A Place To Bury Strangers

This blog has moved a lot faster then I have expected to since I started it as a “side-project” to my main sports blog in August. I’ve been hard at work doing various things to better this site whether it’s trying to better things financially or trying to bring in more readers. Either way it’s been really won and with bands constantly contacting us, there’s never a day where I run out of things to blog, it’s more about finding to fit things in!

Okay here’s are my goals for Allan’s World Music in 2008:

1. Find at least one more writer (definitely from Toronto) who tastes are a little bit different but still indie. I’ve been asking some friends and I will continue to do so but I may find an “outsider”. If you’re interested feel free to contact me .
Another Step Away by A Place To Bury Strangers

2. Build Up Traffic and Readership. I guess you could say I’m pretty satisfied with the traffic levels and subscribed readers. I think my new short term goal for subscribers would be trying to get it up to the 100 mark. Traffic wise I’ve seen 4 straight days (up until today) of great levels where we were close or above the 1000 mark. That has me totally stoked. Granted the traffic was from being lucky (Hype Machine didn’t update leaving some of my posts for prolonged periods on the first page), from lists (like this one) and doing a post on panda bear .
More Than This by Division Day

3. Start conducting interviews. Whether by e-mail/in person I think I would say I’m pretty shy about doing interviews. I’ve had a few opportunities to do some but reluctantly passed because I feel like I would make a complete idiot out of myself. I’ve been chatting with some friends about interviewing and having what ideas to talk through.
Questions by Jack Johnson

4. See more concerts. If I at least beat 5 (Arcade Fire, White Stripes, Muse, IllScarlett, The Stills) I would be happy. I did get to turn 19 in July so the amount of concerts I was able to go to opened up. Though admittedly I never saw any concerts before ’07. I probably could’ve seen a lot more shows provided I had more friends who liked the same things. This year I want to see a lot more smaller bands (easy on the pockets) and just go to more venues that I haven’t been to before. I regret not seeing Rilo Kiley and Vampire Weekend. School fucking sucks since the concerts I always want to see fall on a test date it seems. I also want to volunteer at NXNE. I’d probably recommend all writers do so as I want to really establish a really good Toronto blog despite the title name.
If We Cannot See by The Devics

5. Invest in a good camera. If you’ve seen some of the shots I’ve taken at concerts, it’s a sub par quality due to the camera. With only 300 bucks to invest (on cds + upgrading the server) as long as the site is a drag financially, the camera is being put on the backburner. Granted if money does come in, I will definitely get a good one to get some great pics.
Click Click Click Click by Bishop Allen

6. Upgrade the servers (and WordPress too). I am going to hate upgrading the server. It will probably come out directly out of my pockets unless we somehow can make some money. Space usage is close to 40% and this month (5 gigs isn’t a lot but w/e) we will probably have 80% of our bandwidth used (250 gb bandwidth!). I hate the WordPress upgrades, a lot of people haven’t recommended it to me but it’s usually for security purposes. I guess this might be something I do today. But either way I hate doing all the work when these things may be way over my head (I’m still a noob, I just wing it when it comes to coding and all these things).
Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger by Daft Punk

7. Get into better ad programs. You may not like the ads I’ve thrown onto the site but they are here to stay for obvious financial reasons. I do however don’t like a lot of the ads being displayed as it doesn’t sell on my site. I did try to apply to Indieclick but they probably want a more trafficketed site but who knows. I doubt many care about it as it’s really about the content but money is becoming a concern and I don’t want to sell out this blog like I did to my sports blog ($4000 is quite successful though).
Cash Cow by We Are Scientists

8. Have this blog alive and running so I can do the same list for 2009! Have a good new year everyone!
Staying Alive by The Bee Gees

Allan’s Top Songs of 07 #50-26

I actually quite enjoyed picking out the top songs of 2007. There were many tracks from albums I loved and other singles that stood out in a lackluster album. Most of these tracks I have posted before (I’ll link to the post if you wish to dig hard enough to download them) and are mainly bands I am familiar with. Generally, I blogged about the band if they appeared in the top 50. There are some tracks I haven’t posted yet so you’ll be able to download them here (I think it looks bad if I have every mp3 listed available for download). I linked to the post where the other mp3s are available.

I did hate uploading tracks though and the linking stuff (takes forever). I also had to re-upload some tracks after annoying my friend Jack with bandwidth usage. Look out for the rest tomorrow.

50. A Girl in Port by Okkervil River
49. Shirin by Jens Lekman (link)
48. I Know I’ll See You by A Place To Bury Strangers (link)
47. For Science Fiction by Maritime (link)
46. Freak Out by Liars (link)
45. Phantom by Justice (link)
44. Sleep Deprivation by Simian Mobile Disco
43. Take Me To the Ballroom by the Moonbabies
42. Tthhee Ppaarrttyy by Justice (link)
41. Myriad Harbour by The New Pornographers (link)
40. Objects of My Affection by Peter, Bjorn and John
39. Blue Headlights by The Shout Out Louds (link)
38. No I in Threesome by Interpol
37. My Moon, My Man by Feist
36. Kookaburra by John Vanderslice
35. Paper Birds by Siberian (link)
34. Make A Plan To Love Me by the Bright Eyes
33. Philadelphia Grand Jury by the Fiery Furnaces
32. I Believe by Simian Mobile Disco
31. You Got Yr. Cherry Bomb by Spoon
30. I’m Not Going to Teach Your Boyfriend How To Dance With You by the Black Kids
29. You Can’t Hold the Hand of the Rock and Roll Man by Okkervil River
28. Airship by Siberian (link)
27. Turn On Me by The Shins (link)
26. White Winter Hymnal by the Fleet Foxes (link)

A Place To Bury Strangers – S/T Review

A Place To Bury Strangers is a band out of Brooklyn, NY. Labeled as psychedelic and experimental to say that those are the genres I usually like is a huge stretch.

When listening to their album at first I started getting a slight headache from the barrage of different sounds from all other the place. At first I felt as if I wasn’t going to like this album by APTBS. For whatever reason psychedelic/experimental rock doesn’t naturally suit me due to being incredibly complex and I really just got to dig deep and trying to listen. Eventually I turned a corner and started digging some tracks. The first track I dug was the 7th track “I Know I’ll See You”. Why did I like this compared to the other tracks? For me maybe it was the bass that played so additively throughout the song. Other songs I could arguably say I disliked based on style and on my own personal preference

For me this was a great learning experience and I probably have a clearer picture as to why I probably hated Battles’ Mirrored. I ~~almost~~ hated tracks like “To Fix The Gash In Your Head” or “Don’t Think Lover” right off the bat and it just reminded me of Battles.

I am giving this album a 4.5 out of 5. Tough for me to listen to at first but it has won me over.

Here are my two favorite tracks:

I Know I’ll See You by A Place To Bury Strangers

Breathe by A Place To Bury Strangers