This is apparently Pavement's 2ND SHOW EVER. Holy fuck. And it is finally surfacing now, thanks to a Soundcloud upload of a cassette tape recording by Maria T (current WPRB DJ), who was at the show. A Crush mag review of the show has also surfaced here. The recording itself is lo-fi and fuzzy, and the vocals are hard to make out, but I like to think that this is just part of the early Pavement aesthetic. I only saw them a couple years ago on their reunion tour, and it felt more like a "play these special songs" show, which was absolutely great the time (my fave show of 2010, actually), but this show feels much more like a live "experience", and makes me yearn to see them in the early days. Enthusiasm was high and predictability was low, and that's potent. Listen in here:
The false-start with Malkmus cursing at the 15:00 mark is fucking priceless.
Get more info from P4k, if you so desire.
Showing posts with label Draw Us Lines. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Draw Us Lines. Show all posts
Monday, March 19, 2012
Thursday, February 23, 2012
Jam of the day, guitar atmospherics, and an upcoming show you gotta see: Eureka Birds / "Goodbye Space And Time"
I'm gearing myself up for an awesome show this weekend. We at Draw Us Lines are going to "curate" (that sounds hoity-toity) a series of shows at venues around Pittsburgh. This allows us to shine the spotlight on some great bands and people, and bring folks out to see artists they might not otherwise know about or want to see. By rotating around at different venues, we should be able to focus on different genres, too—loud rock, acoustic folk, dancey pop, etc.—and we're looking forward to working with lots of great Pittsburgh (and national) indie bands in the future.
Our first show is happening this Saturday night, February 25th, at the Brillobox in Lawrenceville. Bluebird Midwest, Horse or Cycle, and Eureka Birds are playing, and they are all excellent. You should read my full preview over at Draw Us Lines to get the full scoop on the show, but suffice it to say: you really gotta go.
In preparation, I've been jamming a lot of tunes by these bands, of course. A lot of Eureka Birds songs have been stuck in my head ("That Mountain Is A Volcano", "Oh! My Dear", "Cactus Man", …) but there's one I'm particularly looking forward to seeing live, after finding a YouTube vid of it: "Goodbye Space And Time"
Eureka Birds / "Good Bye Space And Time" / Eureka Birds [2008] / Live @ North Star Bar, Philly
Isn't that killer? The lyrics are kinda mellow and down-trodden, but engaging and you can read some uplifting qualities into it all, if you try. The thing that gets me, though, is the slow-burn, rise and rise and rise and rise aspect of it, culminating in an absolute shred of a guitar solo over the last minute or so. I was trying to explain this appeal to my friend as we watched the video together: yes, the solo is not a crazy riff or melody and might not take too much technical prowess, really, but there's something about how it fits into the song and carries my mind and emotions along that has me hanging on the edge of my seat and leaning in closer and closer until it's over. Part of that has to do with the fact that I can see the video timer and realize, "Wow, there's only 20 seconds left, where the hell could this be going? He's still wailing on that axe like a madman!" Maybe that's it. I'll tell you this, though: I'll be watching googly-eyed from the side of the stage when they rock out like this on Saturday night, and you owe it to yourself to be there with me. Rock on.
Eureka Birds on the web: Website / Facebook / Twitter / Bandcamp
Our first show is happening this Saturday night, February 25th, at the Brillobox in Lawrenceville. Bluebird Midwest, Horse or Cycle, and Eureka Birds are playing, and they are all excellent. You should read my full preview over at Draw Us Lines to get the full scoop on the show, but suffice it to say: you really gotta go.
In preparation, I've been jamming a lot of tunes by these bands, of course. A lot of Eureka Birds songs have been stuck in my head ("That Mountain Is A Volcano", "Oh! My Dear", "Cactus Man", …) but there's one I'm particularly looking forward to seeing live, after finding a YouTube vid of it: "Goodbye Space And Time"
Eureka Birds / "Good Bye Space And Time" / Eureka Birds [2008] / Live @ North Star Bar, Philly
Isn't that killer? The lyrics are kinda mellow and down-trodden, but engaging and you can read some uplifting qualities into it all, if you try. The thing that gets me, though, is the slow-burn, rise and rise and rise and rise aspect of it, culminating in an absolute shred of a guitar solo over the last minute or so. I was trying to explain this appeal to my friend as we watched the video together: yes, the solo is not a crazy riff or melody and might not take too much technical prowess, really, but there's something about how it fits into the song and carries my mind and emotions along that has me hanging on the edge of my seat and leaning in closer and closer until it's over. Part of that has to do with the fact that I can see the video timer and realize, "Wow, there's only 20 seconds left, where the hell could this be going? He's still wailing on that axe like a madman!" Maybe that's it. I'll tell you this, though: I'll be watching googly-eyed from the side of the stage when they rock out like this on Saturday night, and you owe it to yourself to be there with me. Rock on.
Eureka Birds on the web: Website / Facebook / Twitter / Bandcamp
Tuesday, February 14, 2012
Concert Review: Allison Weiss + Mitten + Donora @ Thunderbird Café / 01.14.2012
Catching up on weeks-old shows. Mitten put out a catchy and lovely EP last year called See You Bye. I really liked it and was kinda surprised by how much I did, and wrote that in this review here for DUL. I've managed to see Allison Weiss four or five times here in town over the last couple of years, and I saw that they were touring together this winter and stopping here at the Thunderbird, hooray! And they're playing with Donora, even better!
I emailed the ladies of Mitten to set up an interview a couple of days before the show, and had plans to meet up with them and AW for some pizza before the gig, but unfortunately they got delayed on the road. We ended up just meeting at the venue after soundcheck and right before they played. (That's their soundcheck in the photo on the left, with AW internetting and Hugh snapping photos.) I had a quick conversation with Joanna and Maia about their current tour and their plans for future recording. What struck me was how much god damn fun they were having. In the most pleasant way possible, I could hardly get a word in! They cracked jokes left and right, smiled constantly, jabbed at each other and told tour anecdotes, and were genuinely outgoing and bubbly the whole time. The best kind of interview, really, but darn hard to transcribe (especially with the background noise by the pool table there) so I'm working on that and it'll hopefully be done next week.
My friends and I sat at the table at the front of the balcony, which is an optimal viewpoint at the Thunderbird, I gotta say, but it kinda sucks for sound if there are lots of people at the bar up there. If people are respectful and pay attention, it is outstanding for sound, right up in the middle of the sonic spaces, but if everyone is really chatty, like this night … well, it can be really frustrating. I had trouble hearing banter, and some of the quieter moments of Mitten's music—which are some of the best parts of their music, really!—got a little blurred and almost drowned out. Fuckin' ay. Overall, they played great and seemed to have a good time, regardless, and there were a couple of folks up front dancing and singing along, so I'm glad for that. It's just too bad that our location wasn't the best and there was a big group of us so moving up to the front of the stage wasn't gonna work.
This trend kinda continued into Allison Weiss' set. She blasted through a bunch of new songs, and the usual old faves—"I Was An Island", "Fingers Crossed", "You + Me + Alcohol"—and her downtempo cover of Robyn's "Call Your Girlfriend", which is gorgeous. Having just seen her play in December at Point Park, there wasn't much new to talk about. She played well, was her usually friendly self on stage, and the crowd down at the stage level was really into it. Mitten came back onstage to play a song or two at the end, too; that was fun.
Donora came in and rocked the house, as usually. It became clear as the night went on that most people were there to see Donora and were kinda waiting through the first two sets to see them. That irked me a little. As much as I love local bands and am glad to see when they become increasingly popular, I don't like seeing this dynamic at shows where it's like you can completely forget about the fact that people are standing on stage playing songs for your entertainment and you're just talking to your friends like they don't exist. It's fine to not like bands and not want to pay attention, but just do it somewhere else. Go downstairs to the bar. Go outside. Play a game of tic tac toe. Whatever it is. It's just really annoying to everyone else trying to watch and listen when they have to fight through your idle chit-chat.
My friends and I sat at the table at the front of the balcony, which is an optimal viewpoint at the Thunderbird, I gotta say, but it kinda sucks for sound if there are lots of people at the bar up there. If people are respectful and pay attention, it is outstanding for sound, right up in the middle of the sonic spaces, but if everyone is really chatty, like this night … well, it can be really frustrating. I had trouble hearing banter, and some of the quieter moments of Mitten's music—which are some of the best parts of their music, really!—got a little blurred and almost drowned out. Fuckin' ay. Overall, they played great and seemed to have a good time, regardless, and there were a couple of folks up front dancing and singing along, so I'm glad for that. It's just too bad that our location wasn't the best and there was a big group of us so moving up to the front of the stage wasn't gonna work.
