Cellophane Sunset

Friday, February 13, 2009

be careful how you respond / or you might end up in this song

Panda Bear

Panda Bear (aka Noah Lennox) is one quarter of Animal Collective, who's somehow managed to put together several acclaimed solo albums over the years while working with "the freak-folk/baroque pop" quartet, with his latest (2007's Person Pitch) coming in at #1 in Pitchfork's Album of the Year.

If you like the songs below or just are enamoured of Animal Collective in general, an interview here at popmatters.com is enlightening, if you can get over phrases like "surreal sonic tapestries", no matter how appropriate they are...

In particular, the article does well in describing the transition from Panda Bear/AC's sound from a heavy acoustic guitar focus (think Sung Tongs) to the electronic sampling of Strawberry Jam and Merriweather Post Pavillion.

"...I got excited about trying to work with purely electronic means and trying to get something that felt really soulful out of something that didn’t have any soul, if you know what I’m saying..."

Panda Bear - Comfy In Nautica

Panda Bear - Take Pills

Radiohead - Live from the Basement

look "radiohead live basement" up on youtube...

In case previous posts haven't made it painfully obvious, I do rather enjoy Radiohead. Strangely they still languish behind Why?, Gang of Four, Faux Pas and Of Montreal in my last.fm listens, this will soon be remedied (Hot Chip are even further behind, what's going on?)

Asides aside, I just discovered, after watching the entire set on youtube in rapt fascination, that you can "legally acquire" Radiohead's live set from the mysterious "Basement". I would go so far as to say that it sounds better than the studio-recorded album; songs like Where I End and You Begin and Reckoner really shine through. That said, here's House of Cards.

Radiohead - House of Cards (Live from the Basement)

Calum, if you're out there, I'll burn you a copy of the whole thing, have no fear.

Thom Yorke remixed by XXXChange

just when you thought you'd seen the last of anyone vaguely radiohead-affiliated...

XXXChange's remix of Thom Yorke's solo song The Eraser takes it to another place. While I love Thom's voice, I think his move towards electronica in his solo work doesn't work as well as something more acoustic-driven. However, this remix takes the best of both world's, bringing up Yorke's voice and framing it within bubbly, precise percussion.

Thom Yorke - The Eraser (XXXChange Remix)

This will be my last post for about two and a half weeks; here in Australia we have a thing called "Year 12" and I've got three SAC's the same week as I'm performing Midsummer Night's Dream...

don't forget your roots

Sunday, February 8, 2009

my autumn's / done come

This time, less self-indulgent saga, more music. That Radiohead song in the post beneath is worth wading through my reminiscences for though; unadulterated genius.

Merriweather Post Pavillion

i just want four walls and adobe slabs / for my girls

I must admit, I got the latest Animal Collective album as soon as it leaked on Christmas Day, but felt bad about posting anything from it before now. That said, everyone on hypemachine has been going hell for leather since then, which would have alleviated any guilt...

The three songs I'm particularly enamoured of are In the Flowers, My Girls, and Brothersport, but its only the last that remains consistently great all the way through. That said, In the Flowers after "if i could just leave my body / for a night" takes a tribal turn for the terrific as the powerful percussion pounds away over trademark AC distortion.

Animal Collective - My Girls

The Smiths

I've always listened to a lot of Smiths ever since Abbey burnt me a cd of Hatful of Hollow. While Abbey may have graduated to the higher purpose of waking me up at 2am, my love for this band burns on, despite the fact that a lot of electronic music has superceded them in ephemeral, last.fm rankings...if you like Modest Mouse and haven't heard of the Smiths then check these out; the guitarist Johnny Marr was a founding member before "floating on".

The Smiths - William, It Was Really Nothing

The Smiths - Still Ill

Beach House

"Atmosphere rock". That's a description of Beach House I like and I'm going to stick with it. Speaking of genres, I've got one of my own; myth-rock. Like math-rock, except in terms of comparison its more manti-core. Download this, make up for that joke. Beach House is great music to listen to when working, particularly if you like listening to similar songs all the way through prolonged periods of time. Alternatively, Joe Jackson's Steppin Out or the Idjut Boy's rework of Phil Collin's I'm Not Moving are both extremely effective on repeat.

See if you can pick up the "David-Bowie-percussion-from-the-album-Low-as-in-Warswaza" vibes in this, as in the majority of Beach House...

Beach House - Gila

Wednesday, February 4, 2009

in pitch dark / i go walking through your landscape

Anyone here for music should skip down a few lines...

"not poppy, nor mandragora, nor all the drowsy spirits of the world, shall e'er medicine thee to that sweet sleep thou owed'st yesterday..."

No, I'm not taking an (intentional) ego trip down memory lane, its bad enough that Sonic Youth wrote Eric's Trip about me: "I can't see anything at all, all I see is me".

I was flicking through "My Pictures" and came across Exhibit A above, and thought I should just reflect on it. So far its been far too easy for me to blog away in my little electronic corner of the interweb, adding glib little critiques onto the end of other people's music. I hadn't really thought about the experience until this week, when I was asked "when are you most like you?", amongst other things, as part of a leadership etc. course.

Why I do things like Othello is because I think the stage is where you can be alone in the best way possible. It's interesting in that respect, that you need others to be alone, the audience, the other actors. But the audience are there to see you, they don't care about the way you feel. While I'd hate to dismiss the importance of other actors in a play, the most egocentric option available, I think of them in the same way as the audience. They're there for you - just as you are there for them - so that escaping reality for two fragile hours is made all the easier by your relationships with believable characters. For me the theatre is escapism but in the most bittersweet of ways. At all times, no matter how emotionally involved you are, the character whose form you take refuge in can only survive until the curtain-call. SomethingI only considered the other day, often the character is a reflection or magnification of certain aspects of your own personality; equally grounding and exhilarating. That said, it seems unhealthy (or at the least unnatural) to want to become someone else just to understand yourself.

On that bombshell, here's one of my favourite Radiohead songs from one of my equal favourite Radiohead albums.

Radiohead - There There (The Boney King Of Nowhere)

there's always a siren / singing in the shipwreck

zen state, etc.

Monday, January 26, 2009

you're my number one guy / number one guy

HOT CHIP

On the eve of Australia Day, the night before Big Day Out, I treated myself to a blissful night spent in the privacy of my love for Hot Chip. I had already had the best night of my life before the gig even started, as I waited outside Billboard in China Town. A dimunitive man wearing glasses and an unbelievably colourful t-shirt wandered past, none other than frontman Alexis Taylor himself...

"Hey Alexis, can't wait to see you tonight man!"

"Cheers dude"

But then he was gone, only to resurface two hours later at the front of one of my favourite bands to play an electric live set. But I'm getting ahead of myself, or rather, getting ahead of the support act which played before them.

Architecture in Helsinki

Two indie hipsters with a large, camoflouage netting-covered "trolley" bulging with musical equipment, helped along with swigs of Jameson whiskey. They weren't named on the ticket, or announced, and to be honest, I didn't recognize them, not only because there's actually five of them in their band, but also because they looked like they'd just walked off Brunswick St (whereas they are actually from Northcote...) Playing an eclectic mix of smooth vocal edits fused with 80's beats, culminating in this Metronomy mix, the only one of its kind I could find on the interweb...

Architecture in Helsinki - A Thing For Me Remix

The only reason I know it was them was because Hot Chip's spokesman/guitarist mentioned it during their performance, while giving a shout-out to TV On The Radio and Lupe Fiasco, the latter clearly visible grooving in the wings.

Hot Chip's set list:

One Pure Thought

Bendable Poseable

Shake A Fist

And I Was A Boy From School

Hold On

Alley Cats (new song)

Touch Too Much

Over and Over

Out At The Pictures

Ready for The Floor

My Piano

No Fit State

Nothing Compares 2 U (Sinead O'Connor/Prince cover)

...of which I'm hosting/relinking One Pure Thought, a song I've often overlooked but now, having seen it open their live set twice in 24 hours, can fully appreciate. From the fuzzed-out opening chords played by a man who clearly can't get enough of his own velvet jacket to the "electro-bongo-breakdown" at about 00.47s in: fantastic. Be champions.

Hot Chip - One Pure Thought

Simian Mobile Disco

Caught a really good show by these guys at the Boiler Room yesterday; they opened with this song which has definitely been overshadowed on Attack Decay Sustain Release by It's the Beat, Hustler, and I Believe. Which demonstrates their consistency, if nothing else. Plus, they play with a little box with cords coming out of it, entrancing.

Simian Mobile Disco - Sleep Deprivation

Other music:

XXXChange's remix of Thom Yorke's Eraser has racked up about 80 listens on my itunes last week alone; even diehard Radiohead fans ("experts") like Calum Field agree on its virtuosity, as the mix adds another dimension to Yorke's stripped-back solo work.

Other songs piquing my earbuds are...

2080 by Yeasayer, Radiohead's Reckoner, the Breeder's beautiful Night of Joy, and Air's soundtrack title to the Virgin Suicides; Playground Love. All worth checking out.

Wednesday, December 10, 2008

diamonds / fur coat / champagne

"Introducing" three great artists I've heard recently/been reacquainted with, united by their driving, tribal tonal progression, yet divided by their relative use of Vocoder etc.

Tame Impala

acid rock is reborn

Heard this last night on Triple JJJ when MGMT were being interviewed in the studio pending their show on Thursday. This band from Perth are touring with them in a support capacity around Australia, and provide a fuzzed-out acid rock sound which contrasts nicely with MGMT's muted synth squeals (no other phrase to describe the opening of that ode to overplay, Electric Feel). Check out their myspace at www.myspace.com/tameimpala, or if you're lucky enough to have got tickets to MGMT you'll see them tomorrow, while I watch Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, clinging to sophistication.

Tame Impala – Remember Me

Suicide

i know, its a picture of MGMT, but its relevant. and have you ever tried typing in "suicide" in photobucket?

Another band introduced by MGMT on JJJ last night were Suicide, a very influential 70's synth-pop duo from New York. I followed up and got their first two albums, and this is definitely the pick of the bunch. After a few listens, it strangely feels like a bridge in evolution between Joy Division and New Order, a missing link which joins a gap otherwise sharply divided between Ian's melancholy lyrics and the crisp drum machine on Blue Monday.

Suicide – Diamonds, Fur Coats, Champagne

Laurie Anderson

i have it on vinyl

Laurie Anderson's an experimental/minimalist artist who released her first album Big Science in 1982. Somehow the song below, O Superman, got to #2 in Britain. This was despite the fact that its over 8 minutes long, has a constant repeating "ha-ha-ha..." for its entirety, and lyrics which aren't exactly in keeping with the traditional British Top Of The Pops scene (Pseudo Echo covering Lipps Inc. springs to mind as an example).

I came across this on vinyl when going through my mum's collection the other night because I needed some good late-night Kes-editing music, but instead of working hard got really drawn in, especially when I flipped it over to the B-side and the former British #2 sprung up. Reminiscent of the theme from Little Miss Sunshine, How It Ends by DeVotchka, in one pretty obvious way.

Stranger still, Laurie is married to Lou Reed. Hey-now.

Laurie Anderson – O Superman

This will be my last post for a while, the real world is calling.

Saturday, December 6, 2008

some velvet morning when i'm straight / i'm gonna open up your gate

Bear with me, I'll start with Haze, before branching off into [is] and finishing way out of left-field with a blissful duet between Nancy Sinatra and Lee Hazlewood.

Haze

Haze (www.myspace.com/cupidswounded) are a band from Fitzroy High School who formed sometime during last year and have been rapidly rocking in the free world ever since then. While their early songs (two of which I'm hosting below) are pretty chilled out and quiet, lately at their gigs (the 2nd-last of which was the one at IDGAFF pictured above) they've been premiering much louder tracks with emphasis on the "dancier" side of the musical moon. Songs such as Hey Kids and Clearly are yet to be recorded but I'm assured they're forthcoming, and a recent introduction to one of Brunswick St's biggest promoters is sure to increase their gig-rate (like bit-rate, much cooler). I love the 2nd song, 2000 miles, by virtue of its glockenspiel alone.

