Go Kayak Now! » Music

Bon Iver Creature Fear on Black Cab Sessions

kwikle — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 19:20:01 +0000

Bon Iver from Black Cab Sessions on Vimeo.

Bon Iver and his Wisconsin winter heartbreak speak volumes to me. This song in particular Creature Fear speaks to the highs and lows one wants to express but can’t. These Black Can Sessions seem to capture the best out of so many artists. The Black Cab session of Sunset Rubdown’s Follow you Ahead is actually better than the album.

You can never hold back spring Video Tom Waits

kwikle — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 18:09:57 +0000

As winter plunges ahead in all it’s glory. For those who are like me waiting for the thaw to hit the water, I thought I would post this melancholic Tom Waits video to remind us all that spring is in your heart. I know mine is a little weepy right now…

The Black Keys, Girl is on my mind Video

kwikle — Sun, 08 Feb 2009 21:34:58 +0000

The Black Keys, Girl is on My Mind, Live at the Fillmore in Detroit from Keith Wikle on Vimeo

Let this video stand as tribute to drunk college girls everywhere. And let this quote stand for all time, “21 year old girls should be allowed to drink, they should also be allowed to attend rock concerts, but not at the same time.”

You can hear the drunken caterwauling all the way through the video. This girl took her life in her own hands by going up in the balcony. All of us were ready to throw her off!

On a more relevant note. I am not sure what was going on with the stage props. A giant dreamcatcher and an olmec head? What exactly is that saying about the Black Keys, olmec heads, or dreamcatchers?

Gaslight Anthem on Letterman Video

kwikle — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 16:29:24 +0000

Lest you think that I have gone all soft on posting about music. The young turks, Gaslight Anthem graced David Letterman this week. I will be fortunate enough to go see the Gaslight Anthem with Heartless Bastards April 23 in Chitown. I think this will be one H-E double hockey stick of a show.

Best of 2008 Music

kwikle — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 22:07:03 +0000

In the spirit of the end of the year and best of lists, I am trying to jump the gun. For most of these bands, I either saw them this year, or the album came out this year. Except the Jam, gotta have an oldie. I really just needed to get my list out before Pitchfork Media. That way I have my vote in.

Fake Empire-The National
Album: Boxer
Too Drunk To Dream-Magnetic Fields
Album:Distortion
So Everyone-Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy
Album:Lie Down In The Light
Curs Of Weeds-Horse Feathers
Album: House With No Home
From The Top Of The World-My Brightest Diamond
Album: A Thousand Shark’s Teeth
Used to Be-Beach House
From: Used to Be – Single
All the Old Showstoppers-The New Pornographers
Album: Challengers
Our Life Is Not A Movie Or Maybe-Okkervil River
Album: The Stage Names
Inní mér syngur vitleysingur-Sigur Rós
Album: Með suð í eyrum við spilum endalaust
Drops in the River-Fleet Foxes
Album: Sun Giant [EP]
Talking Bird-Death Cab For Cutie
Album: Narrow Stairs
Do What You Can Do-Constantines
Album: Kensington Heights
I Like That-Daniel Lanois
Album: Here Is What Is
Meet Me By The River’s Edge-Gaslight Anthem
Album: The ’59 Sound
Undeclared-The Dodos
Album: Visiter
The General Specific-Band Of Horses
Album: Cease To Begin
Churches Under The Stairs-Broken Social Scene Presents: Brendan Canning
Album: Something For All of Us…
Lucky Ones-Broken Social Scene Presents Kevin Drew
Album: Spirit If…
Let’s Not Pretend (to Be New Men)-Crooked Fingers
Album: Forfeit_Fortune
Searching For The Ghost-Heartless Bastards
Album:All This Time
London Girl-The Jam
Album: This is the Modern World
Death Take Your Fiddle-Spiritualized
Album: Songs in A&E
A-Punk-Vampire Weekend
Album: Vampire Weekend

Have A listen to the Keith Wikle Playlist Best of 2008 here.

Horse Feathers-Curs in the Weeds Video

kwikle — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 03:06:51 +0000

This new band Horse Feathers has a certain panache. It is certainly a Red House Painters panache, but I am buying what they are selling. I like the strings and the instrumentation.

To add insult to injury, I think that is my dream Volvo Wagon in the background. A Silver Volvo SL 1990′s wagon! Put a Thule rack on it with a kayak stacker, and a bike stand, and call it good. I could play this tune between Kalamazoo and Santa Cruz for a two week kayak safari and be very happy.

Bonnie Prince Billy-Take However Long You Want

kwikle — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 16:56:10 +0000

This man has been able to say everything that ails a man in his quiet subtle way for as long as I care to remember. I remember first hearing the Horses/Stable Will 7″ in 1993 and quietly going mad in my small room in East Lansing thinking, this guy gets it! I’ve seen Will Oldham about 4-5 times and enjoyed each performance.

I will leave you with this tune for the weekend:

take however long you want

I will be here when you haunt

you can wait here forever

by the trees alone

and I won’t be sorry when you’re gone

take however long you need

as times will wait around to be

something tall and black and glamorous

like about what you would dream

but you won’t be hanging round with me

when you’re about to go away

lie when they look you in the face

laugh and make jokes

like the others do

and at night I will be hanging out with you

I will be here

when you need to leave

and I won’t be sorry when you go

Take However Long You Want.mp3

Brian Eno on NPR-Singing for a long and healthy life

kwikle — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 15:15:17 +0000

Brian Eno as a maker of many instrumental ambient recordings, (music for airports, music for films, feel the warm jets and so forth) may have surprised some with his pronouncement about singing as a key to happiness and long life on NPR’s This I believe segment.

Having been interested in Brian Eno through his work with Peter Gabriel, U2, The Talking Heads, and David Bowie, his influence on many of these artists has included the introduction of Gospel, new vocal treatment, experimenting with harmonies and vocal ranges in order to push these artists into new directions.

Brian Eno’s statement on NPR’s Segment of This I Believe is one of the best I’ve heard yet, and I have to agree with Brian Eno’s sentiment about singing. We as a family, as hokey as it might sound relish the opportunity to play music in the car or at home that we can all sing a long with. We have startled many with Sea Shanties, U2, The Beatles, Fleet Foxes, Wilco, and many more played at high volume with our caterwauling vocals. The kids enjoy it, and we feel somewhat united, if only for a brief moment in music. This feeling I think poignantly echo’s Brian Eno’s statement that singing a capella is about subsuming yourself into the community.

Have a listen to the Brian Eno segment at NPR.

New Beach House Single and Video-Used to Be

kwikle — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 15:35:55 +0000

Dreampop Band Releases Killer Single and Video

Beach House released an eponymous LP in 2007 and then a new album, Devotion this year. While I actually shudder to type the word dream pop as a label for the band Beach House, it does seem wildly appropriate. This single and video seems like a whiteout dream from a David Lynch film gone soft. Be looking for a new best of 2008 music post next month, and Beach House will most likely make it in there somewhere.

Two more Broken Social Scene Videos-One is a Cadbury Commercial!

kwikle — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 14:21:56 +0000

Just when you thought I would stop with the Broken Social Scene…

This Cadbury Commercial using Broken Social Scene’s venerable Stars and Sons is pretty dead on. This is one of my favorite tunes actually. I love the bass line, it’s pretty stellar. The commercial is pretty whack with everyone showing up in a park from underneath umbrella’s, picnic baskets etc.

The lyrics for Stars and Sons from You Forgot it in People do sort of fit the commercial, though I will say that the comprehensibility *sic of the lyrics is always in question for Kevin Drew and Brendan Canning.

Then when you let it
You asked for nothing
Why don’t you share it
All of the time you live
There’s something out there

This way we’ll know, how far to live on
there’s one more avenue in this town
And in the red room
At a distance

How would you know it
You’re the same when you’re living
I don’t know it
It won’t be this

This way we’ll know, how far to live on
This way we’ll know, how far to live on

All of the time you wait, there’s someone out there
And no one can find all the red

How would you show it
You can see through the red
I don’t know it
It won’t be this time

Churches under the stairs

Remember when I posted the Juan’s Basement Jam of Churches Under the Stairs. Here is the music video. I think I love this one the most off of Brendan Canning’s BSS Presents album. And the dueling bands video is pretty awesome. It’s really interesting to listen to the comparison between the jam and the finished track.

Beware, Broken Social Scene will not relent, and neither will I!