Last Thursday February 24, 2011 Beach House played again in Philadelphia.
The Baltimore band led by French-born Victoria Legrand captivated us last year with their “Teen Dream” album, which was of course featured almost in its entirety in the set list of Thursday night. Legrand’s powerful voice filled the relatively small Trocadero Theatre, which appeared for the first time awfully small for a band of the impact of Beach House.
Their quick transformation into a favorite band is evident, appearing surprising even to the band itself. Last time in Philly, they played a much more intimate (and all seated) concert at the First Unitarian Church. The concert last week suggests that Beach House is certainly ready for larger venues that could offer a more enjoyable experience to everyone.
“Used to be”, “Zebra” and “10 mile stereo” were among the audience favorites, the latter selected as the ending track of the night. Me, I would stay with Victoria’s smile and peace sign after “Take care” just before their encore.
I hope to see this band again soon.
Below a video of “Take care” and their two encore songs of the night “Real Love" and their great ending with “10 Mile stereo”.
Pequeña banda de Seattle que edita en este año su bella segunda producción "I Won't Keep You Here", un disco lleno de emociones, buenas vocales acompañadas de cuerdas precisas, percusiones dramáticas y el increíble sonido del violín presente de manera importante en cada uno de los tracks, con lyrics que evocan a la naturaleza, el amor y las pérdidas de todo tipo, una maravilla.
Les dejo su myspace, su página y web search para su descarga, enjoy...
I found this pretty cool...and very aligned with all the madness around "The King of Limbs"...
This guy Jamie Gurnell went to the trouble of plotting Radiohead songs from their multiple albums into a 2-dimensional chart as a way to classify Radiohead's approach to music....his conclusion was no surprise at all... Radiohead is simply an "unclassifiable" band and their music defines potentially a genre by itself...I certainly buy that...
The full chart, which you can find HERE, along with the entire description, speaks by itself.
Desde Chicago, una banda que apenas el año pasado debutó en la escena con su álbum homónimo, publica hace apenas un mes "Dye it Blonde", su segundo LP que ha recibido excelentes críticas. Un disco sin complicaciones, lleno de armonías que dejan ver claramente la enorme influencia que The Beatles tienen en su música. Les dejo algunas críticas de revistas importantes, un vid y un link a la búsqueda de sitios en donde lo pueden descargar (No olviden apoyar al artista y comprar al menos un track si el disco en verdad les gusta).
Enjoy...
Spin (90): The band recorded in a real New York City studio, with a real producer, Chris Coady (Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Beach House). And the songs are even better.
Pitchfork: (84): Though the leap is audibly huge, Dye It Blonde's many successes aren't wholly the result of its gilded production values and ambition. This band was able to furnish first-class melodies from the beginning. Now they've grown along with their resources.
PopMatters (90): The band never merely repeats itself here, creating a record that sounds at once cohesive and loaded with singles. It's a rare feat, and one that usually gets overlooked by critics shooting for the zeitgeist. Good for us that we didn't miss out on this one.
Yellow Yesterday, banda orgullosamente nacional comandada por Andrés Ibarra Ríos regala "#2", su segundo EP compuesto por 5 tracks a través de bandcamp.com. Interesante propuesta independiente que el crew de Musical Soulmate definitivamente recomienda. Aquí se los dejamos... enjoy.
Los de Oxford decidieron adelantar la fecha de lanzamiento de su octava producción.
A casi 18 años después del "Pablo Honey", hoy son la banda más grande del planeta, representan a toda una generación, se reinventan una y otra vez, nos sorprenden y nos indican hacia dónde.
Los afortunados que pre ordenaron "The King of Limbs" (como yo) pueden entrar a la página del disco para descargarlo, aunque no hayan recibido el link por correo. Les dejo el tracklist real y el video para "Lotus Flower"
1. Bloom 2. Morning Mr Magpie 3. Little By Little 4. Feral 5. Lotus Flower 6. Codex 7. Give Up The Ghost 8. Separator
I hate to admit when I realize I've missed great music from a previous year. At the same time, stumbling into it makes my mind hungry for more, just as if I had discover something new, a treasure, a gold mine, a yeti (ok, that was too much!).
