Urban Lounge, SLC - Badly Drawn Boy - 11:55pm

Kyality: He's drifting off into the abyss

(Three false starts of a Thunder Road cover)

(The first verse and chorus of Like A Virgin)

(The opening bars of Silent Sigh)

upto12: Well, if the abyss leads him from Like A Virgin directly into Silent Sigh, I hope Mr. Drawn-Boy follows that abyss whever it takes him.

Go Buy This Album

As usual, I'm behind the curve on this one, but I picked up Regina Spektor's Begin to Hope about two months ago (gave it to Wife Of upto12 for her birthday, actually) and every song is a humm-able bit of delicious pop sweetness. No joke. It'll be the best sub-$10 purchase you make this month.

And... to solidify your Regina fandom, I'll one-up Kate's mandate. Watch this:

Big Day

Last Thursday was an incredibly big day for some true friends of upto12. Visit them:
www.struckcreative.com

And read about the shenanigans:
Struck blog

Why I Love Nick Hornby and Why I'm Convinced That He Knows Me Personally

In his own words (from Fever Pitch):

"I just felt as though I had come off the rails somewhere.

"I had no idea at what point this might have happened. Indeed, I wasn't even sure which rails these were. I had loads of friends, including girlfriends, I was in work, I was in regular contact with all the members of my immediate family, I had suffered no bereavements, I had somewhere to live . . . I was still on all the tracks that I could think of; so what, precisely was the nature of the derailment? All I know is that I felt, inexplicably, unlucky, cursed in some way that would not be immediately apparent to anyone without a job or a lover or a family. I knew myself to be doomed to a life of dissatisfactions: my talents, whatever they were, would go permanently unrecognised..."

I'm sure none of you have ever felt that way. I mean, I haven't... but if I had (or if I did), Mr. Hornby uses just the right words to explain the inexplicable.

You Need To Watch This

At least three times. In the next 20 minutes. I'm not joking.

Obviously

My blog output is inversely related to my travel schedule. You'd think it'd be the other way, right? That traveling would give me more to write about... But you'd be wrong. You'd be dead wrong. And if I had a therapist, he (she?) would certainly say something about my self-destructive blogging tendencies. Something about how I stop writing just to eliminate my audience and reduce the pressure to write a decent word or two on a regular basis. My therapist would be wrong. But probably not dead wrong. Just normal wrong.

The Answer

The man in the photo (the nice-looking Londoner on the left in the previous post) is Jonathan Ive.
Read about him here... but all you really need to know is that he has designed three undeniably stunning, usable and life-changing devices. Most people would die to match that in a lifetime. He's done it in the last 15 years.
In hindsight, I completely blew the opportunity to have him sign my 1st Generation iPod (yeah, the 5-gigger). The moral of the story (as always): Advanced age is no cure for nerdiness.

Matt World! Matt World! Party Time! Excellent!

Start hating me now. Somehow, some way, I ended up with a Platinum Pass to Macworld. What does that mean? I sat in the eighth row (far right side, but still...the eighth row) for Steve Jobs' keynote address. I personally witnessed the unveiling of the iPhone. I'm a total geek.

And to complete the nerdiness... I hunted down the man below and convinced him (he was quite embarrassed by the whole deal) to pose for a lame fanboy photo. Who is he? Take a guess... I'll spill the answer tomorrow.

Maybe It Didn't Matter

The year end lists have been back-burnered for now, but I'll give this quick observation until I can get my act together:

Walking big city streets without iPod earbuds stuffed in your lobes is the new walking big city streets with iPod earbuds stuffed in your lobes.

What Mattered in 2006

It has taken far longer than reasonable, but I have prepared a handful of year-end lists. I figured it best to break them into chunks...hopefully I can deliver one a day for the next week.

These lists simply reflect the things that mattered to me in 2006. Some of the albums, songs, movies, books, etc. that you'll find here were released in years other than 2006. Cut me some slack. I'm slow on the uptake and sometimes it takes me an extra year (or two or three or seven) to catch on to something already deemed "amazing" by the general public.

So, with that uninspiring disclaimer in mind, let's get started.

