"Lo-Fi Life"

58 min,18 sec

1. The Rats - "World War III"
2. Daniel Johnston - "Speeding Motorcycle"
3. The Scrotum Poles - "It Just Ain't Fucking Funny"
4. The Chameleons - "Seriocity"
5. No Age - "Everybody's Down"
6. Kurt Vile - "Breathin' Out"
7. Mattress - "Eldorado"
8. Guided by Voices - "Tractor Rape Chain"
9. Condo Fucks - "Accident"
10. Nodzzz - "Highway Memorial Shrine"
11. Beat Happening - "Look Around"
12. Grown Ups - "Quit My Job"
13. John Maus - "I Want To Live"
14. tUnE-yArDs - "Sunlight"
15. A Faulty Chromosome - "Them Pleasures of the Flesh"
16. Bratmobile - "Love Thing"
17. John Bender - "27B4 'Rainy Day Sunshine'"
18. Best Coast - "Sun Was High (So Was I)"
19. Japanther - "Bumpin' Rap Tapes"
20. The Intelligence - "The World Is A Drag"

Do You Remember Where You Were the First Time You Heard Guided by Voices?

I was sixteen-years-old, sitting in my living room watching Late Night with Conan O'Brien. I'd heard of the alternative lo-fi legends long before I saw what became their final television appearance. With that one performance, a fan was born. Their album Alien Lanes (Matador, 1995) remains one of my top twenty-five albums of all time:

The Dandy Warhols - "Genius"

My favourite Dandy Warhols song. "Genius," from their first album Dandys Rule OK? (Tim/Kerr Records, 1995), showcases the band at its song-writing best: perfect pace, depressingly self-effacing lyrics which Courtney Taylor-Taylor sings with just the right amount of emotion, all topped with a heart-wrenching climax. Every note is where it should be. "Genius" is definitely the most underrated Dandys song, at least amongst my friends.

I sometimes get frustrated that the Dandy Warhols haven't written a song nearly as good as "Genius" since "Big Indian" (my second favourite Dandy Warhols song) which came out eleven years ago. But "Genius" alone pretty much makes up for all of the Dandy's missteps.

I know to say
Things I never meant to
To seem a little more sane
'Cause that's what it takes

I can jive with that.

Rainy Day Music: M. Ward Edition

On the way to Tofino, British Columbia

Really, Transistor Radio (Merge Records, 2005) is a rainy-day album. It definitely made the drive to Torino in pouring rain a lot cooler:

This Is Like the Best Cover Art Ever.

Well, not really. Not even close, actually. But it's still really damned cool, mainly because it's Andrew Wilkes Krier (could I have expected any less from him?). The "Party All Goddamn Night" EP was released exclusively in Japan in March of this year. I haven't listened to it yet, but I definitely will soon, because I may be seeing him at the Rickshaw Theatre tonight. The show promises to be another sweaty, beer-fuelled mosh-fest of joy and, knowing Andrew's inclinations towards motivational speaking, inspiration. Party hard!

The Third Coming of Diane Birch

Since at least this past June, piano songstress Diane Birch has been working on her sophomore album, the follow-up to 2009's Bible Belt, in a studio in London, England. She's working with producer Dan Carey who's also produced albums by the Kills, La Roux, Lily Allen and Franz Ferdinand. Based on those artists and Diane's 2010 Velveteen Age EP, which consisted of covers of her favourite gothic post-punk songs growing up, I'm expecting her new album to sound pretty polished.

Until her new album comes out, fans will have to make due with an acoustic version of one of its new tracks "Diamonds in the Dust":

Rainy Day Music: The Kills Edition