Wednesday 8tracks

i'm going to put a playlist up every Wednesday that matches my mood. don't skip songs. finish it. it's only 8 tracks. you can either relate, pity, rejoice, or get fuckin' wasted. that choice is yours.

here is this week's

http://8tracks.com/thelastbk/salt-for-wounds

-beekay

You've been putting it up your whole life you just didn't know it.

I remember when the idea came. I was being driven through the darkest corners of hughes road,  jamming to gnarls barkley, and for some reason I agreed that doing an R. Kelly song on acoustic guitars would sound good. An immediate deconstruction of Mr. Kelly's summer smash, ignition remix, on acoustic instruments ensued. Before iI could say "leave it to beaver" i was playing an unsuccessful lemonade awareness gig alongside Brian Kuhar. Mr. Kuhar was the regular ham to my weird green eggs. But the once defunct dish towel has reconvened to bring an alternative take on mainstream culture, media, and politics.  Below is an interview i conducted with Brian and now you can take a glimpse into his weird brain right here at the maestro. 

Interview after the jump.

sing

one of my favorite jams off one of my favorite records in recent memory. video is incredible.!.

FOURTET _ sing _

and if that video is not mind bending enough, check out this show from mr. hebdan's recent but unfortunately rare tour of the states. listen as he subtly re-works his catalog into the deepest corners of your mind.

Live at LPR NYC 17th Feb 2010 by Four Tet

the most underestimated record of 2009...

it didn't come as a surprise to learn that the current lineup of Wilco  has seen the longest of any during the band's tumultuous, but suddenly steady career. the current lineup boasts six phenomenal musicians who are mature enough to not just proficiently play, but more importantly listen the ability to hear whom they are playing with. these dudes now how to play to a room and if you haven't ever seen 'em, do it. you won't listen to their records the same ever again.


Wilco - Country Disappeared - A Take Away Show from La Blogotheque on Vimeo.

easing into a weekend haze

Tortoise - Dear Grandma and Grandpa
Ulrich Schnauss - Knuddelmaus
Toro y Moi - Blessa
Pantha du Prince - Stick to My Side (Four Tet Remix)
Broken Social Scene - All to All
Small Black - Despicable Dogs (Washed Out Remix)
Mos Def - Auditorium (ft. Slick Rick)

very interesting

Nuclear disarmament is certainly not a topic that has garnered much attention recently (for fairly obvious reasons). However the Obama administration has been fairly steadfast in its effort to make amends with Russia in an attempt to further the administrations goal of reducing both nations nuclear arsenal. Next month the administration is going to roll out the red carpet and sign a treaty with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev in Prague. Some on the left will be certain to say that this may not be much, but it least it is a step in the right direction. However the imminent threat of democratic defeat in the next two election cycles certainly raises a major fear. The party of the right, as they are known to do, might worry that the Obama administration is taking the wrong approach by ceding a portion of their world domination at the behest of another nation. OMG OMG OMG NOT DIPLOMACY! Well I'm going to be quite frank and call the bullshit, because this is certainly not a step in the wrong direction and furthering fruitful diplomatic relations with Russia may actually yeild further positive results (wow what a concept. i for one would certainly not like to see Iran wiped off the planet because some ego maniacal loony like Sarah Palin got hold of the nuclear codes and dropped a rather large dookie on iran). This is a fairly significant step in the right direction in not only furthering positive relations with Russia but proving to other nations that the United States is willing to make amends without the use of military power (a rather rare feat with the exception of these two nations really). I only hope that if this president does not get reelected that the right does not hurt this advance by further diminishing relations with Russia.

in case you're interested : http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/mar/24/barack-obama-nuclear-disarmament-russia

world sick

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/postpartisan/2010/03/sarah_palin_does_not_speak_for.html

for what its worth...

I'm doubtful, that of the maybe 5 people i've talked to about music in the last year, any of them would be surprised by my favorite two records of the past decade. What Wilco and Radiohead achieved in the early part of the 2000's seems insignificant now, but at the time the internet was still nascent. By the time the music industry had time to catch up, it was nearly half a decade later.


