Monday Roundup: NO HOLIDAY MUSIC YET.

Where I take a look at select cuts from what Spotify has recommended in this week's Release Radar. 

New John Rutter?  New Handel recordings? Early English Polyphony? I guess this is a reminder to clean up my massive Yuletide playlist. I’ll have to come back to the John Rutter EP - no holiday music yet! 

"No" - Little Mix 

Me, looking at the cover of this greatest hits collection: Weren’t there, like, four of them? What happened to the one with the lip fillers? 

 This led me down a rabbit hole of googling pictures of Jesy Nelson back in 2011 and hoooo boy she went full Ari, like... even more Ari than Ari. (Listen, I love Ari and I enjoy Little Mix, but people ain't wrong here.) Anyway, this is standard Little Mix, but nothing to write home about. 

"Sunrise/Sunset" - The Dodos 

Do I like the Dodos? I think I heard some of their stuff, liked it, then tried to get into their early aughts stuff and was like “meh.” I like this. It sounds, well, “early aughts indie” enough to evoke a certain nostalgia in me. The drive of it reminds me of Matt and Kim, the outro of the '60s, very generally. It’s repetitive, but not in a bad way; not quite earworm catchy but enough for your brain to latch onto.

"Never To Be Repeated" - The Long Blondes

The Long Blondes!!! It’s hard to tell if I’ve heard this before - Google says it was released in 2006, so very probably? This is classic Someone to Drive You Home-era Long Blondes, before "Couples", which felt more contrived. I started reading this interview in The Quietus, and it's fascinating. I miss this band, deeply, and their aesthetic. And that vinyl reissue looks gorgeous. 

"Barely Reason for a Smile" - NNAMDÏ, Lynyn

Every now and then, NNAMDÏ comes up in a playlist and I think, “I know that name…” and then I remember the absolute gem that is “let gO Of my egO.” I feel like this would go well on the alternative radio station out of Philly I used to listen to, and yet it feels cinematic and classical, a piece rediscovered and reinterpreted in the 21st century. 

"tend the garden" - Gang of Youths 

I overlistened to "the angel of 8th avenue" over the summer, and everything on this track is sweeping and lovely and somehow feels very New York and very Tom Waits at the same time. But maybe I don't know what I'm talking about. 

"Mr. Fix It" - Darlene Love 

Why does this make me think of New Year’s Eve? (It came on and I thought, "No, no holiday music yet!") (This is Barry's fault.) Doesn’t mean this isn’t great. 

"Pumpkin Spice Heaven" - Parry Gripp 

SPOTIFY. SPOTIFY, STOP. I. LISTENED. TO. ONE. ALBUM. A YEAR AGO. 

"Good As What You Give" - I Know Leopard 

Is this distorted or purposely out of tune? (Shows what I know, don't hire me for your next record.) I think I might’ve liked this when I was younger - it feels like a synthy, distorted DCFC with a dash of the ‘70s in the bridge - but it’s a bit too plodding for post-pandemic me. 

"Try a Little Act of Kindness" - OK Go 

Confession: I haven’t paid attention to any of OK Go’s more recent single releases. But my god, this sounds like their earlier stuff - squeaky clean, bright powerpop with just tinges of their fourth record. It’s for a soundtrack, so it sounds just a little contrived. I wish it was a little longer and given the opportunity to end a little more organically. A-, more like this, and a tour, please. 

"Billy Goodbye" - Franz Ferdinand 

FF’s releasing a greatest hits record and going on tour and Paul’s left the band and I’m not sure how I feel about all of those things together. But FF’s fourth record is absolutely my favorite, followed by their first, and this feels like a straight-up rock effort that mixes both of those eras with a little stadium rock feel and I love it. The bridge gets wonderfully weird. It’s catchy, fun, and wonderfully classic FF, keeping the energy going right up to the very end. 

"Fearless" - Hanson 

This is so dramatic! I keep seeing poll tweets from them about Against the World, and I honestly have no idea what it’s about. Is it a new record? A tour? This is not my favorite release from them, but it’s sort of like what Imagine Dragons might sound like if they were actually good. I’m still stuck on this summer's “Don’t Ever Change,” a ‘70s powerpop song that was magically transported and released in the Year of Our Lord 2021. 

"Nails, Hair, Hips, Heels (Just Dance Version)" - Todrick Hall
How many versions of this song can he release and get away with it?? 

"Teletron for the Populace" - The Apples in Stereo 

The Apples in Stereo? Now that’s a name I’ve not heard in a long time, a long time. But this is a hard “nope” from me. 

"Lonely Boy - BBC Session" - Black Keys 

I was not expecting to listen to this all the way through, since I usually skip over remixes and live versions in this playlist, but this recording is wonderfully unpolished. 

"Wake Me Up" - Foals 

And now for something different! So ‘80s! Reminds me of VHS or Beta, who were very derivatively ‘80s! (And whom I loved!) Reminds me of all the ‘80s stuff I just listened to on the Monster Jams playlist! Parts remind me of FF, which also shows how they tapped into the ‘80s too! I like the lyrics, too! This is great! 

"Love in New York" - HalfNoise 

After the bop that is “Wake Me Up,” I was ready to dismiss this, but it’s really lovely. It reminds me of Summer Fiction, about whom I got really worked up about a few years ago, but then I just... could not stand that guy live. This feels both sweeping and intimate. If this had come out in 2003, it might have been on the Garden State soundtrack; I don’t feel that’s a bad thing, because that record was the thing my first semester of college. The last line lingers: I’ll keep dreaming if you keep dreaming about us. 

"If U Can't Dance - Demo Version" - Spice Girls 

Normally, if you throw a demo version at me, I will automatically declare that it is the best thing ever and why did they even bother going into the studio and re-recording it because they just ruined it, but this is... hoo boy, this is not good. 

"Run Me Down" - Carla Prata 

I swear to the Universe, this did not show up on my playlist on Friday. I adore Prata, and this is exactly what I want and need right now.

"Holiday Rock" - Neon Trees 

NO, NO HOLIDAY MUSIC YET.

Fangirls On The Road, Day Eight : Port City Music Hall, Portland, 3/13/09

Ad inifiTim. Har har, I'm so clever, I'm making that joke all over the place.


Credit to Rachel.


Oh, the last of the confetti.

Before we arrived at Port City Music Hall, I looked up the show online and found it was listed as "chem-free." "What the hell's a 'chem-free' show?" I asked. Apparently "chem-free" means "we're not serving alcohol because this is an 18+ show instead of a 21+ show." Oh, that's fantastic. Although venues should be warned that when there are bands involved, there's really no such thing as a "chem-free" show.

Anyway. Pre-show, Rachel and I ran into Dan Konopka of OK Go in Subway, of all places, wherein he let us in on the fact that OK Go was planning to play a big prank on openers Longwave. A "have a pizza delivered to your friend's place when they didn't order one"-sized prank. Actually, that's exactly what they did:



It would have been a better prank if I'd gotten some pizza, though.

At the end of Longwave's set, Dan and Damian both joined them onstage for "Life Is Wrong":



Please note that the first minute of the video is them getting their shit together. It's also a really good argument as to why one shouldn't wear all white onstage. When we caught up with Steve during OK Go's set, I pointedly asked, "Why are you dressed like Jesus?" I don't think he got it.

And so, it ended. OK Go played their set, we hung around and rubbed elbows for a while, absolutely no celebratory drinks were had (curses to "chem-free"!), and Rachel and I headed home the next day, stopping at one of New Hampshire's several rest-stops-cum-liquor-shoppes - something which, given the lack of drinks the night before, we maybe should have done on the way up instead of the way down. Ta da!

Now, who wants to give me a job as a tour manager? Anyone?

Fangirls On The Road, Day Six and Seven : Pearl Street up, NoHo, 3/11/09 and the 'Dise, Boston, 3/12/09

Let's combine two posts into one, since I'm getting tired of writing about this (as fun as it was) and I don't have much to say on either account.


Damian at Pearl St. up, 4/06

I was shocked - SHOCKED! - to walk into Pearl St. just as the show started to find about three-quarters of that night's audience already assembled. SHOCKED. The last time they played there, merely half the audience bothered to show up for the opening act. Then again, the last time they played NoHo was about three years ago, in April 2006, well before "Here It Goes Again" hit, so maybe I'm just all jaded and what-not.

Aside from messing up halfway through "Last Leaf," the only really memorable bit was a random audience member yelling out, "TAKING WOODSTOCK!", a film about - you guessed it - Woodstock in which Kulash is set to appear as a "fucking hippie," as he would put it. He tried, unsuccesfully at first, to show the crowd a picture via drummer Dan Konopka's iPhone:


Yeah, that didn't work so much.

When the mic cameras came back on during their three-song encore, we were afforded a better view:


Okay, that's a little better.

.....


OK Go at the Paradise Rock Club, 1/06

Not much else to say, so, onward, then. I was super-psyched to see the band play at the 'Dise, which has been renovated since the last time I saw a show there three years ago, and, holy crap, it is so much smaller than I remember it having been. It is a teeny little box compared to what I had in my mind.

Conspicuously absent were openers Longwave, to be replaced by Boston-based Hooray for Earth. I wasn't completely taken with their performance, but apparently they are friends with OK Go drummer, Dan, who joined the crowd, jaunty cap and all, to watch their set (and subsequently accosted both me and Rachel. True story.). The show was an amusing affair, to say the least, as my friends in attendance took it upon themselves to make snarky comments and yell things at the band whenever possible. Best line of the night:

"PLAY IT AGAIN!" - Nate
"Did you just yell 'play it again'? That's the second time in three days someone's said that." - Damian
"I JUST BLEW YOUR MIND." - Nate

They're the best.

So, to make up for the lack of inspired commentary / interesting journalism, here's a video of OK Go performing "A Million Ways" live, on electric. No, not dancing, and none of this acoustic bullshit they've been doing for the past few years. This is the way this song is SUPPOSED to be played, and I'd been waiting since their sophomore effort, Oh No, was released in 2005 to hear it live like this:



In possibly the singularly most fangirlish moment in my history (maybe - I've done some really fangirly things in the past), I literally screamed when they started playing this in Philly. Clearly I am 23-going-on-14.

Fangirls On The Road, Day Five : Toad's Place, New Haven, 3/10/09 + more new songs.

