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Tuesday, 08 December 2009

  • the 10 sec. listening "do i like it or not" test

       

    here is another song from my upcoming mix. 

    lately mai kao and i have been doing our thing at home with the music on, then all the sudden we look at each other and declare that the song currently playing is awesome. 

    Animal Collective:  a band you should really be listening to.   it's another one of those songs that you have to wait for to pay off.  lately it seems thats the kind of music i've been into.  maybe its because i have the time to listen to music that is slow to develop these days.  maybe its because of my city life (i remember isiah saying once that one of his favorite listens was Sigur Ros while walking in the city and seeing people go by), subways, buses, lots of people, being in a crowd, seeing people go by, taking 30 minutes by bus/train/bike or walk to get anywhere, headphones everywhere, trying to carve out a bit of Shanghai space for yourself.  city life.   regardless, i've been able to find songs that would otherwise never have passed my normal 10 second listen test.

    how many of you do this test?  if it doesnt sound appealing within 10 seconds do you normally skip?  i think we all suffer from this in a way.  has there been a time where you've been listening to an album but always skip that one song b/c it didnt sound awesome right off the bat?  and then one day you decide to listen through that song only to find that it had an awesome chorus or whatever?  yeah, it happens to me all the time. 

    i'm not saying its a bad thing to use the 10sec test.  you need some sort of sorting ear or else you'd be force feeding yourself tons of garbage (i tried to force feed myself Pete Yorn's 2nd album only to find it was pretty sucky aside from a few songs, i feel sorry for those who stayed loyal to him post 2nd album!)

    bands like Sigur Ros, Animal Collective, Bibio and Cymbals Eat Guitars help me to push past this barrier.  if you suffer from this disorder as well, i suggest you give some of these bands a try, you may find a secret treasure hidden somewhere beyond the first 10 seconds.

    the end. oh and here is another current fave: Bibio

    josh out.

Monday, 07 December 2009

  • For Josh Xiong style music lovers only

     i've been listening to a lot of new music lately and if you havent been up keeping up, you've been missing out on some really good stuff.  i'm gonna post my mix on my site for you all to hear as soon as i figure out how to do it.  not gonna reveal who i'm listening until the mix is released.

    here is a sneak preview.  its from a band called Cymbals Eat Guitars (yeah i know, terrible name) the song is titled "Indiana".  one of my personal favorites of late.  sounds a lot like pavement and built to spill mashed up into one.  it opens up with noisy guitars etc that would instantly turn off many people.  but to the patient, this song pays off big time with an awesome melody and crazy good instrumentalization.  easily one of the most exciting bands to come out in years.

     

    Hope you like it.

    josh out.

Sunday, 06 December 2009

  • my wish list for MTG

    i need the following cards.

    1. 2 knight of reliquary

    2. 4 malakir bloodwitch

    3. 4 convincing mirage

    4. 2 chandra nalaar

    5. 1 sorin markov

    6. 1 eldrazi

    7. 3 ranger of eos

    8. 2 broodmate dragon

    9. 4 baneslayers...(i'm willing to buy from you guys if you want to let go of them.)

    10. 3 master of the wildhunt

    11. a couple ant queens

    i almost fell asleep today during service.  it was the childrens Christmas pageant.  i can take cute kids doing cute funny stage stuff for about 30 mins, but any longer and i start to get super tired and bored.

    the end.

    josh out.

Thursday, 03 December 2009

  • this is about magic

    so the last few days i've been playing Bant.  and its pretty fun.  i've always loved Birds/Hiearching into bigger threats early on.  and this deck does quite well.  also, i've been looking for an excuse to play rhox war monk/bant charm and ajani goldmane again.

    cant wait for worldwake and rise of the eldrazi to come out.  i'm tired of the current metagame.  we need something to shake it up a bit.  its not that i dont like the power of Jund.  its just that its not really fun to play or verse.

    i'm loving Johan's email chain we've got going on right now.  its an awesome feeling waking up to 20 emails of Magic tweaking etc.  from what i've gathered, right now, Xay has the best nose for deck techs with Johan not far behind.  major props to those boys for trying out new things and pushing the decks forward. 

    this is what i've gathered about my magic skills right now.

    1. i play much more better during competition.

    2. i'm a quick thinker (often i beat my opponents, b/c i'm able to adjust to things faster and find new avenues to attack)  also, i'm able to see if something is going the wrong way earlier than most so i can begin to reroute resources to an alternate game plan.

    3. after all the limited i've been playing i think it has become my strongest suit. 

    4. i'm still an average deck builder.  i can tweak a deck well, but techs arent really my strong point.

    5. i pilot midrange and combo decks best.  followed by aggro then control.  my control game has gotten better, but since the current meta lacks a true control deck, i havent had much time to strengthen it. 

    6. combo is my favorite.  i'm kinda spikish, but i'm more Timmy than anything.  when i was younger i owned 56 scaled wurms and i tried to get them all into one deck... i will almost always try out or have a combo deck sleaved up and ready for play.

    7. i miss playing with by boys at home.

    josh out.

  • my textbooks have run out of useful material!

    it sucks when your textbooks blow. 

    josh out.

    p.s. where's vipat been?

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