Tuesday YouTube Treats
Alright, really really lame title for tonight's entry, but this has already been a long week and will only feel longer by the time Friday gets here. That's my excuse. With that said, here are a couple YouTube links to songs I've been hitting 'repeat' on lately.
Radiohead - "Lotus Flower"
Young Galaxy - "We Have Everything"
Tyler, The Creator - "Yonkers"
Showing posts with label Radiohead. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Radiohead. Show all posts
Feb 16, 2011
Random Catching Up Post
There has certainly been a lot going on in the music world over the past couple of weeks, February has turned out to be a busy month and there are a few things I'd be remiss if I didn't address here.
First up are the two biggest stories of the week, involving Arcade Fire's Grammy and Radiohead's new album. The Arcade Fire win is old hat by this point, but the reactions from the world at large are still rippling through the internet and around watercoolers all over. My office certainly wasn't short on the, "who in the world are Arcade Fire?" comments Monday morning, but it all seemed to come from a place of genuine curiosity rather than the bitter condemnations that certain Justin Bieber fans were throwing out. As far as I'm concerned, it's a great thing for "independent" music. I mean, how cool is it that a (relatively) tiny label like Merge won a Record of the Year Grammy? And, hey, even if The Suburbs isn't their best album, the attention and accolades are well deserved by the guys and gals of Arcade Fire. They are a fantastic live band and I think they'll have a lot more good work in store. But, for now, check out the hilarious Twitter and Facebook reactions over on the Who Is Arcade Fire tumblr.
And, Radiohead. In a surprise announcement that seemed to come out of nowhere, the band's latest album, The King of Limbs, will be released this Saturday - yep, in just three short days. At least digitally the album will be out, but you'll have to wait a few months for any kind of physical product. At this point, the band is offering up two options for purchase - the digital only version ($9.00 for mp3 files and $14.00 for wav files) or the "newspaper" version (vinyl, cd, digital download, and plenty of extra art for $48.00). Obviously the band has done away with the "pay what you want" model that they used for In Rainbows, but who can blame them? I think nine bucks is a very decent price for an album, and perhaps that is the price point the band came up with based on the previous experience. I'm leaning towards the $48 box, just because I ponied up almost double that for the beautiful In Rainbows box that I still love to look at, plus, it's Radiohead and they've not steered me wrong yet. Order your copy here. I can't wait to hear this on Saturday.
In more sad news, February has so far seen fit to bring with it the final chapters of three bands that I really love. The biggest and least surprising of these was Jack White's announcement that the White Stripes are formally calling it a day. Given the complete dearth of news about the band and Jack's numerous other projects, everyone was kind of expecting this, but it's a bummer nonetheless. I'm mostly disheartened because I never got to see them live. But to be completely honest, I see a Coachella headlining reunion show circa 2014. Shortly after that particular announcement, we got another one that was more of a surprise - LCD Soundsystem will be playing their final show ever at Madison Square Garden on April 2nd. Even though James Murphy had hinted around about This is Happening being the band's last album, I thought he meant that he was going to focus more on single releases and not that he was going to retire the touring version of the band. Apparently he wants to explore other opportunities to produce other bands. Can't say I blame him, but I'll be sad to see this project fall by the wayside. I can't imagine that we won't be hearing new music from Murphy in one form or another. Finally, legendary British doom metal band Cathedral announced that they will be disbanding after releasing one final album in 2012. Considering that they've been around for over 20 years and released more than one essential doom record, this one is a little easier to swallow.
Great news today though, Electrelane are back:
"This summer we're going to play some festivals, including Field Day in London, and a few gigs. We're still confirming everything, so will be announcing dates soon. It's very exciting for us to be playing together again after more than three years, and we're just sorry that we won't be able to make it to the US this time. At the moment our plan is just to play live this summer, so we hope to see you!"
Shame about that "no US this time" though!
There has certainly been a lot going on in the music world over the past couple of weeks, February has turned out to be a busy month and there are a few things I'd be remiss if I didn't address here.
First up are the two biggest stories of the week, involving Arcade Fire's Grammy and Radiohead's new album. The Arcade Fire win is old hat by this point, but the reactions from the world at large are still rippling through the internet and around watercoolers all over. My office certainly wasn't short on the, "who in the world are Arcade Fire?" comments Monday morning, but it all seemed to come from a place of genuine curiosity rather than the bitter condemnations that certain Justin Bieber fans were throwing out. As far as I'm concerned, it's a great thing for "independent" music. I mean, how cool is it that a (relatively) tiny label like Merge won a Record of the Year Grammy? And, hey, even if The Suburbs isn't their best album, the attention and accolades are well deserved by the guys and gals of Arcade Fire. They are a fantastic live band and I think they'll have a lot more good work in store. But, for now, check out the hilarious Twitter and Facebook reactions over on the Who Is Arcade Fire tumblr.
