review- low at lincoln hall 4.21.2011

Not surprisingly this was a magical show. How could it not be? Is there a better venue in Chicago that would be more perfect for Low to play in? I suppose the obvious answer is a church, but Epiphany doesn’t seem to do shows any more. I arrived fairly early in order to suss out a spot on the balcony but not early enough apparently. I was early enough to catch most of Gaberdine’s set and they were quite excellent. Finally, something nice to say about an opening band!

Low kicked things off with an interestingly brief rendition of ‘Breaker’ off of ‘Drums and Guns.’ They tried to get the audience to clap, but no one would do it, sadly. From there they launched into ‘C’mon’ and played the entire thing pretty much in order over the course of the night. The final chunk of songs in the main set was comprised entirely of the second side. The new material proved to exude an effortless grace and beauty—witnessing the songs live basically gave the impression of the songs as they would’ve been had they ended up on any of the first three records. ‘Try to Sleep’ took on more the air of a restrained lullaby than the bright, wide-eyed poppy momentum that it has on the record. ‘Nothing but Heart’ was the song where it seemed to me that they finally caught all that they were reaching for over the course of the entire night. Occasionally moments where the band is aiming for a more rocking out type of moment don’t quite take off sometimes—their penchant for restraint seems to be a bit too ingrained at times—but ‘Nothing but Heart’ reached those heights to be certain. The new material ruled the show, that’s for sure. For me this also made the fact that they played absolutely nothing off of those first three records a very minor gripe.

As far as older material they stuck to the most recent stuff—namely ‘The Great Destroyer.’ The oldest song they played was ‘Sunflower’ off of ‘Things we Lost in the Fire.’ Every time I’ve seen Low I’ve always harbored the hopeless delusion that they might, just once, play ‘Over the Ocean.’ I assume that the reason they don’t is that they’d probably been playing it for almost ten years by the time they abandoned it. Highlights amongst the older stuff would include ‘Silver Rider,’ ‘Monkey,’ (which I’ve always loathed on record) 'When I Go Deaf' and the unspeakably gorgeous ‘Murderer.’ There was only one song that I didn’t recognize at all (I never bothered to buy ‘Drums and Guns’).

The show was packed to the gills—a nice change from the last time I saw Low, which was at the Metro in 2007. Stefanie and I went to Reckless Records and found a giant pile of free tickets for the show on the counter and the clerk begged us to take as many as possible. It was a decent show, but definitely not as stirring as the first time we’d seen them, which was in Portland in 2004 just before ‘The Great Destroyer’ came out. The show at the Metro was one of the only times I’ve been to the Metro where you could tell how dismally undersold the place was. One of the other times was when we went to see the Warlocks in 2005. If I’m going to be in a cramped room for a sold out show I think that it might as well be for a Low show—a quiet and considerate audience as always. Perhaps this is to make up for the crappy crowd at the godspeed show.

One of my biggest pet peeves is that bands that are brave enough to mine their material using a slow, graceful and careful beauty are written off as ‘boring’ by so many so thoughtlessly. It’s always been something of a sad shortcoming to me over my show-going years. You know what I mean—when Spiritualized launched into ‘Oh baby’ at the Metro in 2008 most people decided it was the perfect moment to go get a beer. Too many people would prefer something fast and impossible to ignore that they can shake their asses to over something soft and beautiful. It’s because of this that tonight was so encouraging—it really seemed like it might’ve been the end of the line for the band a few years ago. They seemed to have really hit a wall and people seemed to have really lost interest during those rocky years. It’s nice to see them back to doing what they do best, doing it well and with a lot of heart as well as infusing it with some of what they had been reaching for during those rocky years. Even better that people are so invested in their new and thoroughly excellent new material. They are rejuvenated.

