The Great Red Shark

Learn From the Scruff

2010-11-29T18:57:00.000Z

Mr Scruff - Producer Masterclass from Mat on Vimeo.

Brewmaster composes a song in a day, and lets you in for the entire session.

Andrew Bird Plays With the Sound of Self-Destruction

2010-11-10T15:13:00.000Z

Andrew Bird makes it all look so easy. The orchestration, and creative awareness.

The source of inspiration can take infinite forms, and for the Mr. Bird's new song he exclusively performs for TED, the everyday occurrence (especially for a sound wizard) of a noise loop triggers an investigation of other self-destructive loops and how they occur in biological, metaphysical, and creative instances.

I find that relationships are the greatest source of inspiration for my work...I guess I'm not too far off from using self-destructive loops, either.

Brian Eno Says More With Two Characters Than I Could Ever in One Post

2010-11-04T01:27:00.002Z

Beginnings of a would-be dreamer

2010-05-17T17:09:00.011+01:00

(photo by m. tounta)

I know what to do with this space now.

Succumbing to a collision of mid-exam inspiration and procrastination, I read a few articles from dubstep producer Matt Shadetek on creativity, production, and time management that helped prompt my new decision. The advice and strategies Matt discusses (yet briefly) coincide with both my creative plans for 2010/11 and my dissertation on artistic collaboration, all three contingent forces have planted seeds for a new website.

In the past, this space was used to promote new music, old music, my music, and your music, decorated by contributions from photographer friends and friendly artists. I have a new outlet for my de Leon-like obsession with new music which I urge you all to check out: The Kort

But there is an ever-growing obsession of mine that I've only just begun to nurture, and that is the mystery and philosophy of creativity.

So this website will now attempt the following:

1) To catalogue and discuss the day-to-day of my creative experiences as I work on my newest releases, with the hope of providing inspiration and caution to all my fellow producers and creative engineers out there

2) To showcase the brimming wealth of information these interwebs have to offer on creative production, management, composition, marketing, etc.

3) To keep you up to date on the various drafts of my own work and those of others that will serve as accompaniment to the discussions

4) To feature interviews/articles from artists worldwide on the 'creative' phenomenon, and how they interact with it

5) To bring you some sweet tunes and beautiful images.

Expect things to start popping up regularly from August onwards, but don't be surprised if I start a bit earlier...

For now, here:

Op-ed on Glo-fi music, bedroom producers, and the internet

Video tutorials for various DAWs

'The fringe benefits of failure'

Free music from Net Labels

'Against Artists'

Tunes:

The American Dollar - Flood (BadPanda28)

The Snare Bear - Somewhere Under The Rainbow Mix (mixtape lecture on dubstep and hiphop)

Homeward - Crocodile Water (live take)

Zomby - Aquarium

Yawn - Free Remix EP

love,

tgrs

New Remix//Letitia Lovely Longworth

2010-02-02T17:15:00.002Z

'Rockaway' Released on Cassette//Lazy Roar Records

2010-01-18T16:47:00.004Z

"Rockaway" is featured on Lazy Roar's Discovery Compilation Mixtape. Here's what the label has to say about the cassette:

"How do you describe the indescribable? Through song, of course. A few months ago, sixteen artists took on the challenge of composing a piece of music that captures of the experience of experience and the feeling of feeling. The finished product plays much more like a mixtape or collaboration than a mere compilation, with each song seamlessly picking up where the previous one left off. Cassette culture is back, baby. With over 70 minutes of material, this floating, flowing epic is not to be missed. Mastered and compiled by Rob Duffy of Kleptocephalus with awesome artwork by Jay Harmon of Boy Fruit. Edition of 100, dubbed onto translucent neony yellowish-green cassettes."

List of artists featured:
Bengar Use Hypnosis!
Blackfeet
Bob Dignan Anthony
Boy Fruit
Bradford
First Dog To Visit The Center Of The Earth
The Great Red Shark
Healthy Animal
The Letter Box Project
Living (member of Inverness)
Maxwell Hell
Mystery Cave
Panthalassa
Splinter Villa
Tamma's Music Box
Young Man

Go ahead and stream the album at last.fm. If you like what you hear, pick up a copy for $4 and support your local DIY record label.

- tgrs

'Still Alive' Gets An Official Release//Amazon and Beatport

2010-01-18T16:22:00.002Z

My track 'Still Alive' has been picked up by Vitamin D over at Cold Busted Records and distributed through the first in a series of chill-out compilation CDs and mixes. I'm very excited to have a song of mine out there in the wonderfully wide world of music shopping malls, and below are a number of ways for you to help support the artists and label involved in this record.

The tracks range from techno to 'Snatch' and 'Ocean's 11' funk breaks, coffee house jazz to warm electronica. It's all good, and there's sure to be something you enjoy on this mix.

You can buy the CD at Amazon, or pick up a digital copy from Beatport:

- tgrs

New Four Tet - Angel Echoes//BBC Radio Live Session

2010-01-10T23:33:00.001Z

Angel Echoes (BBC session) by Four Tet

new demo//'Rose 8'

2009-12-27T01:41:00.000Z

Show Recap//i think i can

2009-12-23T14:41:00.007Z

photos by jr

photos by ks

December 20th//Glasslands, NYC

2009-12-14T14:33:00.003Z

I've got my first live show in NYC coming up. I'm excited and nervous, but I'd love for you to come support if you're in the big city.

Glasslands Gallery - December 20th
289 Kent Ave.
Brooklyn, NY
8pm - $6

Big ups to all those involved:
http://www.myspace.com/inkyowl
http://www.myspace.com/sareeny
http://www.myspace.com/turtleambulance
http://www.myspace.com/thegreatredsharkmusic
http://www.myspace.com/badnancyk
http://heywo.blogspot.com/

Key To Happiness//not working

2009-11-13T16:43:00.002Z

hazy autumn, you trickster//Inside The Weather Is Cool

2009-11-09T20:14:00.008Z

Four Tet - Love Cry
so happy to hear this scot back in action. i wasn't a big fan of his collaboration with burial, which produced two tracks of dark, drawn out electronica think-pieces that felt like unpolished jams rather than works of attention care that X mr/ tet's back catalogue. i can feel carpet fur crawling up my socks, rubbing against my skin and leaving marks to remind me of dirty nights on the basement floor. its all about the groove, and the steady beat keeps your head moving through the intermittent explosions of sampled vocals. one for the wax heads, one for the headphones, one for the jazz fiends and nu-sex fiends. the ending is so quintessential four tet i had a wide grin on first listen.
//electronica\\

Boards of Canada - Seven Forty Seven
another downbeat electronica giant released new material, and i am so happy to be a fan of this genre. boc are the kings of their own wild, the fuzz as jesters and the beats as the court in which they dance a dusty slowdance with their queen, canadian tv show samples. insects and hazlenuts, crunchy leaves and a bubbly sneeze, two skips over acid puddles and three hits over winter snuggles. those windows aren't frosted, they're alive; your hot chocolate isn't dripping, it's escaping; this track ain't growing, it's evolved.
//electronica\\

Tamma's Music Box - Wasn't Born To Follow
a Byrds cover. the voice haunts my thoughts, and the layers of subtlety give me audiophile boners. everything about this track is perfect. please download and give it at least three spins, and get lost in the woods of this beautiful piece by a relatively unknown with a fancy looking website.
//folk\\

(photos via mental gymnastics)

if it's not enough
to return inside and expect nothing more
than the warmth of a mother's hug,
the gruff of a father's grin,
and the practiced gestures from friends old,
their eyes thicker but as welcoming as before,

to make you smile and thankful, still,
for twenty years luck and a few more
in the cards
(fingers crossed)

then i think it best
you settle for less.

- tgrs

We Can All Rest Easy//Chillout Show Playlist, 3

2009-11-02T18:06:00.003Z

The Chillout Show w/The Great Red Shark: 28/10/09
Massive Attack - Teardrop
Florence + The Machine - You Got The Love (Jamie of The xx Rework)
School of Seven Bells - Iamundernodisguise (alternate version)
Thievery Corporation - Lebanese Blonde
Joe Beats - Sleep or Bust
The Craters - Cool Enough For School
Tonnatill - Cultured
Mike Bones - What I Have Left (Alexis Taylor Verison)
White Hinterland - My Love (Justin Timberlake Cover)
Ruby Weapon - Daily Routine (Animal Collective Cover)
The Third Eye Foundation - La Dispute (Vs. Yann Tierson)
Patrick Watson - Sleeping Beauty
Amen Dunes - Patagonian Domes
Sareen - The Blanks Filled In (Demo 07-30-09)
Sam Amidon - Fall On My Knees
The Tallest Man On Earth - I Won't Be Found (Daytrotter Session)
Iron & Wine - Waitin' For A Superman
Cougar - Foil Epee Sabre
Sarah Jarosz - Song Up In Her Head
Chris Thomas King - Hard Time Killing Floor Blues
Beach House - Saltwater
The xx - Infinity
Memory Screen - Botone
Parotia Tree - Calvus Arcus
Aughra & Mosh Patrol - I'm Going To Sleep On It
Brian Eno - Deep Blue Day
Tamma's Music Box - The Endless Search
Cat Stevens - Father & Son
The Beatles - Tomorrow Never Knows
Belle and Sebastian - The State I Am In
Madeleine Peyroux - Dance Me to the End of Love

that's it for me on air until February. so, until then, keep checking out the songs I post up here if you're ever in need of a relaxing night in.

- tgrs

Blind Man's Colour - Jimmy Dove//new remix

2009-11-02T17:56:00.005Z

i spent my Hallowe'en working on a remix for Blind Man's Colour's track, 'Jimmy Dove.'

here's the result:
Blind Man's Colour - Jimmy Dove (the great red shark remix) by The Great Red Shark

to check out more BMC material, go visit their blog and myspace.

- tgrs

Candy for The Deaf and Blind//and away away we flow

2009-10-25T22:39:00.007Z

entirely your own, embodied and effervescent, a fiction of life present

Julianna Barwick - You Were Waiting (Daytrotter Session)
Tallest Man On Earth - I Won't Be Found (Daytrotter Session)
big ups daytrotter. the lonesome sounds beautiful when accompanied by piano. if i were a hermit, i'd settle for the company of an instrument, but the spoiled ways of this ending decade leaves me demanding a recorder as well, because as good as solitude may ring in a cave or a cabin or a closet, i have developed a feverish propulsion to lay everything to tape, to relive a few moments later or to sink back into the trance inevitable when recording. daytrotter accomplishes just this: inviting a few into their studios and pressing the little red circle, until the chills are at peak and the hairs are stiff.

//vocal.folk\\
(via daytrotter)

Thom Yorke - Hearing Damaged
the song travels in a distance mirroring physical hearing loss. by the end the sounds are increasingly grainy, pulsating, and fractured. it's always hard labeling an artist with the tagline 'genius,' but it's getting increasingly hard to deny that the genius suit looks good on thom.

//electronica\\

Tamma's Music Box - Sounds of Symmetry
so vibrant, these sounds of youth and dreams and majesty, harmonies fit for the weak and the strong and the dying or just born. hallowed in song, enriched with dripping reverb, and pleasure for any with the sense of imagination.

//acoustic.unsigned\\

Florence + The Machine - You Got The Love (The xx Remix)
this song deserves to be stuck in your bed for as long as you can bring yourself to feel sinned and saintly, backing music for meeting a lover or detaching a friendship, for losing yourself at a party, for emerging from a rain-soaked street corner into a coffeshop and coming face to face with your dream-life, for breaking up with your resolution and taking that puff, for spilling a drink into the ocean after plunging feet first, for brushing aside her hair and kissing her hips, for running your hands across his shoulders and clenching his back, for keeping those headphones fastened, for pressing your suit just to wear it while smoking a cigarette outside.

//dubstep.pop\\
(via curbcrawlers)

d z z b

if you want some budstep (did i say dubstep),
Bass Lift by The Snare Bear

- tgrs

relax and think easy//Chillout Show Playlist, 2

2009-10-22T14:52:00.003+01:00

The Chillout Show w/The Great Red Shark: 21/10/09
Reefer - Blue Moon
Black Moth Super Rainbow - Just For The Night (Laura Burhenn Remix)
Kings of Convenience - Weight of My Words (Four Tet Remix)
Taken by Trees - Anna
The Durutti Column - Better Must Come
Belle - Delicious Delicacies
CocoRosie - by Your Side
Tamma's Music Box - Emerging
Awkward I - Here All The Time
Max Richter - Sunlight
Hildur Gudnadottir - Ascent
Forest Swords - Glory Gongs
Walls - Burnt Sienna
Washed Out - Luck
Digga 8-bit - No One Ever Does
Tycho Anomaly - Body Is A Temple
Chordata Primate - Silo Circus
Chordata Primate - Fleties
Kurt Vile - Beach on the Moon
Panda Bear - Take Pills
The Very Best - Zam'dziko
Julianna Barwick - Choose
Filastine - Autology
Dr. Robutnik - Motorboat Soul
Seefeel - Spangle
Peter Broderick - And It's Alright (Nils Brahm Remix)

thanks to anyone who listened. next week again, wednesday, 10pm UK/5pm US East at www.standrewsradio.com

- tgrs

free music//Circus Love EP

2009-10-13T16:35:00.003+01:00

Circus Love EP
1. Circus Love (cassette version)
2. Circus Love (Snare Bear's Quit Clownin' Around Remix)
3. Circus Love (Jason Hunter Remix)
4. Devils Eyes (Toy's rework)
5. Handful of Dust

Artwork by Il'ya Sokolovskiy.
Check out more music from the Snare Bear.
Check out more music from Jason Hunter.

Thank you

- tgrs

mad mad feet//Blue Skies Are Always Fine

2009-10-07T16:30:00.008+01:00

no words --

Volcano Choir - Still
//alternative.downtempo\\

Karen O and the Kids - Cliffs
//acoustic.dreamy\\

Zero 7 - Ghost sYMbOL
//electronica.deep.lounge\\

Burial - Fostercare
//atmospheric.dubstep\\

Venetian Snares - Poor Kakarookee
//IDM\\

- tgrs + pdhw

Dreaming//awake but not tired

2009-10-01T18:31:00.004+01:00

Cultured by tonnatill

Rockaway by The Great Red Shark

You Would Run Away (Brekky) by sareen

Time For Us All to Relax//these clouds are grey again

2009-09-28T16:42:00.014+01:00

this tickling in my throat is thickening my voice

Massive Attack - Pray for Rain (ft Tunde Adebimpe)
i am so happy to hear from massive attack. i can honestly say that very few bands have inspired me to the point as this Bristol duo has. they have survived the collapse of the 90's and the subsequent cave-in of trip hop everywhere, a genre that turned its obsession with bass and chillout into a melting stack of cheese that fills with its new-age stench bars and smoking lounges worldwide. the dives that throw up lights of various colors and litter the floor with couches of designs from the best of imagination and the worst of intentions. you've all been to one before, these prisons of trip hop. no matter; m. attack have put out a new ep and i love it. getting TVOTR's main man to lay vocals on this track is like drinking hot chocolate in front of a snow-covered window; you are warm, but there is a touch of cold that reminds you of winter outside. as this song builds, the steam from your mug fills the window, and you forget where you are for the moment your reflection clouds over.
//triphop.chillout.electronica\\
photo from monkeyabout

Washed Out - Feel It All Around
this summer has seen the take over of the blogosphere by an army of cassette/fuzz/nostalgia/80s throwback musicians. lo-fi escaped from the white stripes and contaminated your a-ha record collection. washed out is another one of these types, wearing his influences on his sleeves with copycut samples from some b-side from some shoulder-pad wearing one hit wonder that your 38-year-old probably has in a box somewhere. so cool. kinda like the hipster scene. here's what i don't get (and don't confuse this for a dislike of washed out or this track): if we're stuck in a throwback rut, where do we go from here? no one's worried about it cause we're all nodding our heads along to fuzzier versions of radio tracks from two decades ago. i amongst so many others appreciate analog warmth and cassette compression and drowning mixes and distanced vocals, but i am quite tired feeling like the kid who turns up at what he failed to notice was actually an 80s party. everyone's got on silly pants and hairties while i'm sporting a trucker's hat.
//lofipop.80srevival\\
thanks to GvsB for giving these guys some attention
photo by pdhw

Bears in Heaven - Lovesick Teenagers
catchy, rebellious, dogmatic, invigorating and empowering. this makes me miss high school, but love what I have now. maybe because i know I will never be lovesick again.
//electro.pop\\

Miarches - Forest Swords
i've been playing this cassette all summer. if you've chilled with me by the beach, you probably remember this track. i can't believe i haven't put some of fs' stuff up yet. the woodsy psychadelia this band weaves through fuzz, cheap guitar amps and even cheaper recording equipment gives me the good tingles. ain't nothing more wigged out than this track. its for all you dub-loving stoners, you lsd laced curiosities, you art-punks, you scene killers and scene stagers, you runaways and stowaways and self-proclaimed "loners" or "hermits," or even you bums with a cassette deck. $6 don't hate appreciate.
//psych.lofi\\

listenlisten - On The Water
this sound has me wishing i was back on the road, dreaming of those crisp sunshines you get only miles from the city, only in the best of mornings filled with a sore back and tired feet but an eager heart to keep up the pace and keep exploring while the time is yours to spend. sure, this song sounds anything but happy, but it sounds raw and immediate, it sounds lost and deserted, it sounds feverishly mad and depressingly complacent. it sounds like three men lost in the woods, making no attempt to find their way out. they sit in the dark, afraid for the darkness, but settled in their strandedness so that the best they can do is write a song until morning.
//folk.gothic.country\\
photo by ks

Hauschka - One Wish
gentle piano strokes, subtle clicks and percussive responses to a jazz-infused modern classical composition that takes rainy days, coffee breaks, Parisian mornings and Greek luxury by their collective hand and leads them all to resort lobby, circa 1974, and lays them to bed on the yellowish carpets that stretch from wall to wall. hauschka, eluvium, max richter...parents of vintage in the truest sense of the (hipster) tag, they compose the sounds the wistful wish would play suddenly during their moments of intense introspection.
//moderncomposition\\

photo from monkeyabout

“the initial intuition that is the source of the work can only be unconscious, and this...explains the sense the inspired person has of being guided by forces outside his conscious self.”

