DeVotchka Rockska!

Holy hot poop did DeVotchka deliver a killer concert last night! I've never seen this band perform live before, and wow are they entertaining. Apparently this band is from Denver, although from the way they sound, you'd think they came from the other side of the world. The drummer also plays the trumpet, the bassist also plays a Christmas-light covered tuba, the keyboardist is also a virtuoso on the violin and the accordion, and the singer plays with theremin with his guitar (I know it sounds crazy, but it works). Their sound is so rich, and layered it's almost orchestral -- I couldn't believe there's only four of them. I was expecting a much grander production a la Arcade Fire. 

Note: Christmas-light covered tuba

DeVotchka, I salute you. Thanks for the concert. Here's a lovely example:

In Celebration

In celebration of this weekend's sponsor education camp, I shaved my face! NO MORE MUSTACHE!

In celebration of shaving off my mustache, I sang a duet:



Naturally, this is somewhat of a tribute. Check out how the pros do it:


Aaaaand the original:



So in an earlier post, I wrote about how pleased I was with the free software available on the internet. There's a really solid replacement for Photoshop, Office, and as I recently found by stumbling across Inkscape, Illustrator. What there is NOT however, is a satisfactory free video editing program. I tried just about everything out there, and not one of them was easy to use, or capable. If anyone has an extra copy of Final Cut for Windows they're not using, I'd promise to take good care of it.

Awesome

Thanks to my buddy Stevie Zoom (who happens to be an InCycle regular) over at KEXP for introducing me to this one.

OK Go Makes Dog Based Art

I love OK Go's Music videos. They are some of the most creative, and difficult to produce music videos ever! Anyone who has ever tried to teach a dog a trick should appreciate the colossal difficulty of trying to shoot this video in one take.

Gobbledygook!

Is it me, or are well-made ads for products some of the most entertaining things on the internet? I friggin' love me a well-made ad (remember the Old Spice guy?), so much so that I'm willing to share a well-made ad with you. Just think about what this means if you're a company that wants to get its name out there. Let's say you're a company. You've got a budget of 2 million dollars. You could spend $1 million making a pretty-sweet ad, and then the other $1 million buying time on TV (and then hope that people don't TiVo right past it), or you could just spend all $2 million on making an ad that's twice as awesome. Then post it on YouTube, and wait for schmucks like me to smear it all around the internet for free. Check out this ad:


This man is awesome! Who doesn't love a stinkin' rich Russian speaking in broken english? See that tiny giraffe? I WANT ONE!!

Or this ad:





I MEAN COME ON! WHO DOESN'T WANT TO GO OUT AND BUY A KIA?



Ok. Enough kow-towing to the gods of capitalism.


Another beautiful thing that the internet brings us is Tiny Desk Concerts from NPR. I love music, and like many, I place great value on bearing witness to the acto fo music creating (usually in the form of going to a concert). There's something so magical about being in the room with musicians when they're engaged in the act of making music. It's the same as viewing any live performance, be it dance, or theater, or a sporting event -- there's a magic that cones from actually being there that a video just can't transmit. However, these tiny desk concerts are the next best thing. My recommendation would be to download the whole concert via their podcast (so you don't have to deal with lousy video quality). I've been swept away by the intimacy, honesty, and candidness transmitted across the internet to my computer screen. Here are some of my favorites:

Gogol Bordello plays a raucous, drunken, and incredibly fun set of gypsy songs. By the end, I'm ready to start dancing on my desk too!

Tom Jones blows my mind with his voice as much as his song choices. Could this possibly be the same guy who brought us "sex bomb?" Enjoy:





And lastly, I'm planning on going to Interbike, the cycling industry's trade show, held in Las Vegas, Nevada. I've never gone to this strange gathering of the nation's bike dorks, but I feel I'm ready. I'm finally dorky enough to attend. I'm not sure what I'll do (probably run around with a chicken with my head cut off trying to get autographs from the pros!), but I'm pretty sure I'll have fun.


Ok. Enough.

Ratatat

For a limited time, you can stream the entire new album from Ratatat. It's called LP4, and it's pretty awesome. The album will be released on June 8th.

If you don't know about NPR's "Exclusive First Listen" series, you should. They release awesome new music before it's available for sale, once again proving that NPR's music site is the best thing to happen to music since Thomas Edison invented the phonograph.