Monday, October 5th, 2009
Sufjan Stevens and Cryptacize at Lee's Palace in Toronto
Frank YangIn a recent interview posted to the Asthamtic Kitty website in which Sufjan Stevens interviewed former bandmate and now labelmate Shannon Stephens, Stevens (note spelling) said, “I’m at a point where I no longer have a deep desire to share my music with anyone, having spent many years imparting my songs to the public”. A curious sentiment that might have seemed truthful a couple months ago, when he was still largely a recluse, choosing not to follow up his 2005 opus Illinois with anything resembling a conventional record, instead favouring multimedia projects and reissues. But you couldn’t say he wasn’t much for sharing with him midway through a short, surprise tour that saw him playing venues many times smaller than his patient and devoted fanbase could easily fill and playing a wealth of new material that wasn’t really ready what you’d call “finished”. Not that anyone in the beyond-sold out Lee’s Palace on Thursday night cared.
Support came from Los Angeles’ Cryptacize, whose second record Mythomania has found its way in and out of rotation over the Summer. Some of it I find beguiling, some of it boring, but it’s generally an interesting listen, like a stack of girl group, surf, Bossa Nova and prog-rock 7″s were left out on a beach in the California sun and melted together. Fronted by the classic and crystalline voice of Nedelle Torrisi, who would also cover keys and backing vocals in Stevens’ band, their set was generally enjoyable – they certainly seemed to be enjoying themselves – but probably ran a bit long for the anxious crowd, many of whom had been standing in line since late afternoon to get a prime vantage point for Stevens.
Stevens’ last two Toronto appearances in November 2004 and September 2005 were full and proper productions for Michigan/Seven Swans and Illinois respectively, complete with costumes and synchronized stage moves, so it was evident that this night was going to be something different when the band came out in regular casual street clothes and roadied their own gear, Stevens included, to the sound of much shrieking. And “casual” would be the key word for the night, followed closely by “beautiful”, “intimate” and, well, “sloppy”. The “beautiful” is a given for anyone who’s familiar with Stevens’ orchestral folk-pop compositions and the “intimate” aspect of the show has already been covered. As for the “sloppy”, well that’s not necessarily a criticism because if anyone can make missed cues and barely-remembered lyrics endearing, it’s Stevens. But even as far into the tour as they were, it was clear they were still feeling out the new material – mostly via extended jamming with Stevens taking the opportunity to show off his electric guitar chops – and getting reacquainted with the old.
As expected, the the nearly two-hour set drew from Stevens’ last four records – including Illinois outtakes collection The Avalanche – and four new songs. I’d originally thought there were five, but the one I thought the best of the bunch, the Simon & Garfunkel-quoting “All Delighted People”, actually dates back to 2000 though the version performed was almost unrecognizable against the original. By and large, the new material, which was described by Stevens as “long-form”, demonstrated that he has lost none of his flair for grandiose musical statements and is enjoying working without the constraints of a theme (or state) to write around. By no means did any of it feel ready – if it were released on an album in their present form, they’d probably be met largely with head-scratching – but as a teaser of where he’s going and what’s possibly to come, it was tantalizing. And the old material was, as stated, beautiful. I’d forgotten how stunning Stevens’ voice was live, so fragile yet powerful, and moments like “To Be Alone With You”, “Casimir Pulaski Day” and the still-chilling encore of “John Wayne Gacy, Jr” were jaw-dropping if not quite audience-silencing. With no sign as to when a new record will be forthcoming, let alone when he’ll undertake another proper tour, this show would have to keep Stevens’ fans satisfied for possibly a long time. And as much as you can be satisfied while never wanting it to end, it delivered.
There’s further reviews of the show at Exclaim and Panic Manual. Cryptacize are heading back on tour next month with The Fiery Furnaces and will be at the El Mocambo on November 7. Sufjan Stevens’ film in tribute to the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway – The BQE – will be screening for one night only at Innis Town Hall at the University of Toronto on October 25 at 7:30, tickets $10 in advance online or at Soundscapes. Stevens’ Run Rabbit Run is out tomorrow and the The BQE is out on October 20.