What a weird venue. For those who haven't gone to Toad's Place in New Haven before, the venue space is split in two by a barrier (complete with barrier guards), one side for the over-21s and the other for the unders. I suppose the whole idea is to prevent under-21s from drinking, but I heard that they had the same set up BEFORE they got shut down for a few years due to underage drinking. So I guess the moral of the story is that you really can't stop underage Yalies, after all. (We were also treated to witnessing an irrationally irate guy arguing that his under-21 girlfriend should be allowed to exit and reenter the venue so they could get "pizza." Clearly this kid doesn't go to too many shows, or he'd realise that not allowing underage kids to reenter is standard procedure pretty much everywhere nowadays.)

Anyway, notes on the show itself are pretty short - nothing new to report, other than the fact that I got a plum spot sitting on the edge of the stage, and thus didn't have to elbow people away from my spot.

So, let's look at the rest of those new songs, shall we?


"Last Leaf"

In my post about the kick-off show in Philly, I noted that this cache of songs seems overwhelmingly more emotional than last time around, and this song is a prime example of that. Witness Damian Kulash doing something he's never done before and singing a totally earnest love song on stage. On acoustic. All by himself. At the TLA show, in fact, he introduced this song by more or less pleading with the rest of the band to keep it on the new record. (We were later assured that it will be recorded, but I think it would fare better as a hidden track or a b-side, to be honest.) It was an endearing moment; it has to take a lot of guts to stand in front of a crowd and beseech the other guys onstage to keep a song because it means that much to you.

Unfortunately, Damian's introduction to the song changed from "Please? Guys?" to "I'm a sarcastic asshole blah blah here's me playing a song" pretty rapidly, which ruined the charm somewhat. It's an incredibly sweet, simple effort nonetheless. Oh, and here's an amusing video of him messing up about halfway through (around 1:20) at the Northampton show:




"This Too Shall Pass"

Rachel decided early on that this was her favourite of the new stuff (and while I like it a bunch, I'm pretty partial to the funk of "White Knuckles"). Recklessly joyful, it's the anthem for all those times you've second guessed yourself or let someone else get the best of your happiness. My band director always used to tell us, "This, too, shall pass," and that's all I can think of when I hear this song. Wise words, indeed.


"Skyscrapers"

Until it was pointed out to me as otherwise, I swore the first line of this song was "Stop screaming screaming screaming" (It's not. It's "Skyscrapers, please forgive me."), and I wanted to say, "Damian, please never take your own advice." (But I can't say that now, because that's not what the lyrics are. I am half-deaf in one ear, please be quiet.) The falsetto and accompanying screaming that kicks in about three-quarters of the way through the song harken back to the OK Go-before-they-were-OK Go tracks of Appendices and, most recently, their cover of the Pixies' "Gigantic." The whole old-influences-and-sounds-coming-full-circle thing is something I thoroughly enjoy and hope they continue to pursue. This song was one you really had to see in Philly; that night's performance (being the one in the video above) was the best. (Portland's was excellent but marred by the introduction of an echo, which did the song no favours. Drop the technology, boys, and let the vocals do all the work.)

ETA : Also. If you watch that video, start paying attention to the tubular bells right around 1:55. Suddenly, at 2:00, they'll be conspicuously missing and then suddenly reappear again five or ten seconds later. At that point, Andy Ross broke the gavel he was using while playing, which was hilarious, because he just stared at it like, "...what the fuck?" And then we laughed. Loudly.

A few more pictures from New Haven can be found here.

Fangirls On The Road, Day Three : MHoW, Brooklyn, 3/8/09

Credit to Rachel.






Credit to Rachel.

So while the rest of the blogosphere is updating the who, what, when, and where of SXSW, I'll just sit here, at home, in Jersey, and write about a tour that happened a week ago. No, I'm not jealous of any of you at all.

Of all the shows I was going, the New York date at MHoW was the most-anticipated, with the probably exception of Boston. Unfortunately, OK Go's performance was a notch below the two nights prior - something you wouldn't have noticed had you not been present at those other shows. But being as that was my case, it was a slight disappointment. Oppenheimer and Longwave were spot-on as usual, in any case, and guitarist Shannon Ferguson was back onstage with the latter, affording us an opportunity to yell, "WELCOME BACK, SHANNON" as obnoxiously as possible. Making the frontman laugh into the microphone from the balcony is an accomplishment.

Oh, Damian talked smack about me onstage. Witness:



And it was Andy Ross' 30th birthday, which meant the inevitable sing-along:





And, of course, the best line of the night:
"PLAY IT AGAIN!" - random dude
"Did you just yell 'play it again'? I have been heckled in my day, but I have never heard someone yell 'play it again' before." - Damian

Day four will feature the rest of those new songs I talked about last time, so hold tight. More photos (all like, five of them) can be found here.

Fangirls On The Road, Day Two : OK Go at the Recher Theatre, Towson, 3/7/09 + some new songs, part one.

Credit to Rachel.




I don't like confetti.


Emily, your dad's here.*

OK Go's set (and Longwave's and Oppenheimer's as well) at the Recher Theatre ran pretty much as it had the night before in Philly, minus a lot of the silly mistakes the headliners had made on opening night. With the added bonuses of having an even younger audience than the night before AND having an INCREDIBLY drunk girl (along with her equally drunk boyfriend) in attendance who took it upon herself to yell "FUCK PHILADELPHIA, WELCOME TO TOWSON" at every opportunity that presented itself, much to the chagrin of everyone else in the room. Also, despite being a small place (and my Small Venue Snobbery is well documented**), the Recher Theatre kinda', well. Sucks. In a "this lighting isn't terribly good" and "you can't get a glass of water" extortionist sort of way.