Albums that Mattered (2006)

Everything All The Time - Band of Horses
Why it mattered:
The Funeral, The Great Salt Lake, Monsters. Most albums would kill to boast one of the three. Also, it always feels good to have an album on the shelf that gets better as the volume increases.



Silent Alarm - Bloc Party
Why it mattered:
I've already spilled the details. Read more here. I guess (sometimes) being on the tail end of the buzz curve feels kind of good. It's the über-hipster stance of "I liked them after it was cool to like them." Yes, I am a complete nerd.



Songs For Chistmas, Vol. I-V - Sufjan Stevens
Why it mattered:
This may be the one Christmas collection that's actually listenable outside of the accepted Nov. 15 - Jan. 1 timeframe. Sister Winter still knocks my socks off.



Alligator - The National
Why it mattered:
Because it may have been my 2005 Album of the Year and just never slowed down. Quietly proving to be one of those albums that could be listened to 500+ times without losing any lustre.



St. Elsewhere - Gnarls Barkley
Why it mattered:
I don't listen to hip-hop. I don't listen to soul. I don't listen to R&B. And, still, this brainy mash-up of all three is probably the most startling, intriguing and exploding-in-your-eardrums LP I've heard in years. And with a lead-off track title like Go-Go Gadget Gospel, you simply can't avoid hopping in with both feet.

Sam's Town - The Killers
Why it mattered:
Even though it got slaughtered by most critics, I choose to believe the best about this album. I choose to believe that the bombastic, exaggerated, melodramatic choices made by Brandon Flowers and the boys were intentionally postmodern. I choose to believe that (as stated by Kyality), Sam's Town might just be rock 'n' roll's 2006 answer to Andy Warhol and Baz Luhrmann. Plus, my folks live 7 miles up the road (Boulder Highway, to be exact) from the Sam's Town casino. Want to understand this album? Go drive Boulder Highway. Seriously.

Bring Me The Workhorse - My Brightest Diamond
Why it mattered:
Vocals that make you wish your dreams were soundtracked by Shara Worden. That, and the realization that Sufjan's #1 Illinoisemaker has a whole lot more up her sleeve than the shimmering harmonies I still love.



Gimme Fiction - Spoon
Why it mattered:
Another 2005 album that kept on giving in 2006. I once read an interview in which Britt Daniel referred to Spoon as a "tambourine band." I wanted to disagree. I wanted to say that they're so much more than that. But then, just one minute and 17 seconds into I Turn My Camera On, the tambourine kicks in. And I'm dancing in the kitchen while Luke spins in bizarre non-circles and Owen giggles until half-chewed fruit puffs fall from his mouth. Then, I know Britt was right. So wonderfully, wonderfully right.

Next up... Books that Mattered (2006). You just can't wait. You might not even sleep. Just pick up some Tylenol PM and count the sheep. Anticipation's a killer.

Because Every Day Should Start (and End) with the Lovely Leslie Feist

High: 28, Low: 14

I have shoveled snow from my driveway 3 times in 24 hours and this morning's shoveling was, perhaps, the best of all. Snow so light it nearly refused to be shoveled. The kind of powder Utah brags about so ridiculously that I want to punch Utah in the face.

(Controlling anger. Gathering composure.)

Back on track... No song/video captures snowfall quite like this one. Makes me want to fill my backyard with water, pray that it freezes over and then go find an old pair of skates at the local D.I.*

Song of the Season

It's no contest, really. Sufjan Steven's Songs for Christmas — a five-disc masterpiece of traditional, original and otherwise fantastic holiday tracks runs away with the Christmas Album of the Year title. Amy enjoys the Sarah McLachlan offering and D says that the Aimee Mann disc isn't half bad. But just listen to this stunner from Vol. V: Peace and you'll have no doubt that Sister Winter is THE song of the season. Keep hitting "repeat," it's OK...I'll be doing it right along with you. (You can listen right here by "mousing" over the image below and using the controls that pop up near the bottom.)

Download the track at the Asthmatic Kitty site (scroll down and find it on the bottom left under "stuff").

