Sleeping Lessons
(press play)
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Sleeping Lessons by The Shins off their new album Wincing The Night Away
A very appropriate song for me right now and something I think you'll enjoy as well. Plus, I needed an excuse to showoff the new embedded Flash mp3 player ;)
Keane At The Paramount!
My latest band du jour is U.K. based Keane. I just found out this morning that they will be playing at the Paramount Theater in Downtown Seattle on Tuesday, January 30th. 2004's Hopes and Fears is one of my top 5 all time favorite albums and the show should be excellent, especially at the Paramount.
Tickets are $30 (not including the lame ticketmaster fees and can be purchased here. See you there!
Here are some of my favorite songs of theirs:
Everybody's Changing:
Somewhere Only We Know (you might have heard this on Gray's Anatomy):
And my absolute favorite, This Is The Last Time:
This Is The Last Time
(Theres a YouTube video here that you may not be able to see at work...but it's worth checking out at home)
I've owned Keane's album Hopes and Fears for over two years now but never really listened to it until Malai at work had me listen to "Everybody's Changing" a week ago and I fell in love with this album again. Then last night just after 2 am as I lay in bed, I couldn't get the melody for this song outta my head. Then the meaning of the lyrics hit me and I've been listening to it all day as you can tell by my last.fm page or have me as a Yahoo! IM contact. The song has particular meaning to something in my life right now and it also reminds me of a long lost friend (unconnected to the lyrics).
Keane has a difficult style to characterize. I'd call it Piano Brit Pop but that doesn't do it justice. One of the things you instantly notice is the contrast between the melodies and lyrics. The music is generally upbeat with ascending melodies but the lyrics are often dark. This blend enhances both. Kinda like HDR (High Dynamic Range) photography. They don't play with any guitars. That's right, no guitars. A piano, bass, drum kit and one of the best voices in music. If you like this song, check out their first U.S. release Hopes and Fears. Highly recommended.
Tunes to start with on the album:
1) Somewhere Only We Know (Gray's Anatomy fans will recognize this one instantly)
2) Everybody's Changing
3) Your Eyes Open
I'm jealous of Tom's voice. I would kill to be able to sing. I can write lyrics (you'll never see them here!) to almost any tune and have a good sense for arrangement but lack the necessary talent to express it.
Either way, this will not be the last time I listen to this song...
A Real Review of the Seattle Snow Patrol Concert 9-20-2006
I found this review on the official Snow Patrol fan site and am posting it here for posterity and searchability by search engines. If anyone knows Shannon Tillar (or you are Shannon Tillar), please drop me an e-mail so I can properly ask for your permission (I was unable to find a valid e-mail address despite an hour of Googling). Shannon's review and photos were excellent and made me feel as if I were right back at the show.
Moore Theatre , SEATTLE , WA - Sep 20th 2006
by Shannon TillarIt's another typically dark and drizzly Seattle night, which Gary Lightbody tells the crowd gathered for the show feels like coming home to Glasgow. Despite the weather the crowd is excited, and quickly fills the Moore Theater, where Pearl Jam's Even Flow video was filmed many years ago. Steeped in this alternative music legacy, from Nirvana to Death Cab for Cutie, Snow Patrol took the stage and played a show full of energy, spirit and passion.
The show opened with Augustana, a band with a great mix of passionate mellow and rocking ruckus. They were able to pack lots of feeling into each song, which helped warm the crowd. The stage of the Moore is so close to the stage that the fans were able to talk back and forth with the band! Dan Layus, the lead singer, told the crowd that it was a special night. "It is Gary Lightbody's birthday, and if they give you a chance, any sort of pause they play Chasing Cars, sing "Happy Birthday" for him." The crowd cheered in a hushed conspiracy, waiting and ready for Snow Patrol to take the stage and surprise one of their favorite singers. Augustana then played an emotionally charged song, Love Me, which got the crowd dancing and energized. Any fan of Snow Patrol should defiantly check out Augustana if they haven't already.
A dizzying red lights show starts in the dark and quiet auditorium. The red lights flash and sparkle in time with an instrumental track as everyone waits in anxious anticipation; slowly we all can see show shadowy figures move on stage, and the house lights flash up. As the crowd roars (you can make you a few screams of "We love you!" over the din), the band launched into a loud and spirited version of Spitting Games and then Headlights on Dark Roads. Snow Patrol plays three songs without even a pause, hitting favorites for each of the recent albums.
There was small break after that which allowed Gary to talk with the crowd in the small space. After a bit of joking banter between the band and the crowd, Gary told the crowd that all of Augustana's gear had been stolen from the back of the theater while they were on stage, and in tribute they launched into Steal. (No one was able to confirm if this was true, or just a bit of concert fun.)
After a few more songs, where the band was bathed in blue and green lights with a smoky haze which made the whole experience seem more dream like than reality, Gary thanked the crowd and mentioned that Seattle had produced some of their most inspirational bands like Nirvana. Everyone seemed to pause for a moment as Gary spoke about the tragic beauty of Kurt Cobain's music and poetic soul. Snow Patrol began again playing Chasing Cars, and the entire crowd began to sing along.
After a passionate singing of Chocolate, the crowd screamed "Happy Birthday." "What was that? Happy Birthday?" Gary asked looking slightly confused. Suddenly, the three floors of the theater launched into a spirited impromptu "Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday to you…"
As the song finally died down, Gary thanked the crowd. "Ah, twenty-one yet again," he mumbled. He told the crowd that he had heard that Augustana had told the crowd it was his birthday, and he'd hold on to that till next June. He smiled indulgently as he told the crowed that "anyone who was curious could find my real birthday on-line somewhere." (It's June 14th.)
During Run, the crowd and the band seemed to become one entity. As the second verse came up, Gary stopped singing and the crowd took over. Suddenly, hundreds of people were signing together in perfect harmony and timing with the band on stage. As the song continued, the crowd kept singing as Gary's voice blended back in with the hundreds from the crowd.
The band played a great mix of familiar songs from both Eyes Open and Final Straw. Any fan would have been sure to hear at least one of their favorite SP songs, if not all of them. (I know I did.) At the end of the final encore, they closed out the show with a soulful and passionate version of Open Your Eyes.
For fans only familiar with the band from their albums, the show can be a bit of a surprise. Snow Patrol is loud, energetic, and engaged when on stage. The soft mellow tones of the albums become boisterous anthems when played live. The band is a different entity in concert; high energy and higher volume. With each song the band seemed to pick up excitement from the crowd. During some songs, Gary and the guys were jumping around and climbing on to the drums before launching into the heart of it.
Of course, Run was the most memorable song in the show for me but I have never before enjoyed every single song in a concert and was blown away by how much they rocked. Also, I didn't know that the video for Pearl Jam's Evenflow was filmed at The Moore but it's definitely a great venue to see a concert.
And here is the set list from my memory:
Splitting Games
Wow
Chocolate
Beginning To Get To Me
Headlights
Grazed Knees
Chasing Cars
Shut Your Eyes
How To Be Dead
Somewhere A Clock Is Ticking
Set Fire to the Third Bar
Make This Go On Forever
Ways And Means
Run
You’re All I Have
—encore—
Open Your Eyes
Tiny Little Fractures
New Music- The Reindeer Section
Ok, it's not really new, the last album they released was in 2002 but it's new to me and probably new to you.
So after the incredible Snow Patrol concert on Wednesday and my near binge the week leading up to it, I decided to listen to something else. My new boss had uploaded some tunes to her mp3tunes locker (my review on that service coming later this weekend) and I saw a group whose name, The Reindeer Section looked really interesting. So I checked it out and liked it, a lot. I thought "Damn, this is good writing!" and thought the music sounded great too. It was relatively mellow and allowed me to concentrate at work. But the melodies raced in my head for hours on end listening or not. So as is the norm for me, I decided to do some obsessive investigative work.
My findings? Turns out those great lyrics and voice were that of Gary Lightbody who we all know is the lead singer of Snow Patrol! Lol. Fine Gary. You have all my attention right now so I might as well just get your music out of my system.
If your curious, check out their last album, Son of Evil Reindeer, and specifically, Grand Parade, Budapest, Cartwheels and You Are My Joy. But really, the whole album is great to listen to. It's mixed well and is just, well, awesome. I think everyone in my audience would appreciate it, including my parents ;)
The band has/had 27! members and according to Wikipedia,
The Reindeer Section arose - according to Lightbody - out of a chance get-together of musicians at a Lou Barlow gig in Glasgow in 2001, at which Lightbody drunkenly laid down the challenge to others to "make an album together", to which everyone said "yeah yeah". Lightbody "went home and next day wrote the album" and later convinced Johnny Davies of Bright Star Recordings to fund a recording session and release the proposed album. The group met over three days of rehearsal and ten days of recording to produce the first album. The album was released with a mini tour, the first venue of which was Belfast's The Limelight venue.
So check 'em out on I-Tunes, your favorite files haring application (but be sure to buy the album if you like to support the artists) or drop me an e-mail and I'll hook you up ;)
