Tuesday, June 30, 2009

Bossa Per Dishes

Artist: Nicola Conte
Album: Bossa Per Due
Released in: 2001

Acid jazz/downtempo/Italian film music from the 60's/sitars/go-go wonderfulness. Recommended for: cocktail parties, secret missions, summertime afternoons, jetting around town on a Vespa. Nicely done, Nicola.


Monday, June 29, 2009

Chart

Top Five Artists (week of 6/21-6/28):

1. The Magnetic Fields
2. Dave Brubeck
3. Wye Oak
4. Arovane
5. Yeah Yeah Yeahs

Entirely different from last week.

Dave Brubeck + Arovane = working

Magnetic Fields = I listened to their latest album Distortion again... there are some lovely songs (like Courtesans), but also some novelties that grow quickly old (like Zombie Boy). Not my fave MF album.

Wye Oak = excellent Baltimore band that my sister introduced me to

Yeah Yeah Yeahs = their latest album is great.

Saturday, June 20, 2009

Flash Forward

All of the music on the Dishes Project so far was purchased eight to ten years ago -- I don't listen to most of it on a regular basis. As a sampling of what my music taste is now, here are some statistics about what I listen to on iTunes (courtesy of last.fm).*

Top Ten Artists:
1. Dave Brubeck
2. The Magnetic Fields
3. St. Vincent
4. Steely Dan
4. Belle and Sebastian
6. Arovane
7. Apparat
8. The Postmarks
9. Saint Etienne
9. Ladytron


Commentary:

1. I <3 Dave Brubeck, but he wins this little battle only because I ripped a 4XCD compilation of his from the public library awhile back, and often listen to it while working.

2. Most of these bands fall into the indie (pop) category: Magnetic Fields, St. Vincent, Belle and Sebastian, The Postmarks, Saint Etienne, arguably Ladytron. A few of these are really among my all time favorite bands (Magnetic Fields, Saint Etienne) but the others are on there because I have the majority of their albums only as mp3s (St. Vincent, Postmarks, Belle and Sebastian, Ladytron).

3. The first set of outliers are Arovane and Apparat, both idm-inspired although Arovane more contemplative and Apparat more propulsive and conventionally-structured. Again, they are on here because they're good music to listen to while working.

4. And then there's the Steely Dan. It is all the more impressive that Steely Dan is up there given that I only have one Steely Dan album (a greatest hits comp). The truth is that there's simply nothing like a little Steely late on a California night when you're feeling bitter and rueful and want to revel in it...


Top Five Artists (week of 6/13-6/20):
1. Goldfrapp
2. Air France
3. Air
4. Tahiti 80
5. Royksopp

No overlap, interestingly (although Goldfrapp are #15 overall). The Air France/Air/Tahiti 80 (all French pop suaveness/goodness) are all from a sunny placid afternoon when I wanted some happy and chill pop to listen to. I've been listening a lot to Royksopp's new album Junior, which is pretty good (especially The Girl and the Robot). I had a Goldfrapp attack earlier this week where I listened to their lastest album a few times (Seventh Tree, beautiful) and also listened to all the remixes of the track A&E that my sister was gracious enough to furnish me with (thanks, sis!).

I'm hoping that the weekly top 5 will continue to be a regularly posted event here on Dishes Project (shout out to postlinguistics for giving me the idea).

*I could use a widget to post these stats permanently along the side of this here blog... but that wouldn't be as fun.

Friday, June 19, 2009

Compost Dishes Hundred


Artist:
Various Compost signees
Title: Compost One Hundred
Released in: 2001

Excuses for massive time lapse in-between posts: dissertation (done! finally!), long 2XCD set. Moreover, the first of these discs was completely boring. I don't think I ever really listened to it much after I bought it and now I remember why.

The second disc was marginally better, although in the interests of full disclosure, I did finish my defense draft in-between the first and second discs which may have brightened my mood independently. The first track Come Along by Minus 8 is a lovely Latin-infused jazzy-housey number which makes you feel like you should be sipping martinis next to a pool at a rooftop bar in Rio. Needless to say, this is not quite how my life is going right now, but one can always dream This is followed by very respectable tracks by Beanfield, Wei Chi and Supersempft although there are also some duds by Fauna Flash and A Forest Mighty Black. Overall: eh.