tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9867328Thu, 16 Feb 2012 13:30:08 +0000The title says it all.http://diaryofmusicalthoughts.blogspot.com/noreply@blogger.com (Barry)Blogger784125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9867328.post-4385403079288212354Wed, 15 Feb 2012 15:39:00 +00002012-02-15T10:40:30.829-05:00Last year, I wrote a post about new albums by PJ Harvey and Mogwai, two fairly well known acts who happened to release their best new music in years.  This pairing is a little different. Both acts vanished without a trace for a number of years, only to make fairly recent and unheralded comebacks.  So unheralded, in fact, that even I had no idea they'd released new albums until a few weeks ago. http://diaryofmusicalthoughts.blogspot.com/2012/02/two-new-releases-legends-edition-ii.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Barry)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9867328.post-8995591211583232284Sun, 12 Feb 2012 16:57:00 +00002012-02-12T11:57:43.057-05:00This one really shocked me.  She had had a number of well-publicized personal problems over the years, although more recently she had claimed to clean up her act. Or maybe once her star had fallen, her problems never went away, they just became less publicized.  No news is not necessarily good news.  The shock I felt over Michael Jackson's death was dampened considerably because I'd become so http://diaryofmusicalthoughts.blogspot.com/2012/02/whitney-houston-rip.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Barry)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9867328.post-6571580646494939841Mon, 06 Feb 2012 16:13:00 +00002012-02-06T11:15:05.674-05:00I don't remember hearing "America the Beautiful" sung at the Superbowl before, is this a new tradition?  Is the NFL taking cues from the WWE again?  During the introductions they also played "Written in the Stars" by Tinie Tempah Ft. Eric Turner, which was the theme song for Wrestlemania last year (I'm not sure if it was played in the stadium or just for the TV broadcast, but I think I heard it http://diaryofmusicalthoughts.blogspot.com/2012/02/madonna-and-friends-at-superbowl.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Barry)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9867328.post-9121168427631159406Sat, 21 Jan 2012 14:50:00 +00002012-01-21T10:04:58.791-05:00My first thought when I clicked on the main results page was that somebody had hacked into the Village Voice's website and put their friend's band at #1. It took about ten seconds for me to realize that the whole thing wasn't some elaborate joke. Who the hell are tUnE-yArDs? Obviously I hadn't paid close enough attention when they (or rather, she) had turned up on other year-end lists (which Ihttp://diaryofmusicalthoughts.blogspot.com/2012/01/pazz-and-jop-2011-results.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Barry)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9867328.post-139092131811312258Sat, 14 Jan 2012 12:24:00 +00002012-01-14T07:26:54.386-05:00It may have started when I wrote about M83 and Spiritualized in my Top Albums of 2011. I can't remember exactly what sparked it, but I've been listening obsessively to Spiritualized all week -- live recordings, mainly. I revisited those spine-tingling Acoustic Mainline shows from '06-'07 (and a pristine quality audio and sound recording from a special acoustic performance from a festival in http://diaryofmusicalthoughts.blogspot.com/2012/01/clearing-critical-bar.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Barry)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9867328.post-9038919504904744704Fri, 13 Jan 2012 14:42:00 +00002012-01-13T09:45:01.794-05:00I've been making year-end mixes for the past few years, but this is the first time I've posted any of them anywhere. And now that Mixcloud has gotten rid of the 100 MB size limit, I'm going to be using them as my platform for posting mixes in the near future. I like these year-end mixes to have a decent flow to them, which I have to map out the track selection and ordering fairly precisely, http://diaryofmusicalthoughts.blogspot.com/2012/01/diary-of-musical-thoughts-podcast.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Barry)1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9867328.post-4491624335063177124Wed, 04 Jan 2012 23:04:00 +00002012-01-04T18:04:47.415-05:00Pollstar published the year end top 25 tours for North America and worldwide. Bands are always ranked in order of total gross ticket sales, but wouldn't it make more sense to rank them in terms of total number of tickets sold? Total gross is largely reflective of how much ticket prices are, and if Celine Dion wants to gouge her fans by charging an average of $166 per ticket then that's more http://diaryofmusicalthoughts.blogspot.com/2012/01/biggest-tours-of-2011.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Barry)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9867328.post-5806423342544205657Fri, 30 Dec 2011 20:28:00 +00002011-12-30T15:29:07.255-05:00My "tracks" ballot was a near-last minute composition, and in fact the main reason I submitted one at all is because I'm rather ideologically opposed to being one of those kinds of writers who only submits an albums ballot. I love how chart pop trends are moving away from R&B and toward club/rave music, and yet there weren't many hit pop singles that I found truly memorable this year. IOW, I http://diaryofmusicalthoughts.blogspot.com/2011/12/pazz-and-jop-2011.