So this morning at work I was pleasantly surprised when my boss called from the other room, excited that I was playing "Poses" by Rufus Wainwright.
Yes! Another Rufus fan!
It got me thinking and quickly I remembered on of my favorite songs by Mr. Wainwright.... a song from the movie "Tommy Tricker and the Stamp Traveler"!
If you haven't had the ultimate joy of watching this movie I highly suggest you immediately add it to you Netflix queue.
Even at 12, Rufus was all the rage at the local Canadian mall. Go figure.
So if you know me at all then you know how much the Talking Heads mean to me. Perhaps my second favorite band of all time (after The Beatles), the Talking Heads were able to do what I find to be very hard in the world of music; retain your musical voice and style while continually progressing as an artist/band.
So as I was listening to Grizzly Bear's latest effort Veckatimest I was immediately struck by the song "Cheerleader". It only took a few seconds for my ears to perk up. I had heard this before. The lonely drone of the drums followed by the sedated pitter-patter of the bass was something I was very familiar with.
The musical similarities between music's past and present on Veckatimest didn't stop there. As I continued to listenI was transported back in time again. This time, back to 1967, back to the last 30 seconds of The Beatles' "A Day in the Life". Grizzly's Bear's intro on "Dory" held the same essence of this Sgt. Pepper song's outro.
Unfortunately I don't have the proper software to easily cut out the first chunk of the song, so only the truly interested with be able to live through the first 5 minutes. However, if you are too impatient to listen to "A Day in the Life" you have bigger issues :)
My third and final example of musical influence comes from the Dirty Projector's "Two Doves" - off of their truly wonderful album Bitte Orca - and it's tie to Nico's "These Days".
They both open with an acoustic guitar that is quickly accompanied by whimsical strings. Enter the sweet yet haunting female vocals and.... VIOLA!
Now don't get me wrong. I don't find fault in either Grizzly Bear or Dirty Projectors. Bitte Orca is one of my favorite albums to come out of 2009 so far and I can't stop listening to "Fine for Now". In cases like this it's nice when the history of music seems to connect.
Just don't try and convince me that Flo Rida's reworking of Dead or Alive's "You Spin Me Round (Like a Record)" is a good thing..... because it most definitely is not!
I have been meaning to write about the weekend of September 25-27 - also known as the weekend Bon Iver took Los Angeles by storm.
So let's recap for a second, shall we?
On Friday, September 25th, a group of us were lucky enough to catch their sold out show at the Wiltern. I had seen them at Sasquatch back in May, and like then they didn't fail to deliver a stellar performance.
We got there just in time to catch 2 songs from the opener Megafaun. Listening to a few snippets online before hand I really wasn't expecting much. However, my general rule when it comes to music artists is that it really takes a live show to either solidify whether or not I am completely in love with them or not (I suppose with the exception of Passion Pit whose live show really leaves something to be desired). By the end of their set I wanted to be hanging out with them at some dive bar watching a Lakers' game.... and I don't even like the Lakers.
Bon Iver came out to a very receptive crowd to whom they played songs from both their LP For Emma, Forever Ago as well as selected tunes from their Blook Bank EP.
At the end of the show Megafaun came out and joined the boys of Bon Iver for two very sweet songs. The first, a Loudon Wainwright III cover "The Swimming Song", was a swinging tune with the lead vocals jumping around the stage. For the second and final song of the encore, the band of folk brothers offered up an acoustic version of Megafaun's "Worried Mind". Here's a little visual treat thanks to my friend Debbie.
On Saturday night/Sunday morning, Justin Vernon (the heart and soul behind Bon Iver) thought that a sunrise show at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery would be the appropriate way to cap off their For Emma, Forever Ago tour.
Uh, totally!
I was in Seattle during the concert but I had a number of friends that were lucky enough to experience the magic of music at dawn. How nuts!
Thanks to Debbie (the eternal Bon Iver fan), again, here is "Wolves (Act 1 & 2)":
If you ever have the pleasure of catching these boys on tour, I highly recommend you get as close to the stage as possible. That, and when Justin asks you to sing during "Wolves" you best belt "What might have been lost" as loud as you can!
