I don’t even know where to start on this, and I know a much
better story is to come in the following days once I feel a little less tired
and a little more able to find the right words for everything (this is
definitely one for the Orchard Street tales that I am compiling at the moment,
and maybe less so for this blog). All I can say right now is it was a weekend
filled with wonderful music, great company and a lot of epic fun – with two
really long shifts at work in between. It all started on Friday evening with
Knoxville Morning’s brilliant set at Mercury Lounge, followed by some more
tunes at the Sixth Ward (including some barstool dancing and a lot of hat
switching), moving into another epically long day at Taqueria, followed by more
Mercury Lounge, 200 Orchard, Double Down Saloon, Mary O’s and Puck Fair. I’m
sure there were other places in between, and much laughter and stupidity at
every corner, and more laughter again…
In the meantime, here are the photos I took at the show (see above for a link to the full set) –I was going to spend time editing them a
little to make them a little sharper, but to be honest I like the little blur
around the edges on some of them – a little how I feel that this whole weekend
has been. I’m also still in love with this lens, it has no zoom, so you need to
spend more time actually framing the shots properly, but I like that it gives
more of a wider angle than other lenses do. And it reminds me of my film
camera, the Canon AE-1.
It’s been a very strange and unsettling couple of weeks over
here, and while I sift through all of the angry/depressed/happy/funny things I
have written during the time in order to figure out if anything can actually be posted
on here, I’m just going to write about music today and hopefully get this up
before I have to be at work (unless I get sidetracked by some early Pulp EPs
that a friend gave me a while ago and that I just found hidden under a pile of
books on my desk).
A few months ago I was complaining about never listening to anything
new anymore. Although not a musician myself, music always inspires me to actually
accomplish more in my life, and for years I used to always come across new
bands and musicians and fall in love with them, and try to pass the love on to
others. Maybe it was just easier before, less social media and therefore less
music being thrown at you from all directions. I can’t really stand to look at
my Twitter feed nowadays as it has 30 plus updated tweets every minute and
there is no way I can keep track of everything. I suppose that wading through a
lot of crap in order to find a gem can have its own sense of accomplishment,
but to be honest I can’t be bothered to wade through crap anymore. So I’ve just been listening to all my old
favourites, revisiting music I hadn’t visited in a while, and, of course,
listening to a lot of The Cure (I’ve been kind of obsessed with Kiss Me Kiss Me
Kiss Me for the past few months). I suppose I’ve just been lazy.
Then I had a dream this morning that I was writing a blog
post on all the new music (mainly female-fronted) bands that I had been
listening to lately. In the dream it all seemed very real, and I was really
excited to write about them… And it wasn’t far off, because recently I HAVE
been listening to a lot of new things (some just new to me, some new in general),
and I feel like I am being inspired again. Recently I have been waking up too
early and just putting an album on on my phone and drifting back off to sleep
for a while listening to it. It leads to some interesting dreams that I should
maybe put into words sometime.
Anyway, a few weeks ago a friend told me to listen to his
friend’s band, Knoxville Morning. I fell in love… I’ve been listening to the
album every day or so since then. The NYC based songs really hit home, because
I feel like I lived the same life a few years ago, but the whole album is a
real beauty.
Then another friend told me he had been listening to the
latest Grimes album non-stop lately, so I downloaded it on a whim and have been
doing the same. She has the same effect on me as Bat For Lashes does, that
being the ability to take me elsewhere. There is something so liberating about her music.
I very randomly came across the band Now, Now a while ago,
and then forgot to listen to the album that I downloaded. I gave it a listen a
few days ago, and really like it. After falling asleep at 5am this morning I
woke up at 8am, put this album on a loop on my phone and fell back asleep to
some of the funniest and strangest dreams I have had in the last few weeks. I
don’t know if this is an album I will be listening to for ages, but I like it
right now, especially the sound of the guitars.
I got really excited when I heard that Religious to Damn
(who I loved) are now called Azar Swan, a more electronic-based music project,
and have already released one song, called Amrika. It’s pretty awesome and I
can’t wait to hear the rest. They still have the same vibe, just a less rock
and more electronic.
I think that's it for now... my time is up anyway. Work calls. So, of course I will end with THIS, just because I don't go a day without listening to them:
