More Grimes

Grimes at The Earl, Rocktober 2011

Grimes, the preeminent artist of our times, certainly appears to be turning things up a notch or two as evidenced by the latest song, Scream, from her forthcoming Art Angels.

Grimes

Grimes at The Earl, Rocktober 2011

Grimes, the preeminent artist of our time, released a new video which she wrote, directed, edited, colored, and played four separate characters in for the unreleased tracks Flesh Without Blood and Life In The Vivid Dream from her forthcoming album Art Angels. 

Grimes will be performing at the Buckhead Theater on November 11, 2015 as a part of her tour in support of Art Angels.

Art Angels drops November 6, mere days before her Buckhead Theater appearance.

In Atlanta

Despite no longer having a real job and being self-employed, he went back to the Pacific Northwest for Bumbershoot and MFNW in 2012 (you have to have your priorities).  He didn't go to Music Midtown due to its boring and lackluster line up that year (you have to have your priorities), but he was otherwise committed to living his life in Atlanta.   

By a rough count, he probably went to about 60 shows that year, not including festivals, or at an average rate of about one per week (you have to have your priorities).  If each show averaged three bands, he probably saw about 150 bands that year, and when you add in the festival performances, the band tally was probably closer to 200.  He was making up for all that time spent being dead, spent feeling too old to go to clubs, spent being away from things.

But it's quality, not quantity, that matters, and he heard some terrific performances that year, including a set by Akron/Family at the Drunken Unicorn that was later released as a CD; a couple of sets by Shearwater, Passion Pit, Sharon Van Etten, and Damien Jurado; St. Vincent both solo and with David Byrne;  as well as his old Digable Planets friend Ishmael Butler, now with Shabazz Palaces.  He saw the late Benjamin Curtis and School of Seven Bells, Fanfarlo, Animal Collective, Hundred Waters, Father John Misty, Of Monsters & Men, Thee Oh Sees, Om, The Mynabirds, Moonface, Seapony, Gold Leaves, M83, Ana Tijoux, Low, and Dirty Projectors, and an epic set by My Morning Jacket out in the Oregon countryside.

And even though he hadn't seen her since Rocktober 2011, one of his favorite albums that year was Grimes' Visions.

Definitely getting close to the end of this 35-year retrospective.  According to Google Stats, I've lost most of this blog's readers and daily page views have dropped from about 20 per day to less than 5.  Regular posting will resume eventually.

Beach House vs. Grimes

Beach House's new video for Wishes is the best sports-themed clip since Grimes' Oblivion.

Vampire Weekend, and What Grimes Said

This evening's Vampire Weekend concert at NY's Roseland Ballroom is being broadcast live at 9:00 pm tonight at http://amexunstaged.com.  Added bonus points: the broadcast will be directed by Steve Buscemi.  

Personally, I'll be watching Game of Thrones at 9:00, but logging onto the website later in hopes of a re-broadcast.

But all of this is a set-up for what I really wanted to present: what Grimes said.  Here she is in another Buscemi video (which is how I found out about the Vampire Weekend webcast):

On her Tumblr site last week, Grimes wrote an essay that I think is worth reading (and worth re-printing):

I don’t want to have to compromise my morals in order to make a living

i dont want my words to be taken out of context  

i dont want to be infantilized because i refuse to be sexualized   

i dont want to be molested at shows or on the street by people who perceive me as an object that exists for their personal satisfaction  

i dont want to live in a world where im gonna have to start employing body guards because this kind of behavior is so commonplace and accepted and I’m pissed that when I express concern over my own safety it’s often ignored until people see firsthand what happens and then they apologize for not taking me seriously after the fact…  

I’m tired of men who aren’t professional or even accomplished musicians continually offering to ‘help me out’ (without being asked), as if i did this by accident and i’m gonna flounder without them.  or as if the fact that I’m a woman makes me incapable of using technology.  I have never seen this kind of thing happen to any of my male peers  

I’m tired of the weird insistence that i need a band or i need to work with outside producers (and I’m eternally grateful to the people who don’t do this) 

im tired of being considered vapid for liking pop music or caring about fashion as if these things inherently lack substance or as if the things i enjoy somehow make me a lesser person  

im tired of being congratulated for being thin because i can more easily fit into sample sizes from the runway  

im tired of people i love betraying me so they can get credit or money 

I’m sad that it’s uncool or offensive to talk about environmental or human rights issues 

I’m tired of creeps on message boards discussing whether or not they’d “fuck” me 

I’m tired of people harassing my dancers and treating them like they aren’t human beings 

I’m sad that my desire to be treated as an equal and as a human being is interpreted as hatred 

of men, rather than a request to be included and respected (I have four brothers and many male best friends and a dad and i promise i do not hate men at all, nor do i believe that all men are sexist or that all men behave in the ways described above)  

im tired of being referred to as ‘cute,’ as a ‘waif’ etc., even when the author, fan, friend, family member etc. is being positive  

(fyi)waif |wāf|
noun
1 a homeless and helpless person, esp. a neglected or abandoned child: she is foster-mother to various waifs and strays .
• an abandoned pet animal.
cute |kyo͞ot|
adjective
1 attractive in a pretty or endearing way: a cute kitten.
• informal sexually attractive.
I’m tired of people assuming that just because something happens regularly it’s ok
——————————————————

i have so much love for everyone who has been cool and amazing.  I have the best job in the world but I’m done with being passive about any kind of status quo that allows anyone to suffer or to be disrespected 

Grimes world tour is officially over, the visions album cycle is officially over, and I’m now taking the time to overhaul everything and make it better  

much love to every fan - stuff can be lame sometimes but its really cool to have this support <3  

7:28 pm  •  23 April 2013  •  16,116 notes

The xx and Austra at The Tabernacle, February 2, 2013

So the big surprise of The xx concert last night was not only that there was an opening act (none were listed on the tickets, the Tabernacle web site, or any listing that I could find), but also who they were. I went expecting to see a show by a single band, and kind of assumed that The xx were the kind of band that could pull that off.

It was a cold and rainy night when I arrived at the sold-out show at The Tabernacle, and 15 minutes before the doors opened the line already stretched down Baker Street and around the corner down Spring Street.  By the time I got in (8:15 or so), the floor was already pretty crowded so I found a not-bad seat up in the first balcony to watch the show.  Observing the stage, I could tell that someone else was going to play first. A drum set was one clue (The xx use all electronic percussion) and The xx's equipment was still covered with tarps behind the mystery band's set up.  No one in the audience around me knew who was opening and most, like me, were anticipating a one-band performance.

At a few minutes after 9:00, the house lights dimmed and the band took the stage to great applause.  I didn't recognize them until the drummer took a seat behind her kit - it was the unmistakable Maya Postepski, one of the hippest looking ladies in rock music today.  We last saw Ms. Postepski last September during MFNW, when she transformed Portland's Holocene nightclub into an 80's new wave dance club with her band Trust, but I quickly realized that this wasn't Trust on stage but her other band, the terrific Austra.

If not for Ms. Postepski, I probably wouldn't have recognized Austra's singer and principal performer Katie Stelmanis until the music started.  Last time we saw Austra was during Rocktober 2011, when she was a part of a brilliant strings of sets at The Earl that included her, Zola Jesus, St. Vincent, and Grimes, a veritable tour de force of indie female rockers, she looked quite different, wearing a red velvet gown and her blonde hair framing her face with bangs.  Last night, she took the stage looking far more casual, wearing a black sweater tucked into jeans and her hair tied up in a long ponytail.  There would have been no mistaking her voice, though - Ms. Stelmanis is a powerhouse singer and a former operatic student, and can pierce the atmosphere with precise, enunciated tones and notes without seeming to even try, a perfect compliment to the driving, electronic music of her band.

