Archive for the 'YouTube' Category

Max Tundra / Girl Talk (live at the House of Blues Orlando, May 21, 2011)

Published by Numerator_Original on June 12, 2011 in live review, video and YouTube. 2 Comments Tags: , , , , .

A little late on this one, but still fresh in my mind. I was lucky enough to catch Girl Talk (Greg Gillis) when they passed through Orlando. A really fun show all around, made better by the group of friends I was with.

The opening act was Max Tundra an electronic/8-bit-ish musician I had never heard of prior to the show. Kind of hard to describe – imagine a guy flailing about the stage while singing (falsetto) Beyonce’s Single Ladies and closing with a song from The Sound of Music. A lot of the crowd was not feeling him, but I thought it was pretty fun opening act (better than a lot of opening acts I have seen lately) and showed another side of the sampling community. Highlight was his cover of KLF’s “What Time is Love?”.

Girl Talk was about what you would expect if you have listened to any of their music. Pretty much 1.5 hours (including encore) of dancing and all around partying filled with confetti and balloon drops. The crowd had a lot of energy and, as a whole, was there to just have a good time. Several people were brought onto the stage and danced in front of a massive screen synced to the music. Samples spanned pretty much his entire work with a lot of new mixes intermingled in and a lot of the weaker (less-danceable) mixes from his albums left out. Everything about the production was well done.

Honestly, my only complaint for the show was the venue. This was the first time I had been to HOB for anything other than food and the pit felt too small for this kind of show. A lot of people ended up stuck up against railings and stairs which looked pretty uncomfortable. Acoustics and lighting were good though.

I did not think about recording this (for the simple fact I was in the pit), but I have tossed in a clip of the show and a couple of his tracks to this post. It should be noted that this tour may be the last in this style for Girl Talk. In interviews, Gillis has stated he would like to move away from the continuous mash style and focus more on individual tracks. This seems consistent with his overall musical evolution which started with a very glitchy sound (see Unstopable) and now employs significantly longer samples (All Day).

Girl Talk – Oh No
Girl Talk – Bounce That

You can grab Girl Talk’s latest album for free here.

- Numerator_Original

Lykke Li In The Street: A YouTube Exploration

Published by almostaghost on March 8, 2011 in almostaghost and YouTube. 1 Comment Tags: , , , , , , , , , .

So I’ve been enjoying the new Lykke Li album, which led me of course to poke around YouTube one night watching some of her videos. Turns out, she has a number of videos, performing acoustic in the street! How cool! My one minor criticism of the new record is it feels slightly overproduced, and I really like hearing her songs stripped down like this. Obviously, these are all from her first album, instead of her new album since that just came out. But let’s look:

Here’s Lykke and her band singing “Little Bit” on the street in Stockholm. Pure busking! A guy in the window shouts to be quiet or he’ll call the police. A car drives by. The same guy is converted and throws them money at the end.

This one’s incredible. Lykke Li sings, dances, plays the trumpet, and rattles chains while Bon Iver (!) jam on the edge of a fountain. I am not sure why Lykke Li was hanging out with Bon Iver, but they should more. Also apparently Lykke Li plays the trumpet.

Another one outdoors here, it’s “Dance Dance Dance” again, but this time with El Perro Del Mar as her backup. (Kazoo this time, not a trumpet.)

This “I’m Good, I’m Gone” is not out in public, but it is acoustic and apparently outdoors, so close enough.

This one here might be my favorite, and it features Robyn on the chorus! But I can’t embed it, so you have to click over.

And since I don’t like to leave you without music, here’s Beck’s remix of her new single “Get Some”:

Lykke Li – “Get Some (Beck remix)”

- almostaghost

“Free Love Freeway” – A YouTube Exploration

Published by almostaghost on January 17, 2011 in almostaghost and YouTube. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , .

So after forcing myself to watch the Golden Globes, solely because Ricky Gervais was hosting, I started to remember his songs from The Office UK: “Free Love Freeway”!

It always cracks me up when Gareth and Tim start to join in, harmonizing. Here’s a version Ricky did on Inside The Actor’s Studio:

But I also came upon the most amazing thing! There’s TONS of covers of the song on Youtube! Just like how there’s millions of ukulele covers of “Paper Planes,” or of Neutral Milk Hotel! This makes me happy. It should become a campfire song, that everyone sings and knows how to play. Most of the videos are simple, homemade recordings, done in the person’s living room on a webcam.

Just look how much fun this family has doing it:

A ukulele/guitar version by Nobe & Ben:

by Sunny Williams:

A fast noisy live version by The Sun Lee Sunbeam:

And finally… Ricky Gervais recorded the song properly, with Noel Gallagher from Oasis singing back-up:

If you actually watched all those, I’m sure you’ll be hooked on the song too!

But to future coverers, I say, take some risks! There should be weird electronic versions, accordions, drums, anything. They don’t all need to be done on acoustic guitar!

- almostaghost