Arcade Fire.... BJORK BJORK BJORK BJORK BJORK

I saw Arcade Fire live last weekend. Some of you may be shocked at hearing me say that. I'm still mostly indifferent toward them, don't worry.

I was all right, I guess. They have a lot of energy. This one guy was ripping out pages from a book in time with the rhythm of a song, which seemed like a weirdly empty gesture, like a really dorky version of smashing a guitar into a drum set on stage. Or like I put it that night, "he went at it like he was taking a sledge hammer to the Rosetta Stone, and it was just a few pages drifting mildly to the floor."

There were problems. It was neat to watch that many people freaking out at once, but I couldn't hear crap aside from drums and some vocals. They were playing organs and glockenspiels and freakin' hurdy-gurdies, for Chrissakes, but for all I could hear it might as well have been a chorus of kazoos. That's the problem when you get that many people playing that loudly at the same time in a live environment.

All of their songs sound the same to me, even more so in a live setting. That drummer sure does like his "four on the floor" drum beats.

I have more in-depth thoughts about them and their popularity and whatever, but I'll save those for when I'm feeling less lazy.

Basically, watching a really large band with some unusual instrumentation from a foreign English-speaking country that isn't England, with a guy singing some songs and a girl singing the others, I kind of wished I was watching Architecture in Helsinki instead. OK THAT COMPARISON WAS A STRETCH. But I like Architecture in Helsinki. IT'5!

CHANGE OF SUBJECT

I was going to be all coy about the new Bjork album and write my long manifesto about how it's the best album of the 00s later (ok, I haven't even actually listened to it yet) but I'm holding it here in my hands and I just want to say that this is some of the strangest CD packaging I have ever seen. And I've seen some doozies. There's a sticker on the front that's part of the artwork, that seals shut a sort of gate. Then after you either peel off the sticker and agonize about throwing it away (or agonize about ripping it in half in order to leave it on), you open up the gate, and there's a flap that folds up, and behind the flap is the CD. Then there's your liner notes, artwork, lyric sheet, etc., inside the flap that just folded up (now upside down).

As a side note to a side note, the liner notes are on that ultra-glossy paper that I like, like the last Four Tet CD was on. And... that's the only one I can think of right now. I think all those weird post card-like things in the new Deerhoof album are on them too. It's the paper that's almost slippery in your hands.

I'm looking forward to listening to it, even if there is a 7 1/2 minute duet with the dude from Antony and the Johnsons. Hearing about that was displeasing. Kind of like if I'd read "the centerpiece of the new Brian Wilson album will be a collaboration with William Shatner and Scarlett Johansson." I really can't stand that Antony guy's voice. Oh well. Maybe it's good anyway.