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Sasquatch! Music Festival :: Non-Sasquatch Discussion :: The Hall of Fame! :: A Record a Day.
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AuthorTopic: A Record a Day. (Read 11,393 times)
XhornedXgrammaX
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Re: A Record a Day.
« Reply #330 on Mar 29, 2011, 4:31pm »		[Quote]

Mar 29, 2011, 4:26pm, DREW OF THE RUSHES wrote:
So, how's the album?


Irrelevant to the sentiments in that post. Personally I love it; there's a lot there and I'm looking forward to feeling it out.

That post was born in the 'New albums to look forward to' thread, but it got long so I moved it here. You don't have to consider it canon R.A.D. if you don't want to; it's more just personal thoughts on music geekery centered around a particular record, like the piece I wrote about that Nice album, or the Golden Shoulders one.
« Last Edit: Mar 29, 2011, 4:31pm by XhornedXgrammaX »Link to Post - Back to Top  IP: Logged

Dec 8, 2011, 9:44pm, knowidyuh wrote:
AS A GENERAL RULE OF THUMB, DO WHAT HG SAYS.


Nov 29, 2012, 7:57pm, chud wrote:
I NEED YOU TO COME SO THAT YOU CAN TELL HORNED GRAMMA THAT I'M A POST WHALE PINOCCHIO.
DREW OF THE RUSHES
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Re: A Record a Day.
« Reply #331 on Mar 29, 2011, 4:43pm »		[Quote]
Ha, I really liked it, I was just poking fun.
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Apr 26, 2013, 9:25pm, weenie wrote:
"I like my bags sizeable." -someone, not me probably.
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Re: A Record a Day.
« Reply #332 on Mar 29, 2011, 5:41pm »		[Quote]
http://www.theuniversalsigh.com/photos?p...._fe69bc24c4.jpg

Me at the Universal Sigh location. Swear I'm not as fat as I look in that picture; I'm wearing like three sweaters. Unusually cold for late March.
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Dec 8, 2011, 9:44pm, knowidyuh wrote:
AS A GENERAL RULE OF THUMB, DO WHAT HG SAYS.


Nov 29, 2012, 7:57pm, chud wrote:
I NEED YOU TO COME SO THAT YOU CAN TELL HORNED GRAMMA THAT I'M A POST WHALE PINOCCHIO.
J. Walter Weatherman
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Re: A Record a Day.
« Reply #333 on Mar 29, 2011, 5:45pm »		[Quote]
He's really not.
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May 19, 2012, 7:49pm, onelove420 wrote:
Right on thanks Dr. Garbanzo! My high ass would be trying to Dr. Garbanzoure that shit out all night
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Re: A Record a Day.
« Reply #334 on Mar 29, 2011, 6:15pm »		[Quote]
Thanks, dubz. Reals, when I saw that I was like HO DAMN. Now The Radioheads are going to think I'm fat.
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Dec 8, 2011, 9:44pm, knowidyuh wrote:
AS A GENERAL RULE OF THUMB, DO WHAT HG SAYS.


Nov 29, 2012, 7:57pm, chud wrote:
I NEED YOU TO COME SO THAT YOU CAN TELL HORNED GRAMMA THAT I'M A POST WHALE PINOCCHIO.
J. Walter Weatherman
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Re: A Record a Day.
« Reply #335 on Mar 29, 2011, 6:16pm »		[Quote]
Nice name change. Think I might have to jump on this bannedwagon.
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May 19, 2012, 7:49pm, onelove420 wrote:
Right on thanks Dr. Garbanzo! My high ass would be trying to Dr. Garbanzoure that shit out all night
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Re: A Record a Day.
« Reply #336 on Mar 29, 2011, 6:59pm »		[Quote]

Mar 29, 2011, 6:15pm, XhornedXgrammaX wrote:
Now The Radioheads are going to think I'm fat.


That was funny!
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Jan 27, 2013, 1:59pm, R. Kelly wrote:
"Tell me what's wrong dawg what the hell you damnin' 'bout? I'm your homie so just say what's on your mind."
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Re: A Record a Day.
« Reply #337 on Mar 29, 2011, 7:49pm »		[Quote]
Are you gonna cry all day, crybaby?
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Apr 13, 2013, 1:08am, weenie wrote:
But seriously...those flowers are seriously beautiful and i will curb stomp you if fuck them up.

But really.

