Saturday, October 22nd, 2011
Grégoire AlexandreWho: Metronomy
What: Brighton-based electro-pop/New Wave outfit whose released their third album The English Riviera in April
Why: Their curiously detached yet irresistibly melodic soulfulness was intriguing enough to garner them a spot on this year’s Mercury Prize shortlist. There’s worse ways to celebrate than touring the world.
When: Wednesday, October 26, 2011
Where: The Mod Club in Toronto (19+)
Who else: New York’s Elizabeth Mitchell and her electro-pop outfit Class Actress open things up.
How: Tickets for the show are $16 in advance but courtesy of Embrace, I’ve got two pairs of passes to give away for the show. To enter, email me at contests AT chromewaves.net with “I want to see Metronomy” in the subject line and your full name in the body and have that in to me before midnight, October 24.
What else: Metro talks to bandleader Joseph Mounts.
Video: Metronomy – “Everything Goes My Way”
Video: Metronomy – “The Look”
Video: Metronomy – “The Bay”
Video: Metronomy – “She Wants”
Friday, October 21st, 2011
Tom Waits and other things that have nothing to do with Iceland
Jesse DylanI promised you I was done with Iceland updates, and really you don’t get more un-Icelandic than Tom Waits. Of course, the only thing Tom Waits is really like is, well, Tom Waits and even then one era of Waits can be wildly different from the next. I say this as someone who’s only very recently begun exploring his expansive catalog and still has a long ways to go – but at least now I find his work intriguing rather than off-putting, as I once did. That’s progress.
I’m definitely glad to be coming around in time for the release of Bad As Me next Tuesday, his first album of all-new material in seven years. It’s available to stream right now at badasme.com if you’ve got an invite code and at first listen it sounds like a pretty good balance of out-there stompers and barstool laments. It’ll take some time but I can see myself getting into this. And if Waits elects to tour for this record and come to Toronto for the first time in what, at least a decade? Double bonus. I hear his performances are incomparable.
There’s interviews with Waits about the new record at Pitchfork, The Los Angeles Times, The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times, and if you want to give Bad Like Me an advance listen, I’ve got five invite codes to hand out. They’re meant for friends but hey – you guys are my friends. Whoever you are. And if none of these codes work for you, I guess you’re too late… or you’re not my friend. Either way.
3vb-rhuym | 3cb-w6v03 | 6ob-gd8lz | l4b-6340m | ozb-p31m4
Stream: Tom Waits – “Back In The Crowd”
Stream: Tom Waits – “Bad As Me”
Stream: Tom Waits / Bad As Me
Rolling Stone is streaming the final R.E.M. single, taken from their forthcoming career-ending best-of Part Lies Part Heart Part Truth Part Garbage 1982-2011, out November 15. For their part, Spin has dug up some video footage of the band playing Neil Young’s Bridge School benefit in 1998.
Stream: R.E.M. – “We All Go Back To Where We Belong”
NPR and CMT talk reunions with The Jayhawks.
NPR solicits a Tiny Desk Concert from Wilco.
JC Brooks & The Uptown Sound, who caught some ears last year with a swinging soul cover of Wilco’s “I Am Trying To Break Your Heart”, will be in Toronto on November 29 for a free show at The Horseshoe – that’s the same night as Kathryn Calder, so that’s double the reason to not stay home that night. Their new album Want More is out Tuesday but available to stream now at Paste.
MP3: JC Brooks & The Uptown Sound – “Everything Will Be Fine”
Video: JC Brooks Uptown Sound – “I Am Trying To Break Your Heart”
Stream: JC Brooks & The Uptown Sound / Want More
Stuff talks Galaxie 500 with Dean Wareham.
The AV Club and Edmonton Journal interview Ryan Adams, in town at the Winter Garden Theatre on December 10.
Blurt talks to Eric Bachmann of Crooked Fingers while The AV Club has one more rooftop performance video to share. They play The Drake Underground on November 8.
Dead Meadow will warm up for their show at Lee’s Palace later that evening with an acoustic in-store at the Annex location of Sonic Boom on October 24 at 4PM. The Pitch has an interview.
