Vampirebat

floored.

2007-05-24T07:36:00.000-04:00

well, yeah,

ok, so we're slacking.

but there's smog warnings and we aren't to overly exert ourselves.

actually, well, no real excuses.

this is actually kind of a gimme post.

there's one in the draft section I don't have time to finish.

it's been there for a couple weeks now.

more like over a month.

anyhow, shamefully, or perhaps not so...

I'm posting someone else's post.

not hijacking it or ripping it off, but I am highly recommending you head over to this amazing post on a blog I just discovered.

AWESOME TAPES FROM AFRICA

actually, to be perfectly honest I don't really know anything about this blog, save a great name, and this very solid classic post.

I am really glad that this one's been archived and still available.

go listen to the top track, HERE.

you have the time.

I was floored.

http://awesometapesfromafrica.blogspot.com/2006/05/alhaji-k.html

party and bullshit.

2007-03-15T19:33:00.000-04:00

since most folks who are cool are in Texas now, partying and bullshitting, this felt like an apt title for this post.

don't worry, you're not cool. you ain't SXSWing it up right now, and nor are we.

but we'd both like to.

this initially was going to be a post about a really captivating new (to me) Chad VanGaalen track called "the graveyard" which will still get posted somewhere's up in here at sometime.

however, this little gem of a remix by the legendary remixers, RATATAT definitely usured the top billing.

that Chad VanGaalen track is up top there on my current playlist this week along with my favourite LOW track, "dinosaur act".

I'm talking heavy repeats.

anyhow, listen to this postmortem remix, of Biggie Smalls, the aggressive lyrics, are closely matched by the aggressive treatment they receive at the artful hands of RATATAT.

This is a straight up no bullshit kind of track.

dig it.

>>> Biggie Smalls - Party & Bullshit (Ratatat remix)

the undedders

2007-02-12T05:10:00.000-05:00

Yes, shame on me. I know. I have neglected my duties here, to the vast multitude, and can therefore be partially laid to blame for the sporadic posting of my comrade in arms. When in a partnership and the other isn't pulling their weight it kinda makes things seem a little less enjoyable, more of a chore. This could be apt in relation to the time of year, both as the middle of many north americans' renting cycle for appartments/dwellings and roommates are common with all their wonderfulness and their drive you mental annoyances and also for the fact that there's this wash of reds and pinks and hues of both all over the place making sure to remind each and every one of you that being single is a shameful, shameful thing.

know this, Jean Paul Sartre probably said it best when he said:

"If you're lonely when you're alone, then you're in bad company."

That being said, and quoted here, one should not take it as necessarily being the pessimistic and further depression inducing saying that it could be taken to be, I would contend that one should read that last statement more in the light of one who, if the case may be, should happen to feel lonely, then to change the company one keeps. improve yourself/your self. This is the perfect time to renew your vows. I know you're single but your vows to yourself. those lies we often tell ourselves and sometimes, shamefully, others and label "resolutions". that by now have most certainly been forgotten or rationalized into being ignored or on temporary hiatus. This is much akin to the canadian ecological position with respect to many of its commitments.

at the very least you have to admire the states for one thing. They kept their word on this one. The Kyoto accord, that is. they said hell no, and did hell nothing.

now, back to the music.

isn't it the sole purpose of looking for new music to be able to say "I knew them back when..." insert platitude. There can be no greater accomplishment for a music aficionado.

Here's a little gem from the Tokyo Police Club tour EP. I don't know if this has been previously available in Blogdom, nor do I particularly care at this point. proper research would have taken the time I was willing to spend on this post, here at 5:23 am.

I hope you enjoy, I'll try and be more regular about this, sorry.

The band is Tokyo Police Club, the track is A Lesson in Crime (unreleased) from their Tour EP.

Tokyo_Police_Club - A Lesson in Crime(unreleased_TourEP)

isuck

2007-01-03T14:01:00.000-05:00

So... I had a little bit of a biggish party at mines on the weekend.

If one can't celebrate the arbitrary turning of the twelf calendar page, what can one celebrate - the anniversary of the purported birth of an unfertilized-yet-born-anyway man who is known as the Prince of Peace despite the number of wars fought in his name? I like celebrating the new year. Sure, there are injuries and a couple of ignominious historical events, but it's not like nations go to war over the one and true evening on which one year turns into another...mostly.

What I learned this weekend was that just as I ain't no picasso, I am neither a great party DJ. I am pleased to say that I didn't fall prey to that number one killer of party dee-jays, the so so so underground and indie that it's entirely inaccessible and horrible playlist. What I didn't anticipate was that my normally literate, open-minded, savvy and urbane friends really only wanted to hear 'Sexy Back' over and over and over. I seriously could have looped that song continually for 7 hours and have pleased more people than my too-clever-by-half playlist (that was, incidentally, vetted by my younger and much cooler sister, Barbastella).

Because it's the opposite of Sexy Back and because I've got the name 'Picasso' in my head, you get Picastro. The song is 'Sharks'.

>>> Picastro - Sharks

(No, I didn't play this at the fuggin' party, dink.)

Cuz

2006-12-13T14:44:00.000-05:00

Uhh, yo.
I know it's been a while since I rapped at ya, but ... naw, I got no excuses.
Check this out. Vampire bats are, naturally, the awesomest of all bats. But I just heard this business on my Quirks & Quarks podcast and couldn't get over it.

A rare South American bat turns out to have a spectacularly long tongue. At up to 150% the length of its body, it is proportionally the longest of any mammal. ...Such a small animal has had to evolve a way to store the tongue. “I had all sorts of theories, such as perhaps the tongue folded up inside, or coiled, or maybe its lower lip was critical somehow,” says [the awesomely named] Mucchala. It turned out that the tongue extends down into the bat’s chest, and its base is between the heart and sternum. When extended, it stretches by up to three times its stored length.

Listen to the show here:
>>> Quirks & Quarks - December 9 - the bit about the long-tongue-having-bat

I knit my own cape

2006-11-24T09:05:00.000-05:00

Happy Thanksgiving to our American friends! This is the weekend where they eat turkey (which, I hear, the pilgrims probably didn’t do), watch some really good football games and give thanks. If you travel this weekend, you Americans, please travel responsibly.

I have but one offering this morning. I have this hilarious thing I do (which SOME people think is juvenile) which is, when I like a song and its nearing the end in iTunes, I scream REEEMIX! and restart it.

I like this song because its innocent and heartfelt and the emotions are just a little too strong for Miss Grimm to remain cool throughout it. She sings a bit too hard once in a while and I think the recording quality is a bit rough, but I wouldn’t want it any other way. I think I’m in love with this because Miss Grimm reminds me of a girl I used to see. You know these people you know who are so earnest and nerdy that whenever you’re around them you catch yourself trying too hard to act cool?

The song is The Little Weeper by Larkin Grimm from the album, The Last Tree.

>>> Little Weeper - Larkin Grimm

Hot and sunny to cold and rainy

2006-11-01T13:47:00.000-05:00

Hey y'all.

Don't tell any of the super-baddies, but I'm all under the weather today. I was in South Africa fighting the worst criminals on the continent and am now all messed up from jet-lag on the return. Y'see, I could just take the supersonic Batplane to other continents (and do often), but when I'm gone for an extended trip like the last one, don't you think that it must mean that Bruce Wayne also has to be there? Right.

Now, how do you suppose Bruce Wayne would come to find himself in South Africa? He can't very well take the Batplane (thus avoiding jetlag), can he? People would notice.

Right. People would notice and probably ask him things like "When's your flight?" and "Can I give you a lift to the airport, Bruce?" (because people like Bruce. He's handsome and people like to do nice things for him because he's rich and may give presents like Mercedeez Benz'z and shit) So when I need to go to South Africa or whatever, Bruce Wayne needs to have a reason to be there for a similar length of time and he needs to fly by conventional modes (Awesomely, it doesn't apply in reverse. If Batman shows up, nobody cares how he got there or wants to give him a lift to the airpot. They just straight assume he's got the batplane stashed behind Victoria Falls or something). So today both Bruce Wayne and I are tired and a bit ill.

I spent the day learning how bitTorrents work, because I'm super technological and finally got my leather gloves on that Neil Young album I mentioned lo these many posts ago.

The track is Like an Inca, by Neil Young from the album, Trans. Bizzaow!

>>>Neil Young - Like an Inca

Dracula is around. He's here, but he's working all hard these days. I mean, he's burning the noon-time oil. For my man, I got some Nappy Roots from the album, Wooden Leather, the song is Sick & Tired. By the by, the Nappies have a new album due out any day now called 'The Humdinger'.

>>>Nappy Roots - Sick & Tired

Get that music.

One of the ends of the earth

2006-10-22T16:04:00.000-04:00

I'm rocking the old Afrique Du Sud these days and don't mind reporting to you that this joint is fucking weird. Still, I'm finding some bat fun. There is no shortage of baddies here but they don't really seem to suit my bat-sensibilities. Nobody has fallen into a vat of acid thus rendering them super-evil and kind of powerful but nobody knows what the powers are. Nobody was brought up by horrifying birds (penguins, or otherwise). Nobody is an ex-business colleague hell-bent on on taking the misery of his disformity out on the locals or myself. Nobody is a slinky feee-line temptress with whom I have an alluring-though-forbidden chemical connection. There is a guy who looks like John Astin, though...so...
Anyway, I picked up some South African hip hop that I'll be loading later this week and I'm pleased to say that the shit is tight. Look for P.R.O.K.I.D. and Wikid soon enough. In the meantime, does anyone know of a place (online and free) where I can get a copy of my absolutely flavourite song right now? Gimme a shout in the comments if you can email me Blondie's 'Heart of Glass' and I'll repay the first sender with a decent treat (hint: that I bought today down at the Hatfield market).
Bat-hugs and Bat-kisses,

Coast to Coast

2006-10-06T09:09:00.000-04:00

HAHA! Screw you, YSI! We got a new music mule named SendSpace.
Drac and I have a pile of backloaded beauties for you children and have been feeling right rotten about not loading anything nice in a while - then along comes lovely SendSpace. I learned of this from the ever-charming Ketan from the old Harlem River Drive-by (shouts to the Dundas Massive) who has recently uploaded a couple of hours from his unbelievable radio shows on KSCR out in California.

Here's my treat of the week. I picked this up in New York a few weeks ago - I yoinked it from a mixtape that I bought purely for this track. It's from Akon - who has a pretty bizarro musical history, and Styles P.

the track is called Blown Away.

>>>Akon and Styles P - Blown Away

I'll be in South Africa for a month coming up - I have no idea if I'll be Bat-uploading while I'm there but I hope to return with some sweetness from there. Give a shout in the comments if you have any requests.

so sorry...sorry, sorry...

2006-09-28T19:05:00.000-04:00

we're on it.

new posts soon.

life, you know.

in the meantime:

http://www.patrickwatson.net/files/uploads/Luscious%20Life.mp3

patrick watson - luscious life.mp3

montrealer, really nice and genuine guy, album just released, amazing live.

again,

all apologies.

First Day of Prison

2006-08-30T08:54:00.000-04:00

Oof. This YSI hangup is causing some difficulties.

I'ma gonna do some trolling around the clever blogs and see what they're using (if they, like us, are not able to use own bandwidth). It'll give me a good excuse to roll around on Said the Gramophone, The White Noise Revisited (Formerly Spoilt Victorian Child), ORTF, Molars, The Suburbs are Killing Us, and You Ain't No Picasso.

I have a serious stack of gems I want to get up on here but my own transfer rights on my server get ate up pretty quick-snap.

I've just moved to a new Batcave. It's roomier and my Rogue's Gallery won't be so cramped anymore, there's even a spot for me to hang upside-down while I sleep. Parking and laundry are tricky and I do kinda use those things a bit, but I'll manage. Anyway, I'm told that when you first go to prison you're supposed to act all crazy and maybe shiv someone or yourself to let the other inmates know you're fuckin' serious. I take the same approach when I move into a new Batcave. I immediately throw a crazy party or paint the house black or some shit so that my neighbours know not to fuck with my shit.

This week my opening salvo has been to play some psychedelic Neil Young on the loud side. I opt for the inaccessible and brutally long Arc or, more recently for choice creepiness from Trans. Unfortunately, in the absence of YSI, you're going to get my next-best loud weirdness from Comets On Fire.

from their site, the band is called Comets on Fire, the track is called Graverobbers.

>>>Comets on Fire - Graverobbers

flight-like...

2006-08-23T04:58:00.000-04:00

so the wonderful site we were glad to use and promote called yousendit seems to have undergone some changes, and now has become problematic, friends have said they couldn't get files without signing up, etc.

so we are exploring alternatives.

we may stick with them, signup is free, annoying, but free (and besides, it don't have to be your really real addy)... but we're just shopping around.

we'll welcome any viable suggestions/solutions.

in the meantime, hope you're all doing well.

here's some interesting music from a band called falcon.

sure they sound a little derivative, (and man does that ever make me sound like those indie snobs i cannot stand to talk music with), but it still sounds pretty good. smacks of some granddaddy (alas, no more), mixed with other folks.

there's music at their site (love that 3d heart) and they have a myspace page too where you can hear the track that piqued my curiosity, o great rosenfeld, which has is part of the band's accompaniment to the Daniel Wallace book by that name, there's more music there, but it would seem to require realplayer (eep!)

check'em out.

from their site, the band is called falcon, the track is called dry land.

>>>falcon - dryland.mp3

are birds the new wolf?

Only after dark

2006-08-10T17:07:00.000-04:00

It is time, my friends, to toast the summer.
You may say that it needs no further toasting - summer is toasty and toasted and so let us prepare for whatever hellish season Mother Nature chooses to inflict next. I say 'nay'.

Think of the summer toasting songs (in your head)... they're all like beach songs, or picnic songs or summer love songs, right?

Are any of the summery songs in your brains toasting the end of that last party of the summer where you went camping and someone brought an enormous amount of beer? The part where the fire was pretty much burnt out to ashes and the smell of September is in the air but everyone is denying it by wearing not-quite-enough-to-stay-warm? The part of that party where if you were going to puke or fight or pull you'd have done it already so you're probably out of luck and then Paso Mino comes walking out of the woods just out of sight playing something like this?

>>> Paso Mino - Oh! Little Young One.mp3

As perfect as a wizard riding a unicorn on a rainbow, that song has everything the end of summer is about.

BONUS: I love the shit out of CityTV. Not only do they play some messed up movies, they don't censor them! The result: I get reminded of how great From Dusk Til Dawn is and you sweet vampirebat-lovers get the bonus Tito & Tarantula track. This one is from the scene where Salma Hayek is pouring whisky down her leg into Quentin Tarantino's soon-to-be-vampirey face.

>>> Tito & Tarantula - After Dark.mp3

Thp thp thp thp thp

2006-08-03T21:06:00.000-04:00

That's the sound of bat-wings flapping over the everglades.

I've been reading a lot of peak oil bullshit lately. I got started up into by reading a piece in Harper's last week about peak oil and now it's got me all freaked out. I mean, it's not like I hadn't heard about it all and everything, I try to stay up on the environmental crap without turning into a hippie but this is some scary shit.

To be honest though, the scariest thing (at least right now) about peak oil is the cassandras who are harbinger-ing (harbinging?) the end times. I mean, these people are almost taking delight in the doomed-ness of the planet in a smug, self-satisfied way. It's a bit annoying, but it's almost enough to make you wanna start digging a shelter in your basement, y'know? I mean, to think that these nerdy kooks are going to be arming themselves and dispatching any intruder on their amassed pile of spam... well, the Penguin may be the least of my troubles.

I find myself strangely and pervertedly drawn into the whole excitment of the conspiracy quite despite myself. I try to take solace and still acknowledge the whole environmental depletion sitch by listening to the likes of Mofro.

I think it's really unfortunate that these guys have chosen the most unintentionally self-sterilizing name in music. But listen... This is the sound of the canary in the coalmine - this is the sound of Florida's gulf-coast being turned into a parking lot.

>>> Mofro_Blackwater.mp3

It's huge, sorry. Also, I forgot to do that file-naming thing we said we'd do so... well, I'll try to remember for next time.

dylan haunting...

2006-07-19T02:46:00.000-04:00

my friend M told me today she feels haunted by bob dylan.

i must admit, i haven't helped, the last 2 books i lent her have had numerous references to the bard, almost like an absentee supporting character.

one of these is love monkey by kyle smith, the other is the aerialist by Richard Schmitt.

you know what though? i too have had much dylan on my mind...there's this version of i'll remember you that only figures live in the movie masked and anonymous, and isn't on the soundtrack, or anywhere else, i'll transfer it eventually, because it is so sparse and beautiful, i mean, so stripped-down, and low-brow.

the drums are a broom on a cardboard box, how much more drool-inducing can you get?

it is light years ahead of the empire burlesque version.

anyhow, i have to confess to having truly started to delve into the genius this late in my life, though i have always appreciated and enjoyed whatever i have come across by him, he figured prominently in many a mix tape of mine.

in any case i recently acquired his discography, basically everything, on 2 dvds, and i think i lent it subsequent or during my move, and have yet to recall to whom, and this has been a frustrating realization, not recalling who has all that music.

i thought to give you a taste of a duet version of girl from the north country, he did with johnny cash, a really beautiful mix of 2 greats, and it got me thinking about duets, and how they've often been quite noteworthy.

one of those that are springing to mind right now, is patti smith with R.E.M in e-bow the letter, which is a beautiful song and a beautifully blue-green-washed video, back when that was hip, in the 90's, before it got overdone.

i just saw it recently on a retro show, (who'd've thought the 90's would become retro so fast...) that preps me to enter into a diatribe about musical generationalism, and THAT will have to wait for another time.

the blue-green-wash idea also reminds me of alfonso cuarron, who directed great expectations, with ethan hawke, and gwynneth paltrow, in which every single shot had a green element a visually beautiful and highly aesthetic film. he then went on to do harry potter and the prizonner of azkaban.

gwynneth, on the other hand, and speaking of duets, did a wonderful one with huey lewis, of & the news fame, in the movie aptly titled duets. though i haven't seen the movie, i have highly enjoyed their song, and she does a pretty respectable job at it.

she's releasing an album soon, by the way, and this also gets me thinking of the whole actors who play at being musicians, and vice-versa...which is at least another entry altogether.

anyhow, this also ties into the book i am reading now: the ledge, by Blanaid McKinney, an irish lady, in which she questions as a passing aside wether keanu's dogstar counts as a band or if it is only a pet side project of his...

where were we?

tangent hell?

bob dylan.

the girl from north country.

enjoy.

>>> bob_dylan_w_johnny_cash - the_girl_from_north_country.mp3

ysi, again.

oh and check the comments...

no rest for ghosts

2006-07-14T03:39:00.000-04:00

so, another week.

summer seems to be on its way out already.

the ominous fall-ness is fast-approaching.

and for many it will be back to the books.

for some, though, summer is the perfect time to hit the books, summer reading being a habit many have had engrained through school-life, and have kept as we meander into pseudo-adulthood.

i've been very forgiving in books of late, and have actually scored some excellent bargain bin finds.

i'll try and compile a list of books i'd recommend to friends, and maybe some folk who're reading this will extrapolate from that and submit their own suggestions.

for now though, i hope you, dear reader are well immersed in a good book.

i will close this post as i want to go plow through the confessions of Mycroft Holmes, by Marcel Theroux, which i am thoroughly enjoying.

i will, however not disappoint, and leave with some music, a really solid track by Minus Story.

they're a band from MO, usa, and the second paragraph of the All Music Guide starts with,"Hailing from Boonville, MO, but with strong ties to the Lawrence, KS, rock scene..." they're on jagjaguar, along with other notables, okkervil river, with whom they toured this past year. i was very sorry to miss that show.

anyhow,

i was having a hard time deciding what track to select, and wanted it to be from their newer album... i've decided on Waking Up off No Rest for Ghosts (don't you just love when the title of the album figures in a song?...ah continuity.)

>>>minus_story - WakingUp.mp3

up the wolves...

2006-07-06T02:03:00.000-04:00

so it seems we have our html wizard back...let's see how long it lasts...

remember what was said earlier about wolves? wolves are in. everybody wants to have a wolf association (which is my new copywritten band name: "wolf association" go on, you love it too.)

wolves are ever present in music imagery again too, like stags and birds and skulls.

anyhow, this leads me to an exciting track off the latest TV on the Radio release...
it's called Wolf Like Me...which is also the first track off the debut album of this amazing new (fictitious, for now) band called Wolf Association.

all kidding aside, this track just begs to be listened to at higher volume, while driving fast somewhere...or getting ready for a date, or psyching yourself up for something. it fits with something pace-quickening, expectant, exciting and fast. plus it even has the requisite slow-down segment to it...the catch your breath.

nod your head to it, you'll see.

the band is TV on the Radio, the track is Wolf Like Me.

>>>TvOnTheRadio - WolfLikeMe.mp3

ysi, so 7 days unless 100 of you get it or we decide to re-up it.

Columbus discovered Japanese Death Jazz

2006-06-27T16:17:00.000-04:00

Okay, I think I've smoothed things out with Mr. Dracula - it's my fault though really for being a lazy (but in my defence, also busy) poster. Still, I feel kind of bad for taking so long to get the YSI thing sorted out and the piece of junk computer I've got back in the Batcave kept crashing, 'sti.

The tune for the day is 'Sabotage' by Soil & Pimp Sessions. It's from their second full-length album which, on the spine of the CD self-identifies as "Death Jazz".
BBC 1's Gilles Peterson claims to have discovered these guys on the club scene in Japan - that kind of statement always rings like Christopher Columbus discovering North America. It's not like the Native people weren't already eating yams and maize and dancing to some tight, loud funk before he sailed the ocean blue, right? I don't know, maybe he did discover them. I sure didn't. Not until I climbed through the convoluted maze of Japanese commercial record-buying and magically found myself in a loud store run by very quiet punks.

Would you check out that cover? I was buying it for the cover alone! I have no idea what that animal is but it seems to be their mascot, it's on all the B-sides and EPs and seems appropriate once you hear the music. This serene, mythical beast will be the one in the corner of the chill-out lounge holding your drink and waiting for you to finish dancing. And dance you will. I get my arms all tangled up in my cape whenever this comes on from dancing so hard.

>>> Soil_and_pimp_sessions_Sabotage.mp3

Put that in your ear and smoke it.

I have no idea what'll be next but I do promise to try to make it sooner. F'real. Or, as I just learned Paul Wall is accustomed to saying: trill.

Batman Returns

2006-06-20T20:52:00.000-04:00

Well, I have been away.
No excuse, I know. Would it help if I told you I was zigzagging the solar system sussing out hot-ass new sounds to make your ears want to get it on with each other?

No?

It's because I promised that Japanese hotness and failed to deliver, right?

Dammit.

Well, I've still got that stuff. In fact I've got a veritable batload (get it!?!) of sounds that will put your ears in the mood but I've got a little problem. I've been hosting files I've posted on my own Bat-server but y'all vampires have been sucking my monthly Bat-transfer rate dry every month. I either gotta get more space or sort out some You Send It crap like your friend and mine, Dracula, does.

If you've got any clever alternative solutions, do say, Qusay. Maybe put those beautiful ideas into the comments section at the bottom of this here post and then I'll be able to call up those jokers in Toronto who host my Bat-bandwidth and say something all dark and smoky like "Party's over, Jokers."

As an aside, I feel like David Caruso has pretty much taken the air out of any dramatic, huskily whispered good-guy retort. His whole schtick is to "Say things like Batman would say them". It's like crying wolf, David. People stop paying attention. Also, those of us who are kind of the strong silent type and try to save those dark witticisms for les moments justes get burned - so quit it.

So anyway, Dracula was childishly berating me this afternoon about my failure to post (as if I'm not saving Gotham circa every minute!) and when I promised him I'd post tonight he was all "No, don't post tonight, you'll pave over my recent crap." So, I'm posting, but not linking tonight. If none of you nice people out there in Gotham have any clever ideas about where/how to host these precious nuggets of musical bat-gold, I'll try to sign myself up for some YSI-action so that I can hook up that Soil & Pimp Sessions stuff for you cats.

tardiness and good goodbyes...

2006-06-19T01:55:00.000-04:00

so i was late with this one.

life got in the way.

one of the reasons for having 2 or more of us here was to avoid these long spans of time between postings.

batman is sucking at this.

time to shine the light in his eyes instead of up.

anyhow, onto more sounds...

oh, by the way, they're planning on bombing the moon before mars. a bit of a different strategy involved. no copper balls, just the warfare from the "war" read fiasco, in Iraq. Bunker busters is what they plan on using... I wonder if they'll be using the D.U. (depleted uranium) versions they did so casually in the land of babylon.

here's one version of the story, just google bomb moon, and you'll find others.

anyhow, after disaster and devastation,

i suppose we should deal with how to say farewell.

a good goodbye is important, to lovers, to enemies, to friends, one has to know how to part ways for a long or short span of time, or even forever.

i don't know if i was ever really good at goodbyes, sometimes resorting to an ineffective see ya or later or even sometimes a take care. i don't know that these were particularly insightful, but perhaps they were the best option, because no one really wants to deal with a long, drawn out goodbye.

i suppose this could be tied into bands and their encores.

i was at a pink mountaintops show recently, where after a long, marathon-like set, that was really, really good, the crowd didn't really respond with applause enough to merit an encore. even the soundguy seemed taken aback, and tentatively brought in some music, after the awkwardness had gotten unbearable to him.

the band was disappointed, they told a friend of mine, L, after... and hey, i was disappointed too.

but it has now gotten me thinking about how this ties into the idea of a good goodbye. perhaps the crowd had silently decided it had had enough with long drawn out goodbyes, where we clamour for one last visit, one more hit, one more song, one more chance, one more time...

and the band seemed to want this, the long version.

some bands have given up on this...deeming it pretentious. some have even gone so far as to mock it somewhat.

the band ok go could fall into this latter category. their encore has become somewhat legendary.

i must admit to having thoroughly enjoyed it.

you can view it here

that's it, that's all they do, to that prerecorded soundtrack.

good goodbyes, (segway alert!!!) well, that happens to be the name of a band made up of members of the shins, amongst others, and their 4 song e.p. has been getting some heavy rotation here lately.

i chose to post one of the tracks from this e.p, track four to be exact.

the band is the good goodbyes, the track is sure and steady towards the coast and it talks about the money fever, amongst other things...

buy it exclusively, here.

>>>good_goodbyes-sure_and_steady_towards_the_coast.mp3

i didn't post the instrumental track number 2, good_goodbyes-fantastic_caverns_(part_2) though i really would have liked to. (heh.)

ah, the money-fever...

i was going to email these YSI links to my friend M, and my other friend, L, as i told her about the band too! but i suspect that i'll probably just send them here as per our firstly posted raison d'être.

so...

2006-06-18T05:16:00.000-04:00

yeah we're on hiatus.

sorry.

we suck.

and are wholly unprofessional.

a new post in the next few days, and then.....

it'll be on good goodbyes, though.

disaster & devastation...

2006-05-24T01:31:00.000-04:00

okay, well this would ideally have been a guest post. and it looks as though we will be featuring some soon-like. however at times you get a recommendation that well just sticks with you. This added to the fact that i just saw these guys at a cd-launch with no new cd, that i seriously rank quite highly on my top concerts of the year so far.

the band is the besnard lakes, and the song is the title of the post: disaster.

if my friend M, would have guest posted she may have drawn connections to brian wilson in some of the harmonics and vocal phrasings, and yes, it has that feel, but it isn't 3-part harmonies.

she claimed that this is one of her daily listens, and well aside from being incredible live, it has been one of mine ever since the show... that and 2 other of her daily listens, so i guess they may get posted here next, as a kind of guest-posting by proxy.

actually, having the 4-song e.p. dark horse transmissions playing right now as i type this, i think i may do a little creative editing, and change the title of the post, and add the second track too.

it is devastation.

they go hand in hand, as their titles suggest, disaster and devastation. with titles like these you may be expecting some goth, i-love-death-and-wear-all-black-music, but no, they actually make the songs uplifting, and celebratory, there's a chorus of female vocals, and some definitely stick-in-your-head melodies.

give a listen, and then please do yourself a favour and go buy their albums.

go.

now.

>>>TheBesnardLakes_disaster.mp3

>>>TheBesnardLakes_devastation.mp3

the third...

2006-05-18T04:04:00.000-04:00

and with this post will end the mountain goats trifecta from their album the sunset tree.

The last song is a song about love, and the things you do for love. seems appropriate subject matter given the seasons. what also seems appropriate is the fact that it is cold, grey, and wet out there for this springtime love season. ah cynicism.

the idea for this post has been brewing for a few months now, and i suppose i won't do justice to some very good ideas i am sure i had at some point, but cannot recall.

i remember i was going to post about the coincidence of a reference to raskolnikov in a popsheep post at some point, and i was going to point out that hey, we had a reference to him too, (in the song) ( he was a murderer, by the way, no real need to glorify him) but it was mainly going to serve as an introductory hey how you doin'? to our friends at popsheep (they aren't our friends, yet, you see) and so...well...never mind. they really have a solid blog where most people post regularly in a collective fashion [hint, hint, you jetsetting bastard] you should really go visit, and hey if you post there, tell 'em where you got the reference, and then they'll want to post a reference to bombing mars, maybe, and then want to be OUR friends...

ramble, ramble.

take a moment, and stop to think of some of the things you may have done for love, both good, bad, and painful. i think that just getting you to think about it, is the success of this song, i think the objective is to think back and to remember fondly, and also to draw a lesson from some of the less proud moments, when you did something for love. (they say the road to hell is paved...) this song's aim is to make you look back, and ultimately smile, knowing that there were some things you are proud to have done, and others you are proud to have learned from.

remember the context, folks this is from the same album with the chant i am gonna make it through this year if it kills me..., an album dedicated to the survivors of child abuse, a really wonderful album, that deserves your patronage.

anyhow, as stated, i think i had some great ideas about direction for this post, but in the interest of sticking to our mandate, which is mostly about the the music, i'll spare you the sentimentality.

i'll close with the closing lyric from the song, much like they did in those afterschool specials, or GI-Joe, from back in the day...

some moments last forever, but some flare up with love love love.

>>> The_Mountain_Goats_Love_Love_Love.mp3

one man op.

2006-05-14T04:24:00.000-04:00

right, well all apologies dear multitiude,

i was hanging with the communistas, and upon my return to the cyber high-life, i notice that there has been no activity in my absence.

a promised post in a few hours,

a kip is de rigueur, firstly.

barrelling...

2006-05-05T04:54:00.000-04:00

well, part 2 of the mountain goats trifecta was going to be up the wolves. an excellent and worthy track, and i was all excited to post about remus and romulus, and their wolfmother. i was going to probably tie in the band wolfmother, and then go on a tired diatribe about all the wolf bands out there, or maybe i was going to be too cool to do so...

anyhow, you were going to get up the wolves, but as i was barelling down the trans-canada highway with severely limited visibility, and oh so very much stuff in the car after a year away, I can safely say that this song is far more fitting.

the song, is from the same album, and is the track that actually got me intrigued to look at the band again, it is this year. I don't know if there are many out there who have attempted the moving it all in one carload before, but if so, hats off. i just have one question, have you ever tried it with a Hammond C kickin' in back?

it's funny when you realize a whole year has gone by. i suppose that feeling can only really acurately happen a few days out of the year, when you can pinpoint exactly what you were doing, and when one year ago... sometimes it works with a little more grey, give or take a day, a week, a season.

anyhow, looking back, i can hear myself singing the chorus to myself across the time gap, i am gonna make it through this year, if it kills me.

cheers to your year, tell us about it.

>>>the_mountain_goats - this_year.mp3

enjoy.

well I can't get it out of my head...

2006-04-27T09:52:00.000-04:00

Besides that being a wonderful ELO (Electric Light Orchestra) song, it is so apt to describe my thoughts on this wonderful track by matt and kim.

I found it over at the really solid indie-mp3.co.uk

and i am not certain as to the blogging ettiquette, barely believing i am contributing to this whole mess in the first place. In any case, I suspect it is only polite to post a link to the http://www.indie-mp3.co.uk/ post. and the only time to repost on your own would be if it has been taken down off the original site.

but in the end, this posting has stayed as a draft too long, and the post is now long gone past the frontpage. they still do deserve a smile and a cheers for a quality musicblog. I have to admit to having my guard up as i saw the name.

anyhow, I know i promised a Mountain Goats trifecta, but this Silver Tiles has been in my head non-stop (i fold you in half). [anybody get that?]

so i'll post a link to http://www.indie-mp3.co.uk/ and then get back onto our regularly scheduled programming.

go there, and enjoy, and also please check out the earlier posting about indie music across the world.

+++

anyhow this track, Silver Tiles by Matt and Kim, sounds best on shitty speakers. granted the only good speaker comparison is my integrated mac computer speakers, but even these are light years better than the crappy integrated ones i heard it on at work, initially.

i suppose, that this is a good argument for lo-fi, for a refusal to overproduce things.

I mean listen to it, it's a killer track, and it really just needs a little grittiness to go with it, a little distortion, a little raw immediacy.

that's my opinion, why don't you do the test yourself, and let us know what you think.

in any case, check out their site, mattandkimmusic, they're from brooklyn.

>>>mattandkim_silvertiles.mp3

we've got an audience.

2006-04-15T06:25:00.000-04:00

this post is dedicated to anonymous, and anonymous' as of yet, anonymous friend. it is quite flattering to be recommended, and even more so to duly impress, subsequent to being recommended.

in any case, we shall keep on, keeping on...

it's nigh on 6 am, and i am still headed to where many are coming from,

but it is at this time of night that a song like this fits so perfectly.

it is a late late night / early foggy morning song.

it is a fireplace song, an under the covers song.

it is from an album dedicated to the survivors of child abuse, and it really is a splendid record.

the band is The Mountain Goats,

the album is the sunset tree

i'll be posting a trifecta from it, and hopefully stimulate you to go out and get it, as it is totally worth it.

this song's title is referencing a piano prodigy, Dinu Lipatti, who died at 33, in 1950.

dinu lapatti's bones

we stank of hair dye and ammonia.
we sealed ourselves away from view.
you were looking at the void and sat unblinking.
the best that I could do was to train my eyes on you.

we scaled the hidden hills beneath the surface,
scraped our fingers bloody on the stones.
and built our little house that we could live in
out of dinu lapatti's bones.

we kept our friends at bay all summer long.
treated the days as if they'd kill us if they could.
ringing out the hours like blood drenched bed sheets
to keep winter time at bay but december showed up anyway.

there was no money it was money that you wanted.
I went downtown, sold off most of what I owned.
and we raised a tower to broadcast all our dark dreams
from dinu lapatti's bones.

+++

for the record, it is misspelled, it should be L-I-P-A-T-T-I,

>>>the_mountain_goats_dinu_lapatti_s_bones.mp3

arrogance. (interplanetary bombings)

2006-04-10T01:33:00.000-04:00

So I was listening to the CBC podcast of Quirks And Quarks, and heard something that made me stand up and do a double take. I had to "rewind" and play it again, just to make sure. Then after many expletives, I had to tell someone, but it was in the wee hours of the night, and so i had to send an email to a friend.

THEY ARE PLANNING TO BOMB MARS!

for real, no joke, no bullshit. It was too much trouble to send up another rover-style radio controlled toy, so... what they figured, is BOMB MARS. Their brilliant idea is to send up a copper ball and chuck it at mars, blow up the top crust of the planet, and thereby bypass the whole specific drilling, calculated silliness and create a crater we can then go and explore. Unbelievable. and the worst is that after the host, Bob MacDonald weakly asked about the potential destruction of life, Dr Phil Christiensen of Arizona State University, answered by saying, yeah we may destroy some life on Mars, but we think enough will survive.

I cannot believe the arrogance.

we are making a judgement call and saying our sense of adventure and exploration, and our sense of self-importance, our life is worth more than the lives of others. We are trivializing life, and assuming that our right to it is vastly superior than that of any other planet.

we are planning, what could very well be considered an ACT OF WAR against another planet. it's disgusting. just assume, for an instant that there really is some other intelligent life forms out there, and i use "other" very lightly here. assuming this, what if they were to say the same things about their hypothetical exploration of our planet. that hopefully enough will survive.

>>> CBC_radio_quirks_quarks_BombMars_fe1806.mp3

haze...

2006-04-01T18:42:00.000-05:00

sometimes it's hard to imagine just where things will lead, it's hard to think of things for very long, because a deep analysis seems to corrupt the onset feelings, the purity of first impressions. too much reflection is a bad thing. over-thought, can wound, deeply.

some songs are in 2 parts, sometimes these 2 parts are distinct, sometimes, it just feels like 2 songs are playing at the same time or that it should have been 2 songs. This is a case of the former; there's 2 distinct parts to the song, and the second part seems to be a recollection of the former...an analysis of sorts of the former part, it has hints of it, and seems to embellish it, all the while being instrumental.

not wanting to overthink it: in the end it is just really beautiful music.

the band is Youth Pictures of Florence Henderson, the track is how odd to see these lamps still burning

they're from norway, you can tell, and that's a good thing.

>>>Youth Pictures of Florence Henderson - how odd to see these lamps still burning.mp3

distant drifts...

2006-04-01T16:29:00.000-05:00

i'm thinking of distant drifts, i'm thinking of the ourals, i have snow on my mind.

snow and lights.

it's been beautiful outside, and yet, there's a crispness in the air that reminds me of the arctic. i remember picking wild cloudberries or arctic brambles in finland by the lake. i have recollections like these at times like this. i am inside, and i am looking out and seeing the sun set. it's hazy out there. cold-like and grey. but the greyness has evolved, and now that the sun is setting the cloud cover is acting like a giant screen and it is awash in an orangey-pink-with-hints-of-purple-like glow. makes me wish for a fireplace. the smell and crackle of wood burning. bailey's on ice, and warming flesh under the covers. i am thinking of winter, and we're now well into spring. i'm thinking of snow and lights.

>>>explosions in the sky - snow and lights.mp3

as promised...

2006-03-28T06:56:00.000-05:00

a quick one while he's away... hell maybe that one will get posted here too.

anyhow, as promised, here's the Meters.

well worth the detour.

clap your hands...

oh and see how the fade out and then back in is used so effectively here?

