arse poetica

The Sun is Still Sunny

Dave reminded me about the wonder and the glory that is Les Concerts a Emporter.

Screen capture from the Dean and Britta post. Mmm.

"One day we're going to live in Paris..."

I promise, I'm on it.

I Canna Help It

The man, I love him.

_________________

UPDATE: 12.12.07: Morrissey the most English person in the world?

The FA should look to Morrissey, not Mourinho.

England's new manager must be to England what Captain America is to America. He must be the very distillation of Englishness. And in all seriousness, there can be only one candidate. Cometh the crisis, cometh the man. Step forward Stephen Patrick Morrissey*.

[snip]

Morrissey should be the new England manager because, despite being Irish, he is the most English person alive apart from Mrs Thatcher, who is a woman. And like Mrs Thatcher he is of the opinion that real Englishness is under threat.

Morrissey is not only the most English Englishman alive, he's also the most northern (as revealed by an online poll carried out by Salford art gallery, The Lowry). And northerness is to Englishness what unicorns are to horses, what with being further away from France.

They should give awards for sentences like that last one.

 

[*ahem, that's Steven Patrick Morrissey, thank you.]

Weekly Record

I'm enjoying last.fm, and I'm thinking I'll post these weekly wrap-ups so I can see how my tune listening maps out over the year. This week: not surprising, though I see a couple of new albums in there, and I remember really enjoying Mos Def. Fun.

Song of the week for all you lovebirds: Rodrigo y Gabriela--Capitan Casanova.mp3

Something About Robert Plant's Voice...

... is making me fall in love with him in this song. I'm powerless, I tell you!

Robert Plant & Allison Krauss--Please Read the Letter.mp3

I got my hands on a copy of the Plant & Krauss album "Raising Sand," and though it is generally outside the strict parameters of my usual tastes, I love it. They harmonize incredibly well (as you'd expect), and the songs are varied and a little gritty at times, and they're so easy w/ the songs and w/ each other that it seems to me they must have had a lot of fun making this album. It feels like one of those "simple joys of making music" records, and how could we resist? The above song was my favorite from first play.

And this seems as good a time as any to talk about faves for the year. My favorite album of the year (by far): The National, "Boxer." Killing myself that I missed them in concert, but it couldn't be helped. Funny, this is one of those how-you-know-you're-an-adult moments, because were this high school, I would not have gotten over it. This album brought me no end of joy this year, and it is still my go-to, default record when shuffle just does not cut it in iTunes.

Nothing came close to the National this year, but I loved Peter Bjorn and John, Feist, Schooner, Arcade Fire, Editors, and lots and lots of Broken Social Scene, too. Also happy to discover Jose Gonzalez, Rodrigo y Gabriela, Hello Saferide, Basia Bulat, and The Cloud Room. So much Swedish pop this year, yaay!

[photo: ae | Richmond, VA | 11.3.07 ]

Dare.

This song has done me right this morning. Enjoy, friends!

"Dare" by Gorillaz (mp3)

Portrait of Sandro Botticelli (!) by Medici (!), circa 1478-80 (!), from the National Gallery, because Botticelli approves of the groove.

Wordy, But I Like It

Okay, so it sounds exactly like what I listened to when I was 14. That's a given. And, yes, it is practically identical to 99.99% of my iTunes inventory. Sure. And so it's a little twee. Is that so wrong?? ^_^

The Pains of Being Pure at Heart--Doing All the Things That Wouldn't Make Your Parents Proud (mp3)

Get your hipster tunes--of wider/broader/more adventurous sensibility than mine--here: Stereogum mp3s! [via]

[photo credit: ae | 09.08.07 | Winston-Salem, NC (at a Wake Forest football game where, inevitably, WFU blew it in another of a long string of shoulda-wons)]

Peter Bjorn and John Blog Post

They even rock harder in my fantasy homeland! My pal Pablo and I ran out to catch Peter Bjorn and John's *sold out* show at the Cradle last night. And we don't care about the young folks talkin' 'bout the young style....

I thought Pablo and I would have a cool, relaxing evening and be carried away on a cloud of bright, cheery pop. Delightful pop it was, but more of the post-punk power trio variety. PB&J came.to.rock. Yeeooow!

They teased us w/ an electronica instrumental of "Young Folks" and just as we were lulled into thinking that some sweet melodic and slightly more sitar-ish version of the song would be their opener, they came on stage and launched into the rockingest intro I have had the pleasure to see in a long while ("Let's Call It Off"). God.Damn. John's military-precision drumming... Whoooo!

And as if I weren't already incredibly biased toward Sweden, they thanked us early in the set, saying it was great to be back in a "real rock club" because they'd just come from the VMAs in Las Vegas and it was "very weird." Yeah, the Cradle rocks! Even when I lived in NY and LA, I missed the Cradle. You can't beat the authentic rock club experience.

Highlights for me were "Paris 2004," "Amsterdam" (introduced as being about "friendship, love, dogs, and...stuff"), "Young Folks" (dueted w/ Meg from opening act The Clientele), the third song (I think), which they introduced as being from an EP that we'd never heard and which is one of those Reason To Live songs (must find this song), and the show closer, "Objects of My Affection," which rocked so hard and so right that I'll be able to ride the fumes of that for at least a week and a half.

Friends, if PB&J are coming anywhere near your town, go see them. Don't question it; just grab a friend and go! I have a crush on all of them, not least because they have serious Rock! Moves! They're precision musicians, funny, clever, have a great rapport w/ the audience, obviously love what they're doing. They put everything into it. Peter (on the right in the pix) lost at least 10 lbs last night, I'm sure.

[Post title is a riff on PB&J's habit of very helpfully labeling things what they are, as with the bass drum in the first pic. Sadly, they sold out of the t-shirt I wanted, which read (again, helpfully): Peter Bjorn and John T-shirt. Ha. V. nice use of Helvetica, btw.]

I Could Sleep...

Dear Divine Influences in the Universe,

    Thank you for pop music.

Yrs most sincerely,
ae

Band_of_Horses - Is_There_a_Ghost.mp3

Some pop songs just get.it.done. Goodness. The Dingo looks like I feel right now.

I'm the new blue blood, I'm the Great White Hope...

I used to be carried in the arms of cheerleaders...

This song is totally getting me through today, friends. Enjoy!

The National - Mr_November (mp3)