parades

"in a parallel universe, songs like 'mirador' and 'caravan' would be number one forever..."

bold claim.

efterklang - "mirador" "caravan"

buy parades from the leaf label.

"mirador"

situated somewhere in the bermuda triangle between sufjan stevens, the postal service, and sigur ros, there is efterklang. the danish group, which has five core members and four additional touring members, puts a lot of emphasis on how "otherworldly" their sound is (as you can tell from the quote above). to my ears, however, parades sounds a lot more like the bizarre creation of an indie pop mad scientist than hot alien jamz.

the name "parades" come from the album's creative mission, a desire to link song sections so they parade through a listener's ears, but, oddly enough, parades itself has more than a little marching-band feel. "mirador," the album's first single, actually features a brass quintet, playing with raucous cheer, and the sheer exuberance of efterklang (and their assorted contributors, a string quartet and three separate choirs as well as the brass) inspires visions of dance troupes backflipping down city streets. parades dances past you with a nervous energy, awesome in its eccentric majesty, melodies, harmonies, singalongs bursting from its seams. like symphonic shoegaze on speed, efterklang has redefined "over the top" in the best possible way. songs range from the reflective ("mimeo") to the reckless (the excellent "maison de réflexion") as efterklang synthesizes their mutant pop, weird yet wonderful.

who needs english? - čechomor

the latest superstars to be featured in the appallingly irregular who needs english? series are čechomor, or, as they used to be known, českomoravská hudební společnost. say that three times fast, or once correctly. at least golem and peatbog faeries make some concessions to courting the english speakers in this world; čechomor are czech, and goddamn proud of it (try making head or tails of their website if you don't speak czech). facing with insurmountable language barriers, i have employed all of my cunning, memory, and google skills to write the best who needs english? about a band that clearly doesn't.

českomoravská hudební společnost (the czech-moravian recording company) formed in 1988, as a place for traditional czech musicians to gather and work together. the czech folk scene is a strong one, and frantačerný, frontman of the company, had no trouble organizing four other like-minded musicians into a band. čechomor is responsible one of the most dramatic sound shifts of any band i can think of, maturing from straight folk (1991's dověcnosti) to a pronounced world-fusion sound (2005's co sa stalo nove).

i was introduced to čechomor in 2002, when i studied in prague for several months and lived with a czech family. my czech brother immersed me in the local music scene, and, before long, i was listening to čechomor and other, far less popular czech bands. in 2001, čechomor released proměny, their most successful and well-received album that quickly went platinum. proměny was a breakthrough album for the band, in ways beyond the commercial. composer jaz coleman, best known for his work in killing joke, an enormously influential english industrial band, joined forces with čechomor for proměny, having switched his focus to classical music. proměny won three golden angels (the czech music award) the year it was released, netting "album of the year," "band of the year," and "song of the year." small wonder they are the most popular czech band in the world (and personal favorite of ex-president/revolutionary vaclav havel). the album features of mix of new and old songs, all orchestrated by coleman, with čechomor backed by the czech philharmonic orchestra. this unprecedented collaboration launched a new wave of interest in the band, including mine. i quickly went out and picked up all the čechomor albums i could find, and discovered a talented and engaging group (and learned to sing a little czech myself).

though their name has changed, čechomor maintains an overwhelming commitment to traditional czech music; co sa stalo nove, their most recent album, is the only one that contains original songs, all others being reworked traditional ones. songs occasionally repeat themselves in čechomor's catalog, especially favorites like "mezi horami" or "proměny," though čechomor does take pains to rework each rendition. i never got the chance to see čechomor perform, though, judging from čechomor live, the band is excellent in a live setting. čechomor has six albums, and they all have at least fifteen songs apiece (most many more), so i'm gonna pass on a list of their "best" songs, primarily because there are simply too many "best" ones. i've put up four mp3s below, from three albums, and i have no idea where you would be able to buy these outside of the czech republic. if you're a czech speaker, and can navigate www.cechomor.cz better than i, there is a link to buy their albums here.

čechomor - "hop he" from mezi horami
"pivnickova" from čechomor
"dobre ti je janku (happy janek)" and "vetricek (the breeze) (radiomix)" from proměny

battle and victory

i've been a bad blogger lately. i apologize. i picked up some new jobs, and some other ones reached fruition, and i've had barely a minute to write anything but concert reviews. i'd like to make it up to you by telling you about nancy elizabeth cunliffe.

cunliffe, who records as nancy elizabeth, is the newest jewel in the crown of the leaf label, an extraordinarily prescient label where many well-received artists have begun their careers. i (and you, perhaps) know them best as manitoba's spiritual home, the place where his opus up in flames has a home, but the leaf label reaches far and wide, dedicated to unearthing talent anywhere, in any form. in addition to manitoba, boom bip & doseone, efterklang, psapp, and critical faves a hawk and a hacksaw have all released albums through leaf as well. the leaf label maintains its reputation as a diviner of excellence with nancy elizabeth's first long player, battle and victory.

nancy elizabeth is a songstress with an impeccable musical pedigree, her ethereal work instantly generating comparisons to artists like sigur ros and nina nastasia. her songs are spun like merino wool, sheer and light, and are yet heavy, dense, substantial. battle and victory walks a rail, counterbalancing cunliffe's high, thin voice with sweeping, delicate melodies that still resonate with power and forcefulness. central to her sound is a 22 string celtic harp, its plucked notes creating austere, minimalist soundscapes. in addition to the harp, cunliffe wields a bouzouki, harmonium, appalachian dulcimer, and khim, in addition to a much more traditional acoustic guitar, though battle and victory also features percussion and horn sections on some songs, though cunliffe's shimmering string work is always the album's focus. the circumstances surrounding the recording of battle and victory are a significant part of its sober allure as well; cunliffe shut herself up in a 17th-century welsh cottage and a village hall outside manchester, using only the barest of recording equipment to capture her multi-layered sound. the result is an album that charms with its intimate preciousness and still manages to incorporate a tremulous undercurrent of anxiety and intensity.

i find myself imagining a forest when i listen to battle and victory, though it changes as quickly as the album's songs. it is no coincidence that celtic and nordic music has such strong ties to paganism and the supernatural; on battle and victory, as on other, stirring records, it is easy to hear the power of nature in every note. cunliffe's song titles often allude to the natural realm, albeit in circuitous ways, as songs like "i'm like the paper," "8 brown legs," and "coriander" suggest, though "off with your axe" or "the remote past" evoke more of a tolkien feel.

the fantastic is never out of reach on this album, especially for "hey son," one of battle and victory's two singles. cunliffe's dramatics and naturalism have earned her comparisons to radiohead, mogwai, and talk talk, but the clearest point of reference i have for "hey son" is godspeed you! black emperor. while the artists fundamentally unalike, "hey son" builds in a very gybe fashion. beginning with cunliffe's breathy and restrained voice singing over a simple guitar melody, "hey son" reaches a satisfying climax in less than three and a half minutes, as cunliffe adds something new for each verse, starting with a small chorus and including an angular guitar, timpani, and lots of cymbal crashes. it is clearly one of battle and victory's best songs.

i am also quite fond of "i used to try," the album's other single, draped, as it is, in taut strings and a focused, progressive sound, though its neighbor, "off with your axe," is battle and victory's hidden gem. here, cunliffe incorporates more vocal harmonies over a restless guitar, looping it before adding the harp and an off-step delivery that captivates and intrigues. lots of albums have one song that is so unlike the others that it must be the single (i'm thinking of summerteeth, mostly), but "coriander," the "can't stand it" of battle and victory, is not its single. "coriander" is a radical departure from the rest of battle and victory, clothed in a sound more parisian than pixie. a waltzing harmonium and horn section are the song's flesh, and one of the few cuts on the record that doesn't fit into the progressive mold.

