antarctica starts here

2010-08-12T16:49:00.000-07:00

i've made the argument, in some semi-casual conversations, that every time you talk, eat, sleep, or have sex you are arguably trying to influence the future narrative of the world. it's in our glands, so to speak. we're storytellers and storylisteners and storychangers and builders of universes made up only of words that we spit out and hope they'll last long after our bones do. and i know, at least in my universe, that my best story i have left to build.

marvin gaye - if i could build my whole world around you

(via negrophonic)

2009-12-26T23:37:00.000-08:00

this thing happened where i found my friends band from college on my little sister's computer. little does little sister know that i am the sole catalyst to this one guy's success in life. except now he has neck tattoos and carries HUGE boxes of liquor home from the state liquor store on 4th. success is all relative i suppose.

oh hot mike...

the player piano - sudden left

2009-09-13T11:03:00.000-07:00

there's gonna be an earthquake...WOOOOO...if you dont straighten up boy!

this is the only song i've been listening to for the past week.

black velvet - an earthquakes coming

2009-09-08T14:21:00.000-07:00

hoon asked me about soul today and i can't say i know too much. i can say though i know this much. thanks for reminding me to post this.

sam cooke - bring it on home to me (live)

2009-08-24T10:39:00.000-07:00

this because the beginning is a ticking clock and i've reason.

akron/family - river

2009-08-17T23:30:00.000-07:00

ghostface killah - whip you with a strap

yeah yeah, i know. old news. but this is antarctica, not the cutting edge.

2009-08-05T14:41:00.000-07:00

oh deary me. i knew i'd regret it. (this isn't about you)

sonic youth - dirty boots

2009-07-25T10:49:00.000-07:00

new order - blue monday

i've heard this song maybe a zillion times but really, this song is over 7 minutes and the first two are nothing but weird sounding loop building. i never realized how crazy great this is til a lucky shuffle on a train to tokyo showed me what i'd been missing.

2009-07-15T09:37:00.000-07:00

the curtains - show me lyrics david shrigley

this song is like me nearly all the time. the future in particular. sometimes i think the future is deliberately unknowable just to get on my nerves. the future is a bit of a crap friend it turns out. but maybe i'm thinking we're better off, you know? suppose you could take a peek, would you? i don't think i would.

2009-07-06T23:14:00.000-07:00

bon iver - blood bank

i guess i'm going to this thurs. and i don't even know much at all about this fellow but someone told me once this song was based on an episode of northern exposure—an episode which i saw and i remember it was ed chigliak looking at the blood in the bank. and i remember how sad ed is. i wish there was a show about ed chigliak just.

2009-06-29T01:33:00.000-07:00

it's incredible what long ago heartbreaks can boil up after years and experience and change wraps you up like a bug in a rug. years...and i still wonder about you. that wont ever stop probably.

dan auerbach - whispered words

2009-06-23T09:42:00.000-07:00

caution: falling chainsaws

grizzly bear - fine for now

2009-06-19T14:30:00.000-07:00

well, yeah.

desperate bicycles - it's somebody's birthday today

2009-06-16T03:53:00.000-07:00

speaking of the season, i think neon indian wants to be your summer jam husband. they want to be your one and only and they'll give you a spencer pratt sized diamond to seal the deal. like the diving lady up there (hello mesa), what i've heard of neon indian so far sounds like sleep all day, shaved ice, and those uncomfy bathing suit elastic marks on your butt.

neon indian - should have taken acid with you

2009-06-11T08:36:00.000-07:00

the fiery furnaces - the end is near

seems like all you can see sometimes in the beginning is how it's gonna end. poor excuse for not starting though.

mitch, you want a apple?
no. eventually it will be a core.

2009-06-03T23:17:00.000-07:00

guided by voices - pimple zoo

2009-06-01T13:45:00.000-07:00

the replacements - bastards of young

summer's here and i feel younger than i am. that's why.

2009-05-21T14:02:00.000-07:00

teeth mountain - ghost science

hoon told me to post something.

2009-04-27T19:05:00.000-07:00

number one on my list of bands i really really want to see live right now. except maybe sonic youth for free this summer but that's so many rainy days away still.

gang gang dance - first communion

2009-04-24T15:30:00.000-07:00

nazis - mr. oizo (justice remix)

this track is a really great answer to a good what if.

this posting was not self-reflective in any way at all.

