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McCarren Pool was the busiest I’ve seen, and Feist performed with perfection. I am always saddened by the image of her that has been created by people, though well-intentioned, who only know her through music videos and promo photos, or for that matter, through only studio recordings. She is no goddess, they say, and I say that too, but she saves rock and roll, and she must be watched live to believe this. It was only when she told the story of a Janet Jackson concert attendance at the age of 11 or 12, it struck me that her music, with its clear roots in blues and essentials of rock, is an honest representation of how “rock and roll” has collected, after gushes and falls and transformations and simplifications and complications, into this generation.
Update: more photos added.Â
More after the jump.
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BookSwim aspires to be the Netflix for books, though their site has been down and I’ve been unable to test. When I first discovered Netflix, I had hoped this kind of service would come into existence, but the site-down situation (the worst possible for an online service) has triggered some cautionary thoughts.
Continued after the jump.
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Download “Dancing Behind My Eyelids” from Mum’s website (requires email address)
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So far as it can inferred from the sound of “Dancing Behind My Eyelids”, which you can trade for your email address on the band’s website, and “They Made Frogs Smoke Til They Exploded”, which now has an animated video, the new Mum is sounding cheerful. This, considering the album they gave us last, Summer Make Good, was not quite a summer album (if one were to make a quick, misguided guess from the title). Instead, it stretched with mournful longings, drawing pictures of dark clouds, icy water and a harsh, winter landscape. And as if the album’s dreary weather wasn’t obvious, song titles such as “Small Deaths are the Saddest” and “Weeping Rock, Rock” served as reassurances. But for now, from the upcoming Go Go Smear the Poison Ivy that comes out on September 24, something far brighter.
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Mum is playing two Wordless Music Series dates in New York, on Nov 9 and 10th.
Download Petra Haden’s cover of “Don’t Stop Believin’” by Journey (from Guilt by Association)
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Engine Room Recordings hosted a contest to mark the upcoming release of a compilation featuring “15 acclaimed underground artists covering their favorite guilty pleasure pop tunes”. They are now showing winning videos and other entries at YouTube, film student Andy Cahill emerging victorious with his stop-motion piece for Devendra Banhart’s rendition of “Don’t Look Back In Anger” by Oasis. This and other two other songs revealed by way of the videos – Petra Haden’s cover of Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believin” and Will Oldham‘s cover of Mariah Carey‘s “Can‘t Take That Away” – surely hint at Guilt by Association being an interesting take on guilty pleasure pop tunes. Launch parties will be hosted in various cities, including two in New York: August 21 at Pianos and September 7th, “the big launch” following September 4 release, at Joe’s Pub.
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Download “Siki Siki Baba” by Kocani Orkestar (from Alone at My Wedding)
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Photo: Delgoff
Many Beirut shows have closed with a cover of Kocani Orkestar’s “Siki Siki Baba”. Here frontman Zach Condon performs a truly “ramshackle” version with the Orkestar itself. I was reminded of my favorite version – from Kocani’s album Alone at My Wedding – during a second viewing of Borat.
More from La Blogotheque
For the one or two readers who might’ve noticed, promptness is not a promise of this blog! It’s been many weeks since I was last at South Street Seaport or McCarren Pool, or listened to any new music (other than Animal Collective’s Strawberry Jam, my singular source of music since the leak, an event that’s now too old to discuss). And so after weeks of seclusion (from social forms of entertainment- my new subscription to the Economist is to blame!) I ventured out* to the neighborhood to notice that Seventh Avenue Books, which sits right next to Park Slope Books, has decided to move on after serving the hood for six years. Needless to say, there’s a huge sale, though its neighbor does have a more interesting selection, which might make it a better first-stop (my collective purchase today from the two stores, below).
But now to the point of this post: you will notice it’s being filed under a new category: “Bookish Love”, and if you’re not one of the two readers I mentioned in the beginning, you’ll need an explanation; after being distracted with the setting up of this blog, my other blog, bookishlove.net, obviously suffered serious neglect, so the only decent thing to do is merge the two, with less ambitious goals (I will no longer attempt to provide a comprehensive list of all literary events going about town, or to attend as many of these events as I previously did. From those I do attend, there will be photos, of course, and words if there’s anything to say, and of those that I hope to attend, there will be a mention; and in keeping these goals modest, there won’t be any insightful book reviews). Having said that, Fort Greene Park Summer Literary Festival is this Saturday, August 18th, from 4 to 7 PM; and, New York Public Library, Brooklyn Public Library and Queens Borough Public Library are now all open six days a week!
Who sticks out his tongue? After the jump.
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Download “In Our Talons” (from Hymns for a Dark Horse)
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Firstly, Bowerbirds is returning to New York for two dates:
10-01 New York, NY – The Bowery Ballroom
10-02 Brooklyn, NY – Studio B
Mark these down, because the last time they played Bowery Ballroom (video!), they were quite fabulous. Secondly, given that Dan Deacon’s shuffle iPod, which remains taped to a plastic banana, went missing during a show in London, we can assume his cousin’s friend in the State Department was able to get him a passport for his first ever trip to Europe. On his “missing beast”, he posted a MySpace bulletin saying he’s not mad, but he’d like it back.
Photo: Jeffrey Scott
Beth Tacular of Bowerbirds, on the other hand, claims her accordion was stolen by Gumby, and is offering a $500 reward for the Gumby, with or without the accordion.
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More photos after the jump
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Sony Picture Classics (Trailer)
The intrigue behind Steve Buscemi’s Interview results from it being first of the three movies that are to complete Triple Theo- a project that aims to realize murdered Dutch filmmaker Theo van Gogh’s wish to remake three of his movies in English, with New York City as the setting of choice. The consequent process itself is a point of interest, since not only does it adopt Theo’s stripped-down style of filmmaking, but it recruits his team to do so. As the movie’s website explains, for example, three digital cameras ran at all takes, one trained on each of the two main characters, the third capturing middle and master shots.
More after the jump.
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hooves on the turf is a mostly-music blog based out of brooklyn. i can be reached at hoovesontheturf [at] gmail [dot] com - please send me your lovely music as an attached mp3 or an mp3 link. if i like what you send, i'll be sure to ask for more.