My homeboy pdhw just got accepted to art school in Chi-town for his photography. Congrats - big things are in store for him. If you don't already frequent his flickr, do so now. His photography is so far beyond just snapping pictures; his shots are digital art, meticulously detailed and toiled over with such passion that makes me doubt those hippies with paintbrushes are even really artists. What if the computer is your palette? You can save the world with beauty. You can't save the world with organic paint, no matter how abstract that nude live drawing may be. His eyes aren't so good these days, so if you can spare a thought, send pdhw all the good vibes you can muster - Beethoven was deaf and composed majesty, but I don't want my friend to turn blind and shoot tragedy.

maybe things are starting to finally pick up

- tgrs

It's Reason Enough To Live//summer minestrone with red chillies

2009-08-18T20:13:00.017+01:00

This season feels shorter and shorter each year; remember 2006, and now 2010.

Lunar Testing Lab - Topaze Bay
calm soundscapes to help settle a move closer to the beach, a soundtrack for a roadtrip to the west and a summer in the sun. the album, Seashore Blvd., carries the vibe over eight tracks and is a key record for evening chill-outs. on a porch, on a patio, on a resort, on a coast, on a hill, on a cliff; take this music anywhere you want - it will travel well, and bring you with it.
//instrumental.surf.calm\\

Mount Kimbie - Serged
from the second ep by these Kimbie boys; hazy, atmospheric, dusty and riddled with as many lofi beats and pinched vocals as the first. some people claim these guys spin dubstep, but that genre has been sliced and diced into a soup of divergent sounds and meaningless labels that brings to boil an empty definition of a scene losing itself in its evolution. this isn't dubstep - this is Four Tet clicks and Boards of Canada waves, Aphex Twin warmth mixed with Burial vocal cuts. where does that leave Kimbie? with the greats of electronica. don't sleep on these boys and their tunes, pick up whatever you can while it's still kicking about. i'm looking for big things on their first LP.
//electronica.ambient\\

Take - Hollywoodn't
sorry to keep these tunes all hazy, but my mindsight is a bit everywhere these days. the heat's been dragging my feet and the storms have been keeping them clean, i'm not ready to leave but when have i been? i have a plan, though - which is more than others can say, i know - that keeps me shoreside for some time to keep those tunes in my head spreading, kneading, curling in the sand banks and splashing on the blue walls...i'll stay there, for myself, for some time, and then i'll rethink this 'real life' episode everyone else seems so set on setting on.
//hazybeats.hiphop\\

Big Ups:
Colin Caulfield
Grizzly Bear + Atlas Sound + Sung Tongs + every other indie band who digs indie music - Pitchfork hype = this dude. creating pop tracks with light layers and acoustic instrumentation in the comfort of his bedroom with only a mic and Garageband, Colin Caulfield is bound to get noticed by the major blogs at some point and heralded as the newest offspring of the naughties' indie explosion. it is rapidly becoming a new decade - where will music go? largely in this direction...that of bedroom pop, independent homegrown (vs road-tested) musicians who get younger and younger and noticed quicker and quicker with the advent of the internet and DIY labels' presence on the web, in conjunction with the coup d'etat of music journalism enacted by music blogs as large as GvsB and as little as this one. radio and magazines have fallen victim, and bedroom music has turned the world of music into a bottomless pit of discovery and self-exhibition that borders on voyeurism. Colin Caulfield is clearly a product of his influences, the elbo.ws and hypem indie cogs, and the wonderful ease of self-promotion in the modern world; and yes, if you scour the usual suspects thoroughly, you could find two more Caulfields for every blog that likes reverb-soaked vocals and instrumentation; but that doesn't matter - at this point in time, I discovered his music, I dig his music, and I hope you enjoy it as well. besides, I'm sick of all the stale lo-fi tape garage jams that have been suffocated blogs these days and this dude's got soul. unadultered, honest, youthful and eager.
Colin Caulfield - Do
Colin Caulfield - Just A Growin'
myspace

Tonnatill
as Caulfield is a product of bedroom pop, Tonnatill is a flag-bearer of bedroom beats. Dilla inspired, Stones Throw infused, his productions are choppy, static, and head-bopping infectious - true headphone jams. if only it was easier to make a living as a musician, the world would be a more sonic place. stop paying $60 to see a popstar live...sure, it'll be a spectactle on par with the best Vegas has to offer, and sure, you might catch a glimpse of Bono's bulge or Madonna's arm fat, but those guys don't need your money. besides, most of it goes to the suits anyways. guys like Colin and Tonnatill, they're kids who sell you records in stores, deliver pizzas, make your coffee and answer your phonecalls, but their sounds are more transcendent, far more heartfelt and a lot less manufactured. they can't keep it up forever, so help save music like you would a beached whale or a large clump of wet trees in the amazon. the industry is dying, already three feet deep, and the old ways are quickly fading. support the individual if you respect the indivdual's product. hell, Radiohead are big enough to wipe with $20's for the rest of their lives, but if you buy something from their own website, the money goes to their pockets, where the same pair of hands who crafted the music hold your dollar bills (so, btw, don't buy anything pre-In Rainbows; all that cash goes to EMI and the radioheads aren't too fond of them. download the records and see them live instead). my point is this: people like tonnatill and caulfield are making music at their own expense, with little to no reward at the moment. things coudl change for them in the future - i hope they do - but that can only happen when music lovers unite and help the little man. so if you dig this stuff, go out and let them know. buy what they're selling, send them an email, write on their myspaces or whatever...response keeps people going, apathy kills hte beats. unless you want a world of Madonna's and Bono's. if that happens, I'm pulling a Beethoven and keeping my ear to the ground.
Tonnatill - Drag Tide
Tonnatill - Serious School Coat
soundcloud

I'm going to be releasing an EP in support of that album I dropped a few months back, Friends. The EP is for the track 'Circus Love,' and features work from close friends of mine who also make music. I've got an unreleased b-side attached to the project as well, and everyone who purchased a copy of Friends will get a bonus track. The EP can be picked up for free in the coming weeks, I'm just waiting for the finalized artwork. After this release, I'm going to keep all things TGRS quiet for awhile, uploading a few things here and there to my soundcloud, but otherwise building up a body of work that I'll be shopping to labels once I graduate, playing more shows, and spending some time with a few collaborations I've got started up.

1. Circus Love (cassette version)
2. Circus Love (Snare Bear's Quit Clownin' Around Remix)
3. Circus Love (Jason Hunter Remix)
4. Devils Eyes (The Great Red Shark cover by Toy)
5. Handful of Dust
(bonus track - Nighttime Glasses Demo)

Something I will keep up is remixing. I've done two so far, with more to come. Here they are, and I hope you dig them.

Sam Sally - Wonders Loop Circle (thegreatredshark teatime remix)
Friendly Foliage - Javelin' Capes (thegreatredshark eats beets remix)

- tgrs

End of Summer Mix//the heat...the sun...the shade...the haze

2009-08-18T19:41:00.003+01:00

Here's a collection of tracks I've been playing a lot this summer, and I think you guys may like them too. Some of them stem from unknown, just-starting-out bands, so PLEASE, if you like 'em, look 'em up, support, go seem them live, pick up an album, do something to help the music-makers out - not the music industry.

These jams are perfect for a sunny afternoon, a hazy evening, driving to the beach and back, grilling with some friends, drinking wine in the heat with a loved one, or walking along a stream with a pair of headphones and sunglasses. Some are energetic, some are chilled, all are good. I hope you all enjoy!

http://www.sendspace.com/file/xo2x6m

1. Lunar Testing Lab - Sands
2. Shrift - To The Floor
3. Mor Thiam - Ayo Ayo Nene
4. Africam Cream Kids - We Want Thembile
5. Juaneco Y Su Combo - Linda Nena
6. Taken By Trees - My Boys
7. Carly Simon - Why
8. Toro Y Moi - Blessa
9. Bullion - Time For Us All To Love
10. Debruit - I'm Goin' Wit' You (feat. Om'Kas Keith)
11. Hudson Mohawke - Rising 5
12. MeLo-X - Timeofyourlife
13. Mount Kimbie - Sketch on Glass
14. Paul White - Synth March
15. Wavves - Mickey Mouse
16. Dum Dum Girls - Brite Futures
17. tUnE-YaRdS - Jumping Jack
18. Colin Caulfield - Do
19. Paul Simon - Diamonds on da Solez uhva Shooz (Kyle Wyss Remix)
20. Paralyze Humanity Sequence - Hammock
21. Lunar Testing Lab - Down to the Sea and Back

Big ups to Paul Harland-White for the picture, check out more of his stuff at: flickr.com/photos/28643369

@N03/

And don't forget - STAR gets back on-air in October, and I'll be giving you tons more of chill out music for my very last year on the station. Keep listening! www.standrewsradio.com

- tgrs

Sleeves and Surprises//i've fought fevers with bed sheets

2009-07-07T13:04:00.014+01:00

Pure hip hop. Go on, get lit for me - I've been too sick for spliffs.

Gonja Sufi - Ancestors (produced by Flying Lotus)
what sloooooow haze. when that organ kicks in, it kills me. i think it killed sufi as well, his voice sounds on teh verge of breaking the whole track through. scoped this album from the awesome download blog neu musical express, go there for the latest in weird, spacey, hazy dazy beats.
//hiphop.hazy\\

Jaylib - Follow Me
the late-great jay dee with the still-great madlib, from jaylib outtakes, the track features madlib's mc persona quasimoto, high pitched voice and stinging vocabulary that always adds to the jams. this is one of those hip hop jams that just feel good to walk to, so get on the weapon of choice and turn the sound way up to get the bass moving your feet. your strut just woke up, and it's mad chillin'.
//hiphop.stonesthrow\\

Eminem - I'm Having A Relapse (freestyle)
i have a hard time believing this is a freestyle, but fucking hell it's solid, whatever it is. this is the m&m i fell in love with back when the marshall mathers lp dropped, and the dude i forgot about when he kept putting out records after that. mtv killed this boy, ate him up and spit out his heart on trl. his latest album is still shit, but thank god for this radio broadcast that first streamed this jam. listen to the lyrics, his flow, and the beat, and try to think of any other mainstream rapper out there who can impress like this guy can. the rhythm is flawless, eminem owns this production and i'm so sorry he's been shit at everything else he puts out.
//rap.freestyle\\

J-88 - The Look of Love (Two Fingers Remix)
if you dig amon tobin, then dig on this production. heavy, uplifting, dancey and stone worthy. there were a number of other two fingers bootlegs that surfaced before their record came out, which saw missy elliot and busta rhymes get the tobin production treatment, and i strongly recommend you look for those cause they are hot.
//hiphop.electronica\\

Starkey - Bounce
dubstep's take on t.i.'s 'shoulder lean,' and it works so well. i first heard this dropped by tobin on a boat circling the statue of liberty, and i finally found again this spring. crank up the bass for christ's sake and get your durty souff on. it goes on for awhile, so get ready for a follow up to mix out of this jam, preferably during the 'lean' bridge.
//hiphop.bass\\

BIG UPS:
Conquering Animal Sound:
bells, light guitar, sparse drums and lo-fi melodies make up excellent folk-friendly atmospheres. the sounds must come from daydreams and cold slumbers, because listening to their music inspires me to find a cave in a wooden area and hibernate - with their music looped in surround sound across the stone ceiling. download their mixtape for free and scope their myspace, where you can listen to their track 'Where The Wild Things Are,' my favourite from the group. if any of you are near the edinburgh area, make sure you check them out live at the wee red bar on the 8th of august.
free taste: Conquering Animal Sound - Your Friends:Conquering Animal Sound Mixtape

Your Friends, Conquering Animal Sound from James Scott on Vimeo.

Richard Heeks:
an otherwise uninteresting flickr find, heeks has a set dedicated entirely to capturing a shot of a soap bubble as it bursts. it's amazing the effort he puts into this, and the results are breathtaking. there are some shown below, but to follow his attempts at getting the perfect bubble burst, please go to his flickr.

The Snare Bear:
dubstep that's all about the bass (ain't it all?) with a particularly unique repertoire of samples that keep the jams fresh even past the four minute mark. watch out for 'Raptor,' sampling Jurassic Park, and 'Liam's Gonna Take Your Soul' which has that awesome speech from you-know-who in Taken. what makes these jams good is the how varied the bass gets - none of the repetitive one liners that a lot of dubstep tracks have succumbed to. this kid focuses on what gets the subs groveling.
Free Taste: The Snare Bear - Liam's Gonna Take Your Soul

i've suffered too many fevers, too many cold sweats, too many rough dreams
that have kept me from seeing off those i love

- tgrs
(photos by pdhw)

Coffee Warmth//the beautiful sound of a mist storm

2009-06-24T12:09:00.022+01:00

"If you're going to be crazy, you have to get paid for it or else you're going to be locked up." - Hunter S. Thompson

tUnE-YaRdS - Hatari
tribal yelps of exaltation! celebration! rainforest foreplay and vocal marriage of the heart and soul. angry dreams of lust and passion underscored with a perverted smile that curls at the sight of an exposed breast under the moonlight. twitchy hands that jerk in time to a crazed sermon littered with words of a religious tongue, garbled and massacred to try and mirror some exult of bedtime-story love - the imagination, and all its power, is a creature devoted to ripping us away from the ties of reality, releasing us into the brightest and very darkest corners of our consciousness.
//experimental.folk\\

Au - RR vs. D
madness! fear! joy! revulsion, expulsion, disgust and immersion! what lengths will we march to show the whole fucking world we are OPINIONATED and DETERMINED? my foot first, then your knees, then her hands and his screams and their dreams...oh, it all feels so real! finally! we believe that they can hear our chants, our pleas, our demands for insuring what the future means and our aggravations at the monstrosities the people-that-be wield against us! we are not like our parents, we have twitter!
//experimental.folk\\

Francois Virot - Islands
folk has changed this generation - what used to be a community filled with baez and dylan monologues, king and taylor romances, or even the wandering spirit of an acoustic guitar and a ragged voice has transformed into upbeat titles on childhood and dreams. we don't look to the roads anymore, we look to the blissful ignorance of our youth. folk sings about simple pleasures, god-given and immediate; the job of provoking thought now falls on the 'intelligent,' or 'backpack,' hip hop crowd. beatniks have gone tribal, the outdoors are forested, and shrooms have rescued sore throats from cigarettes. virot, au, yeasayer, animal collective, califone, on and on and on and on and on the list could go...pick an acoustic-driven artist the blogs are drooling over these days, and they fit the bill. the perversion of old american music into psychadelia-drowned soundscapes of yelps, shrieks, claps and whispers. amen to iron & wine, and those few warriors of sunny field music, purveyors of cassettes and record players, horse carriages and train stowaways.
//experimental.folk\\

Guido Mobius - Gosse Overman
a warm, sparse beat, with quadrupled claps over a wavering blues voice that weaves a wide range of pitch. whistle, whistle away, through a long summer drive; keep those windows down to smell the wind and seasalt air, the path we all know so well, the gas stations selling cheap coffee and the bridges littered with sun-blazed fishermen, how i miss that road from family to seclusion, from trees to beach, from you to me.
//beat.pop\\

BIG UPS:
woven:
A saviour of folk, a warrior of forest songs and southern lullabies, what beauty exudes from this voice is untenable - only a quick tear at your chest reminds you that a siren's song is as perfect as it is deadly, so murderous are these light-hearted songs of dreams and wanders. A mix of CocoRosie and Joanna Newsom, with the ambience of Joan Baez, sleep to wake is a talent I stumbled upon through MySpace, and I am lucky that I did. Discovered during the insomnia hours of tomorrow's morning, her voice sounded like a promise for sleep, and I was grateful for her recordings. I hope you find the same comfort in her tracks that I did, and continue to, no matter the weather.
Free Taste: woven - Grey Light
(no download - only MySpace)

appu jasu:
Pictures absolutely drenched in warmth and nostalgia. Multiple exposures, aged film, and a good eye all work towards a transformation of the beautifully mundane into a memory of your parent's childhood.
flickr

Roger Cohen:
An op-ed columnist for the New York Times. He's written one of the most in-depth, personal, and affecting articles on the current protests in Tehran I've read yet:
http://tinyurl.com/mtysqg

The American Dollar:
These dudes are from Queens, NY, and make some pretty epic post-rock music. Reminds me of my younger days roaming the streets of Forest Hills with Explosions in the Sky blasting out my headphones. I got this video from the very awesome Aurgasm blog, and they have a pretty straightforward mandate I urge you all to follow:

"Please click play. Then click full screen. Big headphones are recommended, as well."