Photos: Sufjan Stevens, Cryptacize @ Lee’s Palace – October 1, 2009
MP3: Sufjan Stevens – “Movement VI—Isorhythmic Night Dance With Interchanges”
MP3: Sufjan Stevens – “The Henney Buggy Band”
MP3: Sufjan Stevens – “The Man Of Metropolis Steals Our Hearts”
MP3: Sufjan Stevens – “Casimir Pulaski Day”
MP3: Sufjan Stevens – “Sister”
MP3: Sufjan Stevens – “Holland”
MP3: Sufjan Stevens – “Year Of The Dog”
MP3: Sufjan Stevens – “Year Of The Tiger”
MP3: Sufjan Stevens – “Demetrius”
MP3: Sufjan Stevens – “A Winner Needs A Wand”
MP3: Cryptacize – “Blue Tears”
MP3: Cryptacize – “One Block Wonders”
MP3: Cryptacize – “Mini-Mythomania” (C Spencer Yeh remix)
MP3: Cryptacize – “Tail And Mane”
MP3: Cryptacize – “Cosmic Sing Along”
MP3: Cryptacize – “No Coins”
Video: Cryptacize – “Tail And Mane”
Video: Cryptacize – “Blue Tears”
Video: Cryptacize – “Cosmic Sing Along”
MySpace: Sufjan Stevens
MySpace: Cryptacize
The Riverfront Times talks to St Vincent’s Annie Clark, who released the first part of a tour video, compiled from footage taken over the Summer.
The Mountain Goats have released a first video from The Life Of The World To Come, out tomorrow. The record is also up to stream:
Video: The Mountain Goats – “Ezekiel 7 and the Permanent Efficacy of Grace”
Stream: The Mountain Goats / The Life Of The World To Come
NPR is streaming a World Cafe session with Death Cab For Cutie.
Dog Day are releasing a super-limited, vinyl-only EP entitled Elder Schoolhouse, out in late October. No digital versions of the songs are planned, save for the MP3 and live video below, so if you want, get yourself a turntable. Dog Day play the Horseshoe on November 5.
MP3: Dog Dag – “Synastry”
Video: Dog Day – “Neighbour” and “Sleeping Waiting” (live at Elder Schoolhouse)
Swedish electro-pop outfit Little Dragon have booked a North American tour in support of new record Machine Dreams, out domestically on October 20, and that includes a date at Wrongbar in Toronto on November 18.
MP3: Little Dragon – “Blinking Pigs”
Zero 7 have set a date at the Phoenix for December 3 in support of their new record Yeah Ghost.
Sunday, October 4th, 2009
Juliette Commagere, Octoberman, Kids Love Lies
Frank YangYou may have noticed that the Sunday Cleaning features I used to run on, well, Sundays have largely fallen by the wayside this year. In fact I’ve run a grand total of one in 2009. Shameful. Fact is, time has become more and more scarce and it just wasn’t possible to put together reviews of even that length on top of the regular week of feature writing. But I continue to get stuff sent to me, both physically and digitally, that I want to at least put out there in some sense, even without accompanying essay or implied endorsement.
Enter Sunday Cleaning v2.0. This will be not capsule reviews, but pellet reviews. Maybe not even reviews, but just informational bits related to upcoming shows or releases. Impressions, not necessarily fully-formed and subject to change. Mainly a way for me to clear out stuff I’m sent that otherwise would just sit and gather dust, not necessarily for lack of interest but just lack of time. In theory, this will encourage me to listen to more random stuff since I won’t feel the (self-inflicted) pressure of having to do a full write-up on it. We’ll see how this goes.
And there won’t be this much preamble in the future. Or probably any. This is just to offer some context and kick myself in the ass.
Who: Juliette Commagere
What: Los Angeles singer-songwriter affiliated with Hello Stranger and The Bird & the Bee whose 2008 album Queens Die Proudly is unabashedly pretty and polished adult-contemporary-ish pop, equal parts orchestrated and synthetic, but with more teeth and inclination to wander than you might expect.
MP3: Juliette Commagere – “Overcome”
MySpace: Juliette Commagere
Who: Octoberman
What: Like Sparklehorse’s Mark Linkous fronting a welterweight Crazy Horse, the Toronto/Vancouver-based quintent has just released their third album in Fortresses and are on a Cross-Canada tour which brings them to the Dakota Tavern in Toronto on October 8.
MP3: Octoberman – “Trapped In The New Scene”
Video: Octoberman – “Trapped In The New Scene”
Video: Octoberman – “Thirty Reasons”
Who: Kids Love Lies
What: Scrappy London five-piece that sounds like The Grates if they traded their childlike exuberance for some adolescent snottiness.
Video: Kids Love Lies – “Count In My Head”
Sunday, October 4th, 2009
Manic Street Preachers cover Nirvana
WikipediaSaying I’m excited about tonight’s Manic Street Preachers show at the Phoenix has a whiff of understatement about it. As does that previous sentence. To be clear: I am very excited about this show. Not just because they’re a band I’ve liked/loved through high points and low (and there’ve been some low, yes), or because they’ve unexpectedly put out one of my favourite records of the year in Journal For Plague Lovers, but because I hadn’t expected them to ever tour North America again. But they’re here, tonight, at the Phoenix, and I’m dedicating this week’s cover to them.
