1. Sad music makes me happy + it’s not that it’s even sad, really just so good my heart hurts.
2. We saw them play a small show in New York a while back. The band hung around at the bar after + we almost said some words to them. They were nice when no sound came out.
Blind Pilot played Williamsburg last night. Since Noelle couldn’t be there to hear her favorite song, I thought I’d be amazing at her + record it. Watch this little clip to see how my plan is lovingly destroyed.
If you listen closely towards the end, that’s me saying “I’m going to cry.”
They continued to break my heart, carrying their instruments off stage + standing with the audience, unplugged. The audience then sat down to listen. Sat. Down. First ones to do so on this tour. It was beautiful!!
You’re welcome.
When they finished playing, I snapped this. Sneak attack!
So that’s my memory of a great show by one of my favorite bands. With no recording, it’ll be amazing for as long as I remember it.
When I like something musical, I tend to destroy it – I mean absolutely KILL it over and over and over again. You know I’m the one holding the knife, right?
So I’m on a bit of an Airborne Toxic Event kick lately. After exhausting two of their albums in the last two days, I ran over to the iTunes store like a tweaking junkie looking for more. That’s when I came across The Green Album, a new collection of Muppet songs covered by some of my favorite artists, including Airborne Toxic Event, Andrew Bird, OK Go, Sondre Lerche and more!
{OK Go cover “The Muppet Theme Song”}
You guys! This album is sooooooooo goooooood. I feel young again when listening to “Bein Green.” Andrew Bird sings in his lovely voice, “being green is all I wanna be,” and seven-year-old Noey feels happy about who she is, a dorky little art kid in Catholic school. Don’t you love how music can do that?
Still though, sometimes you dream of being someone else, just like Gonzo. That’s where “Wishing Song” comes in (covered by Airborne Toxic Event.) By the end of the song, you’re still you and you are okay with that.
Don’t you wish you knew what I was talking about? Don’t you want any of this to make sense?
Come on, smile with me. Listen to the full album, streaming now on NPR.
A few days ago Motionographer posted a video called Resonance with this demand: “Stop. Put on your headphones. Go fullscreen, and sit still as Resonance blasts your earballs to pieces.” I obeyed.
Resonance is a collaborative project with over 30 independent visual and audio designers/studios. The aim was to explore the relationship between geometry and audio in unique ways.
My favorite visual artist + audio designer pair was Jr Canest and David Kamp. Here is their contribution, which happens at 2:50 in the full 11 minute video:
I love it because it’s fun and it’s simple. While I found the other contributions to be very impressive, this one made me stop and look again. And then I smiled and watched again.
Gellner’s film illustrates what it feels like for boys to go through puberty. Mind is blown. Someone should do a girl version, we go through some changes.
Even though the song makes me just as sad as this lonely puppet, I’m going to buy his album.
These three talented lads also worked together on this NEXT insane music video in 20 days back in September. I remember I wanted to write about it at the time but my mind bent a little bit watching it and I forgot. Here it is now, in all it’s melting, acid flashback glory:
Thanks, Peter Ahern, for bringing this video to my attention.
It’s fun! Videos that play with variety vs. constants get me every time, it JUST works. Also cool use of the iPhone in a music video. Reminds me of that band that plays with the iPhone on the subway, Atomic Tom.
I downloaded the free app for some giggles on this uneventful Wednesday afternoon. Maybe I’ll have to submit my own video to the daily motion now?
‘Songs From A Room’ is a series of secret pop-up music gigs in living rooms. I was invited to the secret show (in NYC, Oct. 27th) and at first, I thought I was going to the venue The Living Room (les). Upon closer inspection I realized I would be attending someone’s living room had no idea what to expect. So exclusive! It was such a unique experience – pretty much as intimate as you can get.
It began over a year ago in the London living room of Passion Ate Dave. He started Songs From A Room with two music fans (Rafe and Rocky) as a movement to support new music.
These evenings can always take place … the economic winds may blow cold, but this kind of thing can always happen.
Bear Hands – “What A Drag” (By the way, they changed their sound specifically for this session since sofarsounds can only accommodate acoustic music. Pretty impressive. I actually really like the song played this way! But you can go to their myspace page to hear how it normally sounds.
I’m pretty excited about the future of Sofar, hoping that it leads them to host an evening in my backyard and we can call it Sofab! I came up with that and am way too pumped about it.
