December 2010
53 posts
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All Hail, The King Of Dorks!
Congratulations to Jesse Richman (aka @xopchipili) for winning the first-ever Hermitology Fantasy Football championship. His prize package (a one-of-a-kind championship t-shirt, and tickets and passes to the next Thrice show in NYC) is en route. You can check out Jesse’s music blog here.
Throwing together a fantasy football league for interested readers ended up working out OK, aside from...
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Random Start: Peter Bjorn & John, "Start To Melt"
Cred-Killer/Dork Alert: I just noticed the lack of a comma between Peter and Bjorn’s names and I spent the past few minutes trying to figure out if this band was named after three guys; Peter, Bjorn & John (like I thought), or if I was mistaken and the band was named after two guys; Peter Bjorn & John. Like maybe John’s last name was Plrgczyzewski or Inchcock or Schiddy...
3hree Things: My 9 Favorite Albums Of 2010, Vol. 3... →
Here’s the final installment of My 9 Favorite Records of 2010 that I wrote for OCWeekly.
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Random Start - Norma Jean, "Everlasting Tapeworm"
As I’ve read a few year-end lists from some heavy music blogs I’ve found that Norma Jean’s Meridional is on quite a few lists. I bought it while we were on tour, and as is often the case, I came home and forgot to pull it off of my tour laptop and onto my hard drive that is connected to my desktop at home (which is the source of most Random Starts, excluding today and a few...
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Random Start: Amon Tobin, "Displaced"
If I could have handpicked the type of song I didn’t want to hear at 7:30AM it probably would have been a seven-minute electronica loop that sounds like it’s something you’d be forced to hear while you struggle to figure out what went wrong with your XBOX 360 after it froze during a load menu. This Amon Tobin song from the Splinter Cell-Chaos Theory OST is literally that.
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I Wish You Way More Than Luck →
I figured since the holiday season is about giving, I’d leave an audio gift “under the tree” for those that might be interested. This is another very rough idea of mine that I never really refined or pulled into a traditional song structure. Like the last idea I posted, it’s not Thrice-related, it’s not mixed or mastered, and it’s nothing more than something I...
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Random Start: Massive Attack, "One Love"
Massive Attack has some beautiful songs. This is not one of them.
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Attention: Writers
Professional basketball player turned author, Paul Shirley, has put together an online course called Writing: An Outsider’s Guide over at Sympoz.com. It’s 11 lectures, conducted by Paul, that will help you become better a writer as he shares what he’s learned, how he’s learned it, how he’s applied it to his writing. Guest contributors include Chuck Klosterman, Neal...
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Random Start: Time In Malta, "Dissolve"
I haven’t listened to this record in ages, and I’d kind of forgotten how much I liked this San Franciscan three-piece*. Time In Malta was a really good band back in the day. I had the opportunity to see them a few times, and do a short tour with them and Hot Water Music in 2002 or so. They always sounded massive for a three-piece, and always put on a really energetic show....
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A Very Cloudkicker Christmas
blogkicker:
As a small token of my gratitude to everyone who has been supportive of me this year I humbly present “You and Yours”, my musical gift to you on your preferred winter solstice celebration.
‘Tis the season ^_^
...
3hree Things: My 9 Favorite Albums Of 2010, Vol. 2... →
I’m continuing to count down my 9 Favorite Albums of 2010 in this week’s 3hree Things over at OC Weekly’s Heard Mentality blog. Here’s Volume 2 of 3.
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Random Start: UNKLE, "Price You Pay"
War Stories was released in 2007, and is categorized on wikipedia as “trip rock”. I haven’t the slightest idea what that’s supposed to mean, and I’m afraid if I’d read that descriptor prior to actually, you know, hearing this record, I probably wouldn’t have even bothered listening to it in the first place. Trip rock? Regardless of which...
My Top 5 Artists (Week Ending 2010-12-19) →
Daughters (18)
Fugazi (12)
Cloudkicker (11)
Frightened Rabbit (10)
Menomena (10)
Imported from Last.fm Tumblr by JoeLaz
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Random Start: Joanna Newsom, "This Side Of The...
At night, if you listen closely, you can actually hear thousands of male indie/folk fans masturbating themselves into a fine powder over Joanna Newsom. The first time I heard Newsom was in 2005 (something off of Milk-Eyed Mender) and while I loved the semi-uplifting, semi-melancholy mood of her songs and her beautiful harp playing, I really couldn’t get past the childlike vocals. But...
