...

Sorry for my Kristinaesque lack of posting... which is going to continue for a couple of days. But, I was driving around, listening to the radio in Philly for the first time in months. And, uh, well, here.



So, umm... what? Why? Was George Michael really clamoring to be covered?

With this, Seether joins the ranks of Kenny G, Brian McKnight, Barry Manilow, and countless other soft rock artists who have done versions of this song. Inexplicable. One unifying factor: all of them are pretty bad. Enjoy!

Post St. Vincent: In Which Philly Beats Pittsburgh Because We Actually Get Concerts.

These two guys are what's left of the band Pattern is Movement. Apparently, they aren't related. Go figure. Also, contrary to the unbelievably burly and bearded impression that they leave, neither moonlights as a lumberjack. Finally, neither is related to Dan Deacon.





Anyway, this was my first time ever hearing them, and I've gotta be honest and say that I really, really enjoyed them. The lead singer has a great, great voice, a little reminiscent of Antony from Antony and the Johnsons; I guess the best comparison might be if Antony were lured into singing in a math-rock band.

For the record, it's near impossible to nod your head to the rhythm of a band that changes time signatures as frequently and as effectively as Pattern is Movement. Trust me, I tried.

Anyway, in the middle of their set, all of a sudden, their lead singer says something along the lines of "This next one is a cover song." And then, slowly but surely...

"Is that D'Angelo?"

And indeed it was. In the middle of the set, the two guys pictured above decided to cover this man:



...which was hilarious, until everyone seemed to realize at once: This is really, really good. Here's the video from a couple nights ago, at the show in NYC:



Somehow, I feel like I shouldn't expect anything less from a band whose members, according to Spin, "met at the ages of 13 and 14 while performing in a Christian hip-hop group, bonding over their sinful and secular love for Dr. Dre's seminal album, The Chronic." The point is, I highly recommend you guys listen to the chamber-pop stylings of Pattern is Movement. Besides their Philly lineage (and, of course, our city will take all the wins it can get), they're a really interesting band, a bit beyond description.

Oh, and with a few exceptions to the setlist (no "Paris is Burning?"), St. Vincent was great, but we say that all the time at this point, so hopefully, by now, you know. Enclosed are a couple of Pattern songs.

Love,
Jim

Bitter Bloggin'

Dearest readers,

My apologies for not blogging in approximately seven years. Since I've been stuck in the armpit of the concert-going world (Pittsburgh), I haven't really had any shows to discuss. But let's get to the bitter part: co-blogger Jim is currently at a St. Vincent show in Philadelphia. And yours truly is ...listening to St. Vincent. Recorded. I thought I'd take my mind off of this incredible injustice by sharing some of my recent finds/thoughts on them. As usual, I will be using lots of youtubez.

First, I'd like to expound on the eternal struggle: to hipster, or not to hipster? Let me explain. Today, while trying to find out if Jens Lekman has a twitter (it would be the most adorable thing ever), I found a poor, abandoned twitter account that seemed to be him, but it only had one entry, with a link. Fate, I say. I clicked on it and was introduced to Dent May... and internal crisis. This next part requires the cooperation of you, dear reader. I need you to click this YouTube video, and then SHUT YOUR EYES. For the whole song, just shut your eyes and listen.

(INTERRUPTION: Jim just called me from the St. Vincent concert, and I am listening to a lovely live rendition of "The Bed" as I type.)

ANYWAY back to Dent May. Shut your eyes!


He sounds vaguely like Jens Lekman, his voice is beautiful, and this music is... kind of reminiscent of the Beach Boys? Anyway, I heard it and immediately loved it. But then... I watched the music video.

...watch it with your eyes open.

I think the epitome of what worries me is at about 1:15. This man is clearly... a hipster. That in itself mightn't be a problem, but I think it's pretty obvious that he doesn't take his music seriously. ...is it possible that his music career is based entirely on irony? Does he not even like his own music? This strikes me as a legitimate problem. I know it's fashionable to hate hipsters (www.latfh.com if you doubt me), but this goes beyond that... is one able to like music like this, where the artist doesn't even take his own music seriously? And I'm not talking about a Bloodhound Gang-esque situation, because they absolutely CANNOT take themselves seriously. I'm talking about, did this guy Dent May (Who was an NYU film student for a few years, which may or may not complicate my problem) just decide one day to start making beautiful ukulele music... for the lols? "Hey guys, wouldn't it be totally rad if I ...started making ukulele music that sounds like it's from the 1960s? Lolz, it'd be so funny."

Anyway, the moral of the story is, this album is REALLY good and I recommend it, but I don't think I could see him live, for the sake of my own sanity.


Now let's completely change courses and take a look at someone that's been explored on the blog before: that someone is Asher Roth. We all know that "I Love College" is a frat boy anthem, and that Asher Roth raps kind of scarily like Eminem. Imagine my joy when The Hood Internet (www.thehoodinternet.com) decided to attack this song in their usual way: by meshing it with an obscure indie song. To hilarious results.

I Love Friction (Asher Roth vs The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart) - The Hood Internet

The new driving beat behind "I Love College" takes a while to feel right, but when it does, the song loses its lazy Weezer influence and starts to (scarily) remind me of an un-classy Arcade Fire song. Which is glorious.

Anyway, I'm off to explore the internets more for goodness to bring to you, lovely reader. I'll leave you with a link to a playlist I made on youtube. It's absolutely perfect, and absolutely NSFW.
Yum yum.
Enjoy!

Love,
Kristina

In Which I Wonder Where to Procure a Nautical-Themed Pashmina Afghan.

Sadly, I didn't get to that Thermals show, so I don't have much to update with. However, I really wanted to post this.



