Dancing About Architecure 09.22.09
Posted by Ian Wright on 09.22.2009
Live reports on Okkervil River, Future Islands, The Tallest Man On Earth and Sunset Rubdown. The Pavement reunion, a Spiritualized reissue, New Moon's awesome soundtrack, Leaonard Cohen takes ill, a Merge remix compilation, and more.
The bit at the start
So like I said last week I had to go away for work a couple of weeks ago and ended up skipping a column. The upside to it was that I got to see Okkervil River in Galway that night, as well as a bunch of other gigs that week. As per usual I blogged about them elsewhere. Also as per usual I'm cross posting it to here in lieu of coming up with original material for the intro …
Okkervil River are a band whose music I truly adore, I'd consider all of their first 3 albums to be solid gold and when it comes around to figuring out my favourite records of the decade in a few months Black Sheep Boy will definitely be in the final shakeup for consideration. I must admit though that I've been unable to find the same love for the band's more polished sounding recent 2 albums, in fact I've probably listened to Will Sheff's solo demos for The Stage Names more than I've listened to the actual album itself. There's a couple of super songs on each and not too many stinkers it must be said but I'd be hard pressed to find a couple of songs on Down The River Of Golden Dreams that I don't like.
Live though, they remain a helluva band. I remember seeing the for the first time in Whelan's one May a few years back and expecting to see a nice little folk outfit play some nice little tunes and being shocked by the aggression and volume of their performance. Instruments and amps take a fairly hefty beating at Okkervil River gigs and that hasn't changed over the years. That sort of intensity really gives the material from The Stage Names and The Stand Ins a lift, whatever is lacking from them on record is added back on thanks to the cranking of volume, the slamming of hands down on keyboards and the extra grit in Will Sheff's voice. A touch too much grit perhaps as it turns out because the gig finished slightly earlier then it might have due to his throat giving out towards the end. Still though a typically robust performance from the band and worth the trip over even if my post gig slurred drunk tales of cross country drives to see them met with not totally impressed but probably tongue in cheek responses, "I'm from Texas, I drive that far to get to work in morning."
On Wednesday night, following up an impressive showing back in May at Andrews Lane Theatre supporting Dan Deacon Future Islands were back in Dublin playing the Upstairs venue of Whelan's. It was one of those nights when you find yourself in a barely half full room watching a band giving it everything they have and you can't help but wonder why the hell there aren't more people there. Future Islands write fantastic songs and frontman Sam Herring performs them as if there's 50,000 people watching him. He's all high kicks (as high as possible at least) and Elvis style twitching with a wonderful crooning delivery. If he were an apparently less likable person (oh lets say Bono for example seeing as they both bust out similar moves from time to time). His antics might come across as a little ridiculous but seeing him and his two bandmates play reminds me of what the best part of seeing live music is, watching a band so totally in love with what they're doing that it doesn't matter how many people are there, they're going to do their thing regardless. The band's second album is out early in the new year and there's a good chance they'll be back in February for a series of dates around the country.
As things turned out the first 2 nights out last week only served as an appetiser for the main course to come at the weekend.
Actually, that doesn't work at all, I'm about to write about 2 gigs. And they can't both be a main course. The point is that they were both very, very good.
Friday night saw The Tallest Man On Earth finally make his debut in Dublin. A quick look though the archives just now reveals that I've been shiteing on about him on this blog for 16 months now. Considering that it's only a short flight from Stockholm and in the intervening months he's fitted in US and Aussie tours it was about bleedin' time that he made it to these shores.
When I reviewed his Primavera Festival performance back in May I wrote that I've never seen someone who performs solo with just an acoustic guitar so dominate a stage. In the smaller surroundings of Whelan's on Friday night that knack for owning a venue was in even more apparent effect. Kristian Matsson doesn't do the standing in front of a microphone and plucking away at his guitar thing, he stalks every inch of the stage and walks right up to it's edge (and occasionally past that point and takes things to the floor) to eyeball people in the crowd. He doesn't do it in a confrontational manner, it's just a way of engaging with his audience. In fact there's very little confrontational about him at all, during one longish break between songs while he moved his guitar into another tuning the level of audience chatter began to build up. When he'd finally got his instrument to sound like he wanted it to he silenced the crowd by saying "OK, now I'm going to play a song for you, and you're going to be quiet for me."
But stage presence and easy charm only go so far (and really, they are a secondary concern to be honest, I've seen some fantastic gigs in the past by people who were excruciatingly awkward in front of a crowd but who managed to overcome it to turn in a great performance) and nothing can make up for not having the tunes, or the skills to pull them off. Matsson doesn't have anything to worry about on either score, his high speed finger picking throughout the night appeared almost flawless and as for the songs played (including most if not all of Shallow Grave "Over The Hills" from the debut EP and a couple of new numbers), well I think they're great anyway. Discussing the gig afterwards someone said to me that Matsson is a bit of a one trick pony but he does his trick amazingly well, there may be some truth in that (for the most part he's in the obvious thrall of pre-'65 Dylan with occasional forays into other areas of American folk ol' Bob wasn't so much interested in playing back then) but we are talking about a guy with a single album to his name, there's loads of time for him to go electric (though he already has his other project Montezumas for that), or electro, or whatever if he feels like it.
