Saturday, May 22, 2010
Friday, May 21, 2010
concert review: Annuals, The Most Serene Republic, What Laura Says
Bottom of the Hill, San Francisco
14 May 2010
14 May 2010
4/5
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Next up were Canadian indie rockers The Most Serene Republic who were exactly that: serene indie rockers from Canada. Nothing bad to say about this band except that they did not present anything out of the ordinary. They played the game by the rules down to the awkward dancing and delivered a solid set, but nothing to write home about. Except, perhaps, the often interesting layers created by lead singer Adrian Jewett’s trombone playing. But I guess that just filled the weirdness quota every indie band must meet, lest they tread into mainstream territory.
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Next up were Canadian indie rockers The Most Serene Republic who were exactly that: serene indie rockers from Canada. Nothing bad to say about this band except that they did not present anything out of the ordinary. They played the game by the rules down to the awkward dancing and delivered a solid set, but nothing to write home about. Except, perhaps, the often interesting layers created by lead singer Adrian Jewett’s trombone playing. But I guess that just filled the weirdness quota every indie band must meet, lest they tread into mainstream territory.
3.5/5
set list:
photos:
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Annuals closed up the night quite nicely with an impeccable round of percussion. When they say that they are a band who appreciate the art of drumming, they are not kidding. Utilizing all six members on stage to the fullest extent possible, the Raleigh based band ensured that there was not a rhyme nor a measure that you could have wished they had covered ground on. Adam Baker delivered his lead vocal duties with an intense amount of passion, so much that it was mostly accompanied by a strained face throughout the night. There is little time to smile when you are singing your heart out.
3.8/5
set list:
set list:
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The Strokes Post #446
proof #39848298384 that Nick Hornby is amazing and that everything worth loving in the universe is connected:
from Songbook
from Songbook
Thursday, May 20, 2010
Classic Track Thursday
Marcy Playground - Sex and Candy [mp3]
from Marcy Playground (1997)
if you ever wanted to reduce 90's alt rock to one song, this one would be it
interview: Annuals
Annuals are a very solid indie rock band from North Carolina. They are currently touring to support their latest EP, Sweet Sister. I caught up with the band before their SF gig last Friday (review forthcoming) and asked them about their progression to the hi-fi sound which emanates from their latest release. read on below!
Tell us about the evolution of the band and the current lineup.
Adam: This has been the band the whole time [Anna Spence: keys; Kenny Florence: guitar; Adam Baker: vox, guitar; Mike Robinson: bass; Zack Oden: percussion, guitar; Nick Radford: drums]. Josh Pope played bass for a couple of months
Kenny: We had another drummer originally named George Goodwin. This was long before we got serious. These guys right here, this has been the band from the beginning.
What about Sunfold?
Adam: Sunfold has been around for longer…
Kenny: It used to be called Sedona and we had to change it because of copyright issues. And it consists of most of us…
Mike: In a way, we’re kind of like the band that never broke up. People in this band, some of us have been playing music together for a decade now. So this reaches back to the end of middle school. Just think about high school kids messing around. But this band, right here, as a touring unit started in like 2005.
You guys have been on tours around the world. What is it like playing in front of foreign crowds? Do you like it more or less?
Mike: It’s fun. You get to be alien and exotic for a while.
Kenny: It can be really awesome and rewarding but also kind of awkward and kind of…well awkward is a good word
With the language barrier?
Kenny: Not really, ‘cause everyone speaks English…it’s always a privilege we have as an American band. But no just because different places have slightly different tastes and everyone listens to music and receives things kind of differently. The way the crowd interacts to live music is different in other places…nuance differences.
Anna: It varies by city or state. We remember Denmark was incredible…incredible. And then you go to other places, and they have their arms crossed.
Kenny: I think it depends on the general perception of the country. The general perception the people have of Americans…people go off on that.
As a band that saw its early breakthrough through the blogosphere, do you find that you have been more influenced by the internet or by your personal backgrounds?
Anna: I think we were the last generation that remembers growing up without the internet. The things that influenced us when we were younger, and probably music making when we first started was not the internet. It was like, our experiences.
What about now?
Anna: Now, probably the internet.
In unison: the internet!
Nick: that’s how we got discovered…the internet
Kenny: so far as having an influence on our music I don’t think it does…well maybe a little bit
Like, how do you guys dig for old music
Kenny: I guess it’s a source for being able to have any music you want at your fingertips at any time
Anna: well, friends too, they recommend things
Which albums do you guys own that people would be surprised you listen to?
Kenny: I dunno who would be surprised
Die hard Annuals fans.
Kenny: I am a huge Alan Holdsworth fan…most people don’t like him, so maybe that’s surprising.
Adam: There’s so many but they’re all too embarrassing.
Zack: You like Gaga
Adam: Chris Brown, I guess… Ne-Yo and…
Mike: Brad Paisley
Adam: Brad Paisley. He’s very good but very bad. Owl City. Carolina Chocolate Drop.
Mike: When I was in middle school I listened to Insane Clown Posse…don’t write that down! If you do I’ll be really upset.
Insane Clown Posse?!
Mike: When I was like, 13!
Do you still own the album, is the question
Mike: no! well, I’ve got a huge CD collection so I have no idea. As far as surprising things goes that I currently listen to, I would say Brad Paisley. I like him.
Nick: Dave Matthews Band. But that’s because they have the sickest drummer that I’ve ever seen.
Zack: Bone Thugs n Harmony
What’s more crucial for developing new sounds? Jamming on stage or studio time?
Kenny, Adam, Mike: studio, probably
Nick: I think personally, jamming together brings out more ideas
Adam: They both bring so many different and good things to the table but it’s studio that counts the most
Kenny: I feel like jamming on stage is more honing. We jam a little bit on stage but most of the time it’s, like, set already
How meticulous are you guys in studio? Do you write on tour?
Adam: It’s all in studio. There’s a lot of time when we make different versions of things and twisting something inside out. Discovering how some sounds go and splicing things and stuff.
Are you guys production tech savvy?
Kenny: Adam is pretty savvy
Adam: Me and Mike went to school for it in Ohio
Do you guys have any music-related ambitions other than being in the band? You guys have your own record label right?
Adam: Yeah we’re all involved but Mike’s kind of the head of it. It’s called Terpsikhore
Ok, so the label and production stuff. Anything else?
Kenny: I teach music. At a private music education facility called Cary in North Carolina
What do you teach?
Kenny: Mostly guitar. Some…a little, tiny bit of piano to beginners. And composition.
The new EP is very lush and tropical. What caused you guys to go off track from your previous, experimental sound?
Adam: I thought it was more experimental, for us. I don’t think of it in terms of wowing anyone else. More of wowing what we did before. Doing something different. It’s exotic for us.
