The new Pitchfork.tv show “tunnelvision” is a pretty interesting concept. The idea is pretty much that a video captures the beauty and passion of seeing live music in the most interesting way possible without actually getting to see the band live. This video is of The Flaming Lips playing “Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots pt.1″ in Del Mar, CA in August of 2009. The video does a great job of sharing the wonder of a Flaming Lips concert, but rarely shows an image of the band themselves. I would give production credit, but I can’t find a listing of who produced this video.

See the Video at Pitchfork.tv

Ciężko napisać coś o tym zespole by miało to sens i jakąś wartość samą w sobie. Ta recenzja, jeżeli można to nazwać recenzją nie jest ani dobra ani oryginalna. Ocenę jednak przyznam.

Marcin mówi:
listopad 16, 2009 o 1:02 pm | Odpowiedz edytuj

Może recka nowego Flaming Lips. Już wszystko zostało napisane ale moze chcesz pobawic sie w projekt a’la Porcys

W sumie mógłbym być żabą (albo nią jestem) re re re re kum kum.

Vyciu
2009-11-18 23:55:46
ja bym tego nie napisał, w zasadzie w całym polskim internecie nei znalazłem dobrej recenzji

Właśnie słucham See The Leaves i staram się ogarnąć. Mocny początek, potężny. Gniecie umysł a potem to zamienia się w coś zupełnie innego. Ciężko mi to zrozumieć, ale zachwycam się dalej. Masakra. “Without hope Without love She sees herself From below and above“

Roland mówi:
listopad 18, 2009 o 1:14 pm | Odpowiedz edytuj

recka flamingow będzie największym wyzwaniem w Twojej blogerskiej karierze:)

Wszystko już w zasadzie zostało powiedziane. To, że od czasów The Soft Bulletin wiele się zmieniło to już wiecie więc nie ma co się rozpisywać zbytnio. Płyta generalnie mocno daję rade, czołówka w moim rankingu tegorocznym (jeżeli taki posiadam) póki co. Nie wiem, sprawdźcie to:

Roland mówi:
listopad 18, 2009 o 1:14 pm | Odpowiedz edytuj

1. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=92TNIIbaBOo
2. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w9_lBvKMlTI
3. Wayne Coyne = amerykański Marek Raczkowski
4. http://www.nme.com/video/bcid/49582897001
5. http://www.songmeanings.net/songs/view/150793/
6. http://www.lastfm.pl/music/The+Flaming+Lips/+images/2127553
7. http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio1/news/entertainment/galleries/media/pa_wayne_coyne_crowdsurf420.jpg
8. Scena z wypadkiem w 50 first dates
9. http://web.archive.org/web/20080704072754/http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/article/record_review/17746-flaming-lips-zaireeka
10. Justin T. na basie
11. http://web.archive.org/web/20070711185350/http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/article/record_review/17748-the-soft-bulletin

Oceny są skrajnie podzielone, dla mnie mocna siódemka. Chłopaki nie schodzą poniżej określonego poziomu, wato sprawdzić. Ocena: 7/10.

Here are a few albums that were all huge for me these 10 years. These are more personal favorites, albums that influenced my overall musical taste since college.

5. Yo La Tengo: And Then Nothing Turned Itself Inside-Out

4. The Flaming Lips: Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots

3. The Black Keys: Rubber Factory

2. The Books: Lost and Safe


1. Andrew Bird: Weather Systems

…and some honorable mentions

Sufjan Stevens: Illinoise
Okkervil River: Don’t Fall in Love with Everyone You See
Radiohead: Hail to the Thief
Animal Collective: Merriweather Post Pavilion
Fela Kuti: The Best of Fela Kuti
Lyrics Born: Same !@#$ Different Day
Yo La Tengo: Popular Songs

On this day in 1991, Freddy Mercury of Queen died at his home in England from complications associated with AIDS.  During his career, he and Queen had forty singles that hit the UK Top 40.  They had an international hit with “Bohemian Rhapsody.“  After Mercury’s death, “Rhapsody” went on to become the third largest selling single of all time.

Newton Faulkner does a one-man version.

The very strange combo of Elton and Axl from the Freddy Mercury Tribute show.

Cabaret and avent-garde singer Emilie Autumn.

A hip-hop version by The Braids.

A version by Canadian comedian Rick Miller.

And wrapping it up, a version by one of my favorite bands, The Flaming Lips.

And I thought it was trippy when The Flaming Lips covered it. Now I am completely sold on doing a music talk show with muppets.

I feel with each of these albums the whole is greater than sum of its parts. Transformative for the artists as well as myself. Here’s my top 5…

5. The Clientele: The Violet Hour

4. Sufjan Stevens: Greetings From Michigan: The Great Lakes State

3. Wilco: Yankee Hotel Foxtrot

2. The Flaming Lips: Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots

1. Broken Social Scene: You Forgot It In People

Honorable Mentions:

Weird Tapes: Get Religion

Sébastien Tellier: Sexuality

Memory Cassette: Rewind While Sleeping

Justice: Justice

Goldfrapp: Felt Mountain

Fleet Foxes: Fleet Foxes

Doves: Lost Souls

Peter, Bjorn & John: Writer’s Block

Les Savy Fav: Inches

Cut Copy: Bright Like Neon Love

Dungen: Te Det Lugnt

Strokes: Is This It

The Avalanches: Since I Left You

Röyksopp: Melody A.M.

