Wednesday, October 28, 2009

Featured Artist: Yeasayer


Yeasayer

Yeasayer is yet another Brooklyn based band that hit the scene back in 2007 with their phenomenal debut album All Hours Cymbals. They describe their music as "Middle Eastern-psych-snap-gospel", which is an awesome genre if I must say. Of course they are the only band I know of that labels their music that way. This may be why they are so damn original. I mean, I cannot figure out another band that influenced them or even sounds like them. The band was originally formed of four Brooklynites - Anand Wilder, Chris Keating, Ira Wolf Tuton, and Luke Fasano. However, since their debut Fasano has left the band. The three Yeasayers continue to tour and the reason I am promoting them now is because they recently announced they will be releasing their sophomore album entitled Odd Blood in February. To be honest I am pumped because these guys are so creative and so talented I could see them blowing people out of the water with this album. I don't want to give it so much hype that it leads to disappointment, but I have to be honest, this could be a mind-blowing album based on the direction they are supposedly taking. Also, the boys contributed to this year's highly successful Dark Was The Night compilation album. Anyways, before February gets here I recommend you listen to All Hours Cymbals on loop a few times through to pre-blow your mind. Just one last thing, Yeasayer preformed a few songs acapella on the French Metro in February 2008 and was filmed by Vincent Moon, who has done take-away videos for Sigur Ros, R.E.M., and Arcade Fire. The link is below.

Yeasayer Acapella Show -
http://www.blogotheque.net/Yeasayer,3966

Songs to Check Out:
-Germs
-Wait For The Summer
-Sunrise
-2080



Friday, October 16, 2009

Review Session: Where The Wild Things Are


Where The Wild Things Are

This film came out today and I am already seeing tons of reviews that are as usual highly biased and mostly polarized. Some people are saying that WTWTA is masterpiece and others are saying how terrible and unrealistic it is. DON'T LISTEN TO ANY OF IT! Go see this film simply to make your own opinion and judge it on your experience not someone else's. With that said I am gonna tell you what my experience was like, but you don't have to listen to if you don't want to. The film is an adaptation of Maurice Sendak's classic book in which Max is set to bed without dinner and in turn runs away and creates an imaginary land where Wild Things roam free and claim Max as their king.
The director and co-writer Spike Jonze recently told Time Out, “I didn’t set out to make a children’s film - I set out to make a film about childhood.” Honestly, that's how I've always felt about the book, because it shows children how they are similar to adults and it shows adults how they are similar to children. I mean that through out the film Max (Max Records) consistently runs into issues that adults face when he is his imaginary world and how he faces issues that children face while in the real world. Early in the film when Max is playing in his snow-covered yard and hanging around the house we see him exhibit manic changes in his emotions which children often do. He has trouble controlling his imagination as his protective "igloo" is destroyed by his sister's friend and he chases his dog around the house with, if I remember correctly, a fork. This are child like behaviors that adults don't have anymore, but we are reminded that kids are innocent and sensitive.
Once Max makes his journey across the sea to his make believe land he meets the Wild Things, and they crown him as their king after Max begs not to be eaten because he tells them he has many special powers. After meeting the Wild Things, Max takes on characteristics that usually an adult would exhibit. He must make rational choices to lead the Wild Things and to make sure that everyone is happy as he tells them he has a "sadness shield" that keeps sadness away. The Wild Things, both monstrous and human, take on the characteristics of a child, as they throw temper tantrums, express their neediness and physically rough-house each other. In his imaginary world Max now sees childhood instead of experiencing it . WTWTA is an escape from reality and in it Jonze may be saying that an adult's escape may lead them to find their childish roots, but a child escapes to a world they can only imagine - adulthood.
Where The Wild Things Are indeed lives up to its billing if and only if you accept it for what it really is, an innovative description of the inner workings of a child's mind as he figures out the turmoil of life through his imagination. The relationships between Max and Carol (James Gandolfini) and the other Wild Things so perfectly serves as a mirror for all the turbulation and doubt and longing Max feels. The journey into Max's psyche and his realization of how to handle things unfolds very delicately - so much that you almost don't realize it's happening. One moment, you're on a fun adventure to a land of freedom and fun; the next, you're processing all the symbolism that you've seen throughout the film.
The voices are selected and executed exquisitely by such actors as James Gandolfini, Paul Dano, Forest Whitaker, Catherine O'Hara, and Chis Cooper. The cinematography is superbly done as it adds rather than subtracts from the film. The Wild Thing costumes are truly perfection as the are dead on from the book. Spike Jonze's direction is purposeful, meaningful, and extracts from the story the raw emotion and true meaning that I believe Maurice Sendak does in the book. The lone issues I see with the film are its real lack of a substance-filled plot line, and a good portrayal of how truly wild the Wild Things are. In the book they are chaos-driven creatures searching for a leader, but I do not see this so much in the film. They seem to have asome order to them before Max arrives. However, Where The Wild Things is lovable, fantastical and a great experience for those with an open heart and a wild imagination.

