Tops of My Pops for 7/29/07

A weekly look at what I'm listening to, from my Last.fm user stats:

Top Artists for the week ending July 29, 2007
1. LCD Soundsystem
2. Yppah
3. Primal Scream
4. Ulrich Schnauss
5. Spoon
6. The Kleptones
6. Tim Hecker
8. David Bowie
9. Radiohead
9. Amon Tobin
9. Meat Beat Manifesto
9. Josh Rouse
9. Beck
9. Gang of Four
9. Fila Brazillia

LCD Soundsystem's Sound Of Silver gets better every time I hear it...and that's become quite often. When I first heard "Daft Punk Is Playing At My House" I thought it was pretty irritating. But that's back when I thought these guys were serious. Flash forward a few years to their brilliant second album and I totally get what James Murphy is doing and totally love it. If you're still trying to figure out WTF his deal is, check out two tracks: "Losing My Edge" and "North American Scum". That should basically give you everything you need to know to totally bond with him.

I stumbled onto Yppah thanks to the always enjoyable and informative Scissorkick. It's hard to go wrong with a Ninja Tune signing, but I think this guy is gonna turn out to be somebody special in the electronic(a) music scene. He's been a rock-n-roll guitarist and bassist, as well as a scratching hip hop and house DJ, and took all that musical experience and put it in a blender that spat out You Are Beautiful At All Times. And he's from Texas. Represent!

I have a feeling both of these albums could make it onto my year-end Top Ten....

See also:
The 'Tops of My Pops' archives

Tops of My Pops for 7/22/07

A weekly look at what I'm listening to, from my Last.fm user stats:

Top Artists for the week ending July 22, 2007
1. The Church
2. Spoon
3. Röyksopp
4. Maps
4. Lee "Scratch" Perry
6. The Upsetters
7. The Sea and Cake
7. Beck
9. The Field
10. k-os
10. Ulrich Schnauss

"The Soundtrack To Summer". That's what I'm calling this week's chart. How can you think of any of these artists without involuntarily imagining sunny days and warm weather? A few shout outs:

• I've been inspired recently (my my old pal dnl's review of Gold Afternoon Fix) to reconsider The Church. Turns out I didn't have any of their catalog on My personal jury is still out on the later stuff, but I have truckloads of good will for their first several albums. They've traced an interesting creative arc over the years, going from a Aussie indie rock sound in the 80's to super radio-friendliness in the early 90's to somewhat experimental art rock today. They're no Talk Talk, but hey -- who is really?
  
• Plenty's been said elsewhere about Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga, the new release from Spoon, so I'll choose not to belabor the point here. I will say this: it's their best album since Kill The Moonlight (not a comparison I make lightly).
• Maps (James Chapman) is on the Mercury Prize Shortlist this year for their debut, We Can Create. He's been thrown in the nu-gaze bucket already (and not completely without reason) but he seems to be pushing beyond that as well. I can't quite put my finger on it, but he wholeheartedly embraces sweet melodies without going for the pure pop jugular the way his shoegaze ancestors often did. The songwriting casts a broader net than that, and the music is richer for it. For some weird reason I'd like to put Maps and The Decemberists in a room together and see what they could cook up.
  

See also:
The 'Tops of My Pops' archives

Tops of My Pops for 7/15/07

A weekly look at what I'm listening to, from my Last.fm user stats:

Top Artists for the week ending July 15, 2007
1. Coldcut
2. Akufen
2. Butthole Surfers
4. Fila Brazillia
5. David Holmes
5. A Plus D
7. The Field
8. The Decemberists
9. Spoon
9. M.I.A. & Diplo
9. Broken Social Scene
9. LCD Soundsystem

Can't think of any particularly clever observations to make about my listening habits this week -- I pretty much spent it listening whatever random thing pleased me at the moment. I have been re-enjoying the Butthole Surfers early stuff however, and I still get Austin flashbacks every I hear them.

See also:
The 'Tops of My Pops' archives

Tops of My Pops for 7/8/07

A weekly look at what I'm listening to, from my Last.fm user stats:

Top Artists for the week ending July 8, 2007
1. Ulrich Schnauss
2. Bonobo
2. Renegade Soundwave
2. Spoon
5. Rage Against the Machine
5. Wagon Christ
5. The Church
5. Radiohead
5. Lamb
10. The Sea and Cake

Too much working and not enough time listening to music (what else is new?) but there was one extremely bright spot this week: Ulrich Schnauss.

Goodbye (along with the Quicksand Memory EP) is simply amazing. With this new material he's shifted even further into dreamy alt-pop territory, frequently putting the guitars front and center and making liberal use of vocals throughout.

If you buy only one nu-gaze release this year, I'm thinking this is it.

See also:
The 'Tops of My Pops' archives

Imagine My Suprise...

79% Geek

Tired of Broadcast TV? Make Internet TV!

Big props to The Participatory Culture Foundation for launching MakeInternetTV.org, your one stop site for everything you need to know to roll your own video and get it online.

There's info and instructional videos on equipment, technique, editing, licensing, publishing and even tips for promoting your video baby. Plus, everything is linked to the MITV wiki, where anyone and everyone can share their questions and know-how.

Here's a quick video clip featuring Dean the Elongated Man to tell you more about it:

Make Internet TV: Introduction

We're all very lucky to live in the Internet Age, don't you think?

Tops of My Pops for 7/1/07

A weekly look at what I'm listening to, from my Last.fm user stats:

Top Artists for the week ending July 1, 2007
1. DJ Shadow
2. Beastie Boys
2. Stars of the Lid
4. B. Fleischmann
5. Massive Attack
5. Radiohead
5. Spoon
8. David Bowie
8. James Brown
8. Josh Rouse
8. The Kleptones

The new all-instrumental Beastie Boys album, The Mix-Up, turns out not to be as punk-tinged as Mike D led us to believe, but it is at least a worthy equal to The In Sound from Way Out! (If you hadn't noticed already, the entire Beasties catalog is now available in the DRM-free iTunes Plus format)

Stars of the Lid just continue blowing me away with their latest, the two disc masterpiece And Their Refinement of the Decline. You'd think that as sublime as their sound is, it would start to sound tired or formulaic after a couple of albums. You'd be wrong...very, very wrong. Self-deprecating titles aside, they just keep getting better at taking my breath away.

Finally, it just doesn't get much better than DJ Shadow's amazing live album/DVD In Tune And On Time. I hope that he's figured out by now that all that brilliance he turned out preceding The Outsider wasn't just "hipster bullshit" after all.

Hmmm. That's a lot of things not being what they seem. I didn't realize I had a theme this week.

See also:
Gettin' stewy with it!
DJ Shadow's new video is Nintendo-riffic!
The 'Tops of My Pops' archives