Post-Thanksgiving post(s) are forthcoming (my brother had a great time with our cousins down on Nantucket) but right now I'm excited about going to see My Morning Jacket tonight at 9:30 Club.
I first heard about MMJ through KCRW and have a been a fan ever since. They have this great expansive sound that reminds me of driving across Highway 24 in central Colorado on the way to Breckenridge. You can see these beautiful vistas of plains, hills, and mountains (the collegiates and then the San Juans in the far distance) that seem to stretch on forever.
Most of all, I can't wait to hear them play Golden, which I'm listening to right now at work before I leave for the show. It's on repeat and life is good.
UPDATE: Highlights from the concert: 1- Opened the show with a white cloth curtain and just seeing the silhouettes of them playing for the first part of One Big Holiday 2- the amazing guitar playing, unbelievable 3- Golden played mellow acoustic 4- best song of the show, Wordless Chorus, they killed it 5- band leader Jim James' vocals (yes, he does the high notes on Wordless Chorus and they're not falsetto either)
The same Nick who created the now famous, Herbies Separated at Birth, knows good music and besides turning me onto Paste magazine, has recommended several artists that were new to me (Josh Ritter, Jason Collett, and others) and now have permanent spots in iTunes.
His newest recommendation is Sam Roberts Band, who's playing Black Cat w/ Jason Collett in a few weeks (I'd love to attend but My Morning Jacket is the same night over at 9:30 and I can't miss that one). My two favorites from the latest album, Chemical City.
I saw Imogen Heap on Tuesday and thought she put on a great show, I was completely blown away by one of her openers, Kid Beyond, who may be the world's second best beat boxer (I've been told that Rhazell of The Roots is the best).
Kid Beyond was just up on stage with a mic, a loop machine, and his own amazing beat boxing skills. I've never seen anything like it, you could literally see him architecting his sounds. He'd start by getting a little bass rhythym sound, tape it and loop it so that it played as he moved on to the next sound or beat. And so it went, layer by layer of his own original sounds on top of one another co create this entire orchestra of music. I've never heard such diverse sounds before, let alone from a single person on stage without any machine assistance. He was almost like Fatboy Slim, ranging from thumping, head-bobbing electronica to more mellow, expansive songs where he displayed his swinging capabilities.
If you get a chance, check him out live or listen to his music, you'll be amazed.
Unbelievable, truly a rock concert. Heard the songs I wanted (Hotel, KC Accidental- was last song , Cause = Time and many others I should know but don't) and they played a full two-hour set, no messing around.
Jason Collett was there as well on the side of the stage and looking a little bored I have to say. No Feist but there was the obligatory 'Where's Feist?' comment from someone in the crowd.
At 12:15, they broke in to announce the Dems had taken the House and the place erupted.
No need for an encore either, they ripped for two hours and played their hearts out, not afraid to show their true selves (played a sound check, stopped to regroup, and then went back into it). Definitely an epic show.
I’ve been listening to KCRW’s Left,
Right, and Center for awhile because it offers a balanced but impassioned (yet rationale and intelligent) discussion of national and world politics and news. The podcast hasn’t been updating in iTunes and given the election results last week, I wanted to hear LRC’s analysis and commentary.
Matt Miller, the host of the show had a great comment from the 11/10 episode and although related to the election results, it’s about globalization, an idea much closer to my heart than politics (emphasis added).
Dems should be setting the tone for the future, for the 2008 election, to make it possible for progress on the chief domestic issue, how to cope with globalization (minute 8:15), mollify its anxiety and protect/help the middle class of those who are at risk in this global economy; nothing will get done seriously on this front in the next two years because there’s no consensus on the issues BUT if they frame these issues for 2008 then the center of gravity could be tipped so that these issues can be publicly discussed.
I’m paraphrasing here but you get the idea. Economics, the study of making decisions about the proper allocation of scarce resources, really does drive politics and most other public policies. Globalization was the major thrust of my major during college and I truly believe that it is a major force for good in the world, bringing more people out of poverty than any other governmental or non-governmental force in the world. But the Doha round of trade talks has stalled and globalization seems to have been temporarily grounded.
Living in D.C. and being surrounded by so many federal government, NGOs, and public policy institutions, I remain faithful that promoting globalization is the way to improve economic equality. Will Matt's comment above resonate with the Democrats, Republicans, and others who run this town and can we get globalization back on the docket for 2008? And I mean getting the topic back into the public sphere where a serious debate around the issues of globalization can occur, rather than he-said/she-said crap surrounding the the topic of outsourcing from a few years ago. Remember Lou Dobbs and the "Exporting America" rhetoric?
Globalization is a weighty and intellectual topic that needs proper discussion and it would be nice, as Matt suggests, if we're able to discuss a topic that economically and politically affects us so much more significantly than most of the domestic and foreign policies that we typically argue over.
If you're into Web2.0 and web startups of the future, then you should already know about TechCrunch and Mike Arrington. If you don't know about TechCrunch, the WSJ recently profiled Mike last week and it's a good read. He started the TC blog about a year ago and it's become a major brand and influencer in the blogosphere.
Recently, there's been a dust up about Mike and TechCrunch's objectivity and disclosure. You can read about the whole thing here but Fred's post on the WSJ article and disclosure discussion struck me for its honesty. I couldn't agree more with the underlying theme, which drives me to keep working & blogging late into the night: life's not fair so work your ass off if you want to be successful and in the club (emphasis added).
Don't for a second think that Mike is "objective" or "fair". He's
not and he's never claimed to be. I hope nobody thinks I am objective
or fair either. I've got a business, a portfolio, my political views,
and I express them without the intent of objectivity every day on this
blog. That is what blogs are all about. People driven media, opinions,
reality.
People will say, yeah but Fred you are part of that club too. You
get unfair access. So what. That's life. If you don't like it, start a
blog, get an audience, blog at 4am in the morning, and get into the
club yourself.
Old/Mainstream media is starting to change strategic directions, thanks to the web and blogging, and I think the notions of objectivity and full disclosure will change in traditional newspapers, TV, and other media outlets. Not to degrade their importance because disclosure of vested interests will always be critical, on the web or not, but this discussion surrounding Mike and TechCrunch is helping to re-examine how we define or evaluate what is objectivity, accountability, and full disclosure on the web when anyone one person can engage the whole world.
I first head their song, The MP, from a snowboard video
(maybe TB7 or TB8) and have had The Album leaf on my radar ever since. I though it was just a single guy, a musician or DJ and his PC making
such cool, electronic and layered sounds but it was a four-piece last night.
I tried describing them to people but to no avail. Mellow,
electronic, lounge instrumental. I’m a little closer to capturing it now.
Imagine Postal Service with little or no vocals, longer songs and more instrumental,
with amazing violin mixed in and you close to experiencing The Album Leaf. If
you could isolate the components of their overall sound (which is probably
impossible because the layers are so intertwined), the violin may have been the
best part or the piece that unified the sound.
Rock n Roll Hotel is a small venue, 400 max, so you could get
in pretty close and they were definitely some hardcore AL fans there, who know
the songs within only a few opening bars. I think the small, intimate nature of
the place made it even better; I’m not sure that I would have wanted to see
them play a bigger place because the music lends itself to a low-key, almost
one-on-one relationship with the audience.
This show was an experience and I imagine that’s the band’s
aim as well. It goes beyond the fact that they have these cool motion
graphics/videos playing on a screen behind them that adds to the music rather
than detracting from the music, which is what usually happens with most music
videos (Johnny Cash’s video “Hurt” is another greater example of visuals making
the music even richer). The visuals were synched to their music and not crappy
stock visuals that anyone might access to via an iMac and screensavers (but I
couldn’t tell if it was a PC or Mac running on stage or not).
And no, not every song sounds the same unless if you’re
really listening (I overhead this from the guy standing next to me). If you
came to the show last night expecting a lot of singing and vocals then you were
probably disappointed. The music is an acquired taste and its mellow but if you’re
in the right mood, it’s very engaging. The concert wasn’t a performance (like
going to see The Brazilian girls for example) in that The Album Leaf aren’t
flashy but they deliver a music experience that’s inspiring and completely
engrossing..
Watch this video of their single, “Always for
You,” to get a sense of what I’m trying to describe. They’re musicians and
visual artists too. Or play "Always For You."
* P.S.- LaToya and I stopped by Majestic Lounge, across the Street
from the Rock and Roll Hotel on H St. after the show and mark my words: Majestic is going to D.C’s next hotspot.
Great, eclectic and independent music is in season here
in D.C. Part of the reason that I left Rochester was for a new job, certainly,
but it was based more on needing to be in a bigger city and music played a big
part of that.
The last two weeks and the month of November may be the best
music lineup I’ve ever seen. Here’s the lineup:
1)Sparta
@ Black Cat 2)TV
on the Radio @ 9:30 3)The
National @ Black Cat 4)Tapes
n Tapes @ Black Cat (missed this one unfortunately) 5)The
Album Leaf @ Rock n Roll Hotel (no photos yet but Wonkette
highlighted the show) ---- Upcoming---- 6)Broken
Social Scene @ 9:30 (my most anticipated show of the year) 7)Imogen
Heap @ 9:30 8)Sia
@ 9:30 9)My
Morning Jacket 9:30 (my 2nd most anticipated show of the year)
To better describe these concerts, I tried classifying them,
and not by musical genre but by type of concert, because there are different
kinds: there’s plain old shows where the band just kicks ass (e.g. The National); there's performances because of the band’s stage
presence or antics; lastly, some are experiences, not because of stage presence, but
because of the mood created by the music. These are rough and hardly mutually exclusive
classifications so feel free to comment or give me feedback.
Show
Performance
Experience
Feist Phoenix Sparta TV on the Radio The National Imogen Heap* Sia*
