Well my friends, it’s that time of year again!  November is a key month in the world of Aaron Loves Meghan… it’s the month where we started dating, when we got engaged, and, of course, when we got married.  And every year around this time we present our latest Aaron Loves Meghan mixtape! 

For the newbs, on Nov. 17th, 2007, Megs & I were married and at our wedding (which I iPod DJ’d) we gave everyone there a mixtape called Aaron Loves Meghan and, of course, posted it up on tsururadio. Since then, we’ve had infinite fun creating a new mixtape together every year, some with themes, some with just the music we love to listen to together, whatever, and present it to you…

This time, as you can tell from the photo above, things got a bit messy… Thank the lardy I had my pencil handy and my lovely assistant to wind that cassette back up, eh?  

So, for our 5th volume, we each put together a mini-mixtape for each other.  Mine is Side Aaron Loves Meghan, her’s is side Meghan Loves Aaron.  Then, when we were all done, we put them together and BLAMO! Awesome-o lovey dovey romantical super good times happy hour!!!

And yes, I know we are a little late getting this mixtape up for you guys… We’ve been a little busy with Baby going to Hong Kong for two weeks, then me to going China for two weeks, then both of us going on a MUCH needed vacation to the Galapagos Islands for a week (which was epic! Like a beachy vacation meets a tropically exploring vacation meets nature’s classroom).  We even made a short film for you!  

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_R91zsFpxas

Don’t worry, as per usual it’s not a “talky” and it’s soundtracked by one my favourite songs, “2080″ by Yeasayer!

Okay, back to the mixtape!

Now, just as a little reminder… don’t read too much into each song!  Sure, some are blatant love songs, of course they are, but some are just songs we love to sing together or to/at each other – though you can certainly see where October, where we only saw each other for one day, played quite a role in the music selection…

And with that, I think I’ll get to hurrying up to shuttin’ up and get this music going on as…

Tsuru & The Bride Present…

Aaron Loves Meghan Vol. 5: Aaron Loves Meghan Loves Aaron Loves…

SIDE A: Aaron Loves Meghan

1. Noah And The Whale – 2 Atoms In A Molecule
2. Allo Darlin – Kiss Your Lips
3. Iron And Wine – Tree By The River
4. REM – The Lion Sleeps Tonight
5. Primal Scream – Movin’ On Up
6. Rachel Goodrich – Na Na Na
7. The Rural Alberta Advantage – Two Lovers
8. Beirut – Port of Call
9. Feist – Graveyard
10. Edward Sharpe And The Magnetic Zeroes – Home
11. Hard Drugs – Aline And Lloyd (Reprise)

SIDE B: Meghan Loves Aaron

1. Living Sisters – (You Don’t Know) How Glad I Am
2. Charles May And Annette May Thomas – Keep My Baby Warm
3. The Head And The Heart – Honey Come Home
4. Etta James – I Just Want To Make Love To You
5. Paula & Karol – Birds and Bees
6. Jenny And Johnny – Scissor Runner
7. The Pipettes – I Love You
8. Fiona Apple – So Sleepy
9. Summer Fiction – Throw Your Arms Around Me
10. My Morning Jacket – Wonderful (The Way I Feel)
11. Jarvis Cocker – Baby’s Coming Back To Me

That’s it! I hope you enjoy as much as we do… Here’s to year number 5 being as wonderful as each that preceded it!

Love,
Aaron & Meghan

Photography by me.

I first really fell in love with REM with Green. 1988, I was what, 15? It was before the years of prog when I was still wading through the music world, trying all kinds of stuff, whatever tickled my cockles.  I loved “Stand”, hard. Bought the record and wore the fuck out of the vinyl! Then I saw an uncensored version of “Pop Song ’89″ on a friend’s cable late one night and well yeah, I was a smitten kitten.

I didn’t dig into their older stuff at the time, I was still just a poor kid finding out what’s what, pulling away from Top 40, pulling away from the kids around me, dabbling in whatever sounded decent that anyone had a copy of a copy of a casette that I’d get my hands on.

But before I could really dig my teeth into them, Out Of Time came out and I was the first person to call them sell-outs. Big hits, MTV awards, rap, and “Shiny Mother Fucking People”. I said some mean things to my girlfriend about the album she loved.  Of course, later, I learned to love that album.

Then Automatic For The People came out when I was living in this garage apartment in Tampa, doing the chef thing, riding bikes & my moped, living life (mostly at Joffrey’s, the local coffee shop).  It was with AftP that I finally started digging into their back catalogue, mostly thanks to my neighbor who I’d sit on our little porch with and drink beers listening to him play old REM albums.

It was after that my love of REM became a genunine relationship. Looking back, it’s strange, I can remember where I was, what I was doing, etc, the first time I heard each of their new albums. From Green to Collapse Into Now.  Strange, eh? I remember sitting in my living room playing New Adventures for the first time. I remember being in my car on a long drive home listening to Reveal.  I remember having friends over for a dinner and playing Up in the background for the first time.   I remember listening to Monster back in college in my apartment before digging back into studying and watching the premiere of the video for “What’s The Frequency, Kenneth” and seeing Stipe with his newly stiped hair.  God I loved that album.

Wow.

And I love all their albums. From the mumbling old gems to the experimental trilogy post-Berry, to these last two kicks in the nuts, and everything in between. My favourites? Ooo… tough one, but I’ll narrow it down to three, Green, Automatic,  and Reveal (yes, Reveal, a totally underrated amazing album, fuck off). I’ve said it once and I’ll say it again. When you take into consideration their quality, quantity, & longevity, REM is easily the greatest American band… ever.

Yep.

Deal with it.

But sadly the boys have decided it’s time to move on from the band, do their other things instead of forcing it forward, good for them. But what does that mean for me, the life long fan??? One word: Mixtape.

Oh boy oh boy oh boy I hope you are ready for this! But I’m going to wager dollars to donuts you ain’t! Here’s what we did, we simply built the best REM (according to me) mixtape possible, 2.5 hours broken into 4 sides covering all the full releases and a bunch of gems in between! It’s the best god damn compilation of REM songs ever, for casual fans, people who lost track over the years, hard core fans, and people who ask, “R.E.What?”, all of you, it’s just awesome stuffed with epic!  Yeah, you could say I’m pretty happy with the way it came out.

Stipe & the crew, thanks for an amazing 31 years, you soundtracked my life for 23 of them and I’m eternally grateful. Now, let’s send them off in proper tsuru-style as…

tsurufoto presents…

Calling All In Transit: The Very Best Of REM (According To Me)

Side A: Crazy What You Could’ve Had

Side B: Look Up What Do You See?

Side C: And Change Is What I Believe In

Side D: See You In Heaven If You Make The List

Full zip of the tracks.  ;)

Feels good, doesn’t it??? Feels… fine.

Cheers,
Aaron Tsuru
Follow @tsururadio

Ah summer.  Hot, humid, sticky, sweaty sweaty swamp ass, bar-b-ques, shaken lemonade, fried snickers, fried dough, fried coca-cola, and even fried kool-aid.

Jazz fest, rib fest, community fest, asian fest, greek fest, indian fest, pride fest, fest fest. We get about 80 years on this earth, plus or minus, and we do the same shit 80 times, plus or minus.  Summer is my least favourite season, if you could rank them.  As a Floridian from Tampa, summer started in February and ended the day before February, car was hot, you were hot, house was hot, AC was never good enough, humidity sucks, and dear god…. the swamp ass.

Is there anything worse than that wet uncomfortableness lingering between your ass cheeks?  Only thing I know to combat it is a good quick dry wipe in the bathroom.

Anywhosals, the one good thing about summer?  The music…. Yes, as much as it’s silly & cliche, our funny little brains like to assign seasonality to music.  Give it a clean quiet sound and you got yerself a winter album there, bud.  Me, I’m an autumn.

Just kidding, I’m pale, I’ve got black hair, and green eyes, maybe I’m a winter? I do want to retire to Canada.

Where was I? Oh yeah, seasonality of music.  Now, there’s no hard and fast rules, one man’s Spring gem is another mother of your baby’s brother’s Autumn classic.  We are nothing but a culmination of our genetics mixed with our experiences & how we interpret them.  For me, a bit of fuzz, a bit of bounce or rain or a bit of water & heat, basically, whatever makes me think of being outdoors or conversely, indoors in the AC, or, I suppose, swamp ass…

So here we go, one of our first ever “summer” specific mixtapes (I think, who the fuck can remember anymore).  Led off by Dan Deacon’s “Snookered”… why? Because when I think of swamp ass, I think of Dan fucking Deacon!

My suggestion?  Just click play on the soundcloud below and turn up yer speakers nice and fuck yeah.  If you like what you hear, grab the zip and enjoy on your way to the beach, to the park, or on that road trip, or really whatever you do this summer!  Sound good?  Happy summer, my friends!  Enjoy!

tsururadio presents… summer mixtape!!!

(full zip)

tsururadio presents – summer mixtape by tsururadio

FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, PLAY GAPLESS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

01 Dan Deacon – Snookered
02 MGMT – Kids
03 Cults – Outside
04 Girls – Laura
05 G. Love And Special Sauce – Cold Beverages
06 Beck – Girl
07 Tapes N Tapes – FREAK OUT
08 Weezer – Holiday
09 My Morning Jacket – Circuital
10 The Avalanches – Since I Left You
11 The Shivers – Irrational Love
12 The Strokes – Is This It
13 Beirut – East Harlem
14 She And Him – Oh Boy
15 Summer Fiction – By The Sea
16 Laura Veirs – Saltbreakers
17 Iron And Wine – Biting Your Tail
18 Starfucker – Born
19 Jonathan Richman – Ice Cream Man
20 The Beach Boys – Barbara Ann

That’s it! Enjoy! Now…. go ride your bike, go take some pictures, and go have fun!

Cheers,
Aaron

How’s THAT for a teaser?

But, before we get to that, let’s talk about the other busys keep us busy.

First up? Maybe you missed it the other day, but Baby’s auction to raise money for Japan ENDS TOMORROW!

The money from the winning bid and the matching moneys ALL go to the Red Cross to help out with Japan. They get a little moneys, you get a Kitsune (fox) purse for you or your honey-bunny, all with free shipping! Not too shabs, eh?

Eh. So..

* CLICK – BID – SHARE *

Next… maybe you missed it but TSURUFOTO NUDIEZINE Issue No. 4 has been released and is out in the wild!

WOOOOOOOT! And this time it’s a doozy! In this issue we got our zinexclusive mixtape, activities, amazing artwork, our articles on REM & a bad ass zine we came across, all kinds of randomness, and, of course, our super hot & awesome photo shoots with Nina, Isabella, Becca, & the awesome Lucy Dominga!

Now, you can get a taste of the photo sets with Nina & Isabella and Ms. Dominga over at our vimeo page full or saucy short films we’ve been making, BUT…. if you want a peek at Issue No. 5′s centerfold set, “How Olive Does Arts & Crafts”:

TSURUFOTO Presents… How Olive Does Arts & Crafts! (NSFW) from TSURUFOTO on Vimeo.

You are going to have to buy a zine…. ;)

Now… if that wan’t enough, oh my, let me tell you about last night. Yes yes, it was St. Patty’s day, but I really could care less about that part. First, anyone who follows the photo part of tsuru industries knows I get to work with some amazing people. Genuinely beautiful inside & out. Well, a couple of them do burlesque. Baby & I have been trying to go see them for, well, forever, but life & shit kept getting in the way until last night when we went to Circus and got to see not one, but TWO troupes perform! The Velvet Hearts featuring the uber-crush worthy Cherry La Voix AND the Ooh La Las featuring my newest friend Cherie!

One word. Amazing.

Bold, strong, beautiful pasty-adorned women flaunting the awesomeness.

And blowing our minds and melting our hearts. Needless to say, Baby & I are smitten kittens. Consider us groupies!!!

Speaking of beautiful women & smitten kittens, my friends, has I gots a mixtap’ems for yas today very much inspired by the love and beauty that seems to be following us around more and more. We had some fun with this one! Yeah yeah, sure, we got a new song or two that might be floating around your hip & hypem blogs here and there, but for the most part this one’s chock full o’ not-so-newness and not-so-knowness! Yep, we dipped deep into our pockets for some pre-double-digit 2000s goodness, maybe something from the 90s, and I think one or two from the 80s, and lots of fresh bandcamp goodness.

Just a little reminder that, yeah, new music is new, but loving and leaving the songs from a few years, months or days ago is not chicken soup for the soul. And remember, as loverly as the pitchforks and bloggerins of the world can be, there’s still so much out there just waiting and wanting to be heard over in the wide world interconnected intertubes of love canals like Bandcamp and etc.

So here we are and here we go as….

photography by me
modeled by tomagochi

tsururadio presents…

she stands there stark naked mixtape!!!

full zip

01 Noah and the Whale – Jealous Kind Of Love
02 Royal Bangs – Tiny Prince Of Keytar
03 Ween – Ocean Man
04 Beulah – Matter vs. Space
05 Bright Eyes – Shell Games
06 Here We Go Magic – Hands in the Sky
07 Radiohead – Nude
08 Violent Femmes – Black Girls
09 The Decemberists – O New England
10 Bill Callahan – Sycamore
11 Beirut – The Concubine
12 Peter Bjorn and John – Amsterdam
13 Paula & Karol – Ontario
14 Son Volt – Drown
15 The Do – Bohemian Dances
16 Jenny Invert – Still Life / Millet Seed
17 Tera Melos – Manar Was A Rat
18 Isaac and Hilltop – Antique Arms and Armor
19 Margot & The Nuclear So And So’s – Real Naked Girls
20 Joan As Police Woman – The Magic
21 Nicole Atkins & The Sea – The Way It Is

BONUS: David Cassidy – I Think I Love You

Have a wonderful weekend everyone. Go ride yer bikes, go take lots of pictures, and we’ll see you before long…

Cheers,

Aaron aka Tsuru

Number 12 in my series of Forgotten Classics:

Neon Golden by The Notwist (2002)

It was way back in 2002 that Neon Golden by the Germans of The Notwist was named Album Of The Year by the good people of the Dutch (aren’t I the multinational blogger) music magazine OOR. At the time I had no clue whatsoever what this album was all about and why in god’s name it should be crowned ‘King Of 2002′. After all, wasn’t this the same year that also saw the release of instant classics like (amongst others) Wilco’s Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, Interpol’s Turn On The Bright Lights, The White Stripes’ White Blood Cells and Cody ChesnuTT’s The Headphone Masterpiece?

Being fashionably late it took me more than two years to finally discover why so many people liked this album. Because it’s fucking awesome, that’s why! Look here, even the acid pissing wankers of Pissfork listed it in their top 10:

Realizing that The Notwist started out as a (mediocre) post-hardcore outfit makes the musical journey that Neon Golden takes you on all the more amazing. Nothing on the band’s previous four full length releases could’ve hinted at the greatness they would achieve with their fifth album. The fluency in the fusion of (subtle) electronics and guitar-driven pop music is impressive to say the least. The closest comparison I can think of is what Radiohead achieved on Kid A, but with a lot less experimentation.

The focus on the songs make the album a lot more lovable at first listen than its experimental counterparts, and somehow without becoming boring after repeated listens. Even after almost 10 years. Hell, Consequence is still one the best songs of the 00s!

So if you happened to have missed out the first time around (like I did), make up for it now. Check out the sample songs and spend your cash on a great album. You will not regret it.

Download Neon Golden here

1. One Step Inside Doesn’t Mean You Understand

2. Pilot

3. Pick Up The Phone

4. Trashing Days

5. This Room

6. Solitaire

7. One With The Freaks

8. Neon Golden

9. Off The Rails

10. Consequence

11. Scoop

12. Propeller 9

13. Formiga

See you in two weeks!

- Martin

Link up with me here:

Hey kiddos. All this grammy talk has left me feeling kinda… done.

So, I think it’s time for a little mini-vaca. Spending the next week working on my zine and contemplating “what’s next” for this great tsurunation we call home. You know?

What is next? What is version 4.0 for TSURURADIO?

So, while I masturbate furiously search my soul and take lots of nekkid pictures take lots of nekkid pictures, I’m going to let the adorable adorableness of Rachel Goodrich play us out. You can’t listen to Goodrich without a smile on my face and it’s with a smile on my face that I, you know, search my soul and shit. You know that if I’m not at the blog, I’m at one of these places, right?….

Have a wonderful week and weekend and early next week. I’ll see you here again next week! But for now, go play along with Rachel: Twitter and BANDCAMP where she’s giving away her 3 song EP!

Rachel Goodrich – Na Na Na

Cheers,
T.
Where you’ll find me now….

Okay… I’m obsessed… like obsessed-obsessed over this new PJ Harvey album called Let England Shake.

I’ve had a crush on PJ Harvey ever since I could kinda see her nipples on the back cover of Dry.

Yep. That’s the one. She’s bold, brash, difficult, challenging, & strong. I love songs, I hate songs, it’s everything that comfort food isn’t to music.

I don’t always like her albums. But then Let England Shake shows up. I was already in love with “The Words That Maketh Murder”, but a song does not an album make.

Oh my. Oh man. This is so good.

It’s odd, weird — like “Revellie” during “The Glorious Land” — and it’s beautiful… Beautiful in that odd yet strong way Harvey herself is. It’s poetry (literally, from what I hear) meets quirk-rock music.

I’ve listened to it 10, maybe 15 times? And I can’t seem to stop. So, I’m going to shut up and listen some more…

Enjoy!

“Take me back to England & the grey, damp filthiness of ages, fog rolling down behind the mountains & on the graveyards, and dead sea-captains.” – PJ Harvey, The Last Living Rose

PRE-ORDER LET ENGLAND SHAKE NOW! & STREAM FULL ALBUM AT NPR!

01. Let England Shake
02. The Last Living Rose

03. The Glorious Land
04. The Words That Maketh Murder

05. All And Everyone
06. On Battleship Hill
07. England
08. In The Dark Places
09. Bitter Branches
10. Hanging In The Wire
11. Written On The Forehead

Written On The Forehead by pjharvey

12. The Colour Of The Earth

PJ Love!!!! Label | Official

Cheers,
T.