I'm just gonna quickly put a couple of fun new songs here. Well, not so new anymore. The first one, and the newer one, is Hiding, the new single from IAN SWEET. I loved IAN SWEET's first album back in 2016, and now I guess they're gearing up for something new. Which is exciting!
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And the other one is Still Let You Down, the newest single from Day Wave. Although this one is not so new anymore. It's gotta be at least a couple months old. I really like this song. Also first single from what I guess is something new coming out later this year. Anyway, both exciting! Yay! Enjoy!
It was another busy week, but this time I was social! Kind of. Monday and Friday I worked late. Like until 7 or 8. But that's fine. Cause Tuesday I met a friend of a friend who was really great and who I might see again today. And Wednesday, I saw the mutual friend. The mutual friend is this girl Maya who I know from Shanghai. We don't know each other well, she's probably closer to my sister, but we're friendly, and she's from Sydney. Specifically from the neighborhood where I've been staying. So she invited me over to her parents house for dinner on Wednesday, and it was so nice. Her parents are fantastic (so is she by the way. She's hilarious. Super weirdo. Best kind of weirdo). They made a really great tagine and cous cous dinner, and we basically just hung out for like 3 hours. It was so nice. And they're going to give me a box of stuff to use before my China stuff gets here so that I don't have to go and buy plates and cups and sheets and towels, which I already have in China. Anyway, two great nights with great people. And then Thursday was aerial yoga, which is also great.
And now it's the weekend and I'm furniture shopping. For the first time ever. I have only ever bought a coffee table from Ikea in college (which I had for a year), and a bookcase in South Africa (which I also had for a year). Otherwise, I've always had furnished places. Or lived at my parents / took their furniture to my apartment. I have no idea what I'm doing, and I spent the whole day doing it yesterday. And will again today. At least the morning. But it's coming together. And I need it all delivered Friday cause I have nothing and I need at least a couch and bed on Friday. But I'll get more.
Anyway, on to music. And today is Rubblebucket. I only found them last year, and really liked a couple of their songs. Now they have a new album out called Sun Machine, and I really like the album. The first (I think?) single, Lemonade, was a big hit on all the indie stuff I look at, and it's a pretty good track. I think the more I listen the more I like it. But apparently the most popular one, and a very good one, is Fruity. So we'll start there.
But the best track on the album, by far, is Donna. This is the sound I love Rubblebucket for. They just do a great mix of rock and pop and interesting instrumentation. This song embodies what I love about them perfectly. So good.
Well today was exciting! Not as a day entirely, but just a couple of things about it. And these couple of things kind of go hand in hand, I guess. But they are exciting for different reasons.
The first exciting thing is I finally went back to a yoga class. I have been wanting to go but haven't looked too much into it. I only looked at places I was recommended by my yoga teacher in Shanghai (she's Australian and used to live here and actually got trained here) but they're all in the city. But I looked up what's around me and found something and finally went in this morning. I have done yoga one time in the last 6 weeks or so and I've been missing it. It just makes me so relaxed. It's my favorite.
Anyway, so I went back to yoga today, and we had a substitute teacher, this Japanese woman. And at one point she said something to someone else in Japanese about a Japanese language yoga class. So after class I spoke to her in Japanese and asked her about it, and it happened right then, so I took another yoga class in Japanese! It was difficult, there were a lot of things I didn't catch, but I got like 70% of it and was able to follow along. And tonight I have a session with my tutor so we're focusing on body parts and body movement verbs.
I will definitely go back to the studio cause I got a great 2 week intro deal and it's close to the hotel. And hopefully I won't be in the hotel for more than 2 weeks... And anyway, I actually might keep coming later on. If there's a Sunday class, it's actually only about a 20 minute drive from where I want to live, and if I can do it in Japanese, that's fantastic practice. And hopefully friends. And there was a Japanese pottery shop across the street that looked like they did classes and I want to go ask about it. Lots of Japanese stuff around there, actually. Which was surprising cause it was like a little street in a neighborhood that all of a sudden had a row of shops and restaurants among the houses. And they were 90% Japanese. I'll find out more and report back.
And I'll also report on rum.gold now. He is a new artist from New York (of course) making more queer black music. I've written about this a couple of times lately. And we all know I'm obsessed with Moses Sumney. And now here's rum.gold who's somewhere in between Moses Sumney and James Vincent McMorrow. I heard his track Where There's Smoke on a playlist a few weeks back and immediately loved it.
Love that falsetto. And everything else about it. He actually only has two songs out, the other being Cashmere Cage, which is also fantastic. And nice to hear his non-falsetto voice, which is also fantastic. He'll be putting out an EP called yaRn in January, I think. I'll be impatiently waiting for it, cause this is some excellent stuff.
So this is the first Australia post. Things have been pretty hectic since I got here. Although not so fun. I showed up about 10 days ago now. Got in and went straight to work. And then again the next day. And then it was the weekend. And I spent my entire Saturday first house hunting, then applying for apartments. Because you have to go through this insane application process to get a place here. It's dumb. It's like 10 pages of questions and you have to give all kinds of supporting documentation. I've never seen anything like it. Then Sunday was for car shopping. That was a new one. Never done that before. And then Sunday night I did my first fun thing, which was go to the movies and see Blackkklansman. Great film. Highly recommended. Also super sad. But super well done.
Then I was back at work. And every day it's like 10 hours. Which is fine, I don't mind. I have nothing else to do and don't know anyone, so no big deal. I did have my first non-work social interactions this week, though, which was pretty nice. I should say that I don't know anyone in Sydney. I have a couple of friends of friends, and actually there is one girl I worked with in a restaurant for 6 months over a decade ago, but that's it. So I'm trying to meet people, although I'm more focused on getting an apartment first. Since I did get a car! Woohoo! Well, work got me a car. Even more woohoo! And it's a nice one. An Audi A4. Can't wait for that to show up. It is wonderful to drive. But I have to wait a couple of weeks still.
Anyway I did finally do something fun on Thursday, which was also my non-work social evening. I went to see Courtney Barnett! Pretty fitting for my first concert in Australia, as she's pretty massive when it comes to Indie music. And she's from Australia. And to make it even better, she played at the Sydney Opera House. Where better to go to my first concert since moving? I am actually not as huge of a fan of hers as most of the critics are, but her new album, Tell Me How You Really Feel, came out a few months ago, and it's actually quite good. Especially the opening track, Hopefulessness. Which is also what she opened the show with.
I love that slow build of the song. And it's a great bass line. And then finally really gets going at about 3:30. So this song, I love. But this is not how I think of Courtney Barnett. She is a witty singer-songwriter in my mind. But then this concert was a full on rock concert. She built up a lot of the songs and then just let them explode. Which was fantastic, but also kind of weird, considering we were in an opera theater. But hey, great show. And she's so deadpan but then the music goes crazy and it's fantastic.
So like I said, I enjoyed Courtney Barnett, but not as much as all the critics. Her first album, Sometimes I Sit and Think, and Sometimes I Just Sit, got a ton of attention and acclaim and I thought it was just ok. But it is clever. She's clever. And then she put out an album with Kurt Vile, who I feel similarly about, but it was a pretty damn good album. And then she started putting out singles from this new album, and I kind of liked them all. The first one that really caught me was Sunday Roast, though. It's funny, cause it's also super chill, but if you listen to the whole album (which you should) it is not so chill. There are lots of hard songs on there. Which now that I saw her live she has impressed on me, but listening to the album it did not overcome my idea of her being a chill singer-songwriter. But anyway, great show. And yay Australia! Although hopefully more yay soon when I actually have a house and can start to settle down. Hopefully that comes soon. And now, SundayRoast.
I haven't managed to write in nearly two weeks because I've been insanely busy. Last we spoke I was in Germany for work, and every day was full full full of meetings. I barely had a second to myself. But the first meeting was the best meeting. Because that was the meeting where they told me I was going to move to Australia. Finally. After a year of talking about, it's finally happening. If they didn't make it happen after this trip, I was probably going to quit at the end of the year. Luckily they did. And to make it even better, I am going to be General Manager. So now it's also a big promotion with full responsibility for Australia and New Zealand. Suffice it to say I'm a happy boy.
And from there, things just went crazy. I spent my time in Germany (including two nice weekends, one in Spain and one in Munich which I'll talk about later), and then I flew straight to Sydney to meet my new team. I got there on a Tuesday to meet them, the day after they fired the old GM and told him not to come back. So I spent two days there, then flew back to Shanghai where I spent 1 day, and now I'm sitting in the airport in Seoul on my way home. I think I've slept about 4 hours a night for the last week. One night I maybe slept 6 1/2. It has been exhausting, and the longest travel week of my life. 4 countries on 4 continents in a week. Insane. But it's all going to be worth it, cause now I'm going on vacation for 2 weeks, and then I move to Australia and start this great new job. So things are going well in the world of Minsky.
That's it for today. Good news! Yay! Next time I'll talk about Spain and Germany fun times.
