dennis yang dot com

So, someone recently asked me to recount my life.. musically.. It was an interesting task, and a fun one at that, so I looked back… and put together a little mix that represented my musical tastes thus far…

I’m trying something new.. a YouTube playlist of these songs — I’m actually quite impressed that YouTube has ALL of these songs. Wow.

(80s Phase)
Ok.. so I dont actually have any tracks in my iTunes from this phase — it was the 80s, and all of my music is either on LP or Cassette tape, and therefore, not in my iTunes… Anyway.. it WAS the 80s when I was listening to this stuff, so it wasn’t called “80s music” back then.. Back then, it was just “pop” and I remember listening to a lot of it on 107.9, aka POWER 108.

Thriller – Michael Jackson
Let’s Hear It For The Boy – Deniece Williams
Straight Up – Paula Abdul
Piano Man – Billy Joel (my first live concert)

(Classic Rock Phase)
So, In high school, I was big into classic rock.. You know, Zeppelin, Clapton, Pink Floyd, and the Beatles. I listened mostly to 100.7 WMMS (aka the buzzard with the wig). Then, I got my first CD player, a Sony Discman D-4, by saving up for like 13 years, I think. My First CDs were.. Pink Floyd’s Delicate Sound of Thunder and the Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.

Wish You Were Here – Pink Floyd
A Day In The Life – Beatles

(Folky/Classical Phase)
I was a huge fan of Northern Exposure, and this track was in the last episode of that show:

Our Town – Iris Dement

All throughout my childhood, I played violin, so yah, I had an appreciation for classical music.. My favorite classical track of all time is:

The Moldau – Smetana

(Ska Phase)
I’m not sure how I found ska in college, but I did. All throughout college, I pretty much listened to like 80% ska music. I did the whole deal, I had the flight jacket, a porkpie hat, oxblood doc martens, and skanked. Ya, I even had a Vespa (and still do).

007 (Shanty Town) – Desmond Dekker
Message To You Rudy – The Specials
He Wants Me Back – Dance Hall Crashers
Tell You Why – Pietasters
Come Back Baby – The Slackers

(Punk Phase)
The ska thing kind of developed into a punk fascination — I mean, OpIV is ska-punk, so it seemed like a natural evolution.

Sound System – Operation Ivy
Life Size Mirror – No Use For A Name

(Japanese Phase)
I had a brief fascination with Japanese music. Yah.

Baby Love Child – Pizzicato Five
Sugar Water – Cibo Matto

(Electronica Phase)
And then.. I moved to San Francisco. And in SF, electronica kind of found me. I probably spent like 6 months listening ONLY to trance, and on this one trip up to Tahoe, I ONLY had trance CDs in my car.. about 2 hours into the drive, I was so desperate for ANYTHING NON-TRANCE that I almost tore my ears out until I (thankfully) found a cassette tape from high school (classic rock) that I listened to for the rest of the weekend. I have a theory that you can only listen to so much trance in your lifetime, after which you’re just, like, done with it. So yah, even though I remember really, really liking this PVD track. Now, I can’t even be bothered to sit through it. Ugh.

Out There & Back – Paul van Dyk

So, from trance, I moved on to breaks, which I think is a natural progression. I probably spent the most time DJ’ing breaks, and my vinyl collection is primarly breaks. That said, for some reason, I don’t really like listening to breaks on my iPod. Maybe that’s cuz I don’t really like listening to breaks — I prefer dancing to it.

Collect – Emit

(Folky Phase.. Reprise)
I think as a backlash to my years of electronic/trance-ness, I rekindled my interest in folky stuff. These two tracks are my favorites:

The Blower’s Daughter – Damien Rice
Lonestar – Norah Jones

(Hip Hop, Turntabilist Phase)
For like a brief time, I really wanted to be a good scratch DJ/Turntablist, and it was during that time that I found a lot of hip hop that was pretty rad.

From 93 till Infinity – Souls of Mischief
Ghostwriter – RJD2
Point to B – Prefuse 73
Swing Set – Jurassic 5

(Indie Electronic Phase)
I think the pendulum swung back kind of crooked — and since everything merges anyway, I found myself in indie-land, with a bit of an electronic influence.

Hide & Seek – Imogen Heap
Needy Girl – Chromeo

(I LOVE Xmas music)
So, for the past 6 years, I’ve compiled a CD of Christmas music. I heart christmas music, and this is my favorite holiday tune:

Baby It’s Cold Outside – Elf Soundtrack

(Indie Phase)
Ok.. and now we’re kind of in my latest phase, which is just the “Indie Phase” — that said, “Indie” is kind of a wide spectrum of things, and pretty much, for the past few years, I’ve been putting together mixtapes like every quarter. So, here’s just a sampling from those mixtapes of tracks that I find to have a particularly high level of awesomeness.

First Breath After Coma – Explosions In The Sky
To Be Loved – Joan As Police Woman
Falcon Jab – Ratatat
Blood Bank – Bon Iver
Lisztomania – Phoenix
Comets – Fanfarlo

And.. that’s it, I think.. 34 biographically representative songs from my 34 years..

I like numbers.

• Days in Austin: 11
• Nights in Austin: 10
• Business Cards Collected: 67
• Twitter Followers Gained: 52
• SXSW Sessions Attended: 13
• Musical Acts Seen: 30
• ACL Tapings Attended: 1
• IFC Crossroads Tapings Attended: 2
• Tracks On 2010 SXSW Mix: 28
• Films Seen: 4 (A NY Thing, The Runaways, Strange Powers, & Alice In Wonderland)
• Comedians Seen: 3
• Comedians That Heckled Me For Taking A Picture With An iPhone: 1
• BBQ Meals: 3 (Stubb’s, Salt Lick, Salt Lick @ ATX)
• Korean Tacos Consumed: 0 (Dammit, I Meant To)
• Torchy’s Tacos Consumed: 2
• Alcoholic Beverages Consumed: A Lot
• Zone Bars Eaten: 1
• People Who Stayed In My Hotel Room: 6
• Hotel Rooms Visited: 2
• Foursquare Check Ins: 116
• Austin Mayorships Earned: 1 (The Parish)
• Friends met up with thanks entirely to Foursquare: 1
• Gowalla Check Ins: 2
• Wristbands Worn: 2
• Special Credentials Received: 3 (Delivering Happiness Bus, PureVolume, Hype Machine)
• Hollywood Celebrity Sightings: 4 (Ashton Kucher, Kristen Stewart, Dakota Fanning, Michel Gondry)
• YouTube Celebrity Sightings: 3 (iJustine, Jon Lajoie, Philip DeFranco)
• Internet Celebrity Sightings: Lots
• Perez Hilton Sightings: 0
• Drunken Dials Of New York Friends: 1
• Drunken Dials Of NY Friends, Which Resulted In A Black Eye Caused By Friend’s Fiancé’s Elbow: 1
• Gift Bags Received: 3
• Gift Bags Brought Home: 0
• Free Tshirts Received: 4
• Free Tshirts Brought Home: 1
• Cornell Basketball Victories Watched: 2 (GO BIG RED!)
• Swimsuits Brought: 2
• Swimsuits Used: 0
• Umbrellas Brought: 0
• Umbrellas Used: 2
• Average Temperature Planned For: 95°F
• Actual Average Temperature: 59°F
• Taxicabs Taken: 3
• Pedicabs Taken: 1
• Total Steps Walked: 149,564
• Hours Slept: Not Enough

Happy New Year everyone.. 2010 is well on its way, so I’ve put together a little mix to get it started… 2009 was an amazing year for new music. Whoever said that the digital age is killing music obviously isn’t actually out there listening to the stuff.

The year opened for me with a whole lotta Bon Iver, whose Blood Bank EP was an awesomely haunting way to open the new year. Then, pretty much most of my 2009 was spent listening to Phoenix’s Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix.. man, that entire album is insanely awesome. And then, just as 2009 was about to close, the xx stormed the scene.

2009 was also the year of the remix for me, aided with the hype machine, remixes (good AND bad) are flooding out more than ever. Yes, it takes time to sort through the crap to find the gems, but once you do, it’s quite rewarding. Also, if you haven’t heard the brazilian remixing duo, The Twelves, yet.. I highly suggest you go and check them out. Now.

Anyway, I’m rambling.. so, without further adieu, here’s my picks for best songs of 2009.

Enjoy.

As long as I have your attention, I might as well also list out the live shows that I saw for 2009:

• The Bird & The Bee @ The Independent
• rjd2 @ 103 Harriet and Vessel
• Toshio Hirano @ The Rite Spot
• Ratatat @ The Fillmore
• Band Of Horses @ The Fox
• Jason Reeves, Brendan James, Amber Rubarth @ Cafe du Nord
• Emilie Simon @ Le Poisson (NYC)
• Bon Iver @ The Fox
• Dawes (opening for Langhorne Slim, but I left after seeing Dawes) @ The Independent
• Joan As Policewoman @ Knitting Factory (Brooklyn)
• Friendly Fires & The xx @ The Independent

Not a bad take for this year, I suppose.. I got to see 2 of my top 3 acts of 2009 — Phoenix actually played the Warfield, but I refuse to go to that venue cuz I hate it.. yuck. Clearly, The Independent is my favorite place to go see shows this year (and I’ll be back there for Miike Snow soon). Strangely though, no shows at the Greek for 2009.. Weird.

Anyway — hats off to a super awesome musical 2009.

Happy New Year all.

Happy Holidays everyone!

This is becoming somewhat of a tradition, having done this for 2008, 2007, 2006, and 2005 now…

This year featured New Years in Philly for AJ & Joann’s wedding, Angie’s bday trip to Whistler, a “non-wedding wedding” trip to Charleston, SC, and thanks to my knee injury, I had to cancel my trip to Cancun, but then, because of the knee injury (since I couldn’t play baseball on the weekends anymore) a few camping trips were added. As compared to the 9 weddings last year, I only had 2 this year.. My family’s new place in Tahoe meant several trips up to Tahoma, and more to come in the future… All-in-all, a great year, and honestly, I can’t believe 2010 is already upon us.

Anyway, without further adieu here’s my list of cities that I’ve spent one or more nights in for 2009.. (* means more than 1 trip there)..

Philadelphia, PA
San Francisco, CA*
New York, NY*
Kings Beach, CA
Whistler, BC, Canada
Truckee, CA
Toronto, ON, Canada
Tahoma, CA*
Las Vegas, NV
Charleston, SC
Usal Beach, Lost Coast, CA
Kenwood, CA (Sugarloaf Ridge SP)
Chelmsford, MA
San Mateo, CA
Zephyr Cove, NV

Hmm… on second thought, 2009 apparently wasn’t a big travel year.. just a few trips here and there, and I never even left the North American continent. Oh well. 2010 should promise more world locales, with trips to Cannes and Switzerland already in the works.

Happy New Year everyone!

Inspired by spangley, here’s a list of every place that I’ve ever lived. I think when I was born, we were in some apartment in Richmond Heights, but I don’t remember that place, so I’m gonna start with the Mayfield Heights place…

I’ve included links to memory maps for the first two places, and actually.. now that I’m looking at this list — maybe it would be fun to do some memory maps of the other places.

1. Gladwin Drive, Mayfield Heights, OH (1976-1985)
2. E. Juniper Ln, Moreland Hills, OH (1985-1993)
3. South Baker, Ithaca, NY (1993-4)
4. Clinton Township, NJ (Summers 1994, 1995)
5. College Ave, Ithaca, NY (1995-6)
6. Tunkhannock, PA (Summer 1996)
7. Eddy Street, Ithaca, NY (1996-7)
8. Jones & Geary, Tenderknob, San Francisco, CA (1997)
9. Collingwood & 20th, Castro, San Francisco, CA (1997-8)
10. Arguello & Fulton, Richmond, San Francisco, CA (1998-9)
11. Lyon & Post, Lower Pac Heights, San Francisco, CA (1999)
12. Cesar Chavez & Church, Noe Valley, San Francisco, CA (2000-3)
13. Church & 20th, Dolores Heights, San Francisco, CA (2003-4)
14. Fulton & Gough, Hayes Valley, San Francisco, CA (2004-8)
15. Natoma & 9th, Soma, San Francisco, CA (2008-present)

15 places in 33 years.. not bad.

Happy new year, everyone!

Another year, another list… (I did this for 2005, 2006 and 2007)…

This year was defined by a lot of weddings.. 8 to be exact (appropriate for 2008, I guess)… Bachelor parties took me to Mexico and Georgia (I suppose that’s wedding related), but I went on a completely wedding-free vacation to Taiwan.. I also started using dopplr, so you can see my 2008 there (but I think you need to sign up and friend me or something), but I’m still not sure whether or not I find dopplr useful or not… I want it to automagically make me a map of 2008, but I can’t seem to find that anywhere. Like, that would be a very nice blog-widget for them to have, non?) Maybe I’ll make a Google Earth flythrough if I get ambitious..

Cities that I spent the night in 2008 (* means multiple trips):

San Diego, CA
North Hollywood, CA
San Francisco, CA*
New York, NY
Sarasota, FL
Cabo San Lucas, Mexico
Morgan Hill, CA
Garberville, CA
Coloma, CA
Healdsburg, CA
Cleveland, OH
Pigeon Point, CA
Savannah, GA
Las Vegas, NV
Taipei, Taiwan
Kenting, Taiwan
Kaohsiung, Taiwan
Somewhere over the Pacific Ocean…
Philadelphia, PA

Lots of California travelin’ this year, although ZERO Tahoe trips for some reason (I am guessing that will change)..

All in all, a good year!

(Update: Thanks Mike for reminding me of my red-eye back from Taiwan)

I consume a lot of music. Out of the 1,259 songs I’ve added to my library this year, 61 songs received the coveted 5 Star “Dennis Loves This Song” rating. 304 songs garnered the still prestigious 4 star “This Song Makes It Onto My Ipod” award. So yah, it’s been a pretty good year, musically..

Anyway, I made a little mixtape of my 11 favorite songs of 2008… Enjoy.

Drive My Soul, by Lights
Yes, I admit it.. I first heard this song on The Hills. It’s bubble gummy, but that doesn’t mean that it’s bad. Cheese flavoured (spelled that way since Lights is canadian) gum to be exact.

Last Day Of Our Love, by The Bird And The Bee
With its retro-ish sound and wispy vocals, listening to this song is like eating cotton candy in the park on a brisk fall day in the 1960s.

I Adore You, by Melpo Mene
Like I’ve said before, this song is so frikkin cute. So, if you’ve had enough of shiba-inu puppycam, listen to this.

Only A Song, by Ben Sollee
This dude is like the coolest cello player I know. Well, besides that dude Yo Yo Ma, that dude is bad ass.

Momma’s Boy, by Chromeo
Chromeo rocks. This song, while honestly, not as good as “Needy Girl,” is still a really solid, solid track from the Montreal duo. (Hmm.. why are there so many Canadians on my list?)

A Lovely Beginning, by Vic Ruggiero featuring Lisa
So, Masnick and I went to see Vic play at Amante this year. He has been doing solo projects, sans the Slackers, for awhile now, and yah, it’s good.. This track is from his latest solo cd, and features some woman named “Lisa,” who Masnick tells me is German or something. It’s not very ska, it’s got a nice Calypso thing going on..

I’m Yours, by Jason Mraz
This is the second song that I’ve been introduced to by Jocelyn Yvette, a girl who covers songs and posts the videos on YouTube. I found her cover of Regina Spektor’s “Samson” last year, which is still one of my favorite versions of that song.. Anyway, here’s her version of I’m Yours if you’re interested.. Anyway, she’s good, and I wonder if she’ll make it big one of these days.. Oh yah, and Jason Mraz does a pretty good job on his song too. Thing is, after hearing this song, I bought the whole album, and I must say it sucks pretty bad. Aside from this song and “Lucky” with Colbie Cailait, the entire album is pretty much teh suck.

To Be Loved, by Joan As Policewoman
Yet another sophomore album release on this list (along with Chromeo), this track is really, really good.. but.. “I Defy” from her first album is absolutely amazing, which is the same problem I had with this year’s Chromeo track… Oh, the bitchy shadows of success.

Coney Island, by Good Old War
Weeee! I fun little country-ish, bluegrass ditty. It’s got it all knee slappin’, vocal harmonies, pickin’ guitar, and a tambourine.

Falcon Jab, by Ratatat
Ratatat’s album LP3 is probably my vote for best album of the year. It’s insane. It’s hard for me to even pick a best song off that entire album, so just go buy it and listen to it in its whole-y glory please.

Undertow, by Stars
Sheeza, yet another Canadian on this list. I guess they make good music up there. I first heard this song when Stars played the Fillmore, and immediately I was in love with it. A simple soothing melody followed by a nicely jamming bridge.. good stuff.

Anyway… that’s it.. if you’ve made it this far, then you deserve to actually LISTEN to this mixtape… so go here to listen.

Update:
Ooo.. Trying out this embeddable player from 8tracks.

Update:

Ok, I’ve added two songs that were late entries to this list..

Don’t Watch Me Dancing by Little Joy.
Can’t Help Falling in Love by Ingrid Michaelson.

Ahh.. summers in Ohio. What did that mean? Trips to amusement parks and carnivals, mainly: Cedar Point (the gem), Geagua Lake (since closed, sadly), and Sea World (closed for awhile apparently, even though on my last trip to Ohio, I happily advised my row-mate to “definitely go check it out” — oops. Figures, it never really made sense to put an ocean park in OHIO of all places, did it?).

Anyway, without further adieu, here’s my list of carnival games that I love. I was talking with Steph the other day and that Roller Bowler game came to mind, and that was inspiration enough for this post. Thanks Steph!

Roller Bowler.
Man, this game was awesome. Deceptively simple, yet wickedishly hard. Oooo.. There’s one for sale on eBay! Only 104 days till Christmas! Act Now!

Whac-a-Mole.
Ok, even though I said that Steph inspired this post, that’s only half true. Cuz Masnick wrote up a post last night that mentioned this game, and I was like “Wow, two mentions of carnival games in one week — yah, I should write this up.” I do remember that it was fairly easy to cheat at this game though. At some kid’s birthday party at Chuck-E-Cheese’s in like 1986, I recall four kids, each with their hands holding down a mole. The moles had no chance, and the machine was streaming out tickets like a mofo, natch.

That Spinny Rope Ladder Game.
I did love this game, although apparently being a fat, nerdy kid does not prime you for a career in spinny rope ladder walking. I never did get even remotely close to that darned bell. Oh, the bell!

Other games that I love, but this list is getting long.
Shoot Out The Star (man, I love that game). Shoot The Clown In The Mouth With A Water Gun. Throw Darts At Balloons. Throw Rings At Bottles. Throw Balls At Bottles. Throw Dimes On Plates.

Hmmm. It appears that I love all carnival games. I can’t really think of one that I don’t like. Man, I’m a sucker. Or maybe just a huge aficionado of ginormous stuffed animals.

Oh, SNAP! I just found this: Wii Carnival Games.

Happy New Year! Ok, this is becoming somewhat of a tradition — I did it for 2005 and 2006.. Here’s a little list of the cities that I’ve spent at least one night in… This year had my Thailand trip, so that bumped up my city count a bit…

As per the previous lists, this is in somewhat chronological order of the first stay and *s indicate multiple stays…

West Hollywood, CA
San Francisco, CA*
Las Vegas, NV
Truckee, CA
New York, NY*
Ithaca, NY
South Lake Tahoe, CA
North Hollywood, CA*
Bangkok, Thailand*
On an Overnight Train, Thailand
Krabi, Thailand
Ko Phi Phi, Thailand
Phuket, Thailand
Pigeon Point, CA
Hillsborough, CA*
Princeville, HI
San Diego, CA

Wooo.. that’s a nice little list… and it’s awesome to go back through the year and remember everywhere I’ve been… and shudder at just how quickly it all flew by.

Happy trails, everyone.

This was a good year for me musically, me thinks… I took a look at my Last.fm chart, as well as my iTunes to gather some data.. here are my top 11 tracks of 2007..

1. Your Hand in Mine – Explosions in the Sky
2. The Way I Am – Ingrid Michaelson
3. My Favourite Book – Stars
4. I Defy – Joan as Policewoman
5. Foundations – Kate Nash
6. Your Red Dress – Alaska in Winter
7. Sky Blue Sky – Wilco
8. My Eyes – Travis
9. New Young Pony Club – Ice Cream
10. To Build A Home – The Cinematic Orchestra
11. The Salmon Dance (feat Fatlip) – The Chemical Brothers

Well, I guess these were not necessarily all released in 2007, but, these tracks came to my attention in the past year…

Here they all are, in a Seeqpod player, for your listening enjoyment: