Oasis “Rock ‘n’ Roll Star” – There’s a sentiment, and I suppose it is particular to the British music press since they care about Oasis far more than anyone else, that “Rock ‘n’ Roll Star” is one the great album openers of all time, and I don’t disagree. It kicks off their debut album with an exciting rocker that sums up their appeal without being one of the big hit singles (“Live Forever,” “Supersonic,” “Cigarettes & Alcohol”) or the best song on the record (“Columbia”). More importantly, it does a fine job of setting up the major themes of Definitely Maybe, as well as the rest of their discography.

People usually take “Rock ‘n’ Roll Star” as a fantasy borne out in the reality of Oasis’ massive, instanteous success, but that level of appreciation is shallow and only enjoyable if you happen to be a triumphalist superfan who gets off on a song that can be read as self-fulfilling prophecy specific to Noel and Liam Gallagher. The beauty of “Rock ‘n’ Roll Star,” though, is that it’s not about actually being a rock star, but rather about being a fan who recognizes the power dynamic of an artist and their audience and desperately wants to feel the rush from the other side. Even though sensible, pragmatic people tell the character in the song that the art he loves is not important, he is adamant that the communication between the audience and that art is key to all the pleasures that he knows, and the resentment for those people who diminish both sides of the spectacle only fuel his ambition to break out of his boring life of passivity.

It’s helpful that the sound of the song gets across exactly why the guy cares about the music in the first place. “Giddy rush” may be one of my most overused and hackish expressions, but that’s exactly what the song is, and really, no other singer besides Liam Gallagher could possibly do it justice.

Liam’s voice is a highly specific and wonderful thing; this weirdly elastic instrument with a child-like tone that mixes gleeful brattiness with a simple, guileless conviction that should not be be mistaken for po-faced earnestness. He elongates and mutates words in a way that wrings poetry from banal phrases, and his drone never drags down the pace of the fast songs, instead implying the musical equivalent of speed lines in manga.

Not every lyric is a gem, but as with most every song from Oasis’ prime (1994-1996, along with about half the songs from the Be Here Now period), Noel Gallagher displays an understanding that pop lyrics need not be consistently good as long as the emphasized parts have the proper resonance, whether it is literal (“you might as well do the white line!,” “you and I are gonna live forever,” “I can’t tell you the way I feel because the way I feel is oh so new to me”) or inspired gibberish (“someday you will find me caught beneath the landslide in a champagne supernova in the sky”, “flash your pan at the song that I’m singing,” “I know a girl called Elsa, she’s into Alka Seltzer”) that just sounds right.

Noel’s guitar style tends to favor a thin yet overbearing sort of heaviness that can make listening to too many of his songs on end a bit of a chore, similar to how you might not want to eat an entire meal of rich, buttery pastries. The sound suits “Rock ‘n’ Roll Star” and the rest of Definitely Maybe well, but lately I’ve been thinking about how great it could be if many of its songs were made over with nimble dance arrangements. I am certain that “Columbia” in particular would sound brilliant in this way — after all, stick around to that song’s fade out and you can clearly hear the baggy dance beat buried underneath those dense layers of distorted shoegazer guitars. It’s not usually the beat that makes me imagine the songs in this way, it’s mostly in the melody and the spirit of the recordings. There’s some sort of continuity of tone, if not direct stylistic compatibility. (Click here to buy Definitely Maybe, and here to pre-order Stop The Clocks, both from Amazon.)

Elsewhere: My new Hit Refresh mp3 column is up on the ASAP site, and features a mutated version of “Galang” by Mico, an especially pretty song by +/-, and one of the best songs from the new Sloan record, which is slowly shaping up to become one of favorite albums from this year.

Andrew W.K. “Don’t Call Me Andy” – It’s not such a weird thing for Andrew W.K. to try his hand at what is essentially a beefed up girl group song, if just because there isn’t a huge stylistic leap from Phil Spector’s Wall Of Sound to his own pummeling WALL OF ROCK. The entire song sounds as though it is being run through a studio filter called the POWER SWOON, and the resulting track feels like the sweetest thing he’s penned since “She Is Beautiful,” even if most of the song is just the guy begging you not to use the diminutive version of his name. (Click here for the Andrew W.K. website.)

Diving With Andy “Andrew” – As the delicate, pastoral arrangement and sweet melody simulates an overwhelming sense of infatuation, the lyrics provide tension as the singer’s overactive superego attempts to talk herself out of the crush. By the end of the song, it seems clear that her insecurities have tripped her up if just for that one day, though the feelings have yet to disappear. (Click here for the Diving With Andy website.)

Oh, Yeah: I have a list feature in the new issue of the British magazine Plan B, which is a fine publication featuring a couple of my favorite UK writers – Miss AMP and Kicking K, as well as the somewhat legendary Everett True. CSS is on the cover, and it comes with a cd featuring Sonic Youth, The Gossip, Animal Collective, Electrelane, Love Is All, Chicks on Speed, Black Dice, and others.

Scissor Sisters @ The Grand Ballroom at the Manhattan Center 10/21/2006
Take Your Mama / I Can’t Decide / Tits On The Radio / She’s My Man / Laura / Lights / Paul McCartney / Kiss You Off / Everybody Wants The Same Thing / Mary / Comfortably Numb / Music Is The Victim / Land Of A Thousand Words // I Don’t Feel Like Danson / Filthy/Gorgeous

Scissor Sisters “Making Ladies” – The Grand Ballroom, a relatively luxurious (well, it’s sorta pretty and carpeted…) banquet hall seven floors above the Hammerstein Ballroom is a very strange place to have a pop concert, and not just because of the fact that an emergency evacuation would’ve been a total nightmare. Though it was a pleasant place, there was something a bit off about the vibe of the room, and the muted, not-quite-loud-enough acoustics seemed to exaggerate the problems of a show that occasionally seemed to lose its connection with the audience. As with every other Scissor Sisters show that I’ve seen, the crowd was enthusiastic, and the band worked hard to uphold a standard of performance and spectacle well above that of most other contemporary acts, but in comparison to those other shows, something seemed dialed down in this gig, and I’m relatively certain that it wasn’t just my own skewed perception.

For one thing, the band seemed a bit exhausted from having played the same setlist a few too many times in a row on an international tour that’s been in progress for a few months now. Though the song selection was strong, the pacing of the set was often a bit stiff and predictable, and sometimes awkward, as when the band tacked the gorgeous “Land of a Thousand Words” on at the end of the set following a rowdy and climactic “Music Is The Victim,” making the latter song seem like an afterthought rather than the melodramatic finale that it could have been. Personally, I would’ve just slotted “Land of a Thousand Words” as the first song in the encore, since jumping straight into “I Don’t Feel Like Dancin'” didn’t feel quite right either.

It would also be a good idea for them to reserve a spot in the set where they can loosen up a bit and play something a little less expected — perhaps a cover song, or maybe a quick number with just Babydaddy and Jake, or a pass at the delightfully campy and bizarre “Making Ladies” from the Ta Dah bonus disc. The band are always fun and lively, but they ought to be more playful in the performance, and not just with the stage banter, which is always very humorous and involving. Of course, since they dedicated “Lights” to this girl, I’m probably always going to associate the tune with dismemberment, which is a pretty strange thing for a homoerotic Beegees-ish disco number.

Though some selections didn’t quite connect with the audience — “Mary” in particular was received with widespead indifference — the ones that did were absolutely wonderful, especially the extended version of my new favorite “Paul McCartney,” and my old favorite “Laura,” which has become more of a singalong anthem over time. “Everybody Wants The Same Thing” was almost too big for the room, but was more fun than any other time that I’ve seen them play it now that pretty much everyone knows the song. (Click here to buy it from Amazon.)

My DJ set @ Brooklyn Peace Fair Benefit, Supreme Trading 10/21/2006
Klanguage “Never Over” / Scissor Sisters “Paul McCartney” / Beyonce “Get Me Bodied” / Muscles “One Inch Badge Pin” / MSTRKRFT “She’s Good For Business” / Goldfrapp “Ride A White Horse” / Of Montreal “The Party’s Crashing Us (We Are The World Trade Center remix)” / In Flagranti “Genital Blue Room” / The Rapture “Whoo Alright Yeah Uh Huh” / Basement Jaxx “Where’s Your Head At?” / Andrew WK “Party Hard” / The Knife “We Share Our Mothers’ Health (Trentemoller remix)” / Bossanova “Rare Brazil” / Maxi Geil & Playcolt “Making Love In The Sunshine”

“We I played a show and (almost) no one came stayed / we I came and played it just the same / if there’s no ears then there’s no sound / if there’s no tree then there’s no ground.”

A Place To Bury Strangers “My Weakness” – The best thing about being at Supreme Trading on Saturday night was witnessing a set by A Place To Bury Strangers. If you can imagine a world in which nihilistic no wave and shoegazing drone was the dominant strain of rock music, A Place To Bury Strangers would be its version of a particularly great bar band. They opened with an intense cover of “Death Valley 69” that was nearly as good as seeing the song performed by Sonic Youth themselves, and ended with a compelling free form passage involving some kind of homemade device that made some of the most amazing noises that I’ve ever heard. Interestingly, their studio recordings don’t sound much like what they played live at all, trading an overwhelming din that was like the audio equivalent of a painting made of thick, shiny layers of black oil for something that comes off more like an aggressively bleak version of the Jesus & Mary Chain. (Click here for the A Place To Bury Strangers website.)

The Bird and the Bee “I’m A Broken Heart” – In the best possible way, this song by the Bird and the Bee sounds like a Hollywood remake of Broadcast’s brilliant second album The Noise Made By People. I don’t mean to say that it sounds focus grouped to death or dumbed down so much as that it takes the general sound and emotion of that album and streamlines it into something far more sparkling and glamorous. Whereas Broadcast’s record feels like a slow moving black cloud of dread, “I’m A Broken Heart” seems to take a vain pleasure in its melancholy lyrics and melodramatic tone. It’s nearly cheerful in its sadness and romantic angst, as though the character enjoys playing the role of the broken hearted girl a bit too much. (Click here for the Bird and the Bee MySpace page.)

They Must Be Russians “Don’t Try To Cure Yourself” – I imagine that eventually every obscure single ever released in the heyday of punk will be out on a cd compilation one way or another, which is certainly no bad thing when it means we have slightly easier access to pleasant little oddities such as this a-side featured on Crippled Dick Hot Wax’s 7″ Up collection. As the lead vocalist of They Must Be Russians delivers a deadpan yet informative primer on a variety of venereal diseases, the backing vocalist repeats and underlines some key lines for comedic effect. (Click here to buy it from Crippled Dick Hot Wax.)

