Hot off the Presses: Two Videos for your Viewing Pleasure

I attended the Dirty Projectors/ Man Man show tonight at the Starlight Ballroom. I took some videos. Here they are.

First up, Dirty Projectors do a sublime rendition of Black Flag's "Rise Above." I rated this song as one of my top 10 songs of 2007 and being able to watch it performed in a live venue was just fantastic. The singer appears rumpled and defeated, totally wobbling in his shitty windbreaker, but the harmonies of the two ladies by his side anchor his meandering vocals nicely. The video is a bit jumpy at first as I try to make my way through the crowd, but it settles down quickly. Enjoy!




Next, we have a swirling, boisterous performance by Philly's own hometown heroes, Man Man. This was my first time seeing them play and, I have to say, it was like a part Tow Waits/ part Carnival/ part church Revival/ part Bar Mitzvah band freakout and it was great! The video clip runs almost eight minutes long, but it's totally fun to watch.

By the way, people were freaking out and dancing all over the place while this band was playing. These two girls behind us were doing a full-on aerobics workout with their legs and ponytails flying every which way. The girls in front of me were doing this magical leprichan creep/crawl dance that, honestly, kind of scared me. It was mucho trippy. I don't have any video footage of the girls dancing (it would've been too obvious that I was mocking them via my camcorder) but here is Man Man doing their thing. Check it out!




P.S. According to Man Man's entry in Wikipedia, "Their musical style has been described as Viking-vaudeville, Manic Gypsy Jazz." Now, that's just funny.

'Forked, With a Spoonful of Tunes

So, Pitchfork has released their picks for the Top 100 Tracks of 2007. My first thoughts on perusing the list: Jeez, I'm out of touch. Honestly, I haven't heard most of the bands listed. After I recovered from my sheepishness, I realized how useful this list could be. And, Pitchfork took pity on me by handily posting links to the songs they chose to highlight. This was a low-stress way for me to finally check out some of these bands that I've been sleeping on all year.

I've been sorting through the songs casually, the audio equivalent of rifling through a thrift store bin. And, just like a thrift store bin, there are some gems hidden in the pile.

Clearly, the breakout hit for me has been "Rise Above" by the Dirty Projectors. Part-lullaby, part-freakout, this song is fully arresting. The singer, Dave Longstreth, sounds unhinged in this "re-imagining" of a classic Black Flag track. His backup singers smooth things over with their sodapop, poodle-skirted coos. They lend a stability and sweetness to his vulnerability, like how frosting can mend a broken cake. I have a crush on this song. Here it is. Go ahead, check it out.



Another song that I dug was "Bros" by Panda Bear. I don't really know anything about them, but they remind me of a "Pet Sounds"-era Beach Boys. This isn't something I would sing-along in the shower to, but I would put it on as a soundtrack to baking brownies or entertaining some buddies. It started to test my patience around the 8-minute mark but whatevs.


LCD Soundsystem took home the big honors, with two of their songs placing in the top ten: "Someone Great" at #7 and "All My Friends" sitting pretty in the #1 spot. I have no idea what criteria they used to come to these conclusions, but there they are. Personally, I don't think this deserves the top spot at all. In fact, this has motivated me to create my own year end top ten list. Check back for that soon. In the meantime, here's the entire LCD Soundsystem album "Sound of Silver" for you cause what the hell, I'm feeling nice.