Ohmpark » Grizzly Bear

[Mp3] Vocabulary: “Shift” (Grizzly Bear Cover)

Davy Minor — Mon, 06 Jun 2011 08:02:00 +0000

I just noticed this cover of an early Grizzly Bear tune by Atlanta via Savannah artist Vocabulary over at Their Bated Breath. Not only do I dig the song choice, but Cameron Allen manages to transform the feel of it into something substantially different while remaining very true to the original. Give it a listen:

Vocabulary : “Shift” (Grizzly Bear cover)

Vocabulary website

Ohmpark Mixtape #13: Our Favourite Songs of 2009

Davy Minor — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 21:02:26 +0000

If you’ve been paying attention around here this year, there is no doubt you will be familiar with everything on this list, and perhaps even a little burnt out on some of these tracks. But each of these songs are strongly linked to different moments and memories I have of 2009, and they make up the ultimate soundtrack to an amazing year in music. So jam them out one last time:

Danger Mouse & Sparklehorse w/ Wayne Coyne : Revenge
Animal Collective : My Girls
Atlas Sound w/ Noah Lennox : Walkabout
The Dirty Projectors : Useful Chamber
Grizzly Bear : Two Weeks
Bat For Lashes : Daniel
Andrew Bird : Anonanimal
Here We Go Magic : Fangela
Loney, Dear : Airport Surroundings
Mew : Introducing Palace Players
St. Vincent : The Strangers
Do Make Say Think : Do
Phoenix : Lisztomania
Nomen Novum : Miracles Come True

© Davy Minor for Ohmpark, 2009. | Permalink | 4 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Andrew Bird, Animal Collective, Atlas Sound, Bat For Lashes, Best of 2009, Danger Mouse, Dirty Projectors, Do Make Say Think, Grizzly Bear, Here We Go Magic, Loney Dear, Mew, Mixtape, Nomen Novum, Phoenix, Sparklehorse, St. Vincent

Ohmpark’s Top 10 Music Videos of 2009

Davy Minor — Sun, 06 Dec 2009 21:10:58 +0000

Before I begin awarding the sounds of 2009, I wanted to give a little props to the best eye-candy I’ve seen. These ten videos clearly stood out to me above the rest of this year’s offerings. They are definitely all a million times better than that garbage from Beyonce and Taylor Swift. So, enjoy:

10. Of Montreal: “An Eluardian Instance”

This video has just got a really nice, fun vibe to it. The special effects are utilized just right and the whole thing matches up with the music beautifully.

9. Untied States: “Unsilvered Mirrors”

There are so many neat little video tricks in this one and the whole thing captures the mood of the song expertly. I love when it snaps into the end section with the band playing.

8. St. Vincent: “The Strangers” Lake Fever Session

This video wins solely on the rarity of capturing St. Vincent playing an acoustic, stripped down version of one of the year’s best songs. Totally gorgeous.

7. The Flaming Lips: “Watching the Planets”

Yeasayer tried their best to up the ante on nudity with their recent experimental video, but having a clothing-less mob feeding a naked Wayne Coyne to a vagina monster pretty much trumps anything. Warning, it’s very NSFW.

6. Mastodon: “Divinations”

I loved Mastodon‘s science fiction video for “Oblivion” too, but this one got the edge due to how brutal Brent Hinds is as a caveman.

5. Clues: “You Have My Eyes Now”

This one is just simply hilarious.

4. Grizzly Bear: “Ready, Able”

Grizzly Bear have a ton of amazing videos this year, both official and fan made. But this weird claymation vid is easily my favourite.

3. Here We Go Magic: “Fangela” Black Cab Session

Taking bands and having them perform stripped down versions of their songs in various settings is all the rage these days, and one of the best in the business right now are the Black Cab Sessions. This version of “Fangela” is just pure magic.

Here we go magic from Black Cab Sessions on Vimeo.

2. Bibio: “Top Soil”

Bibio has such a distinct sound, and this video matches his audio style with the perfect visual enhancements.

1. Thy Mighty Contract: “Conjugal Freelance”

I laugh my ass off every time I watch this. I absolutely love everything about this video and it was an easy choice for my best of the year.

