D E S I G N /// ck

...for Mom.

The following album is at the No. 1 spot on 90% of the top album lists around the internet. They didn't make it on my list 'cause I haven't started getting into them until very lately. I didn't like their big single "White Winter Hymnal" so it surprised me when I finally listened to the whole album that most of the songs were better. I think the following songs would have been better choices to promote the album. But who's asking me anyways? So here, Mom, is most of what you need to know about current music:


Fleet Foxes- Fleet Foxes

[just click on the play button to listen]


Tiger Mountain Peasant Song [mp3]


Blue Ridge Mountains [mp3]

Conclusion of Lesson: Fleet Foxes are the Bomb.com. and I think you'll like their folk sound. Class dismissed.

So as we close 2008, the sound of millions of keyboards can be heard tapping away as everyone and their mom is blogging about what they think are the top albums of 2008. So why shouldn't I do one too? I think I will:

[Bon Iver- For Emma, Forever Ago] I know that this is from 2007, but we all know in our hearts that For Emma, Forever Ago is an album that helped define 2008. Also, Bon Iver was the best show I saw all year, so I'm putting it here.



[Delta Spirit- Ode to Sunshine] Delta Spirit is a newer one to me, but I'm a firm believer that you can never have enough happy beach music in your life.



[Of Montreal- Skeletal Lamping] I love these guys. Skeletal Lamping is more experimental than Hissing Fauna, and the complete lack of song structure was a bit off putting. But the pure gold nuggets of mini songs hidden in the tracks keep you coming back.



[Beck- Modern Guilt] I'm a child of the 90s, so Beck insured with Odelay that I would buy every album of his for the rest of my life. Modern Guilt isn't his best, but it gets better with every listen.



[Vampire Weekend- Vampire Weekend] I'm surprised how much of a guilty pleasure this is on the end of the year album lists. Everybody is a little ashamed to like them, but Vampire Weekend is too good to ignore. I got through some tough days this year building the house with Oxford Comma keeping me upbeat.

See some other good lists here.

Some of the summer continents are gearing up for a fight.

I find this fascinating:



The Arctic is once again the contested Frontier.

here it is:

Sorry Will, it says "US only" so yer Korean IP address may block the video. Just another reason to get back stateside as soon as possible!

Reaction: Pretty good. Not Great. I built it up a lot in my mind, so maybe I set myself up for disappointment. They pick up where Season One left off: Maury is managing Crazy Doggz and the Conchords fire him because he isn't paying any attention to them. Is this the start of a new story arc? Not really. By the end, everything is status quo ante and we're back to the old formula, which is what we really want anyways. The banter and story are right on. The scene when they conduct their own band meeting (and keep the role call) and go over their "merchandise" is priceless. What seems like a glaring hole here is the lack of a great new song- there's nothing like "Beautiful Girl" that got Season One started. Which may mean exactly what Bret and Jermaine have said: Season One used up most of their stand-up songs, so now they have to write on the fly for the show. Let's hope they're just getting warmed up. They've said that Season Two is it for the series, so if this is all we're going to get, let's hope they've got some killer new songs up their sleeves.

Time to descend into dark winter, and listen to music that reflects it.


Bon Iver - Hazelton [mp3]


Bon Iver - Beach Baby [mp3]

See Also: Sufjan Stevens, Nick Drake, Boards of Canada

The flower one is genius.

[A preview of the first episode will be in Funny or Die on Dec. 17]

This is from one of my favorite shows. As we all know, nothing is as funny as puking.

hammer dulcimer + Of Montreal = killer song intro = stuck in my head



mp3 link

Skeletal Lamping is a weird and awesome album.

For Colleen:



Apparently talented animators hook up with talented musicians for awesome videos. Take note Colleen and C-Dub.

Things in the Gulf of Aden have gotten pretty ridiculous. Piracy in the 21st century? Sounds like the early nineteenth. The warships there are having a hard time keeping up, so I say let's try something else:

Q ships. During WW2 they took merchant ships and armed them with concealed weapons to lure in U-boats. The idea was to make them think the target was harmless, then blow them out of the water when they got close. An old tanker with some concealed rocket launchers, Phalanx guns and a few platoons of Marines would do the trick.