Video: The xx – “I Dare You”
From I See You, out now on Young Turks.
Big budget, high concept music video starring Michael Jackson’s daughter and a kid from “Stranger Things.” Seems odd this band is as popular as they are, considering how mellow they sound, but maybe we all need to let it mellow when the rest of the world is as chaotic as it’s been this year. Who knows?
Day 2: Saturday, August 7, 2010
I had a very clear plan for Saturday. There’s a spot to the right side of the “PlayStation” stage (actually called the Petrillo Music Shell) that’s always been easy to worm your way into. You can get really close to the stage if you just slide right along the wall, so I had told my entire posse to meet there three songs into the XX‘s set. But once we made it inside, it was obvious this was not going to happen.
At three o’clock in the afternoon the entire north side of the park was filled to capacity. To make matters worse, the entrance from Columbus into the stage area was a parking lot of people. It should’ve been a walkway but nobody was moving. Everybody was just standing there, blocking the path, not moving. I’m assuming Against Me must not have any fans because there were at least 80,000 people crammed into the cement lot that surrounds the stage, packed tight as far back as the second set of light poles. If you’ve been to Grant Park, you know what I’m talking about, and you know how bad that must’ve sucked. It was worse.
The fine folks at the Fork have been uncovering all kinds of new music for you to check out. It’s hard for anybody to listen to everything, so we handpick the stuff that might appeal to the GLONO reader…whatever that means. Listen for yourself and let us know what you think.
Here’s our latest roundup of the good stuff that Pitchfork has given up recently on their Forkcast:
• Dum Dum Girls – “Heart of Stone” [Raveonettes cover]
• Girls – “End of the World” [Skeeter Davis cover]
• The xx – “Islands (CHLLNGR Remix)”
Lots more below…
The fine folks at the Fork have been uncovering all kinds of new music for you to check out. It’s hard for anybody to listen to everything. We handpick the stuff that might appeal to the GLONO reader…whatever that means. Listen for yourself and let us know what you think.
Here’s our latest roundup of the good stuff that Pitchfork has given up recently on their Forkcast:
• Charlotte Gainsbourg – “Heaven Can Wait (Nosaj Thing Remix)”
• Jay Reatard – “Frances Farmer Will Have Her Revenge on Seattle” (Nirvana cover)
• Phoenix – “Sad-Eyed Lady of the Lowlands” (Bob Dylan cover)
• Grizzly Bear – “Boy From School” (Hot Chip cover)
Lots more below, including several xx remixes and covers of songs by Beyonce, Justin Timberlake, and Elliott Smith…
If you can tell how good a band is based on how they sound without all the dress-up, then the XX is surprisingly accomplished even at this early stage of the game.
There’s so little going on musically that it’s hard to peg them as an electronic band, but this London quartet (now paired to a trio thanks to keyboardist Baria Qureshi’s recent departure) is obviously indebted to ’80s electronica on their debut.
The very things that keep XX as qualifying as an electronic album are the same ones that make it special. There’s an incredible amount of depth going on from just a thin layer of atmospheric keyboards, a twangy guitar and the hushed vocals of Romy Madley Croft and Oliver Sim.
We’ve been spending a lot of time listening to 40-year-old music lately, but that doesn’t mean we’re not paying attention to new stuff. The fine folks at the Fork have been uncovering all kinds of new music for you to check out. Here’s our latest roundup of the good stuff that Pitchfork has given up recently on their Forkcast:
• Radiohead: “These Are My Twisted Words”
• Circulatory System: “Round Again”
• The xx: “Do You Mind” (Kyla cover)
More fun after the jump…
