A place for everything…

First a last-minute spare ticket courtesy of a very kind future flatmate and her equally kind record-label working friend at Interscope: Free tickets up on the balcony of the Hammerstein Ballroom to see Feist, albeit very small and off in the distance…I stayed for a very entertaining hour where she covered plenty I know (for shame, my techno roots are appalled) and some I didn’t. Great use of multi-layered sampling on vox, achieving a dense, rich sound onstage with just herself and her guitar looped many times through a delay unit. There were also utterly beautiful visuals in the background: we’ve all played with overhead projectors before, in this instance a couple of artists worked in the background of the stage, sculpting shapes, drawing patterns in sand and with lightsticks, silhouettes of leaves etc, all dreamily projected up onto a giant screen at the back of the stage. Lush.

Then a quick cab-dash across town at 10.30 to catch the first of a series of programs of short films I’m trying to see at Tribeca Film Festival. Last night was the Nuthouse program, with a tagline ” We’re ‘committed’ to surprising you, scaring you, or just plain creeping you out in this late night program.”.

Two films of the 8 really stood out for me:

• Last Time In Clerkenwell is the crazy ass-shaking lovechild of the old Ki-Ora ads and Mr Scruff and made me seriously rofl :)

• Kirksdale had the production values of a serious feature film and was probably the most bloody, violent film I’ve seen in a while, certainly possessing the most excruciatingly wince-worthily painful walk-on-broken ankles scene I’ve ever seen.

More films tonight too :)

Went off the radar a little back there… I’ve just had about the most fun two months ever and haven’t yet written a damn thing!

This oughta serve as a reminder to self to get back on with it - I enjoyed writing stuff over the winter so will get back on the blog.

Reason for the post title? Saw the Cinematic Orchestra last night at the Williamsburg Music Hall, not more than 10 mins walk from my apt. The bass is still shaking my ribs. What a fantastic gig!

“Tunes” is not my favourite word, but I’ve got this alliteration thing going on.

Plus there’s not ten tunes, there’s twenty (couldn’t help myself).

Oh and they’re not purely from 2007, in order to qualify my arcane rules, the track must either have been released or I must have first heard it this year and listened so many times that I wore out the mp3.

And, finally, they’re not in order of favourites, rather I’ve stitched them together into a playlist that flows from song to song.

Links (with mouse-hover explanations) are to last.fm radio where you can listen to snippets. If you really like em, come find me and have a listen to my iPod :)

——>< ——

1. Faultlines - Avast! (Faultlines, Flagship Audio, 2007)
2. Brunettes Against Bubblegum Youth - The Brunettes (Structure & Cosmetics, Sub Pop, 2007)
3. IWE - The Noisettes (What’s The Time Mr. Wolf?, Universal Motown, 2007)
4. Hello Meow - Squarepusher (Hello Everything, Warp, 2006)
5. Hajnal - Venetian Snares (Rossz Csillag Alatt Született, Planet Mu, 2005)
6. All Is Full Of Love (Brussels 26-09-01) - Björk (Livebox Disc 4, One Little Indian, 2003)
7. Summer Goddess - Soil and “Pimp” Sessions (Summer Goddess EP, Victor Entertainment Japan, 2005)
8. Bed Of Roses - 4 Hero (Play With The Changes, Raw Canvas, 2007)
9. Kissing The Lipless - The Shins (Chutes Too Narrow, Sub Pop, 2003)
10. To Be Alone With You - Sufjan Stevens (Seven Swans, Rough Trade, 2004)
11. To The Sky - Maps (We Can Create, Mute, 2007)
12. Genesis - Justice (†, Because Music, 2007)
13. Omega Man - Fred Falke (FabricLive 29 - Cut Copy, Fabric London, 2006)
14. What Else Is There? (by Röyksopp) (Trentemøller Remix) - Trentemøller (The Trentemøller Chronicles, Audiomatique, 2007)
15. Everyday - The Field (From Here We Go To Sublime, Kompakt, 2007)
16. ‘Cross The Breeze - Sonic Youth (Daydream Nation, Geffen, 1993)
17. The Past Is A Grotesque Animal - Of Montreal (Hissing Fauna, Are You The Destroyer?, Polyvinyl, 2007)
18. Headlights - Nine Black Alps (Everything Is, Island, 2005)
19. A Last Act Of Desperate Men - The Longcut (A Call And Response, Deltasonic, 2006)
20. No Cars Go - Arcade Fire (Neon Bible, Merge, 2007)

——>< ——

That’s it, thankyou 2007, I had a ball. Can’t wait for what 2008 will bring!

Edit: The Lost Levels played in Tommy Flynns last night and were superb, hope they get signed soon, have a listen at their MySpace.

… welcome our euphonius robotic overlords.

Everything’s progress if it gets us that little bit closer to Blade Runner: The Final Cut.

I, however, could use some practice. It’s been a good 6 months since I stopped playing even twice a week… (Orange, Orange, Blue, Green, twiddly bit, grark!!).

Anyway, if I want to justify my dressing up at a party next week looking like this:

…I better start playing like this :O