battle and victory is a tenacious debut, so often haunting and insubstantial that cunliffe's voice seems to exist on its own. the distance is palpable, no doubt a result of her innovative recording locations, and adds an unexpected depth to the record, again evoking mysterious environments. dark without being brooding or sinister, battle and victory is transportive, an album that inspires creativity as much as enjoyment in the listener.

nancy elizabeth - "off with your axe" & "hey son"

battle and victory was released in september 2007 by the leaf label. it is available for purchase here.

the thermals @ warsaw, 11/1/07

by their own count, this was the thermals' sixth show in new york this year, and my first ever chance to see them. i, along with a lot of other people, might hate on pitchfork, but i'm mammoth enough to admit that the only reason i ever would've heard of the thermals is because the body, the blood, the machine was rated so highly by the site. it took me a little while to understand why, because all i heard at first was rather simple punk melodies and well-enunciated lyrics about christofascism. though i eventually became deeply immersed in the thermals' music, especially the guitar solo in "here's your future," the only solo on the album, hutch harris's talk-sung fables about a christian totalitarianism remain to be the body, the blood, the machine's most compelling feature. despite their staggering number of new york appearances this year ("more than portland," [the thermals' hometown] according to harris), it seemed that many in the crowd were in the same boat as i - first time thermals viewing. my expectations were average - i didn't think the thermals were going to move worlds, but i wanted to check them out and do some dancing (since halloween was a bust for moves).

it was a loud one at warsaw last night, and an exhausting one to boot. covered in sweat, my feet, so willing to jump and bounce a few minutes earlier, felt like lead as i staggered back to the L. i stared into space, zombie-like, yawned frequently, and reflected on the great night of blistering noise and excellent pit dancing i had just participated in.

up until the show, i had no idea who was performing with the thermals; warsaw's website only obstinately said "special guests," so it wasn't until i scoped out the merch table that i knew what to expect. first openers reporter also hail from portland, or. , and play a brand of lo-fi post-punk punk similar to the thermals, so they made sense as an opener. though i only caught a few songs from their set, reporter is straightforward, almost to the point of being predictable, though very listenable as well. vocal duties were split between the female bassist and male guitarist, though the award for reporter's best stage presence goes to their drummer, whose abundant energy and passion was far more interesting than reporter's songs. also, i was very impressed that he managed to keep his glasses on.

reporter - "blaze"

i discovered during the set break that these are powers were the next opener, a discovery that quite pleased me. these are powers are a band i've heard a lot of blog press about, but never looked into them, and i was excited to get a taste here.

these are powers are loud. really loud. they've christened themselves heralds of "ghost punk," which i know about as much about as you. i think their music occasionally had some dancey elements, and frontlady anna barie was certainly jumping around like we were supposed to be dancing, or at least moving, but i, along with everyone else, spent most of the set staring with not a little bewilderment at the stage, before inevitably feeling their persistent rhythms. driven by pat noecker's heavily fuzzed-out bass and bill salas's bizarre percussion (including a kit, a drum machine, and a suitcase possibly filled with xylophones), these are powers' sound is greater than the sum of its parts, thanks to noecker's army of pedals. whether songs included barie on guitar or not, they were often powerful and pulsating with energy, dense cacophonies that included a lot more joy than similar efforts by their noise-rock peers. these are powers were excited about what they were playing, and their enthusiasm was massively engaging. acolytes at the altar of noise, these are powers nonetheless had a humorous side, joking about being from "brookcago" and "pierogies filled with love" (warsaw, nestled in polish greenpoint and an extension of the polish national home, serves pierogies at all of their shows, giving the venue its slogan, "where pierogies meet punk"). for the last song in their set, barie handed out noisemakers to the front row, and then jumped into the crowd with the mic, twitching and shaking among us, possessed by some barely satiated demon of noise. though probably not something i could stand in my headphones for longer than, say, 90 seconds, these are powers are definitely enjoyable live, when you let the floor-shaking sound seize you.

these are powers - "little sisters of beijing"

"you come with nothing"

hutch harris, the thermals' frontman, managed to pen an entire album about the omnipresent danger of america becoming a christofascist empire, yet looks like the all-american boy. clean-cut, wholesome, dressed in a tucked-in flannel shirt and spotless cowboy hat, harris looked more like an assistant at a southern men's clothes emporium than an erstwhile socio-religious critic. his starched look was indicative of the thermals' stage show, which was very plain, especially after these are powers' exuberance. harris and bassist kathy foster had some head-to-head rock moments, but, by and large, the thermals just played their music, and let us excite ourselves.

by the end of opening song "returning to the fold," a dance pit had formed in front of the stage. it would not dissipate until the thermals encored with a note-for-note cover of built to spill's "big dipper," a song not known for its pumping-up ability. in between the two, as the thermals played insouciantly, churning through nearly all of the body, the blood, the machine, the energy in the pit built to a climax, until warsaw's over-excited security guards tried to yank dancers out. the thermals didn't add or subtract anything from their live performance, and it was the crowd that made the show good, recklessly smashing into each other and dancing maniacally. the thermals played songs from more parts per million and fuckin a, though it was their newer songs that earned the greatest applause. they ended with a crushing "a pillar of salt," encored with three covers, and let us go, sweaty and exhausted, into the night.

the thermals - "here's your future (live on kexp)"

buy thermals stuff at sub pop.

"an ear for baby"

golem w. rasputina @ music hall of williamsburg, 10/31/07

halloween with klezmer and victorian cello rock. ooh, spooky!

to tell you the truth (if the title didn't give it away), i was there for golem. it's no secret that i've been enjoying the excellent fresh off boat all year long, and their captivating live act is what turned me on to them in the first place. as i missed their last show in new york, in september, i was definitely not going to miss them here for halloween! golem waltzed onstage, proud members of the living dead, to what was a very disappointingly small crowd, which was destined to not grow much bigger. in april, golem was greeted with cheers and manic dancing, electrifying bowery ballroom with their trademark "eastern european folk punk," but they couldn't score the love in their own backyard. a shame that, because golem, despite their gaping wounds and bloodied faces, tore through their set with a furious energy.

golem opened with a song i didn't recognize, a disappointment that became a trend throughout the set. some were old, like the set closer from homesick songs, golem's second album, and some were new, songs so fresh that they didn't have names, from golem's next release, with a hopeful 2008 release. fortunately, golem quickly segued into "warsaw is khelm," their ostensible single and most famous song. what makes "warsaw is khelm" really distinctive, beyond the fierce charm and dance-friendly upbeats, is that it is one of golem's only songs in english. golem virgins (of which there were plenty at the show) definitely needed golem's standard bilingual introduction, delivered by accordion/vocalist annette ezekiel and tambourine/vocalist/count dracula aaron diskin. ezekiel and diskin, speaking in short bursts, answered the unspoken question "what the hell were they speaking?" it isn't english; it isn't german; it isn't even hebrew - it's yiddish! golem's lingua franca originated in eastern europe, the language of displaced jews, who also gave the world the marvelous form of music known as klezmer, from which golem draws not a little inspiration.

the two previous times i've talked about golem, i've been seriously impressed by their lack of electric instruments - while no great shakes in the klezmer world, it is a novelty in indieland, and, from my perspective, a major force in shaping their sound. however, i'm not going to talk about that today (even i know when a dead horse has been flogged enough); the issue at hand is how skilled golem is at their respective instruments. this isn't really a surprise, considering how virtuosic fresh off boat was, but even that doesn't hold a candle to their live performance. trombonist curtis hasselbring and violinist alicia jo rabins soloed in nearly every song, their arms blurs as rabins' bow raced over strings or hasselbring punched the air (with his trombone) in exhilaration. bassist taylor bergren-chrismas and drummer tim monaghan also enjoyed their time in the (metaphorical) spotlight, especially on "charlatan-ka," which will henceforth be remembered as the song when all the lights went out, and stayed out. power failure? accident? who knows. golem played by the light of cell phones, and the song went on without a hitch.

showmanship and quality are often inversely related - the flashier a band less, the less they want you to concentrate on their sound. this is not always the case, of course, and golem handily juggles the two, sacrificing neither. i feel strongly that monaghan's face, gripped in wild-eyed delight and contorted into bizarre expressions signifying the raw excitement and intensity of golem live, could be their most valuable (or inadvertent) stage spectacle, but it is really just one piece of their performative charm. ezekiel and diskin share singing duties in well-practiced harmony, but diskin is golem's real eye candy. jumping and gesticulating wildly, in time to the music or not, diskin manages to catch eyes. aaron diskin performed one of the most outstanding feats of boozingi have ever seen - or would have, if there had been actual cognac in the bottle he downed during a particularly fierce drinking song. but his actual intoxication is beside the point; diskin's pantomime was the perfect accompaniment. how else can you perform a drinking song, other than with drinking? dressed as a convincing jewish dracula, diskin wore a black cloak with red lining and was presumably caked in talcum powder, which irregularly came off him is great dust clouds. for "bublichki," one of fresh off boat's finest songs, about, according to ezekiel, "an orphaned boy...with a fucked up family." oxymorons aside, "bublichki" was one of the set's best musical moments, though it's finest spectacle came during golem's sexy song, the name of which i actually don't know. i saw it in april as well, as song that sounds rude to my non-yiddish ears, and is probably even worse if you understand it. here, ezekiel and diskin's chemistry is perfected, mocking and passionate, lascivious and absolutely kosher.

golem are not merely an excellent studio band, proven beyond a shadow of a doubt with fresh off boat, but superb in concert, visually and aurally engaging, especially in white and black zombie makeup. yet the most important part of any great concert is the excitement of the fans, and golem's music couldn't coax them into dancing (or, possibly, comprehending its amazingness). there are several good reasons why no one danced, with complete ignorance probably at the top of the list. however, golem is staking their claim, playing impressive live shows and releasing solid albums, and i doubt many will remain ignorant for long.


so, rasputina? i never warmed to them, even after a friend made me listen to thanks for the ether, but i can't deny that i was intrigued to see what they were going to do for halloween. how do neo-victorians play dress-up? i was hoping they would all come onstage in modern attire (i would've laughed), but their costumes seemed only barely distinguishable from their standard ones. frontlady melora creager was dressed as a native american guide, complete with feathered headdress, though her outfit was somewhat incomplete and only made sense when she explained what they were all dressed as. fellow cellist sarah bowman was "edgar allan crow biotch," whatever that means, though drummer jonathon tebeest earns kudos as rasputina's best dressed member of the night. mostly naked from the waist up, tebeest was a very convincing "god of the deep sea cucumber," bedecked in shells and beads, and resplendent in a plastic crown and trident. rasputina's penchant for costuming was clearly in effect, though not quite as glamorously as i had expected it to be, especially on halloween.

i won't lie: i left before rasputina's set was over. i just couldn't get into their sound, which seemed more a muddle of cello and effects pedals than any semblance of songwriting. rasputina played at least three covers last night, opening their set with a version of "all tomorrow's parties" that didn't quite cut it. for me, it didn't get much better. rasputina attempted a cover of belle & sebastian's "fox in the snow," quite stripped down and spare, though creager was clearly straining a little too much to hit murdoch's high notes. they followed that with "wish you were here," greeted appreciatively by the crowd, but i'd heard enough. especially after golem's furious foot-stamping klezmer rawk, rasputina seemed a little weak - i wanted raucous, drunk dancing, but everyone seemed merely content to stand around and gape.

buy golem's fresh off boat here, and rasputina merchandise here.

