bach choir

My choir made it onto TV! Here's the clip:



Unfortunately there's a lot more footage of the orchestra than the choir, but oh well -- you can at least hear us!

vote for goodbye lenin

While in Scotland, I'll get to visit my friend Jon who, in addition to working on a theology degree, plays lead guitar in the band Goodbye Lenin. They're attempting to go to Lollapalooza this year, and to do that they need to make it through a few rounds of voting. Please go here to listen to their music and vote!

http://www.sonicbids.com/lollapalooza08/BandProfile.aspx?candidate_id=4981

The deadline for the first round of voting is fast approaching, so don't delay!

other musical commercials

Jon Allen is not the first artist I've found out about via a commercial. After writing about today's discovery, I recalled two more commercials that led me to great musical talent, and they just happen to be two of my all time favorite artists/songs/commercials -- all of the above.

The first time I heard Nick Drake was back in college, courtesy of this very cool Volkswagon commercial...which I'm sure sold many Cabrios.


And then there's this Lacoste commercial featuring Feist.

jon allen

Sometimes I wonder what I did before the internet... really. How did I find anything out, or answer any of the silly little questions that seem to plague me? I'm pondering this because I just had one of those internet zen moments. Here's what happened: I saw (or heard, rather) an intriguing song playing on a Land Rover commercial. And after just a minute or two of googling, I knew that the song was "Going Home" by the up-and-coming British singer, Jon Allen (click his name to get to his site, where you can download "Going Home" for free). And here's the song compliments of Youtube... for some reason I'm not able to embed the video.

saturday evening wanderings part II

Besides the book and the hot chocolate, there were a couple of other benefits of yesterday's wanderings.

1. I found a cheap little fabric store, and bought two yards of this bright floral fabric. It was originally going to just be one yard, but I liked it so much...

2. I stumbled across a little CD store (that I have vague recollections of going to before... but will I ever be able to find it again?) that had some good stuff. I found the new Jose Gonzales album (In Our Nature) there and quickly bought it. The process seemed so easy and pain-free, as his last album that I bought, Veneer, had to be special ordered from HK Records because it didn't seem to be available anywhere...
And I'm feeling optimistic that I'll find some way of listening to the talk I missed last night... I'm sure there's a recording of it somewhere. Maybe I can special order it...

jose gonzales

Jose Gonzales was on Later with Jools Holland tonight (actually, the episode is about a year old)... I'd heard him before and knew that I liked him, but was absolutely blown away by his performance. Why? Well, he did a Kylie Minogue cover that was absolutely amazing. Yes, that's right, Kylie Minogue -- "Put Your Hand On Your Heart" -- I had no idea how beautiful this song could be until tonight. The man is a genius.
Listen to the song here. Or watch him perform it here.

later

I turned the TV on this evening and it just happened that "Later with Jools Holland" was on. I guess this show has been on in the UK for a while, but tonight was the first time I'd seen it. Pretty amazing. One hour. A huge studio set with room for 5 different bands and an audience. And an incredible variety of musicians. On this one single show they had no less than Morrissey, Dirty Pretty Things, a cool "electro-pop" group called Hot Chip, Crosby and Nash (half of Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young -- "Guenevere" gave me goosebumps), India Arie, and a Spanish Flamenco band called Ojos de Brujo.

After "Later" was over, I was left with two thoughts.
1. Is this show for real?!
2. Why is this only the first time I've watched this?!

BBC Entertainment has me hooked yet again...

the reminder

I recently purchased the new Feist album, The Reminder, and finally got a chance to listen to it today. My iPod has been in need of a new battery (or possibly a more complicated operation) for the past few weeks, and since I've come to depend on it for all my listening needs, its incapacity has left me music-less and unhappy. Today I decided enough was enough and fished out the old discman so that I could listen to Feist on my way to my normal Friday night activities: McDonalds and tutoring.
I'm a pretty big fan of Feist -- loved Let it Die and thought Open Season was pretty cool -- and I've got to say that her new album doesn't disappoint. It has the same whimsical/eclectic feel of Let it Die, but is possibly even cooler because it's all original stuff this time (i.e. no covers!). Not that I didn't like the covers, but I think that her music is strong enough to stand on its own, and songs that she wrote (i.e. "Mushaboom," "Gatekeeper" and "Let it Die") are probably my favorites from that album.
Yes, so I really like The Reminder so far, and am assuming, like with most new music, it will only continue to grow on me over time. Feist experiments with a wider variety of instruments in this album, especially strings, which is cool, and does more with back-up vocals and choirs too. She even stretches the boundaries of her own voice -- coming close to really wailing in a couple songs -- which brings some contrast to her usual mellow sound. And, like I said before, I think she's a very talented song-writer. She's able to strike a balance between fun and thoughtful and bittersweet, which I think is pretty unique. Some of her songs are incredibly moving, especially "The Park" and "Intuition"... I found myself sitting on the bus, listening, and close to tears.
If you've heard Feist before and like her, I recommend this album. If you've never heard of her, I recommend this album along with her other two. I've never posted anything even closely resembling a music review before (not that this really is one...), so the fact that I'm taking the time to write something about this CD speaks for itself. :)
On a side note, I like the art in the CD sleeve/case/whatever this type of packaging is called. The polaroids are neat.
Check out The Reminder website (with videos and segments of the songs): www.listentofeist.com