I love it when vocalists give themselves up to emotion and for a split second, their voice breaks on a high note.Maybe it’s the fallibility I perceive in them that convinces me of the sincerity of their lyrics; regardless, those moments are my favorites at live performances. Here is such a moment, with Ximena Sariñana contrasting herbubbly keyboard line in “Wrong Miracle” to lyrics heavy on regret. The rendition is fortunately more sweet than bitter: twenty-six (her real age) is too young to sound resentful.
Happy Friday, everybody. Enjoy this sexy wonderland of a music video, courtesy Dev Hynes’ synths-n-jamz persona, Blood Orange, which has been making its way around the internet today.
Moving from lush room and sexy lady to more-lush and sexier-lady, all lava lamps and skylines and marble pedestals, the whole thing is rendered in a disorienting 90s-video-game 3D. Even the sexy ladies are kinda weird. But that’s the point, or so I would imagine: the everything-is-great-everything-is-fucked spell that unrequited lust casts on your whole world. Or maybe Hynes just thought it would look cool.
As for the song itself, it starts out as sweet and light as “St. Germaine air” to quote a recent acquaintance, but give it to the two-minute mark, when a mega-sexxxy guitar noodling drops in to add some spice to Hynes’ plaintive, Dan Bejar-with-a-cold stylings.
If anything, the comparison with Destroyer is a flattering one for Hynes–like most of Kaputt, “Champagne Coast” is a fundamentally sad song, a tale of longing and aching. But you can move to it, and on a Friday, that’s enough.
The other day, I was engaged in a deep conversation with Charlie and few German friends regarding the best arists that have come out Europe’s biggest country. For the two of us, our contributions to the conversation were painfully miniscule, conveying a typical American ignorance. Our list? Kraftwerk, Rammstein and that girl behind “99 Luftballoons”(Also, did you know that Lou Bega is German?).
Was it ignorance? Barring “Mambo No. 5″ and Bach, Germany has been frightfully bare of musical contributions given its sizable populous. It’s the opposite of the Scandinavia and things that are created in Deutschland tend to stay there.
As James Russell Mercer continues to dismantle The Shins, its becoming harder and harder to recognize the band. Now the only original member left, Mercer, also of Broken Bells, has ruled with an iron fist, single-handedly changing the direction of The Shins–no more familiar faces, no more Sub Pop.
Alas, members change and bands move on. On another stint together, ex-Shinners Marty Crandall and Neal Langford have paired together to form Sad Baby Wolf. Their latest release (they put out their debut single last September) is a cover of “Everything Is” originally by Neutral Milk Hotel, whose lead man Jeff Mangum coincidently also went solo. The fuzzed-out cover of NMH’s first single has us scrambling for our ripped jeans and proves that there is life after leaving “New Slang” and JRM behind.
Sad Baby Wolf- Everything Is (Neutral Milk Hotel) (download)
Here’s fresh track from a relatively new band named, Wanderlings. If you ask me to name this band without prior knowledge, I probably would have said they were Cut Copy or a very hip (and happy) Midnight Juggernauts. Not much is known about them (yet) other than they’re from the UK, so just listen to the sweet sounds and dance your night away. Enjoy the weekend everyone.
