Saturday, April 28, 2007

Visualizing the Depths of "Tristan"

"By Matthew Gurewitsch, Published: April 29, 2007

Staging Wagner’s 'Tristan und Isolde' is a notoriously treacherous proposition. A man and a woman are seized by a forbidden passion, are discovered and pay with their lives. That’s it––for three long acts, running four hours, give or take. Wagner thought of his cosmic rhapsody of love that kills not as a story set to music, but as 'deeds of music made visible.'"

-from the ny times. hey, i'd see it.

Getting To Know...

More information regarding Excuse Me? Records and their bands is now available. And here it is.
The original three signees of the label––Louis and the Vuittons, Some Terror and Celsius––are all putting the final touches on their respective releases. Here's an overview of the artists and their work.


Louis and the Vuittons.
As the name implies, fashion and fun are important to LATV. The band, which consists of los angeles natives Oliver Waler and brother and sister Benjamin and Krsten Hayes, started out playing small clubs and quickly made a name for themselves by wearing astonishingly high-fashion clothing to all of their various gigs and by playing fun, crowd-pleasing, dancable rock and electronic music. In addition to la hipsters, LATV also attracted some attention from the luxe leather goods manufacturer, Louis Vuitton, from whom the band obviously borrows a likeness. This attention––and narrowly avoided lawsuit––served only as a means to get LATV even more publicity. Excuse Me? Records took note and soon signed them.
The Vuittons use keyboards, synths, drums, guitars and samples to craft lo-fi, up-tempo indie dance music that pokes fun at––while simultaniously embracing––high-fashion and the extravagant Los Angeles culture. Think the Blow meets Architecture In Helsinki plus a little Hot Chip. Kirsten does most of the singing, but is oft-accompanied by her two male counterparts for some nice harmonization on tracks like the very upbeat opener "Finding a Replica!" and "Hollywood." LATV are also familiar with the art of the instrumental; creating several wonderfully textural lyric-less tracks like "Mexican Food" and "Does." Belts, out this month, is the first full-length from Louis and the Vuittons. Here is the track list:



1. Finding a Replica!
2. Only Pants, No Belts
3. Good Style Vs. Their Style
4. Mexican Food
5. Beleive Me, There Is a Difference
6. Hollywood
7. Crowded (Interlude)
8. There Are More Than a Few Threads on White Sneakers
9. Classic
10. Does


Some Terror.
Santa Monica four-piece Some Terror are not afraid. After releasing their single, "Relax the Terror," on Myspace the band was launched into the dauntingly cut-throat world of indie rock blog music one-up-manship. We've seen this many, many times before. A band gets so top heavy from all of the hype (hype around nothing really. What? One song.) and then cannot deliver anything more. Not the case with Some Terror. After "Relax the Terror" came out as a physical 7", the band went straight back to work; hammering out a terrific album. Fabricate comes out next month, and advance copies will be available at the Excuse Me? launch party.
The four goofy, easy-going friends that make up some terror betray their mysterious band name. Bassist José Grafé, drummer Jason Reitberg, guitarist Thomas Guide and frontman/keyboardist Will Deni all graduated from Loyola Marymount University and knew from the first moment they started jamming together sophomore year that music would have to be in their future. Some Terror's sound is influenced by many unexpected acts––Interpol, Bloc Party, Sonic Youth, and, oddly, the Beach Boys. All of these influences blend into something very special. The darkness of of the instrumentation mixed with Deni's soaring, ethereal vocals is best evidenced on tracks like "Posters," "The Queen, The Queen" and, of course, the minimal and attention-grabbing "Relax the Terror." The album is precise and atmospheric at the same time. Here is Fabricate's track listing:



1. Posters
2. Suspected
3. Route Planner
4. The Sun Never Sets
5. Umpire
6. The Queen, The Queen
7. Fabricate
8. On Campus
9. Diamonds
10. Made in Turkey
11. Relax the Terror


