Wow! Chalk!!

I've never seen anybody do anything that cool with chalk! It sort of reminds me of the video above, but I'm sure the chalk animation was much more challenging.

I've never been able to get into Coldplay, but their videos are often pretty clever. (guess they're compensating...) I guess Shynola did the animation. They've a bunch of stunning music videos in their portfolio and one of my all-time faves is Pyramid Song by Radiohead. (Make sure to watch it in HQ- Youtube won't let me embed it... I guess this video is based on a dream Thom Yorke had. Actually reminds me of lots of dreams I've had too...)

Thanks for the post, Sean!

Here's another fave of mine:

Amazing video Cold Play - Strawberry Swing

http://www.babelgum.com/3022304/coldplay-strawberry-swing.html
I studied animation at The Evergreen State College at two full time semesters and a summer class. So I feel like I know enough to be a animation snob. While at Evergreen and before I've never come across this approach. I've seen similar techniques on youtube and was very impressed. Props to Kate B. for finding this.

Beck o Beck o Beck o Beck!!

Record Club: Velvet Underground & Nico 'Sunday Morning' from Beck Hansen on Vimeo.

For reals-like, get yourselves over to Beck's RECORD CLUB for a little more of the above goodness. To keep the creative particles smashing in his Hadron collider of a brain, he's taken to doing covers.......

of entire albums.......

in a single day............ (!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)

The first album- Velvet Underground and Nico. He's putting out each song one at a time with a roughshod DIY video on his site. Guest artists, actors (? Giovanni Ribisi?), plants, and animals are all fair game. I guess it started when Sonic Youth approached him about involvement on a Boxed Set they're putting together. Included will be a cassette (yes.. tape...) only version of EVOL as interpreted by Beck and friends. Oh and yeah.. you guessed it- he recorded the album in a single day. Matador released a split 7" not too long ago with his version of "Green Light" on one side and Sonic Youth's version of "Pay no Mind" on the other. Haven't heard either.....limited pressing w/ no mp3s......

.....you will pay for your sins, Matador!!!....

Anyway, who knows what album he'll do next? Maybe he'll settle down in Reno and become the Coverband Chameleon! Seriously though, as fun as this looks and sounds so far, he's really hoping to boost creativity by doing covers? I guess it's a way to stretch you in musical directions you might have shied away from. But... if they all come out just sounding like Beck songs.... We'll see where he takes it.

I don't care, I think it's cool.

Sasquatch 2009

Ok, so this isn't going to be pretty but I've got to get it out of my system. (I got halfway through a gargantuan post (10+ videos) last summer for the Sub Pop 20th Anniversary Fest. and then totally burned out... too much information... sorry Sub Pop, I still love you, though..)

Music festivals are like a cross between a Tapas Bar and an Indian Buffet, nice mix of stuff you know and stuff you don't, potent little morsels piled up in such a spread you could never possibly eat them all. You soak in so much sun and sound, you can puke it all out your ears again.

Sasquatch!!! The Gorge Amphitheater in George, WA!! (Did you know there's a Martha, WA too?) A dusty bowl perched atop the cliffs of the mighty Columbia, a roaring hillside wall of sound (if not the Phil Specter variety). Check out some of the videos I took of some of the shows! (don't mock my feeble camera skills...) I need a bigger memory card... or camera!!!

BLIND PILOT

We missed the first couple of bands but made it in time for these guys. A very pleasant surprise as a live show and a great way to start off the day. Banjo, bass, guitar pickin' ditties... great sunny afternoon music.

DEATH VESSEL

Scooted from the Wookie stage to the Yeti stage for this Sub Pop group. Billed as a "neo-traditionalist" folk act, both their name as well as their visage (all black, long hair, vampire-white skin) conjure visions of a norwegian black metal group. I think it might have been the tiny Yeti stage (few bands sounded great there), but DV was pretty underwhelming. We ditched them early to go see Doves down at the mainstage.

DOVES

Brit boys. The mainstage suited their sound, some cool songs but not enough to keep me from leaving early to go see Passion Pit....

PASSION PIT

...which was pretty disappointing... one of the biggest let-downs of the day. just don't translate well into a live show. like animal collective, they would have benefited from an indoor or nighttime venue.

DEVOTCHKA

Probably the biggest surprise for me at Sasquatch! You listen to their recorded material and they're decent to good (everybody knows their biggest hit- "how it ends" made popular by the preview for the film adaptation of everything is illuminated, and the commercials for Gears of War) but they're MONSTERS on stage. Really fantastic live show. I had planned on leaving early to go catch Shearwater, but was too hypnotized to move... Gypsy music meets mariachi meets rockin' balkan polka. Super rad.

M. WARD

M. Ward!!!!!!!! One of the best shows of the day. We were up close and personal for this set at the mainstage. I just laid down in the sun using my jacket as a pillow and listened with my eyes closed. Not very engaging with the crowd, but a well-performed set chock with greats and covers.

Animal Collective

I was really looking forward to this set and wasn't disappointed. They kicked off with Summertime Clothes which transitioned seamlessly to My Girls which bled into a 10 or 15 minute blow-your-mind version of Fireworks (the three songs together with some jammage clocked in at around 40 min). The thing that sucked was that they went on in the afternoon instead of the evening... they should have had the Yeah Yeah Yeah's slot...

Ra Ra Riot

One of Ann's favorite bands- she's seen them multiple times/places (even in NYC). I'd never heard them, though, and once again the acoustics of the Yeti stage were pretty subpar. Seemed like some pretty cool songs, but the set was a bit underwhelming given the sonic limitations.

THE DECEMBERISTS

You know? I haven't been able to dig their stuff since leaving Kill Rock Stars. Maybe someday it'll grow on me, but maybe I'm just bored with Colin Meloy. Me and Ann watched from the top of the grassy amphitheater of the mainstage and wondered if we might have dug it more being down closer to the action... maybe. I guess during the set way over to the left of where we'd been (after we'd ditched for Mos Def) a couple got nekkid and intimate for all to see.... man, how i've missed music festivals at the Gorge....

MOS DEF

HOLY MOSES!!! The Def is back! I thought he'd gone all hollywood... He was all smiles and energy- the sun was setting opposite the Wookie stage and he freaked out for a minute or so about the ambiance and the landscape, "Look at this place!!! Look! Look! It's unreal!" Would have been nice to see him indoors with better acoustics, but his juxtaposition against the dry hills and the twilight canyon was pretty surreal.

BON IVER

The night effectively ended with Bon Iver. I had no interest in seeing the mainstage show Yeah Yeah Yeahs (we watched a song or two just to say we did...Karen O's voice is like a cheese grater on my brain) Kings of Leon and Crystal Castles came next, but Bon Iver was the perfect cap to a near-perfet day; a sweet nightcap catharsis to a sun-drenched and sonic-soaked day. Justin Vernon sure knows how to work the crowd! Of the videos above I only recorded the cover of Kathleen Edwards' Mercury (ran out of card space...but kept this one for its uniqueness). I could have listened for hours more.... but he practically played every song he's ever recorded (including the Dark was the Night stuff) Hats off... one of the best live sets I've seen in a while.

Here's a freebie- check out this awesome acapella version of "for Emma"





So we listened to one song by Kings of Leon and split. Long day... and nothing was about to top what we'd just seen. Can't wait to see next year's lineup!