Archive for July, 2006

Once again, the good folks at Pitchfork were successful in putting on what has got to be the most intelligently run music festival in the United States. Here's a rundown of what I saw over the weekend.

Edit: I recommend reading Marathon Packs' posts about the festival. Eric put a lot of time and thought into his posts, unlike me -- I dashed this post out as quickly as I possibly could at an internet cafe in Wicker Park, and left out quite a bit of what I wanted to say.

The Mountain Goats - John Darnielle came off well, but I'm not sure if this was the right setting for his songs, which gain a lot from intimate venues which are more conducive to hearing his lyrics. I know that acoustic guitar is Darnielle's thing, but my mild allergy to the instrument when it is strummed keeps me from really bonding with his music, aside from "Dance Music," which he played and I love without reservations.

Destroyer
Crystal Country / European Oils / Your Blood / Painter In Your Pocket / Modern Painters / It's Gonna Take An Airplane / Rubies / Looters' Follies

Destroyer "Looters' Follies" - Destroyer's set was an early peak for my experience at the festival. Though I would have most enjoyed a set of nothing but songs from Destroyer's Rubies, Dan Bejar at least treated us to the entire first side of that record, along with a few solid oldies. I was especially excited for "Painter In Your Pocket" and "Looters' Follies," which were both gorgeous and rate as two of the four of five most memorable performances of my weekend. (Click here to buy it from Insound.)

Art Brut - I might be wrong, but I don't think anyone on either day had as much of the audience as completely psyched as Art Brut, who tore through pretty much all of their first album as well as a handful of new songs, some of them apparently only half-finished. I wish that some people weren't so hung up on the humorous, novelty elements of the band and would just embrace them as one of the most fun and consistently catchy punk bands in the world today. And seriously, if you can't immediately tap into the raw, specific emotions of "Rusted Gun of Milan," "Emily Kane," and "Good Weekend," then perhaps we should just consider that you may be an unfeeling turbodouche.

Ted Leo/Pharmacists - I missed the first half of this set, but arrived just in time for a really, really good new song with a rocksteady sort of sound to it, and a fantastic performance of my favorite Ted Leo song, "The Ballad of the Sin Eater," that closed out the set. People were totally flipping out for Ted, as well they should.

The Walkmen - The new songs were a droney, non-melodic bust, but at least they played a bunch of solid oldies -- "Stop Talking," "The Rat," "Wake Up," "We've Been Had," "Little House of Savages." Those were great. Hugh McIntosh from the Childballads filled in on drums, which was...well, worthy of some extrapolation, I suppose.

The Futureheads
Decent Days and Nights / Area / Cope / Meantime / Back to the Sea / A to B / Favours For Favours / Return of the Beserker / Skip to the End / He Knows / Hounds of Love / Carnival Kids / Man Ray

They were alright. I'm just not that into them aside from "Decent Days and Nights" and "Skip to the End," which were both great. I was impressed by the group's harmonies, which were as crisp and clean as on the studio recordings.

Silver Jews - Not good at all. I'm fairly certain that every song was in the same key, which only made the sameness of the material that much more dull. Much of the set sounded like they were headlining the Pitchfork County Fair.

Bonde do Rolê

Bonde do Rolê "Ma´quina de Ricota" - I enjoyed them a bit more than I did at the Warsaw, though I had trouble seeing them from where I was in the tent. The sound was much better for this show, allowing their weird sort of Baille punk to have a greater visceral punch. Unfortunately Marina took a bad fall after crowd surfing in the penultimate song, and had to be sent to the hospital. The girls from CSS filled in on the final song, and it was great, though, you know, it would have been a lot better if Marina wasn't injured. (Click here for the Bonde do Rolê MySpace page.)

CSS
CSS Suxxx / Patins / Alala / Fuckoff Is Not The Only Thing - Work It / Meeting Paris Hilton / This Month, Day 10 / Alcohol / Off The Hook / Art Bitch / Music Is My Hot Hot Sex / Let's Make Love and Listen to Death From Above

I've written so much about CSS lately, so I'm just going to leave it at this: CSS was rad, and they totally got the audience that they deserved.

