Twee is for me!
So, I had a wonderful weekend up in Northampton, MA (where I picked up a vintage coat, a Talking Heads LP and a cute little rainbow sticker that says “All Families Matter”), and I have some writing I did while up there that will hopefully find its way onto this blog tomorrow. Right now I just wanted to post some wonderful twee music for a friend, since she admitted to me tonight that she didn’t know the band Camera Obscura. So here are three songs I’ll share with everyone: the first from their newest album, and the second two from their first (which was produced by another Scottish twee master — Stuart Murdoch).
- Camera Obscura – Loyd, I’m Ready to be Heartbroken
- Camera Obscura – Eighties Fan
- Camera Obscura – Happy New Year
Oh man, the good old twee days. How I, little indie boy, miss them.
Goddamn right, it’s a beautiful day
In celebration of my having landed a DJ’ing and bar tending gig in New York next week, I has a muxtape.
The playlist is as follows. Title links to an mp3. Band name links to purchasing. And the above is how to listen to the entire playlist as a whole.
- Mr. E’s Beautiful Blues – Eels
- 5 Years Time – Noah and the Whale
- Time After Time – Jake Shimabukuro — Acoustic ukulele cover of Cindi Lauper
- The Richest Kids – This is Ivy League
- New Soul – Yael Naïm
- LDN – Lily Allen
- Future Faberage (MGMT & Of Montreal) – AmpLive — Of Montreal’s new album is out soon, too.
- Lolita – Throw Me the Statue
- Quiet Town – Josh Rouse
- Don’t Stop – Fleetwood Mac
- Strange Overtones – David Byrne and Brian Eno — From their new album together.
Post-weekend linkfest
Noah and the Whale
Nathaniel has a great post up detailing the work of this fine band. Make sure to grab their single “5 Years Time” from him, which is a perfect twee pop song for the morning. Even I feel chipper after listening. And, if you liked that, check out their myspace page this Thursday at 9 am EST to hear them play a streaming show (which is one of those little tidbits you get to learn when you speak another language).
Wood punk?
From Wired comes a neat photo gallery of wooden sculptures, many of which have a sci-fi bent to them.
Conspiracy theories are my guilty pleasure
Which is why reading Glen Greenwald’s Slate column is so fun. Over the weekend he’s posted three long articles regarding the ongoing anthrax investigation. He’s right about one thing: whatever the role of the government in the scare (and I still have a hard time believing any stories about the US attacking its own; yes, I’ll probably be one of the first to drink the Kool-aid), the media played a pretty despicable one.
Fin
And finally, I had a good weekend with this guy et al., discussing all sorts of politics and culture. So now I must get to my real job, but I’m looking forward to this week, where I plan to post a bit more on music and have a longer article in the works. Also, in the distant future will be coming a bigger project with a better-known blogger, so I’m really excited about that. I’ll let y’all know as it happens.
Nostalgia — part one.
From a time when “the hop” was evidently the place to be, when men wore bow ties and it wasn’t a fashion statement, when African-American influences were finally being acknowledged and embraced in American music, when songs about God’s power could be top of the pops, when a music video consisted of people standing in front of puppets, and when speeding up your voice was considered experimental music: the top 100 songs of 1958.
This is the first in a short series loosely themed on nostalgia and music.
Animal Collective Live
From Matt comes a wonderful live recording of Animal Collective at Pitchfork’s live music festival last week. The file is a .rar file, which can be unzipped using 7zip for Windows or UnRarX for OSX.
The tracklist, which was posted by a commenter on the site, is:
- Chocolate Girl
- Comfy in Nautica — a song from Panda Bear’s solo album
- House
- Lion in a Coma
- Peacebone
- Daily Routine
- Bearhug
- Fireworks / Essplode
Anyway, check it out. If you like what you hear, you can find Animal Collective’s upcoming tour dates and more songs at their myspace page.
Paris en détresse?
From Kottke comes this gem of an article about the so-called cultural decline of Paris. The gist is that the city is no longer the cultural capital it used to be, because it has not kept up with the times, and this is a Bad Thing. I call bullshit (admittedly, partially because it is my favorite city). When I was living there a year ago, I found a great young scene centered around not only le clubbing, but also a great live music scene, a healthy, to say the least, selection of museums and theatres, both modern and classic, great fashion, and fantastic food, all within a downtown that is walkable and has an amazing public transportation system.
Catherine Field’s article doesn’t seem to do to benefit the argument, perhaps because the argument itself is vapid. The thesis is, more or less, that Paris is not the cultural landmark it once was, owing partially to its being suck in the past, and partially to the mobs of tourists who come swarming in to enjoy, ironically enough, the culture of Paris. Evidence to the fact that Paris is not the juggernaut it once was comes in almost list form. The largest piece of evidence is that in modern art museums, few living French artists are shown. The article of course must contradict itself by naming Paris a leader of cinematography, film, architecture, dance, food, and more, all while leaving off some of the most influential French artists in those respective categories. Field’s way of writing this off? The most pretentious of all sentiments: France is a leader, “…if these are accepted as arts.”
And so the article tips its hand. A decline in big-name visual artists from Paris is equated with a decline in culture. Visual art is the one true art, and art is the only important measuring stick of culture. You’ll excuse me if I call that stupid. Culture includes visual arts, those lesser or non-arts Ms. Field mentions, as well as a history, a tradition, politics, and so much more. To define culture as art is not only uninteresting, it misses the point of what creates vibrancy in a place. The very thing that the article points to as being Paris’ reason for a lack of culture actually will help to create a stronger one: looking to the past for inspiration for the future. Paris, and all of France, is a place that holds on strongly to its national identity, to its (history|mythology), to its old buildings and old arts. In doing so, it might miss opportunities in some arts, but it finds opportunities in others, and creates a very pleasant atmosphere to live in. In many ways Paris did well to hold on to the past, for we do not see the eyesore that is brutalist architecture that inhabits other European (and American!) cities.
The truth is, there is fantastic art coming out of Paris. I will offer one example in depth, but many more can be seen, especially in contemporary film, architecture and theatre. Look at Vincent Moon and his Concerts à emporter series. They’re an exciting mix of contemporary indie music, a film making style that is reminiscent of new-wave cinematography, and the sights of Paris, old buildings, contemporary neighborhoods, and the rest. Two of my favorites are below; Yeasayer performing while walking through the streets and then while within the metro, and below that Andrew Bird wandering the streets of Montmatre on the day that I saw him in concert in a venue nearby. This was the same concert where the audience made Dosh, Bird’s friend, drummer, and opening act, play an encore, something I’ve never seen done for or by an opening act before. It was a wonderful night, that night, and was more than enough to convince me that Paris does have a lot of culture left in it. It might not be the kind that manifests itself solely though having big-name visual artists, but it is a wonderful culture that puts it near the top of cities in Europe, or the world. Its a culture that knows its past and tradition, that melds (as French art has done since the middle ages) all the best Europe and America have to offer, and its a culture that is inherently French. Est-ce que Paris est en détresse ? Non.
#87.1 – YEASAYER – No need to worry / Redcave
Uploaded by lablogotheque
#45.3 – Andrew Bird – Spare-Oh
Uploaded by lablogotheque
Radiohead — House of Cards
Radiohead has a new video out, for their song “House of Cards” from In Rainbows. The video was created without use of a traditional camera, instead relying on modeling techniques that use lasers to pinpoint the distance of an object and its topology. While the video isn’t the most action-packed, the visuals made are interesting, and, in their current style, Radiohead have released all the data from the video so that anyone can remix the video. I’d normally show the video here, but instead I recommend you head over to this page, which explains the concepts behind the rendering technology, and has the data available for download. Oh, and the video is there too.
Beck — Modern Guilt and “Gamma Rays”
Beck has a new album out. It’s fantastic. Produced with Danger Mouse of Grey Album and Gnarls Barkley fame, it’s both a throwback to the good old Beck (remember Midnight Vultures?) and an experimentation in the vein of Beck’s last few albums. Get it now, and watch the video for “Gamma Rays”, the first single, below.
His Name is Alive
One of my favorite albums of the last year has been His Name is Alive’s XMMER. His Name is Alive is the work of Warn Defever, an eccentric if ever there was one, who does the song writing and most the instrumentals. As David Bowie remarked, HNIA feature a sort of “70′s singer-songwriter vibe”, but coupled with a heavier bass line and more electronics than you’d expect to hear from that type. I found the band through their song “How Dark is Your Dark Side?”, played on the radio and then over and over again when I finally found the mp3. I bought the album soon after, feeling that any band who could produce music as ethereal and beautiful as this deserved my $10. I wasn’t disappointed; in fact, the song I present now from the album was worth the money I paid on its own:
Don’t think, though, that having this song excepts one from having the rest of the album. It is a beautiful album that I’ve loved putting on in the background while I do homework or wake up, staring at the ceiling, thinking my muddled morning thoughts. Get it from Amazon’s mp3 downloads (by far the best online non-subscription distributor of digital music) or, better yet, get it on vinyl. This is truly an album that will be made even better by vinyls warm sounds. Also, go to His Name is Alive’s website to grab a free EP or Remix album.
Isn’t the digital distribution of media wonderful?
