adventure.exe

This past weekend I went up the road to Nashville TN to see one of my favorite bands perform. THE MOUNTAIN GOATS! I've been excited about this show for months. I've seen the mountain goats play before, but it was about 4 years ago and it was at at a festival. Not my ideal situation to see a band I absolutely adore. When I found out they were playing only 3 hours away from me, I jumped to buy tickets!

I got to the venue about 40 minutes before doors opened and the line was already super long. After waiting a while, I got in and found an awesome spot near the stage. Before the mountain goats played, I had to sit through 2 openers. The first was a singer named Larkin Grimm. Never heard of her before last night, but I enjoyed her set. It was cute hippy folk music that charmed me. Besides being mesmerized by her music, I was mesmerized by her face!


She is sooooo beautiful. I internet stalked her because I was so curious about her background. Found out she is a mixture of Afro-Caribbean, german, Sinti, English, Kree, and French! And what beautiful unique mixture! Here's her performing one of her songs



After she performed, I got to see the Final Fantasy. I had heard of them, but never listened to any of their stuff. It's mainly one guy, violinist Owen Pallet. I absolutely loved his set. LOOOOOVED! He had amazing stage presence and hilarious banter in between songs. I fell in love with him more and more with every song. He does this thing where he sings or plays a couple of bars on his violin, records it, loops it, and sing/plays with the recorded track(s) in real time as well. I was amazed as I watching him looping, using his pedals and hearing him create a sound that sounded like a room full of strings at times! AHhh! You just have to see it!


See?!

After internet stalking him, I found out he co-wrote and performed the strings on The Arcade Fire's "Funeral"-one of my favorite albums.



and then I saw the band I was waiting for. The mountain goats. They were...ok. I think what just made the show ok and not AMAZING was that John Darnielle played with a live band. It wasn't The Mountain Goats that I fell in love with. It was a mountain goats with a harder sound. Not the soft acoustic Mountain Goats that sing me to sleep at night.

Still had a good time and glad I got to go! If this tour comes near you, GO GO GO! And if you don't catch any of these acts on this tour, just go enjoy their music! You won't be disappointed!

The Mountain Goats
Final Fantasy

Fredrik

One of my first crushes ever was in first grade on a guy named Fredrik. He was taller than me, always wore turtlenecks with something embroidered on the neck(my favorite was a dinosaur), and was missing his two front teeth. This post however is not about him. It is about a Swedish band named Fredrik. I guess you can say I have a crush on them too. I discovered them on a mix on Fuck A Great Lake last week and haven't stopped listening to them since.


Fredrik is a 6 piece band from Sweden. Just one listen of their song "11 years" and you'll know why I'm crushing on them! Listening to their music is like listening to a bedtime story complete with lovely melodies and soothing vocals. I fell in love with them so much that I broke my 3 year(give or take a few months) streak of having not bought a cd. I ordered their album, "Na Na Ni" and one of their EPs from their website. You can listen to "Na Na Ni" in it's entirety on their website and there's also a link to purchase the music. I'm crossing my fingers that they will play a show and I will get to see them before I leave Europe. Until then, I'll be content with my "bedtime stories".

I leave you with my favorite song from Na Na Ni, "11 years" and it's equally cool video!



Fredrik - 11 Years from The Kora Records on Vimeo.


Fredrik
http://www.sagomusik.com/
http://www.myspace.com/fredriktheband

The National

A friend of mine sent me a link recently with a video to a song he thought I'd dig.

I watched and at first listen I hated it. The guys voice sounds lazy and unpolished and really annoyed me. After awhile and with help of the lovely instrumentals, it grew on me. I replayed the video about 4 more time and decided I really liked it! I decided to investigate more and I got the album, "The Boxer"-where the song "Slow Show" is from. BIG MISTAKE! That song is not a true representation of the album. The album sucks. It sounds like the same song over and over with different lyrics. Big fail. Don't get that album. But! Do listen to "slow show". :) It's cute.

Huoratron

Huoratron owns my soul with this




it reminds me of a mixture of Vitalic's "Poney" video quality and Aphex Twin's "Come To Daddy" absurdity

plus his music is composed of two tweaked out gameboys

go to Huoratron.com and check the better quality video of "$$ Troopers"

Say Hi

If you've been paying attention to my Last.FM you already know that I've been obsessing over the band, Say Hi To Your Mom. They've been topping my weekly charts for the past month. I'm a little late to jump on the bandwagon. They've been around since 2002, but I am only just hearing about them! Why oh why didn't anyone tell me about the awesomeness known as Say Hi To Your Mom? Actually, the band has decided to shorten their name to Say Hi with the release of their new album, The Wishes and The Glitch. The album will be released in stores on Feburary 8th, 2008, but is available for purchase online. I made the purchase and am very pleased. Check out the Say Hi store to make yours.

I forgot how I stumbled into this band, but I'm glad I did. I heard one song, fell in love, and immediately acquired the other 4 albums! A lot of times I find myself doing that with a band and being dissapointed! But not with Say hi! I fell deeper in love. I love the random lyrics and the whispery non-chalant(not in a bad way!)vocal style of lead singer Eric Elbogen. Each of the Say Hi albums has it's own charm, but my favorite is definitely Impeccable Blahs written oddly enough about vampires!

do yourself a favor and check this band out! Here are two of my favorite Say Hi songs. The first is the one that made me fall in love and the second is my all time favorite Say Hi song. Enjoy!
Prefers Unhappy Endings
Let's Talk about Spaceships

Links
www.myspace.com/sayhitoyourmom
www.ilikesayhi.com

Thee More Awesome

I've only recently gotten into one of the latest bands on anticon records called Thee More Shallows. They're a 3 piece from Cali whose primary song writer is Dee Kesler. I hadn't listened to Book of Bad Breaks until about 5 am this morning, but I haven't stopped listening to it all day.

Head to their myspace page for more!

I've uploaded Night at the Knight School and highly recommend it. It's very hypnotic, yet at the same time popping with energy. ok, so maybe popping isn't the right word... Elements of it remind me of Fog. I'm a fan of bludgeoning synth sounds, so this fits great in my book.


Hope you enjoy as much as I have.


Also, here's the video for "Fly Paper"

mum's the word

So, I was browsing around YouTube and came across this video by mum, an experimental Icelandic group that I have never heard of before. I really dig the video (you will too!) and plan on checking more of their music out.

Anywho, watch the video. If you don't like it, you can punch me.










mum's official website page