My late entries for Best Songs Of 2006, from Joanna Newsom’s “Ys.”
I signed up for Twitter a few weeks ago, but really didn’t get into it. I don’t like having extra tabs/browsers open at all times just to look at what tiny, tiny things others are doing. Thankfully, the Twitter IMbot started working today, and I am HOOKED. Every once in a while, I just send an IM to the bot and let it know what I’m up to, and it responds with a few posts from my friend(s). Wheeeee.
(Also, I don’t get the point of Twitter at all. But I will continue to use it)
Friday Night, Mele and I went to see Girl Talk at the Ottobar, and it was probably the most awesome thing in the history of awesome.
Reason 1: Opening act Cex had as much fun as a man can have with a laptop; climbing onstage in a wheelchair, claiming to be a Make A Wish recipient, faux-howling along to his own ‘lectronic samples, and eventually mostly-undressing and freaking out onstage while waving a phallic trophy in the air.
Reason 2: Girl Talk’s energy was unbelievable. A full house pumped fists while singing along to “C.R.E.A.M.” cross-faded with “Carry On My Wayward Son.” People flooded the stage, huddling around the boy and his little PC and laptop, dancing like idiots and stage-diving. It was basically an extended DC set; with Girl Talk playing no real “song” structures but using a vast collection of Night Ripper and newer samples to mix and match up on-the-fly. Much, much better than I expected. Oh yeah, but it also got really hot and everyone was superdrunked.
Reason 3: A man named Dan Deacon, wearing big yellow glasses and a too-tight Fred Flinstone shirt, was sandwiched between Cex and Girl Talk, and blew’em both away. Setting up his rig in the middle of the crowd, he played a 45-minute set of spazz-o-riffic insanity with a few simple electronics, a microphone, and one green, glowing skull. His weird Disney-ride melodies and manipulated vocals sound totally new, totally bizarre, and they really work once you get over the sheer hyperspeed of it all. Crowd-participation was key, too: Dan handed out lyric sheets for one of the closing numbers, and then led us in a ridiculous count-down before rocking the place with the Saturday-morning freakout ‘Big Big Big Big Big’. “We are all Opie,” he reassured us, “Opulent opals. There’s no way other way to say it!”
Mele and I are instant fans. Download a few:
Dan Deacon - Crystal Cat
Dan Deacon - Big Big Big Big Big
Dan Deacon - Splish Splash
Oh yeah: And he has a new album out on May 8th.
(A few other great videos: “Silence Like The Wind” at SXSW, Dan on NBC Morning in Savannah Georgia)
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