Dancing about architecture

And this is how I feel

People say that your dreams
are the only things that save ya.
Come on baby in our dreams,
we can live on misbehavior.

The weekend is starting up, the sun is shining, and this song – from what’s is still one of the best albums I’ve heard during the last 5 or so years – manages to reflect my mental state perfectly. It’s a very good state, in case you’re wondering. The song itself is open to interpretation, like so many great songs are.

It’s “Rebellion (Lies)” from Arcade Fire’s “Funeral” album, in case you don’t know.

Also worth checking out are these fantastic live performances of Neighborhood #1 (Tunnels), Neighborhood #3 (Power Out), No Cars Go and Wake Up.

God, I want to see these guys live, someday.

[…]

Alternative publishing (NIN, Delta Green)

More and more, companies and individuals are exploring alternatives to the traditional ways of publishing and releasing stuff. Two new examples saw the light of day just now.

First off, we have Trent Reznor (Nine Inch Nails) releasing a whole new album, just scant months after the last double-disk instrumental set. This time around, the whole thing is absolutely free, you can download “The Slip” in various digital forms, without needing to pay Trent one dime (or having to deal with DRM or other nonsense). Trent says that he intends to also release the album in more traditional CD form later, but for now the digital download is a “free gift to the fans”. Apparently his previous “decide how much you want to pay” foray with the Ghosts set was a success – or else he just wants to thumb his nose at the big record labels. Or maybe both. Me, I’m not complaining, I’ve really liked the new NIN stuff – lots of energy and actual melody, instead of just industrial drones.

The second has to do with roleplaying books, where the guys at Pagan Publishing / Arcdream decided that they would like to publish a new Delta Green book (which is at least partly complete already), but all their cash is tied down in other book projects. The Ransom Model to the rescue! So, we now have a new Delta Green: Targets of Opportunity book ransom running; you pledge $50, and if they manage to raise the full $20,000 there will be a print run and you’ll get a copy of the book. If not, you don’t get charged anything and they’ll possibly publish it later via more traditional means, but there’s no guarantee or timeframe on that. So in effect, it’s a binding pre-order for a book, which also gauges how much interest there is for the thing. Very cool, and Greg Stolze has been doing it for a while now with his Reign supplements. Because it’s a printed, hardcover book, international customers will need to Paypal an extra $25 to cover shipping if the book goes to print.

Personally… well, a new hardcover book filled with more Delta Green goodness? Of course I’m in. Besides liking the ransom model in general, Delta Green rocks and the writers on this one are once again first-class. Here’s hoping they get enough pledges so we’ll get the book sooner instead of (much) later. It’ll cost me $75 with international shipping, but with the current $-vs-euro rate that’s about 50e which is quite a normal price for a big hardcover book.

So… if you like NIN, hop on over to their site and download the new album as a gift. If you like Delta Green, pledge your $50 and support the excellent cause of “pay great writers to create tons of cool new modern Cthulhu stuff”. Can’t really go wrong with either choice. […]

Värttinä

We just came back from the first concert of Värttinä’s 25th anniversary Finnish tour, at a concert hall in Matinkylä. It was excellent; I’ve seen them live a few times before but this was the best so far. Great use of visual imagery and choreography to add to the music, without either becoming a distraction. It was also a lot of fun, with high energy. If I have a complaint, it’s that it would have been even better at a rock club – having to sit down all the time was a bit of a downer, they played a lot of fast numbers.

As always, they combined Finnish folk music (with Russian and Hungarian tweaks) to great effect. To anyone who thinks folk music is boring: go see these guys.

In general it’s been pretty quiet over here. Lots of small things happening, but nothing too report-worthy. Tempest the cat got some sort of urinary infection and I’ve been feeding him antibiotics for some days now; I’m not sure he understands why he’s suddenly getting private meals, but he doesn’t seem to mind. He’s also getting over the infection, it seems, though I’ll have go have him checked again after a few weeks. As always, Felina was expensive but well worth the cost. […]

Rapture on the storm...

You thought The Doors and Blondie have nothing in common? Think again and check out this mashup. Awesome! […]

the goggles... they do NOTHING!

What do you do when Rick Astley just doesn’t cut it anymore?

Simple. You go hooga chakka ooga ooga…. […]

Imogen Heap

I think it was Radio Paradise that initially introduced me to Imogen Heap, both through solo work and as vocalist of Frou Frou. I was immediately struck by her distinctive voice, and by how she managed to inject something very unique into what was, on the surface, bouncy electropop.