>>> The Meters - Hand Clappin Song.mp3

build our dreams.

2006-03-19T23:33:00.000-05:00

in the noblest of aspirations, i guess that would sum up what we strive for: to build our dreams.

all cheeziness aside, (hey, i'm rocking some learning theories research action here), this is a killer track. i can't get tired of it, and neither should you.

suspicious minds
it is arguably the best track by elvis presley, it certainly is my favourite. i think we should all aspire to create something comparable, in whatever medium we happen to be working in.
towards the end, he uses the fade-out- wait -fade-right-back-in technique, which works here, but is done infinitely more effectively in the Hand Clapping Song by The Meters, off their album Struttin', which'll be posted here soon. in that one, the fade out is inherant and responsive to what is being said...it really is soo good.

anyhow, listen to this elvis track, and try and not tap your fingers, feet, or even just get up and dance! I was going to post something else, but it just came up on the ol' randomizer and it feels just right, for now.

>>>Elvis Presley - Suspicious Minds.mp3

again, YSI, so limited time, limited action. unless you drop a comment, then we may host it for awhile longer, otherwise what's the point?

damn shame.

2006-03-16T00:56:00.000-05:00

yeah, so i'm guilty.

mea culpa.

what can i say? maybe it's easiest to put this aside in order to tend to other business by convincing myself no one's reading it.

maybe no one IS reading it. no one's posted a single comment yet.

it would be flattering to actually have a gang of folk regularly checking to see what silliness we're going to put up for the world to see, instead of the one i address with tongue in cheek.

tell you what, if you're out there, and ARE checking this, please leave a comment even a vulgar one, it would be nice to know.

this time it's a posting that was alluded to and promised awhile back,

it's the Rolling Stones' No expectations, and it's a classic. i love it, and can't really hear it enough. it has all the simplicity and complexity you really need in a blues song about a breakup.

anyhow, here's the lyrics of this unplugged version, which is my favourite...the intro's especially funny, but there is a longer version.

No Expectations.
(M. Jagger/K. Richards)

Take me to the station
And put me on a train
I've got no expectations
To pass through here again

Once I was a rich man and
Now I am so poor
But never in my sweet short life
Have I felt like this before

You heart is like a diamond
You throw your pearls at swine
And as I watch you leaving me
You pack my peace of mind

>>> the Rolling Stones - No Expectations.mp3

It's YSI, so please do leave a comment so we can bother to host some of these for a little while.

oh, and posts will be more frequent and regular.

i thought you wanted ME to be batman, though dracula's fine by me.

Too slow

2006-03-12T17:33:00.000-05:00

Ohayo Gozaimasu,
Batman, here. I left things in Drac's capable, though trembly because of the undeadness, hands only to check back weeks later and see no update. You know what? I'm going ahead.

I am in Japan right now fighting some Japanese super-villains and digging around for some hot Japanese hip-hop for you kids. All Bat-missives in the month of March will come from here. I promised some Cardigans and Final Fantasy last month, so I'll whip those out first, but I've also got a preview for you of the J-funk that's on the way from the Soil & "Pimp" Sessions. (Japanese text pack required to read this)

And by the way, if anyone has any suggestions of some tight Japanese jammies that I need to check out, drop me a line in the comments and I'll check it out.

So, as promised - The Cardigans. I'm hooking this song up because for some reason, on top of all the other bloody battles I get in, Alfred's giving me shit when I get back to ~~Wayne Manor~~ the Batcave. Dammit, dude! I've just come back from poisonous umbrellas and the paint on the batmobiles's all scratched and now I get home and he's all up in my shit to wipe my bat-boots before I come in the cave and shit? Man, leave me alone! Go get me a drink and piss off... you know? Shit. Sorry, dudes. It's just... you know, it ain't easy keeping the streets safe but I don't get the consideration when I come home.

>>> The_Cardigans_I_Need_Some_Fine_Wine (It's in .m4a, sorry.)

I got a special bonus for you, too. The video for this song is up on the Cardigans website.

You know what? That's it for now. Alfred-san just came in and discreetly handed me a note that said that Catwoman was seen up on Mount Fuji and that can mean only one thing - she's planning to blast a gigantic copper sphere into the ocean from up there to awaken Godzilla to re-terrorise the people of this country! I'll try to stick that Final Fantasy track up this afternoon.

For now, there's evil to be fought.

rapping on a casket

2006-02-23T17:39:00.000-05:00

Knock knock
Mr. The Impaler?
Dracula? You there? You've been pretty quiet.
Listen, I've got a couple of things in the works that I'd like to get posted up here sooner than later... you want me to wait for you, or what?
I've been renovating in the Batcave here and can't seem to find the discs I'm looking for, but pretty soon I'll have some sweetness from the Cardigans ready to go and I'm thinking a Final Fantasy track for our American friends. Plus I was listening to my special Tuned-only-to-hot-shit-Batradio earlier this week and picked up some names I wanna track down. But I don't want to wait forever for you here, Vlad.

Oh, by the way, did you see what Jordan and Dan over at STG did the other day!?!? Did you?
That was our clever idea!

Mental note: must reinforce anti-mindreading-Batshield in Batcave to prevent clever ideas from being stolen before I do 'em.

No post yet. And unless anyone out there is volunteering to help me clean this Batmess, you'll just sit tight, aiight?

drool on my cowl

2006-02-13T15:50:00.000-05:00

I'm all groggy and sleepy... I just woke up and my cowl was all twisted around my face so that my nose kind of stuck out of one of my eye-holes. Also, my cape was all tangled up around my arm. I dreamed that I was fighting this crazy sea-monster or eel or something. Even though I was kind of losing and there wasn't didn't seem to be any way to prevail that I was still managing to breathe and survive.

Even though I woke up kind of dejected and feeling inadequate - for some reason I feel really hopeful and strong today. I was thinking that I should go find the Joker and beat his ass or something.

Mostly I just want to lie around on the floor all afternoon thinking about my new favorite Spanish verb tense: future incredible. I find it much more beautiful but not half as poetic as my old favortie: historical compunctive.

For an example of the latter I would offer the following from George (not Burgess!) Meredith:

'Tis morning: but no morning can restore
What we have forfeited. I see no sin:
The wrong is mixed. In tragic life, God wot,
No villain need be! Passions spin the plot:
We are betrayed by what is false within.

Okay, don't take me too literally here. I'm just making a point. I mean, really, who could agree with a poem that suggests that there need be no villains!?! I might as well give the keys to the batmobile to Dracula (he's a horrible driver) and put the old utility belt on ebay.

