Jessica Miller has written for Jewcy.com, The Jew and the Carrot, and is an avid digital music explorer. She holds a B.A. in religion from Barnard College, and blogs regularly on her own site, The Boomerang Blog.Most music enthusiasts will agree that there is a big difference between hearing a band on a CD and seeing them perform live. While it might have been the recording that got you to the show, it’s often the live concert experience that transforms an artist you like into your favorite band.
But since many of us don’t always have the time or ticket funds to see as many concerts as we’d like, here are seven sites that will bring all the intimacy of a live show to your desktop. Their combination of rare live recordings, unusual video locations, and behind-the-scenes snapshots are sure to please any music fan. So get ready to fall in love with your favorite bands all over again, and to discover some new ones along the way.
If you’re in the market for charming, offbeat music videos, La Blogotheque is a must-see nexus of musicianship and cinematography. The French website produces weekly podcasts of unconventional music videos called “Take Away Shows.” These to-go cups of music video goodness feature well-known artists playing in unusual surroundings.
For instance, Take Away Show director, Vincent Moon, put the band Arcade Fire, instruments and all, into a freight elevator, and had them play their single, “Neon Bible” — no small feat, considering there are about nine people in the group. Other Take Away Show highlights include unsuspecting café goers chanting “Blake’s got a new face!” along with Vampire Weekend, Jason Mraz jamming with an elderly Bulgarian street busker, and Andrew Bird acting as the veritable pied piper of Montmartre.
For instance, Take Away Show director, Vincent Moon, put the band Arcade Fire, instruments and all, into a freight elevator, and had them play their single, “Neon Bible” — no small feat, considering there are about nine people in the group. Other Take Away Show highlights include unsuspecting café goers chanting “Blake’s got a new face!” along with Vampire Weekend, Jason Mraz jamming with an elderly Bulgarian street busker, and Andrew Bird acting as the veritable pied piper of Montmartre.
The Black Cab Sessions takes all the fun and eccentricity of La Blogotheque and puts it on wheels. Similar to the Take Away Shows’ “In a Van Sessions” series, this website transforms the taxicab into a moving recording studio for our audiovisual pleasure.
While Jens Lekman’s kalimba rendition of his song “Black Cab” is certainly the most pertinent video on the site, there are loads of musical goodies here, with performances from the likes of Jamie Lidell, Death Cab for Cutie, Badly Drawn Boy, and many more.
Daytrotter is a delicious little website run out of a recording studio in Illinois. It aims to capture unreleased songs, alternate versions of tracks, and the little spontaneous moments that occur in the recording process.
Thanks to the many working artists who pass through the studio while on tour, Daytrotter has racked up a truly impressive vault of live audio recordings (all available for free download, by the way) with artists ranging from The Swell Season, to Raphael Saadiq, to Grizzly Bear, to Carly Simon — and the list grows longer almost by the day. Each unique post is supplemented with gorgeous written descriptions, and colorful, hand-drawn artist portraits that make you feel like you’re witnessing something precious. Daytrotter is definitely a great site to get lost in.
Thanks to the many working artists who pass through the studio while on tour, Daytrotter has racked up a truly impressive vault of live audio recordings (all available for free download, by the way) with artists ranging from The Swell Season, to Raphael Saadiq, to Grizzly Bear, to Carly Simon — and the list grows longer almost by the day. Each unique post is supplemented with gorgeous written descriptions, and colorful, hand-drawn artist portraits that make you feel like you’re witnessing something precious. Daytrotter is definitely a great site to get lost in.
With all those musicians traipsing through the NPR offices, you have to imagine what it would be like to be a fly on a wall there. Luckily, All Songs Considered Host/Creator Bob Boilen is now making it possible with his “Tiny Desk Concerts.” These “concerts” are literally songs performed at, on, behind, and in front of Boilen’s tiny office desk.
Although the settings are not romantic in the traditional sense, many special moments have been created there by the likes of Moby, Rodrigo y Gabriela, Thao Nguyen, and Jakob Dylan.
Although the settings are not romantic in the traditional sense, many special moments have been created there by the likes of Moby, Rodrigo y Gabriela, Thao Nguyen, and Jakob Dylan.
Another Blogotheque-inspired website, They Shoot Music – Don’t They is a video blog powered by Viennese cinematographers and music enthusiasts who aim to turn their favorite urban locations into great performance stages. In this way, TSMDT is able to not only create beautiful musical moments, but also bring attention to sites of cultural importance within their city.
For instance, the brains behind TSMDT try to bring attention to the Viennese region of Erdberg (one of the oldest settlements in Vienna, but now an underappreciated industrial center) by letting I’m From Barcelona frontman Emanual Lundgren roam about it on film. What ensues is the cutest musician-canine interaction you have ever seen.
For instance, the brains behind TSMDT try to bring attention to the Viennese region of Erdberg (one of the oldest settlements in Vienna, but now an underappreciated industrial center) by letting I’m From Barcelona frontman Emanual Lundgren roam about it on film. What ensues is the cutest musician-canine interaction you have ever seen.
Most of us know Daryl Hall as half of the 70s and 80s pop duo Hall & Oates. But what you might not know is that Daryl Hall is also the brains behind a web show sensation called Live From Daryl’s House.
Hall first got the idea to post videos online of himself jamming at home with his friends three years ago. Of course, when you’re Daryl Hall, your friends include Toots and the Maytals, Smokey Robinson, KT Tunstall, and The Bacon Brothers. My personal favorite installment is the set he did with Chromeo that ended up going viral. It helps if you’re already a Hall & Oates fan, but it’s not required to enjoy this site.
Hall first got the idea to post videos online of himself jamming at home with his friends three years ago. Of course, when you’re Daryl Hall, your friends include Toots and the Maytals, Smokey Robinson, KT Tunstall, and The Bacon Brothers. My personal favorite installment is the set he did with Chromeo that ended up going viral. It helps if you’re already a Hall & Oates fan, but it’s not required to enjoy this site.
From the Basement is the work of producer and Radiohead collaborator Nigel Godrich. This site started as just a mere collection of audience-free music performances, but was soon picked up by television networks both in the U.S. and Great Britain. The original website can still stand alone on the moments and music it helped to foster, by recording artists such as Gnarls Barkley, Beck, Damien Rice, and The Dead Weather.
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