In lew of the fact that Conan O'Brien is leaving NYC, I've decided to search around the net and hunt down my favorite moments from the show. Conan has made me laugh to the point of crying more times than I can count, and I have fond memories of middle school and high school nights when I would stay up to watch his antics (it was the best in Austin, TX because it was on an hour earlier there!) I hope that the West Coast only brings us bigger and better Conan.
This clip is from 2002 (the middle part), and besides Conan messing up Martha's kitchen, at the end she pulls out Taco Bell and Olde English 40s for Conan and herself. Awesome.
Through the lovely Vimeo, I came across this absolutely stunning Take-Away show with Gaspar Claus & Pedro Soler (guitarist and cellist who specialize in Flamingo).
On a side note- Thanks for the patience! Life is returning to normal and there are many great things in store for the future of Tyranny of Ducks, including: -- Review of the Motel Motel show @ Southpaw last Friday -- Photo Essays (!!) -- More posts on art (even sewing, since I have just received a new sewing machine for my birthday!) -- The spring. OMG, how I am yearning for the spring.
My life has gotten shaken up recently, so posting will be a bit chaotic until next week (at the earliest). Music, though, will forever be a comforting factor in my life, so I have decided to share some videos with you that I have been watching lately, from some amazing artists. As always, thanks for reading and take care.
Band:The Love Language Label:Bladen County Records Band Members: Stuart McLamb (electric guitar, vocals), Jordan McLamb (acoustic guitar, percussion, vocals), Junis Beefmonth (electric guitar, vocals), Missy Thangs (keyboard, vocals), Joshua Pope (bass guitar), Kate Thompson (organ), Thomas Simpson (drum kit).
I often find out about new music through suggestions on blog, free mp3 downloads, friends, relatives and just the general crawling of myspace. Most often, everything leaves me bored and restless, and I end up going back to my iTunes or old favs on Myspace for the rest of the day to satisfy my musical bug. But then, sometimes, you find those small gems that make you oh so happy your obsessed with the internet.
I just spent the majority of my Tuesday listening to the Love Language as I plugged away at work, and I am now officially hooked! More, more. more is all I want. I think 230 Publicity had it right when they said the Love Language, "...sounds like a Phil Spector recording employing the reverb of the Walkman and the aesthetic of the early 90’s lo fi movement, ala Guided By Voices and Sebadoh." Sweet, smooth yet gritty and soothing while it makes your toe tap to the catchy rhythms.
The band was started by Stu McLamb who, after a strong bout of alcoholism and arrests for disorderly conduct, landed him in solitary confinement with his wrists and ankles bound, life at a crossroads. I guess something like that can really smack some sense into a person, because McLamb then moved back in with his folks, sobered up, and started writing and recording the songs that would one day be The Love Language. Recorded completely on his own (which seems to be a recurring theme in music I fall in love with now a days), McLamb's CD was passed around until it ended up in the hands of the Rosebuds and they asked him to open for their fall tour (a quick scramble around to for a 6 person band, and the answer was YES), and the rest is now history (or, history in the making). The Rosebuds tour is now over, so we will just have to wait and see what's in store next for these guys.
Sorry, sorry, sorry, but here's another St. Vincent video. It's from Other Music!! (I love that store), and I've never heard Annie Clark sing this first song before :)
Last night was unseasonably warm for February in Brooklyn, which made the trip to BAM for an epic and thoroughly unique concert even more enjoyable (G train trips can be trying). My roommate was a bit late, so we missed the beginning of Kaki King, but did catch her trying to pull out her "rock moves" (a strong kick outward while playing 11-3, which she later said sucked because she hit her volume knob on her guitar and sent the whole thing out of tune). No matters, it was the engrossing melodies and vibe she exuded that made me love her performance last night. Honestly, next to Annie Clark, I've never seen a girl play the guitar like Kaki King can. Her personality and small figure reminded me instantly of Juno, but the way her fingers pluck and glide across the body of a guitar literally left me speechless and to wonder what kind of trance she must get into to play like that. Also, her drummer was AMAZING. My roommate is currently learning the drums, and she laughed out loud as how intimidating seeing something like that was for her. For the last song, Kaki King laid on her back and stared at the beautifully ornate ceiling of the BAM orchestra house while she took strong advantage of her acoustic (oh, yeah, and she told us a story halfway through of a man who died on safari because a zebra mistook him for a female zebra and...well...he died from anal trauma. Kaki King wasn't sure if she could say anal in an opera house, but did it anyway). As a Brooklynite, she looked thoroughly in love with last night's performance. And then, Beirut came on.
