the flying club cup by beirut

Highlighting a different album every weekend isn't very easy to do - I come across several problems. For instance, I would love to highlight the new Evangelicals release that came out Tuesday, but I just haven't heard it yet. And I don't spend all my time listening to brand new music, anyway - I love to pull out an old album that I haven't listened to in a while, or ones that I've had but I'm not well acquainted with yet.

So, with that disclaimer, I want to showcase my 7th favorite record of 2007, and Beirut's latest, The Flying Club Cup, released by Brooklyn label Ba Da Bing! on Oct. 9, 2007. Beirut is 22-year-old Zach Condon, a native of Santa Fe, New Mexico, who dropped out of high school at 16 to travel Europe. There he encountered the Balkan Gypsy music that he has blended with folk to create the sounds heard on his first record, Gulag Orkestar.

The Flying Club Cup still has those sounds intact, but shows a great influence from French music as well. Condon lives in Brooklyn, but spent much of the past year living in Paris. On the sound of The Flying Club Cup, Condon says, "I was listening to a lot of Jacques Brel and French chanson music--pop songs shrouded in big, glorious, over-the-top arrangements and all this drama--and that was in some sense unfamiliar territory to me. So I started buying new instruments and relying on things I wasn't necessarily comfortable with, like French horns and euphoniums, carrying these big, epic big brass parts that I used to do all on trumpets, and working with accordion and organ instead of all ukulele--very much throwing myself in the world of classical pop music, I guess you could say."

All that to say, it is a magnificent record.

Here is a video MTV produced about Beirut and his experience with La Blogothèque, a French web site well-known for their Concerts à emporter (take away shows). The take away shows are very raw live footage shot by Vincent Moon (Mathieu Saura) often in the streets of France.




Condon and Moon worked together to shoot The Flying Club Cup in its entirety in the streets of Brooklyn. To watch them, click here.

To listen to tracks by The Real People (Condon's moniker in high school, before becoming Beirut) -- click here.

untitled

i’m a silly sap
looking back and back
to my stack of sacks
my past
sometimes forgotten
squeezed away into the wind
never to be found again

but others remain vivid, actually,
even more now so
when the memories are those
that I never want to squeeze away
they boil in a pot – my life’s silly stew

all the food is from it
gaining salt and flavor with each passing day
every second they spend bouncing between my ears
they become fresher, newer, sweeter
like a merlin

when I am old, I imagine,
things will be so pungent they will hurt
i’ll dig in the dirt and put things to rest
but like a courtship calling
the smell will never go away
and I will die from my happiness
a smile too big to bear

i threw out my bruce willis LPs forever ago...

the hipster olympics in williamsburg

for emma, forever ago by bon iver

Bon Iver is the solo project of Justin Vernon, the once front man for Mount Vernon and DeYarmound Edison. His debut, For Emma, Forver Ago, created quite a buzz after its self-release, but will have an official release through Jagjaguwar on February 19, 2008.

This is one of the most beautiful winter records I've heard in a while. Pretty convenient, right? Especially with a name like Bon Iver ("good winter" in French - don't worry, it's misspelled on "purpose"). Personally, it couldn't be better timing to get an album like this - very whispery, seeping through cracks and gliding across the grain.

Justin Vernon lives in northwestern Wisconsin. For Emma was written and recorded in a snowy cabin on his father's property. He is now working on building his own studio space there, and he kills and butchers his own meat. Maybe that's the skinny love that needs to last the year? Yea, probably not.

--To hear a radio interview with Minnesota Public Radio and stunning performances of "Flume," "Lump Sum" and "For Emma" - click here.

--To hear the entire album - click here.

UPDATE: pre-order the album now off itunes and get the bonus track, "Wisconsin" with your order. OR pre-order from Jagjaguwar and get this poster for free with your order:

the road to nowhere

the sky looks warm
as waves curl window pane's view,
but i look past the rising heat
to feel the air of winter-
chilling,
biting,
embracing,
inviting.

dead leaves on the dry grass
like the ones that made piles
when kids jumped in,
digging tunnels
in puffy jackets.

and fingers that curled around your mouth
to bring back color-
white to pink,
and pink to red.
emptied lungs
that breath the air from skies above,
air that quietly dives down,
blowing smooth lines into the hair on your face-
barely a sound,
barely air.

it's days like this
when i would go to somewhere i've never been before
and stay a while,
breathing the air.
bryson city, north carolina,
maybe i'd ride the train
that cuts through town,
and i'd wave my hands at the crowd
like they were all my family,
close ones i would be away from for a while-
waving,
crying,
missing,
faking.

i'd take the road to nowhere
until the road to nowhere ends,
and walk the woods
the cherokee did
at the end of the road to nowhere.

april by sun kil moon

I've decided that I want to begin a new tradition. Every weekend I'm gonna highlight an album that I either a) look forward to being released, b) recently bought, or c) just pulled off the shelf for reacquaintance.

This week's album highlight is the upcoming release by Sun Kil Moon. Mark Kozelek and company are set to release their second proper full-length, April, on April 1st via Kozelek's own label, Caldo Verde Records.

Following the beautiful work by Red House Painters from the late '80s through the '90s, and work as a solo artist, Kozelek formed Sun Kil Moon. Their debut, Ghosts of the Great Highway, was released in 2003, followed by an entire album of Modest Mouse covers, Tiny Cities. (It must be noted that Ghosts of the Great Highway was one of my favorite albums of 2003.)

April sounds like a much needed dose of Kozelek to me. Find out for yourself, though - listen to track 6, Moorsetown, here.

resolutions

© adam brimer..................................

may my heart always be open to little
birds who are the secret of living
whatever they sing is better than to know
and if men should not hear them men are old

may my mind stroll about hungry
and fearless and thirsty and supple
and even if it's sunday may i be wrong
for whenever men are right they are not young

and may myself do nothing usefully
and love yourself so more than truly
there's never been quite such a fool who could fail
pulling all they sky over him with one smile

-e.e. cummings

happy 2008 everyone . . .