Merry Christmas from Brasil

Hello folks and a feliz natal to you from sunny old Brazil. You remember that last year I posted an almost ridiculous amount of Christmas music. Well this year, I'll just give you one song, a new and very ramshackle Sufjan Stevens number, which I pilfered from here.

Sufjan Stevens - We Wish You A Merry Christmas

Have a splendid time, thanks for stopping by, and I'll see you next year.

Help The Aged

A few weeks I posted some new David Byrne collaborations, and David N commented that he was a good example of that strange cultural phenomenon that makes the young the most artistic and creative. Why is it that so many artists in many different arts become less vital, less exciting once they reach thirty? What happens to their brains? Do they become comfortable because of money? Do their expectations change? Are they tired of constantly challenging themselves? Does this make them lazy? So many questions.

I do feel that in the last few years the music industry has become less obsessed with youth, but only because they have realised that the grey consumer has disposable income and is a lot less likely to download illegally. It doesn't mean that 40, 50 somethings have become more creative, just that there is money to be made. I do think there are some exceptions though, and Byrne is one of them. I have loved his last two albums, and while they are obviously not as good as his early material with Talking Heads, that doesn't mean they are not tremendous. I will be writing about some of these exceptions in forthcoming posts, and would welcome your own nominations. To get the ball rolling: Tom Waits, Bjork, Caetano Veloso. What say you?

David Byrne - The Great Intoxication (live) (From the new album, Live From Austin TX)

This is the news...

As you may have noticed, I have spruced things up a bit round here. I hope you like it.

So I finally relented and joined a gym. We all give in at some point. But the time had truly come, I wasn't getting any exercise and I needed to shape up, because as some of you will know, once you pass that milestone of 30 things start to hurt more for no apparent reason. Twice a week I have punished myself in a room full of bizarre contraptions (I'm sure they have a rack). So after two weeks, what I have gained? Well, I look the same and I feel the same. The first time I went, I thought I was going to die. Now, I just think I'm going to have a heart attack. So as you can see, there is some progress. It's obviously too early to get any real benefits from it, and I'm sure in three months time I will be some kind of awesome muscular man-machine. But at the moment all I have gained is the knowledge that I don't just have a dodgy back, but I also have a dodgy knee and shoulder too.

I went to see LCD Soundsystem a couple of weeks ago. If you don't know, I love LCD more than I love pao de queijo, and that's a lot. So obviously they were awesome, and they did all of my favourite songs, including future classics Someone Great and All My Friends, epic 12 minute freak outs Us Vs Them and Yeah, and the lighters aloft finale of New York I Love You. I was particularly interested to see how they would go down in Brasília, as this type of band never comes here, and the turn out was pretty respectable, although the venue was ridiculously oversized. This town is the richest in Brazil, and social appearances are very important. You have to look good all the time (particularly if you are a woman) and you cannot ever show any semblance of poverty. People can be judgemental, and being seen in the right place is very important. The fact that an LCD gig would somehow become a place for these peacocks to strut both amused and scared me. There's nothing worse at a gig then finding yourself in dance mode in a room full of statuesque posers. What actually happened was that all the people with good taste in Brasília congregated at the front and cut loose, and the posers, in the main, stood around at the back.

Thanks to the size of the venue, there was plenty of space, so when I say cut loose, I mean really shake it, not get all squashed and shake your head. And I have to say, I really went for it, as I haven't danced for a year since Daft Punk. It really reminded me of the sheer pleasure of dancing to music you love, it's a real primal thing, difficult to verbalise. So I won't, but if you like dancing, you'll know what I mean. And if you haven't done it in a while, go on, draw the curtains and shake it.

My current gig frenzy continues with Tom Zé on Sunday (three in just over a month!), I'll let you know how that was next week.