In case you’ve missed it, The Kings of the Internet known as Radiohead will be airing another webcast tomorrow (New Year’s Eve/New Year’s Day). Kicking off at 12am GMT on radiohead.tv (that’s just as the new year begins) the broadcast is to be a pre-taped performance of the entirety of In Rainbows. But in recent interviews Ed has talked about a Siouxsie & the Banshees cover…so maybe that will show up in the “encore”.
For us folk in Sydney the 12am GMT start time translates to 11am New Year’s Day. Not a bad way to kick off the new year if you’re in any shape to be conscious and at a computer. Don’t worry if you miss out as it seems this broadcast will be aired everywhere afterwards (including Al Gore’s Current TV channel in the US). See At Ease for the details.
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In other Radiohead news In Rainbows is actually out in shops now here in Sydney. Even though I bought the discbox I still picked up a copy. I have a disease.
There were also reports floating around recently that Radiohead demanded a whole stack of cash from EMI, which EMI refused; this was what allegedly led to Radiohead departing from EMI. Thom spoke out about this on Dead Air Space. He was not happy.
Amidst all the hullabaloo surrounding Arcade Fire’s sideshow announcement and subsequent sell-outs, there were many rumours circulating that Spoon would be opening the first Arcade Fire show in both Sydney and Melbourne. Sadly (if you have tickets to night #1 like me) that may not be the case.
In Sydney, Spoon are confirmed (at least it’s listed on their official site) to be opening the second Arcade Fire show in Sydney (Jan. 23). They will also be supporting the Arcade Fire show in Melbourne on January 30. As of now (at least as far as I can tell) there is no confirmed support for the first show in each city. Fingers crossed for LCD Soundsystem.
Of course you can still catch Spoon at the Annandale on January 24 and at Big Day Out January 25.
And slightly further into the future, Sonic Youth have added a second Sydney show at the Enmore on February 19. The band will be playing Daydream Nation in its entirety with support coming from The Scientists. Tickets on sale now.
Album #1: In Rainbows by Radiohead
I may be biased, but I’m certainly not alone in thinking that In Rainbows is a brilliant record. After all the hype of the release method died away we were all left with the warmest, most intimate Radiohead record yet. In particular the vocal performances on Nude and Videotape stand out as being almost unbelievably up-front. Jigsaw is the most “band-like” song they’ve done in ages while Reckoner is one of the finest songs the band have ever produced. And with Faust Arp Radiohead proved they could make a pastoral, acousticy folk record if they felt like it. Scary.
Jigsaw Falling Into Place
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Song #1: All My Friends by LCD Soundsystem
Predictable I guess. But this song really seemed to connect with a lot of people this year. For me I think it’s the lyrics. I mean obviously the music is great…hell it ends up sounding like the best New Order song since Love Vigilantes. But lyrically – and maybe it speaks most to men in their late 20s like me – this song captures the emotions concerned with getting old so well. I never thought I’d love a song because it speaks to the ever increasing gap between me now and me ten years ago…but this one does. God I’m old.
Album #2: Neon Bible by Arcade Fire
Arcade Fire had an impossible task: following up the one of the most critically acclaimed and beloved debut records of recent memory. As far as I’m concerned, they succeeded. Neon Bible may not have as many highs as Funeral but there is plenty here to get excited about. Keep The Car Running and The Well and The Lighthouse are as up as anything the band has ever recorded (at least tempo-wise) while Black Mirror and Black Wave/Bad Vibrations show the band can do it dark and atmospheric as well. Shame the last song kinda blows.
Song #2: Nude by Radiohead
A decade in the making, Nude was in danger of being lost forever. Instead the band managed to finally nail a version they were happy with. The opening 40 seconds are hella gorgeous and Thom’s vocal is easily one of his most moving performances ever. Perhaps the most beautiful song in the Radiohead canon. Perhaps.
1. All My Friends
2. I was supposed to review it for Polaroids months ago. When I got around to it yesterday I realized I would still give it the score now I would have then. I’ve not got sick of this record one little bit.
3. Someone Great
4. Realizing James Murphy is a hell of a lot smarter than I thought.
5. All My Friends
6. Having the balls to stick a track like New York, I Love You But You’re Bringing Me Down onto the end of a “dance/party” record.
7. I really hate the title track. But it only hurts the overall awesomeness of the record a tiny bit.
8. All My Friends
9. The way Get Innocuous! bubbles to life. What a great way to start a record.
10. Canada gets a shout out.
Imagine your entire record collection (assuming you have a decent one) put in a blender and you have Sound Of Silver. You have no excuse not to own this record.
All My Friends
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Song #3: Paper Planes by M.I.A.
There are so many reasons why this song should not work.