Also: I will be doing a DJ set at Supreme Trading in Brooklyn on Saturday night as part of the Brooklyn Peace Fair benefit. I’ll be on at 1 AM, and the bill will also include: Lolita Bras, The Shapes, Mon.Key.Pod, Taigaa!, Bunny Rabbit, Outputmessage, Jealous Girlfriends, The Epochs, and A Place to Bury Strangers.

Joy & The Hit Kids “Run Away” – Bless the good people who assembled the second In Kraut compilation for unearthing this brilliant late 60s German soul gem. The song moves at such a brisk pace that it sounds impatient, as though the drummer of the Hit Kids just couldn’t wait to get to all the best parts, and believe me, there’s no shortage of them in this song. Can fans should note that the In Kraut 2 comp also includes the only single by The Inner Space, an early incarnation of the band about a year before the release of Monster Movie. (Click here to buy it from Marina.)

The Blood Brothers “Street Wars/Exotic Foxholes” – It would seem that the new Blood Brothers record is doomed to being misunderstood in its time if just because it can be so tricky to figure out exactly what the hell they are trying to do a lot of the time, especially when they step away from their shrieking gimmick long enough to give us tracks like this. “Street Wars/Exotic Foxholes” cycles through a bass groove not too far removed from “Emotional Rescue,” a chorus that sounds like their version of an anthemic power ballad, and ends on an extended psychedelic instrumental section that I assume is the “Exotic Foxholes” portion of the program. The band are at their best when they get ambitious and mix their gut-punching rage and unrestrained anguish with arrangements that aren’t an obvious match, setting up appealing tensions and venturing well beyond the monochromatic musical palette of most hardcore acts. (Click here to buy it from Insound.)

Elsewhere: My new Hit Refresh column is up on the ASAP site, with mp3s from Teddybears & Annie, 120 Days, and the Evens.

Shrag @ Cake Shop 10/17/2006
Intelligent Theft / Mark E Smith / Cupboard Love / Intro / Talk To The Left / Lost Dog / Hopelessly Wasted / Pregnancy Scene

Shrag “Hopelessly Wasted” – The Brighton, UK based quintet Shrag made their first appearance on this site back in February of 2004, and in the time since have slowly transformed themselves from a one-off project into a proper indie punk band that can, y’know, come and play a few shows in North America when they are all on holiday. They are still bit rough around the edges as a live act, but only in the most winning way possible — old school DIY spirit and self-deprecating banter goes a long way when you’ve got tunes and unforced charm. Most of their set focused on bratty, brittle punk tunes that were sweetened up by the voices of the female members of the band, most especially lead singer Helen, whose demeanor and appearance onstage resembles that of a shy yet visably annoyed middle school girl. The group saved the bitter break-up ballad “Hopelessly Wasted” for the end of the set, revealing a softer, more vulnerable side of themselves before kicking into a particularly vicious reading of their best-known song, “Pregnancy Scene.” There was no “Punk Grammar,” but in spite of my sentimental connection to that song, I didn’t really miss it that much, especially not when the catchy new song “Talk To The Left” is nearly its equal. (Click here for the Shrag MySpace page. Readers in Toronto should note that they are playing the Silver Dollar Room on October 20th.)

Elsewhere: Chunklet has some extremely rare live tracks by Chavez, including a pretty fantastic version of my favorite song in their catalog, “The Guard Attacks.”

The Long Blondes “You Could Have Both” – Alright, this is the one. Every Long Blondes song that I’d heard up to this point ranged from quite good to totally great, but they all seemed to be hinting a potential that is borne out on this cut from their forthcoming full length debut. In very basic and reductive terms, “You Could Have Both” sounds like the perfect midway point between Elastica and Pulp circa 1995, i.e., it’s a dynamic and potent cocktail of sexuality, wit, urgency, menace, drama, style, and overwhelming Britishness. Vocalist Kate Jackson comes off like the female version of Pulp’s Jarvis Cocker on this track, most especially in the spoken word breakdown that drags the tune through a lyrical territory not far removed from the bleak monologues of Different Class and This Is Hardcore. It’s not all as derivative as I’m making it out to be, though there is no question that the band is working within an established tradition. What sets their best material apart from lamer Britpop revivalists is the sheer will and tunefulness of the band, and Jackson’s considerable charisma and lyrical gifts, which is actually on par with the best stars of the subgenre’s mid-90s heyday. (Click here to pre-order it from HMV UK.)

Omnikrom “Achète-Moi” – Electro hip hop from Montreal, lyrically impenetrable to me aside from the chorus (en anglais: “buy me, buy me, buy me”), but energetic and forceful enough for that to be a non-issue. They seem to be equally influenced by Missy Elliott and Dizzee Rascal, rhyming in speedy, melodic verses that indicate a playfulness that is offset by the heaviness of the beats and aggressive yet colorful keyboard tones. (Click here to buy it from Omnikrom.)

