This time last week I went off to see Vampire Weekend at Rough Trade East. They have just released their new album, Contra. They put on a pretty good show. I can’t remember the exact order or content of their set list, but I can remember that, from their new album, they played:

1. Horchata
2. White Sky
3. Holiday
4. California English
5. Cousins

And from the first album:

1. Mansard Roof
2. Oxford Comma
3. A-Punk
4. Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa
5. M79
6. Walcott

Altogether it was a good show. Despite standing quite close to a pillar (the worst support acts of all time SWIDT), I got a good view of the stage. There wasn’t a whole lot that distinguished their show from the album. There weren’t any wild guitar solos or stage dives, but I guess if I wanted that, I’d watch some other genre than alternative rock. Probably the biggest thing to make this a ‘live version’ was the even more exaggerated screaming than usual that Ezra Koenig added to Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa (”Is your bed MAAAAIED, is your sWET-eR oOOoon”).

The worst thing about the show was undoubtedly the fact that they turned up an hour late. Let’s just establish something right now…

You’re a flippin’ indie band! People aren’t seeing you because you define their teenage existence or something. They’re seeing you because they like the sound of your music. If you’re going to turn up an hour late and your audience isn’t jumping around and screaming when you arrive (which they weren’t), consider providing them with deck chairs.

I’ve been working on a new playlist of less taxing music. If you’d like to use it, or would like to add to it in any way, please do. I’ve made it collaborative. It’s supposed to be music that will be appreciated by people like me, but will not be hated by everyone else (so Panda Bear is out).
In addition, I’d like help on a Christmas playlist. At the moment it’s just Sufjan and ‘Fairytale of New York’, which is hardly a good mix or a good start. If you can think of any other Christmas songs that are good, put them on. I know I couldn’t.

The Playlists

• ‘Light Listening’ Spotify Playlist
• Christmas Spotify Playlist

Iannis Xenakis is responsible for making music so effective at turning people away from a love of earthly things that Le Corbusier enlisted his help in the designing of ‘Sainte Marie de La Tourette‘, a Dominican order priory. Perhaps his greatest achievement was, ‘Akanthos‘, an impressive piece for reproducing the precise sound and atmosphere of listening to opera whilst a wasp’s nest is dropped onto the stage. After this untimely event, the orchestra mostly attempt to carry on playing despite the vocalist’s obvious and somewhat embarrassing expressions of pain. Occasionally, a wasp will land on some instrument or another and be swatted off with a bow or some other implement. The singer, unable to remember her lines, simply runs backwards and forwards across the stage sounding like a brave little girl having antiseptic applied to a grazed knee. Mostly, the music goes on as intended, but now and then some virtuosic trumpeter or violinist will attempt to lessen the singer’s embarrassment by playing over her screams. These short riffs and melodies are unrehearsed, but a considerate and thoughtful touch.
Xenakis’ music is certainly ground-breaking and intelligent. I am sure it has inspired many truly brilliant pieces of musical art. This particular track, however, is still completely horrendous. As for the singing, it’s awful, but probably painful screams are better than the words Mozart has put in the mouths of classical musicians.

And Elijah turned to the people and lifted up his voice with a shout, “When you meet together to celebrate the feasts, do not serve wine and steak as the pagans. I shall not permit you any longer to come into the assembly with your feet unshod. Let a cloth be woven with an intricate and skilful pattern. Let it be sown into a tube and given to the elders. Let them wear it as a sign and remembrance under their sandals, so that you may remember that you were brought across the red sea on dry land. Remember that your shoes did not wear out, nor did your feet travel unprotected through the wilderness where you wandered in sin those 40 years. Let your food be quiche and your drink Robinson’s barley water all the days of the feast.” And a great cry came up from all the children of Israel, for the yoke of Elijah was hard, and his words as the midday sun in the wilderness.

Looking for Ms. Locklear

There’s two films that I’m really excited about that are coming up. The first one is from RhettandLink and is already available on DVD:

The BQE

I’ve been looking forward to Sufjan Stevens’ next album for a while. Sufjan is a man with things to do, and by the time he’s finished his 50 states project, the states will have either ceased to exist as an entity, or they will have added more to the mix. Still, this new project is looking to be good fun. It’s orchestral, but still recognisably his. As usual, I don’t care about the deeply embedded local stories that this project unearths, but am looking forward to the music out of its context all the same. The film is effectively a long music video. Hopefully it will not be so arty to be unwatchable.

God Help the Girl

UPDATE: God Help the Girl is a film from Stuart Murdoch of Belle and Sebastian. As yet, only the soundtrack has been made. It’s very twee, but there is a great sound despite the frequent sickliness. The film is set to be shot in 2010.

Obviously, if you don’t already know about Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, Where the Wild Things Are and Up, you should check them out straight away.

I went to the Green Man Festival with Leo over the weekend. No-one I’ve told about it has heard about it, but it had some excellent bands. I didn’t take any pictures, and I think I probably enjoyed it more that way. I’ll agree that it is a shame not to have anything to take away from the festival though. I’ve listed all the bands I saw. Where possible, the links below are Spotify, but some are Myspace or similar. I haven’t written something about all of the bands, because that would be dull and you can only say, “Pretty good,” so many times. Listening with Leo was an interesting experience. I’d be standing next to him, and suddenly he’d turn to me and comment that there had been a temporary modulation to the key of E. I never noticed this of course, so I used typical MFL conversational tactics, and agreed at what I thought were the appropriate moments. It was fun though, and he wasn’t the fool who tried to explain the basics of calculus during a Camera Obscura concert. Which reminds me: I never did get as far as properly explaining how to differentiate.

