St. Vincent Vid

Saint Annie just released another video from her upcoming next album, this time for the song Digital Witness.   

Dean Wareham

If the somnombulant couple in yesterday's Hospitality video looked familiar to you, it's because they were Dean Wareham and Britta Phillips of Luna (and later just Dean and Britta).  Wareham, of course, was also in Galaxie 500 (1987-1991).    

Department of Coincidences and Synchronicities:  Today, OK Productions announced that Dean and Britta will be playing The Earl on April 1, under the name of just Dean Wareham (but Britta will be there). Strangely, that's not on a Monday night (it's a Tuesday), but because of other changes going on in my life right now, I'm not sure I'll be able to make it, although you can be sure that I'm going to try.

Hospitality

Have I mentioned yet how excited I am about Hospitality's new album and their upcoming February 21 appearance at 529?

Daytrotter

Do you Daytrotter?  If so, you might have noticed that yesterday included sessions by Hilang Child, the best new artist of 2014, and Atlanta favorites Mood Rings.  Both sets are worth checking out and giving a listen to, even if you're not a member.

On an unrelated note, RIP Pete Seeger.

PDX Roundup

A great song and an interesting video from Portland's Ages and Ages, a semi-large (eight-member) ensemble fronted by Tim Perry that has included, among others, Adam and Joanna from The Get Down Stay Down.

Speaking of Portland bands and narrative videos, here's a western-themed video for Aan's Somewhere's Sunshine.

Phosphorescent and Caveman at Center Stage, Atlanta, January 25, 2014

Photo by Jon Whittaker

Last evening, Alabama-to-Brooklyn transplant Phosphorescent played Atlanta's Center Stage, touring behind his fine new album, Muchacho.  But before we get to that, Brooklyn's Caveman opened.

Caveman are an excellent band, headliners in the own right, and we've seen them before, once headlining The Drunken Unicorn with Pure Bathing Culture opening, and once at The Earl opening for Here We Go Magic.  They play shimmering dream-pop about as well as anyone, and it's easy to get lost in the glimmering, ethereal layers of their music.  I like these guys, a lot, and would have come to the show even without the evening's headliners.

Caveman added an additional percussionist to the band since I've last seen them, which only makes the pounding, tribal rhythms of their music sound even more urgent.  

Frontman Matthew Iwanusa had also grown a beard since last April's show at the Unicorn.

Caveman played a 45-minute set, and headliner Phosphorescent took 45 minutes to take the stage following Caveman's set.  That might have been annoying, but Phosphorescent had set up perhaps the most beautiful stage I've seen since Washed Out, possibly since Purity Ring, complete with flowers and dozens of candles, as well as several fragrant sticks of incense. The soothing quality of the flowers and incense made the time pass by pleasantly, and eventually Matthew Houck led the band onto the stage.

Houck was dressed in western gear, complete with cowboy hat, mariachi jacket, and golden boots that everyone around me were falling all over themselves trying to photograph whenever he stepped out from behind the monitor.  My boot pics came out blurred (see the Flickr set for proof), but promoter The Bowery posted some pretty good pictures by Jon Whittaker on Facebook (see top of this post).  

The hat and jacket came off when Houck sang his stand-out Song for Zula.  

After Zula and Ride On/Right On, the band left the stage and Houck performed several songs solo, both on electric piano and on guitar.

The solo guitar set had the Center Stage audience spellbound and totally quiet, especially on the song MyDove/My Lamb, which culminated in a lovely looped guitar and vocal phrase played over and over, each time with Houch adding additional layers, as it transmorgified into a bizarre, pained expression of heartache and remorse.  

Phosphorescent played a lengthy encore, at least four or five songs. In all, it was a joyous and uplifting evening, and Houck proved his credentials as a Southern rock troubador of the highest order.

Since the five-piece band that backed Houck last night didn't include a horn section, Phosphorescent didn't play my favorite of their songs, so I'll just go ahead and post it here.

Almost Home

Three of my favorite artists, Moby, Washed Out, and Damien Jurado, all three from very different parts of the country (New York, Georgia, and Seattle, respectively) and very different musical genres (electronica, chillwave, and folk, respectively) have nonetheless come together for this beautiful composition, Moby's Almost Home, featuring vocals by Jurado, and remixed by Washed Out.  Enjoy, y'all!

OK, Puppets

Atlanta's Blair Crimmins & The Hookers.  Filmed at The Star Bar.  With puppets.

Crimmins and the Hookers will attempt to heat up The Earl on this chilly night. You might wanna go. 

Speaking of puppets, there's also this:

Local Natives

Fanfarlo

Oh, look.  New video from Fanfarlo, directed by the sister of Jónsi (Sigor Rós), for the song Landlocked.

Genius Round the World

"Genius round the world stands hand in hand, and one shock of recognition runs the whole circle round." - Miley Cyrus

 

 

A Take-Away Show

Three words:  Shara Fucking Worden.

Parquet Courts

ICYMI.

Adron

A nice preview of a song from her forthcoming album.

Dude, I Was There!

This "Promo Video" for MFNW 2014 is actually a recap of MFNW 2013, and I was at most of the events shown, including The Love Language at the Marmoset party, Dan Deacon, Animal Collective, Pickwick, and Thao at Pioneer Courthouse Square, !!!, and those glow-stick things on NE Burnside  What a time!  

Still waiting on an announcement about the 2014 lineup, but rumors are that the entire festival format will be changed to a weekend event at fairgrounds along the Willamette River - in other words, no different than any other festival.  That would be a big mistake, IMHO. 

SVE 2014

(That awkward moment when you realize it's been over a year sine you've seen Sharon Van Etten perform.)

In one of those best-of-all-possible-worlds announcements, Sharon Van Etten has revealed that she'll have a new album coming out in May, with more goove-, soul-, and R&B-influenced tracks than before.  Even better, she's said that guest performers on the album include Jonathan Meiburg of Shearwater, Mackenzie Scott of Torres, Jana Hunter of Lower Dens, and Dave Harley and Adam Granduciel of The War on Drugs.

This is worth watching out for, but here's an early version of one of the songs from the new album performed at the ever-blissful Pickathon festival.

Shaky Knees Lineup Announced

Not bad at all, AND it's been moved closer to my home than last year. Bonus points: I've already got my tickets!  

There's still one headliner yet to be announced.  My guess is Outkast, as it seems pretty obvious by now that 2014 will be their year.

FWIW, I've wanted to see The National for a long time now, but kept missing them for various reasons. Wild Belle, White Denim, and Deer Tick, too.  The lineup also includes favorites such as Spoon, Local Natives, and Lord Huron, bands I would have hand-picked if given the opportunity, as well as reliable pleasers like Edward Sharpe, Iron & Wine, Dawes, Band of Skulls, Blitzen Trapper, and Charles Bradley, the screaming eagle of soul. Not to mention the chance to see Modest Mouse and the Violent Femmes and so on, but I don't want to just recite the whole lineup.

Good job, Shaky Knees!

UPDATE: Nope, not Outkast.  Alabama Shakes at Shaky Knees instead.

Shit I Missed

I had every intention of going out Sunday night to see Speedy Ortiz at WonderRoot, but I guess after Takenobu on Friday and Ohmpark Fest 2 on Saturday, I just ran out of gas.  

My loss.  Must have been a great show.

And weren't we just wondering during Ohmpark Fest where Del Venicci was?

Ohmpark Fest 2, Atlanta, January 11, 2014

We don't remember if we were at Ohnpark Fest 1 or not, or even when it was held, but last night we had a blast at Ohmpark Fest 2.  The evening was curated by Davy Minor, the founder of the now-defunct Ohmpark.com, and as Brock Scott of Little Tybee said at one point form the stage, if you were new to Atlanta and unfamiliar with the local music scene, you couldn't have devised a better introduction to the cream of the crop of Atlanta music.  While some luminaries were conspicuously absent (The Coathangers, Dog Bite, and Women's Work, and were was Del Venicci?), we have to agree with Scott's assessment.

The event was held at both the redoubtable Earl and the nearby 529, and one $10 cover got you into both venues all night.  The bouncer even readmitted us to 529 late at night after our wrist stamp had somehow worn off.  We didn't get there until nearly 10:00 and missed several bands, but we were still reminded by what we did see how the Atlanta cup runneth over.

SPIRITS AND THE MELCHIZEDEK CHILDREN

It was our first time hearing SATMC, and although we've liked the videos and what we've heard so far, live they were even better than we dared to have hoped.  Fronted by a three-guitar attack, they occupy a psychedelic middle ground somewhere between hard rock and metal, and kick-started the evening off in a great way, although we still don't know what Melchizedek Children are.

SEALIONS

We've seen Sealions several times before, and to be honest, it's been a hit-or-miss affair.  After some performances, we walked away convinced that they were next-level electro-pop geniuses, and other times we left wondering what we had been so excited about (although, to be fair, they've never sounded bad). Last night, though, was the best I can ever recall hearing them sound, and they had the normally inattentive Earl audience dancing.

LITTLE TYBEE

Deja vu all over again - we just saw Little Tybee last month on the very same stage, but it was a pleasure hearing them again.  If anything, the sound mix was better than last time, although it may have been that last time we were just standing right in front of Josh Martin's guitar amp, as it seemed to drown everything else out.  No such problem this time, and on second listen, we think we like Little Tybee's cover of Diamonds on the Soles of Her Shoes even better than the original.

ADRON

One of the pleasures of living in Atlanta is getting to hear the neo-bossa nova of Adron pretty much as often as you could want, and last night's set was as warm and tropical as ever.  Adron is certainly a unique artist guided by her own muse, and deserving of far wider recognition, and last night's set included a cover of a song by Brazil's Os Mutantes.

HELLO OCHO

Hello Ocho did not take the 529 stage until 1:20 Sunday morning, but the crowd was as boisterous and excited as for any band all evening.  The tiny club was packed, and as soon as the band started playing, everyone was dancing, jumping, and rushing the stage in joyous appreciation of the music.  But how to describe that music?  Prog?  Math rock? Mutant jazz fusion?  All of these labels could apply to parts of all their songs and not to others, and last night the label finally came to us - Zappaesque.  With their quirky song structures, abrupt meter changes, vibraphone and trumpet solos, and humorous lyrics ("I want to take you grocery shopping, I want to spend all of my food stamps on you"), they are certainly rooted in Roxy and Elsewhere-era Zappa, but they are equally informed by everything else that's followed since. Between the energetic music, the energetic crowd, and the sweaty ambiance of the intimate club, their set was probably the most fun we had all night.  We didn't get home until well after 2:00 a.m. and were certainly dragging butt the next morning, but it was well worth it.

So, there's your basic primer of Atlanta indie music - the heavy rock of SATMC, the dance-friendly electro-pop of Sealions, the folk rock of Little Tybee, the tropicalia of Adron, and the WTF of Hello Ocho.  If you throw in last night's country-pop of Lily & the Tigers and the orchestral looping of Takenobu, you'll get a pretty good idea of the diversity of the scene here.

We hope to bring more of this to you right here in this blog this coming year.

Takenobu at The Earl, January 10, 2014

This early 2014 weekend, as a matter of fact the second weekend of the new year, has the potential to be a pretty good showcase of Atlanta bands, what with Saturday night's Ohmpark Fest 2.  But things actually started off on Friday night with a set at the redoubtable Earl by three local bands, headlined by Atlanta's Takenobu, although as it turned out, the audience was primarily there to see Lily & the Tigers.   

Openers Beau Victrola were new to me, although frontman Victor of Beau Victrola, Molotov Pipedream, and The Dandyls (and probably other bands as well) has apparently been around for a while now.  Beau Victrola appears to be Victor and whoever he wants/can get to play with him, which in the past have included such Atlanta luminaries as Nirvana Kelly of Little Tybee and Adron.  For this gig, he had a bass player and keyboards with no percussion.  

His music is hard to classify, but for lack of a better description, I would call it sweetly psychedelic folk pop in the tradition of Syd Barrett, played with a sardonic, one-raised-eyebrow manner in the fashion of Foxygen.  Here's a sample:      

When Beau Victrola took the stage sometime between 9:30 and 10:00, The Earl was still filling up with noisy patrons wanting to see Lily & The Tigers.  One of the unfortunate characteristics of Earl audiences is to talk loudly, especially around the bar, during a performance but last night the crowd was especially loud and disrespectful to the performer, even by Earl standards, not only back by the bar but even by several gaggles of young women right up front by the stage, who were far more interested in greeting each other, taking group pictures, and chatting about whatever than they were in listening to a band that was not Lily & The Tigers.   Victor tried a couple of times to get them to quiet down, at least a little, and compared playing the club last night to being in a high-school cafeteria, with the stage the table where the cool kids were hanging out and the rest of the club where all of the jocks were chatting loudly and not caring one little bit about the cool kids' table.  

Which was really unfortunate, as I liked what I heard form Beau Victrola, and wish I could have heard more of them over the din of the crowd.  Victor actually seemed a little relieved at the end of the set, and no one seemed to much notice when he walked off stage.  Their loss.

Things have changed considerably for Lily & The Tigers since we've seen them last, not the least of which is their new-found popularity.  By the time they took the stage, The Earl was quite full with an audience there primarily to see Lily & The Tigers.  I don't remember them being this popular back when I saw them open for Viva Voce and for Shearwater.  They have a new, Kickstarter-supported album coming out, and if that is the reason for their increased popularity, it says a lot for the power of Kickstarter to get a band's fan base involved and mobilized.

