St. Vincent “Actor Out Of Work” from Lake Fever Sessions on Vimeo.

More here: Lake Fever Sessions.

I rotated this before I posted it, but for some reason it ended up sideways. I would try and fix it but I don’t have the time or patience right now. The video takes a little while to load, and it was already my second try. You’re just going to have to tilt your head sideways. I apologize in advance for the neck ache. But this song is awesome and not on the album, so I think it’s worth it.

Just got back from the St. Vincent/The National show at Slowdown. St. Vincent played solo, no band. It was more electronic based than when she played at The Waiting Room. She opened with a new song I haven’t heard and she played what I will refer to as “Bang Bang” which is a really great song that she played at her other show. I don’t know why it’s not on the album. Hopefully it’s on the next one.

The National sounded great on the Slowdown sound system, but I’m just not that into them. I was really there for St. Vincent and got really tired and didn’t stay for the whole National set. The crowd seemed really into them though and, like I said, they did sound crisp and full. I do like the drumming in a lot of the songs.

I am pretty much brain dead, so I will offer photos rather than my words…and a video or two if you’re lucky.

The show was AWESOME. Full review to come.

Local opener Bear Country:

Scout Niblett:

St. Vincent:

This last photo was taken during the encore which consisted of Ms. Clark grabbing an acoustic guitar and sitting down at the end of the stage. The smallish crowd gathered around her in a circle, and with no microphone and the lights completely down, she played These Days. It was amazing. She was also super nice and stayed around talking to all these fans. I love her even more now.

So, I mentioned listening to St. Vincent on my road trip to and away from Wisconsin a few posts ago. However, I feel that she deserves her own post, however brief. St. Vincent is Annie Clark and a few other musicians (including Bowie pianist Mike Garson), but mostly it is just Annie Clark. Clark (23 years) has played guitar with both Polyphonic Spree and Sufjan Stevens, but she’s obviously more than fine on her own. I don’t want to pick apart the album, but rather allow for its full natural ability to surprise and charm.

That being said, here are a few thoughts. Tracks 5 and 6, Marry Me and Paris is Burning, are a one-two punch. Now. Now. is really catchy and easily gets stuck in your head. The Apocalypse Song is pretty great too. These are ones that immediately come to my head — though I must confess that I haven’t listened to the album that many times yet (I just recently got it), but it immediately grabbed my attention for some reason — perhaps because it fit and enhanced the mood and feeling of being in a car, looking out the window, watching the sun set over the rolling hills and grazing cows. I must also say though that it still sounds good sitting in a suburban bedroom.

Clark has great vocal range. Her vocals in Paris is Burning echo Beth Gibbons’ (of Portishead) haunting delivery at times, but have an ethereal, formal soprano quality in other songs. There are beats, there are hooks, some eclectic instrumentation, horns, handclaps (always and epically underrated!), there are unexpected flourishes. The album displays a great range in mood, texture and tone. Your Lips Are Red is a nice, rollicking, dark song, then a few songs later is the more saccharine All My Stars Aligned. She’s also a very skilled guitarist. I highly recommend checking her out. You can listen to her on her MySpace page.

She’s touring, so check her out if she’s in your town. I’m really excited to see her here in Omaha at The Waiting Room. Bear Country and Scout Niblett are opening, so it should be an overall really good show.

I returned yesterday night from my family’s annual mini-Fourth of July vacation in Hancock, Wisconsin, one of my favorite towns in this country.

While there is plenty to write about from that adventure, and lots of photos, instead I choose to share with you the joy of podcasts. I am obsessed. The two 8 plus hour road trips allowed me some quality iPod time, and while I did discover some new music that I really like: St. Vincent and Fourth of July (from Lawrence, Kansas!) being two big winners…oh, and I really like the song Wet and Rusting by Menomena, which also has a slightly bizarre yet interesting video for it directed by Lance Bangs, which you can see here…anyway, while music is all well and good, podcasts are really where it’s at.

NPR and KCRW are the two biggest suppliers of my podcasts, including: Bookworm, The Treatment, Morning Becomes Eclectic, All Songs Considered, Book Tour, This American Life and Film Reviews. Other interesting podcasts I would recommend are KCET Podcast: Hammer Conversations, Filmschool has a few good episodes, The New Yorker: Fiction, and The Sound of Young America. If anyone has any other recommendations, I would be happy to hear them.

I’m not feeling in such a literary mood right now, so I’m just going to list the podcasts I listened to on the trip (all of which I would recommend):

From KCET:
David Foster Wallace reads from “Consider the Lobster”
A conversation between Miranda July and George Saunders (for the second or third time)

From KCRW’s Bookworm with Michael Silverblatt:
Vendela Vida (great having just read her book)
Dave Eggers
Greil Marcus
Chris Adrian
Kurt Vonnegut
Walter Kirn
David Foster Wallace

From KCRW’s The Treatment with Elvis Mitchell:
Judd Apatow
Sarah Polley
Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu
Amy Berg
Ryan Fleck and Anna Boden
Robert Altman
Fernando Meirelles

Also listened to Vendela Vida on The Sound of Young America

That is all.