I’d say this absence was about the end of the semester, which, to a certain extent, it is, but that’s just this week and last week, not the whole month. Fact of the matter is, I’ve been working full-time, at two different places (not simultaneously) and generally been very, very busy. But what else is new? I was thinking about doing this feature, which will probably die along with all my other “features” that helps me share, and more importantly, helps everyone else out there I know share with me, what they learned today. I want to call it TILT: Things I Learned Today, and really only think it’s so great because I think it’s a great acronym.

So, TILT (may be boring):

• SWIFT (Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication) is a Belgium-based company that created its own network for secure financial transactions (rather than send on open internet).
• Sarbanes-Oxley Act is a gov’t regulation established in 2002 established to protect against Enron-type investment disasters.
• Eye-tracking studies (Jakob Neilsen) show that users scan lists and left-side navs, so left-aligning text should be done to facilitate this behavior.

Perhaps someday you may be interested in something I learned. Anyone else?

Since I’ve been gone so long, I figured I’d give everyone a surprise: An original track from the forthcoming Admiral General LP (someday). I don’t know when things will slow down for me and posting will continue, I just gotta get back in the habit (like Sister Act 2).

From the original email I sent Rick: i realized that the dog is a girl and that it was four weeks, not two, not until after i was done recording. oh well.

REQUIEM FOR LAIKA
surely space will come in time
you don’t have to rush in blind
two weeks is not so good to design
a ship that keeps passengers alive

sputnik 2 november 3
you knew before that you were on the street

they all knew dogs weren’t made to fly
the russians sent him up there to die.

i hope she’s fine.

B&S in general remind me of jpk a lot of the time, for several reason: When we played our “record release show” (that was 7 fucking years ago!), someone (ahem) asked us to play the cover we used to play all the time, “Get Me Away From Here I’m Dying”, and Josh outright refused. Then he had a song at some point called “She likes horses but we get along okay” or something to that extent.

In any case, this song’s guitar strum reminds me a lot of some of his songs as well. I like everything about this song: The flat recorder, the tinny trumpet, and the line about falling asleep with ants in your pants. Probably one of my favorite B&S songs, ever.

The best thing about this song isn’t even this song, it’s the song before it, where there’s just spoken word and then bongos and guitar and all of the sudden it just stops and the drums of this song come in. I guess that doesn’t really have to be the best part, but I like it a lot, along with the lyrics of this, because they are pretty funny. In fact, I even like when this song ends and it jumps right into “Boy with the Arab Strap.”

In fact, after you listen to this song, go listen to the whole album, because it’s so great.

The first minute of this track I didn’t even recognize for the longest time, but then when Stuart Murdoch comes in with what I feel like is him exasperated at this dilemma of his: If you find yourself caught in love / Say a prayer to the man above / Thank him for every day you pass / You should thank him for saving your sorry ass. It’s such a great little complication, paradox. I really enjoy the detail in the song though, the strings, the tight, compact bass plunks, and all the Sesame Street background vocals that I objected to after “Boy with the Arab Strap.” This album — “Dear Catastrophe Waitress” marked the resurrection of my love for Belle & Sebastian. And this is what we shall listen to this week. What’s your favorite B&S album?

I didn’t even know that obsolescence was the noun form of obsolete until I started library school, and look here, Doug and Calvin are throwing the word around like it’s common knowledge — Kinda like how they throw “Virginia Reel Around the Fountain” out there and I didn’t realize there was The Smiths song called “Reel Around the Fountain.” This song was released 12 years ago. I’m getting old.

Have a good weekend, people.

We saw them last week at Town Hall, and they closed with this song. It’s amazing how seamlessly Stephin Merritt can move between incredibly wry sarcasm and wit to morose and earnestness. In retrospect, the recording here doesn’t do the live performance any justice, whatsoever — The solitary strum and natural reverb of the cavernous Town Hall was all the more striking because it was packed to the gills with fans who were all silent. Even though there’s moments where I wanted to snicker, and I would if I was listening at home, it was strikingly different live.

That said, still one of my favorite recordings on 69 Love Songs.

A spin-off from Monday’s post: I thought about where I’d heard the logical combination of words; (Natural Disaster) of (Year) before. Then it struck me: Nada Surf. This is the first track off of Nada Surf’s first record on Barsuk and spawned the eventual return from the dystopian world of MTV. Yeah, that’s right, I mentioned “Popular” again — How many times do you suppose someone has invoked that song when writing about these guys? Regardless, I think this track is a great example of the best of their work: Moving and catchy, and a little confusing.

But they are the sort where regular language comes up in their lyrics a lot and even though I don’t tend to catch the entire meaning of all the songs, whenever something happens where that language comes up, the songs instantly spring to mind.

There was a movie that came out a few years ago, Laurel Canyon, that for no other reason except for the title, but I do remember getting a little weirded out by the film and still thinking that, yeah, Christian Bale is good.

The song starts out with a little bit of piano that reminds me of M. Ward’s version of “To Go Home,” but upon closer inspection, the two have very little to do with each other. The harmonies and textures here are flawless, but the real kicker, of course is the banjo that comes in at the 1:55 mark. The build up to it is super-nice, too, where everything sort of just washes away and returns with the strong staccato (and yes, Shins-esque) “And I return to the wind and the cold and the snow again.”

I hear Eric Johnson is actually playing with The Shins now, so there you have it.

I got a couple of Fruit Bats tunes coming your way the next couple of days, both off of the Spelled in Bones LP that came out in 1995. They sort of fall in the same category for me as The Shins and Rogue Wave, but this track just feels very mellow and calm.

I really like the little lilt and how Eric Johnson’s voice just glides over the words in “You lost your voice / Singing along to Raspberry Beret,” but my favorite part is the subtle hand claps that come in during the last chorus, and “I want to just let you know / That I adore you and I know for sure / You’re the spark on the sun.”

It’s a good one to start off the week with, I think. Happy March.