Beirut Live on KEXP

Brooklyn Vegan has a link to an mp3 of Beirut’s live performance on KEXP during SX last week.

 

SX – Lines, Pull, and (Missing) Beirut Live

I missed the Beirut performance on Wednesday. I knew I wouldn’t have been able to get in so I didn’t even try. S tried and seeing the line of platinum badges cooling their heels outside, knew he wouldn’t have made it in either.

What teeny-tiny little pull I have around town vanishes entirely when SX rolls through. None of the bars in which I am a “vip” host SX shows. (Heck, even those places often forget what I actually do for a living. I only have pull there because I know the bartenders/owners/staff and I tip generously. Every once in a while, I mention it after they’ve seen me with tattooed men with interesting facial hair or young guys with long floppy bangs. Since they all know A, it’s always good to say, “hey those cute young guys I was here with last night . . . that was work.”)

Years and years ago, I dated a lobbyist, which basically meant he was a professional barfly who dropped massive amounts of cash all over town. He had also been a professional athlete who played here in college, so he was denied access nowhere, nor was I. My father and his friends flew in for sxsw that year and we, without badges, were granted access into every venue we wanted without waiting. To the unabashed delight of my father’s friends, Clifford Antone himself escorted us into Antone’s for a show.

Sigh.

Pull rocks. Absence of pull . . . keeps me at home rather than face the daunting, madding crowds.

Below are two live mp3s from a Beirut show last August. You can download the whole thing at the Live Music Archives. There is also a show from October.

Mp3: Beirut, Postcards from Italy (live).
Mp3: Beirut, Elephant Gun (live).

Buy Gulag Orkestar and Lon Gisland on Amazon and then get Pompeii, the two song EP exclusively from eMusic.

 

The Week That Was – A Valuable Lesson

I am tired of the “it was a stressful week” litany . . .so, this week, I am accentuating the positive.

My lesson of the week, month, year, relationship is that it’s always better to tell the whole truth than try to protect your SO, friend, client, etc. from uncertainty.

Uncertainty is the bane of my existence. People come to me for answers and certainty, and sometimes, it’s just not there.

Last night, T said “we’re not children, we can handle it.” And he was right.
(Thanks, guys, you really do rock.)

From here on, you all get the whole truth. Even if it drives you all as crazy as it drives me.

On the new music front, I am not that interested in the stuff floating around the blogs this week (Wilco? Really?) .

Except for Beirut and Feist.

 

New Beirut!

I just signed up for eMusic in order to get Pompeii, the new two song EP from Beirut.

The same Beirut whose Lon Gisland EP I bought immediately upon release from Amazon within the past five weeks.

You can hear the samples on eMusic here.

Thanks to Rewritable Content for pointing me (and other readers of I Guess I’m Floating)in the right direction.

 

Blog Round-Up – Aloe Blacc, Beirut, Field Music, the bird and the bee

Here are a few links from around the web today that I will definitely be checking out:

Analog Giant posted a new song by DJ Day featuring Aloe Blacc and a new Stacey Epps song from Stones Throw Records.

Brooklyn Vegan has “I.C.E.” — a new Antibalas Afrobeat Orchestra song. (Fans of TV on the Radio should definitely check it out.)

Covert Curiosity posted Arizona and My Party from the new Kings of Leon album Because of the Times, which is scheduled for an April 3rd release. Mr. Curiosity says it’s decent, but not great. That fits pretty well with the early critiques I have heard. Still, I am looking forward to hearing more of it, and looking forward to seeing the On Call video # worked on a few weeks ago.

Free iTunes Downloads has a link to the new k-os single “The Rain.” k-os is a hip-hop artist from Ontario.

Idolator posted a couple of Los Lobos songs from The Town and The City. I really like Los Lobos. I saw them live at ACL fest a few years ago, and they were really great.

I Guess I’m Floating has a Beirut demo, entitled “Interior of a Dutch House.” As you all know, I am a huge Beirut fan, so it’s great to hear something earlier than Gulag Orkestar. Check out my earlier Beirut posts here.

Instrumental Analysis has three Jeff Buckley songs from Grace. Because I listened to Tim Buckley a lot as a kid, I have always loved Jeff Buckley.

Lifehacker posted 12 iTunes scripts I am excited to use. The scripts do everything from removing dead tracks (the ones with little exclamation point) to automating adding lyrics (without using Sing That iTunes on the dashboard).

Noise for Toasters has three songs from Field Music’s Tones of the Town, one of my favorite albums of the year so far, and the video for She Can Do What She Wants.

So Much Silence has a review of the bird and the bee. I have really enjoyed them lately, and I will get around to posting about them at some point.

Austin Sound has a track from Austin band The Carrots, who I originally heard via The Voxtrot Kid.

 

Beirut, Lon Gisland EP

I just received my newly purchased Lon Gisland cd, which was released last week.

It’s excellent.

I had only heard Elephant Gun from this EP, but I bought it because I loved Gulag Orkestar and Postcards from Italywas one of my favorite songs of 2006.

Lon Gisland feels like a secret revealed.

Download: Beirut, Elephant Gun.

Buy Gulag Orkestar and Lon Gisland.

 

Random Music From a Cold, Rainy Stroll

I spent yesterday afternoon strolling around Town Lake with M. It was very cold, rainy, and gray.

The trail was often muddy and we also had to negotiate our way around a huge fallen
tree near Barton Springs Pool. I climbed through the mud around the roots while M jumped up onto the trunk and hit his head on low twigs.

We saw only a dozen people along the 4+ mile loop. Almost all of them runners. Some with dogs, who wanted to be anywhere but in the cold, wet mud.

For the most part, we chatted about his (former?) relationship and his (ex?) girlfriend, as I offered advice (and hectored, where appropriate).

Two songs were stuck in my head as we walked:

Ghostwriter, RJD2.

I tried to describe the mostly instrumental track Ghostwriter: “you know, the percussion is like ba bump bump bump bump bump, and then the horn comes in.” Just as annoying as you would imagine.

<a href=”
http://download.yousendit.com/B0FAEE2008AEEC3F”>Mp3.
You can buy the album on Amazon
or a remix of the track on iTunes.
Note: the album Deadringer on iTunes is a partial album, so buy it on Amazon.

Postcards from Italy, Beirut.

Mp3.
You can buy the album on iTunes.

 

The Week That Was

It’s been a crazy week around Ca’d'Musette:

• Ice and snow shut down the city of Austin for three days and kept us house-bound and reflective.
• Two huge proposals are demanding enormous amounts of my attention.
• One of my best friends is going through a bad, bad break-up, so we have been seeing lots of him.

These are a few favorite new editions to my collection this week from the music sites:

1. Yo No Sé, Los Amigos Invisibles. It’s frothy disco, and it’s impossible to frown when this is playing. (Originally heard on The Rich Girls Are Weeping.)
2. Goodbye, The Postman. It’s an interesting Indie Pop song – jaunty instrumentation, but the whispery vocal feels slightly behind the beat (though it isn’t). It’s a happy song, as long as you ignore the lyrics. I look forward to hearing it more and more. (Originally heard on: my notes say stereogum, but I cannot confirm.)
3. Elephant Gun, Beirut. My current favorite song in my collection is still Postcards from Italy (a song which S also loves, proving I am not completely alone on this one). This one is growing on me quickly. (Originally heard on: Pitchfork)