The Coathangers v. Lake Street Dive

I was planning on going over to Terminal West tonight to watch Lake Street Dive, but noticed on the venue's web site today that the performance was sold out.  Tonight, then, I rest - March Madness starts tomorrow.

Meanwhile, here's that new Coathangers video featuring members of Mastodon in drag.  'Nuff said.

Sundays? Sun Days?

Dang!  For a minute there, I thought that my beloved The Sundays had gotten back together.

The Sun Days, another new band from Gothenburg, Sweden, aren't bad at all, and may be the closest we're going to get to that other band in our lifetime.

Stephen McBean

Now, that's what I'm talking about . . . 

Can We Really Party Today?

With all that's going on right now, I've still got this song from last Thursday night rambling around my mind.

Quilt

Quilt perform tonight at 529.  Three bands and doors open at 9:00, which means the first band won't start playing until at least 10:00 pm and don't expect to see Quilt take the stage before midnight.

I don't think I'm going to be able to make it.

Scenes From Eddie's Attic: Robyn Hitchcock, February 22, 2014

Earlier this month, Robyn Hitchcock played a two-night stand at Decatur's Eddie's Attic.  The only problem was those two nights coincided with Snowpocalypse 2014, the two-day ice-and-snow Armageddon that deluged the fair State of Georgia for two days.  Hitchcock's two days. 

Some brave souls (not I) managed to make it to one or, I suppose, both of those shows.  But even though he technically fulfilled his contractual obligation and played both nights, instead of making those unlucky fans who couldn't make it have to refund their tickets, Hitchcock performed a third show, and last Saturday afternoon (2:00 pm) was the time that he was able to squeeze into his busy tour schedule to return to Eddie's Attic.

A thorough entertainer and raconteur, Hitchcock charmed the audience both with his warm and witty songs and with his warm and witty banter as well (almost as entertaining as the songs themselves).  

For his encore, he wandered unamplified through the audience singing "some songs from my record collection," including the Beatles' Norwegian Wood, Dylan's She Belongs To Me, and Bowie's Soul Love from Ziggy Stardust.  And yes, even though I blog about and listen to modern music, I'm still of a certain age that these songs not only raised some goose bumps on my flesh, but also had me singing along under my breath. A charming show, and a great way to spend a Saturday afternoon.     

Salad Is Not Rock 'n' Roll: A Night at 529

Salad is not rock 'n' roll, but this car definitely is:

Last night's show at 529 featured three strong, female-fronted bands and opened with a set by Atlanta's Sex BBQ, now without former keyboardist/back-up singer Bunny McIntosh.

Their new keyboardist, the guy wearing the caprtain's wheel/mandala or whatever t-shirt above, filled in nicely for McIntosh, providing humorous dance moves and odd percussion to embellish the band's party-friendly, new wave sound.

The next band up was New York's Air Waves.  I'd heard a couple of songs from them before, including Waters (featuring Sharon Van Etten), but was still pleasantly surprised by their set last night - in fact, I think they might have stolen the show.

Like Van Etten, Air Waves singer Nicole Schneit has a certain warm gruffness to her voice, which may have been embellished to some degree last night by the fact that she was just coming back from a head cold - she said she had to cancel her performance the night before as she hadn't even been able to sing.  

They put on a great set, and I look forward to hearing more from Air Waves soon.

Headliners Hospitality took the stage at around 12:15 am.  We've seen Hospitality in this club once before, as well as down the street at The Basement at Graveyard Tavern.  Since the last time we've seen them, Hospitality has released a fine new record, Trouble, and have taken on a slightly more aggressive, harder rocking sound without losing their identity or the distinctive voice or song-writing style of frontwoman Amber Papini.  Hospitality songs still sound like Hospitality songs, only now there's even more to hear.   

The sound mix wasn't as good for Hospitality as it had been for the prior two bands, and I couldn't hear Amber's singing above the band as well as I would have liked.  This might have been due to the fact that I saw standing pretty close to the stage by the bass monitor - the mix might have sounded clearer elsewhere in the club.  Still, it was an enjoyable set, with band members moving frequently from instrument to instrument, Amber alternately playing guitar and keyboards and one guy playing drums, keyboards, and guitar at various points in the set - only the bass player stuck with his one instrument, and no one else touched the bass. 

