This trippy frame-by-frame Flash animation by Ori Toor is an accurate representation of what Animal Collective does to my brain, except I never…really knew what it looked like. Until now. Animal Collective world = colors and blobs galore. This was Ori’s final project at the Shenkar School of Engineering and Design; I hope it gets him high marks, or makes his professors go, “Whoooaaaaoouhhhooohooooh.” [via Cartoon Brew]
This is an epic journey set to an epic song. Thanks, Neil Cicierega. And Adrien Brody. And starfish. And the Sun.
Last night while curled up in a ball under my sheets in my flu-ridden attempt to fall asleep, I put on my earphones and listened to The Big Black and Blue by First Aid Kit. Did it put me in snooze-land? Not so much—I think my body was way too high strung to be put to sleep by anything. But that late night listening session made me appreciate the album more.
First Aid Kit is the Swedish sister duo of Johanna and Klara Söderberg. Johanna is 19 and Klara is 17. Oh god—what was I doing when I was 17? Nothing this good. (Note to self: Find time machine, tell 17-year-old self to do something awesome.) I first got into First Aid Kit about one and a half years ago when they put up their beautiful cover of “Tiger Mountain Peasant Song” by Fleet Foxes. Just two sisters wearing flannel, harmonizing in the forest (and even though I can’t see what they’re sitting on, in my mind they’re sitting on a giant log). And then I got hooked on their EP, Drunken Trees. And then just a few weeks ago I got their debut album The Big Black and Blue, a few months later than it came out because I’m just not “with it” when it comes to new music anymore, as evidenced by the lack of updates in this blog. Oops.
But better late than never. Initially, the only song that really drew me in was “Hard Believer,” but after repeated listenings I realized, “Oh nevermind, I like the whole thing.” So there’s your review: “I like the whole thing.” Yeah, I’m really selling it. If you like catchy tunes and sweet two-part harmonies and acoustic guitar and autoharp (er, that might only be on one song, but whatever) then you should be down with this.
Here’s another song few yew:
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.
First Aid Kit – Waltz for Richard
They’re touring around North America in June. Perhaps I will be pulled out of my no-concert-zone. (If anyone wants to see them on June 15 or 16 in NYC, let me know!)
Why would anyone disconnect from this dude? This dude is awesome! You go, Merton. You and your increasingly tightening hood.
I haven’t listened to much new music in a long time. Can you tell? Yeeaaaahhh.
So y’all know this kitty:
…Well, he died a while ago (the video was made in 1984). Fatso, you shall always be in my heart.
BUT THERE’S A NEW CAT IN TOWN, ensuring that the glowing torch of Keyboard Cat shall never burn out:
I hope Fatso is smiling down on the n00b.
[Thanks to Charlie Schmidt for going through the trouble of filming his cats while moving their paws so it looks like they're playing keyboards and then uploading the videos to YouTube so I can be forever amused.]
Happy New Year! …It still feels like last year. Fancy that.
My music listening this year was rather paltry. Despite that, I still had a hard time whittling down my list to 15 tracks (limited to songs that were officially released this year, as far as the Internet can tell me), some widely popular, some less so, and hopefully as least one you haven’t heard before but end up enjoying. The theme of this list: dancey, pretty, or all of the above. Tracks are in order of how I’d arrange them in a mix CD, not by how much I like them.
1. Animal Collective – In the Flowers
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.
Repeating what I said in January, this is my favorite song off Merriweather Post Pavilion. The 2:30 mark sets off this explosion of elation that could potentially result in dancing, if I weren’t firmly planted in my chair 110% of the time.
2. Kings of Convenience – 24-25
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.
I wouldn’t place Kings of Convenience‘s latest album Declaration of Dependence above their previous ones, but it shows they’re still the best at playing beautiful, warm harmonies. And they’re still one of my favorite artists to see live.
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.
I just blogged about how much I love this song. GO LOOKIE.
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.
OH MAN DAN DEACON, YOU’RE THE BEST. I can’t believe there was a time when I thought your music was irritating.