Nowadays, every time I head something by her, I wonder why I don’t already own all her work; reasons tend include such down-to-earth things like cash and availability. My favorite song so far isn’t on her “normal” albums, it’s the song Glittering Cloud from the theme compilation Plague Songs. Wonderful tune. I would have bought it via iTunes, but it’s only available as DRM’ed version so no sale (related gripe: why can’t all labels release their catalogs without DRM already?).

The latest in the long list of “my god, she’s good” moments is this live studio clip. Wow. […]

Tunnels under the snow

And if the snow buries my,
my neighborhood.
And if my parents are crying
then I’ll dig a tunnel
from my window to yours,
yeah a tunnel from my window to yours.

You climb out the chimney
and meet me in the middle,
the middle of town.
And since there’s no one else around,
we let our hair grow long
and forget all we used to know,
then our skin gets thicker
from living out in the snow.

– Arcade Fire, “Neighborhood #1 (Tunnels)”

I was feeling very fluish and antisocial last night, finding some people more irritating than usual, so after getting home I just did a few quick things on the computer and intended to retreat to some far corner with hot drink and good book.

Well, that sort of worked, but iTunes started playing Arcade Fire’s magical “Une Année Sans Lumière” and… as so often before, it grabbed me and I had listen to most of Funeral, once again. It helped, it has that ”this is what is important, ignore that other crap!” quality to it.

It’s a raw, dangerously romantic album, in many meanings of the word. There’s no slick production here, it’s all… strange and emotionally charged. Win Butler sings with an almost primal intensity, with wife Régine Chassagne providing equally charged vocal backing (the chorus on “Laika” being a good example). The mood shifts between almost whimsical vignettes and near walls of sound, with the whole (large) band going all-out with a crazy variety of instruments. The thing that matters most is the very real sense of danger, of people balancing on tightropes that just might break any second, with no guarantee of safety nets. I can’t explain it any better than that, it’s a feeling that the music evokes.

This is what matters. This is what you should focus on. […]

Rush in Helsinki

Unstable condition,
A symptom of life
In mental and environmental change.
Atmospheric disturbance,
The feverish flux
Of human interface and interchange.

A tired mind become a shape-shifter,
Everybody need a mood lifter,
Everybody need reverse polarity.
Everybody got mixed feelings
About the function and the form.
Everybody got to deviate from the norm.

– Rush, “Vital Signs”

Rush were in Helsinki for the first time ever yesterday, and it was a great concert; I liked it better than the previous (and only other) time I’ve seen them, in Stockholm. The guys played hard and long, clocking at about 3 hours of music with a 20 minute intermission. The setlist was great, with songs taken from albums spanning 1978’s “Hemispheres” to the latest “Snakes and Ladders”. The new songs, played after the intermission, worked the least well, but that’s the way it always is with new material (they weren’t bad by any means, just lacking in comparison to the classic stuff played before and after them). On the other hand, Janka likes their new stuff more than their old, so something for everyone.

The surprise of the evening was “A Passage To Bangkok”, played near the end of the set. Wasn’t expecting to hear that marijuana/hash-drenched song played live. No complaints, it’s a fun piece.

Neil’s drum solo was… most impressive. It’s a new one, from the new album, and… wow. Just wow.

Their newer albums are hit and miss, like most people I like their older material more – or maybe their “mid period material”, to be more exact. “Moving Pictures” is the undisputed classic, of course, and another personal favorite is the dark and apocalyptic “Grace Under Pressure” – an album that I’ve grown to appreciate hugely, despite being lukewarm towards it initially. Of the newer albums, “Counterparts” was pretty good. I’m not too wild about “Snakes and Ladders”, but that may change with more listens. “Armor and Sword”, from that album, is great though. […]

VAST

Radio Paradise played a VAST song today, and I was reminded of one of the best music videos I know, their old song “Pretty When You Cry”. Very Twin Peaks, very creepy, brilliant.

I also noticed that the band now has a webstore which sells their albums as high-quality no-DRM mp3s, at $4-$7 per album. Cool. Even cooler, they’ve also set up a site, buyvastmusic.com, which is aimed purely at people who find the band via YouTube and Radio Paradise, and which offers even better deals on some select download albums. As a final “made me laugh” point, they’ve priced the “Nude” album price there to be the same as the daily gasoline price per gallon in the U.S.. We live in surreal times… […]