Concerts // Current

Video Showing People Getting Crushed At Concert

Crowd Blamed For Crush At Free Pop Concert 3:38pm UK, Sunday November 15, 2009 Damien... more

doggeman
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Teena Sings House of the Rising SUN

This is my daughter Teena singing to family favorite. Growing up, she learned to sing... more

tjneil
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Leona Lewis Needs Help (Photo)

Leona Lewis is a very talented singer and a total knockout. But, one thing she... more

MacKenzieFox
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19 days ago
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How Great Is The xx?

It's a strange time for the xx. The foursome of 20-year-olds just temporarily or permanently lost its fourth member, second guitarist Baria Qureshi, who claimed exhaustion upon returning to the U.K. after a string of organized and impromptu CMJ performances. Before they even arrived in the States, bassist and vocalist Oliver Sim seemed to foreshadow fame's toll with a single tweet: “[O]fficial jetsetter,” he wrote on September 11th. “[I] dont want to leave my room now let alone the country, reclusiveness just isn't an option anymore.”

It sure isn't, but there seemed to be a smile creeping into the statement. While the band might have been happy playing poorly-lit venues in middle-of-the-country towns, suddenly finding themselves shipped off to the continent and the other side of the pond for a tour schedule that Pitchfork’s Ryan Dombal said “makes me feel a bit light-headed” is still rather wonderful. And it's not like they have a choice. The supply isn’t the album anymore, even if this band churns out what is ostensibly a studio recording on stage. The supply is the show, and it’s in serious demand.

If the live show is indeed, as many claimed last week, just another listen of the album, it at least isn’t a .rar file. It’s a physical album with a few very valuable bonuses enclosed in its jewel case or record sleeve. (I should add that last week, I watched a tall, thin man strut confidently out of Other Music in the rain, carrying an xx LP under his arm.) On stage, the chemistry between Sim and Romy Madley Croft simmers on low interminably. The songs sparkle a little brighter and set a little firmer in our echoic memory with help from visuals: Croft peers out from under a wave of jet-black hair to watch Sim finish his solo, or vice versa: Sim, head down, gazes boldly from under his brow, waiting for Croft’s cue (see: Figure 1). Their voices meld into each other's seamlessly, though of course, because their singing often sounds like a sigh or a yawn, there's little room for mistakes, or at least, it’s impossible for us to hear them.

The songs can feel like a warm breath on your neck or a cold draft up your shirt, but each one is infused with lust, so even the dankest, most desperate atmosphere on the album—the bitcrushed, glittery effects at the start of “Night Time,” or the Burial-like somberness of Sim’s solo, “Fantasy,” have longing stamped firmly upon them, and they glow and pulse—“Fantasy” quite literally pulses—with that brimming emotional intensity otherwise known as adolescence.

Read the rest:

http://lizzyville.blogs.com/index/2009/10/determining-whether-the-xxs-xx-is-good-or-great-and-if-great-how-great.htmlIt's a strange time for the xx. The foursome of 20-year-olds just temporarily or... more