My Favourite Songs of 2008: Ohmpark Mixtape #6

So here is a playlist comprised of many of my favourite songs from the year. Not all of my favs are here, but I think all of the essentials are in it. I tried my best to build this as a flowing playlist more than just a collection of songs, so the order and even some of the selections reflect that. I really need to do more mixtapes. Based on Hypemachine/elbow popularity, I know everyone loves that Fleet Foxes song, but I decided instead to treat you to a better song from one of the bands that FF is ripping off. Anyways, here is an hour and half of the best songs of 2008. Jam them hard while you can, because in about 3 days they aren’t hip anymore:

Islands : The Arm
Sigur Ros : Gobbledigook
Atlas Sound : Recent Bedroom
Kaki King : Life Being What it Is
MGMT : Weekend Wars
Department of Eagles : No One Does It Like You
Animal Collective : Water Curses
Antony And The Johnsons : Another World
Mount Eerie w/ Julie Doiron & Fred Squire : Voice In Headphones
My Morning Jacket : Touch Me I’m Going To Scream pt. 1
Beach House : Used To Be
Portishead : The Rip
Summerbirds In The Cellar : Now We Are Ugly Inside
Hot Chip : One Pure Thought
M83 : Kim & Jesse
Bon Iver : For Emma
Plants And Animals : Guru
Destroyer : Shooting Rockets (From The Desk Of Night’s Ape)
Deerhunter : Nothing Ever Happened
…And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead : The Betrayal Of Roger Casement And The Irish Brigade

Live Review: Sigur Ros (9/17/2008) United Palace Theater, New York, NY

Last Wednesday while we were still in New York we headed up to the northwest corner of Manhattan for me to finally see Sigur Ros. The venue was situated in a Spanish speaking neighborhood where all of us Sigur Ros fans stuck out. The venue itself was very cool, it combined the ornateness of The Fox Theater with the massive churchiness of The Tabernacle. We made sure to get in our seats way in the back of the top balcony just in time for the show to start.

We were absolutely positive there was no opener for the show, and being so far back it was hard to tell who was on stage, so when the band started up right after 8pm, we thought it was Sigur Ros. Everyone around us was talking, the band was playing really low key, quiet stuff, way more low key than Sigur Ros, but sounded really similar. Finally near the end of the 35 minute opening set after not being able to recognize a single song, we did some iphone research and realized that it wasn’t a set break for Sigur Ros, but in fact a band called Parachutes had opened for them. We had totally punked ourselves. Parachutes weren’t bad, but they sounded like a watered down version of the headliner.

So then Sigur Ros came out as a 4 piece. Apparently this tour is the first time in a very long time they performed without other musicians on stage. Despite being without the other instrumentation, it didn’t feel like their sound was too thin or minimalistic or anything. They blasted the room loudly at all of their many climaxes, and it sounded great. The show was pretty much everything I thought it would be. They played a great set that included almost everything I could have asked for, and it all sounded flawless. I would like to see them again in the future with the added strings and marching band and all of that spectacle, but none of that took away from this brilliant performance.

Setlist:
[Total Time 1:55:40]
01 Svefn-G-Englar
02 Glósóli
03 Ny Batteri
04 Fljótavík
05 Við Spilum Endalaust
06 Hoppípolla
07 Með Blóðnasir / Svo Hljótt
08 Heysátan
09 Viðrar Vel Til Loftárása
10 Inní Mér Syngur Vitleysingur
11 Sæglópur
12 Hafsól
13 Gobbledigook
14 [encore break]
15 All Alright
16 Popplagið

You can get the entire show in mp3 or FLAC here.

Awesome photos here

What The Hell Am I Listening to?!?

The theme for this installment of What The Hell is seasoned veterans changing up their approach and putting out interesting and a bit underrated albums:

Beck (Los Angeles, CA)

When I think about where Beck is in his career, parallels to Neil Young come to mind for me. All the way back to the beginning through his catalogue, he has conquered tons of genres, amassed endless accolades, and made some super classic songs, and now while people think his best is behind him, he can go in whatever direction he wants free other people’s expectations. After his not-so-triumphant return to “old-school Beck” on Guero being his most dissappointing release to date, pretty much everyone still riding the “Loser” bandwagon had jumped off. The downside of that is that most people didn’t really pay attention to the spectacular The Information from 2 years ago, but I think maybe the lowered expectations helped take the pressure off to do some really interesting songwriting. Where Guero seemed so shallow and empty, just about trying to catch the listener with up-beat hooks, the two most recent Beck releases seem aimed at a deeper and more nuanced listen. Modern Guilt sees Danger Mouse take over the production duties this time (instead of the Dust Brothers or Nigel Godrich who have been trading off duties since Odelay), and the result is exactly what you would expect from this pairing, an album enjoyable to dance to or listen to by yourself in your headphones. While this isn’t the epic piece The Information was, the less than 34 minutes experience seems perfect for the upper music/downer lyrics dichotomy exploration he embarks on here. If you come to this album looking for some sort of Beck you want or expect, you might be disappointed, but take it for it is, and it’s a pretty damn good album.

Beck : Youthless

Beck : Gamma Ray

Buy Modern Guilt here

Beck myspace

Sigur Ros (Reykjavik, Iceland)

Sigur Ros‘s newest full-length sees the band attempting to shake up a formula that has yielded some seriously stunning results in the past without steering too far away from their characteristic sound. This is of course a problematic area to be in when you are a band like Sigur Ros (sort of the same place The Mars Volta is in right now); Do you keep on doing the same thing that works over your entire career and people attack your for being one-dimensional, or do you risk your fanbase and go in a starkly different direction? Sigur Ros have choose a middle road with an album that sounds very different and very much like their previous work at the same time (and of course many critics have hated on this choice as well). They used an outside producer for the first time, recorded the album in different cities across the globe, and shortened the studio time to throw them out of their comfort zone. The finished product is a fairly schizophrenic piece that bounces around much more lightly and upbeat at times than their previous stuff, but remains soft and pretty at other times and still contains a familiar taste of the grand and sublime.

Sigur Ros : Gobbledigook

Sigur Ros : Illgresi

Buy Með suð í eyrum við spilum endalaust here

Sigur Ros myspace

A Second Opinion… – Sigur Ros @ Bonnaroo


(pic)
Sigur Ros was the personal pinnacle of the fest this last weekend. Their set spanned all of their various albums and I came to find out post-Bonnaroo that the band had a scare the night before at their show in Kansas City.

Here’s some Bonnaroo vids of these guys…

Click here to read the entire post…

Bonnaroo 2008 Saturday (Day 3): Thirty Epic Hours

Bonnaroo always has a momentum all its own and no matter how you imagine your weekend to go, it ends up being a completely different experience. Saturday morning I woke up around 4am in the morning after sleeping through crazy thunderstorms that wrecked our camp. Most of the people in my crew were coming back from seeing late night shows and we hung out and talked about our Friday experiences. The rain continued on and off for the rest of the morning, so I had some beers for breakfast and chilled out under our shelters that hadn’t been destroyed. I caught an hour power nap around 9am, and then headed out for the day. I walked around the campgrounds for a while taking in the atmosphere. The rain had died out mostly by then, and people were out and about in the muddy conditions.


Click here to read the entire post…

Ohmpark’s Guide To Bonnaroo 2008

Less than a week away and I’m ready to go! If you’re going to Bonnaroo this year, the following post will give you what I think is the crucial info and best acts. If you’re not going, you might want to rethink that and buy a ticket. You can read up on some of my stories from the first 5 Bonnaroos here. You can read my review of last year’s fest here. If you want to really obsess about Bonnaroo for endless hours, I highly recommend checking out Inforoo, the Bonnaroo message board. You can get pretty much every single bit of information you could ever imagine about the fest there. I’m going to give you a couple of nuggets that I think are particularly educational for first timers:

Currently, the Weather.com forecast calls for scattered t-storms all weekend right now (up to 60% chance of rain Saturday) and highs in the ’80s. I recommend you get some good mud boots just in case, because even a little bit of rain is going to make that place a big muddy mess. The mud will literally eat flip flops off of your feet, so beware. All my hippier friends swear by wearing crocs during regular conditions, but I always feel more comfortable in socks and tennis shoes. Also on the rainy weather tip, I’ve seen the thunderstorms decimate some campsites, so prepare accordingly. Put tarps under/over your tents. Bring a poncho.

The gates usually open early Wednesday night, but ever since the 3rd ‘roo (when they finally found the best way to deal with traffic), they send all of the first arrivals to the very, very far away Southeastern camping outpost. I’ve been the victim of this several times, and it was annoying. The more you walk, the more energy you’re going to exert, and this will hinder your ability to all out party for 4 days. And don’t expect to get a bunch of sleep, because usually by 8am it is too hot to sleep in your tent. It seems like if you get there late Thursday morning or early Thursday afternoon you can get a spot closer to Centeroo (the area where the stages are), especially if you are coming from the east (like us ATLiens). The downside, less time at the party and longer waits in the line to get in. Think about it.

Speaking of the party, this is a big-ass music fest with circa 75,000 people, so there is gonna be some craziness going on. BUT, this is not the Bonnaroo of your older cousin’s. There will be police sparsely around inside the fest grounds looking to bust folks for illegal activities. The ban on unofficial vendors is heavily enforced now, so “Skakedown Street” is not what it used to be. If you’re smart and just a tad bit careful, you are almost assured have a fun-filled week, just don’t be too stupid.

Ok, so let’s dig into the line-up. The first night has me really excited:

Click here to read the entire post…

Monday Mash-Up

Sigur Ros had a teaser video rolling around the Internet last week:

Listen to a new CocoRosie song here.

The 2008 version of Ozzfest has them abandoning the touring festival format for a one day event in Dallas, TX with Metallica and Ozzy headlining. I guess that Ozzfest for free last year didn’t work out so well.

Shearwater frontman Jonathan Meiburg quit his keyboarding spot in Okkervil River to focus on Shearwater full time.

The Big Boi solo album is coming along nicely.

The Hold Steady will be at The 40 Watt in Athens, Ga August 9th, but is not coming to Atlanta.

Hot Chip will be at The Variety Playhouse on October 9th.

Click here to read the entire post…

Video of the Day: Sigur Ros’ “Heima”

This is the full video of “Heima” by Sigur Ros. These guys are so awesome that they have streamed the whole DVD release for all to enjoy. If you aren’t familiar with the band this is a good place to start, and if you are just sit back and be swept away.

I am so excited to finally get to see these guys this year at Bonnaroo and have a gut feeling they will be the most breathtaking Roo act this year!

Here’s some more official info on “Heima”:

‘heima’ is sigur rós’s first ever film, filmed over two weeks during the summer of 2006 when the band undertook a series of free, unannounced concerts in iceland. they hauled 40-plus people round 15 locations to the furthest flung corners of their homeland for their debut venture into live film, to create something, well, inspirational.

on their way they went to ghost towns, outsider art shrines, national parks, small community halls and the absolute middle-of-nowhere-ness of the highland wilderness, as well as playing the largest gig of their career (and in icelandic history) at their homecoming reykjavik show.

‘heima’ (icelandic for “at home” or “homeland”), truly, shows sigur rós as never before. whereas seeing the group live is normally a large-scale and sometimes overwhelming experience, making full use of lights and mesmeric visuals, ‘heima’ was always intended to reveal more of what was actually going on on stage. it does this via long-held close-ups and a rare intimate proximity, without ever once breaking the spell.

loosely based on a documentary format – and including personal reflections from the band – ‘heima’ also serves as an alternative primer for iceland the country, which is revealed as less stag destination-du-jour and more desolate, magical place where human beings have little right to trespass.

‘heima’ features performances of songs from all four sigur rós albums, many radically reworked, as well as two exclusive new songs in ‘guitardjamm’, which was filmed inside an abandoned herring oil tank in the far west of the country, and the traditional ‘a ferd til breidarfjardar 1922′, performed with poet steindor andersen.

‘heima’ was directed by dean deblois, a long-time fan of the band and director of the oscar-nominated animated feature ‘lilo & stitch’, using an icelandic crew.

Buy the DVD Release of Heima HERE

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