Author: andrewcareaga

Former higher ed PR and marketing guy at Missouri University of Science and Technology (Missouri S&T) now focused on freelance writing and editing and creative writing, fiction and non-fiction.

Friday Five: #NowPlaying

From my perspective, 2010 is off to a pretty good start in terms of new music. Here’s a sampling of what I’ve been listening to — five new albums released this month and last, plus a bonus album from the archives.

1. Basia Bulat, Heart of My Own. I discovered this lovely Canadian singer-songwriter in 2008, one year after her debut album Oh, My Darling. I was awestruck by her throaty but ethereal vocals, and by the beauty and simplicity of her compositions. Heart of My Own is her second album, and it’s even better than the debut. While the melodies are still spare and spacious, she incorporates more instrumentation in this new album. Highly recommended for any lover of folk, Americana or just plain great music.

Listen: Basia Bulat – Go On

2. Yeasayer, Odd Blood. Yeasayer is an odd band. Their last album, All Hour Cymbals, didn’t quite resonate with me. But Odd Blood is different. It’s poppier, catchier, more accessible. The tunes are danceable, even. It sounds as though Yeasayer has been listening to a lot of Passion Pit and has smoothed over the rougher edges of their previous efforts. Odd Blood is good stuff.

Listen: Yeasayer – O.N.E.

3. Spoon, Transference. This Austin band just keeps cranking out solid stuff. But fans who went ga ga for their previous release (the awkwardly named Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga) may be disappointed with Transference, because with this release Spoon returns to their roots. No Memphis horn section in this album, and very little noodling and dubbing. Just clever lyrics delivered in painful earnestness by lead singer Britt Daniel, underlaid by straightforward foot-tapping rock with high reverb.

Listen: Spoon – Written in Reverse

4. Field Music – Field Music (Measure). This just came out on Tuesday, so I haven’t had time to absorb all of this 20-track effort yet. But on first listen, I’m impressed with what the brothers Peter and David Brewis have accomplished. The tunes are artfully arranged. I’m sure I’ll have more to say about this album in the coming months.

Listen: Field Music – Them That Do Nothing

5. Vampire Weekend – Contra. Yeah, I know. We all thought the over-hyped music blog darlings of 2009 would fold their tents and fade away, a la Clap Your Hands Say Yeah. Instead they reinvented themselves in the mold of Paul Simon. Seriously. They sound like Paul Simon’s The Rhythm of the Saints.

Listen: Vampire Weekend – White Sky

Bonus: Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, Deja Vu. OK, who released my inner hippie? I don’t know why, but for some reason I decided to listen to this album last Sunday. It’s been a long time, maybe even four and twenty years ago, since I last listened to this in its entirety. But I have been listening to it again and again, and I’m struck by the wonderful melding of four unique talents into a single, cohesive statement. I forgot how wonderfully the harmonies were on this album.

Listen: Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young – Carry On

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So, that’s what’s on my playlist. How about you? What’s catching your ear these days? Any recommendations for me? I’d love to hear them.

Zen Guitar lessons: chasing rabbits

animol robbitOver the weekend I thumbed through my copy of Philip Toshio Sudo’s Zen Guitar, which is an interesting book for someone like me, who tends to think about playing guitar more than actually playing guitar. (But I’m working on that.)

Like most books that begin from a zen perspective, Sudo’s book offers insights about life, work and just about anything else. My favorite part of the book is the back section, which summarizes the contents into short, single-sentence aphorisms. One seemed to jump right off the pages at me.

Do not chase two rabbits at once.

Indeed. Most of us may not chase literal rabbits, but we do try to accomplish more than one thing at a time in our busy, hectic days. We call it multitasking, but often it ends up as multifailing.

It’s tough enough to catch one rabbit, I would think. (I wouldn’t really know, because I’ve never caught one, although in my youth I did chase a few.) Why even attempt to chase two at once? Rabbits are swift. They turn on a dime. We are no match for them.

What we humans do best is not multitasking, but singletasking. As this article from Lateral Action points out, “the real power of human mind is the ability to focus on single things for extended periods of time.” (Thanks, Copyblogger, for leading me down the Twitter rabbit trail to this post.)

The bad news: “When and if that focus is interrupted, it may take up to 25 minutes to regain it. And if those interruptions happen multiple times a day, it shouldn’t be too difficult to see how disastrous this is to productivity.”

That lateral action post also discusses the importance of managing energy. “The most important message here is, that it’s not the time you have allotted for doing something, but how much energy you have for doing it that matters.” This is a concept I’ve been trying to master since first reading about it in the book The Power of Full Engagement. But it seems I still end up spending a lot time trying to chase two rabbits.

If that’s also the case with you, then I hope you take a tip from Zen Guitar and focus on one rabbit at a time. May the rest of your week be a harmonious one.