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pyani

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[29 Sep 2009|11:01pm]
[ music | The Velvet Underground: Oh! Sweet Nuthin' ]

So it turns out that Rapidshare deletes files if they haven't been downloaded in awhile. Weird. Anyway, in case you care, here's a list of what they haven't deleted yet, sorted by the number of downloads:

Violent Femmes - Add It Up - 500
Coala Pascal - Lifting Cranes Have Already Heard That - 480
Kids soundtrack - 369
Mark E. Smith & Ed Blaney - Smith and Blaney - 118
Warp: Routine - 106
Wire - Send - 104
Wall of Voodoo - Call of the West - 95
Supergrass - I Should Coco - 72
Troubleman Mix-Tape Disc 1 - 65
+/- - Self-titled Long-playing Debut Album - 62
Silver Scooter / Cursive - Split EP - 61
Troubleman Mix-Tape Disc 2 - 51
Jarvis Cocker - Further Complications - 9
Algebra Suicide - 6
Ривущие Струны - MS : 4 - 5
Volante - 45 Degrees North - 4
Volante - Static Until Sunrise
Providence Union - Die Me Infinity +4 - 1
Perth - Perth EP - 1

To be honest, the only one that really surprises me is that the Coala Pascal disc has gotten such good attention. Who would've thought some unknown post-rock band from Ukraine could get downloaded almost as much as the Violent Femmes' greatest hits? It is bothersome that the two Volante records, Providence Union and Perth have been downloaded so little. Algebra Suicide could probably use a bit more love as well...

download today, before this shit is deleted! & let me know what you think...

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Better late than... [26 Sep 2009|03:39pm]
[ music | Blonde Redhead: Equus ]

In case you hadn't seen them yet, I wanted to direct you to photographs from my wedding to Marina. The professional shots of our wedding day can be found here, taken by Moscow-based photographer Elena Artemova.

A second set of photos, found here contains photographs of our wedding day as taken by my sister Katie as well as Marina's aunt Galina. There are also photos from our honeymoon to Hawaii, and the very end of the set has a professional set of photos taken by Charles West.

If you just want to see my shots from our honeymoon, you can head here.

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[27 Aug 2009|11:13pm]
[ music | Elliott Smith: The Last Hour ]

honeymoon/etc.

sorry for not having more photos where we're the center of attention, but that is what every other camera on earth is for.

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[08 Aug 2009|10:40pm]
[ music | Jay-Z + DJ Danger Mouse: Justify My Thug ]

I should mention that wedding photos have started to pop up online: my brother has posted some pictures in his vacation photos, and his girlfriend did the same. So feel free to check out Scott and Aubrey's vacation while you're really looking for me and Marina.

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[07 Aug 2009|04:47am]
RIP John Hughes
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[05 Aug 2009|10:43pm]
[ music | Archers Of Loaf: Toast ]

Sorry to have posted this before wedding pictures, but I didn't take any...if you've got some, feel free to throw 'em up in the comments.

In the meantime, we're on honeymoon.

( View from the balcony behind the cut... )

1 comment|post comment

[28 Jul 2009|12:05am]
[ music | The Fiery Furnaces: Chief Inspector Blancheflower ]

Just broke out Blue Meanies' Kiss Your Ass Goodbye for the first time in what seems like a decade, but is more likely the first time in eight years. Close enough. Wanted to hear that "it'll all work out" song. That one and the other couple I remember liking are still pretty awesome, taking me back to high school when all you needed was some loud ska-punk and you were alright. Funny how times change. Still haven't decided whether I should rip it and listen to it online...I mean, what would people think if my last.fm page got cluttered with the Meanies? (sarcasm).

In other news, my relatives arrive later today, which means that my wedding is most definitely happening on Saturday and holy shit is that soon and wow.

YEHAA!

3 comments|post comment

[25 Jun 2009|01:04am]
[ music | Jeff Buckley: Corpus Christi Carol ]

So, a company called Swisscom is the monopolist wifi operator at my hotel. I signed up, paid them 70GBP for a week of internet access, and they cut me off without warning, because I had "too many connections open".

I assume they are referring to bittorrent, but whatever.

I resolve the situation by a phone call to them, after the hotel had already made a call. Swisscom told me that other guests had complained about bandwidth being slow (hmm, if that was the case, why did the hotel seem surprised to hear Swisscom's reason for the block?).

Ultimately, the best they could offer me -- not even an apology, but merely a veiled admittance that they should have contacted me before cutting me off -- was to cancel my weeklong package and refund me the whole thing. Which would've then left me paying 18GBP per day til the end of the week. And yes, now that I think about it, I should've gotten 70GBP refunded and paid them 54GBP til Saturday.

Fuckers. Charging for a week way more than my DSL charges me in a month, and for *less*.

