Alex Greiner//Dans, Afrikaans

Dutch in New Amsterdam, Local Music Friday.
Tell me...what is this Local Music Fridays?

It's kind of interesting that Alex Greiner's track is called "Dans, Afrikaans," because I went to see District 9 last night with A. and it's given me a lot of cause to think about South Africa and those Dutch. First you're watching an intensely graphic and disturbing conceit about apartheid in the form of a major Hollywood blockbuster, and the next thing you know you're listening to an experimentally sprawling ballad named after the form of Dutch spoken in the setting of the movie. Life's so weird, huh?

I don't know Alex super well, but he came to a 50/50 show a while back and introduced himself. He's not hard to remember, because he has quite a mustache (see below). When he expressed interest in a show, I checked out his myspace and enjoyed his music, featuring innovative vocals and a lot of thoughtful instrumentation. I think you will too.



Dans, Afrikaans.mp3

Alex plays The 50/50 tomorrow night.

CocoRosie//Terrible Angels

I’ll be perfectly candid about this: I think CocoRosie is a kind of a sham. Most of the time, it just seems like they got really high, covered their faces in glitter and pushed some buttons on a those electronic toys that make animal sounds while strumming acoustic guitar and whispering inane nonsense about Santa Claus and other miscellany. Caveat: I’m down for the freak folk thing in fits and spurts, which probably has something to do with why I feel this way.

Anyway, all trash talk aside, I really do like the lofi weirdness and the bizarre lyrics of this song. It also sounds different in a way in which I can find some value.

A the height of its popularity (circa 2005) amongst a certain group of friends, it would come on a lot at low key hang out sessions.
Ryan always used to say, “IS every angel terrible? DO I welcome them?”
It does make you wonder…



Terrible Angels.mp3

They got angelic tendencies,
Like some boys tend to act like queens.

Patrick Elkins//Oh Rad Art House, What a Rad Art House Thou Art

Friday Friday Friday means it's
[Local! Music! Friday!]
Tell me...what is this Local Music Fridays?

Patrick Elkins: how do I start? I believe I met the man in the early days of Dumb and Ugly Club. Michael and I played a show in his attic. He was really awesome and very supportive. We got to play some other shows with him in Ypsi at the Elbow Room, which is where we scored one of his albums. So. Weird. So. Cool . From there, Pat just became a staple in the A2/Ypsi scene. I’d see him at Shaman Drum, he started an a-capella band with Aleise Barnett, he put on puppet shows at the dreamland and he played songs about suicide muffins. There is no one greater.

I wanted to post this song, a live recording of an ode to a house I once lived in, because it really gets back to a certain period of time in Ann Arbor. House shows and Co.op shows were ruling the school (Totally Awesome House, Rad Art, Lester and Black Elk were all putting on shows) and it was fun to be right in the middle of all that.

Rad Art house was started by the UofM Radical Art group (hilariously, their manifesto is still online here). While there was some movement in the house, year to year, a core group of kids stuck around for continuity’s sake, while a core amount of their furniture built up to massive proportions in the house’s dank mold-filled basement. I lived there for a year, with my boyfriend (and my recent ex-girlfriend, and my recent ex-girlfriend’s dog—AWKWARD) and rotating cast of seven other of our closest (or not closest) friends. For part of my tenure, two of my best friends (dating at the time) lived in the house. One of them (will go unnamed) attempted (with some success) to secretly grow magic mushrooms in our bathroom. Yes, it was that kind of house.

I believe that this recording is from Pat performing at the other best A2 houseshow venue, Totally Awesome House (which we sometimes called the Totally Awkward House, for the Awkward drunken conversations that could sometimes occur there). I believe I was at this show. I believe you can hear Aleise and Jason Voss singing in the crowd! In fact, of these last two tidbits, I am certain.



Oh Rad Art House, What a Rad Art House Thou Art.mp3

More about Patrick here.

There’s a lot of people in this world,
But not all of them are smart.
And here’s a lot of houses in the world,
But only one of them is The Rad Art.

Devendra Banhart//Michigan State

Hey all you OSS readers, a little business before we start the week:

1. Ed Park, author of the book Personal Days and of Believer fame, gave us a shout out in his blog. Very cool. Thanks, Ed!
2. I’m going to be taking a few days off at the end of this week/beginning of next to attend a wedding and see some friends in the glorious state of Michigan. That said, no need to worry, as I will still be delivering the usual songs-to-days ratio for the week.

With all this in mind, I’m going to get a little theme-y in honor of that great mitten-shaped water winter wonderland that I used to call home. That’s right, friends: it’s Michigan Week. Lucky for you, this means you get a week packed with upper Midwestern creative inspiration combined with fun facts about that ever-pleasant peninsula! Let the games begin!

What could be a better track to kick it off with than Michigan State by Devendra Banhart?

I remember when I first heard this song. I had just moved in with Ali at Debs Co.op (named after labor leader Eugene V. Debs, of course) on East University in Ann Arbor. This was our first off-campus summer living situation—a big red house with 22 other college-age individuals and graffiti all over the walls left over from a previous tenant’s acid trip. Still, I was living with my best friend, my rent was cheap (under 400 dollar/month!), my extremely part time job covered all expenses+, my girlfriend’s house was a quick bike ride away and all my friends were “just hangin’ out” drinking cheap beer on porches all over town. Oh, the beauty of the simple Midwestern summer…

Ali and I made a joint mix tape that summer, mostly off of our combined record collection. This song made it on for a few reasons: 1. It’s awesome. 2. We were listening to it multiple times every day because this weird poem-to-music-on-a-broken-four-track jam spoke to our daily existence—lazy partying in the summer heat, pretty trips to pickerel lake and a whole lotta Michigan, Michigan State.



Michigan State.mp3

I don’t know much of what freak folk icon Devendra Banhart is up to these days, besides this crazy CELEBRITY GOSSIP!



Michigan Fun Fact #1:
In Michigan, people call liquor stores party stores. Use in a sentence: "I'm crusin' by the party store to pick up a few kegs for tonight's blow out." Seriously, Michigan, I love you, but WTF is up with that?


Oh, Michigan, Michigan State,
How I'd love to live in you.