en http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.0/uk/ Thu, 1 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000 Thu, 1 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000 60 http://www.audioscrobbler.net/data/webservices http://www.last.fm/user/cellularfever/journal The Last.fm journal for cellularfever. Last.fm journals are a place to talk about all things music. http://www.last.fm/user/cellularfever/journal/2009/01/28/2ftab2_dark_was_the_night Wed, 28 Jan 2009 18:41:27 +0000 http://www.last.fm/user/cellularfever/journal/2009/01/28/2ftab2_dark_was_the_night Thanks to audiomuffin for the track listing of this impending gorge of a compilation with humanitarian credentials. Due on Feb 17 on 4AD, who are streaming a track a day at the moment. What fun.

THIS DISC:

1. “Knotty Pine” - Dirty Projectors + David Byrne
2. “Cello Song” - The Books featuring Joses Gonzalez
3. “Train Song” - Feist and Ben Gibbard
4. “Brackett, WI” - Bon Iver
5. “Deep Blue Sea” - Grizzly Bear
6. “So Far Around The Bend” - The National
7. “Tightrope” - Yeasayer
8. “Feeling Good” - My Brightest Diamond
9. “Dark Was The Night” - Kronos Quartet
10. “I Was Young When I Left Home” - Antony with Bryce Dessner
11. “Big Red Machine” - Justin Vernon + Aaron Dessner
12. “Sleepless” - The Decemberists
13. “Die” - Iron & Wine
14. “Service Bell” - Grizzly Bear + Feist
15. “You Are The Blood” - Sufjan Stevens

THAT DISC:

1. “Well-Alright” - Spoon
2. “Lenin” - Arcade Fire
3. “Mimizan” - Beirut
4. “El Caporal” - My Morning Jacket
5. “Inspiration Information” - Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings
6. “With A Girl Like You” - Dave Sitek
7. “Blood Pt. 2″ - Buck 65 Remix (featuring Sufjan Stevens and Serengeti)
8. “Hey, Snow White” - The New Pornographers
9. “Gentle Hour” - Yo La Tengo
10. “Amazing Grace” - Cat Power
11. “Happiness” - Riceboy Sleeps
12. “Another Saturday” - Stuart Murdoch
13. “The Giant Of Illinois” - Andrew Bird
14. “Lua” - Conor Oberst with Gillian Welch
15. “When The Road Runs Out” - Blonde Redhead & Devastations
16. “Love Vs. Porn” - Kevin Drew]]> http://www.last.fm/user/cellularfever/journal/2009/01/28/2fsqgr_new_discovery%3A_do_or_dies Wed, 28 Jan 2009 16:11:14 +0000 http://www.last.fm/user/cellularfever/journal/2009/01/28/2fsqgr_new_discovery%3A_do_or_dies Sat 3 Jan – Monto Presents

I wasn't expecting much from this night, it was more about a new year's resolution to see more unsigned bands.. but The Do or Dies were definitely the surprise of 2009 so far (ahem, all 3 days). As a friend intoned, they really know their way around a tune, nice Interpolesque licks, cute bridges, lots of snare... And good energy for their set, on and off stage! One sensed devotion amongst the fanbase. I skulked my way through it (still recovering from nye) but there was foot tapping. If I recall correctly (and I was detoxing so it's possible) they opened with a poppy jangly number called Operator and peaked with a tune about Maps. Time to get some songs on here, anyone out there?]]> http://www.last.fm/user/cellularfever/journal/2008/07/26/235zpb_dear_science%2C Sat, 26 Jul 2008 10:57:48 +0000 http://www.last.fm/user/cellularfever/journal/2008/07/26/235zpb_dear_science%2C My fleet's on the horizon, it's nearly time to cash in my blessings, everyone can go straight home - and buy yourself an ice cream. The new TV on the Radio album is on the way. (September 22 on 4AD.)]]> http://www.last.fm/user/cellularfever/journal/2008/07/19/22srje_i_know_you%27re_married_but_i%27ve_got_feelings_too Sat, 19 Jul 2008 22:34:27 +0000 http://www.last.fm/user/cellularfever/journal/2008/07/19/22srje_i_know_you%27re_married_but_i%27ve_got_feelings_too What I've heard of Martha Wainwright's new(ish) album sounds promising, Tower Song is a lovely composition, but mostly it has sent me back to her debut. There are moments on both when I lower my gaze from blood-red confessions and dodgy lyrics, but her talent and raw honesty more than make up for this. Bloody Mother Fucking Asshole is obviously the defining song (that almost makes me want to be 19 again), Wither Must I Wander is a pretty showcase of her vocal talent, but the real burner for me is Don't Forget. Beautiful, simple lyrics. Sublime backing vocals. It's gorgeous.

