It has a dark static-y acoustic feel to it that was at first, second, third and fourth listenings haunting. But then I got to like the haunting. Like Casper. It's a friendly haunt.
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MUSIC
I've been spending enough time on the internet lately that I was able to listen through most of the Spinner.com's new releases. This past week (at this moment they're still up) had some great music, new artists and some old ones too.
Yeasayer is a great new-ish band from Brooklyn who describe their music as "Middle Eastern-psych-snap-gospel". I mean, how can you not be intrigued? I caught them on Kimmel– yes, I occasionally watch Jimmy, but I don't stay up for him like I used to for Conan. You can head over to Hulu for their Late Night performance. But here's a clip of them performing "Tightrope" covered on the Dark was the Night album from TheCurrent for your immediate satisfaction.
I was taken aback when I saw that Dave and Tim had put out a new live album. I consumed DMB to an almost idolic amount in high school. So much so that I have stopped listening to them altogether, except in early June, when the warm weather seems to push DMB through the speakers on its own. But this is good. It's new stuff and old stuff all done in their typical open-tuning driven way. Here's #41, complete with crowd sing-a-long.
I've been pushing the Avett Brothers on to people for some time now and love pretty much everything they do. There music at a bare-bones level seems fuller than others do at full volume. Thoughtful lyrics and wonderful melodies come together in some amazing ways. This video of Scott Avett playing "Famous Flower of Manhattan" from Four Thieves Gone is no different.
[Big HT: Steve K. McCoy]
An impressive bunch today, mainly from people that I know personally on one level or another.
NOMO first grabbed me when I went to see some friends perform at Schuba's last fall. The most succinct way to describe them is "hot horns." A mixture of jazz, funk and Caribbean rhythms, NOMO kicks you in the eardrums and you like it. Their new album, Invisible Cities, Pitchfork gives an 8. It's some impressive beats, so don't miss them.
This is a long live session, so put your earphones, click play and get to work.
NOMO Live session from Svetlana legetic on Vimeo.
My buddies that were performing at Schuba's? Cains and Abels. They put out a new album recently and it sounds really good. In fact, their so impressive, David's dog, Simon, sings right along with them–even when David's voice is just an mp3 on iTunes. I can't find anything of theirs to post up here, but you can listen to them over at MySpace.
Bob Dylan. Well, so I don't know him personally–on any level–but I picked up his new album Together Through Life. Pitchfork gave it a mediocre 5.4, but it's a good blues-based album from an essential American artist.
Finally, someone else I have had no personal interaction with ever, William Basinski. However, I was reading this morning about his album The Disentegration Loops. Tape recordings of Muzak made back in the 80s, he decided to transfer them to the digital format on Tuesday, September 11, 2001. As he was doing so, two things happened. First, as the tape passed over the head, flakes began to fill the air as the tapes had decomposed during their time on the shelf. Second, and more notably, Basinski starred out the window of his loft to see the Twin Towers crumble before his eyes, filling the NYC skyline with flakes of itself. He was supposed to have a job interview in the Towers later that day. You'll have to go to Pitchfork to hear this one too, but it's so worth the trip.
Don't forget about Steve McCoy's Music Monday; he always brings something good to the table.
Since the weather has been warming up some, I've began to walk to and from my girlfriend's apartment. Usually the return is late in the evening, but the 15 minute walk gives me a good time to think and pray.
It's interesting to see what is going on at that time of night. The bars, which you can't smoke in, have people standing outside getting in their nicotine fix for the next half hour. The bar below one of the apartments I looked at is blaring ridiculously loud music, which makes me ever grateful that I didn't live there. Dominick's is pretty empty. All the other businesses are shut down too.
This seems to be when the wildlife of Chicago picks up. At about 11:45pm the birds were going nuts on the final block to my apartment. So much so that I pulled out my iPhone and began to record them.
I was amazed at the amount of activity they were carrying on this late at night in this section of the city oblivious to all the other noises of the city.