Fanfarlo might be my new favorite band. Occupying a space somewhere between The National and Beirut, the music is just plain pleasant to listen to. Plus, their lead singer, Simon Balthazar, looks very similar to Ira Glass, how could they possibly fail?!
Oh, and did I mention that their debut album, Reservoir, is only $1? Yup. Marketing genius. You can buy their album through July 4th on their website for just one dollar.
This is the power of the internet. A relatively unknown band can release an album and then offer at as a loss leader for a limited time to build a base and get some buzz. I mean, I’m taking the time to write about it, aren’t I? How many others are doing the same? A quick Google search shows 1,670 hits for “Fanfarlo Reservoir $1″. On the first three pages, every entry is a blog post. I think their tactic is working.
Though, as my wife pointed out, it’s a foregone conclusion that the band can’t suck. This is true, but not as true as you would think. Because, niche as it may be, there is a market for sucky music. Remember, all it takes is 1000 true fans.
Though, these guys definitely don’t suck. So I think they’ll have no problem coming up with 1000. In fact, I think they’ll collect quite a few more than just 1000. I believe we’ll be hearing quite a bit more from Fanfarlo in the future.
I don’t think that anyone can argue that this guy has talent. Sorting through all of youTube to come up with hundreds of clips and then stitching them together to create an entirely new tune is nothing short of genius.
Where I get tripped up is in trying to explain to people what is going on. Is Kutiman a musician? Or is he a producer? Does it even matter?
We, as humans, love to classify things. Love to create order where there is none. Putting a name and a definition on something gives us the feeling that we have controlled the situation, somehow contained the chaos inherent in the universe.
It makes me wonder, are we capable of enjoying anything for the simple fact that it exists parallel to ourselves in that fleeting moment? And as new age and zen as it may sound, I believe we are not only capable, but we are at our best when we do achieve that moment.
Not to sound too much like a psychotic 13 year old girl but Bell X1 are coming out with a new album! Apparently it’ll be called Blue Lights on the Runway. There is one new song on thier MySpace page. It’s really good. I am excited.
I’m also exicted to be going to Ireland on Monday. Twelve days. Yippee! More 13 year old behavior!
Since I know almost no one reads this thing it’s easier for me to abandon it for periods of time. Still, since a few people do read it (I think), I’m sorry for my short hiatus. I’ve been a bit swamped with two new bikes (one is Gina’s one is for me, and anyways remember the formula: x=n+1; where x = the number of bikes you should own and n = the number of bikes you currently own) and trying to get the parts sorted for the Volvo rebuild. Which, I am happy to report is going well. I found a junkyard about 10 minutes from us that has two 1988 240′s that are both blue and both have lovely front ends. Maybe I’ll get it together and post a few photos of the damage and the rebuilding for all to see, until then just imagine it, it’ll help you exercise that lost childhood capacity for make-believe.
We had Máire, from Ireland, in town for the weekend. She’s on the beginnings of a round the world trip that ends with a job in Australia (maybe forever?!) We also somehow managed to get Orla down from DC (another Irish lady) for at least one day. It was nice to have some much Irish around for the weekend, and to top it all off, we headed to Charleston WV for NPR’s Mountain Stage. Paddy Casey and Bell X1 were two of the five acts on last Sunday night. Who knew. Two Irish groups in one night, in the middle of nowhere in WV! Both played immaculately and the other groups were actually quite good too, though, Chris Thile’s hair is a little over the top. I guess his super-sonic mandolin playing made up for the slightly metro hair.
On the drive up Máire was teaching Claire a few phrases in Irish (the language, Gaelic to some) and what do you know, after the show, Paddy Casey is walking out for a smoke and Claire spins around and yells, “Tá tú go h álainn!”, which means “You’re lovely!”, tainted with a slightly Germanic accent (must be her last name…). Paddy wheels around, looks horribly confused and then laughs. Nice bloke, he talked with us for a while and even let Claire try out her broken, newly learned Irish phrases. I think that the only regret of the night was not being able to stay in Charleston and hang out with Paddy and Bell X1…well, at least can pretend that it would’ve happened.
Continuing with the trend, Lucy (from Dublin) will be here this weekend for the next week and a half! Can’t wait to see her, it’ll be nice to have a little more than a weekend to cram everything into. I know Gina is looking forward to it as well.
Apologies for the somewhat dry, boring and blow by blow-ness of this post but screw you. I do what I want. More later.
This is one of the best music projects I’ve seen in a long time. The concept is amazingly simple. Grab a musician, and put on an impromptu concert in the middle of the street…Check it out here. If you’re looking for new music, check out Beirut’s Take-Away Show, it’s incredible. Plus, it spawned an entire album of songs coupled with Take-Away Shows, all over Brooklyn. The album’s called The Flying Club Cup. You can watch the video’s on the site. Amazing. Really. Check it all out.
