//nedward.org is the personal weblog of John Niedermeyer, an Editorial Designer at NYTimes.com, living in Brooklyn.
Did you know that NYTimes.com streamed live video of last night’s debate, right on the top of its home page? There was a full-screen option, too. Pretty cool stuff – even Gawker was impressed.
Also, check out our V.P. Debatinator – a mashup of video, transcript, and timeline from the debate.
Walking out of the Roseland Ballroom last Tuesday night, I felt blind, deaf and dumbfounded – and I’m not the only one. We had just stood through an assault on our eyes, ears, and patience, but it was an amazing show.
Ear plugs were handed out on the way in, and I jammed them in as far as they would go – but, I’m not sure it was enough. It was certainly the loudest show I’ve ever witnessed.
And it wasn’t enough for the light show to be trippy and beautiful, but it also had to burn out your retinas. Lisa made the point that there were more lights pointed out at the crowd than at the band themselves. Still, the bright pink glow was exactly the perfect accompaniment for the band that recorded Loveless.
Last week I saw Vivian Girls play at Death By Audio in Williamsburg. It was my second time seeing them, and certainly won’t be the last. The Times printed a rave review:
Even though this band’s music tends toward the discordant, Vivian Girls … are romantics at heart. Their taut, no-nonsense songs brim over with noise and touches of shoegaze reverb, but at the center are glorious, gentle harmonies.
They open for Sonic Youth tomorrow, August 30th, at the McCarren Park Pool, or you can catch them again at Death By Audio on September 2nd.
Parlophone Records recently put all 22 Blur videos up on YouTube, which is pretty cool. It’s interesting to compare the Popscene video from 1992, with the iconic Song 2 video from five years later – there are a lot of similarities, (though I wish music video directors would refrain from putting sing-a-long lyrics on the screen).
Blur was my favorite band back in the 90s, and I’ve seen them perform live a handful of times, the best of which was a raucous small show downstairs at the Middle East in Cambridge, MA in 1997. [MOKB]
I’ve been known to make some blanket pronouncements over the years – such as, “I don’t like cover bands,” only to be proven wrong later. What I discovered was that I quite loved cover bands when they play music that I like, as opposed to the baby boomer prog rock and frat boy drivel that you usually hear.
Apply the same lesson to light shows… fancy lights at rock shows always seemed ridiculous to me; a stoner cliché. Ahh, but fancy light shows accompanying music that I love? That’s awesome!
Ladytron is one such band. As good as many of their records are, their live shows are something bordering on the transcendent. Now, I realize that it is nothing new for electronic bands to have light shows synced to the music, but what is impressive to me about them is their seriousness about playing real instruments, live, in the room. It brings a lot more energy to the show.
But, it has me wondering… how do they sync the lights so perfectly? It’s almost like there is a computer with a line-in feed, processing everything as it’s played.
Despite the heavy rains, thunder and lightening last saturday night, I ventured out to Bushwick on the J train to catch one of my favorite bands, Love Is All. They’ve acquired something of a good live reputation over the past couple of years, and though it was a short set, they didn’t disappoint.
One glance at these photos and video, and it should be clear that this was a very hot and sweaty show. And given that I found myself in the “pit” for the first time since my grunge days in high school, I’m pretty sure that I left the Market Hotel that night with a lot of other peoples’ sweat on me.
I don’t understand why Radiohead is considered by many to be one of the best rock bands of all time. Since The Bends, I’ve been bored.
Radiohead cover of Joy Division/New Order’s “Ceremony”
Sounds exciting, but 30 seconds of this made me want to hear the original instead. One doesn’t think of Bernard Sumner’s voice as in the same league as Thom Yorke, but he wins.
Radiohead covers the Smiths’ “The Headmaster Ritual”
Here again, a lifeless, listless cover. Thom does an unconvincing ape of Moz’s mock-tortured cadence that just ends up torturing us all.
Go ahead and try to convince me otherwise…
If you look in my iTunes library right now, you won’t find any U2. But, that doesn’t mean that I don’t have the entire back catalogue. The Joshua Tree was my first CD when I was a kid, I even have Under a Blood Red Sky on vinyl.
But, just because I don’t really listen to them anymore, doesn’t mean that I don’t get a little excited when something new U2 comes out. In advance of the re-release and remastered special edition of The Joshua Tree, the band has released a video on iLike’s Facebook app where Bono discusses an unreleased track included on the compilation.
U2 – “Wave of Sorrow”
The sentiment is moving, but man, I can’t believe the guy sings along to his own recording… as ever, Bono straddles the line between egomaniac and saint.
[via]
It’s friday – time to get ready for the weekend. I finally got around to getting the new The Go! Team album Proof of Youth, and it’s great. I’m loving the juxtaposition of hiphop, noisy guitars, and the multiculti lineup.
Here is a live video:
A short documentary on the band is below the fold.
I know what bus I’m taking now, whenever I need to get to Boston or DC:
NYC-Boston bus offers free wi-fi, and reservations
…will provide riders with free WiFi on its leased buses, which are equipped with routers. Vamoose is selling one-way reserved seats for $22.
Free wi-fi and a guaranteed seat, for $40 round trip? Done.
More at Vamoosebus.com.
Lisa and I still keep in touch with a lot of friends from high school, some of which we’ve known since grade school. We were all trying to remember today if there was an alma mater anthem for our High School. As none of us were particularly rah-rah back then, we couldn’t remember.
Three of us, however, could remember the words to our grade school anthem - which is a bit shocking, considering the last time I heard it was sometime in 1988, in the fifth grade. I think they forced us to sing this thing during assemblies, throughout the school years:
Country Parkway is our school,
where we learn to obey the rules.
We do our best and take great pride,
with our Country’s flag flying high.Here we work and here we play
Learning new things everyday.
From north to south and east to west,
Our Country Parkway is the best.
Creepy, in its emphasis on conformity - especially for a fairly progressive public school district.
The new Yeah Yeah Yeahs EP Is Is is out, and it kind of reminds me why they were worth listening to in the first place.
From Pitchfork:
Each aspect of her (Karen O’s) stage identity finds equal expression on these songs, which only makes them sound more immediate and affecting. In fact, Is Is may be their most instantly accessible release, which is not a critical dig but just a way of saying it finds a good balance between alienating and inviting, between song and performance.
It was produced by Australian Nick Launay (who recorded Gang of Four, Killing Joke, and Public Image Ltd). Not too shabby.
8/10 - iTunes
I’ve been listening to a few CDs on repeat a lot, these past few months – my chief obsession being The Knife’s two LPs, the earlier Deep Cuts, and last year’s Silent Shout. I’m not a big techno fan, but I am a confessed svensk-phile.
I’m excited to hear from Pitchfork that The Knife are getting ready to release a deluxe edition of Silent Shout, “featuring a live disc and a DVD in addition to the original synth-rattled masterpiece.”
I’m totally looking forward to the DVD [Pre-order with Amazon] – my favorite track “Heartbeats” was re-worked awesomely. Here’s a preview:
We’re heading home to Buffalo for the holiday, (and my 10-year High School reunion), which reminds me of how well the Sabres are playing.
ESPN’s John Buccigross compares the Sabres to the britpop Oasis of all things:
At full strength, the Buffalo Sabres are unequivocally the best team in the NHL. Not only do they have the full complement of parts, but Buffalo has that confidence that Oasis had when they went head-to-head with Blur back in 1995 in a Britpop mano a mano, or more accurately called boyo-a-boyo.
Noel Gallagher said he and Oasis’ soul was more pure than Blur’s because they grew up poor, with dirt underneath their fingernails, while Blur was middle class. The concept is interesting, especially when it is spoken with a rough English accent while sitting in a gigantic and expensive chair.
But Chris Drury, who grew up in a middle-class town in southern Connecticut, makes $3.1 million this season and probably will sign a five-year, $22 million contract with someone next summer. And yet, he plays every game like someone kidnapped his entire family and the ransom is winning the faceoff he is about to take. That’s the story, morning glory.
I may not agree with John’s take on the 90s Britpop war, but it’s hard to argue with his thoughts on Drury.
Sorry for not posting in a while, but Presley posted something too funny:
Weed Makes You Listen to Indie Rock
According to the Office of National Drug Control Policy and the Partnership for a Drug-Free America, smoking the wacky tabacky turns you into a poseur. Even worse: an indie rock poseur.
Listen to this PSA. Just listen to it. And then just try to tell me it doesn’t make you want to put down the bong and start listening to rap music.
[mp3]
//nedward.org is the personal weblog of John Niedermeyer, an Editorial Designer at NYTimes.com, living in Brooklyn.
