On an unrelated note, I’ve been listening to a lot of Small lately, thanks to Discodust.  But by “a lot” I mean “the only two songs they’ve released.”

Port Largo

Port Largo (myspace): Danish, synth-rock-pop, kinda reminds me of Mew/Sigur Ros…because of somewhat unintelligible high-pitched singing. You know the type. Favorite song: “Another State of Mind”

The Ballet

The Ballet (myspace): New York, indie-pop/”Belle & Sebastian after too much cotton candy” (–Logo), bleepy keyboard and clappy drum machine lines, lovingly handcrafted album (sold out). Favorite song: “In My Head”

Kunek

Kunek (myspace): Oklahoma, atmospoheric, sad, delicate, kinda-reminds-me-of-Coldplay (hope that’s alright). Favorite song: “A Sign of Life”

One Trick Pony

One Trick Pony (myspace): Los Angeles, kinda reminds of Sondre Lerche, but I don’t know why. Is it the croon-y voice? Sorry, that wasn’t much of a description, I’m too lazy. Favorite song: “Box Song”

Hooray for Earth

Hooray for Earth (myspace): Boston, synth-y pop rock, and their name is HOORAY FOR EARTH, which might be the main reason I’m mentioning them because this isn’t exactly my kind of leisure listening music. Favorite song: “Take Care”

Me: Heeelllo?
CJ: DID YOU HEAR THE BAD NEWS?!
Me: Huh?
CJ: …MEW’S BASSIST LEFT!
Me: Wait, that’s why you called me?
CJ: …

Oh, I love CJ. If not for him though, I would’ve found it through no snow. Johan is leaving to tend to his family, which is a perfectly good reason. There are letters from the band and Johan at mewsite.com. Aw. We shall miss him. And CJ will cry in a corner.

I have to admit, I wonder about musicians who tour all the time and have families…about how much they see their families. Then again, that’s not just musician-specific. I can speak from experience, hahaha, hahaha, HA HA HA…too much info.

For something happy, the end of the news bit says “Mew continue their touring and album promotion in Europe and will go to USA to promote the album in the summer. ” Emphasis mine. I think Mew is the only band right now that I reallllly want to see. After that, I can die a happy camper. Kinda.

Nono, there isn’t a video of Mew and dancing elephants. That would be…weird. Mew has a new music video for “Special”. As you can see from the screen cap, it’s black and white and it has humans in it, like the band (mainly Jonas) and a couple who seem to be having relationship issues and enjoy frolicking in water. At night. Watch it (thanks CJ, pancakes are a-comin’):

* Realplayer: Broadband | 56k
* WindowsMedia: Broadband | 56k

I’m really glad CJ mentioned the video is directed by Martin de Thura or else I would’ve thought it was too similar to a Carpark North music video. …because it is (with the floaty-slow-ness). But for good reason (same director). I like Carpark North’s videos more though, hmmmm.

MTVe.com has live Mew videos from Roskilde. [via it’s a trap!]

As for the “dancing elephants” portion of this post, you’ve seen Dumbo and the tripped out sequence with dancing elephants, yes? And since you were 5 when you saw it, you had no idea what was going on. Or maybe that was me. Boing Boing has a video of it mixed with the version “recorded years later by the great Sun Ra and his Arkestra”. I’m not a huge fan of Dumbo (can’t say I like elephants, the circus, mice, or black crows) but this is one of the most memorable Disney animated sequences.

Lastly, play with the Pâte à Son for some time wasting music fun! It’s a “sound toy and compositional tool conceived to encourage musical experimentation.” Or in my words, you move a bunch of pipes and stuff around the screen and funky sounds come out. I don’t know if it’s just my computer’s inability to function properly, but after a while the sounds start repeating too much resulting in a jack-hammer-esque sound porridge (try to imagine that). Until that happens, it’s rather fun. [via Cakehead]

An otherwise crap-filled day was saved by the arrival of Carpark North CDs from CD Skiven, less than a week after I ordered them. (I wrote about their awesome music video a few weeks ago.) I got three copies of All Thinks To All People, the other two being for Diana and CJ. After shipping, each copy was only $23. That might be because it’s on sale but I’m not sure since my Danish is a little rusty/nonexistent.

As usual, I like this album but don’t know how to explain why. I just…do. Maybe you’ll like this song:

Carpark North – Berlin [removed]

It’s pretty. I like pretty things. Give me some aluminum foil and I’ll go, “Ooh, it’s shiny, me like.”

Okay, maybe not. I’d compare Carpark North to something else but I can’t think of a good comparison. Not that their sound is hard to pin down–I’m just not the person to do it. Rock. Pop. “80 style electro-pop” and “dynamic” as described on their website. Worth $23. Quiet & loud (the track “The Beasts” is a good example of that). A band that may never be well-known in the US, which is a shame. Actually, I could compared them to Mew but less rock-ful and more electronic-ish. (Okay, maybe that’s not such a good comparison.)

