Archive for the 'music' Category

Reunited Blur Perform First Gig in Nearly 10 Years

Oh man, I’m so excited for the Blur reunion this summer, even though it seems lim­ited to the UK for now. The first of these new gigs hap­pened on June 13th at the site of their first gig, and from the looks of a few YouTube videos, they sound fantastic.

From NY Mag’s Vul­ture Blog:

On Sat­ur­day, before an audi­ence of 150, Blur played its first con­cert as a four-​piece in a decade, at Essex, England’s East Anglian Rail­way Museum (it’s where they per­formed one of their ear­li­est gigs) — and some won­der­ful person has uploaded video of prac­ti­cally the entire show.

Video of Blur performing ‘There’s no Other Way’ on June 13th.

More Coverage:

[Via HalfAlien]

June 16, 2009 » Tags: , , . » 0 Comments

Camera Obscura & DJ Victoria Bergsman, at the Bell House

Victoria Bergsman

Victoria Bergsman, DJing at The Bell House in Brooklyn.

Ned­ward: Vic­to­ria Bergs­man (for­merly of The Con­cretes) is DJing at The Bell House, much to my delight. Wait­ing for Camera Obscura!

As big a fan of Camera Obscura as I am, the more inter­est­ing bit Tues­day night was a spe­cial guest DJ, Vic­to­ria Bergs­man. A lot of people know her voice as the female coun­ter­point in Young Folks, the Peter Bjorn and John sing-​along hit from a couple of years ago. But she was also the singer in one of my favorite bands, The Con­cretes. (Camera Obscura fans should check out their epony­mous debut album.) She has since left the band, and formed a solo project under the name Taken By Trees, (also a great debut).

Anyhow, I might have been the only person in the crowd that had any idea who she was – or cared – so Lisa encour­aged me to say hello. But, I’m just not one of those people who walks up to a famous person, and just gushes in their face. Call it shy­ness, call it fear of disappointment… the bottom line is that I chick­ened out.

To make mat­ters worse, Lisa went over to the DJ booth with­out me, and told Ms. Bergs­man that “her friend was a big fan,” but that he “didn’t want to bother her.” Nice. So now I’m shy, and embarrassed.

I don’t really regret it that much, but I would’ve liked to show off some dance moves from The Con­cretes’ On The Radio video. I’d like to think that she would’ve laughed.

Con­tinue read­ing ‘Camera Obscura & DJ Vic­to­ria Bergs­man, at the Bell House’

March 26, 2009 » Tags: , , , , , , , , , . » 1 Comment

U2 on Letterman, $4 Album Download

U2 kicked-​off their his­toric 5-night res­i­dency on David Letterman’s Late Show last night, with a per­for­mance of Breathe. They even par­tic­i­pated in a little sketch, where Dave had them out­side on 53rd Street, shov­el­ing snow.

The res­i­dency is to cel­e­brate the release this week of their twelfth studio record, No Line On The Hori­zon. And it just so hap­pens that you can grab a copy of it in non-​DRM MP3 format for $4 from Amazon. I don’t reg­u­larly listen to U2 much any more, but this is a great thing for a major-​label artist to do, and I’m more than happy to give it a few lis­tens for that price and format.

UPDATE 3/5: Night two, the boys played Mag­nif­i­cent, which sounds like a clas­sic U2 song. Bono needs to treat his voice with more care, though.

March 3, 2009 » Tags: , , , , . » 0 Comments

“When I Grow Up” Video by Fever Ray

When I Grow Up video from Karin Dreijer Andersson’s solo project, Fever Ray.
Karin Dreijer Andersson

Publicity shot of Karin Dreijer Andersson.

Karin Drei­jer Ander­s­son has a solo album out now, under the name Fever Ray. She is one-​half of the sib­ling pair that is The Knife, and the solo album is very much a con­tin­u­a­tion of their moody work on Silent Shout.

This is the second Fever Ray video, and it’s a nice com­pli­ment to the gothy/creepy visu­als in the first video, If I Had a Heart, which was directed by fre­quent Knife col­lab­o­ra­tor Andreas Nils­son. (See the video for Silent Shout, and his visu­als for their last tour.)

And no, that’s not Karin in the video – she hasn’t appeared reg­u­larly in her videos since her days in the Swedish indie band Honey is Cool, in the 90s. (A few notable excep­tions include You Take My Breath Away, a chip­per duet with former First Floor Power front-​woman Jenny Wilson, and her guest vocals on Röyksopp’s club hit What Else is There? No, she’s not the float­ing chick, but the one sit­ting at the table, mid-​way through.)

Speak­ing of that Röyksopp song, this video is directed by the same direc­tor, Martin de Thurah, a Danish film­maker that seems to have a thing for effects and screw­ing around with the laws of physics – beau­ti­ful work.

I warmed to the album almost instantly, but seeing the songs come to life in these videos, they’ve started to take on a cin­e­matic qual­ity inside my head. Like all of Karin’s work, some people might be turned off by her singing style or be too quick to dis­miss her as Björk-lite. I like this album, and I like it more and more after each listen.

Pur­chase & Down­load Fever Ray »

Inter­view mag­a­zine inter­view with Karin »

February 18, 2009 » Tags: , , , . » 0 Comments

Obamicon.Me

Make your own Obamicon:

Your image in a style inspired by Shep­ard Fairey’s iconic poster. Regard­less of your can­di­date of choice in the 2008 elec­tion, here’s your chance to sound-​off.

From the folks at Paste, via Sean.

January 15, 2009 » Tags: , , . » 1 Comment

Blur to Re-Form for Massive Hyde Park Gig

Blur to Re-​Form for Mas­sive Hyde Park Gig »

It ended in acri­mony, with the gui­tarist brand­ing the singer an “ego­ma­niac”. But after months of spec­u­la­tion, Blur have con­firmed that they will be reunit­ing for a mas­sive gig in London’s Hyde Park next summer.

My favorite band of the 90s, together again for the first time since gui­tarist Graham Coxon quit the band in 2002.

More: Blur In Video » | Review of Graham Coxon Solo Show in 2005 »

December 9, 2008 » Tags: , , . » 0 Comments

Love Is All @ The Bowery Ballroom

light

Love Is All performing at the Bowery Ballroom, in Manhattan.

It was not as leg­endary as their first show at the Knit­ting Fac­tory, or the sweat-​dripped set at Market Hotel in Bush­wick this past summer, but Love Is All still knows how to bring it. They played a mix of songs from the new album A Hun­dred Things Keep Me Up At Night as well as from their debut, and even mixed in their Flock of Seag­ulls cover.

UPDATE: My Photos on Flickr » | NYCTaper’s Audio From the Show

December 9, 2008 » Tags: , , , . » 2 Comments

MSM Ahead of Curve on V.P. Debate

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.

October 3, 2008 » Tags: , , , , , . » 0 Comments

My Bloody Valentine @ Roseland

My Bloody Valentine

My Bloody Valentine performing at Roseland Ballroom, in New York City.
My Bloody Valentine on MySpace »
Brooklyn Vegan’s Photos »
Stereogum’s photos and video of an earlier show »

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.

Con­tinue read­ing ‘My Bloody Valen­tine @ Roseland’

September 29, 2008 » Tags: , , , . » 0 Comments

Vivian Girls @ Death By Audio

Vivian Girls

Cassie Ramone and Vivian Girls perform.

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.

August 29, 2008 » Tags: , , . » 0 Comments

Blur in Video

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]

July 31, 2008 » Tags: , , . » 0 Comments

Ladytron @ Terminal 5

light

Ladytron performing at Terminal 5.

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.

Con­tinue read­ing ‘Ladytron @ Ter­mi­nal 5′

June 26, 2008 » Tags: , , . » 0 Comments

Love is All @ Market Hotel

Josephine

Josephine Olausson, singer and keyboardist for the Swedish Indie band Love Is All, performing in Bushwick last Saturday.

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.

Con­tinue read­ing ‘Love is All @ Market Hotel’

June 20, 2008 » Tags: , . » 0 Comments

Radiohead covers… ::yawn::

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…

December 5, 2007 » Tags: , , . » 0 Comments

U2′s “Wave of Sorrow”

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]

November 15, 2007 » Tags: , , , . » 0 Comments

The Go! Team

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.

Con­tinue read­ing ‘The Go! Team’

November 9, 2007 » Tags: , , . » 0 Comments

Vamoose Bus

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.

October 28, 2007 » Tags: , , , . » 3 Comments

iPhone 1.1.1 and 3rd Party Apps

iNde­pen­dence for iPhone
It ain’t pretty, but I used this to upgrade to the 1.1.1 firmware, and then to man­u­ally copy installer.app onto the phone. Hello 3rd-party apps!

Beware, this is a lot more com­pli­cated than the way things were, before 1.1.1.

October 19, 2007 » Tags: , , , , . » 4 Comments

Alma Mater

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.

October 8, 2007 » Tags: , , , . » 0 Comments

Yeah Yeah Yeahs, “Is Is”

New YYYThe 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

August 2, 2007 » Tags: . » 0 Comments

Silent Shout: An Audio Visual Experience

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:

June 3, 2007 » Tags: , , , . » 0 Comments

Sabres as Oasis?

Chris DruryWe’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.

November 21, 2006 » Tags: , , , , . » 0 Comments

Indie Rock and Pot

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]

November 3, 2006 » Tags: , , . » 0 Comments

links for 2006-10-10

The Good, The Bad And The Queen – “Herculean”
Stere­ogum has an MP3 of the first single from TGTB&TQ… it’s more Goril­laz than vin­tage Blur, but haunt­ing none the less.
More info on TGTB&TQ here

October 10, 2006 » Tags: , . » 0 Comments

Lad Lit in Song

I always knew there was some­thing wrong with Nick Hornby… now I have proof.

September 26, 2006 » Tags: . » 0 Comments