1. The Clash sample. I love The Clash. I don’t like their work getting molested.
2. The lyrics. Actually Maya, you don’t have visas in your name. At least not earlier this year.
3. The cheesy gunshot/cash register sound effects. One of the main reasons I don’t rate Dark Side Of The Moon all that highly. They are generally annoying.
4. Referencing MOR hip-hop from my youth.
Yet Paper Planes is so damn good that I forget about all this. In fact, the version without the sound effects is much worse!
Last night the most talked about tour of 2007 wrapped up here in Sydney as Daft Punk put their Alive 2007 tour (and the beloved pyramid) to bed. Is there anything left to say about Daft Punk’s current live show? All year I’ve been hearing that the Alive 2007 tour is pretty much the greatest live show ever in my life OMG. So last night I had extremely high expectations…and the French due actually met those expecatations which was quite a feat.
As much spectacle as live show, Daft Punk emerged to the sounds of Close Encounters of the Third Kind; seeing the two DJs standing in a pyramid, wearing leather jackets and robot masks…well there is no doubt in my mind who the two coolest men on the planet are. The crowd went absolutely apeshit (I believe that’s the technical term) when Robot Rock kicked off the show. From then on the crowd of 55,000 people moved, screamed, sang, and danced their asses off for the next 90 minutes under a starry Sydney sky. What a fabulous way to end 2007. It’s hard to pick highlights. The opening few songs were insane while things slowed a bit in the middle only to pick up big time with the closing Da Funk –> Human After All crescendo.
An encore that included One More Time one more time was great, especially mixed with Music Sounds Better With You. The best part of the encore were the duo’s red-lit jackets and helmets which came to life after a red beam of light made its way through the triangles and up the pyramid…it was ridiculously cool. In fact, the entire light show was perfect. It helps when you have such a choreographed show but that didn’t take away from how mind blowing the whole Daft Punk live experience was.
They began the nights as robots and ended as humans. Easily one of the best live shows I’ve ever seen.
I’m pretty sure the setlist mirrors Alive 2007…please correct me if I’m wrong. Things are a bit blurry.
Daft Punk
Sydney Showground
December 22, 2007
Robot Rock / Oh Yeah
Touch It / Technologic
Television Rules the Nation / Crescendolls
Too Long / Steam Machine
Around the World / Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger
Burnin’ / Too Long
Face to Face / Short Circuit
One More Time / Aerodynamic
Aerodynamic Beats / Forget About the World
The Prime Time of Your Life / The Brainwasher / Rollin’ & Scratchin’ / Alive
Da Funk / Daftendirekt
Superheroes / Human After All / Rock ‘n Roll
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Human After All / Together / One More Time (reprise) / Music Sounds Better with You
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Be sure to check out the review with a stack of photos at Polaroids.
This guy is putting up heaps of videos from the show last night.
Daft Punk encore in Sydney
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Oh yeah, Modular made this thing a festival didn’t they? And then scared us all with the 24,000 wristbands to ensure a good chunk of us would be there watch Muscles. To be honest, I didn’t catch much of Van She, Plug In City, or Muscles. I did catch Muscles’ last song from a distance…which meant it was lost in echo and reverb. Too bad as it was a great song. Cut Copy were pretty good but I can’t recall any specific highlights.
The Presets on the other hand had the crowd going mental. Are You The One? had the crowd going as crazy as pretty much any Daft Punk song. SebstiAn and Kavinsky DJ’d directly before Daft Punk and they were brilliant. I don’t generally get excited about DJs but they were so friggin good even I admired their skills. And dropping in a Rage song was both hilarious and stupidly wicked.
Five years ago today Joe Strummer passed away. We could all do well to reflect on the values Joe stood for: honesty, integrity, and equality. He was peerless.
Album #4: Boxer by The National
Another of the record on my list that seem to work best late at night. Boxer is certainly less immediate than Alligator, but its nuances are perhaps more affecting. A song like Start A War, for example, on first listen didn’t really grab me…but now that melody gets me every single time. And when you couple the music with the words…Matt Berninger’s lyrics are full of such striking imagery that you can’t help picture the worlds of each song in sharp focus. A gorgeous record.
Song #4: í gær by Sigur Ros
A long time bootleg favourite of Sigur Ros fans, í gær was a bit of a surprise inclusion on Hvarf-Heim. Prior to last year the song had not been played live since 2001 so I kind of thought it was dead and buried. Then the Heimatrailer was released and a new studio version of the song accompanied the stunning images…my jaw dropped. A song of immense power.
According the the Sydney Morning Herald 1000 more tickets for Bjork’s Opera House performance are bring released by the Sydney Festival organizers. Tickets will go on sale through Ticketek and the Sydney Opera House website on Friday, December 28 and will set you back $145.
In the original on sale we got our tickets through the Opera House not Ticketek. Just sayin’…
