Big Musical Update

I've gone to three concerts in the past month and I want to quickly write about them before I forget! The first was Cocorosie, and it was the best concert I've ever been to.



It's hard to summarize them but.. two sisters, raised by artists in a burnt out station wagon in the desert, where they shot at tin cans. Separated for a decade, one went to opera school in London, the other showed up at her sister's door one day and they moved to Paris and started making music using kitchen utensils, household objects, kazoos, harps, and children's toys. This song summarizes them perfectly:



At their ethereal yet intimate concert, held at Richards on Richards, older sister Sierra, wearing a long black sleeved dress, unzipped at the side, sang bits of haunting opera, while sister Bianca, dressed in hiphop clothes, a beret, and a baseballcap on top (yes, two hats) did most of the singing in her croaky 'japanese anime' voice. Here's a clip from the concert:



Both girls wore entirely too much blush, which looked perfect on them, and Bianca had a shaved head and two long braided rat tails. They did covers of various mainstream songs such as Akon's "You Wanna Love Me," which were amazing. The visuals contained corrupted files of My Little Pony porn, glimpses of Britney Spears' shaved head, disturbing clown loops, and religious and political icons. After our concert they flew to the states, where they promptly got arrested and their whole US tour was cancelled. Nobody knows why. Words cannot express how much I love Cocorosie.

The second concert I went to was Bjork, at Deer Lake Park.



It was a sunny evening, perfect weather. The crowd was as diverse and unique as Bjork. Many hippies, old and young. Newborn babies too. The old hippies were wearing kitschy outfits, like paper mache'd strawberry hats, or teletubbie-esque outfits. As Bjork played, the sun set the moon shone overhead, and the strobelights fired away to the accelerated versions of her songs. Inyeob and I moshed to it.. it was more like a heavy metal show!! Even the spotlight men hidden behind the curtains were tapping their feet. She introduced the band, which she called the Icelandic Orchestra. The keyboardist was the only Canadian. I have a newfound love for her song Hyperballad.. look up the lyrics, they make you wonder. Like my friend Ross says, 'Bjork is Bjork.. a magical pixie.'

Hyperballad at Deer Lake:



Human Behavior Video, directed by Michel Gondry:



Everything is Love Video:



Finally, I went to Dubforms 3 at Open Studios on First Avenue, featuring Kode 9. Dubstep. It's slower than most techno and has lots AND LOTS of low growling bass. It's big in Southern London and New York, and not that well known here. Wiki article on Dubstep . It was the second dubstep event I've been to and apparently only the third live dubstep performance ever in Vancouver.

First, the venue. It was great. So hidden, a warehouse amongst warehouses.. that I drove by slowly about ten times and then left, thinking nothing was there. The doorman made fun of me, saying, YOU DIDN'T LISTEN! Which was obvious because the whole building was vibrating with so much bass, they gave out complimentary earplugs. I didn't care that the friend who came with me left early and I had trouble locating the others for over an hour.

I just stuck around.. and I've never stuck around at a club by myself but the music was just too good. I can listen to it for hours. Eventually Martin and Lauren showed up, and I met some other people I knew by chance, and we danced, and the room got more and more filled with weed smoke and hippies and dreads and smiles. And then slowly it thinned out. I left alone, with a big smile on my face. Oh yeah, there was also a lyricist for most of the time.

Some pics from Martin's cam:





This isn't from the same night, but it's representative of the awesomeness that existed. Minus the sketchy looking Dutch barstars:



Finally, I'll briefly mention the concert I WANTED to go to, but decided not to, since I'm not made of money, and also because it was the day after Bjork.. the band was The Arcade Fire. It was also at Deer Lake Park, and thankfully, most of the concert is on Youtube. Here is my favorite song, called Rebellion. A must-see, it's just so good. I want this song played at my funeral should I ever have one:



After the song played, the band walked off and the crowd hummed the ending to Rebellion, until the band came back for an encore. Makes me sniffle a bit.



That's it. I've been spoiled by good music the past few weeks and I rarely put the energy into posting about music that I love. So it's nice to finally share.

Extra video by Royksopp who also played here recently: