Archers In Studio at OPB

I recently had the pleasure of watching and interviewing Archers in studio at OPB. I've been spinning Brussels Truffles and listening to their 7" for a few weeks now, and I am hooked on the fast-paced, on-the-brink-of-losing it sound they rock so hard.

In the studio, just as in their lives shows, they were loud, chaotic and totally exciting to watch. With their five distinct personalities shining through musically, Archers whipped through 6 songs, an interview, station IDs and a few re-takes in just under an hour. Impressive.



If you want a free sample, head over to their Bandcamp site where they've made a track available for free. And while you're there, grab a copy of the 7" that slams 4 songs into two sides. You won't even know what hit you.

Guaranteed these guys continue to make waves in the Portland music scene, and hopefully they can start gaining some traction outside the Pacific Northwest because they truly are one of the most entertaining bands in town.

The opbmusic session should be up on the website in the next few weeks.

Archers headline Mississippi Studios this Sunday, April 3rd.

opbmusic

The Dears - Degeneration Street

The Dears have done it again. Degeneration Street, the latest effort from the Montreal quintet - their 5th studio album - is both a return to the days of No Cities Left and an amazing leap forward. Perfectly orchestrated with a healthy mix of epic, atmosphere and pop, Murray A. Lightburn leads his group musically through the solemn ("Omega Dog," "Galactic Tides") and the sunny ("Yesteryear," "5 Chords") while lyrically remaining constantly somber and honest.

There are hints of influences throughout the album: "Thrones" has a lovely Pulp-esque chorus, "Unsung" has tighter production a lá In Rainbows, and the bass line in "1854" even reminds me a bit of - yes, you're reading this right - MuteMath. But through all of this comes a sound uniquely attributable to The Dears. Comparisons are an easy way out; the simple fact is that this is the best Dears album yet.

Aside from the solid album, which, by the way, translates beautifully into 4 independently-brilliant-on-their-own sides of vinyl, The Dears have been promoting the album through weekly webcasts, sporadic music videos and regular blog postings of hand-written lyric sheets. If you follow the group on Twitter (@thedears), you have seen a lot of activity, which, to me, translates into a lot of excitement. Keep up the good work, Dears. It's working.

Prior to all of this, the band played a handful of shows in which they performed Degeneration Street from front to back. Those shows, along with a Late Show performance, has led to a West Coast tour that is about to start, and if they are coming to your town, go get tickets. They have promised a healthy mix of new and old favorites, and, judging from their excitement in cyberspace, the shows will be eventful and awesome.

Everything about Degeneration Street - from the production to the packaging - exudes the group's attention to detail, and that detail translates into an album worth keeping on repeat for a long time to come.

www.thedears.org

Catch The Dears - for FREE - at Music Millennium in Portland on March 8th at 6pm.

iTunes OCD

When I am home, I always have music playing - via iTunes - through our home stereo. I utilize iTunes DJ to get a decent mix, but I am a little crazy and particular about the order in which songs are played.

I decided a few years ago I wanted to make sure I listen to every song in my Music Library, so I took steps to make that happen. This is how I organized the listening experience:

Goal 1: Listen to every song (11,000+) in iTunes Music Library.
-Step 1: Make sure the Play Count column is showing in the iTunes DJ window.
-Step 2: Using iTunes DJ, pull songs from the general Music Library and allow for 50 upcoming songs.
-Step 3: When a new song loads into the bottom of iTunes DJ, make sure it is a song that has never been played. If the song has been played previously, delete it from the playlist and see what comes up next.
-Step 4: If a song plays that you do not like and will probably never listen to again, delete it from your Music Library entirely. (That's right, the concept of an album just went out the window.*)
-Step 4: Repeat Step 3 until the Play Count on all songs in Music Library is 1 or greater.

After I completed Goal 1, I needed a new project. Because Goal 1 spanned a year or so and some songs were listened to as far back as 2005, I decided to tackle the songs by year. Hence, Goal 2.

Goal 2: Listen to every song in 200_, starting with the oldest year.
-Step 1: See Step 1 from Goal 1
-Step 2: Make sure the Last Played column is showing in the iTunes DJ window.
-Step 3: Go into Music Library window and arrange all songs by Last Played. Highlight all songs from whatever year you are working on and make that into a playlist, naming it the year in question.
-Step 4: In iTunes DJ, change your Source to songs from the just-made playlist.
-Step 5: As songs are played in iTunes DJ, delete them from the playlist so you can keep track of what has been listened to.
-Step 6: Repeat Steps 1-5 for subsequent years.

I currently have 3,803 songs left to listen to from 2008. That's 10 days, 7 hours, 3 minutes and 9 seconds, but we'll see how long it actually takes. After that, who knows...

What about you? Any unique music arranging habits?

*I do honor some entire albums even if I don't like a song, but I'm sorry - I don't like every song on Bleach, nor do I feel the need to keep every one of those songs in my Library if I'm never going to listen to them. But that's me. You might be different.