Feaverish

This morning I reached into my dresser drawer and pulled out a pair of charcoal-colored socks with three light gray stripes around the top. I held them in my hand for a minute, trying to visualize the day I’d have wearing these socks; how they’d look under my rolled-up pant legs as I rode my bike to work, how they’d feel as I sat at my desk, the way they’d slide on the wood floors once I made it home at the end of the day. Eventually, I put them back in the drawer and chose a different pair of charcoal-colored socks, these with light blue stripes. I put them on.

It’s time once again for everyone’s favorite time of the year: Feaverish’s Spring Music Recommendations Extravaganza! Woooooââ�¬Â¦[dying applause]

Last year saw a ton of excellent albums by past Feaverish favorites like Of Montreal, Joanna Newsom, the Hold Steady, M. Ward, the Long Winters, and Pas/Cal. In fact, if you’re reading this post at all it means you’ve already passed the little music test I set up; just a little script that checks for one or more of the above albums in your iTunes library and only lets you view the site if it finds one. This seemed a lot fairer than my previous test, which had your webcam take a picture of you and compared your face against a scientific ideal, letting only those in the top 5% through to the site. (And of course I’ve entirely done away with that test’s precursor, which measured how lovingly you cradled your mouse, but returned way too many false positives.)

Anyway, congratulations on passing; as a reward for having such good taste, here’s some music I’ve been enjoying so far this year:

Arrah and the Ferns � Apple for Evan [mp3]

I know nothing about this band, except that they sound young, and that they make a hell of a lot of noise with a hell of a lot of instruments. I could listen to the noodling guitar and brass section (tuba?) on this song all day long. It’s the kind of song I listen to at the end of a long day of work, when I need an energy boost for the bike ride home.

Papercuts � Dear Employee [mp3]

Since the first notes in this song are played by a cello, it was automatically included in this list. The entire album is great, and you can check out a few more songs at Papercuts’ MySpace page.

The Winks � Guitar Swing [mp3]

If you only listen to six of the songs in this post, this should be one of them. The Winks‘ second album, Birthday Party, has been one of my favorite albums of the last year. It’s all cellos (automatically included!) and mandolins and minor-key boy-girl harmonies, and the whole thing reminds me a bit of Arcade Fire, and more than a bit of Shapes and Sizes.

Loney Dear � I Am John [mp3]

You’ve probably heard of Loney, Dear before now, but I would like to formally, here, throw my recommendation into the mix. This song is twee as fuck, but, as with Arrah and the Ferns, the sheer exuberance and joy of the song forgives the supra-Bee-Gees vocal register and numerous xylophone solos.

Johnny and the Moon � The Ballad of Scarlet Town [mp3]

This song, by former Hot Hot Heat and current Wolf Parade member Dante DeCaro (as Johnny and the Moon) brings it like it’s 1895. At first listen, The Ballad of Scarlet Town maybe sounds like an old folk song your favorite indie band sings as a crowd-rousing encore, but it’s surprising how hard an entire album of those songs can rock.

Windmill � Tokyo Moon [mp3]

Again, I know nothing about this band other than they sound similar to other bands I like, namely the Flaming Lips and Mercury Rev. Warbling voice? Check. Elevator-shaft drums? Check. Menacing robot voice in the background? Check. What’s not to love, people?

I had to whittle this list down from like 20 potential songs, so maybe I’ll do a follow up in the near future. In the meantime, you kids got any recommendations for me?

If you take a gander at yon sidebar you’ll notice that I added a link to my Twitter profile, where you can and will, please, add me as buddy (or Avifaunal Acquaintance, to use Twitter’s official parlance).

You’ve probably heard of Twitter before, and maybe you think it sounds like nothing more than an international inanity contest, but it’s actually a lot of fun. And anyway, that’s one contest I’m not likely to lose.

PS if you’re on a Mac you should check out the terrific Twitterrific, which lets you post and read Tweets right from your desktop, and looks pretty badass doing it. I’m sure there’s something similar for Windows users if you search around a bit.

Gentle reader, when next you find occasion to visit the West Coast of my country, do please make a stop in Santa Monica, and we shall arm-in-arm make our way to the Library Alehouse (on Main Street, you ask? why yes, the very same!) where, after priming our palates with bowl after bowl of tortilla chips and ramekin after ramekin of intoxicatingly bespiced salsa, we shall feast on the fourteenth item on the menu, the ahi burger with wasabi coleslaw and daikon sprouts, and, as the tears fall from your face (tears of despair at the realization that truly nothing on this earth could ever taste as good again), I shall pull a small vial from my herringbone jacket and collect them, teardrop by glimmering teardrop, until the vial is full and corked, and then, upon returning to my laboratory, formulate a recipe for an energy drink based on the sweetness of your tears, which energy drink I shall brand Crybaby, and which energy drink shall not, in point of fact, be a market success, due not to any flaw in it’s concoction or flavor, but due solely to my (heretofore entirely unbeknownst to me!) embezzler of a partner, who shall abscond with your tears (and my herringbone jacket!) some 200 odd miles to the south (Mexico!), where your tears, when mixed with the local agua, will produce an entirely undrinkable concoction and will, in fact, land my partner in a Mexican jail for attempted poisoning of the water supply.

Oh my god I’ve got so much exciting stuff to post but seriously work has been so busy and I have been working so hard. How busy and how hard? Take a look at this screenshot:

That is a lot of hard busyness. Just know that I’ve got a bunch of super-secret stuff bubbling under the hood which Iââ�¬Â¦wait, I don’t think bubbling under the hood is the phrase I mean. Does that make it sound like I’m talking about my wang? Because that is exactly what I’m talking about.

Ran into Peter Gallagher on my ride to work the other morning. We rode side by side along the beach for a mile or so, just shooting the shit. We agreed that while the OC may not have been the best artistic choice, it’s good to be part of the zeitgeist again (”especially for an actor of a certain age,” he winked). And then we reached the intersection where I turn towards work. We parted ways with a nod and a quick “see you around.”

Actually that story’s only partly true. I did see Peter Gallagher, but he was standing on the sidewalk in front of a cafe down the street from me. I saw him as I was riding by on my way to work. We didn’t speak, obviously, and even if we had it would just have been me yelling “Love you on the OCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCC!” as I zoomed by. He looked good though. All the usual celeb-sighting clichÃ�©s applied: shorter in person, better looking without all the makeup, high “it” factor, etc.

All things considered, I’d file the experience somewhere between standing-behind-Twiggy-while-waiting-in-the-ticket-line-at-the-movie-theater and eating-breakfast-a-couple-tables-down-from-Don-Cheadle-at-the-Omelette-Parlor, though definitely more towards the Don Cheadle end of the spectrum.