Mike Smith - Digest - The Morning News

Watching • Determining the Best Thing

This vs That. Lobsters vs Godfather II. In this video, some architects, as part of their work with the Counter-Intuitive Comparison Institute of North America, ask us to think about the relative advantages of McDonalds, seahorses, English people. They contend that thing-literacy is important to designing the places we live and understanding why things are as they are. They are utterly convincing. In terms of really getting down to the nitty-gritty, NCAA inspired brackets force you to choose the best quality, not by abstract criticism but by simple direct comparison! We do it everyday, these guys have just spent a lot of time thinking about it. Democracy or Heated Seats? What is the best thing? A thing that helps create or facilitate other things, or something that just works, everytime? Those crazy architects. —Mike Smith, Dec. 1, 2008

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Listening • Feeling for Iceland

I feel for Iceland. They’ve got supermarket flags flying over their parliament, they’ve spent way too much money. It’s economic meltdown for real. You wouldn’t blame them hibernating til spring, emerging with hope that the glacial movements of recession have retreated back up the mountain. Compatriots Sigur Ros and Bjork are good for soundtracking the crash of waves, ships sinking, and bank-Execs being fed to the fishes. But Sin Fang Bous’s “Sinkership,” sounds more like forgotten dreams, electro-poptimism, and collective folk-choices to renew. It’s reflected through the crowds, the haze, the innovation, and second-hand machinery of this sweet song, a side project to band Seabear.

Dear Iceland, I would like to visit. I don’t know where your musicians begin, but I would like to see it. You should listen to this record through the winter, the album will emerge from its chrysalis, fully formed, next spring. Get it now from that popular online music store if they are still accepting your currency. —Mike Smith, Dec. 1, 2008

» Listen to "Sinkership" at Bunnynico

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Listening • Larkin Grimm

Read Larkin's blog to get a better sense of her thoughts: "One problem with the underground music scene now is that a lot of the more radical kids are afraid to be sexy... We know that John McCain is staring at Sarah Palin's ass while she is making speeches... the whole universe is contained in this moment."

Before, Larkin Grimm sung folk for the forests—see her myspace for country chanting, etc. Now, she rides out of the trees on great magical horses—like a Tolkienian spaghetti western. Years back, Larkin Grimm persuaded a crowd and I to lie on the floor and engage in some astro-traveling. She walked amongst us as we lay in that room above the pub, still wrapped in scarfs, warmed by candlelight. Most would have thought of ice palaces burning to the ground, thinking of the winter outside and the increasing heat inside. Now though, in “Ride the Cyclone,” I imagine a spiritual journey to get back to civilization, following the songlines, eager to destroy, rebuild, summon wild voices, and warm the blood of the next generation. —Mike Smith, Nov. 24, 2008

» Listen to "Ride that Cyclone" at Stereogum

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Watching • Cube! Defender of the Polyverse!

As much as I like video-games, it’s always better to be outside. This trailer for video game CUBE offers the technology that “makes calculators look like the cotton gin.” It makes a compelling case to avoid the computer, and instead, as I do, try to beat the 50 mph barrier on my racing bike. It’s worth thinking whether video games are broken; CUBE tries to do this.

You are now CUBE, Defender of the polyverse! Collect the diamonds & reach the goal! Every goal leads to another color level… the fun cannot be halted.

Games are fun, but this video may be their essence boiled right down.

This review of Outside from a gamer’s perspective notes, “Outside is remarkably high in sex, violence and challenges to traditional values, despite the strong child-focused marketing it receives,” but ultimately, “Outside is overrated, and many gamers will find themselves forced by friends and family to play it against their will, but it still deserves a high rating.” Yes, it’s of a coherent and critical review of the world—something philosophers have been struggling to do for millennia; it’s the sort of perspective that’s only possible after months of immersion in a fantasy world. —Mike Smith, Oct. 31, 2008

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Listening • Beach House Take a Break

Beach House’s spooky and warm lo-fi pop music continues to breeze past. Beach House pause for thought and take a literal, not musical, break from woozy synths and a steady heartbeat drum-machine pace. I’m inclined to sit, drift and reconsider their dark and spiritual sounds. I listen a little more carefully to two albums that don’t spark, but have always burnt right through me.

