Good Weather For Airstrikes

Shortly after arriving in the UK in January I got an email from one Mr. Jeremy Warmsley tipping me off about an internet TV show he’d launched with his flatmate Fay Buzzard. Built around intimate live performances from London’s brightest young songwriters, Welcome To Our TV Show is a really special look into the extended family of musicians that many of London’s brilliant folk and indie talents belong to. Episode 1 features performances from the Mystery Jets, Laura Marling, Noah & The Whale and of course Warmsley himself, while Episode 2 has Lightspeed Champion, Laura Groves, Emmy The Great and a duet between Emmy and Jeremy in the clip’s final scene. I’m still too incompetent to figure out how to embed YouTube clips on Wordpress, but you’ll find links to both parts of each episode below and I highly recommend you check it out.

Episode 1 (December): [Part One] [Part Two]
Episode 2 (January): [Part One] [Part Two]

The best part of all this, though, is Jeremy’s been kind enough to provide me with MP3s of all of the tracks performed and recorded on the show, and given that many of the songs performed are rare or unreleased material and covers, I’m really happy to make them available for download. Downloads of all of the songs from episodes one and two are available below, but you should definitely view the videos as well.

Episode One
MP3: “Flakes” (Live) – Mystery Jets
MP3: “To Cyril At Crunkmas” (Live) – Noah & The Whale
MP3: “Shine” (Live) – Laura Marling
MP3: “Going Out of My Head” (Live) – Jeremy Warmsley

Episode Two
MP3: “Boat Song” (Live) - Emmy The Great & Jeremy Warmsley
MP3: “Hooker Song” (Live) - Lightspeed Champion
MP3: “I Wish I” (Live) - Laura Groves
MP3: “24″ (Live) - Emmy The Great

It’s been ages since I’ve been motivated to post a live set, but this is some seriously hot shit. Anyone who’s seen Girl Talk in 2007 knows that his live shows are completely off the chains, thanks in large part to his pro-stage invasion stance and his tendency to flesh out his sets with completely new remixes and mash-ups alongside his officially released material. I’ve seen Girl Talk thrice now, in three different cities along the Eastern seaboard (Boston, NYC and the Chocolate City, naturally), and have been completely owned on every occasion. That said, Girl Talk is best enjoyed in the company of absurd amounts of alcohol, so memories of exactly what was played are a bit hazy. Fortunately, one Brian Connolly was on hand at the Seattle show last January and was able to lock down a near-flawless soundboard (not soundboard?) recording of the show. Not only that, but he also took the time to at least attempt to give us some sort of coherent tracklisting by creating titles for each of the tracks. So yes, let’s all take a minute to thank him. Alright, we good? Cool.

Now feast upon this masterpiece of a bootleg. I made some artwork for it which you’ll find above, or in high resolution at the link below, as per usual. I’m not gonna bother with uploading all the individual tracks since we all know the individual downloads don’t work anyway, but I’ve upped the whole thing as a .zip file to a couple different file hosts to make sure everyone can access it. There’s no real point in discussing the set’s highlights as the whole thing’s just one big highlight in itself, but “Digital Hustlin’” (Rick Ross’ “Hustlin’” and “Digital Love”), “Whoomp Wit It…” (”Carry On My Wayward Son” gettin’ cosy with “SexyBack” and “My Love”) and the moment when he drops “Call On Me” and “Drop The Pressure” in “Bounce That” and “What A Fool Know About That” (respectively) are pretty fucking exciting to say the least. I’ve uploaded “Digital Hustlin’” and “Whoomp” as individual MP3’s, but you’d be wise to just go ahead and download the whole thing from the links below.

