Music of the moment, 6/17/11 - MODULAR - Sonic Explorations

Mellow, moody soundscapes with a hint of angst and longing.

Verified! The rapture will take place tomorrow at 6pm!

Using my son's copy of "The Very Hungry Caterpillar" by Eric Carle and the highly precise and extremely reliable science of Numerology, I have conclusively proven Harold Camping's claim that the rapture will take place tomorrow at 6pm...

First, we convert the word May to numbers and then add them to the numbers of the date...

M,A,Y = 13, 1, 25

13+1+25 = 39

39+21+2011 = 2071

and then add the time (US standard)...

2071 + 6 = 2077

Next, we convert the letters in the title and the author's name to numbers and then add them together...

The = 33

Very = 70

Hungry = 93

Caterpillar = 115

Eric = 35

Carle = 39

33+70+93+115+35+39 = 385

We then do the same for the word "rapture"...

Rapture = 90

Adding 385 and 90, we get 475

Now, we crack open the book and we see that the very hungry caterpillar (obviously an allusion to a true believer) ate through a total of 16 unique items:

1 apple

2 pears

3 plums

4 strawberries

5 oranges

1 piece of cake

1 ice-cream cone

1 pickle

1 slice of Swiss cheese

1 slice of salami

1 lollipop

1 piece of cherry pie

1 sausage

1 cupcake

1 slice of watermelon

and 1 nice green leaf

Adding that to 475, we get 491

In total, we see that he sampled a total of 23 individual items...

491 + 23 = 514

If we then multiply 514 by the number of the words in the book's title, 4, we get 2056

The story takes place over the course of about 3 weeks (one week of eating and about 2 weeks of, erm, pupating) for a total of 21 days.   

2056 + 21 = 2077, which, as we saw at the beginnig, corresponds with May 21, 2011, 6pm

Thus is it written...

The Albums of 2010 - A look back at a great year for music, pt 2

Palamino, Trampled By Turtles
Admittedly, I only first heard of these guys when they played live in our store back in April.  Happily, they tore the roof off.  Highly recommended for fans of heavy pickin' country-bluegrass.







Sigh No More, Mumford and Sons
See, folk music doesn't have to suck.  Infinitely re-listenable.

(warning: contains heartfelt honesty manifest as a naughty word)






If I Had A Hi-Fi, Nada Surf
Lets face it, you're probably not cool enough to know who Nada Surf is.  These now-ancient Indie darlings return with a great collection of covers of some of their favorites songs from a lot of artists so cool that I don't even know who they are.







I Learned the Hard Way, Sharon Jones & the Dap Kings
The queen of the Soul revival returns with another power-house disc crammed full of grooves to shake and sway to.

"Part One"



"Part Two"






The Electronic Anthology Project, The Electronic Anthology Project
Built to Spill's Doug Martsch and Brett Nelson collaborate on this small collection of Built to Spill songs re-imagined as 80's New Wave cuts.




To All My Friends, Blood Makes The Blade Holy: The Atmosphere EP's, Atmosphere
Billed as a "double EP",  at 12 tracks long most people might simple call it an album but such lovable scamps as Ant and Slug are free to call it whatever they like.




Something for Everyone, DEVO
Contrary to popular belief, they are not through being cool.




Fool, Warpaint
Dreamy, hauntingly beautiful art-rock by dreamy, hauntingly beautiful art rockers.


bonus video!

The Albums of 2010 - A look back at a great year for music.

2010 was a great year for new music. From the emergence of fresh, new, talent to solid offerings from the sophomores as well as the seniors, the end if this decade has set a high bar for the rest of the century.  (How's that for hubris?)


Without further ado and in no particular order, I present my "Top However-Many-it-Turns-Out-to-Be Albums of 2010"...

---

Kicking-off my list is living legend and national treasure Willie Nelson with "Country Music".
Some have labeled it Willie's attempt at a Bluegrass album but its really mostly just good ol' fashioned Country Swing with some extra mandolin thrown-in.  Worth every penny, Country Music comes off as a love-letter to yesterdays forgotten standards.  Willie always has the best stuff.






Suburbs, Arcade Fire. 
The kids from Montreal just keep getting better and better with their latest offering.  







 All-Time Greatest Hits, Buck Owens
What can I say, I love me some Buck Owens.  That Bakersfield sound that he helped pioneer is what country music is all about, not that plastic country-pop crap they sell on TV and the radio.  Throw away your Toby Keith already and Buck-up with this definitive release of Buck Owens #1s and fan favorites!





ArchAndroid, Janelle Monae
Hands-down the absolute best R&B/Soul album offered-up to us this year by a  Messianic, time-traveling android from the future.

[official video, worth watching]



Heligoland, Massive Attack
Horace Andy returns with a whole stable full of talented guest musicians to deliver such a solid Massive Attack album that we can probably forgive him for waiting seven years since 100th Window to do it.
(I couldn't find any actual videos for this album)


Mojo, Tom Petty
Unlike far too many of his contemporaries, Tom Petty seems to still know why he started rocking-out in the first place.  With Mojo, he shows us that he's still got it and its still good.



The list goes on, I'll add some more this afternoon if I have time...

Slobeau Babe

I generally reserve my hobo humpin' for Wednesdays just for the sheer cliche value but I thought I'd give it a whirl on a Thursday for a change and see what happened...

Electric Beaugaloo

In my dreams, I am a break-dancing GOD!
In real life, I'm content to enjoy other people doing it: (video)

Lets hear it for low-hanging pants...

Ladies and Gentlemen, Hip-hop clothing pioneer, Mr Stringbean...



Read the fascinating yet tragic tale of Stringbean