I created an email account for the blog back in July, theuntzandtheemo@gmail.com, set up what I thought was email forwarding into my regular gmail account, and then just assumed no one was contacting me because nothing was coming through. I used to work at Google, so you’d think I could handle the simple concept of gmail forwarding, but apparently not. I logged into the blog account on a whim on Sunday night and had over a hundred emails waiting for me – music recommendations, artist plugs from labels, and to my delight even few thank you from artists themselves. Totally floored, all was happily (if tardily) received.
Today’s Untz: Wicked Game / James Vincent McMorrow
‘the world was on fire / no one could save me but you’
I saw JVMM for a second time last Friday night, appropriately rolling into Slim’s with a group of six Irish friends, and soon found myself knee deep in whiskey and beautiful music. James played all of my favorites from his album as well as his new cover of Higher Love, and then closed out his encore with this cover of the Chris Issak classic. Stripped down to just that voice and a little guitar, the result was tragically stirring. The house fell silent.
You know when you are watching a soccer game, and both teams are playing quite well, but then someone ties things up at the very end of the game and for the last few minutes everyone is playing like someone hit fast forward – with extreme focus, intensity, drive – and you wonder why either of the teams didn’t display this prowess earlier in the game and annihilate the other team all along? That is how I felt at the end of this show. James played beautifully throughout the night, but at the end some sort of fire got lit that brought things to an entirely new level. Stunning. #emo
Today’s Untz: Walking on a Dream / Empire of the Sun (Oxford remix)
‘we are always running for the thrill of it thrill of it, thrill of it’
Oxford shakes up Empire of the Sun’s signature track into something made to be played on the beach, and the head bob here is unavoidable. This is the first I have heard of French artist Antoine Rigail, pulled from my friend’s BlogJuice but hope to be hearing more soon. For the thrill of it. #untz
theuntzandtheindie 