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Barry)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9867328.post-9103328340562284366Wed, 28 Dec 2011 23:49:00 +00002011-12-28T18:49:19.133-05:00This year I kept up with mixes and podcasts mainly by following the same mix/podcast series and news sites that I'd followed in past years. The volume of quality mixes out there continues to boggle the mind, but I have to say that I regret not investing the time to discover podcasts from a wider variety of ssources.The Electric Deluxe podcast is still the best when it comes to consistency, http://diaryofmusicalthoughts.blogspot.com/2011/12/top-ten-mixespodcasts-of-2011.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Barry)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9867328.post-2710016758215247465Sat, 24 Dec 2011 17:20:00 +00002011-12-24T12:21:55.369-05:00This just missed my top ten this year, actually, it would have been my #11 album of the year. There were four albums but only three spots (#8, 9, 10) and it was the odd one out after a fairly agonizing elimination process. I didn't hear this album until the start of December, which makes no sense because Low have been one of the most reliable bands for me over the past ten years. I'm on their http://diaryofmusicalthoughts.blogspot.com/2011/12/low-cmon.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Barry)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9867328.post-6521517395386275433Sun, 18 Dec 2011 23:46:00 +00002011-12-18T19:08:17.302-05:00And here we are again. For the past few years, I've been saying that when it comes to hearing new music, my habits have been getting more and more random. I'm so out of sync with music news cycles that I sometimes find myself discovering that someone's highly anticipated new release was released months earlier. Case in point, I had a leaked copy of my #1 album but didn't listen to it for abouthttp://diaryofmusicalthoughts.blogspot.com/2011/12/top-10-albums-of-2011.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Barry)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9867328.post-7931346620129473617Fri, 09 Dec 2011 08:00:00 +00002011-12-30T15:17:28.148-05:00This album is supposed to be the absolute pits of Tony Bennett's career. His popularity had plummeted by the end of the 60's and someone (coughCliveDaviscough) thought he needed to sing contemporary material in order to revive his career. As the story goes, the results were the horrifically bad stuff of legend. Bennett hated making the album so much that he became physically ill while http://diaryofmusicalthoughts.blogspot.com/2011/12/tony-bennett-sings-hits-of-today.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Barry)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9867328.post-6453435609354967807Fri, 02 Dec 2011 17:49:00 +00002011-12-04T18:44:11.946-05:00These two artists are more similar than you think. They emerged as outsiders in their respective, widely hyped local underground scenes in the late 90's. They've been very active since, despite not having a large discography to show for it, largely thanks to a steady stream of live performances, remixes and collaborations. And both artists have been wizards when it comes to criss-crossing http://diaryofmusicalthoughts.blogspot.com/2011/12/sandro-perri-impossible-spaces.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Barry)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9867328.post-2832026447619066204Mon, 28 Nov 2011 15:31:00 +00002011-11-28T10:31:38.209-05:00I wish I could say that I spent most of my time digging through the culture of the city, but the reality is that work occupied all but a small fraction of the two weeks I was there. And yet there's always something to take note of, however small, because music is everywhere ...My morning alarm was set to a soft rock radio station, it just happened to be the first non-talk station that turned up http://diaryofmusicalthoughts.blogspot.com/2011/11/music-in-bordeaux.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Barry)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9867328.post-8365721283364022610Mon, 21 Nov 2011 20:44:00 +00002011-11-21T15:46:44.556-05:00"Sat aft mix" - 98 minutesIn the absence of new writing from me (too much traveling lately), here is a mix that I've been sitting on for the past couple of months.I originally titled it "the lazy saturday afternoon mix", full of downtempo stuff for wasting away the afternoon on a warm summer day. Except that I never got around to posting it. The seasons have changed, but it probably works even http://diaryofmusicalthoughts.blogspot.com/2011/10/diary-of-musical-thoughts-podcast.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Barry)1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9867328.post-6092146702853512259Mon, 07 Nov 2011 08:07:00 +00002011-11-07T03:08:22.899-05:00How long has it been since I've done a running diary of a major music awards show? Red carpet talk is centred around which artists will dominate the awards. Lady Gaga, Justin Bieber, Bruno Mars, Katy Perry, and Coldplay are all namedropped, which means I'm still reasonably up to date on who's who. Then I watched an interview with 30 Seconds to Mars and kept thinking "hmm the lead singer looks http://diaryofmusicalthoughts.blogspot.com/2011/11/mtv-european-music-awards-2011-diary.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Barry)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9867328.post-102559437822520596Fri, 04 Nov 2011 19:55:00 +00002011-11-04T15:55:32.895-04:00This story about the major labels plan to abandon the CD by the end of 2012 made the rounds this week, prompting some good discussion about whether the story is true or not (it's not) and what the eventual death of the CD means in the musical big picture. I don't think anybody doubts that the CD is on its last legs, but when the axe finally falls, it'll be major news and not something quietly http://diaryofmusicalthoughts.blogspot.com/2011/11/death-of-cd-shops-death-of-cd.