Rating = 8.3

Wednesday, October 14, 2009

Review Session: The Flaming Lips' Embryonic

Review Session is a new segment I am bringing to this critically acclaimed blog in which I will be reviewing albums and films that I deem worthy. I will also be scoring the review on a scale from 1 to 10.


Embryonic by The Flaming Lips

Wayne Coyne recently said on The Colbert Report, "I would accept weird as a compliment." Being a hug fan of him and his band I can truly believe that he does accept weird as a compliment. I bring this up because, well, Embryonic is straight up weird. Just look at the album cover pictured above. I mean weird to be a massive compliment in this situation. Their last two albums At War With the Mystics and Yoshmi Battles the Pink Robots, have been weird in there own little way, but not the usually Flaming Lips definition of "weird". Embryonic is dark, intense, and most definitely Flaming Lips "weird"! This album creates epic waves of sound that wash over the listener's brain leaving it highly stimulated and immensely satisfied. The album embarks on a journey based on the ebb and flow of intense psych-rock influenced songs and soft-natured whimsical tracks. The purpose of the album is direct. The Flaming Lips intend to once again re-direct their music into a different direction, which is back to their roots. Embryonic reminds me a little of their 1990 album In a Priest Driven Ambulance, which brings the same persona of damp freakiness. In Embryonic Wayne Coyne's voice has never been more soft, yet his words have never been more potent. In the opening track "Convinced of the Hex" Coyne sings in a monotone voice, "she said I like your theory, but it won't past no tests". In this line Coyne states the albums theme in that the world is full of ideas and theories, but do they make sense? Do they fit in our world? Coyne has never been one short of words, but in Embryonic he makes his lyrics count. The Flaming Lips have once again hit the nail on the head, but with Embryonic they have achieved a level of musical genius they haven't had in a decade.

Rating = 9.4




Thursday, October 8, 2009

Video: Modest Mouse:

Amazing video from Modest Mouse for "The Whale Song". One of the best music videos in years, but then again this could be said of all Modest Mouse videos.

Video: Modest Mouse: "Whale Song"

Shared via AddThis

Here's a Modest Mouse Video Playlist from Pitchfork

Friday, October 2, 2009

Featured Artist: The xx

The xx

The xx are an English indie-pop quartet from South London. The band is made up of four 20 year-old mates who met while in school. Romy Madley Croft is on guitar and vocals, Oliver Sim is on vocals and bass, Baria Qureshi on guitar, and Jamie Smith on drum machine. Yes, drum machine not a drum set. This band does things they way they want to do them. Like, they produced the whole album by themselves. Croft and Sim share the responsibility of lead singer as they twist and tie their words together. They look like a bunch of emo kids that you would see hanging out behind the Quickie Mart, smoking cigerettes instead of being in school. However, they are hugely influenced by R&B and do a great cover of Aalyiah's "Hot Like Fire". The most obvious and ever-present theme in their music is sex. Almost ever line on the album has something to do with sex, but in a pretty tasteful way. The xx are gaining so much respect overseas and their debut album, xx, arrives in the states soon. This album is amazing and is, at least to me, competing to for top album of 2009.

Songs to Check Out:
- Crystalized
- Islands
- Basic Space
- Heart Skips A Beat