Radiohead: Kid A/In Rainbows

Got the next tape put together for travel by automobile. After seeing Girls at 7th Street Entry in Minneapolis, I’m leading this tape off with “Lust for Life.” Natch.

21 November 2009 – 12:30 p.m.

SIDE A
1. Girls – Lust for Life
2. The XX – Crystalized
3. Brakes – Worry About it Later
4. LAKE – Sing 99 & 90
5. Port O’Brien – Oslo Campfire
6. Real Estate – Snow Days
7. Atlas Sound w/ Noah Lennox – Walkabout
8. Grand Archives – Silver Amongst the Gold
9. Woods – The Number

SIDE B
1. The Flaming Lips – Convinced of the Hex
2. Jay Reatard – It Ain’t Gonna Save Me
3. Vampire Weekend – Cousins
4. Sondre Lerche – Good Luck
5. The Shaky Hands – Never Fine
6. Throw Me the Statue – Waving at the Shore
7. The Swell Season – In These Arms
8. Volcano Choir – Island, IS

Oh oh oh
Watching the planets
Oh oh oh oh oh
Oh oh oh
Watching the planets align

Oh oh oh
Oh oh oh oh oh

I’ve been too busy to post lately, but I’ve seen a few good shows that I just couldn’t pass up posting about (even though they were a couple of months ago by now).

1.) Swedish band Dungen (pronounced Doon-gen) put on a phenomenal show at Bottom of the Hill at the end of August.  Excellent, excellent, excellent.  Gracious and humble to a tee (even though some jackass stole one of the band member’s camera–welcome to America, eh?).  Can’t wait for them to return–they could easily sell out a larger space (but I hope they don’t realize that because seeing them at a small space was amazing!)

2.) A band close to my heart, The Pet Shop Boys, put on a brilliant show at the end of September at the Warfield.  Seeing the Pet Shop Boys live is like watching an art installation unfold on stage–visual candy.  Astounding, sensational, and SO WORTH EVERY DOLLAR.  Neil Tennant is an infinitely adorable showman.

3.) Saw local band I Love My Label rawk it up on Halloween at the Hemlock.  If you haven’t seen them, catch them next time they play in SF.  Catchy.

Other musical news…I’m really enjoying the new Built to Spill album There Is No Enemy.  A lot of people complain that their previous two albums were not that great (though I really liked those), but I have to agree that this one is pretty astounding.  Stand out tracks so far are Aisle 13, Hindsight, and Good Ol’ Boredom.

I’m also really enjoying the new Flaming Lips album, Embryonic.  I like that it’s a bit of departure from the sound on their last couple of albums and that they’re returning to their experimental side.  It’s quite “chunky” and bass-heavy on a few tracks; I also like what Wayne Coyne’s done to his voice.  Good!  Go out and get it now.

Latest playlist for fall:

Artículo conjunto entre Eldrsaleabailar y Indiegnado, sobre el infumable duodécimo disco de Flaming Lips.

Eldrsaleabailar opina:

Al igual que el NME no ha incluido a los Animal Collective en la lista de los mejores de la década, si son congruentes tampoco incluirán este álbum de los Flaming Lips en la de lo mejor del año. En ninguna de mis dos listas entrarían ni unos ni otros.

Indiegnado contesta:

“Embryonic” es un disco que sigue la concepción particular que tienen The Flaming Lips de ver la música: hay psicodelia, empalague, y luces de colores. Pero también hay aburrimiento, y es que la mayoría de canciones son pasajes ambientales que inducen al sopor. Además, “Embryonic” carece de esos himnos optimistas como “Do You Realize??”, “Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots, Pt. 1” o “The Yeah Yeah Yeah Song”.

Eldrsaleabailar va más allá:

No solo carece de himnos, que no sería malo del todo, sino que excede de aburrimiento y experimento fallido. Se salva de la quema algún tema como “I Can Be A Frog” o “Watching The Planets“, pero el problema creo que está en que hay 2 canciones-tipo que se repiten constantemente a lo largo del largo disco, una ambiental sin apenas percusión y otra que se fundamenta en la percusión marca de la casa sin muchas más pretensiones.

Indiegnado al contrario piensa:

Eldrsaleabailar salva los singles del disco, que a mi, curiosamente, me parecen de lo peor de todo el album y eso que Karen O canta, o mejor dicho, presta su voz en ambos temas. La pretenciosidad del grupo alcanza cotas límite en esos temas de caos sónico mezclado con empalague absoluto como “Aquarius Sabotage” o “Scorpio Sword”.

Eldrsaleabailar concluye:

Realmente este disco solo lo salvarán los gafapastas y el RDL, yo directamente lo he borrado con goma de borrar MILAN del ipod, sin conectarle al itunes.

Indiegnado remata:

Algunos hablan de “Embryonic” como mejor álbum del año, otros, como peor disco del año, inclúyanme en la segunda categoría.

11/18/09

Brendan Benson

Lots of cool stuff is happening here at the end of the year. This month alone, my band The Dead Girls has two amazing gigs—one we already played, which was this last Saturday opening for Brendan Benson at the Bottleneck. Here’s a video of us from that show performing “Don’t Change” by INXS.

the Dead Girls – “Don’t Change” (INXS cover) from Nick Spacek on Vimeo.

It turns out that was Brendan’s birthday, too. Who knew he was a fellow Scorpio? That show was so much fun. It was one of those situations where we were all guessing there were not going to be that many people in attendance for our set, at least. We were supposed to go on promptly at 9pm, and that’s pretty early for a Saturday night, post-game Lawrence crowd. But we didn’t really care—we were all just excited to have received the opportunity to open for one of our favorite songwriters of the last decade. His set was really amazing. It was the third time I had seen him, and definitely the best of those three. The four-piece set up he had really suited his songs well, and they were an extremely tight unit, to boot. His new album is probably my least favorite of all of his albums, but it still has a few real good jams on it.  Listen to one of my faves right here.   Benson is still alive and kicking, though apparently last time he was in Lawrence he sold out the bottleneck. There were less than 200 there this time. I guess that’s the difference a few years and a bad economy make. We didn’t get paid for playing, but we had some friends help sell merch, so we didn’t walk away empty-handed or nothin’. The other sweet show is Friday at the Granada with the Republic Tigers. That should also be quite cool.

Matador Records

Jagjaguwar Records

Musically, I’m trying to be more open minded all the time. I’m trying not to let hype or shit-talk steer me away from listening to something for myself. I really needed to buy some records today. I don’t know why—I guess probably because I haven’t gone to a record store in awhile, and there is definitely something comforting (if not futile and abyss-like) about them. But I went to the new Love Garden today, and it was exactly what I needed. I was only there for about 20 or 25 minutes, which for me is a considerably short trip to the record store. I did find a couple things I had wanted to hear, and though I am a little more conservative about what I buy these days, I had not been able to preview these records previously and just decided to buy them anyway. They were Women’s s/t release from last year and Kurt Vile’s “Childish Prodigy” from this year. So far, I really like what I have heard from Kurt Vile. I can definitely see how he fits into that whole freak-folk thing that’s going on right now, and a lot of that stuff usually kinda bores me. Vile’s stuff has a creepy, dusty kind of vibe, but still has a penchant for pop hooks. I’ll have to listen to it a little more to decide on it for sure, but so far, so good on the Vile. As far as the Women record goes, I have listened to side one, and the only song that really caught my ear was the last track. Everything else just seemed noisy and indulgent. A lot of people seem to be doing stuff like that these days. (For instance, Wavves. Except for an extra “v”, I can’t see how anything can be gained from their debut album, “Wavvves”.) I guess Chad VanGaalen produced it, and though I don’t really know much about him, I did listen to his album Soft Airplane last year a little. It had its moments, and for the most part was not necessarily noisy, but it had its indulgences too. That’s just the thing these days—even the Lips finally TOTALLY bought into their own shit with Embryonic. It’s a great record, and just like almost every Lips record, it sets a pace and sticks with it.

We’re also starting to work on all the promotional stuff for our album, which is FINALLY coming out in January. These projects take a lot out of me, but I love doing them. The satisfaction of seeing everything completed is pretty sweet—that is, if everything is satisfactory. I remember how pissed we all were when we got the Hair Trigger EPs and realized they were duplicates and not replicates. Note to bands—if you want CD replication, MAKE SURE it’s CD replication, not CD duplication. There is a difference! Anyway, it’s always good to know what you are getting, and first, you have to be smart enough to figure that out. It’s a process.

Available from Now Spinning Records 1/19/10

Considering the musical climate right now, I would say the record has a pretty decent chance of doing well. It sounds really good and has a lot of good songs on it, and the album art is fucking badass. We have a label helping us out, but they are basically friends who care about the band and want to help us out, which is truly amazing and I could never thank them enough. But that’s the thing—the fact that it’s a good record, or that we have a label, absolutely does not matter in the music world anymore. Magic is not made by labels these days, and it seems the music itself is even less important than ever. The magic is made by the bands themselves, bands that work really hard to promote themselves in their town and over the web. Touring still helps to gain notoriety and chops, but let’s face it—the music industry is not really the music industry we have come to know and love/hate anymore. It has kind of become a branch of the blogging/YouTube industry. It seems like bands that can utilize tools like these become more successful in this day and age.

