Dirty Three

I'm not sure how this one missed my best-of year-end list, but it did, and I'm sorry.

The Dirty Three are a trio from Australia that make hauntingly beautiful instrumental music based around drums, violin, and guitars. They first entered my world as the band behind Chan Marshall's voice and songs on Moon Pix, far and away my favorite Cat Power record. Dirty Three were no small part of that record's beauty, playing perfectly off Marshall's ethereal, breathy, captivating vocals, conjuring worlds for her to sing within.

They brought out a new record last year called Cinder, and it's a thing your ears will not be able to get enough of. At times dark and moody, at others buoyant and celebratory, at all times this record embodies musicians at the heights of their powers, working with material that offers them space to do their thing with no intrusions or interruptions. You just wish you could be in the room when they get together to practice.

As a bonus, Ms. Marshall appears for vocal duties on one song, called Great Waves, that is one of my favorite tracks of all last year. I dare say it could stand up to anything on Moon Pix, and wouldn't be at all out of place on that record.

Remodel

Don't do this. Leave your home as it is, keep your life your own, and maintain the solidity of your marriage. I'm serious. This is a bad idea.

We're nearing the end of a month and a half or two month remodel process on the whole upstairs of our house. We're very close--it should all be done by the end of the week--but it has not come without cost. The financial, obviously, but also the mental, the spiritual, the marital. It's been tough. Life has been hectic and rushed and cluttered and hectic, and we've both seen the ends of our ropes come frighteningly close. But we've survived.

Our house will be transformed. The results will be dazzling. We will be much happier. But, if I had it to do over again, unless some things were drastically changed, I wouldn't. I'd slap some paint on and leave it the hell alone.

Anyway, this nonsense comes by way of an excuse as to why this blog has been so lame and inactive lately. I've been gathering loads of new music, I've had some great outdoor adventures, I've sort of got a new job, and there's been plenty to write about, I just haven't had time. But, come next week, hopefully, I will. That is, if the friggin house is done.

Much too much

Busier than a one-legged man in an ass-kicking contest.

More folks fighting the odds than on payday in Jackpot, Nevada.

More shit to work through than the squeegee man at a hog farm.

Sometimes life throws so much at you that you don't even know where to begin. This time, life's taking pot-shots at friends and family, leaving me alone but fucking with damn near everyone else I know.

All you can do is all you can do. Help out, be there, keep your own shit together.

Treading water.

Meanwhile, dig this track:

http://www.myspace.com/builttospill

That's right, chirdrens, new Built to Spill is finally visible on the horizon. Keep your eyes peeled. It's gonna be a good one.

Bovaflux

Bovaflux

When There Was Nothing

This is a new one I just picked up after hearing a track on KEXP's morning show. (Incidentally, this is where I get turned on to loads of new music, so check out John in the morning on www.kexp.org. It's out of Seattle.) I've listened through a couple times and am definitely digging this. They've got it on emusic.

It's pretty lush, fairly chill electronic music along the lines of Boards of Canada. The songs feel like songs, melodies emerging from the loops and blips and moving along of their own volition, repeating phrases and evoking moods as slyly and smoothly as can be.

This is mood music. Sitting on a train, rolling through foreign countrysides, perhaps watching rain clouds gather or clear, feeling alone but alive--that's where this music takes me.

Happy New Year

We had a fantastic time out in Driggs ove rthe weekend, alpine skiing up at Grand Targhee, going nordic up Teton Canyon, and snowshoeing in and around Darby Canyon. The cabin we stayed in was out of this world--the perfect mountain getaway, and far more posh than rustic. We were blown away by the place when we got there, and we spent lots of time lounging in pajamas and slippers.

We rang in the new year watching Scarface and playing the millenium edition of Trivial Pursuit.

We're old.

So, hope y'all had as refreshing and rejuvenating a new year's as we did. Here's to a good, healthy, adventurous 2006.