it's friday i'm in shorts

good friday funday! last nite i made a mixtape for katie, who i worked with today for the last time (tomorrow is her last day), all about the days of the week, and especially about friday, which is an especial day of the week. it's called feels like friday! and i'll tell you all about it in my next post, using the highly successful and professional mixtape-post format i established in my last post. (erika saw it and said "is this normal? ...do a lot of people do this?") (to which i would say no and no, i think.) but first i thought i'd just write for a bit.

np: the eraser and amnesiac, simultaneously.
(started together, dark side of oz-style. currently on "analyse" vs. "pyramid song," and it all works ok so far. eraser's still probably better by itself, but it's close. aw, just teasing.)

kicked the non-purchasing streak this week. no, last week with hillary duff and silent shout, but this time i fully embraced the nu musik community by acquiring both of the high-pro new releases this week: the illinoise guy's b-sides comp (used), and the radiohead guy's solo[/not solo yeah w/e] record (new, but only a dollar spennier, go tower!) and i like 'em both pretty good.

ooh, "the clock" vs. "pull/pulk" sounds pretty cool! i like this.

it's stunning (not stunning) how much the avalanche sounds _exactly_ like its 'parent record.' i bet few people have listened to the entirety of illinois closely enough to tell the difference, at least a few seconds at a time. i felt like i already knew it the first time i listened to it. to be honest, i felt that way about "chicago" the first time i did hear, it (i think), on the seven swans tour - but even then i could have sworn i'd heard it before. um, the point is sufjan's songs all sound the bloody same. but they sound the bloody good same, so that's all right then.

well, funky "black swan" ends up opposite moany "you and whose army," which fits fairly well, though it really ought to line up with the song it copycats, "i might be wrong" - actually, it might make it. yes it will. how awesome would it be if the rhythm synced! well.. so imbw is faster and a whole-step higher, but it still works, hey why not.

but speaking of new music, i would be remiss not to mention NEW HARMONY, my brand-spankrocking-new recorded-ukelele-accordion trio. we just had our first practice session today. at which i think we concluded what key "god only knows" isn't in. and that the tropical popsicube is a great invention.

wait, "skip divided" and "knives out" really are matching up in rhythm. for a little minute. that's crazy!

so, as bedbugs* has dutifully reported, we went to see ashlee simpson on wednesday!!! it was much as bedbugs has written. although i think he underplays the size of the crowd (which was definitely not capacity, but was hardly tiny, and the ef is a big venue), and he doesn't mention that she played "coming back for more" (which rocked me out the most, at least.) also no way those twins (i hope?) were 11, and that "no good sex" line was _my_ joke, but whatever - i'll ammend his post in his comments. i will say though that the thing which struck me most - probably shouldn't have, if i ever watched tv or paid attention to media not in music compact disc form - was that she is so manifestly not her persona.

she's a silly, giggly, awkward, goofball girl and dare i say it doesn't seem so smart or, certainly, savvy. fair enough, and not that she wasn't energetic and clearly having a lot of fun and singing pretty well and entertaining to watch (q.v. her, um, dancing.) but it makes for some dissonance with the dark, edgy, angst-ridden - or, at least, deeply emotionally conflicted and, crucially, self-aware - ashlee i've gotten to know from listening to i am me these last few months. i can totally see how that same person i saw prancing around on stage could be that self-knowingly "beautifully broken" ashlee of the record - not many of us betray our emotional scars easily in a room full of strangers, after all - how, with a bit of coaxing on the parts of S & DioG, the raw ore of her personal struggles comes out poetically transformed into gripping and emotionally smart pop-punk gold. still it's a bit off-putting.

can talk/think about this more later, but now i'm going to go see jolie holland.

*that's bedbugs as in the knew knickname for the blogpal formerly known as pitchforkdave (and in fact still known as pfd on my bookmark bar) and/or bedbug
"p4k's arcade fire reviewer" diabetic dave "sugar shock" "no not that dave moore" moore...


EDIT: wanted to mention that i can't hear ashley parker angel, or at least "let U go" without thinking of (well, for the first three seconds, "just like heaven", but) sufjan stevens. specifically the chorus - it's "the predatory wasp of the palisades," the final section of it with "i-i-i can tell you." except apa doesn't do that part. plus maybe "i remember when/you came to me that night" makes me think of "he woke me up again" or something. well whatever. also, the "i don't wanna, but i gotta" part sounds like a weird al line to me.