Song of the Day #20 - Phoenix - Entertainment

After a few very stressful weeks of sickness and planing for the future, I am back! And with such a great thing! I was really thrilled to discover that Phoenix has released their new single. There has been no news from Phoenix for about a year and I was hoping that the great success they experienced with their last album, Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix, hadn't made them never want to make anything again. I knew they had started an album, but then what had happened? Thankful a new album, Bankrupt!, is just around the corner and the new single was released on the 14th and if you listen to the lyrics, the struggles with fame are evident.

As usual with Phoenix, I liked it the first time I heard it, but thought it wasn't that fantastic, but by the second time I was hooked. Phoenix are masters at making catchy tunes and after the second time listening to the song, it kept spinning in my mind the rest of the day. Somehow this is the elegant version of the Asian inspired stuff made by Coldplay. I am so looking forward to the rest. Great to get some elegance in the world!

I have written a lot about Phoenix in my blog all ready, read more here. 

Great Live: Phoenix Live. 30 Days Ago

Great live, indeed.

Sometimes one can be extremely lucky when it comes to buying records. In around 2006 I had this kind of look. I was a avid Phoenix fan all ready and outside a record shop, in the very cheep cd-s section; about 300 copies of a Phoenix live album that I hadn't even heard about. Price: 20 kr (About 2£). Of course I bought it, thinking that it had to be quite good, since it's a good band and after all it only costed 20 kr.
I went home, put it into my CD player and by golly! Firstly, a few of the songs are recorded in Oslo at Rockefeller, secondly it has turned out to be probably my favourite live albums of all time. It is tight, entertaining, and brilliant and you can feel the intensity of the crowd and what an amazing experience and energy the band is sending out. Makes me want to headband next to the stereo. They are playing, and it's beautiful. I saw them live a few years later, and it was exactly as brilliant if not even greater. Class, first-class.

Listen to it on Spotify

Great covers: Vitamin String Quartet - Beaucoup de VSQ

(Photo from the band's own homepage)

I am a sucker for great covers by string quartets of great pop and rock songs. I have also the last years gradually grown more and more fond of French electronica or electronica related music. In that last category I put the band Phoenix. Though they are strictly also a rock band the influences from being Air's backing band is very clear (I can't believe I haven't written about that either, more about that later then). Anywayys (as Ellen says it) when you mash a great string quartet together with brilliant French tunes it makes one hell of a masterpiece if you ask me, and was lucky enough to stumble upon it yesterday randomly in Spotify. The String quartet (also called Vitamin String Quartet has made lots of covers of everything and anything, so there will surely be more blogging about them soon. They capture all the little great details of the original details of the songs that make them great in their arrangements. And that is especially well done when it comes to French electronic music I think that has an amazing smoothness to it, or said even better pure elegance.
Here are some links to the brilliance: Spotify YouTube 1 2

Great photos from a great band

If you like the band Phoenix, or if you just like to watch great photos, you should absolutely follow their RSS feed. Wherever they go all over the world they take photos and post them. And they are often lovely strange and artistic. Yet another great reason to love them, I think.

The address you need is: http://wearephoenix.com/journal/?feed=rss2 in your rss reader.
I use my Thunderbird to do that for me.

I was just about to post some links to photos from the rss here now, but Google tells me that Phoenix homepage is dangerous, so maybe you should wait a day or two them. Argh.

Great live: Phoenix at La Blogotheque

If you have been reading my blog before, you know that I am huge fan of the French site "La Blogotheque" and of the French band Pheonix. Really it was just a matter of time before the two had to work together and what an amazing result!! La Blogotheque basically takes artists outside and around and let the perform and see what happens. My favorites so far have been Beirut and R.E.M's collaborations with them and this one is also amazing! Click on the La Blogotheque tag on the right side of this blog and you can see more posts about it.

http://blogotheque.net/Phoenix,5176

Features the songs: 1901, Lisztomania and Long Distance Call

Live: Phoenix, Rockefeller, Oslo

I suppose I should not be shocked, but I really am. I expected to wake up this morning with reviews in papers, videos on YouTube or at least one photo somewhere, but none! It's like no one went to see Phoenix last night. But I did, and I know about 1000 others did to. I know people took photos, and I would have too, but I wisely positioned myself in the back after reading a big poster with "This concert will contain strobe lights!!" as I entered the venue. I haven't really had any problem with strobe lights for a lot of years, but the two times I passed out from them in the late 90's are still fresh in my mind :) And yepp, there were strobe lights for sure in this one. I was fine though..

ANYWAYS.. back to the concert. If it hadn't been for the Blur concert in Hyde Park this summer. (I am not sure anything will ever top that), this would have been the concert of the year for me for sure. Part of it can of course be due to the fact that I have wanted to see Phoenix for 5 years now, but it was all I expected. They started off the show with "Lizstomania" and "Long distance call". Very wise moves. We were all putty in their hands by then. What I like about Phoenix and have always thought was what makes their distinct sound is elegance. I mean these people grew up in the same city as the worlds most elaborate and luxury castle was ever built, Versailles. Some of the has to have rubbed off on them over the years. There is no mistakes in Phoneix music. The arrangements are amazing, every musician plays like it's the last night of his life playing, and behind it all this elegant little touch that I think must be french. I have no other description for it. It doesn't even matter that Thomas Mars (vocals) as usual in his blue shirt, have a slight little french accent. It just makes it better and more distinct. The music hits you like a wall of excitement, joy and bliss, before they stop for a perfect second and than goes straight back onto it. Amazing stuff. A statement more than anything is that I that was in the total back clinging to a bar disk and jumping up every now and them to catch a glimpse felt the excitement to the very last nerve. Of course I know the music and so on too, but I was not the only one that felt that way. I am sure.

Oh, yes, and Noah and the Whale did warm ups! It was very very good too. The same perfect balance between quiet and loud and made you just flow away at times

By the time we came to the encore the whole audience were more or less grooving around. Strobe light, yes, but man so many other good light effects too. At one point the light flashes in red stripes over the scene, the next light flows slowly out in a cable that is wired around the edges of all the amplifiers. Beautiful and powerful.

I had read the setlists from the former concerts this tour, because I was so curious, and I had noted to my delight that they played almost all my favorite songs, and they did :) "Funky Square Dance", "Consolation prizes" and "Napoleon says". In the former set lists I had seen that they usually have played two songs as encore, but this concert must have been as special as I thought. They did 5 encore songs including two great acoustic versions of "Everything is Everything" and "Love for Granted". At the end they just kept playing "1901" and it all ended up with about 40 audience members rocking along on stage. It's been a long time since I have felt such joy in one place :) Sigh, it was a good concert. I have a feeling we will see them on a bigger stage the next time :)

The soundtrack of this blog has been this clip from P3-sessions about 5 years ago. It gives you a bit of the energy of them: http://www1.nrk.no/nett-tv/klipp/45821 Yepp there are a lot of clapping at Phoenix concerts :) hehe And they have only gotten better since then.

Here is Mr Mars running around in the audience in Stockholm. I think he did that in Oslo too :)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=93OrBFnoN_E


Here is a good one from New York this summer that really gives you a feel of the atmosphere:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r2HCf_CLMl0

Live: Phoenix 1901 at Letterman

Phoenix is reaching new hights and here they are at the David Letterman Show. Finally I found it on YouTube :D Enjoy!

New song and video from Phoenix: Lisztomania!!

AHHH! Yet another elegant, brilliant, catchy, sweet and amusing video and song from Phoenix. Let's hope they don't get soaked up in the US now, after SNL, but then again, it will teach all the emo-kids some class and knowledge of classical composers :) Ironically the director of the songs video is called Wagner too. Of for a quick walk outside :) Have to practice before going to.. No other place then.,. yes, France! :D

Here it is :)

Great live: Phoenix on Saturday Night Live

This might be the first time I have ever seen the boys of Phoenix a tiny bit nervous. But my oh my, the still do an amazing job. Let's hope they can bring some french elegance to the American minds ;)

Enjoy, people!


22.03.2013 The original video has since been deleted, but I hope you enjoy this one:

New songs: Phoenix - 1901

Ok, this is kind of old news by now, because I have been busy lately (:)), but still great news:

The amazing elegant beautiful band Phoenix is releasing their new album on the 25th of May, but has already put out the single "1901" on their homepage and you can listen to it or download it. I think it's really really good. Such a perfect production, it's like the song is jumping out of the speakers. And very cool, and takes a lot of self esteem to call the new album "Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix". But then again, they are from Versailles ;) Can't wait to hear the new album!!

Enjoy!

Great bands: Phoenix

Great introduction to a great band with the making of a great album. Can't believe I forgot this one in my top 15. LOVE IT :) - Phoenix - Alphabetical - French elegance.