Tunage

Despite the relentless negativity and uncertainty that surrounds the current state of the music business the artists and the art that emerged in 2007 were nothing less exceptional. More and better records seemed to ooze from every pore of the digital underbelly. The long tail is officially alive and well, and thanks to the success of iTunes, and the even better, eMusic service, it is now possible to deliver instant gratification to music lovers and readers of this list. In addition to that there is a wonderful real time environment for discovery and taste matching through sites like imeem, Mog, and metacritic.com. All of this makes finding and distilling a list down to even twenty must-haves near impossible. Alas, here are the records that made 2007 that much better for me. I hope you take in this list and then trust your own ears. 

1.            Midlake - “The Trials of Van Occupanther” (Bella Union)

Technically this is a 2006 record, but I didn’t find it until this year, and it was far and away the one record that meant the most to me this year. I didn’t like the name. I was suspicious about all the references to 70’s Americana. But 30 seconds into the “The Trials”, I was swept away. This is one of those rare albums that require no work whatsoever to fall hard and fast for. The breezy summer day sound is both bright and thoughtful, and does, I suppose, seem somewhat reminiscent of a genuinely American sound from some ambiguous time and place. Not so much rock like The Band, but more like only the best parts of Fleetwood Mac “Rumors”; cool and silky without any of the distinctive quirks that sometimes get tired after a while. But to suggest that the record is merely  A straight forward guitar, bass, and drums idea, is to overlook the robust instrumentation (flute, strings, brass) along the way. Somehow this record went overlooked last year, so thank goodness it is so timeless.

2.            Okkervil River “The Stage Names” (Jagjaguwar)

Far too few people will ever hear this record, I know it. This is rock balladry in its most modern finery, sung with the earnestness of a Springsteen or Tweedy, but thinner and slightly more warbling like Bright Eyes, with music as authentic and warm as “The Last Waltz.” On “The Stage Names,” the Texas band’s third album, the band has peppered their onetime sparse flavor of alt-country with billowing strings and piano such as on the epic “A Girl In Port,” or more upbeat and danceable tracks like “A Hand to Take Hold of the Scene”, and precious orchestral ditties like “Savannah Smiles.” Don’t get me wrong, this record isn’t so much a derivative of something else as it is conscious of all of the great under-appreciated music that has informed it. This is a major minor masterpiece, accessible yet specific enough to charm indie zealots and Coldplay posers alike. If not for the tragically overlooked Midlake at #1, “The Stage Names” made the first and most potent impact on me in 2007 featuring some of the finest songwriting of the year. Don’t live without it.

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 Bookishness: or more accurately two great books

Absurdistan: A Novel - Gary Shteyngart

The second book by master satirist gary Schtenygart is, almost inexplicably, even funnier than his astounding debut novel, “The Russian Debutants Handbook.” In it, a spoiled but oddly lovable Russian trust fund twenty-something, is exiled from the states after a joyous existence through college at an Oberlin-like liberal arts college, and a moveable feast in New York city upon graduation, and has to go back to Russia after his quasi mobster father is accused of murdering a small time crook in New Jersey. Trapped in bland post war Russia, despite a lush existence partying with a sea of American expats and living off the fruits of his father’s slightly crooked business exploits, he dreams of leaving the dreary Soviets skies and embarks on one of the funniest journey’s you are likely to read. Schentgart is a comic genius and his characters are ripped from the diaries of early Woody Allen.

The Long Tail: Why the Future of Business is Selling Less of More - Chris Anderson

For those who haven’t read the indisputable economic theory deemed the Long Tail, but do conduct the commerce of your life on the web, or who are now able to more easily maintain a particularly niche passion leveraging the internet, this is a must read. Although Wired editor Chris Anderson tends to beat you over the head with the logic and applicability of his theory, the simple and elegant articulation of how niche tastes when applied to a global market make the simple business economics work is nothing short of exceptional. My life spent combing the globe for small hard to find cultural gems, is validated in some ways in knowing that all of these artists who had formerly toiled in poverty creating for a few arrogant souls like me, now have a global audience that can access their work. The Long Tail is easily the most readable economic book you will ever find.

control freak. This is muckraking fun for indie film zealots.

Needless to say the resurrection of snoozebutton has taught me quite a bit about the blogging world both in terms of technology, protocols, and etiquette; sorry but I just can’t bring myself to use the word netiquette ;)

First there is the whole technology component: How does one set up a system that fulfills what appear to be mutally exclusive requirements: that it’s easy enough to use so that we end up using it, and that is flexible and extensible enough to do some fun things with? Thankfully after exhaustive research and trial and error installs i discovered the wonder that is Wordpress.

Then there is the question of content. Since snoozebutton isn’t a content aggregator our content situation can be summed up with three words: write, write and write. Well, ok, i can expand on that a bit: read/watch/listen/eat/experience, write, write, write…

Finally, what I’ve learned much about and am continuing to learn about is the whole “being validated” phenomenon. Basically this is a two-tiered system: first we all have a relationship with Google, that is we all seek validation for our voices if not our existences by what is currently the single most important tastemaker (i’d like to meet one person out there who publishes anything and doesn’t go look at their google ranking); and second there is the interaction between people who maintain their own online voices: how can we spread our words to as many people as possible? Why else write if not to be heard right? So i had a conversation with my old friend Jonathan about this and he has written a nice piece on the interaction between those of us that choose to have an online presence called maintaining the dialogue that explains some of the mechanisms that are in place to better our interactions…

There are a variety of ways for blogs to communicate and even publish information with simple protocols in semi-automated as well as manual ways. The great thing is that they all offer ways to let the original author/poster know you thought what was said was worthwhile. As I am sure I’ve mentioned previously I am not a developer so the definitions and interpretations are purely from a user perspective. I am far from an expert on these topics, but was thinking about how it all works and truly find it intriguing. One of the more fascinating things about maintaining a blog is checking your traffic patterns and discovering how people are finding you - and then what they might be saying about you.
( atmaspheric | endeavors )

We’re back and it certainly didn’t take 3 days but all of our old archived content has been migrated to this new system and we’ll hopefully be filling in those gaps as we proceed and progress.

Hopefully you’ll think to come back on a regular basis to see what we think is truly great out there

Sincerely

Rux & Sandro