Celsius.
By far the most mellow band signed to Excuse Me? Records at this moment, Celsius, two friends––John Herrick and Toby West––originally from Phoenix, AZ., now living in San Francisco, produce delicate, electronic pieces of music that sound like Explosions in the Sky if the members of Air joined in. Celsius puts a lot of emphasis on production, making their record, I Don't Believe What You Just Said; I Want Proof, sound incredible. It's the perfect soundtrack for a summer nights, long drives or the end portions of low-key cocktail parties when everyone has left except for the one girl you actually want to talk to. Since production is so important to Celsius, they rarely perform live, but when they do it is something that should not be missed. Herrick and west command the stage, moving around from machine to machine and from keyboard to keyboard.
Their songs are long and very, very pretty. The aptly-named opener "Catalyst" is a 7-minute shimmering piano- and bass-driven trip that cascades perfectly into the shortest and fastest song on the disc, "Too Prepared." Also, lyrics are kept to a bare minimum, and the only time you hear any actual words (there is some "oooohing" and "eeeeehing" on a few other tracks, though) is near the end of the percussion- and synth-based "Doubled" with West's repeated whispers of "We were doubled/How could this happen?How could I have not foreseen this much trouble?" Celsius's album flows wonderfully and each song can sit on its own or mesh into the tracks around it like one giant composition. I Don't Believe What You Just Said; I Want Proof:



1. Catalyst
2. Too Prepared
3. Proof
4. One-Day Rental
5. Ice
6. Doubled
7. Eighteen





There are the most recent releases off of Excuse Me? Records. There will be more soon.

Excuse Me? Records: Launch Party Next Week!



excuse me? records, my new label, is about to luanch next weekend. i've been hard at work discovering and signing hot new acts, finding office space and lining up staff. now i'm all done and to celebrate there is going to be an enormous party next friday, may 4, at 111 minna gallery in san francisco. doors are at 8pm and there are still a few tickets left, which can be purchased at the door. they are first-come, first-served so getting there early is very recommended.


the indie label already has several new acts signed to it, most of whom have albums coming out very soon. also, some terror, whose single "relax the terror" has already garnered them an enormous following on myspace, will be playing a set starting at about 10. this night is going to be do-not-miss, everybody, and i happen to know that some big-shots from P4K and Filter Magazine are on the guestlist aswell. plus, i'm always down to talk to some up-and-coming talented musicians. some terror's label mates will also be milling around and there will be no shortage of h'dourves, band merch and, since it's at the 111 minna, alcohol and terrific modern art to keep you interested, if you're, ya know, not into music.

hope to see you there! and more on the the bands and their forthcoming releases soon!

This Is The Excuse To Make Up Bands

I really love music, and sure, like a lot of people would love to be in a kickass band. So, here, on this very blog, I am going to introduce my own completely not-real record label, complete with bands, records, parties, gigs, albums art, track lists, etc. because, of course, nobody really needs the music part of the music world. Well, actually, they really do. But you can get that here too. And i want to make up some fucking cool bands!

Friday, April 27, 2007

Some More Things You Hate

Other things that really piss you off:

-Ingenuine people.

-When you leave your cell phone at home in the hopes of having like a billion voicemails, missed calls and text messages when you finally return to it. This never, ever happens. You get back to your phone, after having left it alone for, like, the whole day, only to discover: (1) No missed calls, no text messages, no voicemails or, (2) three voicemails from your mom wondering where you are, a text from cingular alerting you about a cheaper text plan, and several missed calls from all of the people you hate and don't want to talk to.

-Mediocre music: It's not terrible, so you can't just shit all over it and never listen to it again, but it's just not very good. So, for all intents and purposes it is terrible. But you think that there might be that one decent song on the album, so you keep listening, then you listen again, because there's that one song you remembed from the first listen that was okay, but it's really not okay, and you just blew a couple hours of your time and one of the following: $15 at a record store; $10 on itunes; or $0 and a whole lot of bandwidth at some illegal, free site.