© Davy Minor for Ohmpark, 2009. | Permalink | 2 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Best of 2009, Clues, Flaming Lips, Grizzly Bear, Here We Go Magic, Mastodon, Of Montreal, St. Vincent, Thy Mighty Contract, Untied States

Diatribe Of The Day: In Defense Of Nathan Williams (Wavves)

Davy Minor — Sun, 21 Jun 2009 22:08:17 +0000

Wavves @ SXSW 2009

A few weeks ago, Wavves had a meltdown on stage at a big music festival in Spain which Pitchfork called “the most epic onstage meltdown a band of their small size could conjure”. Ever since being awarded “Best New Music” from Pitchfork earlier this year, Wavves had become the target of scorn for being over-hyped from both critics and other musicians, and this latest fiasco has helped villianize the 22 year old San Diego dude behind this project even further. Since I was digging Wavves‘ records before Pitchfork even began its lovefest, I figured I would talk down the mob a little bit and put this tabloid-esque drama in some perspective. If you don’t care about Wavves or any of this hooey, then you might want to skip this read.

First, for those of you who don’t read Pitchfork regularly, let me catch you up to speed. The Wavves backlash began culminating at SXSW this year, embodied by a band called Psychedelic Horseshit wearing “Wavves Suxx” t-shirts and then giving a novel sized interview about how much they hated Wavves and fellow lo-fi acts that you can read here. Then, a few weeks ago my twitter feed was overloaded with twats from P4K’s Ryan Schreiber detailing the Wavves meltdown as it was happening as if it was the Iranian election. I then had to read it all again in a lengthy news post. Then just as I was heading to Bonnaroo, I see P4K giving news headlines to an interview with Black Lips‘ Jared Swilley where he completely trashes the kid for his meltdown. The pile-on against Nathan Williams has been so massive, that Grizzly Bear was joking about the situation:

CONTINUE READING Diatribe Of The Day: In Defense Of Nathan Williams (Wavves) (704 words)

© Davy Minor for Ohmpark, 2009. | Permalink | 6 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Black Lips, Diatribe, Grizzly Bear, Psychedelic Horseshit, Wavves

Bonnaroo 2009: Friday (Day 2): Oh So Harmonious

Davy Minor — Sat, 13 Jun 2009 20:12:25 +0000

Friday morning started with some nice cloud cover that made it easy to sleep in a little while. After hanging out at camp, I headed for the press area to work and sit through an orientation, and then I went to see some tunes. I caught the last half of Katzenjammer‘s set, and it was really good. The Norwegian 4-piece was comprised completely of ladies and they put on a damn good show. They would all be switching instruments between every song and had a striking sense of showmanship to match their musical prowess. At one point they did an a cappella number with everyone singing that was impressive, and this would seem to be the theme for most of the day: Stunning vocal harmonies.

After that I managed to get one person back from the front for Dirty Projectors on That Tent, and they totally brought it as per usual. I’m still blown away by the vocal tricks they employ. They opened with a slow jam in duet form, and then brought the rest of the band in for the second tune as they would continue changing their on-stage configuration for different sections of the show. They rocked some older jams this time in addition to all the best stuff from Bitte Orca. Pretty much everyone expected a David Byrne & Dirty Projectors team up on “Knotty Pine”, and when they closed with just that, the crowd went nuts.

CONTINUE READING Bonnaroo 2009: Friday (Day 2): Oh So Harmonious (616 words)

© Davy Minor for Ohmpark, 2009. | Permalink | 2 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Bonnaroo, Bonnaroo 2009, Dirty Projectors, Grizzly Bear, Katzenjammer, Mt St Helens Vietnam Band, Phish, St. Vincent, TV On The Radio

Ohmpark Mixtape #9: Bonnaroo 2009

Davy Minor — Sun, 07 Jun 2009 21:29:01 +0000

Right now I am totally obsessed with Bonnaroo and getting very excited about the coming week. I’ve built my annual playlist of ‘roo artists, but even if you aren’t going, some of these will be swinging by Atlanta as well. Also, I’ve dropped some fun Bonna-links below to get you in the mood too. If you are still on the fence as to whether to go to this fest or not, I suggest you go big, but if you can’t attend, you can go along vicariously with our total coverage.

