Broken Bells

Mad good. Reminds me of high school music (maybe because of The Shins frontman James Mercer). The duo of Mercer and Danger Mouse (Brian Burton)=gold. Love the combination of electronic/experimental with classic beats and melodies. Cool "pastiche" as it were. Here are my faves so far:

Album was just released on the 9th, I DEFINITELY recommend it. Can't find any other good videos of the music, but it's all over the blogosphere so hop onto elbo.ws or hypem to find it.

Merry Christmas, in a different way...

I will post about my home made sugar cookies and things later.
More important to share is the awesome gift my dad got me: "Mothership" by Led Zeppelin, which includes 2 discs of music and 1 DVD of concert footage.


At one point, Jimmy Page starts playing his guitar with a violin bow.

So effing good.


What is and what should never be



If I say to you tomorrow,
Take my hand child come with me,
It's to a castle I will take you,
Where what's to be they say will be.

Catch the wind see us spin,
Sail away leave the day,
Way up high in the sky.
But the wind won't blow,
You really shouldn't go,
It only goes to show.
That you will be mine,
By taking our time.

And if you say to me tomorrow,
Oh what fun it all would be,
Then what's to stop us pretty baby,
But what is and what should never be.

Catch the wind see us spin,
Sail away leave the day,
Way up high in the sky.

But the wind won't blow,
You really shouldn't go,
It only goes to show.
That you will be mine,
By taking our time.

So if you wake up with the sunrise,
And all your dreams are still as new,
And happiness is what you need so bad,
Girl the answer lies with you.

Catch the wind see us spin,
Sail away leave the day,
Way up high in the sky.
But the wind won't blow,
You really shouldn't go,
It only goes to show.
That you will be mine,
By taking our time.

Everybody I know seems to know me well,
But does anybody know I'm gonna move like hell?

Passion Pit/Phoenix/Spoon in Boston, Dec. 4th

I saw Passion Pit, Phoenix and Spoon in Boston on Dec. 4th at the Orpheum Theater. Great bands and a very enthusiastic (but not obnoxious like the Grizzly Bear concert I went to at the Orpheum earlier this fall) audience made the concert amazing. Here are my thoughts:




--Passion Pit was good, but it will be interesting to see how they will develop as a band. Obviously because they are from Cambridge, the crowd went wild for them, but I find their music to be rather repetitive, with choruses easily interchangeable for each falsetto-ridden electro pop ballad.





--Phoenix was also great and shares the qualities of Passion Pit, though Phoenix is more established and experienced (what a funny find it was to see I purchased their song "everything is everything" like six years ago). I find many of their songs extremely similar, all sing-a-long-y, upbeat and, well, pop. Their only song that isn't so fast-paced is "Fences," which they didn't play (probably to keep up the momentum of the concert).



--Spoon: this is where the momentum decreased, since most of the audience was there to see Phoenix. I was disappointed to see a few women leave the concert, but then I didn't care because I love Spoon too much. They had a pretty great set, including "The Ghost of You Lingers," which if you play it right after a Passion Pit song, say, "Sleepyhead," which is gaining more popularity as the new song featured in a Blackberry commercial, you will definitely get a different vibe simply due to tempo and mood. Oh, and the fact that Spoon plays real music instead of just catchy, asinine pop that for some reason I still like. So Spoon, though they are way more established and skilled, didn't go over as well as the other bands because they weren't in the same musical genre and groove as PP and Phoenix. You saw how above Spoon was the only band on the theater's sign: that's because PP and Phoenix opened for Spoon. But, boy, the atmosphere felt like the audience wanted Spoon to open for PP and Phoenix. Especially Phoenix (people started chanting for Phoenix instead of Spoon for the encore, which infuriated me).



Despite the dumb crowd, I had an amazing time with friends there and couldn't believe I was seeing those bands play! PS: I'm in love with everyone in Phoenix and Spoon. They can play music for me any time. Especially in skinny jeans.

Pixies concert

20-year reunion tour on Saturday

Saw them at the Wang in Boston

At work, I helped/rang up some family/friends of the band, who ended up getting us (me and two coworkers) comp tix! We sat basically in the front. Lots of people who knew all the words to the songs b/c they listened to them in college--aka the early 90s.

Opening band was Rain Machine. They kind of sucked, but it was endearing to hear the lead singer talk about how much he loved and respected the Pixies. Oh, and I bought nifty pins after the concert, though I felt ripped off because my friend bought stickers that came with 4 pins and cost the same. How lame. Anyway, here are the pictures!

PS they started off by showing "Un chien andalou" by Dali and Bunuel. Kick-ass presentation: they cycled through four screens, showing the film at different points and emphasizing the scenes they wanted. Everyone shrieked at the eye-shaving part, of course. Like the nerd I am, I kept yelling to my friends over the loud volume, OMG I'VE SEEN THIS MOVIE SO MANY TIMES AND LOVE IT AND NOW LOVE THE PIXIES!

Oh, and they came back for two encores, ending with "Where is my mind?" They sounded just as good as when they were younger, if not better.

Here are the pictures, finally!




Rain Machine was crazy! The lead singer had a fro and beard and clear giant glasses! And the girl on keyboard was soooo hipster, with her awkward bangs, bandana, Cosby sweater and red pants. Yikes! At one point they started screaming/singing "Fuck" and the nice woman who I'd helped that day at Rugby looked at me and we both started cracking up at the absurdity.

Then the Pixies came on. Yesss