True Panther Sounds

Case in point: the band Girls. How did you first hear about Girls? I bet you don’t even know, probably because you glanced at some internet article that mentioned them. It was like this in-passing thing that stuck because it just happened to seem really cool. For how much hype Album has received, it would be extremely disappointing if it were no good. Thankfully, that’s not the case. It’s one of those amateurish, lo-fi wonders—plenty there to scoff at or criticize, but why bother when it’s all so damn fun? This was the perfect record to have for the great summer wind-down. The transition from summer to fall this year called for some sort of appropriate mix of fuck-you and heartache, and Album was just the thing. It’s not very often the album you really need to hear is simply called Album…chew on that for a bit.

Well, with 2009 approaching the ol’ finish line, you’ll start seeing lots of year-end wrap-up lists and things. And since it’s the end of the Double-0 Decade, you’ll be seeing lots of decade recap lists as well. (Some early spoilers: Pitchfork has crowned Radiohead’s Kid A the best album of the Double-0s, while the NME favors Is This It by the Strokes.)

But you won’t find that here, and not now. No, here you will find a year-end recap that dares to be somewhat different. This is the first-ever Listen Up! Year-End Awards ceremony – or you can just name them the Harleys after the adorable little trophy I’m giving out to the winners.

Let's see the Academy beat THIS one.

The fun begins after the jump!

All right, let’s get this show on the road! Bring on the first award!

Most Ridiculous Album Art of the Year

First, let’s have a look at the runner-ups…

Brooke Hogan, The Redemption

Um, wow. This looks like the kind of thing that some Dungeons & Dragons nerd might have airbrushed on the hood of his car back in 1987. I don’t even think people do that anymore. Also, that album title… don’t you have to screw up a successful singing career before you can make a comeback album called The Redemption? Quick, name the last time you heard a Brooke Hogan song. And VH1 doesn’t count.

Adam Lambert, For Your Entertainment

If Aladdin Sane went to the neighborhood mall, got some Glamour Shots photos taken, and then scanned the most ridiculous pose into his computer so he could Photoshop it poorly and add ugly ‘80s hair-metal logo fonts… well, the result still wouldn’t look as stupid as this album cover.

I must give this guy props for letting FYE sponsor his album title, though. If I ever get a record deal, I’m changing my name to Sam Goody and recording an album of techno-pop called Circuit City. The critics will call it a “best buy” even though it will basically sound like a cheesy ripoff of MGMT. Or Weezer’s “Can’t Stop Partying.” You decide.

Chris Brown, Graffiti

What’s the worst crime he commits with this thing? Carrying a guitar even though I’m pretty sure he doesn’t play? Borrowing Adam Lambert’s cheesy-looking font? The pseudo-outer-space scene in the background? The robot hand holding a spray can? No… it’s those ridiculous cartoon characters in the corner that earn this one its WTF status.

And the Harley goes to…

Shwayze, Let It Beat

What the hell is going on here? It looks like they tried to spoof the famous shot of the Statue of Liberty at the end of Planet Of The Apes. Only here, the statue’s been decapitated and dismembered. And she’s wearing a bikini. And she has speakers where her boobs are supposed to be. And her iPod is plugged into her belly button. And she’s apparently visiting the set of Miami Vice.

Most Awesomely Ridiculous Album Art of the Year

And the Harley goes to…

Weezer, Raditude

Just look at it. I mean, what else could you expect for an album that got its title from the guy who plays Dwight on The Office and called Ellen Page “homeskillet” in Juno?

Funniest Song of the Year

And the Harley goes to…

Theory Of A Deadman, “Hate My Life”

I still can’t figure out what to make of this song. On one hand, these lyrics are hilarious: “I hate that I can’t tell/When a girl’s underage/You know, I tell her she’s a nice piece of ass,/Then her daddy punches me in the face.” On the other hand, the singer sounds so sincere that it’s like he really wanted people to relate to this.

If it’s meant to be funny, then it’s a clever parody of angst-ridden post-grunge radio rock – you know, like Theory Of A Deadman’s other songs. If it’s not meant to be funny… well, that just makes it funnier, doesn’t it? And the acoustic version of this song, believe it or not, is even funnier. Unintentionally funny things are always funnier than things that are supposed to be funny. That’s why The Number 23 is the funniest movie Jim Carrey’s made this entire decade. Even with some strong competition from Weird Al, there was no way this wasn’t going to Theory Of A Deadman.

Plus, is it just me, or does the lead singer kind of sound like the guy who sings the songs in Team America?

Biggest Pop Star of the Year That I’ve Still Never Heard Of

And the Harley goes to…

Justin Bieber

I don’t have a clue who this guy is. I don’t know where he came from, and I have no idea whether or not he’s connected to the Disney Channel (the most likely cause for such a meteoric rise to fame). All I know is that he’s suddenly everywhere, I am clueless as to why, and I don’t really care either.

Most Inexplicable Attempt At A Singing Career

And the Harley goes to…

Heidi Montag

Apparently this girl from The Hills has been trying to get a music career off the ground for a while now. So far it has been greeted with the same enthusiasm people reserve for trees falling in the forest that they aren’t around to hear. But bless her heart, she keeps on trucking.

And hey, if this singing thing doesn’t work out, she could always pose for Play… oh, wait. She did that already. Never mind.

Runner-Up: That woman from Real Housewives who sang “Tardy For The Party”

Most Shocking Musical Controversy of the Year

And the Harley goes to…

Britney Spears vs. Australia

What do you mean Britney Spears doesn’t sing live? I for one am absolutely appalled that she lip-syncs! We made Ashlee Simpson a freaking pariah for pulling the same stunt on Saturday Night Live; now people wouldn’t buy her albums if you gave them away for free! You mean to tell me people will actually pay their hard-earned money to watch a singer who pretends to sing?

“If you’re shocked that Britney was lip-syncing at her concert and want your money back, life may continue to be hard for you.”

– John Mayer

For me, the controversy is not about Britney lip-syncing. Much like Mr. Mayer, I’m shocked that people are still shocked about this. Have the Aussies not been paying attention for the last ten years? Come on, Australia. Britney’s been lip-syncing since day one. I don’t even think that’s her real speaking voice. There’s probably someone sitting outside in an RV talking into a headset microphone or something.

Best Supergroup of the Year

And the Harley goes to…

Them Crooked Vultures

And in a stunning upset, Them Crooked Vultures takes home the Harley over… well, how many supergroups actually came out this year? There was Chickenfoot, Monsters Of Folk, and… uh…

I’m only half-kidding about this. Maybe I’m kind of biased since this band features Josh Homme (Kyuss, Queens Of The Stone Age) on guitar and vocals, Dave Grohl (Nirvana, Foo Fighters, lots of other bands) on drums, and John Paul Jones (Led Zeppelin) on bass. It’s kind of hard to go wrong with a lineup like that. If you like classic rock like Zeppelin or Cream, or if QOTSA’s Songs For The Deaf ranks among your favorite albums, or if you play an instrument, or if you like rock music in general, you’ll probably like this band.

Runner-Up: Monsters Of Folk

Most Baffling Music Video Trend of the Year

And the Harley goes to…

NSFW VIDEOS

I’ve never been a fan of censorship, really. That’s why if I ever come up with an idea for a TV show, I’d want it to be on HBO – because they let you do pretty much anything you want. Yet for some reason, this recent trend of NSFW music videos has taken me by surprise. Truly, Rule 34 of the Internet (“If it exists, there is porn of it – no exceptions”) continues to reign supreme.

Would you like to watch Rammstein porn (“Pussy”)? Do you think it would be funny to pretend another person’s penis is a microphone (Girls, “Lust For Life”)? Have you ever wanted to see Wayne Coyne naked (the Flaming Lips, “Watching The Planets”)? Well, guess what? All of these videos have been made just for you. But be warned – what has been seen… cannot be unseen.

Runner-Up: Everything Lady Gaga has ever worn. EVER.

Best Non-Existent Album of the Year

And the Harley goes to…

Radiohead, Wall Of Ice

It must have been interesting to be a member of Radiohead in the days leading up to August 17, 2009. Someone had recently leaked a new song called “These Are My Twisted Words” and the Internet was suddenly all abuzz about a mysterious new EP called Wall Of Ice. This despite the fact that nobody in the band had ever said anything about the leak, the new song, or anything they were planning for August 17. No blog posts on Dead Air Space, no news updates on At Ease Web, no interviews, no press releases, no nothing.

Yet all of a sudden everyone was convinced that Wall Of Ice was coming. After all, this was the band who released In Rainbows pretty much out of nowhere nearly two years earlier. Were they about to pull the same trick again?

Well, no. As it turns out, the Wall Of Ice EP existed only in Internet rumors. And the mysterious event set for August 17? The official release of “These Are My Twisted Words.” Somehow, without even doing anything at all, Radiohead had managed to pull off perhaps the biggest hoax since Orson Welles’ War Of The Worlds broadcast. But if “These Are My Twisted Words” is any indication, Wall Of Ice would have been pretty kickass. And Pitchfork would have given it at least an 8.5 out of 10.

One last Harley award to give out, and then we can all go home! Now, this one may be the last, but it’s certainly not the least. And anyone who’s paid attention to any award shows over the past few years will agree that this is a pretty big award.

The Kanye West Award, for excellence in the field of being Kanye West

And the Harley goes to…

Kanye West

Well, duh. At least now he won’t be throwing any fits backstage (or onstage) about how he should have won something.

Check out this playlist I put together of shit that sounds like The Flaming Lips.

TFL Shit
http://www.playlist.com/playlist/18455726603

I have to admit, I was kind of worried about seeing Peter, Bjorn and John.  I had heard read some interesting things about their show at SXSW, and since then, I haven’t read or seen anything about them live in any capacity.  If you’re a regular reader of my blog, you’ll recall how much I loved their latest album Living Thing (and if not, read my review here) and I love Writer’s Block just as much, and really, I didn’t want to be disappointed by their live show.  Faced with the tough decision on whether to see them or to see the Monsters of Folk at Stubb’s, I chose P, B & J and am pretty thrilled with my decision.

