Walk Away Now

So now that I've admitted to spending the last month or so soaking every note of Boxer into my bones, I probably ought to fess up to my addiction to La Blogoteque's Take-Away Shows video podcast. The series started up a while ago and it appears that friend-of-the-National, Vincent Moon is the visionary videographer (cinematographer? director? best boy? gaffer?) behind most of the spots. Check it out with this disclaimer: watch one and you're hooked. Every clip is hypnotic in its own way, especially when it's the Shins strolling down a street and starting into a Calexico cover before arriving at their eventual Gone for Good performance destination. Or when Sufjan Stevens spins and sings on a rooftop. Or when two fellows from the National head out on a sailboat and deliver a bare-bones version of Gospel. That said, the following two have been on nonstop rotation at the upto12 workspace:

Start a War kills me and the dinner-table performance is a pure stunner.


I know, attention spans are short these days. But carve out 15:27 for this required viewing. Please. Do this one thing for yourself. You won't regret it. Especially when you realize that a bit of the elevator percussion involves pages being torn from a phone book.


You can subscribe to the podcast by clicking on the iTunes link on the right side of the Les Concerts a Emporter page (it's all in French, so good luck... okay, fine, here's the English language page). You can only access the last 15 or so via iTunes, but you'll find all the shows at DailyMotion (just search for "take away shows").