Re-arrange Stars Using Sunlight from Our Smiles

One of my biggest weaknesses is women who make great music. As such, I've lately been listening to a lot of lovely ladies; everything from some of my local favorites like Sherree Chamberlain and Samantha Crain to big names like Björk and Neko Case. I need not delve into the sordid details of my musical infatuations. Suffice it to say that the existence of such artists sustains the hopeless romantic in me which longs to find one of the opposite sex who puts music in as important a place in her life as I. And has good taste for that matter.


Enter Asobi Seksu. No, the singer's name is not Asobi just as Ian Anderson and Darius Rucker aren't the eponymous members of Jethro Tull and Hootie and the Blowfish respectively. Get this right and we can still be friends. Her name is name is Yuki Chikudate and she is rocking my small world as I write this. Their name translates colloquially from Japanese as "Casual Sex," though I think they sound more like a "sexplosion." They're from New York and fit very nicely into that "Dream Pop" mold I talked about in my post about Longwave. Their most recent release is called "Rewolf" and it consists of acoustish versions of songs on their last three albums.


Asobi Seksu - Breathe Into Glass (Acoustic at Olympic Studios)

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Now, this probably won't give you the best idea of what they sound like on the reg, but I've been listening to this one a lot lately. Most of their songs have a bit more of a kick to them i.e. plugged in with layers of reverb and delay. If one were to describe their sound as the aforementioned "sexplosion," this record would be more akin to being roused from sleep next to that hypothetical significant other on a cold winter morning by the sunlight reflecting off of freshly fallen snow and onto your not-quite-ready-to-open eyelids.


Asobi Seksu - New Years (Acoustic at Olympic Studios)

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Oh, and did I mention that Yuki has one of the most soothing voices I've heard in recent years? Add to that the fact that she sings in both English and fluent Japanese and that the music is gorgeous/lush/amazing, and you have a guaranteed winning combination as far as I'm concerned. They just went back into the studio to start work on their next album and I am sooooo ready for it. If you want to get into their stuff in a way other than this not-quite-acoustic record, I would recommend picking up "Citrus." I would post a track from that record, but my files for it seem to be corrupted and I don't feel like ripping it right now. Tough cookies.

Sirens come up to greet me.

If you know me in real life (or IRL for my nerd pals) and I have not made you listen to Longwave before, I have failed you as a friend... until now.


Longwave - State of Mind

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My love affair with this band started as so many great things do, which is to say completely unexpectedly.  Apparently, in the last days of OKC's famous Rainbow Records, I was one of the only frequent customers because I don't see how this possibly could have happened otherwise.  I remember going in between classes at OCU right down the street to browse frequently, often walking out with at least some small item of interest.  On one such occasion, the guy who ran the place (his name escapes me) asked me out of the blue, "Hey, do you like The Donnas at all?"  I of course replied, "Yeah, they're not bad."  He then tells me that he has two free promotional tickets to their show at Cain's Ballroom in Tulsa that week.  "You can have 'em if you want.  I'm not really into that stuff."  I of course accepted and immediately got on the phone to find someone who might want to go.  Reliable as ever, my friend Scott (who I will probably try to convince to write for this blog at some point) said he would go.  Sweet deal!  Last minute road trip to Tulsa just because the concert was free!


Longwave - Tidal Wave

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So the day of the concert arrives and we show up with our friend Alex in tow who was attending university in Tulsa at the time.  This was my first of what would be many concerts at Cain's Ballroom and I was immediately taken with the place.  The wood floor, which has since been replaced, felt like it could cave at any minute and there were pictures of all sorts of country legends on the walls; the kind of country legends Hank III is enamored with.  The lights dimmed (like they do) and out stepped this group fronted by a slightly awkward looking skinny dude with the curliest blonde hair I'd ever seen.  They proceeded to erupt into the brightest most glorious sounds I'd heard at that point in my life, which I later found out was fittingly referred to as "Dream Pop."  Chimey guitar melodies laden with delay, reverb and just the right amount of crunchy tube distortion, with hazy pop melodies laid over the top.  Who WERE these guys?!


Longwave - Underneath You Know the Names

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After they finished their criminally short set, I snapped out of my euphoric delirium, hot-footed it straight to the merch table and purchased a copy of their latest release at the time, the "Day Sleeper" EP.  I about wore it out for a week straight.  (If you're wondering what happened to the rest of the concert at this point, Ok Go was surprisingly not bad and 3/4 of the Donnas were pretty hot.)  A short time after, they released their second full album "The Strangest Things," which brought them REALLY close to dethroning Radiohead as my favorite band of all time.  Come to think of it, I should probably buy another copy of that record before I can't find it anymore.  My copy is looking a bit worse for wear...


Longwave - Sirens in the Deep Sea

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For those of you who haven't listened to the tracks littered throughout this post but have seen fit to read this rambling nonsense through to the end, consider picking up "The Strangest Things" and their latest record "Secrets Are Sinister."  Those are far and away their most solid albums, but they've yet to release something that isn't good.  Then again, you're talking to a guy who has obsessively tracked down physical copies on vinyl and CD of nearly all of this group's recorded output.  If you're the kind who doesn't like paying for music, the kind folks over at Daytrotter recorded a live session with them which you can download for free.


Longwave - Below Bellow

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I promise that's it for now.