A posthaven for Eric…

These guys are so great.  I am really enjoying their latest heartfelt endeavor, I And Love And You.

Here is a favorite of mine from that album KEXP played yesterday.

So I've posted about Passion Pit before; they were my KEXP mp3 crush back in December . I decided to revisit them this week after I saw John Richards played a track from their 2009 release, Manners, on his show last week. Whoa! This is a great album. I'm always a little wary about getting into what's popular in Williamsburg, but these guys definitely deserve an exception. Three great tracks, right here for your enjoyment. Very cool.

So I am listening to Thursday's "John in the Morning" KEXP show as I often do on slow weekends, and Modest Mouse's "A Life of Artic Sounds" came on.  I realized how much Modest Mouse's music means to me and needed to share.

I first heard "All Night Diner" in a fraternity brother's room as a sophomore at Stanford.  This was 2002 before Modest Mouse had achieved mainstream popularity.  I started downloading their stuff and gradually got more and more into it.  I think I was drawn to it because its so honest.   I was mainly listening to Building Nothing Out of Something, This is a Long Drive For Someone With Nothing to Think About and The Moon and Antarctica back then.  The songs on these albums could be crazy and excitable but equally sad and deeply felt.  I think that by being honest in their songs about their fear and frustration and disappointment and loneliness,  Modest Mouse allowed me to be honest about mine.

After school, I moved to Seattle, near where Modest Mouse is from (Issaquah, WA).  During the ~3 years I lived there, I began to see life painted in their colors.  I ate and drank (a lot) in the informal, often wild establishments of the area.  I took in the beauty and the isolation of the Cascade Mountains and the Puget Sound.  I suffered the numbing depression eight months of cold and rain and overcast skies will bring on. 

I eventually left Seattle but I know I will return someday.  Somehow in the same way Modest Mouse's honesty reaches right to the core of me, living in the Pacific Northwest shows me the joy and pain of life in their purest forms. 

Alright, enough of that.  Enjoy these songs from Building Nothing Out of Something.  Maybe in some later post, I'll explain why I like Band of Horses so much.

Check this track out from Animal Collective's new 'ish...  Pretty sick, no?

Passion Pit's "I've Got Your Number" is my new KEXP mp3 crush.  I've been playing it everyday since I downloaded it Saturday.  Nice beats, very cool New Wave sound, and quite appropriate lyrics for nasty gray days in New York (or Seattle that matter).   Check it out....

WHOA!

Another especially nice weekend in New York.   Special lady came out to see me.  Hit up Olives on Friday night with Andrew and Jeff, then dropped in on Sachin's going-away thing at The Musical Box.   Saturday, we walked six blocks to the Mercury Bar and partake'd (to put it lightly) in an open bar for the 111th Big Game with the Cardinal Young Alumni.

Anyway, we were listening to KEXP on Saturday morning and heard some fresh cuts we liked.  Here are a couple we downloaded and played a bunch this weekend.  Both are pretty rad.  Enjoy.