Tuesday, February 24, 2009

YOUTUBE ROUNDUP

inspired by my friend tim's roundups of interesting things on youtube and wikipedia, i've decided to collect and exhibit for you some of my favorite MUSIC RELATED things on the best website ever. the reason i love these videos varies: killer dance moves, a unique performance, a revealing story, blah blah blah.

the first one i'm going to share with you is ON A NECK ON A SPIT, BY DAN ROSSEN OF GRIZZLY BEAR, IN A PARISIAN ELEVATOR. this is a video by la blogotheque, who do amazing things called concerts a emporter (literally, show to take with you). i link to them quite often because they are quite often mindblowing and very exciting. if you are ever at home sick on a rainy day i would take the time to watch every one that you can (my favorites are by architecture in helsinki, grizzly bear, yeasayer, tapes n tapes, andrew bird, vampire weekend obviously, and fleet foxes). this particular video is so incredible i don't even know how i can describe it to you. it's just dan in an elevator playing the best part of the best song on yellow house in dizzying, awkward light, singing in THAT VOICE, etc etc etc. haunting and mesmorizing.
next, THE WALKMEN PLAYING IN THE NEW YEAR AT YOU & ME's RELEASE SHOW. you will understand why when you watch it.
recently, THE BEARS ARE COMING, BY LATE OF THE PIER ON A BRITISH TV SHOW. i got tickets for april 1 in NYC. this band look like they will rip your face off live by the force of their ridiculousness. this recording is good because it seems very spontaneous. it sounds cleaner than the version on the album... crisper. i like the duo vocals, and i will always love that first minute. i am pretty sure that they always dance like this.
EVEREST BY RA RA RIOT AT BOWERY BALLROOM WHERE THEY PLAYED BETWEEN VAMPIRE WEEKEND AND TOKYO POLICE CLUB; AKA. THAT SHOW THAT NOT GOING TO IS THE BIGGEST REGRET OF MY LIFE. this is, by all rights, a terrible video. the sound is about 200% shit. the camera jitters and jumps around, you can't hear wes sing, it is incomplete, etc etc etc. i want to cry about the fact that i was not there, so watching it just makes me sad. that said, do you see the energy in this video. i get chills from watching it on youtube. look at wes jump in the beginning! the occasions when you can hear rebecca's violin in the background are shockingly gorgeous. this corroborates my opinion that ra ra riot might be the most consistently great live band currently playing shows. if you have doubts you obviously have not watched this video.
DO THE WHIRLWIND BY ARCHITECTURE IN HELSINKI ON THE SECOND SWEATIEST NIGHT OF MY LIFE. this was the closer to their 'first set' (they came out and played never ever ever did and heart it races). the recording of this is so clear and awesome. that night they played mostly new stuff off of places like this, which i hadn't heard after a year of trying to remember what they all sounded like from the first time i saw them. way to remind me. they opened with red turned white. they way that they ad-lib so much live is so incredible (ie. cameron yelling random shit in the middle). gus playing the trombone. something is very strange and very powerful about this song.
BLIND. favorite music video maybe ever. this song is really transfixing as well. it reminds me of love will tear us apart (always a good thing) because it is so dancy and simultaneously expresses this overwhelming hopelessness. devastating song.
VAMPIRE WEEKEND PLAYING TO ACTUAL RICH PREPPY WHITE KIDS. i almost applied to williams because of this video. i like the story in the beginning... "it wouldn't be a bad thing if we were from massachusetts either... we've got the jams to prove it." look at how psyched the audience is / that dude in the white beret. this almost manages to communicate exactly what it feels like to yell along with a whole bunch of other people "do you want to fuck like you know i do? would this feel so unnatural to peter gabriel?" the audio's really great. before the video came out, i considered this the definitive video for the song because it is just too good.
I WANT TO BE... YOUR SLEDGEHAMMER. peter gabriel's dance moves are so evidently sexual but so grossly so that you can laugh at them more than actually wanting him to be your sledgehammer. my favorite part of this song in any form is its total confidence and purpose - "i am going to be your sledgehammer. there will be no doubt about it."
DAVID CROSS INTERPRETS THE BEAST AND DRAGON ADORED FOR THE DEAF. classic.
PHOTOBOOTH BY FRIENDLY FIRES AT ICELAND AIRWAVES IN 2007. i was not sold on friendly fires until i saw this video. this was the first time i heard photobooth.
SKIN IS MY AT TARRYTOWN MUSIC HALL. you might remember when i saw andrew bird last year. this video is from that show. the entirity of this song KT and i sat in our seats leaning forward and stared and watched him play. you have to see andrew because he will blow your mind.

more later. might not do so much updating because my stage management duties are getting to me.

Sunday, February 22, 2009

PARIS

DELICIOUS:


france was amazing. i would like to introduce you to some songs i fell in love with whilst there.

I DON'T MIND (JUMP ON IT) --- LYKKE LI. katie played this for me on a super-long metro excursion, along with some discovery and other classic jams. the synth is TOO good.
SHAKE A FIST --- HOT CHIP. heard this first in a hotel room in arles, fell in love, had to borrow katie's ipod to listen to it at least once a day...
FLUME --- BON IVER. my friends gregg and peter dueted this on top of the eiffel tower.
ELEPHANT GUN --- BEIRUT. great for the drive back to paris from the loire valley.
AND NO POST IS COMPLETE WITHOUT:
I STAND CORRECTED --- VAMPIRE WEEKEND. i used "i stand corrected" in a mock-argument with katie about candy corn which went down when we had both been awake approximately 24 hours, and was spurred to rediscover my adoration for this song.

BONUSES:

LOOK WHO DID A TAKE AWAY SHOW / LOOK AT HOW BEAUTIFUL IT IS WHILE I CRY ABOUT THE FACT THAT I MISSED THEIR SHOW AT LA FLECHE D'OR. i was on the guest list, but couldn't make it. heartwrenching.


if you have followed in my footsteps and fallen in love with late of the pier, they have announced two NYC shows and a show AT YALE (gossip girl music supervisors... this is your cue to adopt the bears are coming as the soundtrack for some blair / hot teacher showdown action). i currently have the window open to buy tickets for april 1 at bowery ballroom.

Thursday, February 12, 2009

I AM GOING TO FRANCE

so i will be away for a week, see you all when i get back!

Tuesday, February 10, 2009

A BIT BEHIND THE CURVE ON THIS

GRIZZLY BEAR'S NEW ALBUM IS GOING TO BE MASSIVE AND IT IS NAMED AFTER AN ISLAND IN MASSACHUSETTS. this is really important to me because we are talking about THE FATHERLAND here, for me.

in celebration of that here's a song which is called CHEERLEADER although it will save as '2 Hud.' but it is really called cheerleader. it is massively awesome.

CHEERLEADER --- GRIZZLY BEAR. if i ever meet ed droste i will tell him "ed, your voice sounds like realizing you're alive."

more exciting news copy and pasted from twitter: "We are going to play new songs at BAM yes, and try to play older songs we've never played before, we are even toying with a HOP track"
so psyched for this show

Friday, February 6, 2009

IT'S BEEN FOREVER SINCE I LAST BLOGGED

i feel really bad about not bloggin' like crazy this past little while, because i always have a lot to say about music. i've been really busy with midterms and stuff but i've decided to take time out of my BUSY SCHEDULE to talk to you about SOMETHING I FEEL VERY STRONGLY ABOUT:


THE FIRST TRACK ON THIS ALBUM, WHICH IS CALLED NEVEREVEREVERDID.

i remember when i first heard this song: it was in central park, in the concert i described to you a while back. i went to see AIH knowing three of their songs. i have called them my favorite band for about two and a half years. this song opens with those church bells, and i remember the next morning looking desperately on itunes for what song opened with church bells. my brother and i were ecstatic when we found the right one. i recall that they closed with this song, which makes quite a bit of sense because it is devastating. this is one of the most powerful songs that i know, but when i think of other powerful songs they sound nothing like this one, which in its multi-instrumentation is almost whimsical. i love beyond loving when it falls apart, then picks back up together.

the second time i saw AIH it was, at the time, the sweatiest experience of my life and the best concert i had ever seen. (both of these titles have since been stolen, but i feel that AIH established them in the first place and deserve quite a bit of recognition. i had never thought about what the best concert of my life was prior to seeing them). they played neverevereverdid second-to-last. during that part in the middle, "slender is the finger and it points towards the floor," cameron sang in this different rhythm, with the words grouped differently, and we all sang it like it is on the album. i will never forget the sound of that. it was like we were all a choir. i remember that he was standing just above me, and i was in the front row, i think he leaned on the drums and he sang and we all just looked up at him and yelled the words, "offers you an excuse..." and then everyone in that entire room yelled "ONE! OF! TWO! THINGS! I WISH I HAD AND NEVER DID!"



also, i know i don't usually blog about fiction but i feel like i need to share the greatness of this with the entire world.
THE FINEST STORY IN THE WORLD --- RUDYARD KIPLING. i love how i just annotated this like i do with songs.
read this today and my mind was blown. could not think straight for about 15 minutes afterward. pretty much, on a smaller scale, how i felt when i first heard ladies of cambridge. IT'S THAT GOOD.

Monday, February 2, 2009

IT'S ALL EVOLUTION'S FAULT NOW

this time last year i had a favorite album of the year, which stayed my favorite album of the year. i don't know what will happen with this one, but i love it and i love it a lot. out of the 13 songs on it, i think 9 are gold.


this is called fantasy black channel and the band is called late of the pier. i just blogged about them two posts ago. lately all i want to listen to is the first six songs on this. it is like being punched six times.

ARE YOU NOT CONVINCED? GET YOURSELF CONVINCED:
RANDOM FIRL --- LATE OF THE PIER. what i think is there's nothing like positivity. you want to take a nice deep breath and say "look, see, i guess this doesn't suck as much as it could, and life is beautiful."

are you still like "genny, are you serious?" well. YOUTUBE MIGHT CONVINCE YOU of something, not sure what, maybe that they deserve a little of your time and attention based on the evident ridiculousness they so effortlessly bring across...