“Roundabout” by Yes which clocks in at 8:32.
We few, are we not drawn onward to new era? On a clover, if alive, erupts a vast, pure evil, a fire volcano. Was it Eliot’s toilet I saw? Was it a car or a cat I saw? Was it a rat I saw? Was it a bar or a bat I saw? Do nine men interpret?
“Nine men,” I nod.
“Name now one man!”
“Neil? An alien… UFO tofu.”
“Madam, I’m Adam: no lemons, no melon.”
“Rise, sir lapdog. Revolt! Lover… God… pal… rise, sir.”
“Naomi,” I moan. “I madam, I made radio! So I dared. Am I mad? Am I? Reviled did I live,” said I, as evil I did deliver… “go hang a salami, I’m a lasagna hog.”
Too bad, I hid a boot. Wontons? Not now.
“Wontons… not now?! Too bad, I hid a boot??”
Go hang a salami, I’m a lasagna hog!
“Reviled did I live,” said I, as evil I did deliver. “I madam, I made radio. So I dared. Am I mad? Am I?!”
“Naomi,” I moan. “Rise, sir lapdog. Revolt!” (Lover, God, pal…) “Rise, sir!” (No lemons, no melon.)
“Madam, I’m Adam.” (UFO tofu? Neil? An alien?)
“Name now one man! Do nine men interpret?”
“Nine men,” I nod.
Was it a bar or a bat I saw? Was it a rat I saw? Was it a car or a cat I saw? Was it Eliot’s toilet I saw? On a clover, if alive, erupts a vast, pure evil: a fire volcano. Are we not drawn onward to new era?
We few…
Buy The Ultimate Yes - 35th Anniversary Collection HERE.
*images from HERE; palindromes from HERE.
EAR FARM’s 8+ is a weekly feature that showcases songs longer than 8 minutes. Click HERE to see the songs recently featured in EF’s 8+.
Traditional thought holds Black Friday – that wretchedly busy shopping day following Thanksgiving – as the de facto kickoff to the holiday shopping season. That’s all fine and well, but it doesn’t mean you can’t get a jump on your gift lists before then. And lest you think the stagnant economy gives you license to unload shoddy gifts on your beloved, the lifestyle police at Consumer Reports have just released their annual “Top 100 Products” to re-emphasize that nothing conveys affection like remortgaging your home for a nice present.
We took a look at many of the top electronics and home and personal accessories on the list and have decided - based on those having busy years in 2008 - which musicians and bands we feel would be most deserving of such niceties. Naughty or nice, coal or cookies, tis’ almost the season… Read more…
Listen: “You Will Make It” by Jem from Down to Earth
View: Image search results for You Will Make It - above image is from the 3rd page of results (and was originally from HERE).
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EAR FARM’s Hit-or-miss is a weekly feature (every Tuesday) wherein the EF music library is put on shuffle, the song that plays is then searched (using the song title) on Google images and a resulting photo (plus an MP3 of the song) is posted. You can see all of EAR FARM’s Hit-or-miss posts thus far right HERE.
It’s been brought to our attention that at times the Countdown selections here at EF perhaps veer a bit too much towards the….unconventional? Arbitrary? Irreverent? Well so be it, that’s just how we roll, and you know what? There are a hell of a lot of other lists gumming up the internet that are just as arbitrary as our attempts at quantifying misguided marketing attempts at co-opting hip-hop culture, using Palintological reasoning to our own advantage, and making some sense of Aerosmith’s eternal relevance.
We consider these other irreverent lists as kindred spirits to our own weekly Countdowns, and to do them proper EF justice we figured we’d do a roundup of the most arbitrary ones from the past month. Yes that’s right, it’s a countdown of a countdown, so let your postmodern freak fly as we bring you our top 8 arbitrary music countdown lists found online (because 10 is too logical and you know, 8 is a special number for us). Look out, it’s about to get meta up in here. Read more…
There’s really nothing like a stand-alone solid beat to get a song off on the right foot. It’s a clean slap across the face to get your attention. Here I am, I am drums! As a deliberate affront to building dynamics and creating a mood, drum intros favor hitting you over the head with what you know you really want. It’s like having your dessert before your veggies, and we’re all in favor of that….so much so that we’ve created a mix with songs that all start with an isolated call to arms in the form of cymbal-bashing, skin-pounding, floor-tom-pummeling, snare-snapping goodness (with a few obvious omissions like “Heavy Metal Drummer”). Yes, this is only the tip of the iceberg; we probably could have come up with an entire mix of songs using the same intro as the first three tunes, so consider this a down payment on future drum goodness, and enjoy. Read more…
“Sour Smoke” by Comets On Fire which clocks in at 8:47.
Or, an alternate history of the widespread phenomenon known as “guitar face” (based on pure speculation and gross oversimplification).
We all know it….that contorted exaggeration of facial features suggesting anguish, pain, catharsis, existential grief, or - alternately - such devilish bliss some might mistake it for a sign of carnal satisfaction (link pretty much NSFW).
Guitar Face. And isn’t such ambiguity of meaning its entire purpose? The squinted eyes and pursed lips, sweaty recoiling and faux-obliviousness of it all makes us wonder whether it’s a pose struck in pain, pleasure or some twisted combo of the two. Read more…
Bumper music is “a term used in the radio broadcasting industry to refer to short clips of music Read more…
Listen: “I Want You” by Bob Dylan from Blonde on Blonde
View: Image search results for I Want You - above image is from the 1st page of results (and was originally from HERE).
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EAR FARM’s Hit-or-miss is a weekly feature (every Tuesday) wherein the EF music library is put on shuffle, the song that plays is then searched (using the song title) on Google images and a resulting photo (plus an MP3 of the song) is posted. You can see all of EAR FARM’s Hit-or-miss posts thus far right HERE.
When we first heard that The Beatles, MTV Games, and Harmonix are officially teaming up to create an all-new videogame based on the music of the Beatles, well Read more…
In honor of Halloween, EAR FARM has a mix for you that includes 18 of the creepiest songs from classic horror movies including Halloween, The Omen, Rosemary’s Baby, The Exorcist, and MORE. Listen to this alone… we DARE you!
Read more…
“A Place for Dead Roads” by Other Passengers which clocks in at 8:41.
Tomorrow is Halloween. The time for spooks and ghouls and ghastly tales of the macabre and tricks and treats. In the spirit of the holiday I’d like to share a story with you. It’s my story, it is an entirely true story. In fact, the events that occurred are more accurately retold in this particular story than in many of the other true life tales I’ve told in the 8+ series. This is a true, honest, ghost story. As for the song, well, nothing goes better with a ghost story on Halloween than a bit of the old Other Passengers. The title of the song, as you will see, is a somewhat of an intentional coincidence. Read more…
Just in time for a nice holiday push, America’s favorite torchbearers of Liberace schmaltz – The Killers – return next month with the brand new studio album Day & Age. I say “brand new” somewhat loosely, however, and not because of all the chatter about how it’s a return to Hot Fuss’s synth-heavy hooks or any of that; nah, I’ll just keep insulating myself from critical interpretation of the Killers’ canon if it’s all the same to you.
You see, even without any prior research into readymade topics like the band’s “mission statement”, “evolution”, or “intent” on this album – all of which I’m sure will be peddled for journalist fodder on imminent magazine covers and such – I can tell you right now that there’s most likely not a hell of a lot about Day & Age that will be new or interesting.
The whole affair just has a worn feel to it, something that’s awfully familiar, and it’s not just in the Eurythmics-aping video for the first single “Human”, which finds Flowers and company in the desert wearing some sort of extinct bird’s plumage and in possession of a few Blue Man Group stage props (watch it HERE).
The real familiarity comes with the album’s tracklisting, a spread of 10 names so bland and hackneyed that you can’t help but feel they’ve already been used many times as song titles or derived from previous sources: Read more…
Listen: “Golden Retriever” by Super Furry Animals from Phantom Power
View: Image search results for Golden Retriever - above image is from the 1st page of results (and was originally from HERE).
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EAR FARM’s Hit-or-miss is a weekly feature (every Tuesday) wherein the EF music library is put on shuffle, the song that plays is then searched (using the song title) on Google images and a resulting photo (plus an MP3 of the song) is posted. You can see all of EAR FARM’s Hit-or-miss posts thus far right HERE.
Of the many enjoyable ancillary activities during CMJ, can anything even touch the time-honored pleasure of people watching?
Uh, yeah, we think so, and we’ve got the transcripts to prove it. You see, people not only look funny, but they say funny things. And whether that entails laughing with them, or, in other cases, laughing AT them, overhearing conversational snippets, impromptu onstage rants, and drunken ramblings has kind of become its own worthwhile pursuit for us during CMJ.
To commemorate an especially vibrant week of pull quotes, we’ve assembled a list of our favorites (in no particular order) but decided to give it a bit of a twist. Below, you’ll find things we overheard last week; 11 of them are absolutely, legitimately true, but four are definitely, patently fabricated. Can you guess which ones we heard and which are just figments of our sleep-deprived minds? The answer key is at the bottom…. Read more…
Editor’s Note: We’re suspending our usual daily editorial schedule to keep this article readily accessible for you throughout CMJ week. Check back often to EF for continued CMJ show coverage.
And here….we….go! CMJ: Confidently Masochistic Jokers, each and every one of us who feels we can traverse the mind-boggling breadth of shows (click here for visuals) about to go down over the next week. Perhaps you’ve gone on the CMJ site and made your own itinerary, not a bad move, but that doesn’t take into consideration all of the day shows and unofficial goodness that’s just bursting at the seams. Don’t panic though, EAR FARM is here to instill some order into the next week of your lives. CMJ - like all good forays into combat and mindless benders - requires tactical planning, stoic commitment, and flawless execution. Or at least an idea of what the hell is going on.
Below we’ve mapped out every day for you, pretty much hour by hour, with our personal picks and suggestions along with some MP3s scattered throughout. We tried to pretty much list bands only once (with a few exceptions, such as in our Day Party lineup) so if you’re freaked out that this schedule prohibits you from seeing the Vivian Girls or Women, chill out, you’ve got about 238 other opportunities not listed here. And please, feedback is welcome; what did we miss here? Who are you most excited to see this week? Take a deep breath, it all starts here….. Read more…
