A New Tympanogram!

While we’re certainly glad you’ve found us, you should know that Tympanogram has made the move to http://tympanogram.com.  Please update your bookmarks, come to the new site, switch your feeds up, etc.

This WordPress site will no longer be updated, and the files that were once here are no longer available. But since we’re cool, the files may have been updated on the new site. So give it a chance and check it out over there. What you’re looking for may be present.

So thanks to all of you who made this move possible through your support, and we’re looking forward to continuing the conversation at the new site.  See you all over there.

http://tympanogram.com/

Dear Friends,

We’ve grown a lot as a blog in the past nine months or so.  We’re averaging around 1000 hits per day now, and we’re thankful to all of you who come here to read whatever we churn out – whether that was from Day 1 or you just found us this past week.  Because of the growth we’ve seen, we’re making the move to our own site – one that’s not hosted on WordPress.  Everything is set up for the most part, but we need to get into the nuts and bolts of the posts – moving links, etc.

In order to do that, we’re going to cease posting for this week (September 27-October 4) so that we can focus on making sure everything is up and running at the new site – which will be located at http://tympanogram.com/ if you couldn’t guess.  If you go there now, there’s just a boring page letting you know that we will be there.

So, with that said, we’ve got some work to do.  Thank you for visiting as frequently as you all do, and we look forward to seeing you all over at the new digs.  Update your feeds, bookmarks, etc.  Tell your friends.  We’re looking forward to seeing you on October 5 over at the new place.

Cheers,

Andy and Dave

p.s. If you really wanted to know what to get this week, we recommend The Avett Brothers’ new album – I and Love and You.  There’s not much else that piques our interest.  For good measure, here’s a track for you:

The Avett Brothers – Will You Return? (mp3) from Emotionalism

Remix Wednesday: Adele – Hometown Glory

While providing a glut of b-sides, remixes and forgotten tracks has been an interesting endeavor for the past 8 months, we’ve decided to go in a bit of a different direction with the blog on Wednesdays.  Quite often the top spots on Hype Machine are filled with remixes and mash-ups, and so we’re going to take the time to talk about the ones that are actually worthy to stand alongside the original.  We don’t have a quirky or clever name to this point, so if you can come up with something, let us know in the comments.  Or, we’ll just call something obvious and dull.  With that said, let’s get after the inaugural track – the High Contrast Remix of Adele’s “Hometown Glory:”

After the nervous, twitching first ten seconds or so, when the song being reworked is still unrecognizable, High Contrast seems to finally figure out exactly where it is he’s planned on going with the track, and then it all starts to drop in over the rest of the first 90 seconds – synthed strings, drums, Adele’s vocals – until it crashes together and becomes a proper club banger, as they say.  (We don’t say that, except in jest, and you shouldn’t either.)

It continues on in that manner for another couple minutes, just looping vocals and beats.  And if that were it, we wouldn’t have thought much of it.  But then it all drops out, and it becomes breathtaking, really.  The music slows and becomes funereal, haunting – a few sad chords played on a piano over a distant sounding chorale – before it all starts back in again, this time with the piano sticking around for the remainder of the song.

The original is a powerful song in and of itself, and was never a song that we would have thought about being re-imagined as something to dance to.  But, it’s that lack of foresight/innovation that holds us back from being producers of any kind.  We can tell you that a song is good, even tell you why it’s good, but we could never recreate the magic ourselves.  Thanks to the obvious talent of High Contrast, we don’t need to.

Adele – Hometown Glory (mp3) from 19

Adele – Hometown Glory (High Contrast Remix) (mp3) from Confidential (9 bucks for 30 songs?!)

1000 Minutes: Andy #32

Not feeling particularly creative or attentive apparently, for today’s chapter of my 1000 Minutes Project I chose two songs of exactly the same length.  I’m sure someone with more knowledge of fate/numerology/whatever might have something to say about the meaning of this, but I just kind of figure that when you choose 250 songs or so, two are bound to be the same length.  Anyway, let’s get into it:

65. Amos Lee – Keep It Loose, Keep It Tight (mp3) from Amos Lee (3:08) [Time Remaining: 684:30]

There’s a vein of simple, hopeful sadness running right through the opening track of Amos Lee’s eponymous debut album.  It’s thoughtful about the end of relationships – with a city, with a landlord, with a girlfriend.  While the song is at its most basic about the attempt to achieve a balance in one’s life, it’s also a gentle reminder to appreciate that with which we’ve been blessed.

Often the word home is confused with the structures in which we live; it’s stabilizing to remember that wherever we all end up, it’s our loved ones that are really our homes.  And if nothing else, I can’t get over how perfectly the sentiment conveyed right at the start of the second verse is:

I’m in love with a girl who’s in love with the world; I can’t help but follow.

66. Josh Rouse – Winter in the Hamptons (mp3) from Nashville (3:08) [Time Remaining: 681:22]

There comes a point each year – right around the end of March – when my spring fever really starts to kick in.  The winters around Rochester are long, often severe, and an overall pain in the ass.  (See: Lake-Effect Snow.)  After the Super Bowl, there’s another month and a half (at least) of terrible weather.  It’s enough to affect a person’s sanity.

But, as March draws to a close, things finally start to look up as far as our weather is concerned.  The ground is mostly visible – except for the two-story snow mounds in parking lots around the city, and the constant threat of snow is gone.  Despite the lingering chill in the air, Josh Rouse’s “Winter in the Hamptons” always puts me squarely in the mood for warmer days, as if having my car scraped by snow plows for three months wasn’t enough.

New Releases: September 22

This week is home of the under-the-radar type releases, with the interesting ones (at least to me) from Monsters of Folk, Noisettes, Islands and The Pains of Being Pure at Heart EP.   (If you’ve been paying attention, you know that Amazon already has the Monsters of Folk available for download.  And even if you weren’t, you can still get it early if you so desire.)

Anyway, check the full list over at Amazon if you were looking for something that you don’t see listed here.  As always, grab a couple of memory-jogging tracks after the list, and have yourself an excellent week.

Harry Connick Jr. – Your Songs
Monsters of Folk – Monsters of Folk
David Gray – Draw the Line
Brand New – Daisy
Mika – The Boy Who Knew Too Much
Rufus Wainwright – Milwaukee at Last!!!
Noisettes – Wild Young Hearts
Deadmau5 – For Lack of a Better Name
Basement Jaxx – Scars
Billy Talent – Billy Talent III
Sea Wolf – White Water, White Bloom
Islands – Vapours
Owen – New Leaves
The Pains of Being Pure at Heart – Higher Than the Stars EP
The Twilight Sad – Forget the Night Ahead

Noisettes – Never Forget You (mp3) from the forthcoming Wild Young Hearts

The Pains of Being Pure at Heart – Higher Than the Stars (St. Etienne Visits Lord Spank Remix) (mp3) from the forthcoming Higher Than the Stars EP

Rufus Wainwright – Instant Pleasure (mp3) from Big Daddy: Music from the Motion Picture

The Static Jacks – Laces EP

In our New Releases post last Monday, we were remiss in not mentioning the new EP from former Tympanogram giveaway and New Jersey’s own, The Static Jacks.

Laces, a 5 song, 15 minute slice of updated garage rock, is a big step forward for the band.  Working with Andrew Maury of the Remix Artists Collective on this most recent effort, their sound is updated and far more polished than their previously released EPs.

For a band that’s never sounded their age, it’s refreshing to see them honing their craft.  Gone are the rough edges that hallmarked their last releases.  There’s more to sing along with, and a bright future to look forward to.

The Static Jacks – My Parents Lied (mp3) from Laces EP

The Aliens

High Fidelity is for me, like I imagine it is for most audiophiles, a definitive piece of work in either book or movie form.  It’s comforting to know that – even if everything else is fucked in my life – at least I know what the hell I’m talking about when it comes to music.  And not just that, but that it’s a worthwhile thing to be a little bit manic about whatever it is we’re all a little bit manic about.  I have music (and possibly baseball) to fall back on.  But while the Mets may fail me year after year, music as a whole never has.  That’s comforting.

Anyway, there’s this band I just heard named The Aliens, which is why I bring up High Fidelity.  As it turns out, The Aliens are some of the former members of The Beta Band, whose work I am almost wholly unfamiliar with – except for their use in High Fidelity.

(The scene where The Beta Band is used starts about 1:34)

The Aliens are kind of an updated take on the psychedelic pop of the 1960’s – all harmonies, sing-a-long songs, blissed out rock.  Have a listen to “Sunlamp Show” from their most recent album Luna, and compare it with the electro-folk of their former band.

Have a sunny weekend.

The Aliens – Sunlamp Show (mp3) from Luna

The Beta Band – Dry the Rain (mp3) from The Three EPs

The Final mp3 Smörgåsbord?