MP3: Dead Meadow – “Good Moanin”
Spinner, North County Times and Willamette Week talk to Stephen Malkmus, who has released a new video from Mirror Traffic.
Video: Stephen Malkmus – “Senator”
Matt Berninger of The National puts together a playlist of sad songs for dirty lovers for Rolling Stone.
The Alternate Side has an interview and session with Beirut.
The Georgia Straight profiles The Head & The Heart.
Pitchfork reports that Mazzy Star, after many years of saying they were back together, finally have something to show for it in the form of two new songs entitled “Common Burn” and “Lay Myself Down”, due to be released digitally on October 31.
The Washingtonian and DCist talks to Mary Timony PopMatters to Carrie Brownstein of Wild Flag while NPR has got a stream of last night’s show in Washington DC.
Ume have released a new video from their recently-released album Phantoms.
Video: Ume – “Captive”
CBS gets to know Savoir Adore, who are releasing a new 7″ single. Details can be found at Neon Gold and the A-side can be downloaded below.
MP3: Savoir Adore – “Dreamers”
Thursday, October 20th, 2011
Austra, Olufar Arnalds, Veronica Falls and more at Iceland Airwaves
Frank YangIt seems a bit counter-intuitive to travel all the way to Iceland to see a bunch of Canadian bands, but then there’s also something to be said about the sense of camaraderie one gets from hanging out with one’s countrymen in such a foreign setting. So after finally getting to sample some of Bæjarins Beztu Pylsur’s famous wares – those are hot dogs, by the by – and a bit of souvenir shopping, Saturday afternoon was largely spent at the Hressingarskálinn cafe where Canadian Blast had pitched a tent to showcase some Canuck talent to the Iceland Airwaves audience.
What was interesting was that either by coincidence or design, most all of the Canadian acts at the Blast off-venue and Airwaves as a whole fit quite nicely into the Scandinavian setting. For example, Karkwa – who opened up the Blast showcase – had the mysterious, incomprehensible language thing down pat. I think they called it, “French”. I kid, I kid. Playing with less gear than I’m used to seeing them with – keyboardist François Lafontaine was particularly light on his toys – they led their set with leaner, more rock-oriented material before allowing things to sprawl into more atmospheric realms, dazzling all the while with their musicianship. It’s funny that for the number of times I’ve seen them live and heard their Polaris-winning album Les chemins de verre, I still don’t really recognize the material when I hear it live and I think that’s why it’s my preferred Karkwa listening environment; it makes each experience unpredictable and unique.
Photos: Karkwa @ Hressingarskálinn – October 15, 2011
MP3: Karkwa – “Dors Dans Mon Sang”
Video: Karkwa – “Le pyromane”
Video: Karkwa – “Echapper au sort”
Video: Karkwa – “Marie tu pleures”
Video: Karkwa – “Oublie pas”
Video: Karkwa – “Échapper au sor”
Video: Karkwa – “À la chaîne”
Video: Karkwa – “Combien”
Video: Karkwa – “La facade”
Video: Karkwa – “La fuite”
Video: Karkwa – “Vrai”
Video: Karkwa – “Le coup d’etat”
Video: Karkwa – “Poisson cru”
Random Recipe couldn’t have represented a more dramatic shift in tone from Karkwa’s grand prog-pop if they tried, being a four-piece acoustic hip-hop funk band who proudly declared they formed one night when principals Fab and Frannie started busking to earn pizza money. And now they were in Reykjavik. Now musically, they weren’t really my thing but both frontwomen performed with such energy and enthusiasm that it was hard not to get caught up in it. Their debut Fold It! Mold It! came out last year.
Photos: Random Recipe @ Hressingarskálinn – October 15, 2011
Video: Random Recipe – “Bad Luck”
Video: Random Recipe – “Shipwreck”
Esmerine made the front half of the Canadian Blast lineup a Montreal-based hat trick, but again their sound was very different from that of their neighbours. Comprised of members of both Godspeed You! Black Emperor and Thee Silver Mt. Zion and built around the cello and marimba, the instrumental quartet had to pillage the country’s harp and marimba supply to equip themselves and still needed to substitute a xylophone for the latter instrument. Even so, they still managed to present themselves as a beguiling miniature orchestra and had a special guest in the form of collaborator and producer Patrick Watson – it’s not entirely clear what he was doing in Iceland but he was there – who offered vocals on a gorgeous and touching tribute to the late Lhasa de Sela, to whom the band’s latest album La Lechuza is dedicated.
Photos: Esmerine @ Hressingarskálinn – October 15, 2011
MP3: Esmerine – “A Dog River”
Video: Esmerine – “Snow Day For Lhasa”
Video: Esmerine – “Walking Through Mist I”
Video: Esmerine – “Walking Through Mist II”
Stream: Esmerine / La Lechuza
While the Canadians kept blasting away, at this point I withdrew to grab some food and just generally enjoy the last bit of daylight in Reykjavik I’d have on this trip. Such a sad thing. But before it was time to return to the real world, there was one more night of Airwaves to experience and it began in the ridiculously beautiful Norðurljós hall of the Harpa opera house – a world away, both literally and figuratively, from the basement of Parts & Labour in Toronto where I’d seen London’s Veronica Falls play just a couple weeks earlier. And in the poshest of settings just as in the grimiest, Veronica Falls were all business and their retro/C86 guitar pop great throughout, though there’s no denying that the vastly superior acoustics, sound reinforcement and lighting made this a better experience. Their set contained a number of new songs, surprising considering their self-titled debut was still a couple days from European release, but all sounded as good as you’d expect. The Line Of Best Fit has an interview with the band.
Photos: Veronica Falls @ Harpa Norðurljós – October 15, 2011
MP3: Veronica Falls – “Come On Over”
MP3: Veronica Falls – “Found Love In A Graveyard”
Video: Veronica Falls – “Bad Feeling”
Video: Veronica Falls – “Come On Over”
Video: Veronica Falls – “Beachy Head”
Video: Veronica Falls – “Found Love In A Graveyard”
I didn’t think I was particularly zoned out between sets, but I certainly didn’t notice how quickly the stage crew moved out Veronica Falls’ standard rock band backline and replaced it with Ólufar Arnalds’ elaborate setup, consisting of a grand piano, string quartet and huge projection screen. And just as you didn’t need to hear anything to know this wasn’t going to be a rock show, once they started you didn’t need to be told to know that Arnalds was Icelandic. The feeling of his homeland was there in every gentle piano note, every wavering bowed string, every stuttering electronic beat – even in the projected animated bird mobiles and flickering strobe lights. Pure, slow-motion beauty. Check out his Living Room Songs project for videos and downloads of songs recorded, one a day, in his apartment.
Photos: Ólufar Arnalds @ Harpa Norðurljós – October 15, 2011
MP3: Ólufar Arnalds – “Þú Ert Sólin”
Video: Ólufar Arnalds – “Hægt, kemur ljósið”
Video: Ólufar Arnalds – “3055”
Video: Ólufar Arnalds – “Ljósið”
After saying goodbye to the stunning elegance of Harpa, it was time for one more go with the hangar-like Listasafn art museum. There wasn’t nearly the degree of audience madness – or lineups, thankfully – that I’d witnessed there on Thursday, though; it seems that Austra still has a little ways to go before they elicit Beach House-scale adulation from the locals. But even hailing from Toronto as they do (hometown represent!), it’s hard to imagine a place where Katie Stelmanis and her goth-y electro-pop would feel more at home than the land of fire and ice, fairies and elves. Though I’d seen Stelmanis in her past incarnations a few times, this was just the second time I’d seen Austra live and while I appreciated them at the Polaris gala, I now appreciated that I was seeing them outside of their element – this performance, with its huge sound, overwhelming light show and hundreds of fans dancing to the beats and pulses really made things impressive. And it was so hard to reconcile the dancing priestess persona that Stelmanis now inhabits – all platinum blonde locks, mystical conjuring gestures and charisma – with the bowl-cut and glasses wallflower look she favoured in past projects. The contributions of Tasseomancy’s Lightman twins also can’t be overstated; beyond the note-perfect backing vocals, their dancing on Stelmanis’ flanks offered an extra visual element and added a real sense of ritual to the show. It may have sounded like the ’80s but it felt much more ancient. Austra plays The Phoenix on December 1.
Photos: Austra @ Listasafn – October 15, 2011
MP3: Austra – “Lose It”
MP3: Austra – “Beat & The Pulse”
Video: Austra – “Lose It”
Video: Austra – “Beat & The Pulse”
That would have been a perfect way to cap off the festival, but at some point I’d picked up a second wind and the sooner I called it a night, the sooner I’d have to be going home. And so it was to the handsome little Iðnó restaurant/hall just across the lake Tjörnin from our apartment. There, the UK’s Mazes were just getting started and funnily, their meat-and-potatoes Brit rock almost sounded exotic after the week’s eclectically arty programming. And for a little while their workmanlike delivery of sufficiently melodic tunes was like a bit of a palette cleanse, but before too long it just started getting dull and that aforementioned second wind evaporated. And that was Iceland Airwaves 2011.
Photos: Mazes @ Iðnó – October 15, 2011
MP3: Mazes – “Vampire Jive”
MP3: Mazes – “Bowie Knives”
Video: Mazes – “Summer Hits”
Video: Mazes – “Most Days”
Everything about this trip – the festival, the city, the countryside, the company – was fantastic and as cliche as it sounds, there’s really nowhere on earth like Iceland. Icelandic music fans are some of the most rabid I’ve ever seen, as a people they’re incredibly friendly and welcoming, urban or rural the country is a feast for the eyes (in a desolate sort of way) and the food isn’t that expensive. Okay, it is. But at least it’s delicious. I will be returning – I still have a full slate of things that I didn’t get around to doing – but will aim for a slightly warmer season next time. There’s only so much gale-force wind and horizontal rain a guy can take. All photos, save a few frames of film still to be developed, are up at Flickr.
Patrick Watson, mentioned just a few paragraphs back, will be in Toronto on November 10 for a show at the Royal Conservatory’s Koerner Hall, tickets $40 in advance.
Video: Patrick Watson – “Fireweed”
NOW and BlogTO talk to Tasseomancy, who have released a new video from Ulalame and will be playing a release show for the record tonight at The Great Hall and open up for Austra at The Phoenix on December 1.
Video: Tasseomancy – “Diana”
Also on that December 1 Phoenix bill are Young Galaxy, with whom Impose has an interview.
Kathryn Calder’s new album Bright & Vivid is streaming at NPR in advance of its release next Tuesday, and Exclaim has an extended tour itinerary in support of it which now includes a November 29 date at The Horseshoe in Toronto – that’s a Tuesday, which means Nu Music Nite, which means free, which means there is no excuse not to go. At all.
MP3: Kathryn Calder – “Who Are You?”
Stream: Kathryn Calder / Bright & Vivid
Spin, The Globe & Mail, The New Zealand Herald and Vogue both have feature pieces on Feist while Black Cab Sessions have just posted a session with the singer. She’s at Massey Hall on December 1.
Though The Five Ghosts is over a year old, Stars have squeezed another video out of it. And here it is.
Video: Stars – “Dead Hearts”
Miracle Fortress also has a new clip, this one from this Spring’s Was I The Wave?. Death & Taxes has an interview with Graham Van Pelt.
Video: Miracle Fortress – “Possession”
Exclaim has a stream of The Wooden Sky’s new tour-only EP, which they think sounds best on cassette tape, and courtesy of Webster Media Consulting I’ve got two copies to give away – to enter, email me at contests AT chromewaves.net with “I want The Wooden Sky cassette” in the subject line and your full name and mailing address in the body; the fact that you’ve actually read this far and own a working cassette deck or walkman are the only other barriers to entry. Contest closes at midnight, October 25.
MP3: The Wooden Sky – “Angelina”
Stream: The Wooden Sky / City Of Light
The National Post and Ottawa Xpress have interviews with Dan Mangan, who plays The Queen Elizabeth Theatre on October 28.
