THE EIGHTH DAY OF HOMETAPES…
DOWNLOAD: Adam and Sara “Wonderful Christmastime”
About the song: What used to be our least favorite Christmas song has become one of our favorites. We can’t believe anyone listens to the original. It’s bonkers. Synths bouncing all over the place. Constantly shifting rhythms. Different room tones for everything. Here’s our lil tribute made from a found MIDI file. Merry Christmas, y’all.
Favorite records of 2009 (that aren’t on Hometapes):
SARA: Here are my top five!
5. Sharon Van Etten “Because I was In Love”
4. Lindstrøm & Prins Thomas “II”
3. Floating Action “Floating Action”
2. Winfred E. Eye “Til I Prune”
1. Fever Ray “Fever Ray”
ADAM:
Fever Ray “Fever Ray”
The Wooden Birds “Magnolia”
A Mountain Of One “Institute of Joy”
Converge “Axe To Fall”
Bill Callahan “Sometimes I Wish I Were An Eagle”
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Favorite Movie of 2009:
SARA:
1. Coraline. About a girl moving to Oregon and getting swept up in a dream world. I can relate.
2. Adventureland. Yeah, I am totally into Kristen Stewart. I had never seen her in a movie (aside from Panic Room, unknowingly) until Adventureland. It led me to actually sat through Twilight so I could see her and the Northwest landscape in one lovely swoop. I will never live down Adam waking up and seeing me intently watching the vampire softball game. Jesus.
3. Star Trek: This is the “Lisztomania” of 2009 movies. It basically does no wrong.
4. District 9: Led me to two complicated levels of contemplation on humanity — one driven by the film’s storyline (man vs. man, man vs. himself, man vs. nature), and one driven by the fact that we humans are capable of crafting a movie of such technological magnitude that it sticks in my mind like a memory of actual events.
5. Zombieland: This is totally the bizarro Adventureland. And I’ll take apocalyptic visions any way I can get em.
BONUS FEATURE — What I can’t believe I haven’t seen yet:
Funny People (I mean, Adam Sandler is in it. It should be known that two of my favorite movies are Happy Gilmore and Spanglish. WTF!)
Ponyo: I say I am going to see this Studio Ghibli (Princess Mononoke, Totoro, etc.) movie every day. Then I get 100 emails.
ADAM: Is it sad that my movies are basically the same as Sara’s because we didn’t see many movies? Take out Coraline and add A Serious Man. There ya go.
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Favorite Discovery of 2009:
SARA: Jon Raymond. A Portland writer responsible for “A Half Life” and “Livability.” Read them both and rekindled my ability to wholeheartedly read and balance everything else in my mind. I met Jon by complete accident at Powell’s, at the info table asking for his book. His wife was right behind me. He lives in my neighborhood and wrote the stories that led to the films Wendy and Lucy and Old Joy. I think about his books every single day - usually when driving down Lombard or across the Fremont bridge - and they have colored in the lines of Oregon for me in a way that makes me feel both old and new here.
ADAM:
Buckingham Nicks - “S/T”
Wolfgang Riechmann - “Wunderbar”
Vernon Wray - “Wasted”
Late 70’s / Early 80’s Manuel Göttsching (Ashra)
Erkki Kurenniemi - “Recordings 1963-1973”
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Favorite Moment of 2009 and Favorite Show of 2009:
SARA: There have been a lot of special moments this year. Geez, almost one every day. But - there’s one the comes to mind, one that kept appearing like a photograph, as I sent this same question out to all the bands involved in the Eight Days of Hometapes project. It was Sunday March 22 in Austin. We’d just finished the marathon of shows and our best-ever Friend Island party. We were all staying in a house together - Megafaun, Slaraffenland, Stars Like Fleas, a slew of friends, etc. - and we’d coordinated the day before to have our friend Mathieu, a.k.a. Vincent Moon, to come shoot a film using the house as its location and creative centerpiece. In one take, Mathieu captured a continuous shot - and a continuous song, really - featuring Megafaun, Balmorhea, Murder, Stars Like Fleas, The Physics of Meaning, and Slaraffenland. The rest of us were on the porch, sitting still, hearing the music echoing from the rooms, from the bushes, from the stairways. The music grew louder and Slaraffenland led everyone out into the front yard with their voices and instruments. The sun was shining through the trees. The wind was blowing and causing leaves, like helicopter blades, to spin down onto all of us like a glowing Texas snowstorm. Then the music ended, and I felt myself breathe out, a long deliberate exhale —- for that day, that week, and for all the years leading up to that moment. That’s the day 2009 really began, the day Hometapes took on an evolved shape and cracked another code in our journey — one that, just this year, took me on the road with our bands (including Megafaun for an amazing six weeks) and gave us the strength to release the best records we’ve ever ever heard by our best friends.
And then we went to Lockhart and ate BBQ and crushed ice sodas. :)
ADAM: Sara nailed this one. That moment pretty much summed up my whole decade.
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Favorite Show of 2009:
ADAM: All of the Hometapes bands I saw this year leveled me. Such good times.
Runner up: THE RETURN OF YOB!!! What a show. My neck still hurts from the headbanging.
SARA: See above.
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Watch Vincent Moon’s film “The Hometapes House” here.
