It’s been a sloooow day after the holiday weekend and I, for one, am finding it hard to stay motivated (though word of a new iPod being released tomorrow has perked me up).
So here is some live video I found of one of my favorite bands, Okkervil River, performing “Unless It’s Kicks” at Waterloo Records in Austin, TX.
The song is off the band’s newest album “The Stage Names” and I’m a douche for not picking up the album yet. I dunno what my problem is. Neither does my therapist.
I know. This video sucks and you can’t see his face. And, quite frankly, there were only 12 people at this show which was supposed to be the CD launch party for the album “Guilt by Association,” a collection of indie artists covering their favorite guilty pleasure songs (Farina covered Eddie Money’s “Two Tickets to Paradise”). So that sucked too. But I discovered a now-defunct band you may want to know about.
The song in the video is “Some Sinatra” and is from Farina’s past band called Secret Stars (Deathcab for Cutie covered their song “Wait”) and I’m embarrassed for not knowing of them before. Secret Stars was founded in 1993 and I really could have used this break-up song in high school.
Farina is working on a new band called Glorytellers, which should come out with an album next year.
Tegan and Sara seem to be popping up all over the US media lately. Last month they played Conan O’Brien, this month they were profiled in Rolling Stone, appeared on the World Cafe, and music videos from their recently released album The Con are making their way into rotation on MTV and Fuse.
The Canadian indie-pop sisters are actually in Europe right now working their way through a world tour that crosses through Canada next, then heads into the US, and finally brings them down to Australia through the end of 2007.
While you wait for the twins to reach your town, check out some quality videos from their stop in Malmo, Sweden this week. By the sounds of it Tegan and Sara really like Swedes.
This video shows only one half of the Judith Owen experience. The other half consists of exaggerated gestures, poking fun at her own music, and telling long-winded stories about how her emotional scars, all with a British accent and precise comic timing and enthusiastic sarcasm.
“Ok everybody, let’s get down…let’s have a bad time together,” says Owen before she launches into one of her “sad” songs.
It’s hard to believe she can be that funny, especially when Owen comes across as a Tori Amos who sings more about feelings than about societal and political issues.
But it’s true. Owen’s show last night (Aug. 22 in Cambridge, MA) was less of a concert and more of a VH1 Storyteller show, only with more laughs and vulgarity. It was half a concert, half a stand-up comedy routine.
Check out this video where Owen digresses and talks about her husband (the Simpsons and Spinal Tap’s Harry Shearer) and a strange circus.
Or this video where she dances between the line of seriousness and hilarity when she talks about having compassion for others and how she only makes music for the attention.
Why does she do it? “So I’m filled with the meaninglessness of applause. Yes! Louder people! LOUDER!”
Demanding more accolades from your audience can be seen as desperate move, but in terms of Owen, its simply tomfoolery.
In her over two-hour set (complete with an encore that included a cover of Deep Purple’s “Smoke on the Water”), Owen played every single song off her “Happy This Way” album, and made sure to explain whatever emotion or hilarious story was involved in writing it.
For the song “Love Has Two Faces,” Owen described it as a “true love song” and told a story about her husband.
“What they don’t tell you, is that when you love someone that deeply, you can also hate them just as deep. Harry and I were in the kitchen, virtually in a stab-off. He’s upset because he thinks I moved his Bose handbook or something. The thing is, you don’t hate people you don’t care deeply about…unless that person is the president.”
To this, the crowd erupted into laughter and, once more, I’m reminded why the live music can be so fulfilling, surprising and inspiring. Had I not been there, I would have missed Owen’s cover of Survivor’s “Eye of the Tiger,” which, as you can imagine, should be experienced by all female “Rocky” fans out there.
Owen’s next, and only, show is on Aug. 24 at Sellersville Theater in Sellersville, PA.
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