I realize that the Lonely Island is a bit of a joke, but as comedy albums go, I was actually really impressed with the production value on Incredibad. With that being said, this is actually a really, really good performance. Kudos to Black Thought on taking on T-Pain's responsibilities.

This is proof that the Roots make just about everything better.

In Which I Aspire to Be Lester Bangs By Not Writing Like Lester Bangs.

So, I should be writing a final for my class in Journalistic Ethics. Instead, I'm listening to Dare! by the Human League. How did I get here?

The above picture is of Philip Seymour Hoffman, playing Lester Bangs in Almost Famous. That happens to be one of my favorite movies; a dream job, if time travel were not an object, would very closely mirror that of Patrick Fugit's character.

In addition, I may or may not have drunkenly cockblocked my roommate this past weekend when I overheard him talking to some girl about that movie and cut in really hard. Sorry, Jeremy.

Anyway, after watching that movie kind of recently, I started looking stuff up about Lester Bangs, and found this, compliments of Wiki:

"Bangs died in New York on April 30, 1982, overdosing (through drug interaction) after treating a cold with Darvon and Valium. According to the Jim Derogatis biography, Bangs was listening to The Human League's album Dare! at the time of his death."

And this, dear readers, is why I'm listening to fucking "Don't You Want Me?"



I have to assume that this couldn't have possibly been the way that Lester wanted to go out, unless this was a brilliant, artsy statement that us peasants weren't meant to get. This is a song that really couldn't have been recorded any time other than 1981; seriously, listening to this, I feel like I should be doing lines of blow and wearing a piano key necktie. Recorded by a band that consisted of an outlandish four synthesizer players and, umm... nothing else, this one's far from timeless.

Unless, of course, you work for Nabisco:



Sigh. And on that, back to ethics. Ideally, I'll be headed to the Thermals concert tomorrow night, and if so, I'll have an entry afterwards.

Love,
Jim.

Timeliness... you mean, like, last week?

Here at TDoFS, we (and by "we" I mean "I") have embraced the concept of writing about entirely irrelevant things. Albums that came out years ago, YouTube videos that might not be as legitimately awesome as I think they are, etc. And when we (again, I) actually have something relevant to write about, we must wait at least a few days past when it's timely to write about it.

Therefore, time to write about St. Vincent's Virgin Megastore show on 5-5-09.

Both members of TDoFS were in attendance (though one of them kept threatening to go to the Electric Six show instead), and we had a perfect spot in the second row, about 10 feet from Annie Clark herself.

(EDIT: We were probably close enough to personally tell her that we downloaded her album a month before its release. Oops. Sorry, Annie. - Jim)

A few things need to be said about Annie Clark. She has a certain aura of perfection and class around her, and her frizzy halo of black hair makes her seem even more angelic. Even when she's rocking out hard, stomping her feet on the ground and bent over in concentration, she's like porcelain.

Actually, that description of Ms. Clark could also be a description of her second album, Actor: an album that, even though it rocks hard, at some points seems delicate enough to snap.

St. Vincent played songs exclusively from Actor, which was to be expected (though slightly disappointing), and I'd give you the setlist, but Jim's the one with the copy of it (jealous). We were both worried about the orchestration of the songs live... they're so complex and intricate, they couldn't possibly translate over onto the stage very well. On the contrary: apparently, every member of St. Vincent plays a ton of different instruments, and they play them well. Annie Clark was even doing her own backup vocals at one point.

Though it was a short show - which I guess is to be expected for an in-store album promotion - it was packed with my current favorites from Actor, like "Actor Out of Work" and "Marrow."

The only other relevant things to say about St. Vincent live is this: make EVERY attempt to see her on this tour... it will be wholly worth it.

Check out www.ilovestvincent.com for tour dates and such.

Update: Arcade Fire 1, Flaming Lips 0.

From an Entertainment Weekly interview with Wayne Coyne, partially on "Do You Realize?" being named Oklahoma's state song:

Entertainment Weekly:Did the Arcade Fire send a congratulatory telegram?

Wayne Coyne: [Laughs] They didn’t. I wish that had never happened. I didn’t necessarily mean it about the people in the Arcade Fire. I meant it about the guys that were running their stages at a couple of festivals. I wish whatever had been said wouldn’t have been taken as such a defiant statement from the Flaming Lips, because it wasn’t. I just assumed [their response] was a joke.

EW:Really? He seemed pretty annoyed to me.

WC:I can totally see that now.

EW:Would you care to apologize to them now?

WC:I would. I really feel bad about it. I like enough of their music. The idea that I’m somehow against them… I’m not!

Sadly, I guess that's over, and an apology from the Flaming Lips technically means that the Arcade Fire won. In retrospect, I feel like I should've been rooting for Wayne though. I kind of wish that rockers would release "diss tracks" with the same frequency that rappers do. Especially if we had bands of this magnitude making them?

Put it this way: when Jay-Z and Nas were putting out great tracks against each other a decade or so ago, it was almost always worth listening to. By contrast, nobody really needs to hear Paul Wall quibble with Chamillionaire about which one of them is slightly more relevant.

So this is my plea for alt-rock diss tracks. Since the Flaming Lips already released a track called "Thank You, Jack White (For the Fiber-Optic Jesus That You Gave Me," it really isn't much of a stretch for them to take it a step further and put out something in the vein of "Putting the Fire Out (Dismembering Win, Limb by Limb)."

Think about it.

Enclosed in the playlist are the two best tracks from the Jay-Z/Nas feud, and "Thank You Jack White (For the Fiber-Optic Jesus That You Gave Me."

Love,
Jim