Charging a dedicated and attention-loving roadie with the task of preparing the stage, he probably took no less than 30 minutes testing each and every instrument, synthesizer, and microphone, all the while mugging covertly for the crowd.  As such, we were soon assured that at the very least, the instruments would be working correctly, and that the roadie was ready to step in for any one of the band members should his dreams come true one of them become ill (for all my teasing, it should be said that there was no doubt this guy was a great roadie).

Click the jump to see a picture of the best roadie of all time, and to read about the show!!

The most dedicated roadie on the planet.

Once the show began, right from the get-go lead singer Peter Moren, bassist, keyboardist and producing guru Bjorn Yttling, and drummer John Erikkson eased any inkling of concern I might have had.  Peter particularly is exuberant on stage, fully committed to performing and connecting with the audience, with amazing control over his vocal range.  Bjorn is certifiably nuts, in the best possible way of course, playfully interacting with the audience and egging on the crowd in a Swedish dead-pan fashion when it came time to chant or clap bombastically.  John, as are most drummers, seemed happy to hang toward the back, but did take on impressive singing and whistling duties as well.

P, B & J played a bunch of their hits up front, pulling mainly from Living Thing and their mega-successful Writer’s Block.  Starting with “Amsterdam” (see video at top), they moved into “Start to Melt”, “Living Thing”, “Young Folks“, and “Nothing to Worry About” pretty quickly.  P, B & J’s songs aren’t necessarily instrumentally complicated; it’s their arrangements that are complex and that can make playing live a demanding feat.  “Start to Melt” is essentially a wall of sound with vocals – there’s very little cueing involved, especially live, and “Nothing to Worry About” mixes sampling with off-beats and an intricate vocal line.  The band hit their marks spotlessly, especially Peter, who has a knack for natural timing.  For “Young Folks”, they brought out Sarah Assbring from El Perro del Mar, the opener (who I didn’t see nearly enough of to provide a review here), and she and Peter displayed the cute chemistry that makes a sweet and brilliantly crafted pop song come alive in concert.

One of the best parts of the show for me was “Blue Period Picasso“, one of my favorite songs from Living Thing, which the band said was their first time to play live anywhere.  I don’t know if that’s true or not, but they did a fantastic job with it at La Zona Rosa.  In general, the band’s ability to absolutely shred their instruments (check out Peter on harmonica here!) added an unexpected twist of intensity to the show by infusing their experimental indie pop sounds with genuine rock.  Other highlights included “Just the Past“, “It Don’t Move Me“, and “Lay It Down”, but the absolute greatest moment came with “Object of My Affection” from Writer’s Block.  It’s a track infused with sublimely self-conscious lyrics, and a perfectly bittersweet melody, and live, Peter took a couple of a cappella lines, pouring emotion into the pin-drop-silent room.  It was probably the point in the show where the band could have easily given much bigger bands a run for their money.  Utterly outstanding.

The band came back for an encore, having announced it was their 10 year anniversary as a band, and played a song from their 2002 album Peter, Bjorn and John.  Then for their last number, they introduced some horn players, Mr. Ass and Mr. Tap (hardy-har-har!) …AND the roadie!  In his big moment, everyone played an instrumental piece from the band’s album 2008 Seaside Rock that veered wildly from rock to experimental, nuanced with Pink Floyd and Flaming Lips influences.

Peter, Bjorn and John put on a great show and if I had one complaint about their performance, it was that at an hour and ten minutes, it could have afforded to be a bit longer.  That’s not to say I was left unsatisfied, because they certainly jam-packed the set with crowd-pleasers.  It was a pure, superb performance from a band who is on their way up in the ranks and I can’t wait to hear what they do next.

