Dancing About Architecture 01.13.09
Posted by Ian Wright on 01.13.2009
New Handsome Furs album thoughts, new Swan Lake, Merge turns 20, so does Paul’s Boutique and more.
The bit at the start
Well right out of the blocks this year is off to a great start because less than 2 weeks into January Face Control, Handsome Furs' second album, has joined efforts from Animal Collective and Antony And the Johnsons in the list of brilliant 2009 albums.
It has been suggested that one of the reasons that last year's Wolf Parade album was so dramatically inferior to their debut was because Spencer Krug and Dan Boeckner, the band's two principal songwriters had used up most of their best ideas on the albums that they made separately from each other following Apologies To The Queen Mary. One listen to Face Control hints that it's not quite accurate, Boeckner had plenty of other good songs. He just kept them to himself.
Boeckner and his then fiance-now wife Alexei Perry's first album Plague Park was a sparse affair, underneath Boeckner's guitar sat minimal mid-tempo electronic beats, it's a fine record but my overwhelming feeling about it is that it's a very cold one. Face Control however, even though the instrumentation remains the same is far more joyous. The songs are upbeat, the arrangements are a lot fuller. I wasn't expecting it from them but you could dance to some of this shit, no, you probably should dance to it, though perhaps my surprise at this shouldn't be as great as it is, Boeckner has after all written what I think should have become the indie disco anthem of the decade.
It's a strong album throughout with opener "Legal Tender", "Talkin' Hotel Arbat Blues", "I'm Confused" and the barely 90 second long "(White City)" all standing out but Perry and Boeckner save the best for last. "Radio Kaliningrad" begins with a wave of electronic noise and overdriven, reverb heavy guitars before giving way to a driving beat that's soon joined by some typically ferocious for Boeckner guitar. By a country mile it's the best song that Handsome Furs have yet come up with and can easily hang with the best tunes that Boeckner has written throughout his career. If there's a better rock song released this year I'd be shocked.
Beg, borrow, buy, steal or download this album.
Antony And The Johnsons – The Crying Light
Possibly the best thing I'm going to hear all year.
You news, you lose
And while Boeckner is taking names and kicking ass ...
… his Wolf Parade bandmate Spencer Krug is doing what he's almost constantly doing; reading a new album.
This time he's back with Destroyer's Dan Bejer and Carey Mercer of Frog Eyes (which Krug is also an ex-member of) for the trio's second album as Swan Lake. It's called Enemy Mine and named after a 1985 Dennis Quaid/Louis Gosset Jr. sci-fi flick and it will be released by Jagjaguar on March 24th.
According to the press release Enemy Mine will be more stripped down and deliberate than it's predecessor Beast Moans and it features "nice songs", which will be a first for Mercer.
Tracklisting:
01 Spanish Gold, 2044
02 Paper Lace
03 Heartswarm
04 Settle on Your Skin
05 Ballad of a Swan Lake, or, Daniel's Song
06 Peace
07 Spider
08 A Hand at Dusk
09 Warlock Psychologist
Oh by the way, the cover art for the album (below) is a painting drawn by a court artist.
Happy birthday to Merge.
You wouldn't imagine that one of the most important indie labels in history would be based in Durham, North Carolina but for 2 decades Merge Records have been putting out amazing music by the likes of Neutral Milk Hotel, Arcade Fire, Spoon, American Music Club, Dinosaur Jr., The Magnetic Fields and countless others.
This summer between July 22 and 26 the label will celebrate that fact by hosting 5 days of festivities in its home state. No bands have yet been announced but it's believed that various acts that have been signed to the label over the years will feature with some reforming for the event.
Also 2 decades old.
We're approaching 20 years since The Beastie Boys' Paul's Boutique. As yet details of what will be on the reissue package are sketchy but InSound have been advertising that it'll come with a commentary track in he style of DVD's. This isn't an entirely new idea, Rufus Wainwright did a similar thing with Want One.
Street date for this is January 27th so they'd want to get details in order pretty sharpish.
The YouTube video of the week
I bought a Stylophone on Saturday. One day I hope to be able to join this band.
If you can you should go to these gigs.
And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead
02-19 Dallas, TX - Granada Theater
02-20 Houston, TX - Walter's on Washington
02-21 New Orleans, LA - One Eyed Jack's
02-23 Orlando, FL - The Social
02-24 Atlanta, GA - The EARL
02-25 Carrboro, NC - Cat's Cradle
02-26 Washington, DC - Rock and Roll Hotel
02-27 Brooklyn, NY - Music Hall of Williamsburg
02-28 New York, NY - Bowery Ballroom
03-01 Cambridge, MA - Middle East Downstairs
03-04 Toronto, Ontario - Lee's Palace
03-05 Pontiac, MI - Pike's Room at the Crofoot
03-06 Chicago, IL - Logan Square Auditorium
03-07 Minneapolis, MN - Triple Rock Social Club
03-09 Denver, CO - Bluebird Theater
03-10 Salt Lake City, UT - Urban Lounge
03-12 Seattle, WA - Neumo's
03-13 Vancouver, British Columbia - Richard's on Richards
03-14 Portland, OR - Berbati's Plan
03-16 San Francisco, CA - Slim's
03-17 Los Angeles, CA – Echoplex
Writing under the influence
Without which this column would not have been possible:
Talk Radio
Will Sheff – Live set from Schubas
The Taj-Mahal Travellers – July 15, 1972
The bit at the end
Have a good week folks. Back in 7.
Semi permanent plug for my blog. Football talk, new music from Handsome Furs and Dan Deacon, more Stylophone rubbish and some other stuff.