I recently told someone that the Bush years had been the grimmest presidency since i was born (granted that is not a long time). The events of 9/11 brought the grim revelations of Wilco's Yankee Hotel Foxtrot to life. That raw emotion wound up ingraining itself in my memory instead of the increasingly insipid back story to the record. Pitchfork's (I hate to do it), Joshua Klein puts it best:

"The real story was the resonance of elliptical songs like "I Am Trying to Break Your Heart", "Ashes of American Flags", and "Jesus, Etc.", which often reduced crowds to hushed silence once 9/11 attached a real world frame to Tweedy's cryptic lyrics."

Radiohead changed the game by being the first band to fully utilize the internet and connect with fans in a way never seen before. Like Yankee Hotel Foxtrox, Kid A sought to navigate a technological age that for the better or worse is now how we now live. In this way, Kid A was a much more hopeful record than OK Computer, and still maintains all the emotionally affective qualities of its predecessor. Pitchfork's (i know twice now) Mark Richardson is again spot on:

"Thoughts about millennial techno-dread; fragmentation, broken transmissions, garbled communication; the feeling of helplessness that comes from having access to so much information about the world while not having the power to change any of it; the subtle and dramatic ways that electronics are altering our landscape and our consciousness. And there's still something there, though in some ways it's all now more intense. Part of our brains moved online in the last 10 years, and this will continue; it's not a good or bad thing; it's just the way it is. Refracting these developments through the prism of Kid A, it still resonates, even if so much has changed since. Radiohead were not only among the first bands to figure out how to use the Internet, but to make their music sound like it, and they kicked off this ridiculously retro decade with the rare album that didn't seem retro. Kid A-- with its gorgeously crafted electronics, sparkling production, and uneasy stance toward the technology it embraces completely-- feels like the Big Album of the online age."

a word about public education and adequate funding

"you would be much better served by a professor teaching this class then by a guy who doesn't even have his phd yet."

-this from a teaching assistant who was basically forced to teach a lecture today as a result of a huge number of faculty taking furlough days on the same day. this ta wasn't really forced but he 'manned up', as they say, to show up and provide me with the class time that i paid for. i'm lucky the professor at least acknowledged this fact and did not go as far as canceling class. (the faculty are required to take a certain amount of furlough days due to inadequate funding by our state as a result of a deep budget crisis.)

...enrage/d_

whoa...that's a tight jam

tv at its finest

thought i'd something more to say...

In virtue of being alive for the last couple of years, I'm sure you're well informed that most states are suffering serious budget crisis's. Illinois, no stranger to averse political situations, is currently one of those states. The crisis's ramifications on the funding of Illinois' public universities are beginning to gain long overdue attention. In just one absurd case, the state owes the University of Illinois somewhere near 400 million dollars. That is just one case (really, I'm not saying that just because I'm affected by that funding).

I'm not even sure where to start on this one, so i wont, but it's an awful mess. I can say with confidence that I am definitely not looking forward to the the tuition hikes come fall. If anything this is a sure sign (although not a surprising one) that we need serious reform of public education, not just in Chicago or other poor areas.

At least my only reconciliation (GOOD ONE) is that the public option is gaining momentum in the Senate again. If this state has one thing going for it, it is that both of its senators will support the the public option if it is included in the reconciliation process.

the malice of populism

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/26/opinion/26brooks.html

an interesting op-ed from conservative thinker David Brooks

I particularly liked this bit towards the end:

"The populists have an Us versus Them mentality. If they continue their random attacks on enterprise and capital, they will only increase the pervasive feeling of uncertainty, which is now the single biggest factor in holding back investment, job creation and growth. They will end up discrediting good policies (the Obama bank reforms are quite sensible) because they will persuade the country that the government is in the hands of reckless Huey Longs."

All of this seems fairly pertinent on the eve of the Texas gubernatorial primary. The third candidate on the Republican ticket is a proud member of the Tea Party. Yet Mr. Brooks appears to be right, current polls confirm the historical trend of another populist defeat.