Comments on: A Paired Example, of sorts

A Paired Example, of sorts

jmccw — Mon, 16 Apr 2007 08:51:39 -0800

Remember t h e s e ? Of course you do! Well, two new videos make for interesting comparison. Not Washington D.C. but Paris France. Not the subway station but the streets. Not classical but pop. Not Joshua Bell but The Shins. Begin armchair comparative cultural criticism.....NOW!

By: Dizzy

Dizzy — Mon, 16 Apr 2007 08:58:44 -0800

Playing outside of a traditional concert venue is the new playing inside of a traditional concert venue. This. Changes. Everything.

By: malphigian

malphigian — Mon, 16 Apr 2007 09:00:53 -0800

The same people made a pretty nice video along similar lines by Au Revoir Simone: over here at youtube.

By: Burhanistan

Burhanistan — Mon, 16 Apr 2007 09:04:50 -0800

It's kind of like they're sonically urinating on everyone who passes by.

By: miss lynnster

miss lynnster — Mon, 16 Apr 2007 09:10:01 -0800

First thought? Playing music alone in a subway with a hidden camera ≠ Playing in the streets while followed by a boom mic & cameraman holding your beer.

By: dhartung

dhartung — Mon, 16 Apr 2007 09:12:56 -0800

Your favorite band busks.

By: es_de_bah

es_de_bah — Mon, 16 Apr 2007 09:15:41 -0800

don't forget to check out this and this. I dug the nationals one especially.

By: chococat

chococat — Mon, 16 Apr 2007 09:21:53 -0800

I actually like the Shins but this kind of made me hate them a little bit. Especially the butchering of Alone Again Or at the beginning.

By: yeti

yeti — Mon, 16 Apr 2007 09:22:43 -0800

You could have linked to the Blogoteque, who actually made the videos instead of PFM and see all the others they've made. They have an iTunes RSS feed of their video podcasts too. Their recent Arcade Fire video was absolutely incredible. Also see Doveman's.

By: The corpse in the library

The corpse in the library — Mon, 16 Apr 2007 09:55:17 -0800

Why does that Arcade Fire link give me a warning about the certificate and Google Maps? (I am ignorant about certificates. Among other things.)

By: grapefruitmoon

grapefruitmoon — Mon, 16 Apr 2007 10:28:33 -0800

Oooh, "Gone for Good" is my favorite Shins song. I like this. I'm a sucker, really.

By: pokermonk

pokermonk — Mon, 16 Apr 2007 10:37:39 -0800

I was just reading the Joshua Bell article and practically in tears at how beautiful every facet of the experiment was... I wondered at one point how I might respond to the same thing or,say, the Shins playing outside the El stop I rush through/by on days I don't ride my bike to work. Needless to say, was really funny to see this... but yeah, pales in comparison to the Joshua Bell bit.

By: xjudson

xjudson — Mon, 16 Apr 2007 10:48:55 -0800

shins from my hometown, abq..seen a few times in this context..when they were flake and when dave was in scared of chaka

By: adipocere

adipocere — Mon, 16 Apr 2007 10:55:11 -0800

Similar to Pavlov's dogs, hearing about this Bell makes me just want to run away. Stop the madness, people.

By: StopMakingSense

StopMakingSense — Mon, 16 Apr 2007 13:30:13 -0800

That Arcade Fire performance is beautiful. It breaks my heart that these amazing Take Away Shows are going to be lost in a post people are going to skip as soon as they see "Joshua Bell" or "The Shins." All of them are amazing, but check out The Hidden Cameras, Islands, Jeffrey Lewis, Elysian Fields and Eagle*Seagull Really, just watch all of them. Thanks for this post.

By: es_de_bah

es_de_bah — Mon, 16 Apr 2007 15:32:06 -0800

thanks, yeti!

By: tarheelcoxn

tarheelcoxn — Mon, 16 Apr 2007 16:02:37 -0800

(the shins)++ (over-thinking music)-- Thanks for the links, all.

By: wemayfreeze

wemayfreeze — Mon, 16 Apr 2007 16:38:22 -0800

Oh, man, Islands, CFTPA, My Brightest Diamond, Okkervil River, were all so good!

By: drjimmy11

drjimmy11 — Mon, 16 Apr 2007 17:42:56 -0800

what a weird coincidence- 'gone for good" just came up on my shuffle today and I liked it a lot. Until now I had always dismissed the Shins because a) their music I had heard was pretty average and b) the whole obnoxious Zack Braff connection. The quality of this performance of is about what I would expect from your higher-end street performers though.

By: oxonium

oxonium — Mon, 16 Apr 2007 18:33:13 -0800

I know someone's going to say I'm missing the point, but couldn't they have mic'ed them a little better? Gone for good is one of my favorite shins songs, but I cut it out before it ended...

By: planetkyoto

planetkyoto — Mon, 16 Apr 2007 19:45:47 -0800

Can some video editor in the audience tell me if this is likely the so-called "Bleach Bypass" look, or can you describe another process for achieving this hi-contrast look without ruining the detail and textures?

By: HyperBlue

HyperBlue — Mon, 16 Apr 2007 20:35:16 -0800

StopMakingSense makes sense. Thanks for the prodding. Would not have clicked otherwise.

By: headless

headless — Tue, 17 Apr 2007 04:01:40 -0800

planetkyoto: from ~~just looking at the screenshots~~ watching a few videos, it looks like a cranked up contrast, reduced brightness, and some fiddling with (or just intentionally incorrectly set) white balance. The exterior day shots are high shutter speed and I think high (smaller) aperture which gives them a crisper, less filmy look. Also the gain may be set high? (usually happens on DV cameras when you try to make the aperture higher than it can go the camera will automatically turn up the gain to compensate). Seems like the camera is set on autofocus and sometimes autoexposure too. I would like to know what it's shot with. Wide lens makes everything look nice. I had to look it up because I wasn't familiar with the term, but "Bleach Bypass" is a film processing technique which relies on the actual chemistry of the film. Blogotheque is all digital video. Digital postproduction can imitate chemical and physical (like scratches) film processes (eg GRINDHOUSE) but cannot actually utilize the techniques. Here is an article about getting the bleach bypass look chemically and digitally. Reading a few articles, I would say this is NOT bleach bypass, although it is somewhat similar. The main differences are the lower color saturation and sharpness of the bleach bypass image.

By: planetkyoto

planetkyoto — Wed, 18 Apr 2007 18:12:19 -0800

Thanks for your insights, headless. I appreciate it.

By: LobsterMitten

LobsterMitten — Thu, 26 Apr 2007 14:50:51 -0800

That site is incredible. This post really didn't do it justice - there are so many amazing bands on there, and the videos are so full of life. Wow.