Here’s something to satisfy your need for an acid trip simulation: a video for Flying Lotus’ “Mmmhmm” from his 2010 Cosmogramma. The weed references should be obvious but the rest cannot be as easily attributed to any single drug. Here you go:

“KNOW YOUR DOPE FIEND. YOUR LIFE MAY DEPEND ON IT!”

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George already mentioned P4k’s newest love child, Tame Impala, (take a listen!) but let me continue.

I fell in love with the guitar phasing, and the John Lennon style vocals – both quintessential 1960s characteristics.

Contrary to what you’d expect, Tame Impala’s copycat ways sound neither forced nor over the top. There is something natural, beautiful and refreshing about their 1960’s familiarity.

Listen to “Solitude is Bliss”

I spent my birthday listening to The White Album while lounging by the side of the pool. God, some of those song are just plain creepy. But others such as, “Strawberry Fields Forever”, are just creepily good.

For most of us, refreshing Beatles albums never gets old. But for those of us who don’t feel that strawberry fields are forever, we have a solution. It’s called Tame Impala.

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I started preparing for my presentation in War and Peace around 1030 am today. I had the next couple hours to pour over Seifrid’s article, decipher what the guy was talking about, find examples in the 1200 pages of text to support his point, come up with my own opinion and then pose questions (I hope my prof does not find this blog!). I did it. My point is that this whole process got me thinking about what makes music good.

First, this is what makes Tolstoy good. The Seifrid article talks about Tolstoy’s obsession with the visual experience and his frustration of having to use words to depict it. Tolstoy felt like there was serious “realness” lost once something visual had to be translated into text. Thus, in order to try to bypass that problem Tolstoy wrote from the sensory experience of a particular character. The problem is that even while character Pierre is seeing light, Tolstoy has to tell you that Pierre is seeing light. So Siegel pointed out that there is this whole laying effect going on of a visual experience passing through the characters perspective and then through Tolstoy’s and then finally to the reader. By the time the reader “sees” what the character does it’s already passed through several lenses. This got Tolstoy all worked up and he didn’t know what to do about it.

The thing is, this is also what made the dude amazing. It made him describe something like “death” in the most ridiculous way. So any normal author would say, the guy got shot and fell over. Tolstoy describes what the guy sees off in the distance, let’s say a horse, and all of the sudden the horse becomes blurry, and the guy notices that something on his right side feels sticky and all of the sudden he sees the sky. Then the guy wonders what happened to the horse…. Tolstoy never actually says he got shot and fell over, you as the reader have to figure that one out.

So the reason this makes him so good is because it takes something we all know, like the smell of the air, and makes you think about it. How often do you walk outside and think about the clothes touching your skin, and the ground pressing up at your feet – not often. Tolstoy would make you notice all that stuff.

Anyway, this made me think about what makes good music good… to be continued…

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It’s like MGMT had to appease us with “Kids” in order for us to take Congratulations seriously. After all, Oracular Spectacular had us loving and respecting MGMT to the max. They knew we’d at least give Congratulations a listen… and they were hoping that some of us would see it for the masterpiece that it is. Unfortunately, most of us haven’t developed enough sophistication to fully appreciate Congratulations.

I learned my senior year of high school that some good music requires extreme sophistication. At the time, I was dating this guy who was the lead singer of a classic rock band, an accomplished guitarist, and a world renowned fiddler. He was giving me a ride home from school and put Bob Dylan on for the ride. I cringed and said,  “Uh, I really don’t like him.” He looked at me, shocked, and probably wondering how he could continue hanging out with me and responded, “Well, he’s just too sophisticated for you.”

As a classical pianist, I was extremely offended at the time, but he was absolutely right. And as my sophistication grew so did my appreciation for Dylan.

MGMT’s Congratulations requires that same sophistication because they are giving us Dylan. MGMT is giving us Prokofiev’s Second Concerto. This stuff requires an acquired taste, sophistication and appreciation. There is no room for instant gratification.

Congratulations is dense. It gives your ear too much to grasp the first, second or third time through. It’s the polar opposite of Broken Bells. Danger Mouse gives you what you want to hear without any substance. MGMT gives you substance – oh, they give you too much to chew! Take the first song, “It’s Working”. It begins with a little riff that turns into a verse characterized by quick chord changes, spontaneous drumming, and then a pause… all within the first minute. Then a B section within the second minute, another pause… Something resembling a chorus is introduced in the third minute but then you get a complete tempo change as soon as the chorus ends! MGMT, you’re giving us a lot to digest. And “It’s Working” is a snack compared to “Siberian Breaks.”

But after listening to Congratulations many times, getting a chance to grasp some themes and melodies, dare I say, “it’s incredible.” Dare I say that the multi-part, “Siberian Breaks” is reminiscent of “Paranoid Android”, sometimes compared to “A Day in the Life”. Am I going too far? I don’t think so.

Some would fault MGMT for the density – but I’m not going to. There is a difference between over the top and dense. Over the top is like Rachmaninoff’s First Concerto – you listen and just wonder if all of it’s really necessary. Dense is like Prokofiev’s Second Concerto, you need every part of it, and on every listen you hear more and more of it and it becomes better and better. That’s MGMT’s Congratulations.

I think MGMT was dying to showcase their full potential – I think they suffered through the people friendly Oracular Spectacular so that they could bring us the more obscure Congratulations. They really poured everything they could into this album. They did not hold back – and why should they? They already proved to us that they can write hit singles like “Electric Feel”. Now they’re moving forward – they’re just hoping we can stay on their level. Hey, it took two reviews but I’m there.

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Aphera is now posting at least once a day and is not going to keep providing facebook updates so keep up!

We also started a channel on youtube check it: http://www.youtube.com/user/lwoskob

Will, of Bostontuned is at Coachella right now. On Saturday we got an update from him. Just that day he saw Portugal. the Man, Beach House, Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros, The XX, Hot Chip, and MGMT. Man, are we jealous! Check out his Coachella recommendations on the right

Not to brag, but Aphera was hanging out with Geologist and Deakin from Animal Collective at the ODDSAC screening on Saturday.

We have photos coming soon from that event compliments of Brandon Medrano. Thanks so much!

Correction: We got the spelling of Tek Subport all wrong and corrected our previous post. Since George is too busy fact checking for his other internship, Aphera suffers. Also, apparently Tek Subport plays every Friday night at the Midtown Yacht Club in Baltimore. Can’t wait to go dancing!

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It’s midnight on a Wednesday and the neighborhood club right outside my window is blasting Beyonce. What am I doing home at midnight on a Wednesday, which happens to be salsa night at El Agujon? I’ve just had a week full of papers and exams and although it’s already the weekend for me (minus the Kichwa tutorials that have a growing tendency to occur over coffee) I’m exhausted and just want to go to sleep. I suppose Beyonce is better than the group of guys who play volleyball with a soccer ball on the basketball court also right outside my window, though the endless chorus of ‘¡chucha!’ never fails to entertain. Or the marching orders that will wake me up at 7:00 AM, blasted through a loudspeaker for students of Colegio Nacional Mixto Manuel Cordova Galarza which is also, thanks to the unique geometry of Quito, right outside my window. This in mind, I settle back and hum the chorus of “If I Were a Boy.” Except for the fact that it’s not “If I Were a Boy.” This version, popular for obvious reasons here in Ecuador, is “Si yo fuera un chico.”