... Update (08/08/08). The next song to stop me in my tracks was You Cheated Me - which to my unreliable ear seems to modulate from a minor to a major key in the chorus. Given the subject material, this is completely perverse - and exactly what makes it so wonderful. The singalong chorus of the summer. Also noteworthy is Bleeding All Over You, about the married man of the album's title. (Now hitched, Martha's unrequited crush - "I'm no home-wrecker!" - among other things, is up for discussion in an interview in the Independent).

I'm starting to think this album is one of the year's best for me.]]> http://www.last.fm/user/cellularfever/journal/2007/11/28/b6dqt_band_of_horses%2C_bush_hall Wed, 28 Nov 2007 12:24:41 +0000 http://www.last.fm/user/cellularfever/journal/2007/11/28/b6dqt_band_of_horses%2C_bush_hall Ben Bridwell has the kind of voice that you want to marry and take home to meet your ma. It's like there's a kid slung over its shoulders. With the beautiful guitar melodies - in the vacuum of all that reverb - on Cease to Begin, Band of Horses sound a bit like the milky way against a big blanket of sky. It's an album to listen to on headphones in the dark, as you drift into dreams about monsters and being by the sea and growing up. Tomorrow I find out what it's like live. In May at the Scala they had some sound problems to start, but it was a lovely, intimate show. They tried out some new songs but tomorrow is the acid test for Cease to Begin. Based on everything I can think of right now, so I must be right, it's going to be beautiful.]]> http://www.last.fm/user/cellularfever/journal/2007/10/22/b6dqs_animal_collective%2C_strawberry_jam Mon, 22 Oct 2007 12:03:32 +0000 http://www.last.fm/user/cellularfever/journal/2007/10/22/b6dqs_animal_collective%2C_strawberry_jam A while back I asked if Is There a Ghost from Band of Horses was the song of the year. Shortly after that, For Reverend Green came along, and I had to answer my own question: No. This is it. The order for the album went straight in but then the postal strike struck and only today have I been able to fill out the two tracks I bled to death for the last few weeks. (Has anyone seen the music video for Peacebone?! Awesome.)

So here I am listening to the album. I don't know why this is the Animal Collective album that's struck. I've had a few tracks before and they've never really caught on. Maybe it's a timing thing. I'll probably go back and love their earlier stuff...

Anyway, this is the right time and I'm grabbing it. I'm here. So is Strawberry Jam. The rhythms are tribal, anthemic. The vocals are jaw-dropping. The lyrics are weird. Ambient keyboard. Wash of voice and sound. Sound effects. Filters. Static. The piano sample in Cuckoo Cuckoo. Nostalgia waving at now. Everything perfect. Yes please. Take me!

(Collapses.)]]> http://www.last.fm/user/cellularfever/journal/2007/10/19/b6dqr_dirty_projectors_at_barden%27s_boudoir Fri, 19 Oct 2007 19:54:58 +0000 http://www.last.fm/user/cellularfever/journal/2007/10/19/b6dqr_dirty_projectors_at_barden%27s_boudoir Feeling a little bruised from the disastrous New Pornographers gig and a messup involving tickets for Battles and a spam filter, I needed this show to be good. Although with an album like Rise Above I never really doubted it would be.

Barden's Boudoir is straight out of a romantic indie scenester vision, all dark and basement and booths carved into the walls. A piano at the entrance. Never overcrowded (and what a pleasure that was). I would describe the crowd as intelligent hip.

And oh boy! What a show! They were so good it was filthy! The girls were HOT, stationed on either side of David, flanking his performance. The Dirty Projectors often feel like a form of contained madness, and this seemed a fitting visualisation. Both girls complained for more sound in their monitors early on in the show, and most of the men in the audience visibly swooned, and not a few women. On his right the pixie-like bassist plays the most gorgeous instrument, which looks to be crossed with a lute. The guitarist on his left was rocking a Gap knitted vest, as much as that is possible... Between the two of them they make jazzy, edgy harmonies that frequently cross into odd in a multi-layered, motional way, and are never less than perfect. This band doesn't miss a beat. The drummer behind them was inspired, exhausting himself through the band's fantastic syncopation, tireless rhythms and pace - not to mention the frenzies that the songs pulse in and out of. I enjoyed seeing him smack the snare with a tambourine.

But it was hard to keep your eyes off David Longstreth for any length of time, and not just because he was wearing what can only be described as a Christmas jumper. He is awkward all over, but especially around his giraffe-like neck, and his pent-up energy spills into his vocals, his screaming, his jagged rhythms, the gunshot strumming, the brilliant picking. There is a mathematics to it that makes listening to their music not dissimilar to listening to Battles, but more visceral. One lyric stood out in particular:

I knew then what I was
Fucked for life
The only song that didn't quite hit it for me was Rise Above, which they closed the set with. I suspect bands just won't deliver their big songs live sometimes, it almost feels capricious. But blah, blah, blah - less talking, more Dirty Projectors! I need some more!

Tue 16 Oct – Dirty Projectors, Castanets





]]> http://www.last.fm/user/cellularfever/journal/2007/10/08/b6dqp_pitchfork_gives_music_6.8 Mon, 8 Oct 2007 21:35:39 +0000 http://www.last.fm/user/cellularfever/journal/2007/10/08/b6dqp_pitchfork_gives_music_6.8 Très amusant, courtesy of The Onion...

While Schreiber concedes that music is still "trying to find its aesthetic," he also claims the form has not yet lived up to the lavish praise heaped on it by pop culture journalist Chuck Klosterman and 19th-century French romantic composer and critic Hector Berlioz, among others.
- Read the feature]]> http://www.last.fm/user/cellularfever/journal/2007/10/04/b6dqo_how_to_massacre_the_new_pornographers Thu, 4 Oct 2007 23:28:07 +0000 http://www.last.fm/user/cellularfever/journal/2007/10/04/b6dqo_how_to_massacre_the_new_pornographers How stunningly awful.

I write from the pit of despair. Had I not been with three people tonight I would have left KOKO after the first - latest second - song. How can a band like the New Pornographers have been massacred like that, and even worse, not have had a clue? I may sound dramatic, but it was that disastrous. So bad that between songs the crowd were screaming for more vocals - but they couldn't hear, even though they tried to make out what was being said. Which was pitiful; watching them assume that the crowd was screaming for favourite songs. More vocals though, was not what was required. Everything was wrong.

Waves of distortion on the guitars and cymbal, feedback on the inaudible vocals, no keyboard, no warmth, no bass - just tinny, distorted, empty, depressing as fuck sound. No melodies to speak of (impossible to make out), no big round harmonies, no rhythm, nothing. A disaster. I've lost my will to even urge for the immediate sacking of the sound engineers, I'm so depressed.

I can't say anything else about the gig except to note that, as I had to stay, I listened for some promise from the new material (played live). It was in the encore; nothing else stood out much, although you couldn't really say anything for sure about this mess. Will I ever be able to listen to Use It without wincing from pain?

Thu 4 Oct – The New Pornographers, Peter Von Poehl, School of Language]]> http://www.last.fm/user/cellularfever/journal/2007/09/04/b6dqn_is_this_the_song_of_the_year%3F Tue, 4 Sep 2007 14:25:33 +0000 http://www.last.fm/user/cellularfever/journal/2007/09/04/b6dqn_is_this_the_song_of_the_year%3F I think it might be.

I could sleep! I could sleee-eeeeeep!

Is There a Ghost]]>