Saturday, February 27, 2010

More Thoughts Before Bed

Tonight, over cheeseburgers, Pat, Tim and I discussed how understandable it was that Bill Callahan grew his hair really long and grew a beard after he and Joanna Newsom broke up.

A. That's what you do when a girl breaks up with you. Bill Callahan is simply a human being.
B. She's dating Andy Samberg now. You would grow a beard too.


Hard to rationalize this changing of the guard.

Thursday, February 25, 2010

The Super Technical Approach

This isn't what our new album is going to sound like, but it is what it will feel like.


Thoughts Before Bed


As a former Mountain Dew addict, my relationship with the drink is too personal for me not to spend every waking night thinking about getting singles released by this label, the official online Mountain Dew record label.

What do all these bands get to be on it and we don't? What is this Matt and Kim bullshit? I don't think they've even had a soda, let alone spaced out after drinking ten Dew cans in a row. Their music doesn't sound like drinking a lot of Mountain Dew or sucking down a lot of pixie sticks or Robotripping like everyone claims it does; it sounds like drinking a bunch of Kombucha and holding hands at a Braid concert.

I like his record, but Neon Indian's music doesn't conjure up Dew fantasies for me either. "Chillwave," besides being the worst genre name ever, makes me want to do anything but get green. Pitchfork says Neon Indian sounds like staying up all night and drinking Mountain Dew. You know what sounds like staying up all night drinking Dew, Pitchfork? Shpongle. The Lounge Lizards. BLACK SABBATH.

Our music sounds like Mountain Dew because Mountain Dew is responsible for a lot of it. During the "Jokeland" summer, I was strung out, living can-to-can in our roached-out Dawson Street hovel. I was LIVING Mountain Dew. Suck it, Matt and Kim.

Chromeo, though... I bet they drink a ton of Mtn Dew. That is music that makes me think of enjoying a crisp new Dew on a summer evening in Pittsburgh.

Rapolon and the Rapalongs Album Out Now!

The result of a few intense recording sessions we had up here at the BOFSF house during the past two months was a fantastic debut double-album for our side project, Rapolon and the Rapalongs. For this record, we and a group of friends played backing band to the iconclastic vocalist Lord Apolon ("Rapolon"), who pulls apart pop songs and puts them back together in accordance with his particular style of interpretation, which truly knows no musical precedent. We learned a lot from working with Rapolon, and you can be sure that this release will not be the last you hear from this project.

Here is the cover art:


"Sitting in Italics: An Evening with Rapolon and the Rapalongs" is available for free download in its entirely here and also at the Rapolon MySpace.

Wednesday, February 24, 2010

Tuesday, February 23, 2010

World Wide Webb

Today they posted a download of Jokeland on the blog "Sad Songs for Dirty Lovers," a site some of the members in the band have been downloading music from for a long time. That was cool, but I also discovered that recently a French blog called No-No Music wrote about us, putting "Mugs" on a playlist with other "fun" music like Local Natives, Ratatat and "Pork and Beans." I ran their comments through a translator, and this is what came out:

It begins with the kingdom of a joke, "Jokeland 'first album came out 5 friends from Pittsburgh. Becoming rather a kind "freak folk", these are the voices that print under their wacky character. Just a joke between mates!

Here it is, translated back into French and back into English:

It begins with the kingdom of a joke ", debut album Jokeland '5 friends have left Pittsburgh. Becoming more of a sort of" freak folk ", these are the voices that print under their zany character. Just a joke between mates!

A third time and "kingdom" becomes "reign." Anyway, I think, at least in these phrasings, they got it right about the album, except for the "freak-folk" part. Freak-joke, more like!

French speakers: different translations are welcome.

Thursday, February 4, 2010

Frog Eyes - A Flower in a Glove

It pretty much goes without saying that BOFSF is pretty excited for the new album from Frog Eyes, Paul's Tomb: A Triumph.
























Listen to A Flower in a Glove over at The Needle Drop. I really like it.
Hearing this and the new Joanna Newsom song in the same night, (about a week after finding out who Lady Gaga is,) gave us all some campfire heart.