I’ve been listening to a lot of Bleachers. At first when I kept seeing things about Bleachers, I was dubious. It’s like, oh it’s a guy from Fun., oh this guy is the boyfriend of Lena Dunham and oh he’s a categorical hipster. And believe you me, I’ve never called anyone a ‘hipster’ before – I’m still fuzzy about the definition of hipster – but Jack Antonoff screams oozes hipster. (Is he ever not wearing short shorts?)
Of course, I eventually took a listen and haven’t stopped listening since. It’s pop rock with a tinge of the 80s with good fun lyrics and it’s easy to move to. Strange Desire is actually the only whole album I’ve saved on my Spotify. Also, apparently Antonoff has videos on the Bleachers’ site on how he created some songs on the album which is really cool to watch and of which I just discovered as I was grabbing the site link so yay blogging!
Yoko Ono and the beautiful miss Grimes make appearances on Strange Desire. ‘Take Me Away’ is definitely one of my favorites on the album. Grimes has this dark ethereal sound going on while Bleachers has an 80s pop rock sound but they’re both strange and ridiculously talented that the end result turned into a real winner.
I can’t wait to see Bleachers when they stop by Terminal 5 in April. Maybe Grimes will be there as a special guest?! Hey, a girl can dream.
I haven’t seen a show in a long time. It’s been more than a month I think. There have been a few shows I would have liked to go to; big ones popping up in my head right now: Braids, Sleigh Bells with Danny Brown AND Doldrums, Kanye West…
Whatever the reason may be that I somehow decided not to attend a live show – i.e. ‘It’s Sunday, I want to be lazy and not move from this couch all day,’ ‘Oh shit, that’s an awesome lineup…but it’s at Terminal 5,’ or some sort of money related problem – I always wish I had. I’ll daydream about what the concert must have been like and how awesome it must have been. Concert remorse.
Last week, I kept hearing about this guy Mikal Cronin and that he was playing a show at Webster. I saw his name mentioned a few times, one being from New York Magazine’s suggested events, but I had never heard of him before. And I didn’t end up going to his show.
Right at this moment, I have almost completely listened to Cronin’s 3 albums on Spotify. This happens a lot: I hear of a show but I’ve never heard the bands before, soon after their show I will listen to them and wish I had gone to the show. I could have seen this played live? Concert remorse.
This guy Mikal Cronin is awesome. He makes garage rock pop noise California music and he has a collaborative album with Ty Segall. Cronin’s newest album, MCII, is decidedly California surf-rock, and arguably more easy listening than his past albums. I like Mikal Cronin in all his forms and will be sure to catch him next time he’s in town – which hopefully won’t be too long.
Clementine & the Galaxy is the electro-pop creation of New York City based vocalist Julie Hardy and guitarist/producer Michael MacAllister. Their music is light airy synth pop that makes you want to groove. Hardy’s dreamy vocals float over MacAllister’s ethereal sound, which makes Clementine & the Galaxy seem other worldly. This is the music that will be playing on the Moon, if we ever get there.
I saw them at Pianos a couple weeks ago. My video of them performing “Robot” is above, and the official music video for the song is below.
I sold merchandise for King Krule at his sold out show at Bowery Ballroom. I picked up the shift thinking I had this guy’s music on my iPhone, when it was actually King Tuff. There are so many musicians calling themselves King nowadays that I can’t keep track anymore. Here’s a handful of the ones on my radar:
King Krule
King Krule via last.fm
King Krule is the alias of London’s 19-year-old Archy Marshall. He totally looks like an Archy, doesn’t he? Some people just look like a particular name. I was shocked that the deep snarling voice I was listening to belonged to this seemingly innocent bony red haired boy. At first, King Krule’s music sounded like a mid-30s bloke who had too much to drink and was shouting angry nonsense at the world.
Then I listened again. With the help of a Spotify lyric app, Krule’s thick accented words were deciphered and I realized that this nonsense was actually surprisingly profound poetry. He delves into the banal trivialities of life with a cynical, and sometimes, romantic point of view. In “The Noose of Jah City” he wails, “I question why.” It is beautiful and haunting; it kind of punches me in the gut. On his new album 6 Feet Beneath the Moon, Krule experiments with different sounds and genres. One song will be straight up electric guitar rock while the next song will feature a full jazz band.
King Tuff
King Tuff via Sub Pop
King Tuff is playful garage rock tunes from musician Kyle Thomas. His music is pretty straightforward and has a distinct classic punk I-don’t-give-a-fuck attitude. Tuff sings about being alone and stoned (“Alone and Stoned”), being a bad, bad thing (“Bad Thing”), and that once someone told him to break the rules (“Baby Just Break”). He does have that nasally whining voice that I find annoying and can only take small doses of. However, most of his hooks are good enough for me to forget about the tone. Then I’m left with the feeling that I want to carelessly jump around like I just don’t give a fuck.
