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

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)

“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

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

Les Reines Prochaines is from Switzerland. It’s an all women multilingual feminist band. A small fact about feminism over at the Swiss Alpes: Women were granted the right to vote only in 1971. Another small fact: women were allowed to participate in the local elections of the canton Appenzell Inner Rhoden, only in 1991. That’s not that long ago. A small detail about Les Reines Prochaines: they are crazy. And a last detail: they do wonderful covers.
Links:
More about Les Reines Prochaines (including high quality MP3s)
Women’s voting in Switzerland
The local elections of the canton Appenzell Inner Rhoden

This is the first version, a final extended version is available here.
In this Indie party you won’t be jumping up and down, screaming along the guitars. In this Indie party, you won’t chew on the same songs over and over again, turning them into a horrible lolly pop. In this Indie party you will House music, and it’s will be more Indie then any guitar you ever heard. This party will be broken, it will be shattered by styles, fractured by beats and it will hammer deep into you. However, this Indie party will be united by one, it will be united by Mirah. This entire party, that will shot you to the dance floor, is all about Mirah and her music. Indie never sounded more kicking, and Mirah never made dance so much, although she did made me feel oh so much already.
This set is a mix of Mirah’s work, but it revolves mainly around the brilliant remixes album she just released titled Joyride. Unlike other remixes albums this one proved to be a masterpiece not only by reflecting other masterpieces, but on its own right, a brilliant and surprising collection of ways for you to get carried away by, to hear Mirah in ways you never dreamed about.

Links:
Mirah @ K Records
Mirah @ MySpace

For the complete podcasts archive, click here.