This trend kinda continued into Allison Weiss' set. She blasted through a bunch of new songs, and the usual old faves—"I Was An Island", "Fingers Crossed", "You + Me + Alcohol"—and her downtempo cover of Robyn's "Call Your Girlfriend", which is gorgeous. Having just seen her play in December at Point Park, there wasn't much new to talk about. She played well, was her usually friendly self on stage, and the crowd down at the stage level was really into it. Mitten came back onstage to play a song or two at the end, too; that was fun.
Donora came in and rocked the house, as usually. It became clear as the night went on that most people were there to see Donora and were kinda waiting through the first two sets to see them. That irked me a little. As much as I love local bands and am glad to see when they become increasingly popular, I don't like seeing this dynamic at shows where it's like you can completely forget about the fact that people are standing on stage playing songs for your entertainment and you're just talking to your friends like they don't exist. It's fine to not like bands and not want to pay attention, but just do it somewhere else. Go downstairs to the bar. Go outside. Play a game of tic tac toe. Whatever it is. It's just really annoying to everyone else trying to watch and listen when they have to fight through your idle chit-chat.
Friday, February 3, 2012
Concert Review: Jeffrey Foucault + Big Snow Big Thaw @ Club Cafe / 01.13.2012
Just catching up on some shows I've seen this year. I used to do these things for every concert I went to, and it served as a nice list of shows/bands I saw, at the very least, in addition to a record of my thoughts about them. I'm gonna try to keep up with that this year without falling behind too much (and some better reviews appear on Draw Us Lines when I have more thoughts to share and care more about my writing style).
I try to catch Big Snow Big Thaw at every chance, not just because they're my friends, but because they're great. I remembering being initially surprised at how much I dug these kinds of folksy/bluegrassy sounds, but then I realized that's just me being picky and closed-minded about musical tastes. Call it what you want—newgrass, folk rock, midwest rock 'n roll, somethin' else made up—it doesn't matter. It rocks. And every time they play, they've got new songs to share. They've been hard at work at J Bird Studios and their first album should be out real soon. (In the meantime, do yourself a favor and check out their Winter/Spring EP combo on Bandcamp.) That very same J, he of J Bird, played bass on a bunch of their songs, too, since he has been adding some bass parts during the recording. It rounded out the sound a little bit, and was a nice addition. Here's hoping they explore that route in the future. I caught their set at the Carnegie Library's Sunday afternoon acoustic series (photo above) a few days before this show, too, and that was great to see lots of strangers walking through and sit down and enjoy their tunes.
Jeffrey Foucault was an oustanding performer! Jim and David kinda warned me and the rest of the audience, saying that his soundcheck performance was amazing (he just walked up, no prep, and that voice belted out like he was born singing) and he strikes quite a presence with that magnificently thick beard. He was swigging something from a steel cup, and had been on the road all day, this being the first stop on his tour a long way from his previous night's activity of watching The Muppets with his daughter (why I remember that anecdote, I couldn't tell ya). I hadn't heard any of his songs before and yet I found myself mesmerized. The crowd skewed a little older, I think, and there were some seriously chatty drunkies in the back by the bar, but other than that, everyone was pretty much rapt as JF strummed and sang in front of those Club Café starlights. He did a great Neil Young cover (forget which song) but this number really stood out and was stuck in my head:
Apparently, you can join this Facebook group if you think Jeffrey Foucault isn't famous enough.
Jeffrey Foucault on the web: Website
Big Snow Big Thaw on the web: Facebook / Twitter / Bandcamp
I try to catch Big Snow Big Thaw at every chance, not just because they're my friends, but because they're great. I remembering being initially surprised at how much I dug these kinds of folksy/bluegrassy sounds, but then I realized that's just me being picky and closed-minded about musical tastes. Call it what you want—newgrass, folk rock, midwest rock 'n roll, somethin' else made up—it doesn't matter. It rocks. And every time they play, they've got new songs to share. They've been hard at work at J Bird Studios and their first album should be out real soon. (In the meantime, do yourself a favor and check out their Winter/Spring EP combo on Bandcamp.) That very same J, he of J Bird, played bass on a bunch of their songs, too, since he has been adding some bass parts during the recording. It rounded out the sound a little bit, and was a nice addition. Here's hoping they explore that route in the future. I caught their set at the Carnegie Library's Sunday afternoon acoustic series (photo above) a few days before this show, too, and that was great to see lots of strangers walking through and sit down and enjoy their tunes.
Jeffrey Foucault was an oustanding performer! Jim and David kinda warned me and the rest of the audience, saying that his soundcheck performance was amazing (he just walked up, no prep, and that voice belted out like he was born singing) and he strikes quite a presence with that magnificently thick beard. He was swigging something from a steel cup, and had been on the road all day, this being the first stop on his tour a long way from his previous night's activity of watching The Muppets with his daughter (why I remember that anecdote, I couldn't tell ya). I hadn't heard any of his songs before and yet I found myself mesmerized. The crowd skewed a little older, I think, and there were some seriously chatty drunkies in the back by the bar, but other than that, everyone was pretty much rapt as JF strummed and sang in front of those Club Café starlights. He did a great Neil Young cover (forget which song) but this number really stood out and was stuck in my head:
Apparently, you can join this Facebook group if you think Jeffrey Foucault isn't famous enough.
Jeffrey Foucault on the web: Website
Big Snow Big Thaw on the web: Facebook / Twitter / Bandcamp
Thursday, September 1, 2011
Video jam of the day: Sleeping Bag / "Slime"
Artist: Sleeping Bag
Album: Sleeping Bag
Song: "Slime"
Released: August 9, 2011
Label: Joyful Noise
One of my favorite debut releases of this year is Sleeping Bag's self-titled LP. It channels 90s indie rock at its finest, smashing the wry and understated lyricism of Stephen Malkmus with the hooky guitars of Dinosaur Jr. and the poppy sentimentality of any number of Elephant 6 bands. That's high-minded company to lump Sleeping Bag with, but I think it's all well-founded and deservèd. I gave a glowing review of their album over at Draw Us Lines about a month ago, and since then, the band has gone on a Midwest/East Coast tour and has released an official music video for the lead single, "Slime". (Anyone out there who has seen them live wanna share your thoughts? Apparently they were here in Pittsburgh while I was out of town :-\ )
This song is one of my faves from the album, with its driving bass riff and drum beat, and the way Dave Segedy's vocals just push everything forward without too much insistence, combining just the right amount of forcefulness to be heard amongst the music with just the right amount of nonchalance to let the guitar melodies grab your ears and keep your attention. The video itself is an apparent homage to the Bloomington, Indiana scene, with shots of the band playing at a half dozen or so locations around town, from a garage to a junkyard to a rooftop to a living room to a patio to a playground to a forest and back again. Throw in some playful handclaps from the background crowds, plus a girl napping on a couch, some dudes eating breakfast, a couple making out, and a one-on-one basketball game amongst all the musical action, all spliced together seamlessly with great shots of the trio doin' their thing, and you've got a solidly entertaining video. Oh yeah, flying kittens!
Sleeping Bag / "Slime" / Sleeping Bag [Joyful Noise, 2011] / Dir. Nathan Vollmar and William Winchester Clay
Also check out this interview with singer/drummer Dave on the Village Voice's music blog for more info about the band and the video.
Sleeping Bag on the web: Website / Bandcamp / Facebook / Twitter / Joyful Noise Recordings
Album: Sleeping Bag
Song: "Slime"
Released: August 9, 2011
Label: Joyful Noise
This song is one of my faves from the album, with its driving bass riff and drum beat, and the way Dave Segedy's vocals just push everything forward without too much insistence, combining just the right amount of forcefulness to be heard amongst the music with just the right amount of nonchalance to let the guitar melodies grab your ears and keep your attention. The video itself is an apparent homage to the Bloomington, Indiana scene, with shots of the band playing at a half dozen or so locations around town, from a garage to a junkyard to a rooftop to a living room to a patio to a playground to a forest and back again. Throw in some playful handclaps from the background crowds, plus a girl napping on a couch, some dudes eating breakfast, a couple making out, and a one-on-one basketball game amongst all the musical action, all spliced together seamlessly with great shots of the trio doin' their thing, and you've got a solidly entertaining video. Oh yeah, flying kittens!
Sleeping Bag / "Slime" / Sleeping Bag [Joyful Noise, 2011] / Dir. Nathan Vollmar and William Winchester Clay
Also check out this interview with singer/drummer Dave on the Village Voice's music blog for more info about the band and the video.
Sleeping Bag on the web: Website / Bandcamp / Facebook / Twitter / Joyful Noise Recordings
Saturday, August 27, 2011
Local music notes, September 2011: New Shouts, Neighbours, Host Skull, Donora, The Ceiling Stares, Draw Us Lines
It's impossible to stay in tune with all of the goings-on of the Pgh music scene, I gotta say, but when I find some good and/or interesting stuff, I like to share it with you. So here are some good and/or interesting songs, albums, events, etc. from the very recent past and the very near future.
So that's what I've found lately. Have any other interesting local songs, albums, events, etc. to share? Let me know about 'em!
New Shouts / Sing New Shouts EP / Release Show at Thunderbird Café on 09.24
Pittsburgh's best retro soul rock band finally have an official release! They put out a couple of singles on their Bandcamp page many months ago when they started playing shows around town to drum up interest, and it definitely worked, at least for me. I've seen them a few times (at the Brillobox and The Shop) and their onstage energy is addictive. They also did an acoustic session for Draw Us Lines' Echo Chamber series and it turned out fantastically. (By the way, you can buy those Echo Chamber recordings on Bandcamp; more about that below!) But now they have a batch of seven new songs and they really capture their live energy, with catchy guitar melodies and upbeat percussion and soulful vocals (that almost sound British to me …?) that make you wanna sing along. It's part Kinks, part Beatles, part Motown, and all fun and danceable. You'll be able to buy the album digitally on 09.13, and they're having a release show at the Thundebird on Saturday 09.24 with Mariage Blanc and DJ Jordan K. In the meantime, you can still download those digital singles for free, and the teaser video below features a clip from my favorite song on the new EP, "Dollybird". Check it:
New Shouts on the web: Facebook / Twitter / Bandcamp / Tumblr
Neighbours / Neighbours EP / Release Show at the Friday Nite Club on 09.02
Whaddyaknow, another retro rock band has an EP coming out soon! Neighbours (now with a Britishized "u") have that Kinks/Animals/Small Faces vibe goin' on and it works really well. The couple of shows of theirs that I've seen have been great, with the singer sitting up front with his keyboard and then getting up and dancing around sometimes, singing his heart out and Andy's arms flailing all over the place behind the drumkit. The five songs on the EP are some of their best work, too, right from the keys riff and forceful vocals that kick off the energetic "Real Talk", to the Motown-inspired lament in "Fun", to the soft and slow and pretty "Without You" (with some great reverb on the vocals, nice recording there, fellas), to the punchy percussion that carries "Popgirls" through to the end. My only critique is that it's too damn short! They also have a couple of "name your price" singles here and here, and they'll have an official release party at the Irish Centre of Pittsburgh's Friday Nite Club party, on 09.02. DJ Jordan K and The Mt. McKinleys will also be playing, and you can pick up a CD there for just $5. In the meantime, stream some tracks here:
Neighbours: Facebook / Twitter / Bandcamp
Host Skull / Totally Fatalist LP / Release Show at Brillobox on 09.22
I am always amazed by what David Bernabo accomplishes. (When do you sleep, Dave?) His latest project is Host Skull, a collaboration with Will Dyar and a host of other Pittsburgh musicians: saxophonists, singers, bassists, drummers, dancers, flautists, etc. The story is that Will is based in Santa Fe and the band will have a dual existence, with Dave and friends performing shows here while Will and friends perform out there. Now, after seeing a recent performance of some of these songs, and knowing that Dave is an interesting dude, I'm not sure how much of the band story is rooted in truth, but that just adds to the mystique and intrigue. They have an LP coming out very soon on Chicago's Contraphonic label, and it is an amazingly broad yet cohesive album. The songs themselves span a wide array of influences—from Wilco-esque country folk to Grizzly Bear-ish baroque pop to some kind of soulful funk rock, and lead single "Totally Fatalist" (see video below) is the kind of jazzy avant-rock you might find with Dave's Assembly project—yet it all feels … right. It's born from some talented musicians and their powerful, united vision, and it shows. They'll play these songs, and more, at the Brillobox on Friday 09.22 with Raw Blow. You definitely want to see this show; I promise it will be good. In the meantime, check out the fascinating and humorous stop-motion video that Dave and pals put together for the title track, with direction by the one and only Hugh Twyman.
Host Skull: Website / Facebook
David Bernabo: Website / Twitter
Donora / Boyfriends, Girlfriends LP / "The World Is Ours" music video / CD Release Show at Rex Theater on 09.16
I am so excited that Donora has a new album coming out. I remember buying their self-titled debut on the now defunct site Amie Street, a couple years ago when I first found out about them as I explored the local music scene, and then saw them play a couple live shows. I immediately loved their catchy indie pop songs and their live shows are always a lot of fun. They've played several new songs at shows over the past year and have been working hard on the recordings, and they're finally ready to share them with the waiting world. Boyfriends, Girlfriends will be officially released on 09.27 on Rostrum Records, and they're playing a show on 09.16 to celebrate (and give some of us a chance to buy it early, of course, and hey look at that, New Shouts are playing at that show, too!). Also, a month or so ago I hitched a ride to the suburbs of Pittsburgh to help the band film a video for the song "The World Is Ours" from the new album, and that video premiered on Spinner.com a couple weeks ago. I had no idea what I was getting into, and it ended up being a fun day of sitting around and pretending to play cards with an older gentleman on the porch of somebody's super nice guest house. The video is one continuous shot, so we did about five full takes, plus a bunch of practice ones, and each one required a lot of cleanup afterwards, as you'll see after watching the end result. Hugh also shared some photos from the video shoot. Enjoy the video, and see yinz at the show!
Donora: Facebook / Twitter / Rostrum Records
The Ceiling Stares / new split 7" single with The Super Vacations on Velocity of Sound / 7" Release Show at The Shop on 10.01
Pittsburgh-based record label Velocity of Sound releases 7" vinyl records of local underground artists, and for their latest single, they've hooked up with the Sweaters & Pearls label to feature two bands. The Super Vacations are from Viriginia and have a deliciously scuzzy and fast-paced psychedelic punk sound. Their side of this single has two 2-minute jams, "Hexing" and "Controller", and they are catchy as hell and, unfortunately, over before you know it. I've definitely played this side like three times in a row back to back. Great stuff. The Ceiling Stares are from Pittsburgh and used their side of the record to stretch out with a 5 minute psych-rock jam entitled "A Tunnel Through The Air". I saw this band play at Howlers last year and noted in a review that their sound is kind of a Jefferson Airplane/Sonic Youth/Pink Floyd hybrid, and I stand by that, and I particularly like this song of theirs. The guitars swirl, the vocals are impassioned, the keys drone, the drums drive, it's all perfect. You can stream the three tracks below, and head over to the Velocity of Sound site to buy them on cool green vinyl! Check out this nice feature in last week's Pgh City Paper, as well. The Ceiling Stares will be playing at The Shop on 10.01 to officially celebrate the vinyl release and, alas, The Super Vacations can't make it then, but locals Flesh Vehicle (who also have a Velocity of Sound release coming out soon) and Holy Daze will play in their stead. Should be a fun night of excellent rock music!
Controller - The Super Vacations by Velocity of Sound
Hexing - The Super Vacations by Velocity of Sound
A Tunnel Through The Air - The Ceiling Stares by Velocity of Sound
The Ceiling Stares: Website / Facebook / Bandcamp
The Super Vacations: Blog / Facebook / Tumblr
Velocity of Sound: Website / Twitter / Soundcloud
Sweaters & Pearls: Website / Facebook
Draw Us Lines / Echo Chamber Recordings
Last, and certainly not least, I'd like to point out that we've put a lot of work into the Echo Chamber series over on Draw Us Lines (and by "we" I mean Jim, he's the fucking man) and have released the audio recordings from those video shoots as buyable CDs/mp3s! We gave out some download codes to folks who came to our birthday show in July, but you, my friend, can go to our Bandcamp page and buy the whole collection for just $5. These are all local bands playing acoustic versions of their songs, and some of these songs are not available anywhere else! Want to hear an awesome, stripped-down version of New Shouts' jam "Gotta Get Along"? We've got it. Want to hear that lovely Meeting Of Important People song "Oh, Will You Finally Go?"? We've got it. Want to hear indie rock legend Karl Hendricks playing solo in the Children's Museum? We've got that. Stream the whole thing below and you'll see that it's worth it. And head over to Draw Us Lines and watch the videos and read the stories behind them, too, because they're all great. There are plenty more to come, so stay tuned, too.
So that's what I've found lately. Have any other interesting local songs, albums, events, etc. to share? Let me know about 'em!
Sunday, June 12, 2011
Jam of the day: Ultimate Spinach / "Ballad Of The Hip Death Goddess"
Psychedelia epitomized, that is the name of the game for Ultimate Spinach. This Boston band put out three LPs in the late 1960s, full of awesome psychedelic rock gems. You might hear a few strains of their songs and write them off as too "typical" or something; they really do make in-your-face druggy jams, which isn't exactly inventive, but these jams are such perfect examples of this style, and who are we to not give them credit and laudation for epitomizing an epic style of rock music? Ultimate Spinach songs are generally languid yet mind-expanding instrumental adventures, with some female/male vocals peppered in, and they are endlessly listenable. They make you want to turn on the lava lamp, slouch into the couch, and drop out, and this is strongly encouraged, but not necessary. They have some poppier psych-rockers, like "Funny Freak Parade" and "Dove In Hawk's Clothing", but Ultimate Spinach should be recognized for their powerfully evocative jams. This song, "Ballad Of The Hip Death Goddess", is the example I've chosen, but don't let that stop you from exploring their catalog.
The reason I bring this song up now is because of a couple of random occurrences related to this song from a couple weeks ago. I just had to share. First off, though, I should say that I found this band also randomly, on the internet (via eMusic, I believe) and really dug the two albums of theirs I heard, Ultimate Spinach and Behold & See. I listened to those mp3s quite frequently for a while, and when I saw a used vinyl copy of Behold & See at Red Onion Records in D.C. over New Year's this year, I had to buy it. I spun it a number of times right after buying it, but kinda forgot about it until recently. Comedian Andy Kindler tweeted some random hashtag stuff about #BadCoffeeShopNames, which morphed somehow into #badbandnames and #comedianbands and #confusingbandnames and #badcomedyclubnames and so on. Silly stuff, but that's the Twitter-verse for ya! Anyhow, Andy sent out this tweet that mentioned Ultimate Spinach as a #badbandname and I "politely disagreed while not really disagreeing but merely qualifiying the claim" by saying this back to him, and he deemed it worthy of a retweet. Huzzah! And it was about this jam I'm featuring now, in particular. Double huzzah huzzah! Thus far in my short Twitter life, I've been retweeted by Todd Barry and Andy Kindler, both funny comedians and Home Movies voice actors! Now I just gotta track down Brendon Small, Ron Lynch, Jon Benjamin, Laura Silverman, Mitch Hedberg, . . . uh oh.
Anyway, the other coincidence with this song involves a compilation album I just bought (on eMusic, even, whaddyaknow?) last week. I had been looking through the Dungen catalog (trying to research/listen to write a New Classic on Ta Det Lugnt) and saw they had an instrumental version of "Satt Att Se" on a compilaton album, called A Monstrous Psychedelic Bubble Exploding In Your Mind. I saw this album had a gigantic amount of music for a cheap price, and was intrigued by ... well, the title. I downloaded the whole thing and listened through most of it in one inspired and lethargic sitting. It was great for that mood. And somewhere in the middle, I heard Ultimate Spinach come on! How could I mistake those opening chiming bells, so melancholy yet enticing, for anything else? In a way, the tune is kinda formulaic—repetitive bass groove, reverby vochals, ethereal lyrical themes, tinges of feedback on the lengthy guitar solo—but this song is so much more than the sum of its constituent parts. It's about a mood, a sense of existence, and powerful emotions. It's evocative, it's scary, it's groovy, it's psychedlic, baby. Check it out.
See the glazed eyes
Touch the dead skin
Feel the cold lips
And know the warmth of the hip death goddess
On an only slightly related note, the guy who put the compilation together (and whose band, the Amorphous Androgynous, also has a couple songs on the compilation, strangely enough) seems to be really ... interesting. While reading about the band I stumbled on this video of his featuring a crazy religious lady at Speakers' Corner in London. If you've never been there, and you're in London, you have to see it. Somehow, the northeast corner of Hyde Park has been designated as the spot where anyone can just show up and start shouting at the world. It's weirdly fascinating.
The reason I bring this song up now is because of a couple of random occurrences related to this song from a couple weeks ago. I just had to share. First off, though, I should say that I found this band also randomly, on the internet (via eMusic, I believe) and really dug the two albums of theirs I heard, Ultimate Spinach and Behold & See. I listened to those mp3s quite frequently for a while, and when I saw a used vinyl copy of Behold & See at Red Onion Records in D.C. over New Year's this year, I had to buy it. I spun it a number of times right after buying it, but kinda forgot about it until recently. Comedian Andy Kindler tweeted some random hashtag stuff about #BadCoffeeShopNames, which morphed somehow into #badbandnames and #comedianbands and #confusingbandnames and #badcomedyclubnames and so on. Silly stuff, but that's the Twitter-verse for ya! Anyhow, Andy sent out this tweet that mentioned Ultimate Spinach as a #badbandname and I "politely disagreed while not really disagreeing but merely qualifiying the claim" by saying this back to him, and he deemed it worthy of a retweet. Huzzah! And it was about this jam I'm featuring now, in particular. Double huzzah huzzah! Thus far in my short Twitter life, I've been retweeted by Todd Barry and Andy Kindler, both funny comedians and Home Movies voice actors! Now I just gotta track down Brendon Small, Ron Lynch, Jon Benjamin, Laura Silverman, Mitch Hedberg, . . . uh oh.
Anyway, the other coincidence with this song involves a compilation album I just bought (on eMusic, even, whaddyaknow?) last week. I had been looking through the Dungen catalog (trying to research/listen to write a New Classic on Ta Det Lugnt) and saw they had an instrumental version of "Satt Att Se" on a compilaton album, called A Monstrous Psychedelic Bubble Exploding In Your Mind. I saw this album had a gigantic amount of music for a cheap price, and was intrigued by ... well, the title. I downloaded the whole thing and listened through most of it in one inspired and lethargic sitting. It was great for that mood. And somewhere in the middle, I heard Ultimate Spinach come on! How could I mistake those opening chiming bells, so melancholy yet enticing, for anything else? In a way, the tune is kinda formulaic—repetitive bass groove, reverby vochals, ethereal lyrical themes, tinges of feedback on the lengthy guitar solo—but this song is so much more than the sum of its constituent parts. It's about a mood, a sense of existence, and powerful emotions. It's evocative, it's scary, it's groovy, it's psychedlic, baby. Check it out.
See the glazed eyes
Touch the dead skin
Feel the cold lips
And know the warmth of the hip death goddess
On an only slightly related note, the guy who put the compilation together (and whose band, the Amorphous Androgynous, also has a couple songs on the compilation, strangely enough) seems to be really ... interesting. While reading about the band I stumbled on this video of his featuring a crazy religious lady at Speakers' Corner in London. If you've never been there, and you're in London, you have to see it. Somehow, the northeast corner of Hyde Park has been designated as the spot where anyone can just show up and start shouting at the world. It's weirdly fascinating.
Tuesday, May 31, 2011
Video jam of the day: The Pack A.D. / "Cobra Matte" (with Legos!)
Becky Black and Maya Miller play some awesome bluesy garage rock. If you like The Black Keys or The White Stripes or some other color/noun combo-named band, you'll probably dig this stuff. I found their album Funeral Mixtape a couple years ago and it became a jogging soundtrack staple. I can still remember this particular moment where I ran up a large hill near my apartment and right as I crested it and started to sail down the other side, their song "Making Gestures" hit a huge crescendo and the an absolutely slammin' guitar solo came in ... It was fanfuckingtastic. Just listen through the first minute 80 seconds of the song and you'll see what I mean. And then keep listening, because there's just more of that awesomeness.
They released We Kill Computers about a year ago, and put out a video for the chug-a-lug rocker "Cobra Matte". I wrote about that video over at Draw Us Lines a couple months ago when it came out, and you can see that description below.
The Pack a.d. / "Cobra Matte" / We Kill Computers [Mint] / dir. Jimi Cuell
The music of The Pack a.d. and the style of this video are remarkably similar. The goal of both is to make the most mess out of a few basic elements. For the band, the idea is to take a guitar and drums and make some pounding blues-rock sounds with heavy riffs and powerful vocals. For the video, the idea is to take the two band members themselves, with instruments, and film them against a drab backdrop getting slaughtered with food, beverage, silly string, and so forth, in between playing their instruments, all in one seemingly-continuous shot while maintaining the appearance of pristine black clothing. I dig their albums, myself, but even if this song isn’t your bag, try watching and figuring out how in the heck they spliced the video clips together to make it into a seamless view. Did they have to play anything backwards? Who’s tossing the shit in from the sides? Just how tall is the guitarist? And so on.
The reason I bring this all up today, though, is because some of the band's friends just made a Lego version of the video you saw above! It's an interesting idea to do, in general, and I think it works pretty well with this one. I would have liked to see the "messy" parts of the video a bit more inventive in the Lego version, but I guess you don't want to ruin your toys when you play with them, ya know? Anyway, enjoy this one, too:
Bonus video! I found this one a while ago and haven't had an occasion to share it, but now it's kinda relevant, so here it is. There's a classic video of Joy Division on the BBC playing "Transmission" (a tune I've "covered" here before, hah). It's a great song and a great performance, especially with Ian Curtis' dance moves. Someone recently made a stop-motion version with Playmobil! Man, I had so many of those toys when I was younger. They're still in my basement somewhere, hmm ... Anyway, check out the original video here, and enjoy the animated one below:
They released We Kill Computers about a year ago, and put out a video for the chug-a-lug rocker "Cobra Matte". I wrote about that video over at Draw Us Lines a couple months ago when it came out, and you can see that description below.
The Pack a.d. / "Cobra Matte" / We Kill Computers [Mint] / dir. Jimi Cuell
The music of The Pack a.d. and the style of this video are remarkably similar. The goal of both is to make the most mess out of a few basic elements. For the band, the idea is to take a guitar and drums and make some pounding blues-rock sounds with heavy riffs and powerful vocals. For the video, the idea is to take the two band members themselves, with instruments, and film them against a drab backdrop getting slaughtered with food, beverage, silly string, and so forth, in between playing their instruments, all in one seemingly-continuous shot while maintaining the appearance of pristine black clothing. I dig their albums, myself, but even if this song isn’t your bag, try watching and figuring out how in the heck they spliced the video clips together to make it into a seamless view. Did they have to play anything backwards? Who’s tossing the shit in from the sides? Just how tall is the guitarist? And so on.
The reason I bring this all up today, though, is because some of the band's friends just made a Lego version of the video you saw above! It's an interesting idea to do, in general, and I think it works pretty well with this one. I would have liked to see the "messy" parts of the video a bit more inventive in the Lego version, but I guess you don't want to ruin your toys when you play with them, ya know? Anyway, enjoy this one, too:
Bonus video! I found this one a while ago and haven't had an occasion to share it, but now it's kinda relevant, so here it is. There's a classic video of Joy Division on the BBC playing "Transmission" (a tune I've "covered" here before, hah). It's a great song and a great performance, especially with Ian Curtis' dance moves. Someone recently made a stop-motion version with Playmobil! Man, I had so many of those toys when I was younger. They're still in my basement somewhere, hmm ... Anyway, check out the original video here, and enjoy the animated one below:
Tuesday, March 1, 2011
Upcoming concerts: Wednesday March 2 in Pgh / The Seedy Seeds at Brillobox / Verona Red at Garfield Artworks
Jeez, I've been pretty bad about updating here lately :-/ School & work beckon! I'm just popping in to remind you of the concert calendar we're maintaining over at Draw Us Lines. We try to stay up to speed with the bands/venues that we recommend, but surely we can't be aware of everything, so let me know via email about any events that should be included! Specifically, tomorrow night (Wednesday, March 2, 2011) there are a couple interesting shows happening in the Bloomfield/Garfield area.
At the Brillobox, you can catch The Seedy Seeds, The Wine, the Women & the Bomb, and Robin Vote. It's not easy to describe the sound styles of The Seedy Seeds since they've managed to fused banjo and other folk instruments with electronic pop melodies and synthesizers and male/female vocal harmonies, which leaves me with too many adjectives to fit together, so I'll just steal the term "Appalachiatronica" from an old Idolator article. I've been streaming a bunch of tunes from their Bandcamp page lately and I think it would be interesting to see them put these together live. Playing with them are two Pittsburgh bands. The website of The Wine, the Women & the Bomb is pretty but kind of uninformative due to the prose that's straight out of a high-minded fantasy novel (including a Nietzsche quote, even), but the songs streaming on their Bandcamp page give off a solid rock vibe: lots of guitars and drums, intricate rhythms, forceful vocals, etc. Robin Vote described themselves as "glam-jazz" and "doom-folk" in a feature on Pgh Music Report; I can't claim to know much about those genres so I'll let their songs speak for themselves (as well as the novel whence the band name.) All in all, seems like a crazy interesting mix of genres and styles; this should be a good show. Tickets are $7 at the doors (open at 9:00 pm). Here's a video for The Seedy Seeds' song "Drive Me To The Center".
At Garfield Artworks, you can catch Verona Red, Wine & Spirit, and Boulevard of the Allies. They just released a new EP, Pound, that you can stream on Bandcamp. After listening to it a few times recently, I can say that you wouldn't be wrong in saying that Verona Red have some bluesy/swing stylings, but there's some roots rock 'n roll in there, too, and it sounds like it would be pretty exciting to see at a "cozy" venue like Garfield Artworks. Local openers Wine & Spirit and Boulevard of the Allies (a truly local name, even) fit that bill, similarly; based on the songs I listened to today, they seem to draw from the same kinds of Midwest/Southern blues influences with some upbeat swing and rowdy rock 'n roll. Can't go wrong with that. And hey, Pgh Music Report did a feature on Boulevard of the Allies recently, too, so check that out. Tickets are $5 at the doors (open at 8:00 pm, 18+, BYOB). Here's a video of Verona Red playing their new song "Kitchen Song".
I'm not sure if I'll make it to either show due to life and such, but feel free to comment here if you're planning on going or did actually go and enjoyed yourself. Cheers!
At the Brillobox, you can catch The Seedy Seeds, The Wine, the Women & the Bomb, and Robin Vote. It's not easy to describe the sound styles of The Seedy Seeds since they've managed to fused banjo and other folk instruments with electronic pop melodies and synthesizers and male/female vocal harmonies, which leaves me with too many adjectives to fit together, so I'll just steal the term "Appalachiatronica" from an old Idolator article. I've been streaming a bunch of tunes from their Bandcamp page lately and I think it would be interesting to see them put these together live. Playing with them are two Pittsburgh bands. The website of The Wine, the Women & the Bomb is pretty but kind of uninformative due to the prose that's straight out of a high-minded fantasy novel (including a Nietzsche quote, even), but the songs streaming on their Bandcamp page give off a solid rock vibe: lots of guitars and drums, intricate rhythms, forceful vocals, etc. Robin Vote described themselves as "glam-jazz" and "doom-folk" in a feature on Pgh Music Report; I can't claim to know much about those genres so I'll let their songs speak for themselves (as well as the novel whence the band name.) All in all, seems like a crazy interesting mix of genres and styles; this should be a good show. Tickets are $7 at the doors (open at 9:00 pm). Here's a video for The Seedy Seeds' song "Drive Me To The Center".
At Garfield Artworks, you can catch Verona Red, Wine & Spirit, and Boulevard of the Allies. They just released a new EP, Pound, that you can stream on Bandcamp. After listening to it a few times recently, I can say that you wouldn't be wrong in saying that Verona Red have some bluesy/swing stylings, but there's some roots rock 'n roll in there, too, and it sounds like it would be pretty exciting to see at a "cozy" venue like Garfield Artworks. Local openers Wine & Spirit and Boulevard of the Allies (a truly local name, even) fit that bill, similarly; based on the songs I listened to today, they seem to draw from the same kinds of Midwest/Southern blues influences with some upbeat swing and rowdy rock 'n roll. Can't go wrong with that. And hey, Pgh Music Report did a feature on Boulevard of the Allies recently, too, so check that out. Tickets are $5 at the doors (open at 8:00 pm, 18+, BYOB). Here's a video of Verona Red playing their new song "Kitchen Song".
I'm not sure if I'll make it to either show due to life and such, but feel free to comment here if you're planning on going or did actually go and enjoyed yourself. Cheers!
Tuesday, December 28, 2010
Video jam: Bad Books / "Baby Shoes"
Kevin Devine and Manchester Orchestra have teamed up to form Bad Books, and I like it. I remember listening to Manchester Orchestra's You Brainstorm, I Brainstorm, but Brilliance Needs a Good Editor EP a few years ago (can't recall how I stumbled upon it) but then kinda lost track of the band until now. I've heard this song and the one featured on Draw Us Lines earlier this year and dig them both, even though they differ greatly in the rockin' versus acoustic vibe. I think this live version caught my ear more, and I really like how they switch around from soft strumming and vocals to all-out jamming rock and back and forth again. The lyrics are interesting and engrossing, too. I won't get into what I think they might mean (because I'm not really sure), but I definitely like how they make me think deeply while I bob my head along with the rhythm and then have my train of thought get derailed by the squealing guitar parts and have to pick it back up again and then the song is over and I just hit "replay". Yeah, it's good.
[Found this on Spinner's website, where it says this was recorded at a party/show during CMJ this past fall.]
[Found this on Spinner's website, where it says this was recorded at a party/show during CMJ this past fall.]
Wednesday, December 15, 2010
2010 Yearend List: Top 10 Live Shows, plus all Draw Us Lines posts
In case you didn't know, I also write some articles for Pittsburgh-based music blog Draw Us Lines. It's a pretty sweet gig, I gotta say, and I'm grateful to Jim and Blake for giving me the chance to share my thoughts and words with their audience. In the spirit of this week and all the 2010 yearend lists, I've collected here all of the stuff I've written that's posted on their site, including my list of Top 10 Live Shows of 2010 from this week's listorama. Check 'em out and be sure to follow Draw Us Lines, as well, for plenty of good stuff!
Concert Reviews:
09.13.2010 The Black Angels / Fillmore Jive @ Diesel
09.30.2010 Pavement / The Beets @ Central Park, NYC
10.11.2010 Lohio / Donora @ Brillobox
10.13.2010 Mariage Blanc / New Shouts @ Brillobox
10.21.2010 Meeting Of Important People / Ceiling Stares / Neighbors @ Howlers
11.09.2010 Frightened Rabbit / Plants & Animals / The Phantom Band @ Diesel
12.01.2010 Jenny Owen Youngs / Wakey!Wakey! @ Brillobox
Interviews:
10.08.2010 Allison Weiss
11.11.2010 Lower Dens
Show Previews:
09.28.2010 Quest For Glory Tour @ Garfield Artworks
Band Profiles:
10.26.2010 The Spires
11.03.2010 Old Canes
11.16.2010 Bear Hands
11.29.2010 Bottomless Pit
12.10.2010 Reading Rainbow
Song Diaries:
10.06.2010 The Spires / "Held"
10.11.2010 Sharon Van Etten / "Save Yourself"
11.01.2010 Belle and Sebastian / "I Want The World To Stop"
11.30.2010 Warpaint / "Undertow"
12.06.2010 Atlas Sound / "Here Come The Trains"
Record Store Recons:
10.18.2010 RSR #2, Academy Records
11.19.2010 RSR #4, Wicked Discs
Concert Reviews:
09.13.2010 The Black Angels / Fillmore Jive @ Diesel
09.30.2010 Pavement / The Beets @ Central Park, NYC
10.11.2010 Lohio / Donora @ Brillobox
10.13.2010 Mariage Blanc / New Shouts @ Brillobox
10.21.2010 Meeting Of Important People / Ceiling Stares / Neighbors @ Howlers
11.09.2010 Frightened Rabbit / Plants & Animals / The Phantom Band @ Diesel
12.01.2010 Jenny Owen Youngs / Wakey!Wakey! @ Brillobox
Interviews:
10.08.2010 Allison Weiss
11.11.2010 Lower Dens
Show Previews:
09.28.2010 Quest For Glory Tour @ Garfield Artworks
Band Profiles:
10.26.2010 The Spires
11.03.2010 Old Canes
11.16.2010 Bear Hands
11.29.2010 Bottomless Pit
12.10.2010 Reading Rainbow
Song Diaries:
10.06.2010 The Spires / "Held"
10.11.2010 Sharon Van Etten / "Save Yourself"
11.01.2010 Belle and Sebastian / "I Want The World To Stop"
11.30.2010 Warpaint / "Undertow"
12.06.2010 Atlas Sound / "Here Come The Trains"
Record Store Recons:
10.18.2010 RSR #2, Academy Records
11.19.2010 RSR #4, Wicked Discs
Saturday, November 13, 2010
Upcoming shows: concert calendar!
I realized that I haven't really advertised the fact that Draw Us Lines now has a nifty little feature on the blog: a concert calendar! We're trying to keep an up-to-date list of upcoming shows in the Pittsburgh area, but particularly the shows that we recommend (so if you're looking for us to tell you that ICP is at Club Zoo in December or that The Clarks still exist, sorry). I'm trying to keep up with the mailing lists of various production companies and check venues' websites, but I'm bound to miss something, so if there's a show coming up that you're excited about, email me and let me know!
Thursday, October 21, 2010
Concert review: Breathe Owl Breathe, Strand of Oaks, Agaglady
Thursday, September 30, 2010 at Garfield Artworks
Okay, I'm getting a bit behind on some live show reviews, so it's time to catch up. I actually didn't know much about these bands going into the show, but the guys at Draw Us Lines had been repping them pretty hard lately, and the song or two I'd listened to on those posts were all well and good, so I figured I'd check it out. Glad I did.
I showed up at the Artworks a little late, having just grabbed some pizza and beer at Graziano's down the street a ways. I walked in to find rows of chairs set up and one guy standing in front of the usual stage area strumming a guitar and singing and fiddling with a little electronics box with a handful of wires. That went on for a while. Agaglady was really not for me; let's say that. I typically think that there's always some element of good in any music, and part of the appeal is trying to identify what that is and how much of it shines through the other shit, but god damn sometimes it's hard to do that. I'll admit that I liked this guy's earnestness and devotion to his "craft" and he seemed pretty adept with whatever that little electronics box was, but other than that I was struggling to enjoy it. It was mostly his voice, I guess; some of the little electronic melodies were decent and nonstandardly catchy, but it didn't come together nicely with the other elements. Oh well, can't win 'em all, you know?
Next up was Strand of Oaks, which is actually just one guy (Tim Showalter) playing guitar and singing, and boy does he do both of those things well. The string-plucking style was pretty new to me: he kinda used all of his fingers to strum an assortment of strings with one chord set and then used the amp to make this into a kind of beautiful sound cloud from which his soulful voice emerges like a ray of sunshine after a thunderstorm. Yeah, something poetic like that. It was seriously mesmerizing to watch. The day after the show, I went ahead and downloaded his album, Pope Killdragon (exclusive to eMusic, actually), and it sounds different. There are some synthesized sounds and vocal effects and the guitar is more "strummy" but it's also great. I just think that the blanket of melancholy and gravitas that his songs exude was more evident in the live setting. I could see his face contort into almost pained expressions when he belted out some lyrics and did that thing where you lean your head back from the mic a little bit because otherwise you'll drown out the guitar melody you were already playing . . . Check out the video below I took at the show of Strand of Oaks playing "Alex Kona" from that album, and then compare it to the album version. It's slightly different, yeah? But they're both good, yeah? Yeah.
Breathe Owl Breathe capped the evening with an awesome set of what eMusic calls "gentle, lovely folk, nursery rhymes for grown-ups". That's not totally accurate, but it's pretty darn close. The first song they played involved a story about a wolf, and they donned a hat with a puppet wolf on top. (Check out some great photos of that and more from the show here.) A later song began with an audience sing-along of nonsense-lyrics/sounds and then became a saga about a dragon (a draga, if you will?). Singer/guitarist Micah made some interesting vocal effects and whistles with two different mics and did lots of funny hand gestures and dancing, Andrea switched between cello and tambourine and banjo and sang a lot, and Trevor did some great expressive drumming that meshed perfectly with this style of song. Not only are these three people just flat-out talented musicians, they put on an engaging live show that's fun, beautiful, and unique. See them if you can.
Okay, I'm getting a bit behind on some live show reviews, so it's time to catch up. I actually didn't know much about these bands going into the show, but the guys at Draw Us Lines had been repping them pretty hard lately, and the song or two I'd listened to on those posts were all well and good, so I figured I'd check it out. Glad I did.
I showed up at the Artworks a little late, having just grabbed some pizza and beer at Graziano's down the street a ways. I walked in to find rows of chairs set up and one guy standing in front of the usual stage area strumming a guitar and singing and fiddling with a little electronics box with a handful of wires. That went on for a while. Agaglady was really not for me; let's say that. I typically think that there's always some element of good in any music, and part of the appeal is trying to identify what that is and how much of it shines through the other shit, but god damn sometimes it's hard to do that. I'll admit that I liked this guy's earnestness and devotion to his "craft" and he seemed pretty adept with whatever that little electronics box was, but other than that I was struggling to enjoy it. It was mostly his voice, I guess; some of the little electronic melodies were decent and nonstandardly catchy, but it didn't come together nicely with the other elements. Oh well, can't win 'em all, you know?
Next up was Strand of Oaks, which is actually just one guy (Tim Showalter) playing guitar and singing, and boy does he do both of those things well. The string-plucking style was pretty new to me: he kinda used all of his fingers to strum an assortment of strings with one chord set and then used the amp to make this into a kind of beautiful sound cloud from which his soulful voice emerges like a ray of sunshine after a thunderstorm. Yeah, something poetic like that. It was seriously mesmerizing to watch. The day after the show, I went ahead and downloaded his album, Pope Killdragon (exclusive to eMusic, actually), and it sounds different. There are some synthesized sounds and vocal effects and the guitar is more "strummy" but it's also great. I just think that the blanket of melancholy and gravitas that his songs exude was more evident in the live setting. I could see his face contort into almost pained expressions when he belted out some lyrics and did that thing where you lean your head back from the mic a little bit because otherwise you'll drown out the guitar melody you were already playing . . . Check out the video below I took at the show of Strand of Oaks playing "Alex Kona" from that album, and then compare it to the album version. It's slightly different, yeah? But they're both good, yeah? Yeah.
Breathe Owl Breathe capped the evening with an awesome set of what eMusic calls "gentle, lovely folk, nursery rhymes for grown-ups". That's not totally accurate, but it's pretty darn close. The first song they played involved a story about a wolf, and they donned a hat with a puppet wolf on top. (Check out some great photos of that and more from the show here.) A later song began with an audience sing-along of nonsense-lyrics/sounds and then became a saga about a dragon (a draga, if you will?). Singer/guitarist Micah made some interesting vocal effects and whistles with two different mics and did lots of funny hand gestures and dancing, Andrea switched between cello and tambourine and banjo and sang a lot, and Trevor did some great expressive drumming that meshed perfectly with this style of song. Not only are these three people just flat-out talented musicians, they put on an engaging live show that's fun, beautiful, and unique. See them if you can.
Saturday, October 16, 2010
The Song Remains the Same-ish: Freelance Whales vs. Mew
[This is a new "series" that lets me point out when two songs sound really similar. Its frequency obviously depends on me finding these similarities, so who knows when it will happen again.]
Freelance Whales just released a single, called "Enzymes", on the Green Label Sound record label, which has some strange relationship with Mountain Dew. I don't really know how it works. Commence debates about "selling out" and corporate control of music now. Okay, done? The song itself is an intriguing slight departure from the sounds heard on their debut album, Weathervanes. I saw them at the very beginning of this year and was pleasantly uplifted by the lush instrumentation and harmonized vocals of their songs, and they pulled it all off really well in person, too. This new song (video below) incorporates some different elements, though. It begins with an in-your-face guitar riff that is fairly atypical of them, then it brings in a rising synthesizer melody, and then the vocals kick in and ... I started getting deja vu. The high-pitched male voice (with female backing), the pounding drums, the wandering guitar lines ... What does this remind me of? I was really racking my brain and I played the first two minutes of this song over and over at least four times trying to figure it out but, alas, I couldn't.
That was yesterday. I got up today and played the song again, and BAM! I got it. Mew, it sounds exactly like fucking Mew! I looked around for the song that most closely resembled it, and I came up with this one (video below). It's a great track from a great album and it fairly well encapsulates the "Mew sound" in a way. The album version of this one features backing vocals by J. Mascis, he of Dinosaur Jr. fame, but I couldn't find a video for that. Go check out the album, though. Recommended.
It's not a perfect match, for sure. The vocals represent the most compelling similarity, to me, but there are other little moments that sound alike. I'm not making any claim or accusation of copying; don't get me wrong. I just think when a song reminds me of another one so much that it bugs me when I can't figure it out, and then I finally do ... well, that seems worth sharing, yeah?
On a crazy concluding note, I had a strange coincidence while writing this up. I spent a couple of minutes trying to come up with a catchy title for this series (hey, cleverness ain't easy) and eventually settled on the Led Zeppelin reference you see above. Then, as I typed this post, I listened to some demo songs posted by one of my favorite bands The Spires (I recently mentioned them on Draw Us Lines, and look for another post on them sometime soon). A minute or so into the song "Esprit De Corps", I caught Jason Bays singing somewhere muffled in the mix: "Well some say, the song remains the same". How fucking eerie is that? And by that, I mean: how much of a fucking low probability event is that?
| Artist: | Freelance Whales | Mew |
| Song: | "Enzymes" | "Why Are You Looking Grave?" |
| Album: | (Single) | And The Glass Handed Kites |
| Label: | Green Label Sound | Sony BMG |
| Released: | October 14, 2010 | July 26, 2006 (US) |
Freelance Whales just released a single, called "Enzymes", on the Green Label Sound record label, which has some strange relationship with Mountain Dew. I don't really know how it works. Commence debates about "selling out" and corporate control of music now. Okay, done? The song itself is an intriguing slight departure from the sounds heard on their debut album, Weathervanes. I saw them at the very beginning of this year and was pleasantly uplifted by the lush instrumentation and harmonized vocals of their songs, and they pulled it all off really well in person, too. This new song (video below) incorporates some different elements, though. It begins with an in-your-face guitar riff that is fairly atypical of them, then it brings in a rising synthesizer melody, and then the vocals kick in and ... I started getting deja vu. The high-pitched male voice (with female backing), the pounding drums, the wandering guitar lines ... What does this remind me of? I was really racking my brain and I played the first two minutes of this song over and over at least four times trying to figure it out but, alas, I couldn't.
That was yesterday. I got up today and played the song again, and BAM! I got it. Mew, it sounds exactly like fucking Mew! I looked around for the song that most closely resembled it, and I came up with this one (video below). It's a great track from a great album and it fairly well encapsulates the "Mew sound" in a way. The album version of this one features backing vocals by J. Mascis, he of Dinosaur Jr. fame, but I couldn't find a video for that. Go check out the album, though. Recommended.
It's not a perfect match, for sure. The vocals represent the most compelling similarity, to me, but there are other little moments that sound alike. I'm not making any claim or accusation of copying; don't get me wrong. I just think when a song reminds me of another one so much that it bugs me when I can't figure it out, and then I finally do ... well, that seems worth sharing, yeah?
On a crazy concluding note, I had a strange coincidence while writing this up. I spent a couple of minutes trying to come up with a catchy title for this series (hey, cleverness ain't easy) and eventually settled on the Led Zeppelin reference you see above. Then, as I typed this post, I listened to some demo songs posted by one of my favorite bands The Spires (I recently mentioned them on Draw Us Lines, and look for another post on them sometime soon). A minute or so into the song "Esprit De Corps", I caught Jason Bays singing somewhere muffled in the mix: "Well some say, the song remains the same". How fucking eerie is that? And by that, I mean: how much of a fucking low probability event is that?
Thursday, September 30, 2010
Concert review: Pavement!
Pavement
Friday, September 24, 2010
Central Park Summer Stage, New York City
Full write up over on Draw Us Lines.
This was just an all-around good concert. Internet commenters will endlessly make comparisons amongst the various reunion shows, particularly the NYC concerts, but who really cares. The bottom line is that five guys got onstage and made some fabulous music and put on an interesting, exciting, and fun show. Some stray observations from the show:
Friday, September 24, 2010
Central Park Summer Stage, New York City
Full write up over on Draw Us Lines.
