thievery corp. sells out 5 nights in a row in DC
Secret_Chimp
915 Posts
Who does that??
Secret_Chimp
915 Posts
Comments
According to Whitelily, Animal Collective at the Troubadour in LA
What's weird is that now I kind of work for Eric at Marvin(DJ-related), I have seen Thievery one time at a big free show, I have heard their CDs/Lps here and there, and I still couldn't describe what it is they do to my wife. Except that a lot of people love it.
What do you call Thievery, D***? Are they a band? A DJ collective? Performance art? Dance music? World music? Remix dudes? Alla the above?
see: oscillator
see: focus on sight
see: all that we perceive
corny 'tax dollars related' joke here
They never blew my mind, and i was all up in that "Downtempo" steez.
Their first record was cool and they have put out some nice tracks here and there, but their sound is pretty dated, imo.
Their second album onward had too many sitar samples. At some point they just hired a guy to play sitars. Its crass exoticism packaged as cutting edged music. They had some Caribbean guy toasting about Babylon on one album.
MTV2 had their collaboration with some classic DC musician, Chuck Brown, showing the video after a short film about the go-go scene in DC. Isn't it an indictment of them if they're only pumping Chuck Brown after collaborating with those dudes?
still no sign, although most people know about it now. It's still a great venue, imo. They always bring in top notch talent and their Sunday house night is the my favorite party in DC.
pretty sure only one of the thievery dudes is involved with the club these days.
I know they asked a DJ friend of mine here in Seattle to borrow a couple pieces
of vinyl to put on the turntables while they were performing so they didn't look
like posers, which they were, at least on that night.
I have also seen such a thing.
Man, did that suck.
i dug that 2001 spliff track when it came out. i saw them live in Amsterdam years ago and it was a good show.
Never liked them.
A few weeks ago Eric was in my shop at the same time as Ian MacKaye and I reintroduced them to each other. For over an hour I was a fly on the wall as Eric and Ian talked about putting bands together, touring, future plans etc. They have different approaches in a lot of ways but they have both stayed local and stayed independent which not many folks can say.
Thievery has done a lot to support DC music (including helping me open my store and employing a lot of my friends) so I have nothing but love for them. Not going to see them five nights in a row however.
They tore up the show I saw. 4 different vocalists.
That's pretty awesome!
zero 7 puts on a pretty dope show, mozez is a great vocalist. Their first album is still an end to end burner to me.
thievery on the other hand I never got.
ha, yes, as soon as you get off the plane at Newark.
Are you going to any of the shows?
I saw them at the big anti-war concert that they organized on the mall a few years back, and I was actually quite surprised by their live show, it wasn't at all what I expected from what I had heard of their records. I still can't really categorize them, and I bet that probably pleases them.From the live show I saw, 'downtempo' wouldn't really be accurate.
I can see them selling out a night or two in their hometown, but five days? That's impressive. They've completely crossed over to the Starbucks/granola crowd or something, because there were not downtempo fans like that 8 years ago. I'm glad someone in the genre is killing it on the level they are, even though I would probably consider their recent output mad snoozy.
TM Juke, Quantic, Diesler... all brilliant producers that are constantly moving forward and exploring new sounds.
As a DC resident, it blows my mind too that Thievery can sell out 5 nights in a row at the 9:30 Club. But it is almost like DC folks get caught up in it, like seeing Thievery live is THE thing to do. Their only other local appearances are either at big outdoor festivals or benefit shows, so the relative intimacy of the 9:30 Club makes it a even stronger draw.
IMO, over the last eight years, each new record is a further refinement of their sound, the only real sonic exploration comes from collaborations with their guest vocalists. I can see how some would consider it formulaic, more product than artistic output. And those big warm dub bass lines are definitely very soothing.
Their live show, however, is a whole different thing. Its evolved from the core duo playing with loops in front of a large backdrop back in 2000 to a rather massive live band experience with really incredible energy. The uptempo tracks become delirious dance fests and the under 90 bpm numbers become deep swirling psychedelic dub monsters.
They're the real deal live.
It makes perfect sense that they have broad 'lounge music' appeal, but a crossover to the Starbucks crowd implies they've sold out. And they haven't. They're a fiercely independent label who've been embraced worldwide without being licensed to Hear Music. They get massive props for that.
That's a good record... their later full lengths never compared.
The ESL lable has been hit-and-miss for me over the years. There was the Nicola Conte "Bossa Per De" 10", the Thievery Corp singles that I keep picking up, but loads of blah after that.
I have rated the output on Wonder Wheel records to be superior in their "eastern melodies and mid-tempo beats" category. Its from the same people who released the Turntables on the Hudson compilations. Did ESL hire away Nickodemus? His song with Quantic and the Candela All-Stars from the I-pod commercial squashes anything by Thievery Coproration.
These guys might have helped.