Hey, look, I made this!
There once was a boy.
A boy with a dream.
That dream was to one day run a music blog.
It was the only dream worth dreaming. It was his everything.
But then, one foggy morn’, that dream died. No longer was the boy entranced by those meaningless factoids, the pretension, all the glitz, the glammer, the rayban sunglasses.
Instead, he wished to tear that world apart, to reveal the hollow void that had eclipsed his very fantasy. With the right tools, he would bring out the truth. He would show them all.
He would do it with Fit For Treasons. ENJOY CAREFULLY.
Welcome to the real world.
Just received this lovely image in my inbox, would have appreciated if the album artwork was this well designed:
Look at his work and try not to jizz.
In chronological order. Small write-ups to come:
Artist – Venue
Mr. Heavenly – bat bar
Braids – red 7 patio
Jessica Lea Mayfield – swan dive
John Vanderslice – red eyed fly
O Death – red eyes fly
Dodos – red eyed fly
Mark Eitzel – red eyed fly
Yuck – stubb’s
James Blake – Stubb’s
Smith Westerns – Stubb’s
Sam Amidon – Swan Dive
Sharon Van Etten – Swan Dive
Okkervill River – Red 7
Lord huron – east side drive-in
Lower Dens – east side drive-in
Weekend – east side drive-in
Wild Flag – the parish
Joy Formidable – the parish
Antlers – the parish
Menomena – swan dive
Colin Gilmore – tgi fridays
Twin Shadow – Austin shores
The Strokes – Austin shores
Dave Alvin – the dirty dog bar
Solid Gold – Mohawk
Doom Tree – Mohawk
Gayngs – Mohawk
Ty Segall – club de ville
Small Black – club de ville
Glasser – club de ville
Kurt Vile and Violators – club de ville
Deerhunter – club de ville
Toro y Moi – east side drive-in
Cass mcCoombs – east side drive-in
Owen Pallet – east side drive-in
Damien Jurado – Maggie mae’s
Tamaryn – klub krucial
Okkervil River – Antone’s
According to Netflix, people in Saratoga Springs, NY view George Carlin specials almost exclusively, in addition to . . . SLEEPERS. Great taste, Saratoga Springs. You surprise me more with each passing day.
I like ‘em. You will too if you’re into throwback 90′s alt-folk-rock fuzz. It’s basicamally Wowee Zowee Pavement meets Dinosaur Jr. with some young male-female harmonies and acoustic jamz. In other words, HAWT.
Check it at the HYPEMACHINE
Last night Okkervil River performed a new song, “Wake and Be Fine,” off of the forth coming I Am Very Far. It was loud, fast, and layered with strings, piano, dual drums (with some help from ?uest) and some horns (further courtesy of the roots). The energy was excellent and the song seems to be stronger than most of their recent stuff. Needless to say, I’m pretty excited. The May 10th release of the new album will make a great birthday present.
James Blake is really imprisoning me at the moment. The interesting thing is I know I’m not alone. It’s been a while since an artist has garnered this much hype before the release of any proper LPs. The London producer’s 2010 EPs CMYK, The Bells Sketch, Klavierwerke, and forthcoming debut LP have been on repeat for a while, and justly so. With the EPs, he’s covered a lot of electronica ground in a relatively short time. Chilling explorations through dubstep rhythms, sound collage, dancehall infused house, electro-pop, whatever you want to call it. The fuzzy, hazy, spooked out, blip-laden textures are out of this world. For good reason, the EPs alone would have been enough to tide people over for a while, and they might have, till his debut album prematurely ejaculated all over the interwebs . . .
While beat work was the primary focus on the EPs, with his debut, his vocals take center-stage atop the curious and intriguing production he’s been toying with. This is, by most standards, a soul record. One that, though almost entirely digital in nature (even the vocals are fed through digitized effects and sustained by auto-tune and enhancers), seeps with passionate emotion, from the production to the computerized pipes. In essence, Blake has done what so few computer-age tinkerers have failed at: created an immensely soulful record using techniques and approaches many might describe as cold, sterile, soul-less, and superficial. Some might say there’s little room for raw passion in the mostly-squeaky clean world of digital music, but with his uniquely organic and raw sounding process, Blake is proof enough that people might have just been doing it wrong up until now.
Listeners are comparing Blake to Bon Iver, to me a gross oversimplification that doesn’t give either respective artist enough credit. Bon Iver’s bedroom folk was infused with r&B and soul, making For Emma Forever Ago and Blood Bank gorgeous examples of seamless genre-fusion. Though Blake does a similar thing with electronic music, neither conduct a calculated synthesis. It feels and plays out as natural, mainly because it is. Bon Iver’s Vernon did take it a step toward what Blake is dealing with when he released the now popularized “Woods” (sampled on Kanye’s MBDTF), which is probably where people are thinking the two sound similar. They croon like one another to a certain extent, but I think the vocals recall Antony more than anyone else.
Comparisons and influences aside, James Blake is a must have for anybody interested in witnessing how pop music can and will continue to change, progress, and grow into something new with time. These are some new and exciting sounds. 2011 is going to be a great year.
Thoroughly enjoying the first season.