Wednesday, October 19th, 2011
tUnE-yArDs, Niki & The Dove and Clock Opera at Iceland Airwaves
Frank YangRight, so where was I? Oh yes, Iceland. Yes, still. With the (attempted) road trips portion of the trip over and done with, the Friday morning was spent doing a general wander around Reykjavik, taking advantage of some actual sunshine and only a little rain (documentation of which is over at the ever-expanding Flickr set). The weather again turned foul in the afternoon but by that point, we were on an Airwaves press bus tour that took us first to the studio headquarters of the Bedroom Community label, then to the Árbæjarsafn open air museum where we were introduced to the joys(?) of Brennivin vodka and dried fish. The final stop, which had been kept secret, was Nauthólsvik beach, where we were invited to go for a dip in the frigid sea before relaxing in an artificial geothermal spring. I graciously declined. Then, following a memorable three-hour fancy-pants dinner at Dill, located in the Norræna Húsið, it was back to the clubs.
Or the club, as was the case on this night. As far as I was concerned, NASA was the place to be and the huge queue out front proved that hundreds agreed with me. Happily, the VIP/media line was moving reasonably quickly and I got inside just as the mood of those gathered outside started to turn a bit rioty with shoving, yelling and more shoving. Not that it was any calmer inside the jam-packed club, but at least these people were freaking out for a better reason. Swedish electro-pop duo Niki & The Dove were just wrapping up as I got in, but from what little I saw they had star power in abundance. And hula-hoop dancers. Though they’ve been signed to SubPop in North America for a while now, they’ve only just started to release material – a 12″ single back in the Summer and a digital EP in The Drummer released just yesterday – but in occupying a space somewhere between Lykke Li and Florence & The Machine, albeit more synthetically-textured than either, but frontwoman Malin Dahlström has genuine star power and it’s hard not to imagine that by the time their debut full-length arrives next year, success will be theirs for the taking. The Guardian and Chronicle Live have interviews with the band and The Drummer is available to stream.
Photos: Niki & The Dove @ NASA – October 14, 2011
MP3: Niki & The Dove – “The Fox”
Video: Niki & The Dove – “The Drummer”
Stream: Niki & The Dove / The Drummer
I’m not sure if Merrell Garbus of tUnE-yArDs counts as a bonafide star yet, but considering she’d guested with Yoko Ono the night before and was one of the festival’s big names, as far as Airwaves and more importantly those piled into NASA were concerned, she was close enough. I’d missed her Toronto show a few weeks earlier, but did have her SXSW show as a reference point. Not that there was any comparing the Central Presbyterian Church in March with the atmosphere in NASA this night – the former was silent and respectful, the latter frenzied even by Airwaves standards – but what was common between the two was an incredible performance. Accompanying herself on drums or ukulele, Garbus led her four-piece band through a clattering, pounding, yodeling, and peculiarly soulful celebration of song while her fans danced and tried their best to sing along. I particularly appreciated the expressiveness of Garbus’ warpaint-decorated face because if there was a running theme with the international acts at this festival, it was how the uncertainty or even apprehension about playing to an audience for the first time transformed into elation at how joyously they were received by the locals. You never get tired of seeing the sideways glances between bandmates that communicate, “holy shit”. Not ever.
Photos: tUnE-yArDs @ NASA – October 14, 2011
MP3: tUnE-yArDs – “Powa”
MP3: tUnE-yArDs – “Bizness”
MP3: tUnE-yArDs – “Sunlight”
MP3: tUnE-yArDs – “Hatari”
Video: tUnE-yArDs – “Gangsta”
Video: tUnE-yArDs – “Bizness”
Video: tUnE-yArDs – “Real Live Flesh”
Compared to the two acts that preceded them, London’s Clock Opera – another highlight from SXSW – seemed positively conventional. But by any other standards, their balance of electronic and organic rock, of ’80s-ish romanticism, thoroughly modern synth textures and timeless tension-and-release songcraft, was distinctive and bracing. It’s like dance-rock without any of the disco signifiers that that descriptor usually implies, more anthemic and visceral than slick and sexy and there’s more than a hint of Guy Garvey in vocalist Guy Connelly’s delivery. Searching out their own music at the moment can be an exercise in frustration – they’ve a few singles of original material but have their names on many remixes – but when their debut album comes out in March of next year, I predict it will be huge.
