the oh so quiet show

That dude is wearing a silly hat (Rejected!…if you don’t know what I’m talking about, just ignore me). And he’s carrying around a huge speaker and a laptop, alongside other Shobo Shobo artists in Japan right now. RIGHTNOW! Why? Um. Because they can? I’d love to do that if I didn’t think it would lead to my back breaking in a most uncomfortable manner (as though there’s a comfortable manner). Momus explains it:

bq. Shobus Diary documents Shobo Shobo artists O.lamm, Domotic, Davide Balula, and Minifer during their “Shoboshobus / Mobium Japan Tour 2005”. (Ishida Daisuke is the Japanese host.) Since these are highly original people, this is a bit different from your average rock or laptop tour. Instead of playing concert halls, the French artists have opted to busk. They’ve built portable speakers which hang from their necks, each one supporting a laptop. They’re playing on the roofs of buildings, at the Tsukiji fish market, in malls and car parks, anywhere.

They’ve got some audio and video on their blog, from which I’ve decided that their music could drive me insane if I were nearby and trying to do anything requiring an iota of concentration. But it could also be fun. It’s better than hearing landscapers in the morning, at least.

Broadcasting semi-random noises in a city reminds me of the “Silent Night” thing last winter when loads of people carried around stereos playing dinkly sounds and walking from Washington Square Park to Tompkins Square Park. Many cab drivers were pissed that night. Mehehe.

Broadcast! Webster Hall!

bq. On Sale: Wednesday, August 3 @ Noon
Thursday, November 10
$18 adv – $20 day of show / 18+
w/ Gravenhurst & Tralala

Want to goooo. Yes’m. I love Broadcast as much as I could, having only one album (Haha Sound). Not sure why I never bought the others. I guess I should.

..oh, wait. The only night class I have next semester is. On. THURSDAY! I can still go. But that killed the fun by a smidgen.

Carpark North is playing a bunch of fall dates in Europe. Which doesn’t apply to us. WEE. I’m guessing that they’ll never come to the US.

I think this is about Hakan Hellstrom coming out with a new album [from it’s a trap]. In Sweden, yes? Mraah. He’ll never come to the US either.

Well, that was fun!

Don’t you love ZEFRANK? Yeah? Sing-Along Songs For Children W/Short Attention Spans. [via growabrain]

Sing-along songs…suck! I remember having those “Wee Sing” books and cassettes when I was little and wondering what I was supposed to do with them. Sing with them? Or something? Unravel the cassette and play with the tape? I don’t know. I remember having a brown one that i think was meant for camp sing-alongs, ironic because I NEVER WENT TO CAMP (well, not one that would entail singing along with stuff).

However, I loved those Disney sing-along videos. Because of the rich collection of Disney’s Sing Along Songs I inhaled (you inhale them, like indispensable gases) as a child, I know the lyrics to more Disney songs than anyone should know (or anyone who’s not actually a huge Disney fan, nor sings). I don’t want to know the lyrics to “Tiki Tiki Room”, but I do. Well. The chorus. But that’s bad enough…all those animatronic birds clicking their metal beaks…if you don’t know what I’m talking about, that’s for the best.

On a totally unrelated note, RESFEST MUSIC VIDEOS, wee! [via I Think So] RES Magazine (one of the few magazines I subscribe to, or rather, I actually pay to subscribe) puts on a little film festival every year, traveling the globe over many months, starting in NYC. I went to a screening last year for “VIDEOS THAT ROCK” and I think I’ll go again seeing that Carpark North’s “Human” is in there. I’m sure everything else is good too (Interpol’s “Evil” weirds me out a bit), but that video is a really good 2:30 of your life. Seeing music videos on the big screen is a lot better than staring/squinting my eyes at them on my laptop, in an even tinier Quicktime or Windows Media Player screen, before realizing that I’m actually watching the video at 200% and the actual dimensions of the movie are the same as my thumbnail’s.

Yesterday morning I thought “Hey, I’ll go to the Beacon Theater to buy my Sigur Ros tickets!”

Actually, that was the night before. And no, I didn’t go to NYC just for the sake of getting tickets, as I’m not that insane. I had something else to do, but I figured I’d wake up nice and early to get to the box office, involving a leisurely morning walk from the Port Authority terminal. We NJ-ers barely walk. It sucks.

So. I got there at around 10:15 AM and there were already people waiting. Jeez. …then again, I was there too. A few more people came along to get Sigur Ros tickets but by 11, we weren’t a big crowd.

And then…tickets! And then…no orchestra seats? Huh? The woman at the ticket counter told one of the first people in line that there weren’t any orchestra tickets, resulting in much disgruntledness (I don’t think she bought any tickets). By the way, you can still buy orchestra tickets on ticketmaster, at least the last time I checked. It was strange that first thing in the morning, we were apparently orchestra ticket-less. However, some people did get orchestra tickets. It was confusing. Not a very organized operation, I guess.

I ended up with loge, row C, seats 27, 29, and 31 for September 12th. That’s not bad, but those seats are in the leftmost section, which I hope doesn’t suck. The seats seemed incredibly random but I figured…whatever. Gimme. It can’t be worse than when I saw Sigur Ros from the third balcony at Radio City, and it doesn’t really matter as long as you can hear the music, yes?

And at least I got the tickets at face value. Each ticketmaster surcharge per ticket costs more than my round trip bus ticket to NYC; boy, that sucks. Even though it’s not as convenient, you can save quite a lot of money by going to the venue to buy tickets (they only take cash and the guy behind me wanted 8 tickets so…damn). And if you’re a bakery hound (wow, digression), for the money you haven’t given to ticketmaster, I suggest getting something at Lady M: ohh, deliciousness. If you don’t like desserts, something’s wrong with you.

Boo to weird ticket system. Yay to Sigur Ros.

Lastly, Sondre Lerche updated his online journal, talking about how he’s getting older (BUT HE’S STILL INSANELY YOUNG) and honeymooning in Norway.

Watch the new video for Hold On at nme.com. [via I Think So]

* Windows Media – lo / hi
* Real Media – lo / hi

I like bits of the video, but overall I don’t get a “black and white” feel from the song. Instead, I see lots of colors and…swirly things. B&W seems too drab compared to the way the song feels if you listen to it with headphones while doing nothing else. But. YAY FOR BANJOS!

From the Magnet newsletter:

Hello Magnet friends,

The new album from MAGNET “The Tourniquet” is released on Monday 22nd August in UK.

It’s preceeded by a very limited single “Hold On” the week before (15 August). This comes in a twin 7″ only format and the tracks will also be available for download via I-tunes. A limited number come with a hand-written note from Even, and all 7″ contain Magnet stickers. The single includes exclusive tracks “The Mute” and “Good Mourning”.

One of the 7″‘s will also contain a VIP Atlantic Gold Pass, the person who finds this gets a flight to Norway to see Magnet perform!

To celebrate these releases MAGNET makes a rare live appearance (with full band) in London.

Wednesday 17th August

LONDON 93Ft EAST, Brick Lane, EC1

Tickets are available here or by calling 020 7403 3331 or 020 7734 8932

We hope you’re all keeping well and hope to see you at this show.

We’ll be back in touch shortly with news of the Album and Single in more detail

Until then…

homeofmagnet.com

Oh. My god. I WANT A TICKET TO NORWAY! DAMMIT!

AGRHARGARH ARHA HHGAHGRHGAR!!! *spittle*

As far as I know, there isn’t a set US release date for “The Tourniquet”.

I’m not insane. Really! But I feel compelled to do a Charlie and the Chocolate Factory-esque search for the ticket, which makes no sense (nono, I’m not crazy enough to do that…don’t worry). I hope that whoever gets the ticket deserves it muchly because come to think of it, I don’t deserve anything like that. I SPENT $6.25 ON A SHACK SHACK “CONCRETE” LAST NIGHT. I squander my money on tasty chocolate-filled calorically-dense dairy behemoths while in another country, $6.25 could feed a family of four for a month.

I just wondered why I updated this page before home of magnet. …because I can go insane here (ie, be myself) before having to pretend I am not insane. Or something.

I’ve been reading about Nine Black Alps a lot lately (well, about their show at the Mercury Lounge). So for no reason, I’ll share my thoughts about their music. …not really my kind of music. Actually, that’s not true, but for some reason I didn’t get into their EP after listening to it a few times. My first impression was that I’d enjoy them live but not so much just listening to a CD. Am I too picky?

As for something that I’m enjoying lately, Emiliana Torrini’s latest album Fisherman’s Woman is beautiful. I especially like the last track:

Emiliana Torrini – Serenade [removed]

Her latest album has rather sparse acoustic instrumentation (not that there’s anything wrong with that; Emiliana’s voice is the main thing here), making it very different from Love in the Time of Science, which comparatively has a harsher, electronic, produced feel. I love that album, but I prefer Fisherman’s Woman. If you can see her live, DO IT! She’s great and one of the most adorable musicians I’ve ever seen. Or THE most adorable (really). She’s playing at the Summer Sundae Festival on August 13th this year in Leicester (besides Slough, one of my favorite names for a place in England). I went to the festival last year and the line up looks better this year, dammit (not that it was bad last year but I was only interested enough in going on the Sunday instead of the whole weekend).

GO TO SUMMER SUNDAE! I would. I’d also go to Oyafestivalen. I quite sure that I LIVE ON THE WRONG CONTINENT! For more reasons than one. I’d talk about how Americans are all screwed because our food supply seems so unprotected compared to Europe (regulations and such) but …whatever. We’re all doomed guinea pigs. (Whoops, digression.)

Something about Magnet! I guess Music Week had something about Norwegian artists and he was mentioned in there. I’ve never seen this publication before though…hrm. Whenever there’s something in print and in English about Magnet, I aim to find it. There’s something wrong with me.

BC Camplight is doing a residency at The Living Room on August 1st, 15th, and 29th. Check him out if you can. MAKE YER MONDAYS FUNNER! I found the message on the Living Room’s website, “All shows are 21 years and older *unless accompanied by a parent” funny–so when I turn 20, I’ll have to drag my mum with me? Isn’t there something wrong with that? (Yes.) Well. Perhaps it’s better than not allowing under-21s in at all, but really. I’m not bringing my mum–I’m staying home. Because I suck.

On a random ranty note, Myspace…wait, do I have to say anything else? All anyone has to say is “myspace” to commence the cringing of legions of Internet users. I just realized the other day that I had a privacy setting on that required people to enter my last name or email address to add me as a friend (and it’s not like I keep that information padlocked in a vault at the bottom of the ocean) so I turned it off. And then…random friend requests, WHY? I’m going to turn that option back on, along with “Block Friend Request From Bands”. I’m sure these people don’t suck but come on, that’s not cool.

Making your own Coldplay cover art = seconds of fun! [via Kempa.com]

Extended Live Archives

This page doesn’t really work in IE–sorry. Then again, you should be using Firefox, so maybe I’m not that sorry.

Threadless has grown muchly over the past few years (during which I accrued more than 10 shirts, doh) and has recently started having mini-contests to design shirts for musicians and other organizations. The latest contest is for Shout Out Louds and there’s another one for Eisley. Seems like a good way to get fans to design t-shirts. How many times have you seen a band shirt and thought, “I could do better”? Another non-music contest is for Semi-Permanent, a design conference in NYC you (meaning me) may want to go to this fall.

Lastly, this iPod shuffle jacket is kind of…weird. Or cute. But I’m going to go with weird. [from d*notes on…]