As if there were any question left, Mr. J Tillman, aka Father John Misty, proves once again that he is the preeminent singer-songwriter of the present time, and not with one of his own outstanding compositions, but by breathing new life into Arcade Fire's The Suburbs.
On the one hand, we could note that the French imported four times as many African slaves to the North American colonies as the British did. Not only did France first started importing slaves to the West Indies as early as 1540 to work the islands' sugar plantations, well before the British, but they continued the slave trade until 1830, long after the rest of Europe had given it up, and they even kept at it clandestinely after the Civil War, eventually abolished slavery only under pressure from slave uprisings.
Among the many indignities suffered upon the emancipated slaves in North American was the appropriation of their cultural and artistic achievements by white artists, going back to jazz and the blues. Throughout the history of rock 'n' roll, starting with Elvis Presley and continuing through to the present day, songs and styles first popularized by African-American musicians gained wide-spread acceptance and popularity only after being recorded by white musicians.
It is a challenge not to be somewhat cynical watching the all-white, Birmingham, Alabama band St. Paul & The Broken Bones perform in the style of Sam Cook and Otis Redding in Paris, France, the capital of the first nation that forcibly brought the ancestors of the genre's creators to America, and bestow the gift of the art form to a European audience without any reminder or context regarding how the sound originated in the first place.
This is not to say that St. Paul and company should not play and sound the way that they do, or that they shouldn't be allowed to earn an income and perform overseas. And no one wants to sit through a lecture or a guilt trip about historical sins and transgressions.
So perhaps I should just say here's St. Paul and the Broken Bones in Paris, as recorded by La Blogothèque.
From the past back to the present: Dublin's Girl Band (all guys, naturally) lure us in with Lawman then disturb our dreams for weeks with Why They Hide Their Bodies Under My Garage? Samuel Beckett would have been proud.
If for no other reason that I find myself nostalgic today, a taste of Frank Zappa and the Mothers Of Invention, circa 1970.
As long as I'm at it, some of my friends from back in the day:
And finally, it seems somehow appropriate to filter today's Supreme Court decision establishing marriage equality for all Americans through the lens of my current nostalgia by posting some vintage Bowie.
Remarkably, Minnesota's Low somehow just keep getting better and better. Here's No Comprende, the first song released from their upcoming LP, Ones and Sixes. Enjoy.
The band has announced an extensive world tour in support of the album, but so far, no dates announced for the American South.
Here's a stripped-down version of the Portland band Blind Pilot - Israel Nebeker and Ryan Dobrowski - performing with cellist Sergey Antonov at the Liberty Theater in Astoria, Oregon.
God Is An Astronaut are a 4 piece band who hail from Glen of the Downs, County Wicklow, Ireland. Here is the title cut of their just-released, latest album.
The Orb's new album, Moonbuilding 2703 AD, will be released June 22, 2015 on Kompakt Records. Here's what to expect.
First of all, the album consists of four long tracks, God's Mirrorball, Moonscapes 2703 BC, Lunar Caves, and the title track, Moonbuilding 2703 AD. Here's their "Meltdown Edit," which condenses the album's highlights down to five minutes.
As you can hear above, God's Mirrorball opens the album with Roger Thurman's spoken words, "First, God does not exist, but don't worry, what does exist is good, as opposed to evil," from his narration to the film Annunaki - Don't Watch This Film. The quote was also sampled in 2012 by the glitch-hop band Schema in their cut, Annunaki. After a few more of Thurman's lines, leading up to a punch line of sorts, the track dissolves into an ambient soundscape. A beat emerges around the 2:00-minute mark, and the track percolates along on a spacey vibe, with various beats and textures arising from and sinking back into the mix in classic Orb style.
Moonscapes opens with what sounds like Apollo-era radio static before returning to the percolating spacey vibe of the opening track. The tracks eventually morphs into a raspier texture, with panting breaths keeping the beat near the end.
Lunar Caves. the shortest track on the album, opens with the ominous warning, "The following program deals with a controversial subject. The theories expressed are not the only possible interpretation. Viewers are invited to make a judgement based on all available information." The disclaimer is from an episode of Fox's Conspiracy Theory that presented claims that the Apollo moon landings were faked.
Musically, the sonic textures of Lunar Caves are somewhat sparer and more minimalistic than the previous two, more dancefloor-oriented tracks, but after about 5:30 minutes, a chiming beat lifts the track up and carries it to the finish line at 9:00 minutes.
Moonbuilding 2703 AD opens with sounds as futuristic as the title suggests before being carried along by some of the funkiest beats of the album. The cut has numerous samples thrown over it at various times, some gorgeous marimba lines and ominous fuzz, and frequent breakdowns into clockwork rhythms. In all, the track is complex enough to hold your attention but consistent enough to keep the body swaying and feet moving for its entire 13-plus minutes before ending rather undramatically with an echoing synth.
Overall, Moonbuilding 2703 AD may be less daring and innovative than previous Orb albums and the songs rely less on samples than classic Orb compositions, but it also provides a remarkably consistent and coherent ambient soundscape that may provide the perfect soundtrack for a drive or a casual afternoon, and has enough of a beat to keep folks on the dancefloor moving.
The 18th day of June in the terrible year of our lord 2015 has very few virtues to it and at least one unspeakable tragedy, yet despite the horror and the bloodshed and the tears, a small crowd gathered at Terminal West to celebrate the music of ex-pat Josh Rouse, who had the good sense to move to Spain before this country was bitterly and perhaps irrevocably divided by race and completely overrun by the moneyed interests of the goddamn gun lobby.
That's not how I had planned to open this review. I'll pull it together, and note that the show opened with the charming songs of Walter Martin, who writes songs ostensibly for children, but with an adult's fine-tuned sense of humor.
Even Josh Rouse had to come out and watch the performance from back stage.
Rouse is originally from Nebraska and began his recording career in Nashville before relocating to Spain. With some 10 or so albums out, he has developed a loyal and enthusiastic following, and his latest album, The Embers of Time, came out earlier this year. Although the album has several fine songs that I'm confident I will grow to love with time, I was pleased that last night, Rouse chose to play not just the new songs but songs from throughout his 18-year recording career, including classics like Quiet Town from 2006's Subtítulo.
Rouse's backing band (guitar, bass, and drums) were more than proficient, and he allowed the drummer to come out from behind his kit to sing the lead vocals for Hollywood Bass Player.
Later, Walter Martin joined him on stage for a song.
The audience was small, slightly drunk, and clearly adoring. I never before heard more men call out "We love you, Josh!" in a single night.
For his encore, Rouse played two songs from the 2003 album 1972 (the first Josh Rouse album that I had encountered), Slave Ship and Love Vibration.
In short, it was a fun, sweet, and intimate performance on a day otherwise marked by hatred and murder. It was more than we deserved.
I never got around to posting a retrospective of Day Three of Shaky Knees, and at this point, it looks like I may never accomplish it.
Or will I? Certainly not starting from the beginning of Day Three, but today I came across this sample from Heartless Bastards' recent set at New York's Webster Hall, and that seems as good a place to start as any. The Bastards played Shaky Knees in the middle of Sunday afternoon, mercifully beneath the tent at the Buford Highway Stage.
To be sure, it was warm under the tent, and Heartless Bastards did their best to keep up the heat, but at least we were out of the sun. It was a fine set by a fine, often underrated, band, and there were no dull moments in their hour-long set.
Other sets from Day Three may (or may not) get reviewed when (and if) I come across something that triggers a memory, or at least a post. Not that the day was dull - far from it - it's just that the recent Georgia heat has made me lazy.
On June 23 of this year, to commemorate its tenth anniversary, Black Mountain, the world's greatest rock band, will re-release their self-titled debut album, expanded with bonus tracks collected from the band's archives (such as the demo below). The band is touring Europe right now, but here's to hoping they tour the US this year, including Atlanta, in support of the reissue.
This album has a personal significance to me above and beyond anything the band ever intended or could have known. In 2005, I was caught up in discovering and downloading music off of the internet, everything from 70s prog rock to Pete Namlook's electronic albums, from volumes and volumes of jazz reissues and "complete" sessions to all manners of world music to all my favorite punk and New Wave artists. I was listening to music like crazy, but in all of my downloading frenzy, I had lost touch with new music. I was only downloading the stuff that I already knew, until one day I came across a post titled "Five Best Recordings of 2005" and realized that I hadn't heard of any of the artists. Spoon? Metric? Bloc Party? Who were these bands? I didn't know, so I downloaded one album by some band called "Black Mountain," and it changed my life.
I eventually downloaded - and enjoyed - all of the albums, and realizing what I had been missing out on, vowed I was not going to let myself fall behind the times again. And all that it took was one listen to Black Mountain.
As mentioned yesterday, despite a number of other offerings, last night I went to Terminal West to see Unknown Mortal Orchestra.
Opener Alex G is "just a normal, energetic girl who loves music, Carol Burnett, and food." No, wait, that can't be right. Turns out there are two "Alex G's" on the internet, one the aforementioned, self-described pop singer, and the other is young Pennsylvania native Alex Giannascoli, who's "gnarled, wobbly, unfailingly melodic guitar pop evokes Big Star, Elliott Smith, and Built to Spill, as well as more recent low-key breakouts like Youth Lagoon and Jackson Scott" (according to Pitchfork), which is interesting because Jackson Scott opened for Unknown Mortal Orchestra when they played Terminal West during Rocktober 2013.
Live, everything sounded a little more deconstructed and experimental than the polished bedroom recordings Alex has been posting on the internet. I was reminded at times more of the post-emo of bands like Slint and American Football than Big Star or Built To Spill, and not to take away from the latter, but the live similarities to the former are a good thing.
If I have a criticism at all, it's that their set was too short - I was just getting into their sound when the set was over, but that's probably the fault of the show's promoters and tour schedule, and not the band. I look forward to hearing more from them in the future.
One of the benefits of watching Unknown Mortal Orchestra perform over the years is seeing how frontman Ruban Nielson has gained confidence and stage presence since 2011. His moves and mannersims - squatting down low during guitar passages, even sitting on the floor while playing at times, and his almost Motown-style twirls - have always been there, be now seems to relish entertaining an audience with his presence more than ever. Between that and the polished performance of his tight band - now with added keyboards - last night was the best all-around performance of the five UMO shows I've seen.
Nielson used many of the songs as launching pads for his searching guitar solos, and gave the band plenty of room to do their own thing, too - the set included several instrumental passages from the band and even a good old-fashioned drum solo, much to the audience's delight. With the addition of keyboards, Nielson was even free to sing one song without accompanying himself on guitar, and used the opportunity to roam the stage, even climbing up on top of the amplifiers. Meanwhile, bassist Jake Portrait can lay equal claim with The War On Drugs' David Hartley as "best bassist right now in rock music."
UMO played songs from their new album, Multi-Love, as well as songs from their previous two albums, including early hits like Ffunny Ffriends, Thought Balune and How Can U Love Me, to later material like From the Sun. Swim and Sleep (Like A Shark), and So Good At Being In Trouble. For the encore, they played two new songs from Multi-Love, Necessary Evil and Can't Keep Checking My Phone.
A great set of music from a band that right now is at the top of its game. I'm sure all of the other shows performed last night were great, too, but I have no regrets of choosing what I did.
What to do tonight, you ask? (Of course, you don't - I put that question rhetorically merely so I could give my own answer). Today is one of those embarrassment-of-riches days where there's more going on than any one person could possibly take in.
Chances are good that if you're one of the 10 or so readers of this blog, you're probably already at Bonnaroo up in Tennessee right now - the festival's going strong and is already in its third of four days. I don't go because too big, too crowded, too hot, camping, too much hip-hop, etc. Also, selected sets are being web cast at Red Bull TV, but if you're there have fun and radiate positivity!
If you're not at Bonnaroo but still want to hear a bunch of bands, you could go over to Oakland Cemetery for the 5th Annual Tunes From The Tombs (better hurry - it ends at 8 pm; wouldn't want people in the graveyard after dark). In one of those things that sounds like it just couldn't really be true, the cemetery sets up about four of five stages in between the historic graves, crypts and tombs on the grounds and allows music to play for a small, one-day festival. They even sell beer. This year's bands include Atlanta's Little Tybee and 90's veteran Matthew Sweet. I've gone to the first three, and passed for the first time last year, as each year the bands booked were less and less eclectic and more and more adult-friendly ("Dad-rock"). Little Tybee don't fall into that category but if you live in Atlanta, you don't hurt for opportunities to hear Little Tybee, so I'm not going this year either - besides, I just visited the cemetery last Memorial Day weekend.
If it's the eclectic you're looking for, you may want to head over to The Goat Farm for Samādhi-Bhāvanā: The Stone Tapestry, a piece commissioned by the Barlow Endowment for Music Composition at Brigham Young University. This hour-long piece is composed for contrabass flute, vibraphone, percussion quartet, and electronics, and will include guest artists The A/B Duo, Meerenai Shim and Chris Jones.
That may sound a little high-brow, so on the other extreme, Quintron and Miss Pussycat is playing at The Earl tonight.
Meanwhile, The Helio Sequence will be playing at The Drunken Unicorn.
Bonus points: fellow Portland band Lost Lander will be opening.
Lost Lander at The Doug Fir, MFNW (RIP), 2011
Apparently, it's Portland night here in Atlanta, because while The Helio Sequence and Lost Lander are playing at The Drunken Unicorn, Portland's Unknown Mortal Orchestra will be playing at Terminal West, fresh from last night's performance at Bonnaroo.
As previously noted, it's one of my unofficial jobs to support bands playing here from the Pacific Northwest, so that reduces the number of options for me tonight to The Helio Sequence and Lost Lander at The Drunken Unicorn and Unknown Mortal Orchestra at Terminal West. It was a hard choice, but I bought my ticket for UMO and am looking forward to the show, even though I've seen them several times before.