At least I made it to the Thermals gig last night in time to hear "A Pillar of Salt".

1 comment|post comment

[22 Jun 2009|10:42pm]
[ music | Clipse: In this Game ]

Enjoying my typical London dinner for one (actually, post-actual dinner for one...a scumbag's dessert, or...?): a 255g bag of Tangy Cheese Doritos and a 4-pack of 440ml cans of beer, this time Carlsberg.

Lilfe is sweet.

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[26 May 2009|09:02pm]
RIP Michael Robert Freding

I realize we didn't remain in touch after high school, but I hate to know that I'll never see you again.
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[05 May 2009|08:03am]
[ music | Sonic Youth: Tunic (Song For Karen) ]

Just got back from Egypt on Sunday. Pictures

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[05 Mar 2009|09:56pm]
[ music | Thomas Jefferson Slave Apartments: Contract Dispute ]

On the one hand, I am a little embarrassed to be approaching 29 years old, sneaking around my apartment at 9:45pm because the doorbell rang unexpectedly, and then being reluctant to open it when I see two dudes who I have never seen before standing in the hallway.

Then again, on the other hand, the doorbell rang unexpectedly at 9:45pm and there were two dudes who I have never seen before standing in the hallway.

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meme! [23 Feb 2009|11:11pm]
[ music | Yo La Tengo: Song For Mahila ]

New meme: here's a totally random way to make your new random band's new random album cover. Post one! Go to “Wikipedia.” Hit “random” and the first article you get is the name of your band. Then go to “Random Quotations” and the last four or five words of the very last quote of the page is the title of your first album. Then, go to Flickr and click on “Explore the Last Seven Days” and the third picture, no matter what it is, will be your album cover. via avclub

As such, I present to you the first album from my band 19243 Bunting, entitled "A Simple System That Works".
6 comments|post comment

[25 Jan 2009|03:25pm]
[ music | The Mountain Goats: San Bernardino ]

Wow, it's all over. Slightly over one year, and I listened to 58 albums, all chosen by you. Perhaps more interestingly, that suggests I have another 500 or so CDs that have just been collecting dust for the last six or seven years, which is kind of a frightening thought: why do I need that much music that I don't listen to? Then again, the way I listen to music now is basically ripping a record, playing it once, and then letting it come up randomly on shuffle. So, probably, I should just buy the biggest hard drive and iPod that I can, and just rip it all. Who knows.

Anyway, it was an interesting year. I think your choices were often of the obvious nature, but maybe that's not so bad. I was hoping to dig out some obscurities, but maybe listening to that Gorillaz record for the first time in years is a better idea after all. Who knows? In any case, I am done with this and do not intend to revisit it. Although never say never....if there was anything that got passed over that you are a) looking to hear yourself or b) wondering what I think about it, let me know in the comments and maybe I'll rip it, give it a listen, and post it online.

( behind the cut is a list of everything I listened to this year )

btw, with regard to those links, keep two things in mind: 1) half of them were written when this journal was friends-only. If something doesn't work, let me know, and I can either make the entry un-friends-only or can befriend you (if I know you); 2) without a doubt, many of these download links have died since they were originally posted: if that is the case for something you wanted to listen to, post a comment and I will get it back online ASAP.

As always, your thoughts and comments are more than welcome.

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[17 Jan 2009|02:11pm]
[ music | CAN: Musette ]

I know that Jesus & Mary Chain are one of those bands that everyone should hear and get into at some point, but I never did. I ended up with Darklands after spending a week visiting a friend in Nairobi -- in between drinking and drug abuse, I burned a few CDs. I don't know if I ever listened to those discs, but I doubt it. So, listening to J&MC now is a bit odd, as I have heard 20+ years of music that has come since and has obviously been influenced by them. Case in point: The Raveonettes -- everyone compared them to J&MC, but I had no baseline. Now I can say that yes, they are very similar. This record is rather short -- around 40 minutes -- and essentially reminded me of a more guitar-y My Bloody Valentine. Good stuff. Essential? I'm not ready to say that, but good for sure.

As always, if you decide to download the record from the link above, I'd love to hear your thoughts on it.

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[10 Jan 2009|06:26pm]
[ music | Sleepytime Trio: 30 Equals ]

Well, a year on and we're winding down this project. I wish I'd come up with a clever name for it, like the guys at the AV Club did with Popless or My Year of Flops. However, I didn't really know what I was gonna do or for how long it would remain interesting. Anyway, I will have more comments on all of that after I finish this for good next week, I guess. For now, let's talk about Нож Для Frau Müller - Мечты - Третий Сорт, which I picked up in the y2k while doing study abroad in Moscow. I suppose my first introctuion to the band, also known as Messer für Frau Müller, came while hanging out in the dorm room shared by [info]malevich and [info]tomatos, where we used to hang out, drink beer and vodka, and listen to all sorts of music. We would all be pleasantly surprised that we knew Fugazi, for example, and that was the basis of our friendship. I think the one gig I went to that semester (with those two guys and also with [info]qlcha if memory serves) was Frau's, at Moscow's venerable Proekt OGI club. Anyway, the music is some boppy electronic stuff. Lounge music, I guess, but with lots of kitschy samples from Soviet movies. It's pretty good stuff, and I used to always get high to it back in the day. I would probably do the same now, if I had a consistent weed supply.