Back at The Earl, the band included two terrific back-up singers, twin sisters Sari and Romy Lightman who also perform as the band Tasseomancy.  Last night, the sisters were not with the band, which performed as a keyboards-drums-bass-vox quartet.  I thought their contribution would be missed, especially on the stand-out song The Beat and The Pulse, but Ms. Stelmanis ably compensated, agilely switching from the backing Ooo-Ooo-Ooo's to the main vocals, and Ms. Postepski singing some backup vocals as well. 

I certainly wouldn't have recognized bass player Dorian Wolf, who performed at The Earl wearing a scary looking mask (it was the night before Halloween).

Austra at The Earl, including Tasseomancy and scary bassist (10/30/11)

Austra (Katie Stelmanis and Dorian Wolf) at The Tabernacle (2/2/13)

During their set, Austra played several songs that sounded new to me.  We're overdue to a follow-up to 2011's terrific Feel It Break., and this tour with The xx may be a part of the band breaking in some new material.

Fun facts:  I learned during her stage banter last night that Toronto's Austra is pronounced the Canadian way ("Oh-stra"), while I had been mispronouncing it the American way ("Aw-stra").  Also, for some reason, Katie Stelmanis wore a big, Flavor Flav-style heart necklace.

The xx opened their set that way they open their second album Coexist, with Angels and Romy Madley-Croft's hushed and vulnerable lyrics (". . .As in love with you as I am.").  It was an emotional and fitting start for their hour-long set of songs about tortured love, vulnerability, and alienation, played against their own instantly recognizable blend of sparse, minimalistic rock, R&B, and hip hop.

It's been almost three years since The xx last played Atlanta.  Back in November 2009, they played the tiny Drunken Unicorn in what must have been a memorable night (I wasn't there), and then returned to headline at Variety Playhouse on March 24, 2010 (I did make that one), with Nosaj Thing and jj opening, but until last night's performance at The Tabernacle, I don't know of them playing this town since.  During the intervening years, the band toured globally, won numerous awards, and recorded their second album, the aforementioned Coexist.  Last night, bassist Oliver Sims apologized for the long absence from Atlanta and promised to not stay away for so long again.  

To the few who may for whatever reason still be unfamiliar wit the band at this point, one of there many unique features is the trading vocal duties between Mr. Sims and Ms. Madley-Croft, usually during a single song.  The back-and-forth vocals between male and female singers creates the impression of a dialog, an intimate conversation between a couple, allowing opportunities to explore themes of intimacy, alienation, and vulnerability.

Multi-instrumentalist Jamie Smith, who also produces under the name Jamie XX, provides the beats, using electronics, pads, drums, and other percussion, and generally fills in all the sounds that aren't the vocals, Sims' bass, or Madley-Croft's guitar.  

The band played a mix of songs from Coexist and their previous, eponymous album.  Toward the middle of the set, The xx played a medley of several songs together, with Jamie providing electronic segues between tunes.

It wasn't until the end of the last song of their set that the band displayed their iconic X on the screen behind them to thunderous applause and the lights from scores of iPhones.  The band left the stage with their logo still displayed, and during their encore set, various color effects were added to the display, similar to the cover design on their new album.

It was a great set by The xx, polished and highly professional, combining both old and new songs and full of emotionally resonant passages.  That, combined with the pleasant surprise of Austra's opening set, made for a very special evening.

My Year-End 4x4

No getting around it - this is pretty much what I was listening to this year.  Here are some random clips grabbed from the above.

Grimes

Grimes at The Earl, November 30, 2011

Since everyone else seems to be doing their end-of-year, best-of posts for 2012, I'll just mention that my favorite video of the year may very well be Grimes' intentionally over-the-top Genesis, possibly for the song itself, or for the extended ambient introduction, her avant subversion of the pop genre, or the video's lampooning of every video cliche of 2012, from Fiona Apple's octopus wig to MIA's crazy car rides.

Grimes came through Atlanta this year, on a Monday, naturally, when I couldn't see her, but I was able to catch her set at The Earl during Rocktober 2011, where she performed solo but for a single dancer, Duffy, who worked the crowd.

For completeness' sake, here are Fiona Apple's octopus wig and MIA's crazy car rides: