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Saw Bjork last night at LA’s Dorothy Chandler Pavilion. With an awesome harp player. And the wonderful craziness that is Matmos. And a funky choir of Inuit girls from Greenland. Oh yeah, and a 50+ piece goddamned orchestra. It was…good.

Matmos is a band that makes more interesting sounds than they make good music, in my opinion. Using a balloon as a drum. Plucking and bowing on their old hamster’s cage, as a tribute to said ex-hamster. They have an entire CD of surgical sounds called “A Chance to Cut is A Chance to Cure.” They opened, and were far more enjoyable than I expected.

But I didn’t go to see Matmos.

Bjork is someone that most people either love or hate. I can understand why those that hate her do so, but I feel sorry for those people. It must be sad to not love her work. To not have such warm music to rely on. But anyways this was not an electronica performance. This was essentially “An Evening with Bjork.” There was an intermission. I think that is incredibly stylish. We had wonderful seats, and got to witness something incredibly rare. I’m still beaming.

So if you ever get to see one of your favorite artists with an orchestra, I recommend it. It’s so choice.

Oh yeah, no one will probably care, but on the way to the venue we drove by LA’s Pershing Square. I have never been there, and I only know it from Tony Hawk Pro Skater 3 previews. Suffice to say, it is very very surreal to drive by a videogame level.

In an attempt to not entirely but sort of copy The Chooch, I’ve put herded together lists of the top 4 songs of the past 4 months that your favorite people here have been listening to. The rules were that a. the list did not need to contain songs that have been released in the past 4 months, just that the people in question had found themselves listetning to them for whatever reason, and b. the people in question did not have to supply reasons or reviews of said songs, but those types of comments were encouraged. So. Without further ado, here are your lists:

(Note: songs and interviewees appear in no particular order)

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scott (Alternate)

does this have anything to do with your 404 No
Internet post? or are you just getting your Rob from
High Fidelity on? In no particular order…

+ 1) “The City” by the Dismemberment Plan.
I usually hate keyboards in rock, but goddamn is this song great(as is the accompanying album Emergency and I). One of the two bands I would love to see live (along with Sleater-Kinney).

+ 2) “Since I Left You” by the Avalanches.
I’m going to cheat. I don’t just like this song. I’m enthralled by the entire album of the same name. SO not my normal type of music, but the most impressive, enjoyable album I’ve heard all summer. Great videos too.

+ 3) “Across the Sea” by Weezer.
Don’t really like this band except for kitsch value and the awesome album that is Pinkterton. This song is its thesis statement. An album that is honestly a bit too personal from one of the least expected places. A great suprise.

+ 4) “Staralfur” by Sigur Ros.
Yes, its cliche. Yes, the singer sounds like a girl. But this is my favorite song off of Agaetis Byrjun. This is holy music for atheists and agnostics.
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jaxon (Alternate)

Number One song that gets stuck in my head that I then can’t get rid of for the rest of the damn day:
+ “Smooth Criminal” remake by Alien Ant Farm. Stop The Insanity! Get Out Of My Head!

Number One song that I like even though I wouldn’t think I would have:
+ System of A Down : “Chop Suey! “

Number One song that I can’t not watch the video for:
+ Britney Spears – “I’m A Slave 4 U” (she looks like Pam Anderson, for the love of God – now with body oil!)

Number One song that I could listen to all day at work:
+ Gene Joke – “Brain Drain” (happy pants dancy trance)
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SU (Signal Vs Noise)

Hmmmm… That’s a hard one. Let’s try these (in no particular order):

+ Orbital, “The Box (Part 2)” (from “In Sides”)
Long route to this one. I went to see the independent film “The Deep End” which features Tilda Swinton. Got curious about this Scottish actress and wanted to know about more films she’s been in. Turns out she appeared in the video for this song — she moves in “real time” while the rest of London moves around her at 10x speed. The video got me listening.

