Thursday, June 26, 2008

Radiohead's "Nude" on office equipment

via NYT's The Moment blog... James Houston’s Radiohead remix of "Nude" from In Rainbows, apparently using office equipment as instrumentation:

Fans had the opportunity to download the individual instrument tracks, then create their own song, but Houston went many steps further: he programmed a roomful of outdated hard drives and other office equipment to play the song orchestra-like. (Start around 01:15 for the melody).


reminds me of my younger sister and i recording songs with Fischer Price toys when we were wee big.



compare to original version (fan vid).

Monday, June 9, 2008

Ukulele and Keyboards "Fade to Grey"

My favorite eighties french porn song (sorry "Love on the Beat") redone on ukulele and keyboards by Fin and Geishy. I don't know who these guys are, but their friend Gus does an excellent "Are 'Friends' Electric?"



It's an unfair comparison, but of course it pales (bad word choice perhaps) compared to the classic Visage original.

Sunday, June 8, 2008

Scott Walker "Jesse"

Former member of the Walker Brothers and reclusive vocal giant Scott Walker recorded an album two years ago for 4AD, his first new release in ten years. The music is narrative and harrowing. His voice is fabulously expressive.

According to this New York Magazine article:
On “Jesse,” the third track on Walker’s new album, The Drift, Elvis is sitting on the Memphis prairie in the moonlight, talking aloud to his stillborn twin brother, Jesse—as he would often do “in times of loneliness and despair,” according to Walker’s sleeve notes. Elvis is dreaming about the planes smashing into the Towers.


A higher resolution version is available here.

Friday, June 6, 2008

Sebastien Tellier - "La Ritournelle"

this is Sebastien Tellier's 2005 quick-cut narrative of party people growing old, or heteromance turned homogeneity. i don't know. it's kind of sad in a predictable way. fitting, because my special someone is en route to iceland while i'm sitting in an empty house in a dallas suburb.




"La Ritournelle (Mr. Dan's Magic Wand Edit)"
directed by Ace Norton


here's a clever and more recent excerpt from Tellier on politics and sex:
I try to explain to the world the latent concept of sex and that’s the goal of the record. I’m very happy to be in a sexual society. My previous record was called ‘Politics’ and of course it was about politics. At that time, I thought it was the most important rule in the world and now I think that sex is the most important rule, because seduction is at the centre of everything. So for me, sex is more important than politics. That’s why I talk about sex in my record. I always try to find the core subject matter to talk about.... You know it’s so sad when you go to a party, a discotheque or a club, and you have sex with a girl but the day after you feel a bit dirty. I hate that feeling. For me, real sex is when you have the feeling and then the sex, not the sex and then the feeling. After all that, I love nasty sex too but I want something more.


(and here's the original version of the song and the first video, directed by Mr. Oizo.)

Thursday, June 5, 2008

"The Church of Oprah Exposed"



An exposé in which conservative Christians speak-out against Oprah's naughty new age specials. Stop the liberals before they create a Department of Peace!

Wednesday, June 4, 2008

Growing Live

brooklyn band growing released an ep, "lateral," which i'm fond of. their music is guitar crescendos and reverb but is satisfying and orgasmic and such. i like it. four tracks is just long enough. they're on social registry. i'm sure they have a myspace page. they wear hoodies. here's a live video.