Penny Sparkle

A few weeks ago, I opened my email to find this:



If the text is too small, it was basically tickets to see Blonde Redhead kick off Fashion Week at the Tribeca Grand Hotel. And for those who don't know, Blonde Redhead is my most favorite band. How good Gilt City is at curating special packages like this should be a separate post entirely, but to give an idea, $80 would get you:

• A ticket to the (very small) show
• An advance copy of their new album, Penny Sparkle (scheduled for release a week later (today))
• An hour of open bar prior to the show (sponsored by Brooklyn Brewery and Tequila Avion)
• A reserved area at the after party
• Two immediate digital downloads of tracks from their new album

This is pretty much insane. Plus, the entire thing was to happen on the eve of my birthday, so I hesitated very little on getting two tickets.

All in all, I loved it. They have this kind of synced magic between the three of them that just kind of works. At one point all they could hear was fuzziness on their ends, and they weren't wearing ear pieces, yet they were still all exactly on beat with each other throughout.

Forgetfulness left my camera at home, but I did get two kinda neat shots with my phone that actually fit the sound of Penny Sparkle really well:





It wasn't until the next day that I got to take a good look at the CD. It's the nicest packaging I may have ever seen from something that doesn't get a lot of attention at all anymore; I can't wait to see what the vinyl looks like.







As far as the album itself, I got to sneak a listen a few days before the show, and it's beautiful. It's very different from the previous two or three releases, and at first I wasn't really sure at all what to think. But you know how sometimes you give a new album a couple dozen spins, you warm to it over time, and in the end you grow to adore it? The process was expedited with Penny Sparkle in a strange way that's never really happened before with any other album. The very next time I heard it, I was really into it. By the third time, elated. By the fourth, inseparable. I actually noticed the spikes with each listen. If 23 was like drowning in a goldish shimmery haze, Penny Sparkle is like drowning in a silvery brushed vapor (which I realize doesn't sound VERY DIFFERENT AT ALL, but trust me). I am not sure how else to describe it except please give it a listen. Here's a link to one of my favorite tracks off the album on The FADER, Not Getting There.

Caribou vs. Blonde Redhead?

I finally got around to seeing Helvetica last night; I had been wanting to see it for something like two or three years.


I wasn't disappointed: it was great. My favorite part was how excited all the type designers they interviewed were, and how animated they got while explaining things like how the distance between letters is what really makes a typeface. amazing amazing. I could talk about this for a long time, but have been a little distracted by something else I noticed in the documentary. I just threw this together:


...wow?

blonde benoit mew

Blonde Benoit Mew is the name of the playlist with the heaviest rotation on my iTunes. It has been this way for at least two months. It consists of three albums. Guess the artists.

Since I haven't updated in a while and I can't seem to come up with anything that seems even remotely smart, I'm going to use this entry to recommend the following three albums:

1 Blonde Redhead | 23. I have been in love with it since Valentine's Day. It was just released last week, so now is the time. The design and construction of the album is beautiful too, so I am going to recommend a CD (or vinyl, my God) over digital here. Really, the design is genius. This is music to drown to.

2 Benoît Pioulard | Précis. I experienced a state schema to the opening track of this album. This guy has a magical voice, he layers beautiful sounds on top of each other, and well, it's transcendent. Shoegaze at its best (mixed with some other things too). The album art looks exactly how the record sounds (the image in this entry). So it sounds like raindrops on a window (or twinkly lights in a forest), basically. Or the feeling that such a scene evokes.

3 Mew | And the Glass Handed Kites. Every single time I have heard an album or a set of songs, I prefer it to anything else by that band that I hear afterwards. Such was not the case for this Mew album. I first heard Frengers, and thought it was the best thing to ever be put together. Nope. This is it. The harmonies, voices and drum beats are impeccable. I also experienced a state schema while listening to this album and riding my new bike.

If you buy one three albums in the next three months, buy these. You won't be disappointed. promise.

two three

My favorite band in the entire universe - Blonde Redhead - released a very very long-awaited album today, called 23. Here is the video for the title track, which is one of the best tracks on the record. The visuals are exactly as the song sounds. Ah, synaesthesia. I've been in love with this song for two months.



Thanit, how is the Thai government doing with the YouTube ban? I'd love for you to see this too.