MP3s: More Unheard Elliott Smith Recordings Unearthed

After last week’s surprise of Elliott Smith’s previously unreleased “Misery Let Me Down” from the WMUC lost library of his late 90′s in-studio performance, there is more. David Taylor, record librarian for WMUC, posted this update on the WMUC tumblr page:

I have spent the last couple days digitizing the MiniDisc containing Elliott Smith’s ‘96/’97(?) live performance at WMUC. It’s done and the tracks are now available for download.  However, it is my regret to inform you that the MiniDisc is not the original source, nor does not contain the full performance. The new recording clocks in at around 18 minutes, 6 minutes less than the previous CD version. Furthermore, the multiple takes of “Say Yes” and “Division Day,” including “Misery Let Me Down,” are entirely missing.

There is some good news. The MiniDisc contains two tracks that are unavailable on the CD, “The Morning After” and “The Biggest Lie.” And the other tracks are now presented in higher audio quality.

We will not have a definitive version of Smith’s WMUC performance until we can find the original ADAT that it was recorded on.

Download MP3s of the 18-minute set here or get the FLAC version here. You can also stream the first song, “The Morning After,” below:

Short Film For Amon Tobin’s “Esther’s” Released

Belgian director Charles De Meyer (aka Chuck Eklectric) first met Amon Tobin in 2007. It was then De Meyer proposed his idea to create a short film for the song “Esther’s” featured on Tobin’s then just released Foley Room record.  Tobin was impressed and collaborated with De Meyer to work on the sound design. Three years later, the result is a must see:

Check out more from Amon here: http://www.amontobin.com

LCD Soundsystem @ Terminal 5

James Murphy and company tore a hole through the floor of Terminal 5 on Saturday with LCD Soundsystem’s third of four scheduled shows at the venue with an unrelenting set, daring the audience to sit still.  Pat Mahoney’s drums on “All My Friends” plowed through the crowd with reckless abandonment, sparing no one from the power and beauty of arguably the best song off of 2007′s “Sound of Silver.” The surprise of the night was the emphatic bass drops that shook the walls during “Pow Pow,” injecting elevated energy into the track off their latest record This is Happening.

Song after song, the set refused to bring you down and the energy level peaked with a vivacious version of “Yeah” that grew with each verse and became the exclamation point of the show. For the encore, we got a little bit of everything: “Someone Great” into “Losing My Edge” with the  city appropriate closer “New York, I Love You But Your Bringing Me Down.”

The only disappointment in  the set was the absence of the best song so far of 2010, “Dance Yrself Clean.”  That aside, it was the best dance party of the year.  See more pics and setlist (same for all four nights) below:

Setlist:

Us v Them
Drunk Girls
Get Innocuous
Yr City’s A Sucker
Pow Pow
Daft Punk is Playing at My House
All I Want
All My Friends
I Can Change
Tribulations
Movement
Yeah

Encore:
Someone Great
Losing My Edge
New York, I Love You But Your Bringing Me Down
Empire State of Mind

Jónsi @ Terminal 5

Jónsi’s performance Saturday night at Terminal 5 left no emotion unfurled.  I’m not sure if there an a word in the English language that can adequately describe the degree of emotional stimulation his music brings when fused into the visceral stage production assembled for this tour.

Jónsi decided to embark on a solo record while the other members of Sigur Rós are having children and imagined it to be a quiet acoustic record.  The sound of his first solo record go quickly grew into a much larger production.  He wanted to reflect this sound with an equally massive stage production. Jónsi enlisted Phil Eddolls and 59 Productions, a company that usually produces operas, bringing a unique stage show of film, art installation, and theater performance as a backdrop for the show.   The concept is inspired by a book featuring photos of a burned out taxidermist shop.

The show began with simplicity.  Jonsi and his acoustic guitar playing the subdued unreleased track “Stars In Still Water” in front a tan curtain covering the back of the stage.   Having seen a few online videos I waited for it to drop and give way to the elaborate set design behind it.  However, this was not the case.  Halfway through the second song, “Hengilás,” the unassuming tarp transformed into a gigantic, tea-stained piece of paper adorned with sketches of brooding animals.  Now realizing it was actually a screen, the digital image that covered the entire back of the stage began to burn away with a stunning digital fire as the strings picked up and the song came to an end.   What was left behind was a darkened forest of burnt trees in various states of decay, with two separate smaller screens in front of the stage illuminating images of a glass jar filled with an ocean of butterflies for the next song, “Icicle Sleeves.” What followed was the first of many jaw-dropping moments and an almost indescribable series of stunning images.  Animals changing form, becoming wire frames, then shedding their color while chasing one another through a dead forest of night for the song “Kolniður.”