2009-04-16T05:25:00.000-07:00

another sleepless night spent thinking about tea bagging jokes and the universe being contained in an ants body.

hey i didn't realize we had a follower here on antarc. hey guy.

the nerves - hangin on the telephone

2009-04-01T15:43:00.000-07:00

oh fates. this is what i was thinking of yesterday and this song. i sent it to myself inside a registered envelope so don't even try it, you.

so what i was thinking is: you look at your hand and you zoom in closer and you see the ridges and little scars and blotchy melatonin and you zoom in even more and the cells separate and squirm and you zoom zoom and the molecules are clinging to each other like grapey bunches, but you don't stop there, oh no, you keep on zooming and the atoms are orbiting and you can see the little positrons and negatrons caroming around all nuts, and you can stop there. for now. because you're looking around at all the glinting particles and you think, okay, those are something, but there sure is a lot of nothing around here. and you could zoom in some more i guess and see even smaller somethings making nothing out of what you just said was something. so that's it. you were just looking at your hand, you know? or a tree, or a table or a spaceship or whichever. seems like once you start falling, you keep falling.

and i thought about the other day when i was saying that i didn't like that guy and here's why. not just that though, also all those other times i'm saying should a lot. but why and should are like that table. if you keep zooming and zooming, eventually it seems like there's a whole lot more nothing around than something and you've got a sinking feeling that if you keep yanking that thread, those somethings would start to look real nothingy.

but you know, i still set my drink on that table, no matter how much nothing it is.

the velvet underground - oh! sweet nuthin'

2009-03-30T21:42:00.000-07:00

this is the only song i listen to right now. and oh sweet nothing, but mostly just this.

st. vincent - the strangers

2009-03-24T22:54:00.000-07:00

it's not that i dont like him, but i'm honestly not sure why i have so much tom waits. oh well.

but hey, guess who's going over the ocean this summer?

tom waits - big in japan

2009-03-21T09:12:00.000-07:00

you had a cd player in your car and you would get a new cd and put it in there and because you were too lazy to drag out your cd case and have to pick a new cd and change it, it just got left in there for a month, and consequently that music became the soundtrack to that month and when you listen to it now, marked sense memories rush up on you and you're over-run with all the thoughts and emotions and successes and failures that occured to you during that 4 brief weeks 5 years ago.

this may be one of the last albums that was that in my poor accord way back when. fiberglass resin fumes and foam dust, sneak-parking at the wilk, that girl who turned out not worth the effort, no matter how much she looked like kristen dunst, wind and leaves and dun puddles.

it's a shame about computers sometimes.

the way - bonnie 'prince' billy

2009-03-08T23:25:00.000-07:00

i read in a book once about a guy who saw a camera crew filming on his street and he slowly came to realize that they were making the movie of his own life. a series of events recently has led me to wonder if this thing is happening to me now too. like how did you know when to pick me up if i told you the wrong time? did you know that i was having an argument with you in my head when you crossed the street right in front of my car? did you turn the hot water off in my house to add dramatic effect to the otherwise stagnating plot of my life-film?

or maybe it's all jesus? i'm beginning to think my decision to take on a moral relativist view of the world might as well be a predetermined plot twist.

shirley ann lee - there's a light

2009-03-03T13:08:00.000-08:00

kan's not nabbing this one either.

bad brains - banned in dc

2009-02-04T11:23:00.001-08:00

oh, so yeah i feel like that sometimes.

dead boys - sonic reducer

2009-01-31T10:20:00.000-08:00

i'm a bad decider and, as such, the thought of having to pick which music i even like has panicked me for the last few months. so as any good indecisive would, i avoided music blogs and pods and any other mechanism begging me to click a button, make a choice.

but now i'm totally over it and have a new-found enthusiasm for this...

ancient crux - in teen dreams

2009-01-29T08:24:00.000-08:00

what's up fatlip? - fatlip

couldn't get this track out of my head this wknd. maybe because it's the jam but also maybe because i'm all surfeited with self-doubt. probably not that. anyway not now. i just got a haircut for chrissakes. still, the best times got a fatlip clown standing back there.

2009-01-23T22:59:00.000-08:00

it got a little rainy and i thought for a moment that i can make my way through this. ben h made a bad joke about yo yo ma. i pet the dog. i updated the list. i lifted my legs up and they got thrown back down. i thought about the months ahead and realized that i can make my way through this.

even all this fog.

beat happening - jamboree

2009-01-08T10:08:00.000-08:00

we're back!

like the LOCH NESS MONSTAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH!!!!!!!!

loch ness monster - king horror

2008-12-10T09:36:00.000-08:00

sad cat

this post is purely for vanity. which i guess all blog posts everywhere are for. i drew this though and made the tune, so that's something. anyway, it's not nothing.

2008-12-08T22:31:00.000-08:00

I downloaded this the other day. Illegally.

Nigerian Police Force Band - Askio Mi Ni

2008-12-04T15:38:00.000-08:00

tengazako - esau mwamwaya + radioclit

once i wouldn't let my girlfriend listen to some malian guitar music i happened to have in my tunes because i felt it would encourage in her a latent propensity for world music fandom, which could have easily gotten out of hand. she married some other guy. i don't regret it.

probably you heard this somewhere. just listen again because it's thursday and i'm late at work on 4 hours sleep and it's nice and we saw m.i.a. do this last year i think.

2008-11-28T19:53:00.000-08:00

this is harder than i ever expected it to be.

vivian girls - i believe in nothing

2008-11-18T09:33:00.000-08:00

derrick morgan - tougher than tough

observe closely over the next few months and you will notice me getting slowly more and more rude. it's time for that, i think.

2008-11-14T09:41:00.000-08:00

low - murderer

i watched you may need a murderer the other night and i feel like you should watch it too. i think there's something important happening during it and it's very pretty. i was never that fond of low but i get it now and let's go to their show when they come again. once alan sparhawk complimented a stingray costume i made though, which was nice.

2008-11-10T20:07:00.000-08:00

look at this guy. this guy. this life of the basement halloween party guy.

(ps. i clued ck in tonight that i'm (in my mind) putting together a compilation for her of good songs that say her name. this will be on, neil diamond will not)

Dent May and his Magnificent Ukulele - Meet Me in the Garden

2008-11-03T13:05:00.000-08:00

department of eagles - no one does it like you

this track i was listening to matches my mood about november and how wonderful it will be. except i listened again to the lyrics and that sheen of desperation, which maybe matches my desperate mood about november and how wonderful it will be.

2008-10-28T00:48:00.000-07:00

insomnia must be a monday disease.

chromatics - running up that hill

2008-10-20T01:52:00.001-07:00

insomnia

radiohead - videotape

2008-10-15T12:01:00.000-07:00

we went to deerhoof last thurs and it was the best thing that's happened in months. high-five to those guys for picking up ed rodriguez because they crush as a four piece—though good for the curtains too, who was their old fourth. third time for me and maybe best. it definitely rivals their show in brooklyn i saw some years back. if they're coming to your town and you like pure joy, i recommend going there.

plus, get their new album, offend maggie, where this song is from that they opened the show with, and i thought appropriate, having come from a utjzz pre-season, and yes, the shirt is from the last album, which also i like.

deerhoof - basketball get your groove back

2008-10-13T15:37:00.000-07:00

Dear Dow,

Looks like we're back in business.

Not holding my breath,
Michelle

2008-10-10T16:54:00.000-07:00

melodious. good luck on all your dates this weekend, guys.

vivian girls - where do you run

2008-10-04T13:24:00.000-07:00

En Melody - Serge Gainsbourg

Weird sexy giggle lady. Serge Gainsbourg must be hilarious.

2008-10-02T08:24:00.000-07:00

I have one thing to say about Kate Bush...

hooray!

2008-09-29T08:44:00.000-07:00

thanks be to b. howell for pointing me at this fleet foxes cover by stockholm kid group first aid kit. features a pleasing garfunklean harmony and happens in the woods where we'll agree most great things occur.

here's the original for those without:

fleet foxes - tiger mountain peasant song

2008-09-19T13:31:00.000-07:00

i wanted to post just this video, because it's rather fantastic and i've always really liked the song. i could have done it too, with a dvd to which i have access, but i know the books are selling that dvd on their website and you should just buy it because the other videos are great too.

this performance started the best thing i saw in '06, despite being in the venue which is lousy and everybody should boycott.

anyways heritage.

2008-09-14T15:14:00.000-07:00

I dont get sad about celeb deaths generally speaking, but i did get a little sad thinking about DFW. So that's been stuck in my head today. So has this song. I dont think the two really connect, but, well, who am i to say?

Os Mutantes - Baby

2008-09-04T09:59:00.000-07:00

nothing even to say about this at all.

tom waits - lost at the bottom of the world (live)

2008-08-28T16:23:00.000-07:00

This one employs a common theme in rap music: drugs. Also, I think the artist may have overdosed. You can read more about his mysterious death here.

Demon Attack - Alien Drugs

2008-08-27T16:43:00.000-07:00

I apologize in advance for posting the low point of a man's career. I guess when you give up creative control, this is what you reap. But, it is a rap.

Brian Wilson - Smart Girls

2008-08-26T21:31:00.000-07:00

And another.

The Velvet Underground - The Murder Mystery

2008-08-25T18:10:00.000-07:00

another of my own favorite raps

this one is from the 80's

Sonic Youth - Master Dik (Beatbox Version)

2008-08-24T00:15:00.000-07:00

Did you know that this is a rap song? A short search on the net and I come to find that the definition of rap leaves a lot of room open for interpretation. So for the next little while I'll be posting, for you, my own favorite rap songs.

Modest Mouse - Dirty Fingernails

2008-08-19T12:39:00.000-07:00

angeles - elliott smith

wistful days, these. my 10 year high school reunion came and went and i didn't go. this song reminds me of then, long past. someone told me once the past is our own mythology and i think that's true. on a ride sunday night in my old hometown i passed the IFA and remembered once, about 13, riding my bmx fast back from the park. there's a tunnel housing the weigh station with tubes up above for the grain to fall and land and get weighed. coursing along, i felt i'd ride through it, a daring do. near the end, my eyes just adjusting to the dark of the tunnel, i see the chain stretched across the entrance, slack there, waiting to break my bones. eyes -> brain -> nerves -> muscles i slide back down over the seat, the rear tire buzzing my jeans, my eyes even with the handlebars... the chain barely rustles as my hair brushes under the links and i shoot out the other side like a rocket. unbroken, i never felt gladder to be alive and riding a bike than just then, my heart thumping grandly.

2008-08-10T14:13:00.000-07:00

I've seen one movie twice this week.

Modest Mouse - Tundra/Desert

2008-08-06T10:58:00.000-07:00

pavement - stop breathin

in my head

2008-08-04T17:20:00.000-07:00

Panda Bear - Untitled

Dont ask me why it took me multiple years to post this. I couldn't answer that question.

2008-07-28T09:39:00.000-07:00

darondo - didn't i

you said it, darondo.

2008-07-23T15:24:00.000-07:00

never let down - andrew w.k.

now you're thinking, no no that is ridiculous. well, you are right it is, but can you say you've never let a friend down? that you haven't written them off when they've taken a bad turn? i certainly can't. so it's ridiculous, yes, but that's the kind of friend i want to have, and saying so makes me want to be that kind of friend to mine. fend-mencing.

2008-07-18T10:21:00.000-07:00

I'm not sure what the lyrics say, but I think this song is probably about The Joker.

Can - Spoon

2008-07-09T13:41:00.000-07:00

andrew w.k. - i get wet

an example of the the hard of his rock and maybe what i first liked. this particularly on my running mix is phenomenal. as soon as i hear those synth horns, i know that it is time to
step
ma
game
up.

and a cover of i ran across by jon sebastian. here, wif wife.

jon sebastian - i get wet

2008-07-02T14:54:00.000-07:00

i'm always skeptical of hero worship. i think people use it as a crutch to get out of building their own identities. i am a fan of this musician or writer or film director, so you may take the attributes that i admire of them and please apply them to me. thank you.

that said, i'm a pretty silly fan of andrew w.k.

guy is a unabashed force of positivity and that's something i value and aspire to emulate (i'm rubbish at it). i lost track after i get wet and the wolf went by unnoticed by me. i picked up the thread again during his rash of motivational speaking dates and found his philosophical ramblings sound a lot like my philosophical ramblings, reading the same bullsh, buber, maslow, rogers, etc. since then i've padded the back-catalogue and am following close. i'm on the ship, wherever she sails.

i'll be doing a string of songs from him coming up, but i chose this one today to puzzle in with hoon's love theme and because it could be about a girl who lives in my building.

let's go on a date - andrew w.k.

