Archive for May, 2011

Sleigh Bells @ Webster Hall 5/11/2011 Crown on the Ground / Tell 'Em / Kids / Treats / Riot Rhythm / Infinity Guitars / Holly / Rill Rill / Rachel / Straight A's / A/B Machines

Sleigh Bells "Holly" (demo)

The last time I saw Sleigh Bells they were doing a small show at some kind of VFW hall-type place in Brooklyn on the day their album came out. That was a fun show, but it had nothing on this. They've both grown comfortable with their rock star moves, in part because it's no longer a theoretical notion, and the band now put on a full-on rock spectacle complete with comically oversized amps and a light show that perfectly matches the super-saturated sound of the music. Even better, the audience has had time to live with the music and so every song gets the response of a huge hit. They were exciting before, now it's just off the charts. I was thrilled pretty much every moment of this show. CSS @ Webster Hall 5/11/2011 Art Bitch / Off the Hook / ?? / Air Painter / 'Hits Me Like A Rock' / Music Is My Hot Hot Sex / 'I Love You' / Move / 'In the Big City Nothing Hurts' / Beautiful Song / Let's Reggae All Night / 'All Dressed Up' / Let's Make Love and Listen to Death From Above / Alala

CSS "Alala"

CSS lost me with Donkey, but I'm happy to say that they 1) remain a very entertaining and joyful live act, thank mainly to their wildly charismatic frontwoman Lovefoxxx and 2) their new songs are all terrific, immediately enjoyable and clever. The selections from the debut were very fun and cathartic, but the major highlights were new tunes, most especially the ones I'll call "All Dressed Up" and "In the Big City Nothing Hurts," since I don't know what they are actually called. I'm dying to hear them again, most especially the latter. But it's nice to have something to look forward to, you know? Buy it from Amazon. Mr. Dream @ Webster Hall 5/11/2011 Knuckle Sandwich / Crime / new song / Scarred For Life / Trash Hit / Winners / Knick Knack / Croquet / Learn the Language

Mr. Dream "Scarred For Life"

Mr. Dream have the look of clean-cut, handsome young men, but they deliver some of most brutal yet tuneful hard rock that anyone has produced in the past decade. There's something amusing and subversive about how heavy these guys get while lacking the visual signifiers of the hard rockin' dude -- singer/guitarist Adam Moerder seriously looks like an alternate universe John Mayer who grew up on the extended Steve Albini discography rather than Stevie Ray Vaughan. Like Nirvana, the Pixies and McLusky before them, the secret to the band's intensity lies in the nuts and bolts of simple pop hooks, but what really sticks with you is how hard Nick Sylvester hits those drums and how fully Moerder and bassist Matt Morello commit to screaming their lines. They're not hedging any bets up there. Buy it from Amazon.

James Rabbit "Glimmer On Down"

Tyler Martin, the primary songwriter of the Santa Cruz band James Rabbit, has always had a major romantic streak. It's one of the most charming things about him, really -- he comes off like a starry-eyed sweetheart who believes in true love and grand gestures, even in spite of persistent anxiety and awkwardness. "Glimmer On Down" is his most elegant expression of this romantic streak. There are some moment where the band's characteristic wired angst comes through, but this is mostly graceful and lovely, complete with tinkling piano, old movie strings, swelling brass and a female backing vocal part that seems as it if it just wandered in from a Dirty Projectors rehearsal. In print that may seem a bit overstuffed, but the arrangement is so careful and thoughtful that every sound has its moment and it all comes out sounding light and swoony. Get it for free from James Rabbit's Bandcamp page.

Veronica Maggio "Finns Det En Så Finns Det Flera"

As best as I can tell from a Google translation, this song seems to be about the excitement of meeting someone new. The title loosely translates to "there is one, there are several," and the phrase is repeated like a mantra. I love the sound of this phrase in Swedish, particularly the way Veronica Maggio's voice rises up sharply on "det flera," implying a cheerful exclamation point. I also quite like the English translation of it, though I wonder if it correct or if it's a mangled version of some Swedish idiom. Given the contextual clues I have -- including the very sound of the music -- I'm inclined to understand this as someone being totally thrilled by possibility and realizing that they have a lot more options that they have previously considered. There's a wonderful positive charge to this music and I recognize it as the sound of empowerment and discovery. You can tell me I'm wrong in understand the precise meaning of her words, but I'm definitely not wrong in hearing joyful curiosity in this track. Buy it from Amazon.

