If I'm not mistaken, my former boss Eric Harvey gave out his first "Recommended" declaration on Pitchfork today - a 7.8 for Yeasayer's debut. Not a bad score and the review is, of course, well-written. I'm counting the days until he tells me about some Best New Music! (edit: I was mistaken...)
Yeasayer's first single, "2080" definitely grabbed my attention. However, in this live performance via YouTube, I can't seem to get past that striped shirt!
I've been that guy (but with a video camera) so I'm not complaining. More than anything, I just wish the guy who took this video had more courage and got me a close up of the dude in the headband.
Which brings me to a novel idea for photogs. If you're planning on hogging the front row at a show, wear a sign on your back! Seriously! Put a graphic of where we can see those awesome pictures you're taking! You'll get loads of free publicity on YouTube!
Scranton, Pennsylvania is not a made up place. It's real and they're having an "Office Convention".
Scrantonian Michele Dempsey, who came up with the convention idea says "If people leave here saying, 'I had a blast in Scranton,' then we've achieved our goal."
Sounds like a Michael Scott quote to me...
And the party promises cast appearances! Will Michael show? Dwight? Jim & Pam? Hopefully not just Ryan...that would be a letdown...
According to James Ford, "a guy called Final Fantasy who does a lot of the Arcade Fire strings" is doing some work on Alex Turner's new side project. (via NME)
Over a year ago, I interviewed a guy called Owen Pallett. Here's Part 1. But what's more topical is Part 2.
At 2:58 into this feature, he actually disses Alex Turner's main project. Who knows what would happen if his quote was taken out of context...
...It's Meet the Press with Tim Russert! It's on at 10 AM every Sunday morning and whenever I find myself up that early, I like to watch it with a cup of coffee. This past Sunday was particularly entertaining. Fake News Political Pundit/Presidential Candidate Stephen Colbert was the guest. Russert does a great job of playing along. It made me laugh more than a couple times. And no, I didn't spill my coffee.
Part 1:
Part 2:
Apparently, there is extra interview footage at msnbc.com with the REAL Colbert speaking...but the MSN Video player won't load on my Powerbook. I hate Microsoft.
The Tough Alliance's album got an 8.6 and a "Best New Music" rating today on Pitchfork. Other blogs have posted about them, but I didn't pay attention. After reading the review, I decided to spend the next fifteen minutes of my morning looking into these guys. (On a side note, Marc Hogan has monopolized the Pitchfork coverage of this band. Every album, song, video and remix. Hmmm...)
From their MySpace: "Obviously we never wanted to see anyone we care about in this pop whorehouse begging you to enter their "space" and be their "friends"."
The account has zero friends and no pictures.
So, I went and listened to First Class Riot on a MySpace fan page and liked it. It's new wave Beach Boys with some weird Animal Collective yelps mixed in. Like mixing pretzels and Reese's.
However, the fan page also had some pictures, several of which moved the needles on my "uncool-o-meter."
The jackets? The tank tops? The lasers? I furthered my investigation on YouTube and that's where they really threw me for a loop. Here's the video for their song, "Holiday."
Is this dancing tongue-in-cheek? Is there something lost in translation from Sweden to America? TTA's music is obviously cooler, but I can't help but wonder if they are the LFO or O-Town of Sweden...
And it doesn't stop there! The video for First Class Riot feels right at home alongside Wham!
None of these points are meant to dissuade you from enjoying their music. I'm just a little confused as to what exactly this band is.
I want to say Mates of State. I want to say Dr. Dog. But I've said too much already. Cambridge, Massachussetts band, Drug Rug, is fun, sloppy, and melodic. If you like those three words together then listen to what would be their hit-single, if small indie rock bands had hit singles...
It should also be noted that this band slept on the floor of my apartment after opening for the Fiery Furnaces at Southgate. They brought their own rugs.
A commenter on the NPR blog mentioned "the classic Tom Snyder interview with Johnny Rotten." I had never seen this so I hopped on over to YouTube. Here's part one of two.
I wish this was from a mockumentary. It'd be hilarious.
But it's real and it's obnoxious... "It's a communications company." What the hell are they talking about?
