Meet me in the desert.

Jan 20th = NYE Version 2 = fantastic!!

Card = no. Stamp on forehead = yes.

jackboot stamping on forehead forever = not sure

You almost make Orwell sound cuddly there, Mark.

does yr offer of burning the d.i. singles (ala yr top 136 of the 90s) still stand?

Natch.

It's interesting that Orwell's getting some attention of late round these parts, 'cause a couple days ago I was going to talk about a perceived connection between his dystopian futureworld and Broadcast's "The Noise Made by People". On first listen, the album was terrying. It had to do with some kind of underlying austerity, a cold iron at the core of the songs with the warmer, more 'atmospheric' touches applied like painted red lipstick on a mannequin. But then repeated listening begins to reveal the slighest hints of humanity- a vocal quiver or an unexpected inflection was all that was needed to collapse my theory. Still, there's something in the collapsing machinery that ends a few of the tracks that still give me the feeling that the CD is an artifact of some unnervingly unsentimental tomorrow. (Or maybe I'm just exorcising some unplaced emotional baggage from my apparent swing from tense indie kid to allembracing poptart-in-training, re: the 'soullessness' of modern pop).

The non-Broadcast track that comes closest to the way I was hearing the album is probably "Pulk/Pull Revolving Doors", which makes me think of a skewed 'show & tell' session, taking place in some disturbingly altered parallel universe-

Teacher: Okay, settle down, class. Today, Thommy's going to tell us all about doors. Thommy?
Thommy: There are doors on the rudders of big ships and there are revolving doors.

The world seems more Orwellian every day. Or more Huxleyesque. Or more Gibsonesque. I suppose the desert would seem Lynchian. Rargh rargh rargh!!! I love it!!!!!!!

I have D.I. Go Pop to sell. (I'm gonna sell all my CDs, I think. Free- jazz and musique concrete, anyone?)

10:58am
Leaving the US today in a few hours. Then 3 days in Paris. Then home. Talk to y'all in a few days.

2:43pm
Back home. Now you can "Meet Me in the Grimy and Dangerous Streets of Johannesburg". Paris was good. Cold, though. The kind of cold that makes the sensation of feeling "too warm" seem as alien and remote as, well, Arizona. One high point: listening to "Amnesiac" on top of the Eiffel Tower.

I'm not sure if this is a universal experience, but whenever I return from a sizeable period of travel, I experience disorienting 'mis- memories'- fr'instance, listening to CDs last night as my brain hovered between dreams and consciousness, I kept feeling as if I was about to open my eyes to find myself in a hotel room in Paris, or my bed in Tucson, or felt a niggling worry over whether or not my luggage would arrive. Each time I would awake to find myself at home, which I found (perhaps oddly) more saddening than comforting.

Records I Bought While on Holiday:
(in order of purchase)

Prefuse 73 - Vocal Studies and Uprock Narratives
Boards of Canada - In A Beautiful Place Out In The Country
King Biscuit Time - King Biscuit Time "sings" Nelly Foggit's Blues in "me and the Pharaohs"/No Style EP
Broadcast - The Noise Made By People
Aphex Twin - Come to Daddy EP
SchneiderTM - Moist
Disco Inferno - D.I. Go Pop
The Avalanches - Since I Left You
kid606 - GQ on the EQ++
Microstoria - Init Ding
N.E.R.D - In Search Of...
Schneider TM &
KPT.michi.gan - Binokular
Dntel - Life is Full of Possibilites
Piano Magic - Seasonally Affective

Too much IDM. I wanted more pop and hiphop. Oh well. IDM still good. I'll comment on some of these later.
(additionally, all of these were found used, save for "Since I Left You", "Binokular" and the Piano Magic and DNTEL albums. Honestly, what some people'll get rid of.)

Start with DNTEL, someone very special to me has been telling me to get it. But I am scared and need to save money for my forthcoming holiday and the Chems new album.