Nine Inch Nails, Year Zero



I would definitely not call myself a Nine Inch Nails fan, at all, and prior to getting the new album the other day the only NIN track I had in my library was “Only,” and only because I appreciated the over-the-top exclamation “There is now fucking you/there is only me” and the throbbing beat. Although I did have a pretty good knowledge of the band and I know there has always been this cloud of bad, angry connotations associated with Trent Reznor and his Nine Inch Nails. However, I do have a tremendous amount of respect for him. Most of this respect comes from how evil he is, or how evil he appears to be (he recently shaved off all of his goth hair and the black buzz he is now rockin' is much more evil).
Also? The name. Just saying "Nine Inch Nails" conjures up ideas of hatred, feelings of ridiculous angst, images of disgusting fingernails and huge metal spikes being hammered into things––like people's heads. Because of these connotations listening to Nine Inch Nails at this point in history means you're that guy who hates everyone, himself included, wears all black all the time and probably friend requests some really creepy people on MySpace. Or at least those are the conclusions drawn when the people who's only knowledge of Nine Inch Nails comes from Clueless––when the goth alternative kid (played by the very un-goth and un-alternative Breckin Meyer) mentions them––glance at your iPod screen and see “Closer” bannered across it. To be fair, only listening to Nine Inch Nails definitely should garner you some very negative social feedback, and that's actually probably why you're doing it, but the music itself is not terrible.
The new album, Year Zero, begins with the instrumental “Hyperpower!” which, if you took away some of the noisy static guitar and left the melody alone, could be on almost any harder-core indie rock album out there. The single, “Survivalism” starts out with that classic NIN up-and-down synth thing and then Reznor’s talk-singing comes in. this time he’s singing about how much of a whore mother nature is (“Can't seem to shut her legs now”) and other quasi-gross imagery like how “We kept on eating/out bloated bellies still not full.” The lyrics are sort of what ruin Nine Inch Nails, but at the same time they make it what it is. The pure––and quite unfounded––angst of Mr. Reznor is definitely a turn off, though it's also sort of funny and when you find yourself in a terribly angry/hateful- towards-others mood, “Only” is definitely relatable.
It just sounds so angry for the sake of angry. But, again, that's kind of why I have respect for him. Although, much more of that respect comes from his compositions, which are really kickass. Throughout the 16-track album, Rezzy has a lot of time and space to create some truly beautiful––and pleasant (!)––soundscapes. Many of the songs on the album's last third feature piano and a lot less singing. “Another Version of the Truth” is actually a haunting, regal piano-driven instrumental.
Then there's the six-minute closer “Zero-Sum,” which starts out sounding like that music they play before and after commercial breaks on VH1’s late-night music video show Nocturnal State and then turns into a smooth track, repeating the whispered request of “May god have mercy on our dirty little hearts” and ending with a memorable and pretty piano refrain. The album also has its catchy moments, nice longish choruses and I-want-to-hear-that-again riffs. The subject matter also, for the most part, shifts away from Reznor's own horrible problems and has him yelling about how fucked the world is.
Nine Inch Nails will always be Nine Inch Nails, with all that entails, but this is a strong album and one that proves that Trent Reznor can still be evil and hateful when he's not complaining about his own life. And seriously, why should he be? Year Zero has been sitting comfortably on the iTunes top 10 best-selling albums list since it came out last week.

Wednesday, April 25, 2007

Lately...

Lately, or not so lately, it's actually been going on for a while now, just normal things and people have been pissing you off. A lot of the time, honestly, you'd rather just be alone then spend time with some of the people that you're forced to spend time with on a daily basis. Seriously. There is nothing wrong with just being by yourself, sometimes seeing people is simply no fun, not worth the effort and turns out badly. So many people are douchebags and really should not talk about half of the things they talk about. Things they know nothing about, or things they've done, or anything. This feeling comes and goes of course, and there are people who you could not live without and who you look forward to seeing and talking to, but then, then there are those other people. And it's not really the people themselves, sometimes it is, but sometimes it's just the things they do or how they do them that bothers the hell out of you. You'll be standing somewhere at school, doing perfectly fine by yourself, and a bunch of people will just be standing there talking about something incredibly stupid. You don't care about it, you don't give half a shit about it, but at risk of being "that kid who doesn't talk to people" you join in the conversation, where you get stuck for way too long talking about homework or something. Why do you do this? It happens so often. You love people, you love talking to them if you like them and you're interested, but sometimes you'll just be in a bad mood for some reason, or in a i-just-don't-want-to-not-talk-to-anyone mood but someone will always start to talk to you. And you're not going to get mad at them, because you're not in that bad mood because of them and you're not going to just blow them off (though you really want to and sometimes you really should. You really should.) but, depending on who's talking, it may make you even angrier to talk to them. It's a vicious circle.

The routine just really wears you down. Wake up, school day, sport, homework, maybe some music, maybe some TV, not enough sleep, wake up, repeat. It's really tiring and that alone is enough to create a bad mood. That and the people that inhabit the various activities––school, sport, etc. Something else, something bigger yet less routine also generally happens to get you down, but soon that just becomes routine as well. Everything just gets to be a routine. Which gets to be draining.

The other thing is the homework. Homework is not the only problem. Ever. If "too much homework" is someone's biggest problem, then they have way bigger problems. Too much homework does, however, add insult to injury on the worst of days. You just had a terrible not-wanting-to-talk-to-people bad mood day, except, of course, you talked to and interacted with people you really want nothing to do with. You talked to and interacted with useless people about useless things, making your already bad mood even worse. You're finally able to go home and just do whatever you want, probably just listen to music, when you realize you have a huge mountain of homework. It's just there, although, unlike the other problems, like people bothering you and not wanting to be involved in a lot of things, you can deal with the homework. You can make it go away. But, like the other problems, it keeps coming back every single day. At a steady rate. Sometimes it increases, too. That's the worst.

This whole "not wanting to talk to people" thing is not just emo bullshit, either. It just happens––a break up, bad stuff at home, an annoying-ass kid at school, sometimes several annoying-ass kids at school, girl problems, boy problems, being stuck in a routine–– any number of things can piss you off. People just piss people off. Some much more than others and some permenantly. But it happens. So whatever. The best thing you can do is have at least couple friends you can, and really like to, be around and talk to and just kick it with. It's fine. Something will get better. Your homework load, the weather, your love life––something. And if you're lucky you might even want to talk to, like, everyone again. But, of course, you don't really want that. The other way is more fun. Sometimes. At least it's more fun to talk about.

Klaxons Are Kunts

This Monday the Klaxons were in town so my friend and I thought we’d check ‘em out. It was a great show. If you're not familiar with the Klaxons, which I really wasn't before a week before the show, they're from London and they play loud, rave-ish, squeaking music with surprisingly great choruses and awesome harmonies. And live it was even better; everyone was sweating, especially the singer, who looked pretty much exactly like professional douchebag Bandon Davis, everyone was pretty drunk and moshing against each other to the loud dance-party beats. The show was at The Crocodile Café and within 10 minutes I came up with an adjective to describe all the people there: "hipsceneindiebrightsweatshirtglostichairproductraver" kids. To say the least, there was definitely a certain “crowd” at the show, but not a bad crowd by any means, though, and everyone was extremely into the music. The Klaxons didn't come on till late, though, and in the time that we were waiting for them to start I got to hear a few very music-snobish conversations, which was nice. The opening band consisted of a chubby indie chick on keyboard and a bearded drummer who stared intently at the aforementioed indie chick the entire time; this duo (who I assume were dating) was known as Fist Fite. They sucked at first and then started to sound really good. They had it all: sharp keyboards, never-ending drums, impossible to understand, pissed-off lyrics and awesome dumb song names like “High Five Steve.” They also had $5 t-shirts, a bargain since the “Klaxons Are Kunts” t-shirts were going for a whopping $20 (twice as much as the ticket cost!). The Fist Fite shirts were also shamelessly hand-decorated, saying things like “Do You Want To Fuckin’ Fist Fite?” and “Fuck You In The Face.” My friend and I both bought one. Then, what seemed like hours later, the already sweaty Klaxons took the stage and everyone stopped talking about the other, better bands that they've seen and started absolutely rocking out. I was not at all familiar with their album (Myths of the Near Futur, out now on Geffen) but they played it all and played it well. “Atlantis To Interzone” has been ringing in my ears since the show ended.

Tuesday, April 24, 2007

This Is The First Post

I just made this blog a few nights ago. Havn't had to much time to write anything on here yet. Plus I was making important decisions about the blog, like: What should it be about? I decided it will be about my life, which is sorta boring, kinda, but kinda not, so it's also going to talk a lot about music, bands, shows, other interests, people/things I like/really hate, etc. Secondly, should I capitalize my sentences? Yeah, I guess. all lower-case is kinda cool too, i think. But caps are better. Also? I really like to write and I figure this would be an easy way to write a whole bunch of stuff. Anything else? Umm. The name of the blog? I had to come up with a good name. I think i did. It's just a really random song lyric that I had stuck in my head the other day (if anyone who can tell me which song it's from, they win a great prize), but it sounds cool and it also works well for a blog name––ya know, reading this as an excuse, or a distraction, from doing your homework, making dinner, selling things, taking calls, or whatever you're supposed to be doing with your time. Yup, so look forward to many more posts from The Excuse!