Culture!


Yesterday was productive! I woke up early and went up to the Museum of Television and Radio for the KEXP sessions. Phoenix was up first. They were awesome. Very stripped down and simple, but for a group of guys who were sprawled out on chairs sleeping minutes up until they went on air live, they sounded remarkably tight and focused. If you goto the KEXP archives page, click on Wednesday, April 6th at 7:32AM. I keep on trying to listen to the albums but end up just going back and re-listening to this session again. If anyone knows how to get this whole thing onto MP3, lemme know.

After a quick breakfast break I went back up see an equally tired and hung-over Dogs Die in Hot Cars. They, unfortunately, played and interviewed a bit more like they looked, but were still a lot of fun. Definitely got better as they went on. Check out their session at Wednesday, April 6th at 9:31AM

Went back downstairs to enjoy the day, walk around the block, and grab some lunch before The Fiery Furnaces played. Another amazing set. Played three new songs. At least one had never been performed ever before. I liked it. I liked them all. It was just Matt and Eleanor acoustic, and while the interview was a little much for me, the music was really memorable. Take a listen at Wednesday, April 6th at 11:01AM. Fluxblog also posted an MP3 of the final song they played, and had some comments on both Phoenix and the Fiery Furnaces sets. One Louder has a review as well.

So after that, it was amazingly only about 2:30 in the afternoon. During my brief walk earlier, I realized that the MOMA was literally around the corner from the Museum of TV and Radio, so we went, since I hadn't been since its reopening.

I was really blown away by the place. I've been to many of the top museums around the world. Some of them twice. I can honestly say nothing even comes close to the New MOMA. No contest. The Musee D'orsay had always been my favorite, but this place trumps it tenfold. I'm very proud to have it in my hometown.

The art is perfect. I've NEVER been so overwhelmed by the amount of stuff I actually looked at. I'm pretty picky when it comes to art that genuinely interests me, but I would say that 80% of the stuff in there I was impressed by. What stood out even from the amazing art was the actual building itself. Every room with a window, I found myself running up to look outside. They so perfectly framed the cityscapes. It was like a Red Grooms painting come to life.

Jen's got lots more pictures from the museum, as well as the latter two studio sessions. Check em out.