All posts by Concrete Opinions

35mmbeats, music

1 Year Down

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Wow. I’m usually not one to brag, but I’m feeling pretty accomplished today. What started out as a simple creative outlet, with very little direction, is officially 1 year old today!

Over the past year, I’ve learned that managing a music blog is a whole lot harder than people think. Other than the few collaborations with Brendan over at 35mmBeats, I’ve been at this by my lonesome, while at the same time working my day job and finishing up grad school.

There have been (more than a few) times when I’ve dropped the ball and posted pure rubbish and/or wasn’t able to make frequent or regular posts, but for the most part, I’m really proud of what I’ve accomplished in such short time. I know there’s still a lot more to the music blogsophere I have yet to grasp, but I really feel like I’ve got some good momentum going and I look forward to the future of this little creative outlet of mine.

Thanks to Brendan/35mmbeats, I wouldn’t have started this blog, had you not started yours. Thanks to all/any of my readers (I think I have few out there) for thinking my thoughts and ramblings about music are worth a mouse click. And a big THANKS to all the bands/musicians/artists that continue to create music that excites, interests, and inspires me to write about it.

Here’s to many more years!

~ Billy/Concrete Opinions

p.s. since this is a music blog, here are some of the songs i’ve listened to the most since Nov 21, 2009

[mp3] The Big Pink – Velvet

video

Arcade Fire + Spike Jonze

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Arcade Fire and Spike Jonze recently teamed and released a short film for AF’s title track, The Suburbs. The film is shot by Jonze in a Texas suburb (not far from where Win Butler grew up) and chronicles a day in the life of some suburban teens. For those of you lucky enough to catch Arcade Fire on the band’s most recent tour, you’ll most likely recognize scenes from the film. For those of you not so lucky, here’s a taste of what you missed. (if player below does not work, visit the source)

music

FINALLY CHAMPIONS

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November has been (and continues to be) a fantastic month. My SF Giants finally brought home their long-overdue World Series Championship, I finished my final grad school project (with a month to spare!), Concrete Opinions will be celebrating it’s 1 year bday next week, and my wife and I will celebrate our 3 year anniversary!!!
To celebrate the Giants big win, True Panther has released a World Series themed compilation of SF bands. Finally Champions features the likes of Girls, the Fresh & Onlys, Sonny & the Sunsets, Magic Bullets, oOoOO, Young Prisms, Ty Segall, Nodzzz, and more.
The comp costs a mere $1 and all proceeds benefit the charity San Francisco Coalition on Homelessness. You can stream and/or purchase the entire comp below. (if the player doesn’t work, try the source.
CMJ, hype machine, live music

ON THE ROAD: BATHS

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Baths is LA music maker Will Wiesenfeld and he’s headlining an upcoming US tour (he kicked off a mini-Europe tour today in England). The US tour kicks off Feb 4th in Dallas and ends March 5th in Los Angeles.

Baths is definitely on the rise after a breakout appearance at last months CMJ and a feature on this month’s Hype Machine Radio Show. Mr. Wiesenfeld will be joined throughout the tour with fellow rising acts, the Canadian dream-pop group, Braids, and UK beat maker Star Slinger.

Complete tour dates here.