It's sort of been a while - the long-ass hiatus is due mainly to the fact that I got a new computer (how recently, you ask? Oh, around... January 2008), subsequently forfeited my old Dell's Saved Bookmarks in Firefox, and then... forgot the name of my own flipping blog. I couldn't remember where I had decided to put the blummin hyphens (to whoever beat me to the punch and claimed "thejamblog" first, er... props, and I hope it has served you well, although from an initial and cursory skim I may have deduced that you've let your own blogging endeavor also fall by the wayside, in which case, my rancor is somewhat justified).
But I remembered! By which I mean, Google remembered for me, bless its binary heart.
So I've added a couple more entertaining links to my "Sites I visit to waste time" section (see right), and I have redone my "Current Playlist" (also see right), and now I bring you another genuinely indie gem... "Because" (as yet unsigned, possibly released 2008), by Chiddy Bang.
The fact that Philadelphia-based Chiddy Bang is comprised of four youths just now finishing their first year of college makes me want to hang my head in shame. I have, nor will I probably ever, actually, accomplish anything as cool as what they have, and I'm about to graduate. They are probably those kids that I have always wanted to be, but never will. Also, because they haven't been signed (yet), they still have a bunch of intriguing mp3s available free for download from a variety of sources (like their home page), so get on it.
However! While I am off moping about all-my-creative-energy-sans-creative-outlet, they are out putting to good use the set of samples from Radiohead's In Rainbows (Self-released/XL/TBD, 2007) that the band released following the pretty excellent critical/popular reception that album enjoyed. I really don't know what to call that set of samples, exactly (if anyone has any insight, please enlighten me), but it was basically a series of stripped-down mp3s, one of which is the bass line to a song, another the vocals, another the melody - you get the idea. The whole point was that fans would make their own remixes without risk of copyright infringement (a worry that I'm sure keeps many a bit torrenter awake nights).
Specifically, Chiddy Bang has taken a gorgeous little bit from my favorite track on In Rainbows - "Reckoner" - that starts at around the 2:31 mark, and they have constructed a tight self-congratulatory ditty using Thom Yorke's almost indecipherable falsetto as the chorus ("Because we separate as ripples on a blank shore").
Perhaps, as I and the rest of the 2009 graduating class leave the comfortable bubbles of our respective institutions of higher education in pursuit of a respectable slog in the so-called "real world" despite a very dodgy set of financial circumstances, personal, global, or otherwise, I may suggest that you sing it with me, now:
Try to bring me down, I'm bouncing back up.
