posted by Chris on October 16, 2007 10:26 AM in Music
When Neon Bible was released earlier this year, many reviewers were making comparisons to Bruce Springsteen, with Win Butler's blue-collar man lyrics and powerful voice. Well, a couple days ago, Arcade Fire showed up on stage at a Bruce Springsteen concert to play a couple Springsteen songs. Lucky for us, they also played their own "Keep the Car Running" with Bruce taking the reins for a couple verses. Enjoy this horrible shaky cam footage of this momentous event.
posted by Mike on April 16, 2007 12:33 PM in Music
Owen Pallett makes the most confusingly fantastic brand of composition- hinging and teetering from Indie Folk to pseudo-Tchaikovsky pieces and furthering what can only be called Baroque Pop from the charted territory of Harry Nilsson and Van Dyke Parks. It would be original enough if he had the assistance of three philharmonic mercenaries to pull it off, but for the live arrangements (at least) he is the quartet. Aided by his violin, a bottle of Stella Artois, and a loop station, a YouTube bootleg shows Pallett sampling himself up to five layers thick on some songs- difficult enough for the average rock musician, let alone someone pulling off symphony worthy string passages.
Somewhere in Tucson, Arizona Joey Burns, John Covertino & Co. are using their uncanny foresight to plan their next collaboration. Whatever they decide, it'll ultimately turn to Southwestern Gold. Looking back at the last three years of music, I'm realizing that all my favorite song moments had one thing in common- a member of the band Calexico was part of the recording. The ironic part is that none of these songs are on a proper Calexico album. My latest theory is that they relish being the mercenary types (and they're probably not even getting paid for it).
Take the bungee jump for my three highlighted Calexico moments.
Owen Pallet (better known as the artist Final Fantasy, arranger of amazing orchestrations for Arcade Fire) released an album in 2006 called He Poos Clouds. Which should be enough for you to go out and buy the album alone. The title track is filled with game references including the lines "gotta find and kill my shadow self/ gotta dig up every secret seashell" (Link's Awakening reference! yay!) and stating that "Every boy I have ever loved has been digital".
Today must just be Gay Day here at The Weekly Geek. Check out the video for He Poos Clouds here. Not only is it about video games, it's quite excellent!
I just can't stop listening to this album. For serious.
posted by Mike on March 27, 2007 11:40 PM in Music
In the current trend of France re-assuming their proper place as the founders of renaissance (i.e. offering tax breaks to game developers and making their x-files public), French blog outfit Blogotheque has quietly been producing a live music podcast that's gaining underground credibility by the nanosecond.
The 41st episode in their Take Away Shows series features the blazing-hot Arcade Fire (thus luring all the audiophiles like me into their giant bear trap). The approach of these usually two-song, short films is to shoot the artists out in an urban environment of some sort and achieve a level of intimacy with the performer often lacking in the average music video. For example, Arcade Fire were seen packed in an elevator in Paris singing "Neon Bible" and the producers traveled to New York to record My Brightest Diamond's Shara Worden larking "Disappear" from the middle of a serene forest setting.
Like a fast food value menu for music hounds, Take Away Shows' Videography reads like a who's who of indie acts. Podcasts featuring Divine Comedy, Tapes N' Tapes, Okkervil River, Mojave 3 and Cold War Kids are currently offered up as free chow for your Video iPod. What the hell are you waiting for? Check this page out here. (Some of it is in French, so don't come complaining to me if you accidentally click a link for Viagra instead of subscribing to the feed.)
posted by Chris on March 23, 2007 7:55 AM in Podcast
Caspian and Frodo present to you the best music of 2007 so far with a very special music podcast! They cover the biggest indie albums so far this year - Modest Mouse's We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank, Arcade Fire's Neon Bible, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah's Some Loud Thunder
and The Shins' Wincing the Night Away. They also discuss the Deerhoof Milkman Ballet, The Knife, John Vanderslice and a super excellent compilation of 8-Bit covers of Kraftwerk music called 8 Bit Operators. Also stay tuned for their 2007 music preview, as they talk about Bjork's new album, a possible new Portishead album, the Sasquatch festival and a brand new Elliott Smith double-disk.
Also mentioned is how Rolling Stone is stupid and you should listen to us for music reviews. If you like our video game podcast, you'll love the music podcast. Download it now or subscribe to the podcast on iTunes!
posted by Mike on February 22, 2007 12:44 PM in Music
As sad as Frodo and I were over the Coachella Lineup announcement and the fact that we'd have to magically score press tickets and travel 1,300 miles to get there, there's finally some relief! Hey, we have a kick ass festival here in the Pacific Northwest. Sasquatch Festival officially did their name-dropping for 2007 too, and the news is good... very good. Weekly Geek favorites Bjork and Arcade Fire are going to be there, get this- ON THE SAME DAY! I don't really see how I have to sell this event any more. Now if only I could get backstage with my wife to proposition Bjork for a threesome, then I could die happy.
Check out the full lineup (so far, there are more TBA supposedly) after the jump, or visit Sasquatch's Website for more details.
posted by Mike on February 1, 2007 12:00 AM in Music
Geeky CD Review: "Neon Bible" Arcade Fire
Generally I'm not a huge fan of the track-by-track album review. However, when you're dealing with Arcade Fire's new record (arguably the most anticipated release of the last 3 years), properly dissecting every electric page of the upcoming Neon Bible would be the most prudent course of action.
After 2004's Funeral, Neon Bible strays away from the previous quaint, loveable vignettes about the neighborhood in favor of heaping sociopolitical commentaries and anti-commercial religion cries. Although this development may not be favorable for people like me, who believe the Bush/Right Wing-bashing subject more than a bit played out to be entertaining, the music is strong enough on this LP to keep Arcade Fire high up the charts and deep in the hearts of their earnest followers until the next set of songs.
posted by Mike on January 4, 2007 8:27 PM in Music
Arcade Fire
2004’s Funeral might have been the most resonant rock album to come out of Canada since Moving Pictures by Rush. So naturally, when Arcade Fire’s fan base (among which are celebrity collaborators David Byrne and David Bowie and almost every music critic in the US, including me) caught wind that they were back in the studio last year, school girl giddiness ensued. The ecstatic throng was overjoyed further by the radio debut of new single “Intervention”. With its huge humming organ and Win Butler’s lyrical appeal to the devout religious person who has neglected his family and friends, “Intervention” shows promise that the new album, entitled Neon Bible, will be just as evocative and great as its predecessor.
Modest Mouse
A few recent developments have made Epic records’ insurance policy, Isaac Brock & Co. an even hotter commodity than anyone ever imagined. First, they recruited Ex-Smiths Member/Guitar God Johnny Marr. Then yesterday, on their MySpace profile, they released an infectious pop single “Dashboard”. Of course, we can’t jump to any conclusions that “Dashboard” will be indicative of the album’s direction. Last record Good News for People Who Love Bad News had “Float On” and “Ocean Breathes Salty”, neither of which accurately illuminated Good News out of context. The only certainty is that the Issaquah, WA darlings are bound to have a huge year.
The Shins
It has been an awful long wait since clean, cut & dry masterpiece Chutes Too Narrow in the Fall of 2003 and admirers of James Mercer’s pop outfit are getting a little restless. But if the wait between their debut and second album of almost three years was any tip-off, The Shins are deliberate songwriters who provide big payoffs when they finish piecing together the tunes. Luckily for us, a new effort, Wincing the Night Away, is on the way and we shouldn’t have any reason not to expect continued brilliance from a band whose sophomore “slump” was probably its most beautiful collection to date.
Hitoshi Sakimoto
For all you game music lovers, especially followers of the Final Fantasy soundtracks, a state-side release of the Final Fantasy XII Soundtrack would be a welcome addition. Hitoshi Sakimoto, who took over genius Black Mage Nobuo Uematsu’s music production duties for this FF iteration had some awful tough work ahead of him and huge expectations to meet and he bucked the challenge incredibly. The themes for each unique zone were interesting and added a second life to the already great game.