That being said, the energy was way up during this show, and I think it was the best performance of the week, given the freshness of the material and the fact that the Touring Bug hadn't seem to settle it quite yet. After the show, frontman Damian admitted that the band had gotten all of their other influences out during their first two records, and all that was left was Prince, and that while OK Go was never really an angsty band, record number three (tentatively titled Help Is On The Way***) looks be even less so than the first two.

So, speaking of this new stuff I keep going on about, let's look at some of the new material.

"Shooting The Moon" - The perpetual opener featured Tim on a big bass drum, Damian on acoustic, and the band jamming away in a lovely outro which is unfortunately missing in this totally acoustic video (courtesy of "Intern Joe" at WMMR Philly). (Also, embedding is disabled, so you're just going to have to be unlazy and click the link yourself.)


"White Knuckles"
This might be my favourite of the new stuff. Honestly. After they played this at the TLA, Damian asked, "Can you tell we've been listening to Prince?" Yes, Damian.




"I Want U So Bad"
This song makes me weak in the knees. (And I thought I was past the weak-in-the-knees phase. Guess not.) The bridge pretty much does it. The second vid is of better quality, although, tragically, only a clip.


"Back From Katmandu"
We've gotten a taste of this song before; here it is in all its live glory. Also, cowbell + double-necked, double-stringed guitar with capo on seven? Interesting.

More new stuff in the next post, otherwise you wouldn't want to read them.

More photos (although a rather tiny amount) can be found here.


*Midway through OK Go's set, the venue made an announcement to the tune of, "Emily so-and-so, please report to the front of the venue." The entire band stopped and looked around, completely stunned, with Damian asking, "Did they just make that announcement in the middle of our set...? In case you didn't catch that, Emily, your dad's here."

**Actual conversation that occurred during the course of the week:
"Are you one of those girls who, as soon as a band gets big, you don't listen to them anymore?"
"No, I just don't see why I'd want to see a band with 4,999 other people when I can see you with 399 other people."

***Or so I've heard, but I can't for the life of me find the link...

Fangirls On The Road, Day One : OK Go at the TLA, Philly, 3/6/09

Hello, all (those of you that are reading this, anyway). Again, sorry for the lack of serious posts - I've been superlazy as of late about actually sitting down and listening/paying attention to stuff.

Anyway, don't really expect any "serious" updates for the next week or so, either. My friend Rachel and I are currently embarking on what she likes to call a "fangirly roadtrip extravaganza!" and I'm just calling "we're following OK Go around on their tour for a week." Yessir, we are.


Your guides, Katy and Rachel.

So for the next seven days or so, expect updates from up and down the east coast as we follow those former-treadmill kids as they get their bums back onstage with some new songs (finally).

Day One : Philly

Let's meet our players.




Oppenheimer

Oppenheimer are from Ireland, or so I've heard (and their accent pretty much confirms that). I've actually wanted to write about these dudes for a while, as I saw them open for TMBG at the TLA over a year ago and was really taken by their set, but obviously that didn't happen. I will do that eventually, once I get to hear them a few times and pick up their record. Suffice to say that they were adorable onstage, with poppy, short songs (which is good, as I generally have the attention span of a gnat), filled with robot-voiced synthesizers and broken drum sticks and an airhorn solo. (Yes, an airhorn solo.) I'm excited to see these guys several times over; I think the crowd, mainly made up of pubescent girls, appreciated them.


Longwave

I've met various members of Longwave at varying points in time, but have never actually seen the band live. They were short guitarist Shannon, because, as frontman Steve put it, "He's going to be a daddy any second now." Aww. Friend Keith joined them on guitar as well. A much slower, more rock-oriented set than the one before, I'm not sure it caught on quite as well with the teenies and fangirls, but Steve is wicked adorable and I sort of just want to hug him a lot for that.







OK Go

I've written about OK Go several times before, about how I was super-into them a few years ago and now, not so much, partly because, I dunno', I maybe grew up a bit, partly 'cause I was a little bored. Ya' know, the usual. A band you love doesn't do anything new for a while, and you start to move on to greener pastures.

I think I'm sort of in love with them again. It was patently the opening night of the tour, with mistakes like frontman Damian fucking up the lyrics to his own songs and one Andy Ross breaking the gavel to his tubular bells. There were also a whole bunch of new instruments and gimmicks, such as the aforementioned bells, a large bass drum, handbells (poorest technique ever, but I was in handbell choir in college, so I appreciated it), and a double-necked guitar. And it was sort of difficult to determine where in the set we were - is this the middle? The end? The fake end? The encore? What's going on next? They were trying everything out, so. Understandable.

All of that aside, the new cache of songs sounds phenomenal. Somebody's been listening to Prince a lot, I can tell you that. But more than that, they are somehow much more...emotional. Damian, God bless him, seems to have turned down the "sexy rockstar" thing a bit in favour of a more humanised version of himself, something which, judging by the solo love song he played (and pleaded with his bandmates to keep on the record), seems to have a lot to do with being married for going on three years now. And that's refreshing and interesting to see. Bringing in a whole new set of odd instruments can seem gimmicky and then just pretentious if not done right (indeed, I said to Rachel, "If none of this works out, I'm gonna' laugh." Sorry, lads.), but they did play them right, in the right amounts, for the right songs at the right times. That takes planning and thinking.

Also, I'm definitely past the "droool" phase, but man, if that "I want you so bad I can't breathe" song didn't make me fucking weak in the knees.

So am I excited? Yes. Very. It's a step in a very good direction for them, and I'm eager to see how the rest of this test run goes. Fingers crossed for them.


More pictures are here.

It's like I'm a sophomore again : OK Go announces March '09 east coast tour.

The Paradise, Boston, 1/06

Indulge my past fangirl sensibilities, please. OK Go has just gone and announced a handful of east coast tour dates for next March, which probably means a (series of) full-fledged tour(s) is also at hand sometime in the near future. And because they've been making a new record, that means they'll be playing new material as well, which is a relief, because their sets started sounding like CDs to me and that's never good.

Dates as follows:

6 March 2009 - Theatre of the Living Arts - Philadelphia, PA
7 March 2009 - Recher Theatre - Towson, MD
8 March 2009 - Music Hall of Williamsburg - Brooklyn, NY
10 March 209 - Toad's Place - New Haven, CT
11 March 2009 - Pearl St. (upstairs, I'm assuming) - Northampton, MA
12 March 2009 - Paradise - Boston, MA

But I really just want to squee on about how they're playing Pearl St. again. I'm not at Smith anymore, but hell if I won't be there.

Here's a video of them playing some new stuff:

Well, this is VERY exciting.

Now we're there and we've only just begun.
And this will be our year,
took a long time to come.

OK Go - "This Will Be Our Year" (The Zombies cover)

Munday Morning Mux 2 : C'mon, Get Happy!

Stolen from Muxtape, blah blah.

So all of my posts lately have been my silly attempts at making mixtapes and playlists and my whining and moaning in commentary. How boring. I'm sorry.

But I'd like to post new muxtapes on a regular basis, and this week you were going to get my Please Please Please mix (which isn't so great, akshually, hence why it's not getting posted), but the weather has been SO DAMN NICE and it smells like sunshine and barbecues and I'm envious of the daffodils and dammit, I need some happy music!

Thing is, not a lot of my favourite music makes me happy. Okay, I must find some sort of pleasure in all of it, in some way, otherwise I wouldn't be listening to it. But it's quite different for me to think of a song that, say, makes me really happy and one that makes me want to dance, which then makes me happy, or one that is really splendidly written and that makes me happy but the song itself isn't so happy.

So here I'm presenting a mix between my pitiful Happy Mix! (which is all of like, eight songs) and the stuff I've been listening to as of late, which will be Spring '08 mix material.

C'mon, Get Happy!

Mux available here.

Tracklisting/Commentary/Incoherent babbling:

1) "Thomas Window Paine" - DZUSA
Did I have this on my last mux, too? Oops. But it makes me so happy! I just want to dance around a lot.

2) "Pop Song" - The Lashes
Also, more Lashes. The drum-heavy opening always gets me.

3) "Eyes" - Apollo Sunshine
It's so preeeeeeetttyyyy!

4) "Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da" - The Beatles
God, I love this song. Love love love it. It's very reassuring, as well.

5) "Here Comes The Sun" - The Beatles
More Beatles! Everyone needs more Beatles! And more sun. Yes.

6) "Elevate Myself" - Grandaddy
I'm not so taken with the rest of Just Like The Fambly Cat, but this shit's good.

7) "Young Love" - Mystery Jets
I've just recently written about this song and the adorable video that goes with it. I can't get it out of my head! I listen to it everywhere, on the way to class, at the gym, downtown, everywhere.

8) "Look Me Up" - Georgie James
I wrote about Georgie James relatively recently as well. Still love them.

9) "You're So Damn Hot" - OK Go
Yeah yeah, another OK Go song. This song pretty much started it all. And after four and a half years, I still love hearing it, which is a good thing, I suppose.

10) "A-Punk" - Vampire Weekend
Carefree and summery. Perfect!

11) "Shut Your Eyes" - Shout Out Louds
First SOL song I came across, probably still my favourite.

12) "Sophie" - Scamper
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH I LOVE THIS SONG it makes me so happy!!! All of my friends are always like, "This reminds me of 'Stacy's Mom'!" which is DOES, but it really just makes me want to DANCE around all SILLY-LIKE, which I often DO.

(PLEASE NOTE: I wrote the above at like, 2:30 a.m., when I was way too super-tired. Hence the excessive capitalisation and punctuation. Sorry.)

All right, enjoy, loves.

Muxtape 1 : Coupling, v. 1.0

Yeah, I stole that image from Muxtape, you all know it.

So I've gone and joined up with this Muxtape business. Just because I like mixtapes/lists and such. Haven't actually listened to anybody else's mix, but. Whatevs.

I posted my first mux*, which isn't anything hugely special - I just wanted to get something on there. Feel free to go and enjoy while I scramble to get that Fall '06, etc. playlist together.

Coupling, version 1.0

Mux to be found here.


The whole point of this list is to put together songs that, for whatever reason, go together: because of a common theme or story, because one is a “remake” (and not merely a cover), because they remind me of each other, etc.

You can tell I started this a while ago (two years, I think), as there are three OK Go songs (and an SDR song, to boot). This is still a work-in-progress. There are a few more songs on this list on my iTunes (I cut it down to the more important ones, as Mux doesn’t allow you to post more than 12 at a time), and I continually add more as I go along and find more musical “couples,” so to speak.

1) “Maybe This Time” – OK Go
2) “Down For the Count” – OK Go

“MTT” is on OK Go’s second major label effort, Oh No, and has long been one of my favourites due to its simplicity and…well, snarkiness isn’t really the right word, but you get what I mean. I’ve always wanted to strip it down even more, and get a version that relies purely on the glockenspiel (or “rockenspiel,” as Tim Nordwind would put it) and vocal harmonies done in a round. Maybe a tiny bit of percussion. Maybe. “DFTC” came out as a b-side on the UK single for one of the songs from Oh No (though which song that was escapes me at the moment), and instantly became one of my favourites from the entire OK Go catalogue.

I’ve long wondered if these songs had anything to do with each other. They’re like bookend s: “MTT” ends with “Maybe, this time, you were wrong” and “DFTC” opens with “Maybe I’m wrong.”

3) “Please, Please, Please Let Me Get What I Want” – The Smiths
4) “Please Please Please” – The Lashes

The Smiths one is a classic that I originally discovered because, surprise! OK Go once did a cover of it. (I told you, I started this thing aaaaaaages ago!) The Lashes version is in no way like the original, other than the refrain repeats “please please please let me get what I want” a few times. Think of it as a remake. Whether or not you consider remakes to be bastardizations of originals, that’s up to you, but I like it.

5) “My Window” – Secret Dakota Ring
6) “Thomas Window Paine” – DraculaZombieUSA

Witness the beginnings of my love for Serious Business. “My Window” is one of my favourite and one of the most infectious SDR songs. “TWP” is the DZUSA take on that same song, which means that you’ll probably hit the dancefloor in no time.

7) “Timourous Me” – Ted Leo and the Pharmacists
8) “T’s Song” – OK Go

Two very lovely songs, in their own ways, that share one very sad story. Go look it up to make sense of it all.

9) “Lust a Prima Vista” – The Spill Canvas
10) “Lust In The Movies” – The Long Blondes

Fall versus spring. “Prima Vista” is his take; “Movies” is my response. I just want to be a sweetheart.

11) “Jessie’s Girl” – Rick Springfield
12) “Coughing Up Roses” – Scamper

Sorry, loves- had to do it. If you haven’t heard “Roses,” the relation will become immediately obvious once you have. A friend of mine once started singing “I wish that I had Jessie’s girl” in the middle of the song. (Apparently, it’s really supposed to be “Jessie’s Girl” crossed with “Heat of the Moment,” but I’m only allowed 12 songs. And I don’t have “Heat of the Moment.”)

That doesn’t change the fact that I think it’s pretty brilliant, whether or not it needs a third verse.


*I initially typed "furst mux." Srsly.

For those interested in maybe learning a little too much about me,

I've gone and started posting some old playlists from my junior year over at my LJ.

Since May '06, I've been making 20-track playlists for each season, and they all mean quite a bit to me. I'll eventually start posting them here, but because the first few are very stuck in the past, those will be posted over there instead.

So if you're interested in finding out maybe too much about me and/or hearing what summer 2006 sounded like, feel free to stroll on over here.

Tracklist, if you're interested:

1) "Barcelona" - Scamper
2) "Sometimes The Sun" - The Lashes
3) "My Name Is Trouble" - Nightmare of You
4) "Fidelity" – Regina Spektor
5) "Because It’s Not Love" - The Pipettes
6) "Half Light" - Athlete
7) "Out of Range" - Red Hot Chili Peppers
8) "Chasing Cars" - Snow Patrol
9) "Oh Lately It’s So Quiet" - OK Go
10) "Here It Goes Again" - OK Go
11) "Modern Swinger" - The Pink Spiders
12) "Mirror Kisses" - The Cribs
13) "Nobody Move, Nobody Get Hurt" - We Are Scientists
14) "Crazy" - Gnarls Barkley
15) "Start Wearing Purple" - Gogol Bordello
16) "Happier" - Guster
17) "You Got Me" - VHS or Beta
18) "It’s Not The Fall That Hurts" - The Caesars
19) "Jetsetter" - Morningwood
20) "Lying Is the Most Fun a Girl Can Have" - Panic! At The Disco

And updates soon, I promise promise promise.

New Show: The Yay Voting show in NYC.

Get Out and Vote with Craig Wedren

Getupandvote.com presents: “Barack Rock” Hosted by Stella: Michael Ian Black, Michael Showalter and David Wain OK GO Craig Wedren (of Shudder to Think) Nathan Larson (of Shudder to Think) Nina Persson (of The Cardigans) Joan As Police Woman & other special guests

WHAT: A rare evening of outstanding music and comedy on the eve of the 2008 primary elections (aka ‘Super Tuesday,’ where over 20 states will most likely determine the two final Presidential candidates).

WHEN/WHERE: February 4th, 2008, Bowery Ballroom, NYC

More here.

I'll be sitting this round out, but it should be good times, so have at it, loves.

ETA:

Re: this post.

Somebody gave Damian internet access again:

Hi Everybody.