They did make it easy, though, having recorded no shortage of covers in their long history, both expected and unexpected. This one counts as more the former as it’s hard to imagine that the Manics weren’t inspired by what Nirvana was doing to rejuvenate loud, raw guitar rock in the early ’90s though their first few records borrowed more from the glammy arena rock that Nirvana is credited with slaying. This particular recording comes from a BBC Radio 1 session circa 1999, Nirvana having long since disintegrated and the Manics were entering a creatively fallow period, and has James Dean Bradfield turning the “Been A Son”‘s snarling punk into an acoustic blues moan – wholly inverted but still stirring. It was released on the 2003 b-sides/rarities compilation Lipstick Traces: A Secret History.
Kurt Cobain took his own life over 15 years ago, yet the Nirvana vaults have yet to be fully plundered (or re-plundered) – November 3 sees a couple of new releases coming, a 20th anniversary edition of their debut Bleach – which features a live version of “Been A Son” on the bonus live disc – and recording of their 1992 performance at the Reading Festival in the UK on both CD and DVD. That set also contained “Been A Son” – I expect the clip below is the same footage as on the DVD, but hopefully that’ll look and sound better. And not have the time code stamped on it.
The Flint Journal has an interview with Manics drummer Sean Moore. And neither Manics or especially Nirvana-related (though sort of), Spin has compiled their list of the top 50 covers of all-time, with streaming audio. If you like hearing people doing other peoples’ songs, check it out.
MP3: Manic Street Preachers – “Been A Son”
Video: Nirvana – “Been A Son” (live at Reading 1992)
Saturday, October 3rd, 2009
amymillan.comOne thing you can’t say about Amy Millan is that she’s lazy. In addition to co-fronting one of Canada’s most popular indie bands and playing a key role in another – Stars and Broken Social Scene respectively, if you’ve been asleep the last six or seven years – she’s done a good job of establishing herself as a proper solo artist, having just released her second album this Summer in Masters Of The Burial.
A mixed bag of originals and borrowed tunes, it shines a brighter light on Millan’s strummier, country side and while it does show she’s got some good taste in covers, tackling compositions from Richard Hawley, Death Cab and Weeping Tile, she doesn’t bring much new to the table and nor does she make the case for striking out on her own for good anytime soon.
But it does give her an excuse to pick up the acoustic and play some shows a good deal more intimate than anything she gets to do with either of her bands, so that’s good news for her fans. She kicks off an extensive North American tour at the Mod Club in Toronto on October 14,. Tickets are $15 in advance, but courtesy of Rootmeansquare, 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 master the burial” in the subject line and your full name in the body. Contest closes at midnight, October 8.
There’s an interview with Millan at the Kingston Whig-Standard.
MP3: Amy Millan – “Bury This”
Video: Amy Millan – “Bury This”
Saturday, October 3rd, 2009
PolyvinylEmil Svanangen has no use for your concepts of “linear time” or “chronological discographies”. For North American fans of Loney Dear, keeping up with his output has been a bit like playing Rock Band: The Traveller’s Wife Edition as his Stateside labels have picked and chosen which of his records to release whenever they want, regardless of where they fall in his artistic arc. Thankfully, Svanangen has been quite consistent from record to record in his dedication to grand melancholic pop gestures and the sanctity of the “ba-ba-ba” so you can really start wherever you like and just go with it.
And while we’d gotten mostly in sync earlier this year when Dear John came out – his newest release was his newest release wherever in the world you were – the picture is once again getting a bit clouded as his second album, 2004’s Citadel Band, is getting a limited edition (1000 pieces) re-release on vinyl come November 24. Yeah it’s already been available domestically on CD but who buys CDs anymore? Besides me, that is.
Regardless, analog-swede-pop-ophiles will rejoice at this. And those who like it live will surely be at the Horseshoe on October 12 when Loney Dear makes up their show from May, cancelled when their van broke down en route to Toronto, and they’re bringing fellow Swede Anna Ternheim and labelmates Asobi Seksu for the ride. Tickets are $13 in advance but courtesy of Rootmeansquare, I’ve got two pairs of passes to give away for the show. To enter, email me at contests AT chromewaves.net with “I am thankful for Loney Dear” in the subject line and your full name in the body. Yes, it’s Thanksgiving but most people do their turkey day rituals on the Sunday night, don’t they? And I actually thought this show was on the 13th for most of this Summer and have been reporting it as such for months. Thanks for catching that, everyone.
And oh yeah, there’s a new video from Dear John Check it out.
MP3: Loney Dear – “Ignorant Boy Beautiful Girl”
MP3: Loney Dear – “Airport Surroundings”
Video: Loney Dear – “I Was Only Going Out”
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