The calm tension of  the song “Tornado” led into the thunderous drums of “Sinking Friendships,” which stood as the musical shift of a consistently rising tempo for each song.  Each one sounded louder than the previous and never let up.  Ending with Jónsi in a feather headdress, violently shaking  his head and body, while belting out the final lyrics “They, in the end, will turn and fall, You’ll know…” from the closer “Grow Till Tall.”  It left  the crowd and mysefl disoriented and overwhelmed with his almost frightening ability evoke emotion.  Full set list and a few Youtube videos below, giving a peek into the experience.

Setlist:

Stars in Still Water
Hengilás
Icicle Sleeves
Kolniður
Tornado
Sinking Friendships
Saint Naive
New Song
Go Do
Boy Lilikoi
K12
New Song
Around Us

Encore
Animal Arithmetic
Grow Till Tall

Hear Entire New Album By The Knife

The Knife (in collaboration with Mt. Sims and Planningtorock) have announced that their new record, ‘Tomorrow, In A Year’, is now available buy directly from the Rabid Records store as a download or pre-order a CD copy and receive the download instantly.

The album features songs Olof and Karin wrote for the Danish performance group Hotel Pro Forma’s opera based on Charles Darwin’s ‘On the Origin of the Species.’and will be available worldwide on iTunes and Amazon beginning Febuary 1st and the CD will be in stores on March 1st.

You can pre-order the CD or FLAC and stream every track here.

Owen Pallett @ Bowery Ballroom

Most of what has been written in the past about a Final Fantasy show was straightforward and void of expectation. However, after the now famous video of Pallett playing “Lewis Takes Off His Shirt” at the Canadian Hillside Festival during a torrential thunderstorm as the stage crew desperately tries to pull him from the stage mid-song, raised the bar through the roof.   His defiance and passion to continue the emotional performance as the rain pours down, is powerful enough to lift up the hair on your arms.

With last week’s release of his new concept record Heartland, Owen Pallett left his former moniker behind and now brings this new level of musical complexity and narrative storytelling to the stage. His performance is usually a one man show with Pallett playing violin and keyboards through a loop petal while singing to construct a live symphony. This time around he is joined by Thomas Gill, rounding out the sound with percussion, guitar and backing vocal harmonies. His Bowery Ballroom performance this past Monday left no room for doubt that Owen Pallet is a brilliant performer and only affirms the excellence put forth in his records. They feature compositions mixing classical music with tastefully constructed pop hooks and vocal melodies.

If you closed your eyes for a moment you could imagine a symphony of performers before you at any point of the show, while after each song Pallett softly thanked the crowd.  The sheer simplicity mixed with the complex nature of recreating his arrangements stunned the Bowery crowd. Pallet’s vocals stood out in the live setting.  Combining these elements, Pallet put on a 60-minute set with songs pleasing to new and old fans alike.  His performance of “This is a The Dream of Emma & Cam” from 2006′s Young Canadian Mothers 7″ and the aforementioned “Lewis Takes Action” from his latest record were standouts.

Owen Pallet effortlessly recreated his complex arrangements from his impressive discography. Whether it’s the pizzicato plucking or the deep bellow of low string bass lines, down to the classical drawing of the bow over the violin strings tuned to their perfect fifths — the sound is resonant and unabridged and is complemented by the perfect key of his vocals.  The charm and allure of his performance is inescapable.  This was one of only three U.S. stops as part of a seven-show ”Heartland CD release tour” before a full tour of his native Canada. With so much buzz surrounding his new record, Pallett is sure to be back in the States later this year. Below are a few videos posted from the show:

MP3: New Track From The Knife: “Colouring Of Pigeons”

The Knife announced plans to release the studio version of the music they scored for the opera ‘Tomorrow, In A Year’, on the 1st March 2010 in collaboration with Mt. Sims and Planningtorock.  Olof and Karin wrote the music for the Danish performance group Hotel Pro Forma’s opera based on Charles Darwin and his book ‘On the Origin of the Species.’

They have released their first track free for mailing list subscribers and can be  downloaded here: “Colouring Of Pigeons”

Read the full details from their press release including track list below.

Commissioned by Danish performance group Hotel Pro Forma to write the music for their opera based on Charles Darwin and his book ‘On the Origin of the Species’, The Knife decided to make this a collaborative process, working with artists Mt. Sims and Planningtorock for the first time, to capture the huge width of the Darwin and evolution theme. They extensively researched Darwin related literature and articles, with Olof attending a field recording workshop in the Amazon to find inspiration and to record sounds.

‘Tomorrow, In A Year’ is a unique musical project. Richard Dawkins’s gene trees have formed the basis of some of the musical composition, artificial sounds have been mixed with field recordings, with the music inspired by everything from the different stages of a bird learning its melody, to a song based on Darwin’s loving letters about his daughter Anne. These are compositions that challenge the conventional conception of opera music.

Pushing the experimental process further still, composer, choreographer, costume designer and set designer worked separately, only coming together 3 and a half months before the first performance of ‘Tomorrow, In A Year’ in Copenhagen on the 2nd September 2009. Described as “shifting the position of operartic art in a single leap”, further performances of ‘Tomorrow, In A Year’ are confirmed to take place in Athens (8-9 Jan), Stockholm (29 Jan-1 Feb), and Munster (5 June), with further dates to be announced.

Olof Dreijer says: “At first it was very difficult as we really didn’t know anything about opera. We’d never been to one. I didn’t even know what the word libretto meant. But after some studying, and just getting used to opera’s essence of pretentious and dramatic gestures, I found that there is a lot to learn and play with. In fact, our ignorance gave us a positive respectless approach to making opera. It took me about a year to become emotionally moved by an opera singer and now I really do. I really like the basic theatrical values of opera and the easy way it brings forward a narrative. We’ve approached this before in The Knife but never in such a clear way.”

Tracklist:
CD 1
01. Intro
02. Epochs
03. Geology
04. Upheaved
05. Minerals
06. Ebb Tide Explorer
07. Variation of Birds
08. Letter to Henslow
09. Schoal Swarm Orchestra

CD 2
01. Annie’s Box
02. Tumult
03. Colouring of Pigeons
04. Seeds
05. Tomorrow in a Year
06. The Height of Summer

Bonus track
07. Annie’s Box (alt. vocal)

Deacon from Animal Collective Plays First Solo Show

Josh Dibb better known as Deacon (formerly Deakin) from Animal Collective played his first solo show on January 1st in Baltimore.  The website bmoremusic.net  has posted some pics and links to MP3s of his set.   The songs definitely have  an Animal Collective feel but highlights what Deacon contributes to the Pre-MPP records.  See the links below for MP3s and more:

Read original post here: Bmore Muscially Informed

Direct link to MP3s: Deacon live at The Ottobar

 

 

RIP: Vic Chesnutt Dead at 45

Although reports have gone back and forth overnight it seems that several sources has confirmed that Singer/ songwriter Vic Chesnutt has been pronounced dead following a short time in a coma following a suicide attempt Christmas Eve.  According to twitter posts from his close friend and former Throwing Muses singer Kristen Hersh, “this time, it’s real scary: *this* time, he left a note, *this* time, he asked them to call me.”

Several sources have reported that most recently Chesnutt has battled depression, and financial issues including a large unpaid hospital bill.

Anyone who witnessed one of his live performances will be sure to tell you that you are left with the chills of a pained yet brilliant songwriter that pours every ounce of his energy into every word he sang. We saw him on his tour with Elf Power earlier this year and it was a awe inspiring evening.

Chesnutt has been in a wheelchair and partially paralyzed since he was 18. He was 45.

****Update: While many news reports announced that he was pronounced dead, according to a twitter post  at 1pm today from Hersh”you people are so full of love-thank you for sending it vic and tina’s way-the situation is complex and sad, but there’s still a little hope” followed up by “the biggest mistake anybody could make about Vic is to assume he’s weak…he’s the strongest person i know.”  While the news was grim with talk of brain damage even if he survived, there seems to be a glimmer of hope.

His record company co-owner Don Wilkie said in the statement that “Vic is in the middle of a serious medical situation, he is in a coma, and his family and friends are with him.”

*****Update Dec 25th 6:30 EST

Sadly what was erroneously reported has come to be at Athens at 2:59pm.  The official announcement came from a family spokesman and his record label Constellation Records:

Surrounded by family and friends, Vic Chesnutt died in Athens Georgia this afternoon, Friday 25 December at 14:59.

In the few short years that we knew him personally, Vic transformed our sense of what true character, grace and determination are all about. Our grief is inexpressible and Vic’s absence unfathomable.

We will make more information available according to the wishes of Vic’s family and friends.

Don and Ian

VIC CHESNUTT 1964 – 2009

Video: More Unreleased Jeff Mangum

As the week started with the digital release of a new Jeff Mangum track on the Chris Knox tribute record, why not end the week with more unreleased video of Jeff playing in April 1998. This time he treats the audience to one of my favorite bootleg tracks “Sailing Through” from the cassette tape dubbed Beauty that is still available on most of the bittorrent sites that are still up and running.

Like the other videos that have been popping up, Jeff hold back no emotion on this live version of “Sailing Though” that then goes directly into “Two-Headed Boy Part 2″ in this 9+ minutes of musical ecstasy.  This might be one of the only videos of him performing rarely-played song at Bottom of the Hill in San Francisco, CA.  Thanks goes out to defgav for the post.  Its been a good week.

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