the oh so quiet show

Feist – The Reminder

I should’ve gotten Feist’s “The Reminder” earlier. Like when it first came out in May.

But I’m slow. So I have it now. And I really like it. I listened to it while passing through the swampy marshy crap in the Meadowlands under a murky sky that looked as though it were about to barf rain, yet it all looked pretty while listening to Feist. SHE IS DRUGGING ME, THAT’S WHAT, OMG.

Nah, not drugs. Just prettiness. Here are two examples of the prettiness:

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Feist – So Sorry

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Feist – How My Heart Behaves

I suppose I could post some lyrics that I really like, but …lyrics don’t usually mean a great deal to me unless I can relate to them. And I suppose they wouldn’t mean a great deal to you either unless you had some connection to them. And these lyrics are kind of depressing, so nevermind.

Actually, I like this bit from “So Sorry”:

We’re so helpless
We’re slaves to our impulses
We’re afraid of our emotions
And no one knows where the shore is
We’re divided by the ocean
And the only thing I know is
That the answer isn’t for us
No the answer isn’t for us

Mild depression may be abated by watching Charlie the Unicorn. Enjoy:

If you didn’t watch it in its entirety (and you know who you are, NO HIDING)…you should. There’s a really catchy song at around the 2:30 mark. Why deny yourself of such joy? Whyyy?

So tired, but quick thoughts…

M. Ward played for 90 minutes and his guitar playing-ness made me think “Maybe I should just burn my guitar and then chop off my hands for not being worthy of playing guitar.” His acoustic guitar-ness is much fun to watch. When I hear it on his albums I think “Ah, that’s pretty” and when I see it live I think “Jebus what’s he doing whaahATAHSDASD” in addition to “God, my feet hurt like a mother…”

Breaking into new shoes is not fun.

Okay, concert. Crowd seemed good, shouting requests every so often, not being annoying. I think there were two encores. Or. Three. For a long time the songs seemed pretty low-key, solo stuff with just an acoustic guitar and harmonica, but then the whole backing band came out and the mood completely changed. And then back to solo-ness. And then back to band-ness. I guess it’s good to mix things up.

It was hard to see M. Ward very well since he was wearing a hat. But I think he was happy or he wouldn’t have played so much. Uh. Yes.

AHragsdbrainmelt, I’ll update this later.

— many hours later —

I don’t have much else to say, actually. I enjoyed the show and Rachel Blumberg’s drumming besides M. Ward’s (I always feel inclined to say “Mmm, Ward” as thought I’m about to say “Mmm, donut”) guitar playing. Drums, I love thee.

The second photo is of Coco Rosie (not a very good homepage, unfortunately), one of the openers besides Devotchka, whose music I’ve never heard before but really enjoyed. When choosing between buygin Devotchka’s album and Coco Rosie’s though, I picked Coco Rosie’s (or CocoRosie? Mrrh?). I heard that people either love them or hate them; I ended up loving them. Or really liking them. They’re pretty strange but not really. …Um. God. You know I hate trying to describe music.

I’ll attempt anyway. Their singing may be off-putting but I like it. AND I HAVE NO IDEA WHY. It sounds kind of immature. And not. I enjoyed their use of children’s toys/keyboards to make sounds (or animal noises) but the Care Bears video in the background freaked me out a bit. It’s a matter of personal tastes but my overall impression is that they’re different from other stuff that’s out there and it’s refreshing. You can listen to a song at epitonic.com.

I’ve been listening to M. Ward a lot lately so I finally bought his music. I’m currently listening to some not so legally downloaded MP3s, but I doubt I would’ve bought his music or tickets to see him at Bowery if someone hadn’t uploaded his album for some of us to leech off of. Mwahaha. Ha. I know there are people who burn as many CDs as humanly possible but I’ll buy a CD if I think it’s really good, and I’m quite happy with Transistor Radio. Here’s an online flash player for the album. Epitonic has some mp3s from a previous release. Check out Brooklyn Vegan for photos and a video from his recent Knitting Factory performance.

I haven’t gotten the new Doves album yet since I want the super deluxe package of fun-ness and I’m not sure when I’ll splurge for that. I used to buy domestic and imported versions of albums I really liked, mainly because I’d find out later that the import is much cooler, but then I realized I should just buy the import. I did that with Magnet’s On Your Side and, of course, it ended up being released in the US with the same three bonus tracks. But I did get the Japanese version of the liner notes and that’s pretty sweet. If I were really obsessed I’d try to get every version of the album; I have not. WOO! However, I’ve bought many copies of the US version and UK version for other people, so overall I may have bought seven or so copies of the album in some shape or form.

Oh, back to Doves: Pitchfork’s review of Some Cities amused me. Mainly the first and last line, for different reasons. Maybe I like the word “wheezing”…yes, that’s it.

Totally unrelated: my roommate sings pretty loudly in the shower. Not badly but…but. If you go your entire life never hearing anyone sing in the shower and then suddenly have to hear, “You’re a queer one, Julie Jordan” possibly every day you start to lose it. And when I say “you”, I mean myself. And when I say “lose it”, I mean you want to kill whoever wrote that song and when you try to forget the song all you can do is REMEMBER THE SONG EVEN MORE, which is bad.

