Skip to main content

Noah and the Whale :: Happy summer fun time pop w00t w00t

By

Dakin is going to hate me for this. He's hunkered down to endure the dark and cold of a Northwest winter with Califone and The Dirty Three, but I can't help it. It's almost summertime here (New Zealand), which means upbeat music. The kind of fun time pop tunes that are like crack cocaine to my ears: The Shins, Vampire Weekend, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah--Oh man, that's the good stuff. And then I happen upon this video while perusing one my favourite design blogs (swissmiss). I don't know if Noah and the Whale is a band, or if it is just the name of a song. While I understand it would take me all of two minutes to Google them and find out, I'm happier not knowing right now. Because it's summertime, you see, and I don't have time for facts. For god's sake there's a woman outside my window in a bikini--truth and details can wait!


A few years ago I would have been embarrassed at my ignorance of such a fun band, but this is 2007, and--let's face it--there are probably more bands in the world than there are people. Impossible, you say? Look at it this way: everybody has a band (seriously. Everybody. Even me. My band is called The Literal Ponies. Dakin plays banjo. Just don't look for an album release any time soon). And everybody in a band has a side project, which is usually another band, so same rules apply again. You see? Suddenly the number of bands on the planet has grown exponentially, and Bob Geldof is organising a live aid concert to benefit the ever-growing mass of bands and their sides. Which means Will Oldham and Jason Molina are getting a lot of screen time.


So Noah and the Whale: don't know who they are; can't stop watching this video. After all, it's summer time in the southern hemisphere. Sun, sun, sun!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Racoon Wedding :: Gather Gather Bones/Rattle Rattle Truth

By
Download The Paper Boy from The Racoon Wedding's album, Gather Gather Bones/Rattle Rattle Truth Sounds Like : they're gonna rip your ribcage out and find your heart RIYL : White Rabbits, Portugal. The Man, Fanfarlo, Rolling Stones ala Beggar's Banquet From the Press Release : Forming from the ashes of Vermicious Knid, and authoring songs in the basement of the all ages not-for-profit art space they own in a nook of the city’s forgotten downtown, frontman Tim Ford and company boast a sense of loyalty to their community that few other bands share. On their debut LP, Gather Gather Bones/Rattle Rattle Truth , issued this October via their own Ford Plant Recordings Co., the band enlisted the help of engineer Leon Taheny (of the Final Fantasy recording credit) and hammered out a record that teems with the spirit of long-forgotten roots music. It’s indebted to the history of mighty back porch music: unbridled, unedited, beautifully intense.
Post a Comment
Read more

Flight of the Conchords Are Tha Muthaflippin'

By
If you go to the official Flight of the Conchords website , you will see that it was about the time they started work on their HBO special that they stopped updating. However, you will also read that they don’t mind too much. In fact, they are very quick to point to other fan sites that are doing a much better job. This self deprecating humour is part of what makes the duo so endearing. For those who have not yet seen the programme, Bret McKenzie ( formerly of Wellington dub band The Black Seeds) plays the naïve Bret, who is a vertible emotional rollercoaster when compared to the dour-faced Jermaine (Jermaine Clement. See him in Eagle vs. Shark ). Together they look for gigs and . . . well that’s pretty much it: they look for gigs. But it’s enough. Just because the show’s premise isn’t robust, doesn’t mean the show falls flat. Hell, remember Seinfeld? That was a show supposedly about ‘nothing,’ and look how well it did. FOTC is at least about one thing, so it’s got that much more ...
3 comments
Read more

Daft Punk :: Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger

By
Somehow winter still has her claws in the Pacific Northwest. It's almost May, and we're forecast snow this coming weekend. Snow! (I'll spare you my usual tirade about what physically impossible acts may be performed on this particular part of the country, my own little corner of hell.) In any event, we were teased by 80 degrees over the past weekend, only to be thrust back into the 50s and below (with rain!) immediately after. Needless to say, it has not been happy times. I am on day three of a nonstop Neko Case marathon, and, while it is indeed comforting, Neko tends to be a little, dare we say, dark ? Sometimes you just need to take pause and make your own sunshine, or perhaps be steered to some on YouTube , as is certainly the case here. (Even though I firmly believe that YouTube is leading to the complete downfall of Western Civilization, and exposing the ugly underbelly of the American experience, I can sometimes forgive it. Times like this.) Back story? Dunno. Two fre...
4 comments
Read more