the oh so quiet show

Cute video from cute band with a cute name: Elephant Parade (myspace). You should buy their album, Bedroom Records. COS I SAID SOOOOooOOO.

We Walked in Song

I got two new CDs in the mail today: Air’s “Pocket Symphony” and The Innocence Mission’s “We Walked in Song”. Since I put TIM’s album on first, I haven’t listened to Air’s yet. Because I really like the Innocence Mission.

I only just found out that they released a new album, at which point I screamed in agony for my role as a bad fan. Who doesn’t know when one of their favorite artists is coming out with a new album, right? Right. Well, I acted quickly, so it’s here now. And it’s as beautiful as all their other ones. You can listen to some clips at their myspace page, but some nice people have put up full mp3s, which is what I lived off of for a while until I got the album in the mail (and by “a while” I mean a few days). I like Love That Boy in particular because I relate to it in a pathetically funny way…or pathetically pathetic way…haven’t figured it out yet. For the time being it makes me laugh, but it’ll probably make me cry if I give it too much though.

Moving on.

Is there anything especially innovative or new about TIM? Not really. But is there innovative or fresh about a vanilla macaron from Pierre Hermé? …Actually, that’s a bad comparison, but I think I have a point. The vanilla macaron is my favorite thing from Pierre Hermé—it’s no foie gras and chocolate, nor olive oil and vanilla, but its pure flavor shines through its simplicity and one bite is like feeling a light rush of fresh morning air, if the air were in the form of vanilla cream sandwiched between two egg white and almond flour-based cookies.

Karen Peris is my vanilla macaron. For my ears. Her voice is sweet, pure and simple like her band’s music. And it makes me really happy. TIM sometimes almost brings me to tears, like a really good macaron. Karen Peris makes writing heart-aching songs and singing all wispy and honest ook effortless, kind of like how Pierre Hermé constantly churns out delicious macarons like it’s noooo problem even though one else in the world can seem to make them as good as he can.

I know this comparison makes no sense if you don’t like macarons, especially if you don’t like TIM, but if you like both then YOU SHOULD TOTALLY UNDERSTAND WHAT I AM TALKING ABOUT.

[tumbleweed rolls by]

TIM is playing at Southpaw on April 21st. Although I haven’t bought tickets yet, I AM GOING, or else you will find me curled into a sad little ball on April 21st. If anyone wants to join in, let me know. (In other words, COME WITH.) Unfortunately I have no macarons to offer you.

I’m pleasantly surprised that I got this “switching servers” thing to work without too much swearing or hair pulling. One lil’ problem I had was that while I used an anti-spam plugin before, all the spam comments that I thought had been deleted were actually still roaming around in my mysql database. All 9000+ of em. I didn’t have enough phpmyadmin prowess to figure out a painless way to delete the bulk of them at once while keeping the legitimate comments, so that process was kind of a huge ass pain in the bum. I think a lot of them are still there, actually.

Oops.

Armchair Apocrypha

The only thing that made me happy yesterday was receiving Andrew Bird’s new album in the mail, Armchair Apocrypha. (Also, I think the redesign of his website is byootiful. Thank you, Mr. Web Dude.) This album is awesome. Because. BECAUSE. ARGH! AWESOMNESS. Listen to some new tracks; isn’t it awesome? Yes.

I had no more adjectives to give you.

Mew!

I saw Mew last Thursday for my first concert-going experience in a while. And they were great. But I was really tired. And thirsty. A sip of my friend’s noxious rum and Sprite did nothing for me except make me hate alcohol even more than I already do. Mew is a magical band, but I think they’re better experienced with enough hydration and not while standing next to a girl screeching, “I LOVE YOU JONAS!” after every song and singing along during Mew’s biggest hits, or the songs I’d rather hear come out of Jonas’s mouth more so than the girl next to me. Not that I don’t understand her enthusiam…because I do. Just. God. I dunno.

Ever since I turned 21 I’ve felt like an old bearded dude trying to get young whippersnappers off his lawn. Damn kidz.

But I have to see Andrew Bird at Webster Hall on May 17th and pray I don’t stand next to a screaming Andrew Bird-obsessed fan.

Changing hosts. Need to back-up all my crap and haul it over to Dreamhost. Hopefully I’ll get it done in the next week…or sometime in April.

The Simple Life

I think Even could sing a cat food jingle and I’d probably love it.

[scratches head]

Whether that’s good or bad, I’m not sure. He has three new tracks from his upcoming album, The Simple Life, up at his myspace page. At first listen I thought, “Mm…okay,” nothing relevatory, but since then I’ve listened to each song a gajillion times, roughly. AHHHHH, WHYYYY OH WHYYY…(um, because I like them)…

I’ll admit I’m pretty tired of his lyrics. I dunno, write a song about waffles, dammit! Okay, waffles don’t sell records, nor are they the most inspiring subject to write a song about.

But even if there are no waffles, I’ll keep listening. I’ve been listening relatively non-stop for 5 or 6 years. That’s a quarter of my life! That’s a…lot.

I keep getting emails from record labels and whatnot and I don’t know why. Do you people even read this site? If you did you’d notice I barely update, that I probably won’t write about what you want me to write about and I DON’T CARE ABOUT SXSW OH JESUS.

Alright, I know you’re just doing your job. Hm. Well, while you’re in Texas, I’ll be in Paris. Not watching any live music, but sidestepping around doggie poo in the streets and gorging on pastries. I WIN, OH YEEAAH!