Tuesday, July 29, 2008

Half-Marathon

I'm going to post this here so I can't weasel out of it later.

I'm going to join a gym soon and run a half marathon in November.

It will be like that movie Run Fatboy Run but probably way funnier.

I Met The Walrus



An elegant, charming and wonderfully literal piece of animation based upon a 14-year-old Beatles fanatic's interview with John Lennon about peace.

Friday, July 18, 2008

Delia Derbyshire Gives Aphex Twin The Two-Fingered Salute.


This sort of stuff never ceases to amaze me. The existence of 267 tapes of the electronic music of Delia Derbyshire, the woman responsible for the electronic realization of the theme to Dr. Who, was just confirmed by an archivist at the BBC. Amongst those tapes was at least one "experimental dance" piece that sounds pretty much exactly like an Aphex Twin song. Only it was recorded in 1969!

Read the article and check out some terrific sound clips here.

And if you don't know who Delia Derbyshire is, click here.

Hockey Night in Canada

The CBC lost its rights to play the Hockey Night in Canada theme this year so they are holding a contest where people upload their own themes and then the top rated/voted song will become the new theme.

This is currently the highest rated theme:

Click here to hear "a beautiful theme encompassing the heart of hockey"

The gun shots and foghorn at the end really seal the deal....

Orange Juice "You Can't Hide Your Love Away Forever"



This record seems almost genetically created to fit into the "Things Eli Likes" catagory. Let's just see what we have here: Warblely, almost obnoxious vocals. Fey, heart-on-the-sleeve lyrics. Huge poppy hooks. Pasty white band members. Sly, Beatles-referencing album title. Yup. Pretty much just what I like.

This was Orange Juice's first proper full-length after a run of increasingly amazing 7"'s on the Postcard label. The released version is substantially different from the version that was re-issued as part of the The Glasgow Schoolby Domino in 2005. While that version was scrappy and raw, this proper version sparkles with a weird disco sheen that hints at the slightly yucky, white-bred funk that the band would adopt in it's subsequent releases.

But as far as I'm concerned, this is Orange Juice is all of its nervous, awkward glory. Members of both Franz Ferdinand and Belle & Sebastian have said that this band was a huge influence of their musical endeavors and, frankly, Orange Juice sound like the perfect amalgam of both those bands.

Download: Orange Juice You Can't Hide Your Love Away Forever

Tuesday, July 15, 2008

Monday, July 14, 2008

Sub Pop 20 Weekend


Hey! Sub Pop turned twenty this weekend! They even did a thing about it on Evening Magazine! John Curley talked about Wolf Parade! And they listed Patton Oswalt's name as "Oswalt Patton!"

I was lucky enough to know someone who is important enough to be invited to the super fancy party at the top of the Space Needle on Thursday night (yeah, I'm bragging a bit...so what?). The party was pretty great. Free foods. Free drinks (if you were willing to stand in line for about 20-30 minutes to get one). Bands played (Death Vessel, Sera Cahoone, Kelley Stoltz). Bands were there (SHINZ!). I went with Sarah from Hardly Art and she took some pictures...but she seems to think its 1968 and took them with real film, so we'll see if i ever get a gander at them.

I also went to the Sub Pop comedy show at the Moore Theatre. Everyone was pretty great (Todd Barry, Eugene Mirman, Kristen Schaal) except David Cross, who was clearly having an off night or something, and Patton Oswalt who was the funniest person ever in the history of time. Patton came out and did an ENTIRELY NEW 40 minutes of material. And, as my good friend Joan pointed out to me, it takes most comedians at least a year to write that much new, hilarious stuff. This guy is like the filthy Bill Cosby. A comedy machine.

Now is a probably a good a time as any post my most favorite, least talked about Sub Pop release.


Download: Zumpano Look What The Rookie Did

Released during the dizzy ascent of "alternative" music, Look What The Rookie Did's gawky, nervous pop music was part of Sub Pop's shift away from being a "grunge" label. This is pretty much the standard template for almost every pure pop band for the last 14 years. Sentimental, self-deprecating, straight-forward and a wee bit quirky. You know, all the things I like. This record also features the songwriting talents of one Carl Newman who would later go on to staggering success with The New Pornographers. But, honestly, I think this record is better than at least half of the New Porno's stuff.

Wednesday, July 2, 2008

Everything's Comin' Up Eli!

Looks like all that laziness is finally paying off...

Women Prefer Men With Stubble.

Trident Wrappers and What They Say About Me

I thoroughly cleaned my apartment the other day. I moved the couch and swept under it. I moved the entertainment unit thingie and swept behind it.

While doing this I found 17 Trident gum wrappers.

What This Might Say About Me As A Person:
1. I'm a litterbug.
2. I don't care about the cleanliness of my apartment.
3. I often black out and hide gum wrappers around the apartment in an attempt to frustrate myself.

What This Actually Says About Me As A Person:
1. I chew a lot of Trident gum
2. I often keep the wrappers with the intention of spitting the gum out into them but am far more likely to just do something gross like reach into my mouth and pull the gum out.
3. My pockets are bad at holding Trident gum wrappers.
4. I don't want to throw my wrappers just anywhere.

What I Should Do With 17 Trident Gum Wrappers:
1. Save them. Put them in a special place. Save the rest of my Trident gum wrappers for the rest of the year. At the end of the year, send all my Trident gum wrappers to the Trident Gum Works and ask for a sponsorship.

What I Will Probably Do With 17 Trident Gum Wrappers:
1. Throw them away.

Related: Can You Eat The Wrapper From Trident Gum

Tuesday, July 1, 2008

Something Else Mix #1

Here it is. A mix that I totally made with my bare hands. On a computer. I've never used GarageBand to make a mix before, so it might seem a little rough as I'm still figuring everything out.

The mix itself must be pretty great because I listened to it about 10 times while putting it together and I don't hate it. It's mostly comprized of stuff from the Nuggets boxsets and some new, like minded bands. It's also all one continuous track which I like because it sort forces the listener to listen to every single song without skipping around. And that makes me feel a bit like a supervillian who controls people's iTunes. HAHAHAHAHAHA!

Tracklist:
1. Coconut Coolouts "(Please Don't Break Me Out Of) Party Jail"
2. Van Morrison "I Can Only Give You Everything"
3. The Move "I Can Hear The Grass Grow"
4. Count Five "Psychotic Reaction"
5. Reigning Sound "Your Love Is A Fine Thing"
6. 13th Floor Elevators "You're Gonna Miss Me"
7. The Sonics "The Witch"
8. The Deadly Snakes "Closed Casket"
9. King Khan & The Shrines "Land of the Freak"
10. We The People "Mirror of Your Mind"
11. Chocolate Watchband "Sweet Young Thing"
12. The Monks "Complication"
13. Pop Levi "Sugar Assault Me Now"
14. April March "Chick Habit"
15. King Khan & BBQ "Too Much In Love"
16. The Black Lips "Boomerang"
17. Jay Reatard "Always Wanting More"


Download Here