Well, as with a lotta the stuff I bought, I've still got a lot of listening to do before I can form any concrete opinions, but there's a strain of Bad Indie Pop running throughout the DNTEL record- "Tweemotronica" perhaps? I've a penchant for IDM/glitch with vocals, so I hoped that "Life is Full of Possibilities" would be my dream record, but it seems my tolerance for "wibbling" indie is lower than expected- even when it's also skipping, clicking and squelching. That said, I still like a good deal of the album, and the instrumental cinematic glitchscapes are certainly very pretty. The vocal tracks with the indie grrls seem better than the ones featuring indie bois (but perhaps my judgement is clouded by my prior favour for other female-fronted 'atmospheric'-electro acts Portishead and Broadcast). So it seems like this will either grow on me or leave me feeling only partially satisfied and slighly annoyed, like it does now. Definitely one you should try and listen to before you purchase, Ronan.

Wow. Until last night, when the video was playing on VH1, I don't think I'd ever heard Laurie Anderson's "Superman". I really like it.

9:01pm
What I expected from the King Biscuit Time release, considering
1) the title of the record and
2) that it's the solo project from The Beta Band's Steve Mason,
was charming ramshackle Beta fun 'n oddness (which, for 5/8ths of the album, is what I got) and not two magnificent pastoral pop songs (the shimmering, sun-dappled "I Love You" and the gentle, breezily melancholic "Time To Get Up") and a glorious feelgood anthem (the bouyant "I Walk The Earth"). Suprises like these are very good things.

12:00pm
Mitch is, astoundingly, travelling again. Meet you back here in ten days, k?

3:05pm
I just remembered that I've got this (sort-of) blog thing. Anybody want me to talk about anything?

"Overheard", Installment #2:

Scene: Exiting a shopping mall after dinner.

Situation: This is a couple weeks ago- I've just had dinner with a group of people that I'm vacationing with. One of them is quite worried about her family, she's just got this feeling that there's something wrong. Her friend is trying to comfort her. I'm walking a few steps behind, listening. (Side note: Look, I don't do this all the time, I'm not some mad sociologist or anything.)

I feel a cold shiver run thru me. Why? Why: The comfort offered by the friend sounds so rehearsed, so obvious, so delivered- but at the same time the insincerity is immaculately fashioned, with such calculated precision and care of craft, that it displayed- paradoxically- what could only be some kind of genuine concern for her friend.

Did you find that Prefuse 73 C.D. really sucks yet? Cut-up beats+ cut- up raps+IDM/hip-hop snoozerama...

Mr. Bourke Rat: Nah, I'm pretty sure the Prefuse disc doesn't suck, but it has yet to impress me in any serious way. First listen: very underwhelming. Every track built from hiphop and jazz cut-ups that didn't seem to blend/collide/contrast/do whatever cut-ups should do in any particularly memorable manner. Snoozerama. Then: I paid a little more attention, and the record began to sound appealingly intimate- my favourite bit was the processed sound that resembles a plaintive horn wail in "5 Minutes Away". And now: I've just listened to it for the first time in a few weeks and I'm underwhelmed again.

*Warning: Something You Probably Know Already to Follow*:

Thanks to the ever-weakening local currency, buying import (read: everything that isn't locally pressed) albums is becoming a very, *very* costly exercise. The good side: shiny, (and locally-pressed) pop is still relatively affordable. I've subsequently decide that I should start buying these records. My recent pop ephiphanies have mostly been mp3-bound events: I wasn't sure that I needed entire albums of the stuff. Just a couple months later and it seems silly that I could've been so cautious about giving a pop-house album a chance to find it's way into my listening life (so tentative was I that I shamefully didn't even buy the thing: I burned an mp3 copy.) To my then-suprise, embracing "Rooty" was remarkably easy, and a fuckload of fun to boot. If I still had any lingering indie-kid groin fear issues, "Get Me Off" set me free.

