Brand New Goodies!

It's been a delightful week in the world of me: new boots and new tunes. I've been lusting after a pair of black ankle boots with the right right, right toe, and right slouch to finally quit trying to fool anyone and own up to my height, which is, after heels, six feet. But the semi-unfortunate return of so-called biker-chic has offered the possibility of wearing boots that aren't a production to slip on, and heels that don't have dirty station wagons creeping past the crosswalk.

(I say semi-unfortunate, because after all who doesn't like a bit of black leather now and then, but the style in general teeters dangerously into the world of that obnoxious, tough-titty affectation we could all do without). I was poking around my favorite online fashion source, Modcloth.com, and after narrowing it down to top three boots of slightly different variation, settled on a pair that won me comments the first night I wore them to work.

Added bonus this week--and any segway will do to get out of talking like some gay male version of Carrie Bradshaw--is Animal Collective's new EP "Fall Be Kind," out today and already lapped up in Pitchfork's review. But in an effort to maintain journalistic integrity, I did not read the review before I wrote my own thoughts! The band has said they have wanted their albums this year to reflect the changing seasons, although that was kind of messed with when their summer album, Merriweather Post Pavilion was accidentally leaked in December 2008, so I definitely associate the album with cold winter and everything going on in my life at the time. But fortunately this one is coming out with the intended invocations of crispiness, spiciness, and the supplications we offer to have a not-so-miserable winter ahead to trees self-conscious with their new gauntness. The opening track "Graze" sounds a little like the beginning of the Mary Martin version of Peter Pan, and with characteristic janglings like acorns in your pocket, and evolves into a kind of Peruvian carnival and you can see the bright reds and turqoises kissing summer goodbye. What we're hearing is your average psychedelic mashed potatoes-and-synth-gravy-but-thank-God-we're-not-hippies-but oh wait, what's on that second track? Just a sample from one of the great rock'n'roll story-weavers, the Grateful Dead, from Phil Lesh's song, "Unbroken Chain." And the song is definitely the most groove-oriented on the album, which automatically scores high points for me, dubious as I am of the overly-ambient. (Not that it's a bad thing, but it's a question of how addictive a groove is, especially if you're the one caught in it, and how tiresome atmospheric sounds get; I don't want a rock album of ocean waves and rainforest sounds.)


I am happy to say that this will provide the perfect soundtrack for my new boots.