the oh so quiet show

Because you come here looking for the best music in the entire universe (haha…god, I hope not), you have to check out this video of a girl playing the xylophone. Some issues I have with this girl is that she doesn’t seem human and she doesn’t even have to look at her hands while she plays. Also, the sun in the top left corner is weirding me out. And then there’s the freaky kid-orchestra accompanying her (I drawn to the girl playing the melodica for some reason). AND THEY’RE ALL SMILING, FOR THE LOVE OF GOD STOP IT! JUST. OH …GOD. I think this can be categorized as one of those “WTF?” moments. Strangely enough, I was wondering today what goes on in North Korea (this doesn’t happen all the time, really) and now I know. WOW.

I can count on CJ to expose me to great bands that I would never hear of otherwise. He asked me, “How do you buy music that you can’t find on Amazon?” My first though was gemm or musicstack, but they have somewhat failed in the search for Carpark North cds. There are websites you can buy their cds at, but the websites are in anti-English. So. Danish people, feel free to aid us.

CJ told me that I had to watch Carpark North’s video for “Best Day”. It is an awesome video, but I actually liked the one for “Human” more (the one screencapped in this entry, which you can download in .mov format at duckling.dk). My first reaction was “hm…cool…” but I like the videos much more after watching them a couple of times. Or more than a couple by this point. See more videos directed by Martin de Thurah at antville.org.

Actually, I can kind of describe why I like the videos (beware of forthcoming ineloquence…ness!). Frenetic and peaceful; that’s the impression I get. Floating or lying down while spazzing out at the same time. Kind of like that scene in Garden State when Zach Braff is sitting in the couch staring at nothing while everything goes around him at 1000 mph (uh oh, I just referenced Garden State…is that a bad thing?). Diana mentioned surrealism, which is an apt description.

Oh, and the music is good! Hopefully I’ll figure out a way to buy it online without accidentally adding 400 of them to my Danish shopping cart.

Not keeping up with Bjork news = bad. She’s in Matthew Barney’s new film, Drawing Restraint 9, for which she also composed the soundtrack of (release date: July 25th). There are sound clips at the bottom of this page. Bjork.com’s description of the soundtrack’s music:

Björk has written a suite of haunting music for the sho, one of the oldest instruments in Japanese culture with seventeen reeds and fifteen distinct pipes. It is performed by Mayumi Miyata, one of the world’s foremost sho players. Björk also worked with scholars of the Noh theatre to produce new musical settings, incorporating the low, growling vocal techniques of traditional Japanese court entertainment.

And of the film:

She also features in the film, together with Matthew, where they together tell a tale of tea ceremonies, vaseline, a shinto marriage and of course the old classic whale-shapeshifting ending. I mean, who can forget back in the days when Greta Garbo swam off into the sunset as a humpback whale? It still brings a sentimental tear to my eye.

Humpback whales? YES!

Firstly, there’s a Free Feist performance tomorrow at Borders at Columbus Circle. Free = cheap! I’m probably not going, mainly because I suck. Other free non-music related things tomorrow that you might want to check out in NYC are the Renegade Craft Fair and grand opening of Giant Robot’s new store (Giant Robot is an awesome magazine, in case you didn’t know), GRNY.

As for the Norwegian part of this post, I came across this article about the Isle of MTV festival and it seems like the weather in Bergen is craptastic right now. I can’t read the article but that’s what I gather. Not really a big news thing but I thought the photo on the article’s page looked really sad. AW. CLOUDS. Another weather related thinger: Sondre Lerche wrote that “…it’s funny that in the month of June I’ve played for melting people in Brooklyn and freezing people in Bergen.” Sondre Lerche’s online diary is funny and if you don’t read it then…um. You should. Another Norwegian thing is this article that might be about how to be rock-star-ish. A joke, I’m sure. Is it funny? I dunno. HAR HAARRRR! Hiiihiiii!

Last link for now is G8 REBOOT. Sadly, I haven’t given a great deal of thought to Live 8 and what its purpose is even though I’ve read so much about it in the past week. So why do I care? …well, I should care more than I do. Of course I’d like to make poverty history; who wouldn’t? And. I don’t have much else to say (not eloquently, at least) so I just thought I’d mention it.

I haven’t listened to Barbara Morgenstern in a while but she has a newish album out with Robert Lippok (of To Rococo Rot) called Tesri. You can listen to sound clips at Barbara’s slick flash homepage (flash I like = yay!). Labeling their music as “electronic” is extremely vague as there’s loads of crappy electronic music out there, of which this is not, but you either have an idea of what they sound like or…you don’t. The kind of electronic music I like is “bleepy, bloopy, clicky, doesn’t suck,” and if this helps, here’s one of Barbara’s songs that I really like from her album Fjorden:

Barbara Morgenstern - Mjisnjedschaz [removed]

I’m sure I’ll never remember how to spell that.

Watch the new Beck video for “Girl” at beck.com. A lot of stuff gets folded like the back covers of MAD magazine. Why? ….why not? After watching this, I’m starting to think that Beck only has one t-shirt and jacket.

My favorite Beck video is still The New Pollution.

If you like Lali Puna and Japan, then you will like Lali Puna’s Japan 2005 slideshow thinger!

It seems that Mew really wanna get the new stuff out to the masses. They have plans to release to the “Apocalypso” single in 7″ and CD format, the former will be limited to 2000 copies, so if you want to feel special, I suggest you pre-order. Along with that news, they have a stream of the another song on the album, “Why Are You Looking Grave?”, featuring guest vocals from a dude named J.Mascis. I really adore this song. It really reminds me of the old dream-like music that Mew has made. The piano accompanied with Jonas’ voice is really quite magical. Ok I sound like a turd. To get a listen to the new song, go to www.mewsite.com and click journal. (I haven’t learned to be cool and just have a lil’ thing you could click like Robyn does.)

Just so I/you don’t forget (not that I would): Sigur Ros 2005 tour dates, in particular, 9/12 and 9/13 at the Beacon Theater. Figuring that the tickets don’t cost a crapload, I’ll probably go, although I wish it were at a general admissions place. I have nothing against the Beacon Theater but like any seated venue, I NEVER EVER EVER GET GOOD SEATS. Not that that’s very crucial to seeing Sigur Ros live, but it doesn’t hurt.

Norwegian music keeps gaining in popularity it seems:

musicfromnorway.com: The Main Site For Norwegian Music [from it’s a trap!]

CJ just wrote a post about Mew. Since he’s a bigger Mew fan than I am, he gave me this song:

Mew - Apocalypso [removed]

Doesn’t quite grab me as much as their songs from Frengers but it sounds like Mew, which means it’s awesome. I love Mew but I’m rather lazy as to finding out what they’re up to since they’re usually not in the US except when they’re RECORDING STUFF HERE. I think we need to start a petition to get them to come back. Cos. They. Should.

Just a random little bit of information…..it seems the fat cats in Hollywood know good music when they hear it (well at least some of them). Guess whose music is featured in the new Brad Pitt/Angelina Jolie movie, “Mr. And Mrs. Smith”? None other than our very favorite…..Magnet! During a very intense love making/ battle scene, Even’s version of “Lay Lady Lay” plays in the background. Needless to say I was very surprised and excited that his music was featured in a blockbuster movie. That’s it I guess…….YAY MAGNET! Your wonderful music is getting the attention it so greatly deserves.

Check out spachar’s journal for some mad concert-ness. Honey tends to have interesting concert experiences that I will never come close to matching (along with spotting more celebrities in one day than I had living in NYC for most of the year) and her writing style shows how much insane fun she had without making her actually sound insane. That wasn’t a good description, but if you read her blog you’ll know what I mean.

Reading her blog makes me realize that I must not like concerts that much or I’d go to them more often, no matter the barriers or costs. I’m not sure how I got so lazy; in high school (NJ) I wouldn’t hesitate to go to concerts in Brooklyn, while when I lived in NYC for the past year I didn’t go to any shows in Brooklyn (maybe there weren’t any I wanted to see, but…all year?). Maybe it’s not laziness as much as loss of interest–I know if I really wanted to see something, I’d go. How did I lose interest in going to concerts?

This isn’t necessarily music related, but some of it is! And ALL of it is NYC related, so…

Crackers United gives us five things to do in NYC, three of which I was already planning to do or wanted to do but knew I couldn’t do. First is seeing Soft at The Delancey, which to my knowledge is 21+ and…screw that. Perhaps another time, as I’d like to see em play.

Second is the Big Apple BBQ, which sounded like hella fun until I realized I wasn’t that into meat (but someday I will ingest amazing southern BBQ). If you’re insane, you can buy a special fast pass card for $100 so you can load up on meat MORE QUICKLY THAN EVER IMAGINED. Have fun digesting that.

Third is Howl’s Moving Castle. I am not a movie person and the only movies I will see without second thought (besides Harry Potter…yeah?!) are those by Miyazaki. It’s more of a childhood thing than anything else but his movies are awesome and the music is always good. And besides the music, EVERYTHING is good. Miyazaki’s movies are unlike just about anything else. I’m annoyed because I can’t tell if it’s dubbed or not; certainly someplace would have it subtitled but it’s only playing at one theater this Friday. I’ll think about it.

And there’s a fourth thing Crackers United didn’t mention: MoCCA Art Festival 2005 on Saturday! It’s at the Puck Building on Lafayette and if you’re at all interested in funky little comics (and bigger ones, but mainly little ones) then you HAVE to go to this thing. Also, I WILL BE TABLING with Diana. The overall message you need to bring away from this paragraph is that I will be selling stuff; for the love of god, support this webmaster because…I asked. I’ll mainly be selling Poofy wares and buttons (took me more than an hour to cut out 200 of those little bastard circles with a circle cutter). And I’ll possibly have free buttons. So if you’re not doing anything on Saturday (I’m not tabling on Sunday) stop by (here’s a map) and say hello.

For some music related, I really like The Tourniquet after having listened to it a crapload of times in the past two days. Songs I didn’t like before and turning into songs I really like (listening to “Jaws” right now). Huh. And check this out, the album entered at #2 in Norway, which is sweet. And I’m just going to ignore the #1 album since I think it’s a bunch of kids singing stuff. I’m sure they’re talented, but…no. #3 looks like another talent competition album. I’m glad Magnet managed to squeeze in.

hello everybody. *crickets chirping* I’m the newest addition to this wonderful site, and I go by the name………..cj. Mysterious isn’t it? Yeah so I like music and pancakes, but since this is a music blog and not a pancake blog, I guess I’ll talk about music…….
First off, let me tell you that the return of the great Danes called Mew is getting closer. While listening to DK Barometer (Danish netradio), I heard the premiere of their first single off of their upcoming second/fourth studio release which is yet to be titled. The single has a title though. It is called……..Apocalypso! Now it’s been about two years since they have released anything new so I was expecting something to lift me out of my seat. What I got was just that. Now while it’s not as good as some of their “Frengers” songs, it still has that dreamy feeling that so far only Mew has been able to produce. Come to think of it, Apocalypso is sorta like a Am I Wry? No and Snow Brigade hybrid. If you can piece that together…..good for you. Now the single will officially be released on July 4th in Europe, and the album is scheduled for release on September 6th. Produced by Michael Beinhorn, who has produced albums for Korn and Marilyn Manson, so far he has done a good job from what I have heard. The single is quite complex and takes you to a lot of different places, without losing you. Let’s just hope that the rest of the album stays the same course. Oh yeah and if you’re wondering when Mew will be coming to perform here in the USA………your guess is as good as mine. But you bet your sweet behind that I’ll keep you all updated.

Yeah well this has become quite a long 1st post. Before I leave you for the 1st time, I think it’s only fair that I give you a list of my current favorite artists and albums, just to show you that I do have good taste……..and occasionally bad taste (pobody’s nerfect).

Artists:
MEW
MAGNET
CHEMICAL BROTHERS
SIGUR ROS
MÜM
STARS
IVY
ROYKSOPP
THE DELAYS
KINGS OF CONVENIENCE
KASHMIR
LADYTRON
DAFT PUNK (OLD SCHOOL)
THE SMASHING PUMPKINS
and a whole lot more!

Yeah so that’s me in a cashew shell (do cashews have shells?) I’ll be back, so remember…..ask not what your favorite band can do for you, but what you can do for your favorite band. SPREAD THE WORD!

“Robyn, you got a package!”

“Uhh…” The package could only be one thing: MAGNET! CD, that is. Not Magnet.

[Before I forget, happy birthday, Even! He’s 35 today. I forgot his birthday last year so I think I was ultra-determined to remember it this year. Problem is that I can’t figure out the best way to express the birthday greetings…good thing I’m not a “writer”.]

So, the package was, indeed, of CD-size and weight and of origin from another country. My first thought was that the cover art didn’t feel “right”, but I must have gotten used to it because I don’t mind it anymore. The artwork is similar to that of “On Your Side”, with organic/nature related doodle-ish drawings, faces, animals, yellows, browns, gold, black–Martin does a fine job, as usual. (And his design for The Last Day of Summer is on display at The European Design Show: awesome.) I had good reason to check the liner notes. (cough)

I’ve listened to the album about 5+ times by now (it’s 40 minutes long/short) and…well, it has grown on me in those listens. I already liked it (telepathically), but I was a bit torn because for a few of the songs, I found that I only liked half of the song. I’d like the beginning but not the end, or vice versa. Strange? As I get more used to the songs, I’ll probably like the songs in their entirety, but some of these songs just have a lot (for lack of a better description) going on in them. I know that craplods of songs are like that, but in this case it threw me off a bit.

As I’ve been told before, this album is much happier sounding than his previous albums. No freakishly happy songs here, but noticeably not as unhappy as before.

If you look at the categories, you can see that I wasn’t sure what to label this. “The Pacemaker” starts off with sounds reminiscent of kid’s toy instruments interspersed with random blips and clicks. It’d be an interesting song without vocals (although one of the best things about Magnet is the vocals). “Hold On” has that clicky start as well, and then in come the orchestral string flourishes, banjo picking, theremin-esque whizzes…you’ll have no idea what I’m talking about unless you listen to the song.

Hm. Well. You’ll have to wait a bit as the album isn’t coming out in the US until autumn (what a shame!). And now that I can see that the sun has risen, I’m off to bed.

Xingolati is scaring me, just a tad. For one thing, it’s called Xingolati. And the main thing is that you’re on a boat (okay, fully decked-out ship) going from California to Mexico with the The Flaming Lips and a crapload of other artists.

…actually, after thinking about it for a while, it doesn’t sound that scary. Surreal. I’d say that all cruises are somewhat surreal, although I’ve never been on one (nor do I really want to).

If you’re a crazy Flaming Lips fan, here’s some special pricing goo:

* Reserve your spot on or before June 12 and receive an additional $150 off your cabin as well as a free Fearless Freaks DVD (This offer limited to the first 50 cabins only).
* Reserve your cabin before July 1st and get $100 off your cabin as well as a free Fearless Freaks DVD.
* The first 50 cabins purchased will be entered into a drawing to attend the meet’n greet with the Flaming Lips and other artists on board
* When you purchase a cabin using the “thelips” discount code you will receive a free copy of the Fearless Freaks DVD as well as the above-mentioned discounts off your cabin.To make your reservation go to xingolati.com or call Inhouse Tickets at 415- 256-8499. When going through the reservation process, you will be prompted for a “Discount Code” towards the end of the reservation process. To receive these special offers you must enter, the discount code “thelips”. Deposits are refundable up to 30 days. Make your reservations before July 1 to take advantage of current pricing, discount and free DVD offer. Pricing includes entertainment and meals. Make your reservations today, prices subject to change at anytime.

Just a note to the five or so people reading this, I figured out how to make the permalinks un-suck (with the question marks and numbers and such) so any old links probably won’t work. Why didn’t I do that from the beginning? Because I’m SLOW. SO SLOW.

Also, a new music lover will be posting in this blog shortly. Or he better, because I’m forcing him to.

My friend and I were a bit far from Sondre Lerche (the guy in the middle with the BRIGHT GREEN SHIRT) but that I wasn’t disappointed despite standing in the back with buckets of sweat spewing from my pores just goes to show how great Sondre is. Which is…very great. He sounded perfect while also sweating buckets for about 50 minutes in front of a crapload of people (stupid me did not know of the cafe attached to Sound Fix…but I got the impression there was one when people were spilling out of it–I somehow managed to squish in a bit) and gave the audience some funny banter. Naturally, I can’t remember it because my brain is deformed, but he did mention a motto he made up for Williamsburg: “You never leave Williamsburg.” Or something. Actually, I may have made that up also. He played some new songs, some covers, and two songs that I did know but I can only remember “Two Way Monologue”. I’m going to blame my forgetfullness on the loss of fluids.

…whoa, I just remembered another thing somehow. He also talked about using pedals, in that he doesn’t usually like to use them. He said it was too much to think about while on stage, having to figure out when to press the pedal at the right time and possibly mess up. Of course, he probably wouldn’t mess up. He decided to use distortion on one song because the entire song was played with it, thus leaving out the possibility of using the pedal incorrectly.

I know I have issues because while watching Sondre I kept thinking, “Wouldn’t it be great if MAGNET played here?” Losing it, losing it…I hope I get the new album soon.

BC Camplight is awesome. His debut album, “Hide, Run Away”, is also awesome. One Little Indian is also awesome for releasing the CD (speaking of the label, they’re also releasing Levy’s album, another awesome thing).

As I’m my usual un-eloquent self, you should just trust my judgement without any other knowledge about the music. Or. Not. You can download songs at his website if that helps. I thought about it and I don’t know how to describe his music at all, not because it’s bizarre and strange but because it sounds…older? More mature than other music I listen to? At the same time, it sounds cute (yes, that was the best word I can think of) partially because of Brian Christinzio’s lovely and sweet voice. My only complaint about the album is that it feels short (about 40 minutes) but it is 11 songs and that just means I can listen to the album more times within a shorter period of time (seriously, I think I’ve listened to it 10 times by now).

I should go to sleep soon for Sondre Lercheing (it’s a verb now) tomorrow. Thank god that Aeki Tuesday reminded me about the lack of L train working-ness or else I would’ve tried to take it and wept in the process (I haven’t taken that train in probably more than a year, which is weird because I used to take it somewhat…frequently, and I just remembered that it was the subway I took to see Magnet the first time–ooh, nostalgia). Since I’m completely unversed in the land of MTA buses I shall walk the Williamsburg Bridge with a friend, thus spending good time together and burning a few calories. If all goes well I should return with photos and less calories.

Last note: I am listening to a new Magnet track thanks to a friend who likes Magnet as much as I do, and am most happily happy. Not just happy, but happily happy (don’t ask me what the difference is). I’ll only be happier when I actually get the album.