King Khan
King Khan via Wikipedia
King Khan is the moniker of Canadian musician Arish Ahmad Khan. He is the frontman of a couple bands: King Khan and the Shrines and The King Khan & BBQ Show. Khan’s music is rock, psychedelic, funk, and big band with a little old school type James Brown thrown in. The sound is lively, uplifting, and feel good. I imagine his live shows are a chaotic dancing blast.
King Holiday
King Holiday via Facebook
King Holiday is a good old fashioned big band in the 21st century. They are literally a big band boasting eleven members in total – drums, guitar, bass, keyboard, 3 person horn section, 2 female backup vocalists, and 1 charismatic lead singer. They emit big funk soul rock sounds, and when they play a show, the whole room gets involved. I wish they had more music for me to listen to.
click their LP cover to watch my Instagram video of Guerilla Toss
I was standing near the back at 285 Kent (read: near the bar), taking a sip from my newly purchased beer, when I looked up at the visuals screen and saw a penis. It took me a moment to figure out what it was – mostly because the screen was in infrared mode – but yes it was a closeup of a penis. It took me another moment to realize that yes, this is a live camera right now, and yes, oh, ah this dude with the guitar is naked.
Shortly after this realization, the screen changed to more PG visuals and the band began to play. The band had set up on the floor in front of the stage, so from my position in back of the crowd, I could only see the tops of bobbing heads. I pushed past the dense crowd until I was in the front. There’s no better way to see Guerilla Toss.
In the front I could finally see the naked guitarist and his clothed band members clearly. The female singer kept bumping into people in the front while she shouted and shrieked into her microphone. Even now as I listen to them in the daylight and sober, I can’t make out anything she is saying.
Noise music can easily sound like nails on a chalkboard and make my head hurt. Guerilla Toss makes loud weird chaotic headbanging music and it’s awesome. This punk noise band from Boston was the best set of the night. Guerilla Toss matches their experimental noise with a high energy body moving live show complete with a nude guitarist. I can’t wait until they’re back in town again.
I have had the same music on my iPhone for quite a long time. It’s about that time where I need to change my limited musical selections or I will scream – there’s only 688 songs on this thing for some reason! I can only listen to about 3% of the songs I have stored on my phone with only mild irritation. I should get a premium Spotify account so I can listen to everything on the go….maybe one day.
So before I make some executive musical decisions, here are some of the songs that make up that 3%:
Tame Impala – “Why Won’t they Talk to Me?”
Arcade Fire – “We Used to Wait”
Alt-J – “Tessellate”
Haim – “Send me Down”
Foxygen – “Shuggie”
Little Dragon – “Ritual Union”
These are some of my favorite songs, but I need a break.
I finally had the pleasure of seeing Grimes last Saturday. I wrote about her back in April, and ever since then I have been grooving to her sounds nonstop: on the street, in my room, across America. Grimes played a free show in August that I was expecting to be at, but I did not get back to New York until two days after the show. I was disheartened at first but my spirits renewed when I found out she would have some shows in October. Well surprise surprise when October rolled around I totally dropped the ball on getting tickets to one of her shows. Grimes had four shows booked and all of them were sold out when I checked for tickets. Sigh. I thought I was doomed to never see her live until maybe her next tour when her ticket prices have soared from the current $20 to $50 or something ridiculous like that.
Well I lucked out. As part of my internship, I get to request tickets to one show per week. All of her shows were sold out so I was worried I might not get them, but I was eventually confirmed for Saturday night at Bowery Ballroom!
I have never been to Bowery Ballroom before but I think it’s my favorite venue yet. First you go down stairs into a lounge/bar area. My friend and I were confused as to where the stage was so she had to ask the door girl who apparently retorted, “Uh upstairs?” Oh of course! So we went up a flight of stairs and found that we had just missed the first band, Blue Hawaii.
Myths
Myths
The next band was Myths. They want to sound like Grimes but the noisey version. The beats were ok but they were shrieking everything and I had no clue what they were shrieking about. Something was off, the sound wasn’t coming together and by the middle of the set I was wondering when this was going to be over because a headache was setting in. However, the two girls did have some stage presence that intrigued me. There was this nymph-like one with her blonde bob and green body suit and the other wore a sparkly cloak and danced furiously to her own sounds. (I don’t know if these outfits were because of Halloween or their regular stage outfits but hopefully they are standard.) Also, the nymph came on stage with a bottle of wine and the dancer carried a full glass over to her synthesizer which is cool. But overall I am not a fan.
Grimes
Then Grimes came on. We were up off to the right in front and except for an annoyingly placed flower attached to the front amp that partially obstructed our view, it was awesome. We had enough room to jump up and down and groove which is the most important part of a live show. They threw balloons into the crowd, the music was good, everyone was having a good time. Fun!
A Renegade Puppet 