You Lost Me

I love Sleigh Bells so much. I love how the noisy guitars and crazy beats contrast with the pop melodies and Alexis Krauss's super-sweet voice. Plus, their songs sound like a high school experience I never had, a "normal" one in a big high school with a football team and cheerleaders. It doesn't sound like it in a sugar-coated way, though. This sounds like a high school where you can and probably will get your ass kicked.

But this song is totally different.

When I was listening through Reign of Terror for the first time and got to this song, I was floored. It's sad and gorgeous. It sounds huge and echoey and electric, like a suburban summer night. Alexis' voice is soft and breathy and layered. The guitar sounds eighties arena-rock in the best way. Also, those wailing guitars in the background, god damn. The story from the lyrics fits it perfectly- but I won't give away what it is. Just listen.

EDIT: Fuck, the video got taken down! I'm sorry, I can't find the song anywhere else. I'm whipping up a new song post right now to make up for it.

Here comes the rain again

This is just a nice picture I found on tumblr, to be honest. But it actually has a source!

Geometry of Circles

I've always loved geometry, it just makes so much sense. So when I found these clips one night while perusing old Sesame Street videos, I freaked out. They're hypnotizing animated segments from 1979 on the geometry of circles with background music by freaking Philip Glass. These are the highest quality versions I could find of each segment. Watch them in order! Enjoy.

Oyasumi

This is "Oyasumi" (Night) by a Japanese math rock band named Tricot. This video seems to be about the singer trying really, really hard to play baseball. It's pretty cool. Pay attention for the random bits of reversed video. And the song is amazing: fast, angular guitar, dissonance, tempo changes, and cool vocals. Plus three out of the four members are women, which is especially cool for a math rock band- like 90% of music genres out there, it's super male dominated. This band is so awesome and it pisses me off that they aren't more popular.

It's Cold

I found Smoosh when I was ten from a little feature in American Girl magazine. They're one of the reasons I'm such a music nerd today and still one of my favorite bands to boot. They've recently changed their name to Chaos Chaos. Asy, the singer/keyboardist, was twelve when this album was released, and Chloe, the drummer, was ten, like me.

I was obsessed instantly, hunting down every song of theirs and article about them I could find on the internet. I loved that a band so close to my age was making such awesome music. It made me feel like I could do anything in a way that stories about ten-year-old college graduates or baby violin virtuosos never did. I think I liked that the album is so obviously theirs, too- their little sister painted the cover, Asy sounds like a kid, the songs are skittery and occasionally silly. They're both super talented, but the level of adult-y polish on those other child prodigies wasn't there. This was my first exposure to indie music and to music that's kind of... amateurish? That sounds like a put down, though, and this isn't. I absolutely love it when music sounds a little sloppy. It reminds me that there are people playing this who maybe made a few mistakes or aren't quite as good as they want to be but are still trying to bring you this song, dammit. Or maybe they just truly don't give a fuck if they're a little off. That can be pretty cool too. Anyway, this song and this entire album and this band in general are just amazing. If you like this song do yourself a favor and find more.

PS: I think I've finally discovered the secret to blogging consistently: post writing/queuing binges. Keep checking in, everyone, because the weird shit is going to keep coming right on time!

Untitled (Burma-Bibas), 2011

 

Martin Klimas is a German photographer who does really cool stuff with high speed photography. This picture is from his Foulard series, made up of pictures snapped of silk scarves as they fall.

You love the sickness...

This is one of the freakiest things I’ve found on the internet. "The Asylum for Shut-Ins: Video Psychotherapy" started as a public access TV show in Cleveland in the late 80s. In it, a malevolent ventriloquist dummy with sunglasses who calls himself the Doctor gives disturbing little speeches in between brain-melting machine-gun montages of violent clips. The editing is really incredible and the Doctor is a caricature of every charismatic megalomaniac with bad intentions out there. This little intro is a great way to decide whether you can stand more… if you like it, there’s plenty more over here.

OBLIGATORY WARNING: If you hate horror movies and/or have zero tolerance for blood and gore, you should probably stay the hell away from this.
 

Space Sirens & Italo Disco

They go together like cake and ice cream, don't they? This is the insane video for the equally insane song "I Wanna Be Your Lover" by La Bionda, from 1980.

The animation in this is so late-seventies and lovely and it's synced with the song perfectly. Really, all the insanity is the song's fault. Who sticks "I wanna be your lover, not just be your friend" as a chorus next to a verse like "What's this thing before me from the depths of space? Blue and green and slimy, it ain't got no face?"

La Résurrection

Hey! I'm reviving this blog, because I'm off school and I miss it. I've kept blogging on and off for such a long time because it makes me feel like there's worth to my aimless internet meandering if I can make a post out of it when I'm done. Having a real output makes me feel productive- probably falsely so, but that's a matter for another time. Also, people might find it entertaining, and as Jane Lane put it,

(source)

 I'll keep to my two-posts-a-week schedule for now, even though I'm not sure how I'll keep it up when I go back to school. We saw how well that worked last semester. Also, I'll be working on my theme a bit. And as much as it pains me, I might change my "xyzzyzzyzx" url because I recognize that it just looks like a weird mash of letters to most people. (Xyzzy Zzyzx, everyone.)