For a gorgeous example of the former, I respectfully submit that:

>>>the band is The Magic Numbers, the track is Which Way to Happy?.

The Magic Numbers - Which Way to Happy?

comic book characters...

2006-02-10T20:58:00.000-05:00

Kramer: Yeah, yeah, then all of a sudden, this guy pulls out a gun. Well, I knew any delay is gonna cost her her pinky toe, so I got out of the seat and I started walking towards him. He says, "Where do you think you're going, Cracker Jack?" I said, "Well, I got a little prize for ya, buddy - " (kramer throws two quick punches and a massive uppercut) - knocked him out cold!
George: How could you do that?!
Kramer: Then everybody is screamin,' because the driver, he's passed out from all the commotion...the bus is out of control! So, I grab him by the collar, I take him out of the seat, I get behind the wheel and now I'm drivin' the bus.
George: You're Batman.
Kramer: Yeah. Yeah, I am Batman. Then the mugger, he comes to, and he starts chokin' me! So I'm fightin' him off with one hand and I kept drivin' the bus with the other, y'know? Then I managed to open up the door, and I kicked him out the door with my foot, you know - at the next stop.
Jerry: You kept makin' all the stops?
Kramer: Well, people kept ringin' the bell!

really wanted to post that one time.

anyone out there know about chip kidd? one of the top book jacket designers out there. he should pretty much be a household name by now, at least in visual-conscious circles, that is. kidd, is basically your book jacket design superstar. i love his work. i recommend you go check it out. he also wrote a book about his experience in art school that is a true gem. it is called the cheese monkeys, and save for the very end, which is cheesily disappointing, it is a hilarious read.

anyhow why chip kidd? well he is a huge batman fan, and made a tribute book illustrating his fandom, he then made one for superman, wonder woman, and plastic man. it is this last with which we will concern ourselves today.

today's posting is by Pink Mountaintops, from their very good latest record Axis of Evol, which is a line in this track, actually. anyhow, plastic man, you just may very well be the devil.

>>>the band is Pink Mountaintops, the track is Plastic Man you're the Devil.

Pink_Mountaintops - Plastic_Man_youre_the_devil.mp3

it's YSI, so it may expire before any one of you, the horde, get to it.

maybe i was batman.

2006-02-07T00:43:00.000-05:00

that seemed pissy, your last post.
i can be batman.

oh, speaking of pissy, one thing that really pisses me off in mp3.blogs, is that many do not use intelligent filenames. in that for example, if one were to post the Rolling Stones track No Expectations, then it wouldn't be such a bad idea to organize it thusly:

the Rolling Stones - No Expectations

however, it is unbelievably annoying to have to copy and paste this when one does the ol' save as function, because all too often, the actual filename is something like expec.mp3 which doesn't tell us squat and is really just adding a new step into the equation. so i can safely say that we will at least make the cut and paste part easiest by writing the artist and track name, with the extension .mp3 in a smart fashion, and wherever possible, we will make the utmost effort to rename files and have them be named smartly such as

the_rolling_stones - no_expectations.mp3

that's really a great track, and maybe i'll post it.

i had initially thought of seeing your concretes and raising you a heikki, which is a concretes side project, but i have to say upon first listen, i wasn't especially blown away by any tracks.

i think i've settled on a track from Band of Horses.

I really like their last record. Funeral is an awesome track, you can get it on the site, really worth the detour. I decided on St. Augustine. hard to dislike such cheesy honesty as "i know your best is still your worst"

reminds me of other bands, but hey, that's okay, it's other bands i like.

i think i'll post the rolling stones track as well, soon.

>>> the band is Band of Horses, the track is St. Augustine.

Band_of_Horses - St_Augustine.mp3

it's YSI, so it may expire before any one of you, the crazy multitude, get to it.

or it may get modified by batman, or dracula, whoever the other is.

Prolific posting

2006-01-29T15:44:00.000-05:00

Okay, alright, that's fine. You're Dracula, I'm Batman.
You didn't even say anything about where this is going though, bro. You covered the insecure explanation of the why but forgot to kick everyone's asses with the how. We've got big big plans, Dracula.
I'm not saying we need to let any kind of cat out of any kind of bag, but you gotta hit with some kind of hook that makes people want to come to Vampirebat for more than just yoinking some nice songs.
Thing is, I'm not sure how to do it either... how about offering that this will soon be the Kenny vs. Spenny of music blogs? For a start.
Also for a start, how about...

>>> the artist is The Concretes, the song is Forces

The Concretes - Forces

i can't remember if i'm batman or dracula.

2006-01-26T16:10:00.000-05:00

i think i'm dracula.

either way, the other, let's call him batman, well, he's slacking. and so i am going to post again.

this track has been playing in my head for a few days now, since i rediscovered it last weekend.

it has all the right hooks, the right catchy-ness, the simple melodies and lyrics.
and that synth/ukelele-style guitar combo... damn.
oh, and the ending when it breaks away into a bass-driven rythm section...i dare you to not nod your head.

just give it a listen, and you'll see,

for those who need to know, this is from the lead singer of the now ubiquitous clap your hands say yeah.

>>> the artist is Alec Ounsworth, the song is Underwater (you and me)

alec_ounsworth_underwater(youandme).mp3

il était une fois...

2006-01-24T01:29:00.000-05:00

"il était une fois..." is french for once upon a time, a fitting beginning i reckon. a nice way to kick off this foolish adventure. hopefully folks will come to like it, and decide to give it a happily ever after. in the end, it doesn't really matter. we're doing this for fun.

here's a link to a wonderful track by a wonderful band of wonderful people. i am biased, but if you've met or heard them, then you understand.

>>> the band is ohbijou. they're from toronto. the track is steep.

ohbijou_steep.mp3

words of welcome.

2006-01-24T00:58:00.000-05:00

welcome to vampirebat.
yes, we're jumping on the bandwagon. we admit to it freely. we wanted to have an .mp3 blog too.We're big fans of Said The Gramophone, have been for years. we're fans of a few other sites too, and we'll let you all know all about those as well.

we don't really know what we're doing, (at least i don't) nor have we fleshed it all out as of yet, and this site/blog/whatever will undoubtedly go through many and major revampings. for now though, we're too busy to think it through, and i just really want to share some music with folks i know, and some i don't.

i have been sending friends emails with YOUSENDIT links, and will probably post some tracks using that service. it is limited to 7 days or a certain amount of downloads, so we'll see how well that goes.

2006-01-10T18:21:00.000-05:00

First vampire bat post, ever.