Future Islands - On The Water

i don't think it was remotely that interesting or out of the ordinary. you could take any given tv performance and talk about how "knowing" or "sincere" or "earnest" it was and it'd be as much projection and guesswork as any other. the line between "performed" and "real" is kinda meaningless when it comes to on-stage catharsis

oh the chest-beating made me roll my eyes

Sure. There's a sense of sympathetic embarrassment going on.

weird lex, i'd have thought you would've been all over the latest indie rock sensation!

It's true that the performance, while odd, is nowhere near as unusual as is being claimed in some quarters (especially that overexcitable Guardian piece).

we need to figure out EXACTLY how weird it is.

i don't think it was remotely that interesting or out of the ordinary. you could take any given tv performance and talk about how "knowing" or "sincere" or "earnest" it was and it'd be as much projection and guesswork as any other. the line between "performed" and "real" is kinda meaningless when it comes to on-stage catharsis

― lex pretend, Tuesday, March 25, 2014 10:37 AM (19 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

yeah those are not the words i would use, it's just a guy owning his moment and it's cool to watch.

i thought of barry from east enders doing "walking in memphis", but he's got a cool eddie munster / ernest borgnine thing going, and i enjoyed it, and it was infinitely better than the last not-weird "weird" thing that got hyped to high heaven when gobshite bradford cox "had a meltdown" (quite unremarkably jamming through an extended 80's pop cover, endlessly reported as if it were some kinda gg allin vs jj burnel incident, for no discernible reason)

Gonna leave this here without comment

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cMEBKZGHWCM

quantum leap

LOL

I'd be a huge fan if he exclusively rapped about Scott Bakula's guest role as Chuck's Dad on Chuck.

album's starting to grow on me, "A Dream of You and Me" is as good as anything they've done, that groove, that insistent guitar lick

yeah, I've been enjoying the album today as well. my brother met Sam before the show tonight and confirmed that he is very nice. They also have Two Hearted Ale for $2.50 a pint in Grand Rapids, Michigan, which is a good argument for seeing shows in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

Re. lex's comments and rebuttals, his energy in the Letterman video is, in my opinion, what's unusual about it. I mean, if you don't like his voice, you don't like it, but there's the soul music connotation and I'll go ahead and put myself out on the limb and say that I DO hear it as real soul singing. And you might say, 'So what?' but his physicality in the whole performance strikes me as quite awesome.

lex i never understand why you go out of your way to avoid megapopular monoculture shit like gangnam style but you just keep trying with these random american indie bands with < a million YT views

will you ever win

woah this is like a bizarro world Henry Rollins who grew up the son of a preacher man and decided to leave the ministry and become Rick Astley instead.

I said this elsewhere but to me he's a cocktail of Andy McCluskey, Rick Astley and Damian Abraham (the facial similarities to Damian are remarkable)

a young marlon brando says i

It's almost as if Lex is a dick or something

Being a dick abt indie, anyway. Not a dick per se. It's a funny schtick, anyway

xpost
Get quite a strong young Shatner aiming for Brando vibe tbh.

My god, so OTM.

maybe growing up on tori amos just set the bar high in terms of what i expect performances of on-stage catharsis to be like

I've seen Tori Amos live multiple times and the idea that she represents the ne plus ultra of on-stage catharsis is just ridiculous

Lex is always right, even about genres he talks about hating all the time.

Todd Carty is currently starring in the Commitments at the Eastbourne Winter Gardens

there's a thing going around tumblr about how this performance captures the free-spirited magic of singing in your bathroom or something, which reminded me of this clearly prescient mr show sketch

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JvCmvSKenzY#t=18

As previously noted (and I know you are capturing the opinion of tumblr here), he works the camera like a pro and he's a good singer. Though it's fun to look at the higher order terms of the function that's captured mr. letterman's heart, I think the bands' fundamentals are more refined than these analyses acknowledge.

Oh the piece in question, I think by "fek", def acknowledged their legitimate skills or whatever you're worried is lost in the hubbub

Coldplay ‏@coldplay Mar 23
Guy found this video of Future Islands on Letterman. We all love it! http://youtu.be/1Ee4bfu_t3c CM

xp ok, cool. I will search it out and read it as penance.

I saw this for the first time, it's entertaining but I'm gonna put the 'viral' success down to slow news week. Dude looks like he's trying to do a version of that "Tom Jones goes crazy" video, only indie rock, and thus, way more awkward.

just to make it clear, Future Islands have always been like this live. even when they're an opening act playing for 100 people.

this was amazing and all of you who are jaded idiots are jaded and idiots

al otm

To put it mildly, there’s no other frontman quite like him, a strange mix of earnestly old-fashioned and deeply weird.

Holy shit.

I've seen the name Future Islands but I never even thought of looking them up.

So, I know nothing of them.

And the first things I see, hear or read about them are these last few posts and video.

Fucking blown away. I was sleeping and waking up reading random shit and just stopped everything to listen to their new album (or collection of singles?).

I can't be bothered to find Al's post, but yes. I get a feeling from the singer's performance that his lyrics are heartfelt and pretty genuine. It may be maudlin but I love that; it's so refreshing. But I like people who are unashamedly themselves and just happen to be quirky or weird as fuck (not done on purpose or to make a point or whatever).

And um...I don't mean to go off-topic too much, and it certainly does not matter, but the singer's right arm seems bigger than his left. Is this a medical condition or does he work one out more than the other by chance or am I seeing things?

that's the one he hits himself in the chest with

haha. surely you jest, j

i mean, correlation/causation?

he obviously does it really hard!

i mean, he does, which is something i find strangely appealing. very emotive.

k, will continue enjoying this album

i couldn't help but think that on letterman the hulk was singing his most heartfelt song ever, his poignant stab at making himself understood to people who don't knock walls over with their unwieldy bodies and can just emote with their faces

and then sure enough

http://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/19124-future-islands-singles/

Just after “Like the Moon” comes the album’s highpoint, the post-mortem ballad “Fall From Grace”. It could be a Beach House song with its below-freezing tempo and a spotlight on Cashion’s guitars, but then Herring gets to thinking about one of those heartbreak events and it all comes rushing back above this overdriven baritone guitar. He unknots all the emotion that has only bubbled up until now and asks one last question about their love and basically Hulks out: “was it ALL INSIDE OF ME?” The moment is arresting, and in the context of the sometimes mushy poetry of the album, these four words are blinding and absolutely unforgettable.

i wish ilm of yore (10-12 years back) could hear this, you can tell from all the reviews so far that the reviewers find something mysterious about the record and they genuinely enjoy taking a crack at figuring it out right as it's happening instead of the same old content-generation grind

Nice coincidence. I'm two minutes away from that song.

Just bought the record from the 4AD site!

my bro sent me some video clips from the show in Grand Rapids. i just wish I could have been there. "Balance" is great live. I also like that they are LOUD (i capitalized the letters to convey the increased amplitude of the longitudinal waves).

∞, you will probably love On the Water too!

googling!

Concert in Fargo (yup) this Saturday. Opening act apparently accompanies himself on bongos. Shall debrief after ears stop ringing.

yeah wow this record is nice