Recently Washed Out performed for Sirius XMU Sessions, during which they performed a short but well-realized cover of Chris Isaak’s lovely 1989 slow jam ballad “Wicked Game,” from his record Heart Shaped World. It’s a great reminder to how amazing the original is.
Check out Isaak’s performance on Late Night with David Letterman (back when he was on NBC) from March 1991. Excellent version.
Sufjan Stevens dropped by WNYC to sing “Pleasure Principle” the last acoustic portion of his 25-min long epic “Impossible Soul,” from his even more epic album Age Of Adz. He’s joined here by The National’s Bryce Dessner and two members of his band, including Kat Martino. Sufjan is ending his so-called touring behind this record next week with two big shows at Prospect Park, which is shame because this material deserved more of a showcase on a fuller national tour.
The more I think about it, Radiohead probably released The King Of Limbs about three months too early. At the time it came out, I was incredibly happy to hear the music and loved the songs on it — the new direction towards groovier, more electronic-based dubstep songs felt organic and a natural evolution. No one is making music quite like Radiohead.
But, if I had one complaint about the the album — and this is a minor one I should say — it’s that to me did seem about two songs too short. At 35 minutes, it was spare and just as the album really started connecting and climaxing, it was over. Like I said, great songs, just maybe not enough.
Since the album’s release in February, the band released a special 12″ double single “Supercollider/The Butcher” for Record Store Day and eventually gave those songs away for free for those who bought the record. Those songs would have been perfect if sequenced within the full length. Now comes “Staircase,” a new song premiering as part of a Nigel Godrich’s video performance series From The Basement. (BBC will air a 55-minute broadcast of The King Of Limbs: Live From The Basement in which the band will be performing the entire album plus apparently a few other songs, including this one.)
The song is predictably great, but it also sounds like it would’ve sat nicely next to the songs on The King Of Limbs.
With a mix of electronic and acoustic drumming (two drummers!, in this case Clive Deamer joins for the song), some intricate guitar work, a peculiar chord progressions and a sturdy throbbing bass groove propelling the vamp, there’s a lot going on under this very danceable song. “Staircase” easily could have been a highlight on The King Of Limbs.
I’m loving this song, but I wonder if the valid arguments against Radiohead’s album length might’ve been cut down if they had included this and the other two songs way back in February. A band like Radiohead has earned every right to put out whatever they think is their best piece of work. But as consumers, music buyers — of which there are fewer and fewer of them these days — want to feel like they received something special and got a good value for their money. Otherwise, they’ll continue on downloading mp3’s for free. In that regard, it’s understandable that some thought this album didn’t deliver.
But all of this is just a side note to the fact that this song is really awesome and I wish it was on the album proper. Just a thought.
UPDATE (7/9): Radiohead has debuted another new song — this time it’s another video performance that’s leaked from the From The Basement session: “The Daily Mail.” Radiohead also played this live at their surprise appearance at Glastonbury a few weeks back.
This song is great too… man if they had just included these four on the damn album. I hope this and “Staircase” are released as another single/B-side soon. Check it out here:
I often pick up CDs from the pile to listen to based on the label. Today I’ve been listening to The Golden Record, new album from the band Little Scream on one of my favorite labels, Secretly Canadian. The record is full of big sounds: swooping strings, distorted guitars and thunderous drums, all under Laurel Sprengelmeyer’s gorgeous voice. In addition, Sprengelmeyer plays guitar, violin and keyboards.
The record also contains a fine pedigree of support players: Richard Reed Parry (Arcade Fire, Bell Orchestre), produced and performs on The Golden Record along with a ton of Montreal-based musicians fill out the rest: Mike Fuerstack (Snailhouse), Becky Foon (Silver Mt. Zion), Patty McGee (Stars), and Sarah Neufeld (Arcade Fire, Bell Orchestre). In addition, The National’s Aaron Dessner plays guitar on the lead single, “The Heron and The Fox.”
Check out this extremely intimate video of Little Scream performing “The Heron and The Fox” in the close confines of a small car, buried in snow. It is one of the quieter, more introspective songs on the record, the sound here in this video is definitely more paired down compared to the record. And the setting might make you feel a little claustrophobic at first, but the way their whispered, stunningly harmonized vocals fill up the car will more than win you over.
Little Scream: “The Heron and The Fox” (live) from Secretly Jag on Vimeo.
A few weeks ago I wrote about Papercuts’ newest album Fading Parade as part of NPR Music’s First Listen series in which we previewed the entire record. It was there I wrote “Jason Robert Quever may not be a household name, and you may not know his sound. But the music he creates as Papercuts always sounds comfortably familiar, even when you hear it for the first time.”
It’s that tone — be it the sound of his music, or in the topics he addresses that carries over into this video. Quever is in a familiar awkward party setting feeling out of his element or too shy to interact, something we’ve all experienced at one time or another. Soon the video turns into something all more surreal and dreamlike, a perfect fit for his psychedelic pop songs. Be sure to check out this album: It’s subtle but rewarding.
You can also see an excellent live promo video of Papercuts performing the same song at a house party from Yours Truly and Sub Pop:
We are less than a week away from South By Southwest and I am getting pumped. I’ll be there for the first time with NPR Music producing concerts, including some of my favorites of 2011: James Blake, Smith Westerns, Yuck, Raphael Saadiq, Colin Stetson, tUnE-yArDs, The Joy Formidable, The Antlers, WILD FLAG, Khaira Arby, Bright Eyes, Kurt Vile and a few more. I’ll also be filming a crapload of videos that we will shoot down there in the style of our Tiny Desk Concerts series.
And then in my not-so-copious free time I shall be trying to see as many bands as I can jampack in. Among the bands I’m most excited to see is my hands down favorite new-ish act of 2011, Yuck. My love has been well-documented both here and at NPR Music. So pardon me as I continue with my plugging. They just put out a cool video for their opening track “Get Away” and it’s, um, pretty cool. Also somewhat NSFW, so there’s that.
Memoryhouse – “Heirloom” from Jamie Harley on Vimeo.
Just came across Memoryhouse today when I read that they have signed with Sub Pop. I can’t say I’ve heard too much about this Toronto pop duo just yet, but they seem to be wading in the same waters as labelmates Beach House and Papercuts. That is, they play gorgeous, blissed-out dream pop filled with reverb, washed out vocals and crisp guitars that cut through the murky beauty.
While their Sub Pop debut isn’t due for awhile, check out this fantastic video for the song “Heirloom” — directed by Jamie Harley that uses old footage from Morocco and London shot back in 1968 for some film called Home Movie. I love the blasted out colors and grainy footage from what looks to be 16mm stock. It works very nicely with the mood of the song.
I look forward to hearing more from this band this year.
One of the things that everyone seemed to forget when discussing Peter Bjorn And John’s breakout album Writer’s Block was it’s conciseness. When you boiled down the glockenspiels and whistling that made “Young Folks” such a monstrous, ubiquitous hit, the songs on that record were lean, simple and melodically memorable. The song structures were just innately well crafted and clean, something their follow up, Living Thing was absolutely not. That record was drowned out by needless electronic layers and bloated synths — they went big when they probably should’ve gone smaller.
Well with their newest record Gimme Some, the band seems to have returned somewhat to form. The songs aren’t nearly as tight and catchy as on Writer’s Block, but they’ve definitely pared down the flabbiness and sheen. The best example of this is the impossibly short, perfectly constructed “Breaker Breaker.” The song is a minute and 38 seconds, yet it feels fully thought out and a powerful burst of British Invasion rock and punk rock energy.
The video for this song also brilliantly captures the fury, the speed and explosive nature of the song — in a way that makes you sit and try to figure out how they made it (film in slow motion and speed it up so it’s in sync?) Bands don’t seem to do songs this short anymore because let’s face it, it’s freaking hard to do. So bully for Peter Bjorn & John. They’ve pulled it off and outdone themselves in the process.
What is it about split screen in film that, when expertly employed, makes it so engaging and interesting? Some of my favorite films from the 1960’s use it really well — the original Thomas Crown Affair with Steve McQueen and Woodstock come to mind right off the bat, but I’m sure I could find 20 others if I had a few minutes.
In Michel Gondry’s latest music video for The Living Sister’s song “How Are You Doing?,” the visionary iconoclast director uses a 3-way split screen to depict an increasingly crazier and crazier series of events for Inara George, Eleni Mandell and Becky Stark. There’s accidents, fires, shootouts, sinkholes and childbirth, all shot in Gondry’s trademark homemade style.
And in pure Gondry fashion, the events all align at the end. While I’m not exactly a huge fan of the song — it’s well-crafted but perhaps a little cutesy for my tastes — there’s no denying this is an awesome video.
This is not the first time that Gondry has used split screen either. Fans will remember a phenomenal video for Cibo Matto’s “Sugar Water,” which uses the same technique that shows the action going in both forward and reverse, serving as a mirror image that eventually meets in the middle. Truly great.
Kanye West just dropped a new video for “All Of The Lights” directed by directed by Hype Williams and featuring Rihanna and Kid Cudi. And wow, this video starts out with a dramatically stark intro of a little girl, gorgeously filmed in black and white. But get past that plaintive piano and cello intro and it explodes into a seizure-inducing strobe of color and retro ’80s/’90s typography. This one will make your brain melt if you watch it in full-screen mode. But the video sure looks great, especially when Rihanna shows up in that “Fifth Element” top she’s got on. As for the song, it’s got that typical Kanye swagger/ego mixed in with some pathos about wanting to be a better father. Decent song, great video.
UPDATE: Just got tipped off that the typography from the video is remarkably similar to the opening credits to the film Enter The Void:
Wow, it’s like Kanye and Hype Williams ripped it off wholesale.