Thursday, July 31, 2008

zach hill

from zach hill's (hella) forthcoming solo album, astrological straits. i don't know about the video but i kinda like the (relative) poppiness of the song. not so sure about the video.

Friday, July 18, 2008

Wednesday, July 09, 2008

boat



(I'm a) donkey for your love
last cans of paint

wolf parade live

i had kinda mixed feelings about seeing wolf parade but it didn't have much to do with the band. with the show being at the house of blues (chicago) it was, in my mind, at the upper limit of the size of venue that offers any possibility of being fun. plus i resented having to buy tickets through ticketmaster. but it being a nice day and all (albeit kinda long since for some reason i woke up at 4am) i was still a bit excited about going to the show. in short, it was ok. nothing more than that really. it could have been a lot louder for one thing and a lot of the songs come of a little bruce springsteen-y. or maybe it was just the checkered shirts? at any rate, i wasn't a big of fan. the only song that i really got into was the, to quote the pitchfork, 'stubbornly unmelodic finale marked by a mush of throbbing guitars and histrionic vocals' (i.e., kissing the beehive). but again, i don't think it was wolf parade's problem - i do like their albums a lot and their performance was just fine. it was just the wrong surroundings. or just me. at any rate, i don't think i'll go to another show at a venue where i can't get i chance to kick a bandmember in the pants if i should feel like it.

call it a ritual

since posts here have become increasingly rarer i might as well mention alaska in summer that i also so live but in the right circumstances - and on paper alaska in winter wouldn't really seem to have a lot going for them when it comes to live performances. what are your expectations for a 'band' that consists of guy singing along to tracks on his laptop? right? but the show was damn close to brilliant - at least i left with a smile on my face and saw no reason to celebrate the evening by getting royally drunk. the brilliance of the show was in the video projections which consisted of the guy in the role of his own backing band complete with costume changes. it doesn't sound like much and it probably has been done before but it was done cleverly and worked beautifully. so, i guess, 2-0 for my kick in the pants theory.

close your eyes