And, Radiohead. In a surprise announcement that seemed to come out of nowhere, the band's latest album, The King of Limbs, will be released this Saturday - yep, in just three short days. At least digitally the album will be out, but you'll have to wait a few months for any kind of physical product. At this point, the band is offering up two options for purchase - the digital only version ($9.00 for mp3 files and $14.00 for wav files) or the "newspaper" version (vinyl, cd, digital download, and plenty of extra art for $48.00). Obviously the band has done away with the "pay what you want" model that they used for In Rainbows, but who can blame them? I think nine bucks is a very decent price for an album, and perhaps that is the price point the band came up with based on the previous experience. I'm leaning towards the $48 box, just because I ponied up almost double that for the beautiful In Rainbows box that I still love to look at, plus, it's Radiohead and they've not steered me wrong yet. Order your copy here. I can't wait to hear this on Saturday.
In more sad news, February has so far seen fit to bring with it the final chapters of three bands that I really love. The biggest and least surprising of these was Jack White's announcement that the White Stripes are formally calling it a day. Given the complete dearth of news about the band and Jack's numerous other projects, everyone was kind of expecting this, but it's a bummer nonetheless. I'm mostly disheartened because I never got to see them live. But to be completely honest, I see a Coachella headlining reunion show circa 2014. Shortly after that particular announcement, we got another one that was more of a surprise - LCD Soundsystem will be playing their final show ever at Madison Square Garden on April 2nd. Even though James Murphy had hinted around about This is Happening being the band's last album, I thought he meant that he was going to focus more on single releases and not that he was going to retire the touring version of the band. Apparently he wants to explore other opportunities to produce other bands. Can't say I blame him, but I'll be sad to see this project fall by the wayside. I can't imagine that we won't be hearing new music from Murphy in one form or another. Finally, legendary British doom metal band Cathedral announced that they will be disbanding after releasing one final album in 2012. Considering that they've been around for over 20 years and released more than one essential doom record, this one is a little easier to swallow.
Great news today though, Electrelane are back:
"This summer we're going to play some festivals, including Field Day in London, and a few gigs. We're still confirming everything, so will be announcing dates soon. It's very exciting for us to be playing together again after more than three years, and we're just sorry that we won't be able to make it to the US this time. At the moment our plan is just to play live this summer, so we hope to see you!"
Shame about that "no US this time" though!
Jan 18, 2010
np: "Sister Jack" - Spoon
I sit here on the eve of the release of Spoon's seventh(!) full-length album, Transference, and I am slowly starting to solidify a thought that has been bouncing around my head over the past several years - Spoon may have quietly become one of my favorite bands of the last decade. I say quietly because it has been a long, slow time getting to this point. I discovered them, as I suspect quite a few people have, through Kill the Moonlight before going back and absorbing the much-lauded Girls Can Tell and A Series of Sneaks. But moving forward, I don't recall ever being especially excited for a new Spoon release, at least nowhere near the levels of anticipation I would reach for, say, a new Radiohead or Pavement record. I did, however, pick up both Gimme Fiction and Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga on the first week of release and each wound up being played over and over again on my iPod for weeks. It was almost like I was taking them for granted, "oh another great Spoon album". It took another year or so for me to realize that every single time one of their songs came up on shuffle I took note and ended up playing its parent album. And every damn time I was thrilled that I had done so. In my mind, that says a lot about the quality of a band. So here's to tomorrow and getting to hear "another great Spoon album".
I sit here on the eve of the release of Spoon's seventh(!) full-length album, Transference, and I am slowly starting to solidify a thought that has been bouncing around my head over the past several years - Spoon may have quietly become one of my favorite bands of the last decade. I say quietly because it has been a long, slow time getting to this point. I discovered them, as I suspect quite a few people have, through Kill the Moonlight before going back and absorbing the much-lauded Girls Can Tell and A Series of Sneaks. But moving forward, I don't recall ever being especially excited for a new Spoon release, at least nowhere near the levels of anticipation I would reach for, say, a new Radiohead or Pavement record. I did, however, pick up both Gimme Fiction and Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga on the first week of release and each wound up being played over and over again on my iPod for weeks. It was almost like I was taking them for granted, "oh another great Spoon album". It took another year or so for me to realize that every single time one of their songs came up on shuffle I took note and ended up playing its parent album. And every damn time I was thrilled that I had done so. In my mind, that says a lot about the quality of a band. So here's to tomorrow and getting to hear "another great Spoon album".
Dec 1, 2009
np: "Standby" - BLK JKS
Before we head into a digression into one of my other passions, a quick note about this now playing track. BLK JKS are a South African band that have their own take on progressive rock that has really thrilled me throughout the year. They are a difficult band to pin down, but for my money these guys are pretty damn prog - between the wicked guitar solos and the multi-part shifts in tone. But they seem to be divisive - I've seen them compared favorably to Radiohead and negatively to Mars Volta. I love both those bands, thought I don't particularly hear either of them in here. Here's a video of the band performing this particular track in Florida just a few months ago:
Now onto the main reason for tonight's post, a diversion into the world of architecture. As you may have noticed in previous posts, I have more than a passing interest in architecture. At least enough of an interest to get two degrees and work for nine years in the field (at least until my layoff thanks to the current recession). So why not an architecture blog? Mainly because I find architecture much more difficult to write about. I have a hard time getting my thoughts into words and sentences, so it'd probably end up a blog full of photos. Which would be great to look at, but ultimately kind of lazy and it wouldn't allow me to flex my writing muscles - such as they are.