Maxi Geil & Playcolt @ Tonic 10/14/2006
Crying / Teenage XXXtreme / Strange Sensation / Sunday Morning / That’s How The Story Goes / Your Best Won’t Be Enough / You Can’t Kill Us Man, We’re Already Dead / Artist’s Lament / The Love I Lose / Making Love in the Sunshine

Maxi Geil & Playcolt “You Can’t Kill Us Man, We’re Already Dead” – In spite of some technical difficulties and a few awkward false starts, Maxi Geil & Playcolt still managed to put on a strong show this weekend at Tonic. It’s best that they got the bad luck out of their way now, since they are about to go off and play some key British dates in November to kick off the release of their second pass at a debut album. Though A Message To My Audience and the new Strange Sensation share a number of songs (including, obviously, the latter’s title track), there’s a difference in tone and lyrical emphasis. Whereas Message kept its mind set on the relationship of an artist with his audience and the complex and often innoble motivations that people have for creating art, Strange Sensation steps outside of that context for songs about sex and politics that do not rely on the Maxi Geil character.

Every previously released song on the album (which includes all of the songs listed above, plus “Please Remember Me” and a cover of Henry Purcell’s “Cold Genius”) is re-recorded, and in most cases it’s for the better. “That’s How The Story Goes” is the most obviously improved, and the key ballads from Message have more of an epic sweep. I’m not sure how I feel about them excising the first minute of “Please Remember Me,” though — I’ve known that song for over two years now and listening to this version is a bit like running into an old friend who has just had some radical plastic surgery.

Of the new songs, “You Can’t Kill Us Man, We’re Already Dead” is the most immediate and accessable, and most indicative of the change in lyrical tone on the more recent compositions. There would be no easy way to do this song about the slow death of leftism in American political culture within the strict confines of the debased and self-obsessed Maxi persona, though it works very well within the character of the band with its particular blend of ironic humor and earnest bombast. (Click here for my 2004 interview with Guy Richards Smit aka Maxi Geil, and here for the Maxi Geil & Playcolt website.)

Elsewhere: There’s a fantastic, sharp post about the Killers guy dissing Green Day over here on the great and underrated No Rock N’ Roll Fun.

White Magic “Childhood Song” – A few summers ago, I somehow ended up seeing White Magic open up for three different bands over the course of a few weeks, and it wasn’t exactly the most fun thing ever. The problem wasn’t entirely to do with their music — the songs were generally fine, but repetitive both in terms of structure and the way their setlist was paced. Similar songs would be grouped in clusters based on instrumentation, and it reinforced the impression that they were doing the same thing over and over again. The more compelling issue was the alarmingly negative charisma of vocalist and songwriter Mira Billotte, who seemed so cold, removed, and joyless on stage that it made me wonder if she was actually clinically depressed, especially since she never seemed so absent and apparently miserable any of the times when I saw her play with her previous band.

I’m not sure if anything has changed for Billotte or the band in the time since, but the quality of their new record is a dramatic step foward, mainly because they’ve found ways to keep their songs from flattening out or sinking too deep into dourness. “Childhood Song” wraps their obvious love of British folk around a stately piano and a vocal melody that descends and ascends like a person unsure of which direction to take on a spiral staircase, which serves as a nice echo of the lyric’s ambivalent sentiment in regard to the innocence of youth, and the positive nature of growth and change. (Click here to pre-order it from Ear Rational.)

Pablo “This Will Be Our Year” – Pablo singer Paul Schalda’s voice is close enough to that of the Zombies’ Colin Blunstone that you could probably convince gullible/casual fans that this is actually an alternate recording by the original players. This version lacks the oh-so-60s touches of the Zombies’ studio arrangement, and gains quite a bit for that, limiting the song to only the essential lead vocal and piano parts and bringing out a greater warmth and intimacy. The latter is key, since my favored interpretation of the song is that it’s not actually sung to the person being addressed so much as it is the singer psyching himself up on his own, and practicing in his head something that he’d never get quite right if he expressed it directly to this lovely person who has filled him with such overwhelming optimism. (Click here to buy it from 230 Records.)

Elsewhere: My new Hit Refresh column is up on the ASAP site, and it features mp3s from Lyrics Born, Chavez, and an especially sublime cut from Bossanova. Believe me, you really don’t want to miss that last one.

Basement Jaxx @ Webster Hall 10/11/2006
Good Luck / Romeo / Oh My Gosh / Right Here’s The Spot / Take Me Back To Your House / Do Your Thing / Hey U / Lights Go Down / Everybody / Jump ‘N’ Shout / Red Alert / Where’s Your Head At?!? // Bingo Bango

Basement Jaxx “Take Me Back To Your House” (Live in Cologne, youtube link) – One thing that you need to know about Basement Jaxx is that when they play live, they cut no corners, and they PERFORM. Felix Buxton and Simon Ratcliffe are is flanked by a highly proficient band, and fronted by an array of charismatic and flamboyantly outfitted vocalists. Together they put on quite a spectacle, up to the point of bringing out dancers in gorilla suits for the climactic, ecstatic “Where’s Your Head At.” So basically, just as they make virtually everyone seem like flacid, lethargic chumps in the studio, they do the same thing live. The downside is that they really don’t play out very often, and this was one of only two North American shows on their itinerary for this year. (It wouldn’t be a bad idea to start up a petition for a larger US/Canadian tour for 2007, frankly.)

Basement Jaxx “Everybody” – Though I was a bit disappointed by it at first, Crazy Itch Radio has grown on me considerably. Though it has a few mis-steps in its running order, overall it is a very smart detour into relative subtlety following the jackhammer pop of their previous records, most especially its highly potent immediate predecessor Kish Kash. Aside from “Everybody,” which owes more to the tone of Remedy than anything else that they’ve done since 2001 and sounds like a guided tour of a (C&C?) music factory, the best cuts on the record tend to be the most intimate, whether it’s the chilled soul of “Keep Keep On” or the melancholy country-disco pop of “Take Me Back To Your House,” which modifies the lyrical gist of The Smiths’ “There Is A Light That Never Goes Out” for modern dance clubs. (Click here to buy it from Amazon.)

