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Office Space-d Electronics
The most epic performance of the Monolith Festival was Justice’s closing set on Sunday the 14th. The build up for this show was outstanding, and it really seemed that Justice was the feature act of the entire weekend. This is exactly what Monolith needed for its closing act, and the crowd was hyped. Justice opened with a short set of a few songs including from the best of my memory, “Genesis” and “Phantom.” Then mid-song Justice blew a fuse out on their personal circuit board and the lights that were linked up to their board just went silent. The fuse was repaired quickly and we got back to the action after a little crowd anthem of Neil Diamond’s “Sweet Caroline.” The set continued for about 45 minutes or so when, mid “We Are Your Friends,” Justice then blew out another fuse or circuit, and the lights were off again. Justice was visibly upset about their equipment’s failure, which led to the lights in the venue coming on and Xavier de Rosnay groveling for our forgiveness. The crowd kept enthusiastically singing “We Are Your Friends” for about 5-10 minutes while we hoped and prayed that they would fix the equipment a second time. News soon came that they were not going to be able to fix the equipment, and Justice began taking a scene from Office Space and ripping circuit boards out of their set-up and crushing them on stage. The crowd was left with the impression that Justice had another couple hours of face-melting music left in the tank, but that they wanted to play those tunes just as much as we wanted to hear them. Enjoy some new Justice here on their new Planisphère instrumental experimentation which was featured during the Dior Homme set they released earlier this year… And as an additional bonus here is Justice’s rejected Fabriclive mix that they released late in 2007…
Planisphère (Part 1) – Justice – Planisphère
Planisphère (Part 2) – Justice – Planisphère
Planisphère (Part 3) – Justice – Planisphère
Planisphère (Final) – Justice – Planisphère
Xmas Mix – Justice – Xmas Mix 2007
D.A.N.C.E. – Justice – Monolith Festival 2008
Genesis – Justice – Monolith Festival 2008
D.A.N.C.E. – Alternate View – Justice – Monolith Festival 2008
Another great performance of the Monolith Weekend occurred Sunday the 14th with Concord, NC’s The Avett Brothers bringing some mountain music to the venue. The Avetts recently released their “The Second Gleam EP,” which contained many acoustically focused numbers so it was great to see them back in their normal state. At this point in the weekend, the crowd kind of needed some relaxing music to allow them to give their bodies a rest and to gear up for Justice later that night, and the Avetts brought that with just enough energy to keep the party going. The Avett Brothers recently signed with Columbia records and have started gearing up for their next [Rick Rubin produced] album’s release slated for early next year. Until then enjoy these two unreleased tracks “Laundry Room” and “Standing With You” from the Monolith set.
“Laundry Room” – The Avett Brothers – Monolith Festival 2008
“Standing With You” – The Avett Brothers – Monolith Festival 2008
at Monolith Festival 2008
I recently caught Vampire Weekend at Monolith Festival at Red Rocks in Morrison, CO. I was very impressed by how well they translated to a fun-loving live act. The thing that I really came away with was how talented these guys are. They played just after 7pm and played the sunset with the moon rising out behind them. Their new material is awesome. The played two new tracks “White Sky” and “Little Giant” during the Monolith set, and then just this week they released another new track entitled “Ottoman” on the Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist Soundtrack. “White Sky” and “Little Giant” really tap into the Afro-Beat styles that they can really expand upon. I appreciate seeing them focus this aspect of their sound, and it really made for two danceable tracks even though a majority of the audience had yet to have heard them. These two videos are of “White Sky” and then “Little Giant,” from Monolith Festival 2008. Additional copies of both of the songs are available for download from their set in Glasgow earlier this year, and I have attached their new track “Ottoman” as an additional bonus. A quite a bit more Monolith Coverage will follow…
“White Sky” – Monolith Festival 2008
“Little Giant” – Monolith Festival 2008
“The Kids Don’t Stand a Chance” – Monolith Festival 2008
White Sky (Live at ABC Glasgow) – Vampire Weekend
Little Giant (Live at ABC Glasgow) – Vampire Weekend
Ottoman – Vampire Weekend – Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist: Soundtrack
I will be attending Monolith Festival next weekend, and I am excited about the festival’s recent addition of Portland, Oregon’s Hockey. I love The Rapture, and Hockey’s sound is eerily similar at times. I know that this Portland group must have heard The Rapture’s 2006 album “Pieces of the People We Love” the opening track “Too Fake” on Hockey’s “Mind Chaos” patterns itself directly after “Whoo! Alright, Yeah… Uh Huh” on The Rapture’s album. Fortunately, for both Hockey and our ears the album diverges from this point on. If you like Ghostland Observatory, The Rapture, Miss Fairchild or !!! I think you will appreciate Hockey. I’m excited about seeing them, and hopefully they will more than make up for Chester French’s recent action of dropping out of the festival. Overall, Mind Chaos is a great album that displays a greater diversity of sound than The Rapture’s album, and at times dabbles in many different musical memories while fresh the entire time. Enjoy these two tracks from the album. “Song Away” conveys visions of Mellencamp, and “3am Spanish” brings some Tokyo Police Club style guitar and bass work. Don’t forget to support the artists…
Chester French, recent Harvard grads D.A. Wallach and Maxwell Drummey, are Harvard’s answer to Columbia’s Vampire Weekend. In today’s obvious turn towards taking good pieces of the past and then utilizing those sounds to make new hits, these guys advance a new path. Often we see much of the material today utilizing 80s and 70s sounds, yet Chester French is in effect a turn towards creating a nouveau 60s sound. I really like what they have done on their material, and I can really see why Pharrell Williams from the Neptunes sought to sign these guys so hard. They utilize orchestrated sections that emphasize their musical capabilities and knowledge, yet they maintain an unmistakable Brian Wilson influenced sort of 60s rock to the overall sound. I thoroughly anticipate their upcoming album that should be out in the next month or so, and I look forward to catching them at the Monolith Festival at Red Rocks when I venture to Colorado this fall. Enjoy these two tracks that should be on the album and stream other possible tracks on my vodpod sidebar until I post more when the album drops.