Wilmer Murillo:
With pastel colors and stretched shapes, Wilmer Murillo combines Disney allusions with circus imaginations into postcards from a mushroom trip. He's a 21 year old based in Honduras, and uses both digital and traditional methods to illustrate what can only be some fucked up and joyful daydreams. Watch this guy turn children's entertainment back into the twisted, curious, sweet-and-sour delights I remember enjoying - none of this cutesy Hannah Montana bullshit; Pinocchio had a wooden boy turn into a donkey for christ's sake.

Special treat:

Wilmer Murillo Drawing - Episode 2 from Wilmer Murillo on Vimeo.

its amazing how much people change in as little as two seasons past. you see old friends die, new ones bloom, and love loved and lost. where I had found inspiration, creativity, and brotherhood, I now choke on quiet heartbreak, a deep swallow to send a hundred memories and wishes into a pit of boiling stomach acid. i am speechless, without response, and sleep heavy with headphones tossed. the day the music died, my friend, is the day you found creativity in textbooks. you cannot teach soul, you cannot learn heart; there is only truth in pure expression, unpolished, unrestrained, and unforgiving. i am proud to see my past not as mistakes, but as continued progress, unraveling the infinite mysteries of the world around me - both physical and sonic - and turning each month into a new period of discovery. so cast away your pedantic offers, throw down those boxing gloves (and I will mine), and forget the mentality of technicality! fall in love again with a good record, deaf to eqs and sidechains, ignorant of analog and digital; play with gross individuality and scream riots of sing-a-longs. please, do not belittle the past with arrogant pokes at superior vision, but adapt and share and remold what is already alive and kicking. please, embrace what seems so dangerously necessary with open arms (I am proud and confident in the strides you have surely made), but embrace what we called home just as much.

Nighttime Glasses

my best friend's found a girl
that makes me happy, that makes me weak
i cant stand them together
because they make me sick, oh love, oh jealousy
i've lost mine to the river
distance, oh cruelty, you've stolen my heart
i'm not here to complain
i'm here to remind you that I care from afar

I am in this for the long run
I hope that you are too cause i would hate to go it alone
if the sky rang with music
it would sing our tunes that we wrote when we were young
basement melodies
that echo from hell to high when we soar above the rest
now the blue is never darker
and walls make room for sounds shaped strong between the best

I'm sorry you have suffered
let's roar a thousand prayers until the gods give them back
do you wish to forget
the troubles life has brought or just ignore the fight inside?
I promise it will feel better
when you're honest with yourself, let cynicism die

nothing seems to make you smile anymore
so I won't leave until I see your teeth

I would chase the moon for you, if you could only see the sky
take off those sunglasses, don't try to ignore the night
can we draw the curtains and pretend that this is our own?
I would be happy to die if we met in the afterlife

- tgrs

April In Paris//tr-ttt-trying something new

2009-06-20T23:43:00.012+01:00

I've decided to try out a new format for this space. Please bear with the changes.

Daniel Rossen - Waterfall
sometimes, i wish i could retain the magical curiosity of being a child. creating a world out of a back garden...and never leaving it, even in your dreams. it feels more often than not that the world of imagination is kept only for sleeping thoughts, or a drug-addled mental vagrancy...why the loss? why can we not see our surroundings with the vibrancy a child does? for her, a tree is a kingdom; for an adult, it is a gravestone. we cannot feel how we used to - instead, we only suffer shooting pains of memory, sharp tacks that hint at a realm of leafy possibilities but fall listless to the blunt retaliation of maturity.
//acoustic.lofi\\

Amen Dunes - Patagonian Domes
i have spent the past month more or less outside, walking down new paths, covering myself in sunlight and storms, gracing hills with bottles of beer and sharing green with greenery. i call my home 'the city,' the infinite curbside that streaks and twists like a river snake, it shakes a mighty head against fatigue and sinks metal teeth into the hearts of teenagers. but in this fresh air, i want instead to call my home 'the country,' where a guitar can sing with perfect ambiance, a crow can dance where people step, and an afternoon slumber can turn into a warm evening breeze. i don't want that which so many people crave; i don't want to go home.
//folk.lofi\\

The Big Pink - Velvet (Mount Kimbie Remix)
i am confused: i feel surrounded by creative people, persons of interesting output and considerations, yet consistently i am let down by their attention, support, and, most importantly, their passion. for some: why do you let yourself sing one tune, but practice life without ears? why do you paint self-portraits without any mirrors? why do you poison passion with suit treatment? creativity is marred by business - do not support the industry, support the people. for others: thank you for sharing.
//electronica.latenightbeats\\

Karen Ann - Where No Endings End
i want to spend my life with you. it is neither scary nor exhilarating to realize. it's simply true.
//vocal.atmospheric\\

BIG UPS:
Friendly Foliage:
not only has he done the best remix of an Animal Collective track to date, but he constantly puts out new tracks that give anyone on the SP-404 bandwagon a massive obstacle course of quality and originality to endure. He's got an uncanny ability to stretch one sample into a thousand of different sounds. But if you don't like introspective repetition, musical meditation and meandering melodies, then you won't dig this. I'm currently working on a remix for his track 'Javelin Capes,' which is set to be released as a single with a few other remixes in the next month. I'm torn between two versions: a Four Tet version with a clusterfuck of snaps and pops, or a Crookers bass-heavy dance jam.
free taste: Animal Collective - No More Runnin' (Friendly Foliage remix)

a sea of red rabbits:
a haven for vintage photography among the fad that has become vintage photography. the shot below sold the artist to me, and a similar warmth can be found in most of what she's posted. some of them are a miss - the warmth comes off not as homely, but as a blatant throwback, a problem common to every film enthusiast under the age of 30. but what fault i can only hint at, she rescues with a solid eye for beauty in familarity. still, best to ignore the cheesy taglines.

i'm looking for new music and art (as per usual) - send me stuff @ thegreatredsharkmusic@gmail.com i don't care about the style, so long as it's fly. so dust off those flares, and drop some tracks in my dropbox.

shameless plug:

i'm going to release an ep in July with remixes and covers from a few friends of mine in support of the latest single off of my debut album, 'Friends.' The Circus Love EP will be free to download, and will include (on my part) 'Circus Love,' a live version of 'In Your Arms,' and a brand new track. brap brrrrrap. check out the new single over at the necessary evil that is myspace.

So, there you have it, a completely new format for this "website." Lemme know if you think i should give it all up, keep up the pretense, or just go back to basics by posting some comments. Danke Schoen.

- tgrs

oh my god, //Why We Fly Home

2009-06-18T13:32:00.006+01:00

Hildur Gudnadottir - Ascent
it's alive, oh, it's so alive...these clouds of rain, pillows of wet wonder to help us breathe in our world of city stench, these paths of green, trenches to shield some of the wind when all we need is a moment of breeze to keep us in love with the sight. a hill above a town, to look into the sea, and preclude an empty memory of countryside unexplored, oh, it's so alive, this earth we must borrow for our feet.
//modernclassical.atmospheric\\

Olafur Arnalds - Faun
if we imagine that all existence can be embodied into a single cell, and that this cell is in turn embodied by some other cell, and so on it repeats until we get to this first cell, and we acknowledge that with life comes disease, fatigue, death, then we are faced with the existence of the death of that first cell, that holy embodiment of life, hope, imagination, love, evil, hate, the rest of earth's mysteries and obscurities and unfortunate side effects, and one hell of a funeral.
//modernclassical.atmospheric\\

Nalepa - Monday
at my feet, i keep a diary. not a 'dear diary, today i fell in love' type of diary; no pre-teen diatribe, no adolescent wishes and desires penned at the whim of how your hair looks in the morning - at my feet, i keep a diary of records. i record the moment you walk into your house, the moment you turn on the shower, the moment you take off your clothes, the moment you go into bed, the moment you fall asleep. at my feet, i keep a record of your life, and when that last page is filled, i will come for you.
//glitch.electronica.noise\\

Mike Bones - What I Have Left (Alexis Taylor Version)
the shades are closed, the afternoon is securely blocked out of my bedroom. it's a solitary feeling, capturing nighttime and keeping it for as long as you are awake. the curiosity for what the day may bring succumbs to weary eyes and a musical heart, but my skin is dirty and my hair is falling out. my breath is escaping, and my back aches as i sit for as long as i have been. the clocks are all upside down, my bed is damp with sweat, and my wrists are too tired to compose - but life goes on, it tumbles down in waves and explosions and subtle jolts, and we use all our energy to brace for impact. the fall is the catch, the dream is the flight, and what i have left is a handful of dust. click the second link first, please.
//disco.downtempo\\

I have been away for far too long, and there is just so much music I want to share with you all - so expect more tracks, less talk, this week. the moods will range from club to sub to bubble pop, so keep checking back and you'll get plenty of tunes for this weekend.

This movie trailer confuses me, but I still want to see the film:

I said I'd start posting some podcasts of my radio show for this past year, so here is the first - the last show broadcasted this semester, which aired on May 6th.
chillthef*ckout w/ the great red shark:

chillthef*ckout w/thegreatredshark - May 6th, 2009 by The Great Red Shark

Mount Kimbie - Maybes
Burial & Four Tet - Wolf Cub
Gui Boratto - Besides
Sparklehorse - It's A Wonderful Life
Black Moth Super Rainbow - American Face Dust
Ruby Weapon - Daily Routine (AC Cover)
Jon Brion - Spotless Mind
The Cinematic Orchestra - That Home (feat. Patrick Watson)
Julianna Barwick - Sunlight, Heaven
Hildur Gudnadottir - Ascent
Friendly Foliage - Spindle
Fink - See It All
Patrick Watson - Beijing
Animal Collective - What Would I Want Sky

I have succumbed; I have a myspace with a couple of songs on it. I may have kicked myself in the balls last night and started a new project...I'm going to keep myself busy with music if it's the last thing I do. The outside can wait for now.

- tgrs

quick update//Exposure

2009-05-16T13:58:00.007+01:00

I have a Soundcloud now. Check it for new jams I'm working on, I'll try and upload stuff as soon as I'm happy with it. Right now I have one song up there, 'Still Alive.' Unmixed, and without two instruments I'd like to add at some point. For now, I hope you enjoy my work. Leave some comments, please.

Still Alive by The Great Red Shark

Likewise, I'd like to hear music from you, so use my Dropbox. I believe in the community of music as the record label's death knell, and a community of music blogs as the four horsemen. All it takes to get heard is to give someone a listen, and I want to hear what's out there from people who stumble across my blog.

On another note, soon as this exam jargon is done with, I'll have more updates with more tracks and literature. Also, I'll be posting some podcasts of my radio show from this past year on STAR.

Here are some tracks I've been digging lately just to tide you over:

Lukid - The Now (Hudson Mohawke Remix)
//dubstep.hiphopbeats.hazy\\

Stag Hare - Born Into Magic
//tribal.experimental.lulling\\

Animal Collective - Do The Nurse
//experimental.noisy.live\\

- tgrs

Whiskey Mouth//morning and evening and nothing in between

2009-04-12T13:13:00.006+01:00

Here We Go Magic - Only Pieces
a record written over two months in brooklyn using a 4-track, an old synth, some strings and a throat. i find absolutely beautiful the sheer uprising of DIY musicians these days. the record industry has changed as the obstacles to discover new sounds has crumbled, devolved into a series of clicks and searchs. what could possibly be more uplifting than the knowledge that you can enter this private world one man sunk himself into for sixty odd days and peer down his eyes and hear the soundtrack to his innermost thoughts? we forfeit privacy for universal access, this internet, this beast of information; i find aboslutely beautiful the upside rediscovered every day i enter the labyrinthe of music blogs.
//pop.alternative.dreamy\\

Black Moth Super Rainbow - Twin Of Myself
bmsr has become one of my favorite bands. no other group of musicians has managed to acheive such earthly, interstellar warmth and psychpop sensibilities as these pagan-worshipping (my guess, probably catholic ) forest creatures exhale on each tape they produce. may 26th is the new record, and, judging from this track, it will be as good as dandelion gum. what i find most intriguing - their song name selection process. i'd like to believe they sit on a clean field of white grass under a late spring sun with glasses of red wine and iced tea dicussing the merits of kierkegaard and the downfalls of sartre, when suddenly, a cloud covers their sunglasses and a raindrop lands in the pool of wine cups, diluting the wine slightly until the red fades into a gentle amaranth, and tobacco whispers between smiling teeth: "my, this afternoon has just turned quite pink."
//psychedelic.pop.warm\\

Kurt Vile - Beach on the Moon
originally caught by attention from mdm, then sought out the full record and revelled in the folk acoustics, 90s melodies, and panda reverb. this track this still stands out as my favorite; not only for the pleasant visual image the title resonates, but for the music video that plays in my head as i listen. it involves snow, trees, a train journey, holding hands, and eating warm soup in russia.
//folk.dreamy\\

The Fireman - Two Magpies
macca himself, but this is white album macca meets kurt and folk legends from the west in the 30s. i slept on this record for some time, always with the intention of someday listening to it. i can't remember what event presented me with the possession of electric arguments, but i am grateful for surviving said event with this record intact. it sounds like how paul should sound, cept for all that wishwashy U2 electronica that gets muddled into the mix every now and then. songs like two magpies makes the mistakes worth it. of course, who am i say anything he does is a mistake - homeboy did write eleanor rigby after all (and other tracks, of course, but that's my shit).
//pop.throwback\\

GOLDEN GIRL

She drinks wine with her sunglasses on
in the shade of a garden
i came to learn how beauty can need
a friend with time to sit in the breeze

with cool laughter and a smile on her face
we held hands till morning
the tide coming fast, we wet our feet
but braced ourselves for love's defeat

the crash of hearts after two year's swell
poured rain upon Eden
thunder roared and yelled a call to explore
she grew restless in a place we adored

the golden girl who dreamed in the sun
her mind free to imagine
left the easy life she had as a kid
she doesn't want it to feel like it did

she tread Europe with her ruby shoes
oh how the girl's pulse quickened
when she set eyes on the rest of the world
the earth went blind from the color of my girl

the sun princess who made her own throne
kept her pain well hidden
never blinked in the face of troubles she had
and laughed crazy when you'd think she'd be sad

do i miss my city? no, not really. i'd rather live with the trees,
maybe somewhere to the east of the shore
where i don't understand the language. but i'd pick it up,
and order coffee with a strange inflection
to sip while i write under a heated umbrella the young waitress swears
will keep me warm while the forest behind me shivers in snow.
i'd record travels, thoughts, transcripts and tragedies,
and mail them out to whoever i could remember.
now, by 'mail,' i don't necessarily mean 'post,'
but if that would be your preferred manner of receipt i'd do it.
i would then walk through the white woods
down wintry paths and weathered roads,
working my boots into powder and gravel and leaves and water
until the pale brown turns darker, and my footsteps begin to catch up,
finding myself lost
but completely fine with that predicament.
i mean, i do have a home - it's a nice marble house on the edge of a crystal lake
not but a mile from this log i've sat to rest on -
but sometimes it's just nice to pretend you're lost.

- tgrs

is this worth it//I Don't Live For Them

2009-03-17T00:53:00.005Z

Hudson Mohawke - Root Hands
in this dream, i taste sour beads of rain on my tongue. the clouds are too thick to see through, but the weather is still nice enough to keep the windows open. if the water floods our living room, can we swim with our couches? pretend the pillows are sharks, and we can play titanic, with the crest of a topsy-turvy table our iceberg. in this dream, i think we can see each other, but the fog between us is starting to make me feel dizzy. can you stand straight when there is no wind to keep you moving?
//electronica.hazy.beatbeats\\

The Long Lost - Woebegone (Flying Lotus' Luckiest Charm)
you are too sexy to BELIEVE. take me in your chest and breathe with me as we fall asleep. i can't feel the beats but i know you are alive because your eyes are wet, so wet, they can melt into sadness when this bed breaks in two. or dance in porto, my salsa, my delicate, you and your shoes of red velvet, to dance between what past has suffered and what the present dares.
//beatbeats.jazz.electronica\\

Haushka - Wonder
oh dreams, what playful parts you give to me! who am i now? a servant to your king god? no, those buckles! polished so jet, i must stand sharp to match my wealth. no, that steel is fake - am i a pauper for the poor? a son of the streets to catch the raw meat idle dogs drop when they are full of charitable treats, i must not stay here long, this rain is muddying the window shops. oh seams, how you tear at each rip, not to catch my woven beads, but to throw the cloth i've kept these years down sewer scenes for the alligators to eat. no, this hand is not mine! how the fingers claw...and my skin does ache, with cracks it bleeds, and these dry lips are thirsty still.
//modernclassical.atmospheric\\

Andrew Bird - Not a Robot, But a Ghost
i think you are disgusting, you beautiful romance, you distant woman trance, you eyes that pierce and fry my waiting skin to die, this hook to hang my lust on jacket links to catch the hood, i'll keep it in, i'll keep it in, i'll keep it in, i'll keep it in, and this is all written by chance to prove the idle reader still my pants are tight and morals loose, so close the book on who to choose for now we're left with dumber still those nights we've kept it in to still a heart eager for girona's kill, a spring escape into summer's bill.
//alternative.interesting\\

CURIOUS

how can you be so sure that the grass is really green
when you're so caught up in images found in magazines?
i think it's time to realize you're no longer seventeen.
i'm tired of watching you fall, trip high and crash hard,
lose the courage your mother gave and your father tried to save
it's getting hard to pretend that i don't care

your happiness replaced with a crazy smile,
the kind brought on when the mind's gone wild.

such a curious boy, you walk around with umbrella,
looking for the shade, when there's only sun.
i hope the clouds forever leave you alone.
digging for diamonds at the beach to wear around your neck,
stepping over sandcastles you've built with shaking hands
though steady eyes reveal a troubled man

how can you be so sure that tonight won't be your last
as you shield yourself from candlelight and you dance your waltz alone?
soon enough we will all become your past.
you're running the oil dry, black gold in your system
bloodshot eyes are leaking again, in tears of shameful pride
that drown your mask and reveal the boy inside.

such a curious boy
tonight

DOGGY (FOR PENNY)

dog who lost all her sight
i'm holding you still, dog, you were a scared dog
when you couldn't find your food
you used to watch me from the glass in our front door

i remember when i first got you dog
you were too young
when i lost you dog

dog of life in her youth
you run so fast, dog, i had to catch you dog
when the first snow would fall
oh the joy you'd feel i could see it in your eyes

dog of death from disease
it weakened you so, dog, you were a different dog
but i knew you'd be ok
when the time came for the fear and pain to end

dog i loved more than most
i'm missing you dear, dog, you were the bravest dog
when i brought you to the vet
and said goodbye, dog, i hope to see you soon again

for five years you were the best dog
you were too young
when i lost you dog.

- tgrs

'FRIENDS'//so here it is

2009-02-17T03:52:00.006Z

Please order all copies of the album through PayPal, on the right of the screen. If you happen to know me personally, you could just call me up and we can sort out something a little easier.

The full 'Friends' package is $5, and the digital download, with an exclusive remix, is $2. I'm not out to make money off of this, I just need to pay back the costs I endured to make the record, so if you liked the single I posted last week, or just want to support a fellow artist, or have some money in the bank to back your intrigue, then clickclickclicky on the PayPal thingy.

All these photos were taken by pdhw; again, much love.

I hope you all enjoy it; I've worked very hard on this project of mine, and I am very proud of what's come of it. Originally meant to be only a four song ep, 'Friends' grew into something that shadowed my own heart. I spent many nights alone in my studio dreaming of old memories and new beginnings, and I put sounds to my thoughts and words to my secrets. This is an honest record, and I have very little to hide anymore. Each song is dedicated to individuals who have changed my life, each a message of love and trust that has been built strong by years of struggling friendships. And as many of us now stand at crossroads, both personal and shared, I offer this diary as a proclamation of what I hold the highest faith in -

that maybe when all the crazy can settle
there will still just be a series of hands
warm with touch
to bind the past and future paths
we've lost to watches sick with plans
to feed the rush
and remind us all of what chances more
can keep us close, when distance threatens doors.

- tgrs

announcing//'In Your Arms'

2009-02-11T12:50:00.003Z

The Great Red Shark - In Your Arms
first single off of 'Friends.' sareen's remix of this track will be packaged with the digital download of the album. come back here next tuesday, the 17th of feb, to start ordering the full album in two ways: either the cassette version, which comes with full printed artwork and the digital download, or just the digital download itself. the cassette plays more like a mixtape, so the album sounds considerably different than the digi version. order either version on the right of this page.
//electronica.alternative\\

Full 'Friends' Tracklisting:
1. Circus Love
2.
3. Golden Girl
4. Devils Eyes
5.
6. Nighttime Glasses
7. ILeftNY(rvs)
8.
9. Curious
10.
11. In Your Arms
12. Doggy (For Penny)

All artwork done by ks
All photos taken by pdhw

- tgrs

that's it//What?

2009-02-03T21:43:00.005Z

Animal Collective - No More Runnin (Friendly Foliage Remix)
a very neat remix that takes the original track out of the swampy depths of a nawlunns backyard and into a fresh, sunny afternoon in a german garden. kompakt pay attention: this is our you keep a listener's attention, throw in infectious vocal snips and lace them threw a headspin beat. if any of you are familiar with the orignal version off of mpp, then you know how ghost like no mo runnin sounds. this is like some casper shit, happy and peppy, yet ethereal, it's not there but you can feel it and if you clasp at you'll get nothing but air. oh sweet air to breathe, if clouds tasted like this, then heaven would be a lollipop.
//electronica\\

Joker - Snake Eater
is this dubstep? if james bond went a bit underground, fine. a hook that reeks of 60's charm from a smooth vigilante, guns blazing and his talk on fire. damn. this track just makes the four minutes feel so important. diffuse the bomb! drop the bomb! bomb the drop! bombtrack, bombtrack! break your knees.
//dubstep.breakbeat\\

i'm tired
so tired
of babysitting
of parenting
or supporting who cannot support
who will not return what efforts spent
it costs to live this friendship best
in your own worlds, fine, stay
this place is my escape,
it is my breath of fresh air
give summer heat or winter's seat
and if you suffocate me with silence
and idleness, reprehensible neglect,
then fly your own damn wings to rescue
mine are tired and breaking down
and id rather spend the energy
lifting those who lift me up
and cheer for the sheer joy of a smile.
with lots of love,
your friend,
your steed,
your practical and unrespected steal,
your king of bills and floating wheels,
to this i give a final plea:
wake. the fuck. up.

goodbye
the love of my dreams
the less cheesy
girl of golden seas
too much?
my jewel of futures and frequent pasts
a necklace of peace i'd leave for you
and a promise of time
that'll make me wait
what a waste, what a feat!
but strength and strength some more
should be all we'll need

- tgrs

//mad respect for pdhw. check out his flickr on the sidebar, give him due love.\\

swear, too//It's All For Something Elegant

2009-01-13T02:56:00.006Z

Ratatat - Mirando (Animal Collective Remix)
ten minutes, and it feels like i'm floating. on a silken wave off a sunburned coast down south. on a creaky raft made in a rush to ride the reef. on a blanket of bubble baths still warm from the early years. the pops and riffs bounce on and on and on and on and on until they sift into a pool of calm noise. this jam is summer, spring, winter and fall; it is exhilariting, and it is boring; it is intoxicating as it is healing. it is intense, but it is comforting, and the comfort intensifies as drone moves from within to without and when it breathes its final sigh you'll wake up, blink in time, and play it again. i've had it on repeat for an hour now, and its making my head seem.......lighter.
//electronic.techno\\

EDIT: The version of the remix was only in mono before. I've just upped the stereo version, but until my bandwith is reset, get it here. Enjoy. (oh, and its a .mp3 file now.)

it's all for something elegant, isn't it?
you shine your shoes
and prim your hair
and race days against time to feel important.
i'd call it magic, i'd call it a disease,
the urge to move your morning feet
into a pattern of shifts and shuffled leads,
what keeps you from bed to rest with me.
i play my own games
and keep my hands busy writing notes
to put in bottles and give to the sea,
blowing kisses to the wind and its sister breeze,
a heaven of gold is as romantic
as a dress of pearls;
you wear black at dawn and red in the eve,
but save heaven for sleep
to rest the angel that lays with me.

all in all, i've had a very pleasant winter.

-tgrs

//photos by wmb; see more of his work here\\

I Thought I Saw...//what's this?

2009-01-10T17:46:00.004Z

Flying Lotus & Panda Bear - Bros&Tings (tgrs remix)
that remix i promised. more of a mash up. includes an old pb track called 'ohne titel.' originally part of a mix i did, but i liked this enough to separate it. give me some feedback, props prompt prolificacy.
//hiphop.electronica.mashup\\

look up.
have faith

-tgrs

//photo by pdhw\\

oh no, oh well; oh hark the loons on a christmas spell/Taking It A part

2009-01-09T04:16:00.003Z

Did some virtual crate digging this past week.
These are some of the highlights:

Autology - Filistine
crazy dub off of a killer compilation series called jfx bits. this is from the first, and i believe there are two more. thanks goes out to a good dub friend of mine who found these mixes, i am grateful. awesome sounds and interesting vocals on this track, together give you a foreign-yet-homely vibe, a sound that draws you in mysteriously and then kisses you on the forehead, as if to welcome you to the home you didn't know you had yet. a good soundtrack to trainriding in a new continent. don't be afraid to travel.
//dub.electronica\\

Panda Bear - A Lover Can No Longer Now Be A Friend
i'm not sure if this is actually noah. it doesn't sound like him, but it is from his first set of home recordings back in 1998, so who knows. i first got my hands on this album a little more than a year ago, but haven't properly given it my attention till this past weekend. very interesting choice of style and vocal ability for this lp. this jam resonates into one of panda's newer jams, bonfire of the vanities, with its slow-warped piano sample and drowning vocals. a good pick for lonely evenings with a cup of tea and window of rain ahead of you.
//alternative.pop.atmospheric\\

Eric B. & Rakim - Let The Rhythm Hit 'Em (DJ Shadow Remix)
a very rare track. this remix comes from a shadow boxset released a few years back, and only 500 were made. the box includes two radio mixes djshadow did back in the early '90s, and two cds full of remixes and original productions that have probably never been heard by most of his fans. if you are interested in checking the rest of these tracks out, especially the mixes, leave a comment and maybe i'll take the time to up them all. they're hefty, but its deserved weight.
//hiphop.turntablism.breaks\\

Lee "Scratch" Perry - Heavy Voodoo (feat. Keith Richards)
this track is slow paced, kinky sex. with handcuffs, feathers, steam and wax. its as sultry as a late night movie with out all the cheese. this is fun sex, not that awkward activity the selfish and shy call love, but the rush and spirit and games of longlasting bedrocking that only the right two (or three) can pull off. make those sheets wet with this.
//reggae.dub\\

Junior Murvin - Cool Out Sun
more reggae from years prior, cause this sound is fun, and gets me excited for summer. this is early dancehall, not as bombastic as its now become, but just as energetic. the voice could get on some people's nerves, but those people aren't welcome around here anyways, so i could care less.
//reggae.dancehall\\

big things coming from this site by the end of the month
there will be a digital single from my forthcoming album, 'friends'
the single is called 'in your arms'
and will either feature a remix of the track or a bside from the 'friends' sessions.
also, i'll post up a remix of my own in the next coming days,
along with a new minimix (maybe)

i just need to finish these exams first.

for those interested, my album will be released only on cassette, with unique artwork for each tape. it will be released on february 17th.
if you are interested, just shoot me an email with your name and address and ill mail it out to you once the tapes are finished. $5 a pop.

thank you, with love.
-tgrs

Something Different/and something blue

2009-01-02T03:20:00.002Z

i've started a project
that will hopefully take off;

its called The Hope Street Sessions.

i've turned my living room into a venue
i've contacted some musicians
now let's see what happens.

here's the first taste,
with a very close friend,
Tish Longworth.

- tgrs

even now,//I Am Whatever Needs To BE

2008-12-29T17:33:00.007Z

Santogold - Icarus
what delightful strings. a song to brush your hair to, a melody to tie back your hair and let your neck feel the winter bite, a beat to strut melancholy down from your apartment into a boyfriend's car; a song to waste your day. from a mixtape with diplo, a producer i don't normally approve of (except for that beatles remix), but if he chaperoned this track, then i give him credit. its haunting.

Radiohead - Kinetic
sounds of a haunted basement hosting a drug party, keep your needles to yourself but pass the papers on the left and dip when you think you can feel reality. static and erratic drums to keep your head loose, and a voice to tether the veins tight enough 'till you can feel the squeeze that beats blood faster as your heart races, picks up and chases a nerve tickle but loses itself when you see spots, so many spots your eyes can't focus and then you can only lay your head down before the floor breaks above the ceiling and your windows are stuck closed.

Animal Collective - Runnin The Round Ball
a very old animal collective track. beat heavy, collision music. fast paced, urgent, confusing, persuasive. i can imagine a rapper on acid over this track, maybe a poet on shrooms, maybe an old friend with a cigarette slowly reciting the monologue to a movie he never wrote.

Flying Lotus - RobertaFlack (Martyn's Heart Beat Mix)
finally, a track that makes sense. sexy and soulful, raise your head, use your feet, and dance under this basement light as it flickers in unison. keep your hands at her side, move your hips in time, and keep your lips barely an inch away from her face. keep your eyes down, let her hands ride up, and keep her waist close. when you start to sweat, and she starts to stare, and the beat starts to drop, and the static comes to a swell, and the melody silences the room, and the clicks induce a head-bopping trance, and the ceiling seems to fall, and the others seem to disappear, and the windows seem to crack, and the air seems so tight, and the moment has almost escaped, and she

home

a hole to drift down
and bounce off the waterfall walls
we break ourselves again
when it is easier to let everyone else win
or,
when it is easier to indulge and let it win
as it is here and a promise is only a series of words
the fall is suffocating
but these walls are illuminating
a stretched hand to touch the stream
a breaking wave that crashed across
a beach of dreams and yesterdays,
tonight drink wine and think of me.

"on our way home, we spoke of many things..."
YOU speak of so little, you speak of so much
I speak so suggestively, i speak so reserved,
we take minutes and turn them into months,
take oceans and turn them into walls,
and throw arrows at the sky to watch them fly,
a murder above us, fall into our eyes,
and we see which path we should take
but ignore the signs and keep walking straight
into our separate homes, with separate beds,
but the same sheets, those clouded white linens
we've let witness those nights
when the above was below and a shower brought release
after release had brought us home.

to always wonder
to always dream
to always dance
we play this silly game

- tgrs

//photos by pdhw\\

Let Sunshine Weep// parce que la pluie peut danser genitment

2008-12-15T03:47:00.004Z

Bon Iver - Woods
imogen heap and fleet foxes with rustic soul. vocals effected from a heart affected by the touch of a wintry dream. i believe in heaven, and i believe in loneliness, and i certainly believe in happiness. i also believe that this song is all three incarnate.
//acapella.folk\\

Ruby Weapon Mono - #1 (Animal Collective Cover)
haunting rendition. check out their covers. and a little early christmas present for those as eager as i am for the new album. these melodies beat the beach boys; i challenge you to tell me otherwise after listening to merriweather post pavilion.
//acoustic.pop.folk\\

there is little to inspire me anymore
but i have hopes for a mountain winter
and warmth in tapes

i am in love with nothing
yet everyone looks so beautiful
and charming still

if my fears are kept in check
steadied as steady my hands
then this disease will die hungry

for i will not let it live full
on my imagination
and what soul i have saved so far.