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A Little Inspiration Before Heading To The Studio
Keelhaul, “Cruel Shoes” from 2003’s Subject To Change Without Notice
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Random Start: Doves, "House Of Mirrors"
I can’t figure out why Doves aren’t huge in the states. They’ve been putting out smart, infectious, indie-ish rock for a decade. But I suppose that many things I’ve thought would do well, haven’t, and many things I’ve thought were godawful have gotten massive, so what the hell do I know anyway?
I didn’t really get around to hearing Doves until 2004,...
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Random Start: Menomena, "Strongest Man In The...
This is my favorite track from Menomena’s first record, I AM the FUN BLAME MONSTER! (which is actually an anagram for The First Menomena Album!) Ashamedly, I’ve only been a fan of Menomena for about three years. I bought their Friend & Foe album in 2007, based on only hearing one song online and really loving the album art, which ended up being one of the best shallow impulse...
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We Are Moving
And by “we”, I mean “me and this blog”.
Some of you might have noticed that trawlingthegrey.tumblr.com has been redirecting you to hermitology.com, our new (but in a way, old) home.
Hermitology was a blog I semi-anonymously posted on from 2005 until Trawling The Grey Matter started as a band-affiliated blog back in January. Over the course of the past year, while doing...
My Top 5 Artists (Week Ending 2010-12-12) →
Eluvium (35)
Periphery (4)
S. Carey (3)
Aloha (3)
The Appleseed Cast (3)
Imported from Last.fm Tumblr by JoeLaz
3hree Things: My 9 Favorite Albums Of 2010, Vol. 1... →
I’ve decided to torture myself and try to make a list (in order, for the first time ever) of my favorite 9 records of 2010. It’s been impossible, and I’ve already changed the order upwards of 15 times.
Here’s Vol. 1 of 3.
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Random Start: Coalesce, "A Disgust For Details"
There’s a disturbing absence of early Coalesce material on YouTube. Today’s Random Start was actually “Grain Of Salt” from the A Safe Place EP, but since I couldn’t find anything with audio quality worth posting from that EP, I figured some footage from 2002 might suffice. I never got into them quite as much as I got into Botch, Dillinger Escape Plan, or Converge,...
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Random Start: Portishead, "All Mine"
A fantastic example of a jam being “heavy” without being chugga-chugga, judd-judd, sludge-gudge, wall-of-noise “heavy”.
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Random Start: Pig Destroyer, "My Fellow Vermin"
I AM AWAKE NOW.
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Guest Blogger: NotFabio Viviani Of Top Chef...
Hallo guyce my name a Fabio. Son ob joo guyce gonna rember me fron a Tope Chef Seesong Five, bah for dose hoodono who is a Fabio, you can esee me in a Tope Chef Olsters on Bravo. Ass joo can see, I pudan nalotta wade. Mosley in my face. Badis no joos me, guyce. Fyoo loogada oder contestins joo gonna see dadalodda dem puddin a wade on. For exampo, looga Maig an ees podaydo hed.
Dussin Maig...
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Random Start: Isis, "Hall Of The Dead"
Isis only been broken up for six months and I already miss them. I wrote a little reflection piece after I saw them play live for the last time, and what the band has meant to me as a musician in a “Not So Random Start” post back in May, and rather than rehash that here, I’ll just say that I can’t really understate the influence and inspiration I’ve drawn from...
3hree Things: My Budding Man-Crush On Blake... →
This week’s piece for OCWeekly.
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Random Start: The Notwist, "Where In This World"
I’d forgotten how much I enjoy The Notwist. Having them pop up on on shuffle this morning reminded me of the feeling I get when I find a couple of twenty dollar bills in a pair of jeans from tour. If you’re a fan of Kid A/Amnesiac era Radiohead, you’ll love this. If pressed, I might describe it as beautifully arranged electronica-tinged indie rock with fairly bleak and...
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Random Start: Minus The Bear, "Get Me Naked 2:...
My Top 5 Artists (Week Ending 2010-12-5) →
City of Ships (41)
Ef (14)
Frightened Rabbit (12)
Nine Inch Nails (11)
The Ocean (10)
Imported from Last.fm Tumblr by JoeLaz
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Random Start: Radiohead, "No Surprises"
This isn’t even in my top five tracks on OK Computer, but it’s still better than most songs I have on my computer.
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Random Start: The Beatles, "Strawberry Fields...
Ah, drugs.