this kindof says it all…

i walked on the banks of the tincan banana dock and
sat down under the huge shade of a southern
pacific locomotive to look at the sunset over the
box house hills and cry.
jack kerouac sat beside me on a busted rusty iron
pole, companion, we thought the same thoughts
of the soul, bleak and blue and sad-eyed,
surrounded by the gnarled steel roots of trees of
machinery.
the oily water on the river mirrored the red sky, sun
sank on top of final frisco peaks, no fish in that
stream, no hermit in those mounts, just ourselves
rheumy-eyed and hungover like old bums
on the riverbank, tired and wily.
look at the sunflower, he said, there was a dead gray
shadow against the sky, big as a man, sitting
dry on top of a pile of ancient sawdust–
–i rushed up enchanted–it was my first sunflower,
memories of blake–my visions–harlem
and hells of the eastern rivers, bridges clanking joes
greasy sandwiches, dead baby carriages, black
treadless tires forgotten and unretreaded, the
poem of the riverbank, condoms & pots, steel
knives, nothing stainless, only the dank muck
and the razor-sharp artifacts passing into the
past–
and the gray sunflower poised against the sunset,
crackly bleak and dusty with the smut and smog
and smoke of olden locomotives in its eye–
corolla of bleary spikes pushed down and broken like
a battered crown, seeds fallen out of its face,
soon-to-be-toothless mouth of sunny air, sunrays
obliterated on its hairy head like a dried
wire spiderweb,
leaves stuck out like arms out of the stem, gestures
from the sawdust root, broke pieces of plaster
fallen out of the black twigs, a dead fly in its ear,
unholy battered old thing you were, my sunflower o
my soul, i loved you then!
the grime was no man’s grime but death and human
locomotives,
all that dress of dust, that veil of darkened railroad
skin, that smog of cheek, that eyelid of black
mis’ry, that sooty hand or phallus or protuberance
of artificial worse-than-dirt–industrial–
modern–all that civilization spotting your
crazy golden crown–
and those blear thoughts of death and dusty loveless
eyes and ends and withered roots below, in the
home-pile of sand and sawdust, rubber dollar
bills, skin of machinery, the guts and innards
of the weeping coughing car, the empty lonely
tincans with their rusty tongues alack, what
more could i name, the smoked ashes of some
cock cigar, the cunts of wheelbarrows and the
milky breasts of cars, wornout asses out of chairs
& sphincters of dynamos–all these
entangled in your mummied roots–and you there
standing before me in the sunset, all your glory
in your form!
a perfect beauty of a sunflower! a perfect excellent
lovely sunflower existence! a sweet natural eye
to the new hip moon, woke up alive and excited
grasping in the sunset shadow sunrise golden
monthly breeze!
how many flies buzzed round you innocent of your
grime, while you cursed the heavens of the
railroad and your flower soul?
poor dead flower? when did you forget you were a
flower? when did you look at your skin and
decide you were an impotent dirty old locomotive?
the ghost of a locomotive? the specter and
shade of a once powerful mad american locomotive?
you were never no locomotive, sunflower, you were a
sunflower!
and you locomotive, you are a locomotive, forget me
not!
so i grabbed up the skeleton thick sunflower and stuck
it at my side like a scepter,
and deliver my sermon to my soul, and jack’s soul
too, and anyone who’ll listen,
–we’re not our skin of grime, we’re not our dread
bleak dusty imageless locomotive, we’re all
beautiful golden sunflowers inside, we’re blessed
by our own seed & golden hairy naked
accomplishment-bodies growing into mad black
formal sunflowers in the sunset, spied on by our
eyes under the shadow of the mad locomotive
riverbank sunset frisco hilly tincan evening
sitdown vision.

the flaming lips / allen ginsberg

Φυσικά και θα επιστρέψουμε εκεί από όπου ξεκινήσαμε. Εκστομίζοντας εκείνο το περίφημο: ” Θυμάμαι!” του Polanski. Είναι υποχρεωτικό να  είμαστε γελοίοι; Κατά πως φαίνεται, η περίσταση το απαιτεί! Εξαρτάται βέβαια και από  τις προσλαμβάνουσες, αλλά ποιος είχε πατέρα guru..

Earlier this month a video shot from the crowd of a Flaming Lips show inspired me to drive to Norman and shoot the free Owl City show.

I’m not much of a Top 40 hits person, but it was fun shooting from a different perspective.

Also, I somehow managed to get into the show with VIP passes when security was turning people away from the capacity show.

Let me know what you think of this kind of video.

A special thanks goes to:

Zach Gray who helped me shoot the show.

Katie Caudill and LeighAnne Manwarren who looked sad and helped us get into the show.

Steven Hopkins and Jaclyn Cosgrove who gave me editing suggestions.

new flaming lips video? overrated. nudity isn’t shocking anymore, so this is passe. additionally, wayne’s obession with vaginas is childlike- and i mean that not as in ‘immature’ but as in ‘childlike wonder and fascination’- which is kind of awkward and creepy since he has a gray beard. riding bikes naked sounds uncomfortable, and the actors in this video definitely appear uncomfortable. All in all, this certainly isn’t a ‘nudity as beauty’ video if its trying to be one, and the viewer knows this with the camera’s obsession with female asses proves this. i do, though, like the organic feel of the video as a whole. finally, sure, wayne being pushed through the woods in his giant hampster ball by a bunch of naked people is fun, but no one ever needed to see his penis, especially since it is not made out of a space gun like flaming lips songs seem to imply it should be. overall, it was underwhelming, and if you’re looking for a video with nudity, i suggest checking out the Girls “XXX” version of “Lust for Life” if only for the part where one of the actor’s uses another actor’s penis as a microphone to sing the lyrics to the song. the Girls video is campy and adorable in all the best ways. plus, gay porn is the new porn, right?

You can view “Watch The Planets” at http://www.nme.com/video/bcid/49582897001

You can view “Lust for Life (XXX version)” at http://www.buddyhead.com/girls-–-“lust-for-life”-video-xxx-version/

Both are very much NSFW.

