We Will Become Silhouettes: October 2012

Monday, October 22, 2012

Beach House - "Irene"

Saw them live this last week. Wow. Best show in a long time, and 100x better in doors at the Pabst than outside at Pitchfork.

This song was their outro and closed the encore. They played the same thing for about 8 minutes. It kept getting louder and more emotional. Definitely the best moment of the concert, and I'll never forget it.

Friday, October 12, 2012

Boiler Room

As you all may have noticed, I've shared mostly an electronic style of music lately. Frankly, I never knew about the knob twiddler subculture and thus never appreciated the finer points.

But right about 2009, I discovered a few artists that had some inspiring sounds that fit with my life style. What do I mean by that? Well, I work at a computer all day, hacking away at code or designing interfaces. When this is your day job, music needs to be present, but not invasive. Music with lyrics can be distracting when balancing dozens of complicated math logic in your head. Almost out of necessity, I had to transition away from the likes of Smashing Pumpkins and Red Hot Chili Peppers and more towards DJs.

Now, I realize this stuff probably isn't many of your gigs. But the thing I enjoy about this blog after Stephen turned me on to it was the resetting of different types of music being shared. I kind of forgot about music like Andrew Bird, et al. So thank you for that. I hope you get a little value then with insight into this unique subculture—I know I never would have looked into it on my own.

The other reason why I appreciate this music is that is has turned me on to an even more diverse palette, as crazy as that sounds. The more I've explored the European electronic scene, the more I've realized that much of their output comes from listening to every genre imaginable. Thus much of their inspiration I've found engaging as well. For example, lately I've consumed 80s reggae, 90s African, 70s Japanese disco, 80s Brazilian folk, and 90s German krautrock and enjoyed every second of it. I don't think I would have done that if I stuck listening to the Modest Mouses of the world.

One last note: the ferocity at which these European DJs collect vinyl has gotten me into records. Again, another thing I don't think I would have done 5 years ago, but now am totally in to. I feel I've "leveled up" as a music fan. And I love vinyl now :-)

Here's Kieren Hebden's personal record collection:

So anyways, here's a recent live set at Boiler Room this week. Seeing this stuff done live is kind of mind blowing. The real purpose of me sharing is to show what these guys actually do up there. It's almost more entertaining the actual sound, lol. So many gadgets, so many cords, so much possibility. How they weave their sounds is kind of incredible to watch.

The two videos are the same 45minute set, but at two different moments worth checking out (if your curious that is; my feelings won't be hurt if you're not).