It's me, Damian. Our fearless cyber-chief Jorge has gone missing. Apparently to Antarctica. Seriously. He said something like "if there's one chance in my life, it's now." It's a winning life-method for everyone, really, so when I get done writing this and then when you get done reading it, let's all meet up in Antarctica, and together we can kick Jorge's sorry ass for not writing this like he promised he would before he left.

THERE'S BIG NEWS.
Shows in New Orleans and Washington, DC very soon. New iTunes EP You're Not Alone coming even sooner. Like right now, almost. (February 5) New Record Coming soon.

NEW EP YOU'RE NOT ALONE ON ITUNES FEBRUARY 5.

We spent the 2nd anniversary of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans recording 5 songs with the trombone soul monsters Bonerama. They are the loudest, most brass-kicking brass-kickers you've ever heard, and I got to sing songs with them. It was ExtraGreat™, and now the world can hear what OK Go would sound like if we were the trombone soul orchestra we've always dreamt of being. It comes out on Fat Tuesday of Mardi Gras and the tracklist goes like this:

1) Rock 'N' Roll Suicide (the Bowie tune)
2) A Million Ways
3) Oh Lately It's So Quiet
4) It's a Disaster
5) I Shall Be Released (the Dylan Tune, with Al "Carnival Time" Johnson on vocals)

The EP will be available only on iTunes, and 100% — every last penny — of proceeds will go toward rebuilding the music community in New Orleans, which has been devastated by Katrina. iTunes even agreed to donate their share. Funds will be split between Sweet Home New Orleans and the fund for building Al "Carnival Time'" Johnson's home in the new habitat for Humanity Musicians' Village. I could go on forever about the recording and the cause, and how excited I am and how important it is, but there's not enough room here. The point is this: you need to buy these five lil' songs to help out the world a little. OK? Stop me me at a show and I'll go on and on about why.

SHOWS IN NOLA AND DC.
To celebrate the upcoming EP release, we're playing two shows with Bonerama. And check this out: if you buy a ticket to either show, you get a free download of You're Not Alone, the day it comes out! It's the greatest thing since whatever I called ExtraGreat™ in the last paragraph! The first show is this Friday. Get on it! Get tickets now. Buy plane tickets and come to New Orleans for the weekend! It's the greatest place in America!

Jan 11 - New Orleans, LA - Tipitina's
http://www.ticketweb.com/t3/sale/SaleEventDetail?dispatch=loadSelectionData&pl=&eventId=234096

Feb 2 - Washington, DC - 9:30 Club
http://purchase.tickets.com/buy/TicketPurchase?orgid=3595&pid=6150470

Again, every cent raised by these shows will be donated to the cause. If you can't make it to either one, but you still want to prove how awesome you are, you should just donate to Sweet Home New Orleans right now. A special thanks to Music Travel Management, Horizon Entertainment Cargo, Sennheiser USA, and Gibson for making these shows possible.

NEW RECORD COMING SOON.

This is kind of a lie. We're writing it right now, and it will be the best record we've ever made — I promise — but we haven't started recording yet, so everybody just cool out and be patient.

OK, that's it for today, but stay tuned for more great things next week, like how it's time to vote soon, how we're about to play a yay-voting show in NYC with my idols, and how we're going to South Africa in February.

Thanks. You're ExtraGreat™. See you in Antarctica.

Love,

Damian

Somebody stop him at a show and ask him why it's so important, and then record it for posterity, please.

New Release: OK Go/Bonerama, "You're Not Alone" EP

From PlugInMusic.com ('cause I'm too lazy to do anything but cut and paste):

OK Go spent the second anniversary of Hurricane Katrina in a studio in the Upper 9th Ward of New Orleans collaborating with Bonerama. With the help of producer Mark Nevers, they put together an EP that adds a brash, unmistakably New Orleans swagger to the OK Go’s infectious rock. The collection, called You’re Not Alone, will benefit New Orleans R&B legend Al "Carnival Time" Johnson — who joins in on a cover of Bob Dylan's "I Shall Be Released" — as well as Sweet Home New Orleans, an organization dedicated to helping the thousands of local musicians scattered by the storm.

You Are Not Alone will also feature a cover of Bowie's "Rock 'N Roll Suicide." It's set to drop on 5 February.

OK Go and Bonerama are playing 11 January at Tipitina's in New Orleans in a benefit concert for Al “Carnival Time” Johnson & Sweet Home New Orleans.

They'll be playing another benefit show on 2 February at the 9:30 Club in DC. If you're not going to be getting down at the Middle East that day, you should at least go to this instead.

Holiday song project: 5 and 6 December

Clearly, posting every-other day is working out.

It's time for the two songs that start off my "Christmas Stuff" playlist*, because they sound good together.

Last winter, I was bemoaning the fact that I'd left all my holiday music in the States. I'd like to say that my friends gave me a hand, but sadly, this wasn't true, because apparently they all hate Christmas music. Pfft. Evs.**

Joe came through for me, though, and introduced me to this song by The Singles. The Singles are a powerpop/rock band with a really great old school, early Beatles, '60s Britrock vibe, complete with requisite skinny ties and scene kid glasses. Maybe that's a little done to death? I don't know, but it's the sort of thing I like, if you haven't noticed already. Here's their 2006 Christmas single (haha, get it?):

The Singles - Baby, It's Christmas

Also released last year was OK Go's*** cover of The Kinks' "Father Christmas." Leave it up to OK Go to do a Christmas cover that's also a social commentary. I wouldn't expect anything less of them.

OK Go - Father Christmas (The Kinks cover)


Play these two back-to-back.


*This isn't a mixlist proper; as I've said before, I've never actually gone and made a mix of my favourite songs. This is just all the Christmas music I have on my iTunes mashed into one big list for convenience's sake.
**OMG did I just use "evs"??? *hates self for a moment*
***I made it four posts this time. Aren't you proud of me?

Video Throwback: Devo, Dead Milkmen, Adam Ant (plus the Spice Girls)

Because I'm too tired and lazy to write something intelligent-sounding, y'all are getting some videos tonight. (I like how I only ever update this thing around midnight.)

The last time I was up in Massachusetts, Erica, Will, and I somehow got on the subject of covers of The Stones' "Satisfaction." One thing led to another, and we wound up watching, amongst others, this video by Devo. Will then said I should post this in my blog. So this is mainly for Will's, er, satisfaction.

Anyway, there's a guy in skinny red pants dancing in front of some sort of paisley-esque background, and well, we all know what that reminds me of. (Ouch, ending with a preposition. Too lazy to change!)



As I was rewatching this video pre-post, it inexplicably reminded me of the Dead Milkmen's video for "Punk Rock Girl." Maybe it's because...nope, I don't really know why. But isn't Rodney adorable? I think he is. Also, zombies!



And then I wound up watching Adam and the Ants' "Antmusic." The first time I heard the original version of this song was when I saw this video on Vh1 Classic (also where I'd seen "Punk Rock Girl" for the first time); prior to that, I'd only heard this version. My mom came upstairs while it was on and exclaimed, "Adam and the Ants! I have this record downstairs!"

Which then prompted me to get my dad to set up the turntable, and my parents came up from the basement, clutching old Beatles and Adam Ants records. It was pretty amazing.

And now my dad's stashed the turntable away somewhere, and I've been too lazy to go find it.



Loves it.

Finally, is anyone else as mad as I am about Mel B. NOT winning Dancing With the Stars?? Other than my mom? (Not that I pay attention to this sort of thing! Please don't think that I do!)

Placate your anger by watching the Spice Girls' Tesco Christmas advert. It's funny, I promise.




New goal for next time: write a post without some sort of OK Go-reference, however thinly veiled.

New song/New release/MySpace It (for now): OK Go - "Gigantic" (Pixies cover) (&others)

Once upon a time, I was up-to-date on all the latest OK Go-related knowledge. Those days are no more because, dude, I've grown up a bit, and besides, a year spent in another country usually changes one's priorities. Also, they're sort of boring me now. (Make a new record already!)

*ahem* So I've known for a little while that they were going to do a song for Dig For Fire: A Tribute to the Pixies, but I didn't know what song, when it was coming out, etc. etc. because, as explained, I'm not so much for the paying attention anymore. Apparently they've covered "Gigantic" (as opposed to "Wave of Mutilation," which they were covering live over summer 2006), which I came across today on Facebook, of all places.

Not being a Pixies fan (I've just never actually pursued their music, to be honest), I can't compare it to the original. As an OK Go song, I quite like it, because it's new material and yet it reminds me of old school OK Go, circa Appendices. It sounds a lot more like, say, "Minuet in C# Minor" or "Letterbox" (another cover, this one of the They Might Be Giants' song) or even "Unrequited Orchestra of Locomotion". (In fact, I believe that some of those tracks off of Appendices, which is really OK Go-before-they-were-OK Go, were created by frontman Damian Kulash's Pixies-inspired college band, A La Playa. Which, in this case, makes total sense. This is a sound he's played with before.) It's got the elements you've come to expect from OK Go (say, Damian's falsetto) but with a harder edge.

And after nearly two and a half years of pounding down Oh No, it's ridiculously refreshing. It's interesting to see their sound sort of come full circle, from the distortion-filled noise of Appendices to the over-produced candy of OK Go to the more accessible, less polished Oh No (somewhat a product of its 2005 times) and back to this- the old mixed with the new.

If this is what we can expect from OK Go in the future, then, well, I'm all for that.




Dig For Fire: A Tribute to the Pixies is currently available on iTunes. It's released in physical format on 27 November. You can pre-order it here.

Full track listing:
Bedroom Walls - 'Stormy Weather'
British Sea Power - 'Caribou'
Bunnies - 'Alec Eiffel'
Charles Douglas - 'Bone Machine'
David Miller - 'Manta Ray'
Dylan In The Movies - 'Down To The Well'
Elk City - 'Monkey Gone To Heaven' & 'Number 13 Baby'
Fashion Victims - 'Hey'
Joe Harvard Band - 'In Heaven (Everything Is Fine)'
John Strohm - 'Where Is My Mind?'
Joy Zipper - 'Wave of Mutilation'
Julie Peel - 'The Happening'
kNIFE & fORK (featuring Eric Drew Feldman) - 'Motorway To Roswell'
Mogwai - 'Gouge Away'
Morning Theft - 'Ana'
OK Go - 'Gigantic'
PC Munoz - 'I Bleed'
The Commons w/Elizabeth Harper - 'Here Comes Your Man'
The Rosebuds - 'Break My Body'
They Might Be Giants - 'Havalina'

Listen to OK Go's cover of "Gigantic" on their 'Space.