Introducing a new feature: I'd Forgotten... - A title for posts about songs/albums/bands I've completely neglected for a while.
Jeez - it's been over two years since I listened to this song? Found myself singing it earlier tonight, and had to Google the lyrics to remember the name. Frankly, I've neglected The Decemberists in general, and especially this album - Castaways and Cutouts. This isn't my favorite song ("California One Youth and Beauty Brigade" is), but it's damn good, and it reminds me why The Decemberists used to be one of my favorite bands.
Jeff came through Providence last weekend, so I came down to meet up with him and John and go to Foo Fest. Unfortunately we didn't make it in time to see Javelin, but we did get to see a great performance by Warpaint just as the sun went down. The great thing about open-air concerts on wide city streets is that you can very easily make your way to the front row to capture some nice photos. Could only get some cross-stage shots of vocalist/guitarist Emily Kokal, and had a hard angle on drummer Stella Mozgawa, but got great close-ups of vocalist/guitarist Theresa Wayman and bassist Jenny Lee Lindberg. Check out more photos below, and the complete set on my Flickr
Like this show, and my photos, better than the last time I saw Warpaint. Also really liking Jenny Lee's haircut. It may just be the several 'gansetts I had talking, but I think this show is definitely deserving of a silver medal.
I got to see Maps & Atlases and Cults last week at The Middle East Upstairs. It may have just been because I got to do something fun instead of working, but I thought this show was fantastic - especially Maps & Atlases. They even played an encore outside in front of the convenience store next door! Check out photos below, or see the full set on my Flickr
Debuting the gold medal for this show - yeah, it was that good. I had a blast.
Yeah, it's been a while. Here's some new music to listen to:
ceo - White Magic - Electro-pop. Quite dancy, with house/techno-esque song structures. Worth a listen, if just for fun.
ceo - "Illuminata"
Machinedrum - Many Faces LP - Glitchy dubstep, or dubsteppy glitch, or some other strange assortment of electronic genres (I like the catchall of IDM). It's heavy, it's catchy, it's occasionally danceable, and it's worth a listen.
Machinedrum - "It's That Bass"
Tears Run Rings - Distance - Heard a few tracks, sounds like some very good ambient / shoegaze in the vein of A Sunny Day in Glasgow. Album out August 24th.
Tears Run Rings - "Forgotten"
Menomena - Mines - Good standard indie. Reminiscent of Ramona Falls. Probably because Ben Knopf sings for both bands.
Menomena - "Killemall"
Tennis - Tennis 7" - Some simple lo-fi with pretty vocals. I love "Marathon".
Tennis - "Marathon"
Aloe Blacc - "I Need A Dollar" - Nice, classic sounding soul/r&b. Apparently featured on How to Make it in America on HBO. New album Good Things out September 14th.
So I'm now a Boston resident. And I finally got my desk set up today, so I can actually sit comfortably at my computer. So here's some stuff I've been listening to recently:
Maps & Atlases - Perch Patchwork - Debuting the Silver Medal with this one. This album is good. Very good. Perhaps not great, but certainly very good. Reminiscent of TV on the Radio in vocals, with some beautiful guitar work and a little bit of a folk feel. I may write a full review at some point, but for now, I highly recommend it.
Maps & Atlases - "Solid Ground"
School of Seven Bells - Disconnect From Desire - I loved this at first. Especially the song Windstorm (streaming below). Solid shoegazy, dreamy pop. But, where I found their debut Alpinisms kind of edgy and hard to get into (especially compared to stuff I was listening to at the time, e.g. Asobi Seksu and Friendly Fires), I found this one to be a bit too poppy and generally saccharine for my tastes.
School of Seven Bells - "Windstorm"
Lauren O'Connell / My Terrible Friend - A young folk singer from California / her and her friend. It seems they're getting their start via YouTube - I found them through a recent feature on the front page and they have quite a large array of videos of them performing. They're both quite talented, especially in lyric writing. And I really enjoy Lauren's voice (most of the time). But after you get past the initial excitement of having found a young, talented, and reasonably unknown artist, you realize the sound is pretty standard folk-pop. The stuff they play on adult-alternative radio stations. You know, the stuff my dad's really into. Not to say that it's bad, just that it wouldn't stand out in a crowd.
About a month ago I got the chance to see Matt & Kim, The Antlers, and Warpaint all for free at a mini music festival called Make Music Pasadena. Warpaint was very good, and Matt & Kim were amazing - they got the entire crowd involved in a fairly intense mosh pit and didn't lose energy once throughout the entire set. The Antlers left something to be desired - all of the songs kind of blended together and not much really seemed to, you know, happen. Check out some photos here, and more on my Flickr. Also, check out a video of Matt & Kim playing "Daylight" at the concert below (posted by a user named chasmahtaz, no less).
So it turns out Kesha and Katie Perry's latest singles are pretty much exactly the same. Similar tempo, similar rhythm, similar song structure, similar melody...
DJ "Placeboing" (interesting name choice) combined them:
Jeez - it's been over two years since I listened to this song? Found myself singing it earlier tonight, and had to Google the lyrics to remember the name. Frankly, I've neglected The Decemberists in general, and especially this album - Castaways and Cutouts. This isn't my favorite song ("California One Youth and Beauty Brigade" is), but it's damn good, and it reminds me why The Decemberists used to be one of my favorite bands.
Jeff came through Providence last weekend, so I came down to meet up with him and John and go to Foo Fest. Unfortunately we didn't make it in time to see Javelin, but we did get to see a great performance by Warpaint just as the sun went down. The great thing about open-air concerts on wide city streets is that you can very easily make your way to the front row to capture some nice photos. Could only get some cross-stage shots of vocalist/guitarist Emily Kokal, and had a hard angle on drummer Stella Mozgawa, but got great close-ups of vocalist/guitarist Theresa Wayman and bassist Jenny Lee Lindberg. Check out more photos below, and the complete set on my Flickr
I got to see Maps & Atlases and Cults last week at The Middle East Upstairs. It may have just been because I got to do something fun instead of working, but I thought this show was fantastic - especially Maps & Atlases. They even played an encore outside in front of the convenience store next door! Check out photos below, or see the full set on my Flickr
Maps & Atlases - Perch Patchwork - Debuting the Silver Medal with this one. This album is good. Very good. Perhaps not great, but certainly very good. Reminiscent of TV on the Radio in vocals, with some beautiful guitar work and a little bit of a folk feel. I may write a full review at some point, but for now, I highly recommend it.
School of Seven Bells - Disconnect From Desire - I loved this at first. Especially the song Windstorm (streaming below). Solid shoegazy, dreamy pop. But, where I found their debut Alpinisms kind of edgy and hard to get into (especially compared to stuff I was listening to at the time, e.g. Asobi Seksu and Friendly Fires), I found this one to be a bit too poppy and generally saccharine for my tastes.
