Saturday, March 31, 2007

House Music Please

And now after that moment of silence, we can move onto more uplifting pastures like the fields of the Ultra Music Festival. I was just in Florida on my Spring Break where I caught Ultra and the Winter Music Conference in Miami--home of big fake boobs, trashy Euros, guys jacked up on steroids and more party people in one place
than I've ever seen before. It was crazy--unlike anything I have ever experienced before. Case in point:
This was just one of many serious getups (or lack thereof) we saw at Ultra--the foremost festival event in the U.S. for DJ's and electronic music of all sorts--house, techno, hip-hop, and lots of other genres I couldn't even begin to recognize. The festival was complemented by a constant cluterfuck of pool parties, club events, panels, showcases, expos and more. At any given time you could wander into a party and bump into the next big thing. We were followed by lots of heavy bass and drums wherever we went--day and night to help us keep the party flowing.

The night we got in we saw DJ Sasha and John Digweed at the monster club Mansion. They are both amazing--so much energy, power, and emotion.
Towards the end of the night, one of the several writhing, mostly-naked dancers these DJ's like to have on stage since they can't do much but pound their fists behind the boards walked into the massive crowd with some fire. Delightful:

Check out Sasha remixing Thom Yorke's The Eraser: That's the kind of energy I'm talking about!

Here we have another set of winners who, in case you needed help figuring out what they were on, wrote "XTC" on their legs:

Also caught the end of Miss Kittin, who sounded pretty gorgeous, although I wasn't thrilled about the stuff I heard on her website and Myspace.
Deep Dish and their dancers really got the crowd going: You might recognize them from "Say Hello" which they started with and segued into a sweet remix of "The Kids Aren't Alright" which was a popular track all weekend.


On day 2 we escaped a downpour to catch Fatboy Slim in the big tent--it was so steamy because of the rain and everyone dancing their asses off but awesome!






By the by, sorry for the extended hiatus! This blogging thing is hard to do every day...I wonder how so many of the pros do this all day now. The big blogs update like every 10 minutes, but I guess they employ people and pour all their time and energy into it. Anyway, more for me, the non-pro tomorrow!

Friday, March 30, 2007

I'm baaaaack....

...but sadly my trusty Chucks, pictured at our last meeting above, did not make it. We were inseparable for so long, but their soles were wearing thin because I wore them pretty much every day. The downpour on Day 2 of our journey into rave-world in Miami was what finally did them in--cracked and soggy, I decided to leave them behind. You will be missed, shiny gold shoes. You will be missed.

Stay tuned to see where my shoes took me on Spring Break before they met their match.

Monday, March 12, 2007

Weekend Wrap-Up

How was everyone's weekend? Good, good. My friend Eliot visited and a rollicking great time was had by all. Here he is, making a deal, perhaps? I like how he is secure enough in his manliness to swill that fruity pink cocktail. Well played, my friend. I know they were delicious. Dan, with the flowing red locks in the background there, also made an appearance this weekend and to my great delight, he is now sporting a porn-star style handlebar moustache (unfortunately I was unable to document it but I'm sure he will, so maybe I can put it up in the future...) Again, well played, my boys.
In other news, I've had the Arcade Fire song,"Neon Bible" stuck in my head pretty much for the past 72 hours and I think I've infected several other people. It's really hypnotic--almost like a trance, and the symbolism is so original(well actually I think it comes from a John Kennedy Toole novel and there was also a movie) and poignant, it's hard to shake. Our culture is dictated by the neon signs of mega stores like Wal-Mart and the glow of computer screens, cell phones, etc. and we're all going to burn!

A vial of hope and a vial of pain,/in the light they both looked the same./Poured them out on into the world/on every boy and every girl./ It's in the Neon Bible, the Neon Bible/Not much chance for survival, if the Neon Bible is right."
Yikes...

We also saw Zodiac and despite it being like 5928340928734092387 hours long, it was pretty interesting and kind of creepy. This is a complaint I have about just about every movie I see--why give an audience what you can accomplish in 1.5 hours in 3? It doesn't take crack-squad of marketing geniuses to figure out that we all have A.D.D...Why else would we sit in front of the TV, texting our friends, while IMing on the computer and skimming our homework? I understand that at $10 a pop, film makers want to make sure the audience is getting what they paid for but, like in most things, being concise is key and also a lot more difficult. Anyway, the main point being, Zodiac, good film, even though it is too long. Excellent acting by Jake Gyllenhaal and Robert Downey Jr. in the very fitting role of mad, drunken crime beat reporter.

Saw The Hold Steady in the Sunday Styles section--there's something to wrap your head around: The bar band, out at the bar, talking about how they still have to work their day jobs (at the bar) when they're not on tour...I don't know why I was surprised considering how the music industry works today, but I was.


Also, Wolf Parade might have new material sometime in the near future, according to Pitchfork. I love this band a lot, though you may not...It's really a love 'em or hate 'em kinda deal because the singers' voices can be kind of abrasive but I just think they're quirky and fun. 3 great songs from Apologies to the Queen Mary (via Subpop):
My Father's Son
Shine a Light
I'll Believe In Anything (Video)

Ok, off to radio class. Big post about the pioneering all black radio station, WDIA is forthcoming so people get ready!

Friday, March 9, 2007

This is amazing.

I love this band Menomena (great name...) and you will too, especially if you are of the Broken Social Scene persuasion: lots of atmospheric sounds, originality, diversity....Their new video is so freaking funny. In it, the Grim Reaper visits the band at practice and they proceed to reveal their dying wishes(Kanye will produce their final album, farewell tour on zepplin, etc), and do everything they've ever wanted to: what life would be complete without skateboarding on trampolines? Check it out here.

If you like it, you can also stream all of Friend and Foe, their new album at Barsuk.

Thursday, March 8, 2007

Rock and Roll Bands

I saw this great review of the Thermals' show at the Bowery Ballroom on Sunday night and remembered how awesome they are. The Thermals open for The Hold Steady sometimes, who are sooooooo awesome. These two bands are very similar in a couple of ways: they both rock out way hard, lots of punk and garage rock influences, lots of fucked up songs about religion, and they both have um, "unorthodox singers." Download "Here's to Your Future" and "A Pillar of Salt" FREE here. These tracks will get you jumping around your room. Also great for driving.

We went on a rock and roll pilgrimage over Christmas break in a blizzard (!) to see The Hold Steady at the Stone Pony in Asbury Park. The band, who has been compared to Springsteen more times than those other bands these days (i.e. The Killers--bleh), deserve it. They packed them in and it was, obviously, a high point:
Then, I got closer, and blurrier apparently.



















And closer still...









The Hold Steady are not what you might call a "pretty" rock band (for that, go back to Kings of Leon), but they rock so hard and they are so earnest and funny. They make me excited about music again. Great night. Great bands.

The Hold Steady Stuck Between Stations

Monday, March 5, 2007

"Arty" Horror Movies


I saw Pan's Labyrinth last night and it was so heavy and disturbing and gratuitously violent that I felt sick to my stomach upon leaving the theater. I had been meaning to see the film and when it won all the Oscars, I figured it had to be as great as everyone said it was(brilliant logic, I know). Well, on the 3 fronts the Academy judged it to be the best (Cinematography, Art Direction, Makeup) it was, in fact, fantastic. The acting was pretty strong and the sound effects and production were incredible, as well. But the story was so gruesomely dark and unrelenting I had a hard time focusing on these aspects.

Against the backdrop of Franco's Spain, an innocent little girl tries to enter a fantastical world where she can escape. Aside from that, I really didn't know what I was getting into before seeing this movie--I had read a little blurb and the NYT review that mentioned fairy tales--but this is definitely not what fairy tales conjure up in my mind. The movie succeeds in capturing the darkness and fear of the historical time period, but it falls way short of providing the hopeful message I think it ultimately aims for.

Music on the Make


My friend Sean, who just became a daddy (!!), sent me the link for a video of his brother Tash' band, The London Souls rocking out at Sin-E in NYC. They are a super-talented young band with lots of 60's rock influences . They can jam with the best and they've got a ton of personality. As one poster wrote, "Like the best of Cream joins Led Zep live to jam with the Dead. Give us more!" My thoughts exactly. Here's the vid.

Sunday, March 4, 2007

Bright Eyes....the entertainer?


On Wednesday night at the old and intimate Somerville Theatre just outside of Boston, Bright Eyes played perhaps the most awkward show I have ever been to. And it was awesome. At one point early in the show frontman Conor Oberst goes, "Somebody told me the other day that I wasn't a good entertainer. So I'm trying harder to entertain. How am I doing?" And then he did a weird little jig followed by some kind of ballet twirl to a confused smattering of applause from about half the audience. Oh Conor. You're such an uncomfortable, pale and skinny indie kid, but you're so endearing. All the little girls thought so, too.

The band, enriched immensely by the presence of M. Ward , was really tight and Conor was really loose, as in, he actually talked to the crowd and seemed like he was enjoying himself. The last time I saw them, Oberst was wasted and kind of hostile to anyone who yelled anything so this was definitely different. The 27 year old singer, who's been recording since he was 13, has definitely grown up. The show had a decidedly country-twang bent that only M Ward lightened. He's great. His voice really transports you to some other place--I'm not sure exactly where but it's eerie and trippy. The set drew heavily on 2005's I'm Wide Awake, It's Morning and new material from Four Winds and Cassadaga. Conor's "beautiful band" included Rachel Blumberg rocking out on drums, long-time Bright Eyes members Mike Mogis and Nate Walcott and others. When M. Ward came out about half-way through, the sound immediately became richer and more interesting. We missed his opening set because I always get lost driving in Boston and we were hungry, but we got to hear some of his new songs towards the end of the Bright Eyes set when they did some beautiful collaborations. I liked some of M Ward's hypnotic, critically acclaimed Post-War, but ultimately found it a little boring and repetitive. With Bright Eyes (who he previously joined on the Vote for Change shows), however, M. Ward is a perfect addition.

Oberst mixed a little bit of politics into the newly mature show, introducing "Old Soul Song" as "Mission Accomplished," playing on the song's lyrics about the huge anti-war protest in New York in 2004. Mostly though, it was about the music. Four Winds and some of the other new tunes sounded particularly rich. Sadly, though, the crowd in this amazing venue was pretty lame, lame, lamo...Oberst was alternately kind of patronizing and then really earnest and sincere. At one point he asked, "Are you guys bored? You guys are bored. I can tell. See, whenever I go to shows or something, I'll get bored. But then when I get home, I'll want to be there again because I'll be bored. So you guys remember that when you're at home tonight, bored, and looking at a boyfriend you don't like anymore." The crowd sat through the whole show until the encore, responded weakly to great performances and weird banter from the stage and yelled the stupidest shit: lots of "I lovvvvvvvveeeeeeeee you, CONOR!!!", and song requests included "Happy Birthday to Chris" and "Girl From North County Fair" (which actually would have been fitting and cool since it's my favorite Dylan song ever).

When the band came back on for the encore, Oberst said, "You guys are the best. You make me feel like Dolly Parton. Or Willie Nelson. Or somebody legitimate, at least." This statement gives you some insight into where Bright Eyes is drawing their inspiration these days. The highlights were a cover of John Prine's "Crazy As a Loon" and the finale when Conor came out into the crowd singing "Laura Laurent." He was mobbed by the teenie-boppers as he sang out of breath and out of key and then let the girls take over. It was pretty funny watching the tech guys trying to keep up with the band moving all over the stage, knocking down mic stands and getting tangled in wires. I guess they haven't grown up all that much.