The Dirty Projectors (and YACHT)

Don't worry, I'm still working on getting those other Bumbershoot posts out. I know I'm slow, but atleast I'm posting other stuff and not putting it all off.
So last night I was at the Vera Project seeing YACHT, The Dirty Projectors and White Rainbow (those pictures from above are what I took last night). I was super pumped for YACHT but I've already raved about him in another post, so I'll just tell you it was awesome (but suprisingly short). But I had not really heard the Dirty Projectors too much before tonight.
They put on quite the show. They sound so clean, but all over the place and sloppy at the same time. I think it has something to do with the really intricate drums and incredible harmonies matched with that dirty messy sounding guitar parts that harmonize so well. But seriously, their vocal harmonies they come up with are just amazing. The two girls in the band just carry the show to new heights. I got the CD after the show and I must admit, right now I'm not liking it as much. Maybe it will grow on me, but the mixing and recording of the songs sound a bit wierd. Also live the gutiar was way more... I dunno. They were a little out of tune and it gave a really cool raw sound that doesn't come across on the recording. Live it was definitely way more raw, but the CD isn't bad by any means. I think I've got to listen to it more and more and I'll appreciate it the same way. It's interesting though, the newest album that I got is a recreation of Black Flag's Damaged. While I'm not that familiar with Black Flag, I'll admit, I know one or two, and it's pretty wild what they come up with.
But if this tour is coming your way, I really recomend you go!
Dirty Ps/YACHT:
09-08 Portland, OR - Satyricon ^
09-11 Sacramento, CA - Fools Foundation ^
09-12 San Francisco, CA - Bottom of the Hill ^
09-13 Visalia, CA - Howie & Sons ^
09-14 Los Angeles, CA - The Echo ^

^ with White Rainbow

YACHT:

09-15 Morrison, CO - Red Rocks Amphitheatre (Monolith Festival)
09-22 Melbourne, Australia - Parklife Festival
09-30 Sydney, Australia - Parklife Festival

Dirty Projectors:

09-16 San Diego, CA - The Casbah *
09-19 Austin, TX - Emo's ^
09-20 Houston, TX - Rudyards ^
09-21 Baton Rouge, LA - Spanish Moon ^
09-22 Tallahassee, FL - Club Down Under ^
09-24 Atlanta, GA - Drunken Unicorn ^
09-25 Durham, NC - Duke Coffeehouse ^
09-26 Washington, DC - Black Cat ^
09-27 Philadelphia, PA - Johnny Brenda's ^
09-28 New York, NY - Mercury Lounge ^

* with White Rainbow
^ with Ecstatic Sunshine

MP3's:
Dirty Projectors - Depression
Dirty Projectors - Gimme Gimme Gimme
YACHT - Summer Song
YACHT - So Post All 'em

Buy Rise Above
Buy Your Magic is Real. I Believe in You.

Bumbershoot: Day 1

Want to know how Bumbershoot was? Well here we go, I'll try to get through this as quick as possible, giving you pictures and videos of the highlights from each set.

We'll start day by day.
First up...

Saturday:
First things first there's a mainstage show with Crowded House and the Shins.
Crowded House:
Plain and simple, this was not a good show. I was bored, and I hadn't heard them before. I was hoping they';d be OK but I guess I should have known that a one-hit-wonder band from the 80's might deliver a live show of this caliber. The songs were just plain old rock ballads that all sounded the same. Sorry if I offended any fans. Interesting fact though, Eddie Vedder came onstage. It was just kinda like, "oh hey, that's Eddie Vedder". To be honest I'm not a huge Pearl Jam fan. I used to be but it seems every day I like them less and less. Here's a picture (or the best one I could get)


The Shins:
They started pretty strong with Sleeping Lessons. That's just such a stellar opening track. But the whole time James Mercer just looked a little tired and like he didn't really want to be playing that show. They just kinda went through the motions, you could tell that they'd been touring that set for awhile. That plus the sun directly overhead us made the show a little bit of a slow start. But morning gigs on that huge mainstage is just a shit gig in general. I could see the Shins doing a really good show some other time, when the mood was just right. I really wanted to hear their cover of Breathe by Pink Floyd but it was taking awhile and they weren't playing it, so we left a bit early, and then as we were leaving I them strike the song up. Damn, I missed out. Oh well. But as we were leaving we heard someone mutter "they're song stealers!" which made my laugh.

I took a little break and met up with tons of people I didn't want to see. Soaked in the festivites and food and made my way over to my friend's neighbor's band...

