TITANIC VANDALISM!

i'm a little boring with my life these days, but at least my music still isn't boring, maybe a little bit "2006" but that's fine.
I just really needed to mention The Go! Team. I heard about this band in early 2006 because a friend of mine had introduced me to a pretty good band (the Avalanches, good, but not good enough to mention too much right now), and after I had expressed interest he told me that he liked the Avalanches last week, but that The Go! Team was way better. Just an opinion from a friend, but it was so dead on. Listening to this band, they include any instrument you can imagine. The recordings aren't the highest quality that I've ever heard, but musically, as a rock/dance band, they're so fun, and so talented, SO complex?
So maybe May 2006, i saw this band live at a small venue in DC...it was awesome. Part of the awesomeness had to do with the awesome crowd of indie kids (mostly boys?) who showed up and danced and rocked out in the crowd (combined with a small space it was so much energy), but the band itself....Imagine a little british girl in neon attire dancing around two full drum sets, and a full band, then they pull out recorders, bells, harmonica, melodica, banjo -- it's just incredible to watch. So much energy.
BEST DESCRIBED: "a mixture of action theme songs, cheerleader chants, guitars and early hip hop, with a hint of '70s funk."

"Grip it Like Vice"


"Bottle Rocket" live! such a good display. go ninja, go

Andrew Bird!

About a year ago, I was perusing the a few sites and listening to Ani Difranco (an incredible musical talent who should not go unmentioned...but will have to wait until later or never or who knows....) So, I decided that I would check out the artists who she currently has signed to her record label (Righteous Babe Records). So I stumbled upon an intriguing album title, "Andrew Bird and The Mysterious Production of Eggs" so I appropriately aquired this album, I had to hear it. I thought, "Okay this is good." So I made sure to check out several of his other albums, including the 2007 release of "Armchair Apocrypha" which is almost as good as the 2005 album signed to Righteous Babe Records (Bird is now signed with Fat Possum Records). He also used to contribute to the Squirrel Nut Zippers.
So I had these albums and I would listen to them, my personal favorites being "measuring cups", "opposite day", "fake palindromes", "imitosis", and "a nervous tic motion of the head to the left" and I would think to myself that his music was good, but I don't understand what makes it so special...
...Until I saw him live at Virgin Mobile Festival in Baltimore. Oh my gosh, I should have researched this artist first! This beautiful music i was listening to is more or less a solo project. Andrew Bird is well versed in guitar, violin, mandolin, glockenspiel, and whistling.
Like I said earlier, I was in high school concert band, so I played flute, I am not a musician, so I wish someone could explain to me the technique, but Andrew Bird records his tracks and loops them for periods of time. So plucking the violin (he plays his violin like a guitar it's incredible!) will loop while Andrew Bird is in fact bowing). Feist uses the same technique at her live shows (songs such as "Honey Honey"), it's INCREDIBLE to watch. So where Kanye West and Bob Dylan were both overproduced and overrated (well what did i expect?), Andrew Bird was well was the whatever large sum of money that I paid to attend Virgin Festival.

Please watch these videos. Seriously. The Sound quality in the live videos are not the best, but you really need an idea of what his live shows are like. Absolutely fantastic, even if the crowd was not especially enthusiastic! I am in love with this man, what can I say?

Opposite Day Live All Points West (liberty state park, NJ) -- this video, shows how he loops his tracks, you can see him doing it with foot pedals in front of him) the sound is sort of miserable on this recording because the bass is too high



Fake Palindromes Live -- just a good example of his stage presence


just because Andrew Bird is nice to look at, the "imitosis" music video

Fleet Foxes....

So, Fleet Foxes, I don't know an especially large amount of information about this band. I stumbled across this band today. Seattle based, just to show you that the 90s are over and Seattle is good for more than just grunge. The album was released in June of this year and is just incredible. I have acquired a decent amount of music over the past four years, and I am not usually able to sit through an entire album upon first exposure to an artist (I have a very short attention span). I actually tried to stop listening to this album, and I couldn't pull myself away.

I will definitely try to include a video, or at least a youtube track, or live performance in the only legal way that I know to do so, because what's the fun of reading about an artist if you can't listen along?
The band consists Robin Pecknold, Skyler Skjelset, Casey Wescott, Christian Wargo, and Josh Tillman, although the track that this video features, is a solo performance by the very homeless looking front man, Robin Recknold.

Let's be Honest.....

....I don't know anything about life, or music for that matter. I do know that I am obsessed with any kind of noise that comes out of a speaker. I do know that I am a different person today than I was yesterday or the day before. I also know that my tastes in music change daily....but even if I no longer listen to the same music that i enjoyed in 1997, I still get enjoyment from those albums on the rare occasion that I pull them up on iTunes, or they are played on the radio. I wish I had better documented my hobby, because as much as I would like to be a talented musician I am nothing but a second rate, out of practice flautist (what am i going to do, start hanging out with Jethro Tull??) So, I decided, that I needed something to show for the hours that I spend reading internet blogs and listening to MP3's.
I doubt any one will ever read this except myself. I might not even keep this up, but as I've discovered, no one actually cares about the performers that I'm currently excited about, except myself.
Hopefully I won't read this later and think, "my God, i sound pretentious."