That's not really what I wanted to talk about, though. I'm getting there, I think. So where were we? Oh yeah, I had just discovered that pop could sustain my love for the length of an entire lp and was cheap too, so with this in mind I finally picked up Aaliyah's self titled album. And (*Here Comes the Part You Probably Already Know*) it's astonishingly great. I already knew I loved "WNAR", "Try Again" and "More Than a Woman" (thanks to Mel W. for turning me on to "More.."), but apart from the enthusiastic writings of Mr. Finney and Mr. Honda, why hasn't even more of a fuss been made about, say, the menacing tropicalia of "Read Between the Lines" ("he's talking in dubs" is a fantastic lyric, too) or the rubber-band shooting, orchestra-hit indignance of "U Got Nerve" or the underwater daydreams of "It's Whatever" or the epic melodrama of "I Refuse" or the gorgeous ache of my favourite Portishead song ever, "I Care 4 U" or just about everything else on the album? Nevertheless, it's one of the most instantly loveable records I've yet discovered, and one that I'm plan to cherish (and probably continue to gush about) for some time.

10:28pm
As per Jel's request, I'm taking a break from pretending to study and updating.

Last song I listened to as a teenager: Eminem's "Stan".
First song I listened to as a post-teenager: Eminem's "Kill You".

I got less action during my teenage years than your average priest.

I forgot how much I enjoy the inflated sense of self-importance that blogging provides!

He who cries most, wins.

Is it "Igbo Uku" or "Igbo Ukwu"? And what's the difference between Igbo Ukwu and Igbo?

I should probably stop being a lazy fucker and get a job now, huh?

How did I get this old without loads of important stuff happening?

Male Senufo Mask: Korubla.
Female Senufo Mask: Kpelie.

Okay Okay the beaded apron worn by Ndebele girl post-puberty, pre- marriage is called "Isiphephetu". I can remember that by thinking "Is she prepared to?" haha. ha. Any of you UK poster's know about Yinko Shonibare? His art was apparently displayed in the tube stations- photos of a black man as a victorian dandy? ring a bell? Anyway I gotta write about him.

Uhm.

shoulda kept it up man

Do you still like Aaliyah, Mitch?

And how is post-adolescence? Did you get depressed?

yeah, we need an update!

2:30 pm
Wow, I thought I was the last person who remembered this thing! Let's see: 'Aaliyah' still good, but on the hiatus pile for now so I can forget enough of it to rediscover its greatness in a few months.

Basically, music listening of late has consisted of 4 things: "The Eminem Show", this mix cd I made with some recent pop singles and other stuff I had on mp3 but not on cd, whatever mp3s I've soulsought that day and "Music for Airports". I'm just gonna go and give ya the mix cd tracklist because I'm convinced it's the greatest mix cd ever:

1) mystikal - bouncin' back

2) soulwax - smells like booty (quiet ronan)

3) aaliyah - are you that somebody?

4) outkast - the whole world

5) the strokes - hard to explain (quiet everybody)

6) basement jaxx - '4 my people' remix

7) toya - no matta what (party all night) (i heard a version of this on the radio with the filtered jungle beats replaced with conventially paced r&b beats and it wasn't nearly as good. did they change it or do i have a remix or what?)

8) dr dre - what's the difference?

9) jay-z - big pimpin' (the most perfect beat ever obv)

10) tweet - oops oh my (i don't like it as much as i thought i did but it's still good)

11) the avalanches - run dna (as good as it is, somehow this ruins the flow of the mix)

12) m.r.i - blue

oh and while i mostly avoided depression, post-adolescence is still kinda sucky, insofar as I hoped that 1) by 20 i'd be a more secure, confident, motivated person (my last "relationship" ended so awkwardly that, had it been his experience, even ramosi would be too embarrassed to relate the details) but since i can't go about re- writing my personal history i was holding out for 2) turning 20 would force me into a period of extended introspection from which I would emerge as a more secure, confident, motivated person. that hasn't happened either, but i'm like working on it and stuff i guess. (and this is also a bit why i stopped 'blogging' in the first place: i tired of electronic whining)(a complaint so commonplace it's become tiresome and whiny itself)(but now that i think of it's perhaps useful, since i don't unload this stuff on my friends but it's fine for you internet foax to wade thru the emotional debris of mitchell lastnamewithheld cos you can just press the 'x' in the top right hand corner and my problems/issues/baggage/stuff disappears) (nonetheless if i decide to reanimate this thang, i think i'd like to put on my daft punk robot mask and focus more on the music and less on me)(maybe i should get a Proper Blog)

No, just talk with us. We are kind and will commiserate on bad experiences, for we have all been there. :-)

no x in the top right corner on my computer help what do I do

10:27pm
I'm gonna get an ulcer soon if I don't stop this. How often and how aggressively do you examine your taste? I made a decision a few weeks ago that I'd pay a whole lot more attention to the pop music that my country's listening to, specifically this Kwaito stuff. So I've tuned my radio into the appropriate stations (and don't think this is some kind of horribly severe ascetic listening approach, the decision came after hearing "4 My People", "Oops Oh My" and "Nothing" followed by some intriguing kwaito song that I had to cut off short cos I needed to get out the car).

And now: dammit if I don't feel *guilty* when I put The Dismemberment Plan or even The Eminem Show, and at stop lights my finger darts between the CD and FM buttons, making complicated aesthetic decisions while I change gears. Oh and there's probably a guy next to my car begging for change or a mother clutching her child or a variety of people who may well have a more intimate knowledge of what's going on in these songs (be able to understand the lyrics can only help)(then again a lot of it is dance/club-based so I think often we're talking chants and shouts more than introspection, but the "pure" hip-hop influence varies, today I heard a song with trad hip-hop flow, verses and then the beat came in and things got considerably house-ier)(shit I think I stole this endless parentheses thing from Mr. Daddino and I like it but it must be a bitch to read)(sorry Josh and Tim and Jel haha)

WHAT I'M TRYING TO SAY:
indie guilt + white guilt = whindie guilt?

11:46pm
No Doubt's "New" has got a great chorus. "Don't let it go away", you know the one.

12:58pm
I listened to Autechre's "Confield" for the first time in a few months tonight and I fell half-asleep and when I reached the last 30 seconds of "Eidetic Casein" I realized I had been dreaming that I was listening to Outkast's "Ms. Jackson". Will consider implications of this tomorrow.

9:45pm
"Eidetic Casein": it's a needy, diseased, flailing, pulling itself apart, pathetic, desperate song. Connect the sickly synth squelches, the little-bits-of-metal-that've-flaked-off-from-infected-piercings- and-have-embedded-themselves-into-your-skin rhythms, the Uncle-Bob- sans-Pepto-Bismol bass rumbles and whatever other queasy noises they've squeezed outta the 1s and 0s and it's an airy, wistful pop song. Not entirely unlike "Ms. Jackson", if you substitute the DSP whines for dog whines and.. oh okay I don't even believe myself at this point.

and I've never had anything pierced so I dunno if tiny little metal bits really come off and get into yr skin, probably not, but if so- gross!

Moment in Love:
Herbert - Addiction I'm stretched out on the couch, listening to this for the first time and it starts with the clatter of dishes being shoved into the washrack, there's a sipped glass of water, it's about domesticity, but it's not the complacent, comfortable sort - there's something seething under the surface, it's anger or it's desperation or it's loneliness - we feel it in the faraway synth chimes and the scratchy tick tick ticks and the distant diffuse fuzz distortion bleat rhythm and dammit if she isn't just throwing those plates onto the floor now and then the pulse arrives and you're suprised when the next tinkle you hear isn't shattered glass, it's this warm, gentle piano and *then*, then the vocals come in at that exact moment when evening turns into night and now everything's darker now but it's not cold it's a warm reddish black and music doesn't get closer than this.

10:50pm
today i got a warm look from a strange face (and i almost forgot my name)

yknow bodily functions does everything the band name, record title, cover art and genereal ambience (sorry i'm too lazy to think of a better word now) of the insides' euphoria should've done, but that band came about too early to take advantage of the glitch aesthetic that herbert'd prove would suit their 'late night/skin-on- skin/uncomfortably close yet painfully distant' routine so well (they had to make do with bjork-in-93 'dance' loops and plinky-guitar-with- delay-fx-4ADisms)(nb. i havent actually heard bjork from 93 so that might be wrong and unfair)

(sorry tim f re:'skykicking')(also 'genereal' sounds like 'venereal' yuk sorry)(tho i could pretend that was intentional)

Oh, you're saying that Insides album isn't good, you punk? *beats Mitch up* More seriously, this is the first thing I've read about Herbert that makes me want to investigate him rather than nod my head sagely about him.

*wipes blood from face* yeah okay ned 2 of the songs i kinda like. and i'm glad if i've made ya want to go and find out more about this record cos it's one of the best first time listening experiences i've had in a while (and i'll have to go off now and investigate secondhand sounds etc.)

on another topic, and i can't believe i forgot to tell you this cos it fucking blows my mind: i was in the 2nd hand store the other day and i saw a TWO DISC BAHA MEN CAREER RETROSPECTIVE!! with a big sticker on the front that said: from the band that brought you WHO LET THE DOGS OUT?

i mean *come on*. as jess rightly asked: "what's next? a sixpence none the richer box set?

Maybe they were well respected party folks who have been touring and playing for twenty years and only had the one hit. DID YOU EVER THINK ABOUT THAT? Then again maybe not.

fuck 20 years of dedication, i'll never forgive them for turning 2001 into 'the year that woof broke' (uhm okay so thats not an entirely accurate summary of the memorable events of last year)

(two mins later)
hmm amg sez their first lp was released in 1979! so this '20 years of party jams' stuff is all true! well there ya go. but enough about the baha men already. off to bed for me. and if yr good, maybe i'll try and explain (using lots of parentheses)(and that-dash-thing-i- sometimes-do) why i find love's "always see your face" so affecting.

(there's a baha men album called "doong spank"! all is forgiven)

Hurrah! A happy ending all around.

my own fucking nine:

brian eno - by this river
nore - nothin'
nelly - hot in herre (i 'got' it for the 1st time yesterday)
superpitcher - tomorrow (i thought my pc ate this but here it is!)
herbert - addiction, lotta other stuff from 'bodily functions'
vu - candy says
golden boy feat
miss kitten - rippin kitten
aaliyah - are you feelin me?
marvellous
cain - dub plate style

(what's this? gnu-ilks doesn't preserve my original spacing? bah.)(anyway, here's..)

"Overheard", Installment #3:

Scene: I'm sitting in the univeristy computer room, there's a fine arts faculty staff meeting going on in the next room. The door's closed, but I can still hear what's going on.

voice I don't recognize: "it sounds so jewish!
me (thinking): !
v.i.d.r: "so what *is* a 'sabbatical'?
me: ha ha

1:35 AM

yes so here I am in the wee hours of the morning, severly sleep-deprived and on a minor sugar high: anything you wanna talk about before my head comes crashing down on the keyboard or I start singing "the whole world" as loud as I can like I was doing 15 minutes ago in the car? this is your chance to Ask Mitch Anything™!

that thing at the beginning of the thread about where Ally's parents live reads like some scary stalker shit or something, what was I thinking?

What if the interweb never dies and I can still access this page when I'm like 45? What will I think when I look back on this chronicle of an awkward, confusing time in my young adulthood? A wasted youth compressed into kilobytes?

Gah, I have nothing useful to Ask Mitch TM but I'm avoiding my shelf fiasco in the other room. Here's a silly question: What under 2:15 song would you put on a road trip mix CD?