A friend slipped this song into his DJ set a month ago. I hadn't heard it before. Alex from Franz Ferdinand produced their album. CSS remixed their hit single. I love the way his voice strains on "MEEEN'S!" and "GREEEEEED!".
The video I directed for Ghosthustler's 'Parking Lot Nights' is one of the "Freshman Five" on MTVU. Not only does this mean Kim from America's Next Top Model talked about my video (and liked it!), it also means the video could be added into the MTVU rotation.
This will only happen if the video gets the most votes this week! The polls opened this morning and they close on FRIDAY AT NOON! So, if you could all please go here and vote a million times (there's no limit), I would greatly appreciate it!
The new Hot Hot Heat album doesn't sound all that hot but these "Making the Album" videos are actually pretty entertaining in a "Behind the Music" kind of way...
For anyone interested in inter-band relationship dynamics...
Truth In Jest (Making of the Record Pt. 1)
Ruthless Dictator (Making of the Record Pt. 2)
Quit Wasting My Time (Making the Album Pt. 3)
Forget Those Things (Making the Album Pt. 4)
Droid Entertainer Prostitute (Making the Album Pt. 5)
The Fiery Furnaces played an INCREDIBLE show Tuesday night at Southgate. On the "Bitter Tea" tour, Matt Friedberger had his guitar. This time he stuck to the keyboards and they somehow managed to rock even harder. Eleanor's delivery is unmatched. If they are playing anywhere near you, please go see this show. Their performance made me forget about all the Arcade Fire's of the world.
And if you're not into the Furnaces crazy instrumentation, here's an acoustic performance I found of "Japanese Slippers" that shows it is, in fact, a nice little pop song...
Enon's highly-alliterative new album, "Grass Geysers...Carbon Clouds" came out yesterday. I was lucky enough to catch them last Friday night at the Southgate House. The non-cougar sampling "Mr. Ratatatatat" was a set highlight. The new songs were fantastic live, yet still not enough to dissuade a crazy drunk lady from yelling "IN THIS CITY!!!" for about five minutes after the band's encore.
Here's the slick music video for drunk lady's favorite song...
On a side note, CELEBRITY SIGHTING! Matt Picasso in the front row! It looks like we'll be seeing some Enon pictures from him!
Ex-Unicorn Alden Penner debuted his new band at Pop Montreal in the Birks Chapel this past Sunday night. The Secret Unicorns Forum already has the show uploaded in their bootleg section, but the audio quality gets in the way of the songs. Apparently, the band played very loud and the entire experience was "awkward" and "strange." I'm just glad to see Alden making music again.
Here's a preview sampler of songs off their new record. I like it. - Clues' preview
And here's some fan footage of the debut concert. The song starts getting good (i.e. Unicorns-ish) at the 3:18 mark.
Bad Veins opened for Enon on Friday (More on ENON later...) Bad Veins were loud and triumphant as usual. I'm biased but I think they deserve more attention. Chris?Matt? WTF?
Here's their homemade music video for the single-worthy track, "Gold & Warm."
They're releasing a 7" single on Dovecote Records this month.
Hi there. I’m Guest Anchor Center Correspondent and Chief Rilo Kiley Expert Enthusiast Mandy Levy. Nice to meet you. Pete Ohs has so graciously opened up his heart and his award-winning blog to me, and has allowed me to share my most recent Rilo Kiley experience here on the world wide web, with you, his fervent followers. So thanks Pete! And with no further ado…
So Rilo Kiley is my favorite band, hands down (save the Beatles, but that’s different). And Jenny Lewis is more or less my favorite person in general, ever. I went up to see them in Detroit last Monday, making it the 6th time I’ve seen them live, finally knocking Oasis out of my number-one position for live-acts-seen-most-often. (Cut me some slack; it was when they were awesome). Anyway, my friends and I got to the venue about six hours early (we still weren’t first in line!!) and the day turned out to be “more adventurous” than we expected…
We actually met Jenny Lewis! It was my dream come true! We found her hours before the show shopping at an American Apparel down the street. How LA, right?? (I’m recycling that joke; I used it on Jenny when I was posing for a picture with her. I’m sure she thought I was way clever and cool).
