+ tell the people what you found, dear friend

9.45am do make say think - winter hymn, country hymn, secret hymn
i've been pretty slow coming onto the do make say think boat but boy, am i good at making up for lost time. quite possibly the prettiest and most melodic out of all the post rock bands that ever were.

10.51am lackthereof - your anchor
been spinning this one alot in recent weeks so i should mention just how sultry i find danny seim's vocals are. not absolutely loin-tingling but throaty for sure. lackthereof is the solo project for danny who otherwise drums in the band menomena (according to wikipedia, menomena actually began as the side project for lackthereof).

being a drummer, there's occasionally interesting rhythms and percussive sounds in what would otherwise be a relatively straightforward lofi buzzy indierock record (akin to any lou barlow-related project), though i would've expected even more percussive experimentalism. or maybe i'm just spoiled with the amazing far out-ness of zach hill's recent solo debut (drummer extraordinaire best known for his work with mathrock supergroup hella).

any misgivings aside, this is a really solid record with plenty of hooks and warm sounds, that sits both comfortably in the 90s era but also in no-era's land, which means that it may not necessarily generate excitement about a sound of the moment, but neither will it grate in a year's time. comfort music etc. and did i mention how sexy his vocals are?

11.26am {{{sunset}}} - the glowing city
this will take me up to lunch time (and a new haircut) nicely. from austin, tx but might as well have come from athens, ga. and i mean in the best possible way! led by the youthful-looking blonde-haired bill baird (dare i mention it almost looks like ringlets?), this is psychedelic-tinged folk rock that updates my beloved elephant 6 sound for 2008, bringing to mind bands like olivia tremor control and ladybug transistor, but with an extra sprinkling of romance, purpose and urgency (and er, electronics).

the world is awaiting is particularly wondrous. there's a touch of the sax of freedom in this too, low enough in the mix to avoid turning into the sax of kenny but prominent enough to inject the dab hand of soul into this white boy rock music. oh look, you can even stream the album in its entirety on last.fm or imeem.

2.47pm great lake swimmers - ongiara
not to be confused with kindercore/e6 band great lakes. neo-folk/americana. it's pretty nice but they're all starting to sound the same (and rather sam beamish) after a while, and frankly none of it even comes close to my favourite in this genre which is the bowerbirds record.

2.58pm bowerbirds - hymns for a dark horse / daytrotter session
so obviously it's prompted me to go back to bowerbirds. i think phil moore's delivery is just about perfect. an exercise in patience (especially for my restless ears), he'll cast a sensuous word or melody and then just let it linger in the air, for you to snatch and hold dear. one of my favourite records of 2008.

fittingly my favourite song on the album is 'the ticonderoga'. at the same time as i was getting into bowerbirds, lee was hooking me up with ticonderoga records. which, you guessed it, was the band prior to bowerbirds. ahhh it all comes around no? the self titled debut from ticonderoga is actually very similar to bowerbirds, only with less pastoral, and more electric, instrumentation. well worth checking out, as are the bowerbirds videos on la blogotheque and the 'birds daytrotter session, which features some older songs from an out-of-print ep.

3.58pm steve reich - music for 18 musicians
this will take me nicely to 5 o'clock and closes the circle started by the gang gang dance piece 'retina riddim' which kicked off today's listening odyssey. this 56 minute piece composed by reich in 1978 of pulse, chord exploration, pulse (rinse, lather, repeat?) is highly melodic and richly toned and complements nicely brian dewar's 24 minute collage of rhythms, loops and samples that soundtracks the accompanying gang gang dance dvd footage.