Fujiya & Miyagi

Some great videos from the band Fujiya & Miyagi:
'Sore Thumb'


'Ankle Injuries'

Indie Band Names

Not sure if this list is supposed to be funny or not. Use all your postmodern deconstruction skills and draw your own conclusion. I'm pretty sure my sense of humor is recursive.

T-Shirt Design (A Reprise)

So a very long time ago I posted a t-shirt design; it's now in a more finalized state and is going to be used for Ryan Brasher's project, Eleanor. I cleaned up the image, added text and made the whole thing more printable. I may add color, depending on how much that costs to print.

The Sheds

The Sheds are a great band (or were, I think they're on hiatus right now). All of their albums are free on their website and boast unique folksy-country-indie songs inspired by their friends. You should definitely check them out.

Oh the Urbanity!

It's starting to feel like the future. Sometime this year, 50% of humans will be living in an urban environment. This brings up the following questions:

• How can I rent out space for maximum profit? (This guy has the right idea.)
• Can John Deere survive in a non-rural economy? I propose a combo sitting mower/taxi. It would of course come with one of those beaded seat covers.
• Will cities finally become as big and cool as they are in comic books? On the same note, when will we start seeing real super heroes? This is the future, and genetic mutations should be good for something other than cancer.
• Will The Illinois ever be built? I think it would do well in Dubai.
• What will happen to screen doors?
• Are people still going to have Southern accents?
• What is the fifth element?
• When are they going to find midichloreans? We need to build the academy soon before there is no room left for the archives.
• Where is my flux capacitor? Seriously guys, I can't find it anywhere.
• Will Wile E. ever catch the roadrunner before they build the new bypass and subdivision?
• What happens in the meadow at dusk?

(Piece above was done by the amazing graffiti artist, Evol.)

A playlist for our modern lives:
1. See You at the Lights - 1990s
2. Transistor Radio - The Helio Sequence
3. Gravity's Rainbow - Klaxons
4. Someone Great - LCD Soundsystem
5. Wake Me When It's Over - Longwave
6. Maple Leaves - Jens Lekman
7. When I Go Deaf - Low
8. Moonchild - M83
9. Void - The Mary Onettes
10. Some Kind of Sad - Ringo Deathstarr
11. Jsem Absolutní Vůle - Plastic People of the Universe

Reprise:
12. Gravity's Rainbow (Van She Remix) - Van She/Klaxons

Finale:
13. Kelly - Van She
14. Where Do the Children Play? - Cat Stevens

ReSpekt, Or, Last Friday night

Friday night was one for the books (not the sound-rock duo, but actual books). Jack, Taylor, Ben and I all drove down to Denver for the Regina Spektor concert at the Paramount and then went to 'Spiderman 3' (Jack liked it, I really couldn't stand it). Jack and I dressed up for the occasion seeing as we were at a more upscale venue, or at least a place where nobody smoked during the concert. The stage was simple, with just Regina's piano, electric guitar, and also Only Son's acoustic guitar. The only accent to the whole show was a simple color lighting scheme, which was very appropriate. Playing before Ms. Spektor was Jack Dishel, who goes by the stage moniker of Only Son. He played about seven songs for his set, during all of which he sang and played his acoustic guitar. Most of the audience had come to see Regina, so everyone around us talked for at least his first three songs. After his opening song (I wish I could find a setlist), Jack and I both remarked that he would sound much better with a band. Before the next song, he whipped out his iPod and announced, “Seeing as how I don't have a band, I will be playing accompanied by my iPod. On the East coast, Only Son normally plays with a full band, but on tour due to extreme financial difficulties, Only Son tours with an iPod. If you don't like it, go blog about it.” (That part spoke to me, I looked over to Jack and said “I think I will.”) I really didn't mind the fact that he wasn't with his band, although I would really like to see Only Son in full. Dishel's voice is great, and I like to compare it to that of Ben Gibbard. Also similar to the work of Gibbard (technically, similar to the work of Jimmy Tamborello) was that Only Son used long droning background bass notes very much reminiscent to those of The Postal Service. His lyrics were personal and occasionally humorous, he definitely has the potential to become more popular. Assuming there is one, Only Son's next album looks to be pretty enjoyable.

When Regina Spektor walked out onto the stage, the audience around us erupted in hoots and cheers. She opened singing 'I Want to Sing', which is an a capella song: her voice was amazing. It was the perfect way for her to start. Without question her greatest asset as an artist is her powerful voice, which completely showed through during the whole of her performance. You would not be able to guess that that she has such a powerful voice given her shyness in interviews and while she talks, but when she sang her voice rang out and captivated the audience. After she finished 'I Want to Sing', Regina took her place on the piano and played 'Poor Little Rich Boy' which really showcased her raw talent. During that song she had to simultaneously keep beat on a wooden chair with one arm and play the piano with the other, a task that was unthinkable to me. She played a collection of other songs, the majority of which were from her recent album 'Begin to Hope'. Since we didn't know all of the songs, I'll just go over the highlights. She played a new song (I don't know its name) about how she took a statue of baby Jesus and kept it in her closet fearing what it would do if it grew up and had to feed it too, the song was pretty humorous and I think it will be on her next album. The only part of the show that I didn't understand was that for 'On the Radio', she pronounced the word 'radio' very differently from the way it is on the album. Oh well. She played 'That Time' on her guitar, which was superb. She has such skill that she can just walk around the stage and really play any instrument she wants. Since Ms. Spektor performed on her own rather than with the accompaniment on 'Begin to Hope', her most popular song 'Fidelity' was done with just her voice and the piano. I really liked how she performed it, but I think 'Fidelity' sounds best with strings. 'Summer in the City' was really entertaining and made everyone laugh. Up until that point I didn't feel too connected with the whole show, but her humor drew me in. Her performance of 'Apres Moi' was my favorite of the main part of the show. The skill with which she plays the piano really shows through, and for the song the stage lights were red. The whole effect was very dramatic. She followed that with 'The Ghost of Corporate Future' as her last song before the encore, which was probably her best performance for the night: the song isn't my favorite but the emotion with which she played it was wonderful.

For the encore she sang 'Hotel Song' with Only Son doing beatbox, which was really fun. Performances like that are why concerts are great. We were worried the she wasn't going to play 'Samson' which I think is her best song, but of course it was the one she ended on. The whole concert was very fun and seemed personal, although we were almost at the back of the theatre. I think Jack said it best: “I think I would compare Regina Spektor to Norah Jones in the same way that I would compare Ben Folds to Coldplay. They both are too personal with their lyrics to become popular adult-contemporary acts. They just put too much of themselves into their work for that.”

You Sparkle Like Our Filthy City

I noticed something really strange recently when I was checking out my Last.FM profile. While perusing the top overall artists section, I noticed an aberration. Certainly the first two are no surprise to me; Bright Eyes is the unquestionable numero uno, and for some odd reason, I find listening to The Crane Wife to be extremely comforting while riding my bicycle to class (explaining the number two rating for The Decemberists), yet sitting there in number three was this man. I knew that I'd been listening to a lot of him recently, I have had "You're In Love Again" stuck in my head more times than I can count in the past few weeks, and "Grass Stains" is pure joy to listen to (as well as quite a lot of fun to watch), yet this still was a surprise to me at first. Where were the Ben Kwellers and the and the Sufjan Stevens' and the Arcade Fires'?

The answer is that considering that my profile reflects my listening from late January on, they are right where they should be. Granted, with enough time, such kicks will be neutralized, and the charts will reflect everything accurately, but when that does happen, Jacob Borshard won't be left in the dust. He is legitimately making a case to be included in my top 10 at least. This is a case where the sum of the music is much much greater than the sum of the parts: in this case, a beautiful tenor and a ukulele.

Mr. Borshard manages to write bedroom pop in the vein of a less orchestral Stuart Murdoch, or a poppier Ben + Vesper, yet despite the somewhat twee sound, he backs it up lyrically too. Phrases like "I know the black of your dress like the back of your neck" from "For Karina" invoke gorgeous imagery and beauty in even the most callous listeners, and the titular "You're in love again, and I've never seen you look so pretty, you sparkle like our filthy city" from the previous "You're In Love Again" just capture my imagination and tug at the old heartstrings. Best of all, however is that both of his albums, 2004's "Songs for a Small Stereo", and 2006's "The Last Brontosaurus" are available as free downloads from his website.