happy birthday, robert smith

just in case you aren't a hopeless cure obsessive like myself, today is robert smith's 52nd (!!!) birthday. traditionally i would take a week from my music listening of the moment and listen to the entire cure discography including a pretty vast library of live bootlegs and b-sides that i had access to. once i was no longer a delivery driver for pizza hut this became a bit too great of a task to accomplish over the years. this year i've opted for something a bit different and made a mix of my favourite bootleg performances from this previously mentioned vast library. the title i figured out five minutes ago? 'faded wishes.' i know, too perfect, right? i was going to go for some kind of medication-type reference, but since most of these performances are more than 11 years old now i figured it might be more fitting. plus 'lost wishes' was already taken (speaking of which where the hell is that 'wish' reissue mr. smith?!). it fits on a single cd (something i've never been capable of before) and i'm pretty damned proud of it. the tracks are culled almost exclusively from the cure's salad days.

song- source- tour
1. plainsong- dallas, texas soundboard- prayer tour
2. the big hand- london, uk t&c2 club 'play out' video- 1991
3. like cockatoos- birmingham, uk 'difficult to cure' soundboard- kissing tour
4. other voices- werchter festival, belgium soundboard- picture tour
5. the drowning man- paris, france 'm' soundboard- fourteen explicit moments tour
6. in your house- kilburn, london xfm broadcast soundboard- pre-wish tour
7. m- same source as above
8. a strange day- same source as 'the big hand'
9. if only tonight we could sleep- same source as 'like cockatoos'
10. jupiter crash- st. louis, missouri audience recording- dream tour (i was present at this show)
11. a letter to elise- mtv unplugged 'play out' video- 1991
12. to wish impossible things- earl's court, london audience recording- wish tour
13. the figurehead- frankfurt, germany soundboard- prayer tour
14. the same deep water as you- same source as 'plainsong'

http://www.mediafire.com/?8468zvsuoaxivs6

kurt vile- reckless records 4.1.2011

A few weeks late, but why not? Stefanie and I went to reckless records on April Fool's Day to catch a free instore by Kurt Vile, who we couldn't see at Subterranean for a few reasons- 1) He was opening for J Mascis and the tickets were expensive, plus Subterranean is always a little too liberal with the volume, which doesn't exactly work for someone like Kurt Vile (I saw him there at his post-Pitchfork set last year and I can personally attest to this) and 2) We were going to another show that night- Soft Speaker at the Empty Bottle. Apparently we weren't alone in our predicament. We got there about 45 minutes early, meandered around a bit and about a half-hour out the place began to get packed and I do mean PACKED. There were easily a few hundred people there- the crowd stretched all the way throughout the store. It would've been a drag to be a random person wandering in looking to peruse the stacks as this was completely impossible. I recorded the set. It was quite good, if a bit slap-dash. He opened with what I believe was a new song (see video up at the top), played a few songs from the new and excellent 'Smoke Rings for my Halo' as well as a few older greats ('Slow Talkers' and 'He's Alright'- probably the best Kurt Vile song ever). Anyway, here is a download of the show for you nice folks- hope you enjoy it!