Jarvis Cocker “Black Magic” – “Black Magic,” or the song in which Jarvis Cocker dances with a familiar chord progression that sounds like a bolt from the heavens. At first the dance is tentative and hesitant with him singing behind its curve, but there’s a (err…) magical moment at the start of the second chorus when he anticipates the riff and takes the lead, spinning the song on its axis. It’s a song about faith in some ill-defined thing in the place of religion, and the glory of once-in-a-lifetime epiphanies that transform a person from the inside out, be it true love, a crucial change of perspective, or a revelation of something brilliant within or without one self. (Click here for some Jarvspace.)

Loto “Golden Boys” – You don’t need the chorus “this boy is coming home” to get the impression that this is a song about a journey, though not perhaps in the literal sense. It’s about experience, maturity, the cultivation of confidence and poise – the singer is on his way to becoming a golden man, obviously. The song is full of heart and optimism, moving with the blurred grace of an early Strokes tune, but with the widescreen drama of mid-80s U2 and the pop spirit of British disco. (Click here for Loto’s official site.)

Dorit Chrysler “Chlorophyll” – The vocal melody glides effortlessly between a lullaby and a muted anthem, but the emphasis is somehow placed on the electronic percussion. It’s a familiar electronic snare hit that we’ve heard a hundred times before, but it’s a vague and displaced memory. It’s musical deja-vu – it becomes hard to remember exactly which songs we’ve heard which feature exactly the same sound, but we know its implications and our Pavlovian response. Dorit Chrysler uses this to her advantage, employing the beat to create an illusion of grandness and bombast without overshadowing or contradicting the more delicate aspects of her song. (Click here to buy it via Monika.)

The Walkmen “Don’t Forget Me” – It’s hard to imagine a song better suited for the Walkmen than Harry Nilsson’s “Don’t Forget Me,” since it allows Walter Martin to base an entire song around his trademark rickety old upright piano, and Hamilton Leithauser gets to play to his strengths as the voice of a nostalgic, down-and-out scoundral. The performance doesn’t stray far from the original recording from Pussy Cats, but it’s more ragged and lacks the additional sentiment of a syrupy string arrangement, leaving Leithauser to sound lonelier and perhaps a little less sympathetic. Nilsson had an incredible gift for anchoring potent and relatable emotions in highly specific lyrics, and “Don’t Forget Me” is a perfect example, a song written from the perspective of a despondent drunk who just can’t get over his ex-wife that cuts deep into the listener as he pleads for the validation of being present in her memories, regardless of whether they are good or bad. (Click here to buy it from Insound.)

Tanya Donelly “New England” – I admit that I lost track of Donelly’s career in recent years, but it was a small surprise for me to discover that she’s gone a bit alt-country, though I guess that’s the case for a hell of a lot of ex-indie songwriters of her generation. It’s a fairly logical progression for her, and definitely an intelligent application of her voice, which has grown fuller and more commanding over the years. “New England” kicks off her new album, and eases the listener into the country sound gently, starting off as more of a rocking ballad before bringing in the more overt c&w moves later in the song. Unsurprisingly, it’s my favorite, but not as much because I don’t have as much use for the quieter songs but more for how its melody flatters Donelly’s voice, and the way she comes together with the chords on the verses and refrain to create this portentous feeling that has more to do with her best songs with Belly and the Throwing Muses than any typical country signifier. (Click here to buy it from Tanya Donelly’s official site.)

The Russian Futurists @ Club Lambi, Montreal 10/6/2006
2 Dots On A Map / Let’s Get Ready To Crumble / Paul Simon / Our Pen’s Out Of Ink / Precious Metals / It’s Not Really Cold When It Snows / Your Big Brown Eyes and My Big Broke Heart / Keep Your Pecker In Your Pants / Still Life / Mind’s Dying Verse (You And The Wine)

The Russian Futurists “2 Dots On A Map” – The Russian Futurists perform live as a quartet of keyboard players with drum machines, and as can be expected, the sound is a bit thin and lacking in spontaneous energy. Lucky for them, their songs and the leader Matt Hart’s sheer likeability on stage is enough to overcome (or at least overshadow) most of their problems as a performance group. The setlist was well considered, drawing from all three of their albums and featuring the debut of a new number apparently titled “Keep Your Pecker In Your Pants” (it’s hard to tell how serious Hart was being, especially since he introduced the following song as an improvised jam.) The gentle muted yearning of “2 Dots On A Map” made for a curious opener, but it’s the song that has stuck with me in the past two days, and it’s probably going to end up being tied in my memory to this Montreal trip for the rest of my life. (Click here to buy it from Insound.)

Cadence Weapon “Sharks (Russian Futurists remix)” – In the context of the Upper Class showcase, The Russian Futurists were less of a headliner and more of a come-down act following Cadence Weapon, who came strong with another high energy set blending punk performance style with heavy electronic beats and aggressive rapping. A third of the set came from his album Breaking Kayfabe (“Sharks,” “Oliver Square,” “Black Hand”), but the rest were impressive new songs, most of which I saw him play in Texas at SXSW in March. As opposed to that modestly attended show (slack should be cut — he was on immediately after Ghostface in an adjacent venue and playing simultaneous with about a billion other bills, SXSW is totally unforgiving), Club Lambi was full of eager fans and curious newcomers who gave Canada’s best hip hop artist (not faint praise, I promise) the response that he deserved. (Click here for the official Cadence Weapon site.)

Professor Murder “Free Stress Test” – There’s nothing wrong with Professor Murder’s debut EP, but it can’t help but sound a bit flat in comparison to their sweaty, superkinetic live set. Nearly every song finds the band with a new configuration of instruments, but the focus is simple and direct – rhythms and hooks, rhythm and hooks, rhythm and hooks. With some luck their next recording will capture a bit more of their personality and won’t just make them sound like yet more members of the Liquid Liquid fan club, and hopefully they will have the presence of mind to integrate the frontman’s recurring cry “We’re Professor Murder!!!” into the record as well. (Click here to buy it from Insound.)

Sloan @ Theatre National, Montreal 10/5/2006
Flying High Again / Who Taught You To Live Like That? / Ill Placed Trust / The Lines You Amend / All Used Up / Golden Eyes / Love Is All Around / Living With The Masses / HFXNSHC / Blackout / The Good In Everyone / C’mon C’mon / I Understand / Don’t You Believe A Word / Money City Maniacs / I Can’t Sleep / I Know You / Something’s Wrong / I’ve Gotta Try / People of the Sky / Everything You’ve Done Wrong / Before The End of the Race / Losing California // I Was Wrong / If It Feels Good Do It

Sloan “I’ve Gotta Try” – Since virtually all of the live music shows that I’ve seen in my life have been in and around New York City, it’s rare that I ever have experiences as I did last night, ie, being in an audience who are going totally batshit for huge hits that I only barely know. The songs in the Sloan catalog that I enjoy the most are almost entirely from their excellent new record Never Hear The End Of It, and that album is pretty much the entire reason why I skipped over the more eclectic acts also playing the Pop Montreal festival last night in their favor. After all, even if they eventually tour in the US, the energy just wouldn’t be the same as being up in the front with a bunch of hardcore fans who are intent on singing along to every word, shouting declarations of love to the greying band members, and doing this weird “Sloooooooooooooooo-aaaan” chant whenever there is a lull in the set.

I have seen Sloan once before as an opening act for somebody I can’t remember four or five years ago, and I wasn’t terribly impressed either way, but I do recall there being a large number of Japanese girls flipping out for them and leaving en masse as soon as they ended. The band are unassuming and unpretentious, and are focused on creating a clever kind of power pop that can be easy to ignore, but also very easy to love. It’s not shocking that they’ve got the fans that they do, but I do find it strange that they aren’t more psyched about the new songs given that they mostly are a lot catchier and naunced than the older material. A good number of the new tunes that I enjoy the most were not played, mainly the Squeeze dead ringers “Everybody Wants You” and “Someone I Can Be True With.” On the upside, my absolute favorite “I’ve Gotta Try” was thrown in late in the set, though it didn’t seem to catch on with the crowd as well as it should have with its grand hooks and its anthemic chorus. (Click here to buy it from Maple Music.)

Klanguage “Never Over” – Is this song the beginning of the excitement, what you play on the way to the excitement, or the sum total of the excitement? Most likely the latter, because of course the journey is the most crucial portion of any adventure. The music is so crisp and perfect, but also sort of loose and seemingly simplistic, like the best cartoon art. The instrumental tones imply a bright palette of colors in fluid motion, a fully realized and highly stylized world inhabited by the charismatic and subtly sexy voice of the girlish singer. (Click here for the Klanguage MySpace page.)

Elsewhere: My new Hit Refresh column with mp3s from Edu K, Irving and the Rogers Sisters is up on the ASAP site.

Also: If you’re in Montreal for the Future of Music Policy Summit and/or the Pop Montreal festival, please do come and see this panel today moderated by Andrew Rose and featuring myself, Dan Beirne from Said The Gramophone, Carl Wilson of Zoilus, Marie-Chantale Turgeon, and the Eye Weekly‘s Helen Spitzer.

Massive Attack @ Roseland Ballroom 10/3/2006
False Flags / Risingson / Black Milk / The Man Next Door / Karmacoma / Butterfly Caught / Hymn of the Big Wheel / Mezzanine / Teardrop / Angel / Future Proof / Safe From Harm // Inertia Creeps / Unfinished Sympathy / Group Four

Massive Attack “Safe From Harm” – Massive Attack’s music is basically a utilitarian thing. They are exceptionally gifted at writing dark, cinematic mood music and they don’t muck about, providing a consistent vibe throughout both individual tracks and entire albums. They seem to have deliberately created a body of work that makes the most sense when played in the background, and so it’s actually sort of strange that they tour at all, given what is normally required to be a compelling live act. After all, what comes off as atmosphere on home speakers often translates as a shapeless dirge in a concert hall.

The group performs as revue, shuffling vocalists (Horace Andy, Elizabeth Fraser, Deborah Miller, etc) on and off stage when they are required, and largely abdicated the visual component of the concert to the lighting while the performers stood in the shadows. As is common of producer-driven UK music, the band was comprised of sharp session players who recreated the sound of the original recordings with cold precision, and looked a little like Blue Men whenever they were bathed in indigo light.

The audience never really seemed to know what to do with the music as it was being performed, and frankly I’m at a bit of a loss for suggestions. The songs from the Mezzanine album in particular have been licensed to death, and the general sound of their catalog has been so thoroughly colonized by film and advertising that it’s hard to listen to many of the songs without those associations lingering in your mind. In addition to that, Mezzanine is sort of notorious for being a stock answer to the “what music puts you in the mood” question in internet personal ads, but there appeared to be a radical disconnect between the practical usage of those songs in urban bedrooms and the not particularly sexual (or even physical) response of the audience at Roseland. It was especially strange when the group performed their biggest American hit “Teardrop” to a room of people who clearly wanted to show some sort of appreciation, but couldn’t figure out an appropriate expression and fell silent after the first minute and a half of random shouts, awkward clapping, and aborted attempts at singing along. Things worked out much better when they came closer to the dynamics of a rock band on “Angel” and “Safe From Harm,” both of which came out sounding like the live version of U2’s “Bullet The Blue Sky” slowed down and twisted into a creepy variation on Quiet Storm slow jams.

“Safe From Harm” was the clear highlight of the show, and made for a sharp contrast with the rest of the main set with Deborah Miller’s warm, emphatic vocals and an extended instrumental section that demanded more attention than the other dramatic musical gestures of the evening. Miller returned in the encore for “Unfinished Sympathy,” which was also quite good and provided a greater sense of movement than the rest of the low BPM selections from the night. (Click here to buy it from Amazon.)

Also: My friends in Au Revoir Simone will be touring in Europe through the end of the year, but are in search of places to stay while they tour the UK. If you can offer them accomodations — it’s just the three girls, all of whom are very sweet and well-behaved — they will happily get you into their shows for free (they are playing on bills with We Are Scientists) and show you quite a bit of gratitude. The only catch is that they cannot stay anywhere with cats. They need help with the following dates:

Oct 20 Norwich UEA
Oct 21 Sheffield Octagon
Oct 22 Manchester Apollo
Oct 23 Leeds University
Oct 24 Newcastle Academy
Oct 25 Aberdeen Music Hall
Oct 26 Glasgow Academy
Oct 28 Belfast Mandela Hall
Oct 29 Galway Roisin Dub
Oct 30 Dublin Ambassador
Nov 1 Cardiff University
Nov 2 Reading Hexagon
Nov 3 Birmingham Academy
Nov 4 Nottingham Rock City
Nov 5 Bristol Academy
Nov 6 Exeter University
Nov 7 Southampton Guildhall

If you can help them, please email: info @ aurevoirsimone.com

They will also be playing a show at the Mercury Lounge in New York City on Sunday night, but obviously won’t need a hand with that since it’s a hometown gig.

Pipas “Riff Raff” – I hear this, and all I can imagine is a shy, generally reserved girl engaging in some kind of low-level late night mischief and getting a little overexcited and having her mind run this rambling interior monologue about how what she is doing barely feels like her life at all and how alive she suddenly feels and how she’s going to make a habit of this fresh new fun, but then it passes rather quickly, her pulse slows back to its normal pace, and it’s back to normal for another few months of working at the library or whatever. (Click here to buy it from Long Lost Cousin.)

Chamellows “Summerfun” – Finnish lo-fi dating back about ten years, and um, you can kinda tell. It’s so casual and tossed off that it’s hard to imagine that it was created with the public in mind. There’s a pop tune at the core of this goofy little mess, but it requires more than a little patience to get through it without wanting to hit the male vocalist with a rake every time he derails the girl’s nice little vocal hook. I wonder if they even remember making this, or if the guy just recently found the tape and had to remind her that it ever happened.

Chamellows Guy: Hey, remember all those tapes we did back in the mid-90s?

Chamellows Girl: What? Not really.

Chamellows Guy: The limited edition 7″ and those DIY cassettes. We made about 100 of them.

Chamellows Girl, examining a cassette: This one says March 1996. Wasn’t that around the time that I beat you with that rake in your father’s garage?

Chamellows Guy: I do not remember that at all.

(Click here to buy it from Fonal.)

Yo La Tengo @ Landmark Loews Theatre, Jersey City 9/29/06
Sugarcube / Pass The Hatchet, I Think I’m Goodkind / Flying Lessons (Hot Chicken #1) / The Weakest Part / Sometimes I Don’t Get You / Winter A-Go-Go / Mr. Tough / Beanbag Chair / I Feel Like Going Home / Stockholm Syndrome / I Should’ve Known Better / Watch Out For Me Ronnie / Tom Courtenay /The Story of Yo La Tango / I Heard You Looking // Oklahoma, USA (Kinks cover sung by Ira)/ Lewis / Rocks Off (Rolling Stones cover sung by James) /// Cast A Shadow (Beat Happening cover sung by Georgia) / Did I Tell You

Yo La Tengo “The Story of Yo La Tango” – I’ve seen Yo La Tengo several times before, and I’ve found them to be a frustratingly hit or miss live act. This show most definitely fell into the hit category, and was not only the best show that I’ve seen them play by a considerable margin, but also one of the best live shows I’ve seen recently, full stop.

A lot of this had to do with the venue. The Landmark Loews Theatre in Jersey City is easily one of the most spectacular concert halls in the NYC area. It’s an old school movie palace with an interior that resembles an ornate cathedral and features a pristine sound system and remarkable acoustics that presented the music with a clarity that flattered the band whether they performing quieter material arranged for the grand piano, or kicking out extended, heavily distorted jams. No hyperbole, NYC people — if a band that you like books a show at the Landmark Loews, get over any silly fear of transferring to the PATH train and going to New Jersey that you may have and buy a ticket, because they are going to sound amazing. Seriously, it’s 30 minutes from Manhattan, and I know that all of you have gone further out of your way just to get to some random part of Brooklyn at some point.

After a lengthy opening sequence of loud guitar songs, the band settled into a mini-set of piano-based selections mostly taken from the new album. Though “Beanbag Chair”, “Sometimes I Don’t Get You,” and “Mr. Tough” were played with close approximations of their studio arrangements, the remaining piano numbers were considerably altered with great results. “Winter A-Go-Go” sounded slightly more upbeat, “I Feel Like Going Home” benefitted greatly from ditching the strings that sound so superfluous and predictable to my ears on the record, and the piano-and-bass reading of the encore “Did I Tell You” was gorgeous and hopelessly outclassed the country arrangement from New Wave Hot Dogs.

The concert’s peak began with a confident, by-the-book performance of their classic “Tom Courtenay” before shifting into two extended neo-psychedelic drone rockers that showcased the trio’s musical communication and Ira Kaplan’s ability to imply an enormous ocean of sound with only one guitar. It’s always fascinating to watch Kaplan as he slips into noise mode, mainly because he has such a unique physicality to his playing. He’s very animated and theatrical, but he never goes for typical rock guitar moves, instead dramatizing an altercation between himself and his instrument that begins with some passive-aggressive slaps and shoving before escalating into wrestling, throwing, and strangulation. He’s a smallish, nebbishy guy, and so he somehow seems like an underdog even when he’s beating the thing into submission throughout the sustained climax of “The Story of Yo La Tango.” When he put his guitar down after the song, it actually seemed like some kind of victory. (Click here to buy it from Matador.)

Elsewhere: Scott has a lot of pictures from the show and a video of the band performing “Rocks Off” over on Stereogum.

Busdriver “Kill Your Employer” – Busdriver raps as if he is imagining his voice as a lead melodic line rather than a parallel rhythm, and the zippy zig zag of his verses lends itself to cartoonish changes in his timbre and absurd lyrical density, as though his primary artistic influence was the super fast enunciation of fine print in radio advertisements. His approach is at home in this busy quasi-electro arrangement, drawing him closer to the likes of the Dungeon Family than what would normally be expected of this sort of aggressively nerdy and political hip hop. The catchy (but slightly off-kilter) chorus certainly doesn’t hurt, though I kinda wish that the title was spelled “Cill Your Employer.” (Click here to buy it from Underground Hip Hop)

The Victorian English Gentlemen’s Club “Dead Anyway” – Playfully morbid, cheerfully bleak, gallows rock. McLusky with ladies, sludge with jaunt, chords like grinding metal and broken gears. Soft to loud for drama and dynamics, not out of habit. The highs feel like standing on the edge of a tall building, the lows are like the hollow feeling in the gut that goes along with imagining hitting the ground from such a great height. (Click here to buy it from Amazon UK.)

Elsewhere: My new Hit Refresh column is up on the ASAP site and features mp3s from Mixel Pixel, Brush, and In Flagranti.

Also Elsewhere: My review of Jesus Camp is up on The Movie Binge.

Beck “Strange Apparition” – It’s hard for me to tell whether Beck is intentionally exploring the middle ground of his stylistic range after playing up his extremes on Midnite Vultures (his masterwork) and Sea Change (his nadir), or if he’s simply settled into writing “Beck songs” without any masterplan. He could be playing it safe, or he might just lack the feeling to fully commit to a joyous, hilarious critique of sexuality in the context of late capitalism or an album of nonstop sadsackery given the relentlessly charmed nature of his life over the past ten years or so. His new LP The Information leans heavily on rapped verses, but lingers in a haze of emotional neutrality that can be quite appealing when the tunes are strong and it suits the subtext (this is most especially true of “Think I’m In Love”), but also emphasizes the weaknesses of the lesser tracks on an album that is at least four songs too long. The latter category lend themselves well to a parlor game you can play with casual fans — Mediocre Beck Song or Exceptional Eels Tune?

The muted tone of the album works in the favor of “Strange Apparition,” a Stones-ish rambler with an appealing, tumbling piano progression and lyrics about a man with a comfortable life and a decaying spirit. It’s difficult to tell where Beck is coming from on this song — Is he judging the guy? Relating to him? Pitying him? — but it’s one of the best tunes that he’s written since the turn of the decade, and also one of the best recorded, at least in terms of the engineering and mixing of the piano and percussion tracks. (Click here to buy it from Insound.)

The Vandelles “Lovely Weather” – I was thoroughly zoned out when I saw the Vandelles play a Beg Yr Pardon show at the Delancey on Tuesday night, but that may have been the ideal state of mind for their extremely loud but exceptionally tuneful set of arty nihilistic surf rock. They played without any stage lighting; illuminated only by diagonally projected loops of surf films and computerized psychedelic swirls of color that lent their performance both a touch of ironic humor and a bit of menace. Their demeanor fell along the same fine line, alternating between bouts of giggling and joking banter from the girls in the rhythm section, and the unforced intensity of the guitarists, one of whom often had a vaguely unsettling expression of remoteness on his face as he murmured his vocals into his microphone. (Click here for the Vandelles’ MySpace page.)