Perhaps you, like many other late night denizens, saw Alabama Shakes nearly burn down Conan's studios with their performance on last night's show, and sat there on your couch shaking your head and saying "what the hell was that?!" Maybe you've caught them live on this tour (LUCKY), or watched some of their immensely dynamic videos online. One thing is, I believe, for certain. Alabama Shakes are a force of nature akin to a hurricane or a tidal wave, and they are conquering something serious. A few weeks [...]
I keep trying to get further into the new Damien Jurado record, Maraqopa , but then I get stuck and stuck and stalled on this marvelous (melodic, melancholy) song. Not a bad place to be, there swimming in the ghostly doo-wop sadness. Of all them, Damien consistently slays me the most. Working Titles - Damien Jurado I didn't listen to Saint Bartlett (2010) adequately until 2011, so it was voided [...]
Ryan Adams' music has been woven taut and wooly through so many parts of my life in the last seven years, and writing objectively about his jaw-droppingly good show last night at Denver's Temple Buell Theater is tough. For me it was a parade of ventricle-punching, flushed-cheek-inducing song after song, and it felt like it was just for me. I was off in my own stratosphere. The show for me was intensely personal, hearing these passionately executed, pure renditions of songs I never really thought I'd get to hear live, and especially not with that much potency [...]
Ryan should come hang out in my kitchen. Photo by David Black . Ryan Adams is hanging out here in Denver this weekend, snowed in and tweeting his adventures as we collectively pass the time until his postponed show - Saturday, instead of tonight. I'm not good at waiting, so I've decided to compose a fierce rejoinder to my friend John Hendrickson's confidently categorized list over at the Denver Post: " The 11 Best Ryan Adams Songs of the Past 11 Years ." [...]
I've been transfixed these last few weeks by the snippets of the Vincent Moon film about the Danish band Efterklang , called An Island . The movie was indeed filmed on an island, in the summer, with over 200 musical collaborators for their haunting, magnificent music. I heard about this film late one Oregon night recently, when the rain was pouring outside and I sat, mesmerized by this film from one of my favorite current filmmakers. Alike - Efterklang [...]
With a skiffly, radiant backbeat and a prowling baseline, this first song I heard from Dr. Dog 's new album Be The Void sounds to me like the opening credits of some Seventies blaxploitation film. One can practically see the satin man-blouses and the corduroy bellbottoms, sunlight glinting off badass shades, no? It is completely terrific and I can't stop listening to it. That Old Black Hole - Dr Dog The rapid-fire impressionism of the video above is [...]
The New French Hacker-Artist Underground , Wired Magazine Why do they care about these places? Kunstmann answers this question with questions of his own. "Do you have plants in your home?" he asks impatiently. "Do you water them every day? Why do you water them? Because," he goes on, "otherwise they're ratty little dead things." That's why these forgotten cultural icons are important. One of the most electrifying articles I've read in years. I'm probably considering a career change. [...]
Portland was an unrelenting adventure of starting an intense graduate program (80 class hours in two weeks), trying to taste all the beers in the city (failed), and also seeing five tremendous shows at four different Portland venues. I slept little, laughed much, and met rad folks. As the dad of the host family I stayed with bemusedly told me, his eyes crinkled with a smile as I clung to the coffee pot one early morning: "Well, you sure are squeezing every last bit out of this city, aren't you?" But I've felt tense and dry since [...]
This happened tonight not far from my home in Colorado. Gregory Alan Isakov is a state treasure, and I am a sucker for Springsteen covers that make me take in my breath sharply when I really should be sleeping.
I am enjoying my attempts to weave myself into the city of Portland these last few days, jogging on mossy sidewalks while the grey sky spits rain, breathing the deep smoky-damp smell through my nostrils as I walk to catch the bus, and listening to a lot of music that helps spark and warm that seeping coldness away. Bryan John Appleby is one of those artists whose music I have been leaning heavily on since I got here for this grad school residency; his music is smart and sharp, steeped [...]
I board a plane early this morning to Portland, Oregon, for the first of six short-term graduate school residencies I'll be completing in two-week chunks over the next couple of years, contributing to a shiny Master's degree in Intercultural Relations. This new song from John K. Samson (The Weakerthans) is just about the most perfect soundtrack for the precipice I stand on that I can think of. John K. Samson - When I Write My Master's Thesis by [...]
This last week has been a delightful unplugging for me, off exploring Colorado via its craft beers and its snow-covered mountains with a good friend in from out of town (he's a Red Sox fan but I overlook that). On Friday, we caught my NPR's World Cafe with David Dye interview segment, and in case you missed it or live somewhere that you can't stream it, I've made an mp3 for ease. Here I am talking about some of my favorite picks from 2011 with the always-wonderful David Dye - I [...]
This was one of my favorite pictures I came across in the last year, and is a joyful way to start off this new one. A student of mine recently placed first in a photography contest for images taken while studying abroad; that photo above was taken in Tanzania by Ian Heyse, and is called "The A Chord." Ian wrote: Leboi is a traditional Maasai healer at Gibb's Farm , a working farm and living museum where I had an internship. During my time there, we became close friends and learned a great deal from [...]
2011 has turned out to be the year in music where I found myself resting, and drinking deeply. If you look at the three major music festivals I went to in 2011 (other than SXSW, which is always a debaucherous 1000-mph wonderful mess) they were all of the scenic, restorative type: camping at Sasquatch at Washington's Columbia River Gorge, Telluride Bluegrass where I pitched my tent right by a rushing river, and Doe Bay Fest on isolated Orcas Island in the San Juans. The ethos of these music festivals, more than anything, is a [...]
How The Grinch Stole Christmas, read by Samuel ( age 8 ) Merry Christmas, everyone. I still get little happy tears in the corners of my eyes during the last pages of this story. May you have a holiday full of the stuff that really matters.
About a year ago, I had the pleasure one quiet snowy December Sunday night to go to a house of a new friend to watch a new local band called The Lumineers play a raucous, joyful house show set . A few weeks earlier, they'd played at my house show with The Head and The Heart , and after a final multi-band Bon Iver cover singalong , we all walked away singing a hearty "hey! ho!" to ourselves, shaking our heads at how damn good live this band was. [...]
Of Monsters & Men is a cavalcade of song crashing onto our shores from Iceland. This six-piece band is young, and their music explodes. Imagine if Sigur Ros and Arcade Fire made babies, and sent them to live in that big house in Portland with Typhoon . HOW COULD THAT BE ANYTHING BUT GRAND? Trick question: it couldn't. Their Into The Woods EP comes out next week right before Christmas, and their full-length album My Head Is An Animal (which is out in Iceland [...]
Before Other Lives comes back through Denver in March 2012 to open for Radiohead , and after I sat next to fellow Oklahoman Wayne Coyne for their midafternoon set at Sasquatch last May, you should come see them Wednesday night in Denver at the Hi-Dive. Fuel/Friends is presenting the show, and elegant, intricate favorite JBM opens, so that makes it double fantastic. WIN! I have two pairs of tickets [...]
Pine trees and icicles and carolers - check. But can we please just talk for a moment about how it was -2 degrees the other night in Colorado? TWO BELOW, with howling winds. I like the beer , but man alive that makes for some cold sleeping. All the golden loveliness of autumn is gone, and in its place we have this icy, silent cocoon all around us, luminescent and silvery-blue. Perhaps I just have to survive these next two weeks of school, and maybe go on a little cookie-baking binge, and [...]
Any night when I get to listen to new songs from The National on headphones is a good, good night. These debuted today on Q Live ( CBC.ca ), because Canadian Public Radio rocks. This first tune's malleable bassline sounds like rain on a roof, all plunky and round and beautifully blue - especially when blended with the funereal piano. The nimble guitar work on the second one feels near-surgical in its deftness, with the choir echoing on the chorus making a perfect counterweight. [...]
I AM FUEL, YOU ARE FRIENDS
Today I Feel I’ve Sprung A Leak
Young Jeezy featuring Jay-Z, Andre 3000 & Drake – I Do (Remix)
Bang Gang - Sacred Things (Gus Gus Remix)
The Drums - “Money” Bassment Jaxx (MP3 Stream)
Miike Snow – Paddling Out (Jacques Lu Cont Remix)