Haze – Towered Over Me

Haze – 2000 Miles

[is]

Although they're now known as Tom Ugly, before their name change [is] had a fairly low-key underground rumble on the musical equivalent of the Richter Scale with Cult Romance. They won the Triple JJJ Unearthed High Schools competition with the song, which features an adroitly manipulated Moog synthesiser and some catchy, if meaningless lyrics ("paraphenalia failure / hands caught in the cookie jar / stranger / movie star"); still good form for a trio of Sydneysider high school students.

[is] – Cult Romance

Nancy Sinatra and Lee Hazlewood

I've got a sneaking suspicion that this saga-song of drug addiction kicked off the whole "velvet" trend as far as band/songnames go, from the Velvet Underground to Bowie's Velvet Goldmine. A wonderfully contrasting duet, which I'd detail in more detail if I wasn't still recovering from the shock of discovering that Laurie Anderson is married to Lou Reed.

Nancy Sinatra and Lee Hazlewood – Some Velvet Morning

Monday, December 1, 2008

battling against the bitch / for the ultimate kitsch / of a crucifix clock

vampire weekend Pictures, Images and Photos

vampire weekend trying to outdo kevin barnes yet again

Before I head off down Brunswick St to trawl op-shops for a very "spucific" article of clothing, here's a few songs which match my current mood of finished-exams-but-technically-still-at-school-until-thursday-at-twelve-oh-five, namely a Foals tracks which tends to fly under the radar, a new one from Vampire Weekend, and a slice of Hot Chip frontman Alexis Taylor's stripped back solo album.

Don't worry, there's still the obligatory 1;1 ratio of songs to pretty pictures, (C) every pretentious mp3 blog in the multiverse

Foals

because I couldn't find that staged picture of them posing with balloons

I hadn't listened to Foals for aeons ever since downloading their album Antidotes way back when, but recently when reminded by George (http://www.oligarchicalmachinations.blogspot.com/) of their goodness I went in search of their more obscure songs on hypemachine (http://www.hypem.com/, a great site for finding music that even some torrents don't have, most serious DJ's go there to find things like Soulwax edits of Walter Murphy's Fifth of Beethoven, to take a purely hypothetical example). The result from a multifarious bunch ranging from Daytrotter live sessions to Fucked Up! covers, the pick of which was definitely Brazil Is Here.

I'm not sure why Foals aren't more popular down under; like MGMT they were on Skins (they even performed live in one episode, similar to the way in which 2-tone ska bands like Madness would play Our House In The Middle Of The Street during Young Ones episodes) yet they have none of the uber-sickening popularity now enjoyed by the "Management" over here.

Foals - Brazil Is Here

Vampire Weekend

they used this picture for the poster for their melbourne gig at the prince this year, how exciting

They're currently working on their "sophomore" album and trying to move away from their "college inspirations", and this is the result, a sneak peek that is pretty decent, obviously covering Radiohead has done wonders.

Vampire Weekend - Ottoman

Alexis Taylor

he's the one on the right, looking like one of the accordion-listening villains from the movie diva (see the erich satie song a few posts below)

If you like Hot Chip, you'll probably like this, as the singer Taylor has an extremely distinctive voice. In his solo album Rubbed Out he's stripped back most of the synthesizers that proliferate Hot Chip's albums to shift focus.

Alexis Taylor - Baby

PS: As a Hamlet-like aside, I'll be featuring some songs by my friend's band Haze next post, check them out at www.myspace.com/cupidswounded before they get famous, as well as a teenage band called [is] who won the Triple JJJ high schools competition with a great song called Cult Romance.

PPS: Photos of 70's music stars such as Grace Slick (my favourite female singer by far) and Frank Zappa...with their parents: http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/la/look/look-70s-rock-musicians-and-their-parents-homes-070419