Don't fuck up my azaleas.
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Re: A Record a Day.
« Reply #338 on Mar 29, 2011, 7:49pm »		[Quote]
This kid is so totally not cool.
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May 19, 2012, 7:49pm, onelove420 wrote:
Right on thanks Dr. Garbanzo! My high ass would be trying to Dr. Garbanzoure that shit out all night
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Re: A Record a Day.
« Reply #339 on Mar 30, 2011, 1:51pm »		[Quote]
Great post H3G. Loved it when you mentioned that waiting for the newspaper was akin to waiting for an album on the day it came out. It has been many years since I had the opportunity to sttand in the cold waiting to be one of the first to hold the newest album in hand! I honestly think the last time I did that was when Pearl Jam released Vitalogy on vinyl 3 weeks before the CD. I miss those days, so thanks for nostalgia trip.
« Last Edit: Mar 30, 2011, 1:52pm by blacksmile »Link to Post - Back to Top  IP: Logged
I wouldn't be surprised if you are picturing me peeling a carrot with a staple gun.
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Re: A Record a Day.
« Reply #340 on Mar 30, 2011, 1:55pm »		[Quote]
The last time I waited in front of a record store on the day an album was released was 9/11/01. TMBG's Mink Car and Ben Folds' Rockin' the Suburbs came out on that day, and by 10:00am I literally couldn't think of anything more important that I should have been doing.

Good times.
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Dec 8, 2011, 9:44pm, knowidyuh wrote:
AS A GENERAL RULE OF THUMB, DO WHAT HG SAYS.


Nov 29, 2012, 7:57pm, chud wrote:
I NEED YOU TO COME SO THAT YOU CAN TELL HORNED GRAMMA THAT I'M A POST WHALE PINOCCHIO.
RUST NEVER SLEEPS
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Re: A Record a Day.
« Reply #341 on Mar 30, 2011, 6:11pm »		[Quote]

Mar 29, 2011, 5:41pm, XhornedXgrammaX wrote:
http://www.theuniversalsigh.com/photos?page=1&photo=5177%2F5572286376_fe69bc24c4.jpg

Me at the Universal Sigh location. Swear I'm not as fat as I look in that picture; I'm wearing like three sweaters. Unusually cold for late March.


Funny, the first thing I noticed was that you had like 5 layers of shirt on, I'm always overheated (even when it's freezing out) so it looked like a nightmare to me.

...Great story by the way.
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Re: A Record a Day.
« Reply #342 on Apr 28, 2011, 4:00pm »		[Quote]
4/28/11

Hip Tanaka - The Sky is Smaller Than the Sea

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First off, I'll buy a beer at Sasquatch for anyone here who has heard this record before. I'd be that impressed. I'd be eleven dollars worth of impressed.

I know there are a lot of hardcore video game nerds here, so it is possible that some of you will recognize the name Hip Tanaka. For decades, Hirokazu 'Hip' Tanaka has been a composer for the Nintendo company, soundtracking such games as Kid Icarus, Dr. Mario, Tetris and Metroid. He is arguably the finest and most respected 8-bit or 'chipchune' composer in the world. To clear up any confusion, Hirokazu Tanaka is in no way connected to the band called Hip Tanaka aside from the appropriation of his name.

Hip Tanaka is a little-to-zero known local band from Allston, MA. They released three albums between 2000 and 2003 and then disappeared for the rest of the decade. Their albums have remained in print via Portland's own CDBaby.com, which is where I initially purchased a copy of The Sky is Smaller Than the Sea on a whim. (For those of you who have never perused CDBaby.com, it is a fantastic site where artists are able to self-release albums; it is equipped with an incredible 'Sounds Like...' search function which will create a list of artists with music available on the site who sound like or have been influenced by more familiar artists you already enjoy.) In spite of the moderate success of a couple of their singles on college radio stations, Hip Tanaka has never had any mainstream recognition whatsoever and following the release of their third album, 2003's Splinter, they vanished, leaving behind absolutely no trace of their existence to be found on the internet. Googling 'Hip Tanaka' is useless, for reasons I have explained.

As a fan, this disappearance was concerning to me for more than just the obvious disappointment over a lack of any further Hip Tanaka releases. The legend goes that, when pianist/songwriter Alex Zavracky met guitarist/songwriter Brendan Quigley, Zavracky had been told that he had sixteen months to live. The chaotic melodicism of Hip Tanaka's first two albums, Le Jihad and The Sky is Smaller Than the Sea, sound very much like it was born of two new but dear friends trying to get all of their wonderful ideas out before the timer stopped for one of them.

So suddenly the music stopped. What happened? I was convinced Zavracky had finally passed away, and although that was distressing it wasn't surprising, based on the information we had. More on that in a minute.

The Sky is Smaller Than the Sea is a concept album about Charles Lindbergh. Those who know their history will remember that Charles Lindbergh achieved massive fame in 1927 for being the first man to complete a solo, non-stop manned trans-Atlantic flight. He then went on to ferociously campaign for the advancement of commercial aviation before his infant son Charles Jr. was kidnapped and murdered in March of 1932. Following this tragedy, Lindbergh and his wife fled the country to Europe, where they remained until World War II hit fever pitch after the bombing of Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941.

As unusual as it seems for a topic to base a straight-faced concept album on, there is no shortage of interesting material in the story of Charles Lindbergh and it works incredibly well. It is less similar to the ponderous odes to Anne Frank which Jeff Mangum wrote for In the Aeroplane Over the Sea and more akin to They Might Be Giants' curiosity for historical Dr. Garbanzoures displayed in songs such as 'Meet James Ensor', 'James K. Polk' and 'She Thinks She's Edith Head'.