…Nah I lied, it’s really easy to see why his music could be perceived as irritating. Bromst made it easier for me (and probably many others) to get into. My ideal party would be Dan Deacon-powered. And have lots of balloons. That’s what his concert needs: more balloons.
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.
This song by Montreal-based duo Numéro# is super catchy, but if it weren’t in French I probably wouldn’t like it as much. Since blogging about it in April I never did bother to look up the translation…oh wait, what do we have here? NOOOO.
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.
Holy hell, I was obsessed with Manners this summer. I was determined to see Passion Pit live, so a friend helped me get tickets to their show in Philadelphia, which was the sweatiest experience of my life. Although it was fun, a lesson was learned: do not go to a concert at the First Unitarian Church in the summer ever again. Or at least bring a towel with you.
7. The Drums – Me and the Moon
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.
The Drums make me feel ridiculously happy. HAPPY FUN TIMES NAO [jerks around]…yeah.
8. Le Matos feat. Coeur de Pirate – How Do I Let You Know
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.
I listened to a lot of Coeur de Pirate this year, but as her album came out in 2008 I chose her more recent cover of this 80s-tastic song with Le Matos. More happy dancey-ness.
9. The Octopus Project – Wet Gold
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.
I’ve listened to The Octopus Project only sparingly over the last few years, which is silly since they’re…awesome. This song from their Golden Beds EP is my favorite.
10. Telefon Tel Aviv – Helen of Troy
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.
It’s my favorite song off Immolate Yourself. I have yet to listen to Telefon Tel Aviv‘s other music…I should probably do that.
11. Mew – Hawaii
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.
It took a few listens for me to get into this song, but it became my favorite off No More Stories Are Told Today Sorry… (my second favorite Mew album, after Frengers). Mew has the tendency to write epic songs; I feel like this one fits three acts into five minutes.
12. Phoenix – 1901
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.
I wasn’t much into Phoenix until I heard Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix. CUE THE FUN HEAD BOPPING. If only I could have caught them at Trocadero.
13. Annie – Songs Remind Me of You
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.
I don’t like everything by Annie, but some of her songs are instantly addictive, like “Heartbeat” and this one from Don’t Stop.
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.
It’s dark. It’s pretty. GOOD TIMES. This is the only Bat for Lashes song I really like, but that probably means I should listen to more of her other stuff.
15. This Will Destroy You – Freedom Blade
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.
As soon as I started listening to This Will Destroy You, I bought all their releases (as should you). Not that there were that many for me to catch up on. This year they released two songs on Split, an EP with Lymbyc Systym. This song puts me to sleep, in the good way that achingly beautiful post-rock tends to do. It would also make a sweet soundtrack to watching a blizzard.
Moderat (Modeselektor + Apparat) isn’t recent, but my interest in them is. I only just got their self-titled album (the deluxe version is a CD + DVD despite amazon.com’s lack of any mention of the CD) after randomly coming across the video for “Rusty Nails” off a random blog. That’s how I surf the Internet: randomly, without memory of how I get from one place to the next. The discovery of music I like only happens once in every other blue moon, which would explain the lack of updates on this blog.
People + wind + lots of gray toned fabric + slow motion + geometric symbols + this awesome song = this awesome video. (My brain doesn’t feel like thinking of better words than “awesome.” I think you can deal with that.) I wish I had seen it earlier, but better late than never.
And here’s another good song to play while working on a blog entry, or attempting to sleep on the subway, or just when you want something wooshy and electronic and pleasant in your head:
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.
ENJOY. Now I must go update another one of my neglected blogs.
Impulsive and good decision: seeing The Octopus Project two Sundays ago at Mercury Lounge due to Jim‘s suggestion. …After taking a two-hour car ride from small town Virginia to Washington D.C., a four-and-a-half-hour Bolt Bus ride from D.C. to NYC, and shoveling some mediocre food from Woorijip down my throat. Even with luggage in tow and layer of sweat masking every pore on my body, I still had a good time. And for a rare occurrence, I didn’t have to be familiar with all the songs to enjoy the music.
