Yeah this show was like 6 weeks ago but it was so good I had to post it for future reference. The Veils are fronted by Finn Andrews, and his troupe has changed from the 1st to 2nd record, as you may have read before on my quasi-review on The Veils excellent, recently dropped Nux Vomica. Union Hall is tiny...probably ties Club Delancey for smallest venue I've been to. But the acoustics are excellent and unless your stuck in the back, you're pretty much forced to share the performance intimately, which can be a good or bad thing. On this night, it was a great thing. Finn Andrews has pipes that are well suited for a grander stage -so doing Union Hall was a cinch. The Veils, in their entirety, sounded fantastic -almost as if they were actually playing their album in the back. Wait, maybe they were....?!
There's been a lot of talk of Spoon now being a full-fledged "Rock" band. Just because their album cover and art and their press photos look more "rock" trendy doesn't make them so. Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga doesn't sound too different from the excellent Gimme Fiction and in fact, Ga isprobably a bit more experimental and eclectic, albeit very minimlal than Gimme. Many of the songs, including the solid "Rhthm and Soul" and standout "You got Yr. Cherry Bomb" could have easily fit on their last album. However, debut single from Ga, "The Underdog," covers new ground that doesn't sound like any Spoon song I can remember -with it's instumental and melodic experimental traits. It still has the Spoon signature on it though and it makes for an excellent single. "The Ghost of You Lingers" is the most experimental track on the album, with less discernable vocals and more attention to the style and structure as it relates to it's title of the song and less attention to an accessible sound. The style works nicely, as there is an owl-like sound repeatedly in the back ground and a constant pounding of a short range of piano notes, making the song more mysterious and urgent, which is cohesive with its title. However, the song suffers from no real transition...it basically goes nowhere in the end.
What makes Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga stand out from its predcessors is the attention to detail in each of the songs. It definitely has a wider range in sound -as you can hear with the solid standard Spoonish opener, "Don't Make me a Target" ...which then moves to the echoey, haunting "The Ghost of You Lingers" and then to the highlight of the album, "You Got Yr. Cherry Bomb." The next track, "Don't You Evah" is a mediocre ode to past Spoon records -still, it standouts in it's timelessness. Then you have "The Underdog" later in the album, which is followed by the worthy, minimalish sound of "My Little Japanese Cigarette Case." Then they have the great "Finer Feelings" which probably should have been placed as the last track. The finale, "Black Like Me" is decent enough but it has a quasi-emoish adolescent indulgent sound and mood to it. While song for song, Ga may not stand up to Fiction, it manages to make the case for being Spoon's fullest realized effort. hear: Don't Make Me a Target, You got Yr. Cherry Bomb, Rhthm and Soul, The Underdog, Finer Feelings
Battles have released arguably the best album of the year, and now they have given the best concert I've seen this year -along with Mew. Musical craftsmanship at it's finest. Every member of Battles has already achieved success under another moniker, most notably the brilliant drummer, ex-Helmet's John Stanier. Watching Stanier perform with unparalleled intensity and focus is akin to watching any of the masters of instruments we worship today. It's beautiful stuff. He provided the base for the other 3 to show their unbelievable talent as well. Don Caballero's Ian Williams seamlessly switched between guitar and keyboards, providing such overwhelming content to the songs you wonder how he had time to get it all in there.
TyondaiBraxton (yes, the son of Toni) masters a second keyboard and provides the otherwise placable vocals behind the few tracks that contain indistinguishable words -or a voice. His tone and range synchronize perfectly with the mathematical structure of the music which is highlighted by stimulating, addictive melodies. Then there's the rad bassist, davidKonpaka, who could have been president of his fraternity or perhaps an investment banker...just doing his thing, performing some intoxicating solos in the back. Battles also performed probably the single impressive live song I've heard this year, "TIJ," which along with "Atlas" sounded like the biggest crowd-pleasers of the night. Yeah I may have used a few hyperboles- but Battles made me do it.