- tgrs

Charming//even the leaves have all changed

2008-11-14T22:10:00.005Z

Magnetic Morning - At A Crossroads, Passive
it starts off like a cheesy radio rock song, but something keeps my attention, and at the end, it pays off with bond strings and sludge feedback to an immense second movement that must encourage listeners to throw aside passivity. or not. some are bound to pretend apathy, and, if not discouraged, will suffer quietly until a very old age. wrinkles and arthritis. you'll care then.
//rock.alternative\\

Banjo or Freakout - 72 (Everything Fast)
i find haunting music a good listen. especially an empty beach house is covered in grey from impending showers, the air is thick, and the lights are low with the speakers loud. i can imagine alessio recording this in his bedroom, in the same conditions as i listen. i think you can hear a ghost sigh on this track.
//atmospheric.lofi\\

Chungking - Angel Eyes
there is nothing i do not love about this track. another selection with a subtle bond impression (not that i'm trying to force quantum of solace on anyone, i haven't seen it yet and i'm in no rush to) with a sexy string arrangement backing the voice of a woman, soul bared at the back of a basement club. i bet she writes poetry, and smokes light cigarrettes, and only enjoys walks alone under a light drizzle. i'm also quite sure she lives in paris, but my imagination has been wrong before.
//lounge.triphop\\

Bent - As Seen From Space
this is just to help those troubled relax, those eager calm, those stubborn embrace, those helpless survive, those quiet engage, those difficult ease, those fake reveal, those hate love, those alone...feel together, with nothing, and everything, and that something only shadows of memories can promise. close your eyes, please, and let the shaking finally stop.
//atmospheric.newage\\

too little time was spent where it should have been
i could compose the ages if the ages waited
or time should leave itself for me to take
and i would create a song for each of you
a melody to sing, a line to read, a note to hum
something to show i am grateful, and that i care,
that i have never forgotten how important you are
and how much i need each and every one of you.

'Friends'
february 2009

and i am heartbroken because of you
what stings of secret truth
and abandoned patience
be careful with where that tongue speaks,
soon the audience of few will crumble to none.

- tgrs

//photo by phw \\

shaken like a handful of diamonds//In Twilight Or Sunset Time

2008-11-07T15:09:00.005Z

Gnarls Barkley - Who's Gonna Save My Soul? (Demo Version)
it's amazing how simple a melody from a stranger's song can echo exactly how you would sing if your throat were gold, if courage were free, if hope were saved. with a clav and subdued drum machine, this demo breaks down and cries for itself, lamenting the beauty of a break up before it can cherish the charm of a relationship past.
//alternative.pop.r&b\\

The Secret Machines - Breathe
a short punk song about love, written with smoke in the air. fresh from a gun, or fresh from lungs, vapor heavy and intensely blue, the machines knock out this b-side with enough attitude to propel their garage sound into the hearts of every first-kissers with ears enough to hear the rock of tongue-locked kiss.
//garage.rock\\

Philip Glass - Mad Rush
and finally, when the wings close and the wheels touch, you land in another world with another set of eyes and another mask to wear, another closed heart closed off from people known and knowing people, to keep what self is left inside the self you've kept. bring smiles with your fake teeth, bring a wink for her heels, and bring a hug for the arms you've loved. keep the music the loud, the eyes shut, the windows down, and drive, drive, drive, drive, drive, drive until you reach the autumn coast.
//classical.score\\

I have very little to offer right now
but I hope to change the world at some point
maybe when the caffeine kicks in
or my ears strengthen
then the paintings my speakers cast
the moments my fingers grasp
the love we hope to last
the breath we share and gasp
the songs sketched with crayons past
and prayers we answer with glances fast
or ninja fail, so failed we fall,
into twilight thrown our feet will rise
and dance on floors where summertime
breaks winter's freeze and the chilling kind,
a moonlit shine for two lover's crime,
a second chance for a third attempt
to discover what rain was left
when the clouds soared by and I soared to fly
across the twilight into tomorrow's sky
across the river we swore to hell
and I swam to christ on a mission's tell
to cast demons ashore and break waves in time
to the rhythm of a heart breaking weak from time
two shadows of angels, two hundred of reasons,
but three charms of saviours where safe is needed
can keep smiles on faces where fear is ageless
and this statue of a man whose chalk is faded
cannot find the truth for truth is made in
bedrooms shared, in boredom bared,
in lust of love and trust for morning come
and soon this morning brings
a return to form, a return to king
for queen and crown and summer's rain
under sky and sun to hide
we cover up with lips and taste
to make the best of the shortest month
to make the best of the longest year

- tgrs

photo by phw

lie to me/O Burning Fires, We Flee On The Heels Of Heat Too

2008-10-25T00:33:00.001+01:00

Land of the Loops - Help For Your Aching Back
rest. rest. rest. rest. rest. easy. please. sometimes? motivation. understress. indivisible by hands of gods and strong against persistent expectations of a life lived by many, suffered by many, understood by little and loved by few.
//turntablism.beats\\

Passion Pit - Sleepy Head
catchy new pop. awesome grating vocals. the kind that echo in abandoned showers.
//synthpop.electronica\\

If clouds
then sun

if now
then come

if rain
then dance

if now
then chance

if not
then run

if now
then come

another show tonight. www.standrewsradio.com. 10pm UK.

- tgrs

and in my arms are three//Choices In Chocolate Pieces

2008-10-21T15:03:00.005+01:00

Horse Feathers - Albina
when there is wind, there is music, and trees breathe easily with the voice of the woods singing harmonies rustic as chipped from autumn bark stripped from a country cello or fiddle or violin found withering behind the shed of a grandfather's garden, singing harmonies natural in a pool of leaf shade and comfortable in the sun preaching over a canopy of willows that whistle river drops into that bank we shared our first kiss. this first kiss, with a clash of a broken orchestra, resonant and resonant to ears eager as they tickle to be touched.
// folk.acoustic \\

Jacob Golden - Cry Baby Cry (The Beatles Cover)
quality cover, especially the second half of the song. a voice soft for a lullaby gentle in its myriad messages. as frequent as new interpretations of beatles tracks are, this stands out enough to have forced another white album listen during these cloudy days of busy work and necessary distraction. walking across wet sand as geese float in the sunset, behind the cliff where waves meet before escaping back into the forever, my headphones crackle desperately.
// cover.acoustic.pop \\

The Gay Blades - Plastic Jesus (Paul Newman Tribute)
not much to offer. good night, to you and all other american icons and legends, wild west heroes and smoking rebels, business men of hatchets and leather suits, those folklore giants who tread quickly across generations of imaginations into grey tv screens and shut down theaters, good night to you and your many stars, your many moons, your universe of dreams and accomplished feats.
// acoustic.folk \\

Pearls Before Swine - The Surrealist Waltz
and in every empty factory that lines the stretched and pulled highway, in every vacant castle that guards the violent and ominous coast, in every backseat we've shared and loved in secret throes, there exists a fine dust that floats into the air from corners and cracks of years past that have leaked stale breaths into the mouths of singers and soldiers fighting for a stage stripped of floodlights, left alone in the dark with mirrors girded to cast away the pathetic image of a dancer with no partner, a dancer of his own waltz scored with memories and fumbling feet, a dancer who lands softly upon the dust floor and lays his head onto a pillow of last night that encourages eyes shut and protected from the kick up of sand other toes could shove, and this dancer needs mercury vision to encapture his audience of less than none with his surrealist waltz.
// psychedelic.acoustic \\

I will be back on the internet air tonight, at 10pm UK, 5pm US EST, at www.standrewsradio.com.
It is a chill out show, with songs similar to the kind I usually post. If you can be by a computer at that time, please listen in - I promise enjoyment with flylo, panda, el g, 4tet, pbs and crs, and others and others.

join me down this "rabbit hole" of internet student radio

on another note, i miss driving.
on another another note, i miss everything, but this constant push helps the rush until i can settle the waiting pain into a waiting game for when this missing flourishes into a n o t h e r rrr rose whose gracing pedals grace leaving feet
and when we meet again my shoes will crumble
as do my knees

- tgrs

photo by unknown

'You Couldn't Lose Me If You Tried'//when i see double, my heart spins in two

2008-10-09T13:28:00.002+01:00

The Notwist - Boneless (Panda Bear Remix)
something for the weekend, the onset of sleep and cheerful dreams. i have started to wonder, what if i stay? what if i take off and settle in and keep the east coast winter closer to my heart when i can see every star in our private universe from the cold shore of a backyard beach? the glee in a dance of a moment is worth the sharp turn off the path we've set for ourselves. this track should be a new panda song, but he wants to call it a 'remix.' animal collective will not be alone in releasing an album in january
//pop.alternative.remix\\

Who drapes my bed with flower petals? Not her, for she is too far and too brash to pluck these red bits of beauty; not he, for he cannot find majesty in a garden full of mirror stems reflecting home beads and summer tears; not me, for i am weak to gather and pathetic to decorate my bed with petals that have the strength to lift me to a float as i sleep dreaming of missed and missing people.

Where hides the rain we love to share? Not here, for here is wet with broken showers that provide little space to dance; not there, for there is a thousand inches impossible to cross with these little feet desperate to dance; not anywhere, for anywhere we are not the sun cannot give thunder and grant sheets of water air until here for me becomes here for you and everywhere we hide there hides a raincloud made only for two.

- tgrs

stop looking under my rock//Enough Tastes Like (never) Enough

2008-10-03T16:34:00.002+01:00

RUN AWAY

- tgrs

photo by jj

My Weakness//love, love, and a hundred more reasons to quit

2008-09-22T02:13:00.003+01:00

Panda Bear - Untitled
sing me anything to get me through the night. sing me something soft to put me to sleep.
//atmospheric.pop\\

de liver me from this place, with wings
press ed against my beating heart
i clutch fast and soar into the distance
on a bed of painted roses left for you

i know you will be there waiting
s o why should my eyes stay sunken
wi thout enough rest to watch the sun rise and set
n or the paths of children crossing from homes to hell
n or the past of adults leaving from mind to soul
in this moment of awkward return it is enough to succumb
g ood health, good spirits, and better warmth in the cave of a soldier's den.

- tgrs

here and back again//With Heartbreak, Or Wisdom Extracted Into Pools Of Sewage

2008-09-17T12:11:00.004+01:00

Atlas Sound - S.S.C.
good hook, amidst distorted ambiance only cox could weave into a pop piece of crunchy proportions. my window leaks into the wall of back garden, and so there is no light here, but the room is still bright. there are couches, curtains, pillows and a violin, all drawing shadows against the blanketed sun this country slumbers underneath. this song sounds like this room.
//alternative.shoegaze.diy\\

Pantha du Prince - Seeds of Sleep
if there were such seeds, why do you keep them hidden? you are the sandman, but you take and give at the discretion of a romance moon that hides under skylines inspiring to many broken hearts. i'm pretty sure this song heavily samples the donnie darko soundtrack. i am a fan of both. your skirt is pretty, and your eyes beautiful, so please stop crying, and worrying, because never seems worse than forever, but both are meaningless when coasts end to meet bitter semesters of joy and future regret. if i could hug you, i would hug you tomorrow, but these arms are too smart for that.
//techno.downtempo.atmospheric\\

September Collective - Primaten
noises, noises, oh noises of curious beauty. laptops seem to make more music than drums these days. i play the laptop. so silly, this technology music. goodbye twelve bar blues.
//electronica.downtempo\\

Skuli Sverrison - Seria
quiet now, please. or jump. or slide. or just run away with me into the virginia sunset above aged plantations decorated with immense trees that hug the galloping breeze, a gust of what we need to feel when the golden sky washes over our sleepy eyes. seria is that breeze, and where you find your feet after you first try flying, that sense of immediacy your toes bleed, on the carpet of summer dust and a year of love and trust, do not sweep away just because i've left, but keep tucked in a safe box under a record player that spins seria into the evening with crackles that echo against the lonely comfort of your bedroom walls.
//acoustic.instrumental\\

the following is something i wrote on my journey, during the inbetween hours of here and there, when i could see both the night behind and the morning ahead, sunbreak and starshine. it is a disoriented ramble, serpentine, a maze without a minotaur but assuredly obvious to six eyes that can recognize names in symbols and verbal winks. each word can be loving, and skeptical, but completely honest. unfortunately.

and so none of you may care about the following, but for those who do, so unfolding:

There is a significant calm that creeps into your nerves when airborne. the blanket of cotton white underneath, the pristine moonlight hanging over, the suspended comfort found on forfeiting faith to a metal bird guided by machine and unknown considerations. my plastic shield, doubling as window, or gate against my own escape, shows how far i have flown. i float now where you stare into on those lonely nights with opened windows and vacant rooftops. i do not feel any closer to the moon, is it strange that i can sense you from up here? what if tonight you aren't looking up? what if tonight your thoughts are directed at the trees, or the glow, or the past, or him? what if tonight the chill from the window surges uncomfortable shivers, and you can't stand to bite your lip and suffer the empty anymore? the ocean atmosphere is reclusive, i have indulged in solitude, and as monk to your whore my waves crash too far away for you to tip toe near. i am so grateful for the secrets we have spent together. are you ready to choose? i do not expect to come back a winner, but to as many loves as my bird has feathers, there will come a time when every quill must ink honest where the knife stabs deepest. use your tongue for razor decisciveness and cut loose! those ties that stand outdated. drag your leash on another chain and let free the ignorant with heels below his head. duplicity is becoming of merchants and jokers, so queen of hearts, end such court with the king's crown above a tower of sad tissues to soak the bleeding gold when royal tears have rusted the charm of your throne.
Take me with you to your brooklyn bed of water and swim still until the air you breathe becomes the death you need to wake refreshed, naked and wet from uterine dreams that haunted your comfort but propel those quick infant feet from coast to coast to foreign playground, grappple yourself and let the onset of fall humble your dreams until the tunnel has turned into a mountain climbed and your peak ready for you to sit. you will see so many stars, and my constellation will wait for you to draw it out on the sand at your toes.
Is there a reason you cross your wood with rubber nails bent with biting teeth until persectued by cast stones and witched hate, you swing dead as a dying pendulum in your grandfather's ancient clock. to yourself, no one is as dangerous as you, and life will take you nowhere unless you unhook your cuffs and back away from your woman's wall. i know you need her, but Jung cast the anima between a pair of legs for a reason, and so you need any her to feel fulfilled, with plague dreams and wandering spirits haunting your bed. lacking, and so necessary to fill the void in your punctured wrists, you attach to anyone who could make you feel like a son again, and you smile only when you can smell perfume. maybe that's why she keeps the dog leash taught. or maybe you both stare at opaque mirrors drawn onto walls with whiteout and crayon. no matter, my superman is approaching morning and my eyes are red with tired stains. this home will be new, and my summer's stay has been fleeting, but now i am hesitant and anxious to return again. what if there is nothing for me when i land? to solitude so i will flee.

and with a thousand kisses
goodnight, he misses the few his fingers ache for,
but these skinny hands have others to shake,
and must surpress the numbing awe of invisbility
for the sake of show and tell in this classroom
of tempermental relationships
having left a thousand kisses behind
for those permenant relationships
that stand behind glass curtains.
we each hide a rock in our pocket

- tgrs

thank god for moonlight//When Beauty Confessed To The Beast

2008-09-02T18:15:00.005+01:00

Black Moth Super Rainbow - Drippy Eye, Neon Syrup For The Cemetery Sisters
my favorite band at the moment. psychedelia at its delicious acid-washed best. if the beatles were born in the eighties, grew up through the nineties and rediscovered their casio keyboards in the new millennium, they would prob sound better than this, but in a completely different way. black moth channel the 1960s beatles as much as they channel boards of canada and discotheque, resulting in a warm, fuzzy, and confusing sound that bleeds originality and colorful curiosity. i believe that my imagination as a ten year old sounded like these two songs. life is epic with soundtrack, and i plan on giving my children a very epic childhood. they may hate me for it, but they will appreciate me so much more when they discover pot.
// psychedelic.electronica.pop \\

Terrestrial Tones - Plowman
in a hazy brooklyn apartment, or parisian living space, the sounds of creative minds and the tweaks of distorted controls reveal the expansive experimentation of two friends with noise samples and robot voices. or, three lovers caught in bermuda with one bed and tied hands, two in love and a third deceived, but the third loved by the deer and doe and so this boat sails happy, so long as that closet stays shut and the dark settles in the dark where vitamin d dissolves into smoke rings. if i had my way, i'd listen to this song on repeat under the covers during a thunderstorm until my ears bled. with company.
// experimental.noise.psychedelia \\

Entrance - Valium Blues
ok, you've won me over. i will completely devote my carbon walls to protection from nuclear sounds, and if this guitar is radioactive, then so any strings will cause atomic winters in the corners of my floor's mattress. and if cats are oddities in beach beds, then dogs have taken ove r the shores and we must fight back to ensure that those-who-walk-on-two-legs retain control over the sand and the sun so they can bathe their paste in warm promises of beauty and acceptance at their golden prime. the spots on my skin are crawling out of my hands and into the grass of yesterday, before burns and goodbyes, before stupid mistakes, before i let you leave, before i couldn't last, before i couldn't hold you as close as i wished, before my ears bled out to my own errors and his keys, but honor all errors as hidden intentions so seuss believes me a genius.
// sludgerock.psychedelia.blues \\

Pretty Things - Private Sorrow
concept? who cares. if this sound broke my radio, then i'd be sixty years old now, with a graying beard and hair tied back thick under a hat i'd found on the road from here to somewhere different. like a dug up gem from indonesia, this breathes static and chokes on fresh air to cough up disgust at anything ordinary and typical in favor of the dust kicked up from old tires on the side of a louisiana route that has taken you too far from home for you to care which number. do you consider crackles and pops a pleasure? do you consider drugs an evil, or an indulgence, or an escape, or an opportunity? i think colors sound best in orange juice milkshakes, but you might like jam on toast instead.
// garage.blues.60's \\

hey there
whatever i say i mean it a thousand times more
because my lips are hindrances to the expressions they rear
that flesh that marks imperfection, should we instead be gods,
then we'd rule our own heaven and love endlessly
until the rest grew jealous, and we made to flee,
so run into the mountains and escape to the beach
and echo romance from summers into the sway of the breeze
so chills ensure my hands to touch, and your kiss to grace,
and a moment of night that spreads to decade of hope,
we stand together under trees to forget what obstacles,
what walls of people and consequence,
must be decorated with graffiti and notes you sing and i draw
to give our love's truth a better home than this roofless hostel we keep our sleep.

if there was forever, i wish it started now.

