Monthly Archives: August 2007

Heima (at home)

Posted on by
2

I started blogging a little over two years ago and around that time Sigur Ros was on tour in the states, supporting Takk. I saw them once by myself at the Boston Opera House and then a second time, same tour, at the Orpheum Theater, this time with a companion – my girlfriend of almost two years now. So when I saw this trailer for their upcoming DVD, Heima, which stands for “homeland” or in Iceland it actually stands for “at home”, I couldn’t help but get a little sentimental.

To be honest, putting the sentimental value aside, the footage and overpowering energy in this trailer alone makes the hairs on my back stand-up. I said it two years ago and I’ll say it again today, Sigur Ros will no doubt go down as one of our generations most inspirational artists. Watch the trailer below.

YouTube Preview Image

You can catch Sigur Ros state side when they play at this years New Yorker Festival on the weekend of October 5th. This won’t be a traditional show where you have a huge screen in the back and crazy lights and sounds blaring down on you for 2 hours straight. They will be both playing music and talking to John Seabrook from the New Yorker.

Just being introduce to Sigur Ros? Well – (Buy their albums) (Visit myspace) (Visit official site) (Find some tracks on Hype Machine).

Enjoy your weekend.

The Budos Band – Tonight in Boston

Posted on by
Reply

If you’re a hip hop fan, the only gift given to us from Staten Island has been the kung fu loving group – Wu Tang Clan. If you’re a teeny bopper who loves girl power, then Christina Aguilera is the only gift this special Island has dished out. If you’re a bar crawling girl from Queens looking for a good time, the only gift from Staten are guys like this. But now another demographic has been given a gift from the half landfill half lost NYC borough – Afro-Funk fans.

The Budos Band started out playing together in a community center band and eventually were asked to leave for what reason we can’t even begin to imagine. But thankfully they did leave as the band reached out to their neighboring city and added a few more members (there are 11 total in the band) and joined the likes of Sugarman Three on the Daptones label and things just started to climb from there.

Now two albums later and one recently released album (just yesterday), The Budos Band are coming to Boston. And they’re coming at you tonight.

No better place to put this eleven piece Afro-soul funk outfit then the Calderwood Courtyard at the Museum of Fine Arts. If you’re looking to, in the words of Little Joe Cook, “Shake your booty cutey“, then you need to waste no more time and buy tickets online or head to the MFA box office ( 465 HUNTINGTON AVE – Wed-Fri, 10 am-8:30 pm). The show is $25 and starts at 7:30 pm.

Celebrate the Kala – “Boyz” Video

Posted on by
Reply

In celebration of the new M.I.A. album, Kala, I’ve provided below the video to her first single, “Boyz”, and a MP3 from the album, “Bird Flu”.

In “Bird Flu”, you may say that this is a good example of her political side, expressing the terror and fear that’s built up by diseases originating from overseas. But again, she’s able to take afunny, quarky sound and turn it in to a fun loving danceable beat. Oh, and I also need to make sure that I’m not just crediting M.I.A. for her mastery, her sidekick (no, not that sidekick) Switch is also behind many of the songs on Kala. Only two songs were produced by Diplo, one by Timbaland and two by Blaqstarr.

“Boyz” is clearly a track that shows to the world that M.I.A. is a girl who can have fun and doesn’t always have to talk about serious political issues in her music. Her music in general is fun and energetic but sometimes she can’t get away from her passionate genes carried over from her father.

Josh Ritter – “The Historical Conquest of Josh Ritter”

Posted on by
2

In the upcoming release by Josh Ritter (out tomorrow, 8/20), “The Historical Conquest of Josh Ritter” (kind of a bold title if you ask me), Josh announces that the “record is an effort to capture moments when they were at their most passionate”. He explains how all the songs have this rawness to them because they were captured on the fly. Instead of tooling around for hours on a song, they would be hanging out and all of a sudden an idea popped in to their heads and recorded it. And didn’t change it.

Why did Josh decide to go this route? Was it because his last record lacked the passion and rawness that he feels this record captures? I would saw yes to the rawness but no to the passion. On his last album, “The Animal Years”, Josh was focused on a political message and wanted to make sure that each song delivered the message he was looking for (like every good politician should do before opening their mouth). But the songs were very clean and straightforward. The one downfall with Josh is that he’s not the most prolific guitar player. He’s know Nick Drake. Then again, who is.

Continue reading after the jump

Continue reading →

The Forms opening for The National

Posted on by
Reply

image003.jpg

Tomorrow night in Manhattan at the South Street Sea Port, The National are going to be putting on their red shoes as they meet in the basement of Manhattan and put on a slow, dumbfounding show for you. Don’t forget to linger and wallow in the squalor scenery.

The FormsBut this is nothing new as they’ve been on tour since May and are heading out again on another lengthy tour in the Fall. The real story is the opening band – The Forms. They’ve been making small waves down there in the neighborhood just east of Manhattan and are looking to extend their story out to a larger audience tomorrow night.

The square shall be bringing you pictures and hopefully a story or two from this special night.