"My friends and I were hanging out at In N Out in Atascadero and they challenged Erlend Oye to a freestyle rap battle. He declined, but he did play us a song! I didn't realize he was the guy in the Kings of Convenience but now I realize how cool this was!"-tabbytabby on Youtube
Our Love to Admire is a decent album that sounds crisper, uses more electronic tidbits here and there courtesy mostly of the keyboard, and highlights Paul Banks vocal capabilities. He has never sounded better. However, the actual music has. And after 3 years, I can't help but be a little disappointed by the final product. The catchy first single, "Heinrich Maneuver" didn't encourage our hopes that Interpol had added more to their palette, albeit still a solid track. However, the excellent "Pioneer to the Falls" and "Mammoth" do show Interpol expanding their sonic ambitions. This is probably the most anticipated album of the year -definitely for me. Our Love to Admire has received the most intense mixed reviews of any recent record...the British absolutely love it. Sadly, I'm not quite there. But overall there are enough solid moments to make it a pretty dang good album, even if it's not up to the caliber of their past albums.
What puts Interpol in such a tight position is that they already released -what is in my opinion- the best album of the millennium with Turn Out the Bright Lights. Living up to that album is no simple feat so to release a merely good album is to pretty much automatically produce criticism...especially with everyone's high hopes. But as I said, there are positive and encouraging moments on Admire, most important of which is Paul banks vocals. His lyrics are as clever and obtuse as ever: "There are seven ancient pawn shops along the road, and the seven aching daddies you may want to know"("Mammoth"), albeit at times juvenile("No I in Threesome"). The lyrical matter of many of the songs reflect Banks' personal struggles with relationships -and at times, drugs: "I live my life in cocaine, Just a rage and three kinds of yes...You look so young, like a daisy in my lazy eyes" he somewhat laments on one of the standout tracks, "Rest My Chemistry". You don't have to put in too much research to get the idea of "Heinrich Maneuver" -the lyrics centered around a former love who moved west with high aspirations. The lyrics remain somber for most of the album -on the 2ND-to-last track, "Wrecking Ball", he sings "I'm inside like the wrecking ball through your eye...no one's for me. "Who do you think?", one of the better tracks, and "Wrecking Ball" both reflect the U2 influence that has always been there. Sometimes it seems Turn Out the Bright Lights is what The Unforgettable Fire would have sounded like if Robert Smith had been the producer and Ian Curtis the singer. Our Love to Admire will grow on you, and at the end of the year I suspect it will be one of my favorites of 2007.
hear: Pioneer to the Falls, There's no I in Threesome, Heinrich Maneuver, Mammoth, Rest My Chemistry, Who do You Think?
Rarely do bands give-in to fan petitions. So when The National showed up at theDaytrotter sessions, they declared that the songs they would play would be those they regularly do not play live. See, The National faithful took matters into their own hands and made a petition, asking for the boys - who are originally from Ohio but now reside, obviously, in Brooklyn - to add certain songs to the set list. The National, being upstanding fellas, played some of those songs live at Daytrotterto appease their minions. And while at it, they covered The Psychedelic Furs' "Pretty in Pink"! The version is stripped down and doesn't reveal any additional sonic revelations from The National, but it's just nice to hear Matt sing it know that Molly Ringwald hasn't been forgotten. "Lucky You," from Sad Songs for Dirty Lovers is probably the most petitionedsong -as it is amazing and I've never heard them play it live during the many times I've seen them. "Gospel" must be another. However, I'm not sure about "Slow Show" which they also play -they played it at their recent Bowery shows and it's one of the highlights from their recently dropped Boxer.
Callum Robbins, the son of J. Robbins and Janet Morgan, who are involved in the bands: Channels, Jawbox, and Burning Airlines, suffers from Spinal Muscular Atrophy. So friends and family are coming together for the little tot to raise some much needed $( I mean, have u seen "Sicko"? I haven't but I've heard -oh I've heard). Anyway such an event is already starting off positive with the members of Secret Stars reuniting for one night only. Slowcorelovelies, Ida will be performing as well. Both bands were pioneers to the current inide craze back in the late 90's, early 00's. Of course, Ida is still going strong. Well, maybe not strong ..but they're going.
