Vampire Weekend Covers The Plastic Bertrand

1. Vampire Weekend have been one of the biggest buzz bands of the year. I was lucky enough to catch them at a small venue in London this past January before they started playing much bigger places such as Terminal 5 here in NYC.

2. Back in the 80s there was an amazing French new wave band known as the Plastic Bertrand. They were pretty underground in the states, but from what I remember I think they were somewhat successful in their native France.

What do these things have in common? Well the other night in Paris VW payed homage to the new wave greats and covered their biggest single "Ca Plane Pour Moi" (a song some might remember from the movie European Vacation). Plastic Bertrand were great and I would love to see them live (reunion?) and it's so awesome to see someone pay tribute. If you're not familiar with their work I highly recommend the following: Ca Plane Pour Moi, Major Tom, Stop Ou Encore, and Asterix est La.

No One Womanizes Like You

The Hood Internet has done some great mash-ups this year and you can download all their stuff from their site for free, but this new one might be my favorite.

ABX - No One Womanizes Like You

VOTE!!!

This Modern Love

Bloc Party's "Silent Alarm" was one of my favorite albums in 2005 and they certainly had the potential to become one of my favorite bands of the decade. Their debut showcased loud guitar riffs, dance breakdowns, assaulting percussion, and seemed to be taking indie rock in a great new direction. However after a bleak sophomore release and a dismal third effort these guys have faded off my radar and instead of a great new direction they inadvertently ushered in a bad British dance craze full of bands like the Klaxons and the Kooks. Their debut can still get things going for me and I enjoy a few tracks from their second one every now and then, but that is about it. Luckily I was fortunate enough to catch them in the summer of 2006 in Boston before "A Weekend in the City" came out so I got to hear all the good stuff. Recently La Blogotheque caught these guys off guard in an alley in Paris and got a great acoustic performance of one of my favorite songs from "Silent Alarm."


Bloc Party, 'This Modern Love' - A Take Away Show from La Blogotheque on Vimeo.

Still love that one...

Time Takes a Cigarette.

My show reviews of Fleet Foxes and TV on the Radio have been posted on Stories In High Fidelity (hopefully more to follow) so there has been a lack of updates recently. I'm working on some new projects, both writing and photos, so hopefully I'll have more to say in the near future. In the mean time keep it scene in the city.

Jeff Mangum Returns!

The Elephant Six Holiday Surprise show made its way to Pittsburgh last night and marked a historic event in indie music. The show's finale was Jeff Mangum playing Neutral Milk Hotel's "Engine" in the middle of the room accompanied by Julian Koster. This was the first time in ten years that Mangum has played a NMH song in public. Can we please have that reunion tour now?

Fleet Foxes played Webster Hall

Fleet Foxes have been getting a lot of buzz as of late due to the success of their self titled debut LP and great live shows and last night helped fuel the fire. The tremendous harmonies that these guys create translated from the studio to the stage with great perfection, even for the acoustic impaired Webster Hall. Along with great tunes, these guys are also just plain funny and had great interaction with the audience, which is lost among most performers. Before even launching into their first song, they shared some witty banter with the audience about how Webster Hall sounded more like a CW show then a venue. However when they finally kicked into music mode their voices melted the audience. I think these guys could blow away a crowd if they just did everything acapella and last night's show gave us more of that treat. Their voices and song writing ability are clearly their strong points, yet as soon as they jammed into "White Winter Hymnal" and "Ragged Wood" they showed that they clearly were just a great band and have the whole package. These songs are really where they shine and are able to put forth their best work. It just seems so cohesive and right when the melodies, harmonies, and lyrics just blend together. As their main set ended with "Mykonos" off the Sun Giant EP they broke down the ending into great vocal parts and really just set the mood for the entire evening and proved that despite their growing popularity these guys need to stick to small intimate venues where the audience can really be fully engulfed by what these guys are doing; something lost by bigger auditoriums.


new song

set list:
Sun Giant/Sun Rises
Drops in the River
English House
White Winter Hymnal
Ragged Wood
Your Protector
Crayon Angels (Judee Sill Cover)
Oliver James
Quiet Houses
He Doesn't Know Why
Mykonos
Katie Cruel (Traditional) - unplugged!
Tiger Mountain Peasant Song
Silver City - new song!
Blue Ridge Mountains

My Bloody Valentine played Roseland Ballroom

The last time My Bloody Valentine played in the United States I was 4 years old, so I thought I owed it to myself to see their first proper show of their reunion tour. Upon entering the show Monday night I had no idea what I was in for. I was aware that these guys were loud, but I did not know how loud. Well when the ear plugs specifically picked by the band were being handed out at the door, I knew what I had gotten myself into. From the opening notes these guys plowed through what they do best. Epic layers of sound that mixed brutal guitar distortion, hard drumming, and soft dreamy vocals. These legends pioneered the way almost every indie rocker uses distortion and they showed why they do it best. While the volumes were unbelievably loud, the music still sounded pure. This is how their music should be heard; live. While the band had little energy and the only words uttered were "hi" and "thank you" the band did exactly what they set out to do. Despite the fact that the band played to prerecorded samples and people complained of the vocals being too low, this is exactly what I wanted and expected from these guys. The sounds gave new meaning to the term shred and the apocalyptic end of "You Made Me Realise" will undoubtedly go down as one of the most legendary performances of live music. A twenty minute noise jam that had people hunched over and covering their ears. This was a brutal onslaught of music and noise mixed together so well that afterward I heard a fan utter "I couldn't think for the past ten minutes."



Setlist:
I Only Said
When You Sleep
You Never Should
When You Wake
Cigarette In Your Bed
Come In Alone
Only Shallow
Thorn
Nothing Much To Lose
To Here Knows When
Blown A Wish
Slow
Soon
Feed Me With Your Kiss
Sue Is Fine
You Made Me Realise

This Shit is Dope!

I'm pulling a Kanye. This shit is dope, someone buy me one. Modern Squid makes giant squid dolls that you can "adopt." I need one please!

New TV On The Radio - "Golden Age"

The follow up to the best album of 2006 drops next week and after a few listens I think this album will be pretty good as well. The more upbeat feel can definitely be heard on the first songs released but it really gets picked up on the rest of the album. These guys seem to keep pouring out awesome tunes and I can't wait to see them in October. Until then check out the video for the song "Golden Age" which has been all over the web today. It's got all the things you want: dancing cops, golden instruments, crazy animal heads appearing out of nowhere and the band dressed in all white perched atop a (cookie?) mountain.