http://www.mediafire.com/?29i8dje9y8yv6hx

review- raveonettes/tamaryn at lincoln hall- 4.5.11

photo by Jason Persse

Second chances. When are they appropriate to give and to whom? I bought my tickets for this show a few weeks ago with one rule in mind—I wasn’t waiting an hour for the Raveonettes to set up at this show. If they weren’t on the stage after thirty minutes (which is more than generous, I’d say) I would simply leave. The reason for this rule is fairly simple—two years ago I saw them for the first time at their lollapalooza aftershow at the empty bottle. I was subjected to one of the top ten worst opening bands I’ve ever seen (I can’t even remember their name, but they were from St. Louis and the lead singer acted like Mick Jagger and brandished an American flag while he was singing at one point) and then an hour-long wait time between bands. Everyone’s been in this situation—you’re in a tiny, packed club full of people who are getting drunker and drunker, your back is getting sore and you’re getting sleepy and you watch the band’s employee fumble around onstage, leaving it and returning multiple times to retune the guitars. It’s a charade—who knows why it’s done. Maybe vocalist/guitarist Sune Wagner was running late (vocal/guitarist Sharin Foo was in the building, however, I saw her walking around—she’s a little tough to miss). Regardless it’s a bit cruel to keep your fans waiting for an hour. As if that weren’t enough when they finally came out after all of that prep time the guitars were almost inaudible for much of the set. Imagine listening to ‘Aly Walk With Me’ without guitars—quite pointless. What’s more I was looking forward to hearing some new material and while this wish was fulfilled I found the two new songs (‘Last Dance’ and ‘Suicide’ from the disappointing ‘In and Out of Control’) to be beyond disappointing after all of this. I left the show angry and bitter as ‘Lust Lust Lust’ was one of my favourite albums of the last ten years and has gotten me through many a rough time and here the Raveonettes were totally beefing it onstage AND the prospects of their next album seemed grim to say the least. They did play ‘Here Comes Mary,’ though, which I’ve always wanted to hear them do live. I left right before the encore. This bitterness was not helped by the release of ‘In and Out of Control,’ which I considered to be the most disappointing record of 2009. I figured they’d follow on from ‘Lust Lust Lust’ by expanding on some of the ideas they introduced with those two gorgeous digital EPs that they released in 2008 (‘Sometimes They Drop By’ and ‘Beauty Dies’) but instead I got an album with strained production, nine forced-sounding pop songs, one fantastic Raveonettes rocker (‘Heart of Stone’) and one of the most beautiful tracks they’ve ever recorded (‘Wine’). It’s a shame when the bonus tracks outshine most of the other tracks on the album. Who knows, maybe it was a record company thing.

Earlier on the day of the show I went and bought ‘Raven in the Grave’ which appeared far more promising and, indeed, was. They did expand on some of the ideas introduced on those EPs as well as the hazy, sun-drenched, reverby goodness of ‘Wine’ and what sounds like a more stripped-down approach similar to that of ‘Lust Lust Lust’ that favored synths and texture over feedback and fuzz. I actually think it’s their second best record. Tonight was a similarly redemptive affair.

One of the only reasons I bothered shelling out money for this show in the end was the fact that Tamaryn’s ‘The Waves’ is one of my favourites in a growing heap of recently released records. Seeing them live was something I was dying for and I figured that it wouldn’t be a terrible idea to go and see them and then give the Raveonettes another chance, provided they were onstage within thirty minutes this time. Tamaryn were more narcotically consumptive onstage than they are on record—their down-blanket warmth is even greater and fuller in a live setting. Even without the guitar overdubs and textures that are piled on the recordings, lone guitarist Rex John Shelverton is able to kick up a formidable cloud of noise and swooping beauty with a Fender Twin and a Roland Space Echo. The drums were also particularly lively and spacious as well whereas they tend to get buried on the recordings. They played my two favourites (I’m partial to their spacier slower songs and the two in question would be ‘Coral Flower’ and ‘Light Shadows’) and didn’t shy away from their more atmospheric tendencies, which would be an understandable inclination for a band in their position. As with every live review of Tamaryn I'll briefly mention that they showed some nice projections and kept the stage dark while Tamaryn herself also hid behind her hair.

The Raveonettes used their full thirty minutes. I was going to give them literally one more minute when the houselights went down and the smoke machines started going off. They went through most of the tracks from the new album and a smattering of old classics including several old tracks from ‘Whip it On’ and ‘Chain Gang of Love.’ They brought a very flashy stage set-up with them including a wall of strobes and they raised quite the ungodly din. The songs from ‘Raven in the Grave’ have a fairly soft sound for the most part, but in this live setting they were given a pretty sharp set of teeth. The stage was set with opening track ‘Recharge & Revolt’—a dizzying swathe of sound wrapping around your head like a swarm of bees. Beautiful. They played a few tracks from ‘Lust Lust Lust’ (‘Lust’ and the nearly-perfect ‘Dead Sound’ and the obligatory noisefest of ‘Aly Walk With me’—this time with the desired effect), one from ‘Pretty in Black’ (‘Love in a Trashcan’) and one from ‘In and Out of Control’ (a very fierce and impassioned take on ‘Heart of Stone’). The main set was closed by the beautiful slow-burner ‘My Time’s Up.’ Even the minimal, straight-forward single, ‘Forget That you’re Young’ sounded vibrant and full.

