Given a whole new meaning to just desserts.

Skimming through The Bohemian, a local free and sometimes amusing (mostly for the strange personal ads) arts newspaper, I found this article about the connections between food and music. The Beck reference in the title caught my attention and I was surprised to see mentions of Joanna Newsome and Battles (what? people in Sonoma county actually know about music?). I thought it would be of interest to our um, many readers.

So enjoy, maybe later I'll think of a bunch of songs that reference food and make a radio show out of it. Points if you know which one the title of this post is from (googling = cheating)!

Thom Andrew Condon?

A week or so ago at Sophie's house, we put "The Penalty" on while our parents were having dinner together. My mother turns her head to inquire "Is this Radiohead?" and is met with appropriately puzzled looks. I tell her no, this isn't Radiohead, and while you're at it why do you think it is? She says his voice sounds similar. I tell her no, and that also there is no ukelele in Radiohead.

Today I figured out how to hook my iPod up to my stereo, a move motivated by an extreme desire to listen to Mysterious Production of Eggs while doing my calc homework. I put on "Sovay" and my mother immediately asks "Oh, is this Radiohead?" I tell her no, this is Andrew Bird, and while you're at it why do you think everything is Radiohead? She says his voice sounds similar. So according to my mother, by the transitive property:

Zach Condon=Thom Yorke
Thom Yorke=Andrew Bird
Andrew Bird=Zach Condon.

I think not.
Though in all fairness, my mother's efforts to like my music are largely successful. And when also considering Sophie's mom's inquiry regarding "math music," we've gathered that our parents, while old, are also pretty damn cool.

Of Montreal at GAMH (14.11.07)

Due to the insanity of life right now (moving + school + college applications), I hadn't been able to write about this show yet, but guess what? IT'S HAPPENING NOW, PEOPLE.

This was my second time seeing Of Montreal at Great American. The first thing I noticed, obviously, was the stage setup. There was a big platform that lighted up and smaller platforms which would flash different colors (check it out in the videos, below).

The crowd at the show was pretty interesting and different than the general hipster-y crowd that I expect to see at most shows I attend. There was a group of guys next to us who were all wearing dresses and Kevin Barnes-style makeup. There were some girls behind us with crazy neon colored wigs and weird dresses. Most people in the front few rows looked like they were dressed for a rave.

Before MGMT started, there was a weird comedian who came on for a few minutes. I don't really know if he's worth describing. MGMT were pretty ok, if not that interesting. They were a pretty typical opening band; too loud and vaguely good. However, they weren't good enough that I didn't get kind of tired of them after twenty minutes.

I struggle to find words to describe the strangeness that was Grand Buffet. Try to imagine a skinny red haired bearded guy in a Chinese style outfit and a kind of large guy with chains on his huge shorts, rapping, singing and dancing with great conviction about subjects such as finding a cat. It was WAY weirder than Alaska in Winter.


Of Montreal came on, and from the very first second of music the crowd turned into some kind of insane indie pop mosh pit/rave. Literally, I was not standing still for one second of the show, from their opening Prince covers to the last song of the encore. They played mostly Hissing Fauna material, but we did get some Sunlandic Twins and Satanic Panic stuff as well (sadly, I have STILL not seen My British Tour Diary live). Highlights included Grondalic Edit, the closing cover of Purple Rain (video below) and Wraith Pinned to the Mist and Other Games as the first song of the encore (halfway through the song Kevin Barnes broke into "Let's go Outback tonight!"). This wasn't one of those shows that I wanted to go on forever, as I would have probably collapsed from exhaustion, but it was still a ton of fun.


As one last note, something must be said about Kevin's costume change midway through the show.... he started out wearing a almost normal blue jumpsuit type thing, but when he came back from the costume change he was wearing the tiniest and tightest denim one piece EVER, along with blue fishnets, boots, and innumerable sequins. I don't think I ever needed to see that much of Kevin Barnes thighs. But it was pretty amusing.

The second half of this video really displays the overall mood of the show.




Purple Rain!

Uh...imsrywhat?

I just discovered Blender Magazine's list of the "100 Greatest Indie Albums Ever," and I must say that it's been a long time since I've felt this confused. How is MIA better than Guided By Voices? What is Strawberry Jam doing here instead of Feels? WHY ISN'T IN THE AEROPLANE OVER THE SEA IN THE TOP 30? I could go on, but I'll just let you come up with your own questions! Enjoy...

100 The Shaggs - Philosophy Of The World
99 Dream Syndicate - The Days Of Wine And Roses
98 Palace Music - Viva Last Blues
97 The Mekons - Rock 'N' Roll
96 TV On The Radio - Return To Cookie Mountain
95 The Dismemberment Plan - Emergency & I
94 Half Japanese - Greatest Hits
93 Big Black - Atomizer
92 Dead Kennedys - Fresh Fruit For Rotting Vegetables
91 The Chills - Kaleidoscope World
90 Animal Collective - Strawberry Jam
89 Art Brut - Bang Bang Rock & Roll
88 Daniel Johnston - Yip/Jump Music
87 Wolf Parade - Apologies To The Queen Mary
86 Flipper - Album - Generic Flipper
85 The Clean - Anthology
84 Beat Happening - You Turn Me On
83 The Misfits - Walk Among Us
82 The Embarrassment - Heyday 1979-83
81 The Vaselines - The Way Of The Vaselines
80 Feist - The Reminder
79 Clap Your Hands Say Yeah - Clap Your Hands Say Yeah
78 The 13th Floor Elevators - The Psychedelic Sounds Of The 13th Floor Elevators
77 Arctic Monkeys - Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not
76 Le Tigre - Le Tigre
75 Galaxie 500 - Today
74 The Fall - 50,000 Fall Fans Can't Be Wrong
73 Meat Puppets - Up On The Sun
72 The Mountain Goats - We Shall All Be Healed
71 Stereolab - Refried Ectoplasm
70 Mudhoney - Superfruzz Bigmuff Plus Early Singles
69 Nick Drake - Pink Moon
68 Descendents - Milo Goes To College
67 Hüsker Dü - New Day Rising
66 Young Marble Giants - Colossal Youth
65 Various Artists - No New York
64 Cat Power - The Greatest
63 Nirvana - Bleach
62 The Feelies - Crazy Rhythms
61 LCD Soundsystem - LCD Soundsystem
60 Sufjan Stevens - Illinois
59 Nine Inch Nails - Pretty Hate Machine
58 Built To Spill - There's Nothing Wrong With Love
57 Bikini Kill - Pussy Whipped
56 Archers Of Loaf - Icky Mettle
55 Bad Brains - Bad Brains
54 Unrest - Imperial F.F.R.R.
53 Smashing Pumpkins - Gish
52 Bright Eyes - Lifted Or The Story Is In The Soil, Keep Your Ear To The Ground
51 Interpol - Turn On The Bright Lights
50 Rilo Kiley - More Adventurous
49 Spoon - Kill The Moonlight
48 Mission Of Burma - Vs.
47 Green Day - Kerplunk
46 Franz Ferdinand - Franz Ferdinand
45 Fugazi - Repeater
44 Various Artists - Wanna Buy A Bridge?
43 Black Flag - Damaged
42 Brian Eno - Another Green World
41 Modest Mouse - The Lonesome Crowded West
40 New Order - Power Corruption & Lies
39 Pavement - Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain
38 The Strokes - Is This It
37 Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Fever To Tell
36 Elliott Smith - Either/Or
35 Liz Phair - Exile In Guyville
34 Superchunk - On The Mouth
33 The Shins - Oh, Inverted World
32 Neutral Milk Hotel - In The Aeroplane Over The Sea
31 Guided By Voices - Bee Thousand
30 Wilco - Yankee Hotel Foxtrot
29 Violent Femmes - Violent Femmes
28 The Magnetic Fields - 69 Love Songs
27 M.I.A. - Arular
26 Belle And Sebastian - If You're Feeling Sinister
25 Sebadoh - III
24 The New Pornographers - Mass Romantic
23 Yo La Tengo - Painful
22 Meat Puppets - Meat Puppets II
21 The Modern Lovers - The Modern Lovers
20 The Hold Steady - Separation Sunday
19 Sleater-Kinney - Dig Me Out
18 Joy Division - Unknown Pleasures
17 The White Stripes - White Blood Cells
16 Slint - Spiderland
15 X - Wild Gift
14 De La Soul - 3 Feet High And Rising
13 Hüsker Dü - Zen Arcade
12 Dinosaur Jr - You're Living All Over Me
11 Minutemen - Double Nickels On The Dime
10 The Smiths - The Smiths
09 Big Star - Third/Sister Lovers
08 My Bloody Valentine - Loveless
07 The Velvet Underground - The Velvet Underground
06 Arcade Fire - Funeral
05 Pixies - Surfer Rosa
04 R.E.M. - Murmur
03 The Replacements - Let It Be
02 Sonic Youth - Daydream Nation
01 Pavement - Slanted And Enchanted

John Darnielle = God

A few weeks ago in a thread on the Mountain Goats message board, some one was asking about an older, obscure song (shocking, I know).

The part that actually IS shocking is that this prompted John Darnielle (who frequently reads and posts there), to try to remember the old song, and subsequently record a new version and post it on the thread. Seriously, is it possible to be any more connected and dedicated to your fans?

So here is the song, and of course, it is amazing.

Counting Song for Bitter Children

Take it to the limit...as x ->c!

Tonight at dinner, Sophie's mom asked us what "math music" is.

Sit there and think about that for a second.
Yeah, we were laughing too. Anyways.

We know she was asking about this:



But it got us wondering what actual "math music" is. We concluded it was something like this:

Jens Lekman Interview (9.11.07) and Show Review

As promised, I have uploaded the interview with Jens here for your downloading pleasure.

The sound quality isn't the best, we were in a tiny backstage room that was quite echo-y. But it's still awesome! Listen to me as I nerdily mention Beirut for no reason!

Before I talk about the show, I want to say a little about what happened before it (which was a lot, I spent a total of 7 hours in Bimbo's on Friday). When I got to Bimbo's at 5 pm as instructed, there was no one there and it was locked. I called Jens tour manager and no one responded. I waited about a minute more outside (just slightly freaking out) before two vans pulled up. Jens was in the passenger seat of the second one.

I was quickly introduced to him by his tour manager and then this happened.

Jens: "Hi..... can you carry that guitar in for me?"
Me: "Okay, sure!"
My mind: "OMFG JENS LEKMAN JUST ASKED ME TO CARRY HIS GUITAR!!!!1!!11"

So that was pretty surreal to start out with. I passed the next two hours until the interview actually happened sitting around in the basically empty Bimbo's watching people setting up equipment and listening to them speak in Swedish. Sound check was pretty sweet as my mom and I were the only people in the room other than the sound guy.

So. The show. The opening band, Throw Me The Statue, were overall pretty good. The first few songs were a little too slow and made me kind of tired, but the middle few songs were pretty damn awesome. They reminded me of a strange mixture of Voxtrot and Grizzly Bear. But maybe I'm completely wrong, you can go listen to their music and decide for yourself! One thing that was pretty sweet was that they gave about 20 people in the audience little egg shaped shakers for one song (these came in useful later).

After the break, Jens sample and computer handling guy (and the only male in his band) came on stage and started playing music. This was very confusing. He was playing songs by The Tough Alliance, all of which Jens uses samples from. We didn't really know whether the show was starting or not. Thankfully, after about ten minutes of this, Jens and his incredibly adorable all female band came on. They were all wearing matching white outfits, which all had different things embroidered on them (the bicycle was my favorite). I struggle to describe the awesomeness that ensued. The sample guy played the backing samples, but with the viola, violin, trumpet, sax, bass, drums and guitar on top of them, the songs sounded even more crazy and beautiful than on the album. His voice was much more impressive and perfect sounding. The songs that were preformed solo (such as "Shirin") were very gorgeous and completely different than the album versions. Overall it was an awesome brightly colored disco-ball-spotted Swedish dance party. I doubt I have ever laughed so much at a show. "A Postcard to Nina" was completely epic. He filled in the other parts of the story between verses.

"Then her father said to me 'Jens. I found you on the internet. You have a beautiful voice.' Then dinner got very awkward. It was like that scene from Buffalo 66. But in Germany. "

The crowd was really enthusiastic and thanks to that we got two encores of solo songs, including "Pocketful of Money". Someone started using their shaker from earlier. Jens said "Oh, someone has a shaker!" When 20 other people joined them, the expression on his face was pretty memorable.