Tuesday, August 13, 2013

Post-Om

Om at 529, 11-26-2013
Al Cisneros of the band Om has released some solo works.  You can stream Arc Procession below - I suggest you do this late at night for maximum effect.

Monday, August 12, 2013

Scheming


Thao at Smith's Olde Bar, March 18, 2013
It should be no secret to readers of this blog that I'm a fan of Thao Nguyen and her band, The Get Down Stay Down.  So you can imagine my satisfaction when I won tickets today to see her perform a private, KEXP radio set at the intimate Bumbershoot Music Lounge. 

The performance will be at noon on Saturday, August 31, and will in fact kick off the Bumbershoot festival for me.  And if that weren't enough of Thao, I'll get to see her perform again later that afternoon on the Fountain Lawn Stage (my favorite stage at Bumbershoot) for her main festival set.

Not to sound obsessive or anything, but I'll also be seeing the band the following Saturday (September 7) when they open for The Head and The Heart at the lovely Pioneer Courthouse Square ("Portland's Living Room") during MFNW.  And then again in November when the Thao/Head and The Heart tour comes to the Buckhead Theater. Four times in a little over two months, including three times in one week, including two times in one day.

In the interest of sharing, here they are playing a set that aired yesterday on WNYC.  I don't know when this was recorded, as they played Saturday at San Francisco's Outside Lands Festival.  

Sunday, August 11, 2013

Planning


Not to be too OCD/anal compulsive about it, but I've already got my full stage-by-stage, venue-by-venue schedule already worked out for both Bumbershoot and MFNW.  There were definitely some hard trade-offs to consider, as well as some frankly relative bare spots in the nine-day schedule, but I think I've successfully maximized my opportunities.

And then I get an e-mail form MFNW saying that there's still more options to consider.  To promote sale of their VIP wristbands (which I've purchased), they're putting on some VIP-only parties, including this:


THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 5TH

Hott Summer Nights @ Marmoset (2105 SE 7th)
When: 4pm – 9pm
Presented By: Marmoset, MusicfestNW & MailChimp

This will overlap with the shows I was planning to see that day at the lovely Pioneer Courthouse Square ("Portland's Living Room"), including Pacific Air, Youth Lagoon, and Young the Giant.  But I've already seen Youth Lagoon at the intimate Drunken Unicorn (liked him) and Young the Giant at Music Midtown (meh), and on top of that, yesterday I was able to stream the live performances by both of those bands at the Outside Lands festival in San Francisco.  Although I've already seen The Love Language, Radiation City, and Fruit Bats, the choice appears pretty obvious:  seven good bands plus some celebrity DJs for three bands, two of whom I've seen before, both live and on line.  And I'll still get out in time to catch Diana and Austra at the Star Theater later that night, and then a set by The Men across the street (more or less) at Dante's.

And then there's still the KEXP Bumbershoot Lounge performances to try to get into, as well as their free MFNW daytime sets at the Doug Fir.

Saturday, August 10, 2013

Roadkill Ghost Choir at The Earl, Friday, August 9


"Shoegaze Americana," I  heard someone say at The Earl last night in an attempt to describe Roadkill Ghost Choir's music.  Not a bad description at all, but before getting into that, Austin's The Eastern Sea opened.


The Eastern Sea is a wonderful indie-rock band, and one that I don't understand why aren't known better. Led by frontman Matthew Hines sweet singing voice and a revolving cast of band members featuring a full-time trumpeter.  Unlike as with many other bands, the trumpeter doesn't primarily play some other instrument and use his horn only for dramatic flourishes, but plays only the trumpet.



Their sound simultaneously reminds me of a few other bands, such as early Fanfarlo, while simultaneously sounding like no one else.  It was a great start to the evening, and I hope to catch The Eastern Sea again soon.

Next up was Athens-by-way-of-Atlanta-by-way-of Augusta musician T. Hardy Morris' new band.  Morris is best known as the guitarist for the band Dead Confederate and as a member of Diamond Rugs, but has recently released a fine new record, Audition Tapes, as "T. Hardy Morris & The Outfit."   


Audition Tapes has a more country sound that Dead Confederate, but as played last night, accompanied a pedal steel guitar and electric keyboard, with Morris on electric guitar, it sounded more like a dream-pop version of country music ("country-dream?") than anything you might hear in a hony tonk.  Toward the end of the set, Morris brought on the drummer and bassist from Roadkill Ghost Choir to flesh out the sound a little more.

