Antennas to Heaven

I think one of the best feelings in the world is to listen to the first song off an album and fall completely for it such that by the time it is over you have to wonder why you waited so long to listen to it. I did it for "HLLLYH" by The Mae Shi and today it was done by "Lift Your Skinny Fists Like Antennas To Heaven" by godspeed you! black emperor. The only reason I even have that album is because of eMusic, and how you get so many downloads per month, and how when downloading albums you always end up with a handful of downloads left, and how gy!be albums are only 4 songs long, so you download two songs this month and two the month before that, and now you have 80 minutes of captivating music that was otherwise absent from your life because 30 second snippets don't do this band any justice but you decide to download them anyway because what else are you going to do with those two leftover downloads this month.

I froze my hand, broke my fingers off, gave them to my friends

I think that I'm going to have to downgrade my eMusic subscription. This was the toughest time I've had filling all the downloads. That is said even with the swanky new in-browser song previews they have. This looks to be one of my best hauls yet though. (I hope I don't say that every month.)

"No It Cat Oh!" by My Robot Friend: I got this mostly because it has a new version of his song "Walt Whitman" on it.

"Rise Above" by Dirty Projectors: So much hype, and Nat Baldwin plays/played? bass for them.

"Lost Notes From Forgotten Songs" by The Six Parts Seven: Their usual instrumentals get some vocal treatment from many sources, including Will Johnson of Centro-Matic, Sam Beam of Iron & Wine, and Isaac Brock of Modest Mouse.

"Street Horrrsing" by Fuck Buttons: I liked the previews, I like the idea.

"Vuvuvu" by MSTRKRFT: This is just one song. I read an interview about this at one point, how a member of Justice said that MSTRKRFT's music sounded like "vuvuvuvu", and this song was named.

"[Everywhere][And Right Here]" by The Six Parts Seven: I've been hella digging slow shit lately.

"Things We Lost In the Fire" by Low: Until I can no longer read about it in blogs or find out on Facebook, I will be tied to the musical happenings of Houghton, MI. Low recently played at Keweenawesomefest 2. I bought "Drums and Guns" preemptively and dug the hell out of that. Now I have more.

"Ghost Tropic" by Songs: Ohia: Because there is always room for Jason Molina.

"On Avery Island" by Neutral Milk Hotel: I had twelve downloads left, this was twelve songs long. It had been in my save-for-later list basically since I opened my eMusic account. Plus it is NMH. End of story.

And earlier in the week I downloaded the new EP from Mason Proper, "Shorthand", and was over-excited to hear the song "Friendship" which I particularly remembered from Keweenawesomefest last year. It's echos of "I froze my hand, broke my fingers off, gave them to my friends..." are something you don't forget easily.

Starring what's her face and what's his name

Once again it has come time for my eMusic update. Last month I upgraded to the 75 downloads per month plan because I am horribly insatiable when it comes to music. So here, in the order I downloaded and have been listening to them, are my eMusic albums for November.

"What Are You On?" by East River Pipe: A one-man bedroom act who caught my interest a while ago wiith his song "Shiny Shiny Pimpmobile".

"Let's Get Out Of This Country" by Camera Obscura: Based out of Glasgow, this band caught my attention with the first single off of this album, "Lloyd, I'm Ready To Be Heartbroken", just when I was recently heartbroken. It was backed with "I Can't Stay Mad At You" and to this point in my life I can't think of a more poignant pairing of single and b-side.

"LP" by Holy Fuck: Sometimes I read reviews and I go, "wow, I really would like that" which is what I did for this album. I knew that they had been opening for Wolf Parade recently, and when I was rocking out to this in my office yesterday I knew I had found a winner.

"The Fyling Club Cup" by Beirut: I wasn't blown away by the single from their last album, but when cmg says something is good, I generally believe them. They pulled through for me.

"Broom" by Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin: These guys were one of the first Daytrotter sessions that I heard, and when I saw that Greg was listening to them I decided that I should go download the album.

"Countless Times" by Diane Cluck: She appeared on a collaboration with Jeffrey Lewis way back when and blew me away with their song "The River". I still mostly think of JL when I think of anti-folk, but Diane is some kind of awesome. Listening to "My Teacher Died / Countless Times" was a wow moment.

"Let's Stay Friends" by Les Savy Fav: cokemachineglow needs to stop writing so well. They convince me more often than not. I don't know what to think of the music itself yet, but here's what cmg says: "This band is where idiosyncratic goes to fuck itself."