golem - "bublichki"

an open letter to matt johnson & kim schifino

dear matt & kim -

i was at your show ten days ago (10/20/07 @ music hall of williamsburg), the show that was your last in brooklyn for the year, the show that cost five bucks and featured your buddies flosstradamus. i just wanted to tell you about how much fun i had, and how grateful i was that i had a chance to see you on your home turf, and on such a special night. i've never seen you perform before, but the day i heard that you were playing at music hall of williamsburg, i biked down to mercury lounge to pick up a pair of tickets. the guy that sold them to me was shocked that they were so cheap, but i was shocked when the show wasn't sold out. i suppose you had some competition, but i'd much rather dance to tweaked-out keyboards than thumping bass. in any event, i think MHOW ended up full the night of, and i hope i speak for everyone who was there in telling you how special it was.

i first heard of you last year, though i wasn't on the ball enough to pick up a copy of to/from. i had to content myself with reviewing s/t for my college radio station, which is about the time i fell in love. matt & kim was blaring in my headphones for weeks, and i secretly danced to it during my radio show, which featured songs from that album at least once an hour. as the concert director of my radio station, i even emailed you to invite you to play in maine, but that didn't work out, and i was very sad. i missed your show in vancouver by one day (i was there on vacation), and wasn't in town for your first MHOW show, and i began to feel that i would never get to see you live. but then this show came along, and i jumped at the chance. if i hadn't been in such pain at the end of the night (too many crowd surfers jumped on my face), i don't think i could've stopped smiling if i wanted to.

when i first saw the lineup, i was a little surprised; i mean, everybody knows how bitching your collaboration with flosstradamus was, but i never suspected that you two would appear in concert together. i've really gotten into party djs this year, so i was excited to hear what flosstradamus had to show for themselves. despite my love for art brut, i hadn't known that art goblins were a manifestation of eddie argos and jasper future (along with five or six other people), and once i found that out, i was really psyched to hear what they had up their collective sleeve. i wasn't, however, excited for the hood internet. i know they're gotten a lot of press for their free mixtapes (which you can download at their myspace), but the whole mashup thing is totally played out, and i never thought their mixtapes were particularly ingenious to begin with. but still, three out of four isn't bad, especially during the constantly-unpredictable cmj.

unfortunately, the show had a bad start. eddie argos's plane was delayed, which meant no art goblins. a rumor going around the pit was that they would come on after the hood internet, but, sadly, they never made it on stage at all, though they did have a brief cameo appearance later. that led to the hood internet appearing earlier than expected (and playing longer than i hoped). their live schtick was the same as their mixtapes - verse samples lifted straight from hot 97, paired with beats that were far too often indistinguishable. i managed to catch a bit of "my moon my man" and a bonde do role song, but the rest was rather plain, to the point of being irritating - i'd managed to live my life before then without ever hearing "don't cha" in its entirety, a life bonus that i no longer enjoy. what made it a great deal worse was that it seemed like most of the crowd wasn't really into it either. there was a lot of attempted dancing, but the hood internet's beats were either too abrasive or the songs too short to get much of a groove on. even when they handed out lightning rod-shaped glowsticks, the energy never really had much of a peak, leaving me (and the rest of the crowd) to alternate between trying to dance and standing still. the hood internet frequently gave the impression that they far from being skilled djs, fluidly mixing songs together, but amateurs with some nice software and a little imagination. i felt the biggest indicator of this was that they almost never used the turntables onstage - like in the picture on the right, the hood internet spent most of their set looking into their laptop, merely segueing from one pre-mashed song to the next, rather than getting their mix on.

such was not the case with flosstradamus, thankfully. it was instantly apparent that these guys had skill. it is a tribute to them that i barely remember their set - i was dancing far too much to focus on much else, as was everyone else. from the moment they came onstage, the entire tenor of the show changed. no longer was the crowd trying to dance - they were dancing with abandon. flosstradamus flawlessly mixed songs, ranging from the mainstream to the unrecognizable with nothing short of serious ability. flosstradamus was no one trick pony, either - their visuals were as much a fluid part of the set as their mixing, ranging from absurd pixelated ladies to teeth-gnashing sharks. also, they sampled "sandstorm."

there were two sincere highlights of flosstradamus's set, the first coming in the middle and the second at the end. when they announced that the next song would be the remix of "yea yeah" - matt & kim, i have to tell you - the place went apeshit. the pit hadn't yet turned into the pulsating mob that it would be for your set, but the crowd was seriously digging what flosstradamus was spinning. like i said, i can't remember most of it, but the ending was surely the night's biggest climax thus far. even as your stagehands set up your keyboards and drums, flosstradamus was leading the crowd in an amazing singalong to weezer's "say it ain't so," our voices not yet as hoarse as they would be after your set. as we stood there, singing along, i began to get a sense of the real connectivity and positivity in this space - and then you came on.