The South Carolina transplants brought their amazing brand of western-ghost town indie rock to the delight of music and bad art fans alike at Hiro Ballroom Tuesday night. After a hilarious, raucous comedic performance -which was pretty much selling bad art - by fellow Carolinian Zach Galifianakis, Ben Bridwell and co. took to the stage to deliver a full set, including teasers from their presently untitled upcoming Fall release. And now that BOH have more than 1 album, they were able to go outside their standard '8-songs from EATT and 2 covers' formula. They actually threw down 14 heart-felt tunes this time around. They weren't lying about the southeastern tag that's been applied to their new songs, as many tunes reminded of Willie Nelson meets My Morning Jacket meets Midlake. Here's hoping the polished album tracks have a little more of that Northwestern flavor that made their debut so incredible. Having said this, the opener was a newbie and sounded great -and another had a range of Def Leopard like proportions in part of it's chorus and proved to be one of the more enjoyable moments of the show. They seamlessly shifted into "The Great Salt Lake" for their second song. Always a great one live. "Funeral" seemed to be more fluid and clean live than in times past and ended being one of my favorites of the night, along with "Weed Party" and "Our Swords", the latter being the first song of their encore -the finale being a stirring cover of Midlake's "Bandits." The BOH cast has been a revolving door for the past year, but it seems as if they have found the right chemistry. Though not as memorable as the first time I saw them at Bowery, this was a more professional and polished performance than past shows. Now, if they can just get Mat Brooke back....we'd have half of a Carrisa'sWierd reunion again!
The Six Parts Seven Casually Smashed to Pieces (Suicide Squeeze)
There's something to be said for dependability. Many bands will drop one or two good records and then fade out. Then there are groups like The Six Parts Seven. Granted, their music has a more timeless, versatile quality that makes it easy to enjoy. At the same time, it's not the brand of sound that is going to overly attract the masses -far from it actually as it's the pure indie variety and not what you're hearing over the airwaves or reading in Spin. The Six Parts Seven have never made a significant push with any of their records to grab the limelight, yet listening to their music you can hear the overwhelming talent that exudessubtlety from their songs. They are only in it for the music. The boys don't even have a website -and they've been around for more than 10 years. Even their myspace page isn't run by anyone affiliated with the band, but by fans.
I remember when I first heard Six Parts Seven. It was at a remote joint that few knew about. They were opening for Carrisa'sWierd -or maybe it was Pedro the Lion -can't really remember. I only caught the tail-end of the show but that was enough for me to go outside and buy their excellent Things Shaped in Passing vinyl. Casually Smashed to Pieces immediately identifies itself with the past records, especially with probably their finest work, Everywhere and Right Here. Still not a peep of a voice...just instrumental beauty, highlighted repeatedly by the trumpet. The glory days of ambient, instrumental indie rock and its cousin, slowcore, have ended. But bands such as The Six Parts Seven are still very much relevant and highly respected, mostly because of their influence on the present state of indie music and because they continue to produce quality records that are easy to return to.
So yeah..I'm a little late on this...but it was such a good show!
It's almost impossible to go to a bad National show. Made up of classicaly trained musicians and seasoned veterans, The National have the live equation solved, bringing their raw emotion and vulnerable passion to the stage. Vocalist Matt Berninger has been known to garner a bit of stage fright and his anxious, aggresive reaction always brings an added excitement to the show -whether he has his head snapped back, drinking the microphone as he yelps "squalor Victoria,squalor Victoria!" or when he pulls an impromtu jump to the balcony of Bowery, hanging by his arm and keeping his vocal composure, as he did tonight. Biggest crowd-pleasersof the night were "Abel", "Secret Meeting" and the fresh "Fake Empire." "Mr. November" proved to be the most entertaining number, raising the nervous energery an extra notch and consequantly, getting the crowd all riled up....which led to Matt's stage diving. There was a 6th member to the team tonight -a violinist who stroked his strings with a Jimi Hendrix type ferocity. He was fun to watch -he must be at least 40 yrs. old but you wouldn't have known it. But in the end it's not the showmanship that assures a great National show but the fact that each member is a master of his instrument(s).Go out and buy these albums!!! : www.americanmary.com
There have been a pluthera of remix albums released lately -My Brightest Diamond, Stars, and fortunately, Junior Boys. Most of these albums didn't need to be made. While there were a couple entertaining or impressive tracks on each, most of it wreaked of experimentation constucted by laziness -or boredom. Then there is Dead Horse. Only 5 tracks on the album, including 2 remixes of the underrated track, "FM." They did it right. Not every song on So This is Goodbye needed an overhaul. What makes the songs on this album so good is that the artists were able to maintain the original charm of the originals while adding excellent variations that allowed each track to still stand independent from the original, most notably the opening track, "In the Morning" remixed by Hot Chip. This is a great album for anyone but it's a must have for those who dig Junior Boys.www.juniorboys.net www.dominorecordco.com/site
The first video off Interpol's much anticpated release, Our Love to Admire, which drops in T minus 7 days. "Heinrich Maneuver" is said to be Paul Bank's ode to California.