No, this isn’t going to be yet another of those postings where the author announces that they’re going to stop posting for a while and signposts this with an hilarious pastiche of Test Card F wherein the girl’s face is replaced by that of Scatman John or somesuch. No siree, Out On Blue Six would never resort to such a cliched tactic, and anyway, as everyone knows, whenever there’s going to be no posts for a while because of mentals getting angry about people laughing at half hour comedy shows and how New Doctor Who is full of gay agenda not like good old Meglos, this is invariably heralded by a stroppy message, a picture of some obscure Francoise Hardy EP, and Catherine Tate taking over for a week. Instead, in the popular Out On Blue Six tradition of surreally ridiculing ancient TV continuity devices, it’s time to take a look at some of the more bizarre variants of Test Card F, with illustrations provided as ever by our old pals at TV Ark:

The original and, depending on how you look at it, best! Yes, it’s weirdly-dressed Carole Hersee and her unsettling gaudy-assembly-of-primary-colours pal Bubbles (“this shit ain’t right, sir”) poised immobile in their Seventh Seal-esque unending game of noughts and crosses, rightly revered for their spooking of entire decades’ worth of youngsters who had accidentally turned on before TV ’started’ and couldn’t understand what in the name of Sara & Hoppity this weird programme actually was, and looking exactly how you try not to remember it. But hang on a minute…

What madness is this? Granada?? It seems that our favourite fear-causers are not content with their hold over the unwary BBC audience, and have decided to implement a ‘no escape’ policy and branch out by taking the ITV regions by force. Like some crazy Murders McFadden & Whitehead, there Ain’t No Stoppin’ Them Now…

Onto something slightly less terrifying, then. Just as the BBC used to sell Play School in ‘kit’ form to overseas broadcasters, so they could refashion the props and scripts to suit their own purposes and dye Humpty in ‘poison’ colours etc, so they would strike similar deals with Test Card F, allowing our global compatriots to opt for slightly less chilling combinations of girl/clown. Here’s how Sweden’s Sveriges TV, famous makers of Xerxes, interpreted the classic design, incorporating a girl who appears to have stolen the top half of her wig from Ken Korda and the bottom half from Pat Sharp, and what is very clearly a discarded Hamble from their own concurrent Play School purchase.

Meanwhile, here’s a more thoughtful and spiritually-leaning interpretation from MBC, the curious Arabic cable channel of the early nineties that only seemed to show about three programmes at a million o’clock in the morning, all of which appeared to have been made in the same room. Also, someone came down the chimney on one once.

Over on The Comedy Channel, being somewhat less concerned with meditative contemplation than they were with Bill Cosby putting all of the plates in the dish washer so that they can be of washed up for the lunch, they opted instead for a not-particularly-comedy-related shot of some goldfish swimming around a deep sea diver out of one of those ‘Bill’ and ‘Dean’-centric Fisher-Price Adventure Playsets. Mind you, it’s really only here in the absence of the legendary Test Card adopted by its spiritual heir Paramount Comedy for the conclusion of a hard day’s showing of endless variations on Greg fretting because Dharma couldn’t understand why she should let ‘them’ stop her from wearing sweaters as trousers – an utterly bewildering photo of a giant chicken standing astride a gridlocked ‘freeway’ of randomly flashing car lights with an Flaming Lips-like orchestra of elongated car horns sounding in the background.

And here’s BSB, early sattelite home of hour upon hour upon hour of nothing interspersed by clunking satire shows featuring the young Armando Iannucci and Stewart Lee (“BOO! HISS!”) and marathon showings of Doctor Who linked by writers who had lost the ability to say anything bar ‘Padmasambhava’, trying to lure in the overnight viewers with Sky Magazine’s idea of a ’sexy’ female posing as a director. Clearly a resounding success.

And finally, what you’ve all been waiting for – a station devoted exclusively to the showing of William Hartnell-era episodes of Doctor Who. Free Delegates For All!

Well, that’s about it for now, but why not treat yourself to an official Televisions Namnden Countdown Clock? Just give it a try and you’ll agree zagreb evrem zlotyk diev!

Earlier this year Mark Linkous (of one of my all-time favourite bands Sparklehorse) and Dangermouse (not the one who’s the greatest secret agent in the world) teamed up to make the album Dark Night of the Soul, which also featured guest vocalists Wayne Coyne (The Flaming Lips), Nina Persson (The Cardigans, A Camp) & Suzanne Vega among others.

It’s a great album which, due to an ongoing legal disute between Dangermouse and EMI, has unfortunately still not been officially released. If you look hard enough online though you’ll find it

The lyrics of the first song on the album ‘Revenge’ are incredible. I don’t know if they were written by Mark Linkous, Dangermouse or Wayne Coyne (who sings it) but they beautifully articulate how revenge and un-forgiveness can eat away at us if left unchecked:

Revenge

Pain
I guess it’s a matter of sensation
But somehow
You have ways of avoiding it all

In my mind
I have shot you and stabbed you through your heart
I just didn’t understand
The ricochet is the second part

Cause you can’t hide
What you intend
It glows in the dark
Once you’ve sought
The path of revenge
There’s no way to stop
And the more I try to hurt you
The more that it hurts me

Strange
It seems like a character mutation
Though I have all the means
of bringing you fuckers down
I can’t make myself
To destroy upon command
Somehow forgiveness
lets the evil make a loss

No you can’t hide
What you intend
It glows in the dark
Once we become
The thing we dread
There’s no way to stop
And the more I try to hurt you
The more it backfires
The more it backfires
The more that it backfires