Blog moved to www.neon-notes.com

I have to admit, blogger sucks. The webdesign just isn't working for a music blog that I want to create. Therefore I moved to a wordpress account instead (until further notice), with a notable difference that too.. so here is the brand new website you will see my future posts - http://neon-notes.com/

Check out the sleek tumblr page, which I prefer to the website itself.. :) http://neonnotes.tumblr.com/

Hot Chip, at the Highline Ballroom

 

After an hour and a half of waiting desperately in the static line and just seconds before we completely gave up ready to leave in angst, the organizers of the free Hot Chip show let us in. We were frostbitten by then. Hot Chip is a British Electro-pop band that recently released their new album One Life Stand. The show was sponsored by the myspace "secret show" and yes it was a secret to all but those with access to internet. So was it worth risking pneumonia? perhaps. I got a free poster, and pack of cool key chains. It was a good performance, although they do not make it to the list of my favorites. Hot Chip, I can attest, sounds better live than digitally. Their electronic sounds are upbeat and inspire movement of the body. My favorite number by them is Ready for the floor Watch them live, is what I would recommend.  
Hot Chip is performing at Terminal 5 on April 22/23

LIGHTS!!!

Awesome interplanetary music.. "Oh hey, I'm LIGHTS--a fairly small-sized, Canadian girl who makes intergalactic-electro music. What do I mean by intergalactic? I'm glad you asked. I try to find sounds that seem like they could have been plucked from Saturn's rings or a meteor belt." so goes her introduction on her myspace.
great comic book music!!

Electro-pop song stuck in my head

how does it feel to hear your songs on the radio? Annie will tell you..

Born Ruffians

They sound nothing like their name would suggest. This Canadian post-punk indie rock band's single "Hummingbird" has been featured in an Australian car advertisement. I like their remix with Four Tet ("I need a life"). Cute.

Camera Head Shark

Probably an addition to the list of bands with crazy names. In spite of that craziness, I find their single Kurbana Novian to have addicting properties. I can't get enough of the delightful opening piano chords!
Enjoy the Song.

Beautiful and gliding

Listen to Islands (below) by Siberian. It is soothing and tranquil. Given a chance I might check out their show at Monster Island Basement (128 River St @ Metropolitan Ave | Williamsburg, Brooklyn) this Friday (Feb.12th).

Ra Ra Riot

American chamber pop indie band with roots in Syracuse University campus. I love their St. Peters Day Demo. The music video for "Can You Tell" won Best Music Video in the 2009 Finger Lakes Film Festival.
Ra ra riot also recently performed in BAM  the Sounds of Brooklyn festival.

Chinese Bluegrass Electronica

Abigail Washburn is an American clawhammer banjo player and singer. She released Abigail Washburn The Sparrow Quartet in couple of years ago while living in china. Inspired by a volunteer experience for Sichuan Quake Relief in China, Abigail joined forces with Shanghai Restoration Project’s David Liang in March 2009 to create Afterquake. The benefit EP (a portion of each sale benefits Sichuan Quake Relief) was released on May 12, 2009, the one-year anniversary of the 2008 Sichuan Earthquake. Over the course of two weeks, Washburn & Liang recorded and produced the entire project, which features electronic mixes of student voices and sounds from the disaster zone, in Sichuan, China.

Sounds of the week

Four Tet
Javelin
Acrylics
Shy Child
Tanlines

Jose Gonzalez

Mesmerizing. Argentine born in Gothenburg, Sweden. Jose Gonzalez's trademark is soft acoustic with classical guitar. Gonzalez has collaborated with other Swedish musicians such as Sia as well. His remake of "Heartbeats" is better than the original by The Knife.

Meanwhile enjoy "Down the line" !

Bail out cost

TARP deployed upto $700bn to save the financial system. The final cost however turns out to be much lower. In August 2009 the bill was estimated to be $341bn, revised down to $117bn this month. The final number, according to the administration, is expected to be $90bn.. and that is almost equal to carmakers bailout + AIG + subsidies to homeowners. America did not even experience a simultaneous currency crisis. This really means that the crisis barely costs 1% of the GDP! 

To put that in relative context, IMF issued a paper - Leaven & Valencia - that examines all the past banking crises between 1970 to 2007 concluding that the average cost of such events is around 16% of the GDP. This paper has a good database so check out the tables that start from pg.32. We notice that although countries have adopted different crisis management strategies, almost all of them used emergency liquidity support and blanket guarantees.

Too good to believe?
Well..
1. The cirsis is rooted in illiquidity, not insolvency.
2. It's too early. The long term performance of the economy determines the ultimate amount of aid the ailing financial system requires. For example, in 1996 Japan's bail out cost was penciled at 3% of GDP. Today it is 14%.
3. Numbers are too optimistic. Perhaps the government accounting takes a narrow view of the fiscal cost of the crisis leaving out impact of the recession on the broader economy.