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vienna teng
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Posted by: uh...ok
I've been hooked to her music for the past month - her first two albums have been practically the only music I've been listening to this entire time (because nearly every song in both albums is addicting). Now I've got the last song on her newest CD stuck in my head...
I still don't know why the local radios here in the Bay Area haven't picked up any of her music yet. She's amazingly talented - writing, singing, and playing the piano for all her songs. In fact, some of my favorite songs are just her with her piano, with no other instruments or vocalists. So for those of you who are into slow-ish stuff with good vocal/piano/musical and lyrical depth, check out her music and tell me what you think. 
http://www.viennateng.com/listen
(Yeah, most of the long-time OTS people that I know don't ever listen to this kind of stuff or anything remotely like it - but ... try it!)
Posted by: Cettie
She's extraordinary. Definitely the kind of music my husband and I listen to and I'm going to order one of the CD's. The song "Homecoming" is wonderful. Thanks for posting this.
Posted by: taco_fox
ITT: Post recent music discoveries.
I just found this Russian heavy metal band called АРИЯ. I'm diggin it so far, though I have no idea what they're saying.
http://www.aria.ru
http://myspace.com/arians
In other news, Iron Maiden's new album, A Matter of Life and Death, comes out in less than two weeks!
http://www.ironmaiden.com
Posted by: Bishop
wheee
if you don't know any of these relatively mellowlike groups / tracks, familiarize yourself with them.
or else I'll show you my other music.
Posted by: AltronHGX
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Originally Posted by Bishop
8. Zone of the Enders - Kiss me Sunlights (3:46)
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Good man.
Posted by: eleanorstang
Eh its alright.
Posted by: P0nix
Big fan of Astral Projection, hard to find their stuff at stores tho
Posted by: uh...ok
Bumping this thread because I just saw her in concert at Brown University last night. Despite the poor job the organizers (aka the hosts) did in terms of setting up (poor seating arrangement, terrible sound system, terrible lighting, and not even a piano! they only provided her an electronic keyboard... they even interrupted our applause at the end so we didn't get an encore).... she took it all away, and the only word I can use to describe the performance is "surreal".
The entire performance was just her, alone, sitting on the stage in front of the audience of 150 or so people. No band, no backup singers ... and it took many times of convincing myself that I was actually listening to her sing live, because she sounded as good (if not better) as she did in her albums. And watching her play the piano is just an experience that's indescribable - you have to see it to know what I mean.
At the end of the concert, all my friends who I had brought to see it are now in love with her. Everyone walked out with their own autographed copies of all 3 of her albums. (except for me, I already have all 3, but I bought a copy of the latest one just so I could get the CD signed  )
Posted by: justinious
Not a bad voice at all. I will sample more.
edit: Oh wow, the bass just kicked in on Harbor.
edit 2: not bad looking either.
Posted by: uh...ok
She really is just amazing. I'm already planning a trip with another group of friends to see her when she comes to SF on 12/23 ... great timing too, since I'll be home for the holidays during that time!
Posted by: shadysoldier
ya its good chill music.
Posted by: uh...ok
Updates! 
Someone has kindly put up a bunch of concert recordings on the website, so there are more songs to sample now. It's only too bad that the recordings barely do any justice to being there to experience it firsthand.
My old favorite, Eric's Song: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lvzZF2fIjHA
A new favorite, Decade and One, Christmas version  : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wyLGRCdlYGw
A really, freakin' good new version of Harbor: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HLd0RrRkFbY
And you can find the rest here:
http://www.youtube.com/user/Klaorman
and here:
http://www.youtube.com/user/viennateng
Posted by: pdnielsen
Too bad the rounder site was either offline for maintenance or an older link that's been replaced. I was curious. The Youtube recordings aren't very good ones. Too much background noise and static.
Posted by: pdnielsen
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Originally Posted by uh...ok
Bumping this thread because I just saw her in concert at Brown University last night. Despite the poor job the organizers (aka the hosts) did in terms of setting up (poor seating arrangement, terrible sound system, terrible lighting, and not even a piano! they only provided her an electronic keyboard... they even interrupted our applause at the end so we didn't get an encore).... she took it all away, and the only word I can use to describe the performance is "surreal".
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Live performances are still the best. Too bad she wasn't provided a real piano though. I am a music school grad myself. I've seen too many performances ruined by the hosts and/or bad instruments since I finished college 10 years ago.
A classical concert pianist friend of mine has a good solution if he's provided a good piano that is out of tune. Since he has dedicated himself to making a living in the music ministry instead of as a classical performer he has become a piano tech. When he does do performances he shows up several hours early so he has time to tune the piano if needed.
Posted by: uh...ok
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Originally Posted by pdnielsen
Too bad the rounder site was either offline for maintenance or an older link that's been replaced. I was curious. The Youtube recordings aren't very good ones. Too much background noise and static.
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Though admittedly the sound quality isn't as good as a soundboard recording would have been... I found these to actually be fairly high quality videos (especially if you compare it to a lot of other ones found on YouTube). You're not supposed to compare these to studio/cd-quality tracks, of course.
And I personally like the live versions of a lot of her songs better, because she always performs them a little different each time. (and perhaps my preference is thus because I've listened to the album versions so many times already)
Posted by: Shalome
Wow, that's really good.
Have you ever listened to any Regina Spektor? (another cute piano-based singer/songwriter) I got into her because of this song but she's got a ton of other, less "cutesy" songs on her Myspace page.
Posted by: uh...ok
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Originally Posted by Shalome
Wow, that's really good.
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Yay! Yes, she is really good, and it's so much more a pity that so few people know about her (relatively speaking), though her cult following is getting bigger and is quite devoted.
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Originally Posted by Shalome
Have you ever listened to any Regina Spektor? (another cute piano-based singer/songwriter) I got into her because of this song but she's got a ton of other, less "cutesy" songs on her Myspace page. |
Funny that you mention her... I ran across her name on the VT forums (yes, I'm registered on the VT forums ) the other day.
I just checked out the song you linked... I can't say I'm immediately liking it, but maybe it takes a bit of time to grow on you. Definitely a very different style though... it feels a lot more pop-like and with much less depth... but perhaps her other songs will be different. I will be on the lookout though, and maybe I'll pick up her new album if I ever run across it on the shelf at a book/cd-store.
addendum: Ah, I see, there's a whole lot of other songs of hers that's a lot more piano-ey and less poplike. Someone over on the VT forums recommended "Samson" - which looks promising (although it's definitely a lot more sappy-lovesong-like than Vienna's storytelling style of music). Her music seems to be a lot less mature, though, but that could just be because of her voice. The piano in her music also feels a lot less rich... almost as if it's only there to accompany the vocal part of the songs, and not really fully as part of the songs themselves. But oh well, I can't claim to be unbiased or anything anyway.
2nd note: Samson totally sounds like a song they should play on Grey's Anatomy. Actually, I bet they did.
3rd note: According to wikipedia:
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Beginning in 2005, Spektor's music has been used in various television programs and commercials. [...] "On the Radio" was used in an episode of ABC's popular Grey's Anatomy.
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Posted by: Shalome
Try some of her other stuff, not off the current "pop" album ("Begin to Hope" is the current album): http://www.reginaspektor.com/index2.html
And yeah, her music definetly grew on me.
Posted by: uh...ok
Yeah that's what I was listening to. I definitely like the old stuff more, but the music still feels a lot less rich. But I'm just acting spoiled... It's still good stuff.
Posted by: uh...ok
I just posted a bunch of her unreleased and cover performances on my web space. For anyone curious, you can download them from http://people.csail.mit.edu/calvinon/vt/
The list of covers (for the curious) is as follows:
Brian Webb - That's Where I'll Be
Brian Webb - Leaving Atlanta
Damien Rice - Cannonball (this one is very popular)
Dolly Parton - 9 to 5 (this is a half cover... they actually just play a verse and chorus in the middle of performing the Vienna Teng song, 1br/1ba)
James Taylor - Fire and Rain
John Denver - Annie's Song
Posted by: halfcat
It's not really the type of music that I listen to, but even so, there is no denying the talent. I like her voice allot. Very soothing.
Posted by: uh...ok
Heh, my own story with Vienna is... I've had some of her songs since back in 2004, probably. I had a friend who really liked Harbor and Lullabye For A Stormy Night, which led to me downloading them too because she'd get them stuck in my head whenever I was over at her place. But I didn't really bother to check out the other music - Harbor and Lullabye were simply 2 more songs on my playlist - even though in retrospect I really wish I did bother to look for more of her music (I really wish I had known about Vienna since the start back in 2002 actually).
In any case, back to my point... which is that I realized that until "rediscovering" her last June (when I noticed her CDs that I had bought a year earlier lying around on my shelf and decided to place them into my car's CD changer for my 40-minute commute to work everyday), I had never really listened to music before. Never really *listened*. Sure I've had previous musical obsessions (Utada Hikaru and Norah Jones come to mind most prominently), but all of those seem to be shallow now compared to the hold that Vienna's music somehow has over me.
As I said in a previous post, maybe I'm just musically uninformed, but her music is pretty much the only music in my library that I feel I have really listened to and connected with on a wholly new level. And now that I've really started listening to the music, everything else just starts sounding the same... or perhaps they sound unintelligent. It's almost like finishing an epic by one of the best writers in history (in terms of story weaving, prose, and all that jazz) and then trying to sit down and read a cheap romance novel (Danielle Steel anyone? Though perhaps I shouldn't make fun of her without ever glancing inside any one of her books. But her books just seem to be the type.)
I guess my whole point is to ask you to really listen to her songs, rather than just have them play in the background while you're doing something else and only half-heartedly paying attention or whatnot. For some people, it hits them instantly the moment they hear the music regardless of what they're doing or how much attention they're paying to the music (I've heard stories of people pulling over in their cars when they first heard Vienna back when NPR aired her in a special). For others, like me, it takes a little time to edge and sink in, but once it does, there's no going back...
Of course if the whole genre/type of music doesn't appeal to you to begin with, it's much more difficult.
Posted by: uh...ok
Oooooh, a new video of one of my favorite songs, The Atheist Christmas Carol.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=L4wVRcE5gIs
Here's one of the most popular tracks from her new album, called City Hall.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DsQ6vy9PB08
EDIT: Wow, this guy is awesome. He's posted a bunch.
http://www.youtube.com/profile?user...nypepitoneVideo
Posted by: uh...ok
Hey peoples, more Vienna Teng plugging. 
She and her band are doing a "green" (aka save the earth!) tour this Spring, more details here:
http://viennateng.com/greencaravan/
Check her tour page to see if she's swinging by your town anytime - and go to a concert if you can make it! I promise you it'll be well worth your time and your $20.
And check out some pictures from my recent trip to Seattle.
http://picasaweb.google.com/tanthal...nnaTengChopSuey
Here's us with the socks I gave her :
http://web.mit.edu/calvinon/www/v/mevienna.jpg
And here's Glen Phillips with his biggest fan:
http://web.mit.edu/calvinon/www/v/glenvienna.jpg
Posted by: uh...ok
Oh, and to the people who care about this type of music, check out Priscilla Ahn as well - she's also pretty good.
http://myspace.com/priscillaahn
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