Kenny: I think that the main thing is that a lot people think that experimental has to do with the production and recording style but I think that the new music is quite experimental in terms of arrangement and actual composition
Mike: From the first full length album to the second full length there is a pretty big transition there that a lot of people took part of, not just the production quality. It’s Adam’s preference and pur preference that our sound is good-sounding. Our whole first album was recorded with two kinds of mikes. It has a very dim, like, homemade vibe that people really got into that is a really popular trend in music now period. That lo-fi sound. Our first album came out like that sort of on accident. The second album is much brighter and you can hear everything in a much wider range and that kind of threw people off. I think with this EP, it’s like the first step towards collapsing those two approaches. We’re still going hi-fi but it’s still layered and a little bit out of control.
It’s very pretty.
Adam: Thank you. That’s a compliment in so many ways. Like that you’re saying that it’s pretty production-wise.
Mike: Not a lot of bands seem to be striving for really good sounds. We’re not going in any direction that the general trend of indie music is going in. Whether that will serve us or go against us remains to be seen. We believe that what you record is your imprint and that’s what will be around forever so it’s better to try to make it big in sound.
There’s a track on the new album, "Turncloaking", that reminds me of Radiohead a little bit…early, guitar Radiohead…was that intentional?
Adam: no, but that’s great!
Mike: And I would agree with you
Thom Yorke has come to be revered as almost a g-d like figure in music. Do you think anyone else in the music community, big or small, deserves a similar status?
Nick: Michael McDonald…he was the lead singer of the Doobie Brothers. Definitely a g-d to me
Anna: probably the guys from our favourite bands
Kenny: This is just me, because it’s the musician I’ve been obsessing over recently, but I think that Joanna Newsom is gonna have that kind of status at some point
Anna: David Byrne has g-d status
Mike: Brian Eno too. I dunno if we’re only talking about front men here, but still
Kenny: Rob Thomas…no! I’m joking! Don’t write that down. I DO NOT LIKE ROB THOMAS. Do you see my face?!
Are there any Annuals songs that you don’t like to play anymore?
Anna: We have different opinions on that. I don’t like to play “Confessor”. I’m just bored of playing it.
Zack: For me it’s “Fair”. I love the song on record so much…it’s one of my favourites but live, it never clicked for me, personally
Mike: It changes for me…I’ll like a song recorded and I won’t like it live or vice versa.
Nick: As far as songs we’ve been playing forever…”Brother” and “Hot Night Hounds”. They’re just the two songs we play every night
Do you all agree that you like playing new songs better than old songs?
Collectively: yeah
Kenny: I think that’s the same for every band, really.
Nick: There’s probably a few old ones that I wish we still played. “River Run” was one…”Father” we used to play all of the time. There’s a bunch of really heavy drum bass songs that we just don’t play anymore…
Kenny: Like “Around Your Neck”
You’ve been quiet, Adam
Adam: I was deliberating about the question.
Did you come up with anything?
Adam: “Chase You Off”, definitely
Anna: I knew it!
Anything you wish you played more?
Adam: “River Run” would be awesome to play again. “Wake”. I really wanna play “Wake” again. But all of these songs we know play occasionally, just not on this tour so much, or the one before it. I’m thinking about a lot of the songs we don’t play anymore and a lot of the time, it’s not a terrible thing that we don’t play them
There aren’t any songs that you guys have never played, are there?
Adam: There’s a couple
Zack: “The Tape”
Adam: “Mother, Mama”
Is there a reason?
Adam: We never got around to it
Mike: They weren’t as requested
Nick: Did we ever play “Talking” live?
Kenny: No. Nor have we played “The Giving Tree” live
Adam: Turncloaking. We haven’t rehearsed that one yet
Kenny: I love all of our songs but I really don’t like playing “Brother” anymore. It’s just boring for me. Not the song itself, just playing it live.
Do you guys have any associations with certain music? Songs which draw up specific memories or times?
Kenny: almost every song you listen to can conjure up a memory of some sort
Any songs that are extra special to you guys personally?
Adam: Can we say the song and not the situation? What’s that one called…I don’t do song titles, I do track numbers. The last song on Radiohead’s Kid A
Kenny: “Motion Picture Soundtrack”
Anna: Madeleine Peyroux “Careless Love”
Kenny: American Football. I don’t have very many albums or groups that bring me back to any specific point in time but American Football’s self titled album just is the most nostalgic thing.
Adam: I kind of want to change mine now. Like, whew. Every time I put that on these days, there has to be at least one tear.
Mike: I think a good one is The Soft Bulletin by The Flaming Lips. That complete whole album.
What does that remind you of?
Mike: Playing with the Flaming Lips.
Did you guys tour with them?
Nick: a couple of festivals and local things
Mike: We played three shows in direct support for them...
What would you say sets you guys apart from other bands these days?
Nick: Our fashion sense
Kenny: I think, what Mike was talking about earlier, like the whole striving toward a high fi sound type of thing
Adam: We’ve always tried to record everything as well as we can
Kenny: I don’t think it’s too terribly a weird thing but it’s just not the trend now. We’ve always liked high fidelity
Anna: We’re just the shit.
Mike: There are some things that used to set us apart that don’t anymore because they’ve caught on. I would say…not that we’re one of the first bands to play with two drum kits or anything like that, but just in terms of the kind of music that we play. I mean, our front man is a drummer…that was his first instrument and our guitar player plays drums. So we’ve always had two thirds of our band on stage start doing a drum circle together. In the middle of some of our songs there will be very heavy percussion sections.
Tribal?
Adam: *laughs* Yes. We definitely need more hippie fans
Any songs that are extra special to you guys personally?
Adam: Can we say the song and not the situation? What’s that one called…I don’t do song titles, I do track numbers. The last song on Radiohead’s Kid A
Kenny: “Motion Picture Soundtrack”
Anna: Madeleine Peyroux “Careless Love”
Kenny: American Football. I don’t have very many albums or groups that bring me back to any specific point in time but American Football’s self titled album just is the most nostalgic thing.
Adam: I kind of want to change mine now. Like, whew. Every time I put that on these days, there has to be at least one tear.
Mike: I think a good one is The Soft Bulletin by The Flaming Lips. That complete whole album.
What does that remind you of?
Mike: Playing with the Flaming Lips.
Did you guys tour with them?
Nick: a couple of festivals and local things
Mike: We played three shows in direct support for them...
What would you say sets you guys apart from other bands these days?
Nick: Our fashion sense
Kenny: I think, what Mike was talking about earlier, like the whole striving toward a high fi sound type of thing
Adam: We’ve always tried to record everything as well as we can
Kenny: I don’t think it’s too terribly a weird thing but it’s just not the trend now. We’ve always liked high fidelity
Anna: We’re just the shit.
Mike: There are some things that used to set us apart that don’t anymore because they’ve caught on. I would say…not that we’re one of the first bands to play with two drum kits or anything like that, but just in terms of the kind of music that we play. I mean, our front man is a drummer…that was his first instrument and our guitar player plays drums. So we’ve always had two thirds of our band on stage start doing a drum circle together. In the middle of some of our songs there will be very heavy percussion sections.
Tribal?
Adam: *laughs* Yes. We definitely need more hippie fans
Black Keys' 6th LP hits stores today
don't forget to go out and pick up a copy of Brothers. you can read my thoughts on it HERE and bide your time with a new video below
new Ryan Adams merch finally available
I love Ryan Adams and Chuck Klosterman so much that I tend to forgive their obsessions with metal music--but neither of them can ever seem to shut up about it. if you guys can remember, Orion should be Ryan Adam's metal masterpiece.
you can preorder it HERE, it has been pressed in very limited quantities so don't wait.
movie trailer: I Need That Record
this looks very cool, cheers to Nate for the head's up!
I Need That Record: The Death (or Possible Survival) of The Independent Record Store
Starring: Thurston Moore, Mike Watt, Ian Mackaye, Noam Chomsky, Legs McNeil, Glenn Branca, Lenny Kaye (Patti Smith Group), Chris Frantz (Talking Heads, Tom Tom Club), Pat Carney (Black Keys), BP Helium (Of Montreal), and Patterson Hood (Drive-By Truckers)!
I Need That Record: The Death (or Possible Survival) of The Independent Record Store
Starring: Thurston Moore, Mike Watt, Ian Mackaye, Noam Chomsky, Legs McNeil, Glenn Branca, Lenny Kaye (Patti Smith Group), Chris Frantz (Talking Heads, Tom Tom Club), Pat Carney (Black Keys), BP Helium (Of Montreal), and Patterson Hood (Drive-By Truckers)!
Tuesday, May 18, 2010
new video: Mark Ronson - Circuit Breaker
like whoa. I was just transported into the time of yesteryear with ACTUAL ANALOG VIDEO GAMES.
Ronson's new album, Record Collection is due out this September
Tokyo Police Club - "Champ Championship" Contest + tour dates
I am currently listening to TPC's sophomore LP, Champ, and it is absolutely fantastic. expect a review around the release date (8 June)
in support of their new record and tour, the Canadian band has the following to offer:
“Challenge us to something. Anything. Ping pong. Baking. Mario. Nerf guns. Hockey. Unicycling. Catching grapes in your mouth. You name it. When we come to your town on tour we'll make it happen. This summer, it's on.”
Fans can enter their ideas at TokyoPoliceClub.com Winners will have access to tickets, merchandise, etc. and the chance to hang with the guys while competing in whatever activity they submitted.
Fans can enter their ideas at TokyoPoliceClub.com Winners will have access to tickets, merchandise, etc. and the chance to hang with the guys while competing in whatever activity they submitted.
tour dates:
Jun 2, 2010 Ram’s Head Live (with Passion Pit) – Baltimore, MD
Jun 3, 2010 9:30 Club (with Passion Pit) – Washington, DC
Jun 7, 2010 The Norva (with Passion Pit) – Norfolk, VA
Jun, 8, 2010 The National (With Passion Pit) Richmond, VA
Jun 9, 2010 The Tabernacle (with Passion Pit) - Atlanta, GA
Jun 11, 2010 Bonnaroo - Manchester, TN
Jun 12, 2010 Club at Firestone (with Passion Pit) - Orlando, FL
Jun 13, 2010 The FIllmore (with Passion Pit) - Miami Beach, FL
Jun 14, 2010 The Ritz Ybor (with Passion Pit) - Tampa, FL
Jun 16, 2010 House of Blues (with Passion Pit) - New Orleans, LA
Jun 17, 2010 Warehouse Live (with Passion Pit) - Houston, TX
Jun 18, 2010 Stubb's (with Passion Pit) - Austin, TX
Jun 19, 2010 Stubb's (with Passion Pit) - Austin, TX
Jun 21, 2010 Palladium Ballroom (with Passion Pit) - Dallas, TX
Jun 23, 2010 The Pageant (with Passion Pit) - St. Louis, MO
Jun 25, 2010 Royal Oak Music Theater (with Passion PIt) - Royal Oak, MI
Jun 27, 2010 Mann Center (with Passion Pit) - Philadelphia, PA
Jun 29, 2010 Prospect Park Bandshell (with Passion Pit) - Brooklyn, NY
Jun 30, 2010 Governor's Island (with Passion Pit) - New York, NY
headlining tour:
July 23 Nod Experiment Festival – Jackson, MI
July 24 Grog – Cleveland, OH
July 25 Town Ball Room – Buffalo, NY
July 27 Black Cat – Washington, DC
July 28 The Basement – Columbus, OH
July 29 The Vogue – Indianapolis, IN
July 31 Record Bar – Kansas City, KS
Aug 1 Slowdown – Omaha, NE
Aug 3 Bluebird – Denver, CO
Aug 4 In The Venue – Salt Lake City
Aug 5 Beauty Bar – Las Vegas, NV
Aug 7 Plush – Tuscan, AZ
Aug 8 Casbah – San Diego, CA
Aug 12 El Rey – Los Angeles, CA
Aug 15 Aladdin – Portland, OR
Aug 16 Neumos - Seattle, WA
Aug 19 Varsity – Minneapolis, MN
Aug 20 Metro – Chicago, IL
July 24 Grog – Cleveland, OH
July 25 Town Ball Room – Buffalo, NY
July 27 Black Cat – Washington, DC
July 28 The Basement – Columbus, OH
July 29 The Vogue – Indianapolis, IN
July 31 Record Bar – Kansas City, KS
Aug 1 Slowdown – Omaha, NE
Aug 3 Bluebird – Denver, CO
Aug 4 In The Venue – Salt Lake City
Aug 5 Beauty Bar – Las Vegas, NV
Aug 7 Plush – Tuscan, AZ
Aug 8 Casbah – San Diego, CA
Aug 12 El Rey – Los Angeles, CA
Aug 15 Aladdin – Portland, OR
Aug 16 Neumos - Seattle, WA
Aug 19 Varsity – Minneapolis, MN
Aug 20 Metro – Chicago, IL
Monday, May 17, 2010
The Henry Clay People on Daytrotter!
I love it when Daytrotter catches onto my favourite bands
HEAD ON OVER to read the article and download the tracks
new song: Blur - Fool's Day
Blur - Fool's Day [mp3]
this was released as a 7" on record store day but I only just heard it a couple of days ago via TND's podcast.
the cadence of this song is so slow and sweet as cotton candy. it's like a stroll through the old neighborhood, but with all the right beats.
Sunday, May 16, 2010
Saturday, May 15, 2010
MOJO: The Young Person's Guide to Vinyl
"I remember the first record I ever bought. Do you remember your first download?"
MOJO has a good article about the unparalleled lovliness that is vinyl. head on over to read it.
"For those of us who grew up in a world where the stifled cry of a CD was the benchmark for quality recording, listening to analogue is like audio-alchemy."
MOJO has a good article about the unparalleled lovliness that is vinyl. head on over to read it.
Friday, May 14, 2010
Band of the Week: The National
having posted The National as band of the week twice in the past, I feel obliged to do it once more. there are no words to describe how much richer and tear filled my life has become since hearing High Violet for the first time. epicness.
Thursday, May 13, 2010
Classic Track Thursday
Peter Gabriel - No Self Control [mp3]
from Peter Gabriel III (1980)
Weezer were not innovators: Peter Gabriel released three consecutive self titled albums. this track comes from his third, and is uber creepy in the best way possible. Peter Gabriel has the tendency to take weird music to the next level, and just freak you out in ways that you never could have imagined. his solo work is also vastly superior to anything Genesis released, so there you go.
interview: Titus Andronicus
Titus Andronicus' very own Amy Klein talks to Music Induced Euphoria about the band's progression to punk, her solo project Solanin, her own growth as a musician and covert government operations. her well-developed responses sum up the band's uniqueness in the realms of eloquence. bless them.
The first album is much more anthemic, The Monitor sees a shift to more punk hooks and more audibly pissed off guitars. What caused this change in sound?
I’m not one hundred percent sure what caused that stylistic shift between the first and second albums because I wasn’t a member of the band during that time period. To me, however, it seems that a lot of things changed for the band members in between the making of the Airing of Grievances and the making of The Monitor. Everyone graduated from college, for instance, and left New Jersey behind, and then tried to make a life for themselves in that big, scary place known as the real world. Everyone, presumably, did their fair share of growing up. Perhaps, in the real world, there are far many more things to be pissed off about than there are in an isolated collegiate bubble. When you become an adult, you have to confront the unpleasant reality of a world in which not everything is fair, and in which injustice often seems to thrive everywhere you look. Punk provides us with an ideological framework within which we can address the injustices we see around us. I guess that getting pissed off about the current state of the world and writing punk hooks have often gone hand in hand throughout history. When you feel like taking a stand, you often find yourself writing within the punk idiom. That’s what this album is really doing—taking a stand against the divisions that continue to haunt our great nation, and trying to figure out how to express our anger at the status quo in a constructive way. It makes a lot of sense to delve into punk history for inspiration when you have so much that you want to speak out against.
The lyrics on the songs are intensely personal. Are they all Patrick’s or do any songs tell the stories of the other band members?
Patrick writes all the lyrics for this band. So, in that sense, they’re all his stories. I’m sure, though, that he’s inspired by the stories of people around him—be they friends, enemies, family, significant others, political figures, neighbors, or founding fathers. No one writes lyrics that are only about themselves. Or, if they do, then those lyrics pretty much suck. In order to be a great songwriter, you have to be a great storyteller, and in order to be a great story teller, you have to have an essential quality known as empathy. You have to tell stories that other people can find themselves in, because you have to be able to see what life is like for other people. I find that some of the lyrics I can relate to, and other lyrics describe an experience that is foreign to me. A lot of the Titus Andronicus lyrics are about the experience of growing up as a boy in suburban America. I’m from the suburbs, but I’m not a boy. A lot of things like drinking with your dad and a bunch of old men at the neighborhood bar and then seeing a poster of your band hanging in the urinal—those are not stories I can relate to. However, I can relate to the more implicit conditions of anger and frustration that the music suggests. I can definitely see myself in terms of the lyrics that describe a struggle to construct an identity as you grow up, the way that you abandon certain ideals and cling to others, the struggle to express yourself in a world that encourages conformity, to feel that you are fighting an ongoing battle between self-expression and self-doubt, and to define your personal connection to the country—and even region—in which you live. I feel a lot of anger when I play these songs—sometimes even anger at how hard it is to be a girl growing up these days—and even though Titus Andronicus doesn’t talk about that sort of thing, that feeling of raging against something you feel to be unjust is something that is definitely present in these stories.
How does the songwriting come about?
Patrick writes all the songs. Then he brings them to the band and the members work out their own parts based on the framework that's been established.
Patrick writes all the songs. Then he brings them to the band and the members work out their own parts based on the framework that's been established.
Something very distinct about Titus Andronicus is the recorded speaking voices in the songs. What inspires these unique layers?
We don’t live in a cultural vacuum. In fact, we live in the most “open-source” society that has ever existed. I guess, it’s our way of paying tribute to the fact that different voices have always existed in any given moment of American history—but that our generation, thanks to the internet, has an explosion of information, carried by more voices than ever. Walter Benjamin talks about “the dialectical object at a standstill,” that bizarre moment where, in looking at something, the past overtakes the present; the voice of the past and the voice of the present coexist in a single object. I think that the great works of art have something of history and something of the new coexisting inside of them. So yeah, we like to honor the pluralism of ideas, the cacophony of voices that exists within the American tradition. We like to show that when we speak, others are also speaking, and that where we speak, others have also spoken. We like to reference our awareness of the voices that have gone before us, and gesture towards the promise of more voices in the future.
You play guitar and violin. Which do you prefer?
That’s a really tough question. They’re different sides of my personality—One is very peppy and a little crazy. The other is very lyrical and sad. I think I like the guitar better. It just feels more natural for me to express myself with that instrument. But when I play the violin, I get to play a lot of solos. I love the feeling of playing a solo and feeling the crowd’s eyes on you, without even looking at them. It’s like time slows down, or stops completely. You feel very peaceful. The violin really rises out of the rest of the sound and creates a powerful, unexpected impact.
You guys were featured in SPIN’s last issue. I think the piece was from a few months back—January or so. How was that experience?
We actually did the interview at a bowling alley. I came late—from a meeting I had to attend, so I didn’t get to bowl. But I did get to see this ten year old kid who was very excited to see an interview taking place at the local lanes. He kept on, sort of, following us, and whispering to his friend. Then, finally, he confronted us and asked us, “Are you in a band?” And we were like, “Yeah,” and he was like, “See, I told you!!!” all gleefully, to his friend. Then he ran away. It was as if he had solved a gigantic mystery. He was very proud of himself. Also, I think I got to eat some curly fries during that interview. That was great. I love curly fries. I guess the weird part was later, a few weeks later, when we had a photo shoot. I was so nervous, I brought six outfits. I really wasn’t sure what I wanted to wear. This woman called “a groomer” did my hair and makeup. That was the first time anyone had ever done that for me. I never wear makeup and my hair totally resists all attempts at being made to “stay put,” so I think the woman was very confused by me. She kept on running around with a little spray bottle, frantically patting my head and shooting me with the aerosol can in between photographs. Finally, she was just like, in exasperation, “Your hair is so…puffy!” Then she gave up. When the photo came out in SPIN, it was surreal. I never expected my picture to appear in any sort of magazine. I couldn’t believe that it was actually me. I still can’t.
What’s the most interesting thing you’ve seen on the road?
Hmm. We've had all kinds of adventures on the road. It's hard to think of just one. I think the most interesting thing for me is just looking out the window at the American landscape. I hadn't done much traveling inside the United States before I started touring, and I love that I have gotten the chance to see all different parts of the country. The drive up the coast from Los Angeles to San Francisco is really beautiful. You can see yellow, purple, and orange wildflowers, and rolling green hills, and even the Pacific Ocean.
What music do the members of Titus Andronicus listen to collectively?
Everybody listens to a lot of different kinds of stuff, and usually what we listen to depends on whoever is driving the van at the moment. (The driver always gets to choose the soundtrack to the drive. That's the policy.) Ian is really into hardcore and post hardcore. Patrick likes punk of all kinds, and rap, and individuals like Daniel Johnston. Dave's favorite musician is Phil Elverum (a.k.a. Mount Eerie), and Eric digs Animal Collective. I'm really into experimental stuff, like freak folk and weird psychedelic noise music.
If you could be proficient in any instrument, which would you choose?
The cello! I think it's so gorgeous. It has this tone that is warm and full, and yet mysterious. I recently heard somewhere that the cello is the instrument whose frequency spectrum most approximates that of that of the human voice. That's why people find it so instantly compelling, and why it also has a kind of mystery about it. I used a lot of cello on my solo album because I think it makes the songs seem intimate and warm, and it also seems to compliment my singing style nicely. Yoed Nir, who is the cellist for the singer-songwriter Regina Spektor, played cello on the album and did a fantastic job.
As a female musician do you find that you can relate more to female musicians or just musicians who share your style musically?
On a purely musical level, I relate to music by men and music by women equally. I'm not one to classify genres of music as inherently male or female. You can't listen to a piece of music and automatically say, "Oh, that sounds like a man playing!" or "That sounds like a woman!" Men and women are equally endowed with the abilities to create great works of art. The fact of the matter is, though, that when I see live performances, I relate much more to the female performers When I look at them, I see people like me who have figured out how to do something extraordinary with their lives. I can't help but want to follow in their footsteps. I feel this when I see a great male guitarist too, but it's a more powerful feeling of identification when it's a woman that I’m seeing up there. Because, as we all know, while men and women both make great music, our society rewards men far more for their efforts. And so, when I see a girl up on stage doing something wonderful, I feel this little jolt--like, "Yes, I can do this. It really is possible for us."
As I get older, more and more of my favorite bands are all-female, or female-driven. As the stories of my life accumulate around me, I find I can relate to the stories of other women more and more. I mean, what bourgeoning guitar goddess wouldn’t relate to Marnie Stern, who shreds like a leather-suited metal god of yore—but totally busts open the conventions of that genre, bringing, as she does, an outsider’s perspective to that dudely field known as “extreme technique.”
Jess Hopper has a brilliant Maximum Rock and Roll article from a few years back about how it's just harder for girls to identify with the male perspective in the emo songs that got popular during the early 2000's. These are the songs where the woman is always the object of desire or the Machiavellian heartbreaker; she’s a two-dimensional character, with absolutely no depth, or reality, or voice to her at all. Those songs are just men’s voices parroting women’s, just the angst of the benighted male, over and over again. His heart is broken and girls are totally morally bankrupt, except when they let him have sex with them and then let him write a song about it.
That's not to say that I hate emo. I listened to a fair amount of Bright Eyes in high school, like everyone else, and I'm really into the Rites of Spring and sorts of emotional hardcore bands who scream at the top of their lungs about their feelings. But with Bright Eyes, you feel there is some depth of character to the woman, and in the Rites of Spring, the angst is existential--it's something we can all relate to. Rites of Spring is unifying as opposed to divisive. It’s the opposite of the music that takes up most of the Top 40 charts today; pop music often functions by polarizing the sexes, as opposed to trying to break down the boundaries between them. I guess what I'm saying is that I can never relate to music that is misogynist, that objectifies women, and that silences their voices. Whether songs get sung by men or women is ultimately less important than the message that those songs are putting out there.
Do you listen to your own music?
Well I listened to The Monitor a lot when I first joined the band, because I had to learn the songs really quickly. I pretty much had it on repeat during my entire day at the office. It was hilarious. I worked for the government and I would be secretly listening to this really angry music at top volume while I filed papers. I alternated Titus with Bad Brains for inspiration. There's nothing like listening to Bad Brains at work. Now that I'm touring, I don't really listen to Titus Andronicus in my spare time. On the other hand, I still listen to my solo stuff once in awhile, because (like wine, cheese, vintage clothing) the songs you write have this aging process that changes them. I listened to those songs so many times throughout the recording, mixing, and editing process that I could no longer tell up from down, or right from left. It takes a few months, or years even, before you can listen to your own songs and hear them as they actually are. It takes a long time for your various biases and mental fixations to fade. So I like to check up on my solo stuff once in awhile--see how it's doing, whether I can hear it differently now, or whether I've still got more time to wait.
What has been the most trying experience that the band has undergone?
From what I hear, a few years back, the band got deported from the U.K. and spent the night in airport jail. Then, there was a terrible situation involving a broken down tour van and the necessity of finishing up the tour in a rented U-Haul. Two members sat up front, in the seats, and two members sat in the storage car, on the ground, in the pitch darkness. Sounds like a great way to spend 10 hours a day, right? Ian and Patrick also like to talk about how they were once forced by extenuating circumstances to spend the night in a storm drain outside. You end up sleeping in all sorts of crazy places when you're on the road, but that storm drain definitely wins the gold medal for most unlikely bed.
Who would you like to tour with?
Joanna Newsom! She is easily the greatest songwriter and the most enthralling performer of our generation. I never get sick of listening to her songs, and to experience her live show every night would probably leave me depleted of energy, and tissues, by the end of week one. As in, I would spend most of the tour weeping with joy. Also, she seems really quirky and intelligent, but not the least bit pretentious. If I could stop weeping long enough to strike up a chat with her, then I would like to become her best friend.
Do you have a favourite band?
I am obsessed with this two-girl Japanese noise band called Afrirampo. I saw them open for Lightning Bolt when I was a teenager and, although I'm a huge lightning bolt fan, I didn't even need to see Lightning Bolt afterwards, because I felt I had already attained some kind of musical nirvana. Afrirampo is this rock and roll fantasy that could only be dreamed up by two young girls with no musical training and a whole lot to say. Watching them, you feel like these girls must be soul mates because of the way they relate to each other so naturally, even when they're improvising most of what they do. Their shows are so enthusiastic and wild, and everything they play is completely organic and surprising. It's like watching the definition of freedom.
