Sharon Van Etten via La Blogothèque

Take Away Show #109 _ SHARON VAN ETTEN (part 1) from La Blogotheque on Vimeo.

Take Away Show #109 _ SHARON VAN ETTEN (part 2) from La Blogotheque on Vimeo.

Sea Foam On The Hudson

(by BJK)

UPDATE: Here's a much, much better (analog) version by Nicole...


(by NLB)

New Jens Lekman Song!

From Jens:

“It was the day before the american election 2008 and I was filled with a hopelessness that only a McCain supporter could have shared with me at the time. I was in Washington DC to perform for swedish TV, sitting in the couch with a profesional smile on my face, joking with the hosts and discussing the lobster with the TV chef. I saw the clips online sometime ago, it's amazing what an actor I can be if I really make an effort.

I lived in America back then, up in New York. At the time I felt like everything I touched was turning to shit and I had decided to put everything on one card. Subconsciously I knew I needed to hit the bottom so I could work my way up again. I needed confirmation, I needed someone to tell me it wasn't going to work out, not this way. Yes, there was a girl involved in this. I was very much in love with her.

Some things you just go through. You don't write about it, you don't turn it into art because it can't be turned into art. I didn't write any songs that year because you can't pour manure into an espresso machine and expect a cappucino to come out. When they announced the results and the streets filled up with people celebrating I felt happy to be part of something bigger than myself. It was a feeling that lasted me until the very last days of December 2008 when I finally sat down in my old teenage room at my parents house and I wrote this song. Then the year ended.

It's a song of hope. When love turns it's back on you it's nice to know there's a world out there that doesn't give a shit about your problems. That forces you to keep your head held high and move on. A world that is fragile and beautiful. Maybe it can sound cold to some of you, but let me make it clear that I believe in love, I just get so wrapped up in it sometimes that I need to put it into proportion. It's something you have to do a lot when you're Jens Lekman.”

(Plus, it references the Flatbush Avenue Target!)

7/27/10 - Stuff We're Listening To

spitting it concrete like the golden sun god

More Lau Nau from Spinning On Air

And from an earlier episode of the always great Spinning On Air (which is where we first heard Connie Converse!):

Gals

I did this sketch of Nicole, her mom, & her sister a few years ago (all the way back in 2006, to be exact). She's the tiny one (I did it from a photograph; she wasn't that small 4 years ago). I just came across it. I like it.

The gall of that gull!

Seagull Thief! - watch more funny videos

Lau Nau @ IPR

The Lau Nau/Kuupuu show was beyond-words-great... Blew me away...







(Thanks to Vinyl Bob for the high-quality videos)



(photos by BJK)

A Cat Adopts A Baby Red Panda

Let's Move to Finland, or, Lau Nau & Kuupuu @ Issue Project Room Tonight

Issue Project Room
07/12 @ 8:00pm

Minor Musics: Lau Nau + Kuupuu

Lau Nau is free spirited Finnish artist. Since the release of her celebrated debut full length Kuutarha on Chicago’s Locust Music in 2005, Lau Nau has enjoyed considerable recognition for her intimate & playful blend of ethnic tinged folk songs with curious & intuitive sounds conjured from familiar and exotic sound sources.

Kuupuu is a solo project of a Finnish artist / musician with a background in psych-folk groups such as Avarus.
Kuupuu plays partly improvised spooky boogie with tapes, loops, toys, keyboards, effects and voices. Her live sets are time travels through unfound galaxies, deserted huts, nightmares, dirty doghouses, sweet cakes and cranberry lakes – letting the melodies find their own ways and settle or unsettle in the whole. (More...)

Buy Tickets | Admission: $10 ($9 in advance, $8 members)
Note: Doors open at 8 pm.

Letters to Emma Bowlcut

Bill Callahan
Letters to Emma Bowlcut
7/20/10
Drag City

From an interview (with author Jon Raymond) in BOMB last year:

"I’m writing this epistolary epic poem called Letters to Emma Bowlcut that will come out on Drag City. It is the story of a boxing fan. I try to explore what I love about fights in the book, among other things. People don’t think they like boxing but if I show them the right tape, with the backstory of the fighters, they get hooked. I don’t consider it a sport. That great Joyce Carol Oates book On Boxing really explains it well."

Windfall

Coming out of a pretty fantastic weekend spent with NAB, TAB, & NLB, here is a nice video of Cass McComb's performing "Windfall" from Dropping the Writ. The follow-up to that record, Catacombs provided a memorable portion of our weekend soundtrack...

Cass McCombs - Windfall from Eli Gunn-Jones on Vimeo.

I Still Swoon for Beautiful Books

These days, gloom and doom are de rigueur in so many industries that the publishing world's ubiquitous naysaying and doomsdaying ( "Nobody reads!" "We're broke!" "E-book pirating?! Blarg!") seem comparatively passe.

While I have not a clue what will "save" the publishing world (The Kindle? The iPad? The Nook? Improved early childhood education?), I do know that these beautifully published classics make me drool.

Designer Coralie Bickford-Smith is a heartbreaker. Lovely, lovely stuff. I've picked out a few favorites below, but to see the rest check out Penguin's Flickr page.

I Do Not Doubt I Am Limitless: Walt Whitman Celebration in Brooklyn Tonight!

I'll be singing in Shannon Fields' piece at this awesome event at the gorgeous new Brooklyn Bridge Park tonight. Come by for some music and poetry, inspired by and channeling the great Walt Whitman!

More info HERE.