The Opening Acts

Last month, I came across this article at the BBC’s website. It’s about the life cycle of fashion trends, with a specific focus on the shoulder pad, which is apparently starting to show signs of coming back into style. To which I say: oh no – nononononono. I know that we can’t help but bring every old fad back in style, but can’t we skip this one? Let’s close the book on all this goddamn obnoxious 80’s nostalgia and gird ourselves for the grunge revival. Please?

What caused me to spend a paragraph blabbing about shoulder pads?  Observe:

Here is Victoria Legrand from Beach House (and the other guy, plus a drummer) annoying me with her fashion sense on this otherwise-fine performance at the Nouveau Casino in Paris.  This video comes courtesy of the ever-so-lovely folks at Grandcrew.com, who consistently send me fine videos like this one every week.  Enjoy.

One question: why do you still need the cheesy keyboard drums when there’s a drummer sitting right next to you?

Another question: why am I reading articles about shoulder pads?

The answer to both these questions will remain a mystery.

Here is a great, full concert by Alela Diane, who has apparently cut her hair since the last time I posted a video of hers. It comes – once again – courtesy of the fine folks at Grandcrew.com. Two things I learned from this video: (1) the other guitar player is her dad, which is pretty cool, and (2) the bass player seems to think that he’s playing for a jam band, which is considerably less cool. Enjoy:

This is my third Grandcrew-related posting in the past month. They should be paying me for this.

Another Wednesday, another nice video in my inbox courtesy of the fine folks at Grandcrew.com. This one features Andrew Bird, who does not shave for web-based video performances. As with last week’s Camera Obscura video, this performance is recorded at the Route du Rock festival in Saint-Malo, France. It features two songs – don’t know the name of the first one, but the second one is “Anonimanialonimalonaoanimalnonnnonshaboopshaboop”. This guy and his song titles, eh?

Le clip:

Also like last week, here’s a song from a 2005 radio session (Minneapolis, I believe):

Andrew Bird – Sovay (Live @ 89.3 The Current)

Here’s an acoustic session from Camera Obscura recorded at the Route du Rock festival in Saint-Malo, France. It found its way into my inbox courtesy of Grandcrew.com, who have several other fine videos on their site. It’s rare for me to immediately post something that gets sent to me via email, but this one was too good to pass up.

And – for no other reason other than me wanting to hear more Camera Obscura without their usual cavernous reverb – here’s their acoustic take on ABBA’s “Super Trouper”, from a 2006 radio session:

Camera Obscura – Super Trouper (ABBA Cover)

Enjoy the rest of your afternoon.