The Playlist

I’ve made the ‘Post Green Man 2009‘ collaborative playlist in Spotify for all these artists. Feel free to add similar things to it.

Friday

We Aeronauts

Dollboy

“All over England, people are kissing their wives.” Tremendously cute lyric, not a fantastic song. The percussion was a little repetitive across tracks, although interesting in itself.

No Thee, No Ess

Stupid name.

Diagonal

Wave Machines

Of the bands I wasn’t thinking of when I went to the festival, these were probably the best. Interesting stuff.

Beth Jeans Houghton

Very fun set

Broken Records

Emmy the Great

Gang Gang Dance

Hadn’t planned to see this set, and had lunch instead. From the tent it sounded pretty good though, so I got hiccups from eating my couscous too quickly.

Broken Records

Wooden Shjips

We both dislike British Sea Power, so we watched these instead. It was an experience. It probably would have made more sense with some marijuana. One of the members of the band had an epic beard.

Roky Erickson

It was nice to have some good old school rock once on the weekend.

Animal Collective

Unfortunately, very disappointing. Probably the act I was most looking forward to, but their set was rambling and seemed somewhat less subtle for the benefit of those who were a little drunk.

Saturday

Picture of Peter Broderick by Anika :)

The Soundcarriers

Stornoway

The Leisure Society

Birdengine

Blue Roses

Beautiful intimate performance outside the Green Man pub

Peter Broderick

Great performance, and involved the crowd very well. Seemed a really genuine guy.

Beach House

Grizzly Bear

Played some stuff from the new album. Good stuff.

Bon Iver

One of the best two acts of the weekend. Sounds more soothing than depressing when you’re listening in a huge group. This was their last live performance in Europe for a year.

Dent May & His Magnificent Ukulele

Jarvis Cocker

Great big eejit prancing around the stage. Definitely had some highlights though. He played ‘You’re in my eyes’ and produced massive amounts of noise at the end. It went on for quite a while, and a lot of people got bored and walked away. That was annoying.

Sunday

The Fuzzbirds

9bach

Trembling Bells

Scott Matthews

Camera Obscura

Rodriguez

“Power to the People.” Not one for sounding profound… or sober.

Dirty Three

Wilco

The other of the best two performances. I can’t work out whether I preferred this or Bon Iver. Either way, it was an incredible performance. Obviously, they played ‘Jesus, Etc.’, ‘Impossible Germany’ and the other popular ones; also played some of their less well known stuff. A lot of it I wasn’t familiar with, so I couldn’t say what it was. Some guy from the Guardian said he thought they were the best band in the world. They could be close, particularly if you read the Guardian.

Hawkwind

Yes. That Hawkwind. These were crazy. The visualisations were like the ones you used to get on Winamp, when that was popular. They had sparkly dancers on stilts. So funny. Wouldn’t listen to them again, but once was great.

The book to make you rethink social networking. It will be available in the next 3 months or so from major bookstores, so keep an eye open. I had the chance to pre-read this book over the week. Despite frequent spelling mistakes and off-topic discussion, the book has an air of spontaneity covering topics ranging from robotic spiders to brownie recipes. The book leaves you longing for profile archive pages.

“OK, so 3 of the bedrooms are a good size, what’s in the 4th bedroom?”
“It’s a little awkward, we’ve put all our furniture down the corridor ready for us to move out. You might not be able to get in. It’s a good room though.”
“That’s not a problem, I’ve got this gun here to help me with heavy lifting.”
screams
“What’s that?”
“We’re sorry, we had to do this. That’s our wayward daughter Emily. She’s yours now.”
“…But…”
“…”
“She looks… Dead”
“Here, take this book too. You must look after her. This book records all her thoughts. It will be opened the day you start to hate her. She must be kept happy.”

Emily scrapes her claws appreciatively down your arm. You push her away and move the furniture back where it was whilst shouting sweet words of fatherly endearment.

The book begins to throb and vibrate whilst the mother turns her head to you with an expression of concerned, loving horror. The book persists until you wake up and find that Marita is calling you at the horrible hour of 12:30AM.

This is what I dream about when I play Half Life 2 and look for houses in the same day, apparently.

Looking to rent a furnished property with 4 large bedrooms, a reception and a decent kitchen in the following areas: SW1**, SW3**, SW5*, SW7***, SW10**, W1***, W2**, W8***, W14* for less than £90/person/week. Any ideas?
Advice in the following categories is appreciated:

• How can I make the most of an 8′ by 7′ room?
• How can I endear myself to a wealthy landlord?
• How can I get rich really fast?
• How can I tell people they should look for other house mates… politely?

On the British monopoly road, either of Park Lane or Mayfair would be ideal. The other ones would be more difficult.

*Average rent in a shared house £115-120
**Average rent in a shared house £120-130
***Average rent in a shared house £130+

Obama shows the tyrants of America’s children who’s boss.
In a similar move to his swatting a fly, Obama showed a small girl’s teacher who was boss on Thursday. Obama doesn’t listen to the phoney rules of the nation’s teachers. He is the law. Everyone needs to know this.