Nicely done, Raveonettes. Not sure what was up with that hour-long wait time at the bottle, but please don’t let it happen again—some of us really find that disrespectful. Fear not, though—all is forgiven.

review- godspeed you! black emperor at the vic- 3.28.11

Sorry, Chicago, but London has you beaten by miles. Say what you will about the English, but they are a well-behaved bunch at live shows. I’m beginning to think that my four months in London seeing tons and tons of amazing shows ruined my show-going life forever more and it wasn’t until seeing godspeed at the Vic tonight that I realised this. Yup, I used the English spelling. You had your personal space, people weren’t constantly pushing past you like you weren’t there to get closer to the action or elbowing their way to the bar the entire night and everyone also *gasp* listened to and cared about the music considerately. My first time seeing godspeed was at the Scala in seedy King’s Cross while on an exchange program during my junior year of college. It was how my parents convinced me to stay in college- they sent me to London for four months and gave me $900 a month to do whatever I wanted with. I saw a show practically every week and at least ten of these shows ended up being pivotal experiences in my long and illustrious show-going life—Radiohead in Glasgow, Scotland on the tent tour, Elliott Smith at the Forum in Kentish Town and I even managed to see Bright Eyes in a teeny bar in Camden and Modest Mouse at the Garage in Highbury for £7. Godspeed at the Scala has long been one of the most special shows I’ve ever attended. I recorded the show that night and cherish few of my recordings as much as that one. The crowd was at rapt attention the entire time- during the quiet moments you could hear a pin drop it was so still and then the band would build up to ungodly heights of volume. Nothing fell short of astonishing the entire night.

Last night I’d say outdid the London show in length (over two hours), visually (the projections were all gorgeous- the stop-motion loops of smoke-stacks and bridges during 'Monheim' were quite stirring) and in emotional intensity—I’ve been to very few shows that have stirred me up emotionally in the same way. Sigur Rós at the Civic Opera House in 2006 springs to mind (I almost cried about five times during one song), but this was different—this was ‘Dancer in the Dark’ intense by the end. Perhaps this was what made the petty annoyances of the way that the people around me were behaving as inescapably irritating as I found them. It’s long been a gripe of mine at shows that people as a whole seem empirically incapable of sitting and enjoying music without acting like inconsiderate little ids the entire time (i.e. talking loudly during quiet ‘boring’ bits, making sure that they have a beer to suck down during every second they are present no matter how many people they have to elbow and push through to accomplish this, texting, tweeting, facebooking, snapping crappy photos on their cellphones, what have you). I had the displeasure of standing next to someone who felt the need to narrate every little thought he was having to his friend the entire time—‘dude, this is the song that was in ‘Friday Night Lights,’’ ‘Whoa, fucking amazing!’ ‘This part’s kind of boring,’ etc. Someone near me even dropped a fartbomb at one point—a first for me in over sixteen years of going to shows. There was a man dancing maniacally the entire time to my right—the people in that section gave him a good ten foot berth to either side which he took full advantage of. As irritating as I found his need to take up that much room and make such a spectacle of himself (I suppose it’s not enough to enjoy a show yourself, you should do your best to make it as much about you as anything else for those around you) it did teach me a valuable lesson that also holds true when you feel uncomfortable during your late night subway ride home—just pretend you’re nuts and people will give more than enough personal space and leave you alone. By the end of the evening the dancing guy was the least annoying part of the entire experience—at least he was enjoying the music.

