Saturday, September 26, 2009

I can be a frog

Not the biggest Lips fan out there, but this new one is intriguing ::

The Flaming Lips "I Can Be A Frog"

Thursday, September 24, 2009

The Avett Brothers



The Avett Brothers performing and being good ol' boys in the just released video for the excellent "I and Love and You"...

Video :: I and Love and You by The Avett Brothers

All is love

Three weeks to go until the long-anticipated "Where The Wild Things Are". This song is turning me into a Yeah Yeah Yeah's fan...

Video (unofficial) :: All is love by Karen O and The Kids

Wednesday, September 23, 2009

Brooklyn

Brooklyn seems to be the place to be, and be from, these days. A cool lineup of hip Brooklyn born (or based) bands includes :: The Welcome Wagon, The National, Grizzly Bear, Vivian Girls, Vampire Weekend, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, Au Revoir Simone, MGMT and Dirty Projectors.

The Hold Steady are also from Brooklyn but I don’t really care about The Hold Steady. On that note, Barry Manilow and Neil Diamond also hail from New York’s most populous borough.

Vivian Girls provide some pretty standard rock (but with a stellar bass groove):


Next month Sufjan Stevens comes out with his BQE (Brooklyn-Queens Expressway) multi-media effort, which will include a “stereoscopic 3D View-Master reel”. The tunes are grand, orchestral efforts developed as a musical expression of the much-maligned BQE thorough fare. Reviews, of the music at least, have found Sufjan much-maligned as well. As in: get on with making the sequel to Illinoise and stop farting around!! At least there are hula hoopers:

Interlude I—Dream Sequence in Subi Circumnavigation from Asthmatic Kitty on Vimeo.



Not bad. Music to drive to? I've tried and.... well.... meh!

The Avett Brothers are from North Carolina but the title track from their forthcoming album (September 29) references Brooklyn and it sounds like they'd like to live there too... so there ya go!

Song :: I and Love and You by The Avett Brothers

"I and Love and You" featurette ::


I and Love and You, the album, will be out next Tuesday. And, yes, it will be awesome!

Saturday, September 19, 2009

The xx

They are brilliant. They are the current "it" band. They are from London. And, yes, they're frikin' young.
They are my band of the moment. I do like their style...

Video :: Crystalized by The xx


Video :: Crsytalized (acoustic/ playing to 3 people on a bridge in Amsterdam) by The xx

Song :: Basic Space by The xx
Song :: Crystalized by The xx

Thursday, September 17, 2009

Very Good Film

16: Moments... with music by Iceland's Parachutes (Alex from "Jónsi and Alex"... aka Riceboy Sleeps... Jonsi being the Jonsi from Sigur Rós)



More by William Hoffman: interesting takes on sitting, shooting and tanning here.

Friday, September 11, 2009

I think about this world a lot - and I cry

Video :: You are the everything by REM for MoveOn (We Can’t Afford to Wait)


Why is this simply not a no brainer to all sane Americans who are not associated with any pharmaceutical or health insurance company?

Me Canadian. je ne comprends pas.

Do you know how much we love our universal public health care in this country? In 2004, we voted Tommy Douglas, the father of medicare, as the greatest Canadian ever. Gretzky came a lowly 10th!

Also, today when I noticed a headline that the Obama “you lie” heckler has raised over $200,000 I thought ,“what a splendid gesture, transforming your buffoon-based infamy into charitable donations... lovely”. Turns out, however, that the money raised is for himself. The dude aims to translate his new found glory status into cold, hard campaign financing. What, me apologize?

Wednesday, September 9, 2009

I told you I would stay

The best of the new music...

One of the songs of the year, Grizzly Bear's Two Weeks, gets a video reworking courtesy one Gabe Askew. This "fan video" is absolutely incredible and blows the official, unwatchable head popping video out of the water ::

Two Weeks - Grizzly Bear from Gabe Askew on Vimeo.



Six months of shuffling legos has resulted in this piece of art - 8 Bit Trip by Rymdreglage ::


Air are back with a wonderful return to form in Sing, Sang, Sung...

Sing Sang Sung from Colour Me In on Vimeo.



"we talk about dishwasher tablets"...

The usual creeposity from Fever Ray - the video for the excellent "Seven" ::
Via Pitchfork

The best damn tune TMBG have put out in a goodly long time. Perhaps its the female vocals (supplied by the wife of one of the Giants, Robin Goldwasser of "In the middle, In the middle, In the middle" fame)?

Sunday, September 6, 2009

Two (cool) videos

Flight Of The Conchords with a song about Brabaria (or was it Barbara?) and her lazy eye...


Buster Keaton comes to life (Wow - this guy was massive!) through the music of Radiohead...