Centre of the Concrete Square by Poeticat is another song that took a little while to grow on me.
It’s bold, vibrant, and kind of jarring, but in a distinctive and refreshing way. The best way I can think of to describe it is “slam poetry set to music.”
http://youtu.be/vMbJB4_yiho
Face front, true believers! I’m back in action! At least for the time being… As I’m on seasonal layoff from my day job through January, I’ll have enough time and brain power to contribute to the blog again, instead of just harassing you all on Twitter.
The NTSIB crew (can it be called a crew when there are just two of us?) love taking part in the Couch by Couchwest festivities every year, not least because we always manage together some new friends who also happen to be very talented. This past CXCW got us acquainted with Tony Fitz when he organized a very lovely Irish showcase.
Aside from all the behind-the-scenes work Tony does in production, recording, and sound engineering, he also makes music with his band Susie Soho. And in between everything else, he has began recording solo songs, releasing them on an as-ready basis, the first of which is “Cut Me Up”, which includes Ciaran Brady from Heritage Centre on drums, along with Jason Maher and Niall Campion on bass and guitar. Breaking my own rule of never comparing musicians, this song does slot easily beside Tony’s fellow countrymen the Frames in its laying bare the raw emotions of disappointment and anger while making you want to stomp, head bang, and fist pump to the jagged blasts of guitar and drums.
To check out Tony’s work on the technical side of things, you can listen to his production work for Red Sails on their EP We Still Build Forts, his live recordings for the Chapters, and his sound work for Homebeat.
Tony Fitz Official Website
Tony Fitz @ Twitter
Tony Fitz @ Facebook
While we’re on the subject of clearing the electronica haze out of my head (albeit briefly) there’s this awesome little piece of rock n’ roll ephemera, which I was reminded of this weekend via the magic of Soundcloud.
Also, while there seem to be a lot of Danny The Streets out there, this particular one is Gerard Way, formerly of My Chemical Romance.
Le Trouble are from Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Their debut EP, Reality Strikes, will be released into the wild this coming Tuesday (November 5), and if you like punk rock dance parties, you should pick it up.
Here are two songs from it, to serve an enticements.
I’ve been an a weird electronica haze lately. Mission Bell was the perfect high energy palate-cleanser. The burst of bracing guitar at the beginning is especially refreshing.
Real Talk (Part 2) for when you need to break up with your significant other right now. It is probably the bounciest kiss-off I’ve heard for a while.
I am not going to lie, this record – Let It Be Told, by SWF (Stevie Weinstein Foner) – really made me cranky at first.
Then after a couple of listens, it grew on me. No, not like a fungus. More like moss. Psychedelic moss.
Now I find myself queueing it up with the express purpose of wrapping it around myself like a (slightly fuzzy, perhaps faintly horse-and-patchouli-scented) aural blanket.
There are songs like Turtle Brain that have lyrics like hey turtle brain, sparrow eyes, purple haze which is both a puzzle and someone I feel like I’ve met, all at the same time:
And Warrior, for rallying the internal troops / providing a late-afternoon jolt of energy:
And also Automobile Blues, which I like because sometimes I do miss driving around listening to the radio. But it does just as well with the rumble of the uptown train as with the roar of the highway.
It’s a simple yet sublime pleasure, and just thinking about it can make you feel a little calmer, a little more content. Imagine: You bring out one of the good rocks glasses (or your favorite mug or a special occasion tea cup) and pour a couple fingers of amber liquid (or something dark and strong or just some whole milk). You drop the needle on the jazz platter (or pull up a blues album on your mp3 player or dig out that mixtape from college). Ensconcing yourself in the coziest seat in the house, you crack the spine on a classic (or find your place in that sci-fi paperback or pull up a biography on your e-book reader). And then, you go away for a while. Ah, bliss.
In this series, some of NTSIB’s friends share beloved albums, books and drinks to recommend or inspire.
I first encountered Love Crushed Velvet a couple of year ago when they were part of a Beatles on the Ukelele production in Brooklyn. One of the songs they covered was Back in the U.S.S.R.; afterwards lead singer ALX and I bonded over being among the few people in the room old enough to remember the U.S.S.R., and then I found out their original work was pretty great, too.