As always, if you decide to download the record from the link above, I'd love to hear your thoughts on it.

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[10 Jan 2009|05:19pm]
[ music | King Khan & The Shrines: Welfare Breed ]

I have tons of CDs I've never bothered to rip for whatever reason. As such, many of them I have not listened to for years. Some of them I've probably not played since before moving to Russia, nearly six years ago. Now while I obviously kept all these discs because I liked them c. end-2001, some of them probably don't necessarily merit another listen. Others, most likely, do. As such, if it pleases the court, I will periodically post polls listing ten albums I have not ripped (and most likely not listened to in years). Whichever album in the group gets the most votes, I will rip it, listen to it, perhaps comment on it, and post it on this very LJ.

PS: You can vote for more than one!

Poll #1328588
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 14

What to listen to next?



So, after a year of doing this, this is the FINAL poll! Huzzah. Sorry for the random nature of this poll: it's the end of the alphabet (i.e. Russian miscellaneous) plus a bunch of CDRs that somebody somewhere sometime burned for me and I didn't do anything with.
6 comments|post comment

[05 Jan 2009|08:09pm]
[ music | The Fiery Furnaces: Quay Cur ]

I was pretty surprised when the Evergreen Trio / February Stars Union split "Adults Are Threatening Creatures" tied (four-fucking-way!) for this week, as I honestly haven't given either band a thought in years. Well, I should say that is only true about the FSU -- Evergreen Trio I thought of last year when their solo album came through alphabetically. Basically though we've got two bands typical of late 90s midwest indie/emo, both of which show promise, but neither of which is great. I mean, listening to the screams on the last FSU track almost make me laugh, whereas I am sure that ten years ago I took them a lot more seriously. My loss, I suppose. Anyway, this split EP is definitely very necessary for fans of the obscure late 90s indie/emo, but if it falls further through the cracks, probably it won't matter much. But a nice relic of a time when you thought your friends' bands, with all their earnestness, would be going all the way.

As always, if you decide to download the record from the link above, I'd love to hear your thoughts on it.

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[05 Jan 2009|02:58pm]
[ music | Nightmares On Wax: Les Nuits (radio edit) ]

Another day, another compilation (that time of year, I suppose). Today it's an album that, from what I recall, was set to celebrate Warp Records tenth anniversary: Warp Routine. Again, I am sure I acquired this for free back in my music director stage of life, a time when I wasn't picky about my acquisitions, as I wasn't paying for them, and the key reason to keep a CD in many cases was whether it may have resale vaue down the road (eBay, hello?). In any case, that explains why I ended up with this CD of electronic music, IDM or what have you. Although this is probably among the tops of the genre, I can't say that most of it stands out beyond being background music. I did dig tracks by Mira Calix and Autechre, and the Jamie Lidell song made me wonder if he was really singing about fucking someone in the back of his daddy's car. Oh, and the droney nature of the untitled Polygon Window song was alright, too. But ultimately, this is nothing I am going to find myself going back to. However, given that I now essentially only listen to music on shuffle (10,931 songs and going strong!), I certainly won't complain when this stuff pops up.

As always, if you decide to download the record from the link above, I'd love to hear your thoughts on it.

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[04 Jan 2009|03:55pm]
[ music | Cinematic Orchestra: Child Song ]

The problem with writing about something like the Troubleman Mix-Tape is that not only is it a compilation, it's a fucking huge compilation. Something like 50 bands contributed to this 2-disc set, which really is arranged more like a mix-tape from Troubleman's humble owner. You've got everything on here from spazzy hardcore to pained emo to lo-fi indie pop to noise to drone core to dance punk to [insert genre here], but it is all somewhat cohesive, very much a record of what the hip kids were listening to eight years ago. Bands you'll recognize on here include Blonde Redhead, !!!, Melt-Banana, Black Dice, The Locust, Radio 4, and Unwound, among others. Listening to this for the first time in years reminds me of why I once wrote an email to Troubleman Unlimited's propriator, asking him that if I sent him like $100, could he "subscribe" me to a year's worth of his label's excellent and widely varying releases? I think he said yes, but I never sent him the money, probably because I was broke.

Disc 1
Disc 2

As always, if you decide to download the record from the links above, I'd love to hear your thoughts on it.

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