The Horrors | dailybeatz

Posts tagged with the horrors

10/04/2011

All Tomorrow’s Parties I’ll Be Your Mirror curated by Portishead, Asbury Park, NJ 9.30 – 10.2.11 in Pictures

As my musical taste has expanded, I’ve been trying to hit up some of the slightly more off the beaten path festivals that are out there, having been to many of the mega festivals already. So this year, a few of us decided we were going to head to the Jersey shore, more specifically Asbury Park, to check out one of the much lauded festivals thrown by All Tomorrow’s Parties. This would be the inaugural US version of the I’ll Be Your Mirror festival and this time it was curated by none other than Portishead and it had a vibe unlike any festival I’ve been to before. If you aren’t familiar, the festival organizers essentially give the headliners, in this case Portishead, a budget and the band actually selects several of the acts that play for the weekend.

The Paramount Theater, Convention Hall, Asbury Lanes and The Berkeley Hotel served as the venues, all conveniently within walking distance of each other, and hosted an extremely diverse set of bands over the three days. In this case, there really was something for everyone (check out the full lineup here). In addition to Portishead’s two headlining spots on Saturday and Sunday, Jeff Mangum also played two highly anticipated solo sets in the Paramount Theater. I went into the festival only knowing about 25% of the acts and didn’t see one set I didn’t love all weekend.

One of the more interesting facets of the fest is that there aren’t really any VIPs — that is, the artists mix and mingle with the crowd just like the rest of us. It creates an atmosphere where everyone is comfortable talking to one another and I met more great people than I have at any other festival, including many of my favorite artists. Even though Asbury Park is not the greatest area in the world outside of the shore, the boardwalk is great and the venues felt just perfect for a festival like this one. For many of us, the nights ended with dance parties as Asbury Lanes, one of the coolest bowling alleys around thats got a great vibe and is bursting at the seams with art from local artists, with a stage occupying the central lanes while festival goers bowled on either side. But like I like to do, instead of talking about it, just check out a ton of pictures from the weekend after the jump.

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12/07/2009

im not a band – this is it

im not a band

another week begins and i think ive got some good tunes in store for this week, some new and some old. building upon the momentum created by fridays party time remix, i figured it would be best to post another rockin tune thats pretty much all electronic except for a…violin? yes, todays track is by berlin group im not a band, created by stephan j. he played a few instruments including violin and according to their myspace, began “playing laptop” a few years back. its really a pretty cool combination of classical sounds over kickin electronics.

the track “this is it” is sort of unassuming and even sounds happy, but as the track progresses, the intensity builds into minor mayhem. throw in some classic violin and you are thrown into some serious sonic bliss. i also like the change form the beginning to the end of the track. this song reminds me of pieces of so many other songs too, many of which ive posted in the past. the beginning is reminscent of beiruts “my night with a prostitute from marseille” or faunts “feel.love.thinking.of”, then theres a transition from major to minor that reminds me of the horrors “sea within a sea”. and finally, the second half of the song makes me think of what would happen if you were to take the knifes “silent shout’ and make it way more electronic than it already is. but of course this song still sounds like something thats all its own. ba-da-bah bah bah im lovin it.

im not a band – this is it

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09/10/2009

the horrors – sea within a sea

the horrors

this weekend on xmu, they did a special called “outsourced labor day weekend” or something like that. the basic concept was, they would play all imports for the entire weekend. it was pretty cool because i heard a ton of stuff ive never heard before, and they definitely went much deeper into the catalogues of the bands that they did normally play. it was a great change up from the normal programming to hear tons of great new music.

one of the songs that especially caught my attention was by british garage rock band the horrors, nominees for the 2009 mercury prize. although the interesting part is this song is not garage rock at all, not even in the slightest bit. not even if you tried really hard to convince yourself that there was some element of garage rock somewhere hidden deep beneath the layers. a few things i need to point out about this song before you begin: 1. the song is something like 8 minutes long. 2. the intro is really really long. 3. if you dont like the first 3-4 minutes of the song, keep listening, pretty please. the second half of this song is super awesome and i think i had only heard it once before, but when i heard it again this weekend i recognized it instantly and was glad to finally have the name of this song. i like how the overall sound of the song is really dark, but as you move through it, it becomes brighter and brighter, most notably when the synth riff comes in at about 3:40 and continues to build until its first change around 4:30. then its full steam ahead for the rest of the song. hopefully, you will have made it to that point before you give up on it.

the horrors – sea within a sea

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