Wednesday, October 03, 2007

And there stands REM

Stereogum lined up indie rockers to cover Automatic for the People. These aren't the play faster and less well covers we so often get. You may not like them, but at least they put some thought into them.

Speaking of music, I caught the National the other night. Mistaken for Strangers, Fake Empire and a number of songs that were new to me got the crowd going. I would say that it was a decent, but not great show. The stage presence was inward without the intensity of Interpol and a bit chaotic, not unlike the Arcade Fire and Broken Social Scene.

The National is part of the welcome trend of multi-instrument bands that create, as NBK puts it, distinct moods. While I like a straight ahead rock song as much as anyone else, the current crop of indie mood rockers are so much more engaging.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Pretty cool - thanks for the listening link for the Automatic covers. I am listening to Nightswimming right now. It was tediously slow at first, but then it picked up and I'm digging. I'm feeling all super nostalgic and 21 years old right now. I just graduated from college. I'm wearing my bubble toe Doc Martens and drinking a McMenamin's Ruby ale and...

Tripp said...

Yeah nice huh?

Wow there is something about the just out of college and drinking McMenamin's. I was at one recently and I was surprised how expensive it seemed. Strange.

Anonymous said...

I know. I hadn't been to a McMenamins in a really long time, and I went to one this year - the pints were, like, close to $5 (or am I remembering wrong?) Anyway, they were $2.40 when I worked there. And a regular burger was around $4, I think. And movies were a dime, and ice cream cones were a nickle... What's going ON?

Tripp said...

I'm pretty sure it the kids today. They must be at fault.

No, they are close to $5 which is pretty cheeky when the average pint around town is closer to $4.