Kudos to the members of Sex BBQ who stayed around after their set and danced at the front of the audience during Hospitality.

Somewhat non-sequiter and sounding nothing like last night's performance, but here's Amber performing a Hospitality song in a whole different context.  More salad than rock 'n' roll, but still tasty:

Jonathan Wilson & The Blank Tapes at Terminal West, Atlanta, Feb. 20, 2014

Last night's show left me wondering, "WTF?  Where the hell did that come from?"  I mean that in a good way. Black metal, bluegrass, reggae, Scandinavian choral folk songs - those are about the only genres not heard last night.  What we did get was a lot of psychedelic rock, epic guitar jams, blues rock, space jazz, country rock, and Laurel Canyon folk rock.    

The set, at Atlanta's beautiful Terminal West, started with a set by LA's The Blank Tapes. 

The Blank Tapes may be from LA, but they sounded like Height Ashbury, circa Summer of Love.  They played a wonderful, retro brand of psychedelic rock that would not have sounded out of place in 1967 at the Fillmore West.  Last night, they sounded every bit as groovy as this video performance. 

I have to give bonus points to the band for the mini-skirt and for having a tambourine/maracas player.

It was a fun, almost 45-minute opener, but barely prepared us for what came next.

Now, my sole aspiration for the night was to go hear some good music and then get back home at an early enough hour that I could get some sleep before work this morning.  The doors opened at Terminal West at 8:00, and the show was advertised to start at 8:45.  Since Terminal West tends to keep their shows running on time, I figured that with only two bands on the bill, I'd get home by 11:00.

No such luck.  Jonathan Wilson not only played a wonderful set of near perfect, guitar-driven rock, he played for a full, solid two-and-a-quarter hours, and I didn't get home until after 12:30 am.

But it was worth it.

In case you need an introduction (and you probably do, as there appeared to be less than 100 people in the audience), Jonathan Wilson "is a musician’s musician. When artists are in Southern California they invariably visit Jonathan’s studio, which was founded in Laurel Canyon, moved to a larger space in LA, and is credited with rejuvenating the music genre named after the region. Jonathan has produced albums from a variety of artists including Dawes, Father John Misty, Bonnie Prince Billy and Chris Robinson of the Black Crowes. His studio has also hosted studio jam sessions with an even wider variety of artists . . . So it comes as no surprise that Jonathan Wilson’s solo albums often contain a who’s-who of special guests along with the best available studio musicians. Jonathan’s most recent album Fanfare (Downtown Records) has been hailed as one of the best of 2013, and rightfully so" (NYC Taper). 

NYC Taper was also kind enough to post these samples from his show last week at The Bowery Ballroom, which gives a pretty good impression of just how eclectic last night's performance was.

This was one of those performances where you kept thinking each song was the finale, only to find he had even more still up his sleeve.  Wilson admitted at one point that they were deviating from their set list and being more rebellious than usual, much to the delight of the audience.  When be bought The Blank Tapes' Pearl Charles onto the stage to accompany him on percussion while his other guitarist led the band through the umpteenth, extended guitar jam, you had to think that was the climax, but in retrospect, that wasn't even the three-quarter mark.  It was that kind of night.

I didn't get nearly as much sleep last night as I had planned, but as I said at the top of this post, it was totally worth it.  Two terrific sets by two terrific bands, each giving the small audience their all-out effort.  

Julianna Barwick at the Goat Farm, Atlanta, February 18, 2014

I could simply say that the show was beautiful beyond words, but then maybe I'm just being lazy.
 

Cibo Matto at The Earl, February 17, 2014

After a 15-year hiatus, New York's Cibo Matto are recording and touring again, and on Monday night their tour brought them to Atlanta.  There was a time back in the 90s when my favorite bands were those genre-bending groups like Soul Coughing, Cibo Matto, and of course, Massive Attack, and now I've finally seen all three live.

Brooklyn's Salt Cathedral opened.

It being Monday night and all, I got there a little late, and Salt Cathedral were already playing when I arrived, although I think I still managed to catch most of their set.  The Earl was packed, especially for a Monday night and especially that early (9:45 or so), but I still managed to get reasonably close to the stage without too many people in front of me.

Salt Cathedral are a really good band with a great sound.  Unfortunately, that sound is a lot like Polica's. There are far worse bands to sound like, and Salt Cathedral doesn't sound imitative - they don't share Polica's two-drummer assault, for starters, and Salt Cathedrals' lead singer might even have more range than Polica's  Channy Leaneagh.  But after their fine set was over, The Earl played Polica over the PA and the sound was almost identical.  I don't mean to be critical - I really like Salt Cathedral and wish them the best - but they need to find something distinctive in their sound to set them apart from Polica, or they might otherwise get overlooked, and they deserve wider recognition. 

Photo by Alex Weiss

If anything, I was sorry to hear their set end when it did, even though I had been waiting 15 years to hear Cibo Matto.

Photo by Alex Weiss

They opened their set right where they had left off, as if those intervening 15 years hadn't happened, opening with three of the deliriously lovely trip-hop songs (Sugar Water, Beef Jerky, and Pain du Perdu) from their 1996 debut, Viva La Woman.  These songs were performed with just the two original members, Yuka and Miho, on stage, singing over recorded clips of these early hits. 

A drummer and a guitarist/bassist joined the girls on stage after the first three songs, taking the band through selections from their 1999 follow-up album, Stereo Type A, and their new record, Hotel Valentine. Highlights included Moonchild, Deja Vu, MFN, and Empty Pool. To close their set, they played their new 10th Floor Ghost Girl, and for their encore they performed House Keeping from the new album, followed by the crowd-pleasing Birthday Cake from Viva La Woman.  

Despite some earnest requests form the audience, they never got around to White Pepper Ice Cream.

In all, it was a wonderful night, discovering a terrific new band (Salt Cathedral) and hearing an old favorite (Cibo Matto) I thought I'd never experience live.

Julianna Barwick

At The Goat Farm tonight.

Cibo Matto

One of the happier reunions of 90s bands includes the return of New York's Cibo Matto.  Below, they get the Gasland treatment from director Josh Fox, showing they're still obsessed with food and, apparently, now ghosts as well.

Cibo Matto play The Earl tonight.  Brooklyn's Salt Cathedral opens.  Doors at 8:30, but the show is very nearly sold out (or so I'm told) so you might want to get there early.

Little Dragon

Little Dragon at Doug Fir Lounge, MFNW (RIP), 2011

Here's some welcome news: Sweden's Little Dragon have a new album, Nabuma Rubberband (whatever that means), coming out in May.  They've already released one new song from the album, Klapp Klapp (below), and announced a few tour dates, mostly in Europe but also some American festivals, including SXSW, Coachella, and Portland's Soul'd Out (although the Soul'd Out web site doesn't seem to know anything about this). More American dates will doubtlessly be announced, and here's hoping they include at least one date in Atlanta. 

Here's Little Dragon at Bumbershoot back in 2011.  Dude, I was there!

Update:  An Atlanta date has been announced - June 14 at Variety Playhouse

The Casket Girls, 529, Atlanta, February 14, 2014

I reminded myself about last night's show last year yet still very nearly forgot about it, only noticing the listing on the Creative Loafing's Things To Do post yesterday afternoon.  I'm glad I made it, though, as it turned out to be one of the more interesting shows I'm likely to see this year.

Before the show even started, though, there was a Magnitude 4.1 earthquake centered near Edgefield, South Carolina at 10:23 pm.  Shaking was reportedly felt here in Atlanta, although I didn't notice and no one in 529 showed any reaction. This was the first night of the Graveface Roadshow tour, though, and it's appropriate that it kicked off with a literal earthquake, even if a minor, non-damaging one.

Opener Dreamend is the musical project of Graveface Records founder Ryan Graveface.  Graveface performs with his face concealed by a black-and-white-striped balaclava with a built-in microphone, possibly the first electric balaclava in rock music, and was backed by drummer Peter Seeba and by J Cep of The Stargazer Lillies on bass.  Together, they play loud shoegaze bordering on post-rock that sounds very little like the acoustic-based music in the video above.  By the second song, Graveface had broke the D string on his guitar but gamely carried on, noting after the first post-D-string song, "As it turns out, the D string isn't all that important after all."  Despite the technical mishap, it was a good set to start the night.      

Drummer Peter Seeba stayed on for the next band, The Stargazer Lillies, while J Cep switched from bass to a heavily processed guitar and K Field took over the bass and vocal roles.  I wouldn't go so far as to say Cep looks like actor Jason Schwartzman, but he does look like a character Schwartzman could easily play, while Field has the glam look of a Deheza sister (School of Seven Bells).

As their name implies, The Stargazer Lillies play a dreamier brand of shoegaze post-rock, with Cep creating wall-of-sound textures with his expansive pedal boards and loop effects, even bowing the guitar at times.  It was hard to hear Field's vocals at times over the loud guitar, but Cep's outstanding guitar showcase was really quite impressive in its own right.    

By 12:30, the two opening bands virtually merged to back headliners The Casket Girls.  Peter Seeba stayed on drums, pulling triple duty and playing the entire bill, while Ryan Graveface returned to the stage to play keyboards.  J Cep and K Fields of The Stargazer Lillies took turns on bass for those songs that had bass lines (on other songs, the bass parts were covered by the low end on Graveface's keys). 

Which brings us to The Casket Girls themselves.  Sisters Phaedra and Elsa Greene stayed in character all night, preserving their aura of mystery by wearing sunglasses and leather jackets all evening, even while mingling in the audience before their set.

On stage, they put on a terrifically entertaining performance, matching their beautiful and haunting melodies with at times hilarious choreographed girl-band dance moves. For I've Got A Secret, they put on elbow-length black gloves and covered each other faces like in their video for the song.  The video for Heartless captures their choreographed moves, as well as their odd and distinct sense of humor.

They opened their set with Same Side, probably my favorite of their songs, and played a 45-or-so-minute set.  Graveface's keyboards provided a gritty, edgy backdrop to their melodies, annihilating pop sentimentalities and moving the sound into its own spooky realm.  If you're a fan of bands like Azure Ray or Lucius, but want a little more David Lynchian, deadpan Twin Peaks humor in your songs and a little more bite to the sound, The Casket Girls might be the band for you.  They certainly work for me. 

On the Unfathomable Mysteries of The Casket Girls

It's rare that you can watch an entire video of a band and at the end feel like you know less about them than when you started.

New Coathangers Song

New Coathangers song.  'Nuff said.

RIP MFNW

This confirms the rumors - MFNW has been reduced from a week-long, multi-venue event in early September to a weekend festival at Waterfront Park in mid-August.  More significantly, The Oregonian, Portland's daily newspaper, reports the festival will only be booking 18 bands this year, down from 170 last year.

All that being the case, I won't be going this year, but it was good while it lasted. Je ne regrette rien.

Yuck at The Earl, Atlanta, February 10, 2014

With 24 hours or less before the apocalyptic ice-and-snow emergency descends upon Georgia ending life as we know it according to the local news reports, the London band Yuck played a Monday-night set at The Earl.  I have other obligations on Monday nights and don't usually get out to hear music on Mondays, and by the time I got to The Earl last night I had missed opener Pls Pls, but I did get there in time to hear Toronto's Alvvays warm up the audience.

Alvvays play "wistful, jangly, Brit-tinged indie-pop" (Brooklyn Vegan) and is the new band fronted by former solo artist Molly Rankin.  They're fun to listen and bob your head along to, and provided a good start for the evening.  Bonus points to the band for stringing Christmas lights all over the stage to give their set a literal warm glow. 

Yuck took the stage at about 11:15 and played a flawless set of their catchy lo-fi, shoegaze music.  Less than 60 seconds into their first song, I knew that I had made the right decision in going out on a Monday, even with the dreaded Snowpocalypse threatening to descend upon us.   

Yuck are an easy band to love, and I'm surprised they're not filling larger venues like Terminal West or Variety Playhouse instead of The Earl.  Frontman and singer/guitarist Max Bloom sounded great, and drummer Jonny Rogoff, he of the enviable afro, wore a hilarious Diarrhea Planet t-shirt and had altered the "Ludwig" on his bass drum to "Hedwig" using what appeared to be duct tape.

Bassist Mariko Doi remained hidden in plain sight behind her long bangs the entire set, and new guitarist Ed Hayes sounded just fine.

They played Rebirth at about the middle of their set, and closed with the incendiary Operation.

They played a two-song encore, fittingly ending the night with Georgia, Bloom seemingly genuinely surprised when someone in the audience reminded him that he was actually in Georgia.

So now it's the next day and the State of Georgia (the song's actually about a girl named "Georgia") is anxiously awaiting its forecast demise by ice and snow.  President Obama has already declared a federal state of emergency even before the first snowflake has fallen and while temperatures are still in the upper 30s, but if I'm destined to freeze to death over the next few days, at least I'll be dong it with some great songs still echoing in my head. 

RIP Roseland Theater (Portland)

Okay, maybe it's not the end of Portland's Roseland Theater but it's surely the last time rapper Action Bronson gets invited there.  As you can see in the video, he lit a joint on stage last Monday night and threw it to the audience, and then toked on one of his own. Security intervened, a shoving match ensued, the house lights came up, and the show was over.  

From what I could tell, he got further into his set then Panic! At The Disco did before the creaky old floor at The Tabernacle gave out Friday night in Atlanta.

I've been to a couple of shows at the Roseland, including Nacho Picasso, Chvrches, and Godspeed! You Black Emperor during last years' MFNW, and Reignwolf and Those Darlins' during MFNW 2012.  The audience was just as overwhelmingly caucasian at those events as that shown in this video (hey, it's Oregon). 

50 Years Ago Today

To be absolutely honest here, it really did kind of change my life.

I was in the Fourth Grade, and my parents let me stay up and watch The Ed Sullivan Show the night The Beatles first appeared on American t.v.

We had never seen anything quite like this before, and it electrified my family.  "They look like girls!," my father declared, and my mother complained that it wan't music - all they did was scream.  Watching the video now, it's really hard to imagine how they came to those conclusions.

The next Monday morning, the kids on the school bus were so wired the driver threatened us with disciplinary action.  Someone on the bus produced a Beatles wig (from where?) and we took turns trying it on and miming the band (my first air guitar performance).  The whole day at school was about like that.  We were incorrigible.  The rumor was that when the subtitle at the 3:50 mark was aired, hundreds of teenage girls across the country committed suicide, but I've never been able to verify that.

Fifty years later, I'm still going to concerts, still listening to bands, and generally living my life to a rock 'n' roll soundtrack.  And it all started on this one night. . . .

RIP The Tabernacle

I wasn't at this show, but have felt the Tabernacle floor bounce and sway many a time.  It was only a matter of time before it buckled and cracked.  

News flash: the floor upstairs at the god-forsaken Masquerade isn't much better.

Update:  Tonight's show for country singer Corey Smith has been cancelled.

Post-Script: According to a February 10 Facebook message, "City officials have inspected the venue and determined there was no structural failure of the floor system. Our subsequent investigation of the building shows areas that require additional attention to insure the ongoing integrity of the building for many years to come. We are working to prepare the venue for our upcoming shows this weekend." However, the Lauryn Hill concert scheduled for Thursday has been moved to Monday, February 17th, not because of the floor but due to the impending ice storm on its way to Atlanta.

Soley

According to the Google Blogspot stats counter, the most popular post on this old man's music blog has been my review of The xx and Austra at The Tabernacle a year ago last Monday, with 554 page views (however they're measured).   My second most popular post, with 204 page views, was a similar review of Of Monsters and Men, also at The Tabernacle, back on November 29, 2012.

Fellow Icelandic performer Soley opened for Of Monsters and Men at the latter concert.  We hadn't heard much from Soley on these shores since then, but KEXP just uploaded a video of her performing in a hostel in Reykjavik.  It's nice to hear her again, and good to see that she appears to be doing well.  I hope she returns to these shores again.

I doubt, however, that this post about Soley will challenge the page view rankings of the other two posts.  

Let's Go Extinct Album Stream

You know what would be cool?  If we could listen to a stream of Fanfarlo's terrific new album Let's Go Extinct, that would be cool.

Well, here it is.  Enjoy it while it lasts.

Mutual Benefit

So, my plan was to start my first day of work today at my first real full-time job in over two years, and then go to my Monday night meditation group after work, and then go to The Earl to see Mutual Benefit perform. That was my plan. 

The reality is the cats woke me up a full 90 minutes earlier than my alarm clock was set (apparently, they got hungry early), which was a full 90 minutes earlier than the time I had been getting up previously, and I was tired and groggy my entire first day at work, and it was everything I could do to make it through the day, much less to the meditation group in the evening.

Mutual Benefit is on schedule to perform at the Shaky Knees Festival in May.  I'll see him then.  Tonight, I sleep - and woe to the cat that tries to wake me up early.

Superb Owl

Pulling for Seattle because, well, because screw Peyton Manning!  I'll take Richard Sherman instead any day!

Maria Taylor at The Earl, Atlanta, January 31, 2013

As you've no doubt heard - or experienced first-hand yourself - it snowed in Atlanta this week, grinding the city to a gridlocked halt and cooping a large segment of the population up in their homes for several days.  It finally thawed out by Friday to the point where you could safely drive around, and last night was the first weekend night that people could get out and socialize - to eat, drink, and be merry - since the shitstorm snowstorm hit.

Everyone celebrates in their own way, and several people celebrated by going to the always reliable Earl for an evening of live music.

Atlanta's Book Club opened.  Book Club are normally a six- or seven-piece outfit with diverse instrumentation (pedal steel, cello, harmonium, melodica, guitar, banjo, etc.), but for some reason, they performed as a trio last night.  It might have been the lingering effects of the weather, band members still unable to drive out of their neighborhoods, but frontman Robbie Horlick mentioned something about "some people" not getting "the message."  

The full Book Club performing at The Earl

In any event, although it was interesting to hear their songs broken down into a simple guitar-bass-and-harmonium format, the Earl audience was still too excited about finally getting out of their houses for a night, and were mostly all (loudly) chattering away back by the bar and the merch table, ignoring the music on stage.

So imagine this:  if the audience was too excited to finally be out of the house to pay any attention to a local favorite, how much attention do you think they gave to an out-of-town folk singer?  If you guessed "zero" you weren't quite correct - your humble narrator tried to hang in and listen over the roar of the crowd, so the answer was at least "one," although it probably felt like zero to the performer, Asheville's PJ Bond.  He actually was pretty interesting and sounded at times something like an early, Guitar Town-era Steve Earle, but even with an electric guitarist accompanying him, he still didn't manage to win over the crowd.  He's a professional and I'm sure used to such things - "the show must go on" and all that - but it was pitiful when even his stage banter comparing sex to pizza was ignored by the crowd. 

I wasn't sure what to expect from Birmingham's Maria Taylor, one half of the fine band Azure Ray, but I certainly wasn't expecting a two-drum sonic assault - with Maria on one of the drum kits - to open her set. But it was the kick-in-the-ass the audience needed to finally pay some attention to the stage and it worked - she totally won the crowd over.

Maria is a fine vocalist and from the very start of the set her voice could be clearly heard over the instruments, but she's also a multi-instrumentalist.  She proceeded from the drum kit to electric guitar to a Roland electric keyboard, and then back to electric guitar and ended her set where she started, at the drums. She could turn on a dime from chanteuse to riot grrrl to troubadour, and one of the cooler moments occurred near the end of her set, when tour-mate PJ Bond walked onto the stage in the middle of a song, unceremoniously pulled the jack out of her guitar even as she was playing and plugged it into his, and Maria, nonplussed as always, kept singing as she went over to the drum set, still singing, and brought the set to a thunderous climax. 

Birmingham was as hard hit as Atlanta by the recent snow, and Maria mentioned that today was also her first day out of the house since the storm hit, and she wasn't even sure that she would be able to make it to Atlanta at all.  But since it was such a fun set, I'm glad that the weather cooperated and that she made it after all, and that the audience finally stopped chatting and taking selfies and such, and paid some attention to the fine music coming from the stage.