Monday, October 4th, 2004
To quote Danny Glover, “I’m getting to old for this shit”. The last of three shows in three nights was queued up for last night, and it was probably my most anticipated of the three. Rilo Kiley can lay claim to having released one of my favourite records of the year in More Adventurous so I was obviously hoping the live show could enhance the musical experience.
Interestingly, the bill for the tour read like a snapshot of Saddle Creek through the ages – you had Rilo Kiley, who left the label, Tilly & The Wall, currently on the ‘farm team’ imprint, Team Love. Not that that means anything, I just found it interesting.
Tilly & The Wall are a 10-legged tap-dancing diabetic coma waiting to happen – they are so cute it borders on sickening. Taking the stage with a “T! I! L! L! Y!” chant, the combo immediately got their game on tapping, stomping and singing. As was pointed out to me, only Jamie Williams actually taps – Neely Jenkins and Kianna Alarid just stomp along while singing. But whatever you want to call it, whenever you get three cute girls in short skirts dancing and singing, a good time is going to be had. Their music is buoyant and happy and infectious like ebola, and while it is gimmicky (they tap dance for pete’s sake), it’s never jokey. They played a short 40-minute set, and while the crowd wanted more (they took a little while to comprehend what they were seeing), it might be for the best that they kept it brief. I’m not sure how much a body could take without needing an insulin shot.
The middle slot belonged to Athens, Georgia’s Now It’s Overhead. If you want to know what they sound like, just imagine what you’d think college rock in the mid 1990s would sound like. You’re pretty much there. NIE are a jangly, riffy, electronic-tinged, earnest and no doubt sensitive amalgam of everything you’d think a US college radio station would have played during the Clinton years. Live, their material was stronger than the samples I got off the website had hinted at and any act that brings uber-cutie Orenda Fink to town has my gratitude (leave me alone, I’ve had a crush on her since her Little Red Rocket days). Curiously, her Azure Ray cohort and NIE keyboardist Maria Taylor wasn’t along for the trip. Overall, I didn’t mind their set at all though follwing the nuttiness of Tilly & The Wall and leading into the hotly anticipated headliner, they came off as a little bit bland. They could be going onto bigger and better things, though – after they wrap up this tour, they will be supporting fellow Athenians REM on a leg of their North American tour.
If nothing else, Rilo Kiley can say they drew an exponentially larger audience this time around last time around – instead of the seven people or so who caught them at their Toronto debut in 2002, there were at least 49 in the audience last night, probably more. The band wasn’t to be outdone, though, doubling their on-stage contingent to eight – in addition to the core band there was a 2-piece string section, Orenda from Now It’s Overhead on trumpet and a third guitarist. The setlist drew mainly from More Adventrous and The Execution Of All Things, though they reached back to Take-Offs And Landings for “Small Figures In A Vast Expanse”. A nice treat was having the introduction to “The Execution Of All Things” rearranged for plucked strings, to great effect, and the charming-if-not-entirely-successful false ending of “I Never”. For the encore, Blake performed “Ripchord” solo, stopping between verses to gently chide a couple audience members for talking while he played (“This isn’t like TV, I can hear you!”) and then bringing the band back on to close things out.
All in all, a great and energetic performance that was sadly marred by the atrocious sound – everything was excessively loud, the mix was bad and the show suffered for it. This isn’t just my old man ears complaining, I know loud but my ears were almost in physical pain from the sonic assault. The vocals were barely audible at the start of the show and only improved incrementally as the night went on. The biggest culprit was the third guitarist who apparently felt that being number three meant having to be louder than one and two put together. I tried putting the earplugs in for the louder numbers and taking them out for the quieter ones with limited success. Note to self – get some proper fitted earplugs. NOW.
As always, lighting at the show started out great and got progressively darker. Sigh. Stupid Horseshoe. Pics here.
The New York Times profiles Nonesuch, the little major label that actually believes in crazy things like artistic integrity and good music. What a concept.
News from Pernice Brothers-land. They are prepping a DVD for release next month and have a new CD ready to drop in late January/early February of next year which will feature the recording debut of the current touring lineup.
Sad sad day for Canadian baseball yesterday. The Expos played their final game in Montreal and the Jays capped their worst season in over two decades with another loss which was likely the final game of longtime franchise player Carlos Delgado. All that seemed inconsequential, however, with news that former Jay pitcher John Cerutti was found dead at the age of 44 in his hotel room before the game. Cerutti was a mainstay of the pitching staff in the late 80s when the Jays captured the AL East pennant in 85 and 89, when I started watching baseball, and had been Jays commentator for CBC and SportsNet since the 97 season. Rest in peace, John. Dave Perkins of The Toronto Star has a eulogy.
np – Tilly & The Wall / Wild Like Children
Sunday, October 3rd, 2004
It was an eclectic-ish bill at the Horseshoe last night centred around The Magnolia Electric Co’s first Toronto show in something like seven years (that’s what I overheard, anyway). Mainman Jason Molina has a cultish sort of following that I don’t quite understand, but the club was quite packed early on with the faithful.