At least for the moment, The Heligoats are simply and oddly Chris Otepka. A guy that publicly admits had been one of those 8-year old kids who enjoyed taking his fingers and pushing his eyes back into his head as far as they could go, as a way to alter his perception of life...just to see what he calls "chronic floaters". Weirdly, this led him to write his "I am pretty sure I can see molecules" song, a title that certainly caught my eyes...for more than one reason.
NPR Music says "The Heligoats' Chris Otepka writes songs that are brainy in the best way: clever without straining for cuteness, wry but never smug..."; "Otepka doles out observations and sonic adventure with tremendous generosity. He writes like someone who's always taking things apart to see how they work, who's obsessed with circuitry and ecology..."; "Otepka may yearn for evolution to reverse itself — "Let's just turn back into amphibians / Let's just tread until our legs give in / and start over" — but his mind will never slow down enough for him to find that kind of simplicity or peace."
In their last Daytrotter session (they have had 3 already!), the post reads "Chris Otepka, the lead singer for the Portland-based indie rock band Heligoats, ...has a very quirky and a very imaginative head on his shoulders and he tends to think about and write about the workings of these bodies - more specifically, it seems, his own, the one that he knows most intimately - in very, well, intimate ways."
Below, I leave links to this last Daytrotter session, which contains 4 downloadable tracks plus a link to the full NPR Tiny Concert video from The Heligoats, which oddly happened to be the 100th episode of this series. A great way to celebrate with an epic (and funny) performance.
Also, the clip from "Fishsticks", which appears to document the west coast leg of their (or his) winter 2009 tour. This song, as any one from Otepka is intellectually challenging and requires multiple passes to get its meaning. Here Otepka describes the story of a regular guy, a circuit city employee, who constructs a biosphere in a swamp, an ironical universe that although beautiful removed him from the world, even more...yes, I know...I should stop here.
Being a weird guy myself, my hat is fully off for Otepka and The Heligoats.
El sábado se llevó a cabo el screening en el cuartel oficial de Musical Soulmate. El 319 de Amsterdam en la Condesa tuvo el placer de proyectar "An Island", film del mítico Vincent Moon. Una vez más el francés nos regala una obra repleta de imágenes increíbles, una edición impecable acompañada por una musicalización perfecta de los daneses de Efterklang. Les dejo algunas críticas de la prensa internacional, fotos de ese día y un vid de una increíble canción de Efterklang que viene como lado B en el sencillo de "I Was Playing Drums" y que interpretan en "An Island" acompañados por muchos niños.
The Star(ca): "An Island is more than just a band documentary; it’s a love letter to family, roots, small-town life and the social/communal power of music to unify people … a mesmerizing 50 minutes … it’s universal and great viewing even if you’ve never heard of Efterklang" Fluid-Radio (uk): "In what is both a brilliant film and also a fine exhibition of musical talent ‘An Island’ successfully captures the artists’ intentions to create something unconventional and abstract. This however does not interfere with the films accessibility" Soundproofblog (us): "The movie was striking, a sensory sensation – a marvel"
Much has been said in this blog about the new release from The Decemberists. The band has recently released new dates for their "The Popes of Pendarvia " tour appeared in KCRW's Morning Becomes Eclectic last Thursday February 10, 2011 to perform part of their new album "The King is Dead".
Les dejo lo que salió hoy en el blog de Greg Kot del Chicago Tribune. Esperemos en verdad que los headliners que faltan por confirmar mejoren.
"Eminem, Muse and Foo Fighters will be among the headliners for Lollapalooza when it returns Aug. 5-7 to Grant Park.
Reliable industry sources confirmed the bookings Tuesday. Lollapalooza promoters C3 Presents had no comment, but the Eminem booking is a coup. The hip-hop artist is expected to win his first album-of-the-year prize at next Sunday’s Grammy Awards for his latest album, “Recovery,” the best-selling album of 2010.
The Foo Fighters — fronted by former Nirvana drummer Dave Grohl — are returning with their seventh studio album in April, the band’s first set of new material in nearly four years. Muse will be playing a few festival shows while readying its next album this summer; the U.K. band scored its first major U.S. hit with its 2009 release, “The Resistance.”
Also expected to play Lollapalooza, according to several industry sources: Best Coast, Girl Talk, Crystal Castles and Lykke Li. At least three more headliners will join Eminem, Muse and Foo Fighters.
The complete Lollapalooza lineup is expected to be officially released in April."
