she put down in writing what was in her mind

The perfect late summer song. Soulful. Oozing. Syrupy. Beautiful

Bob Dylan – Not Dark Yet  

New Music: M83, Girls, Lenny Kravitz

A bunch of new music has fallen into my lap. Can’t say how or why, but here it is for your listening pleasure:

• M83 will be releasing their next album “Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming,” on October 18, 2011, but apparently it has leaked a bit early. If you like dreamy/electronic/indie pop, then check out My Tears Are Becoming A Sea, below.
• Lenny Kravitz thinks he’s part of The Meters, and it sounds awesome. His new album “Black and White America” is out today, and the opening/title track is just wonderful.
• Girls new album has leaked as well, and (as reviewed yesterday), it’s an ambitious, albeit thematically confused, effort. The 7+ minute Forgiveness starts as a sad slow rocker, that builds into a shimmering guitar solo at the end.

M83 – My Tears Are Becoming A Sea

Lenny Kravitz – Black and White America

Girls – Forgiveness

Girls – Father, Son, Holy Ghost

Girls followup album to “Album,” “Father, Son, Holy Ghost,” will be released on September 9th, but here’s a preliminary look at the album in 140 or fewer characters.

Jay-Z and Beyonce Expecting

Yes, I’m watching the VMAs. And yes, I’m excited that Beyonce announced that she and Jay-Z are expecting a child. Very exciting news, especially considering that Jay-Z included a letter to his unborn son on his recent album-collab with Kanye West. I guess what we thought was a hypothetical lyric was an actual one. Congrats!

Jay-Z and Kanye West – New Day

one year

It’s been one full year since Gilad passed away. A full year without our beloved brother, son, uncle, friend. A full year without that stunning smile that could light up a room, without that quick wit, without that unbending yearning to read and learn and understand both life and death.

On my way to work, I stopped by the place where I got the phone call, learning that Gilad had taken his last breath. I stopped by that bus stop in Waltham, and sat in my car for a few minutes, just remembering. Not remembering the horrible content of the call, or how our lives changed so much in its wake. Remembering those last moments when Gilad was still alive. Because that’s how I always want to remember him – smiling, alive, happy, and healthy.

Throughout this year, so much has happened and so much has changed. Right afterward Gilad died, I wrote about how I would think of something that I wanted to tell Gilad, immediately realizing that I could no longer do so, and the crushing feeling that comes with that. But as the weeks turned into months, that happened less, and the pain and sorrow became less constant; the never-ending throbbing in my heart turned into a lump in the back of my throat, and then to an ache that was only present here and there, as if brought on by changes in the weather.

This is the process of grief. We think. We remember. We laugh. We cry.

This past Sunday, we had the unveiling of Gilad’s gravestone. And like the weather, we couldn’t make up our minds as to the tone of the ceremony. As the sun turned to thunderstorms and back around again, our stories went from sad to happy, and both tears and laughter filled our faces.

We thought. We remembered. We laughed. We cried.

So it’s been a year. The crushing pain is far removed. Those once lucid memories are now somewhat foggy and muddled. But we still keep Gilad in our hearts and minds. We still think of Gilad flashing that charming smile. We remember him crawling through sewer pipes, copying his older brother’s outfits, playing guitar in the hallways at school, or just chilling. We remember him as he was – amazing, smart, charming, clever, and great.

Gilad, we miss you more than ever, but we’re doing our best to still be ok, and to continue living, even though sometimes it hurts so much to go on without you. We miss you, and we will always love you.

Bon Iver – Blood Bank

LCD Soundsystem – Someone Great

The Tallest Man on Earth – The Gardener

Lil’ Wayne – Tha Carter IV Leaks

Lil’ Wayne’s much anticipated followup to “Tha Carter III,” creatively titled “Tha Carter IV,” will be released on August 28th, but the album has leaked. I haven’t had a chance to listen to the entire thing, but here’s a few tracks to whet your appetites.

Lil’ Wayne – Megaman

Lil’ Wayne – It’s Good

Lil’ Wayne – Outro

Bon Iver + James Blake – Fall Creek Boys Choir

Somewhere between the releases of his first and second albums, Justin Vernon of Bon Iver made the move from lo-fi homegrown recordings to much broader sounds, including full bands, horns, and even some electronic sounds to his music. Yet, despite this sound broadening, and despite his many collaborations with hip hop soundmaster Kanye West, I could not have forseen this coming. A Bon Iver + James Blake collab.

The song is a gorgeous track that manages to maintain a balance between the soulful acoustic glory that Justin Vernon excels at, while adding layers and layers of electronic zip and zaps that sound neither overproduced, nor overdone. It’s the perfect marriage of lo and hi fi, and it’s making me quite happy on this dreary Wednesday afternoon.

Blake, the British electronic composer has been performing the song live for some time now, under the name Enough Thunder. Today, he put the song up on YouTube under the title Fall Creek Boys Choir, with the note that it (something?)  will be released next week on iTunes.

James Blake & Bon Iver – Fall Creek Boys Choir

The Decemberists Play Eschaton

David Foster Wallace’s masterpiece Infinite Jest, is one of the greatest modern novels that I’ve ever read. The writing style is innovative and bears Wallace’s unique stamp, yet the story lacks nothing as an entertaining piece – creating a work of fiction that isn’t merely an academic or intellectual endeavor, but also a piece of entertainment. That one of the books main themes is the addictive qualities of great entertainment only makes Wallace’s great offering more brilliant and thought-provoking.

Bon Iver – Holocene Video

Check out the gorgeous music video for Bon Iver’s Holocene. The video was filmed somewhere in Iceland, but Justin Vernon isn’t saying where. Check out the video below, and check out his live performance at the 930 club a few weeks ago here.

the last jam session

It never should have happened. He was a mere eight days away from death. His body weak, mind beginning to fade, and life starting to slip from his fingers. But as he sat in the family room as evening turned to night on August 18th, 2010, I brought Gilad’s guitar in and began to play for him.

He hadn’t listened to music in so long, not since early June – his connection to music had been so deep that when the beauty of life was ripped from his heart, he was unable to stand hearing the beautiful songs that once gave him hope. But still I wanted to play for him one last time; to play the songs we used to jam on.

In the beginning, I was the teacher, he the student, and jam session’s our bread and butter. Since I taught myself to play, I refused to teach Gilad and forced him to learn by himself – by printing chords out off the internet, decoding tablature, and jamming with me. What started as an annoying, out-of-tune, second instrument, soon turned into a harmonious accompaniment to my mediocre chops. I remember coming back one winter break to discover that he had blown past me, talent-wise, as he soloed endlessly during a jam session, his fingers moving faster and more fluidly than mine ever had or would. We spent hours awake around campfires, entertaining my campers and his friends, during our years in camp together, and we played every time I would come home from school on a break. He was the ultimate guitar partner, one whom I could intuit and know what he would do before he did it. His playing complemented mine, and I’d like to think mine did the same for his.

And so, I sat down, one last time, to play music for Gilad.  But instead of just listening, Gilad demanded a guitar. He was sleeping more than not by this point, and just moving between rooms had become difficult. But no, he demanded a guitar. We gave him Aba’s old lightweight acoustic, that each of us had used when we learned the instrument, and I began to play our song – Dispatch’s Hey Hey. A cheesy song about teenage love that somehow meant more than anything to the two of us. The harmonies and interwoven guitar parts were perfect for our voices and styles, and we had made the song our own over the years.

I began to play, as Gilad’s hand desperately searched the fretboard to the proper fingering. His muscle memory was weak, and his fingers weaker, but he tried hard to remember the chords and how to play them. As tears streamed down all of our faces, we sang and he along with us. It was just a few minutes – a few short verses and choruses – but it felt like an eternity. Because we knew then, that this would be it. We knew that he didn’t have much longer and that there was little chance he would ever play guitar again. We knew that despite this grab at something beautiful, this stab in a musical direction – an area fraught with life, happiness, and joy – that this would be his last waltz, his final hurrah. As the final notes were played, the guitar taken from his hand, and he leaned back on the couch, we all sat in the afterglow of something incredible, of something true, pure, and beautiful.

The tears continued to stream, but we did not wipe them away. Our lives were about to fall apart, but for that one moment, we were able to remember, and we wanted that memory to be seared into our minds. We wanted to remember that moment forever, because we knew.

We knew, that this was the last jam session.

Dispatch – Hey Hey