GRIZZLY BEAR'S NEW VIDEO

This is the new video for the song "the knife" from one record of the last year I'm really listening to this year and I discovered the day after publishing my "best of the year" list. The video is strange, as strange are the arrangements for the song. And I have to say that the vocalist have one of the best noses I've ever seen!!!

MY NEW TURNTABLE

I finally got myself a turntable thanks to the HMV vouchers Pret gave me (at least something good about working for Pret) and the discount Eva got me. From £79 I only had to pay £15.95!!! It’s not great, it’s a portable, but it’s Numark and it looks beautiful with the suitcase!!!!

album of the week: PANDA BEAR - PERSON PITCH / BRACKEN - WE KNOW ABOUT THE NEED

These two records have more things in common than what you can imagine from the beginning. Both come from individual acts from components of notorious bands; Animal collective’s Panda Bear and Hood’s C. Addams (called bracken for the occasion). Both records come from the necessity of doing something different from their main bands. Both use repetition, loops, samples, echoes and atmospheres but getting different results. While Bracken sometimes gets near the forms of Clouddead or Subtle, in fact the record is published through Anticon records and their members have collaborated with him before, Panda Bear goes more spatial and tribal, abandoning the acoustic spirit of his previous solo works

Peter, bjorn and John's new video

Here you have the new video for Peter, Bjorn and John's new single, "objects of my affection". And with a slightly different version of the song that the one it's on the record.

Micah P Hinson at the Union Chapel

And two days after the low gig I went to see Micah P Hinson at the Union Chapel in a semi-acoustic gig. Maybe the best venue in London, beautiful as it is an old church and keeps most of the antic elements. I hope the promoters will make more gigs there now that it is reopened. The concert was good, but maybe I was waiting for the electric moments of the end of his concert two years ago at the Primavera Sound Festival. And even more now that his last record is more electric than the first one. But, nevertheless, he was great performing, helped by a young guy who played guitar and drums, and playing new songs and Cohen covers.

LOW live 15-02-07 Spitz, London

Last week we went to see Low live at Spitz, great chance to see them in a small venue and playing the songs of their new eminent record, Drums And Guns. As I expected, most of the show was focused in the new album, they played all the songs. Their interpretation was quite different from the record, produced by Dave Friedman in a way where all the voices come through one speaker and the instruments mainly from the other one, but sometimes travelling in a curl from one side to the other. They also give a lot of prominence to electronics and forget about the electric storms of The Great Destroyer, their previous work also produced by Friedman.
This gig was classic Low performance, guitar, bass and basic drums, no additional elements. Darkness and silence, but also light and prettiness. And they rescued some classics such as Sunflowers, Lazerbeam, In Metal, Soon, In the drugs or their classic ending with Will The Night.
Now we have to wait for the Gig in the Shepherds Bush empire next month to see if they’re going to try to represent the record as it is recorded or they’re going to do the same kind of gig.

album of the week: ANDREW BIRD - ARMCHAIR APOCRYPHA

The first time I heard the new Andrew Bird record, Armchair Apocrypha, I was a bit disappointed. I was looking for Sovay, one of the best songs of two seasons ago included in the record The Mysterious Production of Eggs, and of course, not included in this one again. After listening to that new recording four or five times, I realized that this new album is even better than the previous one, and has many songs as good as Sovay, like Plasticities, Fiery crash or Heretics. Maybe the main difference between this album and the last one, his best works to date, is that in this one his violin is more integrated in a whole band, but still giving a distinctive characteristic to the final result of the product. I can’t wait to see him live, but I think I’ll have to wait so the tickets for his concerts in London are already sold out.
The record will be in the shops on March 20th.