Tortoise, Deep Blue Someting, Frank Black, & more Cloud Nothings (Day 27)

I am in the midst of writing my dissertation as I finish up my Ph.D. and I am getting a little burned out right now with some of the writing.... so my notes on the following albums are basically non-existent.  I use Tortoise as focus-inducing background music while writing, and to great effect.  If you are ever working on a long-term project, then follow my advice and pick up every Tortoise album and put them all on repeat.  We are talking about excellently crafted instrumental songs that focus my mood like nothing else that I've ever listened to - especially their album "Millions Now Living Will Never Die." I actually just put that album back on while I'm sitting here to help me actually finish typing this.

I also put on an old cassette of Deep Blue Something's album "Home." Some parts of this album are a little comical in how the band is trying to sound bigger, and more epic, than they should, but really all you need to know is that these guys made one of my top 10 songs of all time in 'Breakfast At Tiffany's'. ....'nuff said.    

Sometimes while writing you have to decompress a little bit.  To accomplish this goal I relistened to Cloud Nothings "Attack on Memory" (see my previous entry) as loud as my ears could take and jammed on the air guitar for a majority of the album.  Truth be told, this was actually quite intermittent - due to a vast amount of email, Facebook/Twitter posts, and updates on Pitchfork, Yahoo, and Grantland that required my attention - lest you think that I played air guitar non-stop for 30 minutes or so.  I'm really trying to scale back on the air guitaring.

Speaking of air guitars, I really need to watch Air Guitar Nation again, STAT!

Keeping with the idea of necessary decompression, I put on Frank Black "Teenager of the Year".  There's such great frenetic energy in the first song 'Whatever Happened to Pong' and a great transition from that song to 'Thalassocracy'.  There are some gems here (like 'Speedy Marie' and 'I Could Stay Here Forever'), but suffice it to say that '(I Want to Live on an) Abstract Plain.'  Now, listen to 'Headache', and bang your head to the music.