29 posts tagged “music”
I love the new M83, and the cover is great too. I was starving after work tonight but I made a detour into hollywood to pick it up at Amoeba.
So I was trying to think of my favorites for 2007 and I think it's sadly been a bad year for movies. I can't think of too much that I was impressed by, other than Ratatouille, Lust Caution, Sweeney Todd, Darjeeling Limited, and Blades of Glory. But here are my picks for best albums of 2007. (If there are some obviously glaringly obvious omissions it may be that I just haven't gotten around to fully listening to them yet.. like Explosions in the Sky or Radiohead.)
1. The National - Boxer. Ironically this is the one band that I missed seeing live this year. But this album slowly crept up on me and all of a sudden I found myself loving it. The music is pretty good, though at first listen I sort of dismissed them as another Interpol ripoff. But after several more listens I started to enjoy the songs, and after listening to the lyrics I felt like I could relate, and perhaps that explains why I like this album so much. On amazon.com I saw a 1-star review titled: "Never trust anyone over 30." (referring to the other 4- and 5-star reviewers) And perhaps that sort of sums it up. To me it feels like the themes on these songs deal with the disillusionment of growing up and becoming an adult and having to the face the reality that things haven't ended up quite the way you thought they would when you were younger. We're so disarming darling, everything we did believe/ is diving, diving, diving, diving off the balcony. -from "Apartment Story."
2. Patrick Wolf - The Magic Position
3. Ming & Ping - Causeway Army
4. Stars - In Our Bedroom After the War
5. Sigur Rós - Hvarf/Heim
6. LCD Soundsystem - Sound of Silver
7. The Arcade Fire - Neon Bible
8. DNTEL - Dumb Luck
9. Electrelane - No Shouts, No Calls
10. Peter Bjorn & John - Writer's Block
Honorable mentions:
11. Bright Eyes - Cassadaga
12. The Shins - Wincing the Night Away
13. Blonde Redhead - 23
14. Gruff Rhys - Candylion
15. múm - Go Go Smear the Poison Ivy
16. Siouxsie - Mantaray
17. Menomena - Friend and Foe
18. The Long Blondes - Someone to Drive You Home
19. Interpol - Our Love to Admire
20. Rilo Kiley - Under the Blacklight
Yet another reason why I should be living in the UK:
Here's hoping they hit Coachella next year... even though I'm starting to hate Coachella.
This past week has been quite action-packed, by my standards at least. Caught a lot of good live music: Architecture in Helsinki, Ming & Ping, Stars, and possibly the Moonrats at the Scene (glendale) tonight.
Architecture in Helsinki are a bunch of crazy guys (and one gal) and this was my second time seeing them but they are always so cute and full of positive energy that you can't help but love them all. We managed to work our way up almost to the front of the crowd and I felt really old because I think we were surrounded by a bunch of high school kids, but I think it's great that AiH have such an enthusiastic fan base.
At the Ming & Ping show I danced so hard I couldn't remember the last time I danced. They were a lot of fun and my expectations were exceeded, and their music is really really good. I got to talk to Ming afterwards and he was totally spicy and funny and just plain awesome (he was nice enough to sign a poster for a friend of mine who wasn't able to go to the show), and I got to take advantage of some photo ops with him.
I was on my way to the Stars concert last night when I caused the 5 freeway to stop completely for about.. 10 seconds or so? I was zooming through Burbank when all of a sudden there was a mattress in my lane. I couldn't change lanes because there was a car to my left, and if I went right I would have still hit the mattress. All logical thought left me at that moment, and what happened next is a bit of a blur but I basically ended up swerving across three or four lanes, and when I tried to brake I spun out and when I came to a stop I was facing oncoming traffic. The whole time I was bracing myself for impact, but someone up there must like me because I didn't hit a single thing. I turned myself around and took the streets the rest of the way, and called 911 to report debris in the road.
All I could think of, was how lucky I was, and how close I was to having something really serious happen.
And the Stars concert, well, it was just brilliant. One of the best shows I've ever been to. Lloyd Cole, who I never expected to see perform, opened. The Stars set was just amazing, so amazing that I'm not even going to try to describe it with words. And, at the end, when Torq was singing with all his heart: "I'M ALIVE" it meant a little more to me than it ever did before. All throughout the show the band were throwing flowers out and I managed to catch a few. I've decided to keep them on my dash as a reminder to be a safer driver, and to appreciate the everyday.
A friend of mine sent me a photo of how he organizes his CDs.
The other day I parked my car in downtown LA and when I got out a guy came up to me holding out a cd, and asked me if I wanted to buy it. I recognized the disc as Green Day's Dookie. I said, "No, thanks" and he then asked me if I could tell him what it was. So I told him it was Green Day, and he asked me what kind of music it was: "Is it black music? is it white music?" So I told him, "It's rock, it's white music." He thanked me and went on his way. I wonder if he stole those cds out of someone's car? They were in one of those visor cd-case things.
I was up in the bay area for the weekend. Mainly for the Smashing Pumpkins show at the Fillmore on Friday night, but we decided to visit friends/family and make a weekend of it. It was quite nice, and though I do find San Francisco pleasing, I find it hard to imagine myself ever living there... I suppose there really is no place like home.
We managed to squeeze quite a bit of walking/sightseeing into our Friday, and the concert was pretty awesome. It seemed like one big Billy Corgan ego-fest but that doesn't mean it wasn't good. I think the best song of the night (for me) was 'Tonight, Tonight.' The sound just seemed to swell and fill the place and with all the lights going, and EVERYONE singing along... it was so glorious. I think they played for over 2 hours, so I would say it was well worth the money. Also the Fillmore was a pretty neat venue. I'd love to plan another trip to see another band play there.
I'm pretty tired now but I quit my job so I get to sleep in tomorrow, hooray!
1. Randomly pick a song from your music library.
2. Find the lyrics.
3. Go to Google translation and translate the lyrics from English into German. (http://translate.google.com/)
4. Take the new German lyrics and translate them into French.
5. Take the new French lyrics and translate them into English.
6. Post the NEW English lyrics and have people guess the original song.
Legends on re-examining over one night want this one if it were the last thing, actually looked at it us you as sees lost only this one never sometimes as you suit it even darkness him open silences a darker request stay however me passport you, such as I am formed of the stone as you go far… I come to find you, if all always lasts to me night a hunting of witch for another girl and you, your confidence is the stupid thing more herrlichsten indeed always cut to me the world statement hallo one day can indeed say it today everytime that you shift the manner who you now consider forms to me me desire, me you were him go suit him deeply major silences this note and smile and the shock of your head… I come to find you, if all does not last night to me can so here be always and for you, I am it wish indeed always perfectly its that before… I would like to modify it all me would like to modify
On Wednesday I played hooky from work so that Mika & I could catch Patrick Wolf's performance on Jimmy Kimmel Live. We took the Redline to Hollywood and waited in line for an hour or two before we were ushered in and got seated in the very last row. Jimmy's pretty funny I guess, but the real treat was getting to see Patrick from about 15 feet away (and I swear our eyes met!!), thanks to Mika who somehow forged a way to the front of the second crowd. He played 'The Magic Position' which aired, and also 'Overture' and 'The Libertine.' He's a pretty entertaining entertainer-- very dramatic and really into his music, and his energy transfers well to his audience.
And tomorrow night is LCD Soundsystem! First of 3 sold-out shows in LA, I believe.