Besides being musicians, all the band members are computer programmers.

So that’s my album recommendation.

—

I’m leaning towards going to the City Bakery tomorrow for a dessert-filled dinner. I’ve heard about the yumminess of Zen Palate but have yet to experience it.

It is very silly that I had to talk myself into seeing Sigur Ros. Doh. The prospect of seeing them alone didn’t seem too fun though. I remind myself that if not for my interest in seeing live music, I’d be much more closeted than I already am. This might sound stupid, but I never feel totally comfortable at concerts; a part of me feels like I don’t belong there. But my desire to go to them outweighs the uneasiness. Thank god.

—

Luis Katigbak is my favorite music writer. Granted, I don’t know any others but if anything else were as good, I’d remember it. He’s not just a music writer though; all his writing is good. Unfortunately, he lives in Manila (not that I’d mind living there, it’s just a bit far from here) so most of the world will never read his stuff. Kind of like a lot of good music that’s out there that no one will ever hear.

I can count on CJ to expose me to great bands that I would never hear of otherwise. He asked me, “How do you buy music that you can’t find on Amazon?” My first though was gemm or musicstack, but they have somewhat failed in the search for Carpark North cds. There are websites you can buy their cds at, but the websites are in anti-English. So. Danish people, feel free to aid us.

CJ told me that I had to watch Carpark North’s video for “Best Day”. It is an awesome video, but I actually liked the one for “Human” more (the one screencapped in this entry, which you can download in .mov format at duckling.dk). My first reaction was “hm…cool…” but I like the videos much more after watching them a couple of times. Or more than a couple by this point. See more videos directed by Martin de Thurah at antville.org.

Actually, I can kind of describe why I like the videos (beware of forthcoming ineloquence…ness!). Frenetic and peaceful; that’s the impression I get. Floating or lying down while spazzing out at the same time. Kind of like that scene in Garden State when Zach Braff is sitting in the couch staring at nothing while everything goes around him at 1000 mph (uh oh, I just referenced Garden State…is that a bad thing?). Diana mentioned surrealism, which is an apt description.

Oh, and the music is good! Hopefully I’ll figure out a way to buy it online without accidentally adding 400 of them to my Danish shopping cart.

Mew – Apocalypso [removed]

Doesn’t quite grab me as much as their songs from Frengers but it sounds like Mew, which means it’s awesome. I love Mew but I’m rather lazy as to finding out what they’re up to since they’re usually not in the US except when they’re RECORDING STUFF HERE. I think we need to start a petition to get them to come back. Cos. They. Should.

Yeah well this has become quite a long 1st post. Before I leave you for the 1st time, I think it’s only fair that I give you a list of my current favorite artists and albums, just to show you that I do have good taste……..and occasionally bad taste (pobody’s nerfect).

Artists:
MEW
MAGNET
CHEMICAL BROTHERS
SIGUR ROS
MÜM
STARS
IVY
ROYKSOPP
THE DELAYS
KINGS OF CONVENIENCE
KASHMIR
LADYTRON
DAFT PUNK (OLD SCHOOL)
THE SMASHING PUMPKINS
and a whole lot more!

Yeah so that’s me in a cashew shell (do cashews have shells?) I’ll be back, so remember…..ask not what your favorite band can do for you, but what you can do for your favorite band. SPREAD THE WORD!

• April 26-27 – New York – Mercury Lounge
• April 28 – Brooklyn, N.Y. – Southpaw
• April 30 – Indio, Calif. – Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival
• May 3 – San Francisco – Great American Music Hall
• May 6 – Portland, Ore. – Dante’s
• May 10 – Minneapolis – First Avenue
• May 11 – Chicago – Double Door
• May 12 – Milwaukee – Mad Planet
• May 13 – Indianapolis – Patio
• May 14 – Nashville – Exit/In
• May 17 – Austin, Texas – the Parish
• May 19 – New Orleans – Twiropa
• May 20 – Tallahassee, Fla. – Beta Bar
• May 22 – Ft. Lauderdale, Fla. – Culture Room
• May 25 – Athens, Ga. – 40-Watt Club
• May 27 – Carrboro, N.C. – Cat’s Cradle
• May 28 – Washington, D.C. – Black Cat
• May 29 – Baltimore – Ottobar
• May 31 – Hoboken, N.J. – Maxwell’s
• June 1 – Philadelphia – North Star Bar
• June 2 – Boston – Paradise
• June 6 – Cleveland – Beachland Ballroom
• June 7 – Newport, Ky. – Southgate House
• June 8 – Detroit – Magic Stick
• June 9 – Millvale, Pa. – Mr. Small’s Theatre
• June 10 – Buffalo, N.Y. – Showplace Theatre
• June 11 – New York – Webster Hall

I’ve never seen them live. …I wanna gooo.