Tuesday, April 30, 2013

Pickwick




Pickwick, the greatest band you've never heard of, are playing this evening at The Earl.  They once described themselves as "a bluegrass band that heard a Sam Cooke record" and were never the same again.  Damien Jurado's a fan, and you should be too.  These guys are great.



The adorable Basia Bulat, who you would go to see on her own anyway, opens.







Monday, April 29, 2013

Vampire Weekend



So here's the Steve-Buscemi-directed Vampire Weekend webcast in its entirety.

Sunday, April 28, 2013

Vampire Weekend, and What Grimes Said


This evening's Vampire Weekend concert at NY's Roseland Ballroom is being broadcast live at 9:00 pm tonight at http://amexunstaged.com.  Added bonus points: the broadcast will be directed by Steve Buscemi.  

Personally, I'll be watching Game of Thrones at 9:00, but logging onto the website later in hopes of a re-broadcast.

But all of this is a set-up for what I really wanted to present: what Grimes said.  Here she is in another Buscemi video (which is how I found out about the Vampire Weekend webcast):


On her Tumblr site last week, Grimes wrote an essay that I think is worth reading (and worth re-printing):

I don’t want to have to compromise my morals in order to make a living
i dont want my words to be taken out of context  
i dont want to be infantilized because i refuse to be sexualized   
i dont want to be molested at shows or on the street by people who perceive me as an object that exists for their personal satisfaction  
i dont want to live in a world where im gonna have to start employing body guards because this kind of behavior is so commonplace and accepted and I’m pissed that when I express concern over my own safety it’s often ignored until people see firsthand what happens and then they apologize for not taking me seriously after the fact…  
I’m tired of men who aren’t professional or even accomplished musicians continually offering to ‘help me out’ (without being asked), as if i did this by accident and i’m gonna flounder without them.  or as if the fact that I’m a woman makes me incapable of using technology.  I have never seen this kind of thing happen to any of my male peers  
I’m tired of the weird insistence that i need a band or i need to work with outside producers (and I’m eternally grateful to the people who don’t do this) 
im tired of being considered vapid for liking pop music or caring about fashion as if these things inherently lack substance or as if the things i enjoy somehow make me a lesser person  
im tired of being congratulated for being thin because i can more easily fit into sample sizes from the runway  
im tired of people i love betraying me so they can get credit or money 
I’m sad that it’s uncool or offensive to talk about environmental or human rights issues 
I’m tired of creeps on message boards discussing whether or not they’d “fuck” me 
I’m tired of people harassing my dancers and treating them like they aren’t human beings 
I’m sad that my desire to be treated as an equal and as a human being is interpreted as hatred 
of men, rather than a request to be included and respected (I have four brothers and many male best friends and a dad and i promise i do not hate men at all, nor do i believe that all men are sexist or that all men behave in the ways described above)  
im tired of being referred to as ‘cute,’ as a ‘waif’ etc., even when the author, fan, friend, family member etc. is being positive  
(fyi)waif |wāf|
noun
a homeless and helpless person, esp. a neglected or abandoned child: she is foster-mother to various waifs and strays .
• an abandoned pet animal.
cute |kyo͞ot|
adjective
attractive in a pretty or endearing way: a cute kitten.
• informal sexually attractive.
I’m tired of people assuming that just because something happens regularly it’s ok
——————————————————
i have so much love for everyone who has been cool and amazing.  I have the best job in the world but I’m done with being passive about any kind of status quo that allows anyone to suffer or to be disrespected 
Grimes world tour is officially over, the visions album cycle is officially over, and I’m now taking the time to overhaul everything and make it better  
much love to every fan - stuff can be lame sometimes but its really cool to have this support <3  
7:28 pm  •  23 April 2013  •  16,116 notes

Friday, April 26, 2013

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.

Thursday, April 25, 2013

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.  

Wednesday, April 24, 2013

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: