Ever made your way over to Lerner's iconic ramps for a midday break only to be inundated, upon arrival, by the wafting of piano scales? Bwog has also encountered those mysterious etudes on a number of occasions, but today we were in for quite the surprise.

While taking time away from surveying the cracks and stains in the ramps this afternoon, Bwog had the pleasure of nestling down on the far end of the large, red, and suede swirly chair in the Lerner Piano Lounge to take in, for a brief moment, the second incarnation of "Music on the Ramps," (the first was last week).

How to lose friends and alienate people

Oh Sarah Palin, is there anything to which you are not tangentially relevant?

The first of a two-part series on truck-based dessert foods.

Reading doesn't count unless someone sees you doing it.

Why try to forget about all the fun stuff you missed out on when you could relive the disappointment?

eyePod!

Everybody will read today's issue for some forum. But there is other news, apparently:

Madonna Constantine refuses to go away.

How quickly could you construct a "Vag?"

Professors aren't gods? Whaaat?

Already tired of New York clubs? Some months-old options.

For those of you who shied away from the fireworks and the humidity, here's Bwogger Lydia DePillis' dispatch from Washington DC's 4th of July.

Washington DC on the fourth of July is the hothouse of American patriotism (in more ways than one). Having avoided it last year, this time around I thought I'd try immersing myself -- kind of like seeing how long you can hold your breath underwater.

I didn't actually end up doing the whole shebang. I only saw a section of the parade, and I skipped out on the Capitol Lawn extravaganza (complete with Taylor Hicks!). Perhaps that was why the whole thing never actually felt repellent: I hadn't stuck around long enough for it to really sink in.

The parade, however, had a different twist than I was expecting. Sure, it had the blaring brass bands, the self-declared country western stars, West Virginia dairy princesses (okay, there was only one of those). But a good chunk was actually composed of immigrant groups asserting their love of America.

If you're not at the WBAR-B-Q right now, you're missing seeing... approximately thirty thousand bands. While Bwog was only able to get out there briefly and is now safely locked up in class, there's no excuse for you not being there. It's free! (Except the food.)

Now playing: Wizards of the Coast, featuring Bwog's own Justin Goncalves. Be there.

This is part two of a two-part series introducing you to the acts playing at this year's Bacchanal.

"Everything but country," is an all too familiar way for unimaginative people to define their taste, or lack there of, in music. Sure, we all like different kinds of music, but the ambiguity of that statement is preposterous and country is just not that bad. Like it or not, Grizzly Bear's music incorporates all sorts of genres and to some extent reflects that glib tag mentioned before. Their music has been described as everything from folk, country-folk, folk-rock and psychedelic folk-rock to electro-folk, post-rock and Baroque pop.

Fortunately, this Brooklyn based quartet coordinates their eclectic influences with dreamy cohesion. The pluck of acoustic guitars, reeds, retro organs and the occasional banjo articulate the soporific voice of the band's lead singer, Ed Droste. With breathy gasps and sighs, Droste's vocals give Grizzly Bear's songs a natural, nonchalant sound.

This is part one of a two-part series introducing you to the acts performing at this year's Bacchanal.

Two separate sets of brothers make up four-fifths of The National. The fifth is lead singer Matt Berninger, whose odd, deep voice is probably the most distinctive quality of the band's brooding sound. Since hitting the scene in 1999, when the band left Ohio and came to Brooklyn to work day jobs, the National have been on a steady rise to prominence. Their first two albums are low-fi and a little muddled, and were released on the band's own label; three years ago, they moved to Beggars Banquet Records, where they made their two most recent (and most popular) albums. They're marked by simple instrumentals and lyrical prowess.

Since 2005, The National have been significantly more popular; their last two albums, "Alligator" and "Boxer," were staples on Best Of lists (including Bwog's own). Sufjan Stevens' horns and piano can be heard in the background of a song on their last record, and they'll be backing up REM on their tour this summer.

Listen ("Brainy" @ musicisart.ws)
Listen (a dozen acoustic tracks @ aquariumdrunkard.com)
Listen (three tracks @ daytrotter.com)

--ZvS

An anonymous tipster reports that as of today, the Columbia Music and Arts Library is now allowing undergraduate students to actually check out (as in, take them home) CD's and DVD's for up to two weeks, as opposed to only being allowed to sit around on the 7th floor of Dodge inconspicuously ripping classical, jazz and new music recordings to your computer.

Of course, this also means you can sob to those five-hour opera DVD's of Tristan and Isolde -- or if you so please, chapters 1-12 of R. Kelly's Trapped in the Closet -- in the peace of your own dorm room. Alas, no word yet on chapters 13-22.

Currently, a guitarist and a bald tenor are singing outside of the Lerner Piano Lounge, attracting onlookers from all around. Upon approaching the scene, the fragrant smell of free food grows and one finds uniformed Housing and Dining people sitting around trays of deliciousness. So far the troubadour has serenaded Fair Alma with "A Whiter Shade of Pale." Twice.

Spotted in the elevator in the 620 Barnard dorm:

Bwogger Justin Gonçalves weighs in with words and pictures from last night's ESC Battle of the Bands.

Last night, on the storied stage of Roone Arledge Auditorium, the Engineering Student Council capped off its annual E-Week celebrations with the ESC Battle of the Bands. After five bands ran through ten-minute sets, Crown Victoria and the Kitchen Cabinet were crowned winners, leaving this reviewer wondering whether the university's lack of dedication to undergraduate "underground arts," as discussed today in the Spec, has had any impact on the music scene's creative spirit. Has the creative spirit had been replaced entirely by a (not entirely mutually exclusive) desire to entertain?

The night began with eventual winners, Crown Victoria, whose Teddy Geiger-inspired alt-rock set an early tone for the musical portion of the evening. The band, fronted by Alexander Howard C'09, rollicked through a very tight series of tunes that might eventually find their home in a Budweiser commercial. And for that, they received the highest score of the evening.

Columbia's current favorite sons, Vampire Weekend, seem to be doing pretty well for themselves lately. With their full-length album coming out in three days and two sold-out shows at Bowery Ballroom kicking off a national tour next week. "Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa" was Rolling Stone's 67th best song of the year, and a snarky Pitchfork review can't be more than two weeks in coming, considering the backlash that we've seen -- without an album even having been released!

On the local front, Columbian Jared Hecht passed along his interview with the group, over at Jambands. The phrase "Upper West Side Soweto" appears more than once.

(If you still haven't heard VW, there are some pretty good free samples on Daytrotter.)

Bwog freelancer Stephanie Quan isn't a classical music buff, but she got interested in virtuoso violinist Joshua Bell when she heard about this experiment in a D.C. metro station. Eight months later, she snagged a phone interview with the Strad-playing celebrity, and quizzed him on childhood habits and favorite dead people.

Bwog: Hi.

Joshua Bell: Hi! This is Joshua Bell here.

Hi, this is Stephanie. Shall we start? I've got a lot of questions written down here.

I got answers.

So you first began violin after your parents found you playing with rubberbands on your dresser. What inspired you to do that?

Well I grew up with a lot of music around me. So I'm sure that I was stimulated by hearing my mother play the piano and my father, [he] loved music. [he] had a violin himself. Although he was sorta self-taught. But there was just a lot of music going around. All my cousins, my siblings played music. So I suppose hearing all that made me want to make music and my first sort of homemade instruments were those rubberbands on my dresser drawer. Then my parents got me a violin and it was just a very natural thing. It was like learning to speak, you know, playing music. I can't even really remember not playing the violin.

So I've actually had to try this myself... and it's not easy! How does it exactly work? Where do the rubberbands go?

Well I haven't repeated the experiment myself in the last thirty years. I had a set of nine little dresser drawers and I used to string these rubberbands across from one to the next and open up the drawers to different lengths to get different pitches.

With all the ballots in and the numbers thoroughly crunched, Bwog proudly presents its second annual Music Critics(ish) Poll. Like last year, we've collected lists of favorite albums and singles from various on campus critics, musicians, and radio programmers. Unlike last year, we've devised a formula (not a very complicated one) in order to create a composite list, awarding 100 points to the first album or song on the list, 90 to the second, 85 to the third, 80 to fourth, etc. It sounds simple, but it took a while, believe you me. Thanks to all those who submitted lists (all of which can be read and thoroughly criticized after the jump).

UPDATE: After it was brought to my attention that a certain Bwogger's list was not posted and thus not included in the composite album listing, we have a new number one album. It was close, but Radiohead wins. My sincerest apologies to Armin Rosen, whose list is now visible after the jump.

Critics' Choice:

Albums

1. Radiohead—In Rainbows
2. M.I.A.—Kala
3. Animal Collective—Strawberry Jam
4. Battles—Mirrored
5. The Field—From Here We Go Sublime
6. Kanye West—Graduation
6. Panda Bear—Person Pitch
8. The National—Boxer
9. Justice—Cross
10. Liars—Liars
11. Deerhoof—Friend Opportunity
12. Dirty Projectors—Rise Above
13. Om—Pilgrimage
14. Of Montreal—Hissing Fauna, Are You The Destroyer?
15. LCD Soundsystem—Sound of Silver

Singles

1. Rihanna feat. Jay-Z—"Umbrella"
2. LCD Soundsystem—"All My Friends"
3. UGK feat. Outkast—"Int'l Players Anthem (I Choose You) "
4. M.I.A.— "Paper Planes"
5. Sean Kingston—"Beautiful Girls"
6. DJ Khaled feat. Akon, T.I., Fat Joe, Rick Ross, Birdman, and Lil Wayne—"We Takin' Over"
7. Fabolous feat. Ne-Yo—"Make Me Better"
8. Kanye West—"Stronger"
9. Panda Bear—"Bros."
10. Swizz Beatz—"Money in the Bank"

In Rainbows--a frequenter on this year's top ten lists--is now complete with the release of Disc 2 about a week ago. Bwog's newest music critic Michael Molina provides his assessment.

As of December 10th, Radiohead's In Rainbows is no longer available to download online, but will be sold on CD and vinyl starting January 1st - a good way to spend all of your holiday Barnes & Nobles gift cards. However, you might also want to consider buying the discbox from the w.a.s.t.e. site or just illegally downloading the two discs online (a second disc comes in the box set). Whatever you do, just be sure to get both albums.

Disc 2, leaked onto the internet after the discbox was delivered to honest shoppers on December 4th, is a collection of eight songs that are either completely new or have only been played in concerts. Because the first song, "MK 1", begins with the final chords of "Videotape" (the last track off of the first CD), it's hard not to separate the two albums from each other. The choice to create a second CD that is more of a continuation of the first raises the question of why Radiohead chose the songs they did for either album. The 10 tracks of the first disc seem to be the best rep-resentation of the idea behind In Rainbows whereas the eight tracks of the other are songs that fit into the style of the album as well but are not necessary for a collective understanding of the album. None of these songs are stylistically unsuitable for the album, different/mediocre versions, live versions, covers nor any other type of song that tends to appear on the B-side of an album. If anything, the eight songs on disc 2 are the complete opposite.