-tgrs

//photo by jj\\

"if this is the last thunderstorm..."//This Work Is Real Work

2008-08-18T02:46:00.003+01:00

I'm not trying to impress anyone. I'm working hard for myself, for my own goals, and, most of all, for my own happiness.

I'm not trying to remix or mash-up, I'm just feeding my ear's curiosity for which songs I have come to adore sound exciting with other songs I have come to adore.

Just some experimentation. I hope you enjoy it.

TGRS Mixtape 2
1. The Field - The Little Heart Beats So Fast
2. Burial - Forgive
3. Max Richter - Maria, The Poet (1913)
4. The Bug - Freak Freak
5. Amon Tobin - Kitchen Sink (Clark Remix)
6. Radiohead - Ideoteque

i will never forget the moment we both said 'hello'
at exactly the wrong time.
but any sadness there has fled with winter's wind
when i said 'goodbye,' and you said 'i love you.'
it's not too late, the magician knows, but this kingdom is dead.
so long live the king, and you, my queen; i hope you live forever in happiness.

make-up and clown paint/For His Sake I Flee

2008-07-27T20:11:00.004+01:00

Burial - Raver
here i am in a house flooded with thunder rain, and the clicks and thuds of a storm above stay subtle still under the encroaching shroud of this anonymous london producer. the closer to this second album untrue, burial weaves dark atmospherics with static rain and a distant club beat to paint his stretched and clipped vocal samples of loveless women, or loveless men. this song has coloured my rain for an hour already.
// dubstep.atmospheric.electronica\\

The Third Eye Foundation - La Dispute (Ttef vs. Yann Tierson)
a creaky piano stepping close beneath a lonely voice in your neighbor's attic struggles to breathe in this downtempo track from trip-hop roots. when the fingers pick up and tickle the ivory into a faster pace, your ears will weep for a sorrow only their insides can know through trembles and shakes, stutterings and gasps. if you hear a lonely song come from a lonely sidewalk, open your window, throw petals upon the lonely singer and whistle along to the lonely tune. if others join in, then the sorrow will end with a louder song that sings of comfort, without loneliness, until the world is humming in time to the most beautiful harmony the heavens have imagined. then will every lover be given a second chance, and every sun a second rise, and every tear a place to rest.
// atmospheric.orchestration \\

Nick Drake - River Man
for when the rain stops, for the consequence of precipitation, for the break of light when clouds pass, for the distant thunder that forgets to quit, for the little children pressed close to the windows, for the parents who remember, for the empty towns when winter sweeps, for the chill of frost before summer's reach, for the reunions of long-time friends, for tomorrow and the next, for the past, future, present and best, i give you nick drake.
// folk.acoustic \\

The links are working again.
Hooray for free music!

-tgrs

i really, really, REALLY don't understand your style//You Are A Beautiful Person

2008-07-25T03:56:00.000+01:00

Teitur - Great Balls of Fire
a live take on a classic transformed into a baroque dance between violin, voice, and cello. forget the original and let your ears indulge with this masterful reinvention. the veil has been lifted from lewis' spastic pop to reveal a beautiful soundscape of tragedy and emotion. use this song to get you behind the wheel and go out in search of something you know you've lost from your childhood. the audience adds so much to this track.
// pop.alternative \\

Flying Lotus - Comet Course
static erratic, hypnotic beats from prefuse and burial's lovechild. lotus spins dub for a speed freak, his sound relentless and unsettling, but seductive and enchanting. dark for sure, keep this track ready for a long drive down an overcast highway into the mountains. roll those windows down and let the rain trickle in time to the clicks and twists. it's ok to feel a bit nutty sometimes, and comet course encourages a freakout mid-drive: hands wild, tongue sweating, head spinning, stay the steering wheel straight with your chin and laugh wildly at the bored commuters surrounding you. feel free to get naked while driving, just don't hit any deer.
// glitch.abstractbeats.electronica \\

Jane - Agg Report
ok, here's a long one from noah lennox (panda bear) and scott mou's ambient project. turn off the motorway, dim your headlights, and weave through dirt roads under the moon's steady stare until you feel sufficiently lost. then step out of the car and lay on the grass while jane's bass fuels nightdreams and open-eye unconsciousness. you've had your freakout, and now its time to relax...so drift easy wherever the music takes you, your ears wide and your eyes wider, your hands thrust out far from your body, your fingers probing the world around you trying to taste nature in all its sweet substance. make sure you've got some sub when you listen to this.
// ambient.atmospheric.electronic \\

The Tallest Man On Earth - This Wind
my favorite modern folk artist right now. maybe for the drive home. if anything, its worth a thought for the throwback, and a listen that will build in reward the higher you climb, the more clean air you breathe, the more birds you count above your head, the more rivers you swim, the more paths you create with a pair of old boots and a young heart eager for that distance reached and that discovery found and that journey accomplished. this album is the soundtrack to what adventures I imagine my two friends in the wilderness are living as i sit in the comfortable confines of these family walls that divide truth from existence, reality from convenience.
// folk.singersongwriter.acoustic \\

i find it all disheartening
so often i have spoken about leaving
escaping
i've learned that they need each other more than they need me
and that those who need me feed distance first
but those who needed have forgotten why for
and now i have only myself,
but i can't do it alone
so i'll let you in every now and then
when the work is weak and the time is dry
and we can play composer to a midnight orchestra
dream big in a suffocating existence
when all that matters is when next to see her
and you two together, seeing only each other,
and i settled without to have settled within
but ignored those starry skies for far too long.

by the end of this summer, i will have my first offering for a few of you.

- tgrs

the Man is getting me down//Who Wants To Fight Without A Weapon

2008-07-23T23:37:00.003+01:00

The website that used to host all my files deleted my account, so none of the links below now work.

I'm working to find something more stable.

For now, if you are a music maker, and you like my shit, send me some music, and if I like your shit, I will feature it on this space. Since the internet police don't like me spreading the free treasure around, they can't do anything if you give me the right to distribute. So, let's hear it.

Also, if you are an artist/photographer/doodle-r, send me your shit as well. ks has her own blog now where she hosts most of her stuff, so I could use more creative people on my team to keep this page beautiful when she's too busy.

Until I find a good hosting site, I'm going to upload mixtapes through sendspace. It's part of a new project I'm working on, so if you like what you hear, holler at me and I'll keep doing it. Here's the first, nothing special, the focus being Four Tet's awesome remix of the Born Ruffians. Expect some ambient beat/noisescapes before that track hits. Air France is just an awesome found-sound group who released a new EP recently; June Evenings is a happy end to a somewhat atmospheric mix. Enjoy.

TGRS Mixtape A
1. Flying Lotus - Melt!
2. Boards of Canada - I Saw Drones
3. Radiohead - I Am Citizen Insane
4. Julianna Barwick - Unt. 5
5. The Chap - They Have A Name (Atlas Sound Remix)
6. Four Tet - I've Got Viking In Me
7. Born Ruffians - I Need A Life (Four Tet Remix)
8. Air France - June Evenings

total running time: 17:36

Who Goes Where?//deep down, i think she's fine

2008-07-09T18:03:00.001+01:00

The Zombies - This Will Be Our Year
old charm from a record player your father smoked beside when his hair was long and his thoughts vague. his fingers tapped to the beat of discovery and the smoke whistled through the cracks of new vinyl under the hum of history. this sound has floated from leaking windows into the minds of countless music makers and history shapers, this sound that weaves so carelessly and pointedly into the hearts of eager children too young to remember the smoke your father breathed into the breast of his teenage years he gave up for your future. return the favor.
// 60spop \\

Sigur Ros - Gobbledigook
i believe in harmonies that make sense in both the natural and the mystical worlds. I believe in melodies that can soar beyond our physical limitations and dive off our mind's cliff into the river of a soul's shrouded curiosities that lap at shores of magic sand that spark journeys of escaping sounds we clutch at with dizzy hands, hungry for solace in the sense that sounds must make for us to sing along. gobbledigook has no sense, but i sing along anyway, and it is beautiful.
// freakfolk.pop.alternative \\

Magnet - The Gospel Song
ok, i'd love to dance with you. clap our hands, knock feet, and swing each other into the sunset's farewell hugs. your hair bounces as your teeth shine through enamel gates, and my boots click in time to the fluttering of your eyelashes. this gospel rings nights of youth you remember even as your skin greys, even as the moon kisses fade, even as the memories dwindle. big beat, clap clap, huzzah! and a do-se-do. stand up for this track, then pull a lover's hand close.
// pop.alternative \\

Your glass words have demonstrated just how much we've lost in a summer battle over winter come and fall's slaughter, each vowel reminding me of a secret slipped between my ears and those lips, those delicate red creatures that growl flirts and hiss taunts as we stand in an Olympian procession exposed to the torturous hot solitude of Sun and September.

Your painted mask has shown that in careful detail you tread unashamed of what you are, what beauty you guise in nocturnal mystery through insomnia eyes and how charcoal your whispers have become, spoken above tickling fingers that hugged under covers and weeped together, shedding shards of their innocent souls who knew too well what ends in December.

Your selfish care has reeked its stain across my heart, and now I too frequently feel apathy where romance and passion before stood their ground. Maybe it is for the best, since the air is thick with humidity, possibilities, reckless danger, and charms that spring magical when given time for a third.

embrace, embrace, embrace, embrace
rainstorm, rainstorm, rainstorm, rainstorm
dance, danger, dance!

-tgrs

write to believe//See To Revere

2008-07-06T09:30:00.004+01:00

Au - Boute
i am entirely convinced that this song was recorded in an your dead grandfather's attic, where we would call spirits with broken cardboard and light candles with torches on the eve of adulthood. there is a sophisticated, childish charm in the au sound. i hear memories of peanut butter and swings underneath a dirge for innocent kisses and midnight phone calls, which in turn succumbs to a soaring acceptance of responsibility, experience, and wisdom. like bon iver with animal collective as their backing band.
// folk.experimental \\

Lucky Dragons - Wooden Cave Loop
isolation, inner peace, escape, self-convention, hibernation, meditation, contemplation, self-discovery, ameliorative, indulgent, selfish, self-awareness, survival, weirdness. these and other reasons for following ld's instructions.
// experimental.abstract \\

Odd Nosdam - My Prayer Rug
i can see where you are coming from. i have shared your same eyes before, and that butterfly flew onto my chest with a sweet flap and careful kiss from her winged lips just as often as she cocooned in your soul. the steady haze here settles onto my heart bug and sweats beads of suggestion that seep into my pores until i can breathe only when the constant noise-synth pauses for speech and secret laughter.
// postrock.electronica.shoegaze \\

Ulrich Schnauss - Clear Day
who knows? with the sunshine this song glows and inside you are warmed by the second crescendo. a track for late cloudy mornings with your back to the window and a clutch of grey tea. slight boards of canada sound here, but with a mix of early moby. imagine a dance party on a moor, with thick fog enveloping the groove and the wet grass seducing our feet. bodies move in silhouettes and drip away as the drums fade into eight minute nostalgia.
// electronica.dreampop.newage \\

inspiration
for a reconnection

inspiration
for a retirement

inspiration
for a regret

inspiration
for a reason

for
inspiration, or
any regard
that inspires you to regard inspiration as unbearably inspiring.

farewell to children//If Only We Could Be Forever

2008-06-30T02:08:00.003+01:00

Odd Nosdam - Untitled Three (JB's OG Mix)
the fuzz is beautiful white noise in this track, and the quiet movement of the crackle's steady pace insists that 4 am is bedtime as your head nods to beat and sleep. i swear that voice is coming from behind my ceiling. or, i've finally learned to dream with my eyes open. either way, my dim haze of insomnia leaves me with only nosdam's chalk-powder music. if you don't want to surrender to pillow sin, then devote your dawn to headphones and press play.
// shoegaze.electronica. \\

Ruby Suns - It's Mwangi In Front Of Me
i lied. insomnia grants ears more time, and they have perked to dusty tracks of gentle lush. i have read somewhere that overexposed kids compare suns to collectives, and i agree, in some instances, but tonight i offer evidence for distinction. if animals gathered kevin shields and made him smile with only an acoustic device, then the suns have left utero to watch, listen, and learn. i think they did.
// experimental.atmospheric \\

Ryan Adams - The Shadowlands
now you can hear better, i bet. this is easily depressing, so keep a firm grin as you listen. or, settle for tears and hug your blanket tighter until your knuckles look like piano keys. this is a song for loners. or, a song for people who like people enough to miss some of them. either way, enjoy the time you've spent considering whether or not you like ryan adams. i've settled on admiration, let me know where you've ended up.
// alternative.pop \\

I'd like to think we all leave for a better existence. Can you smile as you walk out the door?
A challenge I'd wager few would take, but still some might internalize
and I don't mind that; the more people try and remember to smile, the closer we get to a better
existence. If not that, then, at least, with door shut behind, the future is so immediate you may laught at the ridiculous existence you have lived since wood shut still.

I hope you'll smile after you've laughed enough.

-tgrs

// photo by jj \\

playpen sex//Let's Dream!

2008-06-23T21:01:00.004+01:00

Cannonball Jane - Take It To Fantastic (Smallstars Remix)
just discovered this artist a few hours ago. fantastic electropop sound that borders on delightfully spastic, like a twitch you may get when you feel so completely happy your smile threatens to jump off your face and onto the stranger next to you. it bubbles up with such distorted goodness that tastes more like candy with each listen. ms cannonball has this melody she tosses around that is sure to get stuck in your head, but its ok, this aural plague is worth the sleepless night ahead of you.
// electro.pop \\

Cut Copy - Lights & Magic
woah, 80s. flashy waves of mock depeche could only sound better if the year actually was 1986. a dark happy; even the evil must enjoy something worth enjoying, and here hell dances to this track underneath a flaming disco ball. ok, it might not be that evil. but there is something underneath the glamour and shine this track shoves in your face. and i believe that something to be a den of sin.
//electro.dance \\

Jamie Lidell - Out Of My System
motown, as done by a white boy who dabbled in IDM. your parents will probably like this track as much as you do, and no, i don't care how old you think your parents are. they still have hearts of children, and those hearts will pound double to the beat of this highly dance-able, sing-along classic that's not even a classic, but go ahead and tell mr lidell that; he sounds like he's convinced himself that his home has been your record player for the past thirty years. a clean-shaven tenet, but this track has a coke addiction
// pop.soul.funk \\

Music, more music! the daylight has demanded a party with acid-funk
so i'll throw my backyard into a blotter daze
and maybe we can strip naked together, i don't think the grass is wet
but if it is, how about a summer bath with acid-wash haze?
Warmth, oh the warmth! that spectral force of life and heat
thank you for this shine delivered and received
my smoke has tangled up these crisp leaves you've toasted clean
and soon our bath becomes a pool of flame-soaked feet
but i don't mind the dancing
and this fire's so entrancing
or maybe its just the sheets our tongues have licked
and the bad habit in two years we'll have to kick
the manic mindset we'll slip ourselves in
and without escape, indulge the acid-made sin;
but i feel so cozy, i feel close to sleep - this pyre of lust we've created is reaching to beyond
imagine that? our fires colliding
and dancing together, like acid-step and acid-twist,
winding itself upwards to explode in a shower of sparks that rest so gently on our eyelashes.

when i whistle the tune you have in your head, i hope you stop dancing and lay next to me
every fire must burn away, but i'd rather we keep ours burning till the woods sweat and plead
for us to end our night, and greet the stars and lights in the evening sky
with evening sleep full of acid-dreams.

