Best Free Music on the Internet IV

Well I know the month of August may have been a bit of a let down if you're the kind of person who cares whether someone else (this someone else) writes things on the internet or not, but it was no let down for me. For one, I don't want the internet to get the wrong idea -- just because I haven't contributed much to him lately doesn't mean I haven't been spending time with him. The real excitement in August though was in the real world, what with the completion of my summer studio project (which I may share with the world shortly, at least in abbreviated form), vacation down in super hot land (I stepped out into a gloriously cool new world when I walked out the door Monday morning after being in Alabama and Georgia for the week), and the first week of school at WAAC under my (proverbial, because I haven't been wearing one much this week) belt.

One thing that there's been lots of this month, though, is good free music on the internet. I stopped by Brooklyn Vegan this morning and dropped in on "Wes' Weekly Hip-Hop Roundup" which is fine and good and all, but I have to say, I don't hear what the kids hear in the Game. Is that stuff boring or what? Bling this blang that blah boring feud with other boring rapper blah. It's all gansta pop ringtone rap to me (watch that video kids! That's Ugly Duckling; they might not be the best out there, but I guarantee they're having the most fun). So before you get all confused and waste your time listening to the latest phony single, I suggest you improve yourself by listening to this:

Epic Man feat. Plan B - "More is Enough"

I've never heard of this Epic Man before, but I reckon you can learn all about him where I got the song, Good Weather for Airstrikes. Seems he describes this track as the sound of "Prince and Eno having a brain-off with Quincy Jones", which sounds good unless you try and figure out what that means. But I can guarantee that you'll want to play it again if you play it once.

As a bonus, as long as I'm suggesting alternatives to the gansta pop ringtone rap, here's some classic Grouch for you:
Crusader for Justice
Clean Nikes
(warning the grouch is not known for the cleanliness of his language)

Best Free Music on the Internet III

Dear Ryan,

I heard a band you might like the other day. How do I know? Well, let me tell you a story. A little while ago our mutual friend Jake made a bit of a trip up here to the nation's capital to play some piano music. After the music ended, I made some observations about his new step-dad over pizza. The next day, it occurred to me that step-dad and a certain brother-in-law of my father-in-law would get along well. There was just something about them. My wife, though, insisted that I was crazy, that they were totally different and wouldn't get along at all. In trying to explain myself, I ended up describing said relation to Jake and my sister; when I got to the part where he goes to karaoke bars to sing Elvis songs, the argument ended because Jake revealed that step-dad has also been known to dress up as Elvis.

All this to say, I don't really know, I just think you might like the Cold War Kids. Let me know if you do.

-Rob

P.S. I especially recommend "Hospital Beds".

How Hot is It?

It's so hot that Pat Robertson now believes in global warming.

Thursday Travesty or Triumph IX

Well kids I bet yall thought you’d never see another one of these, but here it is, all larger than life and stuff, a fresh Thursday Travesty or Triumph. If you’re wondering about the apparent incongruity of posting something on Tuesday and explicitly naming it Thursday, well, I can understand that. See, I started doing these (these being brief reviews of interesting public spaces) way back in the fall of 2005 (a long, long time ago, in other words); at that time, I had lots of time on Thursdays, because I had classes on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, which left me not wanting to study Thursday morning. Well now that’s all over with, and I definitely have class on Thursday. If you weren't around when I started the series, there's a format. I present something, you tell me whether its a travesty or a triumph. No in-betweens. Any rate, enough explanation.

Today’s Thursday Travesty or Triumph is known as “Ghost Parking Lot”. It was installed in 1977-78 by SITE, a design firm in New York. (As an irrelevant sidebar, I have a particular fondness for SITE because one of their associate architects during that period shares my name.) The context is suburban Conneticut. I don’t think it is really necessary to describe the project too much, as the photos (for once) do an excellent job. As SITE themselves say, “the Ghost Parking Lot inverts the relationship between two typical ingredients of the suburban shopping plaza – automobiles and asphalt.” I find the construction photos particularly appealing in understanding the site:

Perhaps most interesting of all though (at least visually) is the deterioration of the site:

(image from here)

I suppose it looks considerably more ghost-like after twenty five years of neglect than it did when it was first built. The only unfortunate part of the neglect, I think, is that it no longer exists. A quick (post-demolition) write up by a local can be found here; unsurprisingly, you can also find an article at Roadside America (an invaluable resource).

(As a final note, some of these photos that I’ve put up here are scans from a book (apparently out of print) called “SITE: Architecture as Art”, so I would recommend not reproducing or using them for yourself; according to the book, they were taken by Ronald Feldman Fine Arts, NY, NY)