Another Live Webcast from the Invisible Cities This Thursday August 13th

(Picture by Pelmel @ Flickr.com)

So if you missed the first live webcast, here's your chance to catch Sadie and Han performing live on webcam again at their site - www.theinvisiblecities.com. Here's a cut and paste from an email I got regarding what they have in store for us.

We had a great time doing our last webcast with you all, and we're playing for you again this Thursday at 8pm PT. We're lucky to have special guest Tim Bulkley playing percussion with us this time around. We'll be Sadie, Han, Tim, and Goh this time, with largely minimal arrangements. Come to theinvisiblecities.com and join the chatroom -- we read the chats (in between songs), so you really can say Hi and make song requests and stuff. Oh! And there's a new tune we'll probably do... about um, frogs. and zoetropes. and bars. and stargazing.

Date: Thursday, August 13
Time: 8pm Pacific Time
Place: theinvisiblecities.com (our home page will have the video feed and chat room)

If you miss the show, we'll post highlights to youtube.com/theinvisiblecities within a couple days after the show -- there are currently a few clips from the last webcast up there, so you can get a sense of how it all goes. (If we can swing it, we will loop the feed within a day or two after the show so you can catch it at your convenience, but no promises on that one...)

making staying at home more fun than ever,
The Invisible Cities

For those who haven't had a chance to download the last album, it's still available free from www.theinvisiblecities.com. Check it out for some classy mellow sounds.

James Blunt - My Triangle

Not usually a big fan of James Blunt but I thought this re-working for Sesame Street was too good not to share.

Gregorian - So Sad

Way back in 1991, So Sad was a pop song that mixed Gregorian chants with pop sounds and vocals in the vein of Enigma(the man behind the band, Frank Peterson, was previously a member of Enigma). Enigma's Sadeness part 1 and the songs that followed are memorable for 2 things - the Gregorian chanting and also they were some of the first successful pop tracks that were written on DAWs - digital audio workshops - software for arranging loops and samples on a computer. Novelty back in the early nineties, DAWs have become the standard for music production in the millennium.

Ever wonder what the latin chanters are saying? Well here is a transcript -

Gloria in Excelsis Deo x3

Qui tollis peccata mundi, miserere nobis
Qui tollis peccata mundi,
suscipe deprecationem nostram

Qui sedes ad dexteram patris, miserere nobis
Gratias agimus tibi,
propter magnum gloriam tuum

Jesu Christu... Amen x3

The Pixies and music videos

The best pop band in the world that never was. The Pixies are huge full stop. Their influence has been acknowledged by many far and wide. Why is it then that hardly anybody knows their name let alone their music?

Personally I believe it's because the Pixies have never wanted mainstream success. Where other bands bent over backwards to get a chance at hitting it big, the Pixies thumbed their noses at the music distribution industry and kept on walking. One example of band's incredible moxy that always sticks in my mind is their refusal to play along with MTV. Just like that artist that gave the big finger to Google, the Pixies gave the big finger to MTV by refusing to lip-sync to one of their songs in order to make a music video. To this day, you'll be hard pressed to find a music video to a Pixie's song.


At one point, the Pixie's song "Velouria" was finding success on the UK pop charts and upon breaking into the top 40, the band was offered some air time on Top of the Pops but a stipulation for bands playing live on the show from the BBC was that they must have a video to include with their track. The Pixies threw together a 23 second video of them running down a quarry towards a video camera with the clip ending just as the band members reached the camera. The video was then stretched to fit the length of the song producing a slow motion clip that went for over 3 minutes.

To me, this is some of the charm that keeps Pixies songs on constant rotation on my ipod. Rare enough to find a band with the scope and calibre of the Pixies but also one with a similar degree of heart and sense of humour? Death to the Pixies!

Let's sign this post off with one of the Pixies better known songs - "Where is my Mind?"

Big Country - In a Big Country

"In a big country" is the song Scottish New Wave band Big Country has been best remembered for. Pretty unique for a pop song in that the band famously emulated bagpipes and other traditional Scottish sounds with electric guitars and the help of certain effects pedals (specifically the M-129 Pitch Transposer made by MXR). This track came off the album "The Crossing", Big Country's first studio album. The single was released in 1983 and soon became a hit in the UK, crossing the Atlantic later that year and becoming a hit in North America too.

An interesting point about the album "The Crossing" which may be of interest to vinyl hunters is that it came in a range of three colours - Red, Green and Blue. I'm not quite sure what the significance of the colours are but I do know that the track listings for the three different versions are exactly the same.

The Invisible Cities Streaming live this Wednesday 15th of July

Perennial Indie Pop favourites, The Invisible Cities will be streaming video and audio of a live performance from their website - www.theinvisiblecities.com starting at 8pm Pacific Time. The performance can be caught at the above site as the webcast will be kept on a loop for those people who can't watch the performance live. Swing by the site and check it out!

Sour - 日々の音色(Hibinoneiro)

I've never heard of this band before now but this clip is an awesome piece of eye candy that's too good to pass up sharing on the blog. Apparently it's all been put together from a bunch of fan submitted webcam videos. The result is a fantastic trip through various peoples' bedrooms and personalities.

Check it out!

Hop over to Sour's official site here.