Weekly Music Roundup (29/08/11)
First up in Good Old War, an indie-folk band out of Philadelphia, PA. Though the track I chose to share with you isn’t off their latest release, it is my favorite and a representation of their sound.
This song snapped me out of a serious data-entry trance, so you should really take a listen and if you like it pick up more of their stuff.
You can find Only Way to Be Alone (the album this track is off of) and their self-titled latest release on iTunes, Amazon, and from Hello Merch.
Keep up with the latest Good Old War news through their Facebook, Twitter, Myspace, and YouTube.
Next up we have a band called Miike Snow a band from Stockholm, Sweden. This week’s track is off of their self-titled debut.
This track is just sick in so many ways it is ridiculous - I recommend checking out their albums which you can get from a multitude of providers.
Like Good Old War - You can immerse yourself into their network by connecting through Facebook, Twitter, Myspace, and YouTube.
Changing up things a bit comes Panamanian Aloe Blacc
This song absolutely makes me smile (HA! See what I did there) - To be honest, this has been one of my favorite personal-discoveries I’ve made off of turntable.fm. I’ve heard him played in a wide range of rooms include an Indie Chill/Acoustic Room to Jazz-based rooms and everything in-between.
You can pick up Aloe Blacc’s latest on iTunes and Amazon - And I think he is coming out with some new material soon - so stay tuned to his Facebook, Twitter, Myspace, and YouTube.
Next to last we have Yellow Ostrich. To be honest, I don’t know much about his band, but I love their sound.
They have two up coming tours; one with The Antlers and the other with Ra Ra Riot - so make sure pick up their latest album (see below) and stay up to date (Facebook, Twitter)
Last up we have Radical Face with Welcome Home, Son for their 2007 release Ghost.
This song reminds me of Elliott Smith/“Boy with a Coin” by Iron and Wine/Blue-Eyed Son. You can actually pick up a free EP by them here:
Radical Face doesn’t have any upcoming tour dates scheduled, but there should be some coming soon - Stay up to date through their Facebook, Twitter, Myspace.
This native Floridian has a new album coming out October 4th - No preorder links yet, but you should totally pick up.
Till next time folks.
Productivity and Music: A Case Study
Productivity and Music: A Case Study
There are a lot of guides on how to be productive or how to increase your productivity. For example, a recent presentation at Academy of Management suggested that surfing the web at work arousing and refreshes tired workers more than other “break” activities, such as making personal calls, texts, or emails. Other examples include using a time diary, building rewards into deadlines, and only working during your “good hours”. Not to add to the ever increasing list of productivity’s “best practices,” but I’ve found that Music-Work fit seems to increase my productivity.
For those of you who know me, you know I’ve just finished with a mind-numbing 4-month or so studying marathon for my program’s comprehensive exams. Needless to say, it took up a lot of time and there was a lot of reading involved. However, due to my inability to focus on my other academic responsibilities during the studying process, I’m currently in a position where writing and creating experimental studies are my two largest responsibilities. Over the past couple of months, I’ve come to notice a pattern in my productivity: my productivity increases when I am listening to certain music. This increase, however, is contingent upon the music I am listening to. Let me lay out some examples.
During that extensive reading/studying process, I found that either complete silence or classical music tended to increase the rate and retention, such that I was able to get through the material faster and recall more information from what I had just read. This could be because of the non-intrusiveness of the classical tracks I was listening to, or the driving factor could be something I haven’t thought of yet. Additionally, I’ve found that listening to different types of Jazz music has allowed me to be more productive during my current writing-marathon. However, I noticed something interesting when writing. If I need to look something up, say an empirical finding supporting the relationship between personality and performance, I have a difficult time reading through the article with the Jazz music playing. This makes me think that the effect of music on productivity varies depending on the task one is performing. Another example of this phenomenon is when I’m organizing studies or analyzing data. I’ll tend to listen to more involved music; the indie music I discovered on turntable.fm for example. However, if I find something interesting and want to check out if literature as supported it, or write it up for a results section of a paper that I’m working on; the transition seems to be eased by changing to a genre of music which “fits” better.
At the end of the day, this effect could be entirely in my head, or could be something I might investigate in the future. Regardless, it wouldn’t hurt for you to find a music genre that increases your productivity. For more tips on increasing your productivity check out Lifehacker, The Simple Dollar, HBR, and WSJ.
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Nu Jazz
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Weekly Music Roundup (21/08/11)
First on the list is Four Days Starlight by Scattered Trees
Scattered Trees is out of Chicago, IL and is currently on a Festival Tour will tour dates schedule in Cleveland, Champaign (IL), and Cincinnati.
Four Days Starlight is off their latest release, Sympathy, from their Roll Call/EMI label and can be picked up via iTunes, Amazon, or District Lines.
You can follow Scattered Trees on Twitter, Fan them on Facebook, or check them out om Myspace.
Next up is My Goodness, an previously unsigned Seattle-based rock band.
These guys are absolutely sick. They remind me of Wolfmother’s first album, wrapped up in a bit of the White Strips and Led Zeppelin.
You can pick up their self-titled debut through iTunes or Amazon.
You can also find My Goodness on Facebook, Twitter, Myspace, and YouTube.
Third comes off of Portugal. the Man’s latest album, In the Mountain in the cloud.
I’m just getting into PTM, but it seems that they had a hard time at Lollapolozza this year when all of their equipment was stolen. They’ve recovered some of it, but apparently there is some still missing.
You can pick up their latest album from iTunes, Amazon, or their website.
You can stay up to date with PTM via Facebook, Twitter, and Myspace.
One band that I’m becoming increasing obsessed with is Two Door Cinema Club
These guys are just extremely poppy and repeatedly use that same guitar effect in all of their songs. Not saying it is a bad thing, repetition breeds success (or insanity).
You can pick up their 2010 release from iTunes or Amazon.
You can also find them on Facebook, Myspace, iLike, and Last.FM.
Lastly comes probably one of my favorite cover songs of all time by Mr. Little Jeans.
This song is just so smooth - It isn’t like Arcade hasn’t been covered before (check out this especially good one Peter Gabriel did a few years back), this cover is flows into something novel while holding the integrity of the original.
You can pick up this track here.
I hope you all enjoyed the music presented here and found something new that you could support. Til next time.
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New Blog/Website
This will be a new experiment. I’m going to challenge myself to see if I can keep up with this site everyday. I’m going to try a keep away from the Facebook/Twitter and primarily share through this medium. I plan on sharing music, music reviews, possibly some movie reviews, and some others things that might peak my interest. This will hopefully be my first of many posts.
Cheers,
Chris
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