Friday, December 28, 2012

My Year-End 4x4


No getting around it - this is pretty much what I was listening to this year.  Here are some random clips grabbed from the above.







Thursday, December 27, 2012

Low


Back during Bumbershoot, the Minneapolis-based Low blew my mind with their subtle and melodic set, which included several new songs, including the darkly humorous Piss Cup.  

NPR has included Low's forthcoming Invisible Way in their 2013 Winter Music Preview, and are streaming the new song, which apparently has now been given the slightly  more elegant title, Plastic Cup.  Either way, it's a killer song and worth checking out.

Wednesday, December 26, 2012

Dude, I Was There!, Part Whatever

Akron/Family at The Drunken Unicorn, January 14, 2012

The band Akron/Family recently announced that they're planning on releasing a new album in 2013, a follow-up to last year's Akron/Family II: The Cosmic Birth and Journey of Shinju TNT.  To help fund the new record, the band had released a live double CD in a Namlook-like limited edition (1,000 pressings), with  the first disc consisting of their January 14, 2012 show at Atlanta's Drunken Unicorn.



Dude, I was there!  It was my first show of 2012 and an auspicious start to the year.  To make it even more special, the band has posted a link to a recording of the Drunken Unicorn show on their website, so if you want to hear the show, well, here it is:


The music gets more and more insane with each passing track, just as the evening did.  I believe the tracks are: 1. Happy Birthday/Intro (3:46), 2. Gravelly Mountains of the Moon, Part 1 (3:46), 3. Light Emerges (4:00), 4. River (6:42), 5. A AAA O A WAY (3:59), 6.Island  (9:08), 7. So It Goes (2:38), 8. Another Sky (12:08), 9. Gravelly Mountains of the Moon, Part 2 (6:48), 10. Everyone Is Guilty (12:22), 11. Silly Bears (6:21), 12. Ed Is a Portal (10:14), and 13. Love & Space (4:46).

Somehow, the order of some of the tracks in the gadget above got scrambled - for example, I'm pretty sure Track 7, So It Goes, immediately followed Track 5, A AAA O A WAY, and Track 6, Island and its guided meditation, came some time later, but I'm not complaining.  


In any event, the ATL 2 ELP CD contains the full Atlanta show plus some experimental pieces recorded in El Paso later in the year. Each copy was handmade and hand-stamped by the band.  Of course I've already ordered my copy before they all run out, and you can get yours at the Akron/Family webstore for a mere $20. 

Tuesday, December 25, 2012

Christmas Music




Happy Xmas (War Is Over) by John Lennon, as performed by The Polyphonic Spree.


Meanwhile, with their 20th anniversary fast approaching, Minnesota's Low, quite possibly the most awesome Mormons in the world and the performers of my favorite Christmas song, are set to release their new album The Invisible Way on March 19.  The album was produced by Wilco’s Jeff Tweedy and recorded at Wilco’s Chicago studio, the Loft. 

Low at Bumbershoot, September 2012, Seattle


Low has also released a free EP titled Plays Nice Places, recorded while touring with Death Cab for Cutie’s Ben Gibbard.  I'm not sure for how long this widget will work but you can download Plays Nice Places below (feliz navidad, y'all!) as well as check out a trailer for the Tweedy-produced The Invisible Way.




Finally, Seattle's Damien Jurado passed through Atlanta earlier this year and told the audience during a triumphant show that his days of being a gloomy singer-songwriter were over, and that from now on, he will be all about joy and happiness.  Well, he's issued a Christmas song about being old and lonely and dying on Christmas day, so it looks like that's it for the earlier vow.  It's really a lovely piece of music, though, with great use of strings.




Monday, December 24, 2012

Christmas In Sweden



Nothing says "Christmas in Sweden" quite like the Bert Kaempfert Orchestra.  If you have a vague feeling of nostalgia from hearing this, you probably are "of a certain age," lived in or near New York City in the 1960s, and remember the Sandy Becker children's television show (featuring the character Norton Nork).  

Thanks to London's Fanfarlo for reminding us of this clip by posting it to Facebook.

Saturday, December 22, 2012

New Twin Sister Song


Twin Sister, the pride of Patchogue, Long Island (a little town I once lived in), debuted a new song the other night at Glasslands in New York for a Hurricane Sandy relief effort.  The song's a jazzy little jam with some cool tape loops thrown in the mix, and the chameleon-like Andrea Estella is almost unrecognizable in her I-don't-know-what get up.

Part of the fun of watching Twin Sister is seeing what look Andrea will bring to the stage on that particular night.  Here she is at The Earl in August 2010 as a dressed-in-black femme fatale:


Here she is at the 529 in June 2011 looking like a Mormon Stevie Nicks:


Back at The Earl in January 2012, she had a decidedly preppy look:


There's no telling what she's going to pull off next.