The Acacian

10/21/2011: Music: Now That You’re Gone by Ryan Adams

Everything you ever touched is undisturbed and hangs out
Like crime scene evidence undisturbed in dust
I don’t dare touch anything because it’s evidence of us
And it means everything
Well sort of

10/19/2011: Music: Up On Your Leopard, Upon the End of Your Feral Days by Sunset Rubdown

Spencer Krug is genius, that is all. Just listen to this song, that is also all.

You’re the one who ran in the wild a virgin to a name
You’re the one who lived off a forsaken land
I’m the one who sat at your capture and let the snow fall
On this whispering rapture
And you’re the one who’s kissing your captor’s hands
Well shit,
I know we’re all growing old
And where there’s a will there’s a way
So, way to go
But say goodbye to your feral days

10/15/2011: Music: Fall Sky by Silver Wren

EARMILK: Do you record a variety of different instruments in your songs?
Ross Cambell: It depends on the song. I may use the acoustic guitar for one song, then use effects, and then just take it from there. The most instruments I use would be whatever I have at hand. I play a number of different instruments on top of guitar including oud, banjo, piano and I’m currently working with synth. For percussion, I tap on my guitar or I tap on my desk and then I use pulse modifiers to mess with the sound.

EARMILK: What influences do you draw from when writing your music?
RC: Most of the lyrics for Windows In The Wreath were from daydreams I usually had. For “Crystalline,” I wrote about people-watching. Seeing so many interesting people around me, I feel like I could share experiences with them. There is this barrier, however, that holds everyone from each other that we all can’t get past; almost like everyone is crystallizing themselves. Like that song, I write about day-to-day observations that are easily relateable.

EARMILK: Who are you influenced by when you’re writing your music?
RC: Sufjan Stevens has influenced my writing, but Animal Collective‘s soundscapes has really influenced my music.

(Read the rest of Chris from Earmilk’s interview HERE)

I listened to the all seven songs that Silver Wren has released so far, they’re all fantastic but I’ve uploaded the best one. I think a lot of people will like it. If I had to make a comparison without taking the proper time to do it right, I’d have to say Bon Iver would be a good, but over-generalized comparison. 

This guy is only 20; this shit is killer.

10/14/2011: Music: Dressed in Dresden by The Hundred In the Hands

Hailing from – where else? – Brooklyn, The Hundred in the Hands are – what else? – a boy-girl duo who make sultry, electronic dance-pop. Already making their name on the blogosphere, this eponymous debut album arrives swathed in hype and expectation; though, thanks to fellow Brooklyn-based boy-girl electro-pop duo Sleigh Bells, there’s perhaps less than there may otherwise have been. That said, there is a noticeable difference between the music and approach of the two bands, and if Sleigh Bells are the truculent, hyper, troublesome younger sibling, then The Hundred in the Hands are the calmer, darker, older one. - Mischa Pearlman

(Read the full BBC review HERE)

These are our times
The End Times
And when the lights
All go out
You be Bombed Berlin
And I’ll play Stalingrad
You be Bombed Berlin
And I’ll play Stalingrad

10/11/2011: Music: Neil Young’s Cortez, The Killer performed by The Dave Matthews Band

A day late for Columbus Day, and a different genocidist, but appropriate. 

It’s important to not gloss over the past, especially our own. An appreciation for the bloody effects of Imperialism are important for all people but especially westerners. There were great and important cultures in the Americas prior to the european invasion and millions of individuals died in the Native American Holocaust over more than 400 years. And never forget that where you live, the land you may own, was stolen from someone. 

Click here for the link to Transform Columbus Day.

He came dancing across the water
With his galleons and guns
Looking for the new world
In that palace in the sun.

On the shore lay Montezuma
With his coca leaves and pearls
In his halls he often wondered
With the secrets of the worlds.

And his subjects
gathered ‘round him
Like the leaves around a tree
In their clothes of many colors
For the angry gods to see.

And the women all were beautiful
And the men stood
straight and strong
They offered life in sacrifice
So that others could go on.

Hate was just a legend
And war was never known
The people worked together
And they lifted many stones.

They carried them
to the flatlands
And they died along the way
But they built up
with their bare hands
What we still can’t do today.

And I know she’s living there
And she loves me to this day
I still can’t remember when
Or how I lost my way.

He came dancing across the water
Cortez, Cortez
What a killer. 

10/10/2011: Music: Rock N Roll by Mos Def

“If you heard Def’s previous outings with Black Star, you probably saw this coming. If you didn’t, it’s clearly time to put Ol’ Dirty on that shelf reserved for insane, materialist misogynists, and repent. With artists like this finally getting the respect they deserve, we could be entering a new era of hip-hop. Think about it. When was the last time you heard an MC drop a line like, “Mind over matter and soul before flesh”? When was the last time you heard somebody rap about the global economic and environmental consequences of first-world corporate waste and subsequent aquatic pollution? When was the last time you heard a hip-hopper sing competently over a phat-ass beat about the white appropriation of black art forms? Or end a song appropriately with a Bad Brains-influenced rockout, where both the drums and bass are played by the same guy?

Mos Def. The man does it all— addressing serious socio-political issues while remaining positive and affirmative from start to finish. Inspiring, no? The current state of punk and independent rock could stand to learn a thing or two from this man.” - Andrew Goldman

(Emphasis is mine)

(for the rest of the Pitchfork Review, click HERE)

Elvis Presley ain’t got no soul
Little Richard is rock and roll
You may dig on the Rolling Stones
But they ain’t come up with that shit on they own

10/7/2011: Music: The Dugout by Ladyhawk

But if Ladyhawk are to soar above Mountains both Black and Pink alike, it’ll be because of one song: “The Dugout”, an open-freeway anthem that, if we are to extend the titular baseball metaphor, is Driediger’s first grand slam, and perhaps the most affecting display of sensitive-guy southern rock since Kings of Leon’s “California Waiting”, or even .38 Special’s “Caught Up in You”. This is the song that fans will be hollering for at all Ladyhawk gigs till the end of time— their very own “Freebird”, complete with orgiastic guitar finale (at only a third of the length). Boys, keep swinging. - Stuart Berman

This song is so awesome. Just listen to it. I’m telling you.

I’m haunting the basement again

turn your light on

turn your light on me