The follow up to Neko Case’s 2009 album “Middle Cyclone” is set for release on September 3. You can hear “The Worse Things Get, The Harder I Fight, The Harder I Fight, The More I Love You” in its entirety on NPR’s website as a part of their “First Listen” which is where I’ve gotten the chance to listen to a lot of stuff that I have since fallen in love with over the years. I remember listening to the debut of Japandroids, Fucked Up’s “David Comes to Life,” and Dirty Projectors “Bitte Orca” over there.
Of course the All Songs Considered podcast is always a great way to keep up with new independent music releases.
I’ve always been a fan of Case’s music, including all of her work with the New Pornographers. Actually, I think that the first time that I heard Neko Case was on their album “Twin Cinema.” I couldn’t get enough of that album when it came out. And of course the hauntingly beautiful “Hold On, Hold On” from her album “Fox Confessor Brings the Flood” has long been my favorite of her songs.
The upcoming release gives us 12 more tracks of which only one has been heard up to now. If that track, “Man,” is any indication of the sound of the rest of the album then it’s definitely going to be one of the ones to beat this year. Have a listen to that track below and make sure to head over to NPR to hear the rest of the album. Also, if you don’t follow her on Twitter then you should do that now, and if you don’t have a twitter account you should still read her page. It’s consistently excellent.
Oregon, and the rest of this corner of the country, has really been coming up the past few years with regard to music festivals. There’s Sasquatch, in central Washington, bringing in an impressive lineup of bands in May. The Treefort music festival in Boise in March that brought in a whole slew of great artists like Dan Deacon, Youth Lagoon, Earth and Quasi. Of course, as one of my recent posts pointed out, there is also the annual roots/folk festival just outside of Portland called Pickathon.
But, in my opinion, the most exciting of all of these is the SxSW style MusicFest NorthWest that happens all over the city of Portland for nearly an entire week at the beginning of September. The beginning of September, for those of you that aren’t fortunate enough to live in the Pacific Northwest, is when our weather tends to be absolutely perfect. Little to no rain, warm, sunny, everything you don’t think of when you think of the weather in the Pacific Northwest.
The artists that are brought to this area for each of these festivals keep getting better with each passing year. Last year Lightning Bolt, Deerhoof and Fucked Up playing MFNW were the bands that originally brought the festival to my attention and now that the full lineup has been released I would seriously urge people to sell a kidney if they had to in order to get there.
The full lineup and schedule have been officially released, which includes Neko Case, Animal Collective, Deerhunter, Godspeed You! Black Emperor, Titus Andronicus, Dan Deacon, Superchunk, The Thermals, The Dodos, Surfer Blood and a whole bunch more that I would give anything to see. It’s the largest music festival in the Northwest and the 3rd largest indoor music festival in the country, no small feat.
Wristbands range in price from $90 to $200, each guaranteeing free entry to any show, though the cheaper ones are “space permitting” while VIP is “immediate entry.” You can also buy individual tickets for each show, for those of you that don’t want to spend a week running across Portland (though if you were going to run around a city, Portland would be a good one to do it in. The light rail is pretty fantastic there.) And being that it is very similar in style to SxSW there is, of course, TechFestNW that overlaps with the last two days of the music festival.
If you’re in the area, or even if you are within a few days drive I would say go for it. Catch all the shows you can, and if you can’t get in to all of the shows that you wanted to, hey, you’re still in Portland. Have a beer.
It has taken me this long to digest The Flaming Lips most recent album, “The Terror.” It came out 4 months ago and I have given it several listens in that time. Admittedly the first time I listened to it, maybe a week or two before release, I set it aside and said to friends that I would never listen to it again. A few months went by and in July I gave it another few more shots.
The fact that it took me so long to get around to listening to the album didn’t have so much to do with how difficult a listen it is at first (and it is, truly, like nothing else the band has done before) as much as it might have to do with Wayne Coyne’s obsession with being the center of attention at all times. A few years ago I began getting annoyed by incessant releases of super-gimmicky collectors items. I was annoyed by the mediocrity of their cover of Pink Floyd’s entire “Dark Side of the Moon.” I was annoyed with the completely lackluster EP that the band did with Lightning Bolt. Actually that one angered me more than it annoyed me.
The Flaming Lips are becoming, it seems, increasingly interested in perpetuating their schtick of being the freaks on acid that release albums in jelly skulls and boxed sets of vinyl with the blood of the artists inside the vinyl. All the publicity stunts and Wayne’s completely obnoxious twitter account were enough to make one hope that they were putting as much thought, time and energy into their actual music.
The Terror shows that the Lips definitely were thinking about their music this whole time. And when I say they were thinking about it I mean that they basically stripped it all away and started over. This album is such a hard listen at first because there really are very few places for a listen to get a foothold. There are so few points of reference, with melodies deeply woven into the overall ambient landscape that sprawls seamlessly from beginning to end.
Wayne’s voice, surprisingly lacking the rasp of the past few releases, sings mostly in a falsetto that echoes in the distance for most of the tracks. The instruments are stripped down, with electronic loops and layers of atmospheric synth patches dominating while Drozd’s guitar work is mostly absent except for occasional short chordal stabs that created a brightness that cuts through the dense haze of the synths.
I’ve always loved albums that are able to create a distinctive sound that carries from song to song, with each track having at least that one common thread between them. Perhaps when I first listened to this I was listening incorrectly. I was listening for something to hook me in, something that was repeated and would become recognizable because of the way that it stood apart from other elements. Only in the past few weeks did I come to realize that the point of this album is that it is basically one long track, and that is not a detriment. That’s the way that they have decided that they were going to tie the album together, but to that end it also forces us, in a way, to listen to the album in its entirety when we do decide to listen.
And that is the thing about this album, it requires a commitment on the part of the listener. One can’t passively listen to “The Terror,” there aren’t really any tracks to pull out. It’s the entire album. At once. Stop doing other things while you’re listening, sit down and hear what is going on because it is complex and it is demanding and it’s time for you, as a listener, to hold up your end of the bargain.
Some of this all seems pretty obvious. There is no “Race For the Prize,” there is no “Do You Realize,” but that doesn’t mean that the album should be ignored. These are all things that I am learning, obviously most every other person out there that has reviewed this album has heaped praise onto it. I don’t think that my typical analytical approach of searching track by track through every minute detail to uncover the bits that are good and the bits that are less good, works here. I think that the lesson to be learned here is that it is possible to create an album that ditches short form melodic content in order to shape a much larger picture. It feels like the entire album is building, for nearly 52 minutes, toward the guitars and cavernous drums of “Always There…In Our Hearts.” Daring move, to say the least. The song doesn’t work as well without that buildup to it, it simply doesn’t make much sense.
Like a set of variations in reverse, the main material only comes clearly into view at the very end. The layers of ambiance and atmospherics are built up and subsequently stripped away to reveal that final track. That is a journey worth taking.
You may not imagine a tiny blog like mine that nobody reads would get a steady stream of free music sent to their inbox, but I do. It takes a lot of effort (that 9 chances out of 10 is not worth it) to comb through all of the music that I am thrown on a weekly basis. Hundreds of hours of music.
I get into these moods where I want to listen to something that I have never heard before, or even heard of before. That’s where Burn Down the Capital comes in and never lets me down. I met the dude that not only runs that site, but also puts together crazy shows of the most outside music you could ever imagine across Toronto, several years ago. So, that link might be of a bit more help to you if you live in and around the Toronto area if you’d like to actually check out any of the shows that are posted to the site.
Last week the email he sent out included info about a gig that Philadelphia’s David Harms, aka Mincemeat or Tenspeed, was putting on. I checked it out and got exactly what I wanted. Noisy, challenging music. If you are a fan of early Dan Deacon or Merzbow (or both) then you should check this out. He creates music with “No synthesizers, samplers, sequencers, drum machines, computers, musical instruments.” His only tools are effects pedals and a mixer. What he does with that limited inventory is pretty amazing.
Ranging from pure noise-ambience to electronic pulsations of distorted glitches, he’s got it covered from top to bottom. And the truly great news for you is that there is a great deal of his music that is available for download for free. If you are having a hard time trying to decide where to start, I think that “Live in Black Ops,” “The Tower,” and “Dungeon Master” are where to go. Interesting sidenote that the Soundcloud page claims Providence as his location (perhaps that is more current?) and that the “Dungeon Master” album includes the track “Mindflayer,” also the name of fellow Providence noise master Brian Chippendale’s bands. Check out some of these tracks and then head over here and download.
This album is old news by now. It’s been out for several months and every music blog on the internet has already reviewed it. But I’ve been away for a while and this album is deserving of all the praise that can be heaped onto it.
Yes, we all know that the San Francisco music scene (Thee Oh Sees, Ty Segall, White Fence) tends to churn out several albums a year each, sometimes even collaborating on albums like Ty and White Fence’s “Hair,” a record that I adore.
Like I’ve probably mentioned before, after seeing Thee Oh Sees once I was absolutely hooked. They’ve released two albums since then, “Putrifiers II” and before the amps had even cooled down from recording that John Dwyer gives us “Floating Coffin.”
An absolute assault. Nobody does the gentle-verse-juxtaposed-with-thrashing-chorus better than JPD and Co. To me, this is one of the main reasons why all their albums have such a high replay value. The songs are always, without fail, both catchy and bristling with energy. This makes for a pretty intense live experience, and at a show a few months back in San Francisco I learned the hard way that a hometown show for Thee Oh Sees is nothing to be messed with. Easily the 2nd most insane pit since I caught a Lightning Bolt show in 2007.
From the initial buildup of “I Come From the Mountain” straight through to “Tunnel Time,” the album is a non-stop force. It’s notable that the tempo of many of these songs rates a bit higher than usual on their records. My hypothesis is that touring non-stop after the release of “Putrifiers II” and then immediately rushing back into the studio to record this helped them to keep their energy up. I remember after seeing them for the first time and bringing home “Carrion Crawler/The Dream” and wondering why all the songs on the record were so slow. “Floating Coffin” truly captures the band’s live energy. I don’t know how they do it night after night, going crazy up there, and playing brilliantly at the same time for two hours at a go.
Highlights include “Toe Cutter – Thumb Buster” with a squeal of feedback to start and a brutal instrumental chorus that is matched by an equally brutal, not to mention visually stunning, video. This is perhaps in a close tie with “No Spell” for favorite tracks on the album, which has a fairly exaggerated instance of their soft-loud-soft Pixies on crack aesthetic. Again, this song features an instrumental chorus that, to me, is pretty blissful. Sometimes you just get that perfect combination of 4 chords and that is all you need. There isn’t a reason why you have to constantly have multiple layers of guitars all over the place. Simple is better. Stripped down is better. Thee Oh Sees know this all too well and exploit it to great affect.
The album is available on the traditional black vinyl, as well as “Space Lego Green” that comes with a bonus flexi that you can purchase here.
And if that doesn’t convince you that you need to buy this album, I don’t know what will.
Web//Castleface Records//Facebook//Soundcloud//
And now, as an extra added bonus, is a video of John Dwyer beating a guy to pulp with his guitar in 2004 in Toronto while playing as a two piece called Hospitals (0:40 second mark if you are that impatient) :
Sharon Van Etten recently played the final show of her tour here in Oregon. The Pickathon is a yearly music festival that happens outside of Portland. This year the festival was on August 4th and we have a really good recording of the entire set. Even more exciting is that this recording provides some really high quality versions of a few new songs that Sharon played that afternoon.
The first song, on my recording simply labeled “New Song” as she opens the set with it and doesn’t introduce it, but I think a fair bet is that the song is going to be called “I Know.” It’s a great choice for a set opener with just Sharon singing at the piano, her voice confident and stronger than ever. She moves effortlessly between a subdued, soft voice drawing us in, and a powerful full-voiced near shout at the top of her range before seeming to calm herself down singing “I know…..I know.” The dynamic play pushes and pulls us through the song, while melismatic turns casually float by before coming to an end with Sharon softly singing “all I ever wanted was you.”
Abut the other new track, “Tarifa,” Sharon explains,
“this next song is about a vacation, it’s a new one that we’ve been working on, it’s call Tarifa….it’s [in Spain] on a fucking cliff overlooking Morocco, but it is amazing – in the middle of nowhere. There was a bunch of bulls, that I was afraid of, in the pasture next to me, but they could give a shit that I was there. They didn’t try to run me over or anything weird. I had to ask my boyfriend, I was like ‘can I wear red? Are they gonna charge at me?’ They didn’t. I tried it out. It was fine. Anyway, this song is about that.”
It’s more fleshed out than “I Know,” beginning with Sharon and her guitar, and the rest of the band soon following. The verses move through a gentle waltz, while the choruses are more concerned with driving straight ahead.
And while you are checking those out, you should also head over to this site to purchase a t-shirt designed by Sharon with all of the proceeds going to charity.
“The artwork used is one of my early contour drawings when I first moved to New York and the charity chosen is Women in Need (WIN). WIN transforms the lives of New York City homeless women and their children by providing a holistic solution of safe housing, critical services and ground-breaking programs they need to succeed on their own – so the women can regain their independence and their children can look forward to a brighter future.”
Sharon Van Etten designed Yellow Bird Project t-shirt
So there you have it. Two new songs and a way to help a great charity. This is where I would normally say “you can catch her on tour” but, like I said, the tour is over. Look for the album within the year. You’ll forget by then, but I’ll remind you.
of Montreal’s “Lousy with Sylvianbriar” will be out October 8, 2013
It’s always exciting (at least to me) whenever of Montreal releases an album. They have entered the ranks of “band that can do no wrong” in my mind. I have nothing but love for their entire recorded output. So, naturally, as soon as I saw that this album was up for pre-order I jumped on it.
