Happy Birthday, Thom Yorke!

To my families chagrin, October 7th will always be celebrated in my house because it is Thom Yorke's birthday. While he hasn't yet stopped by for cake and a hug, all of us wish him a very radical day and all the best in general!

Here's an acoustic performance of "Fake Plastic Trees" from "120 Minutes" from 1995.

Purity Ring, HANA Show Review

Purity Ring, HANA 

McDonald Theatre

Eugene Oregon 
October 4th, 2015

HANA came onto the stage to a crowd unfamiliar. Mostly, the crowd consisted of the people under 21 while those over 21 were watching from the McDonald lounge or were still at another watering hole downtown. Her set design was simple consisting of nothing more than some sound activated L.E.D. lights behind parasols and what looked like beaded curtains strung about in the background. The electronic beats came as a refreshing breath to the room and by her first vocal line the crowd was in.  

     HANA walked from one point on stage to the other carrying a persona, like an anime character I wish I had known of before. While demeanor was confident, her vocal didn't always cut through the mix as much as I would have liked, watching a trained vocalist that held the attention of the room reminded me that this EDM movement gives a new place for female artists to shine. Her talent for creating beats that trickle in like a rainforest afternoon shower and her primal vocals, at points hypnotic, will give DJs that simply stand behind their booth a new challenge. And oh, did I mention she totally killed it with a cover of "Here Comes The Rain Again" by Eurythmics!

     The crowd began to shift as more people showed up in the set break. Girls in Japanese-styled school girl outfits, guys wearing animal masks, light up fingers, and girls wearing what I euphemistically describe as "Cochella wear" filed in when it hit me. The Canadian duo of Purity Ring have struck a chord with the American audience by mashing up the surreal and the cool.   

     Megan James, an artist in her own right, had created a futuristic sci-fi vibe with the hair and outfit of a Japanese pop star.  As soon as the music began I felt a music box on steroids with vocals from reverb air had opened in the room.The spherical sounds panned from the stage to my ears and back. It was like being in a snow globe with the arctic lights triggered by Corin Roddick while Megan's vocal lines dripped down to us like icicles. Their dynamics were a favorite for me, moving like a tide luring you in.  

      A strong crowd-pleasing point of the show was when Megan walked up spiral stairs behind Corin to have her silhouette in front of a full moon. Her voice was a wolf's call to dance. And dance we did. The light show alone was worth the ticket price, Purity Ring's art is priceless.

  If anything, the show was a bit short, but don't they always say leave the crowd wanting more? 

Purity Ring has a few more shows in the US and Canada before heading over to Europe:

October 15 San Francisco, California 

October 22 Toronto, Canada

October 24 Halifax, Canada

October 27 Sheffield, UK

October 28 Cambridge, UK

October 29 London, UK

October 30 Utrecht, Netherlands

November 1 Antwerp, Belgium

November 2 Luxembourg, Luxembourg

November 3 Paris, France

November 4 Koln, Germany

November 5 Prage, Czech Republic

November 6 Warsaw, Poland

November 8, Stockholm, Sweden

November 9 Oslo, Norway

Congrats, Karen O!!!!

instagram.com/ko

One of our very favorite people, KO from the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, her solo music work and general kickass behavior, announced via instagram that she gave birth to a baby boy in late September. Not many kids have the right to say their mom did the songs for "Where the Wild Things Are," but this guy already has one of the coolest moms ever. As her first official "Mom move," she introduced the little squirt to the world by playing a Roberta Flack song. She said:

Shortly after we brought him home I held him in my arms and listened to Roberta Flack singing this tune I felt my heart exploding in my chest with a love I couldn't begin to put into words so Roberta's will have to do for now. "The first time ever I saw your face
I thought the sun rose in your eyes
And the moon and the stars were the gifts you gave
To the dark and the endless skies, my love
To the dark and the endless skies"

Bound to be light years ahead of his same-aged peers in fashion and prose, we send Karen, her husband Barnaby Clay and their little fellow all the best! (Also that lots of good songs come to her quickly because we need more of her music, stat.)