Thursday, November 13th, 2008
Rock & Roll Means Well – The Drive-By Truckers and The Hold Steady in Toronto
Frank YangA quick survey of the audience at the Phoenix on Tuesday revealed hoarse voices, sweat-soaked (and beer-soaked clothes) and beaming faces… and that was only after the opener. It was the Toronto stop of the Rock & Roll Means Well tour featuring Drive-By Truckers and The Hold Steady as co-headliners traversing the continent (though this was the only Canadian date), one extended guitar solo at a time.
There had been some debate – some instigated by me – as to which of the two acts should have been deemed the headliner. Sure, the alternating nights solution they went with was the most fair and logical, but considering that both had devout fan bases who could probably have filled the venue on their own there was sure to be some disagreement about who should have the honour of closing things out, to say nothing of the longer set and encore. From my POV, while I love both bands I’d probably call myself a bigger Hold Steady fan but having seen them both many times (though neither in almost two years), I would have been pretty happy either way.
As it happens, the coin flip guaranteed Toronto a Truckers wrap-up and so The Hold Steady, an act whose live shows are well-known as being as much a party as those their songs are about, were up first. Now though there were just the two bands on the bill, the dynamic of the show felt much like a festival where in order to maintain some sort of balance, sets have to be adjusted and truncated from their usual form. And in this case, the Hold Steady were working with a rigid set time they had to make the most of. To that end, they came out guitars blazing and rarely let up for the next hour fifteen. And while that sounds like it might be a good idea, in actuality it didn’t allow them the sort of pacing that would have served them best.
The non-stop guitar riffing and maniacal stage antics from frontman Craig Finn were exhilarating and engaging, but also exhausting to experience without a break. Not helping was a mix that tended to bury Finn’s vocals and as good as they are, without his wonderful mile-a-minute words, The Hold Steady are really just an exceptional bar band. Sound issues did improve as their set went on, though, thankfully. I hadn’t seen them since October 2006, the last of three times seeing them in just three months, and I was hoping that Finn had come up with some fresh between-song banter since then. Alas, the need to cram as much material into the allotted time as possible – 18 songs in total drawing heavily from this year’s Stay Positive – didn’t leave much time for chit-chat or even to take a breath, though the broad grin on Finn’s face was plenty of evidence that it wasn’t all business, not at all. Don’t interpret the above points as implying that I didn’t enjoy their set – I love their songs, their sing-along songs, and when surrounded by scores of fans doing exactly that, it’s hard not to love it – but as terrific as the show and tour sounded on paper, it became obvious that it wouldn’t be without some compromises. After all, the very term “co-headline” is a bit of an oxymoron, is it not?
The set change took the better part of an hour, in which time the audience make-up also turned over. Hold Steady fans were replaced with Trucker fans, who all seemed much more hardcore about their heroes (those of us who were both just stayed put) – it was a decidedly different vibe. While the Hold Steady have a definite “it band” cachet right now, the Truckers have built their fanbase with years and years of hard work and touring. Not to imply that The Hold Steady haven’t, but the Trucker fans were obviously in it for life. And I’m pleased to note that while things got suitably rowdy for both sets (moreso for the Truckers), it wasn’t nearly as obnoxious as I’d feared heading in. Except that little dude with the tattoo.
This was the first time I’d seen the Truckers play post-Isbell, and wasn’t sure how much I’d enjoy it as he’d been my favourite Truckers writer over the last couple records. Their latest, Brighter Than Creation’s Dark, didn’t stick with me as much as the others and I suspect that his absence was part of that. So with his and his songs’ absence, the set was a decidedly different one from the last time I saw them – also October 2006. Drawing only from the songbooks of Patterson Hood and Mike Cooley (plus two from Shona Tucker), it reached much further back into their back catalog to Pizza Deliverance and Gangstabilly – two records I don’t really know – and thus made for a more unfamiliar show than I’d anticipated. And while The Hold Steady’s set started out turned up to 10 and stayed there, the Truckers kicked off with an huge and ominous “Where The Devil Don’t Stay” but mostly took advantage of their longer set length to slow things down and stretch them out, giving their songs and the characters that dwelled within some space to breathe, building up over the course of the set to a massive climax of “Ronnie And Neil” (happy birthday Neil, btw) and “Hell No I Ain’t Happy”. Oh the guitars, oh the solos.
Reports from previous dates on the tour had the bands collaborating, regardless of who was closing, so it wasn’t any surprise when Craig Finn joined the Truckers for their encore. I can’t say that he particularly fit in, though, with his bounding around the stage whilst clapping and mugging during “Marry Me” more than a little out of place, like a little kid high on pixie sticks running around while the grown-ups took care of business. He settled down and contributed guitar and vocals on the last two numbers, “Let There Be Rock” and a barnburning cover of Jim Carroll’s “People Who Died”, not that the Truckers necessarily needed the assistance – they know how to close out a show.
Interestingly, while neither band put on the best show that I’ve seen either of them give, the combination of the two – as logical a pairing as it was incongruous – made it feel like a real occasion. The sum of the parts being greater than the whole and all that. And the whole question about “who should headline” was, at least in my mind, obvious. Whereas The Hold Steady embody the spirit of giddy youth and the mistakes and mishaps that come with it, the Drive-By Truckers are about life and experience and being worn down by it all, yet still standing up. The running order of the night made perfect sense like this, and after the Truckers’ set I couldn’t imagine anyone having to follow them, or even wanting anyone to. They have a weight, a presence, a gravitas that demands respect. I’m genuinely curious to those who’ve seen the Hold Steady-closed shows, what was it like? Do they manage to make it seem like a no-brainer that THEY close things out? Gotta admit, it’s a nice problem to have.
Free! and CITYNews talk to Patterson Hood, while The Toronto Star and The Philadelphia Inquirer have interviews with Craig Finn and Boise Weekly with Tad Kubler. Chart has a glowing review of The Hold Steady’s set on Tuesday but wasn’t able to stick around for the Truckers’ set. Sucker.
Photos: Drive-By Truckers, The Hold Steady @ The Phoenix – November 11, 2008
MP3: Drive-By Truckers – “Zip City”
MP3: The Hold Steady – “Chips Ahoy!”
MP3: The Hold Steady – “Your Little Hoodrat Friend”
MP3: The Hold Steady – “The Swish”
Video: Drive-By Truckers – “Never Gonna Change”
Video: The Hold Steady – “Chips Ahoy!”
Video: The Hold Steady – “Your Little Hoodrat Friend”
Video: The Hold Steady – “The Swish”
MySpace: Drive-By Truckers
MySpace: The Hold Steady
Wednesday, November 12th, 2008
Review of Rachael Yamagata's Elephants… Teeth Sinking Into Heart
Hilary WalshWell this certainly took a while. Four years on from the release of her debut Happenstance, Rachael Yamagata has finally released the follow-up in Elephants … Teeth Sinking Into Heart, and perhaps in an effort to make up for the wait, it’s a double album. Well, sort of.
Though the physical release is divvied up into two CDs, the contents could quite easily fit onto one. The separation is intended to be thematic, with the first disc – Elephants – consisting of intimate and sometimes smouldering balladry that treads the well-worn terrain of lust and love and the brokenheartedness that ensues, while the second – Teeth Sinking Into Heart – does much the same, except with louder guitars and a defiantly snarling delivery. Perhaps tellingly, it’s not an even split. Elephants runs ten songs long (one instrumental, one hidden) while Teeth only lasts five, and the last of those, “Don’t”, hardly qualifies as a rocker. It’s more of a final note of resignation.
As she proved on Happenstance, Yamagata is perfectly capable of handling both sides of the musical coin – her smoky rasp of a voice is just as suited to the downcast weepers as it is the more venomous sentiments and she’s just as deft behind the guitar as she is the piano, though the Teeth end of things is decidedly more aggressive than the more uptempo moments on her debut. The imbalance on the album is probably meant more as a mirror of reality – anger is intense but only lasts a short while, but sadness can drag on forever. Or maybe she just had more slow songs.
It’s easy and probably quite accurate to file Yamagata under adult-contemporary singer-songwriter likely to soundtrack Grey’s Anatomy, though the rich-yet-lean production from Mike Mogis probably sounds like it was done by Steve Albini when compared to her more slickly produced peers. And even if she doesn’t transcend that particular style, she’s still damn good at it and everyone – I don’t care who they are – is capable of having their heartstrings tugged by a sad song, if it’s the right sad song. And Yamagata has got lots of them – surely one will do the trick.
Yamagata is hitting the road this Fall and will be at the Mod Club on December 12 for what, I think, is her first headlining show in Toronto in four years and even that was an industry showcase deal. She’s been through a couple times in a support capacity but never on her own. So again, a long time in coming.
BlogCritics talks to Yamagata about the Hotel Cafe Tour which makes up the first leg of her Fall tour, Deseret News also has an interview and NPR is streaming a radio session.
Video: Rachael Yamagata – “Elephants”
Video: Rachael Yamagata – “Sidedish Friend”
MySpace: Rachael Yamagata
The Kills have rolled out another vid from their excellent Midnight Boom.
Video: The Kills – “Tape Song”
Drowned In Sound talks to Grizzly Bear’s Ed Droste about the band’s progress on their next album, for which he’s eyeing a late Spring 2009 release.
Laundromatinee is offering a session with The Acorn in video and MP3 forms, WRAL.com has an interview. They’re at Lee’s Palace on November 27.
Pitchfork interviews Calexico. They’re at the Phoenix November 18, passes are still being given away.
When Okkervil River released The Stand-Ins this year, it cut the life cycle of The Stage Names down from what it arguably should have been (or doubled it, whatever), and as a result this video from the first album never made it out there. So the director has put it up himself. Via Antville.
Video: Okkervil River – “A Hand To Take Hold Of The Scene”
Noah & The Whale’s December 9 show has been moved from the El Mocambo to the Rivoli.
Cut Copy return to town for the third time in a year with a show at Circa on March 20.
It’s almost the holiday season, and that means traditions like the Skydiggers Christmas shows at the Horseshoe on December 19 and 20 and The Sadies ringing in the New Year at the ‘Shoe, as always, on December 31. Tickets for all are $20.
Tuesday, November 11th, 2008
Review of Parts & Labor's Receivers
Francesca TalloneThe most striking thing about Parts & Labor’s last record Mapmaker, even more than the massively buzzing wall of synths, unrelentingly anthemic songwriting or Dan Friel’s more Bob Mould than Bob Mould vocals – it was the maniacally propulsive drumming of Christopher Weingarten. His breakneck tempos kept the entire record at the very brink of either taking off into orbit or utterly collapsing under itself. So with him having left the band after that record, it was reasonable to question whether their new album Receivers would be able to measure up to Mapmaker‘s adrenaline rush?
And in measures of pure energy, the answer is no. New drummer Joe Wong is hardly a slouch but he doesn’t play at full throttle in the same way as his predecessor, and accordingly the record is less relentless and chaotic, but also more tuneful. The addition of Wong and also second guitarist Sarah Lipstate have shifted the personality of Parts & Labor sufficiently that trying to directly compare the two records (as I’ve been doing) isn’t really appropriate. In terms of analogies, if Mapmaker-era Parts & Labor was Husker Du, then the Receivers era can be likened to Sugar. Hell, the none-more-pop of “Nowhere’s Nigh” sounds like it could have been taken straight off Copper Blue, like the mash-up of “If I Can’t Change Your Mind” and “Helpless”, rendered in keyboard. Which, incidentally, qualifies it as maybe one of my favourite songs of the year.
Rest assured, Mapmaker fans, Parts & Labor haven’t mellowed out. Receivers still buzzes and wails in all the right places – it simply trades a few BPMs and a few notches of cacaphony for a bucketful of melody, and that’s a trade I’d make any day. They’ll still make your fist pump and your head bob. It may simply not hurt quite as much the next morning.
The band are currently on tour and will be in Toronto on November 21 for a show at Sneaky Dee’s. Bassist BJ Warshaw talks to The San Francisco Bay Guardian and Spinner about the band’s solicitation of found sounds from their fans to use on the album while Friel covers similar ground for Tuscon Weekly.
MP3: Parts & Labor – “Nowhere’s Nigh”
MySpace: Parts & Labor
Franz Ferdinand’s Nick McCarthy discusses the band’s next album Tonight with Drowned In Sound. The album is out January 27 and they’re playing Lee’s Palace on December 4.
Brendan Canning has released another video from Something For All Of Us…. He and the rest of Broken Social Scene will be at the Sound Academy on November 27 and 28.
Video: Brendan Canning – “Churches Under The Stairs”
Also with a new video are Death Cab For Cutie.
Video: Death Cab For Cutie – “No Sunlight”
NPR is streaming The Decemberists’ show in Philadelphia from last week. They’re currently in the midst of releasing the three volumes of their Always the Bridesmaid vinyl single series and are targeting an April release for their next proper album, Hazards Of Love.
It’s still just Fall but if looking ahead to Winter (note I didn’t say “looking forward to” because that’d just be madnesS), one of the acts for next year’s WinterCity festival has been announced. On February 7, The Stills will play a free show to the huddled, freezing masses at Nathan Phillips Square. No word yet who’ll do the same on January 30. Looking a little more short-term, they’ve got four nights at the Danforth Music Hall starting tonight.
New York’s Longwave release their fourth album and first in three years today – Secrets Are Sinister is streaming in its entirety at Spinner.
Stream: Longwave / Secrets Are Sinister
And also streaming and out today is The Sound Of The Smiths, the umpteenth compilation of The Smiths.
Stream: The Smiths / The Sound Of The Smiths
And finally, over at Spin, they’ve got the whole of Just Like Heaven, the Cure tribute album due out on January 27. There’s some commentary from the particpating artists over here.
Stream: Just Like Heaven: A Tribute To The Cure
Monday, November 10th, 2008
Neil Halstead at the Drake Underground in Toronto
Frank YangIt’s not overstating things to say that three of the four Mojave 3 shows I’ve seen over the years and Neil Halstead’s solo show at the Rivoli in 2002 have been some of my favourite concert memories, ever. The fourth and most recent Mojave 3 show in October 2006 broke that streak, however, or was memorable for the wrong reasons (terrible sound, half the band missing) so I had my fingers crossed going into Saturday night’s show at the Drake that Halstead would be able to renew the streak of memorable performances starring him.
The opener was a local (as of that day, as he mentioned he’d spent the day moving downtown) by the name of Andre Charles Theriault, but who used to ply his trade under the pseudonym “Ghost Hands”. It was as Ghost Hands that I saw him open for Beach House back in November 2006, and while his craft is approximately the same – deft guitarwork paired with detailed and conversational singer-songwriterness – the skill applied has greatly improved, with melodies and turns of phrase that were much more evocative. An impressive little set – now if only he had a more compact and memorable name… like, say, Ghost Hands?
One of the most distinctive things about Mojave 3 as a live band is how powerful and commanding they are, even when their volume is barely more than a whisper. It’s hard to explain, but once experienced, impossible to forget. So it’s remarkable that even without his bandmates and armed just with an acoustic guitar, Neil Halstead still has that sort of effect. Seated alone behind a couple of mics (one for his voice, one for his guitar), Halstead opened the set with a reading of “Martha’s Mantra”, from 2002’s
Sleeping On Roads, that set the tone for the night by absolutely silencing the well-filled room. Halstead’s persona is too low-key and laid-back to fit a descriptor as gaudy as “magician”, but what he creates is most definitely magic.
For a good portion of the set, Halstead was joined by a couple of bandmates on bass and guitar/mandolin who really helped fill out the sound. On a few occasions the lead guitar lost the plot, either in terms of staying on beat or generally over-playing, but for the most part kept things tasteful and more than made up for any transgressions with his spot-on backing vocals. I was somewhat and pleasantly surprised how deeply the set list delved further into the Mojave 3 songbook – given that Halstead had two excellent solo records to work with, the aforementioned Roads and this year’s Oh! Mighty Engine, he could have assembled a perfectly solid set just from those but I suppose he appreciated that there’s no probably no such thing as a Neil Halstead fan who’s not a Mojave 3 fan or vice versa.
It’s difficult to pick a high point since really – the whole gig qualifies – but a peculiar highlight was his inability to remember the final chords to “Sarah”. He tried gamely a few times to find the right one before aborting, and the crowd applauded. You know you’re in a room of devout fans when. And also remarkable was the encore, for the reason that there was one. Early shows at the Drake usually have a hard 11PM curfew and Halstead’s main set ran a full hour and a half to 11. I certainly didn’t expect there to be more. But more there was, as he came back for another three songs despite the house’s preference that we all clear out for a drinkier crowd – at one point they started to turn on the house lights but they were shouted back off by the audience. All told, almost two hours of glorious songs from one of my favourite songwriters ever. Does it get better than that? Maybe, but not by much.
amNY has an interview with Halstead wherein he explains why there’s no Slowdive material in his solo sets – the reason is more mundane than you might think, though I should point out that if I was able to learn to play “Dagger” in 20 minutes, then surely he can jog his memory. Just saying. And also definitely stop by MySpace Transmissions, for which Halstead recorded a beauteous session which is available to watch in video as well as download in high-res MP3 for free.
Photos: Neil Halstead, Andre Charles Theriault @ The Drake Underground – November 8, 2008
MP3: Neil Halstead – “Paint A Face”
MP3: Neil Halstead – “Witless Or Wise” (live on MySpace Transmissions)
MP3: Neil Halstead – “Martha’s Mantra (For The Pain)” (live on MySpace Transmissions)
Video: Neil Halstead – “Paint A Face”
Video: Neil Halstead – “Queen Bee”
A Ride “where are they now”… Andy Bell is in Oasis and cashing large paycheques. Mark Gardener is in Mark Gardener but not seemingly up to too much at the moment. Loz Colbert is in the newly-reformed Jesus & Mary Chain and also International Jetsetters (unremarkable band, sample below). But whither Steve Queralt? One Salient Oversight tracked down the Ride bassman for an interview wherein they cover his start in music, where Ride went right and where they went wrong, what he’s up to now and, of course, the chances of a reunion (slim to none). Good reading.
MP3: International Jetsetters – “Inside Yourself”
Cheers to Muzzle Of Bees for pointing out this blog entry from Belle & Sebastian frontman Stuart Murdoch pointing out that a new set of recordings entitled God Help The Girl are recorded and in the process of being mastered. But as I point out in the comments, this is not a proper Belle & Sebastian release, but the soundtrack to a musical film that Murdoch has been working on and set to start filming in Spring of next year – you can hear samples from it at both iMeem and MySpace. And though any number of band members will make an appearance on said soundtrack, Belle & Sebastian the band are currently on an indefinite hiatus. Fans will have to make do with the release of the BBC Sessions collection due out on November 18 and which contains four unreleased songs.
Those sessions all hail from early part of the band’s career, from 1996 through 2001, and those four new songs are the final ones to feature then-cellist/vocalist Isobel Campbell. She’ll also be appearing on another release coming out on November 18 – Sunday At Devil Dirt, the second album from Campbell and Mark Lanegan. The follow-up to 2005’s Ballad Of The Broken Seas, it was released in the UK in the Spring but will now be available domestically in North America with a half-dozen bonus tracks to sweeten the deal.
MP3: Isobel Campbell & Mark Langean – “Trouble”
Johnny Marr has submitted himself to an interview wherein he talks about the process of revisiting and remastering the material that’s gone into the latest Smiths compilation, The Sound Of The Smiths, out Tuesday. There’s also a conversation with Frank Arkwright, the mastering engineer on the reissue. Via The Music Slut.
Here’s something that certainly caught me by surprise – a Daytrotter session… featuring Wire.
Tech question – anyone running a NAS system, either via a router or a drive enclosure? My Apple Airport Extreme, after being flaky ever since I got it last Summer, finally appears to have died (Extreme POS, more like). I’m probably going to replace it with a non-NAS router, but that then leaves all my iTunes music – which I’d gotten used to being able to stream wirelessly – stuck being tethered to my laptop. And I was looking at getting a big-ass (1TB or so) external drive for backups and archiving so if you want to suggest something along those lines with an ethernet connection and which is reliable, please do so.
I hate technology.
Saturday, November 8th, 2008
Franz Ferdinand to play club show in Toronto
Facebook…Okay, not exactly tonight, but very soon. Scottish quartet Franz Ferdinand won’t be releasing their third album Tonight: Franz Ferdinand until January 27, but they’re looking to drum up interest beforehand and remind people of a time when the disco hi-hat beat was fresh and novel. To that end, they’re booking a string of club dates in venues the size of which they haven’t played in some years (I think they went from the 350-capacity Horseshoe in February 2004 to the 2000-capacity Kool Haus four months later and then the 3000-plus Docks by October).
Anyways, this time they’ll be at Lee’s Palace on December 4 for an intimate dance party with approximately 500 of their lucky fans. Tickets are $25 and go on sale next Thursday, November 13, at 10AM. There’s also been a December 9 show in Vancouver at the Commodore Ballroom, so it’s reasonable to think that there’ll be an announcement with proper tour dates across North America in the not-too-distant future. But for now, the Canadian dates are all you get.
I haven’t paid too much attention to the band since their ubiquitous debut, but I just spun it again last night and enjoyed it more than I expected. How was You Could Have It So Much Better? Would it make a casual fan a believer or is it more of the same? I’m curious. Not that it’d affect my inability to attend the show either way – prior engagements with a certain Mr. Young and Mr. Wilco that night.
Rolling Stone and Exclaim talk to frontman Alex Kapranos about the new album while Chart covers the same ground with guitarist Nick McCarthy.
MySpace: Franz Ferdinand
Maximo Park’s Paul Smith talks to Spinner about making their third album in Los Angeles while living in fear of wildfires and being swallowed up by the earth. The band have some videos of their stay in the city of angels at their YouTube channel.
Emmy The Great discusses the single “We Almost Had A Baby” with I Like Music. The single is out on Monday and First Love, the album from whence it comes, is out in January.
Video: Emmy The Great – “We Almost Had A Baby”
Robyn Hitchcock discusses the next Venus 3 album with Paste and his past solo works with The Chicago Sun-Times. The aforementioned Venus 3 record, Goodnight Oslo, will be released on February 17.
Pitchfork reports that Swedish pop-smith Loney Dear – now comma-free – will release a new album entitled Dear John on January 27. They’re also streaming a new track from the record.
Stream: Loney Dear – “Airport Surroundings”
Drowned In Sound has run the second part in their interview with The Dears’ Murray Lightburn, the first part of which ran in mid-October.
Casiotone For The Painfully Alone have a date at 6 Nassau (the cryptically-named new venue in Kensington Market located at 6 Nassau St) on November 15. The Post has an interview with Mr Casiontone, Owen Ashworth, whose Town Topic EP was re-released at the end of September
PitchforkTV is currently streaming the Dirty Old Town live doc featuring Ted Leo & The Pharmacists. I bought the DVD of this like three years ago… still haven’t watched it. Like most music DVDs I buy.
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