late, late nights

great state parks - the more i feel alive... from nickjett on Vimeo.

Thanks to Nick Georgiou, Andrew Busch, and Zach Lihatsh for the impromptu outburst of noise that we created late last night/early this morning. You guys were great company. It's really too bad, however, that there's no documentation of the evening other than a few "morning after" photos of my living room and some really pissed off neighbors. God, I love summer.

Sigourney Rose

too good.

Ný Batterí ['Popp í Reykjavík'] from sigur-ros.co.uk on Vimeo.

Is that? No. Wait...

So I was logging some time on the computer this morning when I stumbled upon this video of a MSTRKRFT performance with John Legend that aired on Letterman a few days ago. The song itself is nothing more than catchy, albeit cheesey, r&b-tinged pop music, and while it's nothing to write home about, I couldn't help but notice one of the live members present in it. Shadowing John Legend for the duration of the song is drummer Jerry Fuchs of Maserati, and previously, !!! fame. Maybe it shouldn't come as all that much of a surprise considering how frequently he works with other artists but it just wasn't the kind of song that I expected to see the guy collaborate on in front of a Letterman audience. John Legend and MSTRKRFT were an unlikely enough pairing to begin with; seeing Fuchs just made it that much weirder but, man, does that guy have crisp style!

Anyways, here's the video:


and a reference picture of Fuchs in action, just to make sure I'm not seeing things.

Speaking of Maserati, the band will be coming back to Tucson this October with Japanese post-rockers, Mono, for a show at Club Congress which should be quite a site to see despite the fact that Congress might be one of the most unappropriate venues for a show like this to be held at. Whatever the case, tours like this don't exactly happen everyday. The last time each band came through Tucson was 2007. Both played at Plush, each on their own respective tours, and they left us with two of the best shows of the year. This time should be no different. See you on October 14th, folks.

making my world go 'round

I've been phone-less for three or four days now and I'm slowly realizing it's kind of nice. I mean, to a certain extent at least. Nobody to answer to, no calls to screen, no screen to call... So, for the few people who read this, friends or otherwise, I guess I'm just wondering what everyone is up to. As for me, well, I just got home from a pretty strange day at work, I'm about to have a few drinks at home before going to see Sunset Rubdown at Plush tonight, maybe shower, currently blasting Zaza's "Always On", Hi-Tek's "Thug Luv", and Cut Copy's "Strangers in the Wind" from my speakers (gotta mix it up from time to time), looking forward to riding my bike in the morning, cooking dinner later tonight, and a bunch of other stuff. Wow, so I guess this is my new livejournal account.

You probably already have the Cut Copy record but can listen to Zaza here and Hi-Tek here since I don't have any mp3s for you tonight. Thanks for reading, friends.

Arrangements

I've posted his music before but I just can't get over Volker Bertelmann's unique take on the prepared piano, who records under the moniker Hauschka and hails from Dusseldorf, Germany. A film documenting part of a live performance from Hauschka, an interview with Bertelmann, and an array of rural German scenery was recently shot and released by Andreas Huth. The wonderfully-put-together footage can be seen below:

How much material is contained in a tone?

We live in a world that won't last forever

"Tokyo" photo by Rhian Sheehan

Can't say I hear good music from New Zealand too often. Rhian Sheehan of Wellington creates some pretty unreal ambient soundscapes though. His newest album "Standing In Silence" was just released a few months ago. Everything I've heard from it so far is extremely impressive. Here's a video for one of the tracks on that record which was filmed in Tokyo:

Holiness

Not like anybody is going to read this in the next two hours or the next two years for that matter... BUT y'all should go see Holy Fuck tonight at Plush in the desert(ed) town that is Tucson. Dudes are sorta good; you won't be sorry.

treadmills and hairspray

...

Stevie Nicks - Stand Back

DAAARRRN

Love me some 80's.

Futurecop - Karate Kids (video by TNUC) from TNUC on Vimeo.

I think Miyagi, Swayze, Rad!, and The Breakfast Club provide just the kind of light at the end of the tunnel inspiration we need in recessions like these.

Oh, hey.

Wow, I guess it's been a while since I've written anything. Soooo back in March I went to Austin for my first SXSW. You could say it was an alright time. There were definitely a few highlights but due to the free beer which I seemingly kept stumbling upon all week long, I can't say that I maintained the most vivid recollection of all of them. Here's what I do happen to remember:

~following this Danish band around to each one of the four shows they played that weekend

~Peter Broderick's humble wizardry

~singing along with some guy from Vermont's cover of R Kelly's "Relief" on the 17th floor lounge of Downtown Austin's Hilton hotel

~getting a little bit loose to Rio de Janeiro's best dj's in some weird, ultra-plush, upscale bar

~the celebration that is Akron/Family. I've got a feeling that those guys aren't capable of having a bad time.

~seeing Handsome Furs back-to-back with American Analog Set at the Insound party. I know, sounds strange, but it was perfect.

~Jerry Fuchs from Maserati. That guy is a monster. Well, the rest of the band is too but Fuch!

~This Will Destroy You

~sad, ol' Daniel Johnston. To be honest, the majority of his set was quite miserable to see but somehow it was completely redeeming when he played "Living Life."

~the chaos ensuing from hundreds of kids piled on top of each other at the No Age show at Ms. Bea's.

~hearing about how one of my childhood BMX heroes, Joe Rich, challenged my friend Erin to a bike race after she left one of the shows we were at.

~Whole Foods on Lamar and an incredible coffee shop/cafe near South Congress which I've since forgotten the name of.

And lots more, of course. Unfortunately my camera wasn't working so I failed to actually document most of these things, though I'm pretty sure there's gotta be sufficient pictures and videos of a lot of the shows considering how packed things seemed at this year's SXSW. All in all, the weekend was a great time and I wouldn't have changed a thing, though it definitely felt nice to come home after what was basically a non-stop 96-hour music festival and a combined 24 hours worth of driving, over the course of five days or so. Maybe next time I'll actually write about the experience sooner and not come home picture-less. Thanks Erin and Jennifer and Adan for the company, and Carla for letting me crash on your floor. See you next year, Austin. Hopefully.