Category: music

I can’t quite put my finger on why but I find this video indescribably moving. I wasn’t there. The lyrics hardly stirr my soul. Its as best a catchy dance number. Then why does it make me tear up?

Maybe it’s the unity of spirit, how everyone seems be giving and receiving, the band the music, the crowd their excitement and how the two compound each other. Maybe it’s as simple as the dorky way one of the member of Daft Punk claps his hands as the song opens (as if that’s necessary. The song is already 90% beat). Maybe there’s something quasi-revival tent about the proceedings, which the gaudy lighting and the arms thrust upward of the audience.

Or maybe I just have a week spot for "Let’s throw a worldwide party" songs (See Madonna’s "Holiday" or Kool and the Gang’s "Celebration"). That’s a muxtape in the making.

Not sure. But God, would I love to see this band live sometime. It looks better than chocolate.

Song: "Heydays"  (video)

Artist: Great Lakes Myth Society

Sound: Epically sad, college rock. Semisonic with backbone. 

Source: Heard at SXSW.com as part of prep for 2008 SXSW Music Festival. Band is from my hometown. Didn’t get to see them but this song, about nostalgia, longing and regret, couldn’t have arrived at a better time. 

Listened to: In my rental car, a lot, combing the dark streets of Austin in the days immediately before the festival and everyone’s arrival.

Important Lyrics:

"
Uncertain the future,
Nostalgic the past.
Unable to recognize,
Moments that pass.

But lift up a bottle,
And put back a glass.
Some years from tomorrow,
With your gut you’ll look back."

Actions: The aloud conclusion, parked one late night beside the Alamo Cinema and Drafthouse.

‘Some things we can hold onto forever. Most we can’t. And we rarely get to choose which."

Sigur Ros is a dreamlike mostly-instrumental band from Iceland. Several of their songs are on a playlist I listen to while writing. 

Last year, after a long time on the road, the band decided to play several free shows in their native land, concerts in parks, schools, mountainsides and public fairgrounds. They called the documentary they made of the short tour Heima, the Icelandic word for "home."

I think this is such a neat idea that it got me to wondering where I would stage concerts in my home town should I ever return as a giant rockstar. Probably at the Cube, Michigan Stadium, Gallup Park and my elementary school.

Where would you?

Heima is available for rental and purchase (via James McNally).

UPDATE: Mr. McNally’s review of Heima.

They don’t do demonic possession in music videos the way they used to. Just sayin’.

First day of SXSW 2008: Some guy in the hallway gives me a pin that says "Songza." When I go look, I’m met with a brilliantly simple concept. Search for a song. If its anywhere on the internets, Songza finds it. You can then listen to it or be sent somewhere to buy it.

Here’s what I happened when I searched for "Safety Dance"

And when I wanted to listen to it.

That little "share" link let’s you Twitter the song, email it to a friend or link to it in a blog post.

That’s just plain slick. Simple, effortless and slick. If only all software were this well designed.

Go Songza!

Sony BMG has become the fourth and final label to sell their music without DRM restrictions on Amazon’s Music Store. According to the NY Times, by the end of the month, most of the back catalogs of all four major labels will be available at Amazon for 89 cents a piece.

Apple ain’t running scared but they better change something. I sent all my MP3 shopping to Amazon when they launched DRM-free a few months ago. And I’m not going back to Apple unless DRM is dead and buried forever.

My main man Matt Nathanson has a new video out called "Car Crash" that is in contention for some contest over at MTVU.
I do not exaggerate when I say Matt is simply the best guy-with-a-guitar singer working in America today. Scott Andrew runs a close second. John Meyer can find a hot pepper jelly to go with that milquetoast action he’s working.

Don’t take my word for it. Watch the video then vote.

I just heard the Kevin Dubrow, lead singer of Quiet Riot died last week at ae 52. Cause of death has not yet been reported.
I haven’t thought about them in a minute but, man, could they work a glam rock cover like Cum On Feel the Noize (originally written by British band Slade). The entire Metal Health album, QR’s debut, was a good part of my childhood.

Sad (via Ed Champion).

I never make predictions as to whether a bad is going to be big, because, eh, I suck at it. But I think we’ve got a good horse here.

Ghostland Observatory, a duo from Austin, TX, whom i saw at the Treasure Island Music Festival is going to be huge. I can feel it in my twitching feet and beat infected butt.

Tell me if you can listening this without getting down with your bad self. C’mon, I dare you.

100 of the world’s greatest klezmer musicians posed in front of the legendary Eldridge Street Synagogue in lower Manhattan. Inspired by the A Great Day in Harlem photograph, taken in 1958 and the subject of a great documentary.

(hear about on the Nextbook podcast).