Ecuadorians are intensely proud of their Latino rhythms. Just about every club, as if by some national mandate, has a salsa hour – including La Casa de Cerveza and Beertropolis – and I have yet to meet a man (with the notable exceptions of my host-brother Wilson, and his friends Esteban and Pinky, all of whom I love for this very reason) who can’t shake his hips just as well as Shakira. More often than not bus drivers will blast a laundry list of traditional cumbia songs, and don’t seem to mind it when gringos are inspired to do a little dirty dancing in the aisles. Marco, La Universidad Politécnica Salesiana’s Danza Tropical instructor, flat-out refuses to choreograph to reggaeton. “Reggaeton es el Diablo,” he once insisted and gave us gringos in the class a mini-lecture on the many reasons why these rhythms are not REAL Latino rhythms. This being said, Ecuadorians also love the English-language music scene (ALL of it – from Guns and Roses to Korn) and it is a rare day when I’m not serenaded with Pitbull’s “I Know You Want Me” regardless of whether I’m on the streets of Quito or camping in the Amazon.

Spanish translations of English lyrics, including Beyonce’s “Si yo fuera un chico” and Jason Mraz’s “Suerte” get a lot of air time on Ecuadorian radio. Perhaps still not as much as Miley Cyrus’ “Party in the USA,” but more than they might otherwise. And yet, these songs bother me more than Miley ever could (which is a lot). While some might suggest that the purpose of such translation is to make the music accessible to a wider audience, or in the case of Mraz, to facilitate partnerships with other artists, I have a hard time buying this line. Translation seems less to me like cultural accommodation and more like an effort to move CDs.

I’m not sure if Beyonce and Jason Mraz even speak Spanish.

Maybe it’s the idea of them mouthing lyrics they don’t understand that just makes the songs sound so hollow.

Having taken an ethnomusicology class, I’m somewhat familiar with debates about cultural appropriation. And I’m not sure if I’d rather hear Beyonce and Jason Mraz making money off of a salsa rhythm or the Spanish language. But at least a salsa rhythm would be a nod to the rich variety of music produced in Latino America, rather than an attempt to push the exact same homogenous pop that already dominates the airwaves by dressing it up in Spanish. I’m not saying that Latino America doesn’t produce bad music. It does – and that’s why it doesn’t need any help from the US.

Perhaps my misguided notions of ‘authenticity’ (a word that anthropology has taught me to be wary of) are part of the reason I remain so dedicated to Juanes. The obsession, prompt by Señor Ramsey in my freshman year of high school, has continued at such a level of intensity that any mention of his name, even by one of the many guys for whom I happen to be head-over-heels and thus would like to impress, prompts an immediate and at this point instinctual response: “I LOVE JUANES.” It earns me plenty of eye-rolling; Juanes is the Latino-American equivalent of the Beatles and the Jonas Brothers and pretty much any big-name British or American band that has drawn a cult of young female followers from around the world. But that’s exactly what I love about him – he’s developed a fan-base that rivals any English-speaking artist even though he refuses to sing in English. In interviews, he insists that Spanish is the only language he understands inside and out, that he would feel disingenuous singing in anything else. Although he’s a straight-up pop-rocker, he’s also intensely loyal to the rhythms that Marco would classify as ‘real’ Latino rhythms and pens lyrics that address the current socio-political situation in Colombia. For this reason, even when I’m totally ‘fregada’ (more or less ‘screwed’) – running late for class, having left my house without my cell phone and only a twenty-dollar bill (which are impossible to use here as no one ever has change) – hearing “Un día normal” in an internet café immediately puts me in a good mood.

This isn’t to say that I don’t support polyglots like Manu Chao (I LOVE Manu Chao) or the idea of cross-cultural collaboration in general. It’s just to say that I support cross-cultural collaboration when it’s truly cross-cultural, that is to say that it embraces the unique and important musical contributions of whatever cultures happen to be crossing. Of course, I recognize that there are not necessarily clear lines between ‘cultures’ (my anthropology background kicking in again) but for me it’s pretty clear-cut that Beyonce and Jason Mraz creating Spanish versions of their popular English songs isn’t so much cultural ANYTHING as it is a form of musical prostitution. But if they were to translate their English songs into Kichwa, I suppose that would be another story….

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GG

Ahh Chuck Bass. Some of my favorite comments on the NY Mag blog raise the issue – does anyone in this show even go to school anymore!? – wish this was my life. That being said, there are a few gems from recent episodes and some we’ve already featured on this blog, including The XX and Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros.