Unknown Mortal Orchestra at The Doug Fir, MFNW (RIP), 2011
Unknown Mortal Orchestra at 529, Atlanta, 2013
Unknown Mortal Orchestra at Branx, MFNW (RIP), 2013
Unknown Mortal Orchestra at Terminal West, Atlanta, Rocktober 2013
It appears that Speedy Ortiz' tour has brought them 'round to Seattle, where they did a KEXP studio performance.
Interviewer: I noticed the Gender is Over tank top on your amp last night at the show.
Sadie: Yeah. I ordered it online and it didn’t come in time to bring on tour, so peeps brought one to the show and it’s not the size I wanted so I just taped it on the amp.
After opening for Okkervil River at the Variety Playhouse in 2013, Torres has released a new album, Sprinter, and will be returning to Atlanta to headline The Earl on Wednesday, July 1, 2015. Here's the title track from the new album.
Last night, the Rolling Stones were playing in town. I didn't go (too crowded, arena stadium, they're too old now, etc.) and instead went to see Courtney Barnett at The Loft, a little over a mile away from the Stones' performance.
I was worried about the traffic and envisioned classic Atlanta gridlock all around both venues. I worried that all of the available parking would get taken up early and that I wouldn't find a spot. I worried that some combination of the first two worries would result in me getting there late and missing some of the show, so I left early to try to arrive just as the doors opened at 7:00 pm. I gave myself 20 minutes to make the 10-block trip.
I got there in 5 - there was no traffic to speak of, and parking was wide open at my usual spot in the garage beneath Center Stage. It wasn't quite yet 7:00 pm when I arrived, but I walked to the front door of The Loft and the bouncers let me past without a word. I passed another bouncer on the staircase as I climbed up toward the entrance, and he also let me past without a word. At the top of the stairs, I found the door by the box office closed and locked, but when I rattled the door to determine that it was indeed locked, someone inside opened it for me and let me in. They seemed surprised when I offered my ticket for them to scan, but they scanned it anyway and let me in.
Once inside, I realize I was the only one there. The doors weren't yet open, but no one - not either of the bouncers that I passed or the box office personnel, assumed that the old man walking in was a fan and not some manager or employee, and they all let me past. I wandered around the club a little, bought myself a beer, and almost missed getting a spot on the rail when the doors finally did open and a stream of young people came rushing in. But I did get a front-row spot on the rail before they were all taken, and settled in to enjoy the show.
First up was Australian singer/songwriter Darren Hanlon, who's engaging set was well received by the audience and your humble narrator. As Hanlon sang I Waited For The 17, I realized he was talking about the very bus that I had taken on several occasions from St. John's to downtown Portland, Oregon, and I found myself mentally following the route he accurately describes in the song.
The bus really does cross a bridge over Cathedral Park and the Columbia River beneath an "awful drop" only to end at "a mountainside of trees and vegetation." Every word of the song rings true.
So that was cool. After a short break, Seattle's Chastity Belt took the stage.
This was my first time seeing Chastity Belt, although I've been a fan for a few years now (they formed in 2010, but I didn't hear them until 2012 or so). I recognized, even if I couldn't name, most of the songs in their set, and they announced that the third or fourth song in their set was titled Seattle Party.
Never ones to take themselves too seriously, lead singer and guitarist Julia Shapiro wore an Olive Garden tank top, and encouraged the audience to buy a Chastity Belt tank top, even though "nobody ever wears tank tops anymore."
Back on March 20, I posted on these pages that I liked their sound and "refreshing lack of pretension about themselves." Still holds.
Courtney Barnett wasn't scheduled to start until 10:00 pm, but she took the stage at least ten minutes early wearing a Chastity Belt tank top and started her set.
She's touring now as a trio, the "CB3" rather than with "the Courtney Barnetts" that we saw at The Loft last Rocktober. The smaller format suits her well - she played all the guitar parts and her voice could be heard better without the clutter of an additional guitar. By almost every measure, I though last night's was a far better performance than last year's.
She even had a little light show projected behind her on the stage.
Even without the additional guitar, Courtney still rocked and rocked hard. She played all the songs that the audience wanted to hear, from Avant Gardener to Depreston and everything in between, and even included a cover of The Breeders' Cannonball.
For her encore, she initially took the stage solo and played her only unaccompanied song of the evening, followed by Pickles From The Jar with just her and her drummer, and then finally a third song with the entire trio,
In all, it was a totally enjoyable show from start to finish, without a single weak or "off" performance, and without any traffic or parking problems due to the Stones' simultaneous set just down the road.
