Video Free Silver Lake: A Ghost Haunts This Building, The Luthier, Suede, Henry Clay People, Rökkurró

By Jed

1) A Ghost Haunts This Building is the new electronic project from married couple singer-guitarist Mitch Cichocki (singer/guitarist) and Emma Kathan (singer/drummer), formerly of L.A.'s Black Pine (but have subsequently relocated to Florida).  The video for "Every Night" alternates of Kathan riding in a car (either to or from) a party, where a dozen or so drowsy women lounge and occasionally dance. Emma and Mitch are currently working on a new EP under the new name. If look forward to it, if it sounds like "Every Night."

2) Photographer/Director Ben Hoste just finished (and by "just" I mean last week) a documentary short about classical guitar building Jack Sanders.  It is entitled  The Luthier (a new word for me, which means "person who makes stringed instruments"), and does a wonderful job visualizing the process of building one of these guitars, narrated by Sanders himself.  See some additional images by Hoste from Sanders' studio here.  It's a really pretty piece, and only 7 minutes long, so I recommend giving it a watch.

3) Not to disappoint, but I do not intend at this point to scour the internet for acceptable videos of the many incredible performances at Coachella I saw over the weekend (highlights?: Warpaint, Crystal Castles, Robyn, Afrojack, Arcade Fire, New Pornographers, Scissor Sisters, Ratatat, PJ Harvey, and more). And also Suede (or the London Suede for all you American readers), for whom I was only familiar with one song ("Animal Nitrate" -- perhaps their greatest hit?) before their Coachella show (part of their recent reunion since a 2003 breakup).  I was persuaded to check them out (despite competing time slots with Animal Collective, Empire of the Sun, and Arcade Fire) by my friend from the Short and Sweet NYC who had flown out to L.A. for the historic event.  Again, I'm not terribly familiar with their work, but the crowd around me appeared ecstatic to be either finally seeing Suede for the first time or (for the many grayhairs in the audience) seeing them for the first time -- all singing along to all of the songs (even apparently to some of the new ones). At 43, lead vocalist Brett Anderson strutted around the stage, often pointing at his own chest, demanding the crowd's adoration, which was generously given. Here's a video taken from about 2 feet to my right of "Animal Nitrate". Seismic shockwaves from a tentful of people in their late 30's and early 40's dancing and singing are responsible for the sometimes shakiness of the image.

4) I consider it a bit of a personal triumph that I was able to get a room of people awake, dressed, coffee-ed, driven to the Empire Polo Fields, and walked out to the tents by 1:15 in order that I see L.A.'s Henry Clay People who do not disappoint. Sad to say, at this early hour, the crowd didn't quite match up to those spread out to see the Arcade Fire, but the HCP fans I spotted were unwaveringly devoted -- I noticed at least 10 people singing along. All in all a great show (including the closer cover of Springsteen's "Born to Run" (introduced as "one of the greatest rock songs ever written")), so a shame I didn't capture a video of it. Thank goodness the folks at KROQ took some high quality video of the HCP playing on the Coachella stage.

 

5) To close, Iceland's Rökkurró did a great live version of their song "Sjónarspil" off the hit album Í Annan Heim for The Line of Best Fit. Enjoy the Icelandic singing, as they are one of the (not all) Icelandic bands that don't pander to us in English.

Rökkurró - Sjónarspil (The Line of Best Fit Session) from The Line Of Best Fit on Vimeo.

Want to help me finally cut off my Coachella bracelet? Email me at RFSLJed at Gmail dot com and meet me with a pair of scissors.