Kid A ‘Trampled Youth’ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jDPtP0y8j_0

More songs worth knowing: The National ‘Gospel’, Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros ‘Janglin’, The XX ‘Crystalized’

MGMT

MGMT’s Congratulations leaked (that was quick!) and now they are streaming the entire album from their wack website. Having taken a quick listen, here’s what I think – I think they ditched a good producer for a worse one, I think they half-assed the album, and I think there are two good songs worth listening too:

Congratulations, Flash Delirium http://www.whoismgmt.com/

Portugal. The Man

This listener friendly band released yet another easy on the ears album. This is the kind of music that no matter who I play it to, they tend to love it.

‘All My People’ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PXUSGXnypI4

‘Some Men’ ‘60 Years’

Wye Oak

Wye Oak – what can I say? They represent Baltimore, use plenty of strings, and made my 2009 top ten albums list. They recently released their EP My Neighbor/My Creator. Aside from the just weird remix of ‘That I Do’, here are some excellent songs. I stand by this band

‘I Hope You Die’ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KoyUWTpkcXI

‘My Creator’

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The bald, mousy looking guy with a flannel scarf around his neck engaging in serious public displays of affection only exacerbated my disgust with The Dig. And it didn’t help that a fat, over thirty, looking woman next to me was jumping up and down in excitement to the beat. The even less redeeming quality was that the cheap, cheesy sounding band was scheduled immediately after The Antlers.

Lights at 930

I was at the 930 Club to hear The Antlers and was only disappointed that they did not play more! There were those moments when you could look up at the ceiling and almost imagine falling into the web of music they were spinning. Three guys – yes, three guys created an orchestration known as Hospice. The lead singer, and mastermind behind the music, could have made us believe that 2+2=5, his voice was so full of convincing emotion. And although his cries soared above us, he was supported by every radiohead-esque sound you can imagine – creating a sort of longing that should accompany a tragic album. The man behind these sounds was a Jonny Greenwood gone grunge. His long emo hair covered his face as he pounded on the keyboard, turned knobs, stepped on pedals, and provided gorgeous vocal harmony. I kid you not, this guy was magic.

I am now obsessed with The Antlers. I mean, I was already way back when, when I gave them the number three spot on my Top 10 list. But now I’m just in awe, and totally crushing on Peter. They began their set list with my favorite song, ‘Kettering’, almost as if they knew I was out there.

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I am tempted to write about this album simply what I’ve expressed to most people. And that is, ‘It’s Sooo Good!!!!’

I spent last evening sitting around a table with a few girlfriends drinking wine and listening to … uhh, the Real McCoy. I finally took over the music and put on Contra, advertising that, ‘this is Vampire Weekend’s album due to come out tomorrow!’ Everyone was impressed that I had acquired an album one day early and so they paid some attention. Meanwhile, and just by extreme coincidence, I overheard one girl describing some sort of ‘rice drink’ that she couldn’t remember the name of. I offered, ‘Is it called Horchata!’ I had just learned earlier that day, after having looked up the opening song of Contra, that a Horchata is a Mexican rice drink. Indeed that was what she was talking about.

So, although I don’t live in California, enjoying the middle-of-the-road weather patterns and weekdays on the beach, this was my middle of January Baltimore equivalent to California; sitting around a dinner table, drinking wine, discussing Horchata and other petty drama.

Vampire Weekend’s Contra is all about, Cali happy, care-free days. I was able to translate that sentiment into something that could exist in below freezing Baltimore temperatures. And what helped more than anything was while Vampire Weekend strummed and banged a fiesta of sonance in the background, I heard, ‘We will sit at the beach all day, even mid December. And you should too.’

Contra is a quality album, full of rhythmic nuance, cheerful falsetto, and a summer-in-the-sun sound that happens to hit us mid January. I highly recommend this album – my personal favorites are ‘White Sky’ and ‘Run’.

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