This is not some cruel cosmic joke.  This is, in fact, the final mp3 Smörgåsbord.  While we certainly enjoy putting up remixes and other various forgotten gems week after week, we’re aiming to provide some more substance along with the music, so starting next week, we’re going to up the ante.

We haven’t hammered out the details of how exactly we’re going to fill the Wednesday space, but we think you’ll probably like it.  At least we hope that you do.  And, if we can’t figure out something else, maybe we’ll fall back to this.  So, think of this as your last meal – except that you don’t get to choose the menu, and you might be granted a stay.  We think we’ve picked out something you’ll enjoy anyway.

Jay-Z – A Star Is Born (feat. J. Cole) (mp3) from The Blueprint 3

Sharon Jones and The Dap-Kings – How Long Do I Have To Wait For You? (mp3) from Naturally

Death Cab For Cutie – Meet Me On The Equinox (mp3) from some upcoming movie soundtrack millions of teen girls may be excited about.

1000 Minutes: Andy #31

This week’s chapter of my 1000 Minutes Project is far more nostalgic than I intended it to be at the outset, but it’s not a bad place to look back upon.  To see where I’ve been already with this project, check out my full list.

63. Broken Social Scene – 7/4 (Shoreline) (mp3) from Broken Social Scene (4:54) [Time Remaining: 692:49]

While not nearly as affected by it as some, I certainly enjoyed – and even partially identified with – Steven Chbosky’s The Perks of Being a Wallflower.  The most famous line of the novel – “and in that moment, I swear we were infinite” – even has a home on Urban Dictionary as being “one of the greatest lines from the greatest book ever.”  While that definition can almost certainly be classified as hyperbole, the feeling the quote describes is undeniably true.

This song gives me that feeling of the infinite.  It’s a hand outside of the window while on a road trip.  It’s the nervous twinge of excitement about what the next day will bring.  And it’s as unforgettable as any of the experiences that define us.

64. Ben Folds Five – Underground (mp3) from Ben Folds Five (4:11) [Time Remaining: 687:38]

Following close on the heels of The Perks of Being a Wallflower – at least in terms of the teenage need for finding acceptance – is the mid-nineties geek/piano rock of Ben Folds Five.  I’d be lying if I told you that I was up on Ben Folds Five when their eponymous debut was released; like most people, I heard them when I when “Brick” was everywhere.  Saving up my dollars from my teenage job stocking shelves at the local drugstore, I bought Whatever and Ever Amen and then, working backwards, I discovered Ben Folds Five.

When I look back at it today “Underground” was more influential than “Brick” could have been.  The thematic elements of “Brick” were so far removed from my seventeen year old mindset that they simply made for a sad, thoughtful song rather than one upon which I could have any personal claim.  But “Underground,” in all of its rollicking, inclusive glory, was much more my speed – just a little to the left (or right, as it was then) of where I assumed most everyone to be, and completely perfect.

New Releases: September 15

This week is another strong one for new music. I’m going to go broke with just what I want to pick up. As I was going through the list of what looked interesting (to me), I wondered if I should put more releases up? For example: are people interested in the new Megadeth? Or the new Uncle Kracker? I mean, I put stuff up that I’m not going to buy, so should I actively limit the list to what I think is good/will be popular? This isn’t something that kept me up late, but I did wonder.

Anyway, if you were me, you’d get your hands on the new Muse, the long awaited Kid Cudi, the “new” Q-Tip, some remastered Sunny Day Real Estate (only if you didn’t get them previously), The Dodos, The Drums and The Avett Brothers (if you have a turntable.)

Like always, check Amazon for stuff you think I may have left off of our list, and check for a couple tracks after the albums. Have an excellent week everyone.

Mark Knopfler – Get Lucky
Muse – The Resistance
Porcupine Tree – The Incident
Kid Cudi – Man on the Moon: The End of the Day
Pete Yorn/Scarlett Johansson – Break Up
Thrice – Beggars
Drake – So Far Gone [EP]
Nelly Furtado – Mi Plan
Mason Jennings – Blood of Man
Q-Tip – Kamaal: The Abstract
Sunny Day Real Estate – Diary (Remastered)
The Dodos – Time to Die
Sunny Day Real Estate – LP2 (Remastered)
Simian Mobile Disco – Temporary Pleasure
The Drums – Summertime!
Stars of Track and Field – A Time for Lions
The Avett Brothers – I and Love and You [Vinyl]

Kid Cudi – Soundtrack 2 My Life (mp3) from Man on the Moon: The End of the Day

The Dodos – Fables (mp3) from Time to Die

Sunny Day Real Estate – Seven (mp3) from Diary