Dancing About Architecture 03.31.09
Posted by Ian Wright on 03.31.2009
Thoughts on Animal Collective playing one of the worst gigs that I’ve ever seen, Okkervil River go to school, a new Sunset Rubdown album, Radiohead for festivals, a new Tortoise album and more.
The bit at the start
Hello, hope you're all well. I've got a couple of things I want to start off with this week. First up something good …
I conducted an e-mail interview with Dan Deacon for a local music mag recently and it went quite well. In it he talks about the experience of working with musicians for the first time in a while, his compositional process, his frustrations at the public image that surrounds him and the impact bringing a band with him on the road will have on his live shows and more. I think he's provided some pretty interesting answers to my cack handed questions. Read here.
Next up something bad …
There are many reasons to admire Animal Collective. They appear to be endlessly creative and utterly fearless about pursuing their unified muse in whatever direction it may take them with seemingly zero consideration for what they've done before; their focus always seems to be on what they're going to do next. And most importantly of all, when they get things right they produce genuinely remarkable music. In fact when the history of this decade's music is written it may be the case that they'll be recognised as the most innovative and influential band of the era.
They were awful on Friday. Shockingly bad in fact.
The thing I love most about Animal Collective on record, or at least on the last two records is the way that things fit together so seamlessly, a multitude of ideas, very few of them all that difficult to execute by themselves combine with brilliant results. There's loads going on but everything is given room to be heard. I've always felt that music connects with me in three places; in the head, in the heart, in the gut or in a combination of two or all of them. "Head music" being the least fulfilling in the long run and that's where Animal Collective reside with me most of the time. I listen to them, and what they do, and my usual reaction to them save for a few songs that really light a fire under me is to think "oh wow, that's really clever". On Friday though, due to a muddy mix everything just sounded like a jumbled mess. There was no sharpness, no definition to what was coming from the stage, a haze of noise that I found unengaging to the point of total boredom, and I dig on noise a lot of the time when it's used in a pop music context so it's not like it's alien to me. In fact my only other feeling throughout was frustration at how shit a band that I really like were.
Oh, and I get that it's a deliberate aesthetic choice from them and to that end I can't and won't criticise them too harshly for it but I found the low end to be way way too subby.
Beg, borrow, buy, steal or download this album.
Leonard Cohen – Live In London
Starts off slow but gets wonderful very quickly.
You news, you lose
Okkervil Elementary.
The Austin Bat Cave is not the Texan liberal enclave home of Bruce Wayne but rather it's a non-profit group that teaches kids about writing. The Bat Cave was visited last week by Okkervil River's Will Sheff where he talked about the songwriting process and also played a stripped down version of "Our Life Is Not a Movie Or Maybe" along with bandmates drummer Travis Nelson and guitarist Lauren Gurgiolo.
So 2009 is an off year for Wolf Parade and Dan Boeckner has already released a great record with the Handsome Furs to stake an early claim for album of the year. Not to be undone Spencer Krug is readying a new Sunset Rubdown release.
Dragonslayer will be released on Jagjaguar on June 23rd. It will be the band's first album with bassist/drummer Mark Nicol. Before that though in the first week of April SR will release a 7" picturedisc on Aagoo Records called Sunset Rubdown Introducing Moonface featuring a pair of non album tracks "Coming To The Dawn" and "Insane Love Is Awakening".
Tracklisting:
01 Silver Moons
02 Idiot Heart
03 Apollo and the Buffalo and Anna Anna Anna Oh!
04 Black Swan
05 Paper Lace
06 You Go on Ahead (Trumpet Trumpet II)
07 Nightingale / December Song
08 Dragon's Lair
There's a daytrotter session featuring Idiot Heart on it. It's a brilliant tune.
Oh and here's the cover art.
Are you Reading this correctly?
It was announced last week that Radiohead will headline the Reading/Leeds festival which takes place across 2 venues in the North and South of England from August 28-30.
Other bands also playing include Arctic Monkeys, and Kings of Leon, Vampire Weekend, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, and Fall Out Boy.
But don't let that put you off, fuckin' Radiohead man.
As slow as a, actually never mind
There's a new Tortoise album on the way, their first in 5 years. It's called Beacons Of Ancestorship and Thrill Jockey are putting it out on June 23rd.
Following the release of that album the band will then for on to release a series of limited edition 5" records.
Which is an interesting idea. 5" that is. I wonder how big a difference those 2 inches make.
"Lots," she said.
I'm really sorry for that.
The YouTube video of the week
Acrade Fire have recorded a new version of "Wake Up" for the trailer to Where The Wild Things Are.
If you can you should go to these gigs.