2008-06-22T11:18:00.000-07:00

Romance.

Animal Collective - Tikwid

2008-06-21T08:19:00.000-07:00

saw reprise last night at the broadway for free money (thanks darlin) and it was about so many things. got nearly all of them right, including guys and how lovably awful we are. you must see this for hundreds of reasons one of is this scene:

deceptacon - le tigre

2008-06-12T11:19:00.000-07:00

hey there little insect - jonathan richman

about it and not about it

(wait for it)

2008-06-08T10:20:00.000-07:00

Here's another thing I've been thinking about.

Velvet Underground - The Gift

2008-06-05T23:30:00.000-07:00

So I've been thinking about tattoos lately. Or rather, been looking up pictures of tattoos.

That people get...

of animals...

buttholes.

Which got me to thinking about the under appreciated spouses and significant others of these people and wondering if an animal butthole tattoo has ever ended a marriage and what exactly those divorce proceedings must be like.

Mercy Dee - Eighth Wonder of the World

2008-05-27T08:28:00.000-07:00

the humpty dance - digital underground

hoon is in hawaii, but i'm pretty sure this is what she would have posted if she were here. hoon loves this track, which i guess explains why she's always eating up all my crackers and my licorice.

2008-05-13T14:24:00.000-07:00

if you asked me when i was 10 years old what the coolest thing ever was, i would have said this song. sometimes i'm real proud of 10 y.o. me.

bon jovi - blaze of glory

2008-05-06T18:59:00.000-07:00

The thing about this video is that it's weird and hilarious. Jumping jacks...

2008-05-01T15:33:00.000-07:00

at some point, you get sick of being sad and you lay back and think you're gonna just sift through the cracks between all those atoms and disappear. but you don't. you're just laying there and your body starts getting bigger, bigger, bigger, bigger and you break though the roof and sprinkle down plaster on the hobos that walk in front of your house and you get bigger and bigger and break all the trees over everywhere, and then you get bigger and bigger and bigger and you bump the moon out of the way (it goes spinning somewhere), and then bigger, and bigger, and bigger and the meteorites are shooting through your body like tiny BBs and you get bigger, bigger, bigger, bigger, bigger, brushing back all the galaxies and galaxies and galaxies forever until your body is all big and donuty like the universe is supposed to be and the suns and planets and things are glinting off you like that face glitter you can get.

titus andronicus - titus andronicus

2008-04-24T22:55:00.000-07:00

opportunity to cry - willie nelson

i guess we're all a little sadder than we thought.

2008-04-22T09:57:00.000-07:00

i may be in love with both of these people. also, this is a favorite song of my life. well, there it is i guess. surprised i didn't go sadder. i got the sads real bad.

you really got a hold on me - zooey deschanel + m. ward

2008-04-14T19:29:00.000-07:00

I saw American Hardcore some time ago with a few unlikely punk fans and remember walking away from the show a little sad that I hadn't heard Bad Brains til right then. I never really did much to cure all that sad until my beekeeper reminded me of them recently. Oddly enough, here's the first thing I found while acquainting myself with them. Here's to versatility...

Bad Brains - Jah Love

2008-04-10T10:02:00.000-07:00

i like this song. i really do, but i'm posting it here because i can't stop thinking about this scene from the movie. i feel like crying about it, wet-faced and red.

jim james & calexico - goin to acapulco

2008-04-02T08:51:00.000-07:00

resolve.

l'arena - ennio morricone

2008-03-20T11:07:00.001-07:00

dear prudence - the beatles

the girl gave my this on a thing and now it's a ghost up where the things i think are thunk.

2008-03-11T13:39:00.001-07:00

first, as it was written and performed by tw on frank's wild years.

second, as it was used in the second season.

this was first season.

the blind boys of alabama - way down in the hole

2008-03-10T21:15:00.000-07:00

Tom Waits - Way Down In The Hole

Hey Rex, which came first this one or the one on that tv show you like (liked?) so much?

2008-03-06T11:49:00.001-08:00

promised

fender stratocaster - jonathan richman

our swinging pad - jonathan richman

2008-02-28T19:19:00.000-08:00

I really hope you don't hate this.

