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Monday, April 28, 2008
Monday, April 07, 2008
Last week we scooped the news about Radiohead’s August 13 concert date at Tweeter Center (tickets go on sale this Saturday at 10 a.m.) and set the music blogs abuzz. Today word from ye olde Inbox, via our friends at LiveNation, is that opening duties will be divvied amongst Grizzly Bear, whom Radiohead covered at their recent top-secret London gig, and Liars, who Thom Yorke raved about when he guess DJ’ed NPR’s All Songs Considered in February. So who’ll be gracing Mansfield with their Yorke-approved presence this summer? Grizzly Bear, those Brooklynite kings of fuzzy, buzzing, eerily quiet, then extremely loud indie rock. Their Friend EP was firmly lodged at the top of our "Most Played" list for a solid chunk of 2007, along with In Rainbows, to the point where we thought our iTunes might protest and throw whatever's at the top of their "Most Purchased" list at us instead. Which means that we’ve now progressed from excited about the show, to high on summer concert plans, Fitter Happier, Everything In It’s Right Place, shaking in our desk chairs excited. It’s notable that Pitchfork.tv launched today and, in a perhaps serendipitous, or perhaps expertly calculated move, posted some excellent live footage of Radiohead performing Disc Two’s "Bangers & Mash" in Nigel Godrich’s basement (that’s infinity times cooler than our basement, which mainly just has spiders and an old ping pong table). Of course that shit’s already on You Tube, so here you go: And, to get you all in the Radiohead/Grizzly Bear combo mood, here's the video for Grizzly Bear's "Knife," made by the San Francisco-based duo Encyclopedia Pictura, who also just released Bjork's astoundingly trippy/picturesque video for "Wanderlust":
--Caitlin E. Curran
Thursday, April 03, 2008
 What do these two have in common? $$$$$$$$$$$As you may have heard by now, today's New York Times reports that Jay-Z is "on the verge" of closing a multi-million dollar deal with Live Nation, which would tie albums, concerts, and any other business ventures that Jay-Z has the slightest desire to carry out into one neat, Live Nation-financed package (“I’ve turned into the Rolling Stones of hip-hop,” Jay-Z says). Now, we're all for Jay-Z, especially now that he's in cahoots with his old pal Mary J, on a tour that hits TD Banknorth tonight, but his tone in the article is borderline annoying. From the article: "The overall package for Jay-Z also includes an upfront payment of $25 million, a general advance of $25 million that includes fees for his current tour, and advance payment of $10 million an album for a minimum of three albums during the deal’s 10-year term, these people said. A series of other payments adding up to about $20 million is included in exchange for certain publishing, licensing and other rights. Jay-Z said Live Nation’s consolidated approach was in sync with the emerging potential 'to reach the consumer in so many different ways right now.'" Wow, that's, like, a mind-boggling amount of money. Then, flip to page two for these follow-up statement: "In a way I want to operate like an indie band," [Of course you do! Indie bands are SO HOT right now. -Ed.] he said. "Play the music on tour instead of relying on radio. Hopefully we’ll get some hits out of there and radio will pick it up, but we won’t make it with that in mind."...Jay-Z, for his part, suggested that the string of stars to exit the major-label system would also signal to younger acts how to plot their careers. Oh, okay. So, hey, all of you struggling indie bands out there! You've been going about this all wrong! Follow in Jay-Z's steps! Just pick up the phone and give a concert promoter behemoth a call, and boom! you'll be on your way. -Caitlin E. Curran
Saturday, March 22, 2008
Mountain Goats, "Sign of the Crow (Live at the Museum of Fine Arts) Mountain Goats, "Ain't Living Long Like This (Rodney Crowell cover, Live at the Museum of Fine Arts) Mountain Goats, "Heretic Pride (Live at the Museum of Fine Arts)"
Mountain Goats w/ the Moaners
Live at the Museum of Fine Arts Boston
March 14, 2008
Moaners: two gals from Chapel Hill doing it Doo Rag style. Totally face-melting. We forgot how much we used to love bottleneck-slide-guitar-Fred McDowell-style punk rawk. For a couple years in the '90s there were like dozens of bands like this crawling around Memphis. Fuck. There is a conspicuous lack of mp3s or video of these ladies hanging around the internet. Unfortunately, we will not be adding to the record on that count. Maybe some other time.
However: we got some exclusive, new Mountain Goats stuff. At top: "Sign of the Crow," a great this-generation-is-fucked song that John Darnielle says he wrote three weeks ago in a hotel room in Alaska. Below that: "Ain't Living Long Like This" a Rodney Crowell blues that Darnielle got a hankering to play while hanging out in the dressing room, despite the fact that he'd never played it live before. At bottom: the full-band MTNGTS powers through the title track from their new "Heretic Pride."
We were thinking about the sudden appearance of that Crowell tune a few days after this show, when Darnielle announced he was cancelling an upcoming Australian tour for unspecified "personal medical reasons": "If it weren't serious, I would be leaving for Oz next week, believe me," he wrote on the Mountain Goats site. "You'll be doing me a great favor if you keep me in your thoughts and prayers, and if you know in your heart that I don't play around in doing right by the people I love: I will be back to make this up to you." Aussies, hope the above will whet your appetite for the time being.
Friday, March 07, 2008
Today, YouTube has baptized itself as Sigur Róstube: all Sigur Rós, all day. The whole darn homepage is all Sigur Rós videos. So, you can take a break from watching Cat of 1000 Faces, Chris Crocker looking more and more bonkers, and that whole viral Yes We Can thing, and get all contemplative and dramatic with everyone's favorite Icelandic band (tied with Björk/The Sugarcubes, obv), staring into space and pondering life's worth to fan-made videos for "með blóðnasir." Take that, Barack! And you thought St. Patrick's Day was the next big holiday! As an added bonus, if you missed the December Kendall screening of Heima, which Sigur Rós describes thusly: " Filmed over two weeks during the summer of 2006 when the band
undertook a series of free, unannounced concerts in Iceland. They
hauled 40-plus people round 15 locations to the furthest flung corners
of their homeland for their debut venture into live film, to create
something, well, inspirational," you can catch all 97 minutes of it on YT today as well. We'll get you in the mood with a few choice Sigur Ros clips:
Friday, February 29, 2008
Township, "Sandy" (Flophouse Sessions, Feb 2008)
Jen and Andy, the betrothed Somerville duo behind the fantastic Band in Boston Podcast, have recorded many of our favorite local indie bands for their "Flophouse Sessions" -- a series taped live in the pair's living room, on stripped-down gear, and given away free on teh internets. We loved their podcast so much we decided to be friends. And now, in the first of what we hope are many collaborations to come, we've teamed up with BIB to present the latest Flophouse Session: a live set by hirsute local heroes Township, who play a CD-release gig tonight at T.T. the Bear's Place. Check 'em out, and grab the full Flophouse Session in the ever-poular mp3 format at www.bandinbostonpodcast.com.
Thursday, February 28, 2008
DOWNLOAD: Hooray for Earth, "Warm Out" (mp3)
Hooray for Earth: odd band. Get 'em drunk, and they're liable to belt out a Justin Timberlake hit, or maybe one of Jacko's. Left on his own, their singer has been known to crank out Magnetic Fields covers. In their own right, HFE have carved out a unique niche that's equal parts indie breadth and metal brawn, like a second coming of Queens of the Stone Age. "Warm Out," taken from their new Cellphone EP, staggers forward on a clawing, atavistic, baritone-guitar riff, the rhythm section lurching like mechanized infantry. But the bridge that follows is a thing of beauty: the guitars turn taut, lithe, and synchronous. Clusters of ascending notes flank and overwhelm the main theme; and the lyrics, a short paen to renewal that evokes the majestic/melancholic Mag Fields of "Love Comes Home To Paris in the Spring," turn sad and then frantic, just before the whole thing starts all over again. Grab the mpfree above, check out the video below, then see if you can help yrself from stampeding their EP-release gig on Leap Night -- that's tomorrow -- at the Middle East.
HFE: Warm Out (video)
Thursday, February 21, 2008
DOWNLOAD: Hallelujah the Hills, "Don't Take the Law Into Your Own Hands But Take Mine In Yours" (mp3)
On the eve of their biggest national tour to date (stops include SXSW and a Daytrotter session), Boston indie heroes Hallelujah the Hills forsook the bedroom and entered an actual studio for the first time ("My 8-track will never forgive me," laments frontman Ryan Walsh), emerging with two brand-new songs to hold us over until they record album no. 2 this spring. "Don't Take The Law" is short but feels longer, or at least bigger, managing to swell from sotto-voce, bee-swarm jangle to an anthemic, junkshop-orchestra sing-along in under two minutes. Walsh calls it "my joking attempt at starting a whole new subgenre of pop music entitled 'Police Officer/Vigilante Love Ballads.' Just like the Wichita Lineman failed at jumpstarting the 'Telephone Line Repairman Love Ballad' genre, we hope to fail in a similar, spectacular manner." Consider it done. Grab the mp3 above, then bid HTH a fond farewell when they play a free show February 24 at the Milky Way with Amoroso and Jersey's Titus Andronicus.
HTH TOUR DATES:
Feb 29 2008 8:00P@ Union Hall, Brooklyn, NY w/ Evangelicals, Headlights
Mar 1 2008 8:00P@ Soundfix, Brooklyn, NY
Mar 2 2008 8:00P@ Garfield Artworks, Pittsburgh , PA
Mar 3 2008 8:00P@ Beachland Tavern (w/ Headlights/Evangelicals) - Cleveland , Ohio
Mar 4 2008 8:00P@ The Elbow Room- Ypsilanti , Michigan
Mar 5 2008 3:00pm Hear Ya Session, Chicago , IL
Mar 5 2008 8:00P@ Abbey Pub - Chicago , Illinois
Mar 6 2008 12:00P@ Daytrotter.com, Rock Island , Illinois
Mar 6 2008 8:00P@ The Annex - Madison, Wisconsin
Mar 7 2008 8:00P@ Nomad World Pub (w/ Ela and Curse Words) - Minneapolis , Minnesota
Mar 8 2008 8:00P@ The Maintenance Shop (w/ Poison Control Center) - Ames , Iowa
Mar 9 2008 5:00P@ Vaudeville Mews **early show** - Des Moines , Iowa
Mar 11 2008 8:00P@ New Deli - Fayetteville , Arkansas
Mar 12 2008 8:00P@ Friends Bar (SXSW Misra Showcase) Austin , Texas
Mar 13 2008 SXSW TBA Austin , Texas
Mar 14 2008 SXSW Friends Bar Berklee SXSW Party (day show) Austin , Texas
Mar 15 2008 8:00P@ Jackrabbit Lounge - Shreveport , Louisiana
Mar 17 2008 Afternoon @ Grimey's Record Shop, Nashville, TN
Mar 17 2008 8:00P @ Springwater, Nashville, TN
Mar 19 2008 8:00P@ The Rudyard Kipling - Louisville , Kentucky
Mar 20 2008 8:00P@ The Venue - Lafayette , Indiana
Mar 21 2008 8:00P@ Café Bourbon Street , Columbus , OH
Mar 22 2008 8:00P@ TBA, New York
Thursday, January 31, 2008
DOWNLOAD: White Hinterland, "Dreaming of the Plum Trees" (mp3)
Back when she was studying at New England Conservatory, Casey Dienel put out a demo called "Grandmother Rock," a quick suite of songs suggesting rocking chairs more than rock-n-roll, a genre you'd coin if you were precocious, shy, and out of love with your generation. Dienel's debut, The Wind-Up Canary, was all of these things; her new album, and new incarnation, even more so. On Phylactery Factory, the debut from White Hinterland (a band, evidently, although she's still solo in her press photos), Dienel's songs find their gravity in wistfully-scrawled characters and jazzy, autumnal piano chords (Vince Guaraldi has been mentioned). Her voice is drowsy, her meter brisk; settled back in JP after a Brooklyn soujourn, she seems to be drinking from a deeper brew, her tiptoeing phrases easily startled into hiccups of surprise. And her melodies, always evasive, are rubbed round and smooth, as if she'd been singing them for decades. White Hinterland make their local debut this Saturday, February 2, at PA's Lounge.
PREVIOUSLY:
>>Mp3 of the Week: Casey Dienel, "Frankie and Annette" (mp3)
>>Casey Dienel: Grand Canary (interview)
Monday, January 28, 2008
Mission of Burma, 1001 Pleasant Dreams (Live at Great Scott, 2008)
Mission of Burma, 2wice (Live at Great Scott, 2008)
As Justin Timberlake says, what goes around comes around: as the story goes, Mission of Burma took their name off a consulate building they happened to pass in New York. Twenty years or so later, the actual country of Burma is in turmoil. (If you haven't heard about it, that's because it's a particularly crappy time to be a non-oil-producing country in turmoil.) And so, with Roger Miller railing against facism and speakers from the US Campaign for Burma on hand to fill in the blanks, MOB embarked on an actual Mission. Involving Burma. Perfect.
Even perfecter, this one took the form of a fiery, sold-the-hell-out show at Great Scott, the most intimate venue they've played in Boston since reforming (unless you count the unofficial warm-up gig they played in Somerville the night before their proper reunion gig). And to top it off, they debuted at least four new, as-yet-unrecorded songs -- one of which we'll be posting soon. (Asked if there were plans for a new album, Miller said there were not, but didn't rule it out, adding that they hadn't really properly planned anything, ever.) For now, check out these fantastic performances of some recent and classic chunes. And stop by the US Campaign for Burma's website to get the lowdown on Burma. We've sent off our tapes to the Campaign folks, who are planning on clandestinely beaming the full show into Burma sometime soon.
Tuesday, January 22, 2008
Mirah & Spectraone International, "Love Song of the Fly" (Live 1/11/08 at Museum of Fine Art, Boston)
Video by OTD & R. Stewart
Mirah & Spectraone International, "Song of Psyche" (Live 1/11/08 at Museum of Fine Art, Boston)
Video by OTD & R. Stewart
In the animated world, creatures that would otherwise be seen as unsavory have been given a family-friendly makeover, from a disease-ridden rat that happens to be an innate culinary genius to a pesky honeybee that cracks jokes and falls in love. But singer-songwriter Mirah ditched the saccharine angle for her song-cycle concept album entirely about bugs, Share This Place (K), which she performed in its entirety . . . [CONTINUE READING: A Bug's Life:
Mirah + Spectratone International at the MFA, January 11, 2008]
1/22/2008 11:57:44 AM by Caitlin | |
Wednesday, December 19, 2007
 We were gonna post a Journey video but we just couldn't bring ourselves to do it.Oh, listmania, you’re like Paris Hilton holding a plate of Oreos: contradictory, slightly off-putting, and yet fascinatingly addictive. Just when we think we’re listed out, we find ourselves reading another one, and nodding enthusiastically or wondering why anyone thinks the new Band of Horses album is Top 10-worthy. The best list-related reading of the week is undoubtedly Slate’s ongoing documentation of a musical conversation between Robert Christgau, Jody Rosen, and Ann Powers. If you’ve got an hour, it’s worth reading through, but if not, here’s our favorite part: On Sunday Rosen praised Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believin’” as the song of the year, thanks to boosts from The Sopranos and drunken karaoke-ing college kids across the US (Rosen notes that “Don’t Stop Believin’” wasn’t critically acclaimed in 1981, leading him to deduce “There's a "Don't Stop Believin'" of 2007 out there somewhere; it's probably some Nickelback song. Or maybe it's Mims”). Powers agreed (“Journey is so relevant now”), and just our heads began to spin Christgau verbally smacked some sense into everyone, via his post on Monday: “Journey sucks. They sucked in 1981, they'll suck in 2033, and they suck now. Who gives a fuck what Tony Soprano thinks?” Xgau, we love you, even though we have no idea how Soulja Boy's Souljaboytellumdotcom ended up on your Top 30 albums of ‘07 list. List-related blog item #2: Flipping through our roommate’s copy of Blender recently and we spotted Animal Collective’s Strawberry Jam at number 90 of the mag’s list of the 100 Greatest Indie-Rock albums Ever. “Way to go AC!” we thought. We might’ve picked Feels instead, but whatevs. Then we checked out Blender’s Best 25 Albums of 2007 and, amazingly, Animal Collective is not on there. Like, at all. WTF? Is Strawberry Jam so great and influential that we’re supposed to just feel it’s presence on there? Or is this a reality check that these lists - all of them, not just Blender’s - are kinda BS because (duh) it’s all a matter of (sometimes dissenting, even at the same publication) opinion. We’re not pointing fingers here - we just put the finishing touches on our best album lists, look for ‘em on the Internets soonish - but maybe Slate’s got the right idea in turning listmania into a friendly debate about musical happenings within the past year, rather than a set-in-stone, these are the best albums period, kind of thing. Or maybe that’s what Idolator’s comment section is for.
12/19/2007 3:28:31 PM by Caitlin | |
Monday, December 10, 2007
Mission of Burma will play Great Scott on January 20, in what will be the band's most intimate hometown performance since their first-ever reunion gig (which was itself a secret warmup gig for their official reunion shows a few nights later) at the now-defunct 608 in Somerville, six years ago to the month.
We gather the gig is a benefit in some fashion for Myanmar (the country formerly known as Burma), and we'll add details when our Googling produces something reliable. If you've got details, hit us in the comments.
Tickets go on sale HERE on December 15 at 10 am.
BREAKING NEWS: Maybe we set off someone's Google alert with this post, but we just got an email confirming that Pete Prescott's terrorifyingly awesome post-Burma band VOLCANO SUNS are amping up their reunion with plans for an extensive 2008 tour -- this time in support of a Taang! re-release of their albums The Bright Orange Years and All Night Lotus Party, neither of which have ever seen the light of a digital release. Developing...
Sunday, November 25, 2007
Come, "Hurricane" (Live at the Middle East, 11/10/2007)
Sure, it was only two songs. (Turns out they had a third ready to go, but decided against it. What, the applause wasn't loud enough? "Exactly," said Chris Brokaw.) But since this was the first time Come have performed since their 2 1/2-hour farewell gig at the MidEast's downstairs room back in -- what, 1998? -- well, this was pretty fucking rad. Brokaw, on loan from Thurston Moore's band and a zillion other projects, hopped up after Thalia Zedek's band played a more-blistering-than-usual set, providing the pentultimate thrill on the occasion of the Middle East's 20th anniversary as a rock club, which is not coincidentally Billy Ruane's birthday, and is also coincidentally ME booker Kevin Hoskins's B-day. Whew. Yes, Hallelujah the Hills and Helms and IV Diffusion and Drug Rug were great, but dude: Come played a fucking reunion show. And since you weren't there, we brought back this clip. We've got the other song in a holding cell, waiting for an encore, along with some awesome footage of Hallelujah the Hills covering the Beatles, which we haven't asked them for permission to post yet. More anon, then. Many thanks to Leslie McCleave for additional footage.
Monday, November 19, 2007
Tiger Saw + Cathy Cathodic, "Words Not Used In Books" (Live at PA's Lounge, November 8, 2007)
Tiger Saw, "Tigers on Fire" (Live at PA's Lounge, November 8, 2007)
Our old pals (and former PHX tourbloggers) Tigersaw are off again, this time to Europe (dates below for our Continental peoples), but they threw down at PA's Lounge before embarking, and trotted out a new song, "Words Not Used In Books," that'll be on their next album. It's in the heart-funk vein of Tigers On Fire, with one next-level twist: a verse from indie rapper (and new Tiger Saw member) Cathy Cathodic, who's been cutting up DIY shows in these parts for many years. "Hearts become like little drums/They beat in time/Bum-bum, bum-bum." Two thumbs up.
TIGER SAW EURPEAN TOUR DATES
NOVEMBER
Mon 19 -Karlsruhe, Germany w/ Alps of New South Wales
Wed 21 Cork, Ireland - Fred Zeppelin's
Sat 24 Dublin, Ireland - The Boom Boom Room w/ SingSong, Carly
Sun 25 Dublin, Ireland - Anseo w/ Chequerboard, SingSong
Mon 26 Galway, Ireland - Roisin Dubh
Wed 28 Brighton, England @TBA w/ Picastro, Viking Moses
Thu 29 Nottingham, England @TBA w/ Picastro, Viking Moses
Fri 30 Newcastle, England @ TBA w/ Picastro, Viking Moses, Golden Ghost
DECEMBER
Sat 1 Edinburgh, Scotland @ TBA w/ Viking Moses, eagle owl, Golden Ghost
Sun 2 Manchester, England @ King's Arms w/ Viking Moses, Golden Ghost
Mon 3 London, England @ Luminaire w/ Viking Moses, Little Wings, Golden Ghost
Tue 4 Leiden, Netherlands - SUB071 w/ Pfaff
Wed 5 Utrecht, Netherlands - dB's w/ Pfaff
Sun 9 Munich, Germany - Kafe Kult (Kunst Fest)
Sat 15 Gotenburg, Sweden - Atalante Festival w/ Cake on Cake
Thu 20 Berlin, Germany - Schokoladen
Fri 21 Rotterdam, Netherlands - Living Room show
Sunday, November 18, 2007
Dead Trees, "I Have I Want" (Live at Middlesex Lounge, 11/12/2007)
Viva Viva, "Heartbreak Sweepstakes" (Live at Middlesex Lounge, 11/12/2007)
Age Rings, "NYC" (Live at Middlesex Lounge, 11/12/2007)
We've watched those Dead Trees kids since they were but little pups playing far better Pavement knbockoffs than a bunch of 16-year-olds had any right to. So when we heard they were moving to Oregon, and throwing one last farewell bash with the best bands in town, we grabbed a couple of cameras and headed over to the Middlesex Lounge (a place where we haven't seen a live band since the Lot Six played the club's opening night . . . on a double bill with Hollertronix).
Show: pure awesomeness, with great sets from Viva Viva, Mittens, Age Rings, Tulsa, and a singer-songwriterly gal whose name we didn't catch. (Drug Rug were a late scratch.)Our video, however, suffers from a lack of candlelight. Darkness shrouds the documentation, yo. It really was that dark, which isn't a problem in the real world, but our cameras huffed and puffed to pick up shadows. We also had our audio recorder set on "Guitar Wolf," so everyone sounds more garage-punk than they perhaps are -- except for Viva Viva, who really are exactly that fucking raw. The Age Rings tune above (full disclosure: that's the Phoenix's Will Spitz on guitar) is a new one, from what they're hoping will be a full-blown double-LP.
Dead Trees played a relatively short set for a band that was about to skip town, opting to leave everyone wanting more -- the song streaming above is a new one that certainly leaves us anticipating the next record. Also, as they admitted, they were really drunk by the end of the night. Apologies in advance for the shadowy-land-of-shadows cinematography; we're already lobbying for a do-over next time the Trees come through on tour, which -- if bands like Frank Smith are any indication -- won't be too long from now.
Wednesday, November 14, 2007
Isis, "Not In Rivers, But In Drops (Live at the Middle East, 11/4/2007)"
Hard to believe it's been ten years since Aaron Turner started Isis -- and eight years since we wrote this. Back then, Aaron was still at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, his LP sleeves were redefining the aesthetics of metal, Isis had released all of one EP (on Escape Artist, a label then-Relapse publicist Gordon Conrad had formed specifically to put out the Isis demo), and Hydrahead was home to Cave In and Converge.
He pretty much made good on all of it: shape-shifting his label, and his band, from niche-market bosses to breakthrough flag-bearers. Isis stands as the gold standard of undie-metal greatness, and they're in large part the reason that metal became the new indie rock. You could hear it on both nights that Isis played the Middle East last week, performing a career-retrospective set (we didn't keep a list, but they seemed to be playing about two songs off each album) that spanned horror-movie soundtrack; psychedelic doom-metal howl; and Slinty, lost-at-sea post-rock, often within the same song.
Above: a special treat from the second night of Isis's 10th Anniversary homestand at the Middle East on November 3/4, with footage from what may eventually become another live DVD. Extra-special thanks to Leah Xylona, Ned Hinkle, Ivy Moylan, and Kenneth Thomas for the shoot; in case you hadn't noticed, it's way better than anything we shoot, so it's a pleasure to host it.
BOSTONPHOENIX: "Homegrown Drone," Isis interview and mp3
ISIS 10th ANNIVERSARY TOURDATES:
Nov 15: Richards on Richards - 10 YEAR ANNIVERSARY SHOW w/ These Arms Are Snakes & 27 Vancouver, British Columbia
Nov 16: Hawthorne Theater - 10 YEAR ANNIVERSARY SHOW w/ Wolves In The Throne Room & 27 Portland, Oregon
Nov 18: Slim’s - 10 YEAR ANNIVERSARY SHOW w/ Big Business & 27 San Francisco, California
Nov 19: Downtown Brew - 10 YEAR ANNIVERSARY SHOW w/ Big Business & 27 San Luis Obispo
Nov 20: The Troubadour - 10 YEAR ANNIVERSARY SHOW w/ Big Business & 27 Los Angeles, California
Tuesday, November 13, 2007
 Spottiswoode & His Enemies
Spouse
It’s unclear, from this vantage point at least, precisely to whom the proper noun in the band Spottiswoode & His Enemies refers.
Is it Roger Spottiswoode, the director of Turner and Hooch and Stop! Or My Mom Will Shoot? Or is it 17th century Scottish Archbishop John Spottiswoode, or 19th century English mathematician/physicist William Spottiswoode, or perhaps Victoria Cross-winner William Spottiswoode Trevor, a major in the Bengal Engineers who fought valorously during the 1864-1865 Bhutan War, vanquishing 200 barricaded enemy soldiers all while greatly outmatched?
Occam’s razor would suggest it’s probably the band's leader, Jonathan Spottiswoode, an English expat poet living in New York who’s been making music of soulful, shambling grandeur for a decade.
Spottiswoode’s is a moony, crooning voice (not unlike Damon Albarn’s), dripping with wasted elegance. His lyrics are witty and well-turned, dwelling on life and love and sun and rain and occasionally — witness the captivating “Sailing To Byzantium (Passchendaele 1917, A Dying Soldier's Dream)” — on rococo pseudo-history.
He’s aided and abetted by his purported enemies, a supple and subtle ensemble band that flits easily between jazz, soul, folk, and rock. With trumpets and tricky time signatures, with accordions and Wurlitzers and glockenspiels, they recall at various times the smoke-cured continental suavity of Serge Gainsbourg, the latter-day ethno-eclecticism of the Pogues, the turbid moodiness of the Bad Seeds, and the besotted, be-suited croak of a guy like Tom Waits.
With their solid discography and a dynamic stage show, this is one band that should be listened to more than they are. You’ll get your chance on Wednesday night at TT the Bear’s Place, as they celebrate their tenth anniversary and the release of their forthcoming Salvation (New Warsaw).
Joining them will be their friends Spouse, the excellent Northampton indie band, who’ve been churning out infectious, angular guitar hooks since 1995 (when this writer got to know them up at Bowdoin College). Frontman and chief songwriter José Ayerve — who some might recognize from occasional guest stints with the Pernice Brothers — is the linchpin of a lineup that’s been shifting every so often over the past several years, but the band’s punchy, plangent Pixies/Pavement power pop has remained nonpareil, even as they’ve been dipping lately into a more expansive sonic palate.
DOWNLOAD: Spottiswoode and His Enemies, Sailing To Byzantium (Passchendaele 1917, A Dying Soldier's Dream) [mp3]
DOWNLOAD: Spouse, It = Love [mp3]
Thursday, November 08, 2007
Y'know, with all the blabbity blab about blogs and breaking new bands, we still have a real, real strong affection for college radio. Especially WMBR. Every time we get sick of the internet echo chamber chorusing about some pretentiously named new discovery, we flip to the left of the FM dial. Inevitably, we find that not only have college radio DJs not drunk the bloggity kool-aid, but that they've got better kung-fu. To wit: pretty much every time we turn on 'MBR, we find a new indie-rock band to obsess about.
So it was a couple of months ago with the Blank Tapes.
We've staunchly avoided over-Googling the Tapes, because quite frankly, what we don't know we don't care to. The songs are the kind of songs you want to make up your own shit about, imagine people and places around them, like people used to do before Trouser Press and AllMusic. And the songs are plenty: homemade but not particularly lo-fi, fully-formed not half-baked, bereft of the indecision that plagues so much of what passes for indie these days. Aesthetically, we get the sense he might be one of those post-Elephant 6 hippies -- but like Neutral Milk Hotel, he gets around by triangulating between far more conventional songwriting signposts. You don't have to be into far-out shit to get sucked into his melodies or his lyrics. It's just kinda classic great songwriting on a more intimate scale.
What little we know: Blank Tapes is basically one dude, from the West Coast, with several albums under his belt. Also, he's coming to PA's Lounge tonight.
So the one that caught our ear was a fantastic bummer of a breakup song, "We're Better Not Together," which we'd recommend against ingesting if you're on anti-depressants. From the same album, this year's Daydreams, comes also "Smoke and Mirrors," which sports exactly the kind of smoking guitar riff that people who write fantastic-bummer-breakup-songs are not supposed to be able to pull off convincingly. Pure awesomeness.
DOWNLOAD: The Blank Tapes, "We're Better Not Together" [mp3]
DOWNLOAD: The Blank Tapes, "Smoke and Mirrors" [mp3]
FRIEND: The Blank Tapes at MySpace [link]
DOWNLOAD: A.K.A.C.O.D., "Spanish Fly" [mp3]
The comparisons of A.K.A.C.O.D with Morphine are obvious: the "low rock" groove of sax, slide bass, and drums, the presence of Morphine saxman Dana Colley as player, producer, and songwriter. But that would discount singer/bassist Monique Ortiz's own distinctive songwriting chops, macho-woman deep alto vocals, and frank sexuality. With Larry Dersch on drums, A.K.A.C.O.D. ("also known as Colley/Ortiz/Dersch") are working their new Happiness, which mixes Morphine sexbeat and Sabbathy distorted stomps. "Spanish Fly" snaps heads with its insinuating bari-bass-tubs groove and out-of-the-gate rhyme on the word "masturbate." Grab the mp3 above, then catch the band November 24 at Atwood's; or December 6 at Church.
Tuesday, November 06, 2007
From KinoDV's awesome archive of punk- and postpunk-era vids -- captured by MIT geeks with some of the first portable video equipment at a slew of long-lost Boston rockdives -- comes this month's treasure: Mission of Burma performing "Manic Incarnation" live at the Underground in 1980. If you ever wondered where Shellac and Big Black got their guitar sound, now you know. Indie rock starts here.
UPDATE: Jan Crocker corrects our description of how these vids were shot: "I am not a geek and it wasn't portable video equipment. Portable video equipment wasn't even on the market when I shot this stuff. Yes I had geeks filming...but they were very cool geeks!!"
Monday, November 05, 2007
How Stephin's been paying the bills since the last MagFields tour
Magnetic Fields
February 14-15, 2008
Somerville Theatre
Tickets available via presale here
It's the kind of show that makes you wish you weren't in love. Because listening to songs like "The Cactus Where Your Heart Used To Be" just aren't the same if you can't actively chug the black, bitter incense that follows Stephin Merritt around like an ever-present cloud of clove-cigarette smoke. If you're really really real, you'll break up with your significant other and then drag them to this, so the two of you can stew in perfect dis-harmony.
Yes, Magnetic Fields' first shows since 2004 are hitting only a half-dozen metros, with pride of place going to the Somerville Theater: the two shows there mark the return of the gravest (with a v) love-song composer of his generation to one of the few places where MagFields performed "69 Love Songs" in its entirety. By the time they show up, there will also be a new Magnetic Fields album, Distortion, out on Nonesuch. And supposedly a new Volvo commercial as well, this one bearing a new Merritt solo tune called "I'm In a Lonely Way," a massive understatement that is already available on iTunes. While "I'm In a Lonely Way" jives with Merritt's well-established weakness for country music, it does so in a way that brings to mind, of all things, Elvis Presley. SF/J wins? [wink, wink]
Magnetic Fields Tour Dates:
Mon & Tues
FEBRUARY 11-12
Iron Horse Music Hall
Northampton, MA
Thursday & Friday
FEBRUARY 14-15 ***
Somerville Theater
Somerville, MA
Friday & Saturday
FEBRUARY 22-23 ***
Town Hall Theatre
New York, NY
Thursday & Friday
FEBRUARY 28-29 ***
The Herbst Theatre
San Francisco, CA
Sunday & Monday
MARCH 2-3 ***
The Henry Fonda Theatre
Los Angeles, CA
Thursday & Friday
MARCH 6-7 ***
Town Hall Seattle
Seattle, WA
Friday, Saturday & Sunday
MARCH 14-16
(Two performances per night -- six shows total)
Old Town School of Folk Music
Chicago, IL
11/5/2007 11:22:52 AM by | |