It is a happy day for brit-pop lovers! The Verve are reuniting for a winter tour. They’re also in the studio working on new material. All original members of the band will be getting back together. So far the only tour dates posted are for the UK.
Richard Ashcroft is one lanky, skeleton face, but I always thought he was hot anyways (I guess I have a thing for tall guys). The Verve always put on a good show. Ashcroft’s solo stuff was no good, so this is good news.
Here’s a video that got overplayed in 1997, but I still always liked it…
I’m up in Portland right now. My friend Maureen is moving up here in a few days and I came with to help her find a place to live. We’ve been driving around looking at houses. Portland is pretty awesome - they have a good music scene and lots of green everywhere. Last night our friends Rob and Danielle took us to a buffalo wing place called Fire on the Mountain and then we went to this tiki bar called Alibi. I had this drink called Scurvy Sailor, I think it had lime, rum, ginger ale, bitters. There’s no shortage of good bars up here.
On Saturday night we had a going away party for Maureen. One of our friends couldn’t make it, so she sent a singing telegram. The song was about how much we’re gonna miss our cool friend, her rapping, her accents, and her ability to drink all the guys under the table. Everyone’s gonna miss her, but I’m not gonna mind coming up here to visit since Portland’s such a fun place.
This Bat For Lashes video is so dark and beautiful. I love the look of this video, and the synchronized Donnie Darko animal mask wearing guys on the BMX’s are pretty dope too.
…and we have the longest hours of daylight of the whole year today.
Flight Of The Conchords were on Conan a few nights ago and performed a new song for all the Ladies. Check it out here.
Bonnaroo Music Festival came and went. YANP has posted a plethora of reviews and pix of all of the performances. He posted about a song that Regina Spektor performed called “Baby Jesus“, which YANP has up here. It sorta reminds me of that new Tori Amos song ‘Velvet Revolution‘.
I was looking on You Tube for some music by the National, since I’ve heard a few people recommend them. And when I searched National, I stumbled across Sufjan Stevens singing the ‘National Anthem’ in his own style, you could pretty much listen to it and forget its the ‘National Anthem’.
The National just played on NPR’s live concert series. You can listen to that entire performance here.
Tonight Conan O’Brien will have on Flight of the Conchords. It seems like they’ve been everywhere these last couple of weeks. I’ve really been enjoying watching how their songs have been evolving.
The new Polyphonic Spree album ‘Fragile Army’ is available in stores today! Listen to ‘Running Away’ here.
I just read on Pitchfork that Arcade Fire and LCD Soundsystem are planning to tour together this fall, September through October. Tickets sold out so fast for their last concert and were selling for $150 on Craigslist.
My little sister just got back from Thailand and I got to see her today. She’d been gone a month. It was really nice to catch up.
Radiohead has been in the studio working on their 7th album for a while now. They’ve been hinting that its almost done. They just released this short video of very short snippets of a bunch of their songs.
This is less than a tease. Its hardly enough to get a feel for the album. But I’ll admit I’m curious and can’t wait to hear the new album.
My Brightest Diamond singer Shara Worden has been called a female Jeff Buckley, because her range is amazing. Well, I personally wouldn’t be so quick to compare her to Buckley, it must be said that the girl can really sing.
Here she is embracing her inner diva at a karaoke bar somewhere in Texas…
This book was an amazing olfactory experience - seriously such a good book. Taking place in 18th century Paris, everything is described through scents and smells. Our main character is born into a putrid smelling city, he has no smell to him, and at the same time has a very acute sense of smell. From the time he is born nobody wants him, he grows up unloved and unwanted. As he grows up he realized how subtly attuned his nose is, he’s able to breathe people in and know things about them based on their smell. He starts learning the trade of perfuming. He wants to learn how to bottle the scent of a young beautiful virgin - which to him is perfection.
This book has been described as a psychololgical thriller, you are taken into the mind of the killer. It made me think about how sensual and animal some smells are. While its a thriller, there is no graphic violence. This story, especially the ending really stays with you.
This book is so well written. Put this on your summer reading list, it’ll be better than watching re-runs of Heroes, I promise. This book has also been made into a movie, directed by the guy that did Run Lola Run.
If you’ve read this book, please feel free to share your thoughts on it. I’d love to hear it.
I was pretty bummed that the video of Feist performing “1 2 3 4″on a certain late night show this week, was already taken down. But then I read on Stereogum, that I could watch the video here. Feast your eyes on all that wonderful indie girliness.
