Summer 2005 - Retconned.

Let me tell you something that you may or may not know about me. I LOVE Sci-fi. LOVE it. I love it so much that I want to use an antinumbing injection and return feeling to the lower half of its body so that we can enjoy it when we rub our bodies together between the sheets like the way it was done before government imposed abstinence. (Bonus points for anyone who knows the reference.)

Now I realize that I am behind the times on this (which goes against my aforementioned love of speculative fiction) but last night I watched Richard Kelly's Southland Tales. And it was awesome. But I'm not going to waste your time with a review. Instead, I'm going to share a clip that embodies the awesomeness of the movie. And guess what? It has to do with music.

And because it's summer, and we all want fun summery tunes, here are two things that come together (albeit in a slightly dark way) from the summer of 2005, before my arrival on campus: Justin Timberlake and The Killers.



That looks like a good time, right? I can't remember the last time I lip-synced to The Killers while simultaneously becoming the messiah. It was probably at a Mill party though.

MGMT Meets Snow

Being a small college radion station in Vermont, WRMC sees its fair share of snow. Even though its summer time, this powdery, white substance is still on some of our brains.



Such Is Life: Trailer

In recent years ski and snowboard movies have highlighted great music. Here is a trailer for the new Rage film, "Such is Life" featuring one of our favorites at WRMC, MGMT.

More from the Birdman

"I listened to my record recently and I’m concerned about how much I like it. "

Andrew Bird you cocky bastard. Check out Andrew's Blog on the New York Times Website as he works on his new album plus a tastey dribble of a new song, "Oh No."

This man is James Pants and he is a DJ who makes music that leaves your colors brighter and your whites whiter. Now available in original scent or Stones Throw.

Your colors won't run with this, but you should:
Crystal Lite feat. Deon Davis

Bring Da Ruckus

RZA: co-founder of the Wu-Tang Clan, producer, rapper, humanitarian, entrepreneur, and Hip Hop Chess Federation Champion.


Unfortunately he can't beat those bastards over at the New York Times Chess Column.

But for only $48 a year you too can play chess with Wu-Tang fans all over the world. Wu-Tang + Chess = WuChess (aka intelectual bliss).

Nerds.

Hot Fun in The Summer Time

Hey guys, Killa Cam Kowall and I have the station kicking out 110% dirty afro-beat, dub, funk, soul and rare grooves.

Stream and be streamed,
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Ever Since I was a Little Girl...

Hi. I'm David.

Studying in Chile has made me realize that technology can really blow sometimes. For example, the worst invention known to man happens to be cellphones with external speakers. In the olden days, you had to carry your silver boom box on your shoulder through the streets, your crew in toe adorned in Adidas and jean jackets. However all you need now is a mullet and a cute little Nokia cellphone to impose your favorite jams on everyone around you. You can play reggeaton all the time: on overnight bus rides, in your elementary school, in the halls of the university, in line for empanadas, or in the bathroom stall to hide crude noises.


Sometimes I feel like that scene from Kill Bill Vol. 2 when Beatrix Kiddo wakes up punching the cement wall to the beat of her attempts at slamming her fist through wooden slabs under the apprenticeship of Pai Mae. Except the beat in my head doesn't vary, it is the beat of reggeaton and it is the heartbeat of this continent.




To amuze myself I listened regularly to WRMC during the Vermont school year. Now, my iTunes library is my only escape and I can't get Black Kids out of my head.


Like Vampire Weekend, Black Kids gained a following and critical acclaim this year without the support of a full length album. With only their EP, The Wizard of Ahhhhs, the band from Jacksonville, Florida are headlining a tour through Europe this summer. Their first LP comes out July 7 and is slated to kick your ass.

The Old Man and the Chord of C

The man in the above picture should be known by all students of the college variety. He is the greatest novelist that ever lived. Ernest Hemingway. The picture was taken aboard his yacht, the Pilar, circa 1950. About when this picture was taken, Hemingway published The Old Man and the Sea. The novella marked Hemingway's return to writing 12 years after his last successful work (For Whom the Bell Tolls). The book is about an aging fisherman and his battle with an epic marlin -a man past his prime struggling to recover the glory of his younger years. One can argue that Hemingway is actually writing very self-consciously about his craft and his form, but this would make a better paper than a blog post. So why discuss Hemingway on a music site?


This is the band Weezer. You've probably heard of them as well. After all, they did release the best album ever. And now, they've released a new album known colloquially as The Red Album.

And I love it.

A lot of people don't. That's fine. I get it. But just hear me out. The Red Album has everything I love Weezer for. Lots of heavy and distorted riffs, at times silly lyrics, and Rivers Cuomo (third from left -note the killer moustache). Rivers took time off in the wake of the last Weezer album to finish Harvard, where (I can only assume) he read some Hemingway. And in discovering Hemingway's self-developed, self-aware, and self-criticizing voice Rivers had an epiphany. He realized, as many had in the aftermath of Make Believe, that Weezer could never live up to its own hype. Especially now that those of us who were raised on the Blue Album and Pinkerton had come of age. Even Weezer had aged. So the band wrote an album entirely about how awesome they are. And many of the reviews against the new album point out that Weezer hasn't been awesome since Pinkerton. While I would argue this point in favor of the Green Album, it's more important to realize that Rivers doesn't actually think he is the greatest man that ever lived. But you have too look at the irony behind the act. While Rivers is singing about his own greatness, he realizes that that has faded. And the reviewers that blast the album are playing right into River's point. People long for a Weezer that existed somewhere between the release of the Blue Album and Pinkerton. That Weezer is dead. There's a different Weezer now. And Rivers has come to terms with that. In The Greatest Man That Ever Lived, he says, "Somebody said all the world's a stage // and each of us is a player. // That's what I've been trying to tell you. // In act I, I was struggling to survive. // Nobody wanted my action dead or alive. // In act II, I hit the big time, // and bodies be all up on my behind." Well that someone was Shakespeare, another figure I can only assume Rivers came across during his time at Harvard. But Shakespeare's Act II's don't end with the hero reaching the top and staying there. They fall. But at least Weezer knows it, can have some fun with it -or despite it, and makes some damn good music.

Video: Pork & Beans


Audio:Weezer - The Greatest Man That Ever Lived (Variations On A Shaker Hymn)
(Apparently Rivers didn't learn the difference between 'who' and 'that' at Harvard.)

A June Present

My birthday's at the end of June, so I thought I'd share a little gift with everyone.

Everyone's once-and-future-favorite band Ratatat has a new LP coming out in early July.

I've got a cut for you to start it up. First, here's the album cover:

And here is a preview of the album, a track called "Falcon Jab"

MP3 y'hear?