Photos: Clock Opera @ NASA – October 14, 2011
MP3: Clock Opera – “Once And For All”
MP3: Clock Opera – “Belongings” (live at Maida Vale)
Video: Clock Opera – “Belongings”
Video: Clock Opera – “Once And For All”
Video: Clock Opera – “White Noise”
So yes, after a decade and a half of rumours and denials, The Stone Roses are getting back together. There’ll be a pair of homecoming gigs in Manchester next June followed by a world tour and maybe even a new record. You’d think that as someone who ranks The Stone Roses as one of the greatest records ever made, I would find this exciting but the fact is that no one, not even the staunchest fans, could ever claim the Roses as a good live band even in their heyday. Over twenty years later, with John Squire and Reni having largely been out of music and Ian Brown’s solo career being uneven at best, it’s hard to imagine that this will be good, let alone great. But even so, if this tour comes anywhere near – and the words “world tour” certainly imply it will – I’ll be there. Anxious, and not entirely in a good way, but there. The Quietus reports on yesterday’s press conference wherein the four original members announced their intentions and The Sabotage Times better articulates why this reunion might not be a good thing.
Video: The Stone Roses – “I Wanna Be Adored”
Jarvis Cocker, someone who knows a thing or two about successful reunions, talks to The Guardian about the state of pop music.
Radiohead’s Ed O’Brien talks to BBC6 about the band’s touring plans for 2012, which may include playing not-so-fan-friendly set lists at indoor venues.
Billy Bragg has compiled all the one-off protest songs he’s released over the past decade as well as a few new songs and has released them as Fight Songs. Something to put on the boombox, perhaps, whilst occupying a place of your choosing. The Sabotage Times and Brooklyn Rail have interviews with the Bard of Barking.
Pop power couple Emmy The Great and Ash’s Tim Wheeler have teamed to release a Christmas album entitled This Is Christmas, the first MP3 from which you can download in exchange for a Facebook like. It will be released on November 21.
A new track from Summer Camp’s debut Welcome To Condale is up to stream at Paste, while Consequence Of Sound has an interview with the duo and Daytrotter a session. The album is out November 8.
Stream: Summer Camp – “Down”
Peggy Sue have released a new video from their new record Acrobats, due out next Tuesday. They play The Garrison on November 13.
Video: Peggy Sue – “All We’ll Keep”
Exclaim and Stereogum talk to M83 about the just-released Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming. They’re at Lee’s Palace on November 18.
Tuesday, October 18th, 2011
Beach House, Raised Among Wolves, Of Monsters & Men and more at Iceland Airwaves
Frank YangCalling this “day one” of Iceland Airwaves isn’t strictly correct. Though the festival did really start in earnest on the Thursday, there was a fair bit of programming on the Wednesday night and though I was on the fence about leaving the comfort of the apartment late at night, I fell on the side of heading to NASA, one of the festival’s main venues, facing onto Austurvöllur square a couple blocks away.
The attraction were Iceland’s own Of Monsters & Men, whom although a new band – their debut album My Head Is An Animal only came out in September – were clearly already a hot commodity locally as the venue was jammed to the rafters. And watching them perform, it wasn’t hard to understand why; their sound fell somewhere between Arcade Fire and Fanfarlo with not a little Stars to be found in the vocal interplay between Nanna Bryndís Hilmarsdóttir and Ragnar Þórhallsson – in other words, eminently likeable. They were neither as dramatic or twee as those reference points might imply, nestled comfortably in the middle, but still big-sounding and making the most of their 10-piece lineup. Normally they numbered six, but this was a special occasion after all and so there were plenty of handclaps, gang vocals and a brief cover of Kool & The Gang’s “Celebrate”. I don’t know that the songs are quite up to the level of the delivery, but they were fun – no question. And word is they’ll be bringing their show to Toronto next month… details will be forthcoming.
