For all of your Halloween party / waiting for trick-or-treaters / quiet evening at home with zombie movie needs: the latest from NTSIB favorites Blackwater Jukebox. I suggest you download it – it’s free! – and then crank it up.
Some of my favorites include Black Rain, from the Restricted Archives of the Smithsonian:
And also Harvest Tarantella from the Sicilian highlands:
This video for When the Sun Sets by The Mouth of Ghosts is not a Halloween themed video – sp00ky band name aside – but it is a vehicle for a song that is a shimmery, delicate fusion of trip-hop and rock.
It’s beautiful and soothing and delicious, and you should check it out.
Gothic Christmas has (probably) been rained out for me this year – I’m writing this as Hurricane Sandy rolls over Manhattan – but I’ve been staying in the holiday spirit by listening to this mixtape from Citóg, a record label/ independent collective from the west of Ireland.
Milan Jay, scrappy little band of my heart, contributed a track called Mask Up (The Ballad of Michael Meyers) which I am sharing below, but the rest of the compilation is also excellent.
This show was part pilgrimage, because I had never seen Fiona Apple play live before, and part penance, for largely the same reason.
The show started with music from her band, led by Blake Mills, who sang some of his delicately lovely pop songs and put on something of a master class in the fine art of the electric guitar:
Here is what I learned, about Fiona Apple‘s shows: every single one of them is a cage match between the spirit of rock n’ roll and her demons. She does not so much sing a song as conduct a jazz cabaret-inflected exorcism.
It’s incredible and intense; I actually spent several long stretches standing mostly still, eyes closed, just letting the chords bounce and crash around my head while her voice – her big, brazen, smokey, flexible, magnificent voice – washed over me.
I am, as usual, completely useless with things like set lists. I recognized several from The Idler Wheel, including Every Single Night, Daredevil, Anything We Want, Left Alone and Fast As You Can, but what really defined the evening for me was the song she didn’t play: Criminal.
I heard some people near me calling out for it, and they were doubtless disappointed when it was not forthcoming. I, on the other hand, was both relieved and pleased. It’s not that I hate the song. It’s that watching the video she made for it – the raw misery on her face – makes me feel sick and sad and wish I had a time machine so I could go back and pull her out and away and give her a blanket and a warm beverage.
And this might be faulty logic, but on some level, its absence from the set list suggests to me that there is at least one demon she’s beaten and one battle she no longer has to fight. That, and the secret triumphant smile she flashed at us as the last notes faded into the woodwork, were the true highlights of the night.
There is really nothing that gets my attention like an email encouraging me to watch a video containing puppet fornication. That kind of thing is my Kryptonite.
The video is the first of nine which the band intends to make and features puppets and set design by Kori Pop and horses by Amber Edgar. It mixes puppetry with delicately lovely animation and is truly a work of art. It’s also not safe for work OR small children.
The song is Hey! is For Horses, and it is from SEESAW, by The Rest. SEESAW is the Record That Almost Wasn’t – everything that could go wrong, did – but happily for all of us, it is also The Little Record That Could, and has made it to the light of day.
The last time I wrote about The Rest, I described one of their songs as a “bubblebath of noise” which is still the best description I can give you for their sound.
The only thing I would add is that they have the ability to be bouncy and poppy, and also to roar and soar within the same song, like a great dragon opening his wings and lungs to express his love to his beloved.
The last time Johnny Hallyday played a show in New York was in 1962. He was on a cruise ship (!) and Jackie Kennedy (!!) was in the audience.
This time around he was on dry land and I don’t know if there were any luminaries lurking in the Beacon or not. Probably, I guess; New York is that kind of town.
I was there because I’ve been conducting some extremely idle and non-scientific research on the subject French rock and roll, from which I learned that Hallyday is France’s equivalent / answer to to Elvis Presley, and I wanted to see what he was all about.
The show began with some dramatic images, such as this one:
Not long after I took that picture the wall in the middle crumbled dramatically and unleashed flames and flying skulls.
Then Johnny Hallyday walked out on stage:
I (still) don’t speak all that much French, so his song introductions and stage banter went completely over my head, but in rock concerts as with Mass, some things are universal and you can get by pretty well taking cues from your neighbors.
Most of my neighbors wanted to get up and boogie, which is kind of difficult in the Beacon. But we shook a tailfeather or two anyway.
About half-way through the show Hallyday switched gears, going from rock to rockabilly:
In addition to his own tunes Hallyday also did some classic rock covers. I definitely recognized Fortunate Son – which lost a crucial bit of snarl in the translation from English to French – and also Great Balls of Fire.
It was, overall, a fantastic show.
Once again I went to a show having not heard a note of anyone’s music beforehand. What can I say, sometimes I like to live dangerously. Plus the show was part of my friend’s birthday party, and since she has generally excellent taste in music I was willing to bet it would be a good night. Spoiler alert: I was right!
Jenny Owen Youngs was up first, by herself with her guitar. She was at the opposite end of the stage from me, so the pictures are kind of awkward. But here’s one anyway:
Instead they unleashed a whirlwind of bluegrass-inflected punk rock that was one of the finest musical experiences I’ve ever had. Here they are in action:
The crowd started jumping and singing with him as soon as he started to play, and while I did enjoy the music, it was also a pleasure to be around people that were that happy.
Other highlights:
1) The moment in the middle of the set the room went silent, or as silent as Webster Hall can be when it is full to bursting, while he sang Tell Tale Signs.
It’s new(ish), the third song in a trilogy, and its about love, and also about scars. It is raw and beautiful and left me a little bit breathless and almost kind of alarmed, like I had read something intensely personal that had accidentally been made public.
2) The end, when he closed down the main set with Photosynthesis. That one is a song about getting old and tired and the ways in which the world can pull you down, but also about resisting that drag.
The chorus is I will not sit down and I will not shut up / and most of all I will not grow up, and hearing a packed house sing those words at the top of their lungs was a kick in the pants that I very much needed.
And now, some pictures from the set:
Today in the category of Songs I Have Been Listening To Somewhat Obsessively, I present World’s End, by Army Navy.
It is the first single from their third record, which is scheduled to released into the wild early next year. I am hoping that by “early next year” they mean “January 1” (it is a Tuesday!) because I am pants-afire to hear the rest of the songs.
The video below is directed by Mark Schoenecker, and stars Martin Starr (Freaks and Geeks, Party Down) as the creeptastic Chester Felt and Camille Cregan (The Trivial Pursuits of Arthur Banks) as the object of his affections:
And for the b-side, they did a cover of Yaz’s Only You, which is pretty great too:
Only You (Yaz Cover) by Army Navy
Finally, their fall tour starts tonight (9/26) in Los Angeles, at the Troubador. Check their listings and get out to see them if you can!
I’ve been kind of hibernating this month – getting used to the idea of having free time in the evenings is apparently a bit of a challenge for me – so my musical choices have been mellow.
Today I’d like to share Perfect Blue by Emma, which is the aural equivalent of a hot bubblebath and a big glass of wine:
Perfect Blue by Emma music
Emma is: Neil E Curtis, Luke Gregory, Will Moseley and Charlie Rusbridger; they are from North London; and you can listen to more of their tunes at their Soundcloud page.
Now with a recording of the actual song!
Mysterysong by jenNTSIB
Anyone recognize it now?
