MFNW - First Announcement

Godspeed You! Black Emperor will be playing two shows at the Roseland Theater in Portland, Oregon on September 6 and 7th as part of MusicfestNW 2013! 

Tickets go on sale May 31st.

Born Ruffians and Moon King at The Earl, Atlanta, April 24, 2013

Last night's sky featured one of the most gorgeous full moons I can recall seeing in a while, and while I thought that I had already learned everything I needed to know about "Moon" bands back in Rocktober (Moon Duo, Soft Moon, Poor Moon, etc.), last evening taught me that I didn't know nearly as much as I had thought.  Not only did I discover what may be the best "Moon" band of all, but I also learned that a band I would have classified as "obscure" are in fact wildly popular, at least among an obscure audience.  I'll explain shortly.

But first, Atlanta's Christ, Lord kicked off the evening performing under the name Christ Lord Ochostra (I think that's how they spelled it), which means that the usual sextet is expanded to include members of Hello Ocho to make the band a nonet (I think that's the term for a nine-piece band).  Setting up, it looked like they were in a contest to get more people onto the stage than were in the audience.

Not that Christ, Lord doesn't have its own portable fan base to fill a club.  As usual when I've seen them, there was a crowd of young women in attendance, dancing to the Balkan-influenced gypsy-folk pop songs.  The Hello Ocho boys even stepped off stage for a few bars of one song to dance with a few of them, giving the young ladies a twirl or two before rejoining the band on stage.

These guys really are quite good and there's a lot to be said for them, and a lot more would probably be said if they were based in Brooklyn or Portland or Austin.  But here in the ATL, they remain one of our little secrets: the band that's even more Balkan than Gulag Orkestar-era Beirut, and the sole remaining bearers of the swing-dance movement of the 90s.

The evening was stolen, though, by Toronto's Moon King, currently touring with Born Ruffians.  Although they've apparently played The Earl many times before, they were the one band on the lineup about whom I didn't know anything, but after last night, I'm a big fan - this is how you do it, folks.

The band is led by Daniel Benjamin and Maddy Wilde, along with a drummer and a keyboardist/sampler.  Daniel has a surprisingly sweet, pop  voice - sounding almost like a male Grimes at times - but is still capable of unleashing a great post-punk howl.  On the fist song alone, he roamed the stage, stood on the bass drum, threw down the mic stand, and fell backwards while on his knees - and he was just warming up.  Maddy, meanwhile, egged him on with her guitar and supporting vocals.

There was something about the primal energy of their music that made me feel so very alive.  It was a great set by an exciting band.  I hope to see them again soon.

The headliners, fellow Torontonians Born Ruffians, kept up the level of energy.

Since I'm old and out of touch with much of pop culture, I can never tell what bands are popular or what audience is attracted to any particular band.  I knew Born Ruffians from one song and one song only, Sole Brother, which they didn't even play last night and I didn't see listed on any of the albums at their merch table (I did hear one person call a request for the song during their set, though, so I knew I wasn't thinking of some other band).  In any event, during all of their songs, they sounded like the band that performed Sole Brother, so there's that but what I hadn't expected was the level of audience enthusiasm - The Earl was only about half full, but those in attendance were singing along to almost every song - including those introduced as "new ones."

Who were these people, and where did they hear these songs? During the stage banter, it was revealed that some people had driven from over three hours away to attend this show.  There's obviously whole channels and outlets of music of which I'm unaware, and in retrospect, the surprising thing may be that Sole Brother managed to make it through whatever filters I've constructed around myself.  In any event, the band was good - energetic party music with funky beats, scruffy vocals, and earnest playing.  The audience clearly loved them, dancing, pumping their fists, and singing along throughout the set.  Although they sound very different, I was reminded of the energy and party atmosphere present at a Givers concert.

After about the midway point of their set, several of their songs starting sounding vaguely familiar to me, but I honestly couldn't tell if I'd heard them before on the radio or t.v. (American Express reportedly used a song  of theirs for a commercial), or if I was just channeling into their groove.

The call for an encore was thunderous, and the band obliged the enraptured crowd with two more songs before calling it a night.

On a night with such a glorious full moon, it seems fitting that Moon King stole the show, but Born Ruffians taught me not to be complacent - there's always more music out there to be discovered.  

Acid Mothers Temple and Tjutjuna at The Drunken Unicorn, Atlanta

Bring earplugs.  

Last night, Japan's Acid Mothers Temple performed at Atlanta's Drunken Unicorn, and man, were they loud.  My ears are still ringing.

Denver's Tjutjuna (the "t's" are silent) opened.

I forgot to bring my camera, so all that I have to show are my crappy cell-phone pics.  

Tjutjuna are an experimental, instrumental psych-rock band.  They made good use of a theremin, and it's not too many quartets that you see that have two drummers - fully half the band were drummers.  Although the twin drums provided a propulsive rhythm, the first 30 minutes of their set was marred by the mix which drowned the guitar behind the rhythm section.  It wasn't until guitarist Brian Marcus finally plugged his guitar into another amp that it could be heard over the house PA system, which improved things considerably.  Here's a sample from their first album, Fire Talk.

As noted above, headliners Acid Mothers Temple were loud.  In all, they played a full, 90-minute set and although they didn't play an encore, I don't think anybody left feeling anything less than satisfied.

They sound as though they're influenced by You-era Gong and early psychedelic pioneers Hawkind (am I the sole surviving Hawkwind fan?),  which aren't bad influences at all.  Their typical approach to songs involves repetition and improvisation, with a riff repeated over and over again, each time with added intensity, until it gets so heavy that it would threaten to collapse under its own weight, and then repeated some more until it finally does collapse, and then repeated yet still more until it rises from its own ashes and is carried off into the stratosphere by the band.  To give you a better idea of what I'm talking about, here's the complete April 19 Acid Mothers Temple concert at the Mercury Lounge in New York, as recorded by NYC Taper:

Meanwhile, What's Going On With Animal Collective?

Back in the summer of 2011, when we saw Animal Collective in suburban Alpharetta, Georgia, they previewed several songs from their then-forthcoming album Centipede Hz, including the version of Monkey Riches above. It was the first time most of us ever heard any of this music.

Centipede Hz has been out for a year now, and Animal Collective are now releasing an EP of remixes of Monkey Riches, including this version by Gang Gang Dance, which sounds more Gang Gang Dance than Animal Collective, but is still terrific:

RIP Richie Havens

Famed folk singer Richie Havens, famous for his intense, rhythmic guitar style and soulful covers of pop and folk songs, died Monday of a sudden heart attack. He was 72.

Havens is probably best know as the unlikely opening act at the 1969 Woodstock music festival.  He was only 28 years old when he performed at Woodstock, yet somehow he seemed so much older to me back then.

Christopher Owens Coming to The Earl

Hell, yeah!  Word Productions has announced that America's greatest living songwriter, Christopher Owens, will be playing at The Earl on Wednesday, June 19, 2013.

Get your tickets now before this one sells out.  Also, and this is very cool, you can download a free, all-acoustic version of his album Lysandre at Christopher Owens' website.

As if you needed any more motivation, here's a little song you might remember from Owen's previous band, Girls:

Meanwhile, I just learned that Josh Rouse, America's greatest living songwriter, will be live-streaming his show in Nashville tonight (4-21-13) over here at 9:00 pm CST (click the "Listen Live" button and it will open a player for you).  The stream is courtesy of Nashville station Lightning 100 as a part of their Nashville Sunday Night series.

Josh Rouse at Terminal West, Atlanta - April 19, 2013

Friday night, Terminal West, Atlanta - Josh Rouse performing with his band.  But before that, Nashville's Matthew Perryman Jones opened.

I wasn't familiar with his music before last night, but he has a fine voice and good songwriting skills.  He played a set of mostly originals, closing with a Tom Waits cover.

But like the rest of the audience, I was there to see Josh Rouse.  We last saw Rouse at Variety Playhouse in 2010, when he was touring in support of his El Tourista album (I still have the t-shirt).  That record marked his move to Spain, and was followed by a couple other latin-bossa-nova-tinged releases, but now he's back, touring again in support of a new album, this time The Happiness Waltz.

Rouse's back-catalog of songs hold a lot of meaning to his fans, as they do to me, too.  I "got on board" back in 2003, when he released 1972, a concept-album of sorts of songs written in the style that he imagined musicians played in the year of his birth.  It had a great Philly soul vibe to it, and listening today brings back two distinct memories: cuddling with my girlfriend as the record played in the background, and consoling myself with the songs after she and I broke up.  With that kind of emotional connection, it was easy to become a fan.

Rouse played several songs from his new album, most notably the single, Julie (Come Out of the Rain), but also played a lot of songs from his various other albums, including Lemon Tree and I Will Live On Islands (the world's cheeriest prison song) from El Tourista, 1972 and Comeback from 1972, Hollywood Bass Player from Country Mouse City House (which I bought a vinyl copy of last night at the merch table), Dressed Up Like Nebraska from the album of the same name, and Quiet Town from Subtítulo.

The audience was small (the show did not seem to be promoted very well) but enthusiastic, singing along on many songs.  On one number, Rose just played the opening chords on his guitar, stood back, and let the audience sing the first stanza before joining in himself at the chorus.  Everyone was having a great time, and I hadn't heard this much singing along since The Head and the Heart in Athens.

He  ended his four-song encore with an eminently danceable version of Love Vibration from 1972.

My only complaint, and it's a minor one, is that he didn't play his song Flight Attendant (he did at Variety Playhouse back in 2010), so I'll have to play it for myself.

Josh Rouse has embodied the indie singer-songwriter for a decade now, composing songs that reflect his residency in Nebraska, Nashville, and Valencia.  It's great to have someone of his talent and sensitivity in our sphere of music, and it would be great if he stuck around a while and let us hear him live more frequently than once every three or so years.

Update (4/22/13): I listened to the Nashville broadcast last night and think we in Atlanta were treated to the better show, although he did perform Flight Attendant in Nashville.