On a related change-of-world-order note, here is the video for Revolution Time, inspired by the Arab Spring of 2011, from their recently released EP Delusions.
!["REVOLUTION TIME" - Love Crushed Velvet [Official Music Video]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/hqtAXCltNwk/0.jpg)
When I asked ALX to be part of this series, I decided to, if not start a revolution, at least shake up the status quo a little bit, and gave him this picture of pumpkins on 34th Street as a prompt:
Here is what he sent back:
Autumn. The shortening days, the crispness in the air whispering that summer has passed. T-shirts surrender to light sweaters, leather jackets replace denim. Sneakers are put away and boots—and the attitude that they convey—give us an added bit of swagger as they shape our strut from block to New York City block. While autumn changes how we dress and feel, it also reshapes our sensibilities…in music, in drink, in literature.
Music. The day I am writing this is the day that Lou Reed passed away. The quintessential embodiment of New York rock n roll attitude, his music never felt like a part of summertime—it was the sounds of October and November that came out of the stereo when his records were being played. And today, it’s impossible not to play Transformer, arguably his finest solo album. Walk on the Wild Side is most famous song, but Satellite of Love and Perfect Day are perhaps his finest—it’s hard not to choke up when you listen to them, especially today . . .
October also makes us want to start enjoying heavier drinks again. Thicker beers, and . . . whiskey. When listening to Transformer, I couldn’t resist the urge to whip up my own version of a Sazerac, a great potion based on rye whiskey. Just seemed like the right thing to drink today.
It’s also the “perfect day†to re-read Jonathan Franzen’s Freedom, a brilliant book that explores the challenges of managing relationships between complex, unfulfilled characters. I’d originally read it while writing some of the songs on our new EP, Delusions, and it felt appropriate to bring it around again on this late October evening. The emotional temperature of the book is pure autumn—and it’s infused with some rock ‘n roll characters that remind me of some of the individuals that I’ve encountered in my own life. Great read.
Every once in a while, I get emails from artists, review their work, and then sit at my desk blinking rapidly and thinking What the actual hell did I just watch?
Sometimes I dig deeper and it doesn’t go well; other times I’m seduced by raw charisma and want to share my joyful bafflement with everyone I know.
Willie Dick, of Glasgow, Scotland, falls firmly into the latter category. His work will turn your brain sidewise and you will like it.
This is Deeper Darker, a truly unsettling tale from his Halloween special album Halloween Horror (download it for free at bandcamp!):
WILLIE DICK – I Will Be Your Juliet from Billy Campbell on Vimeo.
Merry Gothic Christmas, y’all. Have fun, be safe, we’ll see you back here tomorrow.
And today, fresh-fished from YouTube, a selection of my favorite Halloween house displays synchronized to music.
There is an art to this; selection of music is important – there are several songs that are apparently popular for these shows that are hot right now but not especially seasonal – but choreography is just as crucial. The following are videos that I thought nailed the idea of “Halloween Musical Light Show” in terms of both form and content.
First, from Naperville, Illinois: a show set to My Songs Know What You Did In the Dark (Light ‘Em Up) by Fall Out Boy, because YES, perfect use of this song!!!! and also they pick the right thing to highlight during the actual Light ‘Em Up section of the chorus. They have multiple videos: there is also one for Du Hast, by Rammstein (unusual but also classic music choice!!) and Dragula, by Rob Zombie.
Okay so this video for Nicotine by The Dirty Nil isn’t scary, but it does explore extraterrestrial themes.
To properly enjoy it, first consider the following:
What if –
1) We made contact with aliens
2) Some of them were human-shaped
3) They would consent to get romantically involved with humans
4) One of those alien-human relationships went horrendously wrong
5) What would it look like if they ended up on a future equivalent of the Jerry Springer show?
Ok. Ready? Turn your speakers up and press play.
Nicotine is from Smite, due in January 2014.
I’m posting this video for All My Things by Swiiim (Danny Fujikawa, formerly of Chief) during Halloween week because I have to watch it through my fingers because it mashes on not one but TWO of my greatest-fear buttons: being trapped in an enclosed space and drowning.
That said, the song, which is from his new record, Cellophane Castle, is full of echo-booming wub-wub synths and lines like I have been reduced to using the Internet to communicate and is awesome.
