the oh so quiet show

rock out, Quaker Oatmeal style

The Blisters eating oatmeal

The Blisters play a song about oatmeal while talking about how much they like oatmeal. Quaker Oatmeal, of course. I know there are a lot of kinds of oatmeal but if you had to think of one brand to associate with oatmeal, it’d probably be Quaker. Does the commercial produce any oatmeal-craving feelings? Er…I’m not sure about that; right now all I want is a pancake. But I suppose it’s a cute ad. Danny Miller, Spencer and Sam Tweedy’s uncle, provides a behind the scenes look. [via The Breakfast Bowl]

Furniture

Reverberating in my head right now are the dinkly, atmospheric (yeah, I said “atmospheric”, but don’t ask me what that means exactly) sounds from Furniture’s debut album, Twilight Chases the Sun. There’s no skipping songs on this 10-track album, although, of course, I do like some more than others. Here’s one I really like and isn’t 6+ minutes long:

Furniture – Why Is Adam King? [removed]

The album is about 50/50 between purely instrumental songs and ones with vocals, some melding right into the next, some not so much but…ah, nevermind, I can’t describe stuff. Here’s a quote from Think:

bq. …they bring the organic into the electronic, a touch of wabi-sabi to sanitised industrial perfection. Human intimacy is found within it all, a series of ‘this-was-once-our-song’ Hallmark moments, bringing comfort to the loneliness of gazing into a starry, starry night. This is hipster music for lovelorn Trekkies.

I’ll just replace “Trekkies” with “dorks” to make that more applicable to me.

Since I can’t come up with a well-written description of their music, I’ll just list the “sound’s like” bands I thought of: Sigur Ros, Mogwai, GYBE, The Album Leaf, My Bloody Valentine, a bit of Múm, and I’ll probably add Efterklang once I listen to more of their music (just bought some albums online, woo). There are other ones, I’m sure. So roll all those artists together in a big juicy music meatball, and…wait, that’s not a great comparison. Um. Just put all those bands together in a bowl (and add an egg; can’t forget the egg) and make a big fluffy Furniture cake. And then eat it. And smile.

Although their website lists the album’s availability only in Asia (the band is from Malaysia), you can contact them and order a copy. It’s only $12 with the shipping and handling if you’re in the US. SO GET IT!!!

Royksopp, Annie @ Webster Hall

For some reason, during the few days up until last night’s Royksopp concert I was thinking, “Uhh Royksopp concert…again? Man.” Not that I saw them yesterday, but it was just a few months ago that I saw Royksopp with CJ. And we went. AGAAAIN.

…Which was a good thing because last night was awesome. I couldn’t tell what the concert would be like right away since Royksopp were situated much farther away from the audience than usual: back more on the stage with a barracade to separate us even further (although it didn’t completely work; more on that later).

Royksopp concerts are definitely better in large-ish venues with a crapload of people jumping around. I think the first time I saw them at Irving Plaza was the most fun for reasons I don’t know, but last night was better than the show in July. More energy, more insane people, more smoke and lights. GOOD TIMES.

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First off was the opener, Annie, accompanied by a guy playing drums/guitar and a DJ. Even though I like her music, I had heard so many bad things about her that I didn’t have many expectations. I thought her live performance was alright; not necessarily exciting, but not bad. I couldn’t really hear what she was singing but I figured that had something to do with the acoustics of Webster Hall (it was easier to feel the music making your organs explode than to actually hear it). She may not have extruded excitement but she looked happy. CJ basically kept saying, “SHE’S HOT!”, a sentiment that is surely shared by many other people. Norway breeds hotness, by the way (in addition to loads of music talent).

During the time between Annie and Royksopp, a seemingly drugged out/insane tall guy wearing a shirt that said “ENGLAND” with a white backpack came out of nowhere and slowly plowed through the front row where I was standing while proclaming, “Passion, passion” or…god know’s what. I felt really bad for the two women next to me, who looked like they were about to get injured. This guy grabbed onto the edge of the barracade for dear life while swinging around haphazardly, a really bad idea when you’re surrounded by a bunch of people and don’t have any room to swing around, unless you want to piss off a bunch of people. And that’s pretty much what he did, until the security guard took him away.

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Before that at the end of Annie’s set, a guy near me had his digital camera’s memory card taken away. (“A guy” being Chris, very recognizable as “the guy front and center dancing his brains out”, pretty awesome. Too bad about the camera thing though. His review for Annie.) I don’t think I’ve ever seen that happen to anyone before…erp. Lots of people were taking photos so I’m not sure what was the big deal, but I figured I wouldn’t take many photos after that.

And there wasn’t much point, as they’d all come out crappy anyway from the vibrating floor. There was also the super-mega-vibrating bass that made my organs buzz. You get used to it after a while, for better or worse.

Royksopp came out in completely different outfits compared to the last times I’ve seen them in the form of matching gray slacks, red collared shirts, and black ties; a homage to Kraftwerk? (They were also shoe and sockless.) Sitting at the back of the stage was a ginormous Royksopp cassette tape.

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They pretty much played the same way as before, so I think the main difference this time was with the audience. Obviously, it was…larger. Another difference was that there was a female singer for some of the songs. While the concert didn’t get hopping right away, things picked up (for me at least) when they played stuff from Melody AM. “Poor Leno” was the clear winner with the audience. There were other great ones but I can’t remember what they were; even though I wore earplugs, I still feel like some bits of my brain broke off. BUT IT WAS WORTH IT! I hope. (pokes brain) I’m pretty sure it was because I actually moved, and it takes a lot to make me move. Really, I don’t listen to other music like Royksopp’s and I’m not very animated unless situated near a bakery, where I can point and shout with glee at the mountains of cookies and bread.

After the first encore, a young woman ran from the left side and was almost able to throw herself onto the stage . She was so close, about halfway there…before the security guard came and lifted her away. The whole thing happened in about five seconds so it was a short, “What the…” moment. WHOA, CRAZY ROYKSOPP FAN!! There was also a very enthusiastic woman standing behind me, belting out the words to the songs (or just “ooh aahs”) not so on-key. The concert ended with Svein knocking down all his keyboard and drum stands, assumedly not on purpose, but it made for a funny way to leave the stage.

That was a good night. I’ll definitely want to see Royksopp when they come back again.

[photos]

Katrina Benefit show

Crackers United and Filter are holding a Katrina benefit show (flyer) on Tuesday, September 27th at Rothko and donating the proceeds to Oxfam. Performing at the show are Nicole Atkins & the Sea, Other Passengers, The Diggs, The Go Station, The Upwelling, and DJ Nora K.

…damn, that’s a lot of links. Make your live music watching worthwhile and gooo.

The Owens

I’m not obsessed with Norway (specifically Bergen) or anything, but…

The Owens are quite nice. Listen to some song clips so I don’t have to describe what they sound like. Or what he sounds like, as “The Owens” refers to one guy, named…OWEN! Yes, you saw that coming.

I don’t know why, but I like that the debut album is called “It was near I died”.

Okay, maybe I can attempt to describe the music, or my wonder over why I like it. It sounds like other stuff I’ve heard (a description about as helpful as saying, “This cake tastes like other cake I’ve eaten), except I like it more than the other stuff. It’s very sweet. I wannit.

there be booze in this bootle

It might just be because it’s late and I want to go to sleep, but the picture of Even on this page is making me laugh. I don’t know what’s going on due to my lack of Norwegian knowledge, but maybe it’s better that way.

Glósóli video

video screenshot

Is it wrong that this video kind of reminded me of Lord of the Rings for a while? “THE KIDS ARE GOING TO MORDOOOR, JESUS CHRIST.”

But the movie was beautiful, so I guess that’s alright. And where is that ginormous pack of kids running off to? Well. You’ll have to watch the video to find out…

windows media format:
low quality | high quality

real media format:
low quality | high quality

More Sigur Ros media

Sigur Ros

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Yaaay Sigur Ros is great, but I think you knew that. Every time I see Sigur Ros, they’re pretty much the same, which isn’t bad since “the same” means “really great”. Since they’re consistent (like the deliciousness of chocolate), I’ll just talk about the weird non-consistent things.

1) Dude who started snoring near the end of the show. Uh. Okay, I can kind of imagine Sigur Ros putting you to sleep, but good god…don’t actually go to sleep! AND SNORE!!!

2) Fan who was singing: you’re kidding me, right? Someone was attempting to sing along to the songs in the beginning of the show, a mind boggling feat if you know what Sigur Ros sounds like. Their music doesn’t really command sing-a-longs. I think the person stopped after someone else got pissed off at him/her.

Otherwise, it was all good. They played some new songs but overall there was stuff from all the albums, which made me happy. I can’t remember what they played but they started off with “Glosoli” and ended with “Popplagid”…or something like that. I can’t keep track of setlists I can’t spell. :p

Amina

I loved the opener, (and Sigur Ros’s string players) Amina. Kinda like less electronic-y Mum-esque music: playful but not immature. Happiness inducing, not saccharine. (One of the members spoke to the audience to say thanks and my friend said her voice was like the most innocent sounding voice ever. Not that there’s anything wrong with that, but I felt like it was kind of endearing and funny at the same time.) I’ve never seen anyone play glasses of water before or a saw so that was neat. They ended their set of rather subdued songs with this insanely cutesy Casio VL1-esque centered tune. I wish I had recorded it.

Oh god, no sleep…no more concerts. No CMJ stuff this year.

randomness

Band that I really like right now: Edson. How come I’ve never heard of them before until a friend gave me their album? First listen: oh, this music is really cute. How nice. Second listen: still good. 50 listens later: Why can’t I stop listening? OH GOD. More on that later.

If I still went to Vassar, I’d see CYHSY at The Mug. I don’t recall any semi-famous bands playing there in the past two years, but I could’ve been really unobservant. Of course, overall I like living in NYC more than Poughkeepsie. HAVE YOU BEEN TO POUGHKEEPSIE? The end.

Sigur Ros tomorrow!

Another Beck show

Dammmit.

..New York New York
=============================================
Due to overwhelming demand a 2nd Beck show has been added!!!

OCT 7
NEW YORK, NY
HAMMERSTEIN BALLROOM

NO PRESALE

..General Onsale..
Saturday, Sept 10 @ 11am (Local Time)
Tickets are available at all Ticketmaster outlets and charge by phone at 212 307 7171 and on-line at http://www.ticketmaster.com

I spent all day thinking about this concert and now, past 9 PM, I’m looking at the ticket page. Cos there are still tickets. (Can’t seem to get any for the Thursday show.)

Why haven’t I bought a ticket? … …mmm. I don’t know. I don’t recall ever thinking this long about going to a concert before. It shows two things: 1) I don’t want to go super badly and 2) I don’t not want to go. Weird. Someone slap me.

Reasons to not go: 1) I’m alone, 2) I don’t really like Hammerstein Ballroom, 3) I’d probably get a sucky spot, which is worse than not going, 4) It’s ~$50 (plus a buck to donate to Katrina if you want), but that’s not really bad. It’s bad enough to ensure that no one will want to come with me though. But today I spent $14 (with the tip) on a sammich from Shopsin’s (which is another story for another blog). Compared to that, Beck is well worth $50.

Reasons to go: 1) It’s Beck, 2) At least there IS a chance of getting a non-sucky spot.

WHY CAN’T I DECIDE? *slap slap slappity*

….

…..

Nevermind, I just bought two tickets. $108.95.