I just heard “Used To Be,” a song released in the gap between touring and recording an album next year. “Used To Be” indicates the duo are far from washed-out; in this pit-stop the duo take their time, sit in dunes far from any road, and stare at the ocean. As they do, and before they move on, I want to be ready to follow. I’m reacquainting myself with albums that I flew through—wobbling harmonies that conjure faded memories of crisp and bright days—the sort of days when you need to slow right down and take a look around to really understand what’s happening, what’s happened. —Mike Smith, Oct. 29, 2008

» Listen to "Used To Be" at 8/5

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Watching • Urban Wakeboarding

Until climate change becomes climate changed, until the ice surrounds us, freezes the waves, the surfers, and the sharks in place until spring, we’ll have urban wakeboarding. Badly designed and function-less moats tried to dull the shock of aging concrete towers, but now they provide an impressive location for a photo shoot opportunity when you combine wakeboard and winch. Expect more as climate change renders coastal cities uninhabitable. Oh!, in 50 years time the skyscrapers will just be obstacles for the supersonic jetski races. That is, if we have recreational time as the sea starts to come in. And in. And in. —Mike Smith, Oct. 27, 2008

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Listening • Motel De Moka

When I get stuck, when I’m uninspired and want surprise I check in with a music blog like no other. Motel De Moka wakes you up from your mid-afternoon daze, throws water on your face, then tells you their thoughts on back porch blues or the philosophical dance of motor-racing. Next to the music their writers share imagery, poetry, and thoughts. It is this method of inspiring intrigue that makes the thing they do so appealing.

It’s a cosmopolitan, cross-cultural place full of out of the way abstraction, independent music tied together with aesthetic themes; from London’s underground scene to a set of folk tunes premised with vanilla white photos and a quote from Samuel Beckett.

note: Fuck your zen garden. Get your feet in the water. Get your feet in the mud. Let’s crash all our planes in the river. Let’s build strange and radiant machines at this jericho waiting to fall.
Motel De Moka: May 28th, 2008.

Yes, Motel De Moka has it all. These small pockets of resistance are rare on the internet. Together they share music with personal, special touches and allow unexpected thoughts, images to bubble up. —Mike Smith, Oct. 27, 2008

» Listen to Motel De Moka music blog

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Listening • Fucked Up!

Herein lies hardcore rock. The flutes that open Fucked Up!’s latest album loosen up all the muscles you’ll need to react swiftly to an unexpected delivery of sweaty new heroes.

Fucked Up! recently played a 12 hour show where even Moby was involved—not so punk rock. But a marathon is a marathon, whether you run it fast and with a smile, or in a chicken suit. Similarly, I have no patience for commenters calling it hardcore for hipsters, trying to diminish something great due to the perceived crowd they draw. Let the band be judged by the audience’s craze and the transfer of energy between band and fan, not the associations that they keep.

Amongst Things You Do To Stay Sane, I nominate sweaty gigs and loud music, something especially effective as Fucked Up! overdrive so far into the left-field that breathing space harmonics arise, and you notice that there is beauty to be found here too. Twice Born is a big boost of a tune, an uplifting and aggressive reminder to take control and not hold back. I’ll be getting my sanity boost when they roll into town soon, probably in a convoy of monster trucks with a ticker tape parade. —Mike Smith, Oct. 21, 2008

» Listen to "Twice Born" at Stereogum

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Watching • Human Rights School, Gossip Girl Endorsement, Joe the VP

A human rights PSA delivered in a quasi High School Musical fashion is strangely compelling. There are no colorful songs about the status quo—it’s a boring gray reality of in-school cops, and CCTV—but we can enjoy the same ratio of school-yard hunk to out-cast girl to feelgoodness, and it’s educational!

Next thing you know the Gossip Girl cast members will suggest children have The Talk with their parents about voting for McCain (Yes—it’s below). Triple-points for the Right’s scorecard; they get to tick them off for the satire of the anti-Drug message, they can condemn them for brainwashing America’s youth, and through the inevitable causal connections, palling around with terrorists. Possibly fictional ones. Sex terrorists, perhaps.

Is nothing sacred?! If you’ve cut-it-out and kept-it you should move Gossip Girl a little further to the left of South Park Republicanism on Gawker’s political persuasions infographic—be sure to keep them far to the left of the staunchly conservative 24.

In these strange times even 24’s fictitious President Palmer endorses Obama. His message is slightly dulled on second read as he credits himself for all the side-changing Obama-cons as he drops subtle hints of a run.

“I still, even after three seasons into ‘The Unit’ playing Sgt. Maj. Jonas Blaine, I’m still asked by people on the street to run.”

Main Street, we can only presume. And knowing their expertise in the world of international finance system and political affairs, they’ll certainly indulge my 2016 wish: Ex-fictious attorney Fred Thompson vs ex-fictious-President Palmer vs fictitious-plumber Joe, please.

Though, if a plumber did run for office, we’d be up to our necks in strangely persuasive analogies regarding refitting, unclogging the piping in Washington—to which we, in conventional style, would nod, ponder, weigh in unconvincingly, eventually agreeing with his expert analysis and handing over our money. We would only realize two months after the election that dependable, really smart politicians are essential when a country needs saving. Not cowboys…or cowgirls. —Mike Smith, Oct. 20, 2008

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Tuesday, December 2, 2008