Grizzly Bear : Southern Point
Dirty Projectors : What I See
Phoenix : Lisztomania
Passion Pit : The Reeling
Portugal The Man : Elephants
Animal Collective : The Purple Bottle
Tobacco : Backwoods Altar
St. Vincent : Dig A Pony (The Beatles cover)
White Rabbits : Percussion Gun
Phish : The Divided Sky

Bonnaroo website
Bonnaroo 2008 coverage
Bonnaroo 2007 coverage
Stories from Bonnaroo 2002 – 2006
Guide to Bonnaroo 2009 Schedule
2009 Weather (Updated daily)
Inforoo (The Bonnaroo message board that can answer any question you have)

© Davy Minor for Ohmpark, 2009. | Permalink | One comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Animal Collective, Bonnaroo, Dirty Projectors, Grizzly Bear, Mixtape, Passion Pit, Phish, Phoenix, Portugal. The Man, St. Vincent, Tobacco, White Rabbits

Ohmpark’s Guide To Twitter & Musicians

Davy Minor — Wed, 13 May 2009 11:21:34 +0000

The social networking website Twitter has blown up hard in 2009, so hard that it is already experiencing a Vampire Weekend-esque backlash. To illustrate just how intense Twittermania ’09 has been, the site grew by 33% in January, 55% in February, and 131% in March of this year. I first got introduced to Twitter by some of my tech savvy friends a little over a year ago, and back then having a few thousand followers was unreal, and now that douchey Punk’d guy is closing in on 2 million. But before the hype, the site started out as an efficient communication network for web 2.0, early adapter bloggy types. When I first started using it, the website would crash and go down every single day and i still liked it. Suddenly in 2009 the thing has gone mainstream with Oprah and CNN using it, so since I have been a fan of Twitter for some time now, I figured I would talk about how my music obsessed self uses it to help out the clueless.

First for the noobs, Twitter is micro-blogging. You post something that is 140 characters or less, and people “following” you can see what you post. It is basically a glorified status messages, like what Facebook, Gmail, or AOL use. Here is a good article tracing back the history of status messages. So what is so great about a status message website?

140 characters may seem like a small amount of data to be meaningful, but a tweet can pack a serious punch. Sure there are people who tweet some really boring garbage, but, you don’t have to follow them. And yes, the word “tweet” gets really annoying fast, but there cool things possible with it. I’ve seen news stories broken by people on twitter because other journalists couldn’t get access (think Gaza, India, Madagascar). Thanks to url shorteners, Twitter is used heavily to refer people to more extensive content of interest. If you are following the right people, you basically have an RSS feeder with editorial. In otherwords, Twitter helps you keep up with all the cool things going on in Internetland. For example, I follow many larger music news sites on Twitter, and those sites tweet about news stories I am interested in so I don’t miss anything.

Probably my favourite thing is, unlike Facebook and Myspace, Twitter connects people based on the content of what they are talking about, rather than static information contained in a profile. I don’t know about you, but most of my Facebook friends end up being people I already know in real life, like random people I barely even knew in High School and could honestly care less about now. I have rarely, if ever, made a new, worthwhile connection through Facebook. In contrast, most of the people I follow on Twitter I did not know before I connected with them in the virtual world. I have made so many great connections with interesting people via Twitter who I wouldn’t even know existed without it.

With respect to bands and musicians, there is a lot of potential in Twitter. Fans always yearn to have meaningful connections with the artists they love, and with technology those artists can give their fans unprecedented access. A great example of getting the most out of new/social media was Deerhunter‘s utilization of a blog, which expanded their fanbase and strengthened the connection between them and the fans they already had. Exactly how artists can make Twitter work for them will depend on the creativity of the artist in using it, but there is no doubt in my mind that many artists will benefit from using it. Others agree.

So for those of you that are either artists looking for good examples of how to use Twitter, or you just want some cool people to follow, here are my favourite 3 tweetmaster musicians and why I enjoy following them:

Edward Droste of Grizzly Bear @EdwardDroste

Droste seems to be the most genuine, accessible musician on Twitter. He talks about random things he and the band are doing. He actually responds to random people. He’s everything a stalker could hope for. One of the fun recent things followers have been able to enjoy is his attempt to get Snoop Dogg to remix/collaborate with Grizzly Bear:

Just gonna keep trying to get snoop’s attention with my twitter spirit. Where there’s a will there’s a way. Right @snoopdogg?

It is really meta to stalk someone as they are stalking someone else.

Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails @trent_reznor

It is hard for me to think of another musician who I enjoy hearing talk about things more than Trent Reznor. He always has a very insightful opinion. He also utilizes technology better than anyone, so naturally he is a Twitter superstar. He has been giving away backstage passes to fans via Twitter. He has been talking about his struggles with Apple over a NIN Iphone app. Here are a few choice tweets:

Kutcher / King / DiddyDumDum on CNN doing everything in their power to make Twitter seem as un-cool as possible.

…now maybe I shouldn’t have taken that fourth viagra…

starting to lose control of body functions, may have just pulled a Fergie and peed in my pants a little.

Nick Thorburn of Islands @NickfromIslands

My favourite twittering artist is Nick Thorburn. He comes up with really random, hilarious things to say that make me laugh out loud all of the time. The dude could be as good a comedian as he is a musician. Recently he posted a bunch of fake covers to the next Islands record:

http://twitpic.com/3xi7n – NEW “ISLANDS” ALBUM COVER + TITLE REVEALED!!!!

http://twitpic.com/40c0m – “ISLANDS” NEW ALBUM + TITLE REVEALED FOR REAL THIS TIME!!!!!!!

http://twitpic.com/43rpf – FOMGF! “ISLANDS” NEW ALBUM COVER IS FINALIZED!!! THX FOR VOTING FOR YR FAVOURITE!! WZF!

Here are some other funny tweets:

Went to the extenz party at sxsw last night, and i thought that the line up would have been, you know, bigger

Apparently if i go to exit 27, make left, go to roses parking lot and leave lights on, i will get a blow job.

I’m so behind the times I just now got a case of the SARS

Fuck, you know you’ve made it when Denny’s is following you.

Ok, so if you are into music and are looking for some folks to follow, here is some reference material for you:

International/National artists I recommend following:

Akron/Family @akronfamily
Andrew Bird @andrewbird
Blitzen Trapper @BlitzenTrapper
Evangelicals @evangelicals
Final Fantasy @owenpallett
My Brightest Diamond @zosima
Pearl Jam @PearlJam
Sonic Youth @thesonicyouth
St. Vincent @st_vincent
The Decemberists @colinmeloy
Tokyo Police Club @TokyoPoliceClub

Atlanta Bands on Twitter:

Adam Bruneau of Kiwis @adambruneau
All The Saints @allthesaints
Attention System @AttentionSystem
Attractive Eighties Women @aewsome
Club Awesome @clubawesome
CJ of A Fight To The Death @mediahostage
Dead Confederate @DeadConfederate
Dres Tha Beatnik @dresthabeatnik
Eric of From Exile @ericguenther
Janelle Monae @JanelleMonae
Judi Chicago @JudiChicago
Jungol @Jungol
Le Castle Vania @LeCastleVania
It’s Elephant’s @Itselephants
Lions And Scissors @lionsandscissor
Nerd Parade @nerdparade
Nerdkween @nerdkween
Tealights @TealightsBand
The Constellations @_constellations
The Orphins @The_Orphins
This Piano Plays Itself @ThisPianoPlays
Thy Mighty Contract @thymighty
Today The Moon, Tomorrow The Sun @TodaytheMoon
Venice Is Sinking @veniceissinking

Atlanta Music Scene Tweeters I Recommend Following:

Atlanta Music Guide @atlantamusic
Bean Summer @Beansummer
Cable & Tweed @cableandtweed
Criminal Records @criminalrecords
Dominick Brady @DomBrady
Drive A Faster Car @driveafastercar
Drunken Unicorn @drunkenunicorn
Eskimo Kiss @eskimokiss
Fear Of Arthropods @juliareidy
Have You Heard @adamtrimble @usersname
Indie ATL @indieATL
Indie Music Tech @duncanfreeman
Kiss Atlanta @kissatlanta
OK Productions @OKProductions
Pine Magazine @pinemagazine
Premier Events @premierevents
Star Bar @StarBarAtlanta
The Earl @EARL_EAV
The Happenstance @thehappenstance
The Leila @theleila
Ticket Alternative @MyTATix
Tight Bros Network @tightbros
Vacation Gallery @vacationgallery

And obviously, we are tweeting too:

Davy Minor @Ohmpark
Clint Miller @badclinty

I’m sure I’m leaving some folks out, so who do you like to follow on Twitter? Leave your suggestions in the comments…

