Weekend Tunes
Weekend's here. We can talk about a lot of things. But why wouldn't you just go out and see Art Brut with the Spinto Band and the Annuals at the Starlight Lounge Friday night?
Because maybe you want to see Tomasz Stanko at Chris' Jazz Cafe.
First Art Brut. A friend told me about one of their songs last year. Said they were great, even if the lead singer couldn't sing. It was very post-modern, "Look at us - we formed a band," stuff over a G-l-o-r-i-a riff. Hearing it once didn''t help.
Then I read about the whole band keg-standing at a Haverford College gig last year. And, thanks to Philebrity, I saw the YouTube video of Eddie Argos gatoring on top of the keg. (Memo to Haverford officials: you really ought to consider sending this clip to prospective students.) The South London band got more interesting.
The clincher was when another friend gave me a bad-boy mix that starts off with "Good Weekend," and from then on, they were my new best friends. That song is what you want on a Friday night, when you're rolling down the car windows, cranking it up, and watching work shrink in the rear view mirror.
The Spintos are local (Wilmington, De.), and their single "Oh Mandy" popped out of my iPod one day -- I'd downloaded it from somewhere, and it kept asking to be played. Fetching stuff.
And I don't know the Annuals, an North Carolina indie band, other than their publicist e-mailed me links to a couple of their songs, and we want to encourage that, so go listen for yourself to "Brother" and "Bleary Eyed." Pitchfork described them recently as a "fantasy hybrid of Animal Collective, the Arcade Fire, and Broken Social Scene." How could that be bad?
Ok, Tomasz Stanko. Who? A jazz trumpeter and composer from Poland, whose Suspended Night CD is one I play along with Anuour Brahem's Le Pas Du Chat Noir, when I need an aural equivalent of a vodka drip. There is much space between the notes, all of it heavenly. At Chris' Jazz Cafe Friday and Saturday.
did you go? wanna file a book report?
indeed. i'll have the book report up tomorrow, along with my eulogy for vox populi. right now i'm still reeling from another eagles defeat...once again at their own hands!