An ongoing interest of mine is the absolutely insane fantasy world that is Dubai. By now you are probably familiar with the beyond ridiculous money that had been thrown into making the city an elite destination for the rich and disgustingly wealthy that makes Las Vegas look like a ghost town by comparison. I find the whole situation fascinating on so many levels.
1. In terms of architecture, the Dubai boom has just been absolutely insane as the sheiks try to outdo and outbuild each other. Burj Dubai, Burj Al Arab, Emirates Towers, Dubai Financial Center, The Mall of the Emirates... I could go on and on. Each new project reveals unheralded levels of design and engineering marvels. From a professional standpoint, this is just thrilling to watch.
2. On the sadder side of the situation, it cannot be ignored that much of this wealth and fantasy is being built on the backs of what can really only be called slave labor. The shocking juxtaposition of the squalid living conditions of the workers "living" just outside the wealth and glitz of the city is impossible to describe in mere words.
3. The sheer chutzpah of these developers is astounding. I mean, really, a map of the world made out of private islands for the super elite? An indoor ski slope in the desert? Wow.
4. With the global economic crisis it has been fascinating to see the city crumble around itself, even as more audacious projects launch (the Louvre Abu Dubai comes to mind). As debt climbs and incomes drop, the European wealthy that flocked to Dubai are leaving in droves, sometimes in such a hurry that they abandon luxury cars in the airport parking lots. On one hand the city continues to reach for the sky, while large swaths are being ignored and left to decay. Another fascinating juxtaposition.
Which all brings me to a wonderful photo essay that recently appeared in the New York Times, which I suggest you spend some time with. It touches on all of the fascinating aspects of Dubai without ignoring the ugliness behind the glamour. It will be very interesting to see what becomes of this city as the rest of the world continues to wake up from the heady over extension of the last decade.
Before we head into a digression into one of my other passions, a quick note about this now playing track. BLK JKS are a South African band that have their own take on progressive rock that has really thrilled me throughout the year. They are a difficult band to pin down, but for my money these guys are pretty damn prog - between the wicked guitar solos and the multi-part shifts in tone. But they seem to be divisive - I've seen them compared favorably to Radiohead and negatively to Mars Volta. I love both those bands, thought I don't particularly hear either of them in here. Here's a video of the band performing this particular track in Florida just a few months ago:
Now onto the main reason for tonight's post, a diversion into the world of architecture. As you may have noticed in previous posts, I have more than a passing interest in architecture. At least enough of an interest to get two degrees and work for nine years in the field (at least until my layoff thanks to the current recession). So why not an architecture blog? Mainly because I find architecture much more difficult to write about. I have a hard time getting my thoughts into words and sentences, so it'd probably end up a blog full of photos. Which would be great to look at, but ultimately kind of lazy and it wouldn't allow me to flex my writing muscles - such as they are.
An ongoing interest of mine is the absolutely insane fantasy world that is Dubai. By now you are probably familiar with the beyond ridiculous money that had been thrown into making the city an elite destination for the rich and disgustingly wealthy that makes Las Vegas look like a ghost town by comparison. I find the whole situation fascinating on so many levels.
1. In terms of architecture, the Dubai boom has just been absolutely insane as the sheiks try to outdo and outbuild each other. Burj Dubai, Burj Al Arab, Emirates Towers, Dubai Financial Center, The Mall of the Emirates... I could go on and on. Each new project reveals unheralded levels of design and engineering marvels. From a professional standpoint, this is just thrilling to watch.
2. On the sadder side of the situation, it cannot be ignored that much of this wealth and fantasy is being built on the backs of what can really only be called slave labor. The shocking juxtaposition of the squalid living conditions of the workers "living" just outside the wealth and glitz of the city is impossible to describe in mere words.
3. The sheer chutzpah of these developers is astounding. I mean, really, a map of the world made out of private islands for the super elite? An indoor ski slope in the desert? Wow.
4. With the global economic crisis it has been fascinating to see the city crumble around itself, even as more audacious projects launch (the Louvre Abu Dubai comes to mind). As debt climbs and incomes drop, the European wealthy that flocked to Dubai are leaving in droves, sometimes in such a hurry that they abandon luxury cars in the airport parking lots. On one hand the city continues to reach for the sky, while large swaths are being ignored and left to decay. Another fascinating juxtaposition.
Which all brings me to a wonderful photo essay that recently appeared in the New York Times, which I suggest you spend some time with. It touches on all of the fascinating aspects of Dubai without ignoring the ugliness behind the glamour. It will be very interesting to see what becomes of this city as the rest of the world continues to wake up from the heady over extension of the last decade.