The video below features an acoustic version of the band and a more countrified version of their sound than at The Earl last night.  It's part of a "Places in Peril" series of video Morris participated in shot at sites listed by the Georgia Trust for Historic Preservation, and any video featuring the inimitable Howard Finster is always worth posting.



Side note:  I bought one of Morris' "I Smell Hippies" t-shirts after the show, which included a download of Audition Tapes.

Which brings us to headliners Roadkill Ghost Choir.  I had heard DeLand, Florida's Roadkill as I arrived at the Shaky Knees festival last May, and even though I was standing in the pouring rain, I was still sufficiently impressed with their sound that I vowed then and there to hear them again.


They provided that opportunity last night.  Brothers Andrew (vocals, guitar), Maxx (drums) and Zach (bass) Shepard front the six-piece band, which also includes a lead guitarist, a pedal steel/banjo player, and a keyboardist/trumpet player. The trumpeter from The Eastern Sea joined Roadkill Ghost Choir on stage for a couple songs to create a two-trumpet horn section.  The pedal steel and banjo certainly contribute to the Americana portion of their sound, while the guitar, keyboards, and trumpet give it it's shoegaze kick.  Many of their songs feature long stretches of relative restraint before frontman Andrew Shepard explodes into a cathartic scream and propels the band into a fury.  They even covered a song by shoegaze pioneers Slowdive.   



In short, they sounded much as I had remembered them from Shaky Knees.  What I hadn't expected, though, was their apparent popularity - The Earl was quite full with enthusiastic fans last night.

Last night was the last of Roadkill's current tour along with The Eastern Sea, and although the tours for both bands will continue, they are now going their separate ways.  During both of their sets, however, both bands expressed their mutual respect and appreciation of each other, both calling each other best friends.  They even posted an Instagram picture of the two bands posing together behind The Earl before they got in their separate vans to go their separate ways.  

Us and @roadkillghosts on the last day of our dates together.  (at The Earl)

Tonight, Roadkill Ghost Choir plays The Blue Rooster in Sarasota, Florida, followed by a few more dates in their home state and south Georgia before embarking on a midwest tour that culminates at Austin City Limits. The Eastern Sea play tonight at The Exit/In in Nashville, followed by a tour of the eastern U.S. that includes dates in New York (Mercury Lounge), Washington, DC, Chapel Hill, NC, Chicago, and beyond.  They aren't presently listing any tour dates after Labor Day on their web site, but I can't imagine them not playing a date at their hometown Austin City Limits as well, where hopefully they can catch up and trade notes with their friends in Roadkill.

Friday, August 9, 2013

Monkey Riches


Animal Collective still produces some of the best videos.  Here's their latest, this time for Monkey Riches.

I'm looking forward to seeing Animal Collective in Portland on September 6.

Thursday, August 8, 2013

Dude, I Was There



The more time passes, the more fun it is to look back at this.  My socks and underwear have finally dried out, although I don't think it's stopped raining since then. In any event, here's a good recap video of the weekend's event.

Wednesday, August 7, 2013

I Don't Care


Last night, t.v. person Stephen Colbert got punked by Daft Punk (they didn't appear on his show due to some contractual problem with MTV), so instead he did an episode looking for the proverbial "Song of the Summer" of 2013, and wound up settling for Robin Thicke's Blurred Lines.  Not a bad pop song at all, but frankly it isn't the music you keep hearing wherever you go, that you can't seem to escape, that's serving as the unofficial soundtrack for the summer of 2013. It's not the earworm that you can't get out of your head no matter how hard you try.  That honor has to go to Icona Pop and their song I Don't Care.  I can't seem to escape that song.

It isn't my kind of music at all what with its EDM beats and repetitious, girl-pop lyrics, but I have to admit that any time I hear it, my first reaction is always to play it again.  Every time.  I bet you've already watched the video above twice, didn't you?

I'll be seeing Icona Pop at Bumbershoot on August 31.  They're performing right after Thao & The Get Down Stay Down and before !!!, and if I'm lucky, I might be able to squeeze in a little of the second half of Gus + Scout's set immediately after Icona Pop.

Good luck getting the song out of my head after that.