Lillydale:
These guys are alright. But it turned out this was their last show ever. I don't think they had a very long run. But they're kinda fun live. Their music is a bit mediocre but they've got a nice vibe going on. But man, the skychurch's background animations kept distracting me. There was this one pattern I just couldn't figure out what was happening. It was some sort of thing spinning but there was like 100 things going on at once. I love that venue though. I saw Cloud Cult there last year and that was one of the best show's I think I've ever seen.

Next we dashed over to the KEXP stage for

Menomena:
!!!!!!!
I was most excited for them today. I forgot they were bringing their choir. Turns out it was only their second show with the choir. Man was it stellar. The choir came on in sweet outfits singing Rotten Hell (or what sounded like it), and then they tore into The Pelican. I only know the material from Friend & Foe so I didn't recognize every song, but I enjoyed every one. The choir really brought the songs to new heights, especially on My, My and the epic closer of Rotten Hell. Man are they cool.



(Youtube's not liking my videos right now, I'll put these up soon)

Afterwards, our next few shows were at the same stage with 30 minute gaps between each set so we got to relax in the grass and rest our backs and feet. Next on our list was....

Aqueduct:
To be honest I wasn't expecting it to be all that great, I was sort of into his music and I had a CD but I got tired of it quick. Something about their live show really gets me into their music. Now I've had Or Give me Death on my speakers constantly this last week. The crowd was so psyced for them, the energy was great. The highlight was their cover of R. Kelly's I'm a Flirt. They said they learned it on their van ride to Lollapalooza but now they've mastered it, so I think it was one of the first times they played it live. They finished their set early so they were just pulling songs out of thin air I think for the last few. And another bonus: I think this was the only time I've ever seen a band play a song requested from the audience (they played Heart Design). Unfortunately I did not get some of the best moments on video but these should suffice:


So after that we took a longer break. We tried to peak in to see Rodriga Y Gabriella but it was packed to the limit, I couldn't see anything. So we sat in the food court for awhile and saw some friends and talked. But before we knew it Devotchka was starting!

Devotchka:
I honestly did not know what to expect, I hadn't heard much before. But man, oh man, they blew me away! Serious theremin playing and whistling from the lead guy, and when the time came his fingers flew across the strings. And the violinist played like nothing I'd heard before. The only part I didn't like is the tuba. Tuba's sound terrible, I don't think I'd enjoy any tuba part in a song. But it just played the bass part which blended in easily, and the other 3 memebers attracted enough attention to themselves. It was epic and danceable at the same time. I think they did an encore but we had to leave a bit early, when their first set ended. I couldn't get any video or pictures from where I was, but here's a great one of "How It Ends" I found.

My Many Moods

I just got M.I.A.'s new album, and it's pretty fucking fantastic. It's going on my best of 07 list for sure. I do this a lot, where I go into one mood for part of the day, and then I'm listening to the exact oposite. After I wear myself out by dancing in my room to Kala, I've been getting into Sparklehorse and Damien Jurado again. Especially the Ghost of David by Damien Jurado. That album used to be overlooked by me, for some strange reason. I always listened to it at the wrong times, like when I was reading something I would put a song on in the background and get bored, but when I sat down and actually listened to it with my full attention I got it. It's a really great album, front to back. It's one of the more personal sounding records he's down,, in my oppinion, probably just because it sounds pretty lo-fi. I'm convinced this man can do no wrog. Every album of his is excellent, and every time I listen to him my admiration just grows.
Here are my favorites from Ghost of David:
Desert
Great Today
Parking Lot

Buy The Ghost of David

Now about Kala. I know all the blogs are raving about it and M.I.A. is hot on the town right now, but sometimes you've just gotta forget about all the buzz and really pay the music some attention (I'm not saying that you don't... that's just a bad habit of mine, I get sick of hearing about things so I don't pay it attention). I shrugged it off at first after hearing Boyz and Hit That. I thought Bird Flu was great, but then those two tracks just annoyed me. But Hit That's not even on the album, and Boyz is the only track I don't like. It sounds like a more advanced Arular, there's more depth, but at the same time it's more fun and less serious. This is how sophomore albums should be done.
$20
Bamboo Banger
Hussel

Buy Kala

In other news...
If you read any other music blogs or have a myspace (which qualifies everyone reading this blog I bet) you've got the new Band of Horses track. I think it's really really good. That's pretty much all I can think of to say about it. It's good, and louder and faster than normal BoH. But not by much. Download it at their myspace.

Also, Sage Francis is having a remix contest, if you'd like to take a crack at Hoove Tracks in the Sand. Check it out here.

I bought Know By Heart by the Amaerican Analog Set, and I'm really loving it. I had a few tracks before but I knew i needed to buy some albums, and I don't regret it at all.
Million Young
Aaron & Maria

And I've been listening to lots of Kind of Like Spitting. Expect a blog feature about them soon!


----


And I thought I should let you know I won't be blogging for another little while, Bumbershoot is this weekend!!! And this time i will give a full recap of it, with pictures and videos, but as a result it will probably take me aa little while also because school is starting on Wednsday for me. I'm pretty pumped. Hope this post will hold you over.

I'm back... again

Sorry, I should have said I was leaving for a trip for like 2-3 daysfor Lopez Island, in Washington. It was fun, my freind's mom let us use their cabin, and I won monopoly. That was a blast (as you can see by the picture).
Hmm... what to post? This blog is slowly turning into a "what-I'm-listening-to" blog, which is OK I guess. If anything, I think it's pretty cool. Sometimes I'll throw out playlists with themes or lists with MP3's, but trying to run news isn't the best thing for me, cause I just get everything from other blog's, that you probably read also.

So... Here's what I've been listening to:

Pigeon John - Do the Pigeon
At Lopez me and my friend played a ton of hip-hop. This tune was on constant rotation with us. It's so happy and easy going. This album's alright, sometimes it's great, but sometimes it's terrible actually. But seriously, I don't think you can be sad when you listen to this.
Buy The Summertime Pool Party

Dntel - Rock My Boat
This is going high on my best of '07 list for sure. This album is so good track by track. I'ts all real mellow and the electronics on it are genius. Way more adventerous than his last album or his work with Postal Service. This song's one of my favorites, it's got some dark sounding chords at the beginning that make it sound out of place, but definitely in a good way. Then in the chorus the guitar comes in and adds a whole new level to the song. I love it.
Buy Dumb Luck

Sparklehorse - It's Not so Hard
I got back into this album on the car ride back from Lopez. I almost forgot about it for awhile. It was deifnitely my favorite album of last year. It's Sparklehorse at it's happiest and poppiest. There are a few moments where it gets pretty loud, like this song, and I just love that. And the tracks that Danger Mouse produce are amazing.
Buy Dreamt For Lightyears in the Belly of a Mountain

DJ Shadow - Stem/Long Stem
On the drive up, I was tired so I just closed my eyes and listened to Endtroducing andlots of Dntel, which was perfect. Ambient, but lots of little things to peak your interest. I don't really need tot talk about this album a lot, it's already been hailed by so many other blogs probably. It is a classic. But this song especially. It's so epic and huge and different. I really really really recomend you listen if you're not already into this song. It's headphone music.
Buy Endtroducing...

Gorillaz - All Alone
As I got further into Rise of the Ogre, I got into the part about Demon Days, which got me more into the album. It's really cool and progressive. It flows way better than the first album, and it's way more polished. And the guest stars are even better. Roots Manuva just tears through this track and brings it to life.
Buy Demon Days

I'm back

Not really like I was gone. 2-3 days break, I dunno.
One thing I need to say though.

The day of the show MF DOOM called in and said he couldn't make it and cancelled. You have no idea how infuriated I was. DOOM apparently has this kind of reputation though, but it makes me lose a lot of respect for him as a person. So instead they got Redman to do the show, but who would want to see Redman??? I didn't, so hopefully my ticket will be refunded (my friend's mom is working on it).

I'll do a small recap of the KEXP BBQ pretty soon. It was very very good though. But the videos I took this time didn't come out as well... Bummer.

This post will be just a lot of collected things, like random songs and links, no real theme.

Here's a pitchfork interview with Aesop Rock. I don't like Pitchfork Media really (can anybody like their writers???) but I still read it cause they have a lot of important news and sometimes an interview like this comes up and it's really good.

I've been going in and out of music moods really rapidly lately. I get really into lots of acoustic folky stuff and then within an hour I'm listening to the Downward Spiral in it's entirety. So I'm going to try and sum up what I've been doing with my iTunes and iPod these last few days.

Enya - Only Time
Seriously, this song is amazing. I know a lot of people might laugh or scoff, but when you tap into it, it's totally soothing and you can just release everything. That's what Enya's good at, helping you release stuff. I've been checing her out more because of this track and some is pretty good (but some isn't so much).

