Things are happening

Things are happening. Falling into line. Once the tracks are all laid, I'll fill you in more, but I can tell you this much: A huge journey has begun, large hurdles have been hurdled and risks have been calculated and I am brimming with excitement and energy, more than ever before. It has begun...

ALBUM REVIEW - Leo Kottke - One Guitar, No Vocals

What can I say about this CD. Leo Kottke is stunning, amazing purely magical. Some of the most beautiful and intricate guitar work you'll ever hear. Perfect. Nothing more needs to be said.

Favorite Tracks:

Snorkel

Too Fast

Accordian Bells

Peckerwood

ALBUM REVIEW - Imogen Heap - Speak for Yourself

If you told me 4 years ago that I would be listening to and enjoying electronic pop music, I probably would have told you, “Yeah, maybe.” Although, I wouldn’t have meant it…I would have been thinking, “This dude’s crazy!” But I wouldn’t have said anything because stuff had been so weird between us and I just couldn’t take any more drama.

Imogen Heap’s Speak for Yourself is what pop music should be. Interesting, catchy and original. Great songs and beats and insidiously simple hooks. You might be familiar with Imogen Heap as half of Frou Frou who’s fine anthem Let Go is featured in Garden State (on a side note: I do listen to music that was not featured in Zach Braff’s Garden State – it’s just that movie really struck a chord with me and the music sticks with me…).

Imogen has gone solo and on the whole the CD is great.

That being said, I think the music requires a certain taste and mood. For introspection, reading, a chat with a good friend or alone in the dark with a great bottle of wine, the CD is perfect. However, I’d be hesitant to pop it in on a road trip or start an evening of partying with it. I am sure people would think the exact opposite, but for some reason (perhaps the clean production and smoothness of its digital creation) I can’t imagine getting really psyched or going crazy to this music. But who wants to get crazy all the time...certainly not me and for all those times…this CD is a great accompaniment. The only track that I tend to skip is I Am In Love With You – the opening bass synth line just sounds too “dance club remix retread” and it just bugs me.

This is a great collection of electronic pop and I think that it is worth mentioning that Imogen Heap wrote AND produced all the tracks a true rarity in this genre ad I think this amount of creative control makes for an excellent recording. And check out her myspace page…

Gaito says: “Give a shot…it’ll make you a cool kid!”

Favorite Tracks:
Headlock

Clear the Area

The Walk

The Moment I Said It

My new hat…

U have a giant tortilla
I have a GIANT tortilla
Mine makes a great hat
And yours would make an excellent quesadilla
And in a pinch, a pretty good hat

Ole!

MJ Gaito, Esq. vs. Corporations!

I was screwed over by a number a giant corporations this weekend. I am not sure that I have ever felt smaller. Friday night just before midnight, typing dozens of emails to the faceless drones at Netflix complaining about the fact that the DVD I had waited months for just stopped working at Chapter 13, less than half way through the film. So frustrating. And, embarrassingly, the movie was 40-Year-Old Virgin…why couldn’t it have been Munich or some other hugely “important” film. What a loser!

So to recap…Netflix sucks!

I did get to have the opportunity to finish watching 40-Year-Old Virgin…and it is totally funny…I highly recommend it. Very low brow, but laugh out loud funny, with some very quotable lines and a few truly inspired moments.

Also SAVED! It's a great movie. Wedding Crashers is a terrible movie…if anyone tells you otherwise punch him or her in the gut for me.

Other corporations that screwed me this weekend Apple (although they’ve made amends and I am not mad at them anymore), MacConnection (retards!), the Container Store (crooks!), Vermont State Lottery and MUSL, and 99% of the companies who make cereal.

Ooo…I feel better!

Peace out!

Hungry!

I think an Ewok would be good eatin’. If you could catch one that is…they have short legs, but are quick little buggers.

ALBUM REVIEW - Chutes Too Narrow - The Shins

Ah, The Shins. They snuck into my life through the backdoor via my obsession with good TV and movies. Yet, another group who I found through the Garden State soundtrack AND the Gilmore Girls AND an especially cool profile on Vermont Public Radio, as soon as you hear them you say, “these guys are the real deal”.
In an age of music where songwriting and wordsmithing as been relegated to the “bottom of the bin” priority (along with taste, editing and creativity), The Shins are a breath of fresh air. Great songs and melodies, lots of high-energy performances (that haven’t had the life sucked out of them by endless digital editing, processing and pitch correction), and a true feeling that there’s not much else that these guys would want to do.
The CD begins with acceptable hand clapping (see my review of Illinoise) an acoustic guitar and vocal as “Kissing the Lipless” begins. Some great subtle production technique adds to the track (the vocal gets doubled half way through the first and thickens it just enough, totally subtle but it makes me smile every time – I am uber-geek!) as does the fact the vocal melody is just in reach of singer James Mercer’s range (the second time around he feels like he barely makes it and it just brings an urgency to the tune that really make it feel real)!
St. Simon shines, coming as the centerpiece of the album, and it shows their high level of melodic ability. It is a truly beautiful piece of music that I can’t even describe. Simple in is structure the melodies dance together has harmonies are added. Best track on the CD, hands down, maybe the best The Shins track ever.
The one misstep for me is Gone for Good which sounds like a ‘deleted with good reason” WILCO track…but one misstep on a album of this level is forgivable, especially since Gone for Good is quickly followed by the hauntingly beautiful “ Those to Come”.
Music, great! Lyrics, poetic! CD, Booyah!!
Gaito says: “Amazing Alt-Pop. Buy it now!”

