Chicago: The Wilco towers

OK so we have a leading candidate for a music night. Kyle and curmudgeonly Derek, you available on the 18th? M. Gaines, feel like a trip to the big smoke for a grande music weekend? Adam (I know you're out there) is this the right time for you to come out of the woodwork and join us?

Stu, I keep meaning to check out Carissa's Wierd, and will do now for sure given your rec. Leads me to this blog question, can you name artists or bands whose predecessor bands you'veheard of / listened to only after the fact, and liked as much, nearly as much, or hell, even more then the artist through whom you discovered it / them? My mind goes immediately to Heatmiser, whose last record in particular (Mic City Sons) is better than the first couple of Elliott Smith records. There are doubtless many others.....

I only have to type in a new password 8 keystrokes long .....at any rate thursday the 18th is good for me too.......

''''A record I downloaded from emusic a year ago has really been a steady find on my ipod recent plays...the band carissa's wierd is the predecessor of band of horses....which is my top band in the top ten list of great concerts that derek walked out on... ( would love to hear your choices for that list)...the album is a compilation of cariss'a wierd discs.... the band is not similar in sound to horses, and is a ernest band, but not syruppy at all...very interesting groove based songs that stay in your head..well worth emusic fees and then some...

Derek, not sure why you are getting the authentication request ...are you signing in on a g-mail account? ...when i sign in with a yahoo account i don't get it. Brian, the weekend of the 6th is no good for me but i am open the other dates you suggest and the limitless volume of the 18th sounds particularly enticing ...after all, you can always make it though a Friday!

Very funny in a non ha-ha sort of way. Looks like google has gone and made the decision for us as to whether continue on here or not. I'll be damned if I'm gonna type in some slanty half-assed 12 letter word every time I come on here. Maybe the time has come to part ways.

OK I'll take up the challenge. Let's have everyone lay out their good and bad weekends for the month of August. In a possible show of desperation, let's chuck in Thursday nights. I'll start. The weekend of the 6th is good, the 13th is bad though I could do the Thursday the 11th. The next weekend is complicated but possible, and the Thursday the 18th is very good with the family away, so I could host and we could let 'er rock. I could also do the Saturday 27th but nothing before in the following week. Last week of Aug/first of Sept looks clear.

August 6th weekly is no good for me. Last two weeks in August much better. Plan as you will, though, as I don't expect accomodation of my often crazy schedule.

As for lists, yes, always down with the themes and a good suggestion by stu. breezy summer playlists are a personal fave, though i find they always tend to lean heavily towards gauzy, hushed female vocals. Don't think I'll be able to host but I can provide the next playlist.

Hey lads. I'm lining up for tickets to the SF street car - long line, seemed like a chance to catch up on blogging. I suggest we plan do two things in short order - a might of rock music in the glorious city of downtown Toronto - there were a number of shows in the mix a few weeks ago, n'est ce pas? - and a CD club which I (or other volunteer(s) will be happy to host. Let's shoot for the weekend of August 6th for either - perhaps CD club first?

Stu I like the idea of making themed playlists - something I've always enjoyed. Two themes that spring to mind are Night Music, Joyful Music, and Sunday Music. OK that's three. I'd be happy to take the lead if those with younger children, or withoput children at all, are otherwise too busy. Other theme ideas?

Enjoy the smoking hot Big Smoke. It's 24 and perfect here.

oh, and that turntable.fm site is invite-only, even if you are stateside, so another barrier.

stu, good ideas for playlists, getting together, and a night out. no worries about lack of posts. the goal of this space is sharing, not to create another to-do or trigger guilt, additional stress, which it's clearly doing, to some degree. for now, we'll coast until another viable option presents itself.

apologies Kyle....I seem to be unable to get my shit together to make a posting or even a response...pathetic really... I do check out the dialogue from time to time, but have not been pulling close to my share and Im not sure why....maybe you are right that the format is a little time consuming, and the fact that you are the only one who regularly responds makes the effort less rewarding.. Dont get me wrong, I love your effort and insite its just that it feels like as a group we are not responding much at all so whats the point... you really need regular input from a number of people to generate the debate and its not happening......

I have to think the time honoured excuse of life (read lots of little kids to look after) is a major factor and I agree maybe we need to coast through this era without getting down on ourselves too much about this lull.......As far as the cd club , I still love those nights, I think the last effort at a date stalled prematurely for some reason,,, it usually takes 4 or 5 dates to get one lined up and thats typical with anything these days I find,,, So whoever let the ball drop toss another date out and lets make it happen.......

...one final thought... I have been really enjoying Brians summer theme playlists that he made last summer and burned for me..... Having someone else make a playlist and not knowing what songs will come in what order and not knowinf a third of the songs.. ( 1/4??) hAS BEEN good fun over a year now and I wonder if any of you would be interested in having the host of the next cd club prepare a playlist with a theme of their choice for distribution.....?

...perhaps we need a night out too..........

....

Nice when you type in a question in the blog at night and an answer (one possible, anyway) appears in column form in the newspaper delivered to my door the very next morning.

Digital backwater, thy name is Canada. Also tried spotify earlier today when I saw the announcement about their US launch. Who do I blame for this? The CRTC? The federal government for not passing digital rights legislation? Or Stuart?

I thought this looked good as an answer to our cd club woes but alas they are very sorry and don't like our type round here.

While the rest of the planet moves forward our beloved backwater status remains intact.

Call me a cynic but I'm beginning to think that axing the CD club might be a more prudent move than nixing the blog. Perhaps Kyle you can follow-up on a method for us to get together virtually and share our music. I know some of us have done this through Rdio but without the beer and cheetos it's just not the same.

Win Wilco Tickets.

Something shimmering and white/

(the link in the last post may have been too subtle)

And it's something quite peculiar.

I think about/the loveless fascination/...

Got it. Will leave as is. Am also on the path to quitting emusic. Hit cancel and accepted the free month. Enough fence sitting. Am also going to buy a bike and slowly drive it down Jarvis for the next 4 years. But that's another topic for another day.

As Brian has already stated it would be unfortunate if we were to let Metabeats die off. I don't post as often as I should but I still check in on a regular basis and find the discussions, recommendations etc useful and enlightening. I figure that the slowdown of late has as much to do with the arrival of summer than any lack of interest in the blog.

On another note I signed off on e-music 3 months ago and haven't found that I've really missed it. I always seemed to be downloading 50 or 60 tracks in the last 24 hours before my downloads expired. Not really the best way to purchase music.

Less concerned about the one-hand-clapping aspect, though that is a small factor in the considerations. Am thinking that there may be other ways to recommend some music, link to something interesting, or ask a question without requiring someone to string together a few paragraphs or devote a half hour or longer to putting together. I can well understand not being able to find the time or mental energy to do this, while also needing to devote same to actual paid profession. At any rate, exploring options and no need to blow things up or shut things down at this point. Just thinking about more effective ways to collaborate.

One such possible way is through the new social media site,google+ , which allows one to define certain groups of friends by interest and then feed info and posts into a stream that all can see. If you wanna try it, I can invite you to join, test.

Hey Kyle, I can see it's been a lonely ride for you on the blog recently, but I for one am in no hurry to see it wind down. My contributions or lack thereof to Metabeats are a microcosm of sorts for my life as a whole - having trouble getting untracked and doing anything of interest on all fronts (damn it). Included in this would be finding music that I'm excited about.....frankly, doing anything I'm excited about. I'm attributing it for now to the hangover of having finished my studying, and not knowing what to do with myself (plus giving too much attention to work). SO, psycho-therapy session notwithstanding, I'd be bloody disappointed if Metabeats went down in flames. Having said that, if I start contributing more regularly - which I would like to do - not sure that "saves" the blog anyway. It's your baby.

Had wondered why R.E.M.'s Life's Rich Pageant was a new release on Rdio. Apparently this month is the 25th anniversary of it's release. If I didn't already feel pretty damn old, this fact certainly does the trick.

Bri, thanks for the Hello Echo recommendation. Not sure if it's any good but it's $4.90 price tag on emusic aligned nicely with that very same amount I had on my monthly balance, which refreshes in a few days. Think this may be the end of the road for me and emusic, though. It's been a nice ride but really, it's becoming increasingly difficult to find enough interesting music to download.

Also thinking it may be time to start folding up this here blog, at least in its current incarnation. There are some other ways that we can collaborate in an online space that may make more sense and be less time consuming, which I suspect may be a problem for some.

Anyhow, appreciate thoughts, suggestions on either!

Here's your challenge for the week:

Come up with a band or artist who haven't recorded an album in years and whose pending new release you could actually care less about than this?

Shorthand reference: Denmark = bicycles, Kierkegaard. Iceland = bankrupty, Bjork. You're welcome.

Ah right, Denmark.

re: Braids The first track, "Lemonade" introduces a very specific vocal range/style that seems to endlessly repeat throughout every subsequent song on the record, with quick, soft yippy little shouts leading to slow, slightly drawn out words quickly rising to sharp yelps. lather, rinse, repeat. musical arrangements lead me back somewhat but not to the point where i'm actually liking it all that much. I dunno. Mike? Marc? Stu? Guy Stu met in England?

Sorry to be persnickety but Iceage are actually from Denmark and would probably be pissed if you called them an Icelandic band. I've listened to it a few times on Rdio and as much as some of the sounds excite me it could rather use a bit more meat on them their bones. Not bad for a first album though.

Sorry Kyle but until you posted that Polaris list I'd never even heard of Galaxie. Must be good if it knocked off two of my faves from last year (PS I Love You and Women) off the shortlist. I keep trying with Destroyer's "Kaputt" and as much as I've grown to appreciate it's more meandering style I can't ever see myself loving it. As for Braids I think I'm liking them a bit more than the two of you.

Kyle, great news abut record sales, made even more exciting by the news that it's on the backs of Lady Gaga's $0.99 special!

Hey thanks for the prompt posting of recent favourites and disappointments. That will help. I have a couple of those - Antlers, Yuck, and Low - but will check out the others - particularly the Papercuts and UNKLE, which you mentioned the other night and I tried to find unsuccessfully.

I'm also enjoying a few others which you may well know, but just to share the love: the cave singers which is a mix of pleasant chanted folk music and slightly rawer electric stuff, the mellow indy pop sounds of Iceland's Sin Fang, the hard punk sounds of the latest under-20 phenom band, Iceland's (yet again) Iceage, some atmospheric guitar-forward pop from Hello Echo, soft Cali-rock-meets-Pavement from The Donkeys, and finally, though it's early on in the listening cycle, liking the recent follow up records from Army Navy and Pete and the Pirates. Three other records that I've spun a fair bit are the 20-years-in-the-making Feelies release, the J Mascis record, and Yellow Ostrich's exercise in stimulating pop weirdness.

Somewhere in that amalgam lie my faves of the first half of 2011. (Fleet Foxes is nice too....damn, so is Matt Pond's EP, and oh yeah, the Sloan record is pretty dang good). Anyone else care to sound in?

Re disappointments, the Braids are unduly lauded to my ear as well. And I'm quite unhappy with the Bon Iver album - he's suddenly sounding like Grizzly Bear, which I thought was a great band until Veckatemist's excesses (I know many differ with my opinion). I'll give it another few listens but it lacks the immediacy and the huge angsty soulfulness of For Emma, replacing with busy, grandiose, and annoying arrangements.

After 7 Yr Decline Music Sales Up In 1st Half Of 2011 - hypebot

After 7 Yr Decline Music Sales Up In 1st Half Of 2011 - hypebot

Anyone else listen much to the Galaxie album that was shortlisted for the Polaris prize? Catchy, energetic, dance rock, on first full listen at least, but I'm wondering if this is one that actually stands a chance of winning or if it's serving the same purpose that most British actresses serve in the best actress category at the Oscars--that is, they're there to add variety, credibility to the rest of the list. In other words, is Galaxie the Keira Knightley of the Polaris shortlist?

Polaris Shortlist with convenient Rdionlists on the page. Braids disc has not grown on me, despite at least a dozen listens.

Good call, Bri. As you may have noticed, I have tried, but ultimately aborted, attempts to put together a list here over the past few weeks. Here are some recent emusic downloads from 2011 that I'd recommend:

Battles - Gloss Drop - less visceral in some way but probably more accomplished than their previous release, with some more direct vocals and arrangements, varied, interesting

Thievery Corporation - Culture of Fear - though only a few listens in, and more of the same, it's a perfect accompaniment to languid summer evenings and probably their best (only interesting) release in a decade

The Antlers - Burst Apart - rich combination of folk, guitar, electronics, vocals, kind of sweetly morose, soaring and reflective all at the same time

Yuck - Yuck - comparisons to Dino Jr. on a few tracks aside, this disc is far more varied

The Pains of Being Pure at Heart - Belong - their last release had a few great songs but the whole was less than the sum; think this is a more cohesive album, with bigger songs that make use of the more up front production without sounding like they're simply going for a bigger sound

Papercuts - Fading Parade - reminiscent of the Pains first disc described above

Would also add Wye Oak, the new UNKLE disc, and the Danger Mouse Rome disc but alas, they are not available on emusic. There's another one I'm forgetting...sound like Wye Oak at times...for the life of me I cannot recall just now.

....UPDATE: Got it! (Thank you, unconscious mind): Low - C'mon - another example where previous releases were hit and miss for me but this one resonates. Easily one of the best of the year.

......UPDATE 2: Also want to add that there have been a number of underwhelming releases from previously heralded bands. Perhaps too early to tell with Bon Iver, which I've only listened to twice, but the latest Elbow, Miracle Fortress, Jolie Holland, Panda Bear (parts better than the sum, imo), and yes, Radiohead, fall squarely into this category.

Hey boys, I'm faced with a fresh bunch of downloads and only a few ideas against which to apply them. Seems like a good time to inquire into your musical 2011's......been a good year in terms of new music? What would you put forward as your highlights thus far? What are the best new bands or artists that you've come across?

What Your Favourite 80s Band Says About You.

Interesting piece on how much it costs to make a hit song these days. Given the end result, it seems an incredibly wasteful.

Here's the final version of the playlist, in case you haven't seen it, or didn't get a chance to listen to it:



Feel free to make one for July 4th as well, if you have the time.

Also, Derek. The Hardship Post? There's a band I've completely forgotten but looking at that album cover sure took me back to 1995! Nice choice!

No worries, Bri. Kudos both to you and Derek for the continual updates to the playlist today. I've been in and out of the house throughout the day but I've continued to pick up the list where I've last left off and have enjoyed both of your additions. Hope you're enjoying the holiday!

Hey KP I've added a few. Do enjoy the collaborative aspect of Rdio. Apologies for lack of blogging....starting to find my groove so hopefully more and better to come.

Given how gloriously sunny and beautiful the day is, you likely won't be checking this today. Thought I'd put together a collaborative Canada Day playlist on Rdio in honour of our great country. Please add some Canadian artist gems as you see fit over the course of the weekend.