Everyone was on the edge of their seats as the pared down, 5 man band took the stage, and we all collectively waited for Zac to say his first words, words that in the end created a panic.
"We tried this last night," Zac said, "And it worked pretty well, so...stand up! Come forward."
After a moments hesitation ("Is he serious?"), the entire opera house's main floor went CRAZY! People rushed from their seats into the aisles and down to the front of the stage to try and stake out a prime spot. Luckily, our seats were close enough that getting to the stage was easy (we were about 5 feet from Zac and less than a foot from the right side of the stage). There were some hugely tall guys in front of us, which sucked (though I can't get too mad because my brother is 6 foot 5, and I always try to sympathize with a strong love of music and absurd height). But really, who cared about all of it? We were 5 feet from BEIRUT! And the concert was just lovely, I must say. Those brass instruments are so INTENSE when you're right next to them! And everyone was swaying and dancing together as the songs built in crescendo and Zac danced around on stage with his ukulele or horn (or really, just by himself). He kept joking around with the audience and explained to us that he didn't know if this whole, "Bring the audience to the front of the stage," thing was kosher in an opera house, but that he loved people standing close because the stage felt lonely without them. He also struggled with a knot on his ukulele for a bit, and said he didn't trust volunteers after a million people offered to help.
After about 7 songs, the gang brought out the Vassar Orkestra to help with the rest of the set, and that just sent the whole performance over the top. There was a girl in front of me freaking out because she knew about half of the people in the orchestra, and kept trying to distract them while they played.
They ended with a 3 song encore (including Sunday Smile :) ) and Zac took someone's feathered headband from the audience and using it as a blindfold for their last song before thanking us for a wonderful night, leaving the collective brass-pop-rock-loving population of the 5-boroughs to fan out into the brisk streets of Brooklyn, and stand in awe for a few minutes before going about our business. One thing can surely be said about last night: everyone left with a truly unique musical experience under our belts, and a lovely memory of an intimate show with Beirut in a grand opera house.
UPDATE: Here's a video from youtube of the performance from the upper balcony. It makes me that much more grateful that I was one of those small heads so close to the stage!
* New Yorker has decided on their top 12 Eustace covers from 2008, and gave the wonderful Banksy some love. * Velo Brooklyn (Bushwick's lean, mean bike shop) gets profiled at BushwickBK (preview: it's owned by a young chick!) * If you buy chicken from Murray's, you can now track where it came from and find out more about that local farm! * BrooklynVegan reports on the Motel Motel show (amazing!) at Market Hotel. Definitely the band to look out for in 2009. * Photosmashing makes me want to break out my Holga camera again. * The beautiful, new site NYC Graphic has a chat with Dean Haspiel who is "Bleeding Hipster Ink". * 25 Random Things (the Facebook chain letter), has taken over the internet. (NYtimes.com) * Tell my brother to update his site.
So, it's not Monday, but I did want to add a few additional videos for this week, specifically of Annie Clark. Oh, how I love this lady. Clark's voice can bring you into a trance-like state of being, either soothing you to the bone (as in Marry Me), or make you wondering how such intense music can come from such a doe-eyed woman. She reminds you in the end to just breath, sit back, and listen, enjoy. If you know me personally, these videos will be nothing new (except for the last one that I recently found on shoottheplayer.com), but they're worth watching again. Happy Tuesday :)
For more information on St. Vincent, please visit the myspace, or Annie's blog, or their website (though, sadly, nothing has been updated in quite sometime). The newest bit of information I have seen is that St. Vincent plans to play a show on February 26th in San Francisco, California.
