built to spill

i saw built to spill last night at philly's electric factory. excellent stuff. i had never seen them live before and i really thought they'd stretch the songs more but they were pretty much on point in playing the album versions of the songs. just the last song or two were jams and they were pretty kick ass. i love that guy's guitar sound. they have added two more guitars to the band for this tour and it created a wall of noise that was pretty awesome. if they come to a town near you, check them out. they're well worth it.

on a sad note, bloc party is sold out in june which totally sucks. like totally, fer sure.

new music

i have gotten a huge list of new music lately, all of which will be going into dj shows on slive over the coming weeks/months. here's a partial list with inane comments:

• ben folds -- good album. i always find his records kind of fruity on first listen and they improve the more time you give them. my honest opinion of his music when i first heard it was "what the fuck is this 'godspell' horseshit?" but now i like the guy. the cd has a dvd flipside (dual whatever they call it) and the video about the making of the cd is pretty funny. ben's a cool guy.


• dj earworm mashups -- i can't remember if i blogged this guy's stuff on "stfu" or not but every one of his mash-up/bootlegs are right on the money. from funk to alternative, they're all really good.


• black flag - olde schoole for the hardcore kiddies. henry put together a benefit for the west memphis three (my indifference makes it near-impossible to do research on the injustice of it all) and the music is a flashback to my halcyon days of youth. my war? oh yeah...


• bloc party -- this is the album of the year so far for me, although there is a *lot* of good music out there lately. if you don't go out and get this album (or already own it) you are deeply and profoundly retarded.


• cat power - i forget what its called. it has 'he war' on it, which i really dig.


• death cab for cutie live - i borrowed their new live album from a friend. its ok.


• the decemberists - they have a new one. its kinda like vaudeville meets olivia tremor control meets minstrel show meets an acid trip


• doves - some cities - very good stuff here


• iron and wine - woman king - outstanding.


• jem - finally woken - i'm behind the times on this. my buddy adairen has been telling me about her for a year now but i just got around to listening. very good record.


• lemon jelly - '64-'95 - fuckin' excellent stuff


• longview - manchester shoe-gazers. pop hooks and sweeping mixes in their stateside remix but good stuff. they opened for phoenix and dogs die in hot cars when i saw them in philly


• louis xiv - esquire magazine rightly deduced that these guys realize that rock and roll is all about getting laid. their songs are all about fucking, so go figure.


• magnetic fields - 69 love songs - sixty nine songs is a lot of songs. an awful lot. there's a lot of good stuff hidden in the morass of that amount of music. there's bound to be filler tracks when you put this much volume out there, or one track that might be a standout in a 14 track cd gets lost in a 3 volume opus. its still good. worth listening to


• manic street preachers - holy bible reissue -- i never heard this when it first came out, being exposed to their latter efforts like "tsunami" and "if you tolerate this then your children will be next". its some angry stuff. its the punk rock ethos described by a couple of welshmen with loud guitars and non-rhyming obscure lyrics, basically. strap in and hang on. its quite a ride.


• the mars volta - frances the mute - meandering, fiddly prog rock drives me nuts, but when mars volta kicks it in, they really can deliver a sucker punch. the songs are long, they don't end, they meander, there's weird sounds and shit that annoy me but, by and large, i like it and i've listened to it a lot


• mogwai (new, live record. forget the name) - mogwai is cool. the version of "like herod" is out of hand on this thing. i never understood why people liked that tune of theirs so much until i heard this version in the car with the volume turned up to 11


• olivia tremor control - music from the unrealized film script "dusk at cubist castle" - long title, interesting album. the beatles would be proud. its like beatles meet neutral milk hotel meet iron & wine and they all have dinner and then have sex afterwards and have this baby and its olivia tremor control. yeah, that's it.


• phoenix - live in 30 days (live) - if you don't own this you're deeply and profoundly... well you know the rest. please, buy this album.


• prodigy - dirtchamber sessions vol 1 -- neat concept. spotty results but i like giving it a listen now and again


• queens of the stone age (new) - forget the name. its everywhere, though. it kicks ass.


• royksopp - these guys are amazing. excellent electronica grooves. its worth it for the intro to track two "hey... i have some frequencies for you. 600. 150. 400..." "400?! i'm coming over." heh. great stuff.


• stereophonics - their new record is good. pop/rock with a kick. the guy's voice is awesome


• sweet coffee - this is lounge stuff. another adairen tip. i like this one for playing poker. mellow beats.


• deep dish essential mixes - i found some lo-quality rips on ed2k and they're fun to listen to despite the bad sound. i like the way these guys think.


• tiefschwarz - german dj duo with their latest misch masch. excellent mix record


• fischerspooner - odyssey and #1 - my latest additions. i can't stop listening to them. odyssey is more accessible and really really really fucking good. its like postal service's 'give up' without the angst.

that's a lot of new data and its taking me a long time to digest it all. i love having a lot of new stuff to listen to though. things were getting stale...

first post!

this is "sidechain", a blog that will represent the music-listening, music-dj'ing and music-production side of my life. i've been doing a lot of that type of stuff lately and, if you're read my other blog, you'd know i'm into the music. so i figured i'd start this thing up. let's rock.