The B-52's - Dance This Mess Around

2008-02-25T14:22:00.000-08:00

i jus' got my tickets to jonathan richman next month. if i could, i'd post 16 songs here, but i can't. here's two that i like. maybe next post is jonathan richman too. hmm... likely.

jonathan richman - my jeans

always impressed with his observational song topics. and the song itself is rather grand.

and to balance, a cover

jonathan richman - satisfied mind

2008-02-14T15:09:00.000-08:00

I'm going to say that Rubber Soul is my favorite Beatles album. That's subject to change, mind you, but it's how I feel today. As I listened to it this morning I realized how apt to the day the album is. At whatever phase your relationship (or lack thereof) may be, you can find a song that pinpoints the hysteria you're feeling.

Happy Day babies.

2008-02-06T13:18:00.000-08:00

little brother (electric) - grizzly bear

many thanks, 1.618. crosswinds.

2008-02-02T11:25:00.000-08:00

'08 is starting out on the right foot with a new Destroyer release. Fairly new to me though, is some recently discovered lo-fi bits from his younger destroyer days.

Destroyer versus McCarthyism

2008-01-27T09:03:00.000-08:00

couldn't resist another track from the dirty projectors latest. the titular:

rise above - the dirty projectors

much to swoonover (sic)

2008-01-21T08:06:00.000-08:00

oh, i'm a goner.

neutral milk hotel - in the aeroplane over the sea

2008-01-14T21:13:00.000-08:00

A few times as I've listened to this I've thought about getting into the grove, boy, you gotta prove, your love to me. Thing is, everyone finds music stimulating for their own reasons I'd be damned not to call the blogauthors of this space suckers for nostalgia. This song touches the part of me that wishes for a life I never actually lived. Waking up to full artistic consciousness at a time when perms and exercising to vhs tapes were wholly unironic.

Glass Candy - Beatific

2008-01-09T06:39:00.000-08:00

フジヤマアタック - guitar wolf

likely i'll be posting songs from my running mix for the next few months. this track here will sure get your stems shaking.

2008-01-01T20:03:00.000-08:00

Rex and I had a conversation about change earlier this night. Cliche as it might be to do so, the onset of a new year really is a great time to take inventory with yourself. I'm prone to day dreaming, and so, I find myself usually wondering what great or terrible thing will happen in the new year to turn my life on its side and spill everything out, leaving me to once again re-tool and re-tile what I thought I'd already locked up. With as much ass as my life may kick right now, I can't (shouldn't) allow myself to lose the sometimes biting realities that led me to recognize and appreciate the very comfortable spot I'm in today. And to hope for a few more of them.

A hopeful song. Happy 08.

The Beach Boys - That's Not Me

2007-12-24T15:06:00.000-08:00

in church - m83

2007-12-16T22:47:00.000-08:00

Have you guys ever heard of the Holy Ghost? That's who picked the song for this post. I'm not kidding. I wish I could explain to you what just happened to me and to the post I spent the last like 14 hours plotting, then pretty much tossed out with my wilted, rotty flowers. Deeper forces are at work here guys. Call me if you want to hear the story. I am (admittedly) being melodramatic, but still, it's weird.

Gang of Four - Cheeseburger

2007-12-07T12:10:00.000-08:00

my french lessons have been woefully infrequent of late. this song and françoise perched on that 500-4 serve evidence of my neglect. please forgive.

le crabe - françoise hardy

2007-12-02T21:49:00.000-08:00

Dude, OJ.

Orange Juice - Rip It Up

2007-11-26T22:58:00.001-08:00

daft punk - robot rock_oh yeah

at 2:28, vanity drops like rock sacks and everybody shoots rocket fuel out their feet. scales fly out from underlids and gathering blurs bright becoming; repentance, salvation, flaming tongues of grace. oh, how great a debtor i am constrained to be.

2007-11-23T23:20:00.000-08:00

Lynn Williams - Don't Be Surprised

Woot woot for true love. And for the accompanying slow divorce from reality that seems, inevitably, to follow.

2007-11-20T20:18:00.000-08:00

A Number of Names - Shari Vari

The greatest thing to happen in the year 1981 was me. The second greatest thing to happen in 1981 is this song by Detroit (that's right, Detroit) underground party heroes, A Number of Names. I might have that order mixed up, but I don't think I do.