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.

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

Two Songs. Same Subject.

Topic: No Homo Man-love.

The Sincere Version:
Of Montreal "Tim, I Wish You Were Born A Girl"

The Funny Version:
Flight of the Conchords "Bret, You Got It Going On"

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.