This was just an all-around good concert. Internet commenters will endlessly make comparisons amongst the various reunion shows, particularly the NYC concerts, but who really cares. The bottom line is that five guys got onstage and made some fabulous music and put on an interesting, exciting, and fun show. Some stray observations from the show:
- Opening band The Beets were pretty fun, even though all of their songs sounded identical. Nothing wrong with having a specific sound, you know? Also, they played a pretty sweet cover version of "Locomotion"! They kept their set short and light, perfect for an opening set for a big show like this. I found it interesting that the drummer stood/jumped the whole time and played with one drumstick and one mallet (he even drummed with a tambourine at some point). Had they not said they were from Queens, I would have guessed California, given their style and sunglasses at 7:05 pm. I've seen some comments on other blogs that were complaining about this band, but I thought they were fine. Also, right before Pavement played I heard someone behind us asking another guy who opened since he got there late and the other guy didn't know either, so I turned around and said "The Beets" and the first guy said, "Oh man, I like The Beets!" So there ya go.
- Alcohol was stupid-expensive at the show, but weed was omnipresent. I spotted at least six people within our immediate vicinity blatantly smoking a joint. Sweet.
- We brought food into the venue to make sandwiches (Italian bread loaf, fresh mozzarella, one tomato, and a small container of pesto) but there were some food vendors there. One of them was "Asia Dog", selling hot dogs. "Real hot dogs", remarked Leigh.
- The music played during the half hour break between sets was an interesting mix. I only recognized one song ("Here Without You" by The Byrds). The last song that was on before Pavement took the stage was a long and droning instrumental piece and it only seemed to remind us of how long we were waiting in anticipation.
- When Pavement first walked onstage to a lot of cheering, Ibold and Kannberg kinda waved and acknowledged the crowd, whereas Malkmus did a silly little double fist pump thing. I thought it was odd, but later on when I saw him adjusting his shirtsleeves, I realized that maybe the "fist pump" was actually him just making sure his rolled up sleeves would stay where they were. Guess I'll never know.
Wednesday, September 22, 2010
The New Classics: Hissing Fauna, Are You The Destroyer?
There's a new post of mine over at Draw Us Lines on of Montreal's outstanding album Hissing Fauna, Are You The Destroyer? It's one of those albums I wholly enjoyed on first listen and have played periodically since then with monotonically increasing enjoyment. I had a lot of fun writing the piece; I listened to the album a few dozen times over the course of the week, dissecting little snippets of music and lyrics, trying to figure out exactly what it was that appeals to me so much. I ended up with a lot of ideas and actually had a tough time trying to mold them into a cohesive essay that wasn't 5 pages long. Here are a few stray observations and thoughts that I could have easily expanded on ad nauseum:
Anyway, like I said, with an album like this there are always so many angles to take on it and so many ideas to process. Enjoy the article, and share your own thoughts, please!
- Wow are these lyrics great. Every time I thought about a song, I would hear the melody and rhythm in my head, but my main thoughts jumped right to, "What is he saying here? What does it mean?" Kudos to Kevin Barnes for accomplishing that.
- The major theme I touched on in the article was the concept of change and transition, most notably the transformation into Georgie Fruit in "The Past is a Grotesque Animal" and the exploration of that persona in the latter half of the album. But part of the idea of morphing into another person is the concept of plurality; there's a multitude of personalities underneath everything, and that part of the existential quandary is referenced nearly as often as is the change vs. stasis dilemma. For instance, in "Cato as a Pun":
"I can't even pretend that you are my friend / What has happened to you and I? / And don't say that I have changed / 'Cause, man, of course I have"
This is only track 3 on the album, so it's ostensibly about Kevin's relationship with his wife, but that little "man" throws me off, and it makes me think that it's also about him talking to another part of his personality, the slowly-emerging Georgie Fruit, struggling to decide whether he's willing to let it bubble to the surface. Or maybe at this point he's only just realizing he has internal problems (since this song immediately follows the "chemica-a-a-a-a-als" of "Heimdalsgate...") and is battling to suppress a faceless, nameless alter ego-to-be.
Other references to this might be the multi-multi-multi-layered vocals in "Faberge Falls for Shuggie", like when he says "I don't know" over and over, each one offset by a split second. And later, in "Labyrinthian Pomp", he does the same thing a few times with "I can't" and since they're so quick and layered I sometimes think he alternates between saying "I" and "you", like he's talking to two parts of himself.
Okay, last example of this. Track 5, "Gronlandic Edit", just two songs before the transformation, we sense some anxiety about it: "So, am I erasing myself? / Hope I'm not erasing myself..." - I was totally surprised when I paid super close attention to the end of "Faberge Falls for Shuggie" and heard Kevin declaring the names of the follow-up albums to this one! He says coolly: "Skeletal Lamping, The Controller Sphere, False Priest..." a couple times and, in case you didn't know, Skeletal Lamping and False Priest were the immediate successors to this album, save for a small EP of tracks from this session. It makes me wonder when we should expect The Controller Sphere.....
- Small lyrical quibble: in "Labyrinthian Pomp" he apparently says "She's so meta, references Stendahl", which sounds neat and all, and makes reference to a 19th century French writer (Kevin's favorite time and place for literature, it seems) and, implicitly, his corresponding syndrome. However, what I've always heard and what makes a bit more sense to me, even if it's less literary or whatever, is: "She's so meta, referenced and all", like she (whoever it is) is meta and multi-layered and referenced. Makes more sense, you know?
- What in the world is going on with the cover art? It's amazing and full of detail, like all of David Barnes' stuff, but . . . they always leave me baffled and looking for little significances in the fine print, so to speak. Maybe that's the point. I dunno.
- Polyvinyl released a special 12" vinyl version of "The Past is a Grotesque Animal" earlier this year (on super cool-looking marbly sky blue vinyl, no less!). The A side is the original track, and the B side is an alternate version, as performed by the nonexistent band of robots named The Lost Trees (not to be confused with the extant band of humans named Lost in the Trees). You can still buy the digital version, if you'd like, but the limited pressing of 500 is now out of print (really glad I got one!). The "robot version" was recorded to be used in a short film by Spike Jonze, "I'm Here". It's about a robot, naturally.
Anyway, like I said, with an album like this there are always so many angles to take on it and so many ideas to process. Enjoy the article, and share your own thoughts, please!
Monday, September 13, 2010
Concert review: The Black Angels, Fillmore Jive
My first post for Draw Us Lines! Blake & Jim have asked me to do some live show reviews for their burgeoning blog, and I have happily obliged. Check out my review on their site, and see my additional thoughts below. I'll continue to add here some stray observations and more personal anecdotes that don't quite fit over there, and I'll let you know when something new appears there, too.
The Black Angels, Fillmore Jive
Friday September 10, 2010 at Diesel
with Leigh, Paul
The Black Angels, Fillmore Jive
Friday September 10, 2010 at Diesel
with Leigh, Paul
- DUL review
- I grabbed the guitarist's set list from the front of the stage after the show. That's what you see in the pic at the bottom of the DUL review.
- Diesel was even worse than I implied in my review. Granted, they are clean, smoke-free (except for the massively cheesy smoke machine blowing down from above the stage), and well-lit, but it becomes clearer every time that they just don't give a shit about the live music aspect of their business, which makes me wonder why they even bother. The stage is very nice, but it's too tall for the best viewing location, which is the floor in front. The upstairs "VIP lounge" area was roped off for this concert, but I could see employees scrubbing the windows, eating their dinners, and setting up liquor table service while the show was going on. Come on! And towards the end, there were actually club patrons up there already enjoying their Ciroc or Patron or whatever they drink, clearly disinterested in the rock music going on down below. The show ended abruptly in time so they could take down the stage and make sure all the clubbers could get in shortly thereafter. Look, I understand, Diesel: this is where you make your money. Dancing & boozing is your bread & butter. Fine. But just do that if it's really what you want to do. Don't aggravate us genuine concertgoers who love the bands you get and want to see a good show because you happen to not really care about that aspect of your business and just see it as a way to make a few bucks on the side. It's disrespectful to the band and the fans. Don't pretend to be something you're not, you know? You're a club through and through, so stick to that.
- Fillmore Jive's drummer walked onstage with a cup of hot coffee. First time I'd seen that. Usually it's a bottle of water, a bottle of beer, or a red solo cup.
- Merch tables: FJ were selling CDs for $3 and autographs for $20, got a kick out of that. The Black Angels were selling vinyl of all 3 albums for $20 each, CDs for $10 and t-shirts for $15. I really liked the shirt with their Nico logo on it, but I had already bought the new album on vinyl and thought I was spending enough at that show already . . . oh well, next time, I guess.
- The lead guitarist in The Black Angels was playing a cool-looking 6-string Rickenbacker that I had never seen, and it had 2 stickers on it. Looking closely, I saw they were both for The Brian Jonestown Massacre. Interesting.
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