Ducktails - Ducktails III: Arcade Dynamics

Listening to Arcade Dynamics is like watching the 2009 remake of Friday the 13th; you'll come out of it thinking, “Well, that was definitely a Ducktails album.”


Matthew Mondanilee, the man behind Ducktails, has no tricks up his sleeve. Using the same guitars, pedals, and drum machine that made up the first two albums, he made another album that sounds like sitting on the front porch, and song titles like Hamilton Road, Sunset Liner, Little Window, etc. go a long way toward reinforcing that sound. The difference is that this time around, the thought of finding something to do has occurred to him. This hint of direction surfaces in the higher fidelity production of this album, as well as the 300% increase in the use of singing.

Do you want to go outside?
Outside's just for peace of mind
Do you want to stay indoors?
Come on man, I'll just be bored.

But, that doesn't mean he has developed any real intentions, remaining delightfully indifferent. It is like being content with spending the whole night at home playing Super Nintendo with your friend, talking about finding something to go do.

There is nothing at stake here, which is why Arcade Dynamics, like Ducktails and Landscapes, will never impress or let anyone down. Ducktails falls outside of expectation, finding relaxation in the pressure-less joy of boredom, and that contentedness is what leads Arcade Dynamics like a tour guide for a staycation.

End of 2010 Music List

I didn't think I was going to end up doing one of these end of the year lists for 2010 because I simply didn't listen to enough new music in the past year to justify believing that my opinion on the year's music matters, but then I decided that maybe the fact that I was actively avoiding new music this year means the music I did enjoy in 2010 must stand out in some way.

SO, here is my list which is short, in no particular order, and by no means meant to be comprehensive for the entire year of 2010:

Netherfriends - Barry and Sherry


I have never not been impressed with a Netherfriends release. The man behind this band, Shawn Rosenblatt, recently decided to throw in the towel in the working world and try out being a full-time musician the good ol' fashioned way -- through relentless touring, a no-choice-in-the-matter DIY attitude, and any excuse he can find to remain productive, and it all shows on this album.

The self-recorded production is of a higher quality than ever before and the content is larger (though still filled to the brim with shit-talk), but manages to communicate itself as simply as a grade-school student stretching himself as thin as he can in order to raise his hand higher than everyone else in the classroom, in hopes that someone will eventually call on him.

Baths - Cerulean


While every other chillwave band this year was spending their time digging through old records looking for drum machine beats not too overlayed with everything that sucked about the 80's to keep them from sampling it, this kid was taking advantage of the same laptop-makes-it-easy technique as everyone else, only he was creating something a little too heavy to just sit and bob your head to, something more like all of those early hip-hop producers intended when they invented the art of sampling as we know it today.

Baby Birds Don't Drink Milk - Skeletor & Me


Baby Birds Don't Drink Milk are one of the best bands you don't remember you heard at that one house show where you saw them open up for so-and-so but you couldn't remember their name or you didn't understand what they said when they said their band name through their effect-pedaled microphone... and I think they prefer it that way.

On Skeletor & Me, BBDDM dwells somewhere just outside of those late 90's emo instrumentals, always considering a complete collapse into an absolute mess of sound, leaving us wondering if that was the guitar, the keyboard, or the sampler making all of that noise. Yet, despite all of the confusion caused by the quick construction and deconstruction of sound layers, there is still something recognizable that hides deep enough to keep you from putting a finger on what it is exactly this band reminds you of.

Panda Bear - The Singles


Panda Bear is often given credit for inventing chillwave, an honor which he rejected via a stream of 7" singles completely unlike everything everyone loved about Person Pitch.

Candy Claws - Hidden Lands


What a perfect album title. This band seems entirely uninfluenced, instead deciding to explore locations where others only dream of as they stare, overwhelmed, at the synthesizer wall at Guitar Center trying to decide which one will be the easiest to figure out.

Hidden Lands manages to make recorded music sound like jungle acoustics so natural and beautiful that people would even close their eyes to a utopian landscape in order to completely focus on what they are hearing.

Deerhunter - Halcyon Digest


Deerhunter finally made an album that sounds as completely good as the high points in previous albums always suggested they could be. They finally seemed to complete their sound. This album does nostalgia and throwback as well as anyone else without dwelling too long in the past.

Ocean Age - Forest EP


I got really lucky with this one, stumbling upon this band at a show I went to within the first few weeks of moving to Portland. This band is a perfect example of why I wish more music students listened to Animal Collective.

Maid Marian Songs

I just recently got on board with uploading music to Mediafire, so here is a couple of Maid Marian tunes for download:


Maid Marian/Skyscraper (or Tall Too) Split


Maid Marian - Two Songs Recorded in a Cool Dinosaur Tunnel in Colorado

56

America: Check

December 15, 2010

Today, I finished conquering the United States of America. As of 3:00 PM this afternoon, combining separate trips, I have driven across this entire country.

The Pacific Ocean via the Oregon coast rates pretty high.






This was probably the capstone on my "Things I Am Proud of: 2010" list, which I will probably post sometime a bit closer to the end of the year.

Newsletter

Black Friday: Dawn of the Dead as Non-Fiction

Another violent Black Friday has left consumers injured and embarassed.

The Oregonian, our daily newspaper, was 4.5 pounds on Thursday. It was filled with that many ads for Friday's sales. It seemed ridiculous and laughable the night before; sad and tragic the night after when reports were written about the going-ons of the holiday:

"Everybody was cutting in line. But there was one girl who was threatening me, so I told her that I'd shoot her," Lattimore told CNN. "I'm not a violent person, but police charged me with disorderly conduct."

Several eager shoppers were trampled Friday morning as they surged through Target store doors in North Buffalo, New York.

CNN affiliate WIVB had a camera inside the Target and captured the drama. People at the front of the line were pushed to the floor when doors opened. The commotion and screams drew additional store staff to sort the crowd out.

"It went from controlled to a mob in less than five minutes," shopper Rich Mathewson told WIVB. "And then it just got nasty."

That last line is almost an exact quote from a Walking Dead comic. Not to mention the fact that this whole concept of mobs of people killing each other to fulfill those consumer desires was foretold as early as 1978 in Dawn of the Dead.


I know most zombie literature is drenched in social commentary, but typically social commentary is meant to draw our attention to our shortcomings in various areas of humanity, not to set the model for how to further those shortcomings.



Watch the video. It isn't so different from some of the scenes from those famous mall-set zombie films, books, and video games.

The term "Black Friday" was created in 1966. It used to refer to the profit made by retailers, like "in the black" as opposed to "in the red". I'm not so sure that old definition still speaks true in the face of the numerous injuries and deaths that occur on this day every year.