- tgrs

Calm Down, Please, Just Calm Down//do you care enough?

2008-06-23T14:46:00.008+01:00

Unique post.

I believe Animal Collective's song 'Doggy' to be one of the single most heart-wrenching pieces of music created in the 21st century. I challenge you to tell me differently.
If you've ever fallen in love with your pet, you will understand.
If you've ever lost a pet, you will understand.

One of the best things about this song is Avey Tare's lyrics, which you can find here, written from the oft-forgotten perspective of childhood. If you have the time, try reading these along with the music in each version of 'Doggy' I post. All three versions convey different feelings, ranging from sorrow, acceptance, to happy remembrance, but the soul of the song remains unchanged by its lyric's innocent magnificence.

Doggy (off of 'Campfire Songs,' 2001)
The first recorded incarnation of this song was performed on a porch in Maryland by members Avey Tare, Panda Bear, and Deakin; soundscape put together by Geologist. Emotive in its simplicity, the original 'Doggy' track travels across bounces into sublime shimmers and delicate strums, then exploding into a strange chorus of harmonies that gives chills for its effectiveness.

Sleeper Factory/Doggy (from BBC Radio 1 Breezeblock Session, 2004)
One of the best versions available of both 'Sleeper Factory,' a b-side with as much beauty and charm as any released song from the group, and 'Doggy,' segued into with an off-handed grace Animal Collective wield at every live show (and one of the best reasons to see this band live; their set usually has only three pauses for applause, otherwise all their songs flow one into the next in new ways each night). The best chance to hear clearly the lyrics, though the bridge melodies in this session aren't achieved as well as in the original.

Doggy/Hey Light (from another BBC Radio Session, in 2007)
An updated take on 'Doggy,' with added percussion and effects that exactly demonstrates how Animal Collective's sound has grown from the dawn of this decade. My personal favorite version. Also, another AC-styled segue, this time into 'Hey Light,' a work from Here Comes The Indian (2003). Certainly a taste of how AC's 2007-08 tours have sounded. Just less loud.

Personal anecdote none of you may care about (if so, then just download, listen, and forget all about me): I had heard the Campfire Songs version of Doggy first, but never got into it. Then I heard this version, and my obsessive love for this song and everything about it began. Ironically, since I connected with this live jam more than the acoustic melancholy off Songs, I thought 'Doggy' was joyous as a celebration of pets past loved and soon to be found, but certainly not depressing. The beat was too dance-worthy, the harmonies too Beach Boys-esque. But therein lies the charm of 'Doggy:' the woe of a dog's death, the stubborn reluctance to accept this loss, and the eventual grin that decorates your face as you remember the delight shared between you and your doggy when you lived together are all expressed in one song, but each facet is demonstrated differently depending on how the band decides to perform it. And so after dancing around my room for the umpteenth time to the last version, I decided to finally read the lyrics - and my heart sank. I listened to the jam again, and this time sat down, my head in my hands, reeling from my own past struggle to cope with the vicious theft of my best friend by the perverted hands of a debilitating cancer. As the memories of one year past broke free from their hidden cage in the back of my mind, I forgot about the uplifting percussion, the sunny day harmonies, and the only lyrics I had picked up on before:

"Such a sweet doggy."

The words burst from my speakers and collided with the thought of that very day I handed over my "doggy" to a death dealer, those curious demons who hide evil behind diplomas and prescriptions, apathy behind sweet talk and behind-the-ear scratches, and I took in the full meaning of AC's 'Doggy.' It was over-powering. I then immediately played the original version, and was subsequently floored again. How could I have missed this? I scolded myself for my pathetic listening skills. I then rushed to gather every version of the song available in a mad dash to absorb the track completely, in all its flavors. I knew I had found something special when even the shittiest live recordings, done from some thirteen year old's cell phone, managed to punch me in the throat. For a while, I couldn't listen anymore. It was getting too difficult to hear a stranger lament over a tragedy I felt too in common. I certainly couldn't listen to it in front of other people; what used to be a favorite for me to blast in circles and groups now made me unsightly choke up. So I left 'Doggy' cold for a few weeks. The song was too perfect for me to even listen to it.

The weeks up to her death, her eyes flooded with blood and her bowels uncontrollably emptied as she stumbled into furniture. The days before her death, she sat underneath her chair and stared blankly out the front door. The day she died, she was scared as I left her. I was too.
But now I focus on how she loved the first snow, to eat some in leaped bounds; how she loved barking at eggs and toasters; how she loved the cool tile floor; how she bent her ears back when you pet her; how she taught herself to raise her paw and ask for more; how the first time I met her, she nibbled on my fingers until I would take her home; how when I did, she ran around me in circles for a full minute before collapsing on my lap.
She shed a lot, and I still find her hairs everywhere. I don't mind anymore.

Isn't this how all music should be? Shouldn't every song take you by the ears and spin you madly until you either puke from the strain or take over and shake yourself wildly in circles because that is the only choice you have to express how wonderful the music has affected you? I believe that to be the only goal for music. If your audience is not brought to tears, to dancefloors, to inspiration, to grinning, to singing, to roaring, to shaking, or even to puking, then you have nothing to offer the world but noise.

/end anecdote+commentary. I posted all three versions for you, the AC obsessive, the AC skeptic, the accidental reader, the mp3 downloader, the elbo.ws searcher, or even the frequent viewer, to discover a taste of what I think is beautiful about this world.

-tgrs

it's certainly been a long time//Sun and Rain and Weather Stories

2008-06-19T13:08:00.006+01:00

Paavoharju - Tuoksu Tarttuu Meihin
one of the most beautiful pieces I've heard in awhile. trapped in a jungle's rainstorm with a storyteller and a thirteen year old opera singer. if the amazon could smile, it would sound like these three minutes. there is a hidden calm in this track you could only discover if you sit in front of a very large window with headphones on during a grey season. believe in the out-of-body, it is a freeing concept.
// atmosheric.world \\

Festival - Bind Us All
sisters from brooklyn, voices from a southern gospel record of the 1860's. harmonies waltz with bells and spin melodies around dungeon drums that beg for an imaginative listening experience. folk without the beards. their 'Come, Arrow, Come!' album has beautiful, engaging, unnatural sounds spun with child-like innocence. these girls must have heard angels in the womb.
// folk.pop.country \\

Fleet Foxes - Sun Giant
debut ep. beach boys gone boy scouts gone henry david thoreau. if all the woodsmen in the world sang in unison, it would pale in comparison to fleet foxes' five-piece sound. drenched in a thicket of reverb, this track begs a mountain view and crisp morning air. city cells and wild backyards are patches of insignificance to the landscape this band uses as their stage.
// folk.vocal.pop \\

Bon Iver - For Emma (Take Away Show Rip)
two sectioned epic. first, a soul-wrenching acapella sung in the entrance hallway of a French apartment building. second, a walking conclusion backed by guitar and keys down rain-soaked concrete in line with an attentive audience. beautiful piece ripped from La Blogotheque's amazing Take Away Show series. i recommend the Arcade Fire, Sufjan Stevens, volcano!, and Animal Collective TAS's as well. enjoy, and please go further.

How come the bluebird woe? Why stay these thundercloud summers? My June is escaping my memory and refusing to accept come July, why for? July must come as September falls, and soon September will rise again, as it has forever ago when first September was lifted by the creative minds of our language artisans. Do not fret; June leaves and July scares, but August will excite uncontrollably, for it will bring the amazing birth of another century of love, smiles, tears, dreams, and laughs. Soon you will decide the soundtrack of fiction's life, and children will hear what you hear when you finally press play. The world will sound like the air is laughing, the trees are dancing, and the sun hugs its family close, but only when you can bring August down from a future fear to present confidence. If I could make you love what songs you have to offer, bluebird, I would try hard to dry June's showers and dispel July's heat; but I cannot play the Tempest, no matter how my heart wishes itself the strength to calm the storms you fear, I cannot play with what you have to suffer. Suffer to conquer, through robins, jackels, lions and eagles, a flight of perseverance I believe weaker than your steady wings. My gift to you is only my heart, my heart, though too small for its Olympian hubris, but large enough to pass eight hours with enduring solitude and patience for next winter's June, when you, my bluebird, may end your woes and sing with colours I will have waited all season to hear again.

Do not fret. Look back, but do not stare - blink
at memories, those cherished, those hated,
and fly forever on until the nest is ready for your weary feet.

I want you all to have this.

-tgrs

When Sharks Attack//thanks, kat

2008-05-30T15:55:00.003+01:00

Jurassic Five - Swing Set (DJ Yoda Mix)
The 45 King - Too Damn Funky
The Cool Kids - 88
Ratatat - Mumtaz Khan
Diplo - Shhake It Up (Twist and Shout)
Clark - Volcan Veins
Gnarls Barkley - Going On
El Guincho - Kalise

// hiphop.electronica.dance.glitch.pop. \\

please bear with me as we work on this space. it's summer time, and this page needs a tan.
let's celebrate with some uppity tunes, awright? these go out to make someone dance.

a million points to ks for helping out. if someone had invented a teleportation device, I'd totally teleport you some ice cream and a batch of cookies.

Here's to you, girl.

- tgrs

// composition by ks \\

"Holding, Tightly"//i never said never

2008-05-23T02:07:00.003+01:00

Animal Collective - Chocolate Girl (Live Radio Session)
CocoRosie - By Your Side
Patrick Watson - Sleeping Beauty
Kria Brekkan - Wildering
Belong - Girl From New York

// experiementalpop.atmospheric \\

I hope this finds you well,
your mind at ease and your smile contagious.

Do you remember how to stretch your teeth
across a human neck?
Do you remember how to wrench a heart
without a single breath?
Or what it takes to make a man
crumble in regret?
Or what you need to feel alive
when all we have is death?

I think you do, because today has been remarkably brighter than the last.

(i hope you are listening close enough; i give more of myself away with each note)

- tgrs

// illustration by ks \\

to the girl who spells made-up words//Remind Me, Merlin

2008-05-20T01:42:00.006+01:00

Amon Tobin - My Love (Live Mix, Chicago Jan. 2008)
Aphex Twin - Heliosphan
Kings of Convenience - The Weight of My Words (Four Tet Remix)

// experimental.abstractbeats.electronica \\

to the girl who spells made-up words,
I'm hooked on your fiction
like a bad case of nose friction
each sniff closer to a night of attrition
and this mission is sniffing
so let's get to shifting
a million decibels of druggie bitch fixings
take it, take as is and let's get the twirls
dance tight when your fingers stick curls
fast, grab, and pull, dance with powder pearls
drink up, girl, let's soak this rush
with diamond coated pills, this ruby crush
cheeks flushed
alright, a drug bust,
I knew it would happen
when we let love lust.

HEY

okay, that's enough kids, break it up -
the truth is out and the truth takes shit
spins it wild, fucks with it,
crafts it solid into something sick.
what time when the world stops still?
does the clock drip down from a clock-soaked sill,
into a puddle of colors and a flood of thrill;
we lap at the red and sift through the blue
and take turns laughing as we melt into
a renaissance painting of a sanity zoo
where me, you, and robot too,
get lost together in a watercolor coup.

HEY

i think we'll be fine
drenched in cheap wine
with Spanish mimes
reading Shakespeare lines
under the moonlight shine
and remember, this time
you can't run, you can't hide,
it's better to pretend we both tried
and met in the middle with hands tied.
but atleast this heat never made me lie.

- tgrs

// illustration by ks \\

call it optimism, so what?//I Miss You

2008-05-17T00:00:00.004+01:00

CocoRosie - God Has A Voice, She Speaks Through Me
Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti - For Kate I Wait
Quiet Village - Victoria's Secret
Ratatat - Shiller

// alternativepop.psychedelic.electronica.dub \\

Let's play a game.

I'll write you a thousand words, and you pretend to read them all. You fall in love, you kiss my eyelids, and together we'll drift into a distant sleep. But here's the catch: when I wake up, you have to be there. You can't runaway; not this time. Not again.

"But what if the moon hides behind a thousand clouds, and the temperature drops below a river's chill, and my ankles turn blue with the midnight frost?"

Then we'll play another game.

I'll wrap you up in blankets woven with heaven's thread and roast little fires underneath those skinny ankles, until the blue blends back deep into the river's crest; a kiss of water will then greet your thirst and not your warmth, so cradled in love and handled with admiration. When your cheeks flush crimson clear, I'll part my grasp to let you run in circles, naked and blissful, dancing to a mental beat you've crafted in sleep and the witches have warned their children to keep, but for years you've lived so close to their homes that you can recite the devil's case in words of praise and melodies with acid laced; I won't move, just watch, and listen, with my ears comfortable to listen forever.

"But what if my voice cracks, my heels snap, my beat lags, or your ears gag? My tone could drop, my prance could stop, and then where does that leave me? Warm and silent, an audience silenced because their idol stands quiet? I couldn't bear."

For that, here's my last...

A test, a game, a fortune teller's dream; I can see you may stumble with this newfound glee of running a race with rabbit feet, when all you thought you'd need was a working clock and a bag of rocks that shocked the time as your hare heels walked right through the next decade's chase; together we are here, and forever may come a minute late, but if you're willing to wait, be patient, be patient! and forever comes for love and saves.

- tgrs

// illustration by ks \\

I Can't Hope To Understand//like a shark, I swim hungry

2008-05-10T09:32:00.008+01:00

Jonny Greenwood - Open Spaces
Ted Lucas - Raga in D
Bibio - It Was Willow
Bjork - Desired Constellation
Radiohead - Cuttooth
Nine Inch Nails - 25 Ghosts III

*fixed all links*

// orchestra.acoustic.newage.atmosphericpop.alternativerock.soundscape \\

I've run too many laps to feel how great the sloth may overtake, but the ease with which you slaughter a clock's marathon with idle purpose disturbs the eager soul beneath your chest. I can hear it roar and snap from between your lungs, a painful scream for attention that causes your veins to vibrate with anticipation; but you rub your arms quiet and rest longer, the desire to rise and run too little to push. How fast does this security hold, how stubborn must the stars align to show a world beyond yet close enough for you to find; I have walked many wearisome paths, and come across too many ends, to understand why you waste your feet and settle home when the world with arms desperately open waits for you.

Maybe you need incentive, and have found none thus far. Fair enough, I think, so now I must, with toes subdued and ankles made useless, discover the mystery that weakens your nomadic soul and curious heart. I will start at the beginning, when we first met:

In a playground you sat deep on a swing that took you far enough up high that I thought you may soar, but fast you clung to those rusted protecting chains. The first thing I noticed about you was the way your eyes lit up as the your feet crossed the treeline and the sun met your smile with his. I knew then you could find the Fountain of Youth if only you let go of those creaking links.

Like a tape skipping, slipping, and sputtering, now I find you sitting on a park in a haze of bliss and psychedelia. That burning star is falling behind midnight's army of thick cloud, but your sunglasses are stalwart protectors that will stay on your face until the sunset battle is resolved. The grass is poking up at your feet and entwining your toes as you yearn to jump into the arms of mystery (I can tell), but something on that damp field kept you seated; I watch you ignore what your heart beats and why your ears ringand how your eyes burn whenever he comes near. You could have the romance of two doves on the Arc enjoying the rain, only because they are together, and the rain is beautiful to watch when you perch close to the wings of a heavenly lover.