Though, I will have to admit, after reading about the new direction that Kevin Barnes took when recording this album (one would usually do that prior to throwing down cash for the album, but I knew that I was going to end up buying it regardless). It made me nervous to read that “Lousy with Sylvianbriar” was created with a new songwriting approach, a different recording method, and a fresh group of musicians.” Ok, I am fine with a new approach (I love “Skeletal Lamping”) and I’m on board for a different recording method (I still regularly listen to “False Priest”) but what makes me nervous is that last part, “a fresh group of musicians.”
What did he do with B.P., why did he ditch Dottie? And Davey! You can’t get rid of the bass player in of Montreal! I realize that for years we have been listening to Kevin Barnes’ nervous breakdown, but this is crazy. I’m am keeping the faith, though I’m also not entirely sure what the tour will hold. Rebecca Cash has a fantastic voice that lends a relaxed air to the version of “Feminine Effects” that appears on “Daughter of Cloud.” I’m hoping that will continue through this album as well.
So yes, I am nervous. But that is exciting. The band….Kevin…..is taking gigantic risks with each release and this is just the latest incarnation of those risks. As a fan it’s been great to sit back and listen to the results. He hasn’t let me down yet. It’s like a trust fall.
We have one song as a preview right now, “Fugitive Air,” which will be the opening track on the album. The immediacy of the album’s recording process (apparently 3 weeks from beginning to end) breathes new life into their sound. Barnes takes a soulful approach to his vocals that sounds vaguely bluesy, with a touch of scratchiness added to the production. The song’s bridge transforms itself into a lengthy coda that changes the overall tone of the song from a song that drives forward to one that floats. Lots of good stuff in this track.
Listen to it a few times and get yourself adjusted and excited. The album is currently available for pre-order from Polyvinyl on CD, Vinyl (180 gram “sea glass green,” limited to 1,500 copies), and was also available on green tape (why anyone would buy a tape is beyond me) but it is now sold out.
10-18 Athens, GA – 40 Watt Club
10-22 Carrboro, NC – Cat’s Cradle
10-23 Washington, DC – U Street Music Hall
10-24 Washington, DC – U Street Music Hall
10-25 Philadelphia, PA – Union Transfer
10-26 Cambridge, MA – Middle East
10-27 Brooklyn, NY – Music Hall of Williamsburg
10-28 Brooklyn, NY – Music Hall of Williamsburg *
10-29 Cleveland, OH – Beachland *
10-30 Chicago, IL – Lincoln Hall *
10-31 Madison, WI – Majestic Theater *
11-01 Minneapolis, MN – Cedar Cultural Center *
11-02 Omaha, NE – Waiting Room *
11-03 Denver, CO – Marquis Theater *
11-04 Salt Lake City, UT – Urban Lounge *
11-05 Boise, ID – Korah Shrine *
11-06 Seattle, WA – Neumos *
11-07 Portland, OR – Wonder Ballroom *
11-08 San Francisco, CA – Great American Music Hall *
11-09 San Francisco, CA – Great American Music Hall *
11-10 Los Angeles, CA – Echoplex *
11-11 Los Angeles, CA – Largo at the Coronet *
11-12 Tucson, AZ – Club Congress *
11-14 Dallas, TX – Trees *
11-15 Austin, TX – Mohawk *
11-16 New Orleans, LA – Howlin’ Wolf *
11-17 Atlanta, GA – Terminal West *
Like I said two days ago, that the next day I was going to write about the other band that was formed after the dissolution of Women, well that was before I found out that Lightning Bolt had released a new track. I’m always one for keeping things as current as possible, so I allowed myself to get a little off track.
Well since Viet Cong formed with Mike Wallace and Matt Flegel (among others, of course) we should now talk about Pat Flegel’s new project, Cindy Lee.
First off this is far more experimental than anything that Women ever did, and it seems that it is going to stand as far more experimental than what Viet Cong is doing (though, to be fair, that album hasn’t come out yet, but I’m just making the assumption based on the track). The album, only available as a digital download now that the cassette has sold out, reminds me at first of the first Sonic Youth album.
Album opener “Fuck Myself Stupid” features a noisy growl of a guitar that sounds as if it has been treated to some preparation of some sort a la “Lee is Free” (I can’t help but allude to Sonic Youth) and that is combined with some moaning as the song continues to grow louder, building to the end. We do start to get some more or less traditional songs on the album, however. Of course I am using that as a relative term.
“Find Another Man” may have a steady beat, (shoddily tuned) rhythm guitar and some vocals, but it is similarly out there. The lead guitar wanders, twanging in the background while the bass holds down a circular steady eighth note pattern. Devolving into chaos little by little, Flegel coaxes eerie sounds from his guitar until another verse forms. The chaos that ensues upon its completion is far more violent than before, and the band seems to revel in the creation of noise and atmospherics.
A supernatural, disturbing vibe seems to emanate from these tracks. Between the cavernous echo that surrounds the instruments, combined with faint voices heard off in the distance and the sounds of someone actually tapping on the microphone (the aural equivalent of an actor suddenly taking notice of you watching him and stepping to face you), these elements combined make for a somewhat uneasy listening experience.
Understand, that I am not saying “uneasy” in a negative light. That takes some skill, to stick with such an aesthetic and to pull it off so well. The mix of control and chaos, of noise with melody, that seems to be the focus here. And I don’t think that the album ever takes it too far. There isn’t a point on the album where I am thinking to myself, “Ok, now this has gone on long enough.” The sequencing of the tracks and the structure within the tracks themselves prevents that from happening.
Take for example the next pair of songs “Holding the Devil’s Hand,” with it’s 60’s ballad style arpeggiated guitar line and high vocal; that song is followed by “Aboriginal Sin,” another burst of screams, arhythmic drums and atonal guitar work with the recording going into the red from time to time. One song is about creating melody while the next is about playing with shape and atmosphere. Each pursuing the same sound in different ways.
Standout track, for me, has to be “Assassination Reality” that is a combination of all aforementioned elements. It’s a noisy, straight ahead rock track taken right from the early Sonic Youth playbook before collapsing in on itself with distorted vocals and prepared guitars. All with a fine covering of the warmth of tape recording for just the right amount of character to the sound. I don’t want to not mention “Promise of Lonlieness” which is a haunting, melancholic, and tuneful while atonal album closer that is rather beautiful.
The recording is available on Cindy Lee’s Bandcamp page for only $2 Canadian. And of course, as with all Bandcamp pages, you can preview all of these tracks. Oh look there’s the player right there at the top of the page. Maybe you’ve been listening as you read along.
They have a few shows opening for Deerhunter at the end of this month in BC, which makes total sense. So check that out if you can. Also check out this lengthy interview that will give you a lot more insight into the actual band and the story behind the meaning of some of the song. It’s pretty interesting.
Friday, August 30 @ The Rickshaw Theatre (Vancouver, BC)
Just when I thought I was going to have to search for things to write about one of my favorite bands, Lightning Bolt, shows up with a new track. I’m hoping for a new album soon now that it looks like Chippendale is done touring as Black Pus.
So we have this track, “Barbarian Boy,” and the most surprising element to me is that the vocals are more intelligible than anything else I’ve ever heard from the band. The drumming is also quite a bit more subdued than any other LB track, though this doesn’t make it is any less powerful. Gibson’s bass plows into view, fighting against feedback the entire way. Brief moments of silence created when the bass drops out works to heighten the intensity a bit, where formerly they would be content to maintain the same brutal dynamic throughout. But the silence doesn’t last very long as the end of the song becomes blurred in a monomaniacal circular pattern of bass fuzz accompanied by Chippendale’s chanting.
The track is part of a compilation put out by Adult Swim. It also includes tracks by Marnie Stern, Pig Destroyer, Dan Deacon and Metz. You can listen to the comp and download the tracks here.
(UPDATE: The band has taken down “Quality Arrangement” and posted a full cassette’s worth of material, which I talk about and link to here)
If there is one thing that people that know me are aware of, or that readers of this blog are aware of, it’s of my love for the band Women from Calgary. We are also all aware that the possibility of new music from them is absolutely out of the question.
But what we do have to look forward to are two new bands that have formed from Women’s former members. Today’s track comes from the band Viet Cong that includes Matt Flegel, former bassist for Women and Mike Wallace, their drummer. The lineup also includes members from Lab Coast, Sharp Ends and Friendo. If this song is any indication then we have a lot to look forward too, especially since this track is pulled off beautifully when recorded live. I’m personally hoping that they work with Chad Vangaalen to record and produce their album. I can’t imagine why he wouldn’t, doesn’t he have his hand in pretty much all the music that comes out of Calgary?
This is the only song posted to their bandcamp page. The band is touring with Freak Heat Waves currently and I would assume that an album is in the workscompleted. Keep an eye on it and listen to the track. Unfortunately it’s not up for download.
The next post will cover another band, Cindy Lee, formed after the dissolution of Women by their former singer and guitarist Pat Flegel.