High Resolution Artwork: [Front Cover]

Download: Girl Talk: Live In Seattle [follow link] [Alternate Link]

Girl Talk Murders Seattle:
01. “Give me like, three minutes.”
02. (Crowd Noise)
03. “Girl Talk” (Radio Chatter Intro)
04. “SPOON MAN!” (Introduction)
05. “Ring The Alarm Once Again”
06. “What It’s All About”
07. “Stuntin’ By The Lights”
08. “Doin’ It Bossy”
09. “Pump This Party”
10. “Work It”
11. “Need You To Set It Off”
12. “Loving Changes, Hating Changes”
13. “What A Fool Know About That”
14. “Kryptonic Train Ride”
15. “Whoomp Wit It, Lean Wit It, Rock Wit It” [Alternate Link]
16. “Digital Hustlin’” [Alternate Link]
17. “Run This Motherfucker”
18. “Just Need To Stay Fly”
19. “Galang-nologic”
20. “Ain’t No Other Love Triangle”
21. “Bounce That”
22. “Smash Your Head”
23. “I finally feel like I’m Spoon Man!”
24. “Nuckin, Buckin, Gettin’ Some”
25. “Lay It Back And Drop It”
26. “Pump That Pussy, Don’t Back Down”
27. “Peak Out”
28. “From The Muddy Banks Of Seattle”

So there you have it, one of the illest live recordings I’ve ever come across. Once again, massive thanks go to Mssr. Connolly, as this is something seriously special.

Alright. I know. I’ve been posting on Bloc Party a lot recently. And by “a lot”, I mean the last four posts have all prominently involved the band in one way or another, my bad. But they’ve got a huge new single out that should be their biggest commercial success to date, “I Still Remember”, and there’s just a lot going on for the band right now. So forgive me if I make one more post dedicated to the band, but come on, it’s Bloc Party covering Nelly Furtado! I mean, fuck, does it get any better than that? Answer: No.

The band performed yesterday on Jo Whiley’s morning show on Radio 1, the best part of which is always the Live Lounge sessions, in which Whiley’s guests head into the lounge and perform a song from their catalog as well as a cover of a hit by another artist. This routine has seen Snow Patrol covering “Crazy In Love”, Arcade Fire covering “Maps” and a number of other memorable performances, including my personal favorite of the bunch, Guillemots’ incredible rendition of “Take Me Out”. Bloc Party’s performance, however, is one of their best ever, featuring another acoustic performance of “I Still Remember” and a brilliant take on Nelly Furtado’s “Say It Right” that led Whiley to comment that “it made it sound like Nelly had nicked it from the lads themselves”. Right, then - here are the tracks, only available for download on Good Weather For Airstrikes.

MP3: “Say It Right” (Live Lounge Session) - Bloc Party

Interested in hearing the full recording? It’ll be available for streaming here until next Wednesday and includes an insightful interview with the band and better music than you’ll ever hear on any popular American station (*sigh*). And since I’ve been collecting these Live Lounge covers for quite a while now, I figured I’d upload some of my favorites here for your enjoyment. Check it below.

MP3s:
“Crazy In Love” (Live Lounge Session ft. Zane Lowe) - Snow Patrol
“Maps” (Live Lounge Session) - Arcade Fire
“Take Me Out” (Live Lounge Session) - Guillemots ((highly recommended))
“Sweet Child O’ Mine” (Live Lounge Session) - Mylo
“Smile Like You Mean It” (Live Lounge Session) - David Gray

Anyone have The Feeling’s cover of “Drop The Pressure” that I know is floating around out there somewhere? I’ve been trying to track it down for ages, but it’s been the one Live Lounge cover that’s consistently eluded me. Any help would be much appreciated, get at me in the comments.

Considering the fact that I get at least three emails a week (without fail) requesting that I repost this live set, taken from the Postal Service’s performance at Morning Becomes Eclectic in 2004, it’s probably pretty rude of me to have waited so long to re-up it. Sorry, sometimes it takes me a long-ass time to get around to doing the simplest things; it happens. Anyway, here it is - the emails can stop now. The whole thing’s pretty great and worth downloading if only for the incredible new version of “Brand New Colony” and Jenny Lewis’ sterling performance on “Nothing Better”*, not to mention the beautiful update to “District Sleeps Alone Tonight”.