We come now to a new vision, a doveless venture that finds the earth dry and wanting. You have no reason to run, no feeling of youth coursing through your blood, no desire to discover what else could possibly exist beyond your safe radius of unpleasant stability. You sleep awake and walk tired from one room into another, turning each door handle with apathetic disgust that exhausts your entire soul. You are killing yourself with sleepless dreams that take you farther than you are willing to ever go, and now I must put down this typing pen and cry, cry for what you used to be, cry for the beauty you used to embody, cry for the joy you once kept in your smiles, cry for the adventure you once started but never saw through, cry for the course your life is set, and cry for that dwindling flame in your half-shut eyes.

I hope you heed my words and open a new window this evening; take off those guardians of sunlight, and stare deep into the sky's stubborn stars, read their intentions with excited thrill and then gallop out of your brick enclave. I hope you remember that child who aimed high with a swing, smoked deep with curiosity, and loved unconditionally. If that child has died, then I beg you to light a new fire, with equal parts pleasure and dolor, so there is sufficient spark to throw yourself deep into a new mystery, an awakened life that finds colors only the enlightened eyes can use to paint their walls a beautiful Picasso.

- tgrs

'the spirit catches...'//I Know Enough To Leave Now

2008-04-23T14:55:00.002+01:00

George Cromarty - Flight
Taken by Trees feat. TTA - Taken Too Young
Panda Bear - Ponytail
The Temptations - My Girl

// acoustic.dreampop.motown \\

(dedicated)

The morning the sky opened up,
the clouds were a common white
and the weather was comfortable.
I couldn't find her anywhere,
I looked so hard my pupils bled
and left a trail for her to track me.
They took me into the sky,
where I broke records blinking eyes
against the wind of breaking night.
Suffering the avalanche's frost,
I made reunion with my dear pet
and walked her into a river deep.
Together again, we swam for miles,
past intelligent doctors, beautiful and blind
we crushed petals and deep we breathed.
The snow tasted like heaven which,
indulgent and persistent, we drank fast
and choked on sickly joy.
I learned that nothing was missed,
because together we ran and ran and ran
till our hearts burst and our souls

finally met eternal rest.

-tgrs

// illustration by ks \\

dedicated//I Find It Hard To Disappear Anymore

2008-04-16T02:33:00.002+01:00

Nine Inch Nails - Slipping Away
Burial - Untrue
Portishead - Threads

// industrialrock.dubstep.triphop \\

powerhouse tracks, for the mid-spring blues and late night grievances.
yes, I'm tired.
yes, I'm still awake.
yes, I may be dreaming.
but how does that explain why you're here?

you're such a jealous creature. why can't you look past the things that don't matter?
you've such curious features. why don't you smile more and force those wolves to scatter?
you are amazing and I need my fix
and I need some answers to cure these tricks
I bet it would be fine if you snuck over
contemplate cloud shapes in my windowless cellar
but you're probably too busy growing up
when I'm fine with staying young

- tgrs

My Soundtrack Crackles//here thunder sleeps, alone

2008-04-11T12:42:00.004+01:00

Jimpson - No More, My Lord
Grails - Stray Dog
Black Dice - Drool

// gospel.psychfolk.experimentalelectronica \\

It is quite sunny outside.

- tgrs

// photo by nh \\

sun, bathe me//The Monads Don't Have Windows

2008-04-10T04:25:00.004+01:00

The Tallest Man on Earth - I Won't Be Found
Bob Dylan - In My Time of Dyin'
Murder by Death - Those Who Stayed
Chris Watson - Telegraph Cove at Night

// folk.rock.nature \\

I'd hate to think this was all we had to offer, that our hours invested were wasted on idle truths and convincing liars, dancing on a drowning seesaw. Maybe if we could run off and disappear, a fitting finale could find us under some oak's shelter in the forest of my backyard; like an alternate ending to Dr. Faustus, with impotent devils and rescuing angels, we could escape any mistakes we've made and live subtly by the beach. If I'm asking for too much, please ignore this message, and attribute my slight of tongue to the late hour and the persistence of ill mental health. Or, next time you catch my eye, raise your eyebrows seductively and walk away. Maybe you'd rather not play a second round, but I'd love a new dose of temptation.

Together, we could escape the obstacles of time and run headfirst into forever, tripping over the fortunes of tomorrow and forgoing any promises of yesterday. Hand in hand, palm touching palm, I believe. Without an extra pair of socks, my feet are already wet.

Goodnight, until you wake.

- tgrs

// illustration by ks \\

welcome home!//I Think I Am Lost...

2008-04-03T06:14:00.005+01:00

Radiohead - Worrywort
Jose Gonzalez - Storm
My Morning Jacket - I Will Be There When You Die
Junior Boys - FM (Marsen Jules Remix)

// alternative.acoustic.atmospheric.pop \\

Here we are.
Take it, I won't mind. Yes, yes, yes I promise - it's for you!

How long until this ride ends? My head is tired. My throat is sore. My knees are weak. My fingers have stopped bleeding, though.

I want to imagine a place with rounded corners, curved bed frames and stained glass lampshades covering green hollow light bulbs. I want to find myself awoken by the smell of a dead mother's cooking and an aged father's yells, a spirit dog's yelps and chimney smoke wafting from a bakery in the next town over.

I could lift myself out of bed and walk through this dream with arms poised for hugs and my eyes clouded with sleep, but I'd rather roll over to the cool side of my pillow, for I know that, at the very least, this thread count is real, and those pancakes are dangerous.

-tgrs

// photo by somerandomGoogleImagesearch \\

Why Did You Have To Leave?//a madman's excuse for losing poker

2008-03-22T13:56:00.004Z

Max Richter - Europe, After the Rain
Tosca - Session 1 "D-moll"
Bright Eyes - No One Would Riot For Less

// classical.dub.country \\

The sun is bright enough, but there are dark clouds in the distance. They threaten too much of our day, so we must go inside and listen to old records of dust and scratches. Albums that had more meaning when they sat in our attic than under spin, we played them to our hearts' content anyway. As that needle danced over black harmony I held your hand in front of our window, tighter, as the hum grew louder, and as our breath drew nearer, until we kissed in time with the final movement.

Then we walked outside in the rain for hours.

- tgrs

silence//silenceQuietplease

2008-03-17T02:34:00.004Z

I Monster - Heaven
This Mortal Coil - Another Day
Four Tet - My Angel Rocks Back And Forth

// electronica.dreampop.abstractbeats \\

i have nothing to say
because the tide has settled
the Man's brains have blown
across sand dune escapes
is my home any better?
vacation is calling for a finale

but i don't want to deliver, for i am comfortable in sunlight

-tgrs

How Come This Taste//and in pieces we puzzled ourselves

2008-03-15T16:31:00.004Z

El Guincho - Cuando Maravilla Fui
Eddie Vedder - Goodbye
Radiohead - 4 Minute Warning

// pop.acoustic.alternative \\

Anytime you feel uncomfortable, imagine you are running through a playground preserved somewhere in the back of your mind. The monkey bars are no longer rusted, and the pavement is dangerous, but nonthreatening. Revisit the swing set, and soar off the ground with your loud chains r r r r rrustling behind you.
The trees seem so tall, so grand in their verdant composure. Your toes kick at their tips when you feel the most like an eagle, wings ready for the glide back down - ah, the wind in your hair as you float, the wink of the sun as leaves break to let it shine...the breeze that reaches deep into your heart and squeezes lightly, though strong enough to squeeze a tear

out of the eyes of a man in a suit, face furrowed and unfocused staring into a screensaver called "Spring Time." The plastic cubicle walls are firm against the flickering lights that flutter above him, and his stapler has lost its red coat long ago. Circulated air gives off a conditioned chill that slowly creeps into his bones and makes his knuckles shake. The lady next to him has stopped watering her flower, and the crisp leaves are beginning to collect around the coat rack, still leaves that flutter never and r r r r rrustle every time someone WALKS past: a fellow belt and tie mannequin, never any flattering colors.

Twenty-five years have gone too fast, yet the crisp afternoon air of a childhood summer will stay with him until the day he dies.

-tgrs

these times never stand still//Please Don't Let Go of My

2008-03-15T04:46:00.005Z

Animal Collective - Cobwebs
Joan Jonas - Song 1973/2007
Belong - Late Night

// experimental.atmospheric \\

The Queen has got her courtside manner in check.
who's to say she's lost her mind?
the king has left on a pointless crusade
following the sun and attacking the shade
but who's to say what treasure's he'll find?
The Queen has lost her place in time.

Hey
and the magician has too much to lose.
Hey
and the trick is forgetting the fool.

I can't see any sorcery in this window, but it might be because the blinds are magically taught and respectively fraught with no comfort in the cold seeping from the cracks of shattering lines. Mirror, turn aside, these freckles are demons with too much pride, so let not shine these truths of mine that I have had hid from tempered shins and curved fins, dipping just above the crest of water traffic waves my dolphin angel with better days brings glory's graces and all their shade upon my temple and worship cave. Who's to say the beach is far when all my shells sing joys dripped from the stars, their puddles my ocean, and surf my finger's rest. Taken ashore, I find my knees shaken and brittle with the constant threat of summer's worse carol.

Amen, those cult sheep
have got the movement
but I miss the action
that comes with group suicide.

- tgrs

'a moment in and out of time'//T.S., Never Disguised

2008-03-02T00:54:00.004Z

Richard Marlow - In Paradisum
Eluvium - I Will Not Forget That I Have Forgotten
Hammock - I Can Almost See You

// ambient.atmospheric \\

Who knew what that cat's scream really meant? When the shrill bite of her yelp reached the heavens and shattered a star's crystal shell, its pieces spilled from the celestial seat onto the alley this pained feline lurked. She raised her teeth to the bejeweled snow and bit down fast to taste the sweat of a mortal's god - in her eyes reflected the beauty of a crumbling universe and in her scream sang the dirge of a thousand lonely statues. Her fur, sable with night's cloak, glittered with the inundation of that holy shower, and this curious pet danced along to the pattering of stellar tears hitting concrete.

Oh, how graceful those paws waltzed! How wondrous that tail curled, pricked in time to the rhythm of cascading angels! Oh, you angels, hark not the tearing of evening's sheet, but praise the rain this cat has caused! This shower of prelapsarian innocence may finally curve the decay of our deprived souls, and we rejoice for it! How this sky does pour down like god's fountain, into the pillows of those asleep, into the eyes of those brave, into the souls of those wicked, into the heart of those insecure.

How peculiar, how frightening;
How strange, how comforting;

That force which sat so high above has lost to the calls of a cat in heat.

-tgrs

// photo by tv \\

let's sing something different//Those Seagulls Have Lost Control

2008-02-27T12:11:00.005Z

Animal Collective - The Purple Bottle
Nine Inch Nails - In This Twilight (remix by Fennesz)
Modeselekor - The White Flash (feat. Thom Yorke)
Ryan Adams - Avalanche

// experimental.electronica.pop \\

this walk is starting to curve in curious directions; where am I headed, anyway? a scatterbrain pretending certainty under the facade of a serious digression, she said. well, if worse comes to better, then I'll ring in the new year with a glorious shout of a thousand bells harmonized with the grace of god and to the tune of hallelujah

remixed.

i'm not sure
if it's leaving me
or if I'm letting go;
if this sleet has frozen my tongue
when all I want to show
are letters breathing in the snow.

Pulling away I
trip over my backsteps
gently, and fall forwards.
When gravity is upside down
and running heavy pace
against my weary cascading face.

I wasn't sure if we could dance
so I left my red shoes
under the secret garden's door.
I wasn't sure if i could trust,
and I was right to quietly hunch
that a secret conceived is a heartbreaking punch.

-tgrs

//photo by mb \\

Ha Ha! Hoorah!//now can we go home?

2008-02-23T13:49:00.006Z

Fink - Hush Now (feat. Tina Grace)
Julianna Barwick - Unt. 3
Phosphorescent - Wolves

// alternative.atmospheric.folk \\

At this hour in the night, I feel sympathy for my brothers-in-arms, my warriors of soul that turn their cheeks from the thought of fleeing.

He may hate that it is so, but whatever will be, is sure to be; for nothing else, if there could be, will be, so long as his heart stays in the graveyard of his memories. You must move on - there is nothing left for you at home. Your mother is crying, your father has disappeared; your brother and sister don't remember your face. An old lover may greet you with a comforting welcome, but I promise you any assurance she may give is worthless. The wind here is cooler, and I hope you can feel the breeze even with these gated windows shut. The sailing season is perfect on these waters, but no, the compass cannot show you the way back; forward, forward march, until the edge of the world is at your fingers!

Arrived? Set light to your vessel and walk on the crests of these endless waves. The coral can easily cradle any fall, and watch, as the dolphins happily mark your path. Sharks are not to be feared in this ocean, nor any looming storm, or a privation of all luxuries of land. This cliff is your cliff; it is loving, it is forgiving, it is comfortable. Do what you will.

- tgrs

// illustration by ks \\

sub specie aeternitatis//"Only Our Love Have No Decay"

2008-02-22T16:29:00.008Z

Belong - I'm Too Sleepy...Shall We Swim?
Dead Can Dance - Wilderness
Max Richter - Written On The Sky

// noise.newage.classical \\

Spinoza believed in three different types of knowledge:

the first, a knowledge of particulars...of objects received and acknowledged by the senses;
the second, of universals...of ideas reached and understood through mental meditation.
the final instance of knowledge calls for a more engaged analysis of existence. Particulars and universals become minor footnotes under the study of a single moment of time and experience - if in this moment you see eternity. You must transcend sense-data and push through all limitations of the mind; after such, the murky depths of reality illuminate under the shine of an eternal resonance with Nature.

As we are conscious of a moment's eternity, so are we more in tune with ourselves, with Nature, and with our Universe.

So here you may find eternity if you look hard enough, think lightly, and imagine the entirety of existence coddled between our fingers.

-tgrs

i love this burning smell//Take Off

2008-02-18T01:12:00.004Z

Aesop Rock - Bring Back Pluto
AmpLive - Video Tapez (feat. Del the Funky Homosapien)
Animal Collective - Bearhug (Live in Amsterdam)
volcano! - La Lluvia

// hiphop.experimental.alternative \\

i've started uploading my files to mediafire instead, so downloading these tracks should be made easier. all you have to do is click on the link, followed by the flashing 'Download Now!' button.

simple, spelled out.

demanding >> relaxing >> eager >> explosive
care to pick/sort them out? in order, I'd imagine. Listen. Listen. Listen.

tastes like honey, haters.

-tgrs

How I Lost to Zero Tolerance\\respect

2008-02-15T14:36:00.007Z

Philip Glass - Glassworks 1. Opening
Panda Bear - I'm Not
Of Montreal - I Was a Landscape In Your Dream (Grizzly Bear Mix)

// classical.experimental.pop. \\

Last night I imagined filming a movie. You starred//In a room doing everyday things, set to a speed five times too fast, you were painting a picture. Dripping down your canvas was a child letting go of a balloon, his toes barely on the rooftop. He wore a black button-down shirt with grey shorts, his socks' elastic loosened enough for the cotton to gather around his ankles. His hair was a light shade of purple, mine was still blue under the sun. The shades were closed to get the best lighting for my shot, so your illustration was already more beautiful than I could ever be.

What a curious circus. Where are the heartbroken elephants?
Under this tent I am lost in a state of bliss; acid-washed happiness overpowering a settling derangement.
I can see no safety nets, so I rest worried.

- tgrs

// illustration by ks \\

Midnight Street Watching//walking in the rain wearing only a bathrobe

2008-02-11T02:06:00.000Z

Amon Tobin - Nightlife
Thom Yorke - Harrowdown Hill (The Bug Remix)
Aphex Twin - Raising the Titanic (Big Drum Mix) {Gavin Bryars}
Burial - Night Train
Concert Silence - 09.22.07 (part 05)

// downtempo.ambient.electronica. \\

Imagine running out of your house without socks on and your hair a mess, the outside air chilled from constant misting and an eternally inevitable hailstorm. You've left your keys behind that impenetrable gate you just shut, but it really doesn't matter. The pores on your face are opening in wild approval of the night air and your soul applauds with a slight hissing of steam that slips off of your lips as you breathe heavier - someone may see you.

"Close your eyes, let the rhythm get in to you."

It's OK if just this once you held out your hand to a stranger and asked him to lead you in a dance.
It's OK if just this once you forgot about your mother and didn't look either way before crossing.
It's OK if just this once you turned into a dark alley and started speaking in tongues to an audience of trash receptacles.
It's OK if just this once you didn't return home because you got lost swimming in the ocean of a city you never knew existed.

When you end up back in bed, you will sleep the most heavenly slumber that settles in only after living an intensity.

-tgrs

// illustration by ks \\