30 de abril de 2012

To appreciate, listen and watch

As a fan of photography I use to wonder the corners of the Internet where good photos can be seen, DeviantArt (DA) being one of the listed. Since I started going around DA and looking to the categories I was most interested in - nature, portraits, architecture/urbanism - I end up having a list of photographers I enjoyed more. Many of them decided to create Facebook fanpages so it would be easier to follow their work, now that Facebook has a nice photography layout, and it was there that I found a nice video that I´ve watched countless times already:




You can follow the work of the girl on the video here DeviantArt page and Facebook page . Her facial expressions are fantastic and so is her photography. And she´s kinda pretty...but you knew I would end up on that part of the DA portraits.

But even cooler on that video...



The song used is fantastic! The Joy Formidable - Whirring.


So, I´ve covered the appreciate (photography) part of this post and the listen part.
To the watch part we go.

Do you ever think on going discover the beautiful country that Iceland is...alone? That thought crossed my mind already...but this girl had that thought...and did it:



Fifteen minutes of your life more then well spent!

Have a good week.

25 de abril de 2012

It´s Music To Your Ears

Here it is the fantastic band I [kinda] mentioned on the last post and that I found on an episode of The Late Late Show.



Enjoy, because you will press replay and sing along on the third play of the song. Guarantee!

11 de abril de 2012

It´s Music To Your Ears

The first mind scratch of this post was a special edition with a compilation of videos (around 8 or 9...yup, I even made a list so I would not forget any of them) of new music I found for the last few weeks. Then I thought it would be a lot of videos in one post and some of them could not get the proper attention they should get, so I thought in embed 2 or 3 of them at a time.
But like the many of videos and new music I´ve found weren´t already enough, while watching an episode of the [awesome] Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson I found myself watching a superb performance of the band that played on the studio that night. They made me go back with the one video per post routine because it would be more appropriate since that band deserved full attention. And it will also mean that I have new music to post in this little corner of the blog.

Although, that band will not be the one posted this week (whaa? why?!). Meanwhile some Icelandic guys appeared.
While going around blogs and randomly pressing the next blog button so I could enlarge my list of cool blogs to read and while I was already about to give up, annoyed by those blogs who have the music starting and you don´t seem to find a button to turn it off (if they exist...), I came across a silent one...as all blogs should be. And the girl of that blog had a similar section to this It´s Music To Your Ears on her blog and I decided to click play on the video...which actually was just the YT playing bar without any image.

And look what I have found



Of Monsters and Men!

Absolutely fantastic.

Album coming soon...to my house!

21 de março de 2012

Review - Feist - Coliseu do Porto

If you take some time to read the reviews of Feist latest album - Metals - you will notice that in basically all of them she is known as the girl of the song "1234". Not in a redundant way but since it was part of a big campaign of a tech company which symbol is a piece of fruit, it was the song that made more people listen to her music. But when that same girl with such a trademark song doesn´t need to include it on her setlists and still make a perfect setlist you know you are in for a memorable night.

After a not-so-captivating opening by Fionn Reagan (which despite that has great songs and a beautiful voice) Feist got on stage a little after 10pm. Starts with a song of the album she is presenting on this tour, and if you excuse my easy input, Metals is a very solid album. Proof of that is how on the very first song Leslie Feist made us all scream "A COMMOTION" and the crowd knew we were in for a special show.
The following moment comes with an intriguing intro that revealed a brand new version of a single of the album "The Reminder". "My Moon My Man" sounding like you never heard it in any former performance. So, at the second song one of my favourite details of the show was revealed: brand new clothes for old songs. All of them sounding different of what you were used on the album and on many live videos on Youtube. To add to "My Moon..." the other oldies that were played included the hauntingly beautiful "So Sorry", "Mushaboom" (with special dance taught by Feist!) "Feel It All", and the classic "Limit To Your Love". Yes, that one that James Blake has a nice rendition of...borrowed from Feist. Other oldies were played on the...3 encores, but we will get there later.

Meanwhile Feist was presenting the wonderful songs of the new album. There were plenty of them from the singles "How Come You Never Go There" (that even with no brass live section sounds great) to the second single "The Bad In Each Other". But an album is not only made of singles and the crowd knows it because they seemed to know all the gems played. Including "Caught A Long Wind" that also with no string (violins) section on this tour, sounds flawless.
After we conclude that in the packed room there was people from every corner of the world (Feist talented drummer comes from New Zealand) "The Circle Married The Line" was played. A song about the ocean from someone who lives in a landlock as Feist told us.
On stage, helping Leslie on this tour, there´s a trio of girls called "Mountain Man", that had her own moment before the first encore showing why they were chosen for the back vocals...perfect harmony between the three [beautiful] ladies. To add to the already mentioned drummer there is also a man-who-plays-everything and a pianist that when you think he is very good on the piano and keys he comes to surprise you, not on the piano, but on drums with a killer(!) version of When I Was a Young Girl . She rocked so much that a little wood table she had near her didn´t resist and broke letting Feist throw the missing pieces as a rocker would do.

I said I would come back to the old songs because the encores were composed by them. And that way Feist nailed probably the better accomplished set of encores I´ve seen. "Secret Heart" - a fan favourite - showed once again Leslie skills on her beloved guitars to the delight of the fans. Despite the non-inclusion of "Inside & Out" on the official setlist the song made an appearance...with the public singing it on their own with a little help from Feist along the way.
To finish the night, "Intuition" and the astonishingly beautiful "Let It Die". Never such a sad song ended a concert so well.

One to remember.


Setlist:


Note: "The Water" was not played. Replaced by "Secret Heart"...which I was dying to listen live.