Starting things off was Jon-Rae Fletcher & The River, who trade in what I have henceforth dubbed ‘spaz-country’. This label goes beyond just looks, though Fletcher would certainly qualify in that department, but musically as well. While not the most polished or professional of performers (dude, tune your guitar BEFORE you start the song) The six-piece band played druken, goofy country-western music, all stomping and shouting and generally carrying on. It was pretty entertaining, but I couldn’t help get the feeling that the performers were in on a joke that the audience wasn’t.
Sea Snakes just released their debut record Clear As Day, The Darkets Tools on Guelph’s ultra-hip Three Gut Records and wouldn’t be a bad bet for one of the next breakthrough acts out of Toronto. Their deal is intricate, melodic and jazzy post-rock with high, keening vocals. Make no mistake – these boys can play, the intertwining guitarwork and intricate drums were mesmerizing, but I found the songs a little lacking. Maybe I’m too hardwired for pop hooks but nothing of their set really stuck with me, it was more like waves of lovely ambience that washed over me while they played but left nothing behind. Perhaps I’d have to hear the record to properly appreciate it.
When this was initially announced months ago, I had the idea that it would be a solo show for some reason. I was completely wrong as the current incarnation of the Magnolia Electric Co is six members strong. I can’t comment on how much of the set material was from the forthcoming Magnolia Electric Co album and how much was old Songs: Ohia material (I only have the Songs: Ohia Magnolia Electric Co album… yeah, don’t get me started) but juding from the polite response some numbers got and the enthusiastic response others did, I think he mixed it pretty well. The best adjective I can use to describe the MEC’s blend of psychadelic-country-blues-rock is ‘polished’. Everything just sounded so smooth, not least of all Molina’s clear voice. For an act that gets compared to Neil Young so much, I don’t think you could get much more opposite from Crazy Horse’s sonic chaos than Molina & co. They did let loose a little more in the encore (as well as putting on some paper animal masks – yeah, I dunno), but on the whole the hour-and-a-half set was a study in fine, professional songcraft and musicianship.
And I maintain that the Horseshoe is one tough room to shoot photos in. Even when it seems lit up, it’s actually dark, or so my camera would seem to believe. Check them out here.
The Boston Globe profiles tap-tacular Tilly & The Wall, opening for Rilo Kiley on their current tour, which includes a stop at the Horseshoe tonight. From LHB.
There is now a trailer for Neil Gaiman and Dave McKean’s Mirrormask. Gaiman says the music isn’t actually from the film (thank goodness) and there’s no sense of the narrative, but the visuals are quite neat.
So in addition to being on the CBC Radio 3 website playlist, as I mentioned yesterday, Lake Holiday also made the RADIO playlist. That’s right, at around 3:50 AM last night, we made our national radio debut with “American Summer”, sandwiched between tracks by local heroes From Fiction and The Hidden Cameras. That’s just keen, I must say, though no, I didn’t stay up to listen. I’ve heard the song before and I don’t actually have a radio.
FYI – tomorrow’s post will probably be a little late. I’ve got the day off and I’m a-gonna use it. To sleep, I mean.
np – Teenage Fanclub / Thirteen
Saturday, October 2nd, 2004
I figure there were two types of people at last night’s Arcade Fire show – the long-time acolytes who’ve been following the band since they were playing much smaller rooms and peoples’ living rooms and the newcomers roped in by the unprecedented hype behind their debut album Funeral. And then I guess there was a third demographic of people like myself for whom the Arcade Fire has been on my radar for a while but I hadn’t made it to any of their local shows in the past year for whatever reason (and there’ve been quite a few opportunities). Regadless, last night’s super-sold out show could have qualified as a coming out party for the band as they’ve gone from well-kept secret to international superstars (in a very very relative sense) almost overnight.
Opening was extended family band Bell Orchestre, the outfit that supplied two of Arcade Fire’s members – multi-instrumentalist Richard Parry and violinist Sarah Neufeld. Another six-piece outfit, they played a set of instrumental pieces that ranged from dull (the jammier numbers – jam bands with French horns are as boring as the guitar ones) to sublime (the properly arranged songs were very very good). A very appropriate warm-up for the Fire.
I admit I had some question as to whether or not they could live up to their fearsome live reputation – I’ve heard many tales of jaded indie veterans who’ve walked away from their shows as if they’d just been on a road to Damascus. So what’s the verdict after my first Arcade Fire show? Yeah. Just, yeah. That was great. However, instead of trying to put into words the intangible essence of their performance, I will try to analytically dissect exactly what it is about the show that made it so great:
1) A kick drum that could punch a hole through a tanker truck. Listening to the album now, the drums sound disappointingly small by comparison. Live, the percussion could have propelled an SUV into the lower atmosphere, especially when Richard Parry strapped on the marching band drum and added back-cracking accents to the beat. It’s hard to not be moved when you’re physically being moved.
2) Choral vocals. When everyone on stage sings out with every ounce of energy, whether they have a mic or not, the audience can’t help but feed off that and sing with them – then you’ve got this big singing energy feedback thing going on that could well make your head explode if it went on long enough. Applying these to easy-to-sing-along-with vocal lines like “HEY!” and “AAAAAHHHHH!” help matters. It’s amazing the difference in delivery when it seems like someone is singing along because the music demands it.
3) Dancing like a dervish. All six band members moved like they were possessed by the music, that instead of playing it they were releasing it through their instruments and their bodies. Sound corny? Maybe, but it’s true. See previous point about head-exploding energy feedback with the audience.
4) Huge, anthemic, intense, raw, emotionally cathartic songs played with unbridled energy and passion. I think these are key.
5) Matching stage outfits. Very natty.
I’d have a hard time believing anyone at the show last night didn’t walk out of there either converted or having their entire belief system (as applied to music) reinforced. Hell, as good as Funeral is, it still doesn’t capture the power of the live show. They sounded massive without necessarily being overly-loud, I didn’t even need my earplugs. I feel a little bad about adding to the mountain of hyperbole that’s already built up around the band, but it’s warranted. Believe the hype.
It was also neat running into a whole bunch of people I hadn’t necessarily expected to see – I guess the show really was the place to be. In addition to Graig, Carla, Rannie, Garry and a bunch of 20Hz-ers, I met Travis from tbonedotcom. That ‘How to go to concerts alone’ thing I posted earlier this week? This was not one of those nights.
And, of course, there are photos.
Confirmed – Luna at Lee’s Palace, November 7. So I was wrong about both the date and venue but you know what? Don’t care. This is going to be so good – two Luna shows in a week. Here I was worried that I’d miss them when I went to Chicago, and instead they’re following me! Soooo good.
Reunion updates – The Son Volt webcam did not go live yesterday. The official word is “Due to unforeseen scheduling conflicts, the session has been postponed,” but Left Of The Dial has information that the entire reunion is off. Let’s hope he’s wrong. Encouraging is the fact that the webcam page has gone from a 404 not found to a ‘proper’ page compelte with Java applets. More encouraging news from The Wedding Present camp – the new album is called More Fountain and will be out in 2005, not this Fall as originally hoped. It will, however, be preceded by a single – “Interstate 5” – which IS coming out this Fall. That’s good enough, I guess.
Exclaim has a quick piece on Interpol.
This is neat – a Lake Holiday track has made it onto CBC Radio 3’s playlist for this week. If you load up the playlist for this week’s issue, you’ll see our “American Summer” as the third track in their streaming audio soundtrack. Very cool. Thanks to Garry for the heads up.
np – Arcade Fire / Funeral
Friday, October 1st, 2004
Random thoughts on last night’s debate… I liked how the television broadcast had to have Bush’s podium a couple inches higher to get him at the same height as Kerry, and George did himself no favours with his hunching and squirming. NBC’s Tom Brokaw no longer has a neck. I swear he used to, but it’s gone now. Quite disturbing. John Kerry looks like a Muppet. And FoxNews, of all places, initially ran this photo here to accompany their story on the debate but have since replaced it with one that’s a little more flattering to the President. Ha. But overall, I found it more interesting than I’d expected even though there were segments that I could have written verbatim weeks ago. I thought Kerry definitely won, overall, simply by coming across very confidently and clearly. Bush started out fairly strongly but seemed to come unglued as the debate went on, and by the end was losing his words (or maybe they were fleeing) and was visibly frustrated and flustered. I believe that winning the foreign policy debate is a huge step for Kerry, as that’s where the focus of Bush’s campaign lies – in the ‘War on Terror’. When they get into domestic issues, Kerry has a much stronger hand to play.
But more interesting than the debate was the post-debate commentary. I didn’t bother listening to the opinions of those formally associated with each campaign as you know they were going to declare the debate an unqualified triumph for their guy. For example – I don’t know what debate Rudolph Giuliani was watching, but hearing him parrot the exact same line to NBC and The Daily Show I didn’t really get the impression that he believed what he was saying either. It sounded more like he had come up with his soundbite before the debate even happened based on his expectations of how it would go, and didn’t have any sort of fallback. I also found it interesting that NBC’s panel of undecided voters all declared Kerry the victor… and yet they’re probably still undecided this morning. Mind boggling, really. Anyway, I’m not really a political-commentating kinda guy, there’s folks far better than me at it, I was just really short on content today. Don’t worry, this weekend will be better. Honest.