+ PJ Harvey, “A Place Called Home” (from “Stories from the City…”)
Picked this CD up on a business trip to Chicago and got into her music. This song’s chord progression and driving rhythm are easy to work to. The lyrics speak to the rootless feeling I sometimes experience — do I belong where I live?

+ Stereolab, “Captain Easychord” (from “Sound-Dust”)
The song begins “Let live what must live, die what must die.” Good for the recent reflections on life and death following 9/11. The background country jam sound and the mix of French and English lyrics wrap around the horns and the techno beat to form a complex collage.

+ Rufus Wainwright, “One Man Guy” (from “Poses”)
Rufus performs a song from his dad. I first heard it on the World Café with David Dye (Public Radio International) when Nick Hornby (“High Fidelity”) played guest DJ. Wainwright’s voice just kicks ass on this short track.
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ddmmyyy (Alternate)

+ Refused – Tannhauser/Derive
A violin and hardcore that remind me of a torrential storm.

+ onelinedrawing and The Deftones – No Ordinary Love
The lead singer of now dead Far and The Deftones cover Sade’s No Ordinary Love. I can’t find it on CD, but it can be
had.

+ Deathcab for Cutie – Information Travels Faster
This is off their newest album that’s hardly a week old and I’ve already given up to this song. It plays on repeat in my car. Unfortunately it is a little to short to make it to work in one listen.

+ Fugazi – Break
The best first song on an album ever.
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scott (Erasing.org)

+ 1. Brad – “We” (from “Shame”)
+ 2. Tori Amos – “Rattlesnakes” (from “Strange Little Girls”)
+ 3. DJ Shadow – “Stem/Long Stem” (from “Endtroducing…”)
+ 4. Aphex Twin – “Selected Ambient Works Volume II” – all tracks

That last one is kind of cheating, but it’s far and away the album I’ve been listening to the most these past four months, and I’d be remiss if I didn’t include it.

(In any case, none of the songs on that album have titles, and they all kind of jell together into one extended two-disc song that happens to fade in and out every now and then.)
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kev (Alternate)

In no particular order….
+ AFI – Wester
There something about this song. Something. “Tonight.. in the whispers when no one’s around.. nothing can stop us now…” Just the way that AFI can get away with what seemed at first to me to be a sort of Def Leppard-esque ‘6-guys-singing-the-background-to-the-chorus’ technique. I thought it was cheesy at first and now I can’t get enough. And this song makes Eddie cry.

+ Death Cab For Cutie – Company Calls / Epilogue
Sort of cheating, this is actually two songs stuck together with similar names and similar lyrics. So insipiring, I’m actually considering writing a film based on the concept in these two songs. Also, whenever I hear it, I feel like I’m reading ‘A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius’ all over again. The book and the songs go together perfectly. It’s pretty scary, actually.

+ Saves The Day – At Your Funeral
“If I flooded out your house, do you think you’d make it out… or would you burn up before the water filled your lungs….” I was first exposed to Saves The Day by a bad representation of this song via the band’s Flash-enabled website for their latest album and I had to buy it as soon as it came out. A great live band with a ton of energy and crowd appreciation. I’ve also never seen so many 17-year old indie girls in my life.

+ The Cure – The Same Deep Water As You
Out of left field, I’ve found my way back to this song of songs. It’s too bad that it’s 10 minutes long and not radio-friendly, because more people should really hear it. It defined the last 2 years of high-school for me, and I’ve found new meaning in it. There’s something about the guily pleasure of letting yourself sink into 4 slow chords and the saddest chorus-and-reverb-drenched guitar line you’ll ever hear. And Robert Smith will always know how to tug at my heartstrings. “Can’t you see I try.. to swim in the same deep water as you..”

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808 (Alternate)

Misfits – Halloween
Danzig – Sacrifice
AFI – All hallows eve
Nerf Herder – Hotel California

They sounded really great live as well, this past Sunday night in Boulder.