the oh so quiet show

I thought about adding this to my “Favorite Songs of 2009″ list, but I liked the video more than the song. Lady Gaga seems to be the only pop musician my friends and I can agree to think is awesome.

Happy New Year! …It still feels like last year. Fancy that.

My music listening this year was rather paltry. Despite that, I still had a hard time whittling down my list to 15 tracks (limited to songs that were officially released this year, as far as the Internet can tell me), some widely popular, some less so, and hopefully as least one you haven’t heard before but end up enjoying. The theme of this list: dancey, pretty, or all of the above. Tracks are in order of how I’d arrange them in a mix CD, not by how much I like them.

1. Animal Collective – In the Flowers

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Repeating what I said in January, this is my favorite song off Merriweather Post Pavilion. The 2:30 mark sets off this explosion of elation that could potentially result in dancing, if I weren’t firmly planted in my chair 110% of the time.

2. Kings of Convenience – 24-25

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I wouldn’t place Kings of Convenience’s latest album Declaration of Dependence above their previous ones, but it shows they’re still the best at playing beautiful, warm harmonies. And they’re still one of my favorite artists to see live.

3. Moderat – Rusty Nails

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I just blogged about how much I love this song. GO LOOKIE.

4. Dan Deacon – Red F

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OH MAN DAN DEACON, YOU’RE THE BEST. I can’t believe there was a time when I thought your music was irritating.

…Nah I lied, it’s really easy to see why his music could be perceived as irritating. Bromst made it easier for me (and probably many others) to get into. My ideal party would be Dan Deacon-powered. And have lots of balloons. That’s what his concert needs: more balloons.

5. Numéro# – Tonton Klaxonne

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This song by Montreal-based duo Numéro# is super catchy, but if it weren’t in French I probably wouldn’t like it as much. Since blogging about it in April I never did bother to look up the translation…oh wait, what do we have here? NOOOO.

6. Passion Pit – Sleepyhead

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Holy hell, I was obsessed with Manners this summer. I was determined to see Passion Pit live, so a friend helped me get tickets to their show in Philadelphia, which was the sweatiest experience of my life. Although it was fun, a lesson was learned: do not go to a concert at the First Unitarian Church in the summer ever again. Or at least bring a towel with you.

7. The Drums – Me and the Moon

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The Drums make me feel ridiculously happy. HAPPY FUN TIMES NAO [jerks around]…yeah.

8. Le Matos feat. Coeur de Pirate – How Do I Let You Know

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I listened to a lot of Coeur de Pirate this year, but as her album came out in 2008 I chose her more recent cover of this 80s-tastic song with Le Matos. More happy dancey-ness.

9. The Octopus Project – Wet Gold

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I’ve listened to The Octopus Project only sparingly over the last few years, which is silly since they’re…awesome. This song from their Golden Beds EP is my favorite.

10. Telefon Tel Aviv – Helen of Troy

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It’s my favorite song off Immolate Yourself. I have yet to listen to Telefon Tel Aviv’s other music…I should probably do that.

11. Mew – Hawaii

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It took a few listens for me to get into this song, but it became my favorite off No More Stories Are Told Today Sorry… (my second favorite Mew album, after Frengers). Mew has the tendency to write epic songs; I feel like this one fits three acts into five minutes.

12. Phoenix – 1901

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I wasn’t much into Phoenix until I heard Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix. CUE THE FUN HEAD BOPPING. If only I could have caught them at Trocadero.

13. Annie – Songs Remind Me of You

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I don’t like everything by Annie, but some of her songs are instantly addictive, like “Heartbeat” and this one from Don’t Stop.

14. Bat for Lashes – Daniel

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It’s dark. It’s pretty. GOOD TIMES. This is the only Bat for Lashes song I really like, but that probably means I should listen to more of her other stuff.

15. This Will Destroy You – Freedom Blade

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As soon as I started listening to This Will Destroy You, I bought all their releases (as should you). Not that there were that many for me to catch up on. This year they released two songs on Split, an EP with Lymbyc Systym. This song puts me to sleep, in the good way that achingly beautiful post-rock tends to do. It would also make a sweet soundtrack to watching a blizzard.

Ow.

Moderat (Modeselektor + Apparat) isn’t recent, but my interest in them is. I only just got their self-titled album (the deluxe version is a CD + DVD despite amazon.com’s lack of any mention of the CD) after randomly coming across the video for “Rusty Nails” off a random blog. That’s how I surf the Internet: randomly, without memory of how I get from one place to the next. The discovery of music I like only happens once in every other blue moon, which would explain the lack of updates on this blog.

People + wind + lots of gray toned fabric + slow motion + geometric symbols + this awesome song = this awesome video. (My brain doesn’t feel like thinking of better words than “awesome.” I think you can deal with that.) I wish I had seen it earlier, but better late than never.

And here’s another good song to play while working on a blog entry, or attempting to sleep on the subway, or just when you want something wooshy and electronic and pleasant in your head:

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Moderat – Les Grand Marches

ENJOY. Now I must go update another one of my neglected blogs.

Erlend and Eirik

Why is King of Convenience so awesome to see live?

• They look happy.
• They sound beautiful.
• …And effortless.
• …And intimate.
• They tell random funny anecdotes.
• Erlend does cute little dances.
• THEY ARE SO GODDAMN GOOD WHAT ELSE DO YOU NEED TO KNOW?

It took four and a half years for King of Convenience to come back to New York City. The first time I saw them was one of the most memorable shows I had ever been to. And Thursday night…I’d say was the same. And not just because I’m known for having a penchant for weegies. (That is, Norwegians, not Glaswegians.)

Feist!

They mostly played songs from their new album, Declaration of Independence, but tossed a few older ones in at the end to appease the audience, along with a cover of “It’s My Party.” There were many memorable moments—I was a particular fan of when Erlend said they had eaten at Kampuchea and that we New Yorkers were lucky to live in a city with such good food—but Feist appearing in the balcony during the encore, amplification-less performance of “The Build Up” was the final “you probably won’t forget this” moment. Her voice is what makes me love the song.

There was also that time that Eirik gave us his best steely male model pose.

Smile!

Actually, they both granted the audience their best poses in return for us not taking photos during their performance. DSLRs are too loud; I don’t blame them. (I only took a few photos after that moment, during times that I felt were the least obtrusive. I swear.)

Toot.

And there’s Erlend pretending to play a saxophone. Because. Why not?

Play on

Impulsive and good decision: seeing The Octopus Project two Sundays ago at Mercury Lounge due to Jim’s suggestion. …After taking a two-hour car ride from small town Virginia to Washington D.C., a four-and-a-half-hour Bolt Bus ride from D.C. to NYC, and shoveling some mediocre food from Woorijip down my throat. Even with luggage in tow and layer of sweat masking every pore on my body, I still had a good time. And for a rare occurrence, I didn’t have to be familiar with all the songs to enjoy the music.

After seeing Yvonne Lambert rock the theremin, I feel like I ought to get reacquainted with mine at the risk of annoying the shit out of my roommate with screeching high pitched bleeps. (I bought a theremin in high school during my “I LIKE RANDOM INSTRUMENTS” phase. Fiddling with it showed me that, holy hell, this thing is hard to play. But it sounds cool. And superbly annoying if you don’t know what you’re doing—sort of like with a violin, but perhaps a smidge less painful.)

“Wet Gold” is my favorite song form their new EP, Golden Beds. You can listen to all the songs at peekaboorecords.com

After a night of < 6 hours of sleep, this is what I want to wake up to. PURE AWESOMENESS.

The Octopus Project is currently on tour in the US. Woot woot.

This Fleet Foxes cover by Chris Dodgen made me happy. Along with his cover of Ragged Wood. [via metafilter]

Hey, it’s Bergen!

Ah, I love a band that writes a nice lil’ postcard to their fans. It says they plan on releasing their new album at the end of September, followed by A TOUR! YEAAAAAAAH! They are lovely live, for their music and banter. I’m looking forward to it. (I also like how there’s a sideways emoticon on the postcard even though it’s hand written.)

WHAT. (My favorite part start at 2:50.)

This literal version of Total Eclipse of the Heart is 100000 percent awesome with some whipped cream and a cherry on top and maybe a sprinkling of crushed peanuts. But the original video is real. It’s. Someone…thought of it. Someone else…funded it. And a bunch of people contributed their time by acting in it. Or something. Which blows my mind.

Wikipedia sort of has an explanation:

The Gothic themed video features Bonnie Tyler clad all in white, apparently having a dream or fantasy about her students in a boys’ boarding school. Young men are seen dancing and participating in various school activities such as swim team, fencing, football, and singing in a choir. Also, there are unexplained ninjas. The video was shot at Holloway Sanatorium.

…not really.

From Wee See:

Part art installation, part pacifier, Wee See is a collection of black-and-white animations built from basic shapes to delight both child and parent. As vision develops slowly over the first months of life, Wee See provides surfaces of bold, well-defined artwork to engage your baby’s curious mind and bring the screen to vibrant life.

The first time I watched the video, I had no idea it was meant for babies. And I wouldn’t have thought that it was for babies…but I guess it makes sense now that I know.

Although you might wanna watch it while you’re on…”something,” it’s perfectly engaging when you’re in a normal state of mind as well. I love it.

Animated by Rolyn Barthelman, score by Tim DeLaughter.

And Collection Two:

Raise em high.

He told us to raise our fists in the air. So we did.

Now go stand over there.

He told us to form a big circle and then run around in the circle. So we did.

Now do that.

He told us to dance in pairs. So we did. (Well, I skipped this one.)

Human tunnel.

He told us to make a human tunnel. So we did. From the venue floor, down the stairs, through the bar, and back up the stairs.

Woof.

When I was standing outside of the Bowery Ballroom last Saturday and taking in the fumes of stale beer and cigarette smoke, I thought, “Jesus christ, no wonder I stopped going to concerts,” but seeing Dan Deacon (+ an army of band members) was great fun (the interactivity is key) and certainly worth the subjection to various smells I wouldn’t normally find myself exposed to. It would’ve been more fun if I hadn’t been lugging around a huge bag with me, but that’s the price I pay for always wanting my dSLR and water bottle on hand. My friend Erin and I were part of maybe 5% of the crowd that wasn’t high on something. That’s how we roll.

And thus I have another dream that shall never be realized: to be as cool as Dan Deacon.

Alex gave me this song and now I can’t stop listening to it. Even if it’s too late for me to be listening to music this upbeat.

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Numéro# – Tonton Klaxonne

More info at Discodust. Except for what the song means. My understanding is that “klaxonner” means to honk, and “tonton” means…uncle? Huh. Someone else out there knows better than I do.

Marcine told me to listen to dné. So I am. And it’s quite nice. This came out of a long conversation while eating lunch at Xe Lua…a conversation about music we would categorize as “bloop.” There were so many sub-categories that I can’t remember them all. (But I think Air was deemed “sexy bloop.”) dné is not in the bloop category, more like the “peaceful dreamy instrumental stuff” category.

She also told me to see Yann Tiersen at Irving Plaza (er, the Filmore New York at Irving Plaza). Ooh.

Cats + [most things] = amusement, but with a mini-theremin? Aw…AW…aw. The hind leg action makes it better. You can buy a mini-theremin from MakerSHED. [via Heartaches By The Number]

Bromst

“Hey, I’m going to play something,” said Erin last Wednesday, taking charge of office DJ duties. “It might be a little weird…”

First, there was nothing. Then the sounds slowly built up. Repetitive sounds that were somewhat lulling and at the same time irritating. I couldn’t tell whether I liked it or disliked it.

Me: What is this?
Erin: Dan Deacon. I thought it sounded “boppy” (“boppy” is one of my nicknames—really, my boss calls me that sometimes)

She played NPR’s stream of his upcoming album, Bromst, all the way through. And I quite like it. Muchly. I was surprised because I tried listening to Dan Deacon before and his music was just on the edge between “stuff I like” and “WTF is this.” Similar to the effect that Merriweather Post Pavillion had on my opinion of Animal Collective, It took a more accessible album to cross over into the dimension of “like.” After listening to the album a few times, I realized that I wanted to take pieces of Dan’s brainmeats and stick them in my brain so I could harness whatever power he has, if that were physically possible and not an endangerment to either of our lives, besides that I’d also need his permission. So many barriers. What a shame.

But then even if I had his brainmeats, I’d probably waste the potential awesomeness that could come out of them. He’s putting them to use; I’m staring at my monitor.

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Dan Deacon – Build Voice]

A week later, I’m still obsessively listening to the album. Not sure how long this will last—getting to that critical point of “OH GOD I LISTENED TO THIS SO MANY TIMES I CAN’T STAND IT ANYMORE” is a sad inevitability. Hopefully that point won’t come for a while.

“Toy food / Like real food, but is toy / Toy food / Not real food, do not eat.”

I think I love you, Neil Cicierega.

Originally blogged on Serious Eats.

I know I’m terribly late on the Friendly Fires train, and I’d be even later if I hadn’t shopped at Uniqlo last weekend with Alex. When “Paris” blared throughout the store, I didn’t give it a second thought.

“There’s a remix featuring Au Revoir Simone that you’d like,” Alex said. “I’ll give it to you when we get back to your apartment.”

And he did. And I did like it. A lot. And I was less into the original version because I thought the vocals didn’t sound right with the feel of the song—a little too harsh for my tastes, where Au Revoir Simone got it down all dreamy-like. But upon repeated listenings, I ended up liking the original more for its chorus. And the cowbell.

Unintentional blur.

Can’t really do this in NYC.

The song captures my sentiment of wanting to return to Paris frightening well. Or it has become my sentiment, the more I listening to it and it embeds itself in my brain. There’s nowhere else that Alex and I would rather be. I just wish I knew how much longer we have to hold out for.

I hope my dreams are full of flying paper cut-outs chasing each other area an eerie, dimly lit world of…angular things…and pointy blobs…and Fleet Foxes…

This animation by Grandchildren is beautiful.

It would probably help if I gave you an mp3 to go with the last entry. Here she is:

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Animal Collective – In The Flowers

While “My Girls” was the first song I latched onto as “MUST…LISTEN…5 TIMES IN A ROW,” “In The Flowers” is now my favorite song of the album. Mostly the part around the 2:30 mark. I don’t think of many things as “beautiful,” but that’s…what it is. In my mind. But in my mind it also makes me think of explosions. Not bad explosions, but happy ones, like if someone shot a cannon full of cupcakes. Or something.

On a random housekeeping note, I just upgraded my Wordpress from something from the dinosaur age to 2.7. My template is unfortunately a tad wonky now, something that I’ll correct…eventually. When it’s not almost 2 a.m. As you can see, I rarely update this blog anymore (no time for music anymore = sadness), but I figure I should keep it because it’s my only Wordpress blog and thus my only vehicle for learning how to use it. It seems like a useful skill to have as a professional (er, I use that term loosely) blogger who doesn’t want to only know how to use Movable Type.

I really ought to listen to more music though.

My god, it moves

…Is Merriweather Post Pavilion by Animal Collective.

In the morning on the subway. At night on the subway. Right now in the office (my co-worker Erin is playing it through her speakers).

WHAT IS BEHIND ITS CRACK-LIKE ADDICTIVE QUALITIES?

I didn’t even particularly like Animal Collective until now.

…Better late than never, I suppose.