Soaring anthems loaded with the imagery and excitement of man's new-found power of flight make up most of the first part of the album, particularly the title track, which encapsulates the combination of awe and terror Lindbergh must have felt once he reached the halfway point of his famous journey. "I Don't Know What You Want Me to Say" addresses the tragedy of the loss of his son, and the introspective walking bass line underlies what sounds like a pitch-perfect representation of the inescapable panic two parents must face together and individually when they realize that the very worst has happened.

War explodes in the breathtaking 'Walpurgisnacht', one of the lyrical highlights of the album:

Trapped in his castle
And they're coming down on Slim
They were as scared of the monsters
As the monsters were of him...

...So please, won't you Dr. Garbanzoht with me
This crushing sense of doom?
With all the Dr. Garbanzoures in the shadows
At the edges of the room?

'I Don't Know What You Want Me to Say' and 'Walpurgisnacht' momentarily transform Lindbergh from a tragic historical anecdote into a person we can start to recognize from our own experience: a person who realizes that no matter how far or fast you fly, no safe place remains a safe place indefinitely.

There are vestiges of early Weezer in the production style and an obvious love of Meat Puppets and TMBG in the songwriting of both Zavracky and Quigley. There are so many brilliant melodic flourishes on this record that as one song morphs into the next you begin to feel dizzy, like you were on a carnival ride which is causing you legitimate concern for your safety. As World War II flashes past your eyes, the sense of time fast-forwards to the moment in history that Lindbergh unknowingly paved a segment of the path for as man lands on the moon. Have we outrun tragedy and its endless pursuit? Or are we still plagued by 'the Dr. Garbanzoures in the shadows at the edges of the room'?

I'm sure Alex Zavracky wondered too. I know I did, for eight years following the release of The Sky is Smaller Than the Sea's follow-up Splinter. Was he gone? Died in obscurity? In spite of the endlessly frustrating attempts to find any mention of Hip Tanaka's continued existence on the internet, I kept looking. Last Thursday, finally, there was something to find. After a long hiatus, all of the original members of Hip Tanaka reunited for a show at a club in Allston called Great Scott on Saturday, April 23rd, 2011. That was it, the mystery was solved, and although no mention has been made of new music being recorded it is satisfying to me to know that those guys are still out there singing these songs.

This record is an absolute delight, and for the many fans of early 00's power pop that I know inhabit this board I do not doubt that there are new fans among you. I have good news for those folks, because right now you can download The Sky is Smaller Than the Sea legitimately and for free from Hip Tanaka's freshly minted website at http://hiptanaka.tumblr.com/. I encourage everyone to do so, it's a wonderful record that hasn't lost any of its luster in the ten years it has been in heavy rotation for your dear old Horned Gramma. I suggest buckling yourself in for the whole ride, but to get a sense of the greatness of their sound the songs I mentioned specifically in this article are great starting points. 'The Sky is Smaller Than the Sea', 'I Don't Know What You Want Me To Say' and 'Walpurgisnacht'.

Trust me on this one, I think you'll be glad you did. That address again:

http://hiptanaka.tumblr.com/

Enjoy.
« Last Edit: Apr 28, 2011, 5:10pm by XhornedXgrammaX »Link to Post - Back to Top  IP: Logged

Dec 8, 2011, 9:44pm, knowidyuh wrote:
AS A GENERAL RULE OF THUMB, DO WHAT HG SAYS.


Nov 29, 2012, 7:57pm, chud wrote:
I NEED YOU TO COME SO THAT YOU CAN TELL HORNED GRAMMA THAT I'M A POST WHALE PINOCCHIO.
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Re: A Record a Day.
« Reply #343 on Apr 28, 2011, 4:21pm »		[Quote]
Physical copies and song samples of this and HT's other two albums can be found here. Only ten bucks!

http://www.cdbaby.com/Artist/HipTanaka
« Last Edit: Apr 28, 2011, 4:22pm by XhornedXgrammaX »Link to Post - Back to Top  IP: Logged

Dec 8, 2011, 9:44pm, knowidyuh wrote:
AS A GENERAL RULE OF THUMB, DO WHAT HG SAYS.


Nov 29, 2012, 7:57pm, chud wrote:
I NEED YOU TO COME SO THAT YOU CAN TELL HORNED GRAMMA THAT I'M A POST WHALE PINOCCHIO.
StormyPinkness
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Re: A Record a Day.
« Reply #344 on Apr 28, 2011, 4:30pm »		[Quote]
I can't stress enough how wonderful 'The Sky is Smaller Than the Sea' is, anyone who can should really give it a listen through.
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Apr 13, 2013, 1:08am, weenie wrote:
But seriously...those flowers are seriously beautiful and i will curb stomp you if fuck them up.

But really.

Don't fuck up my azaleas.
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