27 posts tagged “music”

Dear Xavier,

I'm sure you've neglected to notice that it has been a long time since I've publicly fawned over you. One could say that you and Justice were my summer romance of 2007, lingering long into the autumn months but eventually falling flat as winter came and went. I might as well admit that the raining sweat of scenesters and raver kids from your MySpace concert more or less washed any remaining sentiments of affection.

Nevertheless, I felt the need to write this note to you since recently you've been acting up the part of the obnoxious ex-boyfriend, what with your irrational and non-explanatory motions of whoring yourself out while trying to maintain that cool, composed, aura of a skinny jeaned deity. This is heavily pronounced by your newly released music video for the track Stress, which has caused much astir within the French community (as revealed to me by one hungry frenchman) and Justice fans alike. For context, I've provided the video below:

To start, I'll plain admit that Stress is my least favorite track on †, but I still have a lot of questions. How do you feel after watching that video, Xavier? Do you feel dignified that your video encapsulates a set of Justice flavored miscreants that truly define the 'edgier', converse-wearing, side of electronica? I'm sure their acts of chaotic, nonsensical chic-violence will truly define the real fans from the lesser strata of MySpace buffoons in a heart beat, while simultaneously convincing the confused parties to go ahead and purchase the conveniently 'Now for Sale!' Justice leather jacket with matching jeans.

All a matter of opinion, of course, but here are two tips that I think you should focus on:

1. Stop making shitty music videos for the sake of hype. (Your last two were fantastic, so find another way to express yourself cathartically)

2. Start making music. (Touring is no excuse. You need a new album. Pronto.)
 
I was going to include a third tip that involved you halting your habits of making out with cute french hipster ladies instead of me, but I've grown beyond such lofty dreams. I'll give you some points for clever employment of your group's name to the extent that you have crowds of fans chanting 'Justice! Justice!' during your concert, but if modern calls for 'Justice' elicit rather blazé acts of unmotivated violence, please count me out. For the sake of comparison, see Nima Nourizadeh's video for Jamie T.'s song Salvador Version 2(go here and click on the thumbnail under Music Videos with the skull-faced children in front of the fire) So, until that next album...

Bon voyage!
<3 .tiff

It's a beautiful thing when one thing leads to another.

Although Chico had sent me a mix he was working on of Santogold's L.E.S. Artistes (xxxchange remix) with LCD Soundsystem a few days ago, it wasn't until Danny's discovery of Badical Music that I encountered the L.E.S. Artistes music video. As if Santogold couldn't stand on her own two feet alone with her music, the video directed by Nima Nourizadeh visually compliments the strength and power of her song through a playfully visceral assemblage of images and actions.

After being completely blown away I naturally moved along from link to link until I discovered Nourizadeh's other work on this website, videos which were equally as exciting and compelling as the first. Mark Ronson and Lily Allen's song Oh My God is undeniably catchy, but the video adds a remarkable level of coy charm through a modern interpretation of the Jessica Rabbit scene from Who's Framed Roger Rabbit. Awesome, right?

Francz V remarked that the Hot Chip video for Ready For The Floor is 'very Devo'. Coming to terms with my generation and truly, honestly, not really knowing what 'very Devo' means, I'm just going to assume it translates to 'wickedly radsauce modern performance piece to wacky electro music'. Enjoy!

I could easily hesitate to post videos that have a 'date uploaded' stamp from a year ago with an anticipated fear of the obligatory 'old video is old' comment, but since I didn't experience all the glory that is this trailer until Ben gracefully IMed me the link, there is a good chance that there are other web-n00bs out there who are in the same boat. Thus, I will carry on the hilarity and present to the untouched all that is Italian Spiderman. He may be everything you expected him to be, but there is a more likely chance that he's not. Be sure to watch all the way through for the GOBLIN and SUSPENSO acts.

PS: The YouTube description had a handy link to a great Italian music blog that posts fun-derful surf/latin/boogie down music for toe-twisting dance fiends such as myself.  Furthermore, I've found great comfort in adopting the first three lines of lyrics in The Crib's song I'm a Realist as a relatively accurate quotation of my <3-related affairs. I've provided the Postal Service remix of said song since the radio-edit of the original version doesn't really get the entire point across.

With my gang of resident nerdfolk in tow (Jared, Hamza, Ben, Matt, Andrew, and born-again nerd Kat), yesterday evening I made it out to the Micromusic SF Launch party at Mighty. Micromusic.net, self described as "low tech music for high tech people", is a chiptunes collective supporting music and performances worldwide. With hope, the concert last night was the beginning of what could be the beginning of a San Francisco chiptunes presence.

The performance included a hefty handful of artists, each uniquely devising the color of their work with loving limitations given the use of such devices as Gameboys or the classic NES to compose their tracks. We caught the full set list of Trash80's fantastic debut appearance in SF, as well as the following acts by the renowned Nullsleep and Chibi-Tech which were equally as great.
My posse was in full-fledged dance mode for the entire concert. While the crowd was not as overwhelming as the scene found at Blipfest, the energy was still vibrant and masterfully orchestrated by the artists who played.

Rather than assigning music to a particular person, place, or event, I have a more frequent tendency to seasonally associate my favorite songs. Beloved lyrics and harmonies pull together a resounding memento of particular atmospheric quality at their best moments, and despite how 'favorite' a song can be sometimes it just doesn't sound as good when played in the wrong season.

My growing collective of what I'd consider winter songs are tracks that are the most important to me. Winter is by far one of my most favorite times of year and the songs of the season I enjoy the most are ones that manage to color the quietude of stormy grays and snowy shadows outside. Here's just a sampling of songs I've managed to upload to my Vox, some new and some old.

The Repudiated Immortals - Of Montreal
Teardrop (Massive Attack Cover) - José González
20 Years of Snow - Regina Spektor
Wolves in the Garden - The Deadly Syndrome
In Space - Royksopp
On a Neck On a Spit - Grizzly Bear
Elephant Gun - Beirut

What are your winter songs?

Let the power of savvy musical friends combine! My SF socialite senses are a-tinglin' in anticipation of the grab bag of awesome shows I'll be attending in the upcoming months. This is the first of my many attempts to inject the city into the .tiff and to inject the .tiff into the city.

As usual I owe great thanks to my friendly local scenesters Victor, ee.en, et al. for bringing my attention to such rich musical opportunities to pursue. I only wish ee.en could make it out for the Micromusic SF show ;_; as his company will be sorely missed. Here's a summary of my show list, with a little snippet of what I'm seeing this Thursday!

January 17
Dan Deacon @ The Great American Music Hall

When I was tossing out research references for the hipster party, I made the grave mistake of forgetting to mention the likes of Dan Deacon (he's the gentleman in the Goofy shirt). I had the pleasure of freshly encountering his music when he opened for Girl Talk at the Filmore back in September and have yet to have more fun getting caught up in a pulsing, jumping, clusterf**** of hipsters since. His performance titled Ultimate Reality sounds like quite the scene with a description like this:

It combines an intense musical composition for electronics and drums with a psychedelic montage of Arnold Schwarzenegger films that is projected at a monumental scale.

Songs to chime into: The Crystal Cat, Wham City Part 1 of 2, and Big Milk

Photos from the last show:

January 18
Purple Yam Café (and ELEMENOP) @ The Elbo Room

January 22
Mirah and The Blow @  The Great American Music Hall

February 7
Micromusic SF HQ Launch Party @ Underground SF
Featuring: Trash80, Nullsleep, Starpause, A_Rival, X|K, Chibi-Tech, Tumlt

For the record this show is the one I'm the most excited about! After getting a taste of the chiptune scene from my trip to NYC for Blipfest '07, I'm absolutely thrilled to see the starts of a small collective on the west coast and especially right in my town! Nullsleep is one of the artists at the forefront of the chiptune movement, a friend of a friend, and a master at his work.  Not sure if the fancy pixel-licious light board will be a part of this show, but it should be a great couple of sets for sure.

I'm pretty sure seeing Diplo on New Years Eve will probably not be anything remotely similar to Matthew Wilder's performance of Break My Stride on VH1. Then again, I will be disappointed if I don't see an attendee or two wearing something sequined/shiny/spandexey like his back up dancers, and I can only hope that I'll say goodbye to 2007 on with the same cheerful high I get after listening to this song.

 

It's been a rare and recent exception that I've reveled in music that features a female vocalist. Maybe I've been largely impacted by the age when I began to craft my standards, an era of female cohorts warbling out Alanis Morisette, Spice Girls, and Aqua's Barbie Girl while I sat disoriented and lost in a sea of Big Willie Styles. One way or another, I'll proudly exclaim that my tastes have improved given the gracious recommendations of friends and with that I'm excited to say that The Bird and The Bee, the artists responsible for Polite Dance Song, are excellent and worth picking up.

I present to you the "Polite Dance Song" by The Bird and the Bee. Music Video directed by Eric Warheim of the Tim and Eric Awesome Show Great Job. Mis compadres know I'm a die-hard fan of the Tim and Eric duo of saucesome, so upon the release of this particular video my pal Rocco knew to send it my way. The delightfully awkward and indecorous senior dance show meets the demure delivery of The Bird and the Bee. I simply had to share.