Favorite Tracks:
Kissing the Lipless

St. Simon

Those to Come

Pink Bullets

Stupid snow…

Stupid snow…stupid giant snowstorm ruined my plans. Not in the mood to be your clown or funny so their. Stay home and drinky drinky…just not the same. Big storm keep us away from MA…super bummer says I.

This probably doesn’t count as my weekly blog entry…I may try to write something else again layer.

I love to watch the snow, but when it ruins my plans it makes me sad in a "they shot ole yeller way".

ALBUM REVIEW - The Flaming Lips - The Soft Bulletin 5.1

So The Soft Bulletin is not really new you say. Yes, you're right. Released in 1999, The Soft Bulletin marked a transition in the career of The Flaming Lips. Where once the appeal of the Lips came from their overall weirdness, now they seemed to be crafting fine, meaningful songs. I wish I could say that I jumped right on the band wagon, but I saw them play live in 1997 and I thought it was just terrible, disorganized "not in a good way" and everybody just seemed confused (that whole evening was weird, as it was some Warner Bros. "let's show off our new bizarre artists thing". The Boredoms played (which was actually very fun) and Green Day played (it was just before Dookie came, or it had just come out or something) and Billie Joe Armstrong took his penis out and it just put a damper on the whole evening, yet I digress). So, other than a nostalgic listen to "She Don't Use Jelly" the Lips really weren't on my radar. Then, of course, Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots came out in 5.1 surround, it total floored me and I started buying and listening to the back catalog, including The Soft Bulletin and it was amazing.

Now The Soft Bulletin just came out in 5.1 surround. For those of you that don't know what that is...well you should get out more. Just kidding, 5.1 for music is like home theater (5 speakers: left front, center, right front, left rear, right rear and the subwoofer, the .1) except with music mixed in 5.1, notes and voices and sounds surround you instead of explosions, honks, birds and yelling (my favorite movie is Revenge of the March of the Sith Penguins). So now that I gave you a completely inadequate description of 5.1 audio and made some jokes that only I will laugh at, back to the review. The Soft Bulletin in 5.1 is truly brilliant. Not many bands have the ability to convincingly release music in this format. The best part is that they really remix everything, making notable changes. They treat the 5.1 mix as a piece of art on its own, and it makes it very interesting to listen too. The songs are the same but everything is in a different place. Also, with the small amount of 5.1 surround music discs I have heard there seems to be this penchant for subtly; small amounts of movement around the surround field, very little movement of parts. The Flaming Lips mixes are totally freaky! Lots of movement, drum parts panning from front left to rear right, giant kettle drums in the center while the vocal is sitting in the rear left just awesome stuff where you can close your eyes and just feel the music ooze around you. The Soft Bulletin is a perfect example of what 5.1 can do for a recording. Like Yoshimi before it, the additional mixing forces you to hear parts you may not have heard before and sometimes bury parts that once seemed integral.

In terms of the music, itself they are just great songs. Tons of lavish production, horns and percussion and lush vocals. Highlights include Race for the Prize and The Spiderbite Song the later being one of my favorite Lips songs. An interesting note, the running order of the 5.1 version is much closer to the UK version and includes both Slow Motion (as far as I can tell only on the UK version previously) and The Spiderbite Song (which looks like was never released on the UK version), so if your used to listening to the US version it might feel a little strange at first (I know it threw my wife and I for a loop the first time we listened, but we're "snobby geeks and proud" in every sense of the word so you may not be as shocked and appalled as we were at first...and we are getting over it). There are also some cool extras including two videos, 3 outtakes and 4 cuts from radio sessions. All of this makes it feel really good to spend the $20 even they we already owned a stereo version of The Soft Bulletin already. Also, it is a two-disc set and the other disc has the stereo mix. I am so surround happy that I kind of forgot it came with that too.

Overall, it is a great package with lots of awesome stuff (the outtakes are pretty amazing!) and I would highly recommend purchasing this. And if you don't have a 5.1 set-up, give me a ring and you can come over and you can bring pizza and some beer and we'll make a spinach salad and brew some fresh coffee so you'll be able to drive home because I don't really want you to stay over...I need my quiet time too. Gaito says: Buy it now! It's totally essential on many levels.

Favorite Tracks:

Race for the Prize

The Gash

Sleeping on the Roof

The Spiderbite Song

Waiting for Superman

Why must I disagree with me?

Who is the prose maker and where are the keys to the wandering footlocker that keeps the shoes that will carry me on toward my destiny?

So here's the thing, that just fell out of my head and there's a part of me that thinks, "Wow, that's great and kinda deep and kinda cool" and another part of me that thinks "Ugh, how horribly pretentious, why don't you go hang out with James Joyce and his baby tucows".

And then there's another part of me that wishes that mayonnaise and bacon were good for you.