The subplot to Saturday's Sunset Rubdown gig in Crawdaddy was the running battle between Spencer Krug and the switch of the electric fan that he'd placed atop of his guitar amp. Judging by the perspiration he'd secreted by concert's end I think you'd have to concede that the switch kicked his ass, and how.
For whatever reason there was no support for this gig so Sunset Rubdown took to the stage early (9:05 PM), opening with what had been on the Random Spirit Lover tour their big closing encore number "The Empty Threats Of Little Lords" (surely the only song on the live touring circuit right now that features a glockenspiel played with what appears to be a pocket sized *coughahem* "ladies back massager" on it) which shifted without a break into one of new album Dragonslayer's highlights "Idiot Heart" and they carried on till just past the venue's 10:30 curfew. If all gigs were like this I'd happily get behind the "no support band" idea. Of course not many bands that play somewhere like Crawdaddy have a canon large enough to carry off that type of show. Thinking about it now I realise just how disproportionate a percentage of my favourite songs from the last 5 years Spencer Krug has written and the fact that the band managed to play a fantastic set while omitting songs as good as "Stadiums And Shrines", "Snake's Got A Leg", "Three Colours" (not a great song in either of it's incarnations on the EP but a stonker live) and "Shut Up I Am Dreaming Of Places Where Lover Have Wings" from it and have them not even be missed just goes to show how strong their catalogue is. Gig of the week in a fantastic week for gigs.
Beg, borrow, buy, steal or download this album.
Fuck Buttons - Tarot Sport
Their second album, much more polished, no less good.
You news, you lose
There's only one story that could be the lead this week.
PAVEMENT ARE BACK!!!
HOLY SHIT!
Pavement are back.
Or at least they will be next year. In spite of the mile high piled hill of bullshit in the press release announcing the reformation (most important band of the 90's? Fuck off.) the news that Pavement (in the form of Mark Ibold, Scott Kannberg, Steve West, Bob Nastanovich and Stephen Malkmus) will be getting back together for a world tour starting next year. At the moment the only dates announced are 4 in Central Park beginning on September 21st but more dates are likely to emerge soon (a first date at Coachella has been long rumoured, but then again, so has a comeback as curators of an ATP so you never know). At present it's looking like this will only be a once off thing and don't expect to hear any new tunes but long term you never know.
Tickets for the New York gigs went on sale last Friday and most of the dates sold out almost immediately. I snagged tickets for myself and 2 buddies for the first night. I'm ridiculously excited.
I'm talking about a Twilight movie. I know, I'm surprised too.
There's a couple of things I'm positive about with regard to the next film in the Twilight series New Moon. The first is that I'm not going to have any interest in it as I'm not a teenaged girl, the second is that chances are that it's going to have a pretty great soundtrack. The collection will include original contributions from Thom Yorke, Grizzly Bear , Bon Iver and St Vincent (that's "Bon Iver and St. Vincent" as in a collaboration between them, not "Bon Iver, and St. Vincent", intruiged? Me too.)
Anyway, here's the tracklisting:
01 Death Cab for Cutie: "Meet Me on the Equinox"
02 Band of Skulls: "Friends"
03 Thom Yorke: "Hearing Damage"
04 Lykke Li: "Possibility"
05 The Killers: "A White Demon Love Song"
06 Anya Marina: "Satellite Heart"
07 Muse: "I Belong to You (New Moon Remix)"
08 Bon Iver and St. Vincent: "Rosyln"
09 Black Rebel Motorcycle Club: "Done All Wrong"
10 Hurricane Bells: "Monsters"
11 Sea Wolf: "The Violet Hour"
12 OK Go: "Shooting the Moon"
13 Grizzly Bear: "Slow Life"
14 Editors: "No Sound But the Wind"
15 Alexandre Desplat: "New Moon (The Meadow)"
It's all very unexpected and odd.
But if you're all bent out of shape over "cool indie acts" being on this soundtrack I'd suggest that you should maybe start reading those books, because they're pitched at people with the same level of maturity as you.
Oh no, not good.o
With all the excitement over the Pavement reunion and the My Bloody Valentine reunion and the Jesus Lizard reunion and the reunion of any number of 80's and 90's indie bands it's easy to forget that perhaps the most impressive and heartening return to the live arena is from a man who was already heading towards semi-retirement before David Yow ever whipped his dick out on stage.
The Leonard Cohen comeback tour (now in it's second year) has been met by almost universal praise and this year's Live album recorded in London is nothing short of brilliant. So accomplished have these gigs been that it's really east to forget that Cohen is in fact 75 years old.
