Sound & Vision: Cold At Night





Todd Hido, Court & Seventh


Sound: "Don't" by Court & Seventh
Vision: Homes at Night: Apartment #2844 by Todd Hido


Madison, WI-based Court & Seventh make delicate, ethereal songs where the percussion and organ are out in front and the guitar and vocals (the typical stars of rock stardom) are subtle, sonorous things. As with some of my favorite bands, the whole here is greater than the sum of the parts.

Todd Hido's photographs are nearly always haunting, none more so than his series of homes photographed at night. Soft, lonely, and quietly composed, Hido's images are stunning in their simplicity. We paired Court & Seventh with this particular image because, well, Madison, WI is one cold city.

Comments

BJK said…
i really like the song... it reminds me a little bit of that sunset rubdown band. and something else i can't figure out. great use of a casio (?) beat. really nice warmth to the recording, too.

and that photo series is great! there's something really voyeuristic and almost chilling about them. it's interesting, because there are a few in which there aren't any lights on in the houses/apartments, and those ones evoke such a different feeling. it's interesting how the lights focus the narrative of the photographs and lend the voyeuristic quality.

the photos reminded me of the cover on yo la tengo's and then nothing turned itself inside out. i thought it might have been done by him, so i looked it up and it was shot by "surrealist photographer and yale professor" gregory crewdson. kind of a similar feel: here and here.
NAB said…
Oh, I like the Crewdson photos, too. And you're completely right about the lights in the Hido shots. I also noticed that there's a completely different tone to the shots where there's attenuation in the atmosphere, primarily moisture. Some are really crisp and clear (like the one in this post) while others catch the fog, which catches the light in a way that could be creepy, but isn't really at all.
Anonymous said…
Great Song, play NYC!
Anonymous said…
I just wanted to take the time to thank Nate Brown and YSC for allowing us this beautiful showcase for our song. I think that the pairing works better than we imagined... Just a word to the (casio?) comment, the blips are from the auto percussion feature on our old Lowery organ, mutated with the help of a Boss-303. If anyone is interested in some more noise it can be found here. http://www.myspace.com/courtand7th

We are just about the most apathetic group of men you'll find in terms of self promotion so it is always with great admiration for the effort of work of others when we say thank you. Yours, Gabe(Court & Seventh)

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