Well, not totally it. There's still music. That's what this blog is about, after all. And today it's Dirty Projectors. They put out the album Dirty Projectors last year, which was one of my top albums of 2017. And without skipping a beat, there's a new album this year, called Lamp Lit Prose. Not as good as last year's, but still wonderful. And a wonderful treat to get so quickly. They started out with the first single Break-Thru back in May, and only once I listened to it on earphones did I realize how much I like it. I love the guitar riff throughout the song, but even more I love that dirty backwards sounding guitar riff during the verses. It's good stuff.
And then the album has a bunch of great collaborations, including Syd from The Internet (who also just put out a new album), Haim, Amber Mark, Robin Pecknold from Fleet Foxes, and Rostam. But the best collaboration, and the best track on the album, is with Empress Of, for the song Zombie Conqueror. A nice little start, but then when it picks up at 30 seconds, and the kick drum comes in like 10 seconds later, it just gets amazing. Such a fantastic song. I love this one. Definitely the best on an all-around fantastic album.
I had quite the weekend. I'm in Germany now, not sure if I mentioned that. But I am. I got here last Wednesday for some work stuff. Of which there is something to tell. But I'll wait until next week to tell it...
But anyway, as usual, Schrobenhausen is not very exciting. But I went to spend the weekend in Spain with my friend Roberto. He's from Valladolid, just north of Madrid, and moved home from Shanghai back in like March or April. I was planning to fly Friday after work, and since work finishes early on Fridays in Germany, that meant around 2pm. So I got to the airport and was making my way through security when I got an email that my flight was delayed, which meant I had 15 minutes for a connection, which would clearly not work. So I paid extra to change to a later flight that night and make sure I made it, because Roberto had something good planned for us for Friday night in Madrid. So I had about 6 hours to kill, so went into the city to see friends for a bit, since it's only half an hour away by train. All was going very well, until I got back online at 5pm to find an email saying they could not get me on the 7:30pm flight I booked, but could put me on one at 6pm, which I couldn't make. So, I spent the next hour on the phone with them, which resulted in me flying to Amsterdam, spending the night in an airport hotel, then flying at 7am to Madrid (which was delayed). Clearly not ideal. But I made it! And then we hopped right on a train to Valladolid.
Now, Valladolid is famous for tapas. There's other stuff, too. Roberto told me all kinds of history about how they're an old capital and all kinds of fun stuff. But what really matters are the tapas. This is where Spain's national tapas competition happens every year, where chefs come from all over the country to pair with local restaurants and make tapas for competition. Those tapas then stay on the menus in the bars and you can eat them year-round for next to nothing. We started out with some traditional tapas at a couple bars (of course with wine), the first one being a croqueta, which I learned is not always made from a potato base. Blew my mind. So a few tapas and a couple glasses of wine later, we went to Roberto's house, where his mother had prepared us a feast of paella, steamed crab and prawns, and grilled lamb chops. It was unbelievable. I had heard of her cooking prowess, and none of it was exaggerated. Then I sat there for like 4 hours just chatting away in Spanish with Robert and his sister and parents, which was pretty awesome because I got to practice Spanish, but also because who spends a Saturday afternoon just chatting without even looking at their phone anymore? Especially for 4 hours. It's so rare, and it was so great. So that went on until about 8:30, when we left to go eat more tapas and drink more wine. Roberto pretty much just took me from one tapas bar to the next, snacking on things, until we finished up with a gin and tonic at a hip, little local bar at 1am, and went home to sleep for like 5 hours.
Sunday we woke up pretty much in time to catch a train to Madrid and meet up with a couple of his friends, then go eat more tapas and have a vermouth. Apparently vermouth is a super Spanish thing these days. Roberto was telling me about how there's a bunch of artisanal vermouth being made all over Spain, and all the cool kids are drinking it, so we had quite a few over the weekend. Anyway, so it was vermouth and snack, then back to the airport for me. Which, considering the weekend, could not go well. My flight was delayed 30 minutes, we circled around Munich for an hour before landing, my ride wasn't there when I arrived, and after he did show up, we had to wait another hour for someone else to come join us. It was not fun. At all. But it was worth it. It was great to see Roberto after not having seen him for a few months, and to meet the family, and to actually try all the amazing food and drink his home is famous for which he's been bragging about for years. Also, it is super cheap. We walked all over Valladolid eating tapas and drinking wine, probably at about 7 different places, and I did not even spend 100 Euros. The last place we had 5 tapas, all award winning, one even having won the best tapa of the year back in like 2015, along with 4 glasses of wine, and it only cost 18 Euro. So insane. So in summary, horrible travel, but amazing weekend, even if it was cut nearly in half due to delays.
