Good Weather For Airstrikes

NOTE: As a result of receiving a bunch of e-mails/requests in the comments from you guys regarding this Postal Service live session, I’m reposting it here. However, do to the fact that the mp3s are all currently cryogenically frozen on my old ezarchive account (to hopefully be un-frozen at some point next month), I uploaded the entire session to Rapidshare as a compressed zip file. For those of you who are unfamiliar with Rapidshare, check out this helpful tutorial, and for the rest of you, just download away and enjoy. The original post, in its entirety, is below:

By now it’s time to just face the facts that we won’t be a getting another Postal Service album until about late 2006, but that’s just how it has to be. Ben Gibbard’s currently busy touring in support of Death Cab’s new album and Jimmy Tamborello is occupied writing (programming?) the next Dntel record and readying it for a first-quarter 2006 release. There is some mystery as to whether or not Rilo Kiley’s Jenny Lewis actually sang on the last album (I’ve heard from many reputable sources that it was actually Jen Wood of Seattle’s The Jen Wood Trio whose angelic vocals we hear on “Nothing Better”, though the interview in the middle of this session claims otherwise), but regardless, she too is occupied until early-to-mid 2006 releasing and supporting her debut solo album, Rabbit Fur Coat, due out January 23rd on Conor Oberst’s Team Love label.

But to make the wait easier, here is a gem of a live session, recorded on Seattle’s Morning Becomes Eclectic radio show in 2003. I acquired this last summer in the still pre-GWFAS days, and while I listened to it solidly for about a month, I forgot about it until now. Fortune struck though when it came on my iTunes yesterday (oh, the wonders of the “shuffle” feature), and I remembered just how fantastic it is. So I created album artwork for it (because, y’know, that’s just what I do) and I’m posting it here for you today, and hopefully it will help make the never-ending wait for a new album more bearable.

The actual set itself is fantastic; the band plays all of the highlights from Give Up (but let’s be honest, the whole album was a highlight in itself), and Jenny Lewis, who as I mentioned before may or may not have actually sang on Give Up, reinvents the female vocals and breathes a new life in to the tracks, especially when she shines on “Nothing Better”. What makes this live session great is that Tamborello and company take these songs that were already incredible on Give Up, and add new touches and elements, which in some cases (”District Sleeps Alone”, “Brand New Colony”, and “Nothing Better” especially) make these live versions actually eclipse their original counterparts. However, the immaculate “Such Great Heights”, my favorite song of all-time (and by of “all-time” I mean “the last five years”… alright fine I do mean “all time”) , unfortunately sounds relatively lackluster in this live recording, namely the stale-sounding guitar solo near the end. Even so, this is definitely worth downloading. I know we’ve all heard and love Give Up (seriously, I don’t think there’s a single person ever that doesn’t love that album), but I still highly recommend that you download this, so at the very least you can maintain your sanity waiting for their 2006 follow-up. “Mid-to-late 2006″ can’t come soon enough.

Remember, in order to download the file you have to follow the link (you can’t just right click > save target as), and wait for the timer to run down and whatnot (again, consult the tutorial if you’re having difficulty).

DOWNLOAD (.zip file):
“Live on Morning Becomes Eclectic” - Postal Service [highly recommended]

Also, you should check out the new remix Ben and Jimmy did for Feist’s “Mushaboom”, as it’s certified awesome. As for posts the rest of the week, I have two huge exams and a midterm essay due Wednesday, a midterm poem do Thursday, 8th row tickets to see Coldplay Thursday night, and a final midterm in-class essay on Friday (and then Spring Break), so I’ll be fairly occupied the rest of the week and will be handing the reins over to MC Everett Case, who I’m sure will get the job done just fine. Until next time everyone, keep listening to good music while I’m gone.

[front cover design adapted from Our Thin Worn Skin]

For some context, M3 Volume 7 was conceived in mid-December on a snowy train ride to New York City, where I was to visit someone I was very much in love with at the time, and it’s conceivable these pleasant, wintry circumstances are reflected in the songs, but that’s up to you to decide. This is a mix of wonderful, sometimes epic, often twinkly songs guaranteed to put you in a happy mood. Centered on and built around the flawless progression that occurs between “The Predatory Wasp” and “Brand New Colony”, I feel like the mix embodies and reflects the pristine winter’s day on which it was conceived.

The first six songs on the album come grouped in sonic pairs, but manage to flow well together to lead to the mix’s second half. Up first is the “Scotland/twee” pair, featuring “White Collar Boy”, from established veterans of twee Belle & Sebastian, and “The Start of Something”, courtesy of much-buzzed-about up-and-comers Voxtrot. Next is a pair of beautiful songs from solo violinists Final Fantasy (”The CN Tower Is Dead”) and Andrew Bird (”Fake Palindromes”), followed by the final sonic pair, the “indie-country” grouping. The “indie-country” grouping features “With Arms Outstretched”, the most country-sounding song in Rilo Kiley’s catalogue, which foreshadowed the soulful country stylings of Jenny Lewis’ solo debut, as well as “Alright” by Sweden’s The Lost Patrol. “Alright” is an instantly familiar, unbelievably catchy gem from the relatively unheard of Lost Patrol, which, considering the band’s brand of blissful pop music, is ironically the side project of, Dennis Lyxzén, the former lead singer of hardcore-punk masterminds The Refused.

The second half of the album opens with Brendan Benson’s relentlessly twinkly “Cold Hands (Warm Heart)” and Death Cab’s beautiful “Marching Bands of Manhattan”, before Sufjan Stevens steals the show with his incredible acoustic rendition of “Chicago”, which was one of the best songs of 2005 and is only more pulchritudinous (I already used “beautiful” once in this sentence) when stripped down to it’s acoustic core. Next Bloc Party makes their standard appearance with “So Here We Are”, one of the slower, more moving tracks on Silent Alarm, which flows inexplicably well into Sigur Ros’ remarkable “Hoppipolla”, which embodies the pristine glaciality (not a real word!) of an icy winter more perfectly than any other song on this mix. Finally, Sufjan Stevens opens the final third of the album with “The Predatory Wasp”, the most moving and epic ballad on Illinois (an album full of moving and epic ballads), which moves into Stars’ “On Peak Hill”, a gem from Stars debut album (Nightsongs) that’s much less well-known but might actually be better than “Your Ex-Lover Is Dead” (yeah, I said it). Finally, German pop-masterminds The Notwist and the equally-incredible Postal Service close out the album on a decidedly electronic note, with “Consequence”, one of the more beautiful electronic ballads ever written, and a live version of “Brand New Colony”, which was recorded on KCRW’s Morning Becomes Eclectic (see my full write-up of that session here, complete with un-downloadable MP3s!) and features all kind of new, though subtle, bells and whistles. I hope this is as enjoyable for everyone to listen to as it was for me to make. MP3s below, as always, the ((highly recommended)) is implied.

M3 Volume 7:
1. “White Collar Boy” - Belle & Sebastian
2. “The Start of Something” - Voxtrot
3. “The CN Tower Belongs To The Dead” - Final Fantasy
4. “Fake Palindromes” - Andrew Bird
5. “With Arms Outstretched” - Rilo Kiley
6. “Alright” - The Lost Patrol
7. “Cold Hands (Warm Heart)” - Brendan Benson
8. “Marching Bands of Manhattan” - Death Cab For Cutie
9. “Chicago” (Acoustic) - Sufjan Stevens
10. “So Here We Are” - Bloc Party
11. “Hoppipolla” - Sigur Ros
12. “The Predatory Wasp” - Sufjan Stevens
13. “On Peak Hill” - Stars
14. “Consequence” - The Notwist
15. “Brand New Colony” (Live on KCRW) - Postal Service

This post is adressed to the countless (alright in actuality it was probably around 10) emails and comments I’ve received regarding the fact that none of the MP3s in posts dated earlier than January 22nd work. I’m terribly sorry about this, but for those of you not aware, right after I posted the Top 65 Music Videos of 2005, the resulting surge in traffic and downloading overwhelmed ezarchive’s servers and they had to terminate my account lest their servers go haywire. While this made Everett and I relatively proud (I mean, come on, that’s kind of awesome, like… we brought them to their knees), it also left us without hosting. Ezarchive agreed to reinstate us if we removed the high-traffic/high-volume links, and I did so, but in that time they began the long process of updating all of their servers, an extremely sensitive process which could be severely damaged if someone (i.e. me) overwhelmed their servers again. However, they’ve agreed to reinstate me as soon as that process is over - which they estimate to be in early-to-mid March - and all my files and mp3s should be safe and sound and as good as new. In the meantime, if you’re absolutely dying for a song/video (depending on size) that I posted in the past, email me at dwd7e@virginia.edu (NOTE: this is not the e-mail designated to this blogger account), and I will do my best to send it to you with utmost expedience.

Also, in other news, I know I said yesterday that I’d be featuring a bunch of the new Yeah Yeah Yeahs tracks and an exclusive remix today, but to put it bluntly, I lied. What actually happened is that I realized that M3 Volume 7 has just been sitting on my hard drive, completed, waiting to see the light of day since December 18th (which is like a long time ago), and considering that I just finished the track selection for M3 Volume 8, I really need to get V7 into the longing hands of the public. So, stick around as you’ve got a fresh, piping hot batch of M3 goodness coming right up (UPDATE: Ezarchive’s acting up again and the site won’t load, so upon further review, you may just want to check back for Volume 7 in the morning, sorry to build everyone up just to let them down).

NOTE: I was going to update this post anyway to address the fact that it turns out that “Sea Lion Woman” (or “Sea Lime Woman”) is actually a cover of a Nina Simone song, but then I log onto iTunes today and there’s a brand new “Mushaboom” remix done by everyone’s favorite band of all time [okay that’s an exaggeration, but seriously no one doesn’t like] The Postal Service! Anyway, refer to the second half of this update in the main body of this post below.Those of you who read my write-up of Feist’s recent show at UVA’s Satellite Ballroom may remember me mentioning that one of her new songs, credited on the setlist as “Sea Lion”, stood out among the rest, and that I requested an MP3 of it if anyone had one to offer. Fortunately informed reader Julian, had not one, but three good live versions for me, and I’m posting what I feel is the best recording of the bunch. The song, whose full title is apparently “Sea Lion Woman”, showcases the more raucous and louder side of Feist, just as “Mushaboom” did on Let It Die. “Sea Lion Woman” also displays Feist’s introduction of vocal looping into her songs, which she did frequently when performing songs from her upcoming (and still untitled) third album at the show. This recording is taken from Feist’s August 13, 2005 performance at Canada’s acoustically-flawless Rehearsal Hall, so it’s of very high quality.

UPDATE: It turns out that “Sea Lion Woman” is actually a cover of a Nina Simone song titled “Sea Lime Woman”. However, I’m still going to refer to it as “Sea Lion Woman”, because if you look at the setlist (follow the link to see a scan of it), you’ll see that it’s clearly referred to as “Sea Lion”. So go figure. BUT while that’s all fun and confusing and whatnot, in much more important news, Zack (from All Things Go) informed me of iTunes’ release of a brand new remix of Feist’s “Mushaboom” today, by none other than The Postal Service, who are responsible for one of my top five favorite albums of all time, Give Up.

The fact that Postal Service are doing Apple any favors by hooking them up with exclusive material is surprising, considering Ben Gibbard’s recent comments about his dismay at the fact that their “Such Great Heights” video was blatantly ripped off for Apple’s new Intel commercial, but I’m glad they did, as the remix is great. The remix removes Feist’s twangy, whimsical instrumentation in exchange for that typical Postal Service flare, isolating Feist’s soaring voice to sing over glitchy little booms and bips and a severe underlying synth line. However, the real highlight is the addition of Ben Gibbard’s cherubic (as usual) back-up vocals to the track. All in all this was the most pleasant surprise I could possibly imagine today and I [highly recommend] you grab this track for yourself. Also, feel free to check out Pitchfork’s review of the track also. Mushaboom:

MP3:
“Sea Lion Woman” - Feist
“Mushaboom” (Postal Service Remix) - Feist [highly recommended]

Also released today on iTunes was the full Gold Lion EP from the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, and while most of you have probably already heard both Diplo’s remix and the original version of “Gold Lion” (as well as b-side “Let Me Know”), the EP also features an additional remix courtesy of YYYs guitarist Nick Zinner, which might trump both the original and Diplo’s mix (though I haven’t decided yet). So, yeah, keep an eye out because I’ll be posting that, as well as another unreleased song from the new album and an exclusive remix (courtesy of The Faint… intrigued yet?), later tonight or tomorrow.

Electric President, which is made up of Ben Cooper and Alex Kane, first formed in 2004, but for the first year or so of their career they performed and recorded under the painful-to-read Radical Face Versus Phalex Sledgehammer alias. After completing three albums in six months RFvsPS shed the atrocious moniker and changed their name to Electric President, and released the awesomely-named You Have The Right To Remain Awesome EP in late 2004. However, Electric President have really come in to their own on their full-length debut, which dropped last month on Morr Music.

Like Jose Gonzalez, Phoenix, and Imogen Heap before them, Electric President are another great band introduced to me by The OC (I know, I know, indie cred shattered). Their incredible song, “Insomnia”, was used to close out the episode three weeks ago (you know, the one before Johnny fell to his long-awaited death), and the song also moonlights as the best track on the duo’s self-titled debut. On “Label My Mind: Blown”, the highlight track from Electric President’s debut EP, the band merely hints at their potential, displaying a knack for extremely catchy songwriting, great (yet simple) guitar-based instrumentation, and lead singer Ben Cooper’s Pinback-esque vocals. However, on their self-titled debut full length, the band takes things in a completely different direction, which Ben comments on, saying:

“As usual, it was recorded in a tool shed and a bedroom. But there was a slightly different goal this time around. The idea was in to integrate computers into the process as much as possible, but without making it an “electronic” record. So a lot of the sounds started as acoustic recordings and were later chopped and sequenced into something new.”

This results in a wholly electronic sound that still manages to remain decidedly organic, reminiscent of the kind of organica (new term?) Four Tet produces on many of his tracks. While “Insomnia” is the clear-cut best track on Electric President, “Good Morning, Hypocrite” and “Ten Thousand Lines” are also stand-outs, the latter of which even features some Animal Collective-esque shrieks and howls throughout. To properly put into perspective Electric President’s development, I’d recommend downloading and listening to “Label My Mind: Blown” first to get a feel for where they started and then listen to “Insomnia” to hear how they’ve evolved.

MP3s:
“Label My Mind: Blown” - Electric President [highly recommended]
“Good Morning, Hypocrite” - Electric President
“Insomnia” - Electric President [highly recommended]
“Ten Thousand Lines” - Electric President

Lately it seems like all of the hyped “buzz bands” coming out of the UK are all about searing, angular guitar riffs and action-packed song structures (see: We Are Scientists, Maximo Park, Editors, Bloc Party, et al), but Scotland’s My Latest Novel are refreshingly bucking the trend for a softer, much more twee sound. Lizzy first brought My Latest Novel to my attention after seeing them open for Sufjan in London (and actually hanging out with them after the show) and recommending them highly to me, and intrigued by her praise and the band’s wonderful name I immediately clamored to find some of their material. I did my best to follow her recommendation and check them out, but I could only dig up their two single releases (”Hope Edition” and the excellent “Sister Sneaker, Sister Soul”). While these were great, it wasn’t until I grabbed their full-length debut, Wolves, which recently leaked but won’t see a formal release until March 6th, that I realized the true expanse of their brilliance.

My Latest Novel’s sound is characterized by baroque arrangements, lush strings and elaborate song architectures, and I’d describe it as Belle & Sebastian meets Sufjan Stevens not only in terms of the music and arrangements but also in terms of lead singer Chris Deveney’s hushed vocals. I’ve seen them referred to as a “Scottish Arcade Fire”, which is applicable in the sense that they both feature male and female vocals and intricate song architectures, but fails to hold up as well as the B&S (with less whimsy) and Sufjan (with less Christianity and pep) comparisons do. Either way these are lofty comparisons, but with Wolves My Latest Novel prove they deserve the praise and good company. First single “Sister Sneaker, Sister Soul” is a touching song of love from afar featuring complex arrangements that climax in a swelling and swirling instrumental bridge and a wonderful chorus. “The Job Mr. Kurtz Done” is an absolutely brilliant song that alternates between spoken word and soaring sung choruses, and is one of the album’s many highlights and the first song of theirs that I really fell in love with. The album’s final track and next single (due out February 20th), “The Reputation of Ross Francis”, is perhaps Wolves’ finest, on which lead singer and lyricist Deveney spins the tale of one Mr. Ross Francis and his afterlife struggle to convince God that he’s worthy of admittance into heaven. Though there’s no word yet on when Wolves will reach US shores, I definitely have to recommend that you UK readers pick this up when it drops in early March, courtesy of Bella Union. MLN are also about to embark on a full UK tour, starting March 5th in Glasgow, with a warm-up gig at London’s Luminaire, but unfortunately it’s long sold out. For their full list of tour dates go here (courtesy of Drowned In Sound), and for a full-on barrage of musical brilliance, hit up these MP3s below.

MP3s:
“Sister Sneaker, Sister Soul” - My Latest Novel [highly recommended]
“The Job Mr. Kurtz Done” - My Latest Novel [highly recommended]
“The Reputation of Ross Francis” - My Latest Novel [highly recommended]
“Hope Edition” - My Latest Novel

[all photos taken by Brooklyn Vegan, visit his site for more here]

I guess I should start by just putting it right out there that I’ve never seen a better show in my life and I may never see another concert as life-changing as this was. First of all, first let me explain how I barely even made it to the concert in the first place. Tickets for the show went on sale at 10 AM on November 10th, and I was up and clicking and managed to get my tickets at 9:50 AM that day, thus securing for myself two tickets in the sixth row of the Theater at Madison Square Garden for the show. However, due to my recently stumbling on hard times financially it appeared as if I wasn’t even going to be able to attend the show, as I couldn’t afford to get myself there. However, in a story of unparalleled heroicism, Stephen, who was my host at UVa when I visited as a prospective last year, refused to let me miss such a life-changing opportunity and managed to get hold of a car from his girlfriend at JMU (first-years at UVa aren’t allowed to have cars), and we decided to embark on the journey of a lifetime. Also, all of this was decided the night before the show at 3 AM, so things were a bit harried and last minute, but everything worked out all the same.

