Books lead to a musical night
In the big city we all love, Columbia University’s Miller Theatre in New York City hosted The Books on April 9 for a sold-out crowd of almost 700. Luckily we got there in time to find good seats in the lower level.
Before The Books came on, Paul De Jong played on cello and Timonthy Andres was on piano. The audience watched with careful intent as they went through Sonata for Cello and Piano, Op. 40 by Dmitri Shostakovich.
Andres played solo for a number of songs more, including works by Ingram Marshall, Charles Ives, and two by Andres himself. His performance stirred up classical sounds with minimalist music and art, and was a fitting introduction to The Books.
De Jong and Nick Zammuto are The Books. Their shows are different than most concerts. There is a large screen on which they project crafted videos that coincide with the music they play. The videos they choose range from clips one might see on America’s Funniest Home Videos or Youtube, to self help therapy videos for one new song. Most of the videos are found from any number of old sources, and are a pleasure to watch as an accompaniment to the music.
The “found” videos are paired with Zammuto’s acoustic guitars and De Jong’s cello, while prerecorded “found” sound accompanies the duo. Together, the music and video make for a powerful, intriguing experience, which has been described as future folk.
They opened with the therapy themed song and video, which was hilarious despite including much thought provoking advice about one’s self and life. The video was mostly floating heads against a backdrop of space, and at one point a Twilight Zone-ish spinning black and white spiral.
Another new song they played, most likely called a “Cold Freezing Night” as per the chorus, was composed of various sound clips of kids saying the strangest things. Zammuto told the audience before the song that most of the clips were from those old Talkback toys from the 90s that let kids record their voices.
Apparently there are some being sold on eBay right now that haven’t had their recordings erased yet, and now they are being reused in The Books’ music. The video played with the song has kids playing karate, body builders, video games, and other random kid stuff. There was even a short clip of the Philly Phanatic jumping around. The things the kids had to say were maniacal, though it was impossible not to laugh. One gem is a girl complaining, “Why do you always get away with things? It’s not fair I tell ya. It’s not fair, I want to blow your brains out.” If this puzzles you, you can find the song on Youtube already.
The new songs were definitely highlights, though they also played a handful from their three past albums, Thought for Food, The Lemon of Pink, and Lost and Safe. The show lasted about an hour until they released us back into the wild of New York’s streets.
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