Wednesday, November 16th, 2005
Last night, Sneaky Dee’s played host to the Loveless Music Group travelling road show. As the name tips off, Loveless is a New York-based co-operative dedicated to creating and promoting shoegaze-a-like music. One of the founders of the community is the Autumn Thieves, whom I reviewed this past Sunday. A quick look at the playlist on the Loveless MySpace page reveals a nice blend of styles that’s pretty much up my alley (and I am reminded that 2/3 of the defunct On!Air!Library! are carrying on in Daylight For The Birds, and sound great).
Anyways, calling it a travelling roadshow is actually inaccurate since Autumn Thieves were the only act on the bill that had actually travelled from anywhere. Bleep and Fjord Rowboat are both local acts (a fourth act, Dictioncanary, was also on the bill but I couldn’t stick around that late). If nothing else, the evening was an interesting exercise in non-traditional band configurations.
Bleep are a three-piece who create almost completely synthetic yet very emotional-sounding music. Most of this is thanks to the remarkable vocals of Robyn Sellman, whose voice reminds very much of Kate Bush or Liz Fraser, and when grafted on top of glitchy IDM sequencer tracks, electronic drums and heavily processed and occasionally abused guitar, it makes for something quite compelling and unique-sounding. It’s a shame not many people arrived early enough to see them play (when they started, I constituted half of the audience) because they were worth hearing.
Fjord Rowboat were the most conventional band in the lineup, both in setup and sound. Boasting zero sequencers or laptops and one drummer (on an acoustic kit!), Fjord Rowboat served up some decidedly Anglophilic rock with overt space-rock overtones. There were moments where the band just clicked and it sounded terrific, but at other points something just seemed off. “Paragon”, the one recorded song they have available to download didn’t come off particularly well which is a shame, because it’s an excellent tune. I’ll certainly give them another chance to make a first impression should I see them again, which seems likely.
As I mentioned in my quick review of Autumn Thieves on Sunday, I felt there was definitely the potential for something cool from this outfit, but it hasn’t been realized yet. Now having seen them live, this opinion is simply reinforced even more. On the plus side, their pre-recorded sequenced tracks were more sophisticated and even had changes and dynamics – very nice. While I still think a live drummer would suit them better, the use of the backing tracks to form a sort of continuous soundscape between songs was fairly effective. On the negative side, however, they were far too loud onstage for a band with no drummer to be heard over nor a huge crowd to reach. All it really accomplished was obscuring Courtney Hutcheson’s vocals, which is unfortunate because they’re really the band’s main strength. Also unfortunate was the band’s almost complete lack of onstage charisma and chemistry – Hutcheson looked petrified onstage and often seemed to be looking to bassist Andy Zuercher for guidance, and all the while guitarist Mike Swanson seemed oblivious to his bandmates and was off in some riff-happy arena rock world. I don’t know, it just didn’t click for me. I still think they could get it together and are on the right path and are fighting the good fight. The more I listen to the tracks on their MySpace page, the more the strengths outshine the weaknesses, but there’s still a ways to go.
All the bands have MySpace pages with tunes to check out – you should do so (Bleep @ MySpace, Fjord Rowboat @ MySpace, Autumn Thives @ MySpace). And there are photos.
Some updated release dates – Trespassers William’s Having will be out Feberuary 28 and Josh Rouse’s Subtotu Lo (I’m pretty sure there’re supposed to be accents in there somewhere) is out March 21. And excitingly, the new Golden Smog disc, still untitled, has been given a March 28 release date. Also, Sarah Harmer’s new one I’m A Mountain gets a US release February 7.
And no, I don’t know anything this little tidbit in a recent mailing from Belle & Sebastian that has kids all in a tizzy:
Cryptic last bit: There will actually be another B&S album (of sorts) released before The Life Pursuit. In three weeks in fact. But we can’t say what it is for a couple of days.
But hopefully details will come to light as January 16 (the date in question) draws near. However, consider this:
The album will be preceded by a single, “Funny Little Frog”, on January 16th. Will it be released in a multitude of bizarre formats? Who knows
Perhaps “Funny Little Frog” will come with a slew of b-sides to make it a mini album? I do not know. Grok the album tracklisting here.
Shows – Stars have added a fourth show to their residency at Lee’s Palace (technically, a fifth if you count both Saturday shows). This one’s on the Sunday, December 19 18. Also, Nada Surf are at Lee’s Palace on March 11.
np – British Sea Power / The Decline Of British Sea Power
Tuesday, November 15th, 2005
Because it’s apparently been far too long since Pitchfork offended everyone, this week they’re running a piece on the worst album covers ever. You’d think that truly awful album art is the sort of thing that everyone could agree on, but as this Donewaiting reader shows, not so much. I’m by no means going to defend any of the selections, they’re all pretty gross, but I will express my appreciation that they haven’t used any of the albums in that other “worst album art ever” list that has been blogged and message board-ed ad nauseum. And I will agree that the cover of Jim O’Rourke’s Eureka is truly awful. I don’t mind the album at all, but I’m sort of embaressed to have it in my collection just for the cover.
And if they thought the cover art for that Corey Feldman album was bad, they should have seen his appearance on MuchMusic’s Electric Circus back in 1993. The video clip no longer works, tragically, but trust me – it was the greatest awful thing I’ve ever seen. If anyone at MuchMusic is reading this, I implore you – make that clip available again. The world needs to see this.
Why am I picking on Corey Feldman? I dunno. Why not?
For some GOOD album cover art, I direct you to galleries by Storm Thorgerson, Peter Saville, Vaughan Oliver (maybe he helped out on 4AD’s new website?), William Schaff, Jesse LeDoux… um, who’m I missing? I know these are some of the more obvious ones. If anyone has links to good portfolios from album cover artists, share s’il vous-plait.
And in another tribute to the physicality of records, Stylus has compiled a big long list of b-sides that are worthy of a-side attention. I’m enjoying reading this, as I’m a huge fan of the b-side. Nothing makes me happier than bands with a talent for the flipside compiling their non-album cuts in a single volume, if for no other reason than all those EPs and singles take up a hell of a lot of room on the old shelves. Hell, I’m getting antsy just seeing all these tracks from beloved bands that I’ve never heard. Is there any good online resource for digging up b-sides? I’ll pay for em.
Nellie McKay has realized that releasing her new album Pretty Little Head on December 27 is, well, dumb. So the new release date is a proper January 3 of next year. Billboard has details and the tracklist.
Carl Newman talks to MTV about the difficulties in keeping The New Pornographers a big, happy family.
The San Francisco Chronicle springs a pop quiz on Death Cab’s Ben Gibbard.
PopMatters and Glide interview Grandaddy’s Jason Lytle. But not together. That would have just been weird.
More magazine archive digging has uncovered a couple of pieces from recording mag TapeOp. Check out this piece with Bettie Serveert about recording Log 22 and this one in PDF form with Bob Mould about his recording methods.
Largehearted Birthday Boy asked me the other day what I thought of Mould’s Body Of Song, which I finally got a copy of. I’ve still only listened to it a few times, but I have to say that when people were saying early on that it was a return to the guitar rock of Sugar, that was more wishful thinking on their part. While it is definitely more guitar-y than, say, Modulate, it’s still considerably more measured and polished than his work from 14 years ago. Rather than revisit his past works, Mould has taken elements of that and brought them to his present and created what is probably a pretty accurate snapshot of where he is today, musically speaking. While I will echo the sentiments of those who wish Bob would lose the vocoder and I can’t say that in the long run, Body Of Song will get more spins than Copper Blue or New Day Rising, Body Of Song sounds like Bob is energized again with making music, and that can only be a good thing.
np – The Cardigans / Super Extra Gravity
Monday, November 14th, 2005
I used up all my superfluous American Analog Set banter last week, so it’s straight to the show.
There was a much larger crowd in attendance than their last time through, perhaps a sign of their larger fanbase, perhaps a sign of people curious about the latest act to bear the Arts & Crafts seal of approval. Either way, it was a good sized audience for what would almost surely be the Analog Set’s last Toronto show. It’s often said that all of AmAnSet’s albums sound the same (which I contest – I say the band’s first three albums sound the same, and the last three albums sound the same, but the two eras sound quite different), but no one would deny that there’s really no other band that sounds like them.
Their final setlist drew almost exclusively from their last three records, and it was executed flawlessly. The hum and whirr of the Rhodes and organ, the insistent yet understated drumming, ghostly vibraphone (and accompanying dancing from Sean Ripple), spare, echoing guitar and Andrew Kenny’s hushed voice all combined to create something gorgeous and hypnotic. The hour-long set went by like a whisper and while there was no persuading them to come back for an encore this time out, it was just as well – the finale of “Fuck This… I’m Leaving” and the closing epilogue of “Continuous Hit Music” was really the perfect sign-off for this band. At the end of it all, Kenny gave the crowd a heartfelt thanks for their support and bid them farewell. And just like last time, the crowd made a bee-line for the merch table, hopefully a sign of many new converts to the band. It’s really quite sad that AmAnSet are giving up the touring life – they’re really an amazing live band. Perhaps a live album culled from this final jaunt out on the road is in the works?
Because of the dim (read: non-existant) lighting, my photos are in much more forgiving black and white. The actually turned out better than I expected. Seriously, there was almost no light whatsoever. Perfect for mood, ass for photography.
Extra linkage – The Daily News finds out what the boys of AmAnSet are going to do after the final tour is over.
The Stranger, The Straight and FFWD preview Broken Social Scene shows in Seattle, Vancouver and Calgary by talking to Brendan Dave Newfeld, Kevin Drew and Brendan Canning, respectively. And the Scene have added a second show at the Kool Haus on January 20.
Metric links – The Houston Press consider’s the band’s politics, The St Petersburg Times needs a tutorial on how to properly transcribe an interview for the web (hint – write the questions in a different typeface from the replies) and LAist has an interview with the James “Jimmy” Shaw.
Thanks to For The Records for digging up some of the above links.
New Zealand’s Stuff has a completely context-free conversation with Steve Earle about the state of America post-election (that’s the 2004 election) and The Revolution Starts… Now (which also came out in 2004). You know, this piece could have run a year ago and they wouldn’t hardly have had to change a word. Weird. Via Largehearted Boy.
Intersting – though they’re still signed to Rough Trade worldwide, Belle & Sebastian will be releasing The Life Pursuit on February 7 in North America through Matador, which was their home on these shores for the all their albums up until Dear Catastrophe Waitress. I wonder if this means that the singles/EPs will be imports again – one of the nice things about them being on Rough Trade was that all the Catastrophe-era singles still got domestic releases. Either way, North American tour dates are coming – they’ll be here in March.
With seven weeks left in 2005, Amazon.com is first out of the gates with their year-end lists. This’ll be just the start of the deluge – I figure everyone and their grandma will be posting their lists by about the first week of December. I figure mine’ll be about ready by then as well.
Guitar Player talks shop with Britt Daniel of Spoon and misspells their album title. Nice. Also from the GP archives – a final conversation with Sean and Dean of Luna from last Winter, just before the band’s official dissolution, and an interview with Neko Case and The Sadies about recording last year’s live The Tigers Have Spoken.
np – Centro-Matic / Navigational
Sunday, November 13th, 2005
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The Morning After Girls / Prelude: EP’s 1 & 2 (Rainbow Quartz)
A bit of a departure signing for the mainly power-pop Rainbow Quartz label, Melbourne, Australia’s Morning After Girls offer a druggy, psychedelic stew that’s stylistically all over the map. There’s strummy folkish numbers, screamy punky numbers, hip-shaking dancey numbers… you name it, The Morning After Girls take a swing at it. Some of it is raucous, some of it is dreamy, but there’s a definite dopamine haze over top of everything. I don’t want to use the Brian Jonestown Massacre as a reference point because everyone else has, but really – when you’re right, you’re right.
As the title implies, this release is actually a collection of their first two EPs – their debut full-length, Evolve, is out in Australia this week. Any attempts to gauge the band’s evolution by comparing earlier and later tracks on Prelude are stymied by the fact that their running order is mixed up, presumably to offer a more cohesive album-like experience. And it actually works quite well – without being told, you probably wouldn’t guess that this wasn’t a singularly conceived long-player. Side note – one of the tracks also features ghostly vocals from Mark Gardener, with whom they toured earlier this Fall in North America as support for Black Rebel Motorcycle Club.
MP3: The Morning After Girls – “Run For Our Lives”
MP3: The Morning After Girls – “Hi Skies”
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The Snowdonnas / Over Now/Hold And Release
Okay, this is a bit of an odd one. The album above is actually two years old, though I was sent a copy of it in May along with a CD-R of material that was earmarked for a new EP but is now going to be part of their next full-length, out next year sometime. So consider this a sort of look at the past/look at the future/to hell with the present sort of deal.
The Fort Worth, Texas band’s debut, Over Now, offers a rather typically American take on things, favouring a slower, tougher sound than one usually associates with classic British space rock bands. Also strangely typical of American bands in the genre, singer Timothy White’s voice is strong, but rather detached and emotionless. While some of the tracks plod along without really catching one’s attention, the middle part of the album holds some gems. All in all, while not wholly remarkable, there are definite signs of potential…
…Which began to be realized on the Sample & Hold EP, which was completed in the early part of this year but only found its way into the world via burned promo copies like the one I got while the band shopped for a label. The most obvious growth between the debut and this effort is the production – there’s a lot more going on sonically. The sound field is deeper, denser and more evocative, and there’s definitely more energy and confidence to be found in the newer material. The songcraft hasn’t taken huge strides forward and White’s voice still isn’t especially strong, but it’s all a hell of a lot more interesting to listen to now.
Snowdonnas @ MySpace
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Autumn Thieves (MySpace)
While the previous two bands flirt with shoegaze styles in varying degrees – Morning After Girls a bit, Snowdonnas a lot – New York’s Autumn Thieves are 100%, unabashed sneaker fetishists. Think Cocteau-esque vocals overtop JAMC walls of fuzz guitar and bass laid overtop dancey drum loops recalling the more butt-shaking moments of My Bloody Valentine, all produced by Andrew Weatherall (Primal Scream, One Dove). The ingredients are quite good and sometimes it clicks, but their insistance, whether deliberate or incidental, on using just a single repeating drum loop under each song keeps them from being great. While it does help with the danceability (though I don’t know if it’s physicially possible to get shoegaze fans to do anything but shuffle uncomfortable), it can get maddening to listen to from a song-appreciation point of view. Give these guys a bridge and they’d be unstoppable. Okay, maybe not unstoppable, but better.
The have the whole of their Sunshine EP available online and will be in town at Sneaky Dee’s this Tuesday, November 15 with Bleep, Fjord Rowboat and Dctncrnry as part of a Loveless Music Group show.
MP3: Autumn Thieves – “Rachel’s Underground”
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np – Aimee Mann / The Forgotten Arm
Saturday, November 12th, 2005
Over the past few years, the determinedly grassroots Over The Top Fest has become one of the highlights of the year in the local indie circuit. Combining slightly under-the-radar but totally worthy touring acts with local talent in eclectic and entertaining bills, the festival has grown in size and stature every year and looks to kick off its fifth year with a launch party on January 11 of next year. Headlining the event will be Final Fantasy, who will be joined for the occasion by a string quartet, and also on the bill are Akron/Family, who made quite an impression when they played here a couple months ago, and Great Lake Swimmers. It goes down at the Great Hall (Queen W and Dovercourt – no, I have no idea what this place is either) and tickets are already available for $12 at Rotate and Soundscapes.
Also Final Fantasy content – Popdrivel has video and audio of Owen Pallett’s frankly stunning cover of Bloc Party’s “This Modern Love”. There’s a few guffaws at the beginning as the audience recognizes the song, but Pallett tears through it without an ounce of irony (whether it’s actually ironic or not is between Owen and his violin). I love it.
Final Fantasy played a video release party in town this past Thursday night, and Torontoist was there. Not me, another Torontoist. However, while by all accounts the bill was solid top to bottom, they single out the kalimba-powered performance of opener Laura Barrett for praise. This is neat, because I know Laura – I was actually in a band with her for a while, as she was keyboardist/vocalist in Lake Holiday for a few months. We played a show and did some recording (you can grab our cover of The Magnetic Fields’ “Born On A Train” here), but then she just sort of stopped showing up or returning band emails… We didn’t do anything to her, I swear. But hey – good to know she’s alright and making music.
And speaking of Lake Holiday, one of their songs (written and recorded after I left the band) was featured on this week’s episode of Veronica Mars. It’s not documented on the Music Of Veronica Mars site yet, but should be soon. It’s called “Press Record Then Play” and you can hear it on the MySpace page. So while I have nothing to do with the song in question, I still feel some pride about it. Bravo, Brad. I do play on the album which is due out sometime in the distant future from BiFi Records, though. It would have been sooner but apparently the pressing plant lost the masters and the artwork… Yeah, I dunno. It’s been a while, what’s a little longer? Update: Okay, I just watched this week’s ep and the song wasn’t in there. Five Seventeen lied to me. But it should be there in the not-too-distant future. I will report back.
As for me musically (you didn’t ask, but I don’t care), you know what they say – those who can, do. Those who can’t, write. And I write. Actually, I do have a project I’m playing in but (of course), are having some trouble finding a reliable drummer. Anyone in the 416 know anyone? Just asking.
And to backtrack a bit to Final Fantasy, his former bandleader in The Hidden Cameras, Joel Gibb, gave Pitchfork a sneak preview of what Torontonians can expect from their five-night run of shows with The Toronto Dance Theatre at Harbourfront in a couple weeks. This is the second year they’ve performed in conjunction with the TDT, and apparently last year’s shows were amazing. He also talks about the new Hidden Cameras album Awoo, which is due out in the early part of 2006.
Hup! Mogwai’s next album Mr. Beast has a release date of March 7 over here in the colonies (and the day before back in dear old Blighty).
Some My Morning Jacket action – Rolling Stone breaks bread with the guys while Paste takes a tour of Louisville, Kentucky with Jim James. Finally, My Old Kentucky Blog has thoughtfully converted the band’s KCRW session from Thursday into easy-to-digest MP3 form.
Productshop NYC ranks the 100 most disappointing albums of all time, being careful to distinguish between “disappointing” and “bad”.
Dear Fox: I HATE YOU AND YOUR FAMILIES. Sincerely, Frank
np – Crooked Fingers / Dignity & Shame
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