Fast forward 600 miles and 20 hours later, and we’re both sitting in our sixth row seats in Madison Square Garden, bracing ourselves for the greatness we knew we were about to endure. Sigur Ros’ opening band, Amina, an Icelandic female quartet who appear to aspire to become the female equivalent of Sigur Ros, took the stage at 8 PM sharp and proceeded to put on a surprisingly great show to warm up the audience’s palate for a delicious serving of the ‘Ros. Amina played a great set and possess a sound that I’d describe as a slightly more conventional Sigur Ros, in their more concise song lengths and somewhat more traditional song structures, while still featuring that patented Icelandic glacial and epic sound patented by Sigur Ros. The young ladies played a veritable hodgepodge of instruments, playing everything from strings to a vibraphone to these little hand-bell type things (that’s their technical name), and one of them even found not one, but two different ways to make music with a saw in two of their songs. In the first of those two songs, she played the non-serrated edge of the saw with a violin bow, creating a nice complimentary zipping sound, but the highlight came in the final song of the group’s set. In this closing song, the girls threw out all of their signature twinkling and plucking sounds in exchange for an electronic, key-board based song, which featured at center stage one of the girls using a xylophone mallet to play the saw, which she would flex and bend to alter the sound’s pitch. All in all the girls from Amina played a very impressive set, and I really can’t imagine a more perfect band to open for Sigur Ros. I’ve hosted the two best songs from their AniminA EP, which was on sale at the show, to give you guys a taste for their enchanting brand of Icelandic Download the best and final song of their set, “Ammalis”, which was recorded live when the band opened for Sigur Ros in Chicago last September, and keep an ear out for that girl playing the saw at the front of the mix (it’s that crazy “boinggg” noise).

“Hemipode” - Amina
“Blaskjar” - Amina
“Ammalis” (Live) - Amina

Now, onto the main event. Sigur Ros took the stage behind a translucent curtain and stood before bright spotlights which served to project epic shadows on the curtain as the group prepared to take everyone in attendance on an audio-visual odyssey none of them would soon forget. As they set up, a pre-recorded version of “Takk…” played, mounting anticipation until the twinkling opening notes of “Glosoli” kicked in to much applause. After bringing the house down on only the first song, Sigur Ros played “Ny Batteri” before launching (well, actually it was more like twinkling) into “Saeglopur” and “Gong”, two of my favorite tracks from Takk. “Saeglopur” sounded incredible in all it’s xylophonic grandeur, and the epic sound of “Gong” was only amplified tenfold when translated from CD to stage. However, the first true highlight of the show came when the ethereal opening notes of “Hoppipolla” twinkled out over the audience, and the following five minutes of bliss and “Meo Blodnasir”, which is a “Hoppipolla pt. 2″ of sorts, left me in a state of awe-struck paralysis. “Vidrar Vel Til Loftarasa”, this website’s namesake, was another epic, and the visual team projected slow-motion scenes from Arni & Kinski’s incredible video for the song (viewable at the band’s website here) onto the backdrop behind the band, making for one of the most memorable songs of the night. See another amazing shot from Brooklyn Vegan, of the band performing “Vidrar Vel”, below:”

Finally, the absolute pinnacle of the show came when Jonsi and company broke out an unexpected treat for the audience, “Staralfur”, which the band rarely plays anymore but just recently saw a surge in popularity after it’s inclusion on the Life Aquatic soundtrack, as well as when Sigur Ros served up a piping hot plate of mesmerization when they performed “Hafsol” in the encore. After “Staralfur”, “an unusually glib and animated Jonsi offered more than his patented ‘Tank yu,’ as he felt compelled to explain the difficulty of counting beats through the irritating stage noise [the result of Billy Joel’s performance upstairs in the arena section of MSG] audible during the otherwise lush and glacial “Heysatan.” This moment — in conjunction with Mr. Birggison humorously fumbling with a lyric crib sheet during the Steve Zissou endorsed “Staralfur” (ironic because so few of his songs contain actual lyrics to forget) — allowed us a rare glimpse at the child-like spirit animating the band’s creative fountainhead” (Stereogum). “Hafsol”, which was originally released on the band’s 1998 debut Von but has since become a live staple, served to put the icing on the cake, and is to date the single most incredible song I’ve ever seen performed live. The song opens with bassist Georg Holm tapping out a 1/32nd note bassline using a drumstick and climaxes in a swirling crescendo of frantic strings, and is guaranteed to put to shame every other song you’ve ever seen live. I mean, dude plays bass with a drumstick, enough said. The only thing I would have changed would have been to close with “Hafsol”, rather than “Untitled #8 (Popplagio)”, which was appropriately incredible but fell short of the majesty bestowed upon the audience by “Hafsol”, and I was also surprised that the band managed to sneak out of MSG without playing their most critically-acclaimed song and fan favorite “Svefn-g-englar”. All in all, as you can probably tell by the amount of hyperbole used and the exhaustive length of this review, but this was easily far-and-away the best show I’ve ever had the privilege to attend. For a much better-written review of this show check out Amrit’s write-up over at Stereogum, and also be sure to check out the rest of Brooklyn Vegan’s fantastic photos from this show.

But wait… there’s more! You may be wondering why I’ve not yet written up the setlist in this post, and the reason is that thanks to Sigur Ros superfan Dan Lynch, I’ve got a near-flawless recording of the entire concert. Dan built a torrent file of his FLAC (free lossless audio content - the highest standard in high-quality recorded audio) format recording and uploaded it to Sigur Ros Torrents, you’re go-to source for all things downloadable Sigur Ros. I downloaded it and converted all of the files to MP3, which I’m making available for download below, and I also created cover art for this live set, which you can view below. So, without further ado, I present to you, courtesy of Dan Lynch, Sigur Ros’ complete Madison Square Garden performance in mp3 format (to download the show in FLAC format, go here to download the torrent).

DOWNLOAD: Sigur Ros: Live at MSG (02.09.06) [follow link]

SETLIST:
1. “Takk/Glosoli”
2. “Ny Batteri”
3. “Saeglopur”
4. “Gong”
5. “Andvari”
6. “Hoppipolla”
7. “Meo Blodnasir”
8. “Se Lest”
9. “Olsen Olsen”
10. “Vidrar Vel Til Loftarasa”
11. “Svo Hljott”
12. “Heysatan”
13. “Staralfur”

Encore 1: “Hafsol”
Encore 2: “Untitled #8 (Popplagio)”

Sorry for the exhaustive length of this post, this show was just far too incredible to pay attention to conciseness.

As I previously reported here, Kanye is releasing/just released his brand new epic of a video for new single “Touch The Sky”, which is directed once again by Ye’s favorite director, Chris Milk. Milk’s previous work includes the excellent videos for “Jesus Walks” and “All Falls Down” (the latter of which is my favorite hip-hop video of all time), as well as Modest Mouse’s great 2004 clip for “Ocean Breathes Salty”, which are all viewable in embedded Quicktime format at Milk’s website here.

In an age where every single hip-hop video is exactly the same (large posse + women with exaggerated figures dancing + hot rides [somewhat optional] = every current hip-hop video), Kanye has consistently put out quality videos, and “Touch The Sky” is no exception. The video is beautifully filmed with 70’s vintage cinematography and stars Mr. West as Evel Kanyeval, and focuses one the final hours before he attempts to launch himself across the Grand Canyon and literally “touch the sky”. It’s very well done and features a pretty decent performance by Pamela Anderson as Kanyeval’s girl, a reference to the “as soon he get off, he leave your ass for a white girl” line from “Gold Digger”. The video is nothing short of an extavaganza, clocking in at over five minutes (the actual song is 3:27), and easily one of the best videos put out so far in 2006. Check it out below in all it’s vintage glory:

Video: “Touch The Sky” - Kanye West [highly recommended]
{Directed by Chris Milk}

Also, be sure to check back shortly for the big update/announcement you’ve all been waiting with baited breath for. It’s coming…

I had the pleasure of seeing Feist last night at Charlottesville’s Satellite Ballroom, which was monumental not only because of the fact that Feist is incredible, but also because it was the first show I’ve seen at UVa since arriving here last August, which is somewhat inexcusable. Hopefully that will change in the near future though, as the Ballrooom have really outdone themselves, booking Of Montreal (for the second time this year), The Fiery Furnaces, The Books, The Silver Jews (on their first tour ever… sold out already though), and Mogwai all in the next month. But anyway, in keeping with the matter at hand, I got to see Feist last night, with the surprisingly enjoyable Jason Collett opening.Collett, whose songs I had heard before but hadn’t really loved, turned in a great performance and really developed a nice relationship with the crowd, despite his apparent shit faced-ness. Feist even came out to perform “Hangover Days” with him, a song that on the album features Metric’s Emily Haines. She also played drums on another track, though it was one I didn’t recognize. It was also a notable evening because yesterday marked the release of Collett’s album here in the states, though it’s been out for over a year in Canada. Highlights were “Hangover Days”, which Feist came out to join him for, as well as “Fire” and “Blue Sky”, but Collett put on an all-around enjoyable show from start to finish. On the album “Hangover Days” features Metric’s Emily Haines, as well as backup vox from Feist, while “Fire” features the incredible voice of Stars’ and Broken Social Scene’s Amy Millan, whose solo album, which I can’t wait for, should see a release this Spring. Definitely download those two tracks below if you’d like to try on Jason Collett for yourself.

“Fire” - Jason Collett (ft. Amy Millan)
“Hangover Days” - Jason Collett (ft. Emily Haines w/ Feist)As for the main event, Feist put on an absolutely lovely and very interactive show, to the delight of everyone in attendance. She introduced what she referred to as a “ladder system” for her setlist, in which she would alternate between playing songs from her fantastic 2004 release (2005 in the US) Let It Die and new songs she’s written for her upcoming third album, due out in mid-2006. This system was great, because I got to hear all the highlights from Let It Die as well as her exciting new material, which sounded great. From the looks of her live show her next album will introduce a lot of new elements, as Feist toyed a lot with looping her voice and even introduced some experimental aspects to her new songs, which sounded great. Most notable was “Sea Lion”, the final new song she played (and I only know the title because I nabbed the setlist), which was one of here more full, lusher songs more along the lines of “Mushaboom”, which is definitely a good thing, considering the fact that “Mushaboom” is definitely the pinnacle of her career so far (for a testament to this fact, see the results of the poll to the left, where “‘Boom” got the most votes of any of the songs on M3 Volume 6 in the favorite song poll). Unfortunately I don’t have an mp3 of “Sea Lion”, live or otherwise, so if anyone can hook me up that’d be absolutely splendid. As I previously mentioned, I was able to get Feist’s setlist, and you can go here to view the whole thing, complete with all of the new songs and their titles. All in all this was a great show, and if Feist and Collett (anyone know if they’re dating, I kind of got that vibe, I could easily be wrong though) roll through your town anytime soon I’d definitely recommend that you go and check them out. Download Feist’s chart-toppers below, as well as her wonderful video for “Mushaboom”.Also, now’s a good time for me to draw attention to one of my new favorite blogs, The Rich Girls Are Weeping. I really love her site and I feel like it’s the closest thing GWFAS has to a sister blog, in that she obviously prides herself on finding obscure material from already-big bands (which is what I’m all about), as well as also finding hot new up-and-coming buzz bands to keep the readers coming. Granted, you might say every blog tries to do that, but yeah, I just feel a connection. Maybe it’s love. Who knows? ANYWAY, the whole point of me bringing The Rich Girls up is the fact that she recently posted a bunch of great Feist remixes, which you can and should go download right here (for the DoRight’s “Gatekeeper” Vocal Mix) and here (for VV’s “Mushaboom” and “One Evening” remixes), as well as check out all the other great stuff she has there.

UPDATE: Pitchfork just published their own review of the Feist/Collet collective’s Chicago stop, which you can read here.

MP3s:
“Mushaboom” - Feist [highly recommended]
“Inside & Out” - Feist
“One Evening” - Feist

Video: “Mushaboom” (Version 2) - Feist [highly recommended]
{Directed by Patrick Daughters}

Also, in a complete genre 180, I also attended the emo show on Sunday, featuring The Academy Is… and Panic! At The Disco with the ever-precious Adrian from All Things Go, and despite the superfluous punctuation in both bands’ names I was actually pretty impressed. Panic! At The Disco was actually pretty incredible and I’d definitely recommend checking them out (only if synthesizer-laden emo is your thing of course), and for a full run-down of the show, which also featured Hellogoodbye (fun) and Acceptance (lame), check out Adrian’s review over at ATG.

One of my favorite things to do is discover new music, and when I find new music, whether via the internet or that has been recommended by a friend, that I genuinely enjoy, it is a truly rewarding experience. It is exceedingly rare, however, for me to have a band recommended to me that I have a) never heard of, and b) absolutely fall in love with when I hear them. However, a couple weeks ago I was treated to just such an experience when my friend Austin told me about a band that sounded very intriguing, then wrote a post on them with many downloadable tracks. The band was Mew, the post can be found HERE, the songs were unbelievable, and the rest is history. Disclaimer: Describing Mew requires an unprecedented amount of adverbs.