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Barry)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9867328.post-4506101984475161250Mon, 31 Oct 2011 23:42:00 +00002011-10-31T19:42:44.374-04:00More often than not, shoegaze bands seem to emerge fully formed, at least compared to bands in other genres. For every rock band that releases an iconic, generation-defining debut (e.g. Sex Pistols, Strokes, Smiths), there are a million other bands who need a few albums to find their proper footing. But shoegaze bands have a knack for appearing perfectly crystallized right out of the gate. In http://diaryofmusicalthoughts.blogspot.com/2011/10/i-break-horses-hearts-raveonettes-raven.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Barry)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9867328.post-3041523135315950102Fri, 28 Oct 2011 13:37:00 +00002011-10-28T09:40:37.383-04:00M83's newest effort sounds even more like an album recorded and released in the 80's than "Saturdays = Youth" did, and I bet you didn't think that was possible. Any hint of an experimental bent to the album has been swept away by the even more audaciously gated drums, layers of vocals drenched in echo, and cheap, cheerful sounding synths. Where are the noisy tracks that recall the band's twee/http://diaryofmusicalthoughts.blogspot.com/2011/10/m83-hurry-up-were-dreaming.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Barry)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9867328.post-2274552749844441619Wed, 19 Oct 2011 00:07:00 +00002012-01-16T06:13:44.537-05:00I've been a black metal fan for about fifteen years. The previous sentence is technically the truth, but it isn't particularly accurate. One might be inclined to assume, based on the claims of a person who claims to have been a fan of a type of music for fifteen years, that he regularly buys albums, goes to concerts, reads interviews and album reviews, and is halfway knowledgeable about said http://diaryofmusicalthoughts.blogspot.com/2011/10/in-case-you-needed-reminding-this-is.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Barry)2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9867328.post-7974571285137304865Thu, 06 Oct 2011 20:16:00 +00002011-10-06T16:17:19.752-04:00This was my first time back at the Phoenix in over five years. Never has a place felt so completely familiar and yet also so oddly foreign. It seems like I know every inch of the place, having stared at these pastel coloured four walls dozens of times over a fifteen year period. But I'm also an outsider now, it no longer feels like *my* place, it feels like *their* place. A venue "belongs" tohttp://diaryofmusicalthoughts.blogspot.com/2011/10/ladytron-with-sonoio-and-vhs-or-beta.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Barry)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9867328.post-5307270217583404800Fri, 30 Sep 2011 22:07:00 +00002011-10-01T04:26:17.645-04:00"The Vainqueur:Elevations mix" (30 minutes)What's better than baking to the hyper-minimal sloshing of Vainqueur in the summertime? For me, there's almost no better summer jam than Vainqueur's classic 1997 album, "Elevations". If the sun doesn't dehydrate you to the point of deliriousness first, then this stuff will. The mix came together quickly, I was listening to the album, figured why not http://diaryofmusicalthoughts.blogspot.com/2011/09/diary-of-musical-thoughts-podcast_30.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Barry)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9867328.post-6527249041687796859Thu, 15 Sep 2011 22:51:00 +00002011-09-15T18:52:10.973-04:00"Wins and WAR and Ambience" (56 minutes/86 minutes)I set out to make an ambient mix, and usually that means some quiet bits and a whole load of ear-splitting noise, because that's what passes for chillout music around my house. But this time I really meant it ... nothing but blissful, daydreaming music. That doesn't mean it's quiet like the tune of birds chirping all the time, but I stayed away http://diaryofmusicalthoughts.blogspot.com/2011/09/diary-of-musical-thoughts-podcast.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Barry)1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9867328.post-5219350627222098369Sun, 11 Sep 2011 22:30:00 +00002011-09-12T09:53:11.866-04:001991 was undoubtedly a transformative year in music, as the "alternative went mainstream" and swept away the music (and the bands) of the 1980's seemingly overnight. A hugely disproportionate amount of my favourite music of the 90's was made in that year, thanks to a number of bands making their wildly creative, genre-defining masterpiece albums -- Nirvana for sure, but the three that stand out http://diaryofmusicalthoughts.blogspot.com/2011/09/10-albums-that-turned-20-in-2011.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Barry)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9867328.post-7418542202990094168Fri, 09 Sep 2011 12:18:00 +00002011-09-11T05:53:44.567-04:00This is my second time seeing Bela Tar this year (the first time was at this show) and it's more of the same but a little bit better, because her music is far better suited for a cramped underground room than an elevated stage in a spacious club.Laetitia Sadier is at the point in her career when she's stored up so musical capital from her days in Stereolab that can do absolutely anything she http://diaryofmusicalthoughts.blogspot.com/2011/09/laetitia-sadier-bela-tar-levontin-7.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Barry)0