Those years may have caught up with the great man a little bit last week in Spain when he fainted on stage on Friday night when playing in Valencia. Cohen was hospitalised overnight but was released the next day. The BBC is reporting that Cohen was suffering from a bout of food poisoning.
Merge is still 20.
As part of their 20th anniversary celebrations Merge records are releasing yet another compilation album to mark that fact. Earlier this year they released a rather good covers comp. on which a number of Merge associated acts covered songs that had been released on the imprint over the years, this time however it's a remix album with original songs from the Merge catalogue being chopped and changed (and maybe even having a donk put on them). The compilation will be released on download and CD on November 17th.
Tracklisting:
01 Polvo: "Kalgon (Caribou Remix)"
02 Pram: "Mother of Pearl (Barbara Morgenstern Remix)"
03 Guv'ner: "Baby's Way Cruel (Four Tet Remix)"
04 Portastatic: "Drill Me (The Blow's I Was So There Remix)"
05 Spoon: "The Ghost of You Lingers (John McEntire Remix)"
06 Arcade Fire: "No Cars Go (Jason Forrest Remix)"
07 The 6ths: "Volcana! (Xiu Xiu's I Hope Your Train Crashes Remix)"
08 The Rosebuds: "Bow to the Middle (+/- Remix)"
09 Caribou: "Irene (Hands Off Cuba Remix)"
10 The Magnetic Fields: "Washington DC (Mark Robinson Remix)"
11 Lambchop: "The Nashville Parent (Junior Boys Remix)"
Ladies and Gentlemen that's a one very comprehensive reissue.
The reissue of Spiritualized's 1997 Ladies And Gentlemen We Are Floating In Space is out on November 16th. As one might expect the set comes in multiple formats and configurations with the standard single disc edition coming with new artwork and a revised version of the album's opening track. There's also a special edition with 2 bonus CD's featuring out-takes a cappellas and remixes. Then there's the Collector's Edition which will come with 12 mini CD's and the 2 bonus discs.
Tracklisting:
Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating in Space:
01 Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating in Space
02 Come Together
03 I Think I'm in Love
04 All of My Thoughts
05 Stay With Me
06 Electricity
07 Home of the Brave
08 The Individual
09 Broken Heart
10 No God Only Religion
11 Cool Waves
12 Cop Shoot Cop
Bonus CD1:
01 Ladies and Gentlemen (A Cappella)
02 Ladies and Gentlemen (Demo)
03 Ladies and Gentlemen (Strings)
04 Ladies and Gentlemen (Kate Telephone Call)
05 Ladies and Gentlemen (Moles Studio Mix 7)
06 Ladies and Gentlemen (Original Oratone Ideas)
07 Ladies and Gentlemen (A Cappella w/ Lead Vocal)
08 Come Together (Instrumental Demo)
09 Come Together (Demo in Lower Key)
10 I Think I'm in Love (Original Demo Idea)
11 I Think I'm in Love (Demo)
12 I Think I'm in Love (Drums/Wah)
13 I Think I'm in Love (A Cappella)
14 I Think I'm in Love (Vocal Demo Jan 96)
15 I Think I'm in Love (Gospel Choir Session)
16 All of My Thoughts (Demo)
17 All of My Thoughts (Strings)
18 Rocket Shaped Song
Bonus CD2:
01 Electricity (Demo)
02 Electricity (January 96)
03 Electricity (June 96)
04 Home of the Brave (Demo)
05 Home of the Brave (Panned Vocal)
06 Beautiful Happiness
07 Broken Heart (Demo)
08 Broken Heart (Strings)
09 Broken Heart (Vocal Harmony/Angel Corpus Christi)
10 Broken Heart (Early Vocal)
11 No God Only Religion (Demo)
12 No God Only Religion (Horns)
13 Cool Waves (Demo)
14 Cool Waves (String Session Mix)
15 Cop Shoot Cop (Demo)
16 Cop Shoot Cop (Dr. John 'The National Anthem)
17 Cop Shoot Cop (String Session Mix)
The YouTube video of the week
Now that Zooey Deschanel had got hitched (damn you Gibbard) Annie Clarke is now seemingly the indie pin-up du jour. This is her new video from her wonder album Actor.
If you can you should go to these gigs.
Spiritualized: Performing Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating In Space
10-12 London, England - Royal Festival Hall
10-13 London, England - Royal Festival Hall
12-14 Manchester, England - Apollo
12-16 London, England - Barbican
12-17 London, England - Barbican
12-19 Gateshead, England - Sage Centre
Writing under the influence
Without which this column would not have been possible:
Talk Radio
The Jesus Lizard – Goat
The Jesus Lizard - Liar
The bit at the end
Tomorrow I'll be seeing The Jesus Lizard in Dublin. The second time that I'll have seen them this year. I never thought that I'd say that. Should be great. I won't be front and centre for it though. I'd like to keep my teeth.
