I thought I had finally come up with a way to recap the past two months in a simple format: two posts, one briefly highlighting awesome things which had happened in the second part of the quarter and one covering the not-quite awesome things which had happened. I started thinking about what I wanted to cover, and honestly, for all the hard work, stress, and frustration that went into this quarter, there wasn’t really a “this completely sucks” moment that sticks out in my head. Which is good; winter term is notorious for being really depressing and gray and desperate because it’s 8 weeks of class, no breaks in awful weather (ah, Indiana, land where the weather literally CANNOT MAKE UP ITS MIND whether to rain or snow). So, anyways, awesome things. Here they are.
To start, a few that don’t require much explanation besides a bullet-point mention:
Having a single
Volleyball (finally made it to playoffs)
Grades (3 A’s and a B+)
Getting a literature minor (a third one I wasn’t expecting to get until I found out I qualified this fall)
Now for those that require a little more explanation.
It seems like it would probably enhance the music reviews I’ve written if you could hear what the band sounds like. I’ve retroactively added these to the posts they belong to, but here’s a sample track (via LaLa) of the last albums I’ve reviewed:
Beach House’s sound has been fairly consistent over their last two albums, 2006’s self-titled debut and 2008’s Devotion. Alex Scally’s reverb-drenched guitars and Victoria Legrand’s keyboards and distinctive vocals mix in a sea of tinny drum machines and slow, measured tempos to create something dreamy and ethereal.
With Teen Dream, their third album and Sub Pop debut, they’ve cleared some of the fog from their sound, adding live percussion and speeding the tempo up a bit to create something both familiar and refreshing. Songs like “Zebra”, “Norway”, and “Used to Be” are bright and engaging while still retaining the dreamy sound the band is known for.
If there’s any fault in the album’s 10 tracks, it’s that a few of the songs, like “Real Love”, drag a little too long. None of the songs on the album could be considered short; most average around five minutes while the shortest is just under four. Still, these atmospheric songs showcase Victoria Legrand’s low, distinctive voice to great effect. If the growth between this album and their last is any indication of how the band will continue to progress, the future holds bright things for this Baltimore duo.
Rating:
Full Disclosure: Although after the review was written/turned in, I received a copy of the album and a poster of its cover in blue on one side and in yellow (like the album itself) on the other. The label sent them to the station because we’re playing it a lot lately.
Vampire Weekend’s self-titled debut exploded on the blogosphere two years ago, with critics either finding its afro-pop meets indie-rock aesthetic amazing or horrible. Two years later, their sophomore album, Contra, should hopefully turn those who weren’t as keen on the first album around to the band’s sound.
The album shows a clear progression from the first album; while the guitar tone and rhythms that defined the band’s first-album sound are still present on the songs (“Cousins” and “Holiday” could easily fit onto the group’s debut), more synth-based rhythms are also present. The group even manages to make Autotune (an overused element in 2009) sound fresh on “California English”.
The group’s experimentation with new sounds doesn’t always pay off—while the electropop influences on “Giving Up the Gun” make the song even better, the muddled, overlayered strings of “I Think UR a Contra” detract from the song’s reflective lyrics. Overall, Contra retains many of the elements that made Vampire Weekend’s first album so unique, it shows a growth and willingness to experiment that indicates a band that has the potential to produce interesting music for years to come. I can’t wait to see what happens next.
So, I was going to talk more in-depth about each of these songs, but I’d rather just share 25 tracks I really liked from this year. If you’ve got any questions regarding what I would say about <artist name> or my taste level, feel free to put them in the comments and I’ll get back to you on that.
Merry Christmas! I’ll talk more about gifts/food later this week–might even do a food-centric post since I’m the one doing a lot of the holiday cooking.
So, in attempting to sort through my music collection to create a 10.5-hour playlist (which ended up being around 27 hours in the end), I discovered an interesting trend. I appear to enjoy covers of hip-hop songs by acoustic/alt-rock singers and bands.
Case in point, all of which are on the playlist and in my library:
I had the best headache ever last night. It wasn’t a particularly strong one, but enough of one that I knew that it was a headache. The reason it was so awesome? The source was the Noisettes concert I had just left.
While my love for the Noisettes has already been mentioned on this blog before (as well as on my old blog), I didn’t think they’d stop in Minneapolis on their US tour, much less decide to do a free show to get the word out. They were amazing. I’m still smiling from the thought of the show. I didn’t bring my camera along (after having to stow it in my date’s car for the KT Tunstall show after being stopped at the door with it), but I used my cameraphone to capture a few (really shoddy) shots from the show. This venue was more lax on cameras–I should have gone with my instinct and brought it, but such is life.
We got to the venue around 6, an hour before the doors opened. I hadn’t realized that I actually know Dinkytown (the college-y area just outside of the U of Mn Twin Cities campus) better than I thought, although I hadn’t been there since a class trip to the U of MN library in 10th grade History class. We weren’t the first ones there, but we couldn’t have been more than the 15th or 20th in line. Patiently my dad (who’s a fan of the group as well) and I waited along with everyone else, excited for things to start. The drummer for the band walked across the street into the venue, which was exciting. Wristbands were distributed to those over 21 and then we were let in.
While we were near the front of the line, we weren’t fast enough to get some of the nicer seating at the venue (club chairs and couches). All the remaining available ones were roped off for guests of the band, which sort of sucked, but we found a large table near the edge of the seating area and stood by it for a little bit before sitting on the edge of the seating area’s platform.
The Varsity Theater doesn’t look like much from the outside, but once you get into the building, it’s gorgeous. My mom knew it as the movie theater closest to campus when she went to college, but it’s since been converted, keeping the red curtains of the old moviehouse as well as an area where a screen used to be where the bands perform. It’s definately a cool space for performers to play in (the band themselves said it was one of the most beautiful venues they’d played). People slowly filled in the rest of the large area for standing and waited for the opening act.
The opening act was awful, to say the least. I’m not even going to give a link to them (Google “Dearling Physique” if you’re brave). Experimental ambient electronica is better left to the studio rather than live performances, I hate to say. My dad had no idea what to think of the performer. We had a discussion while checking our respective clocks and waiting for the performance to end:
Him: How are we going to explain this to your mom?
Me: Probably the standard Minnesotan “Well, it was different“
After they were done, we waited for around 45 minutes for the Noisettes to set up and start. The guitarist apologized for the group being “tardy” and then launched into a slower opening version of “Wild Young Hearts” while the lead singer slowly made her way to the stage. Here’s a video from an earlier US gig that sort of illustrates it (I’ll try and use some of these wherever possible to supplement my own poor-quality photos)
What follows is a hybrid setlist/notes from the show
Wild Young Hearts
Never Forget You — Shingai said she had a question for us (“What Ya Drinkin, Rum or Whiskey?’” is the first line of the song)
24 Hours — This song sounded even better live
Saturday Night
Sometimes — This was acoustic with the drummer on a box drum–amazing
Don’t Give Up–The band switched quickly from acoustic to rocking the house with this track from their first album. I could physically feel this song in the back of the room against my chest
Every Now and Then
Don’t Upset the Rhythm–This one got more than a couple people in the crowd dancing
Atticus — Shingai attempted to reach and perform from the bar for this one, but didn’t quite have enough microphone cord. She settled instead for the soundboard platform, where she did acrobatics from the metal bars surrounding the area. This was the second closest I was from one of the band members all night, the first being when she walked backstage before the opening act, brushing by my dad and I; I only recognized it was her when I saw her from the back and realized that the distinctive hairstly could only belong to one person.
Sister Rosetta (Capture the Spirit) — another rocking wailer to close out the night
Unfortunately, because they were running late, the band had to catch a bus to Chicago immediately, but I still got one of the many free Noisettes posters that were around the room. This is the best live show I’ve seen. The group was so full of energy and had the whole room smiling the entire night. Hopefully I get another chance to see them, even if it’s never as intimately as this time was.
As a final link, the band performed on the local public radio station that plays modern music (we also have an MPR news and an MPR classical) and their conversation/performances are here
It’s a little bit early to be deciding what my favorite music of the year was, but as a way to refresh my music journalism skills (I’m writing a column for the school paper every other week barring a heavy workload as a partership between the radio station and the paper), I thought I’d at least cover the tracks that have had the largest number of spins on my iPod this year, in no particular order.
