the oh so quiet show

I somehow came across Beezewax while looking for something Magnet related. How they’re related, I don’t know, but they have mp3s on their site which means you should download some! Or all. I like “The Bright Concorde” the most so far from their album Oh Tahoe.

Should I try to compare them to something? Er. Um. They remind me of Easyworld (sadly split up last year), a little bit of Libido (Even Johansen’s previous band), and a lot of other things that I haven’t listened to judging from reviews I’m reading.

I can’t write reviews but I just want to write some thoughts about some recently acquired albums.

Kaiser Chiefs – Employment: At first listen I thought it was just okay. I really like some of the songs but most of them …not so much. I kept hearing Franz Ferdinand (who I love) references and while I can see that, I wouldn’t make the comparison. So I listened to it again. And again. And then some more. The like factor has increased and if I saw them perform live (probably would’ve gone last night at Bowery if it hadn’t sold out as I spent my Friday night sitting in front of my computer …good god, I should move every now and then) I’d probably like them more. OH WELL! “Na Na Na Na Naa” would be less annoying without the “Na na na naa” part, although I guess then it’d need a new name. Current favorite song on the album is “You Can Have It All”, a cute song. Yes, “cute” is the best I could come up with. For whatever the first thing I think while listening to it is “This is a cute song.” I’ve had stranger thoughts in my life. …okay, thinking about it again this album is better than I originally thought. Maybe it’ll grow on me more.

New Order – Waiting For The Siren’s Call: I’m not a huge New Order fan because I guess it’s not my kind of music (whatever my kind is?) so I don’t have much to say about this besides that it sounds like New Order. WOW REALLY. How much less helpful can I get? If you like New Order you will like this album! Yes, wow. I have “Get Ready” because I particularly liked “Crystal” and something else but I haven’t listened to that album in ages. Actually, I only listened to WFTSC once so far. It sounded good but nothing caught my ear immediately.

Beck – Guero: If you didn’t already know, I’m a big of a Beck fan. However, I wouldn’t say “HOLY CRAP EVERYONE BUY THIS ALBUM!” because like all Beck albums, it’s…well, it’s Beck. How to describe Beck? He can probably do everything. …except for glitch electronic music. For some reason I can’t see Beck performing with just a laptop or something like that. Anyhoo, getting off topic. I had heard most of this album already from the leak and while those weren’t the official finished tracks, they were close enough. My first impression when hearing the leak was “Hm.” What does that mean? I didn’t fall in love with it instantly, not that I felt like I had to but I was hoping to. Overall I think the album is good but not comparable to Odelay or anything else (actually, none of his albums are comparable to each other except maybe ….no, nevermind. I was going to say Golden Feelings and A Western Harvest by Moonlight but I don’t even remember what AWHBM sounds like). “E-Pro” is very catchy with all the “na na na”s…good lord, more na’s. But it’s like “NA na, na NA na na na” not the Kaiser’s Chief’s “NAnananaNA”. (If I make a note, it’s currently 2:18 AM). Okay, what the hell am I saying? Beck still makes good music. Guero has bits of Odelay and Midnite Vultures and Mellow Gold and maybe everything else mashed together in a big meat pie…I’m going to stop now because I’m not making sense. And I need to listen to Guero more. Oh, the liner notes are rather nice with all artwork done by Marcel Dzama. Drawn! just made a post about him. My first impression of the album art was “Mrrh?” but I like it more now. However, my favorite album music and art wise is Mutations.

Long-View – Mercury: I haven’t listened to this much yet but from what I heard it’s nice Brit-pop-rock-alt (pralt?) that’s pleasant to listen to whenever.

I’m done. I should just stick to food writing–it’s less painful. Oh, I went to Other Music yesterday and noticed the cheap CD section, the two right-most rows in the used CD section, for the first time. HELLA CHEAP, as in most of those CDs are a dollar. Dammit. I bought a few CDs.

If you use Firefox (and if you’re not when you could be, WHYYY), you should download the greasemonkey extention and take a look at all these lovely scripts and install like mad. As for something music related, I got the inline mp3 player and it’s pretty cool. It puts a little play/stop button next to mp3 links. I don’t need it but helps a smidgen and WHY NOT? I’m probably going to take a few of these scripts but I also got destroy target as I hate it when links open in a new window when I don’t want them to. [via Nick Douglas]

Check out this weird video for I Am Kloot’s new single “Over My Shoulder”. I like the crate stuck to the shoe. 😉 Oh, and the song is fun too.

Remember that Beck’s new album Guero comes out soon, as in next week, unless you live in Europe or someplace cooler than the US (NYT just reviewed it)! I haven’t even ordered a copy yet, but I’ll get my hands on that deluxe DVD + book thing at some point. I’ve been putting up news at beck beck beck but there’s loads of stuff at stewoo’s board (and Stewoo has emerged, which means he is ALIVE, which is a big thing for those of us who thought he was…dead).

This Filter SXSW blog is updated way too much. Is it wrong for me to find it extremely amusing? Perhaps a little too amusing? There’s something funny about all the crappy photos and…beer. Sadly, when I came across the words “pecan pie” I had to find the Salt Lick (the attention I pay to desserts shouldn’t surprise anyone who has eaten with me). I was hoping for more info about this pecan pie but alas, it’s mainly meat. Meat isn’t exciting–PIE IS EXCITING, GOD DAMMIT!

Okay, this blog is about music. The last thing I should do is stray into food as that usually ends in weeping and bad things.

Food gives me loads of stress that can only be ameliorated by live music. As long as I’m not surrounded by douchebags, live music makes me happy. WEE! I went to Pianos last night with Arthur to see Levy. They’re playing at Pianos every Wednesday this month but as I have class on Wednesday nights and this is my vacation week, last night was the only time I could go (actually, they went on after 10PM so in theory I could catch them next week but I’m lazy).

Last night was my fourth visit to Pianos and the first time the guy at the door looked at my ID and said I was underage. “Okay…but I came here last week…?” And that makes it okay. OKAY! Maybe the place is 18+, but 21+ is the suggested age. I hate silly rules. Then again, I don’t drink.

Some history that no one cares about but anyhoo, I first found out about Levy on 15 Megs of Fame, which is how I met Arthur and became his drummer, somewhat. We haven’t gotten to practice much and I suck the crap out of playing drums. But we both like Levy so hoorah! Okay! This paragraph sucked so I shall move on.

The Cobble Hillbillies came on before Levy and I was completely stunned, in a good way. My first thought was “Holy crap, I never listen to this kind of music outside a Disney theme park” (and of course, in the theme parks it’s only in Frontierland or whatever) which translates into “I never listen to this kind of music because…I dunno…what the hell?” On that note, the band was awesome. Really awesome. Awesome enough for me to buy their CD, which means I am listening to this kind of music outside a Disney theme park. Everyone seemed to have mastered their instruments (hell, I dunno how to play a banjo or even a harmonica–then again, I can’t whistle or snap my fingers) and they looked so damn happy. Or not unhappy at least. The harmonica guy had a BELT OF HAMONICAS which isn’t something you see every day, or in my case, ever. The mandolin guy’s fingers danced across the strings, possibly with the help of an illicit drug that makes people play the mandolin

I want a banjo. I’ve wanted a banjo for years but not badly enough to get one. What the hell would I do with a banjo? Play it? Oh.

Levy gave a good performance but I probably would’ve been more into it had I not been in a total bluegrass mood. I didn’t need earplugs for the Cobble Hillbillies but I would’ve been deaf without them during Levy. It would really suck to end up going deaf because you like listening to live music, but life is like that (I mean, life sucks). Levy seemed to have a bunch of fans in the audience, or at least in the rows in front of me. Usually being in the front row at shows made me forget how short I am (quite short). They played some songs that aren’t on their CD (which you should get–come on, it’s $10) or website that I liked so I guess those’ll pop up on something in the future. If you have free Wednesday nights you should check them out next week. I just realized I didn’t describe Levy’s music at all but you’re best off listening to it yourself. You’ll probably like it. YOU HAVE MY WORD.

Last thing: Ed Harcourt is playing at Pianos on April 20th and 27th. That surprised me since Pianos is quite small and Ed Harcourt is pretty big (not in the same sense but you know what I’m talking about). I have two of his albums but haven’t gotten the latest one yet. Last summer I saw him play at De Montfort Hall and while he was good I would’ve rather seen him play with a band than solo. If his shows weren’t on Wednesdays I’d think of going…doh.

I got to Bowery Ballroom way too early because…because. I didn’t have much else to do and I didn’t see the point of staying in my dorm. Other people were there trying to get tickets to the sold out show and happily, they did. So all those people willing to pay craploads of money for tickets on eBay should’ve just gone early. A nice thing about going early was hearing Doves practice a few songs. Sure, I was outside in the cold but it was all good.

The show was great, not that you’d expect anything else. I saw them a few years ago at Hammerstein Ballroom and they were great there but at Bowery I was able to get way too close to Jez. Hooray…I think? They started with Pounding, one of my favorite songs, and ended with There Goes the Fear, another one of my favorite songs. In between they played songs from all their albums. Someone probably has a setlist (I didn’t wait around to actually get one off the stage) but off the top of my head I remember Black & White Town, Satellites, Here It Comes, Ambition, Words, NY, The Cedar Room, Sea Song, and maybe One of These Days, Snowden, and Almost Forgot Myself. And probably other stuff.

I didn’t have a very good view of Andy but he was awesome. Okay, EVERYONE was awesome but he looked insanely happy and played the drums with such …ferocity at some points. But in a happy way. Intense drum playing makes me happy. Jez was constantly stepping on a gazillion pedals. I spent most of the time looking at Jimi because that didn’t involve craning my head; with the blue lights I kept thinking of smurfs…god, something’s wrong with me.

The only thing that disturbed me about the show was how loud it was. It’s not like I’ve never been to a concert before but while wearing my recently purchased EarLoves (via Josh Rubin) I thought, “Holy crap, this is loud.” I got sick of my ears ringing for a day after seeing a concert so yes, I turned to EAR PLUGS. But Earloves are quite nice compared to regular earplugs and seeing as my hearing is fine and the concert still sounded great despite having plastic junk in my ears, I’d recommend them.

Doves are coming back to NYC in May for two nights at Webster Hall with mercury Rev so if you didn’t see them yesterday you have some more chances.

Thanks to lifelong friend Jen accompanying me to the show (after my only Doves-fan friend was unable to make it and everyone else is just pooty, bwahaha) and to one of my classmates for being there. I’d never know there were exceptionally cool people in my writing class.

More reviews on the show at melody nelson, one louder (and more one louder), mega mega mega, peephole in my brain, this twilight garden, and brooklyn vegan. I don’t think I’ve ever seen so many bloggers report on one show that I had actually been to before. Yikes. I’ve been going to the Bowery Ballroom a lot this year and I was wondering why I hadn’t gone before (like the first time Doves played there) and I realized I wasn’t old enough. Age limits are poop. But I did see Doves twice before so I don’t think I’ll have to go to the Webster Hall shows.

As I spend this week of vacation staying up until 5 AM and waking up at 2 PM, I’ll get close to the SXSW action though the magic of blogging. Yay. Ish.

See You In The Pit has provided me with much downloading fun and a reason to fill up my hard drive. It’s almost too easy to download stuff using firefox and the Down Them All plugin. …no, not almost, it is. I’ve downloaded a crapload of mp3s that I haven’t even listened to yet. 🙁

Torr is going to be posting audio stuff from SWSX in livejournal.com/~torrsxsw05. Kathryn is flickr-ing lots of cameraphone photos. Filter Magazine is blogging photos and stuff to such a vivid degree that I too can feel the pain of hopping around airports. SWEET. Mark really needed to get away from the luxurious Taj Mahal.

And I’m in my pajamas on a Wednesday afternoon. Oh, got Doves photos and such, will write about that in a sec…

—

Onelouder’s list of SXSW blogs will ensure that I never leave my computer…nooo.

Quickie that I’ll edit later or else I’ll forget, some songs that were played although not in this order:

• Twist
• To You
• Morning Rain
• Proof
• Strange Arrangement of Color
• Cuckoo
• No Fear of Falling
• Life in a Day

…oh crap, that didn’t really work. I can’t remember the other songs and I’m sure there were others that I knew. There were a few songs I didn’t know; I ought to get Natural History. I think they played a new one as well.

Anyhoo, it was cool. Diana and I stood right in front of John Bramwell, giving me a clear view of his guitar playing, which was pretty awesome because…because. No pick. I don’t like picks. The band played nearly perfectly as far as I could tell.

—– [returns much later to blab some more] —–

My ears didn’t ring this morning! It’s a miracle! The show was awesome and was a damn good way to spend $8. Also good was BC Camplight, which I found out stands for Brian Christinzio…Camplight. He had the flu but still sang well; I was impressed. Drinking like a fish, he apologized for sounding more manly than usual (he said he’s supposed to sound like a girl) and pounded out lovely tunes on the piano with a drummer, bassist, and acoustic guitarist in tow (and a few times, a female singer, as in the photo). I love his voice (if you didn’t download the mp3s, go download!) and it was a bit weird hearing it in all its…manliness. But he was funny and all was good. And stuff. And he’s playing at SXSW so if you’re going to that you should see him. I was feeling poopy all day but BC Camplight tunes cheered me up so I’d be ready for I Am Kloot.

I Am Kloot was great and seemed to enjoy themselves (they looked happy!). The show was sold out, the crowd was good, it was the first time I saw someone use a crate in lieu of a guitar strap, all the songs sounded solid, and…the end. If you can, see them during their tour. For more Kloot-ness, they’ve got a new album and single coming out! I LOVE the single “Over My Shoulder”, a version of which (I’m assuming it’s not the same?) you can download at epitonic.

On a completely unrelated note, pancakes are a very good thing.

Seattle radio station KEXP is the most awesome radio station EVER! I mean, in my opinion. I can’t honestly say I listen to it much (I rarely listen to the radio) but I have listened to them sometimes and had the pleasure of seeing Magnet and Sondre Lerche for free when KEXP was in NYC for the CMJ festival.

Anyhoo, looks like they’re coming back for more from April 4th to April 8th! BWAHAHA! I mean, it’s good for New Yorkers who want to see some free music in an intimate setting. Sign up at kexp.org to see Ivy, The Information, Mike Doughty, Joy Zipper, or Phoenix perform at the Museum of Television and Radio [via gothamist]. I don’t think I’m going to go to any of these but Phoenix is good live and now you can see them in …a tiny little studio! Should be interesting. Seeing Magnet there equated to super happy joy joy for me (and I skipped class for the first time; ooh, what a rebel I am) and seeing Sondre Lerche play solo was fantastic.

Tomorrow: I AM KLOOT! KLOOTINESS! Sorry for shouting, I just like that word.

I first heard of Naked Lunch some time ago, probably last year. I think I randomly received an e-mail from them (in German?) and for whatever reason I checked them out. And liked their music. I got another e-mail I can’t understand but I hadn’t listened to their music in a while and…I still like it. They have a flash thingo for their new single, “Stay”. Their homepage is flash, aka very annoying, but you can wach videos and there’s an audioplayer at the top right that changes if you reload the page. I’d say more if I could find more into in English but…can’t really.