Download: The Postal Service: Live On Morning Becomes Eclectic [follow link]

Tracklist:
1. Intro
2. “District Sleeps Alone Tonight”
3. “We Will Become Silhouettes”
4. “Nothing Better” (ft. Jenny Lewis)
5. Interview
6. “Clark Gable”
7. “This Place Is A Prison”
8. “Such Great Heights”
9. “Brand New Colony” (Radio Mess Up)
10. “Brand New Colony” ((highly recommended))

*contrary to popular belief it was actually Jen Wood, not Jenny Lewis, who sang on the majority of Give Up so yeah, enjoy this new and improved version featuring J-Lew in all her glory.

So, HUGE bummer two weeks ago (almost on par with Sunday’s humiliating Redskins loss at the hands of the Titans) when I got all pumped to see Regina Spektor for the second time this year at DC’s 9:30 Club, only to get there to find it sold out. You see, I had no money on my credit card (and no way to get money on it at short notice since there isn’t a JP Morgan branch in Charlottesville), so I couldn’t get a ticket in advance, and since it wasn’t sold out when I left I figured as long as I got there by doors I had a pretty decent chance of getting a ticket, even if I had to get it from a scalper outside. Also, it was my mom’s birthday the next day so I figured I’d bring her present up with me and surprise her if I couldn’t get into the show. With the always-lovely Jia Tolentino as my co-pilot we made record-setting time on the first half of the commute, but ran into standstill traffic just 10 miles outside of DC, in which we stagnated for two hours before finally making it to the venue as she was taking the stage, and suffice it to say, the show was sold out and I was too late to even get any scalper loving. Fortunately, Jia had a ticket and was able to meet up with her other friends inside and enjoy the show. I was able to persuade her to do a brief recap of the evening’s events, which you’ll find below. For once you get to read a review on here that’s concise, to the point and not ridiculously long-winded; rejoice!

“Watching Regina Spektor is like playing with a kitten - a musically brilliant, adorable kitten. After every song of her October 3rd performance at the 9:30 Club, Spektor sort of nuzzled herself and smiled winsomely, immediately leading the crowd to yell “I love you!” and “You’re so fucking cute!” and “Hey, play Samson!” (which she did, eventually.) Playing with a bassist, guitarist, and faux-hawked drummer who all contributed back-up vocals, Spektor’s set was unusually lively, upping the ante notably on “That Time,” “On the Radio,” and “Sailor Song.” Her encore, which was just her solo at the keyboard, turned into a fittingly adorable sing-along when she urged the sold-out house to sing with an enthusiastic “Come on, people!” Spektor sang “Us,” “Ghost of Corporate Future,” “Fidelity,” “Samson,” and brought the band back on for her last song, which I can’t remember because - to be perfectly honest - I was high. I feel like she’d be cool with that, though. I’m still convinced she wrote “Ghost of Corporate Future” on shrooms.”

Yeah, that sounds good and all, but I got to do something nice for my mom, which I don’t really do nearly enough (unless of course throwing parties at your parents’ respective houses and getting caught on a regular basis is now considered doing something nice for your parents, I’ve been slacking in that department). One of the casualties of that June hiatus I went on was that I didn’t get to review the secret Regina Spektor show I attended at the Oren-Santz church, the oldest (and most beautiful) church in Manhattan. The incredible venue yielded one of the most amazing and unique concert experiences of my life. Unlike her 9:30 Club show, Regina played solo, alone at her piano in front of the 50 or so awestruck concetgoers in attendance, and the natural acoustics of the venue were just unbelievable. Suffice it to say, it was majestic as shit. Loose Record was at the same show and wrote up a nice review, but if even if you’re not big on words (in which case I have no idea how you made it this far), you should definitely make sure to check out their stunning pictures of the show to get an idea just how unbelievable the scene was. Aside from the sheery beauty of the venue, another awesome factor was the open bar, and since I guess they assumed everyone in attendance was over 21, things worked out quite nicely for me in that regard. I’d just picked up her new album at the time, Begin To Hope, which Everett and I were both obsessed with (documented here in Evro’s artist profile of Regina) and pretty much still are, so all of the new songs were an obvious highlight, as well as her incredible solo rendition of “Us” and a song I hadn’t heard before, which I’ve since come to discover is called “Baby Jesus”. Unavailable on any album, the song sees Regina at her most playful and showing off her most whimsical vocal acrobatics ever. Fortunately, I was able to track down an extremely high quality recording of Regina Spektor’s 2005 show at the Cabaret Voltaire in Edinburgh, Scotland, which features Amanda Palmer of the Dresden Dolls (for whom Regina was opening at the show) on “Uh-Merica”. It’s a fairly pristine recording, and Regina performs solo just as I saw her in NYC this summer, so it’s an added bonus that you get to here their songs in their most intimate and stripped-down versions.

SOUND QUALITY: B+

Regina Spektor, Live @ The Cabaret Voltaire: DOWNLOAD .ZIP [follow link]
01. “Talking Intro”
02. “8 Miles High”
03. “Pound of Flesh/Ezra Pound”
04. “Sailor Song”
05. “The Flowers”
06. “In Another Town”
07. “Dance Anthem of the 80s”
08. “Names and Faces”
09. “That Time”
10. “Mermaid”
11. “Apres Moi”
12. “On the Radio”
13. “Poor Little Rich Boy”
14. “Carbon Monoxide”
15. “Consequence of Sound”
16. “Fidelity”
17. “UH-Merica” (w/ Amanda Palmer)
18. “Samson”
19. “Us”
20. “Baby Jesus” ((highly recommended))

You can grab some more Regina mp3s by checking out Everett’s profile of her from last May here, or hit up the Hype Machine for more. Below is “Us”, my favorite Regina track, as well as a surprisingly excellent remix of the song courtesy of mc DJ of Illin’ Noise fame, with “That Time”, my new favorite track on Begin To Hope, just thrown in for good measure. As one final bonus I’m also reposting below Regina’s 2003 b-side collaboration with the Strokes, originally posted in Everett’s artist profile and titled “Modern Girls And Old Fashioned Men”.

MP3s:
“Us” - Regina Spektor ((highly recommended))
“Us” (mc DJ Remix) - Regina Spektor
“That Time” - Regina Spektor ((highly recommended))
“Modern Girls And Old Fashioned Men” (ft. Regina Spektor) - The Strokes

Shit, I really can’t get enough of this girl… here’s “Samson” as well. “Samson” was originally featured on Regina’s Songs album, but has been reprised on Begin To Hope because it’s just so amazing. With glossier production and the classy addition of strings, the new version doesn’t differ greatly from the original out side of these touches and some altered lyrics, but it’s still the best song Regina’s ever written and will benefit from the exposure gained by its inclusion on Hope, as otherwise it might remain forever buried in obscurity on her much lesser-known Songs.

Bonus MP3: “Samson” - Regina Spektor ((highly recommended))

I’d really hoped to post more live sets around here once I got version 2.0 up and running, but somehow I’ve ended up slacking in that department. Regardless, what better way to take a break from my epoch of an all-nighter than to bring some attention back to Maximo Park, who - lest you forget - had the best debut of 2005 (considering that Bloc Party’s true debut came in 2004 with their self-titled debut). We haven’t heard much out of the Maximo camp recently, as last we heard of them was last spring after the release of A Certain Trigger’s final single, “Stay”, as they were supposedly readying their sophomore album for a late 2006 release. That “late 2006 release” has since been pushed back to March 2007, with a lead single - possibly “Our Velocity, which lead singer Paul Smith described as “a spaceship exploding” - out sometime in January. Smith went on to discuss the band’s decision not to team up with Trigger producer and god-of-all-things Paul Epworth (they’ve gone with Pixies producer Gil Norton in his stead) this time around, pointing towards the fact that it seems that Epworth has an air about him that suggests he’s a bit too aware of his god-of-all-things status:

“We wanted to use somebody who didn’t tell us what to do and didn’t think that they knew everything about music, and would have a particular sound.”

Ouch, then. First introduced to me as “kind of a Hot Hot Heat ripoff” by Lizzy nearly two years ago, Maximo grew on me so much that they actually eclipsed HHH (both pre and post-Elevator) and finish six spots above the aforementioned Canadians on my year-end best albums of 2005 list. I was immediately hooked by the album’s near-flawless lead single, “Apply Some Pressure”, with that unbelievably addictive central guitar riff and its grueling pace, and the Park have subsequently earned themselves a spot near the top of my Bands I’d Kill To See Live But Haven’t Seen Yet list. Only further augmenting this desire is this fantastic official live recording, which I received as a bonus disc when I purchased the album on the day of its release in the UK last year.

SOUND QUALITY: A

Maximo Park, Live In Tokyo:
1. “Signal And Sign”
2. “The Coast Is Always Changing”
3. “Graffiti”
4. “I Want You To Stay”
5. “Limassol”
6. “Once, A Glimpse”
7. “Kiss You Better”

I’m all about the added bonuses, so here’s Field Music’s excellent remix of Maximo’s last single, “I Want You To Stay”. Field Music make the song completely their own, taking the bass-driven original and turning it into a jangly piano number far removed from the original, and it’s one of the best remixes I’ve heard all year.

MP3: “I Want You To Stay” (Field Music Remix) - Maximo Park

And while we’re on the topic of the “Stay” single, my main man Ramon Bloomberg (who also rocked that new Raconteurs vid) directed the track’s slick video, which you can and should download below. Let’s take a moment to give props to directors like Ramon and Elliot Jokelson who make their videos available for download for free on their personal website (*moment*, “props”). As for Ramon, he’s got some major projects coming down the pipeline, so remember the name.

Video: “I Want You To Stay”
Director: Ramon Bloomberg
Watch: [YouTube]
Download: [Quicktime]

A final note: My apologies for the slight lull in updates - it’s hard to get into pretentious music “critic” mode when you’re personal and academic life are simultaneously assaulting you with crisis after crisis from all directions, but I’m doing my best to forge ahead and keep the updates coming. However, if things slow down around here for a little while (which I sincerely hope they won’t), you’ll know why.

One of my goals for GWFAS 2.0 is to post more high-quality live recordings, and what better place to start than with my favorite live recording from my favorite band: Bloc Party’s set from last summer’s Leeds Festival. Bloc Party bring to the table an unrivaled vitality and energy in their recorded material, and this energy is only intensified exponentially in a live setting. More often than not, crowd-generated noise detracts from the quality of a live recording, but in this instance the sound of thousands of simultaneous hand claps (see: “Banquet”) and the crowd’s chants and cheers only adds to the intensity of the performance. Bloc is the kind of band that is absolutely made to play to thousands in a festival setting, as they’re able to build off the energy of the crowd better than any other band I’ve ever seen, and this recording from last year’s Leeds Festival is perfect evidence of this. A must-have for any Bloc Party fan.

SOUND QUALITY: A-

Bloc Party, Live @ Leeds 2005:
01. “Banquet”
02. “Helicopter”
03. “Little Thoughts”
04. “She’s Hearing Voices”
05. “So Here We Are”
06. “The Pioneers”
07. “This Modern Love”
08. “Two More Years”

My only Bloc Party live experience, and the pinnacle of my life to this point, transpired only one month ago at VICE’s Intonation Music Festival in Chicago, and it was, suffice-it-to-say, a little bit life-changing for me. Though the setlist revealed their intention to play two new live songs, “Uniform” and “Wet”, the latter was excluded in a tragic turn of events. However, “Uniform” sounded brilliant and is shaping up to be one of the most diverse and unique songs Bloc Party has ever witten, with four distinct sections all with their own respective climaxes and lyrics that wonderfully sum up the detatched indifference in the youth of today’s society (for the full lyrics click here, courtesy of James from Blog Party). Fortunately for everyone, a very high-quality recording of the song has surfaced on the internet that is even more clear and crisp than the Coachella recording from a few months back. Download the new track below to get a better glimpse at the evolution of Bloc Party’s songwriting and the new style that is to be featured on the group’s sophomore album in favor of the dance punk sound they’ve come to be known for. Russell Lissack’s guitar solo in the song’s waning moments is his perhaps his best ever, and my desire to hear a studio version of the track grows more and more insufferable with every passing day.

MP3: “Uniform” (Live @ Intonation, 6.25.06) - Bloc Party ((highly recommended))