But Ted Leo has some thoughts on the debate, if you want to get into it some more. He doesn’t think Kerry did all that well, and he’s angry about it. From The Big Ticket.
Largehearted Boy puts the evangelical cap back on and spreads the word from the book of Centro-Matic complete with an extensive audio gospel. Testify!
The Decemberists have been keeping a tour journal on their Fall tour. From Donewaiting.
I am making an educated guess on Luna’s farewell Toronto date (for the Fall tour, anyway) being on Novermber 8 or 9 at the Mod Club. Do NOT write that down – it’s simply based on them a) being in Ann Arbor, Michigan on the 10th and b) their usual haunt of Lee’s Palace being booked both those nights and the Mod Club being the next logical venue. See? When I can’t find news I JUST MAKE IT UP. Update: Holy shit – I just realized that Luna is playing the Abbey Pub in Chicago November 12… THAT IS THE DAY I AM GETTING THERE. SO BEST.
How odd is this? Director Chris Columbus is developing a new film called Slanted & Enchanted. No, it has nothing to do with Pavement. Nor does this paragraph, really. I just thought it was interesting.
np – M83 / Dead Cities, Red Seas & Lost Ghosts
Thursday, September 30th, 2004
Anyone out there still love Dutch masters Bettie Serveert? I do, and I come bearing news. The good news is that their sixth proper album Attagirl will be out in Europa on October 11. The bad news is that it won’t be out in North America till 2005 at the earliest.
If you need a Betties primer, here we go – 1992 debut Palomine was a perfect-for-the-times bit of college/indie rock with warbly girl vocals over alternately jangly and fuzzed out guitars, and the kids loved it. 1995’s Lamprey was more of the same and there was somewhat less adulation, and 1997’s Dust Bunnies sort of came and went without anyone noticing. At this point they parted ways with Matador and probably dropped off of most people’s radar, but undeservedly so as they continued to put out some good records after that.
Bettie Serveert Plays Venus In Furs came out in 1998 and as advertised, was a live record of all Velvet Underground covers, mostly faithful and done with gusto. 2000’s Private Suit was a much more sophisticated and ‘adult’ sounding record than their previous efforts, and I thought it suited them and worked well with the huskier range of Carol Van Dijk’s vocals. Last year’s Log 22 was a bit of a step back to their fuzzy rock roots and had some really splendid moments but was suffered from a general lack of focus. Van Dijk also put out a couple albums in ’01 and ’02 with country side project The Chitlin’ Fooks which I haven’t heard but would like to. I’ve no idea what to expect from Attagirl but I’m excited about it.
And there is no one in the band named ‘Bettie’. The band name is Dutch for ‘Bettie serves’, taken from a caption in an instructional book by Dutch tennis star Bettie Stoeve.
This weekend’s crazy concert lineup has provided much grist for the local media’s mill. So to speak. Let’s review:
Friday night: the much anticipated Arcade Fire show at Lee’s Palace. eye talks to Win Butler about what success tastes like. Answer – It tastes like chicken.
Saturday night: Jason Molina of Songs: Ohia/The Magnolia Electric Co. brings his musical identity crisis to the Horseshoe for a rare show. Chart and NOW talk to Molina and try to make some sense of his Byzantine recent discography. Let’s see – The Magnolia Electric Co. was a Songs: Ohia release and came out in 2003 (though Molina seems to refer to it as the self-titled Magnolia Electric Co debut album). The Pyramid Electric Co was released this January as a vinyl-only release under Molina’s own name. The double-live Trial And Error (again a MEC release) is going to be available exclusively at shows this Fall and will then get a proper release on January 18 (vinyl-only still? I don’t know) and finally the new MEC studio album, still untitled, is coming out in April of next year. And we won’t even get into the reissues of his earlier Songs: Ohia albums on vinyl. No way. I won’t pretend to understand it and it’s times like this I’m thankful that I don’t own a turntable so anything on vinyl is a non-starter for me.
Finally, Sunday night brings Rilo Kiley to the Horseshoe. NOW covers the usual topics (selling out, child stardom, etc) whilst interviewing Jenny Lewis and eye doesn’t offer much insight either. NOW loses points, however, for bringing up old, played out trivia in referencing Lewis’ part in Troop Beverly Hills – everyone knows that The Wizard was the watershed moment in her acting career. And non-Toronto, The Chicago Tribune also has an interview wherein they also work the child actor angle, but from the sitcom perspective – they do finally get an answer as to where the band name came from, though (from LHB). Updated: One more article in today’s papers – The Toronto Star ran a piece, minimal child star angle.
The Ontario governement is backing off it’s no-raw-sushi law. And who said public kvetching never accomplished anything?
np – The Delgados / Universal Audio
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