Les Angles Morts

I could make yet another post about some big well known band, that's been done before. Well, this one's about those guys in Arcade Fire. No wait, sorry; who were in Arcade Fire as, *according to Chris Taylor from AIDs Wolf,

"What a lot of people don't know is that individually each one of them has had some sort of time spent with Arcade Fire, playing in their band. They were part of the lineup at one point or another. So they're all musicians who have played really well and cut their teeth on the Montreal scene in the last four or five years. And they've played all over the place."
Myles Broscoe and Brendan Reed featured on Arcade Fire's s/t debut EP, before leaving to create **Les Angles Morts, a chaotic art-rock band. However, much like Frog Eyes, Les Angles Morts are never likely to get the attention they deserve, despite a heavy cult following and many fans from Montreal. That said, they do have an album out, titled "What's Real?" which was released under Blue Skies Turn Black. The tracks are chaoticly addictive, and the album is a quite eclectic collection which maintains a certain psychedelia throughout - a listening experience comparable to walking through a computer at times.

MP3's from "What's Real?"
Huge Antlers
Whats Real summer
Portals

The music is apparently all scores for films they make, and they are apparently as obsessed with video at their gigs as they are with music. Their website shows how truly arty/insane they are, and once you're in there you won't be able to get out until you feel you ***understand it. The website includes material from other bands like Noh Cars Go which is another of Brendan Reeds project. A lot of the music doesn't even make sense and seems unfinished but tracks like Reform Forrest and Sel Keys make it worthwhile to give it a look.

*This interview is actually where I first heard about Les Angles Morts, while searching for information on AIDs Wolf, this quote originates here also.
**Translation : The Dead Angles
***You will never understand it.

Of Montreal

Of Montreal may not actually be from Montreal [like a LOT of the other bands I like] but we won't hold that against them. Hailing from Athens, Georgia, they remind me a lot of Clap Your Hands Say yeah, wih similar style of vocals and with a laid back, floaty feel to their music. On the CYHSY note, I both missed them in Belfast earlier this year along with the Oxegen concert which I will be missing in the future, where is the *Justice? Of Montreal are another one of those bands in the Electric 6 Collective along with bands like Neutral Milk Hotel who were featured in an earlier post, there's plenty of other live mp3's and such in the Of Montreal mp3 section of the site.

Lysergic Bliss is one MP3 I highly recommend as I'm amazed every time 2:30 into the song with the accappella-esque vocal parts come in. Its unbelievable, and if you say it isn't, your wrong. Disconnect the Dots shows a more electonic side to the band, which differed to the more lo-fi stylings of earlier recordings. The Velvet Underground cover features on the tribute album "Rabid Chords". Other recommended songs are Rapture Rapes the Muses and My British Tour Diary off Satanic Panic in the Attic.

MP3's
Lysergic Bliss
Disconnect the Dots
She's my best friend [Velvet Underground Cover]

*Justice are an dance outfit from Paris in France, I LOVE them. And yes I missed them when they played here too, I miss **EVERYTHING!
**Yes EVERYTHING!

Something else to check out if you have time is the Les Angles Morts site. It's confusing as anything but if you look hard enough you can find some real good music, like this little song, clean up pulpit, a bit like Neutral Milk Hotel.

Si a todo

Danny meets Marc. Everyone loves Marc and thinks he's a brilliant guy. The happiest guy they've ever met. Marc's motto is "Si a todo" - "Yes to Everything". Danny only met Marc, because he had already been following this motto for a while. Before Danny started out on his little mission, he had been staying in most nights, finding excuses, and just wasting time. He was missing out on friendships, connections, promotions, opportunities and life, all because he was saying "No" too much. When a stranger on a bus told Danny that he should, "say yes more" he realised that this was the solution to all his problems. Say yes more, he thought. Genius.

Change-over, and counterpoint.

Elliott Smith is dead. Sometimes I forget this. Everyone knows it, but somehow I still forget it. I think it's 'cause his voice is so heartfelt, his lyrics so immediate. Everything about his life and his music cuts through the skin, the flesh and blood, and gets straight to the heart. I used to know a good deal about his life [gleaned from interviews and biographies] but I've forgotten most of it now, though I do know that he didn't like to talk about it much, and he often pushed friends away without realising it, due to his rumoured drug addictions. Many believe that he stabbed himself in the heart to prove a point - that it wasn't the drugs that were killing him, but life itself. The knife through the chest silently screaming, "this is it, I've had enough, I can't take it anymore - life has broken my heart".



Notes on the song I'm going to post: Elliott Smith said in an interview with Nic Harcourt - on a Morning Becomes Eclectic live session - that he picked this song to close his best [in my opinion] album, Either/Or, "'cause it was kinda happy". Nic suggests that it has a positive name, and Elliott laughs and says "oh yea, say yes".

Change-over, and counterpoint.

In case you didn't realise, the start of this post is the basic story behind the book, Yes Man by Danny Wallace and it's really funny. Comedic is that way that enlightened humour is; wit with a backbone of truth. It's also uplifting. To explain further: Danny decides that for about six months he will say "Yes" to every favour, request, opportunity, advert or question that comes his way. It's all about losing control [much like The Dice Man] and opening yourself up to risks and opportunities. And by the end of it he has become a much more positive person, who feels enlightened by his travels [Singapore, Barcelona, Melbourne, to name a few] and also ends up with a class wife [if i read between the lines correctly - may be just a girlfriend] by the end of it, who he probably wouldn't have had if he hadn't've said Yes.

Therefore this post, is in celebration of that book, and the idea of just throwing yourself at life and everything it offers - nevermind the risks. Danny's girl was "still around the morning after". This post is also a tribute to Elliott Smith, and the fact that the music he made during his life was beautiful, and has meant alot to many, including me. Three years is a long time. It feels like a lot less.

Elliott Smith

Say Yes (live)

There you have it, one of my favourite Elliott Smith songs. I hope you like it. You also have my post on enlightenment: self-help 101, #1: Believe in yourself. You are a unique and beautiful snowflake. Or should that be star?

Bonus:

The Frames - Star Star*

I love that song. [Star, your every word I'm heeding. Can you help me to see? 'cause I'm lost in the dark... yea]



Follow the lead of the innocent and the childish and jump at life, just like the dolphins jump at opportunities, and jump for joy.

*Additional notes for the curious: The Dice Man is a novel by Luke Rhinehart. It was a bit of a cult-hit in its day. The general plot was that this guy would assign an option to every number on the die and then roll the die. Whatever number was rolled this was what he had to do. It gets a bit crazy from what I remember... a particular scene that stands out is when he has sex with his best friend's wife just because the die told him to. However, as far as I know, The Dice Man was purely fictional, whereas Yes Man isn't. And Yes Man is amazing.

Sufjan Stevens and stuff

In "To Be Alone With You" by Sufjan Stevens, you can hear the squeaks as his fingers slight across the acoustic guitar. Raw, lovely, beautiful [? ? ?] Yes. Yes. Yes. And authentic. Following a complaint [thanks Kyle] that it's impossible to get into an artist after only hearing one song [fairly true, except for when I heard one song by Anathallo and fell in love], I decided to post some more. These are all I could find hosted by the two record labels that he has belonged to [he may have belonged to more, but am I prepared to find out? not right now, no]...



Sufjan Stevens

Year of the Dog
All Good Naysayers, Speak Up! Or Forever Hold Your Peace
Holland
Jason
Sister
*Note: right-click and save target as, if having difficulty.

Sufjan is good music to be listening to at the minute, since it's nice and sunny and it's been a pleasant day and I can't take anything all that seriously otherwise I'd go insane. Pretty much. So instead, let's all smile, and enjoy Sufjan's pretty voice. I like that idea. Do you? If so, I recommend going onto either elbows or the hype machine and searching for Sufjan Stevens. There are bound to be about a million posts [with a million songs], since last year every blogger fell in love with his album Illinois [and it topped many a best-album-of-2005 chart]. And now there's many a blogger gearing up to give his "new" album of outtakes from Illinois [called The Avalanche] the coveted title of album of the year. As it stands, these songs I've posted are not representations of why I love his music. But get searching...

Here's the tracklist for that new album:

1. The Avalanche
2. Dear Mr Supercomputer
3. Adlai Stevenson
4. The Vivian Girls Are Visited In the Night by Saint Dargarius and his Squadron of Benevolent Butterflies
5. Chicago (acoustic version)
6. The Henney Buggy Band
7. Saul Bellow
8. Carlyle Lake
9. Springfield, or Bobby Got a Shadfly Caught in his Hair
10. The Mistress Witch from McClure (or, The Mind That Knows Itself)
11. Kaskaskia River
12. Chicago (adult contemporary easy listening version)
13. Inaugural Pop Music for Jane Margaret Byrne
14. No Man's Land
15. The Palm Sunday Tornado Hits Crystal Lake
16. The Pick-up
17. The Perpetual Self, or "What Would Saul Alinsky Do?"
18. For Clyde Tombaugh
19. Chicago (Multiple Personality Disorder version)
20. Pittsfield
21. The Undivided Self (for Eppie and Popo)

The moon is a tiny crescent

...when I look at it from my bed, in my room, out of the window.

Friday's have always been the best night for me. Everything happens on a Friday. Saturday's are slow days. But, last Saturday? Amazing. Dan's birthday was amazing... drunkness was amazing.. and it was preceded by The Frames... Glen [Hansard - lead singer of The Frames] is mental. Officially.

The Frames

I like this song quite a lot: People Get Ready

Glen Hansard and Mic Christopher

And I would like to add that the first line [including the title] of this post is true. Thus, making this song relevant: The Whole of the Moon
[I saw the crescent, but you saw the whole of the moon]

I'll do a proper post at somestage, but this one is to keep you happy in the meantime, and stuff. After all: We have all the time in the world... to get it right.