© Davy Minor for Ohmpark, 2009. | Permalink | 4 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Grizzly Bear, Guides, Islands, Nine Inch Nails, Twitter

SXSW 2009 Wrap-Up & Final Thoughts

Davy Minor — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 08:36:47 +0000

One last post about South By Southwest 2009 to rule them all. I’m sure everyone who didn’t go is sick of hearing about it by now, but it is pretty much the greatest festival in the world, so one final discussion is warranted. If Bonnaroo is the Super Bowl of fests, SXSW is the World Cup, March Madness, and the Olympics all rolled into one. There simply isn’t anything else like it. So I’m going to ramble on about what I took from this year’s event after a photo journey through our SXSW 2009:

All photos by Clint Miller:

Anathallo:

Port O’Brien:

Loney Dear:

Wavves:

Anni Rossi:

M Ward:

Department Of Eagles:

St. Vincent:

Camera Obscura:

Oh No Oh My:

Arizona:

Bell:

Women:

Evangelicals:

Mt St Helens Vietnam Band

CONTINUE READING SXSW 2009 Wrap-Up & Final Thoughts (1,138 words)

© Davy Minor for Ohmpark, 2009. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Dirty Projectors, Grizzly Bear, SXSW, SXSW 2009, Wavves

I Heart Department Of Eagles

Davy Minor — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 09:21:52 +0000

Daniel Rossen’s Department Of Eagles creates a slightly different breed of music than Grizzly Bear even with three of the four members involved, but one that is equally as incredible. There is more of a pop sensibility in this stuff. The songs stand up stronger individually despite the album not being as cohesive as Yellow House. You can listen to an entire show from them (10/6/2008) here. Listen to some DOE goodies and keep up with the newest incarnation of one the best bands of the last few years:

Department Of Eagles : Around The Bay

Department Of Eagles : What Is Your Deal (new song live via I Guess I’m Floating)

Department Of Eagles: “No One Does It Like You” (Don’t Look Down)

Department Of Eagles: “1997″ (Don’t Look Down)

Buy In Ear Park here

Department Of Eagles myspace

© Davy Minor for Ohmpark, 2008. | Permalink | One comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Department Of Eagles, Grizzly Bear

Humpday Randomnimity

Davy Minor — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 18:58:22 +0000

Athens Popfest is going on in our little sister city all this week and it looks awesome, so check it out.

Times New Viking is playing with Deerhunter on their tour including the Variety Playhouse stop Halloween. I’ll be there.

Minus The Bear and Annuals will be at the Variety Playhouse November 1st.

Ted Leo and Against Me! will be at The Masquerade October 1st.

Weezer and Tokyo Police Club will be at Gwinnett Center Arena October 25th.

The Reverend Horton Heat will be at The Variety Playhouse November 2nd.

Tegan And Sara will be at The Tabernacle September 30th.

Check out some Snowden tour footage.

Stop what you are doing and go watch the 31 minute film Portishead In Portishead here.

MF Douche strikes again. For those of you who don’t know what I’m talking about, MF Doom keeps having lip syncing fake MF Doom‘s do his over-priced live shows for him.

Issac Hayes died.

The Rosebuds have a new album coming out in October.

The new Mastodon album is looking like it comes out January 2009.

Be Your Own Pet have broken up.

Jason Lytle of Grandaddy has a solo album called Sew Low Owl Bum out this winter. I’m excited!

The Stooges got robbed.

Jesu keep releasing EPs.

Burial has revealed his identity.

Beach House have a new a new single 7″ coming out.

Wolfmother is having some drama.

Jay-Z and Oasis are in a cat fight.

CD Baby just got sold.

Criminal Records is about to do some expanding.

The East Atlanta Icehouse (formerly Echo Lounge) should be having shows now, but they’d do themselves a service to have a show listing somewhere online.

There is never enough Grizzly Bear coverage.

Yo La Tengo are releasing a compilation of soundtracks they have done.

The finest vids on the ‘net:

New Grizzly Bear song played at All Points West “Fine For Now”:

No Age “Keechie”:

Mogwai “BatCat”:

Bowerbirds “In Our Talons”:

© Davy Minor for Ohmpark, 2008. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Bowerbirds, Grizzly Bear, Mogwai, No Age