I love biking through New York. Manhattan’s a fairly small area, which means biking is often quicker than subways and taxis. After months of pedalling to work, I still get a rush biking through suits and tourists after work. My recent change of projects means I’ve been enjoying the ride home from Midtown, which takes […] Read More…
Monthly Archives March 2009
More Bike Lanes 26th
Handsome Furs – Talking Hotel Arbat Blues 24th
Artist: Handsome Furs
Album: Face Control
Year: 2009
What starts out sounding like a drumbeat and handclaps made by a cheap Casio keyboard turns out to be Clash-inspired punk with crunchy guitars. Read More…
5 Pointz 24th
Doorway, 5 Pointz Read More…
Bill Withers – Moanin’ and Groanin’ 20th
Artist: Bill Withers
Album: Just As I Am
Year: 1971
Not much needs to be said about this blues soul song. The toned down production focuses on Bill Withers’s flawless vocals. And then there’s that awesome tambourine keeping everything loosely together. Read More…
Cubana Café 19th
Cubana Café, SoHo Read More…
The Decemberists – The Hazards of Love 4 (The Drowned) 16th
Artist: The Decemberists
Album: The Hazards of Love
Year: 2009
In the battle for the pop artist’s attention, the melody of a song usually ends up dominating the lyrics. The cost of this fight is usually an infantile rhyme like “Those who are dead are not dead / They’re just living my head”. Thanks for that introspective examination of life and death, Coldplay. Part of me feels stupider every time I sing along to your music.
For several albums, The Decemberists have taken these two warring parties and united them, finding new and unusual melodies which they then use to tell wonderfully verbose stories, like their interpretation of an old Chinese myth on “The Crane Wife”. On their new release, however, they’ve indulged their literary tendencies to the extent that listening to the album feels like listening to a musical. Melody is subservient to the story. There are sudden changes in tempo and mood. Secondary characters are sung by secondary voices. It’s not bad, per se, but the dart is stuck at an awkward angle in the wall, where previous albums hit the bullseye.
This closing track is a happy exception to much of the rest of the album, and serves as a great teaser for other tracks like the richly illustrated “Shanty for the Arethusa” (lead off line: “We set to sail on a packet full of spice, rum, and tea leaves / We’ve emptied out all the bars and the Bowery hotel”) or the Wes Anderson-ish “The Sporting Life”. Read More…
Bon Iver – Re: Stacks 14th
Artist: Bon Iver
Album: For Emma, Forever Ago
Year: 2007
It’s an odd thing to post a song like this. Bon Iver makes music that is so incredibly personal that the only way to truly describe it to someone else requires sharing some of your most sincere feelings.
Sam and I were lucky enough to be able to see Bon Iver — né Justin Vernon — in concert several times last year. On the first occasion, he was relatively unknown. Just him and his guitar, playing a short opening set. His music was so gorgeous that we were in disbelief at the light crowd milling around. Most people waited at the bar downstairs for the main act to come on. On the second occasion, his popularity had exploded. He headlined the show and played to a packed, but utterly silent and rapt audience. It was no less than he deserved, and possibly the best concert I went to last year, but after endless hours spent listening to “For Emma, Forever Ago” alone on headphones and losing myself in its beauty, sharing the experience with hundreds of other people was jarring. Like watching a childhood video and seeing a crowd of strangers barge into the flickering image of me, my brother and sister careening down the slip-n-slide into the inflatable pool in the back yard.
So what to say of “Re: Stacks”? Much has been made of the isolation which led Justin Vernon to create the album, and this track is an excellent example of why. For me, it opens up a huge mix of emotions and memories, most of which I’m not inclined to publish on a blog. Maybe it’s enough to simply quote the last verse of the song, my favourite from the album:
“This is not the sound of a new man or crispy realization
It’s the sound of the unlocking and the lift away
Your love will be
Safe with me”
Read More…
The National – So Far Around the Bend 12th
Artist: The National
Album: Dark Was the Night
Year: 2009
With the opening lines of standout track “Fake Empire”, singer Matt Berninger instantly conjures images of stolen moments with friends: “Stay out super late tonight / Picking apples, making pies / Put a little something in our lemonade / And take it with us”. With his hypnotizing delivery, it takes a minute to realise they’re not your own memories.
The National are at it again, singing seductively about intoxication on “So Far Around the Bend”, a track from a benefit compilation put out by the Red Hot Organization featuring all manner of indie superstars (Bon Iver, Iron & Wine, Feist, etc. etc.). “Take a bath and get high through an apple” Matt sings, before venturing into New York to search for a lost friend.
“I’ll run through a thousand parties
I’ll run through a million bars
Nobody knows where you are living
Nobody knows where you are”
Read More…
New Decemberists! 7th
The new Decemberists album has leaked online! I’m more than a little excited given it’s one of the two albums I’m most looking forward to this year. Can’t wait to give it a listen. [Update: Verdict = Hmmmm…] Read More…
Underground Museum 7th
Underground Museum, Zhanjiawan Village, China Read More…