Saturday, February 22, 2014

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:

Friday, February 21, 2014

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.  

Thursday, February 20, 2014

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.
 

Wednesday, February 19, 2014

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.

Monday, February 17, 2014

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.

Sunday, February 16, 2014

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