Nick Zammuto and Paul de Jong, a.k.a. The Books, were pretty brilliant last night at MASS MoCA in North Adams. Zammuto sang plainly, strummed acoustic guitar, both played electric bass thumps, and de Jong added the necessary melody and power with the cello. While sound samples pumped out of speakers as well, the organic instrumentation prevailed. The real story was the video work, a bizarre combination of nature scenes, self-help tapes, and home movies set to the frantic audio component. One of my favorite pieces, which I believe was called "A Cold Freezin' Night," featured awkward samples strictly taken from old Talkboy tapes. They performed the video I posted, "Classy Penguin," pretty flawlessly, as well as an encore of Nick Drake's "Cello Song" (found on that Dark Was the Night compilation with Jose Gonzalez vocals - listen here) and a creepy ABC song Zammuto wrote for his kid, which Zammuto admitted he was terrified of. It was great to see them play their first show in two years in their hometown where they knew people in the crowd, the whole show very relaxed. They've got a few more shows coming up in April, including two in one night at the Institute of Contemporary Art in Boston. Also of note: they are certainly releasing a new full-length later this year. This show at MASS MoCA was a trial run of sorts, getting them used to performing their new work (they worked with five new numbers along with older pieces).
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Completely Unrelated:
Heard this on the radio at work today and freaked out.
Sweet Leaf - Black Sabbath
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