Bowerbirds "In Our Talons" from Alan Poon on Vimeo.

Alot of interesting things going on here, but the action is so simple and rhythmic.

Haunting. via la blogotheque

Passion Pit, "Sleepyhead" from Neon Gold Records on Vimeo.

I just did my research to find out who did the sleeve for Mezzanine Massive Attack - Mezzanine

(it was Tom Hingston)

Good stuff. Lots of different designs to gander.

That sleeve is fierce, but what I've heard of their music is not. It's dark. Soothing even.

Minilogue - Animals from ljudbilden on Vimeo.
If I ever own a bar/lounge, this is going to be playing nonstop on a big screen.

i am always the last..

Danielson: a family movie.

This was a really tragic music documentary. It's all about this family that tries to make indie folk/Christian music, but really... they just aren't any good. Eventually one of their collaborators, who happens to be Sufjan Stevens, totally overshadows them when he goes solo. I don't think that's what made it tragic though- I think it was 'Brother Danielson' (the lead singer) and his blind ambition. Behind his cheerful demeanor, he seems really sad and desperate.  

Really, I wish I liked the Danielsons music, but this movie just made me want to listen to Sufjan's old stuff.

Með suð í eyrum við spilum endalaust

Sigur Ros. Sigur Ros. Sigur Ros.

Their new album is by far their best. I luff it! Here is their excellent music video too (lots of naked people):

I'm so glad that real musicians are embracing the internet.

The Choir Practice

Anticipating my trip to Washington this weekend for the Sasquatch Music Festival, I decided to check out some of the unfamiliar bands in the lineup to see if I could make any discoveries.

I chose The Choir Practice.

Lovable. I thoroughly enjoy choral music and combining it with indie folk seems to work really well. They have connections to the New Pornographers, Coco Rosie, and P;ano- they're all readily apparent.

Let me try some metaphor here: It's like a morning in late summer. You're passing the same fountain that you pass everyday on your walk to work, but this time you actually pay attention to the fountain. It has a dozen spigots shooting out streams of water in rhythmic unison. It seems larger and louder than it ever has. It makes you stop for a second- not that you haven't wanted to in the past, but today you're not late for work.

Mutt Ink

His illustrations have a kinda inky, oriental, watercolor feel to them. Lovely.

Look at more of his stuff here.

(The bands on this poster are really great too)

Sunday morning movies

via fecalface.com

Don't not.. Southern Jive

via marriage.vitamin.habit

good find j. i can't not share this.

Tonight - the Very Most.

I have chatted these guys up and fell in love with their stuff via Myspace. They recently had their CD release party, but I didn't get to stay long enough to actually see them! Poo. So tonight- I'm going to actually see them. They play all the time in the greater Boise area, but my schedule hasn't worked out until now. I guess I can't really say that they're a 'must see' until I see them, but I bet they are... so check them out. 

My friend Julia did their album art- she does all sorts of fantastisch illustrations in Boise, and I love her work to bits. Girl just needs to get herself a respectable website.

Dissapointment

So apparently the new Goldfrapp video that I've been watching on repeat is a ripoff..





This and other bubble bursting at youthoughtwewouldn'tnotice.com. These people don't miss anything! 

Thanks Julia.

Music into words.

I was recently given a CD of a band called 'Taken by Trees' from a friend, but with this gift came an 'assignment'; I have to let him know what drink the lead singer's voice sounds like.

I don't have a direct link to the music but you can listen to it from their website here.

He said- White Russian
I say- Chai Tea Latte. I guess I like the creamy idea, but her voice just isn't all that intoxicating. That and I think somebody in my office is eating something (probably a cookie) that smells all gingery/cinnamon/nutmegy, and it seems to fit.

Music metaphors are a tricky business, but I just happened to stumble upon a blog that has a pretty good handle on it - saidthegramaphone.com . I love this entry:

Ponytail - "Beg Waves" (This is a direct link to the song.)

"Ponytail gets it exactly right in the opening track to Ice Cream Spiritual: electrically live and still marvellously composed, like a Duke Ellington suite for hoarse throats, scraped knees, joy. It's The Fall, not Deerhoof, I hear clearest in their song - but with fewer regrets, fewer chips-on-shoulder, just thrills & fears & squawk. Let's say you were arriving overnight from California, muscle-tired and underslept, but you have a whole day in front of you; let's imagine there's a million reasons to fall asleep but one big one to stay awake; let's imagine you have to go on and on and on; let's imagine you need a new reason to pump yr fist in the air. Well: here. Beautiful and squalid."

They also post a picture with each song -

Perfection.

A few years ago my brother and I were visiting a friend, Austin Weaver, who introduced me to a band called Black Bear. He gave me the album 'Cinnamon Phase' and told me I needed to listen to it. I did so.

The lyrics to the song 'Black Bear' have really stuck with me, and I had a chance to listen to it again the other day. I ended up listening to it over and over. Who doesn't feel this way about their cinnamon phase?

Listen here.

In the woods, in the mountains there's a good place to begin
The song about a black bear living in his black bear den
Doing all the black bear things a black bear just might do
I hope in my next lifetime I could be a black bear too

And here comes black bear now, crashing through the brush
Unfazed by thorns and branches that would hurt me to the touch
In pursuit of some small animal, the food chain is a truth
And the bear has the advantage of the massive claw and tooth

But he'll also stop for berries or honey from the bees
Or nuts that he can shake down from the canopy of trees
And afterwards he'll have his choice from any stream to drink
While I'll fill up another cup from my old kitchen sink

And if he wants he'll have a nap and dream his black bear dreams
And I could only dream of black I dream I drink from streams
And as he sleeps he hears a breeze and knows that he is safe
While I'm sleeping with the fan on to drown out my lack of faith

The simplicity of solitude it's a hard thing to perfect
Stealing happiness from loneliness is not a simple theft

A black bear has it figured out and gets what he deserves
And the fur that he is wearing is the fur that he prefers
And when he stared across the river into my eyes it made me shiver
And I knew that it was lovely to have a black bear thinking of me

And when he thinks, he is thoughtful and when he rests he is restful
And when he runs he runs the fastest he spins the earth right on its axis
And that's his gift to all showing us the sun
Keeping time for everyone a steady beating drum

And all the dirt he bounds upon he'd leave his heavy track
That is deep when he is young and blue but deepest when he's black
Cause colour for the black bear is a synonym for age
If I were one then I'd be in my cinnamon phase

Instead I am 22 and the decades weight a ton
This new century's essentially a bullet from the gun
It takes coffee pots that cost a lot just to stay abreast
But coffee hits my sense of loss and makes a nervous wreck

The simplicity of solitude is a hard thing to perfect
Stealing happiness from loneliness is not a simple theft
But the black bear has it figured out and gets what he deserves
And the fur that he is wearing is the fur that he prefers

And when he stared across the river in to my eyes it made me shiver
And I knew that it was lovely to have a black bear thinking of me
And when he thinks, he is thoughtful and when he rests, he is restful
And when he runs, he runs the fastest spins the earth right on its axis

Fantasticsh isn't it?

www.myspace.com/blackbear