Sunset Rubdown
04-18 Paris, France - La Maronquinerie
04-20 Haarlem, Netherlands - Patronaat
04-24 Wetzlar, Germany - KuZ
04-22 Stuttgart, Germany - Manufaktur
04-23 Prague, Czech Republic - 007
04-24 Krems, Austria - Danube Festival
04-25 Moscow, Russia - Avant Festival
04-27 Zagreb, Croatia - Teatar & TD
04-29 Krakow, Poland - Manggha
04-30 Warsaw, Poland - Hydrozagadka
05-02 Aarhus, Denmark - Pop Revo Festival
The Shins
05-02 Bellingham, WA - Western Washington University
05-04 Seattle, WA - Showbox
05-05 Seattle, WA - Showbox
05-06 Portland, OR - Crystal Ballroom
05-07 Portland, OR - Crystal Ballroom
05-09 Oakland, CA - Fox Theater
05-10 Los Angeles, CA - Hollywood Palladium
05-11 San Diego, CA - SOMA
05-13 Richmond, VA - The National
05-14 Washington, DC - 9:30 Club
05-15 Baltimore, MD - Ram's Head Live
05-16 Philadelphia, PA - Electric Factory
05-17 Montclair, NJ - Wellmont Theater
05-18 New York, NY - Terminal Five
TV on the Radio and Dirty Projectors together
05-22 Oakland, CA - Fox Oakland Theater
05-23 Portland, OR - Roseland Theater
05-25 Vancouver, British Columbia - Malkin Bowl
05-27 Edmonton, Alberta - Edmonton Events Centre
05-28 Calgary, Alberta - Macewan Hall
05-29 Saskatoon, Saskatchewan - Louis' Pub
05-30 Winnipeg, Manitoba - Burton Cummings Theatre
06-02 Toronto, Ontario - Sound Academy
06-03 Montreal, Quebec - Metropolis
06-04 Boston, MA - House of Blues
06-05 New York, NY - Central Park Summerstage
06-08 Washington, DC - 9:30 Club
06-09 Washington, DC - 9:30 Club
06-10 Richmond, VA - The National
06-11 - Charlotte, NC - Amos' Southend
TV on the Radio
04-14 Pomona, CA - Glasshouse
04-16 Ventura, CA - Ventura Theatre
04-18 Indio, CA - Coachella Festival
05-11 Pittsburgh, PA - Mr Smalls *
05-12 Louisville, KY - Headliners Music Hall *
05-13 Birmingham, AL - Bottle Tree *
05-15 New Orleans, LA - House of Blues *
05-16 Austin, TX - Stubbs *
05-17 Dallas, TX - House of Blues *
05-18 Oklahoma City, OK - Diamond Ballroom *
06-12 Manchester, TN - Bonnaroo Festival
06-13 Atlanta, GA - Tabernacle
07-09 Lisbon, Portugal - Alive Festival
07-11 Eadestown, Ireland - Punchestown Racecourse (Oxegen Festival)
07-12 Kinross, Scotland - T in the Park Festival
07-13 Brixton, England - O2 Academy
07-15 Lyon, France - Les Nuits de Fourviere
07-17 Carhaix, France - Les Vieilles Charrues
07-18 Angouleme, France - Garden Nef Festival
07-19 Valencia, Spain - Benicassim
07-21 Ferrara, Italy - Bands Apart Festival
07-24 Nyon, Switzerland - Paleo Festival
07-25 Laval, France - Les 3 Elephants Festival
07-26 Cologne, Germany - Live Music Hall
07-27 Vienna, Austria - Open Air Arena
07-29 Copenhagen, Denmark - Vega
07-30 Stockholm, Sweden - Debaser Medis
07-31 Ostersund, Sweden - Great Lakes Festival
08-02 Helsinki, Finland - Ankkarock Festival
* with Little Dragon
Dirty Projectors
03-31 Brighton, England - Komedia $
04-01 Manchester, England - Mint Lounge $
04-02 London, England - Scala $
04-03 Bristol, England - Arnolfini $
04-04 Coventry, England - Taylor Johns House $
05-03 New York, NY - Radio City Music Hall (Dark Was the Night show) !
05-08 New York, NY - Housing Works Bookstore & Café #
06-06 Baltimore, MD - Metro Gallery ^
$ with Icy Demons, Polar Bear
! with Feist, My Brightest Diamond, Bon Iver, the National
# with Björk, Kurt Weisman, Ólöf Arnalds
^ with A Place to Bury Strangers
Writing under the influence
Without which this column would not have been possible:
Talk Radio
Leonard Cohen – Live In London
The bit at the end
That me for another week, take care.
Will be seeing Frightened Rabbit play on Wednesday, really looking forward to it.
