Archive for April, 2007

Yo La Tengo @ Webster Hall 4/29/2007
I Feel Like Going Home / From A Motel 6 / Pass The Hatchet, I Think I'm Goodkind / The Last Days Of Disco / The Room Got Heavy / The Weakest Part / Beanbag Chair / Mr. Tough / Song For Mahila / Don't Say A Word (Hot Chicken #2) / Sugarcube / Styles Of The Times / Big Day Coming / Watch Out For Me Ronnie / The Story Of Yo La Tango // The Race Is On Again / Dreaming / Tom Courtenay (Georgia version) /// Gates Of Steel / My Little Corner Of The World

You might not get this from just glancing at the setlist, but this was a looooooong show; a little bit over two hours. It was a fairly typical Yo La Tengo show: mostly songs from the new album, a smattering of delicate quiet tunes, a handful of extremely noisy jams, a few old "hits" to get the old school fans pumped up every 30 minutes or so. Oh, and this may come as a shock, but they also played some OBSCURE COVERS! Pretty wild, I know.

Yo La Tengo "The Room Got Heavy" - Despite the fact that the show included "From A Motel 6," "The Last Days of Disco," and epic, intense performances of both "The Story of Yo La Tango" and "Pass The Hatchet, I Think I'm Goodkind," the clear highlight of the night was the moody and densely rhythmic "The Room Got Heavy." As on the album, the arrangement is limited to two overdriven organs played by Ira Kaplan and a storm of percussion performed by Georgia Hubley on her drum kit and James McNew on a set of bongos. Basically, it sounds a bit like the Silver Apples if their homemade synthesizers got replaced by the organ at a baseball stadium. The sound of the piece is very effective in mirroring its lyrical themes -- it feels claustrophobic, humid, and slightly vertiginous, and even when the tension breaks near the end, it's only a minor relief. (Click here to buy it from Insound)

Also: If you were curious, this is what I played when I DJ'd the other night. It's a big if, I know, but I think this one came out pretty well.

Justice "D.A.N.C.E." / LCD Soundsystem "North American Scum" / Sissy Wish "Yayaya" / Pleasure "Out Of Love" / Of Montreal "A Sentence Of Sorts In Kongsvinger" / Annie "Me Plus One" / Kylie Minogue "Sweet Music" / Muscles "Chocolate, Raspberry, Lemon and Lime" / Gameboy/Gamegirl "Sweaty Wet/Dirty Damp" / Spektrum "Don't Be Shy" / Robyn "Konichiwa Bitches" / Junior Senior "Take Your Time" / Scissor Sisters "Paul McCartney" / Beyonce "Get Me Bodied" / Mark Ronson "Pretty Green" / Bjork "Earth Intruders" / Mochipet "Justin Timberlakecore" / Clipse "Wamp Wamp (Pistol Pete Mix)" / Yelle "Je Veux Te Voir"

Deerhunter @ Mercury Lounge 4/26/2007
(drone) / Cryptograms / (drone) / Wash Off / Dr. Glass / Fluorescent Grey / Spring Hall Convert / Hazel Street / Octet (with vocals) / Strange Lights

Deerhunter "Cryptograms" - Deerhunter's album Cryptograms has one of the more fascinating sequences in recent memory. Side A alternates between ethereal drones and intense Kraut-punk-shoegazer hybrids before culminating in a cut that seamlessly combines both extremes, and Side B is mostly comprised of songs that sound like they might have been one of the last few tracks on a CMJ New Music Monthly cd back in the early 90s. (Surely I'm not the only one who has noticed that "Strange Lights" sounds a LOT like Guided By Voices circa Alien Lanes.) Whereas Cryptograms wanders around in search of itself, the new Fluorescent Grey EP follows a tight, deliberate trajectory that begins with a state of eerie calmness and ends with a headlong rush into oblivion. It's a more focused recording, and does more to establish the band's identity than its eclectic predecessor.

Actually, that's not quite right. If you want to get an accurate sense of who Deerhunter are, you kinda have to see them play live. The band nail their dynamics in live performance, but they also have an appealing looseness to their interaction that adds a sense of unpredictability to their set. It's not a shock that the songs from the EP work just as well with the piano parts transposed to guitar, but it is somewhat surprising that the sort of beatless drones that drag on Cryptograms' momentum are actually quite compelling in person.

The band themselves have a curious dynamic -- the bassist and guitarist on the right side of the stage are both a bit silly and playful, but the singer Bradford Cox is severe, creepy, and theatrical. Cox is very tall and extremely skinny, and he spent most of the show with his face smeared with fake blood and dressed in a white babydoll dress, like a giant undead grandma. He seemed like something David Bowie might have come up with during his coke psychosis phase, and some patient handler would have had to explain to him "No, David, you can't elongate your body and eliminate all of your fat and muscle mass." It was hard not to watch him; he seemed totally unreal. (Click here to buy it from AmpCamp.)

Pterodactyl @ Mercury Lounge 4/26/2007
Safe Like A Train / Ask Me Nicely / I Can See A River / Astros / Verbal / Three Succeed / Esses / New / Polio

Pterodactyl "Three Succeed" - It occurred to me about a week ago that the sort of shrieking guitar noises that the band Pterodactyl makes actually come close to the sounds we commonly associate with pterodactyls from cartoons and movies. The group recreate their melodic noise-punk songs very effectively in person, or at least well enough to leave my ears ringing twelve hours later. Though watching them play demystified their playing somewhat by revealing their techniques (ah, that sound in "Three Succeed" is made by sticking a drumstick under the strings above the pickups on the bass, okay...), it's always a thrill to see a band manhandle their instruments in a way that it seems like there is no way they are actually playing them, and yet very specific sounds are produced. (Click here to pre-order it from Cardboard Records.)

First Nation played a set of what seemed to be entirely new material between Pterodactyl and Deerhunter. I'd never seen First Nation before last night, and so I didn't really know what to expect; I just knew that I liked a couple songs from their first record. I was pretty down with the first three or four songs, but then their set just kept going and going, and the things that worked well at the start became very grating. They make the best of their technical limitations by settling into simple, mesmerizing rhythms and melodies, but not every song was strong enough to compensate for their flaws as musicians. They are definitely on the right track, though.

Also: Kinda last minute, but I'm DJing with LadyByrd at the Lotus Lounge on Clinton and Stanton tonight.

Dizzee Rascal "Sirens" - Most people are comparing the first single from Dizzee Rascal's third album to Jay-Z's "99 Problems," and though there's some really obvious similarities in both its style and substance, but the track actually reminds me more of the nihilistic scorched earth noise of Primal Scream's XTRMNTR. At some points the guitar stabs venture in Nu-Metal territory, but for the most part, they sound more like short, abstracted clangs that complement the incessant clatter of a ride cymbal. Compared to most previous Dizzee tracks, it's fairly straightforward and conservative, but his extremely distinct voice and flow keeps the song fresh and slightly off-kilter. (Click here for the official Dizzee Rascal MySpace page.)

Mochipet "Justin Timberlakecore" - The one thing that Mochipet doesn't do to Justin Timberlake's "My Love" is mutilate it beyond all recognition, and that's what makes it so creepy and effective. The song is still there, but its shape is mutated drastically, and even the most traditionally attractive elements of Timbaland's track are pushed to nearly grotesque extremes. Mochipet's track is essentially a restless, deformed electro-rap freak that alternates between stomping around like a dinosaur, skittering about like an insect, and slithering like a serpent. (Click here to buy it from Daly City.)

Elsewhere: My new Hit Refresh column is up on the ASAP site with mp3s from !!!, The Rosebuds, and Khan.

Sissy Wish "Float" - "Float" seems to fall into the emotional space that comes just before a moment of clarity and relaxation, and not too long after a major crisis. It's exciting and refreshing, but really, it's just a prelude to something more profound. The music expresses the song's emotional narrative more effectively than the lyrics, which mostly just offer advice and reassuring words. The verses are supported by a spare, slightly nervous electronic groove, but as the song shifts into its chorus, the song is carried by a more confident beat. The track's most glorious moment comes following a breakdown towards the end -- the beat comes down stronger than ever, and Siri ålberg's voice doubles up and overlaps its melodies before returning to the song's stunning yet understated chorus. (Click here for the official Sissy Wish site.)

