Song of the Day Phoenix – Love Like A Sunset (Animal Collective Remix)

Phoenix at the Cutting Room Studios NYC for a KEXP in-studio session with John Richards
photo by Jon Vachon

Every Monday through Friday, we deliver a different song as part of our Song of the Day podcast subscription. This podcast features exclusive KEXP in-studio performances, unreleased songs and recordings from independent artists that our DJs think you should hear. Each and every Friday we offer songs by local artists. Today’s selection, featured on the Morning Show with John Richards, is the Animal Collective remix of “Love Like A Sunset” by Phoenix from the 2009 Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix (Remix Collection) on Glassnote.

Phoenix – Love Like A Sunset (Animal Collective Remix) (MP3)

I was feeling pretty good about myself — confident with where I was at in my life and my overall competence as a human being — that is, until I started researching French pop outfit Phoenix. Sure, I’d heard of these four bloaks and their electro indie meets classical groove sound, and even saw their record 3-song performance on the all-defying career make-it-or-break-it, Saturday Night Live. But honestly, anyone whose rise to fame involves goddess-director Sofia Coppola (she used “Too Young” from their debut United in Lost In Translation), backing Air on tour, and playing in a band with the twosome who would later become Daft Punk (guitarist Laurent Brancowitz played with de Homem-Christo and Bangalter) will forever be cooler, smarter and more remarkable than I could ever hope to be.

But enough feeling sorry for myself, Phoenix deserves every ounce of glory they’ve collected over the years. Growing up as childhood friends with band mates in Versailles, Mars (who ended up marrying Coppola) set himself up for wild success when he saw through the beauty of his home city to its bleak musical reality as a “place without a soundtrack.” Phoenix wasted know time and with the release of their forth album Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix, I think it’s safe to say the French city’s need of synchronized recorded sound is satisfied.

Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix is all around more layered and complex than the foursome’s last three records, which isn’t surprising considering what went into writing it. After moving to a 19th century Romantic painter’s studio, a charted houseboat, and New York City’s Bowery Hotel, Phoenix sought inspiration in Paris. There they stayed at friend and producer Philippe Zdar’s recording studio where he produced the album over the course of one and a half years: the first time the four recruited outside help.

Aside from a Grammy nomination and media magnetism, the album set the perfect foundation for remixability. Built from eight underlying songs, artists like Passion Pit, Soft Pack and Friendly Fires blended, twisted and distorted versions of “1901,” “Lisztomania,” “Fences” and more to create Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix (Remix Collection). Animal Collective’s take on the beautiful, transient “Love Like A Sunset, Pt. 2″ is by far the crown jewel of the record. With all their signature tribalized extraterrestrial sound, Animal Collective extends Part 2 into a four minute resonate, formless daydream. Mars vocals pace back and forth, in and out, beginning and sustaining the entrancement of what will become loops, reverb and pressure of piano, twinkle and drums that will tingle your brain and body. I only wish the two bands could create a full collaborative album or better yet, become touring buddies.

If you missed Phoenix at the Wamu Theatre on December 15, no worries, because they’re coming back to the Showbox SoDo January 23. In the meanwhile, check out more of Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix with a stripped down version of “1901″ live on KEXP in the Cutting Room Studios NYC:

Related to the theme articles：

• Audioasis CD Review New Bloods The Secret Life
• Today in Music Rap, the New Folk
• Song of the Day Pure X – Easy

Summer Membership Drive The Transcendent Power of

crowd of listeners at KEXP's 2011 Ballard Hood-to-Hood broadcast nike air max shoes
photo by Dave Lichterman

I was talking with the lovely DJ Michele Myers just the other day about the Summer Membership Drive (starting TODAY on Shake the Shack). We were having one of those passionate “friends-talking-about-something-they-love” conversations about why we think supporting KEXP is so important.

And I thought to myself, “The amazing thing about the KEXP Community is that I could be having this conversation with anyone who loves the station.”

It really comes down to values. I value the arts. I value the power of philanthropy, and that we each can choose how we impact the world. And I value what KEXP has meant in my life.

I’ve got a lot of medical problems. Way more than your average 29-year-old should have. But despite how undependable my health has been, KEXP has been a constant.

My husband and I have attended the free Concerts at the Mural together, when the ability to go to an evening show was unavailable to us. We’ve cooked together in the kitchen, listening to everything from the latest world music to rockabilly. We’ve gone to the farmers’ market on the weekend Tissot Watches, spending a mellow morning with Positive Vibes and Preachin’ the Blues. And we’re friends with the incredible people -– staff, volunteers, and donors -– who make this all possible. KEXP plays a much bigger part in my life than I feel I could ever pay back with my Amplifiers Club donation.

As the Summer Drive starts today Nike Air Max 90, I want to preemptively thank everyone who shares these values with me and makes the decision to support this extraordinary community.

And while you’re at it, don’t forget to vote for your ‘hood when you make your donation. Hood-to-Hood Day is the BEST day of the year, and we’d love to celebrate music and community in your neighborhood for a day!

Aubrey Bean
Assistant Director of Development, Annual Giving

KEXP at Iceland Airwaves, Thursday Mugison

photo by Michael Matynka

Örn Elías Guðmundsson, better known my his stage name Mugison, began his career with a guitar and a laptop. He studied in London to become a record producer, but soon his artistic ambition couldn’t be contained, and he struck out on his own. 2004′s Mugimama Is This Monkey Music? won Best Album (beating out Björk) at the Icelandic Music Awards monster beats solo, while album cut “Murr Murr” was awarded Best Song. Subsequent albums saw Mugi (as he is referred to in his homeland) experiment with his avant-pop Gucci Money Clip[/url, until 2008′s Mugiboogie, wherein he dropped the laptop and recruited a full band. With the beefier setup, Mugi’s music took a turn for the rock and roll, with just a twinge of folksy alt-country for good measure.

For an artist known to have his family and his townsfolk assemble the packaging for his albums, Mugison’s newest album is even more homegrown and is sung purely in Icelandic. Further endearing him to the already fervent Icelandic crowds. During his set at the KEX Hostel in Reykjavik during KEXP’s first international broadcast as part of the 2011 Iceland Airwaves festival (more info here), Mugison drew the largest crowd yet, as fans lined up outside for the chance to get in. As always, Mugi was beyond energetic and his band Nike Air Max TN, assembled within less than an hour of his performance, top notch. Check out the photos here:

All Cut Up

>> I have a shiny scar on my elbow from when I had an unfortunate scooter accident in Brighton (I crashed into a beach cafe and fell flat on my face,Nike Air Max 87 Mens, breaking my tooth and taking a good chunk of my elbow off...) that I like to refer to as my ickle keloid friend now because I'd find it weird if it wasn't there anymore.  Now that I'm getting to grips with Hungarian-designer Kata Szegedi's cut-outs worked into sleeves, shoulders and legs, something that she has developed from her last collection, I'll have to try and see if my keloid friend can rear its shiny teardrop-shaped head and poke through one of the cut-outs at the elbows.  I'm speaking about the jackets in these teaser pics of the S/S 11 collection, from which there's way more to come.  The fit has loosened up quite rightly for spring but retains the complexity in contruction that really made her 'Daniel's Road' collection stand out.  The roads that wind up and down the arms and legs forming fabric strip cut-outs have softened up so that the holes don't seem as taut and form fitting and the trousers have likewise cropped and dropped into fancy slouchy pants.  Like I said,Nike Air Max 95 Womens, this isn't the complete collection but from what I've seen,beats by dre headphones sale, keloid shiny here definitely could get used to be being framed by a quadrilateral shape constructed in silk.

 

Psychedelactica

,Breaking News

I'm not advocating anyone shoves a load of 'shrooms in your mouth to go on a bender of a trip to produce a print like this but if per chance you do and in your mind travels, you come across something like this, I should hope you have a photographic memory that's sharp enough to note this down.  Jean Pierre Braganza,cheap coach, through some trip or another and an intense amount of Photoshop work perfected this rainbow swirl fest that sweeps in and out through the 16 million colours or whatever that apparently exists on our computer screens...

Fortunately, he didn't just stop at the print to lose sight of shape because Jean Pierre incorporated his usual interlocking straps and panels to rein in his dresses and the print into something that looks like it would as "tight as a drum" (which is incidentally the right level of tightness for me...).   

...and for those that aren't keen on looking down at their dress only to be reminded of a painful night of psychedelic overdose,Nike Air Max 2009 Womens, JPB has also got options in black, his perennial choice of colour...

Bleat that Pleat

,cheap sports jerseys

>> Sometimes it takes some proper up-close fabric fondling to really geddit with a collection.  Especially when you laden a collection with knife precise pleats (if there was a deets chart, pleats would surely be challenging for the number one spot...) and colours that can't really be conveyed with teensy tiny catwalkingbeatsdreheadphonesbuybeatsdreheadphonesbuybeatsdreheadphonesbuy.com images.  I missed Mattijs van Bergen's S/S10 show, not once,Replica FLak Jacket, but twice (in Amsterdam and in London...) due to silly scheduling but I was glad to come across his collection in person in the Eastern Block salesroom in Paris.  The people there also didn't mind me touching up the clothes excessively, running my fingers through the ridges of the pleats. 

Last season,coach bags for cheap, Mattijs relied on bare calico and his signature copper pleated jewellery for a biro-scribble statement but this time round, he returned to the sort of excess that first made me fall in love with his graduate collection... it's jewel tones, pastels and a bit of gingham thrown in for S/S 10 measure and then weighted down with more of those copper twirls and pleats...

Fleeting Face

>> I'm still feeling like a horribly blasted jacket potato after my flight home - who knew you could get across the Atlantic in just five and a half hours - this unfortunately isn't conducive for catching up on sleep.  Bear with me as I know I haven't really said anything of Montreal,Nike Air Max 2012 Womens, the place where I went but I saw so much and also spoke to so many people, delving into the fashion scene of a city that is full of contrasts isn't a task for someone with a jacket potato exploded brain. 

I am just about equipped to say a few things about these embroidered facial coverings courtesy of Scott Ramsay Kyle.  Now, Scott has been weaving in and out of collaborations and consulting work for other brands and instead has chosen to go down the route of projects as opposed to full blown collections.  Blub blub for me who has always been a fan of his embroidery work from the get-go of his MA collection.  His latest project is a small collection of face and body coverings photographed here by Cassia Tabatini, which inevitably leads onto items with more religious connotations - I picked up the latest issue of Worn which successfully cleared up the glossary of the hijab.  I might be being too presumptuous by saying that Scott Ramsay Kyle was trying to twist the idea of an opaque piece of black cloth for religious function into something sheer, ornate and colourful... that would be me making this into something too cerebral.  Instead, I was reminded by a recent interview I did with Daphne Guinness (oh dear, that's an amazing can of worms I can't delve into until later...) where she told me of her love of decorative veils, covering her face with something sheer so you can make out features but at the same time you're kept hidden in some ways.  These sheer coverings by Ramsay Kyle,Replica Oil Rig Sunglasses, certainly fit the bill in both covering/revealing and are certainly not pieces for icognito attire,cheap jerseys, considering the amount of deets on the cloths.  I love that you can clearly pick out the colourful stitches of Ramsay Kyle's embroidery, which highlight facial features and abstracts them on the sheer organza cloth like fleeting demi-masks...