We took in as many acts as humanly possible during last week’s CMJ marathon and still managed to miss The Blow, who bowled over our friends in blogging with their minimalistic, urban electro-glitches and sing-song melodies. We’ve been listening to Paper Television ever since and now are wishing we saw ‘em (frowny emoticon). The duo comprises Khaela Maricich and Jona Bechtolt, the former providing vox (and being a performance artist), with Jona cooking up the backing sounds.
They’re sorta theatrical and love makeup masks (as you’d expect from a performance artist), but their CMJ shows were just The Blow and their songs. Check the tunes. (Also, if anyone can tell us what song(s) that girl-group bassline on “Parentheses” is pulling from we’d be much obliged. We can’t place it and it’s driving us nuts!)
Told you they loved makeup! Whaddaya think? If you’re digging it, check some vid of The Blow’s “True Affection” courtesy of Fader, who has also put up videos from Lo-Fi-FNK, Malajube, Shout Out Out Out Out, and 120 Days. It’s a great little refresher course in the marathon’s most buzzed-about acts.
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“but their CMJ shows were just the girls and their songs.”
Um, you do realize The Blow is a girl and a boy group, not two girls, right?
Jona is a boy. A cute one at that!
“but their CMJ shows were just the girls and their songs.”
Um, you do realize The Blow is a girl and a boy group, not two girls, right?
Jona is a boy. A cute one at that!
Parenthesis reminds me of Sinead O’Connor’s The Emperor’s New Clothes…a little bit?
obviously, you have forgotten about ‘laffy taffy.’ how quickly ringtones fall away!
also, the blow’s cmj show that i saw was jona-free.
I first heard of these guys on gvb. Read this [ http://gorillavsbear.blogspot.com/2006/10/parentheses.html ] article for a link to download one of their eps (good stuff)
I think “Fists Up” is the bestest song!
The beginning bassline in Parentheses reminds me of the Peanuts theme song…
I saw them live a few months ago. It’s cool at first but then it starts to get boring/annoying. They need to learn the beauty of a short set.
I saw them open for Architecture in Helsinki a month or so ago, and was really disappointed. Jona wasn’t able to play because he was “sick” or something, so girl had to sing along to a CD. But whatever BROZ
She may have been singing along to a cd but she put on the most brilliant performance that I saw at CMJ , Broseph!
haha don’t get me wrong, the show was still good, I just think it coulda been even better if both of them were there.
Is she still “creating a country” when playing live? When I saw Khaela (with Owen “Final Fantasy” Pallett working the iBook) this summer, she had us following the orders of our “governors” and shake pieces of coloured cardboard in unison…The music was okay, but was overwhelmed by the annoying gimmick.
man, I saw them (her) open up for Jenny Lewis all by her lonesome (apparently the dude is in another band?) but she still rocked it! HARD! She kept saying, “We’re The Blow!” which was kinda funny.
This record rules. And so does ‘Poor Aim: Love Songs’.
The show at the Fader’s space was the best CMJ performance I saw all week. It was just Khaela. Full review over my way.
are they just singing over the laffy taffy beat for true affection?
seriously.
I saw her open for architecture in Helsinki also. She did pretty well by herself.
since when did a dude join the blow? I thought the blow was just an alias of this girl from Olympia, WA.
http://funplusone.blogspot.com/2006/10/portland-1999-2004-from-indie-to-pop.html
there’s a link to some background/insider info on them
Yeah, Jona is in a group called YACHT that’s touring now
So it’s just Khaela by herself on the tour
I saw her last week, and she was quite good. Pics: http://udrivel.blogspot.com/2006/11/interlude-see-em-play-at-cmj-part-i.html
I’ve since picked up Paper Television, and I think it’s great.
yeah i’m pretty addicted to “true affection” since my friend told me to listen to this song she had.
that bassline from “parentheses,” to me, really smacks of that one kids song “locomotion.” it could just be my obsession with kylie minogue.
yacht is far more interesting than the blow.
like someone else said before, they’re ok upon first listen, but after that it’s just bleh.
Great site. I never know anything about The Blow but they have funny stupid masks.