Cage - I wasn't very familiar with Cage before this set, but he was very convincing live, in spite of, or maybe because of, his odd mix of emo and Def Jux-style rap. Not bad.

Aesop Rock & Mr. Lif - I lost interest in this about halfway through, but it's more of a comment on the overbearing heat and my desire to hang out for a bit than anything to do with the quality of their performance, which was pretty tight and entertaining.

Mission of Burma - They lost me on a few songs, but this was mostly quite good, and well worth standing around in intense sunlight for, especially on the old punk anthems. It was a thrill to look around and see all the fists banging to "Academy Fight Song" and "Photograph," and I really enjoyed seeing them play "1001 Pleasant Dreams" from the new album.

Yo La Tengo
Pass The Hatchet, I Think I’m Goodkind / I Should Have Known Better / Mr. Tough / The Weakest Part / Watch Out For Me, Ronnie / Beanbag Chair / I Feel Like Going Home / The Story of Yo La Tango

If they ever release a cd of this set, it should be titled Yo La Tengo Is Murdering Your Attention Span. They played no hits whatsoever, and focused almost excusively on the long, droning songs from the forthcoming record. I've got nothing against those songs, per se, but it was just the wrong thing to play at this festival, where people had been baking in the sun for hours and maybe were up for something a little less boring. "Mr. Tough" sounded wonderful, though. Pretty much everything else that they played was very unengaging. Would it have killed them to throw in a few hits?

Spoon
Don't Make Me A Target / The Two Sides of Monsieur Valentine / Stay Don't Go / Jonothon Fisk / The Beast and Dragon, Adored / I Turn My Camera On / Someone Something / Paper Tiger / Rhthm and Soul / They Never Got You / I Summon You / My Mathematical Mind

Spoon never disappoints me. After that passive-aggressive performance from Yo La Tengo, it was good to see the most pop ular band at the festival bring their A game. Spoon are nothing if not a tight band, but they did seem a bit out of practice, or at least Britt did, as he botched a few lyrics here and there. The two new songs were promising, but the big thrills came from the familiar classics. "The Beast and Dragon, Adored" never seemed as anthemic as it did last night, and "I Summon You" revealed itself to be a major hit with the audience.

Os Mutantes - I really wish that Os Mutantes had gone on before Spoon, because as good as they were, I was pretty much done after Spoon's set ended, and I suspect that was also the case for a lot of the audience. Never the less, they were a fine come down after a rather intense weekend, and concluded the festival on a rather spirited note.

My new Hit Refresh column is up on the ASAP site. This week: Camera Obscura, Erase Errata, and SCSI-9 from the new Kompakt Total compilation.

Tigarah "Girl Fight" - Tigarah is like some kind of over-the-top, fully formed high concept wet dream for lifestyle magazines, the kind of thing you might make up if you were coming up with something to parody the taste and style of, say, The Fader. She's cute and Japanese! And she makes ersatz Baille funk! It basically comes out sounding like M.I.A. with a Japanese accent -- there's less menace in her voice, but the force of the tracks compensates a bit, and "Girl Fight" in particular sounds totally fierce, even when it's drifting off on a floaty acoustic tangent. (Click here for the Tigarah official site.)

Excerpt from Cut Copy Fabric Live 29: New Young Pony Club "Get Dancey" / In Flagranti "Bang Bang" - DJ mix cds err heavily on the side of tedium, with many of them degenerating into a beatmatched zombie lockstep that may work on a dancefloor but is not much fun at all when played on a home stereo. Cut Copy's entry in the famed Fabric series is several steps above the competition, presenting a top notch electropop party that glides from hook to hook and emphasizes melody, humanity, and fun as well as beats and continuous flow. (Click here to pre-order it from Fabric.)

Thom Yorke "The Clock (Live on KCRW)" - On The Eraser, "The Clock" seems to recede into the background a bit, lost in a haze of electronic textures too similar to its neighboring tracks. On an album of songs that reveal themselves slowly, I find it to be the most stubborn and dense. This live acoustic version (that many of you have no doubt already heard if you happen to look at the ads on Stereogum and Pitchfork) cracks the song open, boiling the studio recording's tangle of sounds down to a mesmerizing guitar rhythm and Yorke's plaintive voice. The result is a track that sounds more anxious than anything Yorke has previously recorded, which is obviously quite an accomplishment given his discography. (Click here to buy it from Insound.)

Tom Scharpling & Jon Wurster "Montgomery Davies" - Inspired by a recent and totally bizarre news item, Scharpling and Wurster break some new ground in their act by embracing FCC rules keeping them from making specific references to sexual perversity. As the skit moves along, the description of the "devices" becomes more ridiculous, but the implied usage of the machines is totally vague, leading the listener to extrapolate hilarious images from the clues presented by Wurster's character. It's one of the more subtle Best Show skits, not unlike the classic "Radio Hut" bit on Chain Fights, Beer Busts, and Service With A Grin cd compilation. (Click here for the official Best Show website.)

Hello Stranger "We Used To Talk" - It's just a bit over two minutes long, but "We Used To Talk" is sentimental and heartbreaking enough that it's sort of difficult for me to get through on some listens. Set to a plaintive, pretty melody and a gentle arrangement, Juliette Monique Commagere laments an extraordinarily close relationship that has become estranged. The reasons for the apparent dissolution of their bond is not explained, but the tone seems forgiving enough that you can tell she's wondering why she or the other person can't just find the strength or time to call the other and talk. (Click here to buy it from the Hello Stranger website.)

Elsewhere: My review of The Lady In The Water is up on The Movie Binge.

Nump featuring M.I.A. "I Got Grapes (Remix)" - Aside from the extremely high quality of its hooks and beats, the most compelling thing about Arular was the very sound of M.I.A.'s voice. Everyone who ever compared her to Johnny Rotten was completely right on; she has the same sort of imperious tone, evil wit, and nihilistic glee. The latter most often manifests itself in apparently value-neutral references to terrorism, which in in this remix comes in the form of name dropping Osama bin Laden as she hijacks the first minute and a half of Nump's track. Her style is so overpowering that by the time she's gone, it sounds like the DJ has mixed into another song completely though the beat remains exactly the same. Don't tune out when she leaves -- the Nump single is strong enough to merit your attention with or without her. (Click here to buy it from DJ Shadow Merchandise.)

Revl9n "The Box" - Long term readers may remember Revl9n's "Walking Machine," one of the leftfield highlights of this blog circa 2004. At long last, Revl9n have a full length record featuring the track, and though to be honest it's not all up to the high standard of "Walking Machine," the group turn out some impressive tracks when they are aiming less for fashion mag sleaze and more for angst-ridden existential synthpop. "The Box" is overflowing with neuroses and emotional distress, with a track that sounds jumpy and anxious except for in the brief moments when it finds some peace of mind in a high pitched-keyboard break that sounds like something out of a mid-80s Madonna knockoff. (Click here to buy it from Amazon.)

Elsewhere: It's a little late, but my review of You, Me, and Dupree is up on The Movie Binge. Coming tomorrow: My review of The Lady in the Water, which is easily one of the worst films that I've seen in a good long time.

CSS @ The Warsaw, 7/20/2006
CSS Suxxx! / Patins / Alala / Fuckoff Is Not The Only Thing You Have To Show --> Work It (Missy Elliott) / Meeting Paris Hilton / This Month, Day 10 / Alcohol / Off The Hook / Art Bitch / Music Is My Hot Hot Sex / Let's Make Love and Listen To Death From Above / quick punky song I did not know

CSS "Music Is My Hot Hot Sex" - Though their LP has a certain shine and polish, CSS are essentially a punk band live. They aren't exactly a tight band, but they pull it off, indicating disco textures when they need to, but mainly sticking to simple, primal rock and roll. As on the records, singer Lovefoxxx is the star of the show. She's ridiculously cute and effortlessly charismatic, and has the demeanor of a giddy teenage girl who is deeply thrilled by every moment of your attention. She spent most of the show either jumping into the audience or fiddling with her outfit -- removing layers, pulling her top over her head to simulate a hood, tugging and stretching the fabric, pushing layers aside to reveal what's underneath. She's not long on dance moves, but she's incredibly physical and was not still for more than five seconds for the entire duration of the set, or immediately afterwards at the merch table.

One of the things that really grates on me about a lot of the bad or middling reviews that I've been seeing for CSS' album is how people are routinely dismissing them as being shallow hipsters, and it seems rather like how pretty, confident fashionable cool girls are routinely hated on by jealous women and misogynistic dudes. But it just drives me nuts because out of the HUNDREDS AND HUNDREDS of records that I've heard this year, Cansei de ser Sexy is one of the few that positively overflows with sincere emotion, goodwill, and critical thought. They make references to pop, junk culture, the internet, bands, and people take that as being stupid and trendy, but they are projecting, because it's really just them setting up a context firmly rooted in the present tense. As I see it, "Meeting Paris Hilton" isn't about loving or hating Paris Hilton but rather what it's like to come face to face with ultimate vapidity and privilege and trying to interact on its terms rather than attack it out of spite and arrogance. I love Tom Breihan's writing, I really do, I seriously think that he's one of the very best music critics in the world right now, but I don't think he's ever written anything so ridiculously off the mark as when he suggested that "Art Bitch" is some kind of Yeah Yeah Yeahs rip when the thing is, the members of that band are exactly the sort of people being satirized in that song. "Art Bitch" is a pretty right on slam of a very specific sort of artist that's been popping up all over in this decade in galleries, at art schools, and on the interet. Have you ever seen Nick Zinner's photo book? HE'S A FUCKING ART BITCH.

The most exciting songs for me are the ones that cut to the core of crushes and raw enthusiasm. "Patins" and "Let's Make Love..." are floods of lust and confusion and fear and joy. I especially love the tossed off lines in "Let's Make Love...": "You're so talented, I'm in love!" "You come to show me your mad love!" "Come and erase me take me with you!" and especially "You knew my ideas when they were still in my head!" Lovefoxxx has a real gift for expressing desire in complicated, nearly profound ways while also being funny and conversational. "Music Is My Hot Hot Sex" may be silly, but that's exactly as it should be. Music is amazing, and beautiful, and for some people (people like me), incredibly incredibly important, but most often when you try to express that you end up sounding like some obnoxious Nick Hornby/Rick Moody jackass. Lovefoxxx and her crew found another way, and it's totally right on. (Click here to buy it from Sub Pop.)

Bonde do Rolê "Solta O Frango" - If I had my way, I'd be posting the first song in Bonde do Rolê's set - a BAILLE FUNK VERSION OF "THE FINAL COUNTDOWN"!!! I desperately want to get a copy of it so that I can play it at every goddamn DJ thing I ever do for the rest of my natural life. It's a song that combines my love of Brazillian dance music and G.O.B. Bluth! It's like a gift from above, I swear. But this song is also quite good, as was their live set, though I could've done without the skinny guy scolding the audience for not flipping out for everything they were doing, though it was surprising that a bill made up entirely of dance-centric acts (Diplo was the headliner, but don't ask how he was, I left after CSS cos it was late) didn't get a little more into them. Maybe they were saving their energy for later, though it's more likely that people just were not drinking enough to get loose. Possible third option/factor: these people, especially the girl, were so incredibly sexual and uninhibited on stage that it made most of the people in the room feel intimidated and inadequate. Very likely! (Click here for the Bonde do Rolê MySpace page.)

My new Hit Refresh column is up on the ASAP site. This week: Lindstrøm & Prins Thomas, Shapes and Sizes, and a new song from James Rabbit. Speaking of whom...

James Rabbit "Birds Rush In" - It hasn't even been close to a year since the previous James Rabbit record, and the new one, Cavalier, sounds like this huge leap forward. All the charm of their previous gems carry over to the new tunes, but there's a greater sophistication in the harmonies and arrangements. Strings suit Tyler Martin well, as do strange extended metaphors about weather conditions. "Birds Rush In" sounds like an underground hit to me, definitely well ahead of the unfocused banality of some of the more popular purveyors of strummy blandness on the indie circuit at the moment. Nothing's boring about these birds rushing in!(Click here to get a free copy of the album from the band.)

J.R. Writer "Zoolander" - I owe this guy something or other for turning me on to Writer, who may not be a tremendously consistent rapper, but can turn in some brilliant work when inspiration strikes. This isn't quite on the level of my favorite, "Jamaican Diplomacracy," but Writer's tendency for composing rhymes thick with alliteration and assonance for percussive effect is on full display in this track, which surprisingly lacks any direct shout outs to Owen Wilson or Ben Stiller. At this point, he may be latching on to it as a bit of a gimmick, but it works for him if just because it sounds like he takes such incredible pleasure in popping those repetitive consonants. (Click here to buy it from Amazon.)

My sets @ Beg Yr Pardon party at the The Delancey 7/18/2006

Set 1: Elastica "Generator" / CSS "Patins" / Futon "Gay Boy" / Dog Ruff "Jon E Storm" / Devo 2.0 "Big Mess" / Art Brut "Good Weekend" / Belle & Sebastian "White Collar Boy" / The Pipettes "Dirty Mind" / Hank Collective "Ferox" / Andrew WK "Party Hard" / Kelly Clarkson "Since U Been Gone" / Maxi Geil & Playcolt "Makin' Love In The Sunshine"

This set came immediately before The Song Corporation's show, and those last three were played all in a row at the end mainly because this guy happens to be a member of that band. Their set was great, evenly divided between some pretty sweet mellow jams (think late period Sonic Youth) sung by guitarist Kristie Redfield and some more upbeat numbers that Mr. Barthel sang. That last one about maps was especially great.

Set 2: Killer Mike & Big Boi "ADIDAS" / Jagged Edge "Stunnas" / Beyonce "Check On It" / M.I.A. "URAQT" / The Make Up "Pow! To The People" / Le Tigre "Deceptacon" / Robyn "Konichiwa Bitches"

This set was between the Song Corporation and Pink Noise performances. I regret leaving the room for the middle of Pink Noise's set -- they were pretty intense, and have a pretty great frontwoman. Medic Medic, who were on before the Song Corporation were also kinda rad and also had a compelling female vocalist. They had kind of a Huggybear thing going on.

Set 3: The Silures "21 Ghosts" / The Knife "We Share Our Mothers' Health" / Basement Jaxx & Dizzee Rascal "Lucky Star" / Muscles "One Inch Badge Pin" / Vanneshina & Allesandra "Gira" / Christina Aguilera "Ain't No Other Man" / Edu K "Baille Jean" / Nu Shooz "I Can't Wait" / Los Super Elegantes "Dance" / Erasure "Stop" / Annie "Chewing Gum" / Kylie Minogue "Love At First Sight" / Prince "Controversy" / The Supremes "You Can't Hurry Love" / The Beatles "A Hard Day's Night" / The Rolling Stones "Let's Spend The Night Together" / Britney Spears vs. Mike Jones and Paul Wall "Tippin' Toxic" / Shawnna, Ludacris et al "Gettin' Some (Remix)" / Joe Jackson "Steppin' Out"

Shawnna featuring Ludacris, Too Short, Lil' Wayne and Pharrell "Gettin' Some (Remix)" - I had more of a plan for the main set, but it got thrown out when I was inundated with requests for songs that I did not have, and ended up shuffling everything around and playing a long string of crowd pleasers at the end. I had originally intended to play "Gettin' Some" earlier, but managed to squeeze it in towards the end. It got a much better reaction than I had anticipated, but it's a hard song to deny (Oh my God, that Ludacris verse at the end!!! Wow.), and at that point, I think the people dancing were just totally up for it. They were dancing up to the final notes of "Steppin' Out," a song that I had intended to be a floor-clearer that would send people on their way home. Now I know otherwise. (Click here to buy it from Amazon.)

Muscles "One Inch Badge Pin" - It can be so hard to form coherent thoughts with these sort of brain-hijacking dancefloor anthems since the best of them are designed to switch off your critical faculties. Muscles essentially sound like a butched up Australian version of the Pet Shop Boys, with sorta-macho vocals mingling with really really really fruity synth parts. The verses and instrumental hooks are great, but this song is really about the chorus, which demands a fist-pumping singalong like few other tracks to emerge this year. (Click here to buy it from the Muscles website.)

MSTRKRFT "She's Good For Business" - This is actually the very first time I've ever posted anything by MSTRKRFT at all whatsoever, which is sort of strange maybe. "She's Good For Business" has a very fun vocal hook and a strong groove, but it could do to have a bit more momentum and more of a climax. There's a pretty fantastic additional keyboard part that comes in toward the end that kicks things up, but it just sorta peters out, which is sort of a let down. Still hot, though. (Click here to buy it from Insound.)

Basement Jaxx "Hush Boy" - I somehow get the impression that this won't end up being my favorite song on the forthcoming Jaxx LP -- I mean, come on, one of the song features Robyn! -- but how do you deny this sort thing of thing? It's exactly what you would expect of Basement Jaxx in terms of boldness, seamless genre blending, and intense exuberance, but also a bit fresh, offbeat, and ridiculous at the same time. There's a delightful sense of cheesiness to this cut, but they pull it off, especially when they play off some mindnumbingly prosaic details (they looked up a Mexican restaurant on the internet, she enjoyed her chicken fajitas) with some wacky soap opera plot developments. (Click here for XL's Basement Jaxx site.)

Hey "Cisza, Ja I Czas" - This is the beauty of file sharing, right here. This is exactly the sort of random music that you can find when you're barely even looking, but it's astonishing and exciting, and almost entirely unknown in your part of the world. Hey are a Polish rock band who've been going for well over a decade now and have apparently achieved some measure of success in eastern Europe and (I think) Australia, and sound a little like Royal Trux if all of their vocals were in Polish, and they were gunning for modern rock radio hits circa 1995. If you ever wished Neil Haggerty would've thrown in some la la la's to balance out the gruffness of Jennifer Herrema's voice, this might be the song for you. (Click here for Hey's official site.)

A Sunny Day In Glasgow @ Cake Shop 7/16/2006
Laughter (Victims) / A Mundane Phonecall To Jack Parsons / Ghost in the Graveyard / The Horn Song / Fabulous Friend (Field Mice cover) / The Best Summer Ever

Last night's A Sunny Day In Glasgow show went over much, much, much better than you would have expected given Ben Daniels' warnings that I reprinted in the previous entry. Though the band most likely would have sounded better with live drums (this is something they hope to work out before they play their next show in August, so no worries there), they did a pretty great job of playing the songs and getting across their peculiar aesthetic in a live setting. Much in the way the recordings sound like fuzzy memories of old 80s indie records, the live performance sounded as though they were trying to replicate the sound of an audience tape of a My Bloody Valentine show from 18 years ago. It was strange and overwhelming, and not quite like any other band that I've ever seen live. As on the recordings, the lyrics were almost entirely unintelligable, but the timbre of the vocals and the melodies were clear and gorgeous. It barely mattered that the Daniels siblings did not appear particularly comfortable on stage -- after all, who expects much of a stage show from what is essentially a shoegazer band? If anything, the band's ordinary appearance and slightly awkward stage presence added to the show by contrasting with the somewhat alien sound of their music. If they themselves were as stylized as the music, it might not have worked as well. There's certainly room for improvement, but as it stands, it was definitely the best abstract postmodern rock show that I've ever seen.