Sun, 10 Apr 2016
The Power of Physical Media
Let me preface this by saying I love digital media. I'm not one of those that grouses about the soullessness of digital music, and I love that in one small physical device I can carry enough text to read to satisfy me for days and music to listen to to satisfy me for weeks.
That said....
Last Friday at work we somehow got talking about the cartoon Powerpuff Girls and somehow came across the fact that the end-credits theme song to the show was performed by the Scottish band Bis. I was convinced I had heard of them somewhere, although I thought they were the house band on some late 1990s/early 2000s television show. In looking them up, however, I came across an image of one of their early albums, New Transistor Heros.
I was taken aback, since I own that album but hadn't even thought of it in probably a decade. That prompted me this evening to dig out the two physical boxes of CDs that I still own, and dig through them, both to find that album and to see what other gems were lurking around unthought of.
Two things became readily apparent. One, I had some dubious taste in music between, say, 1998 and 2003. Then again, those were interesting times, and who didn't? Second, there are some amazing gems in there, stuff I hadn't digitized and so haven't thought of in ages. And that's where the joy of physical media came through. Several of the CDs I dug up brought back vivid memories, way more than scrolling past them in a playlist. A random CD I bought in Portland, Oregon. The off-brand chain bookstore in Ames that was mediocre but strangly had a really good local music section.
Posted at: 22:51 | category: /music | Link
Mon, 30 Nov 2015
TMBG Duo Set
This is not a nostalgia show ... it's more like a data recovery show.
-John Linnell, 29 November 2015, 20:42
Almost 20 years ago, I had the good fortune of being introduced to They Might Be Giants by several of my core group of college friends. By that point they had been performing as a full band for several years, instead of the two musicians and a tape machine that they started out as. I remember hearing that ages ago, shortly after they started performing with a full band, they did shows where the opening act was themselves, just the Johns and a tape machine.
I was insanely jealous of these people.
All that jealousy has has finally paid off, as tonight I got to see They Might Be Giants at the Music Hall of Williamsburg, with special opening act ... They Might Be Giants (and a tape machine). For extra special bonus, they dragged out The Stick, so I finally got to see that in person too.
Pics from the show.
Posted at: 00:10 | category: /music/2015 | Link
Mon, 25 Apr 2011
Mini-review: They Might Be Giants "Join Us"
Just got the Internet Fan Club download for "Join Us", thought I'd do a mini-review of my first listening.
- Can't Keep Johnny Down: I can't wait to hear this in concert, because I bet it's going to be about 10 times as rockin' as it is here. Also, electric keyboard parts are screaming out to be a accordion.
- Cloisonné: Bonus points for using "sleestak". But didn't do much else for me.
- I Never Knew Love: Did he just say "Car Talk Roofie"?
- Old Pine Box: Now, there's the wordplay I was looking for. I listened to it twice just to get it all.
I can't wait until They are in Detroit later this year, but then again, I couldn't wait anyways.
Posted at: 20:12 | category: /music/2011 | Link
Thu, 15 Nov 2007
They Might Be Giants at the Michigan Theater
My second favorite band ever is on tour and came through my part of the world, playing at the incredibly wonderful Michigan Theater in a little suburb of Ypsilanti I like to call Ann Arbor. The show was, as I usually expect from TMBG, excellent.
Opening for them was a duo from Belfast, Ireland called Oppenhemier. Poppy, synthesizers (and they must have had a sequencer in there somewhere, because there was more music than two guys could play). They were pretty good, and I'm not just saying that because they had a air horn solo during one of the songs. I picked up their CD after the show, and look forward to giving it a good listening soon.
TMBG did a nice set with three encores, a mix of stuff from their new album The Else and other stuff. They pulled out, as they put it, "some old chestnuts&uot;, so we got to hear stuff like XTC vs. Adam Ant and Spy. A feature new to this tour is "Jerry Orbach from Beyond the Grave", which reminds me that I should have a Jerry Orbach movie night. The best part of the show, in my opinion, was the third encore (Istanbul, Not Constantinople), especially the opening guitar solo done by Dan Miller. Acoustic, started off sounding almost classical and working up to a frenzy before opening the song.
Random photos from the show (and damn, I forgot to take a picture of the Michigan Theater Marquee after I left) can be found here. Not bad, considering I was taking them from the balcony.
Posted at: 00:00 | category: /music/2007/11 | Link