I look really stupid because I’m probably on the verge of pissing my pants. I thought about Photoshopping myself, but what does it matter; no one’s looking at me anyway.
Anyhow Jenny was way nice and wearing an awesome outfit and not a drop of makeup and looked great. AND she told me she liked my dress!!!!! Or at least I think that’s what she meant. Here’s how it went down:
MANDY: Hey Jenny, I know you’re shopping and all, but when you’ve got a minute, do you think I could ask you some questions for my boyfriend’s video blog, the Anchor Center? JENNY: Ummmm…..no….. MANDY: (Freaking out) Oh! Okay! No problem! Sorry! JENNY: That’s alright. Thanks for asking and not just firing away. MANDY: Oh I’d never; I’m no professional. JENNY: (Looking Mandy up and down) But you sure dress like one.
God could have struck me down right then and there. Life was complete.
Luckily, though, I lived. Because only minutes after meeting Jenny, we found out that they were playing a secret acoustic show at a bar down the street before the concert! We hurried over, and even though it was only a three-song set, oh man, was it worth it! Here’s their acoustic version of Close Call:
Girl can sing. And I’ll tell you what—I wasn’t instantly gaga over Under the Blacklight when I got it. I sorta thought it was cheesy and easy and predictable at first, finding myself likening it at times to Lisa Loeb and Bonnie Raitt and even fucking Tom Petty. But now that I’ve seen her perform these poppier songs live, with just as much belting emotion and thoughtfulness as Better Son or Daughter or I Never, my whole opinion of this newest album changed. She still means and feels what she sings, and damn, does she sing it well. She’s indie rock’s Whitney Houston—never misses a note. I love her.
At the actual show, we were front row center. (Six hours early always pays off! I learned this from my fighting days in the boy band war zone). Good Ole Party played—pretty cool girl drummer, lots like Karen O., awesome awesome hot pants—and Jenny’s lover, Jonathan Rice, opened as well. He’s okay. Hot, cool, funny…I’m just not so taken by his songs. Anyhow then Rilo Kiley came out. It was perfect, she was perfect, they were perfect, blah blah blah, here’s some choice selections: (redundant?)
Sorry the camera moves sometimes. I’m not as good as Pete. I have to dance; I can’t help it.
One thing I noticed is that Blake is becoming less and less important. And I know that’s a big part of the tension that’s been going on with them on stage and in the studio. Allegedly he’s way jealous of her recent solo successes, and it really shows. He had his back turned to her for half the set! And he sang two of his songs, Ripcord and his new one, Dreamworld, his best two for sure, but besides that, he just played his guitar, didn’t talk or interact with the audience or the rest of the band or anything. He could have been anyone. Any local Detroit guitarist-for-hire. It was really kind of weird. And kinda sad. He’s usually more animated. I fear they might break up.
It was a great set—they played songs off every album. My one complaint was that they didn’t play Under the Blacklight, this new album’s title track. When we bumped into Jenny once more after the little acoustic show, I had asked her when in the set she’d be playing it, hoping to tape it. She said they hadn’t worked it all out yet. I figured she just meant the set list, not the actual song. After all, that song’s simple! Genius in its simplicity! Like a good old-fashioned Weezer single! So that was too bad, because that song is amazing. But everything else was great. Although she skipped out on two of the songs in the encore—I swiped up the set list, of course, and noticed that they had written down a 3-song encore…but she waved a final goodbye after just one (Does He Love You?). Was she pissy? Annoyed with Blake? Unimpressed by the crowd’s applause level? Guess we’ll never know.
After the show, we waited outside the tour bus for Jenny, having used the duration of the concert and a couple Budweisers to muster up the courage to ask her to hang out with us. We just wanted to be friends with her. We waited and we waited, but she never showed, and we were sad and discouraged, but I suppose it’s just as well. She’s a fantasy, after all, an icon, a goddess, not meant to walk the same earth as her obnoxious obsessive fans, and just high enough off the ground for us to look up to her and sing along. I guess, for now, that’s what we’ll keep doing.
On a side note, CELEBRITY SIGHTING! Matt Picasso in the front row! It looks like we'll be seeing some Enon pictures from him!