One of the things that I've always liked about Lily & The Tigers was their odd instrumentation.  In past performances, singer Casey Hood's acoustic guitar was backed and augmented by stand-up bass, violin, and woodwinds, giving the band a unique, gothic, almost baroque sound.

The violin and woodwinds are now gone, and the band on stage last night was a trio, Casey on guitars and vocals, stand-up bassist Adam Mincey, and the fine guitarist Jared Pepper. Their forthcoming album, The Hand You Deal Yourself, was recorded up in Vermont, which seems to have changed the band's sound as well, with less of a southern gothic vibe and more of a generic folk-country sound.  The audience seemed to love it, however, based on both the size of the crowd, the relative attention paid to the stage, and several of the young women up by the stage putting away their cell phones long enough to dance along to several songs.  I'm happy for the band and their success, even if I do prefer their older sound.

Takenobu headlined, and much of the audience stayed around after the Lily & The Tigers set for at least the first half of his set before reverting back to chatting and eventually leaving altogether. 

We last saw Takenobu at 529, and were quite impressed with his performance. Takenobu plays cello, using loop pedals to build up layers of sound for him to play over, much in the manner of Andrew Bird.  As before, he was accompanied by a violinist, and the virtual string section that the two were able to create on stage using just their two instruments was astounding.

To keep things varied, he occasionally switched from a standard cello to an electric version, and brought a drummer on stage with him for the electric cello songs, switching formats every four or five songs or so.  The man, Nick Ogawa, is a true artist, and Atlanta is fortunate to have him in its midst, although it's unfortunate for Mr. Ogawa that he's not more widely recognized.  He would more than hold his own opening on tour with someone like Andrew Bird, or Kishi Bashi for that matter, which might provide him the exposure he deserves.

The audience was significantly smaller by the end of his set, most of the Lily & The Tigers fans having departed, but a small crowd remained to encourage Ogawa to come back for an encore, an unexpected cover of The Pixies classic, Where Is My Mind? 

My first show of 2014, then, was three local bands, including a new discovery, a revamped favorite, and a reliable artist.

Pickwick

Brass band arrangement of Halls of Columbia by Pickwick, the greatest band you've never heard of.

Hello Ocho

IndieATL's first video of the year, showcasing the indie prog of Atlanta's Hello Ocho.

Palace Wolves

Palace Wolves at The Drunken Unicorn, July 25, 2013

Here's a fittingly epic fan-produced video for the equally epic song Lights That Fade by Atlanta's Palace Wolves.

Baikal Ice Drumming

Seems like an appropriate post for this cold day.

Movie Music Kills a Kiss

This might be the most beautiful thing I've seen all year, but then I've always been a sucker for long, single-take videos.

Joseph Arthur

Has Joseph Arthur's time finally come?  For their first post of 2014, WNYC's Soundcheck posted this video of Arthur playing with RNDM (Pearl Jam's Jeff Ament), along with a download of House of Your Love from Ballad of Boogie Christ, Act 2.

Oh, yeah, and back on June 25 of last year, he made his first appearance on Jay Leno's Tonight Show:

  

Shit I Missed

New Year's fireworks at the Space Needle, synchronized to music.  (Belated) Happy New Year, y'all!

Strange Music, Part 2

My off-hand remark about Animal Collective yesterday got me to looking some of their stuff up, and I came across this gem of a concert from 2006, arguably AnCo's best performance ever, including a mind-bending 10-minute version of Safer from the Peacebone EP (starting at about the 10-minute mark and following the comment about going down into the Black Hole). This show was performed shortly before the release of Strawberry Jam, probably my favorite AnCo record, and most of the songs performed here had not yet been recorded but were still in the embryonic, working-them-out-in-performance stage, shedding some light on the AnCo creative process.  Enjoy.

Strange Music

As you may have noticed, Unknown Mortal Orchestra rated pretty highly in all of my year-end lists, including the Best Concert and Best Album categories.  Last year (it still feels strange calling 2013 that), we saw UMO three times - at 529 with Foxygen, an incendiary performance at Branx in Portland during MFNW, and back in Atlanta again at Terminal West (above), and each show was a delight.

The band is touring China right now, with shows scheduled in Shanghai, Beijing, and Hong Kong.  But before they left, Ruban Nielson gave the world a parting Christmas gift - a 22-minute, experimental, ambient guitar exploration titled SB-01, which sounds a little like Robert Fripp on codeine, or Animal Collective in Transverse Temporal Gyrus mode.  Enjoy! 

Happy New Year!

Julianna Barwick will be performing at The Goat Farm on Tuesday, February 28.