Two More Fantasy Football Victories Away

I Already Know How It Ends

Last night's My Brightest Diamond/DeVotchKa show practically demanded that I brave the sub-freezing temps and make the drive up Parley's Canyon to Suede in Park City. Well, it didn't hurt that Dainon offered his "plus one" ticket guaranteed by some (unforeseeably untrustworthy) publicist. Turns out we didn't make the list and had to pay $10/each to enter — a discounted admission, but still...

You can read all about Shara Worden and My Brightest Diamond all over bloglandia on sites far more interesting and insightful than this one, so I'll only add a few thoughts:

1) Her voice is virtually unmatched in pop/rock music. She handles vocal acrobatics as if they were warm-up drills. Runs and reaches that would have lesser singers doubled over barely even seem to raise her eyebrows. As D remarked after her stunning cover of Tainted Love: I think I could listen to her sing anything, anything at all, and I would love it.

2) While she has been compared to every dramatic female vocalist under the sun (PJ Harvey, Bjork, Beth Gibbons, Kate Bush, etc.), there is one (dead-on) comparison I've yet to hear: Andrea Echeverri from the outstanding Colombian two-piece, Aterciopelados.

3) I have developed a minimally-physical, full-blown artistic crush on Shara Worden. I'll save the full breakdown of crush varieties for another day, but every time I have seen Shara (twice backing Sufjan Stevens and now once on her own) she has increasingly caught my eye. All I can say is that I'm attracted to her art. I know there's something weird (and awfully emo-pathetic) about that statement and each time I read it, it only gets worse. I'm sorry.


The crowd at Suede was certainly diverse (D says it's always that way) but at least they were united in ignorant impoliteness. I will never understand how a crowd can consistently yap through a set as haunting and beautiful as that played by Worden and her bandmates. I suppose that's their choice, right? But if you paid money to see a painter paint, would you walk up and scribble on the corners of her canvas? I see no difference in talking throughout a musical performance. I've exposed my "shut-up-at-concerts" bias. I understand if you will now discredit me. I am prepared for the fall in the polls.

The voice:
Golden Star - My Brightest Diamond - m4a

After My Brightest Diamond left the stage, D and I listened to a few tipsy hippies try to describe the music of DeVotchKa – always an entertaining endeavor. "Ummm... it's like... Eastern European polka... with Tex-Mex horns... and a tuba or something... and sometimes the guy sings in Spanish." And there's nothing better than hearing a pseudo-hipster impress his mindless companions with the knowledge that DeVotchKa (hailing from the greater Denver area, mostly) are from the former Yugoslavia. Good stuff. And, while D tried to convince me that the man playing violin was actually Yo-Yo Ma, I settled in for a healthy dose of European Tex-Mex Polka.

DeVotchKa does not disappoint. If you've listened to even a handful of tracks, you know to expect grieving vocals and throbbing accordions, maracas and flamenco guitars. Theirs is a blend of sounds quite unlike anything I've heard. They walk the same path as Calexico... but in a completely alternate landscape. The songs are sad, beyond sad, and you can't help but wonder where all this pain is coming from. I hesitate to say it, but the vocals even verge on Mexican ranchera music, the strained music full of howls and yips heard blaring from corner cantinas.

(picture stolen from Pitchfork)

What elevates DeVotchKa, however, are the moments of lightness, the spots of sunlight that filter through the pained melodies. And when DeVotchKa played their most recognizable song to date, How It Ends (featured in the movie trailer for Everything Is Illuminated), it was the hint of optimism – however small and however disguised – that lifted the audience from their drinks and even managed to silence the talkers. How It Ends is a rare song. It seems that even devoted, long-time fans of DeVotchKa (who would normally disregard this song because of its mainstream appeal and popularity) seem to know that it is a great song, the kind of song that truly transcends (what a word...) genres and classifications.

I guess what I'm trying to say is this: Since last night's show, my iTunes shows that I've listened to How It Ends five times and I could go for another five right now.

Because of the late start – DeVotchKa didn't take the stage until 11:15 or so – we left just before the end of the set. But it was a satisfied early exit. Very satisfied.

Proof:
How It Ends - DeVotchKa - mp3