a quiet end

April 12, 2011 @ 6:34pm • Video Post • Tweet this • Share on Facebook

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Nine Types of Light

Candy’s gonna fall out of the sky.

There’s another song post about the EP on it’s way, but given that this album was released today, I really wanted to throw something related up here as it’s something I’ve been looking forward to for a long time now.

I’d thought to post the video for ‘Will Do’ at some point after it was released a few weeks back, but I’m glad I held off, as what the band is doing here extends much beyond only a single form music video.

The film is described as being “…as much an album as it is a movie by TV on the Radio. The movie is meant to be a visual re-imagining of the record, and includes a music video for every song on the album. The band personally asked their friends and the filmmakers they admired to help direct the music videos. Tunde Adebimpe, the director for the full Nine Types of Light movie, storybooked the music videos together with interviews from local New Yorkers on various topics, including dreams, love, fame and the future.” Right from the incredibly interesting opening dialogue, a framing device for the the film, as well as the album, an astoundingly curious and engaging set of themes begin to emerge. 

Liars, another great band who have some relation with TVOTR, did something similar a few years back with the excellent Drum’s Not Dead, making videos for each song that were released on a DVD along with the album. That record might have had more of an overarching concept in the music than Nine Types of Light does, but the way the film pulls the separate videos together as a unified set of work that adds a structure to the album’s themes and flushes out the depth that lies there more thoroughly, presenting the whole work as a large country worth exploring in detail.

There’s some videos in the works for songs from the EP, and though they are likely a ways off still, I’m hopeful they’ll pan out. There was some early discussion of doing shorts for each song, but it didn’t seem to be a realistic option, however in the future expanding musical ideas into a different mediums that can add further context, or borrow but operate in a separate thematic world, or both, is something I’m very much looking forward to exploring as a more expansive project and collaborative endeavour.

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March 25, 2011 @ 6:42pm • Text Post • Tweet this • Share on Facebook

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the other shoe

So local heroes Fucked Up have a new album coming out called David Comes to Life. I’d heard that it’s a concept album, but haven’t yet had a chance to look too far into what it’s about. I’ve always enjoyed concept albums though, Diamond Dogs is probably one of my all-time favourite records. I love the idea of threads of narrative, characters and other such ideas forming the basis of the songwriting process. A few years ago, I’d even started working a few songs to accompany an story-oriented interdisciplinary art project that was being undertaken by a friend. It was never completed, but I discovered there was a certain amount of freedom to be found in writing from the already existing point of view of a story, almost like it freed the songs up from ascribing to whatever held notions I had of what songs in general needed to be. 

The Polaris-winning Chemistry of Common Life was a great album. Roots punk brought to the highest artistic level. Great songs and a thunderous sound. So on that alone, I’m quite looking forward to David Comes to Life; but reading the start of the concept’s story below lends a good deal more excitement to it’s release.

 

ACT 1

Love, then tragedy strikes the town.

QUEEN OF HEARTS

 David and Veronica meet

“Sun rises above the factory but the rays don’t make it to the street. Through the gates come the employees, beaten down and dragging their feet. A group of lefties hand out pamphlets to the workers coming in. For two people on the pavement life will never be the same again. When she placed it in his hand, people must have seen the sparks. Neither understands what just happened to their hearts. “Another morning in this place has ripped me out of my dream.” Realizing life’s a waste as the whistle lets off steam. One thing about it all is nothing’s ever going to change. It’s like our progress has just stalled and everyday is the same. “She placed it in my hand.” Co-workers must have seen the sparks. “I couldn’t understand what just happened to my heart.” “Hello, my name is David, your name is Veronica, let’s be together, let’s fall in love. Hello, my name is David, your name is Veronica – let’s be together, until the stars go out.” All we need is for something to give, the dam bursts open, we suddenly live. “The boot off my throat, life is returning, the boot off my throat, let’s all emote.” “Dawn breaks across this town and a new dawn breaks for me. I couldn’t take the pains of the underclass, trying to smile through gritted teeth. We must now all join up and throw off the shackles of shame. United we can’t be defeated, they shall hear us proclaim. I placed it in his hand. Comrades must have seen the sparks. I couldn’t understand what happened to my heart. Hello, your name is David, I am Veronica, let’s be together, until the water swallows us. Hello, you must be David, I am Veronica – let’s be together, until we’re all finally crushed.” All we need is for something to give, the dam bursts open, we suddenly live. “The boot off my throat, life is returning, the boot off my throat, let’s all emote.”

Check out the song ‘The Other Shoe’ here. It’s quite good.

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