Wild Beasts "Through Dark Night" - "Through Dark Night" may not be as immediately flooring as the Wild Beasts' previous single "Brave Bulging Buoyant Clairvoyants", but its low key arrangement and shimmering guitar parts highlight the prettiest aspects of Hayden Norman Thorpe's incredibly weird singing voice. Thorpe still sounds a bit like Scooby Doo at some points, but the balance is shifted in favor of his lovely falsetto, and the contrast between the masculine and feminine qualities of his voice is less jarring and extreme. Whereas "Brave Bulging Buoyant Clairvoyants" went for exotic thrills, "Through Dark Night" settles for subtle beauty. (Click here to buy it from Bad Sneakers.)

Spoon @ Bowery Ballroom, 4/23/2007
Don't You Evah / My Mathematical Mind / Stay Don't Go / The Fitted Shirt / The Delicate Place / Rhthm and Soul / The Beast and Dragon, Adored / Me and the Bean / I Turn My Camera On / Don't Make Me A Target / Paper Tiger / Everything Hits At Once / The Way We Get By / Eddie's Ragga / Vittorio E / They Never Got You / I Summon You / Jonothon Fisk // Black Like Me / Someone Something / The Two Sides of Monsieur Valentine / Mountain To Sound

Spoon "Paper Tiger" (Live @ SXSW 2002) -

Small Stakes Ensure You The Minimum Blues: It's a nice change of pace to see a show that I know will be satisfying and engaging no matter what the band plays. I get caught up in expectations and little wishes to hear certain songs so often, and it makes it so that little things like, say, Jarvis not playing "Black Magic," can taint an otherwise fantastic gig in my memory. This isn't to say that there aren't some unlikely Spoon songs I would've loved to have heard last night ("No You're Not" and "Advance Cassette" both immediately spring to mind) but I didn't really have my hopes up. My friends definitely got their wishes, though. "Mountain To Sound" for the longterm fan, "Stay Don't Go" and a solid selection of classics from the last three albums for the relative newcomer.

Something To Look Forward To: Five new songs were played, and I heard three of them for the very first time last night. I'm not really sure what to say about them just yet. They were all fine, but I think I need to wait to hear the studio recordings to make any sort of judgment. At face value, the new stuff isn't a dramatic departure from what they've been doing in this decade, but there is a subtle difference, and I think Jessica Hopper was pretty much on the money with this observation from her early impressions of the finished album: "Static in its melancholy, negotiates a small space well."

I Summon My Love Back To Me: Just as I had noticed at the Pitchfork festival last July, "I Summon You" has become a clear fan favorite, and though it was never released as a single, it is greeted by the audience as if it were a huge radio hit. This isn't exactly mystifying -- it's a gorgeous and touching song, and its sentiment is rather ideal for mix tapes and whatnot. My personal favorite, "The Beast and Dragon, Adored," gets a similarly strong response, though the big hit from Gimme Fiction "I Turn My Camera On" seemed to get shrugged off by a good chunk of the audience. In fairness, it was kind of a so-so performance of that song, and the crowd was ridiculously stiff for almost all of the funky and/or up-tempo numbers. This might just be a Bowery Ballroom thing -- people are almost always quite sedate at that venue for some reason, even when people are there to see things like LCD Soundsystem. People always bitch about chilly NYC audiences, but I don't know, maybe it's got more to do with the vibe of the physical space sometimes.

(Click here to buy all kinds of Spoon stuff from Merge.)

Jarvis Cocker @ Webster Hall, 4/22/2007
Fat Children / Don't Let Him Waste Your Time / Heavy Weather / One Man Show / I Will Kill Again / From Auschwitz To Ipswich / Tonite / Big Julie / Disney Time / Big Stuff / Running The World // Heaven (Talking Heads) / Paranoid (Black Sabbath)

Jarvis Cocker "One Man Show" - Before last night, Jarvis Cocker had not played a show in either New York City or the United States in general since Pulp played the Hammerstein Ballroom in June of 1998. (I was there; it was awesome.) The band only played five shows in all of North America on that mini-tour, and two of them were not full sets -- they performed at the Tibetan Freedom Concert and opened an impromptu Radiohead gig at the 9:30 Club. (I was also there; it was well beyond awesome.) Most American Pulp fans have never actually seen the band live, and so as you can imagine, the audience was rather starved for the Jarv (err, starved for Cocker?) and responded to his set with great enthusiasm.

Cocker was in fine form, and gave a performance worthy of the crowd's intense adulation. Aside from the covers in the encore, Cocker and his band were focused entirely on his latest material (though he skipped "Black Magic," gah!), and though the audience was very excited to hear those songs, I can only imagine just how wild it would have been if he'd actually thrown in a few Pulp hits. As it was, the set felt a bit like a Pulp show in both tone and presentation, with strong new compositions standing in for familiar hits -- "Heavy Weather" a rough analog for "Sorted For E's and Wizz;" "Running The World" an updated version of "Common People;" "Big Julie" and the excellent b-side "One Man Show" are both anthemic ballads in the tradition of "Underwear" and "Help The Aged." (Click here to buy it from Amazon UK.)

The Dirty Projectors "Imagine It" - I didn't realize that the Dirty Projectors were opening up this show until I got to the venue. I'd been wanting to see them for quite some time, and so it was a lovely surprise. Even better, their set was sort of astounding. I'm not exaggerating at all when I say I spent a fair chunk of their performance making "wow" faces as they either took their songs in brilliant, unexpected directions, or seamlessly played tricky, imaginative arrangements. I'm also not exaggerating when I say that I've never heard a band sound like they did last night, which is especially exciting given that compared to previous incarnations of the group, the instrumental line-up was rather conventional -- three voices, two guitars, bass, drums, sampler. The women in the group provided gorgeous harmonies in addition to their instrumental contributions, and composer/guitarist Dave Longstreth sang most of the lead parts in a voice that careened between moments of straightforward beauty and intentionally grotesque crooning.

Those of you downloading this mp3 should keep in mind that even though they did play this song in their set, the live version was much different and vastly superior. I can only hope that Longstreth records an album with this line-up, and that it comes out very soon. People need to hear this. Minds have got to be boggled. (Click here to buy it from Insound.)

Elsewhere: Inspired by my R.E.M. blog, Phil Reed has decided to start a site with the same format covering every Talking Heads track. Good luck, Phil!

Also: Brandon Stosuy's interview with Bjork on Pitchfork is fantastic.

Dntel and Jenny Lewis "Roll On" - Jimmy Tamborello's best tracks on the new Dntel album are in a state of continuous flux. The basic structures of the songs tend to be rather simple, but his arrangements constantly add and subtract new electronic textures, marking subtle shifts in emotional tone and subtly enhancing the dynamics of quiet, introspective songs. His collaboration with Jenny Lewis is especially gorgeous and well-composed. Irregular patterns of buzzes, hums, and clicks swirl around her lovely, heart-breaking voice, framing her melody and shadowing the movements of her restless heart. (Click here to buy it from Sub Pop.)

The Rosebuds "I Better Run" - "I Better Run" may sound haunted and paranoid, but even as it rides a stark, nervous groove, it never seems even remotely hysterical. Kelly Crisp's voice is steady and detached, betraying an icy calm lunacy as her character flees from both the legacy of her doomed family line and the horrors of the world. (Click here to buy it from Merge.)

The Boggs "Melanie in the White Coat" - Last week I wrote an entry on my R.E.M. blog about the way "Welcome to the Occupation" buries a simple folk song beneath booming arena rock rock percussion. The Boggs do a similar thing with "Melanie in the White Coat," but it is far more bombastic and absurd. The drums are so loud and busy that they drown out almost everything else in the mix. The vocals are audible and carry the melody, but the lyrics about being in awe of a rowdy, intimidating woman named Melanie are mostly mumbled and muttered, as though the singer is terrified that she might hear him. (Click here to pre-order it from Gigantic.)

Ellen Allien - Excerpt from Fabric 34: Larry Heard Presents Mr. White "The Sun Can't Compare" / Estroe "Driven" - Although Ellen Allien's entire Fabric mix lingers in a romantic twilight haze, there's a strong sense that the listener is meant to feel a bit removed from themselves and their desires. Have you ever found yourself in an unspeakably lovely moment only to feel bad that you have no one to share it with? It's just like that, really. The mix peaks early with this inspired segue from Larry Heard's melancholy acid house hit "The Sun Can't Compare" into a moody, low key instrumental by Estroe that sets the tone for the rest of the set. (Click here to buy it from Fabric London.)

Elsewhere: My new Hit Refresh column is up on the ASAP site with mp3s from Panda Bear, Dntel, and Hauschka/Tarwater. The Panda Bear album may be old news to most of you, but I strongly recommend that Hauschka/Tarwater song.

UGK featuring Outkast "International Players' Anthem" - Andre 3000's verse on "International Players' Anthem" may not be the very best of his recent flurry of guest appearances, but it is the one attached to a song that doesn't totally fall apart immediately after he disappears. (In fairness, the remix of Lloyd's "You" also features a strong verse by Nas, but the pleasant lite R&B tune with the super-obvious Spandeau Ballet sample separating their verses makes it feel as though you're being put on hold between rhymes.) It certainly helps that 3000 is in the company of peers -- Bun B and Pimp C of UGK may not have the overwhelming charisma of either Andre or Big Boi, but they can hold their own in their company, especially when they are riding a subtly dynamic track composed by Three Six Mafia that shifts its beat to play up the strengths of each rapper. If you can get over the novelty of hearing Andre 3000 rap again, it becomes rather clear that the highlight of the track is actually Big Boi's verse, which slows down to a screwed crawl and springs back to regular tape speed twice over to great effect. (Click here to pre-order it from Amazon.)

Kathy Diamond "Between The Lines" - Maurice Fulton's compositions for Mu always evoked a sense of permanent panic and agitation -- "the music of the future, provided something terrible happens to all of us," as I put it back in 2004. His work with Kathy Diamond pushes in the opposite direction with slinky, rhythmic tracks that unfold gently as airy vocals lull the listener into an eerie calmness. It's chilled out, but also chilling -- Fulton can't help but infuse his music with a feeling of menace and discomfort, and so most of the songs with Diamond feel as though you're drifting off to sleep only to have a very anxious nightmare. (Click here to pre-order it from Amazon.)

Elsewhere: Here's a few album reviews that I've written recently for Artistdirect: Nine Inch Nails, Avril Lavigne, Macy Gray, Mika, and Tracey Thorn.

Siobhan Donaghy "So You Say" - I didn't notice it until the third time I heard the song, but the first line of each verse is addressed to a man named Adam. There's something rather disarming about the way Siobhan Donaghy utters his name -- in two quick syllables, she seems wounded, generous, patient, and terminally lovesick. The lyrics are fairly standard "you just dumped me and I can't deal" stuff, but that tiny bit of specificity changes the feeling of the entire track, making it seem almost uncomfortably small and personal even when it hits its huge Wilson Phillips-as-a-shoegazer-band chorus. (Click here to pre-order it from Amazon UK.)

Hilary Duff "Danger" - If Hilary Duff is correct, and the dude she's singing about was indeed born in '74, that would make him about 33 right now. Given that she's 20 years old, she's probably not wrong to sense a bit of danger in this pairing -- it's not an outlandish or uncommon age gap, but it is a bit inappropriate. The song is most likely being sung about a handsome teacher, boss, or celebrity, but for some reason the harsh, sleazy Eurodisco sound of the track makes me imagine some filthy creep with the most hideous mustache in the world. Like, a coked-up hipster mutant dripping with 22 strains of VD. The type of guy who would make Terry Richardson (NSFW link!) seem like a classy hunk. I'd like to think that every line of this song is a staggering understatement, and that the former Lizzy McGuire is in for a reallllllllllllllly dark year. (Click here to buy it from Amazon.)

Elsewhere: Tom Ewing on "thrill power," and Spencer Sloan offers Avril Lavigne a bit of advice.