar and an orchestra so that their interplay and “counterplay” creates a conversational effect that makes the song so bold. Lastly is the song “Oceania” from Björk’s 2004 album Medúlla. The album is an almost purely vocal album and this song is composed of a combination of Björk’s live vocals, and a professional beatboxer. Additionally, an indiscernible combination of sampled voices and a female choir take the part that a synthesizer would normally have. This kind of seamless mix is a strange sensation.

Well I hope that by sharing these tracks with you, you too can expand your musical palette.

Thanks and with love,

George

Costa Rica may not have offered insight into a new music craze – at least not after one week. But pairing some kids from LA with a few tediously long bus rides resulted in a new repertoire of tunes to begin the year. Whatever the source, here is Aphera bringing you quality noise. Also, circumaural headsets seem to be all the rage.

best shot taken in Costa Rica

PLAY TRACKS

Freshly Baked

Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros: 40 Day Dream

Miike Snow: Animal

Blasts From the Recent Past

Yeasayer : 2080

Justin Vernon aka Bon Iver : Hazelton