February 2015 – Flip the Record

{Just dropping in to say that my posts in the next few weeks might be limited, due to that aforementioned trip to AMSTERDAM!}

Lately, things have been busy and I’ve been filling up the remaining spare moments vigorously digesting the Talking Heads discography. I’m kind of embarrassed to say that my prior knowledge of this band was limited to the two records we have (Speaking in Tongues and Little Creatures)—both of which are awesome—and an old DVD of True Stories that I’ve owned for almost 15 years and maybe watched once. But recently when I went home, I found a copy of Talking Heads: 77 and could.not.stop. listening to it. It’s just so funky fresh.

I swear, there’s nothing better than diving into a band’s repertoire and the excitement of knowing that there’s still SO MUCH GOOD MUSIC I haven’t listened to yet. Sometimes things get hectic, and for a few hours or days I forget about whatever music or movie or nerdy obsession I have going on at the moment, and then I’ll leave work and suddenly remember those videos I have queued up and the albums I need to find, and I get SO PUMPED. This is one of those times: a blissful discovery phase.

Even though it’s showing the night before we leave for Europe, I really want to go to this upcoming screening of Stop Making Sense. I’m trying not to spoil too much of it, but did watch the below video which only confirmed the fact that I need to see this film:

How can one band be so cool?

Last week we went to two shows: the TEJ Trio at SFJAZZ and the Kishi Bashi String Quartet at the Palace of Fine Arts (in a huge concert hall that I had no idea existed). The jazz show was cool but I have to admit that I liked the 5-minute encore of them playing “Caravan” better than the hour-long improvisation preceding it. Does that make me lame? I’m no stranger to experimental shows (if you recall, I used to live in LA with a bunch of beat scene guys), but this time the laptops and projections just didn’t do it for me.

I *did* very much enjoy Kishi Bashi, who shared the stage with a string quartet and his mountainman banjo player, Mike Savino. They did some really cool covers (including Talking Heads!) and a lot of songs from the new (“second”) album, Lighght. I love KB’s semi-awkward banter and his fondness for San Francisco. Both times I saw him perform, he explained that the reason for his awkwardness was because he was nervous and that SF was his favorite place to play. Awwww.

In other news, I recently discovered a very interesting genre called electro swing. Am I really behind the times on this? I had no idea it was a thing until I happened upon a really cool 8tracks mix. I take back what I said a few posts back about swing having “died out.” Apparently it’s still very much alive (with the help of some phat beats). Here’s another mix for good measure:

And lastly, I don’t believe I’ve mentioned it here yet, but a couple weeks ago we made an impulsive decision to go to a D’Angelo concert…in Amsterdam. At the end of this month. After the initial shock of “whoa, we just bought those tickets,” I very quickly became PUMPED. And now after watching D’Angelo and the Vanguard on SNL I’m even more excited. Part of the reason we’re going is because his live performances are so sparse (those in the US tend to get…cancelled), and this may very well be our only chance to see him in person. The other reason we’re going is because it’s AMSTERDAM! Home of beautiful canals, suuuperchill people (if you catch my drift), and KattenKabinet! So even if D’Angelo flakes out on the show or announces a west coast tour right after this, it’s going to be great.

I’ll leave you with this, a Monkees gif I made, lest you think I’ve forgotten what this blog is really about:

Month: February 2015

who is it / what is it

In which I listen to “hip” music