Tyler, the Creator and Hodgy Beats "Sandwitches"

The first minute of this track sounds so frustrated and lonely. It's just this kid alone in a room leading a chant, willing his audience into existence. Tyler could get some other people on mic, fake a crowd, but he doesn't. He's made an active decision to make this intro sound uncomfortable and awkward. He wants you to think about him being alone in that room. It makes sense of what comes afterward: Spilling bile, acting out, raging against anyone with a happy life. These words come out of feeling bitter and isolated, so yeah, he should sound lonely and pathetic. A lot of Odd Future songs don't rise above sounding ramshackle, childish and hateful, but "Sandwitches" is excellent and hints at a greater potential. Tyler and Hodgy both have excellent voices for rap -- the former has a surprisingly gravelly tone for someone so young, the latter has more treble and expressive range. Tyler's lyrical style and cadence remind me a lot of Eminem -- their sense of humor is similar and they bot tap into that angry-boy-acting-out thing that people eat up. (It never moves me; I just wasn't that kind of kid.) Hodgy is more exciting to me. He's more nimble in his phrasing, less predictable in his wordplay. If Odd Future is indeed the second coming of the Wu-Tang, then he's the Ghostface of this crew. They're a long way from touching that first wave of Wu records, though. Tyler's Goblin is set up to become most people's first real album-length exposure to Odd Future, and it's kind of a mess. A lot of the songs are straight-up awful. Others are marred by cheap, stupid lyrics. He's deliberately hateful and trollish, but then sulks when people call him out. The entire record sounds depressed. It can be too much to take, particularly when he gets very indulgent both lyrically and musically, but overall, it's a fascinating document of a particular type of anger and misery. Buy it from Amazon.

The Fiery Furnaces @ Rockwood Music Hall 5/5/2011 Doctor in the Dungeon / Smelling Cigarettes / The Garfield El / Here Comes the Summer / Pricked in the Heart / The Vietnamese Telephone Directory / Even in the Rain / Blueberry Boat / Philadelphia Grand Jury / 1917 / Single Again / Cousin Chris / Widow City / Nevers / South Is Only A Home - Evergreen / Wolf Notes / Keep Me in the Dark / Uncle Charlie / Restorative Beer

The Fiery Furnaces "Nevers"

On their current tour, the Fiery Furnaces are performing as a duo -- Eleanor on vocals, accompanied by Matthew on a grand piano. (He also sang a bit.) I've always really loved the band in this configuration and so it was a thrill to see them play a full set with this arrangement. A lot of songs that would've made sense with this presentation -- like, say, "Bow Wow" or "Take Me Round Again" -- were out of rotation in favor of Widow City and EP deep cuts. The emphasis was placed on Matthew's tongue-twister songs, maybe because it's easier for an audience to hear all the words without a rock band blaring. Either way it worked -- a lot of funny lines that may have gone right by in a regular show got laughs. As always, the Friedbergers' memory and diction is amazing to behold, and their talent for understated melody and stunning lyrical detail is astonishing and yet horribly underrated. I get that this band may be impenetrable for a lot of people, but more folks should try to meet them halfway. This current tour is definitely a good time to give them (a/another) chance. Buy it from Amazon.

Thao & Mirah "Rubies and Rocks"

Mirah sounds great when she seems to be confined within a rigid yet funky groove. That tension brings out a defiant edge in her voice -- firm and assertive while overtly feminine. In "Rubies and Rocks," that isn't a contradiction, though it's very different from the same impulses and desires filtered through traditional masculinity. The horns are a brilliant tonal and melodic counterpoint to her voice in this arrangement. That part sounds very Afrobeat to me, very Fela. Melodically, but also functionally -- the beat and bass are like a cramped, overheated room. The horns come in like a gust of cool, fresh air that ends far too soon. Buy it from Amazon.

Cass McCombs "County Line"

There was a time, very long ago now, when a song like this could've been a radio hit. Now that seems inconceivable -- it's far too delicate, way too slow, much too subtle. As far as new music goes, we've banished all that from the airwaves. Even still, this sounds like something you should hear in a car at night moving along some long stretch of nowhere. It sounds like something that just comes on, and you surrender to its mood. You might not even notice it at first. Maybe it's McCombs' gentle falsetto that gets you, or the atmospheric, nearly subliminal organ drone that carries throughout the song. It could be the way these perfectly toned guitar notes ring out at just the right moments but are otherwise entirely silent. For me, it's the precise tone of the lead organ. That sound is sparingly used too, but its character nearly defines the entire song for me. It's like falling in love with a painting for the perfect hue found in just a few brush strokes. Pre-order it from Amazon.

EMA "Anteroom"

There's a lot of alt-rock DNA in this song -- the style of melody, the guitar style, the tone of the lyrics -- so it's disconcerting when the drums kick in and sound totally awful. I mean, the performance is fine, but the recording is horrible and inept. In my mind, I can hear very clearly what this would have sounded like if it had been recorded by, say, Steve Albini, and the gap between that ideal and what is actually on EMA's record is enough to aggravate me and make me like this record less than I would otherwise. (Which is to say, a LOT.) Everything else about this song is clever and wonderful. Why would anyone choose to undermine their composition with such a pathetic excuse for drum engineering? I don't think it adds anything to the atmosphere, it just sounds shoddy and limp. There are moments in this song that should have some cathartic power, and here it just seems like that impulse is thwarted. I can only hope that was precisely the effect she was going for, but even then I think that could have been more fully realized by a skilled engineer. So frustrating! Buy it from Amazon.