When I heard those songs, I was immediately motivated to acquire as many more Mew songs as possible, and I have since acquired all four of their full-lengths. I was also struck by a desire to learn as much about this band as possible. One of the first things I discovered is that they hail from Denmark; I was pretty sure this made them the best thing to come out of Denmark in history, but decided that rather than brashly post such a statement, I would do a little research to verify that. My findings: music-hating Metallica drummer Lars Ulrich is from Denmark. Mew: 1, Other Great Danes (ha!): 0. Morten Andersen, mid-40s NFL Kicker, is from Denmark. Mew: 2, Others: 0. Niels Bohr, Nobel Prize-winning physicist, is from Denmark… push. Viggo Mortensen, professional Aragorn, is from Denmark. Mew: 3, Others: 0.
That girl from Chris Isaak’s “Wicked Game” video (MTV’s ‘Sexiest Video of All Time’) is from Denmark. Mew: 3, Others: 1. Actress Brigitte Nielson, who posed for Playboy, is from Denmark. Mew: 3, Others: 2. Ole Kirk Christiansen, inventor of LEGO, is from Denmark… another push. So, after conducting all that educational research, I stand by my statement that the mathematical inequality of Mew > (Denmark - Mew) holds true. [UPDATE: Apparently I touched a nerve with this paragraph. Yes, The Raveonnetes are from Denmark. Yes, Efterklang is from Denmark. Of course, the unforgettable Junior Senior is from Denmark. I realize Mew is not the only band to come out of Denmark; all I am saying is that Mew is far and away the best of the bunch. Remember, Danes, your proudest musical export to date is “Barbie Girl”-singing Aqua. You are in no position to argue.]

Mew has been making mewsic (ha!) for nearly a decade now, and the general consensus that I wholeheartedly agree with is that their greatest masterwork to date is 2003’s epicly gorgeous and wholly impeccable Frengers (the subtitle offers explanation for this title: “Not quite friends, not quite strangers”). From start to finish, this ten-track album literally never ceases to astound me at how amazing this band is. The bands sound is hard to describe, though comparisons of lead vocalist and guitarist Jonas Bjerre’s voice to that of Sigur Ros’s Jonsi Birgisson are not too far-fetched (don’t worry, Mew sings in English), though one could also draw some similarities to Thom Yorke’s breaking vocals on much of Kid A. The band is comprised of truly outstanding musicians, and it is taking a great deal of effort to not just post the whole album here. The album is definitely near the top of my list of favorite albums, and I feel it’s only fair to warn you that Mew can be addictive; since I first discovered them I’ve had a difficult time listening to anything else. Without further ado, some of the highestlight of Frengers (every track is a highlight) can be downloaded below, and I’d like to once again refer you to Austin’s post at All Things Go, found HERE, where I would recommend you download “Am I Wry? No.” and the radio edit of “Comforting Sounds”, the first and last tracks on Frengers, as well “The Zookeeper’s Boy”, one of the two highlights from Mew’s 2005 release, Mew And The Glass Handed Kites.

Snow Brigade - This song is one of the louder, more rocking tracks from Frengers. The instrumentation is strong and heavier than normal for Mew. The chorus is, like nearly all of Mew’s choruses, remarkably catchy. One formula that Mew utilizes often and with excellent results is the instrumental backing generally flares up significantly during the chorus, and the tunefulness of Bjerre’s vocals in the chorus generally far exceed the verses. Mew has crafted what are in my opinion some of the most memorable chorus’s of this millenium. “Snow Brigade” stands out to me for the way its driving guitar occasionally quiets to showcase Bjerre’s beautiful chorus, the musical equivalent of rolling dark clouds parting in favor of a brief but inspiring ray of sunlight.

Symmetry - Much of the singing in this laid-back, minimalistic song is done by an American girl named Becky Jarrett, who was only fourteen years old when this song was recorded. The ballad showcases Jarrett’s remarkably mature young voice on top of a gentle piano, and Bjerre takes over the backing vocals. Bjerre drops his normally high voice considerably to contrast Jarrett, a very sound decision.

She Came Home For Christmas - This is Mew at their poppiest, and I mean that in the most complimentary way possible. This song is incredibly catchy, and I cannot find a single fault with it. Mew has released this song as a single more than once, and though the band has found success in its native Denmark, the United States is still depressingly unaware of this band. If more people heard this song, that would change; I can’t imagine anybody disliking it. If you haven’t been convinced by the 2:42 mark, you will be after you hear the song break down in to pure musical exuberance. If even at the conclusion of this track you have not fallen in love with Mew and everything they stand for, you do not have a soul.

She Spider - Close your eyes. This song was on the Spider-Man 2 soundtrack. Okay, you can open them now. Anyway, this song literally explodes at the 1:18 mark, and it just does not look back. This is where Bjerre’s vocals most closely resemble Thom Yorke’s, though with the instrumentation provided by Bo Madsen, Jonah Wohlert, and Utke Graae Jorgensen it may be hard to distinguish. Though all Mew songs are fairly anthemic, this song is different from many other Mew songs because its inclusion of an odd guitar solo; Mew is better working together than if anyone tries to do something on their own, and the solo can get old after a while. Attempted guitar heroics notwithstanding, this is another excellent Mew song and, when contrasted with the sparse piano ballad of “Symmetry”, truly illustrates the level of musical diversity this band is capable of.

I’m pretty sure this goes without saying, but in case it doesn’t, all of these songs are [highly recommended]. Enjoy!