Solanin kind of reminds me of the female vocals in Arcade Fire. It’s so atmospheric and beautiful. How did it come about and what do you hope to accomplish with it?
I wrote most of the album when I was living in a tiny apartment in Tokyo. I moved there after college on a traveling fellowship to study Japanese feminism through the lens of the experimental music scene. I interviewed all kinds of musicians, and filmed dozens of concerts all over Japan. I was supposed to make a movie. Instead, I made an album. I found I was so inspired by the women I met, and by all the creative sounds that they were making, that I couldn't help but follow in their footsteps. I took classical guitar lessons from an American musician living in Tokyo, and I would sit alone on my futon all day and all night, writing poetry and fragments of songs. Then I'd go to the park in Harajuku and play them for the public. I turned the album into the story of my time in Japan. It's all allegorical, and it describes the events of my life during that year of self-discovery, and the even more challenging year, the first in my true adulthood, that began when I came home. This album is the story of me growing up, told through a kind of myth I wrote about myself. It's filled with symbols of the actual events that happened to me, but I wanted to render them images that anyone could find meaning in. In a way, I don't care what happens with it, because finishing the album was enough. It just means that I was able to put the story of my life together in some way--to make it less confusing to myself, and to make sad and difficult things, in some way, meaningful and beautiful. I want to play a bunch of shows and see how it goes over live. I also want people in both America and Japan to hear it, and relate to it in some way. Those are basically my goals right now.
Do you think you’ll ever quit Titus Andronicus to explore your own musical terrain or is this just your way of exploring your own voice?
Well, considering that I just joined Titus Andronicus, I feel like the adventure is only in its incipient stages. Who knows where this will lead or what the future will bring. The band is such a great opportunity for me, and so far, it's been a way of exploring who I am, in particular, learning how to confidently express myself, and to use music to illuminate feelings that are often difficult for women to share with others. That's something that's always been difficult for me--expressing anger, showing my whole self, and performing confidently in front of an audience. I still write my own songs though, and I perform them regularly. I love to sing, and I know I'm going to keep on singing no matter what. One day, I'd like to release an album of my songs, and tour with my own music.
Finally, a friend of mine insisted that I ask: how did you guys get to be so awesome and is it contagious?
Awesomeness is totally contagious. Less than sixty seconds after venturing within 25 yards of somebody awesome, there is a high probability that you will begin to feel awesome too. Symptoms include: nervousness, sweating, an accelerated heartbeat, and an uncompromising desire to express oneself creatively. We probably got awesome because our mothers and fathers were awesome and then passed on many of the symptoms to us, or at least neglected to provide us with the necessary vaccines. In all seriousness though, I think we are awesome because we try to be one hundred percent true to ourselves and to our audiences; there is no sense of irony in what we do. The band is not an attempt to be cool or popular, but rather an attempt to be honest--honest about our emotions and who we are. We are working as hard as we can to do what we love, to do something we are proud of, and we try our best to share that feeling of joy with our audiences. Now watch out, or you're gonna get all awesome too! Actually, I bet you already are.
We don’t live in a cultural vacuum. In fact, we live in the most “open-source” society that has ever existed. I guess, it’s our way of paying tribute to the fact that different voices have always existed in any given moment of American history—but that our generation, thanks to the internet, has an explosion of information, carried by more voices than ever. Walter Benjamin talks about “the dialectical object at a standstill,” that bizarre moment where, in looking at something, the past overtakes the present; the voice of the past and the voice of the present coexist in a single object. I think that the great works of art have something of history and something of the new coexisting inside of them. So yeah, we like to honor the pluralism of ideas, the cacophony of voices that exists within the American tradition. We like to show that when we speak, others are also speaking, and that where we speak, others have also spoken. We like to reference our awareness of the voices that have gone before us, and gesture towards the promise of more voices in the future.
You play guitar and violin. Which do you prefer?
That’s a really tough question. They’re different sides of my personality—One is very peppy and a little crazy. The other is very lyrical and sad. I think I like the guitar better. It just feels more natural for me to express myself with that instrument. But when I play the violin, I get to play a lot of solos. I love the feeling of playing a solo and feeling the crowd’s eyes on you, without even looking at them. It’s like time slows down, or stops completely. You feel very peaceful. The violin really rises out of the rest of the sound and creates a powerful, unexpected impact.
You guys were featured in SPIN’s last issue. I think the piece was from a few months back—January or so. How was that experience?
We actually did the interview at a bowling alley. I came late—from a meeting I had to attend, so I didn’t get to bowl. But I did get to see this ten year old kid who was very excited to see an interview taking place at the local lanes. He kept on, sort of, following us, and whispering to his friend. Then, finally, he confronted us and asked us, “Are you in a band?” And we were like, “Yeah,” and he was like, “See, I told you!!!” all gleefully, to his friend. Then he ran away. It was as if he had solved a gigantic mystery. He was very proud of himself. Also, I think I got to eat some curly fries during that interview. That was great. I love curly fries. I guess the weird part was later, a few weeks later, when we had a photo shoot. I was so nervous, I brought six outfits. I really wasn’t sure what I wanted to wear. This woman called “a groomer” did my hair and makeup. That was the first time anyone had ever done that for me. I never wear makeup and my hair totally resists all attempts at being made to “stay put,” so I think the woman was very confused by me. She kept on running around with a little spray bottle, frantically patting my head and shooting me with the aerosol can in between photographs. Finally, she was just like, in exasperation, “Your hair is so…puffy!” Then she gave up. When the photo came out in SPIN, it was surreal. I never expected my picture to appear in any sort of magazine. I couldn’t believe that it was actually me. I still can’t.
What’s the most interesting thing you’ve seen on the road?
Hmm. We've had all kinds of adventures on the road. It's hard to think of just one. I think the most interesting thing for me is just looking out the window at the American landscape. I hadn't done much traveling inside the United States before I started touring, and I love that I have gotten the chance to see all different parts of the country. The drive up the coast from Los Angeles to San Francisco is really beautiful. You can see yellow, purple, and orange wildflowers, and rolling green hills, and even the Pacific Ocean.
What music do the members of Titus Andronicus listen to collectively?
Everybody listens to a lot of different kinds of stuff, and usually what we listen to depends on whoever is driving the van at the moment. (The driver always gets to choose the soundtrack to the drive. That's the policy.) Ian is really into hardcore and post hardcore. Patrick likes punk of all kinds, and rap, and individuals like Daniel Johnston. Dave's favorite musician is Phil Elverum (a.k.a. Mount Eerie), and Eric digs Animal Collective. I'm really into experimental stuff, like freak folk and weird psychedelic noise music.
If you could be proficient in any instrument, which would you choose?
