Brighter Flames Arrayed

Instead of starting the final 1000+ word blog post on interviews at independent schools on the same week as school resuming from vacation I’ve decided to go ahead and finish up some other posts I have on the back burner instead. Like this one. I’ve been meaning to post more about the music that I listen to because I listen to a lot of weird things and sometimes it’d be nice to actually share those weird things with you. So, here it is: the stuff I’ve been listening to in the last few months!

Tanglefoot (High Energy Canadian Traditional/Folk)

Tanglefoot is actually a pretty old band from Ontario that started in the early 90s. In fact, they no longer exist as of last year. Their music is Canadian. By that I don’t mean that they do old French-Canadian rowing songs (they do) and that they couple melodies are distinctively ”north of here” with strong, lumberjack-like male vocals (they do that too). I mean that almost every single one of their songs is about Canada and that every other one of their songs came from some awesome moment in Canadian history and/or involve lumberjacks. Secord’s Warning, which is about the heroics of Laura Inglesoll Secord that led to an American defeat during the War of 1812, is one of their most famous songs. They also have a great song about pirates who were fortunate enough to not be led by Elcid Barrett.

Genghis Khan Steed (Traditional Mongolian Morin Khuur Music)

It’s basically just a random album on iTunes filled with amazing music played with Mongolian morin khuurs (horse head fiddles). I have no physical album and no liner notes so I have no idea who played the music and who arranged them and how many of the tunes are traditional tunes. I found out about this because one day Kelsey just posted a status update on Twitter going “I’m listening to awesome Mongolian music” and I asked her what it was and she sent me the link. So if you’re into amazing string instruments playing songs about horses and steppes and horses on steppes and doing things that string instruments you normally see can’t do, you should give this a shot.

MC Frontalot (Nerdcore Hip-Hop)

He’s probably the most famous nerdcore rapper in existence so you’re a nerdcore rap fan you probably do not need to read this paragraph. For those of you who are not nerdcore hip-hop fans: MC Frontalot is the most famous nerdcore rapper in existence. He raps about nerdy things from Star Wars conventions (because rapping about Star Wars alone isn’t nerdy enough) and text-based adventure games to being shy at parties and hating blogs. He is rather good at rapping.

Twelve Girls Band (Classical Chinese Music, Except Not)

Of all the albums I own this is definitely the most manufactured. This band is formed by twelve beautiful young women hand picked from the best classical conservatories in China by a famous music producer. That doesn’t mean that they’re boring, though. They are all classically trained and are highly skilled in traditional Chinese instruments. So they cover Coldplay with zithers and lutes. They also cover classical classical music as well as traditional folk songs from Northwestern China. Their “originals” (written by the folks who created the band) are pretty amazing as well.

Oh, yeah, they also have a Christmas album.

Freezepop (Synth-Pop)

This is pretty much completely out of character for me but I have a soft spot for Freezepop. They are just way too adorable and I can’t help but listen to them.

Wing :: Apr.04.2010 :: Posts :: No Comments »

Right now I’m packing for a week-long writing retreat that I do with some students every year. No internet for four days! The horror! Before I shut off my last laptop—I have three laptops, which is a fact that warrants a post of its own—I thought I’d do a short post of really cool things and people I’ve discovered recently…

Scott Pilgrim, who has a precious little life that he must fight the world for or he’ll fall into infinite sadness. This is a comic book series about a twenty-something Canadian boy “between jobs” who has to play in a band and defeat his dream girl’s seven evil ex-boyfriends in mortal combat. It’s kind of the voice of my generation and it’s certainly the best comic book I’ve ever read. More on Scott Pilgrim later.

Gideon Freudmann opened for Tim Eriksen at the Iron Horse in Northamption last Thursday. I had no idea who he was except that one of the folks who went to the concert with me was his biggest fan ever. Turns out he plays the electric cello while controlling some crazy synthesizer drum machine thing with his foot—or maybe it’s some realtime thing that plays off his cello? His music is pretty damn amazing.

Henry Hatsworth is an outrageously British professor who goes on a puzzling adventure to save the world. It takes the Nintendo DS to its logical extreme: a platformer on the top screen and a block puzzle on the bottom. You switch between the two using the X button and each screen affects the other. Kill things on the top and you send them to the bottom screen. Let the bottom screen pile up and more enemies appear. Removing blocks from the puzzle charges your super attacks and makes your projectiles more powerful. The game is also pretty hard; in the second half of the game you really need to switch back and forth charging your special attacks and powering up blocks by killing things with said special attacks. The best thing about the game though is that it’s unfailingly British: by charging up your combo meter you unlock TEATIME and turn into an invincible British Battling Robot.

Wing :: May.10.2009 :: Posts :: No Comments »