After seeing Yvonne Lambert rock the theremin, I feel like I ought to get reacquainted with mine at the risk of annoying the shit out of my roommate with screeching high pitched bleeps. (I bought a theremin in high school during my “I LIKE RANDOM INSTRUMENTS” phase. Fiddling with it showed me that, holy hell, this thing is hard to play. But it sounds cool. And superbly annoying if you don’t know what you’re doing—sort of like with a violin, but perhaps a smidge less painful.)
“Wet Gold” is my favorite song form their new EP, Golden Beds. You can listen to all the songs at peekaboorecords.com
After a night of < 6 hours of sleep, this is what I want to wake up to. PURE AWESOMENESS.
The Octopus Project is currently on tour in the US. Woot woot.
This Fleet Foxes cover by Chris Dodgen made me happy. Along with his cover of Ragged Wood. [via metafilter]
WHAT. (My favorite part start at 2:50.)
This literal version of Total Eclipse of the Heart is 100000 percent awesome with some whipped cream and a cherry on top and maybe a sprinkling of crushed peanuts. But the original video is real. It’s. Someone…thought of it. Someone else…funded it. And a bunch of people contributed their time by acting in it. Or something. Which blows my mind.
Wikipedia sort of has an explanation:
The Gothic themed video features Bonnie Tyler clad all in white, apparently having a dream or fantasy about her students in a boys’ boarding school. Young men are seen dancing and participating in various school activities such as swim team, fencing, football, and singing in a choir. Also, there are unexplained ninjas. The video was shot at Holloway Sanatorium.
…not really.
From Wee See:
Part art installation, part pacifier, Wee See is a collection of black-and-white animations built from basic shapes to delight both child and parent. As vision develops slowly over the first months of life, Wee See provides surfaces of bold, well-defined artwork to engage your baby’s curious mind and bring the screen to vibrant life.
The first time I watched the video, I had no idea it was meant for babies. And I wouldn’t have thought that it was for babies…but I guess it makes sense now that I know.
Although you might wanna watch it while you’re on…”something,” it’s perfectly engaging when you’re in a normal state of mind as well. I love it.
Animated by Rolyn Barthelman, score by Tim DeLaughter.
And Collection Two:
Cats + [most things] = amusement, but with a mini-theremin? Aw…AW…aw. The hind leg action makes it better. You can buy a mini-theremin from MakerSHED. [via Heartaches By The Number]
“Toy food / Like real food, but is toy / Toy food / Not real food, do not eat.”
I think I love you, Neil Cicierega.
Originally blogged on Serious Eats.
I hope my dreams are full of flying paper cut-outs chasing each other area an eerie, dimly lit world of…angular things…and pointy blobs…and Fleet Foxes…
This animation by Grandchildren is beautiful.
I randomly decided to see if Chessie had a myspace page (yes) and then found out they (Stephen Gardner and Ben Bailes) came out with an album…in February.
So I’m slow. But at least I randomly stumbled upon their page before their show at the Knitting Factory on December 19. I rarely go to concerts anymore, but I am there. THEEERRREE.
I first heard of Chessie in 2001 when “Daylight” played on WNYU. Seven years later, it’s still one of my favorite songs when I want to discharge my brain. (Even though I’m not in love with the album it’s from, Overnight. I like Signal Series better.) Alas, I don’t have an mp3 of it on my work computer, but here’s a video:
Download the song (made of sounds from Alice in Wonderland) by Pogo at last.fm
I know the office jukebox is streaming from my iTunes when Doves comes on. Not sure I’ve ever watched the video for “There Goes the Fear” before, but I listened to the song obsessively when it first came out. Still good.
I feel like I’m watching a guy’s midlife crisis…in the form of an animated collage…on massive drugs.
I used to love That Thing You Do! when I was in middle school. Someone uploaded the whole movie to YouTube so I watched it again. I needed happy songs.
Yay, happies.
..Because my roommate likes to blast it on repeat: “Go West” by the Pet Shop Boys.
I think I’m getting used to it. Not sure if that’s a good or bad thing.