Mew at Hiro Ballroom, Wednesday, July 26th. $22 sounds fine to me. This is Mew, ye know. Or if you don’t know, maybe you should go to the show and find out. I’ve never seen them live, but I have no doubt that they’re awesome.
21+ shows make me unhappy. I’m 20.85 years old. (And if anyone knows whether Hiro Ballroom checks IDs/gives a crap, let me know. I’m kind of paranoid from past experiences.)
[via brooklyn vegan]
…either sounds jarringly tinkly or resembles the erratic beepings of an electronic toy from the dollar store.
But I still love them. Among the many defects I was born with, one happened to be a penchant for really annoying sounds, like those spurted forth from ice cream trucks.
Among the many ice cream truck jingles posted by WFMU, my favorite is easily the Ghetto Ice Cream Truck song. Mr. Softee is good too. Listening to any of these songs excessively in a short time period may result in brain hemmorhaging, but a little shouldn’t be any worse for you than staring directly at the sun’s burning core for a few seconds. (Um. Don’t do that.)
…So, where do these sounds come from? Music Thing gives a little bit of history and tells you where you can get your own annoying metal box of youth-enticing jingles (you should get an ice cream truck to go with it).
My parents never discouraged me from going to ice cream trucks when I was little (these parents told liiiies!), but there weren’t many where I lived. Then I came to NYC and found out that in the summer they pop out like bunnies. Rapidly reproducing truck-sized bunnies with freezer bellies. Not much in an ice cream truck appeals to me, but if I had the chance I wouldn’t mind checking out Ice Cream Man.
I’ll end with one of my favorite posts from Overheard in New York:
An ice cream truck is going up the street.
Little girl in wagon: Daddy, that truck song is annoying.
Hipster dad: Yes, the commodification of your desires is annoying, isn’t it?–Bedford & N 10th
I’ve been listening to Ian Love a lot lately, although by “a lot” I mean whatever’s on his myspace page since I don’t actually own his album. Yet. It’s only $10, less than what I spend on transportation for a work day, so I don’t have much excuse. By the time I finish this entry, I’ll have bought the album. Which reminds me, I have to pay credit card bills.
Even though I’m not a big fan of babies, I think the accompanying baby photos on Ian’s myspace page influence my opinions about his songs in a positive way. “Aw, babies…hey, this song is nice.” Maybe babies like his soft, sleepy, shuffling acoustic-y songs about lovey dovey things. Listening to his songs is very comforting and almost makes me feel like I’m sitting outside under a cool night sky and not in my humid room with the lights turn off because any excessive light will only exacerbate my sweat glands.
Yeah, I should just turn on a fan.
The only lyric so far that makes me go “Hmm?” is when he says, “As the stars jump side to side.” Why are these stars jumping? Are you nauseous? Is someone shaking you violently? I guess I’m taking things too literally. Thankfully, I don’t write songs; “As the stars stayed put because according to my astronomy textbook they shouldn’t be moving,” isn’t very heartwarming.
Listen to all his songs. They’re lovely. And feature different baby photos.
I wish I were that baby. Oh well.
I’m selling a gazillion (er, okay, about 20) Beck related magazines on eBay, along with a gazillion Radiohead magazines and Bjork magazines. There’s just too much stuff in my room and I need to start dumping the goods. I don’t know if any of it is valuable, but I’m counting on some crazy fans to buy my junk. Isn’t that what eBay is for? Yeeeah?
Also, I need some moolah. It turns out that going to Norway costs a lot. Hoho!
So. Erm. If any of these things interest you, bid away! Indulge in glossy stacks of outdated periodicals. Links and images follow:
Oh well…that was fun. [sniffle]
Aside from Shakira’s “Hips Don’t Lie”, the song I heard the most in Norway on the radio was “Young Folks” by Swedish band Peter Bjorn and John. (It’s kind of odd that I’ll forever associate the Shakira song with Norway, but…eh, there ye go!) The song features…a lot of whistling. And a simple drum and bass line. And some bongos. And slightly spacey, tired vocals, 50% courtesy of Victoria Bergsman. And overall catchyness. I’m afraid listening to this song too many times will result in insanity, yet that’s exactly what I’m doing. You can do the same at their myspace page.
I went to Platekompaniet today in the main square in Bergen and ended up listening to a bagillion CDs. You can listen to any CD in the store since they’re actually all store in drawers behind the counter and only the jewel cases are on display. Morten first recommended this Kim Hiorthøy album to me:
Some years ago I randomly got Hopeness and didn’t really like it. For whatever reason, I liked Melke immediately. If not for the 169 kr pricetag, I would’ve gotten it there. (169 kr is about $27.) His music is a bucket of clicky glitchy electronic-y fun stuff, ye know? Yup.
The nice guy behind the counter was really helpful and kept giving Diana and me more albums to listen to. 🙂 While most weren’t exactly my cup of tea (“Electric Violence” by Next Life, was probably the strangest one, in that it was…really experimental?), I really liked Pooka by Lars Horntveth.
I had been interested in the album every since it came out a few years ago, but I never got around to actually buying it. Giving the whole thing a quick listen-through helped…although I could’ve done that earlier on Bleep (which also has Melke) if I so desired. OOPS. Oh well, you can do it now:
Lastly, here’s where I was the other day:
Insane, I tell ya.
This isn’t a music post. Oops.
I’m in Bergen, Norway right now. See that photo? It looks like that. It’s. Very. Lovely. Pretty to the gazillionth power.
Like whoa.
I have not come across any famous musicians, not that I plan to. There was a pre-teen boy in the main square busking with an electric guitar though. He was freakishly good. Damn! What’s up with that?
I might see some live music thing during my trip. Maayyybeee.
I like this brown cheese stuff that you can find pretty much…everywhere. Mmm mmmm.
Time to go back on vacation. 🙂
This site died for a while. :'(
But now it’s back! 🙂
…I don’t blame ya if you didn’t notice.
I have a problem with Band of Horses’s Everything All The Time; it’s too short. In the past week, I’ve listened to it straight through about…[counts in fingers]…jagillion times. Yes, I know that’s not a real number.
I’m not sure why I like them so much, but it’s kind of rare that I enjoy something to such a high degree all the way through. So what do Band of Horses sound like? Uh. Um. Kind of like “The Shins”:http://www.theshins.com/, but not. Sometimes shouty, sometimes soft. Lots of echoing. Possibly grating, high pitches that I happen to enjoy. Happy. Sad. Swirly. Sweet.
It’s got guitars and stuff, if that helps. Which it doesn’t.
I JUST LIKE EM. To prove my point, I even uploaded mp3s! Just fer youuu:
Band of Horses – Wicked Gil [removed]
Band of Horses – St. Augustine [removed]