(before i write about how mind-bogglingly amazing and happy your set was, i want to apologize for the delay in this letter. i picked up a lot of work these past two weeks, and i've been struggling to keep up. also, i didn't go to the show to report on it; i went to enjoy myself. and lordy lord, i did. i hope you don't mind the wait.)

i know i don't need to tell you how amazing the show was. after all, you were there, and your excitement and joy fueled our passion, and it's because of you that i and everyone else who was there had a simply fantastic time. it was such a perfect end to such a great day - i started off seeing todd p's free show with islands, had dinner at a swell place in the neighborhood, and watched the red sox kick some serious ass, but, honestly, that paled in comparison to your performance. from the get-go, it was clear that this was going to be more like a house party than a performance - your modesty, energy, and overwhelming joy made the 750-person venue feel like a cramped basement (in nothing but a good way). maybe that was an illusion, because i was (literally) smashed in the front, but there was no distance between us - you even set up your keyboards and kit on the very edge of the stage, as close to us as possible. there was no posturing or pretension, just uninhibited joy, and we were right there with you.

the first thing that attracted me to you was the happiness and simplicity that was abundant in matt & kim, the same elements that made your live show so appealing. i'm smiling as i write, remembering how unique the show ten days ago was. no offense to you, matt & kim, but i have only the vaguest memories of your set - i was a little preoccupied with dancing my ass off, and saving my glasses from getting snapped in half! (matt, next time i'm taking my cues from you, and wearing one of those glasses straps.) some gig facts that i recall: kim got a mic for the first time ever, in over three years of performing; you're taking the winter off to record a new album, woop woop; matt introduced the song "frank" as being about kim's dad; the set ended with "silver tiles;" there was some dude in a mask who kept crowd-diving, all over my face; and matt read multiple excerpts from letters to e.t., which was probably the evening's best moment. we were all giddy with laughter and endorphins, and the fact that both of you kept talking about how happy you were, and how exciting it was to be playing to us in such a good space, for your last brooklyn show of the year, and how honored you were to be here with us, but, honestly, the honor was all ours. matt & kim, you played one of the best sets i've seen all year, which is no mean feat. i feel lucky to have been there.

that's it. kinda lame after ten days, sure, but like i said - i wasn't there as a blogger, i was there as a fan.

matt and kim, thank you.

sincerely,

mr. mammoth

flosstradamus - "yea yeah (remix)"

matt & kim - "silver tiles"

the photos used in this post were taken by mr. mammoth and xiaoyi.

"hey joe"

i hope all your sunday afternoons are as lovely and bright as the one we're having in nyc right now. i've been very busy this week (hence, a scarcity of blog posts), but i need some time to relax. for some reason, though, i was thinking about the song "hey joe." though the best known version of it was performed by the jimi hendrix experience, theirs was just one of many covers of the original, which written at least six years earlier.

attributed to billy roberts, an "obscure" california-based singer/songwriter, who allegedly performed "hey joe" as early as 1961 (the hendrix version appeared in 1967). the first released version of "hey joe" was performed by the leaves, an american garage rock band, and released in 1966. i vastly prefer the leaves' version to the hendrix one, being far rawer, distorted, and edgy. it has a chugging aggressiveness and an obvious, endearing lack of skill (but not of talent), and frontman john beck sounds like he's singing through a paper bag. i think it's great.

the leaves - "hey joe"

the jimi hendrix experience - "hey joe"