Nine Inch Nails - Mr. Self Destruct
I said I was really getting into the Downward Spiral, and I really am. It's an amazing album, from front to back. It's so dark and loud, but it has these great really soothing parts that give you a break so it's not all one thing the whole time, and every track's really different. I can confidently say I like every single track, especially the instrumental ones, which NIN fans and reviewrs seem to not like as much.

Feist - I Feel it All
I wasn't so big on the Reminder, but there are a few tracks that I really like, such as this one. One thing I like about this album is her voice is even more luscious and sultry than her past effort's, which seems hard to do. (damn! She totally should have made my vocalist list. I messed that up). My favorite part of this song is the "oh oh oh oh" part. I think you know what I mean.

Cave Singers - Seeds of the Night
They were really great at the BBQ. I've been playing this song all the time lately, and it's the only track of theirs I have. This is what made me dig through iTunes looking for good folky acoustic music stuff. Maybe some Dylan or Elliott Smith or Iron and Wine. I can't wait for the debut. September 25th (I think). Get it!

Johnette Napolitano - Suicide Note
So tragic and heart wrenching. This song just cuts to the core of sadness. I love the drum sounds on here, and the sparse piano is just enough.

Xiu Xiu - Vulture Piano
Also for when I'm feeling dark. Sometime I'll make a post about how much I love Xiu Xiu, because I can't just write about one song, the whole catalouge is amazing.

Cannibal Ox - Pigeon
Lyrically, Vast Aire is unbelievable on this track. It took me awhile to figure out the metephor in the lyrics (I won't give it away, try to figure it out yourself). Plus the beat is flat-out ridiculous.

Hot Chip - The Warning
This whole album is so fresh and amazing. The programming just makes me go crazy, and the vocals are so laid back and easy sounding. Funky and addicting all around. It seems like I've been listening to this CD a lot this whole summer.

And I'm still playing Gorillaz and the new Stars album a ton, but I've posted enough track from those.

On another note, I just found this great blog, Music is Art. The layout and the content is just really cool and original. The writing just comes from the heart it seems, the person's not some indie hipster trying to boost their indie cred by tearing down some bands, they just write about what they really love and as a result you get a really honest blog.

Remember Gorillaz???

I guess it wasn't that long ago, but for me it was. When their first album came out I was pretty young. I think back then I was listening to Sister Hazel, Presidents of the United States of America, Savage Garden and Barenaked Ladies. I dunno, I listened to those bands scattered throughout my childhood, it's hard to remember when. But I do remember I got really into hat Ed Case remix of clint Eastwood when I was little. And my dad burned me the CD cause he was doing a lot of file sharing then. But that stories kinda boring, all that happens is I get into that album as a little kid, which is pretty wierd for me back then, cause it's an amazing album.
The thing I admire most about it is how ecelcic and different it is. Every son is way different than the one's before it. One vibe that kind of stays persistant in almost every track on the first album is there's lots of dub, which isn't there on Demon Days. I'm not a big fan of dub, I think it all starts to sound the same, but Gorillaz really harness it well and make a very different sound every time. The bass is thick and groovey and the keyboards are so catchy and Damon Albarn's voice, or should I say 2D's, sounds wonderful.
And the guestlist is way cooler than I remember. There's Dan the Automator, Kid Koala, Del Tha Funkee Homosapien, Miho Hatori, Ibrahim Ferrer (of Talking Heads fame), Ibrahim Ferrer, and Junior Dan.
I've been reading that 'Rise of the Ogre' coffee table styl book which is basically the complete story of Gorillaz from beginning to end, and that' what sparked up my interest again. It's very interesting and amazinly drawn. The character's are great, I almost wished they were real, but the idea of a cartoon and is just so cool. Thumbs up Damon Albarn and Jamie Hewlett!

Gorillaz - Sound Check (Gravity)
Gorillaz - Clint Eastwood (Ed Case Remix)
Gorillaz - M1A1
Gorillaz - Re-Hash
Gorillaz - Punk

Buy Gorillaz


Alright guys, tonight I'm seeing MF DOOM!
And then tomorrow's the KEXP BBQ!
My weekend is looking great. I'll check in with you sometime after Sunday.

Wednsday Rarities

That's a picture I found on google. These are some more MP3's for you.

The Knife - We Share Our Mother's Health (Ratatat Remix)

Broken Social Scene - Puff the Magic Dragon

M.I.A. - Galang (Hot Chip Remix)

PJ Harvey - When Under Ether (Live)
This tracks going to be on White Chalk, out September 25th.

Postal Service - We Will Become Sillouhettes (Matthew Dear's Not Scared Mix)