Shamans and Saints: Wildbirds & Peacedrums and St. Vincent — updated with mp3s

07-Feb-10

Shamans and Saints: Wildbirds & Peacedrums and St. Vincent    updated with mp3s

St. Vincent – The Strangers [MP3]
Wildbirds & Peacedrums – I Can’t Tell In His Eyes [MP3]
Wildbirds & Peacedrums – Doubt/Hope [MP3]

There’s a clear hierarchy between the warm-up band and the main act. It’s this kind of clear separation that makes revolutions so sweet. It’s not that St. Vincent wasn’t good. She was the exact rocked-down sweetness that we all came to see. She is charming on stage as she is in my headphones. However, in this night, she wasn’t alone. She wasn’t overshadowed by Wildbirds & Peacedrums, but she was definitely matched by them. This night was balanced, and that’s what made it so great. This balance was part harmony between the amazing energies of both St. Vincent and Wildbirds & Peacedrums, but was also characterized by one moment of contradiction. When early in her act St. Vincent started to talk about calm waters and yoga (it’s Seattle after all), she didn’t take into account the shamanic energies that Mariam Wallentin left behind her. Nobody, was into yoga at that point, people were into dancing in trace around random fires. However, St. Vincent was bold and it paid off when she started her deep version of the Nico’s These Days. At the moment, the crowd belonged to her, we were all yogists just for her. A few random words about Wildbirds & Peacedrums live music: fire, tribes, frost, drums (tons of them), pure energy, wacky ancient spirits possessing a crazy singer on stage. Don’t miss this gig (dates below).

St. Vincent and Wildbirds & Peacedrums:
Feb 6 2010 Doug Fir Lounge Portland, Oregon
Feb 8 2010 Great American Music Hall San Francisco, California
Feb 9 2010 El Rey Theatre Los Angeles, California
Feb 10 2010 Belly Up Tavern Solana Beach, California
Feb 11 2010 Rhythm Room Phoenix, Arizona
Feb 13 2010 The Bluebird Theater Denver, Colorado
Feb 15 2010 Bottleneck Lawrence, Kansas
Feb 16 2010 The Blue Moose TapHouse Iowa City, Iowa
Feb 17 2010 Turner Hall Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Feb 18 2010 Metro Chicago, Illinois
Feb 19 2010 The Pike Room at The Crofoot Pontiac, Michigan
Feb 20 2010 Outland on Liberty Columbus, Ohio
Feb 21 2010 Diesel Club Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Feb 23 2010 Jefferson Theatre Charlottesville, Virginia
Feb 24 2010 9:30 Club Washington DC, Washington DC
Feb 25 2010 First Unitarian Church – Sanctuary Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

St. Vincent (without Wildbirds & Peacedrums):
Mar 12 2010 Yu Gong Yi Shan Beijing, Beijing
Mar 15 2010 Recital Studio, Esplanade Singapore
Mar 18 2010 Pacific Blue Festival Club Wellington, Wellington
Mar 28 2010 Big Ears Festival Knoxville, Tennessee
Mar 30 2010 Highdive Champaign, Illinois
Mar 31 2010 MusicNOW Festival – Memorial Hall / University of Cincinnati Cincinnati, Ohio

Wildbirds & Peacedrums (without St. Vincent):
Feb 26 2010 Mercury Lounge New York, New York
Feb 27 2010 Bruar Falls (Williamsburg) Brooklyn, New York

Monsters of Folk – The Sandman, the Brakeman, and Me

02-Jan-10


Post-NYE Seattle gloom (yes, it’s gray-er). We already discussed them in the past.

St. Vincent in a Glimpse

22-Dec-09


St. Vincent’s minimal-aesthetics detail-obsessed new video is an excellent excuse to check out her new album, Actor. Furthermore, once you do that, make sure to also pay her debut album, Marry Me, a visit, it’s a true gem. tinyways plans to cover St. Vincent later on after we see her live in February.

Mannerism: Panic Ensemble

24-Feb-08


panic_ensemble1.jpg
Human mannerism is the subject of most (if not all) music and art. Panic Ensemble provide a new take on this theme. When they approached their music and lyrics, they actually wrote a psychology book. Panic Ensemble’s debut album is a brilliant survey of the human psyche with special focus on the wonderful behaviors of fear, obsession and panic. With lyrics based partly on professional literature, their work has a solid base in reality. On the other hand, with their amazing musical arrangements, they posses a celestial aura. To bring this down to earth and give a bit of a clue about what kind of music they do, I will just have to throw in Rock, Jazz, Klezmer, Electronica and most of all Cabaret as categorizing genres. Panic Ensemble’s debut was recently released on Earsay Records.
Links:
MySpace Profile

Progressive Freak: Devendra Banhart – Smokey Rolls Down Thunder Canyon

14-Nov-07


Seahorse [MP3]
devendra_banhart.jpgMost musical genres come to life as en experimental evolution of previous genres. This was also the case with Freak Folk. It was born as a new psychedelic take on the good ol’ traditional folk music. Although it’s innovation and a pioneering spirit that drives artists to give birth to new genres, often they decide to settle down and continue create inside their newly born kingdom. This is not the case with Devendra Banhart. In this new album, title Smokey Rolls Down Thunder Canyon, he proves that he still has plenty to say and it’s going to come in a whole bunch languages. Smokey Rolls Down is a record that shares aesthetic and freakish values with his previous work, but speaks in totally different language. Banhart takes on a progressive approach with songs developing and swinging across genres from one minute to another. This album speaks many tongues and does so with amazing proficiency. This is, without a doubt, his best work to date.
Links:
Official website
Myspace profile

To Freud’s Delight: Panic Ensemble

16-Aug-07


On This Night [MP3]
Spring in Your Heart [MP3]
This Woman [MP3]
Panic Ensemble – Underground (live @ Clipa Theater) [Flash Video]

To Freuds Delight: Panic Ensemble

Panic Ensemble is a project that was founded with a goal – to explore the intrinsic ways of panic. Like its subject, the band itself and its music are both schizophrenic creatures. The music “suffers” from mood swings and periods of hyper activity that are replaced by swallowing sensuality. The band reminds of an octopus, its eight members, each one mastering his (or hers) instrument with superb skill, create a single split personality. Panic Ensemble also celebrate Darwin’s theory of evolution: The band started with a great potential, which blooms ever stronger as time passes. The band of today is by no mean what you saw half a year ago, they have evolved and changed, just like a real life being.
Links:
More wonderful videos (Hebrew website, so just click the thumbs to get the videos)
Panic Ensemble @ MySpace
Some photos from their gigs (by dirkhaim)

The Partisan, the Socialist and the Sexy: Bella Ciao

11-Jul-07


Yves Montand – Bella Ciao [MP3]
Anita Lane – Bella Ciao [MP3]
Mirah and the Black Cat Orchestra – Bella Ciao [MP3]
The Partisan, the Socialist and the Sexy: Bella Ciao From Wikipedia:

“Bella ciao” is an Italian partisan song of World War II. The origins of the song are uncertain. The music seems to come from a predating folk song and the author of the lyrics is unknown. The song has been recorded by various artists in many different languages including Italian, Bosnian, Croatian, Serbian, Hungarian, English, Spanish, German, Turkish, Japanese, Chinese, and Kurdish.

Representing the partisans: Yves Montands, because he saw them fighting.
Filling up for the socialist: Mirah and the Black Cat Orchestra from To All We Stretch the Open Arm.
And moaning with lust: Anita Lane from the wonderful Sex O’clock.
Links:
Wikipedia article (with lyrics in Italian, English and Chinese)
More versions of Bella Ciao
Yves Montand @ Wikipedia

Charming Underground Darling: Julie Doiron – Woke Myself Up

06-Jul-07


I Woke Myself Up [MP3]
No More [MP3]
Charming Underground Darling: Julie Doiron   Woke Myself UpI woke myself up. On a gloomy morning, the sounds of rain drops mixed with sweet minimalist pop and raw folk melodies are natural soundtrack. At times with a little dose of rock, and the delightful energy spreading all over the place, Julie Doiron flashes a perfect skill for unpretentiously crafted songs. It has a sense of drama, a feeling of melancholy, certain amount of charm and witty humor. It’s like rain and hot chocolate.
Completing her music is Julie’s photography, a collection of mostly intimate self-portraits from her life.
Links:
Official website
Myspace profile
Wikipedia article

Rock and our Hard Place: Modest Mouse – We Were Dead Before The Ship Even Sank

13-Apr-07


Missed the Boat [MP3]
Dashboard [MP3]
March into the Sea [MP3]
Dashboard [YouTube]
Rock and our Hard Place: Modest Mouse   We Were Dead Before The Ship Even SankA rock is a hard object. Made out of condensed minerals, hardened over millions of years, it can withstand quite a lot. Us humans can do nothing to it unaided. Aided, we can, as it seems, crash almost anything. But a big enough rock, will overcome us with not much of a difficulty. Actually, for our entire life we actually spend on one giant rock. So, you see, it’s no wonder we created a musical genre called Rock. It’s hard, it’s rough, rugged, and we can’t seem to break it. We enjoy having something to push against that just won’t move. We mixed it with electronic music, with Folk, with Country (hey, it came from Country and then remixed with it), with Blues (another ancestor), with Classical music and with just about everything we could find. Hell, we even mixed it with bad hairdos (see the 80s). But it always stayed Rock, and we thank it for being that way. Modest Mouse does Rock, and in the latest album – Dashboard, they do good Rock. It’s fun to come back and lean against this Rock for support, it feels just like home, like my precious Earth.
Links:
Official website
Another official website (?)

Edited by Inbal Mishory.

Podcast: tinyset #18 – Mirah’s in Da House (extended version)

31-Mar-07

tinyset #18 – Mirah’s in Da House (extended version)

Podcast: tinyset #18   Mirahs in Da House (extended version)This is an extended version of the Mirah special. It’s a special edit made for the radio, adding an extra 20 minutes to the original set, and revealing more of the wonderful Mirah.
Same as the original version, this too is mainly concerned with interleaving the new mixes from Joyride with the originals. Unlike the first one, this adds a few more insights, including live covers and a few more of the wonderful takes Mirah has on life and music. This version was prepared for 106FM and was featured there in a Mirah special a short while ago.

For the complete podcasts archive, click here.

Links:
Mirah @ K Records
Mirah @ MySpace
106FM – Kul Hacampus
The original version of the set

Edited by Inbal Mishory.