For those of you following along at home, I you'll be relieved to know (or something), that I finally got The Knife this weekend. I was browsing at End Of An Ear Saturday afternoon, and they were playing what I guess was Silent Shout, but I'm not sure. Anyway, I was totally grooving out, and when I checked the 'now playing' shelflette, I was stunned. The Knife? No way! And it totally came clear -- The Knife is not headphone music. Too much going on -- all those multi-tracked vocals and all -- almost at a nausea-inducing level. I still don't think I'm going to be a superfan or anything, but I think I get what you kids are raving about now. And this information -- what sounds bad on headphones may be bearable over the air -- was carefully filed next to other empirical data recently acquired -- just because a song sounds good on headphones, that doesn't mean it will play well over speakers (c.f. Spektrum).
Speaking of playing well in public, I suppose we overestimated how many people would come out to just hang and listen to us play records on a Sunday night -- thanks to those who did stop by, it was lovely to see you! I suppose all residencies weren't built in a day, but then again, maybe we shouldn't have gone up against the Second Sunday Sock Hop and The Clientele show in an already sluggy summer... This will probably go down in our collective mythology as "the longest two hours of our lives." The wonky mixer didn't help, either. Still, the setlist for interested parties:
Burt Bacharach - Mexican Divorce // Françoise Hardy - Je changerais d'avis // Dominique A = Le twenty-two bar // The Veils - The Tide That Left // Lush - de-Luxe // Heavenly - Space Manatee // Jesus and Mary Chain - Taste of Cindy // Lavender Diamond - Song of Impossible Occurences // Frenté - Bizarre Love Triangle // Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds - (I'll Love You) Till the End of the World // Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds - From Her to Eternity // Dif Juz - Two Fine Days and a Thunderstorm // The Waterboys - The Pan Within // Piano Magic - Disaffected // Midnight Movies - Strange Design // The Kills - Run Home Slow // Velvet Underground - Waiting for the Man // Okkervil River - All the Latest Toughs // France Gall - Laissez-tombez les filles // Nous Non Plus - Lawnmower Boy // Stone Roses - She Bangs the Drums // Big Star - September Gurls // The Dears - Death of All the Romance // Lush - Ciao! // Rilo Kiley - Execution of All Things // Roxy Music - Over You // Kate Bush - Hounds of Love // Cocteau Twins - Donimo // Final Fantasy - This Is the Dream of Win and Regine // Jody Grind - Wishing and Hoping // Patsy Cline - San Antonio Rose // Rachel Sweet - Shadows of the Night
That being said, we will be back with a vengance at the Chain Drive Wednesday with Dirty Hearts, Girl in a Coma, and Sheboygan (free! fun! your girl djs in a cage!). And I made a new flyer, because we love our spokesmodels!
model: andrew // photo: aubrey edwards // location: emo's
And look, here, see -- this makes that little still-rent corner of my heart ache. Ache, I tell you. The Walkmen doing Jimmy Cliff's "Many Rivers to Cross," from their cover album of Nilsson's Pussy Cats (how meta is that, a cover of a cover?), which can be found at Stereogum or Culture Bully. Mr. Leithauser's reg'lar voice generally approximates Harry's shattered one. Interesting.
Harry Nilsson -- Many Rivers to Cross
Jimmy Cliff -- Many Rivers to Cross
Speaking of covers and what not... Want some flashy UK-derived b-sides? Here's a deliriously gleeful ode to summer from popsters The Feeling that, though not a cover, is just dripping with XTC-ness and ELO-ness. Also, here's a more than competent and relatively faithful cover of The Cure's "Catch" from Boy Kill Boy.
The Feeling -- Sun Is Shining
Boy Kill Boy -- Catch
Speaking of the NME set, don't tell, but I'm quite taken with The Needles, who have a bit of an Elvis Costello-ish pop sensibility mixed in with the usual sort of UK buzz band post-punk angularity. Their second single, "Summer Girls" (which I actually find to be a bit weak) is out today in the UK.
The Needles -- Dianne
All for now, must dash. Hope you had a good weekend!
ps -- Just where have you been all my life? Seriously. Let's run away and um, raise a bunch of snuggly kitties.
Speaking of playing well in public, I suppose we overestimated how many people would come out to just hang and listen to us play records on a Sunday night -- thanks to those who did stop by, it was lovely to see you! I suppose all residencies weren't built in a day, but then again, maybe we shouldn't have gone up against the Second Sunday Sock Hop and The Clientele show in an already sluggy summer... This will probably go down in our collective mythology as "the longest two hours of our lives." The wonky mixer didn't help, either. Still, the setlist for interested parties:
Burt Bacharach - Mexican Divorce // Françoise Hardy - Je changerais d'avis // Dominique A = Le twenty-two bar // The Veils - The Tide That Left // Lush - de-Luxe // Heavenly - Space Manatee // Jesus and Mary Chain - Taste of Cindy // Lavender Diamond - Song of Impossible Occurences // Frenté - Bizarre Love Triangle // Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds - (I'll Love You) Till the End of the World // Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds - From Her to Eternity // Dif Juz - Two Fine Days and a Thunderstorm // The Waterboys - The Pan Within // Piano Magic - Disaffected // Midnight Movies - Strange Design // The Kills - Run Home Slow // Velvet Underground - Waiting for the Man // Okkervil River - All the Latest Toughs // France Gall - Laissez-tombez les filles // Nous Non Plus - Lawnmower Boy // Stone Roses - She Bangs the Drums // Big Star - September Gurls // The Dears - Death of All the Romance // Lush - Ciao! // Rilo Kiley - Execution of All Things // Roxy Music - Over You // Kate Bush - Hounds of Love // Cocteau Twins - Donimo // Final Fantasy - This Is the Dream of Win and Regine // Jody Grind - Wishing and Hoping // Patsy Cline - San Antonio Rose // Rachel Sweet - Shadows of the Night
That being said, we will be back with a vengance at the Chain Drive Wednesday with Dirty Hearts, Girl in a Coma, and Sheboygan (free! fun! your girl djs in a cage!). And I made a new flyer, because we love our spokesmodels!
model: andrew // photo: aubrey edwards // location: emo's
And look, here, see -- this makes that little still-rent corner of my heart ache. Ache, I tell you. The Walkmen doing Jimmy Cliff's "Many Rivers to Cross," from their cover album of Nilsson's Pussy Cats (how meta is that, a cover of a cover?), which can be found at Stereogum or Culture Bully. Mr. Leithauser's reg'lar voice generally approximates Harry's shattered one. Interesting.
Harry Nilsson -- Many Rivers to Cross
Jimmy Cliff -- Many Rivers to Cross
Speaking of covers and what not... Want some flashy UK-derived b-sides? Here's a deliriously gleeful ode to summer from popsters The Feeling that, though not a cover, is just dripping with XTC-ness and ELO-ness. Also, here's a more than competent and relatively faithful cover of The Cure's "Catch" from Boy Kill Boy.
The Feeling -- Sun Is Shining
Boy Kill Boy -- Catch
Speaking of the NME set, don't tell, but I'm quite taken with The Needles, who have a bit of an Elvis Costello-ish pop sensibility mixed in with the usual sort of UK buzz band post-punk angularity. Their second single, "Summer Girls" (which I actually find to be a bit weak) is out today in the UK.
The Needles -- Dianne
All for now, must dash. Hope you had a good weekend!
ps -- Just where have you been all my life? Seriously. Let's run away and um, raise a bunch of snuggly kitties.
posted by cindy hotpoint at 1:14:00 PM
7 Comments:
Well, I found the set to be exhilarating even if it was just me and a couple of friends making our way through the drink menu. It was also the night for odd interactions since a stranger struck up a conversation with me to tell me that she chose you're DJ night to come out of the closet as a woman lover. Then she asked me where the lesbians who looked like supermodels were? (me: biting tongue) Thankfully, I was saved from honesty by The Stone Roses. I mean, Jesus, woman, do you think being gay is the same thing as ripping pages out of Teen People. If only. I think you guys a brilliant. It's a hard night to get people out, what with Monday looming and all.
terry
Yayy! The Knife!!
I find its best to listen to the Knife while doing your laundry. Or dancing. Or breathing. Really, Silent Shout is super-stupendous. But I can understand being resistent at first. I was put off by its overt Gothiness until I started to hear the intense, complex emotions percolating through the songs.
Only now you've found the Puritan Blister? That's what you get for not liking Pitchfork. Welcome to the club anyway! Will runs a great blog.
About The Knife, I know how you feel though I've come to love them myself. After I'd interviewed for Devil in the Woods, I had a moment where I almost didn't like them. They have a very cold disposition toward their own music, a kind of intellectualism that, for me at least, explained my some of my own distance. They were also unbearably pretentious and made fun of Deep Cuts and, according to them, it was just an experiment in how easy it was to make pop art out of "crap Euro disco". They also both claimed to never listen to their records. I clarified. Yes, never. So when they originally told me that Silent Shout was supposed to convey "emptiness", I practically coughed under my breath, "what else?". But now I see past both the artificiality in their construction and the pomposity of Silent Shout's hauty defiance. I think there's a beautiful sense of desolation, alienation and loneliness in their records and that Silent Shout will stand up for some time to come. The one thing I've learned about music writing is that artist's are almost completely useless when it comes to getting something from their talent. Many of them may as well put out creativity like a DQ soft serve dispenser.
Terry
My goodness, Terry. I was wondering what that woman was yakking your ear off about. That certainly isn't what I would have suspected...!
You are such a lovey! Thank you again.
And thx for the added insight on The Knife -- that certainly does explain that empty, lonely, and desolate aftertaste I was left with after listening to their latest, definitely.
And I'm so quoting you on talent like a DQ softserve. PRICELESS YOU ARE.
I'm an on-again off-again Puritan Blister reader, but didn't know he had a blog! I'm the slowest girl in slowtown sometimes, seriously.
Can you please re-upload The Sun is Shining by the Feeling? The link unfortunately doesn't seem to be working. Thanks.
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