And now a bit of music. Today it's great new music from not new artists who I maybe didn't pay attention to or wasn't a huge fan of before. The first of whom is Parquet Courts. These guys have been around for years and have a bunch of albums, the latest of which, Wide Awake!, just came out in May. The title track from the album and one of the early singles is absolutely fantastic. So much fun. So I listened to the album. And I did not like it. But this song! So good!
And then we have Young Fathers. These guys are more interesting. They're a Scottish rap group who won the Mercury Prize in 2014, for their debut album. At the time I didn't really get it. I heard the album, but I was not a huge fan. And then a year later they put out another album, and again I listened, but wasn't too impressed. But now, they've put out their third album, Cocoa Sugar, back in March, and that one is amazing. Really a fantastic album all around. Maybe in my top 10 this year. And it has a ton of amazing songs. For example, In My View.
Good stuff, right? And then there's Toy, which I think is the first single I heard off the album, and I really liked it right away, which surprised me since I was never really impressed with them before. But this year, they seem to have gotten it right. Something about that third album.
I'm getting ready to head to Germany tonight, but wanted to get in a bit of music for the week. Nothing to really tell you today. My week has been busy at work, as it always is when I'm trying finish stuff up before a business trip. Last week I was in Xiamen, which I wrote some stuff about. That was fun. Weekend was a good mix of being productive and being active and being a bit lazy but less than usual which felt nice.
Oh! Here's an exciting thing! I managed to get a Japanese book on my Kindle, after years of trying, and I got it with a Japanese English dictionary, which means when I don't know a word and I click it, I get the pronunciation and translation. It is amazing. It makes me so happy. I've wanted to do this for years and finally talked to a friend who does it, and got it to work. Basically, I needed to sign up for an amazon.co.jp account, which meant using a friend's address and phone number in Japan, and navigating the site in Japanese, and registering my Japanese account on my Kindle, not my English one. But it worked. So it's all good. And I'm so happy. And now I have a book I've started reading which a friend recommended, about a grasshopper researcher who goes to Mauritania to solve a grasshopper infestation which is leading to drought and famine. I honestly have no clue if it is fiction or non-fiction. Yet. I'll get back to you on that.
Anyway, so yeah, work is fine, week is fine, life is fine, and now I'm going to Germany for a couple weeks. But before that, music. International music. From 3 artists today.
First up is Jawhar. He put out a new album, Winrah Marah, in April, and it popped up somewhere. I don't know where. But I heard one of his songs, and it is fantastic. This guy is from Tunis, and makes Arab folk rock, which he sings all in Arabic. I have no idea what he's singing about, but I love it. Reminds me of Palatine, who I wrote about earlier this year, who I also have no idea what they're singing about. He actually has an older album also, which I should go listen to, but for now I've only heard Winrah Marah. It's a great album, all of which is worth listening to multiple times, but I'm going to leave you with Soutbouk today.
Now we're moving into some interesting cross-over territory with the next song, which comes courtesy of Angelique Kidjo. This woman is a legend in African music. She just might be on of the most famous African musicians on the planet. And generally, she's pretty great. But she's just put out this album called Remain in Light, and the entire album is a track for track cover of The Talking Heads' album Remain in Light from 1980, in Angelique Kidjo's West African style. Now already this is an interesting idea, so despite not being a massive Talking Heads fan, I really wanted to listen. And it is fun. And of course I was curious about the original, so I found a playlist which lines it up track by track. The interesting thing is that the original actually lends itself really well to West African music. I don't think I would have ever heard it if I just listened to the Talking Heads, but side by side, there's already some elements that seem to be influenced by African music. Pretty fascinating. And the best track, by far, is Once In A Lifetime. I'm sure you've heard the original, even if you don't know it, but once you hear the cover, you'll know what song it is. And you'll probably do what I do and listen over and over.
In a similar vein as Angelique Kidjo covering The Talking Heads, we have a track from Thomas Bartlett & Nico Muhly's new collaboration, an album titled Peter Pears: Balinese Ceremonial Music. I previously knew the name Nico Muhly, but not Thomas Bartlett, but the album was on a new releases playlist I follow and I was intrigued by the album name. So I looked it up, and was even more intrigued, and had to go listen. Basically, there was this guy Colin McPhee who was an ethnomusicologist and worked in Indonesia back in the 1930s. He brought back the traditional music he heard in Indonesia and started creating world music back in the US. Now, Thomas Bartlett and Nico Muhly were inspired by him and wrote some songs which incorporate his transcriptions of traditional Balinese ceremonial music. It will not be at all what you expect, but it is beautiful and super interesting. As an album, it's a bit boring by the end, but definitely worth a listen, and definitely worth making it on the blog. So I'll share Dominic with you as today's last track.
