Sunday, 30 Jan 2005

Live music is good. Tilly and the Wall, Coco Rosie, and Bright Eyes - very fun.

Tilly and the Wall were the excuse for going, all of us like the combo of infectious hooks, enthusiastic performances, tight harmonies, and a tap-dancing rhythm section - none of which really gives a feel for how much fun they are. Kind of reminiscent of 60’s girl group pop with a healthy amount of folk, american-roots infuence as well. (”American root” music to me is authentic folk, rooted very much to place - in this case Nebraska - but definitely not “country”)

Coco Rosie is definitely the oddest group I have seen in a long time. As one of kids put it “they were very weird, good, but weird”. Two primary singers/musicians with an added guy doing everything from beatboxing rhythms, to vocal bass guitar, to “tap dancing” all accompanied by seemingly mostly random video images. Instruments ranged from guitar, piano, celtic harp, to harmonica, and miscellaneous kids electronic toys and phones. Even though the one singer had a truly bizarre voice (”Dad, is that her voice or is she doing that with effects?”) (think Billie Holiday as interpreted by a Jennifer Tilly-Alien hybrid) somehow their sound “worked” - once you got past their oddness it was easy to slip into their world and enjoy their groove.

Bright Eyes was the big headliner and had a hard bill to live up to. Connor Oberst is really quite a good singer/songwriter/poet and he shines most when you can actually hear his words and inflections - the songs that he did solo (just him and a guitar) were outstanding - the clarity got lost a bit when the whole band kicked in. Suprisingly the vast bulk of the material was much more rootsy folky or authentic country then I had expected given BE’s stature in the indy world. The BE album I had was a mix of alternative pop (emo) and folky tunes, but this show was more acoustic then electric guitar, lots of lap steel and mandolin, some trumpet, drums and keys thrown in for good measure. As V noted “I am suprised so many kids like his music, the music is a whole different kind of music than most kids like with his emo singing on top of it” (paraphrase). His vocals would fit in with any 1980-90’s “new wave” or non-hardcore punk band, but the band was to my ears a modern update of vintage 1970’s Grahm Parsons, Emilu Harris, pre-fame-non-top-40 eagles, etc.

Sunday, 30 Jan 2005

Resident Evil: Apocalypse, Shaun of the Dead, South Park; The Passion of the Jew, The Perks of being a wallflower

Sunday, 30 Jan 2005

When after explaining what “hypocritical” meant to my youngest (who had asked), V told me that I “answer those kinds of questions really well, and give good examples. I still remember the answers to questions I asked you when I was little”.

Tuesday, 25 Jan 2005

Colorized and added destructible (horrible word, I know) scenery to Olde Sarum Arena, a Myth II map created by Lone Dorf.

Tuesday, 25 Jan 2005

The Witches, Small Soldiers, Tilly & the Wall, Coco Rosie, Bright Eyes