Photos: Of Monsters & Men @ NASA – October 13, 2011
MP3: Of Monsters & Men – “Little Talks”
Slipping back into travelogue mode for a moment, Thursday saw another attempt to get out of the city and though it was hardly a nice day, the elements didn’t stop us from getting out to Þingvellir national park and Þingvallavatn. On the way, there were stops at Mosfell to check out one of those churches that just pops up out of nowhere and befriend a couple of extraordinarily friendly and pretty Icelandic ponies as well as some stunning fields of volcanic rock. As the park was situated across the continental divide between the North American and European tectonic plates, chasms and cliffs were the norm and landmarks were the thousand year-old, man-made waterfall called Öxaráfoss and the site of the first Icelandic parliament – Alþing – dating back to 930 AD. Yes, it just looked like a mound near a cliff face but still. HISTORY. Flickr has been updated with visuals and oh, on the way back into town, I completely forgot how roundabouts work just for a moment and hit an SUV for some hot Hyundai on Hyundai action. At Icelandic roundabouts, the inner lane has the right of way; that’s one to grow on, kids. While the other car was undamaged, the front end of mine was kind of mashed – but no one was hurt except my Visa card in covering the insurance deductible. Le sigh.
Back in town, we attempted to cheer the home team in seeing Owen Pallett play an afternoon off-venue – the Airwaves name for day shows – but it turned out that our support wasn’t needed; Kaffibarinn was beyond jammed and while I could hear him and Les Mouches, I didn’t lay an eye on them the whole time there. Pallett and company had been in the country for a couple of weeks leading up to the festival recording, and accordingly their set was split between old favourites, albeit somewhat reconfigured to be more keyboard-heavy, and new songs which further imply a synthier direction for the new record. The crush of humanity kept me from staying to the very end and anyways, I had a banged-up car to return.
MP3: Owen Pallett – “A Man With No Ankles”
MP3: Owen Pallett – “Lewis Takes Off His Shirt”
MP3: Final Fantasy – “The Butcher”
MP3: Final Fantasy – “Ultimatum”
Video: Owen Pallett – “The Great Elsewhere”
Video: Owen Pallett – “Lewis Takes Off His Shirt”
Video: Final Fantasy – “Horsetail Feathers”
Video: Final Fantasy – “The Butcher”
Video: Final Fantasy – “He Poos Clouds”
Video: Final Fantasy – “This Lamb Sells Condos”
The evening program began literally two doors down from our apartment – didn’t I mention it was conveniently located? – at the Tjarnarbíó theatre for Danish septet Raised Among Wolves. As you might expect from a band with that many players, they traded in orchestrally-inclined pop not far removed from what Of Monsters & Men were serving up the night before though Wolves were more stereotypically Scandinavian, being more elegantly polished in performance and romantically melancholic in tone. They were also better-dressed, with a decidedly northlander-ish marching band dress code in effect. It doesn’t appear that they’ve got any proper releases yet, but while their catalog is lean their ambitions are extensive – there’s no doubt they’ll be looking to replace those synth patches with a proper orchestra and the toy piano with a full grand. Though they’ll probably still paint their name on the side. Charming and brimming with promise.
Photos: Raised By Wolves @ Tjarnarbíó – October 13, 2011
MP3: Raised By Wolves – “Boys Will Be Kings” (demo)
MP3: Raised By Wolves – “Tin Foil Empire” (demo)
MP3: Raised By Wolves – “The Bear” (demo)
By the time I got to the gorgeous Kaldalón room in the Harpa opera house to see Iceland’s Nóra, I was thinking that I’d have to fit some black metal into my itinerary to offset all the orch-pop that was making up my Airwaves experience so far. But I like what I like, I suppose. Cheekily introducing themselves as “celebrated Icelandic rock band Nóra”, the brother-and-sister-led fivesome initially seemed to have some trouble with the clean acoustics of the room, with their vocals turned up considerably louder than their instruments and consequently sounding detached from the music though inviting a three-piece horn section out for a portion of the set helped fill out the mix. Singing in Icelandic and drawing from their debut Er einhver aö hlusta?, they were largely upbeat and peppy though a couple numbers at the end of the set proved they could get tense and angsty when called for and they were sonically ambitious throughout. A reliance on keyboards kept their stage presence rather static, but some dry stage banter helped endear them nonetheless.
