I mostly listen to music at work these days

Well, Friday was the last day to turn in Independent Study classes for graduation. Supposedly, I finished them on Wednesday and now only have my term classes to worry about. I say supposedly because I do not yet know the fate of my English final... long story. But either way - I have a free weekend finally! I'm using it to hang out with friends, play WoW, and putting off cleaning my room - all the things weekends were meant for.

Other than that, there's not much new going on in my life. I'm still just chilling around Provo, still have no idea what my plans are after graduation, and still have no set opinion on the election. But I have made a lot of new discoveries lately, which I will share in order to hopefully provide you with something to read and maybe entertain you for the next 15 minutes.
Recent Musical Obsessions

Punch Brothers - Punch
I heard of the Punch Brothers on NPR: All Songs Considered and was impressed, though a little intimidated. The group is technically bluegrass, or rather what bluegrass would sound like if Debussy or Gershwin composed in the style. I picked up the album during a CD sale at borders, mostly because it was there and some of my other choices were not, but I am certainly glad that I did. The main substance of the album a set of tracks titled "The Blind Leaving the Blind," Movements One Through Four. It's hard to describe the complexity of these tracks except to say that naming them "Movements" is not a pretentious act. Their complicated nature makes the group very different than anything else you're probably listening to, which makes these pretty re-playable. The other four tracks on the album are more accessible but still plenty impressive, and you can watch the group perform the title track "Punch Bowl" here. You can also check the afore mentioned All Songs Considered show here - scroll down to listen to the entirety of "It'll Happen" and some brief album commentary.

Current Track Obsession - "Nothing, Then"

Radiohead - In Rainbows
Radiohead has always been a group I knew I'd probably love if I ever got really into them, but was really only aware of a few of their songs. At the CD sale mentioned earlier I also picked up In Rainbows, the group's latest CD. Frontman Thom Yorke was the recent guest DJ on All Songs Considered, so the group was on my mind while browsing for new music. The tracks are strange and delightful, and mess around musically ("15 steps" is in 5/4 time signature, one of only two songs I know of to pull this off). I've been listening to it a lot since I got it.

The packaging of the CD is pretty awesome - it's a thin cardboard "box" that comes with all the proper CD labels inside should you want to provide your own plastic case. If not, then you get free epic stickers for all your stuff. It also saves you the trouble of having to trash the case if you keep your CDs in a different holder, and it brings the cost of the disc down to $13 instead of the normal $20.

Current Track Obsessions - "House of Cards," "15 Steps"

Radiohead - The Bends
Due to an epic sale on top of a sale, I couldn't pass up also getting up the band's heavily lauded 1995 album. Where In Rainbows has a new-fangled digital, "energetically-spacey" sound, The Bends has an airy yet down to earth feel. Like a cloud that can't get off the ground. Like a heavy fog. An awesome heavy fog. That analogy does absolutely no justice to the sound. Go listen to The Bends.

Current Track Obsessions - "Planet Telex," "Just"(the infamous music video), "Fake Plastic Trees," "Black Star," "My Iron Lung," and half of the rest of the album.

It turns out I was right - having listened to a decent sized chunk of their work, I really really love Radiohead. I'm very likely to pick up more of their past albums at the next big music sale I find.