Queen's Night

I went to see the Yeah Yeah Yeahs in Amsterdam on Queen's Night. There were different points throughout the show where I thought Karen O was amazing, and others not so much. This was one of the amazing times. She wore this crazy mask while performing the only song on the new album that I like, "Heads will Roll"... it was great to watch the show from the balcony and see the crowd freaking out. I'm glad I went, although I wish I'd had a nice camera because she moves so much and my little point and shoot was just struggling to capture any clear shots of Karen. In the end, I settled for blurry shots, going for the "abstract" effect.

I ate frietjes met samurai sauce at Leidse plein afterward.

This is a death trap ride. Would you go on it?

ISO50

I don't remember how I came upon ISO50, but I ended up scoring on two levels. Initially, I found this band called Tycho. I would say that the music is sort of like Boards of Canada, BUT I'm writing this because while Tycho is pretty cool, even better is the artistic style of Scott Hansen, the guy behind both the band and ISO50.
What I find most impressive is that Hansen has created a strong identity across all of his sites that is relevant to his style in print, logo design, and even his photography, all of which have a retro-organic quality.
He sells amazing prints, t-shirts, and some other odds and ends at the ISO50 shop. He also has an impressive online portfolio, and an ISO50 blog, which rawks, because he posts about many different aspects of design as well as music news. You can check out Tycho at Tycho Music, last.fm, and on Myspace.
His prints sell for $17 dollars each, so he scores bonus points for making art accessible. I hope to have something of his on my wall soon.

bluebird à emporter

The Rosebuds - Bluebird from La Blogotheque on Vimeo.

An MP3 is available for download too :)

sometimes it's the simplest of things that seem magical

lightening the load, if only for a moment

My friend Anthony reminded me today that it was almost exactly 1 year ago that he first took me to see The Rosebuds, now one of my all time favorite bands. We went out to Hoboken (to Maxwell's)... the Jerz, for the show which required the subway, then the NJ Path train, and THEN a taxi.
There were maybe 40 people at the show... no openers, and really, the stage was merely a step higher than the floor area. The band came on, and I don't know what happened.. they were AMAZING! Everyone was dancing, I was filled with.. I don't know, happiness (yes, I know, odd for me) and before I knew it, the band was prompting the crowd to sing along with them.. before the song, we'd all rehearse the lines, and then they'd start... at the end of their set, they handed out scripts for us to sing along to SIJA Line... it was so much fun. When they came back for their encore (they did 2 that night!) I kept poking Anthony to scream out my favorite song, "Punishment for Fighting" and eventually they played it.. and to be honest, I've only been to a handful of shows that have left me completely jelly kneed and filled with joy.

The best thing perhaps, about The Rosebuds, is that all of their
shows are like that. This one was perhaps one of the more intimate ones that I'd seen, but at every show, they invite you to sing with them.. the crowd interaction is incredible.

Before I moved to the Netherlands, my friend Ruth and I went to The Bell House to see them play with The Ladybug Transistor and a few others. There was a smaller crowd there again.. and Ivan was really sick. He'd lost his voice and he still managed to do an amazing job. They sang "Nice Fox" with The Ladybug Transistor, who came out with horns, tamborines, and backup vocals.. the entire room was out of control. It was Ruth's first time seeing them, and she had so much fun, and I was so happy to have been the one to bring her.

Tonight, Anthony and his honey are going to see them headline in NYC at The Bowery Ballroom, and I have to say, I am full of nostalgia (obviously) and sadness that I couldn't be there.. because it would have been wonderful to see them 1 year (and 5 times!) later, in the city that I love, with one of my very closest friends :)

images via
Brooklynvegan.com
toronoist.com
musicforants.com

Ik hou van muziek

I've been trying to keep up on the music scene a bit more lately.. I got an external hard drive for Christmas and I was finally able to upload all of the music I've been storing away on DVDs since I traded my desktop for a laptop. I borrowed some CDs from my friend the other night.. had the chance to check out some new bands and some new albums... oh, and a huge bit of excitement for me was updating my ipod, which has had the same songs on it for over a year now. What a relief! I've been rocking out to old Sonic Youth tunes all week...

I've also been looking around to see who's playing in the city. Since I got back to the states, I've only been to two shows.. Feist and Elysian Fields. That seems kinda lame, since I'm here and bands are playing somewhere every day. So I bought tickets to see Cat Power next Month, which I'm excited about. I saw her twice in Belgium, and I really enjoyed the shows, so this should be a lot of fun. The Rosebuds are playing next week in Hoboken. It's been cool checking out venues that I've never been to, like McCarren Pool and Joe's Pub, yet another plus to getting out and doing things.

Music is a huge part of my life and it feels good to be getting back into it. I'm always put off by people who aren't into music.. people who don't listen to music seem creepy, don't they?