The rest of the crew included several other people that I worked with on EOTW:
Director/Cinematographer/Post Production – Ben Walter
Production Manager – Andrew Callicott
Set Decoration – Taylor Glazier
Prop Manager – Julius Amaker
Key Grip/Still Photographer – Max Ridgeway
Grip – John Thomy
1st Team Assistant – Caroline Hafer
THE VIDEOCAME TOGETHERBEAUTIFULLY, and I am very pleased and impressed with the result! The song has a mellow, smooth vibe reminiscent of The XX (who I wrote about a few months ago btw). The full album will be out soon on iTunes.
It was a pleasure working with everyone, and I hope we get to work together again soon. Chances are, I’ll be seeing several of them on this project.
This week we have some sad news and some good news. First, the sad news: last Tuesday French electronic music producer, DJ Mehdi of Ed Banger Records (the label that signed French electronic music duo Justice), died after a skylight in the roof of his Paris apartment collapsed during a birthday party he was hosting for a friend, plummeting him and 3 friends two stories below.
DJ Mehdi was most known for remixing songs by Miike Snow and Architecture in Helsinki, among others, as well as for his popular singles Lucky Boy, and I am Somebody (which was actually featured on an XM commercial). Check out this sweet video below.
The good news is, however, that indie rock band Clap Your Hands Say Yeah has finally produced a third album, Hysterical (after the title track). It’s officially on the shelves tomorrow, but NPR has done a “first listen” so you can check it out here. Their last album, Some Loud Thunder, was released in 2007 and failed to impress. I’ll be honest, I am a huge fan of their first, self-titled album, which came out in 2005, and was incredibly disappointed by their sophomore attempt. It replaced the happy, upbeat “get up and dance” feel of the first album with a more downbeat, minor-chords-heavy, and at times discordant sound. I found it difficult to sit through – though admittedly that might have been partly because of the extremely high expectations I had of their work.
Now on to their third album…four years later. NPR writer Bob Boilen claims this album marks a point in the CYHSY history – that the band has officially “grown up”. After listening through the album, I think he means their sound has developed into something smoother, polished, and more mainstream. If you ask me, this is not necessarily a good thing. What was so charming about CYHSY was their complete and utter lack of sophistication. We loved the pitchy wailing of singer Alec Ounsworth, and the dance-your-heart-out beats. The new CYHSY is not bad, they’re just different. But then, it has been 4 years since their last album, and Ounsworth has even released a solo album since then, Mo Beauty.
I suppose it’s hard to see one of your favorite bands evolve, but I’m mostly just glad they’re still together and producing music. Also planning to listen through their new album a few more times and see if it’ll grow on me.
Okay, so I don’t have anything terribly exciting to share with you today – no reviews (rave or otherwise) and no summaries of awesome musical adventures (sorry, I’m not Zac Efron for chrissake). BUT I would like to share with you a couple of the bands that I’ve recently been exploring. They are not new by any means, but I guess we can term them “new to me.”
First: The XX Who are they: London-based indie-rock band formed in 2005
What I like about them: their music is chill but mostly upbeat, and the female vocalist is vaguely reminiscent of Beth Gibbons’ voice from Portishead (who’s coming to Montreal in October btw). In fact, they’re kind of like a modern, lighter, pop-ier Portishead to me.
What I don’t like about them: Their songs all start to sound the same after a while. If you listen to their album (self-titled) all the way through, you will start to wonder if it’s just one song on loop. It happened to me a few times.
A couple of my favorites from them:
Second: The Breeders Who are they: American alternative rock band formed in 1988 with Kim Deal of the Pixies and Tonya Donelly of Throwing Muses.
What I like about them: Cannonball. Which has been used in like 14378392 movies. But really, it’s good. Their ability to have a female singer without sounding like The Donnas. Also, their slightly-more-accessible-than-The-Pixies alt rock sound. Harmonizing.
What I don’t like about them: They formed the year I was born. Which makes me feel like a baby. Also, I can only handle so much alt rock at once.
RT @MollyQuinn93: “In this life we cannot always do great things. But we can do small things with great love. -Mother Teresa”
Can't hear t… 21 hours ago
