Best Animated Short Film

Bringing a film like this to a larger audience makes all the Oscar crapola worthwhile. This is amazing.

Goodreads

Goodreads might be better than Library Thing. Once you start rating books and browsing the stacks it's hard to stop.

Aaaaaahhhhhhh...

Great trip. Nice to be back. Finally feels like winter.

Mount Moriah

Sometimes you hear a song and you can't get it out of your head. So you listen to it over and over. And it just gets better. Usually, it's the simple songs that do it. A great if familiar melody, an interesting twist on a sound or phrase, something that appeals to the history of sounds in your brain but also offers something new.

This song, Lament, from Mount Moriah, is that song right now, from their fantastic debut album. They opened for Ume and Cursive at the Lux earlier this week, and I missed them. Didn't know anything about them. And to say the least, I'm sorry I missed this show.

(Thanks to Heather, though, for being nice enough to record a promo for KRBX and to give us the new record for our library.)

Nels and His Gear

This is totally geekalicious and worth every minute.

Shark, Jumped?

Might have been the Superbowl Finger Incident. More than likely it happened long before that. But it seems that MIA has finally become a caricature of herself.

I suppose I should listen to Bad Girls before I judge. But after Maya, and after everything since, I just don't wanna.

Yo La Tengo: Music for Films

I like to think I keep up with music.

That's a ridiculous statement and an impossible, foolhardy goal today. But still, from my pinhole view into the music's larger world, I feel like I tread water, at least. Especially with the bands within that tiny cross-section that I really care about.

So how does this happen? How does Yo La Tengo, one of my favoritest bands in the world, put two collections of amazingly gorgeous instrumental film soundtrack music out in the previous decade without my owning them or even knowing they exist?

The Sounds of the Sounds of Science came out in 2002, written to be played along with an installation of 8 short underwater ocean-going films by French filmmaker Jean Painleve. I don't even need to say anything more there, right? Yo La Tengo, instrumental music for underwater films? Their moody drony long-form wanderings have usually been my favorite parts of their albums.

Then there's They Shoot, We Score, a collection of music composed for 4 assorted short films and released in 2008. It's less of a piece than Sounds of Science, but that would be expected. But it's still gorgeous, moody, flowing YLT at their most comfy sounding. Definitely one for the stacks.

My point: When you think you know something, when you think you're current and have a grip and are really paying attention, you could very well be missing the best stuff for your focus on the big stuff.

Stuck a Pin In Your Backbone...

Eric Bachmann of Archers Of Loaf discusses and performs "Web In Front"

Eric Bachmann on Web in Front. Not a good song my butt.