The cello! I think it's so gorgeous. It has this tone that is warm and full, and yet mysterious. I recently heard somewhere that the cello is the instrument whose frequency spectrum most approximates that of that of the human voice. That's why people find it so instantly compelling, and why it also has a kind of mystery about it. I used a lot of cello on my solo album because I think it makes the songs seem intimate and warm, and it also seems to compliment my singing style nicely. Yoed Nir, who is the cellist for the singer-songwriter Regina Spektor, played cello on the album and did a fantastic job.
As a female musician do you find that you can relate more to female musicians or just musicians who share your style musically?
On a purely musical level, I relate to music by men and music by women equally. I'm not one to classify genres of music as inherently male or female. You can't listen to a piece of music and automatically say, "Oh, that sounds like a man playing!" or "That sounds like a woman!" Men and women are equally endowed with the abilities to create great works of art. The fact of the matter is, though, that when I see live performances, I relate much more to the female performers When I look at them, I see people like me who have figured out how to do something extraordinary with their lives. I can't help but want to follow in their footsteps. I feel this when I see a great male guitarist too, but it's a more powerful feeling of identification when it's a woman that I’m seeing up there. Because, as we all know, while men and women both make great music, our society rewards men far more for their efforts. And so, when I see a girl up on stage doing something wonderful, I feel this little jolt--like, "Yes, I can do this. It really is possible for us."
As I get older, more and more of my favorite bands are all-female, or female-driven. As the stories of my life accumulate around me, I find I can relate to the stories of other women more and more. I mean, what bourgeoning guitar goddess wouldn’t relate to Marnie Stern, who shreds like a leather-suited metal god of yore—but totally busts open the conventions of that genre, bringing, as she does, an outsider’s perspective to that dudely field known as “extreme technique.”
Jess Hopper has a brilliant Maximum Rock and Roll article from a few years back about how it's just harder for girls to identify with the male perspective in the emo songs that got popular during the early 2000's. These are the songs where the woman is always the object of desire or the Machiavellian heartbreaker; she’s a two-dimensional character, with absolutely no depth, or reality, or voice to her at all. Those songs are just men’s voices parroting women’s, just the angst of the benighted male, over and over again. His heart is broken and girls are totally morally bankrupt, except when they let him have sex with them and then let him write a song about it.
That's not to say that I hate emo. I listened to a fair amount of Bright Eyes in high school, like everyone else, and I'm really into the Rites of Spring and sorts of emotional hardcore bands who scream at the top of their lungs about their feelings. But with Bright Eyes, you feel there is some depth of character to the woman, and in the Rites of Spring, the angst is existential--it's something we can all relate to. Rites of Spring is unifying as opposed to divisive. It’s the opposite of the music that takes up most of the Top 40 charts today; pop music often functions by polarizing the sexes, as opposed to trying to break down the boundaries between them. I guess what I'm saying is that I can never relate to music that is misogynist, that objectifies women, and that silences their voices. Whether songs get sung by men or women is ultimately less important than the message that those songs are putting out there.
Do you listen to your own music?
Well I listened to The Monitor a lot when I first joined the band, because I had to learn the songs really quickly. I pretty much had it on repeat during my entire day at the office. It was hilarious. I worked for the government and I would be secretly listening to this really angry music at top volume while I filed papers. I alternated Titus with Bad Brains for inspiration. There's nothing like listening to Bad Brains at work. Now that I'm touring, I don't really listen to Titus Andronicus in my spare time. On the other hand, I still listen to my solo stuff once in awhile, because (like wine, cheese, vintage clothing) the songs you write have this aging process that changes them. I listened to those songs so many times throughout the recording, mixing, and editing process that I could no longer tell up from down, or right from left. It takes a few months, or years even, before you can listen to your own songs and hear them as they actually are. It takes a long time for your various biases and mental fixations to fade. So I like to check up on my solo stuff once in awhile--see how it's doing, whether I can hear it differently now, or whether I've still got more time to wait.
What has been the most trying experience that the band has undergone?
From what I hear, a few years back, the band got deported from the U.K. and spent the night in airport jail. Then, there was a terrible situation involving a broken down tour van and the necessity of finishing up the tour in a rented U-Haul. Two members sat up front, in the seats, and two members sat in the storage car, on the ground, in the pitch darkness. Sounds like a great way to spend 10 hours a day, right? Ian and Patrick also like to talk about how they were once forced by extenuating circumstances to spend the night in a storm drain outside. You end up sleeping in all sorts of crazy places when you're on the road, but that storm drain definitely wins the gold medal for most unlikely bed.
Who would you like to tour with?
Joanna Newsom! She is easily the greatest songwriter and the most enthralling performer of our generation. I never get sick of listening to her songs, and to experience her live show every night would probably leave me depleted of energy, and tissues, by the end of week one. As in, I would spend most of the tour weeping with joy. Also, she seems really quirky and intelligent, but not the least bit pretentious. If I could stop weeping long enough to strike up a chat with her, then I would like to become her best friend.
Do you have a favourite band?
I am obsessed with this two-girl Japanese noise band called Afrirampo. I saw them open for Lightning Bolt when I was a teenager and, although I'm a huge lightning bolt fan, I didn't even need to see Lightning Bolt afterwards, because I felt I had already attained some kind of musical nirvana. Afrirampo is this rock and roll fantasy that could only be dreamed up by two young girls with no musical training and a whole lot to say. Watching them, you feel like these girls must be soul mates because of the way they relate to each other so naturally, even when they're improvising most of what they do. Their shows are so enthusiastic and wild, and everything they play is completely organic and surprising. It's like watching the definition of freedom.
Solanin kind of reminds me of the female vocals in Arcade Fire. It’s so atmospheric and beautiful. How did it come about and what do you hope to accomplish with it?
I wrote most of the album when I was living in a tiny apartment in Tokyo. I moved there after college on a traveling fellowship to study Japanese feminism through the lens of the experimental music scene. I interviewed all kinds of musicians, and filmed dozens of concerts all over Japan. I was supposed to make a movie. Instead, I made an album. I found I was so inspired by the women I met, and by all the creative sounds that they were making, that I couldn't help but follow in their footsteps. I took classical guitar lessons from an American musician living in Tokyo, and I would sit alone on my futon all day and all night, writing poetry and fragments of songs. Then I'd go to the park in Harajuku and play them for the public. I turned the album into the story of my time in Japan. It's all allegorical, and it describes the events of my life during that year of self-discovery, and the even more challenging year, the first in my true adulthood, that began when I came home. This album is the story of me growing up, told through a kind of myth I wrote about myself. It's filled with symbols of the actual events that happened to me, but I wanted to render them images that anyone could find meaning in. In a way, I don't care what happens with it, because finishing the album was enough. It just means that I was able to put the story of my life together in some way--to make it less confusing to myself, and to make sad and difficult things, in some way, meaningful and beautiful. I want to play a bunch of shows and see how it goes over live. I also want people in both America and Japan to hear it, and relate to it in some way. Those are basically my goals right now.
Do you think you’ll ever quit Titus Andronicus to explore your own musical terrain or is this just your way of exploring your own voice?
Well, considering that I just joined Titus Andronicus, I feel like the adventure is only in its incipient stages. Who knows where this will lead or what the future will bring. The band is such a great opportunity for me, and so far, it's been a way of exploring who I am, in particular, learning how to confidently express myself, and to use music to illuminate feelings that are often difficult for women to share with others. That's something that's always been difficult for me--expressing anger, showing my whole self, and performing confidently in front of an audience. I still write my own songs though, and I perform them regularly. I love to sing, and I know I'm going to keep on singing no matter what. One day, I'd like to release an album of my songs, and tour with my own music.
Finally, a friend of mine insisted that I ask: how did you guys get to be so awesome and is it contagious?
Awesomeness is totally contagious. Less than sixty seconds after venturing within 25 yards of somebody awesome, there is a high probability that you will begin to feel awesome too. Symptoms include: nervousness, sweating, an accelerated heartbeat, and an uncompromising desire to express oneself creatively. We probably got awesome because our mothers and fathers were awesome and then passed on many of the symptoms to us, or at least neglected to provide us with the necessary vaccines. In all seriousness though, I think we are awesome because we try to be one hundred percent true to ourselves and to our audiences; there is no sense of irony in what we do. The band is not an attempt to be cool or popular, but rather an attempt to be honest--honest about our emotions and who we are. We are working as hard as we can to do what we love, to do something we are proud of, and we try our best to share that feeling of joy with our audiences. Now watch out, or you're gonna get all awesome too! Actually, I bet you already are.
record review: The Dead Weather - Sea of Cowards
It’s a mark of deep rooted talent when a band that is borne of whim takes the entire world of rock n roll by storm, slowly but surely claiming souls and headlining slots at Coachella. Then again, Jack White is not your run of the mill kind of guy.
On Sea of Cowards, The Dead Weather look past their sex drenched grimy debut and seek refuge in siren guitar licks and their own demented and irresistible take on he/she “harmonies”. Glitz? Glamour? Hell no. Give me odes of deteriorating health, muffled drums and bass lines that seem to halt mockingly—knowing just when you need more and t-t-teasing you all the same. How about an amplified return to blues-rock form? Lucky for us, the impeccable Mr. White himself claims more of the spotlight than he did on Horehound, spinning blasphemous puns about the Holy Mother among a million other things. Oddly enough, White’s more audible presence makes for a more balanced record—one that doesn’t seem to leave you in as much of a head spinning daze as their debut. Sure, you’ve heard this music before, but not since your teenaged Tuesday night rituals of getting stoned in the basement amongst your dad’s records.
The Dead Weather are here to stay, and if you question their authority one more time, Alison Mosshart will bite your head off and wear is as an earring.
4.3/5
The Strokes Post #437
the winner of the Juicebox single is MaroLeon. send along your snail mail address and prepare your mailbox for the deluxe treatment.
here is a photo of Jules on the cover of CLASH mag, I posted the interview a few days back
Tuesday, May 11, 2010
The Dead Weather - Die By The Drop
I am having absolutely no trouble getting into the Dead Weather's second album. a review is forthcoming, but here is an mp3 (via RCRDLBL.com) to give you guys a sweet taste of the music that has had me on edge for weeks.
record review: The National - High Violet
'Your voice is swallowing my soul'
-"Afraid of Everyone", High Violet
Every once and a while a record is released that temporarily ruins all other music for you. High Violet is one of those albums. Much like on their previous work, the songs on The National’s fifth full length release force you to come to terms with the most morbid depths of your secret shames and sorrows. Much of The National’s appeal stems from the fact that we as humans need a harsh blow of emotional realism every once and a while, just to keep things in perspective. Just like our fascination with tortured artists such as Edvard Munch, we can seek refuge in the complexities of Matt Berninger’s baritone rather than attempt great artistic expression ourselves. The music, therefore, transcends individual dispositions; you can be a cheerful person or a gloomy person and I will guarantee that you will be completely enamoured with High Violet (and Alligator and Boxer, for that matter).
Without a doubt, the most admirable thing about High Violet is its relentless pursuit of aural hyperbole. It is so loud, so unforgivably layered with echoes and mesmerizing drum beats. It doesn’t flow like its predecessor, but this fact is easily overlooked by virtue of the heart-wrenching amounts of raw emotion found on the album. Its frostiness is crippling, yet there is hidden warmth which emerges as surreptitiously as the blood rush induced by icy vodka shots. If you ever find yourself hunched over some street corner in the blistering cold, alone and confused yet oddly at ease with the world, rest assured that there is a perfect soundtrack to the moment lurking in The National’s phenomenal discography.
4.8/5
High Violet was released today. Don’t waste another minute. Get.it.now.
Monday, May 10, 2010
record review: The Black Keys - Brothers
The Black Keys almost never could be reduced to releasing albums that are less than forty minutes. They just have a swagger that is too laid back and songs that have too strong a punch to be able to rush through anything. Lucky for us, on their sixth album Brothers, this tendency to take their good ol’ time for artistic expression has taken a dramatic leap to a masterful, soul tinged album containing fifteen songs running just under an hour. The opener, “Everlasting Light” explodes with such T-Rexian glam rock viciousness that you could easily mistake it for “Mambo Sun”. Continuing in a chronologically backwards fashion through the realms of 60’s r&b and soul, the Black Keys take their blues roots to the max in earnest attempts to unearth overlooked musical stylings of decades past. Needless to say, the two white guys from the midwest do more justice to Black music than 90% of contemporary artists belonging to the African race.
Seamlessly shifting from space-y to jazz-y, Brothers delivers like an improvised live set, with howling guitars interspersed generously throughout. Songs like “The Only One” fearlessly combine house beats and dusty grooves for the astonishingly brisk effect of gospel music drenched in synth. Drawing vocal inspiration from the likes of Aretha Franklin, Dan Auerbach never fails to strike mercilessly at every cell in your body, leaving you helplessly desiring more.
At times, the Black Keys manage to sound spookily airy without emulating the Misfits, by creating a stroll-through-a-graveyard-at-midnight vibe. Overall, the album is a monstrous portion of funk served up on a lively platter of authentic American musicianship, with a Jerry Butler cover thrown in for good measure. Like a world-class city containing all of the exotic offerings of the globe within a few square miles, Brothers has neither a dull moment nor one that you could pass without at least a bit of intrigue.
Highly recommended.
4.5/5
the album drops next Tuesday, 18 May but is currently STREAMING IN FULL HERE. make sure you check it out.
visit them on MYSPACE for tour dates
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