Photos: Nóra @ Harpa Kaldalón – October 13, 2011
MP3: Nóra – “Opin fyrir morói”
Stream: Nóra / Er einhver aö hlusta?
Any fears of the festival getting too “all twee, all the time” were stopped dead with Retro Stefson at Listasafn, the Reykjavik Art Museum and another major venue. They were many things – disco, funk, hip-hop, rock, electro – but certainly not twee. And definitely a party. Though there’s something like seven of them in the band, it was hard to pay any attention to anyone besides singer/guitarist Unnsteinn Manuel Stefánsson and percussionist/dancer Haraldur Ari Stefánsson, and not just because the rest of the band was completely obscured in smoke and strobes. The former Stefánsson was more than a little Prince-like with his virtuostic guitar-playing and singing even he seemed restrained compared to the latter Stefánsson’s gyrating, thrusting and audience-invading/crowd-surfing antics. I think it’s safe to say they were one of the strangest lead-in acts that Beach House has ever had.
Photos: Retro Stefson @ Listasafn – October 13, 2011
Video: Retro Stefson – “Kimba”
Video: Retro Stefson – “Medallion”
I don’t think it’s a real slight to say that Beach House aren’t a conventionally great live act. Both Alex Scally and Victoria Legrand are generally content to sit or stand stock still with their instruments and let their hypnotic songs and maybe the light show do the work. In the case of the Listasafn show, billed as one of the festival’s headlining slots and marking the band’s first time in the country, they maybe let the light show get away from them as the combination of blinding backlights and smoke made it so that both were little more than stationary silhouettes for the show. It was frustrating to watch (and photograph) but did work from time to time, most notably for “Norway” when the lights went white and the entire stage lit up in tiny LEDs, presenting Legrand as a disembodied voice in a field of stars. Whatever they looked like, though, they sounded grand with the tinny canned beats segueing into huge live drums and Legrand’s smoky vocals filling the hall along with thousands of Icelanders, dancing and swaying in a giant collective swoon.
Photos: Beach House @ Listasafn – October 13, 2011
MP3: Beach House – “I Do Not Care For The Winter Sun”
MP3: Beach House – “Zebra”
MP3: Beach House – “Norway”
MP3: Beach House – “Gila”
MP3: Beach House – “Heart Of Chamber”
MP3: Beach House – “Master Of None”
Video: Beach House – “Walk In The Park”
Video: Beach House – “Silver Soul”
Video: Beach House – “Used To Be”
Video: Beach House – “You Came To Me”
Video: Beach House – “Heart Of Chambers”
Having already released a couple of videos, Fanfarlo have finally revealed details of their second album – Rooms Filled With Light will be available on February 28, details at Under The Radar.
Video: Fanfarlo – “Replicate”
Video: Fanfarlo – “De.Con.Struc.Tion”
DIY gets to know Amanda Mair, the teenage singer-songwriter who’s the latest addition to the Labrador Records roster. She’s released two singles in advance of a debut album due in late 2011 or more likely early 2012.
MP3: Amanda Mair – “Doubt”
MP3: Amanda Mair – “House”
Studio360 and The Los Angeles Times talk Biophilia with Bjork.
Sigur Rós have made another track from the Inni live set available to download. The audio/video document is available as of November 8, but is currently screening at the TIFF Lightbox in Toronto.
MP3: Sigur Rós – “Ný Batteri”
Interview and Billboard talk to Anthony Gonzalez of M83 on the occasion of the release of Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming this week. They’ve also just released a new video from said record. Look for them at Lee’s Palace on November 18.
Video: M83 – “Midnight City”
The hour-long Phoenix documentary From A Mess To The Masses is now available to watch in full online.
Video: Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix – From A Mess To The Masses
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