Scissor Sisters + Germans = Hilarity

This doesn't really need much introduction, I'd just point out that the Wetten Dass host might be the funniest man with a curly mullet ever to walk the earth.

Enjoy!

The Clap

Two bad titles in a row!

Short post to notify ya'll that Clap Your Hands Say Yeah has revealed that their new album will be available January 30th. It's called Some Loud Thunder and will only be available via download from their website.

A few songs from the album are currently streaming on their website or myspace. Thus far there's:

- Love Song No 7 - an experimental-ish piano ballad.
- Underwater You And Me - a song that's got a scratchier but more refined sound than their material on their first album, really likable.
- Satan Said Dance - a treatful track that they've been playing at shows for quite some time. Nothing like hearing hundreds of people chant Satan multiple times in a smokey concert space. Holla!

Check them out on the CYHSY website here or on myspace.

Do you like it hard or soft?

I just read this title and realized I'll probably get pegged as some weirdo but anyhoo, it's relevant because I just read "The Dive From Clausen's Pier" by Ann Packer and in it is a passage that made me think a bit about music. To set it up for everyone, two characters are in the Museum of Modern Art - one is a young, naive newcomer to New York City, not quite schooled in the ways of the world, the other an older, more knowledgeable but not necessarily wiser city-dweller of many years. The older turns to the younger and embarks upon what he deems as his lecture on hard and soft art:

All art, whether painting, poetry, music, dance, or anything else, can be divided into two groups, hard and soft, and as pleasing as the soft is, the hard is always superior - it might as well be a rule of nature... Matisse and Picasso are just two of the most obvious examples. Think about Renoir: totally soft. Monet, Sisley - you could eat them with a spoon. Whereas Vermeer, who puts them to shame, has that incredible rigor. It's the same with music, with sculpture - I happen to love Beethoven, but he's romantic, he's soft, and for excruciating perfection you just can't beat Bach, because he's got that hard edge.

I kind of surprised myself by how much I liked this passage, and especially when it pertains to music. I would never dare to argue that soft music like Franz Ferdinand, Justin Timberlake, or Bloc Party are anything but thoroughly enjoyable - I consistently come back to certain soft favorites in my music tastes. But I would venture to say of the hard choices, the Thom Yorkes, The Arcade Fires, the Animal Collectives, the Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, the Les Savy Favs of the world - finding the great moments in songs from those artists is an amazingly rewarding experience. And unlike the quote from Clausen's Pier, I don't think it's the hard edge that makes them better, but perhaps the beautiful parts within the soft edge that make listening to them that much more gratifying and personal.

That was me waxing poetic. Enjoy...