I’ve made so few posts here (sigh…maybe for the best… perhaps not?) that anyone giving a quick glance at the prior entries will see these annual items & know the story of them having been my #MostFaveBandEVAR for a dozen years now. Its odd to realize the differences between my life then & to now… the people & things lost somehow loom larger than what’s been gained, & the xx music has so much longing in it — something I know resonated deeply with me upon first listen & still works its magic.

Its been pretty quiet on the site here, as I’ve pulled back from the constant social media posting of years past to dwell instead on personal things, but I think (fingers crossed) that might change this year, as I’ve been re-focused on completing some of those long-simmering projects & conquering my deep, oh-so-deep sense of inertia. More on all of that later…

I moved to Hawaii in Oct’22. Its pretty great, but as a tiny island in the Pacific that’s far, far away from everything, its *ahem* isolated as far as live music goes. Not a decent concert for me from a favorite band in all the time since the move, which is quite a downgrade. I have, however, self-promised to fly over to the mainland when necessary, & by most accounts it seems that the xx are working on new tunes, surely with a tour coming soon after. Also, btw, Romy’s LP was a banger. Loved it.

Another year gone, but at least I heard music.

moar later, babies, xoxoxo ~ m

** Best watched under the influence, on a big screen, really loudly. (as always, obvs. Lol. )

I think it’s possible that The XX have held ‘favorite band’ status for me maybe longer (speaking in terms of consecutive years in the top spot) than any other band… & in a bit of goofiness a few years ago I tried to recognize that by tweeting & posting a bunch of links on the anniversary of the day I first heard their debut LP. Around that same time in 2012 I had started running (lost over 40lbs! w00t!) & during my very first half-marathon I srsly needed all the hype I could muster, so I pumped up the jams while lumbering around Eugene, OR. At the starting line, however, I made sure that as the mass of people raced out of the gate that I started with “Intro” blasting into my ears…

Now, 9 years later its admittedly silly to mark “xx day” on my calendar & to get all wistful & nostalgic of that time, but it seems like their songs are inextricably linked to how I felt then, who we were hanging with (all distant now, as everyone has moved on.), & the stark, lovely emotions that the band taps into. For me, at least… Maybe it was a passing fancy for some, but (to paraphrase ‘Our Song’, for the walls I hide behind, they just walk through…

Also, the band has been remarkably — consistently — great, & each release since that debut has been chock full of great songs. I’ve now seen each tour, & the live shows have been beautiful moments. They’ve got a few great covers of others’ songs, but maybe tops for me is this Beyonce tune:

Happy xx day, y’all.

xoxo, ~ m

#IfOnlyIdThoughtOfTheRightWords

Built an opera house for you in the deepest jungle
& I walked across its stage singing with my eyes closed

I’ve got a love for you I just can’t escape
All of my love for you cuts me like barbed wire

I was meant to love you & always keep you in my life
I was meant to love you, I knew I loved you at first sight

– “Opera House“

Shortest time between hearing a new band for the first time & then getting a vinyl copy of the LP? Maybe this is it.

Its like a wonderful mix of my wistful, yearning, younger self’s heavy rotation of Cowboy Junkies, Galaxie 500, & Mazzy Star, with a little bit of a slowed-down Pixies vibe.  Plus I’m a sucker for lyrical, pining songs of lost love.

Even though the entire Cigarettes After Sex (yea., don’t love that name…) collection of songs sound pretty much the same, each song is a little gem, like facets of larger whole…  Been on heavy rotation for a month & I haven’t tired of it yet.

Its maybe unfair to include “Intro”, since its an undeniably hooky & badass instrumental piece, shorter than any other on the list. But #1 it is.

And obvs this is an “at this moment” kind of list. The top 5 are pretty static, but the rest shift around based on mood. As for “Stars”… I’ve yet to be near a sound system that can make it ‘too loud’ for me. #TurnItUp

The xx, live in San Francisco. April 2017 (Matt waving from the front row…)

…& saw a small, light brown fox lope through the short grass until he blended into the cover & I lost sight of him…vanished as abruptly as he had appeared. And then we cars went along our way.

…So kiss me in the night
Dismantle my whole life
Trade private kisses in a public place
With a secret smile upon our face

Come kiss me in the night
Take tender liberties
I love you for the flaws
And the inconsistencies

And someone else will come
To make you cry and laugh
The world will stumble on
With me and my wounded heart

I miss you when I sleep
I miss you when I sing
A fool it was who said
That true love conquers everything…
~ (ballboy, “The Guide To The Short Wave Radio”

~ Matt

(“Yūgen (幽玄) is a Japanese word pertaining to a profound awareness of the universe. It evokes feelings that are inexplicably deep and too mysterious for words.” [more] )

The entire concept of translating human communication from linguistic concepts & human interpersonal quirks into maths & graphs & code *really* ticks some nerd boxes in my brain, & if we bumped into each other at a party right now I’d no doubt ramble on trying to explain why I find NLP (Natural Language Processing) & “word vectors“, for example, to be fascinating ways to consider the relationships between words, language, & in turn, our thoughts.

While foraging for context & more information (always moar!) I started skipping through the interwebs & landed on the DATA SKEPTIC podcast, & was taken with an episode called “The Ghost in the MP3“, which is our real topic today… how the sounds we hear can be converted to numbers & code, then translated back again depending on the situation.

That ep (from all the way back in April 2015) features an interview with Ryan Maguire, who created a project in which he rescued all of the data “lost” when the mp3 compression algorithm compu-magically reduces the size of a music file to make it more iPod-friendly. (Or Zune-friendly, if that’s how you roll.)

You can’t compete with vinyl, man…

[Short explanation for the non-technical: Bits of wavelength & frequency are removed when converting audio to the more ‘portable” mp3 format. It’s a lesser version of the sound vs the “lossless” files that have higher fidelity to the original recording, but hopefully in ways that your brain doesn’t notice. . ]

Since you’re likely listening to these on shoddy earbud headphones anyway…does it matter? That’s one of the topics Ryan address in the project, where he created a sort of isolated ghost file from only that excised audio data, so you hear exactly what you’ve been missing. There’s some nice background on what range of sounds we humans can hear, & how your senses (or lack thereof) affect your perceptions.

Follow that link about & give it a listen. And don’t be scared away by the math & programming jargon that pops up, you can get the idea without understanding any of it. ..

~ Matt

Linked: Ryan Maguire @ http://theghostinthemp3.com

Check out Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith on Bandcamp.

She shares some DNA with Björk (to my ears) but is still wonderfully unique. I spent today listening to  “Ears (2016)” & her newest, “The Kid“, & was filled with the urge to share all of the beeps & boops.