Author: You Hear That?!?

Balkan Beat Box

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Give

Late this past Saturday night, I received a pair emails, which Gmail dutifully grouped into a conversation, notifying me that my friend Tex, with whom I’d been real-life conversing just hours earlier, had gifted me some music via iTunes. 2 albums worth, to be exact. This is a picture taken of me moments after reading those emails.

As if that wasn’t awesome enough, one of the albums he gave me came with a set of listening instructions. I love when this happens. It always makes me think about Almost Famous and the note William Miller’s big sis leaves him about lighting a candle, listening to Tommy and seeing his entire future. Maybe because my own big sis was a similarly powerful musical influence when I was William’s age. Hmmmm. Anyhoo, Tex’s instructions for listening to Balkan Beat Box’s conveniently named album Give were as follows: “Listen to it backwards and let me know what you think.”

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Farewell State Fair

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Thriller

R.I.P., State Fair of Virginia. The fact that this 150-year-old institution is shutting its doors is a serious bummer. Where else can I watch pig races and eat two bacon cheeseburgers with Krispy Kreme donuts for buns without being judged? And the fried cheese! WHAT WILL BECOME OF US WITHOUT THE FRIED CHEESE?!? It’s a grim future, to be certain. But instead of getting all panicky about a lack of trashy eating opportunities (there’s always the Pennsylvania Farm Show, and I’m hopeful something will pop up in its place), I’d like to share my favorite story from this past year’s trip to the State Fair.

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YHT Book Club!

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Colin Meloy

¡Hola, amigos! As I type this here sentence, I’m situated a terrifying 33,000 feet above South Carolina, just an hour or so away from completing the last leg of my trip back to Richmond from a beachy Mexican locale called Playa del Carmen. And despite the fact that I derive very little enjoyment from being this high in the air, I’m excited to be writing these words, because I’ve been looking forward to this post for a while now. About five months, in fact.

In October of last year, Mrs. You Hear That and I took a trip to Portland (this one, not that one), where we tried some amazing restaurants, flipped through some excellent record stores, stumbled across an absurd number of tasty breweries and made sure to include a stop at the storied Powell’s City of Books. Why storied? Well, size, for one thing. A number of people told us about how Powell’s takes up an entire city block (it’s true, check out this screen grab from Google Maps), giving the store an almost legendary aura. It’s also storied in the sense that there are multiple floors in this city-block-sized bookstore, with separate rooms for different genres, meaning the shelves really do go on forever. And lastly, they’re storied because, ya know, that’s what they sell, and the story I decided to buy couldn’t have been more appropriate for the trip.

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Gnarls Barkley

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The video above was sent to me by a lucky soul whose laudable sense of initiative has resulted in a trip from Richmond to Tampa, Florida for Radiohead’s show at the St. Pete Times Forum on Wednesday. It makes me so happy when I hear about people taking this type of trip. Whether it’s by plane, train, automobile or pimped-out Rascal, schlepping yourself that far to see a band is a beautiful thing, and it definitely gives the people around you a reason to see what all the fuss is about. In this case, she and I are already on the same page. As Joey Tribbiani might say, RADIOHEAD GOOOOD. We were also on the same page yesterday, when she showed me this 2008 video of Gnarls Barkley performing In Rainbows track “Reckoner,” which is to say that neither of us knew exactly what page to be on. There’s a lot to take in. I think the most alarming element of the cover has to be Cee Lo’s intensity, both in terms of the force with which he’s singing and the CRAZY-ASS STARE he exhibits. It’s kind of insane. But then again, shouldn’t every Radiohead song be sung as if you were completely bonkers? The paranoia, anger and confusion call for an off-kilter messenger… possibly someone who has a history of questioning his or her sanity… someone who has shown that he or she has no problem dismissing others’ behavior with extremely sharp language… someone who’s unsure about his or her own reckoning… clearly Cee Lo is just the man for the job! Watch the video of Gnarls Barkley’s cover of “Reckoner” above or listen to the audio below to see if you agree, and snag In Rainbows from iTunes here. And to any of you who are planning to schlep your bones across state lines to see a concert in the near or distant future — I salute you.

Gnarls Barkley — “Reckoner” (Radiohead cover)

Fun.

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Some Nights

Did you know that Cher’s record company wanted to remove the now-famous auto-tuning that producer Mark Taylor added to the vocals of her 1998 hit, “Believe“? Crazy, right? What do you think the world would be like nowadays if Warner Brothers had gotten their way? Would we have flying cars? Would Lehman Brothers still have collapsed? Would there be an independent Palestinian state? What would T-Pain be doing at this very moment? We’ll never know, because Cher responded to her label’s request by saying that the digital effect on her voice would be removed “over [her] dead body.” Well then. But with all due respect to “Believe,” it stands to reason that, much like a synthesized disease that squirms its way out of a top-secret government lab, setting in motion a zombie apocalypse that sweeps the entire planet, leaving nothing but horror, violence and destruction in its wake: auto-tune was bound to get out at some point. OK, maybe that’s a hyperbolic analogy. And in truth, I’m not campaigning against auto-tune at all. On the contrary, auto-tune is a fascinating phenomenon to think about, especially when you’re dealing with a group like Fun. and a singer like Nate Ruess.

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Gorillaz

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Some songs are just built for the weekend. Of course, I might be biased, having first heard “DoYaThing” early Thursday evening, when I could just sense a fun Friday blog post rumbling somewhere out there on the interweb (I can also feel cold fronts coming via my screwed up right shoulder, just FYI). Nonetheless, the combination of Gorillaz, James Murphy and André 3000 screams “Shake it like a Polaroid picture” to me, and I have a feeling the song will make its presence felt at a fair number of bars/clubs/bridge games this weekend. “DoYaThing” is the latest installment in Converse’s “Three Artists. One Song.” series, which previously featured a snazzy summer tune created by Kid Cudi, Rostam Batmanglij and Bethany Cosentino. Pretty awesome stuff, for an ad campaign. But “DoYaThing” has something else going for it, other than its mid-week release and a trio of well-credentialed collaborators: a video starring the Peanuts gang. Well… sort of. I have no idea who made this video. I highly doubt anyone licensed anything to make it (this is starting to sound like one of those crappy TV news stories in which a reporter gets in front of the camera just to say, “Details are hazy at this point…”). What I DO know is that the video brings back some fun memories, and there are some fly-ass dance moves to be learned from it. My favorite has to be the hybrid running man/zombie thing going on in the back row. In fact, I’m gonna go ahead and call dibs on the running zombie as my signature move for wedding season. I better not hear about any of you lot busting it out at a reception without my permission, capiche? Stick to the electric slide and no one gets hurt. Even though it looks as though an official “DoYaThing” video is coming soon, this one will do me just fine for now. Besides, it’s the perfect antidote to that gross MetLife commercial that uses Schroeder’s piano playing as an analog for retirement planning. Ugh. Watch above, listen/download below, check out the 13-minute, one-take, extended version of the song here, and have a very happy Friday!

Gorillaz — “DoYaThing” (feat. Andre 3000 and James Murphy)

First Aid Kit

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Lion's Roar

So I’ve been sitting on this one-liner for a solid year, just waiting for the perfect occasion to post it to Twitter, but I’m gonna share it with you guys instead. You ready? You suuuuure?!? OK, OK, here’s the joke, set off in its own paragraph so you know when to laugh riotously…

I’m pretty sure Emmylou Harris’ answering machine just says “Yes.”

Get it? Because she collaborates with everyone under the sun? Any ROTFLCOPTERing out there? No? Crickets? OK, so now you know why I’ve been sitting on it. Really though, Harris has performed with a zillion artists (I’d start listing them here, but my last post was more than 1,000 words, and the proprietors of You Hear That don’t pay me enough to keep up that clip), making her one of the most prolific and respected backup/duet singers in the biz. So whats the occasion? What Emmylou event inspired me to unleash this dormant comedic gem? Did she collabo with Kayne? Did she duet with Dokken? Nope — well, not that I’m aware of. In fact, she’s not even directly involved.

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Brooklyn Rider

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Seven Steps

Last week turned out to be a cover song celebration, with one post about a monster collection of repurposed Bob Dylan tunes and another about Punch Brothers’ out-of-this-world takes on Radiohead. And while I didn’t really set out to double down on the covers, I couldn’t be happier that theme emerged, because it got me thinking differently about Brooklyn Rider, a string quartet that has just released a new recording entitled Seven Steps.

Before going any further, I am obligated by the International Code of Music Blogging Ethics to point out that classical music is usually “not my cup of tea.” But it’s not “not my cup of tea” in the same way that, say, olives are “not my cup of tea.” Olives I hate with a passion. The word “tapenade” is an iron-clad deal-breaker when scanning the menu at fancy restaurants. Classical music, on the other hand, is something that I have a great deal of interest in learning about, but I have a long way to go, both in terms of appreciation and understanding.

So how did Brooklyn Rider manage to make connection with their 2011 effort, Brooklyn Rider Plays Philip Glass? I think Glass’ minimalist style deserves some of the credit. As with any learning endeavor, repetition is helpful, and the repetitive structures in Glass’ music engage without feeling overwhelming, despite the fact that a great deal of complexity is hidden within those patterns. But I think the lion’s share of the credit belongs to the group’s 4 musicians, who themselves are refreshingly relatable.

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Punch Brothers

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Who's Feeling Young Now?

Every once in a while, I’ll be watching a drummer go to town during a rhythmically demanding section of a song, and I’ll say to myself, “That dude is an alien.” Certain drummers have that extra gear that makes it look like they’re working with more than two arms and two legs — how else could they be doing so much at once and/or making so much noise? Not so coincidentally, I described Battles’ John Stanier as “otherworldly” when I witnessed his handiwork at the 9:30 Club a few months back, and I’d be inclined to throw that same adjective at Wilco’s Glen Kotche, especially when it comes to his chaotic outbursts in “Via Chicago.”

So what the hell does this have to do with Punch Brothers?!? They don’t even have a drummer! 

I’m glad you asked! Chris Thile, the group’s frontman and mandolin player, is one of the few people outside the world of stick-wielding snare-strikers that produces that same super-specific, disbelieving reaction: “That dude is an alien.” And I’m not alone — Ed Helms from The Office has had the exact same thought.

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