Now that I’ve gotten the venting out of the way, the setlist was completely different from the previous time I’d seen them with the addition of two new songs that I’d never heard (maybe I should call them ‘pieces’ as ‘songs’ isn’t really a proper description of godspeed’s body of work)—in my searches for sound recordings on archive.org (I highly recommend you check some of these recordings out, by the way) they are referred to as ‘Hope Drone’ (which is pretty much exactly what it sounds like—a largely structureless piece built from absolutely nothing that they opened with) and ‘Albanian’—which I would describe as an admirable exercise in Spacemen 3-style droning minimalism during its main movement before it gave way to their penchant for more ornate and repeated wind-downs and wind-ups and unlike anything they have ever done before. Once they broke into the more ornate sections of ‘Albanian’ I have to admit that I found myself pining for a more droning minimal approach favored (and accomplished excellently) by the Warlocks. They played the title track from ‘Lift Yr. Skinny Fists Like Antennas to Heaven’ (or ‘Levez Vos Skinny Fists Comme Antennas to Heaven’ for every other country the record was released in) second which I found to be the highlight of the evening (that one’s a personal favourite of mine). They played a lot more of their slower, moodier pieces that were less prone to explosion—i.e. ‘Monheim’ and ‘World Police/Friendly Fire.’ The ending triplet was brutally affecting and by the end of ‘Blaise Bailey Finnegan III’ I was having some pretty dark thoughts (it’s been a rough month). ‘Slow Moving Trains’/’The Cowboy’ was particularly breathtaking to hear live as I’d never really seen an example or heard tell of them playing it at these recent shows. ‘Dead Metheny’ was good to hear again (that and ‘Lift Yr. Skinny Fists…’ were the only two that they’d played at the Scala all those years ago). The only bummer for me was that they didn’t play ‘Rockets Fall on Rocket Falls’ which is the best godspeed piece in their entire ouvré and blew my socks off completely when I witnessed it live in London. The recorded version of it on ‘Yanqui U.X.O.’ doesn’t even come close.

During ‘Blaise Bailey Finnegan III’ I found myself pulled inexorably into the bleakest tenets of their music. The song is dense, long, unyieldingly intense and possibly the most depressing, hopeless piece of music I’ve ever heard in my life. I’m certainly not the type of person to shy away from depressing music, either—just look at any of my diary playlists. I’ve never listened to it much as I have some bitter memories associated with it. My introduction to godspeed was through this song and it happened when I was driving a friend back to Lawrence, KS from Kansas City after a thoroughly disheartening and disappointing band practice. This friend was in two bands with me at that time and we would try to practice for both bands (one band was an infant version of shalloboi and the other was a hardcore band that was largely the pet of my best friend at the time), but my best friend at the time would often skip over shalloboi practice in favor of the other band while also somehow convincing me to pick up and drive home this friend from Lawrence despite the fact that I was constantly getting screwed out of practice for my own band. Given this memory and the nature of the song it puts me in a bit of an odd place and because of this I’ve never listened to it much. By the end of it it was quite clear that there would be no encore. In the interest of a little levity Stefanie and I went to Schuba’s to have a drink with my friend who had played there that night.

It appears that godspeed have finally returned from their eight-year disappearance into tangential side-projects. Throughout the show a particularly loud-mouthed audience member kept making strange comments (‘It’s my birthday!’ for example), however, one comment was quite poignant—in the middle of the show she called out, ‘We missed you! Never go away again!’ Fair enough.

for your consideration-
2011.03.28- the vic- chicago, il
2000.11.22- the scala- london, uk (taped by yours truly with a tape recorder purchased at best buy for $20)

diary 3.5.11- wave a white flag

song- artist- album

1. let's jump in- dead meadow- 'feathers'
2. guider- disappears- 'guider'
3. love on the sea- moon duo- 'love on the sea' 12"
4. outta my head- wooden shjips- 'vol. 2'
5. awake- black rebel motorcycle club- s/t
6. summer holiday- wild nothing- 'gemini'
7. blue as your blood- the walkmen- 'lisbon'
8. majesty/magic- low- 'c'mon'
9. this may be the last time- staple singers- 'spacemen 3 110 comp'
10. take care of my baby- dum dum girls- 'he gets me high' 12"
11. i'm a fool to want you- ketty lester- 'love letter' 7"
12. how can you mend a broken heart- al green- 'let's stay together'
13. spiral dream- jessica bailiff- 'feels like home'
14. in here the world begins- broadcast- 'mother is the milky way'
15. you're lionel richie- mogwai- 'harcore will never die, but you will'
16. won't get to heaven (the state i'm in)- spiritualized- 'let it come down'
17. netty's girl- beastie boys- 'the sounds of science'

review- vivian girls- 'share the joy'

Vivian Girls- ‘Share the Joy’

Another pre-ordered album that came early in digital form. The third Vivian Girls album arrived in my world almost out of nowhere. I wasn’t even aware that they had been recording a new album until I found the pre-ordering info via twitter. I figured that Cassie Ramone and Katy Goodman were busy with their other projects- the Babies and La Sera respectively. I’d even begun to think that we wouldn’t be hearing anything new from the band in quite a while as their presence had been so all-consuming and impossible to ignore for the better part of two years.

‘Share the Joy’ would fall into the category of their cleanest-sounding record. While ‘Everything Goes Wrong’ was their first recorded in a ‘proper’ studio, it retained that gritty, sloppy charm that was their hallmark at that particular point in time. They were doing so much so quickly that they always opted for leaving in mistakes and off-key vocals. Since Ali Koehler has left the band in favor of Best Coast’s endless touring schedule it seems that Ramone and Goodman made a concerted effort to get the songs sounding tighter, the singing more focused and in-key and the results sound very refreshing indeed. I’m not sure if I can compare it to their other two records as, to me, the first will probably always be untouchable, but the second is a great record that will never get a fair shake- for instance it’s probably the only record I’ve ever heard of that has been referred to as ‘overlong’ while still clocking in at under 45 minutes. ‘Share the Joy’ glistens and shines, the production is pristine but for the occasional buzz of a tube amp during the fadeouts. It’s surprising how clean it is considering the fact that it was done at Rear House, the home studio of Jeremy Earl, the genius behind perpetually lo-fi (well, at least until last year) Woods. While the vocals are more in-key than they were before, they are also defiantly and obviously free of auto-tune. I find it difficult to believe that naysayers are still so quick to call ‘foul’ on their famously lax singing styles- perfectly on-key-at-all times vocals have never been what the Vivian Girls have been going for. The fact that they aren’t perfect musicians or singers but are still able to craft such vibrant songs and play them in their own, distinctive way without relying on the modern-day cheats that are now so often part and parcel for digital radio-ready recordings is now officially remarkable. Even if the harmonies aren’t always perfect or Ramone can be heard struggling to grab the guitar melodies she's reaching for the emotion is always there and the effect is always achieved. It’s similar to the way that Neil Young worked and it’s encouraging to hear a new and very hyped about band bravely put themselves up for such scrutiny so readily. There's a purity to this method that can yield inspiring results.

The most intriguing feature of this record are the complexity of the songs- they would be unbearably pretentious epics in less capable hands. The closing track is six minutes- an eternity compared to anything on the first record- and it never feels overblown or self-indulgent. The melodic break in opener ‘The Other Girls’ meanders and moves somewhat awkwardly at times- wavering but never falling down and it keeps going and going, ascending and ascending clear into the angelic ‘ooohs’ and ‘aaaahs’ of the bridge. It’s incredibly intriguing to hear the band push their sound into new territory in this way and it never gets old or feels forced in the slightest. Even songs that sound like they are going to be missteps upon first listen take ideas that shouldn’t work and bend them to the bands' will in these incredibly creatively dense songs. ‘Dance (If you Wanna)’ sounds like a tossed-off attempt at a shameless pop song for about thirty seconds and then kicks itself into overdrive and takes you in at least three different directions that you weren’t expecting at all and builds upon itself in the simplest, subtlest ways. Even a song like ‘Take it As it Comes’ should not work at all- it’s such an obvious attempt at an old-style girl group conversational song and yet they somehow manage to pull it off with an effortless skill that is severely lacking in most fawned-over bands these days. The chorus of that song is irresistible no matter how hackneyed the premise seems at first.

The record also features two previously released tracks- ‘Lake House,’ which has been present in their live set for at least two years and on the ‘The World’s Lousy With Ideas Vol. 8’ compilation and ‘Death,’ which was the B-side to the excellent ‘Moped Girls’ 7” but here appears in a more vocally toned-down form. Both versions of ‘Death’ serve as a good litmus test for the evolution present on this album- the differences are deceptively subtle. It’d be fairly easy for them to slip by unnoticed, it just means that you have to listen a little closer.