Trailer for The Knife’s opera “Tomorrow, in a Year”

Swedish avant-electro group The Knife have pressed the limits of recorded music in the past few years, and by providing music for “Tomorrow, in a Year,” an opera inspired by Charles Darwin (seen through the eyes of Darwin), they’re expanding the realm of musical theatre as well. Of course, opera could have used a little updating.

The modern opera, currently in Germany and making its way through Europe to Budapest in the spring, features The Knife’s dark and eerie electronic compositions along with appropriately surreal set design and lighting. Vocals reminiscent to the group’s bent and shifted recorded style join with characteristic operatic modes, and the result is even more unsettling than the group’s already sinister norm.

The nearly seven minute trailer features an array of music and designs, but a dark, dreamy air seems to permeate the entire production – surprising few familiar with the group but still highly affecting.

The Knife may be on indefinite hiatus, but 50% of the group in karin dreijer andersson’s Fever Ray will be near the top of many 2009 top ten album lists with her similarly creepy debut.

LCD Soundsystem’s James Murphy waxes philosophic

PItchfork posted in its “Echo Chamber” column today an excerpt of a recent James Murphy Myspace entry, in which the LCD Soundsystem frontman duly calls people out on being over-practical, self-denying salesmen i.e. the destroyers of meaningful communication.

Murphy’s amazing quote via P4K:

“things that are too ‘useful’… well, i don’t entirely trust them. i kind of like useless things. for instance– and this is a pretty facile and simplified metaphor here– art is useless, and nazis made lots of useful things. i like dumb meandering things that make me happy and confused, and don’t particularly like ‘effective marketing tools designed for maximum accurate data capture’ blah blah blah. it all sounds so sad and functional. i don’t like the idea of people sitting in a room talking about the best way to word things to get the right reaction from a base of ‘users’ etc. i don’t like thinking that those people used to love to do something, or wanted to be something, and would up measuring the best way to manipulate other people.”

Touche, Murph. And at the same time – In your face everyone else!

Speaking piano nearly nails human speech

Austrian composer Peter Ablinger transferred a student’s recitation of the “Proclamation of the European Environmental Criminal Court” into musical notes for the World Venice Forum in 2009. By using piano notes, Ablinger closely mimicked human speech. Quoted by Ablinger in the video:

“I break down this phonography, meaning a recording of something the voice, in this case -, in individual pixels, one can say. And if I have the possibility of a rendering in a fairly high resolution (and that I only get with a mechanical piano), then I in fact restore some kind of continuity. “

Berno Polzer also says:

“I think, its partially understandable, partially not. And it plays well with the limits of our construction abilities. That is, we hear sounds that obviously arent normal Music, but neither they are language, and one could say that sometimes, a bridging happens. Personally, I think you can understand individual words even without knowing the text, and the Eureka moment happens when you see the text, and suddenly, the language is there.”

The language really is quite clear, particularly the last and most fitting line “Another world is possible.” Scientists do have one concern with such technological capabilities, however. As everyone knows, once you get a piano talking, the thing never shuts up.

Review: Bob Dylan @ Moore Theatre Oct 4th

“Bob Dylan has more soul than you do. Don’t let it get you down.” That’s what Uncle Jig said. Uncle Jig (named after the saw, not the dance) has seen Dylan 12 times since ‘73 and still wears his tattered Blood on the Tracks tour t-shirt every Saturday. He doesn’t remember all of the shows, of course, but hell if he doesn’t remember the theatre smelled of anticipation each time around. Anticipation and incense. That was the case last Sunday night, too, when Bob Dylan and His Band played a surprise show in front of a packed Moore Theatre that wreaked of both. The crowd knew exactly where it was – in the same building as the greatest musician (why not?) in American history.

Dylan ripped through a 16 song set, which costarred impressive lead guitarist Charlie Sexton. The setlist was filled with mostly recent material. Modern Times and ‘09 release Together Through Life were both well represented, and each classic had been revamped. “Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right” didn’t register until Dylan started scraping out “It ain’t no use to sit and wonder why, Babe.”. The night ended with an all-too-brief encore of “Like a Rolling Stone” and an exceptionally impressive “Jolene.” A complete set list below.

It’s all you can do not to shout a little when you understand you’re in the same building as the man who wrote “Mr. Tambourine Man,” the masterpiece album Highway 61 Revisited and hundreds more songs, some of which you’ve never heard, yet all of which blow you away. Even those in the audience with their heads down Tweeting their important tweets were only serving to anchor their bobbing spirits anyway. Men were crying, women swooned, teenagers questioned everything they knew.

Even when we knew the band wouldn’t return after the first encore, we continued to clap hard in anticipation. The night couldn’t have gone by that fast. So we hooted and whistled, and when the house lights came on the whole place deflated — sad to see it end but still satisfied. It was Bob Dylan after all. One song could have been enough. But 12 times doesn’t seem like such a bad thing either.

Set list:
“Gonna Change My Way of Thinking”
“Shooting Star” (Dylan center stage with harmonica)
“Beyond Here Lies Nothing” (Dylan center stage with harmonica)
“Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right” (Dylan on guitar)
“Lonesome Day Blues” (Dylan on keys)
“I Don’t Believe You (She Acts Like We Never Have Met)” (Dylan center stage)
“Tweedle Dee & Tweedle Dum” (Dylan on keys, then center)
“Not Dark Yet” (Dylan center stage, with harp)
“High Water (For Charley Patton)” (Dylan on guitar)
“When the Deal Goes Down” (Dylan on keys)
“Highway 61 Revisited” (Dylan on keys)
“Nettie Moore” (Dylan on keys)
“Thunder on the Mountain” (Dylan on keys)
“Ballad of a Thin Man” (Dylan center stage on harp)

Encore:
“Like A Rolling Stone” (Dylan on keys)
“Jolene” (Dylan on keys)

Grizzly Bear Live @ Moore Theatre Friday, October 16

Holy Smoke and Hallelujah, the Grizzly Bear band is finally coming back to Seattle, playing Moore Theatre Friday the 16th. The band is still riding high off of the release of Veckatimest — and with all of the acclaim the album has received, they will until their next effort, no matter how many songs they contribute to the Twilight movies.

Tracks off of early album Horn of Plenty rarely receive much attention, but a recent performance of “Fix It,” is a seven minute long tour de force in which the band pulls out all the stops. The song overshadows just about any Veckatimest cut. We might have to wait until the next album for the band to bring back muscle like this, but one can hope to hear it live next Friday.

Former leaders of The Format venture into new projects

Though The Format (aka one of the most promising pop bands to come out of Phoenix since Jimmy Eat World) broke up at the beginning of 2008, its two leaders, Sam Means and Nate Reuss have both moved on.

Talented vocalist Nate Reuss now fronts the New York group Fun, whose orchestral pop album Aim and Ignite was self-released in August. Singles “At Least I’m Not As Sad (As I Used To Be)” and “Be Calm” mix a bit of Queen with Paul McCartney, strings and whimsy, so light and poppy they jump like fizz from a soda.

“At Least I’m Not As Sad As I Used to Be”

“Be Calm”

Sam Means is getting attention for six songs and 20 instrumentals he created for the soundtrack of “The Sinking of Santa Isabel,” a “quirky Indie” comedy film. His song Yeah Yeah from the album shows he’s still aiming for pop perfection and catchy harmonies without worrying about as much fun gloss.

“Yeah Yeah”

Bob Dylan at Moore Theatre – Surprise Show

Rabid fans of Bob Dylan, and friends of rabid fans, and friends’ friends know by now that the man from the north country is playing a surprise show at Seattle’s Moore Theatre on Sunday, Oct 4, the day before his performance at the much larger WaMu Theatre.

Tickets are surely going fast. I bought two a bit ago and all I could hope for were two second balcony seats for $45. Tix are available here: http://www.bobdylan.com/#/tour
The password is houghton.

This message will self-destruct

More new Sufjan Stevens “Impossible Souls” and “Age of Adz”

Yesterday the internet saw a new song from Sufjan Stevens in the form of a live performance of “Too Much Love.” Basic economics came into play as we discussed demand vs. perceived decreased supply of new Stevens material. Videos of two new songs — “Impossible Souls” and “Age of Adz” — from the same performance made their way through the internet today, and now one must question whether or not Stevens is flooding the market with all this new material. Three new songs at once! So when’s the double album going to be released? He’s throwing out new music like Rosie O’Donnell used to throw out Kush-balls. Remember that? Not really?

The two newest songs have neither the movement, nor the pop-sensibilities, nor the same jazz energy of “Too Much Love.” Instead both adopt much higher levels of restraint. “Impossible Souls” starts off as a soulful and sparse electro-R&B tune. It’s high point is a disconnected and warped bluesy guitar solo, in which Sufjan certainly proves his chops. Unfortunately the 9:45 song then grinds to a long, drawn out halt.

Seven and a half minute “Age of Adz” has the crowd twiddling its collective thumbs for its first four and half minutes, until if finally, benevolently, moves into similar free jazz territory as “Too Much Love,” and makes its way out with a little voluminous rock.

Although Sufjan Stevens’ highs are high, the lows can really bog listeners down. If these two songs are still buns in the oven, they need might want a little more time to rise.

Dan Deacon Poster Contest

To promote his upcoming tour with Nuclear Power Pants, Dan Deacon has announced a poster contest like no other. From the Dan Deacon website:

The Dan Deacon & Nuclear Power Pants Tour Poster Contest
ID all the cartoon characters in the tour poster and win a glorious prize package, including a portrait of yourself painted by Dan Deacon!

“I am heading back out on tour next week with the awesome band Nuclear Power Pants – they’re traveling once again in his veggie oil bus (they’ll need veggie oil this time too, same offer stands from the last tour if you’re able to help provide them with veggie oil along the way). Complete, final and updated tour dates are listed below. To celebrate this tour, Post Typography designed an amazing new poster – your job is to ID all of the 247 cartoon characters portrayed within the poster – be the first one to get ‘em all right and a wonderus prize package awaits you!!!!!”

HIGHER RES VERSIONS OF ALL THE NEEDED MATERIALS ARE HERE -
http://www.dandeacon.com/contest/
THE PRIZE:
1. $500 cash
2. A Portrait of you painted by me, Dan Deacon
3. One of the last copies of Wham City Box set #1
4. A Copy of each of my first 8 releases in real life (silly hat vs egale hat, meetle mice, goose on the loose, a green cobra is awesome vs the sun, porky pig, twacky cats, live 2003, acorn master)

Send your submissions to: postercontest@whamcity.com

GOOD LUCK AND GOOD BLESS!

God knows there are plenty sharp, cartoon-obsessed (though I think I see the pope in there, too), crazies out there. There’s a good chance you’re one of them. The prize is irresistible, so if you have what it takes, best hurry up! I can see the smoke coming out of your ears already.

Dan Deacon will play at Seattle’s Vera Project on Oct 24th. It shall be a great day.

Video: New Sufjan Stevens “There’s Too Much Love”

Sufjan Stevens hasn’t released much new music since his last LP four long years ago. Without much news on anything coming down the pipe, Stevens is at least playing a few live shows scattered across the northeastern US. He won’t make it to Seattle. He won’t even make it west of Madison, WI, only barely venturing out of New York.

When you want what you can’t have, you love what you can get. But the rules of supply and demand shouldn’t weigh too heavily on this outstanding new song called “There’s Too Much Love.” The seven and a half minute song starts as experimental but hooky pop then transforms into a wild jazz jam.

It sounded great live in Ithaca on Sept. 23.