Shudder in horror, cower in despair as Baby Cakes displays his mastery of the twenty-sided die.

What is Baby Cakes? Baby Cakes is Ralph Wiggum at the age of twenty-nine…

if he played D&D…

and if his name was Mark and he criticized a production of King Lear and its use of  New-Historicism…

I am Baby Cakes. You are Baby Cakes. We are the world.

St. Paddy’s day seems as good a time as ever to dust off the old blog. Apologies all around for my absence. I’d share my excuses with you if they weren’t just examples of my laziness. Which I suppose is another example in itself.

Here’s an amusing take on a famous Irishman’s most famous play:

And slightly more serious:

If you manage to listen to it all, leave your impressions, if you please. For instance, when do you loose track of all the Biblical references?

You know, it really has been quite some time since I posted. Let’s see what else I can come up with by the end of the week.

Via Warren Ellis, Todd Diamond appears to be a recent addition to National Post’s slew of economic experts, and considering the recent downturn in the market these past few days, his advice may well be more valuable than your home or anything in it.

On Money

On Oil

For those of my readers who appear to be incapable of appreciating instrumental music in and of itself, I thought I’d give old Sufjan a try. Here’s The Seer’s Tower from Illinoise:

I can’t remember where or how I first heard this modern minstrel, but I was equally impressed with both his lyrics that vary widely in subject matter, and his choices of instrumentation, which often includes flutes, organs, strings, banjos and trumpets. Here’s a nice banjo centered piece called For The Widows In Paradise, For The Fatherless In Ypsilanti. (Did I mention Mr. Stevens enjoys long titles?)

And the same song, live:

Perhaps the most interesting thing about the songwriter for my readers may be his spiritual bent. I believe he’s released a Christmas album which is comprised of five volumes in all, not to mention that SS’ album Seven Swans has many songs which make direct references to the Bible. I found this song particularly amusing. It’s called Get Behind Me, Santa!

Anyone else notice the Dead Milkmen ornament? No?

Another theme, or formative influence upon SS would be what he calls the Fifty States Project. He takes aspects from the geography and people (musical and otherwise) from the state in question and transforms them into something all his own. Yes, an album for each state. So far he’s got Illinois and Michigan done, an outtake album for each, and a long way to go. Here’s a song that gives away some conceptual aspects of the project, Chicago.

And naturally, the same song live.

Here’s a song with a fairly dark theme, John Wayne Gacy Jr.

And lastly, a music video with the song They Are Night Zombies!! They Are Neighbors!! They Have Come Back from the Dead!! Ahhhh! (Yes, that’s the full title.)

I guess this post has put the previous letter M themed posts to rest. Hope you enjoyed it.

Finally, huh?

I first heard the not quite gentle progressions of Mogwai when I took a shot at buying their album Come On Die Young merely on the say so of maybe one or two music magazines. I can’t remember if they had compared these boys from Scotland to gy!be or not. They’re quite different bands in any case, and I haven’t regretted my decision at all. CODY opened with Punk Rock::

Ha! This clip revealed to me that this confrontation was on the CBC. Hilarious.

That was a rather gentle introduction. The following track was the intro to their album Mr. Beast and it’s called Auto-Rock. Turn it up if you can and you’re not at work or anything.

Now for the next clip you might want to turn it back down for a live version of the same track. It’s a little, well, you’ll see.

From what I’ve seen, read, and heard, Mogwai is much heavier live and is a force to be felt. Some may find this particular sensory experience appealing. I’m not quite sure if I do.

Here’s my favorite track from CODY called Christmas Steps. Album Version:

Live Version:

And one more incomplete, slightly edgier version of the same song:

I picked up their first album a month or two after I fell in love with them and I ended up making a “mix-tape” of this one song. Here’s the live track Mogwai Fear Satan from the Young Team album.

And one last loud loud one called Helicon 1:

…before I leave you with this relatively soothing outro called 2 Rights Make 1 Wrong:

I suppose it’s time to get back on the wagon. The Mogwai post will be coming on a Monday in the near future folks. You can decide whether it’s mellifluent or not.

Anyway. For those of you who are missing a certain someone and can’t wait a week or so to hear the dulcet tones of his voice, I’d suggest watching a few of these Let’s Play videos by one Deceased Crab:

Besides being entertaining all on his own, Mr. Crab sounds much like my good friend Jon. It wasn’t until the gentleman mentioned there was a feline in his presence that I was certain that this wasn’t who I had suspected was behind the numerous humorous clips.

For those of you who don’t know, Let’s Play is where one vicariously experiences a video game, be it via console or PC, through the recordings of another player. Some are good, most are not. In my opinion Deceased Crab is one of the best LPers around. I can’t help but think though that the similarity of his voice, humor and wit to a friend I haven’t seen in nearly two years has a lot to do with my assessment.

This week I think I’ll let the music speak for itself. Mostly.

I know of Clint Mansell solely through his work on the scores of films such as π (high recommended by the way, as are all of Aronofsky’s films, each of which are featured in this post):

Typical Drum & Bass, huh? I like it a lot myself and though I know some of my regular readers won’t, I find it can’t be ignored since it compares favorably to the rest of Mansell’s work in it’s composition. I’m sure that my regulars will find this track familiar, if not in it’s original, more personal form:

..then in it’s fully orchestrated form:

…found in such film trailers as The Two Towers which may lead to eventually challenging Carl Orff’s O Fortuna in epic usage. I’m not so sure if the piece of music has helped sell tickets for these films, but Requiem for a Dream wouldn’t have been as emotionally effective without this theme running throughout the heartbreaking drama.

Clint Mansell and Kronos Quartet teamed up once again, after their work on Requiem together, for Aronofsky’s latest work, The Fountain:

That was Stay With Me, here’s The Last Man from the same film:

And finally, post-rockers Mogwai joined in on this epic track, Death is the Road to Awe:

And that, as they say, is that.

Next week: Mogwai.

Happy St. Paddy’s Day!

It’s no skit featuring Joyce and Beckett but it’ll do.

In a world that allows American Idol to exist, let alone thrive, most people would consider it prudent to ignore the musical offerings of a blind man dressed up as a viking while he paraded his wares on the streets of New York City. In the case of Louis Thomas Hardin a.k.a. Moondog, they’d be mistaken in doing so.

If you read the wikipedia article you’ll discover Moondog to be an inventor, poet, critic, and naturally, a rugged and unique individualist. Finding jazz to be a nearly inaccessible genre of music for my taste, Moondog rounds out a niche between the near random patterns of jazz and the repetitive melodies of modern composition, a niche I can often enjoy. His compositions often remind me of the minimalistic work of Michael Nyman, or even the whimsy of Traverse Town, though there are a few pieces which remind me too much of beatnik or hippie culture which tend to decentralize compositions into “jams”. But these can be happily ignored considering pieces such as Lament I, Bird’s Lament:

I honestly think this piece is too upbeat to be a lament, but then I suppose it could be if one takes into account that it’s from a man known as ‘The Viking of 6th Avenue’, who dealt with the hustle and bustle of the streets on a day to day basis. Unfortunately there’s not much of a selection of Hardin’s music on youtube. However, there are a few live performances:

I think you’ll see what I mean by “jams” in this piece:

If you’re interested in listening to more of his music I’d suggest starting with Moondog’s self titled album. It’s certainly his most accessible work I’ve heard.

Next week: Clint Mansell

And later this week: a post which breaks up the posts with alliteration. Ugh.

Seeing as how imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, I thought I’d go ahead and make a a series of posts about music after the Sunday Night Serenades of Greg, my internet acquaintance over at A Chronicle of Fables. This series of mine won’t just focus on music I particularly enjoy, though that may often be the case, but also on the strange and unique.

I found out about Midlake randomly on the internet one day back in December. Since then, I must have listened to this particular song upwards of five hundred times. It helps that I’m easily amused by the name of the song.

Roscoe comes from Midlake’s concept album The Trails of Van Occupanther which focuses on the day to day lives of pioneers at the end of the 19th century. This particular song provokes in me a nostalgia for a period in the past I never experienced, which I suppose is quite haunting. Myself, I find that Midlake’s sound falls somewhere between Radiohead and Neil Young. Here’s Head Home which finds Midlake in Fleetwood Mac territory:

But there’s someone I’d like to see
She never mentions a word to me
She reads Leviathan

I think I’ll head home

For me, there’s something inherently attractive about these lines. I mean, a girl ignoring you while she reads Hobbes? What kind of glutton for punishment does this guy have to be to be pining for a woman who reads this type of book? At least he wisely, though with melancholy, goes home and gives up his pursuit.

Midlake’s earlier material is less appealing to me as I find them much to similar to acts such as Radiohead or The Flaming Lips. I guess it’s just difficult to live up to these comparisons and the expectations they bring. To see what I’m talking about you can watch the video for Balloon Maker from Midlake’s first LP, Bamnan and Slivercork:

Interesting piece of trivia: the previous video was directed by My Name is Earl’s Jason Lee.

Well, that’s it for this week. Next week: Moondog.