Spellemannsprisen is Norway’s version of the Grammy awards but more interesting (to me at least) since I haven’t heard of most of the artists. MIC Norway has info about the winners in English so I decided to check some out, primarily Odd Norstoga (pictured, from dagbladet) since he won “Spellemann of the year”…which sounds major. [via it's a trap!] I wish there were full mp3s on his site but there are craploads of clips and I’ve listened to enough of them to decide that I like his music, and I want it, and gimme, and so on…

Oh, I didn’t even describe the music. Damn, I’m bad at that stuff. It sounds folksy and acoustic. And the songs are in Norwegian. Thank god I’m not a music reviewer.

The National Bank won for “Best Pop Group” and just a few days ago Petter gave me an mp3 of theirs so I shall pass the mp3-ness onto you:

The National Bank – I Hear the Sparrow Sing

It took me a while to get used to (not sure what to think of Thomas Dybdahl’s voice and for whatever reason I’m really picky with singing voices) but I like it. I wouldn’t know how else to categorize it besides “pop” so there’s your description. “Pop”. (You didn’t think I could get much worse, and look, I just did.)

Lastly, I checked out the winner in the electronic/contemporary category, Lars Horntveth (leader of Jaga Jazzist, whom I’ve never listened to for some reason…well, I’m doing that now). If you scroll down a bit you can open the “Pooka” minisite by clicking on the album cover and download an mp3. I’ve listened to this before but I’m giving it another go; it’s cool but I’d want to hear more songs. Grr, gimme more! The downloadable song “Tics” sounds more orchestral than electronic but is a good mix of the two….things. Yeah. It reminds me of Kim Hiorthøy (who’s on the same label), an artist I like but haven’t gotten very into.

Oo, the Jaga Jazzist mp3s are pretty neat.

I listen to The Innocence Mission a lot. Maybe an obscene amount, as in more than when I used to listen to Radiohead all the time (which is saying a lot). Listening to “Small Planes” on the bus ride back to dorm-ville while feeling like a sack of crap was uplifting for those few minutes.

The Innocence Mission – Small Planes [removed]

I hope you like the song as much as I do. Here are the lyrics:

I know what you mean,
when you want to run to meet the world,
intentions may not carry you far.
Small planes are here
but they never leave my room at all,
they don’t make it through,
they don’t make it out.

I want to be like Sister Veronica,
whose life connects with so many lives.
Small planes are here
but they never leave my room at all.
They don’t make it through,
they don’t make it out.

My words to him
they didn’t touch him, not at all.
And I never can say what I mean to say.
Small planes are here
but they never leave my room at all.
They don’t make it through,
they don’t make it out.

Twenty-five miles or thousands of miles,
when am I going to leave here?
Twenty-five miles or thousands of miles,
when am I going to get there?
Twenty-five miles or thousands of miles,
who am I going to help there?
Twenty-five miles or thousands of miles,
when am I going to get there?

For some reason I never paid as much attention to this song as I did tonight. I’m not one to interpret songs but after listening to this I’ve come to the conclusion that I will never leave here, or get there…once I get there I’ll have to come back here and re-instill the desire to leave again. The idea of small planes reminds me of Bjork’s Isobel video.

On an unrelated note, M. Ward is playing at Knitting Factory on Wednesday, March 2nd. That would make me a lot happier if I could actually go. Hopefully there are people out there who want to go and can go.

Doves Dropping In On the States [via One Louder]:

Jimi Goodwin tells Billboard.com the group is hoping to also squeeze in shows in New York and Los Angeles during the trip, and that it will also be back in the States later in the spring to play the Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival in Indio, Calif.

Seeing as I’m not going to California (although I would like to go to Coachella before I die and bacteria consume my organs) I hope they can do some of that squeezing and that the squeezing will not take place on a Tuesday or a Wednesday.

Having night classes is not cool. Tuesday and Wednesday = class until 9 PM. Yeah, I could still see shows getting out of class at that time but I’d really have to want to go to them. If you’re in NYC and have the time, check out Movable Hype 2.0 on February 16th. I haven’t been to any of the Movable Hype shows yet but they’re nice showcases of NYC bands and such. And it’s cheap! And if it’s at Knitting Factory all ages can go. That’s swell. I know there must be other people out there who are under 21 and annoyed at the places that are 21+. Those people have probable obtained fake IDs though. …[sigh]

It’s A Trap!, a website dedicated to Scandinavian music, has an mp3 playlist, one of which is currently Magnet’s cover of Johnny Cash’s “I Walk the Line.” The song is taken from We Walk the Line, a recording of a benefit concert in Oslo where Norwegian artists played Johnny Cash covers to raise money for SOS Children’s Villages. This concert is from 2003 but I’ve been wondering how to get this Norway-only CD on and off for the past…while. Of course, I love Magnet’s version but I’m sure all the songs are fantastic.

If you like Beck then you probably know about the leaked album already. So I don’t need to recap the whole thing…because I already recapped it at beck beck beck, which got the most hits today than it has for the past many months. From the four songs I’ve heard I agree with what other people have been saying (or maybe they haven’t, I can’t remember) that it’s more like Odelay, but not entirely, and it’s not like Sea Change. Actually, none of his albums really sound like the other, so there isn’t much point in talking about that. It’s more upbeat, but not to crazy Midnite Vultures-like proportions.

Ah, talking about Beck is so notsalgic. For those who don’t know, I used to be very obsessed with Beck. I think it had something to do with being a young teenager as my obsessions present themselves differently these days, but millions of people would agree with me when I say that Beck is awesome. Beck has a gazillion songs but I somehow designated one as my favorite. If